Mammalian gut metabolomes mirror microbiome composition and host phylogeny.

In the past decade, studies on the mammalian gut microbiome have revealed that different animal species have distinct gut microbial compositions. The functional ramifications of this variation in microbial composition remain unclear: do these taxonomic differences indicate microbial adaptations to host-specific functionality, or are these diverse microbial communities essentially functionally redundant, as has been indicated by previous metagenomics studies? Here, we examine the metabolic content of mammalian gut microbiomes as a direct window into ecosystem function, using an untargeted metabolomics platform to analyze 101 fecal samples from a range of 25 exotic mammalian species in collaboration with a zoological center. We find that mammalian metabolomes are chemically diverse and strongly linked to microbiome composition, and that metabolome composition is further correlated to the phylogeny of the mammalian host.

Solar Photocatalytic Degradation of Trace Organic Pollutants in Water by Bi(0)-Doped Bismuth Oxyhalide Thin Films.

Herein, we demonstrate the fabrication of Bi(0)-doped bismuth oxyhalide solid solution films for the removal of trace organic pollutants (TrOPs) in water. With the advantage of a viscous AlOOH sol, very high loadings (75 wt %) of bismuth oxyhalides were embedded within the thin films and calcined at 500 °C to develop porous alumina composite coatings. Various concentrations of Bi(0) doping were tested for their photocatalytic activity.

N-Doped TiO₂-Coated Ceramic Membrane for Carbamazepine Degradation in Different Water Qualities.

The photocatalytic degradation of the model pollutant carbamazepine (CBZ) was investigated under simulated solar irradiation with an N-doped TiO₂-coated Al₂O₃ photocatalytic membrane, using different water types. The photocatalytic membrane combines photocatalysis and membrane filtration in a single step. The impact of each individual constituent such as acidity, alkalinity, dissolved organic matter (DOM), divalent cations (Mg and Ca), and Cl on the degradation of CBZ was examined.

Carbamazepine degradation using a N-doped TiO2 coated photocatalytic membrane reactor: Influence of physical parameters.

Commercial α-Al2O3 photocatalytic membranes with a pore size of 200 and 800-nm were coated with N-doped TiO2 photocatalytic film using a sol-gel technique for concurrent bottom-up filtration and photocatalytic oxidation. X-ray diffraction confirmed that the deposited N-doped TiO2 films are in the form of anatase with 78-84% coverage of the membrane surface. The concentration of N found by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was in the range of 0.

Impact of water quality on removal of carbamazepine in natural waters by N-doped TiO2 photo-catalytic thin film surfaces.

Photocatalytic experiments on the pharmaceutical pollutant carbamazepine (CBZ) were conducted using sol-gel nitrogen-doped TiO(2)-coated glass slides under a solar simulator. CBZ was stable to photodegradation under direct solar irradiation. No CBZ sorption to the catalyst surface was observed, as further confirmed by surface characterization using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis of N-doped TiO(2) surfaces.

Cell lineage analysis of the mammalian female germline.

Fundamental aspects of embryonic and post-natal development, including maintenance of the mammalian female germline, are largely unknown. Here we employ a retrospective, phylogenetic-based method for reconstructing cell lineage trees utilizing somatic mutations accumulated in microsatellites, to study female germline dynamics in mice. Reconstructed cell lineage trees can be used to estimate lineage relationships between different cell types, as well as cell depth (number of cell divisions since the zygote).

Muscle-bound primordial stem cells give rise to myofiber-associated myogenic and non-myogenic progenitors.

Myofiber cultures give rise to myogenic as well as to non-myogenic cells. Whether these myofiber-associated non-myogenic cells develop from resident stem cells that possess mesenchymal plasticity or from other stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) remain unsolved. To address this question, we applied a method for reconstructing cell lineage trees from somatic mutations to MSCs and myogenic and non-myogenic cells from individual myofibers that were cultured at clonal density.

Remote estimation of blood pulse pressure via temporal tracking of reflected secondary speckles pattern.

We present a novel technique for remote noncontact blood pulse pressure measurement. It is based on tracking both temporal and amplitude changes of reflected secondary speckle produced in human skin when illuminated by a laser beam. The implemented technique extracts the difference between the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure.

Cranial anatomy of the earliest marsupials and the origin of opossums.

Background: The early evolution of living marsupials is poorly understood in part because the early offshoots of this group are known almost exclusively from jaws and teeth. Filling this gap is essential for a better understanding of the phylogenetic relationships among living marsupials, the biogeographic pathways that led to their current distribution as well as the successive evolutionary steps that led to their current diversity, habits and various specializations that distinguish them from placental mammals.

Methodology/principal Findings: Here we report the first skull of a 55 million year old peradectid marsupial from the early Eocene of North America and exceptionally preserved skeletons of an Oligocene herpetotheriid, both representing critical groups to understand early marsupial evolution.

Exceptionally preserved North American Paleogene metatherians: adaptations and discovery of a major gap in the opossum fossil record.

A major gap in our knowledge of the evolution of marsupial mammals concerns the Paleogene of the northern continents, a critical time and place to link the early history of metatherians in Asia and North America with the more recent diversification in South America and Australia. We studied new exceptionally well-preserved partial skeletons of the Early Oligocene fossil Herpetotherium from the White River Formation in Wyoming, which allowed us to test the relationships of this taxon and examine its adaptations. Herpetotheriidae, with a fossil record extending from the Cretaceous to the Miocene, has traditionally been allied with opossums (Didelphidae) based on fragmentary material, mainly dentitions.

A comprehensive morphological analysis of talpid moles (Mammalia) phylogenetic relationships.

Some talpid moles show one of the most specialized suites of morphological characters seen among small mammals. Fossorial and more generalized shrew-looking moles inhabit both North America and Eurasia but these land masses share none of the same genera. One of the central questions of mole evolution has been that of how many times specialized fossorial habits evolved.

First combined cladistic analysis of marsupial mammal interrelationships.

We combine osteological, dental, and soft tissue data with sequences from three nuclear and five mitochondrial genes, sampling all major living clades of marsupials plus several extinct taxa, to perform a simultaneous analysis of marsupial interrelationships. These data were analyzed using direct optimization and sensitivity analysis on a parallel supercomputing cluster, and compared with trees produced with conventional parsimony and likelihood algorithms using a static alignment. A major issue in marsupial phylogeny is the relationships among australidelphians.

The anatomy of the world's largest extinct rodent.

Phoberomys is reported to be the largest rodent that ever existed, although it has been known only from isolated teeth and fragmentary postcranial bones. An exceptionally complete skeleton of Phoberomys pattersoni was discovered in a rich locality of fossil vertebrates in the Upper Miocene of Venezuela. Reliable body mass estimates yield approximately 700 kilograms, more than 10 times the mass of the largest living rodent, the capybara.

A Report on "One Day Symposium on Numerical Cladistics".

A recent symposium on numerical cladistics held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, addressed novel methods for searching tree space, applications of randomizations in cladistic analysis, and data management. One of the major concerns in systematics is that of finding the global optimum in tree length. The space to search is complex because it includes many local optima.

The quaternary cuban platyrrhine Paralouatta varonai and the origin of Antillean monkeys.

We describe recently recovered dental and mandibular remains of the Cuban platyrrhine Paralouatta varonai, previously known from the holotype only (a nearly complete skull with very worn teeth). We also expand on the original description of the type specimen. Paralouatta is one of three extinct taxa of Greater Antillean Quaternary monkeys known from craniodental remains.

Platyrrhine systematics: a simultaneous analysis of molecular and morphological data.

Platyrrhine phylogeny has been investigated repeatedly with morphological characters and DNA nuclear gene sequences, with partially inconsistent results. Given the finding in the past decade that the mitochondrial genome is a potentially valuable source of phylogenetic information, we gathered DNA sequence data of a fragment of the 16S and the entire 12S mitochondrial genes. The objectives were to generate a cladistic phylogeny based on these data and to combine them in a simultaneous analysis with morphological characters and preexisting nuclear DNA sequences.

Epipubic bones in eutherian mammals from the late Cretaceous of Mongolia.

An important transformation in the evolution of mammals was the loss of the epipubic bones. These are elements projecting anteriorly from the pelvic girdle into the abdominal region in a variety of Mesozoic mammals, related tritylodonts, marsupials and monotremes but not in living eutherian (placental) mammals. Here we describe a new eutherian from the Late Cretaceous period of Mongolia, and report the first record of epipubic bones in two distinct eutherian lineages.

Systematics of New World monkeys (Platyrrhini, Primates) based on 16S mitochondrial DNA sequences: a comparative analysis of different weighting methods in cladistic analysis.

In order to investigate the effects of different weighting methods on a phylogeny reconstruction based on DNA sequences and to evaluate the phylogenetic information content of various secondary structures, a fragment of the large ribosomal mitochondrial gene (16S) was sequenced from 13 species of New World monkeys, three species of catarrhines, and Tarsius. The data were analyzed cladistically without weighting characters or changes, and with different weighting methods: a priori differential weights for transitions and transversions, two variants of dynamic weighting for each kind and direction of change, and successive approximations, using both the character consistency index (CI) and the rescaled consistency index (RC). The results were compared with published trees constructed from nuclear sequences of E-globins and morphological characters by different authors.

Colonic diverticulitis-related exuberant granulomatous reaction in a patient with sarcoidosis.

A patient with long-standing sarcoidosis underwent partial colectomy for diverticular disease. Whereas sarcoid granulomas were rare in the otherwise normal colonic mucosa, an unusually large number of granulomas were scattered within the chronically inflamed peridiverticular tissues. It is suggested that in the framework of the sarcoidotic background, activated macrophages, being nonspecifically attracted to areas of inflammation, elicit an exuberant sarcoid granulomatous response.

A lumbar hernia presenting as an obstructing lesion of the colon.

A patient with a lumbar hernia of Petit, presenting as an obstructing lesion of the ascending colon and concomitant acute cholecystitis is described. The anatomy, cause, and surgical treatment of lumbar hernia are reviewed.

Spontaneous colosplenic fistula complicating immunoblastic lymphoma.

Immunoblastic lymphoma of the colon, complicated by colosplenic fistulization, is reported. It is suggested that ulceration and extensive coagulative necrosis of a bulky large cell lymphoma in the absence of a desmoplastic reaction are the prerequisites for fistula formation.

The use of gallium-67 liver imaging for the early diagnosis of Budd-Chiari syndrome.

A gallium-67 study, performed in a rare case of Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) in a 6-yr-old child, showed marked concentration of the tracer in the left and caudate lobes of the liver. Ten days later, a less specific and clear-cut appearance of left- and caudate-lobe concentration of Tc-99m phytate was obtained. The possible use of Ga-67 citrate imaging to diagnose BCS in its earliest stage is suggested, although no firm conclusion can be made from this single case.

Cancer of the colon: a study of age-related incidence.

Incidence of colorectal cancer in Israel was studied in 1035 patients who were divided by ethno-geography into a Euro-American group and an Afro-Asian group. The majority of patients were in the age groups over 50 years, with a markedly higher incidence rate of disease in the Euro-American group. In the younger age group the incidence rate of the disease was significantly higher in the Afro-Asian group.