Rhomboid family members are widely conserved and found in all three kingdoms of life. They are serine proteases and serve important regulatory functions. In the present study, a novel gene highly expressed in the testis, RHBDD1, is shown to be a new member of the Rhomboid family, participating in the cleavage of BIK, a proapoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family. The RHBDD1-involved proteolytic modification is upstream of the BIK protein degradation pathway. Mutagenesis studies show that the amino acid residues glycine142 and serine144 of RHBDD1 are crucial for its activity in cleaving BIK at a site located in the transmembrane region. Overexpression or knock-down of RHBDD1 in HEK 293T cells can reduce or enhance BIK-mediated apoptosis, respectively. The present findings suggest that, by acting as a serine protease, RHBDD1 modulates BIK-mediated apoptotic activity.
This investigation assesses the bending performance of triangular plate elements with only three translational degrees of freedom per node in which the out‐of‐plane degree of freedom is the only displacement considered. A review is presented of three element formulations followed by the results of a series of case studies which illustrate the element behaviour. Results obtained from elastic theory and finite element analysis using more complex element formulations are given for comparative purposes.
Spin coating is a simple process for rapidly depositing thin, solid polymeric films onto relatively flat substrates. Evaporation occurs during spinning of the relatively volatile species in any solution. The curing behavior of spin-coated polymeric film is influenced by the evaporation of any reactive component. An investigation was carried out on a silicon substrate to study the effects of spin coating on the curing behavior of the epoxy adhesive. The degree of curing for both spin and without spin-coated epoxy adhesive was measured by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). A slower curing reaction rate was observed for the spin-coated epoxy adhesive. The composition gradient established by solvent evaporation during spinning is responsible for the slower curing reaction rate of the spin-coated epoxy adhesive. From this study, it is proposed to use solvents that are less volatile and allow a greater part of the thinning behavior to occur without significant changes in the fluid properties during the spinning process.
The normal mode localization in nearly periodic systems with one-degree-of-freedom subsystems and a single subsystem departing from the regularity in one, two, and three dimensions has been studied. The closed-frequency equations may be derived by using the U-transformation technique. It is shown that in one- and two-dimensional problems any amount of simple disorder (for stiffness or mass), however small, is sufficient to localize one mode and in three-dimensional systems, a finite threshold of disorder is needed in order to localize one mode. These conclusions are in agreement with those predicted by Hodges.
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