Jump and change of direction speed asymmetry using smartphone apps: between-session consistency and associations with physical performance

The aims of the present study were to: 1) quantify the magnitude and direction of asymmetry from jump and change of direction speed (CODS) tests and, 2) determine the relationship between these asymmetries and jump and CODS performance, in a test-retest design. Thirty Spanish national level youth basketball athletes performed single leg countermovement jumps (SLCMJ), single leg drop jumps (SLDJ), and 505 CODS tests, all assessed using the My Jump 2™ and CODTimer™ smartphone applications. All tests showed good to excellent reliability, with no significant differences identified between test sessions in jump, CODS, or asymmetry data. The direction of asymmetry showed substantial levels of agreement between test sessions for jump height during the SLDJ (Kappa = 0.72), but only fair levels of agreement for reactive strength during the SLDJ (Kappa = 0.25), fair levels of agreement for jump height during the SLCMJ (Kappa = 0.29), and slight levels of agreement for total time during the 505 test (Kappa = 0.18). Jump height asymmetry from the SLDJ was significantly associated with reduced jump height (ρ = -0.44), reactive strength (ρ = -0.46) and 505 times (ρ = 0.45-0.48) in test session 1, and reactive strength (ρ = -0.42) and 505 time (ρ = 0.40) in test session 2. These data show that jump height asymmetry from the SLDJ was associated with reduced jump and CODS performance in youth basketball athletes during repeated test sessions. In addition, the same asymmetry metric was the only one to show substantial levels of agreement between test sessions. Owing to the consistency of these data, SLDJ height asymmetry may be a useful metric to measure when monitoring inter-limb asymmetries

Characterization of potential therapeutic targets in Leishmania infantum

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease caused by various species of Leishmania, which affects millions of people worldwide. Current treatments for leishmaniasis often present adverse effects and may not be effective against every Leishmania strain or form of the disease. Therefore, it is essential to explore new therapeutic approaches to combat the parasite. In this study, we focused on the PeBoW complex proteins homologous in Leishmania, which is involved in ribosomal biogenesis and plays a critical role in cancer development in mammalian cells. Recently, a homologue of the oncogene PES1 was found in Leishmania major, which plays a crucial role in parasite infectivity. Given this, we analyzed the possibility of using other PeBoW complex partner genes in Leishmania as therapeutic targets for leishmaniasis treatment. Specifically, our investigation aimed to characterize the partner WDR12 homologous in Leishmania infantum (LmjWDR12) as new therapeutic approach

An Evolutionary Artificial Neural Network approach for spatio-temporal wave height time series reconstruction

This paper proposes a novel methodology for recovering missing time series data, a crucial task for subsequent Machine Learning (ML) analyses. The methodology is specifically applied to Significant Wave Height (SWH) time series in the field of marine engineering. The proposed approach involves two phases. Firstly, the SWH time series for each buoy is independently reconstructed using three transfer function models: regression-based, correlation-based, and distance-based. The distance-based transfer function exhibits the best overall performance. Secondly, Evolutionary Artificial Neural Networks (EANNs) are utilised for the final recovery of each time series, using as inputs highly correlated buoys that have been intermediately recovered. The EANNs are evolved considering two metrics, the novel squared error relevance area, which balances the importance of extreme and around-mean values, and the well-known mean squared error. The study considers SWH time series data from 15 buoys in two coastal zones in the United States. The results demonstrate that the distance-based transfer function is generally the best transfer function, and that EANNs outperform a range of state-of-the-art ML techniques in 12 out of the 15 buoys, with a number of connections comparable to linear models. Furthermore, the proposed methodology outperforms the two most popular approaches for time series reconstruction, BRITS and SAITS, for all buoys except one. Therefore, the proposed methodology provides a promising approach, which may be applied to time series from other fields, such as wind or solar energy farms in the field of green energy

Tree species effects on soil microbial community composition and greenhouse gases emissions in a Mediterranean ecotone forest

Resumen de una presentación realizada en: I Simposio sobre Interacciones Planta-Suelo (ICA-CSIC, Madrid, 25-26 Febrero 2016)Over recent decades in the Iberian Peninsula, altitudinal shifts from Pinus sylvestris L. to Quercus pyrenaica Willd species has been observed as a consequence of Global Change, meaning changes in temperature, precipitation, land use and forestry. The forest conversion from pine to oak can alter the litter quality and quantity provided to the soil and thereby the soil microbial community composition and functioning. Since soil microbiota plays an important role in organic matter decomposition, and this in turn is key in biogeochemical cycles and forest ecosystems productivity, the rate in which forests produce and consume greenhouse gases can be also affected by changes in forest composition. In other words, changes in litter decomposition will ultimately affect downstream carbon and nitrogen dynamics although this impact is uncertain. In order to predict changes in carbon and nitrogen stocks in Global Change scenarios, it is necessary to deepen the impact of vegetation changes on soil microbial communities, litter decomposition dynamics (priming effect) and the underlying interactions between these factors. To test this, we conducted a full-factorial transplant microcosms experiment mixing both fresh soils and litter from Pyrenean oak, Scots pine and mixed stands collected inside their transitional area in Central Spain. The microcosms consisted in soil cylinders inside Kilner jars used as chambers inside an incubator. In this experiment, we investigated how and to what extent the addition of litter with different quality (needles, oak leaves and mixed needlesleaves) to soil inoculums with contrasting soil microbiota impact on soil (i) CO2, NO, N2O and CH4 efflux rates, (ii) total organic carbon and nitrogen and (iii) dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen. Furthermore, we assessed if these responses were controlled by changes in the microbial community structure using the PLFA analyses prior and after the incubation period of 54 days.Peer reviewe

Co-digestion of two-phase olive-mill waste and cattle manure: Influence of solids content on process performance

The solids content is a key parameter in the development of anaerobic digestion as it can determine the proper operation and performance of the process. The influence of the total solids content on the mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of two-phase olive-mill waste (2POMW) and cattle manure (CM) was investigated. Four different total solids (TS) concentrations, in a 75:25 mixture of 2POMW:CM, were studied in batch reactors of 2 L capacity: 10%TS (R10), 15%TS (R15), 20%TS (R20) and 28.6%TS (Reactor non-diluted). The methane yields and the organic matter removal efficiency for the reactor with 10 and 15% TS were significantly higher than in the reactors with a higher solids content (R20 and Rnd). The hydrolytic and acidogenic phases were not adversely affected by the total solid content since the concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) increased as TS per- centage increased. However, a clear effect on the methanogenic phase was observed, which led to the accu- mulation of VFAs in the reactors R15, R20 and Rnd. Experimental results have shown that the best conditions correspond to the reactor containing 10% TS. The volatile solids and VFA removal in reactor R10 were 57.5% and 93.7% respectively. Moreover, the methane yield and the specific methane production were 35.80 LCH4/ kgVSadded and 82.51 LCH4/kgVSremoved respectivelyThis research has been co-financed by the 2014-2020 ERDF Operational Programme and by the Department of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and University of the Regional Government of Andalusia. Project reference: FEDER-UCA18-107460

Joint route selection and split level management for 5G C-RAN

This work tackles the problem faced by network/infrastructure providers of jointly selecting routing and functional split level to satisfy requests from virtual mobile network operators (vMNOs). We build a novel system model that brings together all the involved elements and features, embracing split levels defined by the 3GPP and packet switch fronthaul network. To our best knowledge, this is the first work that provides a solution for multiple vMNO requests considering the two aforementioned sub-problems (i.e. split selection and routing). We use the model defined to formulate an optimization problem, which is characterized by the exponential size of its search space. We propose two heuristic approaches to address this problem: (1) a greedy scheme, and (2) an evolutionary algorithm, which is also improved with a specialized initialization. We conduct extensive experiments to assess the performance and behavior of the proposed methods, over varying network instances. When possible, we also perform comparisons with respect to the optimal solution and a well-known commercial solver. Our results indicate that the proposed techniques represent appropriate trade-offs between solution quality and execution time, and can serve complementary goals: the quality of the results yielded by our evolutionary method are better, but at the cost of longer execution times; in contrast, our greedy algorithm offers a reasonably appropriate performance, with an execution time that is notably lower. Our experiments show that it is possible to produce near-optimal results to the above complex problem through computationally efficient algorithmic solutions.This paper has been partially supported by the Secretary of Public Education of Mexico (SEP) and Cinvestav through research grant 262, and the National Council of Research and Technology (CONACYT) through grant ERANetLACFONCICYT No. 272278. Luis Diez and Ramon Agüero acknowledge the funding by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, MINECO-FEDER) by means of the project FIERCE: Future Internet Enabled Resilient smart CitiEs (RTI2018-093475-AI00)

Insights into the room temperature magnetism of ZnO/Co3O4 mixtures

The origin of room temperature (RT) ferromagneticlike behavior in ZnO-based diluted magnetic semiconductors is still an unclear topic. The present work concentrates on the appearance of RT magnetic moments in just mixed ZnO/Co3O4 mixtures without thermal treatment. In this study, it is shown that the magnetism seems to be related to surface reduction of the Co3O4 nanoparticles, in which, an antiferromagnetic Co3O4 nanoparticle (core) is surrounded by a CoO-like shell. This singular superficial magnetism has also been found in other mixtures with semiconductors such as TiO2 and insulators such as Al2O3

Sex chromosome and autosome divergence in Podisma (Orthoptera) in western Europe

International audienc

Muerte de un lince ibérico. Establecimiento de la causa y la autoría

Las ciencias forenses se aplican desde hace poco tiempo como herramientas en las investigaciones de delitos contra el medio ambiente. En este trabajo se expone un caso pionero en cuanto a la utilización de estas técnicas en un caso de un delit o contra la fauna silvestre. La investigación se inicia tras la apari ción de un lince ibérico muerto en el interior de una finca, donde se encontraron también varios pollos supuestamente utilizados como cebos envenenados y otro cadáver, el de un zorro. El lince ib érico es uno de los mamíferos más amenazados del planeta. Se llevaron a cabo distintos análisis a partir de la necropsia de los cadáveres en el Centro de Análisis y Diagnóstico de la Fauna Silvestre (CAD), el laboratorio de referencia para la fauna silvestre pertene ciente a la Junta de Andalucía. Los resultados fuer on concluyentes, ambas muertes se produjeron como consecuencia de la ingestión de cebos envenenados con un plaguicida extremadamente tóxico, el aldicarb. También se encontró esta sustancia en los pollos recogidos en el interior de la finca. Con el fin de e stablecer la culpabilidad de los propietarios de la finca, que negaron tener nada que ver con las muertes y la colocación de los cebos, se utilizó una herramienta novedosa en este tipo de investigaciones, la genética forens e. En base a los resultados se co nsiguió establecer una relación de parentesco entre los pollos utilizados como cebos envenenados y los pollos propiedad reconocida de los sospechosos, que permitió demostrar que todos tenían el mismo origen. Gracias al trabajo conjunto y coordinado durante toda la investigación y el informe pericial elaborado por el laboratorio del CAD, la Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Organización del Territorio de la Junta de Andalucía consiguió una sentencia ejemplar contra los envenenador es.The application of forensic science as a research tool to resolve crimes against the environment is relatively rec ent. To our knowledge this is the first instance in which the forensic genetic have been used as a definitive evidence to find out guilty in crimes against the wildlife. Our research starts when an Iberian lynx was found dead into a farm; very close to sev eral chickens used as poisoned baits and a fox carcass. Iberian lynx is one of the most endangered mammals in the planet. A comprehensive investigation from the carcasses was performed in the Analysis and Diagnostic Center for Wildlife in Andalucia (CAD), the reference laboratory for wildlife of the Andalusian Government (Spain). The results determined that the deaths occurred as a result of ingestion o f baits poisoned with an extremely toxic pesticide, aldicarb. This substance was also found in chickens ga thered inside the farm. In order to establish the guilt of the owners of the farm, who refused to be related to the deaths and the placement of the b aits, an innovative tool was used in this kind of research, the forensic genetic. Based on the results we got, we established a relationship between the chickens used as poisoned baits and the chickens from the farmer, all of them had the same origin. Thanks to the coordinated actuation during the complete investigation and the official report by the CAD labor atory used in the trial, the Ministry of Environmental and Territorial Organization got an exemplary sentence against the poisoners

LmjF.22.0810 from Leishmania major Modulates the Th2-Type Immune Response and Is Involved in Leishmaniasis Outcome

A novel serine/threonine protein kinase, LmjF.22.0810, was recently described in Leishmania major. After generating an L. major cell line overexpressing LmjF.22.0810 (named LmJ3OE), the ability of this novel protein to modulate the Th2-type immune response was analyzed. Our results suggest that the protein kinase LmjF.22.0810 might be involved in leishmaniasis outcomes. Indeed, our study outlined the LmJ3OE parasites infectivity in vitro and in vivo. Transgenic parasites displayed lower phagocytosis rates in vitro, and their promastigote forms exhibited lower expression levels of virulence factors compared to their counterparts in control parasites. In addition, LmJ3OE parasites developed significantly smaller footpad swelling in susceptible BALB/c mice. Hematoxylin–eosin staining allowed the observation of a lower inflammatory infiltrate in the footpad from LmJ3OE-infected mice compared to animals inoculated with control parasites. Gene expression of Th2-associated cytokines and effectors revealed a dramatically lower induction in interleukin (IL)-4, IL-10, and arginase 1 (ARG1) mRNA levels at the beginning of the swelling; no expression change was found in Th1-associated cytokines except forIL-12. Accordingly, such results were validated by immunohistochemistry studies, illustrating a weaker expression of ARG1 and a similar induction for inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in footpads from LmJ3OE-infected mice compared to control L. major infected animals. Furthermore, the parasite burden was lower in footpads from LmJ3OE-infected mice. Our analysis indicated that such significant smaller footpad swellings might be due to an impairment of the Th2 immune response that subsequently benefits Th1 prevalence. Altogether, these studies depict LmjF.22.0810 as a potential modulator of host immune responses to Leishmania. Finally, this promising target might be involved in the modulation of infection outcome