Countercurrent heat exchange and thermoregulation during blood-feeding in kissing bugs

Blood-sucking insects experience thermal stress at each feeding event on endothermic vertebrates. We used thermography to examine how kissing-bugs Rhodnius prolixus actively protect themselves from overheating. During feeding, these bugs sequester and dissipate the excess heat in their heads while maintaining an abdominal temperature close to ambient. We employed a functional-morphological approach, combining histology, µCT and X-ray-synchrotron imaging to shed light on the way these insects manage the flow of heat across their bodies. The close alignment of the circulatory and ingestion systems, as well as other morphological characteristics, support the existence of a countercurrent heat exchanger in the head of R. prolixus, which decreases the temperature of the ingested blood before it reaches the abdomen. This kind of system has never been described before in the head of an insect. For the first time, we show that countercurrent heat exchange is associated to thermoregulation during blood-feeding.

Download Full-text

TERATOMA OF THE KIDNEY: A RARE CASE OF EXTRAGONADAL GERM CELL TUMOR

Педиатрическая фармакология ◽

10.15690/pf.v14i3.1746 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 202-207

Author(s):

Tamara R. Panferova ◽

Timur T. Valiev ◽

Oleg P. Bliznyukov ◽

Olga A. Kapkova

Keyword(s):

Computed Tomography ◽

Rare Case ◽

Clinical Observation ◽

Mature Teratoma ◽

Morphological Characteristics ◽

Cell Tumor ◽

X Ray ◽

Domestic Literature ◽

X Ray Computed ◽

First Time

For the first time, a clinical observation of a rare case of a mature teratoma of the kidney in a child aged 5 months is presented in domestic literature. A literature review is given on this topic. The clinical picture, characteristic signs of a tumor during ultrasound and X-ray computed tomography, the results of a surgical procedure receive full coverage. Special attention is paid to the morphological characteristics of a mature teratoma.

Download Full-text

Soft ticks perform evaporative cooling during blood-feeding

10.1101/2020.06.30.180968 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Claudio R. Lazzari ◽

Aurélie Fauquet ◽

Chloé Lahondère ◽

Ricardo N. Araújo ◽

Marcos H. Pereira

Keyword(s):

Thermal Stress ◽

Heat Shock ◽

Heat Shock Proteins ◽

Tick Species ◽

Adaptive Strategies ◽

Blood Feeding ◽

The Body ◽

Blood Sucking ◽

Shock Proteins ◽

Cuticular Surface

AbstractFeeding on the blood of warm-blooded vertebrates is associated to thermal stress in haematophagous arthropods. It has been demonstrated that blood-sucking insects protect their physiological integrity either by synthesising heat-shock proteins or by means of thermoregulatory mechanisms. In this work, we describe the first thermoregulatory mechanism in a tick species, Ornithodoros rostratus. By performing real-time infrared thermography during feeding on mice we found that this acarian eliminates big amounts of fluid (urine) through their coxal glands; this fluid quickly spreads over the cuticular surface and its evaporation cools-down the body of the tick. The spread of the fluid is possible thanks to capillary diffusion through the sculptured exoskeleton of Ornithodoros. We discuss our findings in the frame of the adaptive strategies to cope with the thermal stress experienced by blood-sucking arthropods at each feeding event warm-blooded hosts.

Download Full-text

Hunting down hydrogen: applying neutron macromolecular crystallography to galectins

The Biochemist ◽

10.1042/bio04102020 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 20-23

Author(s):

Derek T. Logan

Keyword(s):

New Drugs ◽

Soluble Carbohydrate ◽

Carbohydrate Binding ◽

Macromolecular Crystallography ◽

Hydrogen Atoms ◽

X Ray ◽

X Ray Crystallography ◽

Natural Ligands ◽

First Time ◽

Shed Light

Galectins are a medically important family of small, soluble carbohydrate-binding proteins that have been implicated in a wide variety of diseases, and are therefore targets for the development of new drugs. Many X-ray crystal structures of small molecules in complex with galectins have been determined and have given invaluable information on how natural ligands and synthetic inhibitors are recognized. However, until now the hydrogen-bonding patterns involved in ligand recognition have been a matter of informed guesswork, as X-ray crystallography can't reliably tell us where hydrogen atoms are positioned. We describe how neutron macromolecular crystallography has been applied to galectins for the first time to shed light on this question.

Download Full-text

Morphological characters in light of new molecular phylogenies: the caudal-fin skeleton of Ovalentaria

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.211605 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Philipp Thieme ◽

Nalani K. Schnell ◽

Kerryn Parkinson ◽

Timo Moritz

Keyword(s):

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Morphological Characters ◽

Character State ◽

Evolutionary Trend ◽

Caudal Fin ◽

X Ray ◽

Ground Plan ◽

Ancestral Character State ◽

Morphological Approach ◽

First Time

The Ovalentaria is a taxon of teleosts that has been proposed based on molecular analyses only. Previously widely separated families are assembled in this taxon. For the first time, the Ovalentaria are analysed using a comparative morphological approach. The caudal-fin skeleton of 355 species covering all 48 ovalentarian families are examined in cleared and stained specimens, µCT datasets and X-ray images as well as from the literature. A total of 38 morphological characters are evaluated and used for ancestral character state reconstructions and phylogenetic analyses. Results provide hypotheses for a scenario of the evolution of the caudal-fin skeleton and its ground plan in Ovalentaria. An evolutionary trend towards the reduction of skeletal elements in the caudal fin is observed. Connections between the evolution of the caudal-fin skeleton and modes of locomotion found in ovalentarian taxa are discussed. Phylogenetic analyses based on the caudal-fin morphology provide topologies for intra-ovalentarian relationships that largely agree with molecular hypotheses.

Download Full-text

Aleksey Peshkov as an editor of Samarskaya Gazeta

Voprosy literatury ◽

10.31425/0042-8795-2020-4-128-138 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 128-138

Author(s):

A. S. Bik-Bulatov

Keyword(s):

Local History ◽

Organizational Skills ◽

First Time ◽

New Evidence ◽

Insight Into ◽

Shed Light

The article uses little known letters of M. Gorky, many of which were published for the first time in 1997, as well as findings of Samara-based experts in local history to shed light on the writer’s work as editor-in-chief of the Samarskaya Gazeta newspaper in 1895. The researcher introduces hitherto unstudied reminiscences of the journalist D. Linyov (Dalin) about this period, which reference a letter by Gorky, now lost. The paper details a newly discovered episode of Gorky’s professional biography as a journalist: it concerns his campaign against a Samara ‘she-wolf,’ the madam of a local brothel A. Neucheva. Linyov’s reminiscences turn out to be an important and interesting source, offering an insight into the daily grind of the young editor Gorky, providing new evidence of his excellent organizational skills, and describing his moral and social stance. The author presents his work in the context of a recently initiated broader discussion about the need to map out all Russian periodicals for the period until 1917, as well as all research devoted to individual publications.

Download Full-text

[I] ‘did write this Wyll with my own hand’

Critical Survey ◽

10.3167/cs.2020.320406 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 66-77

Author(s):

Vassiliki Markidou

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Nation Building ◽

Early Modern London ◽

First Time ◽

Shed Light

This article attempts for the first time to shed light on the politics of simulation and dissimulation in Isabella Whitney’s ‘Wyll and Testament’. It also argues that the poem both reflects its creator’s awareness of the celebrated English historical and topographical narratives and deviates from them by crucially omitting a seminal part of London’s history, namely its Troynovant tradition. In so doing, as well as by defining a paradoxical urban landscape, Whitney presents a tale not of the (mythic) founding of the English capital with its patriarchal and nation-building connotations, but of its (satiric) bequeathal by benevolent femininity, as such offering its reader a different angle from which to explore and interpret early modern London.

Download Full-text

Diphosphinoazine Rhodium(I) and Iridium(I) Complexes

Collection of Czechoslovak Chemical Communications ◽

10.1135/cccc20060197 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 71 (2) ◽

pp. 197-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Martin Pošta ◽

Jan Čermák ◽

Pavel Vojtíšek ◽

Ivana Císařová

Keyword(s):

Rhodium Complexes ◽

Iridium Complexes ◽

X Ray ◽

First Time

The first rhodium complexes of diphosphinoazines [{RhCl(1,2-η:5,6-η-CH=CHCH2CH2CH=CHCH2CH2)}2 {μ-R2PCH2C(But)=NN=C(But)CH2PR2] (R = Ph, Cy, Pri) were prepared by cleavage of the bridge in chloro(cycloocta-1,5-diene)rhodium(I) dimer, the analogous iridium(I) complexes were also prepared for the first time. The X-ray structures of isostructural rhodium and iridium complexes with bis(dicyclohexylphosphino)pinacoloneazine were determined. Diphosphinoazine ligands in the complexes remained in (Z,Z) configuration bridging two RhCl(C8H12) units.

Download Full-text

Quartz Crystallite Size and Moganite Content as Indicators of the Mineralogical Maturity of the Carboniferous Chert: The Case of Cherts from Eastern Asturias (Spain)

Minerals ◽

10.3390/min11060611 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 611

Author(s):

Celia Marcos ◽

María de Uribe-Zorita ◽

Pedro Álvarez-Lloret ◽

Alaa Adawy ◽

Patricia Fernández ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽

Crystallite Size ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

X Ray Diffraction ◽

X Ray ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Infrared And Raman Spectroscopy ◽

First Time ◽

Geological Formations

Chert samples from different coastal and inland outcrops in the Eastern Asturias (Spain) were mineralogically investigated for the first time for archaeological purposes. X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, transmission electron microscopy, infrared and Raman spectroscopy and total organic carbon techniques were used. The low content of moganite, since its detection by X-ray diffraction is practically imperceptible, and the crystallite size (over 1000 Å) of the quartz in these cherts would be indicative of its maturity and could potentially be used for dating chert-tools recovered from archaeological sites. Also, this information can constitute essential data to differentiate the cherts and compare them with those used in archaeological tools. However, neither composition nor crystallite size would allow distinguishing between coastal and inland chert outcrops belonging to the same geological formations.

Download Full-text

First Report on the Geologic Occurrence of Natural Na–A Zeolite and Associated Minerals in Cretaceous Mudstones of the Paja Formation of Vélez (Santander), Colombia

Crystals ◽

10.3390/cryst11020218 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 218

Author(s):

Carlos Alberto Ríos-Reyes ◽

German Alfonso Reyes-Mendoza ◽

José Antonio Henao-Martínez ◽

Craig Williams ◽

Alan Dyer

Keyword(s):

Natural Zeolite ◽

Scanning Electron Micrographs ◽

Total Sulfur ◽

Zeolite A ◽

X Ray Diffraction ◽

X Ray ◽

Mineral Phases ◽

The World ◽

Porosity And Permeability ◽

First Time

This study reports for the first time the geologic occurrence of natural zeolite A and associated minerals in mudstones from the Cretaceous Paja Formation in the urban area of the municipality of Vélez (Santander), Colombia. These rocks are mainly composed of quartz, muscovite, pyrophyllite, kaolinite and chlorite group minerals, framboidal and cubic pyrite, as well as marcasite, with minor feldspar, sulphates, and phosphates. Total organic carbon (TOC), total sulfur (TS), and millimeter fragments of algae are high, whereas few centimeters and not biodiverse small ammonite fossils, and other allochemical components are subordinated. Na–A zeolite and associated mineral phases as sodalite occur just beside the interparticle micropores (honeycomb from framboidal, cube molds, and amorphous cavities). It is facilitated by petrophysical properties alterations, due to processes of high diagenesis, temperatures up to 80–100 °C, with weathering contributions, which increase the porosity and permeability, as well as the transmissivity (fluid flow), allowing the geochemistry remobilization and/or recrystallization of pre-existing silica, muscovite, kaolinite minerals group, salts, carbonates, oxides and peroxides. X-ray diffraction analyses reveal the mineral composition of the mudstones and scanning electron micrographs show the typical cubic morphology of Na–A zeolite of approximately 0.45 mμ in particle size. Our data show that the sequence of the transformation of phases is: Poorly crystalline aluminosilicate → sodalite → Na–A zeolite. A literature review shows that this is an unusual example of the occurrence of natural zeolites in sedimentary marine rocks recognized around the world.

Download Full-text

The Effect of Surfactant-Modified Montmorillonite on the Cross-Linking Efficiency of Polysiloxanes

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma14102623 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (10) ◽

pp. 2623

Author(s):

Monika Wójcik-Bania ◽

Jakub Matusik

Keyword(s):

Total Pore Volume ◽

Cross Linking ◽

X Ray Diffraction ◽

X Ray ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

The Cross ◽

Chain Lengths ◽

First Time ◽

Substituent Influence ◽

Benzyl Substituent

Polymer–clay mineral composites are an important class of materials with various applications in the industry. Despite interesting properties of polysiloxanes, such matrices were rarely used in combination with clay minerals. Thus, for the first time, a systematic study was designed to investigate the cross-linking efficiency of polysiloxane networks in the presence of 2 wt % of organo-montmorillonite. Montmorillonite (Mt) was intercalated with six quaternary ammonium salts of the cation structure [(CH3)2R’NR]+, where R = C12, C14, C16, and R’ = methyl or benzyl substituent. The intercalation efficiency was examined by X-ray diffraction, CHN elemental analysis, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Textural studies have shown that the application of freezing in liquid nitrogen and freeze-drying after the intercalation increases the specific surface area and the total pore volume of organo-Mt. The polymer matrix was a poly(methylhydrosiloxane) cross-linked with two linear vinylsiloxanes of different siloxane chain lengths between end functional groups. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy studies have shown that the increase in d-spacing of organo-Mt and the benzyl substituent influence the degree of nanofillers’ exfoliation in the nanocomposites. The increase in the degree of organo-Mt exfoliation reduces the efficiency of hydrosilylation reaction monitored by FTIR. This was due to physical hindrance induced by exfoliated Mt particles.

Download Full-text