The Exclusive Admiralty Jurisdiction

In Cline v. Price the owners of a minority interest in a fishing vessel, being dissatisfied with the use to which it was being put, brought suit in Superior Court against the majority owners. The action prayed the appointment of a receiver, an accounting, and a partition of the vessel by sale and distribution of the proceeds. A demurrer was sustained by the lower court and affirmed by the Supreme Court. The ground assigned was that the suit, essentially one for partition, was exclusively within the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States, and the state courts have no jurisdiction to afford such relief. This pitfall of exclusive admiralty jurisdiction is one which the practitioner in our maritime state of Washington may often have occasion to meet. It shall be the purpose of this article to discuss some of the fundamental aspects of the admiralty jurisdiction in general, with particular emphasis upon those classes of cases where the suitor is limited in his choice of forum to the federal courts sitting in admiralty

Measurement and Interpretation of Fermion-Pair Production at LEP energies above the Z Resonance

This paper presents DELPHI measurements and interpretations of cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries, and angular distributions, for the e+e- -> ffbar process for centre-of-mass energies above the Z resonance, from sqrt(s) ~ 130 - 207 GeV at the LEP collider. The measurements are consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model and are used to study a variety of models including the S-Matrix ansatz for e+e- -> ffbar scattering and several models which include physics beyond the Standard Model: the exchange of Z' bosons, contact interactions between fermions, the exchange of gravitons in large extra dimensions and the exchange of sneutrino in R-parity violating supersymmetry.Comment: 79 pages, 16 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

α-Adducin Gly460Trp Gene Mutation and Essential Hypertension in a Chinese Population: A Meta-Analysis including 10960 Subjects

BACKGROUND: The α-adducin Gly460Trp (G460W) gene polymorphism may be associated with susceptibility to essential hypertension (EH), but this relationship remains controversial. In an attempt to resolve this issue, we conducted a meta-analysis. METHODS: Twenty-three separated studies involving 5939 EH patients and 5021 controls were retrieved and analyzed. Four ethnicities were included: Han, Kazakh, Mongolian, and She. Eighteen studies with 5087 EH patients and 4183 controls were included in the Han subgroup. Three studies with 636 EH patients and 462 controls were included in the Kazakh subgroup. The Mongolian subgroup was represented by only one study with 100 EH patients and 50 controls; similarly, only one study with 116 EH patients and 326 controls was available for the She subgroup. The pooled and ethnic group odds ratios (ORs) along with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were assessed using a random effects model. RESULTS: There was a significant association between the α-adducin G460W gene polymorphism and EH in the pooled Chinese population under both an allelic genetic model (OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.04-1.20, P = 0.002) and a recessive genetic model (OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.16-1.70, P = 0.0005). In contrast, no significant association between the α-adducin G460W gene polymorphism and EH was observed in the dominant genetic model (OR: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.72-1.09, P = 0.24). In stratified analysis by ethnicity, significantly increased risk was detected in the Han subgroup under an allelic genetic model (OR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.04-1.23, P = 0.003) and a recessive genetic model (OR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.17-1.75, P = 0.0006). CONCLUSIONS: In a Chinese population of mixed ethnicity, the α-adducin G460W gene polymorphism was linked to EH susceptibility, most strongly in Han Chinese

Genetic predisposition to salt-sensitivity:a systematic review

PURPOSE: To assess the role of genetic polymorphisms in salt sensitivity of blood pressure. DATA IDENTIFICATION: We conducted a systematic review by searching the Medline literature from March 1993 to June 2003. Each paper was scrutinized and data concerning study population, method of salt sensitivity testing, blood pressure measurement, definition of salt sensitivity, and effects were extracted. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION: A total of 23 studies met the inclusion criteria. There was considerable heterogeneity in the method of salt sensitivity testing among the studies. Due to these differences, it was impossible to perform pooled analyses by genetic variants. Detailed investigation was done on the alpha-adducin Gly460Trp, ACE I/D, angiotensinogen M235T, G protein beta 3 C825T, aldosterone synthase gene and 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 G534A polymorphism. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis shows that the 460Trp variant of the alpha-adducin polymorphism is probably associated with a sodium-sensitive form of hypertension, while the polymorphisms of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor gene and the -344C/T variant of the aldosterone synthase gene are not associated with this phenotype. In view of the lack of standardization in salt sensitivity testing, we propose uniformity in study design in these type of studies

Arsenite-induced pseudo-hypoxia results in loss of anchorage-dependent growth in BEAS-2B pulmonary epithelial cells.

Epidemiology studies have established a strong link between lung cancer and arsenic exposure. Currently, the role of disturbed cellular energy metabolism in carcinogenesis is a focus of scientific interest. Hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1A) is a key regulator of energy metabolism, and it has been found to accumulate during arsenite exposure under oxygen-replete conditions. We modeled arsenic-exposed human pulmonary epithelial cells in vitro with BEAS-2B, a non-malignant lung epithelial cell line. Constant exposure to 1 µM arsenite (As) resulted in the early loss of anchorage-dependent growth, measured by soft agar colony formation, beginning at 6 weeks of exposure. This arsenite exposure resulted in HIF-1A accumulation and increased glycolysis, similar to the physiologic response to hypoxia, but in this case under oxygen-replete conditions. This "pseudo-hypoxia" response was necessary for the maximal acquisition of anchorage-independent growth in arsenite-exposed BEAS-2B. The HIF-1A accumulation and induction in glycolysis was sustained throughout a 52 week course of arsenite exposure in BEAS-2B. There was a time-dependent increase in anchorage-independent growth during the exposure to arsenite. When HIF-1A expression was stably suppressed, arsenite-induced glycolysis was abrogated, and the anchorage-independent growth was reduced. These findings establish that arsenite exerts a hypoxia-mimetic effect, which plays an important role in the subsequent gain of malignancy-associated phenotypes

Arsenite-induced phenotypic changes in BEAS-2B.

<p>A) Representative images of soft agar growth over the course of 52 weeks of constant arsenite (1 µM) exposure. B) Colony counts in soft agar. Bars represent mean, 1 standard deviation, from 3 experimental replicates. C) Immunoblot analysis of HIF-1A and E-cadherin (E-cad) in BEAS-2B over the course of 52 weeks of constant arsenite (1 µM) exposure. D) Lactate levels (percent control) in BEAS-2B over the course of 52 weeks of constant arsenite (1 µM) exposure. Absolute lactate production in vector control: 0.733±0.017 µmol/10⁶cells/hr) Bars represent mean +1 standard deviation, from 3 experimental replicates. E) Percentage aneuploid cells in BEAS-2B treated with 1 µM arsenite for 0–52 weeks. Bars represent mean, +1 standard deviation, from 3 experimental replicates. *p<0.05.</p

Alpha-adducin Gly460Trp polymorphism and renal hemodynamics in essential hypertension

Previous studies have shown an association between the alpha-adducin Gly460Trp polymorphism and salt-sensitive hypertension. Not much is known about the effects of the variants of this polymorphism on renal hemodynamics and function. Therefore, we performed the present study to investigate the effect of the 460Trp allele of the alpha-adducin gene on renal hemodynamics in one hundred and seventeen essential hypertensive patients who were put on a low and high sodium diet (randomized order). On the last day of each one-week dietary period, blood pressure, effective renal plasma flow (ERPF), glomerular filtration rate (GFR), and neurohormones were measured. Effective renal blood flow (ERBF), renal vascular resistance, and filtration fraction were calculated. ERPF, ERBF, and GFR were lower in patients homozygous for the 460Trp allele compared with patients with the Gly460Gly genotype on low sodium diet but no differences were found at the higher sodium intake. On the other hand, levels of atrial natriuretic peptide were significantly higher in patients with the Trp460Trp genotype as compared with patients with the Gly460Gly genotype on both diets. In multivariate analysis, Trp460Trp genotype, age, and mean arterial pressure were predictors of ERPF, whereas Trp460Trp genotype and age were predictors of GFR during the phase of low sodium diet. The present study shows that the Trp460Trp genotype is significantly associated with reduced renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rate as compared with the wild-type variant