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Bluetongue virus (BTV) is a species of the Orbivirus within the Reoviradae group. X-ray crystallography has been used to determine the structure of the core particle of BTV. The atomic structure gives an insight into how around 1,000 protein components self-assemble using both the classical mechanism of quasi-equivalent contacts and geometrical quasi-equivalence.

A study was conducted to examine the structure of the bluetongue virus core serotype 10. Using X-Ray crystallography, it was revealed that the blue tongue virus' core contains a highly-ordered double-stranded RNA genome. Measurements provided by power diffraction rings showed that the double-stranded RNA maintains a 30 A separation between strands. The study also found that genome segments' local ordering occur during genetic transcription.

The bluetongue virus core is a molecular machine that simultaneously and repeatedly transcribes mRNA from 10 segments of viral double-stranded RNA, packaged in a liquid crystalline array. To determine how the logistical problems of transcription within a sealed shell are solved, core crystals were soaked with various ligands and analyzed by X-ray crystallography. Mg2+ ions produce a slight expansion of the capsid around the 5-fold axes. Oligonucleotide soaks demonstrate that the 5-fold pore, opened up by this expansion, is the exit site for mRNA, whilst nucleotide soaks pinpoint a separate binding site that appears to be a selective channel for the entry and exit of substrates and by-products. Finally, nucleotides also bind to the outer core layer, providing a substrate sink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our experience has suggested that not only do nurses on hospital wards waste time making too many unnecessary clinical observations, but that it is very difficult to persuade them to modify the pattern of their practice. We therefore conducted a survey by questionnaire among trained nurses in one health district of their everyday ward practice and attitudes to clinical observations. This showed that whilst a majority of nurses questioned believe in the importance of routine observations for patient care, there is a lack of consistency in the criteria and communication procedures used that must seriously limit the value of the information obtained by the individual nurse. We believe that uncritical faith in routine observations is a barrier to rationalizing procedures to optimize efficient use of the professional skills of ward nurses in this regard. There is need for more thought to be given to the problem and in particular it is important that doctors play a more active role in decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reviews the web site Gapminder: Unveiling the Beauty of Statistics for a Fact Based World View, located at http://www.gapminder.org/, by Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, and Hans Rosling.

The article reviews the web site LexisNexis Statistical Insight Complete With DataSets, located at htp://academic.lexisnexis.com/.

The article reviews the web site Show/USA, located at http://show.mappingworlds.com/usa/, from the data visualization company Mapping Worlds.

The article reviews the Web site, OpenCongress, which is located at http://www.opencongress.org. and is from the Sunlight Foundation and Participatory Politics Foundation.

A review of the website for an online directory of government officials called MyGovernment, http://www.bernan.com/general/mygov.aspx, is presented.

The article reviews the website 18thConnect: Eighteenth-Century Scholarship Online, located at http://www.l8thconnectorg, which offers federated full-text searching of online databases for 18th century history research.

The article reviews the website TRAIL: Technical Report Archive and Image Library, located at http://www.technicalreports.org/trail/search/.

The article reviews the website for Indian Affairs that is operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior and that can be accessed at http://www.bia.gov.

This article reviews the web site www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp, which contains information related to proposed and final federal regulations.

It is demonstrated that laser desorption ion trap mass spectrometry (LD-ITMS) can be successfully applied to the chemical analysis of a monolayer of adsorbates on a solid surface. Negative ion spectra obtained from LD-ITMS of self-assembled monolayers adsorbed from solutions of alkanethiols (CH3(CH2)nSH with n=5, 9, and 15) onto polycrystalline gold surfaces displayed clear ion peaks corresponding to the sulfonate adsorbate species. Sulfonate ions with the general formula CH3(CH2)n SO3 were detected at m/z 165, 221, and 305, respectively, and were derived from the partial oxidation of the corresponding alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers. Little fragmentation and no clustering was observed in these mass spectra. These results indicate that the sensitivity of LD-ITMS is sufficient to allow its application to a wide array of problems in surface science.

Polystyrene sulfate particles of 189 to 1,085 nm radius are retarded in their electrophoretic migration in solutions of methyl-hydroxypropyl-cellulose (4,000 and 15,000 cP viscosity for a 2% solution). The retardation is proportional to polymer concentration and increases inversely with particle size. This suggests a separation mechanism based on size-dependent exclusion from the polymer network, as found previously in other liquid polymer media. In the size range of approximately 200 to 600 nm radius, the 4,000 cP polymer exhibits a steeper decrease of retardation with particle size than the 15,000 cP polymer, but fails to exhibit any size dependent retardation beyond that range.