bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Effect of Different Operational Parameters on Increasing Performance of Condensate Stabilizing Process in Gas Plants (Case Study)
Authors: Karimkhani B. , Khorrami Z.
Published: December 2009

In the gas plants, gas condensate often contains unwanted glycol, water and salt together with light HC, H2S, mercaptanes which are soluble in condensate and cause corrosion, fouling, plugging, scaling, catalyst poisoning and other detrimental effect on plant operation. Condensate stabilizing is a process that mainly uses for separation of mentioned components from raw gas condensate in order to meet product specifications which is on-spec RVP, water and salt contents for the ultimate product.

At the overall view point, condensate stabilizing process consist of four main parts which are; separation of free aqueous phase and light HC from heavy HC in a high pressure three phase separator, desalting and sludge removal using desalter, separation of remained light HC by a medium pressure distillation tower and finally degassing of column stabilized product plus with debutanizer bottom product (C5+) in a low pressure flash drum in order to produce final product for sending to atmospheric storage tanks.

As a real case in our gas plant, due to low performance of stabilizer reboiler, efficiency of process was reduced gradually and caused off-spec product to be produced. So, other operational parameters affect on process efficiency was changed and optimized in order to compensate product specification and meet on-spec values. The most operational parameters which affect product specifications are as below: Changing demulsifier and water wash injection to desalter mean while draining of interface layer of desalter once per each operating shift.Optimization differential pressure of the desalter mixing valve.Effect of stabilizing column pressure reduction to the optimum value, in a way that does not affect proper working of off-gas compressor.Effect of increasing stabilizer column condenser temperature.Effect of increasing temperature of inlet feed to stabilizer column.Effect of (C5+) flow rate and RVP on the condensate RVP.

This paper introduces main results of the actual case studies in plant together with simulation results. Comparison between actual and simulation results indicate excellent satisfaction from practical engineering standpoint and high reliability of test run.
Zooplankton-based assessment of the trophic state of a tropical forest river in Nigeria
Authors: Imoobe T.O.T. , Adeyinka M.L.
Published: December 2009

In this study, we explore the usefulness of zooplankton as a tool for assessing the trophic status of a Nigerian forest river. The river was sampled monthly and investigated for water physico-chemistry and zooplankton community structure using basic statistical measurement of diversity indices to characterize the zooplankton fauna. The trophic sta?tus of the river evaluated from its physico-chemical parameters indicates that the river is oligotrophic. The zooplankton composition was typical of a tropical freshwater river, with a total of 40 species, made up of 16 rotifers, 12 cladocerans, and 12 copepods and their developing stages in the following order of dominance: Rotifera > Cladocera > Cyclopoida > Calanoida. There were strong correlations between the lake's trophic status and its zooplankton communities. The zoo?plankton community was dominated by numerous species of rotifers and crustaceans, which are typical of oligotrophic to mesotrophic systems, such species including Conochilus dossuarius and Synchaeta longipes. However, the most dominant zooplankton species in West African freshwater ecosystems, viz., Keratella tropica, Keratella quadrata, Brachionus angularis, Trichocerca pusilla, Filinia longiseta, Pompholyx sulcata, and Proales sp., and others that are indicator species of high trophic levels, were not recorded in the river. The river is very clear and can be used for all manner of recreational activities.
Disclosure Quality, Cost of Capital, and Investor Welfare
Authors: Gao Pingyang
Published: December 2009

ABSTRACT: One might expect that disclosure quality improves investor welfare by reducing cost of capital. This study shows that the argument is valid only in limited circumstances. Based on a production economy with perfect competition among investors, the analysis demonstrates three points. First, cost of capital could increase with disclosure quality when new investment is sufficiently elastic. Second, there are plausible conditions under which disclosure quality reduces the welfare of current and/or new investors. Finally, cost of capital could move in opposition to the welfare of either current or new investors as disclosure quality changes.
Missense mutations in IHH impair Indian Hedgehog signaling in C3H10T1/2 cells: Implications for brachydactyly type A1, and new targets for Hedgehog signaling
Authors: Guo Shengzhen , Zhou Jian , Gao Bo , Hu Jianxin , Wang Hongsheng , Meng Junwei , Zhao Xinzhi , Ma Gang , Lin Chuwen , Xiao Yue , Tang Wei , Zhu Xuming , Cheah Kathryn , Feng Guoying , Chan Danny , He Lin
Published: December 2009

Heterozygous missense mutations in IHH result in Brachydactyly type A1 (BDA1; OMIM 112500), a condition characterized by the shortening of digits due to hypoplasia/aplasia of the middle phalanx. Indian Hedgehog signaling regulates the proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes and is essential for endochondral bone formation. Analyses of activated IHH signaling in C3H10T1/2 cells showed that three BDA1-associated mutations (p.E95K, p.D100E and p.E131K) severely impaired the induction of targets such as Ptch1 and Gli1. However, this was not a complete loss of function, suggesting that these mutations may affect the interaction with the receptor PTCH1 or its partners, with an impact on the induction potency. From comparative microarray expression analyses and quantitative real-time PCR, we identified three additional targets, Sostdc1, Penk1 and Igfbp5, which were also severely affected. Penk1 and Igfbp5 were confirmed to be regulated by GLI1, while the induction of Sostdc1 by IHH is independent of GLI1. SOSTDC1 is a BMP antagonist, and altered BMP signaling is known to affect digit formation. The role of Penk1 and Igfbp5 in skeletogenesis is not known. However, we have shown that both Penk1 and Igfbp5 are expressed in the interzone region of the developing joint of mouse digits, providing another link for a role for IHH signaling in the formation of the distal digits.
“Booby's fruitless operations”: The Crisis of Male Authority in Richardson's Pamela
Authors: Leiman Jessica L.
Published: December 2009

Critics have read Mr B.'s failure to rape Pamela either as evidence of his sexual impotence and Richardson's authorial incompetence or as a testament to the power of Pamela's heroically resistant voice. In contrast, I argue that Mr B.'s inability to acquit himself as a rake is crucially linked to his desire to silence Pamela's narrative. While he fails to penetrate her body, he ultimately succeeds at insinuating a competing narrative within her epistolary text—a narrative that highlights his own discursive powerlessness and depicts her writing as an act of sexualized boldness. Mr B.'s counter-narrative allows him both to redirect his erotic pursuit and to supplant Pamela's story with his own. As his professions of weakness become his means of co-opting and reforming Pamela's writing, Mr B.'s rhetorical tactics anticipate Richardson's own strategic self-diminution as he publishes Pamela alongside—and in opposition to—female-authored romances.
Out of Egypt and into England: Secrecy and the State in Samuel Pratt's Family Secrets
Authors: Cruise James
Published: December 2009

Though unfamiliar to many students of the period, Samuel Pratt's Family Secrets (1797) explores themes common to the eighteenth-century novel in a narrative that marries the domestic to the Gothic. True to the title of his novel, Pratt entangles each of the major characters in a web of secrecy, rendered emphatic by his use of Gothic elements, such that his narrative creates in miniature a culture of secrecy within this extended family romance. Pratt contrasts legitimate (alphabetical or modern) secrecy with illegitimate (Egyptian or dated) secrecy, and he re-enacts the broader tensions that define the history of secrecy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These differences, I contend, play a key role in the formation of a modern British state, already steeped in secrecy (reason of state), which in turn governs the fortunes awaiting individual characters.
Urban Signs/Signs of the Urban: Of Scenes and Streetscapes
Authors: Stahl Geoff
Published: December 2009

No abstract available.
Street Discourse: A Visual Essay on Urban Signification
Authors: Pauwels Luc
Published: December 2009

No abstract available
Going Begging: Casino Culture and its Contrasts as Revealed in the New Macao Poetry
Authors: Kelen Christopher
Published: December 2009

Among the key themes of contemporary Macao poetry, chance and luck loom large, along with their figuration in Macao life through sites such as casinos and temples, through personae such as those of the gambler, the beggar, the prostitute. Macao as dot-on-the-map is likewise conceived as a site for all kinds of portal semiotics, as paradigm for cultural crossing and cultural shift. Macao may be regarded as a work enduring (in Brechtian terms) because it is unfinished. While this is a formula that could be notionally applied to any city, this view seems particularly apt given both the extraordinary pace of change in post-handover Macao (i.e. since 1999), and the present bubble-bursting effect of the 2008 “financial tsunami”.

Relating Augé’s conception of “non-places” to Eco’s notion of open (as opposed to closed) text, this paper observes that consciousness of place in contemporary Macao poetry appears to be dominated by two kinds of space, glossed here as “Macao space” and “anywhere space”. Macao space is uniquely of an historical moment and place, something culturally positioned; in anywhere space (e.g. inside of a casino or an airport) subjects are hailed by consumption-oriented reifications of putative universal value. The contemporary Macao poetry typically values Macao space and sees it as under threat from the “non-negotiable” space of culture that could be anywhere.

Interested in the paradoxes, ironies and hypocrisies inherent in the present-day culture, politics and international position of Macao, the new Macao poetry reveals a place-based poetics deeply concerned with Macao identity, its evolution and potentials.
The City at Stake: "Stakeholder Mapping" The City
Authors: Esmann Andersen Sophie , Ellerup Nielsen Anne
Published: December 2009

Studies of the city have been addressed from many different approaches such as law, political science, art history and public administration, in which the economic, political and legal status of the city have played a major role. However, a new agenda for conceptualizing the city has emerged, in which the city assumes new roles. By using stakeholder theory as a framework for conceptualizing the city, we argue that the city assumes a political-economic agenda-setting role as well as providing a stage for identity constructions and relational performances for consumers, organizations, the media, politicians and other stakeholders. Stakeholder theory allows us to conceptualize the city as being constituted by stakes and relationships between stakeholders which are approached from three analytical positions (modern, postmodern and hypermodern, respectively), thereby allowing us to grasp different stakes and types of relationships, ranging from functional and contractual relationships to individualized and emotionally driven or more non-committal and fluid forms of relationships. In order to support and illustrate the analytical potentials of our framework for conceptualizing urban living, we introduce a project which aims to turn the city of Aarhus into a CO2-neutral city by the year 2030, entitled Aarhus CO2030. We conclude that applying stakeholder theory to a hyper-complex organization such as a city opens up for a reconceptualization of the city as a web of stakes and stakeholder relations. Stakeholder theory contributes to a nuanced and elaborate understanding of the urban complexity and web of both enforced and voluntary relationships as well as the different types of relationships that characterize urban life.
Locating Intermediality: Socialization by Communication and Consumption in the Popular Cultural Third Places of the Music Club and Football Stadium
Authors: Jacke Christoph
Published: December 2009

Based on two different case studies in the realm of popular culture, my contribution will clarify the mechanisms involved in the (symbolic) production and consumption of space. The music club and the soccer stadium function much in the same way, as interfaces between producers and consumers of places, prompting “prosumption of space” (Raumprosumenten). A loss of function in such “third places” cannot be linked to the transition from informal cellar clubs to (soberly designed) regional discos outside the city – or from the national-league stadium to the World Cup arena (also outside the city). Nor can it be attributed to the mediatization of these spaces by technology. On the contrary, we find an exponentiation of what third places had always already been, spaces of “intermediality” (between work and leisure, between seriousness and play, between young people and adults). In the World Cup stadium, unique events, experiences and communicative propensities are produced in a highly consistent manner by means of communication on different levels in series. In such cases, the spectators in the stadium, just like visitors to music clubs, rarely behave as passive consumers of what is staged, yet both groups contribute by their presence and symbolic activity to the success of such productions in the stadium and the club.
Being-in-the-City: A Phenomenological Approach to Technological Experience
Authors: Wasiak Jason
Published: December 2009

This paper examines dynamics surrounding the negotiation and articulation of the body-technology relationship necessarily characterizing the experience of being-in-the-city. Nowhere is everyday experience more mediated by technology than in the city. Being-in-the-city involves being embodied by technology at levels ranging from micro to macro. Despite the fact that technologies are constantly evolving in city space, relations with technology tend to become quickly normalized — mundane — transparent. Given this normalization as well as the sheer pervasiveness of technology in constituting city space it is important to examine the ways in which technology comes to shape the experiential contexts of everyday life. In urban space, technologies result is new sights to be seen, sounds to be heard, smells to be smelt, textures to be felt, as well as altogether new modes of experiencing the everyday. In exploring the dynamics surrounding the ongoing, multi-layered negotiation and articulation of the body-technology relationship necessarily characterizing the experience of being-in-the-city a phenomenological perspective is adopted. Heidegger’s writing on technology, Merleau-Ponty’s writing on embodiment and perception, and Don Ihde’s writing on the body and technology contribute to a theoretical framework for a phenomenological examination of the experiential implications of being-in-the-city, a technological ecology.
"Quit stalling…!": Destiny and Destination on L.A.s Inner City Roads
Authors: Zeilinger Martin
Published: December 2009

If driving has today really become a Western “metaphor for being” (Hutchinson), then common roadside signs proclaiming “Right lane must exit” or “Through traffic merge left”, inventions such as the automatic transmission, and the agreeable straightness of freeways can all be understood as symptoms of an ongoing socio-political struggle between the driver as democratic agent, and the state as institu-tionalized regulatory force. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the context of urban traffic, where private motorized transportation represents both the supreme (if illusory) expression of personal freedom, and official efforts to channel individualism by obliterating its sense of direction and ideological divergence. On the concrete proving grounds of the clogged inner-city freeway, “nomad science” and “state science” (Deleuze & Guattari) thus oscillate between the pseudo-liberatory expressivity of mainstream car culture and the self-effacing dromoscopic “amnesia of driving” (Baudrillard). Are a city’s multitudes of cars resistant “projectiles” (Virilio) or, rather, hegemonic “sites of containment” (Jane Jacobs)? This essay approaches the complex tensions between “untamable” democratic mobility and state-regulated transit by way of two Hollywood-produced films that focus on traffic in Los Angeles: in Collateral (2004), a cab driver comes to recognize and transcend the hopelessly directionless circularity dictated by his job; in Falling Down (1993), a frustrated civil service employee abandons his car on a rush-hour freeway and decides to walk home, forced to traverse the supposedly unwalkable city without the “masking screen of the windshield” (Virilio). As they “quit stalling”, both protagonists become dangerous variants of the defiant nomad – one a driver who remains on the road but goes “under the radar”, the other a transient pedestrian whose movement becomes viral and unpredictable. My analysis of the films’ metropolitan setting and of the incessant movement that marks both narratives links political and philosophical economies of motion, speed, and transit to a discussion of the various bandes vagabondage (Deleuze & Guattari) that are formed between city and driver, driver and car, and car and pedestrian. In this discussion, the inner-city road emerges as a primary site of conflict between civic rule and individual subject, and the flow of urban traffic comes to represent the tensions generated in spaces where movement is understood as both liberating and as a form of control.
City Under Siege: Narrating Mumbai Through NonStop Capture
Authors: Ibrahim Yasmin
Published: December 2009

When Mumbai became the target of terror in the 26/11 attack in 2008, the events in that city, like other tragic global events in recent years, were narrated through new media platforms. The increasing convergence of technologies and mobile telephony enabled new forms of gaze and the ability to bear witness through these new media technologies. The non-stop capture of events through recording equipment embedded in mobile phones and their connectivity to the World Wide Web constructed Mumbai through civilian narratives and images, and this phenomenon was described as the “coming of age of Twitter”. Conversely the event raised fundamental questions about the role of broadcasting and protocols in live telecasts of terrorist attacks which have consequences for national security. In narrating the city through the civilian gaze and traditional media the spectacle of suffering in postmodernity becomes an open-ended exercise where the city is both a canvas for showcasing the risks of modernity and new forms of visibilities which emerge from social media and the “act of sharing” content on global platforms.
Exploring Urban Screens
Authors: Krajina Zlatan
Published: December 2009

There is a tautological tendency in the widespread claims that urban space is ’mediated’. Never before has the citizen, it is argued, been confronted with such an unprecedented array of signage. I depart from the rhetoric of ’biggest-ever-saturation’ as not necessarily untrue, but as insufficient in exploring the diverse spatial operations of urban screens. I examine some contemporary cases of animated architectural surfaces, informational panels, and advertising billboards, with reference to much longer standing cultural practices of spatial management in modern cities, such as illumination, to suggest that the contemporary display media do not mediate the city anew but re-invent urban space as a field of ubiquitous mediation. From that standpoint I suggest exploring urban screens as a) both singular visual agents and indivisible items in plural structural assemblages, b) complementary forces of public illumination, and c) complex perceptual platforms in visual play of scale and distance.
Disposable and Usable Pasts in Central European Cities
Authors: Lisiak Agata
Published: December 2009

In Central European cities memories and material histories of socialist regimes remain particularly difficult to address and incorporate into the new democratic present. After 1989, city authorities in the region have chosen to emphasize some pasts and neglect others and, thus, (re)write their own versions of (urban) history and (re)shape their (urban) identities. In my paper I inquire into how post-1989 Central European urbanities are shaped by and communicated through various designations including signs and symbols on city streets, monuments, and buildings. Predictably, many material remnants of the socialist regimes have been destroyed or hidden from the public eye – my interest lies not only in which various designations on buildings and which monuments had to go, but also in why and how they disappeared. I discuss the most popular methods of hiding and/or effacing the remnants of socialism that range from subtle (surrounding of communist landmarks with tall buildings) through the obvious (renaming of streets, squares, metro stations; giving old communist buildings new names and functions) to the irreversible and, thus, most controversial (the razing of socialist architecture and monuments). The disappearance of the material capital of the socialist past has been accompanied by intense commemoration practices verging on memorial obsessions. New monuments, plaques, street names, and museums appeared almost as quickly as the old “disposable” ones were forced out from the urban landscape. The complexity of an urban identity as communicated through city streets, monuments, and buildings not only invites, but necessitates an interdisciplinary approach and, thus, my analysis includes elements from such diverse areas of knowledge as aesthetics, architecture, communication studies, comparative cultural studies, economics, history, and political science.
City of Epitaphs
Authors: Hicks Megan
Published: December 2009

The pavement lies like a ledger-stone on a tomb. Buried underneath are the remains of fertile landscapes and the life they once supported. Inscribed on its upper side are epitaphic writings. Whatever their ostensible purpose, memorial plaques and public artworks embedded in the pavement are ultimately expressions of civic bereavement and guilt. The pavement’s role as both witness and accomplice to fatality is confirmed by private individuals who publicize their grief with death notices graffitied on the asphalt. To walk the city is to engage in a dialogue about death.
Bloomsday: James Joyces Ulysses Celebrated as Theatrical Event
Authors: Sauter Willmar
Published: December 2009

James Joyce had decided that 16 June 1904 should be the one day in the life of Leopold Bloom, about which he wrote his 800 page novel Ulysses. In his book, Joyce actually followed Mr Bloom that entire day, from his getting up and having the nowadays famous kidney breakfast, to the late evening, when he had to break into his own house on 7 Eccle Street to have a drink with Stephen Dedalus, the other main figure of the novel. The centenary of that very day took, accordingly, place in 2004. I have borrowed the identity of Mr Bloom to describe some street scenes from the centennial celebrations of Bloomsday in Dublin. After this introductory presentation, part two of this article will attempt to analyse Bloomsday in terms of a Theatrical Event, embedded in an unusual and striking playing culture. In a third part, Mr Bloom will once more be allowed to make some concluding comments.
Radical Hope or the Moral Imperative of Images in the Work of Susan Sontag Jean-Luc Godard
Authors: Alphandary Idit
Published: December 2009

In the films For Ever Mozart, In Praise of Love and I Salute You Sarajevo, Go-dard’s images introduce radical hope to the world. I will demonstrate that this hope represents an ethical posture in the world; it is identical to goodness. Radical hope is grounded in the victim’s witnessing, internalizing and remembering catastrophe, while at the same time holding onto the belief that a variation of the self will survive the disaster. In The Gift of Death, Jacques Derrida argues that choosing to belong to the disaster is equivalent to giving the pure gift, or to goodness itself, and that it suggests a new form of responsibility for one’s life, as well as a new form of death. For Derrida, internalizing catastrophe is identical to death—a death that surpasses one’s means of giving. Such death can be reciprocated only by reinstating goodness or the law in the victim’s or the giver’s existence. The relation of survival to the gift of death—also a gift of life—challenges us to rethink our understanding of the act of witnessing. This relation also adds nuance to our appreciation of the intellectual, emotional and mental affects of the survival of the victim and the testimony and silence of the witness, all of which are important in my analysis of radical hope. On the one hand, the (future) testimony of the witness inhabits the victim or the ravaged self (now), on the other hand, testimony is not contemporaneous with the shattered ego. This means that testimony is anterior to the self or that the self that survives the disaster has yet to come into existence through making testimony material. Testimony thus exists before and beyond disaster merely as an ethical posture—a “putting-oneself-to-death or offering-one’s-death, that is, one’s life, in the ethical dimension of sacrifice,” in the words of Derrida. The witness is identical to the victim whose survival will include an unknown, surprising testimony or an event of witnessing. The testimony discloses the birth or revelation of a new self. And yet this new self survives through assuming the position of the witness even while s/he is purely the victim of catastrophe, being put to death owning the “kiss of death.”
SATURATION FLOW VERSUS GREEN TIME AT TWO‐STAGE SIGNAL CONTROLLED INTERSECTIONS
Authors: Boumediene Ahmed , Brahimi Kouider , Belguesmia Noreddine , Bouakkaz Khaled
Published: December 2009

Intersections are the key components of road networks considerably affecting capacity. As flow levels and experience have increased over the years, methods and means have been developed to cope with growing demand for traffic at road junctions. Among various traffic control devices and techniques developed to cope with conflicting movements, traffic signals create artificial gaps to accommodate the impeded traffic streams. The majority of parameters that govern signalised intersection control and operations such as a degree of saturation, delays, queue lengths, the level of service etc. are very sensitive to saturation flow. Therefore, it is essential to reliably evaluate saturation flow for correctly setting traffic signals to avoid unnecessary delays and conflicts. Generally, almost all guidelines support the constancy of saturation flow irrespective of green time duration. This paper presents the results of field studies carried out to enable the performance of signalised intersections to be compared at different green time durations. It was found that saturation flow decreased slightly with growing green time. Reduction corresponded to between 2 and 5 pcus/gh per second of green time. However, the analyses of the discharge rate during the successive time intervals of 6‐seconds showed a substantial reduction of 10% to 13% in saturation flow levels after 36 seconds of green time compared to those relating to 6–36 seconds range. No reduction in saturation flow levels was detected at the sites where only green periods of 44 seconds or less were implemented.
IFN-γ Regulates the Requirement for IL-17 in Proteoglycan-Induced Arthritis
Authors: Doodes Paul D. , Cao Yanxia , Hamel Keith M. , Wang Yumei , Rodeghero Rachel L. , Mikecz Katalin , Glant Tibor T. , Iwakura Yoichiro , Finnegan Alison
Published: December 2009

The contribution of the proinflammatory cytokines IFN-γ and IL-17 to the pathogenesis of experimental arthritis is controversial. In proteoglycan (PG)-induced arthritis (PGIA), severe arthritis is dependent on the production of IFN-γ, whereas IL-17 is dispensable. In collagen-induced arthritis and Ag-induced arthritis, although high levels of IFN-γ are secreted, disease is exacerbated in IFN-γ or IFN-γ receptor-deficient mice due to the ability of IFN-γ to suppress IL-17 expression. In the current study, we investigated the effect of IFN-γ on the IL-17 response and its consequences in PGIA. In PG-immunized IFN-γ−/− mice, despite reduction in arthritis, the PG-specific CD4+ T cell IL-17 response was significantly increased. Elevated IL-17 contributed to development of arthritis, as disease in IFN-γ/IL-17−/− was significantly reduced in comparison with either IFN-γ−/− or IL-17−/− mice. A contribution of IFN-γ and IL-17 to the development of arthritis was also identified in T-bet−/− mice. PG-specific CD4+ T cells from T-bet−/− mice produced reduced IFN-γ and elevated concentrations of IL-17. Both IFN-γ and IL-17 contribute to arthritis, as T-bet−/− mice lacking IL-17 (T-bet/IL-17−/−) were resistant, whereas wild-type, T-bet−/−, and IL-17−/− mice were susceptible to PGIA. T cell proliferation and autoantibody production did not correlate with development of disease; however, expression of cytokines and chemokines in joint tissues demonstrate that IFN-γ and IL-17 cooperatively contribute to inflammation. These results demonstrate that both IFN-γ and IL-17 have the potential to induce PGIA, but it is the strength of the IFN-γ response that regulates the contribution of each of these Th effector cytokines to disease.
Stroke Status Evoked Adhesion Molecule Genetic Alterations in Astrocytes Isolated from Stroke-Prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats and the Apigenin Inhibition of Their Expression
Authors: Yamagata Kazuo , Kitazawa Takuya , Shinoda Masahiro , Tagawa Chika , Chino Makoto , Matsufuji Hiroshi
Published: December 2009

We examined the possibility that the expression of adhesion molecules is regulated differently in cultured astrocytes from stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP/IZM) rats than in those from Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY/IZM) by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-) or hypoxia and reoxygenation (H/R) and the inhibitory effects of apigenin. It was found that the expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) by TNF- in astrocytes isolated from SHRSP/IZM was increased compared with that in WKY/IZM. The expression of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) mRNA induced by H/R in SHRSP/IZM astrocytes was increased compared with that in normal oxygen concentrations. Apigenin strongly attenuated TNF--induced VCAM-1 mRNA and protein expression and suppressed the adhesion of U937 cells and SHRSP/IZM astrocytes. These results suggest that the expression levels of adhesion molecules during H/R affect disease outcome and can drive SHRSP/IZM to stroke. It is suggested that apigenin regulates adhesion molecule expression in reactive astrocytes during ischemia.
A Radiographic Study on the Associations of Age and Prevalence of Vertebral Fractures with Abdominal Aortic Calcification in Japanese Postmenopausal Women and Men
Authors: Iwamoto Jun , Matsumoto Hideo , Takeda Tsuyoshi , Sato Yoshihiro , Uzawa Mitsuyoshi
Published: December 2009

The purpose of the present study was to determine the associations of age and history of non- and low-traumatic fractures with the severity of abdominal aortic calcification in Japanese postmenopausal women and men. Four hundred and one Japanese persons (24 men and 377 postmenopausal women, mean age: 73.8 years) for whom thoracic and lumbar spine radiographs had been obtained to evaluate their posture prior to patient participation in a fall-prevention exercise program were enrolled. The associations of sex, age, history of hip fracture, prevalence of vertebral fracture, and spondylosis grade (the Nathan degree) with the severity of abdominal aortic calcification (length of calcification, as evaluated according to the number of vertebral bodies) were analyzed. Nine subjects (2.2%) had a history of hip fracture, and 221 (55.1%) had at least one prevalent vertebral fracture. Two hundred and sixty-seven subjects (66.6%) had first-degree spondylosis. Age and the number of prevalent vertebral fractures, but not sex, history of hip fracture, or spondylosis grade, were significantly associated with the severity of abdominal aortic calcification. The present study confirmed that age and the number of vertebral fractures were associated with the severity of abdominal aortic calcification in Japanese postmenopausal women and men.
Occupational factors and risk of Parkinson's disease: A population‐based case–control study
Authors: Firestone Jordan A. , Lundin Jessica I. , Powers Karen M. , Smith‐Weller Terri , Franklin Gary M. , Swanson Phillip D. , Longstreth W.T. , Checkoway Harvey
Published: December 2009

Background

Parkinson's disease (PD) has been associated with various workplace factors, but the evidence is inconsistent.

Objective

To estimate the risk of PD associated with various jobs and workplace exposures.

Methods

We conducted a population‐based, case–control study of 404 incident PD cases and 526 age and sex‐matched controls, collecting self‐reported work histories including job titles and exposures to various industrial toxicants. Relative risks of PD from these exposures were estimated with odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using logistic regression.

Results

Risk was not significantly affected by farming work, by metal work, or by exposure to pesticides, metals, or solvents.

Conclusions

These findings do not provide support for the hypothesis that workplace factors affect the risk of PD. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:217–223, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Dietary folate and vitamin B6 are not associated with p53 mutations in esophageal adenocarcinoma
Authors: Balbuena Lloyd , Casson Alan G.
Published: December 2009

Recent studies have suggested an association between dietary folate, and related B‐vitamins, and risk for cancer, potentially mediated by the p53 tumor suppressor gene. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of dietary folate and vitamin B6 intake on p53 in the molecular pathogenesis of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EADC). For each participant, a structured questionnaire was used to obtain detailed sociodemographic and lifestyle risk factors, including diet, from which folate and vitamin B6 intake were calculated. Risks for p53 mutations, p53 mutations at CpG sites, and p53 protein overexpression among EADC cases (n = 54) were calculated using logistic regression with dietary folate and vitamin B6 intake as predictive variables, adjusting for age, gender, smoking, and alcohol consumption. No significant differences were found for patients with EADC who had p53 mutations (n = 21) compared with patients with wild‐type p53 (n = 33) with respect to selected clinicopathologic variables (age, gender, tumor grade, stage, alcohol, or tobacco consumption) and dietary intake of folate or vitamin B6. No statistically significant associations were seen between dietary folate and vitamin B6 intake (highest vs. lowest quartiles) and p53 mutations, p53 mutations at CpG sites (n = 12), and p53 protein overexpression (n = 17). We conclude that dietary intake of folate and vitamin B6 do not appear to have an effect on p53, suggesting alternative molecular mechanisms underlying esophageal adenocarcinogenesis. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A radiologic classification of talocalcaneal coalitions based on 3D reconstruction
Authors: Rozansky Alison , Varley Eric , Moor Molly , Wenger Dennis R. , Mubarak Scott J.
Published: December 2009

Purpose

Talocalcaneal coalitions can be difficult to detect on plain radiographs, despite obvious clinical findings. The purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to delineate the benefits of thin-cut computed tomography (CT) and 3D reconstructions and (2) to develop a classification scheme for talocalcaneal coalitions that will provide valuable information for surgical planning.

Methods

From 2005 to 2009, 54 feet (35 patients) with a talocalcaneal coalition were evaluated with thin-cut (1 mm) CT, using multi-planar 2D and 3D reconstructions. The talocalcaneal coalitions were classified into five types based on the cartilaginous or bony nature, location, and facet joint orientation.

Results

Bilateral coalitions were found in 22/35 patients. Types I and II were fibrocartilaginous coalitions, which was the most common type, comprising 40.7 and 16.7% of the coalitions, respectively. Of the patients, 14.8% had a shingled Type III coalition, while 11.1% of the feet examined had a complete bony coalition (Type IV). Small peripheral posterior bony coalitions (Type V), which are heretofore not described, were found in 16.7% of feet.

Conclusions

CT scans can provide valuable information regarding the bony or cartilaginous nature of coalitions, as well as the facet orientation, which is helpful in diagnosis and treatment. In this study, the 2D and 3D reconstructions revealed previously unreported peripheral posterior bony coalitions (Type V), as well as coalitions that are in the same plane as the standard CT cuts or Harris view radiographs (Type I). The CT scan also improved the crucial pre-operative planning of the resection in the more complex vertical and combined horizontal and vertical fibrocartilaginous coalitions (Type I and II). Additionally, the complete bony coalitions (Type IV) can be sized accurately, which is helpful in decision-making on the resectability of the coalition.
Reconstructing influenza incidence by deconvolution of daily mortality time series
Authors: Goldstein Edward , Dushoff Jonathan , Ma Junling , Plotkin Joshua B. , Earn David J. D. , Lipsitch Marc
Published: December 2009

We propose a mathematically straightforward method to infer the incidence curve of an epidemic from a recorded daily death curve and time-to-death distribution; the method is based on the Richardson–Lucy deconvolution scheme from optics. We apply the method to reconstruct the incidence curves for the 1918 influenza epidemic in Philadelphia and New York State. The incidence curves are then used to estimate epidemiological quantities, such as daily reproductive numbers and infectivity ratios. We found that during a brief period before the official control measures were implemented in Philadelphia, the drop in the daily number of new infections due to an average infector was much larger than expected from the depletion of susceptibles during that period; this finding was subjected to extensive sensitivity analysis. Combining this with recorded evidence about public behavior, we conclude that public awareness and change in behavior is likely to have had a major role in the slowdown of the epidemic even in a city whose response to the 1918 influenza epidemic is considered to have been among the worst in the U.S.
Aglycosylated IgG variants expressed in bacteria that selectively bind FcγRI potentiate tumor cell killing by monocyte-dendritic cells
Authors: Jung Sang Taek , Reddy Sai T. , Kang Tae Hyun , Borrok M. Jack , Sandlie Inger , Tucker Philip W. , Georgiou George
Published: December 2009

The N-linked glycan of immunoglobulin G (IgG) is indispensable for the interaction of the Fc domain with Fcγ receptors on effector cells and the clearance of target cells via antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC).Escherichia coliexpressed, aglycosylated Fc domains bind effector FcγRs poorly and cannot elicit ADCC. Using a novel bacterial display/flow cytometric library screening system we isolated Fc variants that bind to FcγRI (CD64) with nanomolar affinity. Binding was critically dependent on amino acid substitutions (E382V, and to a lesser extent, M428I) distal to the putative FcγRI binding epitope within the CH3 domain. These mutations did not adversely affect its pH-dependent interaction with FcRn in vitro nor its serum persistence in vivo. Remarkably, the anti-Her2 IgG trastuzumab containing the E382V, M428I substitutions and expressed inE. coliexhibited highly selective binding to FcγRI but not to the other activating receptors (FcγRIIa, FcγRIIIa) nor to the inhibitory receptor, FcγRIIb. In contrast, the glycosylated version of trastuzumab (E382V, M428I) purified from HEK293T cells bound to all Fcγ receptors in a manner similar to that of clinical grade trastuzumab.E. coli-purified trastuzumab (E382V, M428I), but not glycosylated trastuzumab (E382V, M428I) or clinical grade trastuzumab, was capable of potentiating the killing of Her2 overexpressing tumor cells with dendritic cells (DCs) as effectors. These results indicate that aglycosylated IgGs can be engineered to display unique FcγR selectivity profiles that, in turn, mediate ADCC via mechanisms that are not normally displayed by glycosylated monoclonal antibodies.
Controlling the enzymatic activity of a restriction enzyme by light
Authors: Schierling Benno , Noël Ann-Josée , Wende Wolfgang , Hien Le Thi , Volkov Eugeny , Kubareva Elena , Oretskaya Tatiana , Kokkinidis Michael , Römpp Andreas , Spengler Bernhard , Pingoud Alfred
Published: December 2009

For many applications it would be desirable to be able to control the activity of proteins by using an external signal. In the present study, we have explored the possibility of modulating the activity of a restriction enzyme with light. By cross-linking two suitably located cysteine residues with a bifunctional azobenzene derivative, which can adopt a
cis
- or
trans
-configuration when illuminated by UV or blue light, respectively, enzymatic activity can be controlled in a reversible manner. To determine which residues when cross-linked show the largest “photoswitch effect,” i.e., difference in activity when illuminated with UV vs. blue light, > 30 variants of a single-chain version of the restriction endonuclease PvuII were produced, modified with azobenzene, and tested for DNA cleavage activity. In general, introducing single cross-links in the enzyme leads to only small effects, whereas with multiple cross-links and additional mutations larger effects are observed. Some of the modified variants, which carry the cross-links close to the catalytic center, can be modulated in their DNA cleavage activity by a factor of up to 16 by illumination with UV (azobenzene in
cis
) and blue light (azobenzene in
trans
), respectively. The change in activity is achieved in seconds, is fully reversible, and, in the case analyzed, is due to a change in
V
max
rather than
K

m

.
Cytoskeleton-based forecasting of stem cell lineage fates
Authors: Treiser Matthew D. , Yang Eric H. , Gordonov Simon , Cohen Daniel M. , Androulakis Ioannis P. , Kohn Joachim , Chen Christopher S. , Moghe Prabhas V.
Published: December 2009

Stem cells that adopt distinct lineages cannot be distinguished based on traditional cell shape. This study reports that higher-order variations in cell shape and cytoskeletal organization that occur within hours of stimulation forecast the lineage commitment fates of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). The unique approach captures numerous early (24 h), quantitative features of actin fluororeporter shapes, intensities, textures, and spatial distributions (collectively termed morphometric descriptors). The large number of descriptors are reduced into “combinations” through which distinct subpopulations of cells featuring unique combinations are identified. We demonstrate that hMSCs cultured on fibronectin-treated glass substrates under environments permissive to bone lineage induction could be readily discerned within the first 24 h from those cultured in basal- or fat-inductive conditions by such cytoskeletal feature groupings. We extend the utility of this approach to forecast osteogenic stem cell lineage fates across a series of synthetic polymeric materials of diverse physicochemical properties. Within the first 24 h following stem cell seeding, we could successfully “profile” the substrate responsiveness prospectively in terms of the degree of bone versus nonbone predisposition. The morphometric methodology also provided insights into how substrates may modulate the pace of osteogenic lineage specification. Cells on glass substrates deficient in fibronectin showed a similar divergence of lineage fates, but delayed beyond 48 h. In summary, this high-content imaging and single cell modeling approach offers a framework to elucidate and manipulate determinants of stem cell behaviors, as well as to screen stem cell lineage modulating materials and environments.
Homocystamides promote free-radical and oxidative damage to proteins
Authors: Sibrian-Vazquez Martha , Escobedo Jorge O. , Lim Soojin , Samoei George K. , Strongin Robert M.
Published: December 2009

Elevated levels of homocysteine are associated with several major diseases. However, it is not clear whether homocysteine is a marker or a causative agent. The majority (
ca.
80%) of the homocysteine present in humans is protein bound. The study of the posttranslational modification of proteins by homocysteine and its cyclic congener, homocysteine thiolactone, is emerging as an area of great current interest for unraveling the ongoing “mediator/marker controversy” [Jacobsen DW (2009)
Clin Chem
55:1–2]. Interestingly, many of the pathologies associated with homocysteine are also linked to oxidative stress. In the current study, chemical evidence for a causal relationship between homocysteine-bound proteins and oxidative damage is presented. For example, a reproducible increase in protein carbonyl functionality occurs as a consequence of the reaction of human serum albumin with homocysteine thiolactone. This occurs at physiological temperature upon exposure to air without any added oxidants or free-radical initiators. Alpha-amino acid carbon-centered radicals, well-known precursors of protein carbonyls, are shown to form via a hydrogen atom transfer process involving thiolactone-derived homocystamides. Model peptides in buffer as well as native proteins in human blood plasma additionally exhibit properties in keeping with the homocystamide-facilitated hydrogen atom transfer and resultant carbon-centered radicals.
Disruption of TAK1 in hepatocytes causes hepatic injury, inflammation, fibrosis, and carcinogenesis
Authors: Inokuchi Sayaka , Aoyama Tomonori , Miura Kouichi , Österreicher Christoph H. , Kodama Yuzo , Miyai Katsumi , Akira Shizuo , Brenner David A. , Seki Ekihiro
Published: December 2009

TGF-β–activated kinase 1 (TAK1) is a MAP3K family member that activates NF-κB and JNK via Toll-like receptors and the receptors for IL-1, TNF-α, and TGF-β. Because the TAK1 downstream molecules NF-κB and JNK have opposite effects on cell death and carcinogenesis, the role of TAK1 in the liver is unpredictable. To address this issue, we generated hepatocyte-specific
Tak1
-deficient (
Tak1ΔHEP
) mice. The
Tak1ΔHEP
mice displayed spontaneous hepatocyte death, compensatory proliferation, inflammatory cell infiltration, and perisinusoidal fibrosis at age 1 month. Older
Tak1ΔHEP
mice developed multiple cancer nodules characterized by increased expression of fetal liver genes including α-fetoprotein. Cultures of primary hepatocytes deficient in
Tak1
exhibited spontaneous cell death that was further increased in response to TNF-α. TNF-α increased caspase-3 activity but activated neither NF-κB nor JNK in
Tak1
-deficient hepatocytes. Genetic abrogation of TNF receptor type I (TNFRI) in
Tak1ΔHEP
mice reduced liver damage, inflammation, and fibrosis compared with unmodified
Tak1ΔHEP
mice. In conclusion, hepatocyte-specific deletion of TAK1 in mice resulted in spontaneous hepatocyte death, inflammation, fibrosis, and carcinogenesis that was partially mediated by TNFR signaling, indicating that TAK1 is an essential component for cellular homeostasis in the liver.