Impact of cryopreservation on tetramer, cytokine flow cytometry, and ELISPOT

BACKGROUND: Cryopreservation of PBMC and/or overnight shipping of samples are required for many clinical trials, despite their potentially adverse effects upon immune monitoring assays such as MHC-peptide tetramer staining, cytokine flow cytometry (CFC), and ELISPOT. In this study, we compared the performance of these assays on leukapheresed PBMC shipped overnight in medium versus cryopreserved PBMC from matched donors. RESULTS: Using CMV pp65 peptide pool stimulation or pp65 HLA-A2 tetramer staining, there was significant correlation between shipped and cryopreserved samples for each assay (p ≤ 0.001). The differences in response magnitude between cryopreserved and shipped PBMC specimens were not significant for most antigens and assays. There was significant correlation between CFC and ELISPOT assay using pp65 peptide pool stimulation, in both shipped and cryopreserved samples (p ≤ 0.001). Strong correlation was observed between CFC (using HLA-A2-restricted pp65 peptide stimulation) and tetramer staining (p < 0.001). Roughly similar sensitivity and specificity were observed between the three assays and between shipped and cryopreserved samples for each assay. CONCLUSION: We conclude that all three assays show concordant results on shipped versus cryopreserved specimens, when using a peptide-based readout. The assays are also concordant with each other in pair wise comparisons using equivalent antigen systems

A human, compact, fully functional anti-ErbB2 antibody as a novel antitumour agent

A new human, compact antibody was engineered by fusion of a human, antitumour ErbB2-directed scFv with a human IgG1 Fc domain. Overexpression of the ErbB2 receptor is related to tumour aggressiveness and poor prognosis. This new immunoagent meets all criteria for a potential anticancer drug: it is human, hence poorly or not immunogenic; it binds selectively and with high affinity to target cells, on which it exerts an effective and selective antiproliferative action, including both antibody-dependent and complement-dependent cytotoxicity; it effectively inhibits tumour growth in vivo. Its compact molecular size should provide for an efficient tissue penetration, yet suitable to a prolonged serum half-life

Not Quite Right: Representations of Eastern Europeans in ECJ Discourse

Although the increasing responsiveness of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the ‘ECJ’) jurisprudence to western Member States’ concerns regarding Central and Eastern European (‘CEE’) nationals’ mobility has garnered academic attention, ECJ discourse has not been scrutinised for how it approaches the CEE region or CEE movers. Applying postcolonial theory, this article seeks to fill this gap and to explore whether there are any indications that ECJ discourse is in line with the historical western-centric inferiorisation of the CEE region. A critical discourse analysis of a set of ECJ judgments and corresponding Advocate General opinions pertaining to CEE nationals illustrates not only how the ECJ adopts numerous discursive strategies to maintain its authority, but also how it tends to prioritise values of the western Member States, while overlooking interests of CEE movers. Its one-sided approach is further reinforced by referring to irrelevant facts and negative assumptions to create an image of CEE nationals as socially and economically inferior to westerners, as not belonging to the proper EU polity and as not quite deserving of EU law’s protections. By silencing CEE nationals’ voices, while disregarding the background of east/west socio-economic and political power differentials and precariousness experienced by many CEE workers in the west, such racialising discourse normalises ethnicity- and class-based stereotypes. These findings also help to contextualise both EU and western policies targeting CEE movers and evidence of their unequal outcomes in the west, and are in line with today’s nuanced expressions of racisms. By illustrating the ECJ’s role in addressing values pertinent to mobile CEE individuals, this study facilitates a fuller appreciation of the ECJ’s power in shaping and reflecting western-centric EU identity and policies. Engaging with such issues will not only allow us to better appreciate—and question—the ECJ’s legitimacy, but might also facilitate a better understanding of power dynamics within the EU. This study also makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions. It expands (and complicates) the application of postcolonial theory to contemporary intra-EU processes, while illustrating the usefulness of applying critical discourse analysis to exploring differentiation, exclusion, subordination and power within legal language

Politicising government engagement with corporate social responsibility: “CSR” as an empty signifier

Governments are widely viewed by academics and practitioners (and society more generally) as the key societal actors who are capable of compelling businesses to practice corporate social responsibility (CSR). Arguably, such government involvement could be seen as a technocratic device for encouraging ethical business behaviour. In this paper, we offer a more politicised interpretation of government engagement with CSR where “CSR” is not a desired form of business conduct but an element of discourse that governments can deploy in structuring their relationships with other social actors. We build our argument through a historical analysis of government CSR discourse in the Russian Federation. Laclau and Mouffe's (Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics,Verso Books, London, 1985) social theory of hegemony underpins our research. We find that “CSR” in the Russian government’s discourse served to legitimise its power over large businesses. Using this case, we contribute to wider academic debates by providing fresh empirical evidence that allows the development of critical evaluation tools in relation to governments’ engagement with “CSR”. We find that governments are capable of hijacking CSR for their own self-interested gain. We close the paper by reflecting on the merit of exploring the case of the Russian Federation. As a “non-core”, non-western exemplar, it provides a useful “mirror” with which to reflect on the more widely used test-bed of Western industrial democracies when scrutinising CSR. Based on our findings, we invite other scholars to adopt a more critical, politicised stance when researching the role of governments in relation to CSR in other parts of the world

Epistemic geographies of climate change: science, space and politics

Anthropogenic climate change has been presented as the archetypal global problem, identified by the slow work of assembling a global knowledge infrastructure, and demanding a concertedly global political response. But this ‘global’ knowledge has distinctive geographies, shaped by histories of exploration and colonialism, by diverse epistemic and material cultures of knowledge-making, and by the often messy processes of linking scientific knowledge to decision-making within different polities. We suggest that understanding of the knowledge politics of climate change may benefit from engagement with literature on the geographies of science. We review work from across the social sciences which resonates with geographers’ interests in the spatialities of scientific knowledge, to build a picture of what we call the epistemic geographies of climate change. Moving from the field site and the computer model to the conference room and international political negotiations, we examine the spatialities of the interactional co-production of knowledge and social order. In so doing, we aim to proffer a new approach to the intersections of space, knowledge and power which can enrich geography’s engagements with the politics of a changing climate

Competition effects on physiological responses to exercise: Performance, cardiorespiratory and hormonal factors

The purpose of this study was to explore the mechanisms for increased exercise performance in conditions of competition. Endurance trained subjects (n=14) performed incremental treadmill running to exhaustion in control laboratory conditions (non-competition) and in conditions of simulated competition to assess performance (running duration). Heart rate and respiration gases were monitored continuously through each exercise condition. Blood lactate, cortisol, growth hormone and testosterone concentrations were also determined at pre- (rest) and postexercise in each condition. Results indicated competition exercise performance was significantly increased 4.2% (+49 sec; p0.05). These findings support that in competitive situations the affective state (motivation) experienced by athletes can enhance performance in exercise events, and lead to an increased peak oxygen uptake. The magnitude of the improvement is of a substantial nature and of a level seen with some training programs. Competitive conditions also augment the cortisol response to exercise, suggesting that enhanced sympatho-adrenal system activation occur in such situations which may be one of the key “driving forces” to performance improvement

New marine evidence for a late Wisconsinan ice stream in Amundsen gulf, arctic Canada

Amundsen Gulf and adjoining Dolphin and Union Strait and Coronation Gulf form the southwestern end of the Northwest Passage adjacent to the Beaufort Sea. Extensive high resolution multibeam sonar imagery and sub-bottom profiles of the seabed have been acquired, primarily in Amundsen Gulf, by ArcticNet and the Ocean Mapping Group at the University of New Brunswick. These data reveal a variety of seabed landforms including mega-scale glacial ridge and groove lineations, drumlins, moraines, iceberg scours, bedrock outcrops, and discontinuous sediment deposits of variable thickness. The lineations are widespread, especially in southeastern Amundsen Gulf. They resemble modern and paleo bedforms reported from Antarctica, Svalbard, Greenland and other Canadian Arctic channels, where they have been ascribed to ice streams. The glacial sole marks on the seabed in Amundsen Gulf and regional data from the adjacent mainland and islands outline the configuration of a glacial ice stream from the Laurentide Ice Sheet that occupied Amundsen Gulf and adjoining waterways during the Late Wisconsinan. Part of the northwestward flowing ice stream was deflected around the Colville Mountains on Victoria Island and rejoined the main ice stream in Amundsen Gulf by way of Prince Albert Sound. The grounded Amundsen Gulf ice stream extended northwestward to the outer slope in the Beaufort Sea where it was buttressed by Arctic Shelf Ice. Maximum ice stream extent is inferred to have been coincident with the Late Glacial Maximum. Multi-sequence ice-contact sediments and stratigraphic relations with glaciomarine sediments indicate that several ice advances and retreats occurred in the northwestern part of the gulf. Final retreat from the maximum position began prior to 13,000 cal yr BP and terrestrial dates indicate that the retreating ice front had reached Dolphin and Union Strait by about 12.5 cal ka BP