Characterisation of burrow architecture under natural conditions in the sand-dwelling wolf spider Allocosa brasiliensis

Allocosa brasiliensis (Petrunkevitch, 1910) is a wolf spider that constructs silk-lined burrows along the coastal sand dunes of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. This species shows a reversal in typical sex roles and sexual size dimorphism expected for spiders. Females are the smaller and mobile sex, which initiates courtship at the male burrow entrance. Mating occurs in the male burrow, and when it ends, the male leaves and the female stays inside. Females prefer to mate with those males showing longest burrows, so burrow dimensions would be under strong sexual selection pressures. Previous studies in the laboratory indicated that male burrows are longer than those of virgin females, which were described as simple silk capsules. Preliminary observations suggested that juvenile burrows presented differences from those of adults; however, detailed observations of A. brasilienisis burrow characteristics at the field were lacking. The aim of this study was to characterise the burrows of adults and juveniles of A. brasiliensis under natural conditions. We recorded the dimensions of burrows inhabited by males, females and juveniles (n = 30 for each category) and created beeswax moulds that reflected burrow shape. Juveniles inhabited tubular burrows with two branches and two openings; on the contrary, adults were found in tubular burrows with a single entry. Males and females inhabited burrows of similar length and width, but those of juveniles were shorter and narrower. We discuss the results and their possible functional explanations according to the selective pressures expected for each developmental stage and sex.     

Exploring Community Collaborations: Social Network Analysis as a Reflective Tool for Public Health

Social network analysis is a potentially useful reflective tool that could be used by public health practitioners to assess the overall composition of their networks, strengthen collaborations with other community partners, and evaluate network function. The purpose of this paper is to report on public health practitioners’ experiences with social network analysis. Thirteen public health practitioners, each associated with their own advocacy-oriented community collaboration, participated in the study. Specifically, the intervention consisted of social network analysis output (social network analysis measures and sociograms) and a facilitated discussion to stimulate reflection on the respondents’ professional networks. Semi-structured interviews were conducted two weeks later to solicit participants’ reactions to the sociograms and the accompanying measures, and elicit thoughts about how social network analysis might have an impact on their work. Participants commented on ways in which social network analysis could be applied in practice, such as using sociograms to raise awareness of the nature of current networks, as a planning and evaluation tool, to identify gaps, and to assess the degree of sustainability of current networks.     

Social Responsibility: Measures and Measurement as a Basis for Organizational Systemic Action

European Union (2011) supports conditions favorable to sustainable growth, responsible business behavior and durable employment generation. Social responsibility (SR) supports this effort; hence EU urges its member states and big enterprises to promote SR to innovate habits of humans, societies and especially decision-makers-towards requisite holism, based on ethics of interdependence, i.e. systemic behavior. Related criteria for measurement of SR of organizations are drafted here. In Slovenia, the ‘Horus award’ promotes public awareness about meaning and importance of SR and encourages it in organizations.     

NMDA receptor blockade at rest triggers rapid behavioural antidepressant responses

Clinical studies consistently demonstrate that a single sub-psychomimetic dose of ketamine, an ionotropic glutamatergic NMDAR (N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor) antagonist, produces fast-acting antidepressant responses in patients suffering from major depressive disorder, although the underlying mechanism is unclear. Depressed patients report the alleviation of major depressive disorder symptoms within two hours of a single, low-dose intravenous infusion of ketamine, with effects lasting up to two weeks, unlike traditional antidepressants (serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), which take weeks to reach efficacy. This delay is a major drawback to current therapies for major depressive disorder and faster-acting antidepressants are needed, particularly for suicide-risk patients. The ability of ketamine to produce rapidly acting, long-lasting antidepressant responses in depressed patients provides a unique opportunity to investigate underlying cellular mechanisms. Here we show that ketamine and other NMDAR antagonists produce fast-acting behavioural antidepressant-like effects in mouse models, and that these effects depend on the rapid synthesis of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. We find that the ketamine-mediated blockade of NMDAR at rest deactivates eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF2) kinase (also called CaMKIII), resulting in reduced eEF2 phosphorylation and de-suppression of translation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Furthermore, we find that inhibitors of eEF2 kinase induce fast-acting behavioural antidepressant-like effects. Our findings indicate that the regulation of protein synthesis by spontaneous neurotransmission may serve as a viable therapeutic target for the development of fast-acting antidepressants.     

Enantiospecific electrodeposition of a chiral catalyst

Many biomolecules are chiral--they can exist in one of two enantiomeric forms that only differ in that their structures are mirror images of each other. Because only one enantiomer tends to be physiologically active while the other is inactive or even toxic, drug compounds are increasingly produced in an enantiomerically pure form using solution-phase homogeneous catalysts and enzymes. Chiral surfaces offer the possibility of developing heterogeneous enantioselective catalysts that can more readily be separated from the products and reused. In addition, such surfaces might serve as electrochemical sensors for chiral molecules. To date, chiral surfaces have been obtained by adsorbing chiral molecules or slicing single crystals so that they exhibit high-index faces, and some of these surfaces act as enantioselective heterogeneous catalysts. Here we show that chiral surfaces can also be produced through electrodeposition, a relatively simple solution-based process that resembles biomineralization in that organic molecules adsorbed on surfaces have profound effects on the morphology of the inorganic deposits. When electrodepositing a copper oxide film on an achiral gold surface in the presence of tartrate ion in the deposition solution, the chirality of the ion determines the chirality of the deposited film, which in turn determines the film's enantiospecificity during subsequent electrochemical oxidation reactions.     

Time dependent formation of acetylcholinesterase isozymes

Summary 4 electrophoretically and chromatographically distinguishable forms of 11S acetylcholinesterase were generated during storage of an 11S preparation of the enzyme.Acknowledgments. R. M. Kothari was a Postdoctoral Research Associate of the National Research Council and National Academy of Sciences. Naval Medical Research and Development Command, Research Task No. MF51.524.014.9025. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private ones of the writers and not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the Naval Service at large.     

Mutations in RDH12 encoding a photoreceptor cell retinol dehydrogenase cause childhood-onset severe retinal dystrophy

We identified three consanguineous Austrian kindreds with 15 members affected by autosomal recessive childhood-onset severe retinal dystrophy, a genetically heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by degeneration of the photoreceptor cells. A whole-genome scan by microarray analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (ref. 2) identified a founder haplotype and defined a critical interval of 1.53 cM on chromosome 14q23.3-q24.1 that contains the gene associated with this form of retinal dystrophy. RDH12 maps in this region and encodes a retinol dehydrogenase proposed to function in the visual cycle. A homozygous 677A-->G transition (resulting in Y226C) in RDH12 was present in all affected family members studied, as well as in two Austrian individuals with sporadic retinal dystrophy. We identified additional mutations in RDH12 in 3 of 89 non-Austrian individuals with retinal dystrophy: a 5-nucleotide deletion (806delCCCTG) and the transition 565C-->T (resulting in Q189X), each in the homozygous state, and 146C-->T (resulting in T49M) and 184C-->T (resulting in R62X) in compound heterozygosity. When expressed in COS-7 cells, Cys226 and Met49 variants had diminished and aberrant activity, respectively, in interconverting isomers of retinol and retinal. The severe visual impairment of individuals with mutations in RDH12 is in marked contrast to the mild visual deficiency in individuals with fundus albipunctatus caused by mutations in RDH5, encoding another retinal dehydrogenase. Our studies show that RDH12 is associated with retinal dystrophy and encodes an enzyme with a unique, nonredundant role in the photoreceptor cells.