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Background: CD151 is a cell-surface molecule of the tetraspanin family. Its lateral interaction with laminin-binding integrin ɑ3β1 is important for podocyte adhesion to the glomerular basement membrane (GBM). Deletion of Cd151 in mice induces glomerular dysfunction, with proteinuria and associated focal glomerulosclerosis, disorganisation of GBM and tubular cystic dilation. Despite this, CD151 is not routinely screened for in patients with nephrotic-range proteinuria. We aimed to better understand the relevance of CD151 in human kidney disease. Methods: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to detect the variant in CD151. Electron and light microscopy were used to visualise the filtration barrier in the patient kidney biopsy, and immunoreactivity of patient red blood cells to anti-CD151/MER2 antibodies was performed. Further validation of the CD151 variant as disease-causing was performed in zebrafish using CRISPR-Cas9. Results: We report a young child with nail dystrophy and persistent urinary tract infections who was incidentally found to have nephrotic-range proteinuria. Through targeted NGS, a novel, homozygous truncating variant was identified in CD151, a gene rarely reported in patients with nephrotic syndrome. Electron microscopy imaging of patient kidney tissue showed thickening of GBM and podocyte effacement. Immunofluorescence of patient kidney tissue demonstrated that CD151 was significantly reduced, and we did not detect immunoreactivity to CD151/MER2 on patient red blood cells. CRISPR-Cas9 depletion of cd151 in zebrafish caused proteinuria, which was rescued by injection of wild-type CD151 mRNA, but not CD151 mRNA containing the variant sequence. Conclusions: Our results indicate that a novel variant in CD151 is associated with nephrotic-range proteinuria and microscopic haematuria and provides further evidence for a role of CD151 in glomerular disease. Our work highlights a functional testing pipeline for future analysis of patient genetic variants. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchrotron X-ray imaging has been used to examine in situ the deformation of dendrites that takes place during the solidification of a nickel-based superalloy. By combining absorption and diffraction contrast imaging, deformation events could be classified by their localization and permanence. In particular, a deformation mechanism arising from thermal contraction in a temperature gradient was elucidated through digital image correlation. It was concluded that this mechanism may explain the small misorientations typically observed in single crystal castings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although red tides are typically formed by dinoflagellate blooms, aloricate ciliates in the genus Mesodinium also produce striking red blooms throughout the world. In mid-March 2015, we confirmed the occurrence of dense blooms of Mesodinium major in Lough Hyne Marine Nature Reserve, a fully marine sea lough in County Cork, SW Ireland. Daytime aggregations of these highly mobile ciliates occurred in the surface and subsurface waters of the lough, particularly along the western shore and in the Goleen. Fine-scale comparisons of dissolved oxygen (DO) and water temperature values indicated that the surface water supporting dense blooms was slightly but significantly more oxygenated and warmer than closely juxtaposed water without visible blooms. Coarse-scale comparisons, however, showed no significant difference in DO or temperature between bloom and non-bloom areas, although there were highly significant differences in the two parameters by water depth and location within the lough. Although this is the first formal report of red-water ciliate blooms for Lough Hyne and County Cork, it is not the first known occurrence; earlier spring red tides at the lough were assumed (probably in error) to be caused solely or primarily by dinoflagellates and/or loricate ciliates (tintinnids). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a method of building RPD components into an effective design and indicates how the details of the design can be communicated clearly to the dental technician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the benefits and risks of providing RPDs. It emphasises the importance of co-operation between the dental team and patient to ensure that the balance of this 'equation' is in the patient's favour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cylindrical algebraic decompositions (CADs) are a key tool in real algebraic geometry, used primarily for eliminating quantifiers over the reals and studying semi-algebraic sets. In this paper we introduce cylindrical algebraic sub-decompositions (sub-CADs), which are subsets of CADs containing all the information needed to specify a solution for a given problem. We define two new types of sub-CAD: variety sub-CADs which are those cells in a CAD lying on a designated variety; and layered sub-CADs which have only those cells of dimension higher than a specified value. We present algorithms to produce these and describe how the two approaches may be combined with each other and the recent theory of truth-table invariant CAD. We give a complexity analysis showing that these techniques can offer substantial theoretical savings, which is supported by experimentation using an implementation in Maple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which estimated the total population of Eurasian badgers, Meles meles L., in the Republic of Ireland. Specific study areas include Cork, Donegal, Kilnenny and Monaghan, al representing a range of agricultural habitat types. Intensive protective badger removal was conducted in the areas with the goal of obtaining a low badger density. Data showed that a total of 1,099 badgers were removed from the areas between 1997 and 1999, with 73.2% of badgers were caught at main setts and 26.8% at outlier setts. The study confirmed that badgers are widespread in agricultural habitats across the country.

The article presents a study on the effect of barriers, such as external buffers and rivers, on the immigration of badger Meles meles during the Four Area project in Ireland. It is noted that the there was proactive culling of badgers at the location of the barriers. The researchers assume that all the badgers caught in the space of the removal areas came across the barriers and that all the badgers caught were immigrants. Using chi-square tests, the researchers claim that sea and external buffers are the most effective. They also emphasize the importance of understanding the effectiveness of barriers to the efficiency of badger management options.

Ingestion of bivalve larvae by Mytilus edulis was investigated. Laboratory experiments revealed that ~ 90% of bivalve larvae offered to mussels was ingested and apparently fully digested. The shell of the bivalve larvae offered no protection against digestive processes, resulting in high larval mortality once inside the stomach. Stomach content analysis (September 2001–January 2003) showed that bivalve larvae were ingested by farmed mussels year-round, with the exception of March 2002. Numbers of ingested larvae were highest in October 2001 and May 2002, which coincides with known spawning times of farmed mussels in Ireland. Mussels ingested a large size-range of bivalve larvae, suggesting that all stages of the bivalve life cycle are vulnerable to predation. It is suggested that adult bivalves routinely filter larvae from the surrounding water and that, given the high biomass of mussels present in mussel farms, filtration by adult bivalves significantly reduces numbers of bivalve larvae in nearby waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of zooplankton vertical movement are often difficult to interpret because of multiple, complex and confounding environmental factors. Behavioural adaptations to these environmental variables are compared within and between the holo- and meroplankton constituents of a community. We used a nested design to analyse patterns at several scales in time; (semi-diel, diel, spring-neap tidal cycle and season) and two in space; (depth and site). To reduce complexity and aid interpretation we studied a semi-isolated community in a semi-enclosed, seasonally stratified sea lough (Lough Hyne Marine Nature Reserve, Ireland). In this, the main environmental gradient was water flow rate (or water residence time) caused by tidal currents. Vertical profiles of abundance showed that populations of the most abundant species of holo- and meroplankton in the lough have considerable behavioural plasticity, enabling them to switch between sedentary and migratory behaviour and patterns of migration. Some species migrate vertically in synchrony with diel cycles and others in response to semi-diel tidal currents; a few do both, but the majority did neither. It is suggested that water column structure and hydrographic discontinuities caused by flow rate and pycnocline dynamics are responsible for the variable patterns of vertical migration and distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxygen levels were monitored within the mantle cavities of three barnacle species (Chthamalus stellatus, Semibalanus balanoides, Elminius modestus), using optode microsensors. Conditions were always hypoxic, even when barnacles were actively using the prosoma and cirri to pump aerated seawater into the mantle cavity. Mantle fluid oxygen concentrations were extremely variable; behaviour and oxygen concentrations were not closely coupled. Ventilation of the mantle cavity depended partially on external water flow, with higher and more stable mantle fluid oxygen concentrations being sustained when the water around barnacles was agitated. During emersion, barnacles initially pumped seawater between the mantle cavity and the cone above the opercular plates to achieve ventilation. As water was lost it was replaced by air bubbles, eventually resulting in an air-filled mantle cavity. In S. balanoides and E. modestus, once the mantle cavity was filled with air, the barnacle usually used up the oxygen within the bubble within 2–3 h and did not regain oxic conditions until the barnacle was reimmersed in seawater. In C. stellatus, the air bubble was repeatedly refreshed for many hours by pneumostome formation. In response to low environmental salinity, all three species closed the opercular plates firmly and rapidly used up oxygen within the mantle fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In summary, the phase stability in plasma sprayed 8 wt.% PSZ coatings with a porous and cracked microstructure were studied for times of up to 10 000 h at temperatures of 982 °C, 1204 °C, and 1315 °C. The two coatings behaved similarly and exhibited minimal change in the monoclinic content at exposures of 982 °C, while exposures at 1204 °C and 1315 °C resulted in increasing amounts of monoclinic phase versus time; the monoclinic phase reached a maximum of 40% at longer time exposures at the highest temperature as predicted by the phase diagram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Journal of Potato Research is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of American Journal of Potato Research is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The most common translocations in childhood T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias involve the LMO2 locus on chromosome 11p13 and cause ectopic expression of the LMO2 gene in thymocytes. Transgenic mice with enforced expression of LMO2 in their thymocytes develop T cell leukemias thus demonstrating the role of LMO2 in leukemogenesis. The physiologic and leukemogenic functions of LMO2 are mediated through its transcriptional regulatory activities, but the identity of the target genes is completely unknown. In this report, we have used cDNA representational difference analysis (cDNA-RDA) to identify genes that are over-expressed and are likely to play a role in the LMO2 induced leukemias. cDNA-RDA was performed using very small amounts of mRNA pool (from 1 microg of total RNA) to reverse transcribe the cDNAs from leukemic cells or normal thymocytes. The cDNA-RDA led to the isolation of nine distinct clones that were specifically overexpressed in the leukemic cells. Sequence analysis revealed that five of the nine clones had identity or homology to known genes that are known to play a role in the pathogenesis of leukemias or other cancers. Three clones had no significant homology to any known genes and thus represent novel candidate genes. Our study demonstrates that cDNA-RDA using very small amounts of total RNA is a highly efficient method to identify novel genes that may play a role in leukemogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers first, factors influencing the need and demand for removable partial dentures (RPDs) and second, the particular requirements and problems of elderly patients related to such treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tigriopus brevicornis (O. F. Müller) were collected in 1992 from rock pools close to U.M.B.S. Millport, Isle of Cumbrae, U.K. and acclimated to various combinations of salinity and temperature for at least 1 wk prior to laboratory experiments. Higher salinities of acclimation enhanced tolerance to high salinity stress, while tolerance of low salinities was hardly affected by acclimation salinity. Acclimation to low temperature (10°C) extended the survivable salinity range for T. brevicornis. High-salinity acclimation enhanced the survivable temperature range. Copepods acclimated to 60‰ survived significantly lower and higher temperatures than did 34‰-acclimated individuals. At high temperature, 75‰-acclimated female copepods had the highest median lethal temperature, 38.9°C. Females were significantly more resistant to high temperatures than males. The copepods were seen to have a very low median lethal temperature when frozen into solid ice for 2 h; 50% mortality occurred at-16.9°C in 10°C, 34‰-acclimated T. brevicornis. Salinity preference experiments demonstrated an ability to discriminate between salinities differing by as little as 3‰. Copepods acclimated to 34‰ chose salinities near their acclimation salinity; individuals acclimated to 5‰ favoured slightly higher salinities, while copepods acclimated to 60‰ chose rather lower salinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A practical solution proposed by Smith[1936] is considered for the Behrens-Fisher problem. This solution is compared to the results given by Mehta and Srinivasan [1970] for several different solutions of the Behrens-Fisher problem. Smith's solution was found to be better than those of Banerjee and Fisher and while only slightly worse than those of Pagurova, Wald, and Welch, it is much easier to implement. The stability of the size of Smith's test was found to be related to the difference in the two sample sizes. Also the higher moments of the approximate test procedure are investigated to further determine its 'goodness'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study has been made of the osmotic responses of the green intertidal alga, Ulva lactuca, under two fluctuating salinity regimes; sinusoidal and square-wave fluctuations between 30 and 100% sea water in a 12 h cycle. These regimes closely resemble the tidal fluctuation of salinity encountered by the alga in its natural estuarine habitat. Data on changes in the inorganic ions, potassium, sodium, chloride and sulphate; in the organic solute, dimethylsulphoniopropionate; in the total sugar levels and estimated osmotic and turgor pressures under the two salinity regimes are reported. Significant differences in the solute responses under these different conditions were detected. In general, better control of ion fluxes appeared to be exercised under the sinusoidal conditions which also buffered changes in dimethylsulphoniopropionate levels. Influxes of potassium were highly light-dependent. Chloride levels conspicuously failed to reach the steady-state levels in the 6-h-hyper-osmotic part of either the abrupt or gradual cycle. The possible significance of these data, which may better reflect osmotic changes in the natural environment, and some of the problems encountered, particularly in accounting for charge balance under some conditions, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of hyper- and hypo-saline stresses on the levels of various inorganic and organic solutes in Ulva lactuca have been recorded. Hypoosmotic stress decreased the tissue concentration of K, Na and Cl while hyper-osmotic stress caused a transient increase in Na and a stable accumulation of K and Cl. The tissue content of β-dimethylsulphoniopropionate (β-dimethylpropiothetin) responded to changes in salinity. The time course of hypersaline stress showed the β-dimethylsulophoniopropionate concentration rose as the Na level fell. The levels of free sugars and amino acids, including proline, were relatively low in this alga and did not appear to be important in osmotic adjustment. The possibility that tertiary sulphonium dipolar ions have an analogous role in some algae to glycinebetaine and possibly other quaternary nitrogen compounds in higher plants as cytoplasmic osmotica is discussed briefly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

4-Hydroxyandrostenedione (4-OHA), a new specific aromatase inhibitor, was used to treat 57 postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer at a dose of 250 mg by i.m. injection every 2 weeks; 55 women were assessable for response. In all, 18 patients (33%) had objective evidence of a response to treatment, with a median duration of 12 months; the disease stabilised in 8 (14%) patients. Serum oestradiol levels, which were measured weekly in nine of the patients, were found to be suppressed to a mean of between 36% and 51% of pretreatment levels during the first 6 weeks of treatment. Three patients were withdrawn from treatment because of toxicity (pain at injection site, sterile abscess and rash). One patient had an isolated episode of anaphylaxis after 6 months of treatment. In comparison with our previous reports of 4-OHA treatment, a dose of 250 mg given i.m. fortnightly appears to be the optimal dose regimen. The efficacy of the drug seems to be similar to that of tamoxifen and aminoglutethimide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amphibious behaviour in fish has evolved separately many times since the first amphibious fishes, the rhipidistian crossopterygians, ventured onto land about 350 million years ago. This behaviour has resulted in the colonization and eventual domination by vertebrates of the terrestrial habitat. It is generally proposed that aquatic hypoxia, owing to metabolic oxygen consumption and organic decay, was the most important selective force in the evolution of air-breathing vertebrates (e.g. Randall et al., 1981). Modern amphibious fish species give an insight into the reasons for leaving and eventually abandoning the aquatic habitat. Amphibious fishes today leave the water for a variety of reasons associated with degradation of their aquatic habitat, or biotic factors within it. The possible causal factors which may elicit an emergence response are summarized in Fig. 1(a) and (b). Amphibious fish inhabiting closed systems, as typified by freshwater or intertidal pools, may leave water for any of the reasons detailed in Fig. 1(a). The relative importance of any one stimulus is likely to vary between different species. However, it is possible that in closed systems, adverse fluctuations in physico-chemical parameters will have a more important effect in eliciting amphibious behaviour than will biotic factors. In open systems, such as coastal waters or large freshwater bodies, effectively two routes of escape from adverse aquatic conditions are available to amphibious fish. They may move onto land, or alternatively they may move underwater to find better conditions. In such a system, where physico-chemical parameters remain relatively constant, abiotic factors are unlikely to have a significant influence on amphibious behaviour. The dominant stimulus in open systems is possibly the three-way interaction between predation, competition, and short-or long-term food availability (Fig. 1(b)). It is unlikely that any one of the factors discussed in this review will act alone in causing amphibious behaviour, and in this respect the available literature on fish leaving water is lacking. Much of it is fragmentary and partly anecdotal, and the limited amount of experimental work tends to concentrate on individual causal factors. There is evidently scope for detailed examination of emersion in a number of amphibious fishes, testing a matrix of environmental and biotic stimuli, in an attempt to determine in more detail the reasons for such behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of the littoral porcelain crab Porcellana platycheles (Pennant) to recognise and avoid low-salinity levels when immersed in media has already been demonstrated in previous experiments. It was thought that the ability to identify and avoid diluted sea water before complete immersion would also be of survival value, since this would prevent exposure of the permeable body surfaces (especially the gills) to the swelling effects of the osmotic uptake of water. The experiments reported here demonstrate that such pre-immersion salinity choice behaviour may be elicited from P. platycheles in the laboratory, and that salinity reception is apparently sited upon the walking limbs. Choice between salinity levels is shown to be based on the osmotic concentration of media rather than on the concentration of a particular ion or group of ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been previously suggested by the author (Davenport, 1972) that the abdomen of the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus (L.) acted as a 'swelling reservoir', protecting the structures of the cephalothorax from the mechanical effects of osmotic inflow of water. To confirm this, evidence of fluid transfer from the cephalothorax to the abdomen is required. Experiments to demonstrate this transfer were performed, and it was found that, although the abdomen is more permeable to water than the cephalothorax, much of the abdominal swelling in dilute media is caused not by abdominal water uptake, but by transfer of excess fluid from the cephalothorax to the abdomen; 55.4% of the potential weight increase of the cephalothorax, caused by exposure to 30% sea water (100%=34‰ S) for 60 min, is transferred, presumably as haemolymph, to the abdomen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas small Pagurus bernhardus (L.) occur in large numbers in the intertidal areas of rocky shores, large hermit crabs living in whelk shells are most uncommon, although they are easily collected by sublittoral dredging. Experiments were carried out to assess the salinity tolerance, and the ability to regulate body volume in a dilute medium, of both small and large hermit crabs. Large, offshore hermit crabs are significantly less tolerant of 60% sea water (100%=34‰ S) than small, littoral specimens. Small littoral crabs increase in weight by about 15% in the first hour in 60% sea water, but increased urine output prevents swelling thereafter; indeed, there is considerable loss in weight, presumably caused by solute loss. Large, offshore, crabs increase in weight by about 15% in the first hour, thus exhibiting a higher permeability to water than small crabs, and continue to increase in weight, since urine output is not sufficient to cope with the water load. Dissections suggest that insufficient release of urine causes the low urine output in large hermit crabs, rather than inadequate production of primary urine. Calculations indicate that the nephropores of large hermit crabs are too small to allow a sufficiently high urine output to remove a large water load, unless greater pressures are developed inside the excretory systems of large hermit crabs than occur in those of small littoral individuals. In view of the soft, flexible nature of the walls of the excretory system and abdomen of P. bernhardus, it seems unlikely that high pressures could be maintained within the excretory system. It is concluded that the stenohalinity of large, offshore hermit crabs may exclude them from the littoral zone, or may be the result of exclusion by other factors, since there will be no selective advantage for large hermit crabs in maintaining the degree of euryhalinity possessed by the small littoral crabs, if the large crabs are confined to the sublittoral zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermoult Porcellana platycheles (Pennant) are slow moving, crawling crabs, incapable of swimming upwards from the substrate. Newly moulted porcelain crabs, however, are capable of effective upward swimming. An increased efficiency of tail-fan propulsion in newly moulted crabs was thought unlikely, and it was suspected that newly moulted P. platycheles were more buoyant than intermoult crabs. Results are presented to show that this is the case, and calculations were performed which indicate that fluid uptake at moult is insufficient to produce the observed increase in buoyancy. It is concluded that loss of heavy minerals and scleroprotein at moult cause the increased buoyancy. The adaptive significance of the enhanced swimming ability in newly moulted crabs is thought to lie in an improved ability to escape predation by intertidal fish and crabs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles on removable partial dentures (RPD). Lack of scientific data on which to base existing concepts of RPD design; Distinction between the need and demand for RPD treatment; Aspects of RPD design.