Medium-Chain Enriched Diacylglycerol (MCE-DAG) Oil Decreases Body Fat Mass in Mice by Increasing Lipolysis and Thermogenesis in Adipose Tissue

Medium chain fatty acid (MCFA) escapes the formation of chylomicrons in the small intestine, resulting in energy expenditure through beta-oxidation. Diacylglycerol (DAG) is susceptible to oxidation rather than being stored in the adipose tissue. This study was conducted to verify the effect of MCE-DAG oil on body fat mass in vivo. Male C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to four groups (n = 12) as follows: (1) normal diet (18% kcal from fat), (2) canola oil as a control (40% kcal from canola oil), (3) MCE-DAG10 (10% kcal from MCE-DAG + 30% kcal from canola oil), and (4) MCE-DAG20 (20% kcal from MCE-DAG + 20% kcal from canola oil). The body weight and fat mass of MCE-DAG20 group mice were decreased relative to those of control mice (P < 0.05 and P < 0.001, respectively). Serum triacylglycerol (TAG) was decreased in both MCE-DAG10 and MCE-DAG20 groups (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). Hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) and adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) were increased in the MCE-DAG20 group relative to the control in white adipose tissue (WAT) (P < 0.05). Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) was also increased in the MCE-DAG20 group relative to the control in brown adipose tissue (BAT) (P < 0.05). In summary, MCE-DAG reduced body fat mass likely by stimulating lipolysis in WAT and thermogenesis in BAT.     

Comparison of spatial arrangements of secondary structural elements in proteins

We have developed a new method of protein structure comparisonbased on spatial arrangements of secondary structural elements(SSEs). Each SSE is represented by a single vector, and commonspatial arrangements of vectors in a pair of proteins are detected.The method allows not only insertions and deletions of SSEs,but also topological permutations. It has a flexible targetfunction that can be adjusted depending upon particular levelsor definitions of structural similarity, and it is fast enoughto allow structural comparisons for many pairs of proteins.The parameters for the target function are determined basedon distributions of the geometrical variables for the spatialarrangements of the equivalent SSEs in well-known structuralmotifs. The obtained parameter set is tuned for detecting relativelystrong structural similarity. We report several tests on examplesincluding comparisons of known structural similarity and databasesearches for a target structure, and examine the results whenthis parameter set is used for the comparison of distantly relatedstructures.     

Fabrication of well-crystallized mesoporous ZrO2 thin films via Pluronic P123 templated sol–gel route

Mesoporous zirconia (ZrO₂) thin films were prepared by dip-coating via Pluronic P123 templated sol–gel route. ZrOCl₂·8 H₂O was used as zirconium (Zr) precursors. Annealing of as-coated ZrO₂ thin films is important in order to stiffen the respective films and to remove the Pluronic P123. The mesoporous structure and crystallite size of ZrO₂ were characterized systematically by field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), both low- and wide-angle X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis technique and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method. At annealing temperature of 400 °C, amorphous ZrO₂ was transformed into tetragonal phase of ZrO₂ (t-ZrO₂). At 450 °C, t-ZrO₂ and monoclinic phase of ZrO₂ (m-ZrO₂) were obtained. By altering heating rate during annealing, volume fraction of t-ZrO₂ and m-ZrO₂ was changed. FESEM images showed that disordered mesostructures of ZrO₂ were formed after annealing. The surface area of mesoporous ZrO₂ obtained ranges from 54.33 to 93.39 m²/g.     

嵌入式系统中地图快速漫游算法的实现

对于一个完善的地理信息系统来讲,庞大的数据库是必不可少的,而对于嵌入式芯片来讲,处理速度仍是有限的.要在有限的处理速度下完成对海量数据的处理,而又不给用户造成地图画面不流畅的感觉,我们除了要从芯片的选型和对数据库的设计方面做出改进以外,还应该提高对芯片的利用率.本文提出了利用处理器的空闲时间片对地图数据进行预处理,从而减少用户等待地图数据组织的时间.这种方法提高了芯片的效率,在改善嵌入式地理信息系统的地图显示性能方面有很显著的作用.     

Übersicht über numerische Integrationsmethoden für technische Schwingungsprobleme

Zusammenfassung Bei zeitabh?ngigen Belastungen einer technischen Konstruktion treten Schwingungen auf. Um deren zeitlichen Verlauf zu bestimmen, müssen die Bewegungsdifferentialgleichungen eines vereinfachten mechanischen Ersatzsystems gel?st werden. Für die Arbeit mit dem Digitalrechner sind dabei die Methoden der numerischen Integration anzuwenden. Im vorliegenden Text wird zun?chst eine Einführung in Schwingungsprobleme gegeben. Für lineare Schwingungssysteme wird die analytische L?sung zu rechnergerechten Integrationsverfahren aufbereitet. In einem zweiten Teil des Aufsatzes werden die Eigenschaften allgemeiner numerischer Integrationsmethoden er?rtert, mit denen alle zeitabh?ngigen Schwingungsaufgaben, besonders auch nichtlineare, n?herungsweise gel?st werden k?nnen. Für den Anwender von verbreiteten Rechnerprogrammen sowie für den Programmierer selbst werden die Unterschiede der Vorgehensweisen erl?utert, und es terden Kriterien aufgezeigt, nach denen eine Integrationsformel ausgew?hlt werden kann.     

Helix-forming tendencies of amino acids depend on their sequence contexts: tripeptides AFG and FAG show incipient beta-bulge formation in their crystal structures

Many of the theoretical methods used for predicting the occurrence of alpha-helices in peptides are based on the helical preferences of amino acid monomer residues. In order to check whether the helix-forming tendencies are based on helical preferences of monomers only or also on their sequence contexts, we synthesized permuted sequences of the tripeptides GAF, GAV, and GAL that formed crystalline helices with near alpha-helical conformation. The tripeptides AFG and FAG formed good crystals. The x-ray crystallographic studies of AFG and FAG showed that though they contain the same amino acids as GAF but in different sequences, they do not assume a helical conformation in the solid state. On the other hand, AFG and FAG, which contain the same amino acids but in a different sequence, exhibit nearly the same backbone torsion angles corresponding to an incipient formation of a beta-bulge, and exhibit nearly identical unit cells and crystal structures. Based on these results, it appears that the helix-forming tendencies of amino acids depend on the sequence context in which it occurs in a polypeptide. The synthetic peptides AFG (L-Ala-L-Phe-Gly) and FAG (L-Phe-L-Ala-Gly), C14H19N3O4, crystallize in the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with a = 5.232(1), b = 14.622(2), c = 19.157(3) A, Dx = 1.329 g cm-3, Z = 4, R = 0.041 for 549 reflections for AFG, and with a = 5.488(2), b = 14.189(1), c = 18.562(1) A, Dx = 1.348 g cm-3, Z = 4, R = 0.038 for 919 reflections for FAG. Unlike the other tripeptides GAF, GGV, GAL, and GAI, the crystals of AFG and FAG do not contain water molecule, and the molecules of AFG aor FAG do not show the helical conformation. The torsion angles at the backbone of the peptide are psi 1 = 144.5(5) degrees; phi 2, psi 2 = -98.1(6) degrees, -65.2(6) degrees; phi 3, psi 13, psi 31 = 154.1(6) degrees, -173.6(6) degrees, 6.9(8) degrees for AFG; and psi 1 = 162.6(3) degrees; phi 2, psi 2 = -96.7(4) degrees, -46.3(4) degrees; phi 3, psi 13, psi 31 = 150.1(3) degrees, -168.7(3) degrees, 12.2(5) degrees for FAG. The conformation angles (phi, psi) for residues 2 and 3 for both AFG and FAG show incipient formation of an beta-bulge.     

The human type 1 inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor from T lymphocytes. Structure, localization, and tyrosine phosphorylation

Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors (IP3R) are intracellular calcium release channels involved in diverse signaling pathways. An IP3R is thought to play a role in mobilizing calcium required for activation of T lymphocytes. The IP3R is a tetrameric structure comprised of four approximately 300-kDa subunits encoded by a approximately 10-kilobase mRNA. In the present study we determined the structure of the human type 1 IP3R expressed in T lymphocytes (Jurkats). The IP3R in human T cells had a predicted molecular mass of 308 kDa and was most similar to the non-neuronal form of the rodent type 1 IP3R. Two putative tyrosine phosphorylation sites were identified, one near the amino terminus and one near the putative channel pore at the carboxyl terminus. During T cell activation the IP3R was tyrosine phosphorylated. A site-specific anti-IP3R antibody was used to localize the carboxyl terminus of the IP3R to the cytoplasm in T cells.