Elevated levels of FOXA1 facilitate androgen receptor chromatin binding resulting in a CRPC-like phenotype.

Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) continues to pose a significant clinical challenge with new generation second-line hormonal therapies affording limited improvement in disease outcome. As the androgen receptor (AR) remains a critical driver in CRPC, understanding the determinants of its transcriptional activity is important for developing new AR-targeted therapies. FOXA1 is a key component of the AR transcriptional complex yet its role in prostate cancer progression and the relationship between AR and FOXA1 are not completely resolved. It is well established that FOXA1 levels are elevated in advanced prostate cancer and metastases. We mimicked these conditions by overexpressing FOXA1 in the androgen-responsive LNCaP prostate cancer cell line and observed a significant increase in AR genomic binding at novel regions that possess increased chromatin accessibility. High levels of FOXA1 resulted in increased proliferation at both sub-optimal and high 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) concentrations. Immunohistochemical staining for FOXA1 in a clinical prostate cancer cohort revealed that high FOXA1 expression is associated with shorter time to biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy (hazard ratio (HR) 5.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-21.1, P=0.028), positive surgical margins and higher stage disease at diagnosis. The gene expression program that results from FOXA1 overexpression is enriched for PTEN, Wnt and other pathways typically represented in CRPC gene signatures. Together, these results suggest that in an androgen-depleted state, elevated levels of FOXA1 enhance AR binding at genomic regions not normally occupied by AR, which in turn facilitates prostate cancer cell growth

Effect of musical stimuli and white noise on rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) growth and physiology in recirculating water conditions

Two musical stimuli transmissions (Mozart and Romanza) as compared with white noise treatment or control, both resulted in significantly higher growth performance in juvenile (6.7 +/- 0.12 g) rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) reared for 14 weeks. Carcass chemical composition and fatty acid composition (% of total fatty acids and mg/g carcass wet weight) did not differ among experimental treatments. The same was observed with regard to liver composition. Brain serotonin (5-HT) and its metabolite (5-HIAA) levels were increased in Mozart fish groups compared to all other treatments. However, serotonergic activity (as defined by the 5-HIAA: 5-HT ratio) for the Mozart groups was similar to control groups and was increased in Romanza and white noise fish groups. Brain dopaminergic activity (as defined by the DOPAC: DA ratio, i.e. dopamine metabolite to dopamine levels) was lower in Mozart compared to control fish groups. Differences were also observed as regards total carbohydrase and protease activity in several parts of the digestive tract. In conclusion, the results of the present data indicate that the musical stimuli transmitted were beneficial for the growth performance of rainbow trout. The fact that white noise treatment presented no major differences from control fish groups suggests that this specific stimulus was neither beneficially nor negatively perceived by rainbow trout, while it further supports the hypothesis that it is the musical stimuli per se that make all the difference. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A template framework for environmental timeseries data acquisition

Environmental timeseries data variety is exploding in the Internet of Things era, making data reuse a very demanding task. Data acquisition and integration remains a laborious step of the environmental data lifecycle. Environmental data heterogeneity is a persistent issue, as data are becoming available through different protocols and stored under diverse, custom formats. In this work, we deal with syntactic heterogeneity in environmental timeseries data. Our approach is based on describing different dataset syntaxes using abstract representations, called templates. We designed and implemented EDAM (Environmental Data Acquisition Module), a template framework that facilitates timeseries data acquisition and integration. EDAM templates are written using programming language-agnostic semantics, and can be reused both for input and output, thus enabling data reuse via transformations across different formats. We demonstrate EDAM generality in seven case studies, which involve scraping online data, extracting observations from a relational database, or aggregating historical timeseries stored in local files. Case studies span different environmental sciences domains, including meteorology, agriculture, urban air quality and hydrology. We also demonstrate EDAM for data dissemination, as instructed by output templates. We identified several syntactic interoperability challenges though the case studies, that include managing with differences in formatting observables, temporal and spatial references, and metadata documentation, and addressed them with EDAM. EDAM implementation has been released under an open-source license

Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) response to three music stimuli (Mozart-"Eine Kleine Nachtmusik," Anonymous-"Romanza," Bach-"Violin Concerto No. 1") and white noise under recirculating water conditions

This study presents the results of the response of Sparus aurata to three different musical stimuli, derived from the transmission (4 h per day, 5 days per week) of particular music pieces by Mozart, Romanza and Bach (140 dB(rms) re 1 mu Pa), compared to the same transmission level of white noise, while the underwater ambient noise in all the experimental tanks was 121 dB(rms) re 1 mu Pa. Using recirculating sea water facilities, 10 groups, 2 for each treatment, of 20 specimens of 11.2 +/- A 0.02 g (S.E.), were reared for 94 days, under 150 +/- A 10 lx 12L-12D, and were fed an artificial diet three times per day. Fish body weight showed significant differences after 55 days, while its maximum level was observed after the 69th day until the end of the experiment, the highest value demonstrated in Mozart (M) groups, followed by those of Romanza (R), Bach (B), control (C) and white noise (WN). SGR (M = B), %WG (M = B) and FCR (all groups fed same % b.w.) were also improved for M group. Brain neurotransmitters results exhibited significant differences in DA-dopamine, (M > B), 5HIAA (C > B), 5HIAA:5HT (WN > R), DOPAC (M > B), DOPAC:DA and (DOPAC + HVA):DA, (C > M), while no significant differences were observed in 5HT, NA, HVA and HVA:DA. No differences were observed in biometric measurements, protease activity, % fatty acids of fillet, visceral fat and liver, while differences were observed regarding carbohydrase activity and the amount (mg/g w.w.) of some fatty acids in liver, fillet and visceral fat. In conclusion, present results confirm those reported for S. aurata, concerning the observed relaxing influence-due to its brain neurotransmitters action-of the transmission of Mozart music (compared to R and B), which resulted in the achievement of maximum growth rate, body weight and improved FCR. This conclusion definitely supports the musical "understanding" and sensitivity of S. aurata to music stimuli as well as suggesting a specific effect of white noise

A case-study for improved reusability of plant phenotyping data with MIAPPE

Accompanying datasets for manuscript, "A case-study for improved reusability of plant phenotyping data with MIAPPE". The ZIP archives in this repository contain the source files and the output files that this manuscript refers to

Acute stress response of European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax under blue and white light

Recent data suggest that specific light wavelength can alleviate fish acute stress response by counteracting or reducing the stress-induced cortisol increase. The European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax, widely reared in the Mediterranean, is very sensitive to handling stress, so that typical rearing procedures during on-growing (e. g. grading) are avoided. The present study aimed at investigating whether exposure to blue (480 nm) or white light (BL or WL, respectively) could alleviate European sea bass acute stress response. Fish (initial weight 130.9 +/- 0.4 g) were reared (seawater recirculating system) for 63 days under BL or WL and then subjected to 1 hour confinement or left undisturbed (control). Confinement of fish under BL resulted in a higher cortisol increase, no dopaminergic activation and lower brain serotonergic activity than under WL. In contrast, WL confined fish showed a lower cortisol increase coupled with higher brain serotonergic activity and increased levels of brain dopamine. Stress-induced hematocrit increase was lower when fish were confined under BL and triacylglycerides increase was only observed for WL reared fish. Differences in some parameters between unstressed BL and WL fish suggest that light wavelength had an effect on fish physiological status irrespective of stress. Although present results are not conclusive on which fish groups were more or less stressed, they do confirm that light wavelength can differentiate European sea bass response to acute stressors. Further studies to elucidate biological mechanisms of light spectrum effects will reinforce its efficacy as a tool to manipulate intensively reared fish stress response. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

2000. Effects of background color on growth performance and physiological responses of scaled carp (Cyprinus carpio) reared in a closed circulated system Aquacultural Engineering

Abstract Growth performances and physiological responses of Cyprinus carpio after long-term (14 weeks) background color adaptation were investigated. Six groups of ten individuals each (initial body weight 116 g) were reared in black, green and white tanks (two replicate groups for each color). At the end of the experiment, blood (cortisol, glucose, haematocrit, cholesterol, triglycerides, total lipids, osmolality, electrolytes, pCO 2 , pH), liver (total lipids, glycogen, hepatosomatic index) and growth (body weight, specific growth rate, food conversion ratio, condition factor, proximate carcass composition) parameters were determined. Plasma cortisol levels in white-adapted carp were significantly (PB0.05) lower than those in black, while in green-adapted fish did not differ significantly from those in both other counterparts. White-adapted carp showed the highest specific growth rate and the lowest food conversion ratio, whereas black-adapted fish exhibited the opposite pattern. In addition, mean (%) increase of body weight in white-adapted carp was 4.66 and 3.58% higher than that in black-and green-adapted fish, respectively. Furthermore in white-adapted carp, blood pCO 2 and pH were significantly higher and lower, respectively, than those obtained in black-and green-adapted fish. In black-adapted carp, liver total lipid levels were significantly lower, and plasma total lipid levels were significantly higher, than those in white-and green-adapted fish. No significant variations were observed in the other parameters. It is concluded that different background colors may lead to different growth performances of scaled carp depending upon rearing conditions

Effects of rearing density on growth, brain neurotransmitters and liver fatty acid composition of juvenile white sea bream Diplodus sargus L.

White sea bream Diplodus sargus L. is a fish species that develops dominance hierarchies and aggressive behaviour against its conspecifics. On the other hand, stocking density is known to affect social interactions, while an appropriate density for D. sargus efficient farming remains to be elucidated. For this purpose, juvenile D. sargus (14.3 g) were reared in 88.4 L tanks, for 10 weeks, under six rearing densities (10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 fish tank -1). Water quality was not affected by rearing density. Best growth, in terms of final weight, specific growth rate, weight variation and food utilization, was achieved at 10 fish tank-1. At this treatment the lowest body water content, hepatosomatic and splenosomatic indices, higher body and liver lipid content were also observed. Brain neurotransmitter results indicated increased dopaminergic activity in populations held at higher rearing densities, while serotonergic activity was not affected. Moreover, no significant differences were detected for liver fatty acids. Results of the present study, compared with previously reported data, suggest that, within the range tested, the lowest realistic rearing density for juvenile white sea bream would be 10 fish tank-1. Higher rearing densities led to decreased growth, which seemed to be related to changes in intraspecific competition and social behaviour. © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd