Palynological age constraint of Les Vilelles unit, Catalan Coastal Chain, Spain

Les Vilelles unit is a detrital sequence exposed at the southwestern margin of the Catalan Coastal Chain (CCC), NE Spain, below the Carboniferous turbiditic series. Based on the palynological content, the age of this unit was initially assigned to the Middle-Late Devonian (Eifelian to Famennian). Additional radiolarian and conodont findings were considered to be Early–Middle Mississippian (Tournaisian to early Visean). To clarify this age discrepancy a new and more comprehensive palynostratigraphic analysis has been conducted in the upper part of the section representative of Les Vilelles unit. This has provided an assemblage of miospores, acritarchs, prasinophyta phycomata and chitinozoans that can be confidently assigned to a latest Frasnian interval, in contact with the Frasnian–Famennian boundary. Therefore, the present analysis refines the Middle–Late Devonian age formerly assigned, establishes a latest Frasnian age for the top of the unit, and provides new insights to the better understanding of the unconformity and hiatus separating the pre-Carboniferous and Carboniferous CCC series in the Priorat Massif. The study also includes a systematic section with the description of three newly established miospore species: Dibolisporites coniugatum, Dibolisporites prioratum and Rugospora spinosa

Palynological age constraint of Les Vilelles unit, Catalan Coastal Chain, Spain

Les Vilelles unit is a detrital sequence exposed at the southwestern margin of the Catalan Coastal Chain (CCC), NE Spain, below the Carboniferous turbiditic series. Based on the palynological content, the age of this unit was initially assigned to the Middle-Late Devonian (Eifelian to Famennian). Additional radiolarian and conodont findings were considered to be Early–Middle Mississippian (Tournaisian to early Visean). To clarify this age discrepancy a new and more comprehensive palynostratigraphic analysis has been conducted in the upper part of the section representative of Les Vilelles unit. This has provided an assemblage of miospores, acritarchs, prasinophyta phycomata and chitinozoans that can be confidently assigned to a latest Frasnian interval, in contact with the Frasnian–Famennian boundary. Therefore, the present analysis refines the Middle–Late Devonian age formerly assigned, establishes a latest Frasnian age for the top of the unit, and provides new insights to the better understanding of the unconformity and hiatus separating the pre-Carboniferous and Carboniferous CCC series in the Priorat Massif. The study also includes a systematic section with the description of three newly established miospore species: Dibolisporites coniugatum, Dibolisporites prioratum and Rugospora spinosa

Liberal Typing for Functional Logic Programs

We propose a new type system for functional logic programming which is more liberal than the classical Damas-Milner usually adopted, but it is also restrictive enough to ensure type soundness. Starting from Damas-Milner typing of expressions we propose a new notion of well-typed program that adds support for type-indexed functions, existential types, opaque higher-order patterns and generic functions-as shown by an extensive collection of examples that illustrate the possibilities of our proposal. In the negative side, the types of functions must be declared, and therefore types are checked but not inferred. Another consequence is that parametricity is lost, although the impact of this flaw is limited as "free theorems" were already compromised in functional logic programming because of non-determinism

Endogenous Biosynthesis of S-Nitrosoglutathione From Nitro-Fatty Acids in Plants

Nitro-fatty acids (NO2-FAs) are novel molecules resulting from the interaction of unsaturated fatty acids and nitric oxide (NO) or NO-related molecules. In plants, it has recently been described that NO2-FAs trigger an antioxidant and a defence response against stressful situations. Among the properties of NO2-FAs highlight the ability to release NO therefore modulating specific protein targets through post-translational modifications (NO-PTMs). Thus, based on the capacity of NO2-FAs to act as physiological NO donors and using high-accuracy mass-spectrometric approaches, herein, we show that endogenous nitro-linolenic acid (NO2-Ln) can modulate S nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. The incubation of NO2-Ln with GSH was analyzed by LC-MS/MS and the in vitro synthesis of GSNO was noted. The in vivo confirmation of this behavior was carried out by incubating Arabidopsis plants with 15N-labeled NO2-Ln throughout the roots, and 15N-labeled GSNO (GS15NO) was detected in the leaves. With the aim to go in depth in the relation of NO2-FA and GSNO in plants, Arabidopsis alkenal reductase mutants (aer mutants) which modulate NO2-FAs levels were used. Our results constitute the first evidence of the modulation of a key NO biological reservoir in plants (GSNO) by these novel NO2-FAs, increasing knowledge about S-nitrosothiols and GSNO-signaling pathways in plants.This work was supported by an ERDF grant cofinanced by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness FIGURE 7 | Modulation of GSNO-signalling pathway by NO2-Ln in Arabidopsis leaves. NO2-Ln is up-taken by the root system and transported to plant leaves. Once in these organs, NO2-Ln can release nitric oxide (NO) and mediate the S-nitrosation of abundant glutathione (GSH) present in plant leaves and leading to the formation of S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO). The generation of this low-molecular weight S-nitrosothiol (SNO) from NO2-Ln can affect the SNO-signaling pathway by modulating the transport and storage of NO, the response to several (a)biotic stress conditions or mediating the ability of SNO to perform post-translational modifications. Mata-Pe´ rez et al. Nitro-Fatty Acids Generates S-Nitrosogluthatione Frontiers in Plant Science | www.frontiersin.org 10 June 2020 | Volume 11 | Article 962 (project PGC2018-096405-B-100), I+D+i Projects in the framework of the Andalusia 2014-2020 ERDF Operational Programme (Reference 1263509), Funding for the recruitment of researchers under the Action 10 of the Research Support Plan of the University of Jaén (2019-2020; R.02/10/2020) and the Junta de Andalucía (group BIO286) in Spain. LC-MS/MS technical and human support provided by CICT of Universidad de Jaé n (UJA, MINECO, Junta de Andalućıa, FEDER) is gratefully acknowledged

Reliability and validity of body weight and body image perception in children and adolescents from the South American Youth/Child Cardiovascular and Environmental (SAYCARE) Study

Objective: To assess the reliability and validity of body weight (BW) and body image (BI) perception reported by parents (in children) and by adolescents in a South American population. Design: Cross-sectional study. BW perception was evaluated by the question, "Do you think you/your child are/is: severely wasted, wasted, normal weight, overweight, obese?" BI perception was evaluated using the Gardner scale. To evaluate reliability, BW and BI perceptions were reported twice, two weeks apart. To evaluate validity, the BW and BI perceptions were compared with WHO BMI Z-scores. Kappa and Kendall's tau-c coefficients were obtained. Setting: Public and private schools and high schools from six countries of South America (Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil). Participants: Children aged 3-10 years (n 635) and adolescents aged 11-17 years (n 400). Results: Reliability of BW perception was fair in children's parents (k=0·337) and substantial in adolescents (k=0·709). Validity of BW perception was slight in children's parents (k=0·176) and fair in adolescents (k=0·268). When evaluating BI, most children were perceived by parents as having lower weight. Reliability of BI perception was slight in children's parents (k=0·124) and moderate in adolescents (k=0·599). Validity of BI perception was poor in children's parents (k=-0·018) and slight in adolescents (k=0·023). Conclusions: Reliability of BW and BI perceptions was higher in adolescents than in children's parents. Validity of BW perception was good among the parents of the children and adolescents with underweight and normal weight

Prediction of Pathological Tremor Signals Using Long Short-Term Memory Neural Networks

Previous implementations of closed-loop peripheral electrical stimulation (PES) strategies have provided evidence about the effect of the stimulation timing on tremor reduction. However, these strategies have used traditional signal processing techniques that only consider phase prediction and might not model the non-stationary behavior of tremor. Here, we tested the use of long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks to predict tremor signals using kinematic data recorded from Essential Tremor (ET) patients. A dataset comprising wrist flexion-extension data from 12 ET patients was pre-processed to feed the predictors. A total of 180 models resulting from the combination of network (neurons and layers of the LSTM networks, length of the input sequence and prediction horizon) and training parameters (learning rate) were trained, validated and tested. Predicted tremor signals using LSTM-based models presented high correlation values (from 0.709 to 0.998) with the expected values, with a phase delay between the predicted and real signals below 15 ms, which corresponds approximately to 7.5% of a tremor cycle. The prediction horizon was the parameter with a higher impact on the prediction performance. The proposed LSTM-based models were capable of predicting both phase and amplitude of tremor signals outperforming results from previous studies (32 - 56% decreased phase prediction error compared to the out-of-phase method), which might provide a more robust PES-based closed-loop control applied to PES-based tremor reduction.The authors would like to thank Cristina Montero Pardo for illustrations from Fig. 1 and the patients from Gregorio Marañón Hospital who voluntarily participated in this study

Effectiveness of rosuvastatin plus colchicine, emtricitabine/tenofovir and combinations thereof in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 : a pragmatic, open-label randomized trial

Q1Q1The use of rosuvastatin plus colchicine and emtricitabine/tenofovir in hospitalized patients with SARS- CoV-2 disease (COVID-19) has not been assessed. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness and safety of rosuvastatin plus colchicine, emtricitabine/tenofovir, and their combined use in these patients.Revista Internacional - Indexad

Phase I clinical trial in healthy adults of a nasal vaccine candidate containing recombinant hepatitis B surface and core antigens

SummaryBackgroundThe nasal vaccine candidate (NASVAC), comprising hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface (HBsAg) and core antigens (HBcAg), has been shown to be highly immunogenic in animal models.MethodsA phase I double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial was carried out in 19 healthy male adults with no serologic markers of immunity/infection to HBV. This study was aimed at exploring the safety and immunogenic profile of nasal co-administration of both HBV recombinant antigens. The trial was performed according to Good Clinical Practice guidelines. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 45 years and were randomly allocated to receive a mixture of 50μg HBsAg and 50μg HBcAg or 0.9% physiologic saline solution, as a placebo, via nasal spray in a five-dose schedule at 0, 7, 15, 30, and 60 days. A total volume of 0.5ml was administered in two dosages of 125μl per nostril. Adverse events were actively recorded 1h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 7 days and 30 days after each dose. Anti-HBs and anti-HBc titers were evaluated using corresponding ELISA kits at days 30 and 90.ResultsThe vaccine candidate was safe and well tolerated. Adverse reactions included sneezing (34.1%), rhinorrhea (12.2%), nasal stuffiness (9.8%), palate itching (9.8%), headache (9.8%), and general malaise (7.3%). These reactions were all self-limiting and mild in intensity. No severe or unexpected events were recorded during the trial. The vaccine elicited anti-HBc seroconversion in 100% of subjects as early as day 30 of the immunization schedule, while a seroprotective anti-HBs titer (≥10IU/l) was at a maximum at day 90 (75%). All subjects in the placebo group remained seronegative during the trial.ConclusionThe HBsAg–HBcAg vaccine candidate was safe, well tolerated and immunogenic in this phase I study in healthy adults. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of safety and immunogenicity for a nasal vaccine candidate comprising HBV antigens

Small-scale solar magnetic fields

As we resolve ever smaller structures in the solar atmosphere, it has become clear that magnetism is an important component of those small structures. Small-scale magnetism holds the key to many poorly understood facets of solar magnetism on all scales, such as the existence of a local dynamo, chromospheric heating, and flux emergence, to name a few. Here, we review our knowledge of small-scale photospheric fields, with particular emphasis on quiet-sun field, and discuss the implications of several results obtained recently using new instruments, as well as future prospects in this field of research.Comment: 43 pages, 18 figure

The T309G MDM2 gene polymorphism is a novel risk factor for proliferative vitreoretinopathy

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is still the major cause of failure in retinal detachment (RD) surgery. It is believed that down-regulation in the p53 pathway could be an important key in PVR pathogenesis. The purpose was to evaluate the impact of T309G MDM2 polymorphism (rs2279744) in PVR. Distribution of T309G MDM2 genotypes among European subjects undergoing RD surgery was evaluated. Proportions of genotypes between subsamples from different countries were analyzed. Also, a genetic interaction between rs2279744 in MDM2 and rs1042522 in p53 gene was analyzed. Significant differences were observed comparing MDM2 genotype frequencies at position 309 of intron 1 between cases (GG: 21.6%, TG: 54.5%, TT: 23.8%) and controls (GG: 7.3%, TG: 43.9%, TT: 48.7%). The proportions of genotypes between sub-samples from different countries showed a significant difference. Distribution of GG genotype revealed differences in Spain (35.1-53.0)/(22.6-32.9), Portugal (39.0-74.4)/(21.4-38.9), Netherlands (40.6-66.3)/(25.3-38.8) and UK (37.5-62.4)/(23.3-34.2). The OR of G carriers in the global sample was 5.9 (95% CI: 3.2 to 11.2). The OR of G carriers from Spain and Portugal was 5.4 (95% CI: 2.2-12.7), whereas in the UK and the Netherlands was 7.3 (95% CI: 2.8-19.1). Results indicate that the G allele of rs2279744 is associated with a higher risk of developing PVR in patients undergoing a RD surgery. Further studies are necessary to understand the role of this SNP in the development of PVR. Copyright