Acclimation cost of common environmental stress to copepod tigriopus japonicus

Human ImpactsOral PresentationArthropogenic stress and climate change pose major challenges to survivorship of organisms. Acclimation to these changes often incurred energy costs to organisms and led to decrease in fitness. This presentation will make use of two studies, using copepod Tigriopus japonicus, to examine whether development of resistance to two common stressors (copper and thermal stress) can be acquired and whether fitness cost is involved. T. japonicus inhabits shallow supratidal tidepools that subject to extreme environmental conditions and has good tolerances to a wide ...postprin

Perturbation of Retinoid Homeostasis Increases Malformation Risk in Embryos Exposed to Pregestational Diabetes

Pregestational diabetes is highly associated with increased risk of birth defects. However, factors that can increase or reduce expressivity and penetrance of malformations in diabetic pregnancies remain poorly identified. All-trans retinoic acid (RA) plays crucial roles in embryogenesis. Here, we find that Cyp26a1, which encodes a key enzyme for catabolic inactivation of RA required for tight control of local RA concentrations, is significantly down-regulated in embryos of diabetic mice. Embryonic tissues expressing Cyp26a1 show reduced efficiency of RA clearance. Diabetes-exposed embryos are thus sensitized to RA and more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of increased RA signalling. Susceptibility to RA teratogenesis is further potentiated in embryos with a pre-existing genetic defect of RA metabolism. Increasing RA clearance efficiency by a pre-conditioning approach can counteract the increased susceptibility to RA teratogenesis in embryos of diabetic mice. Our findings provide new insight into gene-environment interactions that influence individual risk in manifestation of diabetes-related birth defects, and shed light on the environmental risk factors and genetic variants for a stratified medicine approach to screen diabetic women of childbearing age and assess risk of birth defects during pregnancy

The Eye4HK Meme and the Construction of an Injustice Frame

The territory-wide protest in Hong Kong in 2019, originated from a proposed amendment bill on the extradition of fugitives to China which triggered massive protests. In an incident, the police shot a female medic in the eye which outraged the public. A Korean celebrity initiated an online movement by uploading a selfie covering his right eye to Twitter showing solidarity with the victim. The eye-covered image signifies the girl who lost her eye as a political victim, gaining wide sympathy. The sub-campaign constructed an image of resistance against police brutality which strengthened the wider movement in Hong Kong and helped to win support in other parts of the world. The campaign also linked the emotions of the two places by recalling Koreans’ memory of their historical struggle for democracy. The sub-campaign generated symbolic resources accumulating through the production and reproduction process online and subsequently benefited the wider social movement for political change

The Forkhead box transcription factor FOXM1 is required for the maintenance of cell proliferation and protection against oxidative stress in human embryonic stem cells

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Neural Plastic Effects of Cognitive Training on Aging Brain.

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Divergent secular trends in blood pressure and body mass index in children and adolescents in Hong Kong

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The role of p53 in the alternation of vascular functions

Ageing is a risk factor for many degenerative diseases. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are usually big burdens for elderly, caregivers and the health system. During the aging process, normal functions of vascular cells and tissue progressively lost and eventually develop vascular diseases. Endothelial dysfunction, reduced bioavailability of endothelium-derived nitric oxide are usual phenomena observed in patients with cardiovascular diseases. Myriad of studies have been done to investigate to delay the vascular dysfunction or improve the vascular function to prolong the aging process. Tumor suppressor gene p53, also a transcription factor, act as a gatekeeper to regulate a number of genes to maintain normal cell function including but not limited to cell proliferation, cell apoptosis. p53 also crosstalk with other key transcription factors like hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha that contribute to the progression of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, in recent three decades, p53 has drawn scientists’ attention on its effects in vascular function. Though the role of tumor suppressor gene p53 is still not clear in vascular function, it is found to play regulatory roles and may involve in vascular remodeling, atherosclerosis or pulmonary hypertension. p53 may have a divergent role in endothelial and vascular muscle cells in those conditions. In this review, we describe the different effects of p53 in cardiovascular physiology. Further studies on the effects of endothelial cell-specific p53 deficiency on atherosclerotic plaque formation in common animal models are required before the therapeutic potential can be realized

Antibiotic resistance gene sharing networks and the effect of dietary nutritional content on the canine and feline gut resistome

As one of the most densely populated microbial communities on Earth, the gut microbiota serves as an important reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), referred to as the gut resistome. Here, we investigated the association of dietary nutritional content with gut ARG diversity and composition, using publicly available shotgun metagenomic sequence data generated from canine and feline fecal samples. Also, based on network theory, we explored ARG-sharing patterns between gut bacterial genera by identifying the linkage structure between metagenomic assemblies and their functional genes obtained from the same data

Reactive strategies for containing developing outbreaks of pandemic influenza

Abstract Background In 2009 and the early part of 2010, the northern hemisphere had to cope with the first waves of the new influenza A (H1N1) pandemic. Despite high-profile vaccination campaigns in many countries, delays in administration of vaccination programs were common, and high vaccination coverage levels were not achieved. This experience suggests the need to explore the epidemiological and economic effectiveness of additional, reactive strategies for combating pandemic influenza. Methods We use a stochastic model of pandemic influenza to investigate realistic strategies that can be used in reaction to developing outbreaks. The model is calibrated to documented illness attack rates and basic reproductive number (R0) estimates, and constructed to represent a typical mid-sized North American city. Results Our model predicts an average illness attack rate of 34.1% in the absence of intervention, with total costs associated with morbidity and mortality of US$81 million for such a city. Attack rates and economic costs can be reduced to 5.4$37 million, respectively, when low-coverage reactive vaccination and limited antiviral use are combined with practical, minimally disruptive social distancing strategies, including short-term, as-needed closure of individual schools, even when vaccine supply-chain-related delays occur. Results improve with increasing vaccination coverage and higher vaccine efficacy. Conclusions Such combination strategies can be substantially more effective than vaccination alone from epidemiological and economic standpoints, and warrant strong consideration by public health authorities when reacting to future outbreaks of pandemic influenza