Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), a bacterium transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri, is the causal agent of citrus greening disease, or Huanglongbng (HLB). Currently, ...vector population suppression with insecticides and tree removal are the most effective strategies for managing the HLB pathosystem. In this study, we assessed the bactericidal capabilities of 2'-deoxy-2'-fluoro-D-arabinonucleic acid antisense oligonucleotides (FANA ASO) both in vitro and in vivo by (1) confirming their capacity to penetrate insect cells, (2) silencing bacterial essential genes, and (3) quantifying reductions in bacterial titer and D. citri transmission. We confirmed that FANA ASO are able to penetrate insect cells without the use of a delivery agent. Expression of an essential gene in the D. citri endosymbiont, Wolbachia (wDi), significantly decreased by 30% following incubation with a wDi-specific FANA ASO. Viability of isolated wDi cells also decreased in response to the FANA ASO treatment. Delivery of a CLas-specific FANA ASO to infected adult D. citri in feeding assays resulted in significant silencing of a CLas essential gene. CLas relative density and transmission were significantly lower among D. citri fed FANA ASO in diet compared to untreated insects. Root infusions of a CLas-specific FANA ASO into infected Citrus trees significantly reduced CLas titer during a 30-day trial. Our results suggest that FANA ASO targeting insect-transmitted plant bacteria or insect endosymbionts may be useful tool for integrated management of agricultural pathogens.
Vector-borne pathogens are known to alter the phenotypes of their primary hosts and vectors, with implications for disease transmission as well as ecology. Here we show that a plant virus, barley ...yellow dwarf virus, increases the surface temperature of infected host plants (by an average of 2 °C), while also significantly enhancing the thermal tolerance of its aphid vector Rhopalosiphum padi (by 8 °C). This enhanced thermal tolerance, which was associated with differential upregulation of three heat-shock protein genes, allowed aphids to occupy higher and warmer regions of infected host plants when displaced from cooler regions by competition with a larger aphid species, R. maidis. Infection thereby led to an expansion of the fundamental niche of the vector. These findings show that virus effects on the thermal biology of hosts and vectors can influence their interactions with one another and with other, non-vector organisms.
Introduction
The association between motor capacity and the level of disability in patients with fibromyalgia remains underexplored. This study aims to explore the association between physical ...capacity tests explored in the consultation and the level of disability in women with fibromyalgia.
Methods
There were 484 women diagnosed with fibromyalgia who were evaluated with 7 physical capacity tests: 10‐m walk, 2‐minute walk, 5‐repetition getting up from a chair and sitting (G&S), 30‐second chair stand, monopodal balance (right and left), and up‐and‐go. Functional performance was assessed with the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR). Evaluation of the association between the physical capacity tests and the FIQR was initially performed using a principal component analysis (PCA). Subsequently, agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) was performed in order to characterize groups of patients.
Results
Results show than FIQR and the tests 10‐m walk, 2‐minute walk, 5‐repetition G&S, 30‐second chair stand, and up‐and‐go test were correlated. The results of the AHC determined 3 groups of patients mainly on one motor dimension with significant differences in both the FIQR and the physical capacity tests retained in the PCA (P < 0.001 for all).
Conclusion
The application of these physical tests is simple, fast and can be a complement to the FIQR questionnaire when determining the level of disability of patients with fibromyalgia, in addition to providing information on the evolution of the patients when these tests are administered in the clinical consultation.
Attitudes towards diversity; International large-scale assessment; International Civic and Citizenship Study; ICCS; Comparative and international education; School segregation; Intergenerational ...transmission of inequality; Open classroom for discussion; Measurement invariance; Multilevel Structural Equation Modelling; Tolerance
It is well documented that academic achievement of students from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tends to be below their more socially advantaged peers. Several studies have identified ...factors and conditions that facilitate academic success for disadvantaged students (i.e., promote academic resilience). However, one of the main criticisms of this body of research is in the set of variables that explain academic success for low-SES students and which is not very different from the variables that would explain academic success for all students. The objectives of this article are dual: firstly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic success, regardless of student SES, and secondly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic resilience, that is, exclusively for low-SES students. To this end, we used data from Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Japan in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011. The study sample covered 23,354 students in 720 schools in the five countries. The strategy for analysis was driven by fit of logistic regression models, first predicting the probability of academic success and then subsequent identification of variables significant as predictors for success within the pool of low-SES students. Results indicated that variables, such as positive student attitude to mathematics, teacher confidence in student performance and the test language being spoken at home, were associated with greater chances of academic success. High academic expectations and time spent on mathematics at home demonstrated a differential effect between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in Singapore. In Korea, being male (gender) and in Taipei, low levels of bullying at school, increased the likelihood of resilience. Results suggested that interventions impacting behavior reflected in differentially associated variables could help disadvantaged students to become academically resilient.
En este artículo se presentan los resultados de una investigación que analizó los desafíos de la democracia en la sociedad colombiana contemporánea a través de las prácticas de participación ...ciudadana en línea. Se llevó a cabo un estudio descriptivo transversal, con uso de técnicas de recolección cuantitativas y cualitativas orientadas a analizar las prácticas de participación ciudadana de jóvenes universitarios en la ciudad de Cali-Colombia. De una población de 1.233, se tomó una muestra representativa de 740 estudiantes a quienes se aplicó un cuestionario electrónico y, posteriormente, mediante un muestreo intencional, se desarrollaron grupos de discusión con 42 participantes. Se propusieron tres ejes a partir de los principios generales de la democracia digital (E-democracy): Consulta, control político y participación transformadora. Como resultado se encontró que las prácticas de ciudadanía en línea no se complementan con las prácticas ciudadanas fuera de línea, situación que se describe como un desafío para la democracia digital que se ve masificada en la información y altamente restringida en la acción. Por tanto, se concluye que la democracia digital no ha significado un mayor compromiso con la transformación socio-política de la sociedad por parte de los jóvenes que ejercen mecanismo de participación ciudadana en línea.
The article aims at the general description of the academic research that examines the fear of crime concept after September 11, 2001, when new areas of research became a part of security studies, ...substantially changing the very understanding of fear of crime. Thus, there was a change in the academic models for examining the social perception of crime. At first, there were some fruitful years for the sociological analysis of the fear of crime concept. Today, sociological studies of fear of crime continue, but this concept became even more important for criminological studies. Therefore, we analyzed the fear of crime category in the articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals in the criminological and sociological perspectives (Sage, Jstor, EbscoHost, and others). The findings explain the evolution of the fear of crime concept in the research from 2001 to 2021. For Latin America, the concept of fear is quite recent, which is very different from other regions of the world. Moreover, the interpretation of fear in Latin America is very different from both Europe and the United States. Although Latin America and the United States have much in common, the article presents the unique features of the Latin-American approach to this phenomenon.
Introducción: actualmente los péptidos sintéticos se han constituido en una novedosa alternativa para el tratamiento de la piel envejecida. Acetilhexapéptido-3 (Ac-EEMQRR-NH2) ha sido utilizado para ...inducir reducción de líneas de expresión de manera análoga a la toxina botulínica, pero sin efectos tóxicos. Objetivo: sintetizar el acetilhexapéptido-3 y desarrollar un sistema liposomal para su encapsulación y favorecer su paso a través de una membrana modelo. Metodología: el péptido fue obtenido mediante síntesis en fase sólida (SFS) empleando la estrategia Fmoc/tBu, fue purificado y plenamente caracterizado. El sistema liposomal con acetilhexapéptido-3 encapsulado fue desarrollado mediante la formación de una emulsión con posterior inversión de fase por evaporación del solvente orgánico. Los sistemas fueron caracterizados en su tamaño, potencial zeta, eficiencia de encapsulación del neuropéptido y de manera preliminar se realizó un estudio de permeabilidad ex vivo. Resultados: es posible sintetizar péptidos cortos con alto grado de pureza y buen rendimiento, utilizando la metodología de SFS Fmoc/tBu. De acuerdo con la caracterización, el sistema liposomal adelantado sugiere una buena estrategia para la encapsulación del acetilhexapéptido-3 y su potencial aplicación en el desarrollo un novedoso producto cosmecéutico.
The main objective of this article is to demonstrate by experimental measurements the capability of the quartz crystal resonator (QCR) to characterize samples of liquor at different concentrations of ...adulteration with methanol, classify them according to their viscosity, and identify how to use this capability as a potential detection of fake liquor. According to the literature, the fake liquor is a common problem detected in several countries across the globe. The current strategy to detect the fake liquor is based on a piezoelectric biosensor that permits the classification of the samples according to its viscosity. The viscosity is a useful variable to determinate the degree of adulteration in the liquor samples because the viscosity value between ethanol (straight liquor) and methanol (most common fake liquor) is very different.
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