The Lady in Pink: Dress and the Enigma of Gendered Space in Marcel Proust\u27s Fiction

A study of the role of clothing as central to issues of characterization, description and historical reference in Marcel Proust\u27s A la recherche du temps perdu. Focus on Odette de Crécy, one of the central characters in the novel, a courtesan who becomes the wife of Charles Swann but who first captivates the narrator\u27s imagination when, as a child, he briefly sees her as a Lady in Pink. Odette\u27s role as a fashionable woman, as one of the best-dressed women in Parisian society, gives unity to her character. The description of her clothing, however, not only provides the occasion for an accurate recreation of contemporary dress codes. The links between clothing and a woman\u27s body are explicitly explored in creating the character of Odette. Her femininity is defined specifically in terms of surfaces and objects and her personality seems to assume its reality from costume. Dress not only encloses her lovely appearance; it gives substance to her person and order to her life. Through the agency of dress this ordinary, even vulgar woman rises above her condition and enters a world of passion and poetry

Testing the effectiveness of the culturally adapted skills training START NOW to reduce mental health problems in adolescent refugees: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundAdolescent refugees are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems, as they experience many risk factors associated with their resettlement at crucial stages of their physical and emotional development. However, despite having a greater healthcare needs than others, they face significant barriers to accessing healthcare services. Therefore, this study aims to test the effectiveness of a low-threshold, culturally adapted version of the skills training START NOW – START NOW Adapted - in reducing mental health problems among adolescent refugees.MethodsWe will recruit 80 adolescent refugees (15–18 years) with symptoms of anxiety and depression or high perceived stress in Northwestern Switzerland. They will be randomly assigned to one of two study groups: an intervention group, receiving START NOW Adapted, and a control group, receiving treatment as usual (TAU). The intervention will last 10 weeks and will consist of one-hour sessions per week provided by a trained facilitator with the same cultural background, in the respective language. Assessments to collect depressive and anxious symptoms, perceived stress, social-ecological resilience, and emotion recognition abilities will be conducted pre-intervention, post-intervention (11 weeks later) and at the 3-month follow-up. Multilevel models will be computed with primary and secondary outcome measures as dependent variables. An effect of at least moderate size will be considered clinically relevant.DiscussionThis randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the effectiveness of a culturally adapted version of START NOW, providing valuable insights to improve current health promotion for adolescent refugees in Switzerland (or rather lack thereof). Ultimately, the effects of START NOW may facilitate integration and promote healthy development while decreasing costs associated with treating migration- or conflict-related trauma.Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT06324864

Kommunikation, Konsens und Kohäsion im universitären Kontext

Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt wird in Bildungseinrichtungen (Eckert 2007) als Teil eines individuellen, aber gesellschaftlich verantworteten Sozialisationsprozesses in den entsprechenden Lebensphasen (Abels et al. 2008) erfahren. Dafür sind Kommunikationsprozesse von Bedeutung, die entweder selbst zu einem Konsens führen oder in denen die Entstehung eines Konsenses nachvollzogen werden kann. In den kommunikativen Aushandlungsprozessen während eines Studiums werden Wissensbestände diskutiert und Wissensstrukturen aufgebaut. Studierende, aber auch Lehrende erleben so einen Lehr-Lernzusammenhang, der bestenfalls die Genese wissenschaftlichen Wissens verdeutlicht, und erkennen, dass gesättigtes wissenschaftliches Wissen vom Konsens der Beteiligten abhängig ist. Konsens führt damit zu einem geteilten Wissensbestand, der über den konkreten Lehrkontext hinaus Geltung hat und zu sozialer Kohäsion innerhalb der Universitätsgemeinschaft, darüber hinaus in der Scientific Community und in der Gesellschaft an sich führen kann. Dieser fragile Zusammenhang zwischen Kommunikation, Konsens und Kohäsion in der Wissenschaft ist abhängig von verfügbarem Wissen und damit von der Informationsbeschaffung. Veränderungen, wie sie während der Pandemie zu beobachten waren, als Bibliotheksbestände nurmehr digital zugänglich waren und alle Lehr- und Forschungsanstrengungen in die digitale Welt verlegt wurden (Breitenbach 2021), wirken sich deshalb direkt und indirekt auf die Kommunikation der Universitätsgemeinschaft (Mayrberger 2020; Morselli et al. 2021) aus. Deshalb muss die Frage gestellt werden, wie sich das wissenschaftliche, gesellschaftlich geteilte Wissen verändert und welche Auswirkung es haben kann, wenn nurmehr digitale Bestände und Medien genutzt werden können

Sequential anti-cytomegalovirus response monitoring may allow prediction of cytomegalovirus reactivation after allogeneic stem cell transplantation

Background: Reconstitution of cytomegalovirus-specific CD3+CD8+ T cells (CMV-CTLs) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is necessary to bring cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation under control. However, the parameters determining protective CMV-CTL reconstitution remain unclear to date. Design and Methods: In a prospective tri-center study, CMV-CTL reconstitution was analyzed in the peripheral blood from 278 patients during the year following HSCT using 7 commercially available tetrameric HLA-CMV epitope complexes. All patients included could be monitored with at least CMV-specific tetramer. Results: CMV-CTL reconstitution was detected in 198 patients (71%) after allogeneic HSCT. Most importantly, reconstitution with 1 CMV-CTL per µl blood between day +50 and day +75 post-HSCT discriminated between patients with and without CMV reactivation in the R+/D+ patient group, independent of the CMV-epitope recognized. In addition, CMV-CTLs expanded more daramtaically in patients experiencing only one CMV-reactivation than those without or those with multiple CMV reactivations. Monitoring using at least 2 tetramers was possible in 63% (n = 176) of the patients. The combinations of particular HLA molecules influenced the numbers of CMV-CTLs detected. The highest CMV-CTL count obtained for an individual tetramer also changed over time in 11% of these patients (n = 19) resulting in higher levels of HLA-B*0801 (IE-1) recognizing CMV-CTLs in 14 patients. Conclusions: Our results indicate that 1 CMV-CTL per µl blood between day +50 to +75 marks the beginning of an immune response against CMV in the R+/D+ group. Detection of CMV-CTL expansion thereafter indicates successful resolution of the CMV reactivation. Thus, sequential monitoring of CMV-CTL reconstitution can be used to predict patients at risk for recurrent CMV reactivation

Childhood trauma is linked to epigenetic age deceleration in young adults with previous youth residential care placements.

Background: Early adversity increases the risk for mental and physical disorders as well as premature death. Epigenetic processes, and altered epigenetic aging in particular, might mediate these effects. While the literature that examined links between early adversity and epigenetic aging is growing, results have been heterogeneous.Objective: In the current work, we explored the link between early adversity and epigenetic aging in a sample of formerly out-of-home placed young adults.Method: A total of N = 117 young adults (32% women, age mean = 26.3 years, SD = 3.6 years) with previous youth residential care placements completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the Life Events Checklist (LEC-R) and provided blood samples for the analysis of DNA methylation using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip Microarray. Epigenetic age was estimated using Hovarths and Hannums epigenetic clocks. Furthermore, Hovarths and Hannums epigenetic age residuals were calculated as a proxy of epigenetic aging by regressing epigenetic age on chronological age. The statistical analysis plan was preregistered (https://osf.io/b9ev8).Results: Childhood trauma (CTQ) was negatively associated with Hannums epigenetic age residuals, β = -.23, p = .004 when controlling for sex, BMI, smoking status and proportional white blood cell type estimates. This association was driven by experiences of physical neglect, β = -.25, p = .001. Lifetime trauma exposure (LEC-R) was not a significant predictor of epigenetic age residuals.Conclusion: Childhood trauma, and physical neglect in particular, was associated with decelerated epigenetic aging in our sample. More studies focusing on formerly institutionalized at-risk populations are needed to better understand which factors affect stress-related adaptations following traumatic experiences

Grünlicht-induzierte Rezeptorinaktivierung durch Cobalamin-bindende Domänen

Optogenetik und Photopharmakologie ermöglichen präzise räumliche und zeitliche Kontrolle von Proteinwechselwirkung und -funktion in Zellen und Tieren. Optogenetische Methoden, die auf grünes Licht ansprechen und zum Trennen von Proteinkomplexen geeignet sind, sind nichtweitläufig verfügbar, würden jedoch mehrfarbige Experimente zur Beantwortung von biologischen Fragestellungen ermöglichen. Hier demonstrieren wir die Verwendung von Cobalamin(Vitamin B12)-bindenden Domänen von bakteriellen CarH-Transkriptionsfaktoren zur Grünlicht-induzierten Dissoziation von Rezeptoren. Fusioniert mit dem Fibroblasten-W achstumsfaktor-Rezeptor 1 führten diese im Dunkeln in kultivierten Zellen zu Signalaktivität durch Oligomerisierung, welche durch Beleuchten umgehend aufgehoben wurde. In Zebrafischembryonen, die einen derartigen Rezeptor exprimieren, ermöglichte grünes Licht die Kontrolle über abnormale Signalaktivität während der Embryonalentwicklung

SUMOylation of the mitochondrial fission protein Drpl occurs at multiple nonconsensus sites within the B domain and is linked to its activity cycle

Dynamin‐related protein (Drp) 1 is a key regulator of mitochondrial fission and is composed of GTP‐binding, Middle, insert B, and C‐terminal GTPase effector (GED) domains. Drpl associates with mitochondrial fission sites and promotes membrane constriction through its intrinsic GTPase activity. The mechanisms that regulate Drpl activity remain poorly understood but are likely to involve reversible post‐translational modifications, such as conjugation of small ubiquitin‐like modifier (SUMO) proteins. Through a detailed analysis, we find that Drpl interacts with the SUMO‐conjugating enzyme Ubc9 via multiple regions and demonstrate that Drpl is a direct target of SUMO modification by all three SUMO isoforms. While Drpl does not harbor consensus SUMOylation sequences, our analysis identified2 clusters of lysine residues within the B domain that serve as noncanonical conjugation sites. Although initial analysis indicates that mitochondrial recruitment of ectopically expressed Drpl in response to staurosporine is unaffected by loss of SUMOylation, we find that Drpl SUMOylation is enhanced in the context of the K38A mutation. This dominant‐negative mutant, which is deficient in GTP binding and hydrolysis, does not associate with mitochondria and prevents normal mitochondrial fission. This finding suggests that SUMOylation of Drpl is linked to its activity cycle and is influenced by Drpl localization.—Figueroa‐Romero, C., Iniguez‐Lluhi, J. A., Stadler, J., Chang, C.‐R., Arnoult, D., Keller, P. J., Hong, Y., Blackstone, C., Feldman, E. L. SUMOylation of the mitochondrial fission protein Drpl occurs at multiple nonconsensus sites within the B domain and is linked to its activity cycle. FASEB J. 23, 3917–3927 (2009). www.fasebj.orgPeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154272/1/fsb2fj09136630.pd