The Migration of Multi-tier E-commerce Applications to an Enterprise Java Environment

As technology evolves, many organizations face the problem of migrating legacy applications from one technology base to another. We report on a case study involving the migration of legacy code into the IBM® WebSphere® Commerce Suite product. Specifically, we focus on the problem of migrating applications that use traditional database access techniques to applications using the Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) programming model. Our results include a practical methodology that facilitates such migration, as well as a tool that supports this methodology. The tool has been released on IBM's alphaWorks site.     

Occupational Therapy Practice in Hospital-based Stroke Rehabilitation?

Abstract

Background: Occupational therapy after stroke represents a complex intervention. Objective: The aim of this observational study was to document the content of occupational therapy stroke rehabilitation in an Australian general rehabilitation ward. Methods: A behavioural mapping tool recorded 22 occupational therapy sessions at five-minute intervals for nine participants with stroke (mean age 70.6 years, 88.9% female). Results: The mean session length was 41 minutes. The focus of therapy was predominantly at body functions (mean 16.5 minutes) and motor and perceptual impairments were addressed most often. Conclusion: The overall amount of occupational therapy provided was consistent with session lengths reported from effective stroke units and recommended by stroke guidelines. However, the results highlight the difficulties for occupational therapists working within the hospital environment, including practice that was largely restricted to the level of impairment and basic activities of daily living.     

T1 mapping in myocarditis – headway to a new era for cardiovascular magnetic resonance

Myocarditis is a major cause of cardiac morbidity and mortality, particularly in young patients. A spectrum of challenges besets this condition, from establishing the diagnosis to effective treatment. Endomyocardial biopsy remains the diagnostic gold standard, despite its invasiveness, low diagnostic yield and a paucity of consequential management pathways. Cardiac magnetic resonance by Lake Louise criteria has contested to become the non-invasive diagnostic alternative by providing confirmation of disease. The advent of T1 mapping now allows a high diagnostic accuracy in confirmation and exclusion of disease, discrimination of stages and activity of disease. Alongside the research into the mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets, cardiac magnetic resonance confidently claims a prime role within a modern diagnostic pathway in clinically stable patients with suspected myocarditis.     

Comparative genomic mapping between a 754 kb region flanking DREB1A in Arabidopsis thaliana and maize

Comparative mapping between model plant species for which the complete genome sequence is known and crop species has been suggested as a new strategy for the isolation of agronomically valuable genes. In this study, we tested whether comparative mapping between Arabidopsisand maize of a small region (754 kb) surrounding the DREB1A gene in Arabidopsis could lead to the identification of an orthologous region in maize containing the DREB1A homologue. The genomic sequence information available for Arabidopsis allowed for the selection of conserved, low-copy genes that were used for the identification of maize homologues in a large EST database. In total, 17 maize homologues were mapped. A second BLAST comparison of these genes to the recently completed Arabidopsis sequence revealed that 15 homologues are likely to be orthologous as the highest similarity score was obtained either with the original Arabidopsis gene or with a highly similar Arabidopsis gene localized on a duplication of the investigated region on chromosome 5. The map position of these genes showed a significant degree of orthology with the Arabidopsis region. Nevertheless, extensive duplications and rearrangements in the Arabidopsisand maize genomes as well as the evolutionary distance between Arabidopsis and maize make it unlikely that orthology and collinearity between these two species are sufficient to aid gene prediction and cloning in maize.     

Identification of genes necessary for jinggangmycin biosynthesis from Streptomyces hygroscopicus 10-22

A series of large chromosomal deletions in Streptomyces hygroscopicus 10-22 were aligned on the physical map of the wild-type strain and the mutants were assessed for their ability to produce the aminocyclitol antibiotic 5102-I (jinggangmycin). Twenty-eight mutants were blocked for jinggangmycin production and all of them were found to lack a 300 kb AseI-F fragment of the wild-type chromosome. An ordered cosmid library of the 300 kb AseI-F fragment was made and one of the cosmids conferred jinggangmycin productivity to Streptomyces lividans ZX1. Three of the overlapping cosmids (18G7, 5H3 and 9A2) also hybridized to the valA gene of the validamycin pathway from S. hygroscopicus 5008 as a probe. This gene resembles acbC from Actinoplanes sp. 50/110, which encodes a C7-cyclitol synthase that catalyses the transformation of sedoheptulose 7-phosphate into 2-5-epi-valiolone for acarbose biosynthesis. The valA/acbC-homolog (orf1) of S. hygroscopicus 10-22 was shown to be essential for jinggangmycin biosynthesis as an engineered mutant with a specific in-frame deletion removing a 609 bp sequence internal to orf1 completely abolished jinggangmycin production and the corresponding knock-out mutant (JXH4) could be complemented for jinggangmycin production by the introduction of an orf1-containing construct. Concurrently, the identities of the genes common to S. hygroscopicus strains 10-22 and 5008 prompted a comparison of the chemical structures of jinggangmycin and validamycin, which led to a clear demonstration that they are identical.The first two authors contributed equally to this study.     

Nickel localization on tissues of hyperaccumulator species of Phyllanthus L. (euphorbiaceae) from Ultramafic Areas of Cuba

Two species of perennial Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae) (Phyllanthus orbicularis and Phyllanthus discolor, both endemic to ultramafic areas of Cuba, and their natural hybrid, Phyllanthus xpallidus) were selected for metal localization microanalysis. Different plant tissues were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence, inductively coupled plasma—atomic emission spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy coupled with an energy-dispersive X-ray probe. All of the studied taxa are nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulators and significant concentrations of this element were found in different leaf and stem tissues. The highest Ni content was found in the laticifer tubes, whereas leaf epidermis Ni content resulted to be much more relevant in terms of total metal storage. Calcium and magnesium were found more evenly distributed in leaf and stem tissues.     

Mapping genes essential for embryo development in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Summary We have previously isolated and characterized over 90 recessive mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana defective in embryo development. These emb mutants have been shown to differ in lethal phase, extent of abnormal development, and response in culture. We demonstrate in this report the value and efficiency of mapping emb genes relative to visible and molecular markers. Sixteen genes essential for embryo development were mapped relative to visible markers by analyzing progeny of selfed F₁ plants. Embryonic lethals are now the most common type of visible marker included on the linkage map of Arabidopsis. Backcrosses were used in several cases to orient genes relative to adjacent markers. Three genes were located to chromosome arms with telotrisomics by screening for a reduction in the percentage of aborted seeds produced by F₁ plants. A restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) mapping strategy that utilizes pooled EMB/EMB F₂ plants was devised to increase the efficiency of mapping embryonic lethals relative to molecular markers. This strategy was tested by demonstrating that the biol locus of Arabidopsis is within 0.5 cM of an existing RFLP marker. Mapping embryonic lethals with both visible and molecular markers may therefore help to identify large numbers of genes with essential functions in Arabidopsis.