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FastSPECT II is a recently commissioned 16-camera small-animal SPECT imager built with modular scintillation cameras and list-mode data-acquisition electronics. The instrument is housed in a lead-shielded enclosure and has exchangeable aperture assemblies and adjustable camera positions for selection of magnification, pinhole size, and field of view. The calibration of individual cameras and measurement of an overall system imaging matrix (1 [mm.sup.3] voxels) are supported via a five-axis motion-control system. Details of the system integration and results of characterization and performance measurements are presented along with first tomographic images. The dynamic imaging capabilities of the instrument are explored and discussed. Index Terms--Dynamic, high-resolution, list-mode, small animal, SPECT.

Demand for the development of health services that are responsive to the views of users has led to a growing interest in the measurement of patient satisfaction. Initial reluctance to seek the views of users of mental health services focused on a debate about whether or not mentally disordered patients were able to make 'valid' comments about their treatment. More recently the development of questionnaires that claim to 'reliably measure' the views of patients have coincided with a greater acceptance of the role that such studies can play. However, it is argued that the use of these quantitative and often simplistic methods underestimate the dissatisfaction of many patients. Further exploration of the differing expectations of users and providers of services and a degree of willingness in both parties to change is required if services are to be developed that better meet the needs of patients.

Analysis of lithium and retinoic acid administration effects on the heart morphogenesis of Xenopus embryos using cardiac troponin I (troponin Ic) expression as a marker shows that lithium and troponin Ic enhance and reduce heart tissues, leading to abnormalities in heart. Heart migration to ventral midline does not occur in lithium-dorsalized hearts and a centrally positioned heart develops in the dorsalized embryos. The timing of heart development indicates that movements relating to heart morphogenesis and not migration help in the heart development.

A convenient approach of administering retinoic acid locally instead of immersing the entire embryo in retinoic acid solutions helps establish the process by which this acid induces embryonic defects in Xenopus laevis. Retinoic acid suppresses the growth of the anterior structure. It is not responsible for global respecification of axial level in the head.

Apicomplexan parasites harbor a single non-photosynthetic plastid, the apicoplast, which is essential for parasite survival. Exploiting Toxoplasma gondii as an accessible system for cell biological analysis and molecular genetic manipulation, we have studied how these parasites ensure that the plastid and its 35-kb circular genome are faithfully segregated during cell division. Parasite organelles were labeled by recombinant expression of fluorescent proteins targeted to the plastid and the nucleus, and time-lapse video microscopy was used to image labeled organelles throughout the cell cycle. Apicoplast division is tightly associated with nuclear and cell division and is characterized by an elongated, dumbbell-shaped intermediate. The plastid genome is divided early in this process, associating with the ends of the elongated organelle. A centrin-specific antibody demonstrates that the ends of dividing apicoplast are closely linked to the centrosomes. Treatment with dinitroaniline herbicides (which disrupt microtubule organization) leads to the formation of multiple spindles and large reticulate plastids studded with centrosomes. The mitotic spindle and the pellicle of the forming daughter cells appear to generate the force required for apicoplast division in Toxoplasma gondii. These observations are discussed in the context of autonomous and FtsZ-dependent division of plastids in plants and algae. Key words: chloroplast division * organelle segregation * cell division * mitotic spindle * oxoplasma gondii

Norton, Louis Arthur. Captains Contentious: The Dysfunctional Sons of the Brine. Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2009. 185pp. $29.95 'Honor,' as Douglass Adair explains in Fame and Founding Fathers [...]