AB(1-42) and aluminum induce stress in the endoplasmic reticulum in rabbit hippocampus, involving nuclear translocation of gadd 153 and NF-kB

Apoptosis may represent a prominent form of neuronal death in chronic neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Although apoptosis under mitochondrial control has received considerable attention, mechanisms used within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and nucleus in mediating apoptotic signals are not well understood. A growing body of evidence is emerging from different studies which suggests an active role for the ER in regulating apoptosis. Disturbances of ER function have been shown to trigger two different apoptotic pathways; one involves cross-talk with mitochondria and is regulated by the antiapoptotic Bcl-2, and the second is characterized by the activation of caspase-12. Also, stress in the ER has been suggested to result in the activation of a number of proteins, such as gadd 153 and NF-k, and in the downregulation of the antiapoptotic protein, Bcl-2. In the present study, the intracisternal injection in aged rabbits of either the neurotoxin aluminum maltolate or of Ab(1-42), has been found to induce nuclear translocation of gadd 153 and the inducible transcription factor, NF-kB. Translocation of these two proteins is accompanied by decreased levels of Bcl-2 in both the ER and the nucleus. Aluminum maltolate, but not Ab, induces caspase-12 activation which is a mediator of ER-specific apoptosis; this is the first report of the in vivo activation of caspase-12. These findings indicate that the ER may play a role in regulating apoptosis in vivo, and could be of significance in the pathology of neurodegeneration and related disorders

Theories of the Origin and Early Evolution of Life

After the theory of spontaneous generation was discredited, only religious explanations were offered to explain the origin of life. Alexander Oparin (1894-1980), an atheist, suggested that natural chemical reactions produced biological molecules that came together to form the first living thing. Later, Stanley Miller tested this hypothesis and produced chemical building blocks but not life itself. In spite of much progress, there is still no clear consensus on how life originated on Earth. Some scientists are even looking to outer space for the origin of life

Immunocytochemical Evidence that the B-Protein Precursor is an Integral Component of Neurofibrillary Tangles of Alzheimer\u27s Disease

Amyloid B (AB) immunoreactivity has been demonstrated in all extracellular neurofibrillary tangles (E-NFT) and most intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (I-NF. We undertook this immunocytochemical study to understand the relationship between AB immunoreactivity localized in NFT and B-protein precursor (BPP). We found epitopes of amino-, mid-, and carboxyl-terminal domains of BPP in I-NFT and the majority of ENFT. NFT retained (BPP after ionic detergent extraction, demonstrating that BPP is an integral component of NFT. Finding BPP in regions of AB immunoreactivity raises the possibility that BPP or its fragments associate with amyloid, and that the stability of AB is responsible for its dominance in amyloid deposits

The Joyce menagerie : animal imagery in the first three novels

If James Joyce l:ad written novels with largely rural settings, like many written by Lawrence and Faulkner, it would not be particularly unusual to find many references to animals and birds. However, Joyce\u27s novels take place in Dublin, which certainly is not the ideal habitat for large numbers of animals; and yet the number of references to animals and birds in his novels is astounding. The brief portion of Stephen Hero contains nearly fifty primary references, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has ninety-four, and there are more than eight hundred in Ulysses. Not only is the total number of animal references surprising, but the variety is also. For example, Joyce mentions zebras, roes, baboons, hares, elephants, badgers, and plovers, plus many species that are more exotic than these

INTERNATIONAL LAW-MILITARY TRIBUNALS FOR THE TRIAL OF WAR CRIMINALS AS INTERNATIONAL COURTS

Petitioner, a German citizen confined in the American Zone of Occupied Germany in the custody of the United States Anny, petitioned the United States District Court, District of Columbia for a writ of habeas corpus. The respondents were the Secretary of Defense and others alleged to have directory control over the jailers in Germany. The petitioner had been convicted of war crimes by Military Tribunal IV at Nuremburg, Germany. This tribunal was established by order of General Clay, United States Military Governor and Zone Commander, pursuant to Control Council Law No. 10 which carried out the London Agreement and the Moscow Declaration. The tribunal was composed entirely of Americans and no other nation participated officially in the trial. The District Court dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction. On appeal, held, affirmed. Courts of the United States have no jurisdiction to review the findings of other than American civil or military courts. Military Tribunal IV was an international court hence its decision was not subject to review. Flick v. Johnson, (App. D.C. 1949) 174 F. (2d) 983, cert. den. (U.S. 1949) 70 S.Ct. 158

The solution to Wheeler-DeWitt is eight

We describe a new geometrical solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in two dimensional quantum gravity. The solution is the amplitude of a surface whose boundary consists of two tangent loops. We further discuss a new method for estimating singular geometries amplitudes, which uses explicit recursive counting of discrete surfaces.Comment: 10 tex pages + 5 ps figure

11. Fiscal Burden Sharing

The authors argue that a reformulated system of refugee protection must proceed using a distributive-developmental framework for fiscal burden sharing. Such a framework would have to appeal to the national security interests of donors, rather than to humanitarian or altruistic motives. The funds provided should be tied to concrete, time-specified goals which will contribute to the well being of refugees. They argue that this approach should be pursued parallel to the existing system of multilateral institutions. The framework envisions resources being channelled to regional institutions rather than national governments. This is a substantially abbreviated version of the authors' original work. Please refer to the notice at the end of this section if you are interested in obtaining a full copy of the paper, which is expected to be published in mid-1996