Effective detection of proteins following electrophoresis using extracts of locally available food species

Procedures in life sciences research laboratories often require chemicals and plasticware that are costly, toxic or pose a risk to the environment. Therefore, sustainable alternatives would be of interest, provided that they generate suitable data quality. Coomassie blue and silver staining are the most widely used methods for detecting proteins following electrophoresis in the laboratory. However, their use presents challenges in terms of safety and waste management. In the current study, aqueous extracts were prepared from a series of common food species and evaluated as alternative stains for protein detection. Beets, blueberries, purple cabbage, raspberries and strawberries were employed to stain identical proteins separated under the same conditions in electrophoresis gels. Extracts of the first two species resulted in protein bands that were detectable through visible light transillumination, whereas extracts from all five species generated specific protein bands under ultraviolet light. The raspberry-derived extract was selected for further study based on the brightness of the fluorescent protein bands and minimal background staining. For both bovine serum albumin and lysozyme at 2.5 μg and 0.5 μg protein per band, the mean signal intensities obtained with raspberry extract staining were just below half of those obtained with Coomassie blue. Furthermore, the mean intensities using raspberry extract were equivalent to those obtained using Coomassie blue in the detection of 0.1 μg protein. Therefore, raspberry could be used to produce an effective stain for the routine laboratory analysis of proteins

Identification of the top TESS objects of interest for atmospheric characterization of transiting exoplanets with JWST

Funding: Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA's Science Mission Directorate. This work makes use of observations from the LCOGT network. Part of the LCOGT telescope time was granted by NOIRLab through the Mid-Scale Innovations Program (MSIP). MSIP is funded by NSF. This paper is based on observations made with the MuSCAT3 instrument, developed by the Astrobiology Center and under financial support by JSPS KAKENHI (grant No. JP18H05439) and JST PRESTO (grant No. JPMJPR1775), at Faulkes Telescope North on Maui, HI, operated by the Las Cumbres Observatory. This paper makes use of data from the MEarth Project, which is a collaboration between Harvard University and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The MEarth Project acknowledges funding from the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. AST-0807690, AST-1109468, AST-1616624 and AST-1004488 (Alan T. Waterman Award), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant No. 80NSSC18K0476 issued through the XRP Program, and the John Templeton Foundation. C.M. would like to gratefully acknowledge the entire Dragonfly Telephoto Array team, and Bob Abraham in particular, for allowing their telescope bright time to be put to use observing exoplanets. B.J.H. acknowledges support from the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) program (grant No. 80NSSC20K1551) and support by NASA under grant No. 80GSFC21M0002. K.A.C. and C.N.W. acknowledge support from the TESS mission via subaward s3449 from MIT. D.R.C. and C.A.C. acknowledge support from NASA through the XRP grant No. 18-2XRP18_2-0007. C.A.C. acknowledges that this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). S.Z. and A.B. acknowledge support from the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology (grant No. 3-18143). The research leading to these results has received funding from the ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. TRAPPIST is funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique, FNRS) under the grant No. PDR T.0120.21. The postdoctoral fellowship of K.B. is funded by F.R.S.-FNRS grant No. T.0109.20 and by the Francqui Foundation. H.P.O.'s contribution has been carried out within the framework of the NCCR PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant Nos. 51NF40_182901 and 51NF40_205606. F.J.P. acknowledges financial support from the grant No. CEX2021-001131-S funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033. A.J. acknowledges support from ANID—Millennium Science Initiative—ICN12_009 and from FONDECYT project 1210718. Z.L.D. acknowledges the MIT Presidential Fellowship and that this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. 1745302. P.R. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation grant No. 1952545. This work is partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. JP17H04574, JP18H05439, JP21K20376; JST CREST grant No. JPMJCR1761; and Astrobiology Center SATELLITE Research project AB022006. This publication benefits from the support of the French Community of Belgium in the context of the FRIA Doctoral Grant awarded to M.T. D.D. acknowledges support from TESS Guest Investigator Program grant Nos. 80NSSC22K1353, 80NSSC22K0185, and 80NSSC23K0769. A.B. acknowledges the support of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University Program of Development. T.D. was supported in part by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. V.K. acknowledges support from the youth scientific laboratory project, topic FEUZ-2020-0038.JWST has ushered in an era of unprecedented ability to characterize exoplanetary atmospheres. While there are over 5000 confirmed planets, more than 4000 Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) planet candidates are still unconfirmed and many of the best planets for atmospheric characterization may remain to be identified. We present a sample of TESS planets and planet candidates that we identify as “best-in-class” for transmission and emission spectroscopy with JWST. These targets are sorted into bins across equilibrium temperature Teq and planetary radius Rp and are ranked by a transmission and an emission spectroscopy metric (TSM and ESM, respectively) within each bin. We perform cuts for expected signal size and stellar brightness to remove suboptimal targets for JWST. Of the 194 targets in the resulting sample, 103 are unconfirmed TESS planet candidates, also known as TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs). We perform vetting and statistical validation analyses on these 103 targets to determine which are likely planets and which are likely false positives, incorporating ground-based follow-up from the TESS Follow-up Observation Program to aid the vetting and validation process. We statistically validate 18 TOIs, marginally validate 31 TOIs to varying levels of confidence, deem 29 TOIs likely false positives, and leave the dispositions for four TOIs as inconclusive. Twenty-one of the 103 TOIs were confirmed independently over the course of our analysis. We intend for this work to serve as a community resource and motivate formal confirmation and mass measurements of each validated planet. We encourage more detailed analysis of individual targets by the community.Peer reviewe

Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use in early acute respiratory distress syndrome : Insights from the LUNG SAFE study

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: Concerns exist regarding the prevalence and impact of unnecessary oxygen use in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We examined this issue in patients with ARDS enrolled in the Large observational study to UNderstand the Global impact of Severe Acute respiratory FailurE (LUNG SAFE) study. Methods: In this secondary analysis of the LUNG SAFE study, we wished to determine the prevalence and the outcomes associated with hyperoxemia on day 1, sustained hyperoxemia, and excessive oxygen use in patients with early ARDS. Patients who fulfilled criteria of ARDS on day 1 and day 2 of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure were categorized based on the presence of hyperoxemia (PaO2 > 100 mmHg) on day 1, sustained (i.e., present on day 1 and day 2) hyperoxemia, or excessive oxygen use (FIO2 ≥ 0.60 during hyperoxemia). Results: Of 2005 patients that met the inclusion criteria, 131 (6.5%) were hypoxemic (PaO2 < 55 mmHg), 607 (30%) had hyperoxemia on day 1, and 250 (12%) had sustained hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use occurred in 400 (66%) out of 607 patients with hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use decreased from day 1 to day 2 of ARDS, with most hyperoxemic patients on day 2 receiving relatively low FIO2. Multivariate analyses found no independent relationship between day 1 hyperoxemia, sustained hyperoxemia, or excess FIO2 use and adverse clinical outcomes. Mortality was 42% in patients with excess FIO2 use, compared to 39% in a propensity-matched sample of normoxemic (PaO2 55-100 mmHg) patients (P = 0.47). Conclusions: Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use are both prevalent in early ARDS but are most often non-sustained. No relationship was found between hyperoxemia or excessive oxygen use and patient outcome in this cohort. Trial registration: LUNG-SAFE is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02010073publishersversionPeer reviewe

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AIM: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery. METHODS: This was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin. RESULTS: Overall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001). After adjustment, delay was not associated with a lower rate of complete resection (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.55, P = 0.224), which was consistent in elective patients only (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69-1.27, P = 0.672). Longer delays were not associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: One in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

Endogenous risk and long run effects of liberalization in a global analysis framework

In a classical Walrassian framework of smoothly functioning markets and comparative static analysis, the beneficial effects of trade liberalization are well known. In the real world, production decisions develop along time. They are fringed with uncertainty, and subject to unfulfilled expectations. Depending upon demand elasticity, such phenomena may lead to "chaotic motion". A world computable general equilibrium model is developed that contains such specificities and scenarios are run with and without agricultural liberalization. Results suggest that liberalization is not likely to improve welfare. Despite logical difficulties, efforts have been done to test the model against really observed time series. 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserve

Conséquences possibles d'une libéralisation des marchés sucriers mondiaux

As liberalizing sugar markets and removing the European Community sugar quotas emerge again as priorities in CAP reforms discussions, an overview of the most common ideas regarding this issue is first presented. They are more or less supported by a large number of existing econometric models of the world economy which have have been adapted for this purpose. Most of these models are based on the idea that market equilibria should result in large welfare gains by comparison with the prevailing situation. Yet, a different model, ID3, developped in the CIRAD (French acronym for International Center for Agronomic Research and Developement), leads to an opposite conclusion. Because of lags between supply and demand decisions, markets can rarely stay at their equilibrium point. As a consequence, price are highly variable. At the same time, producers are risk averse, and, therefore, tend to reduce production by comparison with possibilities. Suboptimal situations follow.Au moment où reprennent les discussions sur la libéralisation du marché du sucre et la suppression des quotas sucriers dans la communauté européenne, ce document, d’abord, fait un bref panorama des idées en cours sur la question. Ensuite, après une revue des documents disponibles, les résultats des nombreux modèles économétriques proposés pour évaluer les conséquences d’une telle réforme sont présentés. Dans leur vaste majorité, ces modèles sont basés sur l’idée que des marchés en équilibre devraient égaliser les coûts avec les prix, et aboutir à des gains substanciels de bien être par rapport à la situation existante. Cependant, le modèle ID3 développé au CIRAD conduit à une conclusion opposée, parce qu’il suppose d’un côté que les marchés sont rarement à l’équilibre du fait des décalages dans le temps entre l’offre et la demande, et de l’autre coté, que les producteurs ont de l’«aversion pour le risque», ce qui les conduit , en présence de prix fluctuants, à diminuer leur offre plus qu’il ne serait nécessaire

Libéralisation, agriculture et : se peut-il que les bénéfices de la libéralisation soient absorbés par l’imperfection des marchés ?

The standard way for fighting rural poverty and improving food production efficiency is to move toward free trade. However as underlined by several economists, markets imperfections may hamper the positive impact of trade liberalization. In this paper, the consequences of imperfect information on agricultural markets are evaluated through the results of two versions of a world dynamic CGE model: one is based on standard markets equilibrium assumption for each product and factor, while the other includes imperfect information on agricultural commodities markets. Impacts on GDP performances and on household welfares for selected countries are presented. It appears that in the case of imperfect information most of the gains related to comparative advantages vanish, due to highly fluctuating agricultural prices. Then it is impossible for economic actors to predict prices accurately enough to take efficient decisions and policies able to reduce this imperfection may improve the global welfare

Endogenous Risk and Long Run Effects of Liberalisation in a Global Analysis Framework

In a classical Walrassian framework of smoothly functioning markets and comparative static analysis, the beneficial effects of trade liberalisation are well known. In the real world, production decisions develop along time. They are fringed with uncertainty, and subject to unfulfilled expectations. Depending upon demand elasticity, such phenomena lead to converging or diverging cobwebs. Yet, even if demand is inelastic, diverging cobwebs are rarely observed, because there exist also many return strings which call systems back in the vicinity of (unstable) equilibrium. Among the latter, as already noticed by Knut Wicksell in the 1930’s, attitudes toward risk and investment functions play a large role. In effect, introducing such mechanisms into a dynamic market equilibrium leads to “chaotic motion”, a now well documented mathematical being, with very specific characteristics. In this context, market price fluctuations no longer occur because of the “hand of God”, from completely external sources, such as climatic events. They are endogenous, generated by the market itself. While external risk is subject to the “law of large number”, thus allowing for the benefit of risk pooling through insurance mechanisms, endogenous is not. In particular, any effort to lower individual decision maker exposition to risk affects the values of the key model parameters, such as supply elasticity, thus changing the risk regime itself. Now, while many studies (especially by Hertel et al) have been undertaken in order to elicit the consequences of external risk for the magnitude and distribution of the trade liberalisation benefits, the endogenous risk case has generally been benignly ignored by the world research community. The present paper aims at filling this gap. To this end, a GTAP model along that line is developed, with and without agricultural liberalisation. It is shown that, after a while, the tendency to divergence is smoothed out by risk considerations. Yet, because of a greater price uncertainty, over 60 years, long run world growth is significantly affected by liberalisation. Increased price volatility plays the role of a negative technical progress, which offset the benefits from a more efficient use of comparative advantage. Distributional effects are discussed, both between regions and within. Results suggest that liberalisation is not likely to reduce poverty, quite the contrary, because rich are less risk averse than poor, and thus, can accumulate more reinsvestible benefits. However, richest nations do not benefit in the whole, because of the investment slowing down mechanism outlined above. Efforts have been done to test the model, taking opportunity of its dynamic character, which allows for the comparison between “predicted” and “actual” series. Although results in this respect can still be very much improved, price regimes from this model are compared with a few actual long run observed series, and found to be similar. The paper briefly discuss the difficulty of such comparisons, which, because of the “sensitivity to initial condition”, cannot be reduced to the simple point per point measurement of the discrepancy between “predicted” and “observed”. Series must be characterized by global indices, such as moments or Fourrier spectrums. Most of these results very much contradict common wisdom. This is why they are interesting. More research is thus needed to specify the deep sources of this outcome and their political significance

Libéralisation, agriculture et : se peut-il que les bénéfices de la libéralisation soient absorbés par l’imperfection des marchés ?

The standard way for fighting rural poverty and improving food production efficiency is to move toward free trade. However as underlined by several economists, markets imperfections may hamper the positive impact of trade liberalization. In this paper, the consequences of imperfect information on agricultural markets are evaluated through the results of two versions of a world dynamic CGE model: one is based on standard markets equilibrium assumption for each product and factor, while the other includes imperfect information on agricultural commodities markets. Impacts on GDP performances and on household welfares for selected countries are presented. It appears that in the case of imperfect information most of the gains related to comparative advantages vanish, due to highly fluctuating agricultural prices. Then it is impossible for economic actors to predict prices accurately enough to take efficient decisions and policies able to reduce this imperfection may improve the global welfare