A positive relationship between the abundance of ammonia oxidizing archaea and natural abundance δ15N of ecosystems

We present a significant relationship between the natural abundance isotopic composition of ecosystem pools and the abundance of a microbial gene. Natural abundance 15N of soils and soil DNA were analysed and compared with archaeal ammonia oxidizer abundance along an elevation gradient in northern Arizona and along a substrate age gradient in Hawai'i. There was a significant positive correlation between the abundance of archaeal amoA genes and natural abundance δ15N of total soil or DNA suggesting that ammonia oxidizing archaea play an important role in ecosystem N release. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Backbone and side chain NMR assignments for the intrinsically disordered cytoplasmic domain of human neuroligin-3

Neuroligins act as heterophilic adhesion molecules at neuronal synapses. Their cytoplasmic domains interact with synaptic scaffolding proteins, and have been shown to be intrinsically disordered. Here we report the backbone and side chain 1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments for the cytoplasmic domain of human neuroligin 3

First Impressions of HIV Risk: It Takes Only Milliseconds to Scan a Stranger

Research indicates that many people do not use condoms consistently but instead rely on intuition to identify sexual partners high at risk for HIV infection. The present studies examined neural correlates for first impressions of HIV risk and determined the association of perceived HIV risk with other trait characteristics. Participants were presented with 120 self-portraits retrieved from a popular online photo-sharing community (www.flickr.com). Factor analysis of various explicit ratings of trait characteristics yielded two orthogonal factors: (1) a ‘valence-approach’ factor encompassing perceived attractiveness, healthiness, valence, and approach tendencies, and (2) a ‘safeness’ factor, entailing judgments of HIV risk, trustworthiness, and responsibility. These findings suggest that HIV risk ratings systematically relate to cardinal features of a high-risk HIV stereotype. Furthermore, event-related brain potential recordings revealed neural correlates of first impressions about HIV risk. Target persons perceived as risky elicited a differential brain response in a time window from 220–340 ms and an increased late positive potential in a time window from 350–700 ms compared to those perceived as safe. These data suggest that impressions about HIV risk can be formed in a split second and despite a lack of information about the actual risk profile. Findings of neural correlates of risk impressions and their relationship to key features of the HIV risk stereotype are discussed in the context of the ‘risk as feelings’ theory

Capabilities and quality of life in Dutch psycho-geriatric nursing homes: an exploratory study using a proxy version of the ICECAP-O

Contains fulltext : 110478.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)PURPOSE: To validate the ICECAP-O capability measure in psycho-geriatric elderly in nursing homes, we compared the capability scores of restrained and unrestrained clients. Both nursing staff and family were used as proxies for assessing clients' capabilities. METHOD: For 122 psycho-geriatric elderly, a total of 96 nursing professionals and 68 family members completed a proxy questionnaire. We investigated the convergent and discriminant validity of the ICECAP-O and measures of care dependency, health-related quality of life, and overall quality of life. We also directly compared ICECAP-O scores of the 56 clients for whom both nursing staff and family members had completed the questionnaire. RESULTS: Convergent validity between ICECAP-O and care dependency, health-related, and overall quality of life measures could be established, as well as discriminant validity for the restrained and unrestrained groups. Nursing and family proxy ICECAP-O tariffs were not significantly correlated. DISCUSSION: ICECAP-O measures a more general concept than health-related quality of life and can differentiate between restrained and non-restrained psycho-geriatric clients. Since nurses seem to be able to assess the current quality of life of clients using the ICECAP-O more precisely than the family proxies, for now the use of nursing proxies is recommended in a nursing home setting

Immunohistochemical, morphological and ultrastructural resemblance between dendritic cells and folliculo-stellate cells in normal human and rat anterior pituitaries

Immunolabeling of cryo-sections of human anterior pituitaries obtained at autopsy, and of cryo-sections of freshly prepared rat anterior pituitaries, with a panel of monoclonal antibodies against markers of the monocyte/dendritic cell/macrophage lineage, reveals in both species a characteristic pattern of immunopositive cells, among which many cells with dendritic phenotype are found. Cells characterized by marker expression of MHC-class II determinants and a dendritic morphology are present in both human and rat anterior pituitary. Markers characteristic of dendritic cells such as the L25 antigen and the OX62 antigen were present in anterior pituitaries from human and rat respectively. The population of MHC-class II expressing dendritic cells of the rat anterior pituitary is compared at the ultrastructural level with the folliculo-stellate cell population, which cell type has been previously characterized by its distinctive ultrastructure and immunopositivity for the S100 protein. Using immune-electron microscopy of rat anterior pituitaries fixed with periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde, we were able to distinguish non-granulated cells expressing MHC-class II determinants, whereas no MHC-class II expression was found in the granulated endocrine cells. Using double immunolabeling of cryo-sections of these rat AP with 25 nm and 15 nm gold labels, we demonstrated an overlap between the populations of MHC-class II-expressing and S100 protein-expressing cells. Furthermore, MHC-class II-expressing and S100-positive cells showed ultrastructural characteristics that have been previously ascribed to folliculo-stellate cells. At the light microscopical level in the rat AP, a proportion of 10 to 20% of the S100-positive cells was found immunopositive for the MHC-class II marker OX6. In the hu

Search for CP violation in D+→ϕπ+ and D+s→K0Sπ+ decays

A search for CP violation in D + → ϕπ + decays is performed using data collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 at a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV. The CP -violating asymmetry is measured to be (−0.04 ± 0.14 ± 0.14)% for candidates with K − K + mass within 20 MeV/c 2 of the ϕ meson mass. A search for a CP -violating asymmetry that varies across the ϕ mass region of the D + → K − K + π + Dalitz plot is also performed, and no evidence for CP violation is found. In addition, the CP asymmetry in the D+s→K0Sπ+ decay is measured to be (0.61 ± 0.83 ± 0.14)%

Development of postural adjustments during reaching in typically developing infants from 4 to 18 months

Knowledge on the development of postural adjustments during infancy, in particular on the development of postural muscle coordination, is limited. This study aimed at the evaluation of the development of postural control during reaching in a supported sitting condition. Eleven typically developing infants participated in the study and were assessed at the ages of 4, 6, 10 and 18 months. We elicited reaching movements by presenting small toys at an arm’s length distance, whilst activity of multiple arm, neck and trunk muscles was recorded using surface EMG. A model-based computer algorithm was used to detect the onset of phasic muscle activity. The results indicated that postural muscle activity during reaching whilst sitting supported is highly variable. Direction-specific postural activity was inconsistently present from early age onwards and increased between 10 and 18 months without reaching a 100 % consistency. The dominant pattern of activation at all ages was the ‘complete pattern’, in which all direction-specific muscles were recruited. At 4 months, a slight preference for top-down recruitment existed, which was gradually replaced by a preference for bottom-up recruitment. We conclude that postural control during the ecological task of reaching during supported sitting between 4 and 18 months of age is primarily characterized by variation. Already from 4 months onwards, infants are—within the variation—sometimes able to select muscle recruitment strategies that are optimal to the task at hand

Study of Bc+B_c^+ decays to the K+K−π+K^+K^-\pi^+ final state and evidence for the decay Bc+→χc0π+B_c^+\to\chi_{c0}\pi^+

A study of $B_c^+\to K^+K^-\pi^+$ decays is performed for the first time using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment in $pp$ collisions at centre-of-mass energies of $7$ and $8$ TeV. Evidence for the decay $B_c^+\to\chi_{c0}(\to K^+K^-)\pi^+$ is reported with a significance of 4.0 standard deviations, resulting in the measurement of $\frac{\sigma(B_c^+)}{\sigma(B^+)}\times\mathcal{B}(B_c^+\to\chi_{c0}\pi^+)$ to be $(9.8^{+3.4}_{-3.0}(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.8(\mathrm{syst}))\times 10^{-6}$. Here $\mathcal{B}$ denotes a branching fraction while $\sigma(B_c^+)$ and $\sigma(B^+)$ are the production cross-sections for $B_c^+$ and $B^+$ mesons. An indication of $\bar b c$ weak annihilation is found for the region $m(K^-\pi^+)<1.834\mathrm{\,Ge\kern -0.1em V\!/}c^2$, with a significance of 2.4 standard deviations.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2016-022.html, link to supplemental material inserted in the reference

Are Pain Intensity and Pain Related Fear Related to Functional Capacity Evaluation Performances of Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain?

Introduction: Pain related fear and pain intensity have been identified as factors negatively influencing Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) performances in patients with CLBP. Conflicting results have been reported in the literature. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationships between pain intensity and pain-related fear on the one hand, and performances during an FCE on the other hand in two samples of patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Methods: Two cross sectional observation studies were performed with two samples of patients with CLBP (study 1: n = 79; study 2: n = 58). Pain related fears were operationally defined as the score on the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia in study 1, and the Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) in study 2. Pain intensity was measured with a Numeric Rating Scale in both studies. Avoidance behavior observed during FCE was in both studies operationally defined as the unwillingness to engage in high intensity performance levels of three different functional activities: high intensity lifting, prolonged standing in a forward bend position, and fast repetitive bending at the waist. Results: A total of 25 correlations between pain and pain related fear, and performance variables were calculated, out of which 7 were significant (p < 0.05). The strength of these significant correlations ranged from r = −0.23 to r = −0.50. Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed non-significant relationships in most instances. Pain and pain related fear contributed little if any to these models. Conclusions: The relation between pain and pain related fear and FCE performance is weak or non-existent in patients with CLBP

Energy expenditure during egg laying is equal for early and late breeding free-living female great tits

In many bird populations, variation in the timing of reproduction exists but it is not obvious how this variation is maintained as timing has substantial fitness consequences. Daily energy expenditure (DEE) during the egg laying period increases with decreasing temperatures and thus perhaps only females that can produce eggs at low energetic cost will lay early in the season, at low temperatures. We tested whether late laying females have a higher daily energy expenditure during egg laying than early laying females in 43 great tits (Parus major), by comparing on the same day the DEE of early females late in their laying sequence with DEE of late females early in their egg laying sequence. We also validated the assumption that there are no within female differences in DEE within the egg laying sequence. We found a negative effect of temperature and a positive effect of female body mass on DEE but no evidence for differences in DEE between early and late laying females. However, costs incurred during egg laying may have carry-over effects later in the breeding cycle and if such carry-over effects differ for early and late laying females this could contribute to the maintenance of phenotypic variation in laying dates