Gait switches in deep-diving beaked whales : biomechanical strategies for long-duration dives

Work in the Canary Islands was funded by the Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), by a consortium consisting of the Canary Islands Government, the Spanish Ministry of Environment and the Spanish Ministry of Defense and by the European environmental funding LIFE-INDEMARES program for the inventory and designation of the Natura 2000 network in marine areas of the Spanish territory, headed by Fundacion Biodiversidad, with additional support from the Cabildo Insular of El Hierro. Fieldwork in the Ligurian Sea was funded by NOPP. Research in the Gully was funded by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) programs RC-2113 and RC-2337. L.M.M.L. was funded by a ‘la Caixa’ Fellowship within the 2010 UK Framework Programme. N.A.d.S. was funded for this study by ONR and by the EU FP7 Marie Curie project SOUNDMAR. M.J. was funded by a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant, and from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) and their support is gratefully acknowledged. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Diving animals modulate their swimming gaits to promote locomotor efficiency and so enable longer, more productive dives. Beaked whales perform extremely long and deep foraging dives that probably exceed aerobic capacities for some species. Here, we use biomechanical data from suction-cup tags attached to three species of beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris, N = 10; Ziphius cavirostris, N = 9; and Hyperoodon ampullatus, N = 2) to characterize their swimming gaits. In addition to continuous stroking and stroke and-glide gaits described for other diving mammals, all whales produced occasional fluke-strokes with distinctly larger dorsoventral acceleration, which we termed 'type-B' strokes. These high-power strokes occurred almost exclusively during deep dive ascents as part of a novel mixed gait. To quantify body rotations and specific acceleration generated during strokes we adapted a kinematic method combining data from two sensors in the tag. Body rotations estimated with high-rate magnetometer data were subtracted from accelerometer data to estimate the resulting surge and heave accelerations. Using this method, we show that stroke duration, rotation angle and acceleration were bi-modal for these species, with B-strokes having 76% of the duration, 52% larger body rotation and four times more surge than normal strokes. The additional acceleration of B-strokes did not lead to faster ascents, but rather enabled brief glides, which may improve the overall efficiency of this gait. Their occurrence towards the end of long dives leads us to propose that B-strokes may recruit fast-twitch fibres that comprise similar to 80% of swimming muscles in Blainville's beaked whales, thus prolonging foraging time at depth.PostprintPeer reviewe

Management of the COPD patient with comorbidities: an experts recommendation document

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with multiple comorbidities, which impact negatively on patients and are often underdiagnosed, thus lacking a proper management due to the absence of clear guidelines. Purpose: To elaborate expert recommendations aimed to help healthcare professionals to provide the right care for treating COPD patients with comorbidities. Methods: A modified RAND-UCLA appropriateness method consisting of nominal groups to draw up consensus recommendations (6 Spanish experts) and 2-Delphi rounds to validate them (23 Spanish experts) was performed. Results: A panel of Spanish internal medicine experts reached consensus on 73 recommendations and 81 conclusions on the clinical consequences of the presence of comorbidities. In general, the experts reached consensus on the issues raised with regard to cardiovascular comorbidity and metabolic disorders. Consensus was reached on the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in cases of depression and the usefulness of referring patients with anxiety to respiratory rehabilitation programmes. The results also showed consensus on the usefulness of investigating the quality of sleep, the treatment of pain with opioids and the evaluation of osteoporosis by lateral chest radiography. Conclusion: This study provides conclusions and recommendations that are intended to improve the management of the complexity of patients with COPD and important comorbidities, usually excluded from clinical trials. Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, comorbidities, modified RANDUCLA, Delphi techniqu

Search for dark matter produced in association with a dark higgs boson decaying into W ± W∓ or ZZ in fully hadronic final states from √s= 13 TeV pp Collisions Recorded with the ATLAS Detector

Artículo escrito por un elevado número de autores, solo se referencian el que aparece en primer lugar, el nombre del grupo de colaboración, si le hubiere, y los autores pertenecientes a la UA

Total and high molecular weight adiponectin have similar utility for the identification of insulin resistance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Insulin resistance (IR) and related metabolic disturbances are characterized by low levels of adiponectin. High molecular weight adiponectin (HMWA) is considered the active form of adiponectin and a better marker of IR than total adiponectin. The objective of this study is to compare the utility of total adiponectin, HMWA and the HMWA/total adiponectin index (S_Aindex) for the identification of IR and related metabolic conditions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional analysis was performed in a group of ambulatory subjects, aged 20 to 70 years, in Mexico City. Areas under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve for total, HMWA and the S_Aindex were plotted for the identification of metabolic disturbances. Sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy for the identification of IR were calculated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study included 101 men and 168 women. The areas under the ROC curve for total and HMWA for the identification of IR (0.664 <it>vs</it>. 0.669, <it>P </it>= 0.74), obesity (0.592 <it>vs</it>. 0.610, <it>P </it>= 0.32), hypertriglyceridemia (0.661 <it>vs</it>. 0.671, <it>P </it>= 0.50) and hypoalphalipoproteinemia (0.624 <it>vs</it>. 0.633, <it>P </it>= 0.58) were similar. A total adiponectin level of 8.03 μg/ml was associated with a sensitivity of 57.6%, a specificity of 65.9%, a positive predictive value of 50.0%, a negative predictive value of 72.4%, and an accuracy of 62.7% for the diagnosis of IR. The corresponding figures for a HMWA value of 4.25 μg/dl were 59.6%, 67.1%, 51.8%, 73.7% and 64.2%.</p> <p>The area under the ROC curve of the S_Aindex for the identification of IR was 0.622 [95% CI 0.554-0.691], obesity 0.613 [95% CI 0.536-0.689], hypertriglyceridemia 0.616 [95% CI 0.549-0.683], and hypoalphalipoproteinemia 0.606 [95% CI 0.535-0.677].</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Total adiponectin, HMWA and the S_Aindex had similar utility for the identification of IR and metabolic disturbances.</p

Novel signatures for vector-like quarks

We consider supersymmetric extensions of the standard model with a vector-like doublet (T B) of quarks with charge 2/3 and −1/3, respectively. Compared to non-supersymmetric models, there is a variety of new decay modes for the vector-like quarks, involving the extra scalars present in supersymmetry. The importance of these new modes, yielding multi-top, multi-bottom and also multi-Higgs signals, is highlighted by the analysis of several benchmark scenarios. We show how the triangles commonly used to represent the branching ratios of the ‘standard’ decay modes of the vector-like quarks involving W, Z or Higgs bosons can be generalised to include additional channels. We give an example by recasting the limits of a recent heavy quark search for this more general case.The work of J.A. Aguilar-Saavedra has been supported by MINECO Projects FPA 2016- 78220-C3-1-P and FPA 2013-47836-C3-2-P (including ERDF), and by Junta de Andaluc a Project FQM-101. The work of D.E. L opez-Fogliani has been supported by the Argentinian CONICET. The work of C. Mu~noz has been supported in part by the Programme SEV- 2012-0249 `Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa'. D.E. L opez-Fogliani and C. Mu~noz also acknowledge the support of the Spanish grant FPA2015-65929-P (MINECO/FEDER, UE), and MINECO's Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Programme under grant MultiDark CSD2009- 00064

Epidemiology and molecular characterization of Carnivore protoparvovirus-1 infection in the wild felid Leopardus guigna in Chile

Landscape anthropization has been identified as one of the main drivers of pathogen emergence worldwide, facilitating pathogen spillover between domestic species and wildlife. The present study investigated Carnivore protoparvovirus-1 infection using molecular methods in 98 free-ranging wild guignas (Leopardus guigna) and 262 co-occurring owned, free-roaming rural domestic cats. We also assessed landscape anthropization variables as potential drivers of infection. Protoparvovirus DNA was detected in guignas across their entire distribution range, with observed prevalence of 13.3% (real-time PCR) and 9% (conventional PCR) in guignas, and 6.1% (conventional PCR) in cats. Prevalence in guigna did not vary depending on age, sex, study area or landscape variables. Prevalence was higher in juvenile cats (16.7%) than in adults (4.4%). Molecular characterization of the virus by amplification and sequencing of almost the entire vp2 gene (1, 746 bp) from one guigna and five domestic cats was achieved, showing genetic similarities to canine parvovirus 2c (CPV-2c) (one guigna and one cat), feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) (one cat), CPV-2 (no subtype identified) (two cats), CPV-2a (one cat). The CVP-2c-like sequence found in a guigna clustered together with domestic cat and dog CPV-2c sequences from South America, suggesting possible spillover from a domestic to a wild species as the origin of infection in guigna. No clinical signs of disease were found in PCR-positive animals except for a CPV-2c-infected guigna, which had haemorrhagic diarrhoea and died a few days after arrival at a wildlife rescue centre. Our findings reveal widespread presence of Carnivore protoparvovirus-1 across the guigna distribution in Chile and suggest that virus transmission potentially occurs from domestic to wild carnivores, causing severe disease and death in susceptible wild guignas

POISSON project - II - A multi-wavelength spectroscopic and photometric survey of young protostars in L 1641

Characterising stellar and circumstellar properties of embedded young stellar objects (YSOs) is mandatory for understanding the early stages of the stellar evolution. This task requires the combination of both spectroscopy and photometry, covering the widest possible wavelength range, to disentangle the various protostellar components and activities. As part of the POISSON project, we present a multi-wavelength spectroscopic and photometric investigation of embedded YSOs in L1641, aimed to derive the stellar parameters and evolutionary stages and to infer their accretion properties. Our database includes low-resolution optical-IR spectra from the NTT and Spitzer (0.6-40 um) and photometric data covering a spectral range from 0.4 to 1100 um, which allow us to construct the YSOs spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and to infer the main stellar parameters. The SED analysis allows us to group our 27 YSOs into nine Class I, eleven Flat, and seven Class II objects. However, on the basis of the derived stellar properties, only six Class I YSOs have an age of ~10^5 yr, while the others are older 5x10^5-10^6 yr), and, among the Flat sources, three out of eleven are more evolved objects (5x10^6-10^7 yr), indicating that geometrical effects can significantly modify the SED shapes. Inferred mass accretion rates (Macc) show a wide range of values (3.6x10^-9 to 1.2x10^-5 M_sun yr^-1), which reflects the age spread observed in our sample. Average values of mass accretion rates, extinction, and spectral indices decrease with the YSO class. The youngest YSOs have the highest Macc, whereas the oldest YSOs do not show any detectable jet activity in either images and spectra. We also observe a clear correlation among the YSO Macc, M*, and age, consistent with mass accretion evolution in viscous disc models.Comment: 61 pages, 16 figures; A&A in pres