Fossil Marine Vertebrates from the Middle Part of the Upper Cretaceous Graneros Shale in Southeastern Nebraska

The Graneros Shale is a rock unit formed in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America. In this study, I report an assemblage of fossil vertebrates from the middle portion of the Graneros Shale in southeastern Nebraska. The estimated age of this fauna is about 97 million years old, and it is dominated by carnivores that consist of at least 11 taxa, comprising of eight sharks, one bony fish, and two reptilians (turtle and plesiosaur). The fauna includes taxa indicative of a nearshore, but fully marine, environment that do not contradict with previous paleoenvironmental inferences made for the Graneros Shale. This study is important because it represents the first collective faunal study of fossil vertebrates from the mid-Graneros Shale at a single locality

Ekologiczny i ekonomiczny rozwój rolnictwa na Ukrainie

The conditions for ecological safety and economic growth of Ukrainian agrarian complex are analyzed, as well as the factors effecting on present-day state of agrarian sector are considered and ecological components in a system of Ukrainian agriculture are assessed. Effects of state regulation on ecological and economic development of domestic agrarian sector are characterized. Perspective ways to help solve strategic agrarian tasks include involvement of organizational and economic levers to be the mechanisms for uniform development of various sub-sectors of agrarian economy; introduction of modern integrative logistic-type agrarian associations; betterment of agricultural products’ sales conditions; expansion of sales network on the basis of agrarian market’s improved infrastructure, etc; indisputable support of innovative technologies in the process of production; consideration of ecological and economic factors in conditions of increased use of renewable resources; re-utilization of wastes of agricultural production.W artykule przeanalizowano warunki bezpieczeństwa ekologicznego i wzrostu gospodarczego sektora agrarnego na Ukrainie. Uwzględniono także czynniki wpływające na jego obecny stan. Autorzy dokonali oceny wpływu regulacji państwowych na rozwój krajowego sektora rolnego. W badaniu wzięto pod uwagę różne sposoby realizacji strategicznych zadań, obejmujące zastosowanie dźwigni organizacyjnych i ekonomicznych jako mechanizmów rozwoju podsektorów gospodarki rolnej. Podkreślono wagę takich rozwiązań jak: wprowadzenie nowoczesnych integracyjnych stowarzyszeń agrarnych typu logistycznego, poprawa warunków sprzedaży produktów rolnych, rozbudowa sieci sprzedaży w oparciu o ulepszoną infrastrukturę rynku rolnego. Ogromne znaczenie dla rozwoju rolnictwa na terenie Ukrainy mogą mieć: wsparcie innowacyjnych technologii w procesie produkcji, uwzględnienie czynników ekologicznych i ekonomicznych w kontekście zwiększonego wykorzystania zasobów odnawialnych czy ponowne wykorzystanie odpadów z produkcji rolnej

Coassembly of Mgm1 isoforms requires cardiolipin and mediates mitochondrial inner membrane fusion

The soluble and membrane-anchored isoforms of Mgm1 are only active when they work together (in trans)

Characterization of the Mitochondrial Fusion Protein Mgm1 Reveals Oligomerization and GTPase Activity

Mitochondrial dynamics resulting from competing fusion and fission reactions are required for normal cellular function in eukaryotes. Mgm1, a dynamin related protein, is a key component in yeast mitochondrial fusion and is evolutionarily conserved. Previous in vivo studies suggest that the GTPase domain and oligomerization are required for Mgm1 mediated mitochondrial inner membrane fusion. This work demonstrates that purified Mgm1 forms dynamic low order oligomers, and has GTPase activity and kinetic properties consistent with a mechanoenzyme and with a role in inner membrane mitochondrial fusion. Mutations of key residues in the GTPase domain show diminished GTPase activity, while a mutation in the GTPase effector domain implicated in self-assembly results in a lower propensity to form oligomers. Together these data indicate that Mgm1 mediates fusion through oligomerization and GTP binding/hydrolysis in a manner similar to other dynamin mechanoenzymes.MAS

The role of vaccination in global health: Past, present, and future

Perhaps the greatest medical advancement in history was the development of the vaccine. While previously helpless to stop the spread of deadly infectious diseases, humanity has since harnessed the power of vaccination and decreased the incidence of infectious disease across the globe. Smallpox was the first disease to be eradicated—the greatest of our triumphs. This success was due to the global coordinated effort of the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Program. Presently, measles is the top cause of vaccine-preventable death in the world, and despite enormous vaccination efforts, eradication is still distant. This is due in part to the antivaccination movement, which was fueled by an article by Wakefield, published in the Lancet in 1998. The future of vaccination is an ambitious and unclear one—with tremendous financial support and involvement, the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) aims to eliminate vaccine preventable illness within what they call the “Decade of Vaccines”

Lifestyle modification for the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Canadian Aboriginal population

Canada’s Aboriginal populations have significantly higher rates of type 2 diabetes compared to non-Aboriginal Canadians. In First Nations populations living on reserve, the rates are more than double. Large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown that intensive lifestyle modification in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance can decrease the overall incidence of diabetes by up to 22%. Implementing lifestyle interventions into clinical practice remains a significant challenge because of both limited resources and uncertainly about optimal program design. Most studies have focused on translation into the primary care setting, and have shown moderate benefits. However, there have been no trials examining the feasibility and effectiveness of RCT-based lifestyle modification in Canadian Aboriginal communities. Canadian initiatives have so far focused on school-based healthy lifestyle curriculum and community awareness, but have had little success in reducing weight. Factors such as community remoteness, cultural diversity, poor retention of health care workers, and lack of access to healthy food are significant barriers to implementing lifestyle modification programs in Canadian Aboriginal communities. More importantly, these communities face systemic inequalities that must be addressed in order to achieve meaningful and sustained lifestyle changes

Gut Microbiota as Early Predictor of Infectious Complications before Cardiac Surgery: A Prospective Pilot Study

Cardiac surgery remains a field of medicine with a high percentage of postoperative complications, including infectious ones. Modern data indicate a close relationship of infectious disorders with pathological changes in the composition of the gut microbiome; however, the extent of such changes in cardiac surgery patients is not fully clarified. In this prospective, observational, single center, pilot study, 72 patients were included, 12 among them with the infectious complications. We analyzed the features of the fecal microbiota before and in the early postoperative period, as one of the markers for predicting the occurrence of bacterial infection. We also discovered the significant change in microbial composition in the group of patients with infectious complications compared to the non-infectious group before and after cardiac surgery, despite the intra-individual variation in composition of gut microbiome. Our study demonstrated that the group of patients that had a bacterial infection in the early postoperative period already had an altered microbial composition even before the surgery. Further studies will evaluate the clinical significance of the identified proportions of individual taxa of the intestinal microbiota and consider the microbiota as a novel target for reducing the risk of infectious complications

Phospholipid Association Is Essential for Dynamin-related Protein Mgm1 to Function in Mitochondrial Membrane Fusion*

Mgm1, the yeast ortholog of mammalian OPA1, is a key component in mitochondrial membrane fusion and is required for maintaining mitochondrial dynamics and morphology. We showed recently that the purified short isoform of Mgm1 (s-Mgm1) possesses GTPase activity, self-assembles into low order oligomers, and interacts specifically with negatively charged phospholipids (Meglei, G., and McQuibban, G. A. (2009) Biochemistry 48, 1774–1784). Here, we demonstrate that s-Mgm1 binds to a mixture of phospholipids characteristic of the mitochondrial inner membrane. Binding to physiologically representative lipids results in ∼50-fold stimulation of s-Mgm1 GTPase activity. s-Mgm1 point mutants that are defective in oligomerization and lipid binding do not exhibit such stimulation and do not function in vivo. Electron microscopy and lipid turbidity assays demonstrate that s-Mgm1 promotes liposome interaction. Furthermore, s-Mgm1 assembles onto liposomes as oligomeric rings with 3-fold symmetry. The projection map of negatively stained s-Mgm1 shows six monomers, consistent with two stacked trimers. Taken together, our data identify a lipid-binding domain in Mgm1, and the structural analysis suggests a model of how Mgm1 promotes the fusion of opposing mitochondrial inner membranes

4-Hydroxyphenyllactic Acid in Cerebrospinal Fluid as a Possible Marker of Post-Neurosurgical Meningitis: Retrospective Study

The search for new potential biomarkers for the diagnostics of post-neurosurgical bacterial meningitis is required because of the difficulties in its early verification using results of the routine laboratory and biochemical analyses of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The goal of the study was to determine the contents of the aromatic metabolites and biomarkers in the CSF samples of the post-neurosurgical patients (n = 82) and their potential diagnostical significance for the evaluation of the risk of post-neurosurgical meningitis. Patients with signs of post-neurosurgical meningitis (n = 30) had lower median values of glucose and higher values of cell count, neutrophils, lactate, protein, 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)lactic acid (p-HPhLA), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) than patients without signs of post-neurosurgical meningitis (n = 52). ROC analysis for IL-6 and p-HPhLA resulted in 0.785 and 0.734 values of the area under the ROC curve, with sensitivity 96.30 and 66.67%; specificity 54.17 and 82.69%, respectively. IL-6 should be considered as a non-specific biomarker, in contrast to the microbial metabolite p-HPhLA. If the concentration of p-HPhLA was more or equal to 0.9 µmol/L, the risk of bacterial complications was 9.6 times higher. p-HPhLA is a promising marker for the prognosis of post-neurosurgical meningitis, and its determination on a larger group of post-neurosurgical patients can subsequently prove its diagnostic significance for the verification of CNS infections