Metabolism And The Rise Of Fungus Cultivation By Ants

Most ant colonies are comprised of workers that cooperate to harvest resources and feed developing larvae. Around 50 million years ago (MYA), ants of the attine lineage adopted an alternative strategy, harvesting resources used as compost to produce fungal gardens. While fungus cultivation is considered a major breakthrough in ant evolution, the associated ecological consequences remain poorly understood. Here, we compare the energetics of attine colony-farms and ancestral hunter-gatherer colonies using metabolic scaling principles within a phylogenetic context. We find two major energetic transitions. First, the earliest lower-attine farmers transitioned to lower mass-specific metabolic rates while shifting significant fractions of biomass from ant tissue to fungus gardens. Second, a transition 20 MYA to specialized cultivars in the higher-attine clade was associated with increased colony metabolism (without changes in garden fungal content) and with metabolic scaling nearly identical to hypometry observed in hunter-gatherer ants, although only the hunter-gatherer slope was distinguishable from isometry. Based on these evolutionary transitions, we propose that shifting living-tissue storage from ants to fungal mutualists provided energetic storage advantages contributing to attine diversification and outline critical assumptions that, when tested, will help link metabolism, farming efficiency, and colony fitness.Integrative Biolog

Spectra and Diagnostics for the Direct Detection of Wide-Separation Extrasolar Giant Planets

We calculate as a function of orbital distance, mass, and age the theoretical spectra and orbit-averaged planet/star flux ratios for representative wide-separation extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) in the optical, near-infrared, and mid-infrared. Stellar irradiation of the planet's atmosphere and the effects of water and ammonia clouds are incorporated and handled in a consistent fashion. We include predictions for 12 specific known EGPs. In the process, we derive physical diagnostics that can inform the direct EGP detection and remote sensing programs now being planned or proposed. Furthermore, we calculate the effects of irradiation on the spectra of a representative companion brown dwarf as a function of orbital distance.Comment: submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, 19 pages, 11 color figure

A review of factors affecting the use of Electrical Potential Drop (EPD) for creep life monitoring

To help determine remaining lifetime of pressure vessels suffering creep, the authors have previously developed a method and presented promising results using a combination of AC and DC electrical potential drop (EPD) on-line monitoring, detecting both final cracking as well as incipient creep damage. The latter was tentatively ascribed to the development of cavitation damage, but recent modelling and separate off-line measurements have shown that cavitation is unlikely to provide enough of a change in electrical properties to explain all of the variations previously observed. Here we gather the results obtained to date, and review their likely relationships in an attempt to obtain a greater insight into the mechanisms at play. Whilst changes in both on-line and off-line EPD are largely in accord, the belief now is that the changes seen cannot be fully explained by cavitation development and that EPD is responding to other creep induced phenomena as well

Legitimate Interest is the New Consent -- Large-Scale Measurement and Legal Compliance of IAB Europe TCF Paywalls

Cookie paywalls allow visitors of a website to access its content only after they make a choice between paying a fee or accept tracking. European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) recently issued guidelines and decisions on paywalls lawfulness, but it is yet unknown whether websites comply with them. We study in this paper the prevalence of cookie paywalls on the top one million websites using an automatic crawler. We identify 431 cookie paywalls, all using the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF). We then analyse the data these paywalls communicate through the TCF, and in particular, the legal grounds and the purposes used to collect personal data. We observe that cookie paywalls extensively rely on legitimate interest legal basis systematically conflated with consent. We also observe a lack of correlation between the presence of paywalls and legal decisions or guidelines by DPAs.Comment: Accepted for publication at WPES202

Screening of cognitive changes in adults with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review

Supplementary Materials: The following are available online at http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/11/848/s1, Tables S4–S7: List of instruments; PRISMA checklist; Synthesis-without-Meta-analysis-SWiM-Checklist.Background and Aims: Screening and assessment of cognitive changes in adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ID), mainly Down Syndrome (DS), is crucial to offer appropriate services to their needs. We present a systematic review of the existing instruments assessing dementia, aiming to support researchers and clinicians’ best practice. Methods: Searches were carried out in the databases Web of Science; PubMed; PsycINFO in March 2019 and updated in October 2020. Studies were selected and examined if they: (1) focused on assessing age-related cognitive changes in persons with ID; (2) included adults and/or older adults; (3) included scales and batteries for cognitive assessment. Results: Forty-eight cross-sectional studies and twenty-seven longitudinal studies were selected representing a total sample of 6451 participants (4650 DS and 1801 with other ID). In those studies, we found 39 scales, questionnaires, and inventories, and 13 batteries for assessing cognitive and behavioural changes in adults with DS and other ID. Conclusion: The most used instrument completed by an informant or carer was the Dementia Questionnaire for Learning Disabilities (DLD), and its previous versions. We discuss the strengths and limitations of the instruments and outline recommendations for future use

PERFIL DA DIRETORIA ACADÊMICA, O ADMINISTRATIVO E O PEDAGÓGICO: UM ESTUDO DE CASO EM DUAS UNIVERSIDADES ESTADUAIS PAULISTAS;

A pesquisa “O Perfil da Diretoria Acadêmica, o administrativo e o pedagógico: um estudo de caso em duas Universidades Estaduais Paulistas” é um estudo de caso comparativo que envolve uma análise da atividade desempenhada pela Área Acadêmica da Administração Universitária Pública Paulista, dando enfoque a uma Unidade da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), a Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz” e a uma Unidade da Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), o Instituto de Biociências de Rio Claro, com a finalidade de identificar como a função de Diretor Acadêmico vem sendo desempenhada por docente e por funcionário, o quanto dessa atividade é de natureza acadêmica e o quanto é de natureza administrativa ou ambos. Assim, este trabalho trata a questão da burocracia e seu relacionamento com a universidade brasileira, além de identificar a estrutura administrativa adotada nas duas universidades públicas paulistas, analisando as teorias de administração que dão suporte aos métodos de gestão que adotam. Trata-se de uma pesquisa empírica, contando com: análise documental, pesquisa bibliográfica e trabalho de campo. Para análise do material coletado, usou-se como referência as técnicas de análise de conteúdo, preconizadas por Laurence BARDIN (1977)

Effect of the Synthetic Bile Salt Analog CamSA on the Hamster Model of Clostridium difficile Infection

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and has gained worldwide notoriety due to emerging hypervirulent strains and the high incidence of recurrence. We previously reported protection of mice from CDI using the antigerminant bile salt analog CamSA. Here we describe the effects of CamSA in the hamster model of CDI. CamSA treatment of hamsters showed no toxicity and did not affect the richness or diversity of gut microbiota; however, minor changes in community composition were observed. Treatment of C. difficile-challenged hamsters with CamSA doubled the mean time to death, compared to control hamsters. However, CamSA alone was insufficient to prevent CDI in hamsters. CamSA in conjunction with suboptimal concentrations of vancomycin led to complete protection from CDI in 70% of animals. Protected animals remained disease-free at least 30 days postchallenge and showed no signs of colonic tissue damage. In a delayed-treatment model of hamster CDI, CamSA was unable to prevent infection signs and death. These data support a putative model in which CamSA reduces the number of germinating C. difficile spores but does not keep all of the spores from germinating. Vancomycin halts division of any vegetative cells that are able to grow from spores that escape CamSA

Beam Studies of the Segmented Resistive WELL: a Potential Thin Sampling Element for Digital Hadron Calorimetry

Thick Gas Electron Multipliers (THGEMs) have the potential of constituting thin, robust sampling elements in Digital Hadron Calorimetry (DHCAL) in future colliders. We report on recent beam studies of new single- and double-THGEM-like structures; the multiplier is a Segmented Resistive WELL (SRWELL) - a single-faced THGEM in contact with a segmented resistive layer inductively coupled to readout pads. Several 10$\times$10 cm$^2$ configurations with a total thickness of 5-6 mm (excluding electronics) with 1 cm$^2$ pads coupled to APV-SRS readout were investigated with muons and pions. Detection efficiencies in the 98$$ range were recorded with average pad-multiplicity of $\sim$1.1. The resistive anode resulted in efficient discharge damping, with potential drops of a few volts; discharge probabilities were $\sim10^{-7}$ for muons and $\sim10^{-6}$ for pions in the double-stage configuration, at rates of a few kHz/cm$^2$. Further optimization work and research on larger detectors are underway.Comment: Presented at the $13^{th}$ Vienna Conference on Instrumentation, February 2013 and submitted to its proceeding

Multilocus sequence types of invasive Corynebacterium diphtheriae isolated in the Rio de Janeiro urban area, Brazil

Invasive infections caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae in vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals have been reported increasingly. In this study we used multilocus sequence typing (MLST) to study genetic relationships between six invasive strains of this bacterium isolated solely in the urban area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during a 10-year period. Of note, all the strains rendered negative results in PCR reactions for the tox gene, and four strains presented an atypical sucrose-fermenting ability. Five strains represented new sequence types. MLST results did not support the hypothesis that invasive (sucrose-positive) strains of C. diphtheriae are part of a single clonal complex. Instead, one of the main findings of the study was that such strains can be normally found in clonal complexes with strains related to non-invasive disease. Comparative analyses with C. diphtheriae isolated in different countries provided further information on the geographical circulation of some sequence types