When a Tritrophic Interaction Goes Wrong to the Third Level: Xanthoxylin From Trees Causes the Honeybee Larval Mortality in Colonies Affected by the River Disease

The “River Disease” (RD), a disorder impacting honeybee colonies located close to waterways with abundant riparian vegetation (including Sebastiania schottiana, Euphorbiaceae), kills newly hatched larvae. Forager bees from RD-affected colonies collect honeydew excretions from Epormenis cestri (Hemiptera: Flatidae), a planthopper feeding on trees of S. schottiana. First-instar honeybee larvae fed with this honeydew died. Thus, we postulated that the nectars of RD-affected colonies had a natural toxin coming from either E. cestri or S. schottiana. An untargeted metabolomics characterization of fresh nectars extracts from colonies with and without RD allowed to pinpoint xanthoxylin as one of the chemicals present in higher amounts in nectar from RD-affected colonies than in nectars from healthy colonies. Besides, xanthoxylin was also found in the aerial parts of S. schottiana and the honeydew excreted by E. cestri feeding on this tree. A larva feeding assay where xanthoxylin-enriched diets were offered to 1^st instar larvae showed that larvae died in the same proportion as larvae did when offered enriched diets with nectars from RD-colonies. These findings demonstrate that a xenobiotic can mimic the RD syndrome in honeybee larvae and provide evidence of an interspecific flow of xanthoxylin among three trophic levels. Further, our results give information that can be considered when implementing measures to control this honeybee disease.

     

Altered mRNA and Protein Expression of Monocarboxylate Transporter MCT1 in the Cerebral Cortex and Cerebellum of Prion Protein Knockout Mice

The effect of a cellular prion protein (PrP^c) deficiency on neuroenergetics was primarily analyzed via surveying the expression of genes specifically involved in lactate/pyruvate metabolism, such as monocarboxylate transporters (MCT1, MCT2, MCT4). The aim of the present study was to elucidate a potential involvement of PrP^c in the regulation of energy metabolism in different brain regions. By using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), we observed a marked reduction in MCT1 mRNA expression in the cortex of symptomatic Zürich I Prnp^−/− mice, as compared to their wild-type (WT) counterparts. MCT1 downregulation in the cortex was accompanied with significantly decreased expression of the MCT1 functional interplayer, the Na⁺/K⁺ ATPase α2 subunit. Conversely, the MCT1 mRNA level was significantly raised in the cerebellum of Prnp^−/− vs. WT control group, without a substantial change in the Na⁺/K⁺ ATPase α2 subunit expression. To validate the observed mRNA findings, we confirmed the observed change in MCT1 mRNA expression level in the cortex at the protein level. MCT4, highly expressed in tissues that rely on glycolysis as an energy source, exhibited a significant reduction in the hippocampus of Prnp^−/− vs. WT mice. The present study demonstrates that a lack of PrP^c leads to altered MCT1 and MCT4 mRNA/protein expression in different brain regions of Prnp^−/− vs. WT mice. Our findings provide evidence that PrP^c might affect the monocarboxylate intercellular transport, which needs to be confirmed in further studies.     

Copper(I)‐Catalysed Multicomponent Reaction: Straightforward Access to 5‐Hydroxy‐1H‐pyrrol‐2(5H)‐ones

A copper‐catalysed multicomponent coupling reaction between readily available (Z)‐3‐iodoacrylic acids, terminal alkynes, and primary amines was developed to smoothly access a small library of 5‐hydroxy‐1H‐pyrrol‐2(5H)‐ones in good yields. This practical and general process was applied to a short‐steps synthesis of the natural product pulchellalactam.

     

Renewable thermoplastic multiphase systems from dimer fatty acids,with mineral microfillers

Renewable thermoplastic blends based on polyurethane (TPU) and polyamide (DAPA) obtained from dimers of fatty acids were reinforced with mineral microfillers, surface coated calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) or high aspect ratio talc (HAR), to prepare different micro‐biocomposites systems. The influence of the nature of the filler, the aspect ratio and the filler content (5, 10, and 15 wt %), for different TPU/DAPA ratios (20/80, 50/50, and 80/20 wt %/wt %), were specifically investigated. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyses were conducted to investigate the thermal properties. DSC analyses showed that the addition of CaCO₃ had no influence on the glass transition and the melting temperature of the corresponding composites. Moreover, the morphology and the mechanical properties in the solid state of the different multiphase systems were investigated. SEM observations after tensile tests showed that the best matrix/filler interactions were obtained in the case of the 20/80‐based systems. Uniaxial tensile tests have shown that the addition of HAR or CaCO₃ fillers led to a clear increase of the Young modulus. Micromechanical models based on a two‐phase composite approach, including Mori–Tanaka and Davies models were used to describe the dependence of the elastic modulus on the volume fraction of HAR or CaCO₃ fillers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43055.     

Feedback stabilization for high order feedforward nonlinear time-delay systems

This paper investigates the problem of global strong stabilization by state feedback, for a family of high order feedforward nonlinear time-delay systems. The uncertain nonlinearities are assumed to satisfy a polynomial growth assumption with an input or delayed input dependent rate. With the help of the appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals, and a rescaling transformation with a gain to be tuned online by a dynamic equation, we propose a dynamic low gain state feedback control scheme. A simulation example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design procedure.     

EDUCA: A web 2.0 authoring tool for developing adaptive and intelligent tutoring systems using a Kohonen network

This paper presents a Web 2.0 Learning Environment, for a systematic creation of adaptive and intelligent tutoring systems. Authoring contents is made by a community of users including teachers and students. The tutoring systems adapt the contents according to the best learning style using self-organizing maps (SOMs). The SOM was trained for classifying Felder–Silverman learning styles. The most important advantage of these unsupervised neural networks is that they do not require an external teacher for presenting a training set. The approach was implemented under an authoring tool that allows the production of personalized learning material to be used under collaborative and mobile learning environments. The tutoring systems together with the neural network can also be exported to mobile devices. We present different results to the approach working under the authoring tool.