Improvement of the agricultural sustainability and livelihoods of poor farmers through biotechnology : reality or speculation?

Poverty reduction, food security, and agricultural sustainability require that the livelihoods of poor farmers be improved. The potential of biotechnology to improve the livelihoods and agricultural sustainability of farmers has been hotly debated and primarily focused on “modern” agricultural biotechnology. Biotechnology is much broader than this narrow focus and includes “traditional” biotechnologies, as well as, industrial and medical sectors. Different biotechnology types have different effects and these impacts are molded by the macro-economic policies of the countries where they are implemented. Generally, the problems of poor farmers are not technological and the benefits of biotechnology are unlikely to reach poor farmers unless these ‘non-technical’ problems are addressed first

Significance of Toll-like Receptors Expression in Tumor Growth and Spreading: A Short Review

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are considered now as crucial sensors of innate immunity. Their role in the recognition of pathogens and the initiation of adaptive immune responses against them is well known. However, in last years TLRs have been identified on several tumor cells, including human malignancies. Their expression in cancer was found to be twofold: either promoting or inhibiting tumor progression. It was also demonstrated that several TLRs agonists, either natural or synthetic ones, may have beneficial effect on tumor-mediated disease, leading to potentiation of immune response to tumor-associated antigens. TLR-agonist linked tumor immunotherapy is still in nascent state, but growing rapidly, also in the area of common human malignancies. To date, the most promising and the most frequently studied interaction in tumor immunotherapy trials seems to be TLR9 and its synthetic agonists

Differentiation of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia B Cells into Immunoglobulin Secreting Cells Decreases LEF-1 Expression

Lymphocyte enhancer binding factor 1 (LEF-1) plays a crucial role in B lineage development and is only expressed in B cell precursors as B cell differentiation into mature B and plasma cells silences its expression. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells aberrantly express LEF-1 and its expression is required for cellular survival. We hypothesized that modification of the differentiation status of CLL cells would result in loss of LEF-1 expression and eliminate the survival advantage provided by its aberrant expression. In this study, we first established a methodology that induces CLL cells to differentiate into immunoglobulin (Ig) secreting cells (ISC) using the TLR9 agonist, CpG, together with cytokines (CpG/c). CpG/c stimulation resulted in dramatic CLL cell phenotypic and morphologic changes, expression of cytoplasmic Ig, and secretion of light chain restricted Ig. CpG/c stimulation also resulted in decreased CLL cell LEF-1 expression and increased Blimp-1 expression, which is crucial for plasma cell differentiation. Further, Wnt pathway activation and cellular survival were impaired in differentiated CLL cells compared to undifferentiated CLL cells. These data support the notion that CLL can differentiate into ISC and that this triggers decreased leukemic cell survival secondary to the down regulation of LEF-1 and decreased Wnt pathway activation

AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOME RORSCHACH TEST DETERMINANTS AND SUBTEST SCORES ON THE WECHSLER-BELLEVUE ADULT SCALE

Abstract not availabl

Six years of adaptive and on-farm spring cereal research in Newfoundland: Summary

Imported feed is the largest single farm operating expense in Newfoundland, yet the local production of feed grains is negligible. The federally-funded Feed Freight Assistance Program once provided annual subsidies of approximately $2 million for the transport of grain into the province, but this program was terminated in 1995. Self-sufficiency in grain production is thus a desirable long-term objective for Newfoundland livestock farmers