Plant Biomass and Bovine Live Weight Changes in Mono-Specific and Mixed Pastures during the Rainy Season in Dry Tropical Mexico

Dry tropics suffer long drought periods each year, negatively affecting the amount and digestibility of forage for cattle production. The aim of this study was evaluate different pasture types, grazed by cattle during the rainy season. Three hectares were prepared to compare: grass monoculture, Andropogon gayanus (G); a grass-legume mixture of A. gayanus and Clitoria ternatea (GL), and a grass-legume-tree mixture of A. gayanus, C. ternatea and Morus alba (GLT). Two grazing cycles (4 d grazing followed by 32 d resting; 72 d total) were completed. Three heifers (average initial weight 192 kg) grazed each experimental unit. The amounts of forage offered, remaining after grazing, and removed by animals differed significantly among the pasture treatments. Total forage offered by period was 2007, 4089, and 4192 DM kg/ha for G, GL, and GLT, respectively. Total residual forage was 1074, 1878 and 2613 DM kg/ha respectively, while total forage removed was 934, 2209, and 1579 DM kg/ha, respectively. Differences for offered forage were detected only for residual and consumed forage for GL prairies. Differences in available forage were mainly due to differences in the amount of stem and live material. Daily weight gain was 0.138, 0.504 and 0.501 kg per animal for G, GL, and GLT, respectively. Mixed pasture treatments yielded better live weight gain due to the better quality of available forage

Specification and Development of a HMI for ADAS, Based in Usability and Accessibility Principles

Traditionally, the design of road vehicle HMI is based in esthetic principles, maintaining it as an attractive factor for possible clients when buying a car. Only recently, ergonomic benefits have been applied to the design of HMIs, mainly following institutional impulses like the European Union one, but whose contribution is not clearly stated nowadays in commercial products. In this paper the authors present a study of the design of an HMI, based in usability and accessibility premises, centering the design in the user, as method to improve safety, making natural the communication with the driver as well as being able to transmitting information to the driver, from basic to the generated by ADAS installed in the car. Following these specifications a set of prototypes have been designed in order to develop a testbed that could be evaluated for a large set of drivers.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (TRA2007-67786 and TRA2009-07505) and the CAM project SEGVAUTO-II.Publicad

Forage Biomass and Bovine Live Weight Changes within Monospecific and Mixed Prairies over the Dry Season in Tropical México

In the tropical systems of cattle grazing, the limited period of forage production and low forage protein content and digestibility of the same, are the main constraints to increasing live weight gain. Grass-legume pasture improves forage quantity and quality and sowing mixed swards in both the wet and dry tropics is now common practice. However, much less is known if inclusion of a fodder tree as a third component could further improve forage parameters. The aim of this study was to evaluate three types of grasslands, grazed by cattle in the dry season of the dry tropics. Swards were established to compare: grass only (PP), grass-legume (PA) and silvo-pastoral (PSP) pastures on basis of forage on-offer, residual and disappeared and bullock’s daily live-weight gain. Species used were: Andropogon gayanus Kunth, Clitoria ternatea Linn and Morus alba Linn

Integral Fractionation of Rice Husks into Bioactive Arabinoxylans, Cellulose Nanocrystals, and Silica Particles

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b06692[EN] Rice husk is an important agricultural byproduct that has not been exploited yet to full capacity for advanced applications. The feasibility of obtaining high-value products such as bioactive hemicelluloses and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from rice husk is here demonstrated in a cascade biorefinery process using subcritical water extraction (SWE) prior to bleaching and acid hydrolysis and compared to traditional alkali pretreatments. The proposed SWE process enables the isolation of bioactive arabinoxylans with phenolic acid moieties, thus preserving their antioxidant and antibacterial properties that are lost during alkaline conditions. Additionally, SWE can be combined with subsequent bleaching and acid hydrolysis to obtain CNCs with large aspect ratio, high crystallinity, and thermal stability. The hydrothermal process also enables the recovery of silica particles that are lost during the alkali step but can be recovered after the isolation of the CNCs. Our biorefinery strategy results in the integral valorization of rice husk into their molecular components (bioactive arabinoxylans, cellulose nanocrystals, and silica particles), which can be used as additives for food applications and as reinforcing agents in biocomposite materials, respectively.The authors thank the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) for the financial support provided through Project AGL2016-76699-R. Author Raquel Requena thanks the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (Spain) for the FPU (FPU13/03444) Grant. This research work was also financed with a Short Term Scientific Mission of the COST Action FP1405.Requena-Peris, R.; Jiménez Quero, A.; Vargas, M.; Moriana Torró, R.; Chiralt A.; Vilaplana Domingo, FJ. (2019). Integral Fractionation of Rice Husks into Bioactive Arabinoxylans, Cellulose Nanocrystals, and Silica Particles. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 7(6):6275-6286. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b06692S627562867

Bioactive pectic polysaccharides from bay tree pruning waste: Sequential subcritical water extraction and application in active food packaging

The potential isolation of bio-active polysaccharides from bay tree pruning waste was studied using sequential subcritical water extraction using different time-temperature combinations. The extracted polysaccharides were highly enriched in pectins while preserving their high molecular mass (10–100 kDa), presenting ideal properties for its application as additive in food packaging. Pectin-enriched chitosan films were prepared, improving the optical properties (=95% UV-light barrier capacity), antioxidant capacity (?95% radical scavenging activity) and water vapor permeability (=14 g·Pa-1·s-1·m-1·10-7) in comparison with neat chitosan-based films. Furthermore, the antimicrobial activity of chitosan was maintained in the hybrid films. Addition of 10% of pectins improved mechanical properties, increasing the Young's modulus 12%, and the stress resistance in 51%. The application of pectin-rich fractions from bay tree pruning waste as an additive in active food packaging applications, with triple action as antioxidant, barrier, and antimicrobial has been demonstrated.Authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ramon y Cajal contract RYC-2015-17109) and Universidad de Cordoba, ´ Spain (Predoctoral Grant 2019) for the financial support during this work

Análisis de la actividad científica de la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia. Biomedicina 1999-2005.

An analysis of scientific activity in Biomedicine in Murcia between 1999-2005 is presented

Análisis de la actividad científica de la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia. Biomedicina 1999-2005.

An analysis of scientific activity in Biomedicine in Murcia between 1999-2005 is presented

Electrochemical Characterization of Modified Concretes with Sugar Cane Bagasse Ash

Corrosion is one of the most serious causes that reduce service life of Reinforced Concrete Structures (RCS). This is why it is necessary to create concrete mixtures that add durability for steel and that reduce impact on the environment. The use of agro-industrial waste materials rich in SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3, added to concrete, has been the subject of research in recent years, because these pozzolanic materials improves o mecharacteristics of concrete, as mechanical strength, sulfate resistance and lower permeability. Binary Concretes were made and evaluated in the impact of Sugar Cane Bagasse Ash (SCBA) as a partial substitute for Portland cement, with the aim of reducing gtherate of corrosion induced by chloride ions and sulfate. The behavior of corrosion was monitored for 14 months in two aqueous solutions of NaCl and Na2SO4 both at 3.5%, using electrochemical techniques of corrosion potential (Ecorr) and linear polarization resistance (Rp). Under the conditions of study, the binary mixture that showed a better corrosion protection was the one that contained 80% from sugar Cane bagasse ash and 20% Portland cement

Moths Behaving like Butterflies. Evolutionary Loss of Long Range Attractant Pheromones in Castniid Moths: A Paysandisia archon Model

Background: In the course of evolution butterflies and moths developed two different reproductive behaviors. Whereas butterflies rely on visual stimuli for mate location, moths use the"female calling plus male seduction" system, in which females release long-range sex pheromones to attract conspecific males. There are few exceptions from this pattern but in all cases known female moths possess sex pheromone glands which apparently have been lost in female butterflies. In the day-flying moth family Castniidae ("butterfly-moths"), which includes some important crop pests, no pheromones have been found so far. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using a multidisciplinary approach we described the steps involved in the courtship of P. archon, showing that visual cues are the only ones used for mate location; showed that the morphology and fine structure of the antennae of this moth are strikingly similar to those of butterflies, with male sensilla apparently not suited to detect female-released long range pheromones; showed that its females lack pheromone-producing glands, and identified three compounds as putative male sex pheromone (MSP) components of P. archon, released from the proximal halves of male forewings and hindwings. Conclusions/Significance: This study provides evidence for the first time in Lepidoptera that females of a moth do not produce any pheromone to attract males, and that mate location is achieved only visually by patrolling males, which may release a pheromone at short distance, putatively a mixture of Z,E-farnesal, E,E-farnesal, and (E,Z)-2,13-octadecadienol. The outlined behavior, long thought to be unique to butterflies, is likely to be widespread in Castniidae implying a novel, unparalleled butterfly-like reproductive behavior in moths. This will also have practical implications in applied entomology since it signifies that the monitoring/control of castniid pests should not be based on the use of female-produced pheromones, as it is usually done in many moths

Detailed stratified GWAS analysis for severe COVID-19 in four European populations

Given the highly variable clinical phenotype of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a deeper analysis of the host genetic contribution to severe COVID-19 is important to improve our understanding of underlying disease mechanisms. Here, we describe an extended genome-wide association meta-analysis of a well-characterized cohort of 3255 COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure and 12 488 population controls from Italy, Spain, Norway and Germany/Austria, including stratified analyses based on age, sex and disease severity, as well as targeted analyses of chromosome Y haplotypes, the human leukocyte antigen region and the SARS-CoV-2 peptidome. By inversion imputation, we traced a reported association at 17q21.31 to a ~0.9-Mb inversion polymorphism that creates two highly differentiated haplotypes and characterized the potential effects of the inversion in detail. Our data, together with the 5th release of summary statistics from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative including non-Caucasian individuals, also identified a new locus at 19q13.33, including NAPSA, a gene which is expressed primarily in alveolar cells responsible for gas exchange in the lung.S.E.H. and C.A.S. partially supported genotyping through a philanthropic donation. A.F. and D.E. were supported by a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and COVID-19 grant Research (BMBF; ID:01KI20197); A.F., D.E. and F.D. were supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Cluster of Excellence ‘Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation’ (EXC2167). D.E. was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the Computational Life Sciences funding concept (CompLS grant 031L0165). D.E., K.B. and S.B. acknowledge the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF14CC0001 and NNF17OC0027594). T.L.L., A.T. and O.Ö. were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project numbers 279645989; 433116033; 437857095. M.W. and H.E. are supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Research Training Group 1743, ‘Genes, Environment and Inflammation’. L.V. received funding from: Ricerca Finalizzata Ministero della Salute (RF-2016-02364358), Italian Ministry of Health ‘CV PREVITAL’—strategie di prevenzione primaria cardiovascolare primaria nella popolazione italiana; The European Union (EU) Programme Horizon 2020 (under grant agreement No. 777377) for the project LITMUS- and for the project ‘REVEAL’; Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda ‘Ricerca corrente’, Fondazione Sviluppo Ca’ Granda ‘Liver-BIBLE’ (PR-0391), Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda ‘5permille’ ‘COVID-19 Biobank’ (RC100017A). A.B. was supported by a grant from Fondazione Cariplo to Fondazione Tettamanti: ‘Bio-banking of Covid-19 patient samples to support national and international research (Covid-Bank). This research was partly funded by an MIUR grant to the Department of Medical Sciences, under the program ‘Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018–2022’. This study makes use of data generated by the GCAT-Genomes for Life. Cohort study of the Genomes of Catalonia, Fundació IGTP (The Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol) IGTP is part of the CERCA Program/Generalitat de Catalunya. GCAT is supported by Acción de Dinamización del ISCIII-MINECO and the Ministry of Health of the Generalitat of Catalunya (ADE 10/00026); the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) (2017-SGR 529). M.M. received research funding from grant PI19/00335 Acción Estratégica en Salud, integrated in the Spanish National RDI Plan and financed by ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)-Una manera de hacer Europa’). B.C. is supported by national grants PI18/01512. X.F. is supported by the VEIS project (001-P-001647) (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), ‘A way to build Europe’). Additional data included in this study were obtained in part by the COVICAT Study Group (Cohort Covid de Catalunya) supported by IsGlobal and IGTP, European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, COVID-19 Rapid Response activity 73A and SR20-01024 La Caixa Foundation. A.J. and S.M. were supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant numbers: PSE-010000-2006-6 and IPT-010000-2010-36). A.J. was also supported by national grant PI17/00019 from the Acción Estratégica en Salud (ISCIII) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). The Basque Biobank, a hospital-related platform that also involves all Osakidetza health centres, the Basque government’s Department of Health and Onkologikoa, is operated by the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research-BIOEF. M.C. received Grants BFU2016-77244-R and PID2019-107836RB-I00 funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI, Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, EU). M.R.G., J.A.H., R.G.D. and D.M.M. are supported by the ‘Spanish Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Competition, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ (PI19/01404, PI16/01842, PI19/00589, PI17/00535 and GLD19/00100) and by the Andalussian government (Proyectos Estratégicos-Fondos Feder PE-0451-2018, COVID-Premed, COVID GWAs). The position held by Itziar de Rojas Salarich is funded by grant FI20/00215, PFIS Contratos Predoctorales de Formación en Investigación en Salud. Enrique Calderón’s team is supported by CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’. J.C.H. reports grants from Research Council of Norway grant no 312780 during the conduct of the study. E.S. reports grants from Research Council of Norway grant no. 312769. The BioMaterialBank Nord is supported by the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Airway Research Center North (ARCN). The BioMaterialBank Nord is member of popgen 2.0 network (P2N). P.K. Bergisch Gladbach, Germany and the Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. He is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). O.A.C. is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education and is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy—CECAD, EXC 2030–390661388. The COMRI cohort is funded by Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. This work was supported by grants of the Rolf M. Schwiete Stiftung, the Saarland University, BMBF and The States of Saarland and Lower Saxony. K.U.L. is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, LU-1944/3-1). Genotyping for the BoSCO study is funded by the Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Bonn. F.H. was supported by the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Arts. Part of the genotyping was supported by a grant to A.R. from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, grant: 01ED1619A, European Alzheimer DNA BioBank, EADB) within the context of the EU Joint Programme—Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND). Additional funding was derived from the German Research Foundation (DFG) grant: RA 1971/6-1 to A.R. P.R. is supported by the DFG (CCGA Sequencing Centre and DFG ExC2167 PMI and by SH state funds for COVID19 research). F.T. is supported by the Clinician Scientist Program of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Cluster of Excellence ‘Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation’ (EXC2167). C.L. and J.H. are supported by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). T.B., M.M.B., O.W. und A.H. are supported by the Stiftung Universitätsmedizin Essen. M.A.-H. was supported by Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion program, grant IJC2018-035131-I funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. E.C.S. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; SCHU 2419/2-1).Peer reviewe