causing symptoms of premature ageing. In 1996, the Werner syndrome gene (WRN) responsible for WS was identified. The gene product, WRN, acts as a DNA helicase (WRN helicase) with exonuclease activity. WRN greatly participates in DNA metabolism by facilitating cellular processes, including DNA replication, recombination, repair, and transcription in cooperation with other cellular proteins. WRN ...

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder caused by the partial deletion of chromosome 7. Individuals with WS have atypical cognitive abilities, such as hypersociability and compromised visuospatial cognition, although the mechanisms underlying these deficits, as well as the relationship between them, remain unclear. Here, we assessed performance in mental rotation (MR) and level 2 visual pe...

The interaction between Arabidopsis and the biotrophic oomycete Peronospora parasitica (downy mildew) provides an attractive model pathosystem to identify molecular components of the host that are required for genotype-specific recognition of the parasite. These components are the so-called RPP genes (for resistance to P. parasitica). Mutational analysis of the ecotype Wassilewskija (Ws-0) reve...

The present paper investigates the syntactic abilities of a group of individuals with Williams Syndrome to explore the debates surrounding the dissociation between language and cognition as well as possible dissociations within the language module in this population. Experimental linguistic measures that assess interpretation of passives, pronouns and reflexives as well as elicitation and compr...

Open service-oriented systems which autonomously and continually satisfy users’ service requests to optimal levels are an appropriate response to the need for increased automation of information systems. Given a service request, an open service-oriented system interprets the functional and nonfunctional requirements laid out in the request and identifies the optimal WS composition— that is, ide...

The molecular and neural mechanisms regulating social-emotional behaviors are fundamentally important but largely unknown; unraveling these requires a genetic systems neuroscience analysis of human models. Williams Syndrome (WS), a condition caused by deletion of ~28 genes, is associated with a gregarious personality, strong drive to approach strangers, difficult peer interactions, and attracti...

OBJECTIVES efficacy and tolerability of WS(®) 5570 for the treatment of acute mild-to-moderate depression, has been demonstrated in various studies. Here, we present a subgroup analysis of a double blind, randomised trial to compare the therapeutic efficacy of WS(®) 5570 with paroxetine in patients suffering from a major depressive episode with moderate symptom intensity. METHODS moderate dep...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In carotid disease, infarcts can occur in the cortical as well as internal watershed (WS), or both. Better understanding the pathophysiology of WS infarcts would guide treatment. Two distinct hypotheses, namely low-flow and micro-embolism, are equally supported by neuropathological and physiological studies. Here we review the evidence regarding the mechanisms for WS stro...

Fibroblasts derived from the progeroid Werner syndrome (WS) show reduced replicative lifespan and a "stressed" morphology, both phenotypes being alleviated by using the p38 MAP kinase inhibitor SB203580. Because p38 is a major hub for the control of stress-signalling pathways we were interested in examining the possible role for downstream kinases in order to refine our understanding of the rol...

S OF PAPERS 191 The WS prevalence was above 90% in all groups. The prevalence of WS score 2 was 54.0, 81.2, 62.5 and 68.6% whereas the mean WS scores were 1.50, 1.79, 1.58 and 1.63, for C, Cox, V and VLE, respectively, being significant (P<0.001) the difference Cox vs C and V. The prevalence of WS grade 2 causes breast downgrade that results in economic losses, and the mean WS score was higher ...