2,485 research outputs found
Nuclear staining and relative distance for quantifying epidermal differentiation in biomarker expression profiling
No full textAbstract Background The epidermal physiology results from a complex regulated homeostasis of keratinocyte proliferation, differentiation and death and is tightly regulated by a specific protein expression during cellular maturation. Cellular in silico models are considered a promising and inevitable tool for the understanding of this complex system. Hence, we need to incorporate the information of the differentiation dependent protein expression in cell based systems biological models of tissue homeostasis. Such methods require measuring tissue differentiation quantitatively while correlating it with biomarker expression intensities. Results Differentiation of a keratinocyte is characterized by its continuously changing morphology concomitant with its movement from the basal layer to the surface, leading to a decreased average nuclei density throughout the tissue. Based thereon, we designed and evaluated three different mathematical measures (nuclei based, distance based, and joint approach) for quantifying differentiation in epidermal keratinocytes. We integrated them with an immunofluorescent staining and image analysis method for tissue sections, automatically quantifying epidermal differentiation and measuring the corresponding expression of biomarkers. When studying five well-known differentiation related biomarkers in an epidermal neck sample only the resulting biomarker profiles incorporating the relative distance information of cells to the tissue borders (distance based and joint approach) provided a high-resolution view on the whole process of keratinocyte differentiation. By contrast, the inverse nuclei density approach led to an increased resolution at early but heavily decreased resolution at late differentiation. This effect results from the heavy non-linear decay of DAPI intensity per area, probably caused by cytoplasmic growth and chromatin decondensation. In the joint approach this effect could be compensated again by incorporating distance information. Conclusion We suppose that key mechanisms regulating tissue homeostasis probably depend more on distance information rather than on nuclei reorganization. Concluding, the distance approach appears well suited for comprehensively observing keratinocyte differentiation.</p
Reconstructing protein networks of epithelial differentiation from histological sections
No full textFor systems biology of complex stratified epithelia like human epidermis, it will be of particular importance to reconstruct the spatiotemporal gene and protein networks regulating keratinocyte differentiation and homeostasis
Samuel Beckett and the Writers of Port-Royal
No full textIt has been observed that ‘the literary influences on Beckett have been far more important than has been acknowledged, and more important indeed, than the philosophical influences’ (Smith 2002: 3). The truth of this statement is evidenced by the description that scholars have given of Samuel Beckett’s relationship to seventeenth century French classicism. To date, critical interest has been limited for the most part to the figure of the philosopher René Descartes on the (fragile) grounds that Beckett was exclusively concerned with the Cartesian imperative of clarity and order, the fundamental dualism between body and mind, and Nominalism.
Together with the assumption that Beckett’s vision was essentially Cartesian, his literary filiation with Pascal was suggested by critics, but only in terms of Beckett’s formal approach to the theatre. In his short article on En attendant Godot in 1953, the playwright Jean Anouilh was among the first reviewers to suggest that Beckett’s drama synthesizes the encounter between ‘classicism’ and a ‘modern’ form of art. It is well known that Beckett retained a lifelong admiration for Pascal – indeed, Pascal was one of his ‘old chestnuts’ (Knowlson 1997: 653). Little attention has been paid, however, to the originality of Pascal’s thought, the specific nature of his prose, and the impact these might have had upon Beckett’s mature work, especially the trilogy and the subsequent short prose. Yet, in the literary and philosophical context of post-war France, Beckett’s filiation with Pascal, their corresponding preoccupations, were evident to his contemporaries, who identified Pascal as an underlying presence in his works
Spatial quantification and classification of skin response following perturbation using organotypic skin cultures
No full textAbstract
Motivation: For a mechanistic understanding of skin and its response to an induced perturbation, systems biology is gaining increasing attention. Unfortunately, quantitative and spatial expression data for skin, like for most other tissues, are almost not available.
Results: Integrating organotypic skin cultures, whole-slide scanning and subsequent image processing provides bioinformatics with a novel source of spatial expression data. We here used this approach to quantitatively describe the effect of treating organotypic skin cultures with sodium dodecyl sulphate in a non-corrosive concentration. We first measured the differentiation-related spatial expression gradient of Heat-Shock-Protein 27 in a time series of up to 24 h. Secondly, a multi-dimensional tissue classifier for predicting skin irritation was developed based on abstract features of these profiles. We obtained a high specificity of 0.94 and a sensitivity of 0.92 compared with manual classification. Our results demonstrate that the integration of tissue cultures, whole-slide scanning and image processing is well suited for both the standardized data acquisition for systems biological tissue models and a highly robust classification of tissue responses.
Contact: [email protected]
Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.</jats:p
Sabil and Wikala of Dhul Fiqar Oda Bashi
No full textinterior, courtyard, "Vue de l'Okel Zoulfiqar," color plate XLIV of Pascal Coste's "Architecture arabe; ou, Monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés, de 1818 à 1826", 1818-182
First person - Aude Pascal
No full textInternational audienceFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Aude Pascal is first author on `Annexin A2 and Ahnak control cortical NuMA-dynein localization and mitotic spindle orientation', published in JCS. Aude is a research assistant in the lab of Re ' gis Giet at University of Rennes, France, who is particularly interested in developmental biology. She has always been struck by the fact that a whole organism displaying multiple functions arises from a single cell. For this reason, she has oriented her research on mitosis and meiosis to study the different steps, components and structures involved in these processes
Pascal Tutorial, 1987
No full textThere exists a limited number of tutorials for the Pascal programming language using the Apple Computer. The demand for these tutorials exceeds the supply. In this thesis an attempt was made to rectify this shortage by designing a Pascal tutorial for the Apple computer. This Pascal tutorial is designed to assist with instructing an introductory computer programming course in Pascal, incorporating Apple Superpilot as the authoring language. Emphasis is placed on making the program "user friendly." A person with no previous programming experience should be able to easily execute this tutorial. The information presented as the subject matter of the tutorial will follow the guidelines recommended by the Association for Computing Machinery
Architecture arabe; ou, Monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés, de 1818 à 1826
No full textgeneral view, "Vue des Tombeaux au Nord-Est de la Ville," color plate LXIII of Pascal Coste's "Architecture arabe; ou, Monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés, de 1818 à 1826", 1818-182
Gamia el-Muaiyad
No full textinterior, qibla wall, "Vue de la Niche du Sanctuaire et de la Chaire de la Mosquee el Moyed"," color plate XXVIII of Pascal Coste's "Architecture arabe; ou, Monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés, de 1818 à 1826", 1818-182
Architecture arabe; ou, Monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés, de 1818 à 1826
No full textsection, section of the prayer hall, and details of inscription and chandelier, Plate XXIII of Pascal Coste's "Architecture arabe; ou, Monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés, de 1818 à 1826
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