Exercise plus caloric restriction lowers soluble RAGE in adults with chronic kidney disease.

Introduction: The incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) has increased in recent years. CKD is associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, although the mechanism remains unclear. Elevated soluble form of the receptor for advanced glycation end products ( RAGE) is related to proinflammatory signaling pathways that may promote diabetic nephropathy and vascular dysfunction.

Graphene oxide/polydimethylsiloxane composite sponge for removing Pb(ii) from water.

An efficient adsorbent to remove Pb(ii) from water was prepared by treating polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sponge with polyvinyl alcohol and then coating the sponge with graphene oxide (GO). The GO-PDMS sponge was highly hydrophilic, easily handled during and after use, and easily recycled. The kinetics and isotherms of Pb(ii) sorption onto the GO-PDMS sponge were investigated by performing batch sorption tests.

Self-organizing cicada choruses respond to the local sound and light environment.

Periodical cicadas exhibit an extraordinary capacity for self-organizing spatially synchronous breeding behavior. The regular emergence of periodical cicada broods across the United States is a phenomenon of longstanding public and scientific interest, as the cicadas of each brood emerge in huge numbers and briefly dominate their ecosystem. During the emergence, the 17-year periodical cicada species is found to form synchronized choruses, and we investigated their chorusing behavior from the standpoint of spatial synchrony.

Metformin Improves Cardiac Metabolism and Function, and Prevents Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats.

Background In spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) we observed profound myocardial metabolic changes during early hypertension before development of cardiac dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy. In this study, we evaluated whether metformin improved myocardial metabolic abnormalities and simultaneously prevented contractile dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy in SHR. Methods and Results SHR and control Wistar-Kyoto rats were treated with metformin from 2 to 5 months of age, when SHR hearts exhibit metabolic abnormalities and develop cardiac dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy.

Exploring Themes and Bias in Art using Machine Learning Image Analysis.

Machine learning and computer vision have been applied for image recognition of art objects such as paintings, sculpture images etc. In particular, deep learning methods for image classification in art have been used to improve user engagement by providing access to accurately labelled and classified art objects. As an increasing number of notable museums turn towards creating open access collections, alternatives to the use of laborious human annotating methods are needed.

Expression of mutant CHMP2B linked to neurodegeneration in humans disrupts circadian rhythms in .

Mutations in CHMP2B, an ESCRT-III (endosomal sorting complexes required for transport) component, are associated with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Neurodegenerative disorders including FTD are also associated with a disruption in circadian rhythms, but the mechanism underlying this defect is not well understood. Here, we ectopically expressed the human CHMP2B variant associated with FTD (CHMP2B) in flies using the -GAL4 driver (>CHMP2B) and analyzed their circadian rhythms at behavioral, cellular, and biochemical level.

Evolutionary genomics can improve prediction of species' responses to climate change.

Global climate change (GCC) increasingly threatens biodiversity through the loss of species, and the transformation of entire ecosystems. Many species are challenged by the pace of GCC because they might not be able to respond fast enough to changing biotic and abiotic conditions. Species can respond either by shifting their range, or by persisting in their local habitat.

Communicating the consensus on climate change to college biology majors: The importance of preaching to the choir.

College and university biology majors who are not climate change deniers may yet be unaware of the degree of scientific consensus on climate change and unprepared to communicate about climate science to others. This study reports on a population of climate change accepting biology majors at a large, private research university in the American northeast. Our students tended to greatly underestimate the degree of scientific consensus around climate change, to be only moderately worried about climate change, and to be unconfident in their ability to communicate about the state of the scientific consensus around climate change.

Rapid reversal of a potentially constraining genetic covariance between leaf and flower traits in .

Genetic covariance between two traits generates correlated responses to selection, and may either enhance or constrain adaptation. exhibits potentially constraining genetic covariance between specific leaf area (SLA) and flower number in males. Flower number is likely to increase via fecundity selection but the correlated increase in SLA increases mortality, and SLA is under selection to decrease in dry habitats.

Phenotypic plasticity, but not adaptive tracking, underlies seasonal variation in post-cold hardening freeze tolerance of .

In temperate regions, an organism's ability to rapidly adapt to seasonally varying environments is essential for its survival. In response to seasonal changes in selection pressure caused by variation in temperature, humidity, and food availability, some organisms exhibit plastic changes in phenotype. In other cases, seasonal variation in selection pressure can rapidly increase the frequency of genotypes that offer survival or reproductive advantages under the current conditions.

The correlation between autophagy and tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer.

Tamoxifen is recommended as a first line treatment for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. However, the acquisition of endocrine resistance remains the biggest hurdle to achieving treatment success. We, therefore, designed the present study to disclose the relationship between autophagy and endocrine resistance and to provide some insight into overcoming tamoxifen resistance.

Genetic Dissection of Femoral and Tibial Microarchitecture.

Our understanding of the genetic control of bone strength has relied mainly on estimates of bone mineral density. Here we have mapped genetic factors that influence femoral and tibial microarchitecture using high-resolution x-ray computed tomography (8-μm isotropic voxels) across a family of 61 BXD strains of mice, roughly 10 isogenic cases per strain and balanced by sex. We computed heritabilities for 25 cortical and trabecular traits.

Selfing ability and drift load evolve with range expansion.

Colonization at expanding range edges often involves few founders, reducing effective population size. This process can promote the evolution of self-fertilization, but implicating historical processes as drivers of trait evolution is often difficult and requires an explicit model of biogeographic history. In plants, contemporary limits to outcrossing are often invoked as evolutionary drivers of self-fertilization, but historical expansions may shape mating system diversity, with leading-edge populations evolving elevated selfing ability.

Inherited thrombophilia and portal vein thrombosis in cirrhosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is common in cirrhosis. PVT is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Individual reports suggest that PVT occurs more frequently in patients with cirrhosis and inherited thrombophilia.

The hubris and humility of cancer pharmacology in the post immuno-oncology era.

Cancer is a dreaded word, which has stimulated monumental efforts to discover and deliver effective cancer treatments for more than half a century. During the past two decades, our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of cancer has increased remarkably. This has fostered an explosion in the number of experimental agents and clinical trials coupled with a dramatic rise in the regulatory approval of therapies for human cancers.

Acute autoimmune myocarditis as a manifestation of Graves' disease: A case report and review of the literature.

Acute myocarditis and hyperthyroidism are common diseases that often present in young, otherwise healthy patients. Autoimmunity is central to the pathogenesis of both. Patients presenting with acute myocarditis should be screened for symptoms of hyperthyroidism, and physicians should consider screening for myocarditis in patients with hyperthyroidism and persistent cardiac symptoms.

Enhanced Activity and Substrate Specificity by Site-Directed Mutagenesis for the P450 119 Peroxygenase Catalyzed Sulfoxidation of Thioanisole.

P450 119 peroxygenase was found to catalyze the sulfoxidation of thioanisole and the sulfonation of sulfoxide in the presence of -butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) for the first time with turnover rates of 1549 min and 196 min respectively. Several mutants were designed to improve the peroxygenation activity and thioanisole specificity by site-directed mutagenesis. The F153G/T213G mutant gave an increase of sulfoxide yield and a decrease of sulfone yield.

Advanced chemical stability diagrams to predict the formation of complex zinc compounds in a chloride environment.

A chemical stability map is advanced by incorporating ion complexation, solubility, and chemical trajectories to predict ZnO, Zn(OH), ZnCO, ZnCl, Zn(CO)(OH), and Zn(OH)Cl·HO precipitation as a function of the total Zn content and pH of an NaCl solution. These calculations demonstrate equilibrium stability of solid Zn products often not considered while tracking the consumed and produced aqueous Zn ion species concentrations through chemical trajectories. The effect of Cl-based ligand formation is incorporated into these stability predictions, enabling enhanced appreciation for the local corrosion conditions experienced at the Zn surface in chloride-containing environments.

Crystallization of high aspect ratio HKUST-1 thin films in nanoconfined channels for selective small molecule uptake.

We present the ability to create unique morphologies of a prototypical metal organic framework (MOF), HKUST-1, by carrying out its crystallization within a set of nano-confined fluidic channels. These channels are fabricated on cyclic olefin copolymer by the high-fidelity hot embossing imprinting method. The picoliter volume synthesis in the nanochannels is hypothesized to bias the balance between nucleation and growth rates to obtain high aspect ratio large-crystalline domains of HKUST-1, which are grown in defined morphologies due to the patterned nanochannels.

Vegetation on mesic loamy and sandy soils along a 1700-km maritime Eurasia Arctic Transect.

Questions: How do plant communities on zonal loamy vs. sandy soils vary across the full maritime Arctic bioclimate gradient? How are plant communities of these areas related to existing vegetation units of the European Vegetation Classification? What are the main environmental factors controlling transitions of vegetation along the bioclimate gradient?

Location: 1700-km Eurasia Arctic Transect (EAT), Yamal Peninsula and Franz Josef Land (FJL), Russia.

Methods: The Braun-Blanquet approach was used to sample mesic loamy and sandy plots on 14 total study sites at six locations, one in each of the five Arctic bioclimate subzones and the forest-tundra transition.

Sympatry and interference of divergent pathogen species.

The impact of infectious diseases in natural ecosystems is strongly influenced by the degree of pathogen specialization and by the local assemblies of potential host species. This study investigated anther-smut disease, caused by fungi in the genus , among natural populations of plants in the Caryophyllaceae. A broad geographic survey focused on sites of the disease on multiple host species in sympatry.