Explore the vast range of titles available.

يرصد الكتاب قصة بيب غوارديولا المذهلة في مانشستر سيتي منذ توليه القيادة عام 2016، كاشفا خلف الكواليس استراتيجياته التكتيكية والثقافية التي أحدثت ثورة في لعبة كرة القدم الإنجليزية. استند الكتاب إلى تتبع مباشر للمؤلف داخل النادي، ومنه أكواد تدريب ميدانية، اجتماعات التدريب، واتجاهات اتخاذ القرارات، ليقدم سردا مفصلا لكيفية بناء فريق ناجح يعتمد على التزام دقيق بالأسلوب الفني، تطوير اللاعبين، واستراتيجيات تجنيد معقدة تنسجم مع رؤيته. يعرض الكتاب كذلك المفاجأة التي أصابت مانشستر يونايتد عندما اختار غوارديولا الانضمام إلى سيتي، رغم اعتقادهم بأنه الأقرب لتولي قيادة الأولد ترافورد، مستعرضا العوامل التي جعلت سيتي تقدم بيئة ملائمة له أكثر، من بنية تحتية إلى شخصيات من زمان برشلونة.

Plasma electrolytic polishing (PeP) is an innovative technology used to obtain metal surfaces with low roughness and a high gloss. Its advantages, which include high efficiency, no structural selectivity, and low pollution, have recently attracted much attention. PeP is widely used in aerospace, biomedical, precision instrumentation, and 3C electronics industries. This paper primarily aims to introduce basic principles of PeP technology from both the macro- and micro-mechanism viewpoints. Accordingly, the typical characteristics and phenomena of the polishing process are summarized. The primary control parameters which affect the surface quality and material removal rate are discussed in detail. These include treatment time, electrolyte, electrical source, and voltage. Furthermore, the electrolyte jet polishing methods applicable to parts with various geometries are also analyzed. Finally, the PeP surface treatment of selected difficult-to-finish materials is reviewed, followed by the authors’ insights into the prospects of PeP technology. This review can serve as a suitable and effective guide for researchers to understand the PeP technology systematically.

Plasma electrolytic polishing (PEP) is an innovative technology used in polishing metal workpiece surfaces, especially for complex workpieces. To date, the function of the vapour gaseous envelope (VGE) fluctuation in electrolyte plasma polishing remains indistinct, leading to differences in understanding of the smoothing mechanism of PEP. This paper primarily aims to reveal the evolution process of VGE with voltage change and the function mechanism in the PEP. Accordingly, the polishing efficiency, change of electrolyte properties, and electrical signal data of stainless steel are experimentally investigated under different voltages. The results show that the evolution of VGE with the increase of voltage can be divided into four stages: microbubble stage, formation stage, fluctuation stage and stable stage. Corresponding to the fluctuation stage of VGE, the surface roughness of the workpiece can be reduced from the original Ra 0.7 μm to 0.2 μm in the voltage range of 200–400 V. It can be concluded that the fluctuation of VGE is the key to the effect of PEP, the fluctuation of the VGE makes the electrolyte constantly contact and separate from the workpiece surface. The electrochemical reaction occurs during contact, and plasma discharge channels are formed during separation. Additionally, the electrochemical reaction is the main cause of surface material removal, and the positive effect of plasma discharge is to produce a shock wave to remove electrolytic products on the surface of the workpiece.

Phosphoprotein phosphatases (PPPs) regulate major signaling pathways, but the determinants of phosphatase specificity are poorly understood. This is because methods to investigate this at scale are lacking. Here, we develop a novel in vitro assay, MRBLE:Dephos, that allows multiplexing of dephosphorylation reactions to determine phosphatase preferences. Using MRBLE:Dephos, we establish amino acid preferences of the residues surrounding the dephosphorylation site for PP1 and PP2A‐B55, which reveals common and unique preferences. To compare the MRBLE:Dephos results to cellular substrates, we focused on mitotic exit that requires extensive dephosphorylation by PP1 and PP2A‐B55. We use specific inhibition of PP1 and PP2A‐B55 in mitotic exit lysates coupled with phosphoproteomics to identify more than 2,000 regulated sites. Importantly, the sites dephosphorylated during mitotic exit reveal key signatures that are consistent with MRBLE:Dephos. Furthermore, integration of our phosphoproteomic data with mitotic interactomes of PP1 and PP2A‐B55 provides insight into how binding of phosphatases to substrates shapes dephosphorylation. Collectively, we develop novel approaches to investigate protein phosphatases that provide insight into mitotic exit regulation. Synopsis MRBLE:Dephos a new method for high‐throughput investigation of peptide dephosphorylation using spectral encoded beads. Using this method, the active site preferences of PP1 and PP2A‐B55 are investigated and compared to mitotic exit substrates identified by phosphoproteomics. MRBLE:Dephos is a novel high‐throughput dephosphorylation method. MRBLE:Dephos provides insights into PP1 and PP2A‐B55 sequence preferences. Mitotic exit substrate screens for PP1 and PP2A‐B55 identifies thousands of regulated sites. Binding of PP1 to RVxF motifs can modulate active site preferences. Graphical Abstract MRBLE:Dephos a new method for high‐throughput investigation of peptide dephosphorylation using spectral encoded beads. Using this method, the active site preferences of PP1 and PP2A‐B55 are investigated and compared to mitotic exit substrates identified by phosphoproteomics.

-Ovules are essential for sexual plant reproduction and seed formation, and are fundamental for agriculture. However, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing ovule development is far from complete. In Arabidopsis, ovule identity is determined by homeotic MADS-domain proteins that define the floral C- (AG) and D- (SHP1/SHP2, STK) functions. Pre-mRNA processing of these genes is critical and mediated by HUA-PEP activity, composed of genes encoding RNA-binding proteins. -In strong hua-pep mutants, functional transcripts for C- and D-function genes are reduced, resulting in homeotic transformation of ovules. Thus, hua-pep mutants provide an unique sensitized background to study ovule morphogenesis when C- and D-functions are simultaneously compromised. -We found that hua-pep ovules are morphologically sepaloid and show ectopic expression of the homeotic class-A gene AP1. Inactivation of AP1 or AP2 (A-function genes) in hua-pep mutants reduced homeotic conversions, rescuing ovule identity while promoting carpelloid traits in transformed ovules. Interestingly, increased AG dosage led to similar results. -Our findings strongly suggest that HUA-PEP activity is required for correct C and D floral functions, which in turn prevents ectopic expression of class-A genes in ovules for their proper morphogenesis, evoking the classic A–C antagonism of the ABC model for floral organ development.

In many organisms, metabolite interconversion at the phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP)–pyruvate–oxaloacetate node involves a structurally entangled set of reactions that interconnects the major pathways of carbon metabolism and thus, is responsible for the distribution of the carbon flux among catabolism, anabolism and energy supply of the cell. While sugar catabolism proceeds mainly via oxidative or non-oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate to acetyl-CoA, anaplerosis and the initial steps of gluconeogenesis are accomplished by C3- (PEP- and/or pyruvate-) carboxylation and C4- (oxaloacetate- and/or malate-) decarboxylation, respectively. In contrast to the relatively uniform central metabolic pathways in bacteria, the set of enzymes at the PEP–pyruvate–oxaloacetate node represents a surprising diversity of reactions. Variable combinations are used in different bacteria and the question of the significance of all these reactions for growth and for biotechnological fermentation processes arises. This review summarizes what is known about the enzymes and the metabolic fluxes at the PEP–pyruvate–oxaloacetate node in bacteria, with a particular focus on the C3-carboxylation and C4-decarboxylation reactions in Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Corynebacterium glutamicum. We discuss the activities of the enzymes, their regulation and their specific contribution to growth under a given condition or to biotechnological metabolite production. The present knowledge unequivocally reveals the PEP–pyruvate–oxaloacetate nodes of bacteria to be a fascinating target of metabolic engineering in order to achieve optimized metabolite production.

Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death worldwide, with sleep disordered breathing being a further aggravating factor. Respiratory illnesses are the third leading cause of death amongst the noncommunicable diseases. The current COVID-19 pandemic, however, also highlights the impact of communicable respiratory syndromes. In the clinical routine, prolonged postanesthetic respiratory instability worsens the patient outcome. Even though early and continuous, long-term cardiorespiratory monitoring has been proposed or even proven to be beneficial in several situations, implementations thereof are sparse. We employed our recently presented, multimodal patch stethoscope to estimate Einthoven electrocardiogram (ECG) Lead I and II from a single 55 mm ECG lead. Using the stethoscope and ECG subsystems, the pre-ejection period (PEP) and left ventricular ejection time (LVET) were estimated. ECG-derived respiration techniques were used in conjunction with a novel, phonocardiogram-derived respiration approach to extract respiratory parameters. Medical-grade references were the SOMNOmedics SOMNO HD and Osypka ICON-Core . In a study including 10 healthy subjects, we analyzed the performances in the supine, lateral, and prone position. Einthoven I and II estimations yielded correlations exceeding 0.97. LVET and PEP estimation errors were 10% and 21%, respectively. Respiratory rates were estimated with mean absolute errors below 1.2 bpm, and the respiratory signal yielded a correlation of 0.66. We conclude that the estimation of ECG, PEP, LVET, and respiratory parameters is feasible using a wearable, multimodal acquisition device and encourage further research in multimodal signal fusion for respiratory signal estimation.

The first line of inducible plant defence, pattern-triggered immunity (PTI), is activated by the recognition of exogenous as well as endogenous elicitors. Exogenous elicitors, also called microbe-associated molecular patterns, signal the presence of microbes. In contrast, endogenous elicitors seem to be generated and recognized under more diverse circumstances, making the evaluation of their biological relevance much more complex. Plant elicitor peptides (Peps) are one class of such endogenous elicitors, which contribute to immunity against attack by bacteria, fungi, as well as herbivores. Recent studies indicate that the Pep-triggered signalling pathways also operate during the response to a more diverse set of stresses including starvation stress. In addition, in silico data point to an involvement in the regulation of plant development, and a study on Pep-mediated inhibition of root growth supports this indication. Importantly, Peps are neither limited to the model plant Arabidopsis nor to a specific plant family like the previously intensively studied systemin peptides. On the contrary, they are present and active in angiosperms all across the phylogenetic tree, including many important crop plants. Here we summarize the progress made in research on Peps from their discovery in 2006 until now. We discuss the two main models which describe their likely function in plant immunity, highlight the studies supporting additional roles of Pep-triggered signalling and identify urgent research tasks to further uncover their biological relevance.

Model parameter errors are one of the sources of uncertainty when simulating or predicting evapotranspiration (ET) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). To enhance the ET simulation ability and prediction skill over the TP, the conditional nonlinear optimal parameter perturbation (CNOP‐P) method is used to establish an ensemble prediction method (called the CNOP‐PEP method) to represent uncertainties arising due to the model parameters to implement ensemble prediction experiments. The one‐at‐a‐time (OAT) method and the traditional stochastically perturbed parametrization (SPP) scheme are also employed to implement ensemble prediction experiments for comparison with the CNOP‐PEP method. The numerical results show that all ensemble prediction experiments conducted with the three methods exhibit improved prediction skills compared to the reference ET over the TP. Furthermore, the prediction skill by employing the CNOP‐PEP method is more excellent than those of the OAT and SPP methods when predicting ET over the TP. The physical mechanism analysis shows that the improved evaporation characterization obtained with the ensemble prediction experiments plays a key role in reducing uncertainties when simulating and predicting ET over the TP. The above results indicate that ensemble prediction methods are a helpful tool to improve the simulation ability and prediction skill of the ET over the TP for analyzing model parameters. In addition, the CNOP‐PEP method can supply prime ensemble members to represent uncertainties in model parameters. Plain Language Summary The numerical simulations and predictions of evapotranspiration (ET) keep still uncertain. In this study, the ensemble forecasting skills of ET at 13 stations over the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau are discussed by using the ensemble forecasting methods of model physical parameter errors. First, a new ensemble prediction method (CNOP‐PEP method) based on the conditional nonlinear optimal parameter perturbation (CNOP‐P) method is proposed in this study. Second, by using the CNOP‐PEP method, it is found that the CNOP‐PEP method can obtain higher prediction skills compared with the traditional ensemble prediction methods, such as the one‐at‐a‐Time method and the stochastically perturbed parameter (SPP) method. Finally, it is found that the CNOP‐PEP method is able to find the rapidly developing perturbation members of the physical parameters by analyzing the prediction skills of different ensemble members, which is the reason for the high prediction skills. The results of this study indicate that the CNOP‐PEP method is a useful tool for ensemble prediction of model parameter errors. Key Points The ensemble prediction experiments exhibit improved prediction skills compared to the reference evapotranspiration (ET) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) The prediction skill of the CNOP‐PEP method is better than those of the one‐at‐a‐time and stochastically perturbed parametrization methods for predicting ET over the TP The CNOP‐PEP method can supply excellent ensemble members to represent uncertainties in model parameters

Crops experience herbivory by arthropods and microbial infections. In the interaction between plants and chewing herbivores, lepidopteran larval oral secretions (OS) and plant-derived damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) trigger plant defense responses. However, the mechanisms underlying anti-herbivore defense, especially in monocots, have not been elucidated. The receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase Broad-Spectrum Resistance 1 (BSR1) of Oryza sativa L. (rice) mediates cytoplasmic defense signaling in response to microbial pathogens and enhances disease resistance when overexpressed. Here, we investigated whether BSR1 contributes to anti-herbivore defense responses. BSR1 knockout suppressed rice responses triggered by OS from the chewing herbivore Mythimna loreyi Duponchel (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and peptidic DAMPs OsPeps, including the activation of genes required for biosynthesis of diterpenoid phytoalexins (DPs). BSR1-overexpressing rice plants exhibited hyperactivation of DP accumulation and ethylene signaling after treatment with simulated herbivory and acquired enhanced resistance to larval feeding. As the biological significance of herbivory-induced accumulation of rice DPs remains unexplained, their physiological activities in M. loreyi were analyzed. The addition of momilactone B, a rice DP, to the artificial diet suppressed the growth of M. loreyi larvae. Altogether, this study revealed that BSR1 and herbivory-induced rice DPs are involved in the defense against chewing insects, in addition to pathogens.