Effect of biochars pyrolyzed in N2 and CO2, and feedstock on microbial community in metal(loid)s contaminated soils

Little is known about the effects of applying amendments on soil for immobilizing metal(loid)s on the soil microbial community. Alterations in the microbial community were examined after incubation of treated contaminated soils. One soil was contaminated with Pb and As, a second soil with Cd and Zn. Red pepper stalk (RPS) and biochars produced from RPS in either N2 atmosphere (RPSN) or CO2 atmosphere (RPSC) were applied at a rate of 2.5% to the two soils and incubated for 30 days. Bacterial communities of control and treated soils were characterized by sequencing 16S rRNA genes using the Illumina MiSeq sequencing. In both soils, bacterial richness increased in the amended soils, though somewhat differently between the treatments. Evenness values decreased significantly, and the final overall diversities were reduced. The neutralization of pH, reduced available concentrations of Pb or Cd, and supplementation of available carbon and surface area could be possible factors affecting the community changes. Biochar amendments caused the soil bacterial communities to become more similar than those in the not amended soils. The bacterial community structures at the phylum and genus levels showed that amendment addition might restore the normal bacterial community of soils, and cause soil bacterial communities in contaminated soils to normalize and stabilize

Re-evaluation of mammary stem cell biology based on in vivo transplantation

Over nearly half a century, transplantation methods have been employed to regenerate the mammary gland in vivo. Recent highly cited reports claim to have demonstrated the regeneration of an entire functional mammary gland from a single mammary epithelial cell. Nevertheless, re-examination of the literature on the transplantation biology of mammary gland regeneration reveals that a complex, combinatorial interaction between variously differentiated mammary epithelial cells and the mammary fat pad stroma is indispensable to this process. In the present article, these issues are reviewed and discussed to provide a greater understanding of the complexity of these multiplex interactions

Decision problems with quantum black boxes

We examine how to distinguish between unitary operators, when the exact form of the possible operators is not known. Instead we are supplied with "programs" in the form of unitary transforms, which can be used as references for identifying the unknown unitary transform. All unitary transforms should be used as few times as possible. This situation is analoguous to programmable state discrimination. One difference, however, is that the quantum state to which we apply the unitary transforms may be entangled, leading to a richer variety of possible strategies. By suitable selection of an input state and generalized measurement of the output state, both unambiguous and minimum-error discrimination can be achieved. Pairwise comparison of operators, comparing each transform to be identified with a program transform, is often a useful strategy. There are, however, situations in which more complicated strategies perform better. This is the case especially when the number of allowed applications of program operations is different from the number of the transforms to be identified

Relaxin family peptide receptors Rxfp1 and Rxfp2: mapping of the mRNA and protein distribution in the reproductive tract of the male rat

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Relaxin is the endogenous ligand of the G-protein coupled receptor RXFP1, previously known as LGR7. In humans relaxin can also activate, but with lower affinity, the closely related receptor for the insulin-like peptide from Leydig cells, RXFP2, previously known as LGR8. The lack of relaxin impairs male fertility but the precise distribution and the function of relaxin receptors in the male reproductive tract is not known. We investigated the distribution of Rxfp1 and Rxfp2 in the reproductive tract of the male rat and the function of relaxin in the vas deferens, a tissue with high expression of both receptors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The presence of mRNA for Rxfp1 and Rxfp2 was investigated in testes, cultured Sertoli cells, epididymis, vas deferens, seminal vesicle, prostate, and spermatozoa by RT-PCR and Southern blot. Protein expression in the testis, vas deferens, primary culture of Sertoli cells, and spermatozoa was assessed by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. The role of relaxin in the vas deferens was evaluated by contractility studies and radioimmunoassay of cAMP production. The effect of relaxin on mRNA levels for metalloproteinase-7 was measured by Northern blot.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Transcripts for Rxfp1 and Rxfp2 were present in almost all parts of the male reproductive tract, with high levels in testis and vas deferens. Both receptors were immunolocalized in late stage germ cells but not in mature spermatozoa, although mRNAs for both receptors were also present in mature spermatozoa. Rxfp1 but not Rxfp2 was detected in cultured Sertoli cells. Strong immunostaining for Rxfp1 and Rxfp2 was seen in muscular and epithelial layers of the vas deferens and in arteriolar walls. Relaxin did not affect contractility and cyclic AMP production of the vas deferens, but increased the levels of mRNA for metalloproteinase-7.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Rxfp1 and Rxfp2 are widely and similarly distributed throughout the male reproductive tract. Our results suggest that Rxfp1 on spermatids and Sertoli cells may be important in spermatogenesis. Relaxin in the vas deferens does not affect contractility, but may affect vascular compliance and collagen and matrix remodeling.</p

Electroweak Gauge-Boson Production at Small q_T: Infrared Safety from the Collinear Anomaly

Using methods from effective field theory, we develop a novel, systematic framework for the calculation of the cross sections for electroweak gauge-boson production at small and very small transverse momentum q_T, in which large logarithms of the scale ratio M_V/q_T are resummed to all orders. These cross sections receive logarithmically enhanced corrections from two sources: the running of the hard matching coefficient and the collinear factorization anomaly. The anomaly leads to the dynamical generation of a non-perturbative scale q_* ~ M_V e^{-const/\alpha_s(M_V)}, which protects the processes from receiving large long-distance hadronic contributions. Expanding the cross sections in either \alpha_s or q_T generates strongly divergent series, which must be resummed. As a by-product, we obtain an explicit non-perturbative expression for the intercept of the cross sections at q_T=0, including the normalization and first-order \alpha_s(q_*) correction. We perform a detailed numerical comparison of our predictions with the available data on the transverse-momentum distribution in Z-boson production at the Tevatron and LHC.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figure

Iatrogenic intrapericardial diaphragmatic hernia diagnosed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance

Intrapericardial diaphragmatic hernias are very uncommon and are most typically caused by high-force blunt trauma. Other iatrogenic causes such as prior surgical formation of a pericardial window have been described, but are exceedingly rare. We present a case of an intrapericardial diaphragmatic hernia in a patient with a prior pericardial window in which the diagnosis was unclear using conventional imaging modalities, but was established using cardiovascular magnetic resonance

The LSST DESC data challenge 1: Generation and analysis of synthetic images for next-generation surveys

Data Challenge 1 (DC1) is the first synthetic data set produced by the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC). DC1 is designed to develop and validate data reduction and analysis and to study the impact of systematic effects that will affect the LSST data set. DC1 is comprised of r-band observations of 40 deg2 to 10 yr LSST depth. We present each stage of the simulation and analysis process: (a) generation, by synthesizing sources from cosmological N-body simulations in individual sensor-visit images with different observing conditions; (b) reduction using a development version of the LSST Science Pipelines; and (c) matching to the input cosmological catalogue for validation and testing. We verify that testable LSST requirements pass within the fidelity of DC1. We establish a selection procedure that produces a sufficiently clean extragalactic sample for clustering analyses and we discuss residual sample contamination, including contributions from inefficiency in star-galaxy separation and imperfect deblending. We compute the galaxy power spectrum on the simulated field and conclude that: (i) survey properties have an impact of 50 per cent of the statistical uncertainty for the scales and models used in DC1; (ii) a selection to eliminate artefacts in the catalogues is necessary to avoid biases in the measured clustering; and (iii) the presence of bright objects has a significant impact (2-6) in the estimated power spectra at small scales (&gt; 1200), highlighting the impact of blending in studies at small angular scales in LSST

Raising argument strength using negative evidence: A constraint on models of induction

Both intuitively, and according to similarity-based theories of induction, relevant evidence raises argument strength when it is positive and lowers it when it is negative. In three experiments, we tested the hypothesis that argument strength can actually increase when negative evidence is introduced. Two kinds of argument were compared through forced choice or sequential evaluation: single positive arguments (e.g., “Shostakovich’s music causes alpha waves in the brain; therefore, Bach’s music causes alpha waves in the brain”) and double mixed arguments (e.g., “Shostakovich’s music causes alpha waves in the brain, X’s music DOES NOT; therefore, Bach’s music causes alpha waves in the brain”). Negative evidence in the second premise lowered credence when it applied to an item X from the same subcategory (e.g., Haydn) and raised it when it applied to a different subcategory (e.g., AC/DC). The results constitute a new constraint on models of induction

Multimorbidity in bipolar disorder and under-treatment of cardiovascular disease: a cross sectional study

Background: Individuals with serious mental disorders experience poor physical health, especially increased rates of cardiometabolic morbidity and premature morbidity. Recent evidence suggests that individuals with schizophrenia have numerous comorbid physical conditions which may be under-recorded and under-treated but to date very few studies have explored this issue for bipolar disorder. Methods:We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a dataset of 1,751,841 registered patients within 314 primary-care practices in Scotland, U.K. Bipolar disorder was identified using Read Codes recorded within electronic medical records. Data on 32 common chronic physical conditions were also assessed. Potential prescribing inequalities were evaluated by analyzing prescribing data for coronary heart disease (CHD) and hypertension. Results: Compared to controls, individuals with bipolar disorder were significantly less likely to have no recorded physical conditions (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.54-0.63) and significantly more likely to have one physical condition (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.16-1.39), two physical conditions (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.30-1.62) and three or more physical conditions (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.30-1.64). People with bipolar disorder also had higher rates of thyroid disorders, chronic kidney disease, chronic pain, chronic obstructive airways disease and diabetes but, surprisingly, lower recorded rates of hypertension and atrial fibrillation. People with bipolar disorder and comorbid CHD or hypertension were significantly more likely to be prescribed no antihypertensive or cholesterol-lowering medications compared to controls, and bipolar individuals with CHD or hypertension were significantly less likely to be on 2 or more antihypertensive agents. Conclusions: Individuals with bipolar disorder are similar to individuals with schizophrenia in having a wide range of comorbid and multiple physical health conditions. They are also less likely than controls to have a primary-care record of cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension and atrial fibrillation. Those with a recorded diagnosis of CHD or hypertension were less likely to be treated with cardiovascular medications and were treated less intensively. This study highlights the high physical healthcare needs of people with bipolar disorder, and provides evidence for a systematic under-recognition and under-treatment of cardiovascular disease in this group