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A theoretical research program is outlined that seeks to use the Modern Synthesis in explaining human evolution, but also recognizes its limitations in explaining the evolution of socio-cultural systems. The universe, from a human perspective, is composed of physical, biological, and socio-cultural dimensions, each revealing unique properties and dynamics. In the case of the socio-cultural universe, modern evolutionary theory is relevant for some explanations, but not to the degree assumed by socio-biology, evolutionary psychology, and even co-evolutionary models. The program proposed is built around social network theory, cladistic analysis, and comparative neuro-anatomy, and outlines where biological analysis is appropriate and useful. An understanding of the biological basis of human behavior will allow sociologists to develop theoretical approaches to explaining the emergent properties of the socio-cultural universe. The strategy outlined will allow us to see what a mature evolutionary sociology can do: develop abstract theoretical laws about the dynamics of selection on socio-cultural formations in human societies.

ABSTRACTThe expressive theory of paternalism holds that an action is paternalistic when and because it expresses the insulting idea that the actor knows better than the person acted upon. I argue that the expressive theory has implausible implications. First, it entails that a government’s interventions in people’s lives count as paternalistic only if their motivations are sufficiently consistent and well-publicised that the circumstances allow its policies to express the relevant insult. In other words, secret paternalism is impossible. Second, the theory implies that governments can remove any objection to a policy quapaternalistic by means of a manipulative exercise in public relations. Nor, I argue, does the expressive theory offer any explanatory advantage over autonomy-based theories.

This article discusses whether restrictions on trade with occupied territories imposed by national or sub-national authorities are permitted under exceptions to WTO and EU free trade rules on grounds of public morality, public order or public policy. The relevant provisions have a common origin and similarities in their terms. However, our analysis finds significant differences in their interpretation and application. Restrictions on trade with occupied territories are unlikely to be permitted on these grounds under WTO rules unless there is a strong justification for the restrictions in all the circumstances and they do not discriminate between different territories where relevant conditions are similar. By contrast, such restrictions are unlikely to be permitted under EU law if adopted unilaterally by an EU member state or sub-national authority. The different approaches and potentially different outcomes reflect the different priorities of the WTO and the EU. The primary objective of the WTO is to remove barriers and discrimination in international trade in a diverse global economy in which countries with differing values and alliances participate. By contrast, the highest priority of the EU is the integration of the economies and societies of its member states.

The roof plate-specific spondin–leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 4/5 (LGR4/5)–zinc and ring finger 3 (ZNRF3)/ring finger protein 43 (RNF43) module is a master regulator of hepatic Wnt/β-catenin signaling and metabolic zonation. However, its impact on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remains unclear. The current study investigated whether hepatic epithelial cell-specific loss of the Wnt/β-catenin modulator Lgr4/5 promoted NAFLD. The 3- and 6-month–old mice with hepatic epithelial cell-specific deletion of both receptors Lgr4/5 (Lgr4/5dLKO) were compared with control mice fed with normal diet (ND) or high-fat diet (HFD). Six-month–old HFD-fed Lgr4/5dLKO mice developed hepatic steatosis and fibrosis but the control mice did not. Serum cholesterol–high-density lipoprotein and total cholesterol levels in 3- and 6-month–old HFD-fed Lgr4/5dLKO mice were decreased compared with those in control mice. An ex vivoprimary hepatocyte culture assay and a comprehensive bile acid (BA) characterization in liver, plasma, bile, and feces demonstrated that ND-fed Lgr4/5dLKO mice had impaired BA secretion, predisposing them to develop cholestatic characteristics. Lipidome and RNA-sequencing analyses demonstrated severe alterations in several lipid species and pathways controlling lipid metabolism in the livers of Lgr4/5dLKO mice. In conclusion, loss of hepatic Wnt/β-catenin activity by Lgr4/5 deletion led to loss of BA secretion, cholestatic features, altered lipid homeostasis, and deregulation of lipoprotein pathways. Both BA and intrinsic lipid alterations contributed to the onset of NAFLD.

I. Introduction The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act) (1) vests the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) with the exclusive authority for the prevention and remedying of [...]

INTRODUCTION Glycosylation is a post-translational, modification of proteins that occurs in all eukaryotic cells. The sugar chains on glycoproteins can mediate biological, activity, play a role in receptor-mediated recognition, increase [...]

The American sociology is a chaotic discipline, where there is disagreement on foundational issues that give disciplines coherence. An attempt is made to offer an explanation for how sociology came to its present state and what can be done to integrate the discipline.

"Stow it, Gord", said Jenny. "I feel like hell", said Jenny. When I got to Doc Li's office Gordon Yamaguchi had already left. Doc Li looked like a video doctor, and he had the manners, too: a little white-haired guy, who wore old-fashioned glasses and fussed a bit. "This is a passenger liner", said Jenny. [Extracted from the article]

For well over a year the new economy has been experiencing a severe shakeout. Since January of 2000, at least 129,000 high-tech workers have lost their jobs due to failed [...]

BUSINESSES TODAY are as likely to have partners on the other side of the globe as on the other side of town. Crime has also become worldwide in scope. As [...]

The Malaysian government's campaigns to increase the production and domestic market demand for fresh milk, young coconut and sheep meat are examined to understand how government campaigns can have an impact on production, consumption and economic activity. Fresh milk, young coconut and sheep meat are products of subsistence farming in Malaysia and are thus not regarded as traditional foods. However, the government decided to promote these agricultural products to raise the income of subsistence farming while improving the nutrition and health of the country's poor people.

The polarized reflectivity of an ideally smooth metal with a uniaxial anisotropic complex refractive index, for instance, metals with hexagonally close-packed (HCP) symmetry, is derived from the electromagnetic wave equation for normal incidence and arbitrary crystal orientation. The resulting orientation-dependent Mueller matrices of the surface are applicable to c axis orientation imaging of metals including beryllium, magnesium, titanium, cobalt, zinc, zirconium, tin, and most of their alloys, as well as other uniaxial compounds. Comparing orientation images recorded with a generalized polarized-light microscope (PLM), in this case an original coherent laser PLM, with orientation images obtained by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) enables imaging ellipsometry (IE) at near-normal incidence and increases confidence in ellipsometric refractive-index measurements. In this initial study, without modeling oxides, the resulting c axis orientation images of several titanium alloys are still verified to better than 11% against EBSD maps of the same samples over instantaneous fields of view (FOVs) exceeding 1cm^2 and FOVs approaching 1in^2 obtained by stitching several such images together.

Although most acute skin wounds heal rapidly, non-healing skin ulcers represent an increasing and substantial unmet medical need that urgently requires effective therapeutics. Keratinocytes resurface wounds to re-establish the epidermal barrier by transitioning to an activated, migratory state, but this ability is lost in dysfunctional chronic wounds. Small-molecule regulators of keratinocyte plasticity with the potential to reverse keratinocyte malfunction in situ could offer a novel therapeutic approach in skin wound healing. Utilizing high-throughput phenotypic screening of primary keratinocytes, we identify such small molecules, including bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET) protein family inhibitors (BETi). BETi induce a sustained activated, migratory state in keratinocytes in vitro, increase activation markers in human epidermis ex vivo and enhance skin wound healing in vivo. Our findings suggest potential clinical utility of BETi in promoting keratinocyte re-epithelialization of skin wounds. Importantly, this novel property of BETi is exclusively observed after transient low-dose exposure, revealing new potential for this compound class.

The YAP/Hippo pathway is an organ growth and size regulation rheostat safeguarding multiple tissue stem cell compartments. LATS kinases phosphorylate and thereby inactivate YAP, thus representing a potential direct drug target for promoting tissue regeneration. Here, we report the identification and characterization of the selective small-molecule LATS kinase inhibitor NIBR-LTSi. NIBR-LTSi activates YAP signaling, shows good oral bioavailability, and expands organoids derived from several mouse and human tissues. In tissue stem cells, NIBR-LTSi promotes proliferation, maintains stemness, and blocks differentiation in vitroand in vivo. NIBR-LTSi accelerates liver regeneration following extended hepatectomy in mice. However, increased proliferation and cell dedifferentiation in multiple organs prevent prolonged systemic LATS inhibition, thus limiting potential therapeutic benefit. Together, we report a selective LATS kinase inhibitor agonizing YAP signaling and promoting tissue regeneration in vitroand in vivo, enabling future research on the regenerative potential of the YAP/Hippo pathway.

The accountability imperative is creating a new breed of marketing analyst. Jonathan Turner and Lindsay Leslie-Miller report on how marketers will need to hone their skills, in the third of [...]

Michael Buawoy's description for a public sociology regulated by professional and policy sociology on one side and critical sociology on the other represents ideological biases of sociology to public, which would destroy the non-ideological efforts for sociology to make an impact on public and policy makers. Sociology would need to gain respect through a long careful research and explanation evolutionary process without ideological passion and could also do better to develop an engineering mentality in dealing with the public problems and concerns.

The post-genomic era has seen many advances inBaryza and G. Rice for helpful our understanding of cancer pathways, yet resistance and tumor heterogeneity necessitate multiple approaches to target even monogenic tumors. Here, we combine phenotypic screening with chemical genetics to identify pre-messenger RNA endonuclease cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor 3 (CPSF3) as the target of JTE-607, a small molecule with previously unknown target. We show that CPSF3 represents a synthetic lethal node in a subset of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and Ewing’s sarcoma cancer cell lines. Inhibition of CPSF3 by JTE-607 alters expression of known downstream effectors in AML and Ewing’s sarcoma lines, upregulates apoptosis and causes tumor-selective stasis in mouse xenografts. Mechanistically, it prevents the release of newly synthesized pre-mRNAs, resulting in read-through transcription and the formation of DNA-RNA hybrid R-loop structures. This study implicates pre-mRNA processing, and specifically CPSF3, as a druggable target providing an avenue to therapeutic intervention in cancer.

Religion emerged as a cognitive capacity and behavioral propensity by virtue of Darwinian natural selection on hominins and then humans to become more social and group oriented. The capacity to be religious is only a modest extension of the Darwinian selection on cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal propensities of all great apes and, hence, early hominins. However, other forms of natural selection need to be added to the explanation of why religion became institutionalized in early human societies, why religious organizations arise and die from competition, and why violence is so often a part of religious revolution. These additional types of natural selection do not obviate Darwinian selection on the human brain, but they become a necessary supplement to Darwinian analysis if the early institutionalization and subsequent evolution of religion are to be more fully explained.

Religion emerged as a cognitive capacity and behavioral propensity by virtue of Darwinian natural selection on hominins and then humans to become more social and group oriented. The capacity to be religious is only a modest extension of the Darwinian selection on cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal propensities of all great apes and, hence, early hominins. However, other forms of natural selection need to be added to the explanation of why religion became institutionalized in early human societies, why religious organizations arise and die from competition, and why violence is so often a part of religious revolution. These additional types of natural selection do not obviate Darwinian selection on the human brain, but they become a necessary supplement to Darwinian analysis if the early institutionalization and subsequent evolution of religion are to be more fully explained.

Sociology can no longer avoid engagement with biological ideas, but it can incorporate them where they are useful. Most biologically inspired explanations of sociological processes from outside the discipline are simple and, moreover, too reliant on biological rather than sociological models of social processes. Yet, it is possible to engage these efforts by developing sociological concepts and theories that meet those using evolutionary theory from biology. This paper argues that the heavy reliance on Darwinian natural selection limits sociological explanations, although this approach can help sociologists understand the evolved behavioral propensities of humans as evolved apes. These behavioral propensities cannot, however, explain the evolution and dynamics of the layers of sociocultural phenomena studied by sociologists, and efforts to do so with Darwinian notions of natural selection on individual organisms will always be inadequate. As an alternative, we propose that there are other types of natural selection inherent in the organization of what Herbert Spencer termed superorganisms. We label these Durkheimian, Spencerian, and Marxian selection, and they explain what Darwinian selection cannot: the dynamics and evolution of sociocultural phenomena.

Information Technology can be used to enhance presentation work for clients and Microsoft graphics software package, PowerPoint, enables the user to use a variety of effects. A surveyor can use a scanner so that photographs can be incorporated into slides in the presentation. The user must ensure that the work is presented in a clear methodical way and the layout is not too complicated. Handouts could be used to explain what has been presented in more detail. The Powerpoint package uses wizards to help the user obtain the best results.

The sex-steroid hormone estradiol (E2) enhances the psychoactive effects of cocaine, as evidenced by clinical and preclinical studies. The medial preoptic area (mPOA), a region in the hypothalamus, is a primary neural locus for neuroendocrine integration, containing one of the richest concentrations of estrogen receptors in the CNS and also has a key role in the regulation of naturally rewarding behaviors. However, whether estradiol enhances the neurochemical response to cocaine by acting in the mPOA is still unclear. Using neurotoxic lesions and microdialysis, we examined whether the mPOA modulates cocaine-induced neurochemical activity in the nucleus accumbens. Tract tracing and immunohistochemical staining were used to determine whether projections from the mPOA to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are sensitive to estrogen signaling. Finally, estradiol microinjections followed by microdialysis were used to determine whether estrogenic signaling in the mPOA modulates cocaine-induced changes of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. Results showed that lesions of the mPOA or microinjections of estradiol directly into the mPOA increased cocaine-induced release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that the mPOA modulates cocaine responsiveness via projections to both dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons in the VTA, and that these projections are sensitive to estrogenic stimulation. Taken together, these findings point to a novel estradiol-dependent pathway that modulates cocaine-induced neurochemical activity in the mesolimbic system.

Pace of aging is an epigenetic clock which captures the speed at which someone is biologically aging compared to the chronological-age peers. We here use data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to investigate the interrelation between the study children's parental social class at birth, and their pace of aging and cognitive skills measures in childhood and adolescence. We show that children from lower parental social classes display faster pace of aging and that the social class gradient in pace of aging is strongest in adolescence. About one third of this association can be explained by other socio-economic and demographic covariates, as well as life events. Similarly, study children's pace of aging manifests a negative association with their measures of cognitive skills in late adolescence only. This association becomes stronger as the contemporary pace of aging of the mother becomes faster. Our results seem to identify adolescence as the period of life when pace of aging, family environment and cognitive skills measures begin to interact.

ABSTRACTA public health response relies upon rapid and reliable confirmation of disease by diagnostic assays. Here, we detail the design and validation of two variola virus-specific real-time PCR assays, since previous assays cross-reacted with newly identified cowpox viruses. The assay specificity must continually be reassessed as other closely related viruses are identified.

Glucocorticoids exert rapid nongenomic effects by several mechanisms including the activation of a membrane-bound glucocorticoid receptor (mGR). Here, we report the first proteomic study on the effects of mGR activation by BSA-conjugated cortisol (Cort-BSA). A subset of target proteins in the proteomic data set was validated by Western blot and we found them responding to mGR activation by BSA-conjugated cortisol in three additional cell lines, indicating a conserved effect in cells originating from different tissues. Changes in the proteome of BSA-conjugated cortisol treated CCRF-CEM leukemia cells were associated with early and rapid pro-apoptotic, immune-modulatory and metabolic effects aligning with and possibly “priming” classical activities of the cytosolic glucocorticoid receptor (cGR). PCR arrays investigating target genes of the major signaling pathways indicated that the mGR does not exert its effects through the transcriptional activity of any of the most common kinases in these leukemic cells, but RhoA signaling emerged from our pathway analysis. All cell lines tested displayed very low levels of mGR on their surface. Highly sensitive and specific in situproximity ligation assay visualized low numbers of mGR even in cells previously thought to be mGR negative. We obtained similar results when using three distinct anti-GR monoclonal antibodies directed against the N-terminal half of the cGR. This strongly suggests that the mGR and the cGR have a high sequence homology and most probably originate from the same gene. Furthermore, the mGR appears to reside in caveolae and its association with caveolin-1 (Cav-1) was clearly detected in two of the four cell lines investigated using double recognition proximity ligation assay. Our results indicate however that Cav-1 is not necessary for membrane localization of the GR since CCRF-CEM and Jurkat cells have a functional mGR, but did not express this caveolar protein. However, if expressed, this membrane protein dimerizes with the mGR modulating its function.

A nasty case of the flu had me on the couch when my wife brought me the phone. A panic-stricken woman was on the line. "All the computers are down, […]

The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of five underground strikes on journey times in London's transport network during 2009 and 2010. The main data source for this study was automatic number plate recognition cameras, which were installed on the entrances and exits of 670 travel links that covered the vast majority of the network and were equivalent to a total length of 1,740 km. The determination of spatiotemporal differences of strike effects between the first and the remaining strike days, the identification of changes in departure and arrival times, and the estimation of travel time delays within central, inner, and outer London, as well as between inbound and outbound traffic, were the main objectives of the study. The total travel time within the examined areas, the excess delay, and the corresponding percentage difference in journey times were the main performance measurements used. The most significant results showed that the second day of strikes resulted in significant delays as opposed to the first strike days. The peaks elongated by approximately 45 to 60 min, while the unique full-day strike had the highest percentage increase in travel times, especially during the evening period (74%). Central London was generally affected the most, especially during the morning peak, which experienced an average increase in travel times of 35%, while Central London also had the highest percentage of negatively affected links (80%). The inbound traffic experienced, on average, high delays during the morning peak; the outbound traffic yielded greater delays during the evening period.

Regulation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) levels is an important stress adaptation mechanism. Transcription factor Nfgi-a and environmentally induced Grpromoter 17methylation have been implicated in fine-tuning the expression of Gr17transcripts. Here, we investigated Grpromoter 17methylation and Gr17expression in adult rats exposed to either acute or chronic stress paradigms. A strong negative correlation was observed between the sum of promoter-wide methylation levels and Gr17transcript levels, independent of the stressor. Methylation of individual sites did not, however, correlate with transcript levels. This suggested that promoter 17was directly regulated by promoter-wide DNA methylation. Although acute stress increased Ngfi-aexpression in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), Gr17transcript levels remained unaffected despite low methylation levels. Acute stress had little effect on these low methylation levels, except at four hippocampal CpGs. Chronic stress altered the corticosterone response to an acute stressor. In the adrenal and pituitary glands, but not in the brain, this was accompanied by an increase in methylation levels in orchestrated clusters rather than individual CpGs. PVN methylation levels, unaffected by acute or chronic stress, were significantly more variable within- than between-groups, suggesting that they were instated probably during the perinatal period and represent a pre-established trait. Thus, in addition to the known perinatal programming, the Gr17promoter is epigenetically regulated by chronic stress in adulthood, and retains promoter-wide tissue-specific plasticity. Differences in methylation susceptibility between the PVN in the perinatal period and the peripheral HPA axis tissues in adulthood may represent an important “trait” vs. “state” regulation of the Grgene.

As key socio-cultural building blocks of human societies, institutions are distinct from organizations and, hence, are central to sociological inquiry. In recent decades, however, institutional analysis has increasingly moved toward the analysis of organizations, while treating “institutions” as the environments or fields of organizations. While the insights offered by contemporary organizational theorists have provided important keys to understanding how organizations, especially economic organizations, adapt to pressures within their environments, the authors argue that the Old Institutionalisms of functional theorizing has much to offer the New Institutionalisms. In this article, the Old Institutionalisms are revisited to construct a precise definition of institutions as well as posit a robust theory of institutional dynamics, a theory which supplements contemporary organizational analysis. Four dynamics stand out: the process of institutional autonomy, the intersection of stratification systems and institutions, modes of integration within and between institutions, and generalized symbolic media of exchange. In particular, the latter two occupy the authors' attention primarily as they have been under-theorized elsewhere.

The effects of cortisol (CORT) on resting and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated monocyte-derived THP-1 macrophages were investigated by proteomics. Forty-seven proteins were found to be modulated, 20 by CORT, 11 by LPS, and 16 by CORT and LPS. Cortisol-sensitive chaperones and cytoskeletal proteins were mostly repressed. HCLS1, MGN, and MX1 were new proteins identified to be under the transcriptional control of this steroid and new CORT-sensitive variants of MX1, SYWC and IFIT3 were found. FKBP51, a known CORT target gene, showed the strongest response to CORT and synergism with LPS. In resting THP-1 macrophages, 18 proteins were modulated by CORT, with 15 being down-regulated. Activation of macrophages by LPS was associated with enhanced expression of immune response and metabolic proteins. In activated macrophages, CORT had a more equilibrated effect and almost all metabolism-related proteins were up-regulated, whereas immune response proteins were mostly down-regulated. The majority of the LPS up-regulated immune response-related proteins are known interferon (IFN) target genes (IFIT3, MX1, SYWC, PSME2) suggesting activation of the IRF3 signaling pathway. They were all suppressed by CORT. This is the first proteomics study to investigate the effects of CORT on activated immune cells.

This whitepaper proposes OpenFlow: a way for researchers to run experimental protocols in the networks they use every day. OpenFlow is based on an Ethernet switch, with an internal flow-table, and a standardized interface to add and remove flow entries. Our goal is to encourage networking vendors to add OpenFlow to their switch products for deployment in college campus backbones and wiring closets. We believe that OpenFlow is a pragmatic compromise: on one hand, it allows researchers to run experiments on heterogeneous switches in a uniform way at line-rate and with high port-density; while on the other hand, vendors do not need to expose the internal workings of their switches. In addition to allowing researchers to evaluate their ideas in real-world traffic settings, OpenFlow could serve as a useful campus component in proposed large-scale testbeds like GENI. Two buildings at Stanford University will soon run OpenFlow networks, using commercial Ethernet switches and routers. We will work to encourage deployment at other schools; and We encourage you to consider deploying OpenFlow in your university network too

The glucocorticoid (GC) cortisol, the main mediator of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis has many implications in metabolism, stress response and the immune system. Its function is mediated via binding to the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), a member of the superfamily of ligand‐activated nuclear hormone receptors. The activity of the ligated GR results from its binding as a transcription factor to glucocorticoid response elements (GREs). Two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis with DIGE (fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis) technology was applied to study the effects of cortisol on the human THP‐1 monocytic cell line. A total of 28 cortisol‐modulated proteins were identified belonging to five functional groups: cytoskeleton (8), chaperones (9), immune response (4), metabolism (3) and transcription/translation (4). Their corresponding genes were screened for putative GREs in their + 10 kb/− 0.2 kb promoter regions including all alternative promoters available within the Database for Transcription Start Sites (DBTSS). FKBP51, known to be induced by cortisol, was identified as the strongest differentially expressed protein, and contains the highest number of strict GREs. Genomic analysis of five alternative FKBP5 promoter regions suggests GC inducibility of all transcripts. Additionally, proteomics (2D DIGE and 2D immunoblotting) revealed the existence of several FKBP51 isoforms, which were not previously described. To our knowledge this is the first proteomic study that addresses the effects of cortisol on immune cells. FKBP51 isoforms found on the gel map were linked to alternative promoter usage on the genetic level, successfully correlating both the specific proteomic and genomic findings. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

There is a growing demand for network devices capable of examining the content of data packets in order to improve network security and provide application-specific services. Most high performance systems that perform deep packet inspection implement simple string matching algorithms to match packets against a large, but finite set of strings. owever, there is growing interest in the use of regular expression-based pattern matching, since regular expressions offer superior expressive power and flexibility. Deterministic finite automata (DFA) representations are typically used to implement regular expressions. However, DFA representations of regular expression sets arising in network applications require large amounts of memory, limiting their practical application.In this paper, we introduce a new representation for regular expressions, called the Delayed Input DFA (D2FA), which substantially reduces space equirements as compared to a DFA. A D2FA is constructed by transforming a DFA via incrementally replacing several transitions of the automaton with a single default transition. Our approach dramatically reduces the number of distinct transitions between states. For a collection of regular expressions drawn from current commercial and academic systems, a D2FA representation reduces transitions by more than 95%. Given the substantially reduced space equirements, we describe an efficient architecture that can perform deep packet inspection at multi-gigabit rates. Our architecture uses multiple on-chip memories in such a way that each remains uniformly occupied and accessed over a short duration, thus effectively distributing the load and enabling high throughput. Our architecture can provide ostffective packet content scanning at OC-192 rates with memory requirements that are consistent with current ASIC technology.

The article focuses on the resurgence of the art scene in Rome, Italy. The author points out that a new vigor in the art scene has grown such that new galleries and museums have been opened that attracted local and foreign artists. A brief historical background on the art scene boom is presented. Several art galleries and museums have ventured into innovative ways of presenting art to the public.

The Open Network Laboratory (ONL) is a remotely accessible network testbed designed to enable networking faculty, students and researchers to conduct experiments using high performance routers and applications. The system is built around a set of extensible, high-performance routers and has a graphical interface that enables users to easily configure and run experiments remotely. ONL's Remote Laboratory Interface (RLI) allows users to easily configure a network topology, configure routes and packet filters in the routers, assign flows or flow aggregates to separate queues with configurable QoS and attach hardware monitoring points to real-time charts. The remote visualization features of the RLI make it easy to directly view the effects of traffic as it moves through a router, allowing the user to gain better insight into system behavior and create compelling demonstrations. Each port of the router is equipped with an embedded processor that provides a simple environment for software plugins allowing users to extend the system's functionality. This paper describes the general facilties and some networking experiments that can be carried out. We hope that you and your collegues and students will check out the facility and register for an account at our web site onl.arl.wustl.edu

The 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) plays a key role in determining tissue-specific expression and protein isoforms. Analysis of the 5′ UTR of the human GR (hGR) has revealed 11 splice variants of the hGR exon 1, based on seven exon 1s, four of which (1-D to 1-F and 1-H) were previously unknown. All of the exon 1 variants have unique splice donor sites and share a common exon 2 splice acceptor site. Due to an upstream in-frame TGA stop codon the predicted translation from all splice variants is identical. The four new exon 1s show remarkable similarity with their rat homologues. Exon 1-D starts and finishes 17 and 36 bp upstream of the corresponding ends of the rat exon 14. Exon 1-E is only 6 bp longer than its homologue exon 15. Exon 1-F contains two short inserts of 11 and 6 bp when compared with the rat 17. 1-H is 18 bp longer than the corresponding rat 111. In addition to these new exons, we found that the human exon 1-C occurs as three distinct splice variants, covering the region homologous to the rat exons 19and 110. All of the alternative hGR exons 1s presented here were found to be transcribed in human tissue. The human hippocampus expresses mRNA of all the exon 1 variants, while the expression of the other exon 1s seems to be tissue specific. While exon 1-D is only in the hippocampus, exons 1-E and 1-F are also detected in the immune system, and exon 1-H additionally in the liver, lung and smooth muscle. The 5′ region of the hGR is more complex than previously thought, and we suggest that each of these untranslated first exons have a distinct proximal promoter region, providing additional depth to the mechanisms available for tissue-specific expression of the hGR isoforms.