Dictyostelium discoideum amoeba is a powerful system to study gene function through genetic and functional analysis. Paracaspase (Pcp) is a caspase-like protein that has recently identified in D. discoideum. Study paracaspase molecular function in Dictyostelium will provide insight into its cellular role in more complex organisms and the possibility to use it as a drug target against the parasitic amoeba. In this study, pcp was tagged with Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and over-expressed in the cell. The knockout version of pcp (pcp-) was also investigated. In the course of our examination, it was observed that cells overexpress Pcp was unable to complete the developmental process, leading us to examine its role in development. Those cells were unable to initiate early development and failed to aggregate under starvation conditions. Aggregation is severely defected as cells have decreased cell-cell cohesion. In particular, these cells demonstrated a reduction in adhesion. This data suggests that over-expression of Pcp causes a signaling defects crucial to normal development in Dictyostelium. On the other hand, cells with pcp- mutant demonstrated larger aggregation in normal media as well as under starvation conditions compared to the control cell lines. As a result, we propose that Dictyostelium Pcp is a regulated protein involved in cellular functions including signal relay pathways that are essential for cell aggregation and development. Thus, Pcp protein is a candidate drug target against the amoebic parasitic infection by prevent development to their infective stages.
Background: 37% phosphoric acid (PA) is the traditional enamel etching technique prior to bracket adhesion, yet it has been implicated in numerous enamel injuries. The purpose of the current study was to create a calcium phosphate (CaP) etching paste in a simplified capsule formula that can underpin clinically adequate bracket bond strength without jeopardizing the integrity of enamel upon the debracketing procedure. Materials and Methods: micro-sized hydroxyapatite (HA) powder was mixed with 40% PA solution to prepare experimental acidic CaP paste. Sixty human premolars were assigned into two groups of 30 each. Enamel conditioning was accomplished using 37% PA-gel for control group and CaP paste for e
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Evolutionary algorithms (EAs), as global search methods, are proved to be more robust than their counterpart local heuristics for detecting protein complexes in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. Typically, the source of robustness of these EAs comes from their components and parameters. These components are solution representation, selection, crossover, and mutation. Unfortunately, almost all EA based complex detection methods suggested in the literature were designed with only canonical or traditional components. Further, topological structure of the protein network is the main information that is used in the design of almost all such components. The main contribution of this paper is to formulate a more robust E
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EP/ metal composites were prepared as adhesives between two steel rods. Epoxy resin (EP) was used as a matrix with metal as fillers (Al, Cu, Fe,).
The preparation method for tensile adhesion tests includes two steel rods with adhesive composites between the rods to measure adhesion strength Sad and adhesion toughness Gad.
Results of tensile adhesion tests show that EP/ metals composite have maximum strength Sad for certain weight percentage of metals 2.95 and 9MPa at 10% for EP/Al and EP/Cu composite and 8.2MPa at 40% for EP/Fe composites
Nanofluids, liquid suspensions of nanoparticles (NPs) dispersed in deionized (DI) water, brine, or surfactant micelles, have become a promising solution for many industrial applications including enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and carbon geostorage. At ambient conditions, nanoparticles can effectively alter the wettability of the strongly oil-wet rocks to water-wet. However, the reservoir conditions present the greatest challenge for the success of this application at the field scale. In this work, the performance of anionic surfactant-silica nanoparticle formulation on wettability alteration of oil-wet carbonate surface at reservoir conditions was investigated. A high-pressure temperature vessel was used to apply nano-modification of oil-wet
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Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease with an increasing prevalence worldwide and characterized by an increase in oxidative stress and inflammation. The most important factor that is responsible for oxidative stress and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is hyperglycemia. The major targets of ROS are proteins. The most common and widely used biomarker of severe oxidative protein damage is protein carbonyl content.
The study was designed to assess the serum level of protein carbonyl as a marker of protein oxidation in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and to evaluate the effect of age, body weight, waist circumference, diabetic control and disease duration on the level
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Focal adhesion kinase (FAK), ephrin receptor type A4 (EphA4), and adiponectin (ADPN) are important indicators in inflammation, tumor growth, migration, and angiogenesis in some cancers. The predictive impact of their concentrations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients to be identified remains. The research sought to explore the effect of FAK, EphA4, and ADPN as prognostic biomarkers, and their influence on patient survival, and to look for any potential correlation between their levels with hematological parameters in AML patients.
Wireless sensor applications are susceptible to energy constraints. Most of the energy is consumed in communication between wireless nodes. Clustering and data aggregation are the two widely used strategies for reducing energy usage and increasing the lifetime of wireless sensor networks. In target tracking applications, large amount of redundant data is produced regularly. Hence, deployment of effective data aggregation schemes is vital to eliminate data redundancy. This work aims to conduct a comparative study of various research approaches that employ clustering techniques for efficiently aggregating data in target tracking applications as selection of an appropriate clustering algorithm may reflect positive results in the data aggregati
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The current study was conducted with the aim of fortifying meat burger with the protein isolate extracted from defatted sweetened and unsweetened apricot kernels. The antimicrobial activity of defatted apricot kernels and protein isolates of sweetened and unsweetened kernels against some pathogenic microbes was studied, and it was characterized by its effect on gram-positive bacteria more than gram-negative bacteria. As for its effect on yeast, the inhibition diameter was 4.5 mm at a concentration of 200 mg for the unsweetened protein isolate. As for its effect on mold, the inhibition percentage was between 56.05 65.21% for all samples at a concentration of 100 mg. The sweetened and unsweetened protein isolate was used in the manufact
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