On the p,qp,q-binomial distribution and the Ising model

A completely new approach to the Ising model in 1 to 5 dimensions is developed. We employ $p,q$-binomial coefficients, a generalisation of the binomial coefficients, to describe the magnetisation distributions of the Ising model. For the complete graph this distribution corresponds exactly to the limit case $p=q$. We take our investigation to the simple $d$-dimensional lattices for $d=1,2,3,4,5$ and fit $p,q$-binomial distributions to our data, some of which are exact but most are sampled. For $d=1$ and $d=5$ the magnetisation distributions are remarkably well-fitted by $p,q$-binomial distributions. For $d=4$ we are only slightly less successful, while for $d=2,3$ we see some deviations (with exceptions!) between the $p,q$-binomial and the Ising distribution. We begin the paper by giving results on the behaviour of the $p,q$-distribution and its moment growth exponents given a certain parameterization of $p,q$. Since the moment exponents are known for the Ising model (or at least approximately for $d=3$) we can predict how $p,q$ should behave and compare this to our measured $p,q$. The results speak in favour of the $p,q$-binomial distribution's correctness regarding their general behaviour in comparison to the Ising model. The full extent to which they correctly model the Ising distribution is not settled though.Comment: 51 pages, 23 figures, submitted to PRB on Oct 23 200

Behavioural stress responses predict environmental perception in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Individual variation in the response to environmental challenges depends partly on innate reaction norms, partly on experience-based cognitive/emotional evaluations that individuals make of the situation. The goal of this study was to investigate whether pre-existing differences in behaviour predict the outcome of such assessment of environmental cues, using a conditioned place preference/avoidance (CPP/CPA) paradigm. A comparative vertebrate model (European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax) was used, and ninety juvenile individuals were initially screened for behavioural reactivity using a net restraining test. Thereafter each individual was tested in a choice tank using net chasing as aversive stimulus or exposure to familiar conspecifics as appetitive stimulus in the preferred or non preferred side respectively (called hereafter stimulation side). Locomotor behaviour (i.e. time spent, distance travelled and swimming speed in each tank side) of each individual was recorded and analysed with video software. The results showed that fish which were previously exposed to appetitive stimulus increased significantly the time spent on the stimulation side, while aversive stimulus led to a strong decrease in time spent on the stimulation side. Moreover, this study showed clearly that proactive fish were characterised by a stronger preference for the social stimulus and when placed in a putative aversive environment showed a lower physiological stress responses than reactive fish. In conclusion, this study showed for the first time in sea bass, that the CPP/CPA paradigm can be used to assess the valence (positive vs. negative) that fish attribute to different stimuli and that individual behavioural traits is predictive of how stimuli are perceived and thus of the magnitude of preference or avoidance behaviour.European Commission [265957]; Portuguese Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) [FRH/BPD/72952/2010]; FCT [SFRH/BD/80029/2011

Determination and Validation of Nimesulide in Pharmaceutical Formulation by Near Infrared Spectroscopy

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)The determination of nimesulide in pharmaceutical formulation in the range of 10.38 to 39.47% m/m using near infrared spectroscopy and multivariate calibration based on partial least squares (PLS) and net analyte signal (NAS) was studied and validated by establishing its figures of merit. Suitable results were obtained, with limit of detection of 0.61%, limit quantification of 2.03%, accuracy estimated as root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.05%, mean selectivity of 0.006, sensitivity of 0.004%, inverse analytical sensitivity of (0.20%)(-1) and signal-to-noise ratio of 181. In addition, it was obtained relative errors lower than 10% that are acceptable values for quality control of this drug. These results indicate that the proposed method can be used in pharmaceutical industries as an alternative to standard analytical procedures.211019291936Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)International Institute of Pharmaceutical Researches (IIPF)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Performance and bacterial community shifts during phosphogypsum biotransformation

Phosphogypsum (PG) is an industrial waste composed mainly by sulfate, turning it a suitable sulfate source for sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). In the present work, the capability of two SRB communities, one enriched from Portuguese PG (culture PG) and the other from sludge from a wastewater treatment plant (culture WWT-1), to use sulfate from PG was compared. In addition, the impact of this sulfate-rich waste in the microbial community was assessed. The highest efficiency in terms of sulfate reduction was observed with culture WWT-1. The bacterial composition of this culture was not significantly affected when sodium sulfate from the nutrient medium was replaced by PG as a sulfate source. Next generation sequencing (NGS) showed that this community was phylogenetically diverse, composed by bacteria affiliated to Clostridium, Arcobacter, and Sulfurospirillum genera and by SRB belonging to Desulfovibrio, Desulfomicrobium, and Desulfobulbus genera. In contrast, the bacterial structure of the community enriched from PG was modified when sodium sulfate was replaced by PG as the sulfate source. This culture, which showed the poorest performance in the use of sulfate from PG, was mainly composed by SRB related to Desulfosporosinus genus. The present work provides new information regarding the phylogenetic characterization of anaerobic bacterial communities with the ability to use PG as sulfate donor, thus, contributing to improve the knowledge of microorganisms suitable to be used in PG bioremediation. Additionally, this paper demonstrates that an alternative to lactate and low-cost carbon source (wine wastes) can be used efficiently for that purpose

The writing on the wall: the concealed communities of the East Yorkshire horselads

This paper examines the graffiti found within late nineteenth and early-twentieth century farm buildings in the Wolds of East Yorkshire. It suggests that the graffiti were created by a group of young men at the bottom of the social hierarchy - the horselads – and was one of the ways in which they constructed a distinctive sense of communal identity, at a particular stage in their lives. Whilst it tells us much about changing agricultural regimes and social structures, it also informs us about experiences and attitudes often hidden from official histories and biographies. In this way, the graffiti are argued to inform our understanding, not only of a concealed community, but also about their hidden histor

Macro-Climatic Distribution Limits Show Both Niche Expansion and Niche Specialization among C4 Panicoids

Grasses are ancestrally tropical understory species whose current dominance in warm open habitats is linked to the evolution of C4 photosynthesis. C4 grasses maintain high rates of photosynthesis in warm and water stressed environments, and the syndrome is considered to induce niche shifts into these habitats while adaptation to cold ones may be compromised. Global biogeographic analyses of C4 grasses have, however, concentrated on diversity patterns, while paying little attention to distributional limits. Using phylogenetic contrast analyses, we compared macro-climatic distribution limits among ~1300 grasses from the subfamily Panicoideae, which includes 4/5 of the known photosynthetic transitions in grasses. We explored whether evolution of C4 photosynthesis correlates with niche expansions, niche changes, or stasis at subfamily level and within the two tribes Paniceae and Paspaleae. We compared the climatic extremes of growing season temperatures, aridity, and mean temperatures of the coldest months. We found support for all the known biogeographic distribution patterns of C4 species, these patterns were, however, formed both by niche expansion and niche changes. The only ubiquitous response to a change in the photosynthetic pathway within Panicoideae was a niche expansion of the C4 species into regions with higher growing season temperatures, but without a withdrawal from the inherited climate niche. Other patterns varied among the tribes, as macro-climatic niche evolution in the American tribe Paspaleae differed from the pattern supported in the globally distributed tribe Paniceae and at family level.Fil: Aagesen, Lone. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; ArgentinaFil: Biganzoli, Fernando. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos y Sistemas de Información; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bena, María Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; ArgentinaFil: Godoy Bürki, Ana Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; ArgentinaFil: Reinheimer, Renata. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Zuloaga, Fernando Omar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion; Argentin

Can we predict personality in fish? searching for consistency over time and across contexts

The interest in animal personality, broadly defined as consistency of individual behavioural traits over time and across contexts, has increased dramatically over the last years. Individual differences in behaviour are no longer recognised as noise around a mean but rather as adaptive variation and thus, essentially, raw material for evolution. Animal personality has been considered evolutionary conserved and has been shown to be present in all vertebrates including fish. Despite the importance of evolutionary and comparative aspects in this field, few studies have actually documented consistency across situations in fish. In addition, most studies are done with individually housed fish which may pose additional challenges when interpreting data from social species. Here, we investigate, for the first time in fish, whether individual differences in behavioural responses to a variety of challenges are consistent over time and across contexts using both individual and grouped-based tests. Twenty-four juveniles of Gilthead seabream Sparus aurata were subjected to three individual-based tests: feed intake recovery in a novel environment, novel object and restraining and to two group-based tests: risk-taking and hypoxia. Each test was repeated twice to assess consistency of behavioural responses over time. Risk taking and escape behaviours during restraining were shown to be significantly consistent over time. In addition, consistency across contexts was also observed: individuals that took longer to recover feed intake after transfer into a novel environment exhibited higher escape attempts during a restraining test and escaped faster from hypoxia conditions. These results highlight the possibility to predict behaviour in groups from individual personality traits.European Commission [265957 COPEWELL]; European Social Fund of Andalusia; Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal [SFRH/BPD/77210/2011]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impact of physical activity level and dietary fat content on passive overconsumption of energy in non-obese adults

Background: Passive overconsumption is the increase in energy intake driven by the high-fat energy-dense food environment. This can be explained in part because dietary fat has a weaker effect on satiation (i.e. process that terminates feeding). Habitually active individuals show improved satiety (i.e. process involved in post-meal suppression of hunger) but any improvement in satiation is unknown. Here we examined whether habitual physical activity mitigates passive overconsumption through enhanced satiation in response to a high-fat meal. Methods: Twenty-one non-obese individuals with high levels of physical activity (HiPA) and 19 individuals with low levels of physical activity (LoPA) matched for body mass index (mean = 22.8 kg/m2) were recruited. Passive overconsumption was assessed by comparing ad libitum energy intake from covertly manipulated high-fat (HFAT; 50% fat) or high-carbohydrate (HCHO; 70% carbohydrate) meals in a randomized crossover design. Habitual physical activity was assessed using SenseWear accelerometers (SWA). Body composition, resting metabolic rate, eating behaviour traits, fasting appetite-related peptides and hedonic food reward were also measured. Results: In the whole sample, passive overconsumption was observed with greater energy intake at HFAT compared to HCHO (p  0.05). SWA confirmed that HiPA were more active than LoPA (p  0.05 for all). Conclusions: Non-obese individuals with high or low physical activity levels but matched for BMI showed similar susceptibility to passive overconsumption when consuming an ad libitum high-fat compared to a high-carbohydrate meal. This occurred despite increased total daily energy expenditure and improved body composition in HiPA. Greater differences in body composition and/or physical activity levels may be required to impact on satiation

Study of 16 Portuguese activated sludge systems based on filamentous bacteria populations and their relationships with environmental parameters

A survey in 16 activated sludge waste water treatment plants (WWTP) was conducted to contribute to the knowledge of the environmental parameters that determine the composition of the filamentous community. A total of 128 samples of mixed liquor from municipal WWTP were collected during 2 years, and 22 filamentous morphotypes were identified. The most frequent and abundant filamentous bacteria were, in both cases and by this order, type 0041/0675, type 0092, Microthrix parvicella and 1851, nocardioforms and Haliscomenobacter hydrossis. Concerning dominance, type 1851 was the most frequently dominant morphotype, followed by M. parvicella and types 0092 and 0041/0675. These were also, and by this order, the dominant morphotypes during bulking occurrences. Significant correlations were obtained between the abundance of filamentous bacteria and environmental parameters, but multivariate statistical analysis only confirmed the correlation between type 0092 and Sludge Volume Index (SVI), emphasizing the association of this filament with bulking. The discussion of the results in light of published works was complicated by the random use of terms such as frequency, abundance, and dominance with different and often unclear meanings. This reinforces the need of clarifying these terms when discussing the causes of filamentous overgrowth in WWTP.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Community fund FEDER, through Program COMPETE, in the ambit of the Projects FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007025 (PTDC/AMB/68393/2006), PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013, RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462), and the Project BBioEnv - Biotechnology and Bioengineering for a sustainable world,REF. NORTE-07-0124- FEDER-000048, co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER. PhD grant SFRH/BD/64848/200