Outer membrane vesicles from cold-adapted antarctic bacteria

Podeu consultar el llibre complet a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/63704Many Gram-negative, cold-adapted bacteria from the Antarctic environment produce large amounts of extracellular matter with potential biotechnological applications. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis after high-pressure freezing and freeze substitution (HPF-FS) showed that this extracellular matter is structurally complex, appearing around cells as a netlike mesh, and composed of an exopolymeric substance (EPS) containing large numbers of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). Isolation, purification and protein profiling via 1D SDS-PAGE confirmed the outer membrane origin of these Antarctic bacteria OMVs. In an initial attempt to elucidate the role of OMVs in cold-adapted strains of Gram-negative bacteria, a proteomic analysis demonstrated that they were highly enriched in outer membrane proteins and periplasmic proteins associated with nutrient processing and transport, suggesting that the OMVs may be involved in nutrient sensing and bacterial survival. OMVs from Gram-negative bacteria are known to play a role in lateral DNA transfer, but the presence of DNA in these vesicles has remained difficult to explain. A structural study of Shewanella vesiculosa M7T using TEM and Cryo-TEM revealed that this Antarctic Gram-negative bacterium naturally releases conventional one-bilayer OMVs, together with a more complex type of OMV, previously undescribed, which on formation drags along inner membrane and cytoplasmic content and can therefore also entrap DNA

Analysis of Research Topics and Scientific Collaborations in Energy Saving Using Bibliometric Techniques and Community Detection

Concern about everything related to energy is increasingly latent in the world and therefore the use of energy saving concepts has been increasing over the past several years. The interest in the subject has allowed a conceptual evolution in the scientific community regarding the understanding of the adequate use of energy. The objective of this work is to determine the contribution made by international institutions to the specialized publications in the area of energy-saving from 1939 to 2018, using Scopus Database API Interface. The methodology followed in this research was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the whole scientific production indexed in Scopus. The world’s scientific production has been analysed in the following domains: First the trend over time, types of publications and countries, second, the main subjects and keywords, third, main institutions and their main topics, and fourth, the main journals and proceedings that publish on this topic. Then, these data are presented using community detection algorithms and graph visualization software. With these techniques, it is possible to determine the main areas of research activity as well as to identify the structures of the collaboration network in the field of renewable energy. The results of the work show that the literature in this field have substantially increased during the last 10 years

La huella de género en la relación de hombres y mujeres con la ciencia y la tecnología

El boom del desarrollo tecnológico en las últimas décadas ha abierto valiosísimas posibilidades a las personas que se han sumado a la revolución cibernética. En este trabajo analizaremos de qué manera se acercan hombres y mujeres a las nuevas tecnologías y si existe una huella de género derivada de una construcción social que aparta a las mujeres del saber científico y tecnológico. Desde la perspectiva de la socialización de niños y niñas en los roles que establece el sistema sexo-género, veremos cómo el ámbito técnico y científico se masculiniza y hace que, en la actualidad, las mujeres sigan siendo “invitadas” en un mundo de hombres. A través de los datos de matriculación en facultades de ciencias, ingenierías y Medicina, y de los datos de categorías profesionales desagregados por sexos, observaremos cómo se producen distintos fenómenos (techo de cristal, leaky pipeline) que confirman la pérdida de mujeres conforme se avanza en la jerarquía científica

3D-Printed Absorbers for Solar-Driven Interfacial Water Evaporation: A Mini-Review

Solar-driven interfacial water evaporation (SWE) is considered as a promising sustainable solution for clean water production especially for remote and off-grid communities. Various approaches have been developed in the last decade to improve the evaporation and thermal efficiency of the system, and to make it more robust for long-term operation. In recent years, 3D printing has emerged as an attractive method to fabricate simple and complex absorber geometries for SWE. In this mini-review, we present the new developments of 3D-printed solar absorbers including the various designs, fabrication strategies, challenges and opportunities. This study hopes to provide more insights into the use of additive manufacturing for improving the absorber design and performance of SWE

Why are people afraid of the dentist?

Introducción: el objetivo del presente artículo es describir la actitud de los pacientes en relación a diferentes factores subyacentes a los miedos dentales. Método: se realiza una en- cuesta con una muestra de 399 sujetos que acudieron a la consulta de Odontología del Centro de Salud de Lepe (Huelva). Se utilizó un cuestionario con 19 ítemes. El tratamiento estadístico se desarrolló con el paquete de programas SPSS, versión 9.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Ill, 1999). Re- sultados: al analizar la estructura factorial de la escala de miedos dentales se encontraron cua- tro factores resultantes que se corresponderían con otras tantas dimensiones presentes. El prin- cipal temor de los pacientes se centra en las actuaciones terapéuticas que generan o posibili- tan daño físico, mientras que los aspectos no relacionados con la profesión les generan menos miedo. Conclusiones: en los miedos al dentista, se identifican cuatro dimensiones o aspectos que podrían diferenciarse y que constituirían respuestas a la pregunta ¿por qué se le tiene mie- do al dentista? Dos de estas dimensiones generan un bajo grado de temor, son las denomina- das como aspectos no profesionales y aspectos inherentes al tratamiento. Sin embargo, las otras dos dimensiones sí provocan temor en cierta medida y son las llamadas trato humano, y mala praxis profesionalIntroduction: the aim of the current article is to describe the patient’s attitude regar- ding several factors hidden in dental fears. Patients and methods: An survey has been performed among 399 patients who visited the Dental department of the Public Health Center localized in Lepe (Huelva, Spain). The questionnaire used included 19 items. The statistical data processing was carried out with the help of the specific software SPSS, version 9.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Ill, 1999). Results: Analysing the factorial composition of dental fears scale, we detected four fac- tors. The main factor is related to therapeutic actions that may cause physical damage, while fac- tors not related to the professional field generate less fear. Conclusion: among dental fears, it has been possible to differentiate four aspects or dimensions that could represent answers to the question about why people are afraid of the dentist. Two of these dimensions, which generate a low level fear, are the so-called non-professional aspects and treatment inherent aspects. Ho- wever, the other two dimensions do provoke a certain degree of fear and consist in factors re- lated to the treatment received at a personal level and professional malpractice

Alocação dos custos de melhorias em bacias hidrográficas entre os usuários de água: uma aplicação do valor de Shapley

The objective of this work was to analyze the cost allocation of improvements in river basins among the water users. It was used, as example, the Paraíba do Sul river basin, located in the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and, as criteria of allocation of costs, they were used the volumes of water extracted and consumed, and the quantity of pollutants deposited in the basin area by water users. The methodology used consists of the rule of allocation known as Shapley value, which belongs to the cooperative branch of game theory. In the case of Paraíba do Sul river basin, the values found indicated that the urban users should pay the higher part of the costs of improvements, given that these users are responsible for most of the pollution in the basin area, being the reduction of water quality an important problem in this basin.water resources, cost allocation, Shapley value, Paraíba do Sul river basin, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Alocação dos custos de melhorias em bacias hidrográficas entre os usuários de água: uma aplicação do valor de Shapley

The objective of this work was to analyze the cost allocation of improvements in river basins among the water users. It was used, as example, the Paraíba do Sul river basin, located in the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and, as criteria of allocation of costs, they were used the volumes of water extracted and consumed, and the quantity of pollutants deposited in the basin area by water users. The methodology used consists of the rule of allocation known as Shapley value, which belongs to the cooperative branch of game theory. In the case of Paraíba do Sul river basin, the values found indicated that the urban users should pay the higher part of the costs of improvements, given that these users are responsible for most of the pollution in the basin area, being the reduction of water quality an important problem in this basin.Water resources, cost allocation, shapley value, Paraíba do Sul River basin, Environmental Economics and Policy,

MLIF: A Metamodel to Represent and Exchange Multilingual Textual Information

International audienceThe fast evolution of language technology has produced pressing needs in standardization. The multiplicity of language resources representation levels and the specialization of these representations make difficult the interaction between linguistic resources and components manipulating these resources. In this paper, we describe the MultiLingual Information Framework (MLIF – ISO CD 24616). MLIF is a metamodel which allows the representation and the exchange of multilingual textual information. This generic metamodel is designed to provide a common platform for all the tools developed around the existing multilingual data exchange formats. This is a work in progress within ISO-TC37 in order to define a new ISO standard