The Kank family of proteins, Kank1-Kank4, are characterized by their unique structure, coiled-coil motifs in the N-terminal region, and ankyrin-repeats in the C-terminal region, with an additional motif, the KN motif, at the N-terminus. Kank1 was obtained by positional cloning of a tumor suppressor gene in renal cell carcinoma, while the other members were found by homology search. The family is involved in the regulation of actin polymerization and cell motility through signaling pathways containing PI3K/Akt and/or unidentified modulators/effectors. Their relationship to diseases such as cancer, and to neuronal and developmental disorders, will be an important subject of future study.
The Cr 3 C 2 -C (1,826 • C) peritectic point was investigated for its performance as a high-temperature fixed point. Dependence on the impurity content was observed, although it was less severe for the higher of the two equilibrium temperatures obtained with the same cell, the Cr 3 C 2 -C peritectic point, than for the lower, the Cr 7 C 3 -Cr 3 C 2 eutectic point. Thermal history had an effect on the melting plateau duration, but not on the point-of-inflection temperature nor on the melting range. The melting rate had no apparent effect. The repeatability evaluated as the standard deviation of the repeated melting plateaux within a day was 20 mK for the Cr 3 C 2 -C peritectic point, while for the Cr 7 C 3 -Cr 3 C 2 eutectic point, this was 210 mK. For both the Cr 3 C 2 -C peritectic and the Cr 7 C 3 -Cr 3 C 2 eutectic, the freezing plateaux often showed deep supercools, which made them unsuitable for use. The observed good repeatability shows the peritectic-point performance to be comparable to the best MC-eutectic high-temperature fixed points investigated so far. The insensitivity to thermal history constitutes an important and practical advantage. The low price of chromium is a clear benefit as compared to Pt-C (1,738 • C) or Ru-C (1,953 • C) eutectic points, the M-C eutectic points in this temperature range.
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