Natural Hyperthermia and Expression of the Heat Shock Protein Hsp70 Affect Developmental Abnormalities in Drosophila Melanogaster

We Demonstrate that Natural Heat Stress on Wild Larval Drosophila Melanogaster Results in Severe Developmental Defects in \u3e10% of Eclosing Adults, and that Increased Copy Number of the Gene Encoding the Major Inducible Heat Shock Protein of D. Melanogaster, Hsp70, is Sufficient to Reduce the Incidence of Such Abnormalities. Specifically, Non-Adult D. Melanogaster Inhabiting Necrotic Fruit Experienced Severe, Often Lethal Heat Stress in Natural Settings. Adult Flies Eclosing from Wild Larvae that Had Survived Natural Heat Stress Exhibited Severe Developmental Anomalies of Wing and Abdominal Morphology, Which Should Dramatically Affect Fitness. the Frequency of Developmental Abnormalities Varied Along Two Independent Natural Thermal Gradients, exceeding 10% in Adults Eclosing from Larvae Developing in Warm, Sunlit Fruit. When Exposed to Natural Heat Stress, D. Melanogaster Larvae with the Wild-Type Number of Hsp70 Genes (N=10) Developed Abnormal Wings Significantly More Frequently Than a Transgenic Sister Strain with 22 Copies of the Hsp70 Gene

Changing Fitness Consequences of Hsp70 Copy Number in Transgenic Drosophila Larvae Undergoing Natural Thermal Stress

1. Transgenic Manipulation of the Gene Copy Number of Hsp70, Which Encodes the Major Inducible Heat-Shock Protein of Drosophila Melanogaster (Hsp70), Affects Both Hsp70 Levels and Inducible Thermotolerance in the Laboratory; Here Parallel Effects in Transgenic Drosophila Larvae Undergoing Natural or Simulated Natural Thermal Stress Are Demonstrated. 2. Necrotic Fruit Was Infested with Larvae of Either of Two Transgenic Strains, One Transformed with 12 Extra Copies of the Hsp70 Gene (Extra-Copy Strain) and a Sister Strain Possessing Only the Wild-Type Number (10) of Hsp70 Genes (Excision Strain), and Then Allowed to Heat to Variable Extents. 3. as the Intensity of Thermal Stress Increased, the Consequences of Extra Hsp70 Copies Reversed. after No or Moderate Thermal Stress, Excision Larvae Survived Better Than Did Extra Copy Larvae. by Contrast, Extra Copy Larvae Tolerated Intense Hyperthermia Better Than Did Excision Larvae. 4. These Results Establish that the Hsp70-Mediated Enhancement of Stress Tolerance, Previously Demonstrated Only for Artificial Stress Regimes in the Laboratory, Extends to Natural Stress Regimes. 5. Mortality Due to overexpression of Hsp70, However, Also Increases under Mild Natural Stress Regimes, Buttressing the Ecological Relevance of a Hypothesized Evolutionary Trade-Off of the Benefits and Adverse Consequences of Hsp70 Expression

Multiband Probabilistic Cataloging: A Joint Fitting Approach to Point Source Detection and Deblending

Probabilistic cataloging (PCAT) outperforms traditional cataloging methods on single-band optical data in crowded fields. We extend our work to multiple bands, achieving greater sensitivity (~0.4 mag) and greater speed (500×) compared to previous single-band results. We demonstrate the effectiveness of multiband PCAT on mock data, in terms of both recovering accurate posteriors in the catalog space and directly deblending sources. When applied to Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) observations of M2, taking Hubble Space Telescope data as truth, our joint fit on r- and i-band data goes ~0.4 mag deeper than single-band probabilistic cataloging and has a false discovery rate less than 20% for F606W ≤ 20. Compared to DAOPHOT, the two-band SDSS catalog fit goes nearly 1.5 mag deeper using the same data and maintains a lower false discovery rate down to F606W ~ 20.5. Given recent improvements in computational speed, multiband PCAT shows promise in application to large-scale surveys and is a plausible framework for joint analysis of multi-instrument observational data. https://github.com/RichardFeder/multiband_pcat

FDA Regulation of Tobacco Products: A Policy and Legal Analysis

This report examines the legislative debate over giving FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products and provides some analysis of S. 2461/H.R. 4433. It begins with an overview of the FDA’s 1996 tobacco rule that includes a summary of the agency’s arguments for asserting jurisdiction over tobacco products. That is followed by an analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in FDA v. Brown & Williamson, which overturned the FDA tobacco rule. The report then reviews the 1997 proposed national tobacco settlement, which would have codified the FDA rule and given the agency explicit authority to regulate tobacco products as medical devices. It includes a discussion of the FDA provisions in the McCain tobacco bill, which was introduced and debated in the 105th Congress in an attempt to implement the proposed settlement. The final section of the report summarizes the provisions in S. 2461/H.R. 4433 and discusses some of the key issues, including preemption and the regulation of reduced-risk products

Mollusks in the Northeastern Chukchi Sea

Infaunal and epifaunal mollusks of the northeastern Chukchi Sea were sampled and 139 molluscan taxa were identified. The pattern of spatial distribution of molluscan species was determined by cluster analysis, which resulted in six infaunal and five epifaunal station groups. Species characterizing various faunal groups are defined. Stepwise multiple discriminant analysis was applied to correlate benthic biological associations with environmental variables. Delineation of infaunal groups was mainly due to percentage of sand and bottom salinity, while epifaunal groups were separated by percent gravel and bottom temperature. An increase in abundance and biomass of infaunal mollusks occurred adjacent to and north and northwest of an identified bottom front between the Bering Shelf and Resident Chukchi Water and Alaska Coastal Water. Epifaunal molluscan abundance and biomass were highest near the coast. Mollusks, especially smaller species and the juvenile stages of larger species, represent a food resource for bottom-feeding predators in the study area.Key words: Chukchi Sea, mollusk, benthic, infauna, epifauna, bottom front, bottom-feeding predators, cluster analysis, discriminant analysisOn a fait un échantillonnage des mollusques de l'endofaune et de l'épifaune du nord-est de la mer des Tchouktches et on a identifié 139 taxons de mollusques. On a déterminé le schéma de répartition géographique des espèces de mollusques au moyen d'une analyse typologique, qui a donné six groupes de stations dans l'endofaune et cinq dans l'épifaune. On définit des espèces caractéristiques des divers groupes fauniques. On a appliqué une analyse discriminante multiple séquentielle pour corréler les associations biologiques du benthos aux variables de l'environnement. La délimitation des groupes de l'endofaune était due en grande partie au taux de sable et de salinité au fond, tandis que les groupes de l'épifaune étaient répartis en fonction du taux de gravier et de température au fond. Une augmentation dans la quantité et la biomasse des mollusques de l'endofaune apparaissait près du nord et du nord-ouest d'un front de fond compris entre le plateau continental, les eaux non brassées de la mer des Tchouktches et les eaux côtières de l'Alaska. C'est près de la côte qu'on retrouvait l'abondance et la biomasse maximales des mollusques de l'épifaune. Les mollusques, surtout ceux des petites espèces et ceux des grandes espèces qui étaient au stade juvénile, représentaient une source alimentaire pour les prédateurs benthiques vivant dans la zone d'étude.Mots clés : mer des Tchouktches, mollusque, benthique, enfofaune, épifaune, front au fond, prédateurs benthiques, analyse typologique, analyse discriminant

Child maltreatment and parental domestic violence and abuse, co-occurrence and the effect on lifetime outcomes in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)

Exposure to child maltreatment (CM), and parental domestic violence and abuse (DVA), impose considerable adverse life outcomes in both the short and long term, yet, the extent and effects of their co-occurrence on outcomes have not been comprehensively quantified. This study describes the analysis of data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, quantifying the prevalence of CM, parental DVA, co-occurrence rates, and the impact of different combinations of childhood exposures on life outcomes (health, economic, and likelihood of perpetrating intimate partner violence as a young person). Childhood exposure prevalences were estimated at 41.7% for any form of CM, 19.3% for parental DVA, and 49.0% for exposure to at least one form of CM and/or parental DVA. Co-occurring parental DVA was reported in 21%-42% of CM-exposed households. Sexual abuse was reported in 2% of parental DVA-exposed households, whilst co-occurrence of other forms of CM ranged between 19% and 41%. Co-occurring CM and parental DVA exposures were associated with increased risks of drug use, anxiety, depression, smoking, unemployment, social welfare use, and perpetration of intimate partner violence as a young person - highlighting the intergenerational effects of exposure. Increased risks across a wider range of adverse outcomes were associated with child-reported awareness of parental DVA, compared to parent-reported DVA exposure. The high cumulative prevalence of childhood exposure to CM and/or parental DVA, and the scale of the resulting adverse impacts emphasise the need for policies and family interventions sensitive to the possibility of co-occurring forms of abuse

Effect of Heat Shock, Pretreatment and Hsp70 Copy Number on Wing Development in Drosophila Melanogaster

Naturally Occurring Heat Shock (HS) during Pupation Induces Abnormal Wing Development in Drosophila; We Examined Factors Affecting the Severity of This Induction. the Proportion of HS-Surviving Adults with Abnormal Wings Varied with HS Duration and Intensity, and with the Pupal Age or Stage at HS Administration. Pretreatment (PT), Mild Hyperthermia Delivered Before HS, Usually Protected Development Against HS. Gradual Heating Resembling Natural Thermal Regimes Also Protected Wing Development Against Thermal Disruption. Because of the Roles of the Wings in Flight and Courtship and in View of Natural Thermal Regimes that Drosophila Experience, Both HS-Induction of Wing Abnormalities and its Abatement by PT May Have Marked Effects on Drosophila Fitness in Nature. Because PT is Associated with Expression of Heat-Inducible Molecular Chaperones Such as Hsp70 in Drosophila, We Compared Thermal Disruption of Wing Development among Hsp70 Mutants as Well as among Strains Naturally Varying in Hsp70 Levels. Contrary to Expectations, Lines or Strains with Increased Hsp70 Levels Were No More Resistant to HS-Disruption of Wing Development Than Counterparts with Lower Hsp70 Levels. in Fact, Wing Development Was More Resistant to HS in Hsp70 Deletion Strains Than Control Strains. We Suggest that, While High Hsp70 Levels May Aid Cells in Surviving Hyperthermia, High Levels May Also Overly Stimulate or Inhibit Numerous Signaling Pathways Involved in Cell Proliferation, Maturation and Programmed Death, Resulting in Developmental Failure

PCAT-DE: Reconstructing point-like and diffuse signals in astronomical images using spatial and spectral information

Observational data from astronomical imaging surveys contain information about a variety of source populations and environments, and its complexity will increase substantially as telescopes become more sensitive. Even for existing observations, measuring the correlations between point-like and diffuse emission can be crucial to correctly inferring the properties of any individual component. For this task information is typically lost, either because of conservative data cuts, aggressive filtering or incomplete treatment of contaminated data. We present the code PCAT-DE, an extension of probabilistic cataloging designed to simultaneously model point-like and diffuse signals. This work incorporates both explicit spatial templates and a set of non-parametric Fourier component templates into a forward model of astronomical images, reducing the number of processing steps applied to the observed data. Using synthetic Herschel-SPIRE multiband observations, we demonstrate that point source and diffuse emission can be reliably separated and measured. We present two applications of this model. For the first, we perform point source detection/photometry in the presence of galactic cirrus and demonstrate that cosmic infrared background (CIB) galaxy counts can be recovered in cases of significant contamination. In the second we show that the spatially extended thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect signal can be reliably measured even when it is subdominant to the point-like emission from individual galaxies.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Global climate models violate scaling of the observed atmospheric variability

We test the scaling performance of seven leading global climate models by using detrended fluctuation analysis. We analyse temperature records of six representative sites around the globe simulated by the models, for two different scenarios: (i) with greenhouse gas forcing only and (ii) with greenhouse gas plus aerosol forcing. We find that the simulated records for both scenarios fail to reproduce the universal scaling behavior of the observed records, and display wide performance differences. The deviations from the scaling behavior are more pronounced in the first scenario, where also the trends are clearly overestimated.Comment: Accepted for publishing in Physical Review Letter

Are stentless valves hemodynamically superior to stented valves? Long-term follow-up of a randomized trial comparing Carpentier–Edwards pericardial valve with the Toronto Stentless Porcine Valve

ObjectiveThe benefit of stentless valves remains in question. In 1999, a randomized trial comparing stentless and stented valves was unable to demonstrate any hemodynamic or clinical benefits at 1 year after implantation. This study reviews long-term outcomes of patients randomized in the aforementioned trial.MethodsBetween 1996 and 1999, 99 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement were randomized to receive either a stented Carpentier–Edwards pericardial valve (CE) (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, Calif) or a Toronto Stentless Porcine Valve (SPV) (St Jude Medical, Minneapolis, Minn). Among these, 38 patients were available for late echocardiographic follow-up (CE, n = 17; SPV, n = 21). Echocardiographic analysis was undertaken both at rest and with dobutamine stress, and functional status (Duke Activity Status Index) was compared at a mean of 9.3 years postoperatively (range, 7.5–11.1 years). Clinical follow-up was 82% complete at a mean of 10.3 years postoperatively (range, 7.5–12.2 years).ResultsPreoperative characteristics were similar between groups. Effective orifice areas increased in both groups over time. Although there were no differences in effective orifice areas at 1 year, at 9 years, effective orifice areas were significantly greater in the SPV group (CE, 1.49 ± 0.59 cm2; SPV, 2.00 ± 0.53 cm2; P = .011). Similarly, mean and peak gradients decreased in both groups over time; however, at 9 years, gradients were lower in the SPV group (mean: CE, 10.8 ± 3.8 mm Hg; SPV, 7.8 ± 4.8 mm Hg; P = .011; peak: CE, 20.4 ± 6.5 mm Hg; SPV, 14.6 ± 7.1 mm Hg; P = .022). Such differences were magnified with dobutamine stress (mean: CE, 22.7 ± 6.1 mm Hg; SPV, 15.3 ± 8.4 mm Hg; P = .008; peak: CE, 48.1 ± 11.8 mm Hg; SPV, 30.8 ± 17.7 mm Hg; P = .001). Ventricular mass regression occurred in both groups; however, no differences were demonstrated between groups either on echocardiographic, magnetic resonance imaging, or biochemical (plasma B-type [brain] natriuretic peptide) assessment (P = .74). Similarly, Duke Activity Status Index scores of functional status improved in both groups over time; however, no differences were noted between groups (CE, 27.5 ± 19.1; SPV, 19.9 ± 12.0; P = .69). Freedom from reoperation at 12 years was 92% ± 5% in patients with CEs and 75% ± 5% in patients with SPVs (P = .65). Freedom from valve-related morbidity at 12 years was 82% ± 7% in patients with CEs and 55% ± 7% in patients with SPVs (P = .05). Finally, 12-year actuarial survival was 35% ± 7% in patients with CEs and 52% ± 7% in patients with SPVs (P = .37).ConclusionAlthough offering improved hemodynamic outcomes, the SPV did not afford superior mass regression or improved clinical outcomes up to 12 years after implantation