BACKGROUND In transfemoral (TF) amputees, the forward propulsion of the prosthetic leg in swing has to be mainly carried out by hip muscles. With hip strength being the strongest predictor to ambulation ability, an active powered knee joint could have a positive influence, lowering hip loading and contributing to ambulation mobility. To assess this, gait of four TF amputees was measured for lev...

BACKGROUND IL-2 deficient (IL-2(-/-)) mice mono-colonized with E. coli mpk develop colitis whereas IL-2(-/-)-mice mono-colonized with B. vulgatus mpk do not and are even protected from E. coli mpk induced colitis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We investigated if mono-colonization with E. coli mpk or B. vulgatus mpk differentially modulates distribution, activation and maturation of intestina...

The Caenorhabditis elegans mpk-1 gene encodes a MAP kinase protein that plays an important role in Ras-mediated induction of vulval cell fates. We show that mutations that eliminate mpk-1 activity result in a highly penetrant, vulvaless phenotype. A double mutant containing a gain-of-function mpk-1 mutation and a gain-of-function mek mutation (MEK phosphorylates and activates MPK-1) exhibits a ...

The LET-60 (Ras)/LIN-45 (Raf)/MPK-1 (MAP kinase) signaling pathway plays a key role in the development of multiple tissues in Caenorhabditis elegans. For the most part, the identities of the downstream genes that act as the ultimate effectors of MPK-1 signaling have remained elusive. A unique allele of mpk-1, ga111, displays a reversible, temperature-sensitive, tissue-specific defect in progres...

Given a (directed or undirected) graph with costs on the edges, the power of a node is the maximum cost of an edge leaving it, and the power of the graph is the sum of the powers of its nodes. Motivated by applications for wireless networks, we consider some fundamental network design problems under the power minimization criteria. Let G = (V, E) be a graph with edge-costs {ce : e ∈ E} and let ...

Signaling through mitogen-activated protein kinases (MPKs) cascades is a complex and fundamental process in eukaryotes, requiring MPK-activating kinases (MKKs) and MKK-activating kinases (MKKKs). However, to date only a limited number of MKK-MPK interactions and MPK phosphorylation substrates have been revealed. We determined which Arabidopsis thaliana MKKs preferentially activate 10 different ...

During development of the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite, the gonadal anchor cell induces nearby Pn.p cells to adopt vulval fates. The response to this signal is mediated by a receptor tyrosine kinase signal transduction pathway that has been remarkably well conserved during metazoan evolution. Because mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases are activated by receptor tyrosine kinase pathw...

Given a graph with costs on the edges, the power of a node is the maximum cost of an edge leaving it, and the power of the graph is the sum of the powers of the nodes of this graph. Motivated by applications in wireless multi-hop networks, we consider four fundamental problems under the power minimization criteria: the Min-Power b-Edge-Cover problem (MPb-EC) where the goal is to find a min-powe...

The let-23 receptor/mpk-1 MAP kinase signaling pathway induces the vulva in C. elegans. We show that MPK-1 directly regulates both the LIN-31 winged-helix and the LIN-1 Ets transcription factors to specify the vulval cell fate. lin-31 and lin-1 act genetically downstream of mpk-1, and both proteins can be directly phosphorylated by MAP kinase. LIN-31 binds to LIN-1, and the LIN-1/LIN-31 complex...

Meiosis is a tightly regulated process requiring coordination of diverse events. A conserved ERK/MAPK-signaling cascade plays an essential role in the regulation of meiotic progression. The Thousand And One kinase (TAO) kinase is a MAPK kinase kinase, the meiotic role of which is unknown. We have analyzed the meiotic functions of KIN-18, the homolog of mammalian TAO kinases, in Caenorhabditis e...