Sediment Cores from White Pond, South Carolina, contain a Platinum Anomaly, Pyrogenic Carbon Peak, and Coprophilous Spore Decline at 12.8 ka.

A widespread platinum (Pt) anomaly was recently documented in Greenland ice and 11 North American sedimentary sequences at the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) event (~12,800 cal yr BP), consistent with the YD Impact Hypothesis. We report high-resolution analyses of a 1-meter section of a lake core from White Pond, South Carolina, USA. After developing a Bayesian age-depth model that brackets the late Pleistocene through early Holocene, we analyzed and quantified the following: (1) Pt and palladium (Pd) abundance, (2) geochemistry of 58 elements, (3) coprophilous spores, (4) sedimentary organic matter (OC and sedaDNA), (5) stable isotopes of C (δC) and N (δN), (6) soot, (7) aciniform carbon, (8) cryptotephra, (9) mercury (Hg), and (10) magnetic susceptibility.

Refractory organic matter in coastal salt marshes-effect on C sequestration calculations.

The age and ability of salt marshes to accumulate and sequester carbon is often assessed using the carbon isotopic signatures (ΔC and δC) of sedimentary organic matter. However, transfers of allochthonous refractory carbon (C) from the watershed to marshes would not represent new C sequestration. To better understand how refractory carbon (C) inputs affect assessments of marsh age and C sequestration, ΔC and δC of both total organic carbon (TOC), C, and non-C organic matter fractions were measured in salt marshes from four contrasting systems on the North Atlantic coast.

Identification of Potential Plasma microRNA Stratification Biomarkers for Response to Allogeneic Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The ability to identify and stratify patients that will respond to specific therapies has been transformational in a number of disease areas, particularly oncology. It is anticipated that this will also be the case for cell-based therapies, particularly in complex and heterogeneous diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recently, clinical results with expanded allogenic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (eASCs) have indicated clinical efficacy in highly refractory RA patients.

Chronic lithium administration down regulates transthyretin mRNA expression in rat choroid plexus.

Transthyretin (TTR) accounts for a quarter of the protein content of ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) yet its exact role in the brain remains unknown. Patients with a diagnosis of depression have reduced CSF levels of TTR and the locus encoding the TTR gene has been implicated in a Danish pedigree of bipolar patients. Lithium, the major treatment for bipolar disorder in the UK, was subcutaneously infused into rats for 28 days in the form of lithium chloride using osmotic minipumps.

The human pathogen Leishmania donovani secretes a histidine acid phosphatase activity that is resistant to proteolytic degradation.

Promastigotes of all pathogenic Leishmania species secrete acid phosphatase (SAcP) activity during their growth in vitro. It has been suggested that this enzyme may play a role in the survival of the parasite within its sandfly-vector host. To carry out such functions, SAcP would have to be relatively resistant to endogenous sandfly gut-proteases.