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Siderophores are low molecular weight secondary metabolites produced by microorganisms under low iron stress as a specific iron chelator. In the present study, a rhizospheric bacterium was isolated from the rhizosphere of sesame plants from Salem district, Tamil Nadu, India and later identified as Bacillus subtilis LSBS2. It exhibited multiple plant-growth-promoting (PGP) traits such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN), ammonia, and indole acetic acid (IAA), and solubilized phosphate. The chrome azurol sulphonate (CAS) agar plate assay was used to screen the siderophore production of LSBS2 and quantitatively the isolate produced 296 mg/L of siderophores in succinic acid medium. Further characterization of the siderophore revealed that the isolate produced catecholate siderophore bacillibactin. A pot culture experiment was used to explore the effect of LSBS2 and its siderophore in promoting iron absorption and plant growth of Sesamum indicum L. Data from the present study revealed that the multifarious Bacillus sp. LSBS2 could be exploited as a potential bioinoculant for growth and yield improvement in S. indicum.

Building, bridge or wind turbine maintenance requires manual dexterity tasks by a specialist rope-access trained workforce via two principal means: harness suspension of individual workers from above, or deployment of a suspended platform or cradle from which workers access the structure to be maintained. Currently no published research compares accuracy and efficiency of simulated maintenance tasks between these modalities. This study investigated manual dexterity task performance of peg placement and shape delineation in seated, standing and suspended environments in 16 healthy controls and 26 professional rope-access trained individuals. Both seated and standing assessments were superior to those suspended, and height of suspension, total mass and years of experience had no influence on the task outcome. These findings suggest that, where feasible, cradle suspension mechanisms which permit standing maintenance are favourable in terms of task efficacy and where feasible, should be considered for deployment in wind energy and other engineering applications.

Breathing and oxygenation were monitored in 78 asymptomatic volunteers on two successive nights of sleep. Four groups of subjects were recruited: 20 young men, 20 young women, 20 men older than 40 years, and 18 postmenopausal women. In random order, subjects ingested either 2 ml/kg (body weight) of 100-proof vodka in orange juice or a similar amount of water in orange juice before bedtime. Alcohol ingestion shortened sleep in the older men and in the postmenopausal women. No effect of alcohol ingestion on breathing or oxygenation during sleep was seen in any group of women. In men, alcohol ingestion increased the numbers of desaturation episodes and caused more severe oxygen desaturation during sleep. The effect of alcohol ingestion on breathing and oxygenation during the sleep of asymptomatic volunteers appears to be limited to men.

Abstract. Regional land carbon budgets provide insights on the spatial distribution of the land uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and can be used to evaluate carbon cycle models and to define baselines for land-based additional mitigation efforts. The scientific community has been involved in providing observation-based estimates of regional carbon budgets either by downscaling atmospheric CO2 observations into surface fluxes with atmospheric inversions, by using inventories of carbon stock changes in terrestrial ecosystems, by upscaling local field observations such as flux towers with gridded climate and remote sensing fields or by integrating data-driven or process-oriented terrestrial carbon cycle models. The first coordinated attempt to collect regional carbon budgets for nine regions covering the entire globe in the RECCAP-1 project has delivered estimates for the decade 2000–2009, but these budgets were not comparable between regions, due to different definitions and component fluxes reported or omitted. The recent recognition of lateral fluxes of carbon by human activities and rivers, that connect CO2 uptake in one area with its release in another also requires better definition and protocols to reach harmonized regional budgets that can be summed up to the globe and compared with the atmospheric CO2 growth rate and inversion results. In this study, for the international initiative RECCAP-2 coordinated by the Global Carbon Project, which aims as an update of regional carbon budgets over the last two decades based on observations, for 10 regions covering the globe, with a better harmonization that the precursor project, we provide recommendations for using atmospheric inversions results to match bottom-up carbon accounting and models, and we define the different component fluxes of the net land atmosphere carbon exchange that should be reported by each research group in charge of each region. Special attention is given to lateral fluxes, inland water fluxes and land use fluxes.

AbstractObjective: The marked increase in the prevalence of obesity in the United States has recently been attributed to the increased fructose consumption. To determine if and how fructose might promote obesity in an animal model, we measured body composition, energy intake, energy expenditure, substrate oxidation, and several endocrine parameters related to energy homeostasis in mice consuming fructose.Research Methods and Procedures: We compared the effects of ad libitum access to fructose (15% solution in water), sucrose (10%, popular soft drink), and artificial sweetener (0% calories, popular diet soft drink) on adipogenesis and energy metabolism in mice.Results: Exposure to fructose water increased adiposity, whereas increased fat mass after consumption of soft drinks or diet soft drinks did not reach statistical significance (n = 9 each group). Total intake of energy was unaltered, because mice proportionally reduced their caloric intake from chow. There was a trend toward reduced energy expenditure and increased respiratory quotient, albeit not significant, in the fructose group. Furthermore, fructose produced a hepatic lipid accumulation with a characteristic pericentral pattern.Discussion: These data are compatible with the conclusion that a high intake of fructose selectively enhances adipogenesis, possibly through a shift of substrate use to lipogenesis.

As atmospheric levels of CO(2) increase, reef-building corals are under greater stress from both increased sea surface temperatures and declining sea water pH. To date, most studies have focused on either coral bleaching due to warming oceans or declining calcification due to decreasing oceanic carbonate ion concentrations. Here, through the use of physiology measurements and cDNA microarrays, we show that changes in pH and ocean chemistry consistent with two scenarios put forward by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) drive major changes in gene expression, respiration, photosynthesis and symbiosis of the coral, Acropora millepora, before affects on biomineralisation are apparent at the phenotype level. Under high CO(2) conditions corals at the phenotype level lost over half their Symbiodinium populations, and had a decrease in both photosynthesis and respiration. Changes in gene expression were consistent with metabolic suppression, an increase in oxidative stress, apoptosis and symbiont loss. Other expression patterns demonstrate upregulation of membrane transporters, as well as the regulation of genes involved in membrane cytoskeletal interactions and cytoskeletal remodeling. These widespread changes in gene expression emphasize the need to expand future studies of ocean acidification to include a wider spectrum of cellular processes, many of which may occur before impacts on calcification.

Background:  We previously found that activation of the glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) pathway in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) reduces ethanol‐drinking behaviors. In this study, we set out to assess the contribution of endogenous GDNF or its receptor GFRα1 to the regulation of ethanol‐related behaviors.Methods:  GDNF and GFRα1 heterozygote mice (HET) and their wild‐type littermate controls (WT) were used for the studies. Ethanol‐induced hyperlocomotion, sensitization, and conditioned place preference (CPP), as well as ethanol consumption before and after a period of abstinence were evaluated. Blood ethanol concentration (BEC) was also measured.Results:  We observed no differences between the GDNF HET and WT mice in the level of locomotor activity or in sensitization to ethanol‐induced hyperlocomotion after systemic injection of a nonhypnotic dose of ethanol and in BEC. However, GDNF and GFRα1 mice exhibited increased place preference to ethanol as compared with their WT littermates. The levels of voluntary ethanol or quinine consumption were similar in the GDNF HET and WT mice, however, a small but significant increase in saccharin intake was observed in the GDNF HET mice. No changes were detected in voluntary ethanol, saccharin or quinine consumption of GFRα1 HET mice as compared with their WT littermates. Interestingly, however, both the GDNF and GFRα1 HET mice consumed much larger quantities of ethanol after a period of abstinence from ethanol as compared with their WT littermates. Furthermore, the increase in ethanol consumption after abstinence was found to be specific for ethanol as similar levels of saccharin intake were measured in the GDNF and GFRα1 HET and WT mice after abstinence.Conclusions:  Our results suggest that endogenous GDNF negatively regulates the rewarding effect of ethanol and ethanol‐drinking behaviors after a period of abstinence.

Coastal ecosystems are highly dynamic and can be strongly influenced by climate change, anthropogenic activities (e.g., pollution), and a combination of the two pressures. As a result of climate change, the northern hemisphere is predicted to undergo an increased precipitation regime, leading in turn to higher terrestrial runoff and increased river inflow. This increased runoff will transfer terrestrial dissolved organic matter (tDOM) and anthropogenic contaminants to coastal waters. Such changes can directly influence the resident biology, particularly at the base of the food web, and can influence the partitioning of contaminants and thus their potential impact on the food web. Bacteria have been shown to respond to high tDOM concentration and organic pollutants loads, and could represent the entry of some pollutants into coastal food webs. We carried out a mesocosm experiment to determine the effects of: (1) increased tDOM concentration, (2) organic pollutant exposure, and (3) the combined effect of these two factors, on pelagic bacterial communities. This study showed significant responses in bacterial community composition under the three environmental perturbations tested. The addition of tDOM increased bacterial activity and diversity, while the addition of organic pollutants led to an overall reduction of these parameters, particularly under concurrent elevated tDOM concentration. Furthermore, we identified 33 bacterial taxa contributing to the significant differences observed in community composition, as well as 35 bacterial taxa which responded differently to extended exposure to organic pollutants. These findings point to the potential impact of organic pollutants under future climate change conditions on the basal coastal ecosystem, as well as to the potential utility of natural bacterial communities as efficient indicators of environmental disturbance.