Clathrin sheets on the protoplasmic surface of ventral membranes of osteoclasts in culture

Physical cell-shearing resulted in various degrees of disruption of the basolateral (upper) membranes, cytoskeletons or cell organelles and exposed the protoplasmic surface of ventral (adhesion) membranes of osteoclasts that were attached to the underlying substratum, such as coverslips, mica or synthetic apatite plates. Freeze-dried replicas of the ventral membranes left behind on the substratum after cell-shearing provided three-dimensional information on the ultrastructure of the protoplasmic membrane surface of cultured osteoclasts. An extensive area of the protoplasmic surface and various amounts of cytoskeletal structures attached to the adherent ventral surface of the plasma membrane were visible. In particular, the most characteristic finding of the present study is that numerous clathrin sheets displaying various sizes, shapes and curvature were revealed on the ventral membrane. The polygon substructures of the clathrin lattices appeared to be composed of hexagons with a few pentagons interspersed. They were seen at the peripheral membranes where they were situated at the sites of close contact with the underlying substratum. In addition, clathrin lattices were never observed on the basolateral (upper) membranes. In favourable stereo views, most cytoskeletons were not in direct contact with the clathrin sheets. However, a few observations indicated possible remnants of cytoskeletons attached to clathrin lattices. Podosomes did not have a direct structural relationship to clathrin lattices. Although it is generally accepted that cytoskeletal podosomes in motile cells, such as osteoclasts, play a major role in cell adhesion, the present study indicates that membrane-associated clathrin might also function during attachment to the substrate. In this regard, clathrin is thought to be required for receptor-mediated endocytosis, but whether it might also function in cell attachment is still a matter for debate. This type of clathrin-related adhesion appears to be a previously unrecognized site of cell/substrate adhesion in osteoclasts. To assess this possible function, we focused on clathrin and related cytoskeletal elements on the ventral membranes of cultured osteoclasts.     

Inhibition of adhesion of type 1 fimbriated Escherichia coli to highly mannosylated ligands

The inhibitory potencies of a number of mannosides, di- and trivalent mannosides, a set of mannose-terminating dendrimers, and five types of mannose-bearing neoglycoproteins were determined by using a binding assay that measures the binding of (125)I-labeled, highly mannosylated neoglycoprotein to a type 1 fimbriated Escherichia coli (K12) strain in suspension. The IC(50) values (the concentration of inhibitor that causes 50 % reduction in the bound (125)I-ligand to E. coli) obtained by this method were much lower than the equivalent values obtained by hemagglutination or in assays that involve microplate immobilization. Two important factors that strongly influence the affinity to E. coli adhesin are: 1) the presence of an alpha-oriented aglycon that has a long aliphatic chain or an aromatic group immediately next to the glycosyl oxygen, and 2) the presence of multiple mannosyl residues that can span a distance of 20 nm or longer on a relatively inflexible structure. The two best inhibitors, which are a highly mannosylated neoglycoprotein with the longest linking arm between a mannose and protein amino group and the largest mannosylated dendrimer (fourth generation), exhibited sub-nM IC(50) values.     

Style-based modeling and refinement of service-oriented architectures

Service-oriented architectures (SOA) provide a flexible and dynamic platform for implementing business solutions. In this paper, we address the modeling of such architectures by refining business-oriented architectures, which abstract from technology aspects, into service-oriented ones, focusing on the ability of dynamic reconfiguration (binding to new services at run-time) typical for SOA.The refinement is based on conceptual models of the platforms involved as architectural styles, formalized by graph transformation systems. Based on a refinement relation between abstract and platform-specific styles we investigate how to realize business-specific scenarios on the SOA platform by automatically deriving refined, SOA-specific reconfiguration scenarios.Research partially supported by the European Research Training Network SegraVis (on Syntactic and Semantic Integration of Visual Modelling Techniques)     

Sexual dimorphism in facial shapes and their discrimination in Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata).

The authors examined the ability of Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata) to discriminate between sexes based on facial features. The shape and position of facial features (facial morphology) were measured to quantify the differences between sexes. The distance between the chin and nose was longer in males than females, and the outline of the face around the upper jaw and upper face differed between sexes. Using operant conditioning, 2 monkeys succeeded in discriminating sex based on facial pictures. Furthermore, they successfully generalized the discrimination to novel pictures of faces. Tests with morphed pictures of faces revealed that the monkeys used facial morphology to discriminate between males and females. Our results suggest that Japanese monkeys have sexual dimorphism in facial shape and they can use the morphological differences to discriminate conspecific sex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preparation and structure characterization of hairy nanoparticles consisting of hydrophobic core and thermosensitive hairs

Structural characterization of hairy nanoparticles consisting of poly(styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate) (St/GMA) core and poly(NIPA-co-vinylimidazole) (NIPA/VIm) hair has been carried out by dynamic light scattering. The hairy molecules were introduced by surface graft-polymerization of a mixture of NIPA and VIm monomers to the St/GMA core particles with the hydrodynamic radius R_H of 135±10 nm. The R_H of St/GMA-core-NIPA/VIm-hair particles was R_H=360±20 nm at 20 °C, which gradually decreased to 285±10 nm by heating to 33.0 °C, and then underwent a sharp decrease to 175±10 nm by further heating to 33.8 °C. The final value went to 159±10 nm at 36 °C. This decrease in R_H is due to the shrinking transition of NIPA/VIm chain by hydrophobic association. The degree of shrinking of the hairy particles is compared with that of bulk NIPA gels from the viewpoint of geometrical constraints.     

The Rationale for the Dual-Targeting Therapy for RSK2 and AKT in Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by remarkable cytogenetic/molecular heterogeneity among patients and intraclonal diversity even in a single patient. We previously demonstrated that PDPK1, the master kinase of series of AGC kinases, is universally active in MM, and plays pivotal roles in cell proliferation and cell survival of myeloma cells regardless of the profiles of cytogenetic and genetic abnormalities. This study investigated the therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of action of dual blockade of two major PDPK1 substrates, RSK2 and AKT, in MM. The combinatory treatment of BI-D1870, an inhibitor for N-terminal kinase domain (NTKD) of RSK2, and ipatasertib, an inhibitor for AKT, showed the additive to synergistic anti-tumor effect on human MM-derived cell lines (HMCLs) with active RSK2-NTKD and AKT, by enhancing apoptotic induction with BIM and BID activation. Moreover, the dual blockade of RSK2 and AKT exerted robust molecular effects on critical gene sets associated with myeloma pathophysiologies, such as those with MYC, mTOR, STK33, ribosomal biogenesis, or cell-extrinsic stimuli of soluble factors, in HMCLs. These results provide the biological and molecular rationales for the dual-targeting strategy for RSK2 and AKT, which may overcome the therapeutic difficulty due to cytogenetic/molecular heterogeneity in MM.     

Web access monitoring mechanism via Android WebView for threat analysis

Many Android apps employ WebView, a component that enables the display of web content in the apps without redirecting users to web browser apps. However, WebView might also be used for cyberattacks. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, although some countermeasures based on access control have been reported for attacks exploiting WebView, no mechanism for monitoring web access via WebView has been proposed and no analysis results focusing on web access via WebView are available. In consideration of this limitation, we propose a web access monitoring mechanism for Android WebView to analyze web access via WebView and clarify attacks exploiting WebView. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of this mechanism by modifying Chromium WebView without any modifications to the Android framework or Linux kernel. The evaluation results of the performance achieved on introducing the proposed mechanism are also presented here. Moreover, the result of threat analysis of displaying a fake virus alert while browsing websites on Android is discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.

     

Sensorless evaluation of the ideal timing for oil-change

Forschung im Ingenieurwesen - Customer demands for a cost-effective and demand-oriented determination of the oil change time for gears have led to the development of a new method...     

Indium‐Catalyzed Reductive Esterification of a Carboxylic Acid: Sequential Preparation of an Ester and Symmetrical Ether

An unprecedented reductive dimerization of two carboxylic acids to produce ester derivatives by a combination catalyst involving InBr₃ and sulfuric acid is described. A sequential conversion of the in‐situ formed ester to a symmetrical ether by indium‐catalyzed deoxygenation of the ester with a hydrosilane in the same pot was also demonstrated.     

Improvement of 2-mercaptoimidazoline analysis in rubber products containing chlorine

An improved analysis method for 2-mercaptoimidazoline in rubber products containing chlorine was developed. 2-Mercaptoimidazoline (20 μg/mL) is detected by means of TLC with two developing solvents in the official method. But, this method is not quantitative. Instead, we employed HPLC using water-methanol (9 : 1) as the mobile phase. This procedure decreased interfering peaks, and the quantitation limit was 2 μg/mL of standard solution. 2-Mercaptoimidazoline was confirmed by GC-MS (5 μg/mL) and LC/MS (1 μg/mL) in the scan mode. For preparation of test solution, a soaking extraction method, in which 20 mL of methanol was added to the sample and allowed to stand overnight at about 40°C, was used. This gave similar values to the Soxhlet extraction method (official method) and was more convenient. The results indicate that our procedure is suitable for analysis of 2-mercaptoimidazoline. When 2-mercaptoimidazoline is detected, it is confirmed by either GC/MS or LC/MS.