A novel, mitogen-activated nuclear kinase is related to a Drosophila developmental regulator

Although the ultimate targets of many signal transduction pathways are nuclear transcription factors, the vast majority of known protein kinases are cytosolic. Here, we report on a novel human kinase that is present exclusively in the nucleus. Kinase activity is increased upon cellular proliferation and is markedly elevated in patients with acute and chronic lymphocytic leukemias. We have identified a human gene that encodes this nuclear kinase and find that it is closely related to Drosophila female sterile homeotic (fsh), a developmental regulator with no known biochemical activity. Collectively, these results suggest that this nuclear kinase is a component of a signal transduction pathway that plays a role in Drosophila development and human growth control

The Pediatric Obesity Epidemic and the Role of the Corporation: Why Work Conditions and Faith in Meritocracy Matter

The global pediatric obesity epidemic is a “grand challenge” that will reduce quality of life and strain healthcare delivery systems for many years. The root causes and treatments of pediatric obesity are medical and social, requiring cross‐disciplinary collaboration. Research on pediatric obesity spans medicine, molecular biology, public health, and sociology and involves hospitals, clinics, community partners, and schools. However, little attention has been given to how corporations play a role in this nexus of institutions. We make the case for understanding the role of the corporation, beyond that of producer and distributor of unhealthy foods. Specifically, we consider two factors. First, we examine the work conditions that corporations create for parents and how these affect family lifestyle, differentially by socioeconomic status (SES). Second, we expose how the American tendency to “individualize” social problems is reinforced in the corporation. Faith in meritocracy directs attention to individual effort rather than structural constraints. Treating pediatric obesity as remediable by meritorious individual behaviors might obscure root causes and promising approaches based on new medical research

Sharing Sensor Data with SensorSA and Cascading Sensor Observation Service

The SANY IP consortium (http://www.sany-ip.eu) has recently developed several interesting service prototypes that extend the usability of the Open Geospatial Consortium “Sensor Web Enablement” (OGC SWE) architecture. One such service prototype, developed by the Austrian Research Centers, is the “cascading SOS” (SOS-X). SOS-X is a client to the underlying OGC Sensor Observation service(s) (SOS). It provides alternative access routes to users (or services) interested in accessing data. In addition to a simple cascading, SOS-X can re-format, re-organize, and merge data from several sources into a single SOS offering. Thanks to the built-in “Formula 3” prototype, a kind of time series library, SOS-X will be enabled to derive new data sets on the fly executing arbitrary algebraic operations on one or more data input streams. This article will discuss the SOS-X development status (focusing at end of 2008), further development agenda in year 2009, and possibilities for using the SOS-X outside of the SANY IP

THE COSTS TO IRELAND OF GREENHOUSE GAS ABATEMENT. ESRI Policy Research Series. 1997

Most scientists believe and most governments seem to accept that global warming poses a threat to the world environment. Although there are residual uncertainties in tile scientific community as to the nature and gravity of tile global warming threat (Broecker, 1995), the solution to this problem can not be found in changes ill behaviour of individual countries or even individual trading blocks acting on their own. Instead, any programme of action to fend off the threat to tile world environment will ultimately depend on an agreement or agreements at a world level, which involve all the major economies, developed and underdeveloped. This makes the process of designing an effective strategy exceptionally difficult. (see Box A for a discussion of global warming). With the objective of reaching an initial agreement, a major international conference will be held in Kyoto in December 1997 under the auspices of the United Nations. This will be the second such UN conference to be held in the 1990s and it seems likely that the evolving policy debate will continue for many years afterwards, paralleling the continuing development of understanding of the problem in the scientific community. The role of the conference is to agree among tile major players in tile world economy a first policy response to tile problem which will lead eventually to an agreed comprehensive plan for action at a world level. The EU, as part of its negotiating position for the conference, has agreed a policy that would require a cut of 15 per cent in EU-wide emissions of greenhouse gases between 1990 and 2010. This proposed restriction on emissions is at tile more ambitious end of tile range of proposals being put toward by the major economies of the developed world. However, it must be seen as but one of many different inputs into what will be an exceptionally difficult set of negotiations. Any agreement reached in Kyoto will involve not only the restriction of emissions of greenhouse gases but it will also have important implications for tile distribution of income between the developed and the underdeveloped world and among individual trading blocks or countries within the developed world itself

Analysis of Phosphatase Activity from Aquatic Heterotrophic Bacteria at the Single Cell Level by Flow Cytometry: Example of a Development Achieved in the Regional Flow Cytometry Platform for Microbiology (Precym) Hosted by the Oceanology Center of Marseille

Marine microbes play a very important role in biogeochemical cycles. Because of their ­biodiversity, the diversity of their metabolisms, and their ­physiological heterogeneity (live/dead, active/inactive cells), it is necessary to study them at the single cell level. Flow cytometry has become a technique of choice to reach this goal, providing a fast, reliable, and multiparametric analysis of individual cells. However, the cost of such a technique makes flow cytometry out of reach for small institutes or laboratory units. It also requires a qualified and well-trained operator. To make this technique available to all the microbiologists of the “Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur” Region, a Regional Flow Cytometry Platform (PRECYM), hosted by the Oceanology Centre of Marseille, was created by a consortium of six laboratories. Its goal is to provide researchers with the possibility to consider new approaches and to guarantee optimal technical, economic, and scientific exploitations of these instruments. An example of such a technical development is described in this chapter. The ELF97 phosphatase substrate has been shown to be a performing tool to assess the phosphorus status of phytoplankton populations. Recently, this technique has been successfully applied to marine heterotrophic bacteria in culture samples in which ELF-labeling was observed by microscopy. In this study, we describe a new protocol for ­ELF-labeling of heterotrophic bacteria that allow detection by flow cytometry. ELF-labeled samples were stored in liquid nitrogen for up to 4 months before analysis without any significant loss of total or ELF-labeled cell abundance and of relative ELF ­fluorescence intensity. This method enables studying ectoenzymatic alkaline phosphatase activity of heterotrophic bacteria at the single cell level in environments even with low cell abundance. It has been successfully applied in both fresh and marine samples. This approach is set to improve our understanding of the physiological response of heterotrophic bacteria to phosphorus limitation

Physicochemical Quality of Water from Chuho Springs, Kisoro District, Uganda

In the current study, water from Chuho springs used as the main water source in Kisoro municipality, Uganda were assessed for their suitability as drinking water. The temperature, turbidity, conductivity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, total hardness, total alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, phosphates, iron, copper, arsenic, chlorides and the fluoride content of the water samples were determined. Not all the parameters met World Health Organizations’ guidelines for drinking water. Temperature, dissolved oxygen and fluorides were outside the recommended limits of 15 ℃, 10-12 mg/L and 1.5 mg/L, respectively. Further studies should assess the microbiological and sanitary profile of the springs

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 25, No. 4

• Veterinary Folk Medicine in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania • Folk Medical Recipes in Nineteenth-Century American Farm Journals • A Pictorial Essay on Pennsylvania\u27s Anthracite Mining Heritage • Fraktur: An Annotated Bibliography • An Immigrant\u27s Inventory • Broadsides and Printed Ephemera: Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 44https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1068/thumbnail.jp

MET nucleotide variations and amplification in advanced ovarian cancer: characteristics and outcomes with c-Met inhibitors.

PurposeMET alterations including amplifications and nucleotide variations have been associated with resistance to therapy and aggressive clinical behavior.Experimental designThe medical records of patients presenting to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Phase I Clinic with relapsed or metastatic ovarian cancers and known MET nucleotide variation or amplification status were reviewed retrospectively (n=178). Categorical and continuous clinical and molecular characteristics were compared using Fisher's exact and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, respectively. Univariate and multivariate survival were assessed via Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis, respectively.ResultsMET amplification occurred in 4 (3.5%) of 113 patients, whereas nonsynonomous nucleotide variations were present in 9 (7.4%) of 122 patients. No patients exhibited concomitant amplification and variation. MET variations were observed only in white women with high-grade ovarian tumors, whereas amplifications were observed in both black and white women with high-grade serous ovarian primary tumors. No patients (n=4) exhibiting a MET alteration achieved an objective response when treated on a c-Met inhibitor phase I trial. In addition, ovarian cancer patients treated with a c-Met inhibitor with multikinase activity trended towards a longer time-to-failure compared with those treated with a c-Met-specific inhibitor (median: 1.5 vs. 4.5 months, p=0.07).ConclusionsMET alterations occur in a minority of patients with ovarian cancer. c-Met inhibitors with multikinase activity may exhibit less activity in ovarian cancer than c-Met specific drugs. These findings warrant further investigation

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