In the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP), protein misfolding leads to fatal consequences for cell metabolism and rod and cone cell survival. To stop disease progression, a therapeutic approach focuses on stabilizing inherited protein mutants of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) rhodopsin using pharmacological chaperones (PC) that improve receptor folding and trafficking. In...

Bacterial shape usually is dictated by the peptidoglycan layer of the cell wall. In this paper, we show that the morphology of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi is the result of a complex interaction between the cell cylinder and the internal periplasmic flagella. B. burgdorferi has a bundle of 7-11 helically shaped periplasmic flagella attached at each end of the cell cylinder a...

Chromosome segregation during mitosis depends upon Kinesin-5 motors, which display a conserved, bipolar homotetrameric organization consisting of two motor dimers at opposite ends of a central rod. Kinesin-5 motors crosslink adjacent microtubules to drive or constrain their sliding apart, but the structural basis of their organization is unknown. In this study, we report the atomic structure of...

A heptahelical transmembrane bundle is a common structural feature of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and bacterial retinal-binding proteins, two functionally distinct groups of membrane proteins. Rhodopsin, a photoreceptor protein involved in photopic (rod) vision, is a prototypical GPCR that contains 11-cis-retinal as its intrinsic chromophore ligand. Therefore, uniquely, rhodopsin is a G...

This report describes a second-generation photostimulator with four primary lights that allows independent control of the stimulation of the four receptor types in the human eye. The new design uses LEDs (with light levels controlled by eight drivers that include voltage-to-frequency converters that provide 1-micros pulses at frequencies up to 250 kHz), with four center channels being combined ...

Although negligible at macroscopic scales, capillary forces become dominant as the sub-millimetric scales of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are considered. We review various situations, not limited to micro-technologies, where capillary forces are able to deform elastic structures. In particular, we define the different length scales that are relevant for 'elasto-capillary' problems. W...

“A half Century has gone by; the general public seems to be lacking a simple Readers’ Digest knowledge about human visual system (HVS). In order ward off wolf eyesight emitting few photons in dark cavern, we have evolved separate energy from information, as well adopt negation of converse detection logic. To achieve sensitivity, HVS uses (no light yet) current, discovered by NIH Hagins, inhibit...

The mouse epididymis, consisting of a head, body and tail, was examined by electron microscopy. The principal cells of the epididymal duct in the epididymal body have rod-shaped inclusions, 0.3 to 1.0 microns in diameter and 2 to 5 microns in height. The inclusions contain a bundle of tubules, about 40 nm in diameter, with a wall about 6 nm in thickness. The tubules are regularly arranged in a ...

Spacer grids are one of main components a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) fuel assembly. They able to improve heat transfer from rod bundles the water flow by increasing turbulence and mixture this flow. On other hand pressure drop increases because spacer grids. Experimental Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis have been used understand how affect This is important thermal-hydraulic per...

Thermal-induced two-phase flow instabilities could badly slow the runtime performance of systems, such as boiling water reactor core, and even endanger safe operation. Hence, many researchers have carried out numerous researches on instability characteristics, but few publications cover effects local throttling in open-channel systems coolant rod bundle subchannel with spacer grids nuclear core...