2,512 research outputs found
The major myosin-binding domain of skeletal muscle MyBP-C (C protein) resides in the COOH-terminal, immunoglobulin C2 motif.
A common feature shared by myosin-binding proteins from a wide variety of species is the presence of a variable number of related internal motifs homologous to either the Ig C2 or the fibronectin (Fn) type III repeats. Despite interest in the potential function of these motifs, no group has clearly demonstrated a function for these sequences in muscle, either intra- or extracellularly. We have completed the nucleotide sequence of the fast type isoform of MyBP-C (C protein) from chicken skeletal muscle. The deduced amino acid sequence reveals seven Ig C2 sets and three Fn type III motifs in MyBP-C. alpha-chymotryptic digestion of purified MyBP-C gives rise to four peptides. NH2-terminal sequencing of these peptides allowed us to map the position of each along the primary structure of the protein. The 28-kD peptide contains the NH2-terminal sequence of MyBP-C, including the first C2 repeat. It is followed by two internal peptides, one of 5 kD containing exclusively spacer sequences between the first and second C2 motifs, and a 95-kD fragment containing five C2 domains and three fibronectin type III motifs. The C-terminal sequence of MyBP-C is present in a 14-kD peptide which contains only the last C2 repeat. We examined the binding properties of these fragments to reconstituted (synthetic) myosin filaments. Only the COOH-terminal 14-kD peptide is capable of binding myosin with high affinity. The NH2-terminal 28-kD fragment has no myosin-binding, while the long internal 100-kD peptide shows very weak binding to myosin. We have expressed and purified the 14-kD peptide in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein exhibits saturable binding to myosin with an affinity comparable to that of the 14-kD fragment obtained by proteolytic digestion (1/2 max binding at approximately 0.5 microM). These results indicate that the binding to myosin filaments is mainly restricted to the last 102 amino acids of MyBP-C. The remainder of the molecule (1,032 amino acids) could interact with titin, MyBP-H (H protein) or thin filament components. A comparison of the highly conserved Ig C2 domains present at the COOH-terminus of five MyBPs thus far sequenced (human slow and fast MyBP-C, human and chicken MyBP-H, and chicken MyBP-C) was used to identify residues unique to these myosin-binding Ig C2 repeats
Towards an Ontology-Based Approach for Reusing Non-Functional Requirements Knowledge
Requirements Engineering play a crucial role during the software development process. Many works have pointed out that Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) are currently more important than Functional Requirements. NFRs can be very complicated to understand due to its diversity and subjective nature. The NDR Framework has been proposed to fill some of the existing gaps to facilitate NFR elicitation and modeling. In this thesis, we introduce a tool that plays a major role in the NDR Framework allowing software engineers to store and reuse NFR knowledge. The NDR Tool converts the knowledge contained in Softgoal Interdependency Graphs (SIGs) into a machine-readable format that follows the NFR and Design Rationale (NDR) Ontology. It also provides mechanisms to query the knowledge base and produces graphical representation for the results obtained. To evaluate whether our approach aids eliciting NFRs, we conducted an experiment performing a software development scenario
Quantifying Rapid Variability in Accreting Compact Objects
I discuss some practical aspects of the analysis of millisecond time
variability X-ray data obtained from accreting neutron stars and black holes.
First I give an account of the statistical methods that are at present commonly
applied in this field. These are mostly based on Fourier techniques. To a large
extent these methods work well: they give astronomers the answers they need.
Then I discuss a number of statistical questions that astronomers don't really
know how to solve properly and that statisticians may have ideas about. These
questions have to do with the highest and the lowest frequency ranges
accessible in the Fourier analysis: how do you determine the shortest time
scale present in the variability, how do you measure steep low-frequency noise.
The point is stressed that in order for any method that resolves these issues
to become popular, it is necessary to retain the capabilities the current
methods already have in quantifying the complex, concurrent variability
processes characteristic of accreting neutron stars and black holes.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of "Statistical Challenges in
Modern Astronomy II", University Park PA, USA, June 199
Hypoxia, fetal and neonatal physiology: 100 years on from Sir Joseph Barcroft.
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP27200
Do stellar magnetic cycles influence the measurement of precise radial velocities?
The ever increasing level of precision achieved by present and future
radial-velocity instruments is opening the way to discovering very low-mass,
long-period planets (e.g. solar-system analogs). These systems will be
detectable as low-amplitude signals in radial-velocity (RV). However, an
important obstacle to their detection may be the existence of stellar magnetic
cycles on similar timescales. Here we present the results of a long-term
program to simultaneously measure radial-velocities and stellar-activity
indicators (CaII, H_alpha, HeI) for a sample of stars with known activity
cycles. Our results suggest that all these stellar activity indexes can be used
to trace the stellar magnetic cycle in solar-type stars. Likewise, we find
clear indications that different parameters of the HARPS cross-correlation
function (BIS, FWHM, and contrast) are also sensitive to activity level
variations. Finally, we show that, although in a few cases slight correlations
or anti-correlations between radial-velocity and the activity level of the star
exist, their origin is still not clear. We can, however, conclude that for our
targets (early-K dwarfs) we do not find evidence of any radial-velocity
variations induced by variations of the stellar magnetic cycle with amplitudes
significantly above ~1 m/s.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (revised version following minor
language corrections
Investigating white matter fibre density and morphology using fixel-based analysis
Voxel-based analysis of diffusion MRI data is increasingly popular. However, most white matter voxels contain contributions from multiple fibre populations (often referred to as crossing fibres), and therefore voxel-averaged quantitative measures (e.g. fractional anisotropy) are not fibre-specific and have poor interpretability. Using higher-order diffusion models, parameters related to fibre density can be extracted for individual fibre populations within each voxel (âfixelsâ), and recent advances in statistics enable the multi-subject analysis of such data. However, investigating within-voxel microscopic fibre density alone does not account for macroscopic differences in the white matter morphology (e.g. the calibre of a fibre bundle). In this work, we introduce a novel method to investigate the latter, which we call fixel-based morphometry (FBM). To obtain a more complete measure related to the total number of white matter axons, information from both within-voxel microscopic fibre density and macroscopic morphology must be combined. We therefore present the FBM method as an integral piece within a comprehensive fixel-based analysis framework to investigate measures of fibre density, fibre-bundle morphology (cross-section), and a combined measure of fibre density and cross-section. We performed simulations to demonstrate the proposed measures using various transformations of a numerical fibre bundle phantom. Finally, we provide an example of such an analysis by comparing a clinical patient group to a healthy control group, which demonstrates that all three measures provide distinct and complementary information. By capturing information from both sources, the combined fibre density and cross-section measure is likely to be more sensitive to certain pathologies and more directly interpretable
Salt storage and induced crystallisation in porous asymmetric inorganic membranes
The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Australian Research Council ( DP1901002502 ) and ( DP190101734 ) grants.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021Processing brines to recover strategic mineral salts using evaporation ponds requires large surface areas and are slow, even in arid climates. Here we show a novel membrane macropore storage mechanism that induces fast salt crystallisation in mesoporous top-layers in inorganic asymmetric membranes, stemming from 789 million nucleation points per metre square of surface area. During membrane pervaporation, dissolved salts are retained mainly in the macropores of the substrate which subsequently provide ideal conditions for crystal nucleation and growth on the membrane surface upon drying. This novel pore storage mechanism is attained owing to the solution flow modulation of the mesoporous titania and gamma-alumina layers that is counterbalanced by the flow of water during pervaporation. Therefore, pore size control is imperative to avoid flooding in the macroporous substrate. This work further shows the fundamental properties of the salt storage mechanism described by a single salt production coefficient, and a global salt production coefficient for metal chloride salts. This technology could potentially be considered for unlocking and process strategic global minerals from brines.publishersversionpublishe
Beryllium anomalies in solar-type field stars
We present a study of beryllium (Be) abundances in a large sample of field
solar-type dwarfs and sub-giants spanning a large range of effective
temperatures. The analysis shows that Be is severely depleted for F stars, as
expected by the light-element depletion models. However, we also show that
Beryllium abundances decrease with decreasing temperature for stars cooler than
6000 K, a result that cannot be explained by current theoretical models
including rotational mixing, but that is, at least in part, expected from the
models that take into account internal wave physics. In particular, the light
element abundances of the coolest and youngest stars in our sample suggest that
Be, as well as lithium (Li), has already been burned early during their
evolution. Furthermore, we find strong evidence for the existence of a Be-gap
for solar-temperature stars. The analysis of Li and Be abundances in the
sub-giants of our sample also shows the presence of one case that has still
detectable amounts of Li, while Be is severely depleted. Finally, we compare
the derived Be abundances with Li abundances derived using the same set of
stellar parameters. This gives us the possibility to explore the temperatures
for which the onset of Li and Be depletion occurs.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Patients' views on dentists' ability to manage medical crises â results of focus group research
Background: Australia faces an ageing population which is more medically complicated than in years past, and it is important that we meet public expectations of management of medical emergencies in the dental clinic. No research before has examined in depth the public perception of dentistsâ medical emergency management.
Aim: To qualitatively assess the publics' perception of medical emergencies in dentistry and their expectations of medical emergency management by dentists.
Methods: 12 members of the public associated with a university clinic participated in two focus groups of six persons, where semi-structured discussions were carried out, audio recorded and transcribed, and subsequently underwent comprehensive thematic analysis.
Results: Key findings included a high expectation of dentists' general medical knowledge, as well as potential concern regarding a lack of routine medical assessment prior to undertaking dental treatment.
Conclusions: Participants expected dentists to be highly proficient at managing medical crises and support the concept of medical emergency management certification for dentists
Bisectors of the HARPS Cross-Correlation-Function. The dependence on stellar atmospheric parameters
Bisectors of the HARPS cross-correlation function (CCF) can discern between
planetary radial-velocity (RV) signals and spurious RV signals from stellar
magnetic activity variations. However, little is known about the effects of the
stellar atmosphere on CCF bisectors or how these effects vary with spectral
type and luminosity class. Here we investigate the variations in the shapes of
HARPS CCF bisectors across the HR diagram in order to relate these to the basic
stellar parameters, surface gravity and temperature. We use archive spectra of
67 well studied stars observed with HARPS and extract mean CCF bisectors. We
derive previously defined bisector measures (BIS, v_bot, c_b) and we define and
derive a new measure called the CCF Bisector Span (CBS) from the minimum radius
of curvature on direct fits to the CCF bisector. We show that the bisector
measures correlate differently, and non-linearly with log g and T_eff. The
resulting correlations allow for the estimation of log g and T_eff from the
bisector measures. We compare our results with 3D stellar atmosphere models and
show that we can reproduce the shape of the CCF bisector for the Sun.Comment: 13 pages, 20 figures. Accepted by A&
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