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Extensive Analysis (extensive + analysis)
Selected AbstractsBlockade by ferrous iron of Ca2+ influx through N -methyl- d -aspartate receptor channels in immature cultured rat cortical neuronsJOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, Issue 1 2002Noritaka Nakamichi Abstract Rat cortical neurons cultured for 3 days in vitro were loaded with the fluorescent indicator fluo-3 for assessment of intracellular free calcium ion (Ca2+) concentrations with the aid of a confocal laser-scanning microscope. In the absence of added MgCl2, the addition of NMDA induced a rapid but sustained increase in the number of fluorescent neurons in a concentration-dependent manner at a concentration range of 1,100 µm with the increase by KCl being transient. The addition of FeCl2, but not FeCl3, markedly inhibited the increase by NMDA in a reversible manner at concentrations of 10,200 µm, without affecting that by KCl. Extensive analyses revealed clear differentiation between inhibitions by ferrous iron and other channel blockers known to date. The inhibition by FeCl2 was completely prevented by the addition of two different iron chelators. Exposure to NMDA alone did not lead to cell death in immature cultured neurons, however, while further addition of FeCl2 invariably induced neuronal cell death 24 h after exposure. These results give support to our previous proposal that NMDA receptor complex may contain a novel site sensitive to blockade by ferrous iron in rat brain. [source] Mantophasmatodea and phylogeny of the lower neopterous insectsCLADISTICS, Issue 3 2005Matthew D. Terry Polyneoptera is a name sometimes applied to an assemblage of 11 insect orders comprising the lower neopterous or "orthopteroid" insects. These orders include familiar insects such as Orthoptera (grasshoppers), Blattodea (roaches), Isoptera (termites) (Mantodea) praying mantises, Dermaptera (earwigs), Phasmatodea (stick insects), Plecoptera (stoneflies), as well as the more obscure, Embiidina (web-spinners), Zoraptera (angel insects) and Grylloblattodea (ice-crawlers). Many of these insect orders exhibit a high degree of morphological specialization, a condition that has led to multiple phylogenetic hypotheses and little consensus among investigators. We present a phylogenetic analysis of the polyneopteran orders representing a broad range of their phylogenetic diversity and including the recently described Mantophasmatodea. These analyses are based on complete 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, Histone 3 DNA sequences, and a previously published morphology matrix coded at the ordinal level. Extensive analyses utilizing different alignment methodologies and parameter values across a majority of possible ranges were employed to test for sensitivity of the results to ribosomal alignment and to explore patterns across the theoretical alignment landscape. Multiple methodologies support the paraphyly of Polyneoptera, the monophyly of Dictyoptera, Orthopteroidea (sensu Kukalova-Peck; i.e. Orthoptera + Phasmatodea + Embiidina), and a group composed of Plecoptera + Dermaptera + Zoraptera. Sister taxon relationships between Embiidina + Phasmatodea in a group called "Eukinolabia", and Dermaptera + Zoraptera ("Haplocercata") are also supported by multiple analyses. This analysis also supports a sister taxon relationship between the newly described Mantophasmatodea, which are endemic to arid portions of southern Africa, and Grylloblattodea, a small order of cryophilic insects confined to the north-western Americas and north-eastern Asia, in a group termed "Xenonomia". This placement, coupled with the morphological disparity of the two groups, validates the ordinal status of Mantophasmatodea. © The Willi Hennig Society 2005. [source] Nitrogenase gene diversity and microbial community structure: a cross-system comparisonENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 7 2003Jonathan P. Zehr Summary Biological nitrogen fixation is an important source of fixed nitrogen for the biosphere. Microorganisms catalyse biological nitrogen fixation with the enzyme nitrogenase, which has been highly conserved through evolution. Cloning and sequencing of one of the nitrogenase structural genes, nifH, has provided a large, rapidly expanding database of sequences from diverse terrestrial and aquatic environments. Comparison of nifH phylogenies to ribosomal RNA phylogenies from cultivated microorganisms shows little conclusive evidence of lateral gene transfer. Sequence diversity far outstrips representation by cultivated representatives. The phylogeny of nitrogenase includes branches that represent phylotypic groupings based on ribosomal RNA phylogeny, but also includes paralogous clades including the alternative, non-molybdenum, non-vanadium containing nitrogenases. Only a few alternative or archaeal nitrogenase sequences have as yet been obtained from the environment. Extensive analysis of the distribution of nifH phylotypes among habitats indicates that there are characteristic patterns of nitrogen fixing microorganisms in termite guts, sediment and soil environments, estuaries and salt marshes, and oligotrophic oceans. The distribution of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms, although not entirely dictated by the nitrogen availability in the environment, is non-random and can be predicted on the basis of habitat characteristics. The ability to assay for gene expression and investigate genome arrangements provides the promise of new tools for interrogating natural populations of diazotrophs. The broad analysis of nitrogenase genes provides a basis for developing molecular assays and bioinformatics approaches for the study of nitrogen fixation in the environment. [source] A novel DNA modification by sulphurMOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2005Xiufen Zhou Summary Streptomyces lividans has a novel DNA modification, which sensitises its DNA to degradation during electrophoresis (the Dnd phenotype). The entire gene cluster (dnd) involved in this modification was localized on an 8 kb DNA fragment and was expressed in a S. lividans deletion mutant (dnd) and in several heterologous hosts. Disruption of the dnd locus abolishes the Dnd phenotype, and gain of the dnd locus conferred the Dnd phenotype respectively. Extensive analysis of the dnd gene cluster revealed five open reading frames, whose hypothetic functions suggested an incorporation of sulphur or a sulphur-containing substance into S. lividans genome, yet in an unknown manner. The Dnd phenotype was also discovered to exist in DNA of widespread bacterial species of variable origin and diverse habitat. Similarly organized gene clusters were found in several bacterial genomes representing different genera and in eDNA of marine organisms, suggesting such modification as a widespread phenomenon. A coincidence between the Dnd phenotype and DNA modification by sulphur was demonstrated to occur in several representative bacterial genomes by the in vivo35S-labelling experiments. [source] Novel human testis-specific cDNA: Molecular cloning, expression and immunobiological effects of the recombinant proteinMOLECULAR REPRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2001Ramasamy Santhanam Abstract A differential display-polymerase chain reaction was employed to obtain a testis-specific cDNA fragment. On screening the human testis-,gt10-cDNA library with testis-specific cDNA fragment, a novel cDNA encoding for a sperm antigen, designated TSA-1, was obtained. It has a novel open reading frame (ORF) of 471 base pairs encoding for 156 amino acids. The computer generated translated protein has a calculated molecular mass of 17.4 kDa and contains a potential N-glycosylation site at amino acids 122,124. The hydrophilicity analysis of the amino acid sequence suggested that this protein is a membrane-anchored peptide. Extensive analysis for tissue-specificity by Northern blots and RT-PCR-Southern blot procedures using various human tissues indicated that TSA-1 was specifically expressed only in the human testis. Based on the results of in vitro transcription and translation experiments, the TSA-1 (ORF) was subcloned into pGEX-6P-3 vector and expressed using the glutathione S -transferase gene fusion system. Antibodies (Ab) against the purified recombinant protein specifically recognized the ,17 kDa recombinant TSA-1, and a ,24 kDa band in human sperm extract in the Western blot procedure. The recombinant TSA-1 Ab recognized the acrosomal, equatorial, mid-piece, and tail regions of human sperm cell in indirect immunofluorescence, bound to live human sperm in the immunobeads binding technique (IBT) and caused a significant concentration-dependent inhibition of human sperm acrosome reaction. These findings indicate that the novel sperm-specific recombinant TSA-1 has a role in sperm function and may have applications in the development of a contraceptive vaccine, and in the specific diagnosis and treatment of male infertility. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 60: 1,12, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Generation of transgenic wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) accumulating heterologous endo-xylanase or ferulic acid esterase in the endospermPLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010Jesper Harholt Summary Endo-xylanase (from Bacillus subtilis) or ferulic acid esterase (from Aspergillus niger) were expressed in wheat under the control of the endosperm-specific 1DX5 glutenin promoter. Constructs both with and without the endoplasmic reticulum retention signal (Lys-Asp-Glu-Leu) KDEL were used. Transgenic plants were recovered in all four cases but no qualitative differences could be observed whether KDEL was added or not. Endo-xylanase activity in transgenic grains was increased between two and threefold relative to wild type. The grains were shrivelled and had a 25%,33% decrease in mass. Extensive analysis of the cell walls showed a 10%,15% increase in arabinose to xylose ratio, a 50% increase in the proportion of water-extractable arabinoxylan, and a shift in the MW of the water-extractable arabinoxylan from being mainly larger than 85 kD to being between 2 and 85 kD. Ferulic acid esterase-expressing grains were also shrivelled, and the seed weight was decreased by 20%,50%. No ferulic acid esterase activity could be detected in wild-type grains whereas ferulic acid esterase activity was detected in transgenic lines. The grain cell walls had 15%,40% increase in water-unextractable arabinoxylan and a decrease in monomeric ferulic acid between 13% and 34%. In all the plants, the observed changes are consistent with a plant response that serves to minimize the effect of the heterologously expressed enzymes by increasing arabinoxylan biosynthesis and cross-linking. [source] Predictive identification of human skin sensitization thresholdsCONTACT DERMATITIS, Issue 5 2005David A. Basketter For years, methods have been available for the predictive identification of chemicals that possess the intrinsic potential to cause skin sensitization. However, many have proven less suitable for the determination of relative sensitizing potency. In this respect, the local lymph node assay (LLNA) has been shown to have a number of important advantages. Through interpolation of LLNA dose,response data, the concentration of a chemical required to produce a threshold positive response (a 3-fold increase in activity compared with concurrent vehicle controls, the EC3 value) can be measured. The robustness of this parameter has been demonstrated rigorously in terms of inter- and intralaboratory reproducibility. Additionally, the relationship between potency estimates from the LLNA and an appreciation of human potency based on clinical experience has been reported previously. In the present investigations, we have sought to consolidate further our understanding of the association between EC3 values and human skin-sensitization potency by undertaking a thorough and extensive analysis of existing human predictive assays, particularly where dose,response information is available, from historical human repeated insult patch tests (HRIPTs). From these human data, information on the approximate threshold for the induction of skin sensitization in the HRIPT was determined for 26 skin-sensitizing chemicals. These data were then compared with LLNA-derived EC3 values. The results from each assay, expressed as dose per unit area (,g/cm2), revealed a clear linear relationship between the 2 values, thereby substantiating further the utility of LLNA EC3 values for prediction of the relative human sensitizing potency of newly identified skin sensitizers. [source] Development of the endoderm and gut in medaka, Oryzias latipesDEVELOPMENT GROWTH & DIFFERENTIATION, Issue 5 2006Daisuke Kobayashi We performed an extensive analysis of endodermal development and gut tube morphogenesis in the medaka embryo by histology and in situ hybridization. The markers used in these analyses included sox17, sox32, foxA2, gata-4, -5, -6 and shh. sox17, sox32, foxA2, and gata-5 and -6 are expressed in the early endoderm to the onset of gut tube formation. Sections of medaka embryos hybridized with foxA2, a pan-endodermal marker during gut morphogenesis, demonstrated that gut tube formation is initiated in the anterior portion and that the anterior and mid/posterior gut undergo distinct morphogenetic processes. Tube formation in the anterior endoderm that is fated to the pharynx and esophagus is much delayed and appears to be independent of gut morphogenesis. The overall aspects of medaka gut development are similar to those of zebrafish, except that zebrafish tube formation initiates at both the anterior and posterior portions. Our results therefore describe both molecular and morphological aspects of medaka digestive system development that will be necessary for the characterization of medaka mutants. [source] Performance-based seismic analysis and design of suspension bridgesEARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, Issue 4-5 2005Serafim Arzoumanidis Abstract This paper presents a performance-based seismic analysis and design of a large suspension bridge, the new Tacoma Narrows Parallel Crossing in the State of Washington. The scope of the project included establishment of design criteria, extensive analysis and validation of the design. The analysis was performed using detailed three-dimensional models that included geometric and material non-linearity. The target post-earthquake level of service was verified using stress, deformation and ductility criteria. In the absence of well-established criteria, which relate the structural response of tower shafts to specific levels of performance, capacity analyses were performed to demonstrate that the design fulfills the performance objectives. The seismic analysis and design of this bridge was reviewed throughout the design process. An independent check team also performed separate analysis and validation of the design. Thus, this bridge constitutes an example of a large-scale design project where the performance-based seismic design procedures underwent rigorous assessment. This work demonstrated that the performance-based approach for seismic design is an appropriate way for designing earthquake-resistant structures. Further data that relate the structural response with the performance objectives are necessary. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Climate variability and change in the Greater Alpine Region over the last two centuries based on multi-variable analysisINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 15 2009Michele Brunetti Abstract An extensive analysis of the HISTALP database is presented with the aim of giving a comprehensive picture of secular climate variability and change in the Greater Alpine Region (GAR, 4,19 E, 43,49 N). The HISTALP database encompasses 242 sites and concerns temperature, pressure, precipitation, cloudiness, sunshine duration, vapour pressure and relative humidity. The analyses are based on four regional mean records representing different GAR low-level areas and on an additional mean record representing high-level locations. The first goal of the paper is to give an overview of the seasonal and annual records for the different variables, aiming to highlight both variability on decadal time scale and long-term evolution. Then it focuses on trend and correlation analysis. Trends are presented both for the period of common data availability for all regional average series and for moving windows that permit studying the trends over a wide range of timescales. Correlations among the different variables are presented both for the regional average series and for their high-pass-filtered versions. The analyses, beside highlighting a warming that is about twice as large as the global trend, also show that the different variables have responded in different ways to this warming and that the mutual interactions linking the different variables are often present only at specific temporal scales and only in parts of the GAR and in defined seasons. In spite of this complex behaviour, which may also be due to some residual inhomogeneities still affecting the data, the analyses give evidence that the HISTALP database has an excellent internal consistency and show that the availability of a multi-variable database turns out to be very useful in order to evaluate the reliability of the reconstruction of each variable and to better understand the behaviour and the mutual interactions of the different variables. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Trends in indices for extremes in daily temperature and precipitation in central and western Europe, 1901,99INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2005Anders Moberg Abstract We analyse 20th century trends in six indices for precipitation extremes and four indices for temperature extremes, calculated from daily observational data for European stations. The indices chosen reflect rather moderate extremes. Most of the ,80 stations used are situated in central and western Europe; therefore, results mainly refer to this region. Trends are calculated over 1901,99, 1921,99, 1901,50 and 1946,99. Two different trend estimators are used, and significance is assessed with a bootstrap technique. We find that: Significant increasing precipitation trends over the 20th century dominate in winter for both average precipitation intensity and moderately strong events. Simultaneously, the length of dry spells generally increased insignificantly. There are few significant trends of any sign for precipitation indices in summer, but there are insignificant drying trends over Scandinavia and wetting trends over central and western Europe for 1921,99. The length of dry spells in summer generally increased insignificantly. Both the warm and cold tails of the temperature distribution in winter warmed over the entire 20th century. Notably low values in the cold tail for daily Tmax and Tmin occurred in the early 1940s, leading to strong but insignificant negative trends for 1901,50, whereas little change occurred before 1940. Warming of winters during 1946,99 occurred in both the warm and cold tails for both Tmax and Tmin, with the largest warming in the cold tail for Tmin. The warm tail of daily Tmin (and to a smaller extent Tmax) in summer warmed significantly during the past century. There is more evidence for summer warming in the first half of the century compared with the second half. During 1946,99, the warm tail of daily Tmax in summer was generally warming while the cold tail was cooling (both insignificantly). More digitized daily observational data from various European sub-regions are needed to permit a spatially more extensive analysis of changes in climate extremes over the last century. Copyright © 2005 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Energy-efficient target detection in sensor networks using line proxiesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 3 2008Jangwon Lee Abstract One of the fundamental and important operations in sensor networks is sink,source matching, i.e. target detection. Target detection is about how a sink finds the location of source nodes observing the event of interest (i.e. target activity). This operation is very important in many sensor network applications such as military battlefield and environment habitats. The mobility of both targets and sinks brings significant challenge to target detection in sensor networks. Most existing approaches are either energy inefficient or lack of fault tolerance in the environment of mobile targets and mobile sinks. Motivated by these, we propose an energy-efficient line proxy target detection (LPTD) approach in this paper. The basic idea of LPTD is to use designated line proxies as rendezvous points (or agents) to coordinate mobile sinks and mobile targets. Instead of having rendezvous nodes for each target type as used by most existing approaches, we adopt the temporal-based hash function to determine the line in the given time. Then the lines are alternated over time in the entire sensor network. This simple temporal-based line rotation idea allows all sensor nodes in the network to serve as rendezvous points and achieves overall load balancing. Furthermore, instead of network-wide flooding, interests from sinks will be flooded only to designated line proxies within limited area. The interest flooding can further decrease if the interest has geographical constraints. We have conducted extensive analysis and simulations to evaluate the performance of our proposed approach. Our results show that the proposed approach can significantly reduce overall energy consumption and target detection delay. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Molecular cloning of four lambda light chain cDNAs from the Australian brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpeculaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF IMMUNOGENETICS, Issue 2 2002K. Belov Summary A brushtail possum mesenteric lymph node cDNA library was screened with a grey short-tail opossum C, probe and four immunoglobulin lambda cDNAs were isolated. Two of the isolated clones (L5 and L10) contained identical framework 4 regions and constant regions (but different variable regions), suggesting that the possum lambda locus is organized as multiple J-C pairs , a feature seen in the opossum and placental mammals. The cloning of the lambda light chain cDNAs signifies the completion of the basic molecular characterization of the brushtail possum immunoglobulin repertoire. The availability of this sequence data will allow extensive analysis of the immune response of the brushtail possum at the molecular level, as well as the development of specific immunological reagents for detection of immunoglobulin molecules at the protein level. [source] Structural and Expressional Variations of the Mitochondrial Genome Conferring the Wild Abortive Type of Cytoplasmic Male Sterility in RiceJOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE PLANT BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2007Zhen-Lan Liu Abstract The so-called "wild abortive" (WA) type of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) derived from a wild rice species Oryza rufipogon has been extensively used for hybrid rice breeding. However, extensive analysis of the structure of the related mitochondrial genome has not been reported, and the CMS-associated gene(s) remain unknown. In this study, we exploited a mitochondrial genome-wide strategy to examine the structural and expressional variations in the mitochondrial genome conferring the CMS. The entire mitochondrial genomes of a CMS-WA line and two normal fertile rice lines were amplified by Long-polymerase chain reaction into tilling fragments of up to 15.2 kb. Restriction and DNA blotting analyses of these fragments revealed that structural variations occurred in several regions in the WA mitochondrial genome, as compared to those of the fertile lines. All of the amplified fragments covering the entire mitochondrial genome were used as RNA blot probes to examine the mitochondrial expression profile among the CMS-WA and fertile lines. As a result, only two mRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between the CMS-WA and the fertile lines, which were detected by a probe containing the nad5 and orf153 genes and the other having the ribosomal protein gene rpl5, respectively. These mRNAs are proposed to be the candidates for further identification and functional studies of the CMS gene. [source] Concise intensity statistics of Friedel opposites and classification of the reflectionsACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION A, Issue 4 2009U. Shmueli A previous extensive analysis of the mean-square intensity difference of Friedel opposites [Shmueli et al. (2008). Acta Cryst. A64, 476,483] is here concisely re-examined and confirmed by purely statistical methods. The analysis applies to noncentrosymmetric crystals only. For special reflections and centered lattices both mean-square intensity difference and average intensity of Friedel opposites depend on the centering factor of the crystal lattice and/or on the isotropy subgroup of the reflection. A complete classification of the reflections, based on the above intensity statistics, is presented. It is also shown that the experimentally important Bijvoet ratio is found to depend only on the chemical composition of the unit-cell content and the wavelength of the radiation. [source] Comparing mass-consistent atmospheric moisture budgets on an irregular grid: An Arctic exampleTHE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 592 2003M. Göber Abstract We present a method to minimize the effects of different resolution and mass imbalance when comparing atmospheric energy and water budgets from different datasets. Sizeable differences between re-analysis- and radiosonde-based atmospheric budgets had been found in earlier studies and it had been suspected that the different resolutions of the datasets strongly contributes to these discrepancies. Furthermore, most studies so far had used mass-imbalanced wind fields, which can lead to serious errors. We balance the wind field by using a variational modification algorithm combined with a finite-element discretization which allows the use of data on a grid defined by the radiosonde network. This method permits the computation of flux divergences in integral form and gives a consistent numerical method to get a mass-balanced wind field with minimum modifications. Applying this method to Arctic radiosonde and re-analysis data on the same grid leads to a better agreement with respect to the horizontal distribution and the mean annual cycle of the moisture flux convergence. The constraint of mass balance on the wind field leads to a greatly reduced and more realistic variability in space and time. However, a systematic difference of about 20% remains between the estimate based on a re-analysis dataset sampled only on the coarse grid of the radiosonde network and an estimate based on the use of the full, fine grid of the re-analysis. These systematic differences can be significantly reduced by creating a simulated radiosonde dataset from the re-analysis with doubled resolution. We undertake an extensive analysis of the uncertainty of the estimates originating from the choices made in the specification of the algorithm. Based solely on radiosonde data, which are likely to result in a low bias, we estimate the net water gain of the Arctic atmosphere as 164 ± 10 mm yr,1 (0.45 ± 0.03 mm d,1) for 1979,93. Copyright © 2003 Royal Meteorological Society. [source] Risk Factors for and Clinical Course of Non-Anastomotic Biliary Strictures After Liver TransplantationAMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 7 2003Maureen M. J. Guichelaar Non-anastomotic biliary stricture (NAS) formation is a major complication of liver transplantation. We prospectively determined the time to development of responsiveness to treatment, and clinical outcomes following NAS formation. In addition, an extensive analysis of the association of recipient, donor, and clinical variables with NAS formation was performed. A total of 749 consecutive patients was studied in a prospective, protocol-based fashion. Seventy-two patients (9.6%) developed NAS at a mean of 23.6 ± 34.2 weeks post-transplantation. Non-anastomotic biliary stricture formation resolved in only 6% of affected patients. Although patient survival was not affected, retransplantation and graft loss rates were significantly greater in recipients who developed NAS. In contrast to previous reports, a pretransplant diagnosis of HCV was associated with a low frequency of NAS formation. The incidence of NAS was independently associated with pretransplant diagnoses of PSC and autoimmune hepatitis. Hepatic artery thrombosis, and prolonged warm and cold ischemia times were also independent risk factors for NAS formation. We conclude that NAS developed in ,10% of primary liver transplant recipients. A pretransplant diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis has been identified as a novel independent risk factor for NAS formation. Development of NAS significantly attenuates graft but not patient survival. [source] Reminiscences of a journeyman scientist: Studies of thermoregulation in non-human primates and humansBIOELECTROMAGNETICS, Issue 8 2008Eleanor Reed Adair Abstract After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1948 where I majored in experimental psychology I worked at the College for 2 years with the Johns Hopkins Thermophysiological Unit. My graduate work later at the University of Wisconsin, centering on sensory psychology, culminated in my 1955 PhD thesis on human dark adaptation. I continued work in sensory psychology later with Neal Miller at Yale and then moved to the John B. Pierce Foundation,a Yale affiliate,where I began the studies of thermoregulation that constitute the center of my scientific career. Those studies were largely,later wholly,conducted using microwave energy as a thermal load and were thus published in Bioelectromagnetics even as I played an active role in the Bioelectromagnetics Society. In the beginning this work was centered on the responses of Squirrel Monkeys to thermal loads. Later, serving as Senior Scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory at San Antonio, I completed an extensive analysis of thermal regulation in humans. I consider this work of special note inasmuch as the extraordinary human thermoregulatory ability was surely among the attributes that were paramount in initially separating humans from the other anthropoid primates. Bioelectromagnetics 29:586,597, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Privatizing Responsibility: Public Sector Reform under Neoliberal GovernmentCANADIAN REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY/REVUE CANADIENNE DE SOCIOLOGIE, Issue 3 2009SUZAN ILCAN À la lumière des réformes du secteur public au Canada et ailleurs, l'auteure se concentre sur le déplacement des priorités des responsabilités sociales vers les responsabilités privées et soulève de nouvelles questions sur les forces de l'entreprise privée et des partenariats reposant sur les mécanismes du marché. D'après elle, dans les programmes néo-libéraux du gouvernement, la responsabilité de la privatisation est liée à trois principaux aménagements : la reconsidération des relations entre le public et le privé; la mobilisation de l'esprit de civisme; et la création d'une mentalité culturelle d'observance de la règle allant de pair avec ces transformations. La recherche qui a été effectuée pour cet article s'est fondée sur l'analyse à grande échelle de documents de politique et d'initiatives de réforme du secteur public, de même que sur des interviews de fonctionnaires fédéraux canadiens. In light of public sector reforms in Canada and elsewhere, this paper focuses on the shift of emphasis from social to private responsibilities and raises new questions about the forces of private enterprise and market-based partnerships. Under neoliberal governmental agendas, privatizing responsibility links to three main developments: the reconsideration of the relations of public and private; the mobilization of responsible citizenship; and the formation of a cultural mentality of rule that works alongside these developments. The research for this article is based on extensive analysis of policy documents and public sector reform initiatives, as well as interviews with Canadian federal public service employees. [source] Toward a Consensus Model of the hERG Potassium ChannelCHEMMEDCHEM, Issue 3 2010Anna Stary Dr. Abstract Malfunction of hERG potassium channels, due to inherited mutations or inhibition by drugs, can cause long QT syndrome, which can lead to life-threatening arrhythmias. A three-dimensional structure of hERG is a prerequisite to understand the molecular basis of hERG malfunction. To achieve a consensus model, we carried out an extensive analysis of hERG models based on various alignments of helix,S5. We analyzed seven models using a combination of conventional geometry/packing/normality validation methods as well as molecular dynamics simulations and molecular docking. A synthetic test set with the X-ray crystal structure of Kv1.2 with artificially shifted S5 sequences modeled into the structure served as a reference case. We docked the known hERG inhibitors (+)-cisapride, (S)-terfenadine, and MK-499 into the hERG models and simulation snapshots. None of the single analyses unambiguously identified a preferred model, but the combination of all three revealed that there is only one model that fulfils all quality criteria. This model is confirmed by a recent mutation scanning experiment (P. Ju, G. Pages, R.,P. Riek, P.,C. Chen, A.,M. Torres, P.,S. Bansal, S. Kuyucak, P.,W. Kuchel, J.,I. Vandenberg, J. Biol. Chem. 2009, 284, 1000,1008).1We expect the modeled structure to be useful as a basis both for computational studies of channel function and kinetics as well as the design of experiments. [source] Molecular and clinical features associated with CFTR gene rearrangements in Italian population: identification of a new duplication and recurrent deletionsCLINICAL GENETICS, Issue 4 2008V Paracchini Cystic fibrosis (CF) is mainly caused by small deletions or missense mutations in the CFTR gene. The CF mutation database lists more than 35 large rearrangements that may escape detection using polymerase chain reaction-base techniques. The Innogenetics assay, the denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and sequencing screening showed a mutation detection rate of 92.6% in our population. We report here the results of multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) screening for CFTR gene rearrangements, performed on the unidentified alleles of our CF patients. Our sample population consists of 692 non-related Italian CF patients (for a total of 1384 alleles), followed at CF Centres in the Lombardia Region. MLPA analysis was performed in 49 patients who still had one or two unidentified alleles (for a total of 52 unidentified alleles) after extensive analysis of CFTR gene. All patients who were studied had the classical form of CF. We characterized nine different deletions and a new duplication. The deletion of exons 22,23 (7/82) was the most frequent in our cohort. The search for deletion/duplications of the CFTR gene has made it possible to reach a 94.1% detection rate, with an improvement (1.6%) of the carrier detection rate in the Italian population. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||