A comparison of spelling scores of Pottawatomie County eighth grade students with national spelling norms

Call number: LD2668 .R4 1963 S58

Combining Event Processing and Support Vector Machines for Automated Flight Diversion Predictions

European Union FP7/2007-2013 / 318275 (GET Service

Small Molecule Inhibitors of Staphylococcus aureus RnpA Alter Cellular mRNA Turnover, Exhibit Antimicrobial Activity, and Attenuate Pathogenesis

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is estimated to cause more U.S. deaths annually than HIV/AIDS. The emergence of hypervirulent and multidrug-resistant strains has further amplified public health concern and accentuated the need for new classes of antibiotics. RNA degradation is a required cellular process that could be exploited for novel antimicrobial drug development. However, such discovery efforts have been hindered because components of the Gram-positive RNA turnover machinery are incompletely defined. In the current study we found that the essential S. aureus protein, RnpA, catalyzes rRNA and mRNA digestion in vitro. Exploiting this activity, high through-put and secondary screening assays identified a small molecule inhibitor of RnpA-mediated in vitro RNA degradation. This agent was shown to limit cellular mRNA degradation and exhibited antimicrobial activity against predominant methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) lineages circulating throughout the U.S., vancomycin intermediate susceptible S. aureus (VISA), vancomycin resistant S. aureus (VRSA) and other Gram-positive bacterial pathogens with high RnpA amino acid conservation. We also found that this RnpA-inhibitor ameliorates disease in a systemic mouse infection model and has antimicrobial activity against biofilm-associated S. aureus. Taken together, these findings indicate that RnpA, either alone, as a component of the RNase P holoenzyme, and/or as a member of a more elaborate complex, may play a role in S. aureus RNA degradation and provide proof of principle for RNA catabolism-based antimicrobial therapy

Expression of endothelia and lymphocyte adhesion molecules in bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT) in adult human lung

BACKGROUND: Bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT) is the secondary lymphoid tissue in bronchial mucosa and is involved in the development of bronchopulmonary immune responses. Although migration of lymphocytes from blood vessels into secondary lymphoid tissues is critical for the development of appropriate adaptive immunity, the endothelia and lymphocyte adhesion molecules that recruit specific subsets of lymphocytes into human BALT are not known. The aim of this study was to determine which adhesion molecules are expressed on lymphocytes and high endothelial venules (HEVs) in human BALT. METHODS: We immunostained frozen sections of BALT from lobectomy specimens from 17 patients with lung carcinoma with a panel of monoclonal antibodies to endothelia and lymphocyte adhesion molecules. RESULTS: Sections of BALT showed B cell follicles surrounded by T cells. Most BALT CD4+ T cells had a CD45RO+ memory phenotype. Almost all BALT B cells expressed alpha4 integrin and L-selectin. In contrast, 43% of BALT T cells expressed alpha4 integrin and 20% of BALT T cells expressed L-selectin. Almost all BALT lymphocytes expressed LFA-1. HEVs, which support the migration of lymphocytes from the bloodstream into secondary lymphoid tissues, were prominent in BALT. All HEVs expressed peripheral node addressin, most HEVs expressed vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and no HEVs expressed mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1. CONCLUSION: Human BALT expresses endothelia and lymphocyte adhesion molecules that may be important in recruiting naive and memory/effector lymphocytes to BALT during protective and pathologic bronchopulmonary immune responses

Intranasal Delivery of Cholera Toxin Induces Th17-Dominated T-Cell Response to Bystander Antigens

Cholera toxin (CT) is a potent vaccine adjuvant, which promotes mucosal immunity to protein antigen given by nasal route. It has been suggested that CT promotes T helper type 2 (Th2) response and suppresses Th1 response. We here report the induction of Th17-dominated responses in mice by intranasal delivery of CT. This dramatic Th17-driving effect of CT, which was dependent on the B subunit, was observed even in Th1 or Th2-favored conditions of respiratory virus infection. These dominating Th17 responses resulted in the significant neutrophil accumulation in the lungs of mice given CT. Both in vitro and in vivo treatment of CT induced strongly augmented IL-6 production, and Th17-driving ability of CT was completely abolished in IL-6 knockout mice, indicating a role of this cytokine in the Th17-dominated T-cell responses by CT. These data demonstrate a novel Th17-driving activity of CT, and help understand the mechanisms of CT adjuvanticity to demarcate T helper responses

Mucosal Targeting of a BoNT/A Subunit Vaccine Adjuvanted with a Mast Cell Activator Enhances Induction of BoNT/A Neutralizing Antibodies in Rabbits

We previously reported that the immunogenicity of Hcβtre, a botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) immunogen, was enhanced by fusion to an epithelial cell binding domain, Ad2F, when nasally delivered to mice with cholera toxin (CT). This study was performed to determine if Ad2F would enhance the nasal immunogenicity of Hcβtre in rabbits, an animal model with a nasal cavity anatomy similar to humans. Since CT is not safe for human use, we also tested the adjuvant activity of compound 48/80 (C48/80), a mast cell activating compound previously determined to safely exhibit nasal adjuvant activity in mice.New Zealand White or Dutch Belted rabbits were nasally immunized with Hcβtre or Hcβtre-Ad2F alone or combined with CT or C48/80, and serum samples were tested for the presence of Hcβtre-specific binding (ELISA) or BoNT/A neutralizing antibodies.Hcβtre-Ad2F nasally administered with CT induced serum anti-Hcβtre IgG ELISA and BoNT/A neutralizing antibody titers greater than those induced by Hcβtre + CT. C48/80 provided significant nasal adjuvant activity and induced BoNT/A-neutralizing antibodies similar to those induced by CT.Ad2F enhanced the nasal immunogenicity of Hcβtre, and the mast cell activator C48/80 was an effective adjuvant for nasal immunization in rabbits, an animal model with a nasal cavity anatomy similar to that in humans

Exporting post-communist experience : intra-regional diffusion and learning in eastern Europe, 2003-2011

The thesis explores the dynamics of intra-regional diffusion and learning in the post-communist world. 1t is often assumed that ideas and lessons extrapolated from successful post-communist transitions are of particular relevance and utility to policymakers and other actors in post-Soviet countries struggling to consolidate democratic institutions and integrate into the Western orbit. Attempts at exporting transition experience have attracted considerable attention in policy circles, but remain underexplored in the academic literature. Drawing on theories of diffusion of innovations, learning, and the role of ideas in politics, the thesis investigates the spread of ideas and practices from countries of Central and Eastern Europe to Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova in 2003-2011. To set the stage, it first inquires into the causal factors that account for the emergence of the phenomenon in the early 2000s. However, the main goal of the thesis is to elucidate conditions under which ideas and practices are most likely to diffuse and gain traction in the post-Soviet context. To do so, it compares the diffusion and learning processes in three different domains of public life: civil society mobilization, decentralization and regional policy, and NATO integration and defence reform. It finds that domestic structures in recipient states - opportunities for civil society mobilization and windows of institutional and policy change - critically impinge on patterns of intra-regional diffusion and learning. 10 particular, structural configurations that approximated the prior circumstances of Central and Eastern European countries - or helped actors subjectively construct such analogies - encouraged robust diffusion of ideas as well as learning. The explication of linkages between domestic structures and the diffusion process, as mediated by actors' perceptions of similarities, is the thesis' main contribution to the general literature. Its findings also suggest that, in certain instances, biased learning from Central and Eastern European transitions may have contributed to suboptimal policy outcomes in the post-Soviet countries.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Panel discussion: Europe confronts its past

This is the archive of a panel discussion held in conjunction with a panel exhibit prepared by the Ministry of Culture and Slovak National Museum, "The Magic Number 8 in the History of Slovakia", given by Igor Lukes, University Professor and Professor of International Relations and History, Boston University; Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic in Boston; Martin Simecka, Editor-in-chief of Respekt, a weekly newsmagazine in the Czech Republic, reporting on domestic and foreign political and economic issues, as well as on science and culture. This discussion originally aired on WBUR's World of Ideas