Concepts and Actors in Organic Livestock Husbandry in Bolivia

Traditional smallholder livestock production is expected to correspond widely with principles of organic livestock farming. Though, the real magnitude of livestock under organic and alike management is unknown. From stakeholder analysis and structured interviews with key persons in Bolivia it is deduced that similarities are widely given, whereas it is questioned whether a formal individual certification approach for livestock products will match the farmer interests and consumer demands

Statistical corrections of linkage data suggest predominantly cis regulations of gene expression

Morley et al. (Nature 2004, 430:743–747) detected significant linkages to the expression levels of 142 genes (of 3554) at a reported threshold of genome-wide p = 0.001 (LOD ≈ 5.3), using 14 three-generation Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain pedigrees. Most of the linkages (77%) were trans, i.e., more than 5 Mb from the expressed gene. However, the analysis did not account for the expected anti-conservative effect of the skewed distribution of score- or regression-based statistics in large sibships, or for the possible variance distortion due to correlations among tests. Therefore, we re-analyzed their data, using a robust score statistic for the entire pedigrees and correcting the p-values for skewness. We found that a LOD of 5.3 had a skewness-corrected genome-wide p-value of 0.016 instead of 0.001 (a result that we confirmed using simulation), with around 50 expected false positives. We then further corrected for correlation among the (skew-corrected) p-values by using Efron's method for obtaining the empirical null distribution. Setting a threshold of FDR = 10% (Z = 6.4, LOD = 8.9), we detected linkage for the expression levels of 22 genes, 19 of which are cis. Limiting the analysis to cis regions, linkage was detected to the expression levels of 46 genes with 4.6 expected false positives (FDR = 10%)

Impact of temperature and precipitation extremes on the flowering dates of four German wildlife shrub species

Ongoing climate change is known to cause an increase in the frequency and amplitude of local temperature and precipitation extremes in many regions of the Earth. While gradual changes in the climatological conditions have already been shown to strongly influence plant flowering dates, the question arises if and how extremes specifically impact the timing of this important phenological phase. Studying this question calls for the application of statistical methods that are tailored to the specific properties of event time series. Here, we employ event coincidence analysis, a novel statistical tool that allows assessing whether or not two types of events exhibit similar sequences of occurrences in order to systematically quantify simultaneities between meteorological extremes and the timing of the flowering of four shrub species across Germany. Our study confirms previous findings of experimental studies by highlighting the impact of early spring temperatures on the flowering of the investigated plants. However, previous studies solely based on correlation analysis do not allow deriving explicit estimates of the strength of such interdependencies without further assumptions, a gap that is closed by our analysis. In addition to direct impacts of extremely warm and cold spring temperatures, our analysis reveals statistically significant indications of an influence of temperature extremes in the autumn preceding the flowering

Measurement of interleukin 1 alpha and 1 beta (IL-1 alpha and IL-1 beta) in human cystic lésions of the jaw. Implications for the pathogenesis of radicular cysts

Human radicular cystic tissue of jaws was found to contain between 0.823 pg/mg to 18.026 pg/mg interleukin 1 beta and from 0.34 pg/mg to 0.708 pg/mg interleukin 1 alpha.No IL-1 beta and alpha could be found in specimens from healthy patients. A finding which may be extremely relevant in cystic growth and episodes of alveolar bone resorption around the cystic lesion.Human radicular cystic tissue of jaws was found to contain between 0.823 pg/mg to 18.026 pg/mg interleukin 1 beta and from 0.34 pg/mg to 0.708 pg/mg interleukin 1 alpha.No IL-1 beta and alpha could be found in specimens from healthy patients. A finding which may be extremely relevant in cystic growth and episodes of alveolar bone resorption around the cystic lesion.Les tissus des kystes radiculaires chez l’homme contiennent 0,823 à 18,026 pg/mg d’interleukines 1 beta et 0,34 à 0,708 pg/mg d’interleukines alpha. Il n’a pas été trouvé d’IL-1 beta et alpha dans des prélèvements effectués chez des individus sains. Cette constatation peut avoir des conséquences importantes en relation avec la croissance du kyste et la résorption de l’os alvéolaire avoisinant

Stratospheric age of air computed with trajectories based on various 3D-Var and 4D-Var data sets

International audienceThe age of stratospheric air is computed with a trajectory model, using ECMWF ERA-40 3D-Var and operational 4D-Var winds. Analysis as well as forecast data are used. In the latter case successive forecast segments are put together to get a time series of the wind fields. This is done for different forecast segment lengths. The sensitivity of the computed age to the forecast segment length and assimilation method are studied, and the results are compared with observations and with results from a chemistry transport model that uses the same data sets. A large number of backward trajectories are started in the stratosphere, and from the fraction of these trajectories that has passed the tropopause the age of air is computed. First, for ten different data sets 50-day backward trajectories starting in the tropical lower stratosphere are computed. The results show that in this region the computed cross-tropopause transport decreases with increasing forecast segment length. Next, for three selected data sets (3D-Var 24-h and 4D-Var 72-h forecast segments, and 4D-Var analyses) 5-year backward trajectories are computed that start all over the globe at an altitude of 20km. For all data sets the computed ages of air in the extratropics are smaller than the observation-based age. For 4D-Var forecast series they are closest to the observation-based values, but still 0.5-1.5 year too small. Compared to the difference in age between the results for the different data sets, the difference in age between the trajectory and the chemistry transport model results is small

Role of Akt and c-Jun N-terminal Kinase 2 in Apoptosis Induced by Interleukin-4 Deprivation

El copyright pertenece a The American Society for Cell Biology. The final versión of the paper is available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.govWe have shown previously that interleukin-4 (IL-4) protects TS1ab cells from apoptosis, but very little is known about the mechanism by which IL-4 exerts this effect. We found that Akt activity, which is dependent on phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase, is reduced in IL-4-deprived TS1ab cells. Overexpression of wild-type Akt or a constitutively active Akt mutant protects cells from IL-4 deprivation-induced apoptosis. Readdition of IL-4 before the commitment point is able to restore Akt activity. We also show expression and c-Jun N-terminal kinase 2 activation after IL-4 deprivation. Overexpression of the constitutively activated Akt mutant in IL-4-deprived cells correlates with inhibition of c-Jun N-terminal kinase 2 activity. Finally, TS1ab survival is independent of Bcl-2, Bcl-x, or Bax.Peer reviewe

Hybrid Algorithms Based on Integer Programming for the Search of Prioritized Test Data in Software Product Lines

In Software Product Lines (SPLs) it is not possible, in general, to test all products of the family. The number of products denoted by a SPL is very high due to the combinatorial explosion of features. For this reason, some coverage criteria have been proposed which try to test at least all feature interactions without the necessity to test all products, e.g., all pairs of features (pairwise coverage). In addition, it is desirable to first test products composed by a set of priority features. This problem is known as the Prioritized Pairwise Test Data Generation Problem. In this work we propose two hybrid algorithms using Integer Programming (IP) to generate a prioritized test suite. The first one is based on an integer linear formulation and the second one is based on a integer quadratic (nonlinear) formulation. We compare these techniques with two state-of-the-art algorithms, the Parallel Prioritized Genetic Solver (PPGS) and a greedy algorithm called prioritized-ICPL. Our study reveals that our hybrid nonlinear approach is clearly the best in both, solution quality and computation time. Moreover, the nonlinear variant (the fastest one) is 27 and 42 times faster than PPGS in the two groups of instances analyzed in this work.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER under contract TIN2014-57341-R, the University of Málaga, Andalucía Tech and the Spanish Network TIN2015-71841-REDT (SEBASENet)

Alice: The Rosetta Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph

We describe the design, performance and scientific objectives of the NASA-funded ALICE instrument aboard the ESA Rosetta asteroid flyby/comet rendezvous mission. ALICE is a lightweight, low-power, and low-cost imaging spectrograph optimized for cometary far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectroscopy. It will be the first UV spectrograph to study a comet at close range. It is designed to obtain spatially-resolved spectra of Rosetta mission targets in the 700-2050 A spectral band with a spectral resolution between 8 A and 12 A for extended sources that fill its ~0.05 deg x 6.0 deg field-of-view. ALICE employs an off-axis telescope feeding a 0.15-m normal incidence Rowland circle spectrograph with a concave holographic reflection grating. The imaging microchannel plate detector utilizes dual solar-blind opaque photocathodes (KBr and CsI) and employs a 2 D delay-line readout array. The instrument is controlled by an internal microprocessor. During the prime Rosetta mission, ALICE will characterize comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's coma, its nucleus, and the nucleus/coma coupling; during cruise to the comet, ALICE will make observations of the mission's two asteroid flyby targets and of Mars, its moons, and of Earth's moon. ALICE has already successfully completed the in-flight commissioning phase and is operating normally in flight. It has been characterized in flight with stellar flux calibrations, observations of the Moon during the first Earth fly-by, and observations of comet Linear T7 in 2004 and comet 9P/Tempel 1 during the 2005 Deep Impact comet-collision observing campaignComment: 11 pages, 7 figure