1,162 research outputs found
Investigation of FEAR and MEN pathway homologs in multinucleate cells
No full textThe cell cycle is a sequence of events enabling a cell to replicate and proliferate. Common landmark events in most eukaryotic cell cycles are duplication of the DNA, mitosis, and cell separation. The cell cycle lays the basis for development in multicellular organisms, and is of course important for cell or tissue renewal. Disregulation of the cell cycle can lead to uncontrolled growth and tumor formation.
Mitosis, or nuclear division, is tightly regulated to ensure proper segregation of nuclei to daughter cells. In budding yeast (S. cerevisiae), the timing of mitosis is coupled to cytokinesis by the action of the FEAR and MEN regulatory networks, which mediate exit from mitosis by activation of the phosphatase ScCdc14.
In this thesis, we investigate the function of homologs of these pathways in the filamentous fungus, Ashbya gossypii. This organism provides a unique cellular setting to study these matters, as it is a close relative of S.cerevisiae and shares most of the molecular machinery. However within its multinucleate hyphae, mitosis is uncoupled from cytokinesis, and cytokinesis is not followed by cell separation, thus leading to compartments containing 8-10 nuclei, separated by septa. We look into how exit from mitosis is affected in such a cellular environment where nuclei are free to divide without the spatial and temporal constraints as described in budding yeast, where each mitosis is followed by cytokinesis and cell separation.
First we study the core component of exit from mitosis signalling. We examinethe phosphatase AgCdc14 and discover that its regulation is very similar to S. cerevisiae, with the phosphatase being sequestered within the nucleolus throughout interphase, and released during anaphase. Furthermore, we find it to be an essential component in nuclear cycle progression in A. gossypii, with nuclei in null mutants failing to undergo mitosis.
We then look at MEN homologs in A. gossypii and present evidence that the kinase cascade function of the pathway is likely conserved. We however show MEN homologs to be non-essential and play no role in AgCdc14 regulation. On the other hand, we detect sporulation deficiencies in our mutants, which we could attribute to septation defects. More interestingly, we observe a partial mitotic arrest in MEN deficient cells. MEN homologs thus seem to have diverged from the primary role of their counter-parts in budding yeast.
The final chapter deals with homologs of the FEAR pathway. It had been previously suggested that, in primitive cells, the task of Cdc14 phosphatase regulation may be solely bestowed upon this network of genes. We find this to hold true for A. gossypii, where we report severe mitotic defects upon deletion of FEAR homologs, and in particular, disruption of control over AgCdc14 release.
We interpret the results as evidence for a simpler system regulating exit from mitosis in A. gossypii and lay out potential implications for the more complex system in S. cerevisiae
Nesticus baeticus sp. n., a new troglobitic spider species from south-west Europe (Araneae, Nesticidae)
No full textA new troglobitic species, Nesticus baeticus sp. n. (♂♀), inhabiting the karst landscapes of the high part of the Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park (NE Jaén, Spain) where it has been found in 8 caves is diagnosed and described, its distribution and habitat are also analyzed.The new species belongs to the Iberian species group that includes Nesticus luquei, Nesticus lusitanicus and Nesticus murgis. Evolutionary relationships of the Iberian Nesticus species are discussed on the basis of morphological and molecular data (cox1 and rrnL). Arachnida, Araneae, taxonomy, description, new species, caves, Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean basi
Abstract P3-05-09: Prognostic factors for therapeutic personalized peptide vaccines in patients with metastatic recurrent breast cancer
No full textAbstract
Background: We have previously reported the prognostic role of humoral antigen spreading response against prostate-related antigen (PRA) for metastatic recurrent breast cancer (mrBC) patients who received personalized peptide vaccine (PPV) therapy (Toh U, SABCS 2015). The prognostic effect was additionally evaluated by the clinical relevant factors including intrinsic subtype, the regimens of combined chemo-hormonal therapies in present study.
Methods:We analyzed serum IgG responses to all of the peptide candidates included PRAs (PSA, PAP and PMSA) after PPV therapy by the Luminex systemusing peripheral blood samples from 77 vaccinated mrBC patients. The clinical factors and relevant events were statistically evaluated.
Results: After 6 and 12cycles of PPV therapy, the serum IgG of anti-PSA, anti-PAP, and/or anti-PMSA increased significantly in 31 patients (PRA response group), and the median progression free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) were 8.1 and 14.3 months, but were 5.1 and 10.8 months, respectively, in the remaining 46 patients with no anti-PRA IgG response (PRA non-response Group). The anti-PRA IgG level was marginally correlated withPFS (p=0.059) and OS (p=0.082) between these two groups, which was a significant prognostic factor for PFS (Log-rank: 0.009) in estrogen-positive cancer patients (ER+). The statistical analyses showed that the clinical outcome was in favor of > 60 year-old patients, those with longer PPV therapies (>3 months), and those who received combined standard hormonal therapies or bisphosphonate/anti-RANKL therapy.
Conclusions: This study indicated a clinical significance between the pre-and post- PPV therapy measurement of serum anti-PRA IgG in patients with mrBC, which may be a useful prognostic marker for monitoring peptide vaccine treatment outcomes, particularly for patients > 60 years with ER+ breast cancer. These results also suggest that the immunotherapeutic peptide vaccine could be efficiently combined with hormonal therapy, anti-HER2 therapy, and bisphosphonate/anti-RANKL therapy in mrBC patients.
Citation Format: Toh U, Saku S, Iwakuma N, Takao Y, Okabe M, Akashi M, Yamada A, Shichijo S, Itoh K, Akagi Y. Prognostic factors for therapeutic personalized peptide vaccines in patients with metastatic recurrent breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-05-09.</jats:p
78th Annual Peace River Constituency W.I. Conference Staged
No full textNewspaper Article - 78th Annual Peace River Constituency W.I. Conference staged by Glenna EastmanAWI Collection7 8 t h A n n u a l Peace R i v er
C o n s t i t u e n c y W . I .
C o n f e r e n c e staged
by Glenna Eastman
The 78th Annual Peace
River Constituency Women's
Institute Conference
was held on March 20,1998
at Grace United Church,
Grimshaw, Alberta.
Everyone was welcomed
by Constituency Convenor
Lydia Martin. Reverend
Audrey Brown representing
the town of Grimshaw welcomed
all visitors and members.
Visiting officers were
Mildred Luz - Alberta Women's
Institute Vice- President;
and Kay Saastad, District
Director.
The Memorial Book had
three names submitted.
Alice Craig- Charter Member
of Grimshaw W. I.; Krissy
Simpson - Grimshaw W. I.;
and Eva Northey - Founding
member of Griffin Creek WI.
and also was a member of the
Peace River W. I.
Kay Saastad gave her
District Director's Report.
She also informed us that the
election of a new District
Director will be this Fall at
the District Workshop.
A demonstration and brief
history on the art of Karate
was presented to us by
instuctor Shawn Walker.
This art helps build self esteem
and teaches how to defend
yourself.
A lovely lunch was served
by the United Church Ladies.
The Guest book had
31 ladies attending.
Mildred Luz gave us an
informative report on Provincial
and Federated affairs
of the Women's Institute.
Margaret Pawlowich was
our Handicraft Judge. She
was very impressed with the
articles and helped us with a
few pointers.
Valerie Nixon reported
the handicraft results.
Griffin Creek W. I. won
first with 47 entries and 331
points. Grimshaw W. I. won
second with 42 entries and
312 points. Berwyn W. I.
won third with 40 entries
and 311 points. Big
Meadow- fourth with 21 entries
and 154 points. Anne
Palmer won the plaque for
most points - 129 total.
Special Prizes went to
Avis Grant winning on her
entry in class 87 ceramics.
Zella Pimm won in class
71 Embroidery and Ruby
Walker in class 18 afghan:
Guest Speaker Patricia
Beckley gave us a talk on
the North Peace Community
Living Society.
This Society provides
support and assistance to
families who have a child
with a disability.
Election of Officers
Valerie Nixon - Handicraft
Convenor, Box 301,
Grimshaw, Alberta TOH 1W0
332- 4837; Doris Eastman -
Agriculture, Box 1632,
Grimshaw, Alberta TOH
1W0 332- 2363; Linda
Mcssner - Education, Box
124, Berwyn, Alberta TOH
0E0 338- 2281; Lena
Williamson - Environment,
Box 155, Berwyn, Alberta
TOH 0E0 338- 2214; Diane
Smith - Health and Home
Ec, Box 865, Manning Alberta
TOH 2M0 836- 2669
FAX: 836- 3572; Maxine
Nordin - International Affairs,
Box 85, Enilda, Alberta,
TOG 0W0 523- 2157;
Glenna Eastman - Constituency
Convenor, Box 127,
Brownvale, Alberta TOH
0L0 597- 3762 FAX: 597-
2288.
Zella Pimm gave a Courtesy
Report. Door Prize was
won by Ollie Draeger. Gooc
work on all your handicraft
Thank you Lydia Martin
for 3 years of service as oui
Constituency Convenor
Special thank you for Grimshaw
W. I. for putting on a
great conference.
See you next year
The rediscovery of a long described species reveals additional complexity in speciation patterns of poeciliid fishes in sulfide springs
No full textThe process of ecological speciation drives the evolution of locally adapted and reproductively isolated populations in response to divergent natural selection. In Southern Mexico, several lineages of the freshwater fish species of the genus Poecilia have independently colonized toxic, hydrogen sulfide-rich springs. Even though ecological speciation processes are increasingly well understood in this system, aligning the taxonomy of these fish with evolutionary processes has lagged behind. While some sulfide spring populations are classified as ecotypes of Poecilia mexicana, others, like P. sulphuraria, have been described as highly endemic species. Our study particularly focused on elucidating the taxonomy of the long described sulfide spring endemic, Poecilia thermalis Steindachner 1863, and investigates if similar evolutionary patterns of phenotypic trait divergence and reproductive isolation are present as observed in other sulfidic species of Poecilia. We applied a geometric morphometric approach to assess body shape similarity to other sulfidic and non-sulfidic fish of the genus Poecilia. We also conducted phylogenetic and population genetic analyses to establish the phylogenetic relationships of P. thermalis and used a population genetic approach to determine levels of gene flow among Poecilia from sulfidic and non-sulfidic sites. Our results indicate that P. thermalis' body shape has evolved in convergence with other sulfide spring populations in the genus. Phylogenetic analyses placed P. thermalis as most closely related to one population of P. sulphuraria, and population genetic analyses demonstrated that P. thermalis is genetically isolated from both P. mexicana ecotypes and P. sulphuraria. Based on these findings, we make taxonomic recommendations for P. thermalis. Overall, our study verifies the role of hydrogen sulfide as a main factor shaping convergent, phenotypic evolution and the emergence of reproductive isolation between Poecilia populations residing in adjacent sulfidic and non-sulfidic environments
Determining the representative factors affecting warning message dissemination in VANETs
No full textIn this paper, we present a statistical analysis based on the 2k factorial methodology
to determine the representative factors affecting traffic safety applications in Vehicular
ad hoc networks (VANETs). Our purpose is to determine what are the key factors affecting
Warning Message Dissemination (WMD) in order to concentrate on such parameters,
thus reducing the amount of required simulation time when evaluating VANETs. Simulation
results show that the key factors affecting warning messages delivery are: (i) the transmission
range, (ii) the radio propagation model used, and (iii) the density of vehicles. Based on this
statistical analysis, we evaluate a compound key factor: neighbor density. This factor combines
the above-mentioned factors into a single entity, reducing the number of factors that
must be taken into account for VANET researchers to evaluate the benefits of their proposals.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Spain, under Grant TIN2008-06441-C02-01, and by the Fundacion Antonio Gargallo, under Grant 2009/B001.Martínez Domínguez, FJ.; Toh, CK.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Manzoni, P. (2012). Determining the representative factors affecting warning message dissemination in VANETs. Wireless Personal Communications. 67(2):295-314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-010-9989-4S295314672Eichler, S. (2007). Performance evaluation of the IEEE 802.11p WAVE communication standard. In Proceedings of the vehicular technology conference (VTC-2007 Fall), USA.Fall, K., & Varadhan, K. (2000). ns notes and documents. The VINT Project. UC Berkeley, LBL, USC/ISI, and Xerox PARC. Available at http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/ns-documentation.html .Fasolo, E., Zanella, A., & Zorzi, M. (2006). An effective broadcast scheme for alert message propagation in vehicular ad hoc networks. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications, Istambul, Turkey.Korkmaz, G., Ekici, E., Ozguner, F., & Ozguner, U. (2004). Urban multi-hop broadcast protocols for inter-vehicle communication systems. In Proceedings of First ACM Workshop on Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET 2004).Martinez, F. J., Toh, C.-K., Cano, J.-C., Calafate, C. T., & Manzoni, P. (2009). Realistic radio propagation models (RPMs) for VANET simulations. In IEEE wireless communications and networking conference (WCNC), Budapest, Hungary.Martinez, F. J., Cano, J.-C., Calafate, C. T., & Manzoni, P. (2008). CityMob: A mobility model pattern generator for VANETs. In IEEE vehicular networks and applications workshop (Vehi-Mobi, held with ICC), Beijing, China.Martinez, F. J., Cano, J.-C., Calafate, C. T., & Manzoni, P. (2009). A performance evaluation of warning message dissemination in 802.11p based VANETs. In IEEE local computer networks conference (LCN 2009), Zürich, Switzerland.Torrent-Moreno, M., Santi, P., & Hartenstein, H. (2005). Fair sharing of bandwidth in VANETs. In Proceedings of the 2nd ACM international workshop on vehicular ad hoc networks, Germany.Tseng Y.-C., Ni S.-Y., Chen Y.-S., Sheu J.-P. (2002) The broadcast storm problem in a mobile ad hoc network. Wireless Networks 8: 153–167Wisitpongphan N., Tonguz O., Parikh J., Mudalige P., Bai F., Sadekar V. (2007) Broadcast storm mitigation techniques in vehicular ad hoc networks. Wireless Communications IEEE 14(6): 84–94. doi: 10.1109/MWC.2007.4407231Yang, X., Liu, J., Zhao, F., & Vaidya, N. H. (2004). A vehicle-to-vehicle communication protocol for cooperative collision warning. In Proceedings of the first annual international conference on mobile and ubiquitous systems: Networking and services (MobiQuitous’04).Yoon, J., Liu, M., & Noble, B. (2003). Random waypoint considered harmful. Proceedings of IEEE INFOCOMM 2003, San Francisco, California, USA.Zang, Y., Stibor, L., Cheng, X., Reumerman, H.-J., Paruzel, A., & Barroso, A. (2007). Congestion control in wireless networks for vehicular safety applications. In Proceedings of the 8th European Wireless Conference, Paris, France
Computer simulations of VANETs using realistic city topologies
No full textResearchers in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) commonly use simulation
to test new algorithms and techniques. This is the case because of the high cost and labor
involved in deploying and testing vehicles in real outdoor scenarios. However, when determining
the factors that should be taken into account in these simulations, some factors such
as realistic road topologies and presence of obstacles are rarely addressed. In this paper,
we first evaluate the packet error rate (PER) through actual measurements in an outdoor
road scenario, and deduce a close model of the PER for VANETs. Secondly, we introduce a
topology-based visibility scheme such that road dimension and geometry can be accounted
for, in addition to line-of-sight. We then combine these factors to determine when warning
messages (i.e., messages that warn drivers of danger and hazards) are successfully received
in a VANET. Through extensive simulations using different road topologies, city maps, and
visibility schemes, we show these factors can impact warning message dissemination time
and packet delivery rate.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Spain, under Grant TIN2011-27543-C03-01, and by the Diputacion General de Aragon, under Grant "subvenciones destinadas a la formacion y contratacion de personal investigador".Martínez, FJ.; Fogue, M.; Toh, C.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Manzoni, P. (2013). Computer simulations of VANETs using realistic city topologies. Wireless Personal Communications. 69(2):639-663. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-012-0594-6S639663692Martinez F. J., Toh C.-K., Cano J.-C., Calafate C. T., Manzoni P. (2011) A survey and comparative study of simulators for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Journal 11(7): 813–828Toh C.-K. (2001) Ad hoc mobile wireless networks: Protocols and systems. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJIEEE 802.11 Working Group. (2010). IEEE standard for information technology—telecommunications and information exchange between systems—local and metropolitan area networks—Specific requirements—Part 11: Wireless LAN medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications amendment 6: Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments.Sommer, C., Eckhoff, D., German, R., & Dressler F. (2011). A computationally inexpensive empirical model of IEEE 802.11p radio shadowing in urban environments. In Eighth international conference on wireless on-demand network systems and services (WONS), pp. 84–90.Bohm, A., Lidstrom, K., Jonsson, M., & Larsson, T. (2010). Evaluating CALM M5-based vehicle-to-vehicle communication in various road settings through field trials. In Proceedings of the 35th IEEE conference on local computer networks (LCN’10), Denver, Colorado, USA, pp. 613–620.Martinez, F. J., Fogue, M., Coll, M., Cano, J.-C., Calafate, C. T., & Manzoni, P. (2010). Assessing the impact of a realistic radio propagation model on VANET scenarios using real maps. In 9th IEEE international symposium on network computing and applications (NCA), Boston, USA, pp. 132–139.Fall, K., & Varadhan, K. (2000). “ns notes and documents,” The VINT project. UC Berkeley, LBL, USC/ISI, and Xerox PARC, February 2000. Available at http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/ns-documentation.html .Marinoni, S., & Kari, H. H. (2006). Ad hoc routing protocol performance in a realistic environment. In Proceedings of the international conference on networking, international conference on systems and international conference on mobile communications and learning technologies (ICN/ICONS/MCL 2006), Washington, DC, USA.Mahajan, A., Potnis, N., Gopalan, K., & Wang, A. (2007). Modeling VANET deployment in urban settings. In International workshop on modeling analysis and simulation of wireless and mobile systems (MSWiM 2007), Crete Island, Greece.Suriyapaiboonwattana, K., Pornavalai, C., & Chakraborty, G. (2009). An adaptive alert message dissemination protocol for VANET to improve road safety. In IEEE intlernational conference on fuzzy systems, 2009. FUZZ-IEEE 2009, pp. 1639–1644.Bako, B., Schoch, E., Kargl, F., & Weber, M. (2008). Optimized position based gossiping in VANETs. In Vehicular technology conference, 2008. VTC 2008-Fall. IEEE 68th, pp. 1–5.Martinez, F. J., Cano, J.-C., Calafate, C. T., & Manzoni, P. (2008). Citymob: A mobility model pattern generator for VANETs. In IEEE vehicular networks and applications workshop (Vehi-Mobi, held with ICC), Beijing, China.Torrent-Moreno, M., Santi, P., & Hartenstein, H. (2007). Inter-vehicle communications: Assessing information dissemination under safety constraints. In Proceedings of the 4th annual conference on wireless on demand network systems and services (WONS), Oberguyrgl, Austria.Martinez, F. J., Toh, C.-K., Cano, J.-C., Calafate, C. T., & Manzoni, P. (2009). Realistic radio propagation models (RPMs) for VANET simulations. In IEEE wireless communications and networking conference (WCNC), Budapest, Hungary.Martinez, F. J., Toh, C.-K., Cano, J.-C., Calafate, C. T., & Manzoni, P. (2010). A street broadcast reduction scheme (SBR) to mitigate the broadcast storm problem in VANETs. Wireless personal communications, pp. 1–14. doi: 10.1007/s11277-010-9989-4Ni, S.-Y., Tseng, Y.-C., Chen, Y.-S., & Sheu, J.-P. (1999). The broadcast storm problem in a mobile ad hoc network. In ACM/IEEE international conference on mobile computing and networking (MobiCom 1999), Seattle Washington.Krajzewicz, D., & Rossel, C. (2007). “Simulation of urban mobility (SUMO),” Centre for Applied Informatics (ZAIK) and the Institute of Transport Research at the German Aerospace Centre. Available at http://sumo.sourceforge.net/index.shtml .OpenStreetMap Team. (2009). OpenStreetMap, collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. Available at http://www.openstreetmap.org .U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). TIGER, topologically integrated geographic encoding and referencing. Available at http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger .Krauss S., Wagner P., Gawron C. (1997) Metastable states in a microscopic model of traffic flow. Physical Review E 55(5): 5597–5602Krajzewicz, D., Hertkorn, G., Rossel, C., & Wagner, P. (2002). SUMO (Simulation of Urban MObility)—An open-source traffic simulation. In Proceedings of the 4th middle east symposium on simulation and modelling (MESM2002), Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, pp. 183–187
Cytoplasmic N-Terminal Protein Acetylation Is Required for Efficient Photosynthesis in Arabidopsis
No full textThe Arabidopsis atmak3-1 mutant was identified on the basis of a decreased effective quantum yield of photosystem II. In atmak3-1, the synthesis of the plastome-encoded photosystem II core proteins D1 and CP47 is affected, resulting in a decrease in the abundance of thylakoid multiprotein complexes. DNA array-based mRNA analysis indicated that extraplastid functions also are altered. The mutation responsible was localized to AtMAK3, which encodes a homolog of the yeast protein Mak3p. In yeast, Mak3p, together with Mak10p and Mak31p, forms the N-terminal acetyltransferase complex C (NatC). The cytoplasmic AtMAK3 protein can functionally replace Mak3p, Mak10p, and Mak31p in acetylating N termini of endogenous proteins and the L-A virus Gag protein. This result, together with the finding that knockout of the Arabidopsis MAK10 homolog does not result in obvious physiological effects, indicates that AtMAK3 function does not require NatC complex formation, as it does in yeast. We suggest that N-acetylation of certain chloroplast precursor protein(s) is necessary for the efficient accumulation of the mature protein(s) in chloroplasts
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