Enhancement of Recombinant Protein Production in Transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana Plant Cell Suspension Cultures with Co-Cultivation of Agrobacterium Containing Silencing Suppressors.

We have previously demonstrated that the inducible plant viral vector (CMViva) in transgenic plant cell cultures can significantly improve the productivity of extracellular functional recombinant human alpha-1-antiryspin (rAAT) compared with either a common plant constitutive promoter (Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S) or a chemically inducible promoter (estrogen receptor-based XVE) system. For a transgenic plant host system, however, viral or transgene-induced post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) has been identified as a host response mechanism that may dramatically reduce the expression of a foreign gene. Previous studies have suggested that viral gene silencing suppressors encoded by a virus can block or interfere with the pathways of transgene-induced PTGS in plant cells. In this study, the capability of nine different viral gene silencing suppressors were evaluated for improving the production of rAAT protein in transgenic plant cell cultures (CMViva, XVE or 35S system) using an Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression co-cultivation process in which transgenic plant cells and recombinant Agrobacterium carrying the viral gene silencing suppressor were grown together in suspension cultures. Through the co-cultivation process, the impacts of gene silencing suppressors on the rAAT production were elucidated, and promising gene silencing suppressors were identified. Furthermore, the combinations of gene silencing suppressors were optimized using design of experiments methodology. The results have shown that in transgenic CMViva cell cultures, the functional rAAT as a percentage of total soluble protein is increased 5.7 fold with the expression of P19, and 17.2 fold with the co-expression of CP, P19 and P24

Motor Task Processing After Constraint- Induced Movement Therapy in Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Case Series

Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) has shown positive results in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP). However, studies on neural basis of such functional gains are limited. This study reports the event-related potential (ERP) changes in two children with hemiplegic CP after receiving CIMT for three weeks. Both cases were nine years old, had a diagnosis of left hemiplegic CP, had normal intelligence, and were able to extend the wrist at least 20° and the metacarpophalangeal joint at least 10° from full flexion. Before and after the three-week intervention, the children participated in ERP sessions with a choice reaction task to capture the changes in neural mechanism after intervention. Both children exhibited improvement in reaction time (RT) in both hand tasks after the intervention. The improvement was larger in the affected hand than the unaffected hand. Improved accuracy rate (AC) and shortened P300 latencies in the affected hand were also demonstrated in both cases. Topographical maps showed that in centro-parietal regions, patterns shifted from central and left-lateralized to more central and right-lateralized. CMIT was a useful method in improving upper limb function in our cases

Neural Responses to Infants linked with Behavioral Interactions and Testosterone in Fathers

Few fMRI studies have investigated the brain-behavioral basis of parenting in human fathers. Ten fathers were videotaped and gave salivary testosterone samples while interacting with their 2–4 month old infants, and viewed video clips of their own infant and an unfamiliar age-, ethnicityand sex-matched other infant during an fMRI protocol. Infant stimuli activated a network of prefrontal and subcortical brain regions. Furthermore, a subset of these regions activated significantly more to own (OWN) than other (OTHER) infants. Finally, neural responses to OWN versus OTHER were linked with paternal sensitivity, paternal reciprocity, and testosterone. In sum, our results provide a novel perspective on the links between brain, behavior, and hormones in fathers

Family-Centered Care: Current Applications and Future Directions in Pediatric Health Care

Family-centered care (FCC) is a partnership approach to health care decision-making between the family and health care provider. FCC is considered the standard of pediatric health care by many clinical practices, hospitals, and health care groups. Despite widespread endorsement, FCC continues to be insufficiently implemented into clinical practice. In this paper we enumerate the core principles of FCC in pediatric health care, describe recent advances applying FCC principles to clinical practice, and propose an agenda for practitioners, hospitals, and health care groups to translate FCC into improved health outcomes, health care delivery, and health care system transformation

Effects of the sex of the perpetrator on victims’ subsequent sexual behaviors and adulthood sexual orientations

Data from 2,828 female and 1,556 male adult participants from a general population convenience sample were used to measure the effect of the sex of the perpetrator on the adult sexual orientation of the victims of child sexual abuse (CSA) by adult male or female perpetrators and early incest with parents or early incest with siblings. Sexual behaviors with female perpetrators tended to promote an orientation toward sex with females and analogous behaviors with male perpetrators tended to promote an orientation toward sex with males in victims of both sexes. Many forms of incest or CSA increased the likelihood the victims would subsequently engage in behaviors with other partners or begin masturbating using adult male or female images. The subsequent early behaviors with other partners and masturbating using images of both male and female adults significantly enhanced or attenuated the conditioning resulting from interacting with the initial perpetrator. The victims’ adult sexual orientations could be statistically predicted using regression equations that took into account the sexual behaviors with both adult and underage partners and whether or not the participant had masturbated using images of male or female adults. The results were consistent with conditioning and counter-conditioning theories

Influence of Bulk Microphysics Schemes upon Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Version 3.6.1 Nor'easter Simulations

This study evaluated the impact of five single- or double-moment bulk microphysics schemes (BMPSs) on Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) simulations of seven intense wintertime cyclones impacting the mid-Atlantic United States; 5-day long WRF simulations were initialized roughly 24 hours prior to the onset of coastal cyclogenesis off the North Carolina coastline. In all, 35 model simulations (five BMPSs and seven cases) were run and their associated microphysics-related storm properties (hydrometer mixing ratios, precipitation, and radar reflectivity) were evaluated against model analysis and available gridded radar and ground-based precipitation products. Inter-BMPS comparisons of column-integrated mixing ratios and mixing ratio profiles reveal little variability in non-frozen hydrometeor species due to their shared programming heritage, yet their assumptions concerning snow and graupel intercepts, ice supersaturation, snow and graupel density maps, and terminal velocities led to considerable variability in both simulated frozen hydrometeor species and radar reflectivity. WRF-simulated precipitation fields exhibit minor spatiotemporal variability amongst BMPSs, yet their spatial extent is largely conserved. Compared to ground-based precipitation data, WRF simulations demonstrate low-to-moderate (0.217 to 0.414) threat scores and a rainfall distribution shifted toward higher values. Finally, an analysis of WRF and gridded radar reflectivity data via contoured frequency with altitude (CFAD) diagrams reveals notable variability amongst BMPSs, where better performing schemes favored lower graupel mixing ratios and better underlying aggregation assumptions

Respiratory and sleep disorders in mucopolysaccharidosis

MPS encompasses a group of rare lysosomal storage disorders that are associated with the accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) in organs and tissues. This accumulation can lead to the progressive development of a variety of clinical manifestations. Ear, nose, throat (ENT) and respiratory problems are very common in patients with MPS and are often among the first symptoms to appear. Typical features of MPS include upper and lower airway obstruction and restrictive pulmonary disease, which can lead to chronic rhinosinusitis or chronic ear infections, recurrent upper and lower respiratory tract infections, obstructive sleep apnoea, impaired exercise tolerance, and respiratory failure. This review provides a detailed overview of the ENT and respiratory manifestations that can occur in patients with MPS and discusses the issues related to their evaluation and management. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10545-012-9555-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users