Basal paravian functional anatomy illuminated by high-detail body outline

Body shape is a fundamental expression of organismal biology, but its quantitative reconstruction in fossil vertebrates is rare. Due to the absence of fossilized soft tissue evidence, the functional consequences of basal paravian body shape and its implications for the origins of avians and flight are not yet fully understood. Here we reconstruct the quantitative body outline of a fossil paravian Anchiornis based on high-definition images of soft tissues revealed by laser-stimulated fluorescence. This body outline confirms patagia-bearing arms, drumstick-shaped legs and a slender tail, features that were probably widespread among paravians. Finely preserved details also reveal similarities in propatagial and footpad form between basal paravians and modern birds, extending their record to the Late Jurassic. The body outline and soft tissue details suggest significant functional decoupling between the legs and tail in at least some basal paravians. The number of seemingly modern propatagial traits hint that feathering was a significant factor in how basal paravians utilized arm, leg and tail function for aerodynamic benefit.published_or_final_versio

HATS-17b: A Transiting Compact Warm Jupiter in a 16.3 Days Circular Orbit

We report the discovery of HATS-17b, the first transiting warm Jupiter of the HATSouth network. HATS-17b transits its bright (V=12.4) G-type (M$_{\star}$=1.131 $\pm$ 0.030 M$_{\odot}$, R$_{\star}$=1.091$^{+0.070}_{-0.046}$ R$_{\star}$) metal-rich ([Fe/H]=+0.3 dex) host star in a circular orbit with a period of P=16.2546 days. HATS-17b has a very compact radius of 0.777 $\pm$ 0.056 R$_J$ given its Jupiter-like mass of 1.338 $\pm$ 0.065 M$_J$. Up to 50% of the mass of HATS-17b may be composed of heavy elements in order to explain its high density with current models of planetary structure. HATS-17b is the longest period transiting planet discovered to date by a ground-based photometric survey, and is one of the brightest transiting warm Jupiter systems known. The brightness of HATS-17b will allow detailed follow-up observations to characterize the orbital geometry of the system and the atmosphere of the planet.Comment: 12 page, 8 figures, submitted to A

Lung carcinoma with hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in a teenager

Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (HOA) characterised by arthralgia, clubbing and periosteal proliferation of long bones, is rarely encountered in children and adolescents. Whereas in adults over 80% of cases are associated with malignancy, in children the majority of cases are due to non-neoplastic causes such as cystic fibrosis, bilary atresia and congenital heart disease. Up to 5% of adults with lung cancer demonstrate signs of HOA. However, lung cancer is extremely uncommon in children and young people. Here we report a case of lung adenocarcinoma in an 18 year old male associated with HOA present both at diagnosis and at subsequent disease progression

Impact of weight loss on cancer-related proteins in serum: results from a cluster randomised controlled trial of individuals with type 2 diabetes

\ua9 2024 The Author(s)Background: Type 2 diabetes is associated with higher risk of several cancer types. However, the biological intermediates driving this relationship are not fully understood. As novel interventions for treating and managing type 2 diabetes become increasingly available, whether they also disrupt the pathways leading to increased cancer risk is currently unknown. We investigated the effect of a type 2 diabetes intervention, in the form of intentional weight loss, on circulating proteins associated with cancer risk to gain insight into potential mechanisms linking type 2 diabetes and adiposity with cancer development. Methods: Fasting serum samples from participants with diabetes enrolled in the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT) receiving the Counterweight-Plus weight-loss programme (intervention, N = 117, mean weight-loss 10 kg, 46% diabetes remission) or best-practice care by guidelines (control, N = 143, mean weight-loss 1 kg, 4% diabetes remission) were subject to proteomic analysis using the Olink Oncology-II platform (48% of participants were female; 52% male). To identify proteins which may be altered by the weight-loss intervention, the difference in protein levels between groups at baseline and 1 year was examined using linear regression. Mendelian randomization (MR) was performed to extend these results to evaluate cancer risk and elucidate possible biological mechanisms linking type 2 diabetes and cancer development. MR analyses were conducted using independent datasets, including large cancer meta-analyses, UK Biobank, and FinnGen, to estimate potential causal relationships between proteins modified during intentional weight loss and the risk of colorectal, breast, endometrial, gallbladder, liver, and pancreatic cancers. Findings: Nine proteins were modified by the intervention: glycoprotein Nmb; furin; Wnt inhibitory factor 1; toll-like receptor 3; pancreatic prohormone; erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2; hepatocyte growth factor; endothelial cell specific molecule 1 and Ret proto-oncogene (Holm corrected P-value <0.05). Mendelian randomization analyses indicated a causal relationship between predicted circulating furin and glycoprotein Nmb on breast cancer risk (odds ratio (OR) = 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.67–0.99, P-value = 0.03; and OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.78–0.99, P-value = 0.04 respectively), though these results were not supported in sensitivity analyses examining violations of MR assumptions. Interpretation: Intentional weight loss among individuals with recently diagnosed diabetes may modify levels of cancer-related proteins in serum. Further evaluation of the proteins identified in this analysis could reveal molecular pathways that mediate the effect of adiposity and type 2 diabetes on cancer risk. Funding: The main sources of funding for this work were Diabetes UK, Cancer Research UK, World Cancer Research Fund, and Wellcome

An Expanded Set of Amino Acid Analogs for the Ribosomal Translation of Unnatural Peptides

BACKGROUND: The application of in vitro translation to the synthesis of unnatural peptides may allow the production of extremely large libraries of highly modified peptides, which are a potential source of lead compounds in the search for new pharmaceutical agents. The specificity of the translation apparatus, however, limits the diversity of unnatural amino acids that can be incorporated into peptides by ribosomal translation. We have previously shown that over 90 unnatural amino acids can be enzymatically loaded onto tRNA. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We have now used a competition assay to assess the efficiency of tRNA-aminoacylation of these analogs. We have also used a series of peptide translation assays to measure the efficiency with which these analogs are incorporated into peptides. The translation apparatus tolerates most side chain derivatives, a few alpha,alpha disubstituted, N-methyl and alpha-hydroxy derivatives, but no beta-amino acids. We show that over 50 unnatural amino acids can be incorporated into peptides by ribosomal translation. Using a set of analogs that are efficiently charged and translated we were able to prepare individual peptides containing up to 13 different unnatural amino acids. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results demonstrate that a diverse array of unnatural building blocks can be translationally incorporated into peptides. These building blocks provide new opportunities for in vitro selections with highly modified drug-like peptides

Limits of JT gravity

We construct various limits of JT gravity, including Newton-Cartan and Carrollian versions of dilaton gravity in two dimensions as well as a theory on the three-dimensional light cone. In the BF formulation our boundary conditions relate boundary connection with boundary scalar, yielding as boundary action the particle action on a group manifold or some Hamiltonian reduction thereof. After recovering in our formulation the Schwarzian for JT, we show that AdS-Carroll gravity yields a twisted warped boundary action. We comment on numerous applications and generalizations.Comment: 41 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; v2: Matches published version + Footnote 11; v3: Corrected typo in Carrollian/Galilean generalized dilaton potentia

Understanding Communication of Sustainability Reporting: Application of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies that are implicit in the standalone sustainability reporting of the top 24 companies of the Fortune 500 Global. We adopt Bormann’s (Q J Speech 58(4):396–407, 1972) SCT framework to study the rhetorical situation and how corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) messages can be communicated to the audience (public). The SCT concepts in the sustainability reporting’s communication are subject to different types of legitimacy strategies that are used by corporations as a validity and legitimacy claim in the reports. A content analysis has been conducted and structural coding schemes have been developed based on the literature. The schemes are applied to the SCT model which recognizes the symbolic convergent processes of fantasy among communicators in a Society. The study reveals that most of the sample companies communicate fantasy type and rhetorical vision in their corporate sustainability reporting. However, the disclosure or messages are different across locations and other taxonomies of the SCT framework. This study contributes to the current CSR literature about how symbolic or fantasy understandings can be interpreted by the users. It also discusses the persuasion styles that are adopted by the companies for communication purposes. This study is the theoretical extension of the SCT. Researchers may be interested in further investigating other online communication paths, such as human rights reports and director’s reports

Evaluating the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation D614G on Transmissibility and Pathogenicity.

Global dispersal and increasing frequency of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G are suggestive of a selective advantage but may also be due to a random founder effect. We investigate the hypothesis for positive selection of spike D614G in the United Kingdom using more than 25,000 whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Despite the availability of a large dataset, well represented by both spike 614 variants, not all approaches showed a conclusive signal of positive selection. Population genetic analysis indicates that 614G increases in frequency relative to 614D in a manner consistent with a selective advantage. We do not find any indication that patients infected with the spike 614G variant have higher COVID-19 mortality or clinical severity, but 614G is associated with higher viral load and younger age of patients. Significant differences in growth and size of 614G phylogenetic clusters indicate a need for continued study of this variant