Book Review: The Closing of the American Mind

Book Review of: Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (Simon and Schuster, 1987

Book Review: Fictions Out of Season

Book Reviews of: Richard Hughes, The Fox in the Attic (Chatto and Windus, 1961) Richard Hughes, The Wooden Shepherdess (Chatro and Windus, 1973) J. G. Farrell, The Singapore Grip (Alfred A. Knopf, 1979) John Berger, G. (Viking 1972) D.M. Thomas, The White Hotel (Viking, 1981) Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (Alfred A. Knopf, 1980) Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Harper and Row, 1984

Inhibition of Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase by Aminoimidazole Carboxamide Ribotide Prevents Growth of Salmonella enterica purH Mutants on Glycerol

The enzyme fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBP) is key regulatory point in gluconeogenesis. Mutants of Salmonella enterica lacking purH accumulate 5-amino-4-imidazole carboxamide ribotide (AICAR) and are unable to utilize glycerol as sole carbon and energy sources. The work described here demonstrates this lack of growth is due to inhibition of FBP by AICAR. Mutant alleles of fbp that restore growth on glycerol encode proteins resistant to inhibition by AICAR and the allosteric regulator AMP. This is the first report of biochemical characterization of substitutions causing AMP resistance in a bacterial FBP. Inhibition of FBP activity by AICAR occurs at physiologically relevant concentrations and may represent a form of regulation of gluconeogenic flux in Salmonella enterica

Recording and Analysis of Head Movements, Interaural Level and Time Differences in Rooms and Real-World Listening Scenarios

The science of how we use interaural differences to localise sounds has been studied for over a century and in many ways is well understood. But in many of these psychophysical experiments listeners are required to keep their head still, as head movements cause changes in interaural level and time differences (ILD and ITD respectively). But a fixed head is unrealistic. Here we report an analysis of the actual ILDs and ITDs that occur as people naturally move and relate them to gyroscope measurements of the actual motion. We used recordings of binaural signals in a number of rooms and listening scenarios (home, office, busy street etc). The listener's head movements were also recorded in synchrony with the audio, using a micro-electromechanical gyroscope. We calculated the instantaneous ILD and ITDs and analysed them over time and frequency, comparing them with measurements of head movements. The results showed that instantaneous ITDs were widely distributed across time and frequency in some multi-source environments while ILDs were less widely distributed. The type of listening environment affected head motion. These findings suggest a complex interaction between interaural cues, egocentric head movement and the identification of sound sources in real-world listening situations