Detection of Borrelia lusitaniae, Rickettsia sp. IRS3, Rickettsia monacensis and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in Ixodes ricinus collected in Madeira Island, Portugal

A total of 300 Ixodes ricinus ticks were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp., and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Sequence analysis demonstrated 8 (2.7%) ticks infected with B. lusitaniae, 60 (20%) with Rickettsia spp., and 1 (0.3%) with A. phagocytophilum. Seven (2.3%) ticks were coinfected with B. lusitaniae and Rickettsia spp., 2 (0.6%) with R. monacensis, and 5 (1.7%) with Rickettsia sp. IRS3. The results of this study suggest simultaneous transmission of multiple tick-borne agents on Madeira Island, Portugal

Feasibility of planctomycetes as a nutritional or supplementary food source for Daphnia spp

Daphnia magna is widely used as a standard organism in ecotoxicology assays. It plays a key role in energy transfer in freshwater food webs as a primary consumer, grazing on microalgae, yeast and bacteria. Daphnids are commonly reared in the laboratory using microalgae cultures but alternative or complementary sources are important to reduce the dependency on a single food source. The role played in nature by planctomycetes as a food source for other higher trophic levels is still unknown. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the potential of Rhodopirellula rubra strain LF2 as a nutritional or a supplementary food source for D. magna and Daphnia longispina. Life-history assays were conducted with daphnids fed with R. rubra in exponential and stationary growth phases, in three concentrations. Additionally, its adequacy as a supplement to the microalga Raphidocelis subcapitata was tested. In general, both daphnids showed impairment in all the parameters evaluated, especially when fed with R. rubra. However, when daphnids were fed with the two food sources, no changes were recorded for the rate of population increase. At the tested concentrations, R. rubra was not a good alternative food source in the daphnid diet. © EDP Sciences, 2016.This research was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020

Insulin therapy modulates mitochondrial dynamics and biogenesis, autophagy and tau protein phosphorylation in the brain of type 1 diabetic rats

AbstractThe main purpose of this study was to examine whether streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetes (T1D) and insulin (INS) treatment affect mitochondrial function, fission/fusion and biogenesis, autophagy and tau protein phosphorylation in cerebral cortex from diabetic rats treated or not with INS. No significant alterations were observed in mitochondrial function as well as pyruvate levels, despite the significant increase in glucose levels observed in INS-treated diabetic rats. A significant increase in DRP1 protein phosphorylated at Ser616 residue was observed in the brain cortex of STZ rats. Also an increase in NRF2 protein levels and in the number of copies of mtDNA were observed in STZ diabetic rats, these alterations being normalized by INS. A slight decrease in LC3-II levels was observed in INS-treated rats when compared to STZ diabetic animals. An increase in tau protein phosphorylation at Ser396 residue was observed in STZ diabetic rats while INS treatment partially reversed that effect. Accordingly, a modest reduction in the activation of GSK3β and a significant increase in the activity of phosphatase 2A were found in INS-treated rats when compared to STZ diabetic animals. No significant alterations were observed in caspases 9 and 3 activity and synaptophysin and PSD95 levels. Altogether our results show that mitochondrial alterations induced by T1D seem to involve compensation mechanisms since no significant changes in mitochondrial function and synaptic integrity were observed in diabetic animals. In addition, INS treatment is able to normalize the alterations induced by T1D supporting the importance of INS signaling in the brain

Phytoplankton community responses in a shallow lake following lanthanum-bentonite application

The release of phosphorus (P) from bed sediments to the overlying water can delay the recovery of lakes for decades following reductions in catchment contributions, preventing water quality targets being met within timeframes set out by environmental legislation (e.g. EU Water Framework Directive: WFD). Therefore supplementary solutions for restoring lakes have been explored, including the capping of sediment P sources using a lanthanum (La)-modified bentonite clay to reduce internal P loading and enhance the recovery process. Here we present results from Loch Flemington where the first long-term field trial documenting responses of phytoplankton community structure and abundance, and the UK WFD phytoplankton metric to a La-bentonite application was performed. A Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) analysis was used to distinguish natural variability from treatment effect and confirmed significant reductions in the magnitude of summer cyanobacterial blooms in Loch Flemington, relative to the control site, following La-bentonite application. However this initial cyanobacterial response was not sustained beyond two years after application, which implied that the reduction in internal P loading was short-lived; several possible explanations for this are discussed. One reason is that this ecological quality indicator is sensitive to inter-annual variability in weather patterns, particularly summer rainfall and water temperature. Over the monitoring period, the phytoplankton community structure of Loch Flemington became less dominated by cyanobacteria and more functionally diverse. This resulted in continual improvements in the phytoplankton compositional and abundance metrics, which were not observed at the control site, and may suggest an ecological response to the sustained reduction in filterable reactive phosphorus (FRP) concentration following La-bentonite application. Overall, phytoplankton classification indicated that the lake moved from poor to moderate ecological status but did not reach the proxy water quality target (i.e. WFD Good Ecological Status) within four years of the application. As for many other shallow lakes, the effective control of internal P loading in Loch Flemington will require further implementation of both in-lake and catchment-based measures. Our work emphasizes the need for appropriate experimental design and long-term monitoring programmes, to ascertain the efficacy of intervention measures in delivering environmental improvements at the field scale

Evaluation of Cardiac Autonomic Modulation Using Symbolic Dynamics after Cardiac Transplantation

Objective: To characterize the behavior of cardiac autonomic modulation in individuals with different times after orthotopic heart transplantation (HTx) using symbolic dynamics analysis. Methods: Sixty patients were evaluated after HTx. We recorded their instantaneous R-R intervals (RRi) by cardiac monitor Polar (R) RS800CX (TM) (Polar Electro Oy, Kempele, Finland) for 10 minutes. The same sequence of RRi with 256 consecutive beats was used to perform spectral analysis and symbolic dynamics analysis. We used hierarchical clustering to form groups. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (with Holm-Sidak method) or one-way Kruskal-Wallis test (with Dunn's post-hoc test) was used to analyze the difference between groups. Linear correlation analysis between variables was performed using Pearson's or Spearman's tests. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The 0V% index increased, the 2UV% index and the normalized complexity index decreased with an increase of HTx postoperative time. There were a negative correlation between complexity indexes and 0V% and a positive correlation between complexity indexes and 2UV%. Conclusion: Symbolic dynamics indexes were able to show a specific cardiac autonomic modulation pattern for HTx recipients with different postoperative times

Adiabatic evolution under quantum control

One of the difficulties in adiabatic quantum computation is the limit on the computation time. Here we propose two schemes to speed-up the adiabatic evolution. To apply this controlled adiabatic evolution to adiabatic quantum computation, we design one of the schemes without any prior knowledge of the instantaneous eigenstates of the final Hamiltonian. Whereas in another scheme, the control is constructed with the instantaneous eigenstate that is the target state of the control. As an illustration, we study a two-level system driven by a time-dependent magnetic field under the control. The physics behind the control scheme is explained.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure