trans-Dienelactone hydrolase from Pseudomonas reinekei MT1, a novel zinc-dependent hydrolase.

Pseudomonas reinekei MT1 is capable of growing on 4- and 5-chlorosalicylate, involving a pathway with trans-dienelactone hydrolase (trans-DLH) as a key enzyme. It acts on 4-chloromuconolactone formed during cycloisomerization of 3-chloromuconate by hydrolyzing it to maleylacetate. The gene encoding this activity was localized, sequenced and expressed in Escherichia coli.

Vestibular adaptation to centrifugation does not transfer across planes of head rotation.

Out-of-plane head movements performed during fast rotation produce non-compensatory nystagmus, sensations of illusory motion, and often motion sickness. Adaptation to this cross-coupled Coriolis stimulus has previously been demonstrated for head turns made in the yaw (transverse) plane of motion, during supine head-on-axis rotation. An open question, however, is if adaptation to head movements in one plane of motion transfers to head movements performed in a new, unpracticed plane of motion.

An electrophysiological analysis of coaching in Blackjack.

Recent research has demonstrated that a negative deflection in the event-related potential (ERP) that is usually elicited by errors, negative performance feedback, and monetary losses, and which has been associated with response monitoring and reinforcement learning, is also present when we observe others. In the present study we aimed to extend these findings to the domain of coaching behavior. In many contexts of human social life, advice is given by experts to novices, e.

Drive for thinness and attention toward specific body parts in a nonclinical sample.

Objective: To examine the differences between participants scoring high versus low on a drive for thinness construct concerning their visual attention toward specific body parts. We hypothesized that participants scoring high on the drive for thinness subscale would show increased attention to body regions, which are important in the assessment of body weight and thinness like the waist, hips, legs, and arms.

Method: We examined eye-gaze behavior of a nonclinical sample of 51 male and female college students with an eye-tracking system as they were looking at pictures of young, attractive males and females.

Threshold-based vestibular adaptation to cross-coupled canal stimulation.

Prior experiments have demonstrated that people are able to adapt to cross-coupled accelerations associated with head movements while spinning at high rotation rates (e.g., 23 rpm or 138 degrees/s).

Effects of a moving distractor object on time-to-contact judgments.

The effects of moving task-irrelevant objects on time-to-contact (TTC) judgments were examined in 5 experiments. Observers viewed a directly approaching target in the presence of a distractor object moving in parallel with the target. In Experiments 1 to 4, observers decided whether the target would have collided with them earlier or later than a standard (absolute identification task).

Brain activation upon selective stimulation of cutaneous C- and Adelta-fibers.

Thermal and nociceptive cutaneous stimuli activate the brain via two types of nerve fibers, slightly myelinated Adelta-fibers with moderate conduction velocity and unmyelinated C-fibers with slow conduction velocity. Differences in central processing upon selective stimulation of these two fiber types in healthy human subjects still remain poorly understood. By means of event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging the present study investigated brain activation in response to stimulation of Adelta- and C-fibers in healthy subjects.

Coronary artery calcification and emphysema.

Objective: It is thought that emphysema patients are at a higher risk of coronary artery disease. The present study is one of very few that evaluated the prevalence of significant coronary artery disease in emphysema patients using coronary artery calcification measured by electron beam computed tomography.

Methods: A retrospective chart review evaluated 1720 consecutive patients, some of whom were self-referred.

The first SHAPE (Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education) guideline.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (A-CVD) is preventable. Major causal risk factors are known, and effective and safe treatments exist. However, A-CVD remains the leading cause of death and severe disability not only in affluent countries, but also globally.

How do brain areas communicate during the processing of noxious stimuli? An analysis of laser-evoked event-related potentials using the Granger causality index.

Several imaging techniques have identified different brain areas involved in the processing of noxious stimulation and thus in the constitution of pain. However, only little is known how these brain areas communicate with one another after activation by stimulus processing and which areas directionally affect or modulate the activity of succeeding areas. One measure for the analysis of such interactions is represented by the Granger Causality Index (GCI).

Usefulness of 64-detector computed tomographic angiography for diagnosing in-stent restenosis in native coronary arteries.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of detector computed tomographic angiographic qualitative and quantitative analyses for the detection of in-stent restenosis (ISR) Previous studies have used qualitative analyses exclusively and have excluded "unevaluable" stents. Multidetector computed tomographic angiography (MDCT) was performed before quantitative coronary angiography in 67 patients with 132 stents that were evaluated by 2 techniques: (1) qualitative, on the basis of degree of visual hypodensity, and (2) quantitative, comparing in-stent with prestent Hounsfield units. All stents were evaluated, irrespective of image quality.

Applications of multislice coronary computed tomographic angiography to percutaneous coronary intervention: how did we ever do without it?

By providing data previously available only by intravascular ultrasound, 64-slice multidetector computed tomographic angiography (CTA) will impact percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in multiple areas: (1) pre-PCI patient selection; (2) identification of significant lesions; (3) in-stent restenosis; (4) procedure planning: stent sizing, choice of intervention, and equipment, chronic total occlusions, 3D-CTA in the catheterization laboratory; (5) plaque evaluation and identification of high-risk lesions; (6) postcatheterization decisions, and (7) structural heart disease. The likely outcome is transformation of the catheterization laboratory into a streamlined interventional suite, utilizing on-line CTA data in an interactive format.

Substrate specificity of the acyl transferase domains of EpoC from the epothilone polyketide synthase.

The production of epothilone mixtures is a direct consequence of the substrate tolerance of the module 3 acyltransferase (AT) domain of the epothilone polyketide synthase (PKS) which utilises both malonyl- and methylmalonyl-CoA extender units. Particular amino acid motifs in the active site of AT domains influence substrate selection for methylmalonyl-CoA (YASH) or malonyl-CoA (HAFH). This motif appears in hybrid form (HASH) in epoAT3 and may represent the molecular basis for the relaxed specificity of the domain.

Re- or displacement of invariant residues in the C-terminal half of the catalytic domain strongly affects catalysis by glucosyltransferase R.

It is shown that exchanges of single invariant amino acids in two C-terminal catalytic domain segments of the glucosyltransferase R (GtfR) strongly affect its catalytic properties. Drastic decreases of activity through re- or displacements of Tyr965 demonstrate a crucial role of this residue. Similarly, exchanges of amino acids Asp1004, Val1006, and Tyr1011 profoundly influenced catalytic parameters.

Indications for multidetector computed tomographic coronary angiography after catheter-based coronary angiography.

Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the indications for performing multidetector computed tomographic coronary angiography (MDCTA) after catheter-based coronary angiography.

Background: Appropriateness criteria for MDCTA apply exclusively to patient evaluation prior to catheter-based angiography.

Methods: All MDCTA performed after catheterbased angiography at a tertiary referral center were reviewed.

Evaluation of myocardial bridging of the left anterior descending coronary artery by 64-slice multidetector computed tomographic angiography.

The purpose of this study was to use the unique characteristics of multidetector computed tomographic coronary angiography to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of myocardial bridging (MB) in a large series of patients and to assess the relation between atherosclerosis and MB. Three hundred consecutive coronary angiograms obtained by 64-slice multidetector computed tomography were evaluated retrospectively. For comparison of symptoms and concomitant atherosclerosis, 245 patients were included in the study and categorized into group 1 (n = 108) with MB and group 2 (n = 137) with no MB in the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD).

Identification of structural determinants for substrate binding and turnover by glucosyltransferase R supports the permutation hypothesis.

Segments that may crucially influence the catalytic behaviour of glucosyltransferases of the glucansucrase type were selected for modification. This was done by sequence alignments, followed by structural modelling of the putative catalytic domain, based on a permuted form of the glucosyltransferase R (GtfR) of Streptococcus oralis. Five selected regions, located in the C-terminal half of the potential catalytic domain, were replaced by segments found at equivalent positions in other glucosyltransferases.