Tooth serration morphologies in the genus Machimosaurus (Crocodylomorpha, Thalattosuchia) from the Late Jurassic of Europe

© 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

UK Breastfeeding Helpline support: An investigation of influences upon satisfaction

Background Incentive or reward schemes are becoming increasingly popular to motivate healthy lifestyle behaviours. In this paper, insights from a qualitative and descriptive study to investigate the uptake, impact and meanings of a breastfeeding incentive intervention integrated into an existing peer support programme (Star Buddies) are reported. The Star Buddies service employs breastfeeding peer supporters to support women across the ante-natal, intra-partum and post-partum period. Methods In a disadvantaged area of North West England, women initiating breastfeeding were recruited by peer supporters on the postnatal ward or soon after hospital discharge to participate in an 8 week incentive (gifts and vouchers) and breastfeeding peer supporter intervention. In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 women participants who engaged with the incentive intervention, and a focus group was held with the 4 community peer supporters who delivered the intervention. Descriptive analysis of routinely collected data for peer supporter contacts and breastfeeding outcomes before and after the incentive intervention triangulated and retrospectively provided the context for the qualitative thematic analysis. Results A global theme emerged of 'incentives as connectors', with two sub-themes of 'facilitating connections' and 'facilitating relationships and wellbeing'. The incentives were linked to discussion themes and gift giving facilitated peer supporter access for proactive weekly home visits to support women. Regular face to face contacts enabled meaningful relationships and new connections within and between the women, families, peer supporters and care providers to be formed and sustained. Participants in the incentive scheme received more home visits and total contact time with peer supporters compared to women before the incentive intervention. Full participation levels and breastfeeding rates at 6-8 weeks were similar for women before and after the incentive intervention. Conclusion The findings suggest that whilst the provision of incentives might not influence women's intentions or motivations to breastfeed, the connections forged provided psycho-social benefits for both programme users and peer supporters

Associations of sitting accumulation patterns with cardio-metabolic risk biomarkers in Australian adults

Backgroun

Selective Loss of Cysteine Residues and Disulphide Bonds in a Potato Proteinase Inhibitor II Family

Disulphide bonds between cysteine residues in proteins play a key role in protein folding, stability, and function. Loss of a disulphide bond is often associated with functional differentiation of the protein. The evolution of disulphide bonds is still actively debated; analysis of naturally occurring variants can promote understanding of the protein evolutionary process. One of the disulphide bond-containing protein families is the potato proteinase inhibitor II (PI-II, or Pin2, for short) superfamily, which is found in most solanaceous plants and participates in plant development, stress response, and defence. Each PI-II domain contains eight cysteine residues (8C), and two similar PI-II domains form a functional protein that has eight disulphide bonds and two non-identical reaction centres. It is still unclear which patterns and processes affect cysteine residue loss in PI-II. Through cDNA sequencing and data mining, we found six natural variants missing cysteine residues involved in one or two disulphide bonds at the first reaction centre. We named these variants Pi7C and Pi6C for the proteins missing one or two pairs of cysteine residues, respectively. This PI-II-7C/6C family was found exclusively in potato. The missing cysteine residues were in bonding pairs but distant from one another at the nucleotide/protein sequence level. The non-synonymous/synonymous substitution (Ka/Ks) ratio analysis suggested a positive evolutionary gene selection for Pi6C and various Pi7C. The selective deletion of the first reaction centre cysteine residues that are structure-level-paired but sequence-level-distant in PI-II illustrates the flexibility of PI-II domains and suggests the functionality of their transient gene versions during evolution

A novel pathway producing dimethylsulphide in bacteria is widespread in soil environments

The volatile compound dimethylsulphide (DMS) is important in climate regulation, the sulphur cycle and signalling to higher organisms. Microbial catabolism of the marine osmolyte dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) is thought to be the major biological process generating DMS. Here we report the discovery and characterisation of the first gene for DMSP-independent DMS production in any bacterium. This gene, mddA, encodes a methyltransferase that methylates methanethiol (MeSH) and generates DMS. MddA functions in many taxonomically diverse bacteria including sediment-dwelling pseudomonads, nitrogen-fixing bradyrhizobia and cyanobacteria, and mycobacteria, including the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The mddA gene is present in metagenomes from varied environments, being particularly abundant in soil environments, where it is predicted to occur in up to 76% of bacteria. This novel pathway may significantly contribute to global DMS emissions, especially in terrestrial environments, and could represent a shift from the notion that DMSP is the only significant precursor of DMS

Neural Network Parameterizations of Electromagnetic Nucleon Form Factors

The electromagnetic nucleon form-factors data are studied with artificial feed forward neural networks. As a result the unbiased model-independent form-factor parametrizations are evaluated together with uncertainties. The Bayesian approach for the neural networks is adapted for chi2 error-like function and applied to the data analysis. The sequence of the feed forward neural networks with one hidden layer of units is considered. The given neural network represents a particular form-factor parametrization. The so-called evidence (the measure of how much the data favor given statistical model) is computed with the Bayesian framework and it is used to determine the best form factor parametrization.Comment: The revised version is divided into 4 sections. The discussion of the prior assumptions is added. The manuscript contains 4 new figures and 2 new tables (32 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables

Adult granulosa cell tumor associated with endometrial carcinoma: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>If strict criteria for the diagnosis of carcinoma are used and all patients with granulosa cell tumors are considered, the best estimate of the incidence of associated endometrial carcinomas is under 5%. In patients with granulosa cell tumors, estrogen-dependent endometrial cancers are rarely found, and most of these endometrial cancers are well-differentiated endometrioid adenocarcinomas that carry a good prognosis when detected early.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 65-year-old post-menopausal Nigerian woman of the Igbo tribe with an adult granulosa cell tumor that was initially treated as endometrial carcinoma. She underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy and a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy after histopathologic confirmation of a well-differentiated granulosa cell tumor of the ovary and a nuclear grade 1 adenocarcinoma of the endometrium (International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stage 1B). She had a good post-operative recovery and was discharged 10 days after treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The association between adult granulosa cell tumors of the ovary and endometrial carcinomas is rare. A high index of suspicion as well as good imaging and histopathologic analyses are important in making this diagnosis.</p

Methodological considerations in the analysis of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites in tufted capuchins (Cebus apella)

Analysis of fecal glucocorticoid (GC) metabolites has recently become the standard method to monitor adrenocortical activity in primates noninvasively. However, given variation in the production, metabolism, and excretion of GCs across species and even between sexes, there are no standard methods that are universally applicable. In particular, it is important to validate assays intended to measure GC production, test extraction and storage procedures, and consider the time course of GC metabolite excretion relative to the production and circulation of the native hormones. This study examines these four methodological aspects of fecal GC metabolite analysis in tufted capuchins (Cebus apella). Specifically, we conducted an adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) challenge on one male and one female capuchin to test the validity of four GC enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) and document the time course characterizing GC me- tabolite excretion in this species. In addition, we compare a common field-friendly technique for extracting fecal GC metabolites to an established laboratory extraction methodology and test for effects of storing “field extracts” for up to 1 yr. Results suggest that a corticosterone EIA is most sensitive to changes in GC production, provides reliable measures when extracted according to the field method, and measures GC metabolites which remain highly stable after even 12 mo of storage. Further, the time course of GC metabolite excretion is shorter than that described yet for any primate taxa. These results provide guidelines for studies of GCs in tufted capuchins, and underscore the importance of validating methods for fecal hormone analysis for each species of interest

Composition-based statistics and translated nucleotide searches: Improving the TBLASTN module of BLAST

BACKGROUND: TBLASTN is a mode of operation for BLAST that aligns protein sequences to a nucleotide database translated in all six frames. We present the first description of the modern implementation of TBLASTN, focusing on new techniques that were used to implement composition-based statistics for translated nucleotide searches. Composition-based statistics use the composition of the sequences being aligned to generate more accurate E-values, which allows for a more accurate distinction between true and false matches. Until recently, composition-based statistics were available only for protein-protein searches. They are now available as a command line option for recent versions of TBLASTN and as an option for TBLASTN on the NCBI BLAST web server. RESULTS: We evaluate the statistical and retrieval accuracy of the E-values reported by a baseline version of TBLASTN and by two variants that use different types of composition-based statistics. To test the statistical accuracy of TBLASTN, we ran 1000 searches using scrambled proteins from the mouse genome and a database of human chromosomes. To test retrieval accuracy, we modernize and adapt to translated searches a test set previously used to evaluate the retrieval accuracy of protein-protein searches. We show that composition-based statistics greatly improve the statistical accuracy of TBLASTN, at a small cost to the retrieval accuracy. CONCLUSION: TBLASTN is widely used, as it is common to wish to compare proteins to chromosomes or to libraries of mRNAs. Composition-based statistics improve the statistical accuracy, and therefore the reliability, of TBLASTN results. The algorithms used by TBLASTN are not widely known, and some of the most important are reported here. The data used to test TBLASTN are available for download and may be useful in other studies of translated search algorithms

Relevance of biomarkers across different neurodegenerative

Background: The panel of fluid- and imaging-based biomarkers available for neurodegenerative disease research is growing and has the potential to close important gaps in research and the clinic. With this growth and increasing use, appropriate implementation and interpretation are paramount. Various biomarkers feature nuanced differences in strengths, limitations, and biases that must be considered when investigating disease etiology and clinical utility. For example, neuropathological investigations of Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis can fall in disagreement with conclusions reached by biomarker-based investigations. Considering the varied strengths, limitations, and biases of different research methodologies and approaches may help harmonize disciplines within the neurodegenerative disease field. Purpose of review: Along with separate review articles covering fluid and imaging biomarkers in this issue of Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy, we present the result of a discussion from the 2019 Biomarkers in Neurodegenerative Diseases course at the University College London. Here, we discuss themes of biomarker use in neurodegenerative disease research, commenting on appropriate use, interpretation, and considerations for implementation across different neurodegenerative diseases. We also draw attention to areas where biomarker use can be combined with other disciplines to understand issues of pathophysiology and etiology underlying dementia. Lastly, we highlight novel modalities that have been proposed in the landscape of neurodegenerative disease research and care