The hermaphrodite Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas displays a high energy allocation to reproduction. We studied the expression of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) during gametogenesis in the ...gonad and characterized the mRNA sequences of the AMPK subunits: the AMPK alpha mRNA sequence was previously characterized; we identified AMPK beta, AMPK gamma, and mRNAs of putative AMPK-related targets following bioinformatics mining on existing genomic resources. We analyzed the mRNA expression of the AMPK alpha, beta, and gamma subunits in the gonads of male and female oysters through a reproductive cycle, and we quantified the mRNA expression of genes belonging to fatty acid and glucose metabolism. AMPK alpha mRNA levels were more abundant in males at the first stage of gametogenesis, when mitotic activity and the differentiation of germinal cells occur, and were always more abundant in males than in females. Some targets of fatty acid and glucose metabolism appeared to be correlated with the expression of AMPK subunits at the mRNA level. We then analyzed the sex-specific AMPK activity by measuring the phosphorylation of the catalytic AMPK alpha protein and its expression at the protein level. Both the amount of AMPK alpha protein and threonine 172 phosphorylation appeared to be almost totally inhibited in mature female gonads at stage 3, at the time when accumulation of reserves in oocytes was promoted, while it remained at a high level in mature spermatozoa. Its activation might play a sex-dependent role in the management of energy during gametogenesis in oyster.
To evaluate the clinically relevant abnormalities as visualized on CT and MR imaging in children with symmetric and asymmetric bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), in relation to age and the ...severity of hearing loss.
Retrospective cohort study.
Tertiary referral otology and audiology center.
From January 2006 until January 2016, a total of 207 children diagnosed with symmetric and asymmetric bilateral SNHL were included. They underwent CT and/or MR imaging for the evaluation of the etiology of their hearing loss.
Radiologic abnormalities associated with SNHL.
302 scans were performed in 207 children (median age of 0.8 years old) with bilateral SNHL. The most frequently identified cause of bilateral SNHL was a malformation of the labyrinth. The combined diagnostic yield of CT and MR imaging was 32%. The diagnostic yield of MR (34%) was considerably higher than that of CT (20%). We found a higher rate of abnormalities in children with profound hearing loss (41%) compared to milder hearing loss (8–29%), and in asymmetric SNHL (52%) compared to symmetric SNHL (30%).
Imaging is essential in the etiologic evaluation of children with bilateral SNHL. The highest diagnostic yield is found in children with bilateral asymmetric SNHL or profound SNHL. Based on our findings, MR is the primary imaging modality of choice in the etiological evaluation of children with bilateral SNHL because of its high diagnostic yield.
The greenhouse gases and black carbon emission inventory from IPCC key category Energy was accomplished for the Mezquital Valley, one of the most polluted regions in Mexico, as the Mexico City ...wastewater have been continuously used in agricultural irrigation for more than a hundred years. In addition, thermoelectric, refinery, cement and chemistry industries are concentrated in the southern part of the valley, near Mexico City. Several studies have reported air, soil, and water pollution data and its main sources for the region. Paradoxically, these sources contaminate the valley, but boosted its economic development. Nevertheless, no research has been done concerning GHG emissions, or climate change assessment. This paper reports inventories performed by the 1996 IPCC methodology for the baseline year 2005. Fuel consumption data were derived from priority sectors such as electricity generation, refineries, manufacturing & cement industries, transportation, and residential use. The total CO2 emission result was 13,894.9Gg, which constituted three-quarters of Hidalgo statewide energy category. The principal CO2 sources were energy transformation (69%) and manufacturing (19%). Total black carbon emissions were estimated by a bottom-up method at 0.66Gg. The principal contributor was on-road transportation (37%), followed by firewood residential consumption (26%) and cocked brick manufactures (22%). Non-CO2 gas emissions were also significant, particularly SO2 (255.9Gg), which accounts for 80% of the whole Hidalgo State emissions. Results demonstrated the negative environmental impact on Mezquital Valley, caused by its role as a Megacity secondary fuel and electricity provider, as well as by the presence of several cement industries.
•First GHG & black carbon inventory for Mezquital Valley: Mexico City energy supplier•Energy industries caused the largest CO2 and SO2 emissions from residual fuel oil.•Diesel transportation was the main black carbon source.•Mezquital Valley has the main GHG emissions' sources in the state of Hidalgo: 75%.
Housing prices in Auckland have persistently increased in the last decade. To fast-track development of housing, Special Housing Areas (SHAs) were created in September 2013 as a measure to improve ...affordability. It is not clear the extent of the success (or failure) of SHAs as they were disestablished by May 2017. This paper investigates the causal effects of the SHAs programme on housing prices and the implications on affordability. We used a dataset comprising more than 170 thousand sales transactions between 2011 and 2016 in Auckland. Our approach consists of a Difference-in-Difference approach where the treatment consists of tranches of land designated as SHAs. Our results indicate that the SHAs caused an average price increase of approximately 5% and did not contribute to increases in the likelihood of affordable transactions. These findings are robust across several specifications and question the effectiveness of the SHAs on improving affordability.
Pannexin 1 (PANX1) is a channel-forming glycoprotein expressed in many tissues including the skin. PANX1 channels allow the passage of ions and molecules up to 1 kDa, including ATP and other ...metabolites. In this study, we show that PANX1 is highly expressed in human melanoma tumors at all stages of disease progression, as well as in patient-derived cells and established melanoma cell lines. Reducing PANX1 protein levels using shRNA or inhibiting channel function with the channel blockers, carbenoxolone (CBX) and probenecid (PBN), significantly decreased cell growth and migration, and increased melanin production in A375-P and A375-MA2 cell lines. Further, treatment of A375-MA2 tumors in chicken embryo xenografts with CBX or PBN significantly reduced melanoma tumor weight and invasiveness. Blocking PANX1 channels with PBN reduced ATP release in A375-P cells, suggesting a potential role for PANX1 in purinergic signaling of melanoma cells. In addition, cell-surface biotinylation assays indicate that there is an intracellular pool of PANX1 in melanoma cells. PANX1 likely modulates signaling through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, because β-catenin levels were significantly decreased upon PANX1 silencing. Collectively, our findings identify a role for PANX1 in controlling growth and tumorigenic properties of melanoma cells contributing to signaling pathways that modulate melanoma progression.
Benefits of PVI in Patients with Atrial Flutter
Background
This study examined incidence of AF following cavotricuspid isthmus (CTI) ablation alone or CTI plus prophylactic pulmonary vein isolation ...(PVI) in patients presenting with isolated atrial flutter (AFL) with no history of AF.
Methods and Results
We enrolled 216 patients with isolated typical atrial flutter and randomized them to CTI alone (group 1, n = 108, 61.2 ± 9.7 year, 75% male) or CTI+PVI ablation (group 2, n = 108, 62.4 ± 9.3 year, 73% male). Insertible loop recorder (ILR) was implanted in 21 and 19 patients from groups 1 and 2, respectively. Remaining patients were monitored with event recorders, ECG, 7‐day Holter. Follow‐up period was for 18 ± 6 months.
Compared to group 1, group 2 had significantly longer procedural duration (75.9 ± 33 min vs. 161 ± 48 min P < 0.001) and fluoroscopy time (15.9 ± 12.3 min vs. 56.4+21 min P < 0.001). At the end of follow‐up, 65 (60.2%) in group 1 and 77 (71.3%) in group 2 were arrhythmia free off‐AAD (log‐rank P = 0.044). A subgroup analysis was performed with 55 year age cut‐off. In the <55 age group the CTI only population had similar success as in CTI+PVI, (21 of 24 83.3% vs. 19 of 22 86.4%, respectively, log‐rank P = 0.74). In the ≥55 group, having CTI+PVI showed significantly higher success compared to CTI only; 45 of 84 (53.6%) were AF/AT free in CTI only group versus 58 of 86 (67.4%) with CTI+PVI (log‐rank P = 0.029).
Conclusion
Prophylactic PVI reduced new‐onset AF in patients with lone atrial flutter.
•Protein composition (HMW-GS) had significant effect on dough rheological properties.•Dough viscoelasticity was affected by glutenin composition.•Elastic moduli of doughs were correlated with ...quality.•Dough viscoelasticity was associated with breadmaking quality of wheat.•Plasticizers viscosity showed correlation with quality than protein viscosity.
The effects of high molecular weight-glutenin subunits on creep and recovery viscoelasticity of fully developed dough were investigated. The components of a Kelvin–Voigt model were used to evaluate viscoelasticity contributions and correlations. Elastic moduli of wheat dough G1 and G2 of specific glutenins correlated with quality indicators while shear modulus G0 seem to contribute in a lower extent. Glu-D1 5+10 showed higher elasticity in G0, G1 and G2 compared to Glu-D1 2+12. Glu-B1 17+18 presented higher elasticity for G0, G1 and G2 compared to 7+8 and 7+9. Viscosity η0 showed higher correlation than viscosity (η1 and η2) indicating that the two factors were important in explaining swelling capacity of proteins η2 and viscosity of non-gluten components η0 in dough. Viscosities η0, η1 and η2 were higher in 5+10 and 17+18 compared to the other compositions. Viscosity η1 seems to play minor role. Protein and wet gluten were significantly correlated indicating that dough viscoelasticity is related to glutenin composition.
The thickness of the cortical mantle is a sensitive measure for identifying alterations in cortical structure. We aimed to explore whether first episode schizophrenia patients already show a ...significant cortical thinning and whether cortical thickness anomalies may significantly influence clinical and cognitive features.
We investigated regional changes in cortical thickness in a large and heterogeneous sample of schizophrenia spectrum patients (n=142) at their first break of the illness and healthy controls (n=83). Magnetic resonance imaging brain scans (1.5 T) were obtained and images were analyzed by using brains2. The contribution of sociodemographic, cognitive and clinical characterictics was investigated.
Patients showed a significant total cortical thinning (F=17.55, d=-0.62, p<0.001) and there was a diffuse pattern of reduced thickness (encompassing frontal, temporal and parietal cortices) (all p's<0.001, d's>0.53). No significant group×gender interactions were observed (all p's>0.15). There were no significant associations between the clinical and pre-morbid variables and cortical thickness measurements (all r's<0.12). A weak significant negative correlation between attention and total (r=-0.24, p=0.021) and parietal cortical thickness (r=-0.27, p=0.009) was found in patients (thicker cortex was associated with lower attention). Our data revealed a similar pattern of cortical thickness changes related to age in patients and controls.
Cortical thinning is independent of gender, age, age of onset and duration of the illness and does not seem to significantly influence clinical and functional symptomatology. These findings support a primary neurodevelopment disorder affecting the normal cerebral cortex development in schizophrenia.
Anaerobic digestion of cattle manure was studied under thermophilic and mesophilic conditions with the purpose of evaluating the effect of temperature on the quality of the final digestate. ...Non-isothermal thermogravimetric kinetic analysis was applied for assessing organic matter conversion of biological stabilization. The mathematical approximation proves to be a useful tool for evaluating the differences attained during biological degradation. The anaerobic digestion of the organic substrate resulted in a reduction of the activation energy value obtained from the different applied kinetic models. Results obtained from thermal kinetic analysis were in accordance with those from the monitoring of the anaerobic digestion process. The higher values of methane yield reported for the mesophilic digestion in comparison to that of the thermophilic indicated a greater capability of the former process in the utilization of substrate and thus a higher conversion of organic matter which can be quantified by the activation energy value.
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