Spatiotemporal smoothing of water quality in a complex riverine system with physical barriers.

Freshwater ecosystems offer a variety of ecosystem services, and water quality is essential information for understanding their environment, biodiversity, and functioning. Interpolation by smoothing methods is a widely used approach to obtain temporal and/or spatial patterns of water quality from sampled data. However, when these methods are applied to freshwater systems, ignoring terrestrial areas that act as physical barriers may affect the structure of spatial autocorrelation and introduce bias into the estimates.

Spatial optimization of invasive species control informed by management practices.

Optimization of spatial resource allocation is crucial for the successful control of invasive species under a limited budget but requires labor-intensive surveys to estimate population parameters. In this study, we devised a novel framework for the spatially explicit optimization of capture effort allocation using state-space population models from past capture records. We applied it to a control program for invasive snapping turtles to determine effort allocation strategies that minimize the population density over the whole area.

Possible role of inter-domain salt bridges in oligopeptidase B from Trypanosoma brucei: critical role of Glu172 of non-catalytic β-propeller domain in catalytic activity and Glu490 of catalytic domain in stability of OPB.

Oligopeptidase B (OPB) is a member of the prolyl oligopeptidase (POP) family of serine proteases. OPB in trypanosomes is an important virulence factor and potential pharmaceutical target. Characteristic structural features of POP family members include lack of a propeptide and presence of a β-propeller domain (PD), although the role of the β-PD has yet to be fully understood.

Pressure study on symmetric and asymmetric phospholipid bilayers: effect of vesicle size on Prodan fluorescence.

The bilayer phase behavior of symmetric and asymmetric phosphatidylcholines (PCs), 1,2-diheptadecanoyl-PC (C17PC), 1-palmitoyl-2-stearoyl-PC (PSPC), and 1-stearoyl-2-palmitoyl-PC (SPPC), with different vesicle sizes were investigated by a high-pressure fluorescence method using the polarity-sensitive fluorescent probe Prodan. The second derivative of fluorescence spectra for all the PCs of small-sized vesicle showed four minima characteristic of four membrane states on the spectra irrespective of the acyl-chain symmetry, whereas those of large-sized vesicle had one more minimum originating from the most hydrophilic site at the membrane surface. These findings indicate that Prodan molecules can distribute into multiple sites in the bilayer and move around the head-group region depending on the vesicle size.

Inhibition of anti-fluorescent probe monoclonal antibody by long-chain amphiphiles.

Inhibitions of amphiphiles with a long chain (alcohols with carbon number of 10, 12, 14, 16 and the corresponding fatty acids) on the antigen-antibody reaction between fluorescent probe (fluorescein (FL)) and anti-fluorescent probe monoclonal antibody (immunoglobulin G (IgG)-49) were investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy. The resulting inhibition modes were compared with those of specific inhibitors, 5- and 6-aminofluoresceins (5- and 6-FLNH(2)). In the presence of all inhibitors, the fluorescence quenching of FL as the result of inhibitor binding to IgG-49 was hindered in an inhibitor concentration-dependent manner.

Interaction modes of long-chain fatty acids in dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayer membrane: contrast to mode of inhalation anesthetics.

The effects of long-chain fatty acids (four saturated and two unsaturated fatty acids, one derivative) on phase transitions of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayer membranes were examined in the low concentration region, and the results were compared with those for an inhalation anesthetic. The effects of all fatty acids on the pre- and main-transition temperatures of the DPPC bilayer membrane appeared in the concentration range of microM order while that of the anesthetic appeared in the mM order. The appearance modes of these ligand actions were significantly different from one another.

Interdigitation and vesicle-to-micelle transformation induced by a local anesthetic tetracaine in phospholipids bilayers.

The phase transitions of distearoyl- (DSPC), dipalmitoyl- (DPPC) and dimyristoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) bilayer membranes were observed by means of differential scanning calorimetry as a function of the concentration of a local anesthetic tetracaine hydrochloride (TC.HCl). The depression of both temperatures of the main- and pre-transition, which is accompanied by a decrease in enthalpy changes for both transitions, was observed initially by the addition of TC.