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In recent years the rise of remote sensing (RS) imagery in international human rights (IHR) advocacy has begun to draw significant critical attention from the academic community. This article engag...

OBJECTIVE: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved medications exist for the treatment of alcohol use disorders. However, their effectiveness depends on proper adherence to the prescribed regimen. Differences in adherence across medications may have implications for clinical outcomes and may provide helpful information in considering treatment options. This study aims to identify significant differences in adherence if present. METHOD: A retrospective chart review was conducted in the Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN)-7 region of Veterans Affairs hospital and community-based outpatient clinics within South Carolina and Georgia. Prescriptions of FDA-approved alcohol use disorder medications from 2010 through 2015 were reviewed. Adherence was determined by the proportion of days the veteran had oral or injectable medication available over a 6-month period as noted by medication fills (reported as 0%–100% medication availability). We compared adherence for specific medications using chi-square, t test, logistic regression for dichotomous outcomes, and linear regression for continuous outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 715 subjects and 807 medication trials were included. Mean adherence (percentage of days that medication was available) was 41.3% for disulfiram, 44.7% for acamprosate, 49.8% for oral naltrexone, and 54.6% for extended-release injectable naltrexone. The mean adherence was significantly different between disulfiram and oral naltrexone (p = .002) as well as disulfiram and extended-release injectable naltrexone (p = .004). Adherence of 80% was achieved in 11.9%, 19.4%, 22.7%, and 24.4% of treatment courses with disulfiram, acamprosate, naltrexone, and extended-release injectable naltrexone, respectively. These differences were significant for disulfiram versus oral naltrexone (p = .004) and disulfiram versus extended-release injectable naltrexone (p = .05). CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that overall adherence to medication-assisted treatment for alcohol use disorder is low across all medications. When directly compared, disulfiram had significantly lower adherence than both oral and extended-release injectable naltrexone.

Recruitment of suppressive CD4

The bis-guanidinium toxins are a collection of natural products that display nanomolar potency against select isoforms of eukaryotic voltage-gated Na+ ion channels. We describe a synthetic strategy that enables access to four of these poisons, namely 11-saxitoxinethanoic acid, C13-acetoxy saxitoxin, decarbamoyl saxitoxin, and saxitoxin. Highlights of this work include an unusual Mislow-Evans rearrangement and a late-stage Stille ketene acetal coupling. The IC50 value of 11-saxitoxinethanoic acid was measured against rat NaV 1.4, and found to be 17.0 nm, similar to those of the sulfated toxins gonyautoxin II and III.

The paralytic shellfish poisons are a collection of guanidine-containing natural products that are biosynthesized by prokaryote and eukaryote marine organisms. These compounds bind and inhibit isoforms of the mammalian voltage-gated Na(+) ion channel at concentrations ranging from 10(-11) to 10(-5) M. Here, we describe the de novo synthesis of three paralytic shellfish poisons, gonyautoxin 2, gonyautoxin 3, and 11,11-dihydroxysaxitoxin. Key steps include a diastereoselective Pictet-Spengler reaction and an intramolecular amination of an N-guanidyl pyrrole by a sulfonyl guanidine. The IC50's of GTX 2, GTX 3, and 11,11-dhSTX have been measured against rat NaV1.4, and are found to be 22 nM, 15 nM, and 2.2 μM, respectively.

In recent years there has been growing recognition of the militarisation of US foreign policy in Africa, especially following the establishment of a dedicated, regional combatant command (Africa Command, or AFRICOM) in 2007. At the same time knowledge of the extent and aims of US military activities in Africa remains murky, especially when compared to other regions such as the Middle East and Europe. This article begins by conceptualising AFRICOM as a geopolitical assemblage, an approach we believe useful for analysing its composition and emergence. Next we discuss the challenges involved in tracing the US military’s evolving presence in Africa and the methods utilised in our analysis. Following this we present three case studies: the first compares the composition and geographies of manned and unmanned aerial surveillance assemblages, the second details logistics infrastructures and the military’s use of contractors to develop logistical capabilities across the continent, the third examines growi...

Clostridium taeniosporum, a non-pathogenic anaerobe closely related to the C. botulinum Group II members, was isolated from Crimean lake silt about 60 years ago. Its endospores are surrounded by an encasement layer which forms a trunk at one spore pole to which about 12–14 large, ribbon-like appendages are attached. The genome consists of one 3,264,813 bp, circular chromosome (with 26.6% GC) and three plasmids. The chromosome contains 2,892 potential protein coding sequences: 2,124 have specific functions, 147 have general functions, 228 are conserved but without known function and 393 are hypothetical based on the fact that no statistically significant orthologs were found. The chromosome also contains 101 genes for stable RNAs, including 7 rRNA clusters. Over 84% of the protein coding sequences and 96% of the stable RNA coding regions are oriented in the same direction as replication. The three known appendage genes are located within a single cluster with five other genes, the protein products of which are closely related, in terms of sequence, to the known appendage proteins. The relatedness of the deduced protein products suggests that all or some of the closely related genes might code for minor appendage proteins or assembly factors. The appendage genes might be unique among the known clostridia; no statistically significant orthologs were found within other clostridial genomes for which sequence data are available. The C. taeniosporum chromosome contains two functional prophages, one Siphoviridae and one Myoviridae, and one defective prophage. Three plasmids of 5.9, 69.7 and 163.1 Kbp are present. These data are expected to contribute to future studies of developmental, structural and evolutionary biology and to potential industrial applications of this organism.

The “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine and the increasingly interventionist position of UN-mandated peacekeeping operations testify to fundamental changes in the international community’s response to humanitarian and human rights crises. Part of this development involves a growing reliance upon technology designed for the modern battlefield but adapted for peacekeeping operations, which has resulted in the emerging field of human rights-oriented Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) analysis. Centered on visual imagery derived from remote sensing (RS) platforms such as satellites and drones, GEOINT serves to imbed distinct, militaristic epistemologies into human rights narratives. As such, this chapter explores the “vertical geopolitics” of RS imagery and questions the “view from nowhere” that underlies GEOINT. A review of the UN mission in the D.R.C (MONUSCO) highlights both the positive and negative implications that the adoption of GEOINT has had on the rhetoric and practice of crisis response and humanitarian intervention in the twenty-first century.

Chromosome replication and cell division of Escherichia coli are coordinated with growth such that wild-type cells divide once and only once after each replication cycle. To investigate the nature of this coordination, the effects of inhibiting replication on Z-ring formation and cell division were tested in both synchronized and exponentially growing cells with only one replicating chromosome. When replication elongation was blocked by hydroxyurea or nalidixic acid, arrested cells contained one partially replicated, compact nucleoid located mid-cell. Cell division was strongly inhibited at or before the level of Z-ring formation. DNA cross-linking by mitomycin C delayed segregation, and the accumulation of about two chromosome equivalents at mid-cell also blocked Z-ring formation and cell division. Z-ring inhibition occurred independently of SOS, SlmA-mediated nucleoid occlusion, and MinCDE proteins and did not result from a decreased FtsZ protein concentration. We propose that the presence of a compact, incompletely replicated nucleoid or unsegregated chromosome masses at the normal mid-cell division site inhibits Z-ring formation and that the SOS system, SlmA, and MinC are not required for this inhibition.

In recent years there has been growing recognition of the militarization of U.S. foreign policy in Africa, especially following the establishment of a dedicated, regional combatant command (Africa Command, or AFRICOM) in 2007. At the same time knowledge of the extent and aims of U.S. military activities in Africa remains murky, especially when compared to other regions such as the Middle East and Europe. This article begins by conceptualizing AFRICOM as a geopolitical assemblage, an approach we believe useful for analyzing its composition and emergence. Next we discuss the challenges involved in tracing the U.S. military’s evolving presence in Africa and the methods utilized in our analysis. Following this we present three case studies: the first compares the composition and geographies of manned and unmanned aerial surveillance assemblages, the second details logistics infrastructures and the military’s use of contractors to develop logistical capabilities across the continent, the third examines growing counterterrorism entanglements in West Africa. We conclude with some observations concerning the divergence between purported aims and the focus and outcomes of the U.S. military’s presence in Africa.

Human nociceptive voltage-gated sodium channel (Na v 1.7), a target of significant interest for the development of antinociceptive agents, is blocked by low nanomolar concentrations of (−)-tetrodotoxin(TTX) but not (+)-saxitoxin (STX) and (+)-gonyautoxin-III (GTX-III). These findings question the long-accepted view that the 1.7 isoform is both tetrodotoxin– and saxitoxin-sensitive and identify the outer pore region of the channel as a possible target for the design of Na v 1.7-selective inhibitors. Single- and double-point amino acid mutagenesis studies along with whole-cell electrophysiology recordings establish two domain III residues (T1398 and I1399), which occur as methionine and aspartate in other Na v isoforms, as critical determinants of STX and gonyautoxin-III binding affinity. An advanced homology model of the Na v pore region is used to provide a structural rationalization for these surprising results.

The profluorescent nitroxide, 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldibenzo[e,g]isoindolin-2- yloxyl (TMDBIO) was investigated as a probe for the radical-mediated degradation of stabilised polypropylene. TMDBIO has been previously shown to be a sensitive probe for free-radical degradation during the thermo-oxidation of unstabilised polypropylene. Here we report on the effect that adding hindered phenol or phosphate stabilisers to polypropylene has on the free-radical sensing ability of TMDBIO during thermo-oxidation. In addition, novel dual-functional, hindered phenol containing profluorescent nitroxides, 5-[2-(4-hydroxy-3,5-di-tert- butylphenyl)ethenyl]-1,1,3,3-tetramethylisoindolin-2-yloxyl (HSTMIO) and its derivatives were investigated as probes for the radical-mediated degradation of polypropylene. These dual-functional probes were shown to be efficient stabilisers for polypropylene during thermo-oxidation at 150 °C in oxygen and sensors of thermo-oxidation during its early stages, in the so-called "induction period".

Clostridium taeniosporum is a Gram-positive, anaerobic, rod-shaped non-toxigenic organism isolated from Crimean lake silt. It is unique in forming spores from which about twelve large, flat, ribbon-like appendages emanate. These ribbon-like structures, about 4.5 microm long and 0.45 microm wide, are assembled from smaller fibrils with 5 nm diameter spherical heads attached to thin tails about 1-2 nm in diameter and about 40 nm in length. The appendages have four major components, a glycoprotein with a collagen-like region, two proteins each of which contains two conserved domains of unknown function, and an ortholog of the Bacillus subtilis spore morphogenetic protein SpoVM. Genes for three of these and other, possibly related proteins, cluster on two chromosome fragments. Here we report that C. taeniosporum is saccharolytic, non-proteolytic, and produces both acetic and butyric acid fermentation products. It synthesizes alpha-D-glucosidase and N-acetyl-beta,D-glucoseaminidase constitutively. These physiological properties are similar to those of the C. botulinum Group II. Genotypically, C. taeniosporum is also closely related to the same Group II, based on 16S rDNA sequences. C. taeniosporum differs from typical C. botulinum Group II strains because it is non-toxigenic and in forming the ribbon-like spore appendages. These major differences among otherwise closely related organisms suggest lateral transfer of genes for appendage synthesis and for toxigenicity.

The years 2003 and 2004 were years of divestiture. In a reversal of the trend since the mid-1990s, the news focused on the unlinking of media and sports ownership. In a short period of time, Major League Baseball owners approved Frank McCourt as the new majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers after he purchased the team from News Corp. (i.e., Rupert Murdoch). In 2003 the Walt Disney Company, one of News Corp.'s primary rivals in the global media business, sold the reigning world champion Anaheim Angels to Arturo Moreno. Time Warner put the Atlanta Braves on the seller's block and cut the team's payroll to attract a buyer. (1) This new "trend" away from the joint ownership of media and sports is not limited to baseball. Time Warner, for example, has sold the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) and Thrashers (NHL). Disney, currently fighting a hostile takeover by the Comcast cable television giant, is attempting to sell the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (NHL). Even in the nation's largest and most lucrative media market, YankeeNets, the brainchild of George Steinbrenner (and another source of millions of dollars of revenue for the Yankees), has sold the New Jersey Nets to a Brooklyn developer. (2) In this article we will offer an analysis of these recent moves. Why has there been a reversal of what seemed a logical trend: the joint media/sports ownership? Does this signal a return to the individual ownership mythologized by the mainstream media and most baseball fans? Or do these deals reflect new kinds of relationships between corporate media and sports franchises? Whatever the reasons for the recent divestures, how will they affect the operation of teams and their relationships with the changing media landscape? THE LOGIC OF VERTICAL INTEGRATION Vertical integration (VI) is one of the oldest operational goals in capitalist economics. VI essentially is the control of all levels of the supply chain from ownership to consumer. For media corporations this means the control of (1) production, (2) distribution, and (3) exhibition (P-D-E). Despite the conventional wisdom of the current multinational corporations that VI is necessary for companies to "compete," until quite recently vertical integration was regarded as something to be avoided because of its negative effects on the consumer. (3) For decades the U.S. government based many of its policies on the assumption that a vertically integrated market structure is bad for the public because of its anticompetitive nature. The control of each element of the P-D-E chain leads to a market structure with high barriers to entry for new competitors. The negative implications of VI have been the rationale for antitrust actions against many corporate schemes. In the 1948 Paramount decision, motion picture studios had to divest their ownership of theaters. (4) In the 1960s the Justice Department refused to allow International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) to acquire ABC. (5) Today such decisions look like ancient history as vertical integration is often seen as necessary for large corporations to compete in a global marketplace. The rhetoric of corporate consolidation has replaced "the public interest" as the mantra for government "regulators." Professional sports leagues and their member teams were exempt from many antitrust regulations, even before the market mania of the last twenty to twenty-five years. MLB has had an explicit exemption from most antitrust concerns since 1922. (6) The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 granted an antitrust exemption for all the professional leagues in developing policies on television and radio. (7) These longstanding exemptions and the new tolerance of vertical integration encouraged sports leagues, a legalized cartel, and media firms, a semilegalized cartel, to make a series of deals to enhance their relationships. One of the key differences in media and sports combinations is the trend toward backward vertical integration. …

The Escherichia coli argU10 (Ts) mutation in the argU gene, encoding the minor tRNA Arg species for the rare codons AGA and AGG, causes pleiotropic defects, including growth inhibition at high temperatures, as well as the Pin phenotype at 30°C. In the present study, we first showed that the codon selectivity and the arginine-accepting activity of the argU tRNA are both essential for complementing the temperature-sensitive growth, indicating that this defect is caused at the level of translation. An in vitro analysis of the effects of the argU10 (Ts) mutation on tRNA functions revealed that the affinity with elongation factor Tu-GTP of the argU10 (Ts) mutant tRNA is impaired at 30 and 43°C, and this defect is more serious at the higher temperature. The arginine acceptance is also impaired significantly but to similar extents at the two temperatures. An in vivo analysis of aminoacylation levels showed that 30% of the argU10 (Ts) tRNA molecules in the mutant cells are actually deacylated at 30°C, while most of the argU tRNA molecules in the wild-type cells are aminoacylated. Furthermore, the cellular level of this mutant tRNA is one-tenth that of the wild-type argU tRNA. At 43°C, the cellular level of the argU10 (Ts) tRNA is further reduced to a trace amount, while neither the cellular abundance nor the aminoacylation level of the wild-type argU tRNA changes. We concluded that the phenotypic properties of the argU10 (Ts) mutant result from these reduced intracellular levels of the tRNA, which are probably caused by the defective interactions with elongation factor Tu and arginyl-tRNA synthetase.

This analysis of 4,469 promotions carried in on-air promos during prime-time and weekend sports television programs established the impact on prime-time ratings of frequency of promotion, distance, construction, and length. The analysis also examines the impact of these promotion variables for programs of different genres, targeted to different genders and ages, and with different degrees of familiarity. Whether the promotion aired in weekend sports or inside prime-time made little difference to the overall results, but notable differences emerged for programs of different genres, familiarity, and audience demographics. The findings apply to industry practices and contribute to refining salience theory.

Until recently, international comparative research had a poor reputation, especially in economics. Comparative international research was seen as overly descriptive and typically based on simple contrasts of aggregate national statistics. When cross-sectional microdata were used, the surveys that did exist in many countries did not contain the range and depth of variables to which the scientific research community had become accustomed. Part of this bad reputation also stemmed from the fact that, using the United States as the benchmark, comparable panel surveys either did not exist in many countries or were viewed as being of much lower quality. The end result was that scholars from all countries would tend to test their models only using the best U.S. data. It was also felt by many foreign scholars that unless they used U.S. panel data they would have great difficulty in publishing in the betterknown scientific journals. We believe that a combination of circumstances is about to radically change this situation. These circumstances start by recognizing that comparative international research has some unique analytical advantages for testing the effects of important policies common to many countries. In addition, the number and quality of international panel surveys are improving rapidly and in many dimensions will exceed those of their U.S. counterparts. Finally, many of the best graduate students trained in U.S. institutions were foreign nationals who are now some of the leading scholars in the best U.S. departments. It is not surprising that these scholars would want to test their ideas using data from their home countries. With this in mind, a conference on comparative research using international panel surveys was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 26 and 27, 2000. The conference was intended as a vehicle to encourage researchers in the social sciences to use panel surveys to address critical scientific and policy issues that would be better informed by international comparisons and the variation in policy environments across countries. The topics of interest for this conference spanned substantive and methodological issues relevant to the social sciences and that make use of unique features of specific longitudinal data sets in a cross-national context. This conference was sponsored by the Board of Overseers of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the Technical Review Committee of the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS), and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Funding was

This note reviews and evaluates Tasiran's (1995) claim that estimated female wage effects on Swedish fertility dynamics reported by Heckman and Walker (1990) are not robust to the use of microwage data. The results reported here indicate that once individual wage measures have been purged of measurement error, estimated female wage effects are not sensitive to the introduction of microwages. The results reported by Heckman and Walker (1990) persist even with the use of microwage data.

Trialkyl and aryl organoboranes catalyze the polymerization of dimethylsulfoxonium methylide (1). The product of the polymerization is a tris-polymethylene organoborane. Oxidation affords linear telechelic alpha-hydroxy polymethylene. The polymer molecular weight was found to be directly proportional to the stoichiometric ratio of ylide/borane, and polydispersities as low as 1.01-1.03 have been realized. Although oligomeric polymethylene has been the most frequent synthetic target of this method, polymeric star organoboranes with molecular weights of 1.5 million have been produced. The average turnover frequency at 120 degrees C in 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene/toluene is estimated at6 x 10(6) g of polymethylene (mol boron)(-1) h(-1). The mechanism of the polyhomologation reaction involves initial formation of a zwitterionic organoborane.ylide complex which breaks down in a rate-limiting 1,2-alkyl group migration with concomitant expulsion of a molecule of DMSO. The reaction was found to be first order in the borane catalyst and zero order in ylide. DMSO does not interfere with the reaction. The temperature dependence of the reaction rate yielded the following activation energy parameters (toluene, DeltaH(++) = 23.2 kcal/mol, DeltaS(++) = 12.6 cal deg/mol, DeltaG(++) = 19.5 kcal/mol; THF, DeltaH(++) = 26.5 kcal/mol, DeltaS(++) = 21.5 cal deg/mol, DeltaG(++) = 20.1 kcal/mol).

Mutations in the Escherichia coli gene for initiation of DNA replication, dnaA, which suppress the polymerization defect and growth inhibition caused by temperature-sensitive (Ts) mutations in the polymerization gene, dnaX, are called Cs,Sx. We show here that these mutations, on their own, also cause defects in initiation, including inhibition of initiation at both low (20 degrees C) and high (44 degrees C) temperatures and asynchronous initiation at both the permissive (34 degrees C) and suppression (39 degrees C) temperatures. These findings suggests a relationship between partially defective initiation and suppression of the polymerization defect, both of which occur at 39 degrees C.

The purpose of this paper is to continue our analysis of the long and often troubled relationship between television and Major League Baseball (MLB). Central to our analysis will be MLB's economic problems, including the revenue disparity among teams caused by the dramatic differences in local and regional television rights fees. We will argue that baseball's problems with television are best understood through local and regional models of team-media relations. We will introduce three local/regional models: (1) the Pinned-In Model used by teams unable to expand their market due to proximity to other clubs (for example, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh); (2) the Hinterlands Model, which featured the development of a strong regional radio and then television network that extended a small-market team's fan base (for example, Cincinnati and St. Louis); and (3) the Embracers Model used by teams that viewed television as a force that would build fan interest, increasing box office receipts. The Chicago Cubs best exemplify this model. The importance of television to MLB and most all sports is difficult to overstate. There is no exaggeration in saying that through television, sports truly became a vital part of the national culture. Baseball Weekly recently listed television as second only to Jackie Robinson's signing in its feature on the "Top 100 Things That Impacted Baseball in the 20th Century." Television was cited for exposing MLB to a much larger audience, generating a financial windfall for owners, increasing the value of franchises exponentially and, with the development of cable, "chang[ing] the way Americans followed the game."(1) Zimbalist argues that to understand the economic condition of MLB one must look at the "ongoing technological revolution in telecommunications and the ever more concentrated and interlocked structure of the broadcast industry."(2) We would add that even in a time of rapid change in the global telecommunications and entertainment industries, in many instances history continues to matter just as much as the "ongoing revolution." MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL'S TROUBLE WITH TELEVISION Baseball has had the most difficult and interesting relationship with television of any major sport. (3) In 1998, MLB, fueled by the McGwire-Sosa home run record chase, had increased regular season national ratings. This is quite an accomplishment in an era of so much television choice. However, the 1998 World Series received its all-time lowest ratings despite the presence of a record-setting Yankees team from the largest U.S. television market. World Series ratings were up a healthy 13 percent in 1999, reflecting the national following of both the Yankees and the Braves and the strength of NBC's ability to reach more of the country with a strong signal than Fox could. Regular season ratings were stable in 1999, and All-Star Game ratings were down 10 percent. (4) These mixed results indicate a relationship that can be described as dysfunctional. Several explanations have been advanced for the relative decline of MLB as a national television attraction. These explanations can be grouped into the overlapping structural categories of aesthetic, marketing, economic, and historic. On the aesthetic level, the large playing field with a wide dispersion of players makes baseball a difficult sport to televise because the cameras have difficulty following all the action. One popular historian of baseball and broadcasting, Curt Smith, argues that baseball is perhaps the worst sport for television because the breaks in the action are boring for viewers. However, the same breaks, when used by fans at the game, are seen as opportunities to engage in interpersonal communication, go to the bathroom, or buy concessions. (5) Major League Baseball owners have been accurately accused of not understanding modern-day marketing and particularly the concept of integrated marketing the coordinated combination of advertising, promotion, and public relations. …

An interagency evaluation of the treatment effectiveness of a speciality nursing home (NH) run as a therapeutic community (TC) for residents diagnosed with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and substance abuse/dependence (SA/D) was conducted. A total of 79 chemically dependent men and women with AIDS were: (a) administered the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS; Roid & Fitts, 1991) at initial testing (T(1)) and 8 months after their initial testing (T(2)); and (b) assessed on specific physical health indicators (i.e. , weight, CD-4 count, and viral load) and other treatment outcomes (e.g., abstinence) over the same two time periods. The TSCS results identified a valid and invalid TSCS test group and further distinguished among three subgroups of invalid responders. Significant improvements were observed from T(1) testing to T(2) testing on the TSCS, on the physical health indicators, and on other treatment outcomes. The need for additional and continued mental health services for this population was noted.

Individuals who abuse illicit drugs have an increased incidence of traumatic injury, medical illness, and drug overdose. Subsequently, many of these drug abusers will require perianesthesia care. The health care professionals responsible for their care must have an understanding of the prevalence, the pharmacology, and medical complications of illicit drug use, including the potential interactions with anesthetic agents.

Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III subunits tau and gamma are produced from one gene, dnaX, by a programmed ribosomal frameshift which generates the C terminal of gamma within the tau reading frame. To help evaluate the role of the dispensable gamma, the distribution of tau and gamma homologs in several other species and the sequence of the Salmonella typhimurium dnaX were determined. All four enterobacteria tested produce tau and gamma homologs. S. typhimurium dnaX is 83% identical to E. coli dnaX, but all four components of the frameshift signal are 100% conserved.

We summarize recent research that formulates life cycle models of migration which are estimated using longitudinal data. These models consider multiple destinations and multiple periods. The framework oers a unified view applicable to internal and international migration flows, however data limitations severely hinder studies of international migration. As is common in modeling life cycle decision‐making, strong assumptions are imposed. Yet, most critical assumptions are empirically testable. The primary advantage is that these models oer an interpretable economic framework for evaluating policy alternatives and other counterfactual thought‐experiments that oer insight on behavioral determinants and tools for improved policy making.

Three gratifications derived from the television remote control device (RCD; Content Avoidance, Viewing Satisfaction, Control of Others) were examined as a function of three personality types (extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism) and respondent sex using a large sample of young adults (males, n = 354; females, n = 281). The findings revealed significant differences in RCD perceptions between the three personality types. Consistent with previous research, the findings also revealed that male respondents reported significantly more positive perceptions of the RCD than females.

Substance abuse and urban trauma go hand in hand. But research focuses on large cities served by major academic medical centers. Do small cities face the same problems? Two hundred thirty-three urban trauma inpatients from a metro area of 250,000 were studied using patient interviews and medical records. As in large cities, one half used alcohol or drugs when attacked. Seventy percent were likely to be young, male, poor African-Americans. Only 3% were gang members, but demographic characteristics failed to explain substance abuse as they have for larger cities. A culture of violence pervades the small city, as it does in large urban ghettos. Two fifths were repeat urban trauma victims. Two fifths witnessed assaults in the past year. One third carried a knife or gun. Fifteen percent used a weapon on another person in the last year. Contextual variables, like being hurt in a bar, were related to drinking and drugs. The best predictor of present substance abuse and urban trauma was medical history of substance abuse. The need for (a) toxicology screens for all trauma victims, (b) referrals to substance abuse programs, (c) targeting at-risk populations for prevention, and (d) eliminating environments fostering violence and substance abuse is supported.

The Escherichia coli dnaX gene encodes both the tau and gamma subunits of DNA polymerase III. This gene is located immediately downstream of the adenine salvage gene apt and upstream of orf12-recR, htpG, and adk. The last three are involved in recombination, heat shock, and nucleotide biosynthesis, respectively. apt, dnaX, and orf12-recR all have separate promoters, and the first two are expressed predominantly from those separate promoters. However, use of an RNase E temperature-sensitive mutant allowed the detection of lesser amounts of polycistronic messengers extending from both the apt and dnaX promoters through htpG. Interestingly, transcription of the weak dnaX promoter is stimulated 4- to 10-fold by a sequence contained entirely within the dnaX reading frame. This region has been localized; at least a portion of the sequence (and perhaps the entire sequence) is located within a 31-bp region downstream of the dnaX promoter.

This study analyzed the effectiveness of promotions in stimulating interest in new and returning network programming, using 1,028 program advertisements edited out of a stratified sample of major broadcast network programming. Overall, frequency of promotion per episode was negatively and weakly related to program ratings. Promotions appeared to work better for returning programs and to be more effective in the first month of new season than in the second.

Hyperoxia has been shown to attenuate the increase in pulmonary artery (PA) pressure associated with immersed exercise in thermoneutral water, which could serve as a possible preventive strategy for the development of immersion pulmonary edema (IPE). We tested the hypothesis that the same is true during exercise in cold water. Six healthy volunteers instrumented with arterial and PA catheters were studied during two 16-min exercise trials during prone immersion in cold water (19.9–20.9°C) in normoxia [0.21 atmospheres absolute (ATA)] and hyperoxia (1.75 ATA) at 4.7 ATA. Heart rate (HR), Fick cardiac output (CO), mean arterial pressure (MAP), pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP), central venous pressure (CVP), arterial and venous blood gases, and ventilatory parameters were measured both early (E, 5–6 min) and late (L, 15–16 min) in exercise. During exercise at an average oxygen consumption rate (V̇o2) of 2.38 ml·kg−1·min−1, CO, CVP, and pulmonary vascular resistance were not affected by inspired Po2or exercise duration. Minute ventilation (V̇e), alveolar ventilation (V̇a), and ventilation frequency ( f) were significantly lower in hyperoxia compared with normoxia (mean ± SD: V̇e 58.8 ± 8.0 vs. 65.1 ± 9.2, P = 0.003; V̇a 40.2 ± 5.4 vs. 44.2 ± 9.0, P = 0.01; f 25.4 ± 5.4 vs. 27.2 ± 4.2, P = 0.04). Mixed venous pH was lower in hyperoxia compared with normoxia (7.17 ± 0.07 vs. 7.20 ± 0.07), and this result was significant early in exercise ( P = 0.002). There was no difference in mean PAP (MPAP: 28.28 ± 8.1 and 29.09 ± 14.3 mmHg) or PAWP (18.0 ± 7.6 and 18.7 ± 8.7 mmHg) between normoxia and hyperoxia, respectively. PAWP decreased from early to late exercise in hyperoxia ( P = 0.002). These results suggest that the increase in pulmonary vascular pressures associated with cold water immersion is not attenuated with hyperoxia.

Historically, pipeline operators have tended to place more weight on inline inspection tool specifications than on the inherent design and reporting capabilities of the service providers themselves. While internal collection of integrity data is very important, it’s imperative that vendors, also, have high levels of expertise and effective quality control systems in place to successfully analyze exceedingly high volumes of inspection data. The quality of inspection information is vital to assessing if a pipeline is fit for purpose now and/or into the future. Integrity managers attempting to reduce overall operating risk by making decisions based on inaccurate or poor quality reporting are in fact exposing their networks to greater safety and financial risk. Recognizing these risks and that inline inspection (ILI) is an overall system that needs to be formally qualified, operators and ILI service providers have collaborated to develop several international standards. The most recent is the umbrella API-1163 industry consensus standard, which is now being widely adopted, primarily in USA. This standard provides requirements and recommended practices for qualification of the entire ILI process. Two companion standards: ASNT In-line Personnel Qualification and Certification Standard No. ILI-PQ and NACE Recommended Practice In-Line Inspection of Pipelines RP0102 combine to address specific requirements for personnel who operate and analyze the results of ILI systems. In Europe, the Pipeline Operators Forum (POF) has, also, established specific requirements for ILI reporting processes and data formats. However, these standards do not define how operators and vendors must meet these requirements. To follow will be a story about how an ILI service provider embraced a holistic approach to address these standards’ requirements, in particular in the areas of data analysis, reporting, and dig verification due to their significant importance in assuring the final quality of its deliverables. A key outcome desired will be to provide operators with greater insight into what best practices and technologies ILI service providers should have embraced and invested in to insure reliable service delivery.Copyright © 2010 by ASME