Age estimation during the blow fly intra-puparial period: a qualitative and quantitative approach using micro-computed tomography

© The Author(s) 2017. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The attached file is the published version of the article

Socially learned attitude change is not reduced in medicated patients with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is often associated with distinctive or odd social behaviours. Previous work suggests this could be due to a general reduction in conformity; however, this work only assessed the tendency to publicly agree with others, which may involve a number of different mechanisms. In this study, we specifically investigated whether patients display a reduced tendency to adopt other people’s opinions (socially learned attitude change). We administered a computerized conformity task, assumed to rely on reinforcement learning circuits, to 32 patients with schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder and 39 matched controls. Each participant rated 153 faces for trustworthiness. After each rating, they were immediately shown the opinion of a group. After approximately 1 hour, participants were unexpectedly asked to rate all the faces again. We compared the degree of attitude change towards group opinion in patients and controls. Patients presented equal or more social influence on attitudes than controls. This effect may have been medication induced, as increased conformity was seen with higher antipsychotic dose. The results suggest that there is not a general decline in conformity in medicated patients with schizophrenia and that previous findings of reduced conformity are likely related to mechanisms other than reinforcement based social influence on attitudes

A Prospective study of the association between weight changes and self-rated health

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Obesity and self-rated health (SRH) are strong predictors of morbidity and mortality but their interrelation is sparsely studied. The aim of this study was to analyse the association between weight changes and changes in SRH among women. We also examined if poor SRH at baseline was associated with later weight gain.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Danish Nurse Cohort Study is a prospective population study (1993–1999) and comprises 13,684 female nurses aged 44 to 69 years. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between weight changes and changes in SRH.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Women who gained weight during the study period had higher odds of reporting poorer self-rated health (Odds Ratio (OR): 1.18, 95% CI: 1.04–1.35). Weight loss among overweight women, did not result in an increase in self-rated health ratings, in fully adjusted analyses (0.96 (95% CI: 0.76–1.23). Poor self-rated health combined with normal weight at first examination was associated with higher odds of later weight gain (OR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.10–1.51).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Weight changes may result in lower SRH. Further, poor self-rated health at baseline seems to predict an increase in weight, among women without any longstanding chronic diseases. Future obesity prevention may focus on normal weight individuals with poor SRH.</p

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of Asian Pterourus Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae): A Case of Intercontinental Dispersal from North America to East Asia

The phylogenetic status of the well-known Asian butterflies often known as Agehana (a species group, often treated as a genus or a subgenus, within Papilio sensu lato) has long remained unresolved. Only two species are included, and one of them especially, Papilio maraho, is not only rare but near-threatened, being monophagous on its vulnerable hostplant, Sassafras randaiense (Lauraceae). Although the natural history and population conservation of “Agehana” has received much attention, the biogeographic origin of this group still remains enigmatic. To clarify these two questions, a total of 86 species representatives within Papilionidae were sampled, and four genes (concatenated length 3842 bp) were used to reconstruct their phylogenetic relationships and historical scenarios. Surprisingly, “Agehana” fell within the American Papilio subgenus Pterourus and not as previously suggested, phylogenetically close to the Asian Papilio subgenus Chilasa. We therefore formally synonymize Agehana with Pterourus. Dating and biogeographic analysis allow us to infer an intercontinental dispersal of an American ancestor of Asian Pterourus in the early Miocene, which was coincident with historical paleo-land bridge connections, resulting in the present “East Asia-America” disjunction distribution. We emphasize that species exchange between East Asia and America seems to be a quite frequent occurrence in butterflies during the Oligocene to Miocene climatic optima.© 2015 Wu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Short-term locomotor adaptation to a robotic ankle exoskeleton does not alter soleus Hoffmann reflex amplitude

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To improve design of robotic lower limb exoskeletons for gait rehabilitation, it is critical to identify neural mechanisms that govern locomotor adaptation to robotic assistance. Previously, we demonstrated soleus muscle recruitment decreased by ~35% when walking with a pneumatically-powered ankle exoskeleton providing plantar flexor torque under soleus proportional myoelectric control. Since a substantial portion of soleus activation during walking results from the stretch reflex, increased reflex inhibition is one potential mechanism for reducing soleus recruitment when walking with exoskeleton assistance. This is clinically relevant because many neurologically impaired populations have hyperactive stretch reflexes and training to reduce the reflexes could lead to substantial improvements in their motor ability. The purpose of this study was to quantify soleus Hoffmann (H-) reflex responses during powered versus unpowered walking.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We tested soleus H-reflex responses in neurologically intact subjects (n=8) that had trained walking with the soleus controlled robotic ankle exoskeleton. Soleus H-reflex was tested at the mid and late stance while subjects walked with the exoskeleton on the treadmill at 1.25 m/s, first without power (first unpowered), then with power (powered), and finally without power again (second unpowered). We also collected joint kinematics and electromyography.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When the robotic plantar flexor torque was provided, subjects walked with lower soleus electromyographic (EMG) activation (27-48%) and had concomitant reductions in H-reflex amplitude (12-24%) compared to the first unpowered condition. The H-reflex amplitude in proportion to the background soleus EMG during powered walking was not significantly different from the two unpowered conditions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that the nervous system does not inhibit the soleus H-reflex in response to short-term adaption to exoskeleton assistance. Future studies should determine if the findings also apply to long-term adaption to the exoskeleton.</p

Emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli causing bloodstream infections in Norway in 2002-17: a nationwide, longitudinal, microbial population genomic study

Background The clonal diversity underpinning trends in multidrug resistant Escherichia coli causing bloodstream infections remains uncertain. We aimed to determine the contribution of individual clones to resistance over time, using large-scale genomics-based molecular epidemiology. Methods This was a longitudinal, E coli population, genomic, cohort study that sampled isolates from 22 512 E coli bloodstream infections included in the Norwegian surveillance programme on resistant microbes (NORM) from 2002 to 2017. 15 of 22 laboratories were able to share their isolates, and the first 22·5% of isolates from each year were requested. We used whole genome sequencing to infer the population structure (PopPUNK), and we investigated the clade composition of the dominant multidrug resistant clonal complex (CC)131 using genetic markers previously reported for sequence type (ST)131, effective population size (BEAST), and presence of determinants of antimicrobial resistance (ARIBA, PointFinder, and ResFinder databases) over time. We compared these features between the 2002–10 and 2011–17 time periods. We also compared our results with those of a longitudinal study from the UK done between 2001 and 2011. Findings Of the 3500 isolates requested from the participating laboratories, 3397 (97·1%) were received, of which 3254 (95·8%) were successfully sequenced and included in the analysis. A significant increase in the number of multidrug resistant CC131 isolates from 71 (5·6%) of 1277 in 2002–10 to 207 (10·5%) of 1977 in 2011–17 (p<0·0001), was the largest clonal expansion. CC131 was the most common clone in extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-positive isolates (75 [58·6%] of 128) and fluoroquinolone non-susceptible isolates (148 [39·2%] of 378). Within CC131, clade A increased in prevalence from 2002, whereas the global multidrug resistant clade C2 was not observed until 2007. Multiple de-novo acquisitions of both blaCTX-M ESBL-encoding genes in clades A and C1 and gain of phenotypic fluoroquinolone non-susceptibility across the clade A phylogeny were observed. We estimated that exponential increases in the effective population sizes of clades A, C1, and C2 occurred in the mid-2000s, and in clade B a decade earlier. The rate of increase in the estimated effective population size of clade A (Ne=3147) was nearly ten-times that of C2 (Ne=345), with clade A over-represented in Norwegian CC131 isolates (75 [27·0%] of 278) compared with the UK study (8 [5·4%] of 147 isolates). Interpretation The early and sustained establishment of predominantly antimicrobial susceptible CC131 clade A isolates, relative to multidrug resistant clade C2 isolates, suggests that resistance is not necessary for clonal success. However, even in the low antibiotic use setting of Norway, resistance to important antimicrobial classes has rapidly been selected for in CC131 clade A isolates. This study shows the importance of genomic surveillance in uncovering the complex ecology underlying multidrug resistance dissemination and competition, which have implications for the design of strategies and interventions to control the spread of high-risk multidrug resistant clones. Funding Trond Mohn Foundation, European Research Council, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and the Wellcome Trust

Identification of target genes for wild type and truncated HMGA2 in mesenchymal stem-like cells

Background The HMGA2 gene, coding for an architectural transcription factor involved in mesenchymal embryogenesis, is frequently deranged by translocation and/or amplification in mesenchymal tumours, generally leading to over-expression of shortened transcripts and a truncated protein. Methods To identify pathways that are affected by sarcoma-associated variants of HMGA2, we have over-expressed wild type and truncated HMGA2 protein in an immortalized mesenchymal stem-like cell (MSC) line, and investigated the localisation of these proteins and their effects on differentiation and gene expression patterns. Results Over-expression of both transgenes blocked adipogenic differentiation of these cells, and microarray analysis revealed clear changes in gene expression patterns, more pronounced for the truncated protein. Most of the genes that showed altered expression in the HMGA2-overexpressing cells fell into the group of NF-κB-target genes, suggesting a central role for HMGA2 in this pathway. Of particular interest was the pronounced up-regulation of SSX1, already implicated in mesenchymal oncogenesis and stem cell functions, only in cells expressing the truncated protein. Furthermore, over-expression of both HMGA2 forms was associated with a strong repression of the epithelial marker CD24, consistent with the reported low level of CD24 in cancer stem cells. Conclusions We conclude that the c-terminal part of HMGA2 has important functions at least in mesenchymal cells, and the changes in gene expression resulting from overexpressing a protein lacking this domain may add to the malignant potential of sarcomas