Role of ethylene on various ripening pathways and on the development of sensory quality of Charentais cantaloupe melons

Charentais melons (Cucumis melo L., var cantalupensis Naud.) in which ethylene biosynthesis has been suppressed by an antisense ACC oxidase gene have been used to better understand the role of ethylene in the regulation of the ripening process of climacteric fruit and on the development of sensory qualities. We have shown that a number of biochemical and molecular processes associated with the ripening of climacteric fruit are ethylene-independent. In some cases, such as softening of the flesh, the same pathway comprises both ethylene-dependent and -independent components. The various ethylene-dependent events exhibit differential sensitivity to ethylene. The threshold level for degreening of the rind is 1 ppm, while 2.5 ppm are required to trigger the ethylene-dependent component of the softening process. The saturating level of ethylene for all these events is less than 5 ppm, which is by far lower than the internal ethylene concentrations found in the fruit at the climacteric peak (around 100 ppm). Detachment of the fruit influences the development of respiratory climacteric. Fruit remaining attached to the vine, although producing higher levels of ethylene, exhibit a reduced climacteric rise in respiration as compared to detached fruit. The response of antisense ACO fruit to exogenous ethylene in terms of respiration is higher in detached than in attached fruit. Ethylene-suppressed melons show a severe reduction of aroma volatiles production, particularly in ester production. In the biosynthetic pathway of aliphatic esters, the dehydrogenation of fatty acids and aldehydes appears to be ethylene-dependent. In contrast, alcohol acetylation comprises ethylene-dependent and ethylene-independent components, probably corresponding to differentially regulated alcohol acetyl transferases. In terms of sensory quality, these data show that the extension of shelf-life through the inhibition of ethylene production has some beneficial effects on texture and sugar accumulation but is detrimental for the generation of aroma

HIV therapy by a combination of broadly neutralizing antibodies in humanized mice

Human antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) can neutralize a broad range of viral isolates in vitro and protect non-human primates against infection. Previous work showed that antibodies exert selective pressure on the virus but escape variants emerge within a short period of time. However, these experiments were performed before the recent discovery of more potent anti-HIV-1 antibodies and their improvement by structure-based design. Here we re-examine passive antibody transfer as a therapeutic modality in HIV-1-infected humanized mice. Although HIV-1 can escape from antibody monotherapy, combinations of broadly neutralizing antibodies can effectively control HIV-1 infection and suppress viral load to levels below detection. Moreover, in contrast to antiretroviral therapy the longer half-life of antibodies led to control of viraemia for an average of 60 days after cessation of therapy. Thus, combinations of potent monoclonal antibodies can effectively control HIV-1 replication in humanized mice, and should be re-examined as a therapeutic modality in HIV-1-infected individuals

Expression of CD11c Is Associated with Unconventional Activated T Cell Subsets with High Migratory Potential

Ajudes rebudes: Marie Curie Career Integration Grant; Dexeus Foundation for Women's Health Research; i Contratos Ramón y CajalCD11c is an α integrin classically employed to define myeloid dendritic cells. Although there is little information about CD11c expression on human T cells, mouse models have shown an association of CD11c expression with functionally relevant T cell subsets. In the context of genital tract infection, we have previously observed increased expression of CD11c in circulating T cells from mice and women. Microarray analyses of activated effector T cells expressing CD11c derived from naïve mice demonstrated enrichment for natural killer (NK) associated genes. Here we find that murine CD11c+ T cells analyzed by flow cytometry display markers associated with non-conventional T cell subsets, including γδ T cells and invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells. However, in women, only γδ T cells and CD8+ T cells were enriched within the CD11c fraction of blood and cervical tissue. These CD11c+ cells were highly activated and had greater interferon (IFN)-γ secretory capacity than CD11c- T cells. Furthermore, circulating CD11c+ T cells were associated with the expression of multiple adhesion molecules in women, suggesting that these cells have high tissue homing potential. These data suggest that CD11c expression distinguishes a population of circulating T cells during bacterial infection with innate capacity and mucosal homing potential

Genome Wide Association Identifies PPFIA1 as a Candidate Gene for Acute Lung Injury Risk Following Major Trauma

Acute Lung Injury (ALI) is a syndrome with high associated mortality characterized by severe hypoxemia and pulmonary infiltrates in patients with critical illness. We conducted the first investigation to use the genome wide association (GWA) approach to identify putative risk variants for ALI. Genome wide genotyping was performed using the Illumina Human Quad 610 BeadChip. We performed a two-stage GWA study followed by a third stage of functional characterization. In the discovery phase (Phase 1), we compared 600 European American trauma-associated ALI cases with 2266 European American population-based controls. We carried forward the top 1% of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at p<0.01 to a replication phase (Phase 2) comprised of a nested case-control design sample of 212 trauma-associated ALI cases and 283 at-risk trauma non-ALI controls from ongoing cohort studies. SNPs that replicated at the 0.05 level in Phase 2 were subject to functional validation (Phase 3) using expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analyses in stimulated B-lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCL) in family trios. 159 SNPs from the discovery phase replicated in Phase 2, including loci with prior evidence for a role in ALI pathogenesis. Functional evaluation of these replicated SNPs revealed rs471931 on 11q13.3 to exert a cis-regulatory effect on mRNA expression in the PPFIA1 gene (p = 0.0021). PPFIA1 encodes liprin alpha, a protein involved in cell adhesion, integrin expression, and cell-matrix interactions. This study supports the feasibility of future multi-center GWA investigations of ALI risk, and identifies PPFIA1 as a potential functional candidate ALI risk gene for future research

Exkurse zu einzelnen Stellen des Neuen Testaments : Abhandlungen zur neutestamentlichen Theologie und Archäologie

von Hermann L. Strack u. Paul Billerbec

Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch,

Each volume has also special t.p.1.Bd. Das Evangelium nach Matthäus.--2.Bd. Das Evangelium nach Markus, Lukas und Johannes und die Apostelgeschichte.--3.Bd. Die Briefe des Neuen Testaments und die Offenbarung Johannis.--4.Bd. Exkurse zu einzelnen Stellen des Neuen Testaments. 2 v.--5.Bd. Rabbinischer Index. Hrsg. von J. Jeremias; bearb. von K. Adolph.--6.Bd. Verzeichnis der Schriftgelehrten. Geographisches Register. Hrsg. von J. Jeremias in Verbindung mit K. Adolph.Mode of access: Internet

Probabilistic Models for Personalizing Web Search

We present a new approach for personalizing Web search results to a specific user. Ranking functions for Web search engines are typically trained by machine learning algorithms using either direct human relevance judgments or indirect judgments obtained from click-through data from millions of users. The rankings are thus optimized to this generic population of users, not to any specific user. We propose a generative model of relevance which can be used to infer the relevance of a document to a specific user for a search query. The user-specific parameters of this generative model constitute a compact user profile. We show how to learn these profiles from a user’s long-term search history. Our algorithm for computing the personalized ranking is simple and has little computational overhead. We evaluate our personalization approach using historical search data from thousands of users of a major Web search engine. Our findings demonstrate gains in retrieval performance for queries with high ambiguity, with particularly large improvements for acronym queries