T-cell Growth Factor: Complete Nucleotide Sequence and Organization of the Gene in Normal and Malignant Cells

Using a cloned cDNA copy of T-cell growth factor (TCGF) mRNA from the Jurkat leukemic T-cell line, we have isolated three overlapping TCGF genomic clones from a human DNA library. The entire TCGF gene is contained within two adjacent EcoRI fragments spanning about 8 kilobases. The complete nucleic acid sequence was determined. The gene is divided into four exons. The 5\u27 untranslated region and the first 49 amino acids of the protein, 20 of which constitute a signal polypeptide and are not present in the secreted protein, are encoded by the first exon. Exons 2 and 3, separated from each other by a long intervening sequence, contain coding information for the next 20 and 48 amino acids, respectively. The remaining 36 amino acids and the 3\u27 untranslated region are contained in the fourth exon. A promoter sequence T-A-T-A-A-A is present 77 base pairs (bp) upstream from the translation initiation site, and a CAT homology region occurs 104 bp upstream from the initiation site. A putative site for initiation of mRNA transcription was identified 53 bp 5\u27 of the translation initiation codon. The organization of the gene was shown by Southern blot analysis to be identical in normal peripheral blood lymphocytes and in a variety of malignant lymphoid cell types. Restriction analysis of these cellular DNAs produced results exactly as predicted by the map for the cloned genomic TCGF, indicating that there is only a single copy of the human TCGF gene

Estimating oceanic turbulence dissipation from seismic images

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 30 (2013): 1767–1788, doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-12-00140.1.Seismic images of oceanic thermohaline finestructure record vertical displacements from internal waves and turbulence over large sections at unprecedented horizontal resolution. Where reflections follow isopycnals, their displacements can be used to estimate levels of turbulence dissipation, by applying the Klymak–Moum slope spectrum method. However, many issues must be considered when using seismic images for estimating turbulence dissipation, especially sources of random and harmonic noise. This study examines the utility of seismic images for estimating turbulence dissipation in the ocean, using synthetic modeling and data from two field surveys, from the South China Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, including the first comparison of turbulence estimates from seismic images and from vertical shear. Realistic synthetic models that mimic the spectral characteristics of internal waves and turbulence show that reflector slope spectra accurately reproduce isopycnal slope spectra out to horizontal wavenumbers of 0.04 cpm, corresponding to horizontal wavelengths of 25 m. Using seismic reflector slope spectra requires recognition and suppression of shot-generated harmonic noise and restriction of data to frequency bands with signal-to-noise ratios greater than about 4. Calculation of slope spectra directly from Fourier transforms of the seismic data is necessary to determine the suitability of a particular dataset to turbulence estimation from reflector slope spectra. Turbulence dissipation estimated from seismic reflector displacements compares well to those from 10-m shear determined by coincident expendable current profiler (XCP) data, demonstrating that seismic images can produce reliable estimates of turbulence dissipation in the ocean, provided that random noise is minimal and harmonic noise is removed.This work was funded by NSF Grants 0452744, 0405654, and 0648620, and ONR/DEPSCoR Grant DODONR40027.2014-02-0

Impacts of elevated atmospheric CO₂ on nutrient content of important food crops.

One of the many ways that climate change may affect human health is by altering the nutrient content of food crops. However, previous attempts to study the effects of increased atmospheric CO2 on crop nutrition have been limited by small sample sizes and/or artificial growing conditions. Here we present data from a meta-analysis of the nutritional contents of the edible portions of 41 cultivars of six major crop species grown using free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) technology to expose crops to ambient and elevated CO2 concentrations in otherwise normal field cultivation conditions. This data, collected across three continents, represents over ten times more data on the nutrient content of crops grown in FACE experiments than was previously available. We expect it to be deeply useful to future studies, such as efforts to understand the impacts of elevated atmospheric CO2 on crop macro- and micronutrient concentrations, or attempts to alleviate harmful effects of these changes for the billions of people who depend on these crops for essential nutrients

Multimodality treatment of brain metastases: an institutional survival analysis of 275 patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), surgical resection, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and combinations of the three modalities are used in the management of patients with metastatic brain tumors. We present the previously unreported survival outcomes of 275 patients treated for newly diagnosed brain metastases at Cancer Care Northwest and Gamma Knife of Spokane between 1998 and 2008.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The effects treatment regimen, age, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group-Performance Status (ECOG-PS), primary tumor histology, number of brain metastases, and total volume of brain metastases have on patient overall survival were analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves, Andersen 95% confidence intervals, approximate confidence intervals for log hazard-ratios, and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The median clinical follow up time was 7.2 months. On multivariate analysis, survival statistically favored patients treated with SRS alone when compared to patients treated with WBRT alone (p < 0.001), patients treated with resection with SRS when compared to patients treated with SRS alone (p = 0.020), patients in ECOG-PS class 0 when compared to patients in ECOG-PS classes 2 (p = 0.04), 3 (p < 0.001), and 4 (p < 0.001), patients in the non-small-cell lung cancer group when compared to patients in the combined melanoma and renal-cell carcinoma group (p < 0.001), and patients with breast cancer when compared to patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In our analysis, patients benefited from a combined modality treatment approach and physicians must consider patient age, performance status, and primary tumor histology when recommending specific treatments regimens.</p

A Photo-Caged Platinum(II) Complex That Increases Cytotoxicity upon Light Activation

A novel platinum(II) photocaged complex called [Pt(cage)] has been prepared and characterized by X-ray crystallography. The complex contains a photolabile nitrophenyl group incorporated into the backbone of a tetradentate ligand that contains two pyridyl and two amide nitrogen donor sites. The intact complex is unreactive toward ligand-exchange reactions until activation with UV light cleaves the ligand backbone, releasing a Pt II complex that more readily exchange

A Perspective on Economic Impact

The institutions responsible for water resources management in the United States have originated as political responses to major social issues. Each agency institutionalized a procedure for structuring and comparing alternatives in the formulation of its total program. Each agency originally sought to promote effective resolution of its social issue (flood control, development of arid lands, soil erosion, etc.), but more recent efforts have sought better coordination among agency practices through a common procedure largely derived from economic theory. Any procedure, however, varies in application with the interpretation and judgment of individual planners. Today, public pressures have brought political directives requiring consideration of the local and nationwide impacts of projects that occur through direct, indirect, and secondary means in the spheres of economic, social and environmental effects. The body of the study reviews fourteen specific impact issues with the goals of providing planners a methodology for dealing with each one and of providing the theoretically inclined a basis for improving each methodology. The issues are reservoir effects on local property values, reservoir effects on the economy of the local county, changes in income and employment patterns around large reservoirs, patterns of land use change around reservoirs, reservoir effects on revenues and expenditures of local government, reservoir recreation benefits, application of marginal economic analysis to reservoir recreation planning, economic value of natural areas for recreational hunting, for stream fishing, the personal value of real property to its owner, reservoir project caused income redistribution, achievement of more flexible procedures for reservoir operation in order to match changes in demand for project output with time, estimation of flood damages by the time pattern in which they occur, and operation of reservoir systems for flood control. Each study ls presented in detail in a referenced report, and this report discusses the significance of the findings of the studies, individually and as a group

The Stroke Outcomes Study 2 (SOS2): a prospective, analytic cohort study of depressive symptoms after stroke

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mood disorder is recognised as an important and common problem after stroke but little is known about the longer term effects of mood on functional outcomes. This protocol paper describes the Stroke Outcomes Study 2 (SOS2), a research study conducted in two large acute NHS Trusts in the North of England, which was designed to investigate the impact of early depressive symptoms on outcomes after an acute stroke.</p> <p>Methods and design</p> <p>SOS2 was a prospective cohort study that aimed to recruit patients in the first few weeks after a stroke, and to follow them up at regular intervals for one year thereafter in order to describe the trajectory of psychological symptoms and study their impact on physical functional recovery. Measures of mood and function were completed at baseline (approximately 3 weeks) and at four follow-up time-points: approximately 9, 13, 26 and 52 weeks after the index stroke.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Recruiting patients to research studies soon after an acute stroke is difficult. Mortality following stroke is approximately 30% and in the region of half the patients that survive the initial event are significantly disabled. Together these factors reduced the number of patients available to participate in SOS2 but once recruited to the study the drop-out rate was relatively low. During the recruitment period over 6000 admissions for stroke or query stroke were screened for eligibility. A cohort of 592 study participants was finally achieved.</p