Oxidation of low density lipoproteins (LDL) induced by incubation with Cu(2+) ions results in the formation of a heterogeneous group of aldehydic adducts on lysyl residues (Lys) of apolipoprotein B (apoB) that are thought to be responsible for the uptake of oxidized LDL (oxLDL) by macrophages. To define the structural and chemical criteria governing such cell recognition, we induced two modific...

The activity of the antiviral protein induced by various ratios of poly rI.rC and diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-dextran was studied. It was found that, when large doses of poly rI.rC were used, very little viral interference was observed. This effect was initially attributed to the cells being refractory for production of antiviral protein. Subsequent experiments offered alternative explanations sug...

This paper shows the effect of local and global interconnections in the area, throughput, and latency of VLSI arrays. As an example, a binary multiplier topology is pipelined in two advantageous directions to obtain two prototypes with the same logic depth (one processor element between consecutive lines of registers) but different wiring distribution. If a purely architectural point of view we...

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) cause botulism and are the deadliest naturally-occurring substances known to humans. BoNTs have been classified as one of the category A agents by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicating their potential use as bioweapons. To counter bio-threat and naturally-occurring botulism cases, well-tolerated antibodies by humans that neutralize BoNTs are re...

Introducing duty cycling in the MAC protocol used in wireless sensor networks has been proven to be an efficient way of prolonging the battery lifetime of the sensor nodes because idle listening is a high energy consumption factor. This concept has been proven efficient in the existing energy-efficient MAC protocols, including receiver-initiated MAC (RI-MAC). In this paper, we further enhance t...

The aim of this study is to identify and classify villages according to their spatial centralities, considering rural amenity resources, for integrated tourism management. Rural tourism is an important means of regional economic development because it permits new infrastructure to be developed and helps retain existing amenities. This study took place in Korea, where little attention has been g...

The thalamus is crucial for sleep regulation and the pathophysiology of idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE), and may serve as the underlying basis for the links between the two. We investigated this using EEG-fMRI and a specific emphasis on the role and functional connectivity (FC) of the thalamus. We defined three types of thalamic FC: thalamocortical, inter-hemispheric thalamic, and intra-h...

Subcellular localization of PKA (cAMP-dependent protein kinase or protein kinase A) is determined by protein-protein interactions between its R (regulatory) subunits and AKAPs (A-kinase-anchoring proteins). In the present paper, we report the development of the Amplified Luminescent Proximity Homogeneous Assay (AlphaScreen) as a means to characterize AKAP-based peptide competitors of PKA anchor...

Fc RI-activation–induced survival of mast cells is dependent on the expression and function of the prosurvival protein A1. The expression of A1 in lymphocytes and monocytes has previously been described to be transcriptionally regulated by NFB. Here we demonstrate that the expression of A1 in mast cells is not dependent on NFB but that NFAT plays a crucial role. Fc RI-induced A1 expression was ...

Inhibition of natural killer (NK) cells by the killer cell inhibitory receptor (KIR) involves recruitment of the tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1 by KIR and is prevented by expression of a dominant negative SHP-1 mutant. Another inhibitory receptor, the low affinity Fc receptor for immunoglobulin G (IgG) (Fc gamma RIIb1), has been shown to bind SHP-1 when cocross-linked with the antigen receptor on B...