Role of commercial harbours and recreational marinas in the spread of non-indigenous fouling species

The role of commercial harbours as sink and source habitats for non-indigenous species (NIS) and the role of recreational boating for their secondary spread were investigated by analysing the fouling community of five Italian harbours and five marinas in the western Mediterranean Sea. It was first hypothesised that NIS assemblages in the recreational marinas were subsets of those occurring in commercial harbours. However, the data did not consistently support this hypothesis: the NIS pools of some marinas significantly diverged from harbours even belonging to the same coastal stretches, including NIS occurring only in marinas. This study confirms harbours as hotspots for marine NIS, but also reveals that numbers of NIS in some marinas is higher than expected, suggesting that recreational vessels effectively facilitate NIS spread. It is recommended that this vector of NIS introduction is taken into account in the future planning of sustainable development of maritime tourism in Europe.     

Age-associated differences in motor output variability and coordination during the simultaneous dorsiflexion of both feet

Older adults are more variable than young adults on tasks that demand the simultaneous control of more than one effector, and the difference between age groups may be related to their different capacity of coordinating the force output of the involved effectors. The goal of this study was to determine whether age-associated differences in motor output variability during tasks involving the simultaneous dorsiflexion of two feet can be partially explained by differences in coordination and possibly attenuated by physical training. Ten young and 22 old adults (10 trained and 12 untrained old adults) volunteered to participate in the study. Trained older adults had experience in a high-intensity mixed modality training (MMT) regime for a minimum of 1?year. Volunteers performed successive trials of a constant force task and a goal-directed task, with and without visual feedback. Within- and between-trial variability were calculated and coordination was quantified using the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) approach (i.e., co-variation of the force outputs of both feet were used to quantify a motor synergy index). Older adults exhibited greater variability and lower synergy (p?p?相似文献   

A polymorphism in the human serotonin 5-HT2A receptor gene may protect against systemic sclerosis by reducing platelet aggregation

Introduction

Platelet aggregation may contribute to the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis: following activation, platelets release significant amounts of serotonin – which promotes vasoconstriction and fibrosis, and further enhances aggregation. The C+1354T polymorphism in the exonic region of the serotonin 2A receptor gene determining the His452Tyr substitution was associated with blunted intracellular responses after serotonin stimulation, and may have a role in susceptibility to scleroderma.

Methods

One hundred and fifteen consecutive systemic sclerosis patients and 140 well-matched healthy control individuals were genotyped by sequence-specific primer-PCR for the His⁴⁵²Tyr substitution of the serotonin 2A receptor gene, and associations were sought with scleroderma and its main clinical features. The functional relevance of the His⁴⁵²Tyr substitution was also assessed by evaluating the aggregation of platelet-rich plasma from His⁴⁵²/His⁴⁵² and His⁴⁵²/Tyr⁴⁵² healthy individuals after stimulation with adenosine diphosphate ± serotonin.

Results

The T allele of the C+1354T polymorphism was underrepresented in scleroderma patients compared with control individuals (5.2% versus 12.4%, P < 0.001, chi-square test and 1,000-fold permutation test) and its carriage reduced the risk for systemic sclerosis (odds ratio = 0.39, 95% confidence interval = 0.19 to 0.85, P < 0.01). Platelets from His⁴⁵²/Tyr⁴⁵² healthy subjects more weakly responded to serotonin stimulation compared with platelets from His⁴⁵²/His⁴⁵² individuals (3.2 ± 2.6-fold versus 9.6 ± 8.6-fold increase in aggregation, P = 0.017 by Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and P = 0.003 after correction for baseline adenosine diphosphate-induced aggregation values).

Conclusion

The His⁴⁵²Tyr substitution may influence susceptibility to systemic sclerosis by altering platelet aggregation in response to serotonin.     

Developing a scuba trail vulnerability index (STVI): a case study from a Mediterranean MPA

Scuba diving is now one of the major form of commercial use of marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world and the control of its potential impacts on the marine environment represents a fundamental key to manage this recreational activity in highly dived areas. A potential tool to tackle such issues has been thought to be the definition of a value of recreational carrying capacity of an area, but this approach has been rarely considered management-effective. Therefore, the first step for effectively managing scuba-diving should be ‘bottom-up’: characterizing the benthic communities potentially affected by diving and evaluating their vulnerability. Aim of this paper is to propose a tool to define an index of vulnerability for dive trails (STVI: scuba trail vulnerability index). This has taken into consideration both physical and biological features of each trail. All the considered features are represented by non-quantitative variables, because either they are purely qualitative or their quantitative measurement is impractical. The management of such qualitative information and its translation into a formal methodology was performed by means of fuzzy logic, which has been repeatedly proposed as a powerful technique to develop indices of environmental quality. The approach adopted in this study provided a useful tool for the preliminary assessment of the potential vulnerability of benthic assemblages to scuba-diving and may represent an alternative method to the assessment of carrying capacity. The application of this index will enable management strategies for potentially reducing the degradation of benthic organisms/assemblages, and allowing a sustainable use of MPAs.     

Replication of recently identified systemic lupus erythematosus genetic associations: a case–control study

Introduction

We aimed to replicate association of newly identified systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) loci.

Methods

We selected the most associated SNP in 10 SLE loci. These 10 SNPs were analysed in 1,579 patients with SLE and 1,726 controls of European origin by single-base extension. Comparison of allele frequencies between cases and controls was done with the Mantel–Haenszel approach to account for heterogeneity between sample collections.

Results

A previously controversial association with a SNP in the TYK2 gene was replicated (odds ratio (OR) = 0.79, P = 2.5 × 10-⁵), as well as association with the X chromosome MECP2 gene (OR = 1.26, P = 0.00085 in women), which had only been reported in a single study, and association with four other loci, 1q25.1 (OR = 0.81, P = 0.0001), PXK (OR = 1.19, P = 0.0038), BANK1 (OR = 0.83, P = 0.006) and KIAA1542 (OR = 0.84, P = 0.001), which have been identified in a genome-wide association study, but not found in any other study. All these replications showed the same disease-associated allele as originally reported. No association was found with the LY9 SNP, which had been reported in a single study.

Conclusions

Our results confirm nine SLE loci. For six of them, TYK2, MECP2, 1q25.1, PXK, BANK1 and KIAA1542, this replication is important. The other three loci, ITGAM, STAT4 and C8orf13-BLK, were already clearly confirmed. Our results also suggest that MECP2 association has no influence in the sex bias of SLE, contrary to what has been proposed. In addition, none of the other associations seems important in this respect.     

Parallel alternating sliding knots are effective for ligation of mesenteric arteries during resection and anastomosis of the equine jejunum

Background

In literature only one article describes and compares methods of achieving hemostasis in equine mesenteric arteries during jejunal resection and anastomosis, and most textbooks favor ligating-dividing mechanical devices. The latter method cannot always be used, not least because the devices are expensive and in some cases even contra-indicated. Various types of knots, including sliding knots, are widely used to provide hemostasis in laparoscopy.The objective of this study was to compare a triple ligature for mesenteric vessels composed of three sliding knots with a triple ligature composed of a modified transfixing and two surgeon’s knots.

Methods

Portions of jejunum with associated mesenteric vessels were collected from 12 horses at a local abattoir. These were divided into 24 specimens containing five mesenteric arteries each. Each artery was closed with a triple ligature. In group A, a surgeon’s knot was used to tie the ligatures (two circumferential and one modified transfixing) while in group B all ligatures (three circumferential) were tied with a parallel alternating sliding knot. Both groups were divided ino two subgroups depending on suture material used (multifilament or monofilament suture material). Time to perform ligatures for every specimen were recorded and compared between groups.After closure, arteries were cannulated and intraluminal pressures were increased until ligature failure. Leaking pressures were recorded and compared between groups.

Results

Ligation of mesenteric arteries was significantly faster to perform with sliding knots than with surgeon’s knots, both with monofilament and multifilament suture material. With multifilament suture material, the leaking pressure of sliding knot ligatures was significantly higher than that of surgeon’s knot ligatures. With monofilament suture, there were no statistically significant differences in leaking pressure between ligature methods. Both ligating methods were stronger with monofilament suture material than with multifilament suture material.

Conclusions

Regardless of the ligature used, monofilament suture material performed better than multifilament suture material to achieve hemostatic knots. Independently of the suture material, the sliding knot is comparable or better than the surgeon’s knot in providing hemostasis, and is faster to perform.

     

Cholecystokinin, a satiety signal in newborn infants?

This study was undertaken in order to describe circulating glucose and cholecystokinin (CCK) concentrations in relation to the spontaneous feeding behavior of the human newborn infant. Eighty-three, healthy, 3-days-old infants were studied in connection with breast feeding. Blood samples from the infants were cross-sectionally collected before feeding, 5 and 10 min after the start of sucking, and after the infants had sucked ad libitum. Before feeding, the infants presented a typical "hunger behavior", which changed in connection with breast feeding into a pattern associated with satiety. A significant increase in the plasma CCK concentration was found, 5 min (P = 0.004) and 10 min (P = 0.02) after the start of sucking, as well as after feeding (P = 0.04). Furthermore, a positive correlation between the CCK concentration and the volume of ingested milk was found 10 min after the start of sucking, when 91% of of the volume of milk had been ingested; Rs = 0.51, n = 19, P < 0.02. However, no change was found in the glucose concentration in connection with breast feeding. It is concluded that CCK may be important as a satiety factor in the regulation of food intake in the newborn infant.     

BHRF1, the Epstein-Barr virus gene with homology to Bc12, is dispensable for B-lymphocyte transformation and virus replication.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) BHRF1 open reading frame is abundantly expressed early in the lytic replication cycle. BHRF1 is also transiently expressed in some latently infected cell lines in the absence of expression of other lytic cycle proteins. BHRF1 shares distant, but significant, colinear primary amino acid sequence homology to Bc12, a cellular gene strongly implicated in the evolution of follicular lymphoma. The experiments reported here used a molecular genetic approach to examine the role of BHRF1 in EBV infection. Isogenic EBV recombinants having either wild-type BHRF1 or a null mutation due to a translational stop signal in place of the 24th BHRF1 codon were used to infect primary B lymphocytes. The BHRF1 mutant recombinants did not differ from the wild type in their ability to infect and transform the growth of primary B lymphocytes, to replicate in the resultant lymphoblastoid cell lines, or to initiate a second round of primary cell transformation. Deletion of the entire BHRF1 open reading frame did not destroy the ability of the mutant virus to maintain cell growth transformation. The significance of these findings with regard to the role of BHRF1 in EBV infection is discussed.     

Localization of different alcian blue-proteoglycan particles in the intervertebral disc

A histochemical investigation was carried out on proteoglycans of bovine intervertebral disc. Samples obtained from the "annulus fibrosus" (A.F.) and "nucleus pulposus" (N.P.) were treated with Alcian blue (AB) diluted in solutions of MgCl2 at critical electrolyte concentrations (CEC); some samples were incubated in testicular hyaluronidase before AB treatment. At least four types of elongated AB-proteoglycan particles were recognized: a) in A.F. lamellae and N.P., 1 nm rod-like particles were arranged orthogonally to the collagen fibrils and spaced at a distance equivalent to the fibril D-period (Figs. 1-5); b) within the A.F. lamellae, other 16-20 nm particles formed a close network among the collagen fibrils (Figs. 1,2,3,5); c) in the A.F. interlamellar crevices, 30-50 nm leaf-like particles were present (Fig. 6); d) in the N.P.Z., 20-30 nm leaf-like particles formed a wide-mesh (Fig. 4). The alcianophylic particle sizes suggest they may correspond to proteoglycan monomers in the A.F. lamellae and mostly proteoglycan aggregates in A.F. interlamellar crevices and N.P.. Both alcianophylia degrees at MgCl2 CEC solutions and enzymatic susceptibility indicate the presence of chondroitin sulphate and keratan sulphate and that the large particles in the A.F. interlamellar crevices are the keratan sulphate richest proteoglycans. The features of the observed AB-proteoglycan particles are consistent with previous morphological data reported for other tissues as well as some biochemical data for the intervertebral disc and may be correlated to the composite mechanical properties of this tissue.