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Two previously unreported isoflavonoids, placoisoflavones A and B (

This study deals with the preparation and characterization of platinum/reduced graphene oxide (Pt/rGO) as an efficient cathode for dye-sensitized solar cells. Herein, the Pt/rGO material was synthesized by co-precipitation from hexachloroplatinic acid (H2PtCl6) and graphene oxide (GO) precursors. The fabrication of cathodes from Pt/rGO composite paste was carried out using screen-printing paste. The electrochemical behaviors of as-prepared cathodes were analyzed by cyclic voltammetry; the performance of fabricated DSSCs was measured by current density–voltage (J-V) curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The structural characteristics of the Pt/rGO binary composites were confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy. Empirical data showed that choosing ascorbic acid as a reducing agent at a ratio of 5:1 between ascorbic acid weight and precursor mixture weight, as well as a GO weight percentage of 20% fabricated DSSCs successfully with a conversion efficiency of 6.25%, which was approximately 90% compared to that of pure commercial Pt material. Characterization results indicated that the Pt nanoparticles were homogeneously distributed on the rGO sheets with an average diameter of less than 25 nm. The Pt/rGO hybrid composite is highly expected to replace Pt in the fabrication of cathodes in DSSCs for low-cost DSSC production in the promising future.

The structural and magnetic properties of Bi0.5La0.5Fe1−xCrxO3−δ (x = 0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.20, and 0.40) compounds synthesized by a solid-state reaction method have been investigated. Rietveld refinement of x-ray and neutron powder diffraction data revealed a nonpolar orthorhombically distorted perovskite Pnma structure with long-range G-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) order in the studied samples. It was observed that substitution by Cr strongly influenced the morphology, crystalline, and magnetic properties of the samples. Interestingly, Cr doping led to an abrupt increase in the crystallite size from 31 nm for x = 0 to 740 nm for x = 0.40. This size change was accompanied by a decrease of microstrain by about twofold and a sudden change of the structural parameters. Magnetization measurements indicated the coexistence of ferromagnetic (FM) clusters with long-range AFM order. It was established that Cr doping leads to a suppression of the magnetic states. More interestingly, all of the samples demonstrated a spontaneous large exchange bias (EB) effect at room temperature, which is of great interest from the viewpoint of practical applications. The EB effect originates from pinning of uncompensated spins at the interfaces between FM clusters and the AFM matrix.

One of the possible ways to increase the performance of mathematics among high school students is by equipping the teachers with their mathematical abilities to learn and capabilities to deliver mathematical instruction to their students confidently. These teachers must understand profoundly the mathematics they are teaching and possess great skills to use that knowledge in the teaching of mathematics. They must have positive perceptions towards mathematics as their perceptions towards mathematics and their abilities to solve problems influence their classroom practices, teaching techniques, and students' achievement. Previous studies reported that teachers' overall perceptions of mathematics can be considered either algorithmic or coherence in three fields of “nature mathematic”, “teaching mathematic” and “learning mathematic”. Each type of perception brings a significant result to the overall teaching and learning and eventually students' achievement. This quantitative study investigated teachers' perceptions of mathematics. A total of 219 randomly selected high school mathematics teachers from various zones in Vietnam participated in this study. The instrument was developed to seek teachers' perceptions of i) nature mathematics, ii) teaching mathematics, and iii) learning mathematics. This questionnaire was adapted from TIMSS and adjusted to suit the Vietnamese context. The quantitative data were analysed using Rasch measurement model through item measure analysis. The study found that Vietnamese high school mathematics teachers tend to interpret mathematics as an algorithmic rather than as a coherent in “nature mathematic”; the contract result for “teaching Mathematic” and respondents supported both sides for “learning mathematic”. The finding of this study provides information in the effort to explain the relationship between teachers' perceptions and students' achievement outcomes in the context of Vietnam.

This paper shows the results of the efficiency of a circulating fluidized bed biofiltration system using polyethelene as a filtering material. Changes in water quality parameters and the growth rates of shrimp (broodstock and commercial production) were used to assess the efficiency of water treatment system. The concentration of NH4+ in waste water from the broodstock tanks decreased 61% after three months of treatment. The final concentration of NH4+ after treatment was 0.07 mg/ml which meet the Vietnamese regulations for discard of aquaculture waste into coastal waters. Biological oxygen demand decreased 48%. The corresponding figures for treating waste water from commercial shrimp tanks were decreases of NH4+ by up to 61% with outlet concentration 0.07 mg/ml accepted to discard according to Vietnamese Standard and biological oxygen demand by 55%. Outlet water providing from broodstock and commercial shrimp tanks were treated with COD concentration decreased from 3.12 down to 2.62 mg/ml and 4.62 down to 2.68 mg/ml, or 16% and 41.9% of COD removal, respectively.

Several kinds of food can be analyzed by the human sensory organs. In this review, we demonstrate the relation and importance of the color and bioactive molecules of food and their health effects. This work focuses on black foods, which can be found in both natural and processed forms, present in our daily life for several years without being noticed. Besides, the chemistry underlying the black color of black foods has not yet been fully understood. More than 130 black foods are reported in the current review, which belong to 3 main groups and 12 sub-groups. In studied black foods, melanins and anthocyanins are the primary pigments, along with other pigments such as chlorophylls, carotenoids, and tannins. The health potential of black foods is also discussed. Due to their high concentration of phytochemical and phenolic compounds, black-colored foods are beneficial in preventing diseases and boosting the immune system. As a promising natural pigment and antioxidant compound source, black foods could be used as functional foods. Several questions on black foods are still open and need more investigation, especially the mechanisms by which the black color is formed in fruits and vegetables.

Genetic mutations to the Lamin A/C gene (LMNA) can cause heart disease, but the mechanisms making cardiac tissues uniquely vulnerable to the mutations remain largely unknown. Further, patients with LMNA mutations have highly variable presentation of heart disease progression and type. In vitro patient-specific experiments could provide a powerful platform for studying this phenomenon, but the use of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CM) introduces heterogeneity in maturity and function thus complicating the interpretation of the results of any single experiment. We hypothesized that integrating single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) with analysis of the tissue architecture and contractile function would elucidate some of the probable mechanisms. To test this, we investigated five iPSC-CM lines, three controls and two patients with a (c.357-2A>G) mutation. The patient iPSC-CM tissues had significantly weaker stress generation potential than control iPSC-CM tissues demonstrating the viability of our in vitro approach. Through scRNA-seq, differentially expressed genes between control and patient lines were identified. Some of these genes, linked to quantitative structural and functional changes, were cardiac specific, explaining the targeted nature of the disease progression seen in patients. The results of this work demonstrate the utility of combining in vitro tools in exploring heart disease mechanics.

Background Mutations in LMNA, encoding lamin A/C, lead to a variety of diseases known as laminopathies including dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and skeletal abnormalities. Though previous studies have investigated the dysregulation of gene expression in cells from patients with DCM, the role of epigenetic (gene regulatory) mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, has not been thoroughly investigated. Furthermore, the impact of family-specific LMNA mutations on DNA methylation is unknown. Here, we performed reduced representation bisulfite sequencing on ten pairs of fibroblasts and their induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derivatives from two families with DCM due to distinct LMNA mutations, one of which also induces brachydactyly. Results Family-specific differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified by comparing the DNA methylation landscape of patient and control samples. Fibroblast DMRs were found to enrich for distal regulatory features and transcriptionally repressed chromatin and to associate with genes related to phenotypes found in tissues affected by laminopathies. These DMRs, in combination with transcriptome-wide expression data and lamina-associated domain (LAD) organization, revealed the presence of inter-family epimutation hotspots near differentially expressed genes, most of which were located outside LADs redistributed in LMNA-related DCM. Comparison of DMRs found in fibroblasts and iPSCs identified regions where epimutations were persistent across both cell types. Finally, a network of aberrantly methylated disease-associated genes revealed a potential molecular link between pathways involved in bone and heart development. Conclusions Our results identified both shared and mutation-specific laminopathy epimutation landscapes that were consistent with lamin A/C mutation-mediated epigenetic aberrancies that arose in somatic and early developmental cell stages.

Although mutations in the Lamin A/C gene (LMNA) cause a variety of devastating diseases, the pathological mechanism is often unknown. Lamin A/C proteins play a crucial role in forming a meshwork under the nuclear membrane, providing the nucleus with mechanical integrity and interacting with other proteins for gene regulation. Most LMNA mutations result in heart diseases, including some types that primarily have heart disease as the main pathology. In this study, we used cells from patients with different LMNA mutations that primarily lead to heart disease. Indeed, it is a mystery why a mutation to the protein in every nucleus of the body manifests as a disease of primarily the heart in these patients. Here, we aimed to investigate if strains mimicking those within the myocardial environment are sufficient to cause differences in cells with and without the LMNA mutation. To test this, a stretcher device was used to induce cyclic strain upon cells, and viability/proliferation, cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix organization, and nuclear morphology were quantified. The properties of cells with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) were found to be significantly different from all other cell lines and were mostly in line with previous findings. However, the properties of cells from patients who primarily had heart diseases were not drastically different when compared to individuals without the LMNA mutation. Our results indicated that cyclic strain alone was insufficient to cause any significant differences that could explain the mechanisms that lead to heart diseases in these patients with LMNA mutations.

The United States Navy uses a visual feedback system for pilots, named 'the Greenie Board', to improve flight manoeuvres on aircraft carriers. Given that increased compliance with enhanced recovery after surgery protocols reduces postoperative complications, we decided to apply a similar feedback system to our institutional enhanced recovery programme. We undertook a prospective 12-month audit of 194 patients assigned to our enhanced recovery programme and evaluated adherence to the anaesthesia-related components of our protocol, before and after implementing a Greenie Board. A compliance score was calculated by summing points for adherence to: intra-operative antibiotic prophylaxis; temperature management; goal-directed intravenous fluid therapy; postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis; and postoperative fluid restriction. The score for each patient was then colour-coded and anonymously displayed for each anaesthetist on a Greenie Board within the operating theatre suite. Protocol adherence improved significantly following introduction, with 'Green' scores (acceptable compliance) increasing from 33% to 72% of patients (p < 0.0001). The greatest improvement was seen with anti-emetic prophylaxis (49% to 70%, p = 0.004) with a consequent reduction in postoperative nausea and vomiting (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.19-0.88, p = 0.021). We did not observe a decrease in other postoperative complications nor hospital length of stay. We conclude that this US Navy-inspired feedback system is an easily implemented, low-cost quality improvement tool that significantly improved adherence to intra-operative components of our enhanced recovery protocol. The system lends itself to global scaling to drive quality improvement in healthcare delivery and would be suited to institutions without electronic medical records, including low-resource countries.

The purpose of this paper is to study the Timoshenko system with nonlocal time-delayed condition. The well-posedness is proved by Hille-Yosida theorem. Exploring the dissipative properties of the linear operator associated to full damped model, we obtain the exponential stability by using Gearhart-Huang-Prüss theorem.

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Micro energy harvesting will play an important role in maintenance-free and cost-effective sensor networks of IoT (Internet of Things). Since it does not need wiring or batteries, even though to date, sensor network systems usually use electrochemical batteries for their power supplies. From the points of view of the power supply requirements such as high output power, highly efficient transducer, and broadband, the paper outlines three promising types of vibration-driven energy harvester using piezoelectric films from our group and discusses the some of its important characteristics to realize highly efficient micro energy harvesting.

A new pathway to access pyrido-fused quinazolinones via a Cu(OAc)2-catalyzed domino sequential transformation between 2′-haloacetophenones and 2-aminopyridines was demonstrated. The solvent and base exhibited a remarkable effect on the transformation, in which the combination of DMSO and NaOAc emerged as the best system. Cu(OAc)2·H2O was more active towards the reaction than numerous other catalysts. This methodology is new and would be complementary to previous protocols for the synthesis of pyrido-fused quinazolinones.

The iron-organic framework VNU-20 was utilized as an active heterogeneous catalyst for the cross-dehydrogenative coupling of coumarins with Csp

Toxocariasis is zoonosis disease caused by infection with Toxocara canis and/or Toxocara cati that parasitise Canidae and Felidae respectively. In paratenic hosts Toxocara larvae are limited in the second stage and remain in tissues. Diagnosis of toxocariasis is therefore mainly depended on detection of specific antibodies in the circulation. Different T. canis derived antigens, including excretory/secretory antigens produced by larvae, crude antigens extracted from larvae and crude antigens extracted from adult worms, have been applied in sero-diagnosis. The two formers have been intensively studied but the last is not fully understood. In this study, crude antigens extracted from adult worms and their organs were explored for sero-diagnosis of toxocariasis by a western blot assay. Our data showed that adult worm’s crude antigens made several pseudo-positive reactions with IgG antibodies in uninfected mice and it is unable to discriminate infected from T. canis uninfected mice. Analysis of isolated reproductive compartments showed that vas deferens and seminal vesicles of male reproductive system contain three low molecular weight proteins which strongly contribute to the formation of pseudo-positive reactions. These observations were also found in rabbits and human. We conclude that crude antigens extracted from adult worms are likely unable to be used in sero-diagnosis of toxocariasis in both animals and human.

Toxocara canis is a kind of round worms that parasitise Canidae. Human and other animals are their paratenic hosts in which the worm is limited in the second larval stage and therefore they can’t complete their life cycle. In these paratenic hosts, excretory/secretory antigens (E/S-Ags) produced by T. canis larvae were shown involve in regulating immune response and inducing IgG production that in turn becomes protecting molecules and biomarkers for toxocariasis sero-diagnosis. In this study, a proteomics approach of 2D-gel electrophoresis and a western blotting assay were applied for determination of biomarkers derived from E/S-Ags of T. canis larvae that are recognized by IgG in infected mice. Our results showed that the majority constituents of E/S-Ags have pI at pH 9–10 and the minority one have pI at pH 4–8. Western blotting analysis showed that 33.1 kDa and 49.4 kDa E/S-Ags were strongly recognized by specific IgG in infected mice. We conclude that these 33.1 and 49.4 kDa constituents in E/S-Ags might be potential targets for protection of the host immune system as well as biomarkers for developing diagnosis products used in veterinary and human medicine.

Turner syndrome (TS), resulting from complete/partial X chromosomal monosomy, is associated with multiple co-morbidities and increased mortality. Although multidisciplinary management is recommended, TS women's health care is sub-optimal. This study evaluates a multidisciplinary adult TS service.Retrospective cohort study of 82 patients attending the quarterly TS clinic from December 2003 to December 2014. Evaluation included (1) demographics, (2) TS standardized co-morbidity screening, and (3) estrogen therapy use. Data analysis involved frequency statistics, T tests and polychoric correlation analysis.Median age at TS diagnosis was 14 years (range 0-65 years), with 12% of women aged18 years. Median age at initial consultation was 31 years (range 16-65 years). Only 14% of patients were transition program referrals. XO karyotype occurred in 30%. Primary amenorrhea predominated; however, 37% of TS women were not taking estrogen therapy. The proportion of patients not previously screened (44-76%) and those with positive screening diagnoses (5-53%) varied according to co-morbidity. The mean (± standard deviation) number of co-morbidities identified increased following TS clinic screening (7.0 ± 2.6 post-screening vs. 4.4 ± 2.3 pre-screening; p 0.0001). Polychoric correlation analysis identified particular co-morbidity groupings (including metabolism-related) and increased co-morbidities with primary amenorrhea.A multidisciplinary adult TS clinic improves health surveillance with increased identification of co-morbidities and initiation of estrogen therapy.

This paper presents our development of a high-rate etching process for fully (0002)-oriented AlN films by using a chlorine-based inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and Ni thin films as hard masks. The influences of etching characteristics (etching rate, selectivity) on various parameters (etching power, pressure and gases mixture) were systematically investigated. We achieved etching rate of 723 nm/min, the highest value that has been developed for single-oriented AlN. Etching selectivity was optimized and reached ~ 11, in this report. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements (XPS) offered a deep understanding of the etching processes and revealed the etching mechanism of AlN by chlorine for the first time.

In order to develop the preparation procedure for silicomolybdic acid (H4SiMo12O40, SMA) on silica catalysts, H2MoO4 and excess tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) are employed as starting reagents and three catalysts with different loadings are prepared by a hydrothermal sol-gel method. From Raman measurements in the course of the preparation steps, Raman spectra imply the formation of beta type silicomolybdic acid (β-SMA) reported by M. A. Banares et al.; Raman spectroscopy suggests that the SMA species are formed in the precursor solution and is stable on 14.6 and 20 wt% MoO3/SiO2 even in the drying process (110 °C). When the loading is 7.9 wt%, Raman peaks of SMA disappear after the hydrothermal treatment at 100 °C. The structural distortion of the SMA due to hydrogen interaction between OH groups and Mo=O bonds is also observed. Raman measurement indicates the transformation to β- and α-MoO3 in 20 wt% MoO3/SiO2 after the calcination at 500 °C, but only surface molybdates are observed at the loadings of 7.9 and 14.6 wt%. The results indicate that H2MoO4 is also effective for the simple preparation of SMA. In addition, as no XRD patterns of all Mo species are observed, Raman spectroscopy is an effective method to structural analysis of Mo species, even in liquid and wet samples.

Compressor selection is one of the primary functions in operation of natural gas pipelines, and a major concern of the task is to minimize operating costs. This study presents a comparison of three automation techniques for compressor selection: mixed integer linear programming, genetic algorithms, and expert systems. In compressor selection, dispatchers often turn on/off compressor units based on the status of the pipeline and the anticipated customer demand. Since a novice dispatcher often performs this task on a trial-and-error basis without any guarantee of optimal operations, it is desirable to develop a decision support system that can select compressors based on the available data. This study presents a comparison of three automation techniques for incorporation into a decision support system. Based on parameter values for one section of the gas pipeline at the St. Louis East area in Saskatchewan, Canada, a comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of the three automation techniques as well as the recommendations they gave are discussed.

This study presents an application using both single and multiple interval prediction models implemented with artificial neural networks to estimate the future production performance of oil wells. The single interval prediction model was developed using NOL (Gensym Corp., USA). The multiple neural network (MNN) model is a novel approach that combines a group of neural networks, with each component neural network being responsible for predicting a different time period. The approach is designed to improve the accuracy of long-term predictions. In addition to conducting both short and long term prediction of oil production, the study also investigates different approaches for modeling the application domain parameters. The MNN model for prediction of future well performance is applied to the time series data obtained from four pools of wells in the southwestern region of Saskatchewan, Canada. The results showed that a MNN model performed better than a single neural network model for long-term predictions.

SOCS-1 is an inducible SH2-containing inhibitor of Jak kinases and as such can potently suppress cytokine signaling. SOCS-1 deficient mice die within the first three weeks of life from a myeloproliferative disorder driven by excessive interferon signaling. We report here that SOCS-1 inhibits proliferation signals induced by a variety of oncogenes active within the hematopoietic system. Ectopic expression of SOCS-1 abolished proliferation mediated by a constitutively active form of the KIT receptor, TEL-JAK2, and v-ABL, and reduced metastasis from BCR-ABL transformed cells. SOCS-1, however, did not interfere with v-SRC or RASV12 mediated cellular transformation. A mutant form of SOCS-1 unable to bind through its SH2 domain to tyrosine phosphorylated proteins could still inhibit KIT, but not TEL-JAK2, indicating multiple mechanisms for SOCS-1-mediated tumor suppression. We show that the steady state levels of TEL-JAK2 and to a greater extent v-ABL are diminished in the presence of SOCS-1. Lastly, we show that SOCS-1 -/- fibroblasts are more sensitive than wild type fibroblasts to either spontaneous or oncogene-induced transformation. These data suggest that loss-of-function of SOCS-1 may collaborate with a variety of hematopoietic oncogenes to facilitate tumor progression.

Integrated optics has emerged as a promising solution to the electronic interconnect bottleneck, enabling high bandwidth density and low power consumption. Recently, confining photochemical and physical reactions in a micro-volume has given an extra dimension to optical interconnection using glass or polymer. Three-dimensional waveguides can then connect, combine, or split the optical signal among any blocks in all dimensions. However, the refractive index increase is still a challenge to fabricate free-form, stable and single-mode three-dimensional buried waveguides. This paper presents a new concept to tackle this challenge using the combination of femtosecond direct laser writing (FsDLW) in polymer and external diffusion of a gaseous monomer. FsDLW with two-photon absorption was used to initiate cross-linking following a programmed trajectory to form the waveguide core. A thermal treatment was then needed to complete cross-linking. Afterwards, a low-index monomer from a gas atmosphere was diffused into the uncross-linked cladding. Since this diffusion hardly occurred in the already cross-linked pattern, the subsequent UV flood exposure only cross-linked the diffused monomer with host oligomer in the cladding. This low-index monomer decreased the refractive index of the cladding and, therefore, created enough refractive index contrast for total internal reflection. Finally, the whole structure was hard-baked for polymerization and stabilization. The peak refractive index change of 0.012 was revealed using refractive near field method. Measured near-field intensity at the end facet of waveguides showed single-mode Gaussian profiles. We further demonstrated how feature sizes can be linearly adjusted in the range of 5-12 μm by varying scanning speed and laser intensity. Moreover, changing the voxel shape by a field aperture in front of the objective was investigated. Our fabrication method requires only one layer of a single material without masks, contact or wet processing. Free-form waveguides with high index contrast have high potential to improve the density and flexibility of optical interconnects at board level. Some applications of this concept are three-dimensional arrays of optical waveguide network routers, optofans, pitch converters or splitters.

A subset of chromosomal translocations that participate in leukemia involve activated tyrosine kinases. The ets transcription factor, TEL, undergoes translocations with several distinct tyrosine kinases including JAK2. TEL-JAK2 transforms cell lines to factor independence, and constitutive tyrosine kinase activity results in the phosphorylation of several substrates including STAT1, STAT3, and STAT5. In this study we have shown that TEL-JAK2 can constitutively activate the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase (PI 3'-kinase) signaling pathway. The regulatory subunit of PI 3'-kinase, p85, associates with TEL-JAK2 in immunoprecipitations, and this was shown to be mediated by the amino-terminal SH2 domain of p85 but independent of a putative p85-binding motif within TEL-JAK2. The scaffolding protein Gab2 can also mediate the association of p85. TEL-JAK2 constitutively phosphorylates the downstream substrate protein kinase B/AKT. Importantly, the pharmacologic PI 3'-kinase inhibitor, LY294002, blocked TEL-JAK2 factor-independent growth and phosphorylation of protein kinase B. However, LY294002 did not alter STAT5 tyrosine phosphorylation, indicating that STAT5 and protein kinase B activation mediated by TEL-JAK2 are independent signaling pathways. Therefore, activation of the PI 3'-kinase signaling pathway is an important event mediated by TEL-JAK2 chromosomal translocations.

Objective Erythropoietin (EPO) is a lineage-restricted growth factor that is required for erythroid proliferation and differentiation. EPO stimulates the phosphorylation and activation of p70 S6 kinase (p70 S6K), which is required for cell cycle progression. Here, the minimal cytoplasmic domains of the EPO receptor (EPO-R) required for p70 S6K activation were determined. Materials and Methods Ba/F3 cells were stably transfected with wild-type (WT) EPO-R or EPO-R carboxyl-terminal deletion mutants, designated by the number of amino acids deleted from the cytoplasmic tail (−99, −131, −221). Transfected cells were growth factor deprived and then stimulated with EPO. p70 S6K, JAK2, IRS-2, and ERK1/2 phosphorylation/activation were examined. The ability of transfected 3-phosphoinositide–dependent protein kinase 1 (PDK1) to reconstitute p70 S6K phosphorylation in EPO-R mutants also was determined. Results Phosphorylation and activation of p70 S6K, JAK2, IRS-2, and ERK1/2 in Ba/F3 cells transfected with EPO-R−99 or EPO-R−99Y343F were similar to WT EPO-R. In contrast, EPO-dependent p70 S6K phosphorylation/activation, as well as IRS-2 and ERK1/2 phosphorylation, were minimal or absent in cells transfected with EPO-R−131 or EPO-R−221. JAK2 phosphorylation was reduced significantly in cells transfected with EPO-R−131 and abolished with EPO-R−221. To examine the role of PDK1, a kinase known to phosphorylate p70 S6K, Ba/F3 EPO-R−131 cells were transiently transfected with PDK1. WT constitutively active PDK1 restored p70 S6K phosphorylation in Ba/F3 EPO-R−131 cells but not in Ba/F3 EPO-R−221 cells. Conclusions The results demonstrate that a minimal cytoplasmic subdomain of the EPO-R extending between −99 and −131 is required for p70 S6K phosphorylation and activation. The results also demonstrate that PDK1 is a critical component in this signaling pathway, which requires the presence of domains between −131 and −221 for its activation of p70 S6K.