151 research outputs found
Overexpression of DNA polymerase zeta reduces the mitochondrial mutability caused by pathological mutations in DNA polymerase gamma in yeast.
No full textIn yeast, DNA polymerase zeta (Rev3 and Rev7) and Rev1, involved in the error-prone translesion synthesis during replication of nuclear DNA, localize also in mitochondria. We show that overexpression of Rev3 reduced the mtDNA extended mutability caused by a subclass of pathological mutations in Mip1, the yeast mitochondrial DNA polymerase orthologous to human Pol gamma. This beneficial effect was synergistic with the effect achieved by increasing the dNTPs pools. Since overexpression of Rev3 is detrimental for nuclear DNA mutability, we constructed a mutant Rev3 isoform unable to migrate into the nucleus: its overexpression reduced mtDNA mutability without increasing the nuclear one
Innovation in regional context: the case of Emilia-Romagna
No full textThe author builds upon the vast literature on the notion of
“knowledge economy” in order to describe and analyze recent transformations in the dynamics of innovation in Europe. He focuses on the emergence of new “regional systems”, in which regions become crucial institutions that mediate between industrial districts and the broader context of the new global economy. Serafini uses the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna – whose productive system is characterized by a remarkable innovative capacity – as an exemplary case-study. He
thus reconstructs the postwar tradition of industrial districts in this region, describes the limits of this form of organization, and sketches some of the salient aspects of the more recent transformations. The current phase is characterized by the active engagement of local administrations in fostering a close interaction between regional research centers and industries. This new model of regional system, and the
new innovation processes that characterize it, cannot be properly understood through traditional economic and statistical approaches, Serafini argues. Instead, these tools need to be integrated with qualitative methods that enable the analyst to map and interpret the structural
and historical features of the system as well
Total antioxidant capacity as a tool to assess redox status: critical view and experimental data
No full textThe measure of antioxidant capacity (AC) considers the cumulative action of all the antioxidants present in plasma and body fluids, thus providing an integrated parameter rather than the simple sum of measurable antioxidants. The capacity of known and unknown antioxidants and their synergistic interaction is therefore assessed, thus giving an insight into the delicate balance in vivo between oxidants and antioxidants. Measuring plasma AC may help in the evaluation of physiological, environmental, and nutritional factors of the redox status in humans. Determining plasma AC may help to identify conditions affecting oxidative status in vivo (e.g., exposure to reactive oxygen species and antioxidant supplementation). Moreover, changes in the plasma AC after supplementation with galenic antioxidants or with antioxidant-rich foods may provide information on the absorption and bioavailability of nutritional compounds. Consequently, this review discusses the rationale, interpretation, confounding factors, measurement limits, and human applications of the measure of plasma AC
Rescue by Pol zeta overexpression of mitochondrial DNA instability due to mutations in Pol gamma in S. cerevisiae
No full textEvaluation of adhesion properties and antibacterial activities of the infant gut commensal Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010
No full textSerafini, Fausta et al.Bifidobacteria are extensively exploited by the food industry as health-promoting microorganisms. However, very little is known about the molecular mechanisms responsible for these beneficial activities, or the molecular players that sustain their ability to colonize and persist within the human gut. Here, we have investigated the enteric adaptation features of the gut commensal Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010, originally isolated from infant feces. This strain was able to survive under gastrointestinal challenges, while it was shown to adhere to human epithelial intestinal cell monolayers (Caco 2 and HT-29), thereby inhibiting adhesion of pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Cronobacter sakazakii. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.This work was also financially supported by Fondazione Cariparma to MV, by FEMS Advanced Fellowship 2011 and an IRCSET Embark postdoctoral fellowship to FT. DvS is a member of The Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, which is a Centre for Science and Technology (CSET) funded by the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), through the Irish Government's National Development Plan (Grant no. 02/CE/B124 and 07/CE/B1368). The grant I-LINK2010-0122, funded by CSIC, is also acknowledged.Peer Reviewe
Neural networks related to observing symbolic and meaningless intransitive hand movements
No full textIn spite of the increasing literature on the neural system involved in the observation of biological movements1, few studies so far have dealt with the observation of meaningful hand movements2-4. Furthermore, they yielded partially conflicting results, possibly because of different techniques used, stimuli presented and tasks assigned to the subjects.
Methods
Twenty healthy right-handed volunteers (8 males, 12 females; mean age 26.6) took part in this study. An event-related paradigm was adopted. A continuous video was presented, showing a table with some common objects (glasses, cup, scissors, etc.). At intervals, an actor, of whom only the trunk and arms were visible, performed different kinds of hand movements: a) symbolic (OK, hello, etc.) (SY); b) meaningless (ML); c) grasping an object; b) simply touching an object. Only data regarding the first two conditions (i.e., intransitive movements) will be presented here. No movement was ever repeated during each experiment. Three runs were carried out for each subject. Six movements for each class were shown in each run, alternated in pseudorandom order. Functional imaging was performed on a 3T Philips Intera scanner. Twenty-four axial slices were acquired (in-plane matrix: 64x64; TR: 2515 ms; voxel size: 3.75x3.75x4 mm, with a 0.6 mm gap between contiguous slices). Data analysis was carried out using SPM5. Multi-subject analyses were performed using a random effect model. In particular, direct comparisons between SY and ML, and between ML and SY, were performed.
Results
Direct subtraction of SY vs. ML evoked a signal increase mainly in the left hemisphere (Fig. 1, top row) in a fronto-temporal circuit including the middle temporal gyrus/superior temporal sulcus (also on the right), dorsal premotor cortex and inferior frontal gyrus; in addition, activity increased in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (Talairach coordinates: x=4, y=48, z=23) and in the head of the left caudate nucleus. The contrast ML vs. SY (Fig. 1, bottom row) evoked increased activity bilaterally in the middle/inferior temporal gyrus; mainly on the right in the superior and inferior parietal lobules; and exclusively on the right in premotor cortex/inferior frontal gyrus.
Conclusions
The present findings show that observing symbolic actions involves a mainly left fronto-temporal pathway. A focus in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex specifically active during SY observation could be related to a circuit involved in social interactions5. Observing meaningless movements activates bilateral temporal areas and predominantly right parietal and premotor areas. Some of these latter areas are part of the mirror system1. It appears therefore that mainly the right mirror system is involved in the analysis of the motor aspects of movement, when no semantic content is present.
References
1) Rizzolatti and Craighero Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 27:169-192, 2004.
2) Decety et al. Brain 120:1763-1777, 1997.
3) Tanaka et al. Neuroreport 12:1171-1174, 2001.
4) Rumiati et al. J.Cogn.Neurosci. 17:1420-1431, 2005.
5) Iacoboni et al. Neuroimage 21:1167-1173, 2004
How successful business people experience envy
No full textZ magistrskim delom je avtorica želela odgovoriti na raziskovalno vprašanje, katere vidike poslovno uspešni ljudje vključujejo v svoje opisovanje dojemanja in doživljanja zavisti v svojem delovnem okolju.
Pri raziskovanju je uporabljala metodo osnovane teorije, s katero je na podlagi empiričnih podatkov, pridobljenih z intervjuji poslovno uspešnih posameznikov, prepoznala njihovo dojemanje. Avtorica je z odprtim in osnim kodiranjem oblikovala osem glavnih kategorij: posameznikovo doživljanje čustev in občutij, posameznikovo doživljanje zavisti, posameznikovo delovanje, delovno mesto, medsebojni odnosi, poslovna uspešnost, težave in medsebojna podpora, okolje in družbeni odzivi. Posamezne kategorije je avtorica nato podrobneje obrazložila s podrednimi kategorijami in jih povezala z že obstoječo literaturo.
Magistrsko delo prinaša osvetlitev in poglobitev razumevanja problematike dojemanja zavisti poslovno uspešnih posameznikov, ki je opazna v slovenskem prostoru. Področje zavisti pri uspešnem posamezniku je v tuji literaturi dobro raziskano, na slovenskem področju pa tovrstnih raziskav izjemno primanjkuje. Rezultati raziskovalnega dela prinašajo informacije, ki so lahko v pomoč vsem, ki prihajajo v stik z zavistjo, še posebej pa ljudem, ki na kakršnem koli področju dosegajo uspehe. Najsi bo to na poslovnem ali zasebnem področju življenja.With her master\u27s thesis, the author wanted to answer the research question, which aspects of business successful people include in their description of the perception and experience of envy in their work environment.
In her research, she used the method of grounded theory, with which she identified their perception on the basis of empirical data obtained through interviews of business-successful individuals. Through open and axial coding, the author formed eight main categories: an individual\u27s experience of emotions and feelings, an individual\u27s experience of envy, an individual\u27s performance, a job, interpersonal relationships, business performance, problems and mutual support, environment and social responses. The author then explained the individual categories in more detail with subordinate categories and connected them with the existing literature.
The master\u27s thesis sheds light on and deepens the understanding of the problem of the perception of envy of business-successful individuals, which is noticeable in Slovenia. The field of envy of a successful individual is well researched in foreign literature, but in the Slovenian field such research is extremely lacking. The results of the research work provide information that can help everyone who comes into contact with envy, and especially people who are successful in any field. Be it in business or private life
Processing the socially relevant parts of faces
No full textFaces are processed by a distributed neural system in the visual as well as in the non-visual cortex [the “core” and the “extended” systems, J.V. Haxby, E.A. Hoffman, M.I. Gobbini, The distributed human neural system for face perception, Trends Cogn. Sci. 4 (2000) 223–233]. Yet, the functions of the different brain regions included in the face processing system are far from clear. On the basis of the case study of a patient unable to recognize fearful faces, Adolphs et al. [R. Adolphs, F. Gosselin, T.W. Buchanan, D. Tranel, P. Schyns, A.R. Damasio, A mechanism for impaired fear recognition after amygdala damage, Nature 433 (2005) 68–72] suggested that the amygdala might play a role in orienting attention towards the eyes, i.e. towards the region of face conveying most information about fear. In a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study comparing patterns of activation during observation of whole faces and parts of faces displaying neutral expressions, we evaluated the neural systems for face processing when only partial information is provided, as well as those involved in processing two socially relevant facial areas (the eyes and the mouth).Twenty-four subjects were asked to perform a gender decision task on pictures showing whole faces, upper faces (eyes and eyebrows), and lower faces (mouth). Our results showed that the amygdala was activated more in response to the whole faces than to parts of faces, indicating that the amygdala is involved in orienting attention toward eye and mouth. Processing of parts of faces in isolation was found to activate other regions within both the “core” and the “extended” systems, as well as structures outside this network, thus suggesting that these structures are involved in building up the representation of the whole face from its parts
Touch or pain? Spatio-temporal patterns of cortical fMRI activity following brief mechanical stimuli
No full textMost imaging studies on the human pain system have concentrated so far on the spatial distribution of pain-related activity. In the present study, we investigated similarities and differences between the spatial and temporal patterns of brain activity related to touch vs. pain perception. To this end, we adopted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm allowing us to separately assess the activity related to stimulus anticipation, perception, and coding. The fMRI signal increases following brief mechanical noxious or non-noxious stimulation of the hand dorsum were largely overlapping in the contralateral and ipsilateral hemispheres, including portions of the parietal, insular, frontal and cingulate cortices. Higher activity following noxious stimulation was found in the contralateral mid-anterior insular cortex, in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) and in the adjacent dorso-medial frontal cortex. Significant decreases in fMRI signals following both tactile and painful stimuli were found in perigenual cingulate (pACC)/medial prefrontal cortex (MPF) and in the posterior cingulate/precuneus/paracentral lobule; more intense decreases were found in the pACC/MPF following painful stimuli. fMRI signal increases in the contralateral insula and in aMCC, but not in the parietal cortex, were more prolonged following painful than tactile stimuli. Moreover, a second peak of signal increases (albeit of lower intensity) was found in anterior insula and aMCC during pain intensity rating. These results show specific spatio-temporal patterns of cortical activity related to processing noxious vs. non-noxious mechanical stimuli
Insights into teichoic acid biosynthesis by Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010
No full textBifidobacteria are colonizers of the human gut, where they are interacting with their host as well as with other members of the intestinal microbiota. Teichoic acids (TAs) have previously been shown to play an important role in modulating microbe-host interactions in the human gut. However, so far, there is a paucity of information regarding the presence of TAs in the cell envelope of bifidobacteria. In silico analyses targeting the chromosomes of all 48 (sub)species that currently represent the genus Bifidobacterium revealed the presence of genes responsible for TA biosynthesis, suggesting that bifidobacteria contain both wall TAs and lipoteichoic acids. Transcriptome analyses of the infant gut commensal Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010 highlighted that the transcription of the presumptive TA biosynthetic loci is modulated in response to environmental conditions reflecting those of the human gut. Furthermore, chemical characterization of TAs produced by PRL2010 indicates the presence of lipoteichoic acids
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