B-Function Expression in the Flower Center Underlies the Homeotic Phenotype of Lacandonia schismatica (Triuridaceae)

Spontaneous homeotic transformations have been described in natural populations of both plants and animals, but little is known about the molecular-genetic mechanisms underlying these processes in plants. In the ABC model of floral organ identity in Arabidopsis thaliana, the B- and C-functions are necessary for stamen morphogenesis, and C alone is required for carpel identity. We provide ABC model-based molecular-genetic evidence that explains the unique inside-out homeotic floral organ arrangement of the monocotyledonous mycoheterotroph species Lacandonia schismatica (Triuridaceae) from Mexico. Whereas a quarter million flowering plant species bear central carpels surrounded by stamens, L. schismatica stamens occur in the center of the flower and are surrounded by carpels. The simplest explanation for this is that the B-function is displaced toward the flower center. Our analyses of the spatio-temporal pattern of B- and C-function gene expression are consistent with this hypothesis. The hypothesis is further supported by conservation between the B-function genes of L. schismatica and Arabidopsis, as the former are able to rescue stamens in Arabidopsis transgenic complementation lines, and Ls-AP3 and Ls-PI are able to interact with each other and with the corresponding Arabidopsis B-function proteins in yeast. Thus, relatively simple molecular modifications may underlie important morphological shifts in natural populations of extant plant taxa

Digestive and locomotor capacity show opposing responses to changing food availability in an ambush predatory fish

Metabolic rates vary widely within species, but little is known about how variation in the “floor” (i.e. standard metabolic rate in ectotherms; SMR) and “ceiling” (maximum metabolic rate; MMR) for an individual's aerobic scope (AS) are linked with the digestive and locomotor function. Any links among metabolic traits and aspects of physiological performance may also be modulated by fluctuations in food availability. This study followed changes in SMR, MMR, and digestive and locomotor capacity in Southern catfish (Silurus meridionalis) throughout 15 days of food deprivation and 15 days of refeeding. Individuals down-regulated SMR during food deprivation and showed only a 10% body mass decrease during this time. While critical swim speed (Ucrit), was robust to food-deprivation, digestive function decreased after fasting with a reduced peak oxygen uptake during specific dynamic action (SDA) and prolonged SDA duration. During refeeding, individuals displayed rapid growth and digestive function recovered to pre-fasting levels. However, refed fish showed a lower Ucrit than would be expected for their increased body length and in comparison to measures at the start of the study. Reduced swimming ability may be a consequence of compensatory growth: growth rate was negatively correlated with changes in Ucrit during refeeding. Southern catfish down-regulate digestive function to reduce energy expenditure during food deprivation, but regain digestive capacity during refeeding, potentially at the cost of decreased swimming performance. The plasticity of maintenance requirements suggests that SMR is a key fitness trait for in this ambush predator. Shifts in trait correlations with food availability suggest that the potential for correlated selection may depend on context

Screening of contaminants of emerging concern in surface water and wastewater effluents, assisted by the Persistency-Mobility-Toxicity Criteria

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are compounds of diverse origins that have not been deeply studied in the past which are now accruing growing environmental interest. The NOR-Water project aimed to identify the main CECs and their sources in the water environment of Northern Portugal–Galicia (located in northwest Spain) transnational region. To achieve these goals, a suspect screening analytical methodology based on the use of liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) was applied to 29 sampling sites in two campaigns. These sampling sites included river and sea water, as well as treated wastewater. The screening was driven by a library of over 3500 compounds, which included 604 compounds prioritized from different relevant lists on the basis of the persistency, mobility, and toxicity criteria. Thus, a total of 343 chemicals could be tentatively identified in the analyzed samples. This list of 343 identified chemicals was submitted to the classification workflow used for prioritization and resulted in 153 chemicals tentatively classified as persistent, mobile, and toxic (PMT) and 23 as very persistent and very mobile (vMvP), pinpointing the relevance of these types of chemicals in the aqueous environment. Pharmaceuticals, such as the antidepressant venlafaxine or the antipsychotic sulpiride, and industrial chemicals, especially high production volume chemicals (HPVC) such as ε-caprolactam, were the groups of compounds that were detected at the highest frequencies.This research was funded by Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2021/06) and the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal Programme (POCTEP) 2014-2020 (ref. 0725_NOR_WATER_1_P). R. M. acknowledges Banco Santander and Universidade de Santiago de Compostela for her outstanding researcher contract and N. A. acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for his Ph.D. grant DFA/BD/6218/2020.S

26Postoperative diagnosis and outcome in patients with revision arthroplasty for aseptic loosening

BACKGROUND: The most common cause of implant failure is aseptic loosening (AL), followed by prosthetic joint infection (PJI). This study evaluates the incidence of PJI among patients operated with suspected AL and whether the diagnosis of PJI was predictive of subsequent implant failure including re-infection, at 2 years of follow up. METHODS: Patients undergoing revision hip or knee arthroplasty due to presumed AL from February 2009 to September 2011 were prospectively evaluated. A sonication fluid of prosthesis and tissue samples for microbiology and histopathology at the time of the surgery were collected. Implant failure include recurrent or persistent infection, reoperation for any reason or need for chronic antibiotic suppression. RESULTS: Of 198 patients with pre-and intraoperative diagnosis of AL, 24 (12.1 %) had postoperative diagnosis of PJI. After a follow up of 31 months (IQR: 21 to 38 months), 9 (37.5 %) of 24 patients in the PJI group had implant failure compared to only 1 (1.1 %) in the 198 of AL group (p 20 CFU) and peri-prosthetic tissue culture were 87.5 % vs 66.7 %, respectively. Specificities were 100 % for both techniques (95 % CI, 97.9-100 %). A greater number of patients with PJI (79.1 %) had previous partial arthroplasty revisions than those patients in the AL group (56.9 %) (p = 0.04). In addition, 5 (55.5 %) patients with PJI and implant failure had more revision arthroplasties during the first year after the last implant placement than those patients with PJI without implant failure (1 patient; 6.7 %) (RR 3.8; 95 % CI 1.4-10.1; p = 0.015). On the other hand, 6 (25 %) patients finally diagnosed of PJI were initially diagnosed of AL in the first year after primary arthroplasty, whereas it was only 16 (9.2 %) patients in the group of true AL (RR 2.7; 95 % CI 1.2-6.1; p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: More than one tenth of patients with suspected AL are misdiagnosed PJI. Positive histology and positive peri-implant tissue and sonicate fluid cultures are highly predictive of implant failure in patients with PJI. Patients with greater number of partial hip revisions for a presumed AL had more risk of PJI. Early loosening is more often caused by hidden PJI than late loosening

The Sunrise Mission

The first science flight of the balloon-borne \Sunrise telescope took place in June 2009 from ESRANGE (near Kiruna/Sweden) to Somerset Island in northern Canada. We describe the scientific aims and mission concept of the project and give an overview and a description of the various hardware components: the 1-m main telescope with its postfocus science instruments (the UV filter imager SuFI and the imaging vector magnetograph IMaX) and support instruments (image stabilizing and light distribution system ISLiD and correlating wavefront sensor CWS), the optomechanical support structure and the instrument mounting concept, the gondola structure and the power, pointing, and telemetry systems, and the general electronics architecture. We also explain the optimization of the structural and thermal design of the complete payload. The preparations for the science flight are described, including AIV and ground calibration of the instruments. The course of events during the science flight is outlined, up to the recovery activities. Finally, the in-flight performance of the instrumentation is briefly summarized.Comment: 35 pages, 17 figure

The Sunrise Mission

The first science flight of the balloon-borne Sunrise telescope took place in June 2009 from ESRANGE (near Kiruna/Sweden) to Somerset Island in northern Canada. We describe the scientific aims and mission concept of the project and give an overview and a description of the various hardware components: the 1-m main telescope with its postfocus science instruments (the UV filter imager SuFI and the imaging vector magnetograph IMaX) and support instruments (image stabilizing and light distribution system ISLiD and correlating wavefront sensor CWS), the optomechanical support structure and the instrument mounting concept, the gondola structure and the power, pointing, and telemetry systems, and the general electronics architecture. We also explain the optimization of the structural and thermal design of the complete payload. The preparations for the science flight are described, including AIV and ground calibration of the instruments. The course of events during the science flight is outlined, up to the recovery activities. Finally, the in-flight performance of the instrumentation is discussed. © 2010 The Author(s)

Symptom cluster analysis of long COVID-19 in patients discharged from the Temporary COVID-19 Hospital in Mexico City.

INTRODUCTION: Several reports have emerged describing the long-term consequences of COVID-19 and its effects on multiple systems. METHODS: As further research is needed, we conducted a longitudinal observational study to report the prevalence and associated risk factors of the long-term health consequences of COVID-19 by symptom clusters in patients discharged from the Temporary COVID-19 Hospital (TCH) in Mexico City. Self-reported clinical symptom data were collected via telephone calls over 90 days post-discharge. Among 4670 patients, we identified 45 symptoms across eight symptom clusters (neurological; mood disorders; systemic; respiratory; musculoskeletal; ear, nose, and throat; dermatological; and gastrointestinal). RESULTS: We observed that the neurological, dermatological, and mood disorder symptom clusters persisted in >30% of patients at 90 days post-discharge. Although most symptoms decreased in frequency between day 30 and 90, alopecia and the dermatological symptom cluster significantly increased (p < 0.00001). Women were more prone than men to develop long-term symptoms, and invasive mechanical ventilation also increased the frequency of symptoms at 30 days post-discharge. CONCLUSION: Overall, we observed that symptoms often persisted regardless of disease severity. We hope these findings will help promote public health strategies that ensure equity in the access to solutions focused on the long-term consequences of COVID-19

5to. Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad. Memoria académica

El V Congreso Internacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para la Sociedad, CITIS 2019, realizado del 6 al 8 de febrero de 2019 y organizado por la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, ofreció a la comunidad académica nacional e internacional una plataforma de comunicación unificada, dirigida a cubrir los problemas teóricos y prácticos de mayor impacto en la sociedad moderna desde la ingeniería. En esta edición, dedicada a los 25 años de vida de la UPS, los ejes temáticos estuvieron relacionados con la aplicación de la ciencia, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación en cinco pilares fundamentales de nuestra sociedad: la industria, la movilidad, la sostenibilidad ambiental, la información y las telecomunicaciones. El comité científico estuvo conformado formado por 48 investigadores procedentes de diez países: España, Reino Unido, Italia, Bélgica, México, Venezuela, Colombia, Brasil, Estados Unidos y Ecuador. Fueron recibidas un centenar de contribuciones, de las cuales 39 fueron aprobadas en forma de ponencias y 15 en formato poster. Estas contribuciones fueron presentadas de forma oral ante toda la comunidad académica que se dio cita en el Congreso, quienes desde el aula magna, el auditorio y la sala de usos múltiples de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, cumplieron respetuosamente la responsabilidad de representar a toda la sociedad en la revisión, aceptación y validación del conocimiento nuevo que fue presentado en cada exposición por los investigadores. Paralelo a las sesiones técnicas, el Congreso contó con espacios de presentación de posters científicos y cinco workshops en temáticas de vanguardia que cautivaron la atención de nuestros docentes y estudiantes. También en el marco del evento se impartieron un total de ocho conferencias magistrales en temas tan actuales como la gestión del conocimiento en la universidad-ecosistema, los retos y oportunidades de la industria 4.0, los avances de la investigación básica y aplicada en mecatrónica para el estudio de robots de nueva generación, la optimización en ingeniería con técnicas multi-objetivo, el desarrollo de las redes avanzadas en Latinoamérica y los mundos, la contaminación del aire debido al tránsito vehicular, el radón y los riesgos que representa este gas radiactivo para la salud humana, entre otros

Identificación de riesgos geoambientales y su valoración en la zona de hundimiento del buque Prestige

Potential geological hazard assessment has been carried out in the area where the Prestige vessel was sunk using a broad database that comprises: multibeam, high and ultra-high resolution seismic profiles, gravity cores, onland seismicity stations and Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS). The main results of this study indicate that among the geologic factors that can be considered as potential hazards, four main categories can be differentiated based on their origin: morphologic, sedimentary, tectonic, and seismicity. Hazards of morphologic origin include steep gradients; the morphologic features suggest the occurrence of mass-wasting instabilities. Hazards of sedimentary origin also includes the occurrence of slope instability processes in form of single slides and a great variety of erosive and depositional gravity flows (debris and turbidity flows). Hazards of tectonic and seismic origin are important because the sinking area straddles the Calida Bank which is a structural seamount with a moderate tectonic activity that results in a latent seismicity of low to moderate magnitude. The interaction of these factors leads to consider to the risk as medium, and the degree of exposure of the bow and stern as high. Several general and specific recommendations are made in order to increase the geological and geophysics knowledgement in the Prestige sinking area and Spanish continental margins and deep sea areas. These recommendations also should be used to elaborate the options for reducing the hazard and loss

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele