Summary of recent advancesA family of small molecules called ascarosides act as pheromones to control multiple behaviors in the nematode Caenorhabditiselegans....Full Text Available
P granules are non-membrane-bound organelles found in the germ-line cytoplasm throughout Caenorhabditiselegans development. Like their “germ granule” counterparts in...Full Text Available
The nuo-6 and isp-1 genes of C. elegans encode, respectively, subunits of complex I and III of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Partial loss-of-function...Full Text Available
Transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels have been implicated in detecting chemical, thermal and mechanical stimuli in organisms ranging from mammals to Caenorhabditiselegans....Full Text Available
A common property of aging in all animals is that chronologically and genetically identical individuals age at different rates. To unveil mechanisms that influence aging variability, we identified markers...Full Text Available
Genetic defects in the dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC) are responsible for a variety of pathological conditions including muscular dystrophy, cardiomyopathy, and vasospasm. Conserved DAPC...Full Text Available
Although acetylated α-tubulin is known to be a marker of stable microtubules in neurons, precise factors that regulate α-tubulin acetylation are, to date, largely unknown. Therefore,...Full Text Available
Disorders of mitochondrial fat metabolism lead to sudden death in infants and children. Although survival is possible, the underlying molecular mechanisms which enable this outcome have not yet been...Full Text Available
Activation of the innate immune system results in a rapid microbicidal response against microorganisms, which needs to be fine-tuned because uncontrolled immune responses can lead to infection and cancer,...Full Text Available
Stem cells are expected to play a key role in the development and maintenance of organisms, and hold great therapeutic promises. However, a number of questions must be answered to achieve an...Full Text Available
The insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) pathway is a conserved regulator of longevity, development, and metabolism. In Caenorhabditiselegans IIS involves activation of DAF-2 (insulin/IGF-1...Full Text Available
Cross-resistance to cefoxitin (FOX), chloramphenicol (CMP), and quinolones (nalidixic acid [NAL]) related to a putative efflux system overexpression has recently been reported for Klebsiella...Full Text Available
The decline in immune function with aging, known as immunosenescence, has been implicated in evolutionarily diverse species, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are not understood. During aging...Full Text Available
X-linked sideroblastic anemia with ataxia (XLSA/A) is a rare inherited disorder characterized by mild anemia and ataxia. XLSA/A is caused by mutations in the ABCB7 gene, which encodes...Full Text Available
The methylation of lysine 4 of Histone H3 (H3K4me) is an important component of epigenetic regulation. H3K4 methylation is a consequence of transcriptional activity, but also has been shown to contribute...Full Text Available
Werner syndrome (WS) is characterized by premature onset of age-associated disorders and predisposition to cancer. The WS protein, WRN, encodes 3′ → 5′ DNA helicase and 3′...Full Text Available
Werner Syndrome (WS) is an inherited disease characterized by premature onset of aging, increased cancer incidence, and genomic instability. The WS gene encodes a 1,432-amino acid polypeptide (WRN)...Full Text Available
We review the application of C. elegans as a model system to understand key aspects of stem cell biology. The only bona fide stem cells in C. elegans...Full Text Available
Werner states are paradigmatic examples of quantum states and play an innovative role in quantum information theory. In investigating the correlating capability of Werner states, we find the curious phenomenon that quantum correlations, as quantified by the entanglement of formation, may exceed the total correlations, as measured by the quantum mutual information. Consequently, though the entanglement of formation is so widely used in quantifying entanglement, it cannot be interpreted as a consistent measure of quantum correlations per se if we accept the folklore that total correlations are measured (or rather upper bounded) by the quantum mutual information.
Werner syndrome (WS) is a rare disorder characterized by the premature onset of several pathologies associated with aging. The gene responsible for WS codes for a RecQ-type DNA helicase and is believed...Full Text Available
Germline-specific granules of unknown function are found in a wide variety of organisms, including C. elegans, where they are called P granules. P granules are cytoplasmic bodies...Full Text Available
Motivation: Automatic recognition of cell identities is critical for quantitative measurement, targeting and manipulation of cells of model animals at single-cell resolution. It has been...Full Text Available
BackgroundMutations that impair mitochondrial functioning are associated with a variety of metabolic and age-related disorders. A barrier to rigorous tests of the role of mitochondrial...Full Text Available
SummaryThe life span of C. elegans can be increased via reduced function of the mitochondria; however, the extent to which mitochondrial alteration in a single,...Full Text Available
A mild reduction in mitochondrial respiration extends the life span of many species, including C. elegans. We recently showed that hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is required for...Full Text Available
Many lifespan-modulating genes are involved in either generation of oxidative substrates and end-products, or their detoxification and removal. Among such metabolites, only lipoperoxides have the ability...Full Text Available
BackgroundA strong association between stress resistance and longevity in multicellular organisms has been established as many mutations that extend lifespan also show increased...Full Text Available
DYF-13, originally identified in C. elegans within a collection of dye-filling chemosensory mutants, is one of several proteins that have been classified as putatively involved...Full Text Available
Ataxin-3, the protein involved in Machado-Joseph disease, is able to bind ubiquitylated substrates and act as a deubiquitylating enzyme in vitro, and it has been involved in the modulation of protein...Full Text Available
BackgroundProteins may evolve through the recruitment and modification of discrete domains, and in many cases, protein action can be dissected at the domain level. PDZ domains are...Full Text Available
Uterus didelphys with obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis is a rare entity, sometimes referred to as Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWW). It usually presents after menarche with progressive pelvic pain, sometimes with regular menses, and a palpable mass due to hemihaematocolpos. The diagnosis is generally made only if the suspicion of this genitourinary syndrome is raised. To highlight the imaging diagnostic clues in this rare condition. We report on 11 adolescents with this condition. Sonography mostly allowed the correct diagnosis by showing uterovaginal duplication, haematocolpos or haematometrocolpos, and the absence of the ipsilateral kidney. MRI provided more detailed information regarding uterine morphology, the continuity with each vaginal channel (obstructed and nonobstructed), and the bloody nature of the contents. Early and accurate diagnosis of this syndrome is important so that adequate and prompt surgical therapy (excision of the ...
Mutations or multiplications in a-synuclein gene cause familial forms of Parkinson disease or dementia with Lewy bodies (LB), and the deposition of wild-type a-synuclein as LB occurs as a hallmark lesion of these disorders, collectively referred to as synucleinopathies, implicating a-synuclein in the pathogenesis of synucleinopathy. To identify modifier genes of a-synuclein-induced neurotoxicity, we conducted an RNAi screen in transgenic C. elegans (Tg worms) that overexpress human a-synuclein in a pan-neuronal manner. To enhance the RNAi effect in neurons, we crossed a-synuclein Tg worms with an RNAi-enhanced mutant eri-1 strain. We tested RNAi of 1673 genes related to nervous system or synaptic functions, and identified 10 genes that, upon knockdown, caused severe growth/motor abnormalit...
Favorable reaction channels are searched for in order to obtain the superheavy element "2"9"8114. The interaction energy is supposed to comply with the adiabatic hypothesis. Concerning the deformation energy, a very complete binary macroscopic-microscopic energy method is used to perform calculations. Deformed two-center shell model provides the energy level schemes for shell effects. Yukawa-plus-exponential model gives the macroscopic (liquid drop) part of the total energy. The mass tensor is obtained by the Werner-Wheeler irrotational flow hypothesis. Finally the minimization of the multidimensional action integral produces the highest penetrability values. Kr-projectile reactions provide the best pairs, although generally the presentabilities are very low. (author)
In earlier works, the inelastic mean free path (IMFP) of electrons was determined by elastic peak electron spectroscopy (EPES) using Ni and Ag reference standard samples, but fully neglecting surface excitation. Surface excitation that is characterized by the surface excitation parameter (SEP), and may affect considerably the elastic peak for the sample and the reference material. The SEP parameters of selected conducting polymers (polythiophenes, polyaniline and polyethylene) were determined by EPES using Si and Ge reference samples. Experiments were made with a hemispherical analyzer of energy resolution 100-200 meV in the E = 0.2-2.0 keV energy range. The composition of the sample surfaces was determined by in situ XPS, their surface roughness by AFM. The experimental SEP parameter data of eight polymer samples were determined by our new procedure, using the formulae of Chen and Werner et al. in the E = 0.2-2.0 keV energy range. The trial and error procedure is ...
Deduction modulo is a paradigm which consists in applying the inference rules of a deductive system (such as for instance natural deduction) modulo a rewrite system over terms and propositions. It has been shown that higher-order logic can be simulated into the first-order natural deduction modulo. However, a theorem stated by Goedel and proved by Parikh expresses that proofs in second-order arithmetic may be unboundedly shorter than proofs in first-order arithmetic, even when considering only formulae provable in first-order arithmetic. We investigate how deduction modulo can be used to translate proofs of higher-order arithmetic into first-order proofs without inflating their length. First we show how higher orders can be encoded through a quite simple (finite, terminating, confluent, left-linear) rewrite system. Then, a proof in higher-order arithmetic can be linearly translated into a proof in first-order arithmetic modulo this system. Second, in the continuation of a work of Dowek ...
''Intelligent Extruder'' described in this report is a software system and associated support services for monitoring and control of compounding extruders to improve material quality, reduce waste and energy use, with minimal addition of new sensors or changes to the factory floor system components. Emphasis is on process improvements to the mixing, melting and de-volatilization of base resins, fillers, pigments, fire retardants and other additives in the :finishing'' stage of high value added engineering polymer materials. While GE Plastics materials were used for experimental studies throughout the program, the concepts and principles are broadly applicable to other manufacturers materials. The project involved a joint collaboration among GE Global Research, GE Industrial Systems and Coperion Werner & Pleiderer, USA, a major manufacturer of compounding equipment. Scope of the program included development ...
We describe an efficient procedure for proving stabilization of biological systems modeled as qualitative networks or genetic regulatory networks. For scalability, our procedure uses modular proof techniques, where state-space exploration is applied only locally to small pieces of the system rather than the entire system as a whole. Our procedure exploits the observation that, in practice, the form of modular proofs can be restricted to a very limited set. For completeness, our technique falls back on a non-compositional counterexample search. Using our new procedure, we have solved a number of challenging published examples, including: a 3-D model of the mammalian epidermis; a model of metabolic networks operating in type-2 diabetes; a model of fate determination of vulval precursor cells in the C. elegans worm; and a model of pair-rule regulation during segmentation in the Drosophila embryo. Our results show many orders of magnitude speedup in cases where ...