Engineering Bacillus megaterium for production of functional intracellular materials

Background: Over the last 10-15 years, a technology has been developed to engineer bacterial polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) inclusions as functionalized beads, for applications such as vaccines, diagnostics and enzyme immobilization. This has been achieved by translational fusion of foreign proteins to the PHB synthase (PhaC). The respective fusion protein mediates self-assembly of PHB inclusions displaying the desired protein function. So far, beads have mainly been produced in recombinant Escherichia coli which is problematic for some applications as the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) co-purified with such inclusions are toxic to humans and animals. Results: In this study, we have engineered the formation of functional PHB inclusions in the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus megaterium, an LPS-free and established industrial production host. As B. megaterium is a natural PHB producer, the PHB-negative strain PHA05 was used to avoid any background PHB production. Plasmid-mediated T7 promoter-driven expression of the genes encoding β-ketothiolase (phaA), acetoacetyl-CoA-reductase (phaB) and PHB synthase (phaC) enabled/effected PHB production by B. megaterium PHA05. To produce functionalized PHB inclusions, the N- and C-terminus of PhaC was fused to four and two IgG binding Z-domains from Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. The ZZ-domain PhaC fusion protein was strongly overproduced at the surface of the PHB inclusions and the corresponding isolated ZZ-domain displaying PHB beads were found to purify IgG with a binding capacity of 40-50 mg IgG/g beads. As B. megaterium has the ability to sporulate and respective endospores could co-purify with cellular inclusions, a sporulation negative production strain was generated by disrupting the spoIIE gene in PHA05. This strain did not produce spores when tested under sporulation inducing conditions and it was still able to synthesize ZZ-domain displaying PHB beads. Conclusions: This study provides proof of concept for the successful genetic engineering of B. megaterium as a host for the production of functionalized PHB beads. Disruption of the spoIIE gene rendered B. megaterium incapable of sporulation but particularly suitable for production of functionalized PHB beads. This sporulation-negative mutant represents an improved industrial production strain for biotechnological processes otherwise impaired by the possibility of endospore formation.fals

Autism: the management and support of children and young people on the autism spectrum (NICE Clinical Guideline 170)

In August 2013 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) collaborated with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) to publish a guideline entitled ‘Autism: the management and support of children and young people on the autism spectrum’. It aims to summarise the different ways professionals can provide support, treatment and help for children and young people with autism across the full range of intellectual abilities, from birth until their 19th birthday.1 NICE commissioned the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health to develop this guideline. A multidisciplinary Guideline Development Group comprising healthcare professionals, patients and carers reviewed the evidence and developed recommendations

The Relationship Between Teachers’ Competence and Their Job Satisfaction at Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, in Mandalay Division, Myanmar

The main purpose of this study was to identify the level of teachers’ competence and job satisfaction at Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, in Mandalay Division, Myanmar; and also to determine whether there is significant relationship between teachers’ competence and teachers’ job satisfaction at Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, in Mandalay Division, Myanmar.  A total of (150) full– time teachers from the Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, in Mandalay Division, Myanmar during the academic year of 2017 – 2018 were surveyed for this study. The design of this research was a quantitative and correlation study based on Medley (1977) teachers’ competence and Herzberg two factors motivation theory (1959) job satisfaction. The questionnaires used for this study consisted of two parts.  In part one; the researcher used the questionnaire adopted from Huyen (2003) to identify the level of teachers’ competence. It contained (33) items for five dimensions. In part two, the researcher used the questionnaire adopted from King Sothina (2014) which was developed and originally used by Lester (1984) to identify the level of teachers’ job satisfaction. It contained (27) items for four dimensions.  The collected data were analyzed by using the mean, standard deviation to identify the level of teachers’ competence and job satisfaction and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient to determine whether there is significant relationship between teachers’ competence and teachers’ job satisfaction at Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, in Mandalay Division, Myanmar.  This research found that the level of teachers’ competence and job satisfaction was at a high level; and there was a significant relationship between teachers’ competence and teachers’ job satisfaction at Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School, in Mandalay Division, Myanmar.

Empirical Investigation of a Relationship between Islamic Work Ethics and Work Outcomes

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Islamic work ethic on work outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention and job involvement). The study used a sample of 100 employees with response rate of 79 percent. The respondents were the employees of two commercial banks of Pakistan. SPSS 16.0 was used to examine the relationship between variables. The empirical testing indicates that Islamic work ethics has positive effects on job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job involvement; whereas there is no significant evidence of the effect of Islamic work ethic on turnover intention. Keywords: Islamic Work Ethics, Job Satisfaction, Organisational Commitment, Job Involvemen

An Overview on Implementation Using Hybrid Na�ve Bayes Algorithm for Text Categorization

Automated Text categorization and class prediction is important for text categorization to reduce the feature size and to speed up the learning process of classifiers .Text classification is a growing interest in the research of text mining. Correctly identifying the Text into particular category is still presenting challenge because of large and vast amount of features in the dataset. In regards to the present classifying approaches, Na�ve Bayes is probably smart at serving as a document classification model thanks to its simplicity. The aim of this Project is to spotlight the performance of Text categorization and sophistication prediction Na�ve Bayes in Text classification

Influence des changements climatiques sur la distribution géographique de Chrysophyllum albidum G. Don (Sapotaceae) au Benin

La présente étude a pour objectif principal d’évaluer l’influence des changements climatiques sur la distribution spatiale de Chrysophyllum albidum, une espèce prioritaire et menacée au Bénin. La modélisation de la distribution géographique actuelle et future de l’espèce est basée sur le principe d’entropie maximale (MaxEnt). Elle a été faite à partir des  variables bioclimatiques et des points de présence de l’espèce. Deux modèles climatiques ont été utilisés sous le scenario A2 pour la prédiction de la distribution de l’espèce à l’horizon 2050 (les modèles HadCM3 et CSIRO). Les habitats actuellement très favorables à Chrysophyllum albidum correspondent à la zone guinéenne regroupant les phytodistricts de Pobè, du Plateau et de la Vallée de l’Ouémé. Le modèle CSIRO prédit une augmentation considérable de près de 76, 02% environ des airesactuellement très favorables à l’espèce vers le centre du pays. Par contre, le modèle HadCM3 prédit en 2050 une légère augmentation (16,27%) des habitats actuellement très favorables à l’espèce. Ces résultats révèlentque l’habitat favorable de l’espèce est peu menacé par les changements climatiques au Bénin. Ainsi l’espèce a de forte chance de survivre face aux changements climatiques. Ceci représente une opportunité majeure pour sa conservation à long terme.© 2013 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Mots clés : Changement climatique, modélisation, scénario A2, Chrysophyllum albidum, habitat favorable, Bénin

WAVE LOADINGS ON A VERTICAL CYLINDER DUE TO HEAVE MOTION

ABSTRACT. Wave forces and moments due to scattering and radiation for a vertical circular cylinder heaving in water of finite depth are derived analytically. These are derived fi'om the total velocity potential which can be decomposed as two velocity potentials; one due to scattering in the presence of an incident wave on fixed structure (diffraction problem), and the other due to radiation by the heave motion on cahn water (radiation problem). For each part, the velocity potential is derived by considering two regions, namely, interior region and exterior region. The complex matrix equations are solved numerically to determine the unknown coefficients to compute the wave loads. Some numerical results are presented for different depth to radius and draft to radius ratios

High-efficiency pharmacogenetic ablation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in the adult mouse CNS

Approaches to investigate adult oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) by targeted cell ablation in the rodent CNS have limitations in the extent and duration of OPC depletion. We have developed a pharmacogenetic approach for conditional OPC ablation, eliminating >98% of OPCs throughout the brain. By combining recombinase-based transgenic and viral strategies for targeting OPCs and ventricular-subventricular zone (V-SVZ)-derived neural precursor cells (NPCs), we found that new PDGFRA-expressing cells born in the V-SVZ repopulated the OPC-deficient brain starting 12 days after OPC ablation. Our data reveal that OPC depletion induces V-SVZ-derived NPCs to generate vast numbers of PDGFRA+NG2+ cells with the capacity to proliferate and migrate extensively throughout the dorsal anterior forebrain. Further application of this approach to ablate OPCs will advance knowledge of the function of both OPCs and oligodendrogenic NPCs in health and disease

Quantifying the Impact of Water Abstraction for Low Head ‘Run of the River’ Hydropower on Localized River Channel Hydraulics and Benthic Macroinvertebrates

‘Run of the river’ (ROR) hydropower schemes have undergone a recent resurgence in Europe, and with legislation requiring the protection and enhancement of the physical and ecological condition of European rivers, there is a need to understand the impacts of these schemes. This paper presents an assessment of the eco-hydraulic impact of a ROR hydropower scheme in the Peak District National Park, UK. Due to the ponded nature of the depleted stretch at the study site, this paper focuses on the characterization of the hydraulic impact of water abstraction for a ROR scheme at the hydropower outlet and samples microhabitats of benthic macroinvertebrates within the hydraulically affected zones. Measurement of hydraulic transects shows that the scheme's operation notably alters river channel hydraulics at 60% of water depth, whilst impacts are much less distinct in close proximity to the river bed. We identify eco-hydraulic relationships between benthic macroinvertebrate communities and localized near-bed velocity and turbulence conditions, thus indicating the potential for water abstraction by ROR schemes to impact lower trophic levels of riverine ecosystems. However, spatial patch-scale (10–100 m2) meso-habitat comparisons of invertebrate communities around the hydropower outlet showed only subtle differences, suggesting that in this case benthic communities are only minimally impacted by the ROR scheme