Charge： Glowing in the Dark

Many areas of structure analysis have focused on finding the locations of the atoms. If, instead of the atoms, we knew the positions of the electrons we would in fact know much more, and in most respects knowing where the nuclei are is not important. There is a long history of measurements using precise electron diffraction or X-ray diffraction of the average charge density in materials, but extending beyond to local charge density is, as yet, an unexplored area.     

National survey of blindness and low vision in Lebanon

Here we report a case that presented with sudden onset of neurological symptoms and was treated with ganciclovir. Polymerase chain reaction analysis for human herpes virus-6 (HHV-6) from his cerebrospinal fluid was later found to be positive. He subsequently recovered with minimal residual neurological symptoms. Encephalitis secondary to this virus may be more common than previously thought in patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation. This condition should be considered in the differential diagnosis of sudden onset neurological symptoms after bone marrow transplantation.     

Reliability and validity of the measurement of position sense in women with osteoarthritis of the knee

OBJECTIVE: We examined the test-retest reliability and the construct validity of the measurement of knee position sense for describing the functional weightbearing performance of women with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. METHODS: For the purpose of this study, position sense was defined as the error occurring when subjects attempted to reproduce a criterion angle in standing with visual cues eliminated. Five such tests were recorded photographically on 3 different occasions. On each occasion the 10 subjects also completed a self-paced walking test over a 13 m indoor walkway. RESULTS: The photographic measurements were reproducible (r = 0.90) and there was no change in positioning accuracy across sessions. There was a significant (p < 0.05) inverse correlation of 0.70 between the standard deviation of the mean individual measurements of position sense (precision of the test) and those of walking speed. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates good measurement reliability and a comparable mean angular error with repeated tests. It also suggests the amplitude of the variability of this error is a strong determinant of an individual OA patient's functional performance in walking.     

The need for style systems in ODA

Many advanced document systems provide a formatting mechanism called ‘style sheets’ Style sheets provide a great deal of flexibility in describing a document's format, and allow easy maintenance of different house styles for a collection of documents. In this paper, we describe the basics of general style sheet systems, argue that successful document interchange must include the exchange of style sheet information, and evaluate ODA's style mechanism against this requirement.     

Crystal structure of tyrosine hydroxylase at 2.3 A and its implications for inherited neurodegenerative diseases

Tyrosine hydroxylase (TyrOH) catalyzes the conversion of tyrosine to L-DOPA, the rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of the catecholamines dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. TyrOH is highly homologous in terms of both protein sequence and catalytic mechanism to phenylalanine hydroxylase (PheOH) and tryptophan hydroxylase (TrpOH). The crystal structure of the catalytic and tetramerization domains of TyrOH reveals a novel alpha-helical basket holding the catalytic iron and a 40 A long anti-parallel coiled coil which forms the core of the tetramer. The catalytic iron is located 10 A below the enzyme surface in a 17 A deep active site pocket and is coordinated by the conserved residues His 331, His 336 and Glu 376. The structure provides a rationale for the effect of point mutations in TyrOH that cause L-DOPA responsive parkinsonism and Segawa's syndrome. The location of 112 different point mutations in PheOH that lead to phenylketonuria (PKU) are predicted based on the TyrOH structure.     

Particle-bombardment-mediated DNA vaccination with rotavirus VP4 or VP7 induces high levels of serum rotavirus IgG but fails to protect mice against challenge

We recently reported that epidermal immunization using the PowderJet particle delivery device with plasmid vector pcDNA1/EDIM6 encoding rotavirus VP6 of murine strain EDIM induced high levels of serum rotavirus IgG but failed to protect mice against EDIM infection (Choi, A. H., Knowlton, D. R., McNeal, M. M., and Ward, R. L. (1997) Virology 232, 129-138.). This was extended to determine whether pcDNA1/EDIM4 or pcDNA1/EDIM7, which encode either rotavirus VP4 or VP7, the rotavirus neutralization proteins, could also induce rotavirus-specific antibody responses and if these responses resulted in protection. Titers of rotavirus serum IgG increased with the first dose in mice immunized with pcDNA1/EDIM7, but little or no serum rotavirus IgG was detected in mice immunized with pcDNA1/EDIM4. In vitro assays with these plasmids in rabbit reticulocyte lysates showed that VP4 was expressed but the amount was considerably lower than VP6 or VP7. To improve expression of VP4 and induction of rotavirus-specific humoral responses, the coding region of VP4 was cloned into the high-expression plasmid WRG7054 as a fusion protein containing the 22-amino-acid secretory signal peptide of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) at its N terminus. In vitro expression of tPA::VP4 was significantly higher than unmodified VP4, and mice inoculated with WRG7054/EDIM4 generated high titers of rotavirus IgG. The coding sequence of VP7 without the first 162 nucleotides was also cloned into WRG7054, but no difference was observed between titers of serum rotavirus IgG in mice immunized with this plasmid (WRG7054/EDIM7Delta1-162) and pcDNA1/EDIM7. The rotavirus-specific IgG titers in all immune sera were predominantly IgG1 indicating induction of Th 2-type responses. None of the mice immunized with any of the VP4 or VP7 plasmids developed serum or fecal rotavirus IgA or neutralizing antibody to EDIM. When immunized mice were challenged with EDIM virus, there was no significant reduction in viral shedding relative to unimmunized controls. Therefore epidermal immunization with VP4 or VP7 alone elicited rotavirus IgG responses but did not protect against homologous rotavirus challenge.     

Evolution of peptides that modulate the spectral qualities of bound, small-molecule fluorophores

BACKGROUND: Fluorophore dyes are used extensively in biomedical research to sensitively assay cellular constituents and physiology. We have created, as proof of principle, fluorophore dye binding peptides that could have applications in fluorescent dye-based approaches in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: A panel of Texas red, Rhodamine red, Oregon green 514 and fluorescein binding peptides, termed here 'fluorettes', was selected via biopanning of a combinatorial library of 12-mer peptides fused to a minor coat pIII protein of the filamentous bacteriophage M13. The 'best' fluorette sequences from each of the groups were subjected to further mutagenesis, followed by a second biopanning to select a new generation of improved fluorettes. Phage were selected that had higher avidity for each fluorophore except Rhodamine red. Of these, peptides were characterized that could specifically and with high affinity bind at least one dye, Texas red, in solution. In addition, the binding of certain peptides to Texas red shifted the peak excitation and/or the emission spectra of the bound dye. CONCLUSIONS: Peptides in the context of phage display could readily be selected that could bind to small-molecule fluorophores. The affinities of selected mutant fluorettes could be increased by mutation and further selection. Only a subset of the free peptides could bind free dyes in solution, suggesting that phage context contributed to the selection and ability of certain peptidic regions to independently bind the dyes. Future screens might lead to the creation of other dye-binding peptides with novel characteristics or Texas red derivatives with cross-linking substituents might be designed to increase the utility of the system.     

Semantic priming after severe closed head trauma: Automatic and attentional processes.

The 2-process theory of semantic priming (J. H. Neely, 1977; M. I. Posner and C. R. Snyder, 1975) was used to determine the maintenance of automatic processes after severe closed head injury (CHI) and to determine whether processes that demand attention suffer a deficit. Ss with severe CHI (N?=?18,?>?2 yrs postinjury) and 18 matched control Ss completed a lexical decision task in which a category prime was followed by a target. Automatic and attentional priming were determined by orthogonally varying prime–target relatedness, expectancy, and stimulus onset asynchrony. Although the CHI Ss had slower reaction times (RTs) overall, there were no significant group differences in the magnitude of either the automatic or attentional component of semantic priming. The present results indicate the integrity of semantic processes and normal semantic priming in long-term patients with severe CHI. The results are discussed in relation to an attentional resource hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)