La “quínoa” (Chenopodium quinoa) como alternativa forrajera en la zona de los Valles Calchaquíes (Noroeste Argentino)

González, Juan A., Guillermo O. Martín (h), Marcela A. Bruno, Fernando E. Prado. 2016. “El cultivo de ‘quínoa’ ( Chenopodium quinoa) como complemento forrajero en la zona de los Valles Calchaquíes (Noroeste Argentino)”. Lilloa 53 (1). “ Quínoa ” es una espe- cie multipropósito que puede ser utilizada como granos para alimentación humana o bien para la producción de forrajes, destinados a complementar la alimentación de animales (vacas, cabras, ovejas, llamas, entre otros) en zonas donde las pasturas naturales son escasas. Tradicionalmente la siembra se realiza a chorrillo con lo que se obtiene una alta densidad de plantas en el surco, que posteriormente es necesario ralear para evitar la competencia entre ellas. El raleo lleva implícita la eliminación de las plántulas. El objetivo de este estudio es jus- tamente la evaluación de las plantas eliminadas para ser utilizadas como forraje. Este trabajo aporta datos de producción de materia seca aérea (hojas y tallos) en 9 variedades de quínoa cultivadas en Amaicha del Valle (1.995 m snm, Tucumán, Argentina) y un genotipo (landrace) a los 110 días de siembra. El análisis de la producción de materia seca aérea varió entre 7,7 /ha (var. Sajama) y 2,7 /ha (var. Samaranti). El análisis químico foliar mostró un con- tenido elevado de K en todas las variedades con porcentajes que oscilaron entre 8,54 % (Kancolla) y 9,93 % (Samaranti). Los restantes minerales exhibieron valores menores, que en general, oscilaron entre 3,9-5,4 % para N ; 0,20-0,34 % para P; 2,50-3,04 % para Ca y 0,87-1,57 % para Mg, entre otros. El contenido de materia orgánica osciló entre 37,7 (var. Sajama) y 42 % (var. Kancolla). El contenido promedio de proteína foliar y de tallos fue del 15,7 y 9,9 % respectivamente. El contenido de fibras totales fue mayor en tallos que en hojas mientras que en el caso de cenizas fue a la inversa. En base a la producción de materia seca aérea y contenido de proteínas, fibras y minerales, se concluye que quínoa puede ser un complemento forrajero para los animales que forman parte de la producción pecuaria de los Valles Calchaquíes

Integrating 2D materials and plasmonics on lithium niobate platforms for pulsed laser operation at the nanoscale

The current need for coherent light sources for integrated (nano)photonics motivates the search for novel laser designs emitting at technologically relevant wavelengths with high-frequency stability and low power consumption. Here, a new monolithic architecture that integrates monolayer MoS2 and chains of silver nanoparticles on a rare-earth (Nd3+) doped LiNbO3 platform is developed to demonstrate Q-switched lasing operation at the nanoscale. The localized surface plasmons provided by the nanoparticle chains spatially confine the gain generated by Nd3+ ions at subwavelength scales, and large-area monolayer MoS2 acts as saturable absorber. As a result, an ultra-compact coherent pulsed light source delivering stable train pulses with repetition rates of hundreds of kHz and pulse duration of 1 µs is demonstrated without the need of any voltage-driven optical modulation. Moreover, the monolithic integration of the different elements is achieved without sophisticated processing, and it is compatible with LiNbO3-based photonics. The results highlight the robustness of the approach, which can be extended to other 2D materials and solid-state gain media. Potential applications in communications, quantum computing, or ultra-sensitive sensing can benefit from the synergy of the materials involved in this approach, which provides a wealth of opportunities for light control at reduced scalesPID2019-108257GB-I00, PID2022-137444NB-I0, CEX2018-000805-M, PID2019-106268GB-C3

Autoinhibition of TBCB regulates EB1-mediated microtubule dynamics

Tubulin cofactors (TBCs) participate in the folding, dimerization, and dissociation pathways of the tubulin dimer. Among them, TBCB and TBCE are two CAP-Gly domain-containing proteins that interact and dissociate the tubulin dimer. Here we show how TBCB localizes at spindle and midzone microtubules during mitosis. Furthermore, the motif DEI/M-COO– present in TBCB, which is similar to the EEY/F-COO– element characteristic of EB proteins, CLIP-170, and α-tubulin, is required for TBCE–TBCB heterodimer formation and thus for tubulin dimer dissociation. This motif is responsible for TBCB autoinhibition, and our analysis suggests that TBCB is a monomer in solution. Mutants of TBCB lacking this motif are derepressed and induce microtubule depolymerization through an interaction with EB1 associated to microtubule tips. TBCB is also able to bind to the chaperonin complex CCT containing α-tubulin, suggesting that it could escort tubulin to facilitate its folding and dimerization, recycling or degradation

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Supplemental material in the ancillary file

Transancestral mapping and genetic load in systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with marked gender and ethnic disparities. We report a large transancestral association study of SLE using Immunochip genotype data from 27,574 individuals of European (EA), African (AA) and Hispanic Amerindian (HA) ancestry. We identify 58 distinct non-HLA regions in EA, 9 in AA and 16 in HA (B50% of these regions have multiple independent associations); these include 24 novel SLE regions (Po5 10 8), refined association signals in established regions, extended associations to additional ancestries, and a disentangled complex HLA multigenic effect. The risk allele count (genetic load) exhibits an accelerating pattern of SLE risk, leading us to posit a cumulative hit hypothesis for autoimmune disease. Comparing results across the three ancestries identifies both ancestry-dependent and ancestry-independent contributions to SLE risk. Our results are consistent with the unique and complex histories of the populations sampled, and collectively help clarify the genetic architecture and ethnic disparities in SL

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality