1,608 research outputs found
Sensible heat transfer in the Gemini and Apollo pressure suits
Sensible heat transfer effects in Gemini and Apollo pressure suit
[beta]-Glucan Synthesis in the Cotton Fiber (III. Identification of UDP-Glucose-Binding Subunits of [beta]-Glucan Synthases by Photoaffinity Labeling with [[beta]-32P]5[prime]-N3-UDP-Glucose
Inflammation in benign prostate tissue and prostate cancer in the finasteride arm of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial
BACKGROUND: A previous analysis of the placebo arm of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) reported 82% overall prevalence of intraprostatic inflammation and identified a link between inflammation and higher-grade prostate cancer and serum PSA. Here we studied these associations in the PCPT finasteride arm. METHODS: Prostate cancer cases (N=197) detected either on a clinically indicated biopsy or on protocol-directed end-of-study biopsy, and frequency-matched controls (N=248) with no cancer on an end-of-study biopsy were sampled from the finasteride arm. Inflammation in benign prostate tissue was visually assessed using digital images of H&E stained sections. Logistic regression was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: In the finasteride arm, 91.6% of prostate cancer cases and 92.4% of controls had at least one biopsy core with inflammation in benign areas; p < 0.001 for difference compared to placebo arm. Overall, the odds of prostate cancer did not differ by prevalence (OR=0.90, 95% CI 0.44-1.84) or extent (P-trend=0.68) of inflammation. Inflammation was not associated with higher-grade disease (prevalence: OR=1.07, 95% CI 0.43-2.69). Furthermore, mean PSA concentration did not differ by the prevalence or extent of inflammationin either cases or controls. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of intraprostatic inflammation was higher in the finasteride than placebo arm of the PCPT, with no association with higher-grade prostate cancer. IMPACT: Finasteride may attenuate the association between inflammation and higher-grade prostate cancer. Moreover, the missing link between intraprostatic inflammation and PSA suggests that finasteride may reduce inflammation-associated PSA elevation
Anaerobic Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase Diversity in the Homoacetogenic Hindgut Microbial Communities of Lower Termites and the Wood Roach
Anaerobic carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) is a key enzyme in the Wood-Ljungdahl (acetyl-CoA) pathway for acetogenesis performed by homoacetogenic bacteria. Acetate generated by gut bacteria via the acetyl-CoA pathway provides considerable nutrition to wood-feeding dictyopteran insects making CODH important to the obligate mutualism occurring between termites and their hindgut microbiota. To investigate CODH diversity in insect gut communities, we developed the first degenerate primers designed to amplify cooS genes, which encode the catalytic (β) subunit of anaerobic CODH enzyme complexes. These primers target over 68 million combinations of potential forward and reverse cooS primer-binding sequences. We used the primers to identify cooS genes in bacterial isolates from the hindgut of a phylogenetically lower termite and to sample cooS diversity present in a variety of insect hindgut microbial communities including those of three phylogenetically-lower termites, Zootermopsis nevadensis, Reticulitermes hesperus, and Incisitermes minor, a wood-feeding cockroach, Cryptocercus punctulatus, and an omnivorous cockroach, Periplaneta americana. In total, we sequenced and analyzed 151 different cooS genes. These genes encode proteins that group within one of three highly divergent CODH phylogenetic clades. Each insect gut community contained CODH variants from all three of these clades. The patterns of CODH diversity in these communities likely reflect differences in enzyme or physiological function, and suggest that a diversity of microbial species participate in homoacetogenesis in these communities
Positronium S state spectrum: analytic results at O(m alpha^6)
We present an analytic calculation of the O(m alpha^6) recoil and radiative
recoil corrections to energy levels of positronium nS states and their
hyperfine splitting. A complete analytic formula valid to O(m alpha^6) is given
for the spectrum of S states. Technical aspects of the calculation are
discussed in detail. Theoretical predictions are given for various energy
intervals and compared with experimental results.Comment: 29 pages, revte
Avoiding Dangerous Missense: Thermophiles Display Especially Low Mutation Rates
Rates of spontaneous mutation have been estimated under optimal growth conditions for a variety of DNA-based microbes, including viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotes. When expressed as genomic mutation rates, most of the values were in the vicinity of 0.003–0.004 with a range of less than two-fold. Because the genome sizes varied by roughly 104-fold, the mutation rates per average base pair varied inversely by a similar factor. Even though the commonality of the observed genomic rates remains unexplained, it implies that mutation rates in unstressed microbes reach values that can be finely tuned by evolution. An insight originating in the 1920s and maturing in the 1960s proposed that the genomic mutation rate would reflect a balance between the deleterious effect of the average mutation and the cost of further reducing the mutation rate. If this view is correct, then increasing the deleterious impact of the average mutation should be countered by reducing the genomic mutation rate. It is a common observation that many neutral or nearly neutral mutations become strongly deleterious at higher temperatures, in which case they are called temperature-sensitive mutations. Recently, the kinds and rates of spontaneous mutations were described for two microbial thermophiles, a bacterium and an archaeon. Using an updated method to extrapolate from mutation-reporter genes to whole genomes reveals that the rate of base substitutions is substantially lower in these two thermophiles than in mesophiles. This result provides the first experimental support for the concept of an evolved balance between the total genomic impact of mutations and the cost of further reducing the basal mutation rate
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The Mode of Action of Arsenicals in the Soil by Cecil F. Kerr (page 3) The Golf Course Superintendent: A Job Description (5) Factors Affecting Carbohydrate Reserves of Cool Season Turfgrasses by L.J. Zanoni, L. F. Michelson, W.G. COlby, and M. Drake (6) Turf Bulletin\u27s Photo Quiz by Frederick G. Cheney (9) A Close Look at TCDD (10) Environmental News--Environmental Protection Agency Cancels Registration of Herbicide Amitrole (11) Homeowner\u27s Section--Crabgrass in Perspective by R.A. Peters (12) Merion Tees--Maintenance Suggestions (14) Use of Ammonium Sulfate in Fluid Fertilizers by Frank P. Achorn and W.C. Scott, Jr. (15) River Ecology and the Impact on Man (17) To Roll or Not to Roll (18) Editorial--Talkin\u27 Turfie (24
Universal features of the order-parameter fluctuations : reversible and irreversible aggregation
We discuss the universal scaling laws of order parameter fluctuations in any
system in which the second-order critical behaviour can be identified. These
scaling laws can be derived rigorously for equilibrium systems when combined
with the finite-size scaling analysis. The relation between order parameter,
criticality and scaling law of fluctuations has been established and the
connexion between the scaling function and the critical exponents has been
found. We give examples in out-of-equilibrium aggregation models such as the
Smoluchowski kinetic equations, or of at-equilibrium Ising and percolation
models.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure
Independent Eigenstates of Angular Momentum in a Quantum N-body System
The global rotational degrees of freedom in the Schr\"{o}dinger equation for
an -body system are completely separated from the internal ones. After
removing the motion of center of mass, we find a complete set of
independent base functions with the angular momentum . These are
homogeneous polynomials in the components of the coordinate vectors and the
solutions of the Laplace equation, where the Euler angles do not appear
explicitly. Any function with given angular momentum and given parity in the
system can be expanded with respect to the base functions, where the
coefficients are the functions of the internal variables. With the right choice
of the base functions and the internal variables, we explicitly establish the
equations for those functions. Only (3N-6) internal variables are involved both
in the functions and in the equations. The permutation symmetry of the wave
functions for identical particles is discussed.Comment: 24 pages, no figure, one Table, RevTex, Will be published in Phys.
Rev. A 64, 0421xx (Oct. 2001
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