1. Traffic affects large areas of natural habitat worldwide. As a result, the acoustic signals used by birds and other animals are increasingly masked by traffic noise. Masking of signals important ...to territory defence and mate attraction may have a negative impact on reproductive success. Depending on the overlap in space, time and frequency between noise and vocalizations, such impact may ultimately exclude species from suitable breeding habitat. However a direct impact of traffic noise on reproductive success has not previously been reported. 2. We monitored traffic noise and avian vocal activity during the breeding season alongside a busy Dutch motorway. We measured variation in space, time and spectrum of noise and tested for negative effects on avian reproductive success using long-term breeding data on great tits Parus major. 3. Noise levels decreased with distance from the motorway, but we also found substantial spatial variation independent of distance. Noise also varied temporally with March being noisier than April, and the daytime being noisier than night-time. Furthermore, weekdays were clearly noisier than weekends. Importantly, traffic noise overlapped in time as well as acoustic frequency with avian vocalization behaviour over a large area. 4. Traffic noise had a negative effect on reproductive success with females laying smaller clutches in noisier areas. Variation in traffic noise in the frequency band that overlaps most with the lower frequency part of great tit song best explained the observed variation. 5. Additionally, noise levels recorded in April had a negative effect on the number of fledglings, independent of clutch size, and explained the observed variation better than noise levels recorded in March. 6. Synthesis and applications. We found that breeding under noisy conditions can carry a cost, even for species common in urban areas. Such costs should be taken into account when protecting threatened species, and we argue that knowledge of the spatial, temporal and spectral overlap between noise and species-specific acoustic behaviour will be important for effective noise management. We provide some cost-effective mitigation measures such as traffic speed reduction or closing of roads during the breeding season.
Researchers have studied psychological disorders extensively from a common cause perspective, in which symptoms are treated as independent indicators of an underlying disease. In contrast, the causal ...systems perspective seeks to understand the importance of individual symptoms and symptom-to-symptom relationships. In the current study, we used network analysis to examine the relationships between and among depression and anxiety symptoms from the causal systems perspective.
We utilized data from a large psychiatric sample at admission and discharge from a partial hospital program (N = 1029, mean treatment duration = 8 days). We investigated features of the depression/anxiety network including topology, network centrality, stability of the network at admission and discharge, as well as change in the network over the course of treatment.
Individual symptoms of depression and anxiety were more related to other symptoms within each disorder than to symptoms between disorders. Sad mood and worry were among the most central symptoms in the network. The network structure was stable both at admission and between admission and discharge, although the overall strength of symptom relationships increased as symptom severity decreased over the course of treatment.
Examining depression and anxiety symptoms as dynamic systems may provide novel insights into the maintenance of these mental health problems.
We study a sample of 23 Type II plateau supernovae (SNe II-P), all observed with the same set of instruments. Analysis of their photometric evolution confirms that their typical plateau duration is ...100 d with little scatter, showing a tendency to get shorter for more energetic SNe. We examine the claimed correlation between the luminosity and the rise time from explosion to plateau. We analyse their spectra, measuring typical ejecta velocities, and confirm that they follow a well-behaved power-law decline. We find indications of high-velocity material in the spectra of six of our SNe. We test different dust-extinction correction methods by asking the following – does the uniformity of the sample increase after the application of a given method? A reasonably behaved underlying distribution should become tighter after correction. No method we tested made a significant improvement.
AR101 Oral Immunotherapy for Peanut Allergy Vickery, Brian P; Vereda, Andrea; Casale, Thomas B ...
New England journal of medicine/The New England journal of medicine,
11/2018, Volume:
379, Issue:
21
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A peanut-derived protein product, AR101, used in an oral desensitization protocol in children and adolescents with severe peanut allergy increased the amount of oral peanut protein tolerated in ...approximately two thirds of participants who received AR101, as compared with 1 of 25 controls.
Timing of reproduction has major fitness consequences, which can only be understood when the phenology of the food for the offspring is quantified. For insectivorous birds, like great tits (Parus ...major), synchronisation of their offspring needs and abundance of caterpillars is the main selection pressure. We measured caterpillar biomass over a 20-year period and showed that the annual peak date is correlated with temperatures from 8 March to 17 May. Laying dates also correlate with temperatures, but over an earlier period (16 March - 20 April). However, as we would predict from a reliable cue used by birds to time their reproduction, also the food peak correlates with these temperatures. Moreover, the slopes of the phenology of the birds and caterpillar biomass, when regressed against the temperatures in this earlier period, do not differ. The major difference is that due to climate change, the relationship between the timing of the food peak and the temperatures over the 16 March - 20 April period is changing, while this is not so for great tit laying dates. As a consequence, the synchrony between offspring needs and the caterpillar biomass has been disrupted in the recent warm decades. This may have severe consequences as we show that both the number of fledglings as well as their fledging weight is affected by this synchrony. We use the descriptive models for both the caterpillar biomass peak as for the great tit laying dates to predict shifts in caterpillar and bird phenology 2005-2100, using an IPCC climate scenario. The birds will start breeding earlier and this advancement is predicted to be at the same rate as the advancement of the food peak, and hence they will not reduce the amount of the current mistiming of about 10 days.
Preparation methods of alginate nanoparticles Paques, Jerome P.; van der Linden, Erik; van Rijn, Cees J.M. ...
Advances in colloid and interface science,
07/2014, Volume:
209
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article reviews available methods for the formation of alginate nano-aggregates, nanocapsules and nanospheres. Primarily, alginate nanoparticles are being prepared by two methods. In the ...“complexation method”, complex formation on the interface of an oil droplet is used to form alginate nanocapsules, and complex formation in an aqueous solution is used to form alginate nano-aggregates. In a second method w/o emulsification coupled with gelation of the alginate emulsion droplet can be used to form alginate nanospheres. We review advantages and disadvantages of these methods, and give an overview of the properties of the alginate particles produced with these methods.
Display omitted
•Alginate is one of the most used polymers in formation of (micro)particles.•Use of alginate in nanoparticles is not common.•Alginate nano-aggregates, nanocapsules and nanospheres are reviewed.•Alginate nanoparticle formation is based on two methods.•These are complexation and w/o emulsification
We formally introduce 14 new high-level stratigraphic names to augment existing names and to hierarchically organise all of New Zealand's onland and offshore Cambrian-Holocene rocks and ...unconsolidated deposits. The two highest-level units are Austral Superprovince (new) and Zealandia Megasequence (new). These encompass all stratigraphic units of the country's Cambrian-Early Cretaceous basement rocks and Late Cretaceous-Holocene cover rocks and sediments, respectively. Most high-level constituents of the Austral Superprovince are in current and common usage: Eastern and Western Provinces consist of 12 tectonostratigraphic terranes, 10 igneous suites, 5 batholiths and Haast Schist. Ferrar, Tarpaulin and Jaquiery suites (new) have been added to existing plutonic suites to describe all known compositional variation in the Tuhua Intrusives. Zealandia Megasequence consists of five predominantly sedimentary, partly unconformity-bounded units and one igneous unit. Momotu and Haerenga supergroups (new) comprise lowermost rift to passive margin (terrestrial to marine transgressive) rock units. Waka Supergroup (new) includes rocks related to maximum marine flooding linked to passive margin culmination in the east and onset of new tectonic subsidence in the west. Māui and Pākihi supergroups (new) comprise marine to terrestrial regressive rock and sediment units deposited during Neogene plate convergence. Rūaumoko Volcanic Region (new) is introduced to include all igneous rocks of the Zealandia Megasequence and contains the geochemically differentiated Whakaari, Horomaka and Te Raupua supersuites (new). Our new scheme, Litho2014, provides a complete, high-level stratigraphic classification for the continental crust of the New Zealand region.
Mammalian gene expression is inherently stochastic
, and results in discrete bursts of RNA molecules that are synthesized from each allele
. Although transcription is known to be regulated by ...promoters and enhancers, it is unclear how cis-regulatory sequences encode transcriptional burst kinetics. Characterization of transcriptional bursting, including the burst size and frequency, has mainly relied on live-cell
or single-molecule RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization
recordings of selected loci. Here we determine transcriptome-wide burst frequencies and sizes for endogenous mouse and human genes using allele-sensitive single-cell RNA sequencing. We show that core promoter elements affect burst size and uncover synergistic effects between TATA and initiator elements, which were masked at mean expression levels. Notably, we provide transcriptome-wide evidence that enhancers control burst frequencies, and demonstrate that cell-type-specific gene expression is primarily shaped by changes in burst frequencies. Together, our data show that burst frequency is primarily encoded in enhancers and burst size in core promoters, and that allelic single-cell RNA sequencing is a powerful model for investigating transcriptional kinetics.
Glaucoma is a group of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve, the health of which is vital for vision. The key risk factor for the development and progression of this disease is increased ...intraocular pressure (IOP). Implantable glaucoma drainage devices have been developed to divert aqueous humor from the glaucomatous eye as a means of reducing IOP. The artificial drainage pathway created by these devices drives the fluid into a filtering bleb. The long-term success of filtration surgery is dictated by the proper functioning of the bleb and overlying Tenon's and conjunctival tissue. To better understand the influence of the health condition of these tissues on IOP, we have developed a mathematical model of fluid production in the eye, its removal from the anterior chamber by a particular glaucoma implant-the PRESERFLO® MicroShunt-, drainage into the bleb and absorption by the subconjunctival vasculature. The mathematical model was numerically solved by commercial FEM package COMSOL. Our numerical results of IOP for different postoperative conditions are consistent with the available evidence on IOP outcomes after the implantation of this device. To obtain insight into the adjustments in the implant's hydrodynamic resistance that are required for IOP control when hypotony or bleb scarring due to tissue fibrosis take place, we have simulated the flow through a microshunt with an adjustable lumen diameter. Our findings show that increasing the hydrodynamic resistance of the microshunt by reducing the lumen diameter, can effectively help to prevent hypotony. However, decreasing the hydrodynamic resistance of the implant will not sufficiently decrease the IOP to acceptable levels when the bleb is encapsulated due to tissue fibrosis. Therefore, to effectively reduce IOP, the adjustable glaucoma implant should be combined with a means of reducing fibrosis. The results reported herein may provide guidelines to support the design of future glaucoma implants with adjustable hydrodynamic resistances.
ABSTRACT Following the high-precision determination of the velocity vector and temperature of the pristine interstellar neutral (ISN) He via a coordinated analysis summarized by McComas et al., we ...analyzed the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) observations of neutral He left out from this analysis. These observations were collected during the ISN observation seasons 2010-2014 and cover the region in the Earth's orbit where the Warm Breeze (WB) persists. We used the same simulation model and a parameter fitting method very similar to that used for the analysis of ISN He. We approximated the parent population of the WB in front of the heliosphere with a homogeneous Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution function and found a temperature of ∼9500 K, an inflow speed of 11.3 km s−1, and an inflow longitude and latitude in the J2000 ecliptic coordinates 251 6, 12 0. The abundance of the WB relative to ISN He is 5.7% and the Mach number is 1.97. The newly determined inflow direction of the WB, the inflow directions of ISN H and ISN He, and the direction to the center of the IBEX Ribbon are almost perfectly co-planar, and this plane coincides within relatively narrow statistical uncertainties with the plane fitted only to the inflow directions of ISN He, ISN H, and the WB. This co-planarity lends support to the hypothesis that the WB is the secondary population of ISN He and that the center of the Ribbon coincides with the direction of the local interstellar magnetic field (ISMF). The common plane for the direction of the inflow of ISN gas, ISN H, the WB, and the local ISMF is given by the normal direction: ecliptic longitude 349 7 0 6 and latitude 35 7 0.6 in the J2000 coordinates, with a correlation coefficient of 0.85.
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