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The vertebrate endocrine system is well-characterized, with many reports of disruption by environmental chemicals. In contrast, cnidarians are less compartmentalized, physiological regulation is poorly understood, and the potential for disruption is unknown. Endocrine-like activity has not been systematically studied in cnidarians, but several classical vertebrate hormones (e.g., steroids, iodinated organic compounds, neuropeptides, and indoleamines) have been identified in cnidarian tissues. Investigators have made progress in identifying putative bioregulatory molecules in cnidarians, and testing the effects of these individual compounds. Less progress has been made in elucidating signaling pathways. For example, putative gonadotropin-releasing hormone and sex steroids have been identified in cnidarian tissues, but it is unknown whether these compounds are components of a larger signal cascade comparable to the vertebrate hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Further, while sex steroids and iodinated organic compounds may help to regulate cnidarian physiology, the mechanisms of action are unknown. Homologs to the vertebrate steroid and thyroid receptors have not been identified in cnidarians, so more research is needed to understand the mechanisms of endocrine-like signaling in cnidarians. Elucidation of cnidarian regulatory pathways will provide insight into evolution of hormonal signaling. These studies will also improve understanding of how cnidarians respond to environmental cues and will provide a basis to investigate disruption of physiological processes by physical and chemical stressors.

Steroidal estrogens are well-described vertebrate hormones that also occur in invertebrates, where they have diverse biological effects. Estradiol-17β is contained in coral tissues and released into the surrounding water during multi-species coral mass-spawning events. Estrogens are also widely distributed environmental pollutants in coastal waters; thus corals and other reef invertebrates are exposed to a variety of estrogens and estrogen-like compounds with unknown organismal and ecological effects. Until now, there has been no experimental evidence to suggest that estrogens are biologically active in corals. We describe the effects of exogenous estradiol on the size and number of gametes spawned by coral colonies and the effects of estrone on coral growth rates and tissue thickness.Montipora capitatacoral colonies treated with estradiol for 3 wk prior to spawning released fewer egg–sperm bundles than controls (29% decrease).Porites compressacoral fragments (‘nubbins’) exposed continuously to estrone for 2 to 8 wk had lower (13 to 24%) skeletal growth rates than controls. Large coral nubbins that were treated with estrone had thicker tissue. While the mechanism for estrogen action for corals remains unknown, these experiments represent the first account of biological activity of steroidal estrogens in coral.

In this paper I suggest ways in which a geographical approach to grandparent identities could successfully build upon social geography's understandings of relational geographies of age. In intergenerational geographies, the compartmentalised nature of age studies means that transitions in later stages of the lifecourse, particularly in family life, remain substantially under-researched. The paper draws together established geographical literatures of age, family and lifecourse, and evidence from qualitative interviews conducted over the past 12 months in the UK for ongoing research with grandfathers, to suggest ways in which the discipline might engage with and critique intergenerational geographies to move it forward. In particular there is a focus on spatialities of body space, embodiment and intimacy, activity spaces, and distance and locality.

Cytochrome P450 family 1 (CYP1) proteins are important in a large number of toxicological processes. CYP1A and CYP1B genes are well known in mammals, but the evolutionary history of the CYP1 family as a whole is obscure; that history may provide insight into endogenous functions of CYP1 enzymes. Here, we identify CYP1-like genes in early deuterostomes (tunicates and echinoderms), and several new CYP1 genes in vertebrates (chicken, Gallus gallus and frog, Xenopus tropicalis). Profile hidden Markov models (HMMs) generated from vertebrate CYP1A and CYP1B protein sequences were used to identify 5 potential CYP1 homologs in the tunicate Ciona intestinalis genome. The C. intestinalis genes were cloned and sequenced, confirming the predicted sequences. Orthologs of 4 of these genes were found in the Ciona savignyi genome. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses group the tunicate genes in the CYP1 family, provisionally in 2 new subfamilies, CYP1E and CYP1F, which fall in the CYP1A and CYP1B/1C clades. Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses predict functional divergence between the tunicate and vertebrate CYP1s, and regions within CYP substrate recognition sites were found to differ significantly in position-specific substitution rates between tunicates and vertebrates. Subsequently, 10 CYP1-like genes were found in the echinoderm Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (sea urchin) genome. Several of the tunicate and echinoderm CYP1-like genes are expressed during development. Canonical xenobiotic response elements are present in the upstream genomic sequences of most tunicate and sea urchin CYP1s, and both groups are predicted to possess an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), suggesting possible regulatory linkage of AHR and these CYPs. The CYP1 family has undergone multiple rounds of gene duplication followed by functional divergence, with at least one gene lost in mammals. This study provides new insight into the origin and evolution of CYP1 genes. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Objective: To assess the relationship between ventricular index (VI) measurements and postmenstrual age in preterm infants and to generate centile charts and normal ranges for frontal horn ratio (FHR) for a large contemporary cohort of preterm infants. Study Design: A retrospective cohort study of 253 infants with birth gestation less than 32 weeks admitted between January 2009 and December 2011 to a tertiary NICU in Ireland. Results: A total of 816 cranial ultrasounds were reviewed. Data collected were grouped according to postmenstrual age at the time of scan from 23 weeks to 45 weeks. Median values for VI show a general trend to increase with gestation. FHR did not significantly change with postmenstrual age at scan with a median value of 0.31. Conclusion: There is a slight increase in VI as gestation at the time of scans increases. These results provide the basis for updated centile charts which we propose for current practice.

The incorporation of low density, high modulus ceramic particles into a steel matrix is a potential route to improve the mechanical performance of steels. A powder metallurgy, mechanical blending route has been adopted to produce a homogeneous distribution of TiB2 particles in a 316L stainless steel matrix. The resulting composite showed large increases in both the compression and the tensile strength when compared to the unreinforced alloy. The compression strength was measured under both quasistatic and dynamic conditions. Tensile strength was measured only under quasistatic conditions. Dynamic compression tests were performed at temperatures of 200 and 400 °C. Metallographic investigations have been performed on the specimen in the initial status and after a deformation. Fracture surfaces were studied in a scanning electron microscope to allow more detailed assessment of fracture mechanisms.

Public values toward forests have changed since the late 1980s, from a commodity-oriented perspective toward a more inclusive (commodity and non-commodity) orientation. This study examines the influence of four indicators of population diversity (age, ethnic background, place of residence, and gender) on amenity values of forests, environmental attitudes, and forest value-attitude correspondence. Four values of public and private forests were assessed, wood production (utilitarian value), clean air (a life support value), scenic beauty (an aesthetic value), and heritage (a spiritual value). Environmental attitudes were measured using a modified version of the New Environmental Paradigm scale. Five hundred and forty-eight randomly selected residents of households in 13 states of the Southern United States participated in a telephone interview. Age and ethnic background were found to moderate the value-attitude relationship, with the strength of the association being dependent upon the type of forest (i.e., public or private) and the forest value (i.e., utilitarian, life support, spiritual, and aesthetic). Females, younger persons (less than 43 years old), and whites reported lower utilitarian values of forests than their respective counterparts. Results are interpreted within the context of an emerging post-material society, in which a biocentric orientation to forests and the natural environment may be favored more by a younger (versus older) generation and increasingly racially diverse U.S. population. Implications for managing forests using a multiple-values (versus multiple-uses) approach are discussed.

We present studies of proton fluxes in the T10 beamline at CERN. A prototype high pressure gas time projection chamber (TPC) was exposed to the beam of protons and other particles, using the 0.8 GeV/c momentum setting in T10, in order to make cross section measurements of low energy protons in argon. To explore the energy region comparable to hadrons produced by GeV-scale neutrino interactions at oscillation experiments, i.e., near 0.1 GeV of kinetic energy, methods of moderating the T10 beam were employed: the dual technique of moderating the beam with acrylic blocks and measuring scattered protons off the beam axis was used to decrease the kinetic energy of incident protons, as well as change the proton/minimum ionising particle (MIP) composition of the incident flux. Measurements of the beam properties were made using time of flight systems upstream and downstream of the TPC. The kinetic energy of protons reaching the TPC was successfully changed from ∼0.3 GeV without moderator blocks to less than 0.1 GeV with four moderator blocks (40 cm path length). The flux of both protons and MIPs off the beam axis was increased. The ratio of protons to MIPs vary as a function of the off-axis angle allowing for possible optimisation of the detector to select the type of required particles. Simulation informed by the time of flight measurements show that with four moderator blocks placed in the beamline, (5.6 ± 0.1) protons with energies below 0.1 GeV per spill traversed the active TPC region. Measurements of the beam composition and energy are presented.

Conserved interactions among proteins or other molecules can provide strong evidence for coevolution across their evolutionary history. Diverse phylogenetic methods have been applied to identify potential coevolutionary relationships. In most cases, these methods minimally require comparisons of orthologous sequences and appropriate controls to separate effects of selection from the overall evolutionary relationships. In vertebrates, androgen receptor (AR) and cytochrome p450 aromatase (CYP19) share an affinity for androgenic steroids, which serve as receptor ligands and enzyme substrates. In a recent study, Tiwary and Li (Tiwary BK, Li W-H. 2009. Parallel evolution between aromatase and androgen receptor in the animal kingdom. Mol Biol Evol. 26:123–129) reported that AR and CYP19 displayed a signature of ancient and conserved interactions throughout all the Eumetazoa (i.e., cnidarians, protostomes, and deuterostomes). Because these findings conflicted with a number of previous studies, we reanalyzed the data set used by Tiwary and Li. First, our analyses demonstrate that the invertebrate genes used in the previous analysis are not orthologous sequences but instead represent a diverse set of nuclear receptors and CYP enzymes with no confirmed or hypothesized relationships with androgens. Second, we show that 1) their analytical approach, which measures correlations in evolutionary distances between proteins, potentially led to spurious significant relationships due simply to conserved domains and 2) control comparisons provide positive evidence for a strong influence of evolutionary history. We discuss how corrections to this method and analysis of key taxa (e.g., duplications in the teleost fish and suiform lineages) can inform investigations of the coevolutionary relationships between AR and aromatase.

Estrogens are ancient molecules that act as hormones in vertebrates and are biologically active in diverse animal phyla. Sewage contains natural and synthetic estrogens that are detectable in streams, rivers, and lakes. There are no studies reporting the distribution of steroidal estrogens in marine environments. We measured estrogens in sewage, injection-well water, and coastal tropical and offshore tropical water in the Pacific Ocean, western Atlantic Ocean, and Caribbean Sea. Concentrations of unconjugated estrone ranged from undetectable (< 40 pg/L) in the open ocean to nearly 2,000 pg/L in Key West, Florida, and Rehoboth Bay, Delaware (USA); estrone concentrations were highest near sources of sewage. Enzymatic hydrolysis of steroid conjugates in seawater samples indicated that polar conjugates comprise one-half to two-thirds of \"total estrone\" (unconjugated plus conjugated) in Hawaiian coastal samples. Adsorption to basalt gravel and carbonate sand was less than 20% per week and indicates that estrogens can easily leach into the marine environment from septic fields and high-estrogen groundwater. Of 20 sites (n = 129 samples), the mean values from 12 sites were above the threshold concentration for uptake into coral, indicating that there is a net uptake of anthropogenic steroidal estrogen into these environments, with unknown impacts.