The solar UVB radiation incident on a horizontal surface was measured and related to more routinely recorded meteorological variabIes in a study of the UVB climatology of the English East Midlands. Exposure of individuals in this climate was monitored and related to vitamin D status. On clear days relations were found between the logarithm of UVB intensity lƛ and airmass µ,and at 304 nm where ozone amount [O3] is the dominant atmospheric attenuating factor a2 In Iƛ/aµa[03] was close to the ozone absorption coefficient for this wavelength. At longer wavelengths other attenuation processes have to be accounted for. Measurements of the waveband 300-316 nm were compared with irradiation over broader wavebands. On clear days the ratio of UVB to visible irradiance IB/IV was 4.16 cos z + x where z is the solar zenith angle and x is a coefficient which varies from day to day. Similar analysis for the full solar waveband IF showed a similar linearity of IB/IF with cos z for each day, but both slope and intercept changed between days. A relation between daily integrated totals of UVB and full solar radiation (300-3000 nm) was found, enabling UVB radiation to be estimated from measurements made with a standard meteorological pyranometer. The best estimates require daily figures for ozone concentration but an approximation may still be made using monthly mean concentrations or climatological averages. Diffuse UVB radiation was measured and found to be always greater than 0.5 global UVB. The shade-ring correction applicable in this region of the spectrum is ~ 0.01 greater than the geometric correction. Estimates of the anisotropy of UVB sky radiation gave the relative strength of the circumsolar region as 0.36 with an angular width of 0.78 radians. Polysulphone film was tested and found suitable for use as a personal dosimeter for solar UVB radiation. The UVB exposure of elderly long-stay hospital patients was monitored for a three month period and compared with that of a young healthy population. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were measured to assess vitamin D status and the change in plasma 25(OH)D resulting from skin irradiated with solar UVB was found to be 6.9 ± 0.4 ng J -1 for the elderly and + 7.3 ± 3.4 ng J-1 for the young volunteers suggesting little difference between the responses of the elderly and the young. The implication of these figures is that sunlight exposure: of a few hours per week is adequate to maintain a healthy vitamin D status.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Synthesis from UDP-($ sp{14}$C) glucose of charged lipid-linked glucosyl compounds by pea membranes was short-lived, and of very limited magnitude compared to the synthesis of 1,4- and 1,3-linked B-glucans. Lipid-linked monophosphoryl glucose was the only charged lipid formed at initial stages, and had properties similar to that of dolichol-monophosphoryl glucose. It exhibited no turnover during pulse-chase experiments. Lipid-linked pyrophosphoryl-glucose or -oligosaccharides were not detected. Coumarin inhibited the synthesis of SDS-soluble products and glucans, but not of the lipid-P-glucose. Transfer of the label from endogeneous lipid-P-($ sp{14}$C) glucose or from dolichol-P-($ sp3$H) glucose into non-lipid products was minimal. It was concluded that the lipid-linked phosphoryl saccharide formed from UDP-glucose was not an obligate intermediate in the formation of B-glucans in pea membranes. / Fucose-containing lipid-linked intermediates were not involved in the biosynthesis of xyloglucans. However, pea microsomal membranes catalysed the transfer of $ lbrack sp{14}{ rm C} rbrack$-fucose from GDP-$ lbrack sp{14}$C) fucose, with or without added unlabelled UDP-glucose, UDP-xylose or UDP-galactose, to an insoluble product with properties characteristic of xyloglucan. After digestion of the ethanol-insoluble pellet with Streptomyces griseus endocellulase, $ lbrack sp{14}$C) fucose residues occurred exclusively in a fragment identified as the xyloglucan nonasaccharide, Glc$ sb4$ Xyl$ sb3$ Gal Fuc. By comparison, in incubations with UDP-$ lbrack sp3$H) xylose, the maximum size of labeled oligosaccharide found following cellulase digestion of products was an octasaccharide. In the presence of both GDP-$ lbrack sp{14}$C) -fucose and UDP-$ lbrack sp3$H) xylose, a nonasaccharide containing both labels was produced. Fucose and xylose residues were transferred rapidly to acceptor molecules of MW up to 300,000. Such products did not elongate detectably over 60 min of incubation. We concluded that the nonasaccharide subunit of xyloglucan was generated in vitro by transfucosylation to preformed acceptor chains, and that its synthesis was dependent on exogenous GDP-fucose. / Microsomal membranes were separated by rate-zonal centrifugation on renografin gradients. Transfer to xyloglucan of labelled fucose and xylose from GDP- ($ sp{14}$C) fucose and UDP- ($ sp{14}$C) xylose occurred mainly in dictyosome-enriched fractions. No transferase activity was detected in secretory vesicle fractions. Pulse-chase experiments using pea stem slices incubated with ($ sp3$H) fucose suggested that xyloglucan chains are fucosylated and their structure completed within the dictyosomes, before being transported to the cell wall by secretory vesicles.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii, 1968. / Bibliography: leaves 190-195. / xiii, 195 l illus

<p><font face="TimesNewRomanPSMT"> <p align="left">Life is an emergent property of a complex network of interacting cellular-machines. Three-dimensional (3D), cellular structure captured at supra-atomic resolution has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of the interactions, dynamics and structure of these machines: proteins, organelles and other cellular constituents, in their normal functional states. Techniques, capable of acquiring 3D cellular structure at sufficient resolution to enable identification and interpretation of individual macromolecules in the cellular milieu, have the potential to provide this data. Advances in cryo-preservation, preparation and metal-coating techniques allow images of the surfaces of in situ macromolecules to be obtained in a life-like state by field emission scanning &ndash / and transmission electron microscopy (FE/SEM, FE/TEM) at a resolution of 2-4 nm. A large body of macromolecular structural information has been obtained using these techniques, but while the images produced provide a qualitative impression of three-dimensionality, computational methods are required to extract quantitative 3D structure. In order to test the feasibility of applying various photogrammetric and tomographic algorithms to micrographs of well-preserved metal-coated biological surfaces, several algorithms were attempted on a variety of FE/SEM and TEM micrographs. A stereoscopic algorithm was implemented and applied to FESEM stereo images of the nuclear pore basket, resulting in a high quality digital elevation map. A SEM rotation series of an object of complicated topology (ant) was reconstructed volumetrically by silhouette-intersection. Finally, the iterative helical real-space reconstruction technique&nbsp / as applied to cryo-TEM micrographs of unidirectionally heavy-metal shadowed.&nbsp / These preliminary results confirm that 3D information obtained from multiple TEM or SEM surface images could be applied to the problem of 3D macromolecular imaging in the cellular context. However, each of the various methods described here comes with peculiar topological, resolution and geometrical limitations, some of which are inherent shortcomings of the methodologies described / others might be overcome with improved algorithms. Combined with carefully designed surface experiments, some of the methods investigated here could provide novel insights and extend current surface-imaging&nbsp / studies. Docking of atomic resolution structures into low-resolution maps derived from surface imaging experiments is a particularly exciting prospect.</p> </font></p>

Members of the eukaryotic initiation factor 4G (eIF4G) family play a central role in the translation initiation process. One member of this family is p97 (also called DAP5 and NAT1), a protein that is highly homologous to the C-terminal two thirds of eIF4G. Overexpression studies suggested that p97 is a pure translational repressor that has to be cleaved into a shorter form called p86, in order to show translational activity. In this study a series of experiments indicated that full length p97 has a number elF property such as association with active translating ribosomes, stimulatory effects in the Direct Initiation Factor assay and accumulation in stress granules. Additionally the endogenous p97 complex was isolated from HeLa cells and mRNA as well as the protein components were characterized. P97 associated mRNAs were described by a custom made 5'UTR focus array, showing that the protein binds to a broad range of mRNA. The relative lack of mRNA specificity argues for a general role of p97 in translation, which does not seems to be essential in unchallenged cells, because a down regulation of p97 protein levels has no effect on the translational status of the bulk of mRNAs. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed a novel protein-protein interaction between p97 and DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1), which does not rely on a nucleic acid. For this interaction the C- and N-terminus of p97 play a critical role. Further, Dnmt1 has the ability to interact with elF4G and the small ribosomal subunit, which might provide evidence for a novel function of Dnmt1 in RNA metabolism.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 28, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.