NAR

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the claim by the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement that the Church has entered a new apostolic age in which the ‘office’ of apostle is open. In doing so, a brief overview of the NAR and how its influence has grown at both local and international levels is presented.  Consideration is then given to the concept of apostolicity and authority to determine how the former has been perceived throughout the history of the Church and where the latter resides within it. Having identified these fundamental issues, an examination of types of apostles in the Bible is made, after which the NAR’s understanding of apostleship and authority is critiqued against Scripture.

The Voltage-gated K(+) Channel DataBase (VKCDB) (http://vkcdb.biology.ualberta.ca) makes a comprehensive set of sequence data readily available for phylogenetic and comparative analysis. The current update contains 2063 entries for full-length or nearly full-length unique channel sequences from Bacteria (477), Archaea (18) and Eukaryotes (1568), an increase from 346 solely eukaryotic entries in the original release. In addition to protein sequences for channels, corresponding nucleotide sequences of the open reading frames corresponding to the amino acid sequences are now available and can be extracted in parallel with sets of protein sequences. Channels are categorized into subfamilies by phylogenetic analysis and by using hidden Markov model analyses. Although the raw database contains a number of fragmentary, duplicated, obsolete and non-channel sequences that were collected in early steps of data collection, the web interface will only return entries that have been validated as ...

Fra il 12 Dicembre 1969 e il 2 Agosto 1980, vale a dire fra la strage di Piazza Fontana e la strage di Bologna, l’Italia ha visto srotolarsi tutti gli anni Settanta attraverso una macabra sequela di fatti di sangue, violenze gratuite, oscure repressioni e tacite alleanze.  “La Notte della Repubblica”, come Zavoli ebbe a definire tale periodo, continua ad avvolgere la nostra capacità di fare luce, e quindi di comprendere. Ad ogni modo, innumerevoli sono le tracce ed i riflessi, che le nere e crudeli storie che qui si vengono a raccontare, ancora emanano; ed è lavorando su queste - e su un clinico scavo delle fonti storiche, archivistiche, giudiziarie e giornalistiche - che “La morte fra la Piazza e la Stazione - storia e cultura politica del terrorismo in Italia negli anni ‘70” giunge a proporci una visione coerente e stimolante del dipanarsi di estremismi, falliti golpe ed azioni armate. Si tratta non solo di storiografia del terrorismo, ma di analisi delle culture politiche sottostanti gli opposti terrorismi, di monitoraggio della stampa dell’epoca, di interviste a coloro che più di altri hanno potuto valutare il fenomeno, il tutto senza tralasciare il quadro internazionale, all’interno del quale l’Italia si trovava ad operare. “... In ultima istanza, la considerazione di fondo, che pare emergere dallo studio effettuato, è l’atroce fungibilità politica delle morti violente. Laddove i bisogni di un mondo bipolare, esigevano determinati esiti delle dinamiche interne italiane, l’emergere di sacche radicali di proteste, è divenuto l’agone per configgenti centri di potere, che hanno giocato una partita di Risiko senza alcuna umana ortodossia...”

The sequence-dependent structural variability and conformational dynamics of DNA play pivotal roles in many biological milieus, such as in the site-specific binding of transcription factors to target regulatory elements. To better understand DNA structure, function, and dynamics in general, and protein···DNA recognition in the ‘κB’ family of genetic regulatory elements in particular, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of a 20-bp DNA encompassing a cognate κB site recognized by the proto-oncogenic ‘c-Rel’ subfamily of NF-κB transcription factors. Simulations of the κB DNA in explicit water were extended to microsecond duration, providing a broad, atomically detailed glimpse into the structural and dynamical behavior of double helical DNA over many timescales. Of particular note, novel (and structurally plausible) conformations of DNA developed only at the long times sampled in this simulation—including a peculiar state arising at ≈0.7 μs and characterized by cross-strand intercalative stacking of nucleotides within a longitudinally sheared base pair, followed (at ≈1 μs) by spontaneous base flipping of a neighboring thymine within the A-rich duplex. Results and predictions from the microsecond-scale simulation include implications for a dynamical NF-κB recognition motif, and are amenable to testing and further exploration via specific experimental approaches that are suggested herein.

The polymerization domain of ϕ29 DNA polymerase acquires a toroidal shape by means of an arch-like structure formed by the specific insertion TPR2 (Terminal Protein Region 2) and the thumb subdomain. TPR2 is connected to the fingers and palm ...

Spliceosome formation is initiated by the recognition of the 50 splice site through formation of an RNA duplex between the 50 splice site and U1 snRNA. We have previously shown that RNA duplex format- ion between U1 snRNA and the 50 splice site can pro- tect pre-mRNAs from degradation prior to splicing. This initial RNA duplex must be disrupted to

We have determined the DNA sequence of the H-2Kk gene of the mouse major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Comparison on the nucleotide and protein level of three H-2K alleles (Kk, Kb and Kd) reveals a high degree of homology, in particular between the Kb and Kk alleles. Differences between the two latter antigens are almost exclusively confined to the c1 and a2 domains. At nine positions in the extracellular part of the molecules we have found allele-specific amino acids. Interestingly, 78% of these residues are either polar or carry hydroxyl-groups. This makes it likely that they are exposed on the surface of the molecules and might then be part of antigenic determinants. We have also identified potentially allele-specific nucleotide sequences of the K genes which might be used as specific DNA probes.

We describe a procedure, RNAPol-ChIP, to measure actual transcriptional rate. It consists of the detection, by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), of RNA polymerase II within the coding region of genes. To do this, the DNA immunoprecipitated with polymerase antibodies is ...