Worldwide diversity of endophytic fungi and insects associated with dormant tree twigs

International trade in plants and climate change are two of the main factors causing damaging tree pests (i.e. fungi and insects) to spread into new areas. To mitigate these risks, a large-scale assessment of tree-associated fungi and insects is needed. We present records of endophytic fungi and insects in twigs of 17 angiosperm and gymnosperm genera, from 51 locations in 32 countries worldwide. Endophytic fungi were characterized by high-throughput sequencing of 352 samples from 145 tree species in 28 countries. Insects were reared from 227 samples of 109 tree species in 18 countries and sorted into taxonomic orders and feeding guilds. Herbivorous insects were grouped into morphospecies and were identified using molecular and morphological approaches. This dataset reveals the diversity of tree-associated taxa, as it contains 12,721 fungal Amplicon Sequence Variants and 208 herbivorous insect morphospecies, sampled across broad geographic and climatic gradients and for many tree species. This dataset will facilitate applied and fundamental studies on the distribution of fungal endophytes and insects in trees

Climate, host and geography shape insect and fungal communities of trees.

Non-native pests, climate change, and their interactions are likely to alter relationships between trees and tree-associated organisms with consequences for forest health. To understand and predict such changes, factors structuring tree-associated communities need to be determined. Here, we analysed the data consisting of records of insects and fungi collected from dormant twigs from 155 tree species at 51 botanical gardens or arboreta in 32 countries. Generalized dissimilarity models revealed similar relative importance of studied climatic, host-related and geographic factors on differences in tree-associated communities. Mean annual temperature, phylogenetic distance between hosts and geographic distance between locations were the major drivers of dissimilarities. The increasing importance of high temperatures on differences in studied communities indicate that climate change could affect tree-associated organisms directly and indirectly through host range shifts. Insect and fungal communities were more similar between closely related vs. distant hosts suggesting that host range shifts may facilitate the emergence of new pests. Moreover, dissimilarities among tree-associated communities increased with geographic distance indicating that human-mediated transport may serve as a pathway of the introductions of new pests. The results of this study highlight the need to limit the establishment of tree pests and increase the resilience of forest ecosystems to changes in climate

Attraction of the Japanese pine sawyer, Monochamus alternatus, to volatiles from stressed host in China

Ovipositing female Japanese sawyer beetles, Monochamus alternatus, prefer stressed Pinus massoniana over healthy trees. Host discrimination by M. alternatus suggests that changes in the chemical composition of pines may mediate the host preference of beetles. Volatile compounds from stressed and healthy pine stems were collected using absorbent trap collection method. Significant differences in absolute terpene quantities between stressed and healthy pines occurred for 7 of 10 terpenes. Field trials demonstrated that four terpenes identified from host pines were attractive to M. alternatus with (+)-$\alpha$-pinene as the most attractive compound to M. alternatus. Ethanol appeared to be an important synergistic compound causing significant increase in attraction.Des composés émis par les arbres-hôtes stressés sont attractifs pour le cérambycidé Monochamus alternatus. Les femelles du cérambycidé Monochamus alternatus préfèrent pondre sur les arbres stressés que sur les arbres sains de Pinus massoniana. Cette discrimination dans le choix de l'hôte par l'insecte pourrait être reliée à des modifications intervenues dans la composition chimique des pins. Les composés volatils émis par des pins stressés et sains ont été collectés en utilisant une méthode de piégeage sur résine adsorbante. La quantité absolue de 7 terpènes sur les 10 analysés diffère significativement entre pins stressés et sains. Des essais sur le terrain ont montrés que 4 de ces terpènes sont attractifs pour M. Alternatus. l'(+)-$\alpha$-pinène étant le compose le plus attractif. L'éthanol semble être un composé synergique induisant une augmentation significative de l'attraction

Benefits of camrelizumab plus carboplatin and albumin paclitaxel as induction therapy for locally advanced borderline resectable or unresectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract Background To evaluate the safety and efficacy of camrelizumab plus albumin paclitaxel and carboplatin in the neoadjuvant treatment of borderline resectable or unresectable locally advanced esophageal cancer. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 27 patients with borderline resectable or unresectable locally advanced esophageal cancer who received neoadjuvant treatment with camrelizumab plus albumin paclitaxel and carboplatin at Shanxi Cancer Hospital from January 2020 to March 2022. Of these, 20 patients underwent thoracoscopic esophagectomy after neoadjuvant treatment. Results Overall, 88.9% (24/27) of patients completed neoadjuvant treatment. The objective response rate was 79.2% (19/24) according to the RECIST criteria. Of the 20 patients who underwent surgery, the R0 resection rate was 95%, and 35% (7/20) achieved pathological complete response (pCR). During neoadjuvant treatment, 30% (6/20) of patients experienced grade ≥3 treatment‐related adverse events (TRAEs), and 20% (4/20) had grade ≥3 postoperative complications. There were no cases of reoperation or perioperative mortality. Conclusion Camrelizumab plus albumin paclitaxel and carboplatin were found to be safe and effective in the neoadjuvant treatment of borderline resectable or unresectable locally advanced esophageal cancer. It was observed to improve the rate of curative resection without increasing perioperative complications

Passive Attacks Against Searchable Encryption

Searchable encryption (SE) provides a privacy-preserving mechanism for data users to search over encrypted data stored on a remote server. Researchers have designed a number of SE schemes with high efficiency yet allowing some degree of leakage profile to the remote server. The leakage, however, should be further measured to allow us to understand what types of attacks an SE scheme would encounter. This paper considers passive attacks that make inferences based on prior knowledge and observations on queries issued by users. This is in contrast to previously studied active attacks that adaptively inject files and queries. We consider several assumptions on the types or prior knowledge the attacker possessed and propose a few passive attacks. In particular, under the “full-fledged” assumption, the keyword recovery rate of our attack is optimal in the sense that it is equal to the theoretical upper bound. We further present several enhanced attacks under other weaker assumptions on various levels of the prior knowledge that the attacker can obtain, in which the keyword recovery rates are optimal or nearly optimal (i.e., approaching the theoretical upper bound). In addition, we provide extensive experiments to show the “power” of our passive attacks. This paper highlights the importance of minimizing the prior knowledge of a server and the leakage of search queries. It also shows that simply distorting the frequency of the keyword to hold against our passive attacks may not scale well

Microstructure–property relationship of l-lactide/trimethylene carbonate/glycolide terpolymers as cardiovascular stent material

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