Environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change: progress report, 2011

The parties to the Montreal Protocol are informed by three panels of experts. One of these is the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP), which deals with two focal issues. The first focus is the effects of increased UV radiation on human health, animals, plants, biogeochemistry, air quality, and materials. The second focus is on interactions between UV radiation and global climate change and how these may affect humans and the environment. When considering the effects of climate change, it has become clear that processes resulting in changes in stratospheric ozone are more complex than believed previously. As a result of this, human health and environmental problems will be longer-lasting and more regionally variable. Like the other panels, the EEAP produces a detailed report every four years; the most recent was published in 2010 (Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2011, 10, 173-300). In the years in between, the EEAP produces less detailed and shorter progress reports, which highlight and assess the significance of developments in key areas of importance to the parties. The next full quadrennial report will be published in 2014-2015.     

IBC's 22nd Annual Antibody Engineering and 9th Annual Antibody Therapeutics International Conferences and the 2011 Annual Meeting of The Antibody Society,December 5–8, 2011, San Diego,CA

The 22^nd Annual Antibody Engineering and 9^th Annual Antibody Therapeutics international conferences, and the 2011 Annual Meeting of The Antibody Society, organized by IBC Life Sciences with contributions from The Antibody Society and two Scientific Advisory Boards, were held December 5–8, 2011 in San Diego, CA. The meeting drew ∼800 participants who attended sessions on a wide variety of topics relevant to antibody research and development. As a preview to the main events, a pre-conference workshop held on December 4, 2011 focused on antibodies as probes of structure. The Antibody Engineering Conference comprised eight sessions: (1) structure and dynamics of antibodies and their membrane receptor targets; (2) model-guided generation of binding sites; (3) novel selection strategies; (4) antibodies in a complex environment: targeting intracellular and misfolded proteins; (5) rational vaccine design; (6) viral retargeting with engineered binding molecules; (7) the biology behind potential blockbuster antibodies and (8) antibodies as signaling modifiers: where did we go right, and can we learn from success? The Antibody Therapeutics Conference comprised five sessions: (1) Twenty-five years of therapeutic antibodies: lessons learned and future challenges; (2) preclinical and early stage development of antibody therapeutics; (3) next generation anti-angiogenics; (4) updates of clinical stage antibody therapeutics and (5) antibody drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies.Key words: antibody engineering, antibody therapeutics, antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, computational design, antibody-antigen structure, vaccine design     

Baleen wear reveals intraoral water flow patterns of mysticete filter feeding

A survey of macroscopic and microscopic wear patterns in the baleen of eight whale species (Cetacea: Mysticeti) discloses structural, functional, and life history properties of this neomorphic keratinous tissue, including evidence of intraoral water flow patterns involved in filter feeding. All baleen demonstrates wear, particularly on its medial and ventral edges, as flat outer layers of cortical keratin erode to reveal horn tubes, also of keratin, which emerge as hair‐like fringes. This study quantified five additional categories of specific wear: pitting of plates, scratching of plates, scuffing of fringes, shortening of fringes, and reorientation of fringes (including fringes directed between plates to the exterior of the mouth). Blue whale baleen showed the most pitting and sei whale baleen the most scratching; gray whale baleen had the most fringe wear. The location of worn baleen within the mouth suggests that direct contact with the tongue is not responsible for most wear, and that flowing water as well as abrasive prey or sediment carried by the flowing water likely causes pitting and scratching of plates as well as fringe fraying, scuffing, shortening, and reorientation. Baleen also has elevated vertical and horizontal ridges that are unrelated to wear; these are probably related to growth and may allow for age determination. J. Morphol. 277:453–471, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The discovery of thienopyridine analogues as potent IκB kinase β inhibitors. Part II

An SAR study that identified a series of thienopyridine-based potent IκB Kinase β (IKKβ) inhibitors is described. With focuses on the structural optimization at C₄ and C₆ of structure 1 (Fig. 1), the study reveals that small alkyl and certain aromatic groups are preferred at C₄, whereas polar groups with proper orientation at C₆ efficiently enhance compound potency. The most potent analogues inhibit IKKβ with IC₅₀s as low as 40 nM, suppress LPS-induced TNF-α production in vitro and in vivo, display good kinase selectivity profiles, and are active in a HeLa cell NF-κB reporter gene assay, demonstrating that they directly interfere with the NF-κB signaling pathway.     

MVC techniques to normalize trunk muscle EMG in healthy women

Normalization of the surface electromyogram (EMG) addresses some of the inherent inter-subject and inter-muscular variability of this signal to enable comparison between muscles and people. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of several maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVC) strategies, and identify maximum electromyographic reference values used for normalizing trunk muscle activity. Eight healthy women performed 11 MVC techniques, including trials in which thorax motion was resisted, trials in which pelvis motion was resisted, shoulder rotation and adduction, and un-resisted MVC maneuvers (maximal abdominal hollowing and maximal abdominal bracing). EMG signals were bilaterally collected from upper and lower rectus abdominis, lateral and medial aspects of external oblique, internal oblique, latissimus dorsi, and erector spinae at T9 and L5. A 0.5 s moving average window was used to calculate the maximum EMG amplitude of each muscle for each MVC technique. A great inter-subject variability between participants was observed as to which MVC strategy elicited the greatest muscular activity, especially for the oblique abdominals and latissimus dorsi. Since no single test was superior for obtaining maximum electrical activity, it appears that several upper and lower trunk MVC techniques should be performed for EMG normalization in healthy women.     

Gene family structure,expression and functional analysis of HD-Zip III genes in angiosperm and gymnosperm forest trees

Background  

Class III Homeodomain Leucine Zipper (HD-Zip III) proteins have been implicated in the regulation of cambium identity, as well as primary and secondary vascular differentiation and patterning in herbaceous plants. They have been proposed to regulate wood formation but relatively little evidence is available to validate such a role. We characterised and compared HD-Zip III gene family in an angiosperm tree, Populus spp. (poplar), and the gymnosperm Picea glauca (white spruce), representing two highly evolutionarily divergent groups.     

Purification of synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotides by ion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography

Synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotides rangin from 11 to 37 nucleotides in length and with varying base compositions, prepared by both the phosphotriester and phosphite procedures, have been purified by ion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography on Whatman Partisil 10/SAX columns using phosphate buffer gradients. The effects of different buffer systems on elution times and resolution have been evaluated. Oligomer composition and length had a marked effect on the resolution achieved. In general the use of formamide buffers gave the best results, particularly in the case of 2′-deoxyguanosine-rich sequences. These methods have also been successfully applied to the purification of mixtures of synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides.