2D:4D Suggests a Role of Prenatal Testosterone in Gender Dysphoria

Gender dysphoria (GD) reflects distress caused by incongruence between one’s experienced gender identity and one’s natal (assigned) gender. Previous studies suggest that high levels of prenatal testosterone (T) in natal females and low levels in natal males might contribute to GD. Here, we investigated if the 2D:4D digit ratio, a biomarker of prenatal T effects, is related to GD. We first report results from a large Iranian sample, comparing 2D:4D in 104 transwomen and 89 transmen against controls of the same natal sex. We found significantly lower (less masculine) 2D:4D in transwomen compared to control men. We then conducted random-effects meta-analyses of relevant studies including our own (k = 6, N = 925 for transwomen and k = 6, N = 757 for transmen). In line with the hypothesized prenatal T effects, transwomen showed significantly feminized 2D:4D (d ≈ 0.24). Conversely, transmen showed masculinized 2D:4D (d ≈ − 0.28); however, large unaccounted heterogeneity across studies emerged, which makes this effect less meaningful. These findings support the idea that high levels of prenatal T in natal females and low levels in natal males play a part in the etiology of GD. As we discuss, this adds to the evidence demonstrating the convergent validity of 2D:4D as a marker of prenatal T effects

Analysis of the flow and heat transfer characteristics for MHD free convection in an enclosure with a heated obstacle

Finite element method based on Galerkin weighted Residual approach is used to solve two-dimensional governing mass, momentum and energy equations for steady state, natural convection flow in presence of magnetic field inside a square enclosure. The cavity consists of three adiabatic walls and one constantly heated wall. A uniformly heated circular solid body is located at the centre of the enclosure. The aim of this study is to describe the effects of MHD on the flow and thermal fields in presence of such heated obstacle. The investigations are conducted for different values of Rayleigh number (Ra) and Hartmann number (Ha). Various characteristics of streamlines, isotherms and heat transfer rate in terms of the average Nusselt number (Nu) are presented for different parameters. The effect of physical parameter (D) is also shown here. The results indicate that the flow pattern and temperature field are significantly dependent on the above mentioned parameters

Hallmarks of Splicing Defects in Cancer: Clinical Applications in the Era of Personalized Medicine

Alternative splicing promotes proteome diversity by using limited number of genes, a key control point of gene expression. Splicing is carried out by large macromolecular machineries, called spliceosome, composed of small RNAs and proteins. Alternative splicing is regulated by splicing regulatory cis-elements in RNA and trans-acting splicing factors that are often tightly regulated in a tissue-specific and developmental stage-specific manner. The biogenesis of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes is strictly regulated to ensure that correct complements of RNA and proteins are coordinated in the right cell at the right time to support physiological functions. Any perturbations that impair formation of functional spliceosomes by disrupting the cis-elements, or by compromising RNA-binding or function of trans-factors can be deleterious to cells and result in pathological consequences. The recent discovery of oncogenic mutations in splicing factors, and growing evidence of the perturbed splicing in multiple types of cancer, underscores RNA processing defects as a critical driver of oncogenesis. These findings have resulted in a growing interest in targeting RNA splicing as a therapeutic approach for cancer treatment. This review summarizes our current understanding of splicing alterations in cancer, recent therapeutic efforts targeting splicing defects in cancer, and future potentials to develop novel cancer therapies

A novel three stage network joining protocol for home automation

Modern advances in electronics and communication technology have given rise to the development of several home automation technologies and systems. Current home automation systems have several drawbacks including high cost, not being of a Do It Yourself (DIY) nature, and there is currently no safe way for a simple Internet of Things (IoT) device to join a Local Area Network (LAN) without the addition of extra user interface hardware. The simplest IoT devices, for example a mains power switch, could contain just a cheap Wi-Fi interface and very limited computing capability. Such devices are already available for under US $4 but are not usable in the IoT context as they lack the ability to join a Wi-Fi network in a secure DIY manner. The ability to securely join IoT Devices to Wi-Fi networks is an on-going area of research. This thesis describes a novel three-stage network joining protocol, which that allows IoT devices to securely join a Wi-Fi network even if they completely lack a user interface. This protocol can eliminate a central controller for a home automation system and allow users to purchase off the shelf devices from a range of manufactures and control them by a PC or mobile device in a very simple manner. This new method will significantly reduce costs as the system and does not require expert configuration or a central controller. This in turn may help revitalize the home automation industry, which has not seen great penetration into suburban homes. The protocol is implemented using a WPA2 based LAN, an Android phone and a Raspberry Pi which represents an IoT device lacking any form of keyboard and display. The method allows cost reductions for simple IoT devices and is suitable for immediate adoption by manufacturers of IoT devices

A comparative study of chromosome morphology among some accessions of Aegilops crassa

In this study karyotype and chromosome characteristics of the nine accessions of Aegilops crassa species obtained from gene bank of Seed and Plant Improvement Research Institute (SPII) of Iran and one accession collected by authors were inspected. Aceto-iron-hematoxilin staining method was used to stain chromosomes. For each accession, chromosome characteristics including long and short arms, chromosome lengths, arm ratio index and relative chromosome lengths were measured using micro measure 3.3 software. Results revealed that all of the studied accessions were tetraploid (2n = 4x = 28) and consisted of 13 pairs of metacentric and one pair of submetacentric chromosomes, of which two pairs were satellite chromosomes. Karyotype formula for these accessions were 13 m + 1 sm. Arm ratio index value of chromosomes ranged from 1.11 in chromosome number 6 to 1.77 in chromosome number 12. The B chromosomes were not seen in any of the accessions. Karyological characteristics of these accessions were similar to each other. However, some differences were observed between the accessions in some chromosome characteristics

Optimizing seed rate for summer mungbean varieties

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh from March to June, 2007 to investigate the effect of cultivar and seed rate on morphological characters, yield attributes and yield of summer mungbean. The experiment comprised four varieties viz., BINA moog2, BINA moog5, BINA moog6 and BINA moog7 and four seed rates viz. 30, 40, 50 and 60 kg ha-1. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Results revealed that variety and seed rate had significant effect on the studied crop characters and yield. The variety BINA moog7 showed superiority in relation to plant height, number of branches and effective pods per plant, number of seeds pod-1 compared to other varieties, which resulted in the highest seed yield both per plant and per hectare. The plant height, stover yield and number of non-effective pods per plant increased with the increase in seed rate, while branch number, number of effective pods per plant, seeds per pod, 100-seed weight, as well as seed weight per plant decreased with increasing seed rate. The higher number of branches and effective pods per plant, number of seeds pod, 100-seed weight and seed yield per plant were recorded at the rate of 30 and 40 kg seeds ha-1 and the lowest values for the above parameters were observed at the rate of 60 kg seeds ha-1. But per unit area basis, the highest seed yield was recorded in 40 kg seeds ha-1 followed by 50 kg seeds ha-1 due to accommodation of higher number of plants. BINA moog7 interacted favorably with the seed rate of 30 kg ha-1 to produce the highest seed yield

Effect of Cichorium intybus L. on the expression of hepatic NF-κB and IKKβ and serum TNF-α in STZ− and STZ+ niacinamide-induced diabetes in rats

Additional file 3. Evaluation of metformin. The HPLC system consisted of PLATIN Blue (KNAUER, Germany) with a PDA detector. The wavelength was set at 233 nm. The column was Nucleosil-100, C-18 (250 4.6 mm, 5 nm). The software was EZChrom Elite. The mobile phase comprised 0.01 M potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (adjusted to pH 4.5 with glacial acetic acid) and acetonitrile (60:40, v/v). Analyses were run at a flow-rate of 1.0 ml/min and the samples were quantified using peak area. Initial weight of each 500 mg pill: Merck, 516.63 mg; and Chemidaru, 582.50 mg. 2.5, 5, 10, 50, and 100 mg of the powdered pills were dissolved in 1 ml of deionized H2O. Merck metformin dissolved completely in water, whereas metformin from Chemidaru consisted of insoluble part. Injection volumes were 5 µl; each sample was injected only once. The corresponding peaks for 10 mg/ml sample and the resulting standard curves for two metformin brands are compared in graphs

Transverse Fluctuations and Their Effects on the Stable Functioning of Semiconductor Devices

Semiconductor plasma is often found in chaotic unpredictable motion which shows some anomalous behaviors providing multiple challenges to work with the instabilities in a semiconductor device. Experimental studies have shown that these instabilities give rise to fluctuations and azimuthal non-uniformities, which are usually present in the semiconductor. The energy fluctuations have also been observed in some of the cases. In this paper, we have obtained the fluctuations in velocity field by integrating the linearized governing hydrodynamic equations with RungeKutta method of order four (RK4). Then, we have come up with a mathematical formulation, where these fluctuations can be obtained from a KdV family equation with homotopy-assisted symbolic simulation. We have also obtained the relative velocity between the solitary structures for different parameters. Finally, by giving a detailed explanation of the behavior of semiconductor devices, we can study the usefulness of formulating the plasma waves in the various regime, and predict their characteristics theoretically