The objectives of this study are to test innovations for the farms diagnosis, to locate erosion and to correct them with changes in the way of soil management, to aiming transforming Rio do Peixe Watershed properties that were degraded, rehabilitating them, promoting conservationist agriculture whit evaluating the results through remote sensing and water quality indicators. Secretariat of Agriculture of São Paulo State (SA), responsible for applying the Soil Conservation Law, has been carrying out this study for 20 years, working up 772,000 ha, with 19,846 agricultural properties. In 2019, it turned twelve years of inspection/monitoring at the Rio do Peixe Watershed. From 2007 to 2017 14,076 ha were inspected in Vera Cruz, with notification of 94 properties that went from degraded into agricultural companies. In Ocauçu, 82 properties were notified, on 8,125 ha. Besides other tested methodologies, model airplanes and helicopters, in Marília the Innovative CAD Methodology was used, which allowed 52 properties to be inspected on 27,000 ha from 2017 to 2019. There were transformations of degrading agriculture into conservation agriculture on the study carried out at Rio do Peixe Watershed. Property with degraded pasture turned into an agricultural area, with the no-tillage system. Pastures were recovered with the Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems, where the occupancy rate was increased by 31% comparing to the original situation. It is a great work that benefits the Watershed farmers and the population in the region, including improving the water quality that supplies Marília. It is the SA “Caring for the Well-Being of Society”.

Aggregation of protein causes various diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and type II diabetes. It was found that aggregation of protein depends on many factors like temperature, pH, salt type, salt concentration, ionic strength, protein concentration, co solutes. Here we have tried to capture the aggregation mechanism and pathway of hen egg white lysozyme using molecular dynamics simulations at two different temperatures; 300K and 340K. Along with the all atom simulations to get the atomistic details of aggregation mechanism, we have used coarse grained simulation with MARTINI force field to monitor the aggregation for longer duration. Our results suggest that due to the aggregation, changes in the conformation of lysozyme are more at 340K than at 300K. The change in the conformation of the lysozyme at 300K is mainly due to aggregation where at 340K change in conformation of lysozyme is due to both aggregation and temperature. Also, a more compact aggregated system is formed at 340K.

Classical trigeminal neuralgia (cTN) is a neuropathic pain disorder marked by evoked and spontaneous attacks in the distribution of the trigeminal nerve, and the disorder is further associated with periods of complete remission and subsequent recurrence in most patients. A mutation in SCN8A, a sodium channel gene that codes for the Nav1.6 protein, was reported in a 64-year-old white female that presented with classical trigeminal neuralgia. The Met136Val change produced a significant increase in peak transient and resurgent currents of Nav1.6, reduced the threshold for action potential in trigeminal ganglia neurons, and enhanced the neuronal evoked response and the fraction of neurons that fire at a higher rate than those expressing wild type channels. We sequenced 123 individuals with a diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia and did not detect the mutation, suggesting its frequency is lower than 1% in the population.

Diabetes-induced oxidative stress is the key factor that initiates neuronal damage in the diabetic retina leading to diabetic retinopathy. This study was to investigate the possible effects of coumestrol (CMS) on inflammation, apoptosis and oxidative stress of retinal cells in streptozotocin-nicotinamide (STZ)-induced DR. Initially, a rat model of STZ was established by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin, and the expression of SIRT1 in retina tissues was determined by RT-qPCR. Next, the regulatory roles of CMS in oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis of retinal cells were analyzed through detecting the expression of ROS, MDA, SOD, NO, iNOS, IL-6, TNF-α, and CRP, apoptotic factors (Cyt-C and Caspase-3) after ARPE-19 cells were treated with CMS. Moreover, the relationship between CMS and SIRT1 was analyzed. SIRT1 was lowly expressed in retina tissues. CMS treatment suppressed expression of ROS, MDA, iNOS, NO, IL-6, TNF-α, and CRP, as well as expression of Cyt-C and Caspase-3, but induced SOD expression in retina cells. CMS activated the expression of SIRT1, thereby inhibited oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis of retinal cells induced by DR. Taken together, the present study defines that CMS ameliorated DR by inhibiting inflammation, apoptosis and oxidative stress of retinal cells through the activation of SIRT1.

Mycorrhizal symbioses are essential for host nutrition and productivity in most forest ecosystems. Although we have gained tremendous insight into their evolution, physiology and partner identity, the knowledge on the deterministic forces in the assembly of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal community is limited over broad geographical ranges, especially for those associated with conifers in alpine forests. We carried out an analysis of ECM fungal community at 65 sites of monodominant stands that covered a large range of contrasting environmental gradients and included 11 conifer species in the alpine regions of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We found that coniferous species from Pinus, Piceae and Abies were differed in their community composition and diversity despite the dominance of Basidiomycota and Ascomycota in coniferous trees of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Host and soil factors explained most variation in ECM diversity; and of the host-related factors, root stoichiometry (i.e., root C/N, C/P) was suggested to be responsible for the shifts of ECM fungal community composition and diversity, whereas among soil variables, soil inorganic N accounted for the largest variation in ECM fungal composition and the fungal diversity decreased with soil inorganic N. Overall, we provided the first baseline data for ECM fungi in the alpine coniferous forests. Furthermore, we identified host and soil factors as their major drivers that convinced the hypothesis that host and environmental filtering act as large-scale controls of ECM fungi.

The Southern Ocean is one of the most isolated marine ecosystems, characterized by high levels of endemism, diversity, and biomass. Ascidians are among the dominant groups in Antarctic benthic assemblages, thus recording the evolutionary patterns of this group is crucial to improve our current understanding of the assembly of this polar ocean. We studied the genetic variation within Cnemidocarpa verrucosa sensu lato, one of the most widely distributed abundant and studied ascidian species in Antarctica. Using a mitochondrial and a nuclear gene (COI and 18S), the phylogeography of fifteen populations distributed along the Antarctic Peninsula and South America (Burdwood Bank/MPA Namuncurá) was characterized, where the bimodal distribution of the genetic distance suggested the existence of two species within the nominal C. verrucosa. When re-evaluating morphological traits to distinguish between genetically defined species, the presence of a basal disc in one of the genotypes could be a morphological trait to differentiate the species. These results are surprising due to the large research that has been carried out with the conspicuous C. verrucosa with no differentiation between species. Furthermore, it provides important tools to distinguish species in the field and laboratory. But also, these results give new insights to patterns of differentiation between closely related species that are distributed in sympatry, where the permeability of species boundaries still needs to be well understood.

Letter to the Editor, BJOG Exchange

Objective: This study aims to provide an evidence-based assessment of the benefits and harms of four transplantation methods so as to improve the superior pregnancy outcome and reduce the pregnancy rate of multiple embryos in the Mongoloid race. Design: Retrospective analysis Setting: Double Reproductive Centers of Medical University Population or Sample: 24,422 frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycles recorded from January 2015 to May 2018. Methods：A retrospective cohort study Main Outcome Measures: Biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, monozygotic twins, miscarriage, maternal complications, live birth. Results: Of the four groups, the biochemical pregnancy rate, the clinical pregnancy rate, and the live birth rate were the lowest in the C-1 group while they were the highest in the B-2 group. However, the B-2 group was accompanied with higher risks of miscarriage, maternal complications, twin births, preterm births and low birth weights. The biochemical pregnancy rates, the clinical pregnancy rates and the live birth rates in the C-2 group and B-1 group were statistically different, with different risks for monozygotic twins, miscarriages. Conclusion: Single blastocyst transplantation seems to be the best choice for all maternal ages to greatly reduce adverse neonatal outcomes. Tweetable abstract: This was a retrospective cohort study using the ART databases from two affiliated hospitals of Peking University. 24,422 frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycles recorded from January 2015 to May 2018 were selected to generate the research database which also included maternal characteristics.

Objectives To investigate predictors of preterm birth (PTB) in pregnancies with a short cervix and to create prediction models. Design Retrospective cohort study. Method Logistic regression model was used to identify predictors of PTB. The predictors were used to establish nomogram, which were validated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and calibration curve. Main outcome measures Preterm birth. Results Overweight or obesity (OR:2.00, 95% CI:1.114-3.51; OR:2.59, 95% CI:1.20-5.60), frequency of pregnancy ≧ 3 times (OR:1.97, 95% CI:1.14-3.40), twin pregnancy (OR:4.52, 95% CI:2.40-8.51), in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) (OR:2.24, 95% CI:1.19-4.19), gestational age at first diagnosis of short cervix (1st short cervix) (OR:0.953, 95% CI:0.910-0.999), cervical length (CL) at diagnosis of 1st short cervix (OR:0.908, 95% CI:0.86-0.96), history of PTB (OR:7.77, 95% CI:2.47-24.41), and autoimmune disease (OR:10.70, 95% CI:1.87-61.26) were predictors of PTB < 37 weeks, while twin pregnancy, gestational age of 1st short cervix, CL of 1st short cervix, history of PTB, and prepregnancy hypertension were predictors of PTB < 34 weeks. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of the nomogram predicting PTB < 37 weeks and PTB < 34 weeks were 0.803 and 0.771, respectively. Both models showed good discrimination. Conclusions Gestational age of 1st short cervix, CL of 1st short cervix and other factors are strong predictors of PTB in pregnancies with a short cervix. Nomogram showed good discrimination and calibration, and hence might be effective in predicting risk of PTB for pregnancies with a short cervix. Keywords nomogram; preterm birth; risk factors; short cervix

Background: Prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are highly effective in reducing premalignant lesions of the cervix. Recurrence is reported up to 17%. Little is known about the effect of HPV vaccines on women with CIN who already are HPV infected and CIN. Objective: Review of the literature addressing the question whether adjuvant vaccination with an HPV-vaccine in addition to LEEP treatment is effective in preventing recurrence of CIN-lesions. Search strategy: Medline search using Mesh terms. Selection criteria: Studies on HPV vaccination in addition to a LEEP procedure. One of the study parameters had to describe the effect of vaccination in addition to a surgical treatment. Data collection and Analysis: All results were assessed by two reviewers and meta-analysis performed. Main result: Six studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria: one case report, three post-hoc analyses, one case-control study and one retrospective study. In the post-hoc analysis of three community-based clinical trials; the combined recurrence rate of CIN2+ was 1.49% (12/806) in the HPV- vaccinated group versus 3.51% (37/1052) in the non-HPV vaccinated group, with a combined RR of 0.41 (95% CI 0.21-0.78; P<0.01). The retrospective and the case-control study combined, reported an incidence of 2.07% (11/532) versus 6.92% (38/549) in favor for HPV vaccination, resulting in a significant positive vaccination effect in addition to LEEP treatment (RR 0.30 95%CI 0.16-0.58; P<0.01). Funding: None Keywords: HPV, CIN, VACCINACTION, LEEP

Root development and apoplastic transport are respectively important for cadmium (Cd) absorption and transportation, which profoundly influence Cd bioremediation. However, molecular mechanisms underlying the two processes are not completely understood. In this study, we demonstrated that auxin response factor 4 (SpARF4) from a Cd hyperaccumulator Sedum plumbizincicola was a negative regulator for these processes. SpARF4 positively regulated by auxin was highly expressed in xylem. Overexpression of SpARF4 significantly decreased vessel area and declined lignin content of S. plumbizincicola. Meanwhile, less adventitious roots were found, and lateral root development was delayed in transgenic plants. Furthermore, ethylene production and auxin transportation were impaired. More importantly, SpARF4 negatively regulated Cd content of xylem saps and aerial tissues. Combining dual-LUC reporter, Y1H and qRT-PCR assays, SpARF4 was a repressor for two downstream genes (SpABCG14 and SpACO4) which influenced vascular bundle development and ethylene production, respectively. PIN1, 2, 3, 7 were downregulated and slowed down local auxin accumulation rate, which suspended root development. These results indicate that SpARF4 can decelerate Cd transportation rate from roots to aerial parts and reduce Cd content of aboveground tissues by delaying the root development and decreasing vessel area.

Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) is a severe disease with high morbidity and mortality rate. Poor immune response and autoimmunity have been reported in patients with IE and result in different complications such as severe sepsis, glomerulonephritis, arthritis, coagulopathy and embolization. This study aims to investigate the role of immune system in the pathogenesis of IE through assessment of memory and naïve T and B lymphocytes and T regulatory cells (T regs). Methods: Twenty IE patients and twenty healthy age and sex matched donors were included in the study. Flow cytometry was used to asses the naïve and memory subsets of peripheral blood lymphocytes using cell surface markers CD4, CD19, CD45RO, CD45RA, CD27 and IgD. T regs were characterized by co-expression of CD25/FoxP3 among the CD4+ T cells. Results: IE patients had significant lower number of CD45RO+CD4+ memory T cells when compared to healthy control (p=0.03). No differences were observed regarding CD45RA+CD4+ naïve T cells, CD19+CD27+ memory B cells and CD19+IgD+ naïve B cells between the IE patients and healthy control. However, IE patients had significantly lower percentage and number of T regs (p=0.039, p=0.009 respectively). Conclusion: IE patients suffer from immune system dysfunction which contribute to the disease course and complications. The decrease in the CD45RO+CD4+ memory T cells can partly explain why IE patients cannot effectively clear the infection before the invading pathogen replicate and cause tissue damage. The defect in T regs may underlie the autoimmunity and occurrence of autoantibodies reported in IE patients

Background: The anti-inflammatory effect of the α7nAChR agonist, PNU-282987, has previously been explored in the context of inflammatory disease. However, the impact of PNU-282987 on type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s)-mediated allergic airway inflammation has not been established. Aims: To determine the effects of PNU-282987 on the function of ILC2s in the context of IL-33 or Alternaria Alternata (AA)-induced airway inflammation. Methods: PNU-282987 was administered to mice that received recombinant IL-33 or AA intranasal challenge. Whole lung was collected from mice for histological analysis, and ILC2 populations were quantified in the lungs and BALF of these mice. Additionally, ILC2s were isolated from murine lung tissue and cultured in vitro in the presence of IL-33, IL-2 and IL-7 with or without PNU-282987, and the expression of the transcription factors GATA3, IKK, and NF-κB was determined in these cells. Results: PNU-282987 significantly reduced airway goblet cell hyperplasia, eosinophil infiltration, and ILC2s numbers in BALF in response to IL-33 or AA. In vitro IL-33 stimulation of isolated lung ILC2s showed a reduction of GATA3 and Ki67 in response to PNU-282987 treatments. When compared to the established α7nAChR agonist, GTS-21, there was a notable reduction in IKK and NF-κB phosphorylation in the PNU-282987 treated group when compared to the GTS-21 treated ILC2s. Conclusion: PNU-282987 inhibits ILC2s-associated airway inflammation by inhibiting ILC2s cell proliferation and the initiation of inflammatory cascades.

Of concern is the existence and uniqueness of a predator-prey model with Beddington-DeAngelis functional response and mutual interference. By constructing a suitable Lyapunov function and using the comparison theorem of ordinary differential equation, we prove that the existence, permanence and uniqueness of a positive globally attractive almost periodic solution of the model. A more general and frequent example will be offered to describe our main theorem.

Background and purpose: Savolitinib (AZD6094, HMPL-504, volitinib) is an oral, potent, and highly selective MET receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor. This series of studies aimed to develop a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model to link inhibition of MET phosphorylation (pMET) by savolitinib with anti-tumour activity. Experimental approach: Cell line-derived xenograft (CDX) experiments using human lung cancer (EBC-1) and gastric cancer (MKN-45) cells were conducted in athymic nude mice using a variety of doses and schedules of savolitinib. Tumour pMET changes and growth inhibition were calculated after 28 days. Population PK/PD techniques were used to construct a PK/PD model for savolitinib. Key results: Savolitinib showed dose- and schedule-dependent anti-tumour activity in the CDX models, with more frequent, lower dosing schedules (e.g. twice daily) being more effective than intermittent, higher dosing schedules (e.g. 4 days on/3 days off or 2 days on/5 days off). There was a clear exposure–response relationship, with maximal suppression of pMET of >90%. Data from additional CDX and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models overlapped, allowing the calculation of a single EC50 of 0.38 ng/mL. Tumour growth modelling demonstrated that prolonged, high levels of pMET inhibition (>90%) were required for tumour stasis and regression in the models. Conclusion and implications: High and durable levels of MET inhibition by savolitinib are needed for optimal monotherapy anti-tumour activity in preclinical models. The modelling framework developed here can be used to translate tumour growth inhibition from the mouse to human, and thus guide choice of clinical dose and schedule.

Various surfactants and amphipathic polymers have been utilized to enhance the flowability of crude oil. Alternatively, nanoparticulate polymer brushes serve as an ideal scaffold to form Pickering emulsions with crude oil due to its large specific area, excellent stability and tunable surface properties. In our research, a novel type of oil soluble polymer brushes was utilized to achieve stable crude oil emulsification by forming Pickering emulsions in water. Combining inverse emulsion polymerization and photo-emulsion polymerization, poly(N-Vinylcarbazole) (PVK) chains were successfully grafted onto the water soluble PAA core dispersed in hexane and the oil-soluble latex polymer brush features mono-dispersity, well-tuned size , fluorescence and stability. Significantly, the amphiphilic latex particles were successfully utilized to stabilize crude oil droplets in water by forming Pickering emulsions with apparent viscosity reduced by 99%. These novel particles could serve as promising candidates to be applied in petrochemical industry by improving heavy crude oil flowability.

Objective: Cases of chronic otitis externa (OE) resistant to conventional treatment remain a significant challenge. This paper describes our experience of utilising fluticasone propionate (Flixonase®) drops in the treatment of such cases. Methods: We included a series of patients with resistant chronic OE that were referred to ENT consultant clinic between 2012 and 2014, all of whom failed to respond to the conventional treatments. The patients were prescribed 200 micrograms of Flixonase® once daily and followed up in the clinic to assess response to the treatment. The case notes were reviewed retrospectively. Results: Total of 25 patients identified over 2 years. Patients reported itching as the most common symptom (83%), and skin changes were the most common sign identified under examination (72%). The combination of steroid and antibiotic drops had been the most common treatment modality prescribed. Fluticasone propionate was started a median of 5 months after the diagnosis (range: 0-54 months) with a median treatment duration of 3 months (range: 1-18 months). All 17 patients who attended the follow-up clinic were classified as having been cured. Conclusions: Our findings suggest fluticasone propionate as an exciting and potentially important modality in the treatment of chronic OE cases, especially where all other treatment options have been exhausted.

Organisms undergo substantial ecological changes throughout development, such as shifts in habitat use, trophic position, and predation risk. However, developmental variation is rarely considered in natural food webs. We manipulated fish predation to test the hypothesis that cross-ecosystem subsidies are regulated by stage-structured predation in a freshwater food web. Fish reduced the emergence of adult stages of aquatic insects to the terrestrial ecosystem by 85 ± 0.04% (mean ± sd DM) leading to a ~40% reduction in terrestrial insectivorous spider abundance. By contrast, fish had weaker effects on larval aquatic insects, reducing dry mass by 63 ± 72%. These stage-specific effects were explained by a stage-structured food web in which fish ate similar prey taxa but different prey stages. Since organisms with complex life-histories are widespread, we suspect that this type of stage-structured predation, and its regulation of cross-ecosystem subsidies, is a common phenomenon beyond freshwater food webs.

Digital images have become cheap, yet its perspective issues cause hindrance for size and shape estimations. Here, we quantified shape distortions due to projective issues using Cardboard model fishes. We identified that Generalized Procrustes Analysis preserves shape homogeneity where objects differ in angle up to 20° are grouped as similar ones. For 2D shape analysis, the proposed novel filter criterion aids in profitable use of images with minor projective issues. Using the proposed filter criterion images of free ranging Painted Storks (Mycteria leucocephala), taken under field conditions, were subjected for shape analysis. Our result indicates that a subtle difference was noted in the mandibular shape of Painted Storks between two habitats viz., Delhi Zoo and Keoladeo National Park, which indicates a cue of intra and interspecific competition. This study deserve merits as the entire exercise has been done without disturbing or capturing birds which highlights the value of animal welfare.

Excessive nutrients have penetrated water bodies worldwide yet our forecasting capabilities remain elusive. This work tests the shallow and deep hypothesis: chemical contrasts in the subsurface shape nitrate export patterns. We use data synthesis for 228 U.S. watersheds and reactive transport modeling (500 simulations) spanning broad climate, geology, and land conditions. Data synthesis showed that human perturbation has amplified chemical contrasts in shallow versus deep waters, inducing primarily flushing patterns (concentration increase with streamflow) in agriculture lands and dilution (concentration decrease with streamflow) patterns in urban watersheds. Data and model reveal a general relationship between export patterns and shallow versus deep nitrate contrasts. This underscores the often-overlooked role of N distribution over depth. The results challenge commonly-held perception that legacy stores in agricultural lands induce chemostasis with negligible concentration variations with discharge. They suggest nutrient export will exacerbate as extreme events such as flooding intensify in the future climate.

One of the main problems facing governments at present is terrorism. Most recent studies are striving to find an optimal solution to this problem that threatens the security and stability of peoples. To combat terrorism, government uses various means such as: education development, providing labor opportunities, seeking social justice, religious awareness, and security arrangements. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the optimum strategy for both government and terrorist organizations using Min-Max differential game approach. Also, a saddle point concept for this game was discussed

We prove the best proximity point results for condensing operators on C-class of functions, by using a concept of measure of noncompactness. The results are applied to show the existence of a solution for certain integral equations.

We prove the existence and uniqueness of global strong solution to the free boundary problem in one dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes system for the viscous and heat conducting ideal polytropic gas flow, when the viscosity and heat conductivity depend on temperature in power law of Chapman-Enskog and the data is in the neighborhood of some background solution at initial time. We also study the large time behavior of the solution and obtain its decay property.

In this paper, we prove the well-posedness of the solution to the three-dimensional Boussinesq system with nonlinear damping term. Existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence with respect to initial data of the weak solution are proved, under minimum regularity requirement in Sobolev and Lebegue spaces. Energy method, compactness method, and appropriate technical lemmas are used.