Corn agronomic traits and recovery of nitrogen from fertilizer during crop season and off-season.

The objective of this work was to evaluate corn agronomic traits in a cultivation subjected to different N rates, during the fall?winter (off-season) and spring?summer crop seasons, and N recovery from fertilizer. The experiment was set up in a randomized complete block design with four replicates, in a 5x2 factorial arrangement, with the following treatments: five N topdressing rates ? 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 kg ha-1 ?, using urea as source; and two crop seasons, fall?winter and spring?summer. The following variables were determined: plant height, height of the first ear insertion, number of grains per ear, diameter and length of ear, 1,000-grain weight, N concentration in the leaves and grains, grain-protein concentration, grain yield, N recovery from fertilizer, and soil-N supply. Nitrogen rates in the fertilizer in the fall?winter season had no effect on grain yield, although corn agronomic traits showed a greater reliance on fertilizer-N rates in that season than in the spring?summer, which is a season associated to a greater capacity of soil-N supply to plants. The quantification of soil-N supply enabled knowing the nutrient dynamics during the fall?winter and the spring?summer seasons, which may be useful to guide N fertilization of corn.Título em português: Características agronômicas do milho e recuperação de nitrogênio do fertilizante durante a safra e a safrinha

How to find information on national food and nutrient consumption surveys across Europe: systematic literature review and questionnaires to selected country experts are both good strategies

The present research was conducted within the framework of the EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned project. in order to identify the best practice in assessing nutrient intakes, a search strategy for collecting data from national food consumption surveys/studies in Europe was developed. Systematic literature searches were carried out on twenty-eight European and the four European Free Trade Association Countries. A questionnaire was also sent to two to five experts in each country. Systematic reviews using PubMed yielded 12 703 abstracts that were reduced to 200 studies using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Similarly, a search of ministry web sites yielded 3033 hits. and subsequently reduced to nine Surveys. Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Spain and the United Kingdom were the countries with most data and Slovenia and Liechtenstein were those with the least. Seventy-eight expert questionnaires were obtained from all Countries except for Liechtenstein. Luxembourg and Slovakia. Detailed results and references are given. A systematic search and questionnaires are equally good at identifying national surveys across countries. Literature searching provides globally accessible and objective information albeit limited, whereas the questionnaire provides information that, depending upon responders, can be more complete. A combination of both strategies is recommended

Magnetoplasmons in quantum rings

We have studied the structure and dipole charge density response of nanorings as a function of the magnetic field using local-spin density functional theory. Two small rings consisting of 12 and 22 electrons confined by a positively charged background are used to represent the cases of a narrow and a wide ring. The results are qualitatively compared with experimental data existing on microrings and on antidots. A smaller ring containing 5 electrons is also analyzed to allow for a closer comparison with a recent experiment on a two electron quantum ring.Comment: Typeset using Revtex, 13 pages and 11 Postscript figure

IP3 sensitizes TRPV4 channel to the mechano- and osmotransducing messenger 5′-6′-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid

Mechanical and osmotic sensitivity of the transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) channel depends on phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activation and the subsequent production of the arachidonic acid metabolites, epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (EET). We show that both high viscous loading and hypotonicity stimuli in native ciliated epithelial cells use PLA2–EET as the primary pathway to activate TRPV4. Under conditions of low PLA2 activation, both also use extracellular ATP-mediated activation of phospholipase C (PLC)–inositol trisphosphate (IP3) signaling to support TRPV4 gating. IP3, without being an agonist itself, sensitizes TRPV4 to EET in epithelial ciliated cells and cells heterologously expressing TRPV4, an effect inhibited by the IP3 receptor antagonist xestospongin C. Coimmunoprecipitation assays indicated a physical interaction between TRPV4 and IP3 receptor 3. Collectively, our study suggests a functional coupling between plasma membrane TRPV4 channels and intracellular store Ca2+ channels required to initiate and maintain the oscillatory Ca2+ signal triggered by high viscosity and hypotonic stimuli that do not reach a threshold level of PLA2 activation

Atrial Fibrillation in Heart Failure Is Associated with High Levels of Circulating microRNA-199a-5p and 22–5p and a Defective Regulation of Intracellular Calcium and Cell-to-Cell Communication

HL-1 cells; L-type calcium channels; Calcium regulationCélulas HL-1; Canales de calcio tipo L; Regulación del calcioCel·lules HL-1; Canals de calci tipus L; Regulació del calciMicroRNAs (miRNAs) participate in atrial remodeling and atrial fibrillation (AF) promotion. We determined the circulating miRNA profile in patients with AF and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), and its potential role in promoting the arrhythmia. In plasma of 98 patients with HFrEF (49 with AF and 49 in sinus rhythm, SR), differential miRNA expression was determined by high-throughput microarray analysis followed by replication of selected candidates. Validated miRNAs were determined in human atrial samples, and potential arrhythmogenic mechanisms studied in HL-1 cells. Circulating miR-199a-5p and miR-22-5p were significantly increased in HFrEF patients with AF versus those with HFrEF in SR. Both miRNAs, but particularly miR-199a-5p, were increased in atrial samples of patients with AF. Overexpression of both miRNAs in HL-1 cells resulted in decreased protein levels of L-type Ca2+ channel, NCX and connexin-40, leading to lower basal intracellular Ca2+ levels, fewer inward currents, a moderate reduction in Ca2+ buffering post-caffeine exposure, and a deficient cell-to-cell communication. In conclusion, circulating miR-199a-5p and miR-22-5p are higher in HFrEF patients with AF, with similar findings in human atrial samples of AF patients. Cells exposed to both miRNAs exhibited altered Ca2+ handling and defective cell-to-cell communication, both findings being potential arrhythmogenic mechanisms.This work was funded by the following grants, awarded to B.B.: Sociedad Española de Cardiología, Sección de Arritmias y Electrofisiología 2012; Sociedad Española de Cardiología, Sección de Insuficiencia Cardíaca 2013; Fondo Investigación Sanitaria (FIS)—Instituto Carlos III 2013 (PI13/01830); and Societat Catalana de Cardiologia 2016. Awarded to K.W.A-A. and S.R.: British Heart Foundation (BHF) Intermediate Research Fellowship. Awarded to J.M.F.F.: grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RTI2018-094809-B-I00). “María de Maeztu” Programme for Units of Excellence in R&D to the Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut (MDM-2014-0370) and FEDER (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional) also contributed to this work

La Web Semántica Como Herramienta para el Apoyo a la Docencia

La web semántica consiste en un nuevo paradigma web para acceder, buscar, compartir y gestionar información a través de la combinación de tecnologías y de estructuras de gestión del conocimiento. El concepto de web semántica proporciona herramientas para el almacenamiento, intercambio y consulta de esta información mediante el desarrollo y la inclusión de metadatos y ontologías del cuerpo de conocimiento. La estructura de los datos que proporciona permite que sea consultada automáticamente por usuarios humanos o sistemas informáticos, mejorando su interoperabilidad. El desarrollo de la web semántica supone una evolución del desarrollo web en general hacia una web más inteligente o web 3.0. Este paradigma puede ser aprovechado en los procesos de docencia-aprendizaje para estructurar, almacenar y compartir los contenidos mediante sistemas automáticos de consultas alojados en web semánticas que tratan sobre los cuerpos de conocimiento de las materias. La disciplina informática es especialmente adecuada para este propósito debido a su complejidad y a la gran variedad de términos que maneja. Por otra parte, su desarrollo en continua evolución propicia la implantación de mecanismos automáticos de mantenimiento y de actualización de los nuevos contenidos

Fast flow microfluidics and single-molecule fluorescence for the rapid characterization of α-synuclein oligomers.

α-Synuclein oligomers can be toxic to cells and may be responsible for cell death in Parkinson's disease. Their typically low abundance and highly heterogeneous nature, however, make such species challenging to study using traditional biochemical techniques. By combining fast-flow microfluidics with single-molecule fluorescence, we are able to rapidly follow the process by which oligomers of αS are formed and to characterize the species themselves. We have used the technique to show that populations of oligomers with different FRET efficiencies have varying stabilities when diluted into low ionic strength solutions. Interestingly, we have found that oligomers formed early in the aggregation pathway have electrostatic repulsions that are shielded in the high ionic strength buffer and therefore dissociate when diluted into lower ionic strength solutions. This property can be used to isolate different structural groups of αS oligomers and can help to rationalize some aspects of αS amyloid fibril formation.M.H.H. thanks the Royal Society of Chemistry (Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund) for his studentship. L.T. has been the recipient of a grant PAT Post Doc Outgoing 2009 – 7th Framework Program Marie Curie COFUND actions. A.J.D. is funded by the Schiff Foundation.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ACS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5b0181