Skeletal

"Estimates of muscle and other soft tissue properties derived from hominin skeletal and fossil remains would greatly enhance descriptions of body size and shape, and prior physical and metabolic capabilities. Presently, the utility of this approach is uncertain given the complex nature of the relationship between
muscle and bone. To address various principal issues, peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) imaging was used to quantify these relationships at the midshaft of the arm, forearm, and lower leg of modern human athletes (runners, field hockey players, swimmers, and cricketers) and control
subjects. Given the presumed behavior patterns of prehistoric hominins, the inclusion of highly active human participants was required. Soft tissue and muscle area was compared with bone area, diaphyseal shape, and torsional rigidity. Relationships were found between muscle area and bone area in the arm,
and muscle area and torsional rigidity in the forearm. However, the high standard error and prediction error that define these relationships indicate that muscle or other soft tissue predictions derived from hominin fossil or skeletal remains would be untenable. In the tibia, the relationship between soft tissue
properties and bone properties were primarily explained by covariation with body size. While the strength of the muscle-bone relationships in the arm and forearm vary among athletes and control subgroups, it appears that habitual upper limb loading performed throughout adolescence neither
strengthens nor weakens this relationship. Future attempts to estimate soft tissue properties from osseous tissue may be improved through the use of medical CT or MRI to image complete limb segments and isolate individual muscles."

Crustaceans have been successfully employed to study legged locomotion for decades. Most studies have focused on either forwards-walking macrurans, or sideways-walking brachyurans. Libinia emarginata is a Majoid crab (Brachyura) and as such belongs to the earliest group to have evolved the crab form from homoloid ancestors. Unlike most brachyurans, Libinia walks forwards 80% of the time. We employed standard anatomical techniques and motion analysis to compare the skeleton, stance, and the range of motion of the legs of Libinia to the sideways-walking green shore crab (Carcinus maenas), and to the forwards-walking crayfish (Procambarus clarkii). We found animals tended to have greater ranges of motion for joints articulating in the preferred direction of locomotion. Leg segments proximal to such joints were comparatively longer. Thorax elongation, leg length and placement at rest also reflected walking preference. Comparative studies of walking in Libinia and other brachyurans may shed light on the neuroethology of legged locomotion, and on the anatomical and physiological changes necessary for sideways-walking in crustaceans.

Background Sarcopenia, the loss of skeletal muscle mass during aging, increases the risk for falls and dependency. Resistance exercise (RE) training is an effective treatment to improve muscle mass and strength in older adults, but aging is associated with a smaller amount of training-induced hypertrophy. This may be due in part to an inability to stimulate muscle-protein synthesis (MPS) after an acute bout of RE. We hypothesized that older adults would have impaired mammalian target of rapamycin complex (mTORC)1 signaling and MPS response compared with young adults after acute RE. Methods We measured intracellular signaling and MPS in 16 older (mean 70 ± 2 years) and 16 younger (27 ± 2 years) subjects. Muscle biopsies were sampled at baseline and at 3, 6 and 24 hr after exercise. Phosphorylation of regulatory signaling proteins and MPS were determined on successive muscle biopsies by immunoblotting and stable isotopic tracer techniques, respectively. Results Increased phosphorylati...

Bouldering contests consist of a series of short routes, called ''problems'', which shall be climbed without ropes. The purpose of this study was to determine blood lactate [Lac] concentration and heart rate (HR) adaptations both during an official bouldering competition and a simulated contest. Eleven Italian elite climbers (6 males, 5 females) were tested from two bouldering national competitions (BNC). [Lac] assessments were done before and 2, 4, 6, 8 min after the contest. On a separate occasion, 9 different elite climbers (6 males, 3 females), matched for anthropometric features and ranking, were assessed in a simulated bouldering contest (SBC), under conditions and difficulties comparable to BNC. HR was measured through the whole performance; [Lac] was assessed before and 3 min after the achievement of each problem. The ascending time in both BNC and SBC was 391+/-85 s and 551+/-96 s (P<0.001), respectively. During SBC the mean HR peak of each problem was 93...

This paper deals with the preliminary observations of the analysis conducted on the faunal remains unearthed at the site of Shikarpur. A single trench ES4 was selected as a research sample from the excavation conducted by the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat State, India in 2007-08. A
total of 6250 skeletal fragments were analysed of which only 3219 (51.50%) could be identified. All the skeletal elements were carefully observed for signatures of bone modifications done by natural as well as human agencies. The analysis revealed a large number of animal species including domestic mammals, wild mammals, reptiles, birds and molluscs. In addition, a few skeletal fragments of fish and crab were also recovered.

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) is a late-onset progressive muscle disorder caused by a poly-alanine expansion mutation in the Poly(A) Binding Protein Nuclear 1 (PABPN1). The molecular mechanisms that regulate disease onset and progression are largely unknown. In order to identify molecular pathways that are consistently associated with OPMD, we performed an integrated high-throughput transcriptome study in affected muscles of OPMD animal models and patients. The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) was found to be the most consistently and significantly OPMD-deregulated pathway across species. We could correlate the association of the UPS OPMD-deregulated genes with stages of disease progression. The expression trend of a subset of these genes is age-associated and therefore, marks the late onset of the disease, and a second group with expression trends relating to disease-progression. We demonstrate a correlation between expression trends and entrapment into PABPN1 insolubl...