Nature or nurture? Clues from the distribution of specific star formation rates in SDSS galaxies

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reservedThis work investigates the main mechanism(s) that regulate the specific star formation rate (SSFR) in nearby galaxies, cross-correlating two proxies of this quantity -- the equivalent width of the \Ha\ line and the (u−r) colour -- with other physical properties (mass, metallicity, environment, morphology, and the presence of close companions) in a sample of ∼82500 galaxies extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The existence of a relatively tight `ageing sequence' in the colour-equivalent width plane favours a scenario where the secular conversion of gas into stars (i.e. `nature') is the main physical driver of the instantaneous SSFR and the gradual transition from a `chemically primitive' (metal-poor and intensely star-forming) state to a `chemically evolved' (metal-rich and passively evolving) system. Nevertheless, environmental factors (i.e. `nurture') are also important. In the field, galaxies may be temporarily affected by discrete `quenching' and `rejuvenation' episodes, but such events show little statistical significance in a probabilistic sense, and we find no evidence that galaxy interactions are, on average, a dominant driver of star formation. Although visually classified mergers tend to display systematically higher EW(Hα) and bluer (u−r) colours for a given luminosity, most galaxies with high SSFR have uncertain morphologies, which could be due to either internal or external processes. Field galaxies of early and late morphological types are consistent with the gradual `ageing' scenario, with no obvious signatures of a sudden decrease in their SSFR. In contrast, star formation is significantly reduced and sometimes completely quenched on a short time scale in dense environments, where many objects are found on a `quenched sequence' in the colour-equivalent width planeFinancial support has been provided by projects AYA2010-21887-C04-03 (former Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain) and AYA2013-47742-C4-3-P (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad), as well as the exchange programme ‘Study of Emission-Line Galaxies with Integral-Field Spectroscopy’ (SELGIFS, FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612701), funded by the EU through the IRSES scheme. YA is also supported by the Ramón y Cajal programme (RyC-2011-09461), currently managed by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (still cutting back on the Spanish scientific infrastructure

COMPORTAMIENTO AGRONOMICO DE CINCO VARIEDADES DE MANDIOCA (Manihot esculenta Crantz) EN EL DISTRITO DE ATYRA

El presente trabajo fue realizado en el distrito de Atyrá, Departamento de Cordillera durante los meses de Agosto de 2007 a Junio de 2008, con el objetivo de evaluar el comportamiento de cinco variedades de mandioca. Fue utilizado un diseño en bloques completos al azar con cinco tratamientos y cuatro repeticiones; donde fueron estudiadas las variedades más cultivadas en la zona: Hovy, Toledo, Ju'i, Cano'i y Sa'yju. Las unidades experimentales estaban constituídas por 20 parcelas, con una superficie de 8,4 m2; en donde fueron plantadas 4 hileras, totalizando 32 plantas en cada unidad experimental y para las evaluaciones fueron cosechadas 12 plantas de las hileras centrales. Las variables evaluadas fueron: rendimiento de, raíz comercial, no comercial y total; número de raíces comerciales, no comerciales y totales por planta, contenido de materia seca y almidón. Los datos obtenidos en cada variable fueron analizados estadísticamente, en los que se detectaron diferencias significativas se aplicó la prueba de comparación de medias de Duncan al 5 % de probabilidad de error. Se observaron diferencias significativas en algunas variables, en donde se demostró que las variedades Hovy, Ju'i y Sa'yju presentaron mayor rendimiento de raíz comercial y total, las variedades Cano'i y Toledo produjeron el mayor porcentaje de materia seca y almidón; en las demás variables como número de raíz comercial, no comercial, total y el rendimiento de raíz no comercial no hubo diferencia significativa

Exopolysaccharides produced by Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains abrogate in vitro the cytotoxic effect of bacterial toxins on eukaryotic cells

Aims: To evaluate the capability of the exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by lactobacilli and bifidobacteria from human and dairy origin to antagonize the cytotoxic effect of bacterial toxins. Methods and Results: The cytotoxicity of Bacillus cereus extracellular factors on Caco-2 colonocytes in the presence/absence of the EPS was determined by measuring the integrity of the tissue monolayer and the damage to the cell membrane (extracellular lactate dehydrogenase activity). Additionally, the protective effect of EPS against the haemolytic activity of the streptolysin-O was evaluated on rabbit erythrocytes. The EPS produced by Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis A1 and IPLA-R1, Bifidobacterium longum NB667 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG were able to counteract the toxic effect of bacterial toxins on the eukaryotic cells at 1 mg ml-1 EPS concentration. The EPS A1 was the most effective in counteracting the effect of B. cereus toxins on colonocytes, even at lower doses (0.5 mg ml-1), whereas EPS NB667 elicited the highest haemolysis reduction on erythrocytes. Conclusions: The production of EPS by lactobacilli and bifidobacteria could antagonize the toxicity of bacterial pathogens, this effect being EPS and biological marker dependent. Significance and Impact of the Study: This work allows gaining insight about the mechanisms that probiotics could exert to improve the host health.Facultad de Ciencias ExactasCentro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimento

Antimicrobial-producing Pseudoalteromonas from the marine environment of Panama shows a high phylogenetic diversity and clonal structure

Pseudoalteromonas is a genus of marine bacteria often found in association with other organisms. Although several studies have examined Pseudoalteromonas diversity and their antimicrobial activity, its diversity in tropical environments is largely unexplored. We investigated the diversity of Pseudoalteromonasin marine environments of Panama using a multilocus phylogenetic approach. Furthermore we tested their antimicrobial capacity and evaluated the effect of recombination and mutation in shaping their phylogenetic relationships. The reconstruction of clonal relationships among 78 strains including 15 reference Pseudoalteromonas species revealed 43 clonal lineages, divided in pigmented and non-pigmented strains. In total, 39 strains displayed moderate to high activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and fungi. Linkage disequilibrium analyses showed that the Pseudoalteromonas strains of Panama have a highly clonal structure and that, although present, recombination is not frequent enough to break the association among alleles. This clonal structure is in contrast to the high rates of recombination generally reported for aquatic and marine bacteria.We propose that this structure is likely due to the symbiotic association with marine invertebrates of most strains analyzed. Our results also show that there are several putative new species of Pseudoalteromonas in Panama to be described.Pseudoalteromonas is a genus of marine bacteria often found in association with other organisms. Although several studies have examined Pseudoalteromonas diversity and their antimicrobial activity, its diversity in tropical environments is largely unexplored. We investigated the diversity of Pseudoalteromonasin marine environments of Panama using a multilocus phylogenetic approach. Furthermore we tested their antimicrobial capacity and evaluated the effect of recombination and mutation in shaping their phylogenetic relationships. The reconstruction of clonal relationships among 78 strains including 15 reference Pseudoalteromonas species revealed 43 clonal lineages, divided in pigmented and non-pigmented strains. In total, 39 strains displayed moderate to high activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and fungi. Linkage disequilibrium analyses showed that the Pseudoalteromonas strains of Panama have a highly clonal structure and that, although present, recombination is not frequent enough to break the association among alleles. This clonal structure is in contrast to the high rates of recombination generally reported for aquatic and marine bacteria.We propose that this structure is likely due to the symbiotic association with marine invertebrates of most strains analyzed. Our results also show that there are several putative new species of Pseudoalteromonas in Panama to be described

Emotional intelligence impairments in women with fibromyalgia: Associations with widespread pain.

This study aimed at testing the differences in emotional intelligence ability between women with fibromyalgia (cases) and their age-matched counterparts not with fibromyalgia from the general population (controls) and analysing the association between emotional intelligence ability and widespread pain in women with fibromyalgia. A total of 133 cases and 77 controls participated in this cross-sectional study. Controls performed better than cases on emotion understanding. Higher emotion perception and management were significantly associated with lower widespread pain. Therefore, women with fibromyalgia may experience difficulties in understanding emotional information. In fibromyalgia, higher emotion perception and management abilities are independently related to lower widespread pain.pre-print424 K

Circulating Metabolites Associated with Body Fat and Lean Mass in Adults with Overweight/Obesity

The interplay between fat mass and lean mass within human metabolism is not completely understood. We aimed to identify specific circulating metabolomic profiles associated with these body composition compartments. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted over 236 adults with overweight/obesity from the Satiety Innovation (SATIN) study. Body composition was assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. A targeted multiplatform metabolite profiling approach was applied. Associations between 168 circulating metabolites and the body composition measures were assessed using elastic net regression analyses. The accuracy of the multimetabolite weighted models was evaluated using a 10-fold cross-validation approach and the Pearson's correlation coefficients between metabolomic profiles and body compartments were estimated. Two different profiles including 86 and 65 metabolites were selected for % body fat and lean mass. These metabolites mainly consisted of lipids (sphingomyelins, phosphatidylcholines, lysophosphatidylcholines), acylcarnitines, and amino acids. Several metabolites overlapped between these body composition measures but none of them towards the same direction. The Pearson correlation coefficients between the metabolomic profiles and % body fat or lean mass were 0.80 and 0.79, respectively. Our findings suggest alterations in lipid metabolism, fatty acid oxidation, and protein degradation with increased adiposity and decreased lean body mass. These findings could help us to better understand the interplay between body composition compartments with human metabolic processes

Is type of work associated with physical activity and sedentary behaviour in women with fibromyalgia? A cross-sectional study from the al-Ándalus project

Objectives To analyse the association between the type of work (productive vs reproductive work) and the levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in women with fibromyalgia. Method This cross-sectional study involved 258 women with fibromyalgia from southern Spain. Of them, 55% performed reproductive work (unpaid, associated with caregiving and domestic roles) exclusively, while 45% had productive job (remunerated, that results in goods or services). Physical activity of light, moderate and vigorous intensity in the leisure time, at home, at work, and totally were measured through the leisure time physical activity instrument and with the physical activity at home and work instrument, respectively. Sedentary behaviour was measured by the Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire. Results After adjusting for age, fat percentage, education level and marital status, the multivariate analysis of covariance model informed the existence of significant differences between type of work groups (p<0.001). Women with productive work engaged in more light physical activity at work (mean difference =448.52 min; 95 % CI 179.66 to 717.38; p=0.001), and total physical activity of light (809.72 min; 535.91 to 1085.53; p<0.001) and moderate (299.78 min; 97.31 to 502.25; p=0.004) intensity. Women with reproductive work engaged in more light physical activity at home (379.14; 175.64 to 582.64; p<0.001). Leisure time physical activity and sedentary behaviour were similar in both groups (p>0.05 for all comparisons). Conclusions Women with productive work had greater levels of physical activity compared with those who only did reproductive work, except for physical activity at home. Having productive work might facilitate movement of women with fibromyalgia towards a more active lifestyle.Spanish Ministries of Economy and Competitiveness I+D+i DEP2010-15639 I+D+i DEP2013-40908-RSpanish Government FPU15/00002University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigacion 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence; Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES)Junta de Andalucia, Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidades and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) SOMM17/6107/UGREuropean Union (EU) 70740

Formation Mechanism of Maghemite Nanoflowers Synthesized by a Polyol-Mediated Process

Magnetic nanoparticles are being developed as structural and functional materials for use in diverse areas, including biomedical applications. Here, we report the synthesis of maghemite (¿-Fe2O3) nanoparticles with distinct morphologies: single-core and multicore, including hollow spheres and nanoflowers, prepared by the polyol process. We have used sodium acetate to control the nucleation and assembly process to obtain the different particle morphologies. Moreover, from samples obtained at different time steps during the synthesis, we have elucidated the formation mechanism of the nanoflowers: the initial phases of the reaction present a lepidocrocite (¿-FeOOH) structure, which suffers a fast dehydroxylation, transforming to an intermediate "undescribed" phase, possibly a partly dehydroxylated lepidocrocite, which after some incubation time evolves to maghemite nanoflowers. Once the nanoflowers have been formed, a crystallization process takes place, where the ¿-Fe2O3 crystallites within the nanoflowers grow in size (from ~11 to 23 nm), but the particle size of the flower remains essentially unchanged (~60 nm). Samples with different morphologies were coated with citric acid and their heating capacity in an alternating magnetic field was evaluated. We observe that nanoflowers with large cores (23 nm, controlled by annealing) densely packed (tuned by low NaAc concentration) offer 5 times enhanced heating capacity compared to that of the nanoflowers with smaller core sizes (15 nm), 4 times enhanced heating effect compared to that of the hollow spheres, and 1.5 times enhanced heating effect compared to that of single-core nanoparticles (36 nm) used in this work

Propuesta de enseñanza: validación de métodos analíticos cualitativos

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de una propuesta de la enseñanza de validación de métodos analíticos cualitativos, probada con éxito durante 3 semestres en la materia Analítica experimental III que se imparte en la FQ-UNAM. Los estudiantes al término de curso cuentan con un aprendizaje significativo sobre la validación de métodos analíticos cualitativos, son capaces de generar documentos y registros científicos y técnicos, documentar estrictamente los registros experimentales y de cálculos (en bitácora dura y/o electrónica) y, sobre todo, de integrar y aplicar sus conocimientos cuando están a un paso terminar la carrera.This work presents the results of a proposal for the teaching of validation of qualitative analytical methods, successfully tested for 3 semesters in the subject Experimental Analytical III taught in the FQ-UNAM. Students at the end of the course have significant learning on the validation of qualitative analytical methods are able to generate scientific and technical documents and records, strictly document experimental and calculations (in hard and/or electronic logs), and above all of the integrate and apply of their knowledge when they are one step away from obtaining the degree

Proteome analysis of human serum proteins adsorbed onto different titanium surfaces used in dental implants

Titanium dental implants are commonly used due to their biocompatibility and biochemical properties; blasted acid-etched Ti is used more frequently than smooth Ti surfaces. In this study, physico-chemical characterisation revealed important differences in roughness, chemical composition and hydrophilicity, but no differences were found in cellular in vitro studies (proliferation and mineralization). However, the deposition of proteins onto the implant surface might affect in vivo osseointegration. To test that hypothesis, protein layers formed on discs of both surface type after incubation with human serum were analysed. Using mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), 218 proteins were identified, 30 of which were associated with bone metabolism. Interestingly, Apo E, antithrombin and protein C adsorbed mostly onto blasted and acid-etched Ti, whereas the proteins of the complement system (C3) were found predominantly on smooth Ti surfaces. These results suggest that physico-chemical characteristics could be responsible for the differences observed in the adsorbed protein layer.This work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) [MAT 2014-51918-C2-2-R], Universidad de Castellón [P11B2014-19], Plan de Promoción de la Investigación de la Universidad Jaume I under grant [Predoc/2014/25] and Generalitat Valenciana under grant [Grisolia/2014/016]. The authors would like to thank Antonio Coso and Jaime Franco (GMI-Ilerimplant) for their inestimable contribution to this study, and Iraida Escobes (CIC bioGUNE) for her valuable technical assistance