Analyzing the Long Term Cohesive Effect of Sector Specific Driving Forces

Financial markets are partially composed of sectors dominated by external driving forces, such as commodity prices, infrastructure and other indices. We characterize the statistical properties of such sectors and present a novel model for the coupling of the stock prices and their dominating driving forces, inspired by mean reverting stochastic processes. Using the model we were able to explain the market sectors’ long term behavior and estimate the coupling strength between stocks in financial markets and the sector specific driving forces. Notably, the analysis was successfully applied to the shipping market, in which the Baltic dry index (BDI), an assessment of the price of transporting the major raw materials by sea, influences the shipping financial market. We also present the analysis of other sectors—the gold mining market and the food production market, for which the model was also successfully applied. The model can serve as a general tool for characterizing the coupling between external forces and affected financial variables and therefore for estimating the risk in sectors and their vulnerability to external stress.     

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Can Diminish Fibromyalgia Syndrome – Prospective Clinical Trial

BackgroundFibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a persistent and debilitating disorder estimated to impair the quality of life of 2–4% of the population, with 9:1 female-to-male incidence ratio. FMS is an important representative example of central nervous system sensitization and is associated with abnormal brain activity. Key symptoms include chronic widespread pain, allodynia and diffuse tenderness, along with fatigue and sleep disturbance. The syndrome is still elusive and refractory. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on symptoms and brain activity in FMS.ConclusionsThe study provides evidence that HBOT can improve the symptoms and life quality of FMS patients. Moreover, it shows that HBOT can induce neuroplasticity and significantly rectify abnormal brain activity in pain related areas of FMS patients.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT01827683","term_id":"NCT01827683"}}NCT01827683     

An alternative excited-state proton transfer pathway in green fluorescent protein variant S205V

Wild-type green fluorescent protein (wt-GFP) has a prominent absorbance band centered at approximately 395 nm, attributed to the neutral chromophore form. The green emission arising upon excitation of this band results from excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) from the chromophore hydroxyl, through a hydrogen-bond network proposed to consist of a water molecule and Ser205, to Glu222. Although evidence for Glu222 as a terminal proton acceptor has already been obtained, no evidence for the participation of Ser205 in the proton transfer process exists. To examine the role of Ser205 in the proton transfer, we mutated Ser205 to valine. However, the derived GFP variant S205V, upon excitation at 400 nm, still produces green fluorescence. Time-resolved emission spectroscopy suggests that ESPT contributes to the green fluorescence, and that the proton transfer takes place approximately 30 times more slowly than in wt-GFP. The crystal structure of S205V reveals rearrangement of Glu222 and Thr203, forming a new hydrogen-bonding network. We propose this network to be an alternative ESPT pathway with distinctive features that explain the significantly slowed rate of proton transfer. In support of this proposal, the double mutant S205V/T203V is shown to be a novel blue fluorescent protein containing a tyrosine-based chromophore, yet is incapable of ESPT. The results have implications for the detailed mechanism of ESPT and the photocycle of wt-GFP, in particular for the structures of spectroscopically identified intermediates in the cycle.     

Experimental Myocardial Infarction Induces Altered Regulatory T Cell Hemostasis,and Adoptive Transfer Attenuates Subsequent Remodeling

Background

Ischemic cardiac damage is associated with upregulation of cardiac pro-inflammatory cytokines, as well as invasion of lymphocytes into the heart. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are known to exert a suppressive effect on several immune cell types. We sought to determine whether the Treg pool is influenced by myocardial damage and whether Tregs transfer and deletion affect cardiac remodeling.

Methods and Results

The number and functional suppressive activity of Tregs were assayed in mice subjected to experimental myocardial infarction. The numbers of splenocyte-derived Tregs in the ischemic mice were significantly higher after the injury than in the controls, and their suppressive properties were significantly compromised. Compared with PBS, adoptive Treg transfer to mice with experimental infarction reduced infarct size and improved LV remodeling and functional performance by echocardiography. Treg deletion with blocking anti-CD25 antibodies did not influence infarct size or echocardiographic features of cardiac remodeling.

Conclusion

Treg numbers are increased whereas their function is compromised in mice with that underwent experimental infarction. Transfer of exogeneous Tregs results in attenuation of myocardial remodeling whereas their ablation has no effect. Thus, Tregs may serve as interesting potential interventional targets for attenuating left ventricular remodeling.     

Fine‐mapping of a locus on linkage group 23 for sex determination in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Genetic markers in tilapia species associated with loci affecting sex determination (SD), sex‐specific mortality or both were mapped to linkage groups (LG) 1, 2, 3, 6 and 23. The objective of this study was to use these markers to fine‐map the locus with the greatest effect on SD in Oreochromis niloticus. Our parental stock, full‐sibs of Nile tilapia (Swansea origin), were divided into three groups: (i) untreated, (ii) feminized by diethylstilbestrol and (iii) masculinized by 17α‐methyltestosterone. We analysed the first group for association of microsatellite markers representing these five LGs. The strongest association with gender was found on LG23 for marker UNH898 (χ²; P = 8.6 × 10^?5). Allele 276 was found almost exclusively in males, and we hypothesized that this allele is a male‐associated allele (MAA). Sex‐reversed individuals were used for mating experiments with and without the segregating MAA. Mating of individuals lacking the MAA resulted in all‐female progeny. Mating of two heterozygotes for MAA gave rise to 81 males and 30 females. Analysis of association between gender and genotypes identified the MAA in 98.6% of males as opposed to 8.0% of females (χ²; P = 2.5 × 10^?18). Eight markers that flank UNH898 were genotyped to map the locus on LG23 within a confidence interval of 16–21 cM. Mating of homozygous individuals for MAA is underway for production of all‐male populations.     

Novel applications of feather tip extracts from MDV-infected chickens; diagnosis of commercial broilers, whole genome separation by PFGE and synchronic mucosal infection

Marek's disease virus (MDV) productive replication occurs in the feather follicle epithelium and the feather tips are valuable both for research and disease diagnosis. Three novel applications of feather tip extracts are described now: (A). As a source of DNA for amplifying either MDV and/or ALV-J. In two clinical situations a marked advantage was obtained compared to blood and organs; in broiler breeder flocks with a mixed MDV and ALV-J infection, and in young broilers with neurological Marek's disease (MD). (B). Separation of the large ( approximately 200 kbp) MDV genome directly from the infected chickens. Using pulsed field gel electrophoresis, the DNA extracted from tumors or feather tips was separated and hybridized to a 132 bp tandem repeat MDV probe. Compared to 2/55 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive tumor samples, 15/61 feather tip extracts contained whole MDV genomes. (C). Experimental MDV infection was induced by the mucosal route by dripping feather tip extract to the eye and mouth of the bird. That attempted to reproduce the native infection process, however the use of extracts, instead of dry feather dust was a compromise, aimed to synchronize the infection. In one trial, tumors were induced 6 weeks after dripping day-old broilers, while in another, feather tips were PCR positive 16 days after dripping of 2-month-old layers.     

Improving the prediction accuracy of residue solvent accessibility and real-value backbone torsion angles of proteins by guided-learning through a two-layer neural network

This article attempts to increase the prediction accuracy of residue solvent accessibility and real-value backbone torsion angles of proteins through improved learning. Most methods developed for improving the backpropagation algorithm of artificial neural networks are limited to small neural networks. Here, we introduce a guided-learning method suitable for networks of any size. The method employs a part of the weights for guiding and the other part for training and optimization. We demonstrate this technique by predicting residue solvent accessibility and real-value backbone torsion angles of proteins. In this application, the guiding factor is designed to satisfy the intuitive condition that for most residues, the contribution of a residue to the structural properties of another residue is smaller for greater separation in the protein-sequence distance between the two residues. We show that the guided-learning method makes a 2-4% reduction in 10-fold cross-validated mean absolute errors (MAE) for predicting residue solvent accessibility and backbone torsion angles, regardless of the size of database, the number of hidden layers and the size of input windows. This together with introduction of two-layer neural network with a bipolar activation function leads to a new method that has a MAE of 0.11 for residue solvent accessibility, 36 degrees for psi, and 22 degrees for phi. The method is available as a Real-SPINE 3.0 server in http://sparks.informatics.iupui.edu.     

On the survival probabilities of mutant genes and the evolution of dominance.

Intrinsic biological resemblance between two types is measured in terms of a correlation between their fitnesses under various possible environmental conditions. A tendency toward dominance is defined as the intrinsic biological resemblance between homozygote and heterozygote. The effect of a tendency toward dominance on the à priori survival probability of a mutant gene is studied when the fitnesses of the mutated forms are given only by their distributions. Close intrinsic resemblance between homozygous and heterozygous forms of a new mutant gene is shown to substantially increase the à priori survival probability of this gene. A probabilistic effect of selection is, thus, shown to statistically favor dominant or near dominant mutant genes to start with.This probabilistic effect is suggested as complementary to the Fisherian process of selection on the heterozygote modifiers, taking place at further stages of the progress of a mutant gene.     

Toll-like receptors modulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis

Neurogenesis - the formation of new neurons in the adult brain - is considered to be one of the mechanisms by which the brain maintains its lifelong plasticity in response to extrinsic and intrinsic changes. The mechanisms underlying the regulation of neurogenesis are largely unknown. Here, we show that Toll-like receptors (TLRs), a family of highly conserved pattern-recognizing receptors involved in neural system development in Drosophila and innate immune activity in mammals, regulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis. We show that TLR2 and TLR4 are found on adult neural stem/progenitor cells (NPCs) and have distinct and opposing functions in NPC proliferation and differentiation both in vitro and in vivo. TLR2 deficiency in mice impaired hippocampal neurogenesis, whereas the absence of TLR4 resulted in enhanced proliferation and neuronal differentiation. In vitro studies further indicated that TLR2 and TLR4 directly modulated self-renewal and the cell-fate decision of NPCs. The activation of TLRs on the NPCs was mediated via MyD88 and induced PKCalpha/beta-dependent activation of the NF-kappaB signalling pathway. Thus, our study identified TLRs as players in adult neurogenesis and emphasizes their specified and diverse role in cell renewal.