Module sectional category of products

Adapting a result of Félix–Halperin–Lemaire concerning the Lusternik–Schnirelmann category of products, we prove the additivity of a rational approximation for Schwarz’s sectional category with respect to products of certain fibrations.J.C. is supported by the Polish National Science Centre Grant 2016/21/ P/ST1/03460 within the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 665778 and by the Belgian Interuniversity Attraction Pole (IAP) within the framework “Dynamics, Geometry and Statistical Physics” (DYGEST P7/18). L.V. is partially supported by Portuguese Funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within the Project UID/MAT/00013/2013

Diseño y evaluación de un programa para la mejora de la condición física en Educación Primaria: efecto sobre la autoestima y la intención de ser activo

The objective was to design a program to improve physical fitness and evaluate its effect on the intent to remain active and general self-esteem. An 8-week program of activities was designed to improve physical fitness in Physical Education, in addition to sports physical activity at recess. The quasi-experimental design included 70 schoolchildren (39 experimental group; 31 control group) from 6th grade of Primary Education. The high priority ALPHA-Fitness battery, the intentionality scale of being physically active in Primary Education, and the Multimedia and Multilingual Self-esteem Evaluation Questionnaire were used as measuring instruments. The effectiveness of the program was found in all the variables studied, especially in the improvement of cardiorespiratory capacity, jumping capacity and the socio-affective dimension of self-esteem. The importance of these programs in the improvement of the physical, psychological and social health of the students is highlighted.El objetivo fue diseñar un programa para mejorar la condición física y evaluar su efecto sobre la intencionalidad de seguir siendo activo y autoestima general. Se diseñó un programa de 8 semanas de actividades para mejorar la condición física en Educación Física, además de actividad física deportiva en los recreos. El diseño cuasiexperimental incluyó 70 escolares (39 grupo experimental; 31 grupo control) de 6º de Educación Primaria. Como instrumentos de medida se utilizaron la batería ALPHA-Fitness de alta prioridad, la Escala de intencionalidad de ser físicamente activo en Educación Primaria, y el Cuestionario Multimedia y Multilingüe de Evaluación de la Autoestima. Se encontró efectividad del programa en todas las variables estudiadas, en especial en la mejora de la capacidad cardiorrespiratoria, la capacidad de salto y la dimensión socioafectiva de la autoestima. Se destaca la importancia de estos programas en la mejora de la salud física, psicológica y social del alumnado

Evidence for the Accretion of Gas in Star-forming Galaxies: High N/O Abundances in Regions of Anomalously Low Metallicity

While all models for the evolution of galaxies require the accretion of gas to sustain their growth via on-going star formation, it has proven difficult to directly detect this inflowing material. In this paper we use data of nearby star-forming galaxies in the SDSS IV Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey to search for evidence of accretion imprinted in the chemical composition of the interstellar medium. We measure both the O/H and N/O abundance ratios in regions previously identified as having anomalously low values of O/H. We show that the unusual locations of these regions in the N/O vs. O/H plane indicate that they have been created through the mixing of disk gas having higher metallicity with accreted gas having lower metallicity. Taken together with previous analysis on these anomalously low-metallicity regions, these results imply that accretion of metal-poor gas can probably sustain star formation in present-day late-type galaxies.ERC STF

Actividad biológica de los extractos metanólicos de Verbesina encelioides frente a aislamientos clínicos de Staphylococcus aureus resistentes a meticilina.

Aim: To evaluate the antimicrobial activity of methanol extracts of capitula from Verbesina Encelioides, against Staphylococcus Aureus resistant to methicillin.Material and methods: Agar diffusion replacing paper disc for wells in solidified Mueller Hinton agar culture medium.Results: Inhibition zone at all concentrations of plant extract tested against strains isolated from patients was reported.Conclusion: As the dose increases the diameter of inhibition zones also enhances in most of the assays, suggesting an antimicrobial activity.Objetivo: evaluar la capacidad antimicrobiana de los extractos metanólicos de capítulos de Verbesina encelioides, frente a Staphylococcus Aureus resistentes a meticilina.Material y Método: difusión en agar, sustituyendo el disco de papel por pocillos en el medio de cultivo agar Mueller Hinton solidificado.Resultado: se presentó halo de inhibición en todas las concentraciones del extracto vegetal ensayadas frente a las cepas aisladas de pacientes.Conclusión: a medida que aumenta la dosis aumenta el diámetro de los halos de inhibición, en la mayoría de los casos, lo que sugeriría una actividad antimicrobiana dosis dependiente de Verbesina enceloides

Thermographic imaging in sports and exercise medicine: A Delphi study and consensus statement on the measurement of human skin temperature

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Journal of Thermal Biology on 18/07/2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2017.07.006 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.© 2017 Elsevier Ltd The importance of using infrared thermography (IRT) to assess skin temperature (tsk) is increasing in clinical settings. Recently, its use has been increasing in sports and exercise medicine; however, no consensus guideline exists to address the methods for collecting data in such situations. The aim of this study was to develop a checklist for the collection of tsk using IRT in sports and exercise medicine. We carried out a Delphi study to set a checklist based on consensus agreement from leading experts in the field. Panelists (n  =  24) representing the areas of sport science (n = 8; 33%), physiology (n = 7; 29%), physiotherapy (n = 3; 13%) and medicine (n = 6; 25%), from 13 different countries completed the Delphi process. An initial list of 16 points was proposed which was rated and commented on by panelists in three rounds of anonymous surveys following a standard Delphi procedure. The panel reached consensus on 15 items which encompassed the participants’ demographic information, camera/room or environment setup and recording/analysis of tsk using IRT. The results of the Delphi produced the checklist entitled “Thermographic Imaging in Sports and Exercise Medicine (TISEM)” which is a proposal to standardize the collection and analysis of tsk data using IRT. It is intended that the TISEM can also be applied to evaluate bias in thermographic studies and to guide practitioners in the use of this technique.Published versio

Ego-Splitting and the Transcendental Subject. Kant’s Original Insight and Husserl’s Reappraisal

In this paper, I contend that there are at least two essential traits that commonly define being an I: self-identity and self-consciousness. I argue that they bear quite an odd relation to each other in the sense that self-consciousness seems to jeopardize self-identity. My main concern is to elucidate this issue within the range of the transcendental philosophies of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In the first section, I shall briefly consider Kant’s own rendition of the problem of the Egosplitting. My reading of the Kantian texts reveals that Kant himself was aware of this phenomenon but eventually deems it an unexplainable fact. The second part of the paper tackles the same problematic from the standpoint of Husserlian phenomenology. What Husserl’s extensive analyses on this topic bring to light is that the phenomenon of the Ego-splitting constitutes the bedrock not only of his thought but also of every philosophy that works within the framework of transcendental thinking

Application of BRET to monitor ligand binding to GPCRs

Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) is a well-established method for investigating protein-protein interactions. Here we present a BRET approach to monitor ligand binding to G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) on the surface of living cells made possible by the use of fluorescent ligands in combination with a bioluminescent protein (NanoLuc) that can be readily expressed on the N terminus of GPCRs

Random Walks on Stochastic Temporal Networks

In the study of dynamical processes on networks, there has been intense focus on network structure -- i.e., the arrangement of edges and their associated weights -- but the effects of the temporal patterns of edges remains poorly understood. In this chapter, we develop a mathematical framework for random walks on temporal networks using an approach that provides a compromise between abstract but unrealistic models and data-driven but non-mathematical approaches. To do this, we introduce a stochastic model for temporal networks in which we summarize the temporal and structural organization of a system using a matrix of waiting-time distributions. We show that random walks on stochastic temporal networks can be described exactly by an integro-differential master equation and derive an analytical expression for its asymptotic steady state. We also discuss how our work might be useful to help build centrality measures for temporal networks.Comment: Chapter in Temporal Networks (Petter Holme and Jari Saramaki editors). Springer. Berlin, Heidelberg 2013. The book chapter contains minor corrections and modifications. This chapter is based on arXiv:1112.3324, which contains additional calculations and numerical simulation

A Small Conductance Calcium-Activated K⁺ Channel in C. elegans, KCNL-2, Plays a Role in the Regulation of the Rate of Egg-Laying

In the nervous system of mice, small conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels function to regulate neuronal excitability through the generation of a component of the medium afterhyperpolarization that follows action potentials. In humans, irregular action potential firing frequency underlies diseases such as ataxia, epilepsy, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. Due to the complexity of studying protein function in the mammalian nervous system, we sought to characterize an SK channel homologue, KCNL-2, in C. elegans, a genetically tractable system in which the lineage of individual neurons was mapped from their early developmental stages. Sequence analysis of the KCNL-2 protein reveals that the six transmembrane domains, the potassium-selective pore and the calmodulin binding domain are highly conserved with the mammalian homologues. We used widefield and confocal fluorescent imaging to show that a fusion construct of KCNL-2 with GFP in transgenic lines is expressed in the nervous system of C. elegans. We also show that a KCNL-2 null strain, kcnl-2(tm1885), demonstrates a mild egg-laying defective phenotype, a phenotype that is rescued in a KCNL-2-dependent manner. Conversely, we show that transgenic lines that overexpress KCNL-2 demonstrate a hyperactive egg-laying phenotype. In this study, we show that the vulva of transgenic hermaphrodites is highly innervated by neuronal processes and by the VC4 and VC5 neurons that express GFP-tagged KCNL-2. We propose that KCNL-2 functions in the nervous system of C. elegans to regulate the rate of egg-laying. © 2013 Chotoo et al

Heritability of Attractiveness to Mosquitoes

Female mosquitoes display preferences for certain individuals over others, which is determined by differences in volatile chemicals produced by the human body and detected by mosquitoes. Body odour can be controlled genetically but the existence of a genetic basis for differential attraction to insects has never been formally demonstrated. This study investigated heritability of attractiveness to mosquitoes by evaluating the response of Aedes aegypti (=Stegomyia aegypti) mosquitoes to odours from the hands of identical and non-identical twins in a dual-choice assay. Volatiles from individuals in an identical twin pair showed a high correlation in attractiveness to mosquitoes, while non-identical twin pairs showed a significantly lower correlation. Overall, there was a strong narrow-sense heritability of 0.62 (SE 0.124) for relative attraction and 0.67 (0.354) for flight activity based on the average of ten measurements. The results demonstrate an underlying genetic component detectable by mosquitoes through olfaction. Understanding the genetic basis for attractiveness could create a more informed approach to repellent development