Genotoxicity biomonitoring of sewage in two municipal wastewater treatment plants using the Tradescantia pallida var. purpurea bioassay

The genotoxicity of untreated and treated sewage from two municipal wastewater treatment plants (WTP BN and WTP SJN) in the municipality of Porto Alegre, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, was evaluated over a one-year period using the Tradescantia pallida var. purpurea (Trad-MCN) bioassay. Inflorescences of T. pallida var. purpurea were exposed to sewage samples in February (summer), April (autumn), July (winter) and October (spring) 2009, and the micronuclei (MCN) frequencies were estimated in each period. The high genotoxicity of untreated sewage from WTP BN in February and April was not observed in treated sewage, indicating the efficiency of treatment at this WTP. However, untreated and treated sewage samples from WTP SJN had high MCN frequencies, except in October, when rainfall may have been responsible for reducing these frequencies at both WTPs. Physicochemical analyses of sewage from both WTPs indicated elevated concentrations of organic matter that were higher at WTP SJN than at WTP BN. Chromium was detected in untreated and treated sewage from WTP SJN, but not in treated sewage from WTP BN. Lead was found in all untreated sewage samples from WTP SJN, but only in the summer and autumn at WTP BN. These results indicate that the short-term Trad-MCN genotoxicity assay may be useful for regular monitoring of municipal WTPs

A new, large-bodied omnivorous bat (Noctilionoidea: Mystacinidae) reveals lost morphological and ecological diversity since the Miocene in New Zealand

A new genus and species of fossil bat is described from New Zealand's only pre-Pleistocene Cenozoic terrestrial fauna, the early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of Central Otago, South Island. Bayesian total evidence phylogenetic analysis places this new Southern Hemisphere taxon among the burrowing bats (mystacinids) of New Zealand and Australia, although its lower dentition also resembles Africa's endemic sucker-footed bats (myzopodids). As the first new bat genus to be added to New Zealand's fauna in more than 150 years, it provides new insight into the original diversity of chiropterans in Australasia. It also underscores the significant decline in morphological diversity that has taken place in the highly distinctive, semi-terrestrial bat family Mystacinidae since the Miocene. This bat was relatively large, with an estimated body mass of ~40 g, and its dentition suggests it had an omnivorous diet. Its striking dental autapomorphies, including development of a large hypocone, signal a shift of diet compared with other mystacinids, and may provide evidence of an adaptive radiation in feeding strategy in this group of noctilionoid bats

Does Community Context Have an Important Impact on Divorce Risk? A Fixed-Effects Study of Twenty Norwegian First-Marriage Cohorts

The decision to divorce may be affected by the characteristics of the local community. Community characteristics may be barriers to divorce, or they may increase the attractiveness of divorcing (e.g., access to a good remarriage market), but our knowledge of such influences is sparse. This study examines two such community-level factors: socio-economic conditions and the local marriage market. In this study, discrete-time hazard models with community-level fixed effects are estimated using register-based data on Norwegian first marriages during the period from 1980 to 1999, with longitudinal information on both the community and couple levels (N = 283,493). The results show that there are important community-level influences on couples’ divorce risk, but these change dramatically when fixed effects are introduced

Employment Is Associated with the Health-Related Quality of Life of Morbidly Obese Persons

Published version of an article in the journal: Obesity Surgery. The original publication is available at Springerlink. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11695-010-0289-6. Open AccessBackground  We aimed to investigate whether employment status was associated with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a population of morbidly obese subjects. Methods  A total of 143 treatment-seeking morbidly obese patients completed the Medical Outcome Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Obesity and Weight-Loss Quality of Life (OWLQOL) questionnaires. The former (SF-36) is a generic measure of physical and mental health status and the latter (OWLQOL) an obesity-specific measure of emotional status. Multiple linear regression analyses included various measures of the HRQoL as dependent variables and employment status, education, marital status, gender, age, body mass index (BMI), type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, and treatment choice as independent variables. Results  The patients (74% women, 56% employed) had a mean (SD, range) age of 44 (11, 19–66) years and a mean BMI of 44.3 (5.4) kg/m2. The employed patients reported significantly higher HRQoL scores within all eight subscales of SF-36, while the OWLQOL scores were comparable between the two groups. Multiple linear regression confirmed that employment was a strong independent predictor of HRQoL according to the SF-36. Based on part correlation coefficients, employment explained 16% of the variation in the physical and 9% in the mental component summaries of SF-36, while gender explained 22% of the variation in the OWLQOL scores. Conclusion  Employment is associated with the physical and mental HRQoL of morbidly obese subjects, but is not associated with the emotional aspects of quality of life

Universality of next-to-leading power threshold effects for colourless final states in hadronic collisions

SCOAP

Formation of Supermassive Black Holes

Evidence shows that massive black holes reside in most local galaxies. Studies have also established a number of relations between the MBH mass and properties of the host galaxy such as bulge mass and velocity dispersion. These results suggest that central MBHs, while much less massive than the host (~ 0.1%), are linked to the evolution of galactic structure. In hierarchical cosmologies, a single big galaxy today can be traced back to the stage when it was split up in hundreds of smaller components. Did MBH seeds form with the same efficiency in small proto-galaxies, or did their formation had to await the buildup of substantial galaxies with deeper potential wells? I briefly review here some of the physical processes that are conducive to the evolution of the massive black hole population. I will discuss black hole formation processes for `seed' black holes that are likely to place at early cosmic epochs, and possible observational tests of these scenarios.Comment: To appear in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Metabolic syndrome, psychological status and quality of life in obesity: the QUOVADIS Study

Objective: We aimed to investigate the association of the clinical variables of the metabolic syndrome (MS) and psychological parameters on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in obesity. In particular, our aim was to investigate the relative impact of physical symptoms, somatic diseases and psychological distress on both the physical and the mental domains of HRQL. Design: Cross-sectional study. Subjects: A cohort of 1822 obese outpatients seeking treatment in medical centers. Measurements: HRQL was measured by the standardized summary scores for physical (PCS) and mental (MCS) components of the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36). Patients were grouped according to tertiles of PCS and MCS. Metabolic and psychological profiles of PCS and MCS tertiles were compared by discriminant analysis. Results: The profile of metabolic and psychological variables was tertile-specific in 62.4 and 68.3% of patients in the lowest and highest tertiles of PCS, respectively, while concordance was low in the mid-tertile (32.8%). Concordance was very high in the lowest (74.4%) and in the highest (75.5%) tertiles of MCS, and was fair in the mid-tertile (53.2%). The main correlates of PCS were obesity-specific and general psychological well-being, BMI, body uneasiness, binge eating, gender and psychiatric distress. Only hypertension and hyperglycemia qualified as correlates among the components of MS. The components of MS did not define MCS. Conclusions: Psychological well-being is the most important correlate of HRQL in obesity, both in the physical and in the mental domains, whereas the features of MS correlate only to some extent with the physical domain of HRQL

Lithic technological responses to Late Pleistocene glacial cycling at Pinnacle Point Site 5-6, South Africa

There are multiple hypotheses for human responses to glacial cycling in the Late Pleistocene, including changes in population size, interconnectedness, and mobility. Lithic technological analysis informs us of human responses to environmental change because lithic assemblage characteristics are a reflection of raw material transport, reduction, and discard behaviors that depend on hunter-gatherer social and economic decisions. Pinnacle Point Site 5-6 (PP5-6), Western Cape, South Africa is an ideal locality for examining the influence of glacial cycling on early modern human behaviors because it preserves a long sequence spanning marine isotope stages (MIS) 5, 4, and 3 and is associated with robust records of paleoenvironmental change. The analysis presented here addresses the question, what, if any, lithic assemblage traits at PP5-6 represent changing behavioral responses to the MIS 5-4-3 interglacial-glacial cycle? It statistically evaluates changes in 93 traits with no a priori assumptions about which traits may significantly associate with MIS. In contrast to other studies that claim that there is little relationship between broad-scale patterns of climate change and lithic technology, we identified the following characteristics that are associated with MIS 4: increased use of quartz, increased evidence for outcrop sources of quartzite and silcrete, increased evidence for earlier stages of reduction in silcrete, evidence for increased flaking efficiency in all raw material types, and changes in tool types and function for silcrete. Based on these results, we suggest that foragers responded to MIS 4 glacial environmental conditions at PP5-6 with increased population or group sizes, 'place provisioning', longer and/or more intense site occupations, and decreased residential mobility. Several other traits, including silcrete frequency, do not exhibit an association with MIS. Backed pieces, once they appear in the PP5-6 record during MIS 4, persist through MIS 3. Changing paleoenvironments explain some, but not all temporal technological variability at PP5-6.Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada; NORAM; American-Scandinavian Foundation; Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia [SFRH/BPD/73598/2010]; IGERT [DGE 0801634]; Hyde Family Foundations; Institute of Human Origins; National Science Foundation [BCS-9912465, BCS-0130713, BCS-0524087, BCS-1138073]; John Templeton Foundation to the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State Universit

Functional similarities between pigeon \u27milk\u27 and mammalian milk : induction of immune gene expression and modification of the microbiota

Pigeon ‘milk’ and mammalian milk have functional similarities in terms of nutritional benefit and delivery of immunoglobulins to the young. Mammalian milk has been clearly shown to aid in the development of the immune system and microbiota of the young, but similar effects have not yet been attributed to pigeon ‘milk’. Therefore, using a chicken model, we investigated the effect of pigeon ‘milk’ on immune gene expression in the Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue (GALT) and on the composition of the caecal microbiota. Chickens fed pigeon ‘milk’ had a faster rate of growth and a better feed conversion ratio than control chickens. There was significantly enhanced expression of immune-related gene pathways and interferon-stimulated genes in the GALT of pigeon ‘milk’-fed chickens. These pathways include the innate immune response, regulation of cytokine production and regulation of B cell activation and proliferation. The caecal microbiota of pigeon ‘milk’-fed chickens was significantly more diverse than control chickens, and appears to be affected by prebiotics in pigeon ‘milk’, as well as being directly seeded by bacteria present in pigeon ‘milk’. Our results demonstrate that pigeon ‘milk’ has further modes of action which make it functionally similar to mammalian milk. We hypothesise that pigeon ‘lactation’ and mammalian lactation evolved independently but resulted in similarly functional products