The validity of the Gammarus:Asellus ratio as an index of organic pollution: abiotic and biotic influences.

In freshwaters. Gammarus spp. are more sensitive to organic pollution than Asellus spp. and the relative abundance of the two taxa has been proposed as a pollution index. We tested the validity of this by examining the relationship between the Gammarus: Asellus (G : A) ratio and (1) a suite of physico-chemical variables. (2) established biotic (average score per taxon, ASPT) and richness (species richness (S) and Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera families richness (EPT family richness)) indices generated from the macroinvertebrate community. In addition, we investigated a suspected biotic interaction, predation, between Gammarus and Asellus. Both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that the G: A ratio was sometimes responsive to changes in parameters linked to organic pollution, such as BOD5 and nitrate levels. However, the G : A ratio also appeared responsive to variables not directly linked to organic pollution, such as conductivity and distance from source. There were significant positive correlations among the G : A ratio and the ASPT, S and EPT, indicating that changes in the relative abundances of Gammarus and Asellus were reflected in changes in the pollution sensitivity and richness of the wider macroinvertebrate community. A laboratory experiment revealed significant predation of Asellus aquaticus juveniles by Gammarus duebeni celticus adults, but no reciprocal predation. We propose that the G: A ratio may be useful as a crude measure of organic pollution that could supplement more complex indices in a multimetric approach to pollution monitoring or be used for monitoring individual sites, where a simple technique is required for monitoring purposes over a period of time. Also, we urge recognition of the possible role of biotic interactions among taxa used in the generation of pollution indices.     

Influence of habitat heterogeneity and bed surface complexity on benthic invertebrate diversity in a gravel‐bed river

Maintaining or restoring physical habitat diversity is a central tenet of sustainable river management, yet a link between habitat and ecological diversity in fluvial systems has long remained equivocal. The lack of consistent evidence partly reflects the problems of characterizing habitat in ways that are ecologically meaningful. This paper assesses the influence of habitat heterogeneity and complexity on macroinvertebrate assemblages in a mountain gravel‐bed river. With the use of 0.1‐m resolution data obtained from an acoustic Doppler current profiler, heterogeneity and complexity in hydraulic conditions and bed topography were characterized using 13 metrics applied to 30 areas, each 1 m², with an invertebrate sample collected from each area. Turnover of invertebrate taxa (i.e., β‐diversity) between sampled areas was rather limited, but observed differences in diversity were related significantly to several metrics of habitat heterogeneity. Invertebrate abundance was related to habitat diversity, patch size coefficient of variation, and patch size, whereas the Shannon diversity was related to the number of patches and patch size. None of the habitat complexity metrics accounted for a significant amount of observed variation in invertebrate communities between sampled areas. The paper demonstrates that high‐resolution data can help reveal relationships between habitat and benthic invertebrate diversity.     

Coagulation Factor XIIIa and Activated Protein C Activate Platelets via GPVI and PAR1

Platelet and coagulation activation are highly reciprocal processes driven by multi-molecular interactions. Activated platelets secrete several coagulation factors and expose phosphatidylserine, which supports the activation of coagulation factor proteins. On the other hand, the coagulation cascade generates known ligands for platelet receptors, such as thrombin and fibrin. Coagulation factor (F)Xa, (F)XIIIa and activated protein C (APC) can also bind to platelets, but the functional consequences are unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of the activated (anti)coagulation factors on platelets, other than thrombin. Multicolor flow cytometry and aggregation experiments revealed that the ‘supernatant of (hirudin-treated) coagulated plasma’ (SCP) enhanced CRP-XL-induced platelet responses, i.e., integrin α_IIbβ₃ activation, P-selectin exposure and aggregate formation. We demonstrated that FXIIIa in combination with APC enhanced platelet activation in solution, and separately immobilized FXIIIa and APC resulted in platelet spreading. Platelet activation by FXIIIa was inhibited by molecular blockade of glycoprotein VI (GPVI) or Syk kinase. In contrast, platelet spreading on immobilized APC was inhibited by PAR1 blockade. Immobilized, but not soluble, FXIIIa and APC also enhanced in vitro adhesion and aggregation under flow. In conclusion, in coagulation, factors other than thrombin or fibrin can induce platelet activation via GPVI and PAR receptors.     

Portfolio and investment risk analysis on global grids

The financial services industry today produces and consumes huge amounts of data and the processes involved in analysing these data have large and complex resource requirements. The need to analyse the data using such processes and get meaningful results in time, can be met only up to a certain extent by current computer systems. Most service providers attempt to increase efficiency and quality of their service offerings by stacking up more hardware and employing better algorithms for data processing. However, there is a limit to the gains achieved by using such an approach. One viable alternative would be to use emerging technologies such as the Grid. Grid computing and its application to various domains have been actively studied by many groups for more than a decade now. In this paper we explore the use of the Grid in the financial services domain; an area which we believe has not been adequately looked into.     

Developer Contributions and Infrastructure Funding

A developer is a person who makes an investment in the built environment. In doing this the developer applies entrepreneurial skills and takes risks related to whether the market has been read correctly and whether costs have been accurately estimated. Potentially, there are significant benefits to the community through investment in the built environment, therefore appropriate development is to be encouraged. Developers deserve a reasonable return on their investment.     

A transmitter IC for TETRA systems based on a Cartesian feedback loop linearization technique

A fully integrated linearized transmitter for the next generation TETRA systems for PMR and public safety applications in a CMOS-based SiGe technology is described. The presented single-chip transmitter employs a Cartesian feedback loop technique in order to improve the linearity of the externally connected power amplifier. The transmitter is usable in a frequency range from 300 MHz up to 800 MHz, providing a linearity improvement of more than 40 dB.     

Walking through CS AKTive Space: a demonstration of an integrated Semantic Web application

We describe CS AKTive Space, an integrated semantic web application and winner of the 2003 Semantic Web Challenge [http://www.challenge.semanticweb.org/]. A demonstration of the application is available at http://cs.aktivespace.org/. CS AKTive Space represents and integrates a wide range of heterogenous resources representing the computer science domain in the UK; it supports the exploration of patterns and implications inherent in the content and exploits a variety of services, visualisations and multidimensional representations to support questions like who is working with whom, where are there geographical concentrations in funding or research area, who are the most significant researchers in an area. We briefly show how this demonstration illustrates a number of substantial challenges for the Semantic Web. These include problems of referential integrity, tractable inference and interaction support. We review our approaches to these issues and discuss relevant related work.     

The p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase associates with the Fc receptor gamma-chain and linker for activitor of T cells (LAT) in platelets stimulated by collagen and convulxin

There is extensive evidence to show that phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase plays an important role in signaling by the immune family of receptors, which has recently been extended to include the platelet collagen receptor, glycoprotein VI. In this report we present two potential mechanisms for the regulation of this enzyme on stimulation of platelets by collagen. We show that on stimulation with collagen, the regulatory subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase associates with the tyrosine-phosphorylated form of the adapter protein linker for activator of T Cells (LAT) and the tyrosine-phosphorylated immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif of the Fc receptor gamma-chain (a component of the collagen receptor complex that includes glycoprotein VI). The associations of the Fc receptor gamma-chain and LAT with p85 are rapid and supported by the Src-homology 2 domains of the regulatory subunit. We did not obtain evidence to support previous observations that the regulatory subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase is regulated through association with the tyrosine kinase Syk. The present results provide a molecular basis for the regulation of the p85/110 form of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase by GPVI, the collagen receptor that underlies activation.