Menstrual cycle phase does not predict political conservatism

Recent authors have reported a relationship between women's fertility status, as indexed by menstrual cycle phase, and conservatism in moral, social and political values. We conducted a survey to test for the existence of a relationship between menstrual cycle day and conservatism. 2213 women reporting regular menstrual cycles provided data about their political views. Of these women, 2208 provided information about their cycle date, 1260 provided additional evidence of reliability in self-reported cycle date, and of these, 750 also indicated an absence of hormonal disruptors such as recent hormonal contraception use, breastfeeding or pregnancy. Cycle day was used to estimate day-specific fertility rate (probability of conception); political conservatism was measured via direct self-report and via responses to the "Moral Foundations” questionnaire. We also recorded relationship status, which has been reported to interact with menstrual cycle phase in determining political preferences. We found no evidence of a relationship between estimated cyclical fertility changes and conservatism, and no evidence of an interaction between relationship status and cyclical fertility in determining political attitudes. Our findings were robust to multiple inclusion/exclusion criteria and to different methods of estimating fertility and measuring conservatism. In summary, the relationship between cycle-linked reproductive parameters and conservatism may be weaker or less reliable than previously thought

Performance of the LHC Arc Superconducting Quadrupoles Towards the End of their Series Fabrication

The fabrication of the 408 main arc quadrupole magnets and their cold masses will come to an end in summer 2006. A rich collection of measurement and test data has been accumulated and their analysis is presented in this paper. These data cover the fabrication and the efficiency in the use of the main components, the geometrical measurements and the achieved dimensional precision, the warm magnetic measurements in the factory and the performance at cold conditions, especially the training behaviour. The scrap rate of the Nb-Ti/Cu conductor as well as that of other components turned out to be acceptably low and the quench performance measured was in general very good. Most quadrupoles measured so far exceeded the operating field gradient with one or no quench. The multipole content at cold was measured for a limited number of quadrupoles in order to verify the warm-to-cold correlation. From the point of view of field quality, all quadrupoles could be accepted for the machine. The measures taken to overcome the problem of a too high permeability of a batch of collars are discussed

Heavy Ion Carcinogenesis and Human Space Exploration

Prior to the human exploration of Mars or long duration stays on the Earth s moon, the risk of cancer and other diseases from space radiation must be accurately estimated and mitigated. Space radiation, comprised of energetic protons and heavy nuclei, has been show to produce distinct biological damage compared to radiation on Earth, leading to large uncertainties in the projection of cancer and other health risks, while obscuring evaluation of the effectiveness of possible countermeasures. Here, we describe how research in cancer radiobiology can support human missions to Mars and other planets

Alpha-particle-induced complex chromosome exchanges transmitted through extra-thymic lymphopoiesis in vitro show evidence of emerging genomic instability

Human exposure to high-linear energy transfer α-particles includes environmental (e.g. radon gas and its decay progeny), medical (e.g. radiopharmaceuticals) and occupational (nuclear industry) sources. The associated health risks of α-particle exposure for lung cancer are well documented however the risk estimates for leukaemia remain uncertain. To further our understanding of α-particle effects in target cells for leukaemogenesis and also to seek general markers of individual exposure to α-particles, this study assessed the transmission of chromosomal damage initially-induced in human haemopoietic stem and progenitor cells after exposure to high-LET α-particles. Cells surviving exposure were differentiated into mature T-cells by extra-thymic T-cell differentiation in vitro. Multiplex fluorescence in situ hybridisation (M-FISH) analysis of naïve T-cell populations showed the occurrence of stable (clonal) complex chromosome aberrations consistent with those that are characteristically induced in spherical cells by the traversal of a single α-particle track. Additionally, complex chromosome exchanges were observed in the progeny of irradiated mature T-cell populations. In addition to this, newly arising de novo chromosome aberrations were detected in cells which possessed clonal markers of α-particle exposure and also in cells which did not show any evidence of previous exposure, suggesting ongoing genomic instability in these populations. Our findings support the usefulness and reliability of employing complex chromosome exchanges as indicators of past or ongoing exposure to high-LET radiation and demonstrate the potential applicability to evaluate health risks associated with α-particle exposure.This work was supported by the Department of Health, UK. Contract RRX95 (RMA NSDTG)

Arginase activities and global arginine bioavailability in wild-type and ApoE-deficient mice: Responses to high fat and high cholesterol diets

Increased catabolism of arginine by arginase is increasingly viewed as an important pathophysiological factor in cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis induced by high cholesterol diets. Whereas previous studies have focused primarily on effects of high cholesterol diets on arginase expression and arginine metabolism in specific blood vessels, there is no information regarding the impact of lipid diets on arginase activity or arginine bioavailability at a systemic level. We, therefore, evaluated the effects of high fat (HF) and high fat-high cholesterol (HC) diets on arginase activity in plasma and tissues and on global arginine bioavailability (defined as the ratio of plasma arginine to ornithine + citrulline) in apoE-/- and wild-type C57BL/6J mice. HC and HF diets led to reduced global arginine bioavailability in both strains. The HC diet resulted in significantly elevated plasma arginase in both strains, but the HF diet increased plasma arginase only in apoE-/- mice. Elevated plasma arginase activity correlated closely with increased alanine aminotransferase levels, indicating that liver damage was primarily responsible for elevated plasma arginase. The HC diet, which promotes atherogenesis, also resulted in increased arginase activity and expression of the type II isozyme of arginase in multiple tissues of apoE-/- mice only. These results raise the possibility that systemic changes in arginase activity and global arginine bioavailability may be contributing factors in the initiation and/or progression of cardiovascular disease

A cell culture model using rat coronary artery adventitial fibroblasts to measure collagen production

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We have developed a rat cell model for studying collagen type I production in coronary artery adventitial fibroblasts. Increased deposition of adventitial collagen type I leads to stiffening of the blood vessel, increased blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Although the source and mechanism of collagen deposition is yet unknown, the adventitia appears to play a significant role. To demonstrate the application of our cell model, cultured adventitial fibroblasts were treated with sex hormones and the effect on collagen production measured.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Hearts (10–12 weeks) were harvested and the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) was isolated and removed. Tissue explants were cultured and cells (passages 2–4) were confirmed as fibroblasts using immunohistochemistry. Optimal conditions were determined for cell tissue harvest, timing, proliferation and culture conditions. Fibroblasts were exposed to 10^-7M testosterone or 10^-7M estrogen for 24 hours and either immunostained for collagen type I or subjected to ELISA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results showed increased collagen staining in fibroblasts treated with testosterone compared to control and decreased staining with estrogen. ELISA results showed that testosterone increased collagen I by 20% whereas estrogen decreased collagen I by 15%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Data demonstrates the usefulness of our cell model in studying the specific role of the adventitia apart from other blood vessel tissue in rat coronary arteries. Results suggest opposite effects of testosterone and estrogen on collagen synthesis in the rat coronary artery adventitial fibroblasts.</p

Induction and processing of the radiation-induced gamma-H2AX signal and Its link to the underlying pattern of DSB: A combined experimental and modelling study

We present here an analysis of DSB induction and processing after irradiation with X-rays in an extended dose range based on the use of the γH2AX assay. The study was performed by quantitative flow cytometry measurements, since the use of foci counting would result in reasonable accuracy only in a limited dose range of a few Gy. The experimental data are complemented by a theoretical analysis based on the GLOBLE model. In fact, original aim of the study was to test GLOBLE predictions against new experimental data, in order to contribute to the validation of the model. Specifically, the γH2AX signal kinetics has been investigated up to 24 h after exposure to increasing photon doses between 2 and 500 Gy. The prolonged persistence of the signal at high doses strongly suggests dose dependence in DSB processing after low LET irradiation. Importantly, in the framework of our modelling analysis, this is related to a gradually increased fraction of DSB clustering at the micrometre scale. The parallel study of γH2AX dose response curves shows the onset of a pronounced saturation in two cell lines at a dose of about 20 Gy. This dose is much lower than expected according to model predictions based on the values usually adopted for the DSB induction yield (≈ 30 DSB/Gy) and for the γH2AX foci extension of approximately 2 Mbp around the DSB. We show and discuss how theoretical predictions and experimental findings can be in principle reconciled by combining an increased DSB induction yield with the assumption of a larger genomic extension for the single phosphorylated regions. As an alternative approach, we also considered in our model the possibility of a 3D spreading-mechanism of the H2AX phosphorylation around the induced DSB, and applied it to the analysis of both the aspects considered. Our results are found to be supportive for the basic assumptions on which GLOBLE is built. Apart from giving new insights into the H2AX phosphorylation process, experiments performed at high doses are of relevance in the context of radiation therapy, where hypo-fractionated schemes become increasingly popular

Genetic variability of hepatitis C virus before and after combined therapy of interferon plus ribavirin

We present an analysis of the selective forces acting on two hepatitis C virus genome regions previously postulated to be involved in the viral response to combined antiviral therapy. One includes the three hypervariable regions in the envelope E2 glycoprotein, and the other encompasses the PKR binding domain and the V3 domain in the NS5A region. We used a cohort of 22 non-responder patients to combined therapy (interferon alpha-2a plus ribavirin) for which samples were obtained before initiation of therapy and after 6 or/and 12 months of treatment. A range of 25-100 clones per patient, genome region and time sample were sequenced. These were used to detect general patterns of adaptation, to identify particular adaptation mechanisms and to analyze the patterns of evolutionary change in both genome regions. These analyses failed to detect a common adaptive mechanism for the lack of response to antiviral treatment in these patients. On the contrary, a wide range of situations were observed, from patients showing no positively selected sites to others with many, and with completely different topologies in the reconstructed phylogenetic trees. Altogether, these results suggest that viral strategies to evade selection pressure from the immune system and antiviral therapies do not result from a single mechanism and they are likely based on a range of different alternatives, in which several different changes, or their combination, along the HCV genome confer viruses the ability to overcome strong selective [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]