Cardiac troponin I is a heartspecific marker in the Xenopus embryo: expression during abnormal heart morphogenesis

Cardiac troponin I (troponin Ic) expression is restricted to the heart at all stages of Xenopus development. Whole-mount in situ hybridization and Northern blot analysis indicates that troponin Ic is first expressed in tailbud embryos (stage 28) about the time of the first cytological heart differentiation and about 24 hr before beating tissue is observed. We have used this marker to examine abnormal heart morphogenesis in embryos treated with retinoic acid and lithium. When retinoic acid is administered to embryos prior to heart specification, heart tissue is reduced and often completely ablated. When embryos are treated after heart specification, but before the heart primordium migrates to the ventral midline, the migration is unaffected but smaller, abnormal hearts result. Lithium treatment of cleavage stage embryos causes an increase in heart tissue. In severely dorsalized embryos, heart tissue can be found around the entire embryo with the exception of a small gap at the most dorsal point. This gap indicates that migration of the heart to the ventral midline does not occur in these embryos. Later in development, a centrally located, beating heart is observed in dorsalized embryos. The timing of its appearance suggests that it is formed by movements normally associated with heart morphogenesis rather than migration

Is there a link between overactive bladder and the metabolic syndrome in women? : A systematic review of observational studies

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.To conduct a systematic review to determine whether there is an association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) or overactive bladder (OAB) in women. We systematically reviewed English language observational studies on the effect of MetS (or component factors) on the presence of OAB or LUTS in women. We searched PubMed, Web of Science and The Cochrane Library with no date restrictions, checked reference lists and undertook citation searches in PubMed and Google Scholar. Studies were assessed for risk of bias. Because of heterogeneity, results were not pooled, but are reported narrativelyPeer reviewe

Effects of Two Toxin-Producing Harmful Algae, Alexandrium catenella and Dinophysis acuminata (Dinophyceae), on Activity and Mortality of Larval Shellfish

Harmful algal bloom (HAB) species Alexandrium catenella and Dinophysis acuminata are associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) in humans, respectively. While PSP and DSP have been studied extensively, less is known about the effects of these HAB species or their associated toxins on shellfish. This study investigated A. catenella and D. acuminata toxicity in a larval oyster (Crassostrea virginica) bioassay. Larval activity and mortality were examined through 96-h laboratory exposures to live HAB cells (10–1000 cells/mL), cell lysates (1000 cells/mL equivalents), and purified toxins (10,000 cells/mL equivalents). Exposure to 1000 cells/mL live or lysed D. acuminata caused larval mortality (21.9 ± 7.0%, 10.2 ± 4.0%, respectively) while exposure to any tested cell concentration of live A. catenella, but not lysate, caused swimming arrest and/or mortality in \u3e50% of larvae. Exposure to high concentrations of saxitoxin (STX) or okadaic acid (OA), toxins traditionally associated with PSP and DSP, respectively, had no effect on larval activity or mortality. In contrast, pectenotoxin-2 (PTX2) caused rapid larval mortality (49.6 ± 5.8% by 48 h) and completely immobilized larval oysters. The results indicate that the toxic effects of A. catenella and D. acuminata on shellfish are not linked to the primary toxins associated with PSP and DSP in humans, and that PTX2 is acutely toxic to larval oysters

Zero temperature string breaking in lattice quantum chromodynamics

The separation of a heavy quark and antiquark pair leads to the formation of a tube of flux, or "string", which should break in the presence of light quark-antiquark pairs. This expected zero-temperature phenomenon has proven elusive in simulations of lattice QCD. We study mixing between the string state and the two-meson decay channel in QCD with two flavors of dynamical sea quarks. We confirm that mixing is weak and find that it decreases at level crossing. While our study does not show direct effects of internal quark loops, our results, combined with unitarity, give clear confirmation of string breaking.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. With small clarifications and two additions to references. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Inflammation markers and cognitive performance in breast cancer survivors 20 years after completion of chemotherapy: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: Inflammation is an important candidate mechanism underlying cancer and cancer treatment-related cognitive impairment. We investigated levels of blood cell-based inflammatory markers in breast cancer survivors on average 20 years after chemotherapy and explored the relation between these markers and global cognitive performance. METHODS: One hundred sixty-six breast cancer survivors who received post-surgical radiotherapy and six cycles of adjuvant cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF) chemotherapy on average 20 years before enrollment were compared with 1344 cancer-free women from a population-based sample (50-80 years old). Breast cancer survivors were excluded if they used adjuvant hormonal therapy or if they developed relapse, metastasis, or second primary malignancies. Systemic inflammation status was assessed by the granulocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (GLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII). Cognitive performance was assessed using an extensive neuropsychological test battery from which the general cognitive factor was derived to evaluate global cognitive performance. We examined the association between cancer, the general cognitive factor, and inflammatory markers using linear regression models. RESULTS: Breast cancer survivors had a lower general cognitive factor than non-exposed participants from the comparator group (mean difference = -0.21; 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.35 to -0.06). Inflammatory markers were higher in cancer survivors compared with non-exposed participants (mean difference for log(GLR) = 0.31; 95% CI 0.24 to 0.37, log(PLR) = 0.14; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.19, log(SII) = 0.31; 95% CI 0.24 to 0.39). The association between higher levels of inflammatory markers and lower general cognitive factor was statistically significant in cancer survivors but not among non-exposed participants. We found a group-by-inflammatory marker interaction; cancer survivors showed additional lower general cognitive factor per standard deviation increase in inflammatory markers (P for interaction for GLR = 0.038, PLR = 0.003, and SII = 0.033). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to show that (1) cancer survivors have increased levels of inflammation on average 20 years after treatment and (2) these inflammatory levels are associated with lower cognitive performance. Although this association needs verification by a prospective study to determine causality, our findings can stimulate research on the role of inflammation in long-term cognitive problems and possibilities to diminish such problems

Feasibility and Safety of Multicenter Tissue and Biofluid Sampling for α-Synuclein in Parkinson's Disease: The Systemic Synuclein Sampling Study (S4)

BACKGROUND: α-synuclein is a lead Parkinson's disease (PD) biomarker. There are conflicting reports regarding accuracy of α-synuclein in different tissues and biofluids as a PD biomarker, and the within-subject anatomical distribution of α-synuclein is not well described. The Systemic Synuclein Sampling Study (S4) aims to address these gaps in knowledge. The S4 is a multicenter, cross-sectional, observational study evaluating α-synuclein in multiple tissues and biofluids in PD and healthy controls (HC). OBJECTIVE: To describe the baseline characteristics of the S4 cohort and safety and feasibility of this study. METHODS: Participants underwent motor and non-motor clinical assessments, dopamine transporter SPECT, biofluid collection (cerebrospinal fluid, saliva, and blood), and tissue biopsies (skin, sigmoid colon, and submandibular gland). Biopsy adequacy was determined based on presence of adequate target tissue. Tissue sections were stained with the 5C12 monoclonal antibody against unmodified α-synuclein. All specimens were acquired and processed in a standardized manner. Adverse events were systematically recorded. RESULTS: The final cohort consists of 82 participants (61 PD, 21 HC). In 68 subjects (83%), all types of specimens were obtained but only 50 (61%) of subjects had all specimens both collected and evaluable for α-synuclein. Mild adverse events were common, especially for submandibular gland biopsy, but only 1 severe adverse event occurred. CONCLUSION: Multicenter tissue and biofluid sampling for α-synuclein is feasible and generally safe. S4 will inform understanding of the concurrent distribution of α-synuclein pathology and biomarkers in biofluids and peripheral nervous system in PD

Scanned Potential Microscopy of Edge States in a Quantum Hall Liquid

Using a low-temperature atomic force microscope as a local voltmeter, we measure the Hall voltage profile in a quantum Hall conductor in the presence of a gate-induced non-equilibrium edge state population at n=3. We observe sharp voltage drops at the sample edges which are suppressed by re-equilibrating the edge states.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figs. To be published in Physica E (Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Properties of 2D Systems

Public Relations Rhetoric: Criticism, Dialogue, and the Long Now

This essay provides a response to the articles in this special issue by introducing the concepts of dialogue, groupthink, and long-term thinking. The philosophy of the Long Now Foundation (an organization devoted to sustainable development and long-term planning) is used as a frame for the essay because of its close fit with rhetoric and dialogue. The essay examines the contributions to the special issue and identifies similarities of thought and argument.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Running Coupling and the Lambda-Parameter from SU(3) Lattice Simulations

We present new results on the static qq-potential from high statistics simulations on 32^4 and smaller lattices, using the standard Wilson beta = 6.0, 6.4, and 6.8. Within our statistical errors we do not observe any finite size effects affecting the potential values, on varying the spatial lattice extent from 0.9fm up to 3.3fm. We are able to see and quantify the running of the coupling from the Coulomb behaviour of the interquark force. From this we extract the ratio \sqrt{sigma}/Lambda_L. We demonstrate that scaling violations on the string tension can be considerably reduced by introducing effective coupling schemes, which allow for a safe extrapolation of \Lambda_L to its continuum value. Both methods yield consistent values for Lambda: Lambda_MSbar = 0.558_{-0.007}^{+0.017}\sqrt{sigma} = 246_{-3}^{+7}MeV. At the highest energy scale attainable to us we find alpha(5 GeV) = 0.150(3)Comment: 19 pages (LaTex), +6 pages with figures (Postscript, 432K), WUB 92--2