Hydrogen Cyanide Safety Tips.

5 p

Pesticide Exposure…Protective Measures.

9 p

Bird Control in Perspective.

2 p

Hydrogen Cyanide Safety Tips.

5 p

Exposición a Pesticidas…Medidas Protectoras.

9 p

Neuronatin Promotes Neural Lineage in ESCs via Ca2+ Signaling

Neural induction is the first step in the formation of the vertebrate central nervous system. The emerging consensus of the mechanisms underling neural induction is the combined influences from inhibiting bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling and activating fibroblast growth factor (FGF)/Erk signaling, which act extrinsically via either autocrine or paracrine fashions. However, do intrinsic forces (cues) exist and do they play decisive roles in neural induction? These questions remain to be answered. Here, we have identified a novel neural initiator, neuronatin (Nnat), which acts as an intrinsic factor to promote neural fate in mammals and Xenopus. ESCs lacking this intrinsic factor fail to undergo neural induction despite the inhibition of the BMP pathway. We show that Nnat initiates neural induction in ESCs through increasing intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) by antagonizing Ca2+-ATPase isoform 2 (sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase isoform 2) in the endoplasmic reticulum, which in turn increases the phosphorylation of Erk1/2 and inhibits the BMP4 pathway and leads to neural induction in conjunction with FGF/Erk pathway. STEM CELLS 2010;28:1950–196

Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol and 2-AG decreases neurite outgrowth and differentially affects ERK1/2 and Akt signaling in hiPSC-derived cortical neurons

Endocannabinoids regulate different aspects of neurodevelopment. In utero exposure to the exogenous psychoactive cannabinoid Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), has been linked with abnormal cortical development in animal models. However, much less is known about the actions of endocannabinoids in human neurons. Here we investigated the effect of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2AG) and Δ9-THC on the development of neuronal morphology and activation of signaling kinases, in cortical neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Our data indicate that the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R), but not the cannabinoid 2 receptor (CB2R), GPR55 or TRPV1 receptors, is expressed in young, immature hiPSC-derived cortical neurons. Consistent with previous reports, 2AG and Δ9-THC negatively regulated neurite outgrowth. Interestingly, acute exposure to both 2AG and Δ9-THC inhibited phosphorylation of serine/threonine kinase extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases (ERK1/2), whereas Δ9-THC also reduced phosphorylation of Akt (aka PKB). Moreover, the CB1R inverse agonist SR 141716A attenuated the decrease in neurite outgrowth and ERK1/2 phosphorylation induced by 2AG and Δ9-THC. Taken together, our data suggest that hiPSC-derived cortical neurons express CB1Rs and are responsive to exogenous cannabinoids. Thus, hiPSC-neurons may represent a good cellular model for investigating the role of the endocannabinoid system in regulating cellular processes in developing human neurons

Using computer vision to identify limpets from their shells: a case study using four species from the Baja California peninsula

The shell morphology of limpets can be cryptic and highly variable, within and between species. Therefore, the visual identification of species can be troublesome even for experts. Here, we demonstrate the capability of computer vision models as a new method to assist with identifications. We investigate the ability of computers to distinguish between four species and two genera of limpets from the Baja California peninsula (Mexico) from digital images of shells from both dorsal and ventral orientations. Overall, the models performed marginally better (97.9%) than experts (97.5%) when predicting the same set of images and did so 240x faster. Moreover, we utilised a heatmap system to both verify that models are focussing on the specimens and to view which features on the specimens the models used to distinguish between species and genera. We then enlisted the expertise of limpet ecologists specialised in identification of species from the Baja peninsula to comment on whether the heatmaps are indeed focusing on specific morphological features per species/genus. They confirm that in their opinion, the majority of the heatmaps appear to be highlighting areas and features of morphological importance for distinguishing between groups. Our findings reveal that the cutting-edge technology of computer vision holds tremendous potential in enhancing species identification techniques used by taxonomists and ecologists. Not only does it provide a complementary approach to traditional methods, but it also opens new avenues for exploring the biology and ecology of limpets in greater detail

The emergence of gravity as a retro-causal post-inflation macro-quantum-coherent holographic vacuum Higgs-Goldstone field

We present a model for the origin of gravity, dark energy and dark matter: Dark energy and dark matter are residual pre-inflation false vacuum random zero point energy (w=-1) of large-scale negative, and short-scale positive pressure, respectively, corresponding to the "zero point" (incoherent) component of a superfluid (supersolid) ground state. Gravity, in contrast, arises from the 2nd order topological defects in the post-inflation virtual "condensate" (coherent) component. We predict, as a consequence, that the LHC will never detect exotic real on-mass-shell particles that can explain dark matter. We also point out that the future holographic dark energy de Sitter horizon is a total absorber (in the sense of retro-causal Wheeler-Feynman action-at-a-distance electrodynamics) because it is an infinite redshift surface for static detectors. Therefore, the advanced Hawking-Unruh thermal radiation from the future de Sitter horizon is a candidate for the negative pressure dark vacuum energy.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. To appear in Proc. DICE2008 From Quantum Mechanics through Complexity to Spacetime: the role of emergent dynamical structures. Castello Pasquini/Castiglioncello (Tuscany), September 22-26, 200

Entrepreneurial sons, patriarchy and the Colonels' experiment in Thessaly, rural Greece

Existing studies within the field of institutional entrepreneurship explore how entrepreneurs influence change in economic institutions. This paper turns the attention of scholarly inquiry on the antecedents of deinstitutionalization and more specifically, the influence of entrepreneurship in shaping social institutions such as patriarchy. The paper draws from the findings of ethnographic work in two Greek lowland village communities during the military Dictatorship (1967–1974). Paradoxically this era associated with the spread of mechanization, cheap credit, revaluation of labour and clear means-ends relations, signalled entrepreneurial sons’ individuated dissent and activism who were now able to question the Patriarch’s authority, recognize opportunities and act as unintentional agents of deinstitutionalization. A ‘different’ model of institutional change is presented here, where politics intersects with entrepreneurs, in changing social institutions. This model discusses the external drivers of institutional atrophy and how handling dissensus (and its varieties over historical time) is instrumental in enabling institutional entrepreneurship