Dual Lipolytic Control of Body Fat Storage and Mobilization in Drosophila

Energy homeostasis is a fundamental property of animal life, providing a genetically fixed balance between fat storage and mobilization. The importance of body fat regulation is emphasized by dysfunctions resulting in obesity and lipodystrophy in humans. Packaging of storage fat in intracellular lipid droplets, and the various molecules and mechanisms guiding storage-fat mobilization, are conserved between mammals and insects. We generated a Drosophila mutant lacking the receptor (AKHR) of the adipokinetic hormone signaling pathway, an insect lipolytic pathway related to ß-adrenergic signaling in mammals. Combined genetic, physiological, and biochemical analyses provide in vivo evidence that AKHR is as important for chronic accumulation and acute mobilization of storage fat as is the Brummer lipase, the homolog of mammalian adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL). Simultaneous loss of Brummer and AKHR causes extreme obesity and blocks acute storage-fat mobilization in flies. Our data demonstrate that storage-fat mobilization in the fly is coordinated by two lipocatabolic systems, which are essential to adjust normal body fat content and ensure lifelong fat-storage homeostasis

Strategic innovation through outsourcing:the role of relational and contractual governance

There is growing evidence that client firms expect outsourcing suppliers to transform their business. Indeed, most outsourcing suppliers have delivered IT operational and business process innovation to client firms; however, achieving strategic innovation through outsourcing has been perceived to be far more challenging. Building on the growing interest in the IS outsourcing literature, this paper seeks to advance our understanding of the role that relational and contractual governance plays in achieving strategic innovation through outsourcing. We hypothesized and tested empirically the relationship between the quality of client-supplier relationships and the likelihood of achieving strategic innovation, and the interaction effect of different contract types, such as fixed-price, time and materials, partnership and their combinations. Results from a pan-European survey of 248 large firms suggest that high-quality relationships between clients and suppliers may indeed help achieve strategic innovation through outsourcing. However, within the spectrum of various outsourcing contracts, only the partnership contract, when included in the client contract portfolio alongside either fixed-price, time and materials or their combination, presents a significant positive effect on relational governance and is likely to strengthen the positive effect of the quality of client-supplier relationships on strategic innovation

Assessing disparities in medical students’ knowledge and attitude about monkeypox: a cross-sectional study of 27 countries across three continents

Background and aimsThe recent monkeypox (Mpox) outbreak confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) underscores the importance of evaluating the knowledge and attitude of medical students toward emerging diseases, given their potential roles as healthcare professionals and sources of public information during outbreaks. This study aimed to assess medical students’ knowledge and attitude about Mpox and to identify factors affecting their level of knowledge and attitude in low-income and high-income countries.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on 11,919 medical students from 27 countries. A newly-developed validated questionnaire was used to collect data on knowledge (14 items), attitude (12 items), and baseline criteria. The relationship between a range of factors with knowledge and attitude was studied using univariate and multivariate analyses.Results46% of the study participants were males; 10.7% were in their sixth year; 54.6% knew about smallpox; 84% received the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine; and 12.5% had training on Mpox. 55.3% had good knowledge of Mpox and 51.7% had a positive attitude towards it. Medical students in their third, fifth, or sixth year high- income countries who obtained information on Mpox from friends, research articles, social media and scientific websites were positive predictors for good knowledge. Conversely, being male or coming from high-income countries showed a negative relation with good knowledge about Mpox. Additionally, a positive attitude was directly influenced by residing in urban areas, being in the fifth year of medical education, having knowledge about smallpox and a history of receiving the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine. Receiving information about Mpox from social media or scientific websites and possessing good knowledge about Mpox were also predictors of a positive attitude. On the other hand, being male, employed, or receiving a training program about Mpox were inversely predicting positive attitude about Mpox.ConclusionThere were differences in knowledge and attitude towards Mpox between medical students in low and high-income countries, emphasizing the need for incorporating epidemiology of re-emerging diseases like Mpox into the medical curriculum to improve disease prevention and control

Alien Registration- Jaworski, Alexandra (Bar Harbor, Hancock County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/17595/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Jaworski, Alexandra (Bar Harbor, Hancock County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/17595/thumbnail.jp

Altered visual sensitivity in axial high myopia: a local postreceptoral phenomenon?

PURPOSE. The present study investigated retinal integrity in high myopia using spatial psychophysical tasks. METHODS. Ten axial high myopes (-8.5 to -11.5 D) and 10 age-matched control subjects (+/- 1.0 D) were recruited. All participants underwent clinical examination and ocular biometry and demonstrated no visible macular disease with visual acuities better than 6/12. Foveal summation thresholds were determined for white and S-cone-isolating spots of various diameters up to 5.4° and spatial contrast sensitivity to luminance sine wave gratings (0.5–9.7 cyc/deg). Data were analyzed after correction for the magnification induced by eye size and correcting lens power. RESULTS. Spatial summation for both white and S-cone-isolating spots showed a generalized loss of sensitivity at all spot sizes in myopes relative to control subjects (P < 0.01). Critical areas at maximum summation were significantly larger in myopes, for S-cone isolating spots only, after image size correction (P < 0.048). Sensitivity at maximum summation correlated negatively with vitreous chamber depth for both targets (P < 0.005). Sensitivities for S-cone and luminance spots also correlated (P < 0.001), indicating widespread dysfunction. Myopes displayed contrast sensitivity losses at high spatial frequencies (P < 0.006) with a normal peak contrast sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS. These data can be interpreted to indicate that highly myopic eyes have either (1) a reduction in the number of receptors and/or a reduction in their sensitivity or, (2) a reduction in the sensitivity of postreceptoral processes. The presence of normal contrast sensitivity at low spatial frequencies indicates dysfunction at a postreceptoral level in high myopes

Epistemic, interpersonal, and moral stances in the construction of us and them in Christian metal lyrics

Religious groupings and subcultures both tend to have well-articulated interests, aims, and values that unite certain people but also alienate those who do not share their interests. The case is then made for the construction of difference between 'us' and 'them'. This paper examines the construction of such a group boundary in the previously little studied context of the Christian metal (CM) music subculture. The focus of analysis is on the kinds of stances that are taken and attributed to 'us' and 'them' in the English lyrics of Finnish CM groups. The particular types of stance are related to questions of epistemology, interpersonality, and morality. The paper shows that the borderlines between CM and its Other are drawn on the basis of stance on being right/wrong, heading for heaven/hell, and having a better/worse divinity as an object of worship. The use of binary opposites, together with the practice of elevating 'us' and devaluing 'them', constructs CM as a categorical movement which relies on conservative Christian values. CM can thus be seen as resistance or perhaps even a counterattack against the general religo-cultural trend of abandoning Christianity in Western societies.peerReviewe