Comparative HPLC-MSn analysis of canine and human meibomian lipidomes: many similarities, a few differences

The aim of this study was to evaluate the lipidome of meibomian gland secretions in canines (cMGS) – a common pet and laboratory animal – and to compare it with that of human MGS (hMGS), to determine whether canines could be used as a valid experimental animal model in studies of the biochemistry and physiology of the human ocular surface in general, and of the Meibomian glands in particular. The MGS of both species were evaluated using HPLC in combination with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization ion trap mass spectrometry. The main lipid classes found in cMGS were very long chain cholesteryl esters, wax esters, (O-acyl)-omega-hydroxy fatty acids (OAHFA), and cholesteryl esters of OAHFA. The lipidomes of cMGS and hMGS were found to be qualitatively similar, which implies similar biosynthetic and biodegradation pathways in canines and humans. However, some quantitative differences between the two were observed

Functional evaluation of ES cell-derived endodermal populations reveals differences between Nodal and Activin A-guided differentiation

Embryonic stem (ES) cells hold great promise with respect to their potential to be differentiated into desired cell types. Of interest are organs derived from the definitive endoderm, such as the pancreas and liver, and animal studies have revealed an essential role for Nodal in development of the definitive endoderm. Activin A is a related TGFβ member that acts through many of the same downstream signaling effectors as Nodal and is thought to mimic Nodal activity. Detailed characterization of ES cell-derived endodermal cell types by gene expression analysis in vitro and functional analysis in vivo reveal that, despite their similarity in gene expression, Nodal and Activin-derived endodermal cells exhibit a distinct difference in functional competence following transplantation into the developing mouse embryo. Pdx1-expressing cells arising from the respective endoderm populations exhibit extended differences in their competence to mature into insulin/c-peptide-expressing cells in vivo. Our findings underscore the importance of functional cell-type evaluation during stepwise differentiation of stem cells.Stem Cell and Regenerative Biolog

BN domains included into carbon nanotubes: role of interface

We present a density functional theory study on the shape and arrangement of small BN domains embedded into single-walled carbon nanotubes. We show a strong tendency for the BN hexagons formation at the simultaneous inclusion of B and N atoms within the walls of carbon nanotubes. The work emphasizes the importance of a correct description of the BN-C frontier. We suggest that BN-C interface will be formed preferentially with the participation of N-C bonds. Thus, we propose a new way of stabilizing the small BN inclusions through the formation of nitrogen terminated borders. The comparison between the obtained results and the available experimental data on formation of BN plackets within the single walled carbon nanotubes is presented. The mirror situation of inclusion of carbon plackets within single walled BN nanotubes is considered within the proposed formalism. Finally, we show that the inclusion of small BN plackets inside the CNTs strongly affects the electronic character of the initial systems, opening a band gap. The nitrogen excess in the BN plackets introduces donor states in the band gap and it might thus result in a promising way for n-doping single walled carbon nanotubes

Does wage rank affect employees' well-being?

How do workers make wage comparisons? Both an experimental study and an analysis of 16,000 British employees are reported. Satisfaction and well-being levels are shown to depend on more than simple relative pay. They depend upon the ordinal rank of an individual's wage within a comparison group. “Rank” itself thus seems to matter to human beings. Moreover, consistent with psychological theory, quits in a workplace are correlated with pay distribution skewness

Spatially-resolved Assessment of Land and Water Use Scenarios for Shale Gas Development: Poland and Germany

The analysis presented in this report focuses specifically on two issues of potential concern with respect to shale gas development in EU member states using hydraulic fracturing technologies: pressure on freshwater resources, and land use competition. Potential alternative technologies, such as “dry fracking”, are not considered, because they are still at the research and development stage. We reviewed available literature in order to identify important variables that may influence the land and water requirements associated with shale gas development. We further derived a range of representative values spanning worst-, average- and best-case scenarios for each variable. We then coupled specific technology scenarios (incorporating these variables) regarding water and land use requirements for shale gas development from 2013-2028 with spatially-resolved water and land availability/demand modeling tools (i.e. using the European Land Use Modelling Platform (LUMP)). Scenario analyses (intended to represent worst-, average- and best-case assumptions) were subsequently implemented that incorporate a subset of the identified variables for shale gas development in the Lower Paleozoic Baltic-Podlasie-Lublin basin in Poland and for Germany as a whole from 2013-2028. In addition, we undertook a screening-level risk assessment of potential human and ecosystem health impacts attributable to accidental or operational release of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing of shale formations, as well as the average gaseous emissions (per active well) associated with shale gas development activities that might be anticipated within a shale play. Finally, we developed a qualitative discussion of necessary considerations to support future air quality impact assessments for shale gas development activities.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen

Multiplex PCR for detection of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance determinants, mcr-1, mcr-2, mcr-3, mcr-4 and mcr-5 for surveillance purposes

Background and aim: Plasmid-mediated colistin resistance mechanisms have been identified worldwide in the past years. A multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol for detection of all currently known transferable colistin resistance genes (mcr-1 to mcr-5, and variants) in Enterobacteriaceae was developed for surveillance or research purposes. Methods: We designed four new primer pairs to amplify mcr-1, mcr-2, mcr-3 and mcr-4 gene products and used the originally described primers for mcr-5 to obtain a stepwise separation of ca 200 bp between ampli-cons. The primer pairs and amplification conditions allow for single or multiple detection of all currently described mcr genes and their variants present in Enterobacteriaceae. The protocol was validated testing 49 European Escherichia coli and Salmonella isolates of animal origin. Results: Multiplex PCR results in bovine and porcine isolates from Spain, Germany, France and Italy showed full concordance with whole genome sequence data. The method was able to detect mcr-1, mcr-3 and mcr-4 as singletons or in different combinations as they were present in the test isolates. One new mcr-4 variant, mcr-4.3, was also identified. Conclusions: This method allows rapid identification of mcr-positive bacteria and overcomes the challenges of phenotypic detection of colistin resistance. The multiplex PCR should be particularly interesting in settings or laboratories with limited resources for performing genetic analysis as it provides information on the mechanism of colistin resistance without requiring genome sequencing. © 2018, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). All rights reserved

Anotacijska shema i njezina evaluacija: primjer uvredljivoga jezika

The present paper focuses on the presentation and discussion of aspects of OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE linguistic annotation, including the creation, annotation practice, curation, and evaluation of an OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE annotation taxonomy scheme, that was first proposed in Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk et al. (2021). An extended offensive language ontology comprising 17 categories, structured in terms of 4 hierarchical levels, has been shown to represent the encoding of the defined offensive language schema, trained in terms of non-contextual word embeddings – i.e., Word2Vec and Fast Text, and eventually juxtaposed to the data acquired by using a pair wise training and testing analysis for existing categories in the HateBERT model (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk et al. submitted). The study reports on the annotation practice in WG 4.1.1. Incivility in media and social media in the context of COST Action CA 18209 European network for Web-centred linguistic data science (Nexus Linguarum) with the INCEpTION tool (https://github.com/inception-project/inception) – a semantic annotation platform offering assistance in the annotation. The results partly support the proposed ontology of explicit offense and positive implicitness types to provide more variance among widely recognized types of figurative language (e.g., metaphorical, metonymic, ironic, etc.). The use of the annotation system and the representation of linguistic data were also evaluated in a series of the annotators’ comments, by means of a questionnaire and an open discussion. The annotation results and the questionnaire showed that for some of the categories there was low or medium inter-annotator agreement, and it was more challenging for annotators to distinguish between category items than between aspect items, with the category items offensive, insulting and abusive being the most difficult in this respect. The need for taxonomic simplification measures on the basis of these results has been recognized for further annotation practices.U ovome je radu predstavljen proces označavanja uvredljivoga jezika koji uključuje izradu klasifikacije toga jezika, označivačku praksu, vođenje procesa i evaluaciju. Klasifikacijska je shema prvi put predložena u Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk i dr. (2021). Proširena ontologija uvredljivoga jezika sadrži 17 kategorija posloženih u četiri hijerarhijske razine te tako predstavlja shemu uvredljivoga jezika koja je trenirana u okviru nekontekstualiziranih vektorskih prikaza riječi (engl. word embeddings) poput Word2Vec i Fast Text koji su naposljetku supostavljeni podatcima prikupljenima korištenjem analize parova i analize testiranja za postojeće kategorije u modelu HateBERT (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk i dr., u postupku recenzije). U radu se izvještava o označivačkoj praksi u okviru radne grupe WG 4.1.1. Incivility in media and social media COST-ove akcije CA 18209 European network for Web-centred linguistic data science (Nexus Linguarum). Označavanje je provedeno u alatu INCEpTION (https://github.com/inception-project/inception) – platformi za semantičko označavanje koja ima ugrađene alate za takvu obradu podataka. Dobiveni rezultati podupiru predloženu ontologiju eksplicitnoga i implicitnoga uvredljivog jezika koja omogućuje veću raznovrsnost među već prepoznatim tipovima figurativnoga jezika (primjerice metafora, metonimija, ironija itd.). Upotreba sustava za označavanje i prikazivanje jezičnih podataka također je procijenjena u povratnim komentarima koje su pružili označivači. Komentari označivača prikupljeni su metodom upitnika te otvorenom raspravom. Na kraju je usustavljen niz preporuka za buduće označivačke prakse

Field test of available methods to measure remotely SOx and NOx emissions from ships

Methods for the determination of ship fuel sulphur content and NOx emission factors based on remote measurements have been compared in the harbour of Rotterdam and compared to direct stack emission measurements on the ferry Stena Hollandica. The methods were selected based on a review of the available literature on ship emission measurements. They were either optical (LIDAR, Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS), UV camera), combined with model-based estimates of fuel consumption, or based on the so called "sniffer" principle, where SO2 or NOx emission factors are determined from simultaneous measurement of the increase of CO2 and SO2 or NOx concentrations in the plume of the ship compared to the background. The measurements were performed from stations at land, from a boat and from a helicopter. Mobile measurement platforms were found to have important advantages compared to the land-based ones because they allow optimizing the sampling conditions and sampling from ships on the open sea. Although optical methods can provide reliable results it was found that at the state of the art level, the "sniffer" approach is the most convenient technique for determining both SO2 and NOx emission factors remotely. The average random error on the determination of SO2 emission factors comparing two identical instrumental set-ups was 6 %. However, it was found that apparently minor differences in the instrumental characteristics, such as response time, could cause significant differences between the emission factors determined. Direct stack measurements showed that about 14% of the fuel sulphur content was not emitted as SO2. This was supported by the remote measurements and is in agreement with the results of other field studies. S, 1984, Notes on Heavy Fuel Oi

TEAD and YAP regulate the enhancer network of human embryonic pancreatic progenitors.

The genomic regulatory programmes that underlie human organogenesis are poorly understood. Pancreas development, in particular, has pivotal implications for pancreatic regeneration, cancer and diabetes. We have now characterized the regulatory landscape of embryonic multipotent progenitor cells that give rise to all pancreatic epithelial lineages. Using human embryonic pancreas and embryonic-stem-cell-derived progenitors we identify stage-specific transcripts and associated enhancers, many of which are co-occupied by transcription factors that are essential for pancreas development. We further show that TEAD1, a Hippo signalling effector, is an integral component of the transcription factor combinatorial code of pancreatic progenitor enhancers. TEAD and its coactivator YAP activate key pancreatic signalling mediators and transcription factors, and regulate the expansion of pancreatic progenitors. This work therefore uncovers a central role for TEAD and YAP as signal-responsive regulators of multipotent pancreatic progenitors, and provides a resource for the study of embryonic development of the human pancreas