EIG

EIG or EIGG may refer to:

Europe India Gateway

Europe India Gateway (EIG) is a submarine communications cable system to connect the U.K., Portugal, Gibraltar, Monaco, France, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and India.

Organization and owners

It is about 15,000 kilometres long. It is capable of delivering up to 3.84 terabits per second. The cable system is built by both Alcatel-Lucent and TE Subcom (Formerly known as Tyco) and was scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2010. The EIG is the first direct high-bandwidth optical fibre system from Britain to India.

The cable system was invested in by 18 companies, including: AT&T; Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited; Bharti Airtel; BT Group; Cable & Wireless Worldwide; Djibouti Telecom; Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co. (du); Gibtelecom; The Libyan International Telecommunications Company; Mauritius Telecom; Monaco Telecom; MTN Group; Omantel; PT Comunicações, S.A.; Saudi Telecom Company; Telecom Egypt; Telkom SA, and Verizon Business. The construction of the cable will cost $700 million.

Calcium-sensing receptor

The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) is a Class C G-protein coupled receptor which senses extracellular levels of calcium ion. In the parathyroid gland, the calcium-sensing receptor controls calcium homeostasis by regulating the release of parathyroid hormone (PTH).

Signal transduction

The release of PTH is inhibited in response to elevations in plasma calcium concentrations and activation of the calcium receptor. Increased calcium binding on the extracellular side gives a conformational change in the receptor, which, on the intracellular side, initiates the phospholipase C pathway, presumably through a G_qα type of G protein, which ultimately increases intracellular concentration of calcium, which inhibits vesicle fusion and exocytosis of parathyroid hormone. It also inhibits (not stimulates, as some sources state) the cAMP dependent pathway.

Pathology

Mutations that inactivate a CaSR gene cause familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia (FHH) (also known as familial benign hypercalcemia because it is generally asymptomatic and does not require treatment), when present in heterozygotes. Patients who are homozygous for CaSR inactivating mutations have more severe hypercalcemia. Other mutations that activate CaSR are the cause of autosomal dominant hypocalcemia or Type 5 Bartter syndrome. An alternatively spliced transcript variant encoding 1088 aa has been found for this gene, but its full-length nature has not been defined.