Interference of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with macrophage responses

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has become an important health and economic burden, with more than four thousand people succumbing to the disease every day. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand the molecular basis of this pathogen's success in causing disease in humans, in order to develop new drugs superior to conventional drugs available at present. One reason why M. tuberculosis is such a dangerous microbe lies within its ability to survive within infected hosts, thereby efficiently circumventing host immune responses. Over the past few years, a number of mechanisms have been unravelled that are utilized by M. tuberculosis to survive within hosts and to avoid immune defence mechanisms. Several of these mechanisms have been described in this communication that may be useful for the development of novel compounds to treat tuberculosis

Importance, Cohesion and Structural Equivalence in the Evolving Citation Network of the International Journal of Research in Marketing

The citation network of the International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM) is examined from 1981 to 1995. We propose a model that contains log-linear and logmultiplicative terms to estimate simultaneously the importance, cohesion, and structural equivalence of journals in the network across time. Our findings show that the overall importance of IJRM in its network is low but growing. The importance of psychology journals in the network appears to be decreasing. Clear cohesive and structurally equivalent groups of core marketing, methodology, managerial and psychology journals with distinct functions in the network are identified. Recommendations for future citation research are offered.Citation analysis;social networks;log-multiplicative models

Exploring prospects of novel drugs for tuberculosis

Tuberculosis remains a disease with an enormous impact on public health worldwide. With the continuously increasing epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis, new drugs are desperately needed. However, even for the treatment of drug-sensitive tuberculosis, new drugs are required to shorten the treatment duration and thereby prevent development of drug resistance. Within the past ten years, major advances in tuberculosis drug research have been made, leading to a considerable number of antimycobacterial compounds which are now in the pipeline. Here we discuss a number of these novel promising tuberculosis drugs, as well as the discovery of two new potential drug targets for the development of novel effective drugs to curb the tuberculosis pandemic, ie, the coronin 1 and protein kinase G pathways. Protein kinase G is secreted by mycobacteria and is responsible for blocking lysosomal delivery within the macrophage. Coronin 1 is responsible for activating the phosphatase, calcineurin, and thereby preventing phagosome-lysosome fusion within the macrophage. Blocking these two pathways may lead to rapid killing of mycobacteri

Preliminary results of spectral reflectance studies of tycho crater

The preliminary analysis and interpretation of near infrared spectra obtained for both the interior and exterior deposits associated with the Tycho crater is presented. Specific objectives were: (1) to determine the composition and stratigraphy of the highland crust in the Tycho target site; (2) to determine the likely composition of the primary ejecta which may be present in ray deposits; (3) to investigate the nature of spectral units defined in previous studies; (4) to further investigate the nature and origin of both the bright and dark haloes around the rim crest; and (5) to compare the compositions determined for the Tycho units with those of the Aristarchus crater as well as typical highland deposits. The spectra obtained for the interior areas exhibit similar spectral features. These include relatively strong 1 micron absorption bands whose minima are centered between 0.97 and 0.99 microns and shallow to intermediate continuum slopes. The spectra generally exhibit indications of a 1.3 micron feature consistent with the presence of Fe(2+) bearing plagioclase feldspar. The strong 1 micron absorption features indicate a dominant high Ca clinopyroxene component. Results obtained from the ejecta deposits show that the spectrum of the inner, bright halo is almost identical with those obtained for interior units. The spectrum of the dark halo exhibits a wide, relatively shallow absorption feature centered at 1.01 microns, a 1.3 micron absorption, and a steep continuum slope. This spectrum is interpreted as indicating the presence of pyroxene, Fe-bearing feldspar, and a significant component of Fe-bearing impact melt glass. Finally, the spectra of spots inside Tycho show similarity with certain spectra for Aristarchus. However, the suite of spectra obtained for Tycho exhibits a different trend in terms of band center versus width

Meeting Minutes of the Consistory of the First Reformed Church

Article five in the minutes of the consistory of the First Reformed Church reads as follows: It was decided that the family of Rev. van Raalte will continue to use the bench they are presently using and to add another bench next to it, reserving this for Rev. Pieters.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1860s/1504/thumbnail.jp

Ferric sulfate montmorillonites as Mars soil analogs

Spectroscopic analyses have shown that Fe(3+)-doped smectites prepared in the laboratory exhibit important similarities to the soils on Mars. Ferrihydrite in these smectites has features in the visible to near-infrared region that resemble the energies and band-strengths of features in reflectance spectra observed for several bright regions on Mars. Ferric - sulfate - montmorillonite samples have been prepared more recently because they are a good compositional match with the surface material on Mars as measured by Viking. Reflectance spectra of montmorillonite doped with ferric sulfate in the interlayer regions include a strong 3 micron band that persists under dry conditions. This is in contrast to spectra of similarly prepared ferric-doped montmorillonites, which exhibit a relatively weaker 3 micron band under comparable dry environmental conditions. Presented here are reflectance spectra of a suite of ferric-sulfate exchanged montmorillonites prepared with variable ferric sulfate concentrations and variable pH conditions

Introduction to Research Dialogues

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141903/1/jcpy82.pd