Effect of the change of social environment on the behavior of a captive brown bear (Ursus arctos)

We observed the behavior of a captive sterilized male brown bear before and after the death of his female sibling to investigate the effect of the change of social environment on his behavior and welfare. Observations were carried out by continuous recording during daylight for 6 wk prior to hibernation when the bear was kept with the sibling, and they were repeated 2 years later when the bear was alone (total observation time is 108 h). Feeding, moving, and the total amount of time spent resting (including sleeping and alert inactive) were not affected by the change of social environment. However, when the bear was alone, the percentage of time he spent alert inactive almost trebled (pair, 17.7 \ub1 3.3%; alone, 48.5 \ub1 5.5%; P < 0.001), and the time spent sleeping was less than one-third (pair, 51.1 \ub1 6.1%; alone, 14.2 \ub1 5.0%; P < 0.001) than when the female was present. The bear spent most of his sleeping time in lateral lying posture (a posture probably associated with rapid eyes movement sleep). The percentage of time dedicated to this posture was significantly reduced after the death of his sibling (pair, 35.9 \ub1 7.4%; alone, 15.0 \ub1 5.4%; P < 0.05), whereas the percentage of time spent in quadrupedal posture increased (pair, 17.1 \ub1 5.4%; alone, 37.8 \ub1 7.8; P < 0.05). One of the possible reasons for these changes may be an increased risk perception of the bear after the death of his sibling. Our results highlight the importance of social environment and of its changes, which should be carefully considered to maintain captive bears in good welfare conditions

Plasma activated water as resistance inducer against bacterial leaf spot of tomato

Plant bacterial diseases are routinely managed with scheduled treatments based on heavy metal compounds or on antibiotics; to reduce the negative environmental impact due to the use of such chemical compounds, as pollution or selection of antibiotic resistant pathogens, the integrated control management is required. In the frame of a sustainable agriculture the use of bacterial antagonists, biological agents, plant defence response elicitors or resistant host plant genotypes are the most effective approaches. In this work, cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) was applied to sterile distilled water, inducing the production of a hydrogen peroxide, nitrite and nitrate, and a pH reduction. In particular, an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has been used to produce plasma activated water (PAW), that was firstly assayed in in vitro experiments and then in planta through application at the root apparatus of tomato plants, against Xanthomonas vesicatoria (Xv), the etiological agent of bacterial leaf spot. Moreover, the transcription abundance of five genes related to the plant defense was investigated in response to PAW treatment. PAW did not show direct antimicrobial activity against Xv in in vitro experiments, but it enhanced the tomato plants defenses. It was effective in reducing the disease severity by giving relative protections of ca. 61, 51 and 38% when applied 1 h, 24 h and 6 days before the experimental inoculation, respectively. In addition, the experiments highlighted the pal gene involvement in response to the PAW treatments and against the pathogen; its transcription levels resulted significantly high from 1 to 48 h until their decrease 192 h after PAW application

On the deflection of asteroids with mirrors

This paper presents an analysis of an asteroid deflection method based on multiple solar concentrators. A model of the deflection through the sublimation of the surface material of an asteroid is presented, with simulation results showing the achievable orbital deflection with, and without, accounting for the effects of mirror contamination due to the ejected debris plume. A second model with simulation results is presented analyzing an enhancement of the Yarkovsky effect, which provides a significant deflection even when the surface temperature is not high enough to sublimate. Finally the dynamical model of solar concentrators in the proximity of an irregular celestial body are discussed, together with a Lyapunov-based controller to maintain the spacecraft concentrators at a required distance from the asteroid

Inclusión de calix[4]areno en una matriz de sílice-titania: preparación, caracterización y aplicación como catalizador heterogéneo en epoxidación de alquenos

Se preparó una matriz mixta de sílice y titania con calix[4]areno incluido. Los calix[n]arenos son compuestos macrocíclicos integrados por n unidades fenólicas, unidas por grupos metileno en las posiciones 2 y

866pdcomprehensive biomarker analyses and updated results of pure 01 study neoadjuvant pembrolizumab pembro in muscle invasive urothelial bladder carcinoma mibc

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Sequence variants identification at the KCNQ1OT1: TSS differentially Methylated region in isolated omphalocele cases

Background: Omphalocele is a congenital midline ventral body wall defect that can exist as isolated malformation or as part of a syndrome. It can be considered one of the major and most frequent clinical manifestation of Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) in case of loss of methylation at KCNQ1OT1: Transcription Star Site-Differentially Methylated Region (TSS-DMR) or in presence of CDKN1C mutations. The isolated form of the omphalocele accounts approximately for about the 14% of the total cases and its molecular etiology has never been fully elucidated. Methods: Given the tight relationship with BWS, we hypothesized that the isolated form of the omphalocele could belong to the heterogeneous spectrum of the BWS associated features, representing an endophenotype with a clear genetic connection. We therefore investigated genetic and epigenetic changes affecting BWS imprinted locus at 11p15.5 imprinted region, focusing in particular on the KCNQ1OT1:TSS DMR. Results: We studied 21 cases of isolated omphalocele detected during pregnancy or at birth and identified the following rare maternally inherited variants: i) the non-coding variant G>A at nucleotide 687 (NR_002728.3) at KCNQ1OT1:TSS-DMR, which alters the methylation pattern of the imprinted allele, in one patient; ii) the deletion c.624-629delGGCCCC at exon 1 of CDKN1C, with unknown clinical significance, in two unrelated cases. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings suggest that KCNQ1OT1:TSS-DMR could be a susceptibility locus for the isolated omphalocele