Search Results (25)

Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) is a common generalist predator in agroecosystems, frequently used for the control of soft-bodied pests in augmentative releases. Better knowledge of its interactions with secondary natural prey is necessary to optimize field biocontrol performance. This work evaluates the eggs and early larvae of Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) and Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) as natural prey for the third larval instar of C. carnea, and the predator preferences for different prey stages under varying conditions, assessing the impact on its life cycle and reproduction, in comparison with commercial diets based on Ephestia kuehniella Zeller eggs. Prey choice results were uniform for each dual prey combination irrespective of previous predator conditions (larvae number or fasting). Chrysoperla carnea did not show preference for Ephestia or Spodoptera eggs, but preferred eggs prior to larvae of the natural prey. Diets based on the frozen eggs of natural and factitious prey species showed similar effects on the development and reproduction of predator, but when C. carnea fed on S. exigua larvae, several negative effects were assessed, such as longer preimaginal development, lower adult emergence, and a reduced fecundity. These results are helpful for improving the use of lacewings as biocontrol agents in pest control programs. Full article

Fasting leads to a range of metabolic adaptations that have developed through evolution, as humans and other mammals have unequal access to food over the circadian cycle and are therefore adapted to fasting and feeding cycles. We have investigated the role of a single fasting episode in rats in triggering the stress response of liver hepatocytes. Since the stress responses were observed in both animals and isolated cells, we investigated whether the effects of the animal stressor could persist in the cells after isolation. By measuring staurosporine-induced apoptosis, stress signalling, and oxidative and antioxidant responses in hepatocytes from fasted and ad libitum-fed animals, we found that only fasting animals elicited a stress response that prevented caspase-9 activation and persisted in isolated cells. The addition of glucose oxidase, a hydrogen peroxide-producing enzyme, to the cells from ad libitum-fed animals also led to a stress response phenotype and prevented the activation of caspase-9. A single fasting episode thus leads to a stress response in normal hepatocytes, with hydrogen peroxide as a second messenger that reduces the initiation of apoptosis. This finding is the first characterisation of a mechanism underlying the effects of fasting and provides a basis for the development of methods to increase the resilience of cells. These findings need to be taken into account when interpreting the results obtained in animal and cell research models to account for the effects of overnight fasting used in many laboratory protocols. The research results also form the basis for the development of clinical applications to increase the resistance of transplants and to improve the fitness of hepatocytes under acute stress conditions in liver and some metabolic diseases. Full article

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis (Carrière) J.Houz.) is a fast-growing species that commonly invades neighboring broadleaf forests and has been widely reported in subtropical forest ecosystems. However, little is known about the effect on soil phosphorus (P) bioavailability and its potential influence factor during the P. edulis expansion. Here, the four soil P bioavailable fractions (i.e., CaCl₂-P, Citrate-P, Enzyme-P, and HCl-P), acid phosphatase activity, iron and aluminum oxides (Fe_d and Al_d), and soil total P pool at depths of 0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and 20–40 cm were measured in three expanding interfaces (a broadleaf forest, a mixed bamboo–broadleaf forest, and a pure P. edulis forest) in subtropical forests of southern China. Regardless of soil depths, the CaCl₂-P content was significantly lower in the mixed bamboo–broadleaf forest than the other two forest types, with contents ranging from 0.09 to 0.16 mg/kg, whereas the HCl-P content was significantly lower in the broadleaf forest, with contents ranging from 3.42 to 14.33 mg/kg, and the Enzyme-P content and acid phosphatase activity were notably lower in P. edulis forest with contents of 0.17–0.52 mg/kg and 68.66–74.80 μmol MUF released g⁻¹ min⁻¹, respectively. Moreover, the soil total P pool was enhanced in the mixed bamboo–broadleaf forest in 0–10 cm depth compared to broadleaf and P. edulis forests, with increases of 27.40% and 31.02%, respectively. The redundancy analysis showed that soil pH plays an important role in regulating soil P bioavailability during the P. edulis expansion (p < 0.01). From the above results, the invasion of P. edulis into broadleaf forests has resulted in soil P bioavailability and storage capacity. The results of this study suggest that when P. edulis invades broadleaf forests, it could affect the soil P bioavailability by elevating soil pH, which in turn drives and facilitates the completion of the expansion. This is important for understanding P cycling during the P. edulis forest expansion in subtropical regions. Full article

Fasting mimicking diets (FMDs) are effective in the treatment of many solid tumors in mouse models, but their effect on hematologic malignancies is poorly understood, particularly in combination with standard therapies. Here we show that cycles of a 3-day FMD given to high-fat-diet-fed mice once a week increased the efficacy of vincristine to improve survival from BCR-ABL B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In mice fed a standard diet, FMD cycles in combination with vincristine promoted cancer-free survival. RNA seq and protein assays revealed a vincristine-dependent decrease in the expression of multiple autophagy markers, which was exacerbated by the fasting/FMD conditions. The autophagy inhibitor chloroquine could substitute for fasting/FMD to promote cancer-free survival in combination with vincristine. In vitro, targeted inhibition of autophagy genes ULK1 and ATG9a strongly potentiated vincristine’s toxicity. Moreover, anti-CD8 antibodies reversed the effects of vincristine plus fasting/FMD in promoting leukemia-free survival in mice, indicating a central role of the immune system in this response. Thus, the inhibition of autophagy and enhancement of immune responses appear to be mediators of the fasting/FMD-dependent cancer-free survival in ALL mice. Full article

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive condition characterized by the impairment of alveolar epithelial cells. Despite continued research efforts, the effective therapeutic medication is still absent due to an incomplete understanding of the underlying etiology. It has been shown that rhythmic alterations are of significant importance in the pathophysiology of IPF. However, a comprehensive understanding of how metabolite level changes with circadian rhythms in individuals with IPF is lacking. Here, we constructed an extensive metabolite database by utilizing an unbiased reference system culturing with ¹³C or ¹⁵N labeled nutrients. Using LC-MS analysis via ESI and APCI ion sources, 1300 potential water-soluble metabolites were characterized and applied to evaluate the metabolic changes with rhythm in the lung from both wild-type mice and mice with IPF. The metabolites, such as glycerophospholipids and amino acids, in WT mice exhibited notable rhythmic oscillations. The concentrations of phospholipids reached the highest during the fast state, while those of amino acids reached their peak during fed state. Similar diurnal variations in the metabolite rhythm of amino acids and phospholipids were also observed in IPF mice. Although the rhythmic oscillation of metabolites in the urea cycle remained unchanged, there was a significant up-regulation in their levels in the lungs of IPF mice. ¹⁵N-ammonia in vivo isotope tracing further showed an increase in urea cycle activity in the lungs of mice with IPF, which may compensate for the reduced efficiency of the hepatic urea cycle. In sum, our metabolomics database and method provide evidence of the periodic changes in lung metabolites, thereby offering valuable insights to advance our understanding of metabolic reprogramming in the context of IPF. Full article

Chagas disease is caused by the hemoflagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. The main transmission mechanism for the parasite in endemic areas is contact with the feces of an infected triatomine bug. Part of the life cycle of T. cruzi occurs in the digestive tract of triatomines, where vector and parasite engage in a close interaction at a proteomic–molecular level. This interaction triggers replication and differentiation processes in the parasite that can affect its infectivity for the vertebrate host. With the aim of compiling and analyzing information from indexed publications on transcripts, proteins, and glycoproteins in the guts of fasting, fed, and T. cruzi-infected triatomines in the period 2000–2022, a systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Fifty-five original research articles retrieved from PubMed and ScienceDirect were selected; forty-four papers reported 1–26,946 transcripts, and twenty-one studies described 1–2603 peptides/proteins. Full article

The residual risk for arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease after optimal statin treatment may amount to 50% and is the consequence of both immunological and lipid disturbances. Regarding the lipid disturbances, the role of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRLs) and their remnants has come to the forefront in the past decade. Triglycerides (TGs) stand as markers of the remnants of the catabolism of TRLs that tend to contain twice as much cholesterol as compared to LDL. The accumulation of circulating TRLs and their partially lipolyzed derivatives, known as “remnants”, is caused mainly by ineffective triglyceride catabolism. These cholesterol-enriched remnant particles are hypothesized to contribute to atherogenesis. The aim of the present narrative review is to briefly summarize the main pathways of TRL metabolism, bringing to the forefront the newly discovered role of apolipoproteins, the key physiological function of lipoprotein lipase and its main regulators, the importance of the fluxes of these particles in the post-prandial period, their catabolic rates and the role of apo CIII and angiopoietin-like proteins in the partition of TRLs during the fast-fed cycle. Finally, we provide a succinct summary of the new and old therapeutic armamentarium and the outcomes of key current trials with a final outlook on the different methodological approaches to measuring TRL remnants, still in search of the gold standard. Full article

The accurate long-term forecasting of solar activity is crucial in the current era of space explorations and in the study of planetary climate evolution. With timescales of about 11 years, these forecasts deal with the prediction of the very general features of a solar cycle such as its amplitude, peak time and period. Solar radio indices, continuously measured by a network of ground-based solar radio telescopes, are among the most commonly used descriptors to characterise the solar activity level. They can act as proxies for the strength of ionising radiations, such as solar ultraviolet and X-ray emissions, which directly affect the atmospheric density. In a preliminary comparative study of a selection of univariate deep-learning methods targeting medium-term forecasts of the F10.7 index, we noticed that the performance of all the considered models tends to degrade with increasing timescales and that this effect is smoother when a multi-attention module is included in the used neural network architecture. In this work, we present a multivariate approach based on the combination of fast iterative filtering (FIF) algorithm, long-short term memory (LSTM) network and multi-attention module, trained for the present solar cycle forecasting. Several solar radio flux time series, namely F3.2, F8, F10.7, F15, F30, are fed into the neural network to forecast the F10.7 index. The results are compared with the official solar cycle forecasting released by the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel representing NOAA, NASA and the International Space Environmental Services (ISES) to highlight possible discrepancies. Full article

The trend of fasting until noon (omission or delayed breakfast) is increasingly prevalent in modern society. This eating pattern triggers discordance between endogenous circadian clock rhythms and the feeding/fasting cycle and is associated with an increased incidence of obesity and T2D. Although the underlying mechanism of this association is not well understood, growing evidence suggests that fasting until noon, also known as an “extended postabsorptive state”, has the potential to cause a deleterious effect on clock gene expression and to disrupt regulation of body weight, postprandial and overall glycemia, skeletal muscle protein synthesis, and appetite, and may also lead to lower energy expenditure. This manuscript overviews the clock gene-controlled glucose metabolism during the active and resting phases and the consequences of postponing until noon the transition from postabsorptive to fed state on glucose metabolism, weight control, and energy expenditure. Finally, we will discuss the metabolic advantages of shifting more energy, carbohydrates (CH), and proteins to the early hours of the day. Full article

Maternal obesity is an intergenerational vicious cycle and one of the primary causes of cognitive deficits and high anxiety levels in offspring, which often manifest independently of sex. It is proven that curbing the intergenerational inheritance of obesity through early intervention during the gestation period has a positive outcome on the body composition, cognitive function, and anxiety level of the offspring. A recent discovery shows that the consumption of Elateriospermum tapos (E. tapos) seed extract modulates body mass and ameliorates stress hormones in obese dams, while a probiotic bacterial strain can cross the placenta and boost a child’s memory. Thus, we speculate that probiotics are the best medium to integrate plant extract (E. tapos extract) to access the effect on the child’s cognition. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the early intervention of E. tapos yoghurt in obese dams in the cognition and anxiety levels of male offspring. In this study, 40 female rats were fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) to induce obesity before pregnancy, while another 8 rats were fed with standard rat pellets for 16 weeks. Upon successful copulation, treatment was initiated for the obese dams up to the postnatal day (PND) 21. The groups included normal chow and saline (NS), HFD and saline (HS), HFD and yoghurt (HY), HFD and 5 mg/kg E. tapos yoghurt (HYT5), HFD and 50 mg/kg E. tapos yoghurt (HYT50), and HFD and 500 mg/kg E. tapos yoghurt (HYT500). All rats were euthanised on PND 21, and the body mass index (BMI), Lee index, and waist circumference were measured for the male offspring. Hippocampal-dependent memory tests and open field tests were conducted to access for cognition and anxiety status. Fasting blood glucose (FBG), total fat (%), insulin, leptin, lipid profile, and antioxidant parameter on serum and hypothalamus (FRAP and GSH) were accessed on PND 21. The result shows male offspring of 50 mg/kg-supplemented obese dams have comparable total fat (%), lipid profile, insulin level, FBG level, plasma insulin level, recognition index, low anxiety level, and improved hypothalamic FRAP and GSH levels to the normal group. In conclusion, this study highlights that the effect of early intervention of our novel formulation of E. tapos yoghurt in obese dams alleviates cognitive deficits and anxiety in male offspring by modulating metabolic profiles at the dose of 50 mg/kg. Full article

This paper proposes a high-frequency isolated current-fed dual active bridge bidirectional DC–DC series resonant converter with an inductive filter for energy storage applications, and a steady-state analysis of the converter is carried out. The performance of the proposed converter has been compared with a voltage-fed converter with a capacitive output filter. The proposed converter topology is operated in continuous conduction mode with zero circulation current (ZCC), less current stress and high efficiency. The conditions required for soft switching are determined, and it is found that the converter operates with soft switching of all switches for a wide variation in load and input voltage without loss of duty cycle. Current-fed converters are suitable for low-voltage renewable energy applications because of their inherent boosting capability. An inductive output filter is chosen to make the output current ideal for fast charging and high-power-density battery storage applications. Simple single-phase shift control is used to control the switches. The performance of the converter is studied using PSIM simulation software. These results are confirmed by an experiment on a 135 W converter on an OPAL-RT real-time simulator. The maximum efficiency obtained in simulation is 96.31%. Simulation and theoretical results are given in the comparison table for both forward and reverse modes of operation. A breakdown of the losses of this converter is also presented. Full article

The molten chloride salt fast reactor (MCFR) with a closed Th–U fuel cycle is receiving more and more attention due to its excellent performance, such as high solubility of actinides, superior breeding capacity, and good inherent safety. In this work, the neutronics performances for different minor actinides (MA) loadings and operation modes are analyzed and discussed based on an optimized MCFR. The results indicate that online continuous reprocessing can significantly increase the transmutation performance of MAs. In addition, MA loadings have an obvious effect on the neutronics characteristics of the MCFR, and it is helpful for improving the MA transmutation capability and ²³³U breeding performance, simultaneously. When MA = 5 mol%, the average annual MA transmutation mass and incineration mass can achieve about 53 kg and 13 kg, respectively, and the corresponding annual net production of ²³³U is 250 kg. When MA = 33.5 mol%, the annual MA transmutation mass and incineration mass can be about 310 kg and 77 kg, respectively, and the corresponding annual net production of ²³³U is 349 kg. However, when the MA loadings exceed 10%, the corresponding k_eff will exceed 1.1 for decades, even if only Th is continuously fed online. The results also indicate that the transmutation ratio (TR) and incineration ratio (IR) of MA increase and reach maximum values in the first decades for all the different MA loadings, which means MA may be fed into the fuel salt to improve its transmutation capability. Moreover, though MA loading will increase the level of radiotoxicity of the core in the early stage of burnup, the radiotoxicity of MA will drop rapidly after a brief rise during the operation. It can also be found that the temperature coefficient of reactivity (TCR) of all different MA loadings can be negative enough to maintain the safety of the MCFR during the whole operation, although it decreases in the beginning of life (BOL) with the increasing MA loading. Furthermore, the evolution of an effective delayed neutron fraction (EDNF) is also researched and discussed, and the EDNF varies most significantly when loading MA = 35.5 mol%, with a range of 273 to 310 pcm over the entire 100 years of operation. Full article

Obesity and other metabolic diseases are major public health issues that are particularly prevalent in industrialized societies where circadian rhythmicity is disturbed by shift work, jet lag, and/or social obligations. In mammals, daylight entrains the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) to a ≈24 h cycle by initiating a transcription/translation feedback loop (TTFL) of molecular clock genes. The downstream impacts of the TTFL on clock-controlled genes allow the SCN to set the rhythm for the majority of physiological, metabolic, and behavioral processes. The TTFL, however, is ubiquitous and oscillates in tissues throughout the body. Tissues outside of the SCN are entrained to other signals, such as fed/fasting state, rather than light input. This system requires a considerable amount of biological flexibility as it functions to maintain homeostasis across varying conditions contained within a 24 h day. In the face of either circadian disruption (e.g., jet lag and shift work) or an obesity-induced decrease in metabolic flexibility, this finely tuned mechanism breaks down. Indeed, both human and rodent studies have found that obesity and metabolic disease develop when endogenous circadian pacing is at odds with the external cues. In the following review, we will delve into what is known on the circadian rhythmicity of nutrient metabolism and discuss obesity as a circadian disease. Full article

Background: During RT cycles, the tumor response pattern could affect tumor coverage and may lead to organs at risk of overdose. As such, early prediction of significant volumetric changes could therefore reduce potential radiation-related adverse effects. Nevertheless, effective machine learning approaches based on the radiomic features of the clinically used CBCT images to determine the tumor volume variations due to RT not having been implemented so far. Methods: CBCT images from 40 HN cancer patients were collected weekly during RT treatment. From the obtained images, the Clinical Target Volume (CTV) and Parotid Glands (PG) regions of interest were utilized to calculate 104 delta-radiomics features. These features were fed on a feature selection and classification procedure for the early prediction of significant volumetric alterations. Results: The proposed framework was able to achieve 0.90 classification performance accuracy while detecting a small subset of discriminative characteristics from the 1st week of RT. The selected features were further analyzed regarding their effects on temporal changes in anatomy and tumor response modeling. Conclusion: The use of machine learning algorithms offers promising perspectives for fast and reliable early prediction of large volumetric deviations as a result of RT treatment, exploiting hidden patterns in the overall anatomical characteristics. Full article

A demo-scale (600 m³ working volume) anaerobic digester treating food waste leachate was monitored during its startup period. The operation strategy was adjusted twice (i.e., three distinct phases) during the operation to recover the process from instability. During the first phase, the organic loading rate (OLR) > 2.7 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/m³∙day corresponded to volatile fatty acid (VFA) accumulation along with a decreasing pH, resulting in the drop in biogas yield to 0.43 ± 0.9 m³/kg COD_in. During phase 2, fast recovery of this process was aimed at using a sequencing batch operation. One batch cycle (5 to 2 days) consisted of the combined drawing and feeding step (5 h), the reacting step (91 to 17 h), and the settling step (24 h). The duration of the reacting step was determined for each cycle such that (1) the biogas production ceased before the cycle end and (2) the residual VFA concentration was < 1 g/L. In total, 11 cycles were operated with a gradual increase in biogas yield to 0.55 m³/kg COD_in with the absence of any sign of system disturbance. After phase 2, the digester was fed at the designed OLR of 4.1 ± 0.3 kg COD/m³∙day. The biogas yield was elevated to 0.58 ± 0.2 m³/kg COD_in during phase 3 with the residual VFA concentration maintained at 2.2 ± 0.6 g/L. Methanogen populations, as determined by real-time PCR, did not change significantly throughout the period. These results imply that the adaptation of this process to the OLR of ca. 4 kg COD/m³∙day was not due to the increase in methanogen population but due to the elevation of its activity. Overall, this study suggests that the sequencing batch operation with adjustable cycle duration can be one successful recovery strategy for biogas plants under system instability. Full article