Nitric oxide synthesis and biological functions of nitric oxide released from ruthenium compounds

During three decades, an enormous number of studies have demonstrated the critical role of nitric oxide (NO) as a second messenger engaged in the activation of many systems including vascular smooth muscle relaxation. The underlying cellular mechanisms involved in vasodilatation are essentially due to soluble guanylyl-cyclase (sGC) modulation in the cytoplasm of vascular smooth cells. sGC activation culminates in cyclic GMP (cGMP) production, which in turn leads to protein kinase G (PKG) activation. NO binds to the sGC heme moiety, thereby activating this enzyme. Activation of the NO-sGC-cGMP-PKG pathway entails Ca2+ signaling reduction and vasodilatation. Endothelium dysfunction leads to decreased production or bioavailability of endogenous NO that could contribute to vascular diseases. Nitrosyl ruthenium complexes have been studied as a new class of NO donors with potential therapeutic use in order to supply the NO deficiency. In this context, this article shall provide a brief review of the effects exerted by the NO that is enzymatically produced via endothelial NO-synthase (eNOS) activation and by the NO released from NO donor compounds in the vascular smooth muscle cells on both conduit and resistance arteries, as well as veins. In addition, the involvement of the nitrite molecule as an endogenous NO reservoir engaged in vasodilatation will be described

Mito-nuclear sequencing is paramount to correctly identify sympatric hybridizing fishes

Background. Hybridization may drive speciation and erode species, especially when intrageneric sympatric species are involved. Five sympatric Luciobarbus species—Luciobarbus sclateri (Günther, 1868), Luciobarbus comizo (Steindachner, 1864), Luciobarbus microcephalus (Almaça, 1967), Luciobarbus guiraonis (Steindachner, 1866), and Luciobarbus steindachneri (Almaça, 1967)—are commonly identified in field surveys by diagnostic morphological characters. Assuming that i) in loco identification is subjective and observer-dependent, ii) there is previous evidence of interspecific hybridization, and iii) the technical reports usually do not include molecular analyses, our main goal was to assess the concordance between in loco species identification based on phenotypic characters with identifications based on morphometric indices, mtDNA only, and a combination of mito-nuclear markers. Materials and methods. Specimens of Luciobarbus from six Guadiana River sub-basins were collected and sequenced for the cytochrome b and beta-actin genes. For comparative purposes, samples of Luciobarbus from other 12 river basins were also used. Four levels of taxonomical identification were conducted based on: identification made in the field (in loco identification), cytb gene only, beta-actin gene only, and mito-nuclear combined genomes. Results. Results showed that interspecific hybridization seems to be high (around 41%) and likely favoured by non-random mating and the loss of fluvial connectivity. About 34% of the hybrids showed mito-nuclear discordance. Misidentifications were frequent when only phenotypic characters are considered, and the use of a single mitochondrial gene is not sufficient: the use of two mito-nuclear markers showed that around 82% of the in loco identifications based on the phenotype were not correct. Conclusion. Incorrect species assignment likely generated biased results in previous studies on the biology and ecology of Guadiana barbels and in the assignment of conservation status and, consequently, on the establishment of conservation management measuresinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Data-driven risk assessment in infrastructure networks

Algorithms and the Foundations of Software technolog

Fair automated assessment of noncompliance in cargo ship networks

Cargo ships navigating global waters are required to be sufficiently safe and compliant with international treaties. Governmental inspectorates currently assess in a rule-based manner whether a ship is potentially noncompliant and thus needs inspection. One of the dominant ship characteristics in this assessment is the ‘colour’ of the flag a ship is flying, where countries with a positive reputation have a so-called ‘white flag’. The colour of a flag may disproportionately influence the inspector, causing more frequent and stricter inspections of ships flying a non-white flag, resulting in confirmation bias in historical inspection data.In this paper, we propose an automated approach for the assessment of ship noncompliance, realising two important contributions. First, we reduce confirmation bias by using fair classifiers that decorrelate the flag from the risk classification returned by the model. Second, we extract mobility patterns from a cargo ship network, allowing us to derive meaningful features for ship classification. Crucially, these features model the behaviour of a ship, rather than its static properties. Our approach shows both a higher overall prediction performance and improved fairness with respect to the flag. Ultimately, this work enables inspectorates to better target noncompliant ships, thereby improving overall maritime safety and environmental protection.Algorithms and the Foundations of Software technolog

Cell- and Tissue-Specific Transcriptome Analyses of Medicago truncatula Root Nodules

Legumes have the unique ability to host nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium bacteria as symbiosomes inside root nodule cells. To get insight into this key process, which forms the heart of the endosymbiosis, we isolated specific cells/tissues at different stages of symbiosome formation from nodules of the model legume Medicago truncatula using laser-capture microdissection. Next, we determined their associated expression profiles using Affymetrix Medicago GeneChips. Cells were collected from the nodule infection zone divided into a distal (where symbiosome formation and division occur) and proximal region (where symbiosomes are mainly differentiating), as well as infected cells from the fixation zone containing mature nitrogen fixing symbiosomes. As non-infected cells/tissue we included nodule meristem cells and uninfected cells from the fixation zone. Here, we present a comprehensive gene expression map of an indeterminate Medicago nodule and selected genes that show specific enriched expression in the different cells or tissues. Validation of the obtained expression profiles, by comparison to published gene expression profiles and experimental verification, indicates that the data can be used as digital “in situ”. This digital “in situ” offers a genome-wide insight into genes specifically associated with subsequent stages of symbiosome and nodule cell development, and can serve to guide future functional studies

Nonclassical statistics of intracavity coupled χ(2)\chi^{(2)} waveguides: the quantum optical dimer

A model is proposed where two $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinear waveguides are contained in a cavity suited for second-harmonic generation. The evanescent wave coupling between the waveguides is considered as weak, and the interplay between this coupling and the nonlinear interaction within the waveguides gives rise to quantum violations of the classical limit. These violations are particularly strong when two instabilities are competing, where twin-beam behavior is found as almost complete noise suppression in the difference of the fundamental intensities. Moreover, close to bistable transitions perfect twin-beam correlations are seen in the sum of the fundamental intensities, and also the self-pulsing instability as well as the transition from symmetric to asymmetric states display nonclassical twin-beam correlations of both fundamental and second-harmonic intensities. The results are based on the full quantum Langevin equations derived from the Hamiltonian and including cavity damping effects. The intensity correlations of the output fields are calculated semi-analytically using a linearized version of the Langevin equations derived through the positive-P representation. Confirmation of the analytical results are obtained by numerical simulations of the nonlinear Langevin equations derived using the truncated Wigner representation.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Selection-free predictions in global games with endogenous information and multiple equilibria

Global games with endogenous information often exhibit multiple equilibria. In this paper, we show how one can nevertheless identify useful predictions that are robust across all equilibria and that cannot be delivered in the common-knowledge counterparts of these games. Our analysis is conducted within a flexible family of games of regime change, which have been used to model, inter alia, speculative currency attacks, debt crises, and political change. The endogeneity of information originates in the signaling role of policy choices. A novel procedure of iterated elimination of nonequilibrium strategies is used to deliver probabilistic predictions that an outside observer—an econometrician—can form under arbitrary equilibrium selections. The sharpness of these predictions improves as the noise gets smaller, but disappears in the complete-information version of the model