Accumulation and elimination dynamics of the hydroxybenzoate saxitoxin analogues in mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis exposed to the toxic marine Dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) is a severe food-borne illness, caused by the ingestion of seafood containing paralytic shellfish toxins (PST), which are naturally produced by marine dinoflagellates and accumulate in shellfish during algae blooms. Novel PST, designated as hydroxybenzoate analogues (also known as GC toxins), was relatively recently discovered in Gymnodinium catenatum strains worldwide. However, to date, there have been no studies examining their accumulation in shellfish. In this study, mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were exposed to G. catenatum for five days and then exposed to a non-toxic diet for 24 h, to investigate the toxin's accumulation/elimination dynamics. As determined by UHPLC-HILIC-MS/MS, the hydroxybenzoate analogues, GC1 to GC6, comprised 41% of the algae toxin profile and only 9% in mussels. Elimination of GC toxins after 24 h was not evident. This study highlights that a relevant fraction of PST in mussels are not routinely analysed in monitoring programs and that there is a need to better understand the toxicological potential of the hydroxybenzoate analogues, in order to properly address the risk of G. catenatum blooms.Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science - contract code DP402; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia - PD/BD/113484/2015; FCT Investigator; Mar2020 - SNMB-INOV: Innovation for a more competitive shellfish sector, co-financed by the Operational Program Mar 2020, Portugal 2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Utilisation of intensive foraging zones by female Australian fur seals.

Within a heterogeneous environment, animals must efficiently locate and utilise foraging patches. One way animals can achieve this is by increasing residency times in areas where foraging success is highest (area-restricted search). For air-breathing diving predators, increased patch residency times can be achieved by altering both surface movements and diving patterns. The current study aimed to spatially identify the areas where female Australian fur seals allocated the most foraging effort, while simultaneously determining the behavioural changes that occur when they increase their foraging intensity. To achieve this, foraging behaviour was successfully recorded with a FastLoc GPS logger and dive behaviour recorder from 29 individual females provisioning pups. Females travelled an average of 118 ± 50 km from their colony during foraging trips that lasted 7.3 ± 3.4 days. Comparison of two methods for calculating foraging intensity (first-passage time and first-passage time modified to include diving behaviour) determined that, due to extended surface intervals where individuals did not travel, inclusion of diving behaviour into foraging analyses was important for this species. Foraging intensity 'hot spots' were found to exist in a mosaic of patches within the Bass Basin, primarily to the south-west of the colony. However, the composition of benthic habitat being targeted remains unclear. When increasing their foraging intensity, individuals tended to perform dives around 148 s or greater, with descent/ascent rates of approximately 1.9 m•s-1 or greater and reduced postdive durations. This suggests individuals were maximising their time within the benthic foraging zone. Furthermore, individuals increased tortuosity and decreased travel speeds while at the surface to maximise their time within a foraging location. These results suggest Australian fur seals will modify both surface movements and diving behaviour to maximise their time within a foraging patch

Imprints of a high velocity wind on the soft x-ray spectrum of PG 1211+143

An extended XMM-Newton observation of the luminous narrow line Seyfert galaxy PG 1211+143 in 2014 has revealed a more complex high velocity wind, with components distinguished in velocity, ionization level, and column density. Here we report soft x-ray emission and absorption features from the ionized outflow, finding counterparts of both high velocity components, v ~ 0.129c and v ~ 0.066c, recently identified in the highly ionized Fe K absorption spectrum. The lower ionization of the co-moving soft x-ray absorbers imply a distribution of higher density clouds embedded in the main outflow, while much higher column densities for the same flow component in the hard x-ray spectra suggest differing sight lines to the continuum x-ray source.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables; Accepted for publication in MNRA

Negligence Per Se Theories in Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Litigation

The notion of addressing the vagaries of negligence per se theories in the context of pharmaceutical and medical device litigation seems to promise little more than a monograph anesthetized by a body of obscure pharmaceutical and medical device provisions viewed through the lenses of various states\u27 negligence law. Maybe little more than that can be assured. However, the issue of how courts should address negligence per se theories in this context implicates a variety of “larger” (or, possibly, more interesting) legal issues in general and pharmaceutical and medical device litigation in particular. Perhaps foremost among these issues is the interaction of legislative intent and judicial deference to that intent. Possibly no less important (and, likely, more common) an issue is the application of a regulatory body\u27s judgment and how that judgment should be treated--whether it should be given the status of law on par with that of the legislature\u27s judgment and, if so, whether a judge or jury should second-guess those judgments. This Article concludes that, if negligence per se is intended to represent judicial deference to legislative judgments and intent, then such theories are wholly inappropriate in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. On the regulatory front, use of this theory to give lay judges and juries license to review and second-guess an FDA ruling or refusal to make a ruling risks superimposing potentially (or, perhaps, necessarily) inconsistent state tort regimes on the efforts to regulate the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Short of a prohibition of these theories in this context, however, use of negligence per se theories should be severely restricted to situations in which (1) the court has determined that the specific provision is appropriate to support the imposition of civil liability, (2) the FDA has determined that a defendant violated a specific provision, and (3) the plaintiff proves that the violation caused his or her injury

Profinite Lie algebras

It is well-known that the theory of finite dimensional Lie algebras is similar in many ways to the theory of finite groups. Noting the way that finite groups are generalised to certain periodic FC-groups (see Baer, [2], for example), we can likewise generalise finite dimensional Lie algebras; alternatively we can study ideally finite Lie algebras by using ideas from the theory of periodic FG-groups, drawing analogies as far as possible (see Stewart, [15], for example). We can also extend the theory of finite groups to profinite groups (see for example Hartley, [6]) using the ideas and methods used for finite groups and periodic FC-groups. In this thesis we study profinite Lie algebras from two viewpoints: by using the ideas and methods of ideally finite Lie algebras, and by analogy with profinite groups. Some of the ideas can be traced to the corresponding situation for algebraic groups, that is pro-affine algebraic groups (see Hochschild, [7], and Hochschild and Mostow, [8]), for example the definition of coset topology in Hochschild and Mostow, p1130, suggests the definition of the affine topology

Beyond open access: open discourse, the next great equalizer

The internet is expanding the realm of scientific publishing to include free and open public debate of published papers. Journals are beginning to support web posting of comments on their published articles and independent organizations are providing centralized web sites for posting comments about any published article. The trend promises to give one and all access to read and contribute to cutting edge scientific criticism and debate

Introduction to hCOMET special issue, ‘Comet assay in vitro’

EditorialThis special issue is produced as a valuable outcome of the COST Action hCOMET. A major aim of this project is to encourage the adoption of standard procedures for the comet assay, in order to improve reliability. Comet assay procedures tend to vary from one laboratory to another, and so comparing results between laboratories can be problematic. Much work has been done to establish how different parameters, such as agarose concentration, lysis time, or electrophoresis voltage gradient can affect results, and an aspiration of hCOMET is to devise standard procedures. In addition to papers on practical issues relating to the use of the comet assay, there are several descriptions of novel model cell systems. Finally, there are accounts of various applications of the assay to in vitro genotoxicity testing (mainly on human cell lines), as well as investigations of antigenotoxicity. (...)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Arithmetic invariants from Sato--Tate moments

We give some arithmetic-geometric interpretations of the moments M_2[a_1], M_1[a_2], and M_1[s_2] of the Sato-Tate group of an abelian variety A defined over a number field by relating them to the ranks of the endomorphism ring and N\'eron-Severi group of A.Comment: 4 page