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First Component (first + component)
Selected AbstractsReceptor for the globular heads of C1q (gC1q-R, p33, hyaluronan-binding protein) is preferentially expressed by adenocarcinoma cellsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 5 2004Daniel B. Rubinstein Abstract Combinatorial Ig libraries with phage display allow in vitro generation of human Ig fragments without the need to maintain hybridomas in ongoing cell culture or to select circulating Ig from human serum. Identifying tumor-associated antigens on the surface of intact tumor cells, as opposed to purified proteins, presents a challenge due to the difficulty of preserving complex 3-D epitopic sites on the cell surface, the variable expression of antigens on different malignant cell types and the stereotactic interference of closely associated proteins on the intact membrane surface limiting accessibility to antigenic sites. A combinatorial Ig library of 1010 clones was generated from the cDNA of PBMCs derived from patients with breast adenocarcinoma. Following subtractive panning, the library was enriched for Ig (Fab fragment) binding to intact adenocarcinoma cells and the resultant Fabs were screened against a cDNA expression library, itself generated from breast cancer cells. Using this approach, we isolated clones from the cDNA library expressing gC1q-R, a glycoprotein comprising the major structure of C1, the first component of the complement system. gC1q-R is a 33 kDa glycoprotein expressed not only on the cell surface but also intracellularly, with motifs that target it to mitochondria and complete homology with HABP and human HeLa cell protein p32, which is copurified with pre-mRNA SF2. Sequencing of the gene encoding tumor-associated gC1q-R did not reveal any consistent tumor-specific mutations. However, histochemical staining with anti-gC1q-R MAb demonstrated marked differential expression of gC1q-R in thyroid, colon, pancreatic, gastric, esophageal and lung adenocarcinomas compared to their nonmalignant histologic counterparts. In contrast, differential expression was not seen in endometrial, renal and prostate carcinomas. Despite high expression in breast carcinoma, gC1q-R was also expressed in nonmalignant breast tissue. Although the precise relation of gC1q-R to carcinogenesis remains unclear, our finding of tumor overexpression and the known multivalent binding of gC1q-R to not only C1q itself but also a variety of circulating plasma proteins as well as its involvement in cell-to-cell interactions suggest that gC1q-R may have a role in tumor metastases and potentially serve in molecule-specific targeting of malignant cells. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Structure of borderline personality disorder symptoms in a nonclinical sampleJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 9 2007Jeanette Taylor Relations among symptoms of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) borderline personality disorder (BPD) assessed using semistructured clinical interviews were examined using exploratory principal components analysis in a sample of 82 college men and women who were symptomatic for BPD (30.4% of whom met criteria for a BPD diagnosis at threshold or subthreshold certainty level). A three-component solution was found and, as expected, the first component was characterized by interpersonal instability and included unstable relationships, identity disturbance, and chronic emptiness. The second component reflected affective instability and low impulsivity. The third component reflected stress-related paranoia and low anger. Results highlight similarities in the structure of BPD criteria in clinical and nonclinical samples, and could inform future research on dimensional models of BPD. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 63: 805,816, 2007. [source] Prospective comparison of subjective arousal during the pre-sleep period in primary sleep-onset insomnia and normal sleepersJOURNAL OF SLEEP RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007JENNIFER A. ROBERTSON Summary Psychophysiological insomnia (PI) is the most common insomnia subtype, representing 12,15% of all sleep centre referrals. Diagnostic guidelines describe PI as an intrinsic sleep disorder involving both hyperarousal and learned sleep-preventing associations. Whilst evidence for the first component is reasonably compelling, evidence for learned (conditioned) sleep effects is markedly lacking. Indeed, to date no study has attempted to capture directly the conditioned arousal effect assumed to characterize the disorder. Accordingly, the present study explored variations in subjective arousal over time in 15 PI participants (sleep onset type) and 15 normal sleepers (NS). Self-report measures of cognitive arousal, somatic arousal and sleepiness were taken at three time points: 3 h before bedtime (early to mid-evening); 1 h before bedtime (late evening); and in the bedroom at lights out (bedtime) across four, 24-h cycles. Fluctuations in mean arousal and sleepiness values, and in day-to-day variation were examined using analyses of variance. Participants with PI were significantly more cognitive aroused and significantly less sleepy relative to NS, within the bedroom environment. These results support the tenet of conditioned mental arousal to the bedroom, although competing explanations cannot be ruled out. Results are discussed with reference to extant insomnia models. [source] User preferences in the classification of electronic bookmarks: Implications for a shared systemJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 7 2001Lisa Gottlieb Using the financial industry as a context, the following study seeks to address the issue of the classification of electronic bookmarks in a multi-user system by investigating what factors influence how individuals develop categories for bookmarks and how they choose to classify bookmarks within those organizational categories. An experiment was conducted in which a sample of 15 participants was asked to bookmark and to categorize 60 web sites within Internet Browser folders of their own creation. Based on the data collected during this first component of the study, individual, customized questionnaires were composed for each participant. Whereas some of the questions within these surveys focused on particular classificatory decisions regarding specific bookmarks, others looked at how the participant defined, utilized, and structured the category folders that comprised his or her classification system. The results presented in this paper focus on issues investigated in Kwasnik's (Journal of Documentation, 1991, 47, 389,398) study of the factors that inform how individuals organize their personal, paper-based documents in office environments. Whereas classificatory attributes culled from questionnaire responses nominally resembled those identified by Kwasnik, it was found that a number of these factors assumed distinctive definitions in the electronic environment. The present study suggests that the application of individual instances of classificatory attributes and the distinction between Content and Context Attributes emphasized by Kwasnik play a minimal role in the development of a multi-user classification system for bookmarks. [source] Multivariate Composition Distribution in Free-Radical Multicomponent Polymerization, 1MACROMOLECULAR THEORY AND SIMULATIONS, Issue 7 2003Hidetaka Tobita Abstract Statistical multicomponent polymerization is a typical example of a Markovian process for which the generating function approach can be applied. Up to the present, generating functions have been used mainly to obtain analytical solutions. However, recent advances of computer software capable of handling symbolic calculations can throw new light on the old mathematical technique. After formulating the equations representing the instantaneous composition distribution of polymers for a given chain length, r, the illustrative numerical calculations are conducted by using the symbolic calculator. For a multicomponent polymerization consisting of more than two components, the second component distribution is dependent on the composition of the first component (F1), which is represented by the conditional probability given r and F1, . It is found that is well approximated by the Gaussian distribution with the variance following the relationship, , as in the case of the first component distribution , where A and B are the constants. With the knowledge of chain length distribution, it is now possible to conduct the full analysis of multivariate distribution of chain length and compositions for multicomponent free-radical polymerization. Bivariate distribution of composition F1 and F2 for chain length r,=,100 in a three-component system. [source] Populating the Galaxy with pulsars , I. Stellar and binary evolutionMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008Paul D. Kiel ABSTRACT The computation of theoretical pulsar populations has been a major component of pulsar studies since the 1970s. However, the majority of pulsar population synthesis has only regarded isolated pulsar evolution. Those that have examined pulsar evolution within binary systems tend to either treat binary evolution poorly or evolve the pulsar population in an ad hoc manner. Thus, no complete and direct comparison with observations of the pulsar population within the Galactic disc has been possible to date. Described here is the first component of what will be a complete synthetic pulsar population survey code. This component is used to evolve both isolated and binary pulsars. Synthetic observational surveys can then be performed on this population for a variety of radio telescopes. The final tool used for completing this work will be a code comprised of three components: stellar/binary evolution, Galactic kinematics and survey selection effects. Results provided here support the need for further (apparent) pulsar magnetic field decay during accretion, while they conversely suggest the need for a re-evaluation of the assumed typical millisecond pulsar formation process. Results also focus on reproducing the observed diagram for Galactic pulsars and how this precludes short time-scales for standard pulsar exponential magnetic field decay. Finally, comparisons of bulk pulsar population characteristics are made to observations displaying the predictive power of this code, while we also show that under standard binary evolutionary assumption binary pulsars may accrete much mass. [source] Immunoglobulin E-binding and skin test reactivity to hydrophobin HCh-1 from Cladosporium herbarum, the first allergenic cell wall component of fungiCLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGY, Issue 1 2003M. Weichel Summary Background For many years, fungal spores have been recognized as potential causes of respiratory allergies. All fungal allergens cloned so far represent either secreted or cytoplasmatic proteins, but nothing is known about the involvement of fungal surface proteins in allergic diseases. Methods A phage surface displayed cDNA-library from the mould Cladosporium herbarum was constructed and phage displaying IgE-binding proteins were selectively enriched with immobilized serum IgE from C. herbarum -sensitized individuals. Inserts encoding putative allergens were sequenced, subcloned and used to produce recombinant proteins. Allergenicity of the proteins was evaluated by IgE binding in Western blots, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and skin prick test in a total of 84 patients sensitized to either C. herbarum or Aspergillus fumigatus and three healthy controls. Results After four rounds of affinity selection, the cDNA-library was enriched for clones displaying IgE-binding molecules. Sequencing of inserts showed that one clone contained an open reading frame predicting a protein of 105 amino acids and a calculated molecular weight of 10.5 kDa showing the classical signature of members of the hydrophobin family. The recombinant protein, termed HCh-1, was able to bind IgE from six patients sensitized to fungi in vitro. Two of those patients were also included in a skin prick test survey and showed strong type I skin reactions to HCh-1, demonstrating the allergenic nature of C. herbarum hydrophobin and indicating a prevalence of sensitization in the range of 8,9%. In contrast, the hydrophobin HYP1 from Aspergillus fumigatus was not recognized by the sera of the same patients and controls investigated with HCh-1. ConclusionC. herbarum hydrophobin represents the first component of the cell wall of fungi demonstrated to act as a rare but clinically relevant allergen in vitro and in vivo. [source] | ||||||||||