L'usage du narratif dans le Testament de Joseph

(Résumé de l'ouvrage) Seventeen innovative studies are collected in this volume which has been produced under the aegis of the Centre for Biblical Studies, University of Manchester, and L'Institut des sciences bibliques, Université de Lausanne. The majority of the studies engage with narrative through providing insightful working examples. Building on the many contributions of recent narratological research, for the most part the studies in this collection avoid the technical language of narratology as they present fresh insights at many levels. Some essays focus more on the implied author, some on the implied reader or hearer, and some on the way particular messages are constructed; some of the studies consider how author, message and reader are all interconnected. There are several creative proposals for refining genre definition, from law and wisdom to gospel and apocryphal writings. Some studies highlight the way in which narratives can contain ethical, religious, and cultural messages. Sensitivity to narrative is also shown by some contributors to expose in intruing ways the redactional processes behind the final form of texts. Students of narrative in the ancient world will find much to consider in this book, and others engaged with literary studies more generally will discover that scholars of the worlds of the Bible and Late Antiquity have much to offer them.

Mono-allelic Ly49 NK cell receptor expression.

Each cell is equipped with two copies (alleles) of each autosomal gene. While the vast majority use both alleles, occasional genes are expressed from a single allele. The reason for mono-allelic expression is not always evident and can serve distinct purposes. First, it may facilitate the tight control over the dosage of certain gene products such as some growth factors and their receptors or X-linked genes. Second, the differential usage of the two parental alleles may reflect the mechanisms that ensure mono-specificity, e.g. olfactory receptors, T and B cell receptors. The context of allele-specific expression of the murine Ly49 natural killer (NK) cell receptor genes suggests that their allele-specific expression reflects a process that generates clonal variability.

Biased V beta usage in immature thymocytes is independent of DJ beta proximity and pT alpha pairing.

During thymus development, the TCR beta locus rearranges before the TCR alpha locus. Pairing of productively rearranged TCR beta-chains with an invariant pT alpha chain leads to the formation of a pre-TCR and subsequent expansion of immature pre-T cells. Essentially nothing is known about the TCR V beta repertoire in pre-T cells before or after the expression of a pre-TCR. Using intracellular staining, we show here that the TCR V beta repertoire is significantly biased at the earliest developmental stage in which VDJ beta rearrangement has occurred. Moreover (and in contrast to the V(H) repertoire in immature B cells), V beta repertoire biases in immature T cells do not reflect proximity of V beta gene segments to the DJ beta cluster, nor do they depend upon preferential V beta pairing with the pT alpha chain. We conclude that V gene repertoires in developing T and B cells are controlled by partially distinct mechanisms.

Reduced ejection fraction after myocardial infarction: is it sufficient to justify implantation of a defibrillator?

BACKGROUND: Improved survival after prophylactic implantation of a defibrillator in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) after myocardial infarction (MI) has been demonstrated in patients who experienced remote MIs in the 1990s. The absolute survival benefit conferred by this recommended strategy must be related to the current risk of arrhythmic death, which is evolving. This study evaluates the mortality rate in survivors of MI with impaired left ventricular function and its relation to pre-hospital discharge baseline characteristics. METHODS: The clinical records of patients who had sustained an acute MI between 1999 and 2000 and had been discharged from the hospital with an EF of < or = 40% were included. Baseline characteristics, drug prescriptions, and invasive procedures were recorded. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed using a primary end point of total mortality. RESULTS: One hundred sixty-five patients were included. During a median follow-up period of 30 months (interquartile range, 22 to 36 months) 18 patients died. The 1-year and 2-year mortality rates were 6.7% and 8.6%, respectively. Variables reflecting coronary artery disease and its management (ie, prior MI, acute reperfusion, and complete revascularization) had a greater impact on mortality than variables reflecting mechanical dysfunction (ie, EF and Killip class). CONCLUSIONS: The mortality rate among survivors of MIs with reduced EF was substantially lower than that reported in the 1990s. The strong decrease in the arrhythmic risk implies a proportional increase in the number of patients needed to treat with a prophylactic defibrillator to prevent one adverse event. The risk of an event may even be sufficiently low to limit the detectable benefit of defibrillators in patients with the prognostic features identified in our study. This argues for additional risk stratification prior to the prophylactic implantation of a defibrillator.

Sex determination: why so many ways of doing it?

Sexual reproduction is an ancient feature of life on earth, and the familiar X and Y chromosomes in humans and other model species have led to the impression that sex determination mechanisms are old and conserved. In fact, males and females are determined by diverse mechanisms that evolve rapidly in many taxa. Yet this diversity in primary sex-determining signals is coupled with conserved molecular pathways that trigger male or female development. Conflicting selection on different parts of the genome and on the two sexes may drive many of these transitions, but few systems with rapid turnover of sex determination mechanisms have been rigorously studied. Here we survey our current understanding of how and why sex determination evolves in animals and plants and identify important gaps in our knowledge that present exciting research opportunities to characterize the evolutionary forces and molecular pathways underlying the evolution of sex determination.