Singing in the rain! Climate constraints on the occurrence of indri's song.

The study of how animals adapt their behaviors depending on weather variables has gained particular significance in the context of climate change. This exploration offers insights into endangered species' potential threats and provides information on the direction to take in conservation activities. In this context, noninvasive, cost-effective, and potentially long-term monitoring systems, such as Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM), become particularly appropriate.

Windy events detection in big bioacoustics datasets using a pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network.

Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM), which involves using autonomous record units for studying wildlife behaviour and distribution, often requires handling big acoustic datasets collected over extended periods. While these data offer invaluable insights about wildlife, their analysis can present challenges in dealing with geophonic sources. A major issue in the process of detection of target sounds is represented by wind-induced noise.

Biocatalytic Heteroaromatic Amide Formation in Water Enabled by a Catalytic Tetrad and Two Access Tunnels.

The amide moiety belongs to the most common motives in pharmaceutical chemistry, present in many prescribed small-molecule pharmaceuticals. Methods for its manufacture are still in high demand, especially using water/buffer as a solvent and avoiding stoichiometric amounts of activation reagents. Herein, we identified from a library of lipases/esterases/acyltransferases and variants thereof a lipase originating from sp.

Who you live with and what you duet for: a review of the function of primate duets in relation to their social organization.

Duets are one of the most fascinating displays in animal vocal communication, where two animals fine-tune the timing of their emissions to create a coordinated signal. Duetting behavior is widespread in the animal kingdom and is present in insects, birds, and mammals. Duets are essential to regulate activities within and between social units.

Singing more, singing harsher: occurrence of nonlinear phenomena in a primate' song.

Nonlinear phenomena (NLP) in animal vocalizations arise from irregularities in the oscillation of the vocal folds. Various non-mutually exclusive hypotheses have been put forward to explain the occurrence of NLP, from adaptive to physiological ones. Non-human primates often display NLP in their vocalizations, yet the communicative role of these features, if any, is still unclear.

There You Are! Automated Detection of Indris' Songs on Features Extracted from Passive Acoustic Recordings.

The growing concern for the ongoing biodiversity loss drives researchers towards practical and large-scale automated systems to monitor wild animal populations. Primates, with most species threatened by extinction, face substantial risks. We focused on the vocal activity of the indri (Indri indri) recorded in Maromizaha Forest (Madagascar) from 2019 to 2021 via passive acoustics, a method increasingly used for monitoring activities in different environments.

Molecular Mechanism of Methanol Inhibition in CALB-Catalyzed Alcoholysis: Analyzing Molecular Dynamics Simulations by a Markov State Model.

Lipases are widely used enzymes that catalyze hydrolysis and alcoholysis of fatty acid esters. At high concentrations of small alcohols such as methanol or ethanol, many lipases are inhibited by the substrate. The molecular basis of the inhibition of lipase B (CALB) by methanol was investigated by unbiased molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and the substrate binding kinetics was analyzed by Markov state models (MSMs).

Diverse effects of aqueous polar co-solvents on Candida antarctica lipase B.

Biocatalysis in mixtures of water and co-solvents represents an opportunity to expand the application of enzymes. However, in the presence of organic solvents, enzymes can undergo reversible inhibition, inactivation, or aggregation. In this work, we studied the effects of three co-solvents (methanol, acetone, and dimethyl sulfoxide - DMSO) on the function and structure of the recombinant Candida antarctica lipase B (rCALB), a widely used enzyme in biotechnological applications.

Combined Linear Interaction Energy and Alchemical Solvation Free-Energy Approach for Protein-Binding Affinity Computation.

Calculating free energies of binding (Δ) between ligands and their target protein is of major interest to drug discovery and safety, yet it is still associated with several challenges and difficulties. Linear interaction energy (LIE) is an efficient in silico method for Δ computation. LIE models can be trained and used to directly calculate binding affinities from interaction energies involving ligands in the bound and unbound states only, and LIE can be combined with statistical weighting to calculate Δ for flexible proteins that may bind their ligands in multiple orientations.

Modelling of substrate access and substrate binding to cephalosporin acylases.

Semisynthetic cephalosporins are widely used antibiotics currently produced by different chemical steps under harsh conditions, which results in a considerable amount of toxic waste. Biocatalytic synthesis by the cephalosporin acylase from Pseudomonas sp. strain N176 is a promising alternative.

Navigating within thiamine diphosphate-dependent decarboxylases: Sequences, structures, functional positions, and binding sites.

Thiamine diphosphate-dependent decarboxylases catalyze both cleavage and formation of CC bonds in various reactions, which have been assigned to different homologous sequence families. This work compares 53 ThDP-dependent decarboxylases with known crystal structures. Both sequence and structural information were analyzed synergistically and data were analyzed for global and local properties by means of statistical approaches (principle component analysis and principal coordinate analysis) enabling complexity reduction.

Can Volumetric and Morphological Variants of Sphenoid Sinuses Influence Sinuses Opacification?

Improvements in computed tomography and in functional endoscopic sinus surgery have recently increased interest toward paranasal sinus anatomy and anatomic variations that can be observed in patients affected by sinusitis. Isolated sphenoid sinusitis is a relatively rare pathology, often related to nonspecific symptoms, therefore making diagnosis difficult. The correlation between this type of sinusitis and anatomical variants remains unclear.

Preliminary approach for the surface electromyographical evaluation of the oral phase of swallowing.

Swallowing is a muscular activity that occurs both after mastication and spontaneously as a result of saliva accumulation. Spontaneous saliva swallowing occurs about every 2 minutes. Comprehension of its functional mechanisms is relevant to assess their modification in clinical situations.

Simulation of protein diffusion: a sensitive probe of protein-solvent interactions.

Aqueous solutions of Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) were simulated considering three different water models (SPC/E, TIP3P, TIP4P) by a series of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of three different box sizes (L = 9, 14, and 19 nm) to determine the diffusion coefficient, the water viscosity and the protein density. The protein-water systems were equilibrated for 500 ns, followed by 100 ns production runs which were analysed. The diffusional properties of CALB were characterized by the Stokes radius (R), which was derived from the diffusion coefficient and the viscosity.

Interpretation of cytochrome P450 monooxygenase kinetics by modeling of thermodynamic activity.

The experimentally determined Michaelis constant K results from a combination of two effects: the recognition of the substrate by the enzyme and the molecular interactions between substrate and solvent. By separating substrate recognition from solvent effects, the thermodynamic activity-based Michaelis constant K allows for an unambiguous comparison of how different substrates fit into the substrate binding site. K of a poorly water-soluble substrate is calculated from the experimentally determined concentration-based Michaelis constant K and its activity coefficient at infinite dilution γ.

Anatomical Uniqueness of Ear Morphology: A Novel Metrical Approach through Three-Dimensional Superimposition.

Uniqueness of ear morphology has been a widely debated issue in cephaloscopy, but past studies used only two-dimensional approaches. In the current investigation, the right and left ears of 10 healthy adults were imaged twice by stereophotogrammetry at the interval of a few seconds. The ear images obtained from the two acquisitions were superimposed both within subject (group of matches) and among subjects (group of mismatches).

Application of 3D models of palatal rugae to personal identification: hints at identification from 3D-3D superimposition techniques.

Palatal rugae are known in literature as individualizing anatomical structures with a strong potential for personal identification. However, a 3D assessment of their uniqueness has not yet been performed. The present study aims at verifying the uniqueness of 3D models of the palate.

Normalizing surface electromyographic measures of the masticatory muscles: Comparison of two different methods for clinical purpose.

Purpose: To compare a new normalization technique (wax pad, WAX) with the currently utilized cotton roll (COT) method in surface electromyography (sEMG) of the masticatory muscles.

Methods: sEMG of the masseter and anterior temporalis muscles of 23 subjects was recorded while performing two repetitions of 5s maximum voluntary clenches (MVC) on COT and WAX. For each task, the mean value of sEMG amplitude and its coefficient of variation were calculated, and the differences between the two repetitions computed.

The Closure of the Cycle: Enzymatic Synthesis and Functionalization of Bio-Based Polyesters.

The polymer industry is under pressure to mitigate the environmental cost of petrol-based plastics. Biotechnologies contribute to the gradual replacement of petrol-based chemistry and the development of new renewable products, leading to the closure of carbon circle. An array of bio-based building blocks is already available on an industrial scale and is boosting the development of new generations of sustainable and functionally competitive polymers, such as polylactic acid (PLA).

Age-related and sex-related changes in the normal soft tissue profile of native Northern Sudanese subjects: a cross-sectional study.

Information about age-related and sex-related normative measurements of the nasolabial region in native Northern Sudanese subjects is scanty. We have therefore used a hand-held laser scanner to measure nasolabial angles and distances, and collected the 3-dimensional coordinates of seven landmarks on the facial soft tissues from 654 healthy native Northern Sudanese subjects (327 male and 327 female, aged 4-30 years). From these we calculated five angles and two linear distances and took the mean (SD) for age and sex, and compared them using factorial analysis of variance.

Investigating the Role of Conformational Effects on Laccase Stability and Hyperactivation under Stress Conditions.

Fungal laccase from Steccherinum ochraceum 1833 displays remarkable stability under different harsh conditions: organic/buffer mixtures, thermal treatment, and microwave radiation. The behavior is particularly significant in the light of the sharp inactivation observed for two different fungal laccases. Laccase from S.

BioGPS descriptors for rational engineering of enzyme promiscuity and structure based bioinformatic analysis.

A new bioinformatic methodology was developed founded on the Unsupervised Pattern Cognition Analysis of GRID-based BioGPS descriptors (Global Positioning System in Biological Space). The procedure relies entirely on three-dimensional structure analysis of enzymes and does not stem from sequence or structure alignment. The BioGPS descriptors account for chemical, geometrical and physical-chemical features of enzymes and are able to describe comprehensively the active site of enzymes in terms of "pre-organized environment" able to stabilize the transition state of a given reaction.

Comparison of soft-tissue orbital morphometry in attractive and normal Italian subjects.

Objective: To identify esthetic characteristics of the orbital soft tissues of attractive Italian adult women and men.

Materials And Methods: Three-dimensional computerized digitizers were used to collect the coordinates of facial landmarks in 199 healthy, normal subjects aged 18 to 30 years (71 women, 128 men; mean age, 22 years) and in 126 coetaneous attractive subjects (92 women, 34 men; mean age, 20 years) selected during beauty competitions. From the landmarks, six linear distances, two ratios, six angles, and two areas were calculated.

Facial soft-tissue volumes in adult Northern Sudanese individuals with Down syndrome.

Objective: To investigate dimensions and ratios of soft-tissue facial volumes of adult Northern Sudanese subjects with Down syndrome by using computerized anthropometric measurements.

Design, Setting, And Patients: The 3D coordinates of soft-tissue facial landmarks were obtained by a computerized digitizer in 26 Northern Sudanese adult subjects with Down syndrome (18 men, 8 women, aged 17-34 years), and in 99 healthy Northern Sudanese controls (48 women, 51 men) of the same age range. From the landmarks, several facial volumes and volume ratios were calculated.