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Gut Microbial Metabolism and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
The gut microbiome, the multispecies community of microbes that exists in the gastrointestinal tract, encodes several orders of magnitude more functional genes than the human genome. It also plays a pivotal role in human health, in part due to metabolism of environmental, dietary, and host-derived substrates, which produce bioactive metabolites. Perturbations to the composition and associated metabolic output of the gut microbiome have been associated with a number of chronic liver diseases, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Here, we review the rapidly evolving suite of next-generation techniques used for studying gut microbiome composition, functional gene content, and bioactive products and discuss relationships with the pathogenesis of NAFLD
Adaptive evolution of molecular phenotypes
Molecular phenotypes link genomic information with organismic functions,
fitness, and evolution. Quantitative traits are complex phenotypes that depend
on multiple genomic loci. In this paper, we study the adaptive evolution of a
quantitative trait under time-dependent selection, which arises from
environmental changes or through fitness interactions with other co-evolving
phenotypes. We analyze a model of trait evolution under mutations and genetic
drift in a single-peak fitness seascape. The fitness peak performs a
constrained random walk in the trait amplitude, which determines the
time-dependent trait optimum in a given population. We derive analytical
expressions for the distribution of the time-dependent trait divergence between
populations and of the trait diversity within populations. Based on this
solution, we develop a method to infer adaptive evolution of quantitative
traits. Specifically, we show that the ratio of the average trait divergence
and the diversity is a universal function of evolutionary time, which predicts
the stabilizing strength and the driving rate of the fitness seascape. From an
information-theoretic point of view, this function measures the
macro-evolutionary entropy in a population ensemble, which determines the
predictability of the evolutionary process. Our solution also quantifies two
key characteristics of adapting populations: the cumulative fitness flux, which
measures the total amount of adaptation, and the adaptive load, which is the
fitness cost due to a population's lag behind the fitness peak.Comment: Figures are not optimally displayed in Firefo
Studies on growth rates in pigs and the effect of birth weight
End of project reportThe purpose of this study was to assess some environmental and management factors that affect growth performance on commercial pig units. In experiment 1, a survey was carried out on 22 pig units of known growth performance in south-west Ireland to compare management factors between those showing poor and good growth rates. Low growth rate appears to be due to the cumulative effect of a combination of factors. Experiment 2 was conducted to determine the effects of providing an
additional feeder on performance of weaned piglets. No benefits were
recorded. Feed consumed from the additional feeder was a replacement for
feed that otherwise would have been consumed from the control hopper
feeder.
Experiment 3 was designed to determine if pig performance and efficiency of
growth were affected by weight at birth and at weaning. Lightweight pigs
showed inferior growth performance up to the finisher period. Although they
compensated some of the inferior growth towards the time of slaughter, they
never reached the weights of the heavy birth-weight animals. Males were
either significantly heavier or tended to be heavier than females throughout.
There was no significant difference between the sexes in the number of days
to slaughter. Light and heavy pigs did not differ in the levels of IGF-1 in their
blood plasma; however lightweight pigs had significantly lower IgG preweaning.
Experiment 4 aimed to determine whether piglet birth weight influenced
growth performance, plasma IGF-1 concentrations and muscle fibre
characteristics at day 42 of life. At slaughter (Day 42) light birth weight pigs
were significantly (P < 0.001) lighter. Plasma IGF-1 concentration was lower
by 28% (P=0.06) in light pigs. Muscle fibre cross sectional area and total fibre
number were not significantly different between groups. This study should be
repeated with bigger numbers
First Supramolecular Sensors for Phosphonate Anions
Fluorescent tripodal anion sensors with a 1,3,5-triethylbenzene core display a turn-on fluorescence response to phosphonate and phosphate anions and may be used as optical sensors. The properties of the receptors and sensors as well as their anion binding behavior were investigated both in solution and in solid state. The turn-on fluorescence response can be leveraged in sensing of phosphate anions and, most importantly, hydrolysis products of the nerve gas sarin, isopropyl methylphosphonate (IMP), and methylphosphonate (MP). The fluorescence signal amplification in the presence of anions allows for application of these molecules in a sensor microarray suitable for high-throughput screening.NSF CHE 0750303, EXP-LA 0731153BGSU (TIE Grant)Chemistr
Stochastic delocalization of finite populations
Heterogeneities in environmental conditions often induce corresponding
heterogeneities in the distribution of species. In the extreme case of a
localized patch of increased growth rates, reproducing populations can become
strongly concentrated at the patch despite the entropic tendency for population
to distribute evenly. Several deterministic mathematical models have been used
to characterize the conditions under which localized states can form, and how
they break down due to convective driving forces. Here, we study the
delocalization of a finite population in the presence of number fluctuations.
We find that any finite population delocalizes on sufficiently long time
scales. Depending on parameters, however, populations may remain localized for
a very long time. The typical waiting time to delocalization increases
exponentially with both population size and distance to the critical wind speed
of the deterministic approximation. We augment these simulation results by a
mathematical analysis that treats the reproduction and migration of individuals
as branching random walks subject to global constraints. For a particular
constraint, different from a fixed population size constraint, this model
yields a solvable first moment equation. We find that this solvable model
approximates very well the fixed population size model for large populations,
but starts to deviate as population sizes are small. The analytical approach
allows us to map out a phase diagram of the order parameter as a function of
the two driving parameters, inverse population size and wind speed. Our results
may be used to extend the analysis of delocalization transitions to different
settings, such as the viral quasi-species scenario
The collective quantization of three-flavored Skyrmions revisited
A self-consistent large approach is developed for the collective
quantization of SU(3) flavor hedgehog solitons, such as the Skyrmion. The key
to this analysis is the determination of all of the zero modes associated with
small fluctuations around the hedgehog. These are used in the conventional way
to construct collective coordinates. This approach differs from previous work
in that it does not implicitly assume that each static zero mode is associated
with a dynamical zero mode. It is demonstrated explicitly in the context of the
Skyrmion that there are fewer dynamical zero modes than static ones due to the
Witten-Wess-Zumino term in the action. Group-theoretic methods are employed to
identify the physical states resulting from canonical quantization of the
collectively rotating soliton. The collective states fall into representations
of SU(3) flavor labeled by and are given by
where is the spin of the collective state. States with
strangeness do not arise as collective states from this procedure; thus
the (pentaquark) resonance does not arise as a collective
excitation in models of this type.Comment: 12 pages; uses package "youngtab
From ultraviolet to Prussian blue: a spectral response for the cyanotype process and a safe educational activity to explain UV exposure for all ages
Engaging students and the public in understanding UV radiation and its effects is achievable using the real time experiment that incorporates blueprint paper, an 'educational toy' that is a safe and easy demonstration of the cyanotype chemical process. The cyanotype process works through the presence of UV radiation. The blueprint paper was investigated to be used as not only engagement in discussion for public outreach about UV radiation, but also as a practical way to introduce the exploration of measurement of UV radiation exposure and as a consequence, digital image analysis. Tests of print methods and experiments, dose response, spectral response and dark response were investigated. Two methods of image analysis for dose response calculation are provided using easy to access software and two methods of pixel count analysis were used to determine spectral response characteristics. Variation in manufacture of the blueprint paper product indicates some variance between measurements. Most importantly, as a result of this investigation, a preliminary spectral response range for the radiation required to produce the cyanotype reaction is presented here, which has until now been unknown
Non-diffusive transport in plasma turbulence: a fractional diffusion approach
Numerical evidence of non-diffusive transport in three-dimensional, resistive
pressure-gradient-driven plasma turbulence is presented. It is shown that the
probability density function (pdf) of test particles' radial displacements is
strongly non-Gaussian and exhibits algebraic decaying tails. To model these
results we propose a macroscopic transport model for the pdf based on the use
of fractional derivatives in space and time, that incorporate in a unified way
space-time non-locality (non-Fickian transport), non-Gaussianity, and
non-diffusive scaling. The fractional diffusion model reproduces the shape, and
space-time scaling of the non-Gaussian pdf of turbulent transport calculations.
The model also reproduces the observed super-diffusive scaling
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