Wetland Assessment: Beyond the Traditional Water Quality Perspective

Use of water chemistry or water quality data as the sole indicator to determine if aquatic ecosystems meet restoration objectives or Clean Water Act criteria is not possible for wetland resources because surface water presence varies across wetland types. The 2011, National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) assessed 967 sites representing 25,153,681 ha of wetland across the conterminous US. Surface water could be collected at 537 sites representing only 41% of the wetland population area and under-representing particular wetland types. These results motivated the authors to introduce the concept of aquatic resource quality, the condition of an ecosystem based on the integrated assessment of physical, chemical, and biological indicators, as the goal of monitoring and assessment of aquatic systems. The NWCA is an example of the use of aquatic resource quality. The survey successfully reported on wetland condition using a biotic indicator (the vegetation multimetric index) and the relative extent and relative risk of stressors using 10 physical, chemical, and biological indicators to report on aquatic resource quality. The NWCA demonstrated that aquatic resource quality can be consistently evaluated regardless of surface water presence. Consequently, we recommend aquatic resource quality as the goal of aquatic ecosystem monitoring and assessment

Modulation of GAPDH expression and cellular localization after vaccinia virus infection of human adherent monocytes

Vaccinia virus is able to replicate in many cell types and is known to modulate apoptosis in infected cells. In this study, expression of apoptosis-related genes was screened in human adherent monocytes after vaccinia infection using a DNA array. A marked increase of the key glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) expression was found. Increased expression and nuclear translocation of GAPDH have recently been reported to participate in apoptosis of many cell types. To confirm the array results, levels of GAPDH mRNA were estimated by RT-PCR, showing an increase at 4 h p.i. followed by a slight decrease, which correlated with the viral anti-apoptotic E3L gene transcript levels. Subcellular localization of the enzyme in human monocytes was examined by Western blot and immunostaining of the infected cells. Both experiments revealed accumulation of GAPDH in the nucleus at 14 h p.i., which was completely suppressed at 24 h p.i. This might indicate GAPDH as a novel target for vaccinia anti-apoptotic modulation

The one- and two-photon transverse wave functions: Theory and experiment

We present a method to characterize one- and two-photon transverse wave functions in coordinate space. Measurements of transverse Wigner functions for one- and two-photon states from a spontaneous parametric down conversion source are being made. © 2005 Optical Society of America

Suppressor of cytokine signalling (SOCS) 1 and 3 enhance cell adhesion and inhibit migration towards the chemokine eotaxin/CCL11.

Suppressors of cytokine signalling (SOCS) proteins regulate signal transduction, but their role in responses to chemokines remains poorly understood. We report that cells expressing SOCS1 and 3 exhibit enhanced adhesion and reduced migration towards the chemokine CCL11. Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and the GTPase RhoA, control cell adhesion and migration and we show the presence of SOCS1 or 3 regulates expression and tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK, while also enhancing activation of RhoA. Our novel findings suggest that SOCS1 and 3 may control chemotaxis and adhesion by significantly enhancing both FAK and RhoA activity, thus localizing immune cells to the site of allergic inflammation