Revision of the endemic South African genus Moegistorhynchus Macquart (Diptera: Nemestrinidae), with a species key, description of three new species and comments on pollination biology and biogeography.

The genus Moegistorhynchus Macquart is revised and its relationships are discussed. The genus is distributed across lowland and montane areas of the Western and Northern Cape provinces, extending from Cape Town (Western Cape province) in the south to Port Nolloth (Northern Cape province) in the north. Three new species are described from Western Cape specimens: Moegistorhynchus manningi sp.

The first species of Nemestrinidae (Diptera) endemic to Madagascar: A remarkable new species of Atriadops Wandolleck, 1897.

A new species of Nemestrinidae, Atriadops irwini Barraclough sp. nov., is described and illustrated from Sakaramy in the far north of Madagascar at about the same latitude as the Comoros Islands.

Effects of different exercise types on quality of life for patients with atrial fibrillation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Aim: To investigate the effectiveness of exercise and the most effective types of exercise for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) to improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and exercise capacity, and reduce AF burden, AF recurrence and adverse events.

Methods And Results: Systematic search in PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus, and SPORTDiscus for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized pre-post intervention studies investigating the effect of different types of exercise on AF patients. After exclusion, 12 studies (11 RCTs, 1 prepost) with a total of 670 participants were included.

Catalogue of the Diptera (Insecta) of Morocco- an annotated checklist, with distributions and a bibliography.

The faunistic knowledge of the Diptera of Morocco recorded from 1787 to 2021 is summarized and updated in this first catalogue of Moroccan Diptera species. A total of 3057 species, classified into 948 genera and 93 families (21 Nematocera and 72 Brachycera), are listed. Taxa (superfamily, family, genus and species) have been updated according to current interpretations, based on reviews in the literature, the expertise of authors and contributors, and recently conducted fieldwork.

Altered Levels of mRNAs for Calcium-Binding/Associated Proteins, Annexin A1, S100A4, and TMEM64, in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Are Associated with Osteoporosis.

Background: Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease in the world. Since osteoporosis is clinically symptomless until the first fracture occurs, early diagnosis is critical. Calcium, along with calcium-binding and calcium-associated proteins, plays an important role in homeostasis, maintaining healthy bone metabolism.

A striking new species of Prosoeca Schiner, 1867 (Diptera: Nemestrinidae): An important pollinator from the Bokkeveld Plateau, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

For more than 20 years an undescribed species of Prosoeca has been referred to in numerous publications by pollination biologists, evolutionary biologists and ecologists, originally as being part of the Prosoeca peringueyi Lichtwardt, 1920, pollination guild. Ongoing research in these and related fields has necessitated the formal description of this large-bodied, striking new species, with a proboscis 1.5-2.

Circulating microRNAs as potential diagnostic biomarkers for osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is the most common age-related bone disease worldwide and is usually clinically asymptomatic until the first fracture happens. MicroRNAs are critical molecular regulators in bone remodelling processes and are stabilised in the blood. The aim of this project was to identify circulatory microRNAs associated with osteoporosis using advanced PCR arrays initially and the identified differentially-expressed microRNAs were validated in clinical samples using RT-qPCR.

Metastasis-promoting anterior gradient 2 protein has a dimeric thioredoxin fold structure and a role in cell adhesion.

Anterior gradient 2 (AGR2) is a normal endoplasmic reticulum protein that has two important abnormal functions, amphibian limb regeneration and human cancer metastasis promotion. These normal intracellular and abnormal extracellular roles can be attributed to the multidomain structure of AGR2. The NMR structure shows that AGR2 consists of an unstructured N-terminal region followed by a thioredoxin fold.

Public participation in soil surveys: lessons from a pilot study in England.

In many countries there are policies in place that impact on soils, but very few legislative or policy tools specifically for the protection of soil. Recent EU legislative proposals on soil protection have been met with opposition on the grounds of excessive cost and resource demands. With the need for evidence based policy, and recognition that involving the public in environmental monitoring is an effective way of increasing understanding and commitment, there has been growing interest in soil surveys.

Aberrant expression of metastasis-inducing proteins in ectopic and matched eutopic endometrium of women with endometriosis: implications for the pathogenesis of endometriosis.

Background: Endometriosis is a metastatic disease without obvious tumorigenesis. Expression of S100P, S100A4, osteopontin (OPN) or anterior gradient homologue 2 (AGR2) proteins can induce metastasis but fail to induce tumorigenesis per se. We now explore whether this group of metastasis-inducing proteins (MIPs) are associated with the pathogenesis of endometriosis.

Dietary oleic acid as a control fatty acid for polyunsaturated fatty acid intervention studies: a transcriptomics and proteomics investigation using interleukin-10 gene-deficient mice.

Oleic acid (OA) has been used as a control fatty acid in dietary polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intervention studies due to its lack of effect on eiconasoid biosynthesis. Since the effect of OA as a control fatty acid has not yet been investigated for transcriptomics and proteomics studies, this study aimed to test whether colonic transcriptome and proteome profiles associated with colitis development in mice fed a linoleic acid-rich corn oil-AIN-76A diet (Il10(-/-) compared to C57 mice) where similar to those of OA-fed Il10(-/-) compared to C57 mice (genotype comparison). A close clustering of colonic gene and protein expression profiles between the mice fed the AIN-76A or OA diet was observed.

From chemical risk assessment to environmental quality management: the challenge for soil protection.

The 40 years that have passed since the beginning of the 'environmental revolution' has seen a large increase in development of policies for the protection of environmental media and a recognition by the public of the importance of environmental quality. There has been a shift from policy in reaction to high profile events, then to control of releases to single environmental media, and to the present position of moving toward integrated management of all environmental media at present. This development has moved away from classical chemical risk assessment toward environmental holism, including recognition of the ecological value of these media.

Molecular Characterization of the Onset and Progression of Colitis in Inoculated Interleukin-10 Gene-Deficient Mice: A Role for PPARalpha.

The interleukin-10 gene-deficient (Il10(-/-)) mouse is a model of human inflammatory bowel disease and Ppara has been identified as one of the key genes involved in regulation of colitis in the bacterially inoculated Il10(-/-) model. The aims were to (1) characterize colitis onset and progression using a histopathological, transcriptomic, and proteomic approach and (2) investigate links between PPARalpha and IL10 using gene network analysis. Bacterial inoculation resulted in severe colitis in Il10(-/-) mice from 10 to 12 weeks of age.

Soil quality assessment under emerging regulatory requirements.

New and emerging policies that aim to set standards for protection and sustainable use of soil are likely to require identification of geographical risk/priority areas. Soil degradation can be seen as the change or disturbance in soil quality and it is therefore crucial that soil and soil quality are well understood to protect soils and to meet legislative requirements. To increase this understanding a review of the soil quality definition evaluated its development, with a formal scientific approach to assessment beginning in the 1970s, followed by a period of discussion and refinement.

Significance of the Fanconi anemia FANCD2 protein in sporadic and metastatic human breast cancer.

FANCD2, a pivotal protein in the Fanconi anemia and BRCA pathway/network, is monoubiquitylated in the nucleus in response to DNA damage. This study examines the subcellular location and relationship with prognostic factors and patient survival of FANCD2 in breast cancer. Antibodies to FANCD2 were used to immunocytochemically stain 16 benign and 20 malignant breast specimens as well as 314 primary breast carcinomas to assess its association with subcellular compartment and prognostic factors using Fisher's Exact test or with patient survival over 20 years using Wilcoxon-Gehan statistics.

Microarray analysis of suppression subtracted hybridisation libraries identifies genes associated with breast cancer progression.

Background: A major challenge of cancer research is to identify key molecules which are responsible for the development of the malignant metastatic phenotype, the major cause of cancer death.

Methods: Four subtracted cDNA libraries were constructed representing mRNAs differentially expressed between benign and malignant human breast tumour cells and between micro-dissected breast carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinoma. Hundreds of differentially expressed cDNAs from the libraries were micro-arrayed and screened with mRNAs from human breast tumor cell lines and clinical specimens.

Increased plasma concentrations of anterior gradient 2 protein are positively associated with ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is often asymptomatic and is diagnosed at an advanced stage with poor survival rates, thus there is an urgent need to develop biomarkers for earlier detection of ovarian cancer. In the present study, we demonstrate for the first time that the previously reported metastasis-inducing protein AGR2 (anterior gradient protein 2) can be detected in the blood of ovarian cancer patients. Using a newly developed ELISA, we show significantly increased concentrations of AGR2 protein in plasma from cancer patients relative to normal controls.

The metastasis-associated anterior gradient 2 protein is correlated with poor survival of breast cancer patients.

The secreted metastasis-inducing protein, human anterior gradient 2 (AGR2), has been independently reported to be associated with either a reduced or an increased survival of different groups of patients with breast cancer. We now aim to analyze the expression of AGR2 in a third completely independent group of patients using a specific AGR2 monoclonal antibody (mAb). Primary tumors from a group of 315 patients suffering from operable (stage I and II) breast cancer with 20-years follow-up were immunocytochemically stained with a specific mAb to AGR2 and associations with prognostic factors and patient survival were analyzed.

Molecular analysis of a collection of clinical specimens stored at 4 degrees C as an alternative to snap-freezing.

It is critical for both basic and clinical translational cancer research to use high quality DNA, RNA and proteins from specimens with clinical outcome in order to validate novel diagnostic biomarkers and to monitor successful treatments for patients. However, using current standard procedures, the collection of specimens is often limited by the availability of liquid nitrogen in some hospitals and liquid nitrogen can be hazardous to transport. These problems would be eased if the tissue could be stored unfixed at 4 degrees C, conditions that are readily available in hospitals.

Lateral intraparietal cortex and reinforcement learning during a mixed-strategy game.

Activity of the neurons in the lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP) displays a mixture of sensory, motor, and memory signals. Moreover, they often encode signals reflecting the accumulation of sensory evidence that certain eye movements might lead to a desirable outcome. However, when the environment changes dynamically, animals are also required to combine the information about its previously chosen actions and their outcomes appropriately to update continually the desirabilities of alternative actions.

Expression and splicing of the unfolded protein response gene XBP-1 are significantly associated with clinical outcome of endocrine-treated breast cancer.

X-box binding protein 1 (XBP-1) is stimulated by endoplasmic reticulum stress as part of the unfolded protein response (UPR), which can promote apoptosis or cell survival. Non-conventional splicing, stimulated during the UPR, converts mRNA for "unspliced" XBP-1U to "spliced" XBP-1S mRNA. XBP-1 mRNA is oestrogen-responsive, but XBP-1S confers oestrogen independence and anti-oestrogen resistance to breast cancer cell lines.

Dynamic signals related to choices and outcomes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Although economic theories based on utility maximization account for a range of choice behaviors, utilities must be estimated through experience. Dynamics of this learning process may account for certain discrepancies between the predictions of economic theories and real choice behaviors of humans and other animals. To understand the neural mechanisms responsible for such adaptive decision making, we trained rhesus monkeys to play a simulated matching pennies game.

Learning and decision making in monkeys during a rock-paper-scissors game.

Game theory provides a solution to the problem of finding a set of optimal decision-making strategies in a group. However, people seldom play such optimal strategies and adjust their strategies based on their experience. Accordingly, many theories postulate a set of variables related to the probabilities of choosing various strategies and describe how such variables are dynamically updated.