Major Novel QTL for Resistance to Cassava Bacterial Blight Identified through a Multi-Environmental Analysis

Cassava, Manihot esculenta Crantz, has been positioned as one of the most promising crops world-wide representing the staple security for more than one billion people mainly in poor countries. Cassava production is constantly threatened by several diseases, including cassava bacterial blight (CBB) caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam), it is the most destructive disease causing heavy yield losses. Here, we report the detection and localization on the genetic map of cassava QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) conferring resistance to CBB. An F1 mapping population of 117 full sibs was tested for resistance to two Xam strains (Xam318 and Xam681) at two locations in Colombia: La Vega, Cundinamarca and Arauca. The evaluation was conducted in rainy and dry seasons and additional tests were carried out under controlled greenhouse conditions. The phenotypic evaluation of the response to Xam revealed continuous variation. Based on composite interval mapping analysis, 5 strain-specific QTL for resistance to Xam explaining between 15.8 and 22.1% of phenotypic variance, were detected and localized on a high resolution SNP-based genetic map of cassava. Four of them show stability among the two evaluated seasons. Genotype by environment analysis detected three QTL by environment interactions and the broad sense heritability for Xam318 and Xam681 were 20 and 53%, respectively. DNA sequence analysis of the QTL intervals revealed 29 candidate defense-related genes (CDRGs), and two of them contain domains related to plant immunity proteins, such as NB-ARC-LRR and WRKY

Mejora a las acciones propuestas para la implementación del Sistema de Gestión de la Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (SG-SST) de la empresa Toptex

Formato de la encuesta aplicada al área operativa de la empresa Toptex S.A., Matriz DOFA de la empresa Toptex S.A.G, Propuesta de mejoras estratégicas del SSGT para la empresa Toptex S.A.La seguridad y salud en el trabajo ha tenido un nuevo rol como eje transversal y fundamental para la gestión de todas las organizaciones, porque allí se derivan todas las políticas y directrices que garantizan el cuidado y la protección de la integridad física para todos los trabajadores y demás asociados de las mismas. De esta manera, es importante tener en cuenta que la construcción de una identidad positiva en seguridad y salud en el lugar de trabajo no solo previene situaciones complejas para la humanidad, sino que también beneficia tanto a los trabajadores como a los empresarios. El presente trabajo establece las propuestas de mejora para la implementación del Sistema de Gestión de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo para la empresa Toptex SA., para ello, se evaluó el actual plan de capacitación de la empresa, derivando en el análisis de la situación acerca de cómo los colaboradores conciben y reconocen el SG-SST dentro de sus labores asignadas. Dentro de la metodología de la investigación se determinó la recolección de datos e información mediante la utilización de una encuesta a 55 colaboradores del área operativa considerada como vulnerable en cuanto a la ocurrencia de accidentes laborales, para luego tabular, procesar y analizar la información recolectada, como herramienta de análisis se implementó una Matriz DOFA, la cual aportó diferentes aspectos de intereses relacionados con las debilidades y amenazas que tiene la empresa y esto a la vez permitió establecer las acciones de mejora pertinentes. Como principales resultados de la investigación realizada se pudo establecer que la gran mayoría de los encuestados y trabajadores de la empresa Toptex SA. no tienen pleno conocimiento acerca del ámbito de aplicación de la Política de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo, también se identificó que cuenta con una debilidad relacionada con brindar una correcta capacitación y entrenamiento a los empleados en esta área operativa. Teniendo en cuenta los resultados obtenidos y tomando como referente el ciclo PHVA se planteó el plan de mejora correspondiente, el cual cuenta con tareas y acciones específicas que involucran ciertos recursos de la empresa, así como las personas idóneas y responsables de su implementación.Occupational health and safety have taken on a new role as a transversal and fundamental axis for the management of all organizations, because all policies and guidelines that guarantee the care and protection of the physical integrity of all workers and other associates are derived therefrom. In this way, it is important to keep in mind that the construction of a positive identity in safety and health in the workplace not only prevents complex situations for humanity, but also benefits both workers and employers. The present work establishes the improvement proposals for the implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Management System for the company Toptex SA, for this purpose, the current training plan of the company was evaluated, deriving in the analysis of the situation about how the collaborators conceive and recognize the SG-SST within their assigned tasks. Within the research methodology, the data and information collection was determined by applying a survey to 55 collaborators of the operative area considered as vulnerable in terms of the occurrence of occupational accidents, to then tabulate, process and analyze the information collected, as an analysis tool a SWOT Matrix was implemented, which provided aspects of interest related to the main weaknesses and threats that the company has and this at the same time allowed establishing the pertinent improvement actions. As main results of the research carried out, it could be established that the vast majority of respondents and workers of the company Toptex S.A. do not have full knowledge about the scope of application of the Health and Safety at Work Policy, it was also identified that it has a weakness related to providing proper training and training to employees in this operational area. Taking into account the results obtained and taking the PHVA cycle as a reference, the corresponding improvement plan was proposed, which has specific tasks and actions that involve certain resources of the company, as well as the suitable people responsible for its implementation

Festival de Creación Literaria para Niños y Jóvenes 2018

Presentamos los cuentos y dibujos destacados del Festival de Creación Literaria para niños y jóvenes, organizado por la Universidad de los niños de la Universidad EAFIT, el Centro Cultural Biblioteca Luis Echavarría Villegas y el pregrado en Literatura del Departamento de Humanidades.Universidad de los niños de la Universidad EAFIT, el Centro Cultural Biblioteca Luis Echavarría Villegas y el pregrado en Literatura del Departamento de Humanidades

Extraction of the Muon Signals Recorded with the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory Using Recurrent Neural Networks

We present a method based on the use of Recurrent Neural Networks to extract the muon component from the time traces registered with water-Cherenkov detector (WCD) stations of the Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The design of the WCDs does not allow to separate the contribution of muons to the time traces obtained from the WCDs from those of photons, electrons and positrons for all events. Separating the muon and electromagnetic components is crucial for the determination of the nature of the primary cosmic rays and properties of the hadronic interactions at ultra-high energies. We trained a neural network to extract the muon and the electromagnetic components from the WCD traces using a large set of simulated air showers, with around 450 000 simulated events. For training and evaluating the performance of the neural network, simulated events with energies between 1018.5, eV and 1020 eV and zenith angles below 60 degrees were used. We also study the performance of this method on experimental data of the Pierre Auger Observatory and show that our predicted muon lateral distributions agree with the parameterizations obtained by the AGASA collaboration

A search for ultra-high-energy photons at the Pierre Auger Observatory exploiting air-shower universality

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the most sensitive detector to primary photons with energies above ∼0.2 EeV. It measures extensive air showers using a hybrid technique that combines a fluorescence detector (FD) with a ground array of particle detectors (SD). The signatures of a photon-induced air shower are a larger atmospheric depth at the shower maximum (X$_{max}$) and a steeper lateral distribution function, along with a lower number of muons with respect to the bulk of hadron-induced background. Using observables measured by the FD and SD, three photon searches in different energy bands are performed. In particular, between threshold energies of 1-10 EeV, a new analysis technique has been developed by combining the FD-based measurement of X$_{max}$ with the SD signal through a parameter related to its muon content, derived from the universality of the air showers. This technique has led to a better photon/hadron separation and, consequently, to a higher search sensitivity, resulting in a tighter upper limit than before. The outcome of this new analysis is presented here, along with previous results in the energy ranges below 1 EeV and above 10 EeV. From the data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory in about 15 years of operation, the most stringent constraints on the fraction of photons in the cosmic flux are set over almost three decades in energy

Study on multi-ELVES in the Pierre Auger Observatory

Since 2013, the four sites of the Fluorescence Detector (FD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory record ELVES with a dedicated trigger. These UV light emissions are correlated to distant lightning strikes. The length of recorded traces has been increased from 100 μs (2013), to 300 μs (2014-16), to 900 μs (2017-present), to progressively extend the observation of the light emission towards the vertical of the causative lightning and beyond. A large fraction of the observed events shows double ELVES within the time window, and, in some cases, even more complex structures are observed. The nature of the multi-ELVES is not completely understood but may be related to the different types of lightning in which they are originated. For example, it is known that Narrow Bipolar Events can produce double ELVES, and Energetic In-cloud Pulses, occurring between the main negative and upper positive charge layer of clouds, can induce double and even quadruple ELVES in the ionosphere. This report shows the seasonal and daily dependence of the time gap, amplitude ratio, and correlation between the pulse widths of the peaks in a sample of 1000+ multi-ELVES events recorded during the period 2014-20. The events have been compared with data from other satellite and ground-based sensing devices to study the correlation of their properties with lightning observables such as altitude and polarity