Photoperiod-sensitivity genes shape floret development in wheat

Lengthening the pre-anthesis period of stem elongation (or late-reproductive phase, LRP) through altering photoperiod sensitivity has been suggested as a potential means to increase the number of fertile florets at anthesis (NFF) in wheat. However, little is known about the effects that the Ppd-1 genes modulating plant response to photoperiod may have on reproductive development. Here, five genotypes with either sensitive (b) or insensitive (a) alleles were grown in chambers under contrasting photoperiods (12 h or 16 h) to assess their effects. The genotypes consisted of the control cultivar Paragon (three Ppd-1b) and four near-isogenic lines of Paragon with Ppd-1a alleles introgressed from: Chinese Spring (Ppd-B1a), GS-100 (Ppd-A1a), Sonora 64 (Ppd-D1a), and Triple Insensitive (three Ppd-1a). Under a 12-h photoperiod, NFF in the genotypes followed the order three Ppd-1b > Ppd-B1a > Ppd-A1a > Ppd-D1a > three Ppd-1a. Under a 16-h photoperiod the differences were milder, but three Ppd-1b still had a greater NFF than the rest. As Ppd-1a alleles shortened the LRP, spikes were lighter and the NFF decreased. The results demonstrated for the first time that Ppd-1a decreases the maximum number of florets initiated through shortening the floret initiation phase, and this partially explained the variations in NFF. The most important impact of Ppd-1a alleles, however, was related to a reduction in survival of floret primordia, which resulted in the lower NFF. These findings reinforce the idea that an increased duration of the LRP, achieved through photoperiod sensitivity, would be useful for increasing wheat yield potential.EEA PergaminoFil: Pérez Gianmarco, Thomas. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino. Ecofisiología; Argentina. University of Lleida. Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, and AGROTECNIO (Center for Research in Agrotechnology); España. CONICET-UNNOBA. CITNOBA; ArgentinaFil: Slafer, Gustavo A. University of Lleida. Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, and AGROTECNIO (Center for Research in Agrotechnology); España. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA); EspañaFil: González, Fernanda G. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino. Departamento Ecofisiología; Argentina. CONICET-UNNOBA. CITNOBA; Argentin

Improving and extending non-Poissonian distributions for satellite galaxies sampling in HOD: applications to eBOSS ELGs

Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) models help us to connect observations and theory, by assigning galaxies to dark matter haloes. In this work we study one of the components of HOD models: the probability distribution function (PDF), which is used to assign a discrete number of galaxies to a halo, given a mean number of galaxies. For satellite galaxies, the most commonly used PDF is a Poisson Distribution. PDFs with super-Poisson variances have also been studied, allowing for continuous values of variances. This has not been the case for sub-Poisson variances, for which only the Nearest Integer distribution, with a single variance, has been used in the past. In this work we propose a distribution based on the binomial one, which provides continuous sub-Poisson variances. We have generated mock galaxy catalogues from two dark-matter only simulations, UNIT and OUTERIM, with HOD models assuming different PDFs. We show that the variance of the PDF for satellite galaxies affects the one-halo term of the projected correlation function, and the Count-In-Cells (CIC) one point statistics. We fit the clustering of eBOSS Emission Line Galaxies, finding a preference for a sub-poissonian PDF, when we only vary the parameter controlling the PDF variance and the fraction of satellites. Using a mock catalogue as a reference, we have also included both the clustering and CIC to constrain the parameters of the HOD model. CIC can provide strong constraints to the PDF variance of satellite galaxies.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, 19 page

Cómo afectan los genes de sensibilidad al fotoperíodo PPD-1 al desarrollo del trigo a antesis?

La sensibilidad al fotoperiodo afecta la adaptación del trigo al ambienteal modifiar: (i) la fecha de antesis, (ii) la duración de las etapas vegetativa y reproductiva previas a antesis, y (iii) la generación de estructuras durante dichas etapas. Utilizando líneas isogénicas para genes de sensibilidad al fotoperiodo (Ppd-1) se observó que el orden de insensibilidad para todas las etapas estudiadas fue PpdD1a>Ppd-A1a>Ppd-B1a. No se detectó especificidad de ningún alelo con alguna etapa particular, ni tampoco efectos aditivos entre los alelos.EEA PergaminoFil: Slafer, Gustavo. Universidad de Lleida. Instituto Catalana de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados (ICREA). Departamento Producción Vegetal y Ciencias Forestales y AGROTECNIO; España.Fil: González, Fernanda. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino. Ecofisiología; Argentina. Centro de Investigacion y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (CIT NOBA); Argentina

Optimización del consumo eléctrico mediante la heurística cúmulo de partículas

This paper gives a brief explanation of the particle swarm optimization technique, which is given to be implemented to look for the optimal state of consumption from a set of household appliances. The household appliances allow characterizing the electrical consumption of a dwelling house through use behavior. Every household appliance shows a behavior consumption. The goal optimization objective is seen as the objective function defined according to the general implementation purpose. The consumption data of household appliances are stored in hourly consumption vectors, where everyone's position corresponds to the consumption generated by a household appliance in each hour. The heuristics use each of the vectors as a reference vector during the search to find the vector that fulfills the objective function.En el presente trabajo se da una breve explicación de la técnica de optimización por cúmulo de partículas para ser implementada como parte de la búsqueda del estado óptimo de consumo de un conjunto de dispositivos. Los dispositivos de uso doméstico, en conjunto, permiten caracterizar el consumo eléctrico de una casa habitación a través del comportamiento de uso. Cada uno de los dispositivos presenta un comportamiento de consumo. El objetivo de la optimización se refleja en la función objetivo, la cual es definida de acuerdo con el propósito general de implementación. Los datos de consumo de los dispositivos eléctricos son almacenados en vectores de consumo-hora, donde cada una de las posiciones corresponde al consumo generado por un dispositivo en una hora determinada. Cada uno de los vectores es usado por la heurística como un vector de referencia durante la búsqueda para encontrar el vector que cumple con la función objetivo

Antineoplastic effects of the DNA methylation inhibitor hydralazine and the histone deacetylase inhibitor valproic acid in cancer cell lines

BACKGROUND: Among the epigenetic alterations occurring in cancer, DNA hypermethylation and histone hypoacetylation are the focus of intense research because their pharmacological inhibition has shown to produce antineoplastic activity in a variety of experimental models. The objective of this study was to evaluate the combined antineoplastic effect of the DNA methylation inhibitor hydralazine and the histone deacetylase inhibitor valproic acid in a panel of cancer cell lines. RESULTS: Hydralazine showed no growth inhibitory effect on cervical, colon, breast, sarcoma, glioma, and head & neck cancer cell lines when used alone. On the contrary, valproic acid showed a strong growth inhibitory effect that is potentiated by hydralazine in some cell lines. Individually, hydralazine and valproic acid displayed distinctive effects upon global gene over-expression but the number of genes over-expressed increased when cells were treated with the combination. Treatment of HeLa cells with hydralazine and valproic acid lead to an increase in the cytotoxicity of gemcitabine, cisplatin and adriamycin. A higher antitumor effect of adriamycin was observed in mice xenografted with human fibrosarcoma cells when the animals were co-treated with hydralazine and valproic acid. CONCLUSION: Hydralazine and valproic acid, two widely used drugs for cardiovascular and neurological conditions respectively have promising antineoplastic effects when used concurrently and may increase the antitumor efficacy of current cytotoxic agents

Determinación de la capacidad de autodepuración del sistema de alcantarillado de aguas residuales del municipio de Guayabetal

Trabajo de investigaciónSe realizó un análisis del parámetro de Demanda Bioquímica de Oxígeno (DBO), para el municipio de Guayabetal en el sistema de alcantarillado de aguas residuales de origen doméstico que permitieron determinar si es posible la autodepuración del agua mientras fluye por el sistema de alcantarillado.INTRODUCCIÓN 1. GENERALIDADES 2. METODOLOGÍA Y DESARROLLO DEL PROYECTO 3. CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES 4. BIBLIOGRAFÍA 5. ANEXOSPregradoIngeniero Civi

Observatorio del delito

El "Observatorio del Delito", como su nombre lo expresa es un sistema de vigilancia que utiliza información de tipo geo-referenciada, compartida y analizada interinstitucionalmente como instrumento válido para la definición de estrategias de intervención a nivel local y regional por parte de las administraciones Municipales y Departamentales, en orden a desarrollar una adecuada política criminal.Universidad Libre Seccional Pereira -- Facultad de Derecho, Ciencias Políticas y Sociales -- Derech

Study X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy determination of interactions between gold nanoparticles and epidermal growth factor for potential use in biomedicine

Nowadays, biomedical applications of gold nanoparticles coupled with Epidermal Growth Factor have attracted huge attention because of its theranostic activity, which could be useful for diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, there is a great interest to know the nature of the intermolecular interactions between the gold nanoparticles and epidermal growth factor (EGF). A two-step synthesis was performed. In the first step, gold nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical reduction of tetrachloroauric acid using sodium citrate as reducing and capping agent. Secondly, gold nanoparticles were coupled with EGF. The obtained nanoparticles were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and zeta-potential before and after being coupled with the EGF. Gold nanoparticles with an average diameter of 8.09 nm were obtained. After coupled with EGF, the particle average diameter increased to 9.14 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed an electrostatic interaction between gold nanoparticles and EGF. Zeta potential corroborated these results. Thus, it was possible for the first time to identify the interactions between these two chemical species. Since gold nanoparticles may act as carriers of EGF, these results illustrate the great potential for the use of this bionanocomposite in neurodegenerative disease treatment.UAEME

Histone acetylation and histone deacetylase activity of magnesium valproate in tumor and peripheral blood of patients with cervical cancer. A phase I study

BACKGROUND: The development of cancer has been associated with epigenetic alterations such as aberrant histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity. It was recently reported that valproic acid is an effective inhibitor of histone deacetylases and as such induces tumor cell differentiation, apoptosis, or growth arrest. METHODS: Twelve newly diagnosed patients with cervical cancer were treated with magnesium valproate after a baseline tumor biopsy and blood sampling at the following dose levels (four patients each): 20 mg/kg; 30 mg/kg, or 40 mg/kg for 5 days via oral route. At day 6, tumor and blood sampling were repeated and the study protocol ended. Tumor acetylation of H3 and H4 histones and HDAC activity were evaluated by Western blot and colorimetric HDAC assay respectively. Blood levels of valproic acid were determined at day 6 once the steady-state was reached. Toxicity of treatment was evaluated at the end of study period. RESULTS: All patients completed the study medication. Mean daily dose for all patients was 1,890 mg. Corresponding means for the doses 20-, 30-, and 40-mg/kg were 1245, 2000, and 2425 mg, respectively. Depressed level of consciousness grade 2 was registered in nine patients. Ten patients were evaluated for H3 and H4 acetylation and HDAC activity. After treatment, we observed hyperacetylation of H3 and H4 in the tumors of nine and seven patients, respectively, whereas six patients demonstrated hyperacetylation of both histones. Serum levels of valproic acid ranged from 73.6–170.49 μg/mL. Tumor deacetylase activity decreased in eight patients (80%), whereas two had either no change or a mild increase. There was a statistically significant difference between pre and post-treatment values of HDAC activity (mean, 0.36 vs. 0.21, two-tailed t test p < 0.0264). There was no correlation between H3 and H4 tumor hyperacetylation with serum levels of valproic acid. CONCLUSION: Magnesium valproate at a dose between 20 and 40 mg/kg inhibits deacetylase activity and hyperacetylates histones in tumor tissues

Characterization of cytomegalovirus lung infection in non-HIV infected children

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a prevalent pathogen in the immunocompromised host and invasive pneumonia is a feared complication of the virus in this population. In this pediatric case series we characterized CMV lung infection in 15 non-HIV infected children (median age 3 years; IQR 0.2–4.9 years), using current molecular and imaging diagnostic modalities, in combination with respiratory signs and symptoms. The most prominent clinical and laboratory findings included cough (100%), hypoxemia (100%), diffuse adventitious breath sounds (100%) and increased respiratory effort (93%). All patients had abnormal lung images characterized by ground glass opacity/consolidation in 80% of cases. CMV was detected in the lung either by CMV PCR in bronchoalveolar lavage (82% detection rate) or histology/immunohistochemistry in lung biopsy (100% detection rate). CMV caused respiratory failure in 47% of children infected and the overall mortality rate was 13.3%. Conclusion: CMV pneumonia is a potential lethal disease in non-HIV infected children that requires a high-index of suspicion. Common clinical and radiological patterns such as hypoxemia, diffuse adventitious lung sounds and ground-glass pulmonary opacities may allow early identification of CMV lung infection in the pediatric population, which may lead to prompt initiation of antiviral therapy and better clinical outcomes