Deriving nutrient criteria to support 'good' ecological status in European lakes: An empirically based approach to linking ecology and management

European water policy has identified eutrophication as a priority issue for water management. Substantial progress has been made in combating eutrophication but open issues remain, including setting reliable and meaningful nutrient criteria supporting ʽgoodʼ ecological status of the Water Framework Directive. The paper introduces a novel methodological approach - a set of four different methods - that can be applied to different ecosystems and stressors to derive empirically-based management targets. The methods include Ranged Major Axis (RMA) regression, multivariate Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, logistic regression, and minimising the mismatch of classifications. We apply these approaches to establish nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) criteria for the major productive shallow lake types of Europe: high alkalinity shallow (LCB1; mean depth 3–15 m) and very shallow (LCB2; mean depth

Hypoxia as a target for drug combination therapy of liver cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most frequentcause of cancer deaths worldwide. The standard of care for intermediate HCC is transarterial chemoembolization, which combines tumour embolization with locoregional delivery of the chemotherapeutic doxorubicin. Embolization therapies induce hypoxia, leading to the escape and proliferation of hypoxia-adapted cancer cells. The transcription factor that orchestrates responses to hypoxia is hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1). The aim of this work is to show that targeting HIF-1 with combined drug therapy presents an opportunity for improving outcomes for HCC treatment. HepG2 cells were cultured under normoxic and hypoxic conditions exposed to doxorubicin, rapamycin and combinations thereof, and analyzed for viability and the expression of hypoxia-induced HIF-1α in response to these treatments. A pilot study was carried out to evaluate the antitumour effects of these drug combinations delivered from drug-eluting beads in vivo using an ectopic xenograft murine model of HCC. A therapeutic doxorubicin concentration that inhibits the viability of normoxic and hypoxic HepG2 cells and above which hypoxic cells are chemoresistant was identified, together with the lowest effective dose of rapamycin against normoxic and hypoxicHepG2 cells. It was shown that combinations of rapamycinand doxorubicin are more effective than doxorubicin alone. Western Blotting indicated that both doxorubicin and rapamycin inhibit hypoxia-induced accumulation of HIF-1α. Combination treatments were more effective in vivo than either treatment alone. mTOR inhibition can improve outcomes of doxorubicin treatment in HCC Anti-Cancer

Electron and proton heating by solar wind turbulence

Previous formulations of heating and transport associated with strong magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are generalized to incorporate separate internal energy equations for electrons and protons. Electron heat conduction is included. Energy is supplied by turbulent heating that affects both electrons and protons, and is exchanged between them via collisions. Comparison to available Ulysses data shows that a reasonable accounting for the data is provided when (i) the energy exchange timescale is very long and (ii) the deposition of heat due to turbulence is divided, with 60% going to proton heating and 40% into electron heating. Heat conduction, determined here by an empirical fit, plays a major role in describing the electron data

The effect of a Lycra compression garment on upper limb muscle activity during a functional task

Purpose: Lycra compression garments have been used in neurological rehabilitation as a treatment adjunct for some time. They have been reported to contribute to improved function in children with cerebral palsy and adult stroke survivors. The physiological effect of these garments is still not clearly understood, recent research has found increases in muscle activity around the shoulder girdle and proximal arm muscles in static positions. Effects on muscle activity during functional tasks has not been investigated. The aim of this research project was to investigate the effect of wearing a Lycra compression garment on muscle activity in the upper limb during a functional task. Methods: A same subject crossover design was used. 19 healthy adult subjects were recruited and randomised to condition 1 (Lycra) or condition 2 (no Lycra). Surface electromyography (EMG) was applied to the biceps, triceps and common wrist/finger extensor muscle groups. Readings for maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) were taken. Subjects undertook three repetitions of a standardised low intensity loaded reaching task with activity measured as %MVC. Following a standardised interval subjects completed the alternate condition for comparison. Data was analysed with SPSS using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test for non-parametric data. Results: When wearing the Lycra garment there were small increases in biceps (+3%; P = 0.06) and triceps activity (+10%; P = 0.73) and a small decrease in common wrist/finger extensor activity (−3%; P = 0.84) however these finding were not statistically significant. Conclusion(s): Results indicated no significant change in muscle activity when wearing a Lycra garment during a upper limb functional task. These findings are contrary to Results in more proximal muscles in static positions. This may indicate that changes in muscle activity when wearing a Lycra garment occur more proximally. It may also indicate that changes seen in static positions may not be maintained during task performance. The task undertaken was of a low intensity, it is possible that changes in muscle activity may be seen at higher intensities. Further investigation of more proximal muscles and upper limb tasks of varying intensity are indicated to expand the evidence base for this adjunctive treatment option. Implications: Lycra garments are increasingly used as a treatment adjunct in neurological rehabilitation. This project adds to the evidence base in this developing area. Further study is indicated to understand any physiological changes that Lycra garments provide

Coronostoma claireae n. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabditida: Oxyuridomorpha: Coronostomatidae) from the Indigenous Milliped Narceus gordanus (Chamberlain, 1943) (Diplopoda: Spirobolida) in Ocala National Forest, Florida

Twenty-four individuals of Narceus gordanus (Diplopoda: Spirobolidae) were collected in Ocala National Forest, FL, between November 2013 and July 2014. Each specimen was dissected to extract the intestine, which was removed and examined for parasitic nematodes. Coronostoma claireae n. sp. was collected from the hindgut and midgut of 10 specimens, and its morphology was examined with brightfield, differential interference contrast, phase contrast, and scanning electron microscopy. This species is separated from other Coronostoma spp. by the following characteristics: body length less than 3 mm; head sense organs pit-like; first annule long, extending past middle of corpus, width similar to that of second annule; basal bulb pyriform; eggs larger than 60 3 50 mm. This species is the first North American record for the genus Coronostoma, which is removed from Thelastomatoidea: Thelastomatidae and reassigned to Coronostomatidae on the basis of presumed apomorphies. A key is provided for known Coronostoma spp. The superfamily Coronostomatoidea is re-established for Coronostomatidae and Traklosiidae

Identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms from the transcriptome of an organism with a whole genome duplication

BACKGROUND: The common ancestor of salmonid fishes, including rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), experienced a whole genome duplication between 20 and 100 million years ago, and many of the duplicated genes have been retained in the trout genome. This retention complicates efforts to detect allelic variation in salmonid fishes. Specifically, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection is problematic because nucleotide variation can be found between the duplicate copies (paralogs) of a gene as well as between alleles. RESULTS: We present a method of differentiating between allelic and paralogous (gene copy) sequence variants, allowing identification of SNPs in organisms with multiple copies of a gene or set of genes. The basic strategy is to: 1) identify windows of unique cDNA sequences with homology to each other, 2) compare these unique cDNAs if they are not shared between individuals (i.e. the cDNA is homozygous in one individual and homozygous for another cDNA in the other individual), and 3) give a “SNP score” value between zero and one to each candidate sequence variant based on six criteria. Using this strategy we were able to detect about seven thousand potential SNPs from the transcriptomes of several clonal lines of rainbow trout. When directly compared to a pre-validated set of SNPs in polyploid wheat, we were also able to estimate the false-positive rate of this strategy as 0 to 28% depending on parameters used. CONCLUSIONS: This strategy has an advantage over traditional techniques of SNP identification because another dimension of sequencing information is utilized. This method is especially well suited for identifying SNPs in polyploids, both outbred and inbred, but would tend to be conservative for diploid organisms

Purification, crystallization and X-ray structures of the two manganese superoxide dismutases from Caenorhabditis elegans

Two manganese superoxide dismutase enzymes isolated from the eukaryote C. elegans have been characterized and their structures determined. The closely related structures reveal a striking similarity to manganese superoxide dismutase found in humans