Mammalian class IV alcohol dehydrogenase (stomach alcohol dehydrogenase): structure, origin, and correlation with enzymology

The structure of a mammalian class IV alcohol dehydrogenase has been determined by peptide analysis of the protein isolated from rat stomach. The structure indicates that the enzyme constitutes a separate alcohol dehydrogenase class, in agreement with the distinct enzymatic properties; the class IV enzyme is somewhat closer to class I (the "classical" liver alcohol dehydrogenase; approximately 68% residue identities) than to the other classes (II, III, and V; approximately 60% residue identities), suggesting that class IV might have originated through duplication of an early vertebrate class I gene. The activity of the class IV protein toward ethanol is even higher than that of the classical liver enzyme. Both Km and kcat values are high, the latter being the highest of any class characterized so far. Structurally, these properties are correlated with replacements at the active site, affecting both substrate and coenzyme binding. In particular, Ala-294 (instead of valine) results in increased space in the middle section of the substrate cleft, Gly-47 (instead of a basic residue) results in decreased charge interactions with the coenzyme pyrophosphate, and Tyr-363 (instead of a basic residue) may also affect coenzyme binding. In combination, these exchanges are compatible with a promotion of the off dissociation and an increased turnover rate. In contrast, residues at the inner part of the substrate cleft are bulky, accounting for low activity toward secondary alcohols and cyclohexanol. Exchanges at positions 259-261 involve minor shifts in glycine residues at a reverse turn in the coenzyme-binding fold. Clearly, class IV is distinct in structure, ethanol turnover, stomach expression, and possible emergence from class I.     

An assessment of simple referee methods for the prediction of lean in pig carcasses

A study was carried out in which carcass characteristics of 36 gilts were evaluated: 18 originated from the Hungarian 'Hungahyb' cross-breed, another 18, with undefined genetic background, from small private household plots. Two, rather simple substitute reference methods, called referee methods, were evaluated: measurement of carcass weight without skin and subcutaneous fat ('meat + bone'), and measurement of carcass weight without skin, subcutaneous fat and bone ('boneless meat'). Both methods gave a rather close relationship with the Kulmbach reference lean; however, removal of bone had presumably a beneficial effect on stability of prediction. The importance of preliminary information in quantitative form, giving a theoretical background for prediction equations, was presented as an example. Simple material balances could be formulated between reference lean and 'meat + bone' or 'boneless meat' content. Such material balances could not be set up with the indirect, rapid surrogate methods using mainly linear measurements (e.g. fat and muscle thickness, etc.) For this reason, as several other publications demonstrated, these latter methods seem to be more susceptible to bias than the referee methods. By determining the lipid content of the homogenised 'boneless meat' component, a 'lean' value adjusted to 3% fat content could be calculated from data which was compared to the dissected reference lean standardised also to contain 3% fat. These relationships, for several reasons discussed in this paper, were not as close as expected. So, further studies are needed to reveal these discrepancies.     

Toward a formal specification of multimedia synchronization scenarios

This paper introduces time stream Pétri nets (Ts treamPn), a model for the formal specification of multimedia synchronization scenarios. This new model extends time Pétri nets to formally describe the timed behaviour of multimedia objects and streams in asynchronous distributed systems. The proposed approach uses time intervals to label the arcs exiting from the places of the net, and typed transitions to define different firing rules. This model allows a complete and accurate specification of synchronization constraints between multimedia streams and can be used at different levels of granularity.     

On minimum cost isolated failure immune networks

A telecommunications network is isolated failure immune (IFI) if and only if communication between operative sites can be completed as long as network failures are isolated. It is known that the class of minimal IFI networks is equivalent to the class of spanning 2-trees. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first computational study dealing with the construction of a minimum cost IFI network. The problem is known to be NP-complete. We develop a tabu search based heuristic for solving the minimum cost spanning 2-tree (MCS2T) problem. The complex structure of 2-trees makes the tabu search heuristic highly dependent on the starting solution. We develop four heuristic algorithms to obtain diversified good starting solutions. They are: completion of a 2-tree from a spanning tree, two greedy approaches, and a method based on the recursive definition of a 2-tree. We also formulate an integer programming problem (IP) whose objective function value is a lower bound to the MCS2T problem. We solve the IP by developing a constraint generation scheme. The algorithms were tested on complete random graphs with Euclidean distances and on two real data sets (Civil Aeronautics Board) with instances of 10, 15, 20 and 25 nodes. As a result of this research for small problems (10 and 15 nodes), the heuristic solutions are on average within 0.8% from the optimal solution and for large problems (20 and 25 nodes), the average error is less than 2.8%.     

Signal-to-noise ratio of nonlinearity recorded holograms of diffuse objects

A nonlinear model for holographic recording materials is used to evaluate the signal-to-noise ratio in diffuse-object holograms. A comparison of this model with the linear model proposed by Upatnieks and Leonard [J. Opt. Soc. Am. 60, 297 (1970)] shows that our model justifies the experimental results obtained for dieletric holograms at high density before bleaching.     

Field cross correlator for analysis of ultrafast signals

The cross-correlation function between two light fields is recorded with the help of a new device. The proposed correlator exhibits ultrashort time resolution. The optical path difference between the two interfering beams does not have to be known with interferometric precision. The experimental dynamic range proved to be as large as 10(5). The device features imaging capabilities that could be applied to the analysis of two-dimensional images with ultrashort time resolution.     

Analysis of the inappropriate utilization of the emergency service of a third-level hospital

OBJECTIVE: a) To find the reasons for inadequate use of Hospital Casualty Departments (HCDs); b) to discover the general population's levels of information concerning non-hospital Emergency Services (NESs); c) to analyse the relationship between the type of Primary Care Centre (PCC), i.e. whether reformed or not, and inadequate use of HCDs. DESIGN: A crossover study. SETTING: The Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital Casualty Department, Badalona. PATIENTS: A random sample of 321 patients over 14 years old, who were attended for pathologies considered emergencies not requiring hospital treatment. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The variables gathered were: age, gender, where the patient came from, reason for hospital use, knowledge of NESs and subsequent referral. 83.2% of patients attended on their own initiative. The main reasons given were "advantages of a hospital" and "the persistence of symptoms." 49% of the patients stated they knew of the NESs. 80% of the patients proceeded from PCCs which had not been reformed. There were no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) when the variables "reason for use" and "knowledge of NESs" were compared in relation to where the patient came from (i.e. reformed or non-reformed PCC). CONCLUSIONS: General practitioners in reformed PCCs are less likely to refer to HCDs. Knowledge and use of NESs should be actively supported.     

Efficacy of training procedures in implementing a legislated safety programme

This study examines the effect of training procedures, as measured by the results of a test, on the level of assimilation of a new safety programme in 80 Quebec companies. The Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) was introduced in the province in 1989. The bipartite safety association representing the manufacturers of transportation equipment and machinery offered two types of WHMIS training services to their members: (a) 4 h employee training courses, and (b) two-day trainer training courses. Companies were free to choose from these and other services to comply with the WHMIS training requirements. A test was issued to a stratified sample of 862 employees approximately one year after the training. On average, the scores were best in plants having employees trained directly by experts from the safety association (type a). The training of internal trainers for companies produced slightly inferior learning results (type b).     

The necessity of conducting to the end the activities of vector control in the onchocerciasis control program in west Africa: recall of the stakes and proposal of a minimum budget for the period 1998-2002

After a brief presentation of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa (OCP), the authors realize the health and socioeconomic consequences that could follow a cessation of larvicide treatment before 2002 in the south-eastern and western extensions of the Programme. Taking into account that OCP activities are theoretically supported until 1997, but aware of financial constraints that will probably increase from now to 2002, this paper proposes an a minima estimation of the residual vector control activities for a "phasing out" spread out for five years (1998-2002). These estimations essentially concern the larvicide coverage, the insecticides used, the entomological surveillance, the logistical support and their financial aspects. As far as 48 U.S. $ million amount for 5 years are concerned, the budget allocated for vector control activities should not exceed the third of the global amount allocated to OCP for the actual fourth financial phase of the Programme (1992-1997).     

Supervisory control using variable lookahead policies

This paper deals with the efficient on-line calculation of supervisory controls for discrete event systems (DES's) in the framework of limited lookahead control policies (or LLPs) that we introduced in previous papers. In the LLP scheme, the control action after a given trace of events has been executed is calculated on-line on the basis of anN-step ahead projection of the behavior of the DES. To compute these controls, one must calculate after the execution of each event the supremal controllable sublanguage of a finite language with respect to another finite larger language. In our previous work, we showed how the required supremal controllable sublanguage calculation can be performed by using a backward dynamic programming algorithm over the nodes of the tree representation of these two languages. In this paper, we pursue the same approach for the calculation of LLP controls, but instead we adopt a forward calculation procedure over theN-level tree of interest. This forward procedure improves upon previous work by avoiding the explicit consideration of all the nodes of theN-level tree, while still permitting tree-to-tree recursiveness as enabled events are executed by the system. The forward search ends whenever a control decision can be made unambiguously or whenever the boundary of theN-level tree is reached, whichever comes first. This motivates the name Variable Lookahead Policy (or VLP) for this implementation of the LLP supervisory control scheme. This paper presents a general VLP algorithm and studies the properties of several special cases of it. The paper also discusses the implementation of the VLP algorithms and presents computational results regarding the application of these algorithms to a time-varying DES.