234 research outputs found
An Alternative to the Emergency Department for Delano Regional Medical Center
No full textDelano Regional Medical Center is a non-profit, 150-bed acute care facility that was established in 1974. The facility has no other competition within a 30 mile radius and serves a large market share of roughly 75,000. This includes not only the small farming community of Delano with a population of approximately 24,000, but also other surrounding rural communities in the North Kern / South Tulare area. Unfortunately, for many with no type of medical insurance, the emergency department has been relied upon as a regular source of primary care rather than for just true life-threatening emergencies. The increase in patient volume is not only affecting the quality of healthcare being delivered to those with more urgent cases, but is also increasing the cost of the State of California's Medicaid program and the Count[ies] of Kern / Tulare's medically indigent program[s]. In order to help decrease non-emergency cases and high medical costs, this paper evaluates first the need for an alternative and recommends the establishment of a primary care center for DRMC. To finance the project, it is recommended that Delano Regional Medical Center propose a joint venture with the emergency room physicians. The hospital would be the general partner with the doctors in limited partnership. The costs, staffing, and services to be offered by the clinic have been outlined as a tentative pilot plan before implementation of a full project
FolX from Pseudomonas aeruginosa is octameric in both crystal and solution
No full textFolX encodes an epimerase that forms one step of the tetrahydrofolate biosynthetic pathway, which is of interest as it is an established target for important drugs. Here we report the crystal structure of FolX from the bacterial opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as well as a detailed analysis of the protein in solution, using analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). In combination, these techniques confirm that the protein is an octamer both in the crystal structure, and in solution
The president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal in the eyes of Wiktor Podoski
No full textFranklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal purpose was to stop the Great Depression. The article task is to show knowledge of Polish diplomacy about the program. It is based on Wiktor Podoski’s elaboration Nowy ład Roosevelta. Author was an employee of Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In his book he describes realization of New Deal from 1933 to 1936. The article presents how Podoski showed the program and each act. He shows, in great detail, some of the reforms and biggest institutions appointed under the New Deal: National Recovery Administration, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Public Works Administration. Many of the reforms were skipped or only mentioned by author. Information showed by him weren’t always accurate. Some of the reforms of the second phase of the program are described with author’s opinion about their future. Article also shows, as a summary reforms of New Deal of the years 1936–1937.Nowy Ład Franklina Delano Roosevelta miał na celu powstrzymanie wielkiego kryzysu. Artykuł ma za zadanie pokazać wiedzę polskiej dyplomacji na temat programu. Jest on oparty na opracowaniu Wiktora Podoskiego Nowy ład Roosevelta. Autor był pracownikiem polskiego Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych. Opisuje on realizację Nowego Ładu od 1933 do 1936 r. W artykule odzwierciedlone zostało to, jak Podoski przedstawił program oraz poszczególne ustawy. Szczegółowo ukazuje on niektóre reformy, a także największe instytucje powołane w ramach Nowego Ładu: National Recovery Administration, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Federal Emergency Relief Administration oraz Public Works Administration. Wielu ustaw autor pominął lub tylko o nich wspomniał. Przedstawione przez niego informacje nie zawsze były niedokładne. Niektóre z reform drugiej fazy programu zostały opisane wraz z opinią autora na temat ich przyszłości. W artykule zostały również ukazane, jako podsumowanie, reformy Nowego Ładu z okresu 1936–1939
Rings in the Extreme: PCNA Interactions and Adaptations in the Archaea
No full textBiochemical and structural analysis of archaeal proteins has enabled us to gain great insight into many eukaryotic processes, simultaneously offering fascinating glimpses into the adaptation and evolution of proteins at the extremes of life. The archaeal PCNAs, central to DNA replication and repair, are no exception. Characterisation of the proteins alone, and in complex with both peptides and protein binding partners, has demonstrated the diversity and subtlety in the regulatory role of these sliding clamps. Equally, studies have provided valuable detailed insight into the adaptation of protein interactions and mechanisms that are necessary for life in extreme environments
Structural insights into the dynamics and function of the C-terminus of the E. coli RNA chaperone Hfq
No full textThe hexameric Escherichia coli RNA chaperone Hfq (Hfq(Ec)) is involved in riboregulation of target mRNAs by small trans-encoded RNAs. Hfq proteins of different bacteria comprise an evolutionarily conserved core, whereas the C-terminus is variable in length. Although the structure of the conserved core has been elucidated for several Hfq proteins, no structural information has yet been obtained for the C-terminus. Using bioinformatics, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD) spectroscopy and small angle X-ray scattering we provide for the first time insights into the conformation and dynamic properties of the C-terminal extension of Hfq(Ec). These studies indicate that the C-termini are flexible and extend laterally away from the hexameric core, displaying in this way features typical of intrinsically disordered proteins that facilitate intermolecular interactions. We identified a minimal, intrinsically disordered region of the C-terminus supporting the interactions with longer RNA fragments. This minimal region together with rest of the C-terminal extension provides a flexible moiety capable of tethering long and structurally diverse RNA molecules. Furthermore, SRCD spectroscopy supported the hypothesis that RNA fragments exceeding a certain length interact with the C-termini of Hfq(Ec)
Computational study of polarizability anisotropies
No full textA B S T R A C T
The dipole polarizabilities (α) and polarizability anisotropies (Δα) of over twenty molecules are calculated in order to search for negative Δα. The geometry of each molecule is first optimized at the level of CCSD(T)/cc-pVQZ. Then, the α tensors are computed both with CCSD(T)/daug-cc-pVTZ in Gaussian09 and with the exchange-correlation potential Vxc known as SAOP in the Amsterdam density functional theory program called ADF and a large basis set called QZ3P-3DIFFUSE. In addition to the popular formula of the ΔαRaman connected with Raman spectroscopy, we also present values of an alternative definition of the polarizability anisotropy ΔαKerr connected with Kerr spectroscopy, recently proposed by Kampfrath and colleagues.1 On one hand, the signs of many ΔαRaman are undetermined, while, on the other hand, we obtain negative ΔαKerr for more than half of the small molecules studied. Of the 24 molecules studied, 18 have negative ΔαKerr.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author
Structural and functional characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa CupB chaperones
No full textPseudomonas aeruginosa, an important human pathogen, is estimated to be responsible for,10% of nosocomial infections worldwide. The pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa starts from its colonization in the damaged tissue or medical devices (e. g. catheters, prothesis and implanted heart valve etc.) facilitated by several extracellular adhesive factors including fimbrial pili. Several clusters containing fimbrial genes have been previously identified on the P. aeruginosa chromosome and named cup [1]. The assembly of the CupB pili is thought to be coordinated by two chaperones, CupB2 and CupB4. However, due to the lack of structural and biochemical data, their chaperone activities remain speculative. In this study, we report the 2.5 A crystal structure of P. aeruginosa CupB2. Based on the structure, we further tested the binding specificity of CupB2 and CupB4 towards CupB1 (the presumed major pilus subunit) and CupB6 (the putative adhesin) using limited trypsin digestion and strep-tactin pull-down assay. The structural and biochemical data suggest that CupB2 and CupB4 might play different, but not redundant, roles in CupB secretion. CupB2 is likely to be the chaperone of CupB1, and CupB4 could be the chaperone of CupB4:CupB5:CupB6, in which the interaction of CupB4 and CupB6 might be mediated via CupB5
Structural and mutagenic analysis of the RM controller protein C.Esp1396I
No full textBacterial restriction-modification (RM) systems are comprised of two complementary enzymatic activities that prevent the establishment of foreign DNA in a bacterial cell: DNA methylation and DNA restriction. These two activities are tightly regulated to prevent over-methylation or auto-restriction. Many Type II RM systems employ a controller (C) protein as a transcriptional regulator for the endonuclease gene (and in some cases, the methyltransferase gene also). All high-resolution structures of C-protein/DNA-protein complexes solved to date relate to C.Esp1396I, from which the interactions of specific amino acid residues with DNA bases and/or the phosphate backbone could be observed. Here we present both structural and DNA binding data for a series of mutations to the key DNA binding residues of C.Esp1396I. Our results indicate that mutations to the backbone binding residues (Y37, S52) had a lesser affect on DNA binding affinity than mutations to those residues that bind directly to the bases (T36, R46), and the contributions of each side chain to the binding energies are compared. High-resolution X-ray crystal structures of the mutant and native proteins showed that the fold of the proteins was unaffected by the mutations, but also revealed variation in the flexible loop conformations associated with DNA sequence recognition. Since the tyrosine residue Y37 contributes to DNA bending in the native complex, we have solved the structure of the Y37F mutant protein/DNA complex by X-ray crystallography to allow us to directly compare the structure of the DNA in the mutant and native complexes
The structural basis of differential DNA sequence recognition by restriction–modification controller proteins
No full textApplication of Concurrent Development Practices to Petrochemical Equipment Design
No full textPrinciples of concurrent development are applied to the design of a small-scale device for converting natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas into hydrogen. The small hydrogen generator is intended for serial production for application in the production of industrial hydrogen, fueling stationary fuel cell power systems and refueling hydrogen-fueled fuel cell electric vehicles. The concurrent development process is contrasted with the traditional, linear development process for petrochemical systems and equipment, and the design is benchmarked against existing small hydrogen generators as well as industrial hydrogen production apparatus. A novel system and hardware design are described, and a single cycle of concurrent development is applied in the areas of catalyst development, thermodynamic optimization, and reactor modeling and design. The impact of applying concurrent development techniques is assessed through economic modeling, and directions for future development work are identified.Ph. D
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