Isolation, cDNA cloning, and overexpression of a 33-kD cell surface glycoprotein that binds to the globular 'heads' of C1q

This work describes the functional characterization, cDNA cloning, and expression of a novel cell surface protein. This protein designated gC1q-R, was first isolated from Raji cells and was found to bind to the globular 'heads' of C1q molecules, at physiological ionic strength, and also to inhibit complement-mediated lysis of sheep erythrocytes by human serum. The NH 2-terminal amino acid sequence of the first 24 residues of the C1q- binding protein was determined and this information allowed the synthesis of two degenerate polymerase chain reaction primers for use in the preparation of a probe in the screening of a B cell cDNA library. The cDNA isolated, using this probe, was found to encode a pre-pro protein of 282 residues. The NH 2 terminus of the protein isolated from Raji cells started at residue 74 of the predicted pre-pro sequence. The cDNA sequence shows that the purified protein has three potential N-glycosylation residues and is a highly charged, acidic molecule. Hence, its binding to C1q may be primarily but not exclusively due to ionic interactions. The 'mature' protein, corresponding to amino acid residues 74-282 of the predicted pre-pro sequence, was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and was purified to homogeneity. This recombinant protein was also able to inhibit the complement-mediated lysis of sheep erythrocytes by human serum and was shown to be a tetramer by gel filtration in nondissociating conditions. Northern blot and RT-PCR studies showed that the C1q-binding protein is expressed at high levels in Raji and Daudi cell lines, at moderate levels in U937, Molt-4, and HepG2 cell lines, and at a very low level in the HL60 cell line. However, it is not expressed in the K562 cell line. Comparison of gC1q-R NH 2-terminal sequence with that of the receptor for the collagen-like domain of C1q (cC1q-R) showed no similarity. Furthermore, antibodies to gC1q-R or an 18-amino acid residue- long NH 2-terminal synthetic gC1q-R peptide did not cross-react with antibodies to cC1q-R. Anti-gC1q-R immunoblotted a 33-kD Raji cell membrane protein, whereas anti cC1q-R recognized a molecule of ~60 kD. The NH 2- terminal sequence of gC1g-R appears to be displayed extracellularly since anti-gC1g-R peptide reacted with surface molecules on lymphocytes, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and platelets, as assessed by flow cytometric and confocal laser scanning microscopic analyses. In addition, all or part of the gC1q binding domain may reside within the 24 amino acid stretch of the NH 2-terminal sequence of gC1q-R since the 18 amino acid residue long- synthetic peptide corresponding to this region inhibited serum C1q hemolytic activity. The data presented in this report suggest that there are at least two types of C1q-R which appear to be expressed on the same type of cells and these receptors individually or in concert may contribute to the diversity of C1q-mediated responses.published_or_final_versio

Motivation and incentives of rural maternal and neonatal health care providers: a comparison of qualitative findings from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania.

In Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania strong efforts are being made to improve the quality of maternal and neonatal health (MNH) care. However, progress is impeded by challenges, especially in the area of human resources. All three countries are striving not only to scale up the number of available health staff, but also to improve performance by raising skill levels and enhancing provider motivation. In-depth interviews were used to explore MNH provider views about motivation and incentives at primary care level in rural Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania. Interviews were held with 25 MNH providers, 8 facility and district managers, and 2 policy-makers in each country. Across the three countries some differences were found in the reasons why people became health workers. Commitment to remaining a health worker was generally high. The readiness to remain at a rural facility was far less, although in all settings there were some providers that were willing to stay. In Burkina Faso it appeared to be particularly difficult to recruit female MNH providers to rural areas. There were indications that MNH providers in all the settings sometimes failed to treat their patients well. This was shown to be interlinked with differences in how the term 'motivation' was understood, and in the views held about remuneration and the status of rural health work. Job satisfaction was shown to be quite high, and was particularly linked to community appreciation. With some important exceptions, there was a strong level of agreement regarding the financial and non-financial incentives that were suggested by these providers, but there were clear country preferences as to whether incentives should be for individuals or teams. Understandings of the terms and concepts pertaining to motivation differed between the three countries. The findings from Burkina Faso underline the importance of gender-sensitive health workforce planning. The training that all levels of MNH providers receive in professional ethics, and the way this is reinforced in practice require closer attention. The differences in the findings across the three settings underscore the importance of in-depth country-level research to tailor the development of incentives schemes

Anthracological evidence suggests naturalness of Pinus pinaster in inland southwestern Iberia

The study of well-preserved archaeological charcoals in the pre-Roman Iron Age settlement of Castillejos II (Badajoz, Spain) is used to reconstruct environmental conditions and land-use practices in vegetation landscapes in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula before the arrival of Roman civilization. The results support that, while evergreen Quercus forests dominated during the Holocene, Pinus pinaster existed as a natural element of southwestern Iberian Peninsula vegetation. Although its presence could be linked to anthropogenic disturbance or fire history, it is suggested that P. pinaster populations survived during the Holocene in the region, mixed with oaks or in monospecific stands in mountain enclaves. This hypothesis contrasts with previous assumptions that P. pinaster was not autochthonous in the area

Attainment rate as a surrogate indicator of the intervertebral neutral zone length in lateral bending: An in vitro proof of concept study

Background Lumbar segmental instability is often considered to be a cause of chronic low back pain. However, defining its measurement has been largely limited to laboratory studies. These have characterised segmental stability as the intrinsic resistance of spine specimens to initial bending moments by quantifying the dynamic neutral zone. However these measurements have been impossible to obtain in vivo without invasive procedures, preventing the assessment of intervertebral stability in patients. Quantitative fluoroscopy (QF), measures the initial velocity of the attainment of intervertebral rotational motion in patients, which may to some extent be representative of the dynamic neutral zone. This study sought to explore the possible relationship between the dynamic neutral zone and intervertebral rotational attainment rate as measured with (QF) in an in vitro preparation. The purpose was to find out if further work into this concept is worth pursuing. Method This study used passive recumbent QF in a multi-segmental porcine model. This assessed the intrinsic intervertebral responses to a minimal coronal plane bending moment as measured with a digital force guage. Bending moments about each intervertebral joint were calculated and correlated with the rate at which global motion was attained at each intervertebral segment in the first 10° of global motion where the intervertebral joint was rotating. Results Unlike previous studies of single segment specimens, a neutral zone was found to exist during lateral bending. The initial attainment rates for left and right lateral flexion were comparable to previously published in vivo values for healthy controls. Substantial and highly significant levels of correlation between initial attainment rate and neutral zone were found for left (Rho = 0.75, P = 0.0002) and combined left-right bending (Rho = 0.72, P = 0.0001) and moderate ones for right alone (Rho = 0.55, P = 0.0012). Conclusions This study found good correlation between the initial intervertebral attainment rate and the dynamic neutral zone, thereby opening the possibility to detect segmental instability from clinical studies. However the results must be treated with caution. Further studies with multiple specimens and adding sagittal plane motion are warranted

How do you say ‘hello’? Personality impressions from brief novel voices

On hearing a novel voice, listeners readily form personality impressions of that speaker. Accurate or not, these impressions are known to affect subsequent interactions; yet the underlying psychological and acoustical bases remain poorly understood. Furthermore, hitherto studies have focussed on extended speech as opposed to analysing the instantaneous impressions we obtain from first experience. In this paper, through a mass online rating experiment, 320 participants rated 64 sub-second vocal utterances of the word ‘hello’ on one of 10 personality traits. We show that: (1) personality judgements of brief utterances from unfamiliar speakers are consistent across listeners; (2) a two-dimensional ‘social voice space’ with axes mapping Valence (Trust, Likeability) and Dominance, each driven by differing combinations of vocal acoustics, adequately summarises ratings in both male and female voices; and (3) a positive combination of Valence and Dominance results in increased perceived male vocal Attractiveness, whereas perceived female vocal Attractiveness is largely controlled by increasing Valence. Results are discussed in relation to the rapid evaluation of personality and, in turn, the intent of others, as being driven by survival mechanisms via approach or avoidance behaviours. These findings provide empirical bases for predicting personality impressions from acoustical analyses of short utterances and for generating desired personality impressions in artificial voices

X-Ray Spectroscopy of Stars

(abridged) Non-degenerate stars of essentially all spectral classes are soft X-ray sources. Low-mass stars on the cooler part of the main sequence and their pre-main sequence predecessors define the dominant stellar population in the galaxy by number. Their X-ray spectra are reminiscent, in the broadest sense, of X-ray spectra from the solar corona. X-ray emission from cool stars is indeed ascribed to magnetically trapped hot gas analogous to the solar coronal plasma. Coronal structure, its thermal stratification and geometric extent can be interpreted based on various spectral diagnostics. New features have been identified in pre-main sequence stars; some of these may be related to accretion shocks on the stellar surface, fluorescence on circumstellar disks due to X-ray irradiation, or shock heating in stellar outflows. Massive, hot stars clearly dominate the interaction with the galactic interstellar medium: they are the main sources of ionizing radiation, mechanical energy and chemical enrichment in galaxies. High-energy emission permits to probe some of the most important processes at work in these stars, and put constraints on their most peculiar feature: the stellar wind. Here, we review recent advances in our understanding of cool and hot stars through the study of X-ray spectra, in particular high-resolution spectra now available from XMM-Newton and Chandra. We address issues related to coronal structure, flares, the composition of coronal plasma, X-ray production in accretion streams and outflows, X-rays from single OB-type stars, massive binaries, magnetic hot objects and evolved WR stars.Comment: accepted for Astron. Astrophys. Rev., 98 journal pages, 30 figures (partly multiple); some corrections made after proof stag

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Search for direct pair production of the top squark in all-hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for direct pair production of the scalar partner to the top quark using an integrated luminosity of 20.1fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported. The top squark is assumed to decay via t˜→tχ˜01 or t˜→ bχ˜±1 →bW(∗)χ˜01 , where χ˜01 (χ˜±1 ) denotes the lightest neutralino (chargino) in supersymmetric models. The search targets a fully-hadronic final state in events with four or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No significant excess over the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and exclusion limits are reported in terms of the top squark and neutralino masses and as a function of the branching fraction of t˜ → tχ˜01 . For a branching fraction of 100%, top squark masses in the range 270–645 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 30 GeV. For a branching fraction of 50% to either t˜ → tχ˜01 or t˜ → bχ˜±1 , and assuming the χ˜±1 mass to be twice the χ˜01 mass, top squark masses in the range 250–550 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 60 GeV

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT