Modeling human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase mutations using GSPD-1.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is an X-linked, recessive condition that causes intermittent jaundice or hemolytic anemia because of low NADPH levels in red blood cells. We performed steady-state enzyme kinetics with the recombinant ortholog of human G6PD, GSPD-1, and two mutants containing amino acid changes found in human patients. The values for glucose-6-phosphate were 100 ± 27 µM, 80 ± 22 µM, and 1000 ± 300 µM for the wild-type, D60N, and R252L GSPD-1 enzymes, respectively.

Nutrient control in water bodies: A systems approach.

Nutrient pollution is considered a wicked problem because of its many significant economic, social, and environmental impacts that are caused by multiple pollutants originating from a variety of sources and pathways that exist across different temporal and spatial scales. Further adding to the difficulty in managing nutrient pollution is that it is a global, rural, and urban problem. A systems approach can improve nutrient management by incorporating technological, environmental, and societal considerations.

Discharge or reuse? Comparative sustainability assessment of anaerobic and aerobic membrane bioreactors.

Water reuse is believed to be a sustainable solution to overcome the scarcity of freshwater. Aerobic and anaerobic membrane bioreactors are becoming an effective technology for wastewater treatment and reuse. Aerobic membrane bioreactors show good nutrient removal, whereas those that are anaerobic have nutrient-rich effluent, enabling the direct agricultural use of the effluent.

Subtropical Interactions: Comparing Galling Insect and Host Plant Diversity in Southern Brazil and Florida.

Gall-inducing insects seem to have a diversity pattern distinct from the usual latitudinal decrease in species, with more species occurring in xeric environments instead. Many questions regarding galler diversity over geographical scales remain unanswered: for example, little is known about beta diversity, and the role super host plants play in local/regional richness. Our aim was to compare galling insect and host plant diversity in different biogeographical regions, but under similar environmental conditions.

Using prognostic models in CLL to personalize approach to clinical care: Are we there yet?

Four decades ago, two staging systems were developed to help stratify CLL into different prognostic categories. These systems, the Rai and the Binet staging, depended entirely on abnormal exam findings and evidence of anemia and thrombocytopenia. Better understanding of biologic, genetic, and molecular characteristics of CLL have contributed to better appreciating its clinical heterogeneity.

Time-Temperature Management Along the Food Cold Chain: A Review of Recent Developments.

The cold chain is responsible for the preservation and transportation of perishable foods in the proper temperature range to slow biological decay processes and deliver safe and high-quality foods to consumers. Studies show that the efficiency of the cold chain is often less than ideal, as temperature abuses above or below the optimal product-specific temperature range occur frequently, a situation that significantly increases food waste and endangers food safety. In this work, field studies on time-temperature conditions at each critical stage of the cold chain are reviewed to assess the current state of commercial cold chains.

Resveratrol alleviates alcoholic fatty liver in mice.

Alcoholic fatty liver is associated with inhibition of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) and AMP-activated kinase (AMPK), two critical signaling molecules regulating the pathways of hepatic lipid metabolism in animals. Resveratrol, a dietary polyphenol, has been identified as a potent activator for both SIRT1 and AMPK. In the present study, we have carried out in vivo animal experiments that test the ability of resveratrol to reverse the inhibitory effects of chronic ethanol feeding on hepatic SIRT1-AMPK signaling system and to prevent the development of alcoholic liver steatosis.

Defuzzification using most typical values.

A new approach for the defuzzification process, based on the Most Typical Value (MTV) concept, is being introduced and investigated. It assumes that the single decision, based on the output fuzzy subset, should represent a typical value of this set, rather than a numerical "central tendency" of its elements. The MTV defuzzification method is compared with previous defuzzification procedures and its applicability is illustrated.

Comments on "Constraints on belief functions imposed by fuzzy random variables": some technical remarks on Romer/Kandel.

First, we would like to thank V. Kratschmer for his validation of our results in the paper regarding the belief measure by using a topological approach. Though assertions (1) and (3) are presented in a weakened fashion, our results still remain valid, as he claims.

Knowledge discovery in time series databases.

Adding the dimension of time to databases produces time series databases (TSDB) and introduces new aspects and difficulties to data mining and knowledge discovery. In this correspondence, we introduce a general methodology for knowledge discovery in TSDB. The process of knowledge discovery in TSDR includes cleaning and filtering of time series data, identifying the most important predicting attributes, and extracting a set of association rules that can be used to predict the time series behavior in the future.

Involvement of mammalian sirtuin 1 in the action of ethanol in the liver.

Chronic ethanol feeding causes liver steatosis in animal models by upregulating the sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP-1), which subsequently increases the synthesis of hepatic lipid. SREBP-1 activity is regulated by reversible acetylation at specific lysine residues. The present study tests the hypothesis that activation of SREBP-1 by ethanol may be mediated by mammalian sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a NAD(+)-dependent class III protein deacetylase.

Human-robot interactions during the robot-assisted urban search and rescue response at the World Trade Center.

The World Trade Center (WTC) rescue response provided an unfortunate opportunity to study the human-robot interactions (HRI) during a real unstaged rescue for the first time. A post-hoc analysis was performed on the data collected during the response, which resulted in 17 findings on the impact of the environment and conditions on the HRI: the skills displayed and needed by robots and humans, the details of the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) task, the social informatics in the USAR domain, and what information is communicated at what time. The results of this work impact the field of robotics by providing a case study for HRI in USAR drawn from an unstaged USAR effort.

Construction and characterization of soft-supported lipid bilayer membranes for biosensors application.

A model cell membrane can be ingeniously used to mimic biological processes with wide applications in the biomedical field. For instance, a model cell membrane can be used as a functionalized element integrated to a sensor for identification of specific proteins or other molecules in a biofluid. A special characteristic of the model membrane described in this work is the fluidic or surface mobility feature given by a thin film of grafted polymer that serves as a cushion layer to support lipid bilayers.

Skin penetration of silicon dioxide microneedle arrays.

Out-of-plane hollow silicon dioxide microneedle arrays were fabricated and investigated to determine their efficacy for transdermal applications. The fabrication process of the SiO2 microneedles is described, and mechanical fracture forces were investigated on microneedles with different geometrical dimensions. Biomechanical characterization of the microneedles was performed to specifically test for reliable stratum corneum and skin insertion by changing the regulatory parameters such as needle width and cross-section.

Integrin-mediated mechanotransduction in renal vascular smooth muscle cells: activation of calcium sparks.

Integrins are transmembrane heterodimeric proteins that link extracellular matrix (ECM) to cytoskeleton and have been shown to function as mechanotransducers in nonmuscle cells. Synthetic integrin-binding peptide triggers Ca(2+) mobilization and contraction in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) of rat afferent arteriole, indicating that interactions between the ECM and integrins modulate vascular tone. To examine whether integrins transduce extracellular mechanical stress into intracellular Ca(2+) signaling events in VSMCs, unidirectional mechanical force was applied to freshly isolated renal VSMCs through paramagnetic beads coated with fibronectin (natural ligand of alpha(5)beta(1)-integrin in VSMCs).

Foraminifera as bioindicators in coral reef assessment and monitoring: the FORAM Index. Foraminifera in Reef Assessment and Monitoring.

Coral reef communities are threatened worldwide. Resource managers urgently need indicators of the biological condition of reef environments that can relate data acquired through remote-sensing, water-quality and benthic-community monitoring to stress responses in reef organisms. The "FORAM" (Foraminifera in Reef Assessment and Monitoring) Index (FI) is based on 30 years of research on reef sediments and reef-dwelling larger foraminifers.

A field study of virus removal in septic tank drainfields.

Two field studies were conducted at a research station in Tampa, Florida to assess the removal of bacteriophage PRD1 from wastewater in septic tank drainfields. Infiltration cells were seeded with PRD1 and bromide and the effects of effluent hydraulic loading rate and rainfall on virus removal were monitored. Septic tank effluent samples were collected after passage through 0.

Evaluation of the accuracy of on-site multi-analyte drug testing devices in the determination of the prevalence of illicit drugs in drivers.

A principal goal of this research was to conduct a field evaluation of "on-site" multi-analyte drug testing devices to determine the most accurate, efficient, and cost-effective device available for the purpose of rapidly detecting drivers under the influence of drugs. Four on-site kits were selected and evaluated for accuracy and efficiency for the detection of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the cocaine metabolites (COC), and opiates (OPI). From 16 December 1995 to 17 March 1996, 303 voluntary urine specimens were collected by law enforcement officers from persons arrested for driving-under-the-influence (DUI).

On typical values and fuzzy integrals.

A new approach for obtaining a typical value of a fuzzy set as a fuzzy integral is developed by replacing the classic Lebesgue measure with the "typicality" measure. A new method for representing and calculating the one-dimensional fuzzy integral with respect to arbitrary measure derived by monotonic increasing function is proposed and its applicability is illustrated with examples.

Digital mammography: mixed feature neural network with spectral entropy decision for detection of microcalcifications.

A computationally efficient mixed feature based neural network (MFNN) is proposed for the detection of microcalcification clusters (MCCs) in digitized mammograms. The MFNN employs features computed in both the spatial and spectral domain and uses spectral entropy as a decision parameter. Backpropagation with Kalman filtering (KF) is employed to allow more efficient network training as required for evaluation of different features, input images, and related error analysis.

A lossless image compression algorithm using variable block size segmentation.

The redundancy in digital image representation can be classified into two categories: local and global. In this paper, we present an analysis of two image characteristics that give rise to local and global redundancy in image representation. Based on this study, we propose a lossless image compression scheme that exploits redundancy both at local and global levels in order to obtain maximum compression efficiency.

Markov random field for tumor detection in digital mammography.

A technique is proposed for the detection of tumors in digital mammography. Detection is performed in two steps: segmentation and classification. In segmentation, regions of interest are first extracted from the images by adaptive thresholding.

Automatic tracking of SPAMM grid and the estimation of deformation parameters from cardiac MR images.

Presents a new approach for the automatic tracking of SPAMM (Spatial Modulation of Magnetization) grid in cardiac MR images and consequent estimation of deformation parameters. The tracking is utilized to extract grid points from MR images and to establish correspondences between grid points in images taken at consecutive frames. These correspondences are used with a thin plate spline model to establish a mapping from one image to the next.

Tree-structured nonlinear filters in digital mammography.

A new class of nonlinear filters with more robust characteristics for noise suppression and detail preservation is proposed for processing digital mammographic images. The new algorithm consists of two major filtering blocks: (a) a multistage tree-structured filter for image enhancement that uses central weighted median filters as basic sub-filtering blocks and (b) a dispersion edge detector. The design of the algorithm also included the use of linear and curved windows to determine whether variable shape windowing could improve detail preservation.