The role of apitherapy in the combined treatment of patients with chronic nonspecific lung diseases]

The authors suggest that apitherapy should be used in the treatment of patients with chronic non-specific pulmonary diseases (ChNPD) in order that it might be more effective. Apitherapeutic complex (bee venom and bee keeping apiculture produce) has been applied to the treatment of 104 ChNPD patients. High effectiveness of apitherapy in a combined treatment of ChNPD patients was demonstrated as was their stimulating and normalizing influence on the function of the adrenals.     

Agent-based computer vision in a dynamic, real-time environment

For computer vision systems to operate in many real-world environments, processing must occur in real-time under dynamic conditions. An agent-based methodology offers an approach to increase flexibility and scalability to accommodate the demands of a real-time, dynamic environment. This paper presents an agent-based architecture that uses a utility optimization technique to guarantee that important vision tasks are fulfilled even under resource constraints. To ensure that the processing of vision tasks is both reliable and flexible, multiple behaviors are utilized to accomplish the vision application's requirements. A vision behavior consists of a grouping of vision algorithms and a set of service levels associated with these algorithms. Utility functions are adopted to evaluate the performance of all possible behaviors that can address the requirements of a vision application within resource constraints. The maximum overall utility corresponds to the optimal behavior. Two example systems using this model are presented to show the applicability of the architecture. Experimental results show that this agent-based architecture outperforms traditional non-agent-based approaches.     

The B-cell transmembrane protein CD72 binds to and is an in vivo substrate of the protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1

BACKGROUND: Signals from the B-cell antigen receptor (BCR) help to determine B-cell fate, directing either proliferation, differentiation, or growth arrest/apoptosis. The protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1 is known to regulate the strength of BCR signaling. Although the B-cell co-receptor CD22 binds SHP-1, B cells in CD22-deficient mice are much less severely affected than those in SHP-1-deficient mice, suggesting that SHP-1 may also regulate B-cell signaling by affecting other signaling molecules. Moreover, direct substrates of SHP-1 have not been identified in any B-cell signaling pathway. RESULTS: We identified the B-cell transmembrane protein CD72 as a new SHP-1 binding protein and as an in vivo substrate of SHP-1 in B cells. We also defined the binding sites for SHP-1 and the adaptor protein Grb2 on CD72. Tyrosine phosphorylation of CD72 correlated strongly with BCR-induced growth arrest/apoptosis in B-cell lines and in primary B cells. Preligation of CD72 attenuated BCR-induced growth arrest/death signals in immature and mature B cells or B-cell lines, whereas preligation of CD22 enhanced BCR-induced growth arrest/apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified CD72 as the first clear in vivo substrate of SHP-1 in B cells. Our results suggest that tyrosine-phosphorylated CD72 may transmit signals for BCR-induced apoptosis. By dephosphorylation CD72. SHP-1 may have a positive role in B-cell signaling. These results have potentially important implications for the involvement of CD72 and SHP-1 in B-cell development and autoimmunity.     

Community-Based Interventions for Juvenile Firestarters: A Brief Family-Centered Model.

Juvenile firestarting is an especially dangerous and costly problem affecting communities nationwide. The problem of children and fire has stimulated a small but growing research literature on interventions for reducing recidivism among juvenile firestarters. There is little known, however, about which elements of promising interventions are associated with reduced recidivism. The authors review the research literatures on the characteristics of juvenile firestarters and their families and the treatments used to prevent these children from setting fires again, and they describe an integrative theoretical approach to treatment. In addition, a novel, collaborative, family-centered intervention for juvenile firestarters is presented. The importance of using theoretically informed, fire-specific assessment procedures and linking data to treatment conceptualization, planning, and delivery is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Photoaffinity labeling of oxidosqualene cyclase and squalene cyclase by a benzophenone-containing inhibitor

A new orally active oxidosqualene:lanosterol cyclase (OSLC) inhibitor (Ro48-8071; Morand, O. H. et al. (1997) J. Lipid Res. 38, 373-390) showed potent noncompetitive inhibition of bacterial squalene:hopene cyclase (SHC) from Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius (IC50 = 9.0 nM, KI = 6.6 nM) and OSLC (IC50 = 40 nM, KI = 22 nM for homogeneous rat liver OSLC). A tritium-labeled isotopomer (18.8 Ci/mmol) of this nonterpenoid inhibitor, which possesses a benzophenone (BP) photophore, was chemically synthesized as a photoaffinity label. Specific, efficient covalent modification of both OSLC and SHC enzymes was observed after UV irradiation at 360 nm. Labeling of both OSLC and SHC by [3H]Ro48-8071 was competitively displaced by coincubation with a 1000-fold molar excess of 18-thia-2, 3-oxidosqualene or the nonterpenoid inhibitor BIBX79. Displacement of labeling of OSLC was also achieved with the suicide substrate (3S)-29-methylidene-2,3-oxidosqualene. Thus, the nonsubstrate Ro48-8071 and both terpenoid and nonterpenoid inhibitors of these enzymes appear to share a common binding site.     

Obfuscation of allosteric structure-function relationships by enthalpy-entropy compensation

The pH and temperature dependence of the allosteric properties of phosphofructokinase (PFK) from Bacillus stearothermophilus have been studied from 5 to 9 and 6 to 40 degrees C, respectively. Throughout this pH and temperature range the allosteric ligands MgADP and phospho(enol)pyruvate (PEP) have no effect on kcat. The dissociation constants of the substrate, fructose 6-phosphate, and the allosteric ligands, as well as the absolute value of the coupling free energies between these ligands, all increase when the pH is raised, indicating that the inhibition by PEP and the activation by MgADP increase despite each ligand's somewhat lower affinity. However, the constituent coupling enthalpies and entropies substantially diminish in absolute value as pH is increased, suggesting that the magnitudes of molecular perturbations engendered by the binding of allosteric ligands do not correlate with the magnitudes of the functional consequences of those perturbations. Temperature and pH exert their influence on the observed allosteric behavior by changing the relative contributions made by the largely compensating DeltaH and TDeltaS terms to the coupling free energy.     

Modification of a hydrogen bond to a bacteriochlorophyll a molecule in the light-harvesting 1 antenna of Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Site-directed mutagenesis has been used to examine the function of a highly conserved aromatic residue, alpha Trp43, in the light-harvesting 1 antenna of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. In this antenna alpha Trp43 is thought to be located near the putative binding site for bacteriochlorophyll; in this work it was changed to both Tyr and Phe, and in each case the main near-infrared absorbance peak was shifted to the blue, from 876 nm to 865 nm and then to 853 nm, respectively. Resonance Raman spectroscopy of the resulting complexes shows a shift of one component of the 1640-cm-1 peak to 1632 cm-1 for the Tyr mutant and to 1660 cm-1 for the Phe mutant. This demonstrates a strengthening of an existing H bond for the Tyr change and a breakage of this bond for the change to Phe. The 1640-cm-1 peak has been previously assigned to H-bonded C2 acetyl carbonyl groups of both bacteriochlorophylls in the light-harvesting 1 antenna dimer [Robert, B. & Lutz, M. (1985) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 807, 10-21]. These results indicate that one of these H bonds is to alpha Trp43, placing this residue in close proximity to the bacteriochlorophyll a macrocycle with which it interacts. The existence of this bond places constraints on the conformation of the alpha polypeptide, and a model of an alpha beta heterodimer is presented incorporating these data.