The mitosis-specific phosphorylation of histone H3 at Thr3 (H3T3ph) plays an important role in chromosome segregation by recruiting Aurora B. H3T3 phosphorylation is catalyzed by Haspin, an atypical ...protein kinase whose kinase domain is intrinsically active without phosphorylation at the activation loop. Here, we report the molecular basis for Haspin inhibition during interphase and its reactivation in M phase. We identify a conserved basic segment that autoinhibits Haspin during interphase. This autoinhibition is neutralized when Cdk1 phosphorylates the N terminus of Haspin in order to recruit Polo-like kinase (Plk1/Plx1), which, in turn, further phosphorylates multiple sites at the Haspin N terminus. Although Plx1, and not Aurora B, is critical for H3T3 phosphorylation in Xenopus egg extracts, Plk1 and Aurora B both promote this modification in human cells. Thus, M phase-specific H3T3 phosphorylation is governed by the combinatorial action of mitotic kinases that neutralizes Haspin autoinhibition through a mechanism dependent on multisite phosphorylation.
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•The histone H3T3 kinase Haspin is autoinhibited by a basic segment during interphase•Priming phosphorylation of Haspin by Cdk1 during M phase recruits Polo-like kinase•Polo-dependent multisite phosphorylation of Haspin neutralizes the autoinhibition•Polo and Aurora B act together to support H3T3 phosphorylation in human cells
The chromosomal passenger complex (CPC), composed of inner centromere protein (INCENP), Survivin, Borealin, and the kinase Aurora B, contributes to the activation of the mitotic checkpoint. The ...regulation of CPC function remains unclear. Here, we reveal that in addition to Survivin and Borealin, the single α-helix (SAH) domain of INCENP supports CPC localization to chromatin and the mitotic checkpoint. The INCENP SAH domain also mediates INCENP's microtubule binding, which is negatively regulated by Cyclin-dependent kinase-mediated phosphorylation of segments flanking the SAH domain. The microtubule-binding capacity of the SAH domain is important for mitotic arrest in conditions of suppressed microtubule dynamics, and the duration of mitotic arrest dictates the probability, but not the timing, of cell death. Although independent targeting of INCENP to microtubules or the kinetochore/centromere promotes the mitotic checkpoint, it is insufficient for a robust mitotic arrest. Altogether, our results demonstrate that dual recognition of chromatin and microtubules by CPC is important for checkpoint maintenance and determination of cell fate in mitosis.
We have carried out a survey of the north and south ecliptic poles, EP-N and EP-S, respectively, with the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The primary ...objective was to cross-calibrate WISE with the Spitzer and Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) photometric systems by developing a set of calibration stars that are common to these infrared missions. The ecliptic poles were continuous viewing zones for WISE due to its polar-crossing orbit, making these areas ideal for both absolute and internal calibrations. The Spitzer IRAC and MIPS imaging survey covers a complete area of 0.40 deg2 for the EP-N and 1.28 deg2 for the EP-S. WISE observed the whole sky in four mid-infrared bands, 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 Delta *mm, during its eight-month cryogenic mission, including several hundred ecliptic polar passages; here we report on the highest coverage depths achieved by WISE, an area of ~1.5 deg2 for both poles. Located close to the center of the EP-N, the Sy-2 galaxy NGC 6552 conveniently functions as a standard calibrator to measure the red response of the 22 Delta *mm channel of WISE. Observations from Spitzer-IRAC/MIPS/IRS-LL and WISE show that the galaxy has a strong red color in the mid-infrared due to star-formation and the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN), while over a baseline >1 year the mid-IR photometry of NGC 6552 is shown to vary at a level less than 2%. Combining NGC 6552 with the standard calibrator stars, the achieved photometric accuracy of the WISE calibration, relative to the Spitzer and MSX systems, is 2.4%, 2.8%, 4.5%, and 5.7% for W1 (3.4 Delta *mm), W2 (4.6 Delta *mm), W3 (12 Delta *mm), and W4 (22 Delta *mm), respectively. The WISE photometry is internally stable to better than 0.1% over the cryogenic lifetime of the mission. The secondary objective of the Spitzer-WISE Survey was to explore the poles at greater flux-level depths, exploiting the higher angular resolution Spitzer observations and the exceptionally deep (in total coverage) WISE observations that potentially reach down to the confusion limit of the survey. The rich Spitzer and WISE data sets were used to study the Galactic and extragalactic populations through source counts, color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. As an example of what the data sets facilitate, we have separated stars from galaxies, delineated normal galaxies from power-law-dominated AGNs, and reported on the different fractions of extragalactic populations. In the EP-N, we find an AGN source density of ~260 deg--2 to a 12 Delta *mm depth of 115 Delta *mJy, representing 15% of the total extragalactic population to this depth, similar to what has been observed for low-luminosity AGNs in other fields.
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has surveyed the entire sky at four infrared wavelengths with greatly improved sensitivity and spatial resolution compared to its predecessors, the ...Infrared Astronomical Satellite and the Cosmic Background Explorer. NASA's Planetary Science Division has funded an enhancement to the WISE data processing system called 'NEOWISE' that allows detection and archiving of moving objects found in the WISE data. NEOWISE has mined the WISE images for a wide array of small bodies in our solar system, including near-Earth objects (NEOs), Main Belt asteroids, comets, Trojans, and Centaurs. By the end of survey operations in 2011 February, NEOWISE identified over 157,000 asteroids, including more than 500 NEOs and ~120 comets. The NEOWISE data set will enable a panoply of new scientific investigations.
The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Skrutskie, M. F; Cutri, R. M; Stiening, R ...
The Astronomical journal,
02/2006, Letnik:
131, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Between 1997 June and 2001 February the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) collected 25.4 Tbytes of raw imaging data covering 99.998% of the celestial sphere in the near-infrared J (1.25 mm), H (1.65 ...mm), and Ks (2.16 mm) bandpasses. Observations were conducted from two dedicated 1.3 m diameter telescopes located at Mount Hopkins, Arizona, and Cerro Tololo, Chile. The 7.8 s of integration time accumulated for each point on the sky and strict quality control yielded a 10 s point-source detection level of better than 15.8, 15.1, and 14.3 mag at the J, H, and Ks bands, respectively, for virtually the entire sky. Bright source extractions have 1 s photometric uncertainty of <0.03 mag and astrometric accuracy of order 100 mas. Calibration offsets between any two points in the sky are <0.02 mag. The 2MASS All-Sky Data Release includes 4.1 million compressed FITS images covering the entire sky, 471 million source extractions in a Point Source Catalog, and 1.6 million objects identified as extended in an Extended Source Catalog.
Medicine Lake Highlands/Fall River Springs Aquifer System, located in northeastern California, is home to some of the largest first‐order springs in the United States. This work assesses the likely ...effects of projected climate change on spring flow. Four anticipated climate futures (GFDL A2, GFDL B1, CCSM4 rcp 8.5, CNRM rcp 8.5) for California, which predict a range of conditions (generally warming and transitioning from snow to rain with variable amounts of total precipitation), are postulated to affect groundwater recharge primarily by changing evapotranspiration. The linkages between climate variables and spring flow are evaluated using a water balance model that represents the physics of evapotranspiration and recharge, the Basin Characterization Model. Three of the four climate scenarios (GFDL A2, GFDL B1, CCSM4 rcp 8.5) project that by the year 2100, groundwater recharge (and consequently decreased spring flow) will decrease by 27%, 21%, and 9%, respectively. The fourth scenario (CNRM rcp 8.5) showed an increase in recharge of 32% due to a significant increase in precipitation (27%). Evapotranspiration increases due to a shift in the type of precipitation and a longer growing season. While the likelihood of each scenario is outside the scope of this work, unless total precipitation increases dramatically in the future, increased temperatures and decreasing precipitation will likely result in reduced spring flows, along with warmer water temperatures in downstream habitats.
In Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, a plurality of the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed the proposition that the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment ...might operate as a constraint not only on executive and legislative action, but also on judicial decisions. In a federal system in which property rights are established almost exclusively by state law, and in which the meaning of state law is determined by state courts, the notion of judicial takings raises several difficult questions. The question that is the province of this Note is whether a doctrine of judicial takings might somehow inhibit the development of the common law of property in state courts. This Note identifies two principal mechanisms by which that inhibiting effect might occur. First, the Court might insist on enshrining an authorized definition of constitutional property with certain approved, substantive features rather than simply leaving the content of property rights to be defined by state law. Second, the Court might ostensibly leave the development of property law to state courts while nevertheless adopting an overly aggressive posture in reviewing state property-law decisions: it might, in other words, be swift to hold that a state court decision had affirmatively changed, rather than merely explicated, the state law of property. This Note concludes that although the first possibility is nominally foreclosed by the Court's commitment to positivism, when reviewing especially difficult or novel property cases the Court may nevertheless be tempted to patch together a definition of property that borrows from the traditional substance of the common law. And although the second possibility is not an implausible one, Stop the Beach Renourishment suggested that plaintiffs in judicial takings challenges should bear the burden of establishing the prior existence of the allegedly extinguished property right. That suggestion, this Note argues, may ultimately preserve a great deal of interpretive freedom for state courts in adjudicating less-settled questions of property law. The Court's choices in these delicate areas will ultimately dictate whether judicial takings either preserves or imperils the common law of property.
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE) spacecraft has been brought out of hibernation and has resumed surveying the sky at 3.4 and 4.6 mu m. The scientific objectives of the NEOWISE ...reactivation mission are to detect, track, and characterize near-Earth asteroids and comets. The search for minor planets resumed on 2013 December 23, and the first new near-Earth object (NEO) was discovered 6 days later. As an infrared survey, NEOWISE detects asteroids based on their thermal emission and is equally sensitive to high and low albedo objects; consequently, NEOWISE-discovered NEOs tend to be large and dark. Over the course of its three-year mission, NEOWISE will determine radiometrically derived diameters and albedos for ~2000 NEOs and tens of thousands of Main Belt asteroids. The 32 months of hibernation have had no significant effect on the mission's performance. Image quality, sensitivity, photometric and astrometric accuracy, completeness, and the rate of minor planet detections are all essentially unchanged from the prime mission's post-cryogenic phase.
In this experimental study, the researchers evaluated the effect of surgical hand scrub time on subsequent bacterial growth and assessed the effectiveness of the glove juice technique in a clinical ...setting. In a randomized crossover design, 25 perioperative staff members scrubbed for two or three minutes in the first trial and vice versa in the second trial, after which the wore sterile surgical gloves for one hour under clinical conditions. The researchers then sampled the subjects' nondominant hands for bacterial growth, cultured aliquots from the sampling solution, and counted microorganisms. Scrubbing for three minutes produced lower mean log bacterial counts than scrubbing for two minutes. Although the mean bacterial count differed significantly (P = .02) between the two-minute and three-minute surgical hand scrub times, it fell below 0.5 log, which is the threshold for practical and clinical significance. This finding suggests that a two-minute surgical hand scrub is clinically as effective as a three-minute surgical had scrub. The glove juice technique demonstrated sensitivity and reliability in enumerating bacteria on the hands of perioperative staff members in a clinical setting.