A new brachiopod species, Westonia mardini, from the Furongian of Turkey and a new occurrence of Westonia urbiona from the Cambrian Series 3 of Iberian Peninsula are reported. These new finds of ...'westoniids' collected in Gondwana allow the discussion of the functional morphology of their terrace ridges. This structure enabled an effective and rapid reburrowing and allowed the occupation of the shallow marine unstable sands and silts in the shoreface environments. This burrowing mechanism, with their pedicle directed downwards, was unknown before the Cambrian Series 2 and was abandoned chiefly in the Early Ordovician. Here we also review the distribution of 'westoniids' in space and time to analyse the diversification, decline and replacement of this important group of brachiopods. They became a significant part of the semi-infaunal marine associations beginning with the Cambrian Series 2 and proliferated in shallow arenaceous shelves during the Cambrian Series 3 and during the Furongian in most palaeocontinents. The acme of 'Westoniid' obolids associations was in the Furongian, but locally relict associations were present in high-latitude Gondwana until the Tremadocian. Decline of westoniid associations began during the Tremadocian, being replaced by very diverse smooth-shelled obolid associations with a novel burrowing mechanism and deeper lifestyle.
http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:4D74A740-34FD-4E3A-89BA-F80128800C0E
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives
Aims of the study were to investigate iron status in institutionalized elderly subjects and to determine its association with different factors including: age, gender, body mass index, ...dietary intake, consumption of iron supplements, functional status and disease.
Design
A cross-sectional study. Setting: Seven public nursing homes.
Participants
252 subjects, aged 65–96 years. Measurements: Food intake was assessed by a 4-day weighed-food record. Iron status indices were measured. Barthel’s Index was used to evaluate functional status. Illnesses were ascertained from medical records.
Results
Anemia was found in 25.4% of subjects studied. Average dietary intakes fulfilled the amounts of Recommended Dietary Intake for Spanish elderly population, except for folate. A substantial percentage of subjects exhibited folate dietary deficit (89.2%). Mean (SD) BMI was 27.8 (6.4) kg/m
2
, and functional status 78.1 (26.5). Taking into account hematocrit, red blood cell count and serum iron concentration values, poor iron status was significantly more common in men (59.4, 61.4 and 16.8%, respectively) than in women (36.4, 36.4 and 6.0%, respectively). Hemoglobin concentration was positively associated with the energy and nutrient dietary intake, and negatively with age, BMI and functional status.
Conclusions
Based on World Health Organization criteria, anemia was found in 25.4% of elderly subjects studied. Iron deficiency seems to be the main cause of anemia, and chronic disease the second cause of anemia. Dietary intake is not one of the principal causes of anemia in the study population, except for folate intake.
Despite careful avoidance measures, food allergic patients have a significant risk of anaphylactic episodes. Risk situations need to be identified for more efficient preventive measures.
Responders ...to an internet-based survey on the awareness of food anaphylaxis were invited to relate the circumstances of their most severe reaction following the diagnosis of IgE-mediated food allergy. Items of the questionnaire included the circumstances of the reaction and the treatment, as well as questions related to reactions occurring at specific categories of sites (i.e. home, schools, or restaurants).
Fifty-one of the returned questionnaires (34.1%) corresponded to the study criteria. The median age of the subjects was 7 years (range 0.5-61), with 33/51 (64.7%) being less than 16 years of age. Reactions were reported to peanuts (24/51; 47.1%), milk (12/51; 23.5%), tree nuts (6/51; 11.8%), fish and shellfish (5/51; 9.8%), and others (3/51; 5.8%). Reactions occurred at home (13/51; 25.5%), in restaurants (9/51; 17.6%), at school or daycare or kindergarten (8/51; 15.7%), at a relative or friend's home (7/51; 13.7%), at sites of leisure activities (6/51; 11.8%), at work (3/51; 5.9%), in church or a hospital ward (2/51; 3.9% each), or in a food store (1/51; 2.0%). In severe reactions (37/51; 72.5%) epinephrine was administered in 28/37 (75.7%) of the responders. Finally, while most reactions happened after ingestion of the food (40/51; 78.4%), others were reported after skin contact exclusively (8/51; 16%), or after inhalation (3/51; 5.9%).
Food induced-anaphylaxis in patients aware of their allergy happens most often at sites considered as safe (i.e. home, schools, workplace, hospitals). Better strategies to avoid accidental reactions include clear labelling of forbidden foods and increased information at all levels. These might dramatically reduce the risk of food-induced anaphylaxis in food allergy sufferers.
In 2004 the Faculty of Medicine of Universidad de La Frontera in Chile implemented curricular changes, incorporating small group problem based learning in different carriers.
To explore aspects that ...hamper or facilitate tutorial problem based learning from the perspective of tutors.
Six in depth interviews and a focus group with tutors were carried out in 2010 and 2011. Data were analyzed through constant comparisons using the program ATLAS ti, guaranteeing credibility, reliance, validation and transferability.
Five hundred and twenty eight (528) significance units were identified and 25 descriptive categories emerged. The categories of tutor motivation, methodological domain, tutor responsibility, tutor critical capacity, disciplinary domain, student participation and tutor-student interaction were emphasized. Three qualitative domains were generated, namely tutor skills, transformation of student roles and institutional commitment.
Tutorial teaching is favored by teachers when the institutions train them in the subject, when there is administrative support and an adequate infrastructure and coordination.
We evaluated the role of microzooplankton (sensu latto, grazers <500 μm) in determining the fate of phytoplankton production (PP) along a glacier-to-open sea transect in the Greenland subarctic ...fjord, Godthåbfjord. Based on the distribution of size fractionated chlorophylla(chla) concentrations we established 4 zones: (1) Fyllas Bank, characterized by deep chlamaxima (ca. 30 to 40 m) consisting of large cells, (2) the mouth and main branch of the fjord, where phytoplankton was relatively homogeneously distributed in the upper 30 m layer, (3) inner waters influenced by glacial melt water and upwelling, with high chlaconcentrations (up to 12 μg l−1) in the >10 μm fraction within a narrow (2 m) subsurface layer, and (4) the Kapisigdlit branch of the fjord, ice-free, and characterized with a thick and deep chlamaximum layer. Overall, microzooplankton grazing impact on primary production was variable and seldom significant in the Fyllas Bank and mouth of the fjord, quite intensive (up to >100% potential PP consumed daily) in the middle part of the main and Kapisigdlit branches of the fjord, and rather low and unable to control the fast growing phytoplankton population inhabiting the nutrient rich waters in the upwelling area in the vicinity of the glacier. Most of the grazing impact was on the <10 μm phytoplankton fraction, and the major grazers of the system seem to be >20 μm microzooplankton, as deducted from additional dilution experiments removing this size fraction. Overall, little or no export of phytoplankton out of the fjord to the Fyllas Bank can be determined from our data.
Assembly of extracellular filaments and matrices mediating fundamental biological processes such as morphogenesis, hearing, fertilization, and antibacterial defense is driven by a ubiquitous ...polymerization module known as zona pellucida (ZP) “domain”. Despite the conservation of this element from hydra to humans, no detailed information is available on the filamentous conformation of any ZP module protein. Here, we report a cryo‐electron microscopy study of uromodulin (UMOD)/Tamm–Horsfall protein, the most abundant protein in human urine and an archetypal ZP module‐containing molecule, in its mature homopolymeric state. UMOD forms a one‐start helix with an unprecedented 180‐degree twist between subunits enfolded by interdomain linkers that have completely reorganized as a result of propeptide dissociation. Lateral interaction between filaments in the urine generates sheets exposing a checkerboard of binding sites to capture uropathogenic bacteria, and UMOD‐based models of heteromeric vertebrate egg coat filaments identify a common sperm‐binding region at the interface between subunits.
SYNOPSIS
Urinary glycoprotein uromodulin (UMOD) forms filaments via its C‐terminal zona pellucida (ZP) module, a conserved building block of many polymeric extracellular proteins. Cryo‐EM of native human UMOD filaments and structurally‐related vertebrate egg coat material sheds light on the atomic architecture of ZP module polymers and how it may contribute to their many biological functions.
Comparison of the filament structure with that of the UMOD precursor explains how propeptide dissociation starts polymerization by triggering intermolecular interaction between ZP modules.
The linker between the ZP‐N and ZP‐C moieties of the ZP module undergoes a dramatic conformational change during polymerization.
In the filament, each UMOD subunit embraces the ZP‐C and ZP‐N domains of the neighboring molecules, giving rise to a highly stable helix made up of interlocked subunits with a twist angle of 180 degrees.
UMOD filaments can assemble into a multivalent molecular “Velcro” that facilitates the capture of uropathogenic bacteria by the N‐terminal region of the protein.
By adopting an architecture similar to the UMOD homopolymer, heteromeric egg coat filaments present sperm‐binding regions at the interface between subunits.
Insights into the architecture of uromodulin filaments involved in the capture of uropathogenic bacteria, and structurally‐related vertebrate egg coat material, suggest how a widespread extracellular polymerization module can support multiple functions.
The objective of this study was to determine whether vitamin D supplementation of breast-fed infants during the first year of life is associated with greater bone mineral content and/or areal bone ...mineral density (aBMD) in later childhood. The design was a retrospective cohort study. One hundred and six healthy prepubertal Caucasian girls (median age, 8 yr; range, 7-9 yr) were classified as vitamin D supplemented or unsupplemented during the first year of life on the basis of a questionnaire sent to participating families and their pediatricians. Bone area (square centimeters) and bone mineral content (grams) were determined by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry at six skeletal sites. Vitamin D receptor (VDR) 3'-gene polymorphisms (BsmI) were also determined. The supplemented (n = 91) and unsupplemented (n = 15) groups were similar in terms of season of birth, growth in the first year of life, age, anthropometric parameters, and calcium intake at time of dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. The supplemented group had higher aBMD at the level of radial metaphysis (mean +/- SEM, 0.301+/-0.003 vs. 0.283+/-0.008; P = 0.03), femoral neck (0.638+/-0.007 vs. 0.584+/-0.021; P = 0.01), and femoral trochanter (0.508+/-0.006 vs. 0.474+/-0.016; P = 0.04). At the lumbar spine level aBMD values were similar (0.626+/-0.006 vs. 0.598+/-0.019; P = 0.1). In a multiple regression model taking into account the effects of vitamin D supplementation, height, and VDR genotype on aBMD (dependent variable), femoral neck aBMD remained higher by 0.045 g/cm2 in the supplemented group (P = 0.02). Vitamin D supplementation in infancy was found to be associated with increased aBMD at specific skeletal sites later in childhood in prepubertal Caucasian girls.
We investigated dietary self-selection in gilthead sea bream using a multiple-choice self-feeding system. To this end, five groups of 15 fish (154g BW) were distributed among 500-l tanks and allowed ...to self-feed from 3 self-feeders, each of which distributed feeds composed of combinations of macronutrients. Three different selection ranges of protein (P), carbohydrate (C) and fat (F) (expressed as percentage of total macronutrients) were tested: in phase 1, PF (75%–25%, respectively), PC (75%–25%) and CF (85%–15%); in phase 2, PF (60%–40%), PC (75%–25%) and CF (60%–40%); and in phase 3, PF (60%–40%), PCF (20%–50%–30%) and PC (90%–10%). In addition, the effect of P deprivation on energy intake was tested. The results revealed that, despite the different selection ranges in each phase, the macronutrient composition of the selected diets did not differ significantly during the experiments, being on average 63.7±0.6% P, 15.5±1.7% F and 20.6±1.15% C. When sea bream were restricted to self-feeding on a protein-free diet for 10days, and were only given the CF (60%–40%) diet, the fish sustained their average energy intake (260.0±37.7kJ/kg BW/day), which did not differ statistically from the average energy intake during the previous three experimental phases (284.6±26.9kJ/kg BW/day). In conclusion, sea bream were able to compose and defend a balanced diet by selecting from three incomplete diets, and the fish were also able to maintain their energy intake for a short period of time when allowed to self-feed on a protein-free diet.
► We studied sea bream's macronutrient selection and its response to protein fasting. ► The composition of sea bream's self-selected diet was 63.7% P, 15.5% F and 20.6% C. ► Sea bream maintained the energy intake during the protein deprivation period.
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