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Adenosine deaminase (ADA)-deficient mice and healthy rhesus monkeys were studied to determine the impact of age at treatment, vector dosage, dosing schedule, repeat administration, biodistribution, and immunogenicity after systemic delivery of lentiviral vectors (LVs). In Ada−/− mice, neonatal treatment resulted in broad vector marking across all tissues analyzed, whereas adult treatment resulted in marking restricted to the liver, spleen, and bone marrow. Intravenous administration to infant rhesus monkeys also resulted in dose-dependent marking in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow. Using an ELISA to monitor anti-vector antibody development, Ada−/− neonatal mice did not produce an antibody response, whereas Ada−/− adult mice produced a strong antibody response to vector administration. In mice and monkeys with repeat administration of LV, a strong anti-vector antibody response was shown in response to the second LV administration, which resulted in LV inactivation. Three separate doses administered to immune competent mice resulted in acute toxicity. Pegylation of the vesicular stomatitis virus G protein (VSV-G)-enveloped LVs showed a less robust anti-vector response but did not prevent the inactivation of the second LV administration. These studies identify important factors to consider related to age and timing of administration when implementing systemic delivery of LVs as a potential therapeutic agent.

Background: Remote health monitoring technology has been suggested as part of an early intervention and prevention care model. Older adults with a chronic health condition have been shown to benefit from remote monitoring but often have challenges with complex technology. The current study reports on the usability of and adherence with an integrated, real-time monitoring system over an extended period of time by older adults with and without a chronic health condition. Materials and Methods: Older adults 55 years of age and over with and without heart failure participated in a study in which a telehealth system was used for 6 months each. The system consisted of a wireless wristwatch-based monitoring device that continuously collected temperature and motion data. Other health information was collected daily using a weight scale, blood pressure cuff, and tablet that participants used for health surveys. Data were automatically analyzed and summarized by the system and presented to study nurses. Results: Forty-one older adults participated. Seventy-one percent of surveys, 75% of blood pressure readings, and 81% of daily weight measurements were taken. Participants wore the watch monitor 77% of the overall 24/7 time requested. The weight scale had the highest usability rating in both groups. The groups did not otherwise differ on device usage. Conclusions: The findings indicate that a health monitoring system designed for older adults can and will be used for an extended period of time and may help older adults with chronic conditions reside longer in their own homes in partnership with the healthcare system.

Beautiful Art! my worship is for thee-- The heart's entire devotion. When I look Upon thy radiant wonders, every pulse Is thrill'd as in the presence of divinity. (1) These opening lines of Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Poetical Catalogue of Pictures-nine poems published in The Literary Gazette between March and August 1823--convey the rapture of a connoisseur who perceives in "Art" transcendent genius. (2) One might expect that the poem's subject is an Old Master painting or a Greco-Roman sculpture, for the speaker's language of devotion reflects the enthusiasm of Hazlitt for the landscapes of Claude Lorraine or Byron for the Belvedere Apollo. (3) But Landon's subject is not the art of the past but of the present. These four lines comprise the first part of a nine-line epigraph that prefaces a poem called "Vandyke consulting his Mistress on a Picture in Cooke's Exhibition." The title indicates that the picture appeared in William Cooke's Exhibition of Engravings by Living British Artists, an event that took place at Cooke's 9 Soho Square print shop and home. (4) Landon's poem suggests a wider and more controversial definition of "Beautiful Art," which includes not only a genre scene by a living British artist but also the reproductive art of engraving. Whether the Literary Gazette editor William Jerdan commissioned the poems or Landon conceived of the series herself is uncertain; nonetheless, the sequence of nine poems form a cohesive group, documenting paintings and at least one engraving that appeared in London exhibitions between 1822 and 1823. The Poetical Catalogue is strikingly original in the periodical literature of this decade in its attempt to create an audience for British artists, including printmakers, and while Landon's participation in giftbook and annual culture has received critical attention, her role as a writer for the Literary Gazette has not been fully explored. (5) Landon's serialized poems not only versify different aspects of art writing in this period, particularly the exhibition catalogue entry and the generalist art review, but also anticipate the rise of poetry written exclusively for literary annual illustrations. I Landon knew William Jerdan and his family from childhood, and her involvement in the Literary Gazette originates in their close working relationship and secret love affair. (6) Landon grew tip across the street from Jerdan and his family in Brompton, and, admiring her literary ambition and talent, he published her first poem in the Literary Gazette in March 1820. (7) Jerdan's tutelage, as his biographer Susan Matoff characterizes their relationship, launched Landon's career as an author. At this time Jerdan took Landon to "exhibitions of paintings, an art form he especially enjoyed, and one which was a direct inspiration for her poetry" (Matoff, p. 127). It is in this period that Landon began writing unsigned reviews for Jerdan, who credits her with "doing little less for the Gazette than I did myself' (cited in Matoff, p. 129). In the summer of 1822, Jerdan introduced Landon to his friend the artist Richard Dagley for whom she wrote three poems entitled Sketches from designs by Mr. Dagley, published in July and August issues of the Literary Gazette. Matoff notes that "it was quite an achievement for Landon to produce poetry about pictures in a magazine which did not print the illustrations from which the poems derived" (p. 131.) It is likely that Landon saw the pictures either in an exhibition or in print reproduction and wrote the Literary Gazette's art notices. Landon's choice of title asserts the relevance of her poetic sequence in public art discourse: Poetical Catalogue of Pictures is--as the second word of the title announces--a kind of exhibition catalogue within the pages of a periodical. The role of the exhibition catalogue by the 1820s was both to document the pictures in an exhibition and contribute to the experience of looking at a picture by including literary quotations. …

Thermobifida fusca is a moderately thermophilic soil bacterium that belongs to Actinobacteria . It is a major degrader of plant cell walls and has been used as a model organism for the study of secreted, thermostable cellulases. The complete genome sequence showed that T. fusca has a single circular chromosome of 3,642,249 bp predicted to encode 3,117 proteins and 65 RNA species with a coding density of 85%. Genome analysis revealed the existence of 29 putative glycoside hydrolases in addition to the previously identified cellulases and xylanases. The glycosyl hydrolases include enzymes predicted to exhibit mainly dextran/starch- and xylan-degrading functions. T. fusca possesses two protein secretion systems: the sec general secretion system and the twin-arginine translocation system. Several of the secreted cellulases have sequence signatures indicating their secretion may be mediated by the twin-arginine translocation system. T. fusca has extensive transport systems for import of carbohydrates coupled to transcriptional regulators controlling the expression of the transporters and glycosylhydrolases. In addition to providing an overview of the physiology of a soil actinomycete, this study presents insights on the transcriptional regulation and secretion of cellulases which may facilitate the industrial exploitation of these systems.

Soil bacteria that also form mutualistic symbioses in plants encounter two major levels of selection. One occurs during adaptation to and survival in soil, and the other occurs in concert with host plant speciation and adaptation. Actinobacteria from the genus Frankia are facultative symbionts that form N2-fixing root nodules on diverse and globally distributed angiosperms in the “actinorhizal” symbioses. Three closely related clades of Frankia sp. strains are recognized; members of each clade infect a subset of plants from among eight angiosperm families. We sequenced the genomes from three strains; their sizes varied from 5.43 Mbp for a narrow host range strain (Frankia sp. strain HFPCcI3) to 7.50 Mbp for a medium host range strain (Frankia alni strain ACN14a) to 9.04 Mbp for a broad host range strain (Frankia sp. strain EAN1pec.) This size divergence is the largest yet reported for such closely related soil bacteria (97.8%–98.9% identity of 16S rRNA genes). The extent of gene deletion, duplication, and acquisition is in concert with the biogeographic history of the symbioses and host plant speciation. Host plant isolation favored genome contraction, whereas host plant diversification favored genome expansion. The results support the idea that major genome expansions as well as reductions can occur in facultative symbiotic soil bacteria as they respond to new environments in the context of their symbioses.

Classical antiquity gave us the notion of the arts as sisters, and Renaissance Italy the drama of their sibling rivalry. (1) In the "republic of taste" of eighteenth-century Britain, poetry, painting, and sculpture were companionable sisters, so long as the family of genres reflected the social order: pastoral verse and flower painting were classified as feminine pastimes suitable for lady amateurs; and epic poetry and history painting as masculine genres for gentlemen with a classical education or professional training. (2) While sculpture provided ideal forms for both painting and poetry, its practice was also considered the most masculine of occupations, requiring the skills of a workman and the study of human anatomy. Like their Romantic predecessors, Victorian women poets capitalized on the signs of cultivation and distinction reflected in the poetics of ut pictura poesis ("as a painting, so a poem") and used it to distinguish feminine amateurism from masculine artistry. This essay will suggest that it is worth exploring how the rise of professional women painters and sculptors in the nineteenth century informed various forms of sister arts verse by poets actively engaged with the concept of a rivalry among the arts. Robert Browning, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and a host of other male poets responded in kind. But in their embodiment of the sister arts metaphor, I want to explore some of the complexities of sisterhood and rivalry expressed by several female poets and one art critic. As Victorian women began to appear in the culturally elite roles of art historian and academic exhibitor, women poets responded to fellow rivals as many of their Renaissance and Romantic predecessors had, asserting poetry's power to create an image in the mind's eye and to give it a voice. (3) Feminist critics have drawn attention to the way in which nineteenth-century "poetesses" transformed ut pictura poesis into ut sculptura poeta ("as a sculpture, so a poet"). (4) The visual and poetic representations of Sappho and Stael's Corinne in the early nineteenth century offered "both the lyric voice and the sacrificial body of the paradigmatic poetess for consumption as an aestheticized object." (5) One paradigmatic poetess Felicia Hemans wrote ekphrastic poems in response to drawings and sculpture of Sappho abandoned by Phaon as well and to funerary monuments of women. "The Last Song of Sappho" and "The Queen of Prussia's Tomb," for example, voice the bitterness of abandonment and the sorrows of motherhood, which are sentiments excluded from the visual records. Moreover, Hemans' elegiac stanzas form verbal monuments that attest to the power of song to outlast the tomb. (6) Social status and gender politics have always played a significant role in a form of sister arts rhetoric known as paragone, according to Jean H. Hagstrum in his landmark account of the sister arts from antiquity to eighteenth-century England. (7) In Renaissance Italy, the invention of paragone, which means comparison or contest, coincides with the painter's demand for equity with poets, whose art was considered a branch of rhetoric and a higher art: The paragone involving painting and poetry is explainable not so much philosophically, on the basis of a theoretical distinction between these arts, as sociologically: painters and sculptors were now successful enough to reject the inferior social and educational position they had occupied since antiquity and to strive for recognition of their pursuits as liberal disciplines. (Hagstrum, p. 66) Hagstrum's emphasis on theoretical debate and sociological context opens his discussion of Leonardo's Treatise on Painting, in which the author passionately vindicates the power of the image over the word. Hagstrum places Leonardo's defense within the context of social change, but he also attends to Leonardo's claim that painting's empiricism makes the art a science: "The painter, who deals with things, is superior to the poet, who deals with words" (Hagstrum, p. …

Psychrophilic archaea are abundant and perform critical roles throughout the Earth's expansive cold biosphere. Here we report the first complete genome sequence for a psychrophilic methanogenic archaeon, Methanococcoides burtonii. The genome sequence was manually annotated including the use of a five-tiered evidence rating (ER) system that ranked annotations from ER1 (gene product experimentally characterized from the parent organism) to ER5 (hypothetical gene product) to provide a rapid means of assessing the certainty of gene function predictions. The genome is characterized by a higher level of aberrant sequence composition (51%) than any other archaeon. In comparison to hyper/thermophilic archaea, which are subject to selection of synonymous codon usage, M. burtonii has evolved cold adaptation through a genomic capacity to accommodate highly skewed amino-acid content, while retaining codon usage in common with its mesophilic Methanosarcina cousins. Polysaccharide biosynthesis genes comprise at least 3.3% of protein coding genes in the genome, and Cell wall, membrane, envelope biogenesis COG genes are overrepresented. Likewise, signal transduction (COG category T) genes are overrepresented and M. burtonii has a high 'IQ' (a measure of adaptive potential) compared to many methanogens. Numerous genes in these two overrepresented COG categories appear to have been acquired from epsilon- and delta-Proteobacteria, as do specific genes involved in central metabolism such as a novel B form of aconitase. Transposases also distinguish M. burtonii from other archaea, and their genomic characteristics indicate they have an important role in evolving the M. burtonii genome. Our study reveals a capacity for this model psychrophile to evolve through genome plasticity (including nucleotide skew, horizontal gene transfer and transposase activity) that enables adaptation to the cold, and to the biological and physical changes that have occurred over the last several thousand years as it adapted from a marine to an Antarctic lake environment.

Background Evidence suggests an inverse relationship between soy protein intake and serum concentrations of male sex hormones. Anecdotal evidence indicates that these alterations in serum sex hormones may attenuate changes in lean body mass following resistance training. However, little empirical data exists regarding the effects of soy and milk-based proteins on circulating androgens and exercise induced body composition changes. Methods For 12 weeks 20 subjects were supplemented with 50 g per day of one of four different protein sources (Soy concentrate; Soy isolate; Soy isolate and whey blend, and Whey blend only) in combination with a resistance-training program. Body composition, testosterone, estradiol and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were measured at baseline and week 12. Results Protein supplementation resulted in a significant increase in lean body mass independent of protein source (0.5 ± 1.1 and 0.9 ± 1.4 kg, p = 0.006, p = 0.007). No significant differences were observed between groups for total and free testosterone, SHBG, percentage body fat, BMI or body weight. The Testosterone/Estradiol ratio increased across all groups (+13.4, p = 0.005) and estradiol decreased (p = 0.002). Within group analysis showed significant increases in the Testosterone/Estradiol ratio in soy isolate + whey blend group (+16.3, p = 0.030). Estradiol was significantly lower in the whey blend group (-9.1 ± 8.7 pg/ml, p = 0.033). Conclusion This investigation shows that 12 week supplementation with soy protein does not decrease serum testosterone or inhibit lean body mass changes in subjects engaged in a resistance exercise program.

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is a psychometric instrument that can be useful to researchers interested in investigating the impact of personality traits in accounting practice and education. The KTS may be used to investigate: (a) the nature of personality of accounting practitioners, faculty and students; and (b) how personality traits affect the performance of accounting practitioners, faculty and students. This paper provides KTS users with the empirical and conceptual information necessary to conduct research in these areas. The psychometric properties and underlying theory of the KTS are examined, as are its limitations. The paper also compares the KTS to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), another widely used psychometric instrument. The two instruments are compared in order to determine the relative advantages of each for accounting research.

19 Background: The evaluation of gene amplification and/or protein overexpression of HER2 in gastric cancer is a prerequisite to establish an adequate treatment strategy. Gastric tumors are heterogeneous and separate evaluations lead to uncertainties in localizing distinct clones and are time consuming. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of gene-protein platform in comparison to single staining methods. Methods: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) plus silver in situ hybridization (SISH) (IHC/SISH) and the new gene-protein platform (gene/protein) method for HER2 were performed in randomly collected 100 cases of gastric carcinoma. Evaluation was performed by two observers, in discrepant cases a third observer was consulted to make a decision by consensus. Results of IHC and SISH were compared with gene/protein staining. Rüschoff criteria were applied. Tumors showing HER2 expression 3+ or amplification were considered HER2 positive. Results: 96 of 100 samples were eligible. Amplification was observed in 14.6% by both, conventional SISH and gene/protein platform. 70.8% by IHC and gene/protein had no expression (0) and 10.4%/11.5% (IHC vs. gene/protein) had weak (1+) HER2 expression. Moderate expression (2+) was observed in 9.4% by IHC and 7.3% by gene/protein. Rate of overexpression (3+) was similar in IHC (9.4%) and gene/protein (10.4%). There were complete concordances (100%; κ=1) in IHC assessment of cases with score 0 and SISH amplified tumors. High concordance are shown in score 1+ (98.96%; κ=0.947) and 3+ (96.88%; κ=0.825) cases. Concordance in cases with score 2+ was found in 95.83% (κ=0.728) of the observations. After third observation, there were 5 discordant cases with most discrepancies in assessment of IHC score 2+ or 3+. Conclusions: Gene-protein platform has been tested for first time in gastric carcinoma. Results showed that this novel platform can be a feasible alternative to single methods. Discrepancies in cases with moderate HER2 expression are a result of observer variability.

4100 Background: Amplification and/or protein overexpression of HER2 in gastric cancer is a prerequisite to establish an adequate treatment strategy. The European standard defined HER2 positivity by IHC as first evaluation assay followed by ISH in 2+ cases. Gastric tumors are heterogeneous and separate evaluations lead to uncertainties and in localizing distinct clones and are time consuming. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of gene-protein platform in comparison to single staining methods. Methods: IHC plus SISH and gene-protein platform (IHC/SISH, protein/gene) method for HER2 were performed in randomly collected 100 cases of gastric carcinoma. Results of IHC and SISH were compared with IHC/SISH staining. Rüschoff criteria were applied. Tumors were HER2 positive when expression 3+ or 2+ plus gene amplification (EU-Norm) was found. In Second definition (US-Norm), tumors showing HER2 expression 3+ or amplification were considered HER2 positive. Results: 96 of 100 samples were eligible. Amplification was observed in 14.6% and 15.6% by SISH and IHC/SISH. 71.9% by IHC vs. 75.0% by IHC/SISH had no expression (0) and 10.4% (IHC vs. IHC/SISH) had weak (1+) HER2 expression. Moderate expression (2+) and overexpression (3+) were observed in IHC 6.3%/11.5% and IHC/SISH 6.3%/8.3%, respectively. There were high concordances in IHC assessment of cases with score 0 (94.8%; κ=0.87) and 3+ (96.9%; κ=0.83) and moderate concordances in 1+/2+ cases (89.6%; κ= 0.44 vs. 93.8%; κ=0.47). Rate of HER2 positivity was similar in standard or novel method. In EU Definition 14.6% vs. 10.4% (p=0.52) were positive, respectively, with very good concordance (95.8%; κ=0.81).Concordance between HER2 positivity in standard or novel method was very good (99.0%; κ=0.96) in US definition with no significant differences (17.7% vs. 16.7%; p=1). Conclusions: Gene-protein platform has been tested for first time in gastric carcinoma. Results showed that this novel platform can be a feasible alternative to single methods. Discrepancies in cases with weak or moderate HER2 expression can be a result of observer variability.