High-pressure discovery of ß-NiBi.

Herein, we present the discovery of a new high-pressure phase in the Ni-Bi system, ß-NiBi, which crystallizes in the TlI structure type. The powerful technique of in situ high-pressure and high-temperature powder X-ray diffraction enabled observation of the formation of ß-NiBi and its reversible reconversion to the ambient pressure phase, α-NiBi.

In situ observations of a possible skate nursery off the western Antarctic Peninsula.

A dense aggregation of skate egg cases was imaged during a photographic survey of the sea floor along the western Antarctic Peninsula in November 2013. Egg cases were noted in a narrow band between 394 and 443 m depth. Although some skate species in other oceans are known to utilize restricted areas to deposit eggs in great numbers, such nurseries have not been described in the Southern Ocean.

Comment on "Topological insulators in ternary compounds with a honeycomb lattice".

A Comment on the Letter by Zhang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 156402 (2011).

Pharmaceutical care in chain pharmacies: beliefs and attitudes of pharmacists and patients.

OBJECTIVE: To discuss with pharmacists and patients with reactive airways disease their beliefs about pharmaceutical care and the pharmacist's role in health care, obstacles to providing pharmaceutical care in community pharmacies, and strategies to overcome these obstacles. DESIGN: Two focus groups of patients, two focus groups of pharmacists. PARTICIPANTS: Thirteen patients with reactive airways disease and 11 chain pharmacists. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Qualitative reports on the pharmacist's role in health care delivery and obstacles to implementing pharmaceutical care programs. RESULTS: Pharmacists wished to provide pharmaceutical care, and patients were supportive of pharmacists' involvement in their health care. Both viewed counseling as an important role for pharmacists and believed that pharmacists should work with patients' physicians. Reported obstacles included lack of time, inadequate privacy, and pharmacists' lack of direct access to patients' physicians. Pharmacists and patients believed pharmacists should have access to patient-specific clinical data. CONCLUSION: Focus groups provided valuable information for designing pragmatic pharmaceutical care. The obstacles and possible solutions identified through the discussions represent fertile ground for designing innovative pharmaceutical care programs.

Coding joint formation of endogenous T cell receptor genes in lymphoid cells from scid mice: unusual P-nucleotide additions in VJ-coding joints.

The mouse mutation scid adversely affects the process of VDJ recombination. Attempts to form coding joints, that is, to joint V or D to J gene segments generally fail in developing scid lymphocytes. It has been proposed that the scid mutation results a defective VDJ recombinase system. Here we describe five scid T cell lymphomas containing one or two TcR gamma coding joints each, even though the majority of the multiple TcR gamma chain gene rearrangements and all TcR beta rearrangements in these cells were abnormal with the deletions typically found in scid lymphoid cells. One of the five T cell lymphomas was shown to have an active VDJ recombinase system; however, this activity was defective indicating that the scid phenotype has been retained. We conclude that the scid VDJ recombinase system has not completely lost the ability to form coding joints. P-nucleotide additions of unusual length or composition were found at the junctional border in five of the eight TcR gamma coding joints. This might reflect a defect in the activity of a component of the VDJ recombinase system involved in the generation of P-nucleotide additions. In one of the observed rearrangements, a V gamma 5-J gamma 3 coding joint was formed. This establishes the transcriptional orientation of J gamma 3-C gamma 3 and confirms a previously proposed organization of the TcR gamma genes.