Elimination of mites from the buds of dormant grapevine cuttings by hot water treatment

The suitability of hot water treatment was tested for eliminating overwintering mites from dormant grapevine buds. Treatment at 52 °C for 60 min completely eliminated mite infestation, but did not or only slightly influenced the viability of grapevine buds. In greenhouse experiments we demonstrated that treated plants frequently showed a better growth, most probably due to the elimination of mite infestation. This additional application of hot water treatment provides a simple, environment-friendly and economical method to prevent spreading of grapevine mites

Steroid concentrations in atopic dermatitis patients: Reduced plasma DHEAS and increased cortisone levels.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronically relapsing inflammatory skin disease, which is characterized by a disrupted epidermal barrier function present both in affected skin and in non-affected skin. Mainly glucocorticosteroids were used in topical and systemic atopy treatments because of their potent anti-inflammatory effects, unfortunately with strong side effects. In this study we determined that 2 out of 16 steroids were significantly different in healthy volunteers vs AD-patients. Cortisone, which is higher in AD-patients plasma, is a direct precursor of the bioactive corticosteroid cortisol, which just displays a higher tendency and is known for its potent anti-inflammatory effects. In addition a tendency of reduced levels of the anti-inflammatory ER ligand estrone was found in AD-patients. DHEA is a precursor of testosterone, its levels just display a lower tendency in male AD-patients, while its sulfonation metabolite DHEAS is lower in male and female AD-patients. We found and conclude that altered steroid levels in the plasma of AD-patients indicate altered vitamin D signaling (based on reduced DHEA sulfonation) and increased feedback for anti-inflammatory signaling (increased levels of cortisone) present in AD-patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Identification of Young Stellar Object candidates in the GaiaGaia DR2 x AllWISE catalogue with machine learning methods

The second $Gaia$ Data Release (DR2) contains astrometric and photometric data for more than 1.6 billion objects with mean $Gaia$ $G$ magnitude $<$20.7, including many Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) in different evolutionary stages. In order to explore the YSO population of the Milky Way, we combined the $Gaia$ DR2 database with WISE and Planck measurements and made an all-sky probabilistic catalogue of YSOs using machine learning techniques, such as Support Vector Machines, Random Forests, or Neural Networks. Our input catalogue contains 103 million objects from the DR2xAllWISE cross-match table. We classified each object into four main classes: YSOs, extragalactic objects, main-sequence stars and evolved stars. At a 90% probability threshold we identified 1,129,295 YSO candidates. To demonstrate the quality and potential of our YSO catalogue, here we present two applications of it. (1) We explore the 3D structure of the Orion A star forming complex and show that the spatial distribution of the YSOs classified by our procedure is in agreement with recent results from the literature. (2) We use our catalogue to classify published $Gaia$ Science Alerts. As $Gaia$ measures the sources at multiple epochs, it can efficiently discover transient events, including sudden brightness changes of YSOs caused by dynamic processes of their circumstellar disk. However, in many cases the physical nature of the published alert sources are not known. A cross-check with our new catalogue shows that about 30% more of the published $Gaia$ alerts can most likely be attributed to YSO activity. The catalogue can be also useful to identify YSOs among future $Gaia$ alerts.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, 3 table

(α,n) reaction cross section measurement on 92,94Mo isotopes

The cross section of the 92,94Mo(α,n)95,97Ru reactions were measured recently at MTA Atomki using the activation method and thick targets to study the origin of the proton-rich nuclei heavier than iron. The experimental details of the cross section measurement are presented in this paper

Experimental determination of the 3^3He(α\alpha,γ\gamma)7^7Be reaction cross section above the 7^7Be proton separation threshold

The $^3$He($\alpha$,$\gamma$)$^7$Be reaction plays a major role both in the BBN producing the majority of the primordial $^7$Li, and in the pp-chain, where it is the branching point. As a few-nucleon system, this reaction is often used to validate ab-initio theoretical calculations and/or test R-matrix theory and code implementations. For the latter, experimental data in an extended energy range is of crucial importance to test the fit and extrapolation capabilities of the different codes. The $^3$He($\alpha$,$\gamma$)$^7$Be reaction cross section has been measured by several groups up to the first resonance ($E_{c.m.} \approx 3$ MeV) in the reaction. However, only one dataset exists above the $^7$Be proton separation threshold measured in a narrow energy range ($E_{c.m.} = 4.0-4.4$ MeV). In this work we extend the available experimental capture cross section database to the energy range of known $^7$Be levels. The activation method was used. The experiment was performed using a thin-window gas cell with two high-purity Al foils as entrance and exit windows. The activity of the $^7$Be nuclei implanted in the exit/catcher foil was measured by detecting the yield of the emitted $\gamma$~rays using shielded high-purity germanium detectors. New experimental $^3$He($\alpha$,$\gamma$)$^7$Be reaction cross section data were obtained for the first time in the $E_{c.m.}=4.3-8.3$ MeV energy region. The new dataset with about 0.2 MeV step covers the energy range of known levels and particle separation thresholds. No prominent structures are observer around the $^7$Be levels. The reaction cross section is slowly increasing with increasing energy. Above the $^6$Li$+p_1$ threshold, a decrease starts in the cross section trend. The overall structure of the cross section suggest a broad resonance peaking around $E_x=7.5$ MeV $^7$Be excitation energy, with a width of 8 MeV.Comment: Accepted for publication in PR

Activity of 50 Long-Period Comets Beyond 5.2 AU

Remote investigations of the ancient solar system matter has been traditionally carried out through the observations of long-period (LP) comets that are less affected by solar irradiation than the short-period counterparts orbiting much closer to the Sun. Here we summarize the results of our decade-long survey of the distant activity of LP comets. We found that the most important separation in the dataset is based on the dynamical nature of the objects. Dynamically new comets are characterized by a higher level of activity on average: the most active new comets in our sample can be characterized by afrho values >3--4 higher than that of our most active returning comets. New comets develop more symmetric comae, suggesting a generally isotropic outflow. Contrary to this, the coma of recurrent comets can be less symmetrical, ocassionally exhibiting negative slope parameters, suggesting sudden variations in matter production. The morphological appearance of the observed comets is rather diverse. A surprisingly large fraction of the comets have long, teniouos tails, but the presence of impressive tails does not show a clear correlation with the brightness of the comets.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A

New method for preparation of delivery systems of poorly soluble drugs on the basis of functionalized mesoporous MCM-41 nanoparticles

MCM-41 silica with spherical morphology and small particle sizes (100 nm) was synthesized and modified by post-synthesis method with amino and/or carboxylic groups. Solid state reaction was applied for the first time for loading of poorly soluble drug mesalazine (5-aminosalicylic acid – 5-ASA). Thenon-loaded and drug loaded mesoporous silicas were characterized by XRD, TEM, N2 physisorption, elemental analysis, thermal analysis, FT-IR and solid state NMR spectroscopy. Quantum-chemical calculations were used to predict the interactions between the drug molecule and the functional groups of the carrier. The nanoparticles were post-coated with sodium alginate and the coating modified the rate of mesalazine release from MCM-41NH2 and MCM-41NH2COOH particles. Cytotoxic evaluation on colon adenocarcinoma cell line revealed that the alginate coating reduced cytotoxicity of mesalazine loaded in the post-coated particles compared to the pure mesalazine. The functionalized, polymer coated mesoporous systems are suitable oral drug delivery systems providing an opportunity to modify drug release