Nurturing The Culture To Ensure Success For All

With the constant pressure of high stakes testing and new achievement standards the culture of a school can be compromised. This session will focus on specific strategies and techniques that can be implemented to keep the child first while at the same time enhancing student academic achievement. Participants will walk away with ideas that they can immediately implement in their classrooms and schools

The relationship between superoxide generation, cytochrome b and oxygen in activated neutrophils

AbstractThe O2 affinity for O.2 — generation (i.e. O2 tension at which 50% of the O2-saturated activity was observed) by rat neutrophils activated by the chemotactic peptide (N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine) plus cytochalasin B was measured as 5.4 μM (± 1.4, n = 5). Similarly, the O2 tension at which cytochrome b was oxidized to 50% of its aerobic steady-state level in activated cells was 4.7 μM (± 1.0, n = 3): in non-activated cells the corresponding value for cytochrome b oxidation was 11.4 μM (± 2.8, n = 3). It is proposed that O2 depletion at inflammatory sites may limit oxidant generation by activated neutrophils and thus reduce oxidant damage to surrounding tissues

Optical/IR from ground

Optical/infrared (O/IR) astronomy in the 1990's is reviewed. The following subject areas are included: research environment; science opportunities; technical development of the 1980's and opportunities for the 1990's; and ground-based O/IR astronomy outside the U.S. Recommendations are presented for: (1) large scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for large O/IR telescopes); (2) medium scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for high angular resolution; Priority 2: a new generation of 4-m class telescopes); (3) small scale programs (Priority 1: near-IR and optical all-sky surveys; Priority 2: a National Astrometric Facility); and (4) infrastructure issues (develop, purchase, and distribute optical CCDs and infrared arrays; a program to support large optics technology; a new generation of large filled aperture telescopes; a program to archive and disseminate astronomical databases; and a program for training new instrumentalists

Human filarial Wolbachia lipopeptide directly activates human neutrophils in vitro.

The host inflammatory response to the Onchocerca volvulus endosymbiont, Wolbachia, is a major contributing factor in the development of chronic pathology in humans (onchocerciasis/river blindness). Recently, the toll-like pattern recognition receptor motif of the major inflammatory ligands of filarial Wolbachia, membrane-associated diacylated lipoproteins, were functionally defined in murine models of pathology, including mediation of neutrophil recruitment to the cornea. However, the extent to which human neutrophils can be activated in response to this Wolbachia pattern recognition motif is not known. Therefore, the responses of purified peripheral blood human neutrophils to a synthetic N-terminal diacylated lipopeptide (WoLP) of filarial Wolbachia peptidoglycan-associated lipoprotein (PAL) were characterised. WoLP exposure led to a dose-dependent activation of healthy, human neutrophils that included gross morphological alterations and modulation of surface expressed integrins involved in tethering, rolling and extravasation. WoLP exposure induced chemotaxis but not chemokinesis of neutrophils, and secretion of the major neutrophil chemokine, interleukin 8. WoLP also induced and primed the respiratory burst, and enhanced neutrophil survival by delay of apoptosis. These results indicate that the major inflammatory motif of filarial Wolbachia lipoproteins directly activates human neutrophils in vitro and promotes a molecular pathway by which human neutrophils are recruited to sites of Onchocerca parasitism

Type I Interferon regulates cytokine-delayed neutrophil apoptosis, reactive oxygen species production and chemokine expression via activation of p38 MAPK

ABSTRACTInterferons (IFNs) are key regulators of a number of inflammatory conditions in which neutrophils play an important role in pathology, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), where Type I IFNs are implicated in disease pathology. However, IFNs are usually generated in vivo together with other cytokines that also have immunoregulatory functions but such interactions are poorly-defined experimentally. We measured the effects of Type-I IFN (IFNα), elevated in both RA and SLE, on the functions of healthy neutrophils incubated in vitro in the absence and presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines typically elevated in inflammatory diseases (TNFα, GM-CSF). IFNα alone had no effect on neutrophil apoptosis, however it did abrogate the anti-apoptotic effect of GM-CSF (18h, p&lt; 0.01). The enhanced stabilty of the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1 and delayed activation of caspase activation normally regulated by GM-CSF were blocked by IFNα: this effect was mediated, in part, by activation of p38 MAPK, increased turnover of the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1 and cleavage of caspases. IFNα alone also primed ROS production alone and maintained the transient priming effect of TNF for up to 4h: it also down-regulated GM-CSF and TNFα-activated expression of CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL3, CXCL8, CCL3 and CCL4, but in contrast increased the expression of CXCL10. These novel data identify complex regulatory signalling networks in which Type I IFNs profoundly alter the response of neutrophils to inflammatory cytokines. This is likely to have important consequences in vivo and may explain the complexity and heterogeneity of inflammatory diseases such as RA, in which multiple cytokine cascades have been activated.</jats:p