пятница, 10 августа 2012 г.

Games

Games

Games

Mushroom Garden Seasons - Screenshots

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 04:32 AM PDT

Give the log Funghi Food and watch your Funghis sprout up! The feeling of swiping the grown Funghis to harvest them all at once is addictive! Be careful - grown Funghis will wither away after time!

Langenscheidt Professional-Dictionary Italian 7.7 - Comprehensive language dictionary.. (Shareware)

Posted: 10 Aug 2012 03:15 AM PDT



The Langenscheidt Publishing Group is best known for its area of core competence: dictionaries and language learning material in various formats and on diverse media. Langenscheidt sets the highest editorial and production standards for all the products it publishes. The corporate logo, a blue "L" on a yellow background, is instantly recognized by many people all over the world.

We are glad to present Langenscheidt Professional-Dictionary Italian for Mac OS. Authoritative dictionary content and high-performance program shell Slovoed by Paragon Software (SHDD), the leading developer of multi-platform software applications for mobiles and computers, turn Langenscheidt into indispensable instrument for effective learning and translation.

Langenscheidt Professional-Dictionary Italian offers:

  • Around 162,000 entries (950,000 headwords, expressions and translations).
  • Translates from and into German (German<->Italian).
  • Up-to-date vocabulary from all general language style levels.
  • Extensive specialist terminology from all major fields.
  • Additional information: examples of use, indicators showing distinctions between various meanings, grammar explanations.
  • A comprehensive reference work for professional translations at the workplace, for teachers and students.


Outstanding features of Langenscheidt dictionary software for Mac OS:

  • NEW! Enhanced pop-up translation. Translate unknown words while reading e-mails, web-pages, e-book etc by hovering a mouse over a word. You do not need to waste time switching between several applications with Slovoed dictionary pop-up translation – it is now supported by Safari, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.
  • Read e-mails, documents and web-pages from your Mac and get Word Translations without leaving your active application by hovering mouse over a word. So you do not need to waste time opening a program;
  • Find the translation of the word in any grammatical form with help of built-in Morphology Module for English, Russian, French and Spanish;
  • Listen correct word pronunciation using built-in Sound Modules containing pre-recorded voice of English, Spanish, German, French, Russian and Italian native speakers;
  • Learn foreign languages with immediate grammar reference for any word in the dictionary (English irregular verbs, German verbs, grammatical forms, etc.);
  • Enrich your vocabulary choosing unknown words with bookmarks or using search history;
  • Study the language in the easiest and most effective way using your dictionary. Check yourself with the words you have added to Flash Cards from the dictionary;
  • Due to our Language identifier, you no more need to change the translation direction each time you input words. Translation direction will be chosen automatically, it depends on language input;
  • IntraArticle Search. Thanks to a new feature of the application, you can search for words right in the dictionary article.
  • Enlarge your electronic dictionary word database by creating your own dictionaries.
  • Similar Words function helps you to find a word even if you do not remember its spelling.
  • Enter the words on your native language easier using on-screen Virtual Keyboard for many languages;
  • Find the word even if you don't know its exact spelling using wildcards search ("*", "?", etc.);
  • Find the list of irregular verbs for English and German dictionaries.
  • Keep your dictionary always up-to-date. Dictionary Online Update feature lets you know of updated dictionary versions available for download;
  • Discover new dictionaries and download it directly to your device with the built-in Online dictionary catalog;
  • This version of the dictionary is specifically designed to facilitate your most comfortable and efficient work with the dictionary, including hotkeys for often used operations.

    Version 7.7: Release notes were unavailable when this listing was updated.

    Mac OS X 10.5 or later

    Download Now

    • This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

    DON'T PANIC! The Last Guardian is not dead. Sony speaks out to ease the pain

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 03:24 AM PDT

    Sony doesn't comment on rumours and speculation... unless they want to. At least it seems that way. After we reported yesterday that the trademark for

    Energies, Vol. 5, Pages 3019-3032: Improving Production of Bioethanol from Duckweed (Landoltia punctata) by Pectinase Pretreatment

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    Landoltia punctata, a widely distributed duckweed strain with the ability to accumulate starch, was used as a novel feedstock for bioethanol production by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To improve ethanol production, pectinase pretreatment was used to release much more glucose from L. punctata mash and the pretreatment conditions (enzyme loading, temperature and pretreatment time) for the duckweed were optimized by using a surface response design. The results showed that maximum glucose yield was 218.64 ± 3.10 mg/g dry matter, which is a 142% increase compared to the untreated mash, with a pectinase dose of 26.54 pectin transeliminase unit/g mash at 45 °C for 300 min. Pectinase pretreatment apparently changed the ultrastructure of L. punctata, as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy analysis. Further fermentation experiments were performed and 30.8 ± 0.8 g/L of ethanol concentration, 90.04% of fermentation efficiency and 2.20 g/L/h of productivity rate were achieved. This is the highest ethanol concentration reported to date using duckweed as the feedstock.

    Energies, Vol. 5, Pages 2989-3018: Exploring Malaysia’s Transformation to Net Oil Importer and Oil Import Dependence

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    Within ASEAN, Malaysia is a major oil-exporting country; however, it is expected to become a net oil-importing country in the near future. This issue brings concerns over Malaysia's energy security, particularly on the aspect of oil import dependency. This is because its transportation and industrial sectors are still heavily dependent on oil products. By simulating dynamic interplays between developments in Malaysia's oil sector and its economy sectors, this study explores the possible years of the transformation and the extent to which it will be dependent on oil import. Four scenarios related to enhanced oil recovery, exploration and production investment, subsidy elimination and technology advances are considered for the simulation. In isolation, the subsidy elimination scenario provides the best result. However, if all scenarios are considered simultaneously, an undesired effect emerges. The earliest that Malaysia is expected to become a net oil-importing country is 2012 and the latest is 2021. Malaysia's dependence on oil imports is expected to continue increasing. In all scenarios, the shares of oil import in the total supply rise to above 90% in 2030, with the highest share at 97%.

    Energies, Vol. 5, Pages 2952-2988: Rechargeable Energy Storage Systems for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles—Assessment of Electrical Characteristics

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    In this paper, the performances of various lithium-ion chemistries for use in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have been investigated and compared to several other rechargeable energy storage systems technologies such as lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride and electrical-double layer capacitors. The analysis has shown the beneficial properties of lithium-ion in the terms of energy density, power density and rate capabilities. Particularly, the nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathode stands out with the high energy density up to 160 Wh/kg, compared to 70–110, 90 and 71 Wh/kg for lithium iron phosphate cathode, lithium nickel cobalt aluminum cathode and, lithium titanate oxide anode battery cells, respectively. These values are considerably higher than the lead-acid (23–28 Wh/kg) and nickel-metal hydride (44–53 Wh/kg) battery technologies. The dynamic discharge performance test shows that the energy efficiency of the lithium-ion batteries is significantly higher than the lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride technologies. The efficiency varies between 86% and 98%, with the best values obtained by pouch battery cells, ahead of cylindrical and prismatic battery design concepts. Also the power capacity of lithium-ion technology is superior compared to other technologies. The power density is in the range of 300–2400 W/kg against 200–400 and 90–120 W/kg for lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride, respectively. However, considering the influence of energy efficiency, the power density is in the range of 100–1150 W/kg. Lithium-ion batteries optimized for high energy are at the lower end of this range and are challenged to meet the United States Advanced Battery Consortium, SuperLIB and Massachusetts Institute of Technology goals. Their association with electric-double layer capacitors, which have low energy density (4–6 Wh/kg) but outstanding power capabilities, could be very interesting. The study of the rate capability of the lithium-ion batteries has allowed for a new state of charge estimation, encompassing all essential performance parameters. The rate capabilities tests are reflected by Peukert constants, which are significantly lower for lithium-ion batteries than for nickel-metal hydride and lead-acid. Furthermore, rate capabilities during charging have been investigated. Lithium-ion batteries are able to store about 80% of the capacity at current rate 2It, with high power cells accepting over 90%. At higher charging rates of 5It or more, the internal resistance impedes charge acceptance by high energy cells. The lithium titanate anode, due to its high surface area (100 m2/g compared to 3 m2/g for the graphite based anode) performs much better in this respect. The behavior of lithium-ion batteries has been investigated at different conditions. The analysis has leaded us to a new lithium ion battery model. This model will be compared to existing battery models in future research contributions.

    Skyrise Runner - Screenshots

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 04:10 AM PDT

    Features:
    - Collect crystals, power ups and coins
    - Morph into the Mystical Eagle! Soar through the skies
    - Unlock boost items play in new ways and improve your results
    - Avoid barriers, pitfalls and avoid enemies
    - Complete more than 60 exciting and different missions!
    - Eye popping colorful and detailed 3D forest backgrounds.
    - Incredible fun, endless run gameplay!
    - Harder challenges for skilled players

    Sync Folders Pro 1.3.4 - Automatically sync any number of folders.. (Updater)

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 02:20 AM PDT



    Sync Folders Pro synchronizes any number of folders on the fly at the same time when there are changes, or connecting external drives at a set time or manually.The application synchronizes folders with or without filter for folder names and / or file names. The Sync Folders Pro is perfect for backing up to USB, memory cards, disks on remote computers on your network.

    Install the VPN Server Configurator and you can synchronize folders on a remote Mac from anywhere in the world! Learn more at www.greenworldsoft.com.

    Features:

    • Sync any number of folders on your Mac same time.

    • 6 modes of synchronizing.
    • Run as Menu Bar App or Standard App.
    • Tracking deletions in synchronized folders, real 2-way sync.
    • Automatic synchronization folder Mac on the fly, when there are changes
.
    • Synchronize Macs across a network.
    • Synchronize external drives (USB, memory cards, etc.) with your Mac, and vice versa.
    • Schedule your synchronization folders Mac for any time.
    • Powerful filter for files and/or folders on the entry and/or exclusion.

    • Saving the synchronized files Mac in a specific location ("Del folders"). Replacing/adding files in the folder "Del Folder".
    • Displaying "Last Changes" for each task. Quick view last changes and Finder Integration.
    • Automatic creation of a network folder, if the remote computer has become available.
    • Each sync task has the status showing when it was done last time.
    • Work in the background.
    • Logging of the synchronization process.


    Version 1.3.4:
    • Fixed bug replacing an older version of the files, when not marked "Move files to Del Folder".
    • Run as "Menu Bar App" or "Standard App".
    • Displays the status "Last Sync" for tasks that don't have files to sync.
    • Runs control of the changes once a day at set times in the "Schedule".


    • OS X 10.7 or later
    • 64-bit processor


    Download Now

    This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

    DiskWave 0.4.0 - Analyze hard drive space consumption.. (Free)

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 02:33 AM PDT



    DiskWave is a free utility to help you determine where most of your hard drive space is consumed.

    DiskWave was formerly known as WhichSize.

    The program scans your hard drive to compute the size of all folders and sub folders. The results are stored in memory, which allows faster navigation than the built-in "compute all sizes" option in the Finder. You can easily identify useless directories and delete them.



    Version 0.4.0:

    New features:

    • Added support for scan complete Notifications on Mac OS X 10.8.
    • Removed some legacy code to support 10.5 and PowerPC and migrated to 10.6 SDK.
    • Removed support for WhichSize updates.

    Bug fixes:

    • Fixed AddressBook console warnings when opening the "Add Location" file panel. This is caused by a class name collision.
    • Fixed crash that occurs when connecting/disconnecting external disks (HF-20120729).
    • Fixed crash on startup when the capacity of volume cannot be read (HF-20120720).



    • Mac OS X 10.6 or later
    • 64-bit processor


    Download Now

    This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

    Langenscheidt Professional-Dictionary French 7.7 - Comprehensive language dictionary. . (Shareware)

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 02:46 AM PDT



    The Langenscheidt Publishing Group is best known for its area of core competence: dictionaries and language learning material in various formats and on diverse media. Langenscheidt sets the highest editorial and production standards for all the products it publishes. The corporate logo, a blue "L" on a yellow background, is instantly recognized by many people all over the world.

    We are glad to present Langenscheidt Professional-Dictionary French for Mac OS. Authoritative dictionary content and high-performance program shell Slovoed by Paragon Software (SHDD), the leading developer of multi-platform software applications for mobiles and computers, turn Langenscheidt into indispensable instrument for effective learning and translation.

    Langenscheidt Professional-Dictionary French offers:

    • Around 120,000 entries (755,000 headwords, expressions and translations).
    • Translates from and into German (German<->French).
    • Up-to-date vocabulary from all general language style levels.
    • Extensive specialist terminology from all major fields.
    • Additional information: examples of use, indicators showing distinctions between various meanings, grammar explanations.
    • A comprehensive reference work for professional translations at the workplace, for teachers and students.
    Outstanding features of Langenscheidt dictionary software for Mac OS:
    • NEW! Enhanced pop-up translation. Translate unknown words while reading e-mails, web-pages, e-book etc by hovering a mouse over a word. You do not need to waste time switching between several applications with Slovoed dictionary pop-up translation – it is now supported by Safari, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.
    • Read e-mails, documents and web-pages from your Mac and get Word Translations without leaving your active application by hovering mouse over a word. So you do not need to waste time opening a program;
    • Find the translation of the word in any grammatical form with help of built-in Morphology Module for English, Russian, French and Spanish;
    • Listen correct word pronunciation using built-in Sound Modules containing pre-recorded voice of English, Spanish, German, French, Russian and Italian native speakers;
    • Learn foreign languages with immediate grammar reference for any word in the dictionary (English irregular verbs, German verbs, grammatical forms, etc.);
    • Enrich your vocabulary choosing unknown words with bookmarks or using search history;
    • Study the language in the easiest and most effective way using your dictionary. Check yourself with the words you have added to Flash Cards from the dictionary;
    • Due to our Language identifier, you no more need to change the translation direction each time you input words. Translation direction will be chosen automatically, it depends on language input;
    • IntraArticle Search. Thanks to a new feature of the application, you can search for words right in the dictionary article.
    • Enlarge your electronic dictionary word database by creating your own dictionaries.
    • Similar Words function helps you to find a word even if you do not remember its spelling.
    • Enter the words on your native language easier using on-screen Virtual Keyboard for many languages;
    • Find the word even if you don't know its exact spelling using wildcards search ("*", "?", etc.);
    • Find the list of irregular verbs for English and German dictionaries.
    • Keep your dictionary always up-to-date. Dictionary Online Update feature lets you know of updated dictionary versions available for download;
    • Discover new dictionaries and download it directly to your device with the built-in Online dictionary catalog;
    • This version of the dictionary is specifically designed to facilitate your most comfortable and efficient work with the dictionary, including hotkeys for often used operations.

      Mac OS X 10.5 or later

      Download Now

    This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

    Cowbeam - Screenshots

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 04:02 AM PDT

    You can look on every planet in a solar system for the cows Hank needs to find. This seems like an impossible task, but you're perfect for the job. That's because you know something about the cow's home planet. Gather hints so you know if the planet might be red, close to the sun or has 2 moons. If you're smart you will find the cow!

    EVERYTIME A UNIQUE COW
    You will soon see that every cow is different. If his home planet is blue, the cow is blue, if the planet is close to the sun he might wear sunglasses and if the planet has an asteroid belt, the cow might wear a hula-hoop. There are special cows as well. Find them all and share them with your friends on your Facebook or Twitter!

    IN COWBEAM:
    ✦ Over 50 levels in 9 galaxies
    ✦ Collect all unique cows and share them with your friends
    ✦ Try to unlock all upgrades!
    ✦ Beautiful 3d graphics
    ✦ Collect all the stars!
    ✦ Get all the achievements in Game Center
    ✦ Universal app in HD for iPhone and iPad

    PITFALL! - Screenshots

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 03:51 AM PDT

    Escape the wrath of an angry volcano while collecting ancient treasures in PITFALL!, an adrenaline-fueled, free-running adventure set in a deadly jungle with twists and turns that will always keep you on your toes. As the iconic Pitfall Harry, test your skills by racing through jungles, caves and native villages while avoiding death-defying obstacles such as fiery volcanic flames, tumbling ancient artifacts, and narrow cliff side pathways. Challenge your reflexes by jumping, sliding, and using your deadly whip to take out classic PITFALL! foes like rattlesnakes and scorpions while avoiding the death grip of a crocodile's jaw as you swing across ravines. Make sure to always keep a watchful eye as danger lurks around every corner!

    FEATURES
    • The "Free Runner" evolved! Navigate through constantly changing environments as you make your way through narrow trenches, dark caverns, and cascading waterfalls with cinematic camera angles.
    • Level up and trade in your loot for a trove of game changing powerups that can be used to enhance your experience and customize your wardrobe
    • Top your friends' scores on Twitter and Facebook and stake your claim as the real king of the jungle!
    • Easy swipe and tilt controls allow you to jump right in!

    Entropy, Vol. 14, Pages 1501-1521: Potential and Evolution of Compressed Air Energy Storage: Energy and Exergy Analyses

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    Energy storage systems are increasingly gaining importance with regard to their role in achieving load levelling, especially for matching intermittent sources of renewable energy with customer demand, as well as for storing excess nuclear or thermal power during the daily cycle. Compressed air energy storage (CAES), with its high reliability, economic feasibility, and low environmental impact, is a promising method for large-scale energy storage. Although there are only two large-scale CAES plants in existence, recently, a number of CAES projects have been initiated around the world, and some innovative concepts of CAES have been proposed. Existing CAES plants have some disadvantages such as energy loss due to dissipation of heat of compression, use of fossil fuels, and dependence on geological formations. This paper reviews the main drawbacks of the existing CAES systems and presents some innovative concepts of CAES, such as adiabatic CAES, isothermal CAES, micro-CAES combined with air-cycle heating and cooling, and constant-pressure CAES combined with pumped hydro storage that can address such problems and widen the scope of CAES applications, by energy and exergy analyses. These analyses greatly help us to understand the characteristics of each CAES system and compare different CAES systems.

    Insects, Vol. 3, Pages 727-742: Regional Suppression of Bactrocera Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in the Pacific through Biological Control and Prospects for Future Introductions into Other Areas of the World

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    Bactrocera fruit fly species are economically important throughout the Pacific. The USDA, ARS U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center has been a world leader in promoting biological control of Bactrocera spp. that includes classical, augmentative, conservation and IPM approaches. In Hawaii, establishment of Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) in 1895 resulted in the introduction of the most successful parasitoid, Psyttalia fletcheri (Silvestri); similarly, establishment of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) in 1945 resulted in the introduction of 32 natural enemies of which Fopius arisanus (Sonan), Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) and Fopius vandenboschi (Fullaway) were most successful. Hawaii has also been a source of parasitoids for fruit fly control throughout the Pacific region including Australia, Pacific Island Nations, Central and South America, not only for Bactrocera spp. but also for Ceratitis and Anastrepha spp. Most recently, in 2002, F. arisanus was introduced into French Polynesia where B. dorsalis had invaded in 1996. Establishment of D. longicaudata into the new world has been important to augmentative biological control releases against Anastrepha spp. With the rapid expansion of airline travel and global trade there has been an alarming spread of Bactrocera spp. into new areas of the world (i.e., South America and Africa). Results of studies in Hawaii and French Polynesia, support parasitoid introductions into South America and Africa, where B. carambolae and B. invadens, respectively, have become established. In addition, P. fletcheri is a candidate for biological control of B. cucurbitae in Africa. We review past and more recent successes against Bactrocera spp. and related tephritids, and outline simple rearing and release methods to facilitate this goal.

    Remote Sensing, Vol. 4, Pages 2356-2372: Global Navigation Satellite Systems Reflectometry as a Remote Sensing Tool for Agriculture

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    The use of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals for remote sensing applications, generally referred to as GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R), is gaining increasing interest among the scientific community as a remote sensing tool for land applications. This paper describes a long term experimental campaign in which an extensive dataset of GNSS-R polarimetric measurements was acquired over a crop field from a ground-based stationary platform. Ground truth ancillary data were also continuously recorded during the whole experimental campaign. The duration of the campaign allowed to cover a full crop growing season, and as a consequence of seasonal rains on the experimental area, data could be recorded over a wide variety of soil conditions. This enabled a study on the effects of different land bio-geophysical parameters on GNSS scattered signals. It is shown that significant power variations in the measured GNSS reflected signals can be detected for different soil moisture and vegetation development conditions. In this work we also propose a technique based on the combination of the reflected signal's polarizations in order to improve the integrity of the observables with respect to nuisance parameters such as soil roughness.

    Animals, Vol. 2, Pages 361-362: Humans and Other Animals—Future Friends or Foe?

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    Since the opening editorial, Animals has got off to an excellent start. Thirty articles were published in 2011, which comprise 446 pages of volume 1, and already 25 articles have been published this year in 360 pages of volume 2. Meanwhile the impact of other MDPI journals continues to grow; mean impact factor of the ten journals that have been in existence long enough to be assessed was 1.9, an increase of 0.3 from the previous year. Open access internet-based journals are proving ever popular and we eagerly await our first impact factor next year. There was a broad spread of topics, which can be roughly classified as follows (and the number of articles): greenhouse gas emissions from animals and climate change (10), animal ethics (9), veterinary medicine (8), animal nutrition (7), animal welfare (7), biodiversity (4) and animals in art and literature (4). Several book reviews have been published and replies by the authors.

    IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 10022-10040: Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) Correlates of Altered Subunit Stoichiometry in Cys-Loop Receptors, Exemplified by Nicotinic α4β2

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    We provide a theory for employing Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurements to determine altered heteropentameric ion channel stoichiometries in intracellular compartments of living cells. We simulate FRET within nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) whose α4 and β2 subunits contain acceptor and donor fluorescent protein moieties, respectively, within the cytoplasmic loops. We predict FRET and normalized FRET (NFRET) for the two predominant stoichiometries, (α4)3(β2)2 vs. (α4)2(β2)3. Studying the ratio between FRET or NFRET for the two stoichiometries, minimizes distortions due to various photophysical uncertainties. Within a range of assumptions concerning the distance between fluorophores, deviations from plane pentameric geometry, and other asymmetries, the predicted FRET and NFRET for (α4)3(β2)2 exceeds that of (α4)2(β2)3. The simulations account for published data on transfected Neuro2a cells in which α4β2 stoichiometries were manipulated by varying fluorescent subunit cDNA ratios: NFRET decreased monotonically from (α4)3(β2)2 stoichiometry to mostly (α4)2(β2)3. The simulations also account for previous macroscopic and single-channel observations that pharmacological chaperoning by nicotine and cytisine increase the (α4)2(β2)3 and (α4)3(β2)2 populations, respectively. We also analyze sources of variability. NFRET-based monitoring of changes in subunit stoichiometry can contribute usefully to studies on Cys-loop receptors.

    IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 10010-10021: Effects of a Buried Cysteine-To-Serine Mutation on Yeast Triosephosphate Isomerase Structure and Stability

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    All the members of the triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) family possess a cystein residue (Cys126) located near the catalytically essential Glu165. The evolutionarily conserved Cys126, however, does not seem to play a significant role in the catalytic activity. On the other hand, substitution of this residue by other amino acid residues destabilizes the dimeric enzyme, especially when Cys is replaced by Ser. In trying to assess the origin of this destabilization we have determined the crystal structure of Saccharomyces cerevisiae TIM (ScTIM) at 1.86 Å resolution in the presence of PGA, which is only bound to one subunit. Comparisons of the wild type and mutant structures reveal that a change in the orientation of the Ser hydroxyl group, with respect to the Cys sulfhydryl group, leads to penetration of water molecules and apparent destabilization of residues 132–138. The latter results were confirmed by means of Molecular Dynamics, which showed that this region, in the mutated enzyme, collapses at about 70 ns.

    IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 9992-10009: RNA-Mediated Gene Silencing Signals Are Not Graft Transmissible from the Rootstock to the Scion in Greenhouse-Grown Apple Plants Malus sp.

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    RNA silencing describes the sequence specific degradation of RNA targets. Silencing is a non-cell autonomous event that is graft transmissible in different plant species. The present study is the first report on systemic acquired dsRNA-mediated gene silencing of transgenic and endogenous gene sequences in a woody plant like apple. Transgenic apple plants overexpressing a hairpin gene construct of the gusA reporter gene were produced. These plants were used as rootstocks and grafted with scions of the gusA overexpressing transgenic apple clone T355. After grafting, we observed a reduction of the gusA gene expression in T355 scions in vitro, but not in T355 scions grown in the greenhouse. Similar results were obtained after silencing of the endogenous Mdans gene in apple that is responsible for anthocyanin biosynthesis. Subsequently, we performed grafting experiments with Mdans silenced rootstocks and red leaf scions of TNR31-35 in order to evaluate graft transmitted silencing of the endogenous Mdans. The results obtained suggested a graft transmission of silencing signals in in vitro shoots. In contrast, no graft transmission of dsRNA-mediated gene silencing signals was detectable in greenhouse-grown plants and in plants grown in an insect protection tent.

    IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 9980-9991: Combined Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog (PTEN) Loss and Fatty Acid Synthase (FAS) Overexpression Worsens the Prognosis of Chinese Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

    Posted: 10 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

    We aimed to investigate the expression pattern of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), to evaluate the relationship between PTEN expression and clinicopathological characteristics, including fatty acid synthase (FAS) expression, and to determine the correlations of PTEN and FAS expression with survival in Chinese patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The expression patterns of PTEN and FAS were determined using tissue microarrays and immunohistochemistry. The expression of PTEN was compared with the clinicopathological characteristics of HCC, including FAS expression. Receiver operator characteristic curves were used to calculate the clinical sensitivity and specificity of PTEN expression. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were constructed to evaluate the correlations of PTEN loss and FAS overexpression with overall survival. We found that the loss of PTEN expression occurred predominantly in the cytoplasm, while FAS was mainly localized to the cytoplasm. Cytoplasmic and total PTEN expression levels were significantly decreased in HCC compared with adjacent non-neoplastic tissue (both, p < 0.0001). Decreased cytoplasmic and total PTEN expression showed significant clinical sensitivity and specificity for HCC (both, p < 0.0001). Downregulation of PTEN in HCC relative to non-neoplastic tissue was significantly correlated with histological grade (p = 0.043 for histological grades I–II versus grade III). Loss of total PTEN was significantly correlated with FAS overexpression (p = 0.014). Loss of PTEN was also associated with poor prognosis of patients with poorly differentiated HCC (p = 0.049). Moreover, loss of PTEN combined with FAS overexpression was associated with significantly worse prognosis compared with other HCC cases (p = 0.011). Our data indicate that PTEN may serve as a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker of HCC. Upregulating PTEN expression and inhibiting FAS expression may offer a novel therapeutic approach for HCC.
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