Magnetic domain observation of hydrogenation disproportionation desorption recombination processed Nd－Fe－B powder with a high-resolution Kerr microscope using ultraviolet light

A Kerr microscope that uses ultraviolet (UV) light for high-resolution domain observation was built, and the domain structure and magnetization process of hydrogenation disproportionation desorption recombination (HDDR) powder were examined. The UV Kerr microscope could observe nanometer-sized domain patterns. Applying a dc field of 1.0 kOe to HDDR powder at a desorption recombination (DR) time of 12 min produced abrupt wall motion. The pinning force exerted by the grain boundaries is inadequate for producing high coercivity because the Nd-rich phase layers along these boundaries are absent at a DR time of 12 min. For HDDR powder at a DR time greater than 14 min, changing the magnetic field by up to 1.0 kOe produced no observable wall motion. It follows that the high coercivity of HDDR powder is due to domain wall pinning at the grain boundaries

Renal pericytes: regulators of medullary blood flow

Regulation of medullary blood flow (MBF) is essential in maintaining normal kidney function. Blood flow to the medulla is supplied by the descending vasa recta (DVR), which arise from the efferent arterioles of juxtamedullary glomeruli. DVR are composed of a continuous endothelium, intercalated with smooth muscle-like cells called pericytes. Pericytes have been shown to alter the diameter of isolated and in situ DVR in response to vasoactive stimuli that are transmitted via a network of autocrine and paracrine signalling pathways. Vasoactive stimuli can be released by neighbouring tubular epithelial, endothelial, red blood cells and neuronal cells in response to changes in NaCl transport and oxygen tension. The experimentally described sensitivity of pericytes to these stimuli strongly suggests their leading role in the phenomenon of MBF autoregulation. Because the debate on autoregulation of MBF fervently continues, we discuss the evidence favouring a physiological role for pericytes in the regulation of MBF and describe their potential role in tubulo-vascular cross-talk in this region of the kidney. Our review also considers current methods used to explore pericyte activity and function in the renal medulla

The Photoreceptor Cell-Specific Nuclear Receptor Gene (PNR ) Accounts for Retinitis Pigmentosa in the Crypto-Jews from Portugal (Marranos), Survivors from the Spanish Inquisition

The last Crypto-Jews (Marranos) are the survivors of Spanish Jews who were persecuted in the late fifteenth century, escaped to Portugal and were forced to convert to save their lives. Isolated groups still exist in mountainous areas such as Belmonte in the Beira-Baixa province of Portugal. We report here the genetic study of a highly consanguineous endogamic population of Crypto-Jews of Belmonte affected with autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (RP). A genome-wide search for homozygosity allowed us to localize the disease gene to chromosome 15q22-q24 (Zmax=2.95 at θ=0 at the D15S131 locus). Interestingly, the photoreceptor cell-specific nuclear receptor (PNR) gene, the expression of which is restricted to the outer nuclear layer of retinal photoreceptor cells, was found to map to the YAC contig encompassing the disease locus. A search for mutations allowed us to ascribe the RP of Crypto-Jews of Belmonte to a homozygous missense mutation in the PNR gene. Preliminary haplotype studies support the view that this mutation is relatively ancient but probably occurred after the population settled in Belmonte

At-home blood collection and stabilization in high temperature climates using home RNA

Expanding whole blood sample collection for transcriptome analysis beyond traditional phlebotomy clinics will open new frontiers for remote immune research and telemedicine. Determining the stability of RNA in blood samples exposed to high ambient temperatures (\u3e30°C) is necessary for deploying home-sampling in settings with elevated temperatures (e.g., studying physiological response to natural disasters that occur in warm locations or in the summer). Recently, we have develope

Bilingually motivated word segmentation for statistical machine translation

We introduce a bilingually motivated word segmentation approach to languages where word boundaries are not orthographically marked, with application to Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation (PB-SMT). Our approach is motivated from the insight that PB-SMT systems can be improved by optimizing the input representation to reduce the predictive power of translation models. We firstly present an approach to optimize the existing segmentation of both source and target languages for PB-SMT and demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach using a Chinese–English MT task, that is, to measure the influence of the segmentation on the performance of PB-SMT systems. We report a 5.44% relative increase in Bleu score and a consistent increase according to other metrics. We then generalize this method for Chinese word segmentation without relying on any segmenters and show that using our segmentation PB-SMT can achieve more consistent state-of-the-art performance across two domains. There are two main advantages of our approach. First of all, it is adapted to the specific translation task at hand by taking the corresponding source (target) language into account. Second, this approach does not rely on manually segmented training data so that it can be automatically adapted for different domains

Psychological attachment to the group: Cross-cultural differences in organizational identification and subjective norms as predictors of workers' turnover intentions

Two studies wed the theory of reasoned action, social identity theory, and Ashforth and Mael's work on organizational identification to predict turnover intentions in Japanese and British commercial and academic organizations. In both studies and in both countries, the authors expected and found that identification with the organization substantially and significantly predicted turnover intentions. Attitudes predicted intentions only in Study 2, and subjective norms significantly predicted intentions across both studies. The authors hypothesized that subjective norms would be a significantly stronger predictor of turnover intentions in a collectivist setting. This prediction was supported. Although social identity is strongly associated with turnover intentions across both cultures, the subjective normative aspects of group membership are significantly more strongly associated in the Japanese organizations