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The scientific publishing process has during the past few years undergone considerable changes. The socio-economic structures have, however, not changed much, and many academics and librarians view the current situation as highly unsatisfactory. This has triggered a number of initiatives to set up e-print repositories and electronic peer reviewed journals, which usually offer the full text for free on the Web. Serious in-depth research studying the way the scholarly communication system is affected by the Internet is needed. In this article a formal process model of the scientific publishing process is presented (the Scientific Publication Life-Cycle Model). The model has been developed in particular to provide a basis for studying the cost implications of different business models. It describes the life-cycle of the single publication, in particular the refereed journal article, from the research leading to it and writing it, to being read by other researchers years later or used as a catalyst for practical implementation. Conclusions are drawn about the usefulness of the modelling methodology for this particular purpose as well as of future uses of the model itself. In addition to providing a basis for cost studies the model could function as a road map for different types of open access initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of adenoviral vectors as potent gene delivery systems requires expression of the Coxsackievirus/adenovirus receptor (CVADR) on the target cell surface. This receptor is important for virus attachment to the cell surface. For effective internalization of the vector into the target cell the integrins α[sub v]β[sub 3] and/or α[sub v]β[sub 5] are needed. Since there have been reports of loss of CVADR in bladder cancer cell lines, we wanted to investigate the expression of this receptor in bladder carcinoma biopsies. Surgical biopsies, as well as five human bladder cancer cell lines, were analyzed for expression of CVADR, the integrins α[sub v]β[sub 3] and α[sub v]β[sub 5] and MHC class I. Further, we studied the ability to transduce these cell lines using adenoviral vectors. Immunohistochemistry revealed that all biopsies (27/27) were positive for CVADR. Some variation in expression was evident, and superficially growing tumors stained more strongly than invasive ones. Most human tumors expressed the integrin α[sub v]β[sub 5] (14/24), whereas integrin α[sub v]β[sub 3] was less frequently seen (3/20). The established cell lines were efficiently transduced with adenoviral vectors, and transduction could be reduced with antiCVADR antibodies. The abundance of appropriate viral receptors on tumor biopsy cells is a further argument for using adenoviral vectors in gene therapy of bladder cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have used dielectric spectroscopy and temperature modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC) to investigate the structural relaxation processes and phase transitions of water and lipids in multilamellar, planar phospholipids. At low hydration levels we observe the main structural relaxation related to the glass transition of the phospholipids. With increasing water content a more pronounced pretransition, attributed to a gel to ripple phase transition, is observed in the TMDSC data. In the proximity of this pretransition, a distinct change in the temperature dependence or alternatively a bifurcation into two processes is observed in the dielectric data. Around this temperature a crossover in the long-range ionic conductivity across the membranes is also observed, which is one of the key parameters for biological membranes. Thus, the major dynamical changes do not occur at the main, i.e., the gel to liquid structural phase transition, but at a pretransition that occurs roughly 20 K below the main transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]