Dust-acoustic Rogue Waves in Four-Component Plasmas

Plasma Physics Reports - A theoretical investigation has been made on modulational instability (MI) and dust-acoustic (DA) rogue waves (DARWs) in a four-component dusty plasma medium containing...     

Evaluation of methods for detection of fluorescence labeled subcellular objects in microscope images

Background  

Several algorithms have been proposed for detecting fluorescently labeled subcellular objects in microscope images. Many of these algorithms have been designed for specific tasks and validated with limited image data. But despite the potential of using extensive comparisons between algorithms to provide useful information to guide method selection and thus more accurate results, relatively few studies have been performed.     

Adiponectin Genetic Variant and Expression Coupled with Lipid Peroxidation Reveal New Signatures in Diabetic Dyslipidemia

Biochemical Genetics - Increasing burden of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disorders has made the global health scenario more challenging. Dyslipidemia in diabetes is a...     

The Landscape of Recombination Events That Create Nonribosomal Peptide Diversity

Nonribosomal peptides (NRP) are crucial molecular mediators in microbial ecology and provide indispensable drugs. Nevertheless, the evolution of the flexible biosynthetic machineries that correlates with the stunning structural diversity of NRPs is poorly understood. Here, we show that recombination is a key driver in the evolution of bacterial NRP synthetase (NRPS) genes across distant bacterial phyla, which has guided structural diversification in a plethora of NRP families by extensive mixing and matching of biosynthesis genes. The systematic dissection of a large number of individual recombination events did not only unveil a striking plurality in the nature and origin of the exchange units but allowed the deduction of overarching principles that enable the efficient exchange of adenylation (A) domain substrates while keeping the functionality of the dynamic multienzyme complexes. In the majority of cases, recombination events have targeted variable portions of the A_core domains, yet domain interfaces and the flexible A_sub domain remained untapped. Our results strongly contradict the widespread assumption that adenylation and condensation (C) domains coevolve and significantly challenge the attributed role of C domains as stringent selectivity filter during NRP synthesis. Moreover, they teach valuable lessons on the choice of natural exchange units in the evolution of NRPS diversity, which may guide future engineering approaches.     

Application of penicillinase linked ELISA of pregnanediol glucuronide for detection of ovulation and assessment of corpus luteal function

A penicillinase linked enzyme immunoassay was developed for the estimation of pregnanediol-3 alpha-glucuronide (PdG) in urine. The immunoassay satisfied all the validity criteria and was used in detecting ovulation and in the assessment of corpus luteal function (CLF) during spontaneous or induced cycles. Reference values were established by estimating PdG levels in daily early morning urine samples during 31 menstrual cycles obtained from 17 regularly menstruating women. A PdG value of 1.7 micrograms/mg creatinine (micrograms/mgC) (90th Centile of follicular phase) in any MLP (mid-luteal phase) sample was considered as indicating ovulation. A value of 4.6 micrograms/mgC (20th centile of MLP) was considered to be evidence of sufficient CLF. When this approach was applied to 20 infertile cases, detection of the occurrence of ovulation/anovulation was made correctly in 19 out of 20 cases (95%). Accuracy was poor (55.6%) when the aim of the diagnosis was corpus luteal deficiency. Higher accuracy (88.9%) for corpus luteal deficiency/corpus luteal adequacy was obtained when the sum of PdG concentrations in three MLP samples were taken into consideration. A total of 13.8 micrograms/mgC (thrice the 20th centile for MLP) indicated probable corpus luteal deficiency, and values above this limit were considered to indicate corpus luteal adequacy.     

Significance of the occurrence and distribution of glycogen in cervical cells exfoliated under different physiologic and pathologic conditions

The occurrence and distribution of glycogen was investigated in cervical cells exfoliated under different physiologic and pathologic conditions using cytochemical parameters. The conditions studied included the menstrual cycle, menopause, the reproductive cycle and neoplastic lesions of the cervix in both premenopausal and postmenopausal and postmenopausal situations. The results obtained on the localization of this carbohydrate substance offer interesting information with respect to the absence and presence of glycogen in various degrees in different cell types. The presence of glycogen seems to be linked with cellular maturation; it disappears with the loss of differentiation during neoplasia. The high glycogen content during the menstrual cycle and reproductive cycle and its absence in postmenopause indicates a specific hormonal influence. The discrepancies noted in glycogen distribution in the same or different exfoliated cells obtained from different biologic states assume significance in light of various factors governing the synthesis and utilization of this polymer.     

2-Oxoglutarate analogue inhibitors of prolyl hydroxylase domain 2

Analogues of the 2-oxoglutarate cosubstrate of the human oxygen sensing enzyme prolyl hydroxylase domain 2 (PHD2) with variations in the potential iron-chelating group were screened as inhibitors and for binding (using non-denaturing electrospray ionization mass spectrometry) to PHD2.     

The structure and stereochemistry of lantanilic acid,the β,β-dimethylacryloyl ester of lantaninilic acid,isolated from Lantana camara

The structure of lantanilic acid, a new triterpene isolated from the leaves of Lantana camara, has been determined as the β,β-dimethylacryloyl ester of lantaninilic acid.