Dynamics of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine during pronuclear development in equine zygotes produced by ICSI

Background: Global epigenetic reprogramming is considered to be essential during embryo development to establish totipotency. In the classic model first described in the mouse, the genome-wide DNA demethylation is asymmetric between the paternal and the maternal genome. The paternal genome undergoes ten-eleven translocation (TET)-mediated active DNA demethylation, which is completed before the end of the first cell cycle. Since TET enzymes oxidize 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, the latter is postulated to be an intermediate stage toward DNA demethylation. The maternal genome, on the other hand, is protected from active demethylation and undergoes replication-dependent DNA demethylation. However, several species do not show the asymmetric DNA demethylation process described in this classic model, since 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine are present during the first cell cycle in both parental genomes. In this study, global changes in the levels of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine throughout pronuclear development in equine zygotes produced in vitro were assessed using immunofluorescent staining. Results: We were able to show that 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine both were explicitly present throughout pronuclear development, with similar intensity levels in both parental genomes, in equine zygotes produced by ICSI. The localization patterns of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, however, were different, with 5-hydroxymethylcytosine homogeneously distributed in the DNA, while 5-methylcytosine tended to be clustered in certain regions. Fluorescence quantification showed increased 5-methylcytosine levels in the maternal genome from PN1 to PN2, while no differences were found in PN3 and PN4. No differences were observed in the paternal genome. Normalized levels of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine were preserved throughout all pronuclear stages in both parental genomes. Conclusions: In conclusion, the horse does not seem to follow the classic model of asymmetric demethylation as no evidence of global DNA demethylation of the paternal pronucleus during the first cell cycle was demonstrated. Instead, both parental genomes displayed sustained and similar levels of methylation and hydroxymethylation throughout pronuclear development

Quantum Estimation Methods for Quantum Illumination

Quantum illumination consists in shining quantum light on a target region immersed in a bright thermal bath, with the aim of detecting the presence of a possible low-reflective object. If the signal is entangled with the receiver, then a suitable choice of the measurement offers a gain with respect to the optimal classical protocol employing coherent states. Here, we tackle this detection problem by using quantum estimation techniques to measure the reflectivity parameter of the object, showing an enhancement in the signal-to-noise ratio up to 3 dB with respect to the classical case when implementing only local measurements. Our approach employs the quantum Fisher information to provide an upper bound for the error probability, supplies the concrete estimator saturating the bound, and extends the quantum illumination protocol to non-Gaussian states. As an example, we show how Schrodinger's cat states may be used for quantum illumination.Comment: Published versio

Integración de datos de termografía de infrarrojos y otras técnicas no destructivas en detección de humedades y sales

La humedad es una de las principales preocupaciones en relación con la conservación del patrimonio arquitectónico. La humedad cataliza reacciones químicas y favorece el crecimiento biológico. Además, el agua puede estar cargada en sales, que se transportan en solución y pueden generar daños por cristalización e hidratación - deshidratación. La humedad en muros y otras estructuras solo se puede medir directamente con metodos "gravimétricos". Estos métodos, necesitan la extracción de una pequeña muestra, por lo que, a vees, en el contexto de propiedades patrimoniales, es conveniente considerar el uso de Técnicas no Destructivas, como los sensores eléctricos o la termografía de infrarrojos para la determinación de los focos de humedad. Estos métodos necesitan una interpretación pues hay otros factores como el contenido de sales o la porosidad que afectan a sus lecturas. En este trabajo se presenta un experimento de laboratorio en el que se estudian materiales pétreos con distintas porosidades saturados en agua y, en un caso, con sales mediante Medidores de Humedad Portátiles y Termografía de Infrarrojos durante el proceso de evaporación. Esto se realiza como paso previo para establecer un protocolo de utilización conjunta de sensores eléctricos y termografía de infrarrojos para la evaluación de humedades en elementos patrimoniales reales

Optical coherence tomography in central retinal artery occlusion

CLINICAL CASES: Three eyes with central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) have been studied. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was performed in each of them. Ophthalmoscopic signs of CRAO were equivocal in the three eyes. However, the presence of a hyporeflective signal in the OCT scan could be seen clearly in each of them. DISCUSSION: The presence of a hyporeflective band between the neurosensory retina and the retinal pigment epithelium in OCT images, that persist for several months after a CRAO episode, is useful in establishing the diagnosis in these patient

<i>VivesDebate</i>:A New Annotated Multilingual Corpus of Argumentation in a Debate Tournament

The application of the latest Natural Language Processing breakthroughs in computational argumentation has shown promising results, which have raised the interest in this area of research. However, the available corpora with argumentative annotations are often limited to a very specific purpose or are not of adequate size to take advantage of state-of-the-art deep learning techniques (e.g., deep neural networks). In this paper, we present VivesDebate, a large, richly annotated and versatile professional debate corpus for computational argumentation research. The corpus has been created from 29 transcripts of a debate tournament in Catalan and has been machine-translated into Spanish and English. The annotation contains argumentative propositions, argumentative relations, debate interactions and professional evaluations of the arguments and argumentation. The presented corpus can be useful for research on a heterogeneous set of computational argumentation underlying tasks such as Argument Mining, Argument Analysis, Argument Evaluation or Argument Generation, among others. All this makes VivesDebate a valuable resource for computational argumentation research within the context of massive corpora aimed at Natural Language Processing tasks