Application of a Static Fluorescence-based Cytometer (the CellScan) in Basic Cytometric Studies, Clinical Pharmacology, Oncology and Clinical Immunology

The CellScan apparatus is a laser scanning cytometer enabling repetitive fluorescence intensity (FI) and polarization (FP) measurements in living cells, as a means of monitoring lymphocyte activation. The CellScan may serve as a tool for diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) as well as other autoimmune diseases by monitoring FP changes in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) following exposure to autoantigenic stimuli. Changes in FI and FP in atherosclerotic patients' PBLs following exposure to various stimuli have established the role of the immune system in atherosclerotic disease. The CellScan has been evaluated as a diagnostic tool for drug-allergy, based on FP reduction in PBLs following incubation with allergenic drugs. FI and FP changes in cancer cells have been found to be well correlated with the cytotoxic effect of anti-neoplastic drugs. In conclusion, the CellScan has a variety of applications in cell biology, immunology, cancer research and clinical pharmacology

Avian Influenza Virus Surveillance in Wild Birds in Georgia: 2009-2011

The Caucasus, at the border of Europe and Asia, is important for migration and over-wintering of wild waterbirds. Three flyways, the Central Asian, East Africa-West Asia, and Mediterranean/Black Sea flyways, converge in the Caucasus region. Thus, the Caucasus region might act as a migratory bridge for influenza virus transmission when birds aggregate in high concentrations in the post-breeding, migrating and overwintering periods. Since August 2009, we have established a surveillance network for influenza viruses in wild birds, using five sample areas geographically spread throughout suitable habitats in both eastern and western Georgia. We took paired tracheal and cloacal swabs and fresh feces samples. We collected 8343 swabs from 76 species belonging to 17 families in 11 orders of birds, of which 84 were real-time RT-PCR positive for avian influenza virus (AIV). No highly pathogenic AIV (HPAIV) H5 or H7 viruses were detected. The overall AIV prevalence was 1.6%. We observed peak prevalence in large gulls during the autumn migration (5.3-9.8%), but peak prevalence in Black-headed Gulls in spring (4.2-13%). In ducks, we observed increased AIV prevalence during the autumn post-moult aggregations and migration stop-over period (6.3%) but at lower levels to those observed in other more northerly post-moult areas in Eurasia. We observed another prevalence peak in the overwintering period (0.14-5.9%). Serological and virological monitoring of a breeding colony of Armenian Gulls showed that adult birds were seropositive on arrival at the breeding colony, but juveniles remained serologically and virologically negative for AIV throughout their time on the breeding grounds, in contrast to gull AIV data from other geographic regions. We show that close phylogenetic relatives of viruses isolated in Georgia are sourced from a wide geographic area throughout Western and Central Eurasia, and from areas that are represented by multiple different flyways, likely linking different host sub-populations

Bidirectional Associations Between Sibling Relationships and Parental Support During Adolescence

Sibling relationships and parental support are important for adolescents’ development and well-being, yet both are likely to change during adolescence. Since adolescents participate in both the sibling relationship and the parent–child relationship, we can expect sibling relationships and parental support to be associated with each other. Theoretically, it can be expected that there is either a spillover from one relationship to another (congruence hypothesis) or that one relationship can compensate for the other (compensation hypothesis). However, research examining these associations in adolescence is limited. The present study longitudinally investigated the bidirectional associations between sibling relationships and parental support during adolescence. For five consecutive years, data were collected using self-reports of 428 families, consisting of a father, a mother, and two adolescent siblings. The mean ages of the first-born (52.8% males) and second-born (47.7% males) were 15 and 13 years at T1, respectively. For the second-born siblings, prospective associations were found between sibling relationships and adolescent-reported parental support in early adolescence, with no differences between same-sex and mixed-sex dyads. These associations were not found for first-born siblings or for parents’ reports of support. The findings suggest a spillover from the sibling relationship to adolescent-reported parental support only in early adolescence. Findings and implications are discussed in terms of the congruence/spillover and the compensation hypothesis

The disruption of proteostasis in neurodegenerative diseases

Cells count on surveillance systems to monitor and protect the cellular proteome which, besides being highly heterogeneous, is constantly being challenged by intrinsic and environmental factors. In this context, the proteostasis network (PN) is essential to achieve a stable and functional proteome. Disruption of the PN is associated with aging and can lead to and/or potentiate the occurrence of many neurodegenerative diseases (ND). This not only emphasizes the importance of the PN in health span and aging but also how its modulation can be a potential target for intervention and treatment of human diseases.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measurement of the ratio of the inclusive 3-jet cross section to the inclusive 2-jet cross section in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV and first determination of the strong coupling constant in the TeV range

A measurement is presented of the ratio of the inclusive 3-jet cross section to the inclusive 2-jet cross section as a function of the average transverse momentum, , of the two leading jets in the event. The data sample was collected during 2011 at a proton-proton centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb(-1). The strong coupling constant at the scale of the Z boson mass is determined to be alpha(S)(M-Z) = 0.1148 +/- 0.0014 (exp.) +/- 0.0018 (PDF) +/- 0.0050 (theory), by comparing the ratio in the range 0.42 < 1.39 TeV to the predictions of perturbative QCD at next-to-leading order. This is the first determination of alpha(S)(M-Z) from measurements at momentum scales beyond 0.6 TeV. The predicted ratio depends only indirectly on the evolution of the parton distribution functions of the proton such that this measurement also serves as a test of the evolution of the strong coupling constant. No deviation from the expected behaviour is observed

Evidence for the 125 GeV Higgs boson decaying to a pair of tau leptons

A search for a standard model Higgs boson decaying into a pair of tau leptons is performed using events recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011 and 2012. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb(-1) at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and 19.7 fb(-1) at 8 TeV. Each tau lepton decays hadronically or leptonically to an electron or a muon, leading to six different final states for the tau-lepton pair, all considered in this analysis. An excess of events is observed over the expected background contributions, with a local significance larger than 3 standard deviations for m (H) values between 115 and 130 GeV. The best fit of the observed H -> tau tau signal cross section times branching fraction for m(H) = 125 GeV is 0.78 +/- 0.27 times the standard model expectation. These observations constitute evidence for the 125 GeV Higgs boson decaying to a pair of tau leptons

Alleviating ER stress in chondrocytes: survival strategies with double-edged developmental consequences

Symposium 8: Regulatory genetic network controlling cellular dynamics and organ morphogenesis - S08-0

Genetic and genomic analyses of chondrocyte adaptation to ER stress

Conference Theme: Mouse Genetics – Think Globally, Act Locall