Examination of the immunoglobulin repertoire before and after Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed immunization

Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA) immunization protects against anthrax disease by eliciting a neutralizing antibody response. However, antigen-specific antibody concentrations are not observed in high quantities until three immunizations have been administered over six months. Even then, humoral responses to AVA do not provide long-term immunity without an annual booster. We followed six healthy volunteers over the five-dose, 18-month AVA schedule to characterize the genetics of the immunoglobulin repertoire during the vaccination series. Two tiers of data were collected: 1) Immunoglobulin variable region genes (IgVRG) from bulk sorted naïve, memory and plasmablast (PB) B cells and 2) single cell sorted and sequenced IgVRG from plasmablasts. Samples were collected prior to and one and two weeks following each immunization. Our initial analyses indicated that technical error, the variation introduced by biological sampling and standard sample preparation, resulted in skewed output, and we developed a model to better estimate quantitative values from Ig-seq. We also utilized unique molecular identifiers to correct for nucleotide errors and PCR over-amplification. Our analysis of IgVRG following AVA administration reveals that the population of peripheral PBs following primary immunization is not distinguishable from the pre-immune peripheral PB repertoire. These PBs have more somatic mutations than expected for newly activated and differentiated naïve B cells, and are unlikely to be vaccine-elicited. In contrast, PBs observed following the 2nd dose have low mutation frequencies that increase upon subsequent vaccination. These clones are more persistent than clones first observed following any other immunization, but still make up a very small proportion of the overall repertoire. At no time is the clonal repertoire consistently dominated by a few clones, and the total and plasmablast repertoires are highly transient, even after the elicitation of vaccine-specific antibodies. AVA immunization thus results in a polyclonal B cell response which is not dominated by one or a few highly specific, strongly-elicited clones. We conclude that primary immunization by AVA is not sufficiently immunogenic to elicit vaccine-responsive, class-switched PBs to the periphery, nor is complete AVA immunization able to sustain proliferation of individual clones, providing insight into why AVA may require regular boosts

Teachers’ Perceptions of Financial Literacy and the Implications for Professional Learning

Consumer, economic and financial literacy education at school is central to active and informed citizenship. Over the past decade, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has led various policy initiatives and influenced curriculum and resource development in this area. However, there remains a paucity of research exploring how Australian teachers make sense of and approach their work as financial literacy educators or their professional learning needs and interests in this interdisciplinary field. This article reports research exploring practising teachers’ perceptions of the opportunities for financial literacy teaching and learning. Data were collected from 35 teachers in 16 Victorian primary schools. The findings suggest a need to educate teachers to: reflect upon the knowledge, skills and capabilities required to make informed financial decisions; identify and interpret the possibilities for financial literacy teaching and learning in the Australian Curriculum; and enact sophisticated pedagogical practice

The Visual Self

Der Artikel analysiert die Selbstdarstellung Heranwachsender auf Instagram, die Rolle, die Influencer bei der Selbstdarstellung Heranwachsender spielen, und ihre Werbekompetenz, definiert als die Fähigkeit, die von Influencern präsentierte Werbung zu erkennen und zu bewerten. Auf der Grundlage von 32 Leitfadeninterviews und Think-Aloud-Protokollen identifiziert die Studie fünf Arten der Selbstdarstellung (inszenierte, natürliche, verdeckte, veränderte und zweiseitige Selbstdarstellung). Für fast alle befragten Heranwachsenden waren Influencer ein wichtiger Massstab und Orientierung: Sie folgten einem oder sogar mehreren Influencern auf Instagram und liessen sich von den beworbenen Produkten inspirieren. Darüber hinaus erkannten die Heranwachsenden das kommerzielle Interesse und die Präsentationsstrategien von Influencern. Die positive oder negative Bewertung dieser Strategien war mit ihrer Selbstdarstellung verbunden und reichte von Ablehnung bis Zustimmung, wobei eine negative Bewertung der Werbung nicht automatisch zu einer Ablehnung der implizierten Werbebotschaft führte. Eine Diskrepanz zwischen dem Wissen der Heranwachsenden und ihrem Handeln wird deutlich, denn selbst wenn sie der Werbung kritisch gegenüberstanden oder wussten, welche Werbemechanismen verfolgt wurden, gaben sie zu, die von Influencern beworbene Produkte zu kaufen.This article analyzes adolescents’ self-presentation on Instagram, the role influencers might play in such content, and adolescents’ advertising literacy, defined as recognizing and evaluating advertising presented by influencers as well as using advertising knowledge. Based on 32 in-depth interviews and think-aloud protocols, this study identifies five types of self-presentation (staged, natural, covert, changed, and two-sided). Influencers were important benchmarks for almost all the adolescents interviewed; the participants each followed one or more influencers on Instagram and were inspired by the advertised products. Furthermore, they recognized influencers’ commercial interests and presentation strategies. Their positive or negative evaluations of these strategies were linked to their self-presentation and ranged from approval to rejection. A negative evaluation of advertising did not automatically lead to a rejection of the implied advertising message. A discrepancy between the adolescents’ knowledge and actions became clear when they admitted buying advertised products despite being critical of advertising or knowing which advertising mechanisms were being applie

Status febrilis mit Bewusstlosigkeit

Zusammenfassung: Eine zerebrale Beteiligung bei Malaria mit Plasmodium vivax ist ungewöhnlich. Diese schwere Form der Malaria ist üblicherweise durch Plasmodium falciparum bedingt. Wir berichten über eine 18-jährige Patientin aus Pakistan mit langjähriger intermittierender Fieberanamnese, welche 4Monate nach Einreise in die Schweiz erstmals an einer zerebralen Vivax-Malaria erkrankt. Die eindrückliche neurologische Symptomatik mit Amaurosis und Bewusstseinsstörung bildete sich in diesem Fall unter Therapie in wenigen Tagen zurück. Jedoch sind Todesfälle bei zerebraler Malaria durch Plasmodium vivax beschriebe

35-jährige Patientin mit generalisiertem Krampfanfall und nicht-kardiogenem Lungenödem nach Intoxikation

Zusammenfassung: Nach Intoxikation mit Verapamil-Retardpräparaten sind verzögerte und prolongierte kardiovaskuläre Nebenwirkungen bekannt. Wir berichten über 2 seltene Nebenwirkungen in Form eines generalisierten Krampfanfalls und eines nicht-kardiogenen Lungenödems, welche erst 13 bzw. 48h nach der Intoxikation aufgetreten sind. Aufgrund der verzögert auftretenden und prolongierten Arzneimittelwirkungen muss bei Intoxikationen mit retardierten Kalziumantagonisten die gastrointestinale Dekontamination mit antegrader Darmspülung und anschließender Aktivkohletherapie auch bei initial symptomfreien Patienten bis mindestens 24h nach Intoxikation gefordert werde

Emerging genotype-phenotype relationships in patients with large NF1 deletions.

The most frequent recurring mutations in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) are large deletions encompassing the NF1 gene and its flanking regions (NF1 microdeletions). The majority of these deletions encompass 1.4-Mb and are associated with the loss of 14 protein-coding genes and four microRNA genes. Patients with germline type-1 NF1 microdeletions frequently exhibit dysmorphic facial features, overgrowth/tall-for-age stature, significant delay in cognitive development, large hands and feet, hyperflexibility of joints and muscular hypotonia. Such patients also display significantly more cardiovascular anomalies as compared with patients without large deletions and often exhibit increased numbers of subcutaneous, plexiform and spinal neurofibromas as compared with the general NF1 population. Further, an extremely high burden of internal neurofibromas, characterised by >3000 ml tumour volume, is encountered significantly, more frequently, in non-mosaic NF1 microdeletion patients than in NF1 patients lacking such deletions. NF1 microdeletion patients also have an increased risk of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours (MPNSTs); their lifetime MPNST risk is 16–26%, rather higher than that of NF1 patients with intragenic NF1 mutations (8–13%). NF1 microdeletion patients, therefore, represent a high-risk group for the development of MPNSTs, tumours which are very aggressive and difficult to treat. Co-deletion of the SUZ12 gene in addition to NF1 further increases the MPNST risk in NF1 microdeletion patients. Here, we summarise current knowledge about genotype–phenotype relationships in NF1 microdeletion patients and discuss the potential role of the genes located within the NF1 microdeletion interval whose haploinsufficiency may contribute to the more severe clinical phenotyp

Modelling concentration gradients in fed‐batch cultivations of E. coli – towards the flexible design of scale‐down experiments

BACKGROUND: The impact of concentration gradients in large industrial-scale bioreactors on microbial physiology can be studied in scale-down bioreactors. However, scale-down systems pose several challenges in construction, operation and footprint. Therefore, it is challenging to implement them in emerging technologies for bioprocess development, such as in high throughput cultivation platforms. In this study, a mechanistic model of a two-compartment scale-down bioreactor is developed. Simulations from this model are then used as bases for a pulse-based scale-down bioreactor suitable for application in parallel cultivation systems. RESULTS: As an application, the pulse-based system model was used to study the misincorporation of non-canonical branched-chain amino acids into recombinant pre-proinsulin expressed in Escherichia coli, as a response to oscillations in glucose and dissolved oxygen concentrations. The results show significant accumulation of overflow metabolites, up to 18.3 % loss in product yield and up to 10 fold accumulation of the non-canonical amino acids norvaline and norleucine in the product in the pulse-based cultivation, compared to a reference cultivation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the combination of a pulse-based scale-down approach with mechanistic models is a very suitable method to test strain robustness and physiological constraints at the early stages of bioprocess development.EC/H2020/643056/EU/Rapid Bioprocess Development/Biorapi

Changes in employment and relationship satisfaction in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from the German Family Panel

Families have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdown, but barely any research has been conducted yet, investigating how COVID-19-related stressors - and, specifically, disruptions in established employment arrangements - affected couples' relationship quality. To account more comprehensively for such non-monetary costs of the COVID-19 pandemic, the present study investigates whether changes in partners' employment situation during the COVID-19 crisis - particularly home-office and short-time work - had an immediate impact on the relationship satisfaction of cohabiting married and unmarried couples. To do so, we estimated fixed-effects regression models, exploiting unique data from the German Family Panel (pairfam; wave 11) and its supplementary COVID-19 web-survey. We observed a substantial proportion of respondents experiencing positive (20%) or negative (40%) changes in relationship satisfaction during the crisis. Relationship satisfaction has decreased, on average, for men and women alike, almost irrespective of whether they experienced COVID-19-related changes in their employment situation. While partners' employment situation hardly moderated the negative association between respondents' employment and relationship satisfaction, the presence of children seemed to buffer partly against a COVID-19-related decrease. Our results thus confirm previous findings suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a threat to couples' relationship quality and healthy family functioning more generally