Expression and Purification of Recombinant Saposin B for Coenzyme Q10 Purification

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) plays a critical role in energy production in humans. Low levels of CoQ10 have been linked to diseases such as Parkinson\u27s and Huntingtons\u27s disease. CoQ10 levels decrease as we age, and use of statin drugs also lowers CoQ10 levels. Oral supplementation however increases CoQ10 levels. However, the lack of industrial sources of CoQ10 and the difficulty in CoQ10 purification has resulted the need to address these problems. Sporidiobolus johnsonii (S. johnsonii) has been reported as a natural producer of CoQ10. This work is aim to increase the production of CoQ10 in S. johnsonii through genetic engineering. Current purification methods for CoQ10 are difficult and expensive. A protein based purification method may alleviate the current problems associated with typical LC purification. Saposin B (Sap B) has been shown to bind with CoQ10 at selective pH\u27s. We hypothesized that utilizing a Sap B coated support resin that an affinity purification method for CoQ10 could e produced. To this end, the recombinant Sap B was expressed and bound via a HIS-Tag to a sepharose IMAC bead. This work demonstrates that CoQ10 can be bound and released by a Sap B based affinity resin by manipulating the pH

Gaps in Treatment and Surveillance: Head and Neck Cancer Care in a Safety-Net Hospital.

Objective:Treatment delays and suboptimal adherence to posttreatment surveillance may adversely affect head and neck cancer (HNC) outcomes. Such challenges can be exacerbated in safety-net settings that struggle with limited resources and serve a disproportionate number of patients vulnerable to gaps in care. This study aims to characterize treatment delays and adherence with posttreatment surveillance in HNC care at an urban tertiary care public hospital in San Francisco. Study Design:Retrospective chart review. Setting:Urban tertiary care public hospital in San Francisco. Subjects and Methods:We identified all cases of HNC diagnosed from 2008 to 2010 through the electronic medical record. We abstracted data, including patient characteristics, disease characteristics, pathology and radiology findings, treatment details, posttreatment follow-up, and clinical outcomes. Results:We included 64 patients. Median time from diagnosis to treatment initiation (DTI) was 57 days for all patients, 54 days for patients undergoing surgery only, 49 days for patients undergoing surgery followed by adjuvant radiation ± chemotherapy, 65 days for patients undergoing definitive radiation ± chemotherapy, and 29 days for patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radiation or chemoradiation. Overall, 69% of patients completed recommended treatment. Forty-two of 61 (69%) patients demonstrated adherence to posttreatment visits in year 1; this fell to 14 out of 30 patients (47%) by year 5. Conclusion:DTI was persistently prolonged in this study compared with prior studies in other public hospital settings. Adherence to posttreatment surveillance was suboptimal and continued to decline as the surveillance period progressed

Development And Evaluation Of A Simplified Modeling Approach For Hydraulic Systems

This paper presents how a hydraulic system can be properly modeled for hydraulic balancing, knowledge of flow distribution, coupled simulation, and evaluation of control, etc. It focuses on water-based heating and cooling systems, which generally have high energy efficiency in design but could perform poorly in reality due to the undersensing condition and strong thermal-hydraulic coupling. The study introduces the motivation, presents the simplified modeling methodology, and illustrates the model and simulating structure. A preliminary evaluation of the method is conducted with two simple simulations. The proposed “node-branch-state” modeling approach could be easily modified, expanded and integrated into a detailed thermal model. The paper concludes with some discussions on future work

The Changing Effect of HMO Market Structure: An Analysis of Penetration, Concentration, and Ownership Between 1994-2005

We analyze the role of three aspects of HMO market structure -- HMO penetration, HMO plan concentration, and HMO for-profit share on explaining hospital cost and revenue growth during the HMO expansion period (1994-1999) and backlash period (2000-2005). We find that HMO penetration effects differ over time: a 10 percentage point increase in HMO enrollment leads to 2.5 percent reduction in cost and revenues in the expansion period but only 0.4-1 percent reduction in the backlash period. Furthermore, this HMO backlash effect can be attributed to HMO dis-enrollment as well as the changing nature of HMO product. We find that revenue increases at a slower rate (by about 5 percent) in markets with relatively concentrated HMO markets power and more competitive hospital markets. Finally, increased for-profit HMO presence is associated with smaller cost and revenue growth, and the effect differs between low and high penetration markets.

p-Converse to a Theorem of Gross-Zagier, Kolyvagin, and Rubin for Small Primes

Let E be a CM elliptic curve over the rationals and p a good, ordinary prime. We show the implication: corank(Zp)Sel(p∞)(E/Q) = 1 ⟹ ord(s=1)L(s,E/Q) = 1 for the p∞-Selmer group Sel(p∞)(E/Q) and the complex L-function L(s,E/QQ) in the case of p = 2, 3

Meaningful Gameplay Design and the Effect on Eudaimonic and Hedonic Gaming Experience

Past research has looked into meaningfulness in video game narratives, as well as meaningful play. However, more empirical studies are needed to understand the mechanisms of meaningful play. This paper first investigates how the design of game dialogues may enable meaningfulness in video games (eudaimonic gaming experience) and how it relates to game enjoyment (hedonic gaming experience). Second, it also examines how meaningful play influences prosocial attitudes toward culturally different outgroups. A pre-posttest experiment of a management game was conducted with 174 adult participants. Participants were randomly assigned to either a game with moral scenarios or one without. Results showed that participants who played the game with moral decision-making perceived a higher level of meaningfulness and game enjoyment. No significant relationship was found between perceived meaningfulness and intergroup perceptions

Evaluating the ESL Reading Texts for Intermediate Learners of English from the Perspective of Students

In order to provide an evaluation of the suitability of reading texts from the perspective of students in university-based intensive English programme this study examined 53 international ESL intermediate learners perceptions of reading texts for a period of 14 weeks reading proficiency lessons Features evaluated include content readability exploitability and authenticity of the reading texts The participants responded to a textbook evaluation questionnaire to express their perceptions with reference to the features of the reading texts Results indicated the extent of appropriateness of the reading texts incorporated in the programme s reading textbook used by intermediate learners of English Further consideration must be given to text selection by including the aspect of authentic text presentatio

The Impact of PowerPoint on Undergraduates’ Technical Communication Achievement

AbstractPowerPoint, one of the most well known ICT tools, plays a vital role in our society nowadays as it has been utilized widely and actively in facilitating the process of teaching and learning, especially in the educational domain. The study examined the effect of PowerPoint lecturing on undergraduates’ Technical Communication final examination grade. The experimental group was taught in a PowerPoint lecture format while the control group in a traditional whiteboard lecture format. The results revealed that the experimental group grades were significantly higher than the control group at p = 0.00

Film Transfer Manufacturing Process for Device Surfaces

The surfaces of devices such as tablets, smartphones, etc. comprise inlaid, composite laminates made of glass fiber, epoxy etc., and have tight specifications on color, hand-feel, flatness, gloss, reliability, and cosmetics. Deco painting of composite materials to achieve the requisite specifications is expensive and has low yield. This disclosure describes film-transfer manufacturing techniques that achieve the tight specifications on the surfaces of consumer-grade electronic devices. A multi-layer, pre-textured film with pre-printed colors is laminated onto the composite substrate, which is the surface of the finished product. A first set of layers transfers a designed color and texture to the composite substrate. A second set of layers acts as a protective barrier against dust. The composite substrate and the film together undergo thermoforming, where the film transfers its color and texture to the surface of the finished product. Upon the completion of manufacturing, the top layer of the film is removed. The techniques obviate direct deco-painting of the surfaces, thereby improving yield, reducing wastage, reducing overall cost, and achieving consistent color/gloss across production runs