Moderate physical activity may prevent cartilage loss in women with knee osteoarthritis : data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: data acquisition in this study was funded by the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a public–private partnership comprised of five contracts (N01-AR-2-2258; N01-AR-2-2259;N01-AR-2-2260; N01-AR-2-2261; N01-AR-2-2262) funded by the National Institutes of Health, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, and conducted by the Osteoarthritis Initiative study Investigators. Private funding partners of the OAI include Merck Research Laboratories, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer, Inc. Private sector funding for the Osteoarthritis Initiative is managed by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. The image analysis in this study was partly funded by the FNIH OA Biomarkers Consortium, with grants, direct and in -kind contributions, provided by: AbbVie; Amgen Inc.; Arthritis Foundation; Bioiberica S.A.; DePuy Mitek, Inc.; Flexion Therapeutics, Inc.; GlaxoSmithKline; Merck KGaA; Rottapharm | Madaus; Sanofi; and Stryker. Other parts of funding were provided by a direct grant from Merck KGaA, by a contract with the University of Pittsburgh (Pivotal OAI MRI Analyses [POMA]: NIH/NHLBI Contract No. HHSN2682010000 21C), by a vendor contract from the OAI coordinating center at University of California, San Francisco (N01-AR-2-2258), and by an ancillary study to the OAI held by the Division of Rheumatology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University (R01 AR52918). This research has also received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN; KNEEMO) under grant agreement number 607510. AGC is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia Early Career Fellowship (Neil Hamilton Fairley Clinical Fellowship No.1121173). The sponsors were not involved in the design and conduct of this particular study, in the analysis and interpretation of the data, and in the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Improving the Phosphorus Efficiency of Temperate Australian Pastures

Phosphorus (P) is a key input necessary for high production in many temperate, grass-legume pasture systems in Australia because the pastures are situated on P-deficient and moderate to highly P-sorbing soils. A consequence of P-sorption in these soils is that much more P must be applied as fertiliser than will be exported in animal products. The P balance efficiency (PBE=100*Pexport/Pinputs) of grazing enterprises (e.g. wool, meat, milk and live animal export) is about 10-30% and compares poorly with some other agricultural enterprises (e.g. 45-54% for grain production; McLaughlin et al. 1992; Weaver and Wong 2011). P accumulates in these soils when they are fertilised as a result of phosphate reactions with Ca and/or Al and Fe oxides, and P incorporation into resistant organic materials (McLaughlin et al. 2011). Some P in grazed fields is also accumulated in animal camps. The net rate of P accumulation in soil (and in grazed fields as a whole) is related to the concentration of plant-available P in the soil. Operating grazing systems at lower plant-available P levels should help to slow P accumulation and result in more effective use of P fertiliser (Simpson et al. 2010; Simpson et al. 2011). Because the P requirement of grass-legume pastures is usually set by the high P requirements of the legume (Hill et al. 2005), we commenced a study to quantify the P requirements of a range of legumes to determine whether productive, lower P-input grazing systems can be developed. We are also screening subterranean clover, the most widely used pasture legume in temperate Australia, for root traits related to P efficiency. Here we report early findings from the establishment year of a field experiment to determine the P requirement of several alternative temperate legumes

Erythrocytes lacking the Langereis blood group protein ABCB6 are resistant to the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

The ATP-binding cassette transporter ABCB6 was recently discovered to encode the Langereis (Lan) blood group antigen. Lan null individuals are asymptomatic, and the function of ABCB6 in mature erythrocytes is not understood. Here, we assessed ABCB6 as a host factor for Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites during erythrocyte invasion. We show that Lan null erythrocytes are highly resistant to invasion by P. falciparum, in a strain-transcendent manner. Although both Lan null and Jr(a-) erythrocytes harbor excess porphyrin, only Lan null erythrocytes exhibit a P. falciparum invasion defect. Further, the zoonotic parasite P. knowlesi invades Lan null and control cells with similar efficiency, suggesting that ABCB6 may mediate P. falciparum invasion through species-specific molecular interactions. Using tandem mass tag-based proteomics, we find that the only consistent difference in membrane proteins between Lan null and control cells is absence of ABCB6. Our results demonstrate that a newly identified naturally occurring blood group variant is associated with resistance to Plasmodium falciparum

Automated reconstruction of tree and canopy structure for modeling the internal canopy radiation regime

Understanding canopy radiation regimes is critical to successfully modeling vegetation growth and function. For instance, the vertical distribution of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) affects vegetation growth, informative upon carbon and energy cycling. Availing upon advances in information capture and computing power, geometrically explicit modeling of forest structure becomes increasingly possible. A primary challenge however is acquiring the forest mensuration data required to parameterize these models and the related automation of modeling forest structure. In this research, to address these issues we employ a novel and automated approach that capitalizes upon the rich information afforded by ground-based laser scanning technology. The method is implemented in two steps: in the first step, geometric explicit models of canopy structure are created from the ground-based laser scanning data. These geometric explicit models are used to simulate the vertical range to first hit. In the second step, we derive canopy gap probability from full waveform laser scanning data which have been used in a number of studies for characterization of radiation transmission (Jupp et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2010) and do not require any geometric explicit modeling. The radiative consistency of the geometric explicit models from step 1 is validated against the gap probabilities of step 2. The results show a strong relationship between the radiative transmission properties of the geometric models and canopy gap probabilities at plot level (R = 0.91 to 0.97), while the geometric models suggest the additional benefit to serve as a bridge in scaling between shoot level and canopy level radiation.Keywords: Laser scanning, Explicit geometric, Ray tracing, Canopy structure, Modeling, Photosynthetically active radiatio

Terrestrial laser scanning for plot-scale forest measurement

Plot-scale measurements have been the foundation for forest surveys and reporting for over 200 years. Through recent integration with airborne and satellite remote sensing, manual measurements of vegetation structure at the plot scale are now the basis for landscape, continental and international mapping of our forest resources. The use of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) for plot-scale measurement was first demonstrated over a decade ago, with the intimation that these instruments could replace manual measurement methods. This has not yet been the case, despite the unparalleled structural information that TLS can capture. For TLS to reach its full potential, these instruments cannot be viewed as a logical progression of existing plot-based measurement. TLS must be viewed as a disruptive technology that requires a rethink of vegetation surveys and their application across a wide range of disciplines. We review the development of TLS as a plotscale measurement tool, including the evolution of both instrument hardware and key data processing methodologies. We highlight two broad data modelling approaches of gap probability and geometrical modelling and the basic theory that underpins these. Finally, we discuss the future prospects for increasing the utilisation of TLS for plot-scale forest assessment and forest monitoring

Induction of Glucose Metabolism in Stimulated T Lymphocytes Is Regulated by Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling

T lymphocytes play a critical role in cell-mediated immune responses. During activation, extracellular and intracellular signals alter T cell metabolism in order to meet the energetic and biosynthetic needs of a proliferating, active cell, but control of these phenomena is not well defined. Previous studies have demonstrated that signaling from the costimulatory receptor CD28 enhances glucose utilization via the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. However, since CD28 ligation alone does not induce glucose metabolism in resting T cells, contributions from T cell receptor-initiated signaling pathways must also be important. We therefore investigated the role of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling in the regulation of mouse T cell glucose metabolism. T cell stimulation strongly induces glucose uptake and glycolysis, both of which are severely impaired by inhibition of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), whereas p38 inhibition had a much smaller effect. Activation also induced hexokinase activity and expression in T cells, and both were similarly dependent on ERK signaling. Thus, the ERK signaling pathway cooperates with PI3K to induce glucose utilization in activated T cells, with hexokinase serving as a potential point for coordinated regulation

Role of Synucleins in Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are the most common causes of dementia and movement disorders in the elderly. While progressive accumulation of oligomeric amyloid-β protein (Aβ) has been identified as one of the central toxic events in AD leading to synaptic dysfunction, accumulation of α-synuclein (α-syn) resulting in the formation of oligomers has been linked to PD. Most of the studies in AD have been focused on investigating the role of Aβ and Tau; however, recent studies suggest that α-syn might also play a role in the pathogenesis of AD. For example, fragments of α-syn can associate with amyloid plaques and Aβ promotes the aggregation of α-syn in vivo and worsens the deficits in α-syn tg mice. Moreover, α-syn has also been shown to accumulate in limbic regions in AD, Down’s syndrome, and familial AD cases. Aβ and α-syn might directly interact under pathological conditions leading to the formation of toxic oligomers and nanopores that increase intracellular calcium. The interactions between Aβ and α-syn might also result in oxidative stress, lysosomal leakage, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Thus, better understanding the steps involved in the process of Aβ and α-syn aggregation is important in order to develop intervention strategies that might prevent or reverse the accumulation of toxic proteins in AD