Parasitóides dos Açores : possível utilização no controlo da mosca da fruta Ceratitis capitata (W.).

I Congresso de Fruticultura e Viticultura, Angra de Heroísmo, 17 a 19 de Abril de 2008.Desde Setembro de 2005 tem vindo a ser efectuado o levantamento dos parasitóides de Ceratitis capitata com o objectivo da sua possível utilização no controlo da mosca da fruta nos Açores, evitando assim a introdução de espécies exóticas. Halticoptera patellana, Toxeumorpha nigricola e Spalangia endius foram recolhidas no campo parasilando pupas de C. capitata, enquanto Tachinaephagus zealandicus, Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae e Asobara rufescens parasitaram larvas ou pupas da mosca em condições laboratoriais. As duas primeiras espécies encontram-se as várias gerações, em cultura laboratorial tendo como hospedeiro C. capitata. Um novo registo de hospedeiro foi assinalado para H. patellana, T. nigricola, T. zealandicus, e A. rufescens, uma vez que nenhuma referência foi encontrada indicando C. capitata como hospedeiro destas espécies. Com este trabalho as espécies H. patellana, T. nigricola, T. zealandicus, S. endius, P. vindemmiae e A. rufescens são citadas pela primeira vez para os Açores, enquanto T. zealandicus, anteriormente referenciado para as ilhas do Pico e Terceira, foi observado pela primeira vez em São Miguel.ABSTRACT: Since September 2005 a survey for parasitoids of Ceratitis capitata was performed to evaluate their possible use in the Medfly control in Azores to avoid the introduction of exotic species. Halticoptera patellana, Toxeumorpha nigricola and Spalangia endius were collected in fruit crop parasitizing pupae of C. capitata. Field-collected Tachinaephagus zealandicus, Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae and Asobara rufescens parasitized larvae or pupae of the Medfly under laboratory conditions. The first two species were successfully reared for consecutive generations in laboratory using larvae of C. capitata as hosts. With this study a new record for host is given for H. patellana, T. nigricola, T. zealandicus and A. rufescens since no previous references indicate C. capitata as host. Also, the presence of H. patellana, T. nigricola, T. zealandicus, S. endius, P. vindemmiae and A. rufescens are first cited for Azores Islands, while T. zealandicus previously referred to the islands of Pico and Terceira, was first noticed in São Miguel

Comparativa morphology of the venom apparatus in some subfamilias of braconid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)*

ABSTRACT Venom apparatus morphology has been investigated in 23 species of 6 subfamilies of Braconidae: Braconinae, Doryctinae, Exothecinae, Rogadinae, Opiinae and Cheloninae. Several signiñcant characters are described and illustrated. Differences in the presence or absence of constrictions dividing the reservoir into a number of distinct regions, the number and position of the insertions of the venom gland ducts on the reservoir, the branching pattern of the venom glands, and in the evennes and distribution of the spiral thickenings of the reservoir and duct intima are discussed. Key words: Braconidae, venom apparatus, reservoir, venom glands, intima, morphology. RESUMEN Anatomía comparada del aparato del veneno en bracónidos (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). Se estudia la anatomía del aparato del veneno en 23 especies incluidas en 6 subfamilias de Braconidae: Braconinae, Doryctinae, Exothecinae, Rogadinae, Opiinae y Cheloninae. Se presentan y describen algunos caracteres como son la presencia o ausencia de constricciones en el reservorio, el número y posición de los filamentos glandulares en el reservorio, la ramificación de la glándula del veneno o el tipo y distribución de espiralamiento en la íntima del reservorio y de los conductos glandulares. Palabras clave: Braconidae, aparato del veneno, reservorio, glándula del veneno, íntima, anatomía

Mytilus galloprovincialis Myticin C: A Chemotactic Molecule with Antiviral Activity and Immunoregulatory Properties

Previous research has shown that an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) of the myticin class C (Myt C) is the most abundantly expressed gene in cDNA and suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) libraries after immune stimulation of mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. However, to date, the expression pattern, the antimicrobial activities and the immunomodulatory properties of the Myt C peptide have not been determined. In contrast, it is known that Myt C mRNA presents an unusual and high level of polymorphism of unidentified biological significance. Therefore, to provide a better understanding of the features of this interesting molecule, we have investigated its function using four different cloned and expressed variants of Myt C cDNA and polyclonal anti-Myt C sera. The in vivo results suggest that this AMP, mainly present in hemocytes, could be acting as an immune system modulator molecule because its overexpression was able to alter the expression of mussel immune-related genes (as the antimicrobial peptides Myticin B and Mytilin B, the C1q domain-containing protein MgC1q, and lysozyme). Moreover, the in vitro results indicate that Myt C peptides have antimicrobial and chemotactic properties. Their recombinant expression in a fish cell line conferred protection against two different fish viruses (enveloped and non-enveloped). Cell extracts from Myt C expressing fish cells were also able to attract hemocytes. All together, these results suggest that Myt C should be considered not only as an AMP but also as the first chemokine/cytokine-like molecule identified in bivalves and one of the few examples in all of the invertebrates

On the compact operators case of the Bishop-Phelps-Bollobás property for numerical radius

The authors would like to thank Bill Johnson for kindly answering several inquiries.We study the Bishop–Phelps–Bollobás property for numerical radius restricted to the case of compact operators (BPBp-nu for compact operators in short). We show that C0(L) spaces have the BPBp-nu for compact operators for every Hausdorff topological locally compact space L. To this end, on the one hand, we provide some techniques allowing to pass the BPBp-nu for compact operators from subspaces to the whole space and, on the other hand, we prove some strong approximation property of C0(L) spaces and their duals. Besides, we also show that real Hilbert spaces and isometric preduals of ℓ1 have the BPBp-nu for compact operators

Long-term vegetation dynamics of a tropical megadelta: Mid-Holocene palaeoecology of the Orinoco Delta (NE Venezuela)

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Coastal wetlands have been proposed as highly threatened by the ongoing and future climatic change, including projected sea-level changes as an additional forcing factor compared to more inland locations. The limited knowledge generated to date in this topic has been primarily focused on those areas attaining a high population density, and rarely deals with long-term (>50 years) dynamics. Here we present the first Holocene palaeoecological study carried in the Orinoco Delta, in NE Venezuela. The record presented here contains sediments from the last 6200 years and is located in a river-shore swamp dominated by the palm Mauritia flexuosa. Current human occupation is almost restricted to small settlements of the Warao indigenous culture, closely related to the use of M. flexuosa and other palm species present in the zone. The results show the occurrence of three well-distinguished palynological zones: (i) from 6200 to 5200 cal yr BP, characterised by mixed rainforest and other taxa related to salinity (coastal-like), low (negative) values of magnetic susceptibility and magnetic grain size, absence of transported clays, and the highest macrocharcoal particles abundance; (ii) from 5200 to 2950 cal yr BP, marked by a replacement of the mangrove-like vegetation by a more inland mixed-swamp forest community with low levels of charcoal, and (iii) from 2950 cal yr BP to present-day, characterised by the establishment of the current vegetation community, dominated by M. flexuosa, and an increasing trend in the charcoal curve since the last 700 years. A combination of regional (climatic changes) and local (sediment ontogeny) has been proposed as the key drivers influencing the vegetation succession recorded. The stabilisation of the sea-level that occurred during the mid-Holocene would have favoured the transgression of the coastal line, with the migration of the coastal-like vegetation seawards. Synchronous to this event, a trend towards drier conditions has been reported in the close Cariaco record, that could have also influenced the vegetation replacement. Between 3800 and 2800 years ago, the increased ENSO variability registered in Cariaco may have played a key role in the expansion of the Mauritia palm community. It is suggested that in our location, the potential inhabiting human populations were differently influenced by these environmental changes. First, the disappearance of the coastal resources could have favoured land abandonment, whereas the increase in the abundance of the palm might be influential for the arrival of other inland cultures that were previously used to manage Mauritia. This sequence shows the importance of the ecosystem services for the location inhabitants, highlighting the abandonment of the mid-Holocene culture coeval with the disappearance of its ecosystem. These results also provide information about the sensitivity and resilience in facing external stressors of both humans and vegetation, and will be valuable tools for managing the future of this ecosystem

Low rank approximation of multidimensional data

In the last decades, numerical simulation has experienced tremendous improvements driven by massive growth of computing power. Exascale computing has been achieved this year and will allow solving ever more complex problems. But such large systems produce colossal amounts of data which leads to its own difficulties. Moreover, many engineering problems such as multiphysics or optimisation and control, require far more power that any computer architecture could achieve within the current scientific computing paradigm. In this chapter, we propose to shift the paradigm in order to break the curse of dimensionality by introducing decomposition to reduced data. We present an extended review of data reduction techniques and intends to bridge between applied mathematics community and the computational mechanics one. The chapter is organized into two parts. In the first one bivariate separation is studied, including discussions on the equivalence of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD, continuous framework) and singular value decomposition (SVD, discrete matrices). Then, in the second part, a wide review of tensor formats and their approximation is proposed. Such work has already been provided in the literature but either on separate papers or into a pure applied mathematics framework. Here, we offer to the data enthusiast scientist a description of Canonical, Tucker, Hierarchical and Tensor train formats including their approximation algorithms. When it is possible, a careful analysis of the link between continuous and discrete methods will be performed.IV Research and Transfer Plan of the University of SevillaInstitut CarnotJunta de AndalucíaIDEX program of the University of Bordeau

Cohort Profile: The epidemiology of chronic diseases and multimorbidity. The EpiChron cohort study

Why was the cohort set up? Greater life expectancy in Europe over the past few decades has been translated into an increasing burden of chronic diseases that accumulate as the population ages, whereas acute infectious diseases have been progressively pushed into the background. The incidence of conditions such as hypertension, obesity and asthma has increased dramatically worldwide, and cancer, diabetes and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases are responsible for almost 70% of global deaths. Concurrently, the prevalence of multimorbidity (as of people affected by more than one chronic disorder) is also increasing and appears as the most common chronic condition at present. Multimorbidity affects almost 3 in 4 individuals aged 65 years and older, although it represents a problem not only for the elderly but also for adult and even young populations, at whom prevention strategies should aim. People affected by multimorbidity often experience fragmentation of care, greater and inadequate use of health services and polypharmacy, which in turn may increase the risk of low adherence and adverse drug reactions. All of this leads to individuals’ quality of life deterioration and higher risk of mortality. Besides, handling patients with multimorbidity represents a daily challenge for physicians and health systems..

Phase II study of high-sensitivity genotyping of KRAS, NRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA to ultra-select metastatic colorectal cancer patients for panitumumab plus FOLFIRI: the ULTRA trial

Background: Several studies show the importance of accurately quantifying not only KRAS and other low-abundant mutations because benefits of anti-EGFR therapies may depend on certain sensitivity thresholds. We assessed whether ultra-selection of patients using a high-sensitive digital PCR (dPCR) to determine KRAS, NRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA status can improve clinical outcomes of panitumumab plus FOLFIRI. Patients and methods: This was a single-arm phase II trial that analysed 38 KRAS, NRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA hotspots in tumour tissues of irinotecan-resistant metastatic colorectal cancer patients who received panitumumab plus FOLFIRI until disease progression or early withdrawal. Mutation profiles were identified by nanofluidic dPCR and correlated with clinical outcomes (ORR, overall response rate; PFS, progression-free survival; OS, overall survival) using cut-offs from 0% to 5%. A quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis was also performed. Results: Seventy-two evaluable patients were enrolled. RAS (KRAS/NRAS) mutations were detected in 23 (32%) patients and RAS/BRAF mutations in 25 (35%) by dPCR, while they were detected in 7 (10%) and 11 (15%) patients, respectively, by qPCR. PIK3CA mutations were not considered in the analyses as they were only detected in 2 (3%) patients by dPCR and in 1 (1%) patient by qPCR. The use of different dPCR cut-offs for RAS (KRAS/NRAS) and RAS/BRAF analyses translated into differential clinical outcomes. The highest ORR, PFS and OS in wild-type patients with their lowest values in patients with mutations were achieved with a 5% cut-off. We observed similar outcomes in RAS/BRAF wild-type and mutant patients defined by qPCR. Conclusions: High-sensitive dPCR accurately identified patients with KRAS, NRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA mutations. The optimal RAS/BRAF mutational cut-off for outcome prediction is 5%, which explains that the predictive performance of qPCR was not improved by dPCR. The biological and clinical implications of low-frequent mutated alleles warrant further investigations

Correlation of recist, computed tomography morphological response, and pathological regression in hepatic metastasis secondary to colorectal cancer : The avamet study

The prospective phase IV AVAMET study was undertaken to correlate response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST)-defined response rates with computed tomography-based morphological criteria (CTMC) and pathological response after liver resection of colorectal cancer metastases. Eligible patients were aged ≥18 years, with Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0/1 and histologically-confirmed colon or rectal adenocarcinoma with measurable liver metastases. Preoperative treatment was bevacizumab (7.5 mg on day 1) + XELOX (oxaliplatin 130 mg/m, capecitabine 1000 mg/m bid on days 1-14 q3w). After three cycles, response was evaluated by a multidisciplinary team. Patients who were progression-free and metastasectomy candidates received one cycle of XELOX before undergoing surgery 3-5 weeks later, followed by four cycles of bevacizumab + XELOX. A total of 83 patients entered the study; 68 were eligible for RECIST, 67 for CTMC, and 51 for pathological response evaluation. Of these patients, 49% had a complete or partial RECIST response, 91% had an optimal or incomplete CTMC response, and 81% had a complete or major pathological response. CTMC response predicted 37 of 41 pathological responses versus 23 of 41 responses predicted using RECIST (p = 0.008). Kappa coefficients indicated a lack of correlation between the results of RECIST and morphological responses and between morphological and pathological response rates. CTMC may represent a better marker of pathological response to bevacizumab + XELOX than RECIST in patients with potentially-resectable CRC liver metastases

Identifying multimorbidity profiles associated with COVID-19 severity in chronic patients using network analysis in the PRECOVID Study; 35181720

A major risk factor of COVID-19 severity is the patient''s health status at the time of the infection. Numerous studies focused on specific chronic diseases and identified conditions, mainly cardiovascular ones, associated with poor prognosis. However, chronic diseases tend to cluster into patterns, each with its particular repercussions on the clinical outcome of infected patients. Network analysis in our population revealed that not all cardiovascular patterns have the same risk of COVID-19 hospitalization or mortality and that this risk depends on the pattern of multimorbidity, besides age and sex. We evidenced that negative outcomes were strongly related to patterns in which diabetes and obesity stood out in older women and men, respectively. In younger adults, anxiety was another disease that increased the risk of severity, most notably when combined with menstrual disorders in women or atopic dermatitis in men. These results have relevant implications for organizational, preventive, and clinical actions to help meet the needs of COVID-19 patients. © 2022, The Author(s)