Response of Aquatic Organisms Communities to Global Climate Changes and Anthropogenic Impact: Evidence from Listvennichny Bay of Lake Baikal.

Recent studies have revealed how the freshwater biota of Lake Baikal responds to climate change and anthropogenic impacts. We studied phyto- and zooplankton, as well as phyto- and zoobenthos, in the open coastal waters of the southern basin of the lake and of Listvennichny Bay. A total of 180 aquatic organism taxa were recorded.

The insight into diatom diversity, ecology, and biogeography of an extreme cold ultraoligotrophic Lake Labynkyr at the Pole of Cold in the northern hemisphere.

The freshwater ultraoligotrophic Lake Labynkyr is located near the Pole of Cold in the northern hemisphere (Yakutia, Russia). The lake is covered by ice during 240 days a year. We undertook several expeditions to the lake during the ice and open water periods for sampling ice fouling, plankton and periphyton that were then analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy.

Scent lineups compared across eleven countries: Looking for the future of a controversial forensic technique.

A scent lineup is generally a procedure whereby a dog's alerting behavior is used to establish that the dog detects two scents, one from a crime scene and one from a suspect, as deriving from the same person. The aim of this article is to compare methodologies of using dogs in scent lineups as a means of identifying perpetrators of crimes. It is hoped that this comparative approach, looking at countries where the method is currently or has in the past been used, will help determine what issues should be addressed in order to assure that the scent lineup will have a future as a forensic technique.

IFN-γ activated JAK1 shifts CD40-induced cytokine profiles in human antigen-presenting cells toward high IL-12p70 and low IL-10 production.

CD40Ligand (CD40L) represents a strong endogenous danger signal associated with chronic inflammatory disease. CD40L induces activation of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) such as DCs, monocytes, B-cells and endothelial cells. However, CD40 activation alone, whilst inducing IL-10 production, is insufficient to induce interleukin (IL)-12p70 release in human APCs suggesting that additional cytokine signals (e.

Importance of constitutive activity and arrestin-independent mechanisms for intracellular trafficking of the ghrelin receptor.

The ghrelin receptor (GhrelinR) and its related orphan GPR39 each display constitutive signaling, but only GhrelinRs undergo basal internalization. Here we investigate these differences by considering the roles of the C tail receptor domains for constitutive internalization and activity. Furthermore the interaction between phosphorylated receptors and beta-arrestin adaptor proteins has been examined.

GSK-3 mediates differentiation and activation of proinflammatory dendritic cells.

The key components of the intracellular molecular network required for the expression of a specific function of dendritic cells (DCs) are as yet undefined. Using an in vitro model of human monocyte-derived DC differentiation, this study investigates the role of glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3), a multifunctional enzyme critical for cellular differentiation, apoptosis, self-renewal, and motility, in this context. We demonstrate that GSK-3 (1) inhibits macrophage development during differentiation of DCs, (2) is constitutively active in immature DCs and suppresses spontaneous maturation, and (3) acquires a proinflammatory functional status mediating high levels of IL-12, IL-6, and TNF-alpha secretion, and partially inhibits IL-10 in the context of DC activation.

Adaptive functional differentiation of dendritic cells: integrating the network of extra- and intracellular signals.

Phenotypic maturation, cytokine secretion, and migration are distinct functional characteristics of dendritic cells (DCs). These functions are independently regulated by a number of extracellular variables, such as type, strength, and persistence of an array of soluble and membrane-bound mediators. Since the exact composition of these variables in response to infection may differ between individuals, the intracellular signaling pathways activated by these extracellular networks may more closely correlate with DC function and predict the course of adaptive immunity.

Urinary aquaporin-2 in children with acute pyelonephritis.

Children with acute pyelonephritis develop polyuria and have reduced maximum urinary concentration capacity. We studied whether these abnormalities are associated with altered urinary excretion of the water channel aquaporin-2 (AQP2) in the renal collecting duct. AQP2 is the main target for antidiuretic action of arginine vasopressin (AVP), and the urinary excretion of this protein is believed to be an index of AVP signaling activity in the kidney.

Distant cortical locations of the upper and lower quadrants of the visual field represented by neurons with elongated and radially oriented receptive fields.

In our previous study of the cytoarchitectonic field 7 of cat cortex we had described neurons with extremely elongated receptive fields (RFs). The long axes of these RFs were oriented radially, towards the centre of the retina. These neurons represented only the lower contralateral part of visual field.