bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Developmental profile of GABAA‐mediated synaptic transmission in pyramidal cells of the somatosensory cortex
Authors: Kobayashi Masayuki , Hamada Tomohiro , Kogo Mikihiko , Yanagawa Yuchio , Obata Kunihiko , Kang Youngnam 
Published: August 2008

AbstractInhibitory synaptic transmission mediated by γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)A receptors is involved in regulation of experience‐dependent cortical plasticity. However, little information is available on their presynaptic and postsynaptic developmental profiles. The present study aims to investigate the developmental changes of miniature and unitary inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs and uIPSCs) in mouse barrel cortex. mIPSCs recorded from supragranular pyramidal neurons showed a gradual increase in frequency during postnatal days 6–15 (PD6–15) followed by a marked increase at PD16–20, and mIPSCs frequency reached a plateau at about PD21–30. The amplitude of mIPSCs showed a transient decrease at PD10–12 followed by an increase during PD13–30, and reached a plateau at about PD30. Their decay time constant progressively decreased during the first 30 days postnatally, and reached a steady level at about PD30. Paired recordings from interneurons and synaptically coupled target pyramidal cells revealed that uIPSC amplitude increased with age up to PD30. In contrast, failure rate and coefficient of variation decreased during PD7–15 and showed little change at a later stage. Short‐term depression induced by presynaptic stimulation at 33 Hz progressively decreased during PD6–20, and was stabilized at about PD21–30. Quantal analysis revealed that the number of release sites increased with age up to PD30, while the release probability increased during PD6–12 and then reached a plateau level. These results suggest that the number of release sites and release probability of GABA and GABAA‐mediated IPSC kinetics show distinct developmental profiles, which could play roles in regulating the onset and offset of critical periods for experience‐dependent cortical plasticity.
Axonal GABAA receptors
Authors: Trigo Federico F. , Marty Alain , Stell Brandon M. 
Published: August 2008

AbstractType A GABA receptors (GABAARs) are well established as the main inhibitory receptors in the mature mammalian forebrain. In recent years, evidence has accumulated showing that GABAARs are prevalent not only in the somatodendritic compartment of CNS neurons, but also in their axonal compartment. Evidence for axonal GABAARs includes new immunohistochemical and immunogold data: direct recording from single axonal terminals; and effects of local applications of GABAAR modulators on action potential generation, on axonal calcium signalling, and on neurotransmitter release. Strikingly, whereas presynaptic GABAARs have long been considered inhibitory, the new studies in the mammalian brain mostly indicate an excitatory action. Depending on the neuron that is under study, axonal GABAARs can be activated by ambient GABA, by GABA spillover, or by an autocrine action, to increase either action potential firing and/or transmitter release. In certain neurons, the excitatory effects of axonal GABAARs persist into adulthood. Altogether, axonal GABAARs appear as potent neuronal modulators of the mammalian CNS.
Identification of receptors of main sex‐pheromone components of three Lepidopteran species
Authors: Mitsuno Hidefumi , Sakurai Takeshi , Murai Masatoshi , Yasuda Tetsuya , Kugimiya Soichi , Ozawa Rika , Toyohara Haruhiko , Takabayashi Junji , Miyoshi Hideto , Nishioka Takaaki 
Published: August 2008

AbstractMale moths discriminate conspecific female‐emitted sex pheromones. Although the chemical components of sex pheromones have been identified in more than 500 moth species, only three components inBombyx moriandHeliothis virescenshave had their receptors identified. Here we report the identification of receptors for the main sex‐pheromone components in three moth species,Plutella xylostella,Mythimna separataandDiaphania indica. We cloned putative sex‐pheromone receptor genesPxOR1,MsOR1andDiOR1fromP. xylostella,M. separataandD. indica, respectively. Each of the three genes was exclusively expressed with anOr83borthologous gene in male olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) that are surrounded by supporting cells expressing pheromone‐binding‐protein (PBP) genes. By two‐electrode voltage‐clamp recording, we tested the ligand specificity ofXenopusoocytes co‐expressing PxOR1, MsOR1 or DiOR1 with an OR83b family protein. Among the seven sex‐pheromone components of the three moth species, the oocytes dose‐dependently responded only to the main sex‐pheromone component of the corresponding moth species. In our study, PBPs were not essential for ligand specificity of the receptors. On the phylogenetic tree of insect olfactory receptors, the six sex‐pheromone receptors identified in the present and previous studies are grouped in the same subfamily but have no relation with the taxonomy of moths. It is most likely that sex‐pheromone receptors have randomly evolved from ancestral sex‐pheromone receptors before the speciation of moths and that their ligand specificity was modified by mutations of local amino acid sequences after speciation.
Stifters Abdias: Kindheit in ästhetischer Spiegelung
Authors: Guarda Sylvain 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTDer Aufsatz untersucht Adalbert Stifters jüngst als antisemitisch gebrandmarkte Novelle Abdias unter der Perspektive der Kindheitserlebnisse des jüdischen Hauptprotagonisten. Dabei dient Eric Downings theoretische Studie Double Exposures (2000) als Folie zur Analyse der zugrundeliegenden Kindheitsutopien und des damit verbundenen, bisher von der Forschung kaum beachteten Spiegelmotivs. Das oftmals auftretende Spiegelmotiv trägt nicht nur zur chiastischen Verkehrung von Abdias’ und Dithas Kindheit, sondern auch zur Entstehung einer naiven, von jeglicher gedanklichen Reflexion fernen Welt bei. Indem Stifter der Schöpfung in naiver Weise nacheifert und zugleich deren Vergänglichkeit darlegt, hebt er ironisch den gebrechlichen Charakter des Schaffensprozesses selbst hervor. Dadurch versetzt Stifter dem mythischen Konstrukt vom Ewigen Juden einen Seitenhieb.
‘… Spottlust und viel ehrliches Mitleid’: Bertolt Brechts “Ah … nous pauvres!”
Authors: Hillesheim Jürgen 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTNach der Schülerzeitschrift Die Ernte, die er herausgegeben hatte und deren insgesamt sechs Hefte 1913/1914 erschienen waren, trat Bertolt Brecht nach Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs mit einer Reihe von Beiträgen in Erscheinung, die er für zwei Augsburger Tageszeitungen schrieb. Diese Texte sind hinsichtlich seiner literarischen Anfänge von großer Bedeutung und beschäftigen die Forschung immer wieder aufs Neue. Überraschend wurde jetzt ein an sehr abgelegener Stelle platzierter früher Beitrag Brechts wiedergefunden. Am 27. August 1914 erschienen, ist er überhaupt erst der neunte in einer Zeitung gedruckte Text Brechts. Er erhellt dessen Tätigkeit als ‘freier Mitarbeiter’ und verdeutlicht überdies seine mitfühlende, behutsame Zurückhaltung im Umgang mit französischen Kriegsgefangenen. Diese unterscheidet Brechts Beitrag von vielen anderen propagandistischen Pamphleten dieser Zeit.
‘Aus Blut und Schmerz geboren’: Maternal Grief and the Poetry of Frida Bettingen
Authors: Smale Catherine 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the impact of maternal grief on the literary creativity of the Expressionist poet Frida Bettingen (1865–1924). Examining the depiction of maternal love which emerges in Bettingen's later poems and her ambivalent attitude towards writing as a form of therapy, it argues that her verse offers an alternative to the responses to loss outlined by Freud in his essay on mourning and melancholia. Finally, the article explores the ways in which Bettingen's ambivalence leads her to experiment with the poetic medium. She engages with and adapts contemporary discourses in order to situate her grief within the collective response to the losses of the First World War whilst still retaining a sense of the private significance of her son's death.
Doktor Ascher und Seine Väter: Stefan Pollatschek's last Novel1
Authors: Ritchie J. M. 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTThe Austrian writer Stefan Pollatschek published several novels in the 1930s, his greatest success being John Law. Roman der Banknote, Vienna 1936, based on the life of the Scotsman who became the first millionaire and the richest man in the world. After the ‘Anschluss’ Pollatschek, as a Socialist and Jew, like many of his friends and colleagues was forced to leave Austria for exile in England. Pollatschek had never enjoyed good health but, despite this, in exile he devoted his energies to a vast historical novel about the persecution of the Jews through the ages. After his early death in Epsom in 1942 his last novel remained unpublished for many years, but it has now been edited and made available in printed form as Doktor Ascher und seine Väter. Though the novel shows structural and stylistic weaknesses, the theme of the sustaining faith of the Jews in the coming of the Messiah and his ‘tausendjähriges Reich’, and the travesties of that belief both within Judaism and in its resentful, vengeful Gentile imitators are very powerfully conveyed.
From Luther to Hitler?‘Ordinary Germans’, National Socialism and Germany's Cultural Heritage in F. C. Delius's Bildnis der Mutter als junge Frau
Authors: Taberner Stuart 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTF. C. Delius's Bildnis der Mutter als junge Frau (2006) is one of a number of ‘family narratives’ focused on the Nazi past which have appeared in the course of the last decade responding to, and often tempering via a more empathetic perspective, the typically condemnatory tone of the ‘Väterliteratur’ of the 1970s and 1980s. What makes this short text stand out from other contemporary texts of this kind, however, is the intriguing contrast between its protagonist's evident limitations with regard to her knowledge of the world and experience and the allusive richness of the philosophical, theological and cultural markers which fill the mental universe she inhabits and which she strives to bring to bear on her daily reality in order to make sense of ideology, propaganda and war. This article explores the ways in which Delius offers a subtle exploration, in fiction, of the perspective that one ‘ordinary’ German – the author's mother – derived from the traditions into which she was born and of how she positioned herself in relation to the events of her time. In doing this, it neither relativises her passivity, or indeed her prejudices, nor denies her a degree of empathetic understanding.
Does literacy and numeracy training for adults increase employment and employability? Evidence from the Skills for Life programme in England
Authors: Meadows Pamela , Metcalf Hilary 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTThe employment effects of participation in adult literacy and numeracy courses are assessed, one year after participation, using a matched comparison, longitudinal design, with difference‐in‐differences analysis. Employability improvements, but no employment effects, are found. Effects on employment may result in the longer term from an increased likelihood of subsequent training.
Explaining activity and exploring experience—findings from a survey of union learning representatives
Authors: Hollinrake Alison , Antcliff Valerie , Saundry Richard 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTThis article draws on data from one of the largest surveys to date of union learning representatives (ULRs) in order to build a unique picture of ULR experience and activity. It is found that ULRs made a contribution to increased diversity and represented an injection of ‘new blood’ within workplace union structures. Moreover, ULRs with no previous union involvement were just as likely to be active in promoting learning as their more experienced colleagues. At the same time, we found that a significant minority of trained ULRs were not active in union learning. While ULR activity was not confined within traditionally unionised settings, active and effective ULRs were most likely to be found in workplaces with substantive structures and institutions that underpinned union learning and reflected a clear commitment from the employer. ULR activity was more difficult to start and to sustain in workplaces in which this support was absent. The article concludes that in order for ULR activity to permeate such environments, some degree of additional statutory support may be necessary.
Interfirm cooperation in training: group training in the UK and Australia
Authors: Cooney Richard , Gospel Howard 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTThis article examines employer cooperation in the provision of training in the UK and Australia. These countries both have market‐based training systems where it might be thought there is little cooperative behaviour. Cooperative interfirm arrangements are, however, shown to be important, especially for the supply of intermediate level skills. The article compares the development of one of the most signficant forms of cooperative training, group training. Some striking differences exist between the two countries, in terms of the actual employment and direct training of apprentices. In both countries, the arrangements are heavily dependent upon government funding.
Vocational training and the labour market in liberal and coordinated economies
Authors: Bosch Gerhard , Charest Jean 
Published: August 2008

ABSTRACTIn recent decades, the differences between the education and training systems in the liberal and coordinated market economies have increased. It is not possible to understand such different developments by focusing exclusively on the internal dynamics of vocational and general education systems. Vocational education and training (VET), and particularly apprenticeship systems rather than school‐based VET, are deeply embedded in the different national production, labour market, industrial relations and status systems. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of VET, we examine recent developments in general and vocational training and its links to the labour and product market in five contrasting countries, namely, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Korea and the USA. In particular, differences in industrial relations, welfare states, income distribution and product markets are the main reason for the persistent high level of diversity in vocational training systems. The difference can perhaps be summarized as follows: in the coordinated market economies, the modernisation of vocational training is seen as a contribution to innovation in the economy, while in liberal market economies, it is seen as a siding into which weaker pupils can conveniently be shunted.
Green tea extracts interfere with the stress‐protective activity of PrPC and the formation of PrPSc
Authors: Rambold Angelika S. , Miesbauer Margit , Olschewski Diana , Seidel Ralf , Riemer Constanze , Smale Lindsay , Brumm Lisa , Levy Michal , Gazit Ehud , Oesterhelt Dieter , Baier Michael , Becker Christian F. W. , Engelhard Martin , Winklhofer Konstanze F. , Tatzelt Jörg 
Published: August 2008

AbstractA hallmark in prion diseases is the conformational transition of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a pathogenic conformation, designated scrapie prion protein (PrPSc), which is the essential constituent of infectious prions. Here, we show that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and gallocatechin gallate, the main polyphenols in green tea, induce the transition of mature PrPC into a detergent‐insoluble conformation distinct from PrPSc. The PrP conformer induced by EGCG was rapidly internalized from the plasma membrane and degraded in lysosomal compartments. Isothermal titration calorimetry studies revealed that EGCG directly interacts with PrP leading to the destabilizing of the native conformation and the formation of random coil structures. This activity was dependent on the gallate side chain and the three hydroxyl groups of the trihydroxyphenyl side chain. In scrapie‐infected cells EGCG treatment was beneficial; formation of PrPSc ceased. However, in uninfected cells EGCG interfered with the stress‐protective activity of PrPC. As a consequence, EGCG‐treated cells showed enhanced vulnerability to stress conditions. Our study emphasizes the important role of PrPC to protect cells from stress and indicate efficient intracellular pathways to degrade non‐native conformations of PrPC.
Controlling the mass action of α‐synuclein in Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Kim Changyoun , Lee Seung‐Jae 
Published: August 2008

AbstractParkinson’s disease (PD) is an age‐related neurodegenerative disease with unknown etiology. Growing evidence from genetic, pathologic, animal modeling, and biochemical studies strongly support the theory that abnormal aggregation of α‐synuclein plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of PD. Protein aggregation is an alternative folding process that competes with the native folding pathway. Whether or not a protein is subject to the aggregation process is determined by the concentration of the protein as well as thermodynamic properties inherent to each polypeptide. An increase in cellular concentration of α‐synuclein has been associated with the disease in both familial and sporadic forms of PD. Thus, maintenance of the intraneuronal steady state levels of α‐synuclein below the critical concentration is a key challenge neuronal cells are facing. Expression of the α‐synuclein gene is under the control of environmental factors and aging, the two best‐established risk factors for PD. Studies also suggest that the degradation of this protein is mediated by proteasomal and autophagic pathways, which are two mechanisms that are related to the pathogenesis of PD. Recently, vesicle‐mediated exocytosis has been suggested as a novel mechanism for disposal of neuronal α‐synuclein. Relocalization of the protein to specific compartments may be another method for increasing its local concentration. Regulation of the neuronal steady state levels of α‐synuclein has significant implications in the development of PD, and understanding the mechanism may disclose potential therapeutic targets for PD and other related diseases.
Glucocorticoids trigger Alzheimer disease‐like pathobiochemistry in rat neuronal cells expressing human tau
Authors: Sotiropoulos Ioannis , Catania Caterina , Riedemann Therese , Fry Jonathan P. , Breen Kieran C. , Michaelidis Theologos M. , Almeida Osborne F. X. 
Published: August 2008

AbstractAmyloid precursor protein (APP) mis‐processing and aberrant tau hyperphosphorylation are causally related to the pathogenesis and neurodegenerative processes that characterize Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Abnormal APP metabolism leads to the generation of neurotoxic amyloid beta (Aβ), whereas tau hyperphosphorylation culminates in cytoskeletal disturbances, neuronal dysfunction and death. Many AD patients hypersecrete glucocorticoids (GC) while neuronal structure, function and survival are adversely influenced by elevated GC levels. We report here that a rat neuronal cell line (PC12) engineered to express the human ortholog of the tau protein (PC12‐htau) becomes more vulnerable to the toxic effects of either Aβ or GC treatment. Importantly, APP metabolism in GC‐treated PC12‐htau cells is selectively shifted towards increased production of the pro‐amyloidogenic peptide C99. Further, GC treatment results in hyperphosphorylation of human tau at AD‐relevant sites, through the cyclin‐dependent kinase 5 (E.C. 2.7.11.26) and GSK3 (E.C. 2.7.11.22) protein kinases. Pulse‐chase experiments revealed that GC treatment increased the stability of tau protein rather than its de novo synthesis. GC treatment also induced accumulation of transiently expressed EGFP‐tau in the neuronal perikarya. Together with previous evidence showing that Aβ can activate cyclin‐dependent kinase 5 and GSK3, these results uncover a potential mechanism through which GC may contribute to AD neuropathology.
Genistein, a natural phytoestrogen from soy, relieves neuropathic pain following chronic constriction sciatic nerve injury in mice: anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant activity
Authors: Valsecchi Anna Elisa , Franchi Silvia , Panerai Alberto Emilio , Sacerdote Paola , Trovato Anna Elisa , Colleoni Mariapia 
Published: August 2008

AbstractThere is great interest in soy isoflavones as alternatives to endogenous estrogens not only in hormonal pathologies, but also in inflammatory, neurodegenerative diseases, and pain. We investigated the effect of the isoflavone genistein on neuropathic pain. Genistein binds estrogen receptors (ER) with higher affinity for the ERβ particularly expressed in neuronal and immune cells. Neuropathy was induced in mice by means of chronic sciatic nerve constriction, and the subcutaneous administration of genistein from the third day after the lesion reversed pain hypersensitivity in a time‐ and dose‐dependent manner. This effect may have been due to the activation of classical nuclear receptor and/or anti‐oxidant, anti‐inflammatory, and immunomodulating properties of genistein. The fact that a specific ERβ antagonist prevented both its anti‐allodynic and anti‐hyperalgesic action, whereas a specific ERα antagonist was ineffective and a non‐selective ER antagonist only reversed the anti‐allodynic effect, suggests the involvement of ERβ. Antioxidant effects are also involved as the anti‐nociceptive dose reversed the increase in reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde in injured paw tissues, and increased the activity of anti‐oxidant enzymes. The phytoestrogen had immunomodulatory and anti‐inflammatory activities as it reduced peripheral and central nuclear factor‐κB, nitric oxide system and pro‐inflammatory cytokine over‐activation. Taken together, our results suggest that genistein could ameliorate painful neuropathy by multiple mechanisms.
Functional implications for Kir4.1 channels in glial biology: from K+ buffering to cell differentiation
Authors: Olsen Michelle L. , Sontheimer Harald 
Published: August 2008

AbstractAstrocytes and oligodendrocytes are characterized by a very negative resting potential and a high resting permeability for K+ ions. Early pharmacological and biophysical studies suggested that the resting potential is established by the activity of inwardly rectifying, Ba2+ sensitive, weakly rectifying Kir channels. Molecular cloning has identified 16 Kir channels genes of which several mRNA transcripts and protein products have been identified in glial cells. However, genetic deletion and siRNA knock‐down studies suggest that the resting conductance of astrocytes and oligodendrocytes is largely due to Kir4.1. Loss of Kir4.1 causes membrane depolarization, and a break‐down of K+ and glutamate homeostasis which results in seizures and wide‐spread white matter pathology. Kir channels have also been shown to act as critical regulators of cell division whereby Kir function is correlated with an exit from the cell cycle. Conversely, loss of functional Kir channels is associated with re‐entry of cells into the cell cycle and gliosis. A loss of functional Kir channels has been shown in a number of neurological diseases including temporal lobe epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, retinal degeneration and malignant gliomas. In the latter, expression of Kir4.1 is sufficient to arrest the aberrant growth of these glial derived tumor cells. Kir4.1 therefore represents a potential therapeutic target in a wide variety of neurological conditions.