Seasonal cycle of precipitation variability in South America on intraseasonal timescales

The seasonal cycle of the intraseasonal (IS) variability of precipitation in South America is described through the analysis of bandpass filtered outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) anomalies. The analysis is discriminated between short (10--30 days) and long (30--90 days) intraseasonal timescales. The seasonal cycle of the 30--90-day IS variability can be well described by the activity of first leading pattern (EOF1) computed separately for the wet season (October--April) and the dry season (May--September). In agreement with previous works, the EOF1 spatial distribution during the wet season is that of a dipole with centers of actions in the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) and southeastern South America (SESA), while during the dry season, only the last center is discernible. In both seasons, the pattern is highly influenced by the activity of the Madden--Julian Oscillation (MJO). Moreover, EOF1 is related with a tropical zonal-wavenumber-1 structure superposed with coherent wave trains extended along the South Pacific during the wet season, while during the dry season the wavenumber-1 structure is not observed. The 10--30-day IS variability of OLR in South America can be well represented by the activity of the EOF1 computed through considering all seasons together, a dipole but with the stronger center located over SESA. While the convection activity at the tropical band does not seem to influence its activity, there are evidences that the atmospheric variability at subtropical-extratropical regions might have a role. Subpolar wavetrains are observed in the Pacific throughout the year and less intense during DJF, while a path of wave energy dispersion along a subtropical wavetrain also characterizes the other seasons. Further work is needed to identify the sources of the 10--30-day-IS variability in South America

Internal Regulation of Triglyceride Levels in the Liver Through Autophagy-induced Protein Manipulation

Overnutrition in modern society has created many pathological conditions that have personal and social consequences. Fatty liver is one of such conditions that used to be considered transient and benign but is now known to be the beginning stage of more severe liver diseases. Excess lipids due to overnutrition are usually manifested in the liver by the appearance of subcellular structures known as lipid droplets (LD). LD are composed of a monolayer of phospholipids wrapping around a neutral lipid core mostly comprised of triglyceride (TG). TG is classically known to be catabolized by lipolytic-enzymes, such as Triglyceride lipase (ATGL), Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL). This study describes a new mechanism of TG catabolism not by lipases but through cellular scavenger system – autophagy. Through experimentation, data suggests LD is not only composed of lipids but also proteins that potentially regulate LD formation and catabolism. Plin2, one of the lipid droplet proteins, suggests a pivotal role in the regulation of lipid levels in the liver via autophagy. Previous studies showed that in the absence of Plin2 the hepatic TG level reduced to only 50% of the control. Results from western blotting and imaging analysis has identified Plin2-deficiency in correlation to increased autophagy activity. The absence of Plin2 on the LD concomitantly caused the elevation of other proteins such as ABHD5, and Plin5 on lipid droplets. By analyzing the TG levels and autophagy flux in different knockout combinations of these LD proteins there can be a more versed understanding of how autophagy regulates TG catabolism in the liver

Expression of a barley cystatin gene in maize enhances resistance against phytophagous mites by altering their cysteine-proteases

Phytocystatins are inhibitors of cysteine-proteases from plants putatively involved in plant defence based on their capability of inhibit heterologous enzymes. We have previously characterised the whole cystatin gene family members from barley (HvCPI-1 to HvCPI-13). The aim of this study was to assess the effects of barley cystatins on two phytophagous spider mites, Tetranychus urticae and Brevipalpus chilensis. The determination of proteolytic activity profile in both mite species showed the presence of the cysteine-proteases, putative targets of cystatins, among other enzymatic activities. All barley cystatins, except HvCPI-1 and HvCPI-7, inhibited in vitro mite cathepsin L- and/or cathepsin B-like activities, HvCPI-6 being the strongest inhibitor for both mite species. Transgenic maize plants expressing HvCPI-6 protein were generated and the functional integrity of the cystatin transgene was confirmed by in vitro inhibitory effect observed against T. urticae and B. chilensis protein extracts. Feeding experiments impaired on transgenic lines performed with T. urticae impaired mite development and reproductive performance. Besides, a significant reduction of cathepsin L-like and/or cathepsin B-like activities was observed when the spider mite fed on maize plants expressing HvCPI-6 cystatin. These findings reveal the potential of barley cystatins as acaricide proteins to protect plants against two important mite pests

Ellipsoidal analysis of coordination polyhedra

The idea of the coordination polyhedron is essential to understanding chemical structure. Simple polyhedra in crystalline compounds are often deformed due to structural complexity or electronic instabilities so distortion analysis methods are useful. Here we demonstrate that analysis of the minimum bounding ellipsoid of a coordination polyhedron provides a general method for studying distortion, yielding parameters that are sensitive to various orders in metal oxide examples. Ellipsoidal analysis leads to discovery of a general switching of polyhedral distortions at symmetry-disallowed transitions in perovskites that may evidence underlying coordination bistability, and reveals a weak off-centre ‘d(5) effect' for Fe(3+) ions that could be exploited in multiferroics. Separating electronic distortions from intrinsic deformations within the low temperature superstructure of magnetite provides new insights into the charge and trimeron orders. Ellipsoidal analysis can be useful for exploring local structure in many materials such as coordination complexes and frameworks, organometallics and organic molecules

Scoping review of measures of treatment burden in patients with multimorbidity: advancements and current gaps

Objectives: To identify, assess, and summarize the measures to assess burden of treatment in patients with multimorbidity (BoT-MMs) and their measurement properties. Study Design and Setting: MEDLINE via PubMed was searched from inception until May 2021. Independent reviewers extracted data from studies in which BoT-MMs were developed, validated, or reported as used, including an assessment of their measurement properties (e.g., validity and reliability) using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments. Results: Eight BoT-MMs were identified across 72 studies. Most studies were performed in English (68%), in high-income countries (90%), without noting urban-rural settings (90%). No BoT-MMs had both sufficient content validity and internal consistency; some measurement properties were either insufficient or uncertain (e.g., responsiveness). Other frequent limitations of BoT-MMs included absent recall time, presence of floor effects, and unclear rationale for categorizing and interpreting raw scores. Conclusion: The evidence needed for use of extant BoT-MMs in patients with multimorbidity remains insufficiently developed, including that of suitability for their development, measurement properties, interpretability of scores, and use in low-resource settings. This review summarizes this evidence and identifies issues needing attention for using BoT-MMs in research and clinical practice

Nonlinear Supersymmetry as a Hidden Symmetry

Ver abstrac

Rhodococcus opacus B4: a promising bacterium for production of biofuels and biobased chemicals

Bacterial lipids have relevant applications in the production of renewable fuels and biobased oleochemicals. The genus Rhodococcus is one of the most relevant lipid producers due to its capability to accumulate those compounds, mainly triacylglycerols (TAG), when cultivated on different defined substrates, namely sugars, organic acids and hydrocarbons but also on complex carbon sources present in industrial wastes. In this work, the production of storage lipids by Rhodococcus opacus B4 using glucose, acetate and hexadecane is reported for the first time and its productivity compared with Rhodococcus opacus PD630, the best TAG producer bacterium reported. Both strains accumulated mainly TAG from all carbon sources, being influenced by the carbon source itself and by the duration of the accumulation period. R. opacus B4 produced 0.09 and 0.14 g L1 at 24 and 72 h, with hexadecane as carbon source, which was 2 and 3.3 fold higher than the volumetric production obtained by R. opacus PD630. Both strains presented similar fatty acids (FA) profiles in intact cells while in TAG produced fraction, R. opacus B4 revealed a higher variability in fatty acid composition than R. opacus PD630, when both strains were cultivated on hexadecane. The obtained results open new perspectives for the use of R. opacus B4 to produce TAG, in particular using oily (alkane-contaminated) waste and wastewater as cheap raw-materials. Combining TAG production with hydrocarbons degradation is a promising strategy to achieve environmental remediation while producing added value compounds.This work was financially supported by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) and European Social Fund (ESF, POPH-QREN) through the Grant given to A.R. Castro (SFRH/BD/64500/2009), the FCT Strategic Project of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462)

The a-theorem and conformal symmetry breaking in holographic RG flows

We study holographic models describing an RG flow between two fixed points driven by a relevant scalar operator. We show how to introduce a spurion field to restore Weyl invariance and compute the anomalous contribution to the generating functional in even dimensional theories. We find that the coefficient of the anomalous term is proportional to the difference of the conformal anomalies of the UV and IR fixed points, as expected from anomaly matching arguments in field theory. For any even dimensions the coefficient is positive as implied by the holographic a-theorem. For flows corresponding to spontaneous breaking of conformal invariance, we also compute the two-point functions of the energy-momentum tensor and the scalar operator and identify the dilaton mode. Surprisingly we find that in the simplest models with just one scalar field there is no dilaton pole in the two-point function of the scalar operator but a stronger singularity. We discuss the possible implications.Comment: 50 pages. v2: minor changes, added references, extended discussion. v3: we have clarified some of the calculations and assumptions, results unchanged. v4: published version in JHE