563 research outputs found
Candidate tumour suppressor LUCA-15 can regulate multiple apoptotic pathways
Functional screening of a human bone marrow cDNA library for suppressors of CD95-mediated apoptosis has led to the identification of a 326 bp fragment (Je2), which not only suppresses CD95-induced apoptosis in Jurkat T-cells, but maps to 3p21.3, to an intronic region of the candidate TSG LUCA-15 locus. Here we report that overexpression of Je2 in CEM-C7 T-cell line is able to suppress CD95-mediated apoptosis, and apoptosis induced by TNFα and the glucocorticoid analogue dexamethasone, but was not able to suppress death induced by the topoisomerase II inhibitor etoposide. Je2 inhibition of apoptosis is also associated with a change in the pattern of expression of LUCA-15-encoded proteins. Je2 might therefore function to inhibit apoptosis by destabilising message expression of LUCA-15 and promoting the degradation of its RNA and protein. This suppression of apoptosis by Je2 also appears to be associated with up-regulation of the apoptosis inhibitory protein Bcl-xL. This study confirms that Je2 is a selective inhibitor of cell death and further implicates LUCA-15 gene locus in the control of apoptosis
Acupuncture placebos
In this brief but engaging article, the author ruminates on the political nature of research and on the problems this poses for East Asian Medicine, and points to the fact that the thorny business of defining best (or at least 'good enough') practice is of central importance here. He concludes by offering a richly simple model - based on the Five Phases (wu xing) - for defining what best practice i
Simultaneous acceleration of the cell cycle and suppression of apoptosis by splice variant delta-6 of the candidate tumour suppressor LUCA-15/RBM5
Background: The short arm of chromosome 3 is thought to include one or more tumour suppressor genes (TSGs), since carcinoma of various tissues display deletions in this region. Many genes mapping to this region have recently been identified, including the LUCA-15/RBM5 gene.Results: In this study we report the cloning from human bone marrow library of a splice variant of LUCA-15 which lacks exon 6, resulting in a frameshift and producing a truncated protein of 150 amino acids instead of 815 amino acids. This variant is widely expressed at a low level in normal tissues and is expressed at increased levels in T-leukaemic cell lines. Over-expression of this splice variant after electroporation both shortened the cell cycle and inhibited CD95-mediated apoptosis in CEM-C7 T-cells. In marked contrast, over-expression of the full length LUCA-15/RBM5 suppressed cell proliferation both by inducing apoptosis and by extending the G1 phase of the cell cycle.Conclusion: These results, taken together with previous observations from ourselves and others, suggest that LUCA-15 is involved in the control of both apoptosis and the cell cycle. Since oncogenesis often relies on separate changes in molecules regulating apoptosis on the one hand, and proliferation, on the other, the discovery of a candidate tumour suppressor gene which affects both processes simultaneously is likely to be of major significance
Sacra Moneta : Mints and divinity: purity, miracles and powers
Mints were a vital and almost sacred body in the State administration: the place of transformation of metal into coins. The paper explores the link between justice, coins and divine power including reflections on St Augustine’s metaphor of man as ‘nummus Dei’ and thus product of a God-moneyer. The status of the mint within the State is illustrated by various medieval examples (emperors, kings, and the republics of Florence and Venice). Finally, the author describes sacred events and miracles within mints as reported by vaious accounts. The English kings in the 14th century consecrated gold florins of Florence on the altar of the Good Friday Mass before using that gold to produce the miraculous ‘cramp rings’. The Duke of Milan Francis II Sforza had new gold coins struck and some of these were stained with the blood of St John the Baptist (two of these are still kept in the Milan Duoomo today). Good and bad government practices leave good or bad signs on the coins: the stories told here show how coins, especially when they were of pure gold or silver, were not trivial objects but they had a complex personality and biography
Computer Aided Design for Construction in the Building Industry
Civil Engineering and Geoscience
Does collaboration enhance learning?The challenge of learning from collaborative water management research
Does collaboration between researchers and other stakeholders enhance mutual cognitive learning? To answer this question, this thesis analyzes two research processes concerning future flood management in the Lower Rhine basin and groundwater management in and around Delft. The results suggest that only intensive collaboration enhances learning significantly. Moreover, many other factors that influenced learning were identified.Water ManagementCivil Engineering and Geoscience
A dual interface method in cylindrical coordinates for two-phase pipe flows
This research entails the numerical simulation of physical flow instabilities that can occur in two-phase pipe flows with a new efficient algorithm. The fluids are assumed to be immiscible, and the flow is incompressible and isothermal in a straight circular pipe section with a certain inclination. The numerical algorithm that was developed consists of a flow solver and a sharp interface model that solve the Navier-Stokes equations in cylindrical coordinates. The simulation results obtained with the new method are validated through comparison with other models and with experiments. The focus lies on obtaining an accurate and efficient algorithm that can ultimately be used for Direct Numerical Simulations or Large Eddy Simulations of turbulent two-phase pipe flows
Memory beyond Words : Narratives of the Shoah in Swedish Author Zenia Larsson’s Works
Zenia Larsson (1922-2007) was born into a Jewish family in Łódź and settled down in Sweden in 1945 after surviving deportation to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. She chose Swedish as her language when, in the late 1950s, she started writing, motivated by the need to give testimony to her experience. Yet, she soon realised that she could not face her own past directly, and thus chose the novel form, which resulted in a trilogy, autobiographically inspired: Skuggorma vid träbron (The Shadows by the Wooden Bridge, 1960), Lång är gryningen (Long is the Dawn, 1961), Livet till mötes (Meeting Life, 1962). In these works, she still avoids narrating the months in the concentration camps, closing her first volume with the deportation from the Łódź ghetto and starting the second one with the liberation. Anders Ohlsson describes this technique as an example of “rhetoric of silence”, a not uncommon aspect of Shoah literature. This sharp contrast between the duty to narrate as a witness and the difficulty to recall what is unspeakable is a recurrent theme in Larsson’s narrative production. The paper whose abstract is here published aimed to study how this theme is treated and developed in some of her most relevant works. Moving from Ohlsson’s contribution and the results of studies on Shoah literature, the analysis focused on both fictional and explicitly autobiographical works, inlcuding Morfars kopparslantar (Grandfather’s copper pennies, 1970; travelogue of her journey to Israel); Brev från en ny verklighet (Letters from a New Reality, 1972; collection of letters to a friend); Mellan gårdagen och nuet (Between Yesterday and Now, 1985; collection of articles previously published in newspapers and magazines)
CONTINGENT BELIEFS AS PREDICTORS OF WITHIN-PERSON VARIATION IN CONSCIENTIOUSNESS AT WORK.
The article focuses on contingent beliefs that can predict the within-person variations of personality which affect conscientiousness in the workplace. Evaluation is based three psychological aspects of job performance which are task importance, task difficulty, and task urgency. The research methods used in this study include the experience sampling questionnaire and an analysis of the latent-state conscientiousness construct by hierarchical linear modeling. The author suggests that work behavior is related to personality function
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