TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Nanoemulsion stability: experimental evaluation of the flocculation rate from turbidity measurements

The coalescence of liquid drops induces a higher level of complexity compared to the classical studies about the aggregation of solid spheres. Yet, it is commonly believed that most findings on solid dispersions are directly applicable to liquid mixtures. Here, the state of the art in the evaluation of the flocculation rate of these two systems is reviewed. Special emphasis is made on the differences between suspensions and emulsions. In the case of suspensions, the stability ratio is commonly evaluated from the initial slope of the absorbance as a function of time under diffusive and reactive conditions. Puertas and de las Nieves (1997) developed a theoretical approach that allows the determination of the flocculation rate from the variation of the turbidity of a sample as a function of time. Here, suitable modifications of the experimental procedure and the referred theoretical approach are implemented in order to calculate the values of the stability ratio and the flocculation rate corresponding to a dodecane-in-water nanoemulsion stabilized with sodium dodecyl sulfate. Four analytical expressions of the turbidity are tested, basically differing in the optical cross section of the aggregates formed. The first two models consider the processes of: a) aggregation (as described by Smoluchowski) and b) the instantaneous coalescence upon flocculation. The other two models account for the simultaneous occurrence of flocculation and coalescence. The latter reproduce the temporal variation of the turbidity in all cases studied (380 \leq [NaCl] \leq 600 mM), providing a method of appraisal of the flocculation rate in nanoemulsions

ITALIAN CANCER FIGURES - REPORT 2015: The burden of rare cancers in Italy = I TUMORI IN ITALIA - RAPPORTO 2015: I tumori rari in Italia

OBJECTIVES: This collaborative study, based on data collected by the network of Italian Cancer Registries (AIRTUM), describes the burden of rare cancers in Italy. Estimated number of new rare cancer cases yearly diagnosed (incidence), proportion of patients alive after diagnosis (survival), and estimated number of people still alive after a new cancer diagnosis (prevalence) are provided for about 200 different cancer entities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data herein presented were provided by AIRTUM population- based cancer registries (CRs), covering nowadays 52% of the Italian population. This monograph uses the AIRTUM database (January 2015), which includes all malignant cancer cases diagnosed between 1976 and 2010. All cases are coded according to the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O-3). Data underwent standard quality checks (described in the AIRTUM data management protocol) and were checked against rare-cancer specific quality indicators proposed and published by RARECARE and HAEMACARE (www.rarecarenet.eu; www.haemacare.eu). The definition and list of rare cancers proposed by the RARECAREnet "Information Network on Rare Cancers" project were adopted: rare cancers are entities (defined as a combination of topographical and morphological codes of the ICD-O-3) having an incidence rate of less than 6 per 100,000 per year in the European population. This monograph presents 198 rare cancers grouped in 14 major groups. Crude incidence rates were estimated as the number of all new cancers occurring in 2000-2010 divided by the overall population at risk, for males and females (also for gender-specific tumours).The proportion of rare cancers out of the total cancers (rare and common) by site was also calculated. Incidence rates by sex and age are reported. The expected number of new cases in 2015 in Italy was estimated assuming the incidence in Italy to be the same as in the AIRTUM area. One- and 5-year relative survival estimates of cases aged 0-99 years diagnosed between 2000 and 2008 in the AIRTUM database, and followed up to 31 December 2009, were calculated using complete cohort survival analysis. To estimate the observed prevalence in Italy, incidence and follow-up data from 11 CRs for the period 1992-2006 were used, with a prevalence index date of 1 January 2007. Observed prevalence in the general population was disentangled by time prior to the reference date (≤2 years, 2-5 years, ≤15 years). To calculate the complete prevalence proportion at 1 January 2007 in Italy, the 15-year observed prevalence was corrected by the completeness index, in order to account for those cancer survivors diagnosed before the cancer registry activity started. The completeness index by cancer and age was obtained by means of statistical regression models, using incidence and survival data available in the European RARECAREnet data. RESULTS: In total, 339,403 tumours were included in the incidence analysis. The annual incidence rate (IR) of all 198 rare cancers in the period 2000-2010 was 147 per 100,000 per year, corresponding to about 89,000 new diagnoses in Italy each year, accounting for 25% of all cancer. Five cancers, rare at European level, were not rare in Italy because their IR was higher than 6 per 100,000; these tumours were: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and squamous cell carcinoma of larynx (whose IRs in Italy were 7 per 100,000), multiple myeloma (IR: 8 per 100,000), hepatocellular carcinoma (IR: 9 per 100,000) and carcinoma of thyroid gland (IR: 14 per 100,000). Among the remaining 193 rare cancers, more than two thirds (No. 139) had an annual IR <0.5 per 100,000, accounting for about 7,100 new cancers cases; for 25 cancer types, the IR ranged between 0.5 and 1 per 100,000, accounting for about 10,000 new diagnoses; while for 29 cancer types the IR was between 1 and 6 per 100,000, accounting for about 41,000 new cancer cases. Among all rare cancers diagnosed in Italy, 7% were rare haematological diseases (IR: 41 per 100,000), 18% were solid rare cancers. Among the latter, the rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system were the most common (23%, IR: 26 per 100,000), followed by epithelial tumours of head and neck (17%, IR: 19) and rare cancers of the female genital system (17%, IR: 17), endocrine tumours (13% including thyroid carcinomas and less than 1% with an IR of 0.4 excluding thyroid carcinomas), sarcomas (8%, IR: 9 per 100,000), central nervous system tumours and rare epithelial tumours of the thoracic cavity (5%with an IR equal to 6 and 5 per 100,000, respectively). The remaining (rare male genital tumours, IR: 4 per 100,000; tumours of eye, IR: 0.7 per 100,000; neuroendocrine tumours, IR: 4 per 100,000; embryonal tumours, IR: 0.4 per 100,000; rare skin tumours and malignant melanoma of mucosae, IR: 0.8 per 100,000) each constituted <4% of all solid rare cancers. Patients with rare cancers were on average younger than those with common cancers. Essentially, all childhood cancers were rare, while after age 40 years, the common cancers (breast, prostate, colon, rectum, and lung) became increasingly more frequent. For 254,821 rare cancers diagnosed in 2000-2008, 5-year RS was on average 55%, lower than the corresponding figures for patients with common cancers (68%). RS was lower for rare cancers than for common cancers at 1 year and continued to diverge up to 3 years, while the gap remained constant from 3 to 5 years after diagnosis. For rare and common cancers, survival decreased with increasing age. Five-year RS was similar and high for both rare and common cancers up to 54 years; it decreased with age, especially after 54 years, with the elderly (75+ years) having a 37% and 20% lower survival than those aged 55-64 years for rare and common cancers, respectively. We estimated that about 900,000 people were alive in Italy with a previous diagnosis of a rare cancer in 2010 (prevalence). The highest prevalence was observed for rare haematological diseases (278 per 100,000) and rare tumours of the female genital system (265 per 100,000). Very low prevalence (<10 prt 100,000) was observed for rare epithelial skin cancers, for rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system and rare epithelial tumours of the thoracic cavity. COMMENTS: One in four cancers cases diagnosed in Italy is a rare cancer, in agreement with estimates of 24% calculated in Europe overall. In Italy, the group of all rare cancers combined, include 5 cancer types with an IR>6 per 100,000 in Italy, in particular thyroid cancer (IR: 14 per 100,000).The exclusion of thyroid carcinoma from rare cancers reduces the proportion of them in Italy in 2010 to 22%. Differences in incidence across population can be due to the different distribution of risk factors (whether environmental, lifestyle, occupational, or genetic), heterogeneous diagnostic intensity activity, as well as different diagnostic capacity; moreover heterogeneity in accuracy of registration may determine some minor differences in the account of rare cancers. Rare cancers had worse prognosis than common cancers at 1, 3, and 5 years from diagnosis. Differences between rare and common cancers were small 1 year after diagnosis, but survival for rare cancers declined more markedly thereafter, consistent with the idea that treatments for rare cancers are less effective than those for common cancers. However, differences in stage at diagnosis could not be excluded, as 1- and 3-year RS for rare cancers was lower than the corresponding figures for common cancers. Moreover, rare cancers include many cancer entities with a bad prognosis (5-year RS <50%): cancer of head and neck, oesophagus, small intestine, ovary, brain, biliary tract, liver, pleura, multiple myeloma, acute myeloid and lymphatic leukaemia; in contrast, most common cancer cases are breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers, which have a good prognosis. The high prevalence observed for rare haematological diseases and rare tumours of the female genital system is due to their high incidence (the majority of haematological diseases are rare and gynaecological cancers added up to fairly high incidence rates) and relatively good prognosis. The low prevalence of rare epithelial tumours of the digestive system was due to the low survival rates of the majority of tumours included in this group (oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, and liver), regardless of the high incidence rate of rare epithelial cancers of these sites. This AIRTUM study confirms that rare cancers are a major public health problem in Italy and provides quantitative estimations, for the first time in Italy, to a problem long known to exist. This monograph provides detailed epidemiologic indicators for almost 200 rare cancers, the majority of which (72%) are very rare (IR<0.5 per 100,000). These data are of major interest for different stakeholders. Health care planners can find useful information herein to properly plan and think of how to reorganise health care services. Researchers now have numbers to design clinical trials considering alternative study designs and statistical approaches. Population-based cancer registries with good quality data are the best source of information to describe the rare cancer burden in a population

How to Attain an Ultralow Interfacial Tension and a Three‐Phase Behavior with a Surfactant Formulation for Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Review. Part 2. Performance Improvement Trends from Winsor's Premise to Currently Proposed Inter‐ and Intra‐Molecular Mixtures

The minimum interfacial tension occurrence along a formulation scan at the so-called optimum formulation is discussed to be related to the interfacial curvature. The attained minimum tension is inversely proportional to the domain size of the bicontinuous microemulsion and to the interfacial layer rigidity, but no accurate prediction is available. The data from a very simple ternary system made of pure products accurately follows the correlation for optimum formulation, and exhibit a linear relationship between the performance index as the logarithm of the minimum tension at optimum, and the formulation variables. This relation is probably too simple when the number of variables is increased as in practical cases. The review of published data for more realistic systems proposed for enhanced oil recovery over the past 30 years indicates a general guidelines following Winsor’s basic studies concerning the surfactant–oil–water interfacial interactions. It is well known that the major performance benefits are achieved by blending amphiphilic species at the interface as intermolecular or intramolecular mixtures, sometimes in extremely complex formulations. The complexity is such that a good knowledge of the possible trends and an experienced practical know-how to avoid trial and error are important for the practitioner in enhanced oil recovery

Uncoupling protein-2 mRNA expression in mice subjected to intermittent hypoxia

Objetivo: Investigar o efeito da hipóxia intermitente com um modelo de apneia obstrutiva do sono (AOS) sobre a expressão de uncoupling protein-2 (UCP2), assim como sobre perfis glicêmicos e lipídicos, em camundongos C57BL. Métodos: Camundongos C57BL machos foram expostos a hipóxia intermitente ou hipóxia simulada (grupo controle) 8 h/dia durante 35 dias. A condição de hipóxia intermitente envolveu a exposição dos camundongos a uma atmosfera de 92% de N e 8% de CO2 por 30 s, com redução progressiva de fração de O2 inspirado até 8 ± 1%, seguida por exposição a ar ambiente por 30 s e repetições do ciclo (480 ciclos no período experimental de 8 h). Os pâncreas foram dissecados para isolar as ilhotas. Foi realizada PCR em tempo real utilizando o método TaqMan. Resultados: A expressão do mRNA da UCP2 nas ilhotas pancreáticas foi 20% maior no grupo controle que no grupo hipóxia (p = 0,11). A insulina sérica de jejum foi maior no grupo hipóxia do que no grupo controle (p = 0,01). O modelo de avaliação da homeostase de resistência à insulina indicou que, em comparação com os camundongos controle, aqueles expostos à hipóxia intermitente apresentaram 15% menor resistência à insulina (p = 0,09) e 21% maior função das células beta (p = 0,01). A coloração das ilhotas pancreáticas por imuno-histoquímica não mostrou diferenças significativas entre os grupos em termos da área ou da intensidade das células alfa e beta, marcadas por insulina e glucagon. Conclusões: Segundo nosso conhecimento, esta é a primeira descrição do efeito da hipóxia intermitente sobre a expressão da UCP2. Nossos achados sugerem que UCP2 regula a produção de insulina na AOS. Futuras investigações sobre o papel da UCP2 no controle glicêmico em pacientes com AOS são justificadas.Objective: To investigate the effect of intermittent hypoxia—a model of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)—on pancreatic expression of uncoupling protein-2 (UCP2), as well as on glycemic and lipid profiles, in C57BL mice. Methods: For 8 h/day over a 35-day period, male C57BL mice were exposed to intermittent hypoxia (hypoxia group) or to a sham procedure (normoxia group). The intermittent hypoxia condition involved exposing mice to an atmosphere of 92% N and 8% CO2 for 30 s, progressively reducing the fraction of inspired oxygen to 8 ± 1%, after which they were exposed to room air for 30 s and the cycle was repeated (480 cycles over the 8-h experimental period). Pancreases were dissected to isolate the islets. Real-time PCR was performed with TaqMan assays. Results: Expression of UCP2 mRNA in pancreatic islets was 20% higher in the normoxia group than in the hypoxia group (p = 0.11). Fasting serum insulin was higher in the hypoxia group than in the normoxia group (p = 0.01). The homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance indicated that, in comparison with the control mice, the mice exposed to intermittent hypoxia showed 15% lower insulin resistance (p = 0.09) and 21% higher pancreatic β-cell function (p = 0.01). Immunohistochemical staining of the islets showed no significant differences between the two groups in terms of the area or intensity of α- and β-cell staining for insulin and glucagon. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report of the effect of intermittent hypoxia on UCP2 expression. Our findings suggest that UCP2 regulates insulin production in OSA. Further study of the role that UCP2 plays in the glycemic control of OSA patients is warranted