Simple identification tools in FishBase

Simple identification tools for fish species were included in the FishBase information system from its inception. Early tools made use of the relational model and characters like fin ray meristics. Soon pictures and drawings were added as a further help, similar to a field guide. Later came the computerization of existing dichotomous keys, again in combination with pictures and other information, and the ability to restrict possible species by country, area, or taxonomic group. Today, www.FishBase.org offers four different ways to identify species. This paper describes these tools with their advantages and disadvantages, and suggests various options for further development. It explores the possibility of a holistic and integrated computeraided strategy

The Measurement of the Asymmetry of Tensor-Polarized Deuteron Electrodisintegration at 180 MeV Electron Energy

The nucleon emission asymmetry in d(e, pn)e' reaction was measured using the tensor-polarized deuterium jet target in the VEPP-2 electron storage ring. At the present experimental accuracy, the results for the proton energy interval Ep= 12-100 MeV do not contradict the nonrelativistic calculations.

A new event generator for the elastic scattering of charged leptons on protons

This paper describes a new multipurpose event generator, ESEPP, which has been developed for the Monte Carlo simulation of unpolarized elastic scattering of charged leptons on protons. The generator takes into account the lowest-order QED radiative corrections to the Rosenbluth cross section including first-order bremsstrahlung without using the soft-photon or ultrarelativistic approximations. ESEPP can be useful for several significant ongoing and planned experiments.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Yeast apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease Apn1 protects mammalian neuronal cell line from oxidative stress

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated as one of the agents responsible for many neurodegenerative diseases. A critical target for ROS is DNA. Most oxidative stress-induced DNA damage in the nucleus and mitochondria is removed by the base excision repair pathway. Apn1 is a yeast enzyme in this pathway which possesses a wider substrate specificity and greater enzyme activity than its mammalian counterpart for removing DNA damage, making it a good therapeutic candidate. For this study we targeted Apn1 to mitochondria in a neuronal cell line derived from the substantia nigra by using a mitochondrial targeting signal (MTS) in an effort to hasten the removal of DNA damage and thereby protect these cells. We found that following oxidative stress, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was repaired more efficiently in cells containing Apn1 with the MTS than controls. There was no difference in nuclear repair. However, cells that expressed Apn1 without the MTS showed enhanced repair of both nuclear and mtDNA. Both Apn1-expressing cells were more resistant to cell death following oxidative stress compared with controls. Therefore, these results reveal that the expression of Apn1 in neurons may be of potential therapeutic benefit for treating patients with specific neurodegenerative diseases

Conditional Targeting of the DNA Repair Enzyme hOGG1 into Mitochondria

Oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been suggested to be a key factor in the etiologies of many diseases and in the normal process of aging. Although the presence of a repair system to remove this damage has been demonstrated, the mechanisms involved in this repair have not been well defined. In an effort to better understand the physiological role of recombinant 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase/apurinic lyase (OGG1) in mtDNA repair, we constructed an expression vector containing the gene for OGG1 downstream of the mitochondrial localization sequence from manganese-superoxide dismutase. This gene construct was placed under the control of a tetracycline-regulated promoter. Transfected cells that conditionally expressed OGG1 in the absence of the tetracycline analogue doxycycline and targeted this recombinant protein to mitochondria were generated. Western blots of mitochondrial extracts from vector- and OGG1-transfected clones with and without doxycycline revealed that removal of doxycycline for 4 days caused an approximate 8-fold increase in the amount of OGG1 protein in mitochondria. Enzyme activity assays and DNA repair studies showed that the doxycycline-dependent recombinant OGG1 is functional. Functional studies revealed that cells containing recombinant OGG1 were more proficient at repairing oxidative damage in their mtDNA, and this increased repair led to increased cellular survival following oxidative stress

Measurement of tensor analyzing powers in deuteron photodisintegration

New accurate measurement of tensor analyzing powers T20, T21 and T22 in deuteron photodisintegration has been performed. Wide-aperture non-magnetic detectors allowed to cover broad kinematic ranges in a single setup: photon energy = 25 to 600 MeV, proton emission angle in CM = 24 to 48 deg. and 70 to 102 deg. New data provide a significant improvement of a few existing measurements. The angular dependency of the tensor asymmetries in deuteron photodisintegration is extracted for the first time.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let