The role of the cannabinoid receptor in adolescents' processing of facial expressions.

The processing of emotional faces is an important prerequisite for adequate social interactions in daily life, and might thus specifically be altered in adolescence, a period marked by significant changes in social emotional processing. Previous research has shown that the cannabinoid receptor CB1R is associated with longer gaze duration and increased brain responses in the striatum to happy faces in adults, yet, for adolescents, it is not clear whether an association between CBR1 and face processing exists. In the present study we investigated genetic effects of the two CB1R polymorphisms, rs1049353 and rs806377, on the processing of emotional faces in healthy adolescents.

Histone Acetylation Enzymes Coordinate Metabolism and Gene Expression.

Histone lysine acetylation is well known for being important in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. Recent studies have uncovered a plethora of acetylated proteins involved in important metabolic pathways, such as photosynthesis and respiration in plants. Enzymes involved in histone acetylation and deacetylation are being identified as regulators of acetylation of metabolic enzymes.

Investigation of Photovoltaic Properties of Single Core-Shell GaN/InGaN Wires.

We report the investigation of the photovoltaic properties of core-shell GaN/InGaN wires. The radial structure is grown on m-plane {11̅00} facets of self-assembled c̅-axis GaN wires elaborated by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on sapphire substrates. The conversion efficiency of wires with radial shell composed of thick In0.

Tryptophan-functionalized gold nanoparticles for deep UV imaging of microbial cells.

Biocompatible fluorescent nanostructures were prepared by a functionalization of gold nanoparticles with the amino acid tryptophan. The gold-tryptophan bioconjugates were investigated by TEM and HRTEM and various spectroscopy methods (XPS, FTIR, UV-vis and photoluminescence). It was found that the gold nanoparticles, initially 8 nm in diameter, aggregate in the presence of the amino acid.

Unraveling the Role of Huntingtin in Breast Cancer Metastasis.

Background: Huntingtin (HTT) is mutated in Huntington's disease but is ubiquitously expressed, and mutant HTT influences cancer progression. We investigated wild-type HTT function during breast cancer.

Methods: We analyzed HTT and ZO1 expression as well as the HTT phosphoserine 421-activated form (S421-P-HTT) in human breast cancer tissues by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry.

Antidepressant medication use and trajectories of fasting plasma glucose, glycated haemoglobin, β-cell function and insulin sensitivity: a 9-year longitudinal study of the D.E.S.I.R. cohort.

Background: Use of antidepressants is seen to be a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, even though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We examined whether antidepressant use was associated with change in fasting plasma glucose, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), β-cell function (HOMA2-%B) and insulin sensitivity (HOMA2-%S) over time.

Methods: Participants in the French D.

The Brain's Response to Reward Anticipation and Depression in Adolescence: Dimensionality, Specificity, and Longitudinal Predictions in a Community-Based Sample.

Objective: The authors examined whether alterations in the brain's reward network operate as a mechanism across the spectrum of risk for depression. They then tested whether these alterations are specific to anhedonia as compared with low mood and whether they are predictive of depressive outcomes.

Method: Functional MRI was used to collect blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses to anticipation of reward in the monetary incentive task in 1,576 adolescents in a community-based sample.

Haploinsufficiency of the NOTCH1 Receptor as a Cause of Adams-Oliver Syndrome With Variable Cardiac Anomalies.

Background: Adams-Oliver syndrome (AOS) is a rare disorder characterized by congenital limb defects and scalp cutis aplasia. In a proportion of cases, notable cardiac involvement is also apparent. Despite recent advances in the understanding of the genetic basis of AOS, for the majority of affected subjects, the underlying molecular defect remains unresolved.

Progress in understanding the diagnosis and molecular genetics of macrothrombocytopenias.

The inherited macrothrombocytopenias constitute a subgroup of congenital platelet disorders that is the best characterized from the genetic point of view. This clinically heterogeneous subgroup is characterized by a variable degree of bleeding but without predisposition to haematological malignancies, as seen in the two other subgroups. The classification of inherited thrombocytopenia is traditionally based on the description of different clinical and biological features, in particular the measurement of the mean platelet volume.

Four-year evolution of insulin regimens, glycaemic control, hypoglycaemia and body weight after starting insulin therapy in type 2 diabetes across three continents.

Aims: It is of interest to understand how insulin therapy currently evolves in clinical practice, in the years after starting insulin in people with type 2 diabetes. We aimed to describe this evolution prospectively over 4 years, to assist health care planning.

Methods: People who had started any insulin were identified from 12 countries on three continents.

Poor glycemic control in type 2 diabetes in the South of the Sahara: the issue of limited access to an HbA1c test.

Background: Management of type 2 diabetes remains a challenge in Africa. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of poor glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes living in sub-Saharan.

Patients And Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 1267 people (61% women) with type 2 diabetes (mean age 58 years) recruited across health facilities in Cameroon and Guinea.

Should we use standard survival models or the illness-death model for interval-censored data to investigate risk factors of chronic kidney disease progression?

Background: In studies investigating risk factors of chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression, one may be interested in estimating factors effects on both a fall of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) below a specific level (i.e., a CKD stage) and death.

Usefulness of measuring both body mass index and waist circumference for the estimation of visceral adiposity and related cardiometabolic risk profile (from the INSPIRE ME IAA study).

Despite its well-documented relation with visceral adiposity (VAT) and cardiometabolic risk (CMR), whether waist circumference (WC) should be measured in addition to body mass index (BMI) remains debated. This study tested the relevance of adding WC to BMI for the estimation of VAT and CMR. In the International Study of Prediction of Intra-abdominal Adiposity and Its Relationship with Cardiometabolic Risk/Intra-abdominal Adiposity, 297 physicians recruited 4,504 patients (29 countries).

A cross-cultural study on surrogate mother's empathy and maternal-foetal attachment.

Background: Traditional and gestational surrogate mothers assist infertile couples by carrying their children. In 2005, a meta-analysis on surrogacy was conducted but no study had examined empathy and maternal-foetal attachment of surrogate mothers. Assessments of surrogate mothers show no sign of psychopathology, but one study showed differences on several MMPI-2 scales compared to a normative sample: surrogate mothers identified with stereotypically masculine traits such as assertiveness and competition.

A new approach to integrate toxicity grade and repeated treatment cycles in the analysis and reporting of phase I dose-finding trials.

Background: Safety assessment beyond the dose-limiting toxicity evaluation period provides relevant information to define the recommended phase II dose (RP2D) of a new treatment. We retrospectively analyzed three phase I trials to illustrate two indicators: per-cycle probability of graded toxicity and cumulative probability of severe toxicity over the treatment period.

Patients And Methods: Data were collected from two continual reassessment method (CRM) trials (T1: aviscumine in solid tumors with short time on treatment; T2: erlotinib + radiotherapy in brainstem gliomas with longer time on treatment) and one 3 + 3 design (T3: liposomal doxorubicin + cyclophosphamide combination in ovarian carcinoma).

Decrease in urinary creatinine excretion in early stage chronic kidney disease.

Background: Little is known about muscle mass loss in early stage chronic kidney disease (CKD). We used 24-hour urinary creatinine excretion rate to assess determinants of muscle mass and its evolution with kidney function decline. We also described the range of urinary creatinine concentration in this population.

Smoking and long-term risk of type 2 diabetes: the EPIC-InterAct study in European populations.

Objective: The aims of this study were to investigate the association between smoking and incident type 2 diabetes, accounting for a large number of potential confounding factors, and to explore potential effect modifiers and intermediate factors.

Research Design And Methods: The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct is a prospective case-cohort study within eight European countries, including 12,403 cases of incident type 2 diabetes and a random subcohort of 16,835 individuals. After exclusion of individuals with missing data, the analyses included 10,327 cases and 13,863 subcohort individuals.

Regulation by miR181 family of the dependence receptor CDON tumor suppressive activity in neuroblastoma.

Background: The Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway plays an important role in neural crest cell fate during embryonic development and has been implicated in the progression of multiple cancers that include neuroblastoma, a neural crest cell-derived disease. While most of the SHH signaling is mediated by the well-described canonical pathway leading to the activation of Smoothened and Gli, it has recently been shown that cell-adhesion molecule-related/downregulated by oncogenes (CDON) serves as a receptor for SHH and contributes to SHH-induced signaling. CDON has also been recently described as a dependence receptor, triggering apoptosis in the absence of SHH.

The structure of the Slrp-Trx1 complex sheds light on the autoinhibition mechanism of the type III secretion system effectors of the NEL family.

Salmonella infections are a leading cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the U.S.A.

Fine-scale human genetic structure in Western France.

The difficulties arising from association analysis with rare variants underline the importance of suitable reference population cohorts, which integrate detailed spatial information. We analyzed a sample of 1684 individuals from Western France, who were genotyped at genome-wide level, from two cohorts D.E.

Visceral, subcutaneous abdominal adiposity and liver fat content distribution in normal glucose tolerance, impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance.

Objectives: To examine the specific distribution of liver fat content, visceral and subcutaneous adiposity in normal glucose tolerance (NGT/NGT), isolated impaired fasting glucose (iIFG), isolated impaired glucose tolerance (iIGT) and combined conditions (IFG+IGT), as well as with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (nT2D).

Design: Multicenter, international observational study: cross-sectional analysis.

Subjects: Two thousand five hundred and fifteen patients (50.

JAK2 and MPL protein levels determine TPO-induced megakaryocyte proliferation vs differentiation.

Megakaryopoiesis is a 2-step differentiation process, regulated by thrombopoietin (TPO), on binding to its cognate receptor myeloproliferative leukemia (MPL). This receptor associates with intracytoplasmic tyrosine kinases, essentially janus kinase 2 (JAK2), which regulates MPL stability and cell-surface expression, and mediates TPO-induced signal transduction. We demonstrate that JAK2 and MPL mediate TPO-induced proliferation arrest and megakaryocytic differentiation of the human megakaryoblastic leukemia cell line UT7-MPL.

Liver transcript analysis reveals aberrant splicing due to silent and intronic variations in the ABCB11 gene.

Background: Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis type 2 (PFIC2) is an autosomal recessive disease due to mutations in ABCB11. ABCB11 encodes the bile salt export pump (BSEP), the major transporter responsible for biliary bile acid secretion, which expression is restricted to hepatocytes. In some patients, molecular analysis of ABCB11 revealed either exonic or intronic variations - including common polymorphisms - predicted to affect splicing according to in silico analysis or in vitro minigene studies.

Integrated photonic platform based on InGaN/GaN nanowire emitters and detectors.

We report the fabrication of a photonic platform consisting of single wire light-emitting diodes (LED) and photodetectors optically coupled by waveguides. MOVPE-grown (metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy) InGaN/GaN p-n junction core-shell nanowires have been used for device fabrication. To achieve a good spectral matching between the emission wavelength and the detection range, different active regions containing either five narrow InGaN/GaN quantum wells or one wide InGaN segment were employed for the LED and the detector, respectively.