Effects of Nosema apis, N. ceranae, and coinfections on honey bee (Apis mellifera) learning and memory

Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) face an increasing number of challenges that in recent years have led to significant economic effects on apiculture, with attendant consequences for agriculture. Nosemosis is a fungal infection of honey bees caused by either Nosema apis or N. ceranae. The putative greater virulence of N. ceranae has spurred interest in understanding how it differs from N. apis. Little is known of effects of N. apis or N. ceranae on honey bee learning and memory. Following a Pavlovian model that relies on the proboscis extension reflex, we compared acquisition learning and long-term memory recall of uninfected (control) honey bees versus those inoculated with N. apis, N. ceranae, or both. We also tested whether spore intensity was associated with variation in learning and memory. Neither learning nor memory differed among treatments. There was no evidence of a relationship between spore intensity and learning, and only limited evidence of a negative effect on memory; this occurred only in the co-inoculation treatment. Our results suggest that if Nosema spp. are contributing to unusually high colony losses in recent years, the mechanism by which they may affect honey bees is probably not related to effects on learning or memory, at least as assessed by the proboscis extension reflex

The contribution of optimal turbo fan transport aircraft climb schedule to air company economy

Today airlines are challenging two opposite goals: minimization of flight fuel consumption and minimization of elapsed flight time. A well‐known cost structure and cost generators represent significant pre‐conditions for defining cost optimization strategy in an airline company. Airline company management has a limited set of tools for cost managing, which include the following documents: Performance Engineers’ Manual and Aircraft Flight Manual. In this particular paper review we discuss the problem of vertical flight path of turbo‐fan aircraft, where we point out the impact of the choice of climb technique on the overall en route flight profile costs. In temporary aircraft flight preparation process, there is no stressing out the significance of the climb phase in minimizing costs of this particular flight phase. In the paper we show the procedure of defining optimal climbing resulting minimum costs, but also optimal function operational adjustment to the climb schedule. This way of the approximation of optimal function and its adjustment to the operational use enables the application of minimal cost climbing technique in operational use of transportation aircraft. On short‐haul flights, climb phase can reduce cruise flight length up to 60% of total range. In the paper, we show the impact of climb regime on flight profile of turbo‐fan aircraft considering the usage of time, fuel and costs. The impact is shown according to the data taken from the Performance Engineers Manual. The impact stresses the importance of minimum costs climbing regime to cutting down total flight costs. It also shows the conditions which need to be fulfilled in order to apply minimum costs climbing technique. We identify the scope of CAS speed during climb and TOC for flights minimum total expenses by using minimum costs climbing technique. Conditions for achieving minimum costs climbing technique are the results of the logarithmic differential. In order to achieve optimal numerical results we used Newton‐Raphson formula. Santrauka Šiandien oro transporte svarbūs du tikslai: skrydžio metu sunaudojamo kuro mažinimas ir skrydžio laiko trumpinimas. Žinoma kainos struktūra ir kainos komponentės yra reikšmingos išankstinės sąlygos, padedančios sudaryti kainos optimizavimo strategiją oro transporto bendrovėje. Oro transporto bendrovės valdytojai turi ribotą sąnaudų valdymo priemonių komplektą – tai „Priežiūros inžinieriaus vadovas“ ir „Orlaivio skrydžio vadovas“. Straipsnyje aptariama turbosraigtinio lėktuvo vertikalios skrydžio krypties problema, parodomas pasirinktos kilimo technikos poveikis bendrai skrydžio kainai. Dabartiniame lėktuvo ruošimosi skrydžiui procese nėra pabrėžiama kilimo fazės įtaka bendrų skrydžio sąnaudų mažinimui. Straipsnyje pateikiama procedūra, kaip nustatyti optimalų orlaivio kilimą mažiausiomis sąnaudomis, taip pat optimalumo funkcijos korekciją kilimo plane. Optimalumo funkcijos aproksimavimas ir jos naudojimas leidžia taikyti mažiausių sąnaudų kilimo techniką lėktuve. Trumpalaikiuose skrydžiuose kilimo fazė gali sumažinti kruizinio skrydžio trukmę iki 60 proc. Straipsnyje rodoma, kaip lėktuvo kilimo režimas daro poveikį turbosraigtinio lėktuvo skrydžiui laiko, kuro ir sąnaudų požiūriu remiantis duomeni mis, paimtais iš „Priežiūros inžinieriaus vadovo“. Skaičiai rodo, kaip minimalių sąnaudų kilimo režimas sumažina bendrąsias skrydžio sąnaudas. Straipsnyje taip pat atskleidžiamos sąlygos, kurios turi būti vykdytos norint pritaikyti minimalių sąnaudų kilimo techniką. Ją naudojant nustatytas lėktuvo skrydžio greitis ir pakilimo aukštis. Minimalių sąnaudų kilimo technikos sąlygos yra logaritminio diferencialo prendiniai. Optimaliems skaitmeniniams rezultatams gauti panaudota Niutono ir Rapsono formulė. First published online: 21 Oct 2010 Reikšminiai žodžiai: oro bendrovė, ekonomija, transporto lėktuvas, kilimas, techniniai duomenys, optimizavimas, sąnaudos

A Preliminary Assessment of Silver Nanoparticle Inhibition of Monkeypox Virus Plaque Formation

The use of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in medical research is growing. Silver-containing nanoparticles have previously demonstrated antimicrobial efficacy against bacteria and viral particles. This preliminary study utilized an in vitro approach to evaluate the ability of silver-based nanoparticles to inhibit infectivity of the biological select agent, monkeypox virus (MPV). Nanoparticles (10–80 nm, with or without polysaccharide coating), or silver nitrate (AgNO3) at concentrations of 100, 50, 25, and 12.5 μg/mL were evaluated for efficacy using a plaque reduction assay. Both Ag-PS-25 (polysaccharide-coated, 25 nm) and Ag-NP-55 (non-coated, 55 nm) exhibited a significant (P ≤ 0.05) dose-dependent effect of test compound concentration on the mean number of plaque-forming units (PFU). All concentrations of silver nitrate (except 100 μg/mL) and Ag-PS-10 promoted significant (P ≤ 0.05) decreases in the number of observed PFU compared to untreated controls. Some nanoparticle treatments led to increased MPV PFU ranging from 1.04- to 1.8-fold above controls. No cytotoxicity (Vero cell monolayer sloughing) was caused by any test compound, except 100 μg/mL AgNO3. These results demonstrate that silver-based nanoparticles of approximately 10 nm inhibit MPV infection in vitro, supporting their potential use as an anti-viral therapeutic

Low-mass pre--main-sequence stars in the Magellanic Clouds

[Abridged] The stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) suggests that sub-solar stars form in very large numbers. Most attractive places for catching low-mass star formation in the act are young stellar clusters and associations, still (half-)embedded in star-forming regions. The low-mass stars in such regions are still in their pre--main-sequence (PMS) evolutionary phase. The peculiar nature of these objects and the contamination of their samples by the evolved populations of the Galactic disk impose demanding observational techniques for the detection of complete numbers of PMS stars in the Milky Way. The Magellanic Clouds, the companion galaxies to our own, demonstrate an exceptional star formation activity. The low extinction and stellar field contamination in star-forming regions of these galaxies imply a more efficient detection of low-mass PMS stars than in the Milky Way, but their distance from us make the application of special detection techniques unfeasible. Nonetheless, imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope yield the discovery of solar and sub-solar PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds from photometry alone. Unprecedented numbers of such objects are identified as the low-mass stellar content of their star-forming regions, changing completely our picture of young stellar systems outside the Milky Way, and extending the extragalactic stellar IMF below the persisting threshold of a few solar masses. This review presents the recent developments in the investigation of PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds, with special focus on the limitations by single-epoch photometry that can only be circumvented by the detailed study of the observable behavior of these stars in the color-magnitude diagram. The achieved characterization of the low-mass PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds allowed thus a more comprehensive understanding of the star formation process in our neighboring galaxies.Comment: Review paper, 26 pages (in LaTeX style for Springer journals), 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Space Science Review

Radiotherapy exposure directly damages the uterus and causes pregnancy loss

Female cancer survivors are significantly more likely to experience infertility than the general population. It is well established that chemotherapy and radiotherapy can damage the ovary and compromise fertility, yet the ability of cancer treatments to induce uterine damage, and the underlying mechanisms, have been understudied. Here, we show that in mice total-body γ-irradiation (TBI) induced extensive DNA damage and apoptosis in uterine cells. We then transferred healthy donor embryos into ovariectomized adolescent female mice that were previously exposed to TBI to study the impacts of radiotherapy on the uterus independent from effects to ovarian endocrine function. Following TBI, embryo attachment and implantation were unaffected, but fetal resorption was evident at midgestation in 100% of dams, suggesting failed placental development. Consistent with this hypothesis, TBI impaired the decidual response in mice and primary human endometrial stromal cells. TBI also caused uterine artery endothelial dysfunction, likely preventing adequate blood vessel remodeling in early pregnancy. Notably, when pro-apoptotic protein Puma-deficient (Puma–/–) mice were exposed to TBI, apoptosis within the uterus was prevented, and decidualization, vascular function, and pregnancy were restored, identifying PUMA-mediated apoptosis as a key mechanism. Collectively, these data show that TBI damages the uterus and compromises pregnancy success, suggesting that optimal fertility preservation during radiotherapy may require protection of both the ovaries and uterus. In this regard, inhibition of PUMA may represent a potential fertility preservation strategy.Meaghan J. Griffiths, Sarah A. Marshall, Fiona L. Cousins, Lauren R. Alesi, Jordan Higgins, Saranya Giridharan, Urooza C. Sarma, Ellen Menkhorst, Wei Zhou, Alison S. Care, Jacqueline F. Donoghue, Sarah J. Holdsworth-Carson, Peter A.W. Rogers, Evdokia Dimitriadis, Caroline E. Gargett, Sarah A. Robertson, Amy L. Winship, and Karla J. Hut