bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Characterisation of lead free solderability of immersion Sn finish on PWBs using wetting balance technique
Authors: Hong S. J. , Park B-H. , Seo D. S. , Ryu C.-R.
Published: September 2008

Lead free solderability of pure Sn/Cu finish is investigated in terms of microetch process in printed wiring boards manufacturing. Factors affecting the solderability have been known as whisker, contamination, copper tin intermetallic compound, and the thickness of coating. Lead free solderability, in this paper, is correlated with the surface roughness of Cu film after the microetch process. Solderability is measured by wetting balance technique, and the result shows that the wetting force and the wetting time are negatively correlated with the coefficient of –0˙613. Employing statistical design of experiment, two significant factors, etching time and the mount of Piperidine, affecting the wetting force with respect to the surface roughness of Cu film are successfully identified, and response surface plot for the wetting force is also generated for visual an aid of interaction between the two parameters.
Fatigue limit of chemical heat treated specimens and effect of shot peening
Authors: Gao Y.-K.
Published: September 2008

The fatigue limits of smooth specimens in 40Cr, 30CrMo, 20CrMnTi and 20Cr steels after carbonitriding, carburising, nitriding and shot peening treatments were investigated quantitatively, and the compressive residual stress fields (CRSFs) were determined by X-ray diffraction technique with step by step electrolytic polishing. The experimental results indicate that the fatigue crack initiation sites (or fatigue crack sources) might be located in one of the following three regions: at the surface, within the hardened layer, and beneath the hardened layer, where the fatigue crack initiates depends on the surface strengthening technology and the residual stress distribution along surface layer. The highest fatigue limit will be obtained when the crack initiates beneath the hardened layer. A judgement that considers the crack initiation site for optimum condition of surface strengthening technique to evaluate the surface chemical heat treatments has been proposed. The strengthening technology can be considered to optimum if Z s> Z o ( Z o is the depth of compressive residual stress field and Z s is the distance of fatigue crack initiation site from surface); otherwise, the strengthening technology is not good and should be modified or a further shot peening may be needed while 0≤ Z s< Z o.
Measurement of fracture toughness and interfacial shear strength of hard and brittle Cr coating on ductile steel substrate
Authors: Yang B.-Q. , Zhang K. , Chen G.-N. , Luo G.-X. , Xiao J.-H.
Published: September 2008

The fracture toughness and interfacial adhesion properties of a coating on its substrate are considered to be crucial intrinsic parameters determining performance and reliability of coating-substrate system. In this work, the fracture toughness and interfacial shear strength of a hard and brittle Cr coating on a normal medium carbon steel substrate were investigated by means of a tensile test. The normal medium carbon steel substrate electroplated with a hard and brittle Cr coating was quasi-statically stretched to induce an array of parallel cracks in the coating. An optical microscope was used to observe the cracking of the coating and the interfacial decohesion between the coating and the substrate during the loading. It was found that the cracking of the coating initiated at critical strain, and then the number of the cracks of the coating per unit axial distance increased with the increase in the tensile strain. At another critical strain, the number of the cracks of the coating became saturated, i.e. the number of cracks per unit axial distance became a constant after this critical strain. Based on the experiment result, the fracture toughness of the brittle coating can be determined using a mechanical model. Interestingly, even when the whole specimen fractured completely under an extreme strain of the substrate, the interfacial decohesion or buckling of the coating on its substrate was completely absent. The test result is different from that appeared in the literature though the identical test method and the brittle coating/ductile metal substrate system are taken. It was found that this difference can be attributed to an important mechanism that the Cr coating on the steel substrate has a good adhesion, and the ultimate interfacial shear strength between the Cr coating and the steel substrate has exceeded the maximum shear flow strength level of the steel substrate. This result also indicates that the maximum shear flow strength level of the ductile steel substrate can be only taken as a lower bound estimate on the ultimate shear strength of the interface. This estimation of the ultimate interfacial shear strength is consistent with the theoretical analysis and prediction presented in the literature.
Micro-arc formation of ZrO2 ceramic coatings on AZ91D Mg alloy
Authors: Yao Z. P. , Cui R. H. , Jiang Z. H. , Wang F. P.
Published: September 2008

The aim of the work has been to prepare ceramic coatings containing the ZrO2 phase on a Mg alloy by micro-arc oxidation technique. The phase composition of the coatings was examined with X-ray diffraction. The surface morphology and the elemental distribution of the coatings were studied with scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The corrosion resistance of the coated samples was examined by the accelerated electrochemical method in 3˙5%NaCl solution. The coating was found to be composed of t-ZrO2 and a little c-ZrO2. There were many residual discharge channels in the coating surface, which made the elemental distribution and surface morphology uneven. The corrosion resistance of the coated samples was much better than that of the AZ91D substrate, from a pitting corrosion resistance and general corrosion resistance stand point.
Analytical TEM and SEM characterisation of aluminide coatings on nickel based superalloy CMSX-4
Authors: Dubiel B. , Moskalewicz T. , Swadzba L. , Czyrska-Filemonowicz A.
Published: September 2008

Aluminide coatings are applied on gas turbine components to improve oxidation and corrosion resistance or as bond coats for thermal barrier coatings (TBC). In the present study, coatings produced on a CMSX-4 superalloy by pack gas phase aluminising and subsequently annealed at 1050°C for 2 h were investigated. Microstructure, morphology and phase composition of the coating were characterised using light microscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigations of the 39 µm thick coating revealed a complex multilayered microstructure produced by diffusion at 1050°C at the surface of CMSX-4 alloy. Detailed TEM phase analysis was performed on cross-section thin foils by electron diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). The outer zone (1) consisted of β-NiAl phase. The interdifusion zone (2) contained two sublayers consisting of a Ni5Al3 matrix with precipitates of topologically close packed phases, most probably σ and µ. Close to the surface of the CMSX-4 superalloy, a further zone (3) consisting of γ+ γ′ with large precipitates (possibly µ and P phases) was observed.
Characterisation of HVOF sprayed NiCrAlY–0˙4 wt-%CeO2 coatings on superalloys
Authors: Mahesh R. A. , Jayaganthan R. , Prakash S.
Published: September 2008

In the present work, metallurgical and mechanical properties of high velocity oxy fuel thermal sprayed NiCrAlY–0˙4 wt-%CeO2 coatings on Ni and Fe based superalloys have been investigated. The microstructural morphologies, composition, and phases of the coatings were characterised using the techniques such as optical microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy /energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The mechanical properties of coatings such as microhardness and adhesion strength were measured. The coatings exhibited characteristic splat like, layered morphologies due to the deposition and resolidification of successive molten or semimolten powder particles. The coatings contained less than 1˙4% porosity and showed the measured hardness values in the range of 649–753 HV. Average bond strength of the coating was found to be 45 MPa. The observed higher values of microhardness of the coated samples might be attributed to the addition of small amount of rare earth oxide CeO2 in the coatings.
Mechanical properties and microstructure of WC–10Co–4Cr and WC–12Co thermal spray coatings deposited by HVOF
Authors: Santana Y. Y. , Barbera-Sosa La J. G. , Caro J. , Puchi-Cabrera E. S. , Staia M. H.
Published: September 2008

The present investigation has been conducted in order to determine the microstructural features, hardness and elastic modulus of two different WC–Co and WC–Co–Cr high velocity oxy fuel sprayed coatings. Particular emphasis has been given to the evaluation of the elastic modulus on the surface and cross-section of both coatings, employing three different indenters and the influence of the applied load on such property. For this purpose, both conventional and instrumented indentation tests were carried out on the surface and cross-section of the coatings. The elastic modulus was computed by means of the Oliver and Pharr method (1992; 2004) and compared with the values determined by means of the Marshall et al. method (1982). The values of the elastic modulus found both on the surface and on the cross-section of the samples were ∼250 GPa, which indicates a quasi-isotropic behaviour due to the uniform and dense microstructure observed along both directions.
Protection from graft-versus-host disease with a novel B7 binding site–specific mouse anti–mouse CD28 monoclonal antibody
Authors: Beyersdorf Niklas , Ding Xin , Blank Gregor , Dennehy Kevin M. , Kerkau Thomas , Hünig Thomas
Published: September 2008

We studied the role of CD28 in T-cell biology and T cell–mediated pathology using a novel mouse anti–mouse CD28 antibody, E18, which recognizes an epitope close to the B7 binding site. In vitro, this antibody completely blocked binding of B7 molecules to CD28 expressed on mouse thymocytes but enhanced anti-CD3–induced proliferation of peripheral T cells. Injections of E18 monoclonal antibody into normal BALB/c mice in vivo, however, led to a reversible reduction in Treg cell frequencies among CD4+ cells, both in the thymus and in secondary lymphoid organs, suggesting that E18 acted as an inhibitor of CD28 signaling under these conditions. Antagonistic activity of E18 in vivo was further implied by suppressed responses of conventional CD4+ T cells to stimulation with the superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin B and in a model of acute graft-versus-host disease. In contrast to healthy mice, intact monoclonal antibody E18, but not its nonstimulatory Fab fragment, increased the frequencies of Treg cells among CD4+ T cells in these pro-inflammatory settings allowing for efficacious protection from acute graft-versus-host disease. Thus, the agonistic signal generated by conventional, ie, nonsuperagonistic, anti-CD28 antibodies is important for their immunotherapeutic potential in vivo.
Association between H-RAST81C genetic polymorphism and gastrointestinal cancer risk: A population based case-control study in China
Authors: Zhang Yongjing , Jin Mingjuan , Liu Bing , Ma Xinyuan , Yao Kaiyan , Li Qilong , Chen Kun
Published: September 2008

Background

Gastrointestinal cancer, such as gastric, colon and rectal cancer, is a major medical and economic burden worldwide. However, the exact mechanism of gastrointestinal cancer development still remains unclear. RAS genes have been elucidated as major participants in the development and progression of a series of human tumours and the single nucleotide polymorphism at H-RAS cDNA position 81 was demonstrated to contribute to the risks of bladder, oral and thyroid carcinoma. Therefore, we hypothesized that this polymorphisms in H-RAS could influence susceptibility to gastrointestinal cancer as well, and we conducted this study to test the hypothesis in Chinese population.

Methods

A population based case-control study, including 296 cases with gastrointestinal cancer and 448 healthy controls selected from a Chinese population was conducted. H-RAS T81C polymorphism was genotyped by Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay.

Results

In the healthy controls, the TT, TC and CC genotypes frequencies of H-RAS T81C polymorphism, were 79.24%, 19.87% and 0.89%, respectively, and the C allele frequency was 10.83%. Compared with TT genotype, the TC genotype was significantly associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer (adjusted OR = 3.67, 95%CI = 2.21–6.08), while the CC genotype showed an increased risk as well (adjusted OR = 3.29, 95%CI = 0.54–19.86), but it was not statistically significant. In contrast, the frequency of TC genotype was not significantly increased in colon cancer and rectal cancer patients. Further analysis was performed by combining TC and CC genotypes compared against TT genotype. As a result, a statistically significant risk with adjusted OR of 3.65 (95%CI, 2.22–6.00) was found in gastric cancer, while no significant association of H-RAS T81C polymorphism with colon cancer and rectal cancer was observed.

Conclusion

These findings indicate, for the first time, that there is an H-RAS T81C polymorphism existing in Chinese population, and this SNP might be a low penetrance gene predisposition factor for gastric cancer.
The importance of rectal cancer MRI protocols on iInterpretation accuracy
Authors: Suzuki Chikako , Torkzad Michael R , Tanaka Soichi , Palmer Gabriella , Lindholm Johan , Holm Torbjörn , Blomqvist Lennart
Published: September 2008

Background

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used for preoperative local staging in patients with rectal cancer. Our aim was to retrospectively study the effects of the imaging protocol on the staging accuracy.

Patients and methods

MR-examinations of 37 patients with locally advanced disease were divided into two groups; compliant and noncompliant, based on the imaging protocol, without knowledge of the histopathological results. A compliant rectal cancer imaging protocol was defined as including T2-weighted imaging in the sagittal and axial planes with supplementary coronal in low rectal tumors, alongside a high-resolution plane perpendicular to the rectum at the level of the primary tumor. Protocols not complying with these criteria were defined as noncompliant. Histopathological results were used as gold standard.

Results

Compliant rectal imaging protocols showed significantly better correlation with histopathological results regarding assessment of anterior organ involvement (sensitivity and specificity rates in compliant group were 86% and 94%, respectively vs. 50% and 33% in the noncompliant group). Compliant imaging protocols also used statistically significantly smaller voxel sizes and fewer number of MR sequences than the noncompliant protocols

Conclusion

Appropriate MR imaging protocols enable more accurate local staging of locally advanced rectal tumors with less number of sequences and without intravenous gadolinium contrast agents.
Alpha-CaMKII deficiency causes immature dentate gyrus, a novel candidate endophenotype of psychiatric disorders
Authors: Yamasaki Nobuyuki , Maekawa Motoko , Kobayashi Katsunori , Kajii Yasushi , Maeda Jun , Soma Miho , Takao Keizo , Tanda Koichi , Ohira Koji , Toyama Keiko , Kanzaki Kouji , Fukunaga Kohji , Sudo Yusuke , Ichinose Hiroshi , Ikeda Masashi , Iwata Nakao , Ozaki Norio , Suzuki Hidenori , Higuchi Makoto , Suhara Tetsuya , Yuasa Shigeki , Miyakawa Tsuyoshi
Published: September 2008

Elucidating the neural and genetic factors underlying psychiatric illness is hampered by current methods of clinical diagnosis. The identification and investigation of clinical endophenotypes may be one solution, but represents a considerable challenge in human subjects. Here we report that mice heterozygous for a null mutation of the alpha-isoform of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (alpha-CaMKII+/-) have profoundly dysregulated behaviours and impaired neuronal development in the dentate gyrus (DG). The behavioral abnormalities include a severe working memory deficit and an exaggerated infradian rhythm, which are similar to symptoms seen in schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder and other psychiatric disorders. Transcriptome analysis of the hippocampus of these mutants revealed that the expression levels of more than 2000 genes were significantly changed. Strikingly, among the 20 most downregulated genes, 5 had highly selective expression in the DG. Whereas BrdU incorporated cells in the mutant mouse DG was increased by more than 50 percent, the number of mature neurons in the DG was dramatically decreased. Morphological and physiological features of the DG neurons in the mutants were strikingly similar to those of immature DG neurons in normal rodents. Moreover, c-Fos expression in the DG after electric footshock was almost completely and selectively abolished in the mutants. Statistical clustering of human post-mortem brains using 10 genes differentially-expressed in the mutant mice were used to classify individuals into two clusters, one of which contained 16 of 18 schizophrenic patients. Nearly half of the differentially-expressed probes in the schizophrenia-enriched cluster encoded genes that are involved in neurogenesis or in neuronal migration/maturation, including calbindin, a marker for mature DG neurons. Based on these results, we propose that an "immature DG" in adulthood might induce alterations in behavior and serve as a promising candidate endophenotype of schizophrenia and other human psychiatric disorders.
Characterization, Expression, and Functional Activity of Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide and Its Receptors in Human Granulosa-Luteal Cells
Authors: Morelli Maria Beatrice , Barberi Marzia , Gambardella Alessia , Borini Andrea , Cecconi Sandra , Coticchio Giovanni , Canipari Rita
Published: September 2008

Context: Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) are found in the ovary of mammalian species, although nothing is known about the possible role of PACAP and VIP in the human ovary.

Objective: We investigated the expression of PACAP and PACAP/VIP receptors in human granulosa-luteal (GL) cells obtained from consenting in vitro fertilization patients attending a private fertility clinic and assessed a possible antiapoptotic effect of these molecules.

Main Outcome Measures: We measured the expression of PACAP and PACAP/VIP receptor mRNAs in GL cells in response to FSH or LH, as well as the effects of PACAP and VIP on apoptosis. We also evaluated the levels of procaspase-3 in GL cells cultured in the absence of serum.

Results: After 7 d in culture, GL cells displayed increased responsiveness to FSH and LH (100 ng/ml). FSH and LH promoted PACAP expression, LH doing so in a time-dependent fashion. VIP receptor (VPAC1-R and VPAC2-R) mRNAs were also induced by gonadotropin stimulation. Although PACAP receptor (PAC1-R) mRNA was barely detectable, Western blot analysis revealed its presence. The apoptotic effect of serum withdrawal from the culture environment was reverted by both PACAP and VIP. Both peptides showed the ability to reverse a decrease in procaspase-3 levels induced by culture in the absence of serum.

Conclusions: PACAP and VIP appear to play a role in maintenance of follicle viability as a consequence of the antiapoptotic effect. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the respective roles of PACAP and VIP in ovarian physiology and to identify their mechanism of action.
Effects of Continuous Versus Intermittent Exercise, Obesity, and Gender on Growth Hormone Secretion
Authors: Weltman Arthur , Weltman Judy Y. , Watson Winfield Dee Dee , Frick Kirsten , Patrie James , Kok Petra , Keenan Daniel M. , Gaesser Glenn A. , Veldhuis Johannes D.
Published: September 2008

Context: Obesity attenuates spontaneous GH secretion and the GH response to exercise. Obese individuals often have low fitness levels, limiting their ability to complete a typical 30-min bout of continuous exercise. An alternative regimen in obese subjects may be shorter bouts of exercise interspersed throughout the day.

Objective: The objective of the study was to examine whether intermittent and continuous exercise interventions evoke similar patterns of 24-h GH secretion and whether responses are attenuated in obese subjects or affected by gender.

Design: This was a repeated-measures design in which each subject served as their own control.

Setting: This study was conducted at the University of Virginia General Clinical Research Center.

Subjects: Subjects were healthy nonobese (n = 15) and obese (n = 14) young adults.

Interventions: Subjects were studied over 24 h at the General Clinical Research Center on three occasions: control, one 30-min bout of exercise, and three 10-min bouts of exercise.

Main Outcome Measures: Twenty-four hour GH secretion was measured.

Results: Compared with unstimulated 24-h GH secretion, both intermittent and continuous exercise, at constant exercise intensity, resulted in severalfold elevation of 24-h integrated serum GH concentrations in young adults. Basal and pulsatile modes of GH secretion were attenuated both at rest and during exercise in obese subjects.

Conclusions: The present data suggest that continuous and intermittent exercise training should be comparably effective in increasing 24-h GH secretion.
Longitudinal Analysis of the Insulin-Like Growth Factor System in African-American and European American Children and Adolescents
Authors: Casazza Krista , Higgins Paul B. , Fernández José R. , Goran Michael I. , Gower Barbara A.
Published: September 2008

Context: IGF-I and its binding proteins influence growth, development, and disease risk. Studies have revealed ethnic variations in the IGF system.

Objective: This longitudinal study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that the ethnic differences in the IGF system exist throughout the pubertal transition, and these differences are mediated at least in part by inherent differences in insulin dynamics.

Design: This was a longitudinal study. Annual evaluations were conducted for pubertal maturation, body composition, acute insulin response to glucose (AIRg), and reproductive-endocrine profile. Hormones and binding proteins were determined using standard assays, the AIRg during a frequently sampled iv glucose tolerance test, and body composition by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Mixed model analyses were used to identify and characterize ethnic differences in the IGF system across the pubertal transition after adjusting for ethnicity, sex, age, maturation status, body composition, and reproductive hormones, and to identify the contribution of insulin to IGF binding protein (IGFBP)-1.

Participants: Subjects included African-American (AA) and European American children (n = 162 at baseline) aged 7–16 yr, evaluated across the pubertal transition.

Main Outcome Measures: Annual data on IGF-I, IGFBP-1, and IGFBP-3 were examined.

Results: IGF-I was higher in AA children at pubertal stage 1 only (P < 0.001). However, IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-1 concentrations were lower in AAs through much of puberty (P < 0.05). The lower IGFBP-1 of AAs was in part explained by greater AIRg.

Conclusions: Our data suggest that the higher IGF-I and lower IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-3 levels in AAs as compared with European Americans during puberty suggest potential ethnic differences in circulating bioavailable IGF-I. In addition, higher AIRg in AAs may lead to greater bioavailable IGF-I. Whether these differences in the IGF system account for disparities in disease risk warrants further investigation.
Plasma Lecithin: Cholesterol Acyltransferase Activity Is Elevated in Metabolic Syndrome and Is an Independent Marker of Increased Carotid Artery Intima Media Thickness
Authors: Dullaart Robin P. F. , Perton Frank , Sluiter Wim J. , de Vries Rindert , van Tol Arie
Published: September 2008

Context: Lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), which esterifies free cholesterol to cholesteryl esters, is required for normal plasma lipoprotein structure and is instrumental in high density lipoprotein (HDL) remodeling, but the relationship of variation in plasma LCAT activity with subclinical atherosclerosis is unclear.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the effect of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) on plasma LCAT activity and its relationship with carotid artery intima media thickness (IMT).

Setting: The study was conducted at the vascular laboratory of a university medical center.

Methods: In 74 subjects with MetS and 90 subjects without MetS (National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria), mean carotid artery IMT, plasma lipids, LCAT activity (exogenous substrate method), high-sensitive C-reactive protein, and homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance (HOMAir) were documented.

Results: IMT was greater (P = 0.01) and plasma LCAT activity was higher (P < 0.001) in subjects with MetS compared to subjects without MetS. Similar increases in IMT and LCAT were found in MetS subjects without type 2 diabetes mellitus. Multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that plasma LCAT activity was independently and positively related to HOMAir, plasma triglycerides, non-HDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol (all P < 0.001). After adjustment for age and sex, IMT was positively associated with LCAT activity (P < 0.01), independently of the presence of MetS (or alternatively of plasma lipids), HOMAir, and high-sensitive C-reactive protein.

Conclusions: Plasma LCAT activity is elevated in MetS and may be a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. Our findings do not support the contention that strategies to elevate LCAT are necessarily beneficial for cardioprotection.
The Genetics of Type 2 Diabetes: A Realistic Appraisal in 2008
Authors: Florez Jose C.
Published: September 2008

Context: Over the last few months, genome-wide association studies have contributed significantly to our understanding of the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes. If and how this information will impact clinical practice is not yet clear.

Evidence Acquisition: Primary papers reporting genome-wide association studies in type 2 diabetes or establishing a reproducible association for specific candidate genes were compiled. Further information was obtained from background articles, authoritative reviews, and relevant meeting conferences and abstracts.

Evidence Synthesis: As many as 17 genetic loci have been convincingly associated with type 2 diabetes; 14 of these were not previously known, and most of them were unsuspected. The associated polymorphisms are common in populations of European descent but have modest effects on risk. These loci highlight new areas for biological exploration and allow the initiation of experiments designed to develop prediction models and test possible pharmacogenetic and other applications.

Conclusions: Although substantial progress in our knowledge of the genetic basis of type 2 diabetes is taking place, these new discoveries represent but a small proportion of the genetic variation underlying the susceptibility to this disorder. Major work is still required to identify the causal variants, test their role in disease prediction and ascertain their therapeutic implications.
SAME-SEX MIGRATION IN AUSTRALIA
Authors: Yue Audrey
Published: September 2008

In 1985 Australia became one of the first countries in the world to accept same-sex relationships as the basis of migration. Under the compassionate and humanitarian visa category, same-sex applications were assessed through ministerial discretion. In 1991 the “interdependency” category was introduced to recognize nonfamilial migration. Same-sex migration has been hailed as reflecting Australia's progressive sexual law reform and modernizing Australia's immigration history. Since 1991, more than 7,500 permits have been issued. Between 1991 and 2005, gay Asian migrants made up the largest group of interdependency settlers. This article analyzes the development of same-sex migration policy to show how official immigration policy discourses have transformed their visa codifications from humanitarian in 1980, to interdependency in 1991, and family stream same-sex interdependency in 2000. These categories mobilize different politics of intimacy to assimilate the queer migrant into the logics of transnational capital and new nationalism. Thus interracial gay Asian Australian migration functions as a buffer and tension between the nation and its others, government and people, policy and politics.
BETWEEN GULAGS AND PRIDE PARADES
Authors: Kuntsman Adi
Published: September 2008

Informed by feminist and queer scholarship debates on sexuality, migration, and the nation, this article examines the role of violence—in particular, homophobic hate speech—in negotiating immigrant belonging through sexuality. The article is based on my ethnographic study of Russian-speaking queers who arrived in Israel from the former Soviet Union. My discussion starts from one ethnographic moment—a homophobic poem published in 2002 in a leading Russian Israeli newspaper. The poem condemned the 2002 Pride parade as blasphemous and blamed the marchers for endangering the Jewish nation, which was depicted as fighting for survival. The poem's offensive language was haunted by ghosts of a violent Soviet past, evoked through Soviet criminal jargon and intertextual references to gulag memoirs where same-sex relations were described as disgusting and monstrous. Following Judith Butler's notion of performativity, I approach homophobic hate speech as a form of performative violence that constitutes, rather than simply expresses or devastates, individual and collective subjectivities of “queers,” “Russian immigrants,” “Jews,” and “Israelis.” Yet I also complicate the performative take by engaging with Avery Gordon's notion of haunting. Understanding haunting and its effects, I argue, is essential when reading immigrants' acts of claiming the nation through rejecting or embracing queer sexualities. Exploring how the ghosts of the Soviet gulags do not simply migrate through time and space but also change and meddle with the realities of today's Israel, this article conceptualizes hate speech as a form of affective sociality.
SEXUALITY, MIGRATION, AND THE SHIFTING LINE BETWEEN LEGAL AND ILLEGAL STATUS
Authors: Luibhéid Eithne
Published: September 2008

Focusing on the U.S. campaign to secure recognition of same-sex couple relationships within immigration law, this article brings the scholarship about the social construction of undocumented immigration into critical conversation with queer studies. Challenging neoliberal representations of legal or illegal immigrant status as a sign of individual character, rather than as an outcome of multiple relations of power, the article highlights the central role of sexual regimes in constructing the distinction between legal and illegal. The article further explores, however, how sexual regimes always function in relation to crosscutting hierarchies of race, gender, class, and geopolitics. This suggests that the campaign for recognition of same-sex couples must address the multiple underpinnings of the il/legal distinction or else risk benefiting only the most privileged. The article then examines how recognized couple relationships provide the technology through which the state and its assemblages attempt to manage the risks associated with immigration and, over time, to transform legally admitted immigrants into “good” neoliberal citizens—while threatening those who do not measure up with potential illegalization. These dynamics raise important questions about citizenship, surveillance, discipline, and normalization that merit consideration by those struggling for recognition of same-sex couples within immigration law. They also enable us to further reconceptualize the legal/illegal distinction as an ongoing (rather than one-time) production, anchored in multiple relations of power that include, but are not limited to, sexuality. I conclude by questioning whether and to what extent sexuality may provide a locus for renegotiating the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants and its associated logics of violence.
THE HAUNTING OF GAY MANILA
Authors: Benedicto Bobby
Published: September 2008

This article aims to contribute to conceptual discussions about how postcolonial queer subjects negotiate the borders between putatively “local” queer subject formations and increasingly global sexual categories. It reexamines the tension-ridden nexus between “gay” and the Filipino bakla, arguing that the complex encounters between such formations are conditioned by emplaced class and gender hierarchies that stem from both colonial history and a neoliberal cultural context. I argue that in contrast to Filipino gay men in the diaspora who recuperate the practices of the bakla to negotiate displacement, middle- and upper-class gay men in the homeland (specifically Manila) offer an inverted picture of global-local relations, since the absence of a shared diasporic experience of displacement, (racialized) exclusion, and downward mobility also operates as the absence of any impetus to recover kabaklaan (bakla-ness) from its subordinated position within local exclusionary systems. Drawing from popular themes that thread through the virtual, physical, and print spaces that have emerged as part of Manila's post-2000 gay scene, the article foregrounds notions of complicity, particularly in terms of how the “newness” of the gay scene is made visible through the violent rewriting of kabaklaan as a temporal anomaly. Affective understandings of global space-time, underpinned by dreams of mobility and imaginative planetary geographies, are here depicted as unstable introjected trajectories haunted by the spectral presence of kabaklaan in the “now” of gay Manila and by the need to continuously exorcise such apparitions.
QUEER CARIBBEAN HOMECOMINGS
Authors: Horn Maja
Published: September 2008

This essay explores the joint multimedia exhibits presented in the Dominican Republic by the artistic collaborators Nelson Ricart-Guerrero, a Dominican now living in Paris, and his French partner, Christian Vauzelle, and the questions that Ricart-Guerrero's artistic return raises about what queer migrants might bring back home. I suggest that these repeated artistic homecomings trouble prevalent perceptions of migration as a movement from repression to freedom for queer migrants, perceptions that render such a return to the supposedly more “repressive” Dominican Republic undesirable. I furthermore discuss how this artistic homecoming problematizes the critical tendency to describe queer Caribbean subjects as “unhomely”—inherently at odds with and in a permanent literal or imaginary exile from the nation.
ALL THAT GLITTERS
Authors: Sears Clare
Published: September 2008

This article explores the multilayered relationship between cross-gender phenomena and migration politics in gold rush California. It addresses two main questions. First, how did the predominantly male, multinational gold rush migrations impact gender relations in California, specifically the documented cross-gender practices among Euro-American migrants? Second, how did these cross-gender practices dovetail with anti-immigrant politics, specifically the racializing, feminizing discourses that targeted Chinese residents for exclusion from the nation? In exploring these questions, this article expands the analytic framework used to queer migration studies, by proposing an approach for trans-ing histories that incorporates insights from transgender studies.
TRANSPORTATION
Authors: Fajardo Kale Bantigue
Published: September 2008

Based on ethnographic fieldwork with Filipino seamen in metro Manila (Philippines), the San Francisco Bay Area (California), and the Pacific Ocean, this essay examines how heterogeneous Filipino masculinities (heterosexual and transgender tomboy) are cocreated and coexperienced in local and global sites. Through a queer, immigrant, transgender, and transnational Filipino (American) cultural logics and critique this essay foregrounds encounters with and translations of differently situated Filipino masculinities in ports and at sea, suggesting how specific embodied practices of mobility and movement—sea-based transportation, migration, and travel—are constitutive of racialized and classed Filipino masculinities.
“THE Viper's Traffic-Knot”
Authors: Kahan Benjamin
Published: September 2008

This essay charts a history and theory of celibacy. Redressing the scholarly and popular tendency to read celibacy as “closeted” homosexuality, I disarticulate the history of celibacy from the history of homosexuality. Despite Michel Foucault's much-recited lesson that “there is not one but many silences,” queer theory continues to read celibacy as the sign of another practice: homosexuality as “the love that dare not speak its name” or the “impossibility” of lesbian sex. Mapping celibacy across sexuality studies' major conceptual grids (homo/hetero, acts/identities, fantasy/practice, friendship/homosexuality), this essay attempts to articulate an affirmative content for celibacy. Reading Marianne Moore's last single volume of original work, Tell Me, Tell Me (1966), and Elizabeth Bishop's memoir of Moore, “Efforts of Affection” (1979), I elaborate a definition of celibate temporality in relation to recent work on queer temporality. Under both these rubrics, time is an ideological force that regulates sex: for example, the “old maid” is “late” according to a trajectory of normal sexual maturation that must pass through marriage. Moore's Tell Me, Tell Me offers a depathologized temporal model of celibacy by unfolding a life narrative that does not punish the “old maid” for being developmentally “late.” Celibacy is usually understood as pure potential: its future is unwritten, unacted on, leaving open the threatening possibility that celibacy can take on any sexual character. Rather than see the celibate as desiring something lacking or as embodying a disjunction between desire and practice, Moore's volume posits a coextensive desire and practice, suggesting a theory of celibate desire.
The Selfish-Enough Father
Authors: Shonkwiler Alison
Published: September 2008

This essay analyzes the affect of entitlement in two memoirs by gay men about their experiences as adoptive parents. Although to lay claim to the role of the “selfish father” can be seen in these texts as a way to resist the presumptive privileges of motherhood, it is ultimately presented as a positive new construction of fatherhood, a way to reclaim paternity on new emotional and social terms. This development represents a shift in the dynamics of gay assimilation: by drawing on the discourses of competitive individualism, these narratives reveal the complex politics of gay familialism within the larger production of the American family in neoliberal terms. Arguing that the performance of “homonormativity” makes visible the dynamics of assimilation and material self-formation that are at work in all forms of advanced capitalist parenthood, the essay demonstrates how analyzing the more general contemporary organization of the family as a heteronormative economic unit enables us to understand the ongoing movement of gay politics into the private sphere.
Queer Lineations
Authors: Grossman Jay
Published: September 2008

At the December 2006 MLA convention, the Division on Gay Studies in Language and Literature organized a session titled “Queer Lineations: Robert K. Martin and Gay Literary Studies” to recognize the scholarly inventiveness and political commitment of one of the pioneers in LGBTQ studies. The three papers reprinted here—by Judith Scherer Herz of Concordia University, Eric Savoy of the University of Montreal, and Christopher Nealon of the University of California at Berkeley—sound the depths of Martin's scholarship in the context of the continued unfolding of LGBTQ studies. Martin's work includes his pathbreaking study, The Homosexual Tradition in American Poetry (1979), and influential writings on American, British, and Canadian authors, artists, and theorists, including E. M. Forster, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and many others.
The voltage-gated Na+ channel Nav1.8 contains an ER-retention/retrieval signal antagonized by the β3 subunit
Authors: Zhang Zhen-Ning , Li Qian , Liu Chao , Wang Hai-Bo , Wang Qiong , Bao Lan
Published: September 2008

Voltage-gated Na+ channel (Nav) 1.8 contributes to the majority of the Na+ current that underlies the depolarizing phase of action potentials. Nav1.8 is mainly distributed intracellularly and its current amplitude can be enhanced by the β3 subunit. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying its intracellular retention and the effects mediated by the β3 subunit. Here, we show that the β3 subunit promotes surface expression of Nav1.8 by masking its endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-retention/retrieval signal. The RRR motif in the first intracellular loop of Nav1.8 is responsible for retaining Nav1.8 in the ER and restricting its surface expression. The β3 subunit facilitates surface expression of Nav1.8. The intracellular C-terminus of the β3 subunit interacts with the first intracellular loop of Nav1.8 and masks the ER-retention/retrieval signal. Mutation of the RRR motif results in a significant increase in surface expression of Nav1.8 and abolishes the β3-subunit-mediated effects. Thus, the β3 subunit regulates surface expression of Nav1.8 by antagonizing its ER-retention/retrieval signal. These results reveal a novel mechanism for the effect of the Na+ channel β subunits on the α subunits.
ATP-induced P2X7-associated uptake of large molecules involves distinct mechanisms for cations and anions in macrophages
Authors: Schachter Julieta , Motta Andressa Piedade , de Souza Zamorano Aliane , da Silva-Souza Hercules Antônio , Guimarães Marilia Zaluar P. , Persechini Pedro Muanis
Published: September 2008

Macrophages express the P2X7 receptor and other nucleotide (P2) receptors, and display the phenomenon of extracellular ATP (ATPe)-induced P2X7-dependent membrane permeabilization, which occurs through a poorly understood mechanism. We used patch-clamp recordings, cytoplasmic Ca2+ measurements and fluorescent dye uptake assays to compare P2X7-associated transport phenomena of macrophages and HEK-293 cells transfected with P2X7 receptors (HEK-P2X7 cells). Both cell types showed inward currents, increase of free cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration and the uptake of cationic dyes upon exposure to ATPe, as previously described. However, in contrast to the macrophages, HEK-P2X7 cells did not take up anionic dyes and did not display the 440 pS channels (Z pores) under cell-attached patch-clamping conditions. In addition, the transport mechanism of anionic dyes displayed by macrophages was also able to support dye efflux and, once activated at 37°C, it remained active at 4°C, whereas uptake of cationic dyes was temperature-dependent and unidirectional. Our results indicate that the mechanism of ATPe-induced dye uptake, usually called a `permeabilization phenomenon' and associated with a `permeabilization pore' can be ascribed to at least two distinct mechanisms in macrophages: a diffusional pathway, possibly associated with the 440 pS Z pores, and a cation uptake mechanism that is not diffusional and should be ascribed to an, as yet, unidentified transport mechanism.
DEN1 deneddylates non-cullin proteins in vivo
Authors: Chan Yaru , Yoon Jeongsook , Wu June-Tai , Kim Hyung-Jun , Pan Kuan-Ting , Yim Jeongbin , Chien Cheng-Ting
Published: September 2008

The ubiquitin-like protein Nedd8/Rub1 covalently modifies and activates cullin ubiquitin ligases. However, the repertoire of Nedd8-modified proteins and the regulation of protein neddylation status are not clear. The cysteine protease DEN1/NEDP1 specifically processes the Nedd8 precursor and has been suggested to deconjugate Nedd8 from cullin proteins. By characterizing the Drosophila DEN1 protein and DEN1 null (DEN1null) mutants, we provide in vitro and in vivo evidence that DEN1, in addition to processing Nedd8, deneddylates many cellular proteins. Although purified DEN1 protein efficiently deneddylates the Nedd8-conjugated cullin proteins Cul1 and Cul3, neddylated Cul1 and Cul3 protein levels are not enhanced in DEN1null. Strikingly, many cellular proteins are highly neddylated in DEN1 mutants and are deneddylated by purified DEN1 protein. DEN1 deneddylation activity is distinct from that of the cullin-deneddylating CSN. Genetic analyses indicate that a balance between neddylation and deneddylation maintained by DEN1 is crucial for animal viability.
Analysis of WASp function during the wound inflammatory response – live-imaging studies in zebrafish larvae
Authors: Cvejic Ana , Hall Chris , Bak-Maier Magdalena , Flores Maria Vega , Crosier Phil , Redd Michael J. , Martin Paul
Published: September 2008

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASp) is haematopoietically restricted, and is the causative protein underlying a severe human disorder that can lead to death due to immunodeficiency and haemorrhaging. Much is known about the biochemistry of WASp and the migratory capacity of WASp-defective cells in vitro, but in vivo studies of immune-cell behaviour are more challenging. Using the translucency of zebrafish larvae, we live-imaged the effects of morpholino knockdown of WASp1 (also known as Was) on leukocyte migration in response to a wound. In embryos at 22 hours post-fertilisation, primitive macrophages were impaired in their migration towards laser wounds. Once a circulatory system had developed, at 3 days post-fertilisation, we observed significantly reduced recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages to ventral fin wounds. Cell-tracking studies indicated that fewer leukocytes leave the vessels adjacent to a wound and those that do exhibit impaired navigational capacity. Their cell morphology appears unaltered but their choice of leading-edge pseudopodia is more frequently incorrect, leading to impaired chemotaxis. We also identified two zebrafish mutants in WASp1 by TILLING, one of which was in the WIP-binding domain that is the hotspot for human lesions, and mutants exhibited the same deficiencies in wound inflammation and thrombus formation as WASp1 morphants.
Real-Time Delay Estimation Based on Delay History
Authors: Ibrahim Rouba , Whitt Ward
Published: September 2008

Motivated by interest in making delay announcements to arriving customers who must wait in call centers and related service systems, we study the performance of alternative real-time delay estimators based on recent customer delay experience. The main estimators considered are: (i) the delay of the last customer to enter service (LES), (ii) the delay experienced so far by the customer at the head of the line (HOL), and (iii) the delay experienced by the customer to have arrived most recently among those who have already completed service (RCS). We compare these delay-history estimators to the standard estimator based on the queue length (QL), commonly used in practice, which requires knowledge of the mean interval between successive service completions in addition to the QL. We characterize performance by the mean squared error (MSE). We do an analysis and conduct simulations for the standard GI/M/s multiserver queueing model, emphasizing the case of large s. We obtain analytical results for the conditional distribution of the delay given the observed HOL delay. An approximation to its mean value serves as a refined estimator. For all three candidate delay estimators, the MSE relative to the square of the mean is asymptotically negligible in the many-server and classical heavy-traffic (HT) limiting regimes.