Functional expression of P2Y 2 receptor and trafficking of the receptor

P2Y, Endocytosis, UTP, Purinergic receptors

Modeling the AppA/PpsR signal transduction system of rhodobacter sphaeroides

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Naturwiss., Diss., 2012

Numerical simulation of combined heat transfer phenomena (conduction, convection, and radiation). Application to he optimisation of thermal systems

Thermal systems interchanging heat and mass by conduction, convection, radiation (solar and thermal ) occur in many engineering applications like energy storage by solar collectors, window glazing in buildings, refrigeration of plastic moulds, air handling units etc. Often these thermal systems are composed of various elements for example a building with wall, windows, rooms, etc. It would be of particular interest to have a modular thermal system which is formed by connecting different modules for the elements, flexibility to use and change models for individual elements, add or remove elements without changing the entire code. A numerical approach to handle the heat transfer and fluid flow in such systems helps in saving the full scale experiment time, cost and also aids optimisation of parameters of the system. In subsequent sections are presented a short summary of the work done until now on the orientation of the thesis in the field of numerical methods for heat transfer and fluid flow applications, the work in process and the future work.

The relationship between public education expenditure and economic growth: The case of India

The paper reviews the theoretical and the empirical case for public investment in education in India. Though the theoretical literature provides a backing for such a policy, the empirical literature fails to find a robust relation between education expenditure and growth. Expenditure on education is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for growth. It seems that the effectiveness of education expenditure depends on the institutional and labour market characteristics of the economy. The effectiveness of education investments also depends on other factors such as trade openness. Due to these aforesaid factors, we argue that the empirical relation between education expenditure and growth for India has been inconsistent.

Relationship between trade openness and economic growth of India: A time series analysis

The paper aims to examine the empirical relationship between trade openness and economic growth of India for the time period 1970-2010. Trade openness is a multi-dimensional concept and hence measures of both trade barriers and trade volumes have been used as proxies for openness. The estimation results from Vector Autoregressive method suggest that growth in trade volumes accelerate economic growth in case of India. We do not find any evidence from our analysis that trade barriers lower growth.

Determinants of public education expenditure: Evidence from Indian states

Public education expenditure varies significantly across Indian states. Using data on sixteen Indian states from 2001-2010, the paper tries to identify the determinants of per capita education expenditure of state governments in India. The econometric findings indicate that richer states spend more on education compared to the poorer states. A lower share of child population (0-14 years) is found to significantly enhance education expenditure at the state level. We do not find any evidence that political factors such as political ideology of the ruling party and level of corruption affect education expenditure of state governments.

Kallikrein genes are associated with lupus and glomerular basement membrane-specific antibody-induced nephritis in mice and humans.

Immune-mediated nephritis contributes to disease in systemic lupus erythematosus, Goodpasture syndrome (caused by antibodies specific for glomerular basement membrane [anti-GBM antibodies]), and spontaneous lupus nephritis. Inbred mouse strains differ in susceptibility to anti-GBM antibody-induced and spontaneous lupus nephritis. This study sought to clarify the genetic and molecular factors that maybe responsible for enhanced immune-mediated renal disease in these models. When the kidneys of 3 mouse strains sensitive to anti-GBM antibody-induced nephritis were compared with those of 2 control strains using microarray analysis, one-fifth of the underexpressed genes belonged to the kallikrein gene family,which encodes serine esterases. Mouse strains that upregulated renal and urinary kallikreins exhibited less evidence of disease. Antagonizing the kallikrein pathway augmented disease, while agonists dampened the severity of anti-GBM antibody-induced nephritis. In addition, nephritis-sensitive mouse strains had kallikrein haplotypes that were distinct from those of control strains, including several regulatory polymorphisms,some of which were associated with functional consequences. Indeed, increased susceptibility to anti-GBM antibody-induced nephritis and spontaneous lupus nephritis was achieved by breeding mice with a genetic interval harboring the kallikrein genes onto a disease-resistant background. Finally, both human SLE and spontaneous lupus nephritis were found to be associated with kallikrein genes, particularly KLK1 and the KLK3 promoter, when DNA SNPs from independent cohorts of SLE patients and controls were compared. Collectively, these studies suggest that kallikreins are protective disease-associated genes in anti-GBM antibody-induced nephritis and lupus.

Delimitation of kala-azar risk areas in the district of Vaishali in Bihar (India) using a geo-environmental approach

Remote sensing and geographical information technologies were used to discriminate areas of high and low risk for contracting kala-azar or visceral leishmaniasis. Satellite data were digitally processed to generate maps of land cover and spectral indices, such as the normalised difference vegetation index and wetness index. To map estimated vector abundance and indoor climate data, local polynomial interpolations were used based on the weightage values. Attribute layers were prepared based on illiteracy and the unemployed proportion of the population and associated with village boundaries. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to estimate the relationship between environmental variables and disease incidence across the study area. The cell values for each input raster in the analysis were assigned values from the evaluation scale. Simple weighting/ratings based on the degree of favourable conditions for kala-azar transmission were used for all the variables, leading to geo-environmental risk model. Variables such as, land use/land cover, vegetation conditions, surface dampness, the indoor climate, illiteracy rates and the size of the unemployed population were considered for inclusion in the geo-environmental kala-azar risk model. The risk model was stratified into areas of "risk"and "non-risk"for the disease, based on calculation of risk indices. The described approach constitutes a promising tool for microlevel kala-azar surveillance and aids in directing control efforts.

Appraisal of Phlebotomus argentipes habitat suitability using a remotely sensed index in the kala-azar endemic focus of Bihar, India

Visceral leishmaniasis, or kala-azar, is recognised as a serious emerging public health problem in India. In this study, environmental parameters, such as land surface temperature (LST) and renormalised difference vegetation indices (RDVI), were used to delineate the association between environmental variables and Phlebotomus argentipes abundance in a representative endemic region of Bihar, India. The adult P. argentipes were collected between September 2009-February 2010 using the hand-held aspirator technique. The distribution of P. argentipes was analysed with the LST and RDVI of the peak and lean seasons. The association between environmental covariates and P. argentipes density was analysed a multivariate linear regression model. The sandfly density at its maximum in September, whereas the minimum density was recorded in January. The regression model indicated that the season, minimum LST, mean LST and mean RDVI were the best environmental covariates for the P. argentipes distribution. The final model indicated that nearly 74% of the variance of sandfly density could be explained by these environmental covariates. This approach might be useful for mapping and predicting the distribution of P. argentipes, which may help the health agencies that are involved in the kala-azar control programme focus on high-risk areas.

Evidence of an increased incidence of day 3 parasitaemia in Suriname: an indicator of the emerging resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to artemether

The emerging resistance to artemisinin derivatives that has been reported in South-East Asia led us to assess the efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine as the first line therapy for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum infections in Suriname. This drug assessment was performed according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization in 2011. The decreasing number of malaria cases in Suriname, which are currently limited to migrating populations and gold miners, precludes any conclusions on artemether efficacy because adequate numbers of patients with 28-day follow-up data are difficult to obtain. Therefore, a comparison of day 3 parasitaemia in a 2011 study and in a 2005/2006 study was used to detect the emergence of resistance to artemether. The prevalence of day 3 parasitaemia was assessed in a study in 2011 and was compared to that in a study in 2005/2006. The same protocol was used in both studies and artemether-lumefantrine was the study drug. Of 48 evaluable patients in 2011, 15 (31%) still had parasitaemia on day 3 compared to one (2%) out of 45 evaluable patients in 2005/2006. Overall, 11 evaluable patients in the 2011 study who were followed up until day 28 had negative slides and similar findings were obtained in all 38 evaluable patients in the 2005/2006 study. The significantly increased incidence of parasite persistence on day 3 may be an indication of emerging resistance to artemether.

Sequence determinants of a microtubule tip localization signal (MtLS).

Microtubule plus-end-tracking proteins (+TIPs) specifically localize to the growing plus-ends of microtubules to regulate microtubule dynamics and functions. A large group of +TIPs contain a short linear motif, SXIP, which is essential for them to bind to end-binding proteins (EBs) and target microtubule ends. The SXIP sequence site thus acts as a widespread microtubule tip localization signal (MtLS). Here we have analyzed the sequence-function relationship of a canonical MtLS. Using synthetic peptide arrays on membrane supports, we identified the residue preferences at each amino acid position of the SXIP motif and its surrounding sequence with respect to EB binding. We further developed an assay based on fluorescence polarization to assess the mechanism of the EB-SXIP interaction and to correlate EB binding and microtubule tip tracking of MtLS sequences from different +TIPs. Finally, we investigated the role of phosphorylation in regulating the EB-SXIP interaction. Together, our results define the sequence determinants of a canonical MtLS and provide the experimental data for bioinformatics approaches to carry out genome-wide predictions of novel +TIPs in multiple organisms.

The protective effect of the obesity-associated rs9939609 A variant in fat mass- and obesity-associated gene on depression.

Candidate gene and genome-wide association studies have not identified common variants, which are reliably associated with depression. The recent identification of obesity predisposing genes that are highly expressed in the brain raises the possibility of their genetic contribution to depression. As variation in the intron 1 of the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene contributes to polygenic obesity, we assessed the possibility that FTO gene may contribute to depression in a cross-sectional multi-ethnic sample of 6561 depression cases and 21 932 controls selected from the EpiDREAM, INTERHEART, DeCC (depression case-control study) and Cohorte Lausannoise (CoLaus) studies. Major depression was defined according to DSM IV diagnostic criteria. Association analyses were performed under the additive genetic model. A meta-analysis of the four studies showed a significant inverse association between the obesity risk FTO rs9939609 A variant and depression (odds ratio=0.92 (0.89, 0.97), P=3 × 10(-4)) adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity/population structure and body-mass index (BMI) with no significant between-study heterogeneity (I(2)=0%, P=0.63). The FTO rs9939609 A variant was also associated with increased BMI in the four studies (β 0.30 (0.08, 0.51), P=0.0064) adjusted for age, sex and ethnicity/population structure. In conclusion, we provide the first evidence that the FTO rs9939609 A variant may be associated with a lower risk of depression independently of its effect on BMI. This study highlights the potential importance of obesity predisposing genes on depression.

Une autre vie. Un siècle de nouvelles hindi

Le premier volume de cette nouvelle série a pour ambition de faire découvrir au lecteur la littérature hindi, véritable trésor peu connu du public francophone. Ces dix nouvelles inédites ont pour auteurs des écrivains emblématiques des courants de sensibilité qui ont jalonné l'histoire de l'Inde moderne. Elles donnent un aperçu de l'évolution et de la complexité de la littérature hindi. Une introduction substantielle les situe, et situe leurs auteurs, dans l'histoire politique, sociale et culturelle du siècle écoulé, de l'époque coloniale à l'indépendance et aux défis de la modernité. - Introduction : Nicola Pozza, maître d''enseignement et de recherche en histoire des religions à l'Université de Lausanne - Écrivains hindi: Mumsi Premcand, Jay Shankar Prasâd, Yashpal, Agyeya, Muktibodh, Mohan Râkesh, Manu Bandhari, Usha Priyamvada, Harishankar Parsai, Nirmal Verma.