Factors that influence the beta-diversity of spider communities in northwestern Argentinean Grasslands

Beta-diversity, defined as spatial replacement in species composition, is crucial to the understanding of how local communities assemble. These changes can be driven by environmental or geographic factors (such as geographic distance), or a combination of the two. Spiders have been shown to be good indicators of environmental quality. Accordingly, spiders are used in this work as model taxa to establish whether there is a decrease in community similarity that corresponds to geographic distance in the grasslands of the Campos & Malezales ecoregion (Corrientes). Furthermore, the influence of climactic factors and local vegetation heterogeneity (environmental factors) on assemblage composition was evaluated. Finally, this study evaluated whether the differential dispersal capacity of spider families is a factor that influences their community structure at a regional scale. Spiders were collected with a G-Vac from vegetation in six grassland sites in the Campos & Malezales ecoregion that were separated by a minimum of 13 km. With this data, the impact of alpha-diversity and different environmental variables on the beta-diversity of spider communities was analysed. Likewise, the importance of species replacement and nesting on betadiversity and their contribution to the regional diversity of spider families with different dispersion capacities was evaluated. The regional and site-specific inventories obtained were complete. The similarity between spider communities declined as the geographic distance between sites increased. Environmental variables also influenced community composition; stochastic events and abiotic forces were the principal intervening factors in assembly structure. The differential dispersal capacity of spider groups also influenced community structure at a regional scale. The regional beta-diversity, as well as species replacement, was greater in high and intermediate vagility spiders; while nesting was greater in spiders with low dispersion capacity. Geographic distance, among other factors (climate, and active and passive dispersion capacity), explains assembly structure and the decrease spider community similarity between geographically distant sites. Spiders with the highest dispersal capacity showed greater species replacement. This may be due to the discontinuity (both natural and anthropic) of the grasslands in this ecoregion, which limits the dispersal capacity of these spiders, and their close dependence on microhabitats. The dispersal capacity of the least vagile spiders is limited by geographic distance and biotic factors, such as competition, which could explain the nesting observed between their communities.Fil: Rodriguez Artigas, Sandra Mónica. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto para el Estudio de la Biodiversidad de Invertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta; ArgentinaFil: Ballester, Rodrigo. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto para el Estudio de la Biodiversidad de Invertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta; ArgentinaFil: Corronca, Jose Antonio. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto para el Estudio de la Biodiversidad de Invertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta; Argentin

Unsupervised domain adaptation for medical imaging segmentation with self-ensembling

Recent advances in deep learning methods have come to define the state-of-the-art for many medical imaging applications, surpassing even human judgment in several tasks. Those models, however, when trained to reduce the empirical risk on a single domain, fail to generalize when applied to other domains, a very common scenario in medical imaging due to the variability of images and anatomical structures, even across the same imaging modality. In this work, we extend the method of unsupervised domain adaptation using self-ensembling for the semantic segmentation task and explore multiple facets of the method on a small and realistic publicly-available magnetic resonance (MRI) dataset. Through an extensive evaluation, we show that self-ensembling can indeed improve the generalization of the models even when using a small amount of unlabelled data.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Un proyecto integrado para la formación de los futuros maestros: elaboración de páginas web para la enseñanza de la literatura en eduación infantil y primaria

The aim of this article is to reflect on the pertinence of the paradigm of literary education as a framework for the elaboration of teaching proposals in Infant and Primary Education Degrees. This type of training contributes to both developing students’ communicative competence, while also raising in them an understanding of reading as a basic aspect of people’s lives which is productive of pleasure, learning, creativity and personal enrichment. More specifically, this article reports on a project undertaken in the second year of both degrees, which consisted of the design of webpages as a tool for promoting Infant and Primary Education students’ literacy. We used a mixed methodology which encompassed quantitative and qualitative techniques, based on action research, with a view to exploring (i) whether this methodological option proved to be an effective tool for inducing students’ learning based on the acquisition of skills and transversal competencies (teamwork, innovation, creativity, use of ICT, etc.); and (ii) whether the project gives opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaborative work between teachers and students. Literary education projects are a useful methodology to achieve the objectives that current society requires from future teachers.El objetivo de esta investigación es reflexionar sobre la idoneidad del paradigma de la educación literaria como marco de referencia para la elaboración de propuestas didácticas en los grados de Magisterio, basadas en la metodología de secuencias didácticas o proyectos para la formación lectora y literaria de los estudiantes. Una formación que contribuye a desarrollar su competencia comunicativa y a considerar la lectura como un aspecto básico en la vida de las personas como fuente de placer, aprendizaje, creatividad y enriquecimiento personal. Para ello se presenta una experiencia de trabajo por proyectos realizada en 2º curso consistente en la creación de páginas web con recursos para la formación literaria del alumnado de Educación Infantil y Primaria. El estudio se lleva a cabo a partir de una metodología mixta, combinando técnicas cuantitativas y cualitativas, basada en la investigación-acción en las aulas para comprobar si esta opción metodológica resulta, también, en estudios superiores, una herramienta eficaz para el aprendizaje que contribuye a realizar una enseñanza competencial, integrando en los proyectos las competencias específicas de las materias de Formación Literaria y las competencias transversales los grados universitarios (trabajo en equipo, innovación, creatividad, uso de las TIC, etc.) y si ofrece posibilidades que potencien el trabajo interdisciplinar y colaborativo del alumnado y del profesorado. En definitiva, se intentará validar la metodología de proyectos de educación literaria como una propuesta pedagógica útil para alcanzar los objetivos que la sociedad actual demanda a la formación literaria de los futuros maestros y maestras

Unravelling molecular responses to moderate dehydration in harvested fruit of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) using a fruit-specific ABA-deficient mutant

Water stress affects many agronomic traits that may be regulated by the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA). Within these traits, loss of fruit quality becomes important in many citrus cultivars that develop peel damage in response to dehydration. To study peel dehydration transcriptional responsiveness in harvested citrus fruit and the putative role of ABA in this process, this study performed a comparative large-scale transcriptional analysis of water-stressed fruits of the wild-type Navelate orange (Citrus sinesis L. Osbeck) and its spontaneous ABA-deficient mutant Pinalate, which is more prone to dehydration and to developing peel damage. Major changes in gene expression occurring in the wild-type line were impaired in the mutant fruit. Gene ontology analysis revealed the ability of Navelate fruits to induce the response to water deprivation and di-, tri-valent inorganic cation transport biological processes, as well as repression of the carbohydrate biosynthesis process in the mutant. Exogenous ABA triggered relevant transcriptional changes and repressed the protein ubiquitination process, although it could not fully rescue the physiological behaviour of the mutant. Overall, the results indicated that dehydration responsiveness requires ABA-dependent and-independent signals, and highlight that the ability of citrus fruits to trigger molecular responses against dehydration is an important factor in reducing their susceptibility to developing peel damage.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (Research Grants AGL2006-09496, AGL2009-11969, and AGL2009-11558) and by the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2010/010). PR was the recipient of a fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.Peer Reviewe

Machine learning and big data analytics in bipolar disorder:A position paper from the International Society for Bipolar Disorders Big Data Task Force

Objectives The International Society for Bipolar Disorders Big Data Task Force assembled leading researchers in the field of bipolar disorder (BD), machine learning, and big data with extensive experience to evaluate the rationale of machine learning and big data analytics strategies for BD. Method A task force was convened to examine and integrate findings from the scientific literature related to machine learning and big data based studies to clarify terminology and to describe challenges and potential applications in the field of BD. We also systematically searched PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science for articles published up to January 2019 that used machine learning in BD. Results The results suggested that big data analytics has the potential to provide risk calculators to aid in treatment decisions and predict clinical prognosis, including suicidality, for individual patients. This approach can advance diagnosis by enabling discovery of more relevant data-driven phenotypes, as well as by predicting transition to the disorder in high-risk unaffected subjects. We also discuss the most frequent challenges that big data analytics applications can face, such as heterogeneity, lack of external validation and replication of some studies, cost and non-stationary distribution of the data, and lack of appropriate funding. Conclusion Machine learning-based studies, including atheoretical data-driven big data approaches, provide an opportunity to more accurately detect those who are at risk, parse-relevant phenotypes as well as inform treatment selection and prognosis. However, several methodological challenges need to be addressed in order to translate research findings to clinical settings.Peer reviewe

SALUD MENTAL Y GÉNERO EN EL PERSONAL SANITARIO DURANTE LA PANDEMIA COVID-19 EN LATINOAMÉRICA

La emergencia sanitaria producto de la pandemia COVID-19 generó afectaciones en la salud mental de la población en general y en especial en el personal sanitario. Este estudio se basa en una encuesta realizada a personal sanitario en cinco países (Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Perú y Uruguay). La muestra fue de 9.820 participantes, con 79,6% de mujeres. Se construyeron modelos de regresión logística múltiple para hombres y mujeres en cada país, identificando los factores que estaban asociados al deterioro de su salud mental. Las mujeres reportaron un mayor deterioro de su salud mental y un perfil diferente de factores asociados a esto. Estos hallazgos se relacionan con los roles tradicionales según género, donde las mujeres tienen un mayor peso en el cuidado de los otros y valoran los aspectos relacionales por encima de los personales, a diferencia de los hombres quienes otorgan más importancia al ámbito público y al cuidado propio. Se resalta la importancia de incluir el enfoque de género en el diseño de políticas para el personal de salud, especialmente en el cuidado de su salud mental

PKD phosphorylation and COP9/Signalosome modulate intracellular Spry2 protein stability

Spry2 is a molecular modulator of tyrosine kinase receptor signaling pathways that has cancer-type-specific effects. Mammalian Spry2 protein undergoes tyrosine and serine phosphorylation in response to growth factor stimulation. Spry2 expression is distinctly altered in various cancer types. Inhibition of the proteasome functionality results in reduced intracellular Spry2 degradation. Using in vitro and in vivo assays, we show that protein kinase D (PKD) phosphorylates Spry2 at serine 112 and interacts in vivo with the C-terminal half of this protein. Importantly, missense mutation of Ser112 decreases the rate of Spry2 intracellular protein degradation. Either knocking down the expression of all three mammalian PKD isoforms or blocking their kinase activity with a specific inhibitor contributes to the stabilization of Spry2 wild-type protein. Downregulation of CSN3, a component of the COP9/Signalosome that binds PKD, significantly increases the half-life of Spry2 wild-type protein but does not affect the stability of a Spry2 after mutating Ser112 to the non-phosphorylatable residue alanine. Our data demonstrate that both PKD and the COP9/Signalosome play a significant role in control of Spry2 intracellular stability and support the consideration of the PKD/COP9 complex as a potential therapeutic target in tumors where Spry2 expression is reduced.JMR-C received grant support from MINECO-FEDER (SAF2016-78852-R), AESI-ISCIII (PI20CIII/00029) and Spanish Association against Cancer (AECC, CGB14143035THOM). ES group was supported by grants from ISCIII-MCUI (FIS PI19/00934), JCyL (SA264P18-UIC-076), Areces Foundation (CIVP19A5942), Solorzano-Barruso Foundation (FS/32–2020) and by ISCIII-CIBERONC (group CB16/12/00352). Funding to AM group was provided by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PID2019-104867RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by ISCIII-CIBERONC (group CB16/12/00273). TI was supported by grant PID2020-115218RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe” and by ISCIII-CIBERNED. RB received grant support from AESI-ISCIII (PI20CIII/00019). Finally, DP-J and MY groups were supported by grants 1.012.022 (to DP-J), 1.010.929 and 1.400.002 (both to MY) from Fundación Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio (FUAX). All research co-financed by FEDER funds.S