Much remains to be discovered about the etiology of heart valve disease and the molecular level mechanisms that drive it. The MAPK/ERK pathway influences calcification in many cell types and has been linked to the expression of a contractile phenotype in valvular interstitial cells (VICs). However, a direct correlation between MAPK/ERK pathway activity and VIC calcification has not been previou...

Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC. Johnson George, MPharm, PhD Scholar; David C M Kong, MPharm PhD, Lecturer; and Senior Pharmacist, The Alfred, Melbourne, VIC; Kay Stewart, BPharm(Hons), PhD, Senior Lecturer. Ambulatory and Community Services, The Alfred, Melbourne, VIC. Lisa L Ioannides-Demos, BPharm, PhD, Senior Research Scientist; and Re...

This paper addresses the effectiveness of auctions and legal unbundling as regulatory measures to tender a vertically integrated industry more competitive. Specifically, I analyze if implementing auctions and legal unbundling can counter market power in an industry where a Vertically Integrated Corporation (VIC) has a monopoly position in an essential, scarce upstream activity and also owns one...

This paper considers the change in information seeking behaviour of tourists as a result of the increased use of the World Wide Web as an information resource in the context of information services provided by visitor information centres (VICs). The theoretical approach adopts a model from information systems: the model of expectation-disconfirmation effects on web customer satisfaction. The pa...

Isocitrate lyase (ICL, types 1 and 2) is the first enzyme of the glyoxylate shunt, an essential pathway for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) during the persistent phase of human TB infection. Here, we report 2-vinyl-d-isocitrate (2-VIC) as a mechanism-based inactivator of Mtb ICL1 and ICL2. The enzyme-catalyzed retro-aldol cleavage of 2-VIC unmasks a Michael substrate, 2-vinylglyoxylate, which ...

For a low-power wireless communication, a fast-Fourier-transform (FFT) LSI for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system has been implemented with current-mode circuits. In this current-mode OFDM system, a voltage-current converter (VIC) should be designed with an operating frequency of more than 40 MHz, because the frequency bandwidth of the OFDM signal is recommended as 20 M...

Real-time multimedia conferencing tools over the Internet have become attractive in the past few years. Many tools, such as VIC and Windows NetMeeting, have been designed to hold Internet conferences. However, these two video conferencing tools cannot communicate with each other. In this paper, we design and implement a tool which is based on VIC but can set up conferences with Windows NetMeeting.

It's impossible to discuss a piece of Vic's work without relating it to the other pieces. Everything fits together within an overall strategy of applying the empirical scientific method to the challenge of continuously improving an organization's software processes and products. The Goal-Question-Metric approach recognizes that "improvement" requires metrics, but that every organization has its...

In an attempt to understand the significance of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and vasoactive intestinal contractor (VIC)/ET-2 peptides in organs during perinatal development, we performed quantitative analysis of ET-1 and VIC gene expression in mouse organs obtained from embryos at days 14 and 17 (E-14 and E-17) of pregnancy, neonates at days 0, 1, 3 and 7 after birth (N-0, -1, -3 and -7), and adult mice...