An Architecture for Provenance Systems

This document covers the logical and process architectures of provenance systems. The logical architecture identifies key roles and their interactions, whereas the process architecture discusses distribution and security. A fundamental aspect of our presentation is its technology-independent nature, which makes it reusable: the principles that are exposed in this document may be applied to different technologies

Polyphosphoinositides suppress the adhesion of Haemophilus influenzae to pharyngeal cells

BACKGROUND: One of the primary causes of otitis media (OM), an inflammation of the middle ear, is the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae (HI). OM often occurs to young children, and is mostly treated with antibiotics. Due to concerns over bacterial resistance toward antibiotics, reliable prophylactic treatments such as administrating anti-adhesion agents are now viewed as viable alternatives. RESULTS: The present study tested the feasibilty of using phosphoinositides as anti-adhesion agents against HI cells. Cells of non-typeable HI were radiolabeled with (111- )indium-oxine, pre-incubated with various individual phosphoinositides for 15 minutes at 37°C, and incubated with a monolayer of human pharynx carcinoma (DT 562) cells for 20 minutes at 37°C. The result showed that at 0.1 mg/mL dipalmitoylphosphatidylinositol-3,4-diphosphate (PI-3,4-PP) had the highest anti-adhesion activity, followed by phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PI-3-P) and phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI-4-P). The anti-adhesion activity of PI-3,4-PP was dose-dependent ranging from 0.006 to 0.1 mg/mL. In addition, results from an in vivo study demonstrated that pre-incubation of HI cells with PI-3,4-PP at 1 mg/mL suppressed the growth of HI in nasopharynx of neonatal rats. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that PI-3-P and PI-4-P and more so PI-3,4-PP may serve as prophylactic agents against HI adhesion and colonization

H-Diplo/ISSF Roundtable on Looking for Balance: China, the United States, and Power Balancing in East Asia

Will Asia be the site of the next major global conflict or will Asia’s future continue to be characterized by peace and stability? This question has invited a veritable multitude of arguments and counterarguments during the last two decades as scholars have tried to assess the implications of growing Chinese power for the international system. Some have feared that the rest of Asia will build up its armaments in response to China’s growing strength, creating a dangerous and unstable situation. They have even raised the possibility that the United States might get drawn into Asia’s next war.[1] Others have taken a far more sanguine view of the prospects for peace in the region, contending that China’s neighbors do not necessarily see it as a threat and that growing economic interdependence makes military conflict unlikely.[2]This item was commisioned by H-Diplo/ISS

Development of On-line Instrumentation and Techniques to Detect and Measure Particulates Quarterly Report

In the second quarter of the project, we built the liquid aerosol generator and characterized it. We also constructed and perfected light sources and detection systems. We also designed programs to simulate spherical particle MIE scattering for different wavelengths