The genus Phytophthora includes some of the most destructive plant pathogens affecting agricultural and native ecosystems and is responsible for a number of recent emerging and re-emerging infectious ...diseases of plants. Sudden oak death, caused by the exotic pathogen P. ramorum, has caused extensive mortality of oaks and tanoaks in Northern California, and has brought economic losses to US and European nurseries as well due to its infection of common ornamental plants. In its known range, P. ramorum occurs as three distinct clonal lineages. We inferred the evolutionary history of P. ramorum from nuclear sequence data using coalescent-based approaches. We found that the three lineages have been diverging for at least 11% of their history, an evolutionarily significant amount of time estimated to be on the order of 165 000 to 500 000 years. There was also strong evidence for historical recombination between the lineages, indicating that the ancestors of the P. ramorum lineages were members of a sexually reproducing population. Due to this recombination, the ages of the lineages varied within and between loci, but coalescent analyses suggested that the European lineage may be older than the North American lineages. The divergence of the three clonal lineages of P. ramorum supports a scenario in which the three lineages originated from different geographic locations that were sufficiently isolated from each other to allow independent evolution prior to introduction to North America and Europe. It is thus probable that the emergence of P. ramorum in North America and Europe was the result of three independent migration events.
Consider the set of all sequences of n outcomes, each taking one of m values, whose frequency vectors satisfy a set of linear constraints. If m is fixed while n increases, most sequences that satisfy ...the constraints result in frequency vectors whose entropy approaches that of the maximum entropy vector satisfying the constraints. This well-known entropy concentration phenomenon underlies the maximum entropy method. Existing proofs of the concentration phenomenon are based on limits or asymptotics and unrealistically assume that constraints hold precisely, supporting maximum entropy inference more in principle than in practice. We present, for the first time, non-asymptotic, explicit lower bounds on n for a number of variants of the concentration result to hold to any prescribed accuracies, with the constraints holding up to any specified tolerance, considering the fact that allocations of discrete units can satisfy constraints only approximately. Again unlike earlier results, we measure concentration not by deviation from the maximum entropy value, but by the 11 and 12 distances from the maximum entropy-achieving frequency vector. One of our results holds independently of the alphabet size m and is based on a novel proof technique using the multi-dimensional Berry-Esseen theorem. We illustrate and compare our results using various detailed examples.
The G protein-coupled receptor APJ is a promising therapeutic target for heart failure. Constitutive deletion of APJ in the mouse is protective against the hypertrophy-heart failure transition via ...elimination of ligand-independent, β-arrestin-dependent stretch transduction. However, the cellular origin of this stretch transduction and the details of its interaction with apelin signaling remain unknown. We generated mice with conditional elimination of APJ in the endothelium (APJ
) and myocardium (APJ
). No baseline difference was observed in left ventricular function in APJ
, APJ
, or control (APJ
, APJ
) mice. After exposure to transaortic constriction, APJ
mice displayed decreased left ventricular systolic function and increased wall thickness, whereas APJ
mice were protected. At the cellular level, carbon fiber stretch of freshly isolated single cardiomyocytes demonstrated decreased contractile responses to stretch in APJ
cardiomyocytes compared with APJ
cardiomyocytes. Ca
transients did not change with stretch in either APJ
or APJ
cardiomyocytes. Application of apelin to APJ
cardiomyocytes resulted in decreased Ca
transients. Furthermore, hearts of mice treated with apelin exhibited decreased phosphorylation in cardiac troponin I NH
-terminal residues (Ser
and Ser
) consistent with increased Ca
sensitivity. These data establish that APJ stretch transduction is mediated specifically by myocardial APJ, that APJ is necessary for stretch-induced increases in contractility, and that apelin opposes APJ's stretch-mediated hypertrophy signaling by lowering Ca
transients while maintaining contractility through myofilament Ca
sensitization. These findings underscore apelin's unique potential as a therapeutic agent that can simultaneously support cardiac function and protect against the hypertrophy-heart failure transition. NEW & NOTEWORTHY These data address fundamental gaps in our understanding of apelin-APJ signaling in heart failure by localizing APJ's ligand-independent stretch sensing to the myocardium, identifying a novel mechanism of apelin-APJ inotropy via myofilament Ca
sensitization, and identifying potential mitigating effects of apelin in APJ stretch-induced hypertrophic signaling.
Optical genome mapping in nanochannels is a powerful genetic analysis method, complementary to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing. The method is based on detecting a pattern of fluorescent labels ...attached along individual DNA molecules. When such molecules are extended in nanochannels, the labels create a fluorescent genetic barcode that is used for mapping the DNA molecule to its genomic locus and identifying large-scale variation from the genome reference. Mapping resolution is currently limited by two main factors: the optical diffraction limit and the thermal fluctuations of DNA molecules suspended in the nanochannels. Here, we utilize single-molecule tracking and super-resolution localization in order to improve the mapping accuracy and resolving power of this genome mapping technique and achieve a 15-fold increase in resolving power compared to currently practiced methods. We took advantage of a naturally occurring genetic repeat array and labeled each repeat with custom-designed Trolox conjugated fluorophores for enhanced photostability. This model system allowed us to acquire extremely long image sequences of the equally spaced fluorescent markers along DNA molecules, enabling detailed characterization of nanoconfined DNA dynamics and quantitative comparison to the Odijk theory for confined polymer chains. We present a simple method to overcome the thermal fluctuations in the nanochannels and exploit single-step photobleaching to resolve subdiffraction spaced fluorescent markers along fluctuating DNA molecules with ∼100 bp resolution. In addition, we show how time-averaging over just ∼50 frames of 40 ms enhances mapping accuracy, improves mapping P-value scores by 3 orders of magnitude compared to nonaveraged alignment, and provides a significant advantage for analyzing structural variations between DNA molecules with similar sequence composition.
Stroke, a vascular disease of the brain, is the #1 cause of disability and a major cause of death worldwide. Stroke has a major negative impact on the life of stroke-affected individuals, their ...families and the society. A significant proportion of stroke victims indicate that would have preferred death over their after-stroke quality of life. Mechanical thrombectomy (MT), opening the occluded artery using mechanical aspiration or a thrombus-entrapment device, is a guideline-mandated (class I, level of evidence A) treatment modality in patients with large vessel occlusion stroke. MT clinical benefit magnitude indicates that a universal access to this treatment strategy should be the standard of care. Today there is a substantial geographic variation in MT deliverability, with large-scale disparities in MT implementation. In many countries effective access to MT remains severely limited. In addition, many of the MT-treated patients are treated too late for a good functional outcome because of logistic delays that include transportations to remotely located, scarce, comprehensive stroke centres. Position Paper from the European Society of Cardiology Council on Stroke and European Association for Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions on interdisciplinary management of acute ischaemic stroke, developed with the support of the European Board of Neurointervention fills an important gap in systematically enabling interventional cardiologists to support stroke intervention in the geographic areas of unmet needs in particular. We review strengths and weaknesses of the document, and suggest directions for the next steps that are swiftly needed to deliver MT to stroke patients more effectively.
This study sought to determine whether the likelihood of receiving primary intensive care unit (ICU) care by a cardiologist versus a noncardiologist was greater for Caucasians than for African ...Americans admitted to an ICU for heart failure (HF). The authors further evaluated whether primary ICU care by a cardiologist is associated with higher in-hospital survival, irrespective of race.
Increasing data demonstrate an association between better HF outcomes and care by a cardiologist. It is unclear if previously noted racial differences in cardiology care persist in an ICU setting.
Using the Premier database, adult patients admitted to an ICU with a primary discharge diagnosis of HF from 2010 to 2014 were included. Hierarchical logistic regression models were used to determine the association between race and primary ICU care by a cardiologist, adjusting for patient and hospital variables. Cox regression with inverse probability weighting was used to assess the association between cardiology care and in-hospital mortality.
Among 104,835 patients (80.3% Caucasians, 19.7% African Americans), Caucasians had higher odds of care by a cardiologist than African Americans (adjusted odds ratio: 1.42; 95% confidence interval: 1.34 to 1.51). Compared with a noncardiologist, primary ICU care by a cardiologist was associated with higher in-hospital survival (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.20, 95% confidence interval: 1.11 to 1.28). The higher likelihood of survival did not differ by patient race (interaction p = 0.32).
Among patients admitted to an ICU for HF, African Americans were less likely than Caucasians to receive primary care by a cardiologist. Primary care by a cardiologist was associated with higher survival for both Caucasians and African Americans.
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The SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey Merloni, A.; Ramos-Ceja, M. E.; Brunner, H. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
02/2024, Volume:
682
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The eROSITA telescope array aboard the Spektrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) satellite began surveying the sky in December 2019, with the aim of producing all-sky X-ray source lists and sky maps of an ...unprecedented depth. Here we present catalogues of both point-like and extended sources using the data acquired in the first six months of survey operations (eRASS1; completed June 2020) over the half sky whose proprietary data rights lie with the German eROSITA Consortium. We describe the observation process, the data analysis pipelines, and the characteristics of the X-ray sources. With nearly 930 000 entries detected in the most sensitive 0.2–2.3 keV energy range, the eRASS1 main catalogue presented here increases the number of known X-ray sources in the published literature by more than 60%, and provides a comprehensive inventory of all classes of X-ray celestial objects, covering a wide range of physical processes. A smaller catalogue of 5466 sources detected in the less sensitive but harder 2.3–5 keV band is the result of the first true imaging survey of the entire sky above 2 keV. We present methods to identify and flag potential spurious sources in the catalogues, which we applied for this work, and we tested and validated the astrometric accuracy via cross-comparison with other X-ray and multi-wavelength catalogues. We show that the number counts of X-ray sources in eRASSl are consistent with those derived over narrower fields by past X-ray surveys of a similar depth, and we explore the number counts variation as a function of the location in the sky. Adopting a uniform all-sky flux limit (at 50% completeness) of
F
05–2 keV
> 5 × 10
−14
erg s
−1
cm
−2
, we estimate that the eROSITA all-sky survey resolves into individual sources about 20% of the cosmic X-ray background in the 1–2 keV range. The catalogues presented here form part of the first data release (DR1) of the SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey. Beyond the X-ray catalogues, DR1 contains all detected and calibrated event files, source products (light curves and spectra), and all-sky maps. Illustrative examples of these are provided.
Accurate assessment of soil carbon fractions would provide valuable contributions towards monitoring in ecological observatories, assessment of disturbance impacts, global climate and land use ...change. The majority of chemometric modelling studies have focused on measuring only total soil carbon (C), with only a few evaluating individual soil C pools. Analysis of pools allows for a more detailed picture of ecosystem processes, specifically decomposition and accretion of C in soils. This study evaluated the potential of the visible near infrared (VNIR), mid infrared (MIR) and a combined VNIR–MIR spectral region to estimate and predict soil C fractions. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) and random forest (RF) ensemble tree regression models were used to estimate four different soil C fractions. The soil C fractions analysed included total — (TC), organic — (SOC), recalcitrant — (RC) and hydrolysable carbon (HC). The sample set contained 1014 soil samples collected across the state of Florida, USA. Laboratory analysis revealed the wide range of total and organic C values, from 1 to 523g·kg−1, with only about 10% of the samples containing inorganic C which was therefore omitted from the study. Both PLSR and RF modelling were shown to be effective in modelling all soil C fractions, with as much as 94–96% of the variation in the TC, SOC and RC pools, and 86% of HC being explained by the models. Although both PLSR and RF models were successful in modelling C fractions, RF models appear to target the physical properties linked to the property being analysed, and may therefore be the better modelling method to use when generalising to new areas. This study demonstrates that diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is an effective method for non-destructive analysis of soil C fractions, and through the use of RF modelling a spectral range between 2000 and 6000nm should suffice to model these soil C fractions.
•We model soil carbon fractions successfully.•Mid-infrared has better predictive capabilities than visible-near-infrared.•The spectral region above 2000nm contributes most to carbon fraction models.•Random forest models have potential to generalise to new sites.
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