Cold-water coral distributions in the Drake Passage area from towed camera observations – initial interpretations

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain. The definitive version was published in PLoS One 6 (2011): e16153, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016153.Seamounts are unique deep-sea features that create habitats thought to have high levels of endemic fauna, productive fisheries and benthic communities vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts. Many seamounts are isolated features, occurring in the high seas, where access is limited and thus biological data scarce. There are numerous seamounts within the Drake Passage (Southern Ocean), yet high winds, frequent storms and strong currents make seafloor sampling particularly difficult. As a result, few attempts to collect biological data have been made, leading to a paucity of information on benthic habitats or fauna in this area, particularly those on primarily hard-bottom seamounts and ridges. During a research cruise in 2008 six locations were examined (two on the Antarctic margin, one on the Shackleton Fracture Zone, and three on seamounts within the Drake Passage), using a towed camera with onboard instruments to measure conductivity, temperature, depth and turbidity. Dominant fauna and bottom type were categorized from 200 randomized photos from each location. Cold-water corals were present in high numbers in habitats both on the Antarctic margin and on the current swept seamounts of the Drake Passage, though the diversity of orders varied. Though the Scleractinia (hard corals) were abundant on the sedimented margin, they were poorly represented in the primarily hard-bottom areas of the central Drake Passage. The two seamount sites and the Shackleton Fracture Zone showed high numbers of stylasterid (lace) and alcyonacean (soft) corals, as well as large numbers of sponges. Though data are preliminary, the geological and environmental variability (particularly in temperature) between sample sites may be influencing cold-water coral biogeography in this region. Each area observed also showed little similarity in faunal diversity with other sites examined for this study within all phyla counted. This manuscript highlights how little is understood of these isolated features, particularly in Polar regions.This work was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Earth Sciences Program (ANT0636787 awarded to LFR and RGW) and a CenSeam minigrant (awarded to RGW), and RGW is supported by a SOEST Young Investigator Fellowship from the University of Hawaii at Manoa

TLR7-mediated skin inflammation remotely triggers chemokine expression and leukocyte accumulation in the brain

Background: The relationship between the brain and the immune system has become increasingly topical as, although it is immune-specialised, the CNS is not free from the influences of the immune system. Recent data indicate that peripheral immune stimulation can significantly affect the CNS. But the mechanisms underpinning this relationship remain unclear. The standard approach to understanding this relationship has relied on systemic immune activation using bacterial components, finding that immune mediators, such as cytokines, can have a significant effect on brain function and behaviour. More rarely have studies used disease models that are representative of human disorders. Methods: Here we use a well-characterised animal model of psoriasis-like skin inflammation—imiquimod—to investigate the effects of tissue-specific peripheral inflammation on the brain. We used full genome array, flow cytometry analysis of immune cell infiltration, doublecortin staining for neural precursor cells and a behavioural read-out exploiting natural burrowing behaviour. Results: We found that a number of genes are upregulated in the brain following treatment, amongst which is a subset of inflammatory chemokines (CCL3, CCL5, CCL9, CXCL10, CXCL13, CXCL16 and CCR5). Strikingly, this model induced the infiltration of a number of immune cell subsets into the brain parenchyma, including T cells, NK cells and myeloid cells, along with a reduction in neurogenesis and a suppression of burrowing activity. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that cutaneous, peripheral immune stimulation is associated with significant leukocyte infiltration into the brain and suggest that chemokines may be amongst the key mediators driving this response

Prime movers : mechanochemistry of mitotic kinesins

Mitotic spindles are self-organizing protein machines that harness teams of multiple force generators to drive chromosome segregation. Kinesins are key members of these force-generating teams. Different kinesins walk directionally along dynamic microtubules, anchor, crosslink, align and sort microtubules into polarized bundles, and influence microtubule dynamics by interacting with microtubule tips. The mechanochemical mechanisms of these kinesins are specialized to enable each type to make a specific contribution to spindle self-organization and chromosome segregation

Lessons from an international trial evaluating vaccination strategies for recovered inpatients with COVID-19 (VATICO)

The protection provided by natural versus hybrid immunity from COVID-19 is unclear. We reflect on the challenges from trying to conduct a randomized post-SARS-CoV-2 infection vaccination trial study with rapidly evolving scientific data, vaccination guidelines, varying international policies, difficulties with vaccine availability, vaccine hesitancy, and a constantly evolving virus

Infrared Variability of Two Dusty White Dwarfs

The most heavily polluted white dwarfs often show excess infrared radiation from circumstellar dust disks, which are modeled as a result of tidal disruption of extrasolar minor planets. Interaction of dust, gas, and disintegrating objects can all contribute to the dynamical evolution of these dust disks. Here, we report two infrared variable dusty white dwarfs, SDSS J1228+1040 and G29-38. For SDSS J1228+1040, compared to the first measurements in 2007, the IRAC [3.6] and [4.5] fluxes decreased by 20% before 2014 to a level also seen in the recent 2018 observations. For G29-38, the infrared flux of the 10 μm silicate emission feature became 10% stronger between 2004 and 2007, We explore several scenarios that could account for these changes, including tidal disruption events, perturbation from a companion, and runaway accretion. No satisfactory causes are found for the flux drop in SDSS J1228+1040 due to the limited time coverage. Continuous tidal disruption of small planetesimals could increase the mass of small grains and concurrently change the strength of the 10 μm feature of G29-38. Dust disks around white dwarfs are actively evolving and we speculate that there could be different mechanisms responsible for the temporal changes of these disks

TranscriptomeBrowser: A Powerful and Flexible Toolbox to Explore Productively the Transcriptional Landscape of the Gene Expression Omnibus Database

International audienceAs public microarray repositories are constantly growing, we are facing the challenge of designing strategies to provide productive access to the available data.\ We used a modified version of the Markov clustering algorithm to systematically extract clusters of co-regulated genes from hundreds of microarray datasets stored in the Gene Expression Omnibus database (n = 1,484). This approach led to the definition of 18,250 transcriptional signatures (TS) that were tested for functional enrichment using the DAVID knowledgebase. Over-representation of functional terms was found in a large proportion of these TS (84%). We developed a JAVA application, TBrowser that comes with an open plug-in architecture and whose interface implements a highly sophisticated search engine supporting several Boolean operators (http://tagc.univ-mrs.fr/tbrowser/). User can search and analyze TS containing a list of identifiers (gene symbols or AffyIDs) or associated with a set of functional terms.\ As proof of principle, TBrowser was used to define breast cancer cell specific genes and to detect chromosomal abnormalities in tumors. Finally, taking advantage of our large collection of transcriptional signatures, we constructed a comprehensive map that summarizes gene-gene co-regulations observed through all the experiments performed on HGU133A Affymetrix platform. We provide evidences that this map can extend our knowledge of cellular signaling pathways

Comparing Models for Early Warning Systems of Neglected Tropical Diseases

Early Warning Systems (EWS) are management tools to predict the occurrence of epidemics. They are based on the dependence of a given infectious disease on environmental variables. Although several neglected tropical diseases are sensitive to the effect of climate, our ability to predict their dynamics has been barely studied. In this paper, we use several models to determine if the relationship between cases and climatic variability is robust—that is, not simply an artifact of model choice. We propose that EWS should be based on results from several models that are to be compared in terms of their ability to predict future number of cases. We use a specific metric for this comparison known as the predictive R2, which measures the accuracy of the predictions. For example, an R2 of 1 indicates perfect accuracy for predictions that perfectly match observed cases. For cutaneous leishmaniasis, R2 values range from 72% to77%, well above predictions using mean seasonal values (64%). We emphasize that predictability should be evaluated with observations that have not been used to fit the model. Finally, we argue that EWS should incorporate climatic variables that are known to have a consistent relationship with the number of observed cases

The catatonic dilemma expanded

Catatonia is a common syndrome that was first described in the literature by Karl Kahlbaum in 1874. The literature is still developing and remains unclear on many issues, especially classification, diagnosis, and pathophysiology. Clinicians caring for psychiatric patients with catatonic syndromes continue to face many dilemmas in diagnosis and treatment. We discuss many of the common problems encountered in the care of a catatonic patient, and discuss each problem with a review of the literature. Focus is on practical aspects of classification, epidemiology, differential diagnosis, treatment, medical comorbidity, cognition, emotion, prognosis, and areas for future research in catatonic syndromes

Measurement of the Dipion Mass Spectrum in X(3872) -> J/Psi Pi+ Pi- Decays

We measure the dipion mass spectrum in X(3872)--> J/Psi Pi+ Pi- decays using 360 pb-1 of pbar-p collisions at 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector. The spectrum is fit with predictions for odd C-parity (3S1, 1P1, and 3DJ) charmonia decaying to J/Psi Pi+ Pi-, as well as even C-parity states in which the pions are from Rho0 decay. The latter case also encompasses exotic interpretations, such as a D0-D*0Bar molecule. Only the 3S1 and J/Psi Rho hypotheses are compatible with our data. Since 3S1 is untenable on other grounds, decay via J/Psi Rho is favored, which implies C=+1 for the X(3872). Models for different J/Psi-Rho angular momenta L are considered. Flexibility in the models, especially the introduction of Rho-Omega interference, enable good descriptions of our data for both L=0 and 1.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures -- Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Precision measurement of the top quark mass from dilepton events at CDF II

We report a measurement of the top quark mass, M_t, in the dilepton decay channel of $t\bar{t}\to b\ell'^{+}\nu_{\ell'}\bar{b}\ell^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ using an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb^{-1} of p\bar{p} collisions collected with the CDF II detector. We apply a method that convolutes a leading-order matrix element with detector resolution functions to form event-by-event likelihoods; we have enhanced the leading-order description to describe the effects of initial-state radiation. The joint likelihood is the product of the likelihoods from 78 candidate events in this sample, which yields a measurement of M_{t} = 164.5 \pm 3.9(\textrm{stat.}) \pm 3.9(\textrm{syst.}) \mathrm{GeV}/c^2, the most precise measurement of M_t in the dilepton channel.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, version includes changes made prior to publication by journa