Staff Activities in the Texas House of Representatives

In this study multivariate analysis is applied to the allocation of staff time among members of the Texas House of Representatives. Ideology of the representative is found to be an important factor in explaining differences in staff behavior. Chief staffers serving liberal Democrats and Republicans report spending less time on constituency service, and more time on policy research, than do staffers serving conservative Democrats. There are differences between the parties, but not between the ideologies, on time spent with lobbyists. Other variables, such as urban population of the district, and the years a legislator has served in the House, show slight relationships with staff activities

Modulation of the Inhibitory Receptor Leukocyte Ig-Like Receptor 1 on Human Natural Killer Cells

Leukocyte Ig-like receptor 1 (LIR-1) is an inhibitory Ig superfamily receptor with broad specificity for MHC-I expressed on leukocytes including natural killer (NK) and T cells. The extent of LIR-1 expression on NK cells is quite disparate between donors but the regulation of LIR-1 in NK cells is poorly understood. We examined expression profiles of LIR-1 on NK and T lymphocytes in 11 healthy donors over 1 year. Four of the 11 donors demonstrated substantial increases in LIR-1+ NK cells. High levels of LIR-1 expression were not correlated with exposure to human cytomegalovirus or the fraction of CD57+ NK cells in the donor. LIR-1 levels on ex vivo NK and CD56+ T cells were increased in vitro by short term exposure to IL-2 or IL-15 compared to control but not with various other cytokines tested. Sorted CD56bright NK cells also increased LIR-1 expression when cultured in IL-2. Maintenance of LIR-1 on longer term NK cells was also dependent on continuous stimulation by IL-15 or IL-2. While we could not detect increases in total LIR-1 mRNA in response to cytokine treatment by qPCR, we observed a shift in activity of LIR-1 promoter reporter constructs in the presence of IL-2 favoring the more translationally active transcript from the proximal promoter. Together these results show LIR-1 on NK cells is under the control of cytokines known to drive NK cell maturation and activation and suggest availability of such cytokines may alter the NK repertoire in vivo as we observed in several donors with fluctuating levels of LIR-1 on their NK cells

Probing Orientifold Behavior Near NS Branes

The effect of NS 5 branes on an orientifold is studied. The orientifold is allowed to pass through a pile of k NS branes forming a regularized CHS geometry. Its effect on open strings in its vicinity is used to study the change in the orientifold charge induced by the NS branes.Comment: Important references added, 30 pages, 8 figure

Recruitment of Tyrosine Phosphatase HCP by the Killer Cell Inhibitory Receptor

AbstractCytolysis of target cells by natural killer (NK) cells and by some cytotoxic T cells occurs unless prevented by inhibitory receptors that recognize MHC class I on target cells. Human NK cells express a p58 inhibitory receptor specific for HLA-C. We report association of the tyrosine phosphatase HCP with the p58 receptor in NK cells. HCP association was dependent on tyrosine phosphorylation of p58. Phosphotyrosyl peptides corresponding to the p58 tail bound and activated HCP in vitro. Furthermore, introduction of an inactive mutant HCP into an NK cell line prevented the p58-mediated inhibition of target cell lysis. These data imply that the inhibitory function of p58 is dependent on its tyrosine phosphorylation and on recruitment and activation of HCP

Tree-Level Stability Without Spacetime Fermions: Novel Examples in String Theory

Is perturbative stability intimately tied with the existence of spacetime fermions in string theory in more than two dimensions? Type 0'B string theory in ten-dimensional flat space is a rare example of a non-tachyonic, non-supersymmetric string theory with a purely bosonic closed string spectrum. However, all known type 0' constructions exhibit massless NSNS tadpoles signaling the fact that we are not expanding around a true vacuum of the theory. In this note, we are searching for perturbatively stable examples of type 0' string theory without massless tadpoles in backgrounds with a spatially varying dilaton. We present two examples with this property in non-critical string theories that exhibit four- and six-dimensional Poincare invariance. We discuss the D-branes that can be embedded in this context and the type of gauge theories that can be constructed in this manner. We also comment on the embedding of these non-critical models in critical string theories and their holographic (Little String Theory) interpretation and propose a general conjecture for the role of asymptotic supersymmetry in perturbative string theory.Comment: harvmac, 29 pages; v2 minor changes, version to appear in JHE

Matched sizes of activating and inhibitory receptor/ligand pairs are required for optimal signal integration by human Natural Killer cells

It has been suggested that receptor-ligand complexes segregate or co-localise within immune synapses according to their size, and this is important for receptor signaling. Here, we set out to test the importance of receptor-ligand complex dimensions for immune surveillance of target cells by human Natural Killer (NK) cells. NK cell activation is regulated by integrating signals from activating receptors, such as NKG2D, and inhibitory receptors, such as KIR2DL1. Elongating the NKG2D ligand MICA reduced its ability to trigger NK cell activation. Conversely, elongation of KIR2DL1 ligand HLA-C reduced its ability to inhibit NK cells. Whereas normal-sized HLA-C was most effective at inhibiting activation by normal-length MICA, only elongated HLA-C could inhibit activation by elongated MICA. Moreover, HLA-C and MICA that were matched in size co-localised, whereas HLA-C and MICA that were different in size were segregated. These results demonstrate that receptor-ligand dimensions are important in NK cell recognition, and suggest that optimal integration of activating and inhibitory receptor signals requires the receptor-ligand complexes to have similar dimensions

Microclusters of inhibitory killer immunoglobulin–like receptor signaling at natural killer cell immunological synapses

We report the supramolecular organization of killer Ig–like receptor (KIR) phosphorylation using a technique applicable to imaging phosphorylation of any green fluorescent protein–tagged receptor at an intercellular contact or immune synapse. Specifically, we use fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to report Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between GFP-tagged KIR2DL1 and a Cy3-tagged generic anti-phosphotyrosine monoclonal antibody. Visualization of KIR phosphorylation in natural killer (NK) cells contacting target cells expressing cognate major histocompatibility complex class I proteins revealed that inhibitory signaling is spatially restricted to the immune synapse. This explains how NK cells respond appropriately when simultaneously surveying susceptible and resistant target cells. More surprising, phosphorylated KIR was confined to microclusters within the aggregate of KIR, contrary to an expected homogeneous distribution of KIR signaling across the immune synapse. Also, yellow fluorescent protein–tagged Lck, a kinase important for KIR phosphorylation, accumulated in a multifocal distribution at inhibitory synapses. Spatial confinement of receptor phosphorylation within the immune synapse may be critical to how activating and inhibitory signals are integrated in NK cells