Some properties of the goat placental lactogen

Summary Goat placental lactogen was partially purified from a medium collected after placental tissue incubation. The data obtained by disc electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing experiments, as well as by means of radioreceptor assay methods, provide evidence of the similarity between the goat and ovine placental lactogen.The careful technical assistance of L. Tichovská is gratefuly acknowledged.     

Effects of cerebral lateral,ventricular infusions of phloridzin on feeding and body weight in Gallus domesticus (L.)

Summary Contrary to earlier findings in rats, cerebral lateral ventricular infusions of 1×10^–3 M or 2×10^–3 M solutions of phloridzin at a rate of 2.5 l/min for 90 min had no significant stimulating effects on food intake and weight gain in hens and cocks. These different responses to intraventricular phloridzin might reflect a difference of sensitivity to the inhibitory action of phloridzin on glucose transport in cerebral cells or certain peculiarities of mechanisms controlling food intake in chickens.     

The structure of amoorastatone and the cytotoxic limonoid 12-hydroxyamoorastatin

Summary 2 new limonoid-type terpenes have been isolated from an aqueous extract of seeds produced by the Eastern Himalayan (India) plantAphanamixis grandifolia Bl. By interpreting principally mass spectral and nuclear magnetic resonance data, the structures of 12-hydroxyamoorastatin (2b) and amoorastatone (3) were elucidated. Unequivocal evidence for the 12-hydroxyamoorastatin structural assignment was obtained by chemical conversion to sendanin (4). Amoorastatin derivative2b was found to significantly inhibit growth of the murine P388 lymphocytic leukemia cell lines but amoorastatone in the same system was inactive. In a comparative biological study, sendanin (4) and anthothecol (7) were also found significantly to inhibit growth of the P388 cell line, while rohitukin (8) and limonin (9) were found to be inactive.Part 63 of the series Antineoplastic Agents. For the previous contribution refer to G.R. Pettit, T.S. Krupa and R.M. Reynolds, Int. J. Peptide Protein Res., in preparation. The present investigation was supported in part by Public Health Research Grant No. CA-16049-05 from the National Cancer Institute, the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, Mrs Mary Dell Pritzlaff, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation, Mr John F. Schmidt, and the Phoenix Coca-Cola Bottling Company.     

块三对角矩阵方程的追赶法及其应用

导出了块三对角矩阵方程追赶法的一套递推关系式，并编制出相应的计算机Ｃｏｄｅ。该Ｃｏｄｅ具有良好的实用价值，可供在实际问题中使用。     

离子束增强纯铁的磨损行为研究

纯铁表面沉积Ｔｉ和Ａｌ膜的同时，用Ｎ＾＋离子束注入增强沉积，成功地形成了性能优越的表面改性层。与ＺｒＯ２陶瓷球对磨结果表明，经Ａｌ＋Ｎ＾＋ＡＫ Ｉ＋ｎ＾＋离子束增强沉积后，纯铁的表面显微硬度及磨损性能得到了较大的提高，磨痕形貌和元素分布观察结果表明：离子束增强沉积处理前后，磨损的机理发生了变化。     

纳米Ni-Al2O3金属陶瓷粉末热压致密化过程

采用粒径小于100 nm,金属Ni包覆Al2O3得到的纳米Ni-Al2O3化学包覆粉为原料,将Ni含量不同的几种纳米Ni-Al2O3(粒径约为38 nm)金属陶瓷复合粉末首先采取模压成形方式压制成直径为30 mm的圆片,然后放在石墨模具中在热压机上进行热压,研究热压(HP)温度和Ni含量对致密化过程的影响.研究结果表明:当Ni含量为20%和热压温度为1 400℃时,制品密度和显微硬度最高;在1 400℃热压2 h,Al2O3-Ni2O烧结体的相对密度最高,达到99.6%,Al2O3-Ni5的显微硬度HV达到1 690.9kg/mm2;随着Ni含量的增加,制品硬度降低,当Ni含量超过20%时,硬度降低非常显著,Ni含量为50%时HV降至1 316.7 kg/mm2;烧结体中Ni颗粒均匀分布在基体中,且大部分位于三角晶界处,有效地阻止了Al2O3基体晶粒的长大.     

Cell-free expression and in meso crystallisation of an integral membrane kinase for structure determination

Membrane proteins are key elements in cell physiology and drug targeting, but getting a high-resolution structure by crystallographic means is still enormously challenging. Novel strategies are in big demand to facilitate the structure determination process that will ultimately hasten the day when sequence information alone can provide a three-dimensional model. Cell-free or in vitro expression enables rapid access to large quantities of high-quality membrane proteins suitable for an array of applications. Despite its impressive efficiency, to date only two membrane proteins produced by the in vitro approach have yielded crystal structures. Here, we have analysed synergies of cell-free expression and crystallisation in lipid mesophases for generating an X-ray structure of the integral membrane enzyme diacylglycerol kinase to 2.28-Å resolution. The quality of cellular and cell-free-expressed kinase samples has been evaluated systematically by comparing (1) spectroscopic properties, (2) purity and oligomer formation, (3) lipid content and (4) functionality. DgkA is the first membrane enzyme crystallised based on cell-free expression. The study provides a basic standard for the crystallisation of cell-free-expressed membrane proteins and the methods detailed here should prove generally useful and contribute to accelerating the pace at which membrane protein structures are solved.     

Arboreality predicts Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection level in tropical direct-developing frogs

Pathogen-mediated changes in host behaviour can result from hosts altering their habitat preferences. Although infection risk with pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in amphibians is associated with environments favouring its growth, the relationship with microhabitat use has not been examined. Here, we aim to determine if microhabitats used by frogs during their nocturnal activity predict B. dendrobatidis prevalence and infection intensity. Our focal host, Eleutherodactylus coqui, is a habitat generalist that uses multiple habitats from the forest floor to the canopy. We analysed data on B. dendrobatidis occurrence in 157 adults and 122 juveniles at El Yunque National forest in Puerto Rico. We categorized each individual’s nocturnal microhabitat as forest floor, curled palm fronds in the floor, arboreal bromeliads and foliage or tree trunks 50 cm to 2.5 m above ground. We found that frogs on the forest floor had the greatest B. dendrobatidis prevalence (73%), compared with those active in vegetation above ground (55%). Overall, the probability of B. dendrobatidis infection in frogs using microhabitats on the forest floor was twice as great as for those on arboreal substrates. Differences in B. dendrobatidis prevalence and intensity in E. coqui may be explained by specific abiotic conditions of microenvironments (temperature and humidity) affecting both pathogen and host, and by the age-specific ecological requirements of hosts. Adults were found to be most active in microhabitats where individuals had lower infection burdens, suggesting pathogen-modulated habitat choice. This work has important implications for the evolutionary dynamics of enzootic diseases and provides data that may inform potential mitigation strategies against a generalist amphibian pathogen.     

On the Modelling and Forecasting of Multivariate Realized Volatility: Generalized Heterogeneous Autoregressive (GHAR) Model

Recent multivariate extensions of the popular heterogeneous autoregressive model (HAR) for realized volatility leave substantial information unmodelled in residuals. We propose to employ a system of seemingly unrelated regressions to model and forecast a realized covariance matrix to capture this information. We find that the newly proposed generalized heterogeneous autoregressive (GHAR) model outperforms competing approaches in terms of economic gains, providing better mean–variance trade‐off, while, in terms of statistical precision, GHAR is not substantially dominated by any other model. Our results provide a comprehensive comparison of the performance when realized covariance, subsampled realized covariance and multivariate realized kernel estimators are used. We study the contribution of the estimators across different sampling frequencies, and show that the multivariate realized kernel and subsampled realized covariance estimators deliver further gains compared to realized covariance estimated on a 5‐minute frequency. In order to show economic and statistical gains, a portfolio of various sizes is used. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.