The sperm/oocyte decision in the hermaphrodite germline of Caenorhabditis elegans provides a powerful model for the characterization of stem cell fate specification and differentiation. The germline sex determination program that governs gamete fate has been well studied, but direct mediators of cell-type-specific transcription are largely unknown. We report the identification of spe-44 as a cr...

Collaborative software development environments are large cooperative work systems. To effectively support collaborative development, such environments should support software process modelling and enactment, work coordination, and fully integrated software development tools. We describe the facilitation of collaborative software development using the Serendipity process modelling environment a...

Learning to predict rewarding and aversive outcomes is based on the comparison between predicted and actual outcomes (prediction error: PE). Recent electrophysiological studies reported that during a Pavlovian procedure some dopamine neurons code a classical PE signal while a larger population of dopaminergic neurons reflect a "salient" prediction error (SPE) signal, being excited both by unpre...

Sucrose polyester (SPE) is a tasteless, odourless substance which reduces plasma cholesterol concentrations and may therefore be valuable as a fat substitute in human foodstuffs. It has recently been approved for use in snack foods by the United States Federal Drug Administration. The current study was designed to investigate its effects on gastrointestinal physiology and nutrient absorption in...

Streptococcal pyrogenic enterotoxin C (Spe-C) is a superantigen virulence factor produced by Streptococcus pyogenes that activates T-cells polyclonally. The biologically active form of Spe-C is thought to be a homodimer containing an essential zinc coordination site on each subunit, consisting of the residues His(167), His(201), and Asp(203). Crystallographic data suggested that receptor specif...

Daily average solar proton flux data for the years 1963-1984 (two solar cycles) have been used in a proton energy degradation scheme to derive ion pair production rates and, subsequently, HOx (H, OH, HO2) and NOx (N, NO, NO2) production rates. These HOx and NOx production rates are computed in a form suitable for inclusion in an atmospheric two-dimensional time-dependent photochemical model. Th...

The recent 23–30 January and 7–11 March 2012 solar proton event (SPE) periods were substantial and caused significant impacts on the middle atmosphere. These were the two largest SPE periods of solar cycle 24 so far. The highly energetic solar protons produced considerable ionization of the neutral atmosphere as well as HOx (H, OH, HO2) and NOx (N, NO, NO2). We compute a NOx production of 1.9 a...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of styloid process elongation (SPE) detected on panoramic radiographs (PRs) in Cappadocia region population in Turkey and to investigate the SPE incidences in relation to the age subgroups. METHODS Between 2004 to 2007 years, a random sample of 750 PRs was collected from the data files and any questionable PR was excluded. Theref...

It is a common practice to extract steroids from plasma, serum, or tissue samples prior to steroid measurement by radioimmunoassay (RIA) or enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Steroid extraction is critical because it can remove substances that interfere with the RIA or EIA. Steroid extraction is commonly achieved using organic solvents, such as diethyl ether or dichloromethane. However, organic solvent ...

Maize (Zea mays) displays an exceptional level of structural genomic diversity, which is likely unique among higher eukaryotes. In this study, we surveyed how the genetic divergence of two maize inbred lines affects the transcriptomic landscape in four different primary root tissues of their F1-hybrid progeny. An extreme instance of complementation was frequently observed: genes that were expre...