Nitrogen cycling in root associated soils at bolting, flowering and seed pod filling across eight diverse Brassica napus (canola) genotypes

Non-Peer ReviewedNitrogen (N) mineralization and nitrification can be used predict the amount of N that is available to crops. Brassica napus L. (canola) production is N intensive; therefore, to improve and sustain yields, a better understanding of N cycling patterns for fertilization application is needed. The objective of this study is to examine N cycling after urea fertilization at the three major canola growth stages: bolting, flowering and seed pod filling; and how N cycling may differ between diverse canola lines grown in different soil types. Eight diverse B. napus lines were grown on Dark Brown Chernozemic soil and Black Chernozemic soil in Saskatchewan, Canada. Root-associated soils were collected from each line at bolting, flowering and seed pod filling, and this soil was analyzed for potential nitrification and mineralization, as well as soil nitrate and ammonium content. We predict that potential nitrification will be higher during the bolting and flowering stages of canola growth because the urea fertilizer that was applied to the field would have been converted to nitrate-N, which is plant available. We predict that potential mineralization will be higher during flowering and seed pod filling, because the demand for N to make protein-rich seeds is high enough to deplete much of the inorganic fertilizer N. We also predict that both nitrate-N and ammonium-N will decrease over the growing season, with significant differences between the canola lines and the soil environments. Mixed effect analyses and ANOVA will be used to analyze N cycling in the soil in relation to soil type differences, canola line differences, and growth stage differences. By characterizing soil N processes, this research will advance efforts to understand and improve N uptake for B. napus lines

On fractional Choquard equations

We investigate a class of nonlinear Schrodinger equations with a generalized Choquard nonlinearity and fractional diffusion. We obtain regularity, existence, nonexistence, symmetry as well as decays properties.Comment: revised version, 22 page

Eradication of Candida albicans persister cell biofilm by the membranotropic peptide gH625

Biofilm formation poses an important clinical trouble due to resistance to antimicrobial agents; therefore, there is an urgent demand for new antibiofilm strategies that focus on the use of alternative compounds also in combination with conventional drugs. Drug-tolerant persisters are present in Candida albicans biofilms and are detected following treatment with high doses of amphotericin B. In this study, persisters were found in biofilms treated with amphotericin B of two clinical isolate strains, and were capable to form a new biofilm in situ. We investigated the possibility of eradicating persister-derived biofilms from these two Candida albicans strains, using the peptide gH625 analogue (gH625-M). Confocal microscopy studies allowed us to characterize the persister-derived biofilm and understand the mechanism of interaction of gH625-M with the biofilm. These findings confirm that persisters may be responsible for Candida biofilm survival, and prove that gH625-M was very effective in eradicating persister-derived biofilms both alone and in combination with conventional antifungals, mainly strengthening the antibiofilm activity of fluconazole and 5-flucytosine. Our strategy advances our insights into the development of effective antibiofilm therapeutic approaches

Methylene blue adsorption on thermo plasma expanded graphite in a multilayer column system

The removal of dyes from wastewater is an important topic in environmental applications. Methylene blue (MB) is one of the most worrisome compounds, as it is widespread and used in many industrial activities. Adsorption represents an effective technique for the removal of this contaminant. Thermo plasma expanded graphite (TPEG) is an industrial material characterized by a fibrous morphology, a very low density and overlapped graphene layers. TPEG has a higher specific surface compared to conventional thermo-expanded graphite and it can establish effective attractive forces with charged pollutants. These properties make TPEG a very promising adsorbent material. In the present work, TPEG was tested in an innovative multilayer column system to treat MB contaminated solutions. Several batch experiments were carried out by varying pH, initial MB concentration and temperature. The optimal adsorption performance was assessed at pH 11, around which the TPEG assumed the maximum negative charge. Based on these results, the adsorption mechanism appeared to be related mainly to electrostatic interactions. At room temperature, the greatest amount of MB adsorbed on TPEG was detected by treating solutions with an initial concentration of 30 mgMB/L. The temperature increase from 20 to 40 °C caused an enhanced adsorption capacity when concentrations higher than 10 mgMB/L were treated. The adsorption trends were accurately described by a pseudo-second order kinetic law and the adsorption isotherms at 20 and 40 °C were found to follow both the features of Freundlich and Langmuir models. The adsorption capacity was estimated to reach threshold values around 95 mgMB/gTPEG and 265 mgMB/gTPEG at 20 and 40°C, respectively. The Gibbs energy change (ΔG°) was calculated to about −7.80 kJ/mol, which proved that the process is spontaneous from a thermodynamic point of view. Finally, it was verified that TPEG can be efficiently reused 5 times after a simple chemical regeneration phase with HCl

Functional changes of mentalizing network in SCA2 patients: novel insights into understanding the social cerebellum

In recent years, increasing evidence of the cerebellar role in social cognition has emerged. The cerebellum has been shown to modulate cortical activity of social brain regions serving as a regulator of function-specific mentalizing and mirroring processes. In particular, a mentalizing area in the posterior cerebellum, specifically Crus II, is preferentially recruited for more complex and abstract forms of social processing, together with mentalizing cerebral areas including the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), and the precuneus. In the present study, the network-based statistics approach was used to assess functional connectivity (FC) differences within this mentalizing cerebello-cerebral network associated with a specific cerebellar damage. To this aim, patients affected by spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2), a neurodegenerative disease specifically affecting regions of the cerebellar cortex, and age-matched healthy subjects have been enrolled. The dmPFC, left and right TPJ, the precuneus, and the cerebellar Crus II were used as regions of interest to construct the mentalizing network to be analyzed and evaluate pairwise functional relations between them. When compared with controls, SCA2 patients showed altered internodal connectivity between dmPFC, left (L-) and right (R-) TPJ, and right posterior cerebellar Crus II.The present results indicate that FC changes affect a function-specific mentalizing network in patients affected by cerebellar damage. In particular, they allow to better clarify functional alteration mechanisms driven by the cerebellar damage associated with SCA2 suggesting that selective cortico-cerebellar functional disconnections may underlie patients' social impairment in domain-specific complex and abstract forms of social functioning

ConXsense - Automated Context Classification for Context-Aware Access Control

We present ConXsense, the first framework for context-aware access control on mobile devices based on context classification. Previous context-aware access control systems often require users to laboriously specify detailed policies or they rely on pre-defined policies not adequately reflecting the true preferences of users. We present the design and implementation of a context-aware framework that uses a probabilistic approach to overcome these deficiencies. The framework utilizes context sensing and machine learning to automatically classify contexts according to their security and privacy-related properties. We apply the framework to two important smartphone-related use cases: protection against device misuse using a dynamic device lock and protection against sensory malware. We ground our analysis on a sociological survey examining the perceptions and concerns of users related to contextual smartphone security and analyze the effectiveness of our approach with real-world context data. We also demonstrate the integration of our framework with the FlaskDroid architecture for fine-grained access control enforcement on the Android platform.Comment: Recipient of the Best Paper Awar

Does hydrogen evolution from HUP- field pea nodules stimulate nitrous oxide production?

Non-Peer Reviewe

Mitochondria, Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease

To date, the beta amyloid (Aβ) cascade hypothesis remains the main pathogenetic model of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its role in the majority of sporadic AD cases is unclear. The “mitochondrial cascade hypothesis” could explain many of the biochemical, genetic, and pathological features of sporadic AD. Somatic mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) could cause energy failure, increased oxidative stress, and accumulation of Aβ, which in a vicious cycle reinforce the mtDNA damage and the oxidative stress. Despite the evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction in AD, no causative mutations in the mtDNA have been detected so far. Indeed, results of studies on the role of mtDNA haplogroups in AD are controversial. In this review we discuss the role of the mitochondria, and especially of the mtDNA, in the cascade of events leading to neurodegeneration, dementia, and AD