bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Light field microscopy
Authors: Levoy Marc , Ng Ren , Adams Andrew , Footer Matthew , Horowitz Mark
Published: July 2006

By inserting a microlens array into the optical train of a conventional microscope, one can capture light fields of biological specimens in a single photograph. Although diffraction places a limit on the product of spatial and angular resolution in these light fields, we can nevertheless produce useful perspective views and focal stacks from them. Since microscopes are inherently orthographic devices, perspective views represent a new way to look at microscopic specimens. The ability to create focal stacks from a single photograph allows moving or light-sensitive specimens to be recorded. Applying 3D deconvolution to these focal stacks, we can produce a set of cross sections, which can be visualized using volume rendering. In this paper, we demonstrate a prototype light field microscope (LFM), analyze its optical performance, and show perspective views, focal stacks, and reconstructed volumes for a variety of biological specimens. We also show that synthetic focusing followed by 3D deconvolution is equivalent to applying limited-angle tomography directly to the 4D light field.
Multidimensional lightcuts
Authors: Walter Bruce , Arbree Adam , Bala Kavita , Greenberg Donald P.
Published: July 2006

Multidimensional lightcuts is a new scalable method for efficiently rendering rich visual effects such as motion blur, participating media, depth of field, and spatial anti-aliasing in complex scenes. It introduces a flexible, general rendering framework that unifies the handling of such effects by discretizing the integrals into large sets of gather and light points and adaptively approximating the sum of all possible gather-light pair interactions.We create an implicit hierarchy, the product graph, over the gather-light pairs to rapidly and accurately approximate the contribution from hundreds of millions of pairs per pixel while only evaluating a tiny fraction (e.g., 200--1,000). We build upon the techniques of the prior Lightcuts method for complex illumination at a point, however, by considering the complete pixel integrals, we achieve much greater efficiency and scalability.Our example results demonstrate efficient handling of volume scattering, camera focus, and motion of lights, cameras, and geometry. For example, enabling high quality motion blur with 256x temporal sampling requires only a 6.7x increase in shading cost in a scene with complex moving geometry, materials, and illumination.
Fast proximity computation among deformable models using discrete Voronoi diagrams
Authors: Sud Avneesh , Govindaraju Naga , Gayle Russell , Kabul Ilknur , Manocha Dinesh
Published: July 2006

We present novel algorithms to perform collision and distance queries among multiple deformable models in dynamic environments. These include inter-object queries between different objects as well as intra-object queries. We describe a unified approach to compute these queries based on N-body distance computation and use properties of the 2
nd
order discrete Voronoi diagram to perform N-body culling. Our algorithms involve no preprocessing and also work well on models with changing topologies. We can perform all proximity queries among complex deformable models consisting of thousands of triangles in a fraction of a second on a high-end PC. Moreover, our Voronoi-based culling algorithm can improve the performance of separation distance and penetration queries by an order of magnitude.
Exaggerated shading for depicting shape and detail
Authors: Rusinkiewicz Szymon , Burns Michael , DeCarlo Doug
Published: July 2006

In fields ranging from technical illustration to mapmaking, artists have developed distinctive visual styles designed to convey both detail and overall shape as clearly as possible. We investigate a non-photorealistic shading model, inspired by techniques for carto-graphic terrain relief, based on dynamically adjusting the effective light position for different areas of the surface. It reveals detail regardless of surface orientation and, by operating at multiple scales, is designed to convey detail at all frequencies simultaneously.
News 2.0
Authors: Stanik John
Published: July 2006

Measuring the Web’s Mood
Review of "Component-Oriented Programming by Andy Ju An Wang and Kai Qian," Wiley-Interscience, 2005, $89.95, ISBN: 0471644463.
Authors: Laszlo Michael
Published: July 2006

Review of "Component-Oriented Programming by Andy Ju An Wang and Kai Qian," Wiley-Interscience, 2005, $89.95, ISBN: 0471644463.
The Calculus Formally Known as Pi
Authors: Kelly-Bootle Stan
Published: July 2006

Dominic Behan once asked me in a rare sober moment: “What’s the point of knowing something if others don’t know that you know it?” To which I replied with the familiar, “It’s not what you don’t know that matters, it’s what you know that ain’t so.” I was reminded of these dubious epistemological observations while reading Stephen Sparkes’ interview with Steve Ross-Talbot in the March 2006 issue of ACM Queue.
A survey of fault tolerant methodologies for FPGAs
Authors: Cheatham Jason A. , Emmert John M. , Baumgart Stan
Published: July 2006

A wide range of fault tolerance methods for FPGAs have been proposed. Approaches range from simple architectural redundancy to fully on-line adaptive implementations. The applications of these methods also differ; some are used only for manufacturing yield enhancement, while others can be used in-system. This survey attempts to provide an overview of the current state of the art for fault tolerance in FPGAs. It is assumed that faults have been previously detected and diagnosed; the methods presented are targeted towards tolerating the faults. A detailed description of each method is presented. Where applicable, the methods are compared using common metrics. Results are summarized to present a succinct, comprehensive comparison of the different approaches.
Blockbusters and blackboards
Authors: Goldman Dan B
Published: July 2006

Collaboration between computer graphics researchers in university labs and engineers and artists in movie production studios spreads risk and multiplies benefits.
Music score alignment and computer accompaniment
Authors: Dannenberg Roger B. , Raphael Christopher
Published: July 2006

By relating musical sound to musical notation, these systems generate tireless, expressive musical accompaniment to follow and sometimes learn from a live human performance.
Right nulled GLR parsers
Authors: Scott Elizabeth , Johnstone Adrian
Published: July 2006

The right nulled generalized LR parsing algorithm is a new generalization of LR parsing which provides an elegant correction to, and extension of, Tomita's GLR methods whereby we extend the notion of a
reduction
in a shift-reduce parser to include
right nulled
items. The result is a parsing technique which runs in linear time on LR(1) grammars and whose performance degrades gracefully to a polynomial bound in the presence of nonLR(1) rules. Compared to other GLR-based techniques, our algorithm is simpler and faster.
Sovereignty Revisited
Authors: Hansen Thomas Blom , Stepputat Finn
Published: July 2006

Sovereignty has returned as a central concern in anthropology. This reinvention seeks to explore de facto sovereignty, i.e., the ability to kill, punish, and discipline with impunity. The central proposition is a call to abandon sovereignty as an ontological ground of power and order in favor of a view of sovereignty as a tentative and always emergent form of authority grounded in violence. After a brief account of why the classical work on kingship failed to provide an adequate matrix for understanding the political imaginations of a world after colonialism, three theses on sovereignty—modern and premodern—are developed. We argue that although effective legal sovereignty is always an unattainable ideal, it is particularly tenuous in many postcolonial societies where sovereign power historically was distributed among many forms of local authority. The last section discusses the rich new field of studies of informal sovereignties: vigilante groups, strongmen, insurgents, and illegal networks. Finally, the relationship between market forces, outsourcing, and new configurations of sovereign power are explored.
Aspects of Genetic Susceptibility to Human Infectious Diseases
Authors: Hill Adrian V. S.
Published: July 2006

Host genetic factors play a major role in determining differential susceptibility to major infectious diseases of humans, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and invasive pneumococcal disease. Progress in identifying the relevant genetic loci has come from a variety of approaches. Most convincing associations have been identified by case-control studies assessing biologically plausible candidate genes. All six of the genes that have a major effect on infectious disease susceptibility in humans have been identified in this way. However, recently genome-wide linkage analysis of affected sibling pairs has identified susceptibility loci for chronic infections such as leprosy and chronic hepatitis B virus persistence. Other approaches used successfully have included assessment in humans of the homologues of susceptibility genes mapped and identified in murine models. However, the great majority of susceptibility loci remain to be identified and the advent of large-scale genome-wide association scans offers a new approach to defining many of these.
After Postcommunism: The Next Phase
Authors: Krygier Martin , Czarnota Adam
Published: July 2006

▪ Abstract  This is a review, from a social scientific perspective, of law-related transformations in the formerly communist parts of Europe. It draws particularly on developments in East Central Europe. The frame of the discussion is a specific and interrelated group of questions: What are the distinctive features of these transformations, to what extent do these features endure, and what would it mean to say that the postcommunist region has entered a new phase? The review discusses the utility of the concepts “postcommunism” and “transition”; the goal of the rule of law, in the name of which many legal reforms have been made; particular problems that have arisen in relation to the judiciary, constitutional courts, and former secret police; and questions about “dealing with the past” as they have been asked about past institutions, people, and property rights. It concludes with a consideration of the likely impact of “joining Europe” on those countries that have been accepted as members of the European Union, on those that have not yet been accepted, and on those that are unlikely ever to be accepted.
Transnational Legality and the Immobilization of Local Agency
Authors: Schneiderman David
Published: July 2006

▪ Abstract  The organizational logic of the legal rules and institutions of economic globalization treats as suspect economic regulation issuing out of the democratic processes of national and subnational communities. In this way, economic globalization can be likened to state formation: as a cultural project with the object of actively suppressing alternatives. While undermining the regulatory capacity of local publics to tame markets, transnational legality prefers to draw on the normative ideas of comparative advantage, consumer freedom, and the rule of law. These discursive strategies prove an unstable basis for legitimation without the critical supports provided by national states in gaining and maintaining the consent of local publics. As the findings of a recent international arbitration panel indicate (CMS v. Argentina), transnational legality prefers to view the local as a threat to the maintenance of its political-economic order, one of open borders free of rent-seeking public regulation. This will be the case even when states, like Argentina, take measures to mitigate the hardships of a severe economic downturn. Some critical theorists, like Hardt & Negri in Empire, similarly relegate the local to a marginal place without appreciating its contradictory but sustaining role in globalization's future. Such theoretical interventions, operating in conjunction with the disciplining effects of globalization's legal order, help to immobilize, rather than empower, resistance to the monocultures of transnational legality. The question remains whether the shaky foundations upon which the legitimacy of transnational legality are structured will prove less durable than its immobilizing effects.
Physics of a Rare Isotope Accelerator
Authors: Geesaman D.F. , Gelbke C.K. , Janssens R.V.F. , Sherrill B.M.
Published: July 2006

▪ Abstract  Major progress in nuclear research and in observations of the cosmos has made it clear that critical issues in understanding the nucleus and astrophysical processes require abundant new sources of exotic nuclei, away from the realm of the stable ones. Recent advances in accelerator and isotope-production technology make access to these rare isotopes possible. This review examines the impact of the new reach in physics provided by a rare isotope accelerator in nuclear structure, astrophysics, and searches for physics beyond the standard model. We also touch briefly on some of the benefits of these isotopes for other important societal needs.
Stimulation of the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus modulates cardiorespiratory responses via oxytocinergic innervation of neurons in pre-Bötzinger complex
Authors: Mack S. O. , Wu M. , Kc P. , Haxhiu M. A.
Published: July 2006

Previously we reported that oxytocin (OT)-containing neurons of the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) project to the pre-Bötzinger complex (pre-BötC) region and phrenic motoneurons innervating the diaphragm (D). The aim of these studies was to determine pathways involved in PVN stimulation-induced changes in upper airway and chest wall pumping muscle activity. In addition, we determined the role of OT-containing neurons in the PVN in mediating increased respiratory output elicited by PVN stimulation. Neuroanatomical experiments, using pseudorabies virus (PRV) as a transneuronal tracer in C8 spinalectomized animals showed that PVN neurons project to hypoglossal motoneurons innervating the genioglossus (GG) muscle. Furthermore, microinjection of the PVN with bicuculline, a GABAA receptor antagonist, significantly increased ( P < 0.05) peak electromyographic activity of GG (GGEMG) and of DEMG, frequency discharge, and arterial blood pressure (BP) and heart rate. Prior injection of OT antagonist [d-(CH2)5,Tyr(Me)2,Orn8]-vasotocin intracisternally or blockade of OT receptors in the pre-BötC region with OT antagonist l-368,899, diminished GGEMG and DEMG responses and blunted the increase in BP and heart rate to PVN stimulation. These data show that PVN stimulation affects central regulatory mechanisms via the pre-BötC region controlling both respiratory and cardiovascular functions. The parallel changes induced by PVN stimulation were mediated mainly through an OT-OT receptor signaling pathway.
Role of Extracellular Superoxide Dismutase in Hypertension
Authors: Gongora Maria Carolina , Qin Zhenyu , Laude Karine , Kim Ha Won , McCann Louise , Folz J. Rodney , Dikalov Sergey , Fukai Tohru , Harrison David G.
Published: July 2006

We previously found that angiotensin II–induced hypertension increases vascular extracellular superoxide dismutase (ecSOD), and proposed that this is a compensatory mechanism that blunts the hypertensive response and preserves endothelium-dependent vasodilatation. To test this hypothesis, we studied ecSOD-deficient mice. ecSOD
−/−
and C57Blk/6 mice had similar blood pressure at baseline; however, the hypertension caused by angiotensin II was greater in ecSOD
−/−
compared with wild-type mice (168 versus 147 mm Hg, respectively;
P
<0.01). In keeping with this, angiotensin II increased superoxide and reduced endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in small mesenteric arterioles to a greater extent in ecSOD
−/−
than in wild-type mice. In contrast to these findings in resistance vessels, angiotensin II paradoxically improved endothelium-dependent vasodilatation, reduced intracellular and extracellular superoxide, and increased NO production in aortas of ecSOD
−/−
mice. Whereas aortic expression of endothelial NO synthase, Cu/ZnSOD, and MnSOD were not altered in ecSOD
−/−
mice, the activity of Cu/ZnSOD was increased by 80% after angiotensin II infusion. This was associated with a concomitant increase in expression of the copper chaperone for Cu/ZnSOD in the aorta but not in the mesenteric arteries. Moreover, the angiotensin II–induced increase in aortic reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase activity was diminished in ecSOD
−/−
mice as compared with controls. Thus, during angiotensin II infusion, ecSOD reduces hypertension, minimizes vascular superoxide production, and preserves endothelial function in resistance arterioles. We also identified novel compensatory mechanisms involving upregulation of copper chaperone for Cu/ZnSOD, increased Cu/ZnSOD activity, and decreased reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase activity in larger vessels. These compensatory mechanisms preserve large vessel function when ecSOD is absent in hypertension.
Mapping the Murine Cardiac 26S Proteasome Complexes
Authors: Gomes Aldrin V. , Zong Chenggong , Edmondson Ricky D. , Li Xiaohai , Stefani Enrico , Zhang Jun , Jones Richard C. , Thyparambil Sheeno , Wang Guang-Wu , Qiao Xin , Bardag-Gorce Fawzia , Ping Peipei
Published: July 2006

The importance of proteasomes in governing the intracellular protein degradation process has been increasingly recognized. Recent investigations indicate that proteasome complexes may exist in a species- and cell-type–specific fashion. To date, despite evidence linking impaired protein degradation to cardiac disease phenotypes, virtually nothing is known regarding the molecular composition, function, or regulation of cardiac proteasomes. We have taken a functional proteomic approach to characterize 26S proteasomes in the murine heart. Multidimensional chromatography was used to obtain highly purified and functionally viable cardiac 20S and 19S proteasome complexes, which were subjected to electrophoresis and tandem mass spectrometry analyses. Our data revealed complex molecular organization of cardiac 26S proteasomes, some of which are similar to what were reported in yeast, whereas others exhibit contrasting features that have not been previously identified in other species or cell types. At least 36 distinct subunits (17 of 20S and 19 of 19S) are coexpressed and assembled as 26S proteasomes in this vital cardiac organelle, whereas the expression of PA200 and 11S subunits were detected with limited participation in the 26S complexes. The 19S subunits included a new alternatively spliced isoform of Rpn10 (Rpn10b) along with its primary isoform (Rpn10a). Immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry verified the expression of key α and β subunits in cardiomyocytes. The expression of 14 constitutive α and β subunits in parallel with their three inducible subunits (β1i, β2i, and β5i) in the normal heart was not expected; these findings represent a distinct level of structural complexity of cardiac proteasomes, significantly different from that of yeast and human erythrocytes. Furthermore, liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectroscopy characterized 3 distinct types of post-translational modifications including (1) N-terminal acetylation of 19S subunits (Rpn1, Rpn5, Rpn6, Rpt3, and Rpt6) and 20S subunits (α2, α5, α7, β3, and β4); (2) N-terminal myristoylation of a 19S subunit (Rpt2); and (3) phosphorylation of 20S subunits (eg, α7)). Taken together, this report presents the first comprehensive characterization of cardiac 26S proteasomes, providing critical structural and proteomic information fundamental to our future understanding of this essential protein degradation system in the normal and diseased myocardium.
Overexpression of HAX-1 Protects Cardiac Myocytes From Apoptosis Through Caspase-9 Inhibition
Authors: Han Yuchi , Chen Yee-Shiuan , Liu Zhilin , Bodyak Natalya , Rigor Debra , Bisping Egbert , Pu William T. , Kang Peter M.
Published: July 2006

Caspase-9 is a critical regulator of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. We found that adult cardiac myocytes, but not nonmyocytes, have high caspase-9 expression, and exhibit relative resistance to caspase-9–induced cell death. Thus, we hypothesized that cardiac myocytes possess factors that resist apoptosis. Through a yeast two-hybrid screening of adult human heart cDNA library, we identified HS-1 associated protein-1 (HAX-1), a 35-kD BH-domain containing protein localized to the mitochondria as one of the molecules that interacts with caspase-9. Recombinant HAX-1 protein inhibited caspase-9 processing in a dose-dependent manner in a cell-free caspase activation assay. Overexpression of HAX-1 in adult cardiac myocytes conferred 30% protection from apoptosis as compared with the control. Suppression of HAX-1 expression using siRNA-HAX-1 resulted in significant cell death in adult cardiac myocytes, suggesting the importance of HAX-1 in cardiac myocyte resistance to apoptotic stimulation. On apoptotic stimulation, some caspase-9 translocated to the mitochondria and co-localized with HAX-1, confirming the spatial proximity of caspase-9 and HAX-1. In summary, HAX-1 is a newly identified anti-apoptotic factor and its mechanism of action is through caspase-9 inhibition.
Dissociable Medial Temporal Lobe Contributions to Social Memory
Authors: Somerville Leah H. , Wig Gagan S. , Whalen Paul J. , Kelley William M.
Published: July 2006

Medial temporal lobe structures such as the hippocampus have been shown to play a critical role in mnemonic processes, with additional recruitment of the amygdala when memories contain emotional content. Thus far, studies that have examined the relationship between amygdala activity and memory have typically relied on emotional content of the kind that is rarely encountered in day-to-day interactions. The present event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigates whether amygdala activity supports emotional memory during the more subtle social interactions that punctuate everyday life. Across four training sessions, subjects learned common first names for unfamiliar faces in the presence or absence of additional contextual information that was positive, negative, and neutral in valence (e.g., “Emily helps the homeless,” “Bob is a deadbeat dad,” “Eric likes carrots”). During scanning, subjects performed a yes/no recognition memory test on studied and novel faces. Results revealed a functional dissociation within the medial temporal lobe. Whereas a region within the right hippocampus responded strongly to all faces that had been paired with a description, regardless of its valence, activity in the right amygdala was uniquely sensitive to faces that had been previously associated with emotional descriptions (negative and positive > neutral). This pattern of activity in the amygdala was preserved even when the emotional contexts associated with faces could not be explicitly retrieved, suggesting a role for the amygdala in providing a nonspecific arousal indicator in response to viewing individuals with emotionally colored pasts.
Lefties Get It “Right” When Hearing Tool Sounds
Authors: Lewis James W. , Phinney Raymond E. , Brefczynski-Lewis Julie A. , DeYoe Edgar A.
Published: July 2006

Our ability to manipulate and understand the use of a wide range of tools is a feature that sets humans apart from other animals. In right-handers, we previously reported that hearing hand-manipulated tool sounds preferentially activates a left hemisphere network of motor-related brain regions hypothesized to be related to handedness. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared cortical activation in strongly right-handed versus left-handed listeners categorizing tool sounds relative to animal vocalizations. Here we show that tool sounds preferentially evoke activity predominantly in the hemisphere “opposite” the dominant hand, in specific high-level motor-related and multisensory cortical regions, as determined by a separate task involving pantomiming tool-use gestures. This organization presumably reflects the idea that we typically learn the “meaning” of tool sounds in the context of using them with our dominant hand, such that the networks underlying motor imagery or action schemas may be recruited to facilitate recognition.
Impact of Cloud Model Microphysics on Passive Microwave Retrievals of Cloud Properties. Part II: Uncertainty in Rain, Hydrometeor Structure, and Latent Heating Retrievals
Authors: Seo Eun-Kyoung , Biggerstaff Michael I.
Published: July 2006

The impact of model microphysics on the retrieval of cloud properties based on passive microwave observations was examined using a three-dimensional, nonhydrostatic, adaptive-grid cloud model to simulate a mesoscale convective system over ocean. Two microphysical schemes, based on similar bulk two-class liquid and three-class ice parameterizations, were used to simulate storms with differing amounts of supercooled cloud water typical of both the tropical oceanic environment, in which there is little supercooled cloud water, and midlatitude continental environments in which supercooled cloud water is more plentiful. For convective surface-level rain rates, the uncertainty varied between 20% and 60% depending on which combination of passive and active microwave observations was used in the retrieval. The uncertainty in surface rain rate did not depend on the microphysical scheme or the parameter settings except for retrievals over stratiform regions based on 85-GHz brightness temperatures TB alone or 85-GHz TB and radar reflectivity combined. In contrast, systematic differences in the treatment of the production of cloud water, cloud ice, and snow between the parameterization schemes coupled with the low correlation between those properties and the passive microwave TB examined here led to significant differences in the uncertainty in retrievals of those cloud properties and latent heating. The variability in uncertainty of hydrometeor structure and latent heating associated with the different microphysical parameterizations exceeded the inherent variability in TB–cloud property relations. This was true at the finescales of the cloud model as well as at scales consistent with satellite footprints in which the inherent variability in TB–cloud property relations are reduced by area averaging.
Rapid Temporal Changes of Boundary Layer Winds
Authors: Merceret Francis J.
Published: July 2006

The statistical distribution of the magnitude of the vector wind change over 0.25-, 0.5-, 1-, and 2-h periods based on central Florida data from November 1999 through August 2001 is presented. The distributions of the 2-h u and υ wind-component changes are also presented for comparison. The wind changes at altitudes from 500 to 3000 m were measured using the Eastern Range network of five 915-MHz Doppler radar wind profilers. Quality-controlled profiles were produced every 15 min for up to 60 gates, each representing 101 m in altitude over the range from 130 to 6089 m. Five levels, each constituting three consecutive gates, were selected for analysis because of their significance to aerodynamic loads during the space-shuttle-ascent roll maneuver. The distribution of the magnitude of the vector wind change is found to be lognormal, consistent with earlier work in the midtroposphere. The parameters of the distribution vary with time lag, season, and altitude. The component wind changes are symmetrically distributed, with near-zero means, but the kurtosis coefficient is larger than that of a Gaussian distribution.
Evidence of Orographic Precipitation Suppression by Air Pollution–Induced Aerosols in the Western United States
Authors: Rosenfeld Daniel , Givati Amir
Published: July 2006

Analyses of trends of the orographic winter precipitation enhancement factor Ro along the coastal mountain ranges of the west coast of the United States show a pattern of decreasing Ro during the last century by as much as −24% from the southern border to central California, to no decrease in northern California and Oregon, and to a renewed decrease of Ro (−14%) in Washington to the Seattle area east of the Puget Sound. Similar decreases also occurred well inland, over Arizona, New Mexico, Utah (this study), and the east slopes of the Colorado Rockies (already documented prior to this study). Both absolute precipitation amounts and Ro are affected by fluctuations in the atmospheric circulation patterns, such as those associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation and the Southern Oscillation index. However, these climatic fluctuations cannot explain the observed trends in Ro. Although the trends of aerosols are available only since 1988, aerosol measurements from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) aerosol monitoring network show that negative trends in Ro are associated with elevated concentrations of fine aerosols [particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM 2.5)]. The PM 2.5 showed stability or some increase in the areas where their levels were elevated and decreasing trends of Ro were noted. Strong decreasing trends of the coarse aerosols (PM 10–PM 2.5) were noted, especially in the areas with elevated levels of PM 2.5. The decreasing trend in coarse aerosols (the coarse aerosols may act to initiate and enhance precipitation), in conjunction with the constancy and/or increases of the small aerosols (small aerosols suppress precipitation), can explain the continuing decreases in orographic precipitation during the last two decades despite the indicated improvement in the conventional air quality standards.
Verification of a Mesoscale Data-Assimilation and Forecasting System for the Oklahoma City Area during the Joint Urban 2003 Field Project
Authors: Liu Yubao , Chen Fei , Warner Thomas , Basara Jeffrey
Published: July 2006

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command have developed a multiscale, rapid-cycling, real-time, four-dimensional data-assimilation and forecasting system that has been in operational use at five Army test ranges since 2001. This system was employed to provide operational modeling support for the Joint Urban 2003 (JU2003) Dispersion Experiment, conducted in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, during July 2003. To better support this mission, modifications were made to the nonlocal boundary layer (BL) parameterization (known as the Medium Range Forecast scheme) of the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model, in order to improve BL forecasts. The NCEP–Oregon State University–Air Force–Hydrologic Research Laboratory land surface model was also improved to better represent urban forcing. Verification of the operational model runs and retrospectively simulated cases show 1) a significantly reduced low bias in the forecast surface wind speed and 2) more realistic daytime BL heights. During JU2003, the forecast urban heat island, urban dry bubble, and urban BL height agree reasonably well with observations and conceptual models. An analysis of three-dimensional atmospheric structures, based on model analyses for eight clear-sky days during the field program, reveals some interesting features of the Oklahoma City urban BL, including complex thermally induced circulations and associated convergence/divergence zones, a nocturnal thermal shadow downwind of the urban area, and the reduction of low-level jet wind speeds by more vigorous nocturnal mixing over the city.
Field of Dreams
Authors: Goldberg David Theo , Grosfoguel Ramón , Mielants Eric
Published: July 2006

This article examines the complicity of academic paradigms and public policies with racist discourses and racial discrimination in the United States. From the most overt racial segregation policies and biological racist discourses to the most recent and covert forms of ‘color-blind racism’, the article discusses the shifting forms of racial discrimination and academic paradigms in the US. The first part discusses mainstream academic schools of thought relating to race and ethnicity in the US. The second part provides a brief history of public policies related to race. Given the myth of the US as a land of equal opportunities for migrants from all over the world, race and ethnic based paradigms are frequently conflated with migration theories. Both are examined in the article.
What's Next for Translation Research?
Authors: Ginexi Elizabeth M. , Hilton Thomas F.
Published: July 2006

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are under increasing pressure to identify practical, cost-effective interventions, therapies, and medications. Overall, the public health impact could be substantial if effective science-based prevention and treatment programs were implemented on large scales with sufficient fidelity. Yet penetration of even the most successful interventions rarely occurs at a quick pace. Research-to-practice gaps are pervasive throughout various fields of behavioral health and safety. In this article the authors explore factors contributing to the pace of translation and reaffirm that research advances or retreats the progress of scientific discovery as data accumulate in what can be described as a translational research loop that is iterative and bidirectional. They also touch on the challenges inherent in deploying science to the marketplace, and in an attempt to foreshadow what's next for translational efforts, they conclude by offering some ideas about how researchers might more accurately conceptualize “best practices.”
The Transdisciplinary-Translation Revolution
Authors: Sussman Steve
Published: July 2006

A transdisciplinary-translation matrix is posited as a new direction reflected by the work presented in this and the two previous special issues. In fact, the demands inherent in this matrix suggest that a revolution in health research is in the works. Potential barriers and future directions of the matrix are suggested.
Women Activists in Indian Diaspora: Making Interventions and Challenging Impediments
Authors: Kang Neelu
Published: July 2006

The article presents the voices and concerns of activist women in the Indian diaspora in Canada who, faced with much evidence of domestic and sexual violence against women, have begun to analyse domestic violence and their own roles in combating it. The article explores different ways in which women activists have struggled in an alien land to raise the issue of Indian women being subjected to forms of violence that seem magnified by the vulnerable position of immigrant women who lack a secure residence status. While there have been notable achievements, huge challenges remain, both within the South Asian community structures as within wider Canadian society and mainstream feminist discourses.
The Performance of China's Industrial Enterprises
Authors: Wright Tim
Published: July 2006

Coal mining has been one of the biggest loss-making sectors among China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and the performance of the industry might thus throw light on broader questions of enterprise performance during China's reform period. After outlining the overall financial performance of coal mining SOEs, the article examines the medium- and long-term influences on the performance of coal mining enterprises in four major categories—those relating to government policies, to the market, to the particular nature of coal mining as an extractive industry, and to internal enterprise operation. The article concludes that, up to the mid-1990s, the state's economic priorities expressed through the fixing of prices were the most important negative influence on coal mining profits. After the incomplete deregulation of prices by 1994, while the government's role remained important, price competition in the context of more conventional economic cycles became the key influence. This article hopes to add an important industry perspective to a debate that has in the past focused either on the SOE sector as a whole or on individual enterprises or groups of enterprises.
The Turkish welfare regime in transformation
Authors: Buğra Ayşe , Keyder Çağlar
Published: July 2006

This article discusses the current transformation of Turkey’s welfare regime in the context of contemporary developments in social policy processes, particularly in Europe. It is argued that the transformation, under constraints of gobalization and neo-liberalism, involves a change from an inegalitarian corporatism where both the rural population and urban informal sector employees were excluded from the formal social security system. Variables influencing the direction of change include the historical legacy of state-society relations in the country, the conservative liberalism of the current government, the influence of international financial institutions that emphasize budgetary discipline, as well as the need for more universalist approaches to combat new forms of poverty and social exclusion. The relations of Turkey with the EU also affect the balance between conservative-liberal trends and universalist, rights-based approaches to social policy.
Immigrants’ social rights in comparative perspective: welfare regimes, forms in immigration and immigration policy regimes
Authors: Sainsbury Diane
Published: July 2006

In analysing the social rights of immigrants, this paper draws on insights from comparative welfare state research and international migration studies. On the premise that the type of welfare regime has an impact on immigrants’ social rights, it utilizes Esping-Andersen’s welfare regime typology as a point of departure. However, this typology must be complemented by two analytical constructs borrowed from the international migration literature: the immigration policy regime and entry categories associated with the form of immigration. The paper examines the social rights of immigrants in three countries generally regarded as exemplars of the welfare regime types: the United States, representing the liberal regime; germany, the conservative corporatist regime; and Sweden, the social democratic regime. It maps out immigrants’ formal incorporation into the welfare systems of the three countries and pays special attention to legislation from 1990 onwards in order to understand the interplay between welfare regimes, the forms of immigration, and the immigration policy regimes in shaping immigrants’ social rights.
A phase 2 trial of the FLT3 inhibitor lestaurtinib (CEP701) as first-line treatment for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia not considered fit for intensive chemotherapy
Authors: Knapper Steven , Burnett Alan K. , Littlewood Tim , Kell W. Jonathan , Agrawal Sam , Chopra Raj , Clark Richard , Levis Mark J. , Small Donald
Published: July 2006

Activating mutations of FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) are present in approximately one third of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and are associated with adverse prognosis. The important role played by FLT3 in the survival and proliferation of blasts, and its overexpression in most patients with AML, make FLT3 an attractive therapeutic target. We undertook a phase 2 trial of the FLT3-selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor lestaurtinib (CEP701) used as monotherapy in untreated older patients with AML not considered fit for intensive chemotherapy, irrespective of FLT3 mutation status. Lestaurtinib was administered orally for 8 weeks, initially at a dose of 60 mg twice daily, escalating to 80 mg twice daily, and was generally well tolerated. Clinical activity, manifest as transient reductions in bone marrow and peripheral-blood blasts or longer periods of transfusion independence, was seen in 3 (60%) of 5 patients with mutated FLT3 and 5 (23%) of 22 evaluable wild-type FLT3 patients. Laboratory data demonstrated that clinical responses occurred where the presence of sustained FLT3-inhibitory drug levels were combined with in vitro cytotoxic sensitivity of blasts to lestaurtinib. Further evaluation of this compound, in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy or other targeted agents, is warranted in both FLT3 mutant and wild-type patients.
Analysis of Nanoarchaeum equitans genome and proteome composition: indications for hyperthermophilic and parasitic adaptation
Authors: Das Sabyasachi , Paul Sandip , Bag Sumit K , Dutta Chitra
Published: July 2006

Background

Nanoarchaeum equitans, the only known hyperthermophilic archaeon exhibiting parasitic life style, has raised some new questions about the evolution of the Archaea and provided a model of choice to study the genome landmarks correlated with thermo-parasitic adaptation. In this context, we have analyzed the genome and proteome composition of N. equitans and compared the same with those of other mesophiles, hyperthermophiles and obligatory host-associated organisms.

Results

Analysis of nucleotide, codon and amino acid usage patterns in N. equitans indicates the presence of distinct selective constraints, probably due to its adaptation to a thermo-parasitic life-style. Among the conspicuous characteristics featuring its hyperthermophilic adaptation are overrepresentation of purine bases in protein coding sequences, higher GC-content in tRNA/rRNA sequences, distinct synonymous codon usage, enhanced usage of aromatic and positively charged residues, and decreased frequencies of polar uncharged residues, as compared to those in mesophilic organisms. Positively charged amino acid residues are relatively abundant in the encoded gene-products of N. equitans and other hyperthermophiles, which is reflected in their isoelectric point distribution. Pairwise comparison of 105 orthologous protein sequences shows a strong bias towards replacement of uncharged polar residues of mesophilic proteins by Lys/Arg, Tyr and some hydrophobic residues in their Nanoarchaeal orthologs. The traits potentially attributable to the symbiotic/parasitic life-style of the organism include the presence of apparently weak translational selection in synonymous codon usage and a marked heterogeneity in membrane-associated proteins, which may be important for N. equitans to interact with the host and hence, may help the organism to adapt to the strictly host-associated life style. Despite being strictly host-dependent, N. equitans follows cost minimization hypothesis.

Conclusion

The present study reveals that the genome and proteome composition of N. equitans are marked with the signatures of dual adaptation – one to high temperature and the other to obligatory parasitism. While the analysis of nucleotide/amino acid preferences in N. equitans offers an insight into the molecular strategies taken by the archaeon for thermo-parasitic adaptation, the comparative study of the compositional characteristics of mesophiles, hyperthermophiles and obligatory host-associated organisms demonstrates the generality of such strategies in the microbial world.
The incidence of relative adrenal insufficiency in patients with septic shock after the administration of etomidate
Authors: Mohammad Zulfiqar , Afessa Bekele , Finkielman Javier D
Published: July 2006

Introduction

Etomidate blocks adrenocortical synthesis when it is administered intravenously as a continuous infusion or a single bolus. The influence of etomidate administration on the incidence of relative adrenal insufficiency in patients with septic shock has not been formally investigated. The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of relative adrenal insufficiency in patients with septic shock after etomidate administration compared with patients with septic shock who did not receive etomidate.

Methods

In this retrospective study, 152 adults with septic shock who had a consyntropin stimulation test between March 2002 and August 2003 in a tertiary medical center were included. Relative adrenal insufficiency was defined as a rise in serum cortisol ≤ 9 μg/dl after the administration of 250 μg of consyntropin. Patients were divided into those who did and those who did not receive etomidate before the stimulation test. The proportion of patients with relative adrenal insufficiency in these two groups was compared using Fischer's exact test. A P of value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

The mean age of the patients was 64 years, 59% of patients were male, 97% of patients were white and their hospital mortality rate was 57%. Thirty-eight patients (25%) received etomidate before the cosyntropin stimulation test, and the median (interquartile range) time interval between the administration of the drug and the test was 7 (4–10) hours. The incidence of relative adrenal insufficiency was 76% in the patients who received etomidate compared with 51% in the patients who did not (P = 0.0077).

Conclusion

The incidence of relative adrenal insufficiency in patients with septic shock is increased when the stimulation test is performed after the administration of etomidate.
Mechanistic analysis of experimental food allergen-induced cutaneous reactions
Authors: Prescott Vanessa E , Forbes Elizabeth , Foster Paul S , Matthaei Klaus , Hogan Simon P
Published: July 2006

Individuals with food allergy often present with uritcaria and atopic dermatitis. Indeed, susceptibility to food allergy may predispose to the development of these cutaneous allergic disorders. Recently, we developed a model of food allergy, whereby oral consumption of food [pea Pisum sativum L.; expressing α-amylase inhibitor-1 (αAI) from the common bean Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv Tendergreen (pea-αAI)] promotes a T helper cell type 2 (Th2) inflammatory response and predisposes to cutaneous allergic reactions following subsequent food allergen (αAI) exposure. To delineate the kinetics of food allergen-induced cutaneous reactions and examine the inflammatory mechanisms involved in this allergic reaction, we used interleukin (IL)-13-, IL-4 receptor α-, and eotaxin-1-deficient mice and performed serum transfer and CD4+ T cell depletion studies. We demonstrate that consumption of pea-αAI promotes an αAI-specific immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) and IgE antibody response. Furthermore, we show that subsequent food allergen (αAI) challenge in the skin induced an early (3 h)- and late-phase (24 h) cutaneous allergic reaction. The early-phase response was associated with mast cell degranulation and the presence of Ig, whereas the late-phase response was characterized by a lymphoid and eosinophilic infiltrate, which was critically regulated by CD4+ T cells, IL-13, and eotaxin-1. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that food allergy can predispose to cutaneous inflammatory reactions, and these processes are critically regulated by Th2immune factors.
The role of JAM-A and PECAM-1 in modulating leukocyte infiltration in inflamed and ischemic tissues
Authors: Nourshargh Sussan , Krombach Fritz , Dejana Elisabetta
Published: July 2006

Innate and adaptive immunological responses are accompanied by leukocyte adhesion to the blood-vessel wall and their subsequent infiltration into the underlying tissues. In the majority of the cases, leukocytes cross the endothelium by squeezing through the border of apposed endothelial cells, a process that is known as diapedesis. Many data suggest that proteins at endothelial junctions establish homophilic interactions with identical proteins, which are present on leukocytes. These interactions might then direct the passage of leukocytes through the endothelial border. In this review, we focus on two endothelial junctional proteins [junctional adhesion molecule-A (JAM-A) and PECAM], which play an important role in leukocyte diapedesis. In vivo data with blocking antibodies or inactivation of JAM-A and PECAM genes indicate that the role of these two proteins depends on the stimulus and the experimental model used.