Jews and Arabs in Argentina: A Study of the Integration, Interactions and Ethnic Identification of Argentina\u27s Migrant Groups

This study will focus on the Jewish and Arab migrant groups in Argentina. By honing in on specifically (exclusively) Jewish and Arab barrios in Argentina, numerous questions will be raised on both populations’ identity in society and relationship to each other and their relative “homelands”. Firstly, the thesis will examine the historic migration of both the Jewish and Arab populations to Argentina. Jews comprise approximately 250,000 of those Argentina’s population, and boast one of the largest diasporic Jewish populations in the world. Arab Argentines are one of the biggest Arab ethnic groups in Latin America and in the world. The thesis will have three main focuses of study- the integration of each group in the wider Argentinian population, the interactions between the two groups and the relationship between these groups (and Argentina) and their countries of historic ethnic origin. Each interaction will be studies on a scale; for example, how much more one group has integrated than the other, (and why) and which group feels more intimately connected with and responsible to either Argentina or Israel/Palestine (and the conflict). This thesis will use many methods of research. I will use specific frameworks that deal with both identity theory and assimilation theory to assess how these two groups see themselves within a wider context and how they have meshed into Argentinian culture. Using the media, such as newspaper articles and scholarly articles discussing Argentina, I can study the contemporary tensions that exist. Additionally, different social movements will be a point of interest, as there are groups such who pledge very strong allegiance to Jews or Arabs in Israel and Palestine, respectively. The policy of the Argentinian government is also important to this study, as the Argentine National Congress has taken very strong stances on the conflict abroad

Effects of reduced energy availability on bone metabolism in women and men

Background: The short-term effects of low energy availability (EA) on bone metabolism in physically active women and men are currently unknown. Purpose: We evaluated the effects of low EA on bone turnover markers (BTMs) in a cohort of women and a cohort of men, and compared effects between sexes. Methods: These studies were performed using a randomised, counterbalanced, crossover design. Eleven eumenorrheic women and eleven men completed two 5-day protocols of controlled (CON; 45 kcal·kgLBM-1.d-1) and restricted (RES; 15 kcal.kgLBM-1·d-1) EAs. Participants ran daily on a treadmill at 70% of their peak aerobic capacity (VO2 peak) resulting in an exercise energy expenditure of 15 kcal·kgLBM-1·d-1 and consumed diets providing 60 and 30 kcal·kgLBM-1·d-1. Blood was analysed for BTMs [β-carboxyl-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (β-CTX) and amino-terminal propeptide of type 1 procollagen (P1NP)], markers of calcium metabolism [( parathyroid hormone (PTH), albumin-adjusted calcium (ACa), magnesium (Mg) and phosphate (PO4)] and regulatory hormones [sclerostin, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), triiodothyronine (T3), insulin, leptin, glucagon-like- peptide-2 (GLP-2)]. Results: In women,β-CTX AUC was significantly higher P=0.03) and P1NP AUC was significantly lower (P=0.01) in RES compared to CON. In men, neither β-CTX (P=0.46) n or P1NP (P=0.12) AUCs were significantly different between CON and RES. There were no significant differences between sexes for any BTM AUCs (all P values>0.05). Insulin and leptin AUCs were significantly lower following RES in women only (for both P=0.01). There were no differences in any AUCs of regulatory hormones or markers of calcium metabolism between men and women following RES (all P values>0.05). Conclusions: When comparing within groups, five days of low EA (15 kcal·kgLBM-1·d-1) decreased bone formation and increased bone resorption in women, but not in men, and no sex specific differences were detected

Parathyroid hormone secretion is controlled by both ionised calcium and phosphate during exercise and recovery in men

The mechanism by which PTH is controlled during and after exercise is poorly understood due to insufficient temporal frequency of measurements. Objective: To examine the temporal pattern of PTH, PO4, ACa and Ca2+ during and after exercise. Design and setting: A laboratory-based study with a cross-over design, comparing 30 min of running at 55%, 65% and 75%VO2max, followed by 2.5-h of recovery. Blood was obtained at baseline, after 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 min of exercise and after 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 60, 90 and 150 min of recovery. Participants: Ten men (age 23±1 y, height 1.82±0.07 m, body mass 77.0±7.5 kg) participated. Main Outcome Measures: PTH, PO4, ACa and Ca2+ Results: Independent of intensity, PTH concentrations decreased with the onset of exercise (-21 to -33%; P≤0.001), increased thereafter and were higher than baseline by the end of exercise at 75%VO2max (+52%; P≤0.001). PTH peaked transiently after 5–7.5 min of recovery (+73 to +110%; P≤0.001). PO4 followed a similar temporal pattern to PTH and Ca2+ followed a similar but inverse pattern to PTH. PTH was negatively correlated with Ca2+ across all intensities (r=-0.739 to -0.790; P≤0.001). When PTH was increasing, the strongest cross-correlation was with Ca2+ at 0 lags (3.5 min) (r=-0.902 to -0.950); during recovery, the strongest cross-correlation was with PO4 at 0 lags (8 min) (r=0.987 to 0.995). Conclusions: PTH secretion during exercise and recovery is controlled by a combination of changes in Ca2+ and PO4 in men

Bone metabolic responses to low energy availability achieved by diet or exercise in active eumenorrheic women

Purpose: We aimed to explore the effects of low energy availability (EA)[15 kcal·kg lean body mass (LBM)−1·d−1] achieved by diet or exercise on bone turnover markers in active, eumenorrheic women. Methods: By using a crossover design, ten eumenorrheic women (VO2 peak: 48.1 ± 3.3 ml·kg−1·min−1) completed all three, 3-day conditions in a randomised order: controlled EA (CON; 45 kcal·kgLBM−1·d−1), low EA through dietary energy restriction (D-RES; 15 kcal·kgLBM−1·d−1) and low EA through increasing exercise energy expenditure (E-RES; 15 kcal·kgLBM−1·d−1), during the follicular phase of three menstrual cycles. In CON, D-RES and E-RES, participants consumed diets providing 45, 15 and 45 kcal·kgLBM−1·d−1. In E-RES only, participants completed supervised running sessions (129 ± 10 min·d−1) at 70% of their VO2 peak that resulted in an exercise energy expenditure of 30 kcal·kg LBM−1·d−1. Blood samples were collected at baseline (BASE) and at the end of the 3-day period (D6) and analysed for bone turnover markers (β-CTX and P1NP), markers of calcium metabolism (PTH, albumin-adjusted Ca, Mg and PO4) and hormones (IGF-1, T3, insulin, leptin and 17β-oestradiol). Results: In D-RES, P1NP concentrations at D6 decreased by 17% (BASE: 54.8 ± 12.7 μg·L−1, D6: 45.2 ± 9.3 μg·L−1, P < 0.001, d = 0.91) and were lower than D6 concentrations in CON (D6: 52.5 ± 11.9 μg·L−1, P = 0.001). P1NP did not change significantly in E-RES (BASE: 55.3 ± 14.4 μg·L−1, D6: 50.9 ± 15.8 μg·L−1, P = 0.14). β-CTX concentrations did not change following D-RES (BASE: 0.48 ± 0.18 μg·L−1, D6: 0.55 ± 0.17 μg·L−1) or E-RES (BASE: 0.47 ± 0.24 μg·L−1, D6: 0.49 ± 0.18 μg·L−1) (condition × time interaction effect, P = 0.17). There were no significant differences in P1NP (P = 0.25) or β-CTX (P = 0.13) responses between D-RES and E-RES. Both conditions resulted in reductions in IGF-1 (−13% and − 23% from BASE in D-RES and E-RES, both P < 0.01) and leptin (−59% and − 61% from BASE in D-RES and E-RES, both P < 0.001); T3 decreased in D-RES only (−15% from BASE, P = 0.002) and PO4 concentrations decreased in E-RES only (−9%, P = 0.03). Conclusions: Low EA achieved through dietary energy restriction resulted in a significant decrease in bone formation but no change in bone resorption, whereas low EA achieved through exercise energy expenditure did not significantly influence bone metabolism. Both low EA conditions elicited significant and similar changes in hormone concentrations

Differential spatial repositioning of activated genes in Biomphalaria glabrata snails infected with Schistosoma mansoni

Copyright @ 2014 Arican-Goktas et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Schistosomiasis is an infectious disease infecting mammals as the definitive host and fresh water snails as the intermediate host. Understanding the molecular and biochemical relationship between the causative schistosome parasite and its hosts will be key to understanding and ultimately treating and/or eradicating the disease. There is increasing evidence that pathogens that have co-evolved with their hosts can manipulate their hosts' behaviour at various levels to augment an infection. Bacteria, for example, can induce beneficial chromatin remodelling of the host genome. We have previously shown in vitro that Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic cells co-cultured with schistosome miracidia display genes changing their nuclear location and becoming up-regulated. This also happens in vivo in live intact snails, where early exposure to miracidia also elicits non-random repositioning of genes. We reveal differences in the nuclear repositioning between the response of parasite susceptible snails as compared to resistant snails and with normal or live, attenuated parasites. Interestingly, the stress response gene heat shock protein (Hsp) 70 is only repositioned and then up-regulated in susceptible snails with the normal parasite. This movement and change in gene expression seems to be controlled by the parasite. Other differences in the behaviour of genes support the view that some genes are responding to tissue damage, for example the ferritin genes move and are up-regulated whether the snails are either susceptible or resistant and upon exposure to either normal or attenuated parasite. This is the first time host genome reorganisation has been seen in a parasitic host and only the second time for any pathogen. We believe that the parasite elicits a spatio-epigenetic reorganisation of the host genome to induce favourable gene expression for itself and this might represent a fundamental mechanism present in the human host infected with schistosome cercariae as well as in other host-pathogen relationships.NIH and Sandler Borroughs Wellcome Travel Fellowshi

Bone metabolic marker concentrations across the menstrual cycle and phases of combined oral contraceptive use

There is a need to further understand the impact of the menstrual cycle and phase of combined oral contraceptive (COC) use on the pre-analytical variability of markers of bone metabolism in order to improve standardisation procedures for clinical practice and research. The aim of this study was to assess bone metabolism marker concentrations across the menstrual cycle and phases of COC use. Carboxy-terminal cross-linking telopeptide of type I collagen (β-CTX), procollagen type 1 N propeptide (P1NP) and Bone alkaline phosphatase (Bone ALP) concentrations were assessed in eumenorrheic women (n = 14) during the early follicular, ovulatory and mid-luteal phases of the menstrual cycle and in COC (Microgynon®) (n = 14) users on day 2-3 of pill consumption (PC1), day 15-16 pill consumption (PC2) and day 3-4 of the pill free interval (PFI). β-CTX was significantly (-16%) lower at PC2 compared to PC1 (P = 0.015) in COC users and was not affected by menstrual cycle phase (P > 0.05). P1NP and Bone ALP were not significantly different across either menstrual cycle phase or phase of COC use (all P > 0.05). There was no difference in pooled bone marker concentrations between eumenorrheic women and COC users (P > 0.05). In contrast to some previous studies, this study showed that bone marker concentrations do not significantly fluctuate across the menstrual cycle. Furthermore, bone resorption markers are significantly affected by phase of COC use, although bone formation markers do not significantly vary by COC phase. Therefore, the phase of COC use should be considered in clinical practice and research when assessing markers of bone metabolism as this can impact circulating concentrations of bone metabolic markers yet is not currently considered in existing guidelines for best practice

Average distances on self-similar sets and higher order average distances of self-similar measures

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) we study different notions of the average distance between two points of a self-similar subset of ℝ, and (2) we investigate the asymptotic behaviour of higher order average moments of self-similar measures on self-similar subsets of ℝ

Discovery of a Modified Tetrapolar Sexual Cycle in Cryptococcus amylolentus and the Evolution of MAT in the Cryptococcus Species Complex

Sexual reproduction in fungi is governed by a specialized genomic region called the mating-type locus (MAT). The human fungal pathogenic and basidiomycetous yeast Cryptococcus neoformans has evolved a bipolar mating system (a, α) in which the MAT locus is unusually large (>100 kb) and encodes >20 genes including homeodomain (HD) and pheromone/receptor (P/R) genes. To understand how this unique bipolar mating system evolved, we investigated MAT in the closely related species Tsuchiyaea wingfieldii and Cryptococcus amylolentus and discovered two physically unlinked loci encoding the HD and P/R genes. Interestingly, the HD (B) locus sex-specific region is restricted (∼2 kb) and encodes two linked and divergently oriented homeodomain genes in contrast to the solo HD genes (SXI1α, SXI2a) of C. neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii. The P/R (A) locus contains the pheromone and pheromone receptor genes but has expanded considerably compared to other outgroup species (Cryptococcus heveanensis) and is linked to many of the genes also found in the MAT locus of the pathogenic Cryptococcus species. Our discovery of a heterothallic sexual cycle for C. amylolentus allowed us to establish the biological roles of the sex-determining regions. Matings between two strains of opposite mating-types (A1B1×A2B2) produced dikaryotic hyphae with fused clamp connections, basidia, and basidiospores. Genotyping progeny using markers linked and unlinked to MAT revealed that meiosis and uniparental mitochondrial inheritance occur during the sexual cycle of C. amylolentus. The sexual cycle is tetrapolar and produces fertile progeny of four mating-types (A1B1, A1B2, A2B1, and A2B2), but a high proportion of progeny are infertile, and fertility is biased towards one parental mating-type (A1B1). Our studies reveal insights into the plasticity and transitions in both mechanisms of sex determination (bipolar versus tetrapolar) and sexual reproduction (outcrossing versus inbreeding) with implications for similar evolutionary transitions and processes in fungi, plants, and animals

Pollen and spores as biological recorders of past ultraviolet irradiance

Solar ultraviolet (UV) irradiance is a key driver of climatic and biotic change. Ultraviolet irradiance modulates stratospheric warming and ozone production, and influences the biosphere from ecosystem-level processes through to the largest scale patterns of diversification and extinction. Yet our understanding of ultraviolet irradiance is limited because no method has been validated to reconstruct its flux over timescales relevant to climatic or biotic processes. Here, we show that a recently developed proxy for ultraviolet irradiance based on spore and pollen chemistry can be used over long (105 years) timescales. Firstly we demonstrate that spatial variations in spore and pollen chemistry correlate with known latitudinal solar irradiance gradients. Using this relationship we provide a reconstruction of past changes in solar irradiance based on the pollen record from Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana. As anticipated, variations in the chemistry of grass pollen from the Lake Bosumtwi record show a link to multiple orbital precessional cycles (19-21 thousand years). By providing a unique, local proxy for broad spectrum solar irradiance, the chemical analysis of spores and pollen offers unprecedented opportunities to decouple solar variability, climate and vegetation change through geologic time and a new proxy with which to probe the Earth system