Obesity, diabetes and zinc: A workshop promoting knowledge and collaboration between the UK and Israel, November 28–30, 2016 – Israel

Sponsored by the Friends of Israel Educational Foundation (FIEF) and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and supported by the EU COST action Zinc-Net (COST TD1304), a three-day collaborative UK-Israel workshop was organized by Drs Assaf Rudich, Imre Lengyel and Arie Moran. Participants from the UK and Israel met at the Desert Iris Hotel, Yeruham, Israel between the 28-30th of November 2016 for in-depth discussions, rather than a lecture series, to set the stage for future collaborative grants and projects on diabetes and zinc. Two days of formal scientific sessions with dynamic and wide-ranging discussions was followed by a day of touring and informal networking in the Negev area. This format was previously recognized by our sponsors as both effective and enjoyable and all participants agreed at the end of the meeting that the 3-days provided an excellent basis for future scientific collaboration. The discussions were centered on diabetes and obesity, already at pandemic levels, and zinc homeostasis which is related to the clinical issues and themes of the meeting. The free-flowing discussions were based on short presentations setting the scene for the six main topics: ‘Diabetes and zinc transporters’, ‘Nutrition related factors’, ‘Biomarkers’, ‘Clinical epidemiology’, ‘the Microbiome and diabetes’, and ‘Related diseases’. The abstract style summary of the sessions is followed by the major discussion points raised by the Authors and other participants (UK: Patrik Rorsman, Oxford University; Alan Stewart, University of St Andrews and Israel: Assaf Rudich, Idit Liberty, Rahel Gol, Guy Las and Amos Katz, Ben-Gurion University; Sarah Zangen, Haddassa University). We hope that readers will find this discourse stimulating and some of the ideas might make their way into their research efforts

The Role of Immunohistochemical Analysis as a Tool for the Diagnosis, Prognostic Evaluation and Treatment of Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is a heterogeneous disease that lends itself toward numerous therapeutic options depending on its risk stratification. One of the greatest challenges in PCa urologic practice is to select patients who should be referred for biopsy and, for those patients who are diagnosed with cancer, to differentiate between patients with indolent disease from those with an unfavorable prognosis and, to determine ideal patient management and avoid unnecessary interventions. Accordingly, there is a growing body of literature reporting immunohistochemical studies with the objective of determining a prostate cancer prognosis. Among the most frequent biomarkers studied are Ki-67, p53, PTEN, MYC, and ERG. Based on these findings, we systematically reviewed articles that assessed the role of these main prognostic markers in prostate cancer.Methods: Consistent with PRISMA guidelines, we performed a systematic literature search throughout the Web of Science and PubMed Medline databases. We considered all types of studies evaluating the role of Ki-67, p53, PTEN, MYC, and ERG immunohistochemical analysis in prostate cancer until July 2017.Results: We identified 361 articles, 44 of which were summarized in this review. Diagnostically, no single immunohistochemical marker was able to define a tumor as benign or malignant. Prognostically, Ki-67, p53, and MYC were related to the tumor grade given by Gleason score and to the tumor stage (higher levels related to higher tumor grade). Furthermore, Ki-67 was also related to higher PSA levels, shorter disease-free intervals and shorter tumor-specific survival; the latter was also related to p53. The loss of PTEN protein expression showed a higher association with biochemical recurrence and with a worse prognosis, beyond that predicted by the Gleason score and tumor stage. ERG staining also showed a strong association with biochemical recurrence.Conclusion: There are several studies relating immunohistochemical markers with clinical-laboratorial outcomes in prostate cancer, the most frequent being Ki-67, p53, ERG, PTEN, and MYC. However, none of these markers have been validated by literary consensus to be routinely applied in medical practice

Conservation and turnover of miRNAs and their highly complementary targets in early branching animals

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are crucial post-transcriptional regulators that have been extensively studied in Bilateria, a group comprising the majority of extant animals, where more than 30 conserved miRNA families have been identified. By contrast, bilaterian miRNA targets are largely not conserved. Cnidaria is the sister group to Bilateria and thus provides a unique opportunity for comparative studies. Strikingly, like their plant counterparts, cnidarian miRNAs have been shown to predominantly have highly complementary targets leading to transcript cleavage by Argonaute proteins. Here, we assess the conservation of miRNAs and their targets by small RNA sequencing followed by miRNA target prediction in eight species of Anthozoa (sea anemones and corals), the earliest-branching cnidarian class. We uncover dozens of novel miRNAs but only a few conserved ones. Further, given their high complementarity, we were able to computationally identify miRNA targets in each species. Besides evidence for conservation of specific miRNA target sites, which are maintained between sea anemones and stony corals across 500 Myr of evolution, we also find indications for convergent evolution of target regulation by different miRNAs. Our data indicate that cnidarians have only few conserved miRNAs and corresponding targets, despite their high complementarity, suggesting a high evolutionary turnover

Enhanced Astrocytic Nitric Oxide Production and Neuronal Modifications in the Neocortex of a NOS2 Mutant Mouse

BACKGROUND: It has been well accepted that glial cells in the central nervous system (CNS) produce nitric oxide (NO) through the induction of a nitric oxide synthase isoform (NOS2) only in response to various insults. Recently we described rapid astroglial, NOS2-dependent, NO production in the neocortex of healthy mice on a time scale relevant to neuronal activity. To explore a possible role for astroglial NOS2 in normal brain function we investigated a NOS2 knockout mouse (B6;129P2-Nos2(tm1Lau)/J, Jackson Laboratory). Previous studies of this mouse strain revealed mainly altered immune responses, but no compensatory pathways and no CNS abnormalities have been reported. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To our surprise, using NO imaging in brain slices in combination with biochemical methods we uncovered robust NO production by neocortical astrocytes of the NOS2 mutant. These findings indicate the existence of an alternative pathway that increases basal NOS activity. In addition, the astroglial mutation instigated modifications of neuronal attributes, shown by changes in the membrane properties of pyramidal neurons, and revealed in distinct behavioral abnormalities characterized by an increase in stress-related parameters. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results strongly indicate the involvement of astrocytic-derived NO in modifying the activity of neuronal networks. In addition, the findings corroborate data linking NO signaling with stress-related behavior, and highlight the potential use of this genetic model for studies of stress-susceptibility. Lastly, our results beg re-examination of previous studies that used this mouse strain to examine the pathophysiology of brain insults, assuming lack of astrocytic nitrosative reaction

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Search for supersymmetry in events with one lepton and multiple jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| < 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.