Virus Dynamics in High-Nutrient, Low-Chlorophyll Marine Surface Waters

Iron (Fe) limitation of primary productivity in high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regions is relatively well-studied. Iron fertilization experiments as well as bottle incubations have been used to study changes in phytoplankton community biomass and diversity, changes in bacterial growth rates, etc. However, viral activity has been largely ignored in these studies. Viral activity was monitored during an iron budget study (FeCycle) in the HNLC waters of the Southern Ocean southwest of New Zealand as well as during a mesoscacle iron fertilization in the subarctic Pacific (SEEDS II). The goal of these studies was to evaluate the role of viruses in the lysis of bacterial cells and the subsequent regeneration of iron and other key nutrients. Two methods, a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) approach and a dilution assay, were used to measure viral production in each study and comparisons were made as to the appropriateness of each. From these studies, it appears that the viral community indirectly responds to changes in trophic production as observed by changes in virus abundance and production, while burst size and frequency of infection remain constant. These results suggest that there is a decrease in the length of lytic cycle after productivity is stimulated. Virus-induced lysis was found to regenerate up to 70 pM Fe in the Southern Ocean, and nearly 200 pM Fe in the subarctic Pacific. While there is little doubt as to the usefulness of TEM and its importance in determining lytic burst sizes in natural populations, the observations in this study suggest that there are problems associated with inferences concerning community mortality from such observations, especially during periods of trophic change

Spectral Studies of Hydrogen Bonding in Alcohols

The phenomenon of hydrogen bonding in alcohols has been known since the early 1900\u27s. Using three series of alcohols, benzyl alcohols, norbornanols and substituted naphthalene alcohols, it was hoped that some meaningful data could be presented to help clarify and expand some of the theories on alcohol association. The techniques to be utilized were ir and nmr spectroscopies. The synthetic route for those compounds that were not available as alcohols involved reduction of the corresponding acids to alcohols by use of lithium aluminum hydride. The strengths of the various types of hydrogen bonds, intramolecular and intermolecular, were detected by nmr and ir techniques at various concentrations. The 8-substituted-1-hydroxymethyl-naphtalene slope values (8-Br = 25, 8-C1 = 26, 8-0CH3 = 13, and 8-CH3 = 32) made it difficult to interpret the intersections on the basis of nmr alone. It appears that in the nmr studies we observe this difficulty, due to steric, electronic and polarizability effects, of forming the hydrogen bond, and only in the ir data do we get an idea of the actual strength of the hydrogen bond formed. It was observed for 3-endo-phenyl-2-endo-norbornanol that the slope value (8.3) and ir frequency shift (10 cm-1) correlate well with the steric interactions involved in the cis-di-endo compound. The slope values and frequency shifts give us an idea of the strength of the intramolecular association and the energy relationship between the monomer and dimer. The hydrogen bonding appears to lower the energy of the monomer relative to that of the dimer by virtue of the internal bonds

The Development of INT131 as a Selective PPARγ Modulator: Approach to a Safer Insulin Sensitizer

INT131 (formerly T0903131, T131, AMG131) is a potent non-thiazolidinedione (TZD) selective peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ modulator (SPPARM) currently in Phase 2 clinical trials for treatment of type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This new chemical entity represents a second generation SPPARM approach developed after the first generation PPARγ full agonists to address their inherent limitations. INT131 was specifically and carefully designed using preclinical models to exhibit a biological profile of strong efficacy with de minimis side effects compared to PPARγ full agonists. As a potent PPARγ modulator, INT131 binds to PPARγ with high affinity. In pharmacology models of diabetes and in early clinical studies, it achieved a high level of efficacy in terms of antidiabetic actions such as insulin sensitization and glucose and insulin lowering, but had little activity in terms of other, undesired, effects associated with TZD PPARγ full agonists such as edema and adipogenesis. Ongoing clinical development is directed at translating these findings into establishing a novel and effective treatment for T2DM patients with an improved safety profile in relation to that currently available

Community Literacy: A Rhetorical Model for Personal and Public Inquiry

This paper develops a rhetorically centered model of community literacy in the theoretical and practical context of local publics—those spaces where ordinary people develop public voices to engage in intercultural inquiry and deliberation. Drawing on fifteen years of action research in the Community Literacy Center and beyond, the authors characterize the distinctive features of local publics, the deliberative, intercultural discourses they circulate, and the literate practices that sustain them. They identify four critical practices at the heart of community literacy: assessing the rhetorical situation, creating local publics, developing citizens’ rhetorical capacities, and supporting change through the circulation of alternative texts and practices

ADOPTION OF SUPPLEMENTAL WORK-AT-HOME: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The primary purpose of this study is to develop a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the adoption of SWAH. Specifically, it examines how the work and family environments of dual-career male and female and traditional male parents who perform SWAH differ from the work and family environments of their cohorts who do not. People who perform SWAH were found to work significantly more hours per week and more hours at home than those who did not adopt SWAH. The data indicates that men and women who have higher level more challenging jobs (Le., greater work expectations and lower role clarity) were more likely to adopt SWAH than were men and women with fewer career demands. There were no significant differences in the family environments of men who did and did not adopt SWAH. Perceived family responsibility (i.e., family involvement, family expectations) was associated with a woman\u27s tendency to adopt SWAH

2012 National Study on Balancing Work and Caregiving in Canada

The study examined work-life experiences of 25,000 Canadians who were employed full time in 71 public, private and not-for-profit organizations across all provinces and territories between June 2011 and June 2012. Two-thirds of survey respondents had incomes of $60,000 or more a year and two-thirds were parents. Previous studies were conducted in 1991 and 2001. “It is fascinating to see what has changed over time and what hasn’t,’’ said Duxbury. Among the findings: Most Canadian employees still work a fixed nine-to-five schedule – about two-thirds. Overall, the typical employee spends 50.2 hours in work-related activities a week. Just over half of employees take work home to complete outside regular hours. The use of flexible work arrangements such as a compressed work week (15 per cent) and flexible schedules (14 per cent) is much less common. Fifty-seven per cent of those surveyed reported high levels of stress. One-third of working hours are spent using email. Employees in the survey were twice as likely to let work interfere with family as the reverse. Work-life conflict was associated with higher absenteeism and lower productivity. Succession planning, knowledge transfer and change management are likely to be a problem for many Canadian organizations. There has been little career mobility within Canadian firms over the past several years.</li

Resonant transport and electrostatic effects in single-molecule electrical junctions

In this contribution we demonstrate structural control over a transport resonance in HS(CH2)n[1,4 −C6H4](CH2)nSH (n = 1, 3, 4, 6) metal-molecule-metal junctions, fabricated and tested using the scanning tunnelingmicroscopy-based I (z)method. The Breit-Wigner resonance originates from one of the arene π-bonding orbitals, which sharpens and moves closer to the contact Fermi energy as n increases. Varying the number of methylene groups thus leads to a very shallow decay of the conductance with the length of the molecule. We demonstrate that the electrical behavior observed here can be straightforwardly rationalized by analyzing the effects caused by the electrostatic balance created at the metal-molecule interface. Such resonances offer future prospects in molecular electronics in terms of controlling charge transport over longer distances, and also in single-molecule conductance switching if the resonances can be externally gatedThis research was supported by the EPSRC (Grant No. EP/H035184/1), by MINECO under Grant No. FIS2013-47328, by the European Union structural funds and the Comunidad de Madrid MAD2D-CM Program under Grant. P2013/MIT-2850, and by Generalitat Valenciana under Grant PROMETEO/2012/011