Search

In 2019 a tiny gold tablet, once folded several times, turned up in a private collection in Hungary. Due to its physical appearance and the layout of the text, the tablet originally had been identified as a ‘foil with a Greek magical inscription’ in an auction catalogue. At first glance, however, it becomes obvious that the text was written with Latin letters. Although parts of the text recall Greek and Latin Christian apologists' works, the pagan apotropaic language of the amulet is evident throughout. The text itself proposes a major impact of Greek. This paper offers a preliminary report on establishing the text and gives approaches for interpreting the gold lamella.

The main differences between artists and non-artists can be discovered in information processing, drawing performance and aesthetical preferences. Aesthetical preference is influenced by stimulus complexity and by the symmetry-asymmetry dimension of the presented stimulus. Although the differences between artists and non-artists are clear regarding aesthetical evaluation, there are evidence supporting the assumption that symmetry is preferred over asymmetry regardless of domain specific knowledge. In the current study we investigated the role of expertise in visual art on aesthetical evaluation of symmetrical and asymmetrical, simple, and complex geometrical forms, using visual stimuli based on Jacobsen and Höfel (2001). Participants from art high- school and university have been gathered (N = 56) and were distributed into three separate groups by their visual art and art history experience (experts, novice, and medium experience). Our main result shows a significant effect of experience in visual art on aesthetical preference, participants in the expert group preferred complex asymmetrical stimuli more compared to participants in art novice group. Asymmetrical simple and complex forms were aesthetically preferred more by expert group than the two other groups. We also found that symmetrical forms are preferred over asymmetrical ones regardless of level of expertise in art, however preference of art experts tends to be more unified over stimulus complexity. Our results are in line with results from previous studies regarding symmetry- asymmetry preference. We can conclude that beside the general preference for symmetrical forms, experience in art alters asymmetry preference and it regulates the preference over simple- complex symmetrical and asymmetrical stimuli.

Previous research results indicate visual information processing asymmetry in case of visual verbal stimuli. However, other studies that investigate nonverbal stimuli processing show inconsistent effect of laterality. Although differences between left- and right-handers can be found in tasks that involve letters, spatial attention stimuli and visuomotor control performance, the differences between the two groups almost disappear in several directional preference tasks, suggesting that direction preference is influenced mainly by writing and reading habits. Perceiving visual art involves visual attention, that is driven by the bottom-up aspects of the visual stimuli, therefore perception of nonverbal images, that contain geometrical forms might be influenced by handedness. To assess the possible differences in visual symmetry- asymmetry preference, university students (N = 65) were divided into two groups based on handedness, and as a measurement we used simple- complex- symmetrical and asymmetrical geometrical forms. Our main result shows a significant effect of stimuli complexity on symmetry-asymmetry preference. The interaction effect between handedness and symmetry-asymmetry type was not significant. After conducting a pairwise comparison our results show that right-handers evaluate simple and complex symmetrical forms as more preferable than simple and complex asymmetrical forms. We also found that there is a preference for symmetry over asymmetry in both groups, however these differences are significant only in the right-handed group. We conclude that preference for symmetrical geometrical forms is not influenced by handedness, however preference for complexity is affected by right-handedness. To extend these results, further investigations are needed.

Digital education considerably requires active participation of students in the learning process, the application of self-regulated learning activities for the attainment of successful learning results. The aim of the present study is the investigation of time perspectives as the predictors of online self-regulated learning. In our study 210 Transylvanian students participated, from the Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Students’ demographic characteristics were recorded, for the assessment of self-regulation the Self-regulated Online Learning Questionnaire - Revised was applied and time perspectives of students were measured by the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory. A correlational, cross-sectional design was used. On the basis of the results of hierarchical regression, in our first model demographic characteristics explained 5% of the variance for the application of self-regulation activities. In our second model, controlling demographic variables, time perspectives explained an additional 33% of the variance for self-regulation. Self-regulated learning strategies are predicted among demographic characteristics by students’ gender, age and online learning, while out of time perspectives only future orientation proved to be a significant predictor. Females, older students, participants attending online education and higher future orientation apply to a higher degree the self-regulated learning strategies as males, younger students and participants with lower scores at future orientation.

In recent years, the topic of executive functions has been in the focus of clinical psychology because of the associations that have been observed between the appearance of several clinical symptoms and the underdevelopment of executive functions. The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions - Adult Version (BRIEF - A) is a self-reporting questionnaire which aims to measure constructs of the executive functions, such as shifting, inhibitory control, emotion regulation, self-monitoring, initiating, working memory, planning/organizing, task-monitoring, and material organizing. The aim of the study is to create a shorter version of the questionnaire, as well as to examine its psychometric properties, its reliability and validity on a population of 289 Transylvanian Hungarian adults. The three factor model resulting from the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed good fit indices (CFI = .946, ?2/df = 1.88, RMSEA = .056, GFI = .918) during the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), thus assuring construct validity. The short version of the questionnaire proved to be reliable (Cronbach ? = .898) and valid in measuring the executive functions among the Transylvanian Hungarian adult population.

Previously published studies show a clear difference between the eye movement patterns of artists and non-artists. However, the findings of some studies show that the duration of eye fixation increases as a result of artistic expertise, while other studies show the opposite. In this meta-analysis, we included the findings from 14 studies in which the effect of artistic expertise on the duration of eye fixation was examined. We also examined the potential moderating effect of task type, level of expertise, the type of stimulus presentation, the task time limit, the sampling rate and gender influence on the effect size. Results from 14 studies were pooled, resulting in a medium effect size (ES) of g = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.24 to 1.03, meaning that eye fixation duration was longer for artists than nonartists. We identified substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 75%, 95% CI: 59 to 85) among studies, but very little evidence for publication bias. None of the investigated study variables were significant moderators of the effect size. These findings suggest that artistic expertise has a significant effect on eye fixation duration. Although the differences are clear between artists and non-artists, other factors that may have influence on the duration of eye fixation remain unclear.

Several studies point to the relationship between callous-unemotional (CU) traits and symptoms of conduct disorder (CD) across different age groups. In case of young children and adolescents, it was found that in the presence of CU traits, externalizing behaviors are significantly more severe, as opposed to children who do not show CU traits. Integrating results from 11 studies, we analyzed data collected from n = 4381 participants from different age groups, ranging from toddlers to adolescents, to draw attention to the relationship between CU traits and symptoms of CD in this population. There was found a moderate, significant positive correlation (r = 0.37, 95 % CI [0.34, 0.44], p less than 0.001) between CU traits and symptoms of CD. Moderation analysis suggests that gender does not affect the strength of this relationship, as opposed to age and type of informant, which influence the relationship between CU traits and symptoms of CD, as moderator variables. Results support the idea that CU traits should be monitored and paid close attention to starting from a very young age, in order to prevent the development of clinical problems.

Inspirations refers to an evoked state of creativity, which implies motivation, evocation, and transcendence. Traditionally in the literature inspiration is divided to two states such as being inspired by or inspired to. Inspiration is influenced by information and knowledge, nevertheless several studies indicate a positive association between academic major and inspiration occurrence frequency. Previous study results indicate that domain specific knowledge such as visual art has a major impact on visual stimuli processing, reasoning, and evaluation. Although inspiration is claimed to be a fundamental phenomenon on the artistic creativity, its psychological importance has been often neglected. In the current study we investigated the influence of visual art expertise on inspiration frequency, using the Vienna Art Interest and Art Knowledge Questionnaire (VAIAK) and Inspiration Scale (IS). We specified art expertise on the dimensions of art interest and art knowledge. Participants with different art experiences have been gathered (N = 77) and were distributed into three separate groups by their visual art experience acquisition (art experience in higher education, art experience in high school, and self-taught artists). Our main results indicate a significant effect of art knowledge on inspiration frequency, indicating that participants with higher art knowledge scores experience inspiration frequently compared to participants with scores under average. Neither art experience acquisition nor art interest have been found to have a significant effect on inspiration frequency. Our result show evidence for a significant interaction effect between art interest and art knowledge on inspiration frequency. Our results are in line with results from previous studies regarding art knowledge and inspiration state experience frequencies. Although inspiration frequency might be determined by art knowledge, we can conclude that art experience acquisition does not influence inspiration frequency.

A kezelőorvosok egyik fontos feladata a betegek korrekt tájékoztatása. Ez nemcsak erkölcsi, hanem törvényben szabályozott kötelezettség is számukra. Annak érdekében, hogy ez a tájékoztatás „a beteg számára érthető nyelven” történjék, az orvosnak tudatosan váltania kell a professzionális orvosi szaknyelvről a laikus nyelvhasználatra. A 2020/21-es tanév őszi szemeszterétől a Semmelweis Egyetem Szaknyelvi Intézete a Pécsi Tudományegyetem ÁOK Egészségügyi Nyelvi és Kommunikációs Intézetével együttműködve új szaknyelvi tantárgyat vezetett be. A klinikai tárgyakhoz igazodó választható kurzust felsőbb éves hallgatók számára dolgoztuk ki, akik autentikus, anonimizált zárójelentések alapján a legfontosabb szakterületekről származó kórismék közlésekor szükséges terminológiai kódváltást és kommunikációs stratégiákat gyakorolhatják. A kurzus orvosszakmai részét orvos segítségével készítjük elő, a gyakorlati foglalkozásokon pedig terminológus, kommunikációs szakember és pszichológus is jelen van. A betegek szerepét előzetesen e célra a Pécsi Tudományegyetem Általános Orvostudományi Karának Egészségügyi Nyelvi és Kommunikációs Intézet laikus beteg képzésének programja alapján kiképzett demonstrátor hallgatók látják el, akik az anamnézis ismeretében releváns módon támogatják a kódváltási készségek fejlesztését és a betegtájékoztatás gyakorlati megvalósítását. A kurzus résztvevői körében kérdőíves felmérést készítettünk és ennek eredményeit szeretnénk írásunkban bemutatni. A felmérésben a laikus betegként kiképzett demonstrátor hallgatókat és az orvos szerepét alakító hallgatókat is kérdeztük a diagnózisközléssel kapcsolatos tapasztalataikról: a kódváltás terminológiai elemeinek megfelelő használatáról, a demonstrátorok és a hallgatók kommunikatív készségeiről, a magabiztosság növekedéséről és a hallgatói elégedettségről.

SummaryThis paper gives a short review of the research from recent years on texts of Latin curse tablets from Pannonia. In the last decade, four new lead tablets of quite long and well-readable texts came to light in well documented archeaological context in Pannonia. On one hand, these findings have not only doubled the small corpus, but they presented new data from both the field of magic and linguistics. On the other, in connection with the examination of the new pieces, the reconsideration of earlier ones could not be delayed any longer.

Magical texts represent an inexhaustible source for the phenomena of an ancient language for special purposes. The scope of this paper is limited to the different kinds of word-borrowings in the Pannonian set of curse tablets. One-language, well written and easily readable magical texts can be difficult to understand while explicit and unambiguous wording is expected in such practical genre like curses which level at definite persons. Harmful curse tablets and protective amulets, however, can be obscure. This study aims to give a comprehensive account of the possible reasons why these texts have a cloudy style, with special outlook of parallel phrases in Greek pieces of evidence.

Az első anatómiai nómenklatúra, a bázeli „Nomina anatomica” (1895) megjelenésével az anatómiai nevek megalkotásának folyamata nem zárult le, a nemzetközi anatómiai nevezéktan azóta is folyamatos revízió alatt áll. A nevezéktan újragondolását és javítását az új anatómiai struktúrák megnevezése, az archaikus szemléletű nevek megújítása (pl. ramus descendens anterior helyett ramus interventricularis anterior), a már használatban levő nevek hibáinak javítása, a szemlélet egységesítése mellett a más orvosi területekkel, különösen a klinikai ágak nyelvhasználatával való harmonizáció teszi szükségessé. A korábbi kiadásokat következetesség szempontjából felülmúló „Terminologia anatomica” (1998) a különböző orvosi szakterületek terminológiájának egységesítését tűzte ki célul. Az egységes, több terület átfogó anatómiai nómenklatúra létrehozása csak terminológusok, nyelvészek, anatómusok és a klinikai ágak művelőinek szoros együttműködésével valósítható meg.

From an economic point of view, it is a global problem that young people do not pursue their scientific activities after graduating from university. One of the explanations for this phenomenon is the lack of success in higher education and the inadequate information, enlightenment and motivation of stu dents towards scientific activity. In this sense, the cognitive abilities and human resources that can increase young people’s academic performance, thereby reinforcing their commitment to science, prove to be relevant. The present study included 108 psychology students from Babeș-Bolyai University who completed the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and we recorded their academic performance (GPA), as well as the level of support offered by their parents and teachers. Our research is exploratory; in contrast with previous research, we examine not only simple linear relationships between metacognition that determines academic performance and students’ social support, but also two significant human resources, parent and teacher support, as a mediator in the relationship between metacognition and academic performance. We tested three mediation models in which the predictor variable is metacognition and the outcome variable is academic performa nce . In simple mediation models, both parental support and teacher sup port were considered significant mediators. Multiple mediation has revealed that metacognition, through the support of parents and then teachers, predicts learning achievement to a greater extent than it does in itself, without the presence of these supports.

Metacognitive processes influence not only success in learning, but also contribute to career success. One of the main aims of education is the improvement of higher-order cognitive abilities like metacognition. Earlier studies demonstrated that extracurricular activities, such as experiences acquired during competitions, improve metacognitive skills. The aim of our correlational, cross-sectional study is the establishment of the explanatory power of different types and levels of competitions for the variability of metacognitive awareness. Students of Babe?-Bolyai University participated in the study, their demographic and competition-related characteristics were recorded, and metacognitive awareness was assessed via the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory. Based on our hierarchical regression model, controlling demographical variables, participation in competitions explain 32.9% of the variance of metacognitive awareness. Participation in institution-level competitions, art and sports competition attendance are not significant predictors of metacognitive awareness, but participation in science subjects and humanities county level or national Olympiads have a significant unique contribution to the model. Our results suggest that science subjects and humanities competition attendance empowers students with experiences which may contribute to the progress of their metacognitive knowledge and regulation strategies.

BackgroundAccurate and comprehensive annotation of transcript sequences is essential for transcript quantification and differential gene and transcript expression analysis. Single molecule long read sequencing technologies provide improved integrity of transcript structures including alternative splicing, and transcription start and polyadenylation sites. However, accuracy is significantly affected by sequencing errors, mRNA degradation or incomplete cDNA synthesis.ResultsWe present a new and comprehensive Arabidopsis thaliana Reference Transcript Dataset 3 (AtRTD3). AtRTD3 contains over 160k transcripts - twice that of the best current Arabidopsis transcriptome and including over 1,500 novel genes. 79% of transcripts are from Iso-seq with accurately defined splice junctions and transcription start and end sites. We developed novel methods to determine splice junctions and transcription start and end sites accurately. Mis- match profiles around splice junctions provided a powerful feature to distinguish correct splice junctions and remove false splice junctions. Stratified approaches identified high confidence transcription start/end sites and removed fragmentary transcripts due to degradation. AtRTD3 is a major improvement over existing transcriptomes as demonstrated by analysis of an Arabidopsis cold response RNA-seq time-series. AtRTD3 provided higher resolution of transcript expression profiling and identified cold- and light-induced differential transcription start and polyadenylation site usage.ConclusionsAtRTD3 is the most comprehensive Arabidopsis transcriptome currently available. It improves the precision of differential gene and transcript expression, differential alternative splicing, and transcription start/end site usage from RNA-seq data. The novel methods for identifying accurate splice junctions and transcription start/end sites are widely applicable and will improve single molecule sequencing analysis from any species.

In 1911, Auguste Audollent received a lead tablet with a Latin inscription on both sides coming from North Africa. It was lying almost undetected and forgotten for nearly one hundred years until the Hungarian visiting professor György Németh rediscovered it in the storage room of the Musée Bargoin in Clermont-Ferrand, France. The recently finished complete reading of the text and its commentary will be published soon by Gy. Németh and the author of the present paper. This article aims to consider all the word forms and phrases of the tablet which differ from the Latin standard in order to look for an answer if the target, the context and the sources can be identified with the help of linguistic tools.

This paper presents the second one of the two newly discovered curse tablets from Aquincum, Pannonia. It gives a reading for both of its sides after considering the letter-types, onomastical features, invoked deities, magical formulas, technical mistakes and vulgar Latin characteristics of the text. These traits show the tablet was worded in close connection with the other one, but they were not written by the same hand.

In 1912, during the dredging works of the river Kupa (in Sisak, today Croatia) a curse tablet was found by workers. Its text was published several times which showed differences in certain sections. On one hand it was due to the poor legibility of the text. On the other hand the reason of the discrepancies is that only some of the researchers could examine the tablet personally, the rest of them applied photographs or previous editors’ sketches which they interpreted in their own way. Because of the divergent readings, even establishing the correct text order of the outer and the inner side of the tablet has given rise to much controversy. Despite these problems, the text of this curse tablet has become a standing exemplar of vulgar Latin features on the course of the past 100 years, handbooks and publications on the Latin of imperial times refer its well-known “mistakes”. For obvious reasons, a new autopsy could not be delayed any longer. This paper aims to present a revised and interpreted reading of the Latin curse tablet from Siscia based on a recent autopsy.

SummaryFor plants, light is the source of energy and the most relevant regulator of growth and adaptations to the environment by inducing changes in gene expression at various levels, including alternative splicing. Chloroplasts trigger retrograde signals that control alternative splicing in leaves and roots in response to light. Here we provide evidence suggesting that sugars, derived from photosynthesis, act as mobile signals controlling alternative splicing in roots. The inhibition of TOR kinase activity diminishes the alternative splicing response to light and/or sugars in roots, showing the relevance of the TOR pathway in this signaling mechanism. Furthermore, disrupting the function of the mitochondria abolishes alternative splicing changes supporting a key role for these organelles in this signaling axis. We conclude that sugars can act as mobile signals coordinating alternative splicing responses to light throughout the whole plant, exerting this function in roots by activating the TOR pathway.Graphical AbstractArt by Dr. Luciana Giono.

The past decades in RNA research have unveiled a plethora of activities that RNAs can fulfill besides coding for proteins. These range from catalysis, over scaffolding to regulatory functions. Toge...

Light makes the difference between life and death for plants, it is their source of energy and also a regulator of plant growth and adaptations to the environment. In plants, light regulates gene expression at various levels including alternative splicing. Chloroplasts are a key part in this process sensing light and providing retrograde signals which modulate alternative splicing in the leaves but also in the roots. We show here that sugars are the mobile signals responsible for the alternative splicing changes in the roots. We provide evidence for the involvement of mitochondria and the activation of TOR kinase in this light signaling pathway. Furthermore, translation activation seems to be of most relevance in order to properly adjust the alternative splicing patterns in response to light/dark transitions and might be a common node for cross-regulation by different pathways.

Summary The ability to adapt growth and development to temperature variations is crucial to generate plant varieties resilient to predicted temperature changes. However, the mechanisms underlying plant response to progressive increases in temperature have just started to be elucidated. Here, we report that the cyclin‐dependent kinase G1 (CDKG1) is a central element in a thermo‐sensitive mRNA splicing cascade that transduces changes in ambient temperature into differential expression of the fundamental spliceosome component, ATU2AF65A. CDKG1 is alternatively spliced in a temperature‐dependent manner. We found that this process is partly dependent on both the cyclin‐dependent kinase G2 (CDKG2) and the interacting co‐factor CYCLIN L1 (CYCL1), resulting in two distinct messenger RNAs. The relative abundance of both CDKG1 transcripts correlates with ambient temperature and possibly with different expression levels of the associated protein isoforms. Both CDKG1 alternative transcripts are necessary to fully complement the expression of ATU2AF65A across the temperature range. Our data support a previously unidentified temperature‐dependent mechanism based on the alternative splicing (AS) of CDKG1 and regulated by CDKG2 and CYCL1. We propose that changes in ambient temperature affect the relative abundance of CDKG1 transcripts, and this in turn translates into differential CDKG1 protein expression coordinating the AS of ATU2AF65A., Significance Statement One of the most important challenges of modern agriculture is the production of plant varieties that are better adapted to the predicted climatic changes. However, a deep understanding of the ambient temperature response in plants remains incomplete. Here we describe a gene circuit in the cyclin‐dependent kinase family of Arabidopsis able to modulate the activity of downstream targets by adjusting mRNA processing to ambient temperature.

SUMMARY For plants, light is the source of energy and the most relevant regulator of growth and adaptations to the environment by inducing changes in gene expression at various levels, including alternative splicing. Light-triggered chloroplast retrograde signals control alternative splicing in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we provide evidence that light regulates the expression of a core set of splicing-related factors in roots. Alternative splicing responses in roots are not directly caused by light but are instead most likely triggered by photo-synthesized sugars. The target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase plays a key role in this shoot-to-root signaling pathway. Knocking down TOR expression or pharmacologically inhibiting TOR activity disrupts the alternative splicing responses to light and exogenous sugars in roots. Consistently, splicing decisions are modulated by mitochondrial activity in roots. In conclusion, by activating the TOR pathway, sugars act as mobile signals to coordinate alternative splicing responses to light throughout the whole plant., Graphical Abstract, In brief Riegler et al. reveal a central role for TOR kinase paired with retrograde signaling in alternative splicing regulation by light in roots and, to a certain extent, in leaves. Activating the TOR pathway, sugars act as mobile signals to coordinate alternative splicing responses to light throughout the whole plant.

Plant MIR genes are independent transcription units that encode long primary miRNA precursors, which usually contain introns. For two miRNA genes, MIR163 and MIR161, we show that introns are crucial for the accumulation of proper levels of mature miRNA. Removal of the intron in both cases led to a drop-off in the level of mature miRNAs. We demonstrate that the stimulating effects of the intron mostly reside in the 5′ss rather than on a genuine splicing event. Our findings are biologically significant as the presence of functional splice sites in the MIR163 gene appears mandatory for pathogen-triggered accumulation of miR163 and proper regulation of at least one of its targets.

BackgroundAlternative splicing is the major post-transcriptional mechanism by which gene expression is regulated and affects a wide range of processes and responses in most eukaryotic organisms. RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) can generate genome-wide quantification of individual transcript isoforms to identify changes in expression and alternative splicing. RNA-seq is an essential modern tool but its ability to accurately quantify transcript isoforms depends on the diversity, completeness and quality of the transcript information.ResultsWe have developed a new Reference Transcript Dataset for Arabidopsis (AtRTD2) for RNA-seq analysis containing over 82k non-redundant transcripts, whereby 74,194 transcripts originate from 27,667 protein-coding genes. A total of 13,524 protein-coding genes have at least one alternatively spliced transcript in AtRTD2 such that about 60% of the 22,453 protein-coding, intron-containing genes in Arabidopsis undergo alternative splicing. More than 600 putative U12 introns were identified in more than 2,000 transcripts. AtRTD2 was generated from transcript assemblies of ca. 8.5 billion pairs of reads from 285 RNA-seq data sets obtained from 129 RNA-seq libraries and merged along with the previous version, AtRTD, and Araport11 transcript assemblies. AtRTD2 increases the diversity of transcripts and through application of stringent filters represents the most extensive and accurate transcript collection for Arabidopsis to date. We have demonstrated a generally good correlation of alternative splicing ratios from RNA-seq data analysed by Salmon and experimental data from high resolution RT-PCR. However, we have observed inaccurate quantification of transcript isoforms for genes with multiple transcripts which have variation in the lengths of their UTRs. This variation is not effectively corrected in RNA-seq analysis programmes and will therefore impact RNA-seq analyses generally. To address this, we have tested different genome-wide modifications of AtRTD2 to improve transcript quantification and alternative splicing analysis. As a result, we release AtRTD2-QUASI specifically for use in Quantification of Alternatively Spliced Isoforms and demonstrate that it out-performs other available transcriptomes for RNA-seq analysis.ConclusionsWe have generated a new transcriptome resource for RNA-seq analyses in Arabidopsis (AtRTD2) designed to address quantification of different isoforms and alternative splicing in gene expression studies. Experimental validation of alternative splicing changes identified inaccuracies in transcript quantification due to UTR length variation. To solve this problem, we also release a modified reference transcriptome, AtRTD2-QUASI for quantification of transcript isoforms, which shows high correlation with experimental data.

More than 60% of intron-containing genes undergo alternative splicing (AS) in plants. This number will increase when AS in different tissues, developmental stages, and environmental conditions are explored. Although the functional impact of AS on protein complexity is still understudied in plants, recent examples demonstrate its importance in regulating plant processes. AS also regulates transcript levels and the link with nonsense-mediated decay and generation of unproductive mRNAs illustrate the need for both transcriptional and AS data in gene expression analyses. AS has influenced the evolution of the complex networks of regulation of gene expression and variation in AS contributed to adaptation of plants to their environment and therefore will impact strategies for improving plant and crop phenotypes.

Alternative splicing (AS) coupled to nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) is a post-transcriptional mechanism for regulating gene expression. We have used a high-resolution AS RT–PCR panel to identify endogenous AS isoforms which increase in abundance when NMD is impaired in the Arabidopsis NMD factor mutants, upf1-5 and upf3-1. Of 270 AS genes (950 transcripts) on the panel, 102 transcripts from 97 genes (32%) were identified as NMD targets. Extrapolating from these data around 13% of intron-containing genes in the Arabidopsis genome are potentially regulated by AS/NMD. This cohort of naturally occurring NMD-sensitive AS transcripts also allowed the analysis of the signals for NMD in plants. We show the importance of AS in introns in 5′ or 3′UTRs in modulating NMD-sensitivity of mRNA transcripts. In particular, we identified upstream open reading frames overlapping the main start codon as a new trigger for NMD in plants and determined that NMD is induced if 3′-UTRs were >350 nt. Unexpectedly, although many intron retention transcripts possess NMD features, they are not sensitive to NMD. Finally, we have shown that AS/NMD regulates the abundance of transcripts of many genes important for plant development and adaptation including transcription factors, RNA processing factors and stress response genes.

The generation of mature mRNAs from most genes (about 80%–90%) in autotrophic eukaryotes requires the removal of noncoding sequences (introns) and splicing of the coding regions (exons; [Labadorf et al., 2010][1]). During splicing in some precursor messenger RNAs (pre-mRNAs), the same splice sites

Growing interest in alternative splicing in plants and the extensive sequencing of new plant genomes necessitate more precise definition and classification of genes coding for splicing factors. SR proteins are a family of RNA binding proteins, which function as essential factors for constitutive and alternative splicing. We propose a unified nomenclature for plant SR proteins, taking into account the newly revised nomenclature of the mammalian SR proteins and a number of plant-specific properties of the plant proteins. We identify six subfamilies of SR proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana and rice (Oryza sativa), three of which are plant specific. The proposed subdivision of plant SR proteins into different subfamilies will allow grouping of paralogous proteins and simple assignment of newly discovered SR orthologs from other plant species and will promote functional comparisons in diverse plant species.

AS (alternative splicing) is a post-transcriptional process which regulates gene expression through increasing protein complexity and modulating mRNA transcript levels. Regulation of AS depends on interactions between trans-acting protein factors and cis-acting signals in the pre-mRNA (precursor mRNA) transcripts, termed ‘combinatorial’ control. Dynamic changes in AS patterns reflect changes in abundance, composition and activity of splicing factors in different cell types and in response to cellular or environmental cues. Whereas the SR protein family of splicing factors is well-studied in plants, relatively little is known about other factors influencing the regulation of AS or the consequences of AS on mRNA levels and protein function. To address fundamental questions on AS in plants, we are exploiting a high-resolution RT (reverse transcription)–PCR system to analyse multiple AS events simultaneously. In the present paper, we describe the current applications and development of the AS RT–PCR panel in investigating the roles of splicing factors, cap-binding proteins and nonsense-mediated decay proteins on AS, and examining the extent of AS in genes involved in the same developmental pathway or process.

A lead tablet recently discovered in the eastern cemetery of the Aquincum civil town is of much interest. The tablet which can be dated on archaeological grounds to the late 2nd-early 3rd centuries AD seems to be a binding curse of a group of men against another group, written in Latin. This curse tablet is especially significant because only five more Latin curses had previously been found in the territory of Roman Pannonia and it supports the inferences that can be deducted from this small collection.

A method for the thiolysis of nitriles by applying Lawesson's reagent and facilitated by the addition of boron trifluor- ide-diethyl ether complex is reported. The method opens an easy access to primary thioamides. Aromatic, benzylic, and aliphatic ni- triles were converted into the corresponding thioamides in high to quantitative yields (even in unfavorable cases, e.g., ortho-substitut- ed benzonitriles). The reaction was performed in 1,2-dimethoxy- ethane-tetrahydrofuran or toluene-diethyl ether solvent mixtures at 20-50 °C, and exhibited considerable selectivity in the case of mul- tifunctional nitrile substrates, such as cyanomethyl N-acetylphenyl- alaninate, benzoylacetonitrile, 4-cyanobenzamide, 4-acetyl- benzonitrile, or pent-3-enenitrile.