Connective Tissue Growth Factor in Regulation of RhoA Mediated Cytoskeletal Tension Associated Osteogenesis of Mouse Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells

Background: Cytoskeletal tension is an intracellular mechanism through which cells convert a mechanical signal into a biochemical response, including production of cytokines and activation of various signaling pathways. Methods/Principal Findings: Adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) were allowed to spread into large cells by seeding them at a low-density (1,250 cells/cm 2), which was observed to induce osteogenesis. Conversely, ASCs seeded at a high-density (25,000 cells/cm 2) featured small cells that promoted adipogenesis. RhoA and actin filaments were altered by changes in cell size. Blocking actin polymerization by Cytochalasin D influenced cytoskeletal tension and differentiation of ASCs. To understand the potential regulatory mechanisms leading to actin cytoskeletal tension, cDNA microarray was performed on large and small ASCs. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) was identified as a major regulator of osteogenesis associated with RhoA mediated cytoskeletal tension. Subsequently, knock-down of CTGF by siRNA in ASCs inhibited this osteogenesis. Conclusions/Significance: We conclude that CTGF is important in the regulation of cytoskeletal tension mediated AS

Conflict transformation and history teaching: social psychological theory and its contributions

The aim of this introductory chapter is to render intelligible how history teaching can be enriched with knowledge of social psychological theories that deal with the issue of conflict transformation and partcularly the notions of prejudice reduction and reconciliation. A major aim of history teaching is to engage students with historical texts, establish historical significance, identify continuity and change, analyse cause and consequence, take historical perspectives and understand the ethical dimensions of historical interpretations. Such teaching, enriched with social psychological theory, will enlarge the notion of historical literacy into a study of historical culture and historical consciousness in the classroom so that students become reflective of the role of collective memory and history teaching in processes of conflict transformation and understand the ways in which various forms of historical consciousness relate the past, present and future. This is what the editors of this volume call an interdisciplinary paradigm of transformative history teachin

Evidence of Erroneous Deductions and their Possible Effects on the Initial Learning of the Concept of Cell in Primary School

En este trabajo se han obtenido evidencias sobre dificultades para procesar información referida al concepto de célula en estudiantes de escuela primaria. Se identificaron posibles deducciones erróneas que podrían establecer estudiantes de 5to grado (10-11 años) que intentaran procesar cognitivamente, y por primera vez, la información de libros de texto escolares y del discurso docente sobre el tema y se diseñó un cuestionario con el objetivo de hallar evidencia de estas deducciones. Fue posible detectar algunas evidencias de construcción de modelos explicativos incipientes siendo destacable la aparición de modelos consistentes, pero científicamente incorrectos. Luego, se aplicó el mismo cuestionario a estudiantes de 6to y 7mo grado (11-13 años) y se observó que algunos patrones de respuesta se mantenían e, incluso, se afianzaban. Estos modelos podrían dar cuenta del origen de errores o dificultades en la comprensión del concepto célula en estudiantes de niveles educativos subsiguientes.In this paper we have obtained some evidence on difficulties in processing information about the cell among primary school students. We identified possible misleading deductions that 5th grade students (10-11 years) could establish when trying, for the first time, to cognitively process information on the subject from school textbooks and teacher discourse, and we designed a questionnaire to find evidence of these deductions. It was possible to detect some evidence of incipient explanatory models. It is important to highlight the emergence of consistent but scientifically incorrect models. Then, the same questionnaire was applied to 6th and 7th grade students (11-13 years), and it was found that some response patterns prevailed and were even reinforced. These models could account for the origin of errors or difficulties in understanding the concept of cell among students of subsequent educational levels.Fil: Edelsztein, Valeria Carolina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Centro de Formación e Investigación en Enseñanza de las Ciencias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Galagovsky, Lydia Raquel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Centro de Formación e Investigación en Enseñanza de las Ciencias; Argentin

Robust and persistent reactivation of SIV and HIV by N-803 and depletion of CD8+ cells

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) persists indefinitely in individuals with HIV who receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) owing to a reservoir of latently infected cells that contain replication-competent virus1–4. Here, to better understand the mechanisms responsible for latency persistence and reversal, we used the interleukin-15 superagonist N-803 in conjunction with the depletion of CD8+ lymphocytes in ART-treated macaques infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Although N-803 alone did not reactivate virus production, its administration after the depletion of CD8+ lymphocytes in conjunction with ART treatment induced robust and persistent reactivation of the virus in vivo. We found viraemia of more than 60 copies per ml in all macaques (n = 14; 100%) and in 41 out of a total of 56 samples (73.2%) that were collected each week after N-803 administration. Notably, concordant results were obtained in ART-treated HIV-infected humanized mice. In addition, we observed that co-culture with CD8+ T cells blocked the in vitro latency-reversing effect of N-803 on primary human CD4+ T cells that were latently infected with HIV. These results advance our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for latency reversal and lentivirus reactivation during ART-suppressed infection

Wage Bargaining And Profitability: A Disaggregative Analysis.

Previous analyses of the wage/profit relationship at a disaggregative level in Britain have given positive results for pre-war years but negative results for early post-war years. However, this is probably due to the increasingly unreliable nature of the enterprise- based profits series published in the National Accounts until 1982. We have constructed, instead, what are essentially establishment-based Census data on profits for fourteen manufacturing industries, up to 1986. We have also been able to extend the disaggregative unemployment data, the publication of which also ceased in 1982. The wage equations that we have estimated include profits and unemployment (and other variables) in an explicit Nash bargaining model, in line with widely held views as to the way that wage negotiations are actually conducted. The results obtained show a highly significant role for profits, as well as having other implications, notably the positive (hysteresis) effect of industry unemployment, by contrast with the normal negative effect of aggregate unemployment, and the important effects of relative wages - which play a large role in various disaggregative studies of the propagation of inflation

Learning who they ‘really’ are: from stigmatization to opportunities to learn in Greek Romani education

This chapter explores the learning and life experiences of a vulnerable minority group—the Rom of Greece—in the context of an historical, multidimensional theory of stigmatization. Despite extensive public attention, legal decisions at every level, and the formation of countless working groups and commissions, most Rom across the EU remain mired in poverty and prejudice, a conspicuous component of which is school segregation. The Rom entered Europe through Greece and have lived there for a millennium, always at the margins of society. We examine two cases of social and school exclusion in Greece, and two cases of relative social and educational success, with the purpose of highlighting the difficulties involved in undoing an enduring ethnic stigma. Recent research on the structure and processes of stigmatization provide a framework for understanding how low social status, and poor treatment, of stigmatized populations is maintained and legitimated. The persistent experience of stigma limits opportunities, in often-irreversible social, psychological fashion, for young Rom to learn and prosper

three-dimensional micromass

Analysis of the material properties of early chondrogenic differentiated adipose-derived stromal cells (ASC) using an in vitr