A functional role for the motor system in language understanding: Evidence from Theta-Burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Does language comprehension depend, in part, on neural systems for action? In previous studies, motor areas of the brain were activated when people read or listened to action verbs, but it remains unclear whether such activation is functionally relevant for comprehension. In the experiments reported here, we used off-line theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate whether a causal relationship exists between activity in premotor cortex and action-language understanding. Right-handed participants completed a lexical decision task, in which they read verbs describing manual actions typically performed with the dominant hand (e.g., “to throw,” “to write”) and verbs describing nonmanual actions (e.g., “to earn,” “to wander”). Responses to manual-action verbs (but not to nonmanual-action verbs) were faster after stimulation of the hand area in left premotor cortex than after stimulation of the hand area in right premotor cortex. These results suggest that premotor cortex has a functional role in action-language understanding

Porotaxia em larvas de Anocentor nitens e Haemaphysalis leporispalustris.

Estruturas tegumentares de larvas de Anocentor nitens e Haemaphysalis leporispalustris foram estudadas por microscopia óptica. Três tipos de estruturas tegumentares foram identificadas nas larvas das duas espécies: lirifissuras, pequenas glândulas e grandes glândulas de cera. Estas estruturas foram observadas isoladas ou associadas cobrindo todo o idiossoma, exceto no escudo onde não foram encontrados grandes glândulas de cera. Grandes glândulas de cera foram o tipo de estrutura mais estável dentro e entre as espécies, seguido pelas lirifissuras e pequenas glândulas. Pequenas glândulas, embora relativamente estáveis, mostraram um grande número de variações numéricas entre as espécies de carrapatos. Os padrões de lirifissuras, pequenas glândulas e grandes glândulas de cera mostraram diferenças marcantes quando comparadas entre si e com larvas de algumas espécies do gênero Amblyomma. Estas diferenças foram suficientes para diferenciar as larvas das espécies dos três gêneros.bitstream/item/24655/1/bpd51-carrapato.pd

Predicting the northward expansion of tropical lineage Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato ticks in the United States and its implications for medical and veterinary health

The tropical lineage within the Rhipicephalus sanguineus species complex is cause for growing concern in the U.S. based on its prominent role in creating and perpetuating multiple recently identified outbreaks of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. This lineage is undergoing a northward range expansion in the United States, necessitating the need for enhanced surveillance for Rh. sanguineus. To inform more focused surveillance efforts we use species distribution models (SDMs) to predict current (2015–2019) and future (2021–2040) habitat for the tropical lineage. Models using the MaxEnt algorithm were informed using geolocations of ticks genetically confirmed to be of the tropical lineage, for which data on 23 climatic and ecological variables were extracted. Models predicted that suitability was optimal where temperatures are relatively warm and stable, and there is minimal precipitation. This translated into habitat being predicted along much of the coast of southern states including California, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. Although the endophilic nature of tropical Rh. sanguineus somewhat violates the assumptions of SDMs, our models correctly predicted known locations of this tick and provide a starting point for increased surveillance efforts. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of using molecular methods to distinguish between ticks in the Rh. sanguineus species complex.EEA RafaelaFil: Pascoe, Emily L. University of California. School of Veterinary Medicine. Department of Medicine and Epidemiology; Estados UnidosFil: Pascoe, Emily L. Wageningen University & Research. Laboratory of Entomology; Países BajosFil: Nava, Santiago. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela. Instituto de Investigación de la Cadena Láctea (IDICAL); ArgentinaFil: Nava, Santiago. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigación de la Cadena Láctea (IDICAL); ArgentinaFil: Labruna, Marcelo. Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria e Zootecnia. Departamento de Medicina Veterinaria Preventiva e Saude Animal; BrasilFil: Paddock, Christopher D. United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch; Estados UnidosFil: Levin, Michael L. United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch; Estados UnidosFil: Marcantonio, Matteo. Université Catholique de Louvain. Earth & Life Institute. Evolutionary Ecology and Genetics Group; BélgicaFil: Foley, Janet E. University of California. School of Veterinary Medicine. Department of Medicine and Epidemiology; Estados Unido

PEGylated helper-dependent adenoviral vector expressing human Apo A-I for gene therapy in LDLR-deficient mice

Helper-dependent adenoviral (HD-Ad) vectors have great potential for gene therapy applications; however, their administration induces acute toxicity that impairs safe clinical applications. We previously observed that PEGylation of HD-Ad vectors strongly reduces the acute response in murine and primate models. To evaluate whether PEGylated HD-Ad vectors combine reduced toxicity with the correction of pathological phenotypes, we administered an HD-Ad vector expressing the human apolipoprotein A-I (hApoA-I) to low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-receptor-deficient mice (a model for familial hypercholesterolemia) fed a high-cholesterol diet. Mice were treated with high doses of HD-Ad-expressing apo A-I or its PEGylated version. Twelve weeks later, LDL levels were lower and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels higher in mice treated with either of the vectors than in untreated mice. After terminal killing, the areas of atherosclerotic plaques were much smaller in the vector-treated mice than in the control animals. Moreover, the increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines was lower and consequently the toxicity profile better in mice treated with PEGylated vector than in mice treated with the unmodified vector. This finding indicates that the reduction in toxicity resulting from PEGylation of HD-Ad vectors does not impair the correction of pathological phenotypes. It also supports the clinical potential of these vectors for the correction of genetic diseases

Amblyomma parvum Aragao, 1908 (Acari: Ixodidae) : phylogeography and systematic considerations

The geographical distribution of Amblyomma parvum Arag\ue3o 1908 in the New World is disjunct, with two main clusters separated from each other by the Amazon basin. The main objectives of this study were to further investigate the systematic relationships within A. parvum, to determine whether or not populations from different geographical areas might represent cryptic species, and to reconstruct the phylogeographical evolutionary history of the species. The genetic diversity of A. parvum collected throughout its distributional range was analyzed by using 6 molecular markers: 5 mitochondrial [the small and the large ribosomal subunits 12rDNA and 16SrDNA, the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and II (COII) and the control region or d-loop (DL)], and one nuclear (ITS2, Inter transcribed spacer 2). Phylogenetic trees were inferred by using maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses. In addition, node dating was attempted for the main lineages identified phylogenetically. Although mitochondrial and nuclear topologies were not totally congruent, they all identified at least two main supported clusters, a Central American lineage, and a Brazilian-Argentinian lineage. Clade support and divergence values strongly suggest that the two lineages correspond to different taxonomic entities. Node dating placed the split between the Central American and the Brazilian-Argentinian lineages at approximately 5.8-4.9 Mya, just after the progressive replacement of the dry areas that occupied the northern part of South America by the Amazon Basin in the early-mid Miocene. This event might be the cause of fragmentation and putative speciation within the ancestral relatively xerophilic A. parvum population