Addenda to the insect fauna of Al-Baha Province,Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with zoogeographical notes

The first list of insects (Arthropoda: Hexapoda) of Al-Baha Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was published in 2013 and contained a total of 582 species. In the present study, 142 species belonging to 51 families and representing seven orders are added to the fauna of Al-Baha Province, bringing the total number of species now recorded from the province to 724. The reported species are assigned to recognized regional zoogeographical regions. Seventeen of the species are recorded for the first time for KSA, namely: Platypleura arabica Myers [Cicadidae, Hemiptera]; Cletomorpha sp.; Gonocerus juniperi Herrich-Schäffer [Coreidae, Hemiptera]; Coranus lateritius (Stål); Rhynocoris bipustulatus (Fieber) [Reduviidae, Hemiptera]; Cantacader iranicus Lis; Dictyla poecilla Drake &; Hill [Tingidae, Hemiptera]; Mantispa scabricollis McLachlan [Mantispidae, Neuroptera]; Cerocoma schreberi Fabricius [Meloidae, Coleoptera]; Platypus parallelus (Fabricius) [Curculionidae, Coleoptera]; Zodion cinereum (Fabricius) [Conopidae, Diptera]; Ulidia ?ru?ceps Becker [Ulidiidae, Diptera]; Atherigona reversura Villeneuve [Muscidae, Diptera]; Aplomya metallica (Wiedemann); Cylindromyia sp. [Tachinidae, Diptera]; Messor semirufus (André); and Nesomyrmex denticulatus (Mayr) [Formicidae, Hymenoptera]. Also, the reduviid bug Dasycnemus sahlbergi Bergroth, that was questionably recorded from KSA is confirmed herein as occurring in KSA. The generic name Peirates (Reduviidae, Hemiptera) and the specific name of Apis florea Fabricius (Apidae, Hymenoptera) were inadvertently misspelled in the original list and are corrected here. Zoogeographically, the present study supports the original study conclusion that the insect species composition of Al-Baha Province is strongly affiliated with the Afrotropical Region rather than to the Palearctic Region or the Eremic Zone. Our insect surveys emphasize the fact that parts of the Arabian Peninsula, including Al-Baha Province, ought to be considered part of the Afrotropical Region rather than in the Palaearctic Region or the Eremic Zone.     

Structural characterization of AA 2024-MoSi2 nanocomposite powders produced by mechanical milling

Nano-sized MoSi₂ powder was produced successfully from commercially available MoSi₂ by a mechanical milling process carried out for 100 h, and mechanical alloying was employed to synthesize AA 2024-MoSi₂ nanocomposites. The effects of MoSi2 reinforcement and mechanical milling on the structure, morphology, and iron contamination of the produced materials were investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic absorption spectrometry. It is revealed that the morphology of the aluminum alloy changes continuously during milling from spherical to plate-like, irregular, and finally equiaxed. The presence of MoSi₂ reinforcement accelerates the milling process and results in a smaller average particle size. The Williamson-Hall method determined that the crystallite size of the aluminum alloy in the composite powder is smaller than that of the unreinforced alloy at the same milling time and this size reaches 45 nm after 16 h milling time. The Fe contamination content is higher for the nanocomposite in comparison with the unreinforced alloy because of the wearing role of MoSi₂ hard particles.     

挤压工艺对可生物降解 Mg–5Zn–1.5Y 镁合金显微组织及力学性能和腐蚀性能的影响

本研究分析了挤压温度和挤压比对 Mg–5Zn–1.5Y 合金的显微组织、硬度、压缩和腐蚀行为的影响。显微组织观察表明,铸造合金由α-Mg晶粒和Mg₃Zn₆Y和Mg₃Zn₃Y₂金属间化合物组成,主要位于α-Mg晶界上。较高温度下的挤压合金显示出较粗的晶粒微观结构,而以较高比率挤压的合金含有较细的微观结构,尽管在两种条件下都测量到具有较低金属间化合物的更多动态再结晶晶粒。较低温度 (340°C) 和较高比率 (1:11.5) 的组合条件提供了较高的抗压强度。然而,没有实现显着的硬度改善。挤压工艺可以降低铸造合金在模拟体液中的腐蚀率超过 80%,这主要是由于细化了微观结构。与挤压比相比,挤压温度对耐腐蚀性能的影响更为显着,挤压温度越高,耐腐蚀性能越高。     

A Prototype of CAPP System for Rotational Parts

Noticing in recent years that the world is running out of mineral resources, the price of engineering materials will continually rise in the future, the percentage of the cost of manufactured part that is due to the cost of materials is also rising. The amount of material must be removed away to produce the final product should be minimized, excess stock will increase not only the material cost, but also processing cost, fixture cost, tooling cost, and increases machine cycle times. This paper proposed a va...     

Structural basis for Duffy recognition by the malaria parasite Duffy-binding-like domain

Molecular processes that govern pathogenic features of erythrocyte invasion and cytoadherence in malaria are reliant on Plasmodium-specific Duffy-binding-like domains (DBLs). These cysteine-rich modules recognize diverse host cell-surface receptors during pathogenesis. DBLs of parasite erythrocyte-binding proteins mediate invasion, and those from the antigenically variant P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) have been implicated in cytoadherence. The simian and human malarial parasites, P. knowlesi and P. vivax, invade human erythrocytes exclusively through the host DARC receptor (Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines). Here we present the crystal structure of the P. knowlesi DBL domain (Pkalpha-DBL), which binds to DARC during invasion of human erythrocytes. Pkalpha-DBL retains the overall fold observed in DBLs from P. falciparum erythrocyte-binding antigen (EBA)-175 (ref. 4). Mapping the residues that have previously been implicated in binding highlights a fairly flat but exposed site for DARC recognition in subdomain 2 of Pkalpha-DBL; this is in sharp contrast to receptor recognition by EBA-175 (ref. 4). In Pkalpha-DBL, the residues that contact DARC and the clusters of residues under immune pressure map to opposite surfaces of the DBL, and suggest a possible mechanism for immune evasion by P. vivax. Our comparative structural analysis of Pkalpha-DBL and P. falciparum EBA-175 provides a framework for the understanding of malaria parasite DBLs, and may affect the development of new prophylactic and therapeutic strategies.     

Inhibition of catalase by (Arylthio)-acetohydroxamic acids

Zusammenfassung Leberkatalase wird durch (Arylthio)-acetohydroxamsäure gehemmt. I₆₀ Werte: 4.5·10^–3 to 1,0·10^–4 M.p-Bromoderivat (pI₅₀=4.0) zeigt die stärkste Hemmung. Substitution in der Para-Stellung des Benzol Ringes verursacht eine zunehmende Hemmung in der Reihenfolge: CH₃OCH₃ClBr. Es wird vermutet, dass sich der Hemmstoff nicht mit dem aktiven Zentrum des Ferments verbindet.     

Dynamics of fat cell turnover in humans

Obesity is increasing in an epidemic manner in most countries and constitutes a public health problem by enhancing the risk for cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes. Owing to the increase in obesity, life expectancy may start to decrease in developed countries for the first time in recent history. The factors determining fat mass in adult humans are not fully understood, but increased lipid storage in already developed fat cells (adipocytes) is thought to be most important. Here we show that adipocyte number is a major determinant for the fat mass in adults. However, the number of fat cells stays constant in adulthood in lean and obese individuals, even after marked weight loss, indicating that the number of adipocytes is set during childhood and adolescence. To establish the dynamics within the stable population of adipocytes in adults, we have measured adipocyte turnover by analysing the integration of 14C derived from nuclear bomb tests in genomic DNA. Approximately 10% of fat cells are renewed annually at all adult ages and levels of body mass index. Neither adipocyte death nor generation rate is altered in early onset obesity, suggesting a tight regulation of fat cell number in this condition during adulthood. The high turnover of adipocytes establishes a new therapeutic target for pharmacological intervention in obesity.     

A data-mining approach to biomarker identification from protein profiles using discrete stationary wavelet transform

Objective： To develop a new bioinformatic tool based on a data-mining approach for extraction of the most informative proteins that could be used to find the potential biomarkers for the detection of cancer. Methods： Two independent datasets from serum samples of 253 ovarian cancer and 167 breast cancer patients were used. The samples were examined by surfaceenhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry （SELDI-TOF MS）. The datasets were used to extract the informative proteins using a data-mining method in the discrete stationary wavelet transform domain. As a dimensionality reduction procedure, the hard thresholding method was applied to reduce the number of wavelet coefficients. Also, a distance measure was used to select the most discriminative coefficients. To find the potential biomarkers using the selected wavelet coefficients, we applied the inverse discrete stationary wavelet transform combined with a two-sided t-test. Results： From the ovarian cancer dataset, a set of five proteins were detected as potential biomarkers that could be used to identify the cancer patients from the healthy cases with accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 100%. Also, from the breast cancer dataset, a set of eight proteins were found as the potential biomarkers that could separate the healthy cases from the cancer patients with accuracy of 98.26%, sensitivity of 100%, and specificity of 95.6%. Conclusion： The results have shown that the new bioinformatic tool can be used in combination with the high-throughput proteomic data such as SELDI-TOF MS to find the potential biomarkers with high discriminative power.     

Effects of protonation and deprotonation on the reactivity of quinolone: A theoretical study

Quinolones are the subject of much research as antibacterial compounds and as a new class of antitumor agents.The protonation(P) and deprotonation(D) sites and conformations of quinolone were investigated.The proton affinity(PA) on each of the possible sites in 4-oxo-1,4-dihydroquinoline has been calculated by the restricted Hartree-Fock(HF) and density functional theory(DFT) methods with the basis set 6-311G**.The O-site of protonation was found to be strongly favored over the N-site for the studied compound in the gas phase.Deprotonation takes place in quinolone by detachment of the N-H and COOH protons.The PA of the simple quinolone molecule was used to characterize quinolone reactivity with DNA binding sites.The relative stabilities of the syn and anti conformations were investigated at the B3LYP/6-311G** level of theory;the syn form was shown to be slightly more stable.Its conformation seems to be intrastabilized by hydrogen-bonds consisting of a hydroxyl proton with the O10 atom as the acceptor.We computed and discussed the charge-density distribution and electrostatic potential to explain the reactivity of quinolone.