A quantitative and molecular examination of Tuber melanosporum mycorrhizae in Quercus ilex seedlings from different suppliers in Spain

Aim of study: The aim of the work was to determine the degree of mycorrhization of Quercus ilex L. subsp. ballota (Desf.) Samp. by the black truffle fungus T. melanosporum Vittad. by quantitative and molecular analyses.Area of study: seedlings inoculated by different Spanish suppliers.Material and methods: The internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of mycorrhizae from different plants were amplified by nested PCR involving fluorescently-labelled primers, and the amplicons either directly sized by ARISA or analysed by TRFLP following their digestion with restriction endonucleases. TRFLP analysis distinguished between mycorrhizae of T. melanosporum, T. indicum Cooke & Massee and T. borchii Vittad., as suggested possible by virtual (in silico) TRFLP analysis and real TRFLP analysis of the ascomata of these species.Main results: Significant differences between suppliers were detected in terms of the mean number of mycorrhizae established per plant and percentage mycorrhization. These results allowed the following quality standards for 2 year-old plants to be proposed: a) good quality: >3000 mycorrhizae/plant, >40% mycorrhization, b) medium (acceptable): >3000 mycorrhizae/plant, >30% mycorrhization, c) low quality: <3000 mycorrhizae/plant or <30% mycorrhization, always supposing the mycorrhizae counted represent the species of interest as confirmed by the presence of its DNA and the absence of DNA belonging to contaminating species. Finally, a new microsatellite allelic map obtained from the analysis of several T. melanosporum populations across Spain was used to provide a tool capable of determining the geographic origin of the fungi used to inoculate plants.Research highlights: The proposed quality standards can be useful for the evaluation and certification of commercialized Q. ilex plants mycorrhized with T. melanosporum.Keywords: mycorrhiza; certification; truffle; TRFLP; fungi

A containerized service for clustering and categorization of weather records in the cloud

This paper presents a containerized service for clustering and categorization of weather records in the cloud. This service considers a scheme of microservices and containers for organizations and end-users to manage/process weather records from the acquisition, passing through the prepossessing and processing stages, to the exhibition of results. In this service, a specialized crawler acquires records that are delivered to a microservice of distributed categorization of weather records, which performs clustering of acquired data (the temperature and precipitation) by spatiotemporal parameters. The clusters found are exhibited in a map by a geoportal where statistic microservice also produce results regression graphs on-the-fly. To evaluate the feasibility of this service, a case study based on 33 years of daily records captured by the Mexican weather station network (EMAS-CONAGUA) has been conducted. Lessons learned in this study about the performance of record acquisition, clustering processing, and mapping exhibition are described in this paper. Examples of utilization of this service revealed that end-users can analyze weather parameters in an efficient, flexible and automatic manner.This work was partially supported by the sectoral fund of research, technological development and innovation in space activities of the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) and the Mexican Space Agency (AEM), project No.262891

La necesidad de las cadenas de valor globales para evitar inercias cognitivas en clusters. El caso del valle del juguete-plástico en Alicante

El objetivo del presente artículo se basa en entender la necesidad de la apertura de los clusters y su inclusión en cadenas de valor globales que permitan la entrada de conocimiento, la renovación de tecnologías y capacidades, la renovación de actores y, en definitiva, la mejora de la competitividad de los territorios y de sus tejidos productivos de pymes. Si bien ha predominado un paradigma de desarrollo local endógeno en los clusters o distritos industriales en toda la literatura, hecho totalmente evidente en la mayoría de los casos, la evidencia empírica de los últimos años comienza a desmitificar y moderar dicha característica que, si bien no deja de ser cierta, va perdiendo peso, sobre todo cuando analizamos los clusters que pueden considerarse como casos de éxito (ejemplo, Hervas-Oliver y Albors-Garrigos, 2008, Eisingerich et al., 2010; Iammarino y McCann, 2013). Así, en la literatura actual sobre los clusters industriales o distritos industriales destaca, cada vez en mayor medida, la necesidad de abrir los territorios y conectarlos con cadenas de valor globales con el propósito de adquirir diferente conocimiento, renovar los actores, abrir las redes y rejuvenecer los territorios (Giuliani et al., 2014; Crescenzi et al., 2015; Iammarino y McCann, 2013; Hervas-Oliver y Boix, 2013; Eisingerich et al., 2010; Bathelt et al., 2004). En este escenario conviene destacar el rol que desempañan las multinacionales como elemento de conexión y coordinación de dichas cadenas de valor. Así, las multinacionales (MNEs) presentan un destacado papel en la transferencia de conocimiento entre territorios a través de los circuitos internos entre MNEs y sus subsidiarias localizadas (Hervas-Oliver y Boix, 2013; Lorenzen and Mudambi, 2012; Tallman y Chacar, 2011; Harrison, 1994

Radiative decays of light vector mesons in a quark level linear sigma model

We calculate the P0 to gamma gamma, V0 to P0 gamma and V0to V'0 gamma gamma decays in the framework of a U(3)xU(3) linear sigma model which includes constituent quarks. For the first two decays this approach improves results based on the anomalous Wess-Zumino term, with contributions due to SU(3) symmetry breaking and vector mixing. The phi to (omega,rho) gamma gamma decays are dominated by resonant eta' exchange . Our calculation for the later decays improves and update similar calculations in the -closely related- framework of vector meson dominance. We obtain BR(phi to rho gamma gamma)=2.5x10^{-5} and BR(phi to omega gamma gamma)=2.8x10^{-6} within the scope of the high-luminosity phi factories.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Pituitary volume in schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Introduction—There is converging evidence supporting hyperactivity of the HypothalamicPituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), such as schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ) and chronic schizophrenia (CHSZ). Such an aberrant HPA activity might have volumetric consequences on the pituitary gland. However, previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies assessing pituitary volume (PV) in SSD are conflicting. The main objective of this study was to examine further PV in SSD. Methods—PV were manually traced on structural MRIs in 137 subjects, including subjects with SPD (n=40), FESZ (n=15), CHSZ (n=15), and HC (n=67). We used an ANCOVA to test PV between groups and gender while controlling for inter-subject variability in age, years of education, socioeconomic status, and whole brain volume. Results—Overall, women had larger PV than men, and within the male sample all SSD subjects had smaller PV than HC, statistically significant only for the SPD group. In addition, dose of medication, illness duration and age of onset were not associated with PV. Conclusion—Chronic untreated HPA hyperactivity might account for smaller PV in SPD subjects, whereas the absence of PV changes in FESZ and CHSZ patients might be related to the normalizing effects of antipsychotics on PV. SPD studies offer a way to examine HPA related alterations in SSD without the potential confounds of medication effects

Evaluating model parameterizations of submicron aerosol scattering and absorption with in situ data from ARCTAS 2008

Accurate modeling of the scattering and absorption of ultraviolet and visible radiation by aerosols is essential for accurate simulations of atmospheric chemistry and climate. Closure studies using in situ measurements of aerosol scattering and absorption can be used to evaluate and improve models of aerosol optical properties without interference from model errors in aerosol emissions, transport, chemistry, or deposition rates. Here we evaluate the ability of four externally mixed, fixed size distribution parameterizations used in global models to simulate submicron aerosol scattering and absorption at three wavelengths using in situ data gathered during the 2008 Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) campaign. The four models are the NASA Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) Combo model, GEOS-Chem v9-02, the baseline configuration of a version of GEOS-Chem with online radiative transfer calculations (called GC-RT), and the Optical Properties of Aerosol and Clouds (OPAC v3.1) package. We also use the ARCTAS data to perform the first evaluation of the ability of the Aerosol Simulation Program (ASP v2.1) to simulate submicron aerosol scattering and absorption when in situ data on the aerosol size distribution are used, and examine the impact of different mixing rules for black carbon (BC) on the results. We find that the GMI model tends to overestimate submicron scattering and absorption at shorter wavelengths by 10–23 %, and that GMI has smaller absolute mean biases for submicron absorption than OPAC v3.1, GEOS-Chem v9-02, or GC-RT. However, the changes to the density and refractive index of BC in GC-RT improve the simulation of submicron aerosol absorption at all wavelengths relative to GEOS-Chem v9-02. Adding a variable size distribution, as in ASP v2.1, improves model performance for scattering but not for absorption, likely due to the assumption in ASP v2.1 that BC is present at a constant mass fraction throughout the aerosol size distribution. Using a core-shell mixing rule in ASP overestimates aerosol absorption, especially for the fresh biomass burning aerosol measured in ARCTAS-B, suggesting the need for modeling the time-varying mixing states of aerosols in future versions of ASP

Numerical sedimentation particle-size analysis using the Discrete Element Method

Sedimentation tests are widely used to determine the particle size distribution of a granular sample. In this work, the Discrete Element Method interacts with the simulation of flow using the well known one-way- coupling method, a computationally affordable approach for the time-consuming numerical simulation of the hydrometer, buoyancy and pipette sedimentation tests. These tests are used in the laboratory to determine the particle-size distribution of fine-grained aggregates. Five samples with different particle-size distributions are modeled by about six million rigid spheres pro- jected on two-dimensions, with diameters ranging from 2.5 × 10−6 m to 70 × 10−6 m, forming a water sus- pension in a sedimentation cylinder. DEM simulates the particle s movement considering laminar flow in- teractions of buoyant, drag and lubrication forces. The simulation provides the temporal/spatial distributions of densities and concentrations of the suspension. The numerical simulations cannot replace the laboratory tests since they need the final granulometry as initial data, but, as the results show, these simulations can identify the strong and weak points of each method and eventually recommend useful variations and draw conclusions on their validity, aspects very difficult to achieve in the laboratory.R. Bravo and J.L. Perez-Aparicio were partially supported by the project MICIIN #BIA-2012-32918. The second researcher used the grant GV BEST/2014/232 for the completion of this work. J. Jaime Gomez-Hernandez acknowledges the financial aid from project MINECO CGL2011-23295.Bravo, R.; Pérez Aparicio, JL.; Gómez Hernández, JJ. (2015). Numerical sedimentation particle-size analysis using the Discrete Element Method. Advances in Water Resources. 86:58-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.09.024S58728

Intranasal administration of mesenchymal stem cell secretome reduces hippocampal oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and cell death, improving the behavioral outcome following perinatal asphyxia

Indexación: Scopus.PerinatalAsphyxia (PA) is a leading cause ofmotor and neuropsychiatric disability associated with sustained oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and cell death, affecting brain development. Based on a rat model of global PA, we investigated the neuroprotective effect of intranasally administered secretome, derived from human adipose mesenchymal stem cells (MSC-S), preconditioned with either deferoxamine (an hypoxia-mimetic) or TNF-ff+IFN- (pro-inflammatory cytokines). PA was generated by immersing fetus-containing uterine horns in a water bath at 37 ffC for 21 min. Thereafter, 16 ffL of MSC-S (containing 6 ffg of protein derived from 2 ff 105 preconditioned-MSC), or vehicle, were intranasally administered 2 h after birth to asphyxia-exposed and control rats, evaluated at postnatal day (P) 7. Alternatively, pups received a dose of either preconditioned MSC-S or vehicle, both at 2 h and P7, and were evaluated at P14, P30, and P60. The preconditioned MSC-S treatment (i) reversed asphyxia-induced oxidative stress in the hippocampus (oxidized/reduced glutathione); (ii) increased antioxidative Nuclear Erythroid 2-Related Factor 2 (NRF2) translocation; (iii) increased NQO1 antioxidant protein; (iv) reduced neuroinflammation (decreasing nuclearNF-ffB/p65 levels and microglial reactivity); (v) decreased cleaved-caspase-3 cell-death; (vi) improved righting reflex, negative geotaxis, cliff aversion, locomotor activity, anxiety, motor coordination, and recognition memory. Overall, the study demonstrates that intranasal administration of preconditioned MSC-S is a novel therapeutic strategy that prevents the long-term effects of perinatal asphyxia. © 2020 by the authors.https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/20/780

The Spanish Infrared Camera onboard the EUSO-BALLOON (CNES) flight on August 24, 2014

The EUSO-Balloon (CNES) campaign was held during Summer 2014 with a launch on August 24. In the gondola, next to the Photo Detector Module (PDM), a completely isolated Infrared camera was allocated. Also, a helicopter which shooted flashers flew below the balloon. We have retrieved the Cloud Top Height (CTH) with the IR camera, and also the optical depth of the nonclear atmosphere have been inferred with two approaches: The first one is with the comparison of the brightness temperature of the cloud and the real temperature obtained after the pertinent corrections. The second one is by measuring the detected signal from the helicopter flashers by the IR Camera, considering the energy of the flashers and the location of the helicopter