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Engineered thrush tolerance enables effective creation through toxified lignocellulosic feedstocks.
Predators can impact prey via predation or risk effects, which can initiate trophic cascades. Given widespread population declines of apex predators, understanding and predicting the associated ecological consequences is a priority. When predation risk is relatively unpredictable or uncontrollable by prey, the loss of predators is hypothesized to release prey from stress; however, there are few tests of this hypothesis in the wild. A well-studied predator-prey system between white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) in False Bay, South Africa, has previously demonstrated elevated faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations (fGCMs) in seals exposed to high levels of predation risk from white sharks. A recent decline and disappearance of white sharks from the system has coincided with a pronounced decrease in seal fGCM concentrations. Seals have concurrently been rafting further from shore and over deeper water, a behaviour that would have previously rendered them vulnerable to attack. These results show rapid physiological and behavioural responses by seals to release from predation stress. To our knowledge, this represents the first demonstration in the wild of physiological changes in prey from predator decline, and such responses are likely to increase given the scale and pace of apex predator declines globally.Melipona stingless bees display a paradoxical overproduction of queens, which are later eliminated by nest-mate workers. Mechanistically, it was suggested that the monoterpenoid geraniol deposited into newly provisioned cells by adult bees would cause larvae to develop into queens in Melipona beecheii. This system could be evolutionarily stable if many of these new queens were to leave the nest and parasitize other genetically unrelated colonies nearby, as was shown to occur in a congeneric species. Here, we use microsatellite markers to test whether queen overproduction could be a strategy by which adult workers control the caste fate of the developing larvae to export copies of their own genes to the rest of the population via queen parasitism in M. beecheii. In addition, we re-examined whether artificially increasing the levels of geraniol indeed caused larvae to develop as queens rather than workers. Contrary to our prediction, we found no evidence for queen parasitism in M. beecheii and observed no effect of geraniol on the rearing of new queens. Together, these results support the original 'tragedy of the commons' hypothesis for queen overproduction in Melipona bees, where individual larvae selfishly bias their development towards the queen pathway according to their best evolutionary interests.Most primates, including humans, give birth during the inactive phase of the daily cycle. Practical constraints therefore limit our knowledge of the precise timing of nocturnal birth in wild diurnal primates and so limit our understanding of selective pressures and consequences. We measured maternal core body temperature (Tb) across 24 births in a population of wild vervet monkeys using biologgers. We identified distinct perturbations in Tb during the birth period, including declining Tb during labour and the rapid recovery of Tb post-parturition. Vervet monkeys typically gave birth during their inactive phase in synchrony with the nadir of the maternal nychthemeral Tb rhythm but also showed remarkable inter-individual variability in their absolute Tb during birth. Our findings support the view that selection may have favoured a nocturnal timing of primate birth to coincide with lower night-time Tb and environmental temperatures, which improve thermal efficiency during birth.For many species, breeding performance increases through early adulthood followed by declines later in life. Although patterns of age-specific decline have been shown to vary between individuals, the factors that lead to this individual variation in the intensity of reproductive senescence are yet to be fully understood. We investigated whether early-life social status influenced age-related trends in the breeding performance of male Canada jays (Perisoreus canadensis), year-round residents of North America's boreal and sub-alpine forests. Shortly after young become nutritionally independent, intra-brood dominance struggles lead to one juvenile (Dominant Juvenile) remaining on the natal territory after expelling its subordinate siblings (Ejectees). First, we show via radio tracking that in our declining range-edge population Ejectees either join an unrelated pair (67%), form a breeding pair with another bird (28%) or occupy a territory alone (5%). Second, using 39 years of breeding data, we demonstrate that Ejectee males advanced laying dates and increased the annual number of nestlings until 6 years of age before declining, whereas Dominant Juvenile males advanced laying dates until 11 years and increased annual number of nestlings until 12 years of age before declining. This study documents clear variation in ageing patterns between dominant and expelled young, with implications for the role of early-life experiences and phenotypic quality in determining patterns of ageing.Invertebrate growth rates have been changing in the Anthropocene. We examine rates of seasonal maturation in a grasshopper community that has been declining annually greater than 2% a year over 34 years. As this grassland has experienced a 1°C increase in temperature, higher plant biomass and lower nutrient densities, the community is maturing more slowly. Community maturation had a nutritional component declining in years/watersheds with lower plant nitrogen. The effects of fire frequency were consistent with effects of plant nitrogen. Principal components analysis also suggests associated changes in species composition-declines in the densities of grass feeders were associated with declines in community maturation rates. We conclude that slowed maturation rates-a trend counteracted by frequent burning-likely contribute to long-term decline of this dominant herbivore.Symptom endorsement after traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common acutely post-injury and is associated with other adverse outcomes. Prevalence of persistent symptoms has been debated, especially in mild TBI (mTBI). A cohort of participants ≥17 years with TBI (n = 2039), 257 orthopedic trauma controls (OTCs), and 300 friend controls (FCs) were enrolled in the TRACK-TBI study and evaluated at 2 weeks and 3, 6, and 12 months post-injury using the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ). TBI participants had significantly higher symptom burden than OTCs or FCs at all times, with average scores more than double. TBI cases showed significant decreases in RPQ score between each evaluation (p 50% of each of the mild and moderate/severe TBI subsamples, continued to endorse three or more symptoms as worse than pre-injury through 12 months post-injury. A majority of TBI participants who endorsed a symptom at 3 months or later did so at the next evaluation as well. Contrary to reviews that report symptom resolution by 3 months post-injury among those with mTBI, this study of participants treated at level 1 trauma centers and having a computed tomography ordered found that persistent symptoms are common to at least a year after TBI. Additionally, although symptom endorsement was not specific to TBI given that they were also reported by OTC and FC participants, TBI participants endorsed over twice the symptom burden compared with the other groups.Background Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is associated with an increased risk of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular events. There is a delicate interplay between thyroid hormones and thyrotropin (TSH) and metabolic homeostasis. However, the association between thyroid hormone sensitivity and metabolic indices has not been elucidated in SCH. Methods We enrolled 11,109 participants with SCH. All participants had a TSH level >4.2 mIU/L and normal free thyroxine (fT4; 12.0-22.0 pmol/L). Metabolic indices (body mass index [BMI], blood pressure, serum lipid, serum uric acid [sUA], plasma glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1C]) were measured. The thyroid hormone sensitivity indices that include thyroid feedback quantile-based index (TFQI), TSH index (TSHI), and thyrotroph thyroxine resistance index (TT4RI) were calculated based on fT4 and TSH. Higher TFQI quartiles indicated lower thyroid hormone sensitivity. The relationship between thyroid hormone sensitivity indices and metabolic indices and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk were calculated. Results Participants with decreased central sensitivity to thyroid hormone had lower BMI and higher sUA levels. The odds ratio of the fourth versus the first quartile of TFQI was 0.85 [confidence interval, CI 0.73-0.96] for obesity, 1.64 [CI 1.37-1.92] for hyperuricemia (HUA), and 12.22 [CI 5.32-28.07] for 10-year risk distribution for CVD >20%. Further adjustment for BMI when analyzing HbA1C, HUA, and CVD risk generated similar results. TSHI and TT4RI also yielded similar results. read more Conclusions Impaired sensitivity to thyroid hormone in SCH is associated with higher risk of HUA and CVD and lower risk of obesity. These findings are potentially useful for understanding the interaction between thyroid hormone sensitivity and metabolic diseases in SCH.We present the case of a 53-year-old smoker woman without any relevant medical history who was attended as an outpatient due to several-month persistent odynophagia. An upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed, showing white cotton-like plaques throughout the esophagus, suggestive of candidiasis. An esophageal brushing plus biopsy sampling were done, empirically prescribing oral fluconazole for 21 days. A viral serology was also requested, with negative results. Clinical improvement was present until the suspension of antifungal treatment, with an odynophagia relapse afterwards. Cultures were positive for C.albicans sensitive to fluconazole.The fabrication of multifunctional switches is a fundamental step in the development of nanometer-scale molecular spintronic devices. The anchoring of active organic radicals on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) surface is little studied and the realization of AuNPs-based switches remains extremely challenging. We report the first demonstration of a surface molecular switch based on AuNPs decorated with persistent perchlorotriphenylmethyl (PTM) radicals. The redox properties of PTM are exploited to fabricate electrochemical switches with optical and magnetic responses, showing high stability and reversibility. Electronic interaction between the radicals and the gold surface is investigated by UV-vis, showing a very broad absorption band in the near-infrared (NIR) region, which becomes more intense when PTMs are reduced to anionic phase. By using multiple experimental techniques, we demonstrate that this interaction is likely favored by the preferentially flat orientation of PTM ligands on the metallic NP surface, as confirmed by first-principles simulations.Micrometer-sized objects are widely known to exhibit chemically driven motility in systems away from equilibrium. Experimental observation of reaction-induced motility or enhancement in diffusivity at the much shorter length scale of small molecules is, however, still a matter of debate. Here, we investigate the molecular diffusivity of reactants, catalyst, and product of a model reaction, the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition click reaction, and develop new NMR diffusion approaches that allow the probing of reaction-induced diffusion enhancement in nanosized molecular systems with higher accuracy than the state of the art. Following two different approaches that enable the accounting of time-dependent concentration changes during NMR experiments, we closely monitored the diffusion coefficient of reaction components during the reaction. The reaction components showed distinct changes in the diffusivity while the two reactants underwent a time-dependent decrease in their diffusivity, the diffusion coefficient of the product gradually increased and the catalyst showed only slight diffusion enhancement within the range expected for reaction-induced sample heating.
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