Bacterial Fibrinolytic Enzyme Coding Sequences from Indonesian Traditional Fermented Foods Isolated Using Metagenomic Approach and Their Expression in Escherichia Coli

Fibrinolytic proteins play an important role in treatment of cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to express coding sequences of new bacterial fibrinolytic protein from Indonesian traditional fermented foods obtained by a PCR-based metagenomic approach and to test their biological activity. New amino acid variations were found in nattokinase (NAT) at several positions i.e. D41N and V192A from dried Tauco, V4F, D41N, and V192A from yellow Oncom but not in Douchy Fibrinolytic Enzyme (DFE) from Terasi. The NAT and DFE recombinant versions were overproduced in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) using pET16b(+). Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis analysis showed all clones produced mature soluble fibrinolytic proteins of 28 kDa. All recombinant proteins displayed caseinolytic and fibrinolytic activities. In conclusion, metagenomic approach can be applied to obtain and to express coding sequences of new variant bacterial fibrinolytic protein as active soluble mature form in E. coli.     

Regression Techniques for Oceanographic Parameter Retrieval Using Space-Borne Microwave Radiometry

Variations of conventional multiple regression techniques are applied to the problem of remote sensing of oceanographic parameters from space. The techniques are specifically adapted to the scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) launched on the Seasat and Nimbus 7 satellites to determine ocean surface temperature, wind speed, and atmospheric water content. The retrievals are studied primarily from a theoretical viewpoint, to illustrate the retrieval error structure, the relative importances of different radiometer channels, and the tradeoffs between spatial resolution and retrieval accuracy. Comparisons between regressions using simulated and actual SMMR data are discussed; they show similar behavior.     

Experimental and Modeling Study During Freeze Drying of Aqueous tert-Butanol–Based Formulations in Vials

In this study, using COMSOL Multiphysics software, we set up a two-dimensional model for the sublimation step a frozen aqueous organic cosolvent tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) formulation without a dissolved active principal ingredient contained in 4-mL glass vials. This model, based on the hypothesis of a sublimation process mainly governed by the conductive heat transfer between the shelf and the sublimation front, allowed precise prediction of the sublimation kinetics and the sublimation front movement for different operating conditions. Next, this modeling was validated by many experimental runs under operating conditions corresponding to very low total gas pressures (5 to 50 Pa) and low shelf temperatures (0 to ?20°C) generally encountered during industrial freeze drying of thermosensible pharmaceuticals (vaccines, diagnostic proteins, serums, etc.).     

Spiders crawl easily through the bottleneck: Visual working memory for negative stimuli.

The special status of spiders in the attentional bottleneck and visual working memory (VWM) was studied. 23 spider-fearfuls (SF) and 23 non-anxious controls (NACs) participated in a serial VWM-task. Each trial showed a 4 × 4 matrix of images and 5 of these were subsequently cued for 150 ms each. Afterwards, one of the 16 displayed images was hidden and probed. The spider image was included in the string of 5 cued images, among the 11 uncued items, or not at all. For both groups, memory was better for cued spiders than for other cued items. SFs also showed improved memory for uncued spiders. The relevance of the results for theories of attention and cognitive models of phobias are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spider fearful individuals attend to threat, then quickly avoid it: Evidence from eye movements.

According to cognitive models of anxiety, anxiety patients exhibit an early reflexive attentional bias toward threat stimuli, which may be followed by intentional avoidance of these stimuli. To determine the time course of attentional vigilance and avoidance, the authors conducted an eye-tracking study in which 22 highly spider fearful participants (SFs) and 23 nonanxious control participants (NACs) studied groups of 4 pictures (spider, butterfly, dog, and cat). The authors found that the very first fixation was on a spider picture more often in SFs than in NACs. However, SFs quickly moved their eyes away from the spider they had fixated first, yielding shorter gaze durations than NACs. Afterward, SFs exhibited shorter gaze durations on spiders than NACs for the rest of the 1-min presentation time. This early reflexive attentional bias toward threat followed by avoidance of threat may explain earlier failures to find attentional biases in anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From fear to love: Individual differences in implicit spider associations.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to investigate automatic fear associations in fear of spiders. Fear associations toward spiders were measured among spider fearful and nonfearful participants (Experiment 1) as well as among nonfearfuls and spider enthusiasts (Experiment 2). It was shown that the IAT is sensitive to personal automatic fear associations and therefore distinguishes between high-fearful, nonfearful, and enthusiastic participants. Moreover, implicit spider associations measured by the IAT predicted avoidance behavior beyond self-reports. The results of Experiment 2 provide additional support for the argument that implicit spider associations are different from general stereotypes or knowledge about spiders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explicit memory in anxiety disorders.

Two experiments were conducted to study selective memory bias favoring anxiety-relevant materials in patients with anxiety disorders. In the 1st experiment, 32 patients with generalized anxiety disorder (CAD), 30 with social phobia (speaking anxiety), and 31 control participants incidentally learned CAD-relevant words, speech anxiety-relevant words, strongly pleasant words, and words with a neutral valence. Participants did not show any explicit memory bias for threatening materials. Thirty patients suffering from panic disorder (PD) with agoraphobia and 30 controls took part in the 2nd experiment. The design was similar to the 1st experiment. This time a highly specific selective memory bias for threatening words was found. Words describing symptoms of anxiety were better recalled by PD patients. Results are consistent with previous findings but are inexplicable by existing theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory bias in panic disorder.

Investigated selective memory effects in patients with panic disorder. 30 patients with panic disorder and 20 normal controls learned panic-related, strongly pleasant, and strongly unpleasant words. During the incidental learning task, Ss imagined scenes combining the referent of a presented word with themselves. After a distractor task, Ss took a free-recall test. Panic Ss showed enhanced memory for panic-related words but not for positive or negative words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Comparison of Attentional Biases and Memory Biases in Women With Social Phobia and Major Depression.

Cognitive processes play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and depression. Current theories differ, however, in their predictions regarding the occurrence of attentional biases and memory biases in depression and anxiety. To allow for a systematic comparison of disorders and cognitive processes, 117 women (35 with generalized social phobia, 27 with major depression, and 55 healthy controls) participated in a test of visual attention (visual search), an explicit memory test (free recall), and an implicit memory test (anagram solving). Both clinical groups exhibited attentional biases for disorder-related words, whereas only depressed participants showed clear evidence of explicit and implicit memory biases. The implications of these results for competing theories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)