Search results for "570"
showing 10 items of 1074 documents
The turnover of dental microwear texture: Testing the" last supper" effect in small mammals in a controlled feeding experiment
2020
Dental microwear texture (DMT) analysis is commonly applied for dietary reconstruction of vertebrates. The temporal scale on which dietarily informative microscopic wear forms on enamel surfaces is crucial to infer dietary flexibility and seasonality. Microwear is assumed to form shortly before the individual's death, reflecting information pertaining to the last meals consumed (“last supper” effect). In primate feeding experiments, microwear features formed within hours, suggesting rates of turnover within one to two weeks. As DMT formation experiments testing the persistence of microwear three-dimensionally (textures) are still lacking, we test how quickly DMTs form and pr…
Everything matters: Molar microwear texture in goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) fed diets of different abrasiveness
2020
There is an ongoing discourse about whether or not external abrasives influence the microscopic wear in herbivore teeth, including a statement that “dust does not matter”. We submitted the maxillary and mandibular second molar of 28 goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) to dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA). The study animals were divided into four groups, which received diets of increasing phytolith-based abrasiveness (L: lucerne based pellets, very low phytolith abrasion diet, acting as control; G: grass-based pellets, medium abrasive phytolith diet; GR: grass and rice husk pellets, high abrasion phytolith diet), or a diet with added external abrasives (GRS: the GR diet with add…
Deciphering the Rules Underlying Xenogeneic Silencing and Counter-Silencing of Lsr2-like Proteins Using CgpS of Corynebacterium glutamicum as a Model
2020
In actinobacteria, Lsr2-like nucleoid-associated proteins function as xenogeneic silencers (XS) of horizontally acquired genomic regions, including viral elements, virulence gene clusters in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and genes involved in cryptic specialized metabolism in Streptomyces species. Consequently, a detailed mechanistic understanding of Lsr2 binding in vivo is relevant as a potential drug target and for the identification of novel bioactive compounds. Here, we followed an in vivo approach to investigate the rules underlying xenogeneic silencing and counter-silencing of the Lsr2-like XS CgpS from Corynebacterium glutamicum. Our results demonstrated that CgpS distinguishes between…
The NFκB-inducing kinase is essential for the developmental programming of skin-resident and IL-17-producing γδ T cells
2015
γδ T cells contribute to first line immune defense, particularly through their ability for rapid production of proinflammatory cytokines. The cytokine profile of γδ T cells is hard-wired already during thymic development. Yet, the molecular pathways underlying this phenomenon are incompletely understood. Here we show that signaling via the NFκB-inducing kinase (NIK) is essential for the formation of a fully functional γδ T cell compartment. In the absence of NIK, development of Vγ5+ dendritic epidermal T cells (DETCs) was halted in the embryonic thymus, and impaired NIK function caused a selective loss of IL-17 expression by γδ T cells. Using a novel conditional mutant of NIK, we could show…
Multiple overseas dispersal in amphibians
2003
Amphibians are thought to be unable to disperse over ocean barriers because they do not tolerate the osmotic stress of salt water. Their distribution patterns have therefore generally been explained by vicariance biogeography. Here, we present compelling evidence for overseas dispersal of frogs in the Indian Ocean region based on the discovery of two endemic species on Mayotte. This island belongs to the Comoro archipelago, which is entirely volcanic and surrounded by sea depths of more than 3500 m. This constitutes the first observation of endemic amphibians on oceanic islands that did not have any past physical contact to other land masses. The two species of frogs had previously been tho…
CH of masonry materials via meshless meso-modeling
2014
In the present study a multi-scale computational strategy for the analysis of masonry structures is presented. The structural macroscopic behaviour is obtained making use of the Computational Homogenization (CH) technique based on the solution of the boundary value problem (BVP) of a detailed Unit Cell (UC) chosen at the meso-scale and representative of the heterogeneous material. The smallest UC is composed by a brick and half of its surrounding joints, the former assumed to behave elastically while the latter considered with an elastoplastic softening response. The governing equations at the macroscopic level are formulated in the framework of finite element method while the Meshless Meth…
Epidemic spread of ST1-MRSA-IVa in a neonatal intensive care unit, Italy
2012
Abstract Background Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has recently emerged as an important pathogen in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The purposes of this study were to characterize methicillin-resistant isolates from an outbreak in a NICU, to examine the genetic traits and clonality of CA-MRSA, and to review the characteristics and outcomes of the neonatal cases and investigate the routes of entry and transmission of the MRSA outbreak strain in the NICU under study. Methods The study NICU practiced an active surveillance program for multidrug-resistant organisms, including weekly cultures for detection of MRSA from nasal swabs among all the …
MetAphAs Test. Metalanguage in Aphasia Assessment.
2018
Test MetAphAs: La evaluación del metalenguaje en la afasia (Rosell-Clari & Hernández-Sacristán, 2018) es una versión adaptada y abreviada de Rosell Clari & Hernández Sacristán, 2014). Esta prueba fue desarrollada inicialmente para evaluar las habilidades metalingüísticas naturales en personas con afasia (Hernández-Sacristán, Rosell-Clari, Serra-Alegre y Quiles-Climent, 2012). Las habilidades metalingüísticas naturales se refieren al uso del lenguaje que revela reflexividad (Hockett, 1960); es decir, la distancia perceptiva del hablante con respecto a su propio comportamiento verbal (Werner & Kaplan, 1978). Esta autoconciencia del lenguaje nos permite monitorear nuestros propios comportamien…
The IFN-γ-Inducible GTPase, Irga6, Protects Mice against Toxoplasma gondii but Not against Plasmodium berghei and Some Other Intracellular Pathogens
2011
Clearance of infection with intracellular pathogens in mice involves interferon-regulated GTPases of the IRG protein family. Experiments with mice genetically deficient in members of this family such as Irgm1(LRG-47), Irgm3(IGTP), and Irgd(IRG-47) has revealed a critical role in microbial clearance, especially for Toxoplasma gondii. The in vivo role of another member of this family, Irga6 (IIGP, IIGP1) has been studied in less detail. We investigated the susceptibility of two independently generated mouse strains deficient in Irga6 to in vivo infection with T. gondii, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Leishmania mexicana, L. major, Listeria monocytogenes, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Plasmodium …
Bedside surgery in the newborn infants: Survey of the Italian society of pediatric surgery
2020
Abstract Introduction This is the report of the first official survey from the Italian Society of Pediatric Surgery (ISPS) to appraise the distribution and organization of bedside surgery in the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in Italy. Methods A questionnaire requesting general data, staff data and workload data of the centers was developed and sent by means of an online cloud-based software instrument to all Italian pediatric surgery Units. Results The survey was answered by 34 (65%) out of 52 centers. NICU bedside surgery is reported in 81.8% of the pediatric surgery centers. A lower prevalence of bedside surgical practice in the NICU was reported for Southern Italy and the islands …