Promoting Entrepreneurship through a Community Learning Model – Case Study: Green Businesses

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.

     

Stepwise replication identifies a low-producing lymphotoxin-alpha allele as a major risk factor for early-onset leprosy

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.     

Modulation of protein biophysical properties by chemical glycosylation: biochemical insights and biomedical implications

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     

The gene encoding ganglioside-induced differentiation-associated protein 1 is mutated in axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4A disease.

We identified three distinct mutations and six mutant alleles in GDAP1 in three families with axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) neuropathy and vocal cord paresis, which were previously linked to the CMT4A locus on chromosome 8q21.1. These results establish the molecular etiology of CMT4A (MIM 214400) and suggest that it may be associated with both axonal and demyelinating phenotypes.     

高校科技保密与国家安全利益

高校在科学技术研究的活动中,已成为国家主力.科技保密已成为国家安全和国家利益的重要方面.本文在对科技保密重要性和必要性认识的基础上,分析了高校科技保密中存在的问题,提出搞好高校科技保密工作的相应对策.     

The first known use of vermillion

Vermillion has been shown to be useful in preserving human bones from 5000 years ago. Remarkably well-preserved human bones have been found in the dolmenic burial La Velilla in Osorno (Palencia, Spain), carefully covered by pulverized cinnabar (vermillion) which ensured their preservation even in non-favorable climatic conditions. We believe the red powder was deliberately deposited for preservative use because no cinnabar mine is to be found within 160 km, because of the large amount (hundreds of kilograms) used, and because its composition, red mercuric sulphide, is similar to that of preparations used in technical embalming. This finding pushes back the data of the use of mercury ore for preservation by four millennia in South America, and by at least one millennium in the Old World. Chemical and thermal analyses of vermillion in La Velilla have demonstrated its great purity and shown that the cinnabar was pulverized and washed (but not heated), producing a bright red-orange tone.     

一类拟线性第二边值问题的存在唯一性

本文在ｆ（ｔ,ｘ）,ｆｘ（ｔ,ｘ）,β（ｔ）连续,ｆｘ（ｔ,ｘ）≥－β（ｔ）,β（ｔ）≤π２０＋α２４,β（ｔ）π２０＋α２４,π０为方程αｓｉｎｘ２＋ｘｃｏｓｘ２＝０的最小正根条件下,证明了第二边值问题．ｘ＂＝αｘ＋ｆ（ｔ,ｘ）,ｘ（０）＝ａ,ｘ（１）＝ｂ对于任给实数α,ａ,ｂ都有唯一解     

A(p)函数类上的积分算子

设ｐ为正整数,Ａ（ｐ）表示单位圆盘内形如ｆ（ｚ）＝ｚｐ＋∑∞ｋ＝ｐ＋１ａｋｚｋ的解析函数全体,对给定的复常数λ≠－ｐ,及ｆ（ｚ）∈Ａ（ｐ）,用Ｊλｆ（ｚ）＝ｐ＋λｚλ∫ｚ０ｆ（ｔ）ｔλ－１ｄｔ定义算子Ｊλ,本文讨论了Ａ（ｐ）函数类上的积分算子Ｊλ,得到了在一定条件下Ｊλｆ（ｚ）∈Ｒ（ｐ）ｎ（α     

The timing of cyclophosphamide therapy in tumor-bearing rats affects the resistance to tumor challenge in survivors

Summary Cyclophosphamide given to rats 2 or 5 days after an injection of Yoshida ascites sarcoma cured approximately the same proportion of animals, but the resistance to a subsequent tumor challenge was found only in rats treated with the drug 5 days after tumor injection.     

Protein degradation in human T-lymphocytes

Summary Protein from resting or phytohemagglutinin-stimulated human peripheral blood T-lymphocytes, pulse-labeled in vitro for 1 h with³H-leucine, had a half-life of 30 h.