Abolishing UCHL1's hydrolase activity exacerbates ischemia-induced axonal injury and functional deficits in mice.

Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1) is a neuronal protein important in maintaining axonal integrity and motor function and may be important in the pathogenesis of many neurological disorders. UCHL1 may ameliorate acute injury and improve recovery after cerebral ischemia. In the current study, the hypothesis that UCHL1's hydrolase activity underlies its effect in maintaining axonal integrity and function is tested after ischemic injury.

Systemic treatment with ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolase L1 TAT protein ameliorates axonal injury and reduces functional deficits after traumatic brain injury in mice.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is often associated with axonal injury that leads to significant motor and cognitive deficits. Ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1) is highly expressed in neurons and loss of its activity plays an important role in the pathogenesis of TBI. Fusion protein was constructed containing wild type (WT) UCHL1 and the HIV trans-activator of transcription capsid protein transduction domain (TAT-UCHL1) that facilitates transport of the protein into neurons after systemic administration.

Unidirectional Double- and Triple-Hydrogen Rearrangement Reactions Probed by Infrared Ion Spectroscopy.

Unidirectional double-hydrogen (2H) and triple-hydrogen (3H) rearrangement reactions occur upon electron-ionization-induced fragmentation of -2-(4-,-dimethylaminobenzyl)-1-indanol (), -2-(4-methoxybenzyl)-1-indanol (), 4-(4-,-dimethylaminophenyl)-2-butanol (), and related compounds, as reported some 35 years ago (Kuck, D.; Filges, U. , , 643-653).

Historically Underrepresented Graduate Students' Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of historically underrepresented graduate students, more than half of whom were enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This focus group study represents an initial stage in developing an intervention for historically underrepresented graduate students and their families.

Background: Underrepresentation of graduate students of color in STEM has been attributed to a myriad of factors, including a lack of support systems.

Taxonomic Sampling and Rare Genomic Changes Overcome Long-Branch Attraction in the Phylogenetic Placement of Pseudoscorpions.

Long-branch attraction is a systematic artifact that results in erroneous groupings of fast-evolving taxa. The combination of short, deep internodes in tandem with long-branch attraction artifacts has produced empirically intractable parts of the Tree of Life. One such group is the arthropod subphylum Chelicerata, whose backbone phylogeny has remained unstable despite improvements in phylogenetic methods and genome-scale data sets.

Sperm competitive advantage of a rare mitochondrial haplogroup linked to differential expression of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation genes.

Maternal inheritance of mitochondria creates a sex-specific selective sieve through which mitochondrial mutations harmful to males but not females accumulate and contribute to sexual differences in longevity and disease susceptibility. Because eggs and sperm are under disruptive selection, sperm are predicted to be particularly vulnerable to the genetic load generated by maternal inheritance, yet evidence for mitochondrial involvement in male fertility is limited and controversial. Here, we exploit the coexistence of two divergent mitochondrial haplogroups (A and B2) in a Neotropical arachnid to investigate the role of mitochondria in sperm competition.

Association between Vertebral Artery Hypoplasia and Vertebral Artery Aneurysms: A Case-Control Study.

Background:  The aim of this retrospective case-control study was to determine the association of vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH) and other anatomical variants with saccular vertebral artery posterior inferior cerebellar artery (VA-PICA) aneurysms.

Methods:  The frequency of VAH, vertebral artery (VA) atresia, VA aplasia, and PICA aplasia was analyzed using computed tomography (CT) angiography in 64 patients with VA-PICA aneurysms (43 ruptured and 21 unruptured) and compared with 128 age- and sex-matched controls. Logistic regression was performed to identify independent risk factors for aneurysm formation.

Simulated climate warming and mitochondrial haplogroup modulate testicular small non-coding RNA expression in the neotropical pseudoscorpion, .

Recent theory suggests that tropical terrestrial arthropods are at significant risk from climate warming. Metabolic rate in such ectothermic species increases exponentially with environmental temperature, and a small temperature increase in a hot environment can therefore have a greater physiological impact than a large temperature increase in a cool environment. In two recent studies of the neotropical pseudoscorpion, , simulated climate warming significantly decreased survival, body size and level of sexual dimorphism.

Association between vertebral artery hypoplasia and vertebral artery aneurysms: A case-control study.

Background: The aim of this retrospective case-control study is to determine the association of vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH) and other anatomical variants with saccular vertebral artery posterior inferior cerebellar artery (VA-PICA) aneurysms.

Methods: The prevalence of VAH, vertebral artery (VA) atresia, VA aplasia, and PICA aplasia was analyzed using CT angiography in 64 patients with VA-PICA aneurysms (43 ruptured and 21 unruptured) and compared to 128 age- and sex-matched controls. Logistic regression was performed to identify independent risk factors for aneurysm formation.

An epigenetic resolution of the lek paradox.

Female choice for traits signaling male genetic quality is expected to erode heritable variation in fitness, undermining the benefits of choice. Known as the lek paradox, this contradiction has motivated extensive population genetic theory, yet remains unresolved. Recent modeling by Bonduriansky and Day concludes that costly female preference is best maintained when male condition is determined by environmentally induced factors transmitted across single generations.

Sisters' curse: sexually antagonistic effects constrain the spread of a mitochondrial haplogroup superior in sperm competition.

Maternal inheritance of mitochondria creates a sex-specific selective sieve with implications for male longevity, disease susceptibility and infertility. Because males are an evolutionary dead end for mitochondria, mitochondrial mutations that are harmful or beneficial to males but not females cannot respond directly to selection. Although the importance of this male/female asymmetry in evolutionary response depends on the extent to which mitochondrial mutations exert antagonistic effects on male and female fitness, few studies have documented sex-specific selection acting on mitochondria.

Treatment with lenalidomide induces immunoactivating and counter-regulatory immunosuppressive changes in myeloma patients.

Lenalidomide activates the immune system, but the exact immunomodulatory mechanisms of lenalidomide in vivo are poorly defined. In an observational study we assessed the impact of lenalidomide on different populations of immune cells in multiple myeloma patients. Lenalidomide therapy was associated with increased amounts of a CD8(+) T cell subset, phenotypically staged between classical central memory T cells (TCM) and effector memory T cells (TEM), consequently termed TCM/TEM.

Constant diurnal temperature regime alters the impact of simulated climate warming on a tropical pseudoscorpion.

Recent theory suggests that global warming may be catastrophic for tropical ectotherms. Although most studies addressing temperature effects in ectotherms utilize constant temperatures, Jensen's inequality and thermal stress considerations predict that this approach will underestimate warming effects on species experiencing daily temperature fluctuations in nature. Here, we tested this prediction in a neotropical pseudoscorpion.

From father to son: transgenerational effect of tetracycline on sperm viability.

The broad-spectrum antibiotic tetracycline is used in animal production, antimicrobial therapy, and for curing arthropods infected with bacterial endosymbionts such as Wolbachia. Tetracycline inhibits mitochondrial translation, and recent evidence indicates that male reproductive traits may be particularly sensitive to this antibiotic. Here, we report the first multi-generation investigation of tetracycline's effects on ejaculate traits.

Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality.

Arising from M. A. Nowak, C.

Reproductive compensation favours male-killing Wolbachia in a live-bearing host.

Wolbachia are maternally inherited, cellular endosymbionts that can enhance their fitness by biasing host sex ratio in favour of females. Male killing (MK) is an extreme form of sex-ratio manipulation that is selectively advantageous if the self-sacrifice of Wolbachia in males increases transmission through females. In live-bearing hosts, females typically produce more embryos than can be carried to term, and reproductive compensation through maternal resource reallocation from dead males to female embryos could increase the number of daughters born to infected females.

Transposable elements and an epigenetic basis for punctuated equilibria.

Evolution is frequently concentrated in bursts of rapid morphological change and speciation followed by long-term stasis. We propose that this pattern of punctuated equilibria results from an evolutionary tug-of-war between host genomes and transposable elements (TEs) mediated through the epigenome. According to this hypothesis, epigenetic regulatory mechanisms (RNA interference, DNA methylation and histone modifications) maintain stasis by suppressing TE mobilization.

Viviparity-driven conflict: more to speciation than meets the fly.

Equipped with Mendel's laws and only rudimentary knowledge of genes and genomes, the architects of the Modern Synthesis provided key insights into the dynamics of gene frequency change within populations. Extension of population genetic models to speciation identified Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibilities (negative epistatic interactions between genes from isolated populations) as the primary cause of hybrid inviability and sterility, a view consistent with empirical findings on the genetics of reproductive isolation in Drosophila. Although speciation models have become increasingly mathematically sophisticated, many remain based on an overly static concept of the genome, grounded in Mendelian genetics and devoid of potentially important biological details.

Maternal inheritance, epigenetics and the evolution of polyandry.

Growing evidence indicates that females actively engage in polyandry either to avoid genetic incompatibility or to bias paternity in favor of genetically superior males. Despite empirical support for the intrinsic male quality hypothesis, the maintenance of variation in male fitness remains a conundrum for traditional "good genes" models of sexual selection. Here, we discuss two mechanisms of non-Mendelian inheritance, maternal inheritance of mitochondria and epigenetic regulation of gene expression, which may explain the persistence of variation in male fitness traits important in post-copulatory sexual selection.

Male-killing Wolbachia in a live-bearing arthropod: brood abortion as a constraint on the spread of a selfish microbe.

Maternally inherited, cellular endosymbionts can enhance their fitness by biasing host sex ratio in favor of females. Male killing (MK), an extreme form of sex-ratio manipulation, is selectively advantageous, if the death of males results in increased microbe transmission through female siblings. In live-bearing hosts, females typically produce more embryos than are brought to term, and reproductive compensation through maternal resource reallocation from dead male embryos to female siblings provides a direct, physiological mechanism that could increase the number of daughters born to infected females, thereby promoting MK endosymbiont spread.

Incisor trauma and the planning of orthodontic treatment.

Because of the frequency of dental injuries during infancy and adolescence, traumatized teeth with variable long-term prognoses present a problem for orthodontic treatment planning. Orthodontic therapy can remain unaffected, or be complicated, by traumatized teeth. In some cases, following dental injury, orthodontics can also be used to enhance (prosthetic and) restorative treatment results.

Outbred embryos rescue inbred half-siblings in mixed-paternity broods of live-bearing females.

Females commonly mate with more than one male, and polyandry has been shown to increase reproductive success in many species. Insemination by multiple males shifts the arena for sexual selection from the external environment to the female reproductive tract, where sperm competition or female choice of sperm could bias fertilization against sperm from genetically inferior or genetically incompatible males. Evidence that polyandry can be a strategy for avoiding incompatibility comes from studies showing that inbreeding cost is reduced in some egg-laying species by postcopulatory mechanisms that favour fertilization by sperm from unrelated males.

Wolbachia, sex ratio bias and apparent male killing in the harlequin beetle riding pseudoscorpion.

Bacterial endosymbionts that manipulate host reproduction are now known to be widespread in insects and other arthropods. Since they inhabit the cytoplasm and are maternally inherited, these microorganisms can enhance their fitness by biasing host sex ratio in favour of females. At its most extreme, sex ratio manipulation may be achieved by killing male embryos, as occurs in a number of insect species.

Maternal inheritance, sexual conflict and the maladapted male.

Females differ from males in transmitting not only nuclear genes but also cytoplasmic genetic elements (CGEs), including DNA in mitochondria, chloroplasts and microorganisms that are present in the cell. Until recently, evolutionary research has adopted a nucleocentric approach in which organelles have been viewed as subservient energy suppliers. In this article, we propose that a more equitable view of nuclear genes and organelle genomes will lead to a better understanding of the dynamics of sexual selection and the constraints on male adaptation.

Direct pulp capping with mineral trioxide aggregate in a primary molar: a case report.

A case is presented in which pulp capping was performed on a right first mandibular primary molar in a 7-year-old male patient. An alkaline cement powder based on mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) was used for pulp capping. There were no pathological findings either on a radiograph taken after one year or on clinical examination after 18 months, and the right first mandibular primary molar remained vital after capping with MTA.