Procathepsin V Is Secreted in a TSH Regulated Manner from Human Thyroid Epithelial Cells and Is Accessible to an Activity-Based Probe

The significance of cysteine cathepsins for the liberation of thyroid hormones from the precursor thyroglobulin was previously shown by in vivo and in vitro studies. Cathepsin L is most important for thyroglobulin processing in mice. The present study aims at specifying the possible contribution of its closest relative, cysteine cathepsin L2/V, to thyroid function. Immunofluorescence analysis on normal human thyroid tissue revealed its predominant localization at the apical plasma membrane of thyrocytes and within the follicle lumen, indicating the secretion of cathepsin V and extracellular tasks rather than its acting within endo-lysosomes. To explore the trafficking pathways of cathepsin V in more detail, a chimeric protein consisting of human cathepsin V tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) was stably expressed in the Nthy-ori 3-1 thyroid epithelial cell line. Colocalization studies with compartment-specific markers and analyses of post-translational modifications revealed that the chimeric protein was sorted into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum and subsequently transported to the Golgi apparatus, while being N-glycosylated. Immunoblotting showed that the chimeric protein reached endo-lysosomes and it became secreted from the transduced cells. Astonishingly, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)-induced secretion of GFP-tagged cathepsin V occurred as the proform, suggesting that TSH upregulates its transport to the plasma membrane before it reaches endo-lysosomes for maturation. The proform of cathepsin V was found to be reactive with the activity-based probe DCG-04, suggesting that it possesses catalytic activity. We propose that TSH-stimulated secretion of procathepsin V is the default pathway in the thyroid to enable its contribution to thyroglobulin processing by extracellular means.     

Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD) and Standardized Data and Crystal Chemical Characterization of Inorganic Structure Types (TYPIX)—Two Tools for Inorganic Chemists and Crystallographers

The two databases ICSD and TYPIX are described. ICSD is a comprehensive compilation of crystal structure data of inorganic compounds (about 39 000 entries). TYPIX contains 3600 critically evaluated data sets representative of structure types formed by inorganic compounds.     

Robust adaptive remeshing strategy for large deformation,transient impact simulations

In this paper, an adaptive approach, with remeshing as essential ingredient, towards robust and efficient simulation techniques for fast transient, highly non‐linear processes including contact is discussed. The necessity for remeshing stems from two sources: the capability to deal with large deformations that might even require topological changes of the mesh and the desire for an error driven distribution of computational resources. The overall computational approach is sketched, the adaptive remeshing strategy is presented and the crucial aspect, the choice of suitable error indicator(s), is discussed in more detail. Several numerical examples demonstrate the performance of the approach. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical Investigation of Fiber Reinforced Polymers Poststrengthened Concrete Slabs

The present work deals with the numerical simulation of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) poststrengthened scaled concrete slabs in order to predict their load carrying behavior. The used strengthening materials are FRPs which are of increasing interest in civil engineering applications such as textile reinforced concrete tubes, cables of cable-stayed bridges, or even entire bridges. The numerical results are compared with experiments which were conducted at the Univ. of California, San Diego, and are described in detail by H?rmann in 1997; H?rmann et al. in 1998; and later by Seim et al. in 2001. The slabs are modeled for the numerical simulation first in a two-dimensional design space, assuming a plane stress condition for the concrete and the fiber reinforced polymer, and second in a three-dimensional design space with multilayered shell elements in order to include the varying response across the depth of the slabs. The used material model for reinforced concrete was developed by Menrath et al. in 1998 and has been enhanced for multilayered shell elements by Haufe et al. in 1999. It is based on multisurface plasticity, consisting of two Drucker–Prager yield surfaces and a spherical cap, and exhibits fracture energy based evolution laws for the softening regime. The reinforcement is taken into account as additional stress contribution in a smeared manner using a one-dimensional constitutive law based on an elastoplastic isotropic hardening model.     

Schwermetall- und chloridhaltige Filterstäube. I. Phasenanalysen und Modellversuche zum Recycling

Flue Dusts Containing Heavy Metal Ions and Chloride.I. Phase Analysis, Model Experiments for Recycling Four flue dusts from a cement factory, an electric-furnace steelmaking plant and a municipal waste plant were analyzed by powder diffraction methods. Chloride combines above all with alkali ions or heavy metal ions, especially yielding PbCl₂ and KPb₂Cl₅. The controlled sublimation of these chloride compounds in open crucibles was developed and optimized in our laboratory. Between 850°C and 1150°C and at reaction times from 30 min up to 12 h, the chloride content decreases to below 0.1 wt-%. The sublimed phase mainly consists of alkali and lead chloride. Zinc is found in the flue dust as oxide and is enriched during this process. Recent investigations with a small waelz kiln give analogous results. With our procedure, the manufacturer by himself is able to exploit flue dusts containing a large amount of heavy metal elements and chloride which cannot be deposited. The remaining product contains mainly zinc oxide which can be recycled in the zinc industry or returned to the production process. The sublimed chloride compounds may be recycled in the potash industry.     

Simulation of strain localization with gradient enhanced damage models

The incorporation of higher order strain gradients into the constitutive equations of continuum damage mechanics is presented. Thereby, not only scalar-valued isotropic damage models but also anisotropic damage models allowing for directional dependent stiffness degradation are elaborated. An elegant possibility of describing anisotropic material behavior based on the microplane theory is demonstrated. Its conceptual simplicity originates from the idea of modeling the material behavior through uniaxial stress–strain laws on several individual material planes. For each plane individual damage loading functions are introduced allowing for different failure modes. In order to account for long ranging microstructural mechanisms, second-order gradients of the strains are incorporated in each of these damage loading functions. The overall response can be determined by an integration of the resulting microplane laws over the solid angle. The features of gradient enhanced continuum damage are demonstrated by means of several selected examples.     

Fügen von Bauteilen aus UHPC durch Kleben. Voruntersuchungen und Anwendung bei der Gärtnerplatzbrücke in Kasse

Adhesive Assembling of Structural UHPC Elements Preliminary Investigations and Application at the Gaertnerplatz Bridge in Kassel The Gaertnerplatz Bridge in Kassel with a length of 136 m is the first large pedestrian and cyclist bridge in Germany that was built from ultra high performance concrete (UHPC). For the first time in the world the precast constructional elements made from this steel‐like concrete were supportingly glued by an epoxy resin. For the approval in this particular case extensive investigations were accomplished at the University of Kassel to get mechanical characteristic data. With these results it is possible to dimension the glued joints regarding mechanical strength and durability. The results of these investigations and process of building are presented in this article. The practical characteristics of the hybrid bridge construction with its shear stressed glued joints is being monitored by an extensive number of online sensors for several years.     

Warmbruchanfälligkeit nioblegierter schweißbarer Feinkornbaustähle

An Versuchsschmelzen mit rd. 0,2 und rd. 0,1% C, 0,3% Si, 1,5% Mn und Niobgehalten bis zu rd. 0,1% Durchführung von Warmbiegeversuchen bei 600 bis 1000 °C nach Haltedauern zwischen 5 min und 5 h. Ermittlung der Warmbruchanfälligkeit in Abhängigkeit von der chemischen Zusammensetzung und den Glühbedingungen. Deutung der Warmbruchursachen mit Hilfe von Gefügeuntersuchungen und Rückstandanalysen.