Nuclear factor (NF)- Kappa B/p65 regulates the transcription of a wide variety of genes involved in cell survival, invasion and metastasis. We characterised by immunohistochemistry the expression of ...NF- Kappa B/p65 protein in six histologically normal prostate, 13 high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and 86 prostate adenocarcinoma specimens. Nuclear localisation of p65 was used as a measure of NF- Kappa B active state. Nuclear localisation of NF- Kappa B was only seen in scattered basal cells in normal prostate glands. Prostatic intraepithelial neoplasias exhibited diffuse and strong cytoplasmic staining but no nuclear staining. In prostate adenocarcinomas, cytoplasmic NF- Kappa B was detected in 57 (66.3%) specimens, and nuclear NF- Kappa B (activated) in 47 (54.7%). Nuclear and cytoplasmic NF- Kappa B staining was not correlated (P = 0.19). By univariate analysis, nuclear localisation of NF- Kappa B was associated with biochemical relapse (P = 0.0009; log-rank test) while cytoplasmic expression did not On multivariate analysis, serum preoperative prostate specific antigen (P = 0.02), Gleason score (P = 0.03) and nuclear NF- Kappa B (P = 0.002) were independent predictors of biochemical relapse. These results provide novel evidence for NF- Kappa B/p65 nuclear translocation in the transition from PIN to prostate cancer. Our findings also indicate that nuclear localisation of NF- Kappa B is an independent prognostic factor of biochemical relapse in prostate cancer.
Fish predation has an important role structuring benthic and planktonic assemblages in shallow waters. Habitat complexity may mitigate the effect of fish predation, thus reducing prey–predator ...encounters and prey capture ability. In this respect, benthic organisms may be less affected by predation than planktonic organisms because macrophytes would increase habitat complexity, thus providing a physical refuge. However, certain small fish may move and live within vegetation, resulting in an increase in prey–predator encounters, and so physical refuges provided by macrophytes would be less effective. To test the effects of small fish on aquatic invertebrates, we performed a field experiment using mesocosms in a Mediterranean salt marsh, using
Aphanius iberus as the small fish species (<
5
cm) and
Ruppia cirrhosa as the dominant macrophyte. Although,
A. iberus preys on benthic and planktonic organisms, it has traditionally been described as a benthic species. Hence, a stronger effect on benthos is expected if habitat complexity does not reduce the predation ability of this small fish. We therefore analyzed and compared the strength of the effects of
A. iberus on both benthic and planktonic organisms. The fish was found to have stronger effects on planktonic than benthic organisms. The presence of
A. iberus was coincident with a decline in the abundance of large water-column invertebrates such as gammarids and jellyfish, and an increase in the abundance of medium-sized plankton. The total biomass of the benthic assemblage increased when
A. iberus was present. These results suggest that aquatic invertebrates of Mediterranean salt marshes may use macrophytes as refuge from small fish species.
► Predation of an omnivorous small fish (
Aphanius iberus) is important in plankton and benthos of Mediterranean salt marsh. ►
A. iberus has more effects on plankton than on benthos because habitat complexity allows to avoid fish predation. ► Presence of
A. iberus changes diversity and size structure of plankton.
The application of graph theory to metacommunity ecology allows a deeper analysis of the effect of network structure on diversity patterns. Here, we set out to test the role of network centrality ...metrics and environmental characteristics in diversity patterns of pond macroinvertebrate metacommunities. We tested two approaches to construct the networks: one used the percolation distance, whereas the other was based on a community‐contingent distance. The role of each patch within the network was then analyzed using its centrality value. Later, we analyzed the relationships between the macroinvertebrate diversity and centrality metrics for four study sites. The calculated diversity metrics cover different facets of biodiversity at two scales: pond and pondscape. Environmental characteristics of the studied ponds were also included. All relationships were tested considering the entire macroinvertebrate dataset, but also differentiated by dispersal mode (i.e., active vs. passive) and considering the two types of network approaches analyzed. The results were mostly consistent when comparing the network approaches used. Centrality metrics tended to be positively related to alpha and negatively to beta diversity. Environmental uniqueness showed a positive effect on beta diversity metrics, regardless of the dispersal mode. We only observed a weak negative relationship between eutrophication and species richness of active dispersers. Pond size showed a positive effect on both alpha and beta diversity, but was detected more frequently on alpha diversity metrics. We could not find evidence for a clear negative effect of habitat degradation on diversity. We found a greater importance of environmental characteristics versus the centrality metrics for both alpha and beta diversity of active dispersers, while a combination of their contributions for passive dispersers. An unexpected importance of centrality was observed for alpha diversity of passive dispersers. Using empirical data, we demonstrate that the centrality of a patch in an undirected network affects diversity regardless of the approach used to construct the networks, with a higher influence at local scale regardless of the dispersal mode. This study broadens knowledge of the relationships between environmental features and network centrality, demonstrating the important role of centrality as a determinant of diversity in metacommunities.
In this paper we study some properties of the magnetic field lines and their effect on the particle motions. For certain configurations of wires we prove the existence of first integrals and ergodic ...(quasi-periodic) orbits. When the magnetic fields possess a Euclidean symmetry we prove that the equations of motion (in the relativistic and non-relativistic cases) inherit a first integral different from the kinetic energy. As a consequence of this property we show that in some physical examples the wires creating the magnetic field are unreachable for electric charges and there exist confinement spatial regions. Part of these mathematical results are of interest to electrical engineers, helping to keep the power lines electrically neutral.
Zooplankton assemblages in the confined coastal lagoons of La Pletera salt marshes (Baix Ter wetlands, Girona, Spain) are dominated by two species: one calanoid copepod (
Eurytemora velox
) and the ...other rotifer (
Brachionus
gr.
plicatilis
). They alternate as the dominant species (more than 80% of total zooplankton biomass), with the former being dominant in winter and the latter in summer. Shifts between these taxa are sudden, and intermediate situations usually do not last more than 1 month. Although seasonal shifts between zooplankton dominant species appear to be related with temperature, other factors such as trophic state or oxygen concentration may also play an important role. Shifts between species dominances may be driven by thresholds in these environmental variables. However, according to the alternative stable states theory, under conditions of stable dominance a certain resistance to change may exist, causing that gradual changes might have little effect until a tipping point is reached, at which the reverse change becomes much more difficult. We investigated which are the possible factors causing seasonal zooplankton shifts. We used high-frequency temperature and oxygen data provided by sensors installed in situ to analyse if shifts in zooplankton composition are determined by a threshold in these variables or, on the other hand, some gradual change between stable states occur. Moreover, following the postulates of the alternative stable states theory, we looked at possible hysteresis to analyse if these seasonal zooplankton shifts behave as critical transitions between two different equilibriums. We also examined if top-down or bottom-up trophic interactions affect these zooplankton shifts. Our results show that shifts between dominant zooplankton species in La Pletera salt marshes are asymmetric. The shift to a
Eurytemora
situation is mainly driven by a decrease in temperature, with a threshold close to 19 °C of daily average temperature, while the shift to
Brachionus
does not. Usually, the decrease in water temperature is accompanied by a decrease in oxygen oscillation with values always close to 100% oxygen saturation. Moreover, oxygen and temperature values before the shift to calanoids are different from those before the reverse shift to
Brachionus
, suggesting hysteresis and some resistance to change when a critical transition is approaching. Top-down and bottom-up forces appear to have no significant effect on shifts, since zooplankton biomass was not negatively correlated with fish biomass and was not positively related with chlorophyll, in overall data or within shifts.
The influence of water permanence and high intra- and inter-annual hydrological variability on macrobenthos (organisms >1 mm) was studied using a taxonomical and a functional approach. The study was ...carried out in a Mediterranean salt marsh. Monthly samples of macrobenthic fauna were collected during two consecutive hydroperiods from six ponds with different water permanence (temporary, semi-permanent and permanent waters). Organisms were assigned to five functional response groups based on life-strategies according to their capacity to survive desiccation events, their dispersion capability and the necessity of water for their reproduction. Results from both approaches showed that the benthic community was more related to pond type than to intra- and inter-annual variability. The second aim was to analyse to which extent patterns in functional groups were determined by the existence of succession patterns or to environmental variability. In this sense, a clear succession pattern was not observed. In contrast, in most of the functional groups (4 out of 5), species within each functional group showed similar responses to water fluctuations. However, species of the fifth functional group, which comprised species without any particular adaptation to desiccation survival or avoidance, showed different responses to water level fluctuations.
Abstract
The CUPID-Mo experiment to search for 0
$$\nu \beta \beta $$
ν
β
β
decay in
$$^{100}$$
100
Mo has been recently completed after about 1.5 years of operation at Laboratoire Souterrain de ...Modane (France). It served as a demonstrator for CUPID, a next generation 0
$$\nu \beta \beta $$
ν
β
β
decay experiment. CUPID-Mo was comprised of 20 enriched
$$\hbox {Li}_{{2}}$$
Li
2
$$^{100}$$
100
$$\hbox {MoO}_4$$
MoO
4
scintillating calorimeters, each with a mass of
$$\sim 0.2$$
∼
0.2
kg, operated at
$$\sim 20$$
∼
20
mK. We present here the final analysis with the full exposure of CUPID-Mo (
$$^{100}$$
100
Mo exposure of 1.47
$$\hbox {kg} \times \hbox {year}$$
kg
×
year
) used to search for lepton number violation via 0
$$\nu \beta \beta $$
ν
β
β
decay. We report on various analysis improvements since the previous result on a subset of data, reprocessing all data with these new techniques. We observe zero events in the region of interest and set a new limit on the
$$^{100}$$
100
Mo 0
$$\nu \beta \beta $$
ν
β
β
decay half-life of
$$T_{1/2}^{0\nu }$$
T
1
/
2
0
ν
$$> {1.8}\times 10^{24}$$
>
1.8
×
10
24
year (stat. + syst.) at 90% CI. Under the light Majorana neutrino exchange mechanism this corresponds to an effective Majorana neutrino mass of
$$\left<m_{\beta \beta }\right>$$
m
β
β
$$<~{(0.28{-}0.49)} $$
<
(
0.28
-
0.49
)
eV, dependent upon the nuclear matrix element utilized.
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