Prenylated proteins play key roles in several human diseases including cancer, atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. KRAS4b, which is frequently mutated in pancreatic, colon and lung cancers, is ...processed by farnesylation, proteolytic cleavage and carboxymethylation at the C-terminus. Plasma membrane localization of KRAS4b requires this processing as does KRAS4b-dependent RAF kinase activation. Previous attempts to produce modified KRAS have relied on protein engineering approaches or in vitro farnesylation of bacterially expressed KRAS protein. The proteins produced by these methods do not accurately replicate the mature KRAS protein found in mammalian cells and the protein yield is typically low. We describe a protocol that yields 5-10 mg/L highly purified, farnesylated, and methylated KRAS4b from insect cells. Farnesylated and methylated KRAS4b is fully active in hydrolyzing GTP, binds RAF-RBD on lipid Nanodiscs and interacts with the known farnesyl-binding protein PDEδ.
This research studied the effect of nickel-based cement substitution in concrete to analyze its behavior. The percentage of substituted nickel-slag was 10%, 20% and 30% to the cement weight. The ...mechanical properties studied were the compression f'c and tensile fMR stresses at the ages of 14, 28, 42 and 56 days. The data were analyzed and the visual observation of the fractured plans were addressed to determine the failure modes. The research concluded that the nickel-slag cement reduced both the compressive and tensile strength as a function of the substituted content, the decrease process followed a linear path. It was found that the strength of nickel-slag concrete cannot be defined at 28 days due to a prolonged chemical process.
This article makes the case that the student-centered learning paradigm that I have aimed to establish at Parchman/Mississippi State Penitentiary as a member of a college-in-prison program represents ...a prison abolition pedagogy that builds on Martin Luther King and Angela Y. Davis’s coalitional models of abolition work. Drawing from Davis’s abolition-framed conception of teaching in jails and prisons as expressed in her autobiography and her critical prison studies text Are Prisons Obsolete?, I argue that the learning environments that I create collaboratively with students at Parchman similarly respond to incarcerated students’ institution-specific concerns and African-American literary interests in ways that lessen, if only temporarily, the social isolation and educational deprivation that they routinely experience in Mississippi’s plantation-style state penitentiary. Moreover, I am interested in the far-reaching implications of what I have theorized elsewhere as “abolition pedagogy”—a way of teaching that exposes and opposes the educational deprivation, under-resourced and understaffed learning environments, and overtly militarized classrooms that precede and accompany too many incarcerations. As such, this article also focuses on my experience of teaching about imprisonment in African-American literature courses at the University of Mississippi at the same time that I have taught classes at Parchman that honor the African-American literary interests of imprisoned students there.
Abstract Background National and international guidelines on frailty assessment and management recommend frailty screening in older people. This study aimed to determine how Brazilian healthcare ...professionals (HCPs) identify and manage frailty in practice. Methods An anonymous online survey on the assessment and management of frailty was circulated virtually through HCPs across Brazil. Results Most of the respondants used non-specific criteria such as gait speed (45%), handgrip strength (37.6%), and comprehensive geriatric assessment (33.2%). The use of frailty-specific criteria was lower than 50%. The most frequently used criteria were the Frailty Index (19.1%), Frailty Phenotype (13.2%), and FRAIL (12.5%). Only 43.5% felt confident, and 40% had a plan to manage frailty. In the multivariate-adjusted models, training was the most crucial factor associated with assessing frailty, confidence, and having a management plan ( p < 0.001 for all). Those with fewer years of experience were more likely to evaluate frailty ( p = 0.009). Being a doctor increased the chance of using a specific tool; the opposite was true for dietitians ( p = 0.03). Those who assisted more older people had a higher likelihood of having a plan ( p = 0.011). Conclusion Frailty assessment was heterogeneous among healthcare professions groups, predominantly using non-specific criteria. Training contributed to frailty assessment, use of specific criteria, confidence, and having a management plan. This data informs the need for standardized screening criteria and management plans for frailty, in association with increasing training at the national level for all the HCPs who assist older people.
Improving the ability of regional climate models (RCMs) and ice sheet models (ISMs) to simulate spatiotemporal variations in the mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is crucial for prediction of ...future sea level rise. While several studies have examined recent trends in GrIS mass loss, studies focusing on mass variations at sub-annual and sub-basin-wide scales are still lacking. At these scales, processes responsible for mass change are less well understood and modeled, and could potentially play an important role in future GrIS mass change. Here, we examine spatiotemporal variations in mass over the GrIS derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites for the January 2003–December 2012 period using a "mascon" approach, with a nominal spatial resolution of 100 km, and a temporal resolution of 10 days. We compare GRACE-estimated mass variations against those simulated by the Modèle Atmosphérique Régionale (MAR) RCM and the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM). In order to properly compare spatial and temporal variations in GrIS mass from GRACE with model outputs, we find it necessary to spatially and temporally filter model results to reproduce leakage of mass inherent in the GRACE solution. Both modeled and satellite-derived results point to a decline (of −178.9 ± 4.4 and −239.4 ± 7.7 Gt yr−1 respectively) in GrIS mass over the period examined, but the models appear to underestimate the rate of mass loss, especially in areas below 2000 m in elevation, where the majority of recent GrIS mass loss is occurring. On an ice-sheet-wide scale, the timing of the modeled seasonal cycle of cumulative mass (driven by summer mass loss) agrees with the GRACE-derived seasonal cycle, within limits of uncertainty from the GRACE solution. However, on sub-ice-sheet-wide scales, some areas exhibit significant differences in the timing of peaks in the annual cycle of mass change. At these scales, model biases, or processes not accounted for by models related to ice dynamics or hydrology, may lead to the observed differences. This highlights the need for further evaluation of modeled processes at regional and seasonal scales, and further study of ice sheet processes not accounted for, such as the role of subglacial hydrology in variations in glacial flow.
Background:
We sought to investigate the rate of radial artery occlusion (RAO) after same-day dual radial artery puncture. The trans-radial arterial approach (TRA) for diagnostic and interventional ...procedures has risen significantly in the United States. Although becoming more commonly performed, TRA is not without risk, and a potential complication is RAO. The rate of RAO after same-day dual artery puncture is unknown.
Methods:
A retrospective analysis of 27 patients who underwent same-day dual radial artery puncture for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at our institution (Providence Heart Institute in Southfield, MI, USA) from November 2011 to December 2013 were included after initially presenting for cardiac catheterization at a non-PCI-capable facility. The study patients were asked to follow up for evaluation of the radial artery, including obtaining a duplex ultrasound evaluation.
Results:
The mean age of the patients was 65 years old with 66% of the patients being male. Of the 27 study participants, there were no symptoms reported that were related to RAO. Overall, one (3.7%) patient had an absent radial pulse. The modified Allen’s test was normal in all of the patients with a mean return of palmar flush time of 4 seconds. Duplex ultrasound revealed subtotal RAO in four (14.8%) patients and no patients experienced total occlusion following the intervention.
Conclusion:
Dual radial artery puncture appears to be a well-tolerated and viable strategy in patients that are transferred to a PCI-capable hospital for coronary interventions.
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