A comprehensive classification system for lipids

Lipids are produced, transported, and recognized by the concerted actions of numerous enzymes, binding proteins, and receptors. A comprehensive analysis of lipid molecules, “lipidomics,” in the context of genomics and proteomics is crucial to understanding cellular physiology and pathology; consequently, lipid biology has become a major research target of the postgenomic revolution and systems biology. To facilitate international communication about lipids, a comprehensive classification of lipids with a common platform that is compatible with informatics requirements has been developed to deal with the massive amounts of data that will be generated by our lipid community. As an initial step in this development, we divide lipids into eight categories (fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, sterol lipids, prenol lipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides) containing distinct classes and subclasses of molecules, devise a common manner of representing the chemical structures of individual lipids and their derivatives, and provide a 12 digit identifier for each unique lipid molecule. The lipid classification scheme is chemically based and driven by the distinct hydrophobic and hydrophilic elements that compose the lipid. This structured vocabulary will facilitate the systematization of lipid biology and enable the cataloging of lipids and their properties in a way that is compatible with other macromolecular databases.[Reprinted with copyright permission from the Journal of Lipid Research. 2005. 46: 839–861.]     

Focal tenosynovial amyloid deposition as a rare cause of median nerve compression at the wrist

Although certain local and systemic aetiologies for the carpal-tunnel syndrome are known, a large number of cases of this syndrome do not have a conclusive aetiology. We present a case of histologically proven focal tenosynovial deposition of amyloid presenting as a rare cause of median nerve compression at the wrist.     

Producibility Analysis Using Metrics Based on Physical Process Models

This paper presents an approach to evaluating producibility which is intended to enhance the ability of engineers to quickly design low-cost and high-quality parts. We divide all production processes into two categories: trajectory-dominated processes in which a generic tool is moved in a trajectory to form the part shape, and process-physics-dominated processes in which shaped tools are used to form similarly shaped parts. We focus on process-physics-dominated processes and on producibility problems that arise because of part shape. We argue that for these processes the currently popular approach of representing parts as collections of geometric features may be inappropriate for evaluating producibility. We propose an alternative approach and representation. Our approach consists of first identifying the different failure modes of the process and then defining producibility metrics corresponding to the likelihood of encountering each failure mode. This set of metrics is used to represent the degree to which a part is easily manufactured. Finally, we demonstrate this approach by developing a set of metrics for evaluating the producibility of aluminum extrusions. We use extrusions from the Boeing 777 to validate the metrics.     

beta-Galactosidase reporter system in mycobacteria and its application in rapid antimycobacterial drug screening

Osteopontin (OPN) is a ubiquitous multiphosphorylated secretory glycoprotein. Twenty-seven phosphorylated serines have been identified in bovine milk OPN (E. S. Sorensen et al. (1995) Protein Sci. 4, 2040-2049). Nineteen of these phosphoacceptor sites are fully conserved in rat OPN, all displaying the consensus for the Golgi apparatus casein kinase, G-CK (S-x-E/Sp). Here we show that rat OPN is indeed phosphorylated more readily than casein itself by G-CK from either rat mammary gland or liver. OPN is also phosphorylated by casein kinases-1 and -2 (CK1, CK2), though less readily than casein. If OPN kinase activities are normalized in terms of casein phosphorylation, OPN phosphorylation rate by G-CK is 78-fold and 19-fold higher than those measured with CK2 and CK1, respectively. These data, in conjunction with the specific location of G-CK to the Golgi apparatus, where CK2 and CK1 are hardly detectable, support the view that G-CK is the main if not the only physiological agent committed to the phosphorylation of OPN.     

In vitro renaturation of bovine beta-lactoglobulin A leads to a biologically active but incompletely refolded state

When bovine beta-lactoglobulin (beta-LG) was refolded after extensive denaturation in 4.8 M guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl), the functional activity of the protein, retinol binding, as measured by the enhancement of this ligand's fluorescence, was completely recovered. In contrast, the room-temperature tryptophan phosphorescence lifetime of the refolded protein, a local measure of the residue environment, was approximately 10 ms, significantly shorter than the phosphorescence lifetime of the untreated native protein (approximately 20 ms). The lability of the freshly refolded protein, as monitored by following the time course of its unfolding when incubated in 2.5 M GuHCl through the change in fluorescence intensity at 385 nm, was also determined and found to be increased significantly relative to untreated native protein. In contrast to the long term postactivation conformational changes detected previously in Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase (Subramaniam V, Bergenhem NCH, Gafni A, Steel DG, 1995, Biochemistry 34:1133-1136), we found no changes in either the lability or phosphorescence decays of beta-LG during a period of 24 h. Our results are in agreement with the report by Hattori et al. (1993, J Biol Chem 268:22414-22419), using conformation-specific monoclonal antibodies to recognize native-like structure, that long-term changes occur in the protein conformation, compared with the native structure, on refolding.     

Options and Opportunities for Energy Management in Malaysian Grid Systems—Putrajaya as a Case Study

This paper presents an opportunity for energy management with an integrated photovoltaic and wind farm for the energy and economic aspects of the commercial area located in Putrajaya. The energy economy accession conforming to the wind speed, temperature, solar irradiation, and energy consumption on a daily basis is taken into consideration. Design analysis is done through the industry standard numerical tool. From the result analysis, the recommended ratio of renewable share minimizing stress to the electric grid is proposed. According to the solutions obtained from the numerical design tool, photovoltaic is recommended to be more energy efficient and economically viable in comparison of the fully crowded wind farm. From the proposed solutions, the photovoltaic is able to provide 51% of the energy consumed and it costs RM 0.365 per kW/h.     

Virtual network mapping in elastic optical networks with sliceable transponders

Emerging inter-datacenter applications involving data transferred, processed, and analyzed at multiple datacenters, such as virtual machine migrations, real-time data backup, remote desktop, and virtual datacenters, can be modeled as virtual network requests that share computing and spectrum resources of a common substrate physical inter-datacenter network. Recent advances make elastic optical networks an ideal candidate for meeting the dynamic and heterogeneous connection demands between datacenters. In this paper, we address the static (offline) version of the virtual network mapping problem in elastic optical networks equipped with sliceable bandwidth variable transponders. The objective is to minimize the total transponder cost in the network. An Integer Linear Programming formulation is presented, lower bounds are derived, and six heuristics are proposed and compared. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

     

An integrated fuzzy DEMATEL,TOPSIS, and ELECTRE approach for evaluating knowledge transfer effectiveness with reference to GSD project outcome

Neural Computing and Applications - The offshore/onsite teams’ knowledge transfer (KT) effectiveness is one of the key determinants for achieving the outcome of global software development...