59 research outputs found
Across Diagnostic Boundaries: Genetic Variants for Neuropsychiatric Disorders and their Association with Human Brain Structure
No full textWith the advances in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), hundreds of genetic variants have been identified for neuropsychiatric disorders. Strikingly, many of these genetic variants showed complex associations across diagnostic groups. For example, the second cross-disorder GWAS meta-analysis by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (Lee et al., 2019) identified 11 antagonistic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were associated with an increased risk for one neuropsychiatric disorder, while being protective against another disorder. Furthermore, the cross-disorder GWAS meta-analysis uncovered 23 highly pleiotropic SNPs that were associated with at least four neuropsychiatric disorders and 22 SNPs that were predominantly associated with schizophrenia (SCZ) but not with the other disorders. The underlying molecular mechanisms by which these genetic variants alter the risk of distinct neuropsychiatric disorders are largely unclear. The present thesis conducted two imaging genetic studies to uncover the associations between antagonistic, highly pleiotropic, and predominantly SCZ-associated SNPs with brain structure and brain-related traits.
Study 1 performed a systematic characterization of the 11 antagonistic SNPs. Here, eight of the 11 antagonistic SNPs were significantly associated with at least one brain structural phenotype using the GWAS summary statistics from the ENIGMA and CHARGE consortia. Several of the implicated phenotypes were found to be altered in patients with bipolar disorder, major depression, or SCZ compared to controls. Six of the eight antagonistic SNPs were significantly associated with gene expression in brain tissue, and all eight antagonistic SNPs were significantly associated with cognitive-behavioral traits. Furthermore, rs301805 and rs1933802 were significantly associated with voxel-wise gray matter volume in data from the FOR2107 study.
Study 2 used data from the UK Biobank (n=28,952) to examine the association of a genetic risk score of highly pleiotropic SNPs (PleioPsych-GRS) and a genetic risk score of predominantly SCZ-associated SNPs (SCZ-GRS) with brain structure and outcomes related to mental health. To prioritize individual SNPs, the association of each SNP with brain structure was investigated. Study 2 found that the PleioPsych-GRS was not significantly associated with brain structural phenotypes after multiple testing corrections, whereas the SCZ-GRS was significantly associated with left and right putamen volume and left and right lateral orbitofrontal surface area, among others. The PleioPsych-GRS and the SCZ-GRS were significantly associated with eight and four outcomes related to mental health, respectively. Furthermore, two highly pleiotropic and ten predominantly SCZ-associated SNPs were significantly associated with at least one brain structural phenotype.
In conclusion, this thesis showed that antagonistic, predominantly SCZ-associated and, to a lesser extent, highly pleiotropic SNPs for neuropsychiatric disorders were associated with brain structure. In addition, the SNPs were associated with traits related to mental health, cognition, and behavior. These findings provided a notion of how these SNPs might influence disease development and led to the prioritization of selected SNPs and brain regions relevant for further investigations. Future work should extend these findings by exploring the association of these SNPs with additional brain modalities, including white matter microstructure and structural and functional connectivity of the human brain
Indexation discursive pour la navigation intradocumentaire : cadres temporels et spatiaux dans l'information géographique
No full text@inproceedings{CN-BILHAUT-2003, address = {Batz-sur-Mer, France}, author = {Fr{é}d{é}rik Bilhaut and {Lydia-Mai} {Ho Dac} and Andr{é}e Borillo and Thierry Charnois and Patrice Enjalbert and Anne {Le Draoulec} and Yann Mathet and H{é}l{è}ne Miguet and Marie-Paule P{é}ry-woodley and Laure Sarda}, booktitle = {Actes de la 10e Conf{é}rence Traitement Automatique du Langage Naturel (TALN'03)}, pages = {315-320}, title = {{Indexation discursive pour la navigation intradocumentaire : cadres temporels et spatiaux dans l'information g{é}ographique}}, year = {2003} }National audienc
Working with kindergartners and serving as a student director of Christian education at Warren Memorial Church, 1961-1963, 1963
No full textThe canary in the post-racial coal mine: the 21st century mulatto in American fiction
No full textThe American mulatto has been employed by writers over time to provide commentary on American race relations. We can look to antebellum writers like Lydia Marie Child or William Wells Brown as an example of the state of the black-white dynamic prior to or just following the Civil War. Examining Nella Larsen’s Passing can give insight into the status of race relations during the Harlem Renaissance. But as America has evolved into a so-called post-racial society, does the mulatto still serve as a vehicle for commentary on American race relations? Through a brief examination of earlier examples of literature with these biracial characters coupled with an in depth analysis of two contemporary novels, Danzy Senna’s Caucasia and Heidi Durrow’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, this paper will show several of the ways in which the mulatto does provide a model in which to gauge American race relations, for better or for worse.M.A.L.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Roxanne Huerta
Surveillance of Influenza Virus Spread on the Arizona State University Campus
No full textabstract: The 2017-2018 Influenza season was marked by the death of 80,000 Americans: the highest flu-related death toll in a decade. Further, the yearly economic toll to the US healthcare system and society is on the order of tens of billions of dollars. It is vital that we gain a better understanding of the dynamics of influenza transmission in order to prevent its spread. Viral DNA sequences examined using bioinformatics methods offer a rich framework with which to monitor the evolution and spread of influenza for public health surveillance. To better understand the influenza epidemic during the severe 2017-2018 season, we established a passive surveillance system at Arizona State University’s Tempe Campus Health Services beginning in January 2018. From this system, nasopharyngeal samples screening positive for influenza were collected. Using these samples, molecular DNA sequences will be generated using a combined multiplex RT-PCR and NGS approach. Phylogenetic analysis will be used to infer the severity and temporal course of the 2017-2018 influenza outbreak on campus as well as the 2018-2019 flu season. Through this surveillance system, we will gain knowledge of the dynamics of influenza spread in a university setting and will use this information to inform public health strategies
Humour, grief, and species aloneness in times of mass extinction : an exchange between Ida Olsen and Lydia Millet, author of How the Dead Dream
No full textResilient Russian Women in the 1920s & 1930s
No full textThe stories of Russian educated women, peasants, prisoners, workers, wives, and mothers of the 1920s and 1930s show how work, marriage, family, religion, and even patriotism helped sustain them during harsh times.
The Russian Revolution launched an economic and social upheaval that released peasant women from the control of traditional extended families. It promised urban women equality and created opportunities for employment and higher education. Yet, the revolution did little to eliminate Russian patriarchal culture, which continued to undermine women’s social, sexual, economic, and political conditions. Divorce and abortion became more widespread, but birth control remained limited, and sexual liberation meant greater freedom for men than for women. The transformations that women needed to gain true equality were postponed by the poverty of the new state and the political agendas of leaders like Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin.
The defunct economy and widespread famine, disease, and misery of the 1920s and the policies of collectivization and terror of the 1930s make those decades dark periods in Russian history, as Bolshevik male-dominated work culture triumphed and women’s needs and voices were ultimately silenced. When Russian society chooses to revisit those times, it will find in the remarkable poetry and prose of these resilient women plentiful evidence of the everyday horrors, struggles, and disappointments the people endured.
Women featured include Aida Basevich, Aleksandra Exter, Alexandra Berg, Alexandra Kollontai, Alexandra Tolstoy, Anna Akhmatova, Anna Balashova, Anna Barkova, Anna Bek, Anna Larina, Anna Ostroumova Lebedeva, Ekaterina Strogova, Elena Ponomarenko, Elena Skrjabina, Evgenia Ginzburg, Galina Shtange, Helen Dmitriew, Hilda Schulz Mielke, Irina Tidmarsh, Kyra Karadja, Larisa Lappo-Danilevskaia, Larisa Reisner, Lidiia Seifullina, Liubov Popova, Liubov Shaporina, Louise Huebert, Lydia Chukovskaya, Lydia Ginzburg, Lydia Seifullina, Margaret Wettlin, Marguerite Harrison, Maria Orlova, Olga Orlova, Maria Andrievskaya, Maria Astafeva, Maria Joffe, Maria Shkapskaya, Maria Spiridonova, Marie Avinov, Marietta Shaginian, Marina Tsvetaeva, Markoosha Fischer, Nadezhda Mandelstam, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Natalia Sats , Nelly Ptashkina, Nina Berberova, Nina Kosterina, Olga Berggolts, Olga Forsh, Olga Freidenberg, Olga Sliozberg, Praskovya Pichugina, Sofia Pavlova, Tatiana Izyumova, Tatiana Tchernavin, Valentina Kamyshina, Valentina Petrova, Valeria Gerlin, Varvara Stepanova, Vera Broido, Vera Inber, Vera Panova, Yelena Sidorkina, and Zinaida Serebriakova.
Marcelline Hutton is the author of Remarkable Russian Women in Pictures, Prose and Poetry (2013), Falling in Love with the Baltics (2009), and Russian and West European Women, 1860–1939 (2001).
Cover: Ignaty Nivinsky (1881–1933), Zhenshiny, idite v kooperatsiyu [Women, Join the Cooperatives] (Moscow: VTsSPO, 1918).
Zea Books Lincoln, Nebraskahttps://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/1030/thumbnail.jp
Social networks in primates : smart and tolerant species have more efficient networks
No full textE.W., A.W. and the vervet monkeys data were funded Sinergia grant (CRSI33_133040) from the Swiss National Science Foundation to R. Bshary, C. P. van Schaik, and A.W. L.H. and S.F.B. were supported by NSF CAREER Award 0847351 to S.F.B. Date of Acceptance: 03/12/2014Network optimality has been described in genes, proteins and human communicative networks. In the latter, optimality leads to the efficient transmission of information with a minimum number of connections. Whilst studies show that differences in centrality exist in animal networks with central individuals having higher fitness, network efficiency has never been studied in animal groups. Here we studied 78 groups of primates (24 species). We found that group size and neocortex ratio were correlated with network efficiency. Centralisation (whether several individuals are central in the group) and modularity (how a group is clustered) had opposing effects on network efficiency, showing that tolerant species have more efficient networks. Such network properties affecting individual fitness could be shaped by natural selection. Our results are in accordance with the social brain and cultural intelligence hypotheses, which suggest that the importance of network efficiency and information flow through social learning relates to cognitive abilities.Peer reviewe
Immune Activation by Plant-Produced HIV-1 Virus-like Particles
No full textabstract: Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) causes millions of deaths every year, but a protective vaccine remains elusive. A promising vaccine strategy is to use virus-like particles (VLPs) for HIV-1. To this end, HIV-1 VLPs were produced in Nicotiana benthamiana plants that were stably expressing the HIV-1 Gag protein and transiently expressing a truncated form of gp41. These VLPs were tested to determine their inherent adjuvant effects due to their production in plants in order to dissect the previously observed stimulating activity of these VLPs in a prime-boost vaccine approach. THP1 human monocytes were differentiated using PMA or IL-4 and GM-CSF to form macrophages and dendritic cells, respectively. These cells were treated with purified VLPs or control samples to determine the individual adjuvant effects of the plant, bacterial, and VLP components in the purified VLP samples. It was postulated that the PMA-differentiated THP1 cells were not induced to become macrophages due to the lack of CD11b+ cells in the sample and the lack of increased TNFα expression in response to LPS treatment. It was also determined that the VLPs have inherent adjuvant properties to dendritic cells due to bacterial and VLP components, but not due to plant components
The Edinburgh Companion to Nineteenth-Century American Letters and Letter-Writing
No full textElizabeth Petrino is a contributing author, “‘A Chain of Correspondence’: Social Activism and Civic Values in the Letters of Lydia Sigourney,”.
Book description: This comprehensive study by leading scholars in an important new field—the history of letters and letter writing—is essential reading for anyone interested in nineteenth-century American politics, history or literature. Because of its mass literacy, population mobility, and extensive postal system, nineteenth-century America is a crucial site for the exploration of letters and their meanings, whether they be written by presidents and statesmen, scientists and philosophers, novelists and poets, feminists and reformers, immigrants, Native Americans, or African Americans. This book breaks new ground by mapping the voluminous correspondence of these figures and other important American writers and thinkers. Rather than treating the letter as a spontaneous private document, the contributors understand it as a self-conscious artefact, circulating between friends and strangers and across multiple genres in ways that both make and break social ties.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/english-books/1059/thumbnail.jp
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