Dichromatic polynomials and Potts models summed over rooted maps

We consider the sum of dichromatic polynomials over non-separable rooted planar maps, an interesting special case of which is the enumeration of such maps. We present some known results and derive new ones. The general problem is equivalent to the $q$-state Potts model randomized over such maps. Like the regular ferromagnetic lattice models, it has a first-order transition when $q$ is greater than a critical value $q_c$, but $q_c$ is much larger - about 72 instead of 4.Comment: 29 pages, three figures changes in App D, introduction and acknowledgement

Biphasic in vitro maturation with C-type natriuretic peptide enhances the developmental competence of juvenile-goat oocytes

In vitro embryo production success in juvenile animals is compromised due to their intrinsic lower oocyte quality. Conventional in vitro maturation (IVM) impairs oocyte competence by inducing spontaneous meiotic resumption. A series of experiments were performed to determine if maintaining meiotic arrest during a pre-maturation culture phase (pre-IVM) prior to conventional IVM improves oocyte competence of juvenile-goat (2 months old) cumulusoocyte complexes (COCs). In experiment 1, COCs were cultured with C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP; 0, 50, 100, 200 nM) for 6 and 8 h. Nuclear stage was assessed, revealing no differences in the incidence of germinal vesicle (GV) breakdown. In experiment 2, the same CNP concentrations were assessed plus 10 nM estradiol, the known upstream agonist activating expression of NPR2, the exclusive receptor of CNP. CNP (200 nM) plus estradiol increased the rate of oocytes at GV stage at 6 h compared to control group (74.7% vs 28.3%; P<0.05) with predominantly condensed chromatin configuration. In experiment 3, relative mRNA quantification revealed NPR2 expression was down-regulated after pre-IVM (6 h). In experiment 4, analysis of transzonal projections indicated that pre-IVM maintained cumulus-oocyte communication after oocyte recovery. For experiments 5 and 6, biphasic IVM (6 h pre-IVM with CNP and estradiol, plus 24 h IVM) and control IVM (24 h) were compared. Biphasic IVM increased intra-oocyte glutathione and decreased ROS, up-regulated DNA-methyltransferase 1 and pentraxin 3 expression and led to an increase in rate of blastocyst development compared to control group (30.2% vs 17.2%; P<0.05). In conclusion, a biphasic IVM, including a pre-IVM with CNP, maintains oocyte meiotic arrest for 6 h and enhances the embryo developmental competence of oocytes from juvenile goats

Intrapericardial delivery of apa-microcapsules as promising stem cell therapy carriers in an experimental acute myocardial infarction model

The administration of cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is very promising. CDC encapsulation in alginate-poly-L-lysine-alginate (APA) could increase cell survival and adherence. The intrapericardial (IP) approach potentially achieves high concentrations of the therapeutic agent in the infarcted area. We aimed to evaluate IP therapy using a saline vehicle as a control (CON), a dose of 30 × 106 CDCs (CDCs) or APA microcapsules containing 30 × 106 CDCs (APA-CDCs) at 72 h in a porcine AMI model. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to determine the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), infarct size (IS), and indexed end diastolic and systolic volumes (EDVi; ESVi) pre-and 10 weeks post-injection. Programmed electrical stimulation (PES) was performed to test arrhythmia inducibility before euthanasia. Histopathological analysis was carried out afterwards. The IP infusion was successful in all animals. At 10 weeks, MRI revealed significantly higher LVEF in the APA-CDC group compared with CON. No significant differences were observed among groups in IS, EDVi, ESVi, PES and histopathological analyses. In conclusion, the IP injection of CDCs (microencapsulated or not) was feasible and safe 72 h post-AMI in the porcine model. Moreover, CDCs APA encapsulation could have a beneficial effect on cardiac function, reflected by a higher LVEF at 10 weeks. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Sensors based on polymer modified electrodes

This paper will review the recent results that we have obtained using novel ruthenium-containing polymers, and on the further studies on the incorporation of proteins into polymeric matrices

Biphasic in vitro maturation with C-type natriuretic peptide enhances the developmental competence of juvenile-goat oocytes

In vitro embryo production success in juvenile animals is compromised due to their intrinsic lower oocyte quality. Conventional in vitro maturation (IVM) impairs oocyte competence by inducing spontaneous meiotic resumption. A series of experiments were performed to determine if maintaining meiotic arrest during a pre-maturation culture phase (pre-IVM) prior to conventional IVM improves oocyte competence of juvenile-goat (2 months old) cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs). In experiment 1, COCs were cultured with C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP; 0, 50, 100, 200 nM) for 6 and 8 h. Nuclear stage was assessed, revealing no differences in the incidence of germinal vesicle (GV) breakdown. In experiment 2, the same CNP concentrations were assessed plus 10 nM estradiol, the known upstream agonist activating expression of NPR2, the exclusive receptor of CNP. CNP (200 nM) plus estradiol increased the rate of oocytes at GV stage at 6 h compared to control group (74.7% vs 28.3%; P<0.05) with predominantly condensed chromatin configuration. In experiment 3, relative mRNA quantification revealed NPR2 expression was down-regulated after pre-IVM (6 h). In experiment 4, analysis of transzonal projections indicated that pre-IVM maintained cumulus-oocyte communication after oocyte recovery. For experiments 5 and 6, biphasic IVM (6 h pre-IVM with CNP and estradiol, plus 24 h IVM) and control IVM (24 h) were compared. Biphasic IVM increased intra-oocyte glutathione and decreased ROS, up-regulated DNA-methyltransferase 1 and pentraxin 3 expression and led to an increase in rate of blastocyst development compared to control group (30.2% vs 17.2%; P<0.05). In conclusion, a biphasic IVM, including a pre-IVM with CNP, maintains oocyte meiotic arrest for 6 h and enhances the embryo developmental competence of oocytes from juvenile goats.Sandra Soto-Heras, Irene Menéndez-Blanco, Maria-Gracia Catalá, Dolors Izquierdo, Jeremy G. Thompson, Maria-Teresa Parami

Monitoring mosselzaadinvang met het Pasmosnet op locatie Waddenzee 2006

EMERGO is een consortium van enkele vissers. Het consortium heeft in 2006 proeven uitgevoerd om een nieuwe manier van mosselzaadinvang te testen op verschillende percelen in de Waddenzee. Hierbij werd gebruik gemaakt van een speciaal ontwikkeld invangnet, het “Padmosnet”. Enerzijds werd door de ondernemer de commerciële mogelijkheden geëvalueerd (door het Consortium EMERGO.), anderzijds werd de invangcapaciteit en de invangefficiëntie en de groei-efficiëntie op de mosselnetten bepaald (Wageningen IMARES). De monitoring van de zaadinvang heeft zich in 2006 gericht op het effect van verschillende netdichtheden. Tevens worden observaties van de kweker gerapporteerd. Dit betreft (1) op de robuustheid en de werking van de Padmosnetten, (2) de oogst, (3) de visuele kenmerken van de invangsystemen, waarbij de landschappelijke effecten met behulp van foto’s in beeld zijn gebracht, en (4) de aanwezigheid van vogels en zeezoogdieren. Voor effecten op bodem en bodemfauna wordt gerefereerd aan het PRODUS project

Assessment of oceanographic services for the monitoring of highly anthropised coastal lagoons: The Mar Menor case study

Ocean monitoring systems are designed for continuous monitoring to track their evolution and anticipate environmental issues. However, they are often based on IoT systems that offer little spatial coverage and are hard to maintain. Satellite remote sensing offers good geographical coverage but they also face several challenges to become a monitoring system. This paper introduces an easy-to-use software tool to crawl water-quality data from up to 6 satellite instruments from the ESA and NASA. Particularly, Chl-a data is deeply analyzed in terms of reliability and data coverage for a highly anthropised coastal lagoon (Mar Menor, Spain), where serious socio-environmental issues are happening. Our results show a good linear correlation between in situ data and SRS data, reaching values close to 0.9, and stating the relevance of organic matter inputs from ephemeral streams in Chl-a concentrations. Moreover, temporal granularity is increased from 5 to 1.5 days by combining SRS sources.Preprin

Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Fluxes and Their Constraints

Applying our recently developed propagation code we review extragalactic neutrino fluxes above 10^{14} eV in various scenarios and how they are constrained by current data. We specifically identify scenarios in which the cosmogenic neutrino flux, produced by pion production of ultra high energy cosmic rays outside their sources, is considerably higher than the "Waxman-Bahcall bound". This is easy to achieve for sources with hard injection spectra and luminosities that were higher in the past. Such fluxes would significantly increase the chances to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos with experiments currently under construction or in the proposal stage.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures, version published in Phys.Rev.

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157: H7 from healthy dairy cattle in Mid-West Brazil: occurrence and molecular characterization

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) serotype O157:H7 represents the major Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) strain related to large outbreaks and severe diseases such as hemorrhagic colitis (HC) and the potentially lethal hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The aim of this study was to report the occurrence and molecular characterization of O157:H7 isolates obtained by rectal swab from 52 healthy dairy cattle belonging to 21 farms in Mid-West of Brazil. Detection of 16SrRNA, stx1, stx2, rfbO157, fliCh7, eae, ehxA, saa, cnf1, chuA, yjaA and TSPE4.C2 genes was performed by PCR. The isolates were further characterized by serotyping. Two hundred and sixty E. coli isolates were obtained, of which 126 were characterized as STEC. Two isolates from the same cow were identified as serotype O157:H7. Both isolates presented the stx2, eae, ehxA, saa and cnf1 virulence factor genes and the chuA gene in the phylogenetic classification (virulent group D), suggesting that they were clones. The prevalence of O157:H7 was found to be 1.92% (1/52 animals), demonstrating that healthy dairy cattle from farms in the Mid-West of Brazil are an important reservoir for highly pathogenic E. coli O157:H7