SV Kommandor Jack Cruise 01/05, 11 Jul – 08 Aug 2005. Multibeam bathymetry and high resolution sidescan sonar surveys within the SEA7 area of the UK continental shelf

The objectives of the SV Kommandor Jack 01/05 cruise were to collect EM120, and where water depths permit, EM1002 multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data, and also where desired, high resolution sidescan sonar data, over Anton Dohrn Seamount, George Bligh and Rosemary Banks, the eastern margin of Rockall Bank and selected areas of Hatton Bank. The aims were to a) create high quality bathymetric maps of the survey areas b) create acoustic backscatter maps over the same areas c) when possible, define the extent of any potential coral habitats d) create high resolution bathymetric, backscatter and sonar maps of specific features as may be discovered, such as mud diapers, carbonate mounds etc. e) complete, during the cruise, a preliminary interpretation of the above data, to be used as a guide for the sampling and seabed photography cruise which followed immediately. This was a highly successful cruise with virtually all cruise objectives achieved. 6,384 line-km of multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data were obtained in water depths between 150 and 2,400 m. In addition, approximately 240 line-km of high resolution sidescan sonar were collected in depths between 150 and 1,500 m, and 6,323 line-km of high resolution CHIRP profiles were also collected

SV Kommandor Jack Cruise 01/05, 11 Jul – 08 Aug 2005. Multibeam bathymetry and high resolution sidescan sonar surveys within the SEA7 area of the UK continental shelf

The objectives of the SV Kommandor Jack 01/05 cruise were to collect EM120, and where water depths permit, EM1002 multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data, and also where desired, high resolution sidescan sonar data, over Anton Dohrn Seamount, George Bligh and Rosemary Banks, the eastern margin of Rockall Bank and selected areas of Hatton Bank. The aims were toa) create high quality bathymetric maps of the survey areasb) create acoustic backscatter maps over the same areasc) when possible, define the extent of any potential coral habitatsd) create high resolution bathymetric, backscatter and sonar maps of specific features as may be discovered, such as mud diapers, carbonate mounds etc.e) complete, during the cruise, a preliminary interpretation of the above data, to be used as a guide for the sampling and seabed photography cruise which followed immediately.This was a highly successful cruise with virtually all cruise objectives achieved. 6,384 line-km of multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data were obtained in water depths between 150 and 2,400 m. In addition, approximately 240 line-km of high resolution sidescan sonar were collected in depths between 150 and 1,500 m, and 6,323 line-km of high resolution CHIRP profiles were also collected

Map of Athabasca River Basin within Alberta

Map of the Athabasca River Basin in green; lakes and rivers in blue; tan shaded Province of Alberta; names of surrounding provinces, etc.37

An R-based reproducible and user-friendly preprocessing pipeline for CyTOF data

Mass cytometry (CyTOF) has become a method of choice for in-depth characterization of tissue heterogeneity in health and disease, and is currently implemented in multiple clinical trials, where higher quality standards must be met. Currently, preprocessing of raw files is commonly performed in independent standalone tools, which makes it difficult to reproduce. Here, we present an R pipeline based on an updated version of CATALYST that covers all preprocessing steps required for downstream mass cytometry analysis in a fully reproducible way. This new version of CATALYST is based on Bioconductor’s SingleCellExperiment class and fully unit tested. The R-based pipeline includes file concatenation, bead-based normalization, single-cell deconvolution, spillover compensation and live cell gating after debris and doublet removal. Importantly, this pipeline also includes different quality checks to assess machine sensitivity and staining performance while allowing also for batch correction. This pipeline is based on open source R packages and can be easily be adapted to different study designs. It therefore has the potential to significantly facilitate the work of CyTOF users while increasing the quality and reproducibility of data generated with this technology

Agriculture in Taiwan and South Korea: the minimalist state?

SUMMARY The state has intervened heavily in the agricultural economies of Taiwan and South Korea, both by direct administrative means and by establishing price relativities very different from those set by market forces. Although state action has not always been effective or efficient, it has played a major role in making agriculture serve the objective of rapid industrial growth. The forms and consequences of state intervention have changed over time in response to the political and economic pressures arising from structural economic change. The state has been obliged to be interventionist in order to try to maintain the political order on which continual reinvestment and thus continued growth depend. RESUMEN Agricultura en Taiwán y Corea del Sur: estado minimalista? El estado ha intervenido fuertemente en la economía agrícola en ambos países, tanto por medios directamente administrativos, como por el establecimento de precios relativos muy diferentes de aquellos derivados de la acción de las fuerzas del mercado. Aunque no siempre la acción estatal ha sido efectiva o eficiente, ha jugado un rol principal para que la agricultura sirva los objetivos de un rápido crecimiento industrial. Las formas y consecuencias de la intervención estatal han cambiado a través del tiempo, como respuesta a las presiones económicas derivadas del cambio en la estructura económica. El estado se ha visto obligado a ser intervencionista para tratar de mantener el orden politico del cual depende la continua reínversíón y, en consecuencia, el crecimiento persistente. RESUMES L'agriculture à Taiwan et en Corée du Sud: l'état minimaliste? L'état a intervenu de façon très importante dans les économies agricoles de Taiwan et de la Corée du Sud, par des moyens administratifs directs et en établissant une relativité des prix très différente de celle établie par les forces de marché. Quoique l'action de l'état n'ait pas toujours été effective ou efficace, elle a joué un rôle de grande importance en se servant de l'agriculture pour aider une croissance industrielle rapide. Les formes et les conséquences de l'intervention de l'état ont changé au cours des temps en fonction des pressions politiques et économiques provenant du changement de la structure économique. L'état a été obligé d'être interventionniste de façon à essayer de maintenir l'ordre politique duquel dépendent le rèinvestissement continu et donc la croissance continue

Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space

Are the grid cells discovered in rodents relevant to human cognition? Following up on two seminal studies by others, we aimed to check whether an approximate 6-fold, grid-like symmetry shows up in the cortical activity of humans who "navigate" between vowels, given that vowel space can be approximated with a continuous trapezoidal 2D manifold, spanned by the first and second formant frequencies. We created 30 vowel trajectories in the assumedly flat central portion of the trapezoid. Each of these trajectories had a duration of 240 milliseconds, with a steady start and end point on the perimeter of a "wheel". We hypothesized that if the neural representation of this "box" is similar to that of rodent grid units, there should be an at least partial hexagonal (6-fold) symmetry in the EEG response of participants who navigate it. We have not found any dominant n-fold symmetry, however, but instead, using PCAs, we find indications that the vowel representation may reflect phonetic features, as positioned on the vowel manifold. The suggestion, therefore, is that vowels are encoded in relation to their salient sensory-perceptual variables, and are not assigned to arbitrary gridlike abstract maps. Finally, we explored the relationship between the first PCA eigenvector and putative vowel attractors for native Italian speakers, who served as the subjects in our study

The NeuroDante Project: Neurometric measurements of participant’s reaction to literary auditory stimuli from dante’s “divina commedia”

Neurodante. Progetto di analisi neurometrica di alcuni brani della Commedi

Approaches in biotechnological applications of natural polymers

Natural polymers, such as gums and mucilage, are biocompatible, cheap, easily available and non-toxic materials of native origin. These polymers are increasingly preferred over synthetic materials for industrial applications due to their intrinsic properties, as well as they are considered alternative sources of raw materials since they present characteristics of sustainability, biodegradability and biosafety. As definition, gums and mucilages are polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates consisting of one or more monosaccharides or their derivatives linked in bewildering variety of linkages and structures. Natural gums are considered polysaccharides naturally occurring in varieties of plant seeds and exudates, tree or shrub exudates, seaweed extracts, fungi, bacteria, and animal sources. Water-soluble gums, also known as hydrocolloids, are considered exudates and are pathological products; therefore, they do not form a part of cell wall. On the other hand, mucilages are part of cell and physiological products. It is important to highlight that gums represent the largest amounts of polymer materials derived from plants. Gums have enormously large and broad applications in both food and non-food industries, being commonly used as thickening, binding, emulsifying, suspending, stabilizing agents and matrices for drug release in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In the food industry, their gelling properties and the ability to mold edible films and coatings are extensively studied. The use of gums depends on the intrinsic properties that they provide, often at costs below those of synthetic polymers. For upgrading the value of gums, they are being processed into various forms, including the most recent nanomaterials, for various biotechnological applications. Thus, the main natural polymers including galactomannans, cellulose, chitin, agar, carrageenan, alginate, cashew gum, pectin and starch, in addition to the current researches about them are reviewed in this article.. }To the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientfíico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for fellowships (LCBBC and MGCC) and the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nvíel Superior (CAPES) (PBSA). This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) (JAT)

DNA damage by lipid peroxidation products: implications in cancer, inflammation and autoimmunity

Oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation (LPO) induced by inflammation, excess metal storage and excess caloric intake cause generalized DNA damage, producing genotoxic and mutagenic effects. The consequent deregulation of cell homeostasis is implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of malignancies and degenerative diseases. Reactive aldehydes produced by LPO, such as malondialdehyde, acrolein, crotonaldehyde and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, react with DNA bases, generating promutagenic exocyclic DNA adducts, which likely contribute to the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects associated with oxidative stress-induced LPO. However, reactive aldehydes, when added to tumor cells, can exert an anticancerous effect. They act, analogously to other chemotherapeutic drugs, by forming DNA adducts and, in this way, they drive the tumor cells toward apoptosis. The aldehyde-DNA adducts, which can be observed during inflammation, play an important role by inducing epigenetic changes which, in turn, can modulate the inflammatory process. The pathogenic role of the adducts formed by the products of LPO with biological macromolecules in the breaking of immunological tolerance to self antigens and in the development of autoimmunity has been supported by a wealth of evidence. The instrumental role of the adducts of reactive LPO products with self protein antigens in the sensitization of autoreactive cells to the respective unmodified proteins and in the intermolecular spreading of the autoimmune responses to aldehyde-modified and native DNA is well documented. In contrast, further investigation is required in order to establish whether the formation of adducts of LPO products with DNA might incite substantial immune responsivity and might be instrumental for the spreading of the immunological responses from aldehyde-modified DNA to native DNA and similarly modified, unmodified and/or structurally analogous self protein antigens, thus leading to autoimmunity

Direct recordings of grid-like neuronal activity in human spatial navigation

Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex appear to represent spatial location via a triangular coordinate system. Such cells, which have been identified in rats, bats and monkeys, are believed to support a wide range of spatial behaviors. Recording neuronal activity from neurosurgical patients performing a virtual-navigation task, we identified cells exhibiting grid-like spiking patterns in the human brain, suggesting that humans and simpler animals rely on homologous spatial-coding schemes