44 research outputs found
Highly efficient t2 cobalt ferrite nanoparticles vectorized for internalization in cancer cells
Uniform cobalt ferrite nanoparticles have been synthesized using an electrochemical synthesis method in aqueous media. Their colloidal, magnetic, and relaxometric properties have been analyzed. The novelty of this synthesis relies on the use of iron and cobalt foils as precursors, which assures the reproducibility of the iron and cobalt ratio in the structure. A stable and biocompatible targeting conjugate nanoparticle-folic acid (NP-FA) was developed that was capable of targeting FA receptor positivity in HeLa (human cervical cancer) cancer cells. The biocompatibility of NP-FA was assessed in vitro in HeLa cells using the MTT assay, and morphological analysis of the cytoskeleton was performed. A high level of NP-FA binding to HeLa cells was confirmed through qualitative in vitro targeting studies. A value of 479 Fe+Co mM-1s-1 of transverse relaxivity (r2 ) was obtained in colloidal suspension. In addition, in vitro analysis in HeLa cells also showed an important effect in negative T2 contrast. Therefore, the results show that NP-FA can be a potential biomaterial for use in bio medical trials, especially as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Transition period between vegetation growth and senescence controls interannual variability of C fluxes in a Mediterranean reed wetland
Wetlands are crucial ecosystems modulating climate change due to their great potential
to capture carbon dioxide (CO2), emit methane (CH4) and regulate local climate through
evapotranspiration (ET). Common reed wetlands are particularly interesting given their
high productivity, abundance and highly efficient internal gas-transport mechanism.
However, little is known about the interannual behavior and dominant controlling
factors of Mediterranean reed wetlands, characterized by seasonal flooding and
remarkable weather variability. After 6 years of ecosystem carbon and ET flux
measurements by eddy covariance (3 years for CH4 fluxes), this study shows the
functional vulnerability of such wetlands to climate variability, switching between
carbon (CO2+CH4) sink (660 g CO2-eeq m-2
y
-1
, in 2014) and source (360 g CO2-eq m-2
y
-1
, in 2016) in short periods of time. According to our analyses, the great interannual
variability appeared to mainly depend on the behavior of reed growth dynamics during
the transition to senescence period, what is confirmed through the Enhanced Vegetation
Index as a proxy of photosynthetic activity. Additionally, a similar behavior of seasonal
and daily patterns of carbon fluxes and ET was found compared with other wetlands
under different climates
Disruption of the Lipid-Transporting LdMT-LdRos3 Complex in Leishmania donovani Affects Membrane Lipid Asymmetry but Not Host Cell Invasion
Maintenance and regulation of the asymmetric lipid distribution across eukaryotic plasma membranes is governed by the concerted action of specific membrane proteins controlling lipid movement across the bilayer. Here, we show that the miltefosine transporter (LdMT), a member of the P4-ATPase subfamily in Leishmania donovani, and the Cdc50-like protein LdRos3 form a stable complex that plays an essential role in maintaining phospholipid asymmetry in the parasite plasma membrane. Loss of either LdMT or LdRos3 abolishes ATP-dependent transport of NBD-labelled phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylcholine from the outer to the inner plasma membrane leaflet and results in an increased cell surface exposure of endogenous PE. We also find that promastigotes of L. donovani lack any detectable amount of phosphatidylserine (PS) but retain their infectivity in THP-1-derived macrophages. Likewise, infectivity was unchanged for parasites without LdMT-LdRos3 complexes. We conclude that exposure of PS and PE to the exoplasmic leaflet is not crucial for the infectivity of L. donovani promastigotes
Gas exchange at whole plant level shows that a less conservative water use is linked to a higher performance in three ecologically distinct pine species
Increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation in large areas of the planet as a consequence of
global warming will affect plant growth and survival. However, the impact of climatic conditions will
differ across species depending on their stomatal response to increasing aridity, as this will ultimately
affect the balance between carbon assimilation and water loss. In this study, we monitored gas
exchange, growth and survival in saplings of three widely distributed European pine species (Pinus
halepensis, P. nigra and P. sylvestris) with contrasting distribution and ecological requirements in
order to ascertain the relationship between stomatal control and plant performance. The experiment
was conducted in a common garden environment resembling rainfall and temperature conditions
that two of the three species are expected to encounter in the near future. In addition, gas exchange
was monitored both at the leaf and at the whole-plant level using a transient-state closed chamber,
which allowed us to model the response of the whole plant to increased air evaporative demand
(AED). P. sylvestris was the species with lowest survival and performance. By contrast, P. halepensis
showed no mortality, much higher growth (two orders of magnitude), carbon assimilation (ca. 14
fold higher) and stomatal conductance and water transpiration (ca. 4 fold higher) than the other two
species. As a consequence, P. halepensis exhibited higher values of water-use efficiency than the rest of
the species even at the highest values of AED. Overall, the results strongly support that the weaker
stomatal control of P. halepensis, which is linked to lower stem water potential, enabled this species to
maximize carbon uptake under drought stress and ultimately outperform the more water
conservative P. nigra and P. sylvestris. These results suggest that under a hotter drought scenario
P. nigra and P. sylvestris would very likely suffer increased mortality, whereas P. halepensis could
maintain gas exchange and avoid water-induced growth limitation. This might ultimately foster an
expansion of P. halepensis to higher latitudes and elevations.This work was supported by the projects ECOLPIN
(AGL2011â24296) and Remedinal 3 (S2013/ MAE-
2719) of the Madrid Government, by a FPU fellowship
from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture
and Sport (FPU13/03410) to DS and by EU Marie
Curie (FP7â2013-IOF-625988) fellowship to EPSC
COSORE: A community database for continuous soil respiration and other soilâatmosphere greenhouse gas flux data
Globally, soils store two to three times as much carbon as currently resides in the atmosphere, and it is critical to understand how soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and uptake will respond to ongoing climate change. In particular, the soilâtoâatmosphere CO2 flux, commonly though imprecisely termed soil respiration (RS), is one of the largest carbon fluxes in the Earth system. An increasing number of highâfrequency RS measurements (typically, from an automated system with hourly sampling) have been made over the last two decades; an increasing number of methane measurements are being made with such systems as well. Such high frequency data are an invaluable resource for understanding GHG fluxes, but lack a central database or repository. Here we describe the lightweight, openâsource COSORE (COntinuous SOil REspiration) database and software, that focuses on automated, continuous and longâterm GHG flux datasets, and is intended to serve as a community resource for earth sciences, climate change syntheses and model evaluation. Contributed datasets are mapped to a single, consistent standard, with metadata on contributors, geographic location, measurement conditions and ancillary data. The design emphasizes the importance of reproducibility, scientific transparency and open access to data. While being oriented towards continuously measured RS, the database design accommodates other soilâatmosphere measurements (e.g. ecosystem respiration, chamberâmeasured net ecosystem exchange, methane fluxes) as well as experimental treatments (heterotrophic only, etc.). We give brief examples of the types of analyses possible using this new community resource and describe its accompanying R software package
Author Correction: The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data
The following authors were omitted from the original version of this Data Descriptor: Markus Reichstein and Nicolas Vuichard. Both contributed to the code development and N. Vuichard contributed to the processing of the ERA-Interim data downscaling. Furthermore, the contribution of the co-author Frank Tiedemann was re-evaluated relative to the colleague Corinna Rebmann, both working at the same sites, and based on this re-evaluation a substitution in the co-author list is implemented (with Rebmann replacing Tiedemann). Finally, two affiliations were listed incorrectly and are corrected here (entries 190 and 193). The author list and affiliations have been amended to address these omissions in both the HTML and PDF versions
The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data.
The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible
The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data
The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.Peer reviewe
Worldwide trends in population-based survival for children, adolescents, and young adults diagnosed with leukaemia, by subtype, during 2000â14 (CONCORD-3) : analysis of individual data from 258 cancer registries in 61 countries
Background Leukaemias comprise a heterogenous group of haematological malignancies. In CONCORD-3, we analysed
data for children (aged 0â14 years) and adults (aged 15â99 years) diagnosed with a haematological malignancy
during 2000â14 in 61 countries. Here, we aimed to examine worldwide trends in survival from leukaemia, by age and
morphology, in young patients (aged 0â24 years).
Methods We analysed data from 258 population-based cancer registries in 61 countries participating in CONCORD-3
that submitted data on patients diagnosed with leukaemia. We grouped patients by age as children (0â14 years),
adolescents (15â19 years), and young adults (20â24 years). We categorised leukaemia subtypes according to the
International Classification of Childhood Cancer (ICCC-3), updated with International Classification of Diseases
for Oncology, third edition (ICD-O-3) codes. We estimated 5-year net survival by age and morphology, with 95% CIs,
using the non-parametric Pohar-Perme estimator. To control for background mortality, we used life tables by
country or region, single year of age, single calendar year and sex, and, where possible, by race or ethnicity. All-age
survival estimates were standardised to the marginal distribution of young people with leukaemia included in the
analysis.
Findings 164563 young people were included in this analysis: 121328 (73·7%) children, 22963 (14·0%) adolescents, and
20272 (12·3%) young adults. In 2010â14, the most common subtypes were lymphoid leukaemia (28205 [68·2%] patients)
and acute myeloid leukaemia (7863 [19·0%] patients). Age-standardised 5-year net survival in children, adolescents, and
young adults for all leukaemias combined during 2010â14 varied widely, ranging from 46% in Mexico to more than
85% in Canada, Cyprus, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and Australia. Individuals with lymphoid leukaemia had better
age-standardised survival (from 43% in Ecuador to â„80% in parts of Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia) than
those with acute myeloid leukaemia (from 32% in Peru to â„70% in most high-income countries in Europe,
North America, and Oceania). Throughout 2000â14, survival from all leukaemias combined remained consistently
higher for children than adolescents and young adults, and minimal improvement was seen for adolescents and young
adults in most countries.
Interpretation This study offers the first worldwide picture of population-based survival from leukaemia in children,
adolescents, and young adults. Adolescents and young adults diagnosed with leukaemia continue to have lower
survival than children. Trends in survival from leukaemia for adolescents and young adults are important indicators
of the quality of cancer management in this age group.peer-reviewe