Disease Burden of 32 Infectious Diseases in the Netherlands, 2007-2011

BackgroundInfectious disease burden estimates provided by a composite health measure give a balanced view of the true impact of a disease on a population, allowing the relative impact of diseases that differ in severity and mortality to be monitored over time. This article presents the first national disease burden estimates for a comprehensive set of 32 infectious diseases in the Netherlands.ConclusionsFor guiding and supporting public health policy decisions regarding the prioritisation of interventions and preventive measures, estimates of disease burden and the comparison of burden between diseases can be informative. Although the collection of disease-specific parameters and estimation of incidence is a process subject to continuous improvement, the current study established a baseline for assessing the impact of future public health initiatives.     

Bistability,Spatial Interaction,and the Distribution of Tropical Forests and Savannas

Recent work has indicated that tropical forest and savanna can be alternative stable states under a range of climatic conditions. However, dynamical systems theory suggests that in case of strong spatial interactions between patches of forest and savanna, a boundary between both states is only possible at conditions in which forest and savanna are equally stable, called the ‘Maxwell point.’ Frequency distributions of MODIS tree-cover data at 250 m resolution were used to estimate such Maxwell points with respect to the amount and seasonality of rainfall in both South America and Africa. We tested on a 0.5° scale whether there is a larger probability of local coexistence of forests and savannas near the estimated Maxwell points. Maxwell points for South America and Africa were estimated at 1760 and 1580 mm mean annual precipitation and at Markham’s Seasonality Index values of 50 and 24 %. Although the probability of local coexistence was indeed highest around these Maxwell points, local coexistence was not limited to the Maxwell points. We conclude that critical transitions between forest and savanna may occur when climatic changes exceed a critical value. However, we also conclude that spatial interactions between patches of forest and savanna may reduce the hysteresis that can be observed in isolated patches, causing more predictable forest-savanna boundaries than continental-scale analyses of tree cover indicate. This effect could be less pronounced in Africa than in South America, where the forest-savanna boundary is substantially affected by rainfall seasonality.     

Stable partial migration under a genetic threshold model of migratory behaviour

Many species show migratory behaviour in response to seasonal changes in environmental conditions. A peculiar, yet widespread phenomenon is partial migration, when a single population consists of both migratory and non‐migratory individuals. There are still many open questions regarding the stability and evolutionary significance of such populations. For passerines the inheritance of migratory activity is best described by the threshold model of quantitative genetics. Such a model has not yet been employed in theoretical studies, in which stability of partially migratory populations is usually linked to group differences in survival or reproduction. Here we develop a parsimonious model featuring a conditional genetic threshold for passerine migratory behaviour under which stable partial migration can be observed, and we explore the resulting selection landscape. Our model results show a cline in migratory behaviour across the landscape, from fully migratory populations to fully residential populations, with a fairly wide zone of partially migratory populations, which is stable in both time and space under a wide range of parameter settings. Temporal stability of the zone is linked with the yearly variance in both migration survival and resident winter survival. In contrast to other theoretical studies, we show that density dependence in winter survival is not essential for observing partially migratory populations. In addition, we observe that selection on the genetic threshold value occurs mainly at the borders of the zone of partial migration. This result suggests that fully migratory and fully residential populations in areas far from the zone of partial migration can harbour genetic diversity that allows the appearance of the alternative phenotype under (a wide range of) different conditions.     

Effects of LPS on the accumulation of lipid droplets,proliferation, and steroidogenesis in goat luteinized granulosa cells

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can cause ovarian dysfunction and infertility in mammals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of LPS on the accumulation of lipid droplets (LDs), proliferation, and steroidogenesis in goat luteinized granulosa cells (LGCs). GCs isolated from the ovarian follicles were spontaneously luteinized under media with fetal bovine serum, resulting in increased progesterone and shifted shape from spherical to star with multiple prolongations. Then, LGCs were treated with LPS (0‐10 μg/mL) for 0‐48 hours. Oil Red O staining was performed to observe LDs accumulation and commercial kit was applied to detect intracellular triglyceride (TG) content. The cell proliferation were detected by cell counting kit‐8. Expressions of cell‐cycle–related genes were determined by real‐time polymerase chain reaction. Estradiol (E ₂) and progesterone (P ₄) from cell supernatants were determined by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, and expressions of STAR, P450scc, 3β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β‐HSD) and CYP19A1 were detected by Western blot. Results showed that LPS treatment significantly increased LDs accumulation after 24 hours, and 5 μg/mL LPS increased TG content ( P < 0.05). LPS treatment for 24 hours stimulated the LGCs activities ( P<0.05), which was confirmed by the increases in the expressions of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), cyclinB1 and cyclinD1, while 48 hours treatment had no effect. LPS treatment suppressed E ₂ and P ₄ output of LGCs ( P < 0.05). Western blot results showed that 10 μg/mL LPS decreased the protein expression of 3β‐HSD in LGCs ( P < 0.05). In conclusion, LPS increased LDs accumulation and cell proliferation, and LPS‐mediated P ₄ reduction could be attributed to the decreased 3β‐HSD protein expression, which provide new information for the regulation of ovarian function in goats.     

Calcium alginate bead immobilization of cells containing tyrosine ammonia lyase activity for use in the production of p-hydroxycinnamic acid

An Escherichia coli catalyst with tyrosine ammonia lyase activity (TAL) has been stabilized for repeated use in batch conversions of high tyrosine solids to p-hydroxycinnamic acid (pHCA). The TAL biocatalyst was stabilized by controlling the reaction pH to 9.8 +/- 0.1 and immobilizing the cells within a calcium alginate matrix that was cross-linked with glutaraldehyde and polyethyleneimine (GA/PEI). We found a GA range where the bead-encapsulated TAL was not inactivated, and the resulting cross-linking provided the beads with the mechanical stability necessary for repeated use in consecutive batch reactions with catalyst recycle. The GA/PEI calcium alginate TAL catalyst was used in 41 1-L batch reactions where 50 g L(-1) tyrosine was converted to 39 +/- 4 g L(-1) pHCA in each batch. The practical usefulness and ease of this process was demonstrated by scaling up the TAL bead immobilization and using the immobilized TAL catalyst in four 125-L bioconversion reactions to produce over 12 kg of purified pHCA.     

Enhanced endothelin-1-mediated leg vascular tone in healthy older subjects.

Advanced age is associated with a decreased leg blood flow and reduced physical activity. Endothelin (ET-1), a powerful vasoconstrictor, may play a role in the increased leg vascular tone in older men. objectives: to assess the ET-1-mediated vascular tone in the legs of healthy sedentary older men, both before and after 8 wk of exercise training. methods: in 8 younger subjects (19-50 yr) and 8 older men (67-76 yr), bilateral leg blood flow was measured using venous occlusion plethysmography before and after antagonizing ET-1 (using selective ET(A/B)-receptor antagonists). In older men, reversibility of the observations was assessed after 8 wk of cycling. results: ET-receptor inhibition increased leg blood flow significantly more in older men compared with younger individuals (29 +/- 9% and 10 +/- 4%, respectively, P < 0.05). Eight-week cycling training increased baseline blood flow in older men. The blood flow response to ET-receptor inhibition in older men was not affected by the training program (25 +/- 8%, P > 0.05 for comparison with pretraining). The flow ratio (blood flows infused leg/noninfused leg) decreased significantly by training from 26 +/- 8% to 7+3% (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: the increased baseline vascular tone in aging is at least in part mediated by the endothelin. Eight-weeks cycling training in older sedentary men decreased leg vascular tone and seems to partly decrease the ET-1-mediated vascular tone.     

Comparing in-lab full polysomnography for diagnosing sleep apnea in children to home sleep apnea tests (HSAT) with an online video attending technician

Sleep and Biological Rhythms - The main study aim was to compare the validity of children sleep apnea data obtained from standard polysomnography (PSG) to a home sleep apnea test (HSAT) accompanied...     

Discovery of 2-arylthieno[3,2-d]pyrimidines containing 8-oxa-3-azabi-cyclo[3.2.1]octane in the 4-position as potent inhibitors of mTOR with selectivity over PI3K

2-Aryl-4-morpholinothieno[3,2-d]pyrimidines are known PI3K inhibitors. This class of compounds also potently inhibited the homologous enzyme mTOR. Replacement of the morpholine group in these compounds with an 8-oxa-3-azabicyclo[3.2.1]octane group led to mTOR inhibitors with selectivity over PI3K. Optimization of the 2-aryl substituent led to the discovery of 2-(4-ureidophenyl)-thienopyrimidines as highly potent (IC₅₀ <1 nM) mTOR inhibitors with excellent selectivity (up to >1000-fold) over PI3K and good potency in a cellular proliferation assay (IC₅₀ <50 nM).     

Similar patterns of age‐specific reproduction in an island and mainland population of great tits Parus major

The process of ageing was long thought to be too infrequent to affect life‐histories in natural populations. Long‐term studies have, however, recently demonstrated ageing to be ubiquitous even in the wild, although confounding factors, such as emigration instead of mortality, or inter‐population variation in rates of ageing have seldom been addressed. Here, we present analyses of female age‐specific reproductive performance in a Dutch island population of great tits Parus major. For this population with limited connectivity to surrounding areas, we show that, between individuals, reproductive lifespan positively co‐varies with recruit production, while within individuals performance improves up to 3 years of age, after which it gradually declines. We also show these patterns to be strikingly similar to those recently found in a less isolated British mainland population of great tits, characterised by different environmental conditions and life‐history strategies, in particular the frequency of multiple breeding. Our results therefore suggest patterns of age‐specific reproductive performance to be robust to both environmental and life‐history variation.