At Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Stage, the Infectious Spectrum Is Driven by Non-Familial Factors and Anti-CCP Immunization.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are prone to develop infections. Accordingly, 195 untreated early (e)RA patients and 398 healthy controls were selected from women in Tatarstan's cohort to study infectious history in the anamnesis (four criteria) and in the previous year (16 criteria). Information about annual infections was collected face-to-face from year to year by a qualified rheumatologist/general practitioner and included the active use of information from medical records.

Prior infections are associated with smaller hippocampal volume in older women.

Accumulating evidence suggests that infections may play a major role in Alzheimer's disease (AD), however, mechanism is unclear, as multiple pathways may be involved. One possibility is that infections could contribute to neurodegeneration directly by promoting neuronal death. We explored relationships between history of infections and brain hippocampal volume (HV), a major biomarker of neurodegeneration, in a subsample of the UK Biobank (UKB) participants.

Dynamic observation of X-ray Laue diffraction on single-crystal tungsten during pulsed heat load.

The dynamics of the diffraction peak shape during pulsed heat load on mosaic single-crystal tungsten were measured at the `Plasma' scattering station on the eighth beamline of the VEPP-4 synchrotron radiation source at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics. The observed evolution of the diffraction peak shape agrees with theoretical predictions based on calculations of deformation caused by pulsed heating. Three clearly distinguishable stages of the diffraction-peak evolution were found, correlating with the evolution of temperature and deformation distributions.

Large Cellular Inclusions Accumulate in Arabidopsis Roots Exposed to Low-Sulfur Conditions.

Sulfur is vital for primary and secondary metabolism in plant roots. To understand the molecular and morphogenetic changes associated with loss of this key macronutrient, we grew Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings in low-sulfur conditions. These conditions induced a cascade of cellular events that converged to produce a profound intracellular phenotype defined by large cytoplasmic inclusions.