Fatty acid bioconversion in harpacticoid copepods in a changing environment : a transcriptomic approach

By 2100, global warming is predicted to significantly reduce the capacity of marine primary producers for long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC-PUFA) synthesis. Primary consumers such as harpacticoid copepods (Crustacea) might mitigate the resulting adverse effects on the food web by increased LC-PUFA bioconversion. Here, we present a high-quality de novo transcriptome assembly of the copepodPlatychelipus littoralis, exposed to changes in both temperature (+3 degrees C) and dietary LC-PUFA availability. Using this transcriptome, we detected multiple transcripts putatively coding for LC-PUFA-bioconverting front-end fatty acid (FA) desaturases and elongases, and performed phylogenetic analyses to identify their relationship with sequences of other (crustacean) taxa. While temperature affected the absolute FA concentrations in copepods, LC-PUFA levels remained unaltered even when copepods were fed an LC-PUFA-deficient diet. While this suggests plasticity of LC-PUFA bioconversion withinP. littoralis, none of the putative front-end desaturase or elongase transcripts was differentially expressed under the applied treatments. Nevertheless, the transcriptome presented here provides a sound basis for future ecophysiological research on harpacticoid copepods. This article is part of the theme issue 'The next horizons for lipids as 'trophic biomarkers': evidence and significance of consumer modification of dietary fatty acids'

Giant nonlinear response of superconducting single crystal niobium in a sweeping magnetic field

Giant enhancement of the nonlinear response of a single crystal of Nb placed in a sweeping magnetic field has been experimentally observed. The rectified signal from Nb ($Tc=9.15$ K) has been measured by means of an inductive method as a function of temperature, dc field, dc field sweep rate, and the amplitude of ac field. The Nb sample was excited by an amplitude modulated ac field. Under a stationary regime, the rectified signal appears only for magnetic fields ($H_0$) in the range $H_{c2}<H_0<H_{c3}$ . However, when the dc field was swept slowly, the rectified signal appears at $H_0>H_{c1}$. This experiment shows that the amplitude of the rectified signal is two orders of magnitude larger than the amplitude of the signal seen under stationary field conditions. Moreover, the amplitude of the rectified signal is a power function of the sweep rate, with the power exponent close to 1.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, presented to EUCAS 200

Biochemistry and functional aspects of human glandular kallikreins

Human urinary kallikrein was purified by gel filtration on Sephacryl S-200 and affinity chromatography on aprotinin-Sepharose, followed by ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose. In dodecylsulfate gel electrophoresis two protein bands with molecular weights of 41,000 and 34,000 were separated. The amino acid composition and the carbohydrate content of the kallikrein preparation were determined; isoleucine was identified as the only aminoterminal amino acid. The bimolecular velocity constant for the inhibition by diisopropyl fluorophosphate was determined as 9±2 l mol–1 min–1. The hydrolysis of a number of substrates was investigated and AcPheArgOEt was found to be the most sensitive substrate for human urinary kallikrein. Using this substrate an assay method for kallikrein in human urine was developed. It was shown by radioimmunoassay that pig pancreatic kallikrein can be absorbed in the rat intestinal tract. Furthermore, in dogs the renal excretion of glandular kallikrein from blood was demonstrated by radioimmunological methods

Pulsatile microvascular blood flow imaging by short-time Fourier transform analysis of ultrafast laser holographic interferometry

We report on wide-field imaging of pulsatile microvascular blood flow in the exposed cerebral cortex of a mouse by holographic interferometry. We recorded interferograms of laser light backscattered by the tissue, beating against an off-axis reference beam with a 50 kHz framerate camera. Videos of local Doppler contrasts were rendered numerically by Fresnel transformation and short-time Fourier transform analysis. This approach enabled instantaneous imaging of pulsatile blood flow contrasts in superficial blood vessels over 256 x 256 pixels with a spatial resolution of 10 microns and a temporal resolution of 20 ms.Comment: 4 page

The Adsorption of Small Molecules on the Copper Paddle-Wheel: Influence of the Multi-Reference Ground State

We report a theoretical study of the adsorption of a set of small molecules (C$_{2}$H$_{2}$, CO, CO$_{2}$, O$_{2}$, H$_{2}$O, CH$_{3}$OH, C$_{2}$H$_{5}$OH) on the metal centers of the “copper paddle-wheel”—a key structural motif of many MOFs. A systematic comparison between DFT of different rungs, single-reference post-HF methods (MP$_{2}$, SOS–MP$_{2}$, MP$_{3}$, DLPNO–CCSD(T)), and multi-reference approaches (CASSCF, DCD–CAS(2), NEVPT2) is performed in order to find a methodology that correctly describes the complicated electronic structure of paddle-wheel structure together with a reasonable description of non-covalent interactions. Apart from comparison with literature data (experimental values wherever possible), benchmark calculations with DLPNO–MR–CCSD were also performed. Despite tested methods show qualitative agreement in the majority of cases, we showed and discussed reasons for quantitative differences as well as more fundamental problems of specific case

HOW TO FIND THE OPTIMAL CUTOFF FREQUENCY FOR FILTERING KINEMATIC DATA ?

INTRODUCTION: By analyzing movement data recent investigations distinguish between time discrete and time continuous oriented approaches (e.g. Schöner 1987, Schöllhorn 1995). Whereas the consequences of filtering procedures on instant intensities and cyclic movements are investigated expansive (Cesare et.al.), the problem on short time course characteristics of complex movement signals is still demanding. The aim of this investigation is to look for the dependance of the filter frequencies and the time course characteristics. METHODS: The data basis was formed by 2D-kinematic data of several longjumpers at the last three strides before take off. The whole movement sequence was filmed with 150Hz and lasted about 0.9sec (140fr). 20 body landmarks were digitized with an maximum spatial error of +1 cm. The data sequences of each body landmark were smoothed by means of a Butterworth-Filter with cutoff-frequencies from 0 to 20 Hz. From these filtered data as well as from the raw data the first derivations were taken by means of finite difference method. The filter caused changes were defined by the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) from the first time derivations of the raw and filtered data. RESULTS: Displaying the gradient of RMSE versus the filter frequencies we get a high intensity at lower frequencies and a minimum at intermediate frequencies. The optimal cutoff-frequency was obtained at the first minimum of the gradientline. At several trials of the same athlete for the same joint equal cutoff-frequencies could be found. But frequencies for different joints deviated, e.g. head: 8.5Hz, hand: 12 Hz). With different athletes different frequencies for the same joints were found, e.g. knee of athlete1: 13 Hz, knee of athlete2: 9 Hz) CONCLUSION: In order to reduce the filter caused errors, the cutoff-frequencies for the digital filter should be adapted to each athlete and each joint. By chosing the wrong filter frequency the risc is high to disregard individual movement characteristics and to manipulate the data in direction of the investigators expectations. REFERENCES: Cesare,A., Riley, P.O., Krebs, D.E. (1994). Frequency Content of Whole Body Gait Kinematic Data. Transaction on rehabilitation engineering, Vol.2,No.1. Schöllhorn,W.I. (1995). Comparison of biomechanical movement patterns by means of orthogonal reference functions. In A. Barabás, G. Fábián (Eds.), Biomechanics in Sports XII (pp. 20-24). Budapest: ITC Plantin. Schöner, G., Kelso, J. A. S. (1988). Dynamic pattern theory of behavioral change. Journal of Theoretical Biology

Changes in quercetin and kaempferol concentrations during broccoli head ontogeny in three broccoli cultivars

Three broccoli cultivars – spear broccoli ‘Emperor’, crown broccoli ‘Marathon’ and violet broccoli ‘Viola’ – were harvested during head ontogeny from start of head development until over maturity stage (five stages) in three different years. The aglycones quercetin and kaempferol were analysed at optimised conditions of acid hydrolysis by HPLC. Heads of over maturity stage had the highest contents of quercetin and kaempferol. However, the genotype fundamentally determined the quantity and course of the increase in flavonols. Mini broccoli, as a new trend to market vegetables, has lower content of flavonols than the commercial stage, which indicates a reduction in health potentials. Harvesting broccoli heads of over maturity stage should be used as raw material, e.g. for the design of new functional foods

The effect of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme on health care utilisation

Objectives: The study investigates the effect of Ghana&#8217;s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on health care utilisation.Methods: We provide a short history of health insurance in Ghana, and briefly discuss general patterns of enrolment in Ghana as well as in Accra in a first step. In a second step, we use data from the Women&#8217;s Health Study of Accra wave II to evaluate the effect of insurance on health seeking behaviour using propensity score matching.Results: We find that on average individuals enrolled in the insurance scheme are significantly more likely to obtain prescriptions, visit clinics and seek formal health care when sick.Conclusion: These results suggest that the government&#8217;s objective to increase access to the formal health care sector through health insurance has at leastpartially been achieved