Connexin-36 protects against suddent infant death syndrome

The sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the main cause of postneonatal infant death; however the etiology of SIDS remains ill defined. The hypothesis that SIDS, or a subset of SIDS, is due to an abnormal brainstem mechanism is one of the current leading hypotheses on SIDS etiology. The brainstem is essential for cardiac and respiratory function, controlling autonomic and homeostatic responses including breathing, central chemosensitivity, heartbeat and blood pressure, all mechanisms that are thought to be involved in SIDS. Connexin-36 (Cx36), the principal component of neuron-to-neuron channels that form the electrical synapses, is present in the specific neural populations of brainstem region involved in the CO2 chemoreception and respiratory control, and its expression is unregulated during this critical period of life. Accordingly, we postulate that Cx36 would be a key element in the pathogenesis of SIDS. To address this issue we have studied how the genetic suppression of Cx36 expression affects to the respiratory pacemaker, central chemoreflexes, cardiorespiratory coupling, and risk for SIDS. Mice lacking Cx36 at postnatal day 14 showed in comparison with control wild-type greater variability in the respiratory rhythmicity, abnormally enhanced ventilatory responses to hypoxia and hypercapnia, more cardiorespiratory phase synchronization and less respiratory sinus arrhythmia. A combination of low O2 and high CO2 content in inspired air was used as exogenous stressor of SIDS; under these conditions all wild-type mice survived while the 40% of Cx36-knockout animals succumbed by respiratory failure

Responses of fruit physiology and virgin oil quality to cold storage of mechanically harvested ‘Arbequina’ olives cultivated in hedgerow

The increase in olive fruit production (Olea europaea L. cv. ‘Arbequina’), due to the increasing use of super-intensive cultivation and the need for a rapid fruit processing will force the industry to make a considerable investment in machinery for processing in order to maintain the level of quality of virgin olive oil (VOO). This work aims to study how the storage temperature affects the physiology of the olive and the quality of the oil, in order to use fruit storage as a cheaper and more versatile alternative to the increase in processing capacity. ‘Arbequina’ fruit did not present symptoms of chilling injury during 15 days of cold-storage. Postharvest decay, de-greening, softening, respiration and ethylene production of the olive fruit increased in direct relationship as the storage temperature increased. These facts determined a proportional deterioration of the free acidity and the sensory quality of the VOOs. Furthermore, the contents of tocopherols and of the main phenolic compounds in the VOO exhibited a reduction during fruit storage according to the increase in the temperature used. Storage at 2 °C preserved the integrity of the olive to maintain the best “Extra” level of VOO quality for a period of 12 days.El aumento de la producción de aceituna (Olea europaea L. cv. ‘Arbequina’), debido al uso creciente del cultivo superintensivo y la necesidad de un rápido procesamiento del fruto forzará a la industria a hacer una considerable inversión en maquinaria para el procesado, para mantener el nivel de calidad del aceite de oliva virgen (AOV). Este trabajo pretende estudiar cómo la temperatura de almacenamiento afecta a la fisiología de la aceituna y a la calidad del aceite, en orden de usar la conservación del fruto como una alternativa más barata y versátil al aumento de la capacidad de procesamiento. La aceituna ‘Arbequina’ no presentó síntomas de daños por frío durante 15 días de frigoconservación. La podredumbre, el desverdizado, el ablandamiento, la respiración y la producción de etileno de la aceituna aumentaron en relación directa a como aumentaba la temperatura de conservación. Estos hechos determinaron un deterioro proporcional de la acidez libre y de la calidad sensorial de los AOVs. Además, los contenidos de tocoferoles y de los principales grupos de compuestos fenólicos en los AOVs experimentaron una reducción durante la conservación del fruto en razón directa a la temperatura de almacenamiento utilizada. La frigoconservación a 2 °C preservó la integridad del fruto para mantener el nivel «Extra» de calidad durante un periodo de 12 días.This experiment was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, research project AGL2009-11310/AGR and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) research project 0042-RISE-5-E. Thanks are due to the owners of Internacional Olivarera, S.A. (Interoliva), for allowing us to conduct the experiments in the Sanabria farm. Antonio Montero helped us with the field measurements and M. C. Martinez for technical assistance in the laboratory. We also thank Silvia Seller, agronomist, and Juan Francisco Bernal* foreman, for their technical assistance

Upstream migration of anadromous and potamodromous brown trout: patterns and triggers in a 25-year overview

Producción CientíficaRiver fragmentation and alterations in flow and thermal regimes are the main stressors affecting migrating fish, which could be aggravated by climate change and increasing water demand. To assess these impacts and define mitigation measures, it is vital to understand fish movement patterns and the environmental variables affecting them. This study presents a long-term (1995–2019) analysis of upstream migration patterns of anadromous and potamodromous brown trout in the lower River Bidasoa (Spain). For this, captures in a monitoring station were analyzed using Survival Analysis and Random Forest techniques. Results showed that most upstream movements of potamodromous trout occurred in October–December, whereas in June–July for anadromous trout, although with differences regarding sex and size. Both, fish numbers and dates varied over time and were related to the environmental conditions, with different influence on each ecotype. The information provided from comparative studies can be used as a basis to develop adaptive management strategies to ensure freshwater species conservation. Moreover, studies in the southern distribution range can be crucial under climate warming scenarios, where species are expected to shift coldwards.Proyecto de innovación docente de la Universidad de Valladolid (PIF-UVa 2017)Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (grant PTQ2018-010162)Publicación en abierto financiada por el Consorcio de Bibliotecas Universitarias de Castilla y León (BUCLE), con cargo al Programa Operativo 2014ES16RFOP009 FEDER 2014-2020 DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN, Actuación:20007-CL - Apoyo Consorcio BUCL

Decentralized Resource Allocation in Application Layer Networks

architectures that allow the provisioning of services requiring a huge amount of resources by connecting large numbers of individual computers. The ALN simulation project CATNET evaluates a decentralized mechanism for resource allocation in ALN, which is based on the economic paradigm of the Catallaxy, against a centralized mechanism using an arbitrator object. In both versions, software agents buy and sell network services and resources to and from each other. The economic model is based on self-interested maximization of utility and self-interested cooperation between agents. This article describes the design of money and message flows for centralized and decentralized coordination in both versions and shows preliminary results

Self-organizing resource allocation for autonomic network

Application-layer networks (ALN) are software architectures that allow the provisioning of services requiring a huge amount of resources by connecting large numbers of individual computers, e.g. Grids and P2P-Networks. Self-organization, like proposed by the Autonomic Computing concept, might be the key to controlling these systems. The CATNET project evaluates a decentralized mechanism for resource allocation in ALN, based on the economic paradigm of the Catallaxy. The economic model is based on self-interested maximization of utility and self-interested cooperation between software agents, who buy and sell network services and resources to and from each other

Advantages and insights from a hierarchical Bayesian growth and dynamics model based on salmonid electrofishing removal data

Growth is a fundamental ecological process of stream-dwelling salmonids which is strongly interrelated to critical life history events (emergence, mortality, sexual maturity, smolting, spawning). The ability to accurately model growth becomes critical when making population predictions over large temporal (multi-decadal) and spatial (meso) scales, e.g., investigating the effect of global change. Body length collection by removal sampling is a widely-used practice for monitoring fish populations over such large scales. Such data can be efficiently integrated into a Hierarchical Bayesian Model (HBM) and lead to interesting findings on fish dynamics. We illustrate this approach by presenting an integrated HBM of brown trout (Salmo trutta) growth, population dynamics, and removal sampling data collection processes using large temporal and spatial scales data (20 years; 48 sites placed along a 100 km latitudinal gradient). Growth and population dynamics are modelled by ordinary differential equations with parameters bound together in a hierarchical structure. The observation process is modelled with a combination of a Poisson error, a binomial error, and a mixture of Gaussian distributions. Absolute fit is measured using posterior predictive checks, those results indicate that our model fits the data well. Results indicate that growth rate is positively correlated to catchment area. This result corroborates those of other studies (laboratory, exploratory) that identified factors besides water temperature that are related to daily ration and have a significant effect on stream-dwelling salmonid growth at a large scale. Our study also illustrates the value of integrated HBM and electrofishing removal sampling data to study in situ fish populations over large scales

Dynamic pan, tilt and zoom adjustment for perception triggered response

Natural environmental cues can properly guide the robot towards its goal. But often landmarks are difficult to be recognised by the robot when it is moving. Dynamic orientation of the camera's parameters, fixing the attention of the visual system on relevant environmental features, can greatly improve vision based landmark identification. This paper present an approach for sonar and compass based dynamic selection of pan, tilt and zoom values

Adapting the Point of View for Behavior-based Navigation

Perception triggered response behavior together with the selection of the appropriate environmental cues can properly guide the robot towards its goal

Web Caching and Content Delivery

Introduction of new services on the Internet is a laborious, time-consuming task. Application networks, applications being serviced through multiple interconnected service nodes disseminated across the Internet, are as well costly to set up. This paper investigates dynamic deployment mechanisms to realize application network service introduction on the Internet