This collection of essays presents a sampling of film and television texts interrogating images of U.S. masculinity. Rather than using "postfeminist" as a definition of contemporary feminism, this ...collection uses the term to designate the period from the late 1980s on--as a point when feminist thought gradually became more mainstream. The movies and TV series examined here have achieved a level of sustained attention, from critical acclaim, to mass appeal, to cult status. Instead of beginning with a set hypothesis on the effect of the feminist movement on images of masculinity on film and television, these chapters represent a range of responses that demonstrate how the conversations within these texts about American masculinity are often open-ended, allowing both male characters and male viewers a wider range of options. Defining the relationship between U.S. masculinity and American feminist movements of the twentieth century is a complex undertaking. The essays collected for this volume engage prominent film and television texts that directly interrogate images of U.S. masculinity that have appeared since second-wave feminism. The contributors have chosen textual examples whose protagonists actively struggle with the conflicting messages about masculinity. These protagonists are more often works in progress, acknowledging the limits of their negotiations and self-actualization. These chapters also cover a wide range of genres and decades: from action and fantasy to dramas and romantic comedy, from the late 1970s to today. Taken together, the chapters of Screening Images of American Masculinity in the AgeofPostfeminism interrogate "the possible" screened in popular movies and television series, confronting the multiple and competing visions of masculinity not after or beyond feminism but, rather, in its very wake.
In diseases with a strong association with an HLA haplotype, identification of relevant T cell epitopes may allow alteration of the pathologic process. In this report we use a reverse immunogenetic ...approach to predict possible HLA class II-restricted T cell epitopes by using complete pool sequencing data. Data from HLA-DR2(B1*1501), -DR3(B1*0301), -DQ2(A1*0501, B1*0201), and -DQ8(A1*0301, B1*0302) alleles were used by a computer program that searches a candidate protein to predict ligands with a relatively high probability of being processed and presented. This approach successfully identified both known T cell epitopes and eluted single peptides from the parent protein. Furthermore, the program identified ligands from proteins in which the binding motif of the HLA molecule was unable to do so. When the information from the nonbinding N- and C-terminal regions in the pool sequence was removed, the ability to predict several ligands was markedly reduced, particularly for the HLA-DQ alleles. This suggests a possible role for these regions in determining ligands for HLA class II molecules. Thus, the use of complete eluted peptide sequence data offers a powerful approach to the prediction of HLA-DQ and -DR peptide ligands and T cell epitopes.
Abstract
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (
SNPs
) in the endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 2 (
ERAP
2
) gene are associated with preeclampsia (
PE
) in different populations. rs2549782, a coding ...variant (N392K) that significantly affects substrate specificity, is in linkage disequilibrium (
LD
) with rs2248374, a marker
SNP
associated with
ERAP
2 protein expression in previously studied populations. As a result of nonsense‐mediated
RNA
decay,
ERAP
2 protein is not expressed from the rs2248374 G allele. We previously reported that the fetal rs2549782 minor G allele is associated with
PE
in
A
frican‐
A
mericans, but not in
C
hileans. In this study, we found that rs2549782 was in
LD
with rs2248374 in
A
frican‐
A
mericans, but not in
C
hileans. The unexpected lack of strong
LD
in
C
hileans raised the possibility that rs2248374 could be associated with
PE
in the absence of an association with rs2549782. However, we found no significant association for this allele with
PE
in
C
hileans.
C
hileans homozygous for the rs2248374 G allele did not express 110 kDa
ERAP
2 protein, consistent with nonsense‐mediated
RNA
decay, and carriers of the rs2248374 A allele did. We conclude that the
C
hilean
ERAP
2
haplotype structure allows for the expression of the major T allele of rs2549782 encoding 392N, which could impact peptide trimming and antigen presentation. Our discovery of racial differences in genetic structure and association with
PE
reveal heretofore unrecognized complexity of the
ERAP
2
locus.
Today, with the increasing popularity of multicore processors, one approach to optimizing the processor's performance is to reduce the execution times of individual applications running on each core ...by designing and implementing more powerful cores. Another approach, which is the polar opposite of the first, optimizes the processor's performance by running a larger number of applications on a correspondingly larger number of cores, albeit simpler ones. The difference between these two approaches is that the former focuses on reducing the latency of individual applications or threads (it optimizes the processor's single-threaded performance), whereas the latter focuses on reducing the latency of the applications' threads taken as a group (it optimizes the processor's multithreaded performance). The panel, from the 2007 Workshop on Computer Architecture Research Directions, discusses the relevant issues.
HLA-DQ8 (A1*0301, B1*0302) and -DQ2 (A1*0501, B1*0201) are both associated with diseases such as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and coeliac disease. We used the technique of pool sequencing to ...look at the requirements of peptides binding to HLA-DQ8, and combined these data with naturally sequenced ligands and in vitro binding assays to describe a novel motif for HLA-DQ8. The motif, which has the same basic format as many HLA-DR molecules, consists of four or five anchor regions, in the positions from the N-terminus of the binding core of n, n + 3, n + 5/6 and n + 8, i.e. P1, P4, P6/7 and P9. P1 and P9 require negative or polar residues, with mainly aliphatic residues at P4 and P6/7. The features of the HLA-DQ8 motif were then compared to a pool sequence of peptides eluted from HLA-DQ2. A consensus motif for the binding of a common peptide which may be involved in disease pathogenesis is described. Neither of the disease-associated alleles HLA-DQ2 and -DQ8 have Asp at position 57 of the beta-chain. This Asp, if present, may form a salt bridge with an Arg at position 79 of the alpha-chain and so alter the binding specificity of P9. HLA-DQ2 and -DQ8 both appear to prefer negatively charged amino acids at P9. In contrast, HLA-DQ7 (A1*0301, B1*0301), which is not associated with diabetes, has Asp at beta 57, allowing positively charged amino acids at P9. This analysis of the sequence features of DQ-binding peptides suggests molecular characteristics which may be useful to predict epitopes involved in disease pathogenesis.
Changes in blood dendritic cell (BDC) counts (CD123hiBDC and CD11c+BDC) and expression of CD62L, CCR7, and CD49d were analyzed in healthy donors, multiple myeloma (MM), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) ...patients, who received granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) containing peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) mobilization protocols. Low-dose G-CSF in healthy donors (8-10 μg/kg/d subcutaneously) and high-dose G-CSF in patients (30 μg/kg/d) increased CD123hiBDC (2- to 22-fold, mean 3.7 × 106/L-17.7 × 106/L and 1.9 × 106/L-12.0 × 106/L) in healthy donors and MM but decreased CD11c+BDC (2- to 10-fold, mean 5.7 × 106/L-1.6 × 106/L) in NHL patients, on the day of apheresis, compared with steady state. After apheresis, CD123hiBDC counts remained high, whereas low CD11c+BDC counts tended to recover in the following 2-5 days. Down-regulation of CD62L and up-regulation of CCR7 on CD123hiBDC were found in most healthy donors and MM patients. CD49d expression was unchanged. Thus, PBSC mobilization may change BDC counts by altering molecules necessary for BDC homing from blood into tissues.
Adenosine receptor activation has been implicated in the mechanism of ischaemic preconditioning protection. Evidence suggests adenosine A1 receptor involvement, and possibly A3 receptor involvement ...in the rabbit. This study investigated the roles of these receptors in human preconditioning. Human A1- and A3-selective compounds were chosen based on Ki values for inhibition of N6-(4-amino-3-125Iiodobenzyl)adenosine (125I-ABA) binding to stably expressed recombinant human A1 and A3 receptors. Cyclopentyladenosine (CPA), a 194-fold selective A1 agonist, and iodobenzylmethylcarboxamidoadenosine (IBMECA), a 10-fold selective A3 agonist were used alone and in combination with dipropylcyclopentylxanthine (DPCPX) a 62-fold selective A1 antagonist.
Human atrial trabeculae were superfused with oxygenated Tyrode's solution. After stabilisation, muscles underwent one of 8 protocols (n = 6 per group), followed by 90 min of simulated ischaemia and 120 min of reoxygenation. The experimental endpoint was recovery of contractile function, presented as percentage baseline function.
5 nM CPA (52.2 +/- 3.1%), 30 nM IBMECA (49.7 +/- 3.8%) and preconditioning (55.3 +/- 2.5%) produced similar functional recoveries at 120 min of reoxygenation; significantly different to controls (27.7 +/- 1.0%; P < 0.05, ANOVA). When DPCPX (200 nM) was added prior to 5 nM CPA, protection was lost (31.8 +/- 0.9%), but when added prior to 30 nM IBMECA, muscles continued to be significantly protected (41.5 +/- 2.3%).
In human atrium both A1 and A3 receptor stimulation appears to mimic ischaemic preconditioning. This may represent the first evidence for A3 receptor involvement in 'pharmacological' preconditioning of human myocardium.
The enzyme 6-oxocamphor hydrolase (OCH) from Rhodococcus sp. NCIMB 9784 catalyses the cleavage of a carbon-carbon bond between two carbonyl groups in both mono- and bicyclic non-enolisable -diketone ...substrates. In this mode OCH has been shown to effect the desymmetrisation of both bridged symmetrical bicyclic 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 systems and a series of 1-alkylbicyclo3.3.0octane-2,8-diones, yielding chiral substituted cyclopentanone and cyclohexanone products in high optical purity. In the present study, OCH has been challenged with a series of heteroannular substrates including 1-methylbicyclo4.3.0nonane-2,9-dione (7a-methylhexahydroindene-1,7-dione) in an effort to assess the competence of the enzyme for kinetic resolutions of asymmetric, racemic substrates. OCH was shown to catalyse the resolution of 1-methylbicyclo4.3.0nonane-2,9-dione with an E value of 2.9. The effect of increasing the length of the alkyl chain in the 1-position, or enlarging one of the rings, was to increase the enantioselectivity of the enzyme to 5.7 and 3.1 for the substrates 1-allylbicyclo4.3.0nonane-2,9-dione (7a-allylhexahydroindene-1,7-dione) and 1-methylbicyclo5.3.0decane-2,10-dione (8a-methyloctahydroazulene-1,8-dione), respectively. 1-Methylbicyclo5.4.0undecane-2,10-dione (9a-methyloctahydrobenzocycloheptene-1,9-dione) was not a substrate for OCH. These experiments constitute the first description of the resolution behaviour of such a retro-Claisenase enzyme, and suggest a maximum steric limit for substrate recognition by OCH.
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