Protein toxins produced by bacteria are the cause of many life-threatening diarrheal diseases. Many of these toxins, including cholera toxin (CT), enter the cell by first binding to glycolipids in the cell membrane. Inhibiting these multivalent protein/carbohydrate interactions would prevent the toxin from entering cells and causing diarrhea. Here we demonstrate that the site-specific modificat...

The mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program was designed to be long enough for participants to grasp the principles of self-regulation through mindfulness and develop skill and autonomy in mindfulness practice. It traditionally consists of 26 hours of session time including eight classes of 2-1/2 hours and an all-day class. The circumstances of some groups exclude them from participat...

1. The presence of palmitoyl-CoA-l-glycerol 1-phosphate palmitoyltransferase (EC2.3.1.15) has been demonstrated in a particulate fraction of baker's yeast. 2. The enzyme has been characterized, and its activity studied as a function of pH and concentration of substrates. 3. Inhibition by thiol poisons and protection by acyl-CoA have been used to obtain information on the active site. 4. By vari...

One of the most striking peculiarities of enzyme action is the fact that the activity of the enzyme is limited to a definite range of acidity. If the solution is more or less acid than this the enzyme is practically inactive. SSrensen 1 showed that for a number of enzymes the determiuing factor was the hydrogen ion concentration and not the total acidity of the solution. In attempting to accoun...

TMC-2A(1), -2B (2) and -2C (3), novel dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPIV) inhibitors, were isolated from the fermentation broth of Aspergillus oryzae A374. TMC-2A, -2B and -2C inhibited rat kidney DPIV with IC50 value of 8.1 microM, 17 microM, and 20 microM, respectively, as well as human DPIV prepared from mononuclear cells and adenocarcinoma cells. TMC-2 compounds inhibited only DPIV among the pro...

Co-culturing of actinomycetes is a classical approach used to enhance bioactivity. In this study, co-culturing of terrestrial and marine actinomycetes was performed to obtain increased anticancer cytotoxic activity. Crude extract prepared from co-cultured isolates showed increased anticancer activity. Although normal and healthy actinomycetes filament was observed during co-culture, spore forma...

A new N-methoxypyridone analog (1), together with four known compounds, was isolated from the co-culture of Hawaiian endophytic fungi Camporesia sambuci FT1061 and Epicoccum sorghinum FT1062. The structure of the new compound was elucidated as 11S-hydroxy-1-methoxyfusaricide (1) by extensive spectroscopic analysis and comparison with the literature. The absolute configuration of 1 was determine...

Mindfulness-based meditation practices involve various attentional skills, including the ability to sustain and focus ones attention. During a simple mindful breathing practice, sustained attention is required to maintain focus on the breath while cognitive control is required to detect mind wandering. We thus hypothesized that regular, brief mindfulness training would result in improvements in...

The effects and influences of various parameters upon the efficiency and the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficients are important subjects to be studied in most liquid-liquid extraction processes. One of these important parameters is surface active agent (surfactant). In this paper, in order to study the effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) concentration on the efficiency and the a...