We have characterized transcripts for nine major intrinsic proteins (MIPs), some of which function as water channels (aquaporins), from the ice plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum. To determine the cellular distribution and expression of these MIPs, oligopeptide-based antibodies were generated against MIP-A, MIP-B, MIP-C, or MIP-F, which, according to sequence and functional characteristics, ar...

zinc is the first modelling language which supports solver and technique independence. this means that a high level conceptual model can be automatically mapped into an appropriate low level design model for a specific solver or technique. to date, zinc uses three different techniques to solve a model: constraint programming (cp), local search (ls), and mixed integer programming (mip). in this ...

LPS is a constituent of cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria that, acting through the CD14/TLR4 receptor complex, causes strong proinflammatory activation of macrophages. In murine peritoneal macrophages and J774 cells, LPS at 1-2 ng/ml induced maximal TNF-α and MIP-2 release, and higher LPS concentrations were less effective, which suggested a negative control of LPS action. While studying the...

Cross docking is an efficient and dynamic logistic process that directly transfers goods from a supplier to a customer. This thesis addresses the door assignment and resource management problem with truck time windows constraints for a specific cross dock. The problems are formulated as mixed integer programming (MIP) models. The objective is to minimize the weighted sum of the total travel dis...

Aquaporin-0 (AQP0), a water transport channel protein, is the major intrinsic protein (MIP) of lens fiber cell plasma membranes. Mice deficient in the gene for AQP0 (Aqp0, Mip) were generated from a library of gene trap embryo stem cells. Sequence analysis showed that the gene trap vector had inserted into the first exon of Aqp0, causing a null mutation as verified by RNA blotting and immunoche...

RIP is nucleus limited. We know this because the specialized cells that carry out RIP are heterokaryotic, with nuclei from both parents. When a sequence is duplicated in one nucleus but not the other, the lone copy is never silenced. The mechanism of RIP is unknown but probably involves DNA:DNA pairing (Figure 1) followed by methyla-Repeated DNA and cytosine methylation are common tion and deam...

Water flux across cell membranes has been shown to occur not only through the lipid bilayer, but also through aquaporins, which are members of the major intrinsic protein (MIP) super-family of channel proteins. Aquaporins greatly increase the membrane permeability for water, but may also be regulated, allowing cellular control over the rate of water influx/efflux. Water flux is crucial for stom...

Mycoplasmas are "minimal" bacteria able to infect humans, wildlife, and a large number of economically important livestock species. Mycoplasma infections include a spectrum of clinical manifestations ranging from simple fever to fulminant inflammatory diseases with high mortality rates. These infections are mostly chronic, suggesting that mycoplasmas have developed means to evade the host immun...

We have generated transgenic mice that express green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the mouse insulin I gene promoter (MIP). The MIP-GFP mice develop normally and are indistinguishable from control animals with respect to glucose tolerance and pancreatic insulin content. Histological studies showed that the MIP-GFP mice had normal islet architecture with co-expression of insulin...

PURPOSE To determine the differential gene expression of chemokine species and leukocyte infiltration of grafts in the early pre-rejection postoperative period after high-risk (HR) compared to normal-risk (NR) corneal transplantation. METHODS Fully mismatched and syngeneic corneal grafts were performed in NR (avascular) and HR (vascularized) recipient beds of BALB/c murine hosts. Gene express...