Measurement of variation in plant biomass is essential for answering many ecological and evolutionary questions. Quantitative estimates require plant destruction for laboratory analyses, while field ...studies use allometric approaches based on simple measurement of plant dimensions.
We estimated the biomass of individual shrub‐sized plants, using a low‐cost unmanned aerial system (drone), enabling rapid data collection and non‐destructive sampling. We compared volume measurement (a surrogate for biomass) and sampling time, from the simple dimension measurements and drone, to accurate laboratory‐derived biomass weights. We focused on three Australian plant species which are ecologically important to their terrestrial and floodplain ecosystems: porcupine grass Triodia scariosa, Queensland bluebush Chenopodium auricomum, and lignum Duma florulenta.
Estimated volume from the drone was more accurate than simple dimension measurements for porcupine grass and Queensland bluebush, compared to estimates from laboratory analyses but, not for lignum. The latter had a sparse canopy, with thin branches, few vestigial leaves and a similar color to the ground. Data collection and analysis consistently required more time for the drone method than the simple dimension measurements, but this would improve with automation.
The drone method promises considerable potential for some plant species, allowing data to be collected over large spatial scales and, in time series, increasing opportunities to answer complex ecological and evolutionary questions and monitor the state of ecosystems and plant populations.
We estimated the biomass of individual shrub‐sized plants non‐destructively, using a low‐cost drone. We compared volume measurement (a surrogate for biomass) and sampling time, from an existing manual field measurement technique and the drone, to accurate laboratory‐derived biomass weights. The drone method promises considerable potential for some plant species, allowing data to be collected over large spatial scales and, in time series, increasing opportunities to answer complex ecological and evolutionary questions and monitor the state of plant populations.
Water monitoring in households is important to ensure the sustainability of fresh water reserves on our planet. It provides stakeholders with the statistics required to formulate optimal strategies ...in residential water management. However, this should not be prohibitive and appliance-level water monitoring cannot practically be achieved by deploying sensors on every faucet or water-consuming device of interest due to the higher hardware costs and complexity, not to mention the risk of accidental leakages that can derive from the extra plumbing needed. Machine learning and data mining techniques are promising techniques to analyse monitored data to obtain non-intrusive water usage disaggregation. This is because they can discern water usage from the aggregated data acquired from a single point of observation. This paper provides an overview of water usage disaggregation systems and related techniques adopted for water event classification. The state-of-the art of algorithms and testbeds used for fixture recognition are reviewed and a discussion on the prominent challenges and future research are also included.
We found the hepatic transcription factor Cyclic-AMP Responsive Element Binding Protein 3-like-3 (CREB3L3) to be expressed in adipose tissue, and selectively downregulated in the more metabolically ...protective subcutaneous adipose tissue in obese mice and humans. We sought to elucidate the specific role of this factor in adipose biology. CREB3L3 fat-specific knockout mice were fed a high-fat diet to induce obesity and metabolic dysfunction. Additionally, we injected a flip-excision adeno-associated virus directly into the subcutaneous inguinal adipose tissue of Adiponectin-Cre mice to create a depot-specific overexpression model for further assessment. Fat-specific ablation of CREB3L3 enhanced weight gain and insulin resistance following high-fat feeding, as fat-specific knockout mice expended less energy and possessed more inflammatory adipose tissue. Conversely, inguinal fat CREB3L3 overexpression deterred diet-induced obesity and ameliorated metabolic dysfunction. Together, this study highlights the relevance of CREB3L3 in obese adipose tissue and demonstrates its role as a powerful body weight modulator.
The metabolic syndrome (MetS) refers to a cluster of clinically relevant factors that increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality. Circulating levels of several amino acids ...and metabolites related to one-carbon metabolism have been associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and MetS. We aimed to identify the amino acid profile that is significantly associated with MetS among an all male Mediterranean population.
One hundred middle-aged men (54.6 ± 8.9 years) participated in a cross-sectional study carried out during 2011–2012. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria were used to define MetS. Fasting plasma levels of 20 common amino acids and 15 metabolites related to amino acid and one-carbon metabolism were measured using gas chromatography (GC-MS/MS) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Principal components analysis was applied. Fifty-six participants fulfilled the IDF criteria for defining MetS. Five factors were extracted from the 35 measured metabolites. The branched-chain amino acids/aromatic amino acids (BCAA/AAA) related pattern and the glutamine/glycine/serine/asparagine (Gln/Gly/Ser/Asn) related pattern were significantly associated with MetS (odds ratio, 95% confidence interval; 6.41, 2.43–16.91, and 0.47, 0.23–0.96, respectively) after adjustment for age, current smoking status, physical activity level and medical treatment for hypertension, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus. Further adjustment for liver function markers (i.e. glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, glutamic pyruvic transaminase, and γ-glutamyltransferase), and plasma adiponectin levels did not significantly affect the associations.
The BCAA/AAA pattern was positively associated, while the Gln/Gly/Ser/Asn pattern was inversely associated with established cardiometabolic risk factors and MetS. Plasma adiponectin levels or markers of liver function did not significantly affect these associations.
•Plasma amino acids and metabolites related to one-carbon metabolism were measured by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS.•A branched-chain amino acids/aromatic amino acids (BCAA/AAA) pattern was positively associated with metabolic syndrome.•A glutamine/glycine/serine/asparagine pattern was inversely associated with metabolic syndrome.•Associations were not affected by plasma adiponectin levels or markers of liver function.
: Placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) disorders are placental conditions associated with significant maternal morbidity and mortality. While antenatal vaginal bleeding in the setting of PAS is common, ...the implications of this on overall outcomes remain unknown. Our primary objective was to identify the implications of antenatal vaginal bleeding in the setting of suspected PAS on both maternal and fetal outcomes.
: We performed a case-control study of patients referred to our PAS center of excellence delivered by cesarean hysterectomy from 2012 to 2022. Subsequently, antenatal vaginal bleeding episodes were quantified, and components of maternal morbidity were assessed. A maternal composite of surgical morbidity was utilized, comprised of blood loss ≥ 2 L, transfusion ≥ 4 units of blood, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and post-operative length of stay ≥ 4 days.
: During the time period, 135 cases of confirmed PAS were managed by cesarean hysterectomy. A total of 61/135 (45.2%) had at least one episode of bleeding antenatally, and 36 (59%) of these had two or more bleeding episodes. Increasing episodes of antenatal vaginal bleeding were associated with emergent delivery (
< 0.01), delivery at an earlier gestational age (35 vs. 34 vs. 33 weeks,
< 0.01), and increased composite maternal morbidity (76, 84, and 94%,
= 0.03).
: Antenatal vaginal bleeding in the setting of PAS is associated with increased emergent deliveries, earlier gestational ages, and maternal composite morbidity. This important antenatal event may aid in not only counseling patients but also in the coordination of multidisciplinary teams caring for these complex patients.
Peanut allergy (PA) places significant burden on peanut-allergic individuals and their families, yet limited research in the United States has quantitatively examined the impact on peanut-allergic ...individuals and their families’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The Peanut Allergy Burden Study (PABS) aimed to quantify the impact of PA on the general and disease-specific HRQoL of children, adolescents, and adults with PA, as well as caregivers of children with PA.
A cross-sectional survey design was employed to examine the real-world impact of PA in children, adolescents, and adults with PA, and caregivers of children with PA.
Of 153 adult patients, 102 adolescents, and 382 caregivers of peanut-allergic children (n = 382), 6.8% and 24.8% of participants indicated being dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied, respectively, with current approaches to avoid or prevent PA reactions. Approximately two-thirds of patients and caregivers indicated that PA interferes at least somewhat with daily living. In terms of general HRQoL, adolescents, adult patients, and caregivers indicated that mental/psychosocial health was more problematic than physical health. PA patients and caregivers indicated worse HRQoL in all domains compared to healthy samples, and worse overall HRQoL, psychosocial, emotional, and social functioning than a sample of chronically ill patients. Results from the allergy-specific HRQoL measures showed that adolescents experienced greater impairment in overall HRQoL due to PA and in allergen avoidance and dietary restriction than adults.
PA negatively affects the general and PA-specific HRQoL of both patients and caregivers. The high emotional and psychosocial burden, in particular, demonstrates significant unmet need for patients with PA and their caregivers. Future work on treatment and preventive options to improve HRQoL for PA patients, particularly adolescents and their families, is needed.
Mexicans and Colombians at Home and Abroad McCann, James A.; Escobar, Cristina; Arana, Renelinda
Latin American research review,
01/2019, Letnik:
54, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Although a large number of democracies have extended political rights to expatriates, relatively little is known about the depths of transnational political engagement. How attentive are expatriates ...to politics in the country of origin? When expatriates judge leaders “back home,” are their evaluations based on the same ideological considerations as those of citizens in the country of origin? Drawing from original surveys conducted during presidential elections in Mexico (2006) and Colombia (2010), in which both emigrants and citizens within the country were sampled, this study addresses these questions. The results indicate that for each nationality group, living abroad is not associated with a drop in political attentiveness, and time abroad does not in and of itself depress attention to politics from a distance. Moreover, emigrants and individuals in the country of origin do not vary in the extent to which ideological preferences are used to judge presidents, which is a key marker of political sophistication. These results suggest that in the context of Mexican and Colombian politics, living abroad does not markedly diminish the potential for effective democratic engagement.
Si bien gran número de democracias han extendido derechos políticos a los emigrantes, se sabe relativamente poco sobre el compromiso político transnacional. ¿Qué tan atentos son los emigrantes a la política del país de origen? ¿Cuándo se juzga a los líderes de este país, la evaluación que les hacen los emigrantes se basa en las mimas consideraciones que los ciudadanos del país de origen? Este estudio aborda estas preguntas utilizando encuestas originales realizadas durante las elecciones presidenciales en México (2006) y en Colombia (2010) y donde ambos, emigrantes y ciudadanos dentro del país de origen, fueron parte del muestreo. El resultado indica que en los dos casos de México y Colombia el vivir fuera del país no está asociado con una baja de la atención a lo político, y que el tiempo vivido por fuera no reduce por si solo esta atención desde la distancia. Aún más, emigrantes e individuos en el país de origen no difieren en la forma de usar las preferencias ideológicas para juzgar a los presidentes, lo que es una marca clave de sofisticación política. Estos resultados sugieren que en el contexto de la política de México y Colombia, vivir afuera no disminuye el potencial de compromiso político democrático.
Recent advances in solar harvesting technologies pave the way for sustainable environmental-monitoring applications in the emerging solar powered wireless sensor networks (SP-WSNs). The complexities ...associated with the low-resourced, highly-dynamic, and vulnerable sensor nodes operating in potentially unattended or hostile environments require a high degree of self-management and automation. Guided by autonomic communication principles, this paper presents AutoSP-WSN, a novel distributed framework to achieve sustainable data collection while also optimizing end-to-end network performance for SP-WSNs. Initially, we present the energy-aware support component that provides reliable energy monitoring and prediction. This drives the power management component, which is adaptive to time-varying solar power, avoiding battery exhaustion as well as maximizing the per-node utility. Finally, to demonstrate the key design issues of the network protocol component, we propose two self-adaptive network protocols, a routing protocol SP-BCP and a rate control scheme PEA-DLEX. We show that the individual components seamlessly highly integrate as a whole, and the AutoSP-WSN framework exhibits the properties of context-awareness, distributed operation, self-configuration, self-optimization, self-protection and self-healing. Through extensive experiments on a real SP-WSN platform, and hardware-driven simulations, we show that the proposed schemes achieve substantial improvements over previous work, in terms of reliability, sustainable operation, and network utility.
STAT3 is well corroborated preclinically as a cancer therapeutic target, but tractable translational strategies for its blockade by small molecule inhibitors have remained elusive. In this study, we ...report the development of a novel class of bifunctional STAT3 inhibitors, based on conjugation of a diarylidenyl-piperidone (DAP) backbone to an N-hydroxypyrroline (-NOH) group, which exhibits minimal toxicity against normal cells and good oral bioavailability. Molecular modeling studies of this class suggested direct interaction with the STAT3 DNA binding domain. In particular, the DAP compound HO-3867 selectively inhibited STAT3 phosphorylation, transcription, and DNA binding without affecting the expression of other active STATs. HO-3867 exhibited minimal toxicity toward noncancerous cells and tissues but induced apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells. Pharmacologic analysis revealed greater bioabsorption and bioavailability of the active (cytotoxic) metabolites in cancer cells compared with normal cells. The selective cytotoxicity of HO-3867 seemed to be multifaceted, eliciting differential activation of the Akt pathway in normal versus cancer cells. RNAi attenuation experiments confirmed the requirement of STAT3 for HO-3867-mediated apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells. In vivo testing showed that HO-3867 could block xenograft tumor growth without toxic side effects. Furthermore, in primary human ovarian cancer cells isolated from patient ascites, HO-3867 inhibited cell migration/invasion and survival. Our results offer preclinical proof-of-concept for HO-3867 as a selective STAT3 inhibitor to treat ovarian cancer and other solid tumors where STAT3 is widely upregulated.
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