Fear Conditioning to Subliminal Fear Relevant and Non Fear Relevant Stimuli

A growing body of evidence suggests that conscious visual awareness is not a prerequisite for human fear learning. For instance, humans can learn to be fearful of subliminal fear relevant images – images depicting stimuli thought to have been fear relevant in our evolutionary context, such as snakes, spiders, and angry human faces. Such stimuli could have a privileged status in relation to manipulations used to suppress usually salient images from awareness, possibly due to the existence of a designated sub-cortical ‘fear module’. Here we assess this proposition, and find it wanting. We use binocular masking to suppress awareness of images of snakes and wallabies (particularly cute, non-threatening marsupials). We find that subliminal presentations of both classes of image can induce differential fear conditioning. These data show that learning, as indexed by fear conditioning, is neither contingent on conscious visual awareness nor on subliminal conditional stimuli being fear relevant

Stochasticity in Protein Levels Drives Colinearity of Gene Order in Metabolic Operons of Escherichia coli

Gene order in some bacterial metabolic operons reflects ordering in the metabolic pathway. That this is true uniquely for operons expressed at low levels highlights the selective importance of fluctuations in protein levels

Clinical practice: Protein-losing enteropathy in children

Protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) is a rare complication of a variety of intestinal disorders characterized by an excessive loss of proteins into the gastrointestinal tract due to impaired integrity of the mucosa. The clinical presentation of patients with PLE is highly variable, depending upon the underlying cause, but mainly consists of edema due to hypoproteinemia. While considering PLE, other causes of hypoproteinemia such as malnutrition, impaired synthesis, or protein loss through other organs like the kidney, liver, or skin, have to be excluded. The disorders causing PLE can be divided into those due to protein loss from intestinal lymphatics, like primary intestinal lymphangiectasia or congenital heart disease and those with protein loss due to an inflamed or abnormal mucosal surface. The diagnosis is confirmed by increased fecal concentrations of alpha-1-antitrypsin. After PLE is diagnosed, the underlying cause should be identified by stool cultures, serologic evaluation, cardiac screening, or radiographic imaging. Treatment of PLE consists of nutrition state maintenance by using a high protein diet with supplement of fat-soluble vitamins. In patients with lymphangiectasia, a low fat with medium chain triglycerides (MCT) diet should be prescribed. Besides dietary adjustments, appropriate treatment for the underlying etiology is necessary and supportive care to avoid complications of edema. PLE is a rare complication of various diseases, mostly gastrointestinal or cardiac conditions that result into loss of proteins in the gastrointestinal tract. Prognosis depends upon the severity and treatment options of the underlying disease

Are the distributions of variations of circle of Willis different in different populations? – Results of an anatomical study and review of literature

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have proposed correlation between variants of the cerebral arterial circle (also known as circle of Willis) and some cerebrovascular diseases. Differences in the incidence of these diseases in different populations have also been investigated. The study of variations in the anatomy of the cerebral arterial circle may partially explain differences in the incidence of some of the cerebrovascular diseases in different ethnic or racial groups. While many studies have investigated the variations in the anatomy of each segment of the cerebral arterial circle, few have addressed the variants of the cerebral arterial circle as a whole. Similarly, the frequency of occurrence of such variants in different ethnic or racial groups has not been compared. METHODS: 102 brains of recently deceased Iranian males were dissected, in order to observe variations in the anatomy of the cerebral arterial circle. The dissection process was recorded on film and digitized. One resized picture from each dissection, showing complete circle has been made available online. The variations of the circle as whole and segmental variations were compared with previous studies. RESULTS: On the whole, the frequencies of the different variants of the entire cerebral arterial circle and segmental variations were comparable with previous studies. More specifically variants with uni- and bilateral hypoplasia of posterior communicating arteries were the most common in our study, similar to the previous works. No hypoplasia of the precommunicating part of the left anterior cerebral artery (A1), aplasia of A1 or the precommunicating part of the posterior cerebral artery (P1) was seen. In 3% both right and left posterior communcating arteries were absent. CONCLUSION: The anatomical variations found in the cerebral arterial circle of the Iranian males in the current study were not significantly different to those of more diverse populations reported in the literature. While taking into account potential confounding factors, the authors conclude that based on available studies, there is no evidence suggesting that the distributions of the variations of cerebral arterial circle differ in different populations

Identification of bacterial glycosidases in rat cecal contents

Cecal contents of conventional and germfree rats were examined for glycosidases which may have a role in degrading glycoprotein oligosaccharides. Utilizing p-nitrophenylglycosides as substrates, we identified glycosidases in bacteria-free supernatants from cecal contents which act on β-linkages. These cecal glycosidases appear to be of bacterial origin since: (1) direct comparisons of the enzymes in similar contents from germfree rats showed negligible activities; (2) most of the glycosidase levels in bacterial extracts were at least as high as those of soluble supernatants; and (3) disk gel electrophoresis of contents and bacterial extracts revealed in both preparations a β- N -acetylglucosaminidase band with similar R f s. Also, the blood group B antigenicity of germfree cecal glycoproteins was greatly decreased by conventional cecal contents. These findings indicate that β-galactosidase and β- N -acetylgalactosaminidase in cecal contents are bacterial in origin, and they may have a role in the bacterial catabolism of intestinal glycoproteins.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44391/1/10620_2005_Article_BF01309607.pd

Mercury flux to sediments of Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Water, Air, & Soil Pollution 210 (2010): 399-407, doi:10.1007/s11270-009-0262-y.We report estimates of mercury (Hg) flux to the sediments of Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada: 2 and 15-20 µg/m2/yr in preindustrial and modern sediments, respectively. These values result in a modern to preindustrial flux ratio of 7.5-10, which is similar to flux ratios recently reported for other alpine lakes in California, and greater than the value of 3 typically seen worldwide. We offer plausible hypotheses to explain the high flux ratios, including (1) proportionally less photoreduction and evasion of Hg with the onset of cultural eutrophication and (2) a combination of enhanced regional oxidation of gaseous elemental Hg and transport of the resulting reactive gaseous Hg to the surface with nightly downslope flows of air. If either of these mechanisms is correct, it could lead to local/regional solutions to lessen the impact of globally increasing anthropogenic emissions of Hg on Lake Tahoe and other alpine ecosystems.Funding was provided by Miami University, EPA-STAR, the Postdoctoral Scholar Program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the USGS

Regulation of Hemocytes in Drosophila Requires dappled Cytochrome b5

A major category of mutant hematopoietic phenotypes in Drosophila is melanotic tumors or nodules, which consist of abnormal and overproliferated blood cells, similar to granulomas. Our analyses of the melanotic mutant dappled have revealed a novel type of gene involved in blood cell regulation. The dappled gene is an essential gene that encodes cytochrome b5, a conserved hemoprotein that participates in electron transfer in multiple biochemical reactions and pathways. Viable mutations of dappled cause melanotic nodules and hemocyte misregulation during both hematopoietic waves of development. The sexes are similarly affected, but hemocyte number is different in females and males of both mutants and wild type. Additionally, initial tests show that curcumin enhances the dappled melanotic phenotype and establish screening of endogenous and xenobiotic compounds as a route for analysis of cytochrome b5 function. Overall, dappled provides a tractable genetic model for cytochrome b5, which has been difficult to study in higher organisms

Current and Future Drug Targets in Weight Management

Obesity will continue to be one of the leading causes of chronic disease unless the ongoing rise in the prevalence of this condition is reversed. Accumulating morbidity figures and a shortage of effective drugs have generated substantial research activity with several molecular targets being investigated. However, pharmacological modulation of body weight is extremely complex, since it is essentially a battle against one of the strongest human instincts and highly efficient mechanisms of energy uptake and storage. This review provides an overview of the different molecular strategies intended to lower body weight or adipose tissue mass. Weight-loss drugs in development include molecules intended to reduce the absorption of lipids from the GI tract, various ways to limit food intake, and compounds that increase energy expenditure or reduce adipose tissue size. A number of new preparations, including combinations of the existing drugs topiramate plus phentermine, bupropion plus naltrexone, and the selective 5-HT2C agonist lorcaserin have recently been filed for approval. Behind these leading candidates are several other potentially promising compounds and combinations currently undergoing phase II and III testing. Some interesting targets further on the horizon are also discussed