Natural and artificial radionuclides found were 40K with an average of 245 Bq/kg in river sediments, 499 Bq/kg in reservoir sediments and 121 Bq/kg in fish, and 90Sr with a concentration between 0.40 and 1.30 Bq/kg in sediments. Contamination of the aquatic ecosystem with metals and radionuclides was low according to European legislation. In conclusion, this study provides additional elements aimed at understanding the dynamics of fluvial and lentic ecosystems under the influence of different disturbances.The effects of polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) on human health have previously attracted much attention, but recent studies of PBBs have been focused on BB-153 and a few other congeners. PBB concentrations in serum samples from residents of an area containing an electronic waste dismantling site were determined in this study. The total PBB concentrations (i.e., the sums of the concentrations of the 35 PBB congeners) were 229-1360 ng/g lipid. The BB-153 concentrations were markedly higher in the samples from people living in the electronic waste dismantling area than in samples from people living in a nearby control area. BB-153 was found in all of the samples from the study exposure area but the concentrations were relatively low (0.07-4.70 ng/g lipid). High BB-1 concentrations were found for the first time in serum from people living in both the electronic waste dismantling and control areas. The BB-1 concentrations were 211-1280 ng/g lipid. The retention times of the 35 PBB standards and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) with similar structures were used to predict the retention times of unidentified PBB congeners to allow the PBB distributions in the serum samples to be identified. A total of 26 previously unidentified PBB congeners were identified in the human serum samples. BB-5, BB-35, BB-79, and BB-109 were found in >50% of the samples. The PBB patterns in the serum samples were different from the patterns previously found in serum after a PBB contamination incident in 1973, so the health risks currently posed by PBBs are worth studying.

Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC) is a myocardial disease due to desmosomal mutations whose pathogenesis is incompletely understood.

The purpose of this study was to identify molecular pathways underlying early AC by gene expression profiling in both humans and animal models.

RNA sequencing for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was performed on the myocardium of transgenic mice overexpressing the Desmoglein2-N271S mutation before phenotype onset. Zebrafish signaling reporters were used for invivo validation. Whole exome sequencing was undertaken in 10 genotype-negative AC patients and subsequent direct sequencing in 140 AC index cases.

Among 29 DEGs identified at early disease stages, Lgals3/GAL3 (lectin, galactoside-binding, soluble, 3) showed reduced cardiac expression in transgenic mice and in 3 AC patients who suffered sudden cardiac death without overt structural remodeling. Domatinostat mouse Four rare missense variants of LGALS3 were identified in 5 human AC probands. Pharmacologic inhibition of Lgals3 in zebrafish reduced Wnt and transforming growth factor-β signaling, increased Hippo/YAP-TAZ signaling, and induced alterations in desmoplakin membrane localization, desmosome integrity and stability. Increased LGALS3 plasma expression in genotype-positive AC patients and CD98 activation supported the galectin-3 (GAL3) release by circulating macrophages pointing toward the stabilization of desmosomal assembly at the injured regions.

GAL3 plays a crucial role in early AC onset through regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and intercellular adhesion.

GAL3 plays a crucial role in early AC onset through regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and intercellular adhesion.Potassium inward rectifier channel Kir2 is an important component of terminal cardiac repolarization and resting membrane stability. This functionality is part of balanced cardiac excitability and is a defining feature of excitable cardiac membranes. “Gain-of-function” or “loss-of-function” mutations in KCNJ2, the gene encoding Kir2.1, cause genetic sudden cardiac death syndromes, and loss of the Kir2 current IK1 is a major contributing factor to arrhythmogenesis in failing human hearts. Here we provide a contemporary review of the functional structure, physiology, and pharmacology of Kir2 channels. Beyond the structure and functional relationships, we will focus on the elements of clinically used drugs that block the channel and the implications for treatment of atrial fibrillation with IK1-blocking agents. We will also review the clinical disease entities associated with KCNJ2 mutations and the growing area of research into associated arrhythmia mechanisms. Lastly, the presence of Kir2 channels has become a tipping point for electrical maturity in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPS-CMs) and highlights the significance of understanding why Kir2 in iPS-CMs is important to consider for Comprehensive In Vitro Proarrhythmia Assay and drug safety testing.Insect behavioral ecologists are not routinely archiving their behavioral media files and natural history observations. This is especially problematic because most behaviors are not preserved by the physical specimens stored in typical natural history collections. Improving the reporting and archiving of insect behavior and natural history data holds the promise of allowing scientists to track real-time responses of animals to global change and will preserve aspects of natural history that might otherwise be lost due to extinctions. Here we argue that behavioral ecologists should work to preserve and archive raw media files and field notes related to behavior and natural history of their study organisms. One major mechanism to incentivize archiving of such data would be for journals to develop policies for archiving of natural history data that is the focus of the paper or ancillary information collected about study subjects. Buy in from researchers, journals, and funding agencies will be needed to make substantial changes in data archiving.We designed, implemented, and tested a clinical decision support system at the Research Center for the Study of Menopause and Osteoporosis within the University of Ferrara (Italy). As an independent module of our system, we implemented an original machine learning system for rule extraction, enriched with a hierarchical extraction methodology and a novel rule evaluation technique. Such a module is used in everyday operation protocol, and it allows physicians to receive suggestions for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. In this paper, we design and execute an experiment based on two years of data, in order to evaluate and report the reliability of our suggestion system. Our results are encouraging, and in some cases reach expected accuracies of around 90%.