Mineralogía de los materiales detríticos de la Fm. Escucha (Albiense inferior) en el distrito minero de Teruel (sector Suroriental de la Cordillera Ibérica)

The present study focuses on the determination of the source areas of the Escucha Fm. (Albian) sediments in the Teruel Mining District (NE Spain). To this en4 we have carried out a detailed study of the heavy mineral fraction of the sandstone beds from this sedimentary unit at three stratigraphic successions at the Ariño-Oliete and Utrillas subbasins. The minerals found in the stratigraphic successions studied are in low proportions and a few mineral phases are present. Quartz is the dominant phase in the light mineral association, whereas potassium feldspars and plagioclase are in trace amounts. The opaque heavy minerals are hematite and goethite with minor amounts of pyrite. Finally, the transparent heavy minerals may be divided into the three following major associations: a) turmaline, zircon and rutile (resistant minerals); b) kyanite, staurolite and almandine (metamorphic association); and c) metamorphic mineral association from the Ctrillas sub-basin, characterised by very low heavy mineral proportions, and by the absence of one or various mineral phases from the association b. The flow directions from paleochannels and the absence of metarnorphic minerals in the sandstone levels of the upper unit of the Escucha Fm at the northern areas point to the "Platuforma del Ebro" as a possihle source area The minerals with this origin, with variable morphoscopy, could proceed from sedimentary recycling The metamorphic assemblage found in the southern areas may proceed from the "Macizo Castellano", where gneiss and mica-schists are present. It is not possible to precisse exactly the age of the source areas of the detrital sediments of the Escucha Fm This is due to the fact that these may have been different through the basin evolution, and also to the evidence of recycling processes The middle and lower units of the Escucha Fm at Ariño and Oliete, where the workable coa1 seams are present, show a metamorphic assemblage which demonstrate the Paleozoic age of the source lands Consequently, the Triassic units could also supply detrital minerals to the delta system of the Escucha Fm. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of the Triassic origin of the sulphur enrichment of the coals from the Ariño-Oliete area The recycling of detrital sediments from the Escucha Fm or a different source lana could account for the proteciion of the Utrillas sub-basin against the Triassic sulphate supply, and consequently for the lower sulphur content of the coals from this area.

Mineralogía de los materiales detríticos de la Fm. Escucha (Albiense inferior) en el distrito minero de Teruel (sector Suroriental de la Cordillera Ibérica)

The present study focuses on the determination of the source areas of the Escucha Fm. (Albian) sediments in the Teruel Mining District (NE Spain). To this en4 we have carried out a detailed study of the heavy mineral fraction of the sandstone beds from this sedimentary unit at three stratigraphic successions at the Ariño-Oliete and Utrillas subbasins. The minerals found in the stratigraphic successions studied are in low proportions and a few mineral phases are present. Quartz is the dominant phase in the light mineral association, whereas potassium feldspars and plagioclase are in trace amounts. The opaque heavy minerals are hematite and goethite with minor amounts of pyrite. Finally, the transparent heavy minerals may be divided into the three following major associations: a) turmaline, zircon and rutile (resistant minerals); b) kyanite, staurolite and almandine (metamorphic association); and c) metamorphic mineral association from the Ctrillas sub-basin, characterised by very low heavy mineral proportions, and by the absence of one or various mineral phases from the association b. The flow directions from paleochannels and the absence of metarnorphic minerals in the sandstone levels of the upper unit of the Escucha Fm at the northern areas point to the "Platuforma del Ebro" as a possihle source area The minerals with this origin, with variable morphoscopy, could proceed from sedimentary recycling The metamorphic assemblage found in the southern areas may proceed from the "Macizo Castellano", where gneiss and mica-schists are present. It is not possible to precisse exactly the age of the source areas of the detrital sediments of the Escucha Fm This is due to the fact that these may have been different through the basin evolution, and also to the evidence of recycling processes The middle and lower units of the Escucha Fm at Ariño and Oliete, where the workable coa1 seams are present, show a metamorphic assemblage which demonstrate the Paleozoic age of the source lands Consequently, the Triassic units could also supply detrital minerals to the delta system of the Escucha Fm. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of the Triassic origin of the sulphur enrichment of the coals from the Ariño-Oliete area The recycling of detrital sediments from the Escucha Fm or a different source lana could account for the proteciion of the Utrillas sub-basin against the Triassic sulphate supply, and consequently for the lower sulphur content of the coals from this area.

νμ\nu_\mu disappearance at the SPL, T2K-I and the Neutrino Factory

We study the $\nu_\mu$ disappearance channel at T2K-phase I and the SPL and analyse the achievable reduction of present uncertainties in $\theta_{23}$ and $\Delta m^2_{23}$. We analyse the impact of discrete ambiguities in sign($\Delta m^2{23}$) and sign($2 \tan \theta_{23}$). We show how the disappearance channel at the Neutrino Factory is complementary to the ``golden'' and ``silver'' appearance channels and can be used to reduce the eightfold-ambiguity problem in ($\theta_{13}-\delta$).Comment: 2 pages, 3 epsfig; NUFACT'05, 21-26 June 2005, Frascat

Modulating the phase transition temperature of giant magnetocaloric thin films by ion irradiation

Magnetic refrigeration based on the magnetocaloric effect at room temperature is one of the most attractive alternative to the current gas compression/expansion method routinely employed. Nevertheless, in giant magnetocaloric materials, optimal refrigeration is restricted to the narrow temperature window of the phase transition (Tc). In this work, we present the possibility of varying this transition temperature into a same giant magnetocaloric material by ion irradiation. We demonstrate that the transition temperature of iron rhodium thin films can be tuned by the bombardment of ions of Ne 5+ with varying fluences up to 10 14 ions cm --2 , leading to optimal refrigeration over a large 270--380 K temperature window. The Tc modification is found to be due to the ion-induced disorder and to the density of new point-like defects. The variation of the phase transition temperature with the number of incident ions opens new perspectives in the conception of devices using giant magnetocaloric materials

Visceral leishmaniasis patients display altered composition and maturity of neutrophils as well as impaired neutrophil effector functions

Immunologically, active visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is characterised by profound immunosuppression, severe systemic inflammatory responses and an impaired capacity to control parasite replication. Neutrophils are highly versatile cells, which play a crucial role in the induction as well as the resolution of inflammation, the control of pathogen replication and the regulation of immune responses. Neutrophil functions have been investigated in human cutaneous leishmaniasis, however, their role in human visceral leishmaniasis is poorly understood. In the present study we evaluated the activation status and effector functions of neutrophils in patients with active VL and after successful anti-leishmanial treatment. Our results show that neutrophils are highly activated and have degranulated; high levels of arginase, myeloperoxidase and elastase, all contained in neutrophils’ granules, were found in the plasma of VL patients. In addition, we show that a large proportion of these cells are immature. We also analysed effector functions of neutrophils that are essential for pathogen clearance and show that neutrophils have an impaired capacity to release neutrophil extracellular traps, produce reactive oxygen species and phagocytose bacterial particles, but not Leishmania parasites. Our results suggest that impaired effector functions, increased activation and immaturity of neutrophils play a key role in the pathogenesis of VL

Hepcidin and dicentracin peptides show preventive antiviral applications against NNV infection in European sea bass through immunomodulatory roles

© 2024. The authors. This document is made available under the CC-BY-NC 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc /4.0/ This document is the published version of a published work that appeared in final form in Aquaculture.Aquaculture is an extremely prosperous market threatened by pathogen outbreaks, including viruses as nodavirus (NNV), which infect fish species with special interest in trading such as European sea bass. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) might constitute potential antiviral agents, which had been previously evaluated in fish with positive prospects, based on their properties as immunomodulators or directly killing pathogens. In this line, we aimed to evaluate this dual role by administering two European sea bass synthetic AMPs (Hamp or Dic) prior to NNV infection. Both treatments conferred partial protection against NNV though viral replication and load were not affected. Both AMPs elicited, prior to infection, AMP response and leukocyte mobilization whilst downregulated pro-inflammatory markers. Upon infection, Hamp and Dic peptides abrogated the inflammatory response provoked by NNV as well as avoid NNV-induced disturbance of the leucocyte distribution in the brain, mainly neutrophils, macrophages and CD8+ T cells. This study points that preventive applications of synthetic Hamp and Dic peptides exert their antiviral actions through the immunomodulatory role and not by a direct action of the antimicrobial on NNV. This work opens the door to the use of AMPs as potential prophylactic tools against NNV as well as immunostimulant in fish farm

RGNNV and SJNNV reassortants produce mortality and replicate in gilthead seabream larvae

Nervous Necrosis Virus (NNV) is one of the most challenging pathogens for aquaculture development nowadays, mainly affecting marine teleost fish of major interest to the aquaculture industry and causing great economic losses. NNV consist in four genotypes, which seem to have a tropism for certain teleost fish species. Among them, gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) has been considered as a non-susceptible species to the disease produced by traditional NNV genotypes. However, there are some evidences that indicate seabream is able to develop the disease in the presence of certain reassortant strains of NNV, called RGNNV/SJNNV, which possesses the RNA1 segment of the RGNNV genotype and the RNA2 segment of the SJNNV genotype, which may cause a new threat to aquaculture. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility of gilthead seabream larvae to the reassortant strains RGNNV/SJNNV and SJNNV/RGNNV. For this purpose, larvae were exposed to 104 TCDI50/mL in triplicate tanks with the reassortant strains. Samples of 5 individual larvae were collected at different days post-infection and used for gene expression and infective NNV isolation. Our data show that both reassortants produced mortalities, although the RGNNV/SJNNV was the one which produced the highest mortality and viral gene transcription, which significantly increased from 1 to 7 days post-infection. In conclusion, our study demonstrate that seabream larvae are susceptible to both RGNNV/SJNNV and SJNNV/RGNNV reassortants under laboratory conditions. Further studies should be performed to understand the pathogenicity of the NNV reassortant strains to prevent and control future outbreaks in aquaculture farms

Proposal for SPS beam time for the baby MIND and TASD neutrino detector prototypes

The design, construction and testing of neutrino detector prototypes at CERN are ongoing activities. This document reports on the design of solid state baby MIND and TASD detector prototypes and outlines requirements for a test beam at CERN to test these, tentatively planned on the H8 beamline in the North Area, which is equipped with a large aperture magnet. The current proposal is submitted to be considered in light of the recently approved projects related to neutrino activities with the SPS in the North Area in the medium term 2015-2020

Constraint-based, Single-point Approximate Kinetic Energy Functionals

We present a substantial extension of our constraint-based approach for development of orbital-free (OF) kinetic-energy (KE) density functionals intended for the calculation of quantum-mechanical forces in multi-scale molecular dynamics simulations. Suitability for realistic system simulations requires that the OF-KE functional yield accurate forces on the nuclei yet be relatively simple. We therefore require that the functionals be based on DFT constraints, local, dependent upon a small number of parameters fitted to a training set of limited size, and applicable beyond the scope of the training set. Our previous "modified conjoint" generalized-gradient-type functionals were constrained to producing a positive-definite Pauli potential. Though distinctly better than several published GGA-type functionals in that they gave semi-quantitative agreement with Born-Oppenheimer forces from full Kohn-Sham results, those modified conjoint functionals suffer from unphysical singularities at the nuclei. Here we show how to remove such singularities by introducing higher-order density derivatives. We give a simple illustration of such a functional used for the dissociation energy as a function of bond length for selected molecules.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Characterization of genetic variation within table grape varieties (Vitis vinifera L.) based on AFLP markers

AFLPs were used to characterize a collection of 35 table grape varieties. A single AFLP reaction with a single combination of selective primers yielded an average of 50 polymorphic and scorable amplified bands in this collection and was enough to unequivocally identify each analyzed variety, Genetic similarity between different varieties was estimated, based on the results obtained with two primer combinations, to be between 0.65 and 0.90, while sibling varieties derived from the same cross showed a genetic similarity higher than 0.80, The analysis of several samples belonging to the same varieties, yet from different origins, showed stability of the AFLP patterns as to unequivocally and reproducibly identify them. Furthermore, some specific primer combinations detected a low level of variation that could be due to somatic variation and would be useful in clonal identification