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Comparison of sHSP2 Expression in Hydra oligactis Before and After the Induction of Aging
Get PDFThe invertebrates Hydra oligactis and Hydra vulgaris are valuable models for research on aging. H. oligactis show senescence after sexual reproduction is induced, reducing their lifespan to about 90 days, while H. vulgaris remain alive indefinitely. One possible explanation for the difference in lifespan is that H. oligactis have a less robust heat shock response than H. vulgaris. Among the proteins rapidly produced during the heat shock response are small heat shock proteins (sHSPs). Past research in our lab characterized expression of sHSP genes in H. vulgaris in the absence of heat shock. All five of the H. vulgaris sHSP genes examined were expressed in stem cells in adult H. vulgaris, suggesting a role in maintaining protein quality control in stem cells. The current project sought to determine whether sHSPs are also expressed in H. oligactis stem cells and if so, whether expression is maintained once sexual reproduction and aging are induced. Expression of a H. oligactis sHSP gene corresponding to one studied in H. vulgaris, sHSP2, was characterized using RNA in situ hybridization. Expression was examined in H. oligactis before and both 27 and 42 days after the induction of aging. We found that even after induction, H. oligactis show expression of sHSP2 in epithelial stem cells. This preliminary data provides evidence that sHSP2 is not critical for aging in H. oligactis
Bringing Voters into the Equation: An Individual-Level Analysis of the Vice Presidential Home State Advantage
No full textThis article critiques two leading analyses of the vice presidential home state advantage (VP HSA) and uses their fundamental methodological insights to develop a comprehensive, individual-level analysis aimed at resolving a major conflict in the political science literature. Our analyses of the 1952–2016 American National Election Studies and the 2008–16 Cooperative Congressional Election Studies provide no evidence of a statistically significant VP HSA. These results are consistent with Devine and Kopko\u27s findings, and inconsistent with Heersink and Peterson\u27s, regarding the VP HSA, in general. However, they are also inconsistent with Devine and Kopko\u27s previous findings regarding a conditional advantage based upon home state population and candidate experience. These results underscore the importance of using individual- rather than aggregate-level data to analyze voting behavior, whenever possible
Disarming Privilege to Achieve Equitable School Communities: A Spiritually-Attuned School Leadership Response to Our Storied Lives
No full textThis conceptual paper addresses the nature of white male privilege within school administration and how that privilege, through an examination and clarification of equity as justice, can be checked, interrogated and possibly moderated by a reflection on the spiritual nature of leading for democratic change
Importing Phenomenology: The Early Editorial Life of “Philosophy and Phenomenological Research”
No full textThis article examines the early editorial life of the journal Philosophical and Phenomenological Research and the internal concerns which marked the interactions between Marvin Farber, the journal’s editor, and the European phenomenologists who came to the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. The journal was conceived as an extension to Husserl’s Jahrbuch, but the group effort to sustain the phenomenological tradition was soon marked by tensions to maintain loyalty to Husserl’s expressed program and the desire to welcome other strains of philosophical thought
Brazil’s foreign policy: More actors and expanding agendas
No full textBrazil’s foreign policy decision process has recently become more complex and decentralized. The onset in 1982 of severe financial and trade problems, as well as the emergence of some unforeseen external political-security concerns, have drawn more governmental actors into participation in foreign policy decision and execution in political, economic, and military-security matters. Brazil’s foreign policy rests upon a broad consensus of values within the government, most of which have been developed and practiced by the Foreign Ministry as the long-term custodian and articulator of national diplomacy. Brazil’s foreign policy process revolves increasingly around responses to finance, trade, and, to a lesser extent, political-security issues. Expansion of exports and restrictions on imports have been central to Brazil’s debt management by providing a positive balance of trade. Traditionally Brazil has had few security concerns and has seldom been involved in the kind of “high politics” diplomacy typical of the northern hemisphere or of the major currents of world politics
Why the tsirelson bound? Bub’s question and fuchs’ desideratum
No full textTo answer Wheeler’s question “Why the quantum?” via quantum information theory according to Bub, one must explain both why the world is quantum rather than classical and why the world is quantum rather than superquantum, i.e., “Why the Tsirelson bound?” We show that the quantum correlations and quantum states corresponding to the Bell basis states, which uniquely produce the Tsirelson bound for the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) quantity, can be derived from conservation per no preferred reference frame (NPRF). A reference frame in this context is defined by a measurement configuration, just as with the light postulate of special relativity. We therefore argue that the Tsirelson bound is ultimately based on NPRF just as the postulates of special relativity. This constraint-based/principle answer to Bub’s question addresses Fuchs’ desideratum that we “take the structure of quantum theory and change it from this very overt mathematical speak … into something like [special relativity].” Thus, the answer to Bub’s question per Fuchs’ desideratum is, “the Tsirelson bound obtains due to conservation per NPRF”
Unpacking, summing and anchoring in retrospective time estimation
No full textWe examined whether or not interventions that have been used to try to influence predictions of future task duration – unpacking, summing and anchoring – had a similar effect on retrospective estimations of duration. In three studies, participants experienced a number of short stimuli, such as watching videos, before estimating the duration for each of the stimuli and the overall duration. The first estimation given served as an anchor for all following estimates. If the first estimation was highly biased in one direction, then subsequent estimates were more likely to also be biased in the same direction. Additionally, separate estimates for a number of individual tasks differed from the estimates for all of the tasks combined. This incongruity happened even though all estimates were given in sequence. Overall, results indicated that memories of past task duration could be influenced by the manner in which they were elicited
Synthesis of an Amide-Based Extended Heterocyclic System Capable of Hydrogen Bonding to Both the Adenine and Uracil in dsRNA for RNA Recognition Using PNA
Get PDFThe majority of information known about RNA is centered around coding RNA for its role in synthesizing proteins from DNA. However, noncoding RNA is also biologically relevant, showing importance in gene expression and catalyzing reactions. Peptide Nucleic Acids, or PNAs, are a promising tool that can be used to study noncoding RNA. PNAs can bind to double-stranded RNA forming a triple helix and are highly selective for specific sequences of dsRNA. A current limitation of PNA as a ligand is that traditional nucleobases only bind with high affinity to single purine residues on the RNA, as triplex formation relies on the two hydrogen bonding sites offered by purines as opposed to only one offered by pyrimidines. More recent developments in our group and others have shown that synthetic nucleobases may be used to increase both affinity and selectivity. We have synthesized a uracil nucleobase modified to bind both the adenine and the uracil of the A-U base pair by adding a benzamide moiety to isoorotic acid. Computations suggest that this will increase the affinity of binding and make PNA relevant for use in dsRNA sequences containing both purine and pyrimidine bases
Retracer la poésie française des Lumières aux Surréalistes en passant par moi [Tracing French poetry from my perspective, the Enlightenment through Surrealism]
No full textAttuned to social changes, artists both celebrate and contest progress. From the Age of Reason through the Age of Disillusionment and even today, French poetry has shaded development in hues of freedom. Liberty in the 18th century connoted democratic ideals, then following the Revolution, writers aimed to free creativity. Seeking to retrace modern French literature and to frame the movements around their historical and philosophical contexts, this paper asks how preceding poets influenced upcoming ones. This essay surveys the literary evolution in France by concentrating on twelve poets, two males and one female, from four periods: The Enlightenment, Romanticism, Symbolism, and Surrealism. To demonstrate the timelessness of poetry, I also compose one poem based on each writer. My poems aim to maintain the original form, which includes rhyme scheme and meter as well as thematic developments, while recounting my experiences as a twenty-first-century American student. Linking twelve distinct voices to my own allows me to evaluate the poets’ relationships. The Enlightenment writers Voltaire, Adélaïde-Gillet Billet Dufrénoy, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for example, set literary precedents. Rousseau’s epistolary novel La Nouvelle Héloïse notably inspired Romantic writers, like Hugo, Louise Colet, and Baudelaire, who probed spiritual and natural interactions. Baudelaire’s vivid imagery in turn motivated Symbolists, including Mallarmé, René Vivien, and Verlaine. Digging further into unrestrained expression, Surrealists Breton, Éluard, and Joyce Mansour joined Symbolist and Romantic tendencies with post-war frustration. The twelve original poems, therefore, bridge the past and present all while intertwining the writers, principles, and history under study
Determining the Role of Sam68 in T-antigen Cellular Expression
Get PDFAlternative splicing is the cellular process where gene transcripts (hnRNA) are pieced together in different ways in order to yield unique proteins, each with its own function. Through this process, the approximate 20,000 genes of the human genome can produce the millions of proteins needed for cell survival (Moraes and Goes, 2016). Sam68 is one such protein that directs the process of alternative splicing. Sam68 splices many hnRNA to form the template to create proteins involved in endocytosis, cell morphology, cell cycle regulation and apoptosis (Sanchez-Jimenez and Sanchez-Margalet, 2013). Sam68 has been shown to be upregulated in prostate, breast, and lung cancers, indicating that its function may be related to excessive growth characteristics (Frisone et. al., 2015). We hypothesize that Sam68 causes aggressive growth characteristics via the alternative splicing of SRSF1. Interestingly, SRSF1 is also an alternative splicing protein that targets the hnRNA of genes involved in cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. One transcript spliced by SRSF1 is the BIN1 message, resulting in several known protein (Amphiphysin 1) isoforms, each with related, yet unique functions (Anczukow et. al., 2012). Depending on the isoform of Amphiphysin 2 created, cell growth and apoptosis are altered possibly leading to excessive cell growth and division. This research used human diploid fibroblast cells (HDF) transformed with SV40 T-antigen, a viral oncoprotein that inhibits cellular processes related to apoptosis and induces the cell cycle. Using these cells, we compared the isoforms of SRSF1 and BIN1 present in the T-antigen expressing cells (HDF+T) and wildtype (HDF) cells. Currently, we will create new cell lines by introducing T-antigen encoding plasmid into Sam68 knockout cell lines (HCT116 Sam68-/-) to determine if T-antigen does indeed alter BIN1 isoform choice through a Sam68/SRSF1 pathway. This will enable us to elucidate further, how T-antigen influences cell growth and RNA metabolism