Investment of Both Essential Fatty and Amino Acids to Immunity Varies Depending on Reproductive Stage.

Trade‐offs among the key life‐history traits of reproduction and immunity have been widely documented. However, the currency in use is not well‐understood. We investigated how reproducing female side‐blotched lizards, Uta stansburiana, allocate lipids versus proteins when given an immune challenge. We tested whether lizards would invest more in reproduction or immunity depending on reproductive stage. Females were given stable isotopes (15N‐leucine and 13C‐1‐palmitic acid), maintained on a regular diet and given either a cutaneous biopsy or a sham biopsy (control). Stable isotopes were monitored and analyzed in feces and uric acid, skin biopsies, eggs, and toe clips. We found that lizards deposited both proteins and lipids into their healing wounds (immune‐challenged), skin (control), and eggs (all) and that catabolism of proteins exceeded incorporation into tissue during wound‐healing. Specifically, we found that healed biopsies of wounded animals had more leucine and palmitic acid than the nonregrown skin biopsies taken from unwounded control animals. Earlier in reproduction, lizards invested relatively more labeled proteins into healing their wound tissue, but not into unwounded skin of control animals. Thus, reproduction is sometimes favored over self‐maintenance, but only in later reproductive stages. Finally, we documented positive relationships among the amount of palmitic acid deposited in the eggs, the amount of food eaten, and the amount of palmitic acid excreted, suggesting higher turnover rates of lipids in lizards investing highly in their eggs

Use Of The BigSol Time Of Flight Spectrometer In The Study Of Superheavy Element Production

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98691/1/APC000594.pd

Search for Heavy and Superheavy systems in 197Au + 232Th Collisions near the Coulomb Barrier

The reaction 197Au + 232Th at 7.5 AMeV was studied using the BigSol spectrometer at Texas A&M. Theoretical calculations suggest that this reaction could be used as an alternative method to produce heavy and superheavy elements. During the short interaction time, heavy systems of interacting nucleons are formed and, due to the strong energy dissipation, a large number nucleons can be transferred. The larger the lifetime of the decaying giant system, the larger the possible number of transferred nucleons. Moreover shell effects may help in the formation of heavy nuclei in the region of the island of stability. Reaction products emitted in an angular range from 6 to 16 degrees were collected at the entrance of the BigSol spectrometer and detected at the focal plane using a segmented ionization chamber. Four position sensitive PPAC detectors placed along the ion's flight path were used to track the product trajectories and measure the times of flight. The experimental results are presented and compared with theoretical calculations performed with the Constraint Molecular Dynamics code

Genome-wide association identifies nine common variants associated with fasting proinsulin levels and provides new insights into the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Proinsulin is a precursor of mature insulin and C-peptide. Higher circulating proinsulin levels are associated with impaired β-cell function, raised glucose levels, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Studies of the insulin processing pathway could provide new insights about T2D pathophysiology. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We have conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association tests of ∼2.5 million genotyped or imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and fasting proinsulin levels in 10,701 nondiabetic adults of European ancestry, with follow-up of 23 loci in up to 16,378 individuals, using additive genetic models adjusted for age, sex, fasting insulin, and study-specific covariates. RESULTS: Nine SNPs at eight loci were associated with proinsulin levels (P < 5 × 10(-8)). Two loci (LARP6 and SGSM2) have not been previously related to metabolic traits, one (MADD) has been associated with fasting glucose, one (PCSK1) has been implicated in obesity, and four (TCF7L2, SLC30A8, VPS13C/C2CD4A/B, and ARAP1, formerly CENTD2) increase T2D risk. The proinsulin-raising allele of ARAP1 was associated with a lower fasting glucose (P = 1.7 × 10(-4)), improved β-cell function (P = 1.1 × 10(-5)), and lower risk of T2D (odds ratio 0.88; P = 7.8 × 10(-6)). Notably, PCSK1 encodes the protein prohormone convertase 1/3, the first enzyme in the insulin processing pathway. A genotype score composed of the nine proinsulin-raising alleles was not associated with coronary disease in two large case-control datasets. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified nine genetic variants associated with fasting proinsulin. Our findings illuminate the biology underlying glucose homeostasis and T2D development in humans and argue against a direct role of proinsulin in coronary artery disease pathogenesis