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 ...
The New England journal of medicine,
11/2018, Volume:
379, Issue:
21
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Peanut allergy, for which there are no approved treatment options, affects patients who are at risk for unpredictable and occasionally life-threatening allergic reactions.
In a phase 3 trial, we ...screened participants 4 to 55 years of age with peanut allergy for allergic dose-limiting symptoms at a challenge dose of 100 mg or less of peanut protein (approximately one third of a peanut kernel) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge. Participants with an allergic response were randomly assigned, in a 3:1 ratio, to receive AR101 (a peanut-derived investigational biologic oral immunotherapy drug) or placebo in an escalating-dose program. Participants who completed the regimen (i.e., received 300 mg per day of the maintenance regimen for approximately 24 weeks) underwent a double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge at trial exit. The primary efficacy end point was the proportion of participants 4 to 17 years of age who could ingest a challenge dose of 600 mg or more, without dose-limiting symptoms.
Of the 551 participants who received AR101 or placebo, 496 were 4 to 17 years of age; of these, 250 of 372 participants (67.2%) who received active treatment, as compared with 5 of 124 participants (4.0%) who received placebo, were able to ingest a dose of 600 mg or more of peanut protein, without dose-limiting symptoms, at the exit food challenge (difference, 63.2 percentage points; 95% confidence interval, 53.0 to 73.3; P<0.001). During the exit food challenge, the maximum severity of symptoms was moderate in 25% of the participants in the active-drug group and 59% of those in the placebo group and severe in 5% and 11%, respectively. Adverse events during the intervention period affected more than 95% of the participants 4 to 17 years of age. A total of 34.7% of the participants in the active-drug group had mild events, as compared with 50.0% of those in the placebo group; 59.7% and 44.4% of the participants, respectively, had events that were graded as moderate, and 4.3% and 0.8%, respectively, had events that were graded as severe. Efficacy was not shown in the participants 18 years of age or older.
In this phase 3 trial of oral immunotherapy in children and adolescents who were highly allergic to peanut, treatment with AR101 resulted in higher doses of peanut protein that could be ingested without dose-limiting symptoms and in lower symptom severity during peanut exposure at the exit food challenge than placebo. (Funded by Aimmune Therapeutics; PALISADE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02635776 .).
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.
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•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.
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