1,358 research outputs found
Class mutation operators for C++ object-oriented systems
Mutation testing is a fault injection testing technique around which a great variety of studies and tools for different programming languages have been developed. Nevertheless, the mutation testing research with respect to C++ is pending. This paper proposes a set of class mutation operators related to this language and its particular object-oriented (OO) features. In addition, an implementation technique to apply mutation testing based on the traversal of the abstract syntax tree (AST) is presented. Finally, an experiment is conducted to study the operator behaviour with different C++ programs, suggesting their usefulness in the creation of complete test suites. The analysis includes a Web service (WS) library, one of the domains where this technique can prove useful, considering its challenging testing phase and that C++ is still a reference language for critical distributed systems WS
Overexpression of AtGRDP2, a novel glycine-rich domain protein, accelerates plant growth and improves stress tolerance
"Proteins with glycine-rich signatures have been reported in a wide variety of organisms including plants, mammalians, fungi, and bacteria. Plant glycine-rich protein genes exhibit developmental and tissue-specific expression patterns. Herein, we present the characterization of the AtGRDP2 gene using Arabidopsis null and knockdown mutants and, Arabidopsis and lettuce over-expression lines. AtGRDP2 encodes a short glycine-rich domain protein, containing a DUF1399 domain and a putative RNA recognition motif (RRM). AtGRDP2 transcript is mainly expressed in Arabidopsis floral organs, and its deregulation in Arabidopsis Atgrdp2 mutants and 35S::AtGRDP2 over-expression lines produces alterations in development. The 35S::AtGRDP2 over-expression lines grow faster than the WT, while the Atgrdp2 mutants have a delay in growth and development. The over-expression lines accumulate higher levels of indole-3-acetic acid and, have alterations in the expression pattern of ARF6, ARF8, and miR167 regulators of floral development and auxin signaling. Under salt stress conditions, 35S::AtGRDP2 over-expression lines displayed higher tolerance and increased expression of stress marker genes. Likewise, transgenic lettuce plants over-expressing the AtGRDP2 gene manifest increased growth rate and early flowering time. Our data reveal an important role for AtGRDP2 in Arabidopsis development and stress response, and suggest a connection between AtGRDP2 and auxin signaling.
The Epl1 and Sm1 proteins from Trichoderma atroviride and Trichoderma virens differentially modulate systemic disease resistance against different life style pathogens in Solanum lycopersicum
"Fungi belonging to the genus Trichoderma, commonly found in soil or colonizing plant roots, exert beneficial effects on plants, including the promotion of growth and the induction of resistance to disease. T virens and T atroviride secrete the proteins Sm1 and Epl1, respectively, which elicit local and systemic disease resistance in plants. In this work, we show that these fungi promote growth in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants. T virens was more effective than T atroviride in promoting biomass gain, and both fungi were capable of inducing systemic protection in tomato against Altemaria solani, Botrytis cinerea, and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst DC3000). Deletion (KO) of epl1 in T atroviride resulted in diminished systemic protection against A. solani and B. cinerea, whereas the T virens sm1 KO strain was less effective in protecting tomato against Pst DC3000 and B. cinerea. Importantly, overexpression (OE) of epl1 and sm1 led to an increase in disease resistance against all tested pathogens. Although the Trichoderma WT strains induced both systemic acquired resistance (SAR)-and induced systemic resistance (ISR)-related genes in tomato, inoculation of plants with OE and KO strains revealed that Epl1 and Sm1 play a minor role in the induction of these genes. However, we found that Epl1 and Sm I induce the expression of a peroxidase and an alpha-dioxygenase encoding genes, respectively, which could be important for tomato protection by Trichoderma spp. Altogether, these observations indicate that colonization by beneficial and or infection by pathogenic microorganisms dictates many of the outcomes in plants, which are more complex than previously thought.
The ALHAMBRA survey: Accurate merger fractions by PDF analysis of photometric close pairs
Our goal is to develop and test a novel methodology to compute accurate close
pair fractions with photometric redshifts. We improve the current methodologies
to estimate the merger fraction f_m from photometric redshifts by (i) using the
full probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the sources in redshift
space, (ii) including the variation in the luminosity of the sources with z in
both the selection of the samples and in the luminosity ratio constrain, and
(iii) splitting individual PDFs into red and blue spectral templates to deal
robustly with colour selections. We test the performance of our new methodology
with the PDFs provided by the ALHAMBRA photometric survey. The merger fractions
and rates from the ALHAMBRA survey are in excellent agreement with those from
spectroscopic work, both for the general population and for red and blue
galaxies. With the merger rate of bright (M_B <= -20 - 1.1z) galaxies evolving
as (1+z)^n, the power-law index n is larger for blue galaxies (n = 2.7 +- 0.5)
than for red galaxies (n = 1.3 +- 0.4), confirming previous results.
Integrating the merger rate over cosmic time, we find that the average number
of mergers per galaxy since z = 1 is N_m = 0.57 +- 0.05 for red galaxies and
N_m = 0.26 +- 0.02 for blue galaxies. Our new methodology exploits
statistically all the available information provided by photometric redshift
codes and provides accurate measurements of the merger fraction by close pairs
only using photometric redshifts. Current and future photometric surveys will
benefit of this new methodology.Comment: Submitted to A&A, 15 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables. Comments are
welcome. Close pair systems available at
https://cloud.iaa.csic.es/alhambra/catalogues/ClosePairs
Análisis de los factores genéticos y ambientales con influencia en la circunferencia escrotal en el vacuno de carne de raza Retinta
De los caracteres del vacuno de carne, los relacionados con la eficiencia reproductiva han sido considerados
de una impol1ancia fundamental. Dentro de éstos, cabe
destacar la CE, parámetro correlacionado positivamente
con las características cualitativas y cuantitativas del semen, asl como asociado a parámetros reproductivos en
hembras (precoc idad sexual y fert ilidad).
En este trabaja se ha estudiado la CE desde distintos
aspectos como los factores ambientales que le infl uyen,
su evolución a lo largo del tiempo, el cálculo del parámetro genético de la heredabilidad y las relaciones con
otras variables como el peso vivo del animal. Para ello, se
realizaron 1.020 mediciones en 281 animales pertenencientes a 20 ganaderías del núcleo de Control del plan de
mejora de esta raza.
l a media obtenida para la circunferencia escrota l fue
de 30,66 ± 0, 166 (CV. = 17,3%)y 34,38 ± 0, 140 ¡C.V.=
9, 1%) para an ima les de un año de edad, y la heredabilidad estimada para este carácter de 0,36.
El peso vivo, y en segundo lugar la edad, fueron las
dos variables con mayor influencia en la circunferencia
escrotal en esta raza. Otros fa ctores ambientales a tener
en cuenta en los análisis genéticos de esta variable son la
ganadería y año -estación de medida-, cuyo efecto se
ha mostrado altamente significativo. Así si bien la curva
de crecimiento de la CE que mejor se ajusta al intervalo
de c recimiento ana lizado fue la logistftica 2, a efectos
prácticos de tipificac ión al año, consideramos que la curva polinómica de segundo grado da un ajuste equiva lente, permitiendo una mayor simplificación de los cálculos
necesarios para su aplicación en un plan de mejora
The dependence of oxygen and nitrogen abundances on stellar mass from the CALIFA survey
Context. The study of the integrated properties of star-forming galaxies is central to understand their formation and evolution. Some of these properties are extensive and therefore their analysis require totally covering and spatially resolved observations. Among these properties, metallicity can be defined in spiral discs by means of integral field spectroscopy (IFS) of individual H ii regions. The simultaneous analysis of the abundances of primary elements, as oxygen, and secondary, as nitrogen, also provides clues about the star formation history and the processes that shape the build-up of spiral discs. Aims. Our main aim is to analyse simultaneously O/H and N/O abundance ratios in H ii regions in different radial positions of the discs in a large sample of spiral galaxies to obtain the slopes and the characteristic abundance ratios that can be related to their integrated properties. Methods. We analysed the optical spectra of individual selected H ii regions extracted from a sample of 350 spiral galaxies of the CALIFA survey. We calculated total O/H abundances and, for the first time, N/O ratios using the semi-empirical routine Hii-Chi-mistry, which, according to Pérez-Montero (2014, MNRAS, 441, 2663), is consistent with the direct method and reduces the uncertainty in the O/H derivation using [N ii] lines owing to the dispersion in the O/H-N/O relation. Then we performed linear fittings to the abundances as a function of the de-projected galactocentric distances. Results. The analysis of the radial distribution both for O/H and N/O in the non-interacting galaxies reveals that both average slopes are negative, but a non-negligible fraction of objects have a flat or even a positive gradient (at least 10% for O/H and 4% for N/O). The slopes normalised to the effective radius appear to have a slight dependence on the total stellar mass and the morphological type, as late low-mass objects tend to have flatter slopes. No clear relation is found, however, to explain the presence of inverted gradients in this sample, and there is no dependence between the average slopes and the presence of a bar. The relation between the resulting O/H and N/O linear fittings at the effective radius is much tighter (correlation coefficient ρ = 0.80) than between O/H and N/O slopes (ρ = 0.39) or for O/H and N/O in the individual H ii regions (ρ = 0.37). These O/H and N/O values at the effective radius also correlate very tightly (less than 0.03 dex of dispersion) with total luminosity and stellar mass. The relation with other integrated properties, such as star formation rate, colour, or morphology, can be understood only in light of the found relation with mass.E.P.M., J.M.V., C.K., S.P., and J.I.P. acknowledge support from the Spanish MICINN through grants AYA2010-21887-C04-01 and AYA2013-47742-C4-1-P and the Junta de Andalucia for grant EXC/2011 FQM-7058. R.G.B., R.G.D., and E.P. acknowledge support from grants AYA2014-57490-P and JA-FQM-2828. Support for L.G. is provided by the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism's Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC120009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, MAS. L.G. acknowledges support by CONICYT through FONDECYT grant 3140566Peer Reviewe
Insulinoma de páncreas que imita epilepsia
El insulinoma es una neoplasia endocrina funcional rara, que provoca un estado hiperinsulínico hipoglucémico derivado de la ausencia de regulación endocrina de la secreción de insulina. Su incidencia es de 1 a 5 caso por millón de personas al año a nivel mundial. Es la sintomatología más comúnmente manifestada por síntomas neuroglucopénicos y simpaticoadrenales. El diagnóstico se establece por la tríada de Whipple, los niveles elevados de insulina, el péptido C, la proinsulina y los niveles disminuidos de betahidroxibutirato, además de descartar el uso de sulfonilureas. El manejo de elección es la resección quirúrgica, dado su alto nivel de benignidad y curación total. Se presenta el caso de un hombre en manejo anticonvulsivante por epilepsia con refractariedad de síntomas, quien debutó con cuadro de hipoglucemia grave necesaria para el diagnóstico de insulinoma, con manejo quirúrgico y resolución del cuadro de base
Home parenteral nutrition registry in Spain for the year 2010: NADYA-SENPE group
Objetivos: Comunicar los datos del Registro del Grupo
NADYA SENPE de Nutrición Parenteral Domiciliaria
NPD en España del año 2010.
Material y métodos: Estudio descriptivo de la base de
datos del Registro de ámbito nacional de NPD del grupo
NADYA-SENPE (1 de enero de 2010 al 31 de diciembre de
2010). Para el cálculo de prevalencias se utilizó los últimos
datos publicados por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística.
Resultados: Se registraron 148 pacientes procedentes de
23 hospitales, 86 mujeres (58,11%) y 9 niños (6,08%). La
edad media de los 139 pacientes adultos fue de 53,06 ±
15,41 años. La duración media de la NPD fue de 316,97
días/paciente. El diagnóstico más frecuente en los niños
(menores de 14 años) fue intestino corto traumático con 5
casos (55,55%) y en los adultos la neoplasia en tratamiento
paliativo 29 (19,59%). El motivo de la indicación de la NPD
fue el síndrome de intestino corto en 74 ocasiones (47%).
La vía de acceso más frecuentemente registrada fue el catéter
tunelizado en 36 (22,78%) casos seguido del reservorio
en 13 (8,23%) y otras vías en 3 ocasiones (1,90%). Se registraron
23 infecciones relacionadas con el catéter (82,14%),
lo que representa 0,49/1000 días de NP y todas ellas ocurrieron
en los adultos. A lo largo del año finalizaron 24 episodios
de NPD, la causa más frecuente fue el paso a la vía
oral en 12 episodios (50%). Se registró que los pacientes
tenían una actividad normal en 70 episodios de NPD
(44,30%) con una total autonomía en 88 de episodios
(55,69%). Se identificaron 39 (24,68%) posibles candidatos
para trasplante intestinal.
Conclusiones: El número de pacientes registrados es
discretamente inferior al del año anterior, aunque el
número de hospitales participantes es el mismo. La complicación
más frecuente sigue siendo la infección relacionada
con el catéter aunque ha disminuido su incidencia
respecto a años anteriores, presentándose la tasa más
baja desde la creación del registro.
Las diferencias en la participación en el registro observadas
por Comunidades Autónomas lleva a plantear el
desarrollo de estrategias de implementación del registro.
Se observa un aumento progresivo de la duración de los
días de NPD a lo largo de los años que hace pensar en la
cronicidad de algunos pacientes, pero nos obliga a estudiar
la existencia de un posible factor de confusión, en el
caso de que existiera un olvido de cierre de algún episodio
por lo que se hace necesario actualizar el registro con sistemas
de alertas periódicas que faciliten la revisión de los
pacientes incluidos y optimice la validez del registroObjectives: To report the Group Registry NADYASENPE
data about home parenteral nutrition (HPN) in
Spain in 2010.
Material and methods: A descriptive study of the database
of the national registry of HPN of NADYA-SENPE
(December 10, 2009 to December 10, 2010). For the calculation
of prevalence the latest data published by the Institute
National Statistics Office (01/01/2009) was used.
Results: There were registered 148 patients from 23
hospitals, 86 women (58.11%) and 9 children (6.08%).
The average age of the 139 patients older than 14 years
was 53.06 ± 15.41 years. The average duration of HPN
was 316.97 days/patient. The most common diagnosis in
those younger than 14 years was short bowel traumatic
with 5 cases (55.55%) and in those older than 14 years,
palliative care cancer with 29 cases (19.59%). The reason
for the indication for HPN was short bowel syndrome in
74 cases (47%). The access via most frequently recorded
was tunneled catheter in 36 cases (22.78%) followed by
implanted port-catheters in 13 cases (8.23%) and other
pathways in 3 cases (1.90%). There were 23 catheterrelated
infections (82.14%) which represented 0.49 /1,000
days of PN, all of which occurred in cases older than 14
years. During the year 24 episodes of HPN ended, the
most frequent cause was the transition to oral nutrition in
12 episodes (50%). It was reported that patients had a
normal activity in 70 episodes of HPN (44.30%) with complete
autonomy in 88 episodes (55.69%). Some patients 39
(24.68%) were potential candidates for intestinal transplantation.
Conclusions: The number of registered patients is
slightly lower than the previous year, although the number
of participating hospitals is the same. The most frequent
complication remains catheter-related infection
but its incidence has decreased from previous years, presenting
the lowest rate since the creation of the record.
Differences in participation in the registry observed in
the Autonomous Communities causes the development of
implementation strategies. There is a gradual increase in
day length of HPN over the years, which suggests the
chronic treatments of some patients and obliges to study
the existence of a possible confounding factor, in case
there is an oversight of closing an episode. Therefore, it is
necessary to update the registry with warning systems
that facilitate periodic review of the patients and optimize
the validity of registratio
The impact from survey depth and resolution on the morphological classification of galaxies
We consistently analyse for the first time the impact of survey depth and spatial resolution on the most used morphological parameters for classifying galaxies through non-parametric methods: Abraham and Conselice-Bershady concentration indices, Gini, M20moment of light, asymmetry, and smoothness. Three different non-local data sets are used, Advanced Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) and Subaru/XMMNewton Deep Survey (SXDS, examples of deep ground-based surveys), and Cosmos Evolution Survey (COSMOS, deep space-based survey). We used a sample of 3000 local, visually classified galaxies, measuring their morphological parameters at their real redshifts (z ~ 0). Then we simulated them to match the redshift and magnitude distributions of galaxies in the non-local surveys. The comparisons of the two sets allow us to put constraints on the use of each parameter for morphological classification and evaluate the effectiveness of the commonly used morphological diagnostic diagrams. All analysed parameters suffer from biases related to spatial resolution and depth, the impact of the former being much stronger. When including asymmetry and smoothness in classification diagrams, the noise effects must be taken into account carefully, especially for ground-based surveys. M20 is significantly affected, changing both the shape and range of its distribution at all brightness levels. We suggest that diagnostic diagrams based on 2-3 parameters should be avoided when classifying galaxies in ground-based surveys, independently of their brightness; for COSMOS they should be avoided for galaxies fainter than F814 = 23.0. These results can be applied directly to surveys similar to ALHAMBRA, SXDS and COSMOS, and also can serve as an upper/lower limit for shallower/deeper ones.MP acknowledge financial support from JAE-Doc programme of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), co-funded by the European Social Fund. This research was supported by the Junta de Andalucia through project TIC114, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through projects AYA2010-15169, AYA2013-42227-P, and AYA2013-43188-P.Peer Reviewe
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