Imaging polarimetry of the fogbow: polarization characteristics of white rainbows measured in the high Arctic

The knowledge on the optics of fogbows is scarce, and their polarization characteristics have never been measured to our knowledge. To fill this gap we measured the polarization features of 16 fogbows during the Beringia 2005 Arctic polar research expedition by imaging polarimetry in the red, green and blue spectral ranges. We present here the first polarization patterns of the fogbow. In the patterns of the degree of linear polarization p, fogbows and their supernumerary bows are best visible in the red spectral range due to the least dilution of fogbow light by light scattered in air. In the patterns of the angle of polarization α fogbows are practically not discernible because their α-pattern is the same as that of the sky: the direction of polarization is perpendicular to the plane of scattering and is parallel to the arc of the bow, independently of the wavelength. Fogbows and their supernumeraries were best seen in the patterns of the polarized radiance. In these patterns the angular distance δ between the peaks of the primary and the first supernumerary and the angular width σ of the primary bow were determined along different radii from the center of the bow. δ ranged between 6.08° and 13.41° , while σ changed from 5.25° to 19.47° . Certain fogbows were relatively homogeneous, meaning small variations of δ and σ along their bows. Other fogbows were heterogeneous, possessing quite variable δ- and σ-values along their bows. This variability could be a consequence of the characteristics of the high Arctic with open waters within the ice shield resulting in the spatiotemporal change of the droplet size within the fog

FENNIZMUSOK – Finn szólások és kifejezések tára magyarok számára

A FENNIZMUSOK - Finn szólások és kifejezések tára magyarok számára című kötet a világhálón a maga nemében úttörőnek számít. Vállalkozásunkkal a finnugrisztika, a finn és a magyar nyelv ismertté tételét, valamint a nyelvészeti kutatások forrásainak szabad hozzáférhetőségét tartottuk szem előtt. A gyűjteményben egyrészt a Suomen kielen perussanakirja (1990) kifejezéseit, másrészt a sajtó, a tv, a rádió nyelvéből, ill. a mindennapi beszédhelyzetekből gyűjtött legújabb kifejezéseket tartalmazza. A szorosabb értelemben vett kifejezések mellett felvettünk gyakori, vagy a magyarra nehezen fordítható szókapcsolatokat, köszönési formákat, stb. is. A Fennizmusok a Veikö kissa kielen? Finn-magyar frazeológiai szótár (Piliscsaba 2000) új, javított és bővített kiadása, amely sok száz új kifejezéssel bővült. A FENNIZMUSOK - Finn szólások és kifejezések tára magyarok számára című kötetet azzal a céllal bocsátjuk útjára világhálón, hogy minél több nyelvtanulónak legyen a segítségére. A kötet másik célja a kontrasztív frazeológiai kutatások előmozdítása.

Spottier Targets Are Less Attractive to Tabanid Flies: On the Tabanid-Repellency of Spotty Fur Patterns

During blood-sucking, female members of the family Tabanidae transmit pathogens of serious diseases and annoy their host animals so strongly that they cannot graze, thus the health of the hosts is drastically reduced. Consequently, a tabanid-resistant coat with appropriate brightness, colour and pattern is advantageous for the host. Spotty coats are widespread among mammals, especially in cattle (Bos primigenius). In field experiments we studied the influence of the size and number of spots on the attractiveness of test surfaces to tabanids that are attracted to linearly polarized light. We measured the reflection-polarization characteristics of living cattle, spotty cattle coats and the used test surfaces. We show here that the smaller and the more numerous the spots, the less attractive the target (host) is to tabanids. We demonstrate that the attractiveness of spotty patterns to tabanids is also reduced if the target exhibits spottiness only in the angle of polarization pattern, while being homogeneous grey with a constant high degree of polarization. Tabanid flies respond strongly to linearly polarized light, and we show that bright and dark parts of cattle coats reflect light with different degrees and angles of polarization that in combination with dark spots on a bright coat surface disrupt the attractiveness to tabanids. This could be one of the possible evolutionary benefits that explains why spotty coat patterns are so widespread in mammals, especially in ungulates, many species of which are tabanid hosts

La apatridia: significado, magnitudes y alcances de la protección

En las últimas décadas se ha hablado muy poco acerca de la protección de los apátridas. Hay muy pocos países que cuenten con un sistema de protección específico para estas poblaciones, pese a existir tres tipos de instrumentos internacionales para la protección de la apatridia. Estos son las fuentes directas o vinculantes, es decir que se refieren directamente a la protección de la apatridia. Entre estas encontramos la Convención del Estatuto de los Apátridas de 1954 y la Convención de los Refugiados de 1951. Ambas convenciones contemplan una definición, principios generales y el estatuto o condición legal, es decir los derechos que serán otorgados a esas personas una vez sean reconocidas. El problema, sin embargo, es que no muchos países han ratificado la Convención de 1954 y en caso de que la hubieran ratificado, hay muy poca aplicación.

The neurochemically diverse intermedius nucleus of the medulla as a source of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic input to the nucleus tractus solitarii

Sensory afferent signals from neck muscles have been postulated to influence central cardiorespiratory control as components of postural reflexes, but neuronal pathways for this action have not been identified. The intermedius nucleus of the medulla (InM) is a target of neck muscle spindle afferents and is ideally located to influence such reflexes but is poorly investigated. To aid identification of the nucleus, we initially produced three-dimensional reconstructions of the InM in both mouse and rat. Neurochemical analysis including transgenic reporter mice expressing green fluorescent protein in GABA-synthesizing neurons, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization revealed that the InM is neurochemically diverse, containing GABAegric and glutamatergic neurons with some degree of colocalization with parvalbumin, neuronal nitric oxide synthase, and calretinin. Projections from the InM to the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) were studied electrophysiologically in rat brainstem slices. Electrical stimulation of the NTS resulted in antidromically activated action potentials within InM neurons. In addition, electrical stimulation of the InM resulted in EPSPs that were mediated by excitatory amino acids and IPSPs mediated solely by GABA(A) receptors or by GABA(A) and glycine receptors. Chemical stimulation of the InM resulted in (1) a depolarization of NTS neurons that were blocked by NBQX (2,3-dioxo-6-nitro-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobenzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonoamide) or kynurenic acid and (2) a hyperpolarization of NTS neurons that were blocked by bicuculline. Thus, the InM contains neurochemically diverse neurons and sends both excitatory and inhibitory projections to the NTS. These data provide a novel pathway that may underlie possible reflex changes in autonomic variables after neck muscle spindle afferent activation.

Detecting Loci under Recent Positive Selection in Dairy and Beef Cattle by Combining Different Genome-Wide Scan Methods

As the methodologies available for the detection of positive selection from genomic data vary in terms of assumptions and execution, weak correlations are expected among them. However, if there is any given signal that is consistently supported across different methodologies, it is strong evidence that the locus has been under past selection. In this paper, a straightforward frequentist approach based on the Stouffer Method to combine P-values across different tests for evidence of recent positive selection in common variations, as well as strategies for extracting biological information from the detected signals, were described and applied to high density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data generated from dairy and beef cattle (taurine and indicine). The ancestral Bovinae allele state of over 440,000 SNP is also reported. Using this combination of methods, highly significant (P<3.17×10-7) population-specific sweeps pointing out to candidate genes and pathways that may be involved in beef and dairy production were identified. The most significant signal was found in the Cornichon homolog 3 gene (CNIH3) in Brown Swiss (P = 3.82×10-12), and may be involved in the regulation of pre-ovulatory luteinizing hormone surge. Other putative pathways under selection are the glucolysis/gluconeogenesis, transcription machinery and chemokine/cytokine activity in Angus; calpain-calpastatin system and ribosome biogenesis in Brown Swiss; and gangliosides deposition in milk fat globules in Gyr. The composite method, combined with the strategies applied to retrieve functional information, may be a useful tool for surveying genome-wide selective sweeps and providing insights in to the source of selection.

Division of labor between M and P visual pathways: different visual pathways minimize joint entropy differently

Visual perception and action are strongly linked with parallel processing channels connecting the retina, the lateral geniculate nucleus, and the input layers of the primary visual cortex. Achromatic vision is provided by at least two of such channels formed by the M and P neurons. These cell pathways are similarly organized in primates having different lifestyles, including species that are diurnal, nocturnal, and which exhibit a variety of color vision phenotypes. We describe the M and P cell properties by 3D Gábor functions and their 3D Fourier transform. The M and P cells occupy different loci in the Gábor information diagram or Fourier Space. This separation allows the M and P pathways to transmit visual signals with distinct 6D joint entropy for space, spatial frequency, time, and temporal frequency. By combining the M and P impacts on the cortical neurons beyond V1 input layers, the cortical pathways are able to process aspects of visual stimuli with a better precision than it would be possible using the M or P pathway alone. This performance fulfils the requirements of different behavioral tasks.

Genomic analysis for managing small and endangered populations: a case study in Tyrol Grey cattle

Analysis of genomic data is increasingly becoming part of the livestock industry. Therefore, the routine collection of genomic information would be an invaluable resource for effective management of breeding programs in small, endangered populations. The objective of the paper was to demonstrate how genomic data could be used to analyse (1) linkage disequlibrium (LD), LD decay and the effective population size (NeLD); (2) Inbreeding level and effective population size (NeROH) based on runs of homozygosity (ROH); (3) Prediction of genomic breeding values (GEBV) using small within-breed and genomic information from other breeds. The Tyrol Grey population was used as an example, with the goal to highlight the potential of genomic analyses for small breeds. In addition to our own results we discuss additional use of genomics to assess relatedness, admixture proportions, and inheritance of harmful variants. The example data set consisted of 218 Tyrol Grey bull genotypes, which were all available AI bulls in the population. After standard quality control restrictions 34,581 SNPs remained for the analysis. A separate quality control was applied to determine ROH levels based on Illumina GenCall and Illumina GenTrain scores, resulting into 211 bulls and 33,604 SNPs. LD was computed as the squared correlation coefficient between SNPs within a 10 mega base pair (Mb) region. ROHs were derived based on regions covering at least 4, 8, and 16 Mb, suggesting that animals had common ancestors approximately 12, 6, and 3 generations ago, respectively. The corresponding mean inbreeding coefficients (F ROH) were 4.0% for 4 Mb, 2.9% for 8 Mb and 1.6% for 16 Mb runs. With an average generation interval of 5.66 years, estimated NeROH was 125 (NeROH>16 Mb), 186 (NeROH>8 Mb) and 370 (NeROH>4 Mb) indicating strict avoidance of close inbreeding in the population. The LD was used as an alternative method to infer the population history and the Ne. The results show a continuous decrease in NeLD, to 780, 120, and 80 for 100, 10, and 5 generations ago, respectively. Genomic selection was developed for and is working well in large breeds. The same methodology was applied in Tyrol Grey cattle, using different reference populations. Contrary to the expectations, the accuracy of GEBVs with very small within breed reference populations were very high, between 0.13-0.91 and 0.12-0.63, when estimated breeding values and deregressed breeding values were used as pseudo-phenotypes, respectively. Subsequent analyses confirmed the high accuracies being a consequence of low reliabilities of pseudo-phenotypes in the validation set, thus being heavily influenced by parent averages. Multi-breed and across breed reference sets gave inconsistent and lower accuracies. Genomic information may have a crucial role in management of small breeds, even if its primary usage differs from that of large breeds. It allows to assess relatedness between individuals, trends in inbreeding and to take decisions accordingly. These decisions would be based on the real genome architecture, rather than conventional pedigree information, which can be missing or incomplete. We strongly suggest the routine genotyping of all individuals that belong to a small breed in order to facilitate the effective management of endangered livestock populations.

Hemizygous deletion of COL3A1, COL5A2, and MSTN causes a complex phenotype with aortic dissection: a lesson for and from true haploinsufficiency

Aortic dilatation/dissection (AD) can occur spontaneously or in association with genetic syndromes, such as Marfan syndrome (MFS; caused by FBN1 mutations), MFS type 2 and Loeys-Dietz syndrome (associated with TGFBR1/TGFBR2 mutations), and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) vascular type (caused by COL3A1 mutations). Although mutations in FBN1 and TGFBR1/TGFBR2 account for the majority of AD cases referred to us for molecular genetic testing, we have obtained negative results for these genes in a large cohort of AD patients, suggesting the involvement of additional genes or acquired factors. In this study we assessed the effect of COL3A1 deletions/duplications in this cohort. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) analysis of 100 unrelated patients identified one hemizygous deletion of the entire COL3A1 gene. Subsequent microarray analyses and sequencing of breakpoints revealed the deletion size of 3,408,306 bp at 2q32.1q32.3. This deletion affects not only COL3A1 but also 21 other known genes (GULP1, DIRC1, COL5A2, WDR75, SLC40A1, ASNSD1, ANKAR, OSGEPL1, ORMDL1, LOC100129592, PMS1, MSTN, C2orf88, HIBCH, INPP1, MFSD6, TMEM194B, NAB1, GLS, STAT1, and STAT4), mutations in three of which (COL5A2, SLC40A1, and MSTN) have also been associated with an autosomal dominant disorder (EDS classical type, hemochromatosis type 4, and muscle hypertrophy). Physical and laboratory examinations revealed that true haploinsufficiency of COL3A1, COL5A2, and MSTN, but not that of SLC40A1, leads to a clinical phenotype. Our data not only emphasize the impact/role of COL3A1 in AD patients but also extend the molecular etiology of several disorders by providing hitherto unreported evidence for true haploinsufficiency of the underlying gene.

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.