MxA Gene Expression after Live Virus Vaccination: A Sensitive Marker for Endogenous Type I Interferon

MxA gene expression is known to be regulated tightly and exclusively by type I interferons (IFNs). The kinetics of MxA gene expression was analyzed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 11 healthy volunteers vaccinated with the 17-D strain of yellow fever virus. A reliable induction of MxA RNA and MxA protein was found in the absence of easily detectable serum IFN activity. Thus, steady-state MxA RNA levels were elevated 8- to 30-fold above prevaccination levels on day 5 after vaccination. The average increase of MxA protein was ∼50-fold. In contrast, no induction of MxA RNA or MxA protein was detectable in 3 similarly vaccinated controls who were immune because of previous vaccinations. The IFN marker 2′-5′-oligoadenylate (2-5A) synthetase known to react to both type I and type II IFNs showed a similar response but did not differentiate equally well between nonimmune and immune vaccinees. β2-microglobulin and neopterin reacted poorly, remaining at low levels within the normal range. These results demonstrate that MxA gene expression is a good marker for detecting minute quantities of biologically active type I IFN during viral infection

Multi-Attribute Tradespace Exploration for Survivability

Multi-Attribute Tradespace Exploration for Survivability is a system design and analysis methodology that incorporates survivability considerations into the tradespace exploration process (i.e., a solution-generating and decision-making framework that applies decision theory to model-based design). During the concept generation phase of tradespace exploration, the methodology applies seventeen empirically validated survivability design principles spanning susceptibility reduction, vulnerability reduction, and resilience enhancement. During subsequent concept evaluation, the methodology adds value-based survivability metrics to traditional architectural evaluation criteria of mission utility and lifecycle cost. Applied to a satellite radar mission, the methodology allowed operational survivability to be statistically evaluated across representative distributions of naturally occurring disturbances in the space environment and for survivability to be incorporated as a decision factor earlier in the design process. Constellations in the illustrative example are shown to be the most survivable, mitigating disturbances architecturally, rather than through additive features.Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Systems Engineering Advancement Research Initiative (SEAri))Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program on Emerging Technologie

L’écriture du génocide des arméniens : un texte à plusieurs voix

Nous proposons dans le cadre de cet article, de rendre compte d’une pratique textuelle d’une violence (le génocide des Arméniens), oscillant entre l’objectif d’une interprétation et son impossibilité, et formée d’écrits se distribuant aujourd’hui sur un spectre assez large. L’écriture du génocide, celle d’une violence collective démesurée, est par essence hétérogène. Elle demande à la fois une attention aux thèmes qui la traversent mais aussi une réflexion sur la texture de l’écriture : elle ne se borne pas uniquement à décrire, ni même à transmettre des idées mais rejoint au plus près, sous la grande hétérogénéité des écrits, la forme du désordre engendré. L’écriture du génocide est indissociable des perceptions liées au statut du survivant, témoin direct du désastre mais témoin aussi d’un exil qui a désarticulé tout un univers de représentations. Enfin, cette écriture demeure profondément habitée par la question du déni et de ses conséquences.In the context of this article an account is given of written treatment of an act of violence (the extermination of the Armenian people), which oscillates between the aim of interpreting and the impossibility of being able to interpret, and which is composed of written work distributed today over a fairly wide spectrum. Written work on the genocide, which consists of pieces of writing about an act of disproportionate collective violence, is essentially heterogeneous. This work requires at the same time attention to the themes which run through it and also reflection on the texture of the writing. It is not confined only to describing or even transmitting ideas but, behind the great heterogeneousness of the different pieces of writing, identifies closely with the form of the disorder created. Written documents about the genocide can not be dissociated from the perceptions relating to the status of the survivor who is not only a direct witness of the disaster, but a witness, too, of an exile which has dislocated a whole universe of representations. Finally, this writing remains profoundly haunted by the question of the denial of the genocide and the consequences of this

Regulation of GR-dependent transcription by BTG1

Apoptosis is a form of cellular suicide activated by intracellular death programs, and is important for normal development and homeostasis. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are known inducers of human T-lymphoid cell apoptosis, and serve as therapeutic agents in leukemia. GCs primarily function by activating a nuclear glucocorticoid receptor (GR) within the cell, which in tum regulates the transcription of target genes. (See more in text.)California State University, Northridge. Department of Biology.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-55

Michel Bruneau, De L’Asie Mineure à la Turquie

L’ouvrage s’élabore à la croisée d’un axe diachronique et synchronique et s’appuie principalement sur des sources grecques et arméniennes ainsi que sur les recherches récentes de chercheurs turcs ayant analysé la politique « d’ingénierie démographique » appliquée par l’État ottoman des Jeunes Turcs et puis par la République kémaliste. Ce travail mobilise l’attention de l’anthropologue, car il opère toute une série de coupes dans la longue durée à travers l’espace pluriethnique de l’Asie Mineu..

An assimilative profile of American-Armenians in Los Angeles

The present survey-study aims to measure empirically the assimilation process of ethnic Armenian immigrants in Los Angeles in the host culture. The analyses and the interpretations thereof do not follow a particular theoretical model; however, the hypothesis is based on Milton Gordon's postulate, that in the process of assimilation acculturation takes place faster than any other subprocess. Hence, an ethnic person--though acculturated--may still maintain some ethnic indicators and identify with his/her ethnic origin. The data--based on a judgmental, nonprobability sample-- are the responses of two groups (generations) of Armenians, namely fifty-one 11th and 12th graders of an Armenian high school (the younger generation), and thirty-two men and women of a certain group of Armenians known as Displaced Persons (the older generation). Although the continuous flow of Armenian immigrants into Los Angeles, and the revival of the Armenian organizations (schools, clubs, political groups, cultural associations etc.), may suggest stronger ties with the ethnic culture, the data support Gordon's postulate that while acculturation is taking place, certain ethnic characteristics may be maintained by immigrant groups. The Armenian respondents in this study, who are on the verge of acculturation and structural assimilation, have maintained their ethnic identity--a strong feeling of Armenianness.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-141)California State University, Northridge. Department of Sociology

La notion de diaspora

La notion de diaspora s'inscrit dans une nouvelle dynamique des identités collectives et suscite en France un regain d'intérêt chez les anthropologues, les géographes, les sociologues et les politologues.Plutôt que de dresser des typologies, nous tenterons de démêler les liens entre la réalité sociale et la notion. Cette nouvelle catégorie de l'altérité  nécessite de mettre en évidence les enjeux de l'autodésignation (pourquoi certains groupes revendiquent-ils un statut  diasporique ?) et les critères d'analyse de la recherche en sciences sociales amenée à évoquer, dans certains cas, l'existence de « vraies diasporas » ?Si l'usage croissant de cette notion est lié aux bouleversements de l'ordre international, on peut néanmoins s'interroger sur la pertinence du terme, et mettre en évidence des effets de style. Les discours sur les diasporas privilégient la recomposition de nouveaux modes « d'être ensemble » dans la dispersion, en construisant bien souvent des réponses positives aux situations d'exil, d'immigration, voire d'exclusion. Cette perspective ne favorise-elle pas le gommage du politique et l'occultation des processus de domination à l'oeuvre et des formes supérieures du pouvoir ?The notion of the diaspora has become inscribed in a new dynamic of collective identities and in France, it has seen a renewed surge of interest among anthropologists, geographers, sociologists and political scientists. Rather than draw up typologies, the article attempt to desentangle the links between this notion and social reality. The new category of « otherness » requires clarification of what is at stake in self-designation (why do certain groups claim the status of being part of a diaspora?) and have the criteria of  social science research led to the existence of « real diasporas »?If the growing use of this notion is linked to upheavals in international order, the question still arises of the pertinence of the term. The discussion of diasporas privileges the recomposition of new ways of « being together » in dispersion, often by constructing positive answers to situations of exile, immigration or even exclusion. Does not this perspective favor an erasure of the political, a concealment of dominating processes at work

La diaspora arménienne et l'idée nationale : de l'exil commémoré aux formes actives de l'apprtenance

Réflexion sur la pertinence sociologique de la notion de diaspora à travers quelques thèmes qui couvrent l'ensemble des significations et des interprétations : les logiques d'Etats et l'organisation d'espaces migratoires, le fait minoritaire et ethnique et l'élaboration d'un lien social dans la dispersion. L'auteur privilégie tout autant les principes d'organisation que les motivations symboliques à l'œuvre. Les diasporas en effet élaborent des projets identitaires, inventent de "nouvelles traditions", contribuent à des mobilisations politiques pouvant produire de nouveaux rapports à la citoyenneté. Cette perspective est développée à travers la diaspora arménienne : elle apportera des éclairages importants sur les dépendances de la réalité sociale aux évolutions et aux recompositions de l'imaginaire collectif d'une minorité ethnoculturelle déterritorialisée, sur les incidences de la géopolitique (l'existence d'une question arménienne au début du xxe siècle) dans l'élaboration d'une conscience de minoritaire dans la dispersion. Depuis les débuts de l'exode massif des années 1920 jusqu'à nos jours, on remarque des représentations différentes de cette réalité de la dispersion, dépendante du degré d'aisance acquis dans les sociétés dites "d'adoption" mais aussi d'une mémoire interne. Cette mémoire réactive quelques moments fondateurs d'une histoire de l'exil et engage de nouvelles relations entre un centre et une périphérie. Ces nouvelles relations montrent des modifications dans les processus d'identifications nationales. Ainsi, depuis son indépendance en 1991, l'Arménie anciennement soviétique interpelle la diaspora à participer activement à la construction de l'Etat

Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Therapeutics

Currently there are relatively few antiviral therapeutics, and most which do exist are highly pathogen-specific or have other disadvantages. We have developed a new broad-spectrum antiviral approach, dubbed Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) Activated Caspase Oligomerizer (DRACO) that selectively induces apoptosis in cells containing viral dsRNA, rapidly killing infected cells without harming uninfected cells. We have created DRACOs and shown that they are nontoxic in 11 mammalian cell types and effective against 15 different viruses, including dengue flavivirus, Amapari and Tacaribe arenaviruses, Guama bunyavirus, and H1N1 influenza. We have also demonstrated that DRACOs can rescue mice challenged with H1N1 influenza. DRACOs have the potential to be effective therapeutics or prophylactics for numerous clinical and priority viruses, due to the broad-spectrum sensitivity of the dsRNA detection domain, the potent activity of the apoptosis induction domain, and the novel direct linkage between the two which viruses have never encountered.National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.) (grant AI057159)New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious DiseasesUnited States. Dept. of Defense (Director of Defense Research & Engineering)United States. Defense Threat Reduction AgencyUnited States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agenc