An efficient protocol to perform genetic traceability of tissue and foods from Geoffroea decorticans

The quality of a DNA isolation method depends, among others, on the target tissue and the metabolites therein. Geoffroea decorticans Burkart (chanar) is a species that has nutritional and pharmacological potential. However, an effective method of DNA extraction capable of facilitating population studies and food genetic traceability has not been studied yet. The objective of the present work was to evaluate four methods of DNA extraction from leaves and chanar-based foods. The methods were evaluated based on yield, DNA purity, and molecular markers. The CCI-P (CTAB/Chloroform-Isoamylalcohol/pellet) method showed the highest yield of DNA obtained from leaves. However, the CPCI-SC (CTAB/Phenol-Chloroform-Isoamylalcohol/silica-column) method was the only one that resulted in acceptable DNA quality with both parameters (A260/A280 and A260/A230). The leaf DNA obtained with this method showed a greater amount of fragments with RAPD, and an acceptable amount of fragments with ISSR. On the other hand, the CCI-P method showed a higher yield of DNA from arrope de chanar (syrup). However, the CPCI-SC method was the only one that had relatively better DNA quality, which allowed the amplification of molecular markers. Regarding chanar flour, the CPCI-SC method showed the highest yield, DNA quality and good amplification with molecular markers. Therefore, the CPCI-SC extraction method is efficient for obtaining DNA from different matrices, and can support studies for a possible designation of origin of chanar-based foods

Holographic Picture of Heavy Vector Meson Melting

The fraction of heavy vector mesons produced in a heavy ion collision, as compared to a proton proton collision, serves as an important indication of the formation of a thermal medium, the quark gluon plasma. This sort of analysis strongly depends on understanding the thermal effects of a medium like the plasma on the states of heavy mesons. In particular, it is crucial to know the temperature ranges where they undergo a thermal dissociation, or melting. AdS/QCD models are know to provide an important tool for the calculation of hadronic masses, but in general are not consistent with the observation that decay constants of heavy vector mesons decrease with excitation level. It has recently been shown that this problem can be overcome using a soft wall background and introducing an extra energy parameter, through the calculation of correlation functions at a finite position of anti-de Sitter space. This approach leads to the evaluation of masses and decay constants of S wave quarkonium states with just one flavor dependent and one flavor independent parameters. Here we extend this more realistic model to finite temperatures and analyse the thermal behavior of the states $1S, 2S$ and $3S$ of bottomonium and charmonium. The corresponding spectral function exhibits a consistent picture for the melting of the states where, for each flavor, the higher excitations melt at lower temperatures. We estimate for these six states, the energy ranges in which the heavy vector mesons undergo a transition from a well defined peak in the spectral function to complete melting in the thermal medium. A very clear distinction between the heavy flavors emerges, with bottomonium state $\Upsilon (1S)$ surviving deconfinemet transition at temperatures much larger than the critical deconfinement temperature of the medium.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

Holographic model for heavy vector meson masses

The experimentally observed spectra of heavy vector meson radial excitations show a dependence on two different energy parameters. One is associated with the quark mass and the other with the binding energy levels of the quark anti-quark pair. The first is present in the large mass of the first state while the other corresponds to the small mass splittings between radial excitations. In this article we show how to reproduce such a behavior with reasonable precision using a holographic model. In the dual picture, the large energy scale shows up from a bulk mass and the small scale comes from the position of anti-de Sitter (AdS) space where field correlators are calculated. The model determines the masses of four observed S-wave states of charmonium and six S-wave states of bottomonium with , 6.1 % rms error. In consistency with the physical picture, the large energy parameter is flavor dependent, while the small parameter, associated with quark anti-quark interaction is the same for charmonium and bottomonium states.Comment: In V5 we just added some clarifying explanations about the model. 5 tables, no figure. Version published in Europhysics Letter

CRISTIANISMO, RAZÓN PÚBLICA Y "GUERRA CULTURAL".

1. La "guerra civil occidental"; 2. Evolución de la izquierda: del socialismo al sesentayochismo; 3. Feminismo, neofeminismo, ideología de género; 4. La ONU y la Unión Europea, al servicio de la "ampliación de derechos"; 5. Los campos de batalla; 5.1. Vida; 5.2. Familia; 5.3. Papel de la religión en la vida pública; 6. La imposible neutralidad estatal; 7. Argumentos no confesionales de los creyentes

Europa: agonía del sesentayochismo, ¿retorno del cristianismo?

The current situation of European society is still deeply marked by the aftermath of the "cultural revolution " of the 60s. This paper discusses examines, first, a number of social features in which this influence is discernible: secularization, birth rate decline, decay of the family, relativism, etc. The second section presents the contemporary cultural crisis as the ultimate stage of an evolution that opened up in the 17th century, when a new secular-rational ethics (etsi Deus non daretur) -designed to supersede traditional Christian ethics- was proposed by Grotius and other scholars. The third section analyzes the essential contribution Christianity could make to the (still hypothetical) cultural-moral revival of Europe (via an ethics veluti si Deus daretur), focusing particularly on the dialogues Joseph Ratzinger held with Jürgen Habermas and Marcello Pera

Dephasing-assisted transport in linear triple quantum dots

Environmental noise usually hinders the efficiency of charge transport through coherent quantum systems; an exception is dephasing-assisted transport (DAT). We show that linear triple quantum dots in a transport configuration and subjected to pure dephasing exhibit DAT if the coupling to the drain reservoir exceeds a threshold. DAT occurs for arbitrarily weak dephasing and the enhancement can be directly controlled by the coupling to the drain. Moreover, for specific settings, the enhanced current is accompanied by a reduction in relative shot noise. We identify the quantum Zeno effect and long-distance tunnelling as underlying dynamical processes involved in dephasing-assisted and -suppressed transport. Our analytical results are obtained by using the density matrix formalism and the characteristic polynomial approach to full counting statistics.Comment: To appear in New Journal of Physics, 20 pages, 5 figure

Bouncing solutions from generalized EoS

We present an exact analytical bouncing solution for a closed universe filled with only one exotic fluid with negative pressure, obeying a Generalized Equations of State (GEoS) of the form $P(\rho)=A\rho+B\rho^{\lambda}$, where $A$, $B$ and $\lambda$ are constants. In our solution $A=-1/3$ and $\lambda=1/2$ and $B<0$ is kept as a free parameter. For particular values of the initial conditions, we obtain that our solution obeys Null Energy Condition (NEC), which allows us to reinterpret the matter source as that of a real scalar field, $\phi$, with a positive kinetic energy and a potential $V(\phi)$. We compute numerically the scalar field as a function of time as well as its potential $V(\phi)$, and find an analytical function for the potential that fits very accurately with the numerical results obtained. The shape of this potential can be well described by a Gaussian-type of function, and hence, there is no spontaneous symmetry minimum of $V(\phi)$. We further show that the bouncing scenario is structurally stable under small variations of the parameter $A$, such that a family of bouncing solutions can be find numerically, in a small vicinity of the value $A=-1/3$.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

Multiple outflows in the planetary nebula NGC 6058

We present narrow-band [O III]lambda5007 and H-alpha images, as well as long-slit high-resolution echelle spectra of the planetary nebula NGC 6058. Our data reveal that NGC 6058 is a multipolar planetary nebula of about ~45 arcsec in extent and formed by four bipolar outflows that are oriented at different position angles. Assuming homologous expansion for all the structures, and a distance of 3.5 kpc, we obtain polar velocities around ~68 km s^-1 for three of them. The estimated kinematical ages suggest that the three oldest outflows have been ejected in intervals of ~ 1100 and ~ 400 yr during which, the ejection axis has changes its orientation by ~ 60 degrees and ~ 40 degrees, respectively. Although a inner ring-like structure is suggested by the direct images, its kinematics shows that no equatorial ring or toroid exists in the nebula. At the contrary, the long-slit spectra reveal that the ring-like structure corresponds to a fourth outflow that is oriented almost perpendicular to the other three. This fourth outflow is the youngest one and appears to be interacting with the other three, creating a protruding zone that sweeps material in a region almost perpendicular to the major axes of the oldest outflows. This structure also presents two bright arcuate regions along the same direction of the older outflows, and at opposite sides from the central star. From our model, we suggest that NGC 6058 could be anintermediate evolutionary stage between starfish planetary nebulae and multipolar planetary nebula with apparent equatorial lobes