Continuity, change, and geographical differences in Spain's firewood consumption: A new estimation (1860-2010)

Although firewood was the main energy source until recently in most parts of the world, our understanding of its consumption levels is still quite limited, even in regard to recent periods. The powerful impact of fossil energy carriers and their major effects on global ecology, economy and society have led us to underestimate the role firewood has continued to play during the energy transition. This article offers a new reconstruction of long-ter m firewood consumption in Spain, taking into consideration variables related to supply and demand, which are then used to reconstruct the production, appropriation and energy uses of firewood biomass. This new series distinguishes also between the origins (forest or crop firewood), and between different regional behaviors. The main findings indicate that total and per-inhabitant consumption has been greater than traditionally assumed; that there was major regional divergence, with consumption varying significantly from one area to another; that the decline in firewood consumption was gradual and later than previously thought; and that it increased or declined over time in a non-linear fashion. Moreover, the traditionally neglected estimation of the role of woody crops was found to be very significant in this process, as it represented between 20% and 70% of total consumption for the whole data series

In vivo testing of safety and immunogenicity of new vaccine candidates against PCV2 designed for a better performance than that showed by currently marketed vaccines

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is a globally distributed virus causing considerable economic losses. It affects mainly piglets after the weaning, leading to the disease known as postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome, whose consequences are death or a significant reduction of pigs fattening rate. PCV2 also affects pregnant sows, leading to abortions. There are four commercial vaccines against PCV2, two killed vaccines and two recombinant vaccines. All of them are based on PCV2 strains of genotype a, which was predominant in the field when the vaccines were marketed. Since live replicative virus could not be used as vaccines, these vaccines lead to prevention of symptoms but not to complete viral clearance. Vaccinated and infected pigs can still infect other pigs. Today the predominant genotypes are PCV2 b and d. Although the marketed vaccines showed cross-protection against heterologous genotypes, it is suboptimal and there are increasing cases of vaccine escape by new PCV2 strains. ADL Bionatur Solutions designed and produced three new generation recombinant vaccine candidates, BNT029, 030, and 031 with two goals: improve antigenic presentation to achieve better viral clearance and to raise specific immunity against the new genotypes. In this project, the vaccine candidates have been tested in vivo for safety and immunogenicity in comparison with the current commercial leader, Ingelvac CircoFLEX® from Boehringer Ingelheim. In mice, the new candidates raised cell-mediated immunity of higher intensity than that raised by the commercial gold standard, and with a more significant Th1-specific component biased to the PCV2b and PCV2d genotypes. In an experimental trial in piglets, immunization with BNT029, 030, and 031 did not lead to any adverse effect. The three new candidates led to seroconversion, with antibody titers significantly higher than those raised by the commercial gold standard. While the antisera raised in piglets by Ingelvac CircoFLEX predominantly recognized viral antigens derived from a PCV2a strain, the antisera raised by BNT029, 030, and 031 predominantly recognized viral antigens derived from PCV2b and PCV2d strains. Therefore, we have confirmed the initial hypotheses aimed for the new candidates. Currently, we are carrying out serum neutralization assays to confirm that the immune response raised by the new candidates in piglets can neutralize effectively the infection by the currently predominant viral strains of PCV2

Markers of infection, breast-feeding and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Infections are suspected to play a role in the aetiology of childhood leukaemia. In 1989–95, we evaluated the relation between childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and pre- and postnatal markers of exposure to infection, as well as breast-feeding. A population-based case-control study was carried out in certain regions of Québec, Canada, in 1989–95 including 491 incident cases diagnosed between 1980 and 1993 and aged between 0 and 9 years. An identical number of healthy controls matched for age, sex and region of residence at the date of diagnosis was included. Having older siblings, mother's use of antibiotics during pregnancy, and being born second or later were all associated with increased risk of leukaemia while early day-care attendance (odds ratio (OR) = 0.49; 95% CI 0.31–0.77), and breast-feeding (OR = 0.68; 95% CI 0.49–0.95) were significantly protective. A marker of population mixing was not a risk factor. When including all variables defining family structure in a model, having older siblings at time of diagnosis was a risk factor among children diagnosed before 4 years of age (OR = 4.54; 95% CI 2.27–9.07) whereas having older siblings in the first year of life was protective among children diagnosed at 4 years of age or later (OR = 0.46; 95% CI 0.22–0.97). © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

The minimum shear stress range criterion and its application to crack orientation prediction in incomplete contact fretting problems

[EN] A proper prediction of crack paths is required when assessing accurately the fatigue crack propagation life. Recently, some authors have pointed out that the criterion of minimum shear stress range leads to inconsistent results when predicting fretting crack paths under incomplete contacts. In this paper, different fretting experiments with cylinder-to-flat contact found in the literature are reviewed, and the corresponding crack path prediction using the extended finite element method and the minimum shear stress range crack orientation criterion is performed. Results show the applicability of the criterion to predict the crack orientation during stage II in incomplete contact fretting problems.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support given by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the FEDER program through the project DPI2017-89197-C2-1-R, DPI2017-89197-C2-2-R and DPI2014-56137-C2-2-R and the FPI subprogram associated to the project with the reference BES-2015-072070. The support of the Generalitat Valenciana, Programme PROMETEO 2016/007, is also acknowledged. The financial support given by the Eusko Jaurlaritza under "Programa de apoyo a la investigacion colaborativa en areas estrategicas" (Project MEDECA: Ref. KK-2017/00053, and MEDECA2: Ref. KK-2018/00013) programs is also acknowledged.Infante, D.; Llavori, I.; Zabala, A.; Giner Maravilla, E. (2019). The minimum shear stress range criterion and its application to crack orientation prediction in incomplete contact fretting problems. International Journal of Fatigue. 129:1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2019.105223S1912

Spin and lattice excitations of a BiFeO3 thin film and ceramics

We present a comprehensive study of polar and magnetic excitations in BiFeO3 ceramics and a thin film epitaxially grown on an orthorhombic (110) TbScO3 substrate. Infrared reflectivity spectroscopy was performed at temperatures from 5 to 900 K for the ceramics and below room temperature for the thin film. All 13 polar phonons allowed by the factor-group analysis were observed in theceramic samples. The thin-film spectra revealed 12 phonon modes only and an additional weak excitation, probably of spin origin. On heating towards the ferroelectric phase transition near 1100 K, some phonons soften, leading to an increase in the static permittivity. In the ceramics, terahertz transmission spectra show five low-energy magnetic excitations including two which were not previously known to be infrared active; at 5 K, their frequencies are 53 and 56 cm-1. Heating induces softening of all magnetic modes. At a temperature of 5 K, applying an external magnetic field of up to 7 T irreversibly alters the intensities of some of these modes. The frequencies of the observed spin excitations provide support for the recently developed complex model of magnetic interactions in BiFeO3 (R.S. Fishman, Phys. Rev. B 87, 224419 (2013)). The simultaneous infrared and Raman activity of the spin excitations is consistent with their assignment to electromagnons

On the Use of the Theory of Critical Distances with Mesh Control for Fretting Fatigue Lifetime Assessment

This work analyses the viability of the theory of critical distances (TCD) using mesh control for fretting fatigue lifetime assessment. More than seven hundred sets of simulations were performed by taking seventy different experimental tests reported previously in the literature. The outcome of the present study suggests that the TCD mesh control method can be extended to fretting fatigue problems by the reasonable assumption of setting the right element size proportional to critical distance. In this study, a significant computational time reduction of up to 97% was obtained. Thus, this study provides a simple method to design complex 3D industrial components subjected to fretting fatigue phenomena using finite element analysis efficiently without requiring complex remeshing techniques

Community-level reorganizations following migratory pollinator dynamics along a latitudinal gradient

Predicting how communities re-arrange in response to changes in species composition remains a key challenge in ecology. Migratory species, which enter and leave communities across latitudinal gradients, offer us a unique opportunity to evaluate community- and species-level responses to a shift in community composition. We focused on a migratory hummingbird and the communities that host it along a latitudinal and species diversity gradient. Our results show higher niche overlap in more diverse communities, allowing resident species to compensate for the loss of the migrant in providing pollination services. Contrastingly, in less diverse communities, the migrant behaves as a specialist, monopolizing abundant resources. In its absence, its role is not fully covered by resident species, resulting in a decrease in the fruit set of the migrant's preferred plant species. These results help us understand the potential impacts of biodiversity loss and have important implications for community persistence given expected changes in the migratory behaviours of some species. © 2020 The Author(s).Work produced with the support of a 2018 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators, BBVA Foundation. The Foundation takes no responsibility for the opinions, statements and contents of this project, which are entirely the responsibility of its authors. AM received funding from an Ikerbasque Research Fellowship

Strain-driven elastic and orbital-ordering effects on thickness-dependent properties of manganite thin films

We report on the structural and magnetic characterization of (110) and (001) La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 (LCMO) epitaxial thin films simultaneously grown on (110) and (001)SrTiO3 substrates, with thicknesses t varying between 8 nm and 150 nm. It is found that while the in-plane interplanar distances of the (001) films are strongly clamped to those of the substrate and the films remain strained up to well above t=100 nm, the (110) films relax much earlier. Accurate determination of the in-plane and out-of-plane interplanar distances has allowed concluding that in all cases the unit cell volume of the manganite reduces gradually when increasing thickness, approaching the bulk value. It is observed that the magnetic properties (Curie temperature and saturation magnetization) of the (110) films are significantly improved compared to those of (001) films. These observations, combined with 55Mn-nuclear magnetic resonance data and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, signal that the depression of the magnetic properties of the more strained (001)LCMO films is not caused by an elastic deformation of the perovskite lattice but rather due to the electronic and chemical phase separation caused by the substrate-induced strain. On the contrary, the thickness dependence of the magnetic properties of the less strained (110)LCMO films are simply described by the elastic deformation of the manganite lattice. We will argue that the different behavior of (001) and (110)LCMO films is a consequence of the dissimilar electronic structure of these interfaces.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure

The rna-binding ubiquitin ligase mex3a affects glioblastoma tumorigenesis by inducing ubiquitylation and degradation of rig-i

Glioblastoma multiforme (GB) is the most malignant primary brain tumor in humans, with an overall survival of approximatively 15 months. The molecular heterogeneity of GB, as well as its rapid progression, invasiveness and the occurrence of drug-resistant cancer stem cells, limits the efficacy of the current treatments. In order to develop an innovative therapeutic strategy, it is mandatory to identify and characterize new molecular players responsible for the GB malignant phenotype. In this study, the RNA-binding ubiquitin ligase MEX3A was selected from a gene expression analysis performed on publicly available datasets, to assess its biological and still-unknown activity in GB tumorigenesis. We find that MEX3A is strongly up-regulated in GB specimens, and this correlates with very low protein levels of RIG-I, a tumor suppressor involved in differentiation, apoptosis and innate immune response. We demonstrate that MEX3A binds RIG-I and induces its ubiquitylation and proteasome-dependent degradation. Further, the genetic depletion of MEX3A leads to an increase of RIG-I protein levels and results in the suppression of GB cell growth. Our findings unveil a novel molecular mechanism involved in GB tumorigenesis and suggest MEX3A and RIG-I as promising therapeutic targets in GB