Differences in gregarine parasite load between male and female Calopteryx maculata

Natural History and EvolutionDamselflies and other insects of the order Odonata are frequently parasitized by gregarine protists. In the trophozoite stage of the gregarine life cycle, the parasite feeds on the contents of the host’s gut and negatively affect its reproductive success. Possibly as a result of its impacts on the host’s reproductive system, levels of gregarine parasitism has been observed to differ between male and female damselflies. We aimed to measure relative levels of gregarine parasitism of male and female damselflies of the species Calopteryx maculata . In order to do this, we collected damselflies at multiple sites in Michigan’s Maple River and dissected individuals to observe the presence of gregarine parasites. Our results indicate that females experience significantly higher levels of gregarine parasitism than their male counterparts. We propose that this difference is the result of increased levels of migratory behavior in female damselflies due to increased parental investment.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147919/1/Chapman_Noyd_Seres_2018.pd

Fast and automated biomarker detection in breath samples with machine learning

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human breath can reveal a large spectrum of health conditions and can be used for fast, accurate and non-invasive diagnostics. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is used to measure VOCs, but its application is limited by expert-driven data analysis that is time-consuming, subjective and may introduce errors. We propose a machine learning-based system to perform GC-MS data analysis that exploits deep learning pattern recognition ability to learn and automatically detect VOCs directly from raw data, thus bypassing expert-led processing. We evaluate this new approach on clinical samples and with four types of convolutional neural networks (CNNs): VGG16, VGG-like, densely connected and residual CNNs. The proposed machine learning methods showed to outperform the expert-led analysis by detecting a significantly higher number of VOCs in just a fraction of time while maintaining high specificity. These results suggest that the proposed novel approach can help the large-scale deployment of breath-based diagnosis by reducing time and cost, and increasing accuracy and consistency

Convolutional neural networks for automated targeted analysis of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry data

Through their breath, humans exhale hundreds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can reveal pathologies, including many types of cancer at early stages. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is an analytical method used to separate and detect compounds in the mixture contained in breath samples. The identification of VOCs is based on the recognition of their specific ion patterns in GC-MS data, which requires labour-intensive and time-consuming preprocessing and analysis by domain experts. This paper explores the original idea of applying supervised machine learning, and in particular convolutional neural networks (CNNs), to learn ion patterns directly from raw GC-MS data. The method adapts to machine specific characteristics, and once trained, can quickly analyse breath samples bypassing the time-consuming preprocessing phase. The CNN classification performance is compared to those of shallow neural networks and support vector machines. All considered machine learning tools achieved high accuracy in experiments with clinical data from participants. In particular, the CNN-based approach detected the lowest number of false positives. The results indicate that the proposed method is a promising tool to improve accuracy, specificity, and in particular speed in the detection of VOCs of interest in large-scale data analysis

Standardization of the NEO-PI-3 in the Greek general population

BACKGROUND: The revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-3) includes 240 items corresponding to the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience) and subordinate dimensions (facets). It is suitable for use with adolescents and adults (12 years or older). The aim of the current study was to validate the Greek translation of the NEO-PI-3 in the general Greek population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study sample included 734 subjects from the general Greek population of whom 59.4% were females and 40.6% males aged 40.80 +/- 11.48. The NEO-PI-3 was translated into Greek and back-translated into English, and the accuracy of the translation was confirmed and established. The statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA), the calculation of Cronbach's alpha, and the calculation of Pearson product-moment correlations. Sociodemographics groups were compared by ANOVA. RESULTS: Most facets had Cronbach's alpha above 0.60. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable loading of the facets on their own hypothesized factors and very good estimations of Cronbach's alphas for the hypothesized factors, so it was partially supportive of the five-factor structure of the NEO-PI-3.The factors extracted with Procrustes rotation analysis can be considered reasonably homologous to the factors of the American normative sample. Correlations between dimensions were as expected and similar to those reported in the literature. DISCUSSION: The literature suggests that overall, the psychometric properties of NEO-PI-3 scales have been found to generalize across ages, cultures, and methods of measurement. In accord with this, the results of the current study confirm the reliability of the Greek translation and adaptation of the NEO-PI-3. The inventory has comparable psychometric properties in its Greek version in comparison to the original and other national translations, and it is suitable for clinical as well as research use

Epithelial RNase H2 Maintains Genome Integrity and Prevents Intestinal Tumorigenesis in Mice

BACKGROUND & AIMS: RNase H2 is a holoenzyme, composed of 3 subunits (ribonuclease H2 subunits A, B, and C), that cleaves RNA:DNA hybrids and removes mis-incorporated ribonucleotides from genomic DNA through ribonucleotide excision repair. Ribonucleotide incorporation by eukaryotic DNA polymerases occurs during every round of genome duplication and produces the most frequent type of naturally occurring DNA lesion. We investigated whether intestinal epithelial proliferation requires RNase H2 function and whether RNase H2 activity is disrupted during intestinal carcinogenesis. METHODS: We generated mice with epithelial-specific deletion of ribonuclease H2 subunit B (H2bΔIEC) and mice that also had deletion of tumor-suppressor protein p53 (H2b/p53ΔIEC); we compared phenotypes with those of littermate H2bfl/fl or H2b/p53fl/fl (control) mice at young and old ages. Intestinal tissues were collected and analyzed by histology. We isolated epithelial cells, generated intestinal organoids, and performed RNA sequence analyses. Mutation signatures of spontaneous tumors from H2b/p53ΔIEC mice were characterized by exome sequencing. We collected colorectal tumor specimens from 467 patients, measured levels of ribonuclease H2 subunit B, and associated these with patient survival times and transcriptome data. RESULTS: The H2bΔIEC mice had DNA damage to intestinal epithelial cells and proliferative exhaustion of the intestinal stem cell compartment compared with controls and H2b/p53ΔIEC mice. However, H2b/p53ΔIEC mice spontaneously developed small intestine and colon carcinomas. DNA from these tumors contained T>G base substitutions at GTG trinucleotides. Analyses of transcriptomes of human colorectal tumors associated lower levels of RNase H2 with shorter survival times. CONCLUSIONS: In analyses of mice with disruption of the ribonuclease H2 subunit B gene and colorectal tumors from patients, we provide evidence that RNase H2 functions as a colorectal tumor suppressor. H2b/p53ΔIEC mice can be used to study the roles of RNase H2 in tissue-specific carcinogenesis

The Magnitude of Global Marine Species Diversity

Background: The question of how many marine species exist is important because it provides a metric for how much we do and do not know about life in the oceans. We have compiled the first register of the marine species of the world and used this baseline to estimate how many more species, partitioned among all major eukaryotic groups, may be discovered. Results: There are ∼226,000 eukaryotic marine species described. More species were described in the past decade (∼20,000) than in any previous one. The number of authors describing new species has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of new species described in the past six decades. We report that there are ∼170,000 synonyms, that 58,000–72,000 species are collected but not yet described, and that 482,000–741,000 more species have yet to be sampled. Molecular methods may add tens of thousands of cryptic species. Thus, there may be 0.7–1.0 million marine species. Past rates of description of new species indicate there may be 0.5 ± 0.2 million marine species. On average 37% (median 31%) of species in over 100 recent field studies around the world might be new to science. Conclusions: Currently, between one-third and two-thirds of marine species may be undescribed, and previous estimates of there being well over one million marine species appear highly unlikely. More species than ever before are being described annually by an increasing number of authors. If the current trend continues, most species will be discovered this century

Additions to the decapod crustacean fauna of the Hawaiian Islands, III. A new species of the genus Babamunida (Crustacea: Galatheidae) from Hawaii based on morphological and molecular evidence

Schnabel, Kareen E., Martin, Joel W., Moffitt, Robert B. (2009): Additions to the decapod crustacean fauna of the Hawaiian Islands, III. A new species of the genus Babamunida (Crustacea: Galatheidae) from Hawaii based on morphological and molecular evidence. Zootaxa 2130: 21-30, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18835

Caracterización de producción de etanol a partir de zacate buffel y sus implicaciones ambientales

En esta investigación se caracterizó el potencial para la obtención de etanol a partir de la planta silvestre Cenchrus ciliaris, también conocida como zacate buffel. A partir de estudios experimentales a nivel laboratorio, se determinaron los rendimientos técnicos y requerimientos energéticos de las etapas de pretratamiento ácido, hidrólisis enzimática y fermentación. Los valores obtenidos fueron comparados con los reportados en la literatura para otros procesos de producción de combustibles. Los resultados del presente trabajo indican que el procesamiento de Cenchrus ciliaris consume la tercera parte de la energía requerida para procesar gasolina por 1 MJ de etanol producido. Asimismo, mediante este proceso es factible la reducción de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero por 1 MJ de energía de etanol producido en aproximadamente 40 % su valor actual