Oldest Papers
New insights into the pathogenicity of leptospires: evasion of host defences.
Marina Cinco
The new microbiologica·2010
Major progress has been made in the basic research of leptospirosis a global zoonotic disease. Recent knowledge on the genome of L. interrogans and the emergence of new genetic tools for comparative genetic studies have further developed research into the genetic pathogenesis of this illness. Many of these studies have compared the putative pathogenicity factors found in L. interrogans, with representative strains of saprophytic leptospires. Leptospires display a rich repertoire of adhesins endowed with multifunctional biological activities such as adhesion to host tissue components, plasminogen activation, resistance to complement. These adhesins are proteins or liproteins located on the outer membrane. Some of them (LenA) escape innate defence such as complement killing and some escape phagocytosis. Much work has to be done to elucidate many other aspects of Leptospira pathogenic factors such as those switched on in chronic infection.
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View paper →Culture and development in children and youth.
Andres J Pumariega, Shashank V Joshi
Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America·2010
Although culture has long been recognized as having a significant impact on human development and its variations, many child and adolescent psychiatrists and mental health clinicians assume a universal nonvariance to normal development, with the risk of identifying variations as pathologic. This article reviews the conceptual basis for the role of culture in human development, particularly psychosocial and cognitive development, presents evidence and support from field observations of children in diverse cultures, and discusses the emerging evidence from the field of cultural neuroscience. Implications for these different perspectives on future research, childhood education, and even intercultural relations are presented.
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View paper →Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change
Elinor Ostrom
Global Environmental Change·2010·1618 citations
The 20th anniversary issue of Global Environmental Change provides an important opportunity to address the core questions involved in addressing “global environmental” problems—especially those related to climate change. Climate change is a global collective-action problem since all of us face the likelihood of extremely adverse outcomes that could be reduced if many participants take expensive actions. Conventional collective-action theory predicts that these problems will not be solved unless an external authority determines appropriate actions to be taken, monitors behavior, and imposes sanctions. Debating about global efforts to solve climate-change problems, however, has yet not led to an effective global treaty. Fortunately, many activities can be undertaken by multiple units at diverse scales that cumulatively make a difference. I argue that instead of focusing only on global efforts (which are indeed a necessary part of the long-term solution), it is better to encourage polycentric efforts to reduce the risks associated with the emission of greenhouse gases. Polycentric approaches facilitate achieving benefits at multiple scales as well as experimentation and learning from experience with diverse policies.
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View paper →Breast cancer biomarker discovery in the functional genomic age: a systematic review of 42 gene expression signatures.
M C Abba, E Lacunza, M Butti, C M Aldaz
Biomarker insights·2010
In this review we provide a systematic analysis of transcriptomic signatures derived from 42 breast cancer gene expression studies, in an effort to identify the most relevant breast cancer biomarkers using a meta-analysis method. Meta-data revealed a set of 117 genes that were the most commonly affected ranging from 12% to 36% of overlap among breast cancer gene expression studies. Data mining analysis of transcripts and protein-protein interactions of these commonly modulated genes indicate three functional modules significantly affected among signatures, one module related with the response to steroid hormone stimulus, and two modules related to the cell cycle. Analysis of a publicly available gene expression data showed that the obtained meta-signature is capable of predicting overall survival (P < 0.0001) and relapse-free survival (P < 0.0001) in patients with early-stage breast carcinomas. In addition, the identified meta-signature improves breast cancer patient stratification independently of traditional prognostic factors in a multivariate Cox proportional-hazards analysis.
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View paper →Clonal Species <i>Trichoderma parareesei</i> sp. nov. Likely Resembles the Ancestor of the Cellulase Producer <i>Hypocrea jecorina</i> / <i>T. reesei</i>
Lea Atanasova, Walter M. Jaklitsch, Monika Komoń-Zelazowska, Christian P. Kubicek, Irina S. Druzhinina
Applied and Environmental Microbiology·2010·48 citations
<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>
<jats:p>
We have previously reported that the prominent industrial enzyme producer
<jats:italic>Trichoderma reesei</jats:italic>
(teleomorph
<jats:italic>Hypocrea jecorina</jats:italic>
; Hypocreales, Ascomycota, Dikarya) has a genetically isolated, sympatric sister species devoid of sexual reproduction and which is constituted by the majority of anamorphic strains previously attributed to
<jats:italic>H. jecorina</jats:italic>
/
<jats:italic>T. reesei</jats:italic>
. In this paper we present the formal taxonomic description of this new species,
<jats:italic>T. parareesei</jats:italic>
, complemented by multivariate phenotype profiling and molecular evolutionary examination. A phylogenetic analysis of relatively conserved loci, such as coding fragments of the RNA polymerase B subunit II (
<jats:italic>rpb2</jats:italic>
) and GH18 chitinase (
<jats:italic>chi18</jats:italic>
-
<jats:italic>5</jats:italic>
), showed that
<jats:italic>T. parareesei</jats:italic>
is genetically invariable and likely resembles the ancestor which gave raise to
<jats:italic>H. jecorina</jats:italic>
. This and the fact that at least one mating type gene of
<jats:italic>T. parareesei</jats:italic>
has previously been found to be essentially altered compared to the sequence of
<jats:italic>H. jecorina</jats:italic>
/
<jats:italic>T. reesei</jats:italic>
indicate that divergence probably occurred due to the impaired functionality of the mating system in the hypothetical ancestor of both species. In contrast, we show that the sexually reproducing and correspondingly more polymorphic
<jats:italic>H. jecorina</jats:italic>
/
<jats:italic>T. reesei</jats:italic>
is essentially evolutionarily derived. Phenotype microarray analyses performed at seven temperature regimens support our previous speculations that
<jats:italic>T. parareesei</jats:italic>
possesses a relatively high opportunistic potential, which probably ensured the survival of this species in ancient and sustainable environment such as tropical forests.
</jats:p>
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View paper →A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind
Matthew A. Killingsworth, Daniel T. Gilbert
Science·2010·1856 citations
<jats:p>The iPhone Hap App reveals that wandering thoughts lead to unhappiness.</jats:p>
★ 5.0 (1)
View paper →What is Radical Imagination? Indigenous Struggles in Canada
Taiaiake Alfred
Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action·2010
Radical imagination is reenvisioning your existence on this land without the inherited privileges of conquest and empire. It is accepting the fact of a meaningful prior Indigenous presence, and taking action to support struggles not only of social and economic justice, but political justice for Indigenous nations as well.
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View paper →ZEEK: Articles: The End of Civil Discourse
Sasha T. Goldberg
zeek.forward.com·2010
No abstract available
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View paper →Grape Tomato Breeding Lines: NC 1 Grape, NC 2 Grape, and NC 3 Grape
Randy G. Gardner, Dilip R. Panthee
HortScience·2010·8 citations
No abstract available
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View paper →The Editor's BlogPunctuation in Dialogue - The Editor's Blog
Fiction Editor Beth Hill
The Editor's Blog - Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.·2010
The rules for punctuating dialogue
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View paper →Parental investment without kin recognition: Simple conditional rules for parent-offspring behavior.
C Athena Aktipis, Eduardo Fernandez-Duque
Behavioral ecology and sociobiology·2010
Species differ widely with regard to parental investment strategies and mechanisms underlying those strategies. The passing of benefits to likely offspring can be instantiated with a number of different computational and behavioral systems. We report results from an agent-based model in which offspring maintain proximity with parents and parents transmit benefits to offspring without the capacity of either parent or offspring to 'recognize' one another. Instead, parents follow a simple rule to emit benefits after reproducing and offspring follow a simple rule of moving in the direction of positive benefit gradients. This model differs from previous models of spatial kin-based altruism in that individuals are modeled as having different behavioral rules at different life stages and benefits are transmitted unidirectionally from parents to offspring. High rates of correctly directed parental investment occur when mobility and sociality are low and parental investment occurs over a short period of time. We suggest that strategies based on recognition and bonding/attachment might serve to increase rates of correctly directed parental investment under parameters that are shown here to otherwise lead to high rates of misdirected and wasted parental investment.
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View paper →Cellular IMPDH enzyme activity is a potential target for the inhibition of Chikungunya virus replication and virus induced apoptosis in cultured mammalian cells
M. Khan, R. Dhanwani, I.K. Patro, P.V.L. Rao, M.M. Parida
Antiviral Research·2011·88 citations
No abstract available
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