Analysis of circulating hem-endothelial marker RNA levels in preterm infants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Circulating endothelial cells may serve as novel markers of angiogenesis. These include a subset of hem-endothelial progenitor cells that play a vital role in vascular growth and repair. The presence and clinical implications of circulating RNA levels as an expression for hematopoietic and endothelial-specific markers have not been previously evaluated in preterm infants. This study aims to determine circulating RNA levels of hem-endothelial marker genes in peripheral blood of preterm infants and begin to correlate these findings with prenatal complications.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Peripheral blood samples from seventeen preterm neonates were analyzed at three consecutive post-delivery time points (day 3–5, 10–15 and 30). Using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction we studied the expression patterns of previously established hem-endothelial-specific progenitor-associated genes (<it>AC133, Tie-2, Flk-1 (VEGFR2) and Scl/Tal1</it>) in association with characteristics of prematurity and preterm morbidity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Circulating <it>Tie-2 </it>and <it>SCL/Tal1 </it>RNA levels displayed an inverse correlation to gestational age (GA). We observed significantly elevated <it>Tie-2 </it>levels in preterm infants born to mothers with amnionitis, and in infants with sustained brain echogenicity on brain sonography. Other markers showed similar expression patterns yet we could not demonstrate statistically significant correlations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These preliminary findings suggest that circulating RNA levels especially <it>Tie2 </it>and <it>SCL </it>decline with maturation and might relate to some preterm complication. Further prospective follow up of larger cohorts are required to establish this association.</p

Cost of Unneeded Proteins in E. coli Is Reduced after Several Generations in Exponential Growth

When E. coli cells express unneeded protein, they grow more slowly. Such penalty to fitness associated with making proteins is called protein cost. Protein cost is an important component in the cost-benefit tradeoffs that underlie the evolution of protein circuits, but its origins are still poorly understood. Here, we ask how the protein cost varies during the exponential growth phase of E. coli. We find that cells growing exponentially following an upshift from overnight culture show a large cost when producing unneeded proteins. However, after several generations, while still in exponential growth, the cells enter a phase where cost is much reduced despite vigorous unneeded protein production. We find that this reduced-cost phase depends on the ppGpp system, which adjusts the amount of ribosomes in the cell and does not occur after a downshift from rich to poor medium. These findings suggest that protein cost is a transient phenomenon that happens upon an upshift in conditions and that cost is reduced when ribosomes and other cellular systems have increased to their appropriate steady-state level in the new condition

Public passages: Political action in and around the Holocaust Memorial, Berlin

This dissertation analyzes the formation of public spheres of action in a national site of memory: The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. I study action and discourse around the Memorial as constructing and reformulating the way especially Germans, but also different European nationals, Israelis and other groups relate to the ways their past has been remembered. The Memorial is touristy urban place, whose sense-making activities are constitutive of its materiality. I focus on interpretation processes rather than on finalized memory products, to delineate the effects such processes have on public memory and action around it. Interpreting the Memorial, I suggest, creates a sphere for the exploration of self in public, in which visitors discuss their and others' activities in the Memorial as part of a transformative experience. This transformation is reflected on in therapeutic terms and culminates in a productive miscommunication in which both the self and the public realize that it is impossible to understand the Memorial and thus necessary to constantly discuss it, and through that the past and engagement with it in the present.This reflexive, historical and phenomenological observation attends to the establishment of ethical subjectivity as a basis for civic engagement by all parties in the site. It also offers an analysis of memory representation in contemporary memorial sites by means of photography, movement and exhibition of archives. I conclude in a comparative discussion of the individuation of memory and the presentation of names and numbers in the Memorial and in Yad Vashem, to discern a parallel interest in numbers and names of victims which turns into an interest in objects of memory.Thesis (Ph.D.)--New School University, 2008.School code: 1430

Circumcising the body: Negotiating Difference and Belonging in Germany

The circumcision debate in Germany in 2012 is an exemplary case for symbolic struggles over national boundaries. The debate became a site for the negotiation of traditions practiced by religious minorities. We ask, first, how the clinical gaze constitutes Muslim and Jewish others. Second, we investigate how ‘writing around’ the debate’s center, bodily integrity, became meaningful through analogies to other practices said to harm it. We compare newspaper coverage in Germany, Israel and Turkey, and reveal transnational discursive dynamics that transgress national boundaries. We show how ‘otherness’ of Muslims and Jews remains present in a self-perceived secular, liberal imaginary

The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism

https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/all_books/1563/thumbnail.jp