51,128 research outputs found
Establishment of the antiviral state in alpha, beta interferon-resistant Friend cells treated with gamma interferon: induction of 67K protein kinase activity in absence of detectable 2-5A synthetase
No full textTreatment with murine gamma-interferon (IFN) preparations of variant sublines of Friend leukemia cells resistant to the alpha, beta IFN-induced antiviral state (Affabris, E., Jemma, C., and Rossi, G.B. (1982) Virology 120, 441-452; Affabris, E., Romeo, G., Belardelli, F., Jemma, C., Mechti, N., Gresser, I., and Rossi, G. B. (1983) Virology 125, 508-512) results in the establishment of a bona fide antiviral state. In fact, gamma IFN preparations are able to induce a dose-dependent reduction of endogenous virus release and of vesicular stomatitis or encephalomyocarditis viruses yields (up to 1.5 log). Under these experimental conditions, no inducible 2-5A synthetase activity is detectable in cell extracts. The 67-kDa protein kinase, uninducible by treatment with alpha, beta IFN (up to 13,000 units/ml), is instead induced upon treatment with gamma IFN at a similar rate of activity as in wild-type Friend leukemia cells, both when assayed in solution and after immobilization on poly(rI) X poly(rC)-agarose
Neuroactive steroids in depression and anxiety disorders: Clinical studies
No full textCertain neuroactive steroids modulate ligand-gated ion channels via non-genomic mechanisms. Especially 3 alpha-reduced pregnane steroids are potent positive allosteric modulators of the gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA(A)) receptor. During major depression, there is a disequilibrium of 3 alpha-reduced neuroactive steroids, which is corrected by clinically effective pharmacological treatment. To investigate whether these alterations are a general principle of successful antidepressant treatment, we studied the impact of nonpharmacological treatment options on neuroactive steroid concentrations during major depression. Neither partial sleep deprivation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, nor electroconvulsive therapy affected neuroactive steroid levels irrespectively of the response to these treatments. These studies suggest that the changes in neuroactive steroid concentrations observed after antidepressant pharmacotherapy more likely reflect distinct pharmacological properties of antidepressants rather than the clinical response. In patients with panic disorder, changes in neuroactive steroid composition have been observed opposite to those seen in depression. However, during experimentally induced panic induction either with cholecystokinine-tetrapeptide or sodium lactate, there was a pronounced decline in the concentrations of 3 alpha-reduced neuroactive steroids in patients with panic disorder, which might result in a decreased GABAergic tone. In contrast, no changes in neuroactive steroid concentrations could be observed in healthy controls with the exception of 3 alpha,5 alpha-tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone. The modulation of GABA(A) receptors by neuroactive steroids might contribute to the pathophysiology of depression and anxiety disorders and might offer new targets for the development of novel anxiolytic compounds. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel
“Amplifying Black Italian voices”. An interview with Leaticia Ouedraogo
No full textThis interview with writer and activist Leaticia Ouedraogo was conducted via email during May and June 2022. Ouedraogo discusses what the concept of intersectionality means to her on a personal, political, and theoretical level, and how it is necessary to adopt an intersectional perspective, along with a decolonial practice, to fight sexism and racism. Starting from her short story “Nassan Tenga” (published in the anthology Future. Il domani narrato dalle voci di oggi [Future: Tomorrow Narrated by the Voices of Today]), the author also discusses the consequences of racism from a psychological and inter-generational perspective. The themes of structural racism, white privilege, decolonization, and intersectionality are articulated by Ouedraogo within the Italian postcolonial context, where they take on specific meanings in light of Italy’s (often removed) colonial history
Raman Spectroscopy and In Situ XRD Probing of the Thermal Decomposition of Sb2Se3 Thin Films
No full textSb2Se3 thin films have received increasing interest for their applications in optoelectronics. However, technological intervention demands a material-specific understanding of the reactivity to different environments. Both thermal annealing and laser irradiation carried out in an ambient atmosphere are expected to induce changes in the pristine crystallographic phase of Sb2Se3, causing the creation of additional secondary phases. Here, we investigate by means of Raman spectroscopy the effect of thermal annealing and laser irradiation at different fluencies on the structural and vibrational properties of Sb2Se3 thin films. The vacuum-annealed Sb2Se3 thin films at 290 °C and subjected to laser excitation power above 2 mW exhibit a secondary phase, revealing the occurrence of selenization. Further,in situX-ray diffraction over a broad range of annealing temperatures in N2and ambient atmospheres was employed to study the structural properties of the Sb2Se3thin films.In situXRD performed in a N2atmosphere does not show the formation of the Sb2O3cubic phase upon annealing until 500 °C. Conversely, a thermally activated systematic crystallization was observed upon annealing in an ambient atmosphere with the formation of the Sb2O3phase in the temperature range between 280 and 420 °C, until the complete decomposition of the material at 500 °C. Further, the orientation of vertically stacked (hk1) planes remains unchanged under a N2atmosphere, while horizontally stacked (hk0) planes dominate the (hk1) planes under ambient atmospheres
L’accettazione di eredità
No full textIl contributo ha ad oggetto lo studio dell''accettazione dell''eredità. Viene dapprima preso in considerazione il caso di accettazione di delazione sottoposta a condizione e di accettazione dei chiamti in subordine. L''attenzione si sposta poi sull''accettazione fatta da soggetti diversi dal chiamato (rappresentante, creditori, curatore.
L''analisi segue con la disamina dell''accettazione espressa con particolare attenzione al divieto di accettazione parziale di accettazione condizionata.
Questioni particolarmente complesse presenta la ricostruzione della natura giuridica dell''accettazione tacita (atto negoziale o non negoziale). Ampio risalto viene dato alla prassi giurisprudenziale piuttosto coipisa sulle ipotesi di fatto che comporterebbero accettazione tacita.
Lo studio si conclude con la disamina dell''impugnazione dell''accettazione, della trasmissione del diritto di accettare e della prescrizione
Evolution of the G+C content frontier in the rat cytomegalovirus genome
No full textWithin the 230138 bp of the rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV) genome, the G+C content changes abruptly at position 142644, constituting a G+C content frontier. To the left of this point, overall G+C content is 69.2%, and to the right it is only 47.6%. A region of extremely low G+C content (33.8%) is found in the 5 kb immediately to the right of the frontier, in which there are no predicted coding sequences. To the right of position 147501, the G+C content rises and predicted coding sequences reappear. However, these genes are much shorter (average 848bp, 50% G+C) than those in the left two-thirds of the genome (average 1462bp, 70% G+C). Whole genome alignment of several viruses indicates that the initial ultra-low G+C region appeared in the common ancestor of the genera Cytomegalovirus and Muromegalovirus, and that the lowering of G+C in the right third has been a subsequent process in the lineage leading to RCMV. The left two-thirds of RCMV has stop codon occurrences at 67.5% of their expected level, based on a modified Markov chain model of stop codon distribution, and the corresponding figure for the right third is 78%. Therefore, despite heavy mutation pressure, selective constraint has operated in the right third of the RCMV genome to maintain a degree of gene length unusual for such low G+C sequences
On the complexity of digraph packings
No full textLet G be a fixed collection of digraphs. Given a digraph H, a G-packing of H is a collection of vertex disjoint subgraphs of H, each isomorphic to a member of G. For undirected graphs, Loebl and Poljak have completely characterized the complexity of deciding the existence of a perfect G-packing, in the case that G consists of two graphs one of which is a single edge on two vertices. We characterize G-packing where G consists of two digraphs one of which is a single arc on two vertices
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