Epigenetic implications in maternal diabetes and metabolic syndrome-associated risk of orofacial clefts.

Orofacial clefts (OFCs) are one of the most common types of structural birth defects. The etiologies are complicated, involving with genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. Studies have found that maternal diabetes and metabolic syndrome are associated with a higher risk of OFCs in offspring.

Environmental mechanisms of orofacial clefts.

Orofacial clefts (OFCs) are among the most common birth defects and impart a significant burden on afflicted individuals and their families. It is increasingly understood that many nonsyndromic OFCs are a consequence of extrinsic factors, genetic susceptibilities, and interactions of the two. Therefore, understanding the environmental mechanisms of OFCs is important in the prevention of future cases.

Role of epigenetics and miRNAs in orofacial clefts.

Orofacial clefts (OFCs) have multiple etiologies and likely result from an interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Within the last decade, studies have implicated specific epigenetic modifications and noncoding RNAs as additional facets of OFC etiology. Altered gene expression through DNA methylation and histone modification offer novel insights into how specific genes contribute to distinct OFC subtypes.

Establishing structure-property-hazard relationships for multi-walled carbon nanotubes: the role of aggregation, surface charge, and oxidative stress on embryonic zebrafish mortality.

Increasing use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in consumer and industrials goods increases their potential release, and subsequent risks to environmental and human health. Therefore, it is becoming ever more important that CNTs are designed to reduce or eliminate hazards and that hazard assessment methodologies are robust. Here, oxygen-functionalized multi-walled CNTs (O-MWCNTs), modified under varying redox conditions, were assessed for toxic potential using the zebrafish () embryo model.

Cellular and developmental basis of orofacial clefts.

During craniofacial development, defective growth and fusion of the upper lip and/or palate can cause orofacial clefts (OFCs), which are among the most common structural birth defects in humans. The developmental basis of OFCs includes morphogenesis of the upper lip, primary palate, secondary palate, and other orofacial structures, each consisting of diverse cell types originating from all three germ layers: the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. Cranial neural crest cells and orofacial epithelial cells are two major cell types that interact with various cell lineages and play key roles in orofacial development.

Genetics and signaling mechanisms of orofacial clefts.

Craniofacial development involves several complex tissue movements including several fusion processes to form the frontonasal and maxillary structures, including the upper lip and palate. Each of these movements are controlled by many different factors that are tightly regulated by several integral morphogenetic signaling pathways. Subject to both genetic and environmental influences, interruption at nearly any stage can disrupt lip, nasal, or palate fusion and result in a cleft.

Non-neural surface ectodermal rosette formation and F-actin dynamics drive mammalian neural tube closure.

The mechanisms underlying mammalian neural tube closure remain poorly understood. We report a unique cellular process involving multicellular rosette formation, convergent cellular protrusions, and F-actin cable network of the non-neural surface ectodermal cells encircling the closure site of the posterior neuropore, which are demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy and genetic fate mapping analyses during mouse spinal neurulation. These unique cellular structures are severely disrupted in the surface ectodermal transcription factor Grhl3 mutants that exhibit fully penetrant spina bifida.

Copper release and transformation following natural weathering of nano-enabled pressure-treated lumber.

Commercially available lumber, pressure-treated with micronized copper azole (MCA), has largely replaced other inorganic biocides for residential wood treatment in the USA, yet little is known about how different outdoor environmental conditions impact the release of ionic, nano-scale, or larger (micron-scale) copper from this product. Therefore, we weathered pressure treated lumber for 18 months in five different climates across the continental United States. Copper release was quantified every month and local weather conditions were recorded continuously to determine the extent to which local climate regulated the release of copper from this nano-enabled product during its use phase.

The proteomic response of cheliped myofibril tissue in the eurythermal porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes to heat shock following acclimation to daily temperature fluctuations.

The porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes lives under rocks and in mussel beds in the mid-intertidal zone where it experiences immersion during high tide and saturating humid conditions in air during low tide, which can increase habitat temperature by up to 20°C. To identify the biochemical changes affected by increasing temperature fluctuations and subsequent heat shock, we acclimated P. cinctipes for 30 days to one of three temperature regimes: (1) constant 10°C, (2) daily temperature fluctuations between 10 and 20°C (5 h up-ramp to 20°C, 1 h down-ramp to 10°C) and (3) 10-30°C (up-ramp to 30°C).

Diphosphanes derived from phobane and phosphatrioxa-adamantane: similarities, differences and anomalies.

The homodiphosphanes CgP-PCg (1) and PhobP-PPhob (2) and the heterodiphosphanes CgP-PPhob (3), CgP-PPh(2) (4a), CgP-P(o-Tol)(2) (4b), CgP-PCy(2) (4c), CgP-P(t)Bu(2) (4d), PhobP-PPh(2) (5a), PhobP-P(o-Tol)(2) (5b), PhobP-PCy(2) (5c), PhobP-P(t)Bu(2) (5d) where CgP = 6-phospha-2,4,8-trioxa-1,3,5,7-tetramethyladamant-9-yl and PhobP = 9-phosphabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-9-yl have been prepared from CgP(BH(3))Li or PhobP(BH(3))Li and the appropriate halophosphine.

On the visualization of social and other scale-free networks.

This paper proposes novel methods for visualizing specifically the large power-law graphs that arise in sociology and the sciences. In such cases a large portion of edges can be shown to be less important and removed while preserving component connectedness and other features (e.g.

Immunization of nonautoimmune mice with DNA binding domains of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase I results in production of anti-dsDNA and anti-Sm/RNP antibodies.

Antibodies against the N-terminal (NT) but not the basic domain (BD), DNA binding regions of the largest subunit (S1) of RNA polymerase I (RNAPI) were detected in the sera of MRL-lpr/lpr lupus mice. Antibodies against both RNAPI(S1)-NT and -BD, as well as other systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) autoantigens (La, ribosomal P proteins and Sm/RNP) were produced by rabbits immunized with anti-DNA antibodies that had been affinity purified from SLE patients. Immunization of nonautoimmune mice (Balb/c) with RNAPI(S1)-NT, RNAPI(S1)-BD, or La in the form of GST fusion proteins, induced production of anti-double-stranded (ds) DNA and anti-Sm/RNP.

Interactive point-based rendering of higher-order tetrahedral data.

Computational simulations frequently generate solutions defined over very large tetrahedral volume meshes containing many millions of elements. Furthermore, such solutions may often be expressed using non-linear basis functions. Certain solution techniques, such as discontinuous Galerkin methods, may even produce non-conforming meshes.

Visual exploration of complex time-varying graphs.

Many graph drawing and visualization algorithms, such as force-directed layout and line-dot rendering, work very well on relatively small and sparse graphs. However, they often produce extremely tangled results and exhibit impractical running times for highly non-planar graphs with large edge density. And very few graph layout algorithms support dynamic time-varying graphs; applying them independently to each frame produces distracting temporally incoherent visualizations.

A multiresolution representation for massive meshes.

We present a new external memory multiresolution surface representation for massive polygonal meshes. Previous methods for building such data structures have relied on resampled surface data or employed memory intensive construction algorithms that do not scale well. Our proposed representation combines efficient access to sampled surface data with access to the original surface.