Host use of the elkhorn coral crab <i>Domecia acanthophora</i> (Brachyura : Domeciidae), with a phylogeny of the genus

Coral-dwelling crabs form a diverse community on coral reefs, and various families independently colonised scleractinian corals. Species of Domecia have a circumtropical distribution, with two known species in the Indo-Pacific, one in the West Atlantic and one in the East Atlantic. New host records for the West Atlantic species D. acanthophora are recorded from Guadeloupe, as well as the first dwellings in Acropora prolifera from Curaçao. Here we provide an overview of all known hosts of Domecia species and, based on COI mtDNA, the first phylogeny of the genus. The coral Orbicella faveolata and the sponge Callyspongia sp. are recorded as new hosts for D. acanthophora. Host records for this species now include eight scleractinian hosts, Millepora fire corals and records on sponges. Our phylogenetic reconstruction shows that D. acanthophora is closest to the wide-ranging Indo-Pacific species D. hispida, and more distantly related to D. glabra. Domecia acanthophora appears to be less host specific than its congeners D. hispida and D. glabra that predominantly associate with Pocillopora and Acropora corals, respectively. Differences in host-specificity between Indo-Pacific and Atlantic species are briefly discussed in the light of similar observations on other coral-dwelling crab species

Human adipose derived stroma/stem cells grow in serum-free medium as floating spheres,”

With the goal of obtaining clinically safe human adipose-derived stroma/stem cells (ASC) and eliminating the use of serum, we have developed a new culture system that allows the expansion of ASC as spheres in a defined medium. These spheres can be passaged several times. They are not only aggregated cells but rather originate from single cells as clonal spheres can be obtained after seeding at very low density and reform clonal spheres after dissociation. These spheres can also revert to monolayer growth when plated in medium containing human plasma and even generate fibroblast-like colonies (CFU-f). Under several differentiation-specific media, spheresderived ASC maintain their capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts, endothelial cells and adipocytes. These results indicate that human ASC can be maintained in a serum-free 3D culture system, which is of great interest for the expansion in bioreactors of autologous ASC and their use in clinical trials

A Fiber-Optic Fluorescence Microscope Using a Consumer-Grade Digital Camera for In Vivo Cellular Imaging

BACKGROUND: Early detection is an essential component of cancer management. Unfortunately, visual examination can often be unreliable, and many settings lack the financial capital and infrastructure to operate PET, CT, and MRI systems. Moreover, the infrastructure and expense associated with surgical biopsy and microscopy are a challenge to establishing cancer screening/early detection programs in low-resource settings. Improvements in performance and declining costs have led to the availability of optoelectronic components, which can be used to develop low-cost diagnostic imaging devices for use at the point-of-care. Here, we demonstrate a fiber-optic fluorescence microscope using a consumer-grade camera for in vivo cellular imaging. METHODS: The fiber-optic fluorescence microscope includes an LED light, an objective lens, a fiber-optic bundle, and a consumer-grade digital camera. The system was used to image an oral cancer cell line labeled with 0.01% proflavine. A human tissue specimen was imaged following surgical resection, enabling dysplastic and cancerous regions to be evaluated. The oral mucosa of a healthy human subject was imaged in vivo, following topical application of 0.01% proflavine. FINDINGS: The fiber-optic microscope resolved individual nuclei in all specimens and tissues imaged. This capability allowed qualitative and quantitative differences between normal and precancerous or cancerous tissues to be identified. The optical efficiency of the system permitted imaging of the human oral mucosa in real time. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate this device as a useful tool to assist in the identification of early neoplastic changes in epithelial tissues. This portable, inexpensive unit may be particularly appropriate for use at the point-of-care in low-resource settings

Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells from the Adult Human Spinal Cord Are Multipotent and Self-Renewing and Differentiate after Transplantation

Neural stem/progenitor cell (NSPC) transplantation is a promising therapy for spinal cord injury (SCI). However, little is known about NSPC from the adult human spinal cord as a donor source. We demonstrate for the first time that multipotent and self-renewing NSPC can be cultured, passaged and transplanted from the adult human spinal cord of organ transplant donors. Adult human spinal cord NSPC require an adherent substrate for selection and expansion in EGF (epidermal growth factor) and FGF2 (fibroblast growth factor) enriched medium. NSPC as an adherent monolayer can be passaged for at least 9 months and form neurospheres when plated in suspension culture. In EGF/FGF2 culture, NSPC proliferate and primarily express nestin and Sox2, and low levels of markers for differentiating cells. Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) promotes NSPC proliferation and significantly enhances GFAP expression in hypoxia. In differentiating conditions in the presence of serum, these NSPC show multipotentiality, expressing markers of neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dbcAMP) significantly enhances neuronal differentiation. We transplanted the multipotent NSPC into SCI rats and show that the xenografts survive, are post-mitotic, and retain the capacity to differentiate into neurons and glia

ErbB2, EphrinB1, Src Kinase and PTPN13 Signaling Complex Regulates MAP Kinase Signaling in Human Cancers

In non-cancerous cells, phosphorylated proteins exist transiently, becoming de-phosphorylated by specific phosphatases that terminate propagation of signaling pathways. In cancers, compromised phosphatase activity and/or expression occur and contribute to tumor phenotype. The non-receptor phosphatase, PTPN13, has recently been dubbed a putative tumor suppressor. It decreased expression in breast cancer correlates with decreased overall survival. Here we show that PTPN13 regulates a new signaling complex in breast cancer consisting of ErbB2, Src, and EphrinB1. To our knowledge, this signaling complex has not been previously described. Co-immunoprecipitation and localization studies demonstrate that EphrinB1, a PTPN13 substrate, interacts with ErbB2. In addition, the oncogenic V660E ErbB2 mutation enhances this interaction, while Src kinase mediates EphrinB1 phosphorylation and subsequent MAP Kinase signaling. Decreased PTPN13 function further enhances signaling. The association of oncogene kinases (ErbB2, Src), a signaling transmembrane ligand (EphrinB1) and a phosphatase tumor suppressor (PTPN13) suggest that EphrinB1 may be a relevant therapeutic target in breast cancers harboring ErbB2-activating mutations and decreased PTPN13 expression

ICF, An Immunodeficiency Syndrome: DNA Methyltransferase 3B Involvement, Chromosome Anomalies, and Gene Dysregulation

The immunodeficiency, centromeric region instability, and facial anomalies syndrome (ICF) is the only disease known to result from a mutated DNA methyltransferase gene, namely, DNMT3B. Characteristic of this recessive disease are decreases in serum immunoglobulins despite the presence of B cells and, in the juxtacentromeric heterochromatin of chromosomes 1 and 16, chromatin decondensation, distinctive rearrangements, and satellite DNA hypomethylation. Although DNMT3B is involved in specific associations with histone deacetylases, HP1, other DNMTs, chromatin remodelling proteins, condensin, and other nuclear proteins, it is probably the partial loss of catalytic activity that is responsible for the disease. In microarray experiments and real-time RT-PCR assays, we observed significant differences in RNA levels from ICF vs. control lymphoblasts for pro- and anti-apoptotic genes (BCL2L10, CASP1, and PTPN13); nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, NF-κB, and TNFa signalling pathway genes (PRKCH, GUCY1A3, GUCY1B3, MAPK13; HMOX1, and MAP4K4); and transcription control genes (NR2F2 and SMARCA2). This gene dysregulation could contribute to the immunodeficiency and other symptoms of ICF and might result from the limited losses of DNA methylation although ICF-related promoter hypomethylation was not observed for six of the above examined genes. We propose that hypomethylation of satellite 2at1qh and 16qh might provoke this dysregulation gene expression by trans effects from altered sequestration of transcription factors, changes in nuclear architecture, or expression of noncoding RNAs

A survey of physiotherapeutic provision for patients undergoing thoracic surgery in the U.K.

OBJECTIVES Evaluation of physiotherapeutic provision for patients undergoing open thoracotomy and lung surgery in the U.K. Timing of physiotherapy, modalities used and factors influencing practice were also investigated. DESIGN Survey. SETTING Tertiary centres performing thoracic surgery. PARTICIPANTS Forty U.K. centres were identified, and senior physiotherapists were invited to participate. METHODS A postal survey was distributed to identified centres in August 2008, with further follow-up of non-responders. This was adapted from a similar study conducted in Australia and New Zealand. RESULTS Thirty-one responses were received (78%). Pre-operative physiotherapy was provided by 87% of respondents: 10% provided physiotherapy for all patients and 77% only provided physiotherapy for high-risk patients. Pre-operative pulmonary rehabilitation was reported in 13% of centres. Postoperative physiotherapeutic assessment was undertaken routinely by 97% of respondents: 81% provided physiotherapy to all patients, and 16% only provided physiotherapy when a specific problem was identified. The treatments given were relatively standardised. The provision of physiotherapy following hospital discharge was generally very sparse. CONCLUSION This study provides a guide for physiotherapists working with patients undergoing thoracic surgery to use to compare their current practices. Postoperative physiotherapy is provided extensively to UK patients undergoing open thoracotomy. However, pre-operative provision is more variable and is mainly provided for high-risk patients. Despite the subsequent publication of pre- and postoperative pulmonary rehabilitation studies, UK physiotherapy practice remained similar to that reported in Australia and New Zealand. Further research in this field is necessary to investigate the role of pre-operative physiotherapy, the role of pre- and postoperative pulmonary rehabilitation, and the effectiveness of routine postoperative physiotherapy

Morphological variability of Ocyurus chrysurus in coral reefs of Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles)

International audienc

Morphological variability of Ocyurus chrysurus in coral reefs of Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles)

International audienc

Anomaly detection using gaussian mixture probability model to implement intrusion detection system

Network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) detect attacks or anomalous network traffic patterns in order to avoid cybersecurity issues. Anomaly detection algorithms are used to identify unusual behavior or outliers in the network traffic in order to generate alarms. Traditionally, Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) have been used for probabilistic-based anomaly detection NIDS. We propose to use multiple simple GMMs to model each individual feature, and an asymmetric voting scheme that aggregates the individual anomaly detectors to provide. We test our approach using the NSL dataset. We construct the normal behavior models using only the samples labelled as normal in this dataset and evaluate our proposal using the official NSL testing set. As a result, we obtain a F1-score over 0.9, outperforming other supervised and unsupervised proposals