Structural Cues for Understanding eEF1A2 Moonlighting

Spontaneous mutations in the EEF1A2 gene cause epilepsy and severe neurological disabilities in children. The crystal structure of eEF1A2 protein purified from rabbit skeletal muscle reveals a post-translationally modified dimer that provides information about the sites of interaction with numerous binding partners, including itself, and maps these mutations onto the dimer and tetramer interfaces. The spatial locations of the side chain carboxylates of Glu301 and Glu374, to which phosphatidylethanolamine is uniquely attached via an amide bond, define the anchoring points of eEF1A2 to cellular membranes and interorganellar membrane contact sites. Additional bioinformatic and molecular modeling results provide novel structural insight into the demonstrated binding of eEF1A2 to SH3 domains, the common MAPK docking groove, filamentous actin, and phosphatidylinositol-4 kinase IIIβ. In this new light, the role of eEF1A2 as an ancient, multifaceted, and articulated G protein at the crossroads of autophagy, oncogenesis and viral replication appears very distant from the “canonical” one of delivering aminoacyl-tRNAs to the ribosome that has dominated the scene and much of the thinking for many decades.     

Mast Cell Chymase and Kidney Disease

A sizable part (~2%) of the human genome encodes for proteases. They are involved in many physiological processes, such as development, reproduction and inflammation, but also play a role in pathology. Mast cells (MC) contain a variety of MC specific proteases, the expression of which may differ between various MC subtypes. Amongst these proteases, chymase represents up to 25% of the total proteins in the MC and is released from cytoplasmic granules upon activation. Once secreted, it cleaves the targets in the local tissue environment, but may also act in lymph nodes infiltrated by MC, or systemically, when reaching the circulation during an inflammatory response. MC have been recognized as important components in the development of kidney disease. Based on this observation, MC chymase has gained interest following the discovery that it contributes to the angiotensin-converting enzyme’s independent generation of angiotensin II, an important inflammatory mediator in the development of kidney disease. Hence, progress regarding its role has been made based on studies using inhibitors but also on mice deficient in MC protease 4 (mMCP-4), the functional murine counterpart of human chymase. In this review, we discuss the role and actions of chymase in kidney disease. While initially believed to contribute to pathogenesis, the accumulated data favor a more subtle view, indicating that chymase may also have beneficial actions.     

基于三相幅度测量的相控阵天线快速校准方法

提出了一种基于三相幅度测量的相控阵天线快速校准方法。该方法将天线阵列进行分组,利用每种分组在三种配相下的阵面合成场幅度测量值,可解算出各个天线单元的初始幅相值。该方法仅需幅度测量,避免了相位测量误差影响单元幅相值的计算精度,而且所需幅度测量次数仅为(2N+1)次,可显著提高校准时效性。另外,利用分组思想,同时改变多个单元相位,使总辐射场的幅度变化显著,提升校准准确性。仿真结果表明:校准后相位均方根误差为2.2°,幅度均方根误差为0.2 dB。     

基于用户体验的产品包装设计探究

在经济繁荣发展的今天,人们对产品包装的需求已经不仅仅是功能上所完成的,用户与包装互动过程中综合感受才是重点。文章通过案例分析和研究,对现代产品包装设计中本能层次、行为层次、反思层次的体验设计进行分析。基于用户体验的产品包装设计,将使产品包装更为合理、人性化、获得更加愉悦的心情和美好回忆,同时促进销售且提升品牌文化及其附加价值。     

除尘器新型褶式滤筒的结构优化及系列化设计

以新型褶式滤筒为研究对象,选取滤筒褶数N_2、褶夹角θ、褶高h、过滤风速v为影响因子,除尘器压力损失为响应值,基于响应曲面法分析影响因子对压力损失的影响,建立滤筒除尘器压力损失的预测模型并得到滤筒褶皱结构最优参数。以滤筒内径D、筒体高度D_1为标准尺寸,依据相关国家标准设计滤筒筒体部分;以锥体高度D_2、锥体上圆直径D_3为系列尺寸,利用尺寸变化法设计锥体部分;通过Access软件建立滤筒产品数据库。结果表明:当θ=5.2°,N_2=50,v=0.01 m/s,h=0.035 m时,除尘器压力损失最低;当D_1=1 000 mm,D=320 mm时,D_2和D_3最佳值分别为600,130 mm,故采用D_2/D_1=0.6,D_3/D=0.4的比值设计相应滤筒锥体系列。     

A distributed energy system integrating SOFC-MGT with mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemical hydrogen fuel production

Solar thermochemical hydrogen production with energy level upgraded from solar thermal to chemical energy shows great potential. By integrating mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemistry and solid oxide fuel cells, in this paper, a new distributed energy system combining power, cooling, and heating is proposed and analyzed from thermodynamic, energy and exergy viewpoints. Different from the high temperature solar thermochemistry (above 1073.15 K), the mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemistry utilizes concentrated solar thermal (473.15–573.15 K) to drive methanol decomposition reaction, reducing irreversible heat collection loss. The produced hydrogen-rich fuel is converted into power through solid oxide fuel cells and micro gas turbines successively, realizing the cascaded utilization of fuel and solar energy. Numerical simulation is conducted to investigate the system thermodynamic performances under design and off-design conditions. Promising results reveal that solar-to-hydrogen and net solar-to-electricity efficiencies reach 66.26% and 40.93%, respectively. With the solar thermochemical conversion and hydrogen-rich fuel cascade utilization, the system exergy and overall energy efficiencies reach 59.76% and 80.74%, respectively. This research may provide a pathway for efficient hydrogen-rich fuel production and power generation.     

Bioinformatic characterization of the extracellular lipases from Kluyveromyces marxianus

Lipases are hydrolytic enzymes that break the ester bonds of triglycerides, generating free fatty acids and glycerol. Extracellular lipase activity has been reported for the nonconventional yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus, grown in olive oil as a substrate, and the presence of at least eight putative lipases has been detected in its genome. However, to date, there is no experimental evidence on the physiological role of the putative lipases nor their structural and catalytic properties. In this study, a bioinformatic analysis of the genes of the putative lipases from K. marxianus L-2029 was performed, particularly identifying and characterizing the extracellular expected enzymes, due to their biotechnological relevance. The amino acid sequence of 10 putative lipases, obtained by in silico translation, ranged between 389 and 773 amino acids. Two of the analysed putative proteins showed a signal peptide, 25 and 33 amino acids long for KmYJR107Wp and KmLIP3p, and a molecular weight of 44.53 and 58.23 kDa, respectively. The amino acid alignment of KmLIP3p and KmYJR107Wp with the crystallized lipases from a patatin and the YlLip2 lipase from Yarrowia lipolytica, respectively, revealed the presence of the hydrolase characteristic motifs. From the 3D models of putative extracellular K. marxianus L-2029 lipases, the conserved pentapeptide of each was determined, being GTSMG for KmLIP3p and GHSLG for KmYJR107Wp; besides, the genes of these two enzymes (LIP3 and YJR107W) are apparently regulated by oleate response elements. The phylogenetic analysis of all K. marxianus lipases revealed evolutionary affinities with lipases from abH15.03, abH23.01, and abH23.02 families.