Plant Vaccines: An Immunological Perspective.

The advent of technologies to express heterologous proteins in planta has led to the proposition that plants may be engineered to be safe, inexpensive vehicles for the production of vaccines and possibly even vectors for their delivery. The immunogenicity of a variety of antigens of relevance to vaccination expressed in different plants has been assessed. The purpose of this article is to examine the utility of plant-expression systems in vaccine development from an immunological perspective

Social impacts as a function of place change

This paper argues that both impacts felt by and attitudes to tourism are a function of place change. Destinations are comprised of three types of place: tourism, non-tourism and shared. It is believed attitudes are generally positive when stasis exists among the three types, but deteriorate during periods of rapid place change. Likewise, impacts are felt when place changes, especially when non-tourism place is transformed into either shared or tourism place. This proposition is tested through a meta-analysis of more than 90 journal articles examining social impacts of tourism. Nine types of place change were identified as well as a relationship between place change and lifecycle stage

Mammalian Glutaminase Gls2 Gene Encodes Two Functional Alternative Transcripts by a Surrogate Promoter Usage Mechanism

Glutaminase is expressed in most mammalian tissues and cancer cells, but the regulation of its expression is poorly understood. An essential step to accomplish this goal is the characterization of its species- and cell-specific isoenzyme pattern of expression. Our aim was to identify and characterize transcript variants of the mammalian glutaminase Gls2 gene.We demonstrate for the first time simultaneous expression of two transcript variants from the Gls2 gene in human, rat and mouse. A combination of RT-PCR, primer-extension analysis, bioinformatics, real-time PCR, in vitro transcription and translation and immunoblot analysis was applied to investigate GLS2 transcripts in mammalian tissues. Short (LGA) and long (GAB) transcript forms were isolated in brain and liver tissue of human, rat and mouse. The short LGA transcript arises by a combination of two mechanisms of transcriptional modulation: alternative transcription initiation and alternative promoter. The LGA variant contains both the transcription start site (TSS) and the alternative promoter in the first intron of the Gls2 gene. The full human LGA transcript has two in-frame ATGs in the first exon, which are missing in orthologous rat and mouse transcripts. In vitro transcription and translation of human LGA yielded two polypeptides of the predicted size, but only the canonical full-length protein displayed catalytic activity. Relative abundance of GAB and LGA transcripts showed marked variations depending on species and tissues analyzed.This is the first report demonstrating expression of alternative transcripts of the mammalian Gls2 gene. Transcriptional mechanisms giving rise to GLS2 variants and isolation of novel GLS2 transcripts in human, rat and mouse are presented. Results were also confirmed at the protein level, where catalytic activity was demonstrated for the human LGA protein. Relative abundance of GAB and LGA transcripts was species- and tissue-specific providing evidence of a differential regulation of GLS2 transcripts in mammals

Mechanism of KMT5B haploinsufficiency in neurodevelopment in humans and mice.

Pathogenic variants in KMT5B, a lysine methyltransferase, are associated with global developmental delay, macrocephaly, autism, and congenital anomalies (OMIM# 617788). Given the relatively recent discovery of this disorder, it has not been fully characterized. Deep phenotyping of the largest (n = 43) patient cohort to date identified that hypotonia and congenital heart defects are prominent features that were previously not associated with this syndrome. Both missense variants and putative loss-of-function variants resulted in slow growth in patient-derived cell lines. KMT5B homozygous knockout mice were smaller in size than their wild-type littermates but did not have significantly smaller brains, suggesting relative macrocephaly, also noted as a prominent clinical feature. RNA sequencing of patient lymphoblasts and Kmt5b haploinsufficient mouse brains identified differentially expressed pathways associated with nervous system development and function including axon guidance signaling. Overall, we identified additional pathogenic variants and clinical features in KMT5B-related neurodevelopmental disorder and provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of the disorder using multiple model systems

Mechanism of KMT5B haploinsufficiency in neurodevelopment in humans and mice.

Pathogenic variants in KMT5B, a lysine methyltransferase, are associated with global developmental delay, macrocephaly, autism, and congenital anomalies (OMIM# 617788). Given the relatively recent discovery of this disorder, it has not been fully characterized. Deep phenotyping of the largest (n = 43) patient cohort to date identified that hypotonia and congenital heart defects are prominent features that were previously not associated with this syndrome. Both missense variants and putative loss-of-function variants resulted in slow growth in patient-derived cell lines. KMT5B homozygous knockout mice were smaller in size than their wild-type littermates but did not have significantly smaller brains, suggesting relative macrocephaly, also noted as a prominent clinical feature. RNA sequencing of patient lymphoblasts and Kmt5b haploinsufficient mouse brains identified differentially expressed pathways associated with nervous system development and function including axon guidance signaling. Overall, we identified additional pathogenic variants and clinical features in KMT5B-related neurodevelopmental disorder and provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of the disorder using multiple model systems

Cyberbullying in social networking sites: An adolescent victim's perspective

Online social networking sites (SNS) are a ubiquitous platform for communication. However, SNS can provide opportunities for abuse and harassment, typically referred to as cyberbullying. The current study examined adolescent victims’ understanding of cyberbullying, the specific types of cyberbullying events experienced in SNS and the impact of these events. Twenty-five adolescents (15–24 years old) who responded to an invitation for participants with previous negative experiences in SNS took part in individual semi-structured interviews. Results showed that the basic criteria for the definition of cyberbullying published in previous research were either not referenced by participants, or they were more complex than initially anticipated. The most referenced criterion was the extent to which the experience had an impact on the victim, which is not a current definitional criterion. It was also found that 68% of victims reported experiencing a combined emotional, social and behavioural impact for each cyberbullying experience, and 12% reported no impact at all. These findings will contribute to the measurement of cyberbullying from the perspective of victims, and will also aid the development of intervention strategies based on the most common impact areas

Presentation on Facebook and risk of cyberbullying victimisation

Facebook is an environment in which adolescents can experiment with self-presentation. Unfortunately, Facebook can also be an environment in which cyberbullying occurs. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether specific self-presentation behaviours in Facebook were associated with cyberbullying victimisation for adolescents. The contents of 147 adolescent (15–24 years) Facebook profile pages were recorded and used to predict cyberbullying victimisation. Coded contents included the presence or absence of Facebook profile features (e.g., relationship status) and the specific content of certain features (e.g., type and valence of wall posts). Participants completed measures of cyberbullying victimisation and traditional bullying victimisation and perpetration. More than three out of four participants reported experiencing at least one victimisation experience on Facebook in the preceding 6 months. A series of Facebook features and experiences of traditional bullying victimisation/perpetration were found to be associated with an increased risk of cyberbullying victimisation. Number of Facebook friends and traditional bullying victimisation were also significant predictors of cyberbullying victimisation. These results support the hypothesis that self-presentation on Facebook can increase the likelihood of eliciting negative attention from potential perpetrators. This has important implications for the development of cyberbullying prevention and education programs that teach adolescents about measures they may take to decrease their risk for cyberbullying victimisation within social networking sites like Facebook

The development and validation of the social networking experiences questionnaire : A measure of adolescent cyberbullying and its impact

The measurement of cyberbullying has been marked by several inconsistencies that lead to difficulties in cross-study comparisons of the frequency of occurrence and the impact of cyberbullying. Consequently, the first aim of this study was to develop a measure of experience with and impact of cyberbullying victimization in social networking sites in adolescents. The second aim was to investigate the psychometric properties of a purpose-built measure (Social Networking Experiences Questionnaire [SNEQ]). Exploratory factor analysis on 253 adolescent social networking sites users produced a six-factor model of impact. However, one factor was removed because of low internal consistency. Cronbach's alpha was higher than .76 for the victimization and remaining five impact subscales. Furthermore, correlation coefficients for the Victimization scale and related dimensions showed good construct validity. The utility of the SNEQ for victim support personnel, research, and cyberbullying education/prevention programs is discussed