The calcium content of bovine and human lens proteins has been determined. High molecular weight (HMW) bovine a-crystallin contains about three times more calcium than other soluble bovine lens proteins, while the calcium content of HMW human lens protein is approximately 10 times greater than its low molecular weight (LMW) counterpart. The calcium could not be removed by exhaustive dialysis at...

The viscosity of a protein solution is increased by the denaturation of the protein. This is true both when there is the formation of protein aggregates which occlude water and when there is no aggregation. Under certain conditions, as a result of the aggregation following denaturation, a solution containing only one per cent of protein may be converted into a clear gel. The conditions for obta...

Recent reports indicate that a growing number of intracellular proteins are not only prone to pathological aggregation but can also be released and "infect" neighboring cells. Therefore, many complex diseases may obey a simple model of propagation where the penetration of seeds into hosts determines spatial spread and disease progression. We term these proteins prionoids, as they appear to infe...

Scattered light intensities measurements of the nuclear part of adult bovine lenses are reported. In the investigated samples the existence of a binary liquid phase separation from a metastable state is demonstrated by the phenomenon of hysteresis. Fluctuations near spinodal are studied by means of a tentative theoretical approach. Accordingly the scattered light intensities were analyzed reduc...

We apply a theoretical aggregation model to laboratory and epidemiological prion disease incubation time data. In our model, slow growth of misfolded protein aggregates from small initial seeds controls the latent or lag phase; aggregate fissioning and subsequent spreading leads to an exponential growth phase. Our model accounts for the striking reproducibility of incubation times for high dose...

Asymmetric inheritance of protein aggregates in budding yeast is a fascinating yet controversial area of aging research. A recent study demonstrates that unfolded protein aggregates are confined to the mother by tethering to organelles rather than retrograde transport.

The pathological prion protein, PrPSc, displays various sizes of aggregates. In this study, we investigated the conformation, aggregation stability and proteinase K (PK)-sensitivity of small and large PrPSc aggregates of mouse-adapted prion strains. We showed that small PrPSc aggregates, previously thought to be PK-sensitive, are resistant to PK digestion. Furthermore, we showed that small PrPS...

It is demonstrated, using the Couette viscometer method, that talpid-3 mutant chick wing mesenchyme cells are more adhesive to one another than are normal cells. The relation of this to differences in the size and shape, and the internal architecture, of aggregates produced in rotation cultures of these cells was investigated. Sequences of sections through aggregates in all stages of formation,...

In this paper we present a comparison of two approaches for storing and processing of long aggregates lists in a spatial data warehouse. An aggregates list contains aggregates, calculated from the data stored in the database. Our comparative criteria are: the efficiency of retrieving the aggregates and the consumed memory. The first approach assumes using a modified Java list supported with mat...

Structure is an important factor of soil functioning in ecosystems. Soil aggregate size distributions are commonly used to characterize soil structure. Relationships between density of dry soil aggregates and aggregate size present a different way to use aggregate-related information in soil structure characterization. Those relationships have been simulated assuming soils to be mass fractals. ...