Involvement of ubiquitin-editing protein A20 in modulating in-flammation in rat cochlea associated with silver nanoparti-cles-induced CD68 up-regulation and TLR4 activation

The manuscript was just accepted for publication on Nanoscale Research Letters

Earth: Atmospheric Evolution of a Habitable Planet

Our present-day atmosphere is often used as an analog for potentially habitable exoplanets, but Earth's atmosphere has changed dramatically throughout its 4.5 billion year history. For example, molecular oxygen is abundant in the atmosphere today but was absent on the early Earth. Meanwhile, the physical and chemical evolution of Earth's atmosphere has also resulted in major swings in surface temperature, at times resulting in extreme glaciation or warm greenhouse climates. Despite this dynamic and occasionally dramatic history, the Earth has been persistently habitable--and, in fact, inhabited--for roughly 4 billion years. Understanding Earth's momentous changes and its enduring habitability is essential as a guide to the diversity of habitable planetary environments that may exist beyond our solar system and for ultimately recognizing spectroscopic fingerprints of life elsewhere in the Universe. Here, we review long-term trends in the composition of Earth's atmosphere as it relates to both planetary habitability and inhabitation. We focus on gases that may serve as habitability markers (CO2, N2) or biosignatures (CH4, O2), especially as related to the redox evolution of the atmosphere and the coupled evolution of Earth's climate system. We emphasize that in the search for Earth-like planets we must be mindful that the example provided by the modern atmosphere merely represents a single snapshot of Earth's long-term evolution. In exploring the many former states of our own planet, we emphasize Earth's atmospheric evolution during the Archean, Proterozoic, and Phanerozoic eons, but we conclude with a brief discussion of potential atmospheric trajectories into the distant future, many millions to billions of years from now. All of these 'Alternative Earth' scenarios provide insight to the potential diversity of Earth-like, habitable, and inhabited worlds.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables. Review chapter to appear in Handbook of Exoplanet

The many faces of biological individuality

Biological individuality is a major topic of discussion in biology and philosophy of biology. Recently, several objections have been raised against traditional accounts of biological individuality, including the objections of monism (the tendency to focus on a single individuality criterion and/or a single biological field), theory-centrism (the tendency to discuss only theory-based individuation), ahistoricity (the tendency to neglect what biologists of the past and historians of biology have said about biological individuality), disciplinary isolationism (the tendency to isolate biological individuality from other scientific and philosophical domains that have investigated individuality), and the multiplication of conceptual uncertainties (the lack of a precise definition of “biological individual” and related terms). In this introduction, I will examine the current philosophical landscape about biological individuality, and show how the contributions gathered in this special issue address these five objections. Overall, the aim of this issue is to offer a more diverse, unifying, and scientifically informed conception of what a biological individual is

Screening for gestational diabetes mellitus selectively in a university maternity hospital

Aims: Screening for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) may be universal or selective based on risk factors. We audited selective screening with an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). Methods: Clinical and laboratory details of the first 200 women who delivered a baby in 2017 were analysed. Results: Based on national recommendations, 46.5% (n=93) had maternal risk factors (RF) and an additional 6.5% (n=13) had fetal RF. Nine women with RF, for unexplained reasons did not have their OGTT. Of the 95 who had their OGTT, the diagnosis of GDM was made in 27.4% (n=26). The diagnosis of GDM was made in an additional 8 women outside selective screening giving an overall incidence of 17.0%. Discussion: More than half of the women needed to be screened selectively for GDM. Compliance with the national recommendations was incomplete and thus the diagnosis of GDM may be missed even in an academic setting