Harmonized Soil Database of Ecuador (HESD): data from 2009 to 2015

One of the largest challenges with soil information around the world is how to harmonize archived soil data from different sources and how to make it accessible to soil scientist. In Ecuador, there have been two major projects that have provided soil information, but the methodology of these projects, although comparable, did not coincide, especially with respect to how information was reported. Here, we present a new soil database for Ecuador, comprising 13 542 soil profiles with 51 713 measured soil horizons, including 92 different edaphic variables. The original data were in a non-editable format (i.e., PDF), which made it difficult to access and process the information. Our study provides an integrated framework that combines multiple analytic tools for automatically converting legacy soil information from an analog format into usable digital soil mapping inputs across Ecuador. This framework allowed us to incorporate quantitative information on a broad set of soil properties and retrieve qualitative information on soil morphological properties collected in the profile description phase, which is rarely included in soil databases. We present a new harmonized national soil database using a specific methodology to preserve relevant information. The national representativeness of soil information has been enhanced compared with other international databases, and this new database contributes to filling the gaps in publicly available soil information across the country. The database is freely available at https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/1560e803953c839e7aedef78ff7d3f6c (Armas et al., 2022).</p

Ultrastructure of the Interlamellar Membranes of the Nacre of the Bivalve Pteria hirundo, Determined by Immunolabelling

The current model for the ultrastructure of the interlamellar membranes of molluscan nacre imply that they consist of a core of aligned chitin fibers surrounded on both sides by acidic proteins. This model was based on observations taken on previously demineralized shells, where the original structure had disappeared. Despite other earlier claims, no direct observations exist in which the different components can be unequivocally discriminated. We have applied different labeling protocols on non-demineralized nacreous shells of the bivalve Pteria. With this method, we have revealed the disposition and nature of the different fibers of the interlamellar membranes that can be observed on the surface of the nacreous shell of the bivalve Pteria hirundo by high resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The minor chitin component consists of very thin fibers with a high aspect ratio and which are seemingly disoriented. Each fiber has a protein coat, which probably forms a complex with the chitin. The chitin-protein-complex fibers are embedded in an additional proteinaceous matrix. This is the first time in which the sizes, positions and distribution of the chitin fibers have been observed in situ.AJOM was financed by a PhD Grant of the FPI program from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; TCB's PhD Grant belonged to the FPU Program of the same Ministry. AJOM and AGC were supported by Projects CGL2010-20748-C02-01 and CGL2013-48247-P of the mentioned Ministry, and RNM6433 of the Consejería de Economía, Innovación y Ciencia of the Junta de Andalucía. The European COST Action TD0903 contributed via two Short Term Scientific Missions to AJOM in FM's lab in Dijon

Nurse-like cells control the activity of chronic lymphocytic leukemia b cells via galectin-1

Accumulation of neoplastic cells in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is conditioned by a variety of signals delivered by accompanying cells in lymphoid tissues. Here we examined the relevance of galectin-1 (Gal-1), a glycan-binding protein with immunoregulatory activity, within the CLL microenvironment. We found that monocytes in peripheral blood and stromal and myeloid cells in bone marrow biopsies are the main source of Gal1. Knocking down Gal1 in adherent nurse-like cells differentiated in vitro decreased the expression of activation markers (CD80, CD86, CD25) and mRNA levels of IL10 and CCL3 in CLL cells. The concentration of Gal1 in plasma was increased in CLL patients compared to healthy subjects. Likewise, we found a higher expression of Gal1 in bone marrow biopsies from patients with progressive disease. These results provide the first evidence of a role for Gal-1 in CLL cell differentiation and its expression in accompanying myeloid cells.Fil: Croci Russo, Diego Omar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Morande, Pablo Elías. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Dergan Dylon, Leonardo Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Borge, Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Toscano, Marta Alicia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Stupirski, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Bezares, R. F.. Hospital General de Agudos "Dr T. Alvarez"; ArgentinaFil: Avalos, J. S.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Hospital de Clínicas General San Martín; ArgentinaFil: Narbaitz, M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Gamberale, Romina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Rabinovich, Gabriel Adrian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Giordano, Mirta Nilda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentin

A Weyl-Dirac Cosmological Model with DM and DE

In the Weyl-Dirac (W-D) framework a spatially closed cosmological model is considered. It is assumed that the space-time of the universe has a chaotic Weylian microstructure but is described on a large scale by Riemannian geometry. Locally fields of the Weyl connection vector act as creators of massive bosons having spin 1. It is suggested that these bosons, called weylons, provide most of the dark matter in the universe. At the beginning the universe is a spherically symmetric geometric entity without matter. Primary matter is created by Dirac's gauge function very close to the beginning. In the early epoch, when the temperature of the universe achieves its maximum, chaotically oriented Weyl vector fields being localized in micro-cells create weylons. In the dust dominated period Dirac's gauge function is giving rise to dark energy, the latter causing the cosmic acceleration at present. This oscillatory universe has an initial radius identical to the Plank length = 1.616 exp (-33) cm, at present the cosmic scale factor is 3.21 exp (28) cm, while its maximum value is 8.54 exp (28) cm. All forms of matter are created by geometrically based functions of the W-D theory.Comment: 25 pages. Submitted to GR

Dynamical Boson Stars

The idea of stable, localized bundles of energy has strong appeal as a model for particles. In the 1950s John Wheeler envisioned such bundles as smooth configurations of electromagnetic energy that he called {\em geons}, but none were found. Instead, particle-like solutions were found in the late 1960s with the addition of a scalar field, and these were given the name {\em boson stars}. Since then, boson stars find use in a wide variety of models as sources of dark matter, as black hole mimickers, in simple models of binary systems, and as a tool in finding black holes in higher dimensions with only a single killing vector. We discuss important varieties of boson stars, their dynamic properties, and some of their uses, concentrating on recent efforts.Comment: 79 pages, 25 figures, invited review for Living Reviews in Relativity; major revision in 201

Targeting stromal remodeling and cancer stem cell plasticity overcomes chemoresistance in triple negative breast cancer

The cellular and molecular basis of stromal cell recruitment, activation and crosstalk in carcinomas is poorly understood, limiting the development of targeted anti-stromal therapies. In mouse models of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), Hedgehog ligand produced by neoplastic cells reprograms cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) to provide a supportive niche for the acquisition of a chemo-resistant, cancer stem cell (CSC) phenotype via FGF5 expression and production of fibrillar collagen. Stromal treatment of patient-derived xenografts with smoothened inhibitors (SMOi) downregulates CSC markers expression and sensitizes tumors to docetaxel, leading to markedly improved survival and reduced metastatic burden. In the phase I clinical trial EDALINE, 3 of 12 patients with metastatic TNBC derived clinical benefit from combination therapy with the SMOi Sonidegib and docetaxel chemotherapy, with one patient experiencing a complete response. These studies identify Hedgehog signaling to CAFs as a novel mediator of CSC plasticity and an exciting new therapeutic target in TNBC.Aurélie S. Cazet, Mun N. Hui, Benjamin L. Elsworth, Sunny Z. Wu, Daniel Roden ... Michael S. Samuel ... et al

Sustainable development and well-being: a philosophical challenge

This paper aims at gaining a better understanding of the inherent paradoxes within sustainability discourses by investigating its basic assumptions. Drawing on a study of the metaphoric references operative in moral language, we reveal the predominance of the 'well-being = wealth' construct, which may explain the dominance of the 'business case' cognitive frame in sustainability discourses (Hahn et al. in Acad Manag Rev 4015:18–42, 2015a). We incorporate economic well-being variables within a philosophical model of becoming well (Küpers in Cult Organ 11(3):221–231, 2005), highlighting the way in which these variables consistently articulate a combination of 'objective' and 'subjective' concerns. We then compare this broad understanding of well-being with the metaphors operative in the sustainable development discourse and argue that the sustainability discourse has fallen prey to an overemphasis on the 'business case'. We proceed to draw on Georges Bataille to challenge the predominance of these value priorities and to explore which mindshifts are required to develop a more comprehensive understanding of what is needed to enable 'sustainable development'

Discordant identification of pediatric severe sepsis by research and clinical definitions in the SPROUT international point prevalence study

Introduction: Consensus criteria for pediatric severe sepsis have standardized enrollment for research studies. However, the extent to which critically ill children identified by consensus criteria reflect physician diagnosis of severe sepsis, which underlies external validity for pediatric sepsis research, is not known. We sought to determine the agreement between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria to identify pediatric patients with severe sepsis across a network of international pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). Methods: We conducted a point prevalence study involving 128 PICUs in 26 countries across 6 continents. Over the course of 5 study days, 6925 PICU patients &lt;18 years of age were screened, and 706 with severe sepsis defined either by physician diagnosis or on the basis of 2005 International Pediatric Sepsis Consensus Conference consensus criteria were enrolled. The primary endpoint was agreement of pediatric severe sepsis between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria as measured using Cohen's ?. Secondary endpoints included characteristics and clinical outcomes for patients identified using physician diagnosis versus consensus criteria. Results: Of the 706 patients, 301 (42.6 %) met both definitions. The inter-rater agreement (? ± SE) between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria was 0.57 ± 0.02. Of the 438 patients with a physician's diagnosis of severe sepsis, only 69 % (301 of 438) would have been eligible to participate in a clinical trial of pediatric severe sepsis that enrolled patients based on consensus criteria. Patients with physician-diagnosed severe sepsis who did not meet consensus criteria were younger and had lower severity of illness and lower PICU mortality than those meeting consensus criteria or both definitions. After controlling for age, severity of illness, number of comorbid conditions, and treatment in developed versus resource-limited regions, patients identified with severe sepsis by physician diagnosis alone or by consensus criteria alone did not have PICU mortality significantly different from that of patients identified by both physician diagnosis and consensus criteria. Conclusions: Physician diagnosis of pediatric severe sepsis achieved only moderate agreement with consensus criteria, with physicians diagnosing severe sepsis more broadly. Consequently, the results of a research study based on consensus criteria may have limited generalizability to nearly one-third of PICU patients diagnosed with severe sepsis

Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap

The grand challenges of contemporary fundamental physics—dark matter, dark energy, vacuum energy, inflation and early universe cosmology, singularities and the hierarchy problem—all involve gravity as a key component. And of all gravitational phenomena, black holes stand out in their elegant simplicity, while harbouring some of the most remarkable predictions of General Relativity: event horizons, singularities and ergoregions. The hitherto invisible landscape of the gravitational Universe is being unveiled before our eyes: the historical direct detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration marks the dawn of a new era of scientific exploration. Gravitational-wave astronomy will allow us to test models of black hole formation, growth and evolution, as well as models of gravitational-wave generation and propagation. It will provide evidence for event horizons and ergoregions, test the theory of General Relativity itself, and may reveal the existence of new fundamental fields. The synthesis of these results has the potential to radically reshape our understanding of the cosmos and of the laws of Nature. The purpose of this work is to present a concise, yet comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the relevant fields of research, summarize important open problems, and lay out a roadmap for future progress. This write-up is an initiative taken within the framework of the European Action on 'Black holes, Gravitational waves and Fundamental Physics'