Natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCR) mediate lysis of a variety of tumor and virus-infected cells by natural killer (NK) cells. Upon engagement, NCR trigger the cytolytic activity and cytokine release of NK cells through association with ITAM-containing signaling molecules. To further understand the function of these receptors in activation of natural cytotoxicity, we determined the crystal str...

Let R be a commutative ring with 1 and M an m×m matrix over R. We say that M has a Smith normal form (SNF) over R if there exist matrices P,Q ∈ SL(m,R) (so detP = detQ = 1) such that PMQ is a diagonal matrix diag(d1, d2, . . . , dm) with di | di+1 (1 ≤ i ≤ m − 1) in R. It is wellknown that if R is an integral domain and if the SNF of M exists, then it is unique up to multiplication of each di b...

CD45 is the prototypic member of transmembrane receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatases (RPTPs) and has essential roles in immune functions. The cytoplasmic region of CD45, like many other RPTPs, contains two homologous protein tyrosine phosphatase domains, active domain 1 (D1) and catalytically impaired domain 2 (D2). Here, we report crystal structure of the cytoplasmic D1D2 segment of huma...

As a member of the POU-domain family, the POU1F1 is a positive regulator for growth hormone, prolactin and thyroid-stimulating hormone b, by binding to target DNA promoters as a dimer in mammals. This study described the polymorphisms at the goat POU1F1-DdeI locus and analyzed the distribution of alleles in 15 indigenous Chinese goat breeds. The PCR-RFLP analysis showed a predominance of the D1...

In 2005, Candida nivariensis, a yeast species genetically related to Candida glabrata, was described following its isolation from three patients in a single Spanish hospital. Between 2005 and 2006, 16 fungal isolates with phenotypic similarities to C. nivariensis were submitted to the United Kingdom Mycology Reference Laboratory for identification. The strains originated from various clinical s...

BACKGROUND Historical data and recent studies show that standardised extended (D2) lymphadenectomy leads to better results than standardised limited (D1) lymphadenectomy. Based on these findings, the Dutch D1D2 trial, a nationwide prospectively randomised clinical trial, was undertaken to compare D2 with D1 lymphadenectomy in patients with resectable primary adenocarcinoma of the stomach. The a...

Human interleukin 5 receptor alpha (IL5Ralpha) comprises three fibronectin type III domains (D1, D2, and D3) in the extracellular region. Previous results have indicated that residues in the D1D2 domains are crucial for high affinity interaction with human interleukin 5 (IL5). Yet, it is the D2D3 domains that have sequence homology with the classic cytokine recognition motif that is generally a...

The famous results of Gross and Zagier compare the heights of Heegner points on modular curves with special values of the derivatives of related L-functions. When specialized to the level 1 case (i.e., the full modular curve H/Γ, where Γ = SL2(Z)), we recover an astounding formula for the differences of singular moduli (the Heegner points on the full modular curve) in terms of an explicit prime...

Dopamine receptors are members of the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily and play important roles in neuronal transmission. A D1-D2 receptor heterooligomer generating a Gprotein linked PLC-dependent intracellular calcium signal was previously identified. The discovery of this dopamine mediated calcium signal implicated a direct link between dopamine receptors and calcium generation, but its...

OBJECTIVES This study investigated the accuracy of mitral inflow quantification using biplane transesophageal echocardiography. BACKGROUND Mitral stroke volume can be reliably quantified by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography, but previous studies involving monoplane transesophageal echocardiography have yielded mixed results. METHODS Thirty patients without mitral regurgitation were pro...