Cassini observations of the thermal plasma in the vicinity of Saturn's main rings and the F and G rings

The ion mass spectrometer on Cassini detected enhanced ion flux near Saturn's main rings that is consistent with the presence of atomic and molecular oxygen ions in the thermal plasma. The ring "atmosphere'' and "ionosphere'' are likely produced by UV photosputtering of the icy rings and subsequent photoionization of O-2. The identification of the O+ and O-2(+) ions is made using time-of-flight analysis and densities and temperatures are derived from the ion counting data. The ion temperatures over the main rings are a minimum near synchronous orbit and increase with radial distance from Saturn as expected from ion pick up in Saturn's magnetic field. The O-2(+) temperatures provide an estimate of the neutral O-2 temperature over the main rings. The ion mass spectrometer also detected significant O-2(+) outside of the main rings, near the F ring. It is concluded that between the F and G rings, the heavy ion population most likely consists of an admixture of O-2(+) and water group ions O+, OH+, and H2O+

Development of reference transcriptomes for the major field insect pests of cowpea: a toolbox for insect pest management approaches in West Africa

Cowpea is a widely cultivated and major nutritional source of protein for many people that live in West Africa. Annual yields and longevity of grain storage is greatly reduced by feeding damage caused by a complex of insect pests that include the pod sucking bugs, Anoplocnemis curvipes Fabricius (Hemiptera: Coreidae) and Clavigralla tomentosicollis Stål (Hemiptera: Coreidae); as well as phloem-feeding cowpea aphids, Aphis craccivora Koch (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and flower thrips, Megalurothrips sjostedti Trybom (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). Efforts to control these pests remain a challenge and there is a need to understand the structure and movement of these pest populations in order to facilitate the development of integrated pest management strategies (IPM). Molecular tools have the potential to help facilitate a better understanding of pest populations. Towards this goal, we used 454 pyrosequencing technology to generate 319,126, 176,262, 320,722 and 227,882 raw reads from A. curvipes, A. craccivora, C. tomentosicollis and M. sjostedti, respectively. The reads were de novo assembled into 11,687, 7,647,10,652 and 7,348 transcripts for A. curvipes, A. craccivora, C. tomentosicollis and M. sjostedti, respectively.Functional annotation of the resulting transcripts identified genes putatively involved in insecticide resistance, pathogen defense and immunity. Additionally, sequences that matched the primary aphid endosymbiont, Buchneraaphidicola, were identified among A. craccivora transcripts. Furthermore, 742, 97, 607 and 180 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were respectively predicted among A. curvipes, A. craccivora, C. tomentosicollis and M.sjostedti transcripts, and will likely be valuable tools for future molecular genetic marker development. These results demonstrate that Roche 454-based transcriptome sequencing could be useful for the development of genomic resources for cowpea pest insects in West Africa

Willingness to participate in future HIV prevention studies among gay and bisexual men in Scotland, UK: a challenge for intervention trials

This article examines willingness to participate in future HIV prevention research among gay and bisexual men in Scotland, UK. Anonymous, self-complete questionnaires and Orasure Gäó oral fluid samples were collected in commercial gay venues. 1,320 men were eligible for inclusion. 78.2% reported willingness to participate in future HIV prevention research; 64.6% for an HIV vaccine, 57.4% for a behaviour change study, and 53.0% for a rectal microbicide. In multivariate analysis, for HIV vaccine research, greater age, minority ethnicity, and not providing an oral fluid sample were associated with lower willingness; heterosexual orientation and not providing an oral fluid sample were for microbicides; higher education and greater HIV treatment optimism were for behaviour change. STI testing remained associated with being more willing to participate in microbicide research and frequent gay scene use remained associated with being more willing to participate in behaviour change research. Having an STI in the past 12 months remained significantly associated with being willing to participate in all three study types. There were no associations between sexual risk behaviour and willingness. Although most men expressed willingness to participate in future research, recruitment of high-risk men, who have the potential to benefit most, is likely to be more challenging

The TNF-α antagonist etanerceptreverses age-related decreases in colonic SERT expression and faecal output in mice

Treatment for chronic constipation in older people is challenging and the condition has a major impact on quality of life. A lack of understanding about the causes of this condition has hampered the development of effective treatments. 5-HT is an important pro-kinetic agent in the colon. We examined whether alterations in colonic 5-HT signalling underlie age–related changes in faecal output in mice and whether these changes were due to an increase in TNF-α. Components of the 5-HT signalling system (5-HT, 5-HIAA, SERT) and TNF-α expression were examined in the distal colon of 3, 12, 18 and 24- month old mice and faecal output and water content monitored under control conditions and following the administration of etanercept (TNF-α inhibitor; 1 mg Kg-1). Faecal output and water content were reduced in aged animals. Age increased mucosal 5-HT availability and TNF-α expression and decreased mucosal SERT expression and 5-HIAA. Etanercept treatment of old mice reversed these changes, suggesting that age-related changes in TNFα expression are an important regulator of mucosal 5-HT signalling and pellet output and water content in old mice. These data point to “anti-TNFα” drugs as potential treatments for age-related chronic constipation

Mitochondrial Genome Sequence and Expression Profiling for the Legume Pod Borer Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

We report the assembly of the 14,054 bp near complete sequencing of the mitochondrial genome of the legume pod borer (LPB), Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), which we subsequently used to estimate divergence and relationships within the lepidopteran lineage. The arrangement and orientation of the 13 protein-coding, 2 rRNA, and 19 tRNA genes sequenced was typical of insect mitochondrial DNA sequences described to date. The sequence contained a high A+T content of 80.1% and a bias for the use of codons with A or T nucleotides in the 3rd position. Transcript mapping with midgut and salivary gland ESTs for mitochondrial genome annotation showed that translation from protein-coding genes initiates and terminates at standard mitochondrial codons, except for the coxI gene, which may start from an arginine CGA codon. The genomic copy of coxII terminates at a T nucleotide, and a proposed polyadenylation mechanism for completion of the TAA stop codon was confirmed by comparisons to EST data. EST contig data further showed that mature M. vitrata mitochondrial transcripts are monocistronic, except for bicistronic transcripts for overlapping genes nd4/nd4L and nd6/cytb, and a tricistronic transcript for atp8/atp6/coxIII. This processing of polycistronic mitochondrial transcripts adheres to the tRNA punctuated cleavage mechanism, whereby mature transcripts are cleaved only at intervening tRNA gene sequences. In contrast, the tricistronic atp8/atp6/coxIII in Drosophila is present as separate atp8/atp6 and coxIII transcripts despite the lack of an intervening tRNA. Our results indicate that mitochondrial processing mechanisms vary between arthropod species, and that it is crucial to use transcriptional information to obtain full annotation of mitochondrial genomes

Transcriptome Sequencing, and Rapid Development and Application of SNP Markers for the Legume Pod Borer Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

The legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is an insect pest species of crops grown by subsistence farmers in tropical regions of Africa. We present the de novo assembly of 3729 contigs from 454- and Sanger-derived sequencing reads for midgut, salivary, and whole adult tissues of this non-model species. Functional annotation predicted that 1320 M. vitrata protein coding genes are present, of which 631 have orthologs within the Bombyx mori gene model. A homology-based analysis assigned M. vitrata genes into a group of paralogs, but these were subsequently partitioned into putative orthologs following phylogenetic analyses. Following sequence quality filtering, a total of 1542 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were predicted within M. vitrata contig assemblies. Seventy one of 1078 designed molecular genetic markers were used to screen M. vitrata samples from five collection sites in West Africa. Population substructure may be present with significant implications in the insect resistance management recommendations pertaining to the release of biological control agents or transgenic cowpea that express Bacillus thuringiensis crystal toxins. Mutation data derived from transcriptome sequencing is an expeditious and economical source for genetic markers that allow evaluation of ecological differentiation

Anatomical Network Comparison of Human Upper and Lower, Newborn and Adult, and Normal and Abnormal Limbs, with Notes on Development, Pathology and Limb Serial Homology vs. Homoplasy

How do the various anatomical parts (modules) of the animal body evolve into very different integrated forms (integration) yet still function properly without decreasing the individual's survival? This long-standing question remains unanswered for multiple reasons, including lack of consensus about conceptual definitions and approaches, as well as a reasonable bias toward the study of hard tissues over soft tissues. A major difficulty concerns the non-trivial technical hurdles of addressing this problem, specifically the lack of quantitative tools to quantify and compare variation across multiple disparate anatomical parts and tissue types. In this paper we apply for the first time a powerful new quantitative tool, Anatomical Network Analysis (AnNA), to examine and compare in detail the musculoskeletal modularity and integration of normal and abnormal human upper and lower limbs. In contrast to other morphological methods, the strength of AnNA is that it allows efficient and direct empirical comparisons among body parts with even vastly different architectures (e.g. upper and lower limbs) and diverse or complex tissue composition (e.g. bones, cartilages and muscles), by quantifying the spatial organization of these parts-their topological patterns relative to each other-using tools borrowed from network theory. Our results reveal similarities between the skeletal networks of the normal newborn/adult upper limb vs. lower limb, with exception to the shoulder vs. pelvis. However, when muscles are included, the overall musculoskeletal network organization of the upper limb is strikingly different from that of the lower limb, particularly that of the more proximal structures of each limb. Importantly, the obtained data provide further evidence to be added to the vast amount of paleontological, gross anatomical, developmental, molecular and embryological data recently obtained that contradicts the long-standing dogma that the upper and lower limbs are serial homologues. In addition, the AnNA of the limbs of a trisomy 18 human fetus strongly supports Pere Alberch's ill-named "logic of monsters" hypothesis, and contradicts the commonly accepted idea that birth defects often lead to lower integration (i.e. more parcellation) of anatomical structures

Risk factors for delayed presentation and referral of symptomatic cancer: Evidence for common cancers

Background:It has been suggested that the known poorer survival from cancer in the United Kingdom, compared with other European countries, can be attributed to more advanced cancer stage at presentation. There is, therefore, a need to understand the diagnostic process, and to ascertain the risk factors for increased time to presentation.Methods:We report the results from two worldwide systematic reviews of the literature on patient-mediated and practitioner-mediated delays, identifying the factors that may influence these.Results:Across cancer sites, non-recognition of symptom seriousness is the main patient-mediated factor resulting in increased time to presentation. There is strong evidence of an association between older age and patient delay for breast cancer, between lower socio-economic status and delay for upper gastrointestinal and urological cancers and between lower education level and delay for breast and colorectal cancers. Fear of cancer is a contributor to delayed presentation, while sanctioning of help seeking by others can be a powerful mediator of reduced time to presentation. For practitioner delay, ‘misdiagnosis’ occurring either through treating patients symptomatically or relating symptoms to a health problem other than cancer, was an important theme across cancer sites. For some cancers, this could also be linked to inadequate patient examination, use of inappropriate tests or failing to follow-up negative or inconclusive test results.Conclusion:Having sought help for potential cancer symptoms, it is therefore important that practitioners recognise these symptoms, and examine, investigate and refer appropriately. © 2009 Cancer Research UK All rights reserved

Disease acceptance and adherence to imatinib in Taiwanese chronic myeloid leukaemia outpatients

Background The launch of imatinib has turned chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) into a chronic illness due to the dramatic improvement in survival. Several recent studies have demonstrated that poor adherence to imatinib may hamper the therapeutic outcomes and result in increased medical expenditures, whilst research on exploring the reasons for non-adherence to imatinib is still limited. Objective This study aimed to explore the experience of patients as they journey through their CML treatments and associated imatinib utilisation in order to understand the perceptions, attitudes and concerns that may influence adherence to imatinib treatment. Setting This study was conducted at oncology outpatient clinics in a medical centre in southern Taiwan. Methods CML patients who regularly attended the oncology outpatient clinics to receive imatinib treatment from October 2011 to March 2012 were invited to participate in the study. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used to explore patients’ experiences and views of their treatment, their current CML status and CML-related health conditions, their concerns about imatinib treatment and imatinib-taking behaviours. Patient interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed using the constant comparison approach. Main outcome measure Themes related to patients’ views of the disease and health conditions, worries and concerns influencing imatinib utilisation behaviours are reported. Results Forty-two CML patients participated in the interviews. The emerging themes included: acceptance of current disease and health status, misconceptions about disease progression, factors associated with adherence to imatinib, concerns and management of adverse drug effects. Participants regarded CML as a chronic disease but had misconceptions about disease progression, therapeutic monitoring, resistance to imatinib and symptoms of side effects. Participants were generally adherent to imatinib and favoured long-term prescriptions to avoid regular outpatient visits for medication refills. Experiencing adverse effect was the main reason influencing adherence and led to polypharmacy. Most participants altered medicine-taking behaviours to maintain long-term use of imatinib. Conclusion Taiwanese CML patients are adherent to imatinib but report changing their medication-taking behaviour due to adverse drug effects and associated polypharmacy. Patients’ misconceptions of the disease and medication suggests that it is necessary to improve communication between patients and healthcare professionals. Routinely providing updated information as part of the patient counselling process should be considered as a means of improving this communication

The spatial genetic differentiation of the legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata F. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) populations in West Africa

The legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata, is an endemic insect pest that causes significant yield loss to the cowpea crop in West Africa. The application of population genetic tools is important in the management of insect pests but such data on M. vitrata is lacking. We applied a set of six microsatellite markers to assess the population structure of M. vitrata collected at five sites from Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria. Observed polymorphisms ranged from one (marker 3393) to eight (marker 32008) alleles per locus. Observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.0 to 0.8 and 0.0 to 0.6, respectively. Three of the loci in samples from Nigeria and Burkina Faso deviated significantly from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE), whereas no loci deviated significantly in samples from Niger. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that 67.3% level of the genetic variation was within individuals compared to 17.3% among populations. A global estimate of FST=0.1 (ENA corrected FST=0.1) was significant (P≤0.05) and corroborated by pairwise FST values that were significant among all possible comparisons. A significant correlation was predicted between genetic divergence and geographic distance between subpopulations (R2=0.6, P=0.04), and cluster analysis by the program STRUCTURE predicted that co-ancestry of genotypes were indicative of three distinct populations. The spatial genetic variance among M. vitrata in West Africa may be due to limited gene flow, south-north seasonal movement pattern or other reproductive barriers. This information is important for the cultural, chemical and biological control strategies for managing M. vitrata