cDNA and Gene Analyses Imply a Novel Structure for a Rat Carcinoembryonic Antigen-related Protein

The gene encoding the human tumor marker carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) belongs to a gene family which can be subdivided into the CEA and the pregnancy-specific glycoprotein subgroups. The corresponding proteins are members of the immunoglobulin superfamily, characterized through the presence of one IgV-like domain and a varying number of IgC-like domains. Since the function of the CEA family is not well understood, we decided to establish an animal model in the rat to study its tissue- specific and developmental stage-dependent expression. To this end, we have screened an 18-day rat placenta cDNA library with a recently isolated fragment of a rat CEA-related gene. Two overlapping clones containing the complete coding region for a putative 709 amino acid protein (rnCGM1; Mr = 78,310) have been characterized. In contrast to all members of the human CEA family, this rat CEA-related protein consists of five IgV-like domains and only one IgC-like domain. This novel structure, which has been confirmed at the genomic level might have important functional implications. Due to the rapid evolutionary divergence of the rat and human CEA gene families it is not possible to assign rnCGM1 to its human counterpart. However, the predominant expression of the rnCGM1 gene in the placenta suggests that it could be analogous to one of the human pregnancy-specific glycoprotein genes

Spatiotemporal Expression of Pregnancy-Specific Glycoprotein Gene rnCGMl in Rat Placenta

As a basis towards a better understanding of the role of the pregnancy-specific glycoprotein (PSG) family in the maintenance of pregnancy, detailed investigations are described on the expression of a recently identified rat PSG gene (rnCGM1) at the mRNA and protein levels. Using specific oligonucleotide primers, rnCGM1 transcripts were identified after reverse transcription, polymerase chain reaction, and hybridization with a radiolabelled, internal oligonucleotide. Transcripts were only found in significant amounts in placenta. In situ hybridization visualized rnCGM1 transcripts at day 14 post coitum (p.c.), in secondary trophoblast giant cells and in the spongiotrophoblast. Only those secondary giant cells lining the maternal decidua were positive. In contrast, primary giant cells did not contain rnCGM1 mRNA. At day 18 p.c., rnCGM1. transcripts were almost exclusively detectable in the spongiotrophoblast. No rnCGM1 transcripts were found in rat embryos of these two developmental stages. Rabbit antisera were generated against the amino-terminal immunoglobulin variable-like domain and against a synthetic peptide containing the last 13 carboxy-terminal amino acids of rnCGM1. Bothe antisera recognized a 124 kDa protein in day 18 rat placental extracts as identified by Western blot analysis. The anti-peptide antiserum recognized a 116 kDa protein in the serum of a 14 day p.c. pregnant rat that is absent from the sera of non-pregnant females. Taken together, these results confirm exclusive expression of rnCGM1 in the rat trophoblast, but unlike human PSG, negligible or no expression is found in other organs, such as fetal liver or salivary glands, indicating a more specialized function of rnCGM1. Its spatiotemporal expression pattern is conducive with a potential role of PSG in protecting the fetus against the maternal immune system and/or in regulating the invasive growth of trophoblast cells

Enterprise Composition Architecture for Micro-Granular Digital Services and Products

The digitization of our society changes the way we live, work, learn, communicate, and collaborate. This defines the strategical context for composing resilient enterprise architectures for micro-granular digital services and products. The change from a closed-world modeling perspective to more flexible open-world composition and evolution of system architectures defines the moving context for adaptable systems, which are essential to enable the digital transformation. Enterprises are presently transforming their strategy and culture together with their processes and information systems to become more digital. The digital transformation deeply disrupts existing enterprises and economies. Since years a lot of new business opportunities appeared using the potential of the Internet and related digital technologies, like Internet of Things, services computing, cloud computing, big data with analytics, mobile systems, collaboration networks, and cyber physical systems. Digitization fosters the development of IT systems with many rather small and distributed structures, like Internet of Things or mobile systems. In this paper, we are focusing on the continuous bottom-up integration of micro-granular architectures for a huge amount of dynamically growing systems and services, like Internet of Things and Microservices, as part of a new digital enterprise architecture. To integrate micro-granular architecture models to living architectural model versions we are extending more traditional enterprise architecture reference models with state of art elements for agile architectural engineering to support the digitalization of services with related products, and their processes

Identification of a Carcinoembryonic Antigen Gene Family in the Rat

The existence of a carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-like gene family in rat has been demonstrated through isolation and sequencing of the N- terminal domain exons of presumably five discrete genes (rnCGM1-5). This finding will allow for the first time the study of functional and clinical aspects of the tumor marker CEA and related antigens in an animal model. Sequence comparison with the corresponding regions of members of the human CEA gene family revealed a relatively low similarity at the amino acid level, which indicates rapid divergence of the CEA gene family during evolution and explains the lack of cross- reactivity of rat CEA-like antigens with antibodies directed against human CEA. The N-terminal domains of the rat CEA-like proteins show structural similarity to immunoglobulin variable domains, including the presence of hypervariable regions, which points to a possible receptor function of the CEA family members. Although so far only one of the five rat CEA-like genes could be shown to be transcriptionally active, multiple mRNA species derived from other members of the rat CEA-like gene family have been found to be differentially expressed in rat placenta and liver

On the Effect of Digitalization of Products and Services on Enterprise Architectures

Digitalization of products and services commonly causes substantial changes in business models, operations, organization structures and IT-infrastructures of enterprises. Motivated by experiences and observations from digitalization projects, the paper investigates the effects of digitalization on enterprise architectures (EA). EA models serve as representation of business, information system and technical aspects of an enterprise to support management and development. By comparing EA models before and after digitalization, the paper analyzes the kinds of changes visible in the EA model. The most important finding is that newly created digitized products and the associated (product)- and enterprise architecture are no longer properly integrated into the overall architecture and even exist in parallel. Thus, the focus of this work is on showing these parallel architectures and proposing derivations for a better integration

Student's vocal participation trajectories in whole-class discussions during teacher professional development

Research studies have long shown that dialogic classroom interactions can have a positive impact on student learning. Despite this, in practice, monologic classroom discussions still predominate. This comparative scarcity of dialogic classroom discussions is linked to the considerable challenges inherent in cultivating them, both for teachers and their students. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the extent to which, during a one-year teacher professional development program, students' vocal participation in whole-class discussions can be successfully fostered. As data material, we used videotaped classroom discussions of six classes (three mathematics and three history classes) from pre-, post-, and delayed post-test intervention lessons, as well as from three practice phases of the training. The discussions were evaluated using quantitative analyses and content analysis. In all six classes, the pre-post-test comparison revealed an increase in students' talk share. In four of the six classes, more students participated after the intervention than before. The type of student contributions changed in all classes: The students more often justified their contributions and referred to other students' contributions. The insights gained regarding the mostly non-linear progression of individual developments, and regarding subject-based differences, yield useful hints for the design of professional development formats

Whole animal copper flux assessed by positron emission tomography in the Long - Evans cinnamon rat - a feasibility study

Copper is an essential trace element. However, excess copper can lead to oxidation of biomolecules and cell damage and copper levels must be carefully controlled. While copper homeostasis has been studied extensively at the cellular level, short-term body copper fluxes are poorly understood. Here, we assessed for the first time the feasibility of measuring whole body copper flux by positron emission tomography, using 64Cu. A comparative approach comparing the Long - Evans cinnamon (LEC) rat to the wild type was chosen. LEC rats are an accepted model for Wilson disease, an inherited disorder of copper excretion in humans. In LEC rats as well as in Wilson patients, the copper transporting ATPase, ATP7B, is defective. This ATPase is primarily expressed in the liver and serves in copper secretion via the bile. Dysfunction of ATP7B leads to accumulation of copper in the liver. A control and an LEC rat were transgastrically injected with 10 μg of 64Cu and the copper flux followed for three hours by whole animal PET and concomitant collection of bile, as well as the analysis of tissue following tomography. As seen by PET, the administered copper was largely trapped in the stomach and the proximal intestine, and without a significant difference between control and LEC rat. Due to an insufficient dynamic range of the PET technology, copper which was systemically absorbed and primarily transported to the liver could only be followed by sampling and by β-counting. Biliary copper excretion ensued after 15 min in the control rat, but was absent in the LEC rat. Biliary excretion reached saturation one hour after copper administration. The trapping of orally administered copper in the gastrointestinal tract may be an important mechanism to prevent copper toxicity under conditions of a sudden, excessive copper load, which cannot be alleviated by increased biliary secretion. This trapping does however limit the utility of PET to measure whole animal copper flu

Alltagsbewältigungsstrategien von Frauen in der Nothilfe im Kanton Bern und Wallis

Seit den 90er Jahren wurde die Schweizer Asylpolitik zunehmend restriktiver. Bis 2004 erhielten Personen mit einem Nichteintretensentscheid Sozialhilfe, fortan hatten sie lediglich Anspruch auf Nothilfe. Dies wurde vom UN-Sonderberichterstatter gegen Rassismus stark kritisiert. Trotzdem wurde dieses Gesetz 2008 auf Personen mit einem negativen Asylentscheid und 2014 auf Personen, die ein Mehrfachgesuch stellen, ausgeweitet. Das Ziel des Bundes ist es, Ausreisepflichtige zur schnelleren freiwilligen Ausreise zu bewegen. Obwohl die Nothilfe nur eine Übergangseinrichtung sein sollte, gibt es Personen, die inzwischen über mehrere Jahre in diesen Strukturen leben. Nothilfe ist kantonal geregelt und dadurch unterschiedlich ausgerichtet. Frauen sind eine Minderheit in der Nothilfe, jedoch steigt die Zahl der Nothilfebezügerinnen stetig. Der Fokus in dieser Arbeit wird auf Frauen, wohnhaft im Kanton Bern und Wallis gesetzt. Das Ziel ist es, die Lebenswelt der Frauen zu entdecken und herauszufinden, welche Bewältigungsstrategien sie im Alltag anwenden. Ausserdem wird der Zusammenhang mit der Sozialen Arbeit hergestellt und mögliche professionelle Interventionen empfohlen. Als Methode werden problemzentrierte Interviews mit Betroffenen geführt. Diese werden anhand der Grounded Theory ausgewertet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass alle Frauen im Alltag mit ständiger Angst, Unsicherheit und Perspektivenlosigkeit konfrontiert sind. Ihre psychische Gesundheit stellt sich als gefährdet heraus. Das Entwickeln und Aufrechterhalten von Bewältigungsstrategien ist sehr schwierig unter diesen Bedingungen. Die Betroffenen sind angewiesen auf Unterstützung der Sozialen Arbeit. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird als Handlungstheorie die Lebensweltorientierung vorgeschlagen, mit Einbezug der Intersektionalität und mit ihr die verschiedenen Benachteiligungskategorien. Abschliessend werden einige Empfehlungen vorgenommen