High-grade metamorphic rocks from Skallevikshalsen in the Lutzow-Holm Complex, East Antarctica: metamorphic conditions and possibility of partial melting

The high-grade metamorphic rocks of Skallevikshalsen, Lutzow-Holm Complex, East Antarctica predominantly comprise garnet-sillimanite gneiss, garnet-spinel-sillimanite gneiss, garnet-biotite gneiss and garnet-two pyroxene-mafic granulite. The metamorphic conditions were estimated using various geothermometers and geobarometers for garnet-biotite gneiss and mafic gneiss. The results were 770-940℃and 0.65-1.2 GPa for garnet-biotite gneiss and 780-960℃ and 0.6-1.1 GPa for mafic gneiss. Garnet-biotite gneiss is widespread in this area and displays a well-developed migmatitic structure. Garnet porphyroblasts in the leucosome and the boundaries between leucosome and melanosome in garnet-biotite gneiss commonly have a poikiloblastic texture with euhedral feldspar and quartz inclusions. High Y concentrations in garnet cores, high An values for plagioclase inclusions, and high Ba contents in K-feldspar from garnet-biotite gneiss are inferred to reflect growth in the presence of partial melt. Garnet in garnet-sillimanite gneiss also has high Y and P contents and chemical zoning that implies changes in trace element distribution coefficients. It is suggested that hydrous melt in garnet-sillimanite gneiss was generated during prograde metamorphism while anhydrous restite underwent continuous high-temperature metamorphism. Garnet-sillimanite gneiss is likely to be the restitic product of partial melting and shows evidence for melt segregation and movement

Core-Collapse Very Massive Stars: Evolution, Explosion, and Nucleosynthesis of Population III 500 -- 1000 M⊙M_{\odot} Stars

We calculate evolution, collapse, explosion, and nucleosynthesis of Population III very-massive stars with 500$M_{\odot}$ and 1000$M_{\odot}$. Presupernova evolution is calculated in spherical symmetry. Collapse and explosion are calculated by a two-dimensional code, based on the bipolar jet models. We compare the results of nucleosynthesis with the abundance patterns of intracluster matter, hot gases in M82, and extremely metal-poor stars in the Galactic halo. It was found that both 500$M_{\odot}$ and 1000$M_{\odot}$ models enter the region of pair-instability but continue to undergo core collapse. In the presupernova stage, silicon burning regions occupy a large fraction, more than 20% of the total mass. For moderately aspherical explosions, the patterns of nucleosynthesis match the observational data of both intracluster medium and M82. Our results suggest that explosions of Population III core-collapse very-massive stars contribute significantly to the chemical evolution of gases in clusters of galaxies. For Galactic halo stars, our [O/Fe] ratios are smaller than the observational abundances. However, our proposed scenario is naturally consistent with this outcome. The final black hole masses are $\sim 230M_{\odot}$ and $\sim 500M_{\odot}$ for the $500M_{\odot}$ and 1000$M_{\odot}$ models, respectively. This result may support the view that Population III very massive stars are responsible for the origin of intermediate mass black holes which were recently reported to be discovered.Comment: 49 pages, 49 figure files, accepted to ApJ (2006, 645, 2

Growth and structure analysis of tungsten oxide nanorods using environmental TEM

WO3 nanorods targeted for applications in electric devices were grown from a tungsten wire heated in an oxygen atmosphere inside an environmental transmission electron microscope, which allowed the growth process to be observed to reveal the growth mechanism of the WO3 nanorods. The initial growth of the nanorods did not consist of tungsten oxide but rather crystal tungsten. The formed crystal tungsten nanorods were then oxidized, resulting in the formation of the tungsten oxide nanorods. Furthermore, it is expected that the nanorods grew through cracks in the natural surface oxide layer on the tungsten wire

Species and population specific gene expression in blood transcriptomes of marine turtles

Background: Transcriptomic data has demonstrated utility to advance the study of physiological diversity and organisms’ responses to environmental stressors. However, a lack of genomic resources and challenges associated with collecting high-quality RNA can limit its application for many wild populations. Minimally invasive blood sampling combined with de novo transcriptomic approaches has great potential to alleviate these barriers. Here, we advance these goals for marine turtles by generating high quality de novo blood transcriptome assemblies to characterize functional diversity and compare global transcriptional profiles between tissues, species, and foraging aggregations. Results: We generated high quality blood transcriptome assemblies for hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), loggerhead (Caretta caretta), green (Chelonia mydas), and leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) turtles. The functional diversity in assembled blood transcriptomes was comparable to those from more traditionally sampled tissues. A total of 31.3% of orthogroups identified were present in all four species, representing a core set of conserved genes expressed in blood and shared across marine turtle species. We observed strong species-specific expression of these genes, as well as distinct transcriptomic profiles between green turtle foraging aggregations that inhabit areas of greater or lesser anthropogenic disturbance. Conclusions: Obtaining global gene expression data through non-lethal, minimally invasive sampling can greatly expand the applications of RNA-sequencing in protected long-lived species such as marine turtles. The distinct differences in gene expression signatures between species and foraging aggregations provide insight into the functional genomics underlying the diversity in this ancient vertebrate lineage. The transcriptomic resources generated here can be used in further studies examining the evolutionary ecology and anthropogenic impacts on marine turtles

Changes in chromatin structure during processing of wax-embedded tissue sections

The use of immunofluorescence (IF) and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) underpins much of our understanding of how chromatin is organised in the nucleus. However, there has only recently been an appreciation that these types of study need to move away from cells grown in culture and towards an investigation of nuclear organisation in cells in situ in their normal tissue architecture. Such analyses, however, especially of archival clinical samples, often requires use of formalin-fixed paraffin wax-embedded tissue sections which need addition steps of processing prior to IF or FISH. Here we quantify the changes in nuclear and chromatin structure that may be caused by these additional processing steps. Treatments, especially the microwaving to reverse fixation, do significantly alter nuclear architecture and chromatin texture, and these must be considered when inferring the original organisation of the nucleus from data collected from wax-embedded tissue sections

Analytical validation of a standardised scoring protocol for Ki67 immunohistochemistry on breast cancer excision whole sections: an international multicentre collaboration

Aims The nuclear proliferation marker Ki67 assayed by immunohistochemistry has multiple potential uses in breast cancer, but an unacceptable level of interlaboratory variability has hampered its clinical utility. The International Ki67 in Breast Cancer Working Group has undertaken a systematic programme to determine whether Ki67 measurement can be analytically validated and standardised among laboratories. This study addresses whether acceptable scoring reproducibility can be achieved on excision whole sections. Methods and results Adjacent sections from 30 primary ER+ breast cancers were centrally stained for Ki67 and sections were circulated among 23 pathologists in 12 countries. All pathologists scored Ki67 by two methods: (i) global: four fields of 100 tumour cells each were selected to reflect observed heterogeneity in nuclear staining; (ii) hot-spot: the field with highest apparent Ki67 index was selected and up to 500 cells scored. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for the global method [confidence interval (CI) = 0.87; 95% CI = 0.799-0.93] marginally met the prespecified success criterion (lower 95% CI >= 0.8), while the ICC for the hot-spot method (0.83; 95% CI = 0.74-0.90) did not. Visually, interobserver concordance in location of selected hot-spots varies between cases. The median times for scoring were 9 and 6 min for global and hot-spot methods, respectively. Conclusions The global scoring method demonstrates adequate reproducibility to warrant next steps towards evaluation for technical and clinical validity in appropriate cohorts of cases. The time taken for scoring by either method is practical using counting software we are making publicly available. Establishment of external quality assessment schemes is likely to improve the reproducibility between laboratories further

Novel, Objective, Multivariate Biomarkers Composed of Plasma Amino Acid Profiles for the Diagnosis and Assessment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic intestinal disorder that is associated with a limited number of clinical biomarkers. In order to facilitate the diagnosis of IBD and assess its disease activity, we investigated the potential of novel multivariate indexes using statistical modeling of plasma amino acid concentrations (aminogram). METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We measured fasting plasma aminograms in 387 IBD patients (Crohn's disease (CD), n = 165; ulcerative colitis (UC), n = 222) and 210 healthy controls. Based on Fisher linear classifiers, multivariate indexes were developed from the aminogram in discovery samples (CD, n = 102; UC, n = 102; age and sex-matched healthy controls, n = 102) and internally validated. The indexes were used to discriminate between CD or UC patients and healthy controls, as well as between patients with active disease and those in remission. We assessed index performances using the area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC AUC). We observed significant alterations to the plasma aminogram, including histidine and tryptophan. The multivariate indexes established from plasma aminograms were able to distinguish CD or UC patients from healthy controls with ROC AUCs of 0.940 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.898-0.983) and 0.894 (95%CI: 0.853-0.935), respectively in validation samples (CD, n = 63; UC, n = 120; healthy controls, n = 108). In addition, other indexes appeared to be a measure of disease activity. These indexes distinguished active CD or UC patients from each remission patients with ROC AUCs of 0.894 (95%CI: 0.853-0.935) and 0.849 (95%CI: 0.770-0.928), and correlated with clinical disease activity indexes for CD (r(s) = 0.592, 95%CI: 0.385-0.742, p<0.001) or UC (r(s) = 0.598, 95%CI: 0.452-0.713, p<0.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: In this study, we demonstrated that established multivariate indexes composed of plasma amino acid profiles can serve as novel, non-invasive, objective biomarkers for the diagnosis and monitoring of IBD, providing us with new insights into the pathophysiology of the disease

PolyADP-Ribosylation Is Required for Pronuclear Fusion during Postfertilization in Mice

BACKGROUND: During fertilization, pronuclear envelope breakdown (PNEB) is followed by the mingling of male and female genomes. Dynamic chromatin and protein rearrangements require posttranslational modification (PTM) for the postfertilization development. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Inhibition of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activity (PARylation) by either PJ-34 or 5-AIQ resulted in developmental arrest of fertilized embryos at the PNEB. PARylation inhibition affects spindle bundle formation and phosphorylation of Erk molecules of metaphase II (MII) unfertilized oocytes. We found a frequent appearance of multiple pronuclei (PN) in the PARylation-inhibited embryos, suggesting defective polymerization of tubulins. Attenuated phosphorylation of lamin A/C by PARylation was detected in the PARylation-inhibited embryos at PNEB. This was associated with sustained localization of heterodomain protein 1 (HP1) at the PN of the one-cell embryos arrested by PARylation inhibition. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings indicate that PARylation is required for pronuclear fusion during postfertilization processes. These data further suggest that PARylation regulates protein dynamics essential for the beginning of mouse zygotic development. PARylation and its involving signal-pathways may represent potential targets as contraceptives

Stable Isotope Tracking of Endangered Sea Turtles: Validation with Satellite Telemetry and δ15N Analysis of Amino Acids

Effective conservation strategies for highly migratory species must incorporate information about long-distance movements and locations of high-use foraging areas. However, the inherent challenges of directly monitoring these factors call for creative research approaches and innovative application of existing tools. Highly migratory marine species, such as marine turtles, regularly travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers between breeding and feeding areas, but identification of migratory routes and habitat use patterns remains elusive. Here we use satellite telemetry in combination with compound-specific isotope analysis of amino acids to confirm that insights from bulk tissue stable isotope analysis can reveal divergent migratory strategies and within-population segregation of foraging groups of critically endangered leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) across the Pacific Ocean. Among the 78 turtles studied, we found a distinct dichotomy in δ15N values of bulk skin, with distinct “low δ15N” and “high δ15N” groups. δ15N analysis of amino acids confirmed that this disparity resulted from isotopic differences at the base of the food chain and not from differences in trophic position between the two groups. Satellite tracking of 13 individuals indicated that their bulk skin δ15N value was linked to the particular foraging region of each turtle. These findings confirm that prevailing marine isoscapes of foraging areas can be reflected in the isotopic compositions of marine turtle body tissues sampled at nesting beaches. We use a Bayesian mixture model to show that between 82 and 100% of the 78 skin-sampled turtles could be assigned with confidence to either the eastern Pacific or western Pacific, with 33 to 66% of all turtles foraging in the eastern Pacific. Our forensic approach validates the use of stable isotopes to depict leatherback turtle movements over broad spatial ranges and is timely for establishing wise conservation efforts in light of this species’ imminent risk of extinction in the Pacific