2,835 research outputs found

    Commensality and Labor in Terminal Ubaid Northern Mesopotamia

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    In der neueren anthropologischen Forschung zu Kommensalität wird betont, dass der Verzehr von Nahrungsmitteln soziale Beziehungen und soziale Identitäten kreiert und vermittelt. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es, die häufig vernachlässigten Bereiche Produktion und Arbeit in die Forschung zu Kommensalität einzubeziehen. Ich erörtere kommensale Beziehungen, die durch den Verzehr von Lebensmitteln im Rahmen von Gemeinschatsarbeit entstanden, anhand dreier nordmesopotamischer Fundorte der ausgehenden Ubaid-Zeit. Ich schlage vor, dass ”flint-scraped bowls“ dafür benutzt wurden, zusätzliche Arbeitskräte zu versorgen, die von einem Haushalt in Zeiten von Arbeitskrätemangel aus anderen Haushalten mit gleichem sozialen Status angeworben wurden. Dagegen wurde bemalte Keramik für den täglichen Gebrauch genutzt. In diesem Szenario werden ”flint-scraped bowls“ in unterschiedlichen Kontexten von Leuten mit gleichem sozialem Rang benutzt.Recent anthropological research on commensality has emphasized how food consumption creates and mediates social relations and social identities. The goal of this paper is to integrate the oten neglected study of production and labor into studies of commensality. I will explore the commensal relationships formed by the consumption of food during cooperative communal work events through a discussion of the Terminal Ubaid levels from three sites in northern Mesopotamia. I have suggested that flint-scraped bowls were used to provide for extra-household labor recruited during times of labor shortage by households of similar social standing, while painted ceramics were used for daily food consumption. In this scenario flint-scraped bowls were used in different social contexts by people of similar social standing

    Mentoring Academic Librarians for Research Success

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    This chapter describes the design and implementation of a formal research mentoring program within a continuing education program for academic librarians. The chapter explores ways in which this type of mentoring might be applied in a single-institution or a cross-institutional mentoring program. Formal one-on-one research-mentoring is one component of the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship (IRDL, https://library.lmu.edu/irdl), a research development program for novice researchers who are academic librarians from all disciplines. The short-term goal of the IRDL mentoring program is to increase the probability that each IRDL scholar will complete their research project in one year. However, the benefits of formal research mentoring extend beyond the one-year experience of IRDL. Mentoring can develop the research confidence needed to build sustainable success as a librarian-researcher. In the first section of the chapter, the authors discuss the scholarly literature on research mentoring, the rationale for including research mentoring in the development of IRDL, the process of recruiting mentors and pairing them with scholars, and the administration of the program. In the second section, the authors discuss the evaluation of the program, tips for fostering a positive relationship between mentor and scholar, and recommendations for the design of a successful research mentoring program. The authors have appended the agreement that establishes expectations for scholars and their mentors at the outset of their relationship and the monthly writing prompts that facilitate communication between scholars and mentors and foster reflective practice. The authors believe that IRDL provides a unique opportunity to address some of the problems with mentoring that have been reported in the library literature. Their experiences can be applied in other settings, providing improved research mentoring and increased research success among academic librarians

    Determining the Quantitative Principles of T Cell Response to Antigenic Disparity in Stem Cell Transplantation

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    Alloreactivity compromising clinical outcomes in stem cell transplantation is observed despite HLA matching of donors and recipients. This has its origin in the variation between the exomes of the two, which provides the basis for minor histocompatibility antigens (mHA). The mHA presented on the HLA class I and II molecules and the ensuing T cell response to these antigens results in graft vs. host disease. In this paper, results of a whole exome sequencing study are presented, with resulting alloreactive polymorphic peptides and their HLA class I and HLA class II (DRB1) binding affinity quantified. Large libraries of potentially alloreactive recipient peptides binding both sets of molecules were identified, with HLA-DRB1 generally presenting a greater number of peptides. These results are used to develop a quantitative framework to understand the immunobiology of transplantation. A tensor-based approach is used to derive the equations needed to determine the alloreactive donor T cell response from the mHA-HLA binding affinity and protein expression data. This approach may be used in future studies to simulate the magnitude of expected donor T cell response and determine the risk for alloreactive complications in HLA matched or mismatched hematopoietic cell and solid organ transplantation

    Maternal topoisomerase II alpha, not topoisomerase II beta, enables embryonic development of zebrafish top2a-/- mutants

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    Background Genetic alterations in human topoisomerase II alpha (TOP2A) are linked to cancer susceptibility. TOP2A decatenates chromosomes and thus is necessary for multiple aspects of cell division including DNA replication, chromosome condensation and segregation. Topoisomerase II alpha is also required for embryonic development in mammals, as mouse Top2a knockouts result in embryonic lethality as early as the 4-8 cell stage. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the extended developmental capability of zebrafish top2a mutants arises from maternal expression of top2a or compensation from its top2b paralogue. Results Here, we describe bloody minded (blm), a novel mutant of zebrafish top2a. In contrast to mouse Top2a nulls, zebrafish top2a mutants survive to larval stages (4-5 day post fertilization). Developmental analyses demonstrate abundant expression of maternal top2a but not top2b. Inhibition or poisoning of maternal topoisomerase II delays embryonic development by extending the cell cycle M-phase. Zygotic top2a and top2b are co-expressed in the zebrafish CNS, but endogenous or ectopic top2b RNA appear unable to prevent the blm phenotype. Conclusions We conclude that maternal top2a enables zebrafish development before the mid-zygotic transition (MZT) and that zebrafish top2a and top2b are not functionally redundant during development after activation of the zygotic genome

    A gene signature for post-infectious chronic fatigue syndrome

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    Background: At present, there are no clinically reliable disease markers for chronic fatigue syndrome. DNA chip microarray technology provides a method for examining the differential expression of mRNA from a large number of genes. Our hypothesis was that a gene expression signature, generated by microarray assays, could help identify genes which are dysregulated in patients with post-infectious CFS and so help identify biomarkers for the condition. Methods: Human genome-wide Affymetrix GeneChip arrays (39,000 transcripts derived from 33,000 gene sequences) were used to compare the levels of gene expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of male patients with post-infectious chronic fatigue (n = 8) and male healthy control subjects (n = 7). Results: Patients and healthy subjects differed significantly in the level of expression of 366 genes. Analysis of the differentially expressed genes indicated functional implications in immune modulation, oxidative stress and apoptosis. Prototype biomarkers were identified on the basis of differential levels of gene expression and possible biological significance Conclusion: Differential expression of key genes identified in this study offer an insight into the possible mechanism of chronic fatigue following infection. The representative biomarkers identified in this research appear promising as potential biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment

    The transcriptional repressor protein NsrR senses nitric oxide directly via a [2Fe-2S] cluster

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    The regulatory protein NsrR, a member of the Rrf2 family of transcription repressors, is specifically dedicated to sensing nitric oxide (NO) in a variety of pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria. It has been proposed that NO directly modulates NsrR activity by interacting with a predicted [Fe-S] cluster in the NsrR protein, but no experimental evidence has been published to support this hypothesis. Here we report the purification of NsrR from the obligate aerobe Streptomyces coelicolor. We demonstrate using UV-visible, near UV CD and EPR spectroscopy that the protein contains an NO-sensitive [2Fe-2S] cluster when purified from E. coli. Upon exposure of NsrR to NO, the cluster is nitrosylated, which results in the loss of DNA binding activity as detected by bandshift assays. Removal of the [2Fe-2S] cluster to generate apo-NsrR also resulted in loss of DNA binding activity. This is the first demonstration that NsrR contains an NO-sensitive [2Fe-2S] cluster that is required for DNA binding activity

    A Wireless Brain-Machine Interface for Real-Time Speech Synthesis

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    This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008218.Background Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) involving electrodes implanted into the human cerebral cortex have recently been developed in an attempt to restore function to profoundly paralyzed individuals. Current BMIs for restoring communication can provide important capabilities via a typing process, but unfortunately they are only capable of slow communication rates. In the current study we use a novel approach to speech restoration in which we decode continuous auditory parameters for a real-time speech synthesizer from neuronal activity in motor cortex during attempted speech. Methodology/Principal Findings Neural signals recorded by a Neurotrophic Electrode implanted in a speech-related region of the left precentral gyrus of a human volunteer suffering from locked-in syndrome, characterized by near-total paralysis with spared cognition, were transmitted wirelessly across the scalp and used to drive a speech synthesizer. A Kalman filter-based decoder translated the neural signals generated during attempted speech into continuous parameters for controlling a synthesizer that provided immediate (within 50 ms) auditory feedback of the decoded sound. Accuracy of the volunteer's vowel productions with the synthesizer improved quickly with practice, with a 25% improvement in average hit rate (from 45% to 70%) and 46% decrease in average endpoint error from the first to the last block of a three-vowel task. Conclusions/Significance Our results support the feasibility of neural prostheses that may have the potential to provide near-conversational synthetic speech output for individuals with severely impaired speech motor control. They also provide an initial glimpse into the functional properties of neurons in speech motor cortical areas
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