Rationale, aims and objectives. The prognostic value of baseline clinical parameters in predicting the survival prolonging effect of 223Ra-therapy in metastatic Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer patients is still an open issue. The aim of this study was investigating the impact of baseline Quality of Life on Overall Survival (OS) in mCRPC patients treated with 223Ra. The present study also evaluated the trend of patient-reported QoL during both 223Ra-treatment and post-therapy follow-up period. Method 173 consecutive mCRPC patients treated with 223Ra were included in this prospective study. QoL was assessed through EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BM22 Questionnaires and 2264 questionnaires were evaluated. Other baseline variables relevant to the OS analysis have been considered. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analysis with Cox model. A principal component analysis (PCA) on the questionnaires’ results compiled at baseline was performed to reduce the data to a one-dimensional score. Joint models for survival and longitudinal data were finally used in order to evaluate the relationship between the time-depended QoL scores and OS. Results On multivariate analysis, baseline patients’ Hb, tALP, and two EORTC QLQ-C30 items, physical functioning (HR=0.970,CI=0.960-0.980,p0.001) and dyspnea (HR=0.992,CI=0.986-0.999,p=0.023), were significantly associated with OS. In the resulting model of the multivariate analysis performed after PCA, baseline patients’ Hb, tALP and QoL-score were independent significant predictors of OS (QoL-score:HR=0.995-95%CI=0.992 – 0.998,p=0.001). The OS analysis stratified by score of baseline QoL, showed a median OS of 8 (95%CI=6-11) and 16 (95%CI=12-24) months for scores respectively below and above the cut-off value (log-rank-p<0.001). The joint model showed a significant deterioration of QoL-score during both 223Ra-therapy and follow-up period (p<0.001).Conclusion Baseline QoL is a significant predictor of OS, meaning that patients with better pretreatment QoL are more likely to obtain a marked survival prolonging effect from 223Ra.

Oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition is a powerful tool to trace origin, movement and mixing of atmospheric water vapor and study contemporary hydrometeorological processes affecting spatio-temporal distribution of water in different hydro-climatic regions. Isotopic composition is an important input parameter for isotope mass balance and isotope enabled atmospheric circulation models. Although laser-based absorption spectrometers can conveniently measure the isotopic composition of water vapor it is not cheap enough to be deployed at large number of locations which is necessary to understand spatial variation in vapor flux. Therefore, a novel, simple and cost-effective method for collecting ambient water vapor for estimating its isotopic composition is developed. This method involves liquid condensation of ambient water vapor on an ice-cooled (0 °C) metallic surface under the supersaturated environment which involves kinetic fractionation due to diffusion of isotopic water molecules through supersaturated boundary layer at the metallic surface (R. D. Deshpande, Maurya, Kumar, Sarkar, & Gupta, 2013). The true isotopic composition of ambient water vapor is estimated from measured isotopic composition of liquid condensate after correcting for the kinetic fractionation using a non-linear regression model. For this, isotopic composition of liquid condensate is compared with the actual vapor collected by complete cryogenic trapping at -78°C. The oxygen isotopic composition of ambient water vapor estimated from liquid condensation is accurate within ±1.8‰ at Ahmedabad compared to the vapor sampled by complete cryogenic trapping. This simple method can be employed for isotope tagging of water vapor at large number of locations in remote areas with minimal resources, particularly in developing countries.

In the United States chronic illnesses have become a way of life for multiple generations – they are the number one cause of death and disability (accounting for more than 70% of deaths), 60% of American adults have at least one chronic disease, and 40% have multiple chronic conditions. Although multiple factors contribute to the growth in chronic disease prevalence, a major factor has been overreliance on health care systems for promoting health and preventing disease. Large health care systems are ill equipped for this role since they are designed to detect, treat, and manage disease, not to promote health or address the underlying causes of disease. Improving health outcomes in the U.S. will require implementing broad-based prevention strategies combining biological, behavioral, and societal variables that move beyond clinical care. According to community medicine, clinical care alone cannot create, support, or maintain health. Rather, health can only ensue from combining clinical care with epidemiology and community organization, because health is a social outcome resulting from a combination of clinical science, collective responsibility, and informed social action. During the past 20 years, our team has developed an operational community medicine approach known as community health science. Our model provides a simple framework for integrating clinical care, population health, and community organization, using community-based participatory research (CBPR) practices for developing place-based initiatives. In the present paper, we present a brief overview of the model and describe its evolution, applications, and outcomes in two major urban environments. The paper demonstrates means for integrating the social determinants of health into collaborative place-based approaches, for aligning community assets and reducing health disparities. We conclude by discussing how asset-based community development can promote social connectivity and improve health, and discuss how our approach reflects the emerging national consensus on the importance of place-based population system change.

Volatile fatty acids (VFA) may serve as building blocks for chemicals and polymers. A technology enabling high-rate VFA production from carbohydrate-rich water is the anaerobic granular sludge process. In this study the characteristics of an anaerobic granular sludge enrichment was evaluated at different solid retention times (SRT). A lab-scale anaerobic sequencing batch reactor fed with 6 g·L-1 glucose was operated at a pH of 5.5 and at various SRT of 1-2, 10-20, and 40-50 d. A low sludge volume index (SVI) of 11-44 mL·gTSS-1 allowed a high volatile suspended solid (VSS) concentration that reached 59 gVSS·L-1 . This high VSS concentration enabled a glucose consumption rates in the range of 1100 gCOD·L-1·d-1. Two product spectra were obtained: (i) an propionate:acetate mixture with a ratio of 2.05:1 (molpropionate:molacetate) produced at an SRT of 40-50 d; (ii) an acetate dominated product spectrum was obtained at 1-2 d and 10-20 d SRT (0.71-0.75 molacetate·molVFA-1). Overall a high VFA yield between 0.77-0.79 was obtained throughout all enrichments. This work demonstrates that high rate VFA production combining high yields and low solid concentrations in the effluent can be achieved. This works contributes to the implementation of waste-based production of VFA using anaerobic granular sludge.

Session at the 2020 US2TSTopicReusable software tools and librariesType of SessionPartly presentation, and partly break-out discussions. Specifically, if we can only get one 90 minute slot allocated,  we will use at least 60-70 minutes for lightning talks presenting domain-agnostic tools (see "Speakers"), and use the remaining time for an interactive facilitated brainstorming discussion about actionable steps to improve the ecosystem. If we can get two 90-minute slots, we will fill one with lightning talks, and use the second for facilitated brainstorming and breakout discussions to identify major shortfalls of the ecosystem, and major actionable opportunities for improving it.DescriptionOne of the most deciding factors for how widely and quickly a data and information standard is adopted is the strength of its surrounding ecosystem of reusable, interoperating, and openly available software components. With an ecosystem programmers might call "awesome", most or all problems unspecific to a particular application can be solved readily and confidently by combining components drawn from the ecosystem, similar to LegoTM blocks. For a software ecosystem to achieve this level of maturity, far more than the mere existence of problem-solving code or tools is required. As has been recognized for some time, the software ecosystem surrounding the semantic web technology stack is decidedly not awesome. Nevertheless, a plethora of software resources does exist, including tools that are widely used, highly mature, and that power major data resources.In this session, we aim to highlight and raise awareness of some of the strengths of the semantic web software ecosystem, and identify major gaps, as well as actionable steps around which the community can coalesce to make the ecosystem more awesome. For example, the Awesome Semantic Web list enumerates hundreds of software resources, including databases, reasoners, and reusable programming modules, most of which open-source and freely available. Yet, it also suggests some of the major gaps, such as programming languages popular for building applications with only spotty support for the semantic web stack, and in general poor support for semantic web technologies beyond RDF and triple store databases.This session will include short presentations of reusable  tools and libraries solving problems across the semantic web technology stack, including in particular ones that, even though they are domain agnostic, are largely unknown outside of the field or domain in which they were created. For identifying major gaps and actionable steps the community can rally around, we will facilitate brainstorming and discussion activities to surface obstacles, unmet needs, and other issues preventing awesomeness when developing for the semantic web.SpeakersWe will call for lightning talk-length (\(\le 5\) minutes) submissions describing reusable, openly available domain-agnostic software tools and libraries supporting one or more pieces of the semantic web technology stack. Examples include reasoners, parsers, format converters, pattern instantiating tools, etc.Expected participationThe session is aimed primarily at developers and users, those developing components for the ecosystem, and those looking to peruse them, whether for building their own applications or as end users.

Mountain and lowland watersheds are two distinct geographical units. Understanding their hydrological processes in the context of future climate change and land use scenarios is important for watershed management. This study attempted to investigate hydrological processes and their driving factors for these two geographical units in Xitiaoxi watershed, east China, and quantify their differences through hydrological modelling. Hydrological processes in 24 mountain watersheds and 143 lowland watersheds were simulated based on a raster-based Xin’anjiang model and a Nitrogen Dynamic Polder (NDP) model, respectively. These two models were calibrated and validated with an acceptable performance (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient of 0.81 and 0.50) in simulating discharge for mountain watersheds and water level for lowland watersheds. Based on the validated models, scenario analysis was conducted to evaluate the impacts of climate change and land use on hydrological processes. The simulation results revealed that climate change based on CMIP6 would cause a larger increase of annual runoff in the mountain watersheds than that in lowland watersheds, with the variation by 10 200% and 10 60% from 2015 to 2100 respectively. Land use change can cause a larger increase of annual runoff in lowland watersheds than that in mountain watersheds, with the variation by 3.9% and 0.6% respectively. We also found that land use change would enhance climate impacts on water balance in lowland watersheds, however, had insignificant effects in mountain watersheds. This study demonstrated that mountain and lowland watersheds are distinctly different in hydrological processes and their response to climate and land use change.

Rationale Most small-to-medium sized practices lack the software tools and analytic skills required for clinical quality reporting. We describe the development and initial testing of a measure to rapidly assess practices’ clinical reporting readiness and guide technical assistance for population health. Methods Co-investigators developed the Population Health Information Technology Assessment (PHITA), a 5-point scale comprised of two 3-point sub-scales measuring Software Capability and HIT Skill Set. A practice’s PHITA score was determined by interviewing practice facilitators (PF) who coached practices in a regional quality improvement (QI) study. Relative risk regression models were used to estimate the association between each practice’s PHITA score and its ability to report two or more (of four) cardiovascular risk clinical quality measures (CQMs). A qualitative analysis of PFs’ field notes on high and low PHITA scoring practices was used to describe differences in practices’ HIT experiences. Results Each point increase in total PHITA score was associated with a 29% higher probability of reporting two or more CQMs. Only 21.4% of practices were found to have the highest score on both sub-scales. Independently owned sites had significantly lower PHITA scores than other ownership types. Qualitative analysis for low PHITA scoring practices revealed reporting challenges and mistrust of data but willingness to try improving quality. High PHITA scoring sites consistently expressed on-going need for assistance, a focus on data accuracy, and greater engagement in quality improvement. Conclusion The PHITA can help PFs quickly assess preparedness for clinical quality reporting in small-medium sized practices and guide coaching efforts.

The FAO Water Productivity Open Access Portal (WaPOR) offers continuous actual evapotranspiration and interception (ETIa-WPR) data at a 10-day basis across Africa and the Middle East from 2009 onwards at three spatial resolutions. The continental level (250m) covers Africa and the Middle East (L1). The national level (100m) covers 21 countries and four river basins (L2). The third level (30m) covers eight irrigation areas (L3). To quantify the uncertainty of WaPOR version 2 (V2.0) ETIa-WPR in Africa, we used a number of validation methods. We checked the physical consistency against water availability and the long term water balance and then verify the continental spatial and temporal trends for the major climates in Africa. We directly validated ETIa-WPR against in-situ data of 14 eddy covariance stations (EC). Finally, we checked the level consistency between the different spatial resolutions. Our findings indicate that ETIa-WPR is performing well, but with some noticeable overestimation. The ETIa-WPR is showing expected spatial and temporal consistency with respect to climate classes. ETIa-WPR shows mixed results at point scale as compared to EC flux towers with an overall R2 of 0.61, and a root mean square error of 1.04 mm/day. The level consistency is very high between L1 and L2. However, the consistency between L1 and L3 varies significantly between irrigation areas. In rainfed areas, the ETIa-WPR is overestimating at low ETIa-WPR and underestimating when ETIa is high. In irrigated areas, ETIa-WPR values appear to be consistently overestimating ETa. The soil moisture content, the input of quality layers and local advection effects were some of the identified causes. The quality assessment of ETIa-WPR product is enhanced by combining multiple evaluation methods. Based on the results, the ETIa-WaPOR dataset is of enough quality to contribute to the understanding and monitoring of local and continental water processes and water management.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the barriers to treatment adherence and need for pharmaceutical care services among HIV patients in Jordan. Method: This is a qualitative in-depth interview study. Participants were recruited with the assistance of a Non-governmental organization specialized in HIV patients. Fifteen patients were interviewed using a pre-designed interview guide. Recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim, and de-identified prior to analysis. Results were then imported into QSR International’s NVivo 11 Software. Results: Three main themes emerged from the interviews. Those included patient-related factors, medication-related factors and Healthcare professional related factors. This study found that a number of barriers that decreased adherence in HIV patients included stigmatization, fear from disclosure, dosage form of the drug, adverse events, and poor cooperation from healthcare professionals. On the other hand, supporting factors included family and friends support, electronic mobile reminders, feeling responsible to raising children, religious beliefs, and feeling improvement while using therapy. Furthermore, the study illustrated that HIV patients need to have a specialist pharmacist in their healthcare team who delivers specialized pharmaceutical care services which may increase patients’ adherence. Conclusion: Adherence to HIV treatment is subjective and related to various barriers and supporting factors. Participants reported a strong need for pharmaceutical care services, HIV specialized pharmacists, and a pharmacist that treats them with empathy and understand what they are going through. There is still a need to develop educational programs and implement proper counseling in order to improve Jordanian pharmacist awareness about HIV disease and treatment options.

A intriguing type of excess electron compounds simultaneously containing electride and alkalide characteristics was obtained on the basis of the synthesized facially polarized molecule all-cis 1,2,3,4,5,6-hexafluorocyclohexane (1). By doping the two different faces of this Janus molecule with an alkaline earth atom and an alkali-metal atom, a series of M-1-M’ (M = Be, Mg, and Ca; M’ = Li, Na, and K) compounds were firstly achieved. Our calculated results show that, different from Be and Mg, one 4s electron of Ca can be transferred to the upper alkali metal atoms forming an alkali metal anion while the remaining 4s electron was push away from Ca+ yielding an electron anion by the instinctive facial polarization of 1 or with the assist of oriented external electric fields (OEEFs). Owing to the existence of two loosely bound excess electrons in the resulting Ca+-1-M’− (M’ = Li, Na, and K), these novel compounds exhibit extremely large first hyperpolarizabilities (β0) of 9.94 × 105‒1.81 × 106 au. Thus, we hope that this work could provide the first members with both of electride and alkalide characteristics to further enrich the family of excess electron compounds.

In this current investigation, DFT-based structural optimisations for understanding the cation effect on electronic-structure, phase stability, magnetism, elasto-mechanical and thermoelectric along with the thermal applicability of RE2SnFeO6 (RE=Ca, Ba) perovskites were analysed. The enhancement of band gap through the engagement of generalized gradient approximation and Hubbard method designates the half-metallic nature of these oxide perovskites. The half-metallic nature from the spectrum of band structures together with the interpretation from density of states with high spin subsystem corresponds to metallic N (Ef) ¿ 0 and in contrast to opposite-spin subsystem revails semiconducting N (Ef) = 0. The ferromagnetic unit cell magnetic moment is 4.00 μB with the excellent take part of transition metal (Fe). Mechanical strength interms of brittle and ductile feature is characterized from Pugh’s ratio (B/G), Cauchy’s discrepancy (C’=C12-C44) etc. Apart from this, to forecast the possible turnout of the Seebeck coefficients, electrical and lattice thermal conductivities were calculated, which directly hints these materials towards energy harvesting technologies. The overall study creates a better possibility to display a significant momentum in unlocking various spin electronic applications.

Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) has been widely adopted as a cost-effective strategy for the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass into bio-chemicals. Microbial consortium can complete the complex CBP processes through the cooperation of different microorganisms. In this study, a synthetic microbial consortium was designed, which is composed of a hemicellulase-producing bacterium Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum and succinic acid production specialist Actinobacillus succinogenes 130Z. The simultaneous conversion of xylose hydrolyzed by T. thermosaccharolyticum could maintain a high hydrolyzing rate, which would facilitate succinic acid production by A. succinogenes 130Z. After process optimization, 32.50 g/L of succinic acid with yield of 0.41 g/g was obtained from 80 g/L xylan through CBP, representing the highest succinic acid production directly from hemicellulose materials. In addition, 12.51 g/L of succinic acid was directly produced from 80 g/L of corn cob. The above results demonstrated that this CBP based microbial co-cultivation system had great potential to convert lignocellulosic biomass into various bio-chemicals.

IntroductionThe recording of extracellular activity from electrodes implanted in the brain is one of the most established techniques in contemporary neuroscience. In the past years, the chronic implantation of electrodes had allowed the collection of data over a long period of time. Analyzing this data generates new challenges. At first glance, the computational scalability with the amount of data is one of them \cite{Carlson_2019}, but others related to the changes on the recording's properties over time are not fully characterized.One of the main characteristics of a long recording is its stability; with a stable recording we can monitor the same neurons over a long period of time. In general, the stability of the recordings will depend on the electrodes used and the way they are anchored, leading to a large variety of scenarios, with examples such as tetrodes on the dorsal striatum of rats \cite{Schmitzer_Torbert_2004}, high-density CMOS-integrated microelectrode array on mouse retina \cite{Fiscella_2012}, immobile silicon probes in the mouse cortex \cite{Okun2016}, hippocampal multilayer electrode array in moving rats \cite{Senkov_2015}, 672 microwires (in arrays with up to 128 wires) on the cortex of macaque monkeys \cite{Nicolelis_2003}, independently movable arrays of nichrome electrodes on the macaque dorsolateral prefrontal cortex \cite{Greenberg_2004}, up to 1,024 polymer electrodes in freely behaving rats \cite{Chung_2019}, Utah arrays into the human neocortex \cite{M_gevand_2017}, depth electrodes in the human hippocampus that are anchored to the skull \cite{Rey_2014}, and other recently developed neural recording electrode technologies \cite{Hong_2019}. Furthermore, other experimental factors could affect stability, for example, if the animal has its head fixed, if it is anesthetized, or freely moving.To fully take advantage of the long-term recordings and study, for example, the variance of neuronal representations \cite{Clopath_2017} or the plasticity in neuronal processing \cite{L_tcke_2013}, it is necessary to track neurons even when the stability fluctuates. A clear example of these issues can be found in recording sessions from the human medial temporal lobe where the microelectrodes are inserted inside a flexible probe that is anchored to the skull nearly 6 cm away from the recording site \cite{Rey_2014}. In cases like this, similar responses to a given stimulus during sessions run on consecutive days that are associated to putative neurons with a different waveform (as shown in Fig. \ref{366597}) could come from the same neuron following electrode drift, or from different neurons from the same assembly encoding the given stimulus. Tracking the single neuron activity throughout continuous recordings is the only way to discriminate these possibilities.

Numerous socio-economic activities depend on the seasonal rainfall and groundwater recharge cycle across the Central American Isthmus. Population growth and unregulated land use changes resulted in extensive surface water pollution and a large dependency on groundwater resources. This work combines stable isotope variations in rainfall, surface water, and groundwater of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras to develop a regionalized rainfall isoscape, isotopic lapse rates, spatial-temporal isotopic variations, and air mass back trajectories determining potential mean recharge elevations, moisture circulation patterns, and surface water-groundwater interactions. Intra-seasonal rainfall modes resulted in two isotopically depleted incursions (W-shaped isotopic pattern) during the wet season and two enriched pulses during the Mid-Summer Drought and the months of the strongest trade winds. Notable isotopic sub-cloud fractionation and near-surface secondary evaporation were identified as common denominators within the Central American Dry Corridor. Groundwater and surface water isotope ratios depicted the strong orographic separation into the Caribbean and Pacific domains, mainly induced by the governing moisture transport from the Caribbean Sea, complex rainfall producing systems across the N-S mountain range, and the subsequent mixing with local evapotranspiration, and, to a lesser degree, the eastern Pacific Ocean fluxes. Groundwater recharge was characterized by a) depleted recharge in highland areas (72.3%), b) rapid recharge via preferential flow paths (13.1%), and enriched recharge due to near-surface secondary fractionation (14.6%). Median recharge elevation ranged from 1,104 to 1,979 m asl. These results are intended to enhance forest conservation practices, inform water protection regulations, and facilitate water security and sustainability planning in the Central American Isthmus.

Gene tests for constitutional (“germline”) cancer risk are evolving. We are getting better at finding needles in the haystack, but the haystack is bigger and there are more kinds of needles than we anticipated. Genes, age and internal and external environment all influence our probability of getting cancer. The rate of lung cancer differs 20-fold by region, globally \cite{Bray_2018}, reflecting different rates of tobacco exposure. In contrast, female breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in most countries, reflecting less modifiable internal hormonal influences. 5-10% of these cases arise from heritable causes such as susceptibility to breast cancer and ovarian cancer conferred by cancer susceptibility genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2. A typical woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 12%, rising to 70% for a woman carrying one of these mutations \cite{Cline_2019}.

Nitrogen limitation theory predicts that terrestrial plants should benefit from nitrogen inputs and that herbivores should benefit from subsequent higher plant protein contents. While this pattern has generally been supported, some herbivorous insects have shown preference and higher performance on low protein (p), high carbohydrate (c) diets as juveniles. However, little is known about the effects on reproduction in adults. Using nitrogen fertilizer, we demonstrate that high plant p:c has negative effects on Senegalese locust (Orthoptera: Oedaeleus senegalensis) reproduction and survival in an agroecological setting. For this, we measured p:c in millet plants (Pennisetum glaucum) that received two level of fertilizer (high and moderate) and a control. We found that fertilization increased p:c ratio in a concentration dependent fashion. When we caged locusts on those plants, we found that eggs laid by locusts that ate plants from the high fertilization treatment were smaller. We counted the number of locusts alive over the course of two weeks and showed that fewer females survived on fertilized plants than on control plants. Furthermore, with a laboratory choice experiment we showed that female locusts prefer unfertilized plants to plants with a high p:c. We hypothesize that this pattern will apply broadly to species that have extensive carbohydrate needs, such as long-distance migrators.

Climate warming is currently advancing spring leaf-out, enhancing net primary productivity (NPP) of temperate forests. However, it remains unclear whether this trend will continue. Using 727,401 direct phenological observations of dominant forest trees, we test for the major controls on leaf-out and forecast future trajectories of spring arrival. By representing hypothesized relationships with day-length, autumn temperature and winter-chilling, we accurately predicted reductions in the advance of leaf-out. There was a strong consensus between our empirical model and existing process-based models, revealing that the advance in leaf-out will not exceed 2 weeks over the rest of century. By incorporating these trends into a dynamic global vegetation model, we estimate that these environmental constraints reduce the expected increases in forest NPP by  0.6 Gt per year. These findings reveal important environmental constraints on the productivity of broadleaf deciduous trees and highlight that shifting spring phenology is unlikely to slow the rate of warming by offsetting anthropogenic carbon emissions.

Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) is one of the widely used methods to estimate surface runoff because of its simplicity, convenience and widespread acceptance. However, the method still has several limitations such as ignorance of storm duration, lack of guidance on antecedent condition and absence of slope factor. In this study, an equation of the CN value combining with the original CN2 value and three introduced factors of slope, soil moisture and storm duration was developed to improve the SCS-CN method. The proposed method was calibrated and validated using a dataset of three experimental plots in the a watershed on the Loess Plateau. The results indicated that the proposed method, which boosted the model efficiencies to 80.58% and 80.44% in calibration and validation cases, respectively, performed better than the original SCS-CN, Huang et al. (2006) and Huang et al.(2007) methods which considered the single factor of slope and soil moisture in the SCS-CN method, respectively. Using the parameters derived from the initial three experimental plots, the proposed method was used to predict runoff from the remaining three experimental plots in another watershed.The root mean square error between the measured and predicted runoff values was improved from 5.53 mm to 2.01 mm. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis of the parameters in the proposed method indicated that the parameters of soil moisture (b1 and b2) and storm duration equations (c) are more sensitive than those parameters of slope equation (a1 and a2) and λ. It can be concluded that the proposed method incorporating the three factors, may predict surface runoff more accurately in the Loess Plateau of China.

In order to reveal the multi-time scale of rainfall, runoff and sediment in the source area of the Yellow River and improve the accuracy of annual runoff forecast, the Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise(CEEMDAN) method is introduced to decompose the measured rainfall, runoff and sediment data series of the Tangnahai hydrological station in the source area of the Yellow River of China. With the co-integration theory, two new error correction models(ECM) for the forecast of annual runoff in the source area of the Yellow River are constructed. The results show that rainfall, runoff and sediment in the source area of the Yellow River have multi-time scales and the component sequences have co-integration relationships. For two new ECM models, the CEEMDAN component ECM model has better forecast accuracy than the original sequence one. The relative error of all forecasted values is less than 15% except 2009, and the accuracy has reached level A.

As seagrasses are not available with commercial nursery stock, the removal of a large amount of plant material may damage donor populations. We evaluated the recovery of eelgrass Zostera marina following the removal of entire plant patches (0.01-0.49 m2) at edge and interior of eelgrass bed through a field experiment. We investigated the shoot density, morphology and growth of recovery plants following excavation. We found that the removal of entire small patches with excavation area ≤ 0.25 m2 at interior of eelgrass bed was the most suitable strategy for harvesting donor plants of Z. marina. Small patch excavation (≤ 0.25 m2) could promote asexual reproduction of recovery plants and their shoot density and morphology would equal or exceed those of natural plants ¡ 7 months after harvesting. These results indicate that Z. marina plants have a strong resilience capacity from physical disturbance through rhizome elongation to the harvested area.

SummaryThis is a review of Thomas et al. bioRxiv manuscript (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/813758) posted on October 21, 2019. In this manuscript, the authors present evidence demonstrating that transgenic tomato lines expressing the Nicotiana benthamiana NLR protein Recognition of XopQ 1 (Roq1) display immunity to three bacterial pathogens of tomato: Xanthomonas perforans 4B, Xanthomonas euvesicatoria 85-10, and Pseudomonas syringae DC3000. Importantly, Xanthomonas XopQ (DXopQ) and P. syringae HopQ1 (DHopQ1) deletion mutants were able to colonize leaf tissue of both wild-type and Roq1-expressing tomato, demonstrating that this resistance response is dependent upon the expression and recognition of XopQ and HopQ1. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis revealed that Ralstonia solanacearum, the causative agent of bacterial wilt in tomato, also contains a functional homolog of XopQ and HopQ1, known as RipB. Using an Agrobacterium-based transient expression assay in Nicotiana tabacum, the authors confirmed that Roq1 mediates recognition of multiple R. solanacearum RipB alleles (RipBGMI1000 and RipBMolk2), and such Roq1-dependent recognition suppresses R. solanacearum growth in transgenic tomato. Collectively, these data suggest an NLR immune receptor isolated from N. benthamiana is capable of conferring resistance to three different bacterial pathogens. Comments Results section—tomatoes expressing Roq1 are resistant to Xanthomonas and P. syringae. In this paper, the authors generated homozygous transgenic tomatoes that are reported to express Roq1. It is unclear, however, whether the transgenic tomato lines are indeed expressing Roq1, and whether expression of Roq1 is correlated with the observed immune response to Xanthomonas and Pseudomonas (Figures 1 and 2) and Ralstonia (Figure 5). I suggest including data confirming that Roq1 is indeed expressed in the transgenic lines and also whether Roq1 expression is correlated with resistance. Results section—Expression of Ro1 confers resistance to Xanthomonas perforans in the field. Though there was no significant increase in total marketable yield of Roq1-expressing plants, were there any additional adverse effects of Roq1 expression on plant development or any other agronomic traits? Results section—The R. solanacearum RipB effector, a homolog of XopQ/HopQ1, is recognized by Roq1. Here, the authors show that transient co-expression of Roq1 with either XopQ, RipBGMI1000, or RipBMolK2, induces a cell death response in N. tabacum. ·      Why was HopQ1 not included in the transient expression assay shown in Figure 4? ·      Does Roq1 preferentially associate with and induce a stronger HR when expressed with a particular effector? In other words, does transient co-expression of Roq1 with XopQ/HopQ1 induce a greater cell death response than Roq1 co-expressed with the RipB alleles? (An electrolyte leakage assay and co-IP could be used to quantify the cell death response between the various effector proteins and test for physical association, respectively).·      Do the authors have any hints as to how Roq1 is able to mediate recognition of multiple bacterial effector proteins? ·      Do the authors have any hints as to the subcellular localization of Roq1 and which Roq1 domains (or domain fusions) have a functional role in recognizing these effectors? Results section—Roq1 tomatoes are resistant to R. solanacearum containing RipB. ·      It is unclear why the R. solanacearum DripB mutant was not used as a control in Figure 5B. Including this control would demonstrate that Roq1-mediated recognition of R. solanacearum is indeed dependent upon the expression of RipB in tomato·      I would also suggest that the authors confirm the transgenic tomato lines are indeed expressing Roq1 and also test whether expression correlates with resistance as mentioned previously above.  ReviewerMatthew Helm (USDA-ARS, Crop Protection and Pest Control Research Unit, West Lafayette, IN)

Endotoxins are considered as the major contributors to the pyrogenic response observed with contaminated pharmaceutical products. Recombinant biopharmaceutical products are manufactured using living organisms, including gram-negative bacteria. Upon the death of a gram-negative bacteria, endotoxins (also known as lipopolysaccharides; LPS) in the outer cell membrane are released into the lysate where it can interact with and form bonds with biomolecules, including target therapeutic compounds. Endotoxin contamination of biologic products may also occur through water, raw materials such as excipients, media, additives, sera, equipment, containers closure systems, and expression systems used in manufacturing. The manufacturing process is therefore in critical need to reduce and remove endotoxins by monitoring raw materials and in-process intermediates at critical steps, in addition to final drug product release testing. In this review, a discussion regarding the progression of endotoxin detection techniques, from crude to refined are presented. We provide a brief overview of the upstream processed used to manufacture therapeutic products and then discuss various downstream purification techniques widely used to purify the products off endotoxins. Finally, we investigate the effectiveness of endotoxin purification processes, both from a perspective of precision as well as cost-effectiveness.

Mannitol, a hyperosmotic agent, is commonly used in hemodialysis for eliminating the symptoms of dialysis disequilibrium syndrome. Mannitol extravasation is a potential complication which will induce fluid shift out of vessel, thrombophlebitis, bullous eruption and even compartment syndrome. We reported a case of mannitol extravasation due to improper mannitol infusion site during first hemodialysis.

Drug resistance is a great challenge in cancer therapy using chemotherapeutic agents. Administration of these drugs with siRNA is an efficacious strategy in this battle. Here, it was tried to incorporate siRNA and paclitaxel simultaneously into a novel nanocarrier. The selectivity of carrier to target cancer tissues was optimized through conjugation of folic acid (FA) and glucose onto its surface. The structure of nanocarrier formed from ternary magnetic copolymers based on FeCo-polyethylenimine (FeCo-PEI) nanoparticles and polylactic acid-polyethylene glycol (PLA-PEG) gene delivery system. Biocompatibility of FeCo-PEI-PLA-PEG-FA(NPsA), FeCo-PEI-PLA-PEG-Glu (NPsB) and FeCo-PEI-PLA-PEG-FA/Glu (NPsAB) nanoparticles and also influence of PTX-loaded nanoparticles on in vitro cytotoxicity were examined using MTT assay. Besides, siRNA-FAM internalization was investigated by fluorescence microscopy. The results showed the blank nanoparticles were significantly less cytotoxic at various concentrations. Meanwhile, siRNA-FAM/PTX encapsulated nanoparticles exhibited greater cytotoxicity on MCF-7 cells. NPsAB/siRNA/PTX nanoparticles showed greater effect on MCF-7 cell viability than NPsA/siRNA/PTX and NPsB/siRNA/PTX. Also, they induced significantly higher cytotoxic effects on cancer cells compared with NPsA/siRNA/PTX and NPsB/siRNA/PTX due to their multi-targeted properties using folic acid and glucose. We concluded that NPsAB nanoparticles have great potential for co-delivery of both drugs and genes for use in gene therapy and chemotherapy.