This article presents a community learning model formulated by Engineers Without Borders Colombia with the aim of providing communities with tools to create sustainable productive solutions which have relevancy for members and for potential customers. The goal of this formulation is to promote learning processes that are guided by decisions made by community members to propose sustainable and replicable initiatives. The model applicability is evidenced through a case study devoted to strengthening community-led green businesses in the Guavio Province, Colombia by collecting lessons and conclusions. Ultimately, this collection will prove useful in replicating the learning model in other similar rural communities.
Host genetics has an important role in leprosy, and variants in the shared promoter region of PARK2 and PACRG were the first major susceptibility factors identified by positional cloning. Here we report the linkage disequilibrium mapping of the second linkage peak of our previous genome-wide scan, located close to the HLA complex. In both a Vietnamese familial sample and an Indian case-control sample, the low-producing lymphotoxin-alpha (LTA)+80 A allele was significantly associated with an increase in leprosy risk (P = 0.007 and P = 0.01, respectively). Analysis of an additional case-control sample from Brazil and an additional familial sample from Vietnam showed that the LTA+80 effect was much stronger in young individuals. In the combined sample of 298 Vietnamese familial trios, the odds ratio of leprosy for LTA+80 AA/AC versus CC subjects was 2.11 (P = 0.000024), which increased to 5.63 (P = 0.0000004) in the subsample of 121 trios of affected individuals diagnosed before 16 years of age. In addition to identifying LTA as a major gene associated with early-onset leprosy, our study highlights the critical role of case- and population-specific factors in the dissection of susceptibility variants in complex diseases. 相似文献
Glycosylation constitutes one of the most important posttranslational modifications employed by biological systems to modulate
protein biophysical properties. Due to the direct biochemical and biomedical implications of achieving control over protein
stability and function by chemical means, there has been great interest in recent years towards the development of chemical
strategies for protein glycosylation. Since current knowledge about glycoprotein biophysics has been mainly derived from the
study of naturally glycosylated proteins, chemical glycosylation provides novel insights into its mechanistic understanding
by affording control over glycosylation parameters. This review presents a survey of the effects that natural and chemical
glycosylation have on the fundamental biophysical properties of proteins (structure, dynamics, stability, and function). This
is complemented by a mechanistic discussion of how glycans achieve such effects and discussion of the implications of employing
chemical glycosylation as a tool to exert control over protein biophysical properties within biochemical and biomedical applications.
Received 15 December 2006; received after revision 28 March 2007; accepted 25 April 2007 相似文献
The RecQ family of DNA helicases is highly conserved throughout evolution and plays an important role in the maintenance of
genomic stability in all organisms. Mutations in three of the five known family members in humans, BLM, WRN and RECQL4, give rise to disorders that are characterized by predisposition to cancer and premature aging, emphasizing the importance
of studying the RecQ proteins and their cellular activities. Interestingly, three autosomal recessive disorders have been
associated with mutations in the RECQL4 gene: Rothmund-Thomson, RAPADILINO, and Baller-Gerold syndromes, thus making RECQL4 unique within the RecQ family of DNA
helicases. To date, however, the molecular function of RECQL4 and the possible cellular pathways in which it is involved remain
poorly understood. Here, we present an overview of recent findings in connection with RECQL4 and try to highlight different
directions the field could head, helping to clarify the role of RECQL4 in preventing tumorigenesis and maintenance of genome
integrity in humans.
Received 31 October 2006; received after revision 4 January 2007; accepted 5 February 2007 相似文献
We have genotyped 14,436 nonsynonymous SNPs (nsSNPs) and 897 major histocompatibility complex (MHC) tag SNPs from 1,000 independent cases of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), multiple sclerosis (MS) and breast cancer (BC). Comparing these data against a common control dataset derived from 1,500 randomly selected healthy British individuals, we report initial association and independent replication in a North American sample of two new loci related to ankylosing spondylitis, ARTS1 and IL23R, and confirmation of the previously reported association of AITD with TSHR and FCRL3. These findings, enabled in part by increased statistical power resulting from the expansion of the control reference group to include individuals from the other disease groups, highlight notable new possibilities for autoimmune regulation and suggest that IL23R may be a common susceptibility factor for the major 'seronegative' diseases. 相似文献