The interplay between physical and chemical properties of protein films affects their bioactivity.

Although mechanical properties, roughness, and receptor molecule expression have all been shown to influence the cellular reactivity of collagen-based biomaterials, their relative contribution, in a given system remains unclear. Here, we study films containing combinations of collagen, gelatin, and soluble and insoluble elastin, crosslinking of which results in altered film stiffness and roughness. Collagen and gelatin have similar amino acid sequences but altered cell-binding sites. We studied cell response with both C2C12 myoblast cells (which possess RGD-recognizing integrins α(V)β(3) and α(5)β(1)) and C2C12-α2+ cells (which, in addition, express the collagen-binding integrin α(2)β(1)) to establish the effect of altering the available binding sites on cell adhesion and spreading on films. Systematically altering the composition, crosslinking and cell type, allows us to deconvolute the effects of physical parameters and available binding sites on the cell reactivity of films in this system. Collagen-based films were rougher and stiffer and supported lower cell surface coverage than gelatin-based films. Additionally, C2C12-α2+ cells showed preferential attachment to collagen-based films compared with C2C12 cells, but no significant difference was seen using gelatin-based films. The cell count and surface coverage were found to decrease significantly on all films after crosslinking (Coll XL coverage = 2-6%, Gel XL coverage = 20-32%), but cell area and aspect ratio on collagen films were affected to a greater extent than on gelatin films. The results show that, in this system, the composition, and more significantly, crosslinking, of films affects the cell reactivity to a greater extent than their stiffness or roughness

Near-real-time Earthquake-induced Fatality Estimation using Crowdsourced Data and Large-Language Models

When a damaging earthquake occurs, immediate information about casualties is critical for time-sensitive decision-making by emergency response and aid agencies in the first hours and days. Systems such as Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) were developed to provide a forecast within about 30 minutes of any significant earthquake globally. Traditional systems for estimating human loss in disasters often depend on manually collected early casualty reports from global media, a process that's labor-intensive and slow with notable time delays. Recently, some systems have employed keyword matching and topic modeling to extract relevant information from social media. However, these methods struggle with the complex semantics in multilingual texts and the challenge of interpreting ever-changing, often conflicting reports of death and injury numbers from various unverified sources on social media platforms. In this work, we introduce an end-to-end framework to significantly improve the timeliness and accuracy of global earthquake-induced human loss forecasting using multi-lingual, crowdsourced social media. Our framework integrates (1) a hierarchical casualty extraction model built upon large language models, prompt design, and few-shot learning to retrieve quantitative human loss claims from social media, (2) a physical constraint-aware, dynamic-truth discovery model that discovers the truthful human loss from massive noisy and potentially conflicting human loss claims, and (3) a Bayesian updating loss projection model that dynamically updates the final loss estimation using discovered truths. We test the framework in real-time on a series of global earthquake events in 2021 and 2022 and show that our framework streamlines casualty data retrieval, achieving speed and accuracy comparable to manual methods by USGS.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Strong anisotropy in surface kinetic roughening: analysis and experiments

We report an experimental assessment of surface kinetic roughening properties that are anisotropic in space. Working for two specific instances of silicon surfaces irradiated by ion-beam sputtering under diverse conditions (with and without concurrent metallic impurity codeposition), we verify the predictions and consistency of a recently proposed scaling Ansatz for surface observables like the two-dimensional (2D) height Power Spectral Density (PSD). In contrast with other formulations, this Ansatz is naturally tailored to the study of two-dimensional surfaces, and allows to readily explore the implications of anisotropic scaling for other observables, such as real-space correlation functions and PSD functions for 1D profiles of the surface. Our results confirm that there are indeed actual experimental systems whose kinetic roughening is strongly anisotropic, as consistently described by this scaling analysis. In the light of our work, some types of experimental measurements are seen to be more affected by issues like finite space resolution effects, etc. that may hinder a clear-cut assessment of strongly anisotropic scaling in the present and other practical contexts

Dispersal and extrapolation on the accuracy of temporal predictions from distribution models for the Darwin's frog

Indexación: Web of Science; Scopus.Climate change is a major threat to biodiversity; the development of models that reliably predict its effects on species distributions is a priority for conservation biogeography. Two of the main issues for accurate temporal predictions from Species Distribution Models (SDM) are model extrapolation and unrealistic dispersal scenarios. We assessed the consequences of these issues on the accuracy of climate-driven SDM predictions for the dispersal-limited Darwin's frog Rhinoderma darwinii in South America. We calibrated models using historical data (1950-1975) and projected them across 40 yr to predict distribution under current climatic conditions, assessing predictive accuracy through the area under the ROC curve (AUC) and True Skill Statistics (TSS), contrasting binary model predictions against temporal-independent validation data set (i.e., current presences/absences). To assess the effects of incorporating dispersal processes we compared the predictive accuracy of dispersal constrained models with no dispersal limited SDMs; and to assess the effects of model extrapolation on the predictive accuracy of SDMs, we compared this between extrapolated and no extrapolated areas. The incorporation of dispersal processes enhanced predictive accuracy, mainly due to a decrease in the false presence rate of model predictions, which is consistent with discrimination of suitable but inaccessible habitat. This also had consequences on range size changes over time, which is the most used proxy for extinction risk from climate change. The area of current climatic conditions that was absent in the baseline conditions (i.e., extrapolated areas) represents 39% of the study area, leading to a significant decrease in predictive accuracy of model predictions for those areas. Our results highlight (1) incorporating dispersal processes can improve predictive accuracy of temporal transference of SDMs and reduce uncertainties of extinction risk assessments from global change; (2) as geographical areas subjected to novel climates are expected to arise, they must be reported as they show less accurate predictions under future climate scenarios. Consequently, environmental extrapolation and dispersal processes should be explicitly incorporated to report and reduce uncertainties in temporal predictions of SDMs, respectively. Doing so, we expect to improve the reliability of the information we provide for conservation decision makers under future climate change scenarios.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.1556/abstract;jsessionid=1E2084FF99600D0EEC9FA358A3DBC2A3.f02t0

Homogenization of weakly coupled systems of Hamilton--Jacobi equations with fast switching rates

We consider homogenization for weakly coupled systems of Hamilton--Jacobi equations with fast switching rates. The fast switching rate terms force the solutions converge to the same limit, which is a solution of the effective equation. We discover the appearance of the initial layers, which appear naturally when we consider the systems with different initial data and analyze them rigorously. In particular, we obtain matched asymptotic solutions of the systems and rate of convergence. We also investigate properties of the effective Hamiltonian of weakly coupled systems and show some examples which do not appear in the context of single equations.Comment: final version, to appear in Arch. Ration. Mech. Ana

The plant apoplasm is an important recipient compartment for nematode secreted proteins

Similarly to microbial pathogens, plant-parasitic nematodes secrete into their host plants proteins that are essential to establish a functional interaction. Identifying the destination of nematode secreted proteins within plant cell compartment(s) will provide compelling clues on their molecular functions. Here the fine localization of five nematode secreted proteins was analysed throughout parasitism in Arabidopsis thaliana. An immunocytochemical method was developed that preserves both the host and the pathogen tissues, allowing the localization of nematode secreted proteins within both organisms. One secreted protein from the amphids and three secreted proteins from the subventral oesophageal glands involved in protein degradation and cell wall modification were secreted in the apoplasm during intercellular migration and to a lower extent by early sedentary stages during giant cell formation. Conversely, another protein produced by both subventral and dorsal oesophageal glands in parasitic stages accumulated profusely at the cell wall of young and mature giant cells. In addition, secretion of cell wall-modifying proteins by the vulva of adult females suggested a role in egg laying. The study shows that the plant apoplasm acts as an important destination compartment for proteins secreted during migration and during sedentary stages of the nematode

Efecto de sistema de riego, densidad de plantación y de conducción sobre el rendimiento y calidad de la producción de manzanos en huertos de la Región del Maule

49 p.El sector agrícola hoy en día enfrenta diversas amenazas que atentan contra su competitividad, como el caso de elevados costos de mano de obra, volatilidad en el precio del dólar y cambio climático. Es por ello que es necesaria la utilización de tecnologías que busquen mejorar el rendimiento y calidad. El objetivo general de esta investigación es analizar el efecto de sistema de riego, densidad de plantación y sistema de conducción en huertos de manzanos en la séptima región y su relación con rendimiento y calidad. El estudio realizado es de corte transversal de tipo retrospectivo, donde se aplicó una encuesta a una muestra de 100 productores de huertos de manzanos en región Del Maule. Las variables explicativas rendimiento y calidad fueron sometidas a una comparación de medias, chi cuadrado, kruskal-wallis, se realizó un ranking de datos y en base a esto, se elaboró un anova para cada variable dependiente. Los resultados indican que sólo la interacción de los tres manejos agronómicos tiene un impacto en el rendimiento. En el caso de la calidad, las interacciones que tuvieron un impacto en este estudio son “método riego*sistema conducción”, “densidad*sistema conducción” y la interacción de los tres manejos agronómicos Palabras claves: Metodo de riego, densidad de plantación, sistema de conducción, rendimiento y calidad./ ABSTRACT: Nowadays the agricultural sector faces several threats in its competitiveness, such as high laboral costs, volatility in the dollar price and climate changes. That is why it is necessary to use technologies to improve performance and quality. The general objective of this research is to analyze the effect of the irrigation system, planting density and conduction system in apple orchards in the seventh region and its relation with yield and quality. The study was cross-sectional, where a survey was applied to a sample of 100 apple orchard producers in the Del Maule region. The explanatory variables (performance and quality) were subjected to a comparison of means, chi-square, kruskal-wallis, data ranking and based on this, an anova was elaborated for each dependent variable. The results indicate that only the interaction of the three agronomic management have an impact on the performance. In the case of the quality, the interactions that had an impact in this study are the "irrigation method * conduction system", the "density * conduction system" and the interaction of the three agronomic managements

Mechanotransduction and growth factor signalling to engineer cellular microenvironments

Engineering cellular microenvironments involves biochemical factors, the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the interaction with neighbouring cells. This progress report provides a critical overview of key studies that incorporate growth factor (GF) signalling and mechanotransduction into the design of advanced microenvironments. Materials systems have been developed for surface-bound presentation of GFs, either covalently tethered or sequestered through physico-chemical affinity to the matrix, as an alternative to soluble GFs. Furthermore, some materials contain both GF and integrin binding regions and thereby enable synergistic signalling between the two. Mechanotransduction refers to the ability of the cells to sense physical properties of the ECM and to transduce them into biochemical signals. Various aspects of the physics of the ECM, i.e. stiffness, geometry and ligand spacing, as well as time-dependent properties, such as matrix stiffening, degradability, viscoelasticity, surface mobility as well as spatial patterns and gradients of physical cues are discussed. To conclude, various examples illustrate the potential for cooperative signalling of growth factors and the physical properties of the microenvironment for potential applications in regenerative medicine, cancer research and drug testing

An RNA Alternative to Human Transferrin: A New Tool for Targeting Human Cells

The transferrin receptor, CD71, is an attractive target for drug development because of its high expression on a number of cancer cell lines and the blood brain barrier. To generate serum-stabilized aptamers that recognize the human transferrin receptor, we have modified the traditional aptamer selection protocol by employing a functional selection step that enriches for RNA molecules which bind the target receptor and are internalized by cells. Selected aptamers were specific for the human receptor, rapidly endocytosed by cells and shared a common core structure. A minimized variant was found to compete with the natural ligand, transferrin, for receptor binding and cell uptake, but performed ~twofold better than it in competition experiments. Using this molecule, we generated aptamer-targeted siRNA-laden liposomes. Aptamer targeting enhanced both uptake and target gene knockdown in cells grown in culture when compared to nonmodified or nontargeted liposomes. The aptamer should prove useful as a surrogate for transferrin in many applications including cell imaging and targeted drug delivery