Shared Repertoire Research Articles

Convergence, plasticity, and tissue residence of regulatory T cell response via TCR repertoire prism.

Suppressive function of regulatory T cells (Treg) is dependent on signaling of their antigen receptors triggered by cognate self, dietary, or microbial peptides presented on MHC II. However, it remains largely unknown whether distinct or shared repertoires of Treg TCRs are mobilized in response to different challenges in the same tissue or the same challenge in different tissues. Here we use a fixed TCRβ chain FoxP3-GFP mouse model to analyze conventional (eCD4) and regulatory (eTreg) effector TCRα repertoires in response to six distinct antigenic challenges to the lung and skin. This model shows highly 'digital' repertoire behavior with easy-to-track challenge-specific TCRα CDR3 clusters. For both eCD4 and eTreg subsets, we observe challenge-specific clonal expansions yielding homologous TCRα clusters within and across animals and exposure sites, which are also reflected in the draining lymph nodes but not systemically. Some CDR3 clusters are shared across cancer challenges, suggesting a response to common tumor-associated antigens. For most challenges, eCD4 and eTreg clonal response does not overlap. Such overlap is exclusively observed at the sites of certain tumor challenges, and not systematically, suggesting transient and local tumor-induced eCD4=>eTreg plasticity. This transition includes a dominant tumor-responding eCD4 CDR3 motif, as well as characteristic iNKT TCRα CDR3. In addition, we examine the homeostatic tissue residency of clonal eTreg populations by excluding the site of challenge from our analysis. We demonstrate that distinct CDR3 motifs are characteristic of eTreg cells residing in particular lymphatic tissues, regardless of the challenge. This observation reveals the tissue-resident, antigen-specific clonal Treg populations.

Convergence, plasticity, and tissue residence of regulatory T cell response via TCR repertoire prism

Suppressive function of regulatory T cells (Treg) is dependent on signaling of their antigen receptors triggered by cognate self, dietary, or microbial peptides presented on MHC II. However, it remains largely unknown whether distinct or shared repertoires of Treg TCRs are mobilized in response to different challenges in the same tissue or the same challenge in different tissues. Here we use a fixed TCRβ chain FoxP3-GFP mouse model to analyze conventional (eCD4) and regulatory (eTreg) effector TCRα repertoires in response to six distinct antigenic challenges to the lung and skin. This model shows highly ‘digital’ repertoire behavior with easy-to-track challenge-specific TCRα CDR3 clusters. For both eCD4 and eTreg subsets, we observe challenge-specific clonal expansions yielding homologous TCRα clusters within and across animals and exposure sites, which are also reflected in the draining lymph nodes but not systemically. Some CDR3 clusters are shared across cancer challenges, suggesting a response to common tumor-associated antigens. For most challenges, eCD4 and eTreg clonal response does not overlap. Such overlap is exclusively observed at the sites of certain tumor challenges, and not systematically, suggesting transient and local tumor-induced eCD4=>eTreg plasticity. This transition includes a dominant tumor-responding eCD4 CDR3 motif, as well as characteristic iNKT TCRα CDR3. In addition, we examine the homeostatic tissue residency of clonal eTreg populations by excluding the site of challenge from our analysis. We demonstrate that distinct CDR3 motifs are characteristic of eTreg cells residing in particular lymphatic tissues, regardless of the challenge. This observation reveals the tissue-resident, antigen-specific clonal Treg populations.

“High Politics” and Everyday Practices at the Border: Emerging Communities of Practice in the High North

Abstract Using the concept of communities of practice, the article explores how boundary-crossing practices on borders vulnerable to states' “high politics” have developed overtime, leading to the formation of communities of doers bound by shared interests in learning and performing shared practices. Existing research on how diplomats, civilian and military staff in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has shown how shared professional identities that cut across organizational, cultural and national boundaries has led to the emergence of communities of practice though everyday informal interaction. This article examines the emergence of long-term everyday border-crossing practices between Norway and Russia in the High North region and the extent to which they have been contested or continued in situations of tension or conflict between the West and Russia, and especially following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Studying how these communities of doers engage in shared repertoires and practices that transcend and blur, rather than challenge the border may also shed new light onhow we understand the relationship between international politics and local politics. Arguably, the social dynamics of such boundary-work have also contributed to confidence-building and low tension, also beyond the border on which it takes place.

“記念錯過的DUET_T”: Negotiating translanguaging practices in the legitimate graffiti of a multilingual schoolscape in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s higher education institutions, with their unique socio-political context and global reputation, have presented multiple and diverse schoolscapes where multilingual students can collectively construct a shared repertoire to perform their desired identities and create specific meanings. Recognizing the semi-public whiteboards on a Hong Kong University library wall as a genre of schoolscape, this paper aims to explore the intricate ways in which students negotiate their varied linguistic and semiotic resources to create and engage with multilingual graffiti that is deemed legitimate on these whiteboards. Drawing upon the concept of translanguaging (W. Li, 2011, 2018), we employed a sociolinguistic ethnographic design and collected 151 photographs of graffiti. Through a semiotic and ethnography-informed analysis of the linguistic landscape data, we argue that these graffiti signs encourage students to establish the schoolscape as a collaborative translanguaging space by enabling them to collectively participate in translingual and transmodal practices for fun. The graffiti signs also invite students to perform translanguaging practices to substantiate their sense of affiliation with the institution and its people in the translanguaging space where their affective experiences can be constructed and shared. The study concludes by advocating for further ethnographic investigations to enhance our understanding of translingual practices within multilingual schoolscape environments.

Tissue-specific features of the T cell repertoire after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in human and mouse.

T cells are the central drivers of many inflammatory diseases, but the repertoire of tissue-resident T cells at sites of pathology in human organs remains poorly understood. We examined the site-specificity of T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires across tissues (5 to 18 tissues per patient) in prospectively collected autopsies of patients with and without graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a potentially lethal tissue-targeting complication of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, and in mouse models of GVHD. Anatomic similarity between tissues was a key determinant of TCR repertoire composition within patients, independent of disease or transplant status. The T cells recovered from peripheral blood and spleens in patients and mice captured a limited portion of the TCR repertoire detected in tissues. Whereas few T cell clones were shared across patients, motif-based clustering revealed shared repertoire signatures across patients in a tissue-specific fashion. T cells at disease sites had a tissue-resident phenotype and were of donor origin based on single-cell chimerism analysis. These data demonstrate the complex composition of T cell populations that persist in human tissues at the end stage of an inflammatory disorder after lymphocyte-directed therapy. These findings also underscore the importance of studying T cell in tissues rather than blood for tissue-based pathologies and suggest the tissue-specific nature of both the endogenous and posttransplant T cell landscape.

Seeger Lecture, Society for Ethnomusicology Virtual Meeting 2021

Seeger Lecture, Society for Ethnomusicology Virtual Meeting 2021

Genetic and functional odorant receptor variation in the Homo lineage

Humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans independently adapted to a wide range of geographic environments and their associated food odors. Using ancient DNA sequences, we explored the invitro function of thirty odorant receptor genes in the genus Homo. Our extinct relatives had highly conserved olfactory receptor sequence, but humans did not. Variations in odorant receptor protein sequence and structure may have produced variation in odor detection and perception. Variants led to minimal changes in specificity but had more influence on functional sensitivity. The few Neanderthal variants disturbed function, whereas Denisovan variants increased sensitivity to sweet and sulfur odors. Geographic adaptations may have produced greater functional variation in our lineage, increasing our olfactory repertoire and expanding our adaptive capacity. Our survey of olfactory genes and odorant receptors suggests that our genus has a shared repertoire with possible local ecological adaptations.

The Effects of the Shared Repertoire and Voluntary Action Characteristics of the Community of Practice on Knowledge Sharing at Kenya Revenue Authority

Rationale of Study – Knowledge-sharing practices can be used to improve the current practices of the Authority. This study investigated the effects of the shared repertoire and voluntary action characteristics of a community of practice (CoP) on knowledge sharing in the Kenya Revenue Authority.Methodology – A descriptive survey research design was adopted. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to collect data. Data was obtained by administering semi-structured questionnaires. The target population was 1099 KRA employees, including middle-level managers and lower-level staff based at Times Tower in Nairobi. A stratified random sampling technique was employed to create a sample size of 92 respondents, ensuring equal representation of KRA employees.Findings – The ANOVA results implied a significant relationship between shared repertoire and voluntary action with knowledge sharing at Kenya Revenue Authority. The coefficients of determination revealed that voluntary action had a more significant effect over shared repertoire on knowledge sharing in KRA.Implications – This study can help KRA to implement working CoPs, improve knowledge sharing and enhance customer-focused tax administration. The study recommends that there should be specific artefacts only shared with department members and that KRA employees should belong to a professional body beyond the department's requirements.Originality – This study fills a gap in recent research on the effects of the shared repertoire and voluntary action of a community of practice on knowledge sharing

Crossing borders, building new ones, or shifting boundaries? Shared narratives and individual paths towards inter/transdisciplinarity in research centres for urban sustainability

Inter/transdisciplinarity (ITD) is a pillar of sustainability studies, often presented as the way to conduct research and practice especially in conflictual and politicised real-world stakeholder constellations. Several studies emphasise the need to consider the communicative processes through which it is put into practice. However, there is still a dearth of research that explores the meanings key actors associate with ITD and how they account for the material, practical and communicative facets of their everyday experience. This work seeks to collect the voice of leaders of inter/transdisciplinary research centres, identify shared repertoires used to interpret their experience in the field, and reflect on how shared narratives could inspire or impede researchers engaged in ITD. A discursive analysis was applied to 23 semi-structured interviews conducted with leaders of research centres on urban sustainability. Results identified diverse interpretative repertoires used to define ITD and to interpret the barriers that, in the eyes of these key actors, have to be crossed to become ITD researchers. These elements are combined into three main narratives used by participants to position themselves and the researchers involved in ITD. Despite being functional to self-representation, these shared narratives contribute towards depicting ITD as an individual escape, and interdisciplinary research centres as sanctuaries of a sort, thus paradoxically preserving the status quo. A third narrative advocates structural shifts and is coherent with the need for deeper changes and persistent recognition of ITD in sustainability studies.

Searching for the Forest among the Trees

Searching for the Forest among the Trees

VALIDATION IN ART TEACHER AND PROFESSIONAL TEACHER EDUCATION CURRICULA IN FINLAND

<p>Intention and opportunity for validation of competences acquired in different contexts are considered influential to meet the incremental changes in the world of work. Positioned in the universities of applied sciences delivering art and professional teacher education in Finland, we study emergence of validation of prior learning in the intended, or planned, curricula. The Nordic Quality Model for Validation was employed as the empirical frame of reference. Data were collected from the institutions’ open websites. The critical discourse analysis revealed differences in curricular discourses between and across the institutions. Texts with more indicators of validation were found within larger providers of professional teacher education, whereas those were more scarce in texts from smaller institutions. Validation texts are shorter in length and more fragmented in art teacher curricula. Despite its centrality in educational policy, validation remains in the margins of art and professional teacher education curricula. It is unlikely that the intended curricula facilitate teacher trainers’ efforts to form a shared repertoire of a community of practice in validation of non-formal and informal learning. We suggest further study on the enacted and experienced curricula to examine the role of validation in art teacher and professional teacher education.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0893/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Immunogenic T cell epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 are recognized by circulating memory and naïve CD8 T cells of unexposed individuals.

BackgroundRecent studies have provided evidence of T cell reactivity to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in significant numbers of non-infected individuals, which has been attributed to cross-reactive CD4 memory T cells from previous exposure to seasonal coronaviruses. Less evidence of cross-reactive memory CD8 T cells has been documented to date.MethodsWe used the NetCTLPan neural network of the Epitope Database and Analysis Resource to select a series of 27 HLA-A*02:01 epitopes derived from the proteome of SARS-CoV-2. Their binding capacity was assessed by a HLA-A*02:01 stabilization assay and by quantifying their binding to HLA-A*02:01 monomers for the generation of tetramers. Their ability to stimulate and induce expansion of SARS-CoV-2 reactive CD8 T cells was measured by flow cytometry. The TCR repertoire of COVID convalescent and healthy unexposed donors was analysed using the MIRA database.FindingsThe HLA-A*02:01 epitopes tested were able to stabilise HLA molecules and induce activation of CD8 T cells of healthy unexposed donors. Our results, based on specific tetramer binding, provide evidence supporting the presence of frequent cross-reactive CD8 T cells to SARS-CoV-2 antigens in non-exposed individuals. Interestingly, the reactive cells were distributed into naïve, memory and effector subsets.InterpretationOur data are consistent with a significant proportion of the reactive CD8 T clones belonging to the public shared repertoire, readily available in absence of previous contact with closely related coronaviruses. Furthermore, we demonstrate the immunogenic capacity of long peptides carrying T cell epitopes, which can serve to isolate virus-specific T cell receptors among the ample repertoire of healthy unexposed subjects and could have application in COVID-19 immunotherapy. Limitations of our study are that it concentrated on one MHC I allele (HLA-A*02:01) and the low numbers of samples and epitopes tested.

Roses Strewn Upon the Path: Rehearsing Familial Devotion in Late Eighteenth-Century German Songs for Parents and Children

Intra- and inter-generational family singing is found throughout the world’s cultures. Children’s songs across many traditions are often performed with adult family members, whether simultaneously (in unison or harmony) or sequentially (as in call-and-response). In one corpus of printed children’s songs, however, such musical partnering between young and old was scripted, arguably for the first time. Children’s periodicals and readers in late eighteenth-century Germany offered a variety of poems, theatricals, riddles, songs, stories, and non-fiction content, all promoting norms around filial obedience, virtue, and productivity. Readers were encouraged to share and read aloud with members of their extended families. But the “disciplining” going on in this literature was as much emotional as it was moral. Melodramatic plots to dialogues, plays, and Singspiele allowed for tenderness and affection to be role-played in the family drawing room. And the poems and songs included in and spun off from these periodicals constituted, for the first time, a shared repertoire meant to be sung and played by young and old together. Duets for brothers and sisters, parents and children—with such prescriptive titles as “Brotherly Harmony” and “Song from a Young Girl to Her Father, On the Presentation of a Little Rosebud”—not only trained children how to be ideal sons, daughters, and siblings. They also habituated mothers and fathers to the new culture of sentimental, devoted parenthood. In exploring songs for family members to sing together in German juvenile print culture from 1700 to 1800, I uncover the reciprocal learning implied in text, music, and the act of performance itself, as adults and children alike rehearsed the devoted bourgeois nuclear family.

Seeking Convergence and Surfacing Tensions Between Social Justice and Core Practices: Re-Presenting Teacher Education as a Community of Praxis

The Core Practices Movement (CPM) and Social Justice Teacher Education (SJTE) represent two communities of practice within which novices develop as professional educators. However, there is little dialogue about how they might collaborate to develop novice social justice educators, and the critiques and recommendations that do cross movements originate from divergent theoretical starting points. Possibilities for convergence within the learning theories that underpin CPM and SJTE are explored, examining how social learning theories might be infused with, and enveloped within, critical learning theories. This article thus re-presents teacher education as a “community of praxis.” Within each of its three hybrid dimensions—a shared repertoire of practice/praxis, mutual engagement of vertical and horizontal expertise, and joint enterprise of professional and political aims—possibilities for developing novice social justice educators are described, and tensions at the intersection of justice and practice in teacher education are explored.

Communities of practice as purveyors of instructional communication during crises

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the critical role instructional communication plays in effective risk and crisis communication. More specifically, we examined efforts made by the United States’ swine industry to teach biosecurity practices in response to the African Swine Fever virus, a highly contagious novel disease. To do so, researchers interviewed 14 research, veterinary, and extension specialists to assess the swine industry’s capacity to function as a community of practice (CoP). Strategies were coded under the three major functions of CoPs: mutual engagement, shared repertoire, and joint negotiation. Respondents indicated that the industry was successful primarily because they engaged in effective instructional communication as a learning CoP to create a clear shared repertoire and negotiate consistent messages to teach better biosecurity practices among diverse people and facilities. Although the goal of biosecurity remains the same—maintaining a line of separation between infected areas and uninfected areas—the means for achieving it may differ among locations and the instructional strategies for achieving it must be tailored for diverse populations to achieve the desired affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning outcomes. Implications for instructional communication research to address other risk situations and crisis events are also proposed.

WITHDRAWN: Narratives of vicarious experience in professional and workplace contexts: Introduction to the special issue

Abstract This Introduction to the special issue “Narratives of Vicarious Experience in Professional and Workplace context” presents the first dedicated collection of papers on NoVE in professional and workplace contexts. It begins with a brief overview of the origins of Narrative Pragmatics (NP) that accounts for the breadth of analytic interests NP currently pursues. While traditionally NP focused on Narratives of Personal Experience (NoPE), namely stories about the teller himself/herself, more recently a number of studies have begun to examine Narratives of Vicarious Experiences (NoVE), that is stories about others. The Introduction summarizes some key structural and functional similarities and differences between NoPE and NoVE, focusing on the idiosyncratic features of NoVE with regard to teller perspective, story introduction, epistemic authority, and function. The second part introduces the contributions to the special issue that span different workplaces and professional contexts (from a pharmaceutical company, to a newsroom, to job interviews), and include face-to-face interactions and other media. Consistent across the contexts are several functions of NoVE. They serve as a powerful tool in constructing one's personal and professional identity. They also serve as ‘shared repertoire’ of experiences told through stories that foster group identity and the sense of belonging.

Comparative genomics of Alternaria species provides insights into the pathogenic lifestyle of Alternaria brassicae \u2013 a pathogen of the Brassicaceae family

BackgroundAlternaria brassicae, a necrotrophic pathogen, causes Alternaria Leaf Spot, one of the economically important diseases of Brassica crops. Many other Alternaria spp. such as A. brassicicola and A. alternata are known to cause secondary infections in the A. brassicae-infected Brassicas. The genome architecture, pathogenicity factors, and determinants of host-specificity of A. brassicae are unknown. In this study, we annotated and characterised the recently announced genome assembly of A. brassicae and compared it with other Alternaria spp. to gain insights into its pathogenic lifestyle.ResultsWe also sequenced the genomes of two A. alternata isolates that were co-infecting B. juncea using Nanopore MinION sequencing for additional comparative analyses within the Alternaria genus. Genome alignments within the Alternaria spp. revealed high levels of synteny between most chromosomes with some intrachromosomal rearrangements. We show for the first time that the genome of A. brassicae, a large-spored Alternaria species, contains a dispensable chromosome. We identified 460 A. brassicae-specific genes, which included many secreted proteins and effectors. Furthermore, we have identified the gene clusters responsible for the production of Destruxin-B, a known pathogenicity factor of A. brassicae.ConclusionThe study provides a perspective into the unique and shared repertoire of genes within the Alternaria genus and identifies genes that could be contributing to the pathogenic lifestyle of A. brassicae.

Martyrdom, Conversion, and Shared Cultural Repertoires in Late Medieval Europe

Exploring a late medieval chapter in the long history of interpenetration between Jewish and Christian representations of martyrdom, this study seeks to contextualize Jewish accounts of the willing death in 1264 of a Christian convert to Judaism named Avraham ben Avraham avinu of Augsburg. According to the Nuremberg Memorbuch and two piyyutim, Avraham of Augsburg courted death at the stake in an exceptionally dramatic and confrontational way. He destroyed Christian devotional objects, publicly blasphemed against Christianity, and proclaimed his Jewish identity in explicit opposition to Christianity. This study analyzes these Jewish accounts in light of roughly contemporaneous Jewish and Christian sources that may be divided into three categories: first, Jewish texts about the willing deaths of other individuals who converted to Judaism or who returned to Judaism after having converted to Christianity; second, Christian accounts of the willing deaths of individuals who converted or returned to Judaism; and third, Christian descriptions of the willing deaths of Christians who returned to Christianity after having converted to Islam. In the process, this study demonstrates that the story of Avraham of Augsburg partook of a “cultural repertoire” that late thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Jews and Christians shared. It suggests also that converts and returnees to Judaism—and in particular Dominican and Franciscan friars who converted to Judaism—may have played a key role in the development of this repertoire.

Learning and the development of professional practice of GP appraisers

BackgroundAn additional portfolio role GPs can take on is as an appraiser. Whilst clinical and education roles are well-defined, less is known about how appraisers learn the skills to appraise and develop their own repertoire of practice.AimParticipating in groups can be a way of learning and improving professional practice. This study uses insights from ‘communities of practice’ (COP) as a way of understanding an under-explored aspect of the development of appraisers.MethodIn-depth interviews with appraisers (both new and long established i.e. ‘lead appraisers’) were analysed using Saldana’s (2016) approach2 to coding and interpretation of qualitative data. The methodology foregrounds constructivist interpretation based on a theory of learning that situates learning within the social milieu of practice and a view of the world as socially constructed. The researchers’ part in this process is to make interpretations through engagement with data.ResultsCOP is used as a conceptual framework drawing on ‘mutual engagement’, ‘joint enterprise’ and ‘shared repertoire’ as a priori codes.3 The setting is a country where a system of appraisal was introduced in 2009 and prior to this there was no formal system. Studying appraisers in a new, unfamiliar setting makes learning more apparent.ConclusionThis study is part of on-going work looking at the role of the medical appraiser. The paper draws out implications for the development of this new professional group.

Accounting Community of Practice pedagogy: a course management invention for developing personal competencies in accounting education

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the findings of an exploratory qualitative study using the implementation of Wenger’s [(1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press; Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization, 7(2), 225–246] Theory of Communities of Practice to develop an Accounting Community of Practice (ACOP) pedagogy. Students from eight accounting courses who participated, in the120 narratives and 280 surveys used as data, practice and develop critical real-world professional accounting competencies by linking three structural foundations: (1) accountability to joint enterprise, (2) mutual engagement, and (3) shared repertoire of communal resources. Competencies promoted by the AICPA [(1999). Core competency framework of entry into the accounting profession. Retrieved from http://www.aicpa.org/edu/corecomp.htm; AICPA. (2006). Core competency framework of entry into the accounting profession. Retrieved from http://www.aicpa.org/edu/corecomp.htm); International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). (2003). International education standard No. 3, professional skills. Retrieved from www.ifac.org; IFAC. (2015). Meeting future expectations of professional competence: A consultation on the IAESB’S future strategies and priorities. Retrieved from www.iaesb.org; ICAEW. (1996). Added value professionals: Chartered accountants in England and Wales. London: Author], and other professional bodies include problem-solving, leadership, project management, and interaction. ACOP strategy is effective in maintaining dynamic learning environments, increasing students’ awareness of trust, open communication, and creative thinking. Meaning and knowledge are owned in ACOP where the focus of the class shifts from instructor to students. This study adds to limited empirical research in communal forms of learning in accounting.