Coenzyme Q10 prevents hepatic fibrosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress in a male rat model of poor maternal nutrition and accelerated postnatal growth.

BACKGROUND: It is well established that low birth weight and accelerated postnatal growth increase the risk of liver dysfunction in later life. However, molecular mechanisms underlying such developmental programming are not well characterized, and potential intervention strategies are poorly defined. OBJECTIVES: We tested the hypotheses that poor maternal nutrition and accelerated postnatal growth would lead to increased hepatic fibrosis (a pathological marker of liver dysfunction) and that postnatal supplementation with the antioxidant coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) would prevent this programmed phenotype. DESIGN: A rat model of maternal protein restriction was used to generate low-birth-weight offspring that underwent accelerated postnatal growth (termed "recuperated"). These were compared with control rats. Offspring were weaned onto standard feed pellets with or without dietary CoQ10 (1 mg/kg body weight per day) supplementation. At 12 mo, hepatic fibrosis, indexes of inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin signaling were measured by histology, Western blot, ELISA, and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Hepatic collagen deposition (diameter of deposit) was greater in recuperated offspring (mean ± SEM: 12 ± 2 μm) than in controls (5 ± 0.5 μm) (P < 0.001). This was associated with greater inflammation (interleukin 6: 38% ± 24% increase; P < 0.05; tumor necrosis factor α: 64% ± 24% increase; P < 0.05), lipid peroxidation (4-hydroxynonenal, measured by ELISA: 0.30 ± 0.02 compared with 0.19 ± 0.05 μg/mL per μg protein; P < 0.05), and hyperinsulinemia (P < 0.05). CoQ10 supplementation increased (P < 0.01) hepatic CoQ10 concentrations and ameliorated liver fibrosis (P < 0.001), inflammation (P < 0.001), some measures of oxidative stress (P < 0.001), and hyperinsulinemia (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Suboptimal in utero nutrition combined with accelerated postnatal catch-up growth caused more hepatic fibrosis in adulthood, which was associated with higher indexes of oxidative stress and inflammation and hyperinsulinemia. CoQ10 supplementation prevented liver fibrosis accompanied by downregulation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and hyperinsulinemia.This work was supported by The British Heart Foundation [PG/09/037/27387, FS/09/029/27902]; and The Medical Research Council [MC_UU_12012/4]. Serum analysis was performed by The Wellcome Trust Supported Cambridge Mouse Laboratory, UK. SEO is a member of the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit. IPH is supported by the Department of Health’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centers funding scheme at UCLH/UCL.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the American Society for Nutrition via http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.115.11983

Photoidentification catalog of Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) in the Ligurian Sea

A photo-ID catalog of Cuvier's beaked whales was compiled by analyzing data collected in the Ligurian Sea from 1998 to 2007. Data were collected during dedicated surveys for beaked whales, opportunistic whale watching cruises, and during several tagging efforts. A total of 2,300 photographs was collected and referenced to time and GPS position. Of these photographs, 650 were of sufficient quality to use for photo-identification. Photographs were divided into four categories, based on scarring and pigmentation patterns: very distinctive (heavily scarred and/or bold pigmentation), distinctive (many distinct scars and/or bold pigmentation), slightly distinctive (few scars and lack of bold pigmentation), and not distinctive (no scars and solid brown animal). 127 individual whales were identified, of which 10 were classified as adult males, 3 as adult females, 3 as calves, and 27 as immature whales, based on the above criteria. An additional 26 whales were classified as possible males, and 28 as possible females. During the 9 year study period, 34 whales were resighted, and the longest time between resights was 7 years

Planck intermediate results. XLIX. Parity-violation constraints from polarization data

Parity-violating extensions of the standard electromagnetic theory cause in vacuo rotation of the plane of polarization of propagating photons. This effect, also known as cosmic birefringence, has an impact on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy angular power spectra, producing non-vanishing T–B and E–B correlations that are otherwise null when parity is a symmetry. Here we present new constraints on an isotropic rotation, parametrized by the angle α, derived from Planck 2015 CMB polarization data. To increase the robustness of our analyses, we employ two complementary approaches, in harmonic space and in map space, the latter based on a peak stacking technique. The two approaches provide estimates for α that are in agreement within statistical uncertainties and are very stable against several consistency tests.Considering the T–B and E–B information jointly, we find from the harmonic analysis and from the stacking approach. These constraints are compatible with no parity violation and are dominated by the systematic uncertainty in the orientation of Planck’s polarization-sensitive bolometers

Planck intermediate results. L. Evidence of spatial variation of the polarized thermal dust spectral energy distribution and implications for CMB B-mode analysis

The characterization of the Galactic foregrounds has been shown to be the main obstacle in thechallenging quest to detect primordial B-modes in the polarized microwave sky. We make use of the Planck-HFI 2015 data release at high frequencies to place new constraints on the properties of the polarized thermal dust emission at high Galactic latitudes. Here, we specifically study the spatial variability of the dust polarized spectral energy distribution (SED), and its potential impact on the determination of the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r. We use the correlation ratio of the CBBℓ angular power spectra between the 217 and 353 GHz channels as a tracer of these potential variations, computed on different high Galactic latitude regions, ranging from 80% to 20% of the sky. The new insight from Planck data is a departure of the correlation ratio from unity that cannot be attributed to a spurious decorrelation due to the cosmic microwave background, instrumental noise, or instrumental systematics. The effect is marginally detected on each region, but the statistical combination of all the regions gives more than 99% confidence for this variation in polarized dust properties. In addition, we show that the decorrelation increases when there is a decrease in the mean column density of the region of the sky being considered, and we propose a simple power-law empirical model for this dependence, which matches what is seen in the Planck data. We explore the effect that this measured decorrelation has on simulations of the BICEP2-Keck Array/Planck analysis and show that the 2015 constraints from these data still allow a decorrelation between the dust at 150 and 353 GHz that is compatible with our measured value. Finally, using simplified models, we show that either spatial variation of the dust SED or of the dust polarization angle are able to produce decorrelations between 217 and 353 GHz data similar to the values we observe in the data

Planck 2018 results. VIII. Gravitational lensing

We present measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing potential using the final Planck 2018 temperature and polarization data. We increase the significance of the detection of lensing in the polarization maps from 5σ to 9σ. Combined with temperature, lensing is detected at 40σ4. We present an extensive set of tests of the robustness of the lensing-potential power spectrum, and construct a minimum-variance estimator likelihood over lensing multipoles 8≤L≤400. We find good consistency between lensing constraints and the results from the Planck CMB power spectra within the ΛCDMΛCDM model. Combined with baryon density and other weak priors, the lensing analysis alone constrains σ8Ω0.25m=0.589±0.020 (1σ errors). Also combining with baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) data, we find tight individual parameter constraints, σ8=0.811±0.019, H0=67.9+1.2−1.3kms−1Mpc−1, and Ωm=0.303+0.016−0.018. Combining with Planck CMB power spectrum data, we measure σ8 to better than 1% precision, finding σ8=0.811±0.006. We find consistency with the lensing results from the Dark Energy Survey, and give combined lensing-only parameter constraints that are tighter than joint results using galaxy clustering. Using Planck cosmic infrared background (CIB) maps we make a combined estimate of the lensing potential over 60% of the sky with considerably more small-scale signal. We demonstrate delensing of the Planck power spectra, detecting a maximum removal of 40% of the lensing-induced power in all spectra. The improvement in the sharpening of the acoustic peaks by including both CIB and the quadratic lensing reconstruction is detected at high significance (abridged)

Planck intermediate results. XLVIII. Disentangling Galactic dust emission and cosmic infrared background anisotropies

Using the Planck 2015 data release (PR2) temperature maps, we separate Galactic thermal dust emission from cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies. For this purpose, we implement a specifically tailored component-separation method, the so-called generalized needlet internal linear combination (GNILC) method, which uses spatial information (the angular powerspectra) to disentangle the Galactic dust emission and CIB anisotropies. We produce significantly improved all-sky maps of Planck thermal dust emission, with reduced CIB contamination, at 353, 545, and 857 GHz. By reducing the CIB contamination of the thermal dust maps, we provide more accurate estimates of the local dust temperature and dust spectral index over the sky with reduced dispersion, especially at high Galactic latitudes above b = ±20°. We find that the dust temperature is T = (19.4 ± 1.3) K and the dust spectral index is β = 1.6 ± 0.1 averaged over the whole sky, while T = (19.4 ± 1.5) K and β = 1.6 ± 0.2 on 21% of the sky at high latitudes. Moreover, subtracting the new CIB-removed thermal dust maps from the CMB-removed Planck maps gives access to the CIB anisotropies over 60% of the sky at Galactic latitudes |b| > 20°. Because they are a significant improvement over previous Planck products, the GNILC maps are recommended for thermal dust science. The new CIB maps can be regarded as indirect tracers of the dark matter and they are recommended for exploring cross-correlations with lensing and large-scale structure optical surveys. The reconstructed GNILC thermal dust and CIB maps are delivered as Planck products

The Intellectual Property Implications of the Development of Industrial 3D Printing

This commissioned project/report for the European Commission explores the IP Implications of the Development of Industrial 3D Printing from a European perspective. The report aims to enhance the European business sector and foster innovation. Through a legal and empirical analysis, involving qualitative data drawn from interviews with 41 industry stakeholders, the findings from the project demonstrates the areas which needed to be addressed – and resolved. Being the first large-scale empirical project of its kind, the report delves into the heart of EU IP regulation and makes policy recommendations for all aspects of IP whilst also providing recommendations for industry. The report was authored by a team of national and international researchers including a team of academics and practitioners and consisted of Lead Author, Dinusha Mendis together with partners from UK (Julie Robson, Phill Dickinson), Austria (Maria del Carmen Calatrava-Moreno and Alfred Radeur); Finland (Rosa Ballardini); and Germany (Jan Nordemann and Hans Brorsen)