Repression of Meiotic Genes by Antisense Transcription and by Fkh2 Transcription Factor in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

In S. pombe, about 5% of genes are meiosis-specific and accumulate little or no mRNA during vegetative growth. Here we use Affymetrix tiling arrays to characterize transcripts in vegetative and meiotic cells. In vegetative cells, many meiotic genes, especially those induced in mid-meiosis, have abundant antisense transcripts. Disruption of the antisense transcription of three of these mid-meiotic genes allowed vegetative sense transcription. These results suggest that antisense transcription represses sense transcription of meiotic genes in vegetative cells. Although the mechanism(s) of antisense mediated transcription repression need to be further explored, our data indicates that RNAi machinery is not required for repression. Previously, we and others used non-strand specific methods to study splicing regulation of meiotic genes and concluded that 28 mid-meiotic genes are spliced only in meiosis. We now demonstrate that the “unspliced” signal in vegetative cells comes from the antisense RNA, not from unspliced sense RNA, and we argue against the idea that splicing regulates these mid-meiotic genes. Most of these mid-meiotic genes are induced in mid-meiosis by the forkhead transcription factor Mei4. Interestingly, deletion of a different forkhead transcription factor, Fkh2, allows low levels of sense expression of some mid-meiotic genes in vegetative cells. We propose that vegetative expression of mid-meiotic genes is repressed at least two independent ways: antisense transcription and Fkh2 repression

The 2011 Survey on Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy (HDP) in China:Prevalence, Risk Factors, Complications, Pregnancy and Perinatal Outcomes

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are a group of medical complications in pregnancy and also a risk factor for severe pregnancy outcomes, but it lacks a large-scale epidemiological investigation in recent years. This survey represents a multicenter cross-sectional retrospective study to estimate the prevalence and analyze the risk factors for HDP among the pregnant women who had referred for delivery between January 1st 2011 and December 31st 2011 in China Mainland. A total of 112,386 pregnant women were investigated from 38 secondary and tertiary specialized or general hospitals randomly selected across the country, of which 5,869 had HDP, accounting for 5.22% of all pregnancies. There were significant differences in the prevalence of HDP between geographical regions, in which the North China showed the highest (7.44%) and Central China showed the lowest (1.23%). Of six subtypes of HDP, severe preeclampsia accounted for 39.96%, gestational hypertension for 31.40%, mild preeclampsia for 15.13%, chronic hypertension in pregnancy for 6.00%, preeclampsia superimposed on chronic hypertension for 3.68% and eclampsia for 0.89%. A number of risk factors for HDP were identified, including twin pregnancy, age of >35 years, overweight and obesity, primipara, history of hypertension as well as family history of hypertension and diabetes. The prevalence of pre-term birth, placental abruption and postpartum hemorrhage were significantly higher in women with HDP than those without HDP. The possible risk factors confirmed in this study may be useful for the development of early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of HDP

Recent developments in immunotherapy of acute myeloid leukemia

The advent of new immunotherapeutic agents in clinical practice has revolutionized cancer treatment in the past decade, both in oncology and hematology. The transfer of the immunotherapeutic concepts to the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is hampered by various characteristics of the disease, including non-leukemia-restricted target antigen expression profile, low endogenous immune responses, and intrinsic resistance mechanisms of the leukemic blasts against immune responses. However, considerable progress has been made in this field in the past few years. Within this manuscript, we review the recent developments and the current status of the five currently most prominent immunotherapeutic concepts: (1) antibody-drug conjugates, (2) T cell-recruiting antibody constructs, (3) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, (4) checkpoint inhibitors, and (5) dendritic cell vaccination. We focus on the clinical data that has been published so far, both for newly diagnosed and refractory/relapsed AML, but omitting immunotherapeutic concepts in conjunction with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Besides, we have included important clinical trials that are currently running or have recently been completed but are still lacking full publication of their results. While each of the concepts has its particular merits and inherent problems, the field of immunotherapy of AML seems to have taken some significant steps forward. Results of currently running trials will reveal the direction of further development including approaches combining two or more of these concepts

The Immigration-Emigration Nexus in Non-EU Sending States: A Focus on Welfare Entitlements, Consular Services, and Diaspora Policies

peer reviewedMigrants’ access to social benefits has been intensively studied in the European Union, but less scholarly attention has been dedicated to the way in which non-EU welfare regimes adapt to international mobility. This chapter introduces a volume that aims to address this research gap by taking the perspective of non-EU states on migrant social protection. To do so, our analysis focuses on 13 countries: Argentina, China, Ecuador, India, Lebanon, Morocco, Serbia, Senegal, Switzerland, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, Tunisia, and Turkey. These countries represent relevant sending states for migrants coming to the EU, with some of them also hosting sizeable immigrant populations. We argue that their different migration characteristics (including the size and main features of their immigrant and diaspora populations) as well as the peculiarity of their welfare regimes (which often followed a quite distinctive historical path of development compared to their EU counterparts) may shape their responsiveness in terms of ensuring migrants’ access to domestic welfare systems.Migration and transnational social protection in (post) crisis Europ

When Does Aid Conditionality Work?

Does aid conditionality—the setting of policy goals in exchange for access to aid—promote reform? Many studies on the impact of aid and reform suggest not. However, few explicitly examine whether the impact of aid on reform is mediated by recipient regime type. I argue that conditional aid is effective but its efficacy depends on recipient countries’ level of democracy because the value of aid to governments depends on the degree to which it helps them maintain power, and recent work shows that the marginal impact of aid on political survival increases with level of democracy. I test this argument on data from 68 countries over the period from 1980 to 1999. I focus on the impact of IMF and World Bank aid on fiscal reform, one of the most commonly stipulated conditions in aid-for-policy arrangements. I find that aid from the Bretton Woods institutions promotes fiscal reform, but only in more democratic countries