The bacterial endophytic communities residing within roots of maize (
L.) plants cultivated by a sustainable management in soils from the Quechua maize belt (Peruvian Andes) were examined using tags ...pyrosequencing spanning the V4 and V5 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA. Across four replicate libraries, two corresponding to sequences of endophytic bacteria from long time maize-cultivated soils and the other two obtained from fallow soils, 793 bacterial sequences were found that grouped into 188 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs, 97% genetic similarity). The numbers of OTUs in the libraries from the maize-cultivated soils were significantly higher than those found in the libraries from fallow soils. A mean of 30 genera were found in the fallow soil libraries and 47 were in those from the maize-cultivated soils. Both alpha and beta diversity indexes showed clear differences between bacterial endophytic populations from plants with different soil cultivation history and that the soils cultivated for long time requires a higher diversity of endophytes. The number of sequences corresponding to main genera
and
in the maize-cultivated libraries were statistically more abundant than those from the fallow soils. Sequences of genera
and
were significantly more abundant in the libraries from the fallow soils. Relative abundance of genera
Glomeribacter,
and
were similar among libraries. A canonical correspondence analysis of the relative abundance of the main genera showed that the four libraries distributed in two clearly separated groups. Our results suggest that cultivation history is an important driver of endophytic colonization of maize and that after a long time of cultivation of the soil the maize plants need to increase the richness of the bacterial endophytes communities.
Eggs and embryo manipulation is an important biotechnological challenge to enable positioning, entrapment, and selection of reproductive cells to advance into a new era of nature‐like assisted ...reproductive technologies. Oviductin (OVGP1) is an abundant protein in the oviduct that binds reversibly to the zona pellucida, an extracellular matrix that surrounds eggs and embryos. Here, the study reports a new method coupling OVGP1 to magnetic nanoparticles (NP) forming a complex (NPOv). NPOv specifically surrounds eggs and embryos in a reversible manner. Eggs/embryos bound to NPOv can be moved or retained when subjected to a magnetic force, and interestingly only mature‐competent eggs are attracted. This procedure is compatible with normal development following gametes function, in vitro fertilization, embryo development and resulting in the birth of healthy offspring. The results provide in vitro proof‐of‐concept that eggs and embryos can be precisely guided in the absence of physical contact by the use of magnets.
Novel method to specifically attach magnetic nanoparticles (NP) through OVGP1 (Ov) protein to the external matrix that surround eggs and embryos. Labeled reproductive cells can be moved or retained in response to a magnetic force while preserving their competence. This methodology demonstrates a robust, non‐toxic technique with the potential to use into a new era of assisted reproductive technologies as a new paradigm.
We test the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in a cross-country regression framework, utilizing data on FDI flows from industrial countries to 69 developing countries over ...the last two decades. Our results suggest that FDI is an important vehicle for the transfer of technology, contributing relatively more to growth than domestic investment. However, the higher productivity of FDI holds only when the host country has a minimum threshold stock of human capital. Thus, FDI contributes to economic growth only when a sufficient absorptive capability of the advanced technologies is available in the host economy.
The public health problem of food insecurity also affects the elderly population. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of household food insecurity and its associations with chronic disease ...and health-related quality of life characteristics in individuals ≥65 years of age living in the community in Portugal.
The data were collected from the Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases Cohort Study 3 (EpiDoC3)-Promoting Food Security Study (2015-2016), which was the third evaluation wave of the EpiDoC and represented the Portuguese adult population. Food insecurity was assessed using a psychometric scale adapted from the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. The data on sociodemographic variables, chronic disease, and management of chronic disease were self-reported. Health-related quality of life were assessed using the European Quality of Life Survey (version validated for the Portuguese population). Logistic regression models were used to determine crude and adjusted odds ratios (for age group, gender, region, and education). The dependent variable was the perceived level of food security.
Among older adults, 23% were living in a food-insecure household. The odds of living in a food-insecure household were higher for individuals in the 70-74 years age group (odds ratio (OR) = 1.405, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.392-1.417), females (OR = 1.545, 95% CI 1.534-1.556), those with less education (OR = 3.355, 95% CI 3.306-3.404), low income (OR = 4,150, 95% CI 4.091-4.210), and those reporting it was very difficult to live with the current income (OR = 16.665, 95% CI 16.482-16.851). The odds of having a chronic disease were also greater among individuals living in food-insecure households: diabetes mellitus (OR = 1.832, 95% CI 1.818-1.846), pulmonary diseases (OR = 1.628, 95% CI 1.606-1.651), cardiac disease (OR = 1.329, 95% CI 1.319-1.340), obesity (OR = 1.493, 95% CI 1.477-1.508), those who reduced their frequency of medical visits (OR = 4.381, 95% CI 4.334-4.428), and who stopped taking medication due to economic difficulties (OR = 5.477, 95% CI 5.422-5.532). Older adults in food-insecure households had lower health-related quality of life (OR = 0.212, 95% CI 0.210-0.214).
Our findings indicated that food insecurity was significantly associated with economic factors, higher values for prevalence of chronic diseases, poor management of chronic diseases, and decreased health-related quality of life in older adults living in the community.
A broad survey of heterogeneous hydrogenation catalysts has been conducted for the reduction of heterocycles commonly found in pharmaceuticals. The comparative reactivity of these substrates is ...reported as a function of catalyst, temperature, and hydrogen pressure. This analysis provided several catalysts with complementary reactivity between substrates. We then explored a series of bisheterocyclic substrates that provided an intramolecular competition of heterocycle hydrogenation reactivity. In several cases, complete selectivity could be achieved for reduction of one heterocycle and isolated yields are reported. A general trend in reactivity is inferred in which quinoline is the most reactive, followed by pyrazine, then pyrrole and with pyridine being the least reactive.
Background
Vocal fold movement impairment (VFMI) secondary to neuronal injury is a known risk after aortic surgery. Total arch replacement is technically challenging, and the incidence of vocal fold ...movement impairment secondary to neuronal injury after this surgery is unknown. This study examined the incidence of VFMI after total arch replacement and medialization treatment outcomes.
Study Design
Retrospective cohort study.
Methods
All patients who underwent total arch replacement at a tertiary care center over 11 years (2006–2017) were identified through an institutional database. End points included evidence of VFMI on flexible laryngoscopy, time to diagnosis, time to treatment, need for reintubation, and intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay.
Results
Of the 358 patients who underwent total arch replacement, 63 (20%) were diagnosed with VFMI during their initial inpatient stay. Fifty patients (79%) VFMIs were left‐sided, nine (14%) were right‐sided, and four (6%) were bilateral. Thirty‐nine patients (62%) underwent inpatient vocal fold medialization: 28 (72%) by injection laryngoplasty and 11 (28%) by type 1 thyroplasty. Those with unilateral VFMI had longer ICU (8.9 days) and hospital (19.4 days) than those with no VFMI (5.7 and 16.1 days). Among patients with unilateral VFMI, those who underwent inpatient vocal fold medialization trended toward shorter ICU (6.2 vs. 14.4 days, P = .03) and hospital stays (20.1 vs. 23.3 days, P = .4) than patients who did not have a medialization procedure.
Conclusion
The overall incidence of VFMI after total arch replacement in our series was 20%. Both the right and left vocal folds are potentially at risk from a total arch replacement; consequently, the distribution of injury in our cohort was more heterogeneous than in other series.
Level of Evidence
3 Laryngoscope, 129:699–703, 2019
We present photometry of four transits of the planetary system HAT-P-13, obtained using defocused telescopes. We analyse these, plus nine data sets from the literature, in order to determine the ...physical properties of the system. The mass and radius of the star are M
A= 1.320 ± 0.048 ± 0.039 M⊙ and R
A= 1.756 ± 0.043 ± 0.017 R⊙ (statistical and systematic error bars). We find the equivalent quantities for the transiting planet to be M
b= 0.906 ± 0.024 ± 0.018 M
Jup and R
b= 1.487 ± 0.038 ± 0.015 R
Jup, with an equilibrium temperature of
K. Compared to previous results, which were based on much sparser photometric data, we find the star to be more massive and evolved, and the planet to be larger, hotter and more rarefied. The properties of the planet are not matched by standard models of irradiated gas giants. Its large radius anomaly is in line with the observation that the hottest planets are the most inflated, but at odds with the suggestion of inverse proportionality to the Fe/H of the parent star. We assemble all available times of transit mid-point and determine a new linear ephemeris. Previous findings of transit timing variations in the HAT-P-13 system are shown to disagree with these measurements, and can be attributed to small-number statistics.
Maize (Zea mays L.) is the staple diet of the native peasants in the Quechua region of the Peruvian Andes who continue growing it in small plots called chacras following ancestral traditions. The ...abundance and structure of bacterial communities associated with the roots of amilaceous maize has not been studied in Andean chacras. Accordingly, the main objective of this study was to describe the rhizospheric bacterial diversity of amilaceous maize grown either in the presence or the absence of bur clover cultivated in soils from the Quechua maize belt. Three 16S rRNA gene libraries, one corresponding to sequences of bacteria from bulk soil of a chacra maintained under fallow conditions, the second from the rhizosphere of maize-cultivated soils, and the third prepared from rhizospheric soil of maize cultivated in intercropping with bur clover were examined using pyrosequencing tags spanning the V4 and V5 hypervariable regions of the gene. A total of 26031 sequences were found that grouped into 5955 distinct operational taxonomic units which distributed in 309 genera. The numbers of OTUs in the libraries from the maize-cultivated soils were significantly higher than those found in the libraries from bulk soil. One hundred ninety seven genera were found in the bulk soil library and 234 and 203 were in those from the maize and maize/bur clover-cultivated soils. Sixteen out of the 309 genera had a relative abundance higher than 0.5% and the were (in decreasing order of abundance) Gp4, Gp6, Flavobacterium, Subdivision3 genera incertae sedis of the Verrucomicrobia phylum, Gemmatimonas, Dechloromonas, Ohtaekwangia, Rhodoferax, Gaiella, Opitutus, Gp7, Spartobacteria genera incertae sedis, Terrimonas, Gp5, Steroidobacter and Parcubacteria genera incertae sedis. Genera Gp4 and Gp6 of the Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonas and Rhodoferax were the most abundant in bulk soil, whereas Flavobacterium, Dechloromonas and Ohtaekwangia were the main genera in the rhizosphere of maize intercropped with bur clover, and Gp4, Subdivision3 genera incertae sedis of phylum Verrucomicrobia, Gp6 and Rhodoferax were the main genera in the rhizosphere of maize plants. Taken together, our results suggest that bur clover produces specific changes in rhizospheric bacterial diversity of amilaceous maize plants.
Abstract
We report the joint WASP/KELT discovery of WASP-167b/KELT-13b, a transiting hot Jupiter with a 2.02-d orbit around a V = 10.5, F1V star with Fe/H = 0.1 ± 0.1. The 1.5 R
Jup planet was ...confirmed by Doppler tomography of the stellar line profiles during transit. We place a limit of <8 M
Jup on its mass. The planet is in a retrograde orbit with a sky-projected spin–orbit angle of λ = −165° ± 5°. This is in agreement with the known tendency for orbits around hotter stars to be more likely to be misaligned. WASP-167/KELT-13 is one of the few systems where the stellar rotation period is less than the planetary orbital period. We find evidence of non-radial stellar pulsations in the host star, making it a δ-Scuti or γ-Dor variable. The similarity to WASP-33, a previously known hot-Jupiter host with pulsations, adds to the suggestion that close-in planets might be able to excite stellar pulsations.
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