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Enormous Attention (enormous + attention)
Selected AbstractsLocating Critical Components of Regional Human CapitalPOLICY STUDIES JOURNAL, Issue 1 2001Michael C. Farmer Enormous attention has been devoted recently to the contributions of human capital in the strategic and competitive success of different regions. These advances by macroeconomists and trade theorists have important implications for understanding the influence of economic development programs in a rural environment. Drawing upon this research we argue that human capital concepts may offer a more effective basis for assessment of strategic resource needs and use within a rural setting. An approach using direct elicitation methods is outlined for developing human capital measures. One significant advantage of a human capital approach is the potential for creating indicators that bridge the interests of economic development and environmental programs. [source] Effect of late 1970's climate shift on tropospheric biennial oscillation,role of local Indian Ocean processes on Asian summer monsoonINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Prasanth A Pillai Abstract The tropical climate has undergone noticeable changes on interdecadal time scales. The climate shift that occurred in the late 1970s attained enormous attention owing to its global-scale variations in ocean temperature, heat content and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) properties. Earlier studies presented the effect of this shift on ENSO and the Asian summer monsoon,ENSO relationship. The present study is an attempt to investigate the effect of late 1970's climate shift on tropospheric biennial oscillation (TBO), which is an important tropical phenomenon that includes both air,sea processes in the tropical Indian and Pacific Ocean regions. TBO is the tendency for the Asian,Australian monsoon system to alternate between relatively strong and weak years. The study comprises a detailed analysis of the TBO cycle in the time periods before (1951,1975) and after (1978,2002) the climate shift in 1976 with the help of National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) data sets of 200-hPa velocity potential; the Indian Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) and circulation are more obvious after the shift, although they were significant in the Pacific Ocean before 1976. The effect of ENSO in the biennial cycle is reduced with climate shift. The persistence of Asian-to-Australian summer monsoon has weakened in recent decades, as it is controlled by ENSO. Local oceanic processes in the Indian Ocean and local monsoon Hadley circulation have an increased role in the biennial oscillation of the Asian summer monsoon after 1976. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Brush-Like Amphoteric Poly[isobutylene- alt -(maleic acid)- graft -oligoethyleneamine)]/DNA Complexes for Efficient Gene TransfectionMACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS, Issue 13 2010Majad Khan Abstract Synthetic gene delivery vectors, especially cationic polymers have attracted enormous attention in recent decades because of their ease of manufacture, targettability, and scaling up. However, certain issues such as high cytotoxicity and low transfection efficiency problems have hampered the advance of nonviral gene delivery. In this study, we designed and synthesized brush-like amphoteric poly[isobutylene- alt -(maleic acid)- graft -oligoethyleneamine] capable of mediating highly efficient gene transfection. The polymers are composed of multiple pendant oligoethyleneimine molecules with alternating carboxylic acid moiety grafted onto poly[isobutylene- alt -(maleic anhydride)]. The polymer formed from pentaethylenehexamine {i.e., poly[isobutylene- alt -(maleic acid)- graft -pentaethylenehexamine)]} was able to condense DNA efficiently into nanoparticles of size around 200,nm with positive zeta potential of about 28,30,mV despite its amphoteric nature. Luciferase expression level and percentage of GFP expressing cells induced by this polymer was higher than those mediated with polyethyleneimine (branched, 25,kDa) by at least one order of magnitude at their optimal N/P ratios on HEK293, HepG2, and 4T1 cells. In vitro cytotoxicity testing revealed that the polymer/DNA complexes were less cytotoxic than those of PEI, and the viability of the cells after being incubated with the polymer/DNA complexes at the optimal N/P ratios was higher than 85%. This polymer can be a promising gene delivery carrier for gene therapy. [source] Cloning, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of MCAT from Staphylococcus aureusACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION F (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2010Seung Kon Hong Malonyl-CoA:acyl-carrier protein transacylase (MCAT), encoded by the fabd gene, is a key enzyme in type II fatty-acid biosynthesis. It is responsible for transferring the malonyl group from malonyl-CoA to the holo acyl-carrier protein (ACP). Since the type II system differs from the type I system that mammals use, it has received enormous attention as a possible antibiotic target. In particular, only a single isoform of MCAT has been reported and a continuous coupled enzyme assay has been developed. MCAT from Staphylococcus aureus was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and the protein was purified and crystallized. Diffraction data were collected to 1.2,Å resolution. The crystals belonged to space group P21, with unit-cell parameters a = 41.608, b = 86.717, c = 43.163,Å, , = , = 90, , = 106.330°. The asymmetric unit contains one SaMCAT molecule. [source] A Latent Contingency Table Approach to Dose Finding for Combinations of Two AgentsBIOMETRICS, Issue 3 2009Guosheng Yin Summary Two-agent combination trials have recently attracted enormous attention in oncology research. There are several strong motivations for combining different agents in a treatment: to induce the synergistic treatment effect, to increase the dose intensity with nonoverlapping toxicities, and to target different tumor cell susceptibilities. To accommodate this growing trend in clinical trials, we propose a Bayesian adaptive design for dose finding based on latent 2 × 2 tables. In the search for the maximum tolerated dose combination, we continuously update the posterior estimates for the unknown parameters associated with marginal probabilities and the correlation parameter based on the data from successive patients. By reordering the dose toxicity probabilities in the two-dimensional space, we assign each coming cohort of patients to the most appropriate dose combination. We conduct extensive simulation studies to examine the operating characteristics of the proposed method under various practical scenarios. Finally, we illustrate our dose-finding procedure with a clinical trial of agent combinations at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. [source] Formation of Human Telomeric G-quadruplex Structures Induced by the Quaternary Benzophenanthridine Alkaloids: Sanguinarine, Nitidine, and ChelerythrineCHINESE JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY, Issue 5 2010Shu Yang Abstract The ligands which can facilitate the formation and stabilize G-quadruplex structures have attracted enormous attention due to their potential ability of inhibiting the telomerase activity and halting tumor cell proliferation. It is noteworthy that the abilities of the quaternary benzophenanthridine alkaloids (QBAs), the very important G-quadruplex binders, in inducing the formation of human telomeric DNA G-quadruplex structures, have not been reported. Herein, the interaction between single-strand human telomeric DNA and three QBAs: Sanguinarine (San), Nitidine (Nit) and Chelerythrine (Che), has been investigated. Although these molecules are very similar in structure, they exhibit significantly different abilities in inducing oligonucleotide d(TTAGGG)4 (HT4) to specific G-quadruplex structures. Our experimental results indicated that the best ligand San could convert HT4 into antiparallel G-quadruplex structure completely, followed by Nit, which could transform to mixed-type or hybrid G-quadruplex structure partially, whereas Che could only transform to antiparallel G-quadruplex structure in small quantities. The relative QBAs' inducing abilities as indicated by the CD data are in the order of San>Nit>Che. Further investigation revealed that the G-quadruplex structures from HT4 induced by QBAs are of intramolecular motif. And only sequences with certain length could be induced by QBAs because of their positive charges which could not attract short chain DNA molecules to close to each other and form intermolecular G-quadruplex. In addition, the factors that affect the interaction between HT4 and QBAs were discussed. It is proposed that the thickness of the molecular frame and the steric hindrance are the primary reasons why the subtle differences in QBAs' structure lead to their remarkable differences in inducing the formation of the G-quadruplex structures. [source] | ||||||||||