The boron geochemistry of coral skeletons reflects the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) chemistry of the calcification fluid from which the skeletons precipitates and may be a valuable tool to investigate the effects of climate change on coral calcification. In this paper I calculate the predicted B/Ca of aragonite precipitating from seawater based fluids as a function of pH, [DIC] and [Ca2+]. ...

We present a probabilistic cost model to analyze the performance of the kd-tree for nearest neighbor search in the context of content-based image retrieval. Our cost model measures the expected number of kd-tree nodes traversed during the search query. We show that our cost model has high correlations with both the observed number of traversed nodes and the runtime performance of search queries...

The majority of human NK cells express low affinity IgG Fc receptors (CD16+), whereas a minor subset of NK cells lack Fc receptor expression (CD16-). In contrast to CD16+ NK cells that express only p75 IL-2 receptors, CD16- NK cells constitutively co-express both p75 and p55 IL-2 receptors in vivo and preferentially respond to low concentrations of IL-2 with increased cytolytic activation and p...

Cytoskeletal organization in organ cultured embryonic chicken lens was affected by isoproterenol treatment. Immunofluorescent localization of a 49 kD fiber cell-specific cytoskeletal protein showed a cytoplasmic and membrane localization in control lenses. Following isoproterenol treatment, fluorescence was predominantly membrane-associated. Changes in 49 kD distribution as determined by immuno...

ZIC2 is a causal gene for holoprosencephaly and encodes a zinc-finger-type transcriptional regulator. We characterized Zic2(kd/+) mice with a moderate (40%) reduction in Zic2 expression. Zic2(kd/+) mice showed increased locomotor activity in novel environments, cognitive and sensorimotor gating dysfunctions, and social behavioral abnormalities. Zic2(kd/+) brain involved enlargement of the later...

To study the specific actions of relaxin through RXFP1 in human cells, it would be advantageous to develop cell populations with permanent RXFP1 knockdown (KD). We have developed and assessed four microRNA against human RXFP1. One of the four designed microRNA displayed significant RXFP1 KD as assessed by reduced relaxin binding when co-transfected with human RXFP1 into HEK-293T cells. The sele...

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a multifactorial with genetic predisposition, systemic vasculitis complicated by the formation of coronary artery aneurysms (CAA). Its pathogenesis based on immune inflammation an increase in concentration pro-inflammatory cytokines, level C-reactive protein (CRP), and coagulation disorder. Objectives: to search for polymorphisms genes cluster differentiatio...

The equilibrium constants for the tryptophan binding to indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, a protohemoprotein, in its ferric (Fe3+), ferrous (Fez+), and CO-bound (Fea+CO) forms were determined by the spectrophotometric titration method. All these enzyme derivatives showed marked spectral changes upon tryptophan binding. Such a spectral change for the ferric enzyme was, however, specific to the L isom...