High genetic connectivity in a gastropod with long-lived planktonic larvae

Genetic connectivity plays a crucial role in shaping the geographic structure of species. Our aim in this study was to explore the pattern of genetic connectivity in Bursa scrobilator, an iconic marine caenogastropod with long-lived pelagic larvae. Our study was based on the analysis of DNA sequence data for the 658-bp barcoding fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. This is the largest DNA sequence dataset assembled to date for B. scrobilator. These data confirm that the two recently described subspecies B. scrobilator scrobilator (Linnaeus, 1758), from the Mediterranean and Macaronesia, and B. s. coriacea (Reeve, 1844), from West Africa, constitute two evolutionarily significant units (ESUs). We found that for the nominal subspecies, the variation in morphology (shell, radula and gross anatomy) and DNA sequences was not geographically structured, and this agrees with what we would expect in a species with high connectivity at the larval stage. The divergence between the two subspecies cannot be easily explained by isolation by distance, and we would argue that one or more extrinsic factors may have played a role in isolating the two ESUs and maintaining that isolation

Chromosome fragility in dairy cows exposed to dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs

In this study, we compared cross-bred dairy cows in the Susa Valley (Piedmont, northern Italy), reared either near a high-temperature steel production plant (Farms A and B) or in an industry-free area (control). Exposed cows (n 5 36) were selected based on mean bulk milk toxic equivalent values of polychlorodibenzodioxins (PCDDs) and dioxin-like (DL) polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorodi-benzofurans (PCDFs) equal to 18.56 pg/g fat and 8.56 pg/g of fat in dairy cows from Farms A and B, respectively, exceeding both those permitted by the legislation in force (6 pg/g fat PCDDs and DL-PCDFs/PCBs), and those measured in dairy cows (n 5 19) of the farm used as control (1.75 pg/g of fat PCDDs and DL-PCDFs/PCBs). Two types of peripheral blood cell cultures were per-formed: without (normal cultures for the chromosom

VST - VLT Survey Telescope Integration Status

The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) is a 2.6m aperture, wide field, UV to I facility, to be installed at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on the Cerro Paranal Chile. VST was primarily intended to complement the observing capabilities of VLT with wide-angle imaging for detecting and pre-characterising sources for further observations with the VLT.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, conferenc

Depression and cardiovascular disease. the deep blue sea of women's heart

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) constitutes a leading worldwide health problem, with increasing evidence of differences between women and men both in epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical management, and outcomes. Data from the literature suggest that women experience a doubled incidence of CVD related deaths, while angina, heart failure and stroke are increasingly prevalent in females. About 20–25% of women go through depression during their life, and depressive symptoms have been considered a relevant emergent, non-traditional risk factor for CVD in this part of the general population. Underlying mechanisms explaining the link between depression and CVD may range from behavioral to biological risk factors, including sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity and impairment in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function. However, the neuroendocrine-driven background could only partially explain the differences mentioned above for chronic systemic inflammation, altered hemostasis and modulation of cardiac autonomic control. In addition, some evidence also suggests the existence of gender-specific differences in biological responses to mental stress. Given these premises, we here summarize the current knowledge about depression and CVD relationship in women, highlighting the sex differences in physiopathology, clinical presentation and treatments

Adherence to Antihypertensive Medications andCardiovascular Morbidity Among Newly DiagnosedHypertensive Patients

Background—Nonadherence to antihypertensive treatment is a common problem in cardiovascular prevention and may influence prognosis. We explored predictors of adherence to antihypertensive treatment and the association of adherence with acute cardiovascular events. Methods and Results—Using data obtained from 400 Italian primary care physicians providing information to the Health Search/Thales Database, we selected 18 806 newly diagnosed hypertensive patients 35 years of age during the years 2000 to 2001. Subjects included were newly treated for hypertension and initially free of cardiovascular diseases. Patient adherence was subdivided a priori into 3 categories— high (proportion of days covered, 80%), intermediate (proportion of days covered, 40% to 79%), and low (proportion of days covered, 40%)—and compared with the long-term occurrence of acute cardiovascular events through the use of multivariable models adjusted for demographic factors, comorbidities, and concomitant drug use. At baseline (ie, 6 months after index diagnosis), 8.1%, 40.5%, and 51.4% of patients were classified as having high, intermediate, and low adherence levels, respectively. Multiple drug treatment (odds ratio, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.43 to 1.83), dyslipidemia (odds ratio, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.24 to 1.87), diabetes mellitus (odds ratio, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.15 to 1.71), obesity (odds ratio, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.26 to 1.78), and antihypertensive combination therapy (odds ratio, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.15 to 1.45) were significantly (P0.001) associated with high adherence to antihypertensive treatment. Compared with their low-adherence counterparts, only high adherers reported a significantly decreased risk of acute cardiovascular events (hazard ratio, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.40 to 0.96; P0.032). Conclusions—The long-term reduction of acute cardiovascular events associated with high adherence to antihypertensive treatment underscores its importance in assessments of the beneficial effects of evidence-based therapies in the population. An effort focused on early antihypertensive treatment initiation and adherence is likely to provide major benefits

Underwater robots equipped with artificial electric sense for the exploration of unconventional aquatic niches

International audienceThis article presents different use of the electric field perception in the context of underwater robot navigation. To illustrate the developed navigation behaviours we will introduce a recently launched european project named subCULTron and will show some simulation and experimentation results. The project sub- CULTron aims at achieving long-term collective robot exploration and monitoring of underwater environments. The demonstration will take place in the lagoon of Venice, a large shallow embayment composed of salt turbib water that represents a challenging environment for underwater robots as common sensor like vision or acoustic are difficult to handle. To overcome turbidity and confinement problems our robots will be equipped with artificial electric sensors that will be used as the main sensorial modality for navigation. Electric sense is a bio-inspired sense that has been developed by several species of fish living in turbib and confined underwater environment. In this paper, many different robotic behaviours based on the electric field perception will be presented, in particular we will address reactive navigation, object/robots detection, and object localization and estimation

The dust un-biased cosmic star formation history from the 20 cm VLA-COSMOS survey

We derive the cosmic star formation history (CSFH) out to z=1.3 using a sample of ~350 radio-selected star-forming galaxies, a far larger sample than in previous, similar studies. We attempt to differentiate between radio emission from AGN and star-forming galaxies, and determine an evolving 1.4 GHz luminosity function based on these VLA-COSMOS star forming galaxies. We precisely measure the high-luminosity end of the star forming galaxy luminosity function (SFR>100 M_Sol/yr; equivalent to ULIRGs) out to z=1.3, finding a somewhat slower evolution than previously derived from mid-infrared data. We find that more stars are forming in luminous starbursts at high redshift. We use extrapolations based on the local radio galaxy luminosity function; assuming pure luminosity evolution, we derive $L_* \propto (1+z)^{2.1 \pm 0.2}$ or $L_* \propto (1+z)^{2.5 \pm 0.1}$, depending on the choice of the local radio galaxy luminosity function. Thus, our radio-derived results independently confirm the ~1 order of magnitude decline in the CSFH since z~1.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; submitted to ApJ (revised following the referee report

Extreme emission-line galaxies out to z∼\sim1 in zCOSMOS. I. Sample and characterization of global properties

We present a thorough characterization of a large sample of 183 extreme emission-line galaxies (EELGs) at redshift 0.11 < z < 0.93 selected from the 20k zCOSMOS Bright Survey because of their unusually large emission line equivalent widths. We use multiwavelength COSMOS photometry, HST-ACS I-band imaging and optical zCOSMOS spectroscopy to derive the main global properties of EELGs, such as sizes, masses, SFRs, reliable metallicities from both "direct" and "strong-line" methods. The EELGs are compact (R_50 ~ 1.3 kpc), low-mass (log(M*/Msol)~7-10) galaxies forming stars at unusually high specific SFR (log(sSFR/yr) up to ~ -7) compared to main sequence SFGs of the same stellar mass and redshift. At UV wavelengths, the EELGs are luminous and show high surface brightness and include strong Ly$\alpha$ emitters, as revealed by GALEX spectroscopy. We show that zCOSMOS EELGs are high-ionization, low-metallicity systems, with median 12+log(O/H)=8.16, including a handful of extremely metal-deficient galaxies (<10% solar). While ~80% of the EELGs show non-axisymmetric morphologies, including clumpy and tadpole galaxies, we find that ~29% of them show additional low surface-brightness features, which strongly suggest recent or ongoing interactions. As star-forming dwarfs in the local Universe, EELGs are most often found in relative isolation. While only very few EELGs belong to compact groups, almost one third of them are found in spectroscopically confirmed loose pairs or triplets. We conclude that EELGs are galaxies caught in a transient and probably early period of their evolution, where they are efficiently building-up a significant fraction of their present-day stellar mass in an ongoing galaxy-wide starburst. Therefore, the EELGs constitute an ideal benchmark for comparison studies between low- and high-redshift low-mass star-forming galaxies.Comment: Accepted in A&A. Final replacement to match the version in press. It includes a minor change in the title and a new figur