Penicillium rubens germination on desiccated and nutrient-depleted conditions depends on the water activity during sporogenesis

Fungal growth often appears in a surrounding where water and nutrients are scarce. The impact of this environment during sporogenesis on subsequent growth is often neglected.This study investigates the effect of water availability during sporogenesis on subsequent early growth. Therefore, a carbon-depleted substrate was constructed. Humidity is then the only parameter of interest. The water conditions during sporogenesis, and during subsequent growth, were varied. This is a stressing environment: no carbon source is present, and water provided solely via the vapour.The lag time, $t_l$, and initial growth rate, ${\mu }_{fp}$, of the germ tubes were monitored.The effect of $a_w$ history on germination and initial growth depends on the $RH$ of the environment. Only at low $RH$ do spores produced at low $a_w$ have a smaller $t_l$ and higher ${\mu }_{fp}$ compared to those grown at high $a_w$. This result was remarkably pronounced when the substrate was also made hydrophobic: growth only occurred when spores were developed at low $a_w$ and placed in high $RH$.Spores grown on lowered $a_w$ attract more water. It is hypothesized that this attraction affects subsequent growth behaviour, and is the reason why growth on hydrophobic glass only prevails in the condition of high $RH$ and lowered $a_w$ history.We demonstrate the influence of cultivation conditions on germination, which becomes more pronounced in a more desiccated environment.     

Sleep Apnea Detection from Single-Lead ECG Using Features Based on ECG-Derived Respiration (EDR) Signals

Background and objective

One of the important applications of non-invasive respiration monitoring using ECG signal is the detection of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). ECG-derived respiratory (EDR) signals, contribute to useful information about apnea occurrence. In this paper, two EDR extraction methods are proposed, and their application in automatic OSA detection using single-lead ECG is investigated.

The consequences of dominance and gene flow for local adaptation and differentiation at two linked loci

For a subdivided population the consequences of dominance and gene flow for the maintenance of multilocus polymorphism, local adaptation, and differentiation are investigated. The dispersing population inhabits two demes in which selection acts in opposite direction. Fitness is determined additively by two linked diallelic loci with arbitrary intermediate dominance (no over- or underdominance). For weak as well as strong migration, the equilibrium structure is derived. As a special case, a continuous-time continent–island model (CI model) is analyzed, with one-way migration from the continent to the island. For this CI model, the equilibrium and stability configuration is obtained explicitly for weak migration, for strong migration, for independent loci, and for complete linkage. For independent loci, the possible bifurcation patterns are derived as functions of the migration rate. These patterns depend strongly on the degree of dominance. The effects of dominance, linkage, and migration on the amount of linkage disequilibrium (LD) and the degree of local adaptation are explored. Explicit formulas are obtained for $D$   $(=x_1{x}_4-x_2{x}_3)$ and $r^2$ (the squared correlation in allelic state). They demonstrate that dominant island alleles increase $D$ and decrease $r^2$. Local adaptation is elevated by dominance of the locally adaptive alleles. The effective migration rate at a linked neutral locus is calculated. If advantageous alleles are dominant, it is decreased only slightly below the actual migration rate. For a quantitative trait that is determined by two additive loci, the influence of dominance on measures of differentiation is studied. Explicit expressions for $Q_{ST}$ and two types of $F_{ST}$ at equilibrium are deduced and their relation is discussed.     

The mechanisms and process of acephate degradation by hydroxyl radical and hydrated electron

The degradation process of acephate in aqueous solution with OH and ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$ produced by ⁶⁰Co-γ irradiation and electron pulse radiolysis was studied in the present paper. In the aqueous solution, acephate reacted with ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$ and transformed to transient species which can absorb weakly in the wavelength range of 300–400?nm and decay very fast. According to the decay of hydrated electron, the reaction rate constant of ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$ and acephate is (3.51?±?0.076)?×?10⁹?dm³·mol^?1·s^?1. The transient species produced in the reaction of OH and acephate do not distinctly absorb the light in the wavelength range of 300–700?nm, so the decay and kinetics of the transient species cannot determinedirectly. The competing reaction of KSCN oracephate with OH were studied to obtain the reaction rate constant of OH and acephate, which is (9.1?±?0.11)?×?10⁸?dm³·mol^?1·s^?1. Although acetylamide and inorganic ions were determined in the products of the reaction of acephate with OH or ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$, the concentration of inorganic ions in the products of the reaction of acephate with OH is higher than that in the product of the reaction of acephate with ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$. Moreover, there were sulfide in the products of the reaction of acephatewith ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$. The degradation pathways of acephate by OH and ${\text{e}}_{\text{aq}}^{?}$ were also proposed based on the products from GC-MS.     

Structural Analysis of a Trimer of β2-Microgloblin Fragment by Molecular Dynamics Simulations

A peptide ${\beta }_2$-${\text{m}}_{21?31}$, which is a fragment from residue 21 to residue 31 of ${\beta }_2$-microgloblin, is experimentally known to self-assemble and form amyloid fibrils. In order to understand the mechanism of amyloid fibril formations, we applied the replica-exchange molecular dynamics method to the system consisting of three fragments of ${\beta }_2$-${\text{m}}_{21?31}$. From the analyses on the temperature dependence, we found that there is a clear phase transition temperature in which the peptides aggregate with each other. Moreover, we found by the free energy analyses that there are two major stable states: One of them is like amyloid fibrils and the other is amorphous aggregates.     

Estimation of distal arm joint angles from EMG and shoulder orientation for transhumeral prostheses

In this paper, we quantify the extent to which shoulder orientation, upper-arm electromyography (EMG), and forearm EMG are predictors of distal arm joint angles during reaching in eight subjects without disability as well as three subjects with a unilateral transhumeral amputation and targeted reinnervation. Prior studies have shown that shoulder orientation and upper-arm EMG, taken separately, are predictors of both elbow flexion/extension and forearm pronation/supination. We show that, for eight subjects without disability, shoulder orientation and upper-arm EMG together are a significantly better predictor of both elbow flexion/extension during unilateral ($R^2=0.72$) and mirrored bilateral ($R^2=0.72$) reaches and of forearm pronation/supination during unilateral ($R^2=0.77$) and mirrored bilateral ($R^2=0.70$) reaches. We also show that adding forearm EMG further improves the prediction of forearm pronation/supination during unilateral ($R^2=0.82$) and mirrored bilateral ($R^2=0.75$) reaches. In principle, these results provide the basis for choosing inputs for control of transhumeral prostheses, both by subjects with targeted motor reinnervation (when forearm EMG is available) and by subjects without target motor reinnervation (when forearm EMG is not available). In particular, we confirm that shoulder orientation and upper-arm EMG together best predict elbow flexion/extension ($R^2=0.72$) for three subjects with unilateral transhumeral amputations and targeted motor reinnervation. However, shoulder orientation alone best predicts forearm pronation/supination ($R^2=0.88$) for these subjects, a contradictory result that merits further study.     

Stability enhancement and circular dichroism spectral anomaly as an indication of non-covalent interactions in histidine- and tyrosine-containing ternary copper(II)—amino acid systems

Visible absorption and CD spectral and potentiometric studies on the His- and Tyr-containing ternary copper(II) complexes Cu(A)(L-B), where A refers to L-His, D-His, or L-Tyr and B to Lys, Tyr, Trp, Phe, Ala, Val, Arg, Glu, Asn, Gln, Ser, or Thr, were made to study ligand-ligand interactions in the complexes. While the CD spectral magnitudes in the d—d region are additive in the absence of side chain interactions and can be estimated from the magnitudes for the ternary systems involving DL-A or DL-B, deviation from the additivity was observed for Cu(L-His)(L-B) (B = LysH, Tyr, Trp, or Phe) and Cu(L-Tyr)(L-Trp). From the stability constants determined at 25 °C and I = 0.1 M (KNO₃), the equilibrium constants, K, for the following hypothetical equilibria were calculated to be large (0.14–0.60) for formation of Cu(L-/D-His)(L-B)(B = Tyr or Trp) and Cu(D-His)(L-Phe) with Cu(en)(L-Ala) as standard: $Cu(A)(L?Ala)+Cu(en)(L?b)\stackrel{K}{?}Cu(A)(L?B)+Cu(en)(L?Ala)$ The positive values indicate the stabilization due to the stacking between the imidazole ring of His and the aromatic side chain of L-B. Solvent dependence of the CD spectra for Cu(L-His)(L-LysH) and Cu(L-His) L-Trp) further supported the existence of the intramolecular electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions.