Do Patients with Craniosynostosis Have an Increased Incidence of Auditory Neuropathy as Newborns?

Neuroscience - Vision & Functional Brain Imaging Poster SessionOBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of auditory neuropathy, abnormal auditory brainstem response (ABR) with normal otoacoustic emissions, in newborn patients with craniosynostosis as compared to published standards. DESIGN: A retrospective review of consecutive patients with single or multiple-suture craniosynostosis who were seen between 2002 and 2009. Patients identified by the diagnostic code of craniosynostosis were divided into groups based on suture involvement. The newborn ABR screening and, if patients were referred, diagnosis from audiologic diagnostic testing were obtained from the Missouri Department of Health. Institutional review board approval was obtained. PATIENTS: One hundred and thirty-five patients were identified. Seventy-two were excluded; 3 were listed as “missed” and 69 were not born in-state. The 63 patients included in the study were grouped by involved sutures: 2 left coronal, 7 right coronal, 2 nonsyndromic bicoronal, 3 syndromic bicoronal, 13 sagittal, 17 operative metopic, 15 nonoperative metopic, 1 pansynostosis, and 3 multiple-suture. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The newborn screening results for each patient were recorded as well as the diagnosis from audiologic diagnostics if the patient was referred. RESULTS: Of the 63 patients, 94% (59/63) passed their ABR screening. Four were referred for diagnostic exam in both ears. Of those, one had a normal exam (right coronal) and three did not have diagnostic exams on file (right coronal, bicoronal syndromic and bicoronal non-syndromic). CONCLUSIONS: According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1.8 percent of newborns failed their ABR screening in 2007. Of those, 37% were found to have normal hearing on diagnostic exam. Although our study was inconclusive due to inadequate state records, it does demonstrate an increased incidence in abnormal ABR's in patients with coronal craniosynostosis. This is consistent with a recent publication that demonstrated higher incidence of abnormal ABR's in syndromic coronal craniosynostosis. If auditory abnormalities are present at birth, as our study suggests, the etiology would be unrelated to increased intracranial pressures

Changes in aerosol properties during spring-summer period in the Arctic troposphere

The change in aerosol properties during the transition from the more polluted spring to the clean summer in the Arctic troposphere was studied. A six-year data set of observations from Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard, covering the months April through June, serve as the basis for the characterisation of this time period. In addition four-day-back trajectories were used to describe air mass histories. The observed transition in aerosol properties from an accumulation-mode dominated distribution to an Aitken-mode dominated distribution is discussed with respect to long-range transport and influences from natural and anthropogenic sources of aerosols and pertinent trace gases. Our study shows that the air-mass transport is an important factor modulating the physical and chemical properties observed. However, the air-mass transport cannot alone explain the annually repeated systematic and rather rapid change in aerosol properties, occurring within a limited time window of approximately 10 days. With a simplified phenomenological model, which delivers the nucleation potential for new-particle formation, we suggest that the rapid shift in aerosol microphysical properties between the Arctic spring and summer is mainly driven by the incoming solar radiation in concert with transport of precursor gases and changes in condensational sink

Integration of microRNA changes in vivo identifies novel molecular features of muscle insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes

Skeletal muscle insulin resistance (IR) is considered a critical component of type II diabetes, yet to date IR has evaded characterization at the global gene expression level in humans. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are considered fine-scale rheostats of protein-coding gene product abundance. The relative importance and mode of action of miRNAs in human complex diseases remains to be fully elucidated. We produce a global map of coding and non-coding RNAs in human muscle IR with the aim of identifying novel disease biomarkers. We profiled >47,000 mRNA sequences and >500 human miRNAs using gene-chips and 118 subjects (n = 71 patients versus n = 47 controls). A tissue-specific gene-ranking system was developed to stratify thousands of miRNA target-genes, removing false positives, yielding a weighted inhibitor score, which integrated the net impact of both up- and down-regulated miRNAs. Both informatic and protein detection validation was used to verify the predictions of in vivo changes. The muscle mRNA transcriptome is invariant with respect to insulin or glucose homeostasis. In contrast, a third of miRNAs detected in muscle were altered in disease (n = 62), many changing prior to the onset of clinical diabetes. The novel ranking metric identified six canonical pathways with proven links to metabolic disease while the control data demonstrated no enrichment. The Benjamini-Hochberg adjusted Gene Ontology profile of the highest ranked targets was metabolic (P < 7.4 × 10-8), post-translational modification (P < 9.7 × 10-5) and developmental (P < 1.3 × 10-6) processes. Protein profiling of six development-related genes validated the predictions. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor protein was detectable only in muscle satellite cells and was increased in diabetes patients compared with controls, consistent with the observation that global miRNA changes were opposite from those found during myogenic differentiation. We provide evidence that IR in humans may be related to coordinated changes in multiple microRNAs, which act to target relevant signaling pathways. It would appear that miRNAs can produce marked changes in target protein abundance in vivo by working in a combinatorial manner. Thus, miRNA detection represents a new molecular biomarker strategy for insulin resistance, where micrograms of patient material is needed to monitor efficacy during drug or life-style interventions

The influence of land cover roughness on the results of high resolution tsunami inundation modeling

In this paper a local case study is presented in which detailed inundation simulations have been performed to support damage analysis and risk assessment related to the 2004 tsunami in Phang Nga and Phuket, Thailand. Besides tsunami sources, bathymetry and topography, bottom roughness induced by vegetation and built environment is considered to influence inundation characteristics, such as water depths or flow velocities and therefore attracts major attention in this work. Plenty of information available on the 2004 tsunami event, high-resolution satellite imagery and extensive field measurements to derive land cover information and forest stand parameters facilitated the generation of topographic datasets, land cover maps and site-specific Manning values for the most prominent land cover classes in the study areas. The numerical models ComMIT and Mike 21 FM were used to hindcast the observed tsunami inundation and to draw conclusions on the influence of land cover on inundation patterns. Results show a strong influence of dense vegetation on flow velocities, which were reduced by up to 50% by mangroves, while the inundation extent is influenced only to a lesser extent. In urban areas, the disregard of buildings in the model led to a significant overestimation of the inundation extent. Hence different approaches to consider buildings were used and analyzed in the model. The case study highlights the importance and quantifies the effects of considering land cover roughness in inundation simulations used for local risk assessment

The influence of biogenic emissions from Africa on tropical tropospheric ozone during 2006: a global modeling study

We have performed simulations using a 3-D global chemistry-transport model to investigate the influence that biogenic emissions from the African continent exert on the composition of the troposphere in the tropical region. For this purpose we have applied two recently developed biogenic emission inventories provided for use in large-scale global models (Granier et al., 2005; LathiSre et al., 2006) whose seasonality and temporal distribution for biogenic emissions of isoprene, other volatile organic compounds and NO is markedly different. The use of the 12 year average values for biogenic emissions provided by LathiSre et al. (2006) results in an increase in the amount of nitrogen sequestrated into longer lived reservoir compounds which contributes to the reduction in the tropospheric ozone burden in the tropics. The associated re-partitioning of nitrogen between PAN, HNO3 and organic nitrates also results in a similar to 5% increase in the loss of nitrogen by wet deposition. At a global scale there is a reduction in the oxidizing capacity of the model atmosphere which increases the atmospheric lifetimes of CH4 and CO by similar to 1.5% and similar to 4%, respectively. Comparisons against a range of different measurements indicate that applying the 12 year average of LathiSre et al. (2006) improves the performance of TM4_AMMA for 2006 in the tropics. By the use of sensitivity studies we show that the release of NO from soils in Africa accounts for between similar to 2-45% of tropospheric ozone in the African troposphere, similar to 10% in the upper troposphere and between similar to 5-20% of the tropical tropospheric ozone column over the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The subsequent reduction in OH over the source regions allows enhanced transport of CO out of the region. For biogenic volatile organic C1 to C3 species released from Africa, the effects on tropical tropospheric ozone are rather limited, although this source contributes to the global burden of VOC by between similar to 2-4% and has a large influence on the organic composition of the troposphere over the tropical Atlantic Ocean

Thermoelectric properties of lead chalcogenide core-shell nanostructures

We present the full thermoelectric characterization of nanostructured bulk PbTe and PbTe-PbSe samples fabricated from colloidal core-shell nanoparticles followed by spark plasma sintering. An unusually large thermopower is found in both materials, and the possibility of energy filtering as opposed to grain boundary scattering as an explanation is discussed. A decreased Debye temperature and an increased molar specific heat are in accordance with recent predictions for nanostructured materials. On the basis of these results we propose suitable core-shell material combinations for future thermoelectric materials of large electric conductivities in combination with an increased thermopower by energy filtering.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Submillimeter Emission from Water in the W3 Region

We have mapped the submillimeter emission from the 1(10)-1(01) transition of ortho-water in the W3 star-forming region. A 5'x5' map of the W3 IRS4 and W3 IRS5 region reveals strong water lines at half the positions in the map. The relative strength of the Odin lines compared to previous observations by SWAS suggests that we are seeing water emission from an extended region. Across much of the map the lines are double-peaked, with an absorption feature at -39 km/s; however, some positions in the map show a single strong line at -43 km/s. We interpret the double-peaked lines as arising from optically thick, self-absorbed water emission near the W3 IRS5, while the narrower blue-shifted lines originate in emission near W3 IRS4. In this model, the unusual appearance of the spectral lines across the map results from a coincidental agreement in velocity between the emission near W3 IRS4 and the blue peak of the more complex lines near W3 IRS5. The strength of the water lines near W3 IRS4 suggests we may be seeing water emission enhanced in a photon-dominated region.Comment: Accepted to A&A Letters as part of the special Odin issue; 4 page

Biosynthesis of Mitochondrial Porin and Insertion into the Outer Mitochondrial Membrane of Neuruspora crassa

Mitochondrial porin, the major protein of the outer mitochondrial membrane is synthesized by free cytoplasmic polysomes. The apparent molecular weight of the porin synthesized in homologous or heterologous cell-free systems is the same as that of the mature porin. Transfer in vitro of mitochondrial porin from the cytosolic fraction into the outer membrane of mitochondria could be demonstrated. Before membrane insertion, mitochondrial porin is highly sensitive to added proteinase; afterwards it is strongly protected. Binding of the precursor form to mitochondria occurs at 4°C and appears to precede insertion into the membrane. Unlike transfer of many precursor proteins into or across the inner mitochondrial membrane, assembly of the porin is not dependent on an electrical potential across the inner membrane

the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

The influence of biogenic emissions from Africa on tropical tropospheric ozone during 2006: a global modeling stud