A case study is presented in which two modifications of activated sludge treatment of complex chemical wastewater are experimentally compared: a combination of common activated sludge with powdered activated carbon treatment (PACT), and bioaugmentation of activated sludge treatment (BAST). Industrial wastewater of Pars Oil Refinery that was passed through an oil recovery stage was used to inve...

INTRODUCTION Although traditional patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) are effective for patients with complex needs, it is unclear whether homeless-tailored PCMHs work better for homeless veterans. We examined the impact of enrollment in a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) homeless-tailored PCMH on health services use, cost, and satisfaction compared with enrollment in a traditional, nont...

The dsRNA binding protein (dsRBP) PACT was first described as an activator of the dsRNA dependent protein kinase PKR in response to stress signals.  Additionally, it has been identified as a component of the small RNA processing pathway.  A role for PACT in this pathway represents an important interplay between two modes of post-transcriptional gene regulation.  The function of PACT in this con...

The tumor suppressor p53 regulates cell cycle progression and apoptosis in response to various types of stress, whereas excess p53 activity creates unwanted effects. Tight regulation of p53 is essential for maintaining normal cell growth. p53-associated cellular protein-testes derived (PACT, also known as P2P-R, RBBP6) is a 250-kDa Ring finger-containing protein that can directly bind to p53. P...

PACT is a double-stranded RNA-binding protein that also binds and activates the latent protein kinase, PKR, which plays a major role in cellular antiviral defense in mammals. For evaluating PACT's contribution to the innate immune system, Pact(-/-) mice have been generated; these mice exhibit notable developmental abnormalities including microtia, with craniofacial, ear, and hearing defects. He...

PACT, a protein activator of PKR, can cause inhibition of cellular protein synthesis and apoptosis. Here, we report that the Us11 protein of herpes simplex virus type 1 can block PKR activation by PACT both in vitro and in vivo. Although Us11 can bind to both PKR and PACT, mutational analyses revealed that the binding of Us11 to PKR, and not to PACT, was essential for its inhibitory action. Sim...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that flow cytometry is a reliable test to quantify platelet function in stored platelet concentrates (PC). It is thought that flow cytometry is laborious and hence expensive. We have optimized the flow cytometry-based quantification of agonist induced platelet activation (PACT) to a labor, time and more cost-efficient test. Currently the quality of PCs is ...

Mammalian Dicer interacts with double-stranded RNA-binding protein TRBP or PACT to mediate RNA interference and micro-RNA processing. TRBP and PACT are structurally related but exert opposite regulatory activities on PKR. It is not understood whether TRBP and PACT are simultaneously required for Dicer. Here we show that TRBP directly interacts with PACT in vitro and in mammalian cells. TRBP and...

BACKGROUND Linear-array-based photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) suffers from a limited view. Circular scanning does increase the detection view angle but is time-consuming. Therefore, it is desirable to increase the detection view angle of linear-array-based PACT without sacrificing imaging speed. METHODS Two planar acoustic reflectors placed at 120 degrees to each other were added to ...

PKR, a latent protein kinase, mediates the antiviral actions of interferon. It is also involved in cellular signal transduction, apoptosis, growth regulation and differentiation. Although in virus-infected cells, viral double-stranded (ds) RNA can serve as a PKR activator, cellular activators have remained obscure. Here, we report the cloning of PACT, a cellular protein activator of PKR. PACT h...