Evolutionary stasis and lability in thermal physiology in a group of tropical lizards

Understanding how quickly physiological traits evolve is a topic of great interest, particularly in the context of how organisms can adapt in response to climate warming. Adjustment to novel thermal habitats may occur either through behavioural adjustments, physiological adaptation, or both. Here we test whether rates of evolution differ among physiological traits in the cybotoids, a clade of tropical Anolis lizards distributed in markedly different thermal environments on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. We find that cold tolerance evolves considerably faster than heat tolerance, a difference that results because behavioural thermoregulation more effectively shields these organisms from selection on upper than lower temperature tolerances. Specifically, because lizards in very different environments behaviourally thermoregulate during the day to similar body temperatures, divergent selection on body temperature and heat tolerance is precluded, whereas night-time temperatures can only be partially buffered by behaviour, thereby exposing organisms to selection on cold tolerance. We discuss how exposure to selection on physiology influences divergence among tropical organisms and its implications for adaptive evolutionary response to climate warming

New light on plant ash glass found in Africa: evidence for Indian Ocean Silk Road trade using major, minor, trace element and lead isotope analysis of glass from the 15th—16th century AD from Malindi and Mambrui, Kenya

Seventeen glass vessels and twenty glass beads recovered from the excavations at the ancient city of Malindi and the archaeological site of Mambrui in Kenya, east Africa were analysed using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The results show that all of the glass samples are soda-lime-silica glass. They belong to the high alumina -plant ash glass type, characterised by high alumina and relatively low calcium contents, widely distributed in eastern (10th- 16th centuries AD) and southern Africa (13th - 15th centuries AD), Central Asia (9th- 14th centuries AD) and southeast Asia (12th- 13th centuries AD), made with plant ashes and sands. This is an understudied glass type for which previous research has indicated there were three types. When compared with published research on such glasses using Zr, Ti, Ba, Cr, La, Li, Cs, Na2O, MgO and CaO we have identified at least four different compositional groups of v-Na-Al glass: Types A, B, C and D. By comparing the results with contemporary v-Na-Al glass vessels and beads from Central Asia, Africa, and southeast Asia we show that most of the Malindi and Mambrui glass share similar characteristics to the compositions of Mapungubwe Oblate and some of the Madagascar glass beads from southern Africa. They belong to Type A v-Na-Al glass which is characterised by an elevated level of Ti and Ba and a relatively high ratios of Cr/La, relatively low Zr concentrations and low ratios of Zr/ Ti. Differences in Zr, Li, MgO and Na2O concentrations in Type A glass indicates that there are subgroups which might derive from different glass workshop(s) specialising in Type A v- Na-Al glass production. Comparison with the chemical compositions of glass from Ghazni, Afghanistan and Termez, Uzbekistan, and by using lead isotope analysis, we suggest v-Na- Al glass was manufactured in Central Asia and possibly worked into vessels and beads there. Copyright: © 2020 Siu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

ABCC4/MRP4 contributes to the aggressiveness of Myc-associated epithelial ovarian cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a complex disease comprising discrete histological and molecular subtypes, for which survival rates remain unacceptably low. Tailored approaches for this deadly heterogeneous disease are urgently needed. Efflux pumps belonging to the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) family of transporters are known for roles in both drug resistance and cancer biology and are also highly targetable. Here we have investigated the association of ABCC4/MRP4 expression to clinical outcome and its biological function in endometrioid and serous tumors, common histological subtypes of EOC. We found high expression of ABCC4/MRP4, previously shown to be directly regulated by c-Myc/N-Myc, was associated with poor prognosis in endometrioid EOC (P =.001) as well as in a subset of serous EOC with a “high-MYCN” profile (C5/proliferative; P =.019). Transient siRNA-mediated suppression of MRP4 in EOC cells led to reduced growth, migration and invasion, with the effects being most pronounced in endometrioid and C5-like serous cells compared to non-C5 serous EOC cells. Sustained knockdown of MRP4 also sensitized endometrioid cells to MRP4 substrate drugs. Furthermore, suppression of MRP4 decreased the growth of patient-derived EOC cells in vivo. Together, our findings provide the first evidence that MRP4 plays an important role in the biology of Myc-associated ovarian tumors and highlight this transporter as a potential therapeutic target for EOC

Fatal Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia in a previously healthy woman was most likely associated with a contaminated hot tub

Community-acquired pneumonia due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa in previously healthy individuals is a rare disease that is associated with high fatality. On 14 February 2010 a previously healthy 49-year-old woman presented to an emergency room with signs and symptoms of pneumonia, 2 days after returning from a spa holiday in a wellness hotel. Blood cultures and respiratory specimens grew P. aeruginosa. Despite adequate antimicrobial therapy, the patient died of septic multiorgan failure on day nine of hospitalization. On February 26, nine water samples were taken from the hotel facilities used by the patient: In the hot tub sample 37,000 colony-forming units of P. aeruginosa/100 ml were detected. Two of five individual colonies from the primary plate used for this hot tub water sample were found to be genetically closely related to the patients’ isolates. Results from PFGE, AFLP and MLST analysis allowed the two lung isolates gained at autopsy and the whirlpool bathtub isolates to be allocated into one cluster. The patient most likely acquired P. aeruginosa from the contaminated water in the hotel’s hot tub. The detection of P. aeruginosa in high numbers in a hot tub indicates massive biofilm formation in the bath circulation and severe deficiencies in hygienic maintenance. The increasing popularity of hot tubs in hotels and private homes demands increased awareness about potential health risks associated with deficient hygienic maintenance

αv integrins: key regulators of tissue fibrosis

Chronic tissue injury with fibrosis results in the disruption of tissue architecture, organ dysfunction and eventual organ failure. Therefore, the development of effective anti-fibrotic therapies is urgently required. During fibrogenesis, complex interplay occurs between cellular and extracellular matrix components of the wound healing response. Integrins, a family of transmembrane cell adhesion molecules, play a key role in mediating intercellular and cell-matrix interactions. Thus, integrins provide a major node of communication between the extracellular matrix, inflammatory cells, fibroblasts and parenchymal cells and, as such, are intimately involved in the initiation, maintenance and resolution of tissue fibrosis. Modulation of members of the αv integrin family has exhibited profound effects on fibrosis in multiple organs and disease states. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of the mechanisms of αv-integrin-mediated regulation of fibrogenesis and show that the therapeutic targeting of specific αv integrins represents a promising avenue to treat patients with a broad range of fibrotic diseases

Diffractive Dijet Production at sqrt(s)=630 and 1800 GeV at the Fermilab Tevatron

We report a measurement of the diffractive structure function $F_{jj}^D$ of the antiproton obtained from a study of dijet events produced in association with a leading antiproton in $\bar pp$ collisions at $\sqrt s=630$ GeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The ratio of $F_{jj}^D$ at $\sqrt s=630$ GeV to $F_{jj}^D$ obtained from a similar measurement at $\sqrt s=1800$ GeV is compared with expectations from QCD factorization and with theoretical predictions. We also report a measurement of the $\xi$ ($x$-Pomeron) and $\beta$ ($x$ of parton in Pomeron) dependence of $F_{jj}^D$ at $\sqrt s=1800$ GeV. In the region $0.035<\xi<0.095$, $|t|<1$ GeV$^2$ and $\beta<0.5$, $F_{jj}^D(\beta,\xi)$ is found to be of the form $\beta^{-1.0\pm 0.1} \xi^{-0.9\pm 0.1}$, which obeys $\beta$-$\xi$ factorization.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

Precision measurement of the top quark mass from dilepton events at CDF II

We report a measurement of the top quark mass, M_t, in the dilepton decay channel of $t\bar{t}\to b\ell'^{+}\nu_{\ell'}\bar{b}\ell^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ using an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb^{-1} of p\bar{p} collisions collected with the CDF II detector. We apply a method that convolutes a leading-order matrix element with detector resolution functions to form event-by-event likelihoods; we have enhanced the leading-order description to describe the effects of initial-state radiation. The joint likelihood is the product of the likelihoods from 78 candidate events in this sample, which yields a measurement of M_{t} = 164.5 \pm 3.9(\textrm{stat.}) \pm 3.9(\textrm{syst.}) \mathrm{GeV}/c^2, the most precise measurement of M_t in the dilepton channel.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, version includes changes made prior to publication by journa

Measurement of the Ratios of Branching Fractions B(Bs -> Ds pi pi pi) / B(Bd -> Dd pi pi pi) and B(Bs -> Ds pi) / B(Bd -> Dd pi)

Using 355 pb^-1 of data collected by the CDF II detector in \ppbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron, we study the fully reconstructed hadronic decays B -> D pi and B -> D pi pi pi. We present the first measurement of the ratio of branching fractions B(Bs -> Ds pi pi pi) / B(Bd -> Dd pi pi pi) = 1.05 pm 0.10 (stat) pm 0.22 (syst). We also update our measurement of B(Bs -> Ds pi) / B(Bd -> Dd pi) to 1.13 pm 0.08 (stat) pm 0.23 (syst) improving the statistical uncertainty by more than a factor of two. We find B(Bs -> Ds pi) = [3.8 pm 0.3 (stat) pm 1.3 (syst)] \times 10^{-3} and B(Bs -> Ds pi pi pi) = [8.4 pm 0.8 (stat) pm 3.2 (syst)] \times 10^{-3}.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure