Xenon isotopes in nanodiamonds and other presolar grains

pdf freely available cb 18/07/0

A Raman spectroscopic study of carbon phases in impact melt rocks and breccias from the Gardnos impact structure, Norway

Raman spectroscopy suggests that the C was emplaced in at least two separate episodes into the impactites of the Gardnos impact structure

Search for Q: single grains Xe isotope analysis of carbonaceous residue from Yilmia

We analyse Xe in single grains in HF-HCl residue from Yilmia using RELAX mass spectrometer

De l’idéologie de l’espace à l’idéologie dans l’espace

Plutôt que d'étudier les dimensions idéologiques du discours des géographes, cet article s'interroge sur la pertinence et les méthodes possibles d'une lecture de l'inscription de la dimension idéologique d'une société dans l'espace que celle-ci a produit. Rappelant l'importance d'une réflexion géographique sur les caractéristiques spatiales liées à l'idéologie d'une formation sociale, les auteurs s'appuient sur les études ayant pour but de mesurer la qualité de la vie, telle que perçue par les habitants, ainsi que sur celles portant sur la perception et l'économie politique du risque nucléaire pour reconnaître l'intérêt et la possibilité, sous certaines conditions, d'une étude scientifique des faits idéologiques, tels qu'en dernière analyse ils se lisent dans l'espace géographique lui-même.Rather than studying the ideological dimension of geographical discourse, this article addresses the question of the relevance and possible methodology for analyzing ideological dimensions, within the space created by a given society. Recalling the importance of a geographical approach to spatial characteristics linked to the ideologies of social formations, the authors base their work on studies whose aim is to measure the quality of life, as perceived by the population, as well as those dealing with the awareness and political economy of nuclear risks, to define the relevance and feasibility, under certain circumstances, of the scientific study of ideological phenomena, such as can be ascertained, in the final analysis, from a given geographical space

Hydropyrolysis of high molecular weight organic matter in Murchison

Hydropyrolysis of the Murchison macromolecular material releases polyaromatic compounds including phenanthrene, carbazole, fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, perylene, benzoperylene and coronene units with varying degrees of alklyation

1-Methyl-tryptophan synergizes with methotrexate to alleviate arthritis in a mouse model of arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory autoimmune disease with no known cure. Current strategies to treat RA, including methotrexate (MTX), target the later inflammatory stage of disease. Recently, we showed that inhibiting indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) with 1-methyl-tryptophan (1MT) targets autoantibodies and cytokines that drive the initiation of the autoimmune response. Therefore, we hypothesized that combining 1MT with MTX would target both the initiation and chronic inflammatory phases of the autoimmune response and be an effective co-therapeutic strategy for arthritis. To test this, we used K/BxN mice, a pre-clinical model of arthritis that develops joint-specific inflammation with many characteristics of human RA. Mice were treated with 1MT, MTX, alone or in combination, and followed for arthritis, autoantibodies, and inflammatory cytokines. Both 1MT and MTX were able to partially inhibit arthritis when used individually; however, combining MTX + 1MT was significantly more effective than either treatment alone at delaying the onset and alleviating the severity of joint inflammation. We went on to show that combination of MTX + 1MT did not lower inflammatory cytokine or autoantibody levels, nor could the synergistic co-therapeutic effect be reversed by the adenosine receptor antagonist theophylline or be mimicked by inhibition of polyamine synthesis. However, supplementation with folinic acid did reverse the synergistic co-therapeutic effect, demonstrating that, in the K/BxN model, MTX synergizes with 1MT by blocking folate metabolism. These data suggest that pharmacological inhibition of IDO with 1MT is a potential candidate for use in combination with MTX to increase its efficacy in the treatment of RA

Living between languages: The politics of translation in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

This is the author's final draft post-refereeing as published in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 2012 47: 207 DOI:10.1177/0021989412440433. The online version of this article can be found at: http://jcl.sagepub.com/content/47/2/20

RNA polymerase II stalling promotes nucleosome occlusion and pTEFb recruitment to drive immortalization by Epstein-Barr virus

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) immortalizes resting B-cells and is a key etiologic agent in the development of numerous cancers. The essential EBV-encoded protein EBNA 2 activates the viral C promoter (Cp) producing a message of ~120 kb that is differentially spliced to encode all EBNAs required for immortalization. We have previously shown that EBNA 2-activated transcription is dependent on the activity of the RNA polymerase II (pol II) C-terminal domain (CTD) kinase pTEFb (CDK9/cyclin T1). We now demonstrate that Cp, in contrast to two shorter EBNA 2-activated viral genes (LMP 1 and 2A), displays high levels of promoter-proximally stalled pol II despite being constitutively active. Consistent with pol II stalling, we detect considerable pausing complex (NELF/DSIF) association with Cp. Significantly, we observe substantial Cp-specific pTEFb recruitment that stimulates high-level pol II CTD serine 2 phosphorylation at distal regions (up to +75 kb), promoting elongation. We reveal that Cp-specific pol II accumulation is directed by DNA sequences unfavourable for nucleosome assembly that increase TBP access and pol II recruitment. Stalled pol II then maintains Cp nucleosome depletion. Our data indicate that pTEFb is recruited to Cp by the bromodomain protein Brd4, with polymerase stalling facilitating stable association of pTEFb. The Brd4 inhibitor JQ1 and the pTEFb inhibitors DRB and Flavopiridol significantly reduce Cp, but not LMP1 transcript production indicating that Brd4 and pTEFb are required for Cp transcription. Taken together our data indicate that pol II stalling at Cp promotes transcription of essential immortalizing genes during EBV infection by (i) preventing promoter-proximal nucleosome assembly and ii) necessitating the recruitment of pTEFb thereby maintaining serine 2 CTD phosphorylation at distal regions