Review: G. De Búrca and J. Scott (eds.), Law and New Governance in the EU and the US (Hart, 2006)

Review of edited collection.

New anti-HIV aptamers based on tetra-end-linked DNA G-quadruplexes: effect of the base sequence on anti-HIV activity.

This communication reports on the synthesis and biophysical, biological and SAR studies of a small library of new anti-HIV aptamers based on the tetra-end-linked G-quadruplex structure. The new aptamers showed EC(50) values against HIV-1 in the range of 0.04-0.15 µM as well as affinities for the HIV-1 gp120 envelope in the same order of magnitude

INDEPENDENT EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE CCITT G. 722 WIDEBAND CODING RECOMMENDATION.

The subjective performance of the G. 722 7-kHz wideband speech coding recommendation using music signals is described. A number of audible distortions specific to music signals were found to be present in real-time evaluations of the coder. As a result, three modifications are proposed which are found to improve the performance for music signals. These modifications are compatible with the G. 722 system configuration. Modifications made to G. 722 to alleviate the most serious aspects of the noise modulation are described: (1) an adaptive bit allocation scheme is used to reduce short and long-term nonoptimality; (2) spectral noise shaping is incorporated, significantly enhancing the subjective performance of certain modes; and (3) backward block adaptive prediction is used.

INDEPENDENT EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE CCITT G. 722 WIDEBAND CODING RECOMMENDATION USING MUSIC SIGNALS.

The subjective performance of the G. 722 7-kHz wideband speech-coding recommendation using music signals is described. A number of audible distortions specific to music signals were found to be present in real-time evaluations of the coder. As a result, three modifications are proposed which are found to improve the performance for music signals. These modifications are compatible with the G. 722 system configuration. The results obtained clearly demonstrate the very high coding efficiency of subband ADPCM (adaptive differential pulse-code modulation) with comparison to digitally companding and ADM schemes when applied to music signals.

Psychosocial and academic characteristics of extremely low birth weight (<or =800 g) adolescents who are free of major impairment compared with term-born control subjects

To compare academic and cognitive ability, attention, attitudes, and behavior of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) adolescents who are free of major impairments at 17 years of age with term-born control subjects.

Children's judgements about pain at age 8-10 years:do extremely low birthweight (<or = 1000 g) children differ from full birthweight peers?

Children's judgements about pain at age 8-10 years were examined comparing two groups of children who had experienced different exposure to nociceptive procedures in the neonatal period: extremely low birthweight (ELBW) <or = 1000 g (N = 47) and full birthweight (FBW) &gt; or = 2500 g (N = 37). The 24 pictures that comprise the Pediatric Pain Inventory, depicting events in four settings: medical, recreational, daily living, and psychosocial, were used as the pain stimuli. The subjects rated pain intensity using the Color Analog Scale and pain affect using the Facial Affective Scale. Child IQ and maternal education were statistically adjusted in group comparisons. Pain intensity and pain affect related to activities of daily living and recreation were significantly higher than psychosocial and medically related pain on both scales in both groups of children. Although the two groups of children did not differ overall in their perceptions of pain intensity or affect, the ELBW children rated medical pain intensity significantly higher than psychosocial pain, unlike the FBW group. Also, duration of neonatal intensive care unit stay for the ELBW children was related to increased pain affect ratings in recreational and daily living settings. Despite altered response to pain in the early years reported by parents, on the whole at 8-10 years of age ELBW children judged pain in pictures similarly to their term peers. However, differences were evident, which suggests that studies are needed of biobehavioural reactivity to pain beyond infancy, as well as research into beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions about pain during the course of childhood in formerly ELBW children.

Extremely premature (<or = 800 g) schoolchildren:multiple areas of hidden disability

To examine the functional abilities of extremely low birthweight (ELBW, <or = 800 g) children at school age compared with full term children.

Language development at 3 years in pre-term children of birth weight below 1000 g

Language development at 3 years of pre-term children born below 1000 g birth weight was compared with full-term controls matched for social background. The pre-term group used less complex expressive language and showed lower receptive understanding, auditory memory and verbal reasoning. Language outcome was related to intraventricular haemorrhage but not to global indication of postnatal illness such as number of days on the ventilator. Average verbal intelligence in environmentally low risk, extremely low birth weight children is an insufficient indicator of complex language functioning.

RNAi screen identifies Jarid1b as a major regulator of mouse HSC activity

Histone methylation is a dynamic and reversible process proposed to directly impact on stem cell fate. The Jumonji (JmjC) domain-containing family of demethylases comprises 27 members which can demethylate mono-, di- and tri-methylated lysine residues of histone (or non-histone) targets. To evaluate their role in regulation of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) behaviour we performed a RNAi-based screen and found that demethylases JARID1B (H3K4) and JHDM1F (H3K9) play opposing roles in regulation of HSC activity. Decrease in Jarid1b levels correlated with an in vitro expansion of HSC with preserved long term in vivo lympho-myeloid differentiation potential. Jarid1b knockdown was associated with an increase in expression levels of 5’ Hoxa cluster genes and CxCl5 , and reduced levels of Pu.1, Egr1 and Cav1. shRNA against Jhdmlf, in contrast, impaired hematopoietic reconstitution of bone marrow cells. Together, our studies identified Jarid1b as a negative, and Jhdmlf as a positive regulator of HSC activity.