How to avoid a swift kick in the chameleons

Recently, it was argued that the conformal coupling of the chameleon to matter fields created an issue for early universe cosmology. As standard model degrees of freedom become non-relativistic in the early universe, the chameleon is attracted towards a “surfing'' solution, so that it arrives at the potential minimum with too large a velocity. This leads to rapid variations in the chameleon's mass and excitation of high energy modes, casting doubts on the classical treatment at Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Here we present the DBI chameleon, a consistent high energy modification of the chameleon theory that dynamically renders it weakly coupled to matter during the early universe thereby eliminating the adverse effects of the `kicks'. This is done without any fine tuning of the coupling between the chameleon and matter fields, and retains its screening ability in the solar system. We demonstrate this explicitly with a combination of analytic and numerical results

Impacto ambiental generado por erosión costera en la zona litoral de Buenos Aires Norte, distrito de Víctor Larco Herrera, La Libertad, Perú

La erosión costera es un fenómeno común en las playas de la provincia de Trujillo que tiene como efecto principal la perdida de la línea costera, así como diferentes impactos ambientales naturales y socioeconómicos. El presente trabajo de investigación tuvo como objetivo determinar el impacto ambiental generado por la erosión costera en la zona litoral de Buenos Aires Norte, distrito de Víctor Larco Herrera, La Libertad-Perú. El área de estudio fue georeferenciada y delimitada en dos zonas de evaluación: zona A y zona B, determinando el grado de impactos mediante la matriz de interacción (causa-efecto) de Leopold modificada; en cada estación de muestreo establecida. Se determinó en el ámbito natura-fisico, un impacto negativo moderado de -70 en la zona A y un impacto negativo débil de -12 en la zona B debido a la perdida de arena, al arrojo de desmonte, al deterioro de las vías de acceso, pistas y veredas, e infraestructura de viviendas; en el ámbito socioeconómico un impacto negativo moderado de -55 en la zona A y un impacto negativo débil de -6 en la zona B debido a la reducción de la población económicamente activa, la migración de pobladores y la pérdida de turismo.Palabras clave: Impacto ambiental, erosión costera, zona litoral

Influence of neurogenic improvement strategies on extinction and reinstatement of cocaine-induced conditioned place preference

AIMS: Modulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) has been shown to influence the maintenance of drug-context associations. We aimed to study whether the enhancement of AHN by using a water maze spatial learning task (WM), solely or under conditions of neurogenesis stimulation (forced treadmill exercise), could facilitate extinction and prevent primed reinstatement of cocaine-context associations. METHODS: Adult male C57BL/6J mice (N=37) were trained in the Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) paradigm with ascending doses of cocaine (2, 4, 8, 16 mg/kg/d) and subsequently received bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) injections to label newborn neurons. Then, experimental groups were submitted to 12 days of scheduled exercise and/or 8 days of spatial training in the WM. Sedentary and/or untrained groups stayed undisturbed in their home cages. When BrdU+ cells reached maturation (~6 weeks-old), all mice were tested for CPP memory retrieval. Finally, animals were submitted to forced CPP extinction and tested for CPP extinction and cocaine-primed reinstatement. RESULTS: Animals submitted either to the scheduled exercise protocol, training in the WM or both strategies combined, required fewer sessions to extinct cocaine-CPP associations than control animals. Furthermore, animals submitted to both environmental strategies showed a reduced reinstatement when compared to sedentary animals. These effects are partially related to the functional integration of the newborn neurons in the hippocampus. CONCLUSIONS: Both environmental strategies, alone and combined, can reduce the long-term persistence of cocaine-context associations, being AHN associated with these beneficial effects.PSI2017-82604; PRE2018-085673; 08-2021-AREA3; B1-2020_06;Posdoc_21_00222; Posdoctoral_a32. I Plan Propio de la Universidad de Málaga. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Paromomycin is superior to metronidazole in Dientamoeba fragilis treatment

Dientamoeba fragilis is a trichomonad parasite of the human intestine that is found worldwide. However, the biological cycle and transmission of this parasite have yet to be elucidated. Although its pathogenic capacity has been questioned, there is increasing evidence that clinical manifestations vary greatly. Different therapeutic options with antiparasitic drugs are currently available; however, very few studies have compared the effectiveness of these drugs. In the present longitudinal study, we evaluate 13,983 copro-parasitological studies using light microscopy of stools, during 2013-2015, in Terrassa, Barcelona (Spain). A total of 1150 (8.2%) presented D. fragilis. Of these, 739 episodes were finally analyzed: those that involved a follow-up parasitology test up to 3 months later, corresponding to 586 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms (53% under 15 years of age). Coinfection by Blastocystis hominis was present in 33.6% of the subjects. Our aim was to compare therapeutic responses to different antiparasitic drugs and the factors associated with the persistence of D. fragilis post-treatment. Gender, age, and other intestinal parasitic coinfections were not associated with parasite persistence following treatment. Metronidazole was the therapeutic option in most cases, followed by paromomycin: 65.4% and 17.5% respectively. Paromomycin was found to be more effective at eradicating parasitic infection than metronidazole (81.8% vs. 65.4%; p = 0.007), except in children under six years of age (p = 0.538). Although Dientamoeba fragilis mainly produces mild clinical manifestations, the high burden of infection means we require better understanding of its epidemiological cycle and pathogenicity, as well as adequate therapeutic guidelines in order to adapt medical care and policies to respond to this health problem

Phase 1 study of the ATR inhibitor berzosertib (formerly M6620, VX-970) combined with gemcitabine ± cisplatin in patients with advanced solid tumours

Background: Berzosertib (formerly M6620, VX-970) is a highly potent and selective, first-in-class inhibitor of ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein kinase (ATR). We assessed multiple ascending doses of berzosertib + gemcitabine ± cisplatin in patients with resistant/refractory advanced solid tumours. Methods: We evaluated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK) and preliminary efficacy of intravenous berzosertib + gemcitabine ± cisplatin using a standard 3 + 3 dose-escalation design. The starting doses were berzosertib 18 mg/m2, gemcitabine 875 mg/m2 and cisplatin 60 mg/m2. Results: Fifty-two patients received berzosertib + gemcitabine and eight received berzosertib + gemcitabine + cisplatin. Four patients receiving berzosertib + gemcitabine had a total of seven dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) and three receiving berzosertib + gemcitabine + cisplatin had a total of three DLTs. Berzosertib 210 mg/m2 (days 2 and 9) + gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 (days 1 and 8) Q3W was established as the recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D); no RP2D was determined for berzosertib + gemcitabine + cisplatin. Neither gemcitabine nor cisplatin affected berzosertib PK. Most patients in both arms achieved a best response of either partial response or stable disease. Conclusions: Berzosertib + gemcitabine was well tolerated in patients with advanced solid tumours and showed preliminary efficacy signs. Clinical trial identifier: NCT02157792

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Temperature synchronizes temporal variation in laying dates across European hole-nesting passerines

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.Identifying the environmental drivers of variation in fitness-related traits is a central objective in ecology and evolutionary biology. Temporal fluctuations of these environmental drivers are often synchronized at large spatial scales. Yet, whether synchronous environmental conditions can generate spatial synchrony in fitness-related trait values (i.e., correlated temporal trait fluctuations across populations) is poorly understood. Using data from long-term monitored populations of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus, n = 31), great tits (Parus major, n = 35), and pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca, n = 20) across Europe, we assessed the influence of two local climatic variables (mean temperature and mean precipitation in February–May) on spatial synchrony in three fitness-related traits: laying date, clutch size, and fledgling number. We found a high degree of spatial synchrony in laying date but a lower degree in clutch size and fledgling number for each species. Temperature strongly influenced spatial synchrony in laying date for resident blue tits and great tits but not for migratory pied flycatchers. This is a relevant finding in the context of environmental impacts on populations because spatial synchrony in fitness-related trait values among populations may influence fluctuations in vital rates or population abundances. If environmentally induced spatial synchrony in fitness-related traits increases the spatial synchrony in vital rates or population abundances, this will ultimately increase the risk of extinction for populations and species. Assessing how environmental conditions influence spatiotemporal variation in trait values improves our mechanistic understanding of environmental impacts on populations.Peer reviewe