140 research outputs found
Cross-talk between activated human NK cells and CD4+ T cells via OX40-OX40 ligand interactions.
No full textIt is important to understand which molecules are relevant for linking innate and adaptive immune cells. In this study, we show that OX40 ligand is selectively induced on IL-2, IL-12, or IL-15-activated human NK cells following stimulation through NKG2D, the low affinity receptor for IgG (CD16) or killer cell Ig-like receptor 2DS2. CD16-activated NK cells costimulate TCR-induced proliferation, and IFN-gamma produced by autologous CD4+ T cells and this process is dependent upon expression of OX40 ligand and B7 by the activated NK cells. These findings suggest a novel and unexpected link between the natural and specific immune responses, providing direct evidence for cross-talk between human CD4+ T cells and NK receptor-activated NK cells
NK cell regulation of T cell-mediated responses
No full textNK cells promote adaptive immune responses through their production of type I and type 2 cytokines or chemokines. Secretion of these factors by activated NK cells influences the differentiation of B and T lymphocytes. Increasing evidence indicates that NK cells are also directly involved in dendritic cell (DC) maturation. By contrast, a potential role for direct cell-cell interactions between NK and T lymphocytes, in particular CD4(+) T cells, has not been explored. We provide evidence that activated human NK cells are able of promoting TcR-dependent proliferation of resting autologous peripheral blood CD4(+) T cells by a process that involves costimulatory molecules of the immunoglobulin (Ig) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamilies. These findings suggest a novel link between natural and adaptative immune responses. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Anxiety-related attentional characteristics and their relation to freezing of gait in people with Parkinson's: Cross-validation of the Adapted Gait Specific Attentional Profile (G-SAP)
No full textData availability statement:
The datasets during and/or analyzed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.Supplementary Material is available online at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1877718X251326266#supplementary-materials .Background:
Anxiety often exacerbates freezing of gait (FOG) in people with Parkinson's (PwP). Anxiety-related attentional processes and associated processing inefficiencies, like conscious movement processing (CMP) and ruminations, can substantially impact movement control. However, their impact on FOG remains largely unexplored.
Objective:
To validate an adapted 10-item (1–5 Likert scale) Gait-Specific Attentional Profile (G-SAP) in PwP and assess if adapted G-SAP-subscales (Physiological Arousal, CMP, Rumination, and Processing Inefficiencies) are associated with self-reported FOG frequency.
Methods:
We recruited 440 PwP (Mage = 65.5 ± 8.7; 5.8 ± 5.0 years since diagnosis) across the UK. Participants completed the adapted G-SAP and questionnaires on demographics, medical background, and FOG frequency. We assessed adapted G-SAP's internal consistency, structural validity, and subscale scores associations with FOG frequency.
Results:
The adapted G-SAP showed acceptable internal consistency (α≥0.66) and acceptable/good model fit (comparative fit index = 0.976). Physiological Arousal and CMP subscale scores presented weaker correlations for PwP with FOG (PwP + FOG, r = 0.52) compared to PwP without FOG (PwP-FOG, r = 0.77; p = 0.006). Higher Rumination (OR: 1.323, 95%CI: [1.214–1.440]) and Physiological Arousal (OR: 1.195, 95%CI:[1.037–1.377]) were significantly associated with higher FOG frequency, controlling for age, time since diagnosis and balance/gait problems.
Conclusions:
The adapted G-SAP is reliable and convenient to measure and identify potentially maladaptive anxiety-related attentional processes that may impact FOG. Results suggest that PwP who experience more worrisome thoughts and greater physiological arousal in daily life are likelier to freeze. Compared to PwP-FOG, for PwP + FOG high physiological arousal was associated with reduced goal-directed focus of attention. Future research will determine if this is a causal risk factor.Plain language summary:
Anxiety can worsen freezing of gait in people with Parkinson's. It often leads to worrisome thoughts and influences how people pay attention to their walking. We think that these changes in attention can substantially influence peoples’ movement – for better or worse. However, there is a lack of research on this topic, and reliable assessment tools are missing.
Therefore, we tested if we could assess changes in the thoughts and attention of people with Parkinson's, using a questionnaire (Gait-Specific Attentional Profile (adapted G-SAP)), previously used in older adults without Parkinson's. This questionnaire aims to measure people's perception of their physiological arousal (how anxious they feel), conscious movement (attention they direct to walking), rumination (self-preoccupation with worries about failure and expectations of negative consequences), and thinking efficiency (the ability to focus on different tasks). We also investigated if people who experience freezing show different attentional characteristics compared to people who do not experience freezing. Four-hundred and forty people with Parkinson's filled the adapted G-SAP questionnaire. We confirmed the questionnaire's reliability and found that people who indicated to have more worrisome thoughts and greater physiological arousal also experienced freezing more often. Our findings suggest that people with Parkinson's who experience higher rumination are more likely to experience freezing of gait. The adapted G-SAP represents a short and convenient tool for identifying potentially negative attentional and thinking processes that may increase freezing frequency. With further research to better understand the causes of freezing of gait and their relation to rumination and physiological arousal the adapted G-SAP could be used to monitor and test treatment effect on these constructs in the context of FOG frequency.The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was supported by Parkinson's UK project grants K-1604 and G-2007, an internal award from the lead institution (Brunel Research Initiative and Enterprise Fund Award). This work was also supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Exeter Biomedical Research Centre
Cello techniques and performing practices in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
No full textThis thesis comprises a study of cello performance practices throughout the nineteenth century and into the early decades of the twentieth. It is organised in terms of the increasing complexity of the concepts which it examines, as they are to be found in printed and manuscript music, instrumental methods and larger treatises, early recordings, concert reviews and pictures. Basic posture is considered along with different ways of holding the
bow. The development of the tail-pin shows that even when it was widely used, the older posture was still referred to as a model. Some implications for tone quality and tonal
projection are considered in the light of the shape of the arms. Some connections between the cellist's posture and that recommended by etiquette books are explored. The
functionality of the left hand and arm, and the development of modem scale fingerings, show that there was a considerable period of overlap between newer and older practices, with modern scale fingerings evolving over a long period of time. Similarly, views on the function of the right wrist in bowing are shown to change gradually, moving towards a more active upper arm movement with less extreme flexibility of the wrist. Two central expressive techniques especially associated with string playing arc considered in the context of the cello, namely vibrato and portamento. These topics are examined in the light of written indications in music, recommendations in cello treatises, and the practices evidenced in early recordings. The sources for this study can be brought into an overall
framework of a constant dialogue between `theory', as expressed in verbal instructions to the learner, or general a priori reflections about the cello, and `practice', manifested in performing editions and early recordings, or in individual acts of reception. A wide divergence is noted, both between theory and practice in general, and in terms of different styles of playing observable at any one time. It is suggested that tensions between practice
and critical disapproval can be resolved in terms of Lacanian discourse. Several test cases are used in order to compare several different recordings of the same works. The question of the musical character of the cello is discussed in terms of widespread assumptions about its gendered identity. A wide range of sources suggest that this moved from a straightforwardly `masculine' identity expressed through a controlling, elevated eloquence to a less clearly defined one, incorporating the 'feminine', with a greater stress on uninhibited emotional expression. Some performance implications for this change of view are pursued with respect to specific repertoires. Broad conclusions stress the importance of the diversity of performance practices as opposed to unifying generalisations
Multibreed genome wide association can improve precision of mapping causative variants underlying milk production in dairy cattle
No full textBackground: Genome wide association studies (GWAS) in most cattle breeds result in large genomic intervals of significant associations making it difficult to identify causal mutations. This is due to the extensive, low-level linkage disequilibrium within a cattle breed. As there is less linkage disequilibrium across breeds, multibreed GWAS may improve precision of causal variant mapping. Here we test this hypothesis in a Holstein and Jersey cattle data set with 17,925 individuals with records for production and functional traits and 632,003 SNP markers.Results: By using a cross validation strategy within the Holstein and Jersey data sets, we were able to identify and confirm a large number of QTL. As expected, the precision of mapping these QTL within the breeds was limited. In the multibreed analysis, we found that many loci were not segregating in both breeds. This was partly an artefact of power of the experiments, with the number of QTL shared between the breeds generally increasing with trait heritability. False discovery rates suggest that the multibreed analysis was less powerful than between breed analyses, in terms of how much genetic variance was explained by the detected QTL. However, the multibreed analysis could more accurately pinpoint the location of the well-described mutations affecting milk production such as DGAT1. Further, the significant SNP in the multibreed analysis were significantly enriched in genes regions, to a considerably greater extent than was observed in the single breed analyses. In addition, we have refined QTL on BTA5 and BTA19 to very small intervals and identified a small number of potential candidate genes in these, as well as in a number of other regions.Conclusion: Where QTL are segregating across breed, multibreed GWAS can refine these to reasonably small genomic intervals. However, such QTL appear to represent only a fraction of the genetic variation. Our results suggest a significant proportion of QTL affecting milk production segregate within rather than across breeds, at least for Holstein and Jersey cattle
Seasonal Variation of Triacylglycerol Profile of Bovine Milk
No full textMilk contains 3–6% of fat, of which the dominant component is triacylglycerol (TAG). Over 100 TAG groups can be readily detected in any non-enriched milk sample by LC-MS; most TAG groups contain several isomers (TAG molecules with different fatty acid composition), which cannot be fully resolved chromatographically by any single stationary phase. TAG profile of mature milk from 19 cows was surveyed in this study for eight consecutive months using RP-LC-Orbitrap MS. It was found that TAG profile of milk was not constant throughout the milking season and the seasonal pattern varied with TAG groups. The overall unsaturation level of TAG was stable from October 2013 to January 2014, decreased in February/March 2014 and then increased from April and peaked in May 2014. In addition to the seasonal fluctuation in TAG profile, the proportion of different isomeric species within a TAG group also changed substantially across seasons. However, the proportion of different positional isomers within a given TAG group does not seem to vary during the milking season. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the seasonal change of milk lipid at the TAG group and isomer level
Comparison of Molecular Species Distribution of DHA-Containing Triacylglycerols in Milk and Different Infant Formulas by Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry
No full textLong-chain polyunsaturated fatty
acids (LC-PUFA) are an important
nutritional lipid and have potential in being able to promote human
health. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6ω3) is often added in
infant formulas to meet the nutritional requirement of formula-fed
infants. A comprehensive survey on DHA-containing triacylglycerol
(DHA-TAG) molecular species has been conducted for seven infant formulas
(IFs) sourced from Australia, Europe, and the USA as well as bovine
milk and human milk. Using LC-triple quadrupole MS and LC-LTQ-orbitrap
MS we were able to identify and quantify 56 DHA-TAG species in these
samples; the fatty acid structure of these species was assigned using
their MS2 spectra. The species composition of DHA-TAG was
found to be different between bovine milk, human milk, and IFs and
also between different brands of IFs. Bovine milk and human milk contain
DHA-TAG of smaller molecular size (728–952 Da), whereas five
out of the seven IF samples contain species of broader mass range
(from 728 to 1035 Da). Our study indicates that two types of DHA were
used in the seven IF products surveyed and that there is very large
difference in molecular species distribution in different IF products
that may influence the fine nutritional profile and biological functions
of IF products
Psychoanalysis, Nazism and "Jewish science"
No full textIn this paper the author offers a partial examination of the troubled history of psychoanalysis in Germany during the Nazi period. Of particular interest is the impact on psychoanalysis of its 'Jewish origins'--something denigrated by the Nazis but reclaimed by more recent Jewish and other scholars. The author traces the rapid decline of the pre-Nazi psychoanalytic institutions under the sway of a policy of appeasement and collaboration, paying particular attention to the continuation of some forms of psychoanalytic practice within the 'Göring Institute'. He suggests that a feature of this history was the anti-Semitism evidenced by some non-Jewish psychoanalysts, which revealed an antagonism towards their own positioning as followers of the 'Jewish science'
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[Binder's Collection: Anna Pease]
No full textBound compilation of sheet music compiled by Anna M. Pease, from the collection of Thurman Morrison. All works were published in London, with multiple items published by Duff and Hodgson, Chappell, Robert Cocks & Co., and Joseph Williams. The volume features a variety of composers, including two works each by George Linley and Frank Mori. An additional set of three songs is attributed to the unnamed author of "Will you love me then as now," surmised to be Charles William Glover, though only "The rich man's bride" verifies as one of his works. For topics covered, two works are concerned with the month of May, and three others with Ireland (one of which, "The May Dew," overlaps in both areas)
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