Nutritional relationships in bitter pit-affected fruit and the feasibility of Vis-NIR models to determine calcium concentration in Fuji apples.

Fuji is among the most cultivated apples worldwide but affected by the disorder bitter pit (BP). Calcium deficiency plays an important role on fruit susceptibility to BP. The objectives of this study were to determine nutritional relationships in BP-affected fruit and to verify if Vis-NIR models can predict Ca concentration in Fuji apples. Fruit was harvested during 2018 season from two different orchards with historical high BP incidence. Seven hundred and fifty apples were stored at 0 ?C for 150 days plus 10 days at 20 ?C for BP assessments. After storage, 20 fruit with BP symptoms (BP+) and 20 healthy fruit (BP?) were assessed individually for mineral concentration. Vis-NIR evaluation involved a spectra range from 285 to 1200 nm to predict Ca concentration from ?Fuji? powder enriched Ca solutions. In each orchard, healthy apples had significantly higher Ca concentration than apples with BP. The K/Ca and Mg/Ca ratios were significantly lower in healthy fruit compared with BP? affected fruit. The relationship B/Ca proved to be significant in BP fruit. Although Ca interaction with organic substances and/or cellular structures could influence NIR spectra in fresh fruit, our results showed that Vis-NIR models could not be used to direct prediction of fruit Ca concentration

Music benefits on postoperative distress and pain in pediatric day care surgery

Postoperative effect of music listening has not been established in pediatric age. Response on postoperative distress and pain in pediatric day care surgery has been evaluated. Forty-two children were enrolled. Patients were randomly assigned to the music-group (music intervention during awakening period) or the non-music group (standard postoperative care). Slow and fast classical music and pauses were recorded and played via ambient speakers. Heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, glucose and cortisol levels, faces pain scale and Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) Pain Scale were considered as indicators of response to stress and pain experience. Music during awakening induced lower increase of systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. The non-music group showed progressive increasing values of glycemia; in music-group the curve of glycemia presented a plateau pattern (P<0.001). Positive impact on reactions to pain was noted using the FLACC scale. Music improves cardiovascular parameters, stress-induced hyperglycemia. Amelioration on pain perception is more evident in older children. Positive effects seems to be achieved by the alternation of fast, slow rhythms and pauses even in pediatric age

Ammonium excess leads to Ca restrictions, morphological changes, and nutritional imbalances in tomato plants, which can be monitored by the N/Ca ratio.

Both nitrogen and calcium fertilization management are vital for crops, where an imbalance of these elements can cause both physiological and yield problems. It has been proposed that nitrogen absorption, particularly ammonium, is in part dependent on calcium supply. Moreover, the balance between these two nutrients could be a key indicator of plant growth in some species. Tomato, one of the most cultivated crops worldwide, can also be widely affected by nutritional imbalance. Using large amounts of N fertilizers could lead to an imbalance with other nutrients and, thus, detrimental effects in terms of plant development and yield. Here we show that ammonium excess has a negative impact on plant development and results in calcium deficiency. Moreover, a deficit in calcium nutrition not only affects calcium concentration but also leads to a restriction in N uptake and reduced N concentration in the plant. These effects were evident at the seedling stage and also during flowering/fruit set. Using PCA analysis, we integrated both phenotypic and nutritional imbalances in seedlings and grown plants. Interestingly, the Ca/N ratio appears to be a key indicator to monitor appropriate N and calcium nutrition and more importantly the balance between both. Maintaining this balance could be an essential element for tomato crop production

Uukuniemi Phlebovirus Assembly and Secretion Leave a Functional Imprint on the Virion Glycome

Uukuniemi virus (UUKV) is a model system for investigating the genus Phlebovirus of the Bunyaviridae. We report the UUKV glycome, revealing differential processing of the Gn and Gc virion glycoproteins. Both glycoproteins display poly-N-acetyllactosamines, consistent with virion assembly in the medial Golgi apparatus, whereas oligomannose-type glycans required for DC-SIGN-dependent cellular attachment are predominant on Gc. Local virion structure and the route of viral egress from the cell leave a functional imprint on the phleboviral glycome

Reference gene validation for quantitative RT-PCR during biotic and abiotic stresses in Vitis vinifera

Grapevine is one of the most cultivated fruit crop worldwide with Vitis vinifera being the species with the highest economical importance. Being highly susceptible to fungal pathogens and increasingly affected by environmental factors, it has become an important agricultural research area, where gene expression analysis plays a fundamental role. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is currently amongst the most powerful techniques to perform gene expression studies. Nevertheless, accurate gene expression quantification strongly relies on appropriate reference gene selection for sample normalization. Concerning V. vinifera, limited information still exists as for which genes are the most suitable to be used as reference under particular experimental conditions. In this work, seven candidate genes were investigated for their stability in grapevine samples referring to four distinct stresses (Erysiphe necator, wounding and UV-C irradiation in leaves and Phaeomoniella chlamydospora colonization in wood). The expression stability was evaluated using geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper. In all cases, full agreement was not observed for the three methods. To provide comprehensive rankings integrating the three different programs, for each treatment, a consensus ranking was created using a non-weighted unsupervised rank aggregation method. According to the last, the three most suitable reference genes to be used in grapevine leaves, regardless of the stress, are UBC, VAG and PEP. For the P. chlamydospora treatment, EF1, CYP and UBC were the best scoring genes. Acquaintance of the most suitable reference genes to be used in grapevine samples can contribute for accurate gene expression quantification in forthcoming studiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Glycan Shield of HIV Is Predominantly Oligomannose Independently of Production System or Viral Clade

The N-linked oligomannose glycans of HIV gp120 are a target for both microbicide and vaccine design. The extent of cross-clade conservation of HIV oligomannose glycans is therefore a critical consideration for the development of HIV prophylaxes. We measured the oligomannose content of virion-associated gp120 from primary virus from PBMCs for a range of viral isolates and showed cross-clade elevation (62–79%) of these glycans relative to recombinant, monomeric gp120 (∼30%). We also confirmed that pseudoviral production systems can give rise to notably elevated gp120 oligomannose levels (∼98%), compared to gp120 derived from a single-plasmid viral system using the HIVLAI backbone (56%). This study highlights differences in glycosylation between virion-associated and recombinant gp120

Allosteric Modulation of the HIV-1 gp120-gp41 Association Site by Adjacent gp120 Variable Region 1 (V1) N-Glycans Linked to Neutralization Sensitivity

The HIV-1 gp120-gp41 complex, which mediates viral fusion and cellular entry, undergoes rapid evolution within its external glycan shield to enable escape from neutralizing antibody (NAb). Understanding how conserved protein determinants retain functionality in the context of such evolution is important for their evaluation and exploitation as potential drug and/ or vaccine targets. In this study, we examined how the conserved gp120-gp41 association site, formed by the N- and Cterminal segments of gp120 and the disulfide-bonded region (DSR) of gp41, adapts to glycan changes that are linked to neutralization sensitivity. To this end, a DSR mutant virus (K601D) with defective gp120-association was sequentially passaged in peripheral blood mononuclear cells to select suppressor mutations. We reasoned that the locations of suppressors point to structural elements that are functionally linked to the gp120-gp41 association site. In culture 1, gp120 association and viral replication was restored by loss of the conserved glycan at Asn136 in V1 (T138N mutation) inconjunction with the L494I substitution in C5 within the association site. In culture 2, replication was restored with deletion of the N139INN sequence, which ablates the overlapping Asn141-Asn142-Ser-Ser potential N-linked glycosylation sequons inV1, in conjunction with D601N in the DSR. The 136 and 142 glycan mutations appeared to exert their suppressive effects by altering the dependence of gp120-gp41 interactions on the DSR residues, Leu593, Trp596 and Lys601. The 136 and/or 142glycan mutations increased the sensitivity of HIV-1 pseudovirions to the glycan-dependent NAbs 2G12 and PG16, and also pooled IgG obtained from HIV-1-infected individuals. Thus adjacent V1 glycans allosterically modulate the distal gp120-gp41 association site. We propose that this represents a mechanism for functional adaptation of the gp120-gp41 association site to an evolving glycan shield in a setting of NAb selection

Azimuthal correlations of high transverse momentum jets at next-to-leading order in the parton branching method

AbstractThe azimuthal correlation, $$\Delta \phi _{12}$$ Δ ϕ 12 , of high transverse momentum jets in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13  TeV is studied by applying PB-TMD distributions to NLO calculations via MCatNLO together with the PB-TMD parton shower. A very good description of the cross section as a function of $$\Delta \phi _{12}$$ Δ ϕ 12 is observed. In the back-to-back region of $${\Delta \phi _{12}}\rightarrow \pi$$ Δ ϕ 12 → π , a very good agreement is observed with the PB-TMD Set 2 distributions while significant deviations are obtained with the PB-TMD Set 1 distributions. Set 1 uses the evolution scale while Set 2 uses transverse momentum as an argument in $$\alpha _\mathrm {s}$$ α s , and the above observation therefore confirms the importance of an appropriate soft-gluon coupling in angular ordered parton evolution. The total uncertainties of the predictions are dominated by the scale uncertainties of the matrix element, while the uncertainties coming from the PB-TMDs and the corresponding PB-TMD shower are very small. The $$\Delta \phi _{12}$$ Δ ϕ 12 measurements are also compared with predictions using MCatNLO together Pythia8, illustrating the importance of details of the parton shower evolution.</jats:p

Azimuthal correlations of high transverse momentum jets at next-to-leading order in the parton branching method

AbstractThe azimuthal correlation, $$\Delta \phi _{12}$$ Δ ϕ 12 , of high transverse momentum jets in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13  TeV is studied by applying PB-TMD distributions to NLO calculations via MCatNLO together with the PB-TMD parton shower. A very good description of the cross section as a function of $$\Delta \phi _{12}$$ Δ ϕ 12 is observed. In the back-to-back region of $${\Delta \phi _{12}}\rightarrow \pi$$ Δ ϕ 12 → π , a very good agreement is observed with the PB-TMD Set 2 distributions while significant deviations are obtained with the PB-TMD Set 1 distributions. Set 1 uses the evolution scale while Set 2 uses transverse momentum as an argument in $$\alpha _\mathrm {s}$$ α s , and the above observation therefore confirms the importance of an appropriate soft-gluon coupling in angular ordered parton evolution. The total uncertainties of the predictions are dominated by the scale uncertainties of the matrix element, while the uncertainties coming from the PB-TMDs and the corresponding PB-TMD shower are very small. The $$\Delta \phi _{12}$$ Δ ϕ 12 measurements are also compared with predictions using MCatNLO together Pythia8, illustrating the importance of details of the parton shower evolution.</jats:p