Since the 1960s, East African athletes, mainly from Kenya and Ethiopia, have dominated long-distance running events in both the male and female categories. Further demographic studies have shown that ...two ethnic groups are overrepresented among elite endurance runners in each of these countries: the Kalenjin, from Kenya, and the Oromo, from Ethiopia, raising the possibility that this dominance results from genetic or/and cultural factors. However, looking at the life history of these athletes or at loci previously associated with endurance athletic performance, no compelling explanation has emerged. Here, we used a population approach to identify peaks of genetic differentiation for these two ethnicities and compared the list of genes close to these regions with a list, manually curated by us, of genes that have been associated with traits possibly relevant to endurance running in GWAS studies, and found a significant enrichment in both populations (Kalenjin, P = 0.048, and Oromo, P = 1.6x10-5). Those traits are mainly related to anthropometry, circulatory and respiratory systems, energy metabolism, and calcium homeostasis. Our results reinforce the notion that endurance running is a systemic activity with a complex genetic architecture, and indicate new candidate genes for future studies. Finally, we argue that a deterministic relationship between genetics and sports must be avoided, as it is both scientifically incorrect and prone to reinforcing population (racial) stereotyping.
The discovery of novel and/or new bioactive natural products from biota sources is often confounded by the reisolation of known natural products. Dereplication strategies that involve the analysis of ...NMR and MS spectroscopic data to infer structural features present in purified natural products in combination with database searches of these substructures provide an efficient method to rapidly identify known natural products. Unfortunately this strategy has been hampered by the lack of publically available and comprehensive natural product databases and open source cheminformatics tools. A new platform, DEREP-NP, has been developed to help solve this problem. DEREP-NP uses the open source cheminformatics program DataWarrior to generate a database containing counts of 65 structural fragments present in 229 358 natural product structures derived from plants, animals, and microorganisms, published before 2013 and freely available in the nonproprietary Universal Natural Products Database (UNPD). By counting the number of times one or more of these structural features occurs in an unknown compound, as deduced from the analysis of its NMR (1H, HSQC, and/or HMBC) and/or MS data, matching structures carrying the same numeric combination of searched structural features can be retrieved from the database. Confirmation that the matching structure is the same compound can then be verified through literature comparison of spectroscopic data. This methodology can be applied to both purified natural products and fractions containing a small number of individual compounds that are often generated as screening libraries. The utility of DEREP-NP has been verified through the analysis of spectra derived from compounds (and fractions containing two or three compounds) isolated from plant, marine invertebrate, and fungal sources. DEREP-NP is freely available at https://github.com/clzani/DEREP-NP and will help to streamline the natural product discovery process.
•Storage stability of five polymer-modified binders was evaluated.•Advanced indices were developed to identify storage stability properties of PMBs.•Physical, rheological, and chemical properties ...were analyzed.
Polymer modified asphalt binders (PMB) are being commonly used instead of neat binders when superior performance is needed during the road service life. The addition of polymer improves the binder’s properties at high, low and mid-range temperatures. However, the effectiveness of polymer modification in improving road performance depends on a chemical-structural modification in the binder’s composition to be effective and durable. The phase inversion phenomenon between asphalt components and the added polymer leads the binder to assimilate the polymer characteristics. PMBs can have stability problems and separation; in fact, polymers and bitumen components can lose most of the benefits from the modification due to separation during the storage phase. Common testing for storage stability assessment includes the cigar tuben test (EN 13399, 2010) which provides an indication of whether separation has occurred. To evaluate the effects of separation on performance-related properties of the binder, the present study analyzed the storage stability and separation phenomena of five PMBs by performing an advanced-rheological storage stability test, based on frequency sweep tests on samples taken from the top and bottom part of 3, 5 and 7-day stored cigar tuben specimens. Master curves were developed for newly mixed and several storage conditions and were compared to identify possible separation phenomena between top and bottom samples. Indices were also developed to quantify separation of samples. Results showed that storage stability problems commonly start at the third day of storage. Binders which were seriously affected by separation, seemed to incrementally lose their homogeneity (top and bottom part) between 3 and 7days. Other binders preserved their rheological characteristics during storage, maintaining equal values between the top and bottom samples. All stored binders were affected by an aging factor.
•An important objective of the EU fusion roadmap Horizon 2020 is to lay the foundation of a DEMO Fusion Power Reactor to follow ITER.•This paper describes the progress of the DEMO design and R&D ...activities in Europe in the EUROfusion Consortium.•Focus is on a systems engineering/design integration approach to identify technology & physics R&D requirements and address design challenges.•Preliminary design choices/sensitivity studies to explore the design space and identify/select attractive design points are described.•Initial results of work conducted by distributed project teams involving EU labs, universities, and industries in Europe are presented.
This paper describes the progress of the DEMO design and R&D activities in Europe. The focus is on a systems engineering and design integration approach, which is recognized to be essential from an early stage to identify and address the engineering and operational challenges, and the requirements for technology and physics R&D. We present some of the preliminary design choices/sensitivity studies to explore and narrow down the design space and identify/select attractive design points. We also discuss some of the initial results of work being executed in the EUROfusion Consortium by a geographically distributed project team involving many EU laboratories, universities, and industries in Europe.
Summary
Due to its impact on animal health and pig industry, African swine fever (ASF) is regarded as one of the most important viral diseases of pigs. Following the ongoing epidemic in the ...Transcaucasian countries and the Russian Federation, African swine fever virus was introduced into the Estonian wild boar population in 2014. Epidemiological investigations suggested two different introductions into the southern and the north‐eastern part of Estonia. Interestingly, outbreak characteristics varied considerably between the affected regions. While high mortality and mainly virus‐positive animals were observed in the southern region, mortality was low in the north‐eastern area. In the latter, clinically healthy, antibody‐positive animals were found in the hunting bag and detection of virus was rare. Two hypotheses could explain the different behaviour in the north‐east: (i) the frequency of antibody detections combined with the low mortality is the tail of an older, so far undetected epidemic wave coming from the east, or (ii) the virus in this region is attenuated and leads to a less severe clinical outcome. To explore the possibility of virus attenuation, a re‐isolated ASFV strain from the north‐eastern Ida‐Viru region was biologically characterized in European wild boar. Oronasal inoculation led to an acute and severe disease course in all animals with typical pathomorphological lesions. However, one animal recovered completely and was subsequently commingled with three sentinels of the same age class to assess disease transmission. By the end of the trial at 96 days post‐initial inoculation, all animals were completely healthy and neither virus nor viral genomes were detected in the sentinels or the survivor. The survivor, however, showed high antibody levels. In conclusion, the ASFV strain from north‐eastern Estonia was still highly virulent but nevertheless, one animal recovered completely. Under the experimental conditions, no transmission occurred from the survivor to susceptible sentinel pigs.
Summary
This study targeted the assessment of a potential African swine fever virus (ASFV) carrier state of 30 pigs in total which were allowed to recover from infection with ASFV “Netherlands'86” ...prior exposure to six healthy sentinel pigs for more than 2 months. Throughout the whole trial, blood and swab samples were subjected to routine virological and serological investigations. At the end of the trial, necropsy of all animals was performed and viral persistence and distribution were assessed. Upon infection, a wide range of clinical and pathomorphological signs were observed. After an initial acute phase in all experimentally inoculated pigs, 66.6% recovered completely and seroconverted. However, viral genome was detectable in blood samples for up to 91 days. Lethal outcomes were observed in 33.3% of the pigs with both acute and prolonged courses. No ASFV transmission occurred over the whole in‐contact phase from survivors to sentinels. Similarly, infectious ASFV was not detected in any of the tissue samples from ASFV convalescent and in‐contact pigs. These findings indicate that the suggested role of ASFV survivors is overestimated and has to be reconsidered thoroughly for future risk assessments.
The TRAPS code (Trapezes, Rectangles And Plasma Scenario) has been developed in the early 90's to evaluate with great accuracy the maximum magnetic field on the TF (Toroidal Field) system of ITER ...preliminary design, so-called FEAT (Fusion Energy Advanced Tokamak). TRAPS allowed to take into account the coil trapezoidal cross sections and proved more accurate than the FEM code results at the time. TRAPS code's accuracy comes from the mathematical methods used for the computation of the magnetic field induced by trapezoidal cross sectional conductors (straight segments, circle arcs or full circles). The Biot-Savart law integration is carried out fully analytically in the cross section, and even analytically along the segments. This paper briefly describes these calculations, the way their accuracy was improved, and two recently implemented new features: the modeling of circular cross sectional conductors, like those of ITER TF and CS (Central Solenoid) magnets, by trapezes and rectangles. The new modeling of circular cross sectional conductors was successfully applied on an ITER CS module and on the DEMO TF system, showing significant increase in accuracy for the magnetic field compared with the preliminary massive modeling.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis are the most challenging among the neglected tropical diseases. Comparative studies between Leishmania spp and ...Trypanosoma cruzi have been conducted aiming to find a broad spectrum antiprotozoal agent acting against both parasites. Among the potential molecular target, Trypanothione reductase (TR) is considered an ideal enzyme since it is involved in the unique thiol-based metabolism observed in the Trypanosomatidae family and is a validated target for the search of antitrypanosomatidae drugs. In this review we intend to describe the currently available therapy to treat trypanosomatidae diseases and to highlight important aspects of trypanothione reductase as a target for the search of new and selective inhibitors, such as tricyclic, diphenylsulfide, bicyclic and heterocyclic, polyamine, natural product, N-oxide and nitroheterocyclic, aryl β-aminocarbonyl and α,β-unsaturated carbonyl derivatives.
AC losses induced by magnetic field variations dissipate power in the conductors of coils during the tokamak operation. They can be critical for being a possible source of resistive transitions and ...leading to a possible quench in the magnet. This paper aims at presenting the results of the influence of the applied field direction on these losses. The measurements are carried out at the JOSEFA facility on one JT-60SA TF sample taken from the production length. In a tokamak environment, the field direction is perpendicular either to the conductor large side or small side. If the coupling losses in the cable are compared for the two field directions, it is evidenced that the losses are significantly larger when the field is transverse to the wide side. This is particularly true for the low frequencies. It will be shown in the following that, even for rather small aspect ratio, the losses are quite different for the two directions. In a second time, the measured coupling losses in the usual form of an Energy/cycle vs frequency curve, are fitted with the MPAS model to derive the parameters needed for any further calculations. In addition, a verifying test has been conducted by a comparison of direct measurements of trapezoidal field pulses in the JOSEFA facility, with the calculations made with the parameters issued from the fit with MPAS.
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