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In angiosperms, the gynoecium is the last structure to develop within the flower due to the determinate fate of floral meristem (FM) stem cells. The maintenance of stem cell activity before its arrest at the stage called FM termination affects the number of carpels that develop. The necessary inhibition at this stage of WUSCHEL (WUS), which is responsible for stem cell maintenance, involves a two-step mechanism. Direct repression mediated by the MADS domain transcription factor AGAMOUS (AG), followed by indirect repression requiring the C2H2 zinc-finger protein KNUCKLES (KNU), allow for the complete termination of floral stem cell activity. Here, we show that Arabidopsis thaliana MINI ZINC FINGER2 (AtMIF2) and its homolog in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), INHIBITOR OF MERISTEM ACTIVITY (SlIMA), participate in the FM termination process by functioning as adaptor proteins. AtMIF2 and SlIMA recruit AtKNU and SlKNU, respectively, to form a transcriptional repressor complex together with TOPLESS and HISTONE DEACETYLASE19. AtMIF2 and SlIMA bind to the WUS and SlWUS loci in the respective plants, leading to their repression. These results provide important insights into the molecular mechanisms governing (FM) termination and highlight the essential role of AtMIF2/SlIMA during this developmental step, which determines carpel number and therefore fruit size.

IntroductionMucormycosis are infections caused by molds of the order Mucorales. These opportunistic infections are rare, difficult to diagnose, and have a poor prognosis. We aimed to describe common radiographic patterns that may help to diagnose cerebral mucormycosis and search for histopathological correlations with imaging data.MethodsWe studied the radiological findings (CT and MRI) of 18 patients with cerebral mucormycosis and four patients’ histopathological findings.ResultsAll patients were immunocompromised and/or diabetic. The type of lesions depended on the infection’s dissemination pathway. Hematogenous dissemination lesions were most frequently abscesses (59 lesions), cortical, cortical–subcortical, or in the basal ganglia, with a halo aspect on DWI for lesions larger than 1.6 cm. Only seven lesions were enhanced after contrast injection, with different presentations depending on patients’ immune status. Ischemia and hemorrhagic areas were also seen. Vascular lesions were represented by stenosis and thrombosis. Direct posterior extension lesions were bi-fronto basal hypodensities on CT and restricted diffusion without enhancement on MRI. A particular extension, perineural spread, was seen along the trigeminal nerve. Histopathological analysis found endovascular lesions with destruction of vessel walls by Mucorales, microbleeds around vessels, as well as acute and chronic inflammation.ConclusionsMRI is the critical exam for cerebral mucormycosis. Weak ring enhancement and reduced halo diffusion suggest the diagnosis of fungal infections. Involvement of the frontal lobes should raise suspicion of mucormycosis (along with aspergillosis). The perineural spread can be considered a more specific extension pathway of mucormycosis.

Increasingly, studies concerning diverse autoimmune disorders have demonstrated the presence of anti-calpastatin antibodies in the sera of such patients. Extensive research has been conducted on the implication of anti-calpastatin antibodies in the pathology of rheumatoid arthritis. Calpastatin, a polypeptide of 80kDa, is the natural inhibitor of calpains (cysteine proteases). Anti-calpastatin antibodies, present in the sera of arthritis patients, interfere with the function of calpastatin by preventing it from inhibiting the activity of calpains. Normally, calpains are termed biomodulators since their activity is non-destructive. However, an imbalance between the inhibitor/enzyme (calpastatin/calpain), due to the presence of anti-calpastatin antibodies, is suggested to lead to the cartilage destruction observed in this pathology. The discovery of the presence of anti-calpastatin antibodies in the sera of a female infertile patient leads one to propose that such an immune interference mechanism may exist in this pathological disorder as well. This study consists in identifying the immunodominants epitopes of the testis-specific isoform recognized by the sera of infertile, rheumatoid arthritis, vasectomized, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) anti-DNA positive patients. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Le diabète est une maladie importante, tant en raison du nombre de personnes atteintes qu'en raison des diverses répercussions cliniques et économiques. En 2000, une nouvelle classe d'agents antidiabétiques, les thiazolidinediones, a été ajoutée à l'arsenal thérapeutique du diabète au Canada. Actuellement, la plupart des informations disponibles sur ces molécules proviennent d'études cliniques et très peu d'études de population ont été réalisées sur le sujet. Toutefois, nous savons que l'utilisation des médicaments dans la réalité est typiquement différente de celle des études cliniques randomisées. Si l'utilisation de ces médicaments s'avérait inadéquate, des coûts élevés pourraient y être associés. Les objectifs de cette étude étaient de décrire l'adhérence, ainsi que la persistance au traitement avec les thiazolidinediones et d'identifier ses déterminants. Des données démographiques, médicales et pharmaceutiques ont été obtenues à partir des banques de données de la Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec. Les patients inclus dans cette étude ont été identifiés, entre octobre 2000 et juillet 2002, par une première prescription dispensée (nommée date index) de thiazolidinediones, pour un suivi variant de 1 à 22 mois. Les patients qui n'étaient pas inscrits à l'assurance médicament au moins un an avant la date index étaient exclus de la cohorte, tout comme les patients ayant été hospitalisés 30 jours et plus durant la période de suivi. Le renouvellement des thiazolidinediones sans interruption durant la période de suivi définissait la persistance au traitement et l'adhérence était déterminée comme étant la prise de 80% à 120% de la médication antidiabétique prescrite. Le taux de persistance a été estimé à l'aide d'une analyse de Kaplan-Meier et les déterminants de la persistance ont été identifiés avec un modèle de Cox. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The community mental health systems sometimes fail the people who need them. People fall through the cracks. What is it going to take for people to realize that things need to change? People with mental illness more often than not are unable to speak up for themselves. There should be more truthful awareness so people would not be fearful and defensive about people who have mental illness.

This study was designed to test the efficacy of an air treatment using ozone and relative humidity (RH) for the inactivation of airborne viruses. Four phages (φX174, PR772, MS2 and φ6) and one eukaryotic virus (murine norovirus MNV-1) were exposed to low ozone concentrations (1.23 ppm for phages and 0.23 ppm for MNV-1) and various levels of RH for 10 to 70 minutes. The inactivation of these viruses was then assessed to determine which of the tested conditions provided the greatest reduction in virus infectivity. An inactivation of at least two orders of magnitude for φX174, MS2 and MNV-1 was achieved with an ozone exposure of 40 minutes at 85% RH. For PR772 and φ6, exposure to the reference condition at 20% RH for 10 minutes yielded the same results. These findings suggest that ozone used at a low concentration is a powerful disinfectant for airborne viruses when combined with a high RH. Air treatment could therefore be implemented inside hospital rooms ventilated naturally.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231164.].

Although atmospheric dust fluxes from arid as well as human-impacted areas represent a significant source of nutrients to surface waters of the Mediterranean Sea, studies focusing on the evolution of the metabolic balance of the plankton community following a dust deposition event are scarce, and none were conducted in the context of projected future levels of temperature and pH. Moreover, most of the experiments took place in coastal areas. In the framework of the PEACETIME project, three dust-addition perturbation experiments were conducted in 300 L tanks filled with surface seawater collected in the Tyrrhenian Sea (TYR), Ionian Sea (ION) and Algerian basin (FAST) on board the R/V Pourquoi Pas? in late spring 2017. For each experiment, six tanks were used to follow the evolution of chemical and biological stocks, biological activity and particle export. The impacts of a dust deposition event simulated at their surface were followed under present environmental conditions and under a realistic climate change scenario for 2100 (ca. +3 ∘C and −0.3 pH units). The tested waters were all typical of stratified oligotrophic conditions encountered in the open Mediterranean Sea at this period of the year, with low rates of primary production and a metabolic balance towards net heterotrophy. The release of nutrients after dust seeding had very contrasting impacts on the metabolism of the communities, depending on the station investigated. At TYR, the release of new nutrients was followed by a negative impact on both particulate and dissolved 14C-based production rates, while heterotrophic bacterial production strongly increased, driving the community to an even more heterotrophic state. At ION and FAST, the efficiency of organic matter export due to mineral/organic aggregation processes was lower than at TYR and likely related to a lower quantity/age of dissolved organic matter present at the time of the seeding and a smaller production of DOM following dust addition. This was also reflected by lower initial concentrations in transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs) and a lower increase in TEP concentrations following the dust addition, as compared to TYR. At ION and FAST, both the autotrophic and heterotrophic community benefited from dust addition, with a stronger relative increase in autotrophic processes observed at FAST. Our study showed that the potential positive impact of dust deposition on primary production depends on the initial composition and metabolic state of the investigated community. This impact is constrained by the quantity of nutrients added in order to sustain both the fast response of heterotrophic prokaryotes and the delayed one of primary producers. Finally, under future environmental conditions, heterotrophic metabolism was overall more impacted than primary production, with the consequence that all integrated net community production rates decreased with no detectable impact on carbon export, therefore reducing the capacity of surface waters to sequester anthropogenic CO2.