Amino acid metabolism conflicts with protein diversity

The twenty protein coding amino acids are found in proteomes with different relative abundances. The most abundant amino acid, leucine, is nearly an order of magnitude more prevalent than the least abundant amino acid, cysteine. Amino acid metabolic costs differ similarly, constraining their incorporation into proteins. On the other hand, sequence diversity is necessary for protein folding, function and evolution. Here we present a simple model for a cost-diversity trade-off postulating that natural proteomes minimize amino acid metabolic flux while maximizing sequence entropy. The model explains the relative abundances of amino acids across a diverse set of proteomes. We found that the data is remarkably well explained when the cost function accounts for amino acid chemical decay. More than one hundred proteomes reach comparable solutions to the trade-off by different combinations of cost and diversity. Quantifying the interplay between proteome size and entropy shows that proteomes can get optimally large and diverse

Prototipo de Máquina Fresadora CNC para Circuitos Impresos

Este artículo presenta la investigación, diseño y construcción de un prototipo de máquina fresadora CNC para fabricar circuitos impresos (PCB's) de una cara y ancho de trazo mínimo de 0.1~mm. El diseño del prototipo se llevó a cabo después una exhaustiva investigación, identificando las principales características que debería presentar, y teniendo en cuenta el uso final del mismo. La estructura mecánica esta conformada por una base o soporte, tres ejes ortogonales movidos por un sistema tuerca-tornillo sin fin, con el propósito de brindar uniformidad y precisión en el desplazamiento, cada uno accionado por un motor paso a paso. Los ejes X y Y cuentan cada uno con un riel para facilitar el desplazamiento. En la herramienta de control se usaron principios de CNC por medio del sotfware LinuxCNC

Weak-lensing analysis of galaxy pairs using CS82 data

Here we analyze a sample of close galaxy pairs (relative projected separation < 25 h -1 kpc and relative radial velocities < 350 km s -1 ) using a weak-lensing analysis based on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Stripe 82 Survey (CS82). We determine halo masses for the total sample of pairs as well as for interacting, red, and higher-luminosity pair subsamples with ∼3σ confidence. The derived lensing signal for the total sample can be fitted either by a Singular Isothermal Sphere (SIS) with σ V = 223 ± 24 km s -1 or a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile with R 200 = 0.30 ± 0.03 h -1 Mpc. The pair total masses and total r band luminosities imply an average mass-to-light ratio of ∼200 h M ⊙ /L ⊙ . On the other hand, red pairs which include a larger fraction of elliptical galaxies, show a larger mass-to-light ratio of ∼345 h M ⊙ /L ⊙ . Derived lensing masses were compared to a proxy of the dynamical mass, obtaining a good correlation. However, there is a large discrepancy between lensing masses and the dynamical mass estimates, which could be accounted for by astrophysical processes such as dynamical friction, by the inclusion of unbound pairs, and by significant deviations of the density distribution from SIS and NFW profiles in the inner regions. We also compared lensing masses with group mass estimates, finding very good agreement with the sample of groups with two members. Red and blue pairs show large differences between group and lensing masses, which is likely due to the single mass-to-light ratio adopted to compute the group masses.Fil: Gonzalez, Elizabeth Johana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez, Facundo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Garcia Lambas, Diego Rodolfo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Makler, Martín. Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas; BrasilFil: Mesa, Valeria Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Alonso, Sol. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Departamento de Geofísica y Astronomía; ArgentinaFil: Duplancic Videla, Maria Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Departamento de Geofísica y Astronomía; ArgentinaFil: Pereira, Maria E. S.. Brandeis University; Estados UnidosFil: Shan, HuanYuan. Shanghai Astronomical Observatory; República de Chin

The performance of serological tests for Leishmania infantum infection screening in dogs depends on the prevalence of the disease

Dogs are considered the main reservoir of Leishmania infantum. This protozoan causes visceral leishmaniasis (VL), an uncontrolled urban zoonosis in Brazil. Serological tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on peripheral blood were performed to identify infected dogs in scenarios of higher and lower prevalence of the disease (Teresina and Vitória). One-hundred infected and 57 non-infected animals from Teresina and 100 non-infected animals from Vitória were studied. Animal selection was not dependent on previous serology. The sensitivity (Teresina) and specificity (Teresina and Vitória) were as follows: indirect antibody fluorescence (IFAT) cut-off of 1:40 (IFAT 1:40): 96%, 18%, and 76%; IFAT 1:80: 90%, 33%, and 93%; direct agglutination test (DAT): 96%, 33%, and 98%; fast agglutination screening test (FAST): 93%, 68%, and 100%; immunochromatographic assay with a recombinant rK39 antigen (rK39): 88%, 74%, and 98%; enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA): 91%, 79%, and 98%; rapid dual-path platform test (TR DPP®): 98%, 60%, and 98%; and blood PCR: 29%, 93%, and 97%, respectively. In the high transmission area, none of the tests adequately discriminated L. infantum-infected from non-infected dogs. However, in the high transmission city, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of FAST, DAT, ICrK39, ELISA and TR DPP® was high

Local wind speed forecasting based on WRF-HDWind coupling

[EN] Wind speed forecasts obtained by Numerical Weather Prediction models are limited for fine interpretation in heterogeneous terrain, in which different roughnesses and orographies occur. This limitation is derived from the use of low-resolution and grid-box averaged data. In this paper a dynamical downscaling method is presented to increase the local accuracy of wind speed forecasts. The proposed method divides the wind speed forecasting into two steps. In the first one, the mesoscale model WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) is used for getting wind speed forecasts at specific points of the study domain. On a second stage, these values are used for feeding the HDWind microscale model. HDWind is a local model that provides both a high-resolution wind field that covers the entire study domain and values of wind speed and direction at very located points. As an example of use of the proposed method, we calculate a high-resolution wind field in an urban-interface area from Badajoz, a South-West Spanish city located near the Portugal border. The results obtained are compared with the values read by a weathervane tower of the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) in order to prove that the microscale model improves the forecasts obtained by the mesoscale model

1H–NMR fingerprinting and supervised pattern recognition to evaluate the stability of virgin olive oil during storage

Metabolomic fingerprinting of virgin olive oil (VOO) by 1H NMR spectroscopy was used to study its stability during storage simulating normal shelf life conditions during its commercialization. A representative set of VOOs covering the full range of possible chemical compositions were exposed to light (500 lux for 12 h/day) at 25 °C for 12 months or stored in the dark at 25 °C, 30 °C and 35 °C for 24 months. Multivariate data analysis of the 1H NMR spectra of the oil samples provided classification models to evaluate VOO freshness and to verify the light exposure of the VOO during storage, as well as regression models to determine VOO storage time and tentatively the best before date of a fresh VOO. These predictive models disclosed the chemical compounds responsible for the compositional changes in VOO due to hydrolytic and oxidative degradation taking place during its storage, and confirmed that light and increasing temperature enhance these processes. The presence of characteristic resonances of hydroperoxides (primary oxidation products) and the decrease of 1H signals assigned to phenolic compounds, mainly secoiridoid derivatives, and other minor compounds such as fatty acids, squalene and native (E)-2-hexenal present in fresh VOO revealed its oxidative degradation. Further, the emergence of low intensity 1H signals of saturated aldehydes meant that the secondary oxidation process has started at a low rate and yield. Moreover, the decrease of the 1H signals of triacylglycerides and sn-1,2-diacylglycerides, and the increase of sn-1,3-diacylglycerides indicated that hydrolytic degradation of VOO and diacylglyceride isomerisation was occurring. 1H NMR fingerprint of VOO together with pattern recognition techniques afford relevant information to assess the quality of VOOs taking into consideration legal, sensory and health-promoting aspects.This work was supported by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 Programme [grant agreement No. 635690, 2014–2020], and developed in the framework of the project OLEUM “Advanced solutions for assuring authenticity and quality of olive oil at global scale”. The information contained in this article reflects the authors’views; the European Commission is not liable for any use of the information contained herein

More on BPS solutions of N=2, D=4 gauged supergravity

We deepen and refine the classification of supersymmetric solutions to N=2, D=4 gauged supergravity obtained in a previous paper. In the case where the Killing vector constructed from the Killing spinor is timelike, it is shown that the nonlinear partial differential equations determining the BPS solutions can be derived from a variational principle. The corresponding action enjoys a solution-generating PSL(2,R) symmetry. In certain subcases the system reduces to different known theories, like two-dimensional dilaton gravity or the dimensionally reduced gravitational Chern-Simons theory. We find new supersymmetric solutions including, among others, kinks that interpolate between two AdS_4 vacua, electrovac waves on anti-Nariai spacetimes, or generalized Robinson-Trautman solutions. In the case where the Killing vector is null, we obtain a complete classification. The one quarter and one half supersymmetric solutions are determined explicitely, and it is shown that the fraction of three quarters of supersymmetry cannot be preserved. Finally, the general lightlike configuration is uplifted to eleven-dimensional supergravity.Comment: 36 pages, JHEP class, minor errors correcte