MPA network design based on graph network theory and emergent properties of larval dispersal

Despite the recognised effectiveness of networks of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as a biodiversity conservation instrument, nowadays MPA network design frequently disregards the importance of connectivity patterns. In the case of sedentary marine populations, connectivity stems not only from the stochastic nature of the physical environment that affects early-life stages dispersal, but also from the spawning stock attributes that affect the reproductive output (e.g., passive eggs and larvae) and its survivorship. Early-life stages are virtually impossible to track in the ocean. Therefore, numerical ocean current simulations coupled to egg and larval Lagrangian transport models remain the most common approach for the assessment of marine larval connectivity. Inferred larval connectivity may be different depending on the type of connectivity considered; consequently, the prioritisation of sites for marine populations' conservation might also differ. Here, we introduce a framework for evaluating and designing MPA networks based on the identification of connectivity hotspots using graph theoretic analysis. We use as a case of study a network of open-access areas and MPAs, off Mallorca Island (Spain), and test its effectiveness for the protection of the painted comber Serranus scriba. Outputs from network analysis are used to: (1) identify critical areas for improving overall larval connectivity; (2) assess the impact of species' biological parameters in network connectivity; and (3) explore alternative MPA configurations to improve average network connectivity. Results demonstrate the potential of graph theory to identify non-trivial egg/larval dispersal patterns and emerging collective properties of the MPA network which are relevant for increasing protection efficiency.Comment: 8 figures, 3 tables, 1 Supplementary material (including 4 table; 3 figures and supplementary methods

Hábitat y vivienda adecuados en Argentina. Entre los derechos reconocidos y la vulneración existente

This article is the result of an extensive research work that explores the current legislation about the right to an adequate housing and habitat. The increase in land development and the growth of the housing deficit have an strong impact on the daily life and the quality of life of the population. For this reason, housing can not be understood as an empty signifier. It must be based on the needs and rights of people to live decently, and must be closely related to its own habitat. Various international, national, provincial legislation, and jurisprudence were found, which recognize habitat and housing as a fundamental human right for the dignity and potential development of each person. This legislation is supported by the resolutions adopted at the United Nations Habitat Conferences. This paper presents some of the consequences that not guaranteeing this right repeatedly reinforced by the legal order has for individuals, families, communities, and society as a whole. Finally, this article proposes some considerations that should be taken into account regarding public policies on habitat and housing.Este artículo es consecuencia de un extenso trabajo de investigación que explora la legislación vigente sobre el derecho a vivienda y hábitat adecuados. El aumento de la urbanización y el crecimiento del déficit habitacional, generan fuertes impactos en el modo de vivir la cotidianidad y en la calidad de vida de la población. Por esto, la vivienda no puede ser entendida como un significante vacío, sino que debe ser acorde a las necesidades y derechos de las personas a vivir con decoro, además de que la misma debe pensarse en relación al hábitat del que forma parte y no como algo aislado. Se encontró diversa legislación internacional, nacional y provincial y jurisprudencia, que reconocen al hábitat y la vivienda como un derecho humano fundamental para la dignidad y el desarrollo potencial de cada persona. Este cúmulo de legislación es respaldado por las resoluciones adoptadas en las Conferencias Hábitat de Naciones Unidas. Como resultado se presentan algunas de las consecuencias que acarrea, para personas, familias, comunidades y la sociedad toda, el no satisfacer ni garantizar este derecho reiteradamente afirmado por el orden jurídico. Ante lo expuesto, finalmente se proponen algunas consideraciones que deberían tenerse en cuenta en políticas públicas de hábitat y vivienda

FIBROMYALGIA: A SEARCH FOR MARKERS AND THEIR EVALUATION THROUGHOUT A TREATMENT

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) is a complex chronic pain disorder of unknown causation associated with debilitating fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, cognitive and affective symptoms. There is no biological markers to monitor FM progression and no permanent cure for FM. Our aim was to identify markers associated with FM and its progression and to evaluate the efficacy of a battery of treatments. The study is a treatment trial, open label and single centre, with 27 women (41 ± 2 years) diagnosed with FM using the Widespread Pain Index (WPI), the Symptom Severity (SS) Scale and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). Anthropometric parameters, plasma cytokines values and clinical progression were measured before and after two months of a multi-approach treatment. A significant improvement was observed after two months of treatment as shown by WPI, SS Scale and FIQ. No significant variations were observed, except for the intracellular body water parameters, in anthropometric and body composition characteristics. Food-induced histaminosis release was observed to cow´s milk, egg, fruit, wheat and oily fish. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) plasma cytokine values were significantly higher in FM. A strong positive correlation was observed between the percentage of reduction of cytokine levels and the improvement of health status. We propose: i) the existence of different subsets of FM patients; ii) the use of intracellular body water and plasma cytokine values as positive markers for FM progression; iii) that food-sensitisation could be an important mechanism for FM pathogenesis and iv) the use of a multidisciplinary approach for FM treatment

FIBROMYALGIA: A SEARCH FOR MARKERS AND THEIR EVALUATION THROUGHOUT A TREATMENT

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) is a complex chronic pain disorder of unknown causation associated with debilitating fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, cognitive and affective symptoms. There is no biological markers to monitor FM progression and no permanent cure for FM. Our aim was to identify markers associated with FM and its progression and to evaluate the efficacy of a battery of treatments. The study is a treatment trial, open label and single centre, with 27 women (41 ± 2 years) diagnosed with FM using the Widespread Pain Index (WPI), the Symptom Severity (SS) Scale and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). Anthropometric parameters, plasma cytokines values and clinical progression were measured before and after two months of a multi-approach treatment. A significant improvement was observed after two months of treatment as shown by WPI, SS Scale and FIQ. No significant variations were observed, except for the intracellular body water parameters, in anthropometric and body composition characteristics. Food-induced histaminosis release was observed to cow´s milk, egg, fruit, wheat and oily fish. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) plasma cytokine values were significantly higher in FM. A strong positive correlation was observed between the percentage of reduction of cytokine levels and the improvement of health status. We propose: i) the existence of different subsets of FM patients; ii) the use of intracellular body water and plasma cytokine values as positive markers for FM progression; iii) that food-sensitisation could be an important mechanism for FM pathogenesis and iv) the use of a multidisciplinary approach for FM treatment

Monitoring dynamics of human adenovirus disassembly induced by mechanical fatigue

The standard pathway for virus infection of eukaryotic cells requires disassembly of the viral shell to facilitate release of the viral genome into the host cell. Here we use mechanical fatigue, well below rupture strength, to induce stepwise disruption of individual human adenovirus particles under physiological conditions, and simultaneously monitor disassembly in real time. Our data show the sequence of dismantling events in individual mature (infectious) and immature (noninfectious) virions, starting with consecutive release of vertex structures followed by capsid cracking and core exposure. Further, our experiments demonstrate that vertex resilience depends inextricably on maturation, and establish the relevance of penton vacancies as seeding loci for virus shell disruption. The mechanical fatigue disruption route recapitulates the adenovirus disassembly pathway in vivo, as well as the stability differences between mature and immature virionsWe acknowledge funding by grants from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, PIB2010US-00233, FIS2011-29493, Consolider CSD2010-00024 and CAM project and the Comunidad de Madrid No. S2009/MAT-1467 to P. J. P.; BFU2010-16382/BMC to C.S.M.; and FIS2011-16090-E to C.S.M. and P.J.P. S.J.F acknowledges funding from the National Institutes of Health, USA (GM037705 and AI1058172). A.J.P.-B. holds a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contract from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain; A.O.-E. and R.M.-C. are recipients of predoctoral fellowships from the Ministry of Education and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of Spain, respectivel

Evaluation of CAM-CHEM VSL model performance during Southtrac campaign

In the framework of the SouthTRAC Campaign (Transport and Composition of the Southern Hemisphere Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere) based on Rio Grande, Argentina, a local research group from CONICET (Argentine National Research Council) joined the German consortium maintaining the HALO research aircraft (High-Altitude and LOng-range aircraft) to help with the flight planning and evaluation of the chemical composition of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere within the ozone hole periphery. The SouthTRAC aircraft campaign was carried out in two phases which took place in September and November 2019, respectively. With the purpose of providing additional information of the atmospheric composition of brominated Very Short-Lived (VSLBr) species and compare with HALO observations during the transfer and campaign flights, a CAM-Chem (Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry) global chemistry-climate simulation was conducted. The model setup used in the halogenated CAM-Chem simulation had a 1° x 1.25° lat-lon resolution, 56 hybrid vertical levels from the surface to the middle stratosphere and considered assimilated meteorology from MERRA, including an explicit treatment of VSLBr sources and chemistry. Model output of VSLBr, long-lived bromine and chlorine (LLBr and LLCl) species and ozone mixing ratios, as well as the main inorganic halogen reactive and reservoir species and gas/heterogeneous phase reaction rates affecting lowermost stratospheric ozone were analyzed in horizontal domains and vertical cross-sections across each flightpath. The model performance with respect to the HALO observations has a general good agreement, presenting better results for mid latitudes (between 30º S and 50º S) than for southern latitudes (>50º S). In particular, CAM-Chem timeseries consistently reproduced the spatio-temporal variation of the main VSLBr species (CH2Br2 and CHBr3), including the sharp variations observed across the tropopause. For both VSLBr as well as for LLCl compounds such as CFC-12, the Pearson correlation coefficient r obtained during each of the flights ranged between 0.7 and 0.9, while the Normalized Mean Bias (NMB) was smaller than 8% for almost every flight. Regarding LLBr CH3Br, the correlation with the aircraft observations is high (r>0.9) but the inter-hemispheric variability during transfer flights is not fully captured. For Ozone, the model presents mid to high correlation with respect to measures (0.5Fil: Berná Peña, Lucas Luciano. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Puliafito, Salvador Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Barreras, Javier Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Engel, Andreas. Goethe Universitat Frankfurt; AlemaniaFil: Jesswein, Markus. Goethe Universitat Frankfurt; AlemaniaFil: Cuevas, Carlos A.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; EspañaFil: Saiz Lopez, Alfonso. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; EspañaFil: Fernandez, Rafael Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas. - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaEGU General Assembly 2021AustriaEuropean Geosciences Unio

Expanding an expanded genome: long-read sequencing of Trypanosoma cruzi

Although the genome of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, was first made available in 2005, with additional strains reported later, the intrinsic genome complexity of this parasite (the abundance of repetitive sequences and genes organized in tandem) has traditionally hindered high-quality genome assembly and annotation. This also limits diverse types of analyses that require high degrees of precision. Long reads generated by third-generation sequencing technologies are particularly suitable to address the challenges associated with T. cruzi's genome since they permit direct determination of the full sequence of large clusters of repetitive sequences without collapsing them. This, in turn, not only allows accurate estimation of gene copy numbers but also circumvents assembly fragmentation. Here, we present the analysis of the genome sequences of two T. cruzi clones: the hybrid TCC (TcVI) and the non-hybrid Dm28c (TcI), determined by PacBio Single Molecular Real-Time (SMRT) technology. The improved assemblies herein obtained permitted us to accurately estimate gene copy numbers, abundance and distribution of repetitive sequences (including satellites and retroelements). We found that the genome of T. cruzi is composed of a 'core compartment' and a 'disruptive compartment' which exhibit opposite GC content and gene composition. Novel tandem and dispersed repetitive sequences were identified, including some located inside coding sequences. Additionally, homologous chromosomes were separately assembled, allowing us to retrieve haplotypes as separate contigs instead of a unique mosaic sequence. Finally, manual annotation of surface multigene families, mucins and trans-sialidases allows now a better overview of these complex groups of genes

Macroscopic transport by synthetic molecular machines

Nature uses molecular motors and machines in virtually every significant biological process, but demonstrating that simpler artificial structures operating through the same gross mechanisms can be interfaced with—and perform physical tasks in—the macroscopic world represents a significant hurdle for molecular nanotechnology. Here we describe a wholly synthetic molecular system that converts an external energy source (light) into biased brownian motion to transport a macroscopic cargo and do measurable work. The millimetre-scale directional transport of a liquid on a surface is achieved by using the biased brownian motion of stimuli-responsive rotaxanes (‘molecular shuttles’) to expose or conceal fluoroalkane residues and thereby modify surface tension. The collective operation of a monolayer of the molecular shuttles is sufficient to power the movement of a microlitre droplet of diiodomethane up a twelve-degree incline.

Biological and Bioelectrochemical Systems for Hydrogen Production and Carbon Fixation Using Purple Phototrophic Bacteria

Domestic and industrial wastewaters contain organic substrates and nutrients that can be recovered instead of being dissipated by emerging efficient technologies. The aim of this study was to promote bio-hydrogen production and carbon fixation using a mixed culture of purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB) that use infrared radiation in presence or absence of an electrode as electron donor. In order to evaluate the hydrogen production under electrode-free conditions, batch experiments were conducted using different nitrogen (NH4Cl, Na-glutamate, N2 gas) and carbon sources (malic-, butyric-, acetic- acids) under various COD:N ratios. Results suggested that the efficiency of PPB to produce biogenic H2 was highly dependent on the substrates used. The maximum hydrogen production (H2_max, 423 mLH2/L) and production rate (H2_rate, 2.71 mLH2/Lh) were achieved using malic acid and Na-glutamate at a COD:N ratio of 100:15. Under these optimum conditions, a significant fixation of nitrogen in form of single-cell proteins (874.4 mg/L) was also detected. Under bio-electrochemical conditions using a H-cell bio-electrochemical device, the PPB were grown planktonic in the bio-cathode chamber with the optimum substrate ratio of malic acid and Na-glutamate. A redox potential of −0.5 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) under bio-electrochemical conditions produced comparable amounts of bio-hydrogen but significantly negligible traces of CO2 as compared to the biological system (11.8 mLCO2/L). This suggests that PPB can interact with the cathode to extract electrons for further CO2 re-fixation (coming from the Krebs cycle) into the Calvin cycle, thereby improving the C usage. It has also been observed during cyclic voltammograms that a redox potential of −0.8 V favors considerably the electrons consumption by the PPB culture, suggesting that the PPB can use these electrons to increase the biohydrogen production. These results are expected to prove the feasibility of stimulating PPB through bio-electrochemical processes in the production of H2 from wastewater resources, which is a field of special novelty and still unexplored

5Ws of Green and Sustainable Software

: Green and Sustainable Software has emerged as a new and highly active area in the software community. After several years of research and work, we believe that it is now necessary to obtain a general snapshot of how the research in this area is evolving. To do so, we have applied the 5Ws (why, when, who, where, and what), a formula for getting the complete story on a subject. We have therefore carried out a study, using 542 publications related to Green and Sustainable Software research; these were recovered using SCOPUS. The results obtained allow us to conclude that it is important to identify key elements of the research to allow researchers be fully aware of the state of the research on Green and Sustainable Software (why); the study uses papers published between 2000 and the beginning of November 2018 (when); the most prolific authors are mainly from Europe, although the USA is the most active country, Green and Sustainable Software being a very interactive area with a good number of multinational publications (who); the top five keywords related to sustainable aspects are Green Software, Green IT, Software Sustainability, Energy Consumption, and Energy Efficiency (what); finally, as regards the places authors prefer to publish in, there is almost a complete balance between conferences and journals, with a trend towards an increase in the number of publications (where)