Cytotoxicity of the mycotoxins deoxynivalenol and ochratoxin A on Caco-2 cell line in presence of resveratrol

Exposure to mycotoxins through dietary food intake involves a highly complex scenario where co-contamination of different mycotoxins has been frequently demonstrated. On the other hand, the effect of the interaction of mycotoxins with other generally considered beneficial food components, as the antioxidants, has been scarcely studied. The main goal of the present work was to assess the cytotoxic effects on Caco-2 cells of the mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON) and ochratoxin A (OTA), alone or combined, and to explore potential protective effects of resveratrol (RES), an antioxidant frequently found in wine. In parallel, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production has also been studied as a first approach to understand the underlying mechanism of cytotoxicity. Results indicate a higher toxic effect of the mycotoxins when they are co-exposed. This increase in cytotoxicity was not accompanied by an increase in ROS production. The co-exposure of OTA or DON with RES did not result in a decrease in cytotoxicity; on the contrary, it resulted in increased cytotoxicity not associated with an increase in ROS production.The authors are grateful to the CYTED Action 109AC0371, to the INIA project (RTA 2012-00053-00-00) as well as the Spanish (Project AGL2011-24862) and Catalonian (XaRTA-Reference Network on Food Technology) Governments for their financial support. C.A. González-Arias thanks the Secretaria de Universitats i Recerca del Departament de Economia i Coneixement of the Generalitat de Catalunya for the pre-doctoral grant

Rainfall partitioning after thinning in two low-biomass semiarid forests: Impact of meteorological variables and forest structure on the effectiveness of water-oriented treatments

[EN] Water-oriented forest management is an urgent need in semiarid catchments. In the case of low-biomass forests and shrublands, the magnitude, efficiency and temporal duration of thinning effects on rainfall partitioning needs further attention. This work studies the effects of juvenile thinning and shrub clearing on stemflow (Stf), throughfall (Thr) and interception (It) in two low-biomass forests (CAL: post-fire Aleppo pine saplings with 74% of basal area, BA, removed; and HU: evergreen oak coppice with 41% of BA removed), as well as the relative contribution of the event meteorology. The effects are compared with a control plot during the first 3¿4¿years. Stf rate (%) decreased with density and, on a tree scale, it was enhanced by the treatment only in the bigger oaks. Event Thr increased from 55 to 81% and from 68 to 86% of gross rainfall (Pg) for CAL and HU respectively after thinning, resulting in about 15% less intercepted Pg. High evaporative conditions and an open (ventilated) forest structure led to high It rates in the controls when comparing with other studies, thus making the treatments more efficient in net precipitation (Pn) gain (Pg intercepted decreased 17% or 2.3% per unit of LAI or BA removed respectively). In general, depths (mm) were mostly explained (>75%) by the rainfall characteristics of the event (e.g. amount, duration, intensity), with a limited contribution from forest structure (e.g. cover, LAI) and event meteorology (e.g. temperature, wind speed, vapor pressure deficit). On the contrary, when expressed as rates (% of Pg), forest structure and event-meteorology gained importance (explaining 25¿65%), especially in the drier site (CAL). In this site, the low gain in Pn (~25¿mm per year on average) was offset with no temporal dampening during the span of this study, as observed in the wetter site (HU), where plant growth tended to mitigate the effect of the treatment by the end of the study. The results presented here make a contribution to a better understanding of the effects of water-oriented forest management in low-biomass semiarid forests.This study is a component of research projects: HYDROSIL (CGL2011-28776-C02-02), SILWAMED (CGL2014-58127-C3-2) and CEHYRFO-MED (CGL2017-86839-C3-2-R) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the FEDER fund of the EU. The authors are grateful to the Valencia Regional Government (CMAAUV, Generalitat Valenciana), Serra municipality, VAERSA and ACCIONA for their support in allowing the use of the experimental forest and for their assistance in carrying out the fieldwork.Campo García, ADD.; González Sanchís, MDC.; Lidón, A.; Ceacero Ruiz, CJ.; Garcia-Prats, A. (2018). Rainfall partitioning after thinning in two low-biomass semiarid forests: Impact of meteorological variables and forest structure on the effectiveness of water-oriented treatments. Journal of Hydrology. 565:74-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.08.013S748656

A Complete Set of Firmware for the TileCal Read-Out Driver

TileCal is the hadronic tile calorimeter of the ATLAS experiment at LHC/CERN. The Read-Out Driver (ROD) is the main component of the TileCal back-end electronics. The ROD is a VME 64x 9u board with multiple programmable devices which requires a complete set of firmware. This paper describes the firmware and functionalities of all these programmable devices, especially the DSP Processing Units daughterboards where the data processing takes place

Setup, tests and results for the ATLAS TileCal Read Out Driver production

In this paper we describe the performance and test results of the production of the 38 ATLAS TileCal Read Out Drivers (RODs). We first describe the basic hardware specifications and firmware functionality of the modules, the test-bench setup used for production and the test procedure to qualify the boards. We then finally show and discuss the performance results