In 2005 and 2010 the Amazon basin experienced two strong droughts, driven by shifts in the tropical hydrological regime possibly associated with global climate change, as predicted by some global ...models. Tree mortality increased after the 2005 drought, and regional atmospheric inversion modelling showed basin-wide decreases in CO2 uptake in 2010 compared with 2011 (ref. 5). But the response of tropical forest carbon cycling to these droughts is not fully understood and there has been no detailed multi-site investigation in situ. Here we use several years of data from a network of thirteen 1-ha forest plots spread throughout South America, where each component of net primary production (NPP), autotrophic respiration and heterotrophic respiration is measured separately, to develop a better mechanistic understanding of the impact of the 2010 drought on the Amazon forest. We find that total NPP remained constant throughout the drought. However, towards the end of the drought, autotrophic respiration, especially in roots and stems, declined significantly compared with measurements in 2009 made in the absence of drought, with extended decreases in autotrophic respiration in the three driest plots. In the year after the drought, total NPP remained constant but the allocation of carbon shifted towards canopy NPP and away from fine-root NPP. Both leaf-level and plot-level measurements indicate that severe drought suppresses photosynthesis. Scaling these measurements to the entire Amazon basin with rainfall data, we estimate that drought suppressed Amazon-wide photosynthesis in 2010 by 0.38 petagrams of carbon (0.23-0.53 petagrams of carbon). Overall, we find that during this drought, instead of reducing total NPP, trees prioritized growth by reducing autotrophic respiration that was unrelated to growth. This suggests that trees decrease investment in tissue maintenance and defence, in line with eco-evolutionary theories that trees are competitively disadvantaged in the absence of growth. We propose that weakened maintenance and defence investment may, in turn, cause the increase in post-drought tree mortality observed at our plots.
The systematic evaluation of the results of time-series studies of air pollution is challenged by differences in model specification and publication bias.
We evaluated the associations of inhalable ...particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 μm or less (PM
) and fine PM with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM
) with daily all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality across multiple countries or regions. Daily data on mortality and air pollution were collected from 652 cities in 24 countries or regions. We used overdispersed generalized additive models with random-effects meta-analysis to investigate the associations. Two-pollutant models were fitted to test the robustness of the associations. Concentration-response curves from each city were pooled to allow global estimates to be derived.
On average, an increase of 10 μg per cubic meter in the 2-day moving average of PM
concentration, which represents the average over the current and previous day, was associated with increases of 0.44% (95% confidence interval CI, 0.39 to 0.50) in daily all-cause mortality, 0.36% (95% CI, 0.30 to 0.43) in daily cardiovascular mortality, and 0.47% (95% CI, 0.35 to 0.58) in daily respiratory mortality. The corresponding increases in daily mortality for the same change in PM
concentration were 0.68% (95% CI, 0.59 to 0.77), 0.55% (95% CI, 0.45 to 0.66), and 0.74% (95% CI, 0.53 to 0.95). These associations remained significant after adjustment for gaseous pollutants. Associations were stronger in locations with lower annual mean PM concentrations and higher annual mean temperatures. The pooled concentration-response curves showed a consistent increase in daily mortality with increasing PM concentration, with steeper slopes at lower PM concentrations.
Our data show independent associations between short-term exposure to PM
and PM
and daily all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality in more than 600 cities across the globe. These data reinforce the evidence of a link between mortality and PM concentration established in regional and local studies. (Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and others.).
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain, the accumulation of α-synuclein aggregates, and motor deficits. A major ...contributor to dopaminergic neuronal loss is neuroinflammation. The inflammasome is a multiprotein complex that perpetuates neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative disorders including PD. Increases in inflammasome proteins are associated with worsened pathology. Thus, the inhibition of inflammatory mediators has the potential to aid in PD treatment. Here, we investigated inflammasome signaling proteins as potential biomarkers of the inflammatory response in PD. Plasma from PD subjects and healthy age-matched controls were evaluated for levels of the inflammasome protein apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC), caspase-1, and interleukin (IL)-18. This was carried out using Simple Plex technology to identify changes in inflammasome proteins in the blood of PD subjects. The area under the curve (AUC) was obtained through calculation of the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) to obtain information on biomarker reliability and traits. Additionally, we completed a stepwise regression selected from the lowest Akaike information criterion (AIC) to assess how the inflammasome proteins caspase-1 and ASC contribute to IL-18 levels in people with PD. PD subjects demonstrated elevated caspase-1, ASC, and IL-18 levels when compared to controls; each of these proteins were found to be promising biomarkers of inflammation in PD. Furthermore, inflammasome proteins were determined to significantly contribute to and predict IL-18 levels in subjects with PD. Thus, we demonstrated that inflammasome proteins serve as reliable biomarkers of inflammation in PD and that inflammasome proteins provide significant contributions to IL-18 levels in PD.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects not only the brain but also peripheral organs like the heart and the lungs, which influences long-term outcomes. A heightened systemic inflammatory response is ...often induced after TBI, but the underlying pathomechanisms that contribute to co-morbidities remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated whether extracellular vehicles (EVs) containing inflammasome proteins are released after severe controlled cortical impact (CCI) in C57BL/6 mice and cause activation of inflammasomes in the heart that result in tissue damage. The atrium of injured mice at 3 days after TBI showed a significant increase in the levels of the inflammasome proteins AIM2, ASC, caspases-1, -8 and -11, whereas IL-1β was increased in the ventricles. Additionally, the injured cortex showed a significant increase in IL-1β, ASC, caspases-1, -8 and -11 and pyrin at 3 days after injury when compared to the sham. Serum-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) from injured patients were characterized with nanoparticle tracking analysis and Ella Simple Plex and showed elevated levels of the inflammasome proteins caspase-1, ASC and IL-18. Mass spectrometry of serum-derived EVs from mice after TBI revealed a variety of complement- and cardiovascular-related signaling proteins. Moreover, adoptive transfer of serum-derived EVs from TBI patients resulted in inflammasome activation in cardiac cells in culture. Thus, TBI elicits inflammasome activation, primarily in the atrium, that is mediated, in part, by EVs that contain inflammasome- and complement-related signaling proteins that are released into serum and contribute to peripheral organ systemic inflammation, which increases inflammasome activation in the heart.
Aims Our objective was to evaluate if the relationship between quick indices of mineralizable N and soil N mineralization potential (No) is affected by long-term fertilization with inorganic ...fertilizers (IF) and/or poultry litter (PL). Methods Samples from four long-term research sites that were fertilized with IF, IF+PL, or PL (>10 years) were aerobically incubated for 24 weeks to determine No. Soil No was then related to the results from the Illinois soil test analysis (ISNT), extractions with hot KCl, NaOH, or phosphate-borate (PB), and an anaerobic incubation (Nan). Results All evaluated chemical methods were correlated with No (R2 > 0.59). However, the models to describe the association between the chemical methods and No differed depending on the fertilizer treatment, due to the inability of chemical indices to estimate the No increase observed in some PL-amended soils. In contrast, the relationship between Nan and No was not affected by fertilization strategy. Conclusions Chemical indices can lead to the underestimation of soil N mineralization potential in PL-treated soils when the indices are calibrated in IF-amended soils, whereas the biological method Nan predicted No independently from the field's fertilization history.
Nanomaterials based on Pd nanoparticles supported on Vulcan carbon (XC-72R) were prepared by the organometallic approach in one-pot and mild conditions (3 bar hydrogen and room temperature) using ...Pd(dba)
2
(bis (dibenzylideneacetone) palladium (0)) as metal source and hexadecylamine (HDA) as stabilizer. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) evidenced the presence of well-dispersed Pd nanoparticles of ca. 4.5 nm mean size onto the carbon support (Pd/HDA/C). Scanning and transmission electron microscopy with electron energy loss spectroscopy (STEM-EELS) allowed to determine the chemical composition of the nanomaterials. When the Pd/HDA/C nanomaterial was submitted to heating treatment (ht) at 400 °C under air (referred as Pd/HDA/C@air-ht), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and HR-TEM/STEM-EELS analyses suggested the presence of interactions between PdO and Pd(0) as a result of the formation of Pd@PdO core–shell nanoparticles. The highest oxidation current magnitude during methanol oxidation reaction is ascribed to the heat-treated material, linked with a better electron and mass transfer processes at the electrode interface. This can be attributed to electronic interactions at the core–shell formed, which might promote different redox processes at the electrode interface during CH
3
OH deprotonation in the alkaline electrolyte.
ABSTRACT
We present a new X-Ray Accretion Disc-wind Emulator (xrade) based on the 2.5D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code that provides a physically motivated, self-consistent treatment of both ...absorption and emission from a disc wind by computing the local ionization state and velocity field within the flow. xrade is then implemented through a process that combines X-ray tracing with supervised machine learning. We develop a novel emulation method consisting in training, validating, and testing the simulated disc-wind spectra into a purposely built artificial neural network. The trained emulator can generate a single synthetic spectrum for a particular parameter set in a fraction of a second, in contrast to the few hours required by a standard Monte Carlo radiative transfer pipeline. The emulator does not suffer from interpolation issues with multidimensional spaces that are typically faced by traditional X-ray fitting packages such as xspec. xrade will be suitable to a wide number of sources across the black hole mass, ionizing luminosity, and accretion rate scales. As an example, we demonstrate the applicability of xrade to the physical interpretation of the X-ray spectra of the bright quasar PDS 456, which hosts the best-established accretion disc wind observed to date. We anticipate that our emulation method will be an indispensable tool for the development of high-resolution theoretical models, with the necessary flexibility to be optimized for the next generation microcalorimeters onboard future missions, like X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM)/Resolve and Athena/X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU). This tool can also be implemented across a wide variety of X-ray spectral models and beyond.
Current medical guidelines consider pregnant women with COVID-19 to be a high-risk group. Since physiological gestation downregulates the immunological response to maintain “maternal-fetal ...tolerance”, SARS-CoV-2 infection may constitute a potentially threatening condition to both the mother and the fetus. To establish the immune profile in pregnant COVID-19+ patients, a cross-sectional study was conducted. Pregnant women with COVID-19 (P-COVID-19+; n = 15) were analyzed and compared with nonpregnant women with COVID-19 (NP-COVID-19+; n = 15) or those with physiological pregnancy (P-COVID-19-; n = 13). Serological cytokine and chemokine concentrations, leucocyte immunophenotypes, and mononuclear leucocyte responses to polyclonal stimuli were analyzed in all groups. Higher concentrations of serological TNF-α, IL-6, MIP1b and IL-4 were observed within the P-COVID-19+ group, while cytokines and chemokines secreted by peripheral leucocytes in response to LPS, IL-6 or PMA-ionomicin were similar among the groups. Immunophenotype analysis showed a lower percentage of HLA-DR+ monocytes in P-COVID-19+ than in P-COVID-19- and a higher percentage of CD39+ monocytes in P-COVID-19+ than in NP-COVID-19+. After whole blood polyclonal stimulation, similar percentages of T cells and TNF+ monocytes between groups were observed. Our results suggest that P-COVID-19+ elicits a strong inflammatory response similar to NP-COVID19+ but also displays an anti-inflammatory response that controls the ATP/adenosine balance and prevents hyperinflammatory damage in COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
HiPERCAM is a portable, quintuple-beam optical imager that saw first light on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) in 2018. The instrument uses re-imaging optics and four dichroic ...beamsplitters to record $u_{\rm s}\, g_{\rm s}\, r_{\rm s}\, i_{\rm s}\, z_{\rm s}$ (320–1060 nm) images simultaneously on its five CCD cameras, each of 3.1-arcmin (diagonal) field of view. The detectors in HiPERCAM are frame-transfer devices cooled thermo-electrically to 183 K, thereby allowing both long-exposure, deep imaging of faint targets, as well as high-speed (over 1000 windowed frames per second) imaging of rapidly varying targets. A comparison-star pick-off system in the telescope focal plane increases the effective field of view to 6.7 arcmin for differential photometry. Combining HiPERCAM with the world’s largest optical telescope enables the detection of astronomical sources to gs ∼ 23 in 1 s and gs ∼ 28 in 1 h. In this paper, we describe the scientific motivation behind HiPERCAM, present its design, report on its measured performance, and outline some planned enhancements.
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to evaluate to the safety, feasibility and efficacy of a novel treatment for transsphincteric cryptoglandular fistula: injection of autologous plasma rich in growth ...factors (PRGF) into the fistula tract accompanied by sealing using a fibrin plug created from the activated platelet-poor fraction of the same plasma.
Method
This article is a prospective, phase II clinical trial. The procedure was externally audited. Thirty-six patients diagnosed with transsphincteric fistula-in-ano were included. All patients underwent follow-up examinations at 1 week and again at 3, 6 and 12 months after discharge. Main outcome measures safety (number of adverse events), feasibility and effectiveness of the treatment.
Results
A total of 36 patients received the study treatment, with the procedure found to be feasible in all patients. A total of seven adverse events (AE) related to the injected product or surgical procedure were identified in 4 of 36 patients. At the end of the follow-up period (12 months), 33.3% of patients (12/36) had achieved complete fistula healing and 11.1% of patients (4/36) had achieved partial healing. In total, this amounted to 44.4% of patients (16/36) being asymptomatic at final follow-up. In successfully healed patients, a gradual reduction in pain was observed, as measured using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) (p = 0.0278). Compared to baseline, a significant improvement in Wexner score was seen in patients achieving total or partial healing of the fistula (p = 0.0195).
Conclusions
The study treatment was safe and feasible, with apparently modest efficacy rates. Continence and pain improvement following treatment may be considered predictive factors for healing.
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