Spatial and temporal distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex infection in Eurasian badger (Meles meles) and cattle in Asturias, Spain

Trabajo presentado al: 69th Wildlife Disease Association and 14th European Wildlife Disease Association Conference. Cuenca, Spain. p. 66. 31 agosto-2 septiembre

Entry of the bat influenza H17N10 virus into mammalian cells is enabled by the MHC class II HLA-DR receptor

Haemagglutinin and neuraminidase surface glycoproteins of the bat influenza H17N10 virus neither bind to nor cleave sialic acid receptors, indicating that this virus employs cell entry mechanisms distinct from those of classical influenza A viruses. We observed that certain human haematopoietic cancer cell lines and canine MDCK II cells are susceptible to H17-pseudotyped viruses. We identified the human HLA-DR receptor as an entry mediator for H17 pseudotypes, suggesting that H17N10 possesses zoonotic potential

The archaeology of the military orders: the material culture of holy war

This paper reviews the current state of research into the archaeology of the military orders. It contrasts the advances made by historians and archaeologists, with the latter continuing to focus on the particularism of individual sites, with an emphasis on architectural analyses. Historians have contributed new insights by adopting a supranational approach. This paper argues that archaeologists can build on this by adopting a more problem-oriented, comparative approach. Drawing on examples from frontier and heartland territories, archaeological approaches are subdivided into material investment, material identity and cultural landscapes, to place sites of the military orders within a long-term, multi-scalar contexts. This contributes to a broader social and economic understanding of the orders, who contributed significantly to urbanisation, rural development and trade, and invested in material expressions of their authority and ideology. The paper concludes that more holistic, inter-regional approaches will move the archaeological study of the military orders forward

Polysomal mRNA Association and Gene Expression in <i>Trypanosoma brucei</i>

Background: The contrasting physiological environments of Trypanosoma brucei procyclic (insect vector) and bloodstream (mammalian host) forms necessitates deployment of different molecular processes and, therefore, changes in protein expression. Transcriptional regulation is unusual in T. brucei because the arrangement of genes is polycistronic; however, genes which are transcribed together are subsequently cleaved into separate mRNAs by trans-splicing. Following pre-mRNA processing, the regulation of mature mRNA stability is a tightly controlled cellular process. While many stage-specific transcripts have been identified, previous studies using RNA-seq suggest that changes in overall transcript level do not necessarily reflect the abundance of the corresponding protein. Methods: To better understand the regulation of gene expression in T. brucei, we performed a bioinformatic analysis of RNA-seq on total, sub-polysomal, and polysomal mRNA samples. We further cross-referenced our dataset with a previously published proteomics dataset to identify new protein coding sequences. Results: Our analyses showed that several long non-coding RNAs are more abundant in the sub-polysome samples, which possibly implicates them in regulating cellular differentiation in T. brucei. We also improved the annotation of the T.brucei genome by identifying new putative protein coding transcripts that were confirmed by mass spectrometry data. Conclusions: Several long non-coding RNAs are more abundant in the sub-polysome cellular fractions and might pay a role in the regulation of gene expression. We hope that these data will be of wide general interest, as well as being of specific value to researchers studying gene regulation expression and life stage transitions in T. brucei

Proton-Antiproton Annihilation and Meson Spectroscopy with the Crystal Barrel

This report reviews the achievements of the Crystal Barrel experiment at the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) at CERN. During seven years of operation Crystal Barrel has collected very large statistical samples in pbarp annihilation, especially at rest and with emphasis on final states with high neutral multiplicity. The measured rates for annihilation into various two-body channels and for electromagnetic processes have been used to test simple models for the annihilation mechanism based on the quark internal structure of hadrons. From three-body annihilations three scalar mesons, a0(1450), f0(1370) and f0(1500) have been established in various decay modes. One of them, f0(1500), may be identified with the expected ground state scalar glueball.Comment: 64 pages, LATEX file, 36 figures are available as ps files at http://afuz01.cern.ch/claude/ Submitted to Reviews of Modern Physic

Is the meiofauna a good indicator for climate change and anthropogenic impacts?

Our planet is changing, and one of the most pressing challenges facing the scientific community revolves around understanding how ecological communities respond to global changes. From coastal to deep-sea ecosystems, ecologists are exploring new areas of research to find model organisms that help predict the future of life on our planet. Among the different categories of organisms, meiofauna offer several advantages for the study of marine benthic ecosystems. This paper reviews the advances in the study of meiofauna with regard to climate change and anthropogenic impacts. Four taxonomic groups are valuable for predicting global changes: foraminifers (especially calcareous forms), nematodes, copepods and ostracods. Environmental variables are fundamental in the interpretation of meiofaunal patterns and multistressor experiments are more informative than single stressor ones, revealing complex ecological and biological interactions. Global change has a general negative effect on meiofauna, with important consequences on benthic food webs. However, some meiofaunal species can be favoured by the extreme conditions induced by global change, as they can exhibit remarkable physiological adaptations. This review highlights the need to incorporate studies on taxonomy, genetics and function of meiofaunal taxa into global change impact research

Y-chromosomal diversity in Europe is clinal and influenced primarily by geography, rather than by language

Clinal patterns of autosomal genetic diversity within Europe have been interpreted in previous studies in terms of a Neolithic demic diffusion model for the spread of agriculture; in contrast, studies using mtDNA have traced many founding lineages to the Paleolithic and have not shown strongly clinal variation. We have used 11 human Y-chromosomal biallelic polymorphisms, defining 10 haplogroups, to analyze a sample of 3,616 Y chromosomes belonging to 47 European and circum-European populations. Patterns of geographic differentiation are highly nonrandom, and, when they are assessed using spatial autocorrelation analysis, they show significant dines for five of six haplogroups analyzed. Clines for two haplogroups, representing 45% of the chromosomes, are continentwide and consistent with the demic diffusion hypothesis. Clines for three other haplogroups each have different foci and are more regionally restricted and are likely to reflect distinct population movements, including one from north of the Black Sea. principal-components analysis suggests that populations are related primarily on the basis of geography, rather than on the basis of linguistic affinity. This is confirmed in Mantel tests, which show a strong and highly significant partial correlation between genetics and geography but a low nonsignificant partial correlation between genetics and language. Genetic-barrier analysis also indicates the primacy of geography in the shaping of patterns of variation. These patterns retain a strong signal of expansion from the Near East but also suggest that the demographic history of Europe has been complex and influenced by other major population movements, as well as by linguistic and geographic heterogeneities and the effects of drift