Molecular Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of the Neotropical Swarm-Founding Social Wasp Genus Synoeca (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

The Neotropical Region harbors high biodiversity and many studies on mammals, reptiles, amphibians and avifauna have investigated the causes for this pattern. However, there is a paucity of such studies that focus on Neotropical insect groups. Synoeca de Saussure, 1852 is a Neotropical swarm-founding social wasp genus with five described species that is broadly and conspicuously distributed throughout the Neotropics. Here, we infer the phylogenetic relationships, diversification times, and historical biogeography of Synoeca species. We also investigate samples of the disjoint populations of S. septentrionalis that occur in both northwestern parts of South America through Central American and the Brazilian Atlantic rainforests. Our results showed that the interspecific relationships for Synoeca could be described as follows: (S. chalibea + S. virginea) + (S. cyanea + (S. septentrionalis/S. surinama)). Notably, samples of S. septentrionalis and S. surinama collected in the Atlantic Forest were interrelated and may be the result of incomplete lineage sorting and/or mitochondrial introgression among them. Our Bayesian divergence dating analysis revealed recent Plio-Pleistocene diversification in Synoeca. Moreover, our biogeographical analysis suggested an Amazonian origin of Synoeca, with three main dispersal events subsequently occurring during the Plio-Pleistocene.     

Development of an Indicator to Monitor Mediterranean Wetlands

Wetlands are sensitive ecosystems that are increasingly subjected to threats from anthropogenic factors. In the last decades, coastal Mediterranean wetlands have been suffering considerable pressures from land use change, intensification of urban growth, increasing tourism infrastructure and intensification of agricultural practices. Remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques are efficient tools that can support monitoring Mediterranean coastal wetlands on large scales and over long periods of time. The study aims at developing a wetland indicator to support monitoring Mediterranean coastal wetlands using these techniques. The indicator makes use of multi-temporal Landsat images, land use reference layers, a 50m numerical model of the territory (NMT) and Corine Land Cover (CLC) for the identification and mapping of wetlands. The approach combines supervised image classification techniques making use of vegetation indices and decision tree analysis to identify the surface covered by wetlands at a given date. A validation process is put in place to compare outcomes with existing local wetland inventories to check the results reliability. The indicator´s results demonstrate an improvement in the level of precision of change detection methods achieved by traditional tools providing reliability up to 95% in main wetland areas. The results confirm that the use of RS techniques improves the precision of wetland detection compared to the use of CLC for wetland monitoring and stress the strong relation between the level of wetland detection and the nature of the wetland areas and the monitoring scale considered.     

Trend of Narratives in the Age of Misinformation

Social media enabled a direct path from producer to consumer of contents changing the way users get informed, debate, and shape their worldviews. Such a disintermediation might weaken consensus on social relevant issues in favor of rumors, mistrust, or conspiracy thinking—e.g., chem-trails inducing global warming, the link between vaccines and autism, or the New World Order conspiracy. Previous studies pointed out that consumers of conspiracy-like content are likely to aggregate in homophile clusters—i.e., echo-chambers. Along this path we study, by means of a thorough quantitative analysis, how different topics are consumed inside the conspiracy echo-chamber in the Italian Facebook. Through a semi-automatic topic extraction strategy, we show that the most consumed contents semantically refer to four specific categories: environment, diet, health, and geopolitics. We find similar consumption patterns by comparing users activity (likes and comments) on posts belonging to these different semantic categories. Finally, we model users mobility across the distinct topics finding that the more a user is active, the more he is likely to span on all categories. Once inside a conspiracy narrative users tend to embrace the overall corpus.     

Effects of Four Formulations of Prostaglandin Analogs on Eye Surface Cells. A Comparative Study

We evaluated the cytotoxic effects of four prostaglandin analogs (PGAs) used to treat glaucoma. First we established primary cultures of conjunctival stromal cells from healthy donors. Then cell cultures were incubated with different concentrations (0, 0.1, 1, 5, 25, 50 and 100%) of commercial formulations of bimatoprost, tafluprost, travoprost and latanoprost for increasing periods (5 and 30 min, 1 h, 6 h and 24 h) and cell survival was assessed with three different methods: WST-1, MTT and calcein/AM-ethidium homodimer-1 assays. Our results showed that all PGAs were associated with a certain level of cell damage, which correlated significantly with the concentration of PGA used, and to a lesser extent with culture time. Tafluprost tended to be less toxic than bimatoprost, travoprost and latanoprost after all culture periods. The results for WST-1, MTT and calcein/AM-ethidium homodimer-1 correlated closely. When the average lethal dose 50 was calculated, we found that the most cytotoxic drug was latanoprost, whereas tafluprost was the most sparing of the ocular surface in vitro. These results indicate the need to design novel PGAs with high effectiveness but free from the cytotoxic effects that we found, or at least to obtain drugs that are functional at low dosages. The fact that the commercial formulation of tafluprost used in this work was preservative-free may support the current tendency to eliminate preservatives from eye drops for clinical use.     

Up-Regulation of TREK-2 Potassium Channels in Cultured Astrocytes Requires De Novo Protein Synthesis: Relevance to Localization of TREK-2 Channels in Astrocytes after Transient Cerebral Ischemia

Excitotoxicity due to glutamate receptor over-activation is one of the key mediators of neuronal death after an ischemic insult. Therefore, a major function of astrocytes is to maintain low extracellular levels of glutamate. The ability of astrocytic glutamate transporters to regulate the extracellular glutamate concentration depends upon the hyperpolarized membrane potential of astrocytes conferred by the presence of K⁺ channels in their membranes. We have previously shown that TREK-2 potassium channels in cultured astrocytes are up-regulated by ischemia and may support glutamate clearance by astrocytes during ischemia. Thus, herein we determine the mechanism leading to this up-regulation and assess the localization of TREK-2 channels in astrocytes after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. By using a cell surface biotinylation assay we confirmed that functional TREK-2 protein is up-regulated in the astrocytic membrane after ischemic conditions. Using real time RT-PCR, we determined that the levels of TREK-2 mRNA were not increased in response to ischemic conditions. By using Western blot and a variety of protein synthesis inhibitors, we demonstrated that the increase of TREK-2 protein expression requires De novo protein synthesis, while protein degradation pathways do not contribute to TREK-2 up-regulation after ischemic conditions. Immunohistochemical studies revealed TREK-2 localization in astrocytes together with increased expression of the selective glial marker, glial fibrillary acidic protein, in brain 24 hours after transient middle cerebral occlusion. Our data indicate that functional TREK-2 channels are up-regulated in the astrocytic membrane during ischemia through a mechanism requiring De novo protein synthesis. This study provides important information about the mechanisms underlying TREK-2 regulation, which has profound implications in neurological diseases such as ischemia where astrocytes play an important role.     

Science vs Conspiracy: Collective Narratives in the Age of Misinformation

The large availability of user provided contents on online social media facilitates people aggregation around shared beliefs, interests, worldviews and narratives. In spite of the enthusiastic rhetoric about the so called collective intelligence unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories—e.g., chemtrails, reptilians or the Illuminati—are pervasive in online social networks (OSN). In this work we study, on a sample of 1.2 million of individuals, how information related to very distinct narratives—i.e. main stream scientific and conspiracy news—are consumed and shape communities on Facebook. Our results show that polarized communities emerge around distinct types of contents and usual consumers of conspiracy news result to be more focused and self-contained on their specific contents. To test potential biases induced by the continued exposure to unsubstantiated rumors on users’ content selection, we conclude our analysis measuring how users respond to 4,709 troll information—i.e. parodistic and sarcastic imitation of conspiracy theories. We find that 77.92% of likes and 80.86% of comments are from users usually interacting with conspiracy stories.     

Molecular Diversity of Anthracnose Pathogen Populations Associated with UK Strawberry Production Suggests Multiple Introductions of Three Different Colletotrichum Species

Fragaria × ananassa (common name: strawberry) is a globally cultivated hybrid species belonging to Rosaceae family. Colletotrichum acutatum sensu lato (s.l.) is considered to be the second most economically important pathogen worldwide affecting strawberries. A collection of 148 Colletotrichum spp. isolates including 67 C. acutatum s.l. isolates associated with the phytosanitary history of UK strawberry production were used to characterize multi-locus genetic variation of this pathogen in the UK, relative to additional reference isolates that represent a worldwide sampling of the diversity of the fungus. The evidence indicates that three different species C. nymphaeae, C. godetiae and C. fioriniae are associated with strawberry production in the UK, which correspond to previously designated genetic groups A2, A4 and A3, respectively. Among these species, 12 distinct haplotypes were identified suggesting multiple introductions into the country. A subset of isolates was also used to compare aggressiveness in causing disease on strawberry plants and fruits. Isolates belonging to C. nymphaeae, C. godetiae and C. fioriniae representative of the UK anthracnose pathogen populations showed variation in their aggressiveness. Among the three species, C. nymphaeae and C. fioriniae appeared to be more aggressive compared to C. godetiae. This study highlights the genetic and pathogenic heterogeneity of the C. acutatum s.l. populations introduced into the UK linked to strawberry production.     

The Changes of Lipid Metabolism in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients Treated with Everolimus: A New Pharmacodynamic Marker?

Background

Everolimus is a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor approved for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). We aimed to assess the association between the baseline values and treatmentrelated modifications of total serum cholesterol (C), triglycerides (T), body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose level (FBG) and blood pressure (BP) levels and the outcome of patients treated with everolimus for mRCC.

Methods

177 patients were included in this retrospective analysis. Time to progression (TTP), clinical benefit (CB) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated.

Results

Basal BMI was significantly higher in patients who experienced a CB (p=0,0145). C,T and C+T raises were significantly associated with baseline BMI (p=0.0412, 0.0283 and 0.0001). Median TTP was significantly longer in patients with T raise compared to patients without T (10 vs 6, p=0.030), C (8 vs 5, p=0.042) and C+T raise (10.9 vs 5.0, p=0.003). At the multivariate analysis, only C+T increase was associated with improved TTP (p=0.005). T raise (21.0 vs 14.0, p=0.002) and C+T increase (21.0 vs 14.0, p=0.006) were correlated with improved OS but were not significant at multivariate analysis.

Conclusion

C+T raise is an early predictor for everolimus efficacy for patients with mRCC.     

Ecological Risk Assessment of a Metal-Contaminated Area in the Tropics. Tier II: Detailed Assessment

This study presents data on the detailed evaluation (tier 2) of a site-specific ecological risk assessment (ssERA) in a former smelter area contaminated with metals (Santo Amaro, Bahia, Brazil). Combining information from three lines of evidence (LoE), chemical (ChemLoE), ecotoxicological (EcotoxLoE) and ecological (EcoLoE), in the Triad approach, integrated risk values were calculated to rank sites and confirm the potential risk disclosed with tier 1. Risk values were calculated for the habitat and for the retention functions in each sampling point. Habitat function included the ChemLoE calculated from total metal concentrations. The EcotoxLoE was based on reproduction tests with terrestrial invertebrates (Folsomia candida, Enchytraeus crypticus, Eisenia andrei), shoot length and plant biomass (Avena sativa, Brassica rapa). For the EcoLoE, ecological parameters (microbial parameters, soil invertebrate community, litter breakdown) were used to derive risk values. Retention function included the ChemLoE, calculated from extractable metal concentrations, and the EcotoxLoE based on eluate tests with aquatic organisms (Daphnia magna reproduction and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata growth). Results related to the habitat function indicated that the metal residues are sufficient to cause risk to biota, while the low metal levels in extracts and the general lack of toxicity in aquatic tests indicated a high soil retention capacity in most sampling points. Integrated risk of tier 2 showed the same trend of tier 1, suggesting the need to proceed with remediation actions. The high risk levels were related to direct toxicity to organisms and indirect effects, such as failure in the establishment of vegetation and the consequent loss of habitat quality for microorganisms and soil fauna. This study shed some light on the selection of tools for the tier 2 of an ssERA in tropical metal-contaminated sites, focusing on ecological receptors at risk and using available chemical methods, ecological surveys and ecotoxicity tests.