Type-4 spinors: transmuting from Elko to single-helicity spinors

In this communication we briefly report an unexpected theoretical discovery which emerge from the mapping of Elko mass-dimension-one spinors into single helicity spinors. Such procedure unveils a class of spinor which is classified as type-4 spinor field within Lounesto classification. In this paper we explore the underlying physical and mathematical contents of the type-4 spinor.Comment: 9 pages, 0 figure

Neuroendocrine Regulation of Metabolism

Given the current environment in most developed countries, it is a challenge to maintain a good balance between calories consumed and calories burned, although maintenance of metabolic balance is key to good health. Therefore, understanding how metabolic regulation is achieved and how the dysregulation of metabolism affects health is an area of intense research. Most studies focus on the hypothalamus, which is a brain area that acts as a key regulator of metabolism. Among the nuclei that comprise the hypothalamus, the arcuate nucleus is one of the major mediators in the regulation of food intake. The regulation of energy balance is also a key factor ensuring the maintenance of any species as a result of the dependence of reproduction on energy stores. Adequate levels of energy reserves are necessary for the proper functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. This review discusses valuable data presented in the 2015 edition of the International Workshop of Neuroendocrinology concerning the fundamental nature of the hormonal regulation of the hypothalamus and the impact on energy balance and reproduction.Fil: Cornejo, María Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular; ArgentinaFil: Hentges, S.T.. State University of Colorado - Fort Collins; Estados UnidosFil: Maliqueo, M.. Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Coirini, Hector. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Becu Villalobos, D.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Elias, C. F.. University of Michigan; Estados Unido

And yet it moves: The dangers of artificially fixing the Milky Way center of mass in the presence of a massive Large Magellanic Cloud

Motivated by recent studies suggesting that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) could be significantly more massive than previously thought, we explore whether the approximation of an inertial Galactocentric reference frame is still valid in the presence of such a massive LMC. We find that previous estimates of the LMC's orbital period and apocentric distance derived assuming a fixed Milky Way are significantly shortened for models where the Milky Way is allowed to move freely in response to the gravitational pull of the LMC. Holding other parameters fixed, the fraction of models favoring first infall is reduced. Due to this interaction, the Milky Way center of mass within the inner 50 kpc can be significantly displaced in phase-space in a very short period of time that ranges from 0.3 to 0.5 Gyr by as much as 30 kpc and 75 km/s. Furthermore, we show that the gravitational pull of the LMC and response of the Milky Way are likely to significantly affect the orbit and phase space distribution of tidal debris from the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr). Such effects are larger than previous estimates based on the torque of the LMC alone. As a result, Sgr deposits debris in regions of the sky that are not aligned with the present-day Sgr orbital plane. In addition, we find that properly accounting for the movement of the Milky Way around its common center of mass with the LMC significantly modifies the angular distance between apocenters and tilts its orbital pole, alleviating tensions between previous models and observations. While these models are preliminary in nature, they highlight the central importance of accounting for the mutual gravitational interaction between the MW and LMC when modeling the kinematics of objects in the Milky Way and Local Group.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 16 pages, 11 figure

Biologic interactions determining geographic range size : a one species response to phylogenetic community structure

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Analysis of multiply spliced transcripts in lymphoid tissue reservoirs of rhesus macaques infected with RT-SHIV during HAART.

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can reduce levels of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) to undetectable levels in infected individuals, but the virus is not eradicated. The mechanisms of viral persistence during HAART are poorly defined, but some reservoirs have been identified, such as latently infected resting memory CD4⁺ T cells. During latency, in addition to blocks at the initiation and elongation steps of viral transcription, there is a block in the export of viral RNA (vRNA), leading to the accumulation of multiply-spliced transcripts in the nucleus. Two of the genes encoded by the multiply-spliced transcripts are Tat and Rev, which are essential early in the viral replication cycle and might indicate the state of infection in a given population of cells. Here, the levels of multiply-spliced transcripts were compared to the levels of gag-containing RNA in tissue samples from RT-SHIV-infected rhesus macaques treated with HAART. Splice site sequence variation was identified during development of a TaqMan PCR assay. Multiply-spliced transcripts were detected in gastrointestinal and lymphatic tissues, but not the thymus. Levels of multiply-spliced transcripts were lower than levels of gag RNA, and both correlated with plasma virus loads. The ratio of multiply-spliced to gag RNA was greatest in the gastrointestinal samples from macaques with plasma virus loads <50 vRNA copies per mL at necropsy. Levels of gag RNA and multiply-spliced mRNA in tissues from RT-SHIV-infected macaques correlate with plasma virus load

Exploring patterns in macroecological traits using sequential phylogenetic eigenvector regression

Diferentes métodos han sido propuestos para evaluar el grado de señal filogenética (autocorrelación) en los rasgos macroecológicos. Estos métodos son útiles para desarrollar maneras alternativas de evitar el problema de la falta de independencia entre especies y, actualmente, han demostrado ser importantes para inferir la velocidad de evolución de un rasgo al compararlo con modelos evolutivos alternativos, tales como el movimiento Browniano o el proceso Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU). Recientemente, desarrollamos un método llamado Curva de Señal-Representación Filogenética (PSR, por sus siglas en inglés), una expansión de la regresión de autovectores filogenéticos (PVR, por sus siglas en inglés) propuesto en 1998, que consiste en estimar diferentes coeficientes de determinación mediante la regresión de un rasgo de interés contra los autovectores extraídos de una matriz de distancias filogenéticas. El primer modelo únicamente utiliza los primeros de estos autovectores como variable explicativa, el segundo modelo utiliza tanto los primeros como los segundos autovectores y así sucesivamente. Posteriormente, los coeficientes de determinación resultantes son graficados contra los autovalores acumulados y la forma de esta curva es relacionada con modelos evolutivos determinando la variación del rasgo (i.e. un patrón lineal es esperado bajo movimiento Browniano). Aquí, aplicamos la curva PSR para estudiar los patrones de variación interespecífica en la talla corporal y tamaño de área de distribución de los carnívoros a nivel mundial y comparamos dichas curvas con aquellas simuladas bajo diferentes modelos de evolución. Nuestros resultados apoyan inequívocamente nuestras expectativas basadas en estudios previos acerca de la talla corporal presentando una fuerte señal filogenética, aproximada por un patrón OU con baja restricción, mientras el tamaño de área de distribución es más variable y mejor ajustado por un modelo nulo sugiriendo la ausencia de señal filogenética.A number of methods have been proposed to estimate the level of phylogenetic signal (autocorrelation) in macroecological traits. These methods are useful to devise alternative ways to circumvent the problem of lack of independence among species and, recently, they have also proved valuable to infer how fast a trait has evolved in comparison with alternative evolutionary models, such as a Brownian motion or Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. Recently, we developed a method called phylogenetic signal-representation (PSR) curve, an expansion of the phylogenetic eigenvector regression (PVR) proposed in 1998, which consists in estimating different coefficients of determination by regressing a trait of interest on the eigenvectors extracted from a phylogenetic distance matrix. The first model uses only the first of these eigenvectors as an explanatory variable; the second model uses both the first and the second and so on. After, the resultant coefficients of determination are plotted against the cumulative eigenvalues, and the shape of this curve is related to evolutionary models driving trait variation (i.e., a linear pattern is expected under Brownian evolution). Here, we used the PSR curve to study patterns of interspecific variation in Carnivora body size and geographical range size, and compared them with simulated curves under distinct evolutionary processes. Our results unequivocally support our expectations based on previous studies that body size has a strong phylogenetic signal, approximated by an OU pattern with low restraining force, whereas geographic range size is more labile and better fits the null expectations (i.e., absence of phylogenetic signal)

Subtercola vilae sp. nov., a novel actinobacterium from an extremely high-altitude cold volcano lake in Chile

A novel actinobacterium, strain DB165T, was isolated from cold waters of Llullaillaco Volcano Lake (6170 m asl) in Chile. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences identified strain DB165T as belonging to the genus Subtercola in the family Microbacteriaceae, sharing 97.4% of sequence similarity with Subtercola frigoramans DSM 13057T, 96.7% with Subtercola lobariae DSM 103962T, and 96.1% with Subtercola boreus DSM 13056T. The cells were observed to be Gram-positive, form rods with irregular morphology, and to grow best at 10–15 °C, pH 7 and in the absence of NaCl. The cross-linkage between the amino acids in its peptidoglycan is type B2γ; 2,4-diaminobutyric acid is the diagnostic diamino acid; the major respiratory quinones are MK-9 and MK-10; and the polar lipids consist of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, 5 glycolipids, 2 phospholipids and 5 additional polar lipids. The fatty acid profile of DB165T (5% >) contains iso-C14:0, iso-C16:0, anteiso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0, and the dimethylacetal iso-C16:0 DMA. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain DB165T was determined to be 65 mol%. Based on the phylogenetic, phenotypic, and chemotaxonomic analyses presented in this study, strain DB165T (= DSM 105013T = JCM 32044T) represents a new species in the genus Subtercola, for which the name Subtercola vilae sp. nov. is proposed

Evaluación de cultivares locales e introducidos de (RICINUS COMMUNIS L) higuerilla para condiciones de selva del Peru Región Ucayali 2011.

El experimento se instalo en el anexo experimental “Los Incas” de la Estación Experimental Agraria Pucallpa, departamento de Ucayali, provincia de Coronel Portillo, distrito de campo verde, el suelo donde se instalo el experimento es de altura o Ultisols. El diseño empleado fue de block completo randomizado con 04 tratamientos y 04 repeticiones, teniendo un total de 16 unidades experimentales, en un área de 1,881 m2. , los tratamientos evaluados fueron: T1 = Higuerilla BRS Nordestina, T2 = Higuerilla L1-003, T3 = Higuerilla L2-004 y T4 = Higuerilla L3-007. Se obtuvo como resultado que en las evaluaciones fenológicas en los cuatro cultivares donde para los parámetros agronómicos Higuerilla L3 – 007 e Higuerilla L 2-004, obtuvieron menor altura de planta al final del ciclo con 90 y 105 cm respectivamente siendo menor también en lo que corresponde a la altura de planta a la emisión del primer racimo que fue de 27.5 y 41 cm; asimismo el ecotipo Higuerilla L1 – 003 obtuvo 84 días a la emisión del primer racimo y 124 días a la cosecha del primer racimo siendo el más precoz con respecto a Higuerilla BRS Nordestina que obtuvo 147 días a la cosecha del primer racimo. Sin embargo en el parámetro de rendimiento de grano los ecotipos Higuerilla BRS Nordestina e Higuerilla L 2-004, rindieron un total de 602 y 524.8 kilos/ha respectivamente pero no superaron los 1,500 kg/ha