Lipids at the crossroad of α-synuclein function and dysfunction: Biological and pathological implications

Since its discovery, the study of the biological role ofα-synuclein and its pathologicalimplications has been the subject of increasing interest. The propensity to adoptdifferent conformational states governing its aggregation and fibrillation makes thissmall 14-kDa cytosolic protein one of the main etiologic factors associated withdegenerative disorders known as synucleinopathies. The structure, function, and toxicityofα-synuclein and the possibility of different therapeutic approaches to target theprotein have been extensively investigated and reviewed. One intriguing characteristic ofα-synuclein is the different ways in which it interacts with lipids. Though in-depth studieshave been carried out in this field, the information they have produced is puzzling andthe precise role of lipids inα-synuclein biology and pathology andvice versais still largelyunknown. Here we provide an overview and discussion of the main findings relating toα-synuclein/lipid interaction and its involvement in the modulation of lipid metabolismand signaling.Fil: Alza, Natalia Paola. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Química; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca; ArgentinaFil: Iglesias González, Pablo Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca; ArgentinaFil: Conde, Melisa Ailén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Uranga, Romina Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Salvador, Gabriela Alejandra. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca; Argentin

Técnicas de investigación como metodología docente en ciencia, tecnología e ingeniería de cereales: calidad harino-panadera de la harina de teff (erogrostis tef (zucc.))

La experiencia descrita en este trabajo responde a la motivación de un grupo de profesores de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid por implantar nuevas metodologías docentes, de cara a la puesta en marcha progresiva de los nuevos grados en el marco del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES). El objetivo consistió en utilizar las técnicas de investigación como herramienta interactiva en el proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje, para resolver un trabajo propuesto en la asignatura “Industrias de Cereales” durante el curso académico 2009/10. La colaboración de docentes de más de un departamento permitió enriquecer la experiencia, al aportar un enfoque multidisciplinar. La tentativa (prueba), ha sido altamente satisfactoria tanto para los estudiantes como para los docentes. Una parte de los resultados obtenidos se han presentado como comunicación oral en el III Congreso de Estudiantes de Ciencia, Tecnología e Ingeniería Agronómica, organizado por la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (5 y 6 de mayo de 2010). Se espera seguir colaborando en la misma línea en cursos venideros

MobyDeep: A lightweight CNN architecture to configure models for text classification

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUGNowadays, trends in deep learning for text classification are addressed to create complex models to deal with huge datasets. Deeper models are usually based on cutting edge neural network architectures, achieving good results in general but demanding better hardware than shallow ones. In this work, a new Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture (MobyDeep) for text classification tasks is proposed. Designed as a configurable tool, resultant models (MobyNets) are able to manage big corpora sizes under low computational costs. To achieve those milestones, the architecture was conceived to produce lightweight models, having their internal layers based on a new proposed convolutional block. That block was designed and customized by adapting ideas from image to text processing, helping to squeezing model sizes and to reduce computational costs. The architecture was also designed as a residual network, covering complex functions by extending models up to 28 layers. Moreover, middle layers were optimized by residual connections, helping to remove fully connected layers on top and resulting in Fully CNN. Corpus were chosen from the recent literature, aiming to define real scenarios when comparing configured MobyDeep models with other state-of the-art works. Thus, three models were configured in 8, 16 and 28 layers respectively, offering competitive accuracy results

Is tagging with visual implant elastomer a reliable technique for marking earthworms?

Visual implant elastomer (VIE) has recently been employed to investigate different aspects of earthworm ecology. However, a number of fundamental questions relating to the detection and positioning of the tag, its persistence and potential effects on earthworms remain unknown. Seven earthworm species belonging to three ecological groupings, with different pigmentation and burrowing behaviour, were tagged using different coloured VIE. External inspection after two days, one week and 1, 10 and 27 months were followed by preservation, dissection and internal inspection. Tags could be seen in living specimens to 27 months, and dissection revealed that in most cases they were lodged in the coelomic cavity, held in place by septa. However, over longer time periods (more than two years), the chlorogogenous tissue tended to bind to the tags and made external observation increasingly difficult. Migration of the VIE material towards the posterior of the earthworm and potential loss of the tag were only observed on rare occasions, and a recovery rate in excess of 98% was recorded. By introducing a reasonable amount of VIE into segments, just after the clitellum, this technique can become a valuable tool in earthworm ecology and life history studies, particularly in short-medium term laboratory and field experiments

Catatonia and Cognitive Impairments : A Systematic Review

Catatonia is an underdiagnosed and undertreated neuropsychiatric syndrome characterized by catalepsy, negativism, mutism, muscular rigidity, and mannerism, often accompanied by autonomic instability and fever. Although there is growing interest in studying cognitive impairments before and after catatonia, little is known about the cognitive features of the syndrome. This systematic review was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42022299091). Using a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach, we searched PubMed, ScienceDirect, and PsycArticles using a combination of the terms "Catatonia" and "Cognitive impairment" and "Executive function" and "Frontal lobe" and "Parietal lobe." Studies included original research articles enrolling patients with catatonic syndrome according to specified criteria. Fourteen studies were deemed relevant for inclusion. The abstraction form included age, assessment during acute episode, associated diagnosis, assessment procedure, and cognitive domains. Outcome measures were extracted. Executive functions and visuospatial abilities proved to be the most investigated domains. A great heterogeneity has been observed in the assessment tools used among the 14 evaluated studies. Findings showed that catatonic patients had worse performance than healthy and non-catatonic psychiatric patients in frontal and parietal cortical functions. Because of the small number of studies in such heterogeneous areas and significant methodological limitations, the results should be regarded with caution. Future research assessing cognitive impairments on catatonic patients is needed. [], identifier [CRD42022299091]

Inhibition of PKCε induces primordial germ cell reprogramming into pluripotency by HIF1&2 upregulation and histone acetylation

Historically, primordial germ cells (PGCs) have been a good model to study pluripotency. Despite their low numbers and limited accessibility in the mouse embryo, they can be easily and rapidly reprogrammed at high efficiency with external physicochemical factors and do not require transcription factor transfection. Employing this model to deepen our understanding of cell reprogramming, we specifically aimed to determine the relevance of Ca2+ signal transduction pathway components in the reprogramming process. Our results showed that PGC reprogramming requires a normal extracellular [Ca2+] range, in contrast to neoplastic or transformed cells, which can continue to proliferate in Ca2+-deficient media, differentiating normal reprogramming from neoplastic transformation. Our results also showed that a spike in extracellular [Ca2+] of 1-3 mM can directly reprogram PGC. Intracellular manipulation of Ca2+ signal transduction pathway components revealed that inhibition of classical Ca2+ and diacylglycerol (DAG)-dependent PKCs, or intriguingly, of only the novel DAG-dependent PKC, PKCε, were able to induce reprogramming. PKCε inhibition changed the metabolism of PGCs toward glycolysis, increasing the proportion of inactive mitochondria. This metabolic switch from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis is mediated by hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs), given we found upregulation of both HIF1α and HIF2α in the first 48 hours of culturing. PKCε inhibition did not change the classical pluripotency gene expression of PGCs, Oct4, or Nanog. PKCε inhibition changed the histone acetylation of PGCs, with histones H2B, H3, and H4 becoming acetylated in PKCε-inhibited cultures (markers were H2BacK20, H3acK9, and H4acK5K8, K12, K16), suggesting that reprogramming by PKCε inhibition is mediated by histone acetylation

Driving Forces of Forest Expansion Dynamics across the Iberian Peninsula (1987-2017) : A Spatio-Temporal Transect

This study analyzes the spatio-temporal dynamics of the drivers of forest expansion in the Iberian Peninsula for the periods 1987-2002-2017 through a 185 km-wide north-south Landsat scene transect. The analysis has considered a variety of biogeographical regions [0-3500 m.a.s.l, annual rainfalls 150-2200 mm] and 30 explanatory variables. A rigorous map production at 30 m resolution, including detailed filtering methods and uncertainty management at pixel scale, provided high-quality land cover maps. The main forest expansion trajectories were related to explanatory variables using boosted regression trees. Proximity to previous forests was a key common factor for forest encroachment in all forest types, with other factors being distance to the hydrographic network, temperature and precipitation for broadleaf deciduous forests (BDF), precipitation, temperature and solar radiation for broadleaf evergreen forests (BEF) and precipitation, distance to province capitals, and solar radiation for needleleaf evergreen forests (NEFs). Results also showed contrasting forest expansion trajectories and drivers per biogeographic region, with a high dynamism of grasslands towards new forest in the Eurosiberian and the mountainous Mediterranean regions, a high importance of croplands as land cover origin of new forest in the Mesomediterranean, and increasing importance over time of socioeconomic drivers (such as those employed in the industry sector and the utilized agricultural area) in the Supramediterranean region but the opposite pattern in the Southern Mesomediterranean. Lower precipitation rates favored new NEFs from shrublands in the Thermomediterraean region which, together with the Northern Mesomediterranean, exhibited the highest relative rates of new forests. These findings provide reliable insights to develop policies considering the ecological and social impacts of land abandonment and subsequent forest expansion

Life + Olmos vivos. Un nuevo impulso a los olmos... o cuando las amistades se vuelven peligrosas: la grafiosis del olmo

Divulgación del proyecto europeo Life + sobre la propagación de olmos resistentes en España como medida de recuperación de la especie

Multidisciplinary approach to assessment and intervention of feeding problems in children with autism spectrum disorders: a clinical perspective

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to share the details of a multidisciplinary approach, which includes occupational therapy, and to review the factors that should be considered in the evaluation and treatment of children with ASD who are excessively selective in their food choices. Issues in this area are complex and often related to several complementary domains (medical, nutritional, psychosocial, sensorimotor, etc.). However, feeding disorders are frequently assessed and treated from a single discipline and important issues are missed or confounded. Approach: A team of experienced clinicians in the field of paediatric feeding disorders gathered the knowledge and experience they acquired from working with individuals with ASD as well as with individuals with other neurodevelopmental diagnosis. A review of current literature in paediatric feeding disorders was used to document and explicate the multifactorial nature of feeding disorders in children with ASD and justify the need for a multidisciplinary approach to issues in this area. Findings: Feeding disorders in children with ASD are linked to multiple sensory, motor, behavioural, nutritional, and gastrointestinal comorbidities. A multidisciplinary approach is needed and increasingly recommended. However, multidisciplinary teams specialized in the care of children with ASD and feeding issues, continue to be difficult to locate and access for families. We sought to highlight the signs of feeding problems in children with ASD from different domains and share a model of a multidisciplinary approach which can lead to more successful interventions. Originality: The detailed description of the domains linked to feeding issues and the clinical descriptions provided throughout the paper create a roadmap for other clinicians aiming to set up similar teams

The role of recent (1985-2014) patterns of land abandonment and environmental factors in the establishment and growth of secondary forests in the Iberian Peninsula

Farmland abandonment has been a widespread land-use change in the Iberian Peninsula since the second half of the 20th century, leading to the establishment of secondary forests across the region. In this study, we aimed to address changes in the recent (1985-2014) emergence patterns of these forests and examine how environmental factors affected their growth by considering differences in leaf-habit types. We used a combination of Landsat-derived land-cover maps and above-ground biomass (AGB) maps from the European Space Agency to assess the secondary forest establishment and growth, respectively, in the study region. We also obtained a set of topographic, climatic and landscape variables from diverse GIS layers and used them for determining changes over time in the environmental drivers of forest establishment and AGB using general linear models. The results highlight that secondary forest cover was still increasing in the Iberian Peninsula at a rate above the European average. Yet, they also indicate a directional change in the emergence of secondary forests towards lower and less steep regions with higher water availability (mean rainfall and SPEI) and less forest cover but are subjected to greater drought events. In addition, these environmental factors differentially affect the growth of forests with different leaf-habit types: i.e., needleleaf secondary forests being less favoured by high temperature and precipitation, and broad-leaf deciduous forests being most negatively affected by drought. Finally, these spatial patterns of forest emergence and the contrasting responses of forest leaf-habits to environmental factors explained the major development of broadleaf evergreen compared to broadleaf deciduous forests and, especially, needleleaf secondary forests. These results will improve the knowledge of forest dynamics that have occurred in the Iberian Peninsula in recent decades and provide an essential tool for understanding the potential effects of climate warming on secondary forest growth