Intrinsically disordered proteins in crowded milieu: when chaos prevails within the cellular gumbo

Effects of macromolecular crowding on structural and functional properties of ordered proteins, their folding, interactability, and aggregation are well documented. Much less is known about how macromolecular crowding might affect structural and functional behaviour of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) or intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDPRs). To fill this gap, this review represents a systematic analysis of the available literature data on the behaviour of IDPs/IDPRs in crowded environment. Although it was hypothesized that, due to the excluded-volume effects present in crowded environments, IDPs/IDPRs would invariantly fold in the presence of high concentrations of crowding agents or in the crowded cellular environment, accumulated data indicate that, based on their response to the presence of crowders, IDPs/IDPRs can be grouped into three major categories, foldable, non-foldable, and unfoldable. This is because natural cellular environment is not simply characterized by the presence of high concentration of “inert” macromolecules, but represents an active milieu, components of which are engaged in direct physical interactions and soft interactions with target proteins. Some of these interactions with cellular components can cause (local) unfolding of query proteins. In other words, since crowding can cause both folding and unfolding of an IDP or its regions, the outputs of the placing of a query protein to the crowded environment would depend on the balance between these two processes. As a result, and because of the spatio-temporal heterogeneity in structural organization of IDPs, macromolecular crowding can differently affect structures of different IDPs. Recent studies indicate that some IDPs are able to undergo liquid–liquid-phase transitions leading to the formation of various proteinaceous membrane-less organelles (PMLOs). Although interiors of such PMLOs are self-crowded, being characterized by locally increased concentrations of phase-separating IDPs, these IDPs are minimally foldable or even non-foldable at all (at least within the physiologically safe time-frame of normal PMLO existence).     

拓扑流体力学及其新近发展

拓扑流体力学是理性力学的一个重要研究方向,在理论上具有重要价值,在实践中日益显出独特的作用.本文试对该方向进行综述性介绍,目的是吸引更多的国内科研工作者进入这一重要领域.本文的重点放在流体螺度(Helicity)的拓扑内涵方面.除了列出螺度与数学纽结场论的关系(即与互缠绕、自缠绕数以及作者近年来发展出来的流体纽结多项式拓扑不变量之间的关系),还介绍了国际上在流体纽结复杂系综的能量-结构复杂性关系方面的研究.最后,通过超流涡旋纽结/链环重联的具体实例,展示了这一领域当中典型的数值计算方法.我们希望通过这种理论推导与数值计算同时呈现的方式,使读者对这一国际前沿交叉领域的核心问题、研究方法以及科研中可能面对的技术困难获得一个整体的了解和把握.     

Ecological notes of the alien species Godiva quadricolor (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia) occurring in Faro Lake (Italy)

The first record from Sicily of the introduced facelinid nudibranch Godiva quadricolor allowed the detection of trophic relationships with the polycerid Polycera hedgpethi, another non-native nudibranch, and with two bryozoan species, namely the naturalized Cheilostomatida Bugula neritina and the cryptogenic Ctenostomatida Amathia verticillata. The settlement of both nudibranchs was presumably promoted by a trophic shift of P. hedgpethi from the natural prey B. neritina towards the largely available and not exploited A. verticillata. This short food web, without evident links with native fauna and having G. quadricolor as the top predator, is described. A DNA barcoding approach was used to confirm the identity of this facelinid species and to explore the possible genetic divergence occurring among the samples analysed.     

Effect of MWCNT reinforcement on the precipitation-hardening behavior of AA2219

Aluminum alloy matrix composites have found a predominant place in research, and their applications are explored in almost all industries. The aerospace industry has been using precipitation-hardenable alloys in structural applications. However, insufficient literature is available on the influence of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on precipitation-hardenable alloy composite materials; thus, this work was designed to elucidate the effect on MWCNT reinforcement on AA2219 with and without precipitation hardening. Reinforcement with MWCNTs has been reported to accelerate precipitation and to achieve greater hardness within a much shorter time. The addition of 0.75wt% MWCNTs resulted in maximal hardness at 90 min, which is approximately 27% of improvement over the maximum hardness achieved by the corresponding monolithic alloy after 10 h of aging. The sample reinforced with 0.75wt% MWCNTs showed an improvement of 82% in hardness by solutionizing and aging compared to that achieved by sintering.     

多轴全地面起重机稳态转向特性分析

根据拉格朗日法建立了多轴全轮转向车辆的三自由度动力学模型和运动微分方程,采用零质心侧偏角控制策略,研究了车辆作稳态转向时,其转向中心位置、横摆角速度增益及侧倾角增益如何随车速而变化,并且给出了稳态圆周行驶的评价指标。在零质心侧偏角控制策略下,讨论了多轴全轮转向车辆的转向特性,分析了影响转向性能的因素。为多轴全地面起重机的转向设计提供了理论依据。     

水合物地层低温钻井液对井底岩石表层强度影响

由于天然气水合物仅在高压低温条件下稳定存在,为了保持水合物稳定,在钻井过程中宜采用低温钻井液,而在低温条件下钻井液能否对井底岩石表层起到软化作用,对于提高机械钻速具有重要意义。在分析钻井液对井底岩石表层软化作用机制的基础上,较系统地建立低温钻井液软化井底岩石表层定量评价方法,以清水为对比浆液,通过试验将6种水合物地层模拟钻井液(分别含有质量分数为0.1%的表面活性剂和有机盐处理剂)在低温条件下对薄片砂岩试样的软化效果进行对比。结果表明:相比于两种有机盐处理剂,含表面活性剂的4种模拟钻井液在低温条件下对岩样软化效果更好,有利于提高岩石破碎效率和机械钻速;4种含表面活性剂钻井液中,含十二烷基硫酸钠(SDS)钻井液对岩样的软化效果最好。     

社区日常服务设施可步行性评价系统开发与应用

在步行城市目标指引下,着眼于社区日常服务设施,探讨其布局对步行出行可能性的影响,即可步行性.以日常服务设施的步行使用特征为基础,指出使用频率、使用多样性、使用的距离衰减规律是影响步行可能性的主要因素并进一步构建了可步行性的评价方法,同时借助计算机辅助系统开发了可步行性评价系统软件WES1.0.以上海市新江湾城街道为例展示了该软件在社区可步行性规划中的应用过程,并给出了可步行性的日常服务设施布局方案.