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Complementation with an Escherichia coli K-12 genomic library and serial subcultures were used to identify a point mutation (E115K) resulting in slower growth of E. coli DH5[alpha] and XL1-Blue in minimal media. The results revealed that expression of an exogenous, K-12-derived copy of the purB gene under a constitutive promoter could enhance growth phenotypes of E. coli DH5[alpha] and XL1-Blue strains in minimal media.

α‐Synuclein is the major component of Lewy bodies and a candidate biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases in which Lewy bodies are common, including Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. A large body of literature suggests that these disorders are characterized by reduced concentrations of α‐synuclein in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), with overlapping concentrations compared to healthy controls and variability across studies. Several reasons can account for this variability, including technical ones, such as inter‐assay and inter‐laboratory variation (reproducibility). We compared four immunochemical methods for the quantification of α‐synuclein concentration in 50 unique CSF samples. All methods were designed to capture most of the existing α‐synuclein forms in CSF ('total' α‐synuclein). Each of the four methods showed high analytical precision, excellent correlation between laboratories (R2 0.83–0.99), and good correlation with each other (R2 0.64–0.93), although the slopes of the regression lines were different between the four immunoassays. The use of common reference CSF samples decreased the differences in α‐synuclein concentration between detection methods and technologies. Pilot data on an immunoprecipitation mass spectrometry (IP‐MS) method is also presented. Our results suggest that the four immunochemical methods and the IP‐MS method measure similar forms of α‐synuclein and that a common reference material would allow harmonization of results between immunoassays. α‐Synuclein is a synaptic protein that forms intracellular Lewy body inclusions in Parkinson's disease and other so called synuclein aggregation disorders. There are several methods to measure α‐synuclein concentration in human cerebrospinal fluid, where it is a candidate diagnostic and prognostic biomarker. In the current paper, we compared the analytical characteristics of four immunochemical (MSD, BioLegnd, Adx, and Roche) and one mass spectrometry‐based method. Variance component analysis partitions the total variance associated with 49 sample measured by site, kit lot, and replicate. The results show that the different methods measure similar forms of α‐synuclein and that a common reference material would allow for assay harmonization, which will be important in studies evaluating drugs that target α‐synuclein pathology specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the notion of myth as a specific form of evidence and evidentiality of architecture. This exploration is conducted with specific regard to two key texts: the first, a philosophical text, and the second a text of architectural theory. As such, Barthes’s text:Mythologiesfirstly published in 1957 and Borden’s text:Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Bodypublished in 2001 are explored. This paper suggests that the role served by Barthesian myth in respect to language is similar to the role served by skateboarding in Borden’s exploration of the city. It is suggested that both myth and skateboarding serve as evidence of the instability of objectivity in language, everyday life practices and architecture. We thus argue that the notion of myth will chart a new dimension of contemporary architectural thinking and prompt more possibilities in interlinking design research between architecture, the human body and the sociologic study of mass culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a form of cloth and clothing, the T-shirt "speaks" at once about the "seen" surface of materiality, of imagery and of embodiment; and about the "unseen" depth of cultural disposition, of socio-politics and of commodification. The T-shirt in this respect is considered a text, a techne of productive knowledge, and read as the textility of both thought and matter. This article discusses the "mythical" reading of the T-shirt with specific reference to the semiology of Roland Barthes. The discussion begins with the proposition of the T-shirt as material culture, the T-shirt consumed in such a way as to articulate the complex signifying fabric of cultural systems in the practices of everyday life. The "system of object" of the T-shirt in this regard is perceived as an activity consisting of the systematic manipulation of signs. We then discuss the relationship between material culture and semiology; and how the T-shirt may possibly relate to Barthes's notion of "myth." The Barthesian myth suggests the production of the "second-order language" of the T-shirt. The consumption of the T-shirt in this sense is considered at once ontologically social and ideological. This becomes a basis for exploring the mythical reading of the T-shirt using two T-shirt "works of art" : the "T-shirt painting" of Untitled (Jimi Hendrix) by Richard Prince (1992-3); and the "designed T-shirt," the "Tunku Abdul Rahman T-Shirt" by Pop Malaya (2007). It is argued that both T-shirts suggest a very particular mythical reading, i.e. of Americanization and of counter- Americanization. This mythical reading prompts the dialectical conflict between the "face and surface" of the T-shirt. We term this the "(surface of the T-shirt." This article therefore paves the way for possibly linking textile studies of the T-shirt between fashion, the human body, and the sociologic study of mass culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second sentence of the preface to the text Architectural Body (2002) is one that is both perplexing and provocative. The preface reads like a discussion. The topic of the discussion is the titling of the text and one imagines it is a discussion between the text's authors Madeline Gins and Arakawa. The sentence occurs in quotation marks and states: "If only readers could come to it having some sense of what the architectural body is." This chapter focuses on this second sentence and in particular that which is perplexing and provocative about it. This is not to preclude the remainder of the text but rather this intensity of focus on the second sentence is a means to access all that occur after it. The chapter explores this one sentence as an opportunity to investigate that which precedes the architectural body. The intent here is not to reconstruct a history of the architectural body but to explore the sense or logic of its configuration. I must declare that this second sentence is approached from the perspective of architectural theory, and in particular that discourse which focuses on the body/architecture/text relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Stephen Kite on John Ruskin's tidal flow in Venice, another by Maria Fedorchenkos on flows of architectures, and another one by Cathy Smith on spaces of architecture.

The architecture of the extracellular matrix (ECM) directs cell behavior by providing spatial and mechanical cues to which cells respond. In addition to soluble chemical factors, physical interactions between the cell and ECM regulate primary cell processes, including differentiation, migration, and proliferation. Advances in microtechnology and, more recently, nanotechnology provide a powerful means to study the influence of the ECM on cell behavior. By recapitulating local architectures that cells encounter in viva, we can elucidate and dissect the fundamental signal transduction pathways that control cell behavior in critical developmental, physiological, and pathological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]