The Use of Bromodeoxyuridine-Immunohistochemistry to Identify Transplanted Fetal Brain Tissue

The immunohistochemical detection of the thymidine analog, 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) is shown to be a useful and reliable method to positively identify fetal brain transplants in standard histological preparations. This technique offers several advantages over the [3H] thymidine autoradiographic method, including being much more rapid and avoiding the use of radionuclides

How proximity of land use affects stream fish and habitat

ABSTRACT This study quantified the unique variation in stream fish and habitat and a land use disturbance index (LDI) at a variety of spatial scales: catchment, eight riparian polygons that varied in width and length (e.g. 50 m to all upstream reaches), upstream polygons of 1.6 and 3.2 km and the residual upland area of each site watershed not accounted for by each polygon. The analyses confirmed a hockey stick-shaped relationship between the fish community and the LDI, with sensitive species only present below an LDI of 11. The largest variation for most metrics was explained by the largest polygons, suggesting that local riparian conditions were not as important predictors of stream condition. LDI in upland areas, where zero-order streams occur, was also an important predictor of fish biomass and taxa richness. Contrary to expected, additive models with both catchment and riparian corridors provided minimal increases in predictive power, and no improvement in model performance occurred when data sets were stratified into sites below the LDI threshold. Finally, there was considerable covariation in the template and stressor predictor variables that made it difficult to quantify the unique variation in biological and physical responses accounted for by land use. That the 1600-m proximal polygon provided the best predictor of the fish community and temperature is supportive of there being some proximal effects of land use. Overall, our findings suggest that stream management must consider processes that occur in the entire upstream catchment and the entire riparian corridor, including the headwaters for success

Antibody elbow angles are influenced by their light chain class

We have examined the elbow angles for 365 different Fab fragments, and observe that Fabs with lambda light chains have adopted a wider range of elbow angles than their kappa-chain counterparts, and that the lambda light chain Fabs are frequently found with very large (>195{sup o}) elbow angles. This apparent hyperflexibility of lambda-chain Fabs may be due to an insertion in their switch region, which is one residue longer than in kappa chains, with glycine occurring most frequently at the insertion position. A new, web-based computer program that was used to calculate the Fab elbow angles is also described

Is neurogenesis reparative after status epilepticus?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65863/1/j.1528-1167.2007.01355.x.pd

Measurement of the Phase Difference Between eta00 and eta+- to a Precision of 1^0

We propose to add an additional regenerator to the E731 spectrometer in the MC beamline to enable us to measure the phase difference between the CP violation parameters {eta}{sub 00} and {eta}{sub +-} to an accuracy of 1{sup o}. Very general considerations indicate that CPT conservation requires the phase difference, {Delta}{phi} = Arg({eta}{sub 00}) - Arg({eta}{sub +-}), to be smaller than one degree. The current experimental value is {Delta}{phi} = (9.4 {+-} 5.1){sup o}

The role of Comprehension in Requirements and Implications for Use Case Descriptions

Within requirements engineering it is generally accepted that in writing specifications (or indeed any requirements phase document), one attempts to produce an artefact which will be simple to comprehend for the user. That is, whether the document is intended for customers to validate requirements, or engineers to understand what the design must deliver, comprehension is an important goal for the author. Indeed, advice on producing ‘readable’ or ‘understandable’ documents is often included in courses on requirements engineering. However, few researchers, particularly within the software engineering domain, have attempted either to define or to understand the nature of comprehension and it’s implications for guidance on the production of quality requirements. Therefore, this paper examines thoroughly the nature of textual comprehension, drawing heavily from research in discourse process, and suggests some implications for requirements (and other) software documentation. In essence, we find that the guidance on writing requirements, often prevalent within software engineering, may be based upon assumptions which are an oversimplification of the nature of comprehension. Hence, the paper examines guidelines which have been proposed, in this case for use case descriptions, and the extent to which they agree with discourse process theory; before suggesting refinements to the guidelines which attempt to utilise lessons learned from our richer understanding of the underlying discourse process theory. For example, we suggest subtly different sets of writing guidelines for the different tasks of requirements, specification and design

Motivations, expectations, and experiences of expatriate academic staff on an international branch campus in China

This article explores the experiences of non-Chinese academic staff working on an international branch campus in China. The article presents findings from an interview study that explored the expectations of expatriate staff and what motivated them to want to work abroad. The second part of the article reports on whether and how these expectations and motivations were fulfilled. The findings suggest that, although staff found many benefits from working on the international branch campus, they were insufficiently prepared for the structural and cultural differences inherent in working as an academic in China. The authors argue that more of the academics’ initial expectations and motivations could have been realized if better staff induction and ongoing collective professional development had been in place. In particular, university-level discourse communicated through policy and marketing texts, which promoted the vision of one inclusive and diverse international university community, militated against attention being paid to the structural, political, and cultural differences inherent in working as an academic in China. The authors argue that professional development that acknowledges the differences, difficulties, and disjunctions that staff are likely to encounter in their work is important in building successful international branch campuses both at the level of the organization and of the individual