Uso del fungastop como alternativa a los fungicidas de síntesis en lechuga: valoración de su potencial en la conservación

Lechugas de dos ciclos de cultivo, plantación en marzo y en octubre, se sometieron a tres diferentes tratamientos por duplicado en tres parcelas de dos fincas muy próximas. La primera parcela se trató con Fungastop (producto natural constituido principalmente por mentol y acido cítrico), la segunda parcela fue tratada con los fungicidas químicos habituales y la tercera parcela no fue tratada con ningún antifúngico. En todos los casos, se guardaron los plazos de seguridad de todos los productos, excepto para el Fungastop que se aplicó en los últimos 4 días antes de la recolección, ya que no requiere plazo de seguridad. Las lechugas recolectadas fueron almacenadas a 1-2ºC analizándose semanalmente 20 lechugas tanto de las tratadas como de las controles. La calidad durante la conservación fue mejor en las tratadas que en el tratamiento control, en ambos ciclos de cultivo. El efecto post-recolección del Fungastop fue similar al de los fungicidas químicos, ya que con ambos tratamientos los recuentos microbianos a lo largo de la conservación fueron menores que en las lechugas control, especialmente en mohos y levaduras. Además otros parámetros de calidad como las pérdidas de peso, firmeza y aspecto externo fueron mejores en las lechugas tratadas que en las control. Se concluye que el tratamiento de lechugas con Fungastop puede ser tan efectivo como el uso de fungicidas de síntesis, con la ventaja de eliminar los residuos y los plazos de seguridad

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l'Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

The European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a project aimed at studying the magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere, from the deep photosphere to the upper chromosphere. Its design combines the knowledge and expertise gathered by the European solar physics community during the construction and operation of state-of-the-art solar telescopes operating in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the Swedish 1m Solar Telescope, the German Vacuum Tower Telescope and GREGOR, the French Télescope Héliographique pour l’Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires, and the Dutch Open Telescope. With its 4.2 m primary mirror and an open configuration, EST will become the most powerful European ground-based facility to study the Sun in the coming decades in the visible and near-infrared bands. EST uses the most innovative technological advances: the first adaptive secondary mirror ever used in a solar telescope, a complex multi-conjugate adaptive optics with deformable mirrors that form part of the optical design in a natural way, a polarimetrically compensated telescope design that eliminates the complex temporal variation and wavelength dependence of the telescope Mueller matrix, and an instrument suite containing several (etalon-based) tunable imaging spectropolarimeters and several integral field unit spectropolarimeters. This publication summarises some fundamental science questions that can be addressed with the telescope, together with a complete description of its major subsystems

Use of a palladium catalyst to improve the capacity of activated carbon to absorb ethylene, and its effect on tomato ripening

The aims of this work were to study the ethylene adsorption capacity of different types and masses of activated carbon, to predict the performance of the ethylene adsorption process, to improve the removal of ethylene by impregnating granular activated carbon (GAC) with palladium, and to analyse the effect of this product on the removal of ethylene released from tomatoes. In an in vitro system, both GAC and powdered activated carbon (PAC) effectively absorbed exogenous ethylene; GAC was the most effective. Maximum adsorption was achieved with carbon masses of 1.25 g L-1 or greater. The best model describing the adsorption of ethylene by GAC was the Langmuir isotherm. To increase ethylene removal, a system involving an adsorbent (GAC) and a catalyst (1% palladium) was developed. This was tested in an in vivo experiment involving the removal of ethylene produced by three tomato cultivars inside sealed jars. Ethylene removal led to a delay in tomato ripening; smaller changes in fruit firmness and colour were observed compared to controls. This system could provide a useful way of eliminating ethylene from storage areas and thus maintaining tomato fruit quality, which can be negatively affected by ethylen

Use of a palladium catalyst to improve the capacity of activated carbon to absorb ethylene, and its effect on tomato ripening

The aims of this work were to study the ethylene adsorption capacity of different types and masses of activated carbon, to predict the performance of the ethylene adsorption process, to improve the removal of ethylene by impregnating granular activated carbon (GAC) with palladium, and to analyse the effect of this product on the removal of ethylene released from tomatoes. In an in vitro system, both GAC and powdered activated carbon (PAC) effectively absorbed exogenous ethylene; GAC was the most effective. Maximum adsorption was achieved with carbon masses of 1.25 g L-1 or greater. The best model describing the adsorption of ethylene by GAC was the Langmuir isotherm. To increase ethylene removal, a system involving an adsorbent (GAC) and a catalyst (1% palladium) was developed. This was tested in an in vivo experiment involving the removal of ethylene produced by three tomato cultivars inside sealed jars. Ethylene removal led to a delay in tomato ripening; smaller changes in fruit firmness and colour were observed compared to controls. This system could provide a useful way of eliminating ethylene from storage areas and thus maintaining tomato fruit quality, which can be negatively affected by ethylene.Los objetivos de este trabajo son estudiar la adsorción de etileno dependiendo del tipo y masa de carbón activado, predecir el mecanismo de adsorción de etileno, mejorar la eliminación de etileno con la impregnación del carbón activado con paladio y finalmente analizar el efecto de la eliminación de etileno desprendido de tomates. Los carbones activados granular (GAC) y en polvo (PAC) aplicados in vitro fueron efectivos en la adsorción de etileno exógeno, siendo el GAC el más efectivo. La adsorción máxima se consiguió a partir de una masa de carbón de 1,25 g L-1. El estudio de isotermas indica que el modelo que mejor describe la adsorción de etileno en GAC fue la isoterma de Lagmuir. Para aumentar el porcentaje de etileno eliminado, se desarrolló un sistema basado en el adsorbedor GAC y el catalizador paladio al 1%. Este sistema fue ensayado en un experimento in vivo para eliminar el etileno producido por tres variedades de tomate alojados en tarros herméticamente cerrados. El etileno eliminado permitió retrasar los procesos de maduración de los tomates, produciendo los menores cambios de firmeza y color de los frutos respecto a los controles. Este sistema podría ser una herramienta eficaz para eliminar el etileno de las zonas de almacenamiento y mantener la calidad del tomate, que está afectada negativamente por el etilen

La hipótesis del Marcador Somático y su nivel de incidencia en el proceso de toma de decisiones

Executive functions are an integrated set of skills involved in the production, evaluation and control of intentional behaviors. The decision-making processes are related to executive functions. According to the Somatic Marker Theory, these processes depend critically on the neural mechanisms that regulate homeostasis, emotions and feelings. The Iowa Gambling Task is a tool used to evaluate the process of decision-making. It consists of four packages of playing cards which lead to different gains and losses. According to recent studies, the Iowa Gambling Task indicates the motivational and emotional processes of decision-making that could occur at pre-rational processing levels. This study aims to determine whether the decision-making process occurs at a higher processing level, or rational, and therefore is subject to the influence of prior knowledge of each subject, or, by contrast, occurs at a most elementary or pre-rational level. To elucidate these possibilities, two groups of students from the University of Huelva completed the Iowa Gambling Task. One group consisted of business management students, who were familiar with numbers and handling money, and another group consisted of Humanities students, who were less familiar with numbers. The results showed no differences between groups in the Prospect-Valence Learning model parameters. Therefore, the data suggest that processing takes place in pre-rational level, which fits with the principles of the Somatic Marker TheoryLas funciones ejecutivas son un conjunto integrado de habilidades implicadas en la producción, supervisión y control de conductas dirigidas a objetivos. Relacionado con las funciones ejecutivas están los procesos de toma de decisiones, estos procesos según la teoría del Marcador Somático dependen de manera fundamental de los mecanismos neurales que regulan la homeostasis, las emociones y los sentimientos. Para su evaluación se viene utilizando como instrumento la �Iowa Gambling Task� que simula un juego de cartas con 4 mazos con los que se obtienen mayores o menores ganancias y pérdidas. Según estudios recientes, la �Iowa Gambling Task� refleja los procesos motivacionales y emocionales de la toma de decisiones que podrían tener lugar en niveles de procesamiento pre-racionales. En este sentido se plantea este trabajo, con el objetivo de determinar si la toma de decisiones se produce bien en un nivel de procesamiento superior, racional, y por tanto bajo la influencia de los conocimientos previos del sujeto o bien en niveles anteriores que se podrían considerar pre-racionales. Para ello, se aplica la prueba a dos grupos de estudiantes de la Universidad de Huelva. Por un lado, estudiantes de Licenciatura en Administración y Dirección de Empresa (LADE) familiarizados con el uso de los números y el manejo del dinero y por otra parte, alumnos de Humanidades menos familiarizados con los números. Los resultados obtenidos evidencian que no existen diferencias entre ambos grupos en los parámetros del modelo Prospect-Valence Learning, por lo que el procesamiento estaría teniendo lugar en niveles pre-racionales, lo que encaja con los postulados de la hipótesis del marcador somátic

A Critical Mutualism - Competition Interplay Underlies the Loss of Microbial Diversity in Sedentary Lifestyle

Physical exercise improves the overall health status by preventing the development of several diseases. In recent years, it has been observed that physical exercise impacts gut microbiota by increasing the presence of beneficial bacteria and microbial diversity. In contrast, a sedentary lifestyle increases the incidence of chronic diseases that often have an associated loss of microbial diversity. The gut microbiota is a vast ecosystem in which microorganisms interact with each other in different ways; however, microbial ecosystem interactions are scarcely studied. The goal of this study was to determine whether individuals with a sedentary lifestyle have lower diversity in their gut microbiota and how microbial diversity is associated with changes in bacterial network interactions. For that purpose, diet, body composition, physical activity, and sedentarism behavior were characterized for individuals who did or did not comply with the World Health Organization recommendations for physical activity. The composition of the gut microbiome was determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Reorganization of microbial structure with lifestyle was approached from network analysis, where network complexity and the topology of positive and negative interdependences between bacteria were compared and correlated with microbial diversity. Sedentary lifestyle was significantly associated with a diet low in fiber and rich in sugars and processed meat, as well as with high visceral and total corporal fat composition. The diversity (phylogenic diversity, Chao, observed species, and Shannon's index) and network complexity of the gut microbiota were significantly lower in sedentary compared to active individuals. Whereas mutualism or co-occurrence interactions were similar between groups, competitiveness was significantly higher in the active lifestyle group. The mutualism-competition ratio was moderate and positively associated with diversity in sedentary individuals, but not in active individuals. This finding indicates that there is a critical point in this ratio beyond which the stability of the microbial community is lost, inducing a loss of diversity.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Ayudas Ramón y Cajal (2012-11910)MINECO (AGL2016-75878-R)UEM17155.640 JCR (2020) Q1, 28/136 Microbiology1.701 SJR (2020) Q1, 30/152 MicrobiologyNo data IDR 2020UE

Key Bacteria in the Gut Microbiota Network for the Transition between Sedentary and Active Lifestyle

Physical activity modifies the gut microbiota, exerting health benefits on the host; however, the specific bacteria associated with exercise are not yet known. In this work, we propose a novel method, based on hierarchical topology, to study the differences between the microbiota of active and sedentary lifestyles, and to identify relevant bacterial taxa. Our results show that the microbiota network found in active people has a significantly higher overall efficiency and higher transmissibility rate. We also identified key bacteria in active and sedentary networks that could be involved in the conversion of an active microbial network to a sedentary microbial network and vice versa.Ramón y Cajal program (grant 2012_11910)MINECO (Project AGL2016-75878-R)Mindfulness and Cognitive Chair of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain4.128 JCR (2020) Q2, 52/136 Microbiology0.858 SJR (2020) Q2, 75/152 MicrobiologyNo data IDR 2020UE