Photosystem II Repair Cycle in Faba Bean May Play a Role in Its Resistance to Botrytis fabae Infection

Chocolate spot, which is caused by the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis fabae, is a major foliar disease occurring worldwide and dramatically reducing crop yields in faba bean (Vicia faba). Although chemical control of this disease is an option, it has serious economic and environmental drawbacks that make resistant cultivars a more sensible choice. The molecular mechanisms behind the defense against B. fabae are poorly understood. In this work, we studied the leave proteome in two faba bean genotypes that respond differently to B. fabae in order to expand the available knowledge on such mechanisms. For this purpose, we used two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) in combination with Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI-TOF/TOF). Univariate statistical analysis of the gels revealed 194 differential protein spots, 102 of which were identified by mass spectrometry. Most of the spots belonged to proteins in the energy and primary metabolism, degradation, redox or response to stress functional groups. The MS results were validated with assays of protease activity in gels. Overall, they suggest that the two genotypes may respond to B. fabae with a different PSII protein repair cycle mechanism in the chloroplast. The differences in resistance to B. fabae may be the result of a metabolic imbalance in the susceptible genotype and of a more efficient chloroplast detoxification system in the resistant genotype at the early stages of infection

Effect of zinc intake on growth in infants: A meta-analysis

A systematic review and meta-analysis of available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to evaluate the effect of zinc (Zn) intake on growth in infants. Out of 5500 studies identified through electronic searches and reference lists, 19 RCTs were selected after applying the exclusion/inclusion criteria. The influence of Zn intake on growth was considered in the overall meta-analysis. Other variables were also taken into account as possible effect modifiers: doses of Zn intake, intervention duration, nutritional status, and risk of bias. From each select growth study, final measures of weight, length, mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), head circumference, weight for age z-score (WAZ), length for age z-score (LAZ), and weight for length z-score (WLZ) were assessed. Pooled β and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Additionally, we carried out a sensitivity analysis. Zn intake was not associated with weight, length, MUAC, head circumference, and LAZ in the pooled analyses. However, Zn intake had a positive and statistically effect on WAZ (β = 0.06; 95%CI 0.02 to 0.10) and WLZ (β = 0.05; 95%CI 0.01 to 0.08). The dose–response relationship between Zn intake and these parameters indicated that a doubling of Zn intake increased WAZ and WLZ by approximately 4%. Substantial heterogeneity was present only in length analyses (I2 = 45%; p = 0.03). Zn intake was positively associated with length values at short time (four to 20 weeks) (β = 0.01; CI 95% 0 to 0.02) and at medium doses of Zn (4.1 to 8 mg/day) (β = 0.003; CI 95% 0 to 0.01). Nevertheless, the effect magnitude was small. Our results indicate that Zn intake increases growth parameters of infants. Nonetheless, interpretation of these results should be carefully considered

Fracture toughness and temperature dependence of Young's modulus of a sintered albite glass

Albite glass is an important component in many ceramic compositions, often used as liquid phase during the sintering process. Nevertheless, in spite of its almost ubiquous presence in the final microstructure of these compositions, some properties such as Young's modulus or fracture toughness have not been extensively studied in literature. This paper presents an experimental study on a sintered albite glass obtained from sodium feldspar powder. The microstructure of the resultant amorphous solid was analyzed via scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Fracture toughness was determined at room temperature from the critical stress intensity factor (KIC) with a three point bending single-edge notched test (SENB). Young's modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) were measured as a function of the temperature. A value of CTE of 6.6 × 10− 6 °C− 1 within the temperature range 300–500 °C was found. Young's modulus values of the albite glass were within the range from 63.6 to 65.2 MPa. SENB tests revealed a fracture toughness of KIC = 0.78 ± 0.06 MPa m1/2, which is of similar value to those found for borosilicate and soda-lime glasses

Relationship between Young's modulus and temperature in porcelain tiles

A focused research was conducted on samples prepared from an industrial porcelain tile composition containing quartz, used to produce ceramic floor tiles, with the aim of evaluating the variation of fired specimens’ Young's modulus with temperature. These samples were fired in controlled laboratory conditions so that specimens with pre-existing cracks were obtained and subject to non-destructive in situ thermo-mechanical measurements (impulse excitation technique) in the 22–700 °C temperature range during heating and cooling processes in order to find evidences to explain the hysteresis phenomenon in the Young's modulus versus temperature curve. The observed irreversible Young's modulus may be directly related to the pre-existent cracks that on heating and cooling are closed and opened up respectively, changing thus the Young's modulus which is well characterized by a hysteresis cycle

Characterization of Gelidium corneum's (Florideophyceae, Rhodophyta) vegetative propagation process under increasing levels of temperature and irradiance

Climate change is affecting Gelidium corneum (Hudson) J.V. Lamouroux fields in the Bay of Biscay by reducing its cover and biomass. Understanding those changes requires a good characterization of the responses of this species to different stressors, particularly the effects on key processes such as the vegetative propagation. Here, we aimed to characterize the interactive effect of temperature (15, 20 and 25◦C) and irradiance (5-10, 55-60 and 95-100 μmol*m2*s- 1) on two phases of the vegetative propagation process: the re-attachment capacity and the survival of re-attached fragments. The study findings revealed significant effects of both temperature and irradiance in the re-attachment capacity of the species, with higher rates of attachment registered at 20 ◦C and 5-10 μmol*m- 2*s-1 after 10, 20 and 30 days of culture. However, the interaction effects were not significant at any time interval. At higher or lower temperatures and increasing irradiances, the attachment capacity was reduced. On the other hand, irradiance was demonstrated to be the main factor controlling the survival of rhizoids. In fact, higher levels of irradiance generated severe damage on rhizoids, and thus, conditioned the development of new plants. According to this, it seems clear that the vegetative propagation process of this species is expected to become more vulnerable as both variables are expected to rise due to climate change. An increased vulnerability of this species may have several implications from an ecological and economic perspective, so we encourage to continue exploring the factors and processes controlling its distribution in order to adopt better management actions in the future.This work was funded by the National Plan for Research in Science and Technological Innovation from the Spanish Government 2017–2020 [grant number C3N-pro project PID2019-105503RB-I00] and co-funded by the European Regional Development’s funds. Samuel Sainz-Villegas and Begoña Sánchez-Astráin acknowledge the financial support received under predoctoral grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities [grant numbers: FPU18/03573 and PRE2020-096255, respectively]. This work is part of the PhD project of Samuel Sainz-Villegas

Urohidrosis as an overlooked cooling mechanism in long-legged birds

Behavioural thermoregulation could buffer the impacts of climate warming on vertebrates. Specifically, the wetting of body surfaces and the resulting evaporation of body fluids serves as a cooling mechanism in a number of vertebrates coping with heat. Storks (Ciconiidae) frequently excrete onto their legs to prevent overheating, a phenomenon known as urohidrosis. Despite the increasingly recognised role of bare and highly vascularised body parts in heat exchange, the ecological and evolutionary determinants of urohidrosis have been largely ignored. We combine urohidrosis data from a scientifically curated media repository with microclimate and ecological data to investigate the determinants of urohidrosis in all extant stork species. Our phylogenetic generalised linear mixed models show that high temperature, humidity and solar radiation, and low wind speed, promote the use of urohidrosis across species. Moreover, species that typically forage in open landscapes exhibit a more pronounced use of urohidrosis than those mainly foraging in waterbodies. Substantial interspecific variation in temperature thresholds for urohidrosis prevalence points to different species vulnerabilities to high temperatures. This integrated approach that uses online data sources and methods to model microclimates should provide insight into animal thermoregulation and improve our capacity to make accurate predictions of climate change’s impact on biodiversityinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On the Derivational Entropy of Left-to-Right Probabilistic Finite-State Automata and Hidden Markov Models

[EN] Probabilistic finite-state automata are a formalism that is widely used in many problems of automatic speech recognition and natural language processing. Probabilistic finite-state automata are closely related to other finite-state models as weighted finite-state automata, word lattices, and hidden Markov models. Therefore, they share many similar properties and problems. Entropy measures of finite-state models have been investigated in the past in order to study the information capacity of these models. The derivational entropy quantifies the uncertainty that the model has about the probability distribution it represents. The derivational entropy in a finite-state automaton is computed from the probability that is accumulated in all of its individual state sequences. The computation of the entropy from a weighted finite-state automaton requires a normalized model. This article studies an efficient computation of the derivational entropy of left-to-right probabilistic finite-state automata, and it introduces an efficient algorithm for normalizing weighted finite-state automata. The efficient computation of the derivational entropy is also extended to continuous hidden Markov models.This work has been partially supported through the European Union's H2020 grant READ (Recognition and Enrichment of Archival Documents) (Ref: 674943) and the MINECO/FEDER-UE project TIN2015-70924-C2-1-R. The second author was supported by the "Division de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigacion" of Instituto Tecnologico de Leon.Sánchez Peiró, JA.; Rocha, MA.; Romero, V.; Villegas, M. (2018). On the Derivational Entropy of Left-to-Right Probabilistic Finite-State Automata and Hidden Markov Models. Computational Linguistics. 44(1):17-37. https://doi.org/10.1162/COLI_a_00306S1737441Abney, S., McAllester, D., & Pereira, F. (1999). 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Health status and productivity of sheep fed coffee pulp during fattening

The objective of this study was to evaluate the productivity and health of fattening lambs fed different levels of coffee pulp in their diets. Thirty-five crossbred lambs with an average weight of 21.8 kg were fed isoproteic and isoenergetic diets with different percentages of coffee pulp (T0: control; T1: 7%; T2: 14%, T3: 21% and T4: 28%), the base diet was formulated with corn, soybean meal, alfalfa stubble, molasses, urea and mineral salt. The fattening period was 98 days. Productivity was measured by weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion. At the beginning and end of the study, blood samples were taken to determine the health status using a biochemical profile and blood count. Analysis of variance was performed using the initial weight as the covariate for the productive variables and the initial values of the analytes in the blood chemistry and hematological analysis tests. The coffee pulp did not affect productivity, although the amount of neutrophils decreased (P<0.05) as the coffee pulp in the diet increased. In all treatments, urea exceeded the reference values, whereas creatinine was below the reference values. We concluded that the inclusion of up to 28% coffee pulp in the diet did not affect the productive parameters, decreases the neutrophil count without affect health status of lambs during fattening

Correction: Healthy dietary indices and risk of depressive outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Correction to: Molecular Psychiatry; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0237-8; published online 26 September 2018