Design and Testing of a Structural Monitoring System in an Almería-Type Tensioned Structure Greenhouse

Greenhouse cultivation has gained a special importance in recent years and become the basis of the economy in south-eastern Spain. The structures used are light and, due to weather events, often collapse completely or partially, which has generated interest in the study of these unique buildings. This study presents a load and displacement monitoring system that was designed, and full scale tested, in an Almería-type greenhouse with a tensioned wire structure. The loads and displacements measured under real load conditions were recorded for multiple time periods. The traction force on the roof cables decreased up to 22% for a temperature increase of 30 °C, and the compression force decreased up to 16.1% on the columns or pillars for a temperature and wind speed increase of 25.8 °C and 1.9 m/s respectively. The results show that the structure is susceptible to daily temperature changes and, to a lesser extent, wind throughout the test. The monitoring system, which uses load cells to measure loads and machine vision techniques to measure displacements, is appropriate for use in different types of greenhouses

High sensitivity to carcinogens in the brain of a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Cancer and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are commonly found among elderly patients. Chronic inflammation is the characteristic of both diseases. Amyloid-b peptide is the main inducer of inflammation in AD. Moreover, chronic inflammation promotes cancer, suggesting that AD patients may be more prone to develop cancer than nondemented people. To test this hypothesis, we injected the carcinogen 20-methylcholanthrene in the brain of transgenic mice overexpressing the mutant forms of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilin 1 (PS1), as a model of AD, and their wild-type (WT) littermates. Mutant mice developed tumors faster and with higher incidence than their WT counterparts. Expression of the inflammatory markers interleukin (IL)-1a, IL-1b, IL-6, IP-10 and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) was measured in AD and WT mice of 3 and 12 months of age that had not been exposed to the carcinogen. These cytokines were elevated in older AD mice, indicating the existence of a highly inflammatory milieu in these animals. We also found elevated expression of a mutated form of p53 in older AD mice, suggesting an alternative mechanism for the predisposition of AD brains to develop brain tumors. Clinical studies reporting comorbidity of AD and brain cancer are needed to understand whether our observations hold true for humans.This work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation Grant SAF2007-60010, and Instituto de Salud Carlos III Grant RD06/0026/1001.Peer reviewe

Blockade of the Interaction of Calcineurin with FOXO in Astrocytes Protects Against Amyloid-βInduced Neuronal Death

Astrocytes actively participate in neuro-inflammatory processes associated to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and other brain pathologies. We recently showed that an astrocyte-specific intracellular signaling pathway involving an interaction of the phosphatase calcineurin with the transcription factor FOXO3 is a major driver in AD associated pathological inflammation, suggesting a potential new druggable target for this devastating disease. We have now developed decoy molecules to interfere with calcineurin/FOXO3 interactions, and tested them in astrocytes and neuronal co-cultures exposed to amyloid-β (Aβ) toxicity. We observed that interference of calcineurin/FOXO3 interactions exerts a protective action against A-induced neuronal death and favors the production of a set of growth factors that we hypothesize form part of a cytoprotective pathway to resolve inflammation. Furthermore, interference of the A-induced interaction of calcineurin with FOXO3 by decoy compounds significantly decreased amyloid-β protein precursor (AβPP) synthesis, reduced the AβPP amyloidogenic pathway, resulting in lower Alevels, and blocked the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNFα and IL-6 in astrocytes. Collectively, these data indicate that interrupting pro-inflammatory calcineurin/FOXO3 interactions in astrocytes triggered by Aβ accumulation in brain may constitute an effective new therapeutic approach in AD. Future studies with intranasal delivery, or brain barrier permeable decoy compounds, are warranted

The first homotopic Baire class of maps with values in ANR's coincides with the first Baire class

We introduce the first homotopic Baire class of maps as a homotopical counterpart of a usual first Baire class of maps between topological spaces and show that those classes with values in ANR spaces coincid

Bases estructurales del mecanismo de reconocimiento y fosfotransferencia en los sistemas de señalización de dos componentes

Póster original presentado XXVII Congreso de la SEBBM, Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, celebrado en Lleida, 12-15 de septiembre, 2004.Los sistemas de dos componentes son el mecanismo principal de transducción de señal en microorganismos. Un sistema paradigmático se compone de dos proteínas: una histidina quinasa (HK) y un regulador de la respuesta (RR). El mecanismo de transducción de señal implica al menos tres reacciones (ver esquema): 1) Autofosforilación: la llegada de un estímulo al dominio extracelular sensor de la HK, induce la fosforilación en un residuo de His conservado en el dominio de dimerización (DHp) por parte del dominio de unión de ATP (CA). 2) Fosfotransferencia: este grupo fosforilo es transferido desde la His a un residuo de Asp del dominio regulador del correspondiente RR. 3) Defosforilación: el RR pierde el grupo fosforilo espontáneamente o mediado por la HK. El estado de fosforilación del dominio regulador en RR regula la actividad de su dominio efector, que es habitualmente un factor de transcripción.Financiado por la ayuda BIO2002-03709 del Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología. P. casino es becaria FPI del Ministerio de ciencia y TecnologíaPeer reviewe