OFF-FARM WORK PARTICIPATION, OFF-FARM LABOR SUPPLY AND ON-FARM LABOR DEMAND OF U.S. FARM OPERATORS

The paper presents econometric evidence on off-farm work participation, off-farm hours of work, and on-farm hours of work for U.S. farm operators using a national sample of farmers for the USDA's 1991 Farm Costs and Return Survey.Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Reconceptualizing Security Strategies For Courts: Developing A Typology For Safer Court Environments

There have been heightened concerns about security in courts in recent years, prompting a strong response that has largely been focused on perimeter security. This paper draws on recent research conducted in Australian on court users' safety needs, to propose a typology for designing safer courtroom environments that moves beyond the entry point to the court, and incorporates consideration of process and design elements

Effects of the mutations Ala30 to Pro and Ala53 to Thr on the physical and morphological properties of α-synuclein protein implicated in Parkinson's disease

Abstractα-Synuclein (α-syn) protein has been found in association with the pathological lesions of a number of neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, mutations in the α-syn gene have been reported in families susceptible to an inherited form of Parkinson's disease. We report here that human wild-type α-syn, PD-linked mutant α-syn(Ala30Pro) and mutant α-syn(Ala53Thr) proteins can self-aggregate and form amyloid-like filaments. The mutant α-syn forms more β-sheet and mature filaments than the wild-type protein. These findings suggest that accumulation of α-syn as insoluble deposits of amyloid may play a major role in the pathogenesis of these neurodegenerative diseases

Phototesting and photoprotection in LE

Photosensitivity and induction of skin lesions following UV radiation is a common problem of patients with cutaneous and systemic forms of lupus erythematosus. The detrimental effect of UV radiation to patients with lupus erythematosus was already recognized in the last century. Skin lesions can now be provoked under standardized conditions allowing the diagnosis and classification of patients with photosensitive disorders. The aim of this review is to give an overview on the history, test procedure and test results in patients with lupus erythematosus

Decomposing Noise in Biochemical Signaling Systems Highlights the Role of Protein Degradation

AbstractStochasticity is an essential aspect of biochemical processes at the cellular level. We now know that living cells take advantage of stochasticity in some cases and counteract stochastic effects in others. Here we propose a method that allows us to calculate contributions of individual reactions to the total variability of a system’s output. We demonstrate that reactions differ significantly in their relative impact on the total noise and we illustrate the importance of protein degradation on the overall variability for a range of molecular processes and signaling systems. With our flexible and generally applicable noise decomposition method, we are able to shed new, to our knowledge, light on the sources and propagation of noise in biochemical reaction networks; in particular, we are able to show how regulated protein degradation can be employed to reduce the noise in biochemical systems

Holographic microscopy for 3D tracking of bacteria

Understanding when, how, and if bacteria swim is key to understanding critical ecological and biological processes, from carbon cycling to infection. Imaging motility by traditional light microscopy is limited by focus depth, requiring cells to be constrained in z. Holographic microscopy offers an instantaneous 3D snapshot of a large sample volume, and is therefore ideal in principle for quantifying unconstrained bacterial motility. However, resolving and tracking individual cells is difficult due to the low amplitude and phase contrast of the cells; the index of refraction of typical bacteria differs from that of water only at the second decimal place. In this work we present a combination of optical and sample-handling approaches to facilitating bacterial tracking by holographic phase imaging. The first is the design of the microscope, which is an off-axis design with the optics along a common path, which minimizes alignment issues while providing all of the advantages of off-axis holography. Second, we use anti-reflective coated etalon glass in the design of sample chambers, which reduce internal reflections. Improvement seen with the antireflective coating is seen primarily in phase imaging, and its quantification is presented here. Finally, dyes may be used to increase phase contrast according to the Kramers-Kronig relations. Results using three test strains are presented, illustrating the different types of bacterial motility characterized by an enteric organism (Escherichia coli), an environmental organism (Bacillus subtilis), and a marine organism (Vibrio alginolyticus). Data processing steps to increase the quality of the phase images and facilitate tracking are also discussed

Decidual natural killer cell receptor expression is altered in pregnancies with impaired vascular remodeling and a higher risk of pre-eclampsia.

During pregnancy, a specialized type of NK cell accumulates in the lining of the uterus (decidua) and interacts with semiallogeneic fetal trophoblast cells. dNK cells are functionally and phenotypically distinct from PB NK and are implicated in regulation of trophoblast transformation of the uterine spiral arteries, which if inadequately performed, can result in pregnancy disorders. Here, we have used uterine artery Doppler RI in the first trimester of pregnancy as a proxy measure of the extent of transformation of the spiral arteries to identify pregnancies with a high RI, indicative of impaired spiral artery remodeling. We have used flow cytometry to examine dNK cells isolated from these pregnancies compared with those from pregnancies with a normal RI. We report a reduction in the proportion of dNK cells from high RI pregnancies expressing KIR2DL/S1,3,5 and LILRB1, receptors for HLA-C and HLA-G on trophoblast. Decreased LILRB1 expression in the decidua was examined by receptor blocking in trophoblast coculture and altered dNK expression of the cytokines CXCL10 and TNF-α, which regulate trophoblast behavior. These results indicate that dNK cells from high RI pregnancies may display altered interactions with trophoblast via decreased expression of HLA-binding cell-surface receptors, impacting on successful transformation of the uterus for pregnancy

Interleukin-1 polymorphisms associated with increased risk of gastric cancer

Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with a variety of clinical outcomes including gastric cancer and duodenal ulcer disease. The reasons for this variation are not clear, but the gastric physiological response is influenced by the severity and anatomical distribution of gastritis induced by H. pylori. Thus, individuals with gastritis predominantly localized to the antrum retain normal (or even high) acid secretion, whereas individuals with extensive corpus gastritis develop hypochlorhydria and gastric atrophy, which are presumptive precursors of gastric cancer. Here we report that interleukin-1 gene cluster polymorphisms suspected of enhancing production of interleukin-1-beta are associated with an increased risk of both hypochlorhydria induced by H. pylori and gastric cancer. Two of these polymorphism are in near-complete linkage disequilibrium and one is a TATA-box polymorphism that markedly affects DNA-protein interactions in vitro. The association with disease may be explained by the biological properties of interleukin-1-beta, which is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine and a powerful inhibitor of gastric acid secretion. Host genetic factors that affect interleukin-1-beta may determine why some individuals infected with H. pylori develop gastric cancer while others do no