AlkB-mediated oxidative demethylation reverses DNA damage in Escherichia coli

The bacterial AlkB protein is known to be involved in cellular recovery from alkylation damage; however, the function of this protein remains unknown. AlkB homologues have been identified in several organisms, including humans, and a recent sequence alignment study has suggested that these proteins may belong to a superfamily of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent and iron-dependent oxygenases (2OG-Fe(ii)-oxygenases). Here we show that AlkB from Escherichia coli is indeed a 2-oxoglutarate-dependent and iron-dependent DNA repair enzyme that releases replication blocks in alkylated DNA by a mechanism involving oxidative demethylation of 1-methyladenine residues. This mechanism represents a new pathway for DNA repair and the third type of DNA damage reversal mechanism so far discovered.     

An electrochemical and microstructural characterization of steel-mortar admixed with corrosion inhibitors

The present research brings new insights on the role of admixed corrosion inhibitors in the processes of cement hydration and rebar corrosion.The admixing of NaCl and the corrosion inhibitors in fresh mortar was found to alter the morphology and microstructure of the hardened mortar at the steel-mortar interfacial region.The admixing of the inhibitors increased the risk of carbonation of cement hydrates at the steel-mortar interfacial region,but partially displaced chloride ions. Chloride and the admixed in...     

纳米技术与发展中国家

作者将“nano*”与世界银行确定的每个经济类主题词组合检索，结果发现发展中国家普遍在从事
纳米技术研发。进一步研究表明，尽管发展中国家纳米技术的研发能力随着合作和信息利用的加强而提高，
但是这些国家已经偏离了纳米技术的“社会开发”这一通常被认为是最适于发展中国家的研究宗旨。另外，
对卫生保健相关专利的分析证实，各国实力严重不平衡，存在所谓的“纳米鸿沟”现象。在发展中国家中，
中国拥有的专利权所占份额很高，因此“纳米鸿沟”不仅存在于发展中国家和发达国家之间，在发展中国
家也同样存在。发展中国家的研发水平较低，纳米技术有可能走向以往导致全球技术大分裂的技术老路。     

Human and bacterial oxidative demethylases repair alkylation damage in both RNA and DNA

Repair of DNA damage is essential for maintaining genome integrity, and repair deficiencies in mammals are associated with cancer, neurological disease and developmental defects. Alkylation damage in DNA is repaired by at least three different mechanisms, including damage reversal by oxidative demethylation of 1-methyladenine and 3-methylcytosine by Escherichia coli AlkB. By contrast, little is known about consequences and cellular handling of alkylation damage to RNA. Here we show that two human AlkB homologues, hABH2 and hABH3, also are oxidative DNA demethylases and that AlkB and hABH3, but not hABH2, also repair RNA. Whereas AlkB and hABH3 prefer single-stranded nucleic acids, hABH2 acts more efficiently on double-stranded DNA. In addition, AlkB and hABH3 expressed in E. coli reactivate methylated RNA bacteriophage MS2 in vivo, illustrating the biological relevance of this repair activity and establishing RNA repair as a potentially important defence mechanism in living cells. The different catalytic properties and the different subnuclear localization patterns shown by the human homologues indicate that hABH2 and hABH3 have distinct roles in the cellular response to alkylation damage.     

A novel order reduction method for nonlinear dynamical system under external periodic excitations

The concept of approximate inertial manifold (AIM) is extended to develop a kind of nonlinear order reduction technique for non-autonomous nonlinear systems in second-order form in this paper. Using the modal transformation, a large nonlinear dynamical system is split into a ‘master’ subsystem, a ‘slave’ subsystem, and a ‘negligible’ subsystem. Accordingly, a novel order reduction method (Method I) is developed to construct a low order subsystem by neglecting the ‘negligible’ subsystem and slaving the ‘slav...