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Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and chlorinated pesticides (CPs) were measured in air and precipitation at a background site in central Europe. ∑ PAH concentrations in air and rainwater ranged from 0.7 to 327.9 ng m−3 and below limit of quantification (< LOQ) to 2.1 × 103 ng L−1. The concentrations of PCBs and CPs in rainwater were < LOQ. ∑ PCB and ∑ CP concentrations in air ranged from < LOQ to 44.6 and < LOQ to 351.7 pg m−3, respectively. The potential relationships between PAH wet scavenging and particulate matter and rainwater properties were investigated. The concentrations of ionic species in particulate matter and rainwater were significantly correlated, highlighting the importance of particle scavenging process. Overall, higher scavenging efficiencies were found for relatively less volatile PAHs, underlining the effect of analyte gas-particle partitioning on scavenging process. The particulate matter removal by rain, and consequently PAH wet scavenging, was more effective when the concentrations of ionic species were high. In addition, the elemental and organic carbon contents of the particulate matter were found to influence the PAH scavenging.

Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is important for maintenance of homeostasis during stress. Recent studies have shown a connection between the HPA axis and adipose tissue. The present study investigated the effect of acute heterotypic stress on plasma levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), corticosterone (CORT), leptin, and ghrelin in adult male rats with respect to neonatal maternal social and physical stressors. Thirty rat mothers and sixty of their male progeny were used. Pups were divided into three groups: unstressed control (C), stressed by maternal social stressor (S), stressed by maternal social and physical stressors (SW). Levels of hormones were measured in adult male progeny following an acute swimming stress (10 min) or no stress. ELISA immunoassay was used to measured hormones. The ACTH and CORT levels were significantly increased in all groups of adult progeny after acute stress; however, CORT levels were significantly lower in both neonatally stressed groups compared to controls. After acute stress, plasma leptin levels were decreased in the C and SW groups but increased in the S group. The data suggest that long-term neonatal stressors lead to lower sensitivity of ACTH receptors in the adrenal cortex, which could be a sign of stress adaptation in adulthood. Acute stress in adult male rats changes plasma levels of leptin differently relative to social or physical neonatal stressors.

Methamphetamine (MA) is an addictive psychostimulant with significant potential for abuse. Previous rat studies have demonstrated that MA use during pregnancy impairs maternal behavior and induced delayed development of affected pups. The offspring of drug-addictive mothers were often neglected and exposed to neonatal stressors. The present study therefore examines the effect of perinatal stressors combined with exposure to prenatal MA on the development of pups and maternal behavior. Dams were divided into three groups according to drug treatment during pregnancy: controls (C); saline (SA, s.c., 1 ml/kg); MA (s.c., 5 mg/ml/kg). Litters were divided into four groups according to postnatal stressors: controls (N); maternal separation (S); maternal cold-water stress (W); maternal separation plus cold-water stress (SW). The pup-retrieval test showed differences among postnatally stressed mothers and non-stressed controls. The righting reflex on a surface revealed delayed development of pups prenatally exposed to MA/SA and postnatal stress. Negative geotaxis and Rotarod results confirmed that the MA group was the most affected. Overall, our data suggests that a combination of perinatal stress and prenatal MA can have a detrimental effect on maternal behavior as well as on the sensorimotor development of pups. However, MA exposure during pregnancy seems to be the decisive factor for impairment.

This study investigated 48 current-use pesticides (CUPs) and 30 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in ambient air at a rural-agricultural site in the Czech Republic, with biweekly sampling over three and 10 years, respectively. Despite being banned decades ago, OCPs persist in the atmosphere, with revolatilisation from surfaces apparent in summer. Temporal trend analysis revealed decreasing atmospheric concentrations for several OCPs, which indicate long-term diminishing reservoirs in environmental compartments, especially soil. For β- and γ-HCH, o,p′- and p,p′-DDE, o,p′-DDD, o,p′- and p,p′-DDT, α-chlordane, and mirex, levelling off is observed, which points to recently enhanced secondary sources in the region or beyond, related to reversal of the direction of air-surface exchange in response to historic atmospheric depositions or recent mobilisation from ground compartments, such as water bodies, the cryosphere, or soils heated by wildfires. CUP concentrations peaked during application seasons, with multi-annual trends either insignificant or declining. For compounds like chlorpyrifos and fenpropimorph, declining trends aligned with regulatory bans, though their presence in the atmosphere was evident one-year after the bans, suggesting persistence.

Seasonal variability of non-refractory PM1 (NR-PM1) was studied at a rural background site (National Atmospheric Observatory Košetice – NAOK) in the Czech Republic to investigate the effect of regional and long-range atmospheric transport in central Europe. NR-PM1 measurements were performed by compact time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometry (C-ToF-AMS), and the chemically speciated mass size distributions, density, shape, and origin were discussed. Average PM1 concentrations, calculated as the sum of the NR-PM1 and the equivalent black carbon (eBC) concentrations measured by an aethalometer (AE), were 8.58 ± 3.70 µg m-3 in summer and 10.08 ± 8.04 µg m-3 in winter. Organics were dominant during both campaigns (summer/winter: 4.97 ± 2.92/4.55 ± 4.40 µg m-3), followed by SO42-in summer (1.68 ± 0.81/1.36 ± 1.38 µg m-3) and NO3- in winter (0.67 ± 0.38/2.03 ± 1.71 µg m-3). The accumulation mode dominated the average mass size distribution during both seasons, with larger particles of all species measured in winter (mode diameters: Org: 334/413 nm, NO3-: 377/501 nm, SO42-: 400/547 nm, and NH4+: 489/515 nm) indicating regional and long-range transport. However, since the winter aerosols were less oxidized than the summer aerosols (comparing fragments f44 and f43), the importance of local sources in the cold part of the year was still enough to be considered. Although aged continental air masses from the south-east (SE) were rare in summer (7 %), they were related to the highest concentrations of PM1, eBC, and all NR-PM1 species, especially SO42- and NH4+. In winter, slow continental air masses from the south-west (SW) (44 %) were linked to inversion conditions over central Europe and were associated with the highest concentrations among all NR-PM1 species as well as PM1 and eBC. Average PM1 material density (ρm) corresponded to higher inorganic contents in both seasons (summer: ∼ 1.30 g cm-3 and winter: ∼ 1.40 g cm-3). During episodes of higher mass concentrations ρm ranged from 1.30–1.40 g cm-3 in summer and from 1.30–1.50 g cm-3 in winter. The dynamic shape factors (χ) decreased slightly with particle mobility diameter (Dm) in both seasons. This study provides insights into the seasonal effects and air mass variability on aerosol particles, focusing on episodes of high mass and number concentrations measured at a central European rural background site.

Gross genomic rearrangements involving deletions in the CFTR gene have recently been found to account for ∼20% of unidentified cystic fibrosis (CF) chromosomes in both French and Italian patients. Using QMPSF and walking quantitative DHPLC, six novel mutations (three simple deletions, two complex deletions with short insertions of 3–6 bp, and a complex deletion with a 182 bp inverted downstream sequence) were characterized by screening 274 unidentified CF chromosomes from 10 different countries. These lesions increase the total number of fully characterized large CFTR genomic rearrangements involving deletions to 21. Systematic analysis of the 42 associated breakpoints indicated that all 21 events were caused by nonhomologous recombination. Whole gene complexity analysis revealed a significant correlation between regions of low sequence complexity and the locations of the deletion breakpoints. Known recombination-promoting motifs were noted in the vicinity of the breakpoints. A total of 11 simple deletions were potentially explicable in terms of the classical model of replication slippage. However, the complex deletions appear to have arisen via multiple mechanisms; three of the five complex deletions with short insertions and both examples of large inverted insertions (299 and 182 bp, respectively) can be explained by either a model of serial replication slippage in cis (SRS cis ) or SRS in trans (SRS trans ). Finally, the nature and distribution of large genomic rearrangements in the CFTR gene were compared and contrasted with those of two other genes, DMD and MSH2 , with a view to gaining a broader understanding of DNA sequence context in mediating the diverse underlying mutational mechanisms.

Since the earliest agricultural attempts, humankind has been trying to improve crop quality and yields, as well as protect them from adverse conditions. Strategies to meet these goals include breeding, the use of fertilisers, and the genetic manipulation of crops, but also an interesting phenomenon called priming or adaptive response. Priming is based on an application of mild stress to prime a plant for another, mostly stronger stress. There are many priming techniques, such as osmopriming, halopriming, or using physical agents. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) represents a physical agent that contains a mixture of charged, neutral, and radical (mostly reactive oxygen and nitrogen species) particles, and can cause oxidative stress or even the death of cells or organisms upon interaction. However, under certain conditions, NTP can have the opposite effect, which has been previously documented for many plant species. Seed surface sterilization and growth enhancement are the most-reported positive effects of NTP on plants. Moreover, some studies suggest the role of NTP as a promising priming agent. This review deals with the effects of NTP treatment on plants from interaction with seed and cell surface, influence on cellular molecular processes, up to the adaptive response caused by NTP.

The support for multi-model data has become a standard for most of the existing DBMSs. However, the step from a conceptual (e.g., ER or UML) schema to a logical multi-model schema of a particular DBMS is not straightforward. In this paper, we extend our previous proposal of multi-model data representation using category theory for transformations between models. We introduce a mapping between multi-model data and the categorical representation and algorithms for mutual transformations between them. We also show how the algorithms can be implemented using the idea of wrappers with the interface published but specific internal details concealed. Finally, we discuss the applicability of the approach to various data management tasks, such as conceptual querying.

Repeats-in-toxin (RTX) exoproteins of Gram-negative bacteria form a steadily growing family of proteins with diverse biological functions. Their common feature is the unique mode of export across the bacterial envelope via the type I secretion system and the characteristic, typically nonapeptide, glycine- and aspartate-rich repeats binding Ca²⁺ ions. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge on the organization of rtx loci and on the biological and biochemical activities of therein encoded proteins. Applying several types of bioinformatic screens on the steadily growing set of sequenced bacterial genomes, over 1000 RTX family members were detected, with the biological functions of most of them remaining to be characterized. Activities of the so far characterized RTX family members are then discussed and classified according to functional categories, ranging from the historically first characterized pore-forming RTX leukotoxins, through the large multifunctional enzymatic toxins, bacteriocins, nodulation proteins, surface layer proteins, up to secreted hydrolytic enzymes exhibiting metalloprotease or lipase activities of industrial interest.

Background Obesity leads to low-grade inflammation in the adipose tissue and liver and neuroinflammation in the brain. Obesity-induced insulin resistance (IR) and neuroinflammation seem to intensify neurodegeneration including Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, the impact of high-fat (HF) diet-induced obesity on potential neuroinflammation and peripheral IR was tested separately in males and females of THY-Tau22 mice, a model of tau pathology expressing mutated human tau protein. Methods Three-, 7-, and 11-month-old THY-Tau22 and wild-type males and females were tested for mobility, anxiety-like behavior, and short-term spatial memory in open-field and Y-maze tests. Plasma insulin, free fatty acid, cholesterol, and leptin were evaluated with commercial assays. Liver was stained with hematoxylin and eosin for histology. Brain sections were 3′,3′-diaminobenzidine (DAB) and/or fluorescently detected for ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 (Iba1), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and tau phosphorylated at T231 (pTau (T231)), and analyzed. Insulin signaling cascade, pTau, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) were quantified by western blotting of hippocampi of 11-month-old mice. Data are mean ± SEM and were subjected to Mann-Whitney t test within age and sex and mixed-effects analysis and Bonferroni’s post hoc test for age comparison. Results Increased age most potently decreased mobility and increased anxiety in all mice. THY-Tau22 males showed impaired short-term spatial memory. HF diet increased body, fat, and liver weights and peripheral IR. HF diet-fed THY-Tau22 males showed massive Iba1+ microgliosis and GFAP+ astrocytosis in the hippocampus and amygdala. Activated astrocytes colocalized with pTau (T231) in THY-Tau22, although no significant difference in hippocampal tau phosphorylation was observed between 11-month-old HF and standard diet-fed THY-Tau22 mice. Eleven-month-old THY-Tau22 females, but not males, on both diets showed decreased synaptic and postsynaptic plasticity. Conclusions Significant sex differences in neurodegenerative signs were found in THY-Tau22. Impaired short-term spatial memory was observed in 11-month-old THY-tau22 males but not females, which corresponded to increased neuroinflammation colocalized with pTau(T231) in the hippocampi and amygdalae of THY-Tau22 males. A robust decrease in synaptic and postsynaptic plasticity was observed in 11-month-old females but not males. HF diet caused peripheral but not central IR in mice of both sexes.