A new identification of the monkeys depicted in a Bronze Age wall painting from Akrotiri, Thera

Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3500–1100 B.C.) wall paintings from the islands of Crete and Thera depict monkeys in a variety of roles such as running wild in nature, possibly following (trained) commands, and participating in sacred activities. These images, while stylistically Aegean, are traditionally considered closely related to—and descendant from—Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Mesopotamian monkey imagery. While monkey depictions in the latter regions may provide species-specific characteristics, Aegean wall paintings typically lack this level of detail. In an attempt to better understand the relationships between the monkeys depicted in Aegean wall paintings and the species that were encountered by the Aegean, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian peoples, a collaborative team of primatologists, a taxonomic illustrator, and an art historian/archaeologist identified species-indicative visual characteristics. This collaborative approach led us to identify a new region that serves as a source for monkey iconography: the Indus River Valley. With an emphasis on the primatological aspect and the growing corpus of possible Indus goods and possible species found in the Aegean, a broader iconographic and socioreligious sphere of interaction emerges. In this expanded system, Mesopotamia functions as an intermediary that enables the movement of goods, raw materials, people, and iconography between the east and west. Mesopotamia may have even afforded an opportunity for Aegean peoples to encounter the creatures themselves, first-hand. Of primary importance to the methodology employed for this project is the cooperation of scholars from disparate disciplines—the stitching together of various projects and experiences in attempt to answer both new and previously unanswerable questions. This type of interdisciplinary approach can be applied to other species, sites, paintings, and objects to hone our understanding of period, place, animal, movement, and trade

Electroencephalographic evoked pain response is suppressed by spinal cord stimulation in complex regional pain syndrome: a case report

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is considered as an option for the management of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Hyperalgesia, an increased pain response to a mechanical or thermal stimulus at normal or increased threshold is a common feature of CRPS. Animal studies have demonstrated that SCS significantly reduces mechanical hyperalgesia. These studies suggest that SCS mechanisms may involve reduction of glial activation at spinal cord level and/or activation of μ-opioid and δ-opioid receptors. However, in humans it has been observed that SCS had no effect on experimental pain thresholds and did not produce decreased sensitivity for pressure, warmth, and cold induced pain in CRPS patients. The majority of currently available studies on the effectiveness of SCS, including those using quantitative sensory testing (QST) rely on patient reported outcomes such as visual analogue or numerical rating scales. The current case report investigates the effectiveness of SCS based on electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis of contact heat evoked potentials following experimental induction of thermal stimuli

Reliability of 1-repetition maximum estimation for upper and lower body muscular strength measurement in untrained middle aged type 2 diabetic patients

Purpose: The 1-repetition maximum (1-RM) test is the gold standard test for evaluating maximal dynamic strength of groups of muscles. However, safety of actual 1-RM testing is questionable in clinical situations such as type 2 diabetes (T2D), where an estimated 1-RM test is preferred. It is unclear if acceptable test retest reliability exists for the estimated 1-RM test in middle aged T2D patients. This study examined the reliability of the estimated 1-RM strength test in untrained middle aged T2D subjects.Methods: Twenty five untrained diabetic males (n=19) and females (n=6) aged 40.7+0.4 years participated in the study. Participants undertook the first estimated 1-RM test for five exercises namely supine bench press, leg press, lateral pull, leg extension and seated biceps curls. A familiarisation session was provided three to five days before the first test. 1-RM was estimated for all participants by Brzycki 1-RM prediction equation. Another identical 1-RM estimation procedure occurred one week after first test. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), paired t-test, standard error of measurement (SEM), Bland-Altman plots, and estimation of 95% CI were used to assess reliability.Results: Test-retest reliability was excellent (ICC2,1=0.98-0.99) for all measurements with the highest for leg extension (ICC2,1=0.99). The SEM was lowest for lateral pull and leg extension exercises. Paired t-tests showed non-significant differences between the means of 2 sessions across three of five exercises.Conclusions: The study findings suggest that estimation of 1-RM is reliable for upper and lower body muscular strength measurement in untrained middle aged T2D patients.https://doi.org/10.5812/asjsm.345493pubpub

Age and baseline values predict 12 and 24-month functional changes in type 2 SMA

The aim of this retrospective study was to establish the range of functional changes at 12 and 24-month in 267 type 2 Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) patients with multiple assessments. We included 652 Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale Expanded (HFMSE) assessments at 12 month- and 305 at 24 month- intervals. The cohort was subdivided by functional level, Survival of Motor Neuron copy number and age. Stable scores (± 2 points) were found in 68% at 12 months and in 55% at 24 months. A decrease ≥2 points was found in 21% at 12 months and in 35% at 24 months. An increase ≥2 points was found in 11% at 12 months and 9.5% at 24 months. The risk of losing ≥2 points increased with age and HFMSE score at baseline both at 12 and 24-month. For each additional HFMSE point at baseline, the relative risk of a >2 point decline at 12 months increases by 5% before age 5 years (p = 0.023), by 8% between 5 and 13 (p<0.001) and by 26% after 13 years (p = 0.003). The combination of age and HFMSE scores at baseline increased the ability to predict progression in type 2 SMA

Synchronization modulation increases transepithelial potentials in MDCK monolayers through Na/K pumps

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Waist-to-Height Ratio Is More Predictive of Years of Life Lost than Body Mass Index

Objective: Our aim was to compare the effect of central obesity (measured by waist-to-height ratio, WHtR) and total obesity (measured by body mass index, BMI) on life expectancy expressed as years of life lost (YLL), using data on British adults. Methods: A Cox proportional hazards model was applied to data from the prospective Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS) and the cross sectional Health Survey for England (HSE). The number of years of life lost (YLL) at three ages (30, 50, 70 years) was found by comparing the life expectancies of obese lives with those of lives at optimum levels of BMI and WHtR. Results: Mortality risk associated with BMI in the British HALS survey was similar to that found in US studies. However, WHtR was a better predictor of mortality risk. For the first time, YLL have been quantified for different values of WHtR. This has been done for both sexes separately and for three representative ages. Conclusion: This study supports the simple message ‘‘Keep your waist circumference to less than half your height’’. The use of WHtR in public health screening, with appropriate action, could help add years to life

Differential Impact of Tumor Suppressor Pathways on DNA Damage Response and Therapy-Induced Transformation in a Mouse Primary Cell Model

The RB and p53 tumor suppressors are mediators of DNA damage response, and compound inactivation of RB and p53 is a common occurrence in human cancers. Surprisingly, their cooperation in DNA damage signaling in relation to tumorigenesis and therapeutic response remains enigmatic. In the context of individuals with heritable retinoblastoma, there is a predilection for secondary tumor development, which has been associated with the use of radiation-therapy to treat the primary tumor. Furthermore, while germline mutations of the p53 gene are critical drivers for cancer predisposition syndromes, it is postulated that extrinsic stresses play a major role in promoting varying tumor spectrums and disease severities. In light of these studies, we examined the tumor suppressor functions of these proteins when challenged by exposure to therapeutic stress. To examine the cooperation of RB and p53 in tumorigenesis, and in response to therapy-induced DNA damage, a combination of genetic deletion and dominant negative strategies was employed. Results indicate that loss/inactivation of RB and p53 is not sufficient for cellular transformation. However, these proteins played distinct roles in response to therapy-induced DNA damage and subsequent tumorigenesis. Specifically, RB status was critical for cellular response to damage and senescence, irrespective of p53 function. Loss of RB resulted in a dramatic evolution of gene expression as a result of alterations in epigenetic programming. Critically, the observed changes in gene expression have been specifically associated with tumorigenesis, and RB-deficient, recurred cells displayed oncogenic characteristics, as well as increased resistance to subsequent challenge with discrete therapeutic agents. Taken together, these findings indicate that tumor suppressor functions of RB and p53 are particularly manifest when challenged by cellular stress. In the face of such challenge, RB is a critical suppressor of tumorigenesis beyond p53, and RB-deficiency could promote significant cellular evolution, ultimately contributing to a more aggressive disease

Clinical variability in spinal muscular atrophy type III

Objective: We report natural history data in a large cohort of 199 patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) type III assessed using the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale Expanded (HFMSE). The aim of the study was to establish the annual rate and possible patterns of progression according to a number of variables, such as age of onset, age at assessment, SMN2 copy number, and functional status. Methods: HFMSE longitudinal changes were assessed using piecewise linear mixed‐effects models. The dependency in the data due to repeated measures was accounted for by a random intercept per individual and an unstructured covariance R matrix was used as correlation structure. An additional descriptive analysis was performed for 123 patients, for a total of 375 12‐month assessments. Results: A break point at age 7 years was set for the whole cohort and for SMA IIIA and IIIB. Age, SMA type, and ambulatory status were significantly associated with changes in mean HFMSE score, whereas gender and SMN2 copy number were not. The increase in response before the break point of age 7 years is significant only for SMA IIIA (β = 1.79, p < 0.0001). After the break point, the change in the rate of HFMSE score significantly decrease for both SMA IIIA (β = −1.15, p < 0.0001) and IIIB (β = −0.69, p = 0.002). Interpretation: Our findings contribute to the understanding of the natural history of SMA type III and will be helpful in the interpretation of the real‐world data of patients treated with commercially available drugs. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:1109–111

Meta-KANSEI modeling with Valence-Arousal fMRI dataset of brain

Background: Traditional KANSEI methodology is an important tool in the field of psychology to comprehend the concepts and meanings; it mainly focusses on semantic differential methods. Valence-Arousal is regarded as a reflection of the KANSEI adjectives, which is the core concept in the theory of effective dimensions for brain recognition. From previous studies, it has been found that brain fMRI datasets can contain significant information related to Valence and Arousal. Methods: In this current work, a Valence-Arousal based meta-KANSEI modeling method is proposed to improve the traditional KANSEI presentation. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to acquire the response dataset of Valence-Arousal of the brain in the amygdala and orbital frontal cortex respectively. In order to validate the feasibility of the proposed modeling method, the dataset was processed under dimension reduction by using Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) based segmentation and Mean Shift (MS) clustering. Furthermore, Affective Norm English Words (ANEW) by IAPS (International Affective Picture System) were used for comparison and analysis. The data sets from fMRI and ANEW under four KANSEI adjectives of angry, happy, sad and pleasant were processed by the Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) algorithm. Finally, a defined distance based on similarity computing was adopted for these two data sets. Results: The results illustrate that the proposed model is feasible and has better stability per the normal distribution plotting of the distance. The effectiveness of the experimental methods proposed in the current work was higher than in the literature. Conclusions: mean shift can be used to cluster and central points based meta-KANSEI model combining with the advantages of a variety of existing intelligent processing methods are expected to shift the KANSEI Engineering (KE) research into the medical imaging field

Differential responses to woodland character and landscape context by cryptic bats in urban environments

© 2015 Lintott et al. Urbanisation is one of the most dramatic forms of land use change which relatively few species can adapt to. Determining how and why species respond differently to urban habitats is important in predicting future biodiversity loss as urban areas rapidly expand. Understanding how morphological or behavioural traits can influence species adaptability to the built environment may enable us to improve the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Although many bat species are able to exploit human resources, bat species richness generally declines with increasing urbanisation and there is considerable variation in the responses of different bat species to urbanisation. Here, we use acoustic recordings from two cryptic, and largely sympatric European bat species to assess differential responses in their use of fragmented urban woodland and the surrounding urban matrix. There was a high probability of P. pygmaeus activity relative to P. pipistrellus in woodlands with low clutter and understory cover which were surrounded by low levels of built environment. Additionally, the probability of recording P. pygmaeus relative to P. pipistrellus was considerably higher in urban woodland interior or edge habitat in contrast to urban grey or non-wooded green space. These results show differential habitat use occurring between two morphologically similar species; whilst the underlying mechanism for this partitioning is unknown it may be driven by competition avoidance over foraging resources. Their differing response to urbanisation indicates the difficulties involved when attempting to assess how adaptable a species is to urbanisation for conservation purposes