Reproductive Biology of Middle Mississippi River Shovelnose Sturgeon: Insights from Seasonal and Age Variation in Plasma Sex Steroid and Calcium Concentrations

Shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorynchus are endemic to the Mississippi River drainage and are commercially harvested for roe in several states. Status of shovelnose sturgeon populations throughout much of its range is unknown or declining; Mississippi River stocks are experiencing recruitment overfishing and may be at risk of collapse. Restoration of shovelnose sturgeon populations will require additional information on their reproductive biology, including age at maturity and reproductive status and cycles. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of reproductive stage, fish age, and season on plasma 17-β estradiol (E2) and calcium (Ca2+) concentrations in female shovelnose sturgeon and plasma testosterone (T) concentrations in male shovelnose sturgeon from the middle Mississippi River (MMR). We also assessed the relationship between plasma vitellogenin (VTG) and Ca2+ concentrations for female shovelnose sturgeon. Plasma E2 and Ca2+ concentrations in females and T concentrations in males differed among reproductive stages, consistent with results of prior research on shovelnose sturgeon and other sturgeon species. VTG and Ca2+ concentrations were strongly correlated in female shovelnose sturgeon, indicating that Ca2+ can be used as a surrogate for VTG assays for identification of vitellogenic females, as has been shown for other sturgeon species. Age at maturity was estimated at 10 years for males and 9 years for females based on T and E2 profiles, consistent with other recent age at maturity estimates in the MMR and Wabash River determined by gonadal examination. Peaks in plasma sex steroid and Ca2+ concentrations during April and October possibly reflected the spring spawning season and provide additional evidence in support of recent documentation of fall spawning by shovelnose sturgeon in the MMR. Additional research is needed to elucidate fall spawning by shovelnose sturgeon in the MMR

Is there a potential of misuse for venlafaxine and bupropion?

© 2018 Schifano and Chiappini. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Objective: Traditionally, studies on the nonmedical use of pharmaceutical products have focused on controlled substances; e.g. opiates/opioids; and benzodiazepines. Although both bupropion and venlafaxine have been reported as being misused, only anecdotal reports have been made available so far. Hence, the European Monitoring Agency (EMA) Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs), misuse/abuse/dependence and withdrawal, venlafaxine- and bupropion-related, database was here analyzed. Methods: All EMA spontaneous reports relating to venlafaxine (2005-2016) and bupropion (2003-2016) notifications were here analyzed, to provide a descriptive analysis by source, gender, age, and type of report. The UK-based, 2000-2016, Yellow Card Scheme pharmacovigilance database, bupropion and venlafaxine withdrawal reports were compared as well with those pertaining to fluoxetine and paroxetine. Results: Out of 20,720 (bupropion) and 47,516 (venlafaxine) total number of ADRs, some 2,232 (10.8%), and 4,071 (8.5%) misuse/abuse/dependence ADRs were respectively associated with bupropion and venlafaxine. Conversely, bupropion withdrawal-related ADRs were here reported in 299/20,720 (1.44%) cases and in 914/47,516 (1.92%) cases for venlafaxine. Overall, all bupropion and venlafaxine misuse-/abuse-/dependence- and withdrawal-ADRs were related to a respective number of 264 and 447 patients. According to the Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) computation, in comparison with venlafaxine bupropion resulted to be more frequently misused/abused (PRR: 1.50), but less frequently associated with both dependence (PRR: 0.92) and withdrawal (PRR: 0.77) issues. Yellow Card Scheme data suggested that paroxetine and venlafaxine, in comparison with fluoxetine and bupropion, were associated with higher number of withdrawal-related reports. Conclusions: The dopaminergic, stimulant-like, bupropion activities may be associated with its possible recreational value. Present data may confirm that the occurrence of a withdrawal syndrome may be a significant issue for venlafaxine-treated patients.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Biological and Pharmacological Activities of Squalene and Related Compounds: Potential Uses in Cosmetic Dermatology

Squalene is a triterpene that is an intermediate in the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway. It was so named because of its occurrence in shark liver oil, which contains large quantities and is considered its richest source. However, it is widely distributed in nature, with reasonable amounts found in olive oil, palm oil, wheat-germ oil, amaranth oil, and rice bran oil. Squalene, the main component of skin surface polyunsaturated lipids, shows some advantages for the skin as an emollient and antioxidant, and for hydration and its antitumor activities. It is also used as a material in topically applied vehicles such as lipid emulsions and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). Substances related to squalene, including β-carotene, coenzyme Q10 (ubiquinone) and vitamins A, E, and K, are also included in this review article to introduce their benefits to skin physiology. We summarize investigations performed in previous reports from both in vitro and in vivo models

Applying the Higher Education Academy framework for partnership in learning and teaching in higher education to online partnership learning communities: A case study and an extended model

As internet access and use increase exponentially, pedagogical practice becomes increasingly embedded in online platforms. We report on an online initiative of engaged student learning, the peer-led, staff-assisted e-helpdesk for research methods and statistics, which we evaluated and redeveloped using the lens and guiding principles of the framework for partnership in learning and teaching of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). The aim of the redevelopment was to steer the initiative towards a more integrative and sustainable implementation, as manifest in the applied construct of an online partnership learning community. Our evolving experience of the e-helpdesk highlighted the central role of the facilitator in engineering and maintaining social presence in the online community. We propose an extended model for building an online partnership learning community, whereby partnership encapsulates all the essential elements of student and staff partnership as outlined in the HEA framework, but is also critically defined by similar parameters of partnership between users and facilitators. In this model, the facilitator’s role becomes more involved in instructional teaching as disciplinary expertise increases, but descending levels of disciplinary expertise can foster ascending levels of independent learning and shared discovery for both users and facilitators.  &nbsp

Major contribution of the type II beta carbonic anhydrase CanB (Cj0237) to the capnophilic growth phenotype of Campylobacter jejuni

Campylobacter jejuni, the leading cause of human bacterial gastroenteritis, requires low environmental oxygen and high carbon dioxide for optimum growth, but the molecular basis for the carbon dioxide requirement is unclear. One factor may be inefficient conversion of gaseous CO2 to bicarbonate, the required substrate of various carboxylases. Two putative carbonic anhydrases (CAs) are encoded in the genome of C. jejuni strain NCTC 11168 (Cj0229 and Cj0237). Here, we show that the deletion of the cj0237 (canB) gene alone prevents growth in complex media at low (1% v/v) CO2 and significantly reduces the growth rate at high (5% v/v) CO2. In minimal media incubated under high CO2, the canB mutant grew on L-aspartate but not on the key C3 compounds L-serine, pyruvate and L-lactate, showing that CanB is crucial in bicarbonate provision for pyruvate carboxylase-mediated oxaloacetate synthesis. Nevertheless, purified CanB (a dimeric, anion and acetazolamide sensitive, zinc-containing type II beta-class enzyme) hydrates CO2 actively only above pH 8 and with a high Km (∼34 mM). At typical cytoplasmic pH values and low CO2, these kinetic properties might limit intracellular bicarbonate availability. Taken together, our data suggest CanB is a major contributor to the capnophilic growth phenotype of C. jejuni

Discovery and Follow-up Observations of the Young Type Ia Supernova 2016coj

The Type~Ia supernova (SN~Ia) 2016coj in NGC 4125 (redshift $z=0.004523$) was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search 4.9 days after the fitted first-light time (FFLT; 11.1 days before $B$-band maximum). Our first detection (pre-discovery) is merely $0.6\pm0.5$ day after the FFLT, making SN 2016coj one of the earliest known detections of a SN Ia. A spectrum was taken only 3.7 hr after discovery (5.0 days after the FFLT) and classified as a normal SN Ia. We performed high-quality photometry, low- and high-resolution spectroscopy, and spectropolarimetry, finding that SN 2016coj is a spectroscopically normal SN Ia, but with a high velocity of \ion{Si}{2} $\lambda$6355 ($\sim 12,600$\,\kms\ around peak brightness). The \ion{Si}{2} $\lambda$6355 velocity evolution can be well fit by a broken-power-law function for up to a month after the FFLT. SN 2016coj has a normal peak luminosity ($M_B \approx -18.9 \pm 0.2$ mag), and it reaches a $B$-band maximum \about16.0~d after the FFLT. We estimate there to be low host-galaxy extinction based on the absence of Na~I~D absorption lines in our low- and high-resolution spectra. The spectropolarimetric data exhibit weak polarization in the continuum, but the \ion{Si}{2} line polarization is quite strong ($\sim 0.9\% \pm 0.1\%$) at peak brightness.Comment: Submitte

Clinicians' caseload management behaviours as explanatory factors in patients' length of time on caseloads : a predictive multilevel study in paediatric community occupational therapy

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

AI ATAC 1: An Evaluation of Prominent Commercial Malware Detectors

This work presents an evaluation of six prominent commercial endpoint malware detectors, a network malware detector, and a file-conviction algorithm from a cyber technology vendor. The evaluation was administered as the first of the Artificial Intelligence Applications to Autonomous Cybersecurity (AI ATAC) prize challenges, funded by / completed in service of the US Navy. The experiment employed 100K files (50/50% benign/malicious) with a stratified distribution of file types, including ~1K zero-day program executables (increasing experiment size two orders of magnitude over previous work). We present an evaluation process of delivering a file to a fresh virtual machine donning the detection technology, waiting 90s to allow static detection, then executing the file and waiting another period for dynamic detection; this allows greater fidelity in the observational data than previous experiments, in particular, resource and time-to-detection statistics. To execute all 800K trials (100K files $\times$ 8 tools), a software framework is designed to choreographed the experiment into a completely automated, time-synced, and reproducible workflow with substantial parallelization. A cost-benefit model was configured to integrate the tools' recall, precision, time to detection, and resource requirements into a single comparable quantity by simulating costs of use. This provides a ranking methodology for cyber competitions and a lens through which to reason about the varied statistical viewpoints of the results. These statistical and cost-model results provide insights on state of commercial malware detection

Brazilian Education, National Education Parameters and Quality for Education: New Horizons

Under emergency conditions in the Brazilian educational system, since the turn of the 21st century, the National Curriculum Parameters consist of guidelines elaborated by the Federal Government with the purpose of guiding education, being separated by discipline. It is understood that reflective practice and critical involvement, in the context of extracting recreations in teaching, support debates and the development of teachers\u27 productions and educational projects at the school, encourage reflection not only on pedagogical practice, but also about the planning of classes. Therefore, the objective of this work is to re-discuss, under the spectacles of the dialogic approach, some national parameters of education that govern Brazilian education, considering the expansion and potentializing of studies already carried out on the subject

Prebiotic effects: metabolic and health benefits

The different compartments of the gastrointestinal tract are inhabited by populations of micro-organisms. By far the most important predominant populations are in the colon where a true symbiosis with the host exists that is a key for well-being and health. For such a microbiota, 'normobiosis' characterises a composition of the gut 'ecosystem' in which micro-organisms with potential health benefits predominate in number over potentially harmful ones, in contrast to 'dysbiosis', in which one or a few potentially harmful micro-organisms are dominant, thus creating a disease-prone situation. The present document has been written by a group of both academic and industry experts (in the ILSI Europe Prebiotic Expert Group and Prebiotic Task Force, respectively). It does not aim to propose a new definition of a prebiotic nor to identify which food products are classified as prebiotic but rather to validate and expand the original idea of the prebiotic concept (that can be translated in 'prebiotic effects'), defined as: 'The selective stimulation of growth and/or activity(ies) of one or a limited number of microbial genus(era)/species in the gut microbiota that confer(s) health benefits to the host.' Thanks to the methodological and fundamental research of microbiologists, immense progress has very recently been made in our understanding of the gut microbiota. A large number of human intervention studies have been performed that have demonstrated that dietary consumption of certain food products can result in statistically significant changes in the composition of the gut microbiota in line with the prebiotic concept. Thus the prebiotic effect is now a well-established scientific fact. The more data are accumulating, the more it will be recognised that such changes in the microbiota's composition, especially increase in bifidobacteria, can be regarded as a marker of intestinal health. The review is divided in chapters that cover the major areas of nutrition research where a prebiotic effect has tentatively been investigated for potential health benefits. The prebiotic effect has been shown to associate with modulation of biomarkers and activity(ies) of the immune system. Confirming the studies in adults, it has been demonstrated that, in infant nutrition, the prebiotic effect includes a significant change of gut microbiota composition, especially an increase of faecal concentrations of bifidobacteria. This concomitantly improves stool quality (pH, SCFA, frequency and consistency), reduces the risk of gastroenteritis and infections, improves general well-being and reduces the incidence of allergic symptoms such as atopic eczema. Changes in the gut microbiota composition are classically considered as one of the many factors involved in the pathogenesis of either inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome. The use of particular food products with a prebiotic effect has thus been tested in clinical trials with the objective to improve the clinical activity and well-being of patients with such disorders. Promising beneficial effects have been demonstrated in some preliminary studies, including changes in gut microbiota composition (especially increase in bifidobacteria concentration). Often associated with toxic load and/or miscellaneous risk factors, colon cancer is another pathology for which a possible role of gut microbiota composition has been hypothesised. Numerous experimental studies have reported reduction in incidence of tumours and cancers after feeding specific food products with a prebiotic effect. Some of these studies (including one human trial) have also reported that, in such conditions, gut microbiota composition was modified (especially due to increased concentration of bifidobacteria). Dietary intake of particular food products with a prebiotic effect has been shown, especially in adolescents, but also tentatively in postmenopausal women, to increase Ca absorption as well as bone Ca accretion and bone mineral density. Recent data, both from experimental models and from human studies, support the beneficial effects of particular food products with prebiotic properties on energy homaeostasis, satiety regulation and body weight gain. Together, with data in obese animals and patients, these studies support the hypothesis that gut microbiota composition (especially the number of bifidobacteria) may contribute to modulate metabolic processes associated with syndrome X, especially obesity and diabetes type 2. It is plausible, even though not exclusive, that these effects are linked to the microbiota-induced changes and it is feasible to conclude that their mechanisms fit into the prebiotic effect. However, the role of such changes in these health benefits remains to be definitively proven. As a result of the research activity that followed the publication of the prebiotic concept 15 years ago, it has become clear that products that cause a selective modification in the gut microbiota's composition and/or activity(ies) and thus strengthens normobiosis could either induce beneficial physiological effects in the colon and also in extra-intestinal compartments or contribute towards reducing the risk of dysbiosis and associated intestinal and systemic pathologies