Strict Products Liability on the Move: Cigarette Manufacturers May Soon Feel the Heat

This Comment examines the potential for tort liability of cigarette manufacturers for the injuries caused by tobacco products. The author argues that, while plaintiffs have traditionally failed to recover damages from cigarette manufacturers for smoking-related injuries, recent lawsuits have revived the controversy over the liability of cigarette manufacturers. The author suggests that this revival has been bolstered by the increase in scientific evidence relating smoking to disease, and that the doctrines of strict liability and comparative fault have evolved so as to favor the injured plaintiff. The author argues that these doctrines should be expanded to impose liability on the cigarette manufacturers for injuries caused by tobacco products

Non-canonical interactions between plant proteins and lectins cause false positives in lectin blots

Lectins are proteins that specifically recognize and non-covalently bind to soluble carbohydrates or to the carbohydrate moieties of glycoproteins or glycolipids. Historically,lectin-blot analysis has been widely used as a tool for structural characterization of many mammalian glycoconjugates. In the present study, we demonstrate that the application of this technique to screen sugar moieties of plant proteins results in numerous false positives. Plants lack the enzyme machinery necessary to perform sialylation, however many bands appear upon probing of N. benthamiana L. leaf proteins with Maacia amurensis agglutinin (MAA) that recognizes specifically N-linked or core 2 O-linked glycans containing Neu5Ac/Gc-α2,3Galβ-1,4GlcNAc/Glc and O-linked glycans containing the trisaccharide Neu5Ac-3Galβ1-3GalNAc. The non-canonical binding is a direct result of sample preparation for SDS PAGE, because native proteins do not show an affinity to MAA-agarose resin. Moreover, inhibition with known hapten fails to prevent binding of MAA to plant proteins in lectin blots. We also provide evidence that interactions of a hydrophobic nature contribute, at least in part, to the non-specific binding, and that other lectins – Sambucus nigra agglutinin (SNA) and Vicia villosa agglutinin (VVA) – also bind non-specifically to plant proteins. In conclusion, lectin blot analysis of plant proteins should always be verified by probing the binding specificity with a known hapten inhibitor alongside appropriate mammalian glycoprotein controls. Alternatively, non-specific binding can be avoided if lectin affinity chromatography of the native plant proteins is performed prior to lectin blots analysis

Annual Survey of Virginia Law: Employment Law

This survey covers judicial and legislative developments in Virginia employment law between June 1988 and June 1989. The survey does not address judicial and legislative developments in the areas of workers\u27 compensation or unemployment compensation

Inverse Dynamics Analysis of Youth Pitching Arm Kinetics Using Body Composition Imaging

This study’s objectives were to: (1) assess whether dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)-mass inverse dynamics (ID) alters predictions of youth pitching arm kinetics and (2) investigate correlations between kinetics and body composition. Eighteen 10- to 11-year-olds pitched 10 fastballs. DXA scans were conducted to obtain participant-specific upper arm, forearm, and hand masses. Pitching arm segment masses and kinetics calculated with scaled and DXA masses were compared with paired t-tests and correlations were investigated with linear regression. Hand (p \u3c 0.001) and upper arm (p \u3c 0.001) DXA masses were greater, while forearm (p \u3c 0.001) DXA masses were lesser, than their scaled masses. Shoulder compressive force (p \u3c 0.001), internal rotation torque (p \u3c 0.001), and horizontal adduction torque (p = 0.002) increased when using DXA masses. Shoulder compressive force correlated with body mass (p \u3c 0.001) and body mass index (BMI; p = 0.002) and elbow varus torque correlated with body mass (p \u3c 0.05). The main conclusions were that (1) using participant-specific mass ratios leads to different predictions of injury-related pitching arm kinetics and, thus, may improve our understanding of injury risk factors; and (2) pitching arm kinetics were correlated with body composition measures and a relatively high total body mass and/or BMI may increase shoulder and/or elbow injury risk

Reinventing Social Work Education and Service Delivery in Rural Areas: An Interdisciplinary Model for Serving Vulnerable Populations

This article presents an interprofessional case study approach to serving the social service and health needs of vulnerable persons living rural communities. This project, the Congregational Social Work Education Initiative (CSWEI), is funded by a health care foundation. Persons in rural areas are often at risk for poverty, homelessness and lack of access to needed health and social services. The case study demonstrates the opportunities for collaboration between professional social work, religiously affiliated organizations (RAOs) and nursing in order to reduce health and mental health disparities among residents in rural areas

Absence of arsenate in DNA from arsenate-grown GFAJ-1 cells

A strain of Halomonas bacteria, GFAJ-1, has been reported to be able to use arsenate as a nutrient when phosphate is limiting, and to specifically incorporate arsenic into its DNA in place of phosphorus. However, we have found that arsenate does not contribute to growth of GFAJ-1 when phosphate is limiting and that DNA purified from cells grown with limiting phosphate and abundant arsenate does not exhibit the spontaneous hydrolysis expected of arsenate ester bonds. Furthermore, mass spectrometry showed that this DNA contains only trace amounts of free arsenate and no detectable covalently bound arsenate.Comment: Originally submitted to Science January 30 2012. This is the revised version, resubmitted on April 13 2012. It has not been officially accepte

Strain-induced quantum dots by self-organized stressors

Novel in situ method to produce quantum dots is reported. Three‐dimensional confinement of carriers to a GaInAs/GaAs quantum welldots is observed by photoluminescence. The confinement potential is induced by stressors, formed by self‐organizing growth of InP nanoscale islands on top barrier GaAssurface. Two transitions arising from the strain‐induced quantum dots produced by two types of InP islands are identified. The luminescence from higher electronic states of the quantum dots having a level splitting of 8 meV is also observed.Peer reviewe

The secretion inhibitor Exo2 perturbs trafficking of Shiga toxin between endosomes and the trans-Golgi network

The small-molecule inhibitor Exo2 {4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-(5,6,7,8-tetrahydrol[1]benzothieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-yl)hydraz-one benzaldehyde} has been reported to disrupt the Golgi apparatus completely and to stimulate Golgi–ER (endoplasmic reticulum) fusion in mammalian cells, akin to the well-characterized fungal toxin BFA (brefeldin A). It has also been reported that Exo2 does not affect the integrity of the TGN (trans-Golgi network), or the direct retrograde trafficking of the glycolipid-binding cholera toxin from the TGN to the ER lumen. We have examined the effects of BFA and Exo2, and found that both compounds are indistinguishable in their inhibition of anterograde transport and that both reagents significantly disrupt the morphology of the TGN in HeLa and in BS-C-1 cells. However, Exo2, unlike BFA, does not induce tubulation and merging of the TGN and endosomal compartments. Furthermore, and in contrast with its effects on cholera toxin, Exo2 significantly perturbs the delivery of Shiga toxin to the ER. Together, these results suggest that the likely target(s) of Exo2 operate at the level of the TGN, the Golgi and a subset of early endosomes, and thus Exo2 provides a more selective tool than BFA for examining membrane trafficking in mammalian cells