Vegetation restoration plays an important role in soil carbon storage, with the relatively lacking information in either the deep soil or the soil inorganic processes. The study aims to investigate the effect of returning farmland to the forest on deep soil carbon in the hilly and gully region of the Chinese Loess Plateau. Four sampling sites were selected: PO (Platycladus orientalis (Linn.) Franco forest; oriental arborvitae), PT (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr. Forest; Chinese red pine), AO (apple orchard) and FL (farmland, as a control treatment). Soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) content were analysed in 20-m soil profiles, along with the responsible factors. The mean SOC content slightly increased in the 1-5 m layer in the order FL < PO =AO < PT (p < 0.05) and in the 5-10 m layer in the order FL < PO < PT < AO, but no differences were found in the 0–1 m layer. Compared with FL, the SOC storages of PO, PT and AO increased by 6.71%, 16.28% and 2.50%, respectively. SIC content was relatively uniform throughout the profile, regardless of land-use types. The soil profiles in the study area presented vast SIC storage that was 8.8–10.2 times higher than SOC storage. After the 36-yrs implementation of the “Grain for Green” Project, SOC in 20 m soil profiles insignificantly increased as a cost of water depletion while SIC did not change. PT is the preferred tree species for soil carbon sequestration on afforested farmland in this region.

In this work, the fatigue behaviors of non-penetrating laser welded lap specimens of cold-rolled 301LN austenitic stainless steel were investigated based on experiments and numerical analyses. The experiments showed the unequal-thickness specimens failed in the thicker bottom sheet under low fatigue loads, even though the mean stress in the thinner top sheet was higher, when the applied loads were high enough, the failure location changed from the bottom sheet to the top sheet. This phenomenon could be successfully explained through traction stress analysis considering the effect of angular distortion. However, the equivalent traction stress representation of fatigue data is below the ASME master S-N curve scatter band since the stress exceeds the yield limit of the base metal at low-cycle fatigue regime. The structural strain approach was then used to consider the effect of plastic deformation, and all fatigue data fall into ASME master E-N curve scatter band. This indicates the structural strain approach in conjunction with the master E-N curve is suitable for correlating both low- and high-cycle fatigue data of the non-penetrating laser welded lap specimens.

Magnesium and its alloys have increasingly gained attention among practitioners and engineers due to their attractive properties, specifically their high specific strength that renders these materials suitable for several applications in different industries. However, their use is still limited, especially in load-bearing applications, due to the limited knowledge of their fracture behavior, especially in the presence of notches. The aim of this work is thus that to fill this lack, investigating the fracture behavior of notched ZK60-T5 magnesium. Eleven different notch geometries were considered, i.e. U notched specimens with notch radii of 1.5, 3, 4, 5, and 6 mm and V notched specimens with notch opening angles of 35°, 60° and 90°, and notch radii of 0.4 and 0.8 mm. The mechanical tests showed that the presence of notches reduces the ductility of the material. This was confirmed also by the fracture surface analyses carried out by means of Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), where the size of the shear lips was shown to decrease by increasing the notch acuity. In addition, this work aims also to provide practitioners and engineers with a tool able to predict the failure loads irrespective of the notch geometry. For the first time on Mg samples, a local approach, i.e. the Strain Energy Density (SED), is used to predict the failure loads of the differently notched samples, and the results suggest high reliability of this approach, being the deviations between the experimental and the theoretical data often lower than 10%.

An experimental protocol has been set up in order to study the Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) damage micromechanisms in a Lost Foam Casting (LFC) A319 alloy at room temperature. The microstructure of the studied material was characterized by using X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) prior to the LCF tests performed with surface in-situ observations, which allow crack initiation and propagation being tracked in real-time. The mechanical fields measured by Digital Image Correlation (DIC) method allowed establishing the relations between strain localizations, damage evolutions and microstructure while a developed etching method, which gives a natural texture to the surface, makes DIC feasible to an acceptable resolution without masking the microstructure. The results showed that crack initiation is ascribed to strain localizations induced by large pore and/or the propagation of a previously nucleated crack. Cracks propagate along hard inclusions but the orientation of hard inclusions has also an influence on crack path.

Abstract: The paper adopts the stress intensity factor (SIF) to carry out the fracture analysis of the box girder structure under complex load cases based on the linear elastic fracture mechanics. The related factors of crack length, crack angle, and load level are investigated emphatically. And the side load as additional impact is also investigated. The effective stress intensity factor (ESIF) and crack growth angle are obtained to evaluate the fracture performance. The results show that the effect of bending and torsion loads can be considered adopting a linear superposition rule. In analysis, the bending load can mainly promote opening fracture, and the torsion load can mainly promote sliding and tearing fracture. The change of inclined crack will cause mutual evolution between the three types of SIFs. But the torsion load has not very sensitive to the crack angles. The additional side load has a great effect on the SIFs (mode-I) along the crack front to make upper surface of deck plate dangerous. It is also found that the ESIFs are very larger at small crack growth angles. These conclusions can provide a feasible way to evaluate the fatigue performance of box girder.

Linseeds contains high levels of PUFA α-linolenic acid, naturally protected against thermal oxidation by their encapsulation within LS oil bodies by multiple components including antioxidant proteins and mucilage emulsifying agents. By LS grinding, adding of water, adjusting pH, and sonication LS oil bodies emulsions (LSE) can be formed which can also encapsulate externally added PUFAs, to minimize their thermal oxidation, as it does for the intrinsic ALA PUFAs. Fish oil encapsulation into this LSE platform (LSFE) offers the possibility of a nutritive delivery system of the biologically essential PUFA fish oil’s, protected from oxidation, which to date is difficult to achieve. In this study structural and chemical properties LF 1H NMR T1-T2 characterization of LSE and LSFE was used to analyze their stability and changes, under thermal oxidizing conditions. Peak changes in these LF 1H-NMR spectra were correlated with the stability of chemical and physical variables during thermal (55oC for 96 hrs) oxidation. The present study demonstrates the capability of 1H LF-NMR relaxation sensor to monitor the time domain fingerprints of chemical and structural changes of LSE and with co-encapsulated fish oil (LSFE) under thermal autoxidation conditions. The results of the LF-1H NMR analysis are further supported and correlated with conventional peroxide value tests, self-diffusion, droplets size distribution, zeta potential estimation of surface stability under thermal oxidation conditions. The results of this study demonstrate the efficacy of LSE to minimize linseed and encapsulated fish oil PUFA oxidation.

Knowledge Graphs have been fast emerging as the {\em de facto} standard to model and explore knowledge in weakly structured data. Large corpora of documents constitute a source of weakly structured data of particular interest for both the academic as well as the industrial world. Key examples include scientific publications, technical reports, manuals, patents, regulations, etc. Such corpora embed many facts that are elementary to critical decision making or enabling new discoveries. In this paper, we present a scalable cloud platform to create and serve Knowledge Graphs, which we named \textit{Corpus Processing Service}. Its purpose is to process large document corpora, extract the content and embedded facts, and ultimately represent these in a consistent knowledge graph that can be intuitively queried. To accomplish this, we use state-of-the-art natural language understanding models to extract entities and relationships from documents converted with our previously presented CCS platform. This pipeline is complemented with a newly developed graph engine which ensures extremely performant graph queries and provides powerful graph analytics capabilities. Both components are tightly integrated and can be easily consumed through REST APIs. Additionally, we provide user-interfaces to control the data ingestion flow and formulate queries using a visual programming approach. The CPS platform is designed as a modular microservice system operating on Kubernetes clusters. Finally, we validate the quality of queries on our truly end-to-end knowledge pipeline in a real-world application in the oil and gas industry. To date, the capabilities of CPS are successfully leveraged in more than 5 client engagements.

Classical taxonomic approaches to quantifying biodiversity can be notoriously laborious and restrictive. Instead, molecular metabarcoding is emerging as a rapid, high-throughput and cost-effective tool to catalogue biodiversity. Despite the appeal of metabarcoding however, methodological and procedural biases must be understood before robust biodiversity inferences can be made. Here, we use CO1 metabarcoding to characterize marine eukaryote communities associated with the holdfasts of Ecklonia radiata, the dominant eco-engineering kelp of temperate New Zealand and Australia. To establish a standardized and reproducible community metabarcoding protocol, we examined the influence of different sample preparation, laboratory and bioinformatic steps on inferences of species richness and composition for kelp-holdfast communities. Specifically, we examined: the effect of fractioning the community into different size classes, the replicability of results across DNA extractions, PCR reactions, and sequencing. Overall, our approach identified 18 marine eukaryote Phyla in the holdfast communities. We found that size fractioning the sample before DNA extraction enabled detection of a greater diversity of taxa, especially smaller organisms. When compared with traditional morphology-based inventories of kelp-holdfast biodiversity, we found that although the taxonomic precision of our metabarcoding approach at the species and genus level was limited by the availability of reference sequences in public repositories, we recovered a greater number of operational taxonomic units, and a greater taxonomic breadth of organisms than morphological surveys. Based on our findings, we provide methodological guidelines for the use of metabarcoding as a tool for surveying and monitoring the hyperdiverse species assemblages associated with kelp-holdfasts.

Dawn

Objective: To identify the characteristics of and measures taken by Japanese medical facilities providing maternity services that have recorded cases of nosocomial infection with SARS-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Design: A nationwide questionnaire survey: case-control study. Setting: Medical facilities providing maternity service in Japan. Population: 1,418 medical facilities providing maternity service (65% of all delivery facilities in Japan). Methods: A nationwide questionnaire survey about nosocomial COVID-19 was conducted in July 2020. A case-control study was conducted by including medical facilities providing maternity service with (Cases) and without (Control) nosocomial COVID-19. Main outcome measures: Contributed characteristics and variables associated with nosocomial COVID-19. The number of treated pregnant women with COVID-19 until June 2020 and cases of nosocomial COVID-19 in Japan. Results: Seventy-five COVID-19-positive pregnant women were treated in 48 facilities. Responses from Nosocomial infection was reported in 4.1% of the facilities. Nine reports developed a nosocomial infection in the maternity ward or obstetric department. Variables that contributed to nosocomial COVID-19 were chest CT on admission (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 4.76 [2.44–9.27]), PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 before delivery (2.27 [1.21–4.25]), transfer of pregnant women with fever to another hospital (0.21 [0.06–0.71]), and private clinics (0.17 [0.05–0.60]). Conclusion: Nosocomial infection is likely to occur in large hospitals that treat a higher number of patients than private clinics do. Nosocomial infection can occur even in medical facilities performing COVID-19 screening tests, such as chest CT and PCR test.

Objective: To explore whether CNV-seq can be used as a first-tier diagnostic method or even replace karyotyping for prenatal diagnosis alone. Method: A retrospective study was conducted to 4230 amniocentesis samples with CNV-seq detection and G-banding karyotyping simultaneously. The indications for prenatal diagnosis included abnormal result on Down’s Syndrome Screening, abnormal fetal ultrasound, abnormal result on noninvasive prenatal screening, and so on. The results that lead to birth defects definitely were defined as abnormalities, which included aneuploidy, mosaic aneuploidy, large deletion/duplication and pathogenic copy number variations (pCNVs). Results: 278 cases of abnormalities was identified by karyotyping with an abnormal detection rate of 6.69%(283/4230). In addition, for all the abnormalities identified by karyotyping, CNV-seq also identified another 58 cases of abnormalities. A total of 341 cases of abnormalities were identified by CNV-seq with an abnormal detection rate of 8.06%(341/4230), higher than that of karyotyping. Abnormal detection rate of CNV-seq for the groups with abnormal result on noninvasive prenatal screening, abnormal fetal ultrasound, abnormal parental chromosome, adverse pregnancy history, abnormal result on Down’s Syndrome Screening, volunory testing and advanced maternal age were increased by 2.53%, 1.91%, 1.44%, 1.24%, 1.01%, 0.99% and 0.62% over the karyotyping respectively. Conclusion: CNV-seq and karyotyping had the same effectiveness in identifying aneuploidies, but CNV-seq had absolute superiority in the detection of low proportion of mosaics, imbalanced structural abnormalities. This prevents the birth of fetuses with these chromosome abnormalities that cannot be identified by karyotyping. CNV-seq can replace karyotyping in prenatal diagnosis for chromosome test alone.

Contribution to authorship:LF, NM, GL, YY and RM contributed to the conception and design of the work. LF, GL, YB, AT and RM contributed to the acquisition and interpretation of the data. LF, GL and RM wrote the paper. All authors revised and approved the final manuscript.

A document by Ducloy-Bouthors Anne-Sophie. Click on the document to view its contents.

Comparative study of CD138 immunostain and microbiome of the female reproductive tract (vaginal and endometrial) in the diagnosis of chronic endometritis. A pilot study from May 2017 to May 2019. Instituto Bernabeu fertility clinic. Cohort study with sixty patients undergoing assisted reproductive treatment. The vaginal and endometrial microbiome was analyzed by mass sequencing of the V3V4 region of 16S rRNA. Bioinformatics analysis was performed using QIIME2 and MicrobiomeAnalyst packages. Alpha, beta diversity and taxonomic characterization were compared with positive and negative CD138 groups for chronic endometritis. Different bacterial communities were detected when vaginal and endometrial samples were analyzed in patients with and without endometritis diagnosed with CD138 immunohistochemistry. In patients with endometritis, a higher alpha diversity index tendency was found in vaginal samples (p=0.15) and significant differences in endometrial samples (p=0.01). In the beta diversity analysis, no significant differences were observed between the groups established as per the diagnosis of endometritis. Vaginal and endometrial samples from women with endometritis showed a microbiome pattern not dominated by Lactobacillus spp. Relative abundance analysis identified genera Ralstonia and Gardnerella in endometrial sample, and genera Streptoccoccus and Ureaplasma in vaginal sample of CE patients diagnosed with CD138. Our results demonstrate the existence of a characteristic vaginal and endometrial microbiota in endometritis patients. Different genera and species have been identified in patients with and without endometritis depending on whether the sample is endometrial or vaginal. There is a relationship between vaginal microbiome alteration and chronic endometritis.

Objective: This study aims to provide insight into the use, acceptability and outcome of a large group of women who self-managed medical abortion. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Self-managed abortion worldwide. Population/Sample: 30344 women who completed the follow up from of the telemedical abortion service Women on Web from January 2009 till January 2020. Methods: Analyses of the evaluation forms, binary logistic regressions were performed to test the association between year and outcomes for the total sample. Main outcome measures: Demographic information including age, economic situation, country of living,knowledge about abortion pills and acceptability. Rate of complete abortions, surgical interventions, ongoing pregnancies, blood transfusions per year. Results: 30344 women from 183 different countries completed the follow-up evaluation. In total 26076 women reported taking the medical abortion pills, of which 1.5% reported an ongoing pregnancy, 10.2% a surgical intervention, and 0.6% a blood transfusion. 99% found it to be an acceptable method. 35% found it difficult to make a donation for the service and 8.5% received the service for free. 59.2% reported that they knew about medical abortion before finding Women on Web. We found a significant increase in complete abortions in 2019 (OR= 1.92; 95% CI: 1.59 – 2.31), and decrease in surgical interventions (OR= 0.49; 95%CI: 0.40 – 0.60) compared to 2009. Conclusion: The findings of the outcomes of the 26076 self-managed abortions in this study are in line with previous research , suggesting medical abortion through telemedicine is safe, effective and highly acceptable to women.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic scenario in Africa - What should be done to address pregnant women needs? A commentary.Charles M’poca Charles 1,2,*† ; Emefa Modey Amoah 3†; Kadidiatou Raissa Kourouma4; Luis Guilhermo Bahamondes2 ; José Guilherme Cecatti2 ; Nafissa Bique Osman 5,6,; Philip Govule 7; Abdou Karim Diallo8; Jahit Sacarlal 9 ; Rodolfo de Carvalho Pacagnella 2.1 Provincial Health Administration - DPS Manica, Manica Province, Mozambique.2 University of Campinas, School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 101 Alexander Fleming st, Campinas, São Paulo, Zip code: 13083-970, Brazil.3 University of Ghana, Department of Population Family and Reproductive Health, Accra, Ghana.4 National Institute of Public Health of Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.5 Eduardo Mondlane University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 706 Salvador Allende st, Maputo, Mozambique.6 Maputo Central Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Agostinho Neto st, Maputo, Mozambique.7 University of Ghana, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Disease control, Accra, Ghana.8 Clinique Gynécologique et Obstétricale de l’Hôpital Aristide Le Dantec, Dakar, Senegal.9 Eduardo Mondlane University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, 706 Salvador Allende st, Maputo, Mozambique.† Co-First authorship*Corresponding author:Charles M’poca Charles, Provincial Health Administration - DPS Manica, Manica Province, Mozambique.Email: cmpoca@gmail.comPhone number: +258 825483741 / +55 19 98198-7713Shortened running title: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Africa & pregnant women.Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Africa, Low and middle-income countries, network, severe maternal morbidity.The SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) virus causes an infectious and multisystem disease first diagnosed in China in December 2019.1Having evolved rapidly with an exponential increase in the number of cases and deaths worldwide, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO in mid-March 2020. Although in most Sub-Saharan African countries the pandemic is in its initial phase, as of 8 September 2020, the cumulative total cases of COVID-19 in the African Region exceeded one million and it is now at 1 315 073 confirmed cases with 31 725 deaths.2The advent of the pandemic has exhibited the weaknesses of health systems in different settings, testing capacity and strategy being more evident in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).3The growing number of COVID-19 cases has forced many countries to reorganise existing health services and reassign available healthcare professionals to combat COVID-19. In this regard, a number of service delivery points were closed due to the lack of healthcare providers.In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries enforced lockdown restrictions that closed down schools, businesses, restaurants, markets, religious gatherings, and limited mass gatherings and border entry. The lockdowns in some contexts, led to the disruption or suspension of many essential health services including sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, thus placing women of reproductive age under conditions of greater vulnerability and at risk of suffering devastating effects from COVID-19.4, 5In LMIC countries, the disruption in SRH services such as family planning, prevention and treatment of sexual transmitted infection (STI), safe abortion services, antenatal and postnatal consultations pose risks to women of reproductive age. The disruptions were generally associated with low coverage of the health network, weak diagnostic capacity for SARS-CoV-2 detection, shortage of trained healthcare personnel and reduced demand for services in the available health facilities due to stigma and fear of acquiring SARS-COV-2 infection.This situation has the potential to contribute negatively to the incidence of high risk pregnancy, near miss, maternal and perinatal deaths in these LMIC countries, with the consequent compromise of objective 3.1 of the WHO Sustainable Development Goals, 2030 agenda.6Although information on the clinical course of the disease and the consequences on maternal and perinatal health are still scarce, there is evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of perinatal complications, including foetal distress, premature birth, perinatal death 7 and increased rate of admission to the intensive care unit and need for mechanical ventilation. 8, 9The risk of maternal and perinatal complications may be increased in pregnant women with underlying medical conditions, black pregnant women, and pregnant women from a disadvantaged social class and, in contexts with limited access to adequate healthcare services for COVID-19 management. 10, 11Although, the impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women was considered a secondary priority (12), studies involving pregnant women with respiratory diseases caused by other respiratory viruses in addition to recent data from studies of pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection in middle and high-income countries, highlight the need to pay special attention to this group of women, especially in settings where healthcare services are strained.While global maternal deaths gradually declined between 2000 and 2017, disparities in patterns of mortality still exist with Sub-Saharan Africa region alone accounting for approximately 66% of deaths in the continent.13 Due to the increasing number of reported maternal death cases related to the COVID-19, mostly from LMIC, and deficiencies in reporting cases in those countries, the need for prospective monitoring of COVID-19 cases among pregnant women in the context of LMIC is needed now more than ever.As SARS COV-2 is a novel virus, knowledge of its impact on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is now emerging. 14Therefore, to understand the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection in its broad spectrum in the obstetric population of LMIC countries and to minimize the effects of the pandemic on maternal and perinatal health, it is essential to join forces among African researchers to generate evidence to better elucidate the magnitude of the problem. For this, the adoption of interinstitutional and multinational strategies is essential to optimize the allocation of scarce resources to fight the pandemic.In response to the SARS-COV-2 pandemic in sub Saharan Africa, domestic and regional level efforts have been undertaken by various partners in multiple sectors.15, 16 A critical component to complement these strategies is the setting up of multi-centre collaborative networks of African researchers to undertake surveillance studies of conditions related to maternal and neonatal morbidity associated with COVID-19 and interinstitutional support for the creation and implementation of care protocols. The building of a collaborative network to study the impact of COVID-19 on the obstetric population in Africa (African Network for fighting COVID-19 in pregnancy- ANCOVID-19) would enable a broad understanding of the pattern of disease evolution in different countries and different contexts, enabling a better understanding of the role of context-specific determinants in the evolution of infection by SARS-CoV-2 and strengthen measure to ensure access to essential reproductive health services during pandemics, lockdowns and easing of restrictions.Likewise, the implementation of robust surveillance systems and support to weaker systems by the stronger partnerships may favour the collection of standardised information on related maternal and perinatal morbidity. Continuous monitoring of the impact of the disease on maternal and perinatal health including strategies for remote monitoring of pregnant women through telephone calls and/or digital tools where available coupled with the sharing of clinical information will contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of infection in this population and the moment of greatest vulnerability for the maternal and newborn health.Thus, we call on all researchers in Africa to join in a continental effort to combat COVID-19 and reduce its impacts on maternal and perinatal health in Africa. This would encourage the provision of routine maternal and newborn services during and post pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Objective: To investigate the outcomes of fetuses or neonates of pregnant women with premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: University-affiliated tertiary hospital. Population: 6, 148 pregnant women with normal cardiac structure and function and 103 with a PVC burden >0.5% among them. Methods: 103 pregnant women with PVCs were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of adverse fetal or neonatal events. The adverse outcomes were compared between the groups. Main outcome measures: Adverse fetal and neonatal events: premature birth (<37 weeks gestation), small-for-gestational-age birth weight (<10th percentile for gestational age or <2500 g), respiratory distress syndrome, intraventricular hemorrhage and fetal death (after 20 weeks gestation and before birth). Results: A total of 17 adverse events (12 cases) occurred among 103 pregnant women with PVCs, which was significantly higher than that among women without PVCs (11.65% vs. 2.93%, p<0.01). Compared with that of the women without adverse events, the median PVC burden of women with adverse fetal or neonatal outcomes was significantly higher (9.02% vs. 2.30%, p<0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that PVC burden was associated with adverse fetal or neonatal outcomes among pregnant women with PVCs (OR: 1.34, 95% CI (1.11-1.61), p<0.01). Conclusions: Frequent PVCs have adverse effects on pregnancy, and the PVC burden might be an important factor associated with adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes among pregnant women with PVCs. Our cohort study indicated that the higher the PVC burden is, the higher the likelihood of adverse events would be.

Objective: Provoked vulvodynia (PV) is the main cause of vulvar pain and dyspareunia. Although its cause is unknown, it is associated with musculoskeletal dysfunction. The inability of lax uterosacral ligaments (USLs) to support the adjoining T11/L2 and S2-4 nerve plexuses is considered to cause PV. We aimed to determine whether mechanically supporting the USLs would reduce PV. Design: Single-blind, randomized, sham, control, prospective, pilot trial Setting: The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Galilee Medical Center, Israel Population or Sample: Seventeen women Methods: PV patients were randomly assigned to two groups. Subjects in each group were exposed to sham manipulation (inserting a wide swab in the vagina without applying pressure) and trial manipulation (supporting the posterior fornix with a wide swab sufficiently broad to mechanically support the USLs). The manipulation order was alternated. Main Outcome Measures: Using a pain intensity scale, the PV-associated pain level experienced by participants was recorded during each manipulation and the results were compared with baseline levels. Results: The pain level significantly reduced with USL support compared with the baseline value and sham manipulation pain level (P = .003). Pain during sham manipulation was not significantly different from that recorded at baseline. The average reduction in pain with USL support was 18.4% ± 2.2%. The manipulation order did not impact changes in pain level during trial manipulation (P = .512). Conclusions: PV is related to pain originating in the USL and musculoskeletal dysfunction.

Santalum album is a hemiparasitic plant that obtains some of its water and nutritional requirements by parasitizing the roots of neighboring plants. As a hemiparasite, S. album can obtain organic N from parasitizing host roots as well as inorganic N by absorption thru its roots. In this current study, we evaluated changes in the physiology, transcriptional profiles and chromatin accessibility in S. album seedlings exposed to low N conditions with and without supplemental melatonin. We employed two complementary assays, global transcriptome analysis (RNA-seq) and assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) to identify genes and genic regions differentially regulated in S. album roots under these conditions. Low N conditions disturbed the homeostasis of N metabolism, reducing both N uptake and assimilation. The inclusion of melatonin enabled S. album seedlings in low N conditions to achieve significantly higher levels of N uptake and assimilation compared to plants without melatonin. Interestingly, melatonin treatment also enhanced haustorium development through a mechanism associated with auxin accumulation. These results suggest that the application of supplemental melatonin may accelerate N metabolism and haustorium formation of S. album in low N conditions.

Plants transitioned from an aquatic to a terrestrial lifestyle during their evolution. On land, drought became one of the major problems they encountered, as it impacts correct cell functioning necessary to support life. The evolution of morpho-physiological and molecular adaptations to cope with and tolerate drough was undeniably useful to survive on land. Some of these adaptations appeared repeatedly in phylogenetically distant species, showing a signature of convergent evolution. Details of this convergent evolution are now being assessed thanks to recent developments on high throughput phenotyping and whole genome and transcriptome sequencing. Phylogenomic (comparative genomic) and comparative transcriptomic analyses are revealing complex, well-coordinated and intricate gain and loss of genes and co-option of gene regulatory networks underlying cell and tissue specific adaptations to moderate and extreme drought in phylogenetically distant species. Here we review recent research on signatures of convergent evolution of regulatory networks underlying carbon concentrating mechanisms such as C4 and CAM photosynthesis, desiccation tolerance in seeds and resurrection plants, and impermeabilization of root exodermis.

Sap velocity measurements are useful in fields ranging from plant water relations to hydrology at a range of scales. Heat-pulse based techniques are among the most common methods to measure sap velocity, but most lack the ability to measure velocities across a wide range, including very high, very low and negative velocities (reverse flow). We propose a new method, the double-ratio method (DRM), which is robust across an unprecedented range of sap velocities and can provide real-time estimates of the thermal diffusivity of wood. The DRM employs one temperature sensor proximal and two distal to the heat pulse probe and facilitates several theoretical, heat-based approaches to quantifying sap velocity. We tested the DRM using whole-tree lysimetry in Eucalyptus cypellocarpa and found strong agreement across a wide range of velocities.

Plants employ systemic induced resistance as part of their defense arsenal against pathogens. In recent years, the application of mild heating has been found to induce resistance against several pathogens. In the present study, we investigated the effect of root zone warming (RZW) in promoting tomato resistance against the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea (Bc), the hemibiotrophic bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) and the biotrophic fungus Oidium neolycopersici (On). We demonstrate that RZW enhanced tomato resistance to Bc, On and Xcv, through a process that is dependent on salicylic acid. RZW induced tomato immunity, resulting in increased defense gene expression, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and ethylene output when plants were challenged, even in the absence of pathogens. Overall, the results provide novel insights into the underlying mechanisms of warming induced immune responses against phytopathogens with different lifestyles in tomato.

The stomatal-aperture is imperative for plant physiological metabolism. The function of polyamines (PAs) in stomatal regulation under stress environment largely remains elucidate. Herein, we investigated the regulatory mechanism of exogenous putrescine (Put) on the stomatal opening of cucumber leaves under salt stress. The results revealed that Put relieved the salt-induced photosynthetic inhibition of cucumber leaves by regulating stomatal-apertures. Put application increased hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and decreased abscisic acid (ABA) content in leaves under salt stress. The inhibitors of diamine oxidase (DAO), polyamine oxidase (PAO), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase (NADPH) are AG, 1,8-DO and DPI, respectively and pre-treatment with these inhibitors up-regulated key gene NCED of ABA synthase and down-regulated key gene GSHS of reduced glutathione (GSH) synthase. The content of H2O2 and GSH were decreased and ABA content was increased and its influenced trend is AG>1,8-DO>DPI. Moreover, the Put induced down-regulation of ABA content under salt stress blocked by treatment with H2O2 scavenger (DMTU) and GSH scavenger (CNDB). Additionally, the application of DMTU also blocked the increase of GSH content. Collectively, these results suggest that Put can regulate GSH content by promoting H2O2 generation through polyamine metabolic pathway, which inhibits ABA accumulation to achieve stomatal regulation under salt stress.

Fruit abscission is a complex physiological process that is regulated by internal and environmental factors. During early development, apple fruit are exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations that are associated with premature fruit drop; however, its effect on fruit abscission is largely unknown. We hypothesized that fruit abscission is triggered by cold stress and investigated the molecular basis of premature fruit drop using RNA-seq and metabolomics data from apple fruit undergoing abscission following cold stress in the field. Genes responsive to abscisic acid signalling and cell wall degradation were up-regulated during abscission, consistent with the increased abscisic acid concentrations detected by LCMS. We performed ex-vivo cold shock experiments with excised tree subunits consisting of a branch, pedicel, and fruit. Abscission induction occurred in the cold-stressed subunits with concurrent up-regulation of abscisic acid biosynthesis (MdNCED1) and metabolism (MdCYP707A) genes, and ethylene biosynthesis (MdACS1) and receptor (MdETR2) genes in pedicel. Another key finding was the activation of cytoplasmic streaming of abscission-zone cells detected by electron microscopy. Our results provide a novel insight into the molecular basis of fruit abscission physiology in response to cold stress in apple.