Abstract
A hotspot of subterranean Collembola in ferruginous rock caves and Mesovoid Shallow Substratum is revealed by the analysis of pseudocryptic diversity. The diversity is accessed by detailed ...description of chaetotaxy and slight variation in morphology of 11 new species of
Trogolaphysa
Mills, 1938 (Collembola, Paronellidae, Paronellinae) and the 50 previously recorded species of springtails from caves, using optical and electronic microscopy. When combined with recent subterranean surveys, our results show an important reservoir of cave diversity in the Mesovoid Shallow Substratum. Contrastingly the conservation policy for subterranean fauna in metallogenic areas in Brazil prioritizes the caves instead the cave species, which may be extremely detrimental to the fauna in the shallow subterranean habitats not accessible to humans.
The objective of this study was to investigate the kinetics of the biomass and to determine the influence of temperature on the distribution and quality of the products of slow pyrolysis. Coffee husk ...briquettes were produced by densification and subsequently subjected to slow pyrolysis at different final temperatures of 623 K, 673 K and 723 K at a heating rate of 0.5 °C/min. The results of the TGA showed that the pyrolysis of coffee husks occurred mainly at temperatures between 400 K and 700 K. The activation energy values ranged from 104.90 kJ/mol to 345.2 kJ/mol for the Friedman model and from 70.4 kJ/mol to 288.8 kJ/mol for the FWO model. In the composition of the bio-oil, at higher pyrolysis temperatures, there was a greater production of phenolic compounds and nitrogen compounds. Lower temperatures promoted the greater formation of hydrocarbons and acetic acid. The energy content of the biochar did not differ with the increasing temperature, but the fixed carbon was slightly higher at 723 K. It was concluded that the TGA provided information on the kinetics of the coffee husk pyrolysis, making it possible to improve the conversion process of this waste into products. Both isoconversional models were effective in estimating the Ea of the pyrolysis process with good accuracy. High final pyrolysis temperatures improve the quality of bio-oil, producing bio-oil with smaller amounts of acidic compounds, and this bio-oil is desirable for use as fuels. In addition, the bio-oil contains numerous chemical compounds that can be extracted and used in value-added chemical products.
It is now widely accepted, given the current weight of experimental evidence, that reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute
to cell and tissue dysfunction and damage caused by glucolipotoxicity in ...diabetes. The source of ROS in the insulin secreting
pancreatic β-cells and in the cells which are targets for insulin action has been considered to be the mitochondrial electron
transport chain. While this source is undoubtably important, we provide additional information and evidence for NADPH oxidase-dependent
generation of ROS both in pancreatic β-cells and in insulin sensitive cells. While mitochondrial ROS generation may be important
for regulation of mitochondrial uncoupling protein (UCP) activity and thus disruption of cellular energy metabolism, the NADPH
oxidase associated ROS may alter parameters of signal transduction, insulin secretion, insulin action and cell proliferation
or cell death. Thus NADPH oxidase may be a useful target for intervention strategies based on reversing the negative impact
of glucolipotoxicity in diabetes.
Mercury is a toxic metal that can be found in the environment in three different forms - elemental, organic and inorganic. Inorganic mercury has a lower liposolubility, which results in a lower ...organism absorption and reduced passage through the blood-brain barrier. For this reason, exposure models that use inorganic mercury in rats in order to evaluate its effects on the central nervous system are rare, especially in adult subjects. This study investigated if a chronic exposure to low doses of mercury chloride (HgCl2), an inorganic form of mercury, is capable of promoting motor alterations and neurodegenerative in the motor cortex of adult rats. Forty animals were exposed to a dose of 0.375 mg/kg/day, for 45 days. They were then submitted to motor evaluation and euthanized to collect the motor cortex. Measurement of mercury deposited in the brain parenchyma, evaluation of oxidative balance, quantification of cellular cytotoxicity and apoptosis and density of mature neurons and astrocytes of the motor cortex were performed. It was observed that chronic exposure to inorganic mercury caused a decrease in balance and fine motor coordination, formation of mercury deposits and oxidative stress verified by the increase of lipoperoxidation and nitrite concentration and a decrease of the total antioxidant capacity. In addition, we found that this model of exposure to inorganic mercury caused cell death by cytotoxicity and induction of apoptosis with a decreased number of neurons and astrocytes in the motor cortex. Our results provide evidence that exposure to inorganic mercury in low doses, even in spite of its poor ability to cross biological barriers, is still capable of inducing motor deficits, cell death by cytotoxicity and apoptosis, and oxidative stress in the motor cortex of adult rats.
By a combination of theoretical and experimental design, we unraveled the effect of {111} and {100} surface facets on the electrocatalytic sensing activities and stabilities of metal oxides by ...employing Cu2O crystals as a model substrate and glucose as the analyte. We started by theoretically investigating the potential energy curves for the glucose interaction with the Cu2O {111} and {100} surface facets. We found that the glucose interaction energy was significantly higher for the {100} facets than for the {111} facets. Then, we experimentally observed that their electrocatalytic sensing performance displayed shape-dependent behavior. While the catalytic activities followed the order cubes > cuboctahedrons > octahedrons, their stabilities showed the opposite trend. The higher catalytic activity enabled by the {100} facets is explained by their stronger interaction with glucose. On the other hand, the higher stability allowed by the {111} facets is justified by their lower concentration of oxygen vacancies and weaker interaction with O2 relative to those of the {100} surface.
Aim
To investigate the effects of liver fibrosis (LF) on the pro‐inflammatory mediators and periapical bone resorption of apical periodontitis (AP) in rats.
Methodology
Forty male Wistar rats were ...distributed into four groups: C – control, AP – rats with AP, LF – rats with LF, AP + LF – rats with AP and LF. LF was induced by carbon tetrachloride administration for 8 weeks and surgical bile duct ligation for 4 weeks; AP was induced in the teeth of rats by dental pulp exposure to the oral environment for 30 days. Jaws and livers were removed after euthanasia. Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and Picrosirius Red (PSR) staining were used to confirm fibrosis in the livers. The jaws were analysed using H&E staining, immunohistochemical assays of interleukin (IL)‐1β, IL‐6 and tumour necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α). Student’s t‐test and Mann–Whitney’s U‐test were used for statistical analysis (P < 0.05).
Results
Inflammatory infiltrate was moderate in the AP group and severe in the AP + LF group (P < 0.05). Periapical bone resorption was significantly larger in the AP + LF group compared with the AP group (P < 0.05). IL‐1β, IL‐6 and TNF‐α levels were significantly higher in AP + LF group when compared to the AP group (P < 0.05).
Conclusion
More intense inflammatory infiltrate, greater amounts of pro‐inflammatory cytokines and increased periapical bone resorption were observed in the presence of liver fibrosis in rats with exposed pulps.
We determine the contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon from the αQED2 hadronic vacuum polarization diagram using full lattice QCD and including u/d quarks with physical masses for ...the first time. We use gluon field configurations that include u, d, s and c quarks in the sea at multiple values of the lattice spacing, multiple u/d masses and multiple volumes that allow us to include an analysis of finite-volume effects. We obtain a result for aμHVP,LO of 667(6)(12)×10−10, where the first error is from the lattice calculation and the second includes systematic errors from missing QED and isospin-breaking effects and from quark-line disconnected diagrams. Our result implies a discrepancy between the experimental determination of aμ and the Standard Model of 3σ.
We investigate at the subscale of the neighborhoods of a highly populated city the incidence of property crimes in terms of both the resident and the floating population. Our results show that a ...relevant allometric relation could only be observed between property crimes and floating population. More precisely, the evidence of a superlinear behavior indicates that a disproportional number of property crimes occurs in regions where an increased flow of people takes place in the city. For comparison, we also found that the number of crimes of peace disturbance only correlates well, and in a superlinear fashion too, with the resident population. Our study raises the interesting possibility that the superlinearity observed in previous studies Bettencourt et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 7301 (2007) and Melo et al., Sci. Rep. 4, 6239 (2014) for homicides versus population at the city scale could have its origin in the fact that the floating population, and not the resident one, should be taken as the relevant variable determining the intrinsic microdynamical behavior of the system.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Aims.
We report on ESPRESSO high-resolution transmission spectroscopic observations of two primary transits of the highly irradiated, ultra-hot Jupiter-sized planet, WASP-76b. We investigated the ...presence of several key atomic and molecular features of interest that may reveal the atmospheric properties of the planet.
Methods.
We extracted two transmission spectra of WASP-76b with
R
≈ 140 000 using a procedure that allowed us to process the full ESPRESSO wavelength range (3800–7880 Å) simultaneously. We observed that at a high signal-to-noise ratio, the continuum of ESPRESSO spectra shows ‘wiggles’, which are likely caused by an interference pattern outside the spectrograph. To search for the planetary features, we visually analysed the extracted transmission spectra and cross-correlated the observations against theoretical spectra of different atomic and molecular species.
Results.
The following atomic features are detected: Li
I
, Na
I
, Mg
I
, Ca
II
, Mn
I
, K
I
, and Fe
I
. All are detected with a confidence level between 9.2
σ
(Na
I
) and 2.8
σ
(Mg
I
). We did not detect the following species: Ti
I
, Cr
I
, Ni
I
, TiO, VO, and ZrO. We impose the following 1
σ
upper limits on their detectability: 60, 77, 122, 6, 8, and 8 ppm, respectively.
Conclusions.
We report the detection of Li
I
on WASP-76b for the first time. In addition, we confirm the presence of Na
I
and Fe
I
as previously reported in the literature. We show that the procedure employed in this work can detect features down to the level of ~0.1% in the transmission spectrum and ~10 ppm by means of a cross-correlation method. We discuss the presence of neutral and singly ionised features in the atmosphere of WASP-76b.
The yellow fever virus (YFV) epidemic in Brazil is the largest in decades. The recent discovery of YFV in Brazilian
species mosquitos highlights a need to monitor the risk of reestablishment of urban ...YFV transmission in the Americas. We use a suite of epidemiological, spatial, and genomic approaches to characterize YFV transmission. We show that the age and sex distribution of human cases is characteristic of sylvatic transmission. Analysis of YFV cases combined with genomes generated locally reveals an early phase of sylvatic YFV transmission and spatial expansion toward previously YFV-free areas, followed by a rise in viral spillover to humans in late 2016. Our results establish a framework for monitoring YFV transmission in real time that will contribute to a global strategy to eliminate future YFV epidemics.
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