SciCombinator

We describe the first definitive case of a fibrous dysplastic neoplasm in a Neandertal rib (120.71) from the site of Krapina in present-day Croatia. The tumor predates other evidence for these kinds of tumor by well over 100,000 years. Tumors of any sort are a rare occurrence in recent archaeological periods or in living primates, but especially in the human fossil record. Several studies have surveyed bone diseases in past human populations and living primates and fibrous dysplasias occur in a low incidence. Within the class of bone tumors of the rib, fibrous dysplasia is present in living humans at a higher frequency than other bone tumors. The bony features leading to our diagnosis are described in detail. In living humans effects of the neoplasm present a broad spectrum of symptoms, from asymptomatic to debilitating. Given the incomplete nature of this rib and the lack of associated skeletal elements, we resist commenting on the health effects the tumor had on the individual. Yet, the occurrence of this neoplasm shows that at least one Neandertal suffered a common bone tumor found in modern humans.

The role of genetically modified (GM) crops for food security is the subject of public controversy. GM crops could contribute to food production increases and higher food availability. There may also be impacts on food quality and nutrient composition. Finally, growing GM crops may influence farmers' income and thus their economic access to food. Smallholder farmers make up a large proportion of the undernourished people worldwide. Our study focuses on this latter aspect and provides the first ex post analysis of food security impacts of GM crops at the micro level. We use comprehensive panel data collected over several years from farm households in India, where insect-resistant GM cotton has been widely adopted. Controlling for other factors, the adoption of GM cotton has significantly improved calorie consumption and dietary quality, resulting from increased family incomes. This technology has reduced food insecurity by 15-20% among cotton-producing households. GM crops alone will not solve the hunger problem, but they can be an important component in a broader food security strategy.

Using a naturalistic video database, we examined whether gestures scaffold the symbolic development of a language-enculturated chimpanzee, a language-enculturated bonobo, and a human child during the second year of life. These three species constitute a complete clade: species possessing a common immediate ancestor. A basic finding was the functional and formal similarity of many gestures between chimpanzee, bonobo, and human child. The child’s symbols were spoken words; the apes' symbols were lexigrams - non-iconic visual signifiers. A developmental pattern in which gestural representation of a referent preceded symbolic representation of the same referent appeared in all three species (but was statistically significant only for the child). Nonetheless, across species, the ratio of symbol to gesture increased significantly with age. But even though their symbol production increased, the apes continued to communicate more frequently by gesture than by symbol. In contrast, by 15-18 months of age, the child used symbols more frequently than gestures. This ontogenetic sequence from gesture to symbol, present across the clade but more pronounced in child than ape, provides support for the role of gesture in language evolution. In all three species, the overwhelming majority of gestures were communicative (i.e., paired with eye contact, vocalization, and/or persistence). However, vocalization was rare for the apes, but accompanied the majority of the child’s communicative gestures. This species difference suggests the co-evolution of speech and gesture after the evolutionary divergence of the hominid line. Multimodal expressions of communicative intent (e.g., vocalization plus persistence) were normative for the child, but less common for the apes. This species difference suggests that multimodal expression of communicative intent was also strengthened after hominids diverged from apes.

Sexual selection has resulted in sex-based size dimorphism in many mammals, including humans. In Western societies, average to taller stature men and comparatively shorter, slimmer women have higher reproductive success and are typically considered more attractive. This size dimorphism also extends to vocalisations in many species, again including humans, with larger individuals exhibiting lower formant frequencies than smaller individuals. Further, across many languages there are associations between phonemes and the expression of size (e.g. large /a, o/, small /i, e/), consistent with the frequency-size relationship in vocalisations. We suggest that naming preferences are a product of this frequency-size relationship, driving male names to sound larger and female names smaller, through sound symbolism. In a 10-year dataset of the most popular British, Australian and American names we show that male names are significantly more likely to contain larger sounding phonemes (e.g. “Thomas”), while female names are significantly more likely to contain smaller phonemes (e.g. “Emily”). The desire of parents to have comparatively larger, more masculine sons, and smaller, more feminine daughters, and the increased social success that accompanies more sex-stereotyped names, is likely to be driving English-language first names to exploit sound symbolism of size in line with sexual body size dimorphism.

The prognosis for fit patients with mantle cell lymphoma has improved with intensive strategies. Currently, the role of maintenance/consolidation approaches is being tested as relapses continue appearing. In this trial we evaluated the feasibility, safety and efficacy of R-Hyper-CVAD alternating with R-MtxAraC followed by consolidation with 90Y-Ibritumomab-Tiuxetan. Patients received 6 cycles followed by a single dose of 90Y-Ibritumomab-Tiuxetan. Thirty patients were enrolled. Median age was 59 years. Twenty four patients finished the induction treatment, 23 achieved complete remission (77%, 95% confidence interval 60-93) and one patient had progressive disease (3%). Eighteen patients (60%), all in complete remission, received consolidation. In the intent- to- treat population, failure free, progression free and overall survival at 4 years were 40 % (95% confidence interval 20.4-59.6), 52% (95% confidence interval 32.4-71.6) and 81% (95% confidence interval 67.28-94.72), respectively. For patients who received consolidation, failure free and overall survival were 55% (95% confidence interval 31.48&-78.52) and 87% (95% confidence interval 70-100), respectively. Hematological toxicity was significant during induction and responsible for one death (3.3%). After consolidation, grade 3-4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia were observed in 72% and 83% of patients, with median duration of 5 and 12 weeks, respectively. Six (20%) patients died, 3 due to secondary malignancies (myelodisplastic syndrome and bladder and rectum carcinomas). In conclusion, our experience with R-Hyper-CVAD/R-MtxAraC followed by consolidation with 90Y-Ibritumomab-Tiuxetan is efficacious although less feasible than expected. The unacceptable toxicity observed, specially secondary malignancies, advise against the indication of this strategy. Trial registration: clinical.gov identifier: NCT2005-004400-37.

We present evidence that the geographic context in which a language is spoken may directly impact its phonological form. We examined the geographic coordinates and elevations of 567 language locations represented in a worldwide phonetic database. Languages with phonemic ejective consonants were found to occur closer to inhabitable regions of high elevation, when contrasted to languages without this class of sounds. In addition, the mean and median elevations of the locations of languages with ejectives were found to be comparatively high. The patterns uncovered surface on all major world landmasses, and are not the result of the influence of particular language families. They reflect a significant and positive worldwide correlation between elevation and the likelihood that a language employs ejective phonemes. In addition to documenting this correlation in detail, we offer two plausible motivations for its existence. We suggest that ejective sounds might be facilitated at higher elevations due to the associated decrease in ambient air pressure, which reduces the physiological effort required for the compression of air in the pharyngeal cavity-a unique articulatory component of ejective sounds. In addition, we hypothesize that ejective sounds may help to mitigate rates of water vapor loss through exhaled air. These explications demonstrate how a reduction of ambient air density could promote the usage of ejective phonemes in a given language. Our results reveal the direct influence of a geographic factor on the basic sound inventories of human languages.

Recent studies suggest that action video game players exhibit superior performance in visuospatial cognitive tasks compared with non-game players. However, the neural basis underlying this visuospatial cognitive performance advantage remains largely unknown. The present human behavioral and imaging study compared gray matter volume in action video game experts and non-experts using structural magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry analysis. The results revealed significantly larger gray matter volume in the right posterior parietal cortex in experts compared with non-experts. Furthermore, the larger gray matter volume in the right posterior parietal cortex significantly correlated with individual performance in a visual working memory task in experts. These results suggest that differences in brain structure may be linked to extensive video game play, leading to superior visuospatial cognitive performance in action video game experts.

Despite its essential role in human coexistence, the developmental origins and progression of sympathy in infancy are not yet fully understood. We show that preverbal 10-month-olds manifest sympathetic responses, evinced in their preference for attacked others according to their evaluations of the respective roles of victim, aggressor, and neutral party. In Experiment 1, infants viewing an aggressive social interaction between a victim and an aggressor exhibited preference for the victim. In Experiment 2, when comparing the victim and the aggressor to a neutral object, infants preferred the victim and avoided the aggressor. These findings indicate that 10-month-olds not only evaluate the roles of victims and aggressors in interactions but also show rudimentary sympathy toward others in distress based on that evaluation. This simple preference may function as a foundation for full-fledged sympathetic behavior later on.

Scientific productivity of middle income countries correlates stronger with present and future wealth than indices reflecting its financial, social, economic or technological sophistication. We identify the contribution of the relative productivity of different scientific disciplines in predicting the future economic growth of a nation. Results show that rich and poor countries differ in the relative proportion of their scientific output in the different disciplines: countries with higher relative productivity in basic sciences such as physics and chemistry had the highest economic growth in the following five years compared to countries with a higher relative productivity in applied sciences such as medicine and pharmacy. Results suggest that the economies of middle income countries that focus their academic efforts in selected areas of applied knowledge grow slower than countries which invest in general basic sciences.

The tips of mammalian digits can regenerate after amputation, like those of amphibians. It is unknown why this capacity is limited to the area associated with the nail. Here we show that nail stem cells (NSCs) reside in the proximal nail matrix and that the mechanisms governing NSC differentiation are coupled directly with their ability to orchestrate digit regeneration. Early nail progenitors undergo Wnt-dependent differentiation into the nail. After amputation, this Wnt activation is required for nail regeneration and also for attracting nerves that promote mesenchymal blastema growth, leading to the regeneration of the digit. Amputations proximal to the Wnt-active nail progenitors result in failure to regenerate the nail or digit. Nevertheless, β-catenin stabilization in the NSC region induced their regeneration. These results establish a link between NSC differentiation and digit regeneration, and suggest that NSCs may have the potential to contribute to the development of novel treatments for amputees.

BACKGROUND: Medical schools are grappling with how best to manage industry involvement in medical education. OBJECTIVE: To describe a case study of industry-supported undergraduate medical education related to opioid analgesics. METHOD: Institutional case study. RESULTS: As part of their regular curriculum, Canadian medical students attended pain pharmacotherapy lectures that contained questionable content about the use of opioids for pain management. The lectures were supported by pharmaceutical companies that market opioid analgesics in Canada and the guest lecturer was a member of speakers bureaus of the same companies. These conflicts of interests were not fully disclosed. A reference book that reinforced some of the information in the lectures and that was paid for by a sponsoring company was made available to students. This is the first report of an association between industry sponsorship and the dissemination of potentially dangerous information to medical students. CONCLUSIONS: This case demonstrates the need for better strategies for preventing, identifying and dealing with problematic interactions between the pharmaceutical industry and undergraduate medical education. These might include the avoidance of unnecessary conflicts of interest, more disclosure of conflicts, an open process for dealing with recognised problems and internationally harmonised conflict of interest policies.

Identifying characteristics of foraging activity is fundamental to understanding an animals' lifestyle and foraging ecology. Despite its importance, monitoring the foraging activities of marine animals is difficult because direct observation is rarely possible. In this study, we use an animal-borne imaging system and three-dimensional data logger simultaneously to observe the foraging behaviour of large juvenile and adult sized loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) in their natural environment. Video recordings showed that the turtles foraged on gelatinous prey while swimming in mid-water (i.e., defined as epipelagic water column deeper than 1 m in this study). By linking video and 3D data, we found that mid-water foraging events share the common feature of a marked deceleration phase associated with the capture and handling of the sluggish prey. Analysis of high-resolution 3D movements during mid-water foraging events, including presumptive events extracted from 3D data using deceleration in swim speed as a proxy for foraging (detection rate = 0.67), showed that turtles swam straight toward prey in 171 events (i.e., turning point absent) but made a single turn toward the prey an average of 5.7±6.0 m before reaching the prey in 229 events (i.e., turning point present). Foraging events with a turning point tended to occur during the daytime, suggesting that turtles primarily used visual cues to locate prey. In addition, an incident of a turtle encountering a plastic bag while swimming in mid-water was recorded. The fact that the turtle’s movements while approaching the plastic bag were analogous to those of a true foraging event, having a turning point and deceleration phase, also support the use of vision in mid-water foraging. Our study shows that integrated video and high-resolution 3D data analysis provides unique opportunities to understand foraging behaviours in the context of the sensory ecology involved in prey location.

BACKGROUND: Capsular contracture remains a hitherto unsolved complication after implantation of silicone gel-filled breast prostheses. Based on clinical and experimental data, the use of an acellular dermal matrix as a sheath around implants may lead to lesser capsular contracture acting as a proposed biological environment mimicking wound bed tissue. The aim of our study was to analyse the tissue reaction after implantation of silicone prosthesis with and without an envelope of acellular dermal matrix. METHODS: Implantation of 60 silicone prostheses in the back of Lewis rats were carried out, randomly paired taking one rat from group A and one from group B. Group A included implants completely enveloped with xenogenic acellular dermis and group B undraped silicone implants. At 3, 6 and 12 weeks postoperatively, the samples were explanted and subjected to histological and immunohistochemical evaluation. RESULTS: A new myofibroblast tissue layer was identified in proximity to the implant in both groups. The thickness of the layer in group A was continuously thinner than in group B regarding the different explantation time points. Implants completely wrapped with acellular dermal matrix showed significantly lesser inflammatory signs at 3 and 12 weeks after implantation compared to controls. Cell proliferation after 12 weeks was significantly decreased in group A. CONCLUSION: The slight myofibroblast layer and reduced rate of inflammation and proliferation in the treatment group show a positive effect of total acellular dermal matrix envelope and hypothesise the decrease of capsular contracture in long-term periods.

Distinct signaling pathways producing diverse cellular outcomes can utilize similar subsets of proteins. For example, proteins from the T cell receptor (TCR) early signaling complex (ESC) are also involved in interferon-α receptor signaling. Defining the mechanism for how these proteins function within a given pathway is important in understanding the integration and communication of signaling networks with one another. We investigated the contributions of the TCR ESC proteins Lck, ZAP-70, Vav1, SLP-76, and LAT to integrin outside-in signaling in human T cells. Lck, ZAP-70, SLP-76, Vav1, and LAT were activated by α4β1 outside-in signaling but in a manner different from TCR signaling. TCR stimulation recruits ESC proteins to activate the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). α4β1 outside-in-mediated ERK activation did not require TCR ESC proteins. However, α4β1 outside-in signaling induced CD25 and costimulated CD69 and this was dependent upon TCR ESC proteins. TCR and α4β1 outside-in signaling are integrated through the common use of TCR ESC proteins; however, these proteins display functionally distinct roles in these pathways. These novel insights into the crosstalk between integrin outside-in and TCR signaling pathways are highly relevant to the development of therapeutic strategies to overcome disease associated with T cell deregulation.

Abstract Objective: Migraine is a common neurologic condition characterized by the disabling effects it has on the patient. Despite recent progress in drug development, better pharmacotherapies against migraine are still needed. This report describes an herbal medicine that has a strong pain-relieving effect against migraine. Patient: This case involved a 49-year-old woman with a 16-year history of headaches. Migraine without aura had been diagnosed at age 47 years. Despite taking antiepileptic drugs as prophylaxis, she had migraines almost three times a week, especially in the morning. As a result, 3 months before her visit to the study clinic she was prescribed sumatriptan, which she had to take for each attack. However, sumatriptan sometimes failed to work as a painkiller, and the patient did not want to continue taking it because she was worried about overuse. Intervention and outcome: According to traditional Japanese (Kampo) and Chinese herbal medicine, the patient was prescribed an oral sanno-shashin-to (Xie Xin Tang) extract formula to take at night to prevent her migraines. Soon after she started taking the formula, the intensity of her morning headaches markedly decreased, to the extent that triptans were no longer needed. Furthermore, her residual headaches quickly disappeared after the additional administration of the formula in the morning. Conclusions: Sanno-shashin-to might have both prophylactic and therapeutic effects against migraine without aura. Although the underlying mechanism behind the effectiveness of this herbal medicine against migraine has not been fully elucidated, it is a possible option for the treatment of this type of headache.

I measured preference for paintings (Renoir vs. Picasso or Kandinsky vs. Mondrian) in mice. In general mice did not display a painting preference except for two mice: one preferred Renoir to Picasso, and the other preferred Kandinsky to Mondrian. Thereafter, I examined discrimination of paintings with new mice. When exposure to paintings of one artist was associated with an injection of morphine (3.0 mg/kg), mice displayed conditioned preference for those paintings, showing discrimination of paintings by Renoir from those by Picasso, and paintings by Kandinsky from those by Mondrian after the conditioning. They also exhibited generalization of the preference to novel paintings of the artists. After conditioning with morphine for a set of paintings consisting of two artists, mice showed discrimination between two sets of paintings also from the two artists but not in association with morphine. These results suggest that mice can discriminate not only between an artist’s style but also among paintings of the same artist. When mice were trained to discriminate a pair of paintings by Kandinsky and Renoir in an operant chamber equipped with a touch screen, they showed transfer of the discrimination to new pairs of the artists, but did not show transfer of discrimination of paintings by other artists, suggesting generalization.

BACKGROUND: Non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (NVUGIB) is an important cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Little information is available on the clinical management of non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding in Italy in relation to the current organization of the Italian Emergency Health Services into Level-I and Level-II Emergency Departments (ED), the latter being more complex structures with greater resources. METHODS: A retrospective survey on clinical, endoscopic, and survival data was conducted by the regional sections of the 3 main Italian gastroenterological societies, AIGO, SIED and SIGE, recording all consecutive episodes of non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding referred to 7 centres (4 of which were Level-II Emergency Departments) in Rome, Italy, during a one-year period. A total of 624 consecutive patients (64% males, mean age 67.6±16.2years) were included. Thirty-day mortality was 4.6%. Main factors associated with survival at both univariate and multivariate analysis were the presence of full Rockall score <5 and the admission to a Level-II Emergency Departments (p<0.001). Level-I Emergency Departments admitted patients with a full Rockall score ≥5 (p=0.02) more frequently than patients with negative endoscopic findings (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Referral of non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding patients to Emergency Departments with more resources (Level-II) is associated with reduced mortality. Yet, unfortunately, high-risk patients were more often admitted to Level-I Emergency Departments, which suggests the need for a better organization of the emergency referral system.

Recently in Cell, Mitalipov and colleagues report an advance that has eluded scientists for over a decade-the successful derivation of embryonic stem cell lines using somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT (Tachibana et al., 2013).

A marine sponge-associated bacterium Bacillus megaterium MSBN04 was used for the production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) under solid state culture (SSC). A central composite design (CCD) was employed to optimize the production medium and to find out the interactive effects of four independent variables, viz. tapioca industry waste, palm jaggery, horse gram flour and trace element solution on PHB production. The maximum yield of PHB 8.637mgg(-1) of substrate (tapioca industry waste) was achieved from biomass 15.203mgg(-1) of substrate, using statistically optimized medium. The horse gram flour (nitrogen source) and trace element solution were found to be critical control factors for PHB synthesis. The (1)H NMR analysis revealed that the polymer was a PHB monomer. PHB obtained from this study having high molecular weight (6.7×10(5)Da) with low polydispersity index (PDI) value (1.71) and produced PHB was used to synthesize PHB polymeric nanoparticles using solvent displacement approach. Therefore, B. megaterium MSBN04 is an ideal candidate that can be exploited biotechnologically for the commercial production of PHB under solid state culture.

This experimental study aimed to determine the effect of practicing a position matching task with (mirror) visual feedback of the less-impaired arm on the matching accuracy of the impaired arm in children and adolescents with spastic hemiparetic cerebral palsy. Practice consisted of 40 trials of bimanual target matching, where one group received regular visual feedback and a second group received mirror visual feedback of the less-impaired arm. On three occasions (pre, post, and after a 1-week-retention) position sense (matching accuracy measured as the endpoint error in cm) of the impaired arm was tested with a unimanual and bimanual matching task, performed without any visual information of either hand. Matching accuracy of the impaired arm was better in the post-test than in the pre-test, but this improvement was similar for both practice groups. In the retention-test, accuracy had returned to pre-test-level, which might be ascribed to the short duration of the practice period. These outcomes suggest that practicing a matching task with visual feedback of the less-impaired arm might help to improve the matching accuracy of the impaired arm in individuals with spastic hemiparetic cerebral palsy.