High Passage MIN6 Cells Have Impaired Insulin Secretion with Impaired Glucose and Lipid Oxidation

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by the inability of beta-cells to secrete enough insulin to maintain glucose homeostasis. MIN6 cells secrete insulin in response to glucose and other secretagogues, but high passage (HP) MIN6 cells lose their ability to secrete insulin in response to glucose. We hypothesized that metabolism of glucose and lipids were defective in HP MIN6 cells causing impaired glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). HP MIN6 cells had no first phase and impaired second phase GSIS indicative of global functional impairment. This was coupled with a markedly reduced ATP content at basal and glucose stimulated states. Glucose uptake and oxidation were higher at basal glucose but ATP content failed to increase with glucose. HP MIN6 cells had decreased basal lipid oxidation. This was accompanied by reduced expressions of Glut1, Gck, Pfk, Srebp1c, Ucp2, Sirt3, Nampt. MIN6 cells represent an important model of beta cells which, as passage numbers increased lost first phase but retained partial second phase GSIS, similar to patients early in type 2 diabetes onset. We believe a number of gene expression changes occurred to produce this defect, with emphasis on Sirt3 and Nampt, two genes that have been implicated in maintenance of glucose homeostasis.These authors have no support or funding to report

Variance Decomposition of the Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) system: Assessing sources of influence and reliability of observations of parent-teen interactions

The Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) is an observational tool that measures warmth and dominance dynamics in real time and is sensitive to individual, dyadic, and contextual influences. Parent-adolescent interpersonal dynamics, which conceptually map onto parenting styles, are an integral part of positive adolescent adjustment and protect against risky outcomes. The current study’s goal was to test the degree to which sources of influence on CAID data observed in a previous study of married couples generalize to a sample of parent-adolescent dyads. We examined data from ten raters who rated moment-to-moment warmth and dominance using CAID in a sample of 61 parent-adolescent dyads (N = 122) who were largely non-Hispanic White (62%) or African American (30%) based on parent report (adolescent M age = 14; 57% female). Dyads interacted in four different discussion segments (situations). We applied Generalizability Theory to delineate several sources of variance in CAID parameters and estimated within and between-person reliability. Results revealed a number of different influences, including the person, kinsperson (adolescent versus parent), dyad, rater, situation, and interactions among these factors, on ratings of parent-adolescent interpersonal behavior. These results largely replicate results from married couples, suggesting that the factors that influence ratings of interpersonal interactions largely generalize across sample types

Most soil trophic guilds increase plant growth: a meta-analytical review

Trophic cascades are important drivers of plant and animal abundances in aquatic and aboveground systems, but in soils trophic cascades have been thought to be of limited importance due to omnivory and other factors. Here we use a meta-analysis of 215 studies with 1526 experiments that measured plant growth responses to additions or removals of soil organisms to test how different soil trophic levels affect plant growth. Consistent with the trophic cascade hypothesis, we found that herbivores and plant pathogens (henceforth pests) decreased plant growth and that predators of pests increased plant growth. The magnitude of this trophic cascade was similar to that reported for aboveground systems. In contrast, we did not find evidence for trophic cascades in decomposer- and symbiont-based (henceforth mutualist) food chains. In these food chains, mutualists increased plant growth and predators of mutualists also increased plant growth, presumably by increasing nutrient cycling rates. Therefore, mutualists, predators of mutualists and predators of pests all increased plant growth. Further, experiments that added multiple organisms from different trophic levels also increased plant growth. As a result, across the dataset, soil organisms increased plant growth 29% and non-pest soil organisms increased plant growth 46%. Omnivory has traditionally been thought to confound soil trophic dynamics, but here we suggest that omnivory allows for a simplified perspective of soil food webs – one in which most soil organisms increase plant growth by preying on pests or increasing nutrient cycling rates. An implication of this perspective is that processes that decrease soil organism abundance (e.g. soil tillage) are likely to decrease aboveground productivity. Synthesis Soil foodwebs have resisted generalizations due to their diversity and interconnectedness. Here we use results from a meta-analysis to inform a simplified perspective of soil foodwebs: one in which most soil trophic guilds increase plant growth. Our review also includes the first widespread support for the presence of trophic cascades in soils

Introduction effort, climate matching and species traits as predictors of global establishment success in non-native reptiles

Non-native reptiles are often detrimental to native communities and ecosystems and can be extremely difficult to manage once established. Thus, there is considerable interest in predicting the likelihood of establishment of nonnative reptiles. We assessed three hypotheses describing possible factors contributing to the successful establishment of introduced reptiles in an effort to better identify potential invaders

The Impact of Mouse Passaging of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains prior to Virulence Testing in the Mouse and Guinea Pig Aerosol Models

It has been hypothesized that the virulence of lab-passaged Mycobacterium tuberculosis and recombinant M. tuberculosis mutants might be reduced due to multiple in vitro passages, and that virulence might be augmented by passage of these strains through mice before quantitative virulence testing in the mouse or guinea pig aerosol models.By testing three M. tuberculosis H37Rv samples, one deletion mutant, and one recent clinical isolate for survival by the quantitative organ CFU counting method in mouse or guinea pig aerosol or intravenous infection models, we could discern no increase in bacterial fitness as a result of passaging of M. tuberculosis strains in mice prior to quantitative virulence testing in two animal models. Surface lipid expression as assessed by neutral red staining and thin-layer chromatography for PDIM analysis also failed to identify virulence correlates.These results indicate that animal passaging of M. tuberculosis strains prior to quantitative virulence testing in mouse or guinea pig models does not enhance or restore potency to strains that may have lost virulence due to in vitro passaging. It is critical to verify virulence of parental strains before genetic manipulations are undertaken and comparisons are made

Southern Ocean Action Plan (2021-2030) in support of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

In 2017, the United Nations proclaimed a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (hereafter referred to as the UN Ocean Decade) from 2021 until 2030 to support efforts to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health. To achieve this ambitious goal, this initiative aims to gather ocean stakeholders worldwide behind a common framework that will ensure ocean science can fully support countries in creating improved conditions for sustainable development of the world’s oceans. The initiative strives to strengthen the international cooperation needed to develop the scientific research and innovative technologies that can connect ocean science with the needs of society at the global scale. Based on the recommendations in the Implementation Plan of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (Version 2.0, July 2021), the Southern Ocean community engaged in a stakeholder - oriented process to develop the Southern Ocean Action Plan. The Southern Ocean process engaged a broad community, which includes the scientific research community, the business and industry sector, and governance and management bodies. As part of this global effort, the Southern Ocean Task Force identified the needs of the Southern Ocean community to address the challenges related to the unique environmental characteristics and governance structure of the Southern Ocean. Through this community-driven process, we identified synergies within the Southern Ocean community and beyond in order to elaborate an Action Plan that provides a framework for Southern Ocean stakeholders to formulate and develop tangible actions and deliverables that support the UN Ocean Decade vision. Through the publication of this Action Plan, the Southern Ocean Task Force aims to mobilise the Southern Ocean community and inspire all stakeholders to seek engagement and leverage opportunities to deliver innovative solutions that maintain and foster the unique conditions of the Southern Ocean. This framework provides an initial roadmap to strengthen links between science, industry and policy, as well as to encourage internationally collaborative activities in order to address existing gaps in our knowledge and data coverage

The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most of the roughly 2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry over 250 deg^2 along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap. A coaddition of these data goes roughly two magnitudes fainter than the main survey. The spectroscopy is now complete over a contiguous area of 7500 deg^2 in the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC-2), reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milli-arcseconds per coordinate. A systematic error in bright galaxy photometr is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat-fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities. (Abridged)Comment: 20 pages, 10 embedded figures. Accepted to ApJS after minor correction

Investigating Protostellar Accretion-Driven Outflows Across the Mass Spectrum: JWST NIRSpec IFU 3-5~μ\mum Spectral Mapping of Five Young Protostars

Investigating Protostellar Accretion (IPA) is a Cycle 1 JWST program using the NIRSpec+MIRI IFUs to obtain 2.9--28 $\mu$m spectral cubes of five young protostars with luminosities of 0.2 to 10,000 L$_{\odot}$ in their primary accretion phase. This paper introduces the NIRSpec 2.9--5.3 $\mu$m data of the inner 840-9000 au with spatial resolutions from 28-300 au. The spectra show rising continuum emission, deep ice absorption, emission from H$_{2}$, H~I, and [Fe~II], and the CO fundamental series in emission and absorption. Maps of the continuum emission show scattered light cavities for all five protostars. In the cavities, collimated jets are detected in [Fe~II] for the four $< 320$~L$_{\odot}$ protostars, two of which are additionally traced in Br-$\alpha$. Knots of [Fe~II] emission are detected toward the most luminous protostar, and knots of [FeII] emission with dynamical times of $< 30$~yrs are found in the jets of the others. While only one jet is traced in H$_2$, knots of H$_2$ and CO are detected in the jets of four protostars. H$_2$ is seen extending through the cavities showing they are filled by warm molecular gas. Bright H$_2$ emission is seen along the walls of a single cavity, while in three cavities, narrow shells of H$_2$ emission are found, one of which has an [Fe~II] knot at its apex. These data show cavities containing collimated jets traced in atomic/ionic gas surrounded by warm molecular gas in a wide-angle wind and/or gas accelerated by bow shocks in the jets.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figure