Is vigour-based length adjustment during permanent cordon establishment a beneficial practice?

Low vigour canes selected for the establishment of permanent cordon arms may lack the sufficient vigour required for uniform bud burst and growth of new shoots following cordon training. This may lead to stunted or missing spur positions, particularly in the middle of new cordon arms where the effect is most pronounced due to the prioritisation tendencies of the vine, including apical dominance and acrotony. A trial was performed to investigate the benefits of adjusting the length of newly trained canes intended as permanent cordon arms during their establishment to limit their bud number and guide new growth. This length adjustment was based on an assessment of the apparent vigour of selected canes and was performed at the start of the first season of cordon growth, with cordons then extended to their final length. The trial did not yield results indicating a long-term beneficial response to this practice, with physiological measurements including pruning weight showing no difference between length adjusted and control vines in the later seasons of the trial. There was also a lower plant area index (PAI), and higher canopy porosity (Φ) observed in length adjusted vines compared to control vines at several points. There was no difference observed in circumference measures of the distal portion of arms which had undergone a length adjustment, suggesting that the exercise did not have an adverse impact on their capacity for transport and reserve storage. Harvest yield components did not vary with treatment; however, a significantly lower pH was observed in length adjusted vines compared to control vines in the trial's final season. Further research could help to provide more insight into the benefits of this practice, as some results from the trial, including a significantly higher pruning weight, cane number, and cane weight observed in the intermediate sections of cordon arms during the first season of growth suggest that it may have been of some aid to the cordons on which it was implemented

Curcumin blocks autophagy and activates apoptosis of malignant mesothelioma cell lines and increases the survival of mice intraperitoneally transplanted with a malignant mesothelioma cell line

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a primary tumor arising from the serous membranes. The resistance of MM patients to conventional therapies, and the poor patients' survival, encouraged the identification of molecular targets for MM treatment. Curcumin (CUR) is a "multifunctional drug". We explored the in vitro effects of CUR on cell proliferation, cell cycle regulation, pro-survival signaling pathways, apoptosis, autophagy of human (MM-B1, H-Meso-1, MM-F1), and mouse (#40a) MM cells. In addition, we evaluated the in vivo anti-tumor activities of CUR in C57BL/6 mice intraperitoneally transplanted with #40a cells forming ascites.CUR in vitro inhibited MM cells survival in a dose- and time-dependent manner and increased reactive oxygen species'intracellular production and induced DNA damage. CUR triggered autophagic flux, but the process was then blocked and was coincident with caspase 8 activation which activates apoptosis. CUR-mediated apoptosis was supported by the increase of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, increase of p53 expression, activation of caspase 9, cleavage of PARP-1, increase of the percentage of cells in the sub G1 phase which was reduced (MM-F1 and #40a) or abolished (MM-B1 and H-Meso-1) after MM cells incubation with the apoptosis inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK. CUR treatment stimulated the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK, inhibited that of p54 JNK and AKT, increased c-Jun expression and phosphorylation and prevented NF-κB nuclear translocation. Intraperitoneal administration of CUR increased the median survival of C57BL/6 mice intraperitoneally transplanted with #40a cells and reduced the risk of developing tumors. Our findings may have important implications for the design of MM treatment using CUR

La reputazione delle Università: la misurazione della customer satisfaction nel sistema bibliotecario dell'Università di Padova

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Evaluation of WRF mesoscale simulations and particle trajectory analysis for the MILAGRO field campaign

Accurate numerical simulations of the complex wind flows in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) can be an invaluable tool for interpreting the MILAGRO field campaign results. This paper uses three methods to evaluate numerical simulations of basin meteorology using the MM5 and WRF models: statistical comparisons with observations, "Concentration Field Analysis" (CFA) using measured air pollutant concentrations, and comparison of flow features using cluster analysis. CFA is shown to be a better indication of simulation quality than statistical metrics, and WRF simulations are shown to be an improvement on the MM5 ones. Comparisons with clusters identifies an under-representation of the drainage flows into the basin and an over-representation of wind shear in the boundary layer. Particle trajectories simulated with WRF-FLEXPART are then used to analyse the transport of the urban plume and show rapid venting and limited recirculation during MILAGRO. Lagrangian impacts were identified at the campaign supersites, and age spectra of the pollutants evaluated at those same sites. The evaluation presented in the paper show that mesoscale meteorological simulations are of sufficient accuracy to be useful for MILAGRO data analysis.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award ATM-0511803)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award ATM-0810950)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award ATM-0810931)Molina Center for Energy and the Environmen

1,4-Bis(benzimidazol-2-yl)benzene dimethyl­formamide disolvate

The aromatic mol­ecule of the title compound, C20H14N4·2C3H7NO, occupies a special position on an inversion center. The benzimidazole unit (planar to within 0.008 Å) forms a dihedral angle of 9.1 (2)° with the central benzene ring. The benzimidazole H atom participates in a hydrogen bond with the dimethyl­formamide solvent molecule, thus giving rise to the title 1:2 aggregate. These aggregates are further linked in the crystal structure by aromatic π–π stacking inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance = 6.356 (2) Å]

Using 3DVAR data assimilation system to improve ozone simulations in the Mexico City basin

This study investigates the improvement of ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) simulations in the Mexico City basin using a three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) data assimilation system in meteorological simulations during the MCMA-2003 field measurement campaign. Meteorological simulations from the NCAR/Penn State mesoscale model (MM5) are used to drive photochemical simulations with the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions (CAMx) during a four-day episode on 13–16 April 2003. The simulated wind circulation, temperature, and humidity fields in the basin with the data assimilation are found to be more consistent with the observations than those from the reference deterministic forecast. This leads to improved simulations of plume position, peak O<sub>3</sub> timing, and peak O<sub>3</sub> concentrations in the photochemical model. The improvement in O<sub>3</sub> simulations is especially strong during the daytime. The results demonstrate the importance of applying data assimilation in meteorological simulations for air quality studies in the Mexico City basin

In vitro and in vivo inhibition of breast cancer cell growth by targeting the Hedgehog/GLI pathway with SMO (GDC-0449) or GLI (GANT-61) inhibitors.

Aberrant Hedgehog (Hh)/glioma-associated oncogene (GLI) signaling has been implicated in cancer progression. Here, we analyzed GLI1, Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) and NF-κB expression in 51 breast cancer (ductal carcinoma) tissues using immunohistochemistry. We found a positive correlation between nuclear GLI1 expression and tumor grade in ductal carcinoma cases. Cytoplasmic Shh staining significantly correlated with a lower tumor grade. Next, the in vitro effects of two Hh signaling pathway inhibitors on breast cancer cell lines were evaluated using the Smoothened (SMO) antagonist GDC-0449 and the direct GLI1 inhibitor GANT-61. GDC-0449 and GANT-61 exhibited the following effects: a) inhibited breast cancer cell survival; b) induced apoptosis; c) inhibited Hh pathway activity by decreasing the mRNA expression levels of GLI1 and Ptch and inhibiting the nuclear translocation of GLI1; d) increased/decreased EGFR and ErbB2 protein expression, reduced p21- Ras and ERK1/ERK2 MAPK activities and inhibited AKT activation; and e) decreased the nuclear translocation of NF-κB. However, GANT-61 exerted these effects more effectively than GDC-0449. The in vivo antitumor activities of GDC-0449 and GANT- 61 were analyzed in BALB/c mice that were subcutaneously inoculated with mouse breast cancer (TUBO) cells. GDC-0449 and GANT-61 suppressed tumor growth of TUBO cells in BALB/c mice to different extents. These findings suggest that targeting the Hh pathway using antagonists that act downstream of SMO is a more efficient strategy than using antagonists that act upstream of SMO for interrupting Hh signaling in breast cancer

Interaction Structure and Transferential Patterns in Brief Psychotherapy: A Single-case Study

Nowadays it is sufficiently accepted that the therapeutic action of psychotherapy is expected to lie at the interface between two dimensions: identification and interpretation of the patient's dysfunctional relationship patterns arising in the relationship with the clinician. This can only happen, however, if there is a temporal space where the transference-countertransference reactions to be explored and understood can emerge (Jones, 2000). The limited number of sessions characterizing short-term psychotherapy does not seem to allow the unfolding of these dynamics, thus suggesting that the therapeutic action of this approach lies outside the patient-therapist relationship. The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility that, even within the few sessions that characterize short-term psychotherapy, the dynamics of transferencecountertransference typical of the patient's dysfunctional relationship patterns do in fact emerge. For this purpose, a study has been made of the patterns of patient-therapist interaction, measured by the Psychotherapy Process Q-set. The patterns identified are related to the change found in the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme, allowing reflection on the role played by alternating interaction patterns in the variation of the patient's intrapsychic conflicts in this psychotherapy model

Infra-Red thermal image analysis for grapevines

Trabajo presentado en el 18th International Symposium of the Group of International Experts of vitivinicultural Systems for CoOperation (GIESCO 2013), celebrado en Oporto del 7 al 11 de julio de 2013.-- Número fuera de serie.Infrared thermal images (IRTI) have been used for grapevine research since the early 90’s. Even though its promising results in the assessment of canopy stomatal conductance and plant water status, from the beginning and recent research publications, it has not been fully applied on a commercial scale yet. It is believed that the bottleneck for this technology is the lack of reliable automation tools for IRTI analysis. Accurate and reliable automation technique s will allow the use of this technique to assess the spatial variability of physiological processes within the canopy using infrared cameras mounted on moving vehicles, drones, octocopters or robots. Automated analysis systems are requirement of The Vineyard of The Future initiative, which is an international effort to establis h fully monitored vineyards in the most prominent viticultural and winemaking areas in the world. In this work, a semi-automated IRTI analyses performed using a code written in MATLAB® for estimate dry and wet references excluding non-leaf temperatures was compared with evaporimeter (EvapoSensor, Skye Instruments Ltd, Powys, UK) measurements used to provide dry and wet references from IRTIs. Results obtained from this research (grapevines cv. Tempranillo) showed good and statistically significant correlations between temperatur e references obtained from IRTI analysis and measured values. This work constitutes one additional step forward to the implementation of thermal imaging as an automated routine technique for physiological vineyard assess ment from proximal sensing and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) platforms.The research leading to this report was supported by the Spanish project “STRESSIMAGING HPRN-CT-2002-00254” and Chilean projects CONICYT (Nº 79090035) and Programa de Investigación sobre Adaptación de la Agricultura al Cambio Climático - PIEI (Universidad de Talca).Peer Reviewe

Randomized Entity-wise Factorization for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Multi-agent settings in the real world often involve tasks with varying types and quantities of agents and non-agent entities; however, common patterns of behavior often emerge among these agents/entities. Our method aims to leverage these commonalities by asking the question: ``What is the expected utility of each agent when only considering a randomly selected sub-group of its observed entities?'' By posing this counterfactual question, we can recognize state-action trajectories within sub-groups of entities that we may have encountered in another task and use what we learned in that task to inform our prediction in the current one. We then reconstruct a prediction of the full returns as a combination of factors considering these disjoint groups of entities and train this ``randomly factorized" value function as an auxiliary objective for value-based multi-agent reinforcement learning. By doing so, our model can recognize and leverage similarities across tasks to improve learning efficiency in a multi-task setting. Our approach, Randomized Entity-wise Factorization for Imagined Learning (REFIL), outperforms all strong baselines by a significant margin in challenging multi-task StarCraft micromanagement settings.Comment: ICML 2021 Camera Read