Growth of V. parahaemolyticus in Tropical Blacklip Rock Oysters.

The opportunistic pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus poses a significant food safety risk worldwide, and understanding its growth in commercially cultivated oysters, especially at temperatures likely to be encountered post-harvest, provides essential information to provide the safe supply of oysters. The Blacklip Rock Oyster (BRO) is an emerging commercial species in tropical northern Australia and as a warm water species, it is potentially exposed to Vibrio spp. In order to determine the growth characteristics of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in BRO post-harvest, four V. parahaemolyticus strains isolated from oysters were injected into BROs and the level of V. parahaemolyticus was measured at different time points in oysters stored at four temperatures. Estimated growth rates were -0.001, 0.003, 0.032, and 0.047 log10 CFU/h at 4 °C, 13 °C, 18 °C, and 25 °C, respectively. The highest maximum population density of 5.31 log10 CFU/g was achieved at 18 °C after 116 h. There was no growth of V. parahaemolyticus at 4 °C, slow growth at 13 °C, but notably, growth occurred at 18 °C and 25 °C. Vibrio parahaemolyticus growth at 18 °C and 25 °C was not significantly different from each other but were significantly higher than at 13 °C (polynomial GLM model, interaction terms between time and temperature groups p < 0.05). Results support the safe storage of BROs at both 4 °C and 13 °C. This V. parahaemolyticus growth data will inform regulators and assist the Australian oyster industry to develop guidelines for BRO storage and transport to maximise product quality and safety

Female sex pheromone of the cone moth, dioryctria mendacella: Investigation of synergism between Type I and Type II pheromone components

Polyunsaturated hydrocarbons (Type II pheromone components) have been reported to be synergists for unsaturated acetates, alcohols or aldehydes (Type I components) in the sex pheromones of several species of Lepidoptera. However, there is some debate over whether the active components are the hydrocarbons themselves or more volatile degradation products. Extracts of pheromone glands of adult females of the cone moth, Dioryctria mendacella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), contain (Z,E)-9,11-tetradecadienyl acetate (ZE9,11-14:Ac) and at least ten times as much (Z,Z,Z,Z,Z)-3,6,9,12,15-pentacosapentaene (ZZZZZ3,6,9,12,15-25:H). The former elicits a strong electroantennogram response from males while no response could be recorded to the latter. In field trapping tests, both compounds were individually unattractive to male D. mendacella moths, but blends of the two compounds containing at least a 10:1 ratio of ZZZZZ3,6,9,12,15-25:H : ZE9,11-14:Ac were highly attractive. The relatively involatile hydrocarbon was shown to be released from the dispensers used and no significant degradation could be detected. Furthermore, blends of ZE9,11-14:Ac and analogs of ZZZZZ3,6,9,12,15-25:H with fewer carbons and/or double bonds that might be expected to produce similar degradation products to ZZZZZ3,6,9,12,15-25:H were unattractive. This indicated a specific response to the hydrocarbon itself, further substantiated by the observation that related hydrocarbons did not interfere with the activity of ZZZZZ3,6,9,12,15-25:H. Thus a three-step conversion of fish oil was used to produce a blend of unsaturated hydrocarbons containing ZZZZZ3,6,9,12,15-25:H as the major component, albeit only 30% of the total, and a blend of this material with ZE9,11-14:Ac was as attractive to male D. mendacella moths as blends with an equivalent amount of the purified material. This mixture of unsaturated hydrocarbons is much cheaper to produce than the pure pentaene, and may be useful in lures for other species using these compounds. Dioryctria mendacella is a major constraint to production of edible pine kernels throughout the Mediterranean region. Pheromone traps will provide a means to improve monitoring of seasonal flight patterns and changes in population abundance of this pest

A Novel Semi-Supervised Methodology for Extracting Tumor Type-Specific MRS Sources in Human Brain Data

BackgroundThe clinical investigation of human brain tumors often starts with a non-invasive imaging study, providing information about the tumor extent and location, but little insight into the biochemistry of the analyzed tissue. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy can complement imaging by supplying a metabolic fingerprint of the tissue. This study analyzes single-voxel magnetic resonance spectra, which represent signal information in the frequency domain. Given that a single voxel may contain a heterogeneous mix of tissues, signal source identification is a relevant challenge for the problem of tumor type classification from the spectroscopic signal.Methodology/Principal FindingsNon-negative matrix factorization techniques have recently shown their potential for the identification of meaningful sources from brain tissue spectroscopy data. In this study, we use a convex variant of these methods that is capable of handling negatively-valued data and generating sources that can be interpreted as tumor class prototypes. A novel approach to convex non-negative matrix factorization is proposed, in which prior knowledge about class information is utilized in model optimization. Class-specific information is integrated into this semi-supervised process by setting the metric of a latent variable space where the matrix factorization is carried out. The reported experimental study comprises 196 cases from different tumor types drawn from two international, multi-center databases. The results indicate that the proposed approach outperforms a purely unsupervised process by achieving near perfect correlation of the extracted sources with the mean spectra of the tumor types. It also improves tissue type classification.Conclusions/SignificanceWe show that source extraction by unsupervised matrix factorization benefits from the integration of the available class information, so operating in a semi-supervised learning manner, for discriminative source identification and brain tumor labeling from single-voxel spectroscopy data. We are confident that the proposed methodology has wider applicability for biomedical signal processing

Effects of ecosystem protection on scallop populations within a community-led temperate marine reserve

This study investigated the effects of a newly established, fully protected marine reserve on benthic habitats and two commercially valuable species of scallop in Lamlash Bay, Isle of Arran, United Kingdom. Annual dive surveys from 2010 to 2013 showed the abundance of juvenile scallops to be significantly greater within the marine reserve than outside. Generalised linear models revealed this trend to be significantly related to the greater presence of macroalgae and hydroids growing within the boundaries of the reserve. These results suggest that structurally complex habitats growing within the reserve have substantially increased spat settlement and/or survival. The density of adult king scallops declined threefold with increasing distance from the boundaries of the reserve, indicating possible evidence of spillover or reduced fishing effort directly outside and around the marine reserve. However, there was no difference in the mean density of adult scallops between the reserve and outside. Finally, the mean age, size, and reproductive and exploitable biomass of king scallops were all significantly greater within the reserve. In contrast to king scallops, the population dynamics of queen scallops (Aequipecten opercularis) fluctuated randomly over the survey period and showed little difference between the reserve and outside. Overall, this study is consistent with the hypothesis that marine reserves can encourage the recovery of seafloor habitats, which, in turn, can benefit populations of commercially exploited species, emphasising the importance of marine reserves in the ecosystem-based management of fisheries

The JCMT Plane Survey: early results from the l = 30 degree field

We present early results from the JCMT Plane Survey (JPS), which has surveyed the northern inner Galactic plane between longitudes l=7 and l=63 degrees in the 850-{\mu}m continuum with SCUBA-2, as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Legacy Survey programme. Data from the l=30 degree survey region, which contains the massive star-forming regions W43 and G29.96, are analysed after approximately 40% of the observations had been completed. The pixel-to-pixel noise is found to be 19 mJy/beam, after a smooth over the beam area, and the projected equivalent noise levels in the final survey are expected to be around 10 mJy/beam. An initial extraction of compact sources was performed using the FellWalker method resulting in the detection of 1029 sources above a 5-{\sigma} surface-brightness threshold. The completeness limits in these data are estimated to be around 0.2 Jy/beam (peak flux density) and 0.8 Jy (integrated flux density) and are therefore probably already dominated by source confusion in this relatively crowded section of the survey. The flux densities of extracted compact sources are consistent with those of matching detections in the shallower ATLASGAL survey. We analyse the virial and evolutionary state of the detected clumps in the W43 star-forming complex and find that they appear younger than the Galactic-plane average

The bed nucleus of stria terminalis and the amygdala as targets of antenatal glucocorticoids: implications for fear and anxiety responses

Rationale: Several human and experimental studies have shown that early life adverse events can shape physical and mental health in adulthood. Stress or elevated levels of glucocorticoids (GCs) during critical periods of development seem to contribute for the appearance of neurospyschiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression, albeit the underlying mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to determine the long-term effect of prenatal erxposure to dexamethasone- DEX (synthetic GC widely used in clinics) in fear and anxious behavior and identify the neurochemical, morphological and molecular correlates. Results: Prenatal exposure to DEX triggers a hyperanxious phenotype and altered fear behavior in adulthood. These behavioral traits were correlated with increased volume of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), particularly the anteromedial subivision which presented increased dendritic length; in parallel, we found an increased expression of synapsin and NCAM in the BNST of these animals. Remarkably, DEX effects were opposite in the amygdala, as this region presented reduced volume due to significant dendritic atrophy. Albeit no differences were found in dopamine and its metabolite levels in the BNST, this neurotransmitter was substantially reduced in the amygdala, which also presented an up-regulation of dopamine receptor 2. Conclusions: Altogether our results show that in utero DEX exposure can modulate anxiety and fear behavior in parallel with significant morphological, neurochemical and molecular changes; importantly, GCs seem to differentially affect distinct brain regions involved in this type of behaviors.This study was supported by a grant from the Institute for the Study of Affective Neuroscience (ISAN). AJR is supported by a Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) grant

Short-Lived Trace Gases in the Surface Ocean and the Atmosphere

The two-way exchange of trace gases between the ocean and the atmosphere is important for both the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere and the biogeochemistry of the oceans, including the global cycling of elements. Here we review these exchanges and their importance for a range of gases whose lifetimes are generally short compared to the main greenhouse gases and which are, in most cases, more reactive than them. Gases considered include sulphur and related compounds, organohalogens, non-methane hydrocarbons, ozone, ammonia and related compounds, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Finally, we stress the interactivity of the system, the importance of process understanding for modeling, the need for more extensive field measurements and their better seasonal coverage, the importance of inter-calibration exercises and finally the need to show the importance of air-sea exchanges for global cycling and how the field fits into the broader context of Earth System Science

Changes over time in creatinine clearance and comparison of emergent adverse events for HIV-positive adults receiving standard doses (300 mg/day) of lamivudine-containing antiretroviral therapy with baseline creatinine clearance of 30-49 vs ≥50 mL/min

A retrospective analysis of the randomized controlled DART (Development of AntiRetroviral Therapy in Africa; ISRCTN13968779) trial in HIV-1-positive adults initiating antiretroviral therapy with co-formulated zidovudine/lamivudine plus either tenofovir, abacavir, or nevirapine was conducted to evaluate the safety of initiating standard lamivudine dosing in patients with impaired creatinine clearance (CLcr). Safety data collected through 96 weeks were analyzed after stratification by baseline CLcr (estimated using Cockcroft-Gault) of 30–49 mL/min (n = 168) versus ≥50 mL/min (n = 3,132) and treatment regimen. The Grade 3–4 adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs (for hematological, hepatic and gastrointestinal events), maximal toxicities for liver enzymes, serum creatinine and bilirubin and maximum treatment-emergent hematology toxicities were comparable for groups with baseline CLcr 30–49 versus CLcr≥50 mL/min. No new risks or trends were identified from this dataset. Substantial and similar increases in the mean creatinine clearance (>25 mL/min) were observed from baseline though Week 96 among participants who entered the trial with CLcr 30–49 mL/min, while no increase or smaller median changes in creatinine clearance ( 150 cells/ mm3) in mean CD4+ cells counts from baseline to Week 96 were also observed for participants who entered the trial with CLcr 30–49 mL/min and those with baseline CLcr ≥50 mL/min. Though these results are descriptive, they suggest that HIV-positive patients with CLcr of 30–49 mL/min would have similar AE risks in comparison to patients with CLcr ≥50 mL/min when initiating antiretroviral therapy delivering doses of 300 mg of lamivudine daily through 96 weeks of treatment. Overall improvements in CLcr were observed for patients with baseline CLcr 30–49 mL/min

Cotrimoxazole reduces systemic inflammation in HIV infection by altering the gut microbiome and immune activation

Wellcome TrustCanadian Institutes of Health ResearchMedical Research CouncilDepartment for International Development under MRC/DFID Concordat agreement and EDCTP2 programme supported by the European UnionMRC Clinical Trials Unit at UC

Impact of second-line antiretroviral regimens on lipid profiles in an African setting: the DART trial sub-study

Background: Increasing numbers of HIV-infected patients in sub-Saharan Africa are exposed to antiretroviral therapy (ART), but there are few data on lipid changes on first-line ART, and even fewer on second-line.Methods: DART was a randomized trial comparing monitoring strategies in Ugandan/Zimbabwean adults initiating first-line ART and switching to second-line at clinical/immunological failure. We evaluated fasting lipid profiles at second-line initiation and ≥48 weeks subsequently in stored samples from Zimbabwean patients switching before 18 September 2006.Results: Of 91 patients switched to second-line ART, 65(73%) had fasting samples at switch and ≥48 weeks, 14(15%) died or were lost 14 days and 2(2%) had no samples available. 56/65(86%) received ZDV/d4T + 3TC + TDF first-line, 6(9%) ZDV/d4T + 3TC + NVP and 3(5%) ZDV + 3TC with TDF and NVP. Initial second-line regimens were LPV/r + NNRTI in 27(41%), LPV/r + NNRTI + ddI in 33(50%) and LPV/r + TDF + ddI/3TC/ZDV in 6(9%). At second-line initiation median (IQR) TC, LDL-C, HDL-C and TG (mmol/L) were 3.3(2.8-4.0), 1.7(1.3-2.2), 0.7(0.6-0.9) and 1.1(0.8-1.9) respectively. Levels were significantly increased 48 weeks later, by mean (SE) +2.0(0.1), +1.1(0.1), +0.5(0.05) and +0.4(0.2) respectively (p 5.2 mmol/L; 3% vs 25% LDL-C >3.4 mmol/L and 91% vs 41% HDL-C 1.8 mmol/L (0 vs 3%) and TC/HDL-C ≥5 (40% vs 33%) (p > 0.15).Conclusion: Modest lipid elevations were observed in African patients on predominantly LPV/r + NNRTI-based second-line regimens. Routine lipid monitoring during second-line ART regimens may not be warranted in this setting but individual cardiovascular risk assessment should guide practice