Effective gene flow in a historically fragmented area at the southern edge of silver fir (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Abies alba</Emphasis> Mill.) distribution

Fragmented populations at the edges of a species’ distribution can be highly exposed to the loss of genetic variation, unless sufficient gene flow maintains their genetic connectivity. Gene movements leading to successful establishment of external gametes (i.e. effective gene flow) into fragmented populations can solely be assessed by investigating the origin of natural regeneration. This study is focused on studying gene flow patterns in two silver fir stands in Central Apennines, where the species has a highly fragmented distribution. By using nuclear and chloroplast microsatellite markers, we investigated genetic variation, fine-scale spatial genetic structure, effective gene flow rates and large-scale connectivity characterizing both stands. Similar levels of genetic variation and low genetic differentiation between stands (F _ST = 0.005) and across generations were found, coupled with low inbreeding and weak to absent SGS in the adult cohort (Sp < 0.003). On the other hand, substantial differences between the two stands in terms of gene flow rates were observed. Irrespective of the parentage approach used, higher gene flow rates were found in the stand located at the upper silver fir altitudinal limit, especially for seed-mediated gene flow (0.79 in the upper stand vs. 0.48 in the lower stand). Conversely, the lower stand was characterized by a higher reproductive dominance of local adults. Our findings suggest that, despite similar levels of genetic variation and generally high gene flow rates, different processes may be acting on the two stands, reflecting varying ecological conditions.     

The influence of polymeric membrane gas spargers on hydrodynamics and mass transfer in bubble column bioreactors

Gas sparging performances of a flat sheet and tubular polymeric membranes were investigated in 3.1 m bubble column bioreactor operated in a semi batch mode. Air–water and air–CMC (Carboxymethyl cellulose) solutions of 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 % w/w were used as interacting gas–liquid mediums. CMC solutions were employed in the study to simulate rheological properties of bioreactor broth. Gas holdup, bubble size distribution, interfacial area and gas–liquid mass transfer were studied in the homogeneous bubbly flow hydrodynamic regime with superficial gas velocity (U _G) range of 0.0004–0.0025 m/s. The study indicated that the tubular membrane sparger produced the highest gas holdup and densely populated fine bubbles with narrow size distribution. An increase in liquid viscosity promoted a shift in bubble size distribution to large stable bubbles and smaller specific interfacial area. The tubular membrane sparger achieved greater interfacial area and an enhanced overall mass transfer coefficient (K _La) by a factor of 1.2–1.9 compared to the flat sheet membrane.     

Effect of nitrogen and/or oxygen concentration on poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) accumulation by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Halomonas boliviensis</Emphasis>

The behaviour of Halomonas boliviensis during growth in fed-batch culture under different kind of nutrient restrictions was examined. The metabolic switch between growth and accumulation phase is determined by the limitation in one or more essential nutrient for bacterial growth. The aim of this study was to test the effect of applying limitations of a essential nutrient, such as nitrogen, and the influence of different O₂ concentrations on poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) production during the accumulation phase. Single limitations of nitrogen and oxygen provoke PHB accumulations of 45 and 37 % (g g^?1), respectively, while N limitation with low O₂ supply causes the highest PHB accumulation of 73 %. The characterization of the PHB production with the strain H. boliviensis would allow a better optimization of the process and enrich the knowledge about the PHB production from strains different than Cupriavidus necator.     

Isolation and molecular characterization of the fungal endophytic microbiome from conventionally and organically grown avocado trees in South Florida

Fungal endophytes are the most ubiquitous and highly diverse microorganisms that inhabit the interior of healthy plants. They are important in plant ecology and offer untapped potential to improve plant health and productivity in agroecosystems. The endophytic assemblage of avocado is poorly understood; therefore, surveys of fungal endophytes of Persea americana Mill. (Avocado) in South Florida organic and conventional orchards were conducted. A total of 17 endophytic fungal species were recovered from healthy avocado terminal branches. Endophytic fungal species were identified by rDNA sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, using UNITE Species Hypotheses to reliably assign a taxon name, and determined as belonging to the genera Alternaria, Cladosporium, Colletotrichum, Corynespora, Diaporthe, Lasiodiplodia, Neofusicoccum, Neopestalotiopsis, Phyllosticta, and Strelitziana. Endophyte community assemblage differed between organic and conventional agroecosystems. This is the first report of Alternaria eichhorniae, Cladosporium tenuissimum, Corynespora cassiicola, Colletotrichum alatae, Diaporthe fraxini-angustifoliae, Lasiodiplodia gonubiensis, Neofusicoccum algeriense, Neofusicoccum andinum, Neopestalotiopsis foedans, Phyllosticta capitalensis, and Strelitziana africana as endophytes of avocado. Evaluation using pathogenicity tests on avocado leaves and terminal branches showed that endophytic fungal isolates did not cause disease symptoms.     

Effects of aortic irregularities on blood flow

Anatomic aortic anomalies are seen in many medical conditions and are known to cause disturbances in blood flow. Turner syndrome (TS) is a genetic disorder occurring only in females where cardiovascular anomalies, particularly of the aorta, are frequently encountered. In this study, numerical simulations are applied to investigate the flow characteristics in four TS patient- related aortic arches (a normal geometry, dilatation, coarctation and elongation of the transverse aorta). The Quemada viscosity model was applied to account for the non-Newtonian behavior of blood. The blood is treated as a mixture consisting of water and red blood cells (RBC) where the RBCs are modeled as a convected scalar. The results show clear geometry effects where the flow structures and RBC distribution are significantly different between the aortas. Transitional flow is observed as a jet is formed due to a constriction in the descending aorta for the coarctation case. RBC dilution is found to vary between the aortas, influencing the WSS. Moreover, the local variations in RBC volume fraction may induce large viscosity variations, stressing the importance of accounting for the non-Newtonian effects.     

Influence of organic solvents on the structural and thermal characteristics of silk protein from the web of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Orthaga exvinacea</Emphasis> Hampson (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lepidoptera</Emphasis>: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pyralidae</Emphasis>)

The silk protein from the web of Orthaga exvinacea was isolated, purified, and casted into films. This film was treated separately with methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, and isopropyl alcohol in 50 % concentration for about 30 min. The treated films were thus dried in a desiccator and subjected to FTIR and TG-DTA analysis. The structural studies revealed that the organic solvents induce conformatory changes in the protein film, especially the most sensitive amide I (1650 cm^?1) band. This band had shifted to lower wavenumber (1633–1636 cm^?1). Furthermore, the conformatory characteristics associated with amide I band also changed from random coil to β-sheet. Generally, β-sheet contributes strength to the protein film. Among the treated films, film treated with acetone showed much thermal stability. Moreover, the film treated with methanol had shown two different temperatures of maximum degradation. It is concluded that in addition to β-sheet content, various other factors such as various processing conditions and structural organization of protein may influence the stability of the films.     

Analytical methods for structural ensembles and dynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins, proteins that do not have a well-defined three-dimensional structure, make up a significant proportion of our proteome and are particularly prevalent in signaling and regulation. Although their importance has been realized for two decades, there is a lack of high-resolution experimental data. Molecular dynamics simulations have been crucial in reaching our current understanding of the dynamical structural ensemble sampled by intrinsically disordered proteins. In this review, we discuss enhanced sampling simulation methods that are particularly suitable to characterize the structural ensemble, along with examples of applications and limitations. The dynamics within the ensemble can be rigorously analyzed using Markov state models. We discuss recent developments that make Markov state modeling a viable approach for studying intrinsically disordered proteins. Finally, we briefly discuss challenges and future directions when applying molecular dynamics simulations to study intrinsically disordered proteins.     

Robust frequency recognition for SSVEP-based BCI with temporally local multivariate synchronization index

Multivariate synchronization index (MSI) has been proved to be an efficient method for frequency recognition in SSVEP-BCI systems. It measures the correlation according to the entropy of the normalized eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of multichannel signals. In the MSI method, the estimation of covariance matrix omits the temporally local structure of samples. In this study, a new spatio-temporal method, termed temporally local MSI (TMSI), was presented. This new method explicitly exploits temporally local information in modelling the covariance matrix. In order to evaluate the performance of the TMSI, we performs a comparison between the two methods on the real SSVEP datasets from eleven subjects. The results show that the TMSI outperforms the standard MSI. TMSI benefits from exploiting the temporally local structure of EEG signals, and could be a potential method for robust performance of SSVEP-based BCI.     

Saliency computation via whitened frequency band selection

Many saliency computational models have been proposed to simulate bottom-up visual attention mechanism of human visual system. However, most of them only deal with certain kinds of images or aim at specific applications. In fact, human beings have the ability to correctly select attentive focuses of objects with arbitrary sizes within any scenes. This paper proposes a new bottom-up computational model from the perspective of frequency domain based on the biological discovery of non-Classical Receptive Field (nCRF) in the retina. A saliency map can be obtained according to the idea of Extended Classical Receptive Field. The model is composed of three major steps: firstly decompose the input image into several feature maps representing different frequency bands that cover the whole frequency domain by utilizing Gabor wavelet. Secondly, whiten the feature maps to highlight the embedded saliency information. Thirdly, select some optimal maps, simulating the response of receptive field especially nCRF, to generate the saliency map. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is able to work with stable effect and outstanding performance in a variety of situations as human beings do and is adaptive to both psychological patterns and natural images. Beyond that, biological plausibility of nCRF and Gabor wavelet transform make this approach reliable.     

Dibutyryl-cAMP affecting fat deposition of finishing pigs by decreasing the inflammatory system related to insulin sensitive or lipolysis

Background

The mechanism of db-cAMP regulating fat deposition and improving lean percentage is unclear and needs to be further studied.

Methods

Eighteen 100-day-old Duroc × Landrance × Large White barrows (49.75?±?0.75 kg) were used for experiment 1, and 15 eighteen 135-day-old barrows (78.34?±?1.22 kg) were used for experiment 2 to investigate the effects of dietary dibutyryl-cAMP (db-cAMP) on fat deposition in finishing pigs. Pigs were fed with a corn-soybean meal-based diet supplemented with 0 or 15 mg/kg db-cAMP, and both experiments lasted 35 days, respectively.

Results

The results showed that db-cAMP decreased the backfat thickness, backfat percentage, and diameter of backfat cells without changing the growth performance or carcass characteristics in both experiments, and this effect was more marked in experiment 1 than in experiment 2; db-cAMP enhanced the activity of the growth hormone–insulin-like growth factor-1 (GH-IGF-1) axis and pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) system in both experiments, which suppressed the accumulation of backfat deposition; microarray analysis showed that db-cAMP suppressed the inflammatory system within the adipose tissue related to insulin sensitivity, which also reduced fat synthesis.

Conclusions

In summary, the effect of db-cAMP on suppressing fat synthesis and accumulation is better in the earlier phase than in the later phase of finishing pigs, and db-cAMP plays this function by increasing the activity of the GH-IGF-1 axis and POMC system, while decreasing the inflammatory system within the adipose tissue related to insulin sensitive or lipolysis.