High-fat and high-sugar diets induce rapid adaptations of fat storage in the house fly Musca domestica L.

Dietary change can be a strong evolutionary force and lead to rapid adaptation in organisms. High-fat and high-sugar diets can challenge key metabolic pathways, negatively affecting other life history traits and inducing pathologies such as obesity and diabetes. In this study, we use experimental evolution to investigate the plastic and evolutionary responses to nutritionally unbalanced diets.

Stem traits, compartments and tree species affect fungal communities on decaying wood.

Dead wood quantity and quality is important for forest biodiversity, by determining wood-inhabiting fungal assemblages. We therefore evaluated how fungal communities were regulated by stem traits and compartments (i.e.

Novel advances in cardiac rehabilitation : Position paper from the Working Group on Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology.

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has evolved as an important part of the treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease. However, to date, its full potential is fairly underutilised. This review discusses new developments in CR aimed at improving participation rates and long-term effectiveness in the general cardiac population.

Cardiac telerehabilitation as an alternative to centre-based cardiac rehabilitation.

Multidisciplinary cardiac rehabilitation (CR) reduces morbidity and mortality and increases quality of life in cardiac patients. However, CR utilisation rates are low, and targets for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease are not met in the majority of patients, indicating that secondary prevention programmes such as CR leave room for improvement. Cardiac telerehabilitation (CTR) may resolve several barriers that impede CR utilisation and sustainability of its effects.

Nonadditive effects of consumption in an intertidal macroinvertebrate community are independent of food availability but driven by complementarity effects.

Suboptimal environmental conditions are ubiquitous in nature and commonly drive the outcome of biological interactions in community processes. Despite the importance of biological interactions for community processes, knowledge on how species interactions are affected by a limiting resource, for example, low food availability, remains limited. Here, we tested whether variation in food supply causes nonadditive consumption patterns, using the macroinvertebrate community of intertidal sandy beaches as a model system.

Experimentally increased nutrient availability at the permafrost thaw front selectively enhances biomass production of deep-rooting subarctic peatland species.

Climate warming increases nitrogen (N) mineralization in superficial soil layers (the dominant rooting zone) of subarctic peatlands. Thawing and subsequent mineralization of permafrost increases plant-available N around the thaw-front. Because plant production in these peatlands is N-limited, such changes may substantially affect net primary production and species composition.

The telephone lifestyle intervention 'Hartcoach' has modest impact on coronary risk factors: A randomised multicentre trial.

Background: Unhealthy diets and inactivity are still common among patients with cardiovascular diseases. This study evaluates the effects of the telephonic lifestyle intervention 'Hartcoach' on risk factors and self-management in patients with recent coronary events.

Design: This was a randomised trial in five Dutch hospitals.

Mapping nutrient resorption efficiencies of subarctic cryptogams and seed plants onto the Tree of Life.

Nutrient resorption from senescing photosynthetic organs is a powerful mechanism for conserving nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in infertile environments. Evolution has resulted in enhanced differentiation of conducting tissues to facilitate transport of photosynthate to other plant parts, ultimately leading to phloem. Such tissues may also serve to translocate N and P to other plant parts upon their senescence.

Opportunities and challenges for seaweed in the biobased economy.

The unique chemical composition of seaweeds and their fast growth rates offer many opportunities for biorefining. In this article we argue that cascading biorefinery valorization concepts are viable alternatives to only using seaweeds as carbohydrate sources for the fermentative production of biofuels. However, many challenges remain with respect to use of seaweeds for chemical production, such as the large seasonal variation in the chemical composition of seaweeds.

Molecular characterisation of beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) in New Zealand and its implications for managing an infectious disease.

Beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) infections are often fatal to both captive and wild parrot populations. Its recent discovery in a wild population of native red-fronted parakeets has raised concerns for the conservation of native parrots, all of which are threatened or endangered. The question of a recent introduction versus a native genotype of the virus poses different conservation-management challenges, and thus, a clear understanding of the molecular phylogeny of BDFV is a crucial step towards integrated management planning.

Pseudomonas syringae hijacks plant stress chaperone machinery for virulence.

Plant heat shock protein Hsp70 is the major target of HopI1, a virulence effector of pathogenic Pseudomonas syringae. Hsp70 is essential for the virulence function of HopI1. HopI1 directly binds Hsp70 through its C-terminal J domain and stimulates Hsp70 ATP hydrolysis activity in vitro.

Plant strategies in relation to resource supply in mesic to wet environments: does theory mirror nature?

In ecology, strategy schemes based on propositions about the selection of plant attributes are common, but quantification of such schemes in relation to nutrient and water supply is lacking. Through structural equation modeling, we tested whether plant strategies related to nutrient and water/oxygen supply are reflected in a coordination of traits in natural communities. Structural equation models, based on accepted ecological concepts, were tested with measured plant traits of 105 different species across 50 sites in mesic to wet plant communities in the Netherlands.

Biodiversity effects on soil processes explained by interspecific functional dissimilarity.

The loss of biodiversity can have significant impacts on ecosystem functioning, but the mechanisms involved lack empirical confirmation. Using soil microcosms, we show experimentally that functional dissimilarity among detritivorous species, not species number, drives community compositional effects on leaf litter mass loss and soil respiration, two key soil ecosystem processes. These experiments confirm theoretical predictions that biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning can be predicted by the degree of functional differences among species.

Solution Dynamics of Thallium-Metal Carbonyl Compounds Using (205)Tl NMR Spectroscopy.

A (205)Tl NMR study to probe the solution structure and dynamics of a series of thallium-containing metal complexes has been conducted. The following compounds were examined: Tl{Co(CO)(4)}(3) (Ia), [BnMe(3)N](3)[Tl{Fe(CO)(4)}(3)] ([BnMe(3)N](3)[Ib]), Tl{M(CO)(3)Cp}(3) (Ic, M = Cr; Id, M = Mo; Ie, M = W), TlFp(3) (If; Fp = CpFe(CO)(2)), [PPN](2)[Tl(2)Fe(6)(CO)(24)] ([PPN](2)[II]), [Et(4)N](2)[Tl(2)Fe(4)(CO)(16)] ([Et(4)N](2)[III]), [Et(4)N][L(2)Tl{Fe(CO)(4)}(2)] ([Et(4)N][IV]: [IVa](-), L(2) = bipy; [IVb](-), L(2) = en; [IVc](-), L(2) = phen; [IVd](-), L(2) = tmeda; [IVe](-), L(2) = dien), [Et(4)N](4)[Tl(4)Fe(8)(CO)(30)] ([Et(4)N](4)[V]), and TlCo(CO)(4) (VI). The (205)Tl NMR technique was used to probe the dynamic behavior of the Tl-metal cluster complexes [II](2-), [III](2-), and [V](4-) in solution and the formation of Lewis base adducts of [III](-), as well as the possibility of formation of carbonylate anion adducts of Ia, Ic, Id, and If.

Nicardipine for preservation of myocardial metabolism and function in patients undergoing coronary artery surgery.

The present study was designed to evaluate the myocardial protective effect of nicardipine (NIC) in patients with normal left ventricular (LV) function (control vs. NIC treatment group) and impaired LV function (control vs. NIC treatment group) during extracorporeal circulation for coronary artery surgery.

The recombinational enhancer for DNA inversion functions independent of its orientation as a consequence of dyad symmetry in the Fis-DNA complex.

The Escherichia coli Fis protein binds to specific DNA sequences whose base composition varies enormously. One known function of Fis is to stimulate site-specific DNA recombination. We used the Gin-mediated DNA inversion system of bacteriophage Mu to analyze Fis-DNA interaction.

Determination of the anti-ischaemic drug bepridil in human plasma using gas chromatography with nitrogen-sensitive detection.

An assay has been developed to determine the anti-ischaemic drug bepridil (as its free base) in human plasma. The assay procedure comprises n-hexane extraction from basic plasma and gas chromatography using nitrogen-selective detection. An analogue of bepridil is used as internal standard.