Biochemical ethanol effects affected by a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, piroxicam, prevents the hepatic increase of triacylglycerols and malondialdehyde resulting from the acute intoxication of rats with ethanol. In addition, in the intoxicated rats, piroxicam consistently produces a decrease in the levels of blood ethanol in comparison with control animals. It is suggested that the anti-inflammatory compound stimulates ethanol oxidation.     

Physical factors driving intertidal macroalgae distribution: physiological stress of a dominant fucoid at its southern limit

Climate change is driving species range shifts worldwide. However, physiological responses related to distributional changes are not fully understood. Oceanographers have reported an increase in ocean temperature in the northwest Iberian Peninsula that is potentially related to the decline in some cold-temperate intertidal macroalgae in the Cantabrian Sea, namely Fucus serratus. Low tide stress could also play a role in this decline. We performed one mensurative (in situ) and two manipulative (in culture) experiments designed to evaluate the interactive effects of some physical factors. The first experiment analysed field response to low tide stress in marginal (mid-Cantabrian Sea and northern Portugal) versus central (Galicia) populations of F. serratus. Then a second experiment was performed that utilized either harsh or mild summer conditions of atmospheric temperature, irradiance, humidity, and wind velocity to compare the responses of individuals from one marginal and one central population to low tide stress. Finally, the combined effect of sea temperature and the other factors was evaluated to detect interactive effects. Changes in frond growth, maximal photosynthetic quantum yield (F (v)/F (m)), temperature, and desiccation were found. Three additive factors (solar irradiation, ocean and air temperatures) were found to drive F. serratus distribution, except under mildly humid conditions that ameliorated atmospheric thermal stress (two additive factors). Mid-Cantabrian Sea temperatures have recently increased, reaching the inhibitory levels suggested in this study of F. serratus. We also expect an additive secondary contribution of low tide stress to this species decline. On the northern Portugal coast, ocean warming plus low tide stress has not reached this species' inhibition threshold. No significant differential responses attributed to the population of origin were found. Mechanistic approaches that are designed to analyse the interactive effects of physical stressors may improve the levels of confidence in predicted range shifts of species.     

Outbreak analysis of an SIS epidemic model with rewiring

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the early dynamics of an SIS epidemic model defined on networks. The model, introduced by Gross et al. (Phys Rev Lett 96:208701, 2006), is based on the pair-approximation formalism and assumes that, at a given rewiring rate, susceptible nodes replace an infected neighbour by a new susceptible neighbour randomly selected among the pool of susceptible nodes in the population. The analysis uses a triple closure that improves the widely assumed in epidemic models defined on regular and homogeneous networks, and applies it to better understand the early epidemic spread on Poisson, exponential, and scale-free networks. Two extinction scenarios, one dominated by transmission and the other one by rewiring, are characterized by considering the limit system of the model equations close to the beginning of the epidemic. Moreover, an analytical condition for the occurrence of a bistability region is obtained.     

Population Composition and Ectoparasite Prevalence on Bats (Sturnira ludovici; Phyllostomidae) in Forest Fragments and Coffee Plantations of Central Veracruz,Mexico

Studies comparing the abundance of frugivorous bats in shade‐coffee plantations and forest fragments report contradictory results, and have not taken into account the landscape context in which coffee plantations are immersed. Variables of population composition such as abundance, sex proportion, and reproductive condition, together with biological tags (i.e., bat fly prevalence), can provide information about spatiotemporal dynamics of habitats used by bats. In the central part of Veracruz, Mexico, we compared population variables and ectoparasite prevalence of the highland yellow‐shouldered bat (Sturnira ludovici) in two landscapes, one dominated by shade‐coffee plantations and another by forest fragments. Comparing these attributes between these two landscapes will increase our knowledge about the role of this agro‐ecosystem in the conservation of this species, which is an important seed disperser of cloud forest vegetation. Total abundance and proportion of females was greater in forest fragments than in coffee plantations, whereas the percentage of reproductive females and bat fly prevalence was similar between landscapes. Our results show that landscapes with forest fragments harbor the greatest abundance of S. ludovici, but shade‐coffee plantations also are utilized by S. ludovici and likely adjacent forest remnants provide enough food resources for this species and other frugivores. Moreover, this study provides more evidence documenting the importance of preserving the last cloud forest fragments in the central region of Veracruz, Mexico, and suggests that using shade‐coffee plantations to connect forest fragments may be an effective way of maintaining populations of S. ludovici and likely other volant frugivores.     

Evolutionary Conserved Positions Define Protein Conformational Diversity

Conformational diversity of the native state plays a central role in modulating protein function. The selection paradigm sustains that different ligands shift the conformational equilibrium through their binding to highest-affinity conformers. Intramolecular vibrational dynamics associated to each conformation should guarantee conformational transitions, which due to its importance, could possibly be associated with evolutionary conserved traits. Normal mode analysis, based on a coarse-grained model of the protein, can provide the required information to explore these features. Herein, we present a novel procedure to identify key positions sustaining the conformational diversity associated to ligand binding. The method is applied to an adequate refined dataset of 188 paired protein structures in their bound and unbound forms. Firstly, normal modes most involved in the conformational change are selected according to their corresponding overlap with structural distortions introduced by ligand binding. The subspace defined by these modes is used to analyze the effect of simulated point mutations on preserving the conformational diversity of the protein. We find a negative correlation between the effects of mutations on these normal mode subspaces associated to ligand-binding and position-specific evolutionary conservations obtained from multiple sequence-structure alignments. Positions whose mutations are found to alter the most these subspaces are defined as key positions, that is, dynamically important residues that mediate the ligand-binding conformational change. These positions are shown to be evolutionary conserved, mostly buried aliphatic residues localized in regular structural regions of the protein like β-sheets and α-helix.     

Microparticle-Induced Coagulation Relates to Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis in Severe Aortic Valve Stenosis

Background

Circulating microparticles (MPs) derived from endothelial cells and blood cells bear procoagulant activity and promote thrombin generation. Thrombin exerts proinflammatory effects mediating the progression of atherosclerosis. Aortic valve stenosis may represent an atherosclerosis-like process involving both the aortic valve and the vascular system. The aim of this study was to investigate whether MP-induced thrombin generation is related to coronary atherosclerosis and aortic valve calcification.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study of 55 patients with severe aortic valve stenosis, we assessed the coronary calcification score (CAC) as indicator of total coronary atherosclerosis burden, and aortic valve calcification (AVC) by computed tomography. Thrombin-antithrombin complex (TATc) levels were measured as a marker for thrombin formation. Circulating MPs were characterized by flow cytometry according to the expression of established surface antigens and by measuring MP-induced thrombin generation.

Results

Patients with CAC score below the median were classified as patients with low CAC, patients with CAC Score above the median as high CAC. In patients with high CAC compared to patients with low CAC we detected higher levels of TATc, platelet-derived MPs (PMPs), endothelial-derived MPs (EMPs) and MP-induced thrombin generation. Increased level of PMPs and MP-induced thrombin generation were independent predictors for the severity of CAC. In contrast, AVC Score did not differ between patients with high and low CAC and did neither correlate with MPs levels nor with MP-induced thrombin generation.

Conclusion

In patients with severe aortic valve stenosis MP-induced thrombin generation was independently associated with the severity of CAC but not AVC indicating different pathomechanisms involved in coronary artery and aortic valve calcification.     

A Water-absorbent Mat Incorporating β-cyclodextrin/eugenol Inclusion Complex for Preservation of Cold Fresh Mutton

To extend the shelf life of cold fresh mutton, the water-absorbent antibacterial mat was developed. This mat was composed of polylactic acid-β-cyclodextrin/eugenol (PLA-β-CD/EUG) fiber membrane, super absorbent polymer (SAP) and filter paper, in which the fiber membrane was developed by the electrospinning technique. The β-CD/EUG inclusion complexes were shown to form successfully by scanning electron microscope (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), water contact angle (WCA) analysis. The release experiment indicated that the PLA-β-CD/EUG fiber membranes had a slow-release effect, especially in the fatty food simulant. The water-absorbent antibacterial mats can restrain the growth of six spoilage bacteria. The mats were evaluated for the preservation of cold fresh mutton. The results revealed that it displayed prolongation of shelf life upon 8 days during the mutton at 4 °C storage period. The water-absorbent antibacterial mat can slowly release natural antibacterial agents and absorb water to achieve preservation, suggesting a potential application in meat products.

     

Expansion and divergence of the GH locus between spider monkey and chimpanzee

Growth hormone (GH) has been previously described as showing distinct evolutionary stories between primates and other mammals. A burst of changes and successive amplification events took place in the primate lineage giving rise to a multigene family in the three Anthropoidea lineages. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to obtain the genes and the intergenic regions comprising the GH loci of the spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi), a New-World primate, and of the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), an ape. The intergenic sequences of both species were screened by hybridization to detect copies of the Alu family, which have been implicated in the formation of the human GH locus. The GH locus of the spider monkey contains at least six GH-related genes, four of them were cloned. Likewise, five short intergenic sequences of approximately 3 kb were amplified and cloned. On the other hand, in the chimpanzee four new placental lactogen (PL) genes as well as four intergenic regions were amplified. Consequently, in this ape, six genes (two GHs, previously obtained, and four PLs) are clustered, separated by intergenic sequences of different lengths (two short ones of about 5 kb, and at least two long ones between 9 and 13 kb). The presence of Alu sequences within the intergenic regions of both GH loci corroborates the current hypothesis that they acted as a driving force for the locus expansion. GH sequence comparisons reveal that several gene-conversion events might have occurred during the formation of this genome region, which has undergone independent evolution in the three Anthropoidea branches. To establish the GH's evolutionary history may prove to be a difficult task due to these gene-conversion events.     

Cell proliferation patterns in canine infundibular keratinizing acanthoma and well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the skin

The aim of the present study was to investigate if the evaluation of cell proliferation of the well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (WDSCC) and infundibular keratinizing acanthoma (IKA) could be useful in the differential diagnosis between these two tumours. Eighteen IKAs and ten WDSCCs were selected for this study. Two different methods were used to assess the activity of cell proliferation: MIB1 immunohistochemical detection and AgNOR proteins silver staining. The quantification of proliferative parameters was performed by means of an image analyzer and expressed as MIB1 index and AgNOR area (MNORA). Both MIBI immunohistochemical and AgNOR histochemical patterns were different in WDSCC and IKA; moreover analysis of variance showed a significant difference for both parameters employed (MIB1 index, MNORA) between WDSCC and IKA (P<0.003 for MIB1 index; P<0.0001 for AgNOR area). The results show that canine WDSCC and IKA have a different proliferative behaviour and the assessment of cell proliferation can be considered as a useful adjunctive tool to the histopathological investigation in the differential diagnosis of these tumours.     

Suppressing Manganese Dissolution from Lithium Manganese Oxide Spinel Cathodes with Single‐Layer Graphene

Spinel‐structured LiMn₂O₄ (LMO) is a desirable cathode material for Li‐ion batteries due to its low cost, abundance, and high power capability. However, LMO suffers from limited cycle life that is triggered by manganese dissolution into the electrolyte during electrochemical cycling. Here, it is shown that single‐layer graphene coatings suppress manganese dissolution, thus enhancing the performance and lifetime of LMO cathodes. Relative to lithium cells with uncoated LMO cathodes, cells with graphene‐coated LMO cathodes provide improved capacity retention with enhanced cycling stability. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals that graphene coatings inhibit manganese depletion from the LMO surface. Additionally, transmission electron microscopy demonstrates that a stable solid electrolyte interphase is formed on graphene, which screens the LMO from direct contact with the electrolyte. Density functional theory calculations provide two mechanisms for the role of graphene in the suppression of manganese dissolution. First, common defects in single‐layer graphene are found to allow the transport of lithium while concurrently acting as barriers for manganese diffusion. Second, graphene can chemically interact with Mn³⁺ at the LMO electrode surface, promoting an oxidation state change to Mn⁴⁺, which suppresses dissolution.