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Technological infrastructure at home is changing continuously and is becoming increasingly interconnected. Media devices, including the TV set, provide access to the Internet and offer manifold opp...

The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor is a major regulator of the Wnt signaling pathway in normal intestinal epithelium. APC, in conjunction with AXIN and GSK-3β, forms a complex necessary for the degradation of β-catenin, thereby preventing β-catenin/T-cell factor interaction and alteration of growth-controlling genes such as c-MYC and cyclin D1. Inappropriate activation of the Wnt pathway, via Apc/APC mutation, leads to gastrointestinal tumor formation in both the mouse and human. In order to discover novel genes that may contribute to tumor progression in the gastrointestinal tract, we used cDNA microarrays to identify 114 genes with altered levels of expression in ApcMin mouse adenomas from the duodenum, jejunum, and colon. Changes in the expression of 24 of these 114 genes were not observed during mouse development at embryonic day 16.5, postnatal day 1, or postnatal day 14 (relative to normal adult intestine). These 24 genes are not previously known Wnt targets. Seven genes were validated by real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis, whereas four genes were validated by in situ hybridization to mouse adenomas. Real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis of human colorectal cancer cell lines and adenocarcinomas revealed that altered expression levels were also observed for six of the genes Igfbp5, Lcn2, Ly6d, N4wbp4 (PMEPA1), S100c, and Sox4.

Networks of organizations improve the competitiveness of its member companies. Computer applications can make the competencies of organizations more visible to encourage companies to find matching costumers, suppliers, or cooperation partners. Business Finder (BF) is a tool for improving mutual aware- ness among small and medium enterprises (SME) in regional networks. BF is based on text matching algorithms already applied among human actors within the field of knowledge management. Being integrated into the ordinary document management, BF allows creating updated, comprehensive, and detailed profiles of an organization's competencies and activities. Searching on profiles of other or- ganizations enables identifying potential partners. The design of BF is based on an empirical study into networking needs among SME in the IT domain. The pre- study together with an early evaluation study was conducted in the German region of Siegen-Wittgenstein.

N-acetyl glucosamine (NAG) has been shown to be effective in reducing the appearance of hyperpigmented spots. From published in vitro mechanistic testing, glucosamine inhibits enzymatic glycosylation, a required processing step in converting inactive human pro-tyrosinase to the active tyrosinase, a key enzyme in the production of melanin. There is also published literature discussing the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of glucosamine compounds. To identify additional mechanisms by which NAG might affect melanin production, an in vitro genomics experiment was conducted in SkinEthic skin equivalent cultures, which were topically dosed with NAG vs. a vehicle control. Relative to vehicle, NAG reduced melanin production, and the expression of several pigmentation-relevant genes were affected (down-regulated or up-regulated) by NAG treatment. Thus, there are several mechanisms that may be operative in the observed pigmentation effects.

Most studies of malnutrition focus on adult size, or limited durations of malnutrition. Little is known about the impact of life-long maternal malnutrition on young, pre-weaning offspring, in part because working with such infants is difficult. We created a maternal generation of malnourished dams by feeding female Sprague-Dawley rats, from weaning, either a control diet high in protein (CT) or an isocaloric low protein diet (LPT). The offspring of matings between these dams and control fathers were weighed daily and radiographed three times before sacrifice at 22d, when several visceral organs and muscles were dissected out and weighed. We compared lengths of craniofacial and limb bones, and organ and muscle weights, between the two diet treatments. Allometric cancellation was used to assess integration of growth among organs and muscles. The offspring of LPT dams had body, organ and muscle weights smaller than the offspring of CT dams. When scaled to body mass, some organs of the LPT offspring were relatively larger. Although the CT offspring skeletons were significantly larger than the LPT skeletons, considerable variation existed in the patterns of growth between the two treatments. The CT offspring had a higher level of correlation among muscles, and most organs, than did the offspring of LPT dams. The organs that did maintain a correlation in growth, or linkage, were pairs of organs more likely to be protected (heart-lung or eye-brain) from the insult of protein malnutrition. The ability to protect some organs may be the result of their tighter developmental program, one that is more resistant to differences in available nutrition.

The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor is a major regulator of the Wnt signaling pathway in normal intestinal epithelium. APC, in conjunction with AXIN and GSK-3beta, forms a complex necessary for the degradation of beta-catenin, thereby preventing beta-catenin/T-cell factor interaction and alteration of growth-controlling genes such as c-MYC and cyclin D1. Inappropriate activation of the Wnt pathway, via Apc/APC mutation, leads to gastrointestinal tumor formation in both the mouse and human. In order to discover novel genes that may contribute to tumor progression in the gastrointestinal tract, we used cDNA microarrays to identify 114 genes with altered levels of expression in Apc(Min) mouse adenomas from the duodenum, jejunum, and colon. Changes in the expression of 24 of these 114 genes were not observed during mouse development at embryonic day 16.5, postnatal day 1, or postnatal day 14 (relative to normal adult intestine). These 24 genes are not previously known Wnt targets. Seven genes were validated by real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis, whereas four genes were validated by in situ hybridization to mouse adenomas. Real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis of human colorectal cancer cell lines and adenocarcinomas revealed that altered expression levels were also observed for six of the genes Igfbp5, Lcn2, Ly6d, N4wbp4 (PMEPA1), S100c, and Sox4.

Mit der Einfuhrung von Groupware im technischen Bereich soll den Kooperati-onsproblemen entgegengewirkt werden, die haufig in der Konstruktion auftreten. Im ORGTECH-Projekt wurden dazu Arbeits aufgaben und -bereiche untersucht und ein CSCW-System installiert. Es zeigte sich, dass die Anwender spezielle Anforderungen an das Telekooperationssystem stellen, die insbesondere die Realisierung des externen Datenzugriffs auf technische Dokumente beinhalten. Die im Anwendungsfeld archivierten Daten liegen aber in unterschiedlichen Medien und in verschiedenen Formaten an verteilten Orten in kaum handhabbarer Weise vor. Die unzureichende Verfugbarkeit relevanter Dokumente beeintrachtigt die Akzeptanz des CSCW-Systems. In diesem Beitrag werden die problematischen Bereiche der Verwaltung technischer Dokumente dargestellt und Losungsansatze aufgezeigt. Diese Ansatze wurden mit den Anwendern diskutiert und fuhrten zu prototypischen Entwicklungen. Hierzu wird der Diskussionsprozess mit den Anwen¬dern wiedergegeben. In diesem Beitrag wird neben den Problemen im Umgang mit gemeinsamen Arbeitsunterlagen die besondere Bedeutung der Verfugbarkeit der Arbeitsdokumente als Basis fur Telekooperation herausgestellt.