The activation peptide of mammalian trypsinogens contains a highly conserved tetra-aspartate sequence (D19-D20-D21-D22) preceding the K23-I24 scissile peptide bond, which is hydrolyzed as the first step in the activation process. Here, we examined the evolution and function of trypsinogen activation peptides through integrating functional characterization of disease-associated mutations with co...

The authors conduct a counterfactual simulation of the proposed rules under the new Basel Capital Accord (Basel II), including the revised treatment of expected and unexpected credit losses proposed by the Basel Committee in October 2003. When the authors apply the simulation to Canadian banking system data over the period 1984–2003, they find that capital requirements for banks will likely fal...

We study the general dependence of mixing angles on heavy fermion masses when mass hierarchies exist among the fermions. For two generations and small Cabibbo angle, this angle is directly shown to scale like μ1/ms ± μ2/mc, where |μ1| ≪ ms, |μ2| ≪ mc are independent mass scales. For n = 3 generations, we extend to the Yukawa matrices of uand d-type quarks the property that the 2× 2 upper-left s...

Dehalobacter restrictus strain PER-K23 is an obligate organohalide respiring bacterium, which displays extremely narrow metabolic capabilities. It grows only via coupling energy conservation to anaerobic respiration of tetra- and trichloroethene with hydrogen as sole electron donor. Dehalobacter restrictus represents the paradigmatic member of the genus Dehalobacter, which in recent years has t...

Cidea, one of three members of the CIDE (cell-death-inducing DNA-fragmentation-factor-45-like effector) family of proteins, is highly enriched in brown adipose tissue, in which it plays a critical role in adaptive thermogenesis and fat accumulation. Cidea-null mice have increased energy expenditure with resistance to high-fat-diet-induced obesity and diabetes. However, little is known as to how...

For many patients with neuropsychiatric illnesses, standard psychiatric treatments with mono or combination pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and transcranial magnetic stimulation are ineffective. For these patients with treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric illnesses, a main therapeutic option is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Decades of research have found ECT to be highly effective; however, ...

Over the next several decades, there will be unprecedented growth in the number of older adults in the United States. Such growth will require increasing numbers of medical providers with sufficient training in and commitment to geriatrics to meet the healthcare needs of a growing number of seniors, many of whom will be frail and disabled. The April 2008 Institute of Medicine report ‘‘Retooling...

Prions are proteinaceus infectious agents associated to invariable fatal neurodegenerative disorders named transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or prion diseases. The mechanism associated with disease propagation lays on post-translation modifications of the cellular prion protein (PrP), which acquires altered conformation, form aggregates and is resistant to proteolysis. PrP is a cell sur...

The VST (VLT Survey Telescope) is a 2.6 m class Alt-Az telescope to be installed on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama desert, Northern Chile, in the European Southern Observatory (ESO) site. The VST is a widefield imaging facility planned to supply databases for the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) science and carry out stand-alone observations in the UltraViolet to Infrared spectral range. So far no ...