Variation in the degree of synchrony among host plants and herbivores can disrupt or intensify species interactions, alter the strength of natural selection on traits associated with phenological ...timing, and drive novel host plant associations. We used field observations from three regions during four seasons to examine how timing of the butterfly herbivore Anthocharis cardamines relative to six host plant species (Arabis hirsuta, Cardamine pratensis, Arabis glabra, Arabidopsis thaliana, Thlaspi caerulescens and Capsella bursa‐pastoris) influenced host species use and the choice of host plant individuals within populations. Butterflies laid a larger fraction of their eggs on species that were closer to the butterfly's preferred stage of development than on other host species. Within host plant populations, butterflies showed a stronger preference for individuals with a late phenology when plants within the population were on average more developed at the time of butterfly flight. Our results suggest that changes in synchrony between herbivores and their host plants are associated with changes in both host species use and the choice of host plant individuals differing in phenology within populations. This is likely to be an important mechanism generating variation in interaction intensities and trait selection in the wild, and therefore also relevant for understanding how anthropogenic induced changes, such as global warming, will influence natural communities.
Wind is a physical phenomenon with uncertainties in several temporal scales, in addition, measured wind time series have noise superimposed on them. These time series are the basis for forecasting ...methods. This paper studied the application of the wavelet transform to three forecasting methods, namely, stochastic, neural network, and fuzzy, and six wavelet families. Wind speed time series were first filtered to eliminate the high-frequency component using wavelet filters and then the different forecasting methods were applied to the filtered time series. All methods showed important improvements when the wavelet filter was applied. It is important to note that the application of the wavelet technique requires a deep study of the time series in order to select the appropriate family and filter level. The best results were obtained with an optimal filtering level and improper selection may significantly affect the accuracy of the results.
The impacts on the morphological, electrical and hardness properties of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) plates using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as reinforcing fillers have been ...investigated, using MWCNT loadings between 1 and 7 wt%. Plates of the TPU/MWCNT nanocomposites were fabricated by compression molding from extruded pellets. An X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the incorporation of MWCNTs into the TPU polymer matrix increases the ordered range of the soft and hard segments. SEM images revealed that the fabrication route used here helped to obtain TPU/MWCNT nanocomposites with a uniform dispersion of the nanotubes inside the TPU matrix and promoted the creation of a conductive network that favors the electronic conduction of the composite. The potential of the impedance spectroscopy technique has been used to determine that the TPU/MWCNT plates exhibited two conduction mechanisms, percolation and tunneling conduction of electrons, and their conductivity values increase as the MWCNT loading increases. Finally, although the fabrication route induced a hardness reduction with respect to the pure TPU, the addition of MWCNT increased the Shore A hardness behavior of the TPU plates.
This work describes a new way to solve the optimal power flow problem applying typed graph neural networks. Typed graph neural networks allow the representation of different elements of transmission ...systems with different types of nodes, thus adding accuracy and interpretability to the solutions obtained, in comparison to results obtained with conventional feed-forward neural network models. The proposed graph neural network architecture is trained without the need of training data, through a physics informed loss function which incorporates not only the optimization objective, but also operational constraints of the physical system. Results are comparable with those obtained with the interior point method, and it is shown that the calculation time is greatly reduced.
The impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection on the survival of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related end-stage liver disease (ESLD) is unknown. Because HIV infection is no ...longer considered an absolute contraindication for liver transplantation in some countries, it has become a priority to address this topic. The objective of this study was to compare the survival of HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients with decompensated cirrhosis due to HCV. In a retrospective cohort study, the survival of 1,037 HCV monoinfected and 180 HCV/HIV-coinfected patients with cirrhosis after the first hepatic decompensation was analyzed. Of the group, 386 (37%) HCV-monoinfected and 100 (56%) HCV/HIV-coinfected subjects died during the follow-up. The median survival time of HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients was 16 and 48 months, respectively (P < .001). The relative risk (95% CI) of death for HIV-infected patients was 2.26 (1.51-3.38). Other independent predictors of survival were age older than 63 years (2.25 1.53-3.31); Child-Turcotte-Pugh class B versus class A (1.95 1.41-2.68) and class C versus class A (2.78 1.66-4.70); hepatitis D virus infection (1.56 1.12-4.77); model for end-stage liver disease score, (1.05 1.01-1-11); more than one simultaneous decompensation (1.23 1.12-3.33); and the type of the first hepatic decompensation, with a poorer prognosis associated with encephalopathy compared with portal hypertensive gastrointestinal bleeding (2.03 1.26-3.10). In conclusion, HIV coinfection reduces considerably the survival of patients with HCV-related ESLD independently of other markers of poor prognosis. This fact must be taken into account to establish the adequate timing of liver transplantation in HIV-coinfected subjects.
Seasonal fluctuations in day length regulate important aspects of plant development such as the flowering transition or, in potato (Solanum tuberosum), the formation of tubers. Day length is sensed ...by the leaves, which produce a mobile signal transported to the shoot apex or underground stems to induce a flowering transition or, respectively, a tuberization transition. Work in Arabidopsis, tomato and rice (Oryza sativa) identified the mobile FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) protein as a main component of the long-range 'florigen', or flowering hormone, signal. Here we show that expression of the Hd3a gene, the FT orthologue in rice, induces strict short-day potato types to tuberize in long days. Tuber induction is graft transmissible and the Hd3a-GFP protein is detected in the stolons of grafted plants, transport of the fusion protein thus correlating with tuber formation. We provide evidence showing that the potato floral and tuberization transitions are controlled by two different FT-like paralogues (StSP3D and StSP6A) that respond to independent environmental cues, and show that an autorelay mechanism involving CONSTANS modulates expression of the tuberization-control StSP6A gene.
Hepatic encephalopathy is a major complication of cirrhosis and is associated with a poor prognosis.
To identify mutations in the gene sequence for glutaminase in humans that could be responsible for ...the development of hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis.
Cohort study.
Outpatient clinics in 6 Spanish hospitals.
109 consecutive patients with cirrhosis in the estimation cohort, 177 patients in the validation cohort, and 107 healthy control participants.
Patients were followed every 3 or 6 months until the development of hepatic encephalopathy or liver transplantation, death, or the end of the study.
The genetic analyses showed that glutaminase TACC and CACC haplotypes were linked to the risk for overt hepatic encephalopathy. Mutation scanning of the glutaminase gene identified a section in the promoter region where base pairs were repeated (a microsatellite). Over a mean follow-up of 29.6 months, hepatic encephalopathy occurred in 28 patients (25.7%) in the estimation cohort. Multivariable Cox models were used to determine the following independent predictors: Child-Turcotte-Pugh stage (hazard ratio HR, 1.6 95% CI, 1.29 to 1.98; P = 0.001), minimal hepatic encephalopathy (HR, 3.17 CI, 1.42 to 7.09; P = 0.006), and having 2 long alleles of the microsatellite (HR, 3.12 CI, 1.39 to 7.02; P = 0.006). The association between 2 long alleles of the microsatellite and overt hepatic encephalopathy was confirmed in a validation cohort (HR, 2.1 CI, 1.17 to 3.79; P = 0.012). Functional studies showed higher luciferase activity in cells transfected with the long form of the microsatellite, which suggests that the long microsatellite enhances glutaminase transcriptional activity.
Other genes and allelic variants might be involved in the clinical expression of hepatic encephalopathy.
This study identifies a genetic factor that is associated with development of hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis.
Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Health.
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•In vitro gastrointestinal digestion of maqui berry was analysed.•Polyphenolic compounds were sustained released from maqui berry.•Flavonoids bioaccessibility was lower than phenolic ...compounds.•Maqui berry showed antioxidant activity in each phase of gastrointestinal digestion.•The antioxidant activity could be attributed to anthocyanin contents.
Maqui berry (Aristotelia chilensis (Molina) Stuntz) has demonstrated a great potential as functional ingredient. However, determining the effect to which the maqui extract or its phytochemicals will benefit the consumers requires further knowledge. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine the effect of in vitro gastrointestinal digestion (GID) on (i) the recovery and bioaccessibility indexes, (ii) the stability of polyphenolic compounds (phenolic acids, flavonoids and anthocyanins) and (iii) the changes in antioxidant activity of maqui berry grown in Chile. The extracts obtained in each phase (oral, gastric and intestinal) of GID were used to analyse the stability of polyphenolic compounds by means of HPLC whereas the antioxidant activity was determined using four different methodologies.
All polyphenolic compounds decreased their concentration after GID and principally the anthocyanins content which was severely affected. The GID process decreased the scavenging properties in 89.9% and 84.2% with DPPH and ABTS assays, respectively, as well as the reducing power 74.1% with respect to non-digested sample. On the other hand, the chelating activity was increased (126.8%). At the end of GID process, the bioaccessibility of phenolic and flavonoid compounds was 78.19 and 14.20%, respectively. The results obtained suggest that although a great amount of maqui berry polyphenolic compounds are lost during digestion process they still have a great potential as antioxidants agents.
Inhibitory regulation of the heart is determined by both cholinergic M2 receptors (M2R) and adenosine A1 receptors (A1R) that activate the same signaling pathway, the ACh-gated inward rectifier K+ ...(KACh) channels via Gi/o proteins. Previously, we have shown that the agonist-specific voltage sensitivity of M2R underlies several voltage-dependent features of IKACh, including the 'relaxation' property, which is characterized by a gradual increase or decrease of the current when cardiomyocytes are stepped to hyperpolarized or depolarized voltages, respectively. However, it is unknown whether membrane potential also affects A1R and how this could impact IKACh. Upon recording whole-cell currents of guinea-pig cardiomyocytes, we found that stimulation of the A1R-Gi/o-IKACh pathway with adenosine only caused a very slight voltage dependence in concentration-response relationships (~1.2-fold EC50 increase with depolarization) that was not manifested in the relative affinity, as estimated by the current deactivation kinetics (τ = 4074 ± 214 ms at -100 mV and τ = 4331 ± 341 ms at +30 mV; P = 0.31). Moreover, IKACh did not exhibit relaxation. Contrarily, activation of the M2R-Gi/o-IKACh pathway with acetylcholine induced the typical relaxation of the current, which correlated with the clear voltage-dependent effect observed in the concentration-response curves (~2.8-fold EC50 increase with depolarization) and in the IKACh deactivation kinetics (τ = 1762 ± 119 ms at -100 mV and τ = 1503 ± 160 ms at +30 mV; P = 0.01). Our findings further substantiate the hypothesis of the agonist-specific voltage dependence of GPCRs and that the IKACh relaxation is consequence of this property.
This paper presents the results from the application of a serious game called Stigma-Stop among a group of high school students with the aim of reducing the stigma toward mental illnesses. The video ...game features characters with various mental disorders (schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and panic disorder with agoraphobia) and provides information about these problems. Additionally, the game asks players about whether they have ever felt the same as the characters, if they believe the characters are psychologically well, and if they think they could help these individuals. Similarly, a variety of reactions are provided for players to choose from when they encounter the characters with these problems. A total of 552 students between the ages of 14 and 18 participated in the study, and they were randomly assigned to either the experimental group, which used Stigma-Stop, or the control group, which utilized a video game completely unrelated to mental health. Both video games were used for similar lengths of time. Following the application of Stigma-Stop, a statistically significant decrease was obtained in levels of stigma toward schizophrenia, both in terms of stereotypes and, to a greater extent, its potential dangerousness. However, this was not the case in the control group. Results thus demonstrate the video game's usefulness toward eradicating erroneous notions about serious mental disorders like schizophrenia.
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