Mechanical properties of the triceps surae tendon and aponeurosis in relation to intensity of sport activity

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the mechanical properties (i.e. force strain relationship) of the triceps surae tendon and aponeurosis relate to the performed sport activity in an intensity-dependent manner. This was done by comparing sprinters with endurance runners and subjects not active in sports. Sixty-six young male subjects (26+/-5 yr; 183+/-6 cm; 77.6+/-6.7 kg) participated in the study. Ten of these subjects were adults not active in sports, 28 were endurance runners and 28 sprinters. All subjects performed isometric maximal voluntary plantar flexion contractions (MVC) on a dynamometer. The distal aponeuroses of the gastrocnemius medialis (GM) was visualised by ultrasound during the MVC. The results showed that only the sprinters had higher normalised stiffness (relationship between tendon force and tendon strain) of the triceps surae tendon and aponeurosis and maximal calculated tendon forces than the endurance runners and the subjects not active in sports. Furthermore, including the data of all 66 examined participants tendon stiffness correlated significantly (r=0.817, P<0.001) with the maximal tendon force achieved during the MVC. It has been concluded that the mechanical properties of the triceps surae tendon and aponeurosis do not show a graded response to the intensity of the performed sport activity but rather remain at control level in a wide range of applied strains and that strain amplitude and/or frequency should exceed a given threshold in order to trigger additional adaptation effects. The results further indicate that subjects with higher muscle strength possibly increase the margin of tolerated mechanical loading of the tendon due to the greater stiffness of their triceps surae tendon and aponeurosis.     

Spectroscopic and structural study of proton and halide ion cooperative binding to gfp

This study reports the influence of halogens on fluorescence properties of the Aequorea victoria Green Fluorescent Protein variant S65T/T203Y (E(2)GFP). Halide binding forms a specific nonfluorescent complex generating a substantial drop of the fluorescence via static quenching. Spectroscopic analysis under different solution conditions reveals high halogen affinity, which is strongly dependent on the pH. This evidences the presence in E(2)GFP of interacting binding sites for halide ions and for protons. Thermodynamic link and cooperative interaction are assessed demonstrating that binding of one halide ion is associated with the binding of one proton in a cooperative fashion with the formation, in the pH range 4.5-10, of a single fully protonated E(2)GFP.halogen complex. To resolve the structural determinants of E(2)GFP sensitivity to halogens, high-resolution crystallographic structures were obtained for the halide-free and I(-), Br(-), and Cl(-) bound E(2)GFP. Remarkably the first high-resolution (1.4 A) crystallographic structure of a chloride-bound GFP is reported. The chloride ion occupies a specific and unique binding pocket in direct contact (3.4 A) with the chromophore imidazolidinone aromatic ring. Unanticipated flexibility, strongly modulated by halide ion interactions, is observed in the region surrounding the chromophore. Furthermore molecular dynamics simulations identified E222 residue (along with the chromophore Y66 residue) being in the protonated state when E(2)GFP.halogen complex is formed. The impact of these results on high-sensitivity biosensor design will be discussed.     

Declining population trends of European mountain birds

Mountain areas often hold special species communities, and they are high on the list of conservation concern. Global warming and changes in human land use, such as grazing pressure and afforestation, have been suggested to be major threats for biodiversity in the mountain areas, affecting species abundance and causing distribution shifts towards mountaintops. Population shifts towards poles and mountaintops have been documented in several areas, indicating that climate change is one of the key drivers of species’ distribution changes. Despite the high conservation concern, relatively little is known about the population trends of species in mountain areas due to low accessibility and difficult working conditions. Thanks to the recent improvement of bird monitoring schemes around Europe, we can here report a first account of population trends of 44 bird species from four major European mountain regions: Fennoscandia, UK upland, south‐western (Iberia) and south‐central mountains (Alps), covering 12 countries. Overall, the mountain bird species declined significantly (?7%) during 2002–2014, which is similar to the declining rate in common birds in Europe during the same period. Mountain specialists showed a significant ?10% decline in population numbers. The slope for mountain generalists was also negative, but not significantly so. The slopes of specialists and generalists did not differ from each other. Fennoscandian and Iberian populations were on average declining, while in United Kingdom and Alps, trends were nonsignificant. Temperature change or migratory behaviour was not significantly associated with regional population trends of species. Alpine habitats are highly vulnerable to climate change, and this is certainly one of the main drivers of mountain bird population trends. However, observed declines can also be partly linked with local land use practices. More efforts should be undertaken to identify the causes of decline and to increase conservation efforts for these populations.     

Understanding fertilization through intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)

Since the establishment of in vitro fertilization, it became evident that almost half of the couples failed to achieve fertilization and this phenomenon was attributed to a male gamete dysfunction. The adoption of assisted fertilization techniques particularly ICSI has been able to alleviate male factor infertility by granting the consistent ability of a viable spermatozoon to activate an oocyte. Single sperm injection, by pinpointing the beginning of fertilization, has been an invaluable tool in clarifying the different aspects of early fertilization and syngamy. However, even with ICSI some couples fail to fertilize due to ooplasmic dysmaturity in relation to the achieved nuclear maturation marked by the extrusion of the first polar body. More uncommon are cases where the spermatozoa partially or completely lack the specific oocyte activating factor. In this work, we review the most relevant aspects of fertilization and its failure through assisted reproductive technologies. Attempts at diagnosing and treating clinical fertilization failure are described.     

Prepuberal Stimulation of 5-HT7-R by LP-211 in a Rat Model of Hyper-Activity and Attention-Deficit: Permanent Effects on Attention,Brain Amino Acids and Synaptic Markers in the Fronto-Striatal Interface

The cross-talk at the prefronto-striatal interface involves excitatory amino acids, different receptors, transducers and modulators. We investigated long-term effects of a prepuberal, subchronic 5-HT7-R agonist (LP-211) on adult behaviour, amino acids and synaptic markers in a model for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Naples High Excitability rats (NHE) and their Random Bred controls (NRB) were daily treated with LP-211 in the 5th and 6th postnatal week. One month after treatment, these rats were tested for indices of activity, non selective (NSA), selective spatial attention (SSA) and emotionality. The quantity of L-Glutamate (L-Glu), L-Aspartate (L-Asp) and L-Leucine (L-Leu), dopamine transporter (DAT), NMDAR1 subunit and CAMKIIα, were assessed in prefrontal cortex (PFC), dorsal (DS) and ventral striatum (VS), for their role in synaptic transmission, neural plasticity and information processing. Prepuberal LP-211 (at lower dose) reduced horizontal activity and (at higher dose) increased SSA, only for NHE but not in NRB rats. Prepuberal LP-211 increased, in NHE rats, L-Glu in the PFC and L-Asp in the VS (at 0.250 mg/kg dose), whereas (at 0.125 mg/kg dose) it decreased L-Glu and L-Asp in the DS. The L-Glu was decreased, at 0.125 mg/kg, only in the VS of NRB rats. The DAT levels were decreased with the 0.125 mg/kg dose (in the PFC), and increased with the 0.250 mg/kg dose (in the VS), significantly for NHE rats. The basal NMDAR1 level was higher in the PFC of NHE than NRB rats; LP-211 treatment (at 0.125 mg/kg dose) decreased NMDAR1 in the VS of NRB rats. This study represents a starting point about the impact of developmental 5-HT7-R activation on neuro-physiology of attentive processes, executive functions and their neural substrates.     

AutoMoDe: A novel approach to the automatic design of control software for robot swarms

We introduce AutoMoDe: a novel approach to the automatic design of control software for robot swarms. The core idea in AutoMoDe recalls the approach commonly adopted in machine learning for dealing with the bias–variance tradedoff: to obtain suitably general solutions with low variance, an appropriate design bias is injected. AutoMoDe produces robot control software by selecting, instantiating, and combining preexisting parametric modules—the injected bias. The resulting control software is a probabilistic finite state machine in which the topology, the transition rules and the values of the parameters are obtained automatically via an optimization process that maximizes a task-specific objective function. As a proof of concept, we define AutoMoDe-Vanilla, which is a specialization of AutoMoDe for the e-puck robot. We use AutoMoDe-Vanilla to design the robot control software for two different tasks: aggregation and foraging. The results show that the control software produced by AutoMoDe-Vanilla (i) yields good results, (ii) appears to be robust to the so called reality gap, and (iii) is naturally human-readable.     

A Drought Resistance-Promoting Microbiome Is Selected by Root System under Desert Farming

Background

Traditional agro-systems in arid areas are a bulwark for preserving soil stability and fertility, in the sight of “reverse desertification”. Nevertheless, the impact of desert farming practices on the diversity and abundance of the plant associated microbiome is poorly characterized, including its functional role in supporting plant development under drought stress.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We assessed the structure of the microbiome associated to the drought-sensitive pepper plant (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivated in a traditional Egyptian farm, focusing on microbe contribution to a crucial ecosystem service, i.e. plant growth under water deficit. The root system was dissected by sampling root/soil with a different degree of association to the plant: the endosphere, the rhizosphere and the root surrounding soil that were compared to the uncultivated soil. Bacterial community structure and diversity, determined by using Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis, differed according to the microhabitat, indicating a selective pressure determined by the plant activity. Similarly, culturable bacteria genera showed different distribution in the three root system fractions. Bacillus spp. (68% of the isolates) were mainly recovered from the endosphere, while rhizosphere and the root surrounding soil fractions were dominated by Klebsiella spp. (61% and 44% respectively). Most of the isolates (95%) presented in vitro multiple plant growth promoting (PGP) activities and stress resistance capabilities, but their distribution was different among the root system fractions analyzed, with enhanced abilities for Bacillus and the rhizobacteria strains. We show that the C. annuum rhizosphere under desert farming enriched populations of PGP bacteria capable of enhancing plant photosynthetic activity and biomass synthesis (up to 40%) under drought stress.

Conclusions/Significance

Crop cultivation provides critical ecosystem services in arid lands with the plant root system acting as a “resource island” able to attract and select microbial communities endowed with multiple PGP traits that sustain plant development under water limiting conditions.     

Associative vocabulary learning: development and testing of two paradigms for the (re-) acquisition of action- and object-related words

Despite a growing number of studies, the neurophysiology of adult vocabulary acquisition is still poorly understood. One reason is that paradigms that can easily be combined with neuroscientfic methods are rare. Here, we tested the efficiency of two paradigms for vocabulary (re-) acquisition, and compared the learning of novel words for actions and objects. Cortical networks involved in adult native-language word processing are widespread, with differences postulated between words for objects and actions. Words and what they stand for are supposed to be grounded in perceptual and sensorimotor brain circuits depending on their meaning. If there are specific brain representations for different word categories, we hypothesized behavioural differences in the learning of action-related and object-related words. Paradigm A, with the learning of novel words for body-related actions spread out over a number of days, revealed fast learning of these new action words, and stable retention up to 4 weeks after training. The single-session Paradigm B employed objects and actions. Performance during acquisition did not differ between action-related and object-related words (time*word category: p?=?0.01), but the translation rate was clearly better for object-related (79%) than for action-related words (53%, p?=?0.002). Both paradigms yielded robust associative learning of novel action-related words, as previously demonstrated for object-related words. Translation success differed for action- and object-related words, which may indicate different neural mechanisms. The paradigms tested here are well suited to investigate such differences with neuroscientific means. Given the stable retention and minimal requirements for conscious effort, these learning paradigms are promising for vocabulary re-learning in brain-lesioned people. In combination with neuroimaging, neuro-stimulation or pharmacological intervention, they may well advance the understanding of language learning to optimize therapeutic strategies.     

EGFR and MET receptor tyrosine kinase-altered microRNA expression induces tumorigenesis and gefitinib resistance in lung cancers

The involvement of the MET oncogene in de novo and acquired resistance of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has previously been reported, but the precise mechanism by which MET overexpression contributes to TKI-resistant NSCLC remains unclear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) negatively regulate gene expression, and their dysregulation has been implicated in tumorigenesis. To understand their role in TKI-resistant NSCLCs, we examined changes in miRNA that are mediated by tyrosine kinase receptors. Here we report that miR-30b, miR-30c, miR-221 and miR-222 are modulated by both epidermal growth factor (EGF) and MET receptors, whereas miR-103 and miR-203 are controlled only by MET. We showed that these miRNAs have important roles in gefitinib-induced apoptosis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of NSCLC cells in vitro and in vivo by inhibiting the expression of the genes encoding BCL2-like 11 (BIM), apoptotic peptidase activating factor 1 (APAF-1), protein kinase C ? (PKC-?) and sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (SRC). These findings suggest that modulation of specific miRNAs may provide a therapeutic approach for the treatment of NSCLCs.