The effect of androgynous clothing on male expressions of masculine gender

Gender expression is a fluid combination of verbal and non-verbal communication and an essential element of individual identity. Clothing selection and personal style is perhaps the most immediately recognizable form of gender expression. Since the establishment of androgyny as a distinct gender identity and cultural symbol of modernity over the last century, clothing options have become much more homogeneous. This research explores the behaviors and attitudes held by masculine males in response to the use of traditionally masculine clothing items for female gender expression. I interviewed six males between the ages of 8 and 64 living in the Bellingham area with self-described masculine gender identities. My results demonstrate three common attitudes: 1) some categories of traditionally masculine clothing items are now neutral in gender association or are now exclusively feminine; 2) gender association is not as reliant on which particular item of clothing is being worn as much as how the item is being worn; 3) individuals interviewed expressed a heightened attention to clothing detail and the general avoidance of any feature that may be perceived as feminine when expressing a masculine gender identity. I conclude that selection of clothing items for gender expression is heavily influenced by societal expectations of gender, which are often mistaken as personal preference

Observing protoplanetary discs with the Square Kilometre Array -- I. Characterising pebble substructure caused by forming planets

High angular resolution observations of discs at mm wavelengths (on scales of a few au) are now commonplace, but there is a current lack of a comparable angular resolution for observations at cm wavelengths. This presents a significant barrier to improving our understanding of planet formation, in particular how dust grains grow from mm to cm sizes. In this paper, we examine the ability of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) to observe dust substructure in a young, planet-forming disc at cm wavelengths. We use dusty hydrodynamics and continuum radiative transfer to predict the distribution and emission of 1 cm dust grains (or pebbles) within the disc, and simulate continuum observations with the current SKA1-MID design baseline at frequencies of 12.5 GHz (Band 5b, ~2.4 cm) on 5-10 au scales. The SKA will provide high-fidelity observations of the cm dust emission substructure in discs for integration times totalling 100's of hours. Radial structure can be obtained at a sufficient resolution and S/N from shorter (10's of hours) integration times by azimuthal averaging in the image plane. By modelling the intensity distribution directly in the visibility plane, it is possible to recover a similar level of (axisymmetric) structural detail from observations with integration times 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than required for high-fidelity imaging. Our results demonstrate that SKA1-MID will provide crucial constraints on the distribution and morphology of the raw material for building planets, the pebbles in protoplanetary discs.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Identification of a Homology-Independent Linchpin Domain Controlling Mouse and Bank Vole Prion Protein Conversion

Prions are unorthodox pathogens that cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases in humans and other mammals. Prion propagation occurs through the self-templating of the pathogenic conformer PrPSc, onto the cell-expressed conformer, PrPC. Here we study the conversion of PrPC to PrPSc using a recombinant mouse PrPSc conformer (mouse protein-only recPrPSc) as a unique tool that can convert bank vole but not mouse PrPC substrates in vitro. Thus, its templating ability is not dependent on sequence homology with the substrate. In the present study, we used chimeric bank vole/mouse PrPC substrates to systematically determine the domain that allows for conversion by Mo protein-only recPrPSc. Our results show that that either the presence of the bank vole amino acid residues E227 and S230 or the absence of the second N-linked glycan are sufficient to allow PrPC substrates to be converted by Mo protein-only recPrPSc and several native infectious prion strains. We propose that residues 227 and 230 and the second glycan are part of a C-terminal domain that acts as a linchpin for bank vole and mouse prion conversion

Amyloid-β nanotubes are associated with prion protein-dependent synaptotoxicity

Growing evidence suggests water-soluble, non-fibrillar forms of amyloid-β protein (Aβ) have important roles in Alzheimer’s disease with toxicities mimicked by synthetic Aβ1–42. However, no defined toxic structures acting via specific receptors have been identified and roles of proposed receptors, such as prion protein (PrP), remain controversial. Here we quantify binding to PrP of Aβ1–42 after different durations of aggregation. We show PrP-binding and PrP-dependent inhibition of long-term potentiation (LTP) correlate with the presence of protofibrils. Globular oligomers bind less avidly to PrP and do not inhibit LTP, whereas fibrils inhibit LTP in a PrP-independent manner. That only certain transient Aβ assemblies cause PrP-dependent toxicity explains conflicting reports regarding the involvement of PrP in Aβ-induced impairments. We show that these protofibrils contain a defined nanotubular structure with a previously unidentified triple helical conformation. Blocking the formation of Aβ nanotubes or their interaction with PrP might have a role in treatment of Alzheimer’s disease

Response of mid-rotation loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) physiology and productivity to sustained, moderate drought on the western edge of the range

The productivity of the approximately 11 million ha of loblolly pine plantations in the southeastern USA could be threatened by decreased water availability in a future climate. To determine the effects of sustained drought on leaf gas exchange, whole-tree water use, and individual tree growth, we examined the response of loblolly pine trees to 100% throughfall exclusion cumulatively spanning the sixth and seventh growing seasons of a plantation in southeastern Oklahoma. Throughfall exclusion reduced volumetric soil water content for 0-12 cm soil depth from 10.8% to 4.8% and for 12-45 cm soil depth from 24.2% to 15.6%. Compared to ambient throughfall trees, leaf water potential of the throughfall exclusion trees became more negative, -0.9 MPa vs. -1.3 MPa for predawn measurements and -1.5 MPa vs. -1.9 MPa for midday measurements. Throughfall exclusion did not significantly reduce leaf gas exchange or tree water use. However, throughfall exclusion significantly reduced leaf biomass by 21% and stem volume growth by 23%. These results indicate that sustained drought may cause downward shifts in leaf quantity to conserve water rather than reducing leaf-level water use.Peer reviewedNatural Resource Ecology and Managemen

Soluble Aβ aggregates can inhibit prion propagation

Mammalian prions cause lethal neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) and consist of multi-chain assemblies of misfolded cellular prion protein (PrPC). Ligands that bind to PrPC can inhibit prion propagation and neurotoxicity. Extensive prior work established that certain soluble assemblies of the Alzheimer's disease (AD)-associated amyloid β-protein (Aβ) can tightly bind to PrPC, and that this interaction may be relevant to their toxicity in AD. Here, we investigated whether such soluble Aβ assemblies might, conversely, have an inhibitory effect on prion propagation. Using cellular models of prion infection and propagation and distinct Aβ preparations, we found that the form of Aβ assemblies which most avidly bound to PrP in vitro also inhibited prion infection and propagation. By contrast, forms of Aβ which exhibit little or no binding to PrP were unable to attenuate prion propagation. These data suggest that soluble aggregates of Aβ can compete with prions for binding to PrPC and emphasize the bidirectional nature of the interplay between Aβ and PrPC in Alzheimer's and prion diseases. Such inhibitory effects of Aβ on prion propagation may contribute to the apparent fall-off in the incidence of sporadic CJD at advanced age where cerebral Aβ deposition is common

Gut microbiome-mediated modulation of hepatic cytochrome P450 and P-glycoprotein: impact of butyrate and fructo-oligosaccharide-inulin

Objectives: Our objective was to demonstrate microbial regulation of hepatic genes implicated in drug metabolism and transport using germ‐free (GF) mice and to explore the impact of a microbial metabolite, butyrate, and a prebiotic dietary intervention on hepatic gene expression in mice. Methods: Using reverse‐transcriptase PCR, we investigated cytochrome P450 (CYP) and multidrug‐resistance protein 1 (MDR1) expression in conventional, GF and colonised GF mice. To investigate the effects of butyrate, sodium butyrate (3 g/l) was administered for 21 days to conventional or GF mice. In the prebiotic study, young adult and middle‐aged mice received diet enriched with 10% fructo‐oligosaccharide (FOS)‐inulin for 14 weeks. Key findings: Colonisation of GF animals normalised expression of Cyp3a11 and Mdr1b to conventional levels. Butyrate upregulated Cyp2b10 in conventional mice (P < 0.05) but overall did not induce widespread changes in hepatic genes. FOS‐inulin increased Cyp3a13 expression and had the opposite effect on Mdr1a expression in young adult mice (P < 0.05). Age, on the other hand, influenced the prebiotic effect on Cyp2a4 expression (P < 0.01). Conclusion: The expression of hepatic genes implicated in drug metabolism and transport displays sensitivity to the microbiome, microbiome‐derived metabolites and a microbial‐targeted intervention. Our study may provide the impetus to explore microbiota‐targeted interventions in normalising host metabolic activity and reducing inter‐individual variability in drug pharmacokinetics

The genetic landscape of immune-competent and HIV lymphoma

This journal supplement is Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Malignancies in AIDS and Other Acquired Immunodeficiencies (ICMAOI)Open Access JournalBurkitt lymphoma (BL) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) are aggressive forms of lymphoma in adults and demonstrate overlapping morphology, immunophenotype and clinical behavior. The risk of developing these tumors increases ten to hundred-fold in the setting of HIV infection. The genetic causes and the role of specific mutations, especially in the setting of HIV, are largely unknown. The decoding of the human genome and the advent of high-throughput sequencing have provided rich opportunities for the comprehensive identification of the genetic causes of cancer. In order to comprehensively identify genes that are recurrently mutated in immune-competent DLBCL and BL, we obtained a total of 92 cases of DLBCLs and 40 cases of BL. These cases were compared to a set of 5 DLBCLs and BL tumors derived from patients with HIV. The DLBCL cases were divided into a discovery set (N=34) and …link_to_OA_fulltextThe 13th International Conference on Malignancies in AIDS and Other Acquired Immunodeficiencies (ICAMAOI), Bethesda, MD., 7-8 November 2011. In Infectious Agents and Cancer, 2011, v. 7 suppl. 1, article no. O