The Drosophila gene argos encodes a diffusible protein that acts as a negative regulator of cell fate decisions. To define interacting gene products, we performed a genetic analysis of argos, which suggests the presence of several partially redundant gene functions in its immediate vicinity at the chromosomal position 73A. Dose titration experiments have identified two of these loci. One of the...

We study gravitational lensing by spiral galaxies, using realistic models consisting of halo, disk, and bulge components combined to produce a flat rotation curve. Proper dynamical normalization of the models is critical because a disk requires less mass than a spherical halo to produce the same rotation curve—a face-on Mestel disk has a lensing cross section only 41% as large as a singular iso...

The Milky Way has a barred bulge. This article summarizes the current understanding of the main structural parameters and pattern speed of the bar, and compares predicted values for the microlensing optical depth with the bulge microlensing observations.

The binding of the anti-cancer drug pixantrone to three oligonucleotide sequences, d(TCATATGA)2, d(CCGAGAATTCCGG)2 {double bulge = DB} and the non-self complementary d(TACGATGAGTA) : d(TACCATCGTA) {single bulge = SB}, has been studied by NMR spectroscopy and molecular modelling. The upfield shifts observed for the aromatic resonances of pixantrone upon addition of the drug to each oligonucleoti...

The Galactic bulge of the Milky Way is made up of stars with a broad range of metallicity, –3.0 < [Fe/H] <1 dex. The mean of the metallicity distribution function decreases as a function of height z from the plane and, more weakly, with galactic radius RGC. The most metal-rich stars in the inner Galaxy are concentrated to the plane and the more metal-poor stars are found predominantly further f...

Inconsistent with the view that hair follicle stem cells reside in the matrix area of the hair bulb, we found that label-retaining cells exist exclusively in the bulge area of the mouse hair follicle. The bulge consists of a subpopulation of outer root sheath cells located in the midportion of the follicle at the arrector pili muscle attachment site. Keratinocytes in the bulge area are relative...

The atypical protein kinase C (aPKC) is a key regulator of polarity and cell fate in lower organisms. However, whether mammalian aPKCs control stem cells and fate in vivo is not known. Here we show that loss of aPKCλ in a self-renewing epithelium, the epidermis, disturbed tissue homeostasis, differentiation, and stem cell dynamics, causing progressive changes in this tissue. This was accompanie...

The dominant stellar population of the central bulge of the Milky Way is old, with roughly solar metallicity. The age is very similar to that of the old metal rich bulge globular clusters and to 47 Tucanae, which has an age of 13 Gyr. Stellar composition measurements from Keck/HIRES confirm that bulge stars are enhanced in Mg and Ti. New HST/NICMOS data are consistent with an old stellar popula...

While most numerical and laboratory models of coastal river inflows result in the generation of a large anticyclonic bulge near the mouth of the river, evidence of such a feature in field observations is scant. Here, results from a series of approximately shore-parallel transects 20 km west of the mouth of the Columbia River are presented that provide a detailed description of the bulge circula...

CO emission from the Sb(rs)I-II galaxy NGC 7331 has been mapped in the J=2–1 transition with a 21′′ beam over an area 3.5′ by 1.3′. A relatively low contrast enhancement of molecular line emission occurs in a ringlike zone at a distance of approximately 3.5 kpc from the center; there is no evidence for a pronounced central hole. The ring is located at the edge of the region of rigid rotation an...