Activation of myocardial cAMP-dependent protein kinase by lysoplasmenylcholine

AbstractPlasmalogen-specific, calcium-independent phospholipase A2 (iPLA2) is activated during myocardial ischemia. Accordingly, we have assessed the activation of myocardial protein kinases by the iPLA2 product, lysoplasmenylcholine. Lysoplasmenylcholine-activated protein kinase activity from heart cytosol fractionated on a DE-52 column was identified as cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) based on the following: (1) protein kinase activity stimulated by cAMP and lysoplasmenylcholine co-eluted on sequential chromatographic steps; (2) lysoplasmenylcholine-activated protein kinase activity was inhibited by the PKA inhibitor, PKI; and (3) the unprimed PKA form generated from the primed form of PKA was activated by cAMP and lysoplasmenylcholine. These results demonstrate a novel mechanism for PKA activation by lysoplasmenylcholine

Diverter AI based decision aid, phases 1 and 2

It was determined that a system to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into airborne flight management computers is feasible. The AI functions that would be most useful to the pilot are to perform situational assessment, evaluate outside influences on the contemplated rerouting, perform flight planning/replanning, and perform maneuver planning. A study of the software architecture and software tools capable of demonstrating Diverter was also made. A skeletal planner known as the Knowledge Acquisition Development Tool (KADET), which is a combination script-based and rule-based system, was used to implement the system. A prototype system was developed which demonstrates advanced in-flight planning/replanning capabilities

Factorised spatial representation learning: application in semi-supervised myocardial segmentation

The success and generalisation of deep learning algorithms heavily depend on learning good feature representations. In medical imaging this entails representing anatomical information, as well as properties related to the specific imaging setting. Anatomical information is required to perform further analysis, whereas imaging information is key to disentangle scanner variability and potential artefacts. The ability to factorise these would allow for training algorithms only on the relevant information according to the task. To date, such factorisation has not been attempted. In this paper, we propose a methodology of latent space factorisation relying on the cycle-consistency principle. As an example application, we consider cardiac MR segmentation, where we separate information related to the myocardium from other features related to imaging and surrounding substructures. We demonstrate the proposed method's utility in a semi-supervised setting: we use very few labelled images together with many unlabelled images to train a myocardium segmentation neural network. Specifically, we achieve comparable performance to fully supervised networks using a fraction of labelled images in experiments on ACDC and a dataset from Edinburgh Imaging Facility QMRI. Code will be made available at https://github.com/agis85/spatial_factorisation.Comment: Accepted in MICCAI 201

Mapping Low-Density Intergalactic Gas: a Third Helium Lyman-alpha Forest

We present a new HST/STIS spectrum of the z=3.18 quasar PKS 1935-692 and summarize the spectral features shortwards of 304A in the rest frame likely to be caused by foreground HeII Lyman-alpha absorption. In accord with previous results on two other quasars at similar redshifts, we demonstrate a correlation with the HI Lyman-alpha forest absorption, and show that much of the helium absorption is caused by a comparable quantity of more diffuse gas with Omega~0.01, that is not detected in HI. The helium ionization zone around the quasar is detected as well as a void seen in both HI and HeII. The properties of the absorption are in broad agreement with those of the other quasars and with models of the protogalactic gas distribution and ionization at this redshift.Comment: 17 pages including 5 figures. As accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal (minor revisions

Profile: The Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (KHDSS).

The Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (KHDSS), located on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya, was established in 2000 as a record of births, pregnancies, migration events and deaths and is maintained by 4-monthly household visits. The study area was selected to capture the majority of patients admitted to Kilifi District Hospital. The KHDSS has 260 000 residents and the hospital admits 4400 paediatric patients and 3400 adult patients per year. At the hospital, morbidity events are linked in real time by a computer search of the population register. Linked surveillance was extended to KHDSS vaccine clinics in 2008. KHDSS data have been used to define the incidence of hospital presentation with childhood infectious diseases (e.g. rotavirus diarrhoea, pneumococcal disease), to test the association between genetic risk factors (e.g. thalassaemia and sickle cell disease) and infectious diseases, to define the community prevalence of chronic diseases (e.g. epilepsy), to evaluate access to health care and to calculate the operational effectiveness of major public health interventions (e.g. conjugate Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine). Rapport with residents is maintained through an active programme of community engagement. A system of collaborative engagement exists for sharing data on survival, morbidity, socio-economic status and vaccine coverage

Review of Indigenous Oral Health

Indigenous Australians1 have poorer oral health than other Australians [1, 2]. Indigenous people suffer from more caries, periodontal diseases, and tooth loss than non-Indigenous people [3]. Tooth decay among the Indigenous population more commonly goes untreated, leading to more extractions. This discrepancy is attributed in part to the fact that access to culturally appropriate and timely dental care is often not available to Indigenous people, especially in rural and remote areas. Other information on oral health such as culturally appropriate resources about maintaining healthy teeth and mouths, and nutritional guidance on how much sugar is contained in certain foods and drinks, is also less available for the Indigenous Australian population. If Indigenous oral health is to be ameliorated, access to dental care must be improved, and an integrated holistic approach to oral health, which includes preventative measures, needs to be established

Rethinking Visiting Friends and Relatives Mobilities

The increasing number of people leading more mobile lives, with spatially dispersed families, raises questions over how they maintain their family life and friendships, and how this is shaped and shapes different forms of migration, and different patterns of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR). This paper develops an explanatory framework for conceptualizing and analyzing VFR mobilities, seeking to draw together threads from migration, mobilities and tourism studies. In unpacking the notion of VFR, this paper understands VFR mobilities as being constituted of diverse practices, and discusses five of the most important of these: social relationships, the provision of care, affirmations of identities and roots, maintenance of territorial rights, and leisure tourism. While these five types of practices are considered sequentially in this paper, they are in practice often blurred and overlapping. The interweaving of these practices changes over time, as does the meaning and content of individual practices, reflecting changes in the duration of migration, life cycle stage, individual goals and values, and the broader sets of relationships with and social obligations to different kin and friends

The BTB/POZ zinc finger protein Broad-Z3 promotes dendritic outgrowth during metamorphic remodeling of the peripheral stretch receptor dbd

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Various members of the family of BTB/POZ zinc-finger transcription factors influence patterns of dendritic branching. One such member, <it>Broad</it>, is notable because its BrZ3 isoform is widely expressed in <it>Drosophila </it>in immature neurons around the time of arbor outgrowth. We used the metamorphic remodeling of an identified sensory neuron, the dorsal bipolar dendrite sensory neuron (dbd), to examine the effects of BrZ3 expression on the extent and pattern of dendrite growth during metamorphosis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using live imaging of dbd in <it>Drosophila </it>pupae, we followed its normal development during metamorphosis and the effect of ectopic expression of BrZ3 on this development. After migration of its cell body, dbd extends a growth-cone that grows between two muscle bands followed by branching and turning back on itself to form a compact dendritic bundle. The ectopic expression of the BrZ3 isoform, using the GAL4/UAS system, caused dbd's dendritic tree to transform from its normal, compact, fasciculated form into a comb-like arbor that spread over on the body wall. Time-lapse analysis revealed that the expression of BrZ3 caused the premature extension of the primary dendrite onto immature myoblasts, ectopic growth past the muscle target region, and subsequent elaboration onto the epidermis. To control the timing of expression of BrZ3, we used a temperature-sensitive GAL80 mutant. When BrZ3 expression was delayed until after the extension of the primary dendrite, then a normal arbor was formed. By contrast, when BrZ3 expression was confined to only the early outgrowth phase, then ectopic arbors were subsequently formed and maintained on the epidermis despite the subsequent absence of BrZ3.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The adult arbor of dbd is a highly branched arbor whose branches self-fasciculate to form a compact dendritic bundle. The ectopic expression of BrZ3 in this cell causes a premature extension of its growth-cone, resulting in dendrites that extend beyond their normal muscle substrate and onto the epidermis, where they form a comb-shaped, ectopic arbor. Our quantitative data suggest that new ectopic arbor represents an 'unpacking' of the normally fasciculated arbor onto the epidermis. These data suggest that the nature of their local environment can change dendrite behavior from self-adhesion to self-avoidance.</p

Allometric length-weight relationships for benthic prey of aquatic wildlife in coastal marine habitats

We developed models to estimate the soft tissue content of benthic marine invertebrates that are prey for aquatic wildlife. Allometric regression models of tissue wet weight with shell length for 10 species of benthic invertebrates had r2 values ranging from 0.29 for hermit crabs Pagurus longicarpus to 0.98 for green crabs Carcinus maenas. As a class, bivalves had the highest r2 values (0.84) and crustaceans the lowest (0.48). Energy and nutrient content of soft tissue is also presented for the 10 benthic species. The energy content was lowest in crabs, and ranged within 2.20–4.71 kcal g-1 dry weight. Fat content was highly variable (range: 3.5–16.0%), and protein content ranged within 43.1–68.1% and was highest for shrimp Palaemonetes pugio. Comparison between classes of organisms of the amount of soft tissue per unit shell length showed that crustaceans yield five times more soft tissue per unit shell length than bivalves, and four times more than gastropods. The models we present use simple measures, such as the length of shell or wet weight of the entire animal, to quantitatively estimate the amount of available soft tissue in benthic prey that are usually consumed in total (with shell and soft tissue intact) but for which only the soft tissue is used for nutritional gain. This information can be combined with energy and nutrient content data to calculate energy or nutrient based carrying capacities that can help assess available resources for shorebirds, waterfowl and marine mammals

MASE: A New Data--Reduction Pipeline for the Magellan Echellette Spectrograph

We introduce a data reduction package written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) for the Magellan Echellete Spectrograph (MAGE). MAGE is a medium-resolution (R ~4100), cross-dispersed, optical spectrograph, with coverage from ~3000-10000 Angstroms. The MAGE Spectral Extractor (MASE) incorporates the entire image reduction and calibration process, including bias subtraction, flat fielding, wavelength calibration, sky subtraction, object extraction and flux calibration of point sources. We include examples of the user interface and reduced spectra. We show that the wavelength calibration is sufficient to achieve ~5 km/s RMS accuracy and relative flux calibrations better than 10%. A light-weight version of the full reduction pipeline has been included for real-time source extraction and signal-to-noise estimation at the telescope.Comment: 10 pages (ApJ format), accepted PAS