L'Expressió al testicle de la proteïna transportadora d'esteroides sexuals humana (SHBG) té lloc a les cèl·lules germinals i no a les cèl·lules de Sertoli

El gen de la proteïna transportadora d'esteroides sexuals humana (hSHBG) conté dues unitats de transcripció diferents. Una d'aquestes unitats de transcripció fa aproximadament 4,3 kb, i codifica un precursor polipeptídic que és processat i secretat pels hepatòcits, i que donarà lloc a la SHBG plasmàtica. La seqüència promotora humana d'aquesta unitat de transcripció és diferent de la seqüència dels promotors dels altres mamífers que expressen el gen de la SHBG a les cèll. ules de Sertoli. Concretament, el promotor humà de la SHBG conté un lloc d'unió per a uns factors de transcripció anomenats USF, que s'uneixen al promotor i inhibeixen la seva expressió a les cèll. ules de Sertoli. Tot i que el gen de la SHBG humana no s'expressa a les cèll. ules de Sertoli, es poden detectar transcrits per a la SHBG al testicle humà. Aquests transcrits contenen un exó 1 alternatiu, es troben a les cèll. ules germinals i són producte d'una altra unitat de transcripció que conté una regió promotora que es troba a unes 2 kb de la primera regió promotora. Els transcrits d'aquesta segona regió promotora codifiquen una isoforma de la SHBG que és uns 5 kDa més petita que la SHBG plasmàtica. Aquesta isoforma de la SHBG s'acumula als espermatozoides entre la membrana exterior de l'acrosoma i la membrana plasmàtica, i s'allibera al medi durant la reacció de capacitació. Aquestes diferències tan importants en l'expressió del gen de la SHBG al testicle entre l'humà i els altres mamífers ens obliguen a reconsiderar la funció de la SHBG en el testicle en relació a la reproducció masculina.The human sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) gene contains at least two transcription units. A 4.3 kb human SHBG transcription unit encodes the precursor polypeptide, which is processed and secreted by hepatocytes as plasma SHBG. The proximal promoter of this transcription unit differs from the corresponding sequence in other mammals, in which it is also expressed in Sertoli cells. In particular, its proximal promoter sequence contains a binding-site for USF transcription factors that represses its activity in Sertoli cells. Although human SHBG is not expressed in Sertoli cells, human SHBG transcripts containing an alternative exon 1 sequence are present in testicular germ cells. These are the products of an ~8 kb human SHBG transcription unit, and they appear to encode an SHBG isoform that is 4-5 kDa smaller than plasma SHBG. This sperm SHBG isoform accumulates between the outer acrosomal membrane and the sperm plasma membrane, and it is released during the capacitation reaction. These remarkable differences in the expression of human SHBG in the testis, when compared to other mammals, force us to reconsider the functional significance of SHBG expression in the testis in relation to male reproduction

Legislative Prerogative or Judicial Fiat: Mandating Electronic Recording of Stationhouse Interrogations in Tennessee

The pendulum of credibility weighs heavily against a defendant who challenges the admissibility of his confession. If admitted, it will prove a virtual guarantee of conviction, as it is the most potent of weapons for the prosecution. \u27 Although prosecutors lament the layers of constitutional rights in place to protect a defendant against coercive interrogation methods, most challenges to admissibility will come down to the detective\u27s word against that of the defendant. Absent a recording, the court will be called upon to decipher events that took place in communicado and will be consigned to speculate about what actually took place, weighing the relative credibility of witnesses. Where the court is left to speculate about what actually transpired, it is no secret that the defendant rarely prevails when a confession is in evidence. The entire set of rules governing the relationship between the suspect and interrogators is built on a house of cards whose major weakness resides in the premise that a court can accurately determine what transpired during the interrogation process

Experimental investigation on flow induced vibration excitation in the elastically mounted square cylinders

In this paper an experimental investigation is performed on a range of transverse gap ratios (0.5≤T/D≤4.5) between the cylinders arranged in side by side configuration. The pattern of the test cylinder motion, spectral diagram and amplitude are used to analyze the vibration excitation at different conditions such as free stream velocity, natural frequency of the test cylinder. From the results, for the spacing ratio of T/D= 0.5 it is observed that the cylinders gets excited beyond the critical velocity and vibrates in a spiral pattern with the line dominated spectrum, which implies that by having a similar frequency along with a phase shift, the characteristics behavior of the cylinder is observed to be like an oscillator with the cross wise and stream wise response. Besides that, it is also observed that the cylinders at higher spacing ratios (T/D= 4.5) producing minimum oscillation when compared to the smaller spacing ratios

Probabilistic volcanic hazard assessment and eruption forecasting: the Bayesian Event Tree approach

The purpose of this report is to discuss in detail the importance and prerogatives of quantitative volcanic hazard assessment and to describe the main features of a Bayesian model designed to achieve this goal. Ideas, models and results come out from the work made in the framework of the INGV-DPC V4 project, and partially from the application of the technique to Campi Flegrei (V3_2) and Vesuvius (V3_4). Here, we examine in depth the practical and philosophical implications of the approach, and report only a brief summary of the technical details that can be found on the cited literature

BET VH: a probabilistic tool for long-term volcanic hazard assessment

In this paper we illustrate a Bayesian Event Tree to estimate Volcanic Hazard (BET VH). The procedure enables us to calculate the probability of any kind of long-term hazardous event for which we are interested, accounting for the intrinsic stochastic nature of volcanic eruptions and our limited knowledge regarding related processes. For the input, the code incorporates results from numerical models simulating the impact of hazardous volcanic phenomena on an area, and data from the eruptive history. For the output, the code provides a wide and exhaustive set of spatio-temporal probabilities of different events; these probabilities are estimated by means of a Bayesian approach that allows all uncertainties to be properly accounted for. The code is able to deal with many eruptive settings simultaneously, weighting each with its own probability of occurrence. In a companion paper, we give a detailed example of application of this tool to the Campi Flegrei caldera, in order to estimate the hazard from tephra fall

BET_EF: a probabilistic tool for long- and short-term eruption forecasting

The main purpose of this paper is to introduce a Bayesian event tree model for eruption forecasting (BET_EF). The model represents a flexible tool to provide probabilities of any specific event at which we are interested in, by merging all the relevant available information, such as theoretical models, a priori beliefs, monitoring measures, and any kind of past data. BET_EF is based on a Bayesian procedure and it relies on the fuzzy approach to manage monitoring data. The method deals with short- and long-term forecasting, therefore it can be useful in many practical aspects, as land use planning, and during volcanic emergencies. Finally, we provide the description of a free software package that provides a graphically supported computation of short- to long-term eruption forecasting, and a tutorial application to the recent MESIMEX exercise at Vesuvius

Bayesian event tree for eruption forecasting (BET_EF) at Vesuvius, Italy: a retrospective forward application to the 1631 eruption

Reliable forecasting of the next eruption at Vesuvius is the main scientific factor in defining effective strategies to reduce volcanic risk in one of the most dangerous volcanic areas of the world. In this paper, we apply a recently developed probabilistic code for eruption forecasting to new and independent historical data related to the pre-eruptive phase of the 1631 eruption. The results obtained point out three main issues: (1) the importance of “cold” historical data (according to Guidoboni 2008) related to pre-eruptive phases for evaluating forecasting tools and possibly refining them; (2) the BET_EF code implemented for Vesuvius would have forecasted the 1631 eruption satisfactorily, marking different stages of the pre-eruptive phase; (3) the code shows that pre-eruptive signals that significantly increase the probability of eruption were likely detected more than 2 months before the event

Primary radiotherapy in progressive optic nerve sheath meningiomas: a long-term follow-up study

Background/aims: To report the outcome of primary radiotherapy in patients with progressive optic nerve sheath meningioma (ONSM). Methods: The clinical records of all patients were reviewed in a retrospective, observational, multicentre study. Results: Thirty-four consecutive patients were included. Twenty-six women and eight men received conventional or stereotactic fractionated radiotherapy, and were followed for a median 58 (range 51–156) months. Fourteen eyes (41%) showed improved visual acuity of at least two lines on the Snellen chart. In 17 (50%) eyes, the vision stabilised, while deterioration was noted in three eyes (9%). The visual outcome was not associated with age at the time of radiotherapy (p=0.83), sex (p=0.43), visual acuity at the time of presentation (p=0.22) or type of radiotherapy (p=0.35). Optic disc swelling was associated with improved visual acuity (p<0.01) and 4/11 patients with optic atrophy also showed improvement. Long-term complications were dry eyes in five patients, cataracts in three, and mild radiation retinopathy in four. Conclusion: Primary radiotherapy for patients with ONSM is associated with long-term improvement of visual acuity and few adverse effects.Peerooz Saeed, Leo Blank, Dinesh Selva, John G. Wolbers, Peter J.C.M. Nowak, Ronald B. Geskus, Ezekiel Weis, Maarten P. Mourits, Jack Rootma

Densities and phase equilibria of hydrogen, propane and vegetable oil mixtures. Experimental data and thermodynamic modeling

Heterogeneous catalytic gas-liquid reactions are intensified when carried out in the homogenous fluid phase by means of a supercritical co-solvent. For instance, supercritical propane is used to enhance yield in the hydrogenation of vegetable oils. Besides phase equilibrium knowledge, volumetric information is also needed to elucidate kinetic mechanisms and design continuous supercritical reactors. In this work, we report new experimental PvT data of the reactive mixture H2+sunflower oil+propane using the isochoric method. In addition, the phase equilibria and PvT data are modeled with the GCA and RK-PR equations of state, respectively. The isochoric method not only provides PvT information under the reaction conditions, but also the reactive system compressibility, key variable to attain enhanced transport properties in the supercritical reactors.Fil: Hegel, Pablo Ezequiel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Cotabarren, Natalia Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Brignole, Esteban Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Pereda, Selva. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentina. University of KwaZulu-Natal; Sudáfric

Ground state of a partially melted Wigner molecule

We consider three spinless fermions free to move on 2d square lattice with periodic boundary conditions and interacting via a U/r Coulomb repulsion. When the Coulomb energy to kinetic energy ratio r_s is large, a rigid Wigner molecule is formed. As r_s decreases, we show that melting proceeds via an intermediate regime where a floppy two particle molecule coexists with a partially delocalized particle. A simple ansatz is given to describe the ground state of this mesoscopic solid-liquid regime.Comment: to appear in Europhysics Letter