The Boston Housing Court: An Encouraging Response to Complex Issues

The purposes of this brief Article are neither to tout housing courts as the penultimate solution to housing problems nor to compare and contrast the many specialized courts adjudicating matters relating to housing. Instead, it focuses on one such specialized court, the Housing Court of the City of Boston, describing its origin, nature and function. In addition, this Article supports the proposition that the establishment of housing courts is an appropriate response to the need to speedily and effectively adjucate the complex legal, social and economic issues raised by housing disputes

Lysosome Ca2+ Store Refilling Mechanisms.

Lysosomes are acidic intracellular vesicles containing hydrolases that degrade intracellular and extracellular debris delivered through endocytic trafficking and autophagy. Lysosome function requires the establishment of luminal ionic homeostasis for ions including H+ and Ca2+, which are 1,000-5,000 times more concentrated in the lysosome lumen than in the cytosol. Lysosomal H+ homeostasis is required to activate hydrolases and Ca2+ efflux through lysosomal ion channels serves as signals required for precise delivery of hydrolases and cargo and the timely removal of catabolites. Impaired lysosomal Ca2+ homeostasis results in lysosomal dysfunction, lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs), and has been implicated more broadly in neurodegenerative phenotypes. The molecular mechanisms by which lysosomes acquire and refill Ca2+ are unknown. We developed a physiological assay to monitor lysosomal Ca2+ store refilling using specific activators of lysosomal Ca2+ channel TRPML1 to repeatedly induce lysosomal Ca2+ release. In contrast to the prevailing view that lysosomal acidification drives Ca2+ into the lysosome, inhibiting the V-ATPase H+ pump did not prevent Ca2+ refilling. Instead, pharmacological and genetic depletion or chelation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ prevented lysosomal Ca2+ stores from refilling. More specifically, antagonists of ER IP3 receptors rapidly and completely blocked Ca2+ refilling to lysosomes. Reducing ER Ca2+ or blocking IP3 receptors resulted in a dramatic lysosome storage phenotype. By closely apposing each other, the ER may serve as a direct and primary source of Ca2+ to the lysosome. These findings may clarify seemingly overlapping ER and lysosome Ca2+ stores in some studies and shed light on why ER Ca2+ homeostasis is often involved in LSDs and neurodegenerative diseases.PhDNeuroscienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113315/1/agarrity_1.pd

Evaluating a Model of Team Collaboration via Analysis of Team Communications

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 51st Annual Meeting—2007The article of record may be found at https://doi.org/10.1177/154193120705100456A model of team collaboration was developed that emphasizes the macro-cognitive processes entailed in collaboration and includes major processes that underlie this type of communication: (1) individual knowledge building, (2) developing knowledge inter-operability, (3) team shared understanding, and (4) developing team consensus. This paper describes research conducted to empirically validate this model. Team communications that transpired during two complex problem solving situations were coded using cognitive process definitions included in the model. Data was analyzed for three teams that conducted a Maritime Interdiction Operation (MIO) and four teams that engaged in air-warfare scenarios. MIO scenarios involve a boarding team that boards a suspect ship to search for contraband cargo (e.g. explosives, machinery) and possible terrorist suspects. Air-warfare scenarios involve identifying air contacts in the combat information center of an Aegis ship. The way the teamsí behavior on the two scenarios maps to the model of team collaboration is discussed.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Recent Decisions

Comments on recent decisions by Alfred Kaelin, Donald A. Garrity, Terrence Hogan, G. R. Blakey, Gordon C. Ho, and Paul H. Titus

Sequences, sequence clusters and bacterial species

Whatever else they should share, strains of bacteria assigned to the same species should have house-keeping genes that are similar in sequence. Single gene sequences (or rRNA gene sequences) have very few informative sites to resolve the strains of closely related species, and relationships among similar species may be confounded by interspecies recombination. A more promising approach (multilocus sequence analysis, MLSA) is to concatenate the sequences of multiple house-keeping loci and to observe the patterns of clustering among large populations of strains of closely related named bacterial species. Recent studies have shown that large populations can be resolved into non-overlapping sequence clusters that agree well with species assigned by the standard microbiological methods. The use of clustering patterns to inform the division of closely related populations into species has many advantages for poorly studied bacteria (or to re-evaluate well-studied species), as it provides a way of recognizing natural discontinuities in the distribution of similar genotypes. Clustering patterns can be used by expert groups as the basis of a pragmatic approach to assigning species, taking into account whatever additional data are available (e.g. similarities in ecology, phenotype and gene content). The development of large MLSA Internet databases provides the ability to assign new strains to previously defined species clusters and an electronic taxonomy. The advantages and problems in using sequence clusters as the basis of species assignments are discussed