Women entrepreneurs’ progress in the venturing process: The impact of risk perception and culture

We explore the gendered impact of risk aversion and country-level culture on nascent student entrepreneurs’ progress in the venturing process. Combining country-level cultural normative variables from the 2004 Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) survey with data from the 2013/2014 Global University Entrepreneurial Student Spirit Study (GUESSS), our sample consists of 1,552 nascent student entrepreneurs from 11 countries. We start with the assumption that perceptions of risk-taking behaviors are not gendered. We then split our sample, finding that, for women, perceptions of risk-taking behaviors are associated with less progress in the venturing process; however, starting a new venture in a socially supportive culture moderates that relationship. For men, neither risk-taking behavior nor country cultural variables are related to their progress in the venturing process. Our study highlights both the importance of country-level contextual variables in entrepreneurship as well as the need to employ a gendered perspective when studying nascent entrepreneurship

Sperm storage reduces the strength of the mate‐finding Allee effect

Mate searching is a key component of sexual reproduction that can have important implications for population viability, especially for the mate‐finding Allee effect. Interannual sperm storage by females may be an adaptation that potentially attenuates mate limitation, but the demographic consequences of this functional trait have not been studied. Our goal is to assess the effect of female sperm storage durability on the strength of the mate‐finding Allee effect and the viability of populations subject to low population density and habitat alteration. We used an individual‐based simulation model that incorporates realistic representations of the demographic and spatial processes of our model species, the spur‐thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca). This allowed for a detailed assessment of reproductive rates, population growth rates, and extinction probabilities. We also studied the relationship between the number of reproductive males and the reproductive rates for scenarios combining different levels of sperm storage durability, initial population density, and landscape alteration. Our results showed that simulated populations parameterized with the field‐observed demographic rates collapsed for short sperm storage durability, but were viable for a durability of one year or longer. In contrast, the simulated populations with a low initial density were only viable in human‐altered landscapes for sperm storage durability of 4 years. We find that sperm storage is an effective mechanism that can reduce the strength of the mate‐finding Allee effect and contribute to the persistence of low‐density populations. Our study highlights the key role of sperm storage in the dynamics of species with limited movement ability to facilitate reproduction in patchy landscapes or during population expansion. This study represents the first quantification of the effect of sperm storage durability on population dynamics in different landscapes and population scenarios.Financial support was granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, and by the European Regional Development Fund (Projects CGL2012-33536, CGL2015-64144; MINECO/FEDER, UE). M.V.J.F. was supported by a “Juan de la Cierva-formación” postdoctoral grant of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (reference JCI-2015-23508), a José Castillejo travel fund (reference CAS17/00225) from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport and a postdoctoral grant funded by the Regional Valencian Government and the European Social Fund (APOSTD/2018/043). A.S.A. was supported by a Vicenç Mut contract co-funded by the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands and the European Social Fund (PD/003/2016). A.S.A and J.D.A were supported by a Ramón y Cajal contracts (RYC-2017-22796 and RYC-2017-22783 respectively) co-funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the State Research Agency and the European Social Fund. E.G. was supported by the Regional Valencian Government with a postdoctoral grant (APOSTD/2015/048)

Potential use of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste in anaerobic co-digestion with wastewater in submerged anaerobic membrane technology

Food waste was characterized for its potential use as substrate for anaerobic co-digestion in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor pilot plant that treats urban wastewater (WW). 90% of the particles had sizes under 0.5 mm after grinding the food waste in a commercial food waste disposer. COD, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were 100, 2 and 20 times higher in food waste than their average concentrations in WW, but the relative flow contribution of both streams made COD the only pollutant that increased significantly when both substrates were mixed. As sulphate concentration in food waste was in the same range as WW, co-digestion of both substrates would increase the COD/SO4-S ratio and favour methanogenic activity in anaerobic treatments. The average methane potential of the food waste was 421 +/- 15 mL CH4 g(-1) VS, achieving 73% anaerobic biodegradability. The anaerobic co-digestion of food waste with WW is expected to increase methane production 2.9-fold. The settleable solids tests and the particle size distribution analyses confirmed that both treatment lines of a conventional WWTP (water and sludge lines) would be clearly impacted,by the incorporation of food waste into its influent. Anaerobic processes are therefore preferred over their aerobic counterparts due to their ability to valorise the high COD content to produce biogas (a renewable energy) instead of increasing the energetic costs associated with the aeration process for aerobic COD oxidation. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This research work was possible thanks to financial support from the Generalitat Valenciana (project PROMETEO/2012/029) which is gratefully acknowledged.Moñino Amorós, P.; Jiménez Douglas, E.; Barat Baviera, R.; Aguado García, D.; Seco Torrecillas, A.; Ferrer, J. (2016). Potential use of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste in anaerobic co-digestion with wastewater in submerged anaerobic membrane technology. Waste Management. 56:158-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2016.07.021S1581655

TUNAR lncRNA Encodes a Microprotein that Regulates Neural Differentiation and Neurite Formation by Modulating Calcium Dynamics

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are regulatory molecules which have been traditionally considered as 'non-coding'. Strikingly, recent evidence has demonstrated that many non-coding regions, including lncRNAs, do in fact contain small-open reading frames that code for small proteins that have been called microproteins. Only a few of them have been characterized so far, but they display key functions in a wide variety of cellular processes. Here, we show that TUNAR lncRNA encodes an evolutionarily conserved microprotein expressed in the nervous system that we have named pTUNAR. pTUNAR deficiency in mouse embryonic stem cells improves their differentiation potential towards neural lineage both in vitro and in vivo. Conversely, pTUNAR overexpression impairs neuronal differentiation by reduced neurite formation in different model systems. At the subcellular level, pTUNAR is a transmembrane protein that localizes in the endoplasmic reticulum and interacts with the calcium transporter SERCA2. pTUNAR overexpression reduces cytoplasmatic calcium, consistent with a possible role of pTUNAR as an activator of SERCA2. Altogether, our results suggest that our newly discovered microprotein has an important role in neural differentiation and neurite formation through the regulation of intracellular calcium. From a more general point of view, our results provide a proof of concept of the role of lncRNAs-encoded microproteins in neural differentiation

Cryo-EM and single-particle analysis with Scipion

Cryo-electron microscopy has become one of the most important tools in biological research to reveal the structural information of macromolecules at near-atomic resolution. In single-particle analysis, the vitrified sample is imaged by an electron beam and the detectors at the end of the microscope column produce movies of that sample. These movies contain thousands of images of identical particles in random orientations. The data need to go through an image processing workflow with multiple steps to obtain the final 3D reconstructed volume. The goal of the image processing workflow is to identify the acquisition parameters to be able to reconstruct the specimen under study. Scipion provides all the tools to create this workflow using several image processing packages in an integrative framework, also allowing the traceability of the results. In this article the whole image processing workflow in Scipion is presented and discussed with data coming from a real test case, giving all the details necessary to go from the movies obtained by the microscope to a high resolution final 3D reconstruction. Also, the power of using consensus tools that allow combining methods, and confirming results along every step of the workflow, improving the accuracy of the obtained results, is discussed

Pathways for outpatient management of venous thromboembolism in a UK centre.

It has become widely recognised that outpatient treatment may be suitable for many patients with venous thromboembolism. In addition, non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants that have been approved over the last few years have the potential to be an integral component of the outpatient care pathway, owing to their oral route of administration, lack of requirement for routine anticoagulation monitoring and simple dosing regimens. A robust pathway for outpatient care is also vital; one such pathway has been developed at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in the UK. This paper describes the pathway and the arguments in its favour as an example of best practice and value offered to patients with venous thromboembolism. The pathway has two branches (one for deep vein thrombosis and one for pulmonary embolism), each with the same five-step process for outpatient treatment. Both begin from the point that the patient presents (in the Emergency Department, Thrombosis Clinic or general practitioner's office), followed by diagnosis, risk stratification, treatment choice and, finally, follow-up. The advantages of these pathways are that they offer clear, evidence-based guidance for the identification, diagnosis and treatment of patients who can safely be treated in the outpatient setting, and provide a detailed, stepwise process that can be easily adapted to suit the needs of other institutions. The approach is likely to result in both healthcare and economic benefits, including increased patient satisfaction and shorter hospital stays

Algorithmic robustness to preferred orientations in single particle analysis by CryoEM

The presence of preferred orientations in single particle analysis (SPA) by cryo-Electron Microscopy (cryoEM) is currently one of the hurdles preventing many structural analyses from yielding high-resolution structures. Although the existence of preferred orientations is mostly related to the grid preparation, in this technical note, we show that some image processing algorithms used for angular assignment and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction are more robust than others to these detrimental conditions. We exemplify this argument with three different data sets in which the presence of preferred orientations hindered achieving a 3D reconstruction without artifacts or, even worse, a 3D reconstruction could never be achievedWe acknowledge support from “la Caixa” Foundation (Fellowship LCF/BQ/DI18/11660021. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 713673. We also thank the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through Grants BIO2016-76400-R(AEI/FEDER, UE) and SEV 2017-0712, the “Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid” through Grant: S2017/BMD-3817, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, PT17/ 0009/0010 (ISCIII-SGEFI/ERDF), European Union (EU) and Horizon 2020 through grants: CORBEL (INFRADEV-1-2014-1, Proposal: 654248), INSTRUCT-ULTRA (INFRADEV-03-2016-2017, Proposal: 731005), EOSC Life (INFRAEOSC-04-2018, Proposal: 824087), High- ResCells (ERC-2018-SyG, Proposal: 810057), IMpaCT (WIDESPREAD-03-2018 – Proposal: 857203), EOSC-Synergy (EINFRA-EOSC-5, Proposal: 857647), and iNEXT-Discovery (Proposal: 871037). The authors acknowledge the support and the use of resources of Instruct, a Landmark ESFRI projec

From individuals’ movement to range shifts: integration of movement data in individual-based models to assess global change effects on populations

El estudio del movimiento de los individuos informa directamente sobre los tamaños de las áreas de campeo, las rutas migratorias o la selección de hábitat. Pero, además, la integración de datos de movimiento en modelos ecológicos permite además abordar mayores escalas. En este trabajo mostramos los resultados de nuestra línea de investigación utilizando STEPLAND, un modelo basado en el individuo de desarrollo propio. El modelo se parametrizó con datos de movimiento, demográficos y genéticos de tortugas terrestres (Testudo graeca) del SE de España. Llevamos a cabo diferentes experimentos de simulación con el fin de contestar a cuestiones sobre los efectos del cambio global en la conservación de la especie. A nivel de especie, identificamos aquellos rasgos evolutivos de las tortugas, como el almacenamiento de esperma por parte de las hembras, que evitan las extinciones en hábitats antropizados. A escala de paisaje, evaluamos el impacto del abandono agrícola y la intensificación en la dinámica poblacional de esta especie de vida larga. La intensificación afectó negativamente las tasas reproductivas, la densidad de población y la probabilidad de extinción de T. graeca, con respuestas de retardo de 20, 30 y 130 años respectivamente. Finalmente, en un contexto regional, pretendemos simular las primeras etapas de una expansión. Los primeros resultados sugieren patrones característicos de surfing genético, un proceso que afecta la expansión de especies de baja dispersión afectadas por deriva genética. Creemos que nuestra línea de investigación ejemplifica bien que el valor científico de los datos de movimiento excede el nivel de individuo.The study of the movement of individuals directly informs about home-range sizes, migratory routes or habitat selection. But also, integrating movement into ecological models allows for larger-scale studies. Here we summarize the results of our line of research based in the individual-based model STEPLAND. The model was parameterized with movement, demographic and genetic data of spur-thighed tortoises (Testudo graeca) in SE Spain. We developed different simulation experiments to answer questions about the effects of global change on the conservation of this species. At the species level, we identified those evolutionary traits of tortoises, such as female sperm storage, that prevent extinctions in human-altered habitats. At landscape scale, we assessed the impact of agricultural abandonment and agricultural intensification on the population dynamics of this long-lived species. Only agricultural intensification negatively affected reproductive rates, population density, and probability of extinction of T. graeca, with time-lag responses of 20, 30 and 130 years respectively. Finally, in a regional context, we aim to simulate the early stages of a range expansion. Preliminary results reveal patterns compatible to “genetic surfing”, a process affecting the expansion of low dispersal species impacted by strong genetic drift. We believe that our line of research exemplifies well that the scientific value of movement data goes well beyond the individual level.Esta línea de investigación se ha sufragado con las ayudas PID2019-105682RA-I00, financiada por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033; y por CGL2015-64144, con financiación de MINECO/FEDER (UE). El contrato de R.C.R.C. se sufraga con una ayuda del programa María Zambrano (ZAMBRANO 21-26), con fondos European Union-Next Generation (EU). A.S.A. y J.D.A. cuentan con ayudas Ramón y Cajal del Ministerio de Ciencia (RYC-2017-22796 y RYC-2017-22783, respectivamente). M.V.J.F. tiene un contrato Juan de la Cierva Incorporación (IJC2019-039145-I) de este mismo organismo y ella y A.S.A. cuentan con financiación a Grupos Emergentes (CIGE/2021/157) de GVA

The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, MEDA. A Suite of Environmental Sensors for the Mars 2020 Mission

86 pags., 49 figs., 24 tabs.NASA’s Mars 2020 (M2020) rover mission includes a suite of sensors to monitor current environmental conditions near the surface of Mars and to constrain bulk aerosol properties from changes in atmospheric radiation at the surface. The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) consists of a set of meteorological sensors including wind sensor, a barometer, a relative humidity sensor, a set of 5 thermocouples to measure atmospheric temperature at ∼1.5 m and ∼0.5 m above the surface, a set of thermopiles to characterize the thermal IR brightness temperatures of the surface and the lower atmosphere. MEDA adds a radiation and dust sensor to monitor the optical atmospheric properties that can be used to infer bulk aerosol physical properties such as particle size distribution, non-sphericity, and concentration. The MEDA package and its scientific purpose are described in this document as well as how it responded to the calibration tests and how it helps prepare for the human exploration of Mars. A comparison is also presented to previous environmental monitoring payloads landed on Mars on the Viking, Pathfinder, Phoenix, MSL, and InSight spacecraft.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the projects No. ESP2014-54256-C4-1-R (also -2-R, -3-R and -4-R) and AYA2015-65041-P; Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, projects No. ESP2016-79612-C3-1-R (also -2-R and -3-R), ESP2016-80320-C2-1-R, RTI2018-098728-B-C31 (also -C32 and -C33) and RTI2018-099825-B-C31; Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial; Ministry of Science and Innovation’s Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology; Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT1366-19; and European Research Council Consolidator Grant no 818602. The US co-authors performed their work under sponsorship from NASA’s Mars 2020 project, from the Game Changing Development program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate and from the Human Exploration and Operations Directorate

First Assessment of the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Marine Recreational Fisheries

This work is the result of an international research effort to determine the main impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on marine recreational fishing. Changes were assessed on (1) access to fishing, derived from lockdowns and other mobility restrictions; (2) ecosystems, because of alterations in fishing intensity and human presence; (3) the blue economy, derived from alterations in the investments and expenses of the fishers; and (4) society, in relation to variations in fishers’ health and well-being. For this, a consultation with experts from 16 countries was carried out, as well as an international online survey aimed at recreational fishers, that included specific questions designed to capture fishers’ heterogeneity in relation to behavior, skills and know-how, and vital involvement. Fishers’ participation in the online survey (5,998 recreational fishers in 15 countries) was promoted through a marketing campaign. The sensitivity of the fishers’ clustering procedure, based on the captured heterogeneity, was evaluated by SIMPER analysis and by generalized linear models. Results from the expert consultation highlighted a worldwide reduction in marine recreational fishing activity. Lower human-driven pressures are expected to generate some benefits for marine ecosystems. However, experts also identified high negative impacts on the blue economy, as well as on fisher health and well-being because of the loss of recreational fishing opportunities. Most (98%) of the fishers who participated in the online survey were identified as advanced, showing a much higher degree of commitment to recreational fishing than basic fishers (2%). Advanced fishers were, in general, more pessimistic about the impacts of COVID-19, reporting higher reductions in physical activity and fish consumption, as well as poorer quality of night rest, foul mood, and raised more concerns about their health status. Controlled and safe access to marine recreational fisheries during pandemics would provide benefits to the health and well-being of people and reduce negative socioeconomic impacts, especially for vulnerable social groups.Versión del edito