Characterization of language and reading skills in familial polymicrogyria

Polymicrogyria (PMG) is a malformation of cortical development characterized by an excessive number of small gyri and abnormal cortical lamination, giving the cortical surface an irregular and gross appearance. The severity of clinical manifestations correlates with the extent of cortical involvement. The objective of the present study was to describe three families with linguistic features of developmental language disorder and reading impairment, and to establish a neuroanatomic correlation through neuroimaging. Subjects have been submitted to a comprehensive protocol including psychological assessment, language evaluation, neurological examination, and neuroimaging investigation. In our families, children usually had the diagnosis of developmental language disorder while adults had the diagnosis of reading impairment. MRI showed perisylvian polymicrogyria in several subjects of each family. Our data support the idea that there is a co-occurrence of developmental language disorder and reading impairment and both conditions may be associated with polymicrogyria. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Duck hepatitis B virus expresses a regulatory HBx-like protein from a hidden open reading frame

Duck hepatitis B viruses (DHBV), unlike mammalian hepadnaviruses, are thought to lack X genes, which encode transcription-regulatory proteins believed to contribute to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. A lack of association of chronic DHBV infection with hepatocellular carcinoma development supports this belief. Here, we demonstrate that DHBV genomes have a hidden open reading frame from which a transcription-regulatory protein, designated DHBx, is expressed both in vitro and in vivo. We show that DHBx enhances neither viral protein expression, intracellular DNA synthesis, nor virion production when assayed in the full-length genome context in LMH cells. However, similar to mammalian hepadnavirus X proteins, DHBx activates cellular and viral promoters via the Raf-mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway and localizes primarily in the cytoplasm. The functional similarities as,well as the weak sequence homologies of DHBx and the X proteins of mammalian hepadnaviruses strongly suggest a common ancestry of ortho- and avihepadnavirus X genes. In addition, our data disclose similar intracellular localization and transcription regulatory functions of the corresponding proteins, raise new questions as to their presumed role in hepatocarcinogenesis, and imply unique opportunities for deciphering of their still-enigmatic in vivo functions.

Conceptualising the virtual and the posthuman

This article aims to explore the relations between technology and the subject. With new media intensifying the provisionality of discursive structures and in turn embodied experiences, questions pertaining to virtuality have become vital, particularly since Western society's increasing reliance on technologies now permeates our everyday practices. While many theorists often resort to a reification of the subject when conceptualising the posthuman condition, this analysis will recover the notion of embodiment in order to avoid such technological determinism. Tracing this complexity in contemporary texts can be achieved through various means. Here, the focus will remain on how narrative frameworks can create new possibilities for understanding and interpreting shifting subjectivities in the digital age. To explore this, I shall provide an analysis of a contemporary film, Being John Malkovich, which has been chosen due to its unexpected success at the box office, indicating how finely attuned the film is to contemporary concerns.