Nota sobre el hallazgo de Myotragus balearicus, Bate, en los aluviones de Buger (Mallorca)

Abstract not availabl

Surface plasmon resonance screening of synthetic peptides mimicking the immunodominant region of C-S8c1 foot-and-mouth disease virus

The main antigenic site (site A) of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV, strain C-S8c1) may be adequately reproduced by a 15-peptide with the amino acid sequence H-YTASARGDLAHLTTT-NH2 (A15), corresponding to the residues 136-150 of the viral protein VPI. The effect of amino acid substitutions within A15 on its antigenicity towards monoclonal antibodies (MAb) raised against antigenic site A, has been studied by means of BIAcore technology, based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Although these antigenicities have previously been determined from enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), the SPR-based technique is superior in that it allows a fast and straightforward screening of antigens while simultaneously providing kinetic data of the antigen-antibody interaction. With a view to screening fairly large libraries of individual peptides, we have inverted the typical SPR experiment by immobilizing the MAb on the sensor surface and using peptides as soluble analytes. We report the validation of this approach through the screening of 44 site A peptides, with results generally in good agreement with the relative antigenicities previously determined by competition ELISA

Molecular analysis of peptides from the GH loop of foot-and-mouth disease virus C-S30 using surface plasmon resonance: a role for kinetic rate constants

A foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) field variant, isolate C-S30 (also named C-1-Barcelona), is known to contain four changes within the main antigenic site A (GH loop of capsid protein VP1, residues 136-150), at least one of which (Leu147 --> Val) involves a highly conserved position, critical for antibody recognition in the reference strain C-S8c1. However, immunoenzymatic analysis of FMDV C-S30 showed it was recognised by 4C4, a monoclonal antibody that specifically targets site A. This remarkable behaviour has led us to analyse the individual and combined contributions of the four mutations to the antigenicity of C-S30, by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) studies of pentadecapeptides displaying all possible combinations of the four replacements. Analysis of this family of C-S30-derived analogues shows a certain level of antibody recognition by SPR. In addition, SPR data suggest that kinetic rate constants provide an indirect measure, on the one hand, of paratope accessibility (association rate constant) and, on the other hand, of peptide fitness to the same paratope (dissociation rate constant)

Broadband distortion modeling in Lyman-α\alpha forest BAO fitting

In recent years, the Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption observed in the spectra of high-redshift quasars has been used as a tracer of large-scale structure by means of the three-dimensional Lyman-$\alpha$ forest auto-correlation function at redshift $z\simeq 2.3$, but the need to fit the quasar continuum in every absorption spectrum introduces a broadband distortion that is difficult to correct and causes a systematic error for measuring any broadband properties. We describe a $k$-space model for this broadband distortion based on a multiplicative correction to the power spectrum of the transmitted flux fraction that suppresses power on scales corresponding to the typical length of a Lyman-$\alpha$ forest spectrum. Implementing the distortion model in fits for the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) peak position in the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest auto-correlation, we find that the fitting method recovers the input values of the linear bias parameter $b_{F}$ and the redshift-space distortion parameter $\beta_{F}$ for mock data sets with a systematic error of less than 0.5\%. Applied to the auto-correlation measured for BOSS Data Release 11, our method improves on the previous treatment of broadband distortions in BAO fitting by providing a better fit to the data using fewer parameters and reducing the statistical errors on $\beta_{F}$ and the combination $b_{F}(1+\beta_{F})$ by more than a factor of seven. The measured values at redshift $z=2.3$ are $\beta_{F}=1.39^{+0.11\ +0.24\ +0.38}_{-0.10\ -0.19\ -0.28}$and$b_{F}(1+\beta_{F})=-0.374^{+0.007\ +0.013\ +0.020}_{-0.007\ -0.014\ -0.022}$(1$\sigma$, 2$\sigma$and 3$\sigma$ statistical errors). Our fitting software and the input files needed to reproduce our main results are publicly available.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, matches the published versio

Super-Nernstian Shifts of Interfacial Proton-Coupled Electron Transfers : Origin and Effect of Noncovalent Interactions

The support of the University of Aberdeen is gratefully acknowledged. C.W. acknowledges a summer studentship from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. E.P.M.L. acknowledges SeCYT (Universidad Nacional de Cordoba), ́ CONICET- PIP 11220110100992, Program BID (PICT 2012-2324), and PME 2006-01581 for financial support.Peer reviewedPostprin

Consumption and time use responses to unemployment: Implications for the lifecycle model

In this study, we analyse the effects of unemployment on consumption and time use. To do so, we employ a micro panel dataset for the Netherlands containing a large set of expenditure and time use categories. Our results show a small negative effect of unemployment on expenditures, and large positive effects on time spent on home production and leisure activities. We do not find evidence for complementarity between leisure and consumption or for substitution between home production and expenditures. We use our results to estimate a ratio of relevant lifecycle parameters, and show that the point estimates and their precision depend strongly on the expenditure and time use categories considered

A caricature of a singular curvature flow in the plane

We study a singular parabolic equation of the total variation type in one dimension. The problem is a simplification of the singular curvature flow. We show existence and uniqueness of weak solutions. We also prove existence of weak solutions to the semi-discretization of the problem as well as convergence of the approximating sequences. The semi-discretization shows that facets must form. For a class of initial data we are able to study in details the facet formation and interactions and their asymptotic behavior. We notice that our qualitative results may be interpreted with the help of a special composition of multivalued operators

The Effects of the Peak-Peak Correlation on the Peak Model of Hierarchical Clustering

In two previous papers a semi-analytical model was presented for the hierarchical clustering of halos via gravitational instability from peaks in a random Gaussian field of density fluctuations. This model is better founded than the extended Press-Schechter model, which is known to agree with numerical simulations and to make similar predictions. The specific merger rate, however, shows a significant departure at intermediate captured masses. The origin of this was suspected as being the rather crude approximation used for the density of nested peaks. Here, we seek to verify this suspicion by implementing a more accurate expression for the latter quantity which accounts for the correlation among peaks. We confirm that the inclusion of the peak-peak correlation improves the specific merger rate, while the good behavior of the remaining quantities is preserved.Comment: ApJ accepted. 15 pages, including 4 figures. Also available at ftp://pcess1.am.ub.es/pub/ApJ/effectpp.ps.g

Seguiu-nos: estratègies de captura de tuits en català

Twitter és una eina de microblogging utilitzada arreu del món per generar i compartir informació. La comunitat catalana la utilitza des del Govern fins als mitjans de comunicació, passant per persones amb diferent formació i estils de vida. No obstant això, a dia d'avui, a Catalunya, hi ha poques actuacions clares per preservar-la des d'una perspectiva de gestió bibliotecodocumental de Catalunya. Aquest article proposa una estratègia de captura de tuits per a la Biblioteca de Catalunya, que inclou criteris de selecció, metadades de preservació i previsions de creixement. Metodologia: S'analitzen els aspectes legals i tecnològics del Twitter, de la informació de l'arxiu Twitter de la Library of Congress, del portal amb estadístiques Twiter'n'Català i del PADICAT (Patrimoni Digital de Catalunya), per descriure l'estat de la qüestió de les possibilitats de preservació dels tuits que té la Biblioteca de Catalunya. Resultats: Els resultats recollits mostren que actualment fer servir una única eina no és suficient per filtrar, capturar i preservar els tuits. Els requeriments d'una institució que té com a objectiu la preservació a llarg termini fan semblar insuficients les eines existents a Internet. No obstant això, la necessitat d'actuar immediatament per no perdre el patrimoni digital fa que s'hagi d'actuar amb les eines i els recursos disponibles. Amb una combinació d'eines existents es poden millorar les estratègies de captura de tuits actuals