Dynamics of fungal endophytic communities in bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) fruits through development is shaped by host phenolic compounds.

The physical and chemical properties of wild berry fruits change dramatically during development, and the ripe berries host species-specific endophytic communities. However, the development of fungal endophytic communities during berry ripening is unknown. We studied bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus L.

Digestate Improves Stinging Nettle () Growth and Fiber Production at a Chlor-Alkali Site.

Marginal lands have been proposed to produce non-food crop biomass for energy or green materials. For this purpose, the selection, implementation, and growth optimization of plant species on such lands are key elements to investigate to achieve relevant plant yields. Stinging nettle () is a herbaceous perennial that grows spontaneously on contaminated lands and was described as suitable to produce fibers for material applications.

Separating the effects of air and soil temperature on silver birch. Part II. The relation of physiology and leaf anatomy to growth dynamics.

The aboveground parts of boreal forest trees grow earlier in the growing season, the roots mostly later. The idea was to examine whether root growth followed soil temperature, or whether shoot growth also demanded most resources in the early growing season (soil temperature vs internal sink strengths for resources). The linkage between air and soil temperature was broken by switching the soil temperature.

Impacts of Financial Assistance on Quality of Life Among People Living With Burn Injury: Matched Cohort Analysis of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research Burn Model System Database.

Disparities in socioeconomic status and minority status affect the risk of burn injury and the severity of that injury, thus affecting the subsequent cost of care. We aimed to characterize the demographic details surrounding receipt of financial assistance due to burn injury and its relationship with health-related quality of life scores. Participants ≥18 from Burn Model System National Longitudinal Database (BMS) with complete demographic data were included (n = 4330).

[Multidisciplinary care for women victims with disabilities].

If disability increases the risk of violence, violence also increases disability, especially for women. Within the Women Safe & Children association, which takes care of women and children who are victims of violence, a multidisciplinary team supports people with disabilities. A general practitioner, a gynecologist, a psychologist, a psycho-corporate practitioner, a lawyer.

Host species shape the community structure of culturable endophytes in fruits of wild berry species (Vaccinium myrtillus L., Empetrum nigrum L. and Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.).

Wild berries are interesting research subjects due to their rich sources of health-beneficial phenolic compounds. However, the internal microbial communities, endophytes, associated with the wild berry fruits are currently unknown. Endophytes are bacteria or fungi inhabiting inside plant tissues, and their functions vary depending on the host species and environmental parameters.

[A comprehensive and sustainable approach to help women who are the victims of violence].

Located on the premises of a hospital in the Paris region, the Women Safe Institute provides free, confidential and caring care, respecting physical and psychological integrity and guaranteeing equal access and treatment for all women and children who are victims of violence. The Women Safe team is multi-professional and offers comprehensive support covering medical, psychological, legal and social issues. Clitoral repair is part of a pre- and post-operative psychological care programme that can be offered to women who have undergone excision, as in the case of Djenaba.

Here comes the flood! Stress effects of continuous and interval waterlogging periods during the growing season on Scots pine saplings.

Future climate scenarios for the boreal zone project increasing temperatures and precipitation, as well as extreme weather events such as heavy rain during the growing season. This can result in more frequent short-term waterlogging (WL) leading to unfavorable conditions for tree roots. In addition, it is decisive whether short-term WL periods during the growing season occur continuously or periodically.

Gender Dimorphism Does Not Affect Secondary Compound Composition in After Shoot Cutting in Northern Boreal Forests.

Due to a difference in plant resource allocation to reproduction, the males of dioecious plants may be more growth-orientated, whereas females may allocate more resources for synthesizing secondary compounds. This mechanism is considered to cause gender-specific differences in the plant responses to the loss of plant biomass. Here, we tested gender dimorphism in the responses of common juniper () to shoot cutting in four juniper populations located in northern boreal forests in Finland.

Let it snow! Winter conditions affect growth of birch seedlings during the following growing season.

Air temperatures and precipitation are predicted to increase in the future, especially at high latitudes and particularly so during winter. In contrast to air temperatures, changes in soil temperatures are more difficult to predict, as the fate of the insulating snow cover is crucial in this respect. Soil conditions can also be affected by rain-on-snow events and warm spells during winter, resulting in freeze-thaw cycles, compacted snow, ice encasement and local flooding.

Bacterial and fungal communities in boreal forest soil are insensitive to changes in snow cover conditions.

The northern regions are experiencing considerable changes in winter climate leading to more frequent warm periods, rain-on-snow events and reduced snow pack diminishing the insulation properties of snow cover and increasing soil frost and freeze-thaw cycles. In this study, we investigated how the lack of snow cover, formation of ice encasement and snow compaction affect the size, structure and activities of soil bacterial and fungal communities. Contrary to our hypotheses, snow manipulation treatments over one winter had limited influence on microbial community structure, bacterial or fungal copy numbers or enzyme activities.

Winter survival of Scots pine seedlings under different snow conditions.

Future climate scenarios predict increased air temperatures and precipitation, particularly at high latitudes, and especially so during winter. Soil temperatures, however, are more difficult to predict, since they depend strongly on the fate of the insulating snow cover. 'Rain-on-snow' events and warm spells during winter can lead to thaw-freeze cycles, compacted snow and ice encasement, as well as local flooding.

The Snow Must Go On: Ground Ice Encasement, Snow Compaction and Absence of Snow Differently Cause Soil Hypoxia, CO2 Accumulation and Tree Seedling Damage in Boreal Forest.

At high latitudes, the climate has warmed at twice the rate of the global average with most changes observed in autumn, winter and spring. Increasing winter temperatures and wide temperature fluctuations are leading to more frequent rain-on-snow events and freeze-thaw cycles causing snow compaction and formation of ice layers in the snowpack, thus creating ice encasement (IE). By decreasing the snowpack insulation capacity and restricting soil-atmosphere gas exchange, modification of the snow properties may lead to colder soil but also to hypoxia and accumulation of trace gases in the subnivean environment.

Blind Pose Prediction, Scoring, and Affinity Ranking of the CSAR 2014 Dataset.

The 2014 CSAR Benchmark Exercise was focused on three protein targets: coagulation factor Xa, spleen tyrosine kinase, and bacterial tRNA methyltransferase. Our protocol involved a preliminary analysis of the structural information available in the Protein Data Bank for the protein targets, which allowed the identification of the most appropriate docking software and scoring functions to be used for the rescoring of several docking conformations datasets, as well as for pose prediction and affinity ranking. The two key points of this study were (i) the prior evaluation of molecular modeling tools that are most adapted for each target and (ii) the increased search efficiency during the docking process to better explore the conformational space of big and flexible ligands.

BCSearch: fast structural fragment mining over large collections of protein structures.

Resources to mine the large amount of protein structures available today are necessary to better understand how amino acid variations are compatible with conformation preservation, to assist protein design, engineering and, further, the development of biologic therapeutic compounds. BCSearch is a versatile service to efficiently mine large collections of protein structures. It relies on a new approach based on a Binet-Cauchy kernel that is more discriminative than the widely used root mean square deviation criterion.

Phenolic responses of mountain crowberry (Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum) to global climate change are compound specific and depend on grazing by reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).

Mountain crowberry (Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum) is a keystone species in northern ecosystems and exerts important ecosystem-level effects through high concentrations of phenolic metabolites. It has not been investigated how crowberry phenolics will respond to global climate change.

Computational profiling of bioactive compounds using a target-dependent composite workflow.

Computational target fishing is a chemoinformatic method aimed at determining main and secondary targets of bioactive compounds in order to explain their mechanism of action, anticipate potential side effects, or repurpose existing drugs for novel therapeutic indications. Many existing successes in this area have been based on a use of a single computational method to estimate potentially new target-ligand associations. We herewith present an automated workflow using several methods to optimally browse target-ligand space according to existing knowledge on either ligand and target space under investigation.

Phenolic composition and antioxidant capacity of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) leaves in Northern Europe following foliar development and along environmental gradients.

Bilberry is a characteristic field layer species in the boreal forests and is an important forage plant for herbivores of the North European ecosystem. Bilberry leaves contain high levels of phenolic compounds, especially hydroxycinnamic acids, flavonols, catechins, and proanthocyanidins. We investigated the phenolic composition of bilberry leaves in two studies, one following foliar development in forest and open areas, and the other along a wide geographical gradient from south to north boreal forests in Finland.

Effect of latitude and altitude on the terpenoid and soluble phenolic composition of juniper (Juniperus communis) needles and evaluation of their antibacterial activity in the boreal zone.

The demand for dry juniper (Juniperus communis) needles as a raw material for the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries has increased rapidly in recent years. Juniper needles are known to be rich in terpenoids and phenolics, but their chemical composition and antibacterial properties have not been well-characterized. In this study, we describe the soluble phenolic and terpenoid composition of juniper needles collected in Finland (n = 125) and demonstrate that the concentration of these compounds clearly increased with latitude and altitude with, however, a stronger latitudinal effect (a higher content of monoterpenoids, proanthocyanidins, and flavonols in northern latitudes).

Effect of the temperature and the exclusion of UVB radiation on the phenolics and iridoids in Menyanthes trifoliata L. leaves in the subarctic.

The long-term effects of UVB exclusion and temperature on the methanol extractable (ME) phenolics (flavonoids, phenolic acids) and iridoids of Menyanthes trifoliata L. (Mt) leaves were studied in northern Finland (68 degrees N) using wooden frames covered with filters for UVB exclusion (polyester filter), control (cellulose acetate filter) and ambient (no filter) conditions. Analysis of ambient plots showed no effect of the daily mean temperature (2sigma = 1.

Influence of solar UV radiation on the nitrogen metabolism in needles of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.).

Needles of 20-year-old Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) saplings were studied in an ultraviolet (UV) exclusion field experiment (from 2000 to 2002) in northern Finland (67 degrees N). The chambers held filters that excluded both UV-B and UV-A, excluded UV-B only, transmitted all UV (control), or lacked filters (ambient).

Conjugated linoleic acid content of beef differs by feeding regime and muscle.

The project objective was to determine the CLA content of three muscles (Longissimus lumborum, LD; Semimembranosus, SM; Triceps brachii, TB), in both raw and cooked states, in cattle finished on pasture or with grain supplements. Cattle were randomly assigned to one of four finishing regimens; pasture (n=11), pasture with grain supplement (n=11), pasture with grain supplement containing soyoil (n=12), and feedlot (n=12). In the raw state, TB had higher (P<0.

Changes in freezing tolerance, plasma membrane H+-ATPase activity and fatty acid composition in Pinus resinosa needles during cold acclimation and de-acclimation.

It has previously been suggested that plasma membrane ATPase (PM H+-ATPase, EC 3.6.1.