rac1 and rac2 p21s are ras p21-like small GTP-binding proteins which are implicated in the NADPH oxidase-catalyzed superoxide generation in phagocytes. rac1 and rac2 p21s have a Cys-A-A-Leu (A = aliphatic amino acid) structure in their C-terminal region which may undergo post-translational processing including prenylation, proteolysis, and carboxyl methylation. We studied the function of this p...

Rho GTPase activation is partially regulated at the level of guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitors, or GDIs. The binding of Rho GTPases to GDIs has been shown to dramatically reduce the action of guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) to initiate Rho GTPase activation. The GDI-GTPase complex thus serves as a major point of regulation of Rho GTPase activity and function. It is likely th...

BACKGROUND First-degree relatives (FDRs) of women with PCOS are at increased risk for impaired insulin sensitivity and diabetes mellitus. Glucose tolerant FDR have evidence of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia prior to emergence of frank PCOS. AIM To study insulin dynamics parameters in the early adolescent FDR of women with PCOS. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study involving 18 a...

Enhancing water use efficiency (WUE) is essential for the sustainable and green development of utilization. The conventional Super Slack-Based Measure (CSSBM) model commonly employed to measure WUE, however, it prone underestimating WUE due its exaggeration slack variable. Recognizing need deal with problems involving variable without limitation, we propose an improved Super-SBM (ISSBM) that as...

Image stabilization is the image registration applied to one video image sequence from a single camera, which has been identified as the key first step for the task of multispectral image fusion for aerial surveillance applications. The stabilization of infra-red (IR) aerial image sequences is challenging owing to the low contrast and signal-tonoise ratio of the images, and to potentially large...

The Rac1 GTPase plays key roles in cytoskeletal organization, cell motility and a variety of physiological and disease-linked responses. Wild type Rac1 signaling entails dissociation of the GTPase from cytosolic Rac1-Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor (GDI) complexes, translocation to membranes, activation by exchange factors, effector binding, and activation of downstream signaling cascades. Out o...

CFD Aided Development of a SI-DI Engine — Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) appears to be the most relevant way to improve fuel efficiency of SI engines. But today, GDI is essentially regarded as a suitable technology for relatively high displacement engines, and the literature shows that the R&D effort on GDI engines is generally made for bores larger than 80 mm. For small bore engines (bore bel...

Alpha(v)beta8 integrin expression is restricted primarily to kidney, brain, and placenta. Targeted alpha(v) or beta8 deletion is embryonic lethal due to defective placenta and brain angiogenesis, precluding investigation of kidney alpha(v)beta8 function. We find that kidney beta8 is localized to glomerular mesangial cells, and expression is decreased in mouse models of glomerulosclerosis, sugge...

BACKGROUND Geographical variation of the general practitioner (GP) workforce is known between rural and urban areas. However, data about the variation between and within urban areas are lacking. METHOD We analyzed distribution patterns of GP full time equivalents (FTE) in German cities with a population size of more than 500,000. We correlated their distribution with area measures of social d...

Despite over two decades of research, the mechanism of Rab targeting to specific intracellular membranes is still not completely understood. Present evidence suggests that the original hypothesis that the message for targeting resides solely in the hypervariable C-terminus is incorrect, and a second mechanism involving a GDF [GDI (guanine-nucleotide-dissociation inhibitor) displacement factor] ...