The European Union, the UK National Institute for Health Research, the Wellcome Trust, the UK Medical Research Council, Action on Hearing Loss, the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Oak Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, the German Research Center for Environmental Health, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Center for Diabetes Research, the Munich Center for Health Sciences, the Ministry of Science and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the German Federal Ministry of Health.

ORONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. 1 Inflammation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of CHD at every stage from initiation to progression and rupture of the atherosclerotic plaque. 2 Creactive protein (CRP), an acutephase protein synthesized primarily by the liver, is currently the most widely used biomarker of inflammation. 3 Ob-servational studies have consistently demonstrated that higher plasma levels of CRP are associated with higher risk of CHD, 4,5 and measurement of CRP has been advocated as a means of improving risk prediction. 6 There is See also pp 49 and 92.

Expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a receptor tyrosine kinase associated with cell proliferation and survival, is overactive in many tumors of epithelial origin. Blockade of the kinase activity of EGFR has been used for cancer therapy; however, by itself, it does not seem to reach maximum therapeutic efficacy. We report here that in human cancer cells, the function of kinase-independent EGFR is to prevent autophagic cell death by maintaining intracellular glucose level through interaction and stabilization of the sodium/glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT1).

Many of the effects of estrogens on the uterus are mediated by ERalpha, the predominant ER in the mature organ. Because of the poor reproductive capacity of ERbeta knockout (BERKO) female mice (small litter size, multiple-resorbed fetuses), the role of uterine ERbeta was explored. In the immature uterus, ERalpha and ERbeta are expressed at comparable levels in the epithelium and stroma, and 17beta-estradiol (E(2)) treatment decreases ERbeta in the stroma. The immature uterus of untreated BERKO mice exhibits elevated levels of progesterone receptor (PR) and the proliferation-associated protein, Ki-67. It also exhibits exaggerated responsiveness to E(2), as indicated by enlargement of the lumen, increase in volume and protein content of uterine secretion, induction of the luminal epithelial secretory protein, complement C3, and its regulatory cytokine IL-1beta, and induction of vascular endothelial growth factor and insulin-like growth factor 1 but not its receptor. As expected, E(2) increased PR in the stroma and decreased it in the luminal epithelium of wild-type mice. In the BERKO uterus, E(2) induced PR in the stroma but did not down-regulate it in the epithelium. Increased cell proliferation and exaggerated response to E(2) in BERKO suggest that ERbeta plays a role in modulation of the effects of ERalpha and in addition (or as a consequence of this) has an antiproliferative function in the immature uterus.

Apparent, or effective, infiltration rates on grassland hillslopes vary with rainfall intensity and flow depth because of the interaction between rainfall, runoff, and vegetated microtopography. The higher parts of the microtopography are occupied by greater densities of macropores and therefore have much greater hydraulic conductivities than the intervening microdepressions. On short hillslopes and plots the apparent infiltration rate is simply the spatial average of the saturated and unsaturated conductivities of this surface. The proportion of the surface which is saturated and the value to which the unsaturated conductivity is raised depends on the rainfall intensity. On longer hillslopes the downslope increase in flow depth in microtopographic depressions progressively inundates more permeable, vegetated mounds so that the hydraulic conductivity of a greater proportion of the surface is raised to its saturated value. For this reason the apparent infiltration rate increases downslope, even in the absence of spatial trends in any of the surface characteristics that affect infiltration. Apparent, or effective, infiltration rate depends on hillslope length. Consequently, steady state discharge does not increase linearly with distance downslope. These two fundamental relationships between infiltration, rainfall intensity, and runoff are analyzed on the basis of sprinkling-infiltrometer measurements and a mathematical model. the higher parts again increases the spatially averaged hydraulic conductivity of the surface. In this case the effect of rainfall intensity on infiltration rate is a result of interactions of flow depth with the hydraulic conductivity of the mineral :wil, microtopographic form, vegetation density, and hillslope gradient and length. The first four of these factors often show systematic trends along hillslope profiles. However, •ve avoid consideration of such trends here to illustrate how i•afiltration varies systematically with rainfall intensity and Copyright 199! by the American Geophysical Union. !•aper number 91WR01585. t!}43.1397/91/91WR-01585505.00distance downslope in the presence of a constant microtopography, cover density, and gradient. In this paper we explore these effects on the basis of field measurements and a mathematical model. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK Effect of Rainfall IntensityCook [1946] noted a dependence of infiltration rate on rainfall intensity and attributed it to more complete ponding of the surface. Moldenhauer et al. [ 1960], examining rainfall and runoff records from plots during natural rainstorms, found the tb index ((total storm rainfall -total storm runoff)/duration of excess precipitation) to be strongly dependent upon rainfall intensity. They reasoned that, in addition to the more complete ponding proposed by Cook, small-scale spatial variations of conductivity would allow increased infiltration as the more permeable zones were inundated by the more abundant runoff generated at higher rainfall intensities. Hawkins [ 1982] reviewed other published interpretat...