Differential antibody responses to gliadin-derived indigestible peptides in patients with schizophrenia

We thank the patients and healthy volunteers for their support and participation. We also thank NHS Grampian for sample collection and our colleagues at the Division of Health Research, University of the Highlands and Islands, for their supportive work. This study was supported by the Schizophrenia Association of Great Britain, Bangor, UK.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mineralogy and chemistry of altered Icelandic basalts: Application to clay mineral detection and understanding aqueous environments on Mars

We used a suite of techniques, including those emulating compositional data sets obtained from Mars orbit and obtainable at the Mars surface, to examine aqueous alteration of basaltic rocks from Iceland as a mineralogic and geochemical analog for Noachian environments on Mars. A sample suite was collected for laboratory measurement of (1) whole-rock visible/near-infrared (VNIR) reflectance and thermal infrared (TIR) emission spectra; (2) VNIR and TIR reflectance spectra of particle-size separates derived from the bulk rock and from materials extracted from fractures/vesicles; (3) X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns for determination of quantitative modal mineralogy; (4) major element chemistry using flux fusion of whole-rock powders; and (5) electron microprobe analyses of minerals in thin sections. Conclusions about aqueous alteration can be influenced by technique. For these basalts, whole-rock chemical data showed scant evidence for chemical fractionation, but TIR, VNIR, and XRD measurements identified distinctive assemblages of hydrous silicate minerals, differing by sample. XRD provided the most complete and accurate quantitative determination of sample mineralogy. However, VNIR spectroscopy was the technique most useful for determining composition of low-abundance smectite clays, and TIR spectroscopy was the most useful for recognizing hydrated silicates in thin surface coatings. High spatial resolution mineralogical and chemical data sets were useful for understanding the texture and distribution of alteration products and variations in fluid chemistry. No single approach provides a complete assessment of the environment of alteration, demonstrating the importance of employing multiple, synergistic mineralogical and geochemical techniques and instruments in exploration of rock strata from aqueous paleoenvironments on Mars

Antenatal Steroid Therapy for Fetal Lung Maturation and the Subsequent Risk of Childhood Asthma: A Longitudinal Analysis

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that fetal exposure to corticosteroids in the antenatal period is an independent risk factor for the development of asthma in early childhood with little or no effect in later childhood. A population-based cohort study of all pregnant women who resided in Nova Scotia, Canada, and gave birth to a singleton fetus between 1989 and 1998 was undertaken. After a priori specified exclusions, 80,448 infants were available for analysis. Using linked health care utilization records, incident asthma cases developed after 36 months of age were identified. Extended Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios while controlling for confounders. Exposure to corticosteroids during pregnancy was associated with a risk of asthma in childhood between 3–5 years of age: adjusted hazard ratio of 1.19 (95% confidence interval: 1.03, 1.39), with no association noted after 5 years of age: adjusted hazard ratio for 5–7 years was 1.06 (95% confidence interval: 0.86, 1.30) and for 8 or greater years was 0.74 (95% confidence interval: 0.54, 1.03). Antenatal steroid therapy appears to be an independent risk factor for the development of asthma between 3 and 5 years of age

Dynamic aperture factor analysis/target transformation (DAFA/TT) for Mg-serpentine and Mg-carbonate mapping on Mars with CRISM near-infrared data

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Lin, H., Tarnas, J. D., Mustard, J. F., Zhang, X., Wei, Y., Wan, W., Klein, F., & Kellner, J. R. Dynamic aperture factor analysis/target transformation (DAFA/TT) for Mg-serpentine and Mg-carbonate mapping on Mars with CRISM near-infrared data. Icarus, 355, (2021): 114168, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2020.114168.Serpentine and carbonate are products of serpentinization and carbonation processes on Earth, Mars, and other celestial bodies. Their presence implies that localized habitable environments may have existed on ancient Mars. Factor Analysis and Target Transformation (FATT) techniques have been applied to hyperspectral data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) to identify possible serpentine and Mg-carbonate-bearing outcrops. FATT techniques are capable of suggesting the presence of individual spectral signals in complex spectral mixtures. Applications of FATT techniques to CRISM data thus far only evaluate whether an entire analyzed image (≈ 3 × 105 pixels) may contain spectral information consistent with a specific mineral of interest. The spatial distribution of spectral signal from the possible mineral is not determined, making it difficult to validate a reported detection and also to understand the geologic context of any purported detections. We developed a method called Dynamic Aperture Factor Analysis/Target Transformation (DAFA/TT) to highlight the locations in a CRISM observation (or any similar laboratory or remotely acquired data set) most likely to contain spectra of specific minerals of interest. DAFA/TT determines the locations of possible target mineral spectral signals within hyperspectral images by performing FATT in small moving windows with different geometries, and only accepting pixels with positive detections in all cluster geometries as possible detections. DAFA/TT was applied to a hyperspectral image of a serpentinite from Oman for validation testing in a simplified laboratory setting. The mineral distribution determined by DAFA/TT application to the laboratory hyperspectral image was consistent with Raman analysis of the serpentinite sample. DAFA/TT also successfully mapped the spatial distribution of Mg-serpentine and Mg-carbonate previously detected in CRISM data using band parameter mapping and extraction of ratioed spectra. We applied DAFA/TT to CRISM images in some olivine-rich regions of Mars to characterize the spatial distribution of Mg-serpentine and Mg-carbonate-bearing outcrops.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41671360, 41525016, 41902318). JFM and JDT acknowledge NASA support through a subcontract from the Applied Physics Lab for CRISM investigations. H. Lin also acknowledges the support from the key research Program of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS (IGGCAS-201905). The Headwall imaging spectrometer was acquired using funds to JRK from The Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and Brown University. The DAFA/TT codes are available on GitHub (https://github.com/linhoml?tab=repositories)

Regulation of the energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase by antigen receptor and Ca2+ in T lymphocytes

The adenosine monophosphate (AMP)–activated protein kinase (AMPK) has a crucial role in maintaining cellular energy homeostasis. This study shows that human and mouse T lymphocytes express AMPKα1 and that this is rapidly activated in response to triggering of the T cell antigen receptor (TCR). TCR stimulation of AMPK was dependent on the adaptors LAT and SLP76 and could be mimicked by the elevation of intracellular Ca2+ with Ca2+ ionophores or thapsigargin. AMPK activation was also induced by energy stress and depletion of cellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP). However, TCR and Ca2+ stimulation of AMPK required the activity of Ca2+–calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinases (CaMKKs), whereas AMPK activation induced by increased AMP/ATP ratios did not. These experiments reveal two distinct pathways for the regulation of AMPK in T lymphocytes. The role of AMPK is to promote ATP conservation and production. The rapid activation of AMPK in response to Ca2+ signaling in T lymphocytes thus reveals that TCR triggering is linked to an evolutionally conserved serine kinase that regulates energy metabolism. Moreover, AMPK does not just react to cellular energy depletion but also anticipates it