Milky Way demographics with the VVV survey III : Evidence for a great dark lane in the 157 million star bulge color-magnitude diagram

The new generation of IR surveys are revealing and quantifying Galactic features that provide an improved 3D interpretation of our own Galaxy. We present an analysis of the global distribution of dust clouds in the bulge using the near-IR photometry of 157 million stars from the VVV survey. We investigate the color-magnitude diagram of the Milky Way bulge, which shows a red giant clump of core He burning stars that is split into two color components, with a mean color difference of (Z-Ks) = 0.55 mag that is equivalent to AV = 2.0 mag. We conclude that there is an optically thick dust lane at intermediate latitudes above and below the plane that stretches across several square degrees from l =-10° to l = +10°. We call this feature the great dark lane. Although its exact distance is uncertain, it is located in front of the bulge. The evidence for a large-scale great dark lane within the Galactic bulge is important for constraining models of the barred Milky Way bulge and for comparing our galaxy with external barred galaxies in which these types of features are prominent. We discuss two other potential implications of the great dark lane for microlensing and bulge stellar populations studies.Peer reviewe

Mechanisms of coronavirus pathogenicity and virus-host interactions

Trabajo presentado en la Conference on the Cooperation and Collaboration on Prevention and Control of Animal Diseases, celebrada en Hangzhou (China), del 21 al 23 de mayo de 2019Coronaviruses (CoVs) are important human and animal pathogens mainly causing respiratory and enteric infections with diverse severity. The presence of CoVs in bats, as animal reservoirs, and their ability for interspecies transmission have recently led to the emergence of novel CoVs responsible for epidemics in humans and livestock. In order to develop protection strategies against CoV infections, our laboratory is interested in the identification of (i) Viral factors involved in virulence and (ii) Host signaling pathways contributing to pathogenesis, using human coronaviruses SARS- and MERS-CoVs as model systems

Mapping of social initiatives as a model of local development against depopulation in rural areas. The Valle del Genal case (Andalusia, Spain)

The cultural heritage of many rural areas, such as the villages of Valle del Genal in Andalusia, is endangered. Factors such as the depopulation suffered in the last 25 years have prevented the knowledge transfer from the elderly to the young. This paper focuses on mapping the social, economic and habitat resources as a preliminary step to the implementation of measures and policies against the abandonment of these areas. The aim is to create a map regarding the cultural identity and idiosyncrasy of each village in the valley. The mapping of these local entities is carried out through a combination of participatory work with the communities in the area and the data tracking from geo-positioning and social networks applications. During the identification and inventory process, the relationship between different citizen initiatives and social groups are analysed. This cartography pretends to offer a base of accessible knowledge for inhabitants and visitors.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Redefining flux ropes in heliophysics

Magnetic flux ropes manifest as twisted bundles of magnetic field lines. They carry significant amounts of solar mass in the heliosphere. This paper underlines the need to advance our understanding of the fundamental physics of heliospheric flux ropes and provides the motivation to significantly improve the status quo of flux rope research through novel and requisite approaches. It briefly discusses the current understanding of flux rope formation and evolution, and summarizes the strategies that have been undertaken to understand the dynamics of heliospheric structures. The challenges and recommendations put forward to address them are expected to broaden the in-depth knowledge of our nearest star, its dynamics, and its role in its region of influence, the heliosphere.Fil: Nieves Chinchilla, Teresa. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Pal, Sanchita. George Mason University. School Of Physics. Astronomy And Computational Sciences; Estados Unidos. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Salman, Tarik M.. George Mason University. School Of Physics. Astronomy And Computational Sciences; Estados Unidos. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Carcaboso, Fernando. Catholic University Of America; Estados Unidos. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Guidoni, Silvina E.. American University. College Of Arts & Sciences. Physics Departament.; Estados Unidos. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Cremades Fernandez, Maria Hebe. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Mendoza. Facultad de Ingenieria; ArgentinaFil: Narock, Ayris. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Balmaceda, Laura Antonia. George Mason University. School Of Physics. Astronomy And Computational Sciences; Estados Unidos. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lynch, Benjamin J.. University of California at Berkeley; Estados UnidosFil: Al Haddad, Nada. University Of New Hampshire; Estados UnidosFil: Rodríguez García, Laura. Universidad de Alcalá; EspañaFil: Narock, Thomas W.. Goucher College; Estados UnidosFil: Dos Santos, Luiz F. G.. Shell Global Solutions; Estados UnidosFil: Regnault, Florian. University Of New Hampshire; Estados UnidosFil: Kay, Christina. Catholic University Of America; Estados Unidos. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Winslow, Réka M.. University Of New Hampshire; Estados UnidosFil: Palmerio, Erika. Predictive Science Inc.; Estados UnidosFil: Davies, Emma E.. University Of New Hampshire; Estados UnidosFil: Scolini, Camilla. University Of New Hampshire; Estados UnidosFil: Weiss, Andreas J.. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Alzate, Nathalia. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Jeunon, Mariana. Catholic University Of America; Estados Unidos. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados UnidosFil: Pujadas, Roger. Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya; España. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Estados Unido

The PAU Survey: Intrinsic alignments and clustering of narrow-band photometric galaxies

We present the first measurements of the projected clustering and intrinsic alignments (IA) of galaxies observed by the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS). With photometry in 40 narrow optical passbands (4500 Å–8500 Å), the quality of photometric redshift estimation is σz ∼ 0.01(1 + z) for galaxies in the 19 deg2 Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey W3 field, allowing us to measure the projected 3D clustering and IA for flux-limited, faint galaxies (i < 22.5) out to z ∼ 0.8. To measure two-point statistics, we developed, and tested with mock photometric redshift samples, ‘cloned’ random galaxy catalogues which can reproduce data selection functions in 3D and account for photometric redshift errors. In our fiducial colour-split analysis, we made robust null detections of IA for blue galaxies and tentative detections of radial alignments for red galaxies (∼1 − 3σ), over scales of 0.1 − 18 h−1 Mpc. The galaxy clustering correlation functions in the PAUS samples are comparable to their counterparts in a spectroscopic population from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey, modulo the impact of photometric redshift uncertainty which tends to flatten the blue galaxy correlation function, whilst steepening that of red galaxies. We investigate the sensitivity of our correlation function measurements to choices in the random catalogue creation and the galaxy pair-binning along the line of sight, in preparation for an optimised analysis over the full PAUS area

Phospholipid dependent mechanism of smp24, an α-helical antimicrobial peptide from scorpion venom

Determining the mechanism of action of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is critical if they are to be developed into the clinical setting. In recent years high resolution techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) have increasingly been utilised to determine AMP mechanism of action on planar lipid bilayers and live bacteria. Here we present the biophysical characterisation of a prototypical AMP from the venom of the North African scorpion Scorpio maurus palmatus termed Smp24. Smp24 is an amphipathic helical peptide containing 24 residues with a charge of + 3 and exhibits both antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity and we aim to elucidate the mechanism of action of this peptide on both membrane systems. Using AFM, quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation (QCM-D) and liposomal leakage assays the effect of Smp24 on prototypical synthetic prokaryotic (DOPG:DOPC) and eukaryotic (DOPE:DOPC) membranes has been determined. Our data points to a toroidal pore mechanism against the prokaryotic like membrane whilst the formation of hexagonal phase non-lamellar phase structures is seen in eukaryotic like membrane. Also, phase segregation is observed against the eukaryotic membrane and this study provides direct evidence of the same peptide having multiple mechanisms of action depending on the membrane lipid composition

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Unanchored K48-Linked Polyubiquitin Synthesized by the E3-Ubiquitin Ligase TRIM6 Stimulates the Interferon-IKKε Kinase-Mediated Antiviral Response.

Type I interferons (IFN-I) are essential antiviral cytokines produced upon microbial infection. IFN-I elicits this activity through the upregulation of hundreds of IFN-I-stimulated genes (ISGs). The full breadth of ISG induction demands activation of a number of cellular factors including the IκB kinase epsilon (IKKε). However, the mechanism of IKKε activation upon IFN receptor signaling has remained elusive. Here we show that TRIM6, a member of the E3-ubiquitin ligase tripartite motif (TRIM) family of proteins, interacted with IKKε and promoted induction of IKKε-dependent ISGs. TRIM6 and the E2-ubiquitin conjugase UbE2K cooperated in the synthesis of unanchored K48-linked polyubiquitin chains, which activated IKKε for subsequent STAT1 phosphorylation. Our work attributes a previously unrecognized activating role of K48-linked unanchored polyubiquitin chains in kinase activation and identifies the UbE2K-TRIM6-ubiquitin axis as critical for IFN signaling and antiviral response

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO