The Psychology of Beethoven and The Eroica Symphony

As a concert pianist and chapel organist, Beethoven rose to a fame in Vienna which allowed him patrons and friends who would support his compositions. One such patron was Count Waldstein, who claimed that Beethoven would inherit the spirit of Mozart in his famous prediction of Beethoven’s success. To study composition Beethoven turned to two prominent Viennese composers: Haydn and Salieri. As his fame grew, his health decreased until he was diagnosed with deafness and moved to Heiligenstadt. Here Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers called the Heiligenstadt Testament, which was never sent but expressed his troubled mental state. Beethoven composed his Eroica Symphony in a time in his life when, accepting the onset of his deafness, he also experienced the onset of depression. The Eroica Symphony has threads of Heroism running throughout it, and tells the story of life over death. But a question remains surrounding the work: Who is the Hero

International multi-centre study of pregnancy outcomes with interleukin-1 inhibitors

Objective. To provide outcome data concerning pregnancies exposed to the Interleukin-1 (IL-1) inhibitors prior to conception in both men and women, during pregnancy and breast feeding

Antagonistic Effects of Cellular Poly(C) Binding Proteins on Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Gene Expression ▿

Immunoprecipitation and subsequent mass spectrometry analysis of the cellular proteins from cells expressing the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) P protein identified the poly(C) binding protein 2 (PCBP2) as one of the P protein-interacting proteins. To investigate the role of PCBP2 in the viral life cycle, we examined the effects of depletion or overexpression of this protein on VSV growth. Small interfering RNA-mediated silencing of PCBP2 promoted VSV replication. Conversely, overexpression of PCBP2 in transfected cells suppressed VSV growth. Further studies revealed that PCBP2 negatively regulates overall viral mRNA accumulation and subsequent genome replication. Coimmunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence microscopic studies showed that PCBP2 interacts and colocalizes with VSV P protein in virus-infected cells. The P-PCBP2 interaction did not result in reduced levels of protein complex formation with the viral N and L proteins, nor did it induce degradation of the P protein. In addition, PCBP1, another member of the poly(C) binding protein family with homology to PCBP2, was also found to interact with the P protein and inhibit the viral mRNA synthesis at the level of primary transcription without affecting secondary transcription or genome replication. The inhibitory effects of PCBP1 on VSV replication were less pronounced than those of PCBP2. Overall, the results presented here suggest that cellular PCBP2 and PCBP1 antagonize VSV growth by affecting viral gene expression and highlight the importance of these two cellular proteins in restricting virus infections