AGN in the CALIFA survey: X-ray detection of nuclear sources

A complete demographic of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is essential to understand the evolution of the Universe. Optical surveys estimate the population of AGN in the local Universe to be of $\sim$ 4%. However, these results could be biased towards bright sources, not affected by the host galaxy attenuation. An alternative method for detecting these objects is through the X-ray emission. In this work, we aim to complement the AGN population of the optical CALIFA survey (941 sources), by using X-ray data from Chandra, which provides the best spatial resolution to date, essential to isolate the nuclear emission from the host galaxy. We study a total of 138 sources with available data. We find 34 new bonafide AGN and 23 AGN candidates, which could increase the AGN population to 7-10\% among the CALIFA survey. X-rays are particularly useful for low-luminosity AGN since they are excluded by the criterion of large equivalent width of the $H\alpha$ emission line when applied to optical selections. Indeed, placing such a restrictive criteria might cause a loss of up to 70% of AGN sources. X-ray detected sources are preferentially located in the right side of the [$OIII$]/$H\beta$ versus [$NII$]/$H\alpha$ diagram, suggesting that this diagram might be the most reliable at classifying AGN sources. Our results support the idea that multi-wavelength studies are the best way to obtain a complete AGN population.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables, 5 pages of supplementary online material available. Accepted for publication in MNRA

The Role of lncRNAs in Gene Expression Regulation through mRNA Stabilization

mRNA stability influences gene expression and translation in almost all living organisms, and the levels of mRNA molecules in the cell are determined by a balance between production and decay. Maintaining an accurate balance is crucial for the correct function of a wide variety of biological processes and to maintain an appropriate cellular homeostasis. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to participate in the regulation of gene expression through different molecular mechanisms, including mRNA stabilization. In this review we provide an overview on the molecular mechanisms by which lncRNAs modulate mRNA stability and decay. We focus on how lncRNAs interact with RNA binding proteins and microRNAs to avoid mRNA degradation, and also on how lncRNAs modulate epitranscriptomic marks that directly impact on mRNA stability.LncRNA work in author’s laboratory is supported by European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD)-EFSD/JDRF/Lilly Programme on Type 1 Diabetes Research and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PID2019-104475GA-I00) to I.S; and Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (SAF2017-91873-EXP and PGC2018-097573-A-I00) to ACR. M.S.D. and I.G.M. are supported by a Predoctoral Fellowship Grant from the UPV/EHU (Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea) and A.O.G. is supported by a Predoctoral Fellowship Grant from the Education Department of Basque Government

Characteristics of alcoholic drinks consumption and consumption pattern among Dental students.

Objetivo: Describir características del consumo de bebidas alcohólicas e identificar patrón de consumo en estudiantes de odontología de la Universidad San Sebastián, sede Concepción. Materiales y métodos: Estudio exploratorio, descriptivo, transversal, no experimental. La muestra estuvo constituida por 601 alumnos (65% del total). Se aplicaron dos cuestionarios durante el segundo semestre del año 2015. El primero: cuestionario estructurado diseñado para recolectar datos sobre el consumo de alcohol y sus características. El segundo: cuestionario autoadministrado de”Identificación de Trastornos Relacionados con el Consumo de Alcohol”. Los datos fueron analizados mediante estadígrafos descriptivos. La asociación de la variable dependiente “alcohol” con las variables independientes “edad”, ”género”, “ubicación geográfica de origen” y “semestre académico” fueron evaluados mediante una prueba de regresión logística binomial. Sólo los datos de los sujetos que consumían alcohol fueron evaluados. El nivel de significación empleado en todos los casos fue de α≤0,05. Resultados: El 15% de los estudiantes es consumidor de riesgo y 18% presenta consumo perjudicial o posible dependencia. En estudiantes que consumen alcohol, la variable ingreso familiar, en relación con las variables época del año en que consumen y la presencia de problemas están asociadas. Conclusión: Existe mayor prevalencia de consumo en el género masculino y un alto consumo de bebidas alcohólicas en ambos géneros en cualquier época del año. El consumo de bebidas alcohólicas es independiente del ingreso familiar

Novedad, emociones e intención de ser físicamente activo en estudiantes de Educación Física

In recent years, the importance of students’ emotions in Physical Education classes has been highlighted. Novelty has also recently been proposed as a candidate for basic psychological need. To date, no study has specifically focused on analysing the relationships between these two constructs, which is the main objective of this paper. For this purpose, a structural equation model was tested with 799 Physical Education students with a mean age of 13.16 years (SD = 1.17). The results showed that students’ perception of their teachers’ novelty support strategies predicted the satisfaction of this need (ß = .81; p < .01). In turn, novelty satisfaction positively predicted positive emotions and negatively predicted negative emotions, with the explained variances of enjoyment (52%), pride (41%), and boredom (37%) standing out. Finally, the emotions enjoyment (ß = .45; p < .01) and hopelessness (ß = -.16; p < .01) predicted intention to be physically active in the future. These results show the importance of novelty in making PE a positive emotional experience and its effect on the creation of healthy habits.En los últimos años se ha puesto de manifiesto la importancia que juegan las emociones de los y las estudiantes en las clases de Educación Física. Asimismo, recientemente la novedad ha sido propuesta como candidata a ser una necesidad psicológica básica. Hasta la fecha, ningún estudio se ha centrado de manera específica en analizar las relaciones entre estos dos constructos, que es el objetivo principal del trabajo. Para ello, se testó un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales con 799 estudiantes de Educación Física con una edad media de 13.16 años (DT = 1.17). Los resultados mostraron que la percepción que tienen los y las estudiantes de las estrategias de apoyo a la novedad por parte de sus docentes predijo la satisfacción de esta necesidad (ß = .81; p < .01). A su vez, la satisfacción de novedad predijo de forma positiva las emociones positivas y de manera negativa las emociones negativas, destacando las varianzas explicadas del disfrute (52 %), orgullo (41 %) y aburrimiento (37 %). Finalmente, las emociones disfrute (ß = .45; p < .01) y desesperanza (ß = -.16; p < .01) predijeron la intención de ser físicamente activo en el futuro. Estos resultados muestran la importancia de la novedad para hacer de la Educación Física una experiencia emocional positiva y su efecto en la creación de hábitos saludables.This paper has been possible thanks to the support of the University Teacher Training Programme (FPU18/04855) of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government, as well as the Research and Transfer Policy Strategy of the University of Huelva.Departamento de Educación Física, Música y Artes Plástica

Implication of m6A mRNA Methylation in Susceptibility to Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract that develops due to the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. More than 160 loci have been associated with IBD, but the functional implication of many of the associated genes remains unclear. N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant internal modification in mRNA. m6A methylation regulates many aspects of mRNA metabolism, playing important roles in the development of several pathologies. Interestingly, SNPs located near or within m6A motifs have been proposed as possible contributors to disease pathogenesis. We hypothesized that certain IBD-associated SNPs could regulate the function of genes involved in IBD development via m6A-dependent mechanisms. We used online available GWAS, m6A and transcriptome data to find differentially expressed genes that harbored m6A-SNPs associated with IBD. Our analysis resulted in five candidate genes corresponding to two of the major IBD subtypes: UBE2L3 and SLC22A4 for Crohn’s Disease and TCF19, C6orf47 and SNAPC4 for Ulcerative Colitis. Further analysis using in silico predictions and co-expression analyses in combination with in vitro functional studies showed that our candidate genes seem to be regulated by m6A-dependent mechanisms. These findings provide the first indication of the implication of RNA methylation events in IBD pathogenesis.This work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (grant PGC2018-097573-A-I00) to A.C.-R. I.S. was funded by research project grant 2015111068 of the Basque Department of Health and a Research Grant from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes. M.S.-d. and I.G.-M. are predoctoral fellows funded by grants from the University of Basque Country and A.O.-G. is a predoctoral fellow funded by Basque Department of Education, Universities and Research

Prevalence, diagnosis and management of musculoskeletal disorders in elite athletes: A mini-review

[Abstract] Musculoskeletal injuries in elite sports are ones of the most impact issue because their remarkable impact on performance caused by drastic absence of training and competition and a progressive deterioration in physical health, emotional and social athletes’ dimen- sions. Also, the prevalence of epidemiologic research found an incidence of musculoskeletal disorders vary within sports and in elite athletes which is even higher as a consequence of higher demand physical performance. This way, the loss of physical performance due to an sport injury impacts not only the individual economic sphere of the professional but also that of sports entities, reaching, according to some studies, a loss estimated in the range of 74.7 million pounds. Thus, the purpose of this article is to review and to pro- vide an overview of the most common musculoskeletal injuries in elite sports precipitating factors, clinical presentation, evidence-based diagnostic evaluation, and treatment recom- mendations with a view to preventing medical conditions or musculoskeletal injuries that may alter performance and general health in the elite athletes

Identification of the Correct Disposal of the Waste Generated by COVID-19 in Colombia Applying Systemic Design

Introduction: the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) has represented a significant increase in the use of disposable masks worldwide; particularly in Colombia, it has been evident that there is no knowledge about the disposal of these residues, this is reflected in high pollution rates. Objective: to propose a methodological guide to improve the disposal cycles of disposable masks, involving stakeholders and applying the Systemic Design methodology. Materials and methods: the methodology used included the collection of data through a Kano survey applied in different departments of Colombia. Remote interviews were conducted with experts in waste management. From these activities, it was possible to identify the different disposal methods used in Colombia. Results: a methodological guide that allows the correct arrangement of the masks, based on what was obtained with the application of the phases of Systemic Design, and the construction of the circular graphic that allows waste to return to the system. Conclusions: the research made it possible to identify that the correct disposition of the masks does not depend exclusively on the awareness of the communities, but also on the commitment of the industries involved; we hope that this study will be useful for future research

Human prefoldin modulates co-transcriptional pre-mRNA splicing.

Prefoldin is a heterohexameric complex conserved from archaea to humans that plays a cochaperone role during the co-translational folding of actin and tubulin monomers. Additional functions of prefoldin have been described, including a positive contribution to transcription elongation and chromatin dynamics in yeast. Here we show that prefoldin perturbations provoked transcriptional alterations across the human genome. Severe pre-mRNA splicing defects were also detected, particularly after serum stimulation. We found impairment of co-transcriptional splicing during transcription elongation, which explains why the induction of long genes with a high number of introns was affected the most. We detected genome-wide prefoldin binding to transcribed genes and found that it correlated with the negative impact of prefoldin depletion on gene expression. Lack of prefoldin caused global decrease in Ser2 and Ser5 phosphorylation of the RNA polymerase II carboxy-terminal domain. It also reduced the recruitment of the CTD kinase CDK9 to transcribed genes, and the association of splicing factors PRP19 and U2AF65 to chromatin, which is known to depend on CTD phosphorylation. Altogether the reported results indicate that human prefoldin is able to act locally on the genome to modulate gene expression by influencing phosphorylation of elongating RNA polymerase II, and thereby regulating co-transcriptional splicing.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Agencia Estatal de Investigación [BFU2016-77728-C3-1-P to S.C. and BFU2017-85420-R to J.C.R.] co-financed with European Union funds (FEDER); Andalusian Government [P12-BIO1938MO, BIO271, US-1256285 to S.C., BIO321 to J.C.R.]; Junta de Andalucía (to L.P.-B.). Funding for open access charge: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Agencia Estatal de Investigación [BFU2016-77728-C3-1-P]

Propuesta para mitigar el PM10 que afecta a la Fundación Palagus en el barrio lagunitas (Bogotá)

El material particulado puede afectar en gran medida la salud respiratoria de la población expuesta, en especial la más vulnerable como niños y ancianos. Los habitantes del Barrio Lagunitas de Bogotá están expuestos a este tipo de contaminante por su cercanía a ladrilleras, que son una fuente de emisión fija de estos compuestos. El objetivo del presente trabajo es mitigar las concentraciones de PM10 que está afectando a la Fundación Palagus ubicada en el Barrio Lagunitas (Bogotá), utilizando herramientas de educación en salud ambiental y tecnologías limpias. Por medio de un diagnóstico se determinó el nivel de afectación en que se encontraba expuesta la comunidad de la Fundación, para luego proceder al diseño de mallas captadoras de PM10 que se ubicaron en la puerta y las ventanas del edificio de la misma. La concentración de PM10 fue estimada en 118 μg/m3 en 24 horas, lo que sobrepasa la normativa vigente establecida por el Ministerio del Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible de Colombia. Por medio de la intervención realizada se logró disminuir el PM10 en un 41%, por lo que se concluye que este tipo de sistemas (que son económicos, fácil instalación y reusables) pueden ser bastante eficientes para mitigar este tipo de contaminantes