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Sufficient Flexibility (sufficient + flexibility)
Selected AbstractsRape as an Essentially Contested ConceptHYPATIA, Issue 2 2001ERIC REITAN Because "rape" has such a powerful appraisive meaning, how one defines the term has normative significance. Those who define rape rigidly so as to exclude contemporary feminist understandings are therefore seeking to silence some moral perspectives "by definition." I argue that understanding rape as an essentially contested concept allows the concept sufficient flexibility to permit open moral discourse, while at the same time preserving a core meaning that can frame the discourse. [source] Biological Materials: Mechanical Function of a Complex Three-Dimensional Suture Joining the Bony Elements in the Shell of the Red-Eared Slider Turtle (Adv. Mater.ADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 4 20094/2009) The shell of a turtle is required to be a shield that is stiff at high loads, but must provide sufficient flexibility for respiration and locomotion at smaller loads. On p. 407, Peter Fratzl and co-workers show that these seemingly contradictory requirements are met by a self-locking material, whereby stiff bony elements are connected by a much softer suture with a complex three-dimensional shape. [source] Mechanical Function of a Complex Three-Dimensional Suture Joining the Bony Elements in the Shell of the Red-Eared Slider TurtleADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 4 2009Stefanie Krauss The shell of turtles is a shield which needs to be stiff at high loads but should provide sufficient flexibility for respiration and locomotion at smaller loads. We show that this seemingly contradictory requirement is met by a self-locking material, whereby stiff bony elements are connected by a much softer suture with a complex three-dimensional shape. [source] SMC Proteins at the Crossroads of Diverse Chromosomal ProcessesIUBMB LIFE, Issue 12 2003Rolf Jessberger Abstract How should a protein be designed to serve in processes as diverse as chromosome condensation, sister chromatid cohesion, DNA recombination, gene dosage regulation, and perhaps even gene silencing or transcriptional regulation - which occur in both mitosis and meiosis? Such a protein or protein complex needs to bear DNA interaction domains, it needs the capacity to use energy to move DNA, it needs to enter into highly specific protein interactions, it needs to be large enough to link two DNA molecules, it needs to be of sufficient flexibility to cope with different types of chromatin structure, yet it also needs to be rigid enough to pull, push or enclose DNA. SMC proteins fulfill these requirements and form the core units of high molecular weight complexes that act in all those processes, and are essential for some of them. SMC stands for 'Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes', although SMC proteins are not static scaffold proteins merely providing support for a particular chromosome structure. SMC proteins are rather highly dynamic actors, that generate and modulate chromosome structures, affecting a plethora of biological processes. IUBMB Life, 55: 643-652, 2003 [source] Nursing practice and oral fluid intake of older people with dementiaJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 21 2008Sandra Ullrich Aim., This paper describes the findings of a descriptive study about what nurses do to ensure that older people with dementia have adequate hydration. Background., Frail nursing home residents, particularly those who cannot accurately communicate their thirst as a result of Alzheimer's disease and who depend on nursing staff for their fluid intake, are at risk of dehydration. While the interventions that promote nutrition in older people with dementia are documented, the specific interventions for improving oral hydration in older people with dementia remain poorly studied and understood. Design., Observational study. Methods., Ten care workers and seven residents were observed for the types of behavioural nursing interventions and assistance provided to residents when promoting oral fluid intake. Observational data were compared with resident-care plans to determine whether what was carried out by care workers was consistent with what was being documented. Results., Care workers provided a wide variety of behavioural interventions to the residents when promoting oral fluid intake. The resident-care plans did not sufficiently represent the specific interventions implemented by care workers. Conclusions., A more rigorous approach is required in defining the specific behavioural interactions practised by care workers, which promote oral fluid intake in older people with dementia. Nurses determined the content of care documented in care plans, yet they were not the predominant implementers of that care. Care plans need to be accurate in terms of the specific nursing actions that respond to the level of assistance required by the resident, both behaviourally and physically. Relevance to clinical practice., Sound knowledge and reflective practices should be implemented by care workers of the nursing interventions that promote adequate oral fluid intake. Care plans should serve a dual purpose and facilitate communication between staff members and provide sufficient flexibility to allow for the contribution of novel ways in which to promote oral fluid intake while also being educative. [source] Polyethersulfone-epoxy terminated materials as thermosetting resins for microelectronic devicesJOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE (IN TWO SECTIONS), Issue 21 2009Emilio Scamporrino Abstract A totally aromatic polyether/sulfone resin (PES-E) was synthesized and tested as an insulating glue in the construction of a Chip-on-Chip (CoC) device. PES-E, essentially constituted of open-chain macromolecules of low molecular mass (Mn of about 3000 Da) with hydroxy and/or epoxy end-groups, has a glass transition temperature of about 150 °C and is subject to crosslinking at temperatures higher than 320 °C. A CoC device was assembled using a five-step process by interposing a layer of PES-E between two chips. After curing, SEM cross section images showed a homogeneous crosslinked resin layer well stuck (flick and shear tests) to both chips. The chemical structure of the chains and the hydroxy/epoxy end-groups ratio were optimized to obtain a crosslinked material with good adhesion and sufficient flexibility to avoid cracking during assembly and use. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 5682,5689, 2009 [source] Mobile loop mutations in an archaeal inositol monophosphatase: Modulating three-metal ion assisted catalysis and lithium inhibitionPROTEIN SCIENCE, Issue 2 2010Zheng Li Abstract The inositol monophosphatase (IMPase) enzyme from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Methanocaldococcus jannaschii requires Mg2+ for activity and binds three to four ions tightly in the absence of ligands: KD = 0.8 ,M for one ion with a KD of 38 ,M for the other Mg2+ ions. However, the enzyme requires 5,10 mM Mg2+ for optimum catalysis, suggesting substrate alters the metal ion affinity. In crystal structures of this archaeal IMPase with products, one of the three metal ions is coordinated by only one protein contact, Asp38. The importance of this and three other acidic residues in a mobile loop that approaches the active site was probed with mutational studies. Only D38A exhibited an increased kinetic KD for Mg2+; D26A, E39A, and E41A showed no significant change in the Mg2+ requirement for optimal activity. D38A also showed an increased Km, but little effect on kcat. This behavior is consistent with this side chain coordinating the third metal ion in the substrate complex, but with sufficient flexibility in the loop such that other acidic residues could position the Mg2+ in the active site in the absence of Asp38. While lithium ion inhibition of the archaeal IMPase is very poor (IC50,250 mM), the D38A enzyme has a dramatically enhanced sensitivity to Li+ with an IC50 of 12 mM. These results constitute additional evidence for three metal ion assisted catalysis with substrate and product binding reducing affinity of the third necessary metal ion. They also suggest a specific mode of action for lithium inhibition in the IMPase superfamily. [source] COLLABORATIVE CAPACITY AND STRATEGIES IN AREA-BASED INITIATIVESPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2006HELEN SULLIVAN Despite considerable evaluator investment in examining partnership activity in UK public policy initiatives, little attention has been paid to the role of strategy in supporting the generation and harnessing of the resources necessary to collaborate effectively. This paper focuses on one of the first New Labour initiatives , Health Action Zones (HAZ) , and draws on national evaluation findings to delineate local strategies, assess their application in practice and reflect on their contribution to collaborative action. The paper argues that even within nationally constrained policy initiatives there is sufficient flexibility for local actors to select strategies to steer collaborative effort, but these strategies are informed by their operating context and are liable to change in response to experience and changes in context. In addition, the evaluation findings suggest that effective strategies are those which harness collaborative capacity across a range of dimensions. The paper concludes by identifying implications for theory, policy and evaluation. [source] Role of disturbed vegetation in mapping the boreal zone in northern EurasiaAPPLIED VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 4 2010Annika Hofgaard Abstract Question: Is there a need for disturbance mapping integrated in the CircumBoreal Vegetation Mapping Program? Location: Eurasian boreal forest. Disturbance and mapping: The boreal zone is characterized by a multitude of natural and anthropogenic disturbance agents with importance over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Disturbance is a prime driver of succession in most of the boreal zone, producing landscape diversity characterized by a large-scale vegetation mosaic of early to late succession states. When mapping the circumboreal vegetation, spatial extent, time involved from disturbance to recovered condition and likelihood of interacting disturbance types are crucial for how current vegetation is interpreted and subsequently included as map characteristics. In this paper we present examples from the boreal zone where natural and/or anthropogenic disturbance regimes dominate the state and distribution of vegetation, and possibilities for assessing the nature and extent of the disturbed regions using remotely sensed data. Conclusion: Disturbed vegetation occupies large areas in the boreal zone and related vegetation successions should be adequately represented when mapping the zone. In regions where the ,potential natural vegetation' is a hypothetical reconstruction from remnants of ,natural' vegetation it would be preferable to use the concept of ,actual real vegetation' for which remote sensing at coarse, medium and fine resolution is an efficient tool. The Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) may offer sufficient flexibility to incorporate information about the disturbance of circumboreal vegetation. [source] Candida albicans proteinases and host/pathogen interactionsCELLULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 10 2004Julian Naglik Summary Candida infections are common, debilitating and often recurring fungal diseases and a problem of significant clinical importance. Candida albicans, the most virulent of the Candida spp., can cause severe mucosal and life-threatening systemic infections in immunocompromised hosts. Attributes that contribute to C. albicans virulence include adhesion, hyphal formation, phenotypic switching and extracellular hydrolytic enzyme production. The extracellular hydrolytic enzymes, especially the secreted aspartyl proteinases (Saps), are one of few gene products that have been shown to directly contribute to C. albicans pathogenicity. Because C. albicans is able to colonize and infect almost every tissue in the human host, it may be crucial for the fungus to possess a number of similar but independently regulated and functionally distinct secreted proteinases to provide sufficient flexibility in order to survive and promote infection at different niche sites. The aim of this review is to explore the functional roles of the C. albicans proteinases and how they may contribute to the host/pathogen interaction in vivo. 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