Innate immune recognition of virus-infected cells includes NK cell detection of changes to endogenous cell-surface proteins through inhibitory receptors. One such receptor system is the NK cell receptor protein-1B (NKR-P1B) and its ligand C-type lectin-related-b (Clr-b). NKR-P1B and Clr-b are encoded within the NK cell gene complex, a locus that has been linked to strain-dependent differences in susceptibility to infection by poxviruses. In this study, we report the impact of vaccinia virus (VV) and ectromelia virus infection on expression of Clr-b and Clr-b–mediated protection from NK cells. We observed a loss of Clr-b cell-surface protein upon VV and ectromelia virus infection of murine cell lines and bone marrow-derived macrophages. The reduction of Clr-b is more rapid than MHC class I, the prototypic ligand of NK cell inhibitory receptors. Reduction of Clr-b requires active viral infection but not expression of late viral genes, and loss of mRNA appears to lag behind loss of Clr-b surface protein. Clr-b–mediated protection from NK cells is lost following VV infection. Together, these results provide the second example of Clr-b modulation during viral infection and suggest reductions of Clr-b may be involved in sensitizing poxvirus-infected cells to NK cells.

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and will be worthwhile, scientifically as well as technically.Part of the money has gone into theoretical studies, and theories have made substantial progress during the last ten years. Part of it has gone into the development of superconductors for application and technology. The progress has been remarkable but, as Schmitt and Morrison point out, this development in no way approaches that of the transistor. One therefore asks, why not? Once again, the answer can be found with closer reading-this time in Berlincourt's contribution on superconducting materials. This article is the lengthiest and also the least satisfactory of the whole book. It starts with a rather sketchy review of the theories of Ginzburg and Landau and of Abrikosov and Gor'kov, a review which in no way equals the originals. The actual account of materials is again a review-a rather superficial and somewhat facetious condensation of Ben Roberts' excellent compilation for superconducting materials. This chapter evidences no coherence. Not once in this article on materials is a crystal structure mentioned. This kind of haphazard approach is symptomatic of what afflicts most efforts in the materials field and gives a clue to why the higher transition temperatures necessary for large-scale applications of superconductivity have not been reached. This, of course, is also the answer to why the economic development of superconductivity has not equaled that of the transistor. In contrast to the work that led to the transistor, research on the materials aspect of superconductivity has been mismanaged for a rather long time and the money, by and large, has not been spent wisely. Only a small and ever decreasing percentage of all this support has gone toward the discovery and development of those superconducting materials which dominate present-day technological use of superconductivity. A profound reassessment of the support in the materials field is necessary in order to achieve the higher transition temperatures which are undoubtedly possible. Only then will the intriguing technological developments envisaged in parts of this book, and by Garwin and Matisoo in particular, become realities.

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