Differential responses of emergent intertidal coral reef fauna to a large-scale El-Niño southern oscillation event: sponge and coral resilience.

There is a paucity of information on the impacts of the 1997-8 El Niño event and subsequent climatic episodes on emergent intertidal coral reef assemblages. Given the environmental variability intertidal reefs experience, such reefs may potentially be more resilient to climatic events and provide important insights into the adaptation of reef fauna to future ocean warming. Here we report the results of a 17-year (1995-2011) biodiversity survey of four emergent coral reef ecosystems in Bahia, Brazil, to assess the impact of a major El Niño event on the reef fauna, and determine any subsequent recovery. The densities of two species of coral, Favia gravida and Siderastrea stellata, did not vary significantly across the survey period, indicating a high degree of tolerance to the El Niño associated stress. However, there were marked decreases in the diversity of other taxa. Molluscs, bryozoans and ascidians suffered severe declines in diversity and abundance and had not recovered to pre-El Niño levels by the end of the study. Echinoderms were reduced to a single species in 1999, Echinometra lucunter, although diversity levels had recovered by 2002. Sponge assemblages were not impacted by the 1997-8 event and their densities had increased by the study end. Multivariate analysis indicated that a stable invertebrate community had re-established on the reefs after the El Niño event, but it has a different overall composition to the pre-El Niño community. It is unclear if community recovery will continue given more time, but our study highlights that any increase in the frequency of large-scale climatic events to more than one a decade is likely to result in a persistent lower-diversity state. Our results also suggest some coral and sponge species are particularly resilient to the El Niño-associated stress and therefore represent suitable models to investigate temperature adaptation in reef organisms

Occurrence of B chromosomes in Tetragonisca Latreille, 1811 (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini): A new contribution to the cytotaxonomy of the genus

Tetragonisca angustula and Tetragonisca fiebrigi have recently been listed as valid species. This study aimed to cytogenetically investigate both species, emphasizing the new registry of B chromosomes in the tribe Meliponini. We analyzed colonies of T. angustula and T. fiebrigi collected at Tangará da Serra, Mato Grosso, Brazil, through conventional Giemsa staining, C-banding, and base-specific fluorochrome staining (CMA3/DAPI). T. angustula showed 2n = 34 chromosomes in females and n = 17 in males, with karyotype formula 2K = 34AM. T. fiebrigi showed numeric variation, with chromosome number varying from 2n = 34 to 2n = 36 in females and from n = 17 to n = 18 in males, with karyotype formula 2K = 32AM+2AMc and 2K = 32AM+2AMc + 1 or 2 B-chromosomes. The B chromosomes are heterochromatic. In T. fiebrigi, the CMA3/DAPI staining revealed four chromosomes with a CMA3 positive band. All individuals from the same colony showed the same number of B chromosomes. T. angustula and T. fiebrigi showed karyotype divergence, principally due to the presence of B chromosomes, which are found only in T. fiebrigi. Our data corroborate the status of valid species for both T. angustula and T. fiebrigi, as recently proposed

Exome and Tissue-Associated Microbiota as Predictive Markers of Response to Neoadjuvant Treatment in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

The clinical and pathological responses to multimodal neoadjuvant therapy in locally advanced rectal cancers (LARCs) remain unpredictable, and robust biomarkers are still lacking. Recent studies have shown that tumors present somatic molecular alterations related to better treatment response, and it is also clear that tumor-associated bacteria are modulators of chemotherapy and immunotherapy efficacy, therefore having implications for long-term survivorship and a good potential as the biomarkers of outcome. Here, we performed whole exome sequencing and 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) amplicon sequencing from 44 pre-treatment LARC biopsies from Argentinian and Brazilian patients, treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy or total neoadjuvant treatment, searching for predictive biomarkers of response (responders, n = 17; non-responders, n = 27). In general, the somatic landscape of LARC was not capable to predict a response; however, a significant enrichment in mutational signature SBS5 was observed in non-responders (p = 0.0021), as well as the co-occurrence of APC and FAT4 mutations (p < 0.05). Microbiota studies revealed a similar alpha and beta diversity of bacteria between response groups. Yet, the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of effect size indicated an enrichment of Hungatella, Flavonifractor, and Methanosphaera (LDA score ≥3) in the pre-treatment biopsies of responders, while non-responders had a higher abundance of Enhydrobacter, Paraprevotella (LDA score ≥3) and Finegoldia (LDA score ≥4). Altogether, the evaluation of these biomarkers in pre-treatment biopsies could eventually predict a neoadjuvant treatment response, while in post-treatment samples, it could help in guiding non-operative treatment strategies.Fil: Takenaka, Isabella Kuniko T. M.. No especifíca;Fil: Bartelli, Thais F.. No especifíca;Fil: Defelicibus, Alexandre. No especifíca;Fil: Sendoya, Juan Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Golubicki, Mariano. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Gastroenterología "Dr. Carlos B. Udaondo"; ArgentinaFil: Robbio, Juan. No especifíca;Fil: Serpa, Marianna S.. No especifíca;Fil: Branco, Gabriela P.. No especifíca;Fil: Santos, Luana B. C.. No especifíca;Fil: Claro, Laura C. L.. No especifíca;Fil: Oliveira dos Santos, Gabriel. No especifíca;Fil: Kupper, Bruna E. C.. No especifíca;Fil: da Silva, Israel T.. No especifíca;Fil: Llera, Andrea Sabina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: de Mello, Celso A. L.. No especifíca;Fil: Riechelmann, Rachel P.. No especifíca;Fil: Dias Neto, Emmanuel. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Iseas, Soledad. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Gastroenterología "Dr. Carlos B. Udaondo"; ArgentinaFil: Aguiar, Samuel. No especifíca;Fil: Nunes, Diana Noronha. No especifíca

A low-cost HPV immunochromatographic assay to detect high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

Objective To evaluate the reproducibility and accuracy of the HPV16/18-E6 test. Methods The study population was comprised of 448 women with a previously abnormal Pap who were referred to the Barretos Cancer Hospital (Brazil) for diagnosis and treatment. Two cervical samples were collected immediately before colposcopy, one for the hr-HPV-DNA test and cytology and the other for the HPV16/18-E6 test using high-affinity monoclonal antibodies (mAb). Women with a histologic diagnosis of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or 3 were considered to be positive cases. Different strategies using a combination of screening methods (HPV-DNA) and triage tests (cytology and HPV16/18-E6) were also examined and compared. Results The HPV16/18-E6 test exhibited a lower positivity rate compared with the HPV-DNA test (19.0% vs. 29.3%, p<0.001) and a moderate/high agreement (kappa = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.60-0.75). It also exhibited a significantly lower sensitivity for CIN2+ and CIN3+ detection compared to the HPV-DNA test and a significantly higher specificity. The HPV16/18-E6 test was no different from cytology in terms of sensitivity, but it exhibited a significantly higher specificity in comparison to ASCH+. A triage test after HPV-DNA detection using the HPV16/18-E6 test exhibited a significantly higher specificity compared with a triage test of ASCH+ to CIN2+ (91.8% vs. 87.4%, p = 0.04) and CIN3+ (88.6% vs. 84.0%, p = 0.05). Conclusion The HPV16/18-E6 test exhibited moderate/high agreement with the HPV-DNA test but lower sensitivity and higher specificity for the detection of CIN2+ and CIN3+. In addition, its performance was quite similar to cytology, but because of the structural design addressed for the detection of HPV16/18-E6 protein, the test can miss some CIN2/3+ lesions caused by other high-risk HPV types.Cancer Prevention Department, Center for the Researcher Support and Pathology Department of the Barretos Cancer Hospital. This study was supported by CNPq 573799/2008-3 and FAPESP 2008/57889-1info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Supplemental material in the ancillary file