Deltamethrin resistance in the salmon louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Krøyer): Maternal inheritance and reduced apoptosis

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Intrinsic vowel F0, the size of vowel inventories and second language acquisition

The phenomenon of intrinsic vowel F0 (IF0), in which high vowels exhibit higher F0 than low vowels, has been widely attested in languages of the world. Most often, IF0 is regarded as an automatic, physiologically determined phenomenon, whereas some claim that IF0 is a controlled feature, introduced to enhance vowel contrasts. This paper presents new evidence on this issue by means of a cross-linguistic investigation of the influence of vowel inventory size on IF0 and a study of IF0 in second language (L2) acquisition. IF0 was measured in three language varieties: Arabic (a language with 3 vowels), Dutch (a 12-vowel system), and Dutch spoken by native Arabic-speaking learners. IF0 was significantly larger in Dutch than Arabic, but did not differ significantly between Arabic and Dutch produced by L2 learners. No spectral differences between the corresponding vowels of the three language varieties were found. While confirming the universality of IF0, these results also suggest that the size of IF0 may be language-specific, depending on the need to enhance vowel contrasts. Thus, these results agree well with a mixed physiological-enhancement account, which assumes that IF0 is physiologically determined, but also at least in part the effect of an interacting, controlled mechanism

Refining the accuracy of validated target identification through coding variant fine-mapping in type 2 diabetes.

We aggregated coding variant data for 81,412 type 2 diabetes cases and 370,832 controls of diverse ancestry, identifying 40 coding variant association signals (P < 2.2 × 10-7); of these, 16 map outside known risk-associated loci. We make two important observations. First, only five of these signals are driven by low-frequency variants: even for these, effect sizes are modest (odds ratio ≤1.29). Second, when we used large-scale genome-wide association data to fine-map the associated variants in their regional context, accounting for the global enrichment of complex trait associations in coding sequence, compelling evidence for coding variant causality was obtained for only 16 signals. At 13 others, the associated coding variants clearly represent 'false leads' with potential to generate erroneous mechanistic inference. Coding variant associations offer a direct route to biological insight for complex diseases and identification of validated therapeutic targets; however, appropriate mechanistic inference requires careful specification of their causal contribution to disease predisposition

Design and test of an automated version of the modified Jebsen test of hand function using Microsoft Kinect

Abstract Background The present paper describes the design and evaluation of an automated version of the Modified Jebsen Test of Hand Function (MJT) based on the Microsoft Kinect sensor. Methods The MJT was administered twice to 11 chronic stroke subjects with varying degrees of hand function deficits. The test times of the MJT were evaluated manually by a therapist using a stopwatch, and automatically using the Microsoft Kinect sensor. The ground truth times were assessed based on inspection of the video-recordings. The agreement between the methods was evaluated along with the test-retest performance. Results The results from Bland-Altman analysis showed better agreement between the ground truth times and the automatic MJT time evaluations compared to the agreement between the ground truth times and the times estimated by the therapist. The results from the test-retest performance showed that the subjects significantly improved their performance in several subtests of the MJT, indicating a practice effect. Conclusions The results from the test showed that the Kinect can be used for automating the MJT

Insulin and GH Signaling in Human Skeletal Muscle In Vivo following Exogenous GH Exposure: Impact of an Oral Glucose Load

GH induces acute insulin resistance in skeletal muscle in vivo, which in rodent models has been attributed to crosstalk between GH and insulin signaling pathways. Our objective was to characterize time course changes in signaling pathways for GH and insulin in human skeletal muscle in vivo following GH exposure in the presence and absence of an oral glucose load.Eight young men were studied in a single-blinded randomized crossover design on 3 occasions: 1) after an intravenous GH bolus 2) after an intravenous GH bolus plus an oral glucose load (OGTT), and 3) after intravenous saline plus OGTT. Muscle biopsies were taken at t = 0, 30, 60, and 120. Blood was sampled at frequent intervals for assessment of GH, insulin, glucose, and free fatty acids (FFA).GH increased AUC(glucose) after an OGTT (p<0.05) without significant changes in serum insulin levels. GH induced phosphorylation of STAT5 independently of the OGTT. Conversely, the OGTT induced acute phosphorylation of the insulin signaling proteins Akt (ser(473) and thr(308)), and AS160.The combination of OGTT and GH suppressed Akt activation, whereas the downstream expression of AS160 was amplified by GH. WE CONCLUDED THE FOLLOWING: 1) A physiological GH bolus activates STAT5 signaling pathways in skeletal muscle irrespective of ambient glucose and insulin levels 2) Insulin resistance induced by GH occurs without a distinct suppression of insulin signaling proteins 3) The accentuation of the glucose-stimulated activation of AS 160 by GH does however indicate a potential crosstalk between insulin and GH.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00477997

Superconductivity in a single C60 transistor

Single molecule transistors (SMTs) are currently attracting enormous attention as possible quantum information processing devices. An intrinsic limitation to the prospects of these however is associated to the presence of a small number of quantized conductance channels, each channel having a high access resistance of at best $R_{K}/2=h/2e^{2}$=12.9 k$\Omega$. When the contacting leads become superconducting, these correlations can extend throughout the whole system by the proximity effect. This not only lifts the resistive limitation of normal state contacts, but further paves a new way to probe electron transport through a single molecule. In this work, we demonstrate the realization of superconducting SMTs involving a single C60 fullerene molecule. The last few years have seen gate-controlled Josephson supercurrents induced in the family of low dimensional carbon structures such as flakes of two-dimensional graphene and portions of one-dimensional carbon nanotubes. The present study involving a full zero-dimensionnal fullerene completes the picture.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Evaluation of Functional Erythropoietin Receptor Status in Skeletal Muscle In Vivo: Acute and Prolonged Studies in Healthy Human Subjects

BACKGROUND: Erythropoietin receptors have been identified in human skeletal muscle tissue, but downstream signal transduction has not been investigated. We therefore studied in vivo effects of systemic erythropoietin exposure in human skeletal muscle. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The protocols involved 1) acute effects of a single bolus injection of erythropoietin followed by consecutive muscle biopsies for 1-10 hours, and 2) a separate study with prolonged administration for 16 days with biopsies obtained before and after. The presence of erythropoietin receptors in muscle tissue as well as activation of Epo signalling pathways (STAT5, MAPK, Akt, IKK) were analysed by western blotting. Changes in muscle protein profiles after prolonged erythropoietin treatment were evaluated by 2D gel-electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. The presence of the erythropoietin receptor in skeletal muscle was confirmed, by the M20 but not the C20 antibody. However, no significant changes in phosphorylation of the Epo-R, STAT5, MAPK, Akt, Lyn, IKK, and p70S6K after erythropoietin administration were detected. The level of 8 protein spots were significantly altered after 16 days of rHuEpo treatment; one isoform of myosin light chain 3 and one of desmin/actin were decreased, while three isoforms of creatine kinase and two of glyceraldehyd-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were increased. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Acute exposure to recombinant human erythropoietin is not associated by detectable activation of the Epo-R or downstream signalling targets in human skeletal muscle in the resting situation, whereas more prolonged exposure induces significant changes in the skeletal muscle proteome. The absence of functional Epo receptor activity in human skeletal muscle indicates that the long-term effects are indirect and probably related to an increased oxidative capacity in this tissue