Autolysis and the endogenous proteinases characterised in beardless barb (Anematichthys apogon) muscle

Beardless barb is a common fish species used in fermentation of fish paste Ka-pi-plaa. Autolytic profile of beardless barb muscle showed the maximum autolysis was at 50 °C, at both acidic and alkaline pH values. With augmentation concentration of NaCl, autolytic activity slightly decreased. Endogenous proteinases isolated from fish muscle in crude extract forms were also characterised. The acidic proteinases had optimum activity at pH 3.0 and 50°C, and they showed higher proteolytic activity than the alkaline proteinases which were optimally active at pH 9.0 and 50 °C. Proteinases in peak at pH 3.0 were inhibited by pepstatin A, but those in peak at pH 9.0 were highly inhibited by PMSF, TLCK and soybean trypsin inhibitor, suggesting that both aspartic and serine proteinases were existed in beardless barb muscle. The proteinases were stable in pH range of 2.0-5.0 but unstable at the temperatures higher than 40 °C. NaCl suppressed the proteolytic activity, ATP activated the proteinase activity, while CaCl₂, MgCl₂ and CoCl₂ exhibited no influence on the activity. The results implied that cathepsin D is the predominant proteinase responsible for autolysis in beardless barb. The findings were useful to improve the processing and qualities of Ka-pi-plaa product using beardless barb as raw material.     

Alpha 2 mRNA of Na+K+ ATPase is increased in astroctyes of rat hippocampus after treatment with kainic acid

The Na+K+ ATPase (Na+ pump) plays a central role in regulating cation homeostasis and is thought to have an important role in cell proliferation. The multitude of subunit isoforms comprising the functional Na+K+ ATPase has raised the possibility that specific subunit isoform combinations may be involved in different cellular processes. We have investigated the involvement of the specific isoforms in neurons and glia at the site of a CNS lesion. Intracerebroventricular injection of kainic acid was used to induce neuronal cell loss and reactive gliosis in rat hippocampus and levels of Na+K+ ATPase subunit isoform mRNA levels were determined in cells of rat hippocampus using in situ hybridization. alpha 2 mRNA levels increased 35-40% in CA1 and CA3 astrocytes between 1-3 weeks after KA injection with no significant change in other subunit isoform mRNA levels. In addition alpha 3 mRNA levels in CA1 pyramidal neurons were decreased by approx. 35%. Small neurons in the CA1 and CA3 region showed no changes in mRNA levels for any of the Na+K+ ATPase subunit isoforms. These results may indicate a possible role for alpha 2 subunit isoform in the conversion of glial cells from a normal phenotype to the reactive phenotype characteristic in this model of CNS injury.     

Chi recombination activity in phage lambda decays as a function of genetic distance

In Escherichia coli, chi is a recombination hotspot that stimulates RecBCD-dependent exchange at and to one side of itself. chi activity is highest at chi and decreases with distance from chi. The decrease in chi activity may be a simple property of the physical distance over which chi can stimulate recombination. Alternatively, the decay in chi activity with distance may reflect the high likelihood that chi-stimulated recombination occurs in a single chi-proximal act, to the exclusion of additional chi-stimulated exchanges more distal to chi. To test the models, we determined if chi activity decreases as a function of physical distance (i.e., DNA base pairs) or genetic distance (homologous DNA base pairs). Our results indicate that chi activity decays as a function of genetic distance. In addition, we found that the sbcB gene product (exonuclease I, a 3'-->5' ssDNA exonuclease) modulates the distance over which chi can act. In contrast, the recJ gene product (a 5'-->3' ssDNA exonuclease) does not alter the decay of chi activity.     

Bitterstoffe beim Erhitzen von Saccharose, Maltose und Prolin 2. Mitteilung

Summary In addition to the mono- and dipyrrolidinohexosereductones described recently (Z Lebensm Unters Forsch (1984) 178:356) two further bittertasting compounds were isolated from heated mixtures of proline and sucrose (molar ratio 3: 1, 190 °C, 30 min) and also synthesized, namely 2,3-bis-(1-pyrrolidinyl)2-cyclopenten-l-one and 2,3-bis(1-pyrrolidinyl)-5methyliden-2-cyclopenten-l-one. The recognition thresholds (mmol/1) are 0.15–0.25 and 0.06–0.12 respectively. Both compounds have a burning bitter taste character. From a maltose-proline reaction mixture 2--glucosyl-5-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-piperidinyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one was isolated. When the dihydroxypyranone VI was heated with proline, 2,5-dihydroxy-5-methyl-4-prohnyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one and the cyclopent(b)azepinones XI and XII were among the compounds formed. These compounds also have a bitter taste character.Zusammenfassung Zusätzlich zu den kürzlich beschriebenen Mono- and Dipyrrolidinohexosereduktionen (Z Lebensm Unters Forsch (1984) 178:356) wurden zwei weitere bittere Verbindungen aus erhitzten Mischungen von Prolin and Saccharose (Molverhältnis 3:1, 190 °C, 30 min) isoliert and synthetisiert. Es handelt sich um 2,3-Bis-(1-Pyrrolidinyl)-2-cyclopenten-1-on und 2,3-Bis-(1-Pyrrolidinyl)-5-methyliden-2-cyclopenten-1-on. Die Erkennungsschwellenwerte (mmol/1) sind 0,15-0,25 and 0,06-0,12. Beide Verbindungen haben einen brennend-bitteren Geschmack. Aus einem Maltose-Prolin-Umsetzungsgemisch gelang die Isolierung des 2--Glucosyl-5-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-piperidinyl-2-cyclopenten-1-ons. Bei der Reaktion des Dihydropyranons VI mit Prolin wurden u. a. das 2,5-Dihydroxy-5-methyl-4-prolinyl2-cyclopenten-1-on sowie die Cyclopent(b)azepinone XI and XII gebildet. Diese Verbindungen sind ebenfalls mehr oder weniger stark bitter.     

Undecidability of accordance for open systems with unbounded message queues

We study asynchronously communicating open systems modeled as Petri nets with an interface. An accordance preorder describes when one open system can be safely replaced by another open system without affecting some behavioral property of the overall system. Although accordance is decidable for several behavioral properties if we assume a previously known bound on the maximal number of pending messages, we show that it is not decidable without this assumption.     

Tomorrow’s ethics and today’s response: An investigation into the ways information systems professionals perceive and address emerging ethical issues

This paper explores the question of how foresight and futures research can identify and address ethical issues in the field of Information Systems (IS). Starting from the premise that such IS are part of socio-technical systems, the interaction between technology and human actors raise ethical concerns. Early recognition of these concerns can address ethical issues and improve the use of the technology for a range of social and organisational goals. This paper discusses research conducted in two futures research projects. Both projects investigated emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ethics. The first project established approaches for identifying future technologies and their related ethical concerns. This led to the identification of 11 emerging ICTs and their associated ethical concerns. The second project took these general ethical concerns and focused on their role in IS. Specifically, how IS professionals view future emerging technologies, their associated ethical concerns, and how they think these concerns could be addressed. The key findings are that IS professionals are primarily interested in the job at hand and less so in the ethical concerns that the job might bring; ethics is a concern that is best left for others to deal with. This paper considers the implications of research on ethics in emerging ICTs and draws general conclusions about the relevance of future technologies research in IS.