Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the paleoproterozoic Rove and Virginia formations, southwest Superior Province

The Paleoproterozoic Rove and Virginia Formations are lithostratigraphically and chronostratigraphically correlative units which comprise the upper sedimentary strata in the Animikie basin. They sharply overlie an intensely altered zone within the upper Gunflint and Biwabik iron formations which was subaerially exposed by compressional forces during the Penokean Orogeny. Dating of volcaniclastic zircons from the upper Gunflint yielded a pre-Penokean age of 1878 Ma. Tuffaceous layers very near the base of the Rove and Virginia Formations provided U-Pb zircon ages of approximately 1835 Ma placing commencement of sedimentation into the newly resubmerged basin during the final stages o f Penokean igneous activity. This study involved examination of 3200 m of drill core from eleven continuously drilled holes and one twiced drilled hole extending over 424 km from south of Duluth to south of Thunder Bay. Observation of the lithofacies present and their stratigraphie relationships provided insight into the depositional environment as well as the tectonic regime operating at the time. The basal Rove and Virginia Formations were deposited as transgression progressed across the depressed basinal area. They consist of black, carbonaceous shale with thin interbeds of siltstone, very-fine grained sandstone and friable green tuffaceous layers, possibly contributed by volcanic activity within the Penokean terrain. From approximately 5 m above the base, siltstone and sandstone layers gradually diminish in frequency upward, until the succession is almost completely dominated by approximately 100 to 150 m of fissile black shale. Microscopic examination of thin sections of this unit revealed the presence of very thin shale laminae and other laminae composed of angular silt grains or microlayers consisting of carbon. This sediment-starved, condensed sequence developed with increasing water depth, and with anoxic conditions probably caused by high organic loading in the bottom sediments. A siltstone and very-fine grained sandstone-rich unit traceable across the basin occurs midway through the shale-dominated succession. This coarser unit thickens near both the northern and southern margins of the basin. Above it another coarser-grained interval within the shale-dominated succession is observed in the southern third of the basin, probably representing sediment contributed by Penokean sources to the south. A gradational transition between the shale and an overlying sandstone-shale unit occurs over 80 m in the north, thinning to the south. The upper sandstone-shale unit varies in thickness, with a maximum of 350 m, and consists of over one hundred individual coarsening upwards parasequences. The individual packages are composed of graded, commonly massive, fine-grained sandstones separated by shale layers millimetres to centimetres thick. Shale units separating the parasequences are decimeters to one or two meters in thickness. The sandstone-shale assemblage fines to the south. Approximately 500 m above the base of the section the uppermost unit is dominated by lenticular bedding of fine-grained sandstones in the black shale, with both current and wave ripples present. The entire succession represents the transition from a sediment-starved basin, with exceedingly slow deposition rates, to active deltaic progradation with sediment probably derived from the Trans-Hudson orogenic zone to the north

Dynamics of blood circulation during diving in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): the role of the retia mirabilia

The retia mirabilia are vascular nets composed of small vessels dispersed among numerous veins, allowing blood storage, regulation of flow and pressure damping effects. Here, we investigated their potential role during the diving phase of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). To this effect, the whole vertebral retia mirabilia of a series of dolphins were removed during post-mortem analysis and examined to assess vessel diameters, and estimate vascular volume and flow rate. We formulated a new hemodynamic model to help clarify vascular dynamics throughout the diving phase, based on the total blood volume of a bottlenose dolphin, and using data available about the perfusion of the main organs and body systems. We computed the minimum blood perfusion necessary to the internal organs, and the stroke volume and cardiac output during the surface state. We then simulated breath-holding conditions and perfusion of the internal organs under the diving-induced bradycardia and reduction of stroke volume and cardiac output, using 10 beats min 121 as the limit for the heart rate for an extended dive of over 3 min.Within these simulated conditions, the retia mirabilia play a vital role as reservoirs of oxygenated blood that permit functional performances and survival of the heart and brain. Our theoretical model, based on the actual blood capacity of the retia mirabilia and available data on organ perfusion, considers the dynamic trend of vasoconstriction during the diving phase and may represent a baseline for future studies on the diving physiology of dolphins and especially for the blood supply to their brain

Cell-Surface Marker Signatures for the Isolation of Neural Stem Cells, Glia and Neurons Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Neural induction of human pluripotent stem cells often yields heterogeneous cell populations that can hamper quantitative and comparative analyses. There is a need for improved differentiation and enrichment procedures that generate highly pure populations of neural stem cells (NSC), glia and neurons. One way to address this problem is to identify cell-surface signatures that enable the isolation of these cell types from heterogeneous cell populations by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS).We performed an unbiased FACS- and image-based immunophenotyping analysis using 190 antibodies to cell surface markers on naïve human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and cell derivatives from neural differentiation cultures. From this analysis we identified prospective cell surface signatures for the isolation of NSC, glia and neurons. We isolated a population of NSC that was CD184(+)/CD271(-)/CD44(-)/CD24(+) from neural induction cultures of hESC and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC). Sorted NSC could be propagated for many passages and could differentiate to mixed cultures of neurons and glia in vitro and in vivo. A population of neurons that was CD184(-)/CD44(-)/CD15(LOW)/CD24(+) and a population of glia that was CD184(+)/CD44(+) were subsequently purified from cultures of differentiating NSC. Purified neurons were viable, expressed mature and subtype-specific neuronal markers, and could fire action potentials. Purified glia were mitotic and could mature to GFAP-expressing astrocytes in vitro and in vivo.These findings illustrate the utility of immunophenotyping screens for the identification of cell surface signatures of neural cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells. These signatures can be used for isolating highly pure populations of viable NSC, glia and neurons by FACS. The methods described here will enable downstream studies that require consistent and defined neural cell populations

PESFOR-W: Improving the design and environmental effectiveness of woodlands for water Payments for Ecosystem Services

ABSTRACT: The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe?s water bodies to ?good ecological status? by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions - including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forestscarbon policy nexus

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Comparison between two orthodontic skeletal anchorage devices: osseointegrated implants and miniscrews - Medical-legal considerations

Lo scopo di questo articolo è quello di descrivere potenziali problematiche medico-legali connesse all'impiego di micro-viti come ancoraggi scheletrici in ortodonzia. Le micro-viti, già impiegate per fissazioni rigide in ortopedia non necessitano ne' di un periodo di guarigione prima di essere caricate, ne' di una completa osteointegrazione; la loro particolare forma permette un alto livello di stabilità e possono avere anche un alloggiamento sottoperiosteo. Le dimensioni di queste micro-viti sono ridotte, a partire dai 4-5 mm di lunghezza. Queste viti penetrano poco oltre la corticale ossea riducendo così i rischi di lesioni a radici, nervi o seni mascellari, rispetto ad altri sistemi di ancoraggio scheletrico, come gli impianti. Risultati: l'utilizzo delle micro-viti in chirurgia parodontale non prevede coperture assicurative particolari, come invece avviene per l'inserimento degli impianti. Conclusioni: la terapia ortodontica, svolta dall'odontoiatra con micro-viti ortopediche come ancoraggio, risulterebbe così inclusa nella convenzionale polizza di responsabilità civile per odontoiatri