Meteorological data is useful for varied applications and sectors ranging from weather and climate forecasting, landscape planning to disaster management among others. However, the availability of these data requires ...Meteorological data is useful for varied applications and sectors ranging from weather and climate forecasting, landscape planning to disaster management among others. However, the availability of these data requires a good network of manual meteorological stations and other support systems for its collection, recording, processing, archiving, communication and dissemination. In sub-Saharan Africa, such networks are limited due to low investment and capacity. To bridge this gap, the National Meteorological Services in Kenya and few others from African countries have moved to install a number of Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) in the past decade including a few additions from private institutions and individuals. Although these AWSs have the potential to improve the existing observation network and the early warning systems in the region, the quality and capacity of the data collected from the stations are not well exploited. This is mainly due to low confidence, by data users, in electronically observed data. In this study, we set out to confirm that electronically observed data is of comparable quality to a human observer recorded data, and can thus be used to bridge data gaps at temporal and spatial scales. To assess this potential, we applied the simple Pearson correlation method and other statistical tests and approaches by conducting inter-comparison analysis of weather observations from the manual synoptic station and data from two Automatic Weather Stations (TAHMO and 3D-PAWS) co-located at KMD Headquarters to establish existing consistencies and variances in several weather parameters. Results show there is comparable consistency in most of the weather parameters between the three stations. Strong associations were noted between the TAHMO and manual station data for minimum (r = 0.65) and maximum temperatures (r = 0.86) and the maximum temperature between TAHMO and 3DPAWS (r = 0.56). Similar associations were indicated for surface pressure (r = 0.99) and RH (r > 0.6) with the weakest correlations occurr展开更多
Nearly half a century ago insect herbivores were found to induce the formation of green islands by manipulating cytokinin （CK） levels. However, the response of the CK pathway to attack by chewing insect herbivores r...Nearly half a century ago insect herbivores were found to induce the formation of green islands by manipulating cytokinin （CK） levels. However, the response of the CK pathway to attack by chewing insect herbivores remains unclear. Here, we characterize the CK pathway of Nicotiana attenuata （Torr. ex S. Wats.） and its response to wounding and perception of herbivoreassociated molecular patterns （HAMPs）. We identified 44 genes involved in CK biosynthesis, inactivation, degradation, and signaling. Leaf wounding rapidly induced transcriptional changes in multiple genes throughout the pathway, as well as in the levels of CKs, including isopentenyladenosine and cis-zeatin riboside; perception of HAMPs present in the oral secretions （OS） of the specialist herbivore Manduca sexta amplified these responses. The jasmonate pathway, which triggers many herbivore-induced processes, was not required for these HAMP-triggered changes, but rather suppressed the CK responses. Interestingly CK pathway changes were observed also in systemic leaves in response to wounding and OS application indicating a role of CKs in mediating long distance systemic processes in response to herbivory. Since wounding and grasshopper OS elicited similar accumulations of CKs in Arabidopsis thaliana L., we propose that CKs are integral components of wounding and HAMP-triggered responses in many plant species.展开更多
Gene therapy using small interfering RNA(siRNA)is emerging as a novel therapeutic approach to treat various diseases.However,safe and efficient siRNA delivery still constitutes the major obstacle for clinical implemen...Gene therapy using small interfering RNA(siRNA)is emerging as a novel therapeutic approach to treat various diseases.However,safe and efficient siRNA delivery still constitutes the major obstacle for clinical implementation of siRNA therapeutics.Here we report an ionizable supramolecular dendrimer vector,formed via self-assembly of a small amphiphilic dendrimer,as an effective siRNA delivery system with a favorable safety profile.By virtue of the ionizable tertiary amine terminals,the supramolecular dendrimer has a low positively charged surface potential and no notable cytotoxicity at physiological pH.Nonetheless,this ionizable feature imparted sufficient surface charge to the supramolecular dendrimer to enable formation of a stable complex with siRNA via electrostatic interactions.The resulting siRNA/dendrimer delivery system had a surface charge that was neither neutral,thus avoiding aggregation,nor too high,thus avoiding cytotoxicity,but was sufficient for favorable cellular uptake and endosomal release of the siRNA.When tested in different cancer cell lines and patient-derived cancer organoids,this dendrimer-mediated siRNA delivery system effectively silenced the oncogenes Myc and Akt2 with a potent antiproliferative effect,outperforming the gold standard vector,Lipofectamine 2000.Therefore,this ionizable supramolecular dendrimer represents a promising vector for siRNA delivery.The concept of supramolecular dendrimer nanovectors via self-assembly is new,yet easy to implement in practice,offering a new perspective for supramolecular chemistry in biomedical applications.展开更多
文摘Meteorological data is useful for varied applications and sectors ranging from weather and climate forecasting, landscape planning to disaster management among others. However, the availability of these data requires a good network of manual meteorological stations and other support systems for its collection, recording, processing, archiving, communication and dissemination. In sub-Saharan Africa, such networks are limited due to low investment and capacity. To bridge this gap, the National Meteorological Services in Kenya and few others from African countries have moved to install a number of Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) in the past decade including a few additions from private institutions and individuals. Although these AWSs have the potential to improve the existing observation network and the early warning systems in the region, the quality and capacity of the data collected from the stations are not well exploited. This is mainly due to low confidence, by data users, in electronically observed data. In this study, we set out to confirm that electronically observed data is of comparable quality to a human observer recorded data, and can thus be used to bridge data gaps at temporal and spatial scales. To assess this potential, we applied the simple Pearson correlation method and other statistical tests and approaches by conducting inter-comparison analysis of weather observations from the manual synoptic station and data from two Automatic Weather Stations (TAHMO and 3D-PAWS) co-located at KMD Headquarters to establish existing consistencies and variances in several weather parameters. Results show there is comparable consistency in most of the weather parameters between the three stations. Strong associations were noted between the TAHMO and manual station data for minimum (r = 0.65) and maximum temperatures (r = 0.86) and the maximum temperature between TAHMO and 3DPAWS (r = 0.56). Similar associations were indicated for surface pressure (r = 0.99) and RH (r > 0.6) with the weakest correlations occurr
基金funded by the Max-Planck-Society, Meza-Canales by the DAADVanková by the Czech Science Foundation, project no. 206/09/2062Meldau and Brütting are funded by Advanced Grant no. 293926 of the European Research Council to Baldwin
文摘Nearly half a century ago insect herbivores were found to induce the formation of green islands by manipulating cytokinin （CK） levels. However, the response of the CK pathway to attack by chewing insect herbivores remains unclear. Here, we characterize the CK pathway of Nicotiana attenuata （Torr. ex S. Wats.） and its response to wounding and perception of herbivoreassociated molecular patterns （HAMPs）. We identified 44 genes involved in CK biosynthesis, inactivation, degradation, and signaling. Leaf wounding rapidly induced transcriptional changes in multiple genes throughout the pathway, as well as in the levels of CKs, including isopentenyladenosine and cis-zeatin riboside; perception of HAMPs present in the oral secretions （OS） of the specialist herbivore Manduca sexta amplified these responses. The jasmonate pathway, which triggers many herbivore-induced processes, was not required for these HAMP-triggered changes, but rather suppressed the CK responses. Interestingly CK pathway changes were observed also in systemic leaves in response to wounding and OS application indicating a role of CKs in mediating long distance systemic processes in response to herbivory. Since wounding and grasshopper OS elicited similar accumulations of CKs in Arabidopsis thaliana L., we propose that CKs are integral components of wounding and HAMP-triggered responses in many plant species.
基金This work was supported by the Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer(L.P.,Z.L.)China Scholarship Council(W.L.,L.D.)+2 种基金Italian Association for Cancer Research(IG17413)(S.P.)the French National Research Agency under the frame of the H2020 Era-Net EURONANOMED European Research projects“Target4Cancer”,“NANOGLIO”,“TARBRAINFECT”,“NAN4-TUM”(L.P.),and H2020 NMBP“SAFE-N-MEDTECH”(L.P.)This article is based upon work from COST Action CA 17140“Cancer Nanomedicine from the Bench to the Bedside”supported by COST(European Cooperation in Science and Technology).
文摘Gene therapy using small interfering RNA(siRNA)is emerging as a novel therapeutic approach to treat various diseases.However,safe and efficient siRNA delivery still constitutes the major obstacle for clinical implementation of siRNA therapeutics.Here we report an ionizable supramolecular dendrimer vector,formed via self-assembly of a small amphiphilic dendrimer,as an effective siRNA delivery system with a favorable safety profile.By virtue of the ionizable tertiary amine terminals,the supramolecular dendrimer has a low positively charged surface potential and no notable cytotoxicity at physiological pH.Nonetheless,this ionizable feature imparted sufficient surface charge to the supramolecular dendrimer to enable formation of a stable complex with siRNA via electrostatic interactions.The resulting siRNA/dendrimer delivery system had a surface charge that was neither neutral,thus avoiding aggregation,nor too high,thus avoiding cytotoxicity,but was sufficient for favorable cellular uptake and endosomal release of the siRNA.When tested in different cancer cell lines and patient-derived cancer organoids,this dendrimer-mediated siRNA delivery system effectively silenced the oncogenes Myc and Akt2 with a potent antiproliferative effect,outperforming the gold standard vector,Lipofectamine 2000.Therefore,this ionizable supramolecular dendrimer represents a promising vector for siRNA delivery.The concept of supramolecular dendrimer nanovectors via self-assembly is new,yet easy to implement in practice,offering a new perspective for supramolecular chemistry in biomedical applications.
