Research on nonlinear and quantum optics at the photonics and quantum information group of the University of Valladolid

We outline the main research lines in Nonlinear and Quantum Optics of the Group of Photonics and Quantum Information at the University of Valladolid. These works focus on Optical Solitons, Quantum Information using Photonic Technologies and the development of new materials for Nonlinar Optics. The investigations on optical solitons cover both temporal solitons in dispersion managed fiber links and nonparaxial spatial solitons as described by the Nonlinear Helmholtz Equation. Within the Quantum Information research lines of the group, the studies address new photonic schemes for quantum computation and the multiplexing of quantum data. The investigations of the group are, to a large extent, based on intensive and parallel computations. Some associated numerical techniques for the development of the activities described are briefly sketched

Non-L\'evy mobility patterns of Mexican Me'Phaa peasants searching for fuelwood

We measured mobility patterns that describe walking trajectories of individual Me'Phaa peasants searching and collecting fuelwood in the forests of "La Monta\~na de Guerrero" in Mexico. These one-day excursions typically follow a mixed pattern of nearly-constant steps when individuals displace from their homes towards potential collecting sites and a mixed pattern of steps of different lengths when actually searching for fallen wood in the forest. Displacements in the searching phase seem not to be compatible with L\'evy flights described by power-laws with optimal scaling exponents. These findings however can be interpreted in the light of deterministic searching on heavily degraded landscapes where the interaction of the individuals with their scarce environment produces alternative searching strategies than the expected L\'evy flights. These results have important implications for future management and restoration of degraded forests and the improvement of the ecological services they may provide to their inhabitants.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. First version submitted to Human Ecology. The final publication will be available at http://www.springerlink.co

3Dpaleo.net, una plataforma web de fósiles en 3D hiperrealista para fomentar la difusión y el conocimiento del patrimonio paleontológico

3Dpaleo.net es una plataforma web en fase de desarrollo que muestra modelos tridimensionales hiperrealistas y en alta definición de algunos de fósiles más emblemáticos del Museo de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad de Zaragoza y del Museo del Jurásico de Asturias (MUJA), colaboradores de la primera fase del proyecto. Se trata de una iniciativa promovida por la empresa Paleoymás con el fin de explorar y explotar las posibilidades de las nuevas tecnologías, aplicándolas a la divulgación de la paleontología y a la mejora de técnicas expositivas y de difusión del conocimiento. 3Dpaleo.net facilita, a través de internet, la visualización de los fósiles y de algunos de sus detalles más interesantes. 3Dpaleo.net is a website, under development, that shows high definition hyperrealistic 3D models of some emblematic fossils of the museums that have collaborated in this first stage of the project: The Natural Sciences Museum of the University of Zaragoza and the Jurassic Museum of Asturias (MUJA). It is promoted by Paleoymás with the aim of exploring and developing the possibilities of new technologies, applying them to the popularization of paleontology and the improvement of both; expositive technics and knowledge sharing. 3Dpaleo.net helps through the internet to display fossils and some of their most interesting details

Motor-Coordination-Dependent Learning, More than Others, Is Impaired in Transgenic Mice Expressing Pseudorabies Virus Immediate-Early Protein IE180

The cerebellum in transgenic mice expressing pseudorabies virus immediate-early protein IE180 (TgIE96) was substantially diminished in size, and its histoarchitecture was severely disorganized, resulting in severe ataxia. TgIE96 mice can therefore be used as an experimental model to study the involvement of cerebellar circuits in different learning tasks. The performance of three-month-old TgIE96 mice was studied in various behavioral tests, including associative learning (classical eyeblink conditioning), object recognition, spatial orientation (water maze), startle response and prepulse inhibition, and passive avoidance, and compared with that of wild-type mice. Wild-type and TgIE96 mice presented similar reflexively evoked eyeblinks, and acquired classical conditioned eyelid responses with similar learning curves for both trace and delay conditioning paradigms. The two groups of mice also had similar performances during the object recognition test. However, they showed significant differences for the other three tests included in this study. Although both groups of animals were capable of swimming, TgIE96 mice failed to learn the water maze task during the allowed time. The startle response to a severe tone was similar in both control and TgIE96 mice, but the latter were unable to produce a significant prepulse inhibition. TgIE96 mice also presented evident deficits for the proper accomplishment of a passive avoidance test. These results suggest that the cerebellum is not indispensable for the performance of classical eyeblink conditioning and for object recognition tasks, but seems to be necessary for the proper performance of water maze, prepulse inhibition, and passive avoidance tests

Prevalence of emergency contraceptive pill use among Spanish adolescent girls and their family and psychological profiles

The Author(s). 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background:Adolescent girls’ family context and psychological characteristics play important roles in their sexual behavior, including the use of the emergency contraceptive pill (ECP). This study aims to (1) determine the prevalence of ECP use among girls who have had sexual intercourse and (2) comparatively analyze their family and psychological profiles according to whether they have used ECPs. Methods:The sample of 1735 Spanish girls aged 15 to 18 came from a representative sample of the 2014 edition of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Of this sample, 398 girls had sexual intercourse and reported their ECP use. Data collection for the HBSC study was performed through an online questionnaire to which adolescents responded anonymously in school. Data analyses were descriptive and bivariate and were performed with the statistical program IBM SPSS Statistics 23.Results:The results demonstrated that 30.65% of girls who had sexual intercourse used ECPs. Noticeable differences in paternal knowledge and communication with the father were observed between girls who used the ECP at least once and those who did not use it. In contrast, differences between girls who used the ECP once and those who used it twice or more were pronounced with regard to parental knowledge, communication with parents, maternal affection,life satisfaction, sense of coherence and depression. Conclusions:This work demonstrates a high prevalence of ECP use and a more positive family and psychological profile for girls who used ECP once compared with those who used it twice or more.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Challenges in Estimating Insecticide Selection Pressures from Mosquito Field Data

Insecticide resistance has the potential to compromise the enormous effort put into the control of dengue and malaria vector populations. It is therefore important to quantify the amount of selection acting on resistance alleles, their contributions to fitness in heterozygotes (dominance) and their initial frequencies, as a means to predict the rate of spread of resistance in natural populations. We investigate practical problems of obtaining such estimates, with particular emphasis on Mexican populations of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti. Selection and dominance coefficients can be estimated by fitting genetic models to field data using maximum likelihood (ML) methodology. This methodology, although widely used, makes many assumptions so we investigated how well such models perform when data are sparse or when spatial and temporal heterogeneity occur. As expected, ML methodologies reliably estimated selection and dominance coefficients under idealised conditions but it was difficult to recover the true values when datasets were sparse during the time that resistance alleles increased in frequency, or when spatial and temporal heterogeneity occurred. We analysed published data on pyrethroid resistance in Mexico that consists of the frequency of a Ile1,016 mutation. The estimates for selection coefficient and initial allele frequency on the field dataset were in the expected range, dominance coefficient points to incomplete dominance as observed in the laboratory, although these estimates are accompanied by strong caveats about possible impact of spatial and temporal heterogeneity in selection

Diversification across an altitudinal gradient in the Tiny Greenbul (Phyllastrephus debilis) from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Africa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Eastern Arc Mountains of Africa have become one of the focal systems with which to explore the patterns and mechanisms of diversification among montane species and populations. One unresolved question is the extent to which populations inhabiting montane forest interact with those of adjacent lowland forest abutting the coast of eastern Africa. The Tiny Greenbul (<it>Phyllastephus debilis</it>) represents the only described bird species within the Eastern Arc/coastal forest mosaic, which is polytypic across an altitudinal gradient: the subspecies <it>albigula </it>(green head) is distributed in the montane Usambara and Nguru Mountains whereas the subspecies <it>rabai </it>(grey head) is found in Tanzanian lowland and foothill forest. Using a combination of morphological and genetic data, we aim to establish if the pattern of morphological differentiation in the Tiny Greenbul (<it>Phyllastrephus debilis</it>) is the result of disruptive selection along an altitudinal gradient or a consequence of secondary contact following population expansion of two differentiated lineages.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found significant biometric differences between the lowland (<it>rabai</it>) and montane (<it>albigula</it>) populations in Tanzania. The differences in shape are coupled with discrete differences in the coloration of the underparts. Using multi-locus data gathered from 124 individuals, we show that lowland and montane birds form two distinct genetic lineages. The divergence between the two forms occurred between 2.4 and 3.1 Myrs ago.</p> <p>Our coalescent analyses suggest that limited gene flow, mostly from the subspecies <it>rabai </it>to <it>albigula</it>, is taking place at three mid-altitude localities, where lowland and montane rainforest directly abut. The extent of this introgression appears to be limited and is likely a consequence of the recent expansion of <it>rabai </it>further inland.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The clear altitudinal segregation in morphology found within the Tiny Greenbul is the result of secondary contact of two highly differentiated lineages rather than disruptive selection in plumage pattern across an altitudinal gradient. Based on our results, we recommend <it>albigula </it>be elevated to species rank.</p

The Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio is an Independent Prognostic Factor for Overall Survival in Hispanic Patients with Gastric Adenocarcinoma

Introduction High values of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are related with poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer. However, this association has been rarely assessed in Hispanic populations that show important clinicopathological differences to Asian and Caucasian patients. In this study, we determined the prognostic value of these biomarkers in Hispanic patients from Costa Rica. Materials and Methods We retrieved data regarding pre-treatment NLR and PLR, as well as clinical variables from medical records of 381 consecutive gastric cancer patients treated in four major hospitals in Costa Rica between 2009 and 2012. Univariate and multiple Cox regression analyses were performed to assess the value of NLR and PLR as predictors of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). The best cutoff point was based on the maximization of the Log-rank test. Results Median follow-up was 13.21 months. In univariate analysis, a NLR ≥ 5 was associated with reduced DFS (hazard ratio (HR) 2.31; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.78–3.00; p < 0.001) and poor OS (HR 2.24; 95% CI 1.72–2.92; p < 0.001). Similarly, a PLR ≥ 350 was associated with worse DFS (HR 2.28; 95% CI 1.70–3.06; p < 0.001) and poor OS (HR 2.33; 95% CI 1.73–3.13; p < 0.001). After adjustment for potential confounders, multivariate analysis revealed that only the NLR ≥ 5 was independently associated with worse DFS (HR 1.97; 95% CI 1.44–2.47) and OS (HR 1.59; 95%CI 1.15–2.28). Conclusions NLR ≥ 5 was independently associated with worse OS and DFS in Hispanic patients with gastric cancer.Universidad de Costa Rica/[817-B2-371]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de Medicina::Escuela de MedicinaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacéuticas (INIFAR)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de Investigación en Estructuras Microscópicas (CIEMIC

Interaction between acrylic substrates and RAD16-I peptide in its self-assembling

[EN] Self-assembling peptides (SAP) are widely used as scaffolds themselves, and recently as fillers of microporous scaffolds, where the former provides a cell-friendly nanoenvironment and the latter improves its mechanical properties. The characterization of the interaction between these short peptides and the scaffold material is crucial to assess the potential of such a combined system. In this work, the interaction between poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA) and 90/10 ethyl acrylate-acrylic acid copolymer P(EAcoAAc) with the SAP RAD16-I has been followed using a bidimensional simplified model. By means of the techniques of choice (congo red staining, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and contact angle measurements) the interaction and self-assembly of the peptide has proven to be very sensitive to the wettability and electro-negativity of the polymeric substrate.The authors acknowledge funding through the European Commission FP7 project RECATABI (NMP3-SL-2009-229239), and from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion through projects MAT2011-28791-C03-02 and -03. This work was also supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion through M. Arnal-Pastor FPU 2009-1870 grant. The authors acknowledge the assistance and advice of Electron Microscopy Service of the UPV.Arnal Pastor, MP.; González-Mora, D.; García-Torres, F.; Monleón Pradas, M.; Vallés Lluch, A. (2016). Interaction between acrylic substrates and RAD16-I peptide in its self-assembling. 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Contacts in the last 90,000 years over the Strait of Gibraltar evidenced by genetic analysis of wild boar (Sus scrofa)

[EN] Contacts across the Strait of Gibraltar in the Pleistocene have been studied in different research papers, which have demonstrated that this apparent barrier has been permeable to human and fauna movements in both directions. Our study, based on the genetic analysis of wild boar (Sus scrofa), suggests that there has been contact between Africa and Europe through the Strait of Gibraltar in the Late Pleistocene (at least in the last 90,000 years), as shown by the partial analysis of mitochondrial DNA. Cytochrome b and the control region from North African wild boar indicate a close relationship with European wild boar, and even some specimens belong to a common haplotype in Europe. The analyses suggest the transformation of the wild boar phylogeography in North Africa by the emergence of a natural communication route in times when sea levels fell due to climatic changes, and possibly through human action, since contacts coincide with both the Last Glacial period and the increasing human dispersion via the strait.This study was supported by The Emirates Centre for Wildlife Propagation (Morocco). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Soria-Boix, C.; Donat-Torres, MP.; Urios, V. (2017). Contacts in the last 90,000 years over the Strait of Gibraltar evidenced by genetic analysis of wild boar (Sus scrofa). PLoS ONE. 12(7). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0181929S12