The relative timing of trunk muscle activation is retained in response to unanticipated postural-perturbations during acute low back pain

The purpose of this study was to assess the activation of the erector spinae (ES) and external oblique (EO) in response to unanticipated, bi-directional postural perturbations before and after the induction of acute low back pain (LBP) in healthy individuals. An experimental session consisted of a baseline, control, and an acute LBP condition. For the control and acute LBP condition, isotonic or hypertonic saline (HS), respectively, was injected into the right ES muscle. In each condition, participants stood on a moveable platform during which 32 randomized postural perturbations (8 repetitions of 4 perturbation types: 8 cm anterior slides, 8 cm posterior slides, 10° anterior tilts, and 10° posterior tilts) with varying inter-perturbation time intervals were performed over a period of 4–5 min. Bilateral surface electromyography (EMG) was recorded from the ES and EO in addition to subjective pain records. During the acute LBP condition: (1) the onset time of the ES and EO was delayed for the forward and backward sliding perturbations (P < 0.05); (2) EMG amplitude was reduced bilaterally for all perturbations (P < 0.05); (3) the order of activation and interval between the onset times of the ES and EO were unaltered and (4) ES, but not EO, activity was adjusted to account for the directional differences between the perturbations. This study revealed that re-establishment of posture and balance was a result of the individuals’ ability to rapidly modulate ES with respect to EO activity and that the bi-directional postural responses, although shifted in time and amplitude, retained temporal features in the presence of acute LBP

Infants’ emotional and social experiences during and after the transition to early childhood education and care

The socio-emotional experiences of infants during transitions to early childhood education and care (ECEC) and across their first year in these out-of-home contexts are not well known. In an international project across five countries (New Zealand, Finland, Australia, Scotland and the United States), observational data, video of key moments, plus re-probing interviews with parents and teachers concerning 10 infants (six females) aged 5–13 months were collected across the first year of ECEC. An embedded case study design was used to analyse infant experiences from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Findings indicated low positive affect on infants’ first day of ECEC that increased after the first week and throughout the first year of ECEC. Drop-off periods remained a time of negative emotionality for the first month of ECEC. Over time more positive emotional experiences were evident, with peer interactions fostering positive affect, activeness and involvement, while one-on-one interactions with teachers were an important context for interpersonal engagement and well-being. These findings shed light on the highly charged emotional experience for infants when they transition to institutional care, and how these might be ameliorated in practice.peerReviewe

MenT nucleotidyltransferase toxins extend tRNA acceptor stems and can be inhibited by asymmetrical antitoxin binding

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for human tuberculosis, has a genome encoding a remarkably high number of toxin-antitoxin systems of largely unknown function. We have recently shown that the M. tuberculosis genome encodes four of a widespread, MenAT family of nucleotidyltransferase toxin-antitoxin systems. In this study we characterize MenAT1, using tRNA sequencing to demonstrate MenT1 tRNA modification activity. MenT1 activity is blocked by MenA1, a short protein antitoxin unrelated to the MenA3 kinase. X-ray crystallographic analysis shows blockage of the conserved MenT fold by asymmetric binding of MenA1 across two MenT1 protomers, forming a heterotrimeric toxin-antitoxin complex. Finally, we also demonstrate tRNA modification by toxin MenT4, indicating conserved activity across the MenT family. Our study highlights variation in tRNA target preferences by MenT toxins, selective use of nucleotide substrates, and diverse modes of MenA antitoxin activity

Damaging Cardiac and Cancer Genetic Variants in the LVAD Population

Background: Next generation sequencing technology, coupled with population genetic databases, have made broad genetic evaluation relatively inexpensive and widely available. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of potentially damaging cancer and cardiac gene variants in advanced non-ischemic cardiomyopathy patients. Methods: Explanted human heart tissue procured at LVAD placement was obtained from the University of Nebraska Medical Center Heart Tissue Bank. Genomic DNA was isolated from tissues and amplified by PCR using targeted ampliseq primer pools from an inherited disease panel. Individual libraries were amplified by emulsion PCR on Ion Sphere particles and sequencing was performed on a PGM sequencer (Ion torrent) using the Ion 316 chip. The Ion Torrent browser suite was used to map the reads and call the variants. The identified single nucleotide polymorphisms, insertions, and deletions were then annotated and characterized with ANNOVAR. Non-synonymous mutations with a population frequency of less than or equal to 1% were identified and analyzed utilizing an open source integrative genomics viewer. Amino acid substitution effects on protein function were determined by a bioinformatics algorithm. Myocardial recovery was defined as an improvement in EF to greater than 45% at three months post implant. Results: Our sample population included 12 males and 2 females with an average age of 49 and an average EF at presentation of 17%. Damaging cardiac gene variants were present in 11/14 patients. Only 1 of the 11 patients with damaging cardiac gene variants improved their ejection fraction to greater than 45% post LVAD. Two of the 2 patients without mutations improved their ejection fraction to greater than 45%, p-value=.04. Nine of the 14 patients in this population had damaging oncogene mutations. Conclusions: Damaging variants in cancer and cardiac genes are common in end-stage non-ischemic cardiomyopathy patients undergoing LVAD placement. Genetic variation likely contributes to disease progression and cancer risk

Sub-barrier capture with quantum diffusion approach: actinide-based reactions

With the quantum diffusion approach the behavior of capture cross sections and mean-square angular momenta of captured systems are revealed in the reactions with deformed nuclei at subbarrier energies. The calculated results are in a good agreement with existing experimental data. With decreasing bombarding energy under the barrier the external turning point of the nucleusnucleus potential leaves the region of short-range nuclear interaction and action of friction. Because of this change of the regime of interaction, an unexpected enhancement of the capture cross section is expected at bombarding energies far below the Coulomb barrier. This effect is shown its worth in the dependence of mean-square angular momentum of captured system on the bombarding energy. From the comparison of calculated and experimental capture cross sections, the importance of quasifission near the entrance channel is shown for the actinide-based reactions leading to superheavy nuclei.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures, Regular Articl

Genomic analysis of Acidianus hospitalis W1 a host for studying crenarchaeal virus and plasmid life cycles

The Acidianus hospitalis W1 genome consists of a minimally sized chromosome of about 2.13 Mb and a conjugative plasmid pAH1 and it is a host for the model filamentous lipothrixvirus AFV1. The chromosome carries three putative replication origins in conserved genomic regions and two large regions where non-essential genes are clustered. Within these variable regions, a few orphan orfB and other elements of the IS200/607/605 family are concentrated with a novel class of MITE-like repeat elements. There are also 26 highly diverse vapBC antitoxin–toxin gene pairs proposed to facilitate maintenance of local chromosomal regions and to minimise the impact of environmental stress. Complex and partially defective CRISPR/Cas/Cmr immune systems are present and interspersed with five vapBC gene pairs. Remnants of integrated viral genomes and plasmids are located at five intron-less tRNA genes and several non-coding RNA genes are predicted that are conserved in other Sulfolobus genomes. The putative metabolic pathways for sulphur metabolism show some significant differences from those proposed for other Acidianus and Sulfolobus species. The small and relatively stable genome of A. hospitalis W1 renders it a promising candidate for developing the first Acidianus genetic systems

“Hot standards” for the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus

Within the archaea, the thermoacidophilic crenarchaeote Sulfolobus solfataricus has become an important model organism for physiology and biochemistry, comparative and functional genomics, as well as, more recently also for systems biology approaches. Within the Sulfolobus Systems Biology (“SulfoSYS”)-project the effect of changing growth temperatures on a metabolic network is investigated at the systems level by integrating genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic and enzymatic information for production of a silicon cell-model. The network under investigation is the central carbohydrate metabolism. The generation of high-quality quantitative data, which is critical for the investigation of biological systems and the successful integration of the different datasets, derived for example from high-throughput approaches (e.g., transcriptome or proteome analyses), requires the application and compliance of uniform standard protocols, e.g., for growth and handling of the organism as well as the “–omics” approaches. Here, we report on the establishment and implementation of standard operating procedures for the different wet-lab and in silico techniques that are applied within the SulfoSYS-project and that we believe can be useful for future projects on Sulfolobus or (hyper)thermophiles in general. Beside established techniques, it includes new methodologies like strain surveillance, the improved identification of membrane proteins and the application of crenarchaeal metabolomics

Experimental Microbial Evolution of Extremophiles

Experimental microbial evolutions (EME) involves studying closely a microbial population after it has been through a large number of generations under controlled conditions (Kussell 2013). Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) selects for fitness under experimentally imposed conditions (Bennett and Hughes 2009; Dragosits and Mattanovich 2013). However, experimental evolution studies focusing on the contributions of genetic drift and natural mutation rates to evolution are conducted under non-selective conditions to avoid changes imposed by selection (Hindré et al. 2012). To understand the application of experimental evolutionary methods to extremophiles it is essential to consider the recent growth in this field over the last decade using model non-extremophilic microorganisms. This growth reflects both a greater appreciation of the power of experimental evolution for testing evolutionary hypotheses and, especially recently, the new power of genomic methods for analyzing changes in experimentally evolved lineages. Since many crucial processes are driven by microorganisms in nature, it is essential to understand and appreciate how microbial communities function, particularly with relevance to selection. However, many theories developed to understand microbial ecological patterns focus on the distribution and the structure of diversity within a microbial population comprised of single species (Prosser et al. 2007). Therefore an understanding of the concept of species is needed. A common definition of species using a genetic concept is a group of interbreeding individuals that is isolated from other such groups by barriers of recombination (Prosser et al. 2007). An alternative ecological species concept defines a species as set of individuals that can be considered identical in all relevant ecological traits (Cohan 2001). This is particularly important because of the abundance and deep phylogenetic complexity of microbial communities. Cohan postulated that “bacteria occupy discrete niches and that periodic selection will purge genetic variation within each niche without preventing divergence between the inhabitants of different niches”. The importance of gene exchange mechanisms likely in bacteria and archaea and therefore extremophiles, arises from the fact that their genomes are divided into two distinct parts, the core genome and the accessory genome (Cohan 2001). The core genome consists of genes that are crucial for the functioning of an organism and the accessory genome consists of genes that are capable of adapting to the changing ecosystem through gain and loss of function. Strains that belong to the same species can differ in the composition of accessory genes and therefore their capability to adapt to changing ecosystems (Cohan 2001; Tettelin et al. 2005; Gill et al. 2005). Additional ecological diversity exists in plasmids, transposons and pathogenicity islands as they can be easily shared in a favorable environment but still be absent in the same species found elsewhere (Wertz et al. 2003). This poses a major challenge for studying ALE and community microbial ecology indicating a continued need to develop a fitting theory that connects the fluid nature of microbial communities to their ecology (Wertz et al. 2003; Coleman et al. 2006). Understanding the nature and contribution of different processes that determine the frequencies of genes in any population is the biggest concern in population and evolutionary genetics (Prosser et al. 2007) and it is critical for an understanding of experimental evolution