Protein L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase (PIMT) is suggested to play a role in the repair of aged protein spontaneously incorporated with isoaspartyl residues. We generated PIMT-deficient mice by targeted disruption of the PIMT gene to elucidate the biological role of the gene in vivo. PIMT-deficient mice died from progressive epileptic seizures with grand mal and myoclonus between 4 and 12 weeks of age. An anticonvulsive drug, dipropylacetic acid (DPA), improved their survival but failed to cure the fatal outcome. L-Isoaspartatate, the putative substrate for PIMT, was increased ninefold in the brains of PIMT-deficient mice. The brains of PIMT-deficient mice started to enlarge after 4 weeks of age when the apical dendrites of pyramidal neurons in cerebral cortices showed aberrant arborizations with disorganized microtubules. We conclude that methylation of modified proteins with isoaspartyl residues is essential for the maintenance of a mature CNS and that a deficiency in PIMT results in fatal progressive epilepsy in mice.

No abstract

This paper presents a novel stereo-based visual odometry approach that provides state-of-the-art results in real time, both indoors and outdoors. Our proposed method follows the procedure of computing optical flow and stereo disparity to minimize the re-projection error of tracked feature points. However, instead of following the traditional approach of performing this task using only consecutive frames, we propose a novel and computationally inexpensive technique that uses the whole history of the tracked feature points to compute the motion of the camera. In our technique, which we call multi-frame feature integration, the features measured and tracked over all past frames are integrated into a single, improved estimate. An augmented feature set, composed of the improved estimates, is added to the optimization algorithm, improving the accuracy of the computed motion and reducing ego-motion drift. Experimental results show that the proposed approach reduces pose error by up to 65% with a negligible additional computational cost of 3.8%. Furthermore, our algorithm outperforms all other known methods on the KITTI Vision Benchmark data set.

The oxidized octaethyltetraphenylporphyrin (1, OETPP) and the corresponding newly prepared octaisobutyltetraphenylporphyrin (3, OisoBuTPP) could be isolated from the reaction of OETPPLi2 (or OisoBuTPPLi2) with SOCl2. The X-ray analysis and the characteristic UV-vis spectra of 1 and 3 revealed that these are the first examples of 16 pi nonaromatic porphyrins.

No abstract

No abstract

We investigated the relationship between the genetic diversity of indigenous soybean-nodulating bradyrhizobia and their geographical distribution in the United States using nine soil isolates from eight states. The bradyrhizobia were inoculated on three soybean Rj genotypes (non-Rj, Rj 2 Rj 3 , and Rj 4 ). We analyzed their genetic diversity and community structure by means of restriction fragment length polymorphisms of PCR amplicons to target the 16S-23S rRNA gene internal transcribed spacer region, using 11 USDA Bradyrhizobium strains as reference strains. We also performed diversity analysis, multidimensional scaling analysis based on the Bray-Curtis index, and polar ordination analysis to describe the structure and geographical distribution of the soybean-nodulating bradyrhizobial community. The major clusters were Bradyrhizobium japonicum Bj123, in the northern United States, and Bradyrhizobium elkanii, in the middle to southern regions. Dominance of bradyrhizobia in a community was generally larger for the cluster belonging to B. elkanii than for the cluster belonging to B. japonicum. The indigenous American soybean-nodulating bradyrhizobial community structure was strongly correlated with latitude. Our results suggest that this community varies geographically.

chloride (0.5 mL) was added, and the mixture was warmed on a steam bath for 5 min to ensure a homogeneous solution and then left at room temperature overnight. Water and methylene chloride were added, and the organic layer was removed, washed with dilute hydrochloric acid and then water, dried (MgS04), and evaporated to give 22b as a viscous oil (20 mg, 23%): IR (Nujol) Xmax 1680,