Interactions between the adducin 2 gene and antihypertensive drug therapies in determining blood pressure in people with hypertension

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As part of the NHLBI Family Blood Pressure Program, the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) recruited 575 sibships (n = 1583 individuals) from Rochester, MN who had at least two hypertensive siblings diagnosed before age 60. Linkage analysis identified a region on chromosome 2 that was investigated using 70 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) typed in 7 positional candidate genes, including adducin 2 (<it>ADD2</it>).</p> <p>Method</p> <p>To investigate whether blood pressure (BP) levels in these hypertensives (n = 1133) were influenced by gene-by-drug interactions, we used cross-validation statistical methods (i.e., estimating a model for predicting BP levels in one subgroup and testing it in a different subgroup). These methods greatly reduced the chance of false positive findings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eight SNPs in <it>ADD2 </it>were significantly associated with systolic BP in untreated hypertensives (p-value < 0.05). Moreover, we also identified SNPs associated with gene-by-drug interactions on systolic BP in drug-treated hypertensives. The TT genotype at SNP rs1541582 was associated with an average systolic BP of 133 mmHg in the beta-blocker subgroup and 148 mmHg in the diuretic subgroup after adjusting for overall mean differences among drug classes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings suggest that hypertension candidate gene variation may influence BP responses to specific antihypertensive drug therapies and measurement of genetic variation may assist in identifying subgroups of hypertensive patients who will benefit most from particular antihypertensive drug therapies.</p

A Compact Representation of Drawing Movements with Sequences of Parabolic Primitives

Some studies suggest that complex arm movements in humans and monkeys may optimize several objective functions, while others claim that arm movements satisfy geometric constraints and are composed of elementary components. However, the ability to unify different constraints has remained an open question. The criterion for a maximally smooth (minimizing jerk) motion is satisfied for parabolic trajectories having constant equi-affine speed, which thus comply with the geometric constraint known as the two-thirds power law. Here we empirically test the hypothesis that parabolic segments provide a compact representation of spontaneous drawing movements. Monkey scribblings performed during a period of practice were recorded. Practiced hand paths could be approximated well by relatively long parabolic segments. Following practice, the orientations and spatial locations of the fitted parabolic segments could be drawn from only 2–4 clusters, and there was less discrepancy between the fitted parabolic segments and the executed paths. This enabled us to show that well-practiced spontaneous scribbling movements can be represented as sequences (“words”) of a small number of elementary parabolic primitives (“letters”). A movement primitive can be defined as a movement entity that cannot be intentionally stopped before its completion. We found that in a well-trained monkey a movement was usually decelerated after receiving a reward, but it stopped only after the completion of a sequence composed of several parabolic segments. Piece-wise parabolic segments can be generated by applying affine geometric transformations to a single parabolic template. Thus, complex movements might be constructed by applying sequences of suitable geometric transformations to a few templates. Our findings therefore suggest that the motor system aims at achieving more parsimonious internal representations through practice, that parabolas serve as geometric primitives and that non-Euclidean variables are employed in internal movement representations (due to the special role of parabolas in equi-affine geometry)

Nitrate Reduction Functional Genes and Nitrate Reduction Potentials Persist in Deeper Estuarine Sediments. Why?

Denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) are processes occurring simultaneously under oxygen-limited or anaerobic conditions, where both compete for nitrate and organic carbon. Despite their ecological importance, there has been little investigation of how denitrification and DNRA potentials and related functional genes vary vertically with sediment depth. Nitrate reduction potentials measured in sediment depth profiles along the Colne estuary were in the upper range of nitrate reduction rates reported from other sediments and showed the existence of strong decreasing trends both with increasing depth and along the estuary. Denitrification potential decreased along the estuary, decreasing more rapidly with depth towards the estuary mouth. In contrast, DNRA potential increased along the estuary. Significant decreases in copy numbers of 16S rRNA and nitrate reducing genes were observed along the estuary and from surface to deeper sediments. Both metabolic potentials and functional genes persisted at sediment depths where porewater nitrate was absent. Transport of nitrate by bioturbation, based on macrofauna distributions, could only account for the upper 10 cm depth of sediment. A several fold higher combined freeze-lysable KCl-extractable nitrate pool compared to porewater nitrate was detected. We hypothesised that his could be attributed to intracellular nitrate pools from nitrate accumulating microorganisms like Thioploca or Beggiatoa. However, pyrosequencing analysis did not detect any such organisms, leaving other bacteria, microbenthic algae, or foraminiferans which have also been shown to accumulate nitrate, as possible candidates. The importance and bioavailability of a KCl-extractable nitrate sediment pool remains to be tested. The significant variation in the vertical pattern and abundance of the various nitrate reducing genes phylotypes reasonably suggests differences in their activity throughout the sediment column. This raises interesting questions as to what the alternative metabolic roles for the various nitrate reductases could be, analogous to the alternative metabolic roles found for nitrite reductases

Measured greenhouse gas budgets challenge emission savings from palm-oil biodiesel

Special thanks to our field assistants in Indonesia (Basri, Bayu and Darwis) and to Frank Tiedemann, Edgar Tunsch, Dietmar Fellert and Malte Puhan for technical assistance. We thank PTPN VI and the owner of the plantation at Pompa Air for allowing us to conduct our research at their plantation. We would also like to thank the Spanish national project GEISpain (CGL2014-52838-C2-1-R) and the DAAD (scholarship from the programme ‘Research Stays for University Academics and Scientist 2018, ref. no. 91687130)' for partly financing A. Meijide during the preparation of this paper.The potential of palm-oil biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared with fossil fuels is increasingly questioned. So far, no measurement-based GHG budgets were available, and plantation age was ignored in Life Cycle Analyses (LCA). Here, we conduct LCA based on measured CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes in young and mature Indonesian oil palm plantations. CO2 dominates the on-site GHG budgets. The young plantation is a carbon source (1012 ± 51 gC m−2 yr−1), the mature plantation a sink (−754 ± 38 gC m−2 yr−1). LCA considering the measured fluxes shows higher GHG emissions for palm-oil biodiesel than traditional LCA assuming carbon neutrality. Plantation rotation-cycle extension and earlier-yielding varieties potentially decrease GHG emissions. Due to the high emissions associated with forest conversion to oil palm, our results indicate that only biodiesel from second rotation-cycle plantations or plantations established on degraded land has the potential for pronounced GHG emission savings.This study was financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)— Project-ID 192626868—in the framework of the collaborative German-Indonesian research project CRC990 (subprojects A03, A04 and A05).Spanish national project GEISpain (CGL2014-52838-C2-1-R) and the DAAD (scholarship from the programme ‘Research Stays for University Academics and Scientist 2018, ref. no. 91687130

Effects of Tillage and Nitrogen Fertilizers on CH4 and CO2 Emissions and Soil Organic Carbon in Paddy Fields of Central China

Quantifying carbon (C) sequestration in paddy soils is necessary to help better understand the effect of agricultural practices on the C cycle. The objective of the present study was to assess the effects of tillage practices [conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT)] and the application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer (0 and 210 kg N ha−1) on fluxes of CH4 and CO2, and soil organic C (SOC) sequestration during the 2009 and 2010 rice growing seasons in central China. Application of N fertilizer significantly increased CH4 emissions by 13%–66% and SOC by 21%–94% irrespective of soil sampling depths, but had no effect on CO2 emissions in either year. Tillage significantly affected CH4 and CO2 emissions, where NT significantly decreased CH4 emissions by 10%–36% but increased CO2 emissions by 22%–40% in both years. The effects of tillage on the SOC varied with the depth of soil sampling. NT significantly increased the SOC by 7%–48% in the 0–5 cm layer compared with CT. However, there was no significant difference in the SOC between NT and CT across the entire 0–20 cm layer. Hence, our results suggest that the potential of SOC sequestration in NT paddy fields may be overestimated in central China if only surface soil samples are considered

Is there a common water-activity limit for the three domains of life?

Archaea and Bacteria constitute a majority of life systems on Earth but have long been considered inferior to Eukarya in terms of solute tolerance. Whereas the most halophilic prokaryotes are known for an ability to multiply at saturated NaCl (water activity (a w) 0.755) some xerophilic fungi can germinate, usually at high-sugar concentrations, at values as low as 0.650-0.605 a w. Here, we present evidence that halophilic prokayotes can grow down to water activities of <0.755 for Halanaerobium lacusrosei (0.748), Halobacterium strain 004.1 (0.728), Halobacterium sp. NRC-1 and Halococcus morrhuae (0.717), Haloquadratum walsbyi (0.709), Halococcus salifodinae (0.693), Halobacterium noricense (0.687), Natrinema pallidum (0.681) and haloarchaeal strains GN-2 and GN-5 (0.635 a w). Furthermore, extrapolation of growth curves (prone to giving conservative estimates) indicated theoretical minima down to 0.611 a w for extreme, obligately halophilic Archaea and Bacteria. These were compared with minima for the most solute-tolerant Bacteria in high-sugar (or other non-saline) media (Mycobacterium spp., Tetragenococcus halophilus, Saccharibacter floricola, Staphylococcus aureus and so on) and eukaryotic microbes in saline (Wallemia spp., Basipetospora halophila, Dunaliella spp. and so on) and high-sugar substrates (for example, Xeromyces bisporus, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii, Aspergillus and Eurotium spp.). We also manipulated the balance of chaotropic and kosmotropic stressors for the extreme, xerophilic fungi Aspergillus penicilloides and X. bisporus and, via this approach, their established water-activity limits for mycelial growth (∼0.65) were reduced to 0.640. Furthermore, extrapolations indicated theoretical limits of 0.632 and 0.636 a w for A. penicilloides and X. bisporus, respectively. Collectively, these findings suggest that there is a common water-activity limit that is determined by physicochemical constraints for the three domains of life

System architecture for personalized automatic audio-visual content generation from Web feeds to an iTV platform

Fulfilling informational needs of seniors is vital for a successful development of active ageing and independent living initiatives, which contribute for an effective provision of welfare benefits tailored for these citizens. This paper aims to propose a system architecture for automated generation of audio-visual contents adapted from Web feeds of information about Assistance Services of General Interest for Elderly (ASGIE). These pieces of high-value generated content are tailored to the seniors’ requirements, needs and expectations, for further exhibition on an iTV platform. Also, this paper describes the technical choices leading to a prototype implementation developed in the context of +TV4E project, an ongoing research project of an iTV platform to enrich seniors television experience with the integration of informative content. Future work will involve submitting this prototype and the generated contents to field tests at seniors’ home environment