Functional evaluation of noncovalent interactions in neuroreceptors and progress toward the expansion of unnatural amino acid methodology

This dissertation primarily describes chemical-scale studies of G protein-coupled receptors and Cys-loop ligand-gated ion channels to better understand ligand binding interactions and the mechanism of channel activation using recently published crystal structures as a guide. These studies employ the use of unnatural amino acid mutagenesis and electrophysiology to measure subtle changes in receptor function.

In chapter 2, the role of a conserved aromatic microdomain predicted in the D3 dopamine receptor is probed in the closely related D2 and D4 dopamine receptors. This domain was found to act as a structural unit near the ligand binding site that is important for receptor function. The domain consists of several functionally important noncovalent interactions including hydrogen bond, aromatic-aromatic, and sulfur-π interactions that show strong couplings by mutant cycle analysis. We also assign an alternate interpretation for the linear fluorination plot observed at W6.48, a residue previously thought to participate in a cation-π interaction with dopamine.

Chapter 3 outlines attempts to incorporate chemically synthesized and in vitro acylated unnatural amino acids into mammalian cells. While our attempts were not successful, method optimizations and data for nonsense suppression with an in vivo acylated tRNA are included. This chapter is aimed to aid future researchers attempting unnatural amino acid mutagenesis in mammalian cells.

Chapter 4 identifies a cation-π interaction between glutamate and a tyrosine residue on loop C in the GluClβ receptor. Using the recently published crystal structure of the homologous GluClα receptor, other ligand-binding and protein-protein interactions are probed to determine the similarity between this invertebrate receptor and other more distantly related vertebrate Cys-loop receptors. We find that many of the interactions previously observed are conserved in the GluCl receptors, however care must be taken when extrapolating structural data.

Chapter 5 examines inherent properties of the GluClα receptor that are responsible for the observed glutamate insensitivity of the receptor. Chimera synthesis and mutagenesis reveal the C-terminal portion of the M4 helix and the C-terminus as contributing to formation of the decoupled state, where ligand binding is incapable of triggering channel gating. Receptor mutagenesis was unable to identify single residue mismatches or impaired protein-protein interactions within this domain. We conclude that M4 helix structure and/or membrane dynamics are likely the cause of ligand insensitivity in this receptor and that the M4 helix has an role important in the activation process.

Suivi cartographique de l'expansion des macrophytes envahissant le système lagunaire Ebrié (Côte d'Ivoire)

Remote mapping were realised from December 1986 to September 1989 to describe the seasonal evolution of macrophytes colonizing the surface waters of the eastern sector of the Ebrié lagoon. The vegetal cover of this sector and associated lagoons is essentially composed of Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth). Its expansion is favored by the decrease in the salinity of the lagoon waters which is due to rain falls. Its migration through the lagoon environment is ensured by the overflow of the Comoé river. The opening of the Bassam inlet induced its temporary disappearence from the newly created estuarian zone.

Influence of vapor transport equilibration on the crystal quality and thermal-expansion coefficients of gamma-LiAlO2

gamma-LiAlO2 (LAO) single crystal has been grown by the Czochralski method. However, its quality was deteriorated due to lithium volatilization during the crystal growth. The full width at half maximum value drops from 116.9 to 44.2 arc sec after the LAO slice was treated by vapor transport equilibration at 1000, 1100, and 1200 degrees C/48 h in sequence. The treated slice shows higher optical transmission than the as-grown one in the measured wavelength range of 190-1900 nm, meanwhile, its absorption edge exhibits a blueshift. According to Raman spectra, the treated slice has homogeneous quality at different depths from surface to 0.01 mm. The expansion coefficient of the treated slice for a axis drops from 17.2398x10(-6)/degrees C to 16.5240x10(-6)/degrees C, and that for c axis drops from 10.7664x10(-6)/degrees C to 10.0786x10(-6)/degrees C.

In situ synthesis of ZrO2/ZrW2O8 composites with near-zero thermal expansion

In this paper, ZrO2 and WO3 were used as the raw materials to prepare ZrO2/ZrW2O8 composites by in situ reaction method and the thermal expansion property of the composites was studied. This novel method included a heating step up to 1473 K for 24 h, which combines the synthesizing and sintering of ZrW2O8. The result indicates that ZrO2/ZrW2O8 composite shows near-zero thermal expansion when the weight ratio of ZrO2 and WO3 is 2.5:1. Compared with composites prepared previously by non-reactive sintering of ZrO2 and ZrW2O8, the composites show higher relative density and lower porosity.

Thermal and electric conductivity of near-zero thermal expansion ZrW 2O8//ZrO2 composites

In this work, the microstructure, thermal and electric conductivity properties of near-zero thermal expansion ZrW2O8/ZrO2 and Al2O3 added ZrW2O8/ZrO2 composites were studied. Both the two composites exhibit very low thermal conductivity and the thermal conductivity decreases slightly as the temperature increases. The electric conductivity of the two composites increases with the increasing of the measurement temperature. The Al2O3 added ZrW2O8/ZrO2 composite has higher thermal and electric conductivity than ZrW2O8/ZrO2 composite. The most important factor which causes the difference of the thermal and electric conductivity of the composites is the porosity. (C) 2008 The Ceramic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.

Anisotropic expansion and SNIa: An open issue

We review the appropriateness of using SNIa observations to detect potential signatures of anisotropic expansion in the Universe. We focus on Union2 and SNLS3 SNIa datasets and use the hemispherical comparison method to detect possible anisotropic features. Unlike some previous works where nondiagonal elements of the covariance matrix were neglected, we use the full covariance matrix of the SNIa data, thus obtaining more realistic and not underestimated errors. As a matter of fact, the significance of previously claimed detections of a preferred direction in the Union2 dataset completely disappears once we include the effects of using the full covariance matrix. Moreover, we also find that such apreferred direction is aligned with the orthogonal direction of the SDSS observational plane and this suggests a clear indication that the SDSS subsample of the Union2 dataset introduces a significant bias, making the detected preferred direction unphysical. We thus find that current SNIa surveys are inappropriate to test anisotropic features due to their highly non-homogeneous angular distribution in the sky. In addition, after removal of the highest in homogeneous sub-samples, the number of SNIa is too low. Finally, we take advantage of the particular distribution of SNLS SNIa sub- sample in the SNLS3 data set, in which the observations were taken along four different directions. We fit each direction independently and find consistent results at the 1 sigma level. Although the likelihoods peak at relatively different values of Omega(m), the low number of data along each direction gives rise to large errors so that the likelihoods are sufficiently broad as to overlap within 1 sigma. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Expansion of improved-extensive shrimp culture in the Mekong Delta

This paper describes the expansion of improved-extensive shrimp (Penaeus monodon) farming in the Mekong Delta, southern Vietnam, emphasizing management decisions, technological constraints and economics.