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Introduction: The prognosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is poor using common chemotherapeutic approaches. However, during the last years encouraging results of recently introduced tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) such as vandetanib have been published. In this study we aimed to correlate the results of \(^{18}\)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ([\(^{18}\)F]FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with treatment outcome.
Methods: Eighteen patients after thyroidectomy with recurrent/advanced MTC lesions receiving vandetanib (300 mg orally/day) could be analysed. A baseline \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET prior to and a follow-up \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET 3 months after TKI initiation were performed. During follow-up, tumor progression was assessed every 3 months including computed tomography according to RECIST. Progression-free survival (PFS) was correlated with the maximum standardized uptake value of \(^{18}\)F-FDG in lymph nodes (SUV(LN)max) or visceral metastases (SUV(MTS)max) as well as with clinical parameters using ROC analysis.
Results: Within median 3.6 years of follow-up, 9 patients showed disease progression at median 8.5 months after TKI initiation. An elevated glucose consumption assessed by baseline \(^{18}\)F-FDG PET (SUV(LN)max > 7.25) could predict a shorter PFS (2 y) with an accuracy of 76.5% (SUV(LN)max <7.25, 4.3 y; p=0.03). Accordingly, preserved tumor metabolism in the follow-up PET (SUV(MTS)max >2.7) also demonstrated an unfavorable prognosis (accuracy, 85.7%). On the other hand, none of the clinical parameters reached significance in response prediction.
Conclusions: In patients with advanced and progressive MTC, tumors with higher metabolic activity at baseline are more aggressive and more prone to progression as reflected by a shorter PFS; they should be monitored more closely. Preserved glucose consumption 3 months after treatment initiation was also related to poorer prognosis.
T-pattern analysis supports studies of various aspects of human or animal behavior as well as interaction between human subjects and animal or artificial agents. The following proceedings give an overiew on the application of T-pattern analysis in different research fields like media, gaming, human behaviour, social and organisational interaction as well as sports and health.
The International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine and Food (ISPMF2015), organized by the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) and the Phytochemical Society of Asia (PSA), was held June 26-29, 2015, in Shanghai of China. This was the first time that a PSE meeting has been held in Asia and a PSE-PSA joint symposium provided an opportunity for communication between scientists from Europe and Asia and other continents. ISPMF2015 has been jointly sponsored by Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Guizhou Medical University, Shanghai Normal University, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Beijing Normal University, and Fudan University. More than 270 scientists from 48 countries attended this meeting and presented their research and opinions on phytochemistry, phytomedicine and phytoneering. The international organizing committee and scientific advisory board of ISPMF 2015 comprised of outstanding scientists from around the globe. Dr. Jianbo Xiao was the chairman of the International Organizing Committee of ISPMF2015 and moderated the open address on June 26.
The organizing committee of ISPMF2015 assembled an exciting and diverse program, featuring 16 sessions including 12 plenary lectures, 20 invited talks, 55 short oral presentations, and more than 130 posters, which were dedicated to creating a podium for exchanging the latest research results in the phytochemicals for food and human health.
A simple test setup has been developed at Institute of Aerospace Information Technology, University of Würzburg, Germany to realize basic functionalities for formation flight of quadrocopters. The test environment is planned to be utilized for developing and validating the algorithms for formation flying capability in real environment as well as for education purpose. An already existing test bed for single quadrocopter was extended with necessary inter-communication and distributed control mechanism to test the algorithms for formation flights in 2 degrees of freedom (roll / pitch). This study encompasses the domain of communication, control engineering and embedded systems programming. Bluetooth protocol has been used for inter-communication between two quadrocopters. A simple approach of PID control in combination with Kalman filter has been exploited. MATLAB Instrument Control Toolbox has been used for data display, plotting and analysis. Plots can be drawn in real-time and received information can also be stored in the form of files for later use and analysis. The test setup has been developed indigenously and at considerably low cost. Emphasis has been placed on simplicity to facilitate students learning process. Several lessons have been learnt during the course of development of this setup. Proposed setup is quite flexible that can be modified as per changing requirements.
Based on the results of a 3-day workshop at the Brown University (2012) this white paper tries to sum up important topics and problems which came up in the presentations and discussions and to outline some general aspects of data modeling in digital humanities. Starting with an attempt to define data modeling it introduces distinctions like curation-driven vs. research-driven for a more general description of data modeling. The second part discusses specific problems and challenges of data modeling in the Humanities, while the third part outlines practical aspects, like the creation of data models or their evaluation.
Zhao Ji (1082-1135), better known as Emperor Huizong (r. 1100-1126) of the Southern Song Dynasty (960-1127) gained a reputation as supreme perfectionist as artist, art collector and connoisseur, a ruler devoted to the faith of Daoism, squandering a fortune on building palaces and halls and on landscape gardening. A famous example of his costly ‘folie de grandeur’ is the Sacred Northeast Mountain Peak Genyue, a gigantic rock garden in the northeast part of the Old City of the capital Kaifeng. The garden is described in sources such as the Huayanggong jishi (Description of the Florescent Solitary Palace) by the Buddhist monk Zu Xiu from 1127 and Zhang Hao’s (ca. 1180-1250) Genyue ji (Record of the Northeast Marchmount). The project in search of auspicious blessing started in 1118, having originated in the emperor’s conviction that the Daoist Immortals would descend to this exquisite paradise situated in the centre of the world, his capital. In his conviction the landscape garden that exceeded nature’s beauty would prolong and glorify his rule for ten thousand years. The Genyue was completed in January 1123, and thus became part of Emperor Huizong’s Divine Empyrean Daoist ideology of statecraft. Contrary to all auspicious symbolism, the Song’s emblematic demonstrations of power, and the necessity to meet political expectations, Emperor Huizong proved incapable of finding a solution to the disastrous situation at the northern frontier with Jin troupes moving onto his capital. Completed in 1123 the Genyue Marchmount was destroyed in the cold winter of 1126/1127 by the inhabitants of Kaifeng in their desperate struggle for survival in their besieged town.
Despite the internet's dynamic and collaborative nature, scientists continue to produce grant proposals, lab notebooks, data files, conclusions etc. that stay in static formats or are not published online and therefore not always easily accessible to the interested public. Because of limited adoption of tools that seamlessly integrate all aspects of a research project (conception, data generation, data evaluation, peerreviewing and publishing of conclusions), much effort is later spent on reproducing or reformatting individual entities before they can be repurposed independently or as parts of articles.
We propose that workflows - performed both individually and collaboratively - could potentially become more efficient if all steps of the research cycle were coherently represented online and the underlying data were formatted, annotated and licensed for reuse. Such a system would accelerate the process of taking projects from conception to publication stages and allow for continuous updating of the data sets and their interpretation as well as their integration into other independent projects.
A major advantage of such work ows is the increased transparency, both with respect to the scientific process as to the contribution of each participant. The latter point is important from a perspective of motivation, as it enables the allocation of reputation, which creates incentives for scientists to contribute to projects. Such work ow platforms offering possibilities to fine-tune the accessibility of their content could gradually pave the path from the current static mode of research presentation into a more coherent practice of open science.
K-Ar dating on hornblendes and micas from the TepläDomazlice zone revealed a pattern of dates which significantly deviates from the mid-Carboniferous to early Permian one that is found in the adjacent low-pressure metamorphic Moldanubian and Saxothuringian. Especially for the Mariänske Läzne metabasic complex, confirming early Czech determinations, the dates resemble the early Devonian pattern determined for the Münchberg Gneiss Massif and the Erbendorf-Vohenstrauß zone of northeastern Bavaria. This supports the idea that all three units are remnants of a huge complex which suffered a metamorphic overprint under medium-pressure conditions, probably in the early Devonian. Streng rejuvenation is found in the southern part of the Teplä-Domailice zone by which micas and even two hornblendes were reset to mid-Carboniferous ages. According to the geological setting, part of the apparently preDevonian dates may be explained by inherited argon from earlier metamorphic and magmatic events, e.g. the high-pressure metamorphism documented in eclogitic relics. However, excess argon, caused by the mid-Carboniferous overprint cannot be excluded.
Various amphibolites, metagabbros and eclogitic relics of the Mariänske Läzne complex, and amphibolites from the Cernä Hora Massif exhibit an uniform geochemical character which compares weil with modern mid-ocean ridge basalts. Geochemically these metabasites are similar to the amphibolites of the Myto area and to schistose, partly striped amphibolites of the neighbouring Tirschenreuth-Mähring Zone and the Erbendorf-Vohenstrauss Zone (Bavaria). Greenschists and amphibolites from the Domazlice metamorphic complex show an alkaline-basaltic tendency conforming to modern within-plate basalts or basalts from anomalaus midocean ridge segments. In their chemical character, these metabasites compare weil with the flaseramphibolites of the Erbendorf-Vohenstrauss Zone. Fine-grained amphibolites in the Warzenrieth area and (gabbro-) amphibolites in the Blätterberg-Hoher Bogen area show normal MORB character. The metamorphosed gabbroic rocks in the southern part of the Neukirchen-Kdyne (meta-) igneous complex are subalkaline - tholeiitic and exhibit a magmatic differentiation trend. They differ from the neighbouring amphibolites by generally lower contents of incompatible elements.
To study the activation of HIV by human spumaretrovirus (HSRV) the long terminal repeats (LTRs) of HSRV, HIVl and HIV2 were examined with respect to their ability to function as transcriptional promoters in virus infected and uninfected cells. Transient transfections using plasmids in which the L TRs of the three viruses were coupled to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CA T) gene revealed (i) the level of cat gene expression directed by the HSRV LTR was markedly increased in HSRV infected cells compared to uninfected cells, (ii) cat gene expression driven by the HIV1 LTR, but not by the HIV2 LTR could be enhanced upon HSRV infection, whereas (iii) neither in HIV1 nor in HIV2 infected cells an effect on HSRV LTR driven cat geneexpression was detected.
Neoplasia in Xiphophorus can be classified into: a) a Jarge group triggered by carcinogens; b) a large group triggered by promoters; and c) a small group that develops "spontaneously" according to Mendelian Jaw. The process leading to susceptibility for neoplasia is represented by the disintegration of gene systems that normally protect the fish from neoplasia. Interpopulational arid interracial hybridization is the most effective process that Ieads to disintegration of the protective gene systems. Environmental factors may complete disintegration in somatic cells and thus may trigger neoplasia. The applications of the findings on Xiphophorus to humans are discussed.
The capacity of Xiphophorus to develop neoplasia can be formally assigned to a "tumor gene" (Tu), which appears to be a normal part of the genome of all individuals. The wild fish have evolved population-specific and cell type-specific systems of regulatory genes (R) for Tu that protect the fish from neoplasia. Hybridization of members of different wild populations in the laborstory followed by treatment of the hybrids with carcinogens led to disintegration of the R systems permitting excessive expression of Tu and thus resulting in neoplasia. Certain hybrids developed neoplasia even spontaneously. Observations on the genuine phenotypic effect of the derepressed Tu in the early embryo indicated an essential normal function of this oncogene in cell differentiation, proliferation and cell-cell communication. Tu appeared to be indispensable in the genome but may also be present in accessory copics. Recently, c-src, the cellular homolog of the Rous sarcoma virus oncogene v-src, was detected in Xiphophorus. The protein product of c-src, pp60c-src, was identified and then examined by its associated kinase activity. This pp60c-src was found in all individuals tested, but, depending on the genotype, its kinase activity was different. The genetic characters of c-src, such as linkage relations, dosage relations, expression, etc., correspond to those of Tu. From a systematic study which showed that pp60c-src was present in all metazoa tested ranging from mammals down to sponges, we concluded that c-src has evolved with the multicellular organization of animals. Neoplasia of animals and humans is a characteristic closely related to this evolution. Our data showed that small aquariurn fish, besides being used successfully because they are time-, space-, and money-saving systems for carcinogenicity testing, are also highly suitable for basic studies on neoplasia at the populational, morphological, developmental, cell biological, and molecular levels.
Characterization of the env gene and of two novel coding regions of the human spumaretrovirus
(1988)
Recombinant clones harboring retroviral DNA were established. The nucleotide sequence of the central and 3' region of the genome of the human spumaretrovirus was determined. The 5' end of the deduced protein sequence was homologaus to the endonuclease domain of retroviral reverse transcriptases. A small intergenic region is followed by a lang open reading frame of 985 aminoacid residues that according to its genomic location and structural features is a typical retroviral env gene. Surprisingly, the postenv region contains two open reading frames that encodes two novel retroviral genes, termed bel-l and bel-2. The 3' LTR is 963 nucleotides lang and contains the signal sequences characteristic for transcriptional regulation of retrovirus genomes.
Melanotic melanoma (MM) of Xiphophorus (Teleostei: Poeciliidae) was studied by conventional preparations and freeze-etch preparations for electron microscopy. MM of Xiphophorus exhibits tightly packed pigment cells with prominent dendritic processes and interdigitations of their plasma membranes. The most impressive feature of MM cells is the occurrence of Iarge lobulated nuclei with numerous nuclear pores and some nuclear pockets. Abundant spheroidal or ellipsoidal melanosomes (diameter 200-650 nm) and vesicular structures are distributed throughout the cellular dendrites, whereas the perinucJear cytoplasm is free of melanosomes.
A further characteristic feature of melanoma cells in fish is the occurrence of melanosome complexes (i.e., "compound melanosomes"). These melanosome complexes consist of a few to numerous melanosomes, which are enveloped by a separate rnembrane. Pinocytotic vesicles couJd be demonstrated with distinct differences in frequency and distribution patterns, indicating differences in the metabolic activities of the cells in the same melanoma. Intercellular junctions are lacking in the MM cells.
The conventional TEM technique showed clear advantages in the demonstration of intemal architecture of organelles, whereas FE bad considerable potential in respect to the visualization of membrane surface specializations.
Neoplasia in Xiphophorus can be classified into a) a large group that is triggered by carcinogens; b) a large group triggered by promoters; c) a small group that develops "spontaneously" following interpopulational and interracial hybridizations; and d) a small group that develops "spontaneously" following germ line mutation. The process leading to susceptibility for neoplasia is represented by the disintegration of gene systems that normally protect the fish from neoplasia. Hybridization is the most effective process that leads to disintegration of the protection gene systems. Environmental factors may complete disintegration and thus may trigger neoplasia. It is discussed whether the findings on Xiphophorus may also apply to humans.
The proceedings of the 8th Conference of the Media Psychology Division of the German Psychological Society hosted by the University of Wuerzburg from the 4th until the 6th of September 2013 contains the abstracts of the conference participants. Following the motto of the conference "Media Research: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" a large number of media-psychological topics was dealt with. Amongst others, participants presented their research on interactive learning, emotions, virtual agents and avatars, gaming, scientific communication, politics, motion pictures and entertainment, social media, methods, and persuasions.
The binding of tritiated benzo(a)pyrene (BP) to liver DNA of 25 adult male rats (SIV 50) has been determined 50 h after a single intraperitoneal injection of doses between 40 ug/kg and 4; mg/kg. The dose-response relations~ ip is linear up to i mg/kg, shows a sigmoid step towards 2 mg/kg and a shallow linear. slope above that value. TlJe 0 bserved bin ding ranges from 1.7 to 180 nmoles BP per mole DNA phosphate. The non-linearity between 1 and 2 mg/kg could be explained 0):1 the basis of an induction of metabolizing enzymes. A pure1y mathematical extrapolation of therumour incidence from a carcinogenic dose (1 x 40mg/kg for a 20% hepatoma incidence in newborn mice) to human exposure levels (aboilt 0.1 ug/kg per day) would never have followed a step like the on~ found in our experiments. Our dose-effect study therefore shows how carcinogenitity data could be extrapolated in a biologically founded way to low doses.
The influence of microsomal (mAHH) and nuclear (nAHH) aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase activity on the covalent binding of t:titiated benzo(a)pyrene to rat liver DNA was evaluated in vivo. Induction ofmAHH was obtained after phenobarbitone treatment (180% of control), which increased DNA binding to 210%, but left the nAHH unchanged. mAHH and nAHH were slightly indilced with dieldrin (130% and 120%), but the binding remairred unchanged. The increasing effect of mAHlt as weil as the possibly decreasing effect of nAHH induction on the binding became obvious when the data of 11 individual rats were used to solve the equation Binding = aX(mAHH) + bX(nAHH) + c. Multiple linear regression analysis resulted in positive values for a and c, a negative value for b, and a multiple correlation coefficient R = 0.82. An influence of other enzymes involved in the metabolism of benzo(a)pyrene cannot be excluded. The Study shows clearly that the binding of a foreign compound to DNA in vivo is not only dependent on microsomal enzyme activities but also on nuclear activities even if the latter are considerably lower than those of mic'rosomes.
Many mutagens and carcinogens act via covalent interaction of metabolic intermediates with DNA in the target cell. This report groups those structural elements which are often found to form the basis for a metabolism to such chemically reactive metabolites. ~mpounds which are chemically reactive per se and which do not require metabolic activation form group 1. Group 2 compri~es of olefins and aromatic hydrocarbons where the oxidation via an epoxide can be responsible for the generation of reactive species. Aromatic amines, hydrazines, and nitrosamirres form group 3 requiring an oxidation of a nitrogen atom or of a carbon atom in alpha position to a nitrosated amine. Group 4 compounds are halogenated hydrocarbons which can either give rise to radicals or can form an ·olefin (group 2) upon dehydrohalogenation. Group 5 compounds depend upon some preceding enzymatic activity either not available in the target cell or acting on positions in the molecule which are not directly involved in the subsequent formation of electrophilic atoms. Examples for each group are taken from the "List of Chemieals and Irrdustrial Processes Associated with Cancer in Humans" as compiled by the International Agency for the Research on Cancer, and it is shown that 91% of the organic carcinogens would have been detected on the basis of structural elements characteristic for group 1-5. As opposed to this very high sensitivity, the specificity ( the true negative fraction) of using this approach as a short-term test for carcinogenicity is shown to be bad because detoxification pathways have so far not been taken into account. These competing processes are so complex, however, that either only very extensive knowledge about pharmacokinetics, stability, and reactivity will be required or that in vivo systems have to be used to predict, on a quantitative basis, the darnage expected on the DNA. DNA-binding experiments in vivo are presented with benzene and toluene to demonstrate one possible way for an experimental assessment and it is shown that the detoxification reaction at the methyl group available only in toluene gives rise to a reduction by at least a factor of forty for the binding to rat liver DNA. This quantitative approach available with DNA-binding tests in vivo, also allows evaluation as to whether reactive metabolites and their DNA binding are always the most important single activities contributing to the overall carcinogenicity of a chemical. With the example of the livertumor inducing hexachlorocyclohexane isomers it is shown that situations will be found where reactive metabolites are formed and DNA binding in vivo is measurable but where this activity cannot be the decisive mode of carcinogenic action. It is concluded that the lack of structural elements known to become potentially reactive does not guarantee the lack of a carcinogenic potential.
no abstract available
no abstract available
Follow-ups across discourse domains: A cross-cultural exploration of their forms and functions
(2012)
The edited volume documents the proceedings of the ESF workshop "Follow-ups across discourse domains: a cross-cultural exploration of their forms and functions". It examines the forms and functions of the dialogue act of a follow-up, viz. accepting or challenging a prior communicative act, in political discourse across spoken and written dialogic genres. Specifically, it considers (1) the discourse domains of political interviews, editorials, op-eds and discussion forums, (2) their sequential organization as regards the status of initial (or 1st order) follow-up, a follow-up of a prior follow-up (2nd order follow-up), or nth-order follow-up, and (3) their discursive realization as regards degrees of indirectness and responsiveness which are conceptualized as a continuum along the lines of degrees of explicitness and degrees of responsiveness. The chapters come from the fields of linguistics, discourse analysis, socio-pragmatics, communication, political science and psychology, examining the heterogeneous field of political discourse and its manifestation in diverse discourse genres with respect to evasiveness, indirectness and redundancy in mediated political discourse, professional discourse, discourse identity and doing politics, to name but the most prominent questions.
For the EU “effective multilateralism” in, with and within international organisations is the foundation of a system of global governance, so is laid down in the ESS. Therefore the term is used to label the EU’s activities in the UN-family and to characterise the relations with the UN in the wider context of global governance. It is the political argument for the EU’s commitment in military crisis management, side by side with UN peacekeepers. The UN in turn speaks of multilateralism to call for the EU’s loyalty and partnership. Both organisations build their partnership on the common normative ground of multilateralism. The paper questions these rhetorical denominations critically. It goes beyond the political declarations to analyse the degree and quality of “effective multilateralism” in reality in and with international organisations, using the example of UN-EU-relations in military crisis management. The theoretical approach of multilateralism serves as the starting point of the analysis and theoretical basis of the paper (Chapter 1). The special EU-touch in “effective multilateralism” in comparison to the “UN-touch” is subject of Chapter 2. This analysis is necessary due to the meanwhile inflationary use of the term “effective multilateralism” in almost every CSFP context. Are the institutional steps to a partnership in crisis management as well as the operational collaboration in DR Congo (2003/2006/2009) and Chad/CAR (2008/2009) in line with “multilateralism”? is the question that is answered in the paper (Chapter 3).
Fulgurites (= natural glasses formed by lightning strikes to the ground) are indicators of thunderstorms (e.g. Julien 1901). The distribution pattern of fulgurites in the study area (Grand Erg de Bilma and Erg de Tenere between 11.5°E and 16.5° and 18.5°N) shows decreasing fulgurite concentration from south to north. The fulgurite sites are concentrated in the area of fossil dune complexes, where they occur topographically above palaeolimnic deposits in mid-slope position of interdune depressions.
In today's Internet, services are very different in their requirements on the underlying transport network. In the future, this diversity will increase and it will be more difficult to accommodate all services in a single network. A possible approach to cope with this diversity within future networks is the introduction of support for running isolated networks for different services on top of a single shared physical substrate. This would also enable easy network management and ensure an economically sound operation. End-customers will readily adopt this approach as it enables new and innovative services without being expensive. In order to arrive at a concept that enables this kind of network, it needs to be designed around and constantly checked against realistic use cases. In this contribution, we present three use cases for future networks. We describe functional blocks of a virtual network architecture, which are necessary to support these use cases within the network. Furthermore, we discuss the interfaces needed between the functional blocks and consider standardization issues that arise in order to achieve a global consistent control and management structure of virtual networks.
This project had two goals: (1) to examine the impact of strategy training on memory performance in German and American children, and (2) to search for environmental correlates of individual differences in cognitive processes. Following pretesting, 437 children were divided into training and control groups, with the former receiving training in clustering strategies. Trained children showed sizable strategy maintenance and transfer effects two weeks and six months later. Parents and teachers completed questionnaires about the teaching of strategies and their attributional beliefs about children's academic successes and failures. The differences in strategie behavior and attributions of German and American children were due, in part, to differences in strategy-enriched environments.
In accordance with various other studies. the present longitudinal study gave no clues for specific personality variables or traits 01' drug addicts. Personality factors did not allow a valid prediction of the kind 01' th~apy termination. nor were there clear deviations from the norm. Analyzed as a group. the addicts showed only minor changes that appeared over the course of treatment. These results correspond to data reported on alcohol dependency (cf. Wanke 1987). A more differentiated picture is gained when stable and changeable components of personality and analyzed separately. Changeable components are of special relevance for treatment. From the current study these were characteristics of action regulation, that is, activation and impulse control, social interaction, and somatic reactions (sleep disorders, bodily reactions to drug deprivation). For relapse prevention, attention should be given to stable, persistent, problematic components. Persistent suicidal ideas turned out to be one such aspect. Like the differentiation between state and trait anxiety, stable and variable components could also be separated for other domains of personality when they are used to describe the course of treatment. How can personality concepts and instruments for assessment be utilized for treatment? The claim of therapists to predict the outcome of a treatment may be realized for only a delimited period of time. Especially at such critical points as shortly before relapse, a firm prediction might be possible only rarely (Wanke 1987). Lack of predictability could be a warning which, however, can be verified only afterward. According to the current results, one benefit of personality concepts could be to specify targets of change on an individual basis and thus clarify effects of therapeutic interventions. Personality concepts can help patients to better understand their problems and to recognize changes as weil as persistent areas of vulnerability.
Pandinus imperator is a forest dweller of tropical West Africa. In the field, lobserved aggregations of up to 15 individuals. In the laboratory, mixed age groups of related and also unrelated animals lived jointly in terraria rarely showing within-group aggression or cannibalism. Brood-caring behavior of the mother influenced growth rate and survival probability of the young. With birth, mothers became very aggressive. To study family cohesion in Pandinus, experiments with family groups were conducted. Siblings aggregated around their mother. In choice experiments with two family groups, mothers were placed in enclosures that only the young were able to enter or to leave. Second instars significantly preferred the enclosure containing their own mother. Aggression among unrelated young of the same age was not observed. Feeding experiments studied the possible advantages of long-Iasting group living with regard to enhanced success in prey capture and its effect on growth of the young. Even groups of second instars were unable to subdue large prey on their own. Sibling groups with their mother removed suffered high mortality due to starvation and cannibalism compared to groups with mothers present. Here, young grew significantly faster: they shared the prey that only the mother was able to kill and dismember. Pandinus imperator has to be considered an intermediate subsocial scorpion.
Some decades ago it was noted by cytologists that within the interphase nucleus large portions of the transcriptionally ("genetically," in their terms) inactive chromosomal material are contained in aggregates of condensed chromatin, the "chromocenters," whereas transcriptionally active regions of chromosomes appear in a more dispersed form and are less intensely stained with DNA-directed staining procedures (Heitz 1929, 1932, 1956; Bauer 1933). The hypothesis that condensed chromatin is usually characterized by very low or no transcriptional activity, and that transcription occurs in loosely packed forms of chromatin (including, in most cells, the nucleolar chromatin) has received support from studies of ultrathin sections in the electron microscope and from the numerous attempts to separate transcriptionally active from inactive chromatin biochemically (for references, see Anderson et al. 1975; Berkowitz and Doty 1975; Krieg and Wells 1976; Rickwood and Birnie 1976; Gottesfeld 1977). Electron microscopic autoradiography has revealed that sites of RNA synthesis are enriched in dispersed chromatin regions located at the margins of condensed chromatin (Fakan and Bernhard 1971, 1973; Bouteille et al. 1974; Bachellerie et al. 1975) and are characterized by the occurrence of distinct granular and fibrillar ribonucleoprotein (RNP) structures, such as perichromatin granules and fibrils. The discovery that, in most eukaryotic nuclei, major parts of the chromatin are organized in the form of nucleosomes (Olins and Olins 1974; Kornberg 1974; Baldwin et al. 1975) has raised the question whether the same nucleosomal packing of DNA is also present in transcriptionally active chromatin strands. Recent detailed examination of the morphology of active and inactive chromatin involving a diversity of electron microscopic methods, particularly the spreading technique by Miller and coworkers (Miller and Beatty 1969; Miller and Bakken 1972), has indicated that the DNA of some actively transcribed regions is not packed into nucleosomal particles but is present in a rather extended form within a relatively thin (4-7 nm) chromatin fiber.
The \(\alpha\)-Sialyl-\(\beta\) 2-3-Galactosyl-specific adhesin (S adhesin) was isolated from cells of a recombinant Escherichia coli K-12 strain expressing the S-flmbrial adhesin complex. A crude cell extract was partiaUy dissociated into fimbriae and an adhesin-enriched fraction by heating to 7O°C. From the latter, adhesin was purified to apparent homogeneity (by fast protein liquid chromatography, immunoblot, and NaDodSO\(_4\)/PAGE) by differential ammonium sulfate precipitation, dissociation in 8 M guanidine hydrochloride, and high-resolution anion-exchange chromatography in 8 M urea. The purified adhesin formed an aggregate of M\(_r\)\(\approx\)10\(^6\) that was made up of one type of 12-kDa polypeptide (fimbrillin is 16.5 kDa). It had pI value of 4.7 (fimbriae has a pI value of 6). Adhesin and fimbrillin had different amino add compositions. The purified adhesins agglutinated human and bovine erythrocytes with the same speclfkity as the whole bacteria; purified fimbriae were not adhesive. Monoclonal anti-adhesin and anti-fimbriae antibodies were obtained. Monoclonal antiadhesin, but none of the anti-fimbriae, antibodies inhibited the agglutination of erythrocytes. The anti-adhesive antibodies were used in immuno-gold electron microscopy to localize adhesin exclusively on the fimbriae, with a possible preference to their tips.
A significant contribution to the understanding of chromatin organization was the d iscovery of the nucleosome as a globular repeating unit of the package of DNA (Hewish and Burgoyne, 1973; Woodcock, 1973; Kornberg, 1974; Olins and Olins, 1974; for review see Oudet et al., 1978 a) . In accord with the original definition and in ag reement with most workers in this field of research we identify a nucleosome as a spheric alor slightly oblate gr anular particle 10-13 nm in diameter, containing about 200 base pairs of DNA and two of each of the four his tones H2a, H2b, H3 and H4. It is this structure in which the bulk of the nuclear chroma tin is organized in most eukaryotic cells, with the exception of the dinofl age llates (Rae and Steele, 1977; dinofl agellate DNA, however, c an be packed into nucleosoma l structures in vitro by addition of the appropriate amounts of histones;the same reference). Although it seems clear from the work reported that condensed and transcriptiona lly inactive chroma tin is contained in nucleosomes as the principle for first order p acking of DNA there are two important questions onto which we are focusing in the present study: ( i ) What is the higher order of p a cking present in - and perhaps typical-of - the condensed sta te of chromatin, and (ii) what is the specific form of arrangement of transcriptionally a ctive chromatin?
In the present work we report the results of magneto-transport measurements on some Hg-based li-VI semiconductor epitaxiallayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The transport measurement were carried out at temperatures in the range 0.4 - 4.2 K in magnetic fields up to 10.0 T. Further, we point out the necessity of using multicarrier models for data interpretation and show finally some Shubnikov-de-Haas results on sampies with high mobility carners.
Rabbit antibodies to RNA polymerase I from a rat hepatoma have been used to localize the enzyme in a variety of cells at the light and electron microscopic level. In interphase cells the immunofluorescence pattern indicated that polymerase I is contained exclusively within the nucleolus. That this fluorescence, which appeared punctated rather than uniform, represented transcriptional complexes of RNA polymerase I and rRNA genes was suggested by the observation that it was enhanced in regenerating liver and in a hepatoma and was markedly diminished in cells treated with actinomycin D. Electron microscopic immunolocalization using gold-coupled second antibodies showed that transcribed rRNA genes are located in, and probably confined to, the fibrillar centers of the nucleolus. In contrast, the surrounding dense fibrillar component, previously thought to be the site of nascent prerRNA, did not contain detectable amounts of polymerase I. During mitosis, polymerase I molecules were detected by immunofluorescence microscopy at the chromosomal nucleolus organizer region, indicating that a considerable quantity of the enzyme remains bound to the rRNA genes. From this we conclude that rRNA genes loaded with polymerase I molecules are transmitted from one cell generation to the next one and that factors other than the polymerase itself are involved in the modulation of transcription of DNA containing rRNA genes during the cell cycle.
In this paper, convex approximation methods, suclt as CONLIN, the method of moving asymptotes (MMA) and a stabilized version of MMA (Sequential Convex Programming), are discussed with respect to their convergence behaviour. In an extensive numerical study they are :finally compared with other well-known optimization methods at 72 examples of sizing problems.
K-Ar dating on hornblendes and micas from the Tepla Domazlice zone revealed a pattern of dates which significantly deviates from the mid-Carboniferous to early Permian one that is found in the adjacent low-pressure metamorphic Moldanubian and Saxothuringian. Especially for the Marianske Lazne metabasic complex, confirming early Czech determinations, the dates resemble the early Devonian pattern determined for the Munchberg Gneiss Massif and the Erbendorf-Vohenstrau zone of northeastern Bavaria. This supports the idea that all three units are remnants of a huge' complex which suffered a metamorphic overprint under medium-pressure conditions, probably in the early Devonian. Strong rejuvenation is found in the southern part of the Tepla-Domazlice zone by which micas and even two hornblendes were reset to mid-Carboniferous ages. According to the geological setting, part of the apparently preDevonian dates may be explained by inherited argon from earlier metamorphic and magmatic events, e.g. the high-pressure metamorphism documented in eciogitic relics. However, excess argon, caused by the mid-Carboniferous overprint cannot be excluded.
The structural organization of transcriptionally active DNA that contains cistrons for precursor molecules of ribosomal RNA is described in positively stained spread preparations from nuclei and nucleoli isolated from the green alga, Acetabularia mediterranea Lmx. These nuclei contain large aggregates of nucleolar subunits in which fibril-covered regions, the putative active cistrons for precursors of ribosomal RNA, alternate with fibril-free intercepts, the "spacers". The length distribution of the different intercepts of this DNA is given, and the pattern is compared with those shown in animal cell systems. The data are discussed in relation to problems of transcription and of amplification of ribosomal RNA genes.
Non-Formal Education
(1989)