Biomechanical characteristics of the metatarsal part of the foot in swimmers in walking

Objective: to investigate the characteristics of the distribution of pressure under the foot during walking in swimmers of various ages and experience.Materials and methods. The study involved swimmers aged 11.4 ± 1.9 years, of both sexes, with at least 4 years of training experience (n = 23) and masters of sports in swimming, 19.3 ± 1.5 years old with 12.2 ± 1.3 years of experience (n = 23). The study used a podometric footscan® platform from RSscan company. Kinematic and dynamic parameters of pressure under the foot during natural walking were recorded. The focus was on the indicators of contact with the support in the zones of the metatarsal part of the foot. The peak pressure value in each metatarsal zone and the time to reach it were taken into account.Results. In the course of the study, the order in which the maximum pressure under the metatarsal zones manifests was understood, which appeared in a sequence: fifth, fourth, first, third and second metatarsal zones. It was found that in young athletes the transverse arch of the foot during walking undergoes a relatively greater load than in older athletes. Moreover, relatively high values were noted in the zones of the second and third metatarsals in both age groups.Conclusions: the swimmer’s foot experiences a significant professional transformation associated with specific sports activities, which dictates the need to introduce certain preventive and corrective measures into sports training

Surface Functionality Features of Nanosized Silica Obtained by Electron Beam Evaporation at Ambient Pressure

A series of nanosized silica powders with different specific surface values are synthesized by electron beam evaporation in air at ambient pressure. The obtained silica samples are featured with relatively low apparent density and high content of oxygen and hydroxyl groups on the surface making these materials promising for specific applications

Reactivity of an organism at hypertrophic skin scars

The aim of the research was to assess the reactivity of female organism with hypertrophic scars. 42 women of 16-35years were examined on the 5-7th day of the menstrual cycle, 17 of them had normotrophic and 25 - hypertrophic scars. The quality of scars (according to the clinical and morphological characteristics), white blood cells, blood lipids, hormonal and immune status were assessed. Non-parametric Mann - Whitney U-test and discriminant analysis were used at statistical processing of the results. Average values and standard deviations were also calculated for interpreting the results of quantitative indications. As the result of discriminant analysis the most informative indicators of reactivity of an organism that allow to differentiate patients of the studied groups were defined for patients with normotrophic and hypertrophic scars. It was concluded that the imbalance of steroid hormones (progesterone, cortisol, testosterone, estrogen) was important in the etiopathogenesis of hypertrophic scars

Mitochondria of the Yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces lactis Contain Nuclear rDNA-Encoded Proteins

In eukaryotes, the nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) is the source of the structural 18S, 5.8S and 25S rRNAs. In hemiascomycetous yeasts, the 25S rDNA sequence was described to lodge an antisense open reading frame (ORF) named TAR1 for Transcript Antisense to Ribosomal RNA. Here, we present the first immuno-detection and sub-cellular localization of the authentic product of this atypical yeast gene. Using specific antibodies against the predicted amino-acid sequence of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae TAR1 product, we detected the endogenous Tar1p polypeptides in S. cerevisiae (Sc) and Kluyveromyces lactis (Kl) species and found that both proteins localize to mitochondria. Protease and carbonate treatments of purified mitochondria further revealed that endogenous Sc Tar1p protein sub-localizes in the inner membrane in a Nin-Cout topology. Plasmid-versions of 5′ end or 3′ end truncated TAR1 ORF were used to demonstrate that neither the N-terminus nor the C-terminus of Sc Tar1p were required for its localization. Also, Tar1p is a presequence-less protein. Endogenous Sc Tar1p was found to be a low abundant protein, which is expressed in fermentable and non-fermentable growth conditions. Endogenous Sc TAR1 transcripts were also found low abundant and consistently 5′ flanking regions of TAR1 ORF exhibit modest promoter activity when assayed in a luciferase-reporter system. Using rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) PCR, we also determined that endogenous Sc TAR1 transcripts possess heterogeneous 5′ and 3′ ends probably reflecting the complex expression of a gene embedded in actively transcribed rDNA sequence. Altogether, our results definitively ascertain that the antisense yeast gene TAR1 constitutes a functional transcription unit within the nuclear rDNA repeats

A NEW METHOD TO ASSESS FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITY OF SERUM COMPLEMENT SYSTEM

Complement system is an important component of innate immunity, providing primary protection against pathogens invading the body. In addition, it was shown that the complement system is associated with many diseases, not only autoimmune and infectious, but also mental disorders. In this regard, it is necessary to develop affordable and fast method of measuring activity of the complement system in real-time mode. We present a new semi-automated method for assessment of serum complement activity. The assay is based on cytolytic action of complement system upon the ciliate organism Tetrahymena pyriformis. This method consists in repeated counting of live Tetrahymena motile cells by means of specially developed Biolat device, which consists of two video cameras, light sources, and movable round plate. The plate has two rows of holes. The device also includes microprocessor control unit based on AutoCiliata software, intended for control of operation module and counting the surviving cell. The calculations are based on fixation of two sequential video-frames, with subsequent software image processing. Cell death events were observed upon incubation in triethanolamine (TEA) buffer containing 5% of blood serum. We have also compared complement activity in different buffers, i.e., standard medium for culturing of ciliates, Veronal-Medinalum buffer, and the TEA buffer. TEA buffer was found superior to the Veronal buffer when applied in the test system. The time of cell death in the TEA-buffered medium containing 5% serum was < 15 minutes for all the sera studied. The parameters denoting serum complement activity were as follows: a half-life time for the moving cells (TLD50), and a similar value for 100% cell inactivation (1/TLD50, functional activity of the complement system, ACS). The sensitivity of this assay was calculated from dependencies between TLD50 and ACS, and actual serum concentrations. We have suggested an opportunity for evaluation of an integral complement activity, and interrelations between the intensity of synthesis and consumption of its major effector proteins. In the course of this study, we have tested different concentrations of Ca++ and Mg++ ions in the incubation buffer, with optimal physiological concentrations of2.5 mMand1.5 mM, respectively. We have also estimated statistical precision characteristics for pre-analytical and analytical steps of the method. The average coefficients of variation (CV) were 3.9% and 2.7%, respectively, thus satisfying the reliability criteria in research. A short performance time of the study suggests its potential application in clinical practice, including online examination regimens. A method for semi-automatic measurement of serum complement activity could be applicable in daily clinical practice, including the online performance

Permitted Oxygen Abundances and the Temperature Scale of Metal-Poor Turn-Off Stars

We use high quality VLT/UVES published data of the permitted OI triplet and FeII lines to determine oxygen and iron abundances in unevolved (dwarfs, turn-off, subgiants) metal-poor halo stars. The calculations have been performed both in LTE and NLTE, employing effective temperatures obtained with the new infrared flux method (IRFM) temperature scale by Ramirez & Melendez, and surface gravities from Hipparcos parallaxes and theoretical isochrones. A new list of accurate transition probabilities for FeII lines, tied to the absolute scale defined by laboratory measurements, has been used. We find a plateau in the oxygen-to-iron ratio over more than two orders of magnitude in iron abundance (-3.2 < [Fe/H] < -0.7), with a mean [O/Fe] = 0.5 dex (sigma = 0.1 dex), independent of metallicity, temperature and surface gravity. According to the new IRFM Teff scale, the temperatures of turn-off halo stars strongly depend on metallicity, a result that is in excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement with stellar evolution calculations, which predict that the Teff of the turn-off at [Fe/H] = -3 is about 600-700 K higher than that at [Fe/H] = -1.Comment: In press, Ap

A Vaccine against Nicotine for Smoking Cessation: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Tobacco dependence is the leading cause of preventable death and disabilities worldwide and nicotine is the main substance responsible for the addiction to tobacco. A vaccine against nicotine was tested in a 6-month randomized, double blind phase II smoking cessation study in 341 smokers with a subsequent 6-month follow-up period. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: 229 subjects were randomized to receive five intramuscular injections of the nicotine vaccine and 112 to receive placebo at monthly intervals. All subjects received individual behavioral smoking cessation counseling. The vaccine was safe, generally well tolerated and highly immunogenic, inducing a 100% antibody responder rate after the first injection. Point prevalence of abstinence at month 2 showed a statistically significant difference between subjects treated with Nicotine-Qbeta (47.2%) and placebo (35.1%) (P = 0.036), but continuous abstinence between months 2 and 6 was not significantly different. However, in subgroup analysis of the per-protocol population, the third of subjects with highest antibody levels showed higher continuous abstinence from month 2 until month 6 (56.6%) than placebo treated participants (31.3%) (OR 2.9; P = 0.004) while medium and low antibody levels did not increase abstinence rates. After 12 month, the difference in continuous abstinence rate between subjects on placebo and those with high antibody response was maintained (difference 20.2%, P = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: Whereas Nicotine-Qbeta did not significantly increase continuous abstinence rates in the intention-to-treat population, subgroup analyses of the per-protocol population suggest that such a vaccination against nicotine can significantly increase continuous abstinence rates in smokers when sufficiently high antibody levels are achieved. Immunotherapy might open a new avenue to the treatment of nicotine addiction. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Swiss Medical Registry 2003DR2327; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00369616

Stat3 controls cell death during mammary gland involution by regulating uptake of milk fat globules and lysosomal membrane permeabilization.

We have previously demonstrated that Stat3 regulates lysosomal-mediated programmed cell death (LM-PCD) during mouse mammary gland involution in vivo. However, the mechanism that controls the release of lysosomal cathepsins to initiate cell death in this context has not been elucidated. We show here that Stat3 regulates the formation of large lysosomal vacuoles that contain triglyceride. Furthermore, we demonstrate that milk fat globules (MFGs) are toxic to epithelial cells and that, when applied to purified lysosomes, the MFG hydrolysate oleic acid potently induces lysosomal leakiness. Additionally, uptake of secreted MFGs coated in butyrophilin 1A1 is diminished in Stat3-ablated mammary glands and loss of the phagocytosis bridging molecule MFG-E8 results in reduced leakage of cathepsins in vivo. We propose that Stat3 regulates LM-PCD in mouse mammary gland by switching cellular function from secretion to uptake of MFGs. Thereafter, perturbation of lysosomal vesicle membranes by high levels of free fatty acids results in controlled leakage of cathepsins culminating in cell death.This work was supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council programme grant no. MR/J001023/1 (T.J.S. and B. L-L.) and a Cancer Research UK Cambridge Cancer Centre PhD studentship (H.K.R.).This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing at http://www.nature.com/ncb/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ncb3043.html