“Las palabras vuelan, lo escrito se queda” (The words fly, the written stays): The Judeo-Spanish (Haketic) Proverb in Northern Morocco

The aim of this article is to define the literary and linguistic characteristics of proverbs in Haketia in order to examine the proverb as an expression of ethnic identity. Haketia is the Judeo-Spanish language spoken in Jewish communities in northern Morocco among descendants of Jews exiled from Spain. We claim that the tradition of proverbs in Haketia possesses its own unique characteristics that ex-press the “voice of the group.” To isolate this voice, we analyzed proverbs in Haketia in comparison to their counterparts in other groups that belong to the same cultural context: (1) Proverbs from canonical He-brew sources (Bible, Talmud, and Midrash) that are commonly shared within the whole Jewish culture. (2) Spanish proverbs: The affinities with the culture of their geographical origin (Spain) that is shared among all the communities that speak the Judeo-Spanish language; Modern Spanish had a decisive effect among Haketia speakers. (3) An-other Judeo-Spanish group: the eastern Ladino speakers (we chose Salonika). (4) The Judeo-Arabic speakers in Morocco, and Muslims speaking Moroccan Arabic with whom the speakers of Haketia interacted on a daily basis. (5) Finally, we examined unique proverbs in Haketia for which we could not find a counterpart in other cultures. For every group we posed a different secondary research question (such as theme, genre, language, or context) and offered a different method of research using analytical tools taken from different disciplines, such as literature, folklore, linguistics, and history

Loss of Robustness and Addiction to IGF1 during Early Keratinocyte Transformation by Human Papilloma Virus 16

Infection of keratinocytes with high risk human Papilloma virus causes immortalization, and when followed by further mutations, leads to cervical cancer and other anogenital tumors. Here we monitor the progressive loss of robustness in an in vitro model of the early stages of transformation that comprises normal keratinocytes and progressive passages of HPV16 immortalized cells. As transformation progresses, the cells acquire higher proliferation rates and gain the ability to grow in soft agar. Concurrently, the cells lose robustness, becoming more sensitive to serum starvation and DNA damage by Cisplatin. Loss of robustness in the course of transformation correlates with significant reductions in the activities of the anti-apoptotic proteins PKB/Akt, Erk, Jnk and p38 both under normal growth conditions and upon stress. In parallel, loss of robustness is manifested by the shrinkage of the number of growth factors that can rescue starving cells from apoptosis, with the emergence of dependence solely on IGF1. Treatment with IGF1 activates PKB/Akt and Jnk and through them inhibits p53, rescuing the cells from starvation. We conclude that transformation in this model induces higher susceptibility of cells to stress due to reduced anti-apoptotic signaling and hyper-activation of p53 upon stress

“Las palabras vuelan, lo escrito se queda” (The words fly, the written stays): The Judeo-Spanish (Haketic) Proverb in Northern Morocco

The aim of this article is to define the literary and linguistic characteristics of proverbs in Haketia in order to examine the proverb as an expression of ethnic identity. Haketia is the Judeo-Spanish language spoken in Jewish communities in northern Morocco among descendants of Jews exiled from Spain. We claim that the tradition of proverbs in Haketia possesses its own unique characteristics that ex-press the “voice of the group.” To isolate this voice, we analyzed proverbs in Haketia in comparison to their counterparts in other groups that belong to the same cultural context: (1) Proverbs from canonical He-brew sources (Bible, Talmud, and Midrash) that are commonly shared within the whole Jewish culture. (2) Spanish proverbs: The affinities with the culture of their geographical origin (Spain) that is shared among all the communities that speak the Judeo-Spanish language; Modern Spanish had a decisive effect among Haketia speakers. (3) An-other Judeo-Spanish group: the eastern Ladino speakers (we chose Salonika). (4) The Judeo-Arabic speakers in Morocco, and Muslims speaking Moroccan Arabic with whom the speakers of Haketia interacted on a daily basis. (5) Finally, we examined unique proverbs in Haketia for which we could not find a counterpart in other cultures. For every group we posed a different secondary research question (such as theme, genre, language, or context) and offered a different method of research using analytical tools taken from different disciplines, such as literature, folklore, linguistics, and history

Generating folded protein structures with a lattice chain growth algorithm

We present a new application of the chain growth algorithm to lattice generation of proteinstructure and thermodynamics. Given the difficulty of ab initioproteinstructure prediction, this approach provides an alternative to current folding algorithms. The chain growth algorithm, unlike Metropolis folding algorithms, generates independent proteinstructures to achieve rapid and efficient exploration of configurational space. It is a modified version of the Rosenbluth algorithm where the chain growth transition probability is a normalized Boltzmann factor; it was previously applied only to simple polymers and protein models with two residue types. The independent protein configurations, generated segment-by-segment on a refined cubic lattice, are based on a single interaction site for each amino acid and a statistical interaction energy derived by Miyazawa and Jernigan. We examine for several proteins the algorithm’s ability to produce nativelike folds and its effectiveness for calculating protein thermodynamics. Thermal transition profiles associated with the internal energy, entropy, and radius of gyration show characteristic folding/unfolding transitions and provide evidence for unfolding via partially unfolded (molten-globule) states. From the configurational ensembles, the proteinstructures with the lowest distance root-mean-square deviations (dRMSD) vary between 2.2 to 3.8 Å, a range comparable to results of an exhaustive enumeration search. Though the ensemble-averaged dRMSD values are about 1.5 to 2 Å larger, the lowest dRMSD structures have similar overall folds to the native proteins. These results demonstrate that the chain growth algorithm is a viable alternative to protein simulations using the whole chain

Correlation between MMP-9 and extracellular cytokine HMGB1 in prediction of human ischemic stroke outcome

AbstractIschemic stroke (IS) outcome predictors include clinical features, biochemical parameters and some risk factors. The relations between two main players in the ischemic brain, MMPs and HMGB1, were estimated in the plasma of ischemic stroke patients stratified according to the Glasgow Outcome Scale and the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project classification. IS patients exhibited higher plasma concentration of MMP-9 and the inflammatory cytokine HMGB1 compared with healthy controls. A full-blown correlation between MMP-9 activation and increased plasma MMP-9 concentration was observed in case of IS patients. A similar activity of MMP-2 and MMP-12 was characteristic of healthy volunteers and IS patients. In patients with ischemic stroke increased plasma levels of MMP-9 and HMGB1 are associated with a poor functional outcome and are significantly correlated with each other (P=0.0054). We suggest that diagnostic benefits will be obtained if plasma HMGB1 levels are measured for IS patients in addition to MMP-9

ASPECTS OF CHINA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The 25 year period of transition in newly independent post-USSR states did not bring either of them to a desired target – mid-European level of economy. Against this sad background China represents a unique example of successful economic reforms, which lead to rapid economic development and accelerated increase of leaving standards. In spite of structural and legislative changes, the success of China’s economic reforms was determined by extensive industrialization based on downstream processing of national and imported primary commodities. Privatization in this sector and support of private businesses was expressed by creation of corresponding financial instruments and, first of all, by foundation of commodity exchanges of the global importance. The phase of extensive economic development has not been finished in China yet, however, such extensive development cannot be sustainable for more than 8-10 years, and the greatest challenge for China will be a step-by-step construction of a post-industrial economy and society in coming years. Example of China may show a guideline for the newly independent states: only synergetic amalgamation of, on one hand, a civil society and, on the other hand, sustainable exploitation of national natural resources and downstream processing of national primary commodities may ensure irreversible merging of newly independent states into the civilized world.

Adaptive Response to DNA-Damaging Agents in Natural Saccharomyces cerevisiae Populations from “Evolution Canyon”, Mt. Carmel, Israel

BACKGROUND:Natural populations of most organisms, especially unicellular microorganisms, are constantly exposed to harsh environmental factors which affect their growth. UV radiation is one of the most important physical parameters which influences yeast growth in nature. Here we used 46 natural strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from several natural populations at the "Evolution Canyon" microsite (Nahal Oren, Mt. Carmel, Israel). The opposing slopes of this canyon share the same geology, soil, and macroclimate, but they differ in microclimatic conditions. The interslope differences in solar radiation (200%-800% more on the "African" slope) caused the development of two distinct biomes. The south-facing slope is sunnier and has xeric, savannoid "African" environment while the north-facing slope is represented by temperate, "European" forested environment. Here we studied the phenotypic response of the S. cerevisiae strains to UVA and UVC radiations and to methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) in order to evaluate the interslope effect on the strains' ability to withstand DNA-damaging agents. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We exposed our strains to the different DNA-damaging agents and measured survival by counting colony forming units. The strains from the "African" slope were more resilient to both UVA and MMS than the strains from the "European" slope. In contrast, we found that there was almost no difference between strains (with similar ploidy) from the opposite slopes, in their sensitivity to UVC radiation. These results suggest that the "African" strains are more adapted to higher solar radiation than the "European" strains. We also found that the tetraploids strains were more tolerant to all DNA-damaging agents than their neighboring diploid strains, which suggest that high ploidy level might be a mechanism of adaptation to high solar radiation. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Our results and the results of parallel studies with several other organisms, suggest that natural selection appears to select, at a microscale, for adaptive complexes that can tolerate the higher UV radiation on the "African" slope