Effect of pressure-assisted thermal sterilization on conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content in CLA-enriched milk

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has been recently studied for its health-promoting and disease-preventing properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of pressure (100-600 MPa), temperature (60-120˚C) and treatment time (0-14 min) on CLA content in milk and anhydrous milk fat (AMF) rich in CLA. In milk treated up to 14 min at 100 MPa, CLA was stable (> 80 % of retention), regardless of the temperature. In contrast, only 3.4 ± 2 % of CLA was retained at 600 MPa and 120°C. For AMF, CLA retention was considerably higher (40.2 ± 2 %) than that obtained for milk. The presence of free metal ions in milk might catalyze CLA degradation. When the antioxidant catechin (1 g/kg) was used, CLA retention increased significantly (> 90%) in milk and AMF, regardless of the experimental conditions.Keywords: enriched milk., conjugated linoleic acid, pressure-assisted thermal sterilization, anhydrous milk fat, catechinKeywords: enriched milk., conjugated linoleic acid, pressure-assisted thermal sterilization, anhydrous milk fat, catechi

Off-Target Effects of Clozapine-N-Oxide on the Chemosensory Reflex Are Masked by High Stress Levels

Respiratory chemosensory circuits are implicated in several physiological and behavioral disorders ranging from sudden infant death syndrome to panic disorder. Thus, a comprehensive map of the chemosensory network would be of significant value. To delineate chemosensory neuronal populations, we have utilized pharmacogenetic Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADD) perturbations for acute neuronal perturbations in respiratory circuit mapping. Recent studies show that the biologically inert DREADD ligand clozapine-N-oxide (CNO) is back-metabolized into the bioactive compound clozapine in rodents, emphasizing the need for CNO-only DREADD-free controls, which have been carried out in several studies. However, we show that high CNO doses used in several chemosensory circuit mapping studies nonetheless affect the chemosensory ventilatory reflexes in control mice, which is unmasked by extensive habituation. Here, unhabituated control animals showed no differences in respiratory parameters after CNO administration, whereas habituated animals receiving the commonly used dose of 10 mg/kg of CNO show a deficit in the hypercapnic (high CO2) chemosensory reflex, which is not present in 1 mg/kg CNO treated or saline control groups. Our findings indicate that even in appropriately controlled studies, additional masked CNO off-target effects may exist and underscore the importance of using minimal doses of activating ligand in combination with high levels of habituation

Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Patients With Primary Immune Regulatory Disorders (PIRD): A Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium (PIDTC) Survey.

Primary Immune Regulatory Disorders (PIRD) are an expanding group of diseases caused by gene defects in several different immune pathways, such as regulatory T cell function. Patients with PIRD develop clinical manifestations associated with diminished and exaggerated immune responses. Management of these patients is complicated; oftentimes immunosuppressive therapies are insufficient, and patients may require hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) for treatment. Analysis of HCT data in PIRD patients have previously focused on a single gene defect. This study surveyed transplanted patients with a phenotypic clinical picture consistent with PIRD treated in 33 Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium centers and European centers. Our data showed that PIRD patients often had immunodeficient and autoimmune features affecting multiple organ systems. Transplantation resulted in resolution of disease manifestations in more than half of the patients with an overall 5-years survival of 67%. This study, the first to encompass disorders across the PIRD spectrum, highlights the need for further research in PIRD management

Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope

The ANTARES telescope is well-suited for detecting astrophysical transient neutrino sources as it can observe a full hemisphere of the sky at all times with a high duty cycle. The background due to atmospheric particles can be drastically reduced, and the point-source sensitivity improved, by selecting a narrow time window around possible neutrino production periods. Blazars, being radio-loud active galactic nuclei with their jets pointing almost directly towards the observer, are particularly attractive potential neutrino point sources, since they are among the most likely sources of the very high-energy cosmic rays. Neutrinos and gamma rays may be produced in hadronic interactions with the surrounding medium. Moreover, blazars generally show high time variability in their light curves at different wavelengths and on various time scales. This paper presents a time-dependent analysis applied to a selection of flaring gamma-ray blazars observed by the FERMI/LAT experiment and by TeV Cherenkov telescopes using five years of ANTARES data taken from 2008 to 2012. The results are compatible with fluctuations of the background. Upper limits on the neutrino fluence have been produced and compared to the measured gamma-ray spectral energy distribution.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Lifetimes of High-Degree p Modes in the Quiet and Active Sun

We study variations of the lifetimes of high-degree solar p-modes in the quiet and active Sun with the solar activity cycle. The lifetimes in the degree range 300 - 600 and frequency 2.5 - 4.5 mHz were computed from SOHO/MDI data in an area including active regions and quiet Sun using the time-distance technique. We applied our analysis to the data in four different phases of solar activity: in 1996 (at minimum), 1998 (rising phase), 2000 (at maximum) and 2003 (declining phase). The results from the area with active regions show that the lifetime decreases as activity increases. The maximal lifetime variations are between solar minimum in 1996 and maximum in 2000; the relative variation averaged over all mode degree values and frequencies is a decrease of about 13%. The lifetime reductions relative to 1996 are about 7% in 1998 and about 10% in 2003. The lifetime computed in the quiet region still decreases with solar activity although the decrease is smaller. On average, relative to 1996, the lifetime decrease is about 4% in 1998, 10% in 2000 and 8% in 2003. Thus, measured lifetime increases when regions of high magnetic activity are avoided. Moreover, the lifetime computed in quiet regions also shows variations with activity cycle.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures; Accepted for publication in Solar Physic

Murchison Widefield Array limits on radio emission from Antares neutrino events

We present a search, using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), for electromagnetic (EM) counterparts to two candidate high-energy neutrino events detected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope in 2013 November and 2014 March. These events were selected by ANTARES because they are consistent, within 0°.4, with the locations of galaxies within 20 Mpc of Earth. Using MWA archival data at frequencies between 118 and 182 MHz, taken ~20 days prior to, at the same time as, and up to a year after the neutrino triggers, we look for transient or strongly variable radio sources that are consistent with the neutrino positions. No such counterparts are detected, and we set a 5s upper limit for low-frequency radio emission of ~1037 erg s-1 for progenitors at 20 Mpc. If the neutrino sources are instead not in nearby galaxies, but originate in binary neutron star coalescences, our limits place the progenitors at z 0.2. While it is possible, due to the high background from atmospheric neutrinos, that neither event is astrophysical, the MWA observations are nevertheless among the first to follow up neutrino candidates in the radio, and illustrate the promise of wide-field instruments like MWA for detecting EM counterparts to such events

Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope

The ANTARES telescope is well-suited for detecting astrophysical transient neutrino sources as it can observe a full hemisphere of the sky at all times with a high duty cycle. The background due to atmospheric particles can be drastically reduced, and the point-source sensitivity improved, by selecting a narrow time window around possible neutrino production periods. Blazars, being radio-loud active galactic nuclei with their jets pointing almost directly towards the observer, are particularly attractive potential neutrino point sources, since they are among the most likely sources of the very high-energy cosmic rays. Neutrinos and gamma rays may be produced in hadronic interactions with the surrounding medium. Moreover, blazars generally show high time variability in their light curves at different wavelengths and on various time scales. This paper presents a time-dependent analysis applied to a selection of flaring gamma-ray blazars observed by the FERMI/LAT experiment and by TeV Cherenkov telescopes using five years of ANTARES data taken from 2008 to 2012. The results are compatible with fluctuations of the background. Upper limits on the neutrino fluence have been produced and compared to the measured gamma-ray spectral energy distributionThe authors acknowledge the financial support of the funding agencies: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives (CEA), Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Region Ile-de-France (DIM-ACAV) Region Alsace (contrat CPER), Region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Departement du Var and Ville de La Seyne-sur-Mer, France; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), the Netherlands; Council of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists and leading scientific schools supporting grants, Russia; National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO), Prometeo and Grisolia programs of Generalitat Valenciana and MultiDark, Spain; Agence de l'Oriental and CNRST, Morocco. We also acknowledge the technical support of Ifremer, AIM and Foselev Marine for the sea operation and the CC-IN2P3 for the computing facilities.Adrián Martínez, S.; Albert, A.; André, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid Ramírez, M.; Aubert, J.; Baret, B.... (2015). Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 12(14):1-26. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2015/12/014S1261214Becker, J. K. (2008). High-energy neutrinos in the context of multimessenger astrophysics. Physics Reports, 458(4-5), 173-246. doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2007.10.006Bloom, S. D., & Marscher, A. P. (1996). An Analysis of the Synchrotron Self-Compton Model for the Multi--Wave Band Spectra of Blazars. The Astrophysical Journal, 461, 657. doi:10.1086/177092Maraschi, L., Ghisellini, G., & Celotti, A. (1992). A jet model for the gamma-ray emitting blazar 3C 279. 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Physical Review D, 80(8). doi:10.1103/physrevd.80.083008Mücke, A., & Protheroe, R. J. (2001). A proton synchrotron blazar model for flaring in Markarian 501. Astroparticle Physics, 15(1), 121-136. doi:10.1016/s0927-6505(00)00141-9Abdo, A. A., Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Allafort, A., Antolini, E., Atwood, W. B., … Barbiellini, G. (2010). THE FIRST CATALOG OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI DETECTED BY THEFERMILARGE AREA TELESCOPE. The Astrophysical Journal, 715(1), 429-457. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/715/1/429Ageron, M., Aguilar, J. A., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., Ameli, F., André, M., … Ardid, M. (2011). ANTARES: The first undersea neutrino telescope. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 656(1), 11-38. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2011.06.103Aguilar, J. A., Samarai, I. A., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Astraatmadja, T. (2011). Search for a diffuse flux of high-energy νμ with the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Physics Letters B, 696(1-2), 16-22. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.11.070Adrián-Martínez, S., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Aubert, J.-J. (2012). SEARCH FOR COSMIC NEUTRINO POINT SOURCES WITH FOUR YEARS OF DATA FROM THE ANTARES TELESCOPE. The Astrophysical Journal, 760(1), 53. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/760/1/53Adrián-Martínez, S., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., Ardid, M., … Barrios, J. (2014). A search for time dependent neutrino emission from microquasars with the ANTARES telescope. Journal of High Energy Astrophysics, 3-4, 9-17. doi:10.1016/j.jheap.2014.06.002Adrián-Martínez, S., Albert, A., Al Samarai, I., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Aubert, J.-J. (2013). Search for muon neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts with the ANTARES neutrino telescope using 2008 to 2011 data. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 559, A9. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201322169Abdo, A. A., Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Antolini, E., Baldini, L., Ballet, J., … Bellazzini, R. (2010). GAMMA-RAY LIGHT CURVES AND VARIABILITY OF BRIGHTFERMI-DETECTED BLAZARS. The Astrophysical Journal, 722(1), 520-542. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/722/1/520Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Allafort, A., Antolini, E., Atwood, W. B., Axelsson, M., … Bastieri, D. (2011). THE SECOND CATALOG OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI DETECTED BY THEFERMILARGE AREA TELESCOPE. The Astrophysical Journal, 743(2), 171. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/743/2/171Hovatta, T., Pavlidou, V., King, O. G., Mahabal, A., Sesar, B., Dancikova, R., … Surace, J. (2014). Connection between optical and γ-ray variability in blazars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 439(1), 690-702. doi:10.1093/mnras/stt2494Adrián-Martínez, S., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Aubert, J.-J. (2012). Search for neutrino emission from gamma-ray flaring blazars with the ANTARES telescope. Astroparticle Physics, 36(1), 204-210. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2012.06.001Aguilar, J. A., Albert, A., Ameli, F., Amram, P., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., … Aubert, J.-J. (2005). Study of large hemispherical photomultiplier tubes for the ANTARES neutrino telescope. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 555(1-2), 132-141. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2005.09.035Amram, P., Anghinolfi, M., Anvar, S., Ardellier-Desages, F. ., Aslanides, E., Aubert, J.-J., … Battaglieri, M. (2002). The ANTARES optical module. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 484(1-3), 369-383. doi:10.1016/s0168-9002(01)02026-5Adrián-Martínez, S., Ageron, M., Aguilar, J. A., Samarai, I. A., Albert, A., André, M., … Ardid, M. (2012). The positioning system of the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope. 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TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

This article has 730 authors, of which I have only listed the lead author and myself as a representative of University of HelsinkiPlant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.Peer reviewe