LAY ENCROACHMENTS ON THE LEGAL PROFESSION

The holding of the Minnesota supreme court in the Otterness case that: Neither a corporation nor a layman, not admitted to practise, can practise law, nor indirectly practise law by hiring a licensed attorney to practise law for others for the benefit or profit of such hirer is one of many recent judicial pronouncements in defense of the legal profession. These decisions may prompt many individuals to ask why there should be a professional monopoly in the practise of law. Governmental restraint against free and unregulated practise of law is not for the purpose of advancing the individual interests of the lawyers, but for the protection of the public. Although in certain instances members have been regarded as having a property interest in their profession, non-members are denied the privilege of practising only for the common good

Clathrin promotes incorporation of cargo into coated pits by activation of the AP2 adaptor mu 2 kinase

Endocytic cargo such as the transferrin receptor is incorporated into clathrin-coated pits by associating, via tyrosine-based motifs, with the AP2 complex. Cargo-AP2 interactions occur via the mu2 subunit of AP2, which needs to be phosphorylated for endocytosis to occur. The most likely role for mu2 phosphorylation is in cargo recruitment because mu2 phosphorylation enhances its binding to internalization motifs. Here, we investigate the control of mu2 phosphorylation. We identify clathrin as a specific activator of the mu2 kinase and, in permeabilized cells, we show that ligand sequestration, driven by exogenous clathrin, results in elevated levels of mu2 phosphorylation. Furthermore, we show that AP2 containing phospho-mu2 is mainly associated with assembled clathrin in vivo, and that the level of phospho-mu2 is strongly reduced in a chicken B cell line depleted of clathrin heavy chain. Our results imply a central role for clathrin in the regulation of cargo selection via the modulation of phospho-mu2 levels

Thermal oxidative degradation reactions of perfluoroalklethers

The objective of this contract was to investigate the mechanisms operative in thermal and thermal oxidative degradation of Fomblin Z and hexafluoropropene oxide derived fluids and the effect of alloys and additives upon these processes. The nature of arrangements responsible for the inherent thermal oxidative instability of the Fomblin Z fluids has not been established. It was determined that this behavior was not associated with hydrogen end-groups or peroxy linkages. The degradation rate of these fluids at elevated temperatures in oxidizing atmospheres was found to be dependent on the surface/volume ratio. Once a limiting ratio was reached, a steady rate appeared to be attained. Based on elemental analysis and oxygen consumption data, -CF2OCF2CF2O-, not -CF2CF2O-, is one of the major arrangements present. The action of the M-50 and Ti(4 Al, 4 Mn) alloys was found to be much more drastic in the case of Fomblin Z fluids than that observed for the hexalfuoropropane oxide derived materials. The effectiveness of antioxidation/anticorrosion additives, P-3 and phospha-s-triazine, in the presence of metal alloys was very limited at 316 C; at 288 C the additives arrested almost completely the fluid degradation. The phospha-s-triazine appeared to be at least twice as effective as the P-3 compound; it also protected the coupon better. The Ti(4 Al, 4 Mn) alloy degraded the fluid mainly by chain scission processes; this took place to a much lesser degree with M-50

TAG1 regulates the endocytic trafficking and signaling of the semaphorin3A receptor complex.

Endocytic trafficking of membrane proteins is essential for neuronal structure and function. We show that Transient Axonal Glycoprotein 1 (TAG1 or CNTN2), a contactin-related adhesion molecule, plays a central role in the differential trafficking of components of the semaphorin3A (Sema3A) receptor complex into distinct endosomal compartments in murine spinal sensory neuron growth cones. The semaphorin3A receptor is composed of Neuropilin1 (NRP1), PlexinA4, and L1, with NRP1 being the ligand-binding component. TAG1 interacts with NRP1, causing a change in its association with L1 in the Sema3A response such that L1 is lost from the complex following Sema3A binding. Initially, however, L1 and NRP1 endocytose together and only become separated intracellularly, with NRP1 becoming associated with endosomes enriched in lipid rafts and colocalizing with TAG1 and PlexinA4. When TAG1 is missing, NRP1 and L1 fail to separate and NRP1 does not become raft associated; colocalization with PlexinA4 is reduced and Plexin signaling is not initiated. These observations identify a novel role for TAG1 in modulating the intracellular sorting of signaling receptor complexes

Cytosol- and clathrin-dependent stimulation of endocytosis in vitro by purified adaptors.

Using stage-specific assays for receptor-mediated endocytosis of transferrin (Tfn) into perforated A431 cells we show that purified adaptors stimulate coated pit assembly and ligand sequestration into deeply invaginated coated pits. Late events in endocytosis involving membrane fission and coated vesicle budding which lead to the internalization of Tfn are unaffected. AP2, plasma membrane adaptors, are active at physiological concentrations, whereas AP1, Golgi adaptors, are inactive. Adaptor-dependent stimulation of Tfn sequestration requires cytosolic clathrin, but is unaffected by clathrin purified from coated vesicles suggesting that soluble and assembled clathrin pools are functionally distinct. In addition to adaptors and cytosolic clathrin other, as yet unidentified, cytosolic factors are also required for efficient coated pit invagination. These results provide new insight into the mechanisms and regulation of coated pit assembly and invagination

Formation of coated vesicles from coated pits in broken A431 cells

Biochemical and morphological techniques were used to demonstrate the early steps in the endocytosis of transferrin in broken A431 cells. After binding 125I-transferrin, the cells were broken by scraping and then warmed. 125I-transferrin became inaccessible to exogenous anti-transferrin antibody providing a measure of the internalization process. Parallel morphological experiments using transferrin coupled to horseradish peroxidase confirmed internalization in broken cells. The process was characterized and compared with endocytosis in intact cells and showed many similar features. The system was used to show that both the appearance of new coated pits and the scission of coated pits to form coated vesicles were dependent on the addition of cytosol and ATP whereas invagination of pits was dependent on neither

Fiber-diffraction Interferometer using Coherent Fiber Optic Taper

We present a fiber-diffraction interferometer using a coherent fiber optic taper for optical testing in an uncontrolled environment. We use a coherent fiber optic taper and a single-mode fiber having thermally-expanded core. Part of the measurement wave coming from a test target is condensed through a fiber optic taper and spatially filtered from a single-mode fiber to be reference wave. Vibration of the cavity between the target and the interferometer probe is common to both reference and measurement waves, thus the interference fringe is stabilized in an optical way. Generation of the reference wave is stable even with the target movement. Focus shift of the input measurement wave is desensitized by a coherent fiber optic taper

Long range polarization attraction between two different likely charged macroions

It is known that in a water solution with multivalent counterions (Z-ions), two likely charged macroions can attract each other due to correlations of Z-ions adsorbed on their surfaces. This "correlation" attraction is short-ranged and decays exponentially with increasing distance between macroions at characteristic distance A/2\pi, where A is the average distance between Z-ions on the surfaces of macroions. In this work, we show that an additional long range "polarization" attraction exists when the bare surface charge densities of the two macroions have the same sign, but are different in absolute values. The key idea is that with adsorbed Z-ions, two insulating macroions can be considered as conductors with fixed but different electric potentials. Each potential is determined by the difference between the entropic bulk chemical potential of a Z-ion and its correlation chemical potential at the surface of the macroion determined by its bare surface charge density. When the two macroions are close enough, they get polarized in such a way that their adjacent spots form a charged capacitor, which leads to attraction. In a salt free solution this polarization attractive force is long ranged: it decays as a power of the distance between the surfaces of two macroions, d. The polarization force decays slower than the van der Waals attraction and therefore is much larger than it in a large range of distances. In the presence of large amount of monovalent salt, when A/2\pi<< d<< r_s (r_s is the Debye-H\"{u}ckel screening radius), this force is still much stronger than the van der Waals attraction and the correlation attraction mentioned above.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Small change in the text, no change in result