Revisiting Thymic Positive Selection and the Mature T Cell Repertoire for Antigen

To support effective host defense, the T cell repertoire must balance breadth of recognition with sensitivity for antigen. The concept that T lymphocytes are positively selected in the thymus is well established, but how this selection achieves such a repertoire has not been resolved. Here we suggest that it is direct linkage between self and foreign antigen recognition that produces the necessary blend of TCR diversity and specificity in the mature peripheral repertoire, enabling responses to a broad universe of unpredictable antigens while maintaining an adequate number of highly sensitive T cells in a population of limited size. Our analysis also helps to explain how diversity and frequency of antigen-reactive cells in a T cell repertoire are adjusted in animals of vastly different size scale to enable effective antipathogen responses and suggests a possible binary architecture in the TCR repertoire that is divided between germline-related optimal binding and diverse recognition

Study of major aromatic compounds in port wines from carotenoid degradation

The carotenoids degradation and the formation of volatiles were examined by simulating Port wine aging. A two year old red Port wine was saturated with oxygen, supplemented with lutein and b-carotene and kept at 60ºC during 87 h. A similar study was performed in a model wine solution. Results showed that the percentage decrease in lutein levels was, respectively, 79% and 95%, in the wine model solution and in the Port wine, and 55% and 10% for b-carotene, indicating that lutein was more sensitive to degradation than b-carotene. Two other unknown degradation carotenoid compounds were identified by HPLC/DAD (reverse phase λmax: 422; 445; 475 and 422; 445; 472) in the lutein supplemented wine. Levels of b-ionone and b-cyclocitral increased (2.5 times) in both, wine and wine model solution, supplemented with b-carotene. Along with these compounds, the same behaviour was observed in b-damascenone in the supplemented lutein wine and wine model solution. New insights were provided into the understanding of aroma modifications occurring during Port wine aging. The relationship between carotenoid molecules (b-carotene and lutein) and some volatiles has also been provided

Clickers Can Promote Fact Retention But Impede Conceptual Understanding: The Effect of the Interaction Between Clicker Use and Pedagogy on Learning

Highlights Two experiments explored the role of clickers on factual and conceptual learning. One course emphasized fact retention and the other emphasized conceptual understanding. Factual and conceptual clicker questions enhanced only fact learning in the didactic course. Factual questions impaired conceptual learning in the problem-oriented course. Clicker effects are mediated by pedagogy, learning strategy, and prior knowledge

Publisher Correction: Projected poleward migration of the Southern Ocean CO2 sink region under high emissions

Correction to: Communications Earth & Environmenthttps://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01382-y, published online 02 May 2024 The original version of this article omitted one of the affiliations of the corresponding author “Precious Mongwe”. The missing affiliation “National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (Nitec), Cape Town, South Africa” has been added. In the original version of this article, several reference numbers were incorrect. Specifically: In the section “Results”, subsection “Mechanisms of air-sea CO2 fluxes in the present climate”, third paragraph, references in the sentence starting “Some studies have linked this temperature bias to discrepancies”, were incorrectly given as “40,41”, whereas “40” is correct. In the section “Discussion”, second paragraph, references in the sentence starting “Relatively low model skill” were incorrectly given as “35, 47–49” following “biases in sea ice” whereas “36, 47–49” is correct; as “38,40” following “impact on heat fluxes”, whereas “38,40” is correct; and as “37,50” following “the AMOC”, whereas “37” is correct. In the section “Discussion”, last paragraph, the reference in the sentence starting “On the other hand, anthropogenic ice sheet melt in Antarctica” was incorrectly given as “41”, whereas “58” is correct. In the following sentence, starting “Moreover, ice sheet melt”, references were incorrectly given as “38,41”, whereas “58,59” is correct. In the section “Methods”, subsection “Earth System Models”, first sentence, the reference following “climate scenario” was incorrectly given as “59”, whereas “60” is correct. In the section “Methods”, subsection “Observation-based pCO2 -products”, first sentence, the reference following “Sea-Flux dataset” was incorrectly given as “60”, whereas “61” is correct; in the following sentence, references were incorrectly given as “61” following “CMEMS-LSCE-FFNN”, whereas “62” is correct; as “63” following “CSIR-ML6”, whereas “63” is correct; as “63” following “Jena-MLS”, whereas “64” is correct; as “64” following “JMA-MLR”, whereas “59” is correct; as “65” following “MPI-SOMFFN” whereas “65” is correct; and as “66” following “NIES-FNN” whereas “67” is correct. In the sentence starting “All methods use”, the reference following “SOCAT version 2020 or later” was incorrectly given as “66” whereas 68 is correct. In the sentence starting “Further, we use”, the reference following “World Ocean Atlas” was incorrectly given as “67”, whereas “69” is correct. In the next sentence starting “We use a monthly”, the references following “mixed layer depth by” were incorrectly given as “68,69”, whereas just “70” is correct. In the next sentence starting “Lastly, we use DIC”, the reference following “dissolved inorganic carbon dataset” was incorrectly given as “41”, whereas “71” is correct. In the section “Methods”, subsection “DIC decomposition”, first sentence, references following “(i.e., primary production and respiration)” were incorrectly given as “70,71”, whereas “72,73” is correct; in the next sentence starting “DIC is consumed”, references following “as regenerated DIC” were incorrectly given as “70,72”, whereas “72,74” is correct; in the sentence starting “In this study, we decompose”, references following “regenerated following” were incorrectly given as “70,72”, whereas “72,74” is correct; in the following sentence starting “Regenerated DIC”, the reference following “(Eq. 8)” was incorrectly given as “72”, whereas “73” is correct; in the following sentence starting “Since our analysis is focussed”, references following “air-sea exchange is complete (Cdis)” were incorrectly given as “70,73–75”, whereas “72,74–75” is correct. These reference errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article. In addition, the original version of this Article omitted a reference ‘Olsen, A. et al. GLODAPv2.2019—an update of GLODAPv2. Earth Syst. Sci. Data11, 1437–1461, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1437-2019 (2019). This has been added as reference 77

Projected poleward migration of the Southern Ocean CO2 sink region under high emissions

The Southern Ocean is a major region of ocean carbon uptake, but its future changes remain uncertain under climate change. Here we show the projected shift in the Southern Ocean CO2 sink using a suite of Earth System Models, revealing changes in the mechanism, position and seasonality of the carbon uptake. The region of dominant CO2 uptake shifts from the Subtropical to the Antarctic region under the high-emission scenario. The warming-driven sea-ice melt, increased ocean stratification, mixed layer shoaling, and a weaker vertical carbon gradient is projected to together reduce the winter de-gassing in the future, which will trigger the switch from mixing-driven outgassing to solubility-driven uptake in the Antarctic region during the winter season. The future Southern Ocean carbon sink will be poleward-shifted, operating in a hybrid mode between biologically-driven summertime and solubility-driven wintertime uptake with further amplification of biologically-driven uptake due to the increasing Revelle Factor

Elaboración de Bloques Ecológicos Fabricados a partir del Reciclaje de Plásticos PET, para la Construcción de Viviendas Económicas

El trabajo tuvo el objetivo de desarrollar una formulación para elaborar bloques utilizando materiales reciclados (PET) que cumplan con las Normas INTN para la construcción civil.CONACYT – Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y TecnologíaPROCIENCI

Alternative transmission routes in the malaria elimination era: an overview of transfusion-transmitted malaria in the Americas

Submitted by Janaína Nascimento ([email protected]) on 2019-02-21T11:59:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ve_Alho_Regina_etal_INI_2017.pdf: 1190158 bytes, checksum: 8937322faefa31c89eb1bbd2f7d134a3 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Janaína Nascimento ([email protected]) on 2019-02-25T11:34:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ve_Alho_Regina_etal_INI_2017.pdf: 1190158 bytes, checksum: 8937322faefa31c89eb1bbd2f7d134a3 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2019-02-25T11:34:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ve_Alho_Regina_etal_INI_2017.pdf: 1190158 bytes, checksum: 8937322faefa31c89eb1bbd2f7d134a3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017Universidade do Estado do Amazonas. Manaus, AM, Brasil / Fundação de Hematologia e Hemoterapia do Amazonas. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Universidade do Estado do Amazonas. Manaus, AM, Brasil / Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Fundação de Hematologia e Hemoterapia do Amazonas. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Universidade do Estado do Amazonas. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Universidade do Estado do Amazonas. Manaus, AM, Brasil / Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Sem afiliação.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto de Pesquisas Leônidas e Maria Deane. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Universidade do Estado do Amazonas. Manaus, AM, Brasil / Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Universidade do Estado do Amazonas. Manaus, AM, Brasil / Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado. Manaus, AM, Brasil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto de Pesquisas Leônidas e Maria Deane. Manaus, AM, Brasil.Background: Transfusion-transmitted (TT) malaria is an alternative infection route that has gained little attention from authorities, despite representing a life-threatening condition. There has been no systematic review of this health problem in American countries. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of TT malaria in the Americas and identify factors associated with lethality based on the studies published in the literature. Methods: Potentially relevant papers in all languages were retrieved from MEDLINE and LILACS. Additional articles were obtained from reviews and original papers. Publications on screening of candidate blood donors and on surveillance of TT malaria cases were included. Odds ratios with respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated. Epidemiological characteristics of blood donors of TT malaria cases, including a pooled positivity of different tests for malaria diagnosis, were retrieved. Results: A total of 63 publications regarding TT malaria from seven countries were included, from 1971 to 2016. A total of 422 cases of TT malaria were recorded. Most TT malaria cases were in females (62.0%) and 39.5% were in the ≥61 years-old age group. About half of all cases were from Mexico (50.7%), 40.3% from the United States of America (USA) and 6.6% from Brazil. Gyneco-obstetrical conditions (67.3%), surgical procedures (20.6%) and complications from neoplasias (6.1%) were the most common indications of transfusion. Packed red blood cells (RBCs) (50.7%) and whole blood (43.3%) were the blood products mostly associated with TT malaria. Cases were mostly caused by Plasmodium malariae (58.4%), followed by Plasmodium vivax (20.7%) and Plasmodium falciparum (17.9%). A total of 66.6% of cases were diagnosed by microscopy. Incubation period of 2–3 weeks was the most commonly observed (28.6%). Lethality was seen in 5.3% of cases and was associated with living in non-endemic countries, P. falciparum infection and concomitant neoplastic diseases. Conclusion: There is an important research and knowledge gap regarding the TT malaria burden in Latin American countries where malaria remains endemic. No screening method that is practical, affordable and suitably sensitive is available at blood banks in Latin American countries, where infections with low parasitaemia contribute greatly to transmission. Lethality from TT malaria was not negligible. TT malaria needs to be acknowledged and addressed in areas moving toward elimination

Acetylated cashew gum-based nanoparticles for the incorporation of alkaloid epiisopiloturine

The natural alkaloid epiisopiloturine has recently become the focus of study for various medicinal properties, particularly for its anti-inflammatory and antischistosomal effect. The incorporation of active molecules in natural polymeric matrices has garnered increasing interest during recent decades. A new derivative of cashew gum successfully obtained by gum acetylation has shown great potential as a carrier in controlled drug release systems. In this work, epiisopiloturine was encapsulated in acetylated cashew gum nanoparticles in order to increase solubility and allow slow release, whereas the morphology results were supported by computer simulations. The particles were produced under a variety of conditions, and thoroughly characterized using light scattering and microscopic techniques. The particles were spherical and highly stable in solution, and showed drug incorporation at high levels, up to 55% efficiency. Using a dialysis-based in vitro assay, these particles were shown to release the drug via a Fickian diffusion mechanism, leading to gradual drug release over approximately 6 h. These nanoparticles show potential for the use as drug delivery system, while studies on their potential anti-inflammatory action, as well as toxicity and efficacy assays would need to be performed in the future to confirm their suitability as drug delivery candidates.This work was conducted in partnership with the Polymer Laboratory of the Federal University of Ceará for polymer modification. The authors thanks Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the fellowships SFRH/BD/97995/2013 (AP) and SFRH/BD/95983/2013 (MPA), in the context of the POCH program. The work at UCIBIO/REQUIMTE was supported by FCT through project UID/MULTI/04378/2013 – POCI/01/0145/FEDER/007728 with financial support from FCT/MCTES through national funds and co-financed by FEDER, under the Partnership Agreement PT2020. The work at REQUIMTE/LAQV received financial support from the European Union (FEDER funds through COMPETE) and National Funds (FCT) through project UID/QUI/50006/2013. The computational time was provided by GRID-Unesp, SICC/IFSP and CENAPAD/SP. The authors also acknowledge CNPq and CAPES for a scholarship and financial aid.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A multi-decade record of high quality fCO2 data in version 3 of the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT)

The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) is a synthesis of quality-controlled fCO2 (fugacity of carbon dioxide) values for the global surface oceans and coastal seas with regular updates. Version 3 of SOCAT has 14.7 million fCO2 values from 3646 data sets covering the years 1957 to 2014. This latest version has an additional 4.6 million fCO2 values relative to version 2 and extends the record from 2011 to 2014. Version 3 also significantly increases the data availability for 2005 to 2013. SOCAT has an average of approximately 1.2 million surface water fCO2 values per year for the years 2006 to 2012. Quality and documentation of the data has improved. A new feature is the data set quality control (QC) flag of E for data from alternative sensors and platforms. The accuracy of surface water fCO2 has been defined for all data set QC flags. Automated range checking has been carried out for all data sets during their upload into SOCAT. The upgrade of the interactive Data Set Viewer (previously known as the Cruise Data Viewer) allows better interrogation of the SOCAT data collection and rapid creation of high-quality figures for scientific presentations. Automated data upload has been launched for version 4 and will enable more frequent SOCAT releases in the future. High-profile scientific applications of SOCAT include quantification of the ocean sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide and its long-term variation, detection of ocean acidification, as well as evaluation of coupled-climate and ocean-only biogeochemical models. Users of SOCAT data products are urged to acknowledge the contribution of data providers, as stated in the SOCAT Fair Data Use Statement. This ESSD (Earth System Science Data) “living data” publication documents the methods and data sets used for the assembly of this new version of the SOCAT data collection and compares these with those used for earlier versions of the data collection (Pfeil et al., 2013; Sabine et al., 2013; Bakker et al., 2014). Individual data set files, included in the synthesis product, can be downloaded here: doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.849770. The gridded products are available here: doi:10.3334/CDIAC/OTG.SOCAT_V3_GRID

O Genótipo CCR5?32 em pacientes infectados pelo HIV candidatos à transplante de medula / The CCR5?32 Genotype in HIV-infected patients who are candidates for bone marrow transplantation

Estudos mostram que a interação do HIV com os receptores e correceptores presentes em suas células-alvo pode ser prejudicada devido uma mutação presente em uma pequena parcela da população mundial, na qual o gene que codifica os receptores de quimiocina CCR5 sofrem uma deleção de 32 pares de base. Quando o vírus entra em contato com um indivíduo homozigoto para o gene CCR5?32 (?32/ ?32), a sua integração na célula é impedida. Nesse caso, o sujeito apresenta uma resistência para a infecção. O artigo tem como objetivo apresentar o impacto dessa mutação em candidatos ao transplante de medula óssea que são infectados pelo vírus do HIV. Avaliando dois casos de remissão de carga viral, descritos em literatura, sem uso do tratamento antirretroviral, onde os pacientes, que apresentavam neoplasias malignas para as células hematopoiéticas, foram submetidos a transplantes de medula onde os doadores eram homozigotos para a mutação ?32. Obteve-se como conclusão, que a mutação CCR5D32 implica em novos métodos de possíveis tratamentos para o HIV