Charge density waves tuned by biaxial tensile stress.

The precise arrangement and nature of atoms drive electronic phase transitions in condensed matter. To explore this tenuous link, we developed a true biaxial mechanical deformation device working at cryogenic temperatures, compatible with x-ray diffraction and transport measurements, well adapted to layered samples. Here we show that a slight deformation of TbTe3 can have a dramatic influence on its Charge Density Wave (CDW), with an orientational transition from c to a driven by the a/c parameter, a tiny coexistence region near a = c, and without space group change. The CDW transition temperature Tc displays a linear dependence with a / c - 1 while the gap saturates out of the coexistence region. This behaviour is well accounted for within a tight-binding model. Our results question the relationship between gap and Tc in RTe3 systems. This method opens a new route towards the study of coexisting or competing electronic orders in condensed matter.

Erratum: Large-scale kinetic roughening behavior of coffee-ring fronts [Phys. Rev. E 106, 044801 (2022)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.106.044801.

APOBEC2 safeguards skeletal muscle cell fate through binding chromatin and regulating transcription of non-muscle genes during myoblast differentiation.

The apolipoprotein B messenger RNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide (APOBEC) family is composed of nucleic acid editors with roles ranging from antibody diversification to RNA editing. APOBEC2, a member of this family with an evolutionarily conserved nucleic acid-binding cytidine deaminase domain, has neither an established substrate nor function. Using a cellular model of muscle differentiation where APOBEC2 is inducibly expressed, we confirmed that APOBEC2 does not have the attributed molecular functions of the APOBEC family, such as RNA editing, DNA demethylation, and DNA mutation. Instead, we found that during muscle differentiation APOBEC2 occupied a specific motif within promoter regions; its removal from those regions resulted in transcriptional changes. Mechanistically, these changes reflect the direct interaction of APOBEC2 with histone deacetylase (HDAC) transcriptional corepressor complexes. We also found that APOBEC2 could bind DNA directly, in a sequence-specific fashion, suggesting that it functions as a recruiter of HDAC to specific genes whose promoters it occupies. These genes are normally suppressed during muscle cell differentiation, and their suppression may contribute to the safeguarding of muscle cell fate. Altogether, our results reveal a unique role for APOBEC2 within the APOBEC family.

Biosynthesis of Strained Amino Acids by a PLP-Dependent Enzyme through Cryptic Halogenation.

Amino acids (AAs) are modular building blocks which nature uses to synthesize both macromolecules, such as proteins, and small molecule natural products, such as alkaloids and non-ribosomal peptides. While the 20 main proteinogenic AAs display relatively limited side chain diversity, a wide range of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) exist that are not used by the ribosome for protein synthesis, but contain a broad array of structural features and functional groups. In this communication, we report the discovery of the biosynthetic pathway for a new ncAA, pazamine, which contains a cyclopropane ring formed in two steps. In the first step, a chlorine is added onto the C4 position of lysine by a radical halogenase, PazA. The cyclopropane ring is then formed in the next step by a pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzyme, PazB, via an SN2-like attack at C4 to eliminate chloride. Genetic studies of this pathway in the native host, Pseudomonas azotoformans,  show that pazamine potentially inhibits ethylene biosynthesis in growing plants based on alterations in the root phenotype of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. We further show that PazB can be utilized to make an alternative cyclobutane-containing AA. These discoveries may lead to advances in biocatalytic production of specialty chemicals and agricultural biotechnology.

Cryopreservation of seeds of Neonotonia wightii Wight and Arn: a strategy for conservation, dormancy breaking and preservation of nutritional status.

BACKGROUND: N. wightii (Leguminosae) is valued as a cover crop and as a potential source of protein in food insecure countries. However, plantlet establishment is limited by physical dormancy. Our previous work has shown that exposure of N. wightii seeds to cryogenic temperatures is able to overcome physical dormancy. OBJECTIVE: The current study is an extension of that work where the field performance and nutritional composition of plants regenerated from N. wightii seeds was investigated. RESULTS: It was evident that plants regenerated from cryopreserved seeds displayed faster growth rates than those from control seeds. In addition, cryopreservation did not alter the nutritional profile of plants produced from cryo-stored seeds. CONCLUSION: Collectively, the results indicate that cryopreservation serves as a suitable strategy for the preservation of seeds of N. wightii with the added benefit of also serving as a dormancy breaking mechanism upon retrieval from cryogenic temperatures. Doi.org/10.54680/fr23510110712.

Universal interface fluctuations in the contact process.

We study the interface representation of the contact process at its directed-percolation critical point, where the scaling properties of the interface can be related to those of the original particle model. Interestingly, such a behavior happens to be intrinsically anomalous and more complex than that described by the standard Family-Vicsek dynamic scaling Ansatz of surface kinetic roughening. We expand on a previous numerical study by Dickman and Muñoz [Phys. Rev. E 62, 7632 (2000)10.1103/PhysRevE.62.7632] to fully characterize the kinetic roughening universality class for interface dimensions d=1,2, and 3. Beyond obtaining scaling exponent values, we characterize the interface fluctuations via their probability density function (PDF) and covariance, seen to display universal properties which are qualitatively similar to those recently assessed for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) and other important universality classes of kinetic roughening. Quantitatively, while for d=1 the interface covariance seems to be well described by the KPZ, Airy_{1} covariance, no such agreement occurs in terms of the fluctuation PDF or the scaling exponents.

Age-related Changes in the Adrenal Cortex: Insights and Implications.

Aging is characterized by a gradual decline in physiological function. This process affects all organs including the adrenal cortex, which normally functions to produce essential steroid hormones including mineralocorticoids, glucocorticoids, and androgens. With increasing age, features such as reduced adrenal cortex size, altered zonation, and increased myeloid immune cell infiltration substantially alter the structure and function of the adrenal cortex. Many of these hallmark features of adrenal cortex aging occur both in males and females, yet are more enhanced in males. Hormonally, a substantial reduction in adrenal androgens is a key feature of aging, which is accompanied by modest changes in aldosterone and cortisol. These hormonal changes are associated with various pathological consequences including impaired immune responses, decreased bone health, and accelerated age-related diseases. One of the most notable changes with adrenal aging is the increased incidence of adrenal tumors, which is sex dimorphic with a higher prevalence in females. Increased adrenal tumorigenesis with age is likely driven by both an increase in genetic mutations as well as remodeling of the tissue microenvironment. Novel antiaging strategies offer a promising avenue to mitigate adrenal aging and alleviate age-associated pathologies, including adrenal tumors.

Bibliometric analysis of original articles of journal Enfermería Intensiva in the period 2001-2020.

INTRODUCTION: Bibliometric analysis allow the quantitative evaluation of the characteristics of a scientific publication. OBJECTIVE: To perform a bibliometric analysis of original articles in the journal Enfermería Intensiva from 2001 to 2020. RESULTS: The journal Enfermería Intensiva has published, between 2001 and 2020, 438 works, of which 259 are original articles (59.1%). These original articles are mostly quantitative studies (76.1%), with an average of 30.5 bibliographic references (SD 13.9), 4.9 citations (SD 1.7) in the Web of Science and Scopus repertoires, and 15,489.5 visits/downloads (median 9090 and interquartile range 4567-15,260) according to information on the magazine's website. These originals have been signed by 1345 authors, which represents a collaboration index of 5.2. 78.0% of the authors are sporadic, having published only one work. Most of the articles come from authors who work in institutionally located in hospitals and university centers, and geographically in the Communities of Madrid, Cataluña, Navarra and Andalucía. CONCLUSIONS: There is little international, regional and institutional collaboration, producing the highest level of collaboration between authors from the same center. The journal has established itself in the panorama of scientific nursing research in Spain and shows bibliometric indicators similar or even superior to other publications in its environment.

Senescence-induced immune remodeling facilitates metastatic adrenal cancer in a sex-dimorphic manner.

Aging markedly increases cancer risk, yet our mechanistic understanding of how aging influences cancer initiation is limited. Here we demonstrate that the loss of ZNRF3, an inhibitor of Wnt signaling that is frequently mutated in adrenocortical carcinoma, leads to the induction of cellular senescence that remodels the tissue microenvironment and ultimately permits metastatic adrenal cancer in old animals. The effects are sexually dimorphic, with males exhibiting earlier senescence activation and a greater innate immune response, driven in part by androgens, resulting in high myeloid cell accumulation and lower incidence of malignancy. Conversely, females present a dampened immune response and increased susceptibility to metastatic cancer. Senescence-recruited myeloid cells become depleted as tumors progress, which is recapitulated in patients in whom a low myeloid signature is associated with worse outcomes. Our study uncovers a role for myeloid cells in restraining adrenal cancer with substantial prognostic value and provides a model for interrogating pleiotropic effects of cellular senescence in cancer.

A Suite of Constitutive Promoters for Tuning Gene Expression in Plants.

The need for convenient tools to express transgenes over a large dynamic range is pervasive throughout plant synthetic biology; however, current efforts are largely limited by the heavy reliance on a small set of strong promoters, precluding more nuanced and refined engineering endeavors in planta. To address this technical gap, we characterize a suite of constitutive promoters that span a wide range of transcriptional levels and develop a GoldenGate-based plasmid toolkit named PCONS, optimized for versatile cloning and rapid testing of transgene expression at varying strengths. We demonstrate how easy access to a stepwise gradient of expression levels can be used for optimizing synthetic transcriptional systems and the production of small molecules in planta. We also systematically investigate the potential of using PCONS as an internal standard in plant biology experimental design, establishing the best practices for signal normalization in experiments. Although our library has primarily been developed for optimizing expression in N. benthamiana, we demonstrate the translatability of our promoters across distantly related species using a multiplexed reporter assay with barcoded transcripts. Our findings showcase the advantages of the PCONS library as an invaluable toolkit for plant synthetic biology.

Effectiveness of interventions for academic burnout among nursing students: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Nursing students experience higher stress and burnout compared to students in other health professions, with a prevalence rate of as high as 20%. More recently, they have been affected by changes in nursing education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as requirements for social isolation and distance learning. Although there are existing studies on interventions that address academic burnout among nursing students, there is no synthesis of randomized trials on this topic. AIM: This study aimed to systematically synthesize studies of interventions for academic burnout among nursing students. METHODS: A systematic search for randomized controlled trials was performed in PubMed, CINAHL, CENTRAL, Web of Science, and Scopus. Eligibility criteria were based on study directness in relation to the Patient, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) question. Two review authors independently screened articles for inclusion, collected data from the included studies, and performed risk of bias assessments using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool 2.0. A narrative synthesis was performed. This review was registered a priori in PROSPERO (CRD42022350196). RESULTS: Six papers were included in this review. Various interventions were studied: Qigong exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic therapy and laughter therapy, didactic behavioral sessions focusing on personal and professional development, and coping skills enhancement. The effects of these interventions on academic burnout, depression, and stress among nursing students were short term and their benefits over time remain uncertain. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: Progressive muscle relaxation and cognitive behavioral interventions demonstrated short-term positive effects on academic burnout, depression, and stress among nursing students. These findings may support the development of individual-level and organizational-level initiatives for nursing students aimed to lessen or prevent academic burnout. Large-scale, high-quality studies on the effect of interventions on academic burden in various settings and cultures are needed.

The epidemiology of multifood allergy in the United States: A population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated food allergies (FAs) are increasingly common among US children and adults. Not only can living with FA impose considerable physical health impacts, but it also imposes economic burden and can negatively affect quality of life. Limited data indicate that allergy to multiple foods (multi-FA) also may be common, but much remains unknown about its distribution and determinants. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the prevalence, characteristics, determinants, psychosocial burden, and distribution of multi-FA among a large, nationally representative sample of US children and adults. METHODS: A US population-based survey was administered. Estimates of multi-FA prevalence, conditional frequencies of multi-FA combinations, and associated factors were derived. Latent class analyses were conducted using 9 dichotomized indicators of specific FA prevalence, which were used to determine factors associated with latent class membership and characterize FA-related psychosocial burden within each class. RESULTS: Surveys were completed for 38,408 children and 40,443 adults. Among children and adults meeting established symptom-report criteria for FA, an estimated 40% and 48% had multi-FA, respectively. Among pediatric and adult populations with convincing FAs, the lifetime reported prevalence of physician-diagnosed atopic comorbidities increased significantly as the number of reported current convincing FAs increased, as did the proportion reporting multi-FA-related health care utilization and higher perceived psychosocial burden. Latent class analyses suggested the existence of the following 4 key latent phenotypes of multi-FA: milk and egg-dominant, seafood-dominant, peanut and tree nut-dominant, and broadly multi-food allergic. CONCLUSION: The US population-level burden of multi-FA is high among both children and adults, and data indicate the presence of 4 major phenotypes of multi-FA in both populations.

Exposure of maize seeds to liquid nitrogen modifies the morphology and hormonal response of young plants.

BACKGROUND: Cryopreservation currently represents the most suitable strategy for the long-term conservation of plant germplasm. While much effort has focused on the development of protocols to enable successful cryostorage, there are few, if any reports, that consider the effect of cryogenic temperatures on the phytohormone status of the seed and developing seedlings. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of cryopreservation on external seed coat features as well as levels of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA) and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) in maize. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two groups of seeds at 6% moisture content were compared: one was maintained at 4 degree C (control) while the other was exposed to LN within cryo-vials. RESULTS: Seeds exposed to cryogenic temperatures were characterized by the presence of large cracks in the seed coat compared with control seeds. Cryogenic exposure also resulted in a reduction in biomass and plant height. Results from the phytohormone analysis showed an initial reduction in the levels of IAA, ABA and ACC after 7 days of growth followed by sharp increase in levels relative to the control by 14 days. Whilst the roles of ABA and ethylene (and by extension, its precursor ACC) are well studied as stress response molecules, much less is known about the potentially vital role of auxins in regulating plant growth under conditions of low temperature stress. CONCLUSION: It is postulated that the interaction of all three hormones modulate crosstalk between various stress responses and recovery pathways to ameliorate the damage caused by freezing stress and enable plant survival. Given the dearth of information on phytohormones in cryobiology, more studies are needed to fully elucidate these relationships in the context of freezing stress caused by liquid nitrogen. Doi.org/10.54680/fr23610110612.

Erratum: Numerical test of the replica-symmetric Hamiltonian for correlations of the critical state of spin glasses in a field [Phys. Rev. E 105, 054106 (2022)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.105.054106.

Biosynthesis of Strained Amino Acids Through a PLP-Dependent Enzyme via Cryptic Halogenation.

Amino acids (AAs) are modular and modifiable building blocks which nature uses to synthesize both macromolecules, such as proteins, and small molecule natural products, such as alkaloids and non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs). While the 20 main proteinogenic AAs display relatively limited side-chain diversity, a wide range of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) exist that are not used by the ribosome for protein synthesis but contain a broad array of structural features and functional groups not found in proteinogenic AAs. In this communication, we report the discovery of the biosynthetic pathway for a new ncAA, pazamine, which contains a cyclopropane ring formed in two steps. In the first step, a chlorine is added onto the C4 position of lysine by a radical halogenase PazA. The cyclopropane ring is then formed in the next step by a pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzyme, PazB, via an SN2-like attack onto C4 to eliminate chloride. Genetic studies of this pathway in the native host, Pseudomonas azotoformans, show that pazamine and its succinylated derivative, pazamide, potentially inhibit ethylene biosynthesis in growing plants based on alterations in the root phenotype of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. We further show that PazB can be utilized to make an alternative cyclobutane-containing AA. These discoveries may lead to advances in biocatalytic production of specialty chemicals and agricultural biotechnology.

Analytical Solution to the Generalized Complex Duffing Equation.

Future scientific and technological evolution in many areas of applied mathematics and modern physics will necessarily depend on dealing with complex systems. Such systems are complex in both their composition and behavior, namely, dealing with complex dynamical systems using different types of Duffing equations, such as real Duffing equations and complex Duffing equations. In this paper, we derive an analytical solution to a complex Duffing equation. We extend the Krýlov-Bogoliúbov-Mitropólsky method for solving a coupled system of nonlinear oscillators and apply it to solve a generalized form of a complex Duffing equation.

Large-scale kinetic roughening behavior of coffee-ring fronts.

We have studied the kinetic roughening behavior of the fronts of coffee-ring aggregates via extensive numerical simulations of the off-lattice model considered for this context [Dias et al., Soft Matter 14, 1903 (2018)1744-683X10.1039/C7SM02136D]. This model describes ballistic aggregation of patchy colloids and depends on a parameter r_{AB} which controls the affinity of the two patches, A and B. Suitable boundary conditions allow us to elucidate a discontinuous pinning-depinning transition at r_{AB}=0, with the front displaying intrinsic anomalous scaling, but with unusual exponent values α≃1.2, α_{loc}≃0.5, ß≃1, and z≃1.2. For 00.01 and the system suffers a strong crossover dominated by the r_{AB}=0 behavior for r_{AB}≤0.01. A detailed analysis of correlation functions shows that the aggregate fronts are always in the moving phase for 0

Perihelion Precessions of Inner Planets in Einstein's Theory and Predicted Values for the Cosmological Constant.

In this paper, we obtain the approximate value of 42.9815 arcsec/century for Mercury's perihelion precession by solving both numerically and analytically the nonlinear ordinary differential equation derived from the geodesic equation in Einstein's Theory of Relativity. We also compare our result with known results, and we illustrate graphically the way Mercury's perihelion moves. The results we obtained are applicable to any body that moves around the Sun. We give predictions about the value of the Cosmological Constant. Simple algebraic formulas allow to estimate perihelion shifts with high accuracy.

Critical behavior of the three-dimensional random-anisotropy Heisenberg model.

We have studied the critical properties of the three-dimensional random anisotropy Heisenberg model by means of numerical simulations using the Parallel Tempering method. We have simulated the model with two different disorder distributions, cubic and isotropic ones, with two different anisotropy strengths for each disorder class. For the case of the anisotropic disorder, we have found evidence of universality by finding critical exponents and universal dimensionless ratios independent of the strength of the disorder. In the case of isotropic disorder distribution the situation is very involved: we have found two phase transitions in the magnetization channel which are merging for larger lattices remaining a zero magnetization low-temperature phase. Studying this region using a spin-glass order parameter we have found evidence for a spin-glass phase transition. We have estimated effective critical exponents for the spin-glass phase transition for the different values of the strength of the isotropic disorder, discussing the crossover regime.

Pharyngocutaneous fistula in irradiated patients: systematic review and our experience.

OBJECTIVE: Radiotherapy is considered a risk factor for pharyngocutaneous fistula after a total laryngectomy. This study aimed to analyse the impact of exclusive radiotherapy versus chemoradiotherapy and the time interval between radiotherapy and surgery on the risk of pharyngocutaneous fistula. METHOD: This study was a retrospective revision of 171 patients treated with a total laryngectomy after radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. RESULTS: Pharyngocutaneous fistula occurred in 33 patients (19.3 per cent). Patients previously treated with chemoradiotherapy showed a non-significant higher pharyngocutaneous fistula rate compared with patients treated with radiotherapy (25.0 per cent vs 18.0 per cent; p = 0.455). Patients with a pharyngocutaneous fistula after chemoradiotherapy treatment required a surgical repair more frequently than patients treated with radiotherapy (p = 0.005). There were no significant differences in the pharyngocutaneous fistula rate depending on the time interval between radiotherapy and surgery (p = 0.580). CONCLUSION: There were no differences in the pharyngocutaneous fistula rate after total laryngectomy depending on the previous treatment with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy, or depending on the interval between radiotherapy treatment and surgery.