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The study aims to estimate the environmental critical thresholds using statistical approaches to understand the landslide conditioning factors that can trigger landslides in the Continental Basaltic Provinces a landslide-prone area, using as reference the landslides that occurred in an extreme rainfall event. The study area is a region that was the scene of an extreme hydrological event in January 2017, with an accumulated volume of rain of 163.9 mm in 8 hours, causing a widespread event of shallow planar landslides with more than 400 scars detected. Hydrological, anthropic, geological, geomorphological, and topographical features of this region were analyzed considering landslides and non-landslides samples set, and their influence in the event was carried out using the Frequency Ratio method, followed by Pearson's Linear Correlation Coefficient and Linear Regression. The results showed that this process helped us to understand environmental critical thresholds based on classes of conditioning factors that have a greater influence on rainfall-triggered landslide occurrences and, consequently, higher predictive capacity in the landslide susceptibility models with the same geoenvironmental parameters which is a valuable insight for risk management.

IntroductionAdvanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are capable of stimulating oxidative stress and inflammation. This study investigates the synthesis of medium crosslinked AGEs (the most optimal form of AGEs because of soluble in water, used in many assays as markers) and their biochemical properties.MethodsOne of model protein–myoglobin from horse heart muscle (MB) and a chosen respective glycation factor – D-melibiose (mel), acrolein (ACR), D-glucose (glc), 4-hydroksynonenal (4HNE), trans-2-nonenal (T2N), methylglyoxal (MGO) – were subjected to high temperature water synthesis (HTWS) and high temperature microwave synthesis in anhydrous conditions (HTMS). The syntheses were deliberately carried out in two different conditions to check whether adding an additional energy source (microwaves) while lowering the temperature and shortening the reaction time would allow for more effective obtaining of medium-cross-linked AGEs, monitored with SDS-PAGE. Products were analyzed using fluorescence measurements, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and immunoblotting tests and electrophoretic mobility shift assay to evaluate their ability to activate nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer (NF-κB).ResultsMedium cross-linked AGEs were more efficiently obtained in HTMS. Fluorescence was high for MB-ACR, MB-T2N and MB-glc products. Anti-MAGE antibodies showed reactivity towards MB-mels of HTMS and HTWS, and the MB-4HNEs from HTMS. HTWS products, apart from MB-ACR, did not activate NF-κB, whereas MB-ACR, MB-4HNE, MB-mel, and MB-T2N products of HTMS strongly activated this factor that indicates their strong pro-inflammatory properties.ConclusionHTMS is a fast and efficient method of synthesizing medium cross-linked AGEs.

On 15 February 2022, the city of Petrópolis in the highlands of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, received an unusually high volume of rain within 3 h (258 mm), generated by a strongly invigorated mesoscale convective system. It resulted in flash floods and subsequent landslides that caused the deadliest landslide disaster recorded in Petrópolis, with 231 fatalities. In this paper, we analyzed the root causes and the key triggering factors of this landslide disaster by assessing the spatial relationship of landslide occurrence with various environmental factors. Rainfall data were retrieved from 1977 to 2022 (a combination of ground weather stations and the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation – CHIRPS). Remotely sensed data were used to map the landslide scars, soil moisture, terrain attributes, line-of-sight displacement (land surface deformation), and urban sprawling (1985–2020). The results showed that the average monthly rainfall for February 2022 was 200 mm, the heaviest recorded in Petrópolis since 1932. Heavy rainfall was also recorded mostly in regions where the landslide occurred, according to analyses of the rainfall spatial distribution. As for terrain, 23 % of slopes between 45–60∘ had landslide occurrences and east-facing slopes appeared to be the most conducive for landslides as they recorded landslide occurrences of about 9 % to 11 %. Regarding the soil moisture, higher variability was found in the lower altitude (842 m) where the residential area is concentrated. Based on our land deformation assessment, the area is geologically stable, and the landslide occurred only in the thin layer at the surface. Out of the 1700 buildings found in the region of interest, 1021 are on the slope between 20 to 45∘ and about 60 houses were directly affected by the landslides. As such, we conclude that the heavy rainfall was not the only cause responsible for the catastrophic event of 15 February 2022; a combination of unplanned urban growth on slopes between 45–60∘, removal of vegetation, and the absence of inspection were also expressive driving forces of this disaster.

Abstract Melibiose-derived AGE (MAGE) is an advanced glycation end-product formed in vitro in anhydrous conditions on proteins and protein-free amino acids during glycation with melibiose. Our previous studies revealed the presence of MAGE antigen in the human body and tissues of several other species, including muscles, fat, extracellular matrix, and blood. MAGE is also antigenic and induces generation of anti-MAGE antibody. The aim of this paper was to identify the proteins modified by MAGE present in human body fluids, such as serum, plasma, and peritoneal fluids. The protein-bound MAGE formed in vivo has been isolated from human blood using affinity chromatography on the resin with an immobilized anti-MAGE monoclonal antibody. Using mass spectrometry and immunochemistry it has been established that MAGE epitope is present on several human blood proteins including serum albumin, IgG, and IgA. In serum of diabetic patients, mainly the albumin and IgG were modified by MAGE, while in healthy subjects IgG and IgA carried this modification, suggesting the novel AGE can impact protein structure, contribute to auto-immunogenicity, and affect function of immunoglobulins. Some proteins in peritoneal fluid from cancer patients modified with MAGE were also observed and it indicates a potential role of MAGE in cancer.

Abstract Non-enzymatic modification of proteins by carbohydrates, known as glycation, leads to generation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). In our study we used in vitro generated AGEs to model glycation in vivo. We discovered in vivo analogs of unusual melibiose-adducts designated MAGEs (mel-derived AGEs) synthesized in vitro under anhydrous conditions with bovine serum albumin and myoglobin. Using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy we have identified MAGEs as a set of isomers, with open-chain and cyclic structures, of the fructosamine moiety. We generated a mouse anti-MAGE monoclonal antibody and show for the first time that the native and previously undescribed analogous glycation product exists in living organisms and is naturally present in tissues of both invertebrates and vertebrates, including humans. We also report MAGE cross-reactive auto-antibodies in patients with diabetes. We anticipate our approach for modeling glycation in vivo will be a foundational methodology in cell biology. Further studies relevant to the discovery of MAGE may contribute to clarifying disease mechanisms and to the development of novel therapeutic options for diabetic complications, neuropathology, and cancer.

Dry conditions occurred over São Paulo state (southeastern Brazil) from February to July 2018, causing the driest semester in 35 years. Socioeconomic impacts included a record number of fire spots, most adverse conditions to pollutant dispersion in 3 years and the winter's lowest water reservoirs stored volume in 17 years. This paper discusses climate drivers to the onset and persistence of the dry conditions, with special attention to the intraseasonal forcing. Barotropic atmospheric circulations forced by the intraseasonal Pacific-South America teleconnection pattern, embedded in the lower frequency setup of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, were identified as main large-scale forcings to reduce precipitation. Drought evolution was modulated by other intraseasonal drivers such as the Madden Julian, Antarctic and 10–30 days Oscillations. A break in the 6-month dry condition, in March 2018, highlighted the important role of such oscillations in determining precipitation anomalies over SP. Results show that intraseasonal phenomena and their interactions control drought characteristics such as magnitude, persistence and spatial distribution within a setup determined by lower-frequency oscillations. The intraseasonal timescale seems to be key and must be considered for a complete description and understanding of the complex drought evolution process in São Paulo.

Treeline ecosystems are of great scientific interest to study the effects of limiting environmental conditions on tree growth. However, tree growth is multidimensional, with complex interactions between height and radial growth. In this study, we aimed to disentangle effects of height and climate on xylem anatomy of white spruce [Picea glauca (Moench) Voss] at three treeline sites in Alaska; i.e., one warm and drought-limited, and two cold, temperature-limited. To analyze general growth differences between trees from different sites, we used data on annual ring width, diameter at breast height (DBH), and tree height. A representative subset of the samples was used to investigate xylem anatomical traits. We then used linear mixed-effects models to estimate the effects of height and climatic variables on our study traits. Our study showed that xylem anatomical traits in white spruce can be directly and indirectly controlled by environmental conditions: hydraulic-related traits seem to be mainly influenced by tree height, especially in the earlywood. Thus, they are indirectly driven by environmental conditions, through the environment’s effects on tree height. Traits related to mechanical support show a direct response to environmental conditions, mainly temperature, especially in the latewood. These results highlight the importance of assessing tree growth in a multidimensional way by considering both direct and indirect effects of environmental forcing to better understand the complexity of tree growth responses to the environment.

There is growing impetus to expand the repertoire of chassis available to synthetic biologists. Chloroplast genomes present an interesting alternative for engineering photosynthetic eukaryotes; however, development of the chloroplast as a synthetic biology chassis has been limited by a lack of efficient techniques for whole-genome cloning and engineering. Here, we demonstrate two approaches for cloning the 117-kb Phaeodactylum tricornutum chloroplast genome that have 90% to 100% efficiency when screening as few as 10 yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) colonies following yeast assembly. The first method reconstitutes the genome from PCR-amplified fragments, whereas the second method involves precloning these fragments into individual plasmids from which they can later be released. In both cases, overlapping fragments of the chloroplast genome and a cloning vector are homologously recombined into a singular contig through yeast assembly. The cloned chloroplast genome can be stably maintained and propagated within Escherichia coli, which provides an exciting opportunity for engineering a delivery mechanism for bringing DNA directly to the algal chloroplast. Also, one of the cloned genomes was designed to contain a single SapI site within the yeast URA3 (coding for orotidine-5′-phosphate decarboxylase) open-reading frame, which can be used to linearize the genome and integrate designer cassettes via golden-gate cloning or further iterations of yeast assembly. The methods presented here could be extrapolated to other species—particularly those with a similar chloroplast genome size and architecture (e.g. Thalassiosira pseudonana). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In smart mobility, the semantic segmentation of images is an important task for a good understanding of the environment. In recent years, many studies have been made on this subject, in the field of Autonomous Vehicles on roads. Some image datasets are available for learning semantic segmentation models, leading to very good performance. However, for other types of autonomous mobile systems like Electric Wheelchairs (EW) on sidewalks, there is no specific dataset. Our contribution presented in this article is twofold: (1) the proposal of a new dataset of short sequences of exterior images of street scenes taken from viewpoints located on sidewalks, in a 3D virtual environment (CARLA); (2) a convolutional neural network (CNN) adapted for temporal processing and including additional techniques to improve its accuracy. Our dataset includes a smaller subset, made of image pairs taken from the same places in the maps of the virtual environment, but from different viewpoints: one located on the road and the other located on the sidewalk. This additional set is aimed at showing the importance of the viewpoint in the result of semantic segmentation.

The ecological function of boreal forests is challenged by drastically changing climate conditions. Although an increasing number of studies are investigating how climate change is influencing growth and distribution of boreal tree species, there is a lack of studies examining the potential of these species to genetically adapt or phenotypically adjust. Here, we sampled clonally and non-clonally growing white spruce trees (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss) to investigate spatial and genetic effects on tree ring width and on six xylem anatomical traits representing growth, water transport, mechanical support, and wood density. We compared different methods for estimating broad sense heritability (H2) of each trait and we evaluated the effects of spatial grouping and genetic grouping on the xylem anatomical traits with linear models. We found that the three different methods used to estimate H2 were quite robust, showing overall consistent patterns, while our analyses were unsuccessful at fully separating genetic from spatial effects. By evaluating the effect size, we found a significant effect of genetic grouping in latewood density and earlywood hydraulic diameter. However, evaluating model performances showed that spatial grouping was a better predictor than genetic grouping for variance in earlywood density, earlywood hydraulic diameter and growth. For cell wall thickness neither spatial nor genetic grouping was significant. Our findings imply that (1) the variance in the investigated xylem anatomical traits and growth is mainly influenced by spatial clustering (most probably caused by microhabitat conditions), which (2) makes it rather difficult to estimate the heritability of these traits in naturally grown trees in situ. Yet, (3) latewood density and earlywood hydraulic diameter qualified for further analysis on the genetic background of xylem traits and (4) cell wall thickness seems a useful trait to investigate large-scale climatic effects, decoupled from microclimatic, edaphic and genetic influences.

Aging is associated with a general decline in cognitive functions, which appears to be due to alterations in the amounts of proteins involved in the regulation of synaptic plasticity. Here, we present a quantitative analysis of proteins involved in neurotransmission in three brain regions, namely, the hippocampus, the cerebral cortex and the cerebellum, in mice aged 1 and 22 months, using the total protein approach technique. We demonstrate that although the titer of some proteins involved in neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity is affected by aging in a similar manner in all the studied brain formations, in fact, each of the formations represents its own mode of aging. Generally, the hippocampal and cortical proteomes are much more unstable during the lifetime than the cerebellar proteome. The data presented here provide a general picture of the effect of physiological aging on synaptic plasticity and might suggest potential drug targets for anti-aging therapies.

A possibility of repurposing sitagliptin, a well-established antidiabetic drug, for alleviating injury caused by ischemia-reperfusion (IR) is being researched. The aim of this study was to shed some light on the molecular background of the protective activity of sitagliptin during hepatic IR. The expression and/or concentration of inflammation and oxidative stress-involved factors have been determined in rat liver homogenates using quantitative RT-PCR and Luminex® xMAP® technology and markers of nitrative and halogenative stress were quantified using targeted metabolomics (LC-MS/MS). Animals (n = 36) divided into four groups were treated with sitagliptin (5 mg/kg) (S and SIR) or saline solution (C and IR), and the livers from IR and SIR were subjected to ischemia (60 min) and reperfusion (24 h). The midkine expression (by 2.2-fold) and the free 3-nitrotyrosine (by 2.5-fold) and IL-10 (by 2-fold) concentration were significantly higher and the Nox4 expression was lower (by 9.4-fold) in the IR than the C animals. As compared to IR, the SIR animals had a lower expression of interleukin-6 (by 4.2-fold) and midkine (by 2-fold), a lower concentration of 3-nitrotyrosine (by 2.5-fold) and a higher Nox4 (by 2.9-fold) and 3-bromotyrosine (by 1.4-fold). In conclusion, IR disturbs the oxidative, nitrative and halogenative balance and aggravates the inflammatory response in the liver, which can be attenuated by low doses of sitagliptin.