Environmental Flow Regimes for Dysidea avara Sponges

The aim of our research is to design tank systems to culture Dysidea avara for the production of avarol. Flow information was needed to design culture tanks suitable for effective production. Water flow regimes were characterized over a 1-year period for a shallow rocky sublittoral environment in the Northwestern Mediterranean where D. avara sponges are particularly abundant. Three-dimensional Doppler current velocities at 8¿10-m depths ranged from 5 to 15 cm/s over most seasons, occasionally spiking to 30¿66 cm/s. A thermistor flow sensor was used to map flow fields in close proximity (¿2 cm) to individual sponges at 4.5-, 8.8-, and 14.3-m depths. These ¿proximal flows¿ averaged 1.6 cm/s in calm seas and 5.9 cm/s during a storm, when the highest proximal flow (32.9 cm/s) was recorded next to a sponge at the shallowest station. Proximal flows diminished exponentially with depth, averaging 2.6 cm/s¿±¿0.15 SE over the entire study. Flow visualization studies showed that oscillatory flow (0.20¿0.33 Hz) was the most common regime around individual sponges. Sponges at the 4.5-m site maintained a compact morphology with large oscula year-around despite only seasonally high flows. Sponges at 8.8 m were more erect with large oscula on tall protuberances. At the lowest-flow 14.3-m site, sponges were more branched and heavily conulated, with small oscula. The relationship between sponge morphology and ambient flow regime is discussed

The relationship between local scalp skin temperature and cutaneous perfusion during scalp cooling

Cooling the scalp during administration of chemotherapy can prevent hair loss. It reduces both skin blood flow and hair follicle temperature, thus affecting drug supply and drug effect in the hair follicle. The extent to which these mechanisms contribute to the hair preservative effect of scalp cooling remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to establish a relationship between local scalp skin temperature and cutaneous blood flow during scalp cooling. We measured skin temperature and cutaneous perfusion during a cooling and re-warming experiment. Experiments on a single subject showed that the measurements were reproducible and that the response was identical for the two positions that were measured. Inter-subject variability was investigated on nine subjects. We found that for the first 10 °C of cooling, perfusion of the scalp skin decreases to below 40%. Perfusion can be further reduced to below 30% by a few degrees more cooling, but a plateau is reached after that. We found that a generally accepted relation in thermal physiology between temperature and perfusion (i.e. Q10 relation) does not describe the data well, but we found an alternative relation that describes the average behavior significantly better

Metallic mineral deposits

This account concentrates on the the primary metallic mineral deposits and occurrences in Sumatra, in particular the recent discoveries of gold, tin and base metals. The residual and placer deposits are given less emphasis, as no significant discoveries have been made in recent years. The history of mineral exploration and discovery in Indonesia has been reviewed recently by van Leeuwen (1993, 1994), documenting the change in emphasis of mineral-based activities from western to eastern Indonesia since the World War II. These studies bring up-to-date the classic account by van Bemmelen (1949), written when the mineral deposits in western Indonesia, particularly those in Sumatra, were among the better known and prior to 1942, important contributors to the Indonesian economy. The larger mineral deposits in southern Sumatra have been described briefly by Gafoer & Purbo-Hadiwidjoyo (1986), and are referred to in the regional descriptions of the mineral deposits of SE Asia by Hutchison & Taylor (1978) and Hutchison (1996). In wider-ranging reviews the geological setting of gold and base metal deposits in Indonesia have been discussed by Carlile & Mitchell (1994), while those of tin deposits in SE Asia are catalogued by Schwartz et al. (1995). Sumatra has long been known as a source of gold, the name of the island being derived from the Sanscrit word Svarnadvipa, meaning 'Golden Island', dating from the importance of gold deposits to the rulers of the Hindu kingdoms that flourished in Sumatra from the seventh until the eleventh century. The estimated total production of preciou

Attempted [2]Catenane Synthesis via a Quasi[1]catenane by a Templated Backfolding Strategy

A templated backfolding concept to construct a [2]catenane was attempted via a quasi[1]catenane showing an inverted spiro geometry. The template is covalently connected to the ketal-connected semi-perpendicular-arranged linear precursors and spatially directs the sterically congested backfolding macrocyclizations that are required to give a quasi[1]catenane. So far, we are unable to hydrolyze the cyclic ketal to liberate the [2]catenane

Occurrence and a possible mechanism of penetration of natural killer cells into k562 target cells during the cytotoxic interaction

The cytotoxic interaction between cloned human Natural Killer (NK) cells and K562 target cells was studied using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and conventional fluorescence microscopy. We observed, using fixed as well as living cells, the occurrence of (pseudo)emperipolesis during the interaction. About 30% of conjugated NK cells penetrated, partly or completely, into the target cells (in-conjugation). Virtually all in-conjugated target cells exhibited polymerized actin. Killer cells of in-conjugates were frequently seen approaching the target cell nucleus or aligning along it. If the cytotoxic process was inhibited by the absence of calcium neither actin polymerization nor in-conjugation were observed. A kinetic study showed that in-conjugation starts somewhat later than actin polymerization but still within a few minutes after addition of calcium to conjugates previously formed in the absence of calcium. The presence of cytochalasin D (an inhibitor of actin polymerization) completely inhibited in-conjugation and partly reduced the cytotoxic activity. Zinc ions (endonuclease inhibition) inhibited in-conjugation and decreased the total number of target cells with polymerized actin in a concentration dependent manner. Cytotoxic activity was also reduced but not as efficiently as in-conjugation. \ud Our study demonstrates that in-conjugation represents a significant fraction of the cytotoxic interaction. The results indicate that it may be a consequence of an actin polymerization and endonuclease activity dependent part of a cytotoxic mechanism. \u

Genome sequences of 10 new carnation mottle virus variants

Here, we report the genome sequences of 10 Carnation mottle virus variants. Six variants originated from a single proprietary carnation cultivar, and four were derived from four different proprietary cultivars. All variants showed nucleotide differences, but the last four did not show any variation at the amino acid level

The association between threat and politics simultaneously depends on the type of threat, the political domain, and the country

Theories link threat with right-wing political beliefs. We use the World Values Survey (60,378 participants) to explore how six types of threat (e.g., economic, violence, and surveillance) are associated with multiple political beliefs (e.g., cultural, economic, and ideological identification) in 56 countries/territories. Multilevel models with individuals nested in countries revealed that the threat-political belief association depends on the type of threat, the type of political beliefs, and the country. Economic-related threats tended to be associated with more left-wing economic political beliefs and violence-related threats tended to be associated with more cultural right-wing beliefs, but there were exceptions to this pattern. Additional analyses revealed that the associations between threat and political beliefs were different across countries. However, our analyses identified few country characteristics that could account for these cross-country differences. Our findings revealed that political beliefs and perceptions of threat are linked, but that the relationship is not simple. Keywords: Ideology, Belief Systems, Threat, Cultur