MBAT: A scalable informatics system for unifying digital atlasing workflows

Background  

Digital atlases provide a common semantic and spatial coordinate system that can be leveraged to compare, contrast, and correlate data from disparate sources. As the quality and amount of biological data continues to advance and grow, searching, referencing, and comparing this data with a researcher's own data is essential. However, the integration process is cumbersome and time-consuming due to misaligned data, implicitly defined associations, and incompatible data sources. This work addressing these challenges by providing a unified and adaptable environment to accelerate the workflow to gather, align, and analyze the data.     

Somaclonal variation from Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench cell culture

Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) - Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, plants were regenerated from 4 to 5 month old callus cultures originally derived from seedling explants. Somaclonal...     

A simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the quantitative determination of solid supported amino groups

A simple and sensitive method for the quantitative determination of free amino groups on solid support is described. This approach is a modification of Ngo's [(1986) J. Biochem. Biophys. Methods 12, 349-354] method reported earlier. The method is based on the reaction of the solid support with an excess of 5'-O-(4,4'-dimethoxytrityl)-thymidine-3'-O-(2,4-dinitrophenyl) succinate (DTDS) in the presence of a catalytic amount of 4-dimethylaminopyridine. After removing the excess reagent, solid support is treated with perchloric acid to release 4,4'-dimethoxytrityl cation into the solution. The released 4,4'-dimethoxytrityl cation, which has a strong absorption at 498 nm (epsilon 498 = 70,000), is then determined spectrophotometrically. A comparative study of DTDS, N-succinimidyl-3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate and 4,4-dimethoxytrityl chloride is also included. The method was found to be very useful to determine those amino groups which are available for functionalization of solid supports, especially, monitoring the functionalization of solid supports for affinity chromatography and synthesis of biopolymers.     

Purification and characterization of metallothionein from liver of cadmium exposed Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

Metallothionein (MT) a low molecular weight, Cd-binding, cysteine rich, cytosolic protein has been isolated, purified and characterized from cadmium exposed Rhesus monkeys maintained on protein calorie malnourished (PCM) diet. Metallothionein was resolved into three isoforms i.e. MT_a, MT_b and MTV_c. The ratio of Cd, Zn and Cu varied in these isometallothioneins. MT_c was the major isometallothionein. UV Spectra of MT_c revealed the presence of mercaptide bonds and absence of aromatic amino acids. These observations were further confirmed by amino acid analysis of MT_c which demonstrated high cysteine content (22.6) followed by serine, glycine and lysine. The molecular weight of MT_c as determined by gel filtration and amino acid analysis was 13000 and 6398 daltons respectively. This demonstrates that MT_c is a non-globular ellipsoid polypeptide. MT_c showed a unique property of binding selenium. Monkey liver metallothionein was immunologically identical with human metallothionein. All the characteristics of MT_c obtained in the present study reveal a similarity between monkey and human metallothionein probably due to closer phylogenetic relationship between the two species.     

Long-Term Drug Treatment of Obesity in a Private Practice Setting

ATKINSON, RICHARD L, ROY C BLANK, DONALD SCHUMACHER, NIKHIL V DHURANDHAR, DOUGLAS L RITCH. Long-term drug treatment of obesity in a private practice setting. This study evaluated the long-term efficacy and safety of the combination of phentermine and fenfluramine for the treatment of obesity in a private practice setting. A total of 1388 consecutive, qualified patients presenting to a private general internal medicine practice in Charlotte, NC, were enrolled with eligibility criteria including: age 18 years to 60 years, 20% over “desirable” bodyweight or body mass index <27, no serious medical or psychiatric disease, and no contraindications to drug therapy. Patients were instructed in diet, exercise, and behavior modification techniques and received phentermine (15 mg/day to 30 mg/day) and fenfluramine (20 mg/day to 60 mg/day) continuously for over 3 years. Average duration of treatment was 15. 9 months, and average weight loss at the last visit was 11. 6 kg, or 11. 7% of initial bodyweight. For patients completing 1 year of drug treatment, mean weight loss was 16. 5 kg, or 16% of initial weight. Weight loss persisted for 2 years, but partial regain was seen at 3 years. The dropout rates were 18% at 6 months, 39% at 1 year, 68% at 2 years, and 78% at 3 years. At 1 year, blood pressure of hypertensive patients fell from 151/95 mm Hg to 127/78 mm Hg, and serum cholesterol and triglycerides of hyperlipidemic patients fell by 0. 750 mmol/L (29 mg/dL) and 0. 937 mmol/L (83 mg/dL), respectively. Adverse events were modest. We conclude that, in a private practice setting, long-term treatment of obesity with the combination of phentermine, fenfluramine, and a weight maintenance program is generally safe and effective. More research is needed to determine efficacy and safety for longer than 3 years.     

A rapid pigmentation test for identification ofCryptococcus neoformans

A rapid pigmentation test for identification ofCryptococcus neoformans is described. The method is based on the formation of a characteristic, mousegrey to violaceous-black pigment when shake cultures ofC. neoformans in a phosphate-buffered,l-DOPA — ferric citrate medium are incubated at 37 C for one hour.This work was carried out in part with financial support from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi.     

Plasmon-Assisted Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell with TiO2 as Anti-Reflective Coating

Plasmonics - The present study focuses on the employment of TiO2 (titanium dioxide) film as an anti-reflective coating (ARC) on thin crystalline silicon (Si)-based solar cells along with the...     

Plant regeneration through direct and indirect organogenesis,phyto-molecular profiles,antioxidant properties and swertiamarin production in elicitated cell suspension cultures of Swertia minor (Griseb.) Knobl

Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) - The present study reports an optimized protocol for high frequency in vitro plant propagation through direct and indirect organogenesis, phytochemical...     

Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-Gamma (PPAR-ɣ): Molecular Effects and Its Importance as a Novel Therapeutic Target for Cerebral Ischemic Injury

Neurochemical Research - Cerebral ischemic injury is a leading cause of death and long-term disability throughout the world. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-?) is a...     

cMyBPC phosphorylation modulates the effect of omecamtiv mecarbil on myocardial force generation

Omecamtiv mecarbil (OM), a direct myosin motor activator, is currently being tested as a therapeutic replacement for conventional inotropes in heart failure (HF) patients. It is known that HF patients exhibit dysregulated β-adrenergic signaling and decreased cardiac myosin-binding protein C (cMyBPC) phosphorylation, a critical modulator of myocardial force generation. However, the functional effects of OM in conditions of altered cMyBPC phosphorylation have not been established. Here, we tested the effects of OM on force generation and cross-bridge (XB) kinetics using murine myocardial preparations isolated from wild-type (WT) hearts and from hearts expressing S273A, S282A, and S302A substitutions (SA) in the M domain, between the C1 and C2 domains of cMyBPC, which cannot be phosphorylated. At submaximal Ca²⁺ activations, OM-mediated force enhancements were less pronounced in SA than in WT myocardial preparations. Additionally, SA myocardial preparations lacked the dose-dependent increases in force that were observed in WT myocardial preparations. Following OM incubation, the basal differences in the rate of XB detachment (k_rel) between WT and SA myocardial preparations were abolished, suggesting that OM differentially affects the XB behavior when cMyBPC phosphorylation is reduced. Similarly, in myocardial preparations pretreated with protein kinase A to phosphorylate cMyBPC, incubation with OM significantly slowed k_rel in both the WT and SA myocardial preparations. Collectively, our data suggest there is a strong interplay between the effects of OM and XB behavior, such that it effectively uncouples the sarcomere from cMyBPC phosphorylation levels. Our findings imply that OM may significantly alter the in vivo cardiac response to β-adrenergic stimulation.