131,721 research outputs found
Figure 4 in The leucografa species group of Megachile (Chrysosarus) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)
No full textFigure 4. Megachile obscurior, male: (a) S5; (b) S6; (c) S8; (d) genital capsule, ventral view. Scale bar: 1 mm.Published as part of Roig-Alsina, A. & Torretta, J.P., 2021, The leucografa species group of Megachile (Chrysosarus) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), pp. 457-470 in Journal of Natural History 55 (7-8) on page 462, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2021.1905097, http://zenodo.org/record/547546
Figure 3 in The leucografa species group of Megachile (Chrysosarus) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)
No full textFigure 3. (a–c). Megachile obscurior: (a) female holotype, face; (b) holotype labels; (c) male, left antenna; (d–f). M. rancaguensis; (d) female holotype, face; (e) holotype labels; (f), male, left antenna.Published as part of Roig-Alsina, A. & Torretta, J.P., 2021, The leucografa species group of Megachile (Chrysosarus) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), pp. 457-470 in Journal of Natural History 55 (7-8) on page 462, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2021.1905097, http://zenodo.org/record/547546
Sprague Dawley rats: A model of successful heart aging
No full textAbstractAging is a universal phenomenon involving the whole body and is characterized by metabolic and physiological decline, leading to cardiovascular defects and heart failure.To characterize the molecular basis of physiological cardiac aging, the proteomic profiles of Sprague Dawley rat hearts of 6, 22 and 30 months were analysed by DIGE and immunoblotting.Results indicate changes in myosin binding protein C, aldehyde dehydrogenase, serpins and sirtuin-3 which protects from the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore induced by cyclophilin D increment.Conversely, an increase of fusion, a decrease of mitochondrial fission and the activation of the non-canonical autophagy pathway were observed. These results support the hypothesis of successful aging in this rat model
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in children with recurrent tonsillitis living in Milan
No full textInvolvement of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the etiopathogenesis of tonsillar disease in children is still debated; this study assesses possible differences in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels between 309 Caucasian children (58.1% males; mean age 55.7 ± 31.0 months) living in Milan with a history of recurrent tonsillitis (RT) and healthy controls. Mean serum 25(OH)D levels were significantly reduced in the children with a history of RT (22.0 ± 8.7 ng/mL vs 24.6 ± 7.8 ng/mL; p=0.03), and the proportion of children with insufficient or deficient serum 25(OH)D levels was higher in the RT group (81.5% and 6.5% respectively) than in the control group (75.1% and 3.5%) (not significant). The multivariable model created to test the independent association between serum 25(OH)D levels and a history of RT after adjusting for age and season showed that the association was not significant. Our study failed to find any significant reduction in serum 25(OH)D levels after adjustment for age and season in a case series of children with RT in comparison with healthy controls, which suggests that vitamin D does not play a relevant role in the etiology of pediatric tonsillar infections
Figure 2 in The leucografa species group of Megachile (Chrysosarus) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)
No full textFigure 2. Lateral habitus of Megachile species of the M. leucografa group: (a). M. leucografa, female; (b) M. leucografa, male; (c). M. obscurior, female holotype; (d) M. obscurior, male; (e) M. rancaguensis, female holotype; (f) M. rancaguensis, male. Scale bars: 1 mm.Published as part of Roig-Alsina, A. & Torretta, J.P., 2021, The leucografa species group of Megachile (Chrysosarus) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), pp. 457-470 in Journal of Natural History 55 (7-8) on page 461, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2021.1905097, http://zenodo.org/record/547546
CSF sphingolipids and phospholipids characterization in dementia patients
No full textObjectives: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers have been recently described for the improvement of AD diagnosis, even though, to date, diagnosis remains mainly based on neuropsychological tests. The objective of the present effort is to transfer MALDI profiling technology to the study of lipid profile in CSF samples, to assess a MALDI specific CSF lipid profile and identify new biomarkers.
Methods: Total lipids from CSF samples (AD n=10; idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH)=10; controls=10) were extracted according to Bligh and Dyer modified method and analyzed by MALDI. Profiles were analyzed by ClinProTools software. For sphingolipids and phospholipids characterization, lipid extracts were separated by HPTLC and directly analyzed by MALDI (Torretta E. et al, Electrophoresis 2014).
Furthermore, for a direct MALDI CSF lipid analysis, crude CSFs diluted in distilled water (1:2) were analyzed by MALDI and peaks searched against NIST database.
Results: Profiling preliminary results of lipid extracts from CSFs of 10 controls, 10 iNPH and 10 AD indicated a characteristic quantitative lipid CSF profile able to differentiate controls and iNPH vs AD.
Sphingolipids and phospholipids semiquantitative pattern provides a characteristic pattern in AD vs iNPH and controls.
Furthermore qualitative lipid characterization can be obtained by analyzing directly the crude CSF by MALDI in patients vs control samples for the identification of new lipid targets.
Conclusions: MALDI profiling of CSF lipid extracts contributed to the detection of specific lipid profile and possible biomarkers for an early AD diagnosis. HPTLC-MALDI and direct lipid analysis offered a hint for the identification of new lipid markers
MeSH term explosion and author rank improve expert recommendations
No full textInformation overload is an often-cited phenomenon that reduces the productivity, efficiency and efficacy of scientists. One challenge for scientists is to find appropriate collaborators in their research. The literature describes various solutions to the problem of expertise location, but most current approaches do not appear to be very suitable for expert recommendations in biomedical research. In this study, we present the development and initial evaluation of a vector space model-based algorithm to calculate researcher similarity using four inputs: 1) MeSH terms of publications; 2) MeSH terms and author rank; 3) exploded MeSH terms; and 4) exploded MeSH terms and author rank. We developed and evaluated the algorithm using a data set of 17,525 authors and their 22,542 papers. On average, our algorithms correctly predicted 2.5 of the top 5/10 coauthors of individual scientists. Exploded MeSH and author rank outperformed all other algorithms in accuracy, followed closely by MeSH and author rank. Our results show that the accuracy of MeSH term-based matching can be enhanced with other metadata such as author rank
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