BACKGROUND Marine sponge species are of significant interest to many scientific fields including marine ecology, conservation biology, genetics, host-microbe symbiosis and pharmacology. One of the most intriguing aspects of the sponge "holobiont" system is the unique physiology, interaction with microbes from the marine environment and the development of a complex commensal microbial community....

Sponges are a prominent component of coral reef ecosystems. Like reef-building corals, some sponges have been reported to bleach and die. The giant barrel sponge Xestospongia muta is one of the largest and most important components of Caribbean coral reef communities. Tissues of X. muta contain cyanobacterial symbionts of the Synechococcus group. Two types of bleaching have been described: cycl...

Although coral reef health across the globe is declining as a result of anthropogenic impacts, relatively little is known of how environmental variability influences reef organisms other than corals and fish. Sponges are an important component of coral reef fauna that perform many important functional roles and changes in their abundance and diversity as a result of environmental change has the...

Background: Vein graft failure due to neointimal hyperplasia remains an important and unresolved complication of cardiovascular surgery. microRNA-21 (miR-21) plays a major role in regulating vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation and phenotype transformation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine whether adenovirus-mediated miR-21 sponge gene therapy was able to inhibit neo...

We investigate the post-quantum security of hash functions based on the sponge construction. A crucial property for hash functions in the post-quantum setting is the collapsing property (a strengthening of collision-resistance). We show that the sponge construction is collapsing (and in consequence quantum collision-resistant) under suitable assumptions about the underlying block function. In p...

In 2011, a 37-year old patient with a history of familial adenomatous polyposis underwent a subtotal colectomy and resection of the proximal jejunum and distal duodenum with side-to-side duodenojejunostomy. The procedure was performed for adenocarcinoma of the duodenum (pT3 pN0 L0 V0 R0 G2). In November of 2013, an endoscopically irresectable recurrent adenoma of the anastomosis was seen. Surgi...

The Mediterranean sponge Aplysina aerophoba kept in aquaria or cultivation tanks can stop pumping for several hours or even days. To investigate changes in the chemical microenvironments, we measured oxygen profiles over the surface and into the tissue of pumping and non-pumping A. aerophoba specimens with Clark-type oxygen microelectrodes (tip diameters 18-30 μm). Total oxygen consumption rate...

sponge iron (dri) due to the high surface area, often shows a high tendency to re-oxidation and at some cases spontaneous combustion (autoignition). in this work, re-oxidation behavior and autoignition of sponge iron, produced from different types of iron ore has been investigated. isothermal and non-isothermal re-oxidation experiments were carried out on each type of dri and their autoignition...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We sought to investigate the role of the endothelial lining in aneurysmal persistence and recurrence after endovascular treatment of aneurysms. METHODS Bilateral venous pouch canine carotid aneurysms were studied by angiography and pathology 1, 2, and 3 weeks after intraoperative collagen sponge embolization, coated or not coated with fibrinogen (n=15). In 12 dogs the e...