Morphogen Transport in Epithelia

We present a general theoretical framework to discuss mechanisms of morphogen transport and gradient formation in a cell layer. Trafficking events on the cellular scale lead to transport on larger scales. We discuss in particular the case of transcytosis where morphogens undergo repeated rounds of internalization into cells and recycling. Based on a description on the cellular scale, we derive effective nonlinear transport equations in one and two dimensions which are valid on larger scales. We derive analytic expressions for the concentration dependence of the effective diffusion coefficient and the effective degradation rate. We discuss the effects of a directional bias on morphogen transport and those of the coupling of the morphogen and receptor kinetics. Furthermore, we discuss general properties of cellular transport processes such as the robustness of gradients and relate our results to recent experiments on the morphogen Decapentaplegic (Dpp) that acts in the fruit fly Drosophila

Editorial: The adaptation and response of aquatic animals in the context of global climate change

Editorial on the Research Topic The adaptation and response of aquatic animals in the context of global climate change Anthropogenic climate change has brought on widespread changes in marine environments, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, the development and expansion of hypoxic zones. These environmental changes represent major threats to marine life, challenging the survival and adaptation of marine organisms. The adverse effects of these changes can interact in synergistic, additive or antagonistic ways (Huo et al., 2019a; Huo et al., 2019b; Small et al., 2020; Collins et al., 2021), evidencing different biological influence compared to their individual action (Huo et al., 2021a). Such influence can vary across populations and species as a consequence of differences in phenotypic plasticity and physiological tolerances shaped by their specific environmental and genetic backgrounds (Gaitán-Espitia et al., 2017a; Gaitán-Espitia et al., 2017b). These factors ultimately modulate the ecological response and evolutionary adaptation of marine organisms to climate change. From an ecological perspective, changes in the marine environment are likely to have significant negative phenotypic effects (e.g., physiology, behavior, gene/protein expression), across levels of biological organization (i.e., from individuals, populations, to species). These changes can alter the ingestion, digestion, respiration and growth of aquatic animals (Huo et al., 2018), potentially influencing demographic and genetic declines driven, for instance, by massive mortality (Huo et al., 2021b). From an adaptive evolution perspective, phenotypic plasticity appears to be a suitable strategy to cope with these changes, at least in the short-term, through behavioral, physiological, life-history and morphological adjustments (Gaitán-Espitia et al., 2017b). However, there are limits for plastic adjustments beyond which populations and species require genetic and cellular modifications to adapt to the unfavorable environmental conditions. These adaptive responses include microevolutionary changes of transcriptional, translational and post-translational mechanisms underpinning phenotypic responses (Huo et al., 2021b). Through the study of these mechanisms, we can gain better understanding of the costs and trade-offs of adaptive evolution in marine animals under climate change

Relationships between executive function of children in residential care and caregivers’ discipline style: a pilot study.

Despite legislative efforts to ensure that the Residential Care (RC) guarantees good care for children, there are difficulties inherent to the profile of the foster population. One of the areas affected in this population is executive functions. However, there is a lack of information on how these functions are related to other variables as affective relationships (affection/communication and criticism/rejection) and the discipline styles of caregivers. Therefore, this research aims to study these relationships. Forty-six boys and girls between 10 and 16 years old and thirty-nine caregivers from seven residential centres participated in the study. This work is a pilot study within a larger research that includes all the RC centres in the province of Malaga (Spain). BRIEF-2 Family version was used to assess executive functions, while Warmth Scale (EA) and the Rules-Demands Scale (ENE) were used to asses affection and discipline style of caregivers. The results showed that: (a) about 50% of the sample shows scores classified as high or clinically significant on all scales and indexes of executive functions, while the general Spanish population shows only 16-19% in this same categories, (b) higher scores on perceived criticism/rejection show a postive correlation with difficulties in emotional and cognitive control, and (c) an indulgent/permissive discipline style is positively correlated to cognitive control problems. These results are not conclusive, as they correspond to the pilot study phase, nevertheless they already point to the need of deeper research about the difficulties presented by the population in RC in terms of executive functions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Robust formation of morphogen gradients

We discuss the formation of graded morphogen profiles in a cell layer by nonlinear transport phenomena, important for patterning developing organisms. We focus on a process termed transcytosis, where morphogen transport results from binding of ligands to receptors on the cell surface, incorporation into the cell and subsequent externalization. Starting from a microscopic model, we derive effective transport equations. We show that, in contrast to morphogen transport by extracellular diffusion, transcytosis leads to robust ligand profiles which are insensitive to the rate of ligand production

A crowdsourcing-based system for monitoring em radiation exposure in Chile

Indexación: Scopus.Public concern about the possible effects on health due to electromagnetic (EM) radiation exposure has led to the definition of regulations worldwide. In Chile, the so-called "Ley de Antenas" provides a regulatory framework that establishes limits and special conditions in this regard. Although the official record of measurements is available in a public information portal, this approach is not scalable and intuitive enough for all interested users. This paper propose a participatory measurement system to extend the monitored areas based on the concern of citizens themselves. © 2018 CEUR-WS. All rights reserved.http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2178/SSN2018_paper_7.pd

Constraining Type Ia Supernovae progenitors from three years of SNLS data

While it is generally accepted that Type Ia supernovae are the result of the explosion of a carbon-oxygen White Dwarf accreting mass in a binary system, the details of their genesis still elude us, and the nature of the binary companion is uncertain. Kasen (2010) points out that the presence of a non-degenerate companion in the progenitor system could leave an observable trace: a flux excess in the early rise portion of the lightcurve caused by the ejecta impact with the companion itself. This excess would be observable only under favorable viewing angles, and its intensity depends on the nature of the companion. We searched for the signature of a non-degenerate companion in three years of Supernova Legacy Survey data by generating synthetic lightcurves accounting for the effects of shocking and comparing true and synthetic time series with Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. Our most constraining result comes from noting that the shocking effect is more prominent in rest-frame B than V band: we rule out a contribution from white dwarf-red giant binary systems to Type Ia supernova explosions greater than 10% at 2 sigma, and than 20% at 3 sigma level.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, resubmitted to ApJ, figure 15 modifie

Evolution in the Volumetric Type Ia Supernova Rate from the Supernova Legacy Survey

We present a measurement of the volumetric Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) rate (SNR_Ia) as a function of redshift for the first four years of data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS). This analysis includes 286 spectroscopically confirmed and more than 400 additional photometrically identified SNe Ia within the redshift range 0.1<z<1.1. The volumetric SNR_Ia evolution is consistent with a rise to z~1.0 that follows a power-law of the form (1+z)^alpha, with alpha=2.11+/-0.28. This evolutionary trend in the SNLS rates is slightly shallower than that of the cosmic star-formation history over the same redshift range. We combine the SNLS rate measurements with those from other surveys that complement the SNLS redshift range, and fit various simple SN Ia delay-time distribution (DTD) models to the combined data. A simple power-law model for the DTD (i.e., proportional to t^-beta) yields values from beta=0.98+/-0.05 to beta=1.15+/-0.08 depending on the parameterization of the cosmic star formation history. A two-component model, where SNR_Ia is dependent on stellar mass (Mstellar) and star formation rate (SFR) as SNR_Ia(z)=AxMstellar(z) + BxSFR(z), yields the coefficients A=1.9+/-0.1 SNe/yr/M_solar and B=3.3+/-0.2 SNe/yr/(M_solar/yr). More general two-component models also fit the data well, but single Gaussian or exponential DTDs provide significantly poorer matches. Finally, we split the SNLS sample into two populations by the light curve width (stretch), and show that the general behavior in the rates of faster-declining SNe Ia (0.8<s<1.0) is similar, within our measurement errors, to that of the slower objects (1.0<s<1.3) out to z~0.8.Comment: Accepted in A

A comparative study of Type II-P and II-L supernova rise times as exemplified by the case of LSQ13cuw

We report on our findings based on the analysis of observations of the Type II-L supernova LSQ13cuw within the framework of currently accepted physical predictions of core-collapse supernova explosions. LSQ13cuw was discovered within a day of explosion, hitherto unprecedented for Type II-L supernovae. This motivated a comparative study of Type II-P and II-L supernovae with relatively well-constrained explosion epochs and rise times to maximum (optical) light. From our sample of twenty such events, we find evidence of a positive correlation between the duration of the rise and the peak brightness. On average, SNe II-L tend to have brighter peak magnitudes and longer rise times than SNe II-P. However, this difference is clearest only at the extreme ends of the rise time versus peak brightness relation. Using two different analytical models, we performed a parameter study to investigate the physical parameters that control the rise time behaviour. In general, the models qualitatively reproduce aspects of the observed trends. We find that the brightness of the optical peak increases for larger progenitor radii and explosion energies, and decreases for larger masses. The dependence of the rise time on mass and explosion energy is smaller than the dependence on the progenitor radius. We find no evidence that the progenitors of SNe II-L have significantly smaller radii than those of SNe II-P.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, accepted by A&

Molecular gas at supernova local environments unveiled by EDGE

CO observations allow estimations of the gas content of molecular clouds, which trace the reservoir of cold gas fuelling star formation, as well as to determine extinction via H$_2$ column density, N(H$_2$). Here, we studied millimetric and optical properties at 26 supernovae (SNe) locations of different types in a sample of 23 nearby galaxies by combining molecular $^{12}$C$^{16}$O (J = 1 $\rightarrow$ 0) resolved maps from the EDGE survey and optical Integral Field Spectroscopy from the CALIFA survey. We found an even clearer separation between type II and type Ibc SNe in terms of molecular gas than what we found in the optical using H$\alpha$ emission as a proxy for current SF rate, which reinforces the fact that SNe Ibc are more associated with SF-environments. While A$_V$ at SN locations is similar for SNe II and SNe Ibc, and higher compared to SNe Ia, N(H$_2$) is significantly higher for SNe Ibc than for SNe II and SNe Ia. When compared to alternative extinction estimations directly from SN photometry and spectroscopy, we find that our SNe Ibc have also redder color excess but showed standard Na I D absorption pseudo-equivalent widths ($\sim$1 \AA). In some cases we find no extinction when estimated from the environment, but high amounts of extinction when measured from SN observations, which suggests that circumstellar material or dust sublimation may be playing a role. This work serves as a benchmark for future studies combining last generation millimeter and optical IFS instruments to reveal the local environmental properties of extragalactic SNe.Comment: MNRAS accepted, 17 pages, 8 Figures, 4 Table

Photometric selection of Type Ia supernovae in the Supernova Legacy Survey

We present a sample of 485 photometrically identified Type Ia supernova candidates mined from the first three years of data of the CFHT SuperNova Legacy Survey (SNLS). The images were submitted to a deferred processing independent of the SNLS real-time detection pipeline. Light curves of all transient events were reconstructed in the g_M, r_M, i_M and z_M filters and submitted to automated sequential cuts in order to identify possible supernovae. Pure noise and long-term variable events were rejected by light curve shape criteria. Type Ia supernova identification relied on event characteristics fitted to their light curves assuming the events to be normal SNe Ia. The light curve fitter SALT2 was used for this purpose, assigning host galaxy photometric redshifts to the tested events. The selected sample of 485 candidates is one magnitude deeper than that allowed by the SNLS spectroscopic identification. The contamination by supernovae of other types is estimated to be 4%. Testing Hubble diagram residuals with this enlarged sample allows us to measure the Malmquist bias due to spectroscopic selections directly. The result is fully consistent with the precise Monte Carlo based estimate used to correct SN Ia distance moduli in the SNLS 3-year cosmological analyses. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of a photometric selection of high redshift supernovae with known host galaxy redshifts, opening interesting prospects for cosmological analyses from future large photometric SN Ia surveys.Comment: (The SNLS collaboration) 23 pages, 28 figures, Accepted in A&