La raza bovina autóctona española Pajuna: Situación actual y programa de recuperación

La raza bovina Pajuna es una raza autóctona andaluza que está al borde de la extinción. Su aptitud es mixta carne-trabajo y es posiblemente la raza española más rústica, al ser capaz de adaptarse a los medios marginados, aprovechando los escasos recursos de las sierras andaluzas, que no pueden ser utilizados por otras razas más carniceras. El cruzamiento indiscriminado con razas especializadas, la mecanización del campo y la pérdida del hábitat de explotación han llevado esta raza a una situación de inminente desaparición, con sólo 300 animales puros, relegados en la mayoría de los casos a meros vientres para el cruce industrial en vacadas mixtas. En el presente artículo describimos la situación actual y las causas que la han llevado a esta situación, así como las actuaciones de la Asociación de Criadores (GRAPA), creada en el año 2001, dentro de un programa de preservación y recuperación. Estas razones se pueden resumir en la localización de todos los efectivos existentes, el análisis de la estructura demográfica de la población, la actualización de su estándar racial y creación del Libro Genealógico, la caracterización genética, y determinación del nivel de variabilidad intra e interpoblacional a partir del polimorfismo de loci moleculares microsatélites como a través de la variabilidad de la región control del ADN mitocondrial.The Pajuna is a cattle breed native to Andalusia in Spain. It is an endangered breed exhibiting both meat quality and draft animal attributes. The Pajuna breed is possibly the most resilient bovine breeds in Spain. This breed is adapted to adverse conditions, taking advantage of the limited resources of the Andalusian mountains which cannot be used by other breeds. However, massive crossbreeding with other breeds, the mechanization of rural areas and the loss of its habitat have led this breed to the brink of extinction. At the moment there are 300 pure animals, most of which are females destined for industrial crossing in mixed farms. The present work is intended to describe the causes of this situation. The Association of Breeders (GRAPA), created in 2001, is working towards a program of preservation and recovery for this breed and accordingly the following steps have been taken. The existing population of Pajunas has been identified, and an analysis made of its demographic structure allowing for the establishment of a breed standard and the creation of a studbook. We have also genetically characterized this breed. The level of inter- and intra-population variability has been determined using polymorphism of microsatellites loci and D-loop region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA) RZ 02-0

FtsZ of filamentous, heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria has a conserved N-Terminal peptide required for normal FtsZ polymerization and cell division

Filamentous cyanobacteria grow by intercalary cell division, which should involve distinct steps compared to those producing separate daughter cells. The N-terminal region of FtsZ is highly conserved in the clade of filamentous cyanobacteria capable of cell differentiation. A derivative of the model strain Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 expressing only an FtsZ lacking the amino acids 2-51 of the N-terminal peptide (1N-FtsZ) could not be segregated. Strain CSL110 expresses both 1N-FtsZ, from the endogenous ftsZ gene promoter, and the native FtsZ from a synthetic regulated promoter. Under conditions of 1N-FtsZ predominance, cells of strain CSL110 progressively enlarge, reflecting reduced cell division, and show instances of asymmetric cell division and aberrant Z-structures notably differing from the Z-ring formed by FtsZ in the wild type. In bacterial 2-hybrid assays FtsZ interacted with 1N-FtsZ. However, 1N-FtsZ-GFP appeared impaired for incorporation into Z-rings when expressed together with FtsZ. FtsZ, but not 1N-FtsZ, interacted with the essential protein SepF. Both FtsZ and 1N-FtsZ polymerize in vitro exhibiting comparable GTPase activities. However, filaments of FtsZ show a distinct curling forming toroids, whereas 1N-FtsZ form thick bundles of straight filaments. Thus, the N-terminal FtsZ sequence appears to contribute to a distinct FtsZ polymerization mode that is essential for cell division and division plane location in Anabaena.Agencia Estatal de Investigación BFU2013-44686-P BFU2016-77097-

Quantitative study of hydration of C3S and C2S by thermal analysis. Evolution and composition of C-S-H gels formed

This research is part of a European project (namely, CODICE project), main objective of which is modelling, at a multi-scale, the evolution of the mechanical performance of non-degraded and degraded cementitious matrices. For that, a series of experiments were planned with pure synthetic tri-calcium silicate (C3S) and bi-calcium silicate (C2S) (main components of the Portland cement clinker) to obtain different calcium–silicate–hydrate (C–S–H) gel structures during their hydration. The characterization of those C–S–H gels and matrices will provide experimental parameters for the validation of the multi-scale modelling scheme proposed. In this article, a quantitative method, based on thermal analyses, has been used for the determination of the chemical composition of the C–S–H gel together with the degree of hydration and quantitative evolution of all the components of the pastes. Besides, the microstructure and type of silicate tetrahedron and mean chain length (MCL) were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and 29Si magic-angle-spinning (MAS) NMR, respectively. The main results showed that the chemical compositions for the C–S–H gels have a CaO/SiO2 M ratio almost constant of 1.7 for both C3S and C2S compounds. Small differences were found in the gel water content: the H2O/SiO2 M ratio ranged from 2.9 ± 0.2 to 2.6 ± 0.2 for the C3S (decrease) and from 2.4 ± 0.2 to 3.2 ± 0.2 for the C2S (increase). The MCL values of the C–S–H gels, determined from 29Si MAS NMR, were 3.5 and 4 silicate tetrahedron, for the hydrated C3S and C2S, respectively, remaining almost constant at all hydration periods

Using Kinect to classify Parkinson's disease stages related to severity of gait impairment

Background: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease associated with motor problems such as gait impairment. Different systems based on 3D cameras, accelerometers or gyroscopes have been used in related works in order to study gait disturbances in PD. Kinect has also been used to build these kinds of systems, but contradictory results have been reported: some works conclude that Kinect does not provide an accurate method of measuring gait kinematics variables, but others, on the contrary, report good accuracy results. Methods: In this work, we have built a Kinect-based system that can distinguish between different PD stages, and have performed a clinical study with 30 patients suffering from PD belonging to three groups: early PD patients without axial impairment, more evolved PD patients with higher gait impairment but without Freezing of Gait (FoG), and patients with advanced PD and FoG. Those patients were recorded by two Kinect devices when they were walking in a hospital corridor. The datasets obtained from the Kinect were preprocessed, 115 features identified, some methods were applied to select the relevant features (correlation based feature selection, information gain, and consistency subset evaluation), and different classification methods (decision trees, Bayesian networks, neural networks and K-nearest neighbours classifiers) were evaluated with the goal of finding the most accurate method for PD stage classification. Results: The classifier that provided the best results is a particular case of a Bayesian Network classifier (similar to a Naïve Bayesian classifier) built from a set of 7 relevant features selected by the correlation-based on feature selection method. The accuracy obtained for that classifier using 10-fold cross validation is 93.40%. The relevant features are related to left shin angles, left humerus angles, frontal and lateral bents, left forearm angles and the number of steps during spin. Conclusions: In this paper, it is shown that using Kinect is adequate to build a inexpensive and comfortable system that classifies PD into three different stages related to FoG. Compared to the results of previous works, the obtained accuracy (93.40%) can be considered high. The relevant features for the classifier are: a) movement and position of the left arm, b) trunk position for slightly displaced walking sequences, and c) left shin angle, for straight walking sequences. However, we have obtained a better accuracy (96.23%) for a classifier that only uses features extracted from slightly displaced walking steps and spin walking steps. Finally, the obtained set of relevant features may lead to new rehabilitation therapies for PD patients with gait problems

C8-glycosphingolipids preferentially insert into tumor cell membranes and promote chemotherapeutic drug uptake

AbstractInsufficient drug delivery into tumor cells limits the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy. Co-delivery of liposome-encapsulated drug and synthetic short-chain glycosphingolipids (SC-GSLs) significantly improved drug bioavailability by enhancing intracellular drug uptake. Investigating the mechanisms underlying this SC-GSL-mediated drug uptake enhancement is the aim of this study. Fluorescence microscopy was used to visualize the cell membrane lipid transfer intracellular fate of fluorescently labeled C6-NBD-GalCer incorporated in liposomes in tumor and non-tumor cells. Additionally click chemistry was applied to image and quantify native SC-GSLs in tumor and non-tumor cell membranes. SC-GSL-mediated flip-flop was investigated in model membranes to confirm membrane-incorporation of SC-GSL and its effect on membrane remodeling. SC-GSL enriched liposomes containing doxorubicin (Dox) were incubated at 4°C and 37°C and intracellular drug uptake was studied in comparison to standard liposomes and free Dox.SC-GSL transfer to the cell membrane was independent of liposomal uptake and the majority of the transferred lipid remained in the plasma membrane. The transfer of SC-GSL was tumor cell-specific and induced membrane rearrangement as evidenced by a transbilayer flip-flop of pyrene-SM. However, pore formation was measured, as leakage of hydrophilic fluorescent probes was not observed. Moreover, drug uptake appeared to be mediated by SC-GSLs. SC-GSLs enhanced the interaction of doxorubicin (Dox) with the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane of tumor cells at 4°C. Our results demonstrate that SC-GSLs preferentially insert into tumor cell plasma membranes enhancing cell intrinsic capacity to translocate amphiphilic drugs such as Dox across the membrane via a biophysical process

Robust estimation of fractal measures for characterizing the structural complexity of the human brain: optimization and reproducibility

High-resolution isotropic three-dimensional reconstructions of human brain gray and white matter structures can be characterized to quantify aspects of their shape, volume and topological complexity. In particular, methods based on fractal analysis have been applied in neuroimaging studies to quantify the structural complexity of the brain in both healthy and impaired conditions. The usefulness of such measures for characterizing individual differences in brain structure critically depends on their within-subject reproducibility in order to allow the robust detection of between-subject differences. This study analyzes key analytic parameters of three fractal-based methods that rely on the box-counting algorithm with the aim to maximize within-subject reproducibility of the fractal characterizations of different brain objects, including the pial surface, the cortical ribbon volume, the white matter volume and the grey matter/white matter boundary. Two separate datasets originating from different imaging centers were analyzed, comprising, 50 subjects with three and 24 subjects with four successive scanning sessions per subject, respectively. The reproducibility of fractal measures was statistically assessed by computing their intra-class correlations. Results reveal differences between different fractal estimators and allow the identification of several parameters that are critical for high reproducibility. Highest reproducibility with intra-class correlations in the range of 0.9–0.95 is achieved with the correlation dimension. Further analyses of the fractal dimensions of parcellated cortical and subcortical gray matter regions suggest robustly estimated and region-specific patterns of individual variability. These results are valuable for defining appropriate parameter configurations when studying changes in fractal descriptors of human brain structure, for instance in studies of neurological diseases that do not allow repeated measurements or for disease-course longitudinal studies

Cronología y tecnología en el Parque Nacional Perito Moreno (PNPM): ¿continuidad o reemplazos?

Fil: Aschero, Carlos A.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.Fil: Bellelli, Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.Fil: Civalero de Biset, María Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.FIl: Goñi, Rafael A.. Instituto Nacional de Antropología; Argentina.FIl: Goñi, Rafael A.. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina.Fil: Guráieb, Ana Gabriela. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras; Argentina.FIl: Molinari, Roberto L..Administración Nacional de Parque Nacionales; Argentina.Incluye mapa y gráficos.25 ref

The neural substrate and functional integration of uncertainty in decision making: an information theory approach

Decision making can be regarded as the outcome of cognitive processes leading to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Borrowing a central measurement from information theory, Shannon entropy, we quantified the uncertainties produced by decisions of participants within an economic decision task under different configurations of reward probability and time. These descriptors were used to obtain blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal correlates of uncertainty and two clusters codifying the Shannon entropy of task configurations were identified: a large cluster including parts of the right middle cingulate cortex (MCC) and left and right pre-supplementary motor areas (pre-SMA) and a small cluster at the left anterior thalamus. Subsequent functional connectivity analyses using the psycho-physiological interactions model identified areas involved in the functional integration of uncertainty. Results indicate that clusters mostly located at frontal and temporal cortices experienced an increased connectivity with the right MCC and left and right pre-SMA as the uncertainty was higher. Furthermore, pre-SMA was also functionally connected to a rich set of areas, most of them associative areas located at occipital and parietal lobes. This study provides a map of the human brain segregation and integration (i.e., neural substrate and functional connectivity respectively) of the uncertainty associated to an economic decision making paradigm

Knowing the past to improve the future: Estimating historical fishing catches to improve fisheries management in the Western Mediterranean Sea

We developed for the first time the commercial fishing catches reconstruction of the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean) between 1950 and 2010, by adding non-reported components, including unreported landings and discards, to the official reported landing data. To back‑estimate historical unreported landings and discards, collaboration and information acquired from fishermen were essential, as gathered through interviews and observer programs of the Spanish Oceanographic Institute (IEO) on board commercial bottom trawling fleet. We estimated a total catch of 511,500 t over the period 1950‑2010, of which official landings represented 49% (around 248,000 t), followed by unreported catches (32%) and discards (20%). A decrease in unreported catches was observed during the period 1950-2010 (from 58% to 38%) due to a reduction of unreported landings, but substantial efforts are still required to improve the recordings of actual fishing catches. This work contributes to the global assessment of fisheries removals led by the Sea Around Us and aims to provide the basis for an improved management of the Balearic Islands and Mediterranean Sea fisheries