Teacher Expectancy Effects on Pupils\u27 Scholastic Achievement

I We discussed the implications and limitations of Pygmalion in the classroom and other investigations on teacher expectancy effects, and emphasized the importance of naturalistic studies. II We investigated the inflnence of prior experiences with an older sibling upon teacher expectations and student achievement by younger siblings. We identified 124 pairs of siblings who were taught by the same teacher (experimental group) and 488 pairs of siblings who were taught by different teachers (control group). We compaired the grade point average data of each sibling and found that the discrepancies of the grade point average between experimental siblings were smaller than that between control ones. It is interpreted that teacher expectations formed through prior experiences with an older sibling produced this difference

Immune-related gene expression profile in laboratory common marmosets assessed by an accurate quantitative real-time PCR using selected reference genes.

The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is considered a novel experimental animal model of non-human primates. However, due to antibody unavailability, immunological and pathological studies have not been adequately conducted in various disease models of common marmoset. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) is a powerful tool to examine gene expression levels. Recent reports have shown that selection of internal reference housekeeping genes are required for accurate normalization of gene expression. To develop a reliable qPCR method in common marmoset, we used geNorm applets to evaluate the expression stability of eight candidate reference genes (GAPDH, ACTB, rRNA, B2M, UBC, HPRT, SDHA and TBP) in various tissues from laboratory common marmosets. geNorm analysis showed that GAPDH, ACTB, SDHA and TBP were generally ranked high in stability followed by UBC. In contrast, HPRT, rRNA and B2M exhibited lower expression stability than other genes in most tissues analyzed. Furthermore, by using the improved qPCR with selected reference genes, we analyzed the expression levels of CD antigens (CD3ε, CD4, CD8α and CD20) and cytokines (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12β, IL-13, IFN-γ and TNF-α) in peripheral blood leukocytes and compared them between common marmosets and humans. The expression levels of CD4 and IL-4 were lower in common marmosets than in humans whereas those of IL-10, IL-12β and IFN-γ were higher in the common marmoset. The ratio of Th1-related gene expression level to that of Th2-related genes was inverted in common marmosets. We confirmed the inverted ratio of CD4 to CD8 in common marmosets by flow cytometric analysis. Therefore, the difference in Th1/Th2 balance between common marmosets and humans may affect host defense and/or disease susceptibility, which should be carefully considered when using common marmoset as an experimental model for biomedical research

Risk Evaluation of Coronary Heart Disease and Cerebrovascular Disease by the Japan Atherosclerosis Society Guidelines 2002 Using the Cohort of the Holicos-PAT Study

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The expression ratios of CD8 to CD4 (CD8∶CD4) and Th1-related genes to Th2-related genes.

<p>The ratio of CD8∶CD4 (left panel), IFN-γ∶IL-4 (middle panel) and IL-2∶IL-4 (right panel) in human and common marmoset leukocytes, spleen, lymph node and thymus are shown. Significant differences in the CD8∶CD4, IFN-γ∶IL-4 and IL-2∶IL-4 ratios were found between human leukocytes and common marmoset tissues (*<i>P</i><0.05).</p

The expression levels of CD antigens and cytokine genes in common marmoset and human leukocytes.

<p>The expression level of each gene is shown as a logarithmic histogram of absolute copy numbers per µg of total RNA. Means and standard deviations of eight individuals are indicated. Asterisk indicates statistically significant differences between marmosets and humans by Student's <i>t</i>-test (*<i>P</i> value<0.05, **<i>P</i> value<0.01).</p

CD8/CD4 ratio in PBMCs from young and old marmosets.

*<p>Only FACS analysis, but not qPCR, was done with PBMCs from these three marmosets.</p