Mitochondrial and nuclear genes suggest that stony corals are monophyletic but most families of stony corals are not (Order Scleractinia, Class Anthozoa, Phylum Cnidaria)

Modern hard corals (Class Hexacorallia; Order Scleractinia) are widely studied because of their fundamental role in reef building and their superb fossil record extending back to the Triassic. Nevertheless, interpretations of their evolutionary relationships have been in flux for over a decade. Recent analyses undermine the legitimacy of traditional suborders, families and genera, and suggest that a non-skeletal sister clade (Order Corallimorpharia) might be imbedded within the stony corals. However, these studies either sampled a relatively limited array of taxa or assembled trees from heterogeneous data sets. Here we provide a more comprehensive analysis of Scleractinia (127 species, 75 genera, 17 families) and various outgroups, based on two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome oxidase I, cytochrome b), with analyses of nuclear genes (ßtubulin, ribosomal DNA) of a subset of taxa to test unexpected relationships. Eleven of 16 families were found to be polyphyletic. Strikingly, over one third of all families as conventionally defined contain representatives from the highly divergent "robust" and "complex" clades. However, the recent suggestion that corallimorpharians are true corals that have lost their skeletons was not upheld. Relationships were supported not only by mitochondrial and nuclear genes, but also often by morphological characters which had been ignored or never noted previously. The concordance of molecular characters and more carefully examined morphological characters suggests a future of greater taxonomic stability, as well as the potential to trace the evolutionary history of this ecologically important group using fossils

Inter- and intra-observer reliability of the Baumann angle of the humerus in children with supracondylar humeral fractures

The Baumann angle of the humerus has been commonly used as an outcome measure for supracondylar fractures in children. However, there is limited or no information about the reliability of this measurement. The purpose of this study was to determine the inter-observer reliability (IEOR) and intra-observer reliability (IAOR) of the Baumann angle of the humerus. The Baumann angle of the humerus was measured by five observers on the anteroposterior radiographs of 35 children’s elbows, all of which had sustained a nondisplaced supracondylar humeral fracture. The values of IEOR and IAOR were calculated using a Pearson coefficient of correlation. Ranges of differences in the measurement of the Baumann angle of the humerus were established, and the percentage of agreement between observers was then calculated using those ranges. The Baumann angle of the humerus is a simple, repeatable and reliable measurement that can be used for the determination of the outcome of supracondylar humeral fractures in the paediatric population. An excellent IEOR was found for the measurement of the Baumann angle (r = 0.78, p = 0.0001). When the difference between observers in the reported measurement of the Baumann’s angle was calculated to be within seven degrees of each other, at least four of the five observers agreed 100% of the time. Similarly, excellent values of IAOR were found for the measurement of the Baumann’s angle (r = 0.80, p = 0.0001). Level of evidence for this study was III

Activation of Cytotoxic and Regulatory Functions of NK Cells by Sindbis Viral Vectors

Oncolytic viruses (OVs) represent a relatively novel anti-cancer modality. Like other new cancer treatments, effective OV therapy will likely require combination with conventional treatments. In order to design combinatorial treatments that work well together, a greater scrutiny of the mechanisms behind the individual treatments is needed. Sindbis virus (SV) based vectors have previously been shown to target and kill tumors in xenograft, syngeneic, and spontaneous mouse models. However, the effect of SV treatment on the immune system has not yet been studied. Here we used a variety of methods, including FACS analysis, cytotoxicity assays, cell depletion, imaging of tumor growth, cytokine blockade, and survival experiments, to study how SV therapy affects Natural Killer (NK) cell function in SCID mice bearing human ovarian carcinoma tumors. Surprisingly, we found that SV anti-cancer efficacy is largely NK cell-dependent. Furthermore, the enhanced therapeutic effect previously observed from Sin/IL12 vectors, which carry the gene for interleukin 12, is also NK cell dependent, but works through a separate IFNγ-dependent mechanism, which also induces the activation of peritoneal macrophages. These results demonstrate the multimodular nature of SV therapy, and open up new possibilities for potential synergistic or additive combinatorial therapies with other treatments

Performances in cerebellar and neuromuscular transmission tests are correlated in migraine with aura

In previous studies, we described subclinical abnormalities of neuromuscular transmission and cerebellar functions in migraineurs. The aim of this study was to search if these two functions are correlated in the same patient. Thirteen migraineurs [five without aura (MO) and eight with aura (MA)] underwent both stimulation-SFEMG and 3D-movement analysis. Single fiber EMG (SFEMG) results were expressed as the “mean value of consecutive differences” (mean MCD). Precision of arm-reaching movements (measured with an infrared optoelectronic tracking system) was expressed as the average deviation in the horizontal plane. Median values of mean MCD and mean horizontal deviation were not different between MO and MA. However, in MA, but not in MO, both variables were positively correlated. Thus, we conclude that neuromuscular transmission and cerebellar functions are correlated in the same patient when affected by migraine with aura. We suggest that this correlation might be due to a common molecular abnormality

Structure of hadron resonances with a nearby zero of the amplitude

We discuss the relation between the analytic structure of the scattering amplitude and the origin of an eigenstate represented by a pole of the amplitude.If the eigenstate is not dynamically generated by the interaction in the channel of interest, the residue of the pole vanishes in the zero coupling limit. Based on the topological nature of the phase of the scattering amplitude, we show that the pole must encounter with the Castillejo-Dalitz-Dyson (CDD) zero in this limit. It is concluded that the dynamical component of the eigenstate is small if a CDD zero exists near the eigenstate pole. We show that the line shape of the resonance is distorted from the Breit-Wigner form as an observable consequence of the nearby CDD zero. Finally, studying the positions of poles and CDD zeros of the KbarN-piSigma amplitude, we discuss the origin of the eigenstates in the Lambda(1405) region.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, v2: published versio

Candidate Screening of the TRPC3 Gene in Cerebellar Ataxia

The hereditary cerebellar ataxias are a diverse group of neurodegenerative disorders primarily characterised by loss of balance and coordination due to dysfunction of the cerebellum and its associated pathways. Although many genetic mutations causing inherited cerebellar ataxia have been identified, a significant percentage of patients remain whose cause is unknown. The transient receptor potential (TRP) family member TRPC3 is a non-selective cation channel linked to key signalling pathways that are affected in cerebellar ataxia. Furthermore, genetic mouse models of TRPC3 dysfunction display cerebellar ataxia, making the TRPC3 gene an excellent candidate for screening ataxic patients with unknown genetic aetiology. Here, we report a genetic screen for TRPC3 mutations in a cohort of 98 patients with genetically undefined late-onset cerebellar ataxia and further ten patients with undefined episodic ataxia. We identified a number of variants but no causative mutations in TRPC3. Our findings suggest that mutations in TRPC3 do not significantly contribute to the cause of late-onset and episodic human cerebellar ataxias

Empirical vs Bayesian approach for estimating haplotypes from genotypes of unrelated individuals

BACKGROUND: The completion of the HapMap project has stimulated further development of haplotype-based methodologies for disease associations. A key aspect of such development is the statistical inference of individual diplotypes from unphased genotypes. Several methodologies for inferring haplotypes have been developed, but they have not been evaluated extensively to determine which method not only performs well, but also can be easily incorporated in downstream haplotype-based association analyses. In this paper, we attempt to do so. Our evaluation was carried out by comparing the two leading Bayesian methods, implemented in PHASE and HAPLOTYPER, and the two leading empirical methods, implemented in PL-EM and HPlus. We used these methods to analyze real data, namely the dense genotypes on X-chromosome of 30 European and 30 African trios provided by the International HapMap Project, and simulated genotype data. Our conclusions are based on these analyses. RESULTS: All programs performed very well on X-chromosome data, with an average similarity index of 0.99 and an average prediction rate of 0.99 for both European and African trios. On simulated data with approximation of coalescence, PHASE implementing the Bayesian method based on the coalescence approximation outperformed other programs on small sample sizes. When the sample size increased, other programs performed as well as PHASE. PL-EM and HPlus implementing empirical methods required much less running time than the programs implementing the Bayesian methods. They required only one hundredth or thousandth of the running time required by PHASE, particularly when analyzing large sample sizes and large umber of SNPs. CONCLUSION: For large sample sizes (hundreds or more), which most association studies require, the two empirical methods might be used since they infer the haplotypes as accurately as any Bayesian methods and can be incorporated easily into downstream haplotype-based analyses such as haplotype-association analyses