Crowdsourcing the corpasome

The suffix -ome conveys “comprehensiveness” in some way. The idea of the Corpasome started half-jokingly, acknowledging the efforts to sequence five members of my family. After the unexpected response from many scientists from around the world, it has become clear how useful this approach could be for understanding the genomic information contained in our personal genomics tests

Cooperation in clusters: A study case in the furniture industry in Colombia

Cooperation is increasingly been used in the industrial sector because of its benefits. This have motivated companies to establish alliances and agreements with others in order to reduce cost or access new markets, for example. In the literature, we could find many works aimed at cooperation in supply chains. A smaller amount was focused at cluster cooperation and few of them propose methodologies or models to facilitate the development and implementation of cooperation in industrial clusters. This paper provides a methodology for cooperation in clusters, which was applied to the furniture industry of Atlántico region in Colombia. Shapley value was used in order to evaluate the different coalitions and to split the benefits obtained with these coalitions. The methodology is useful for cluster members in order to encourage the formation of alliances within the cluster in order to overcome the prevailing mistrust, strengthening the cluster and gaining competitiveness

Chapter Management of Wine Aroma Compounds: Principal Basis and Future Perspectives

Wine’s aroma is defined by volatile and non-volatile compounds that contribute to its make-up. The complex variety of volatile compounds, coming from grapes, interact with other non-volatile substances of the wine as precursors of wine’s aroma, known as primary aromas, which give the aroma of the young wine. The volatile compounds present in the skin and in the grape juice change according to the grape variety. Most of wine volatile compounds responsible for aroma are linked to sugars and they initially form odorless glycosides. Through the process of hydrolysis, they are reverted into an aromatic form. Chemical reactions among these compounds occur during the fermentation and in the first months of a wine’s existence, triggering fast and multiple modifications in wine’s aroma at this point. As wine ages and matures, changes and development in aroma will continue to take place but at a slower and more gradual pace. The study of the compounds responsible for aroma and flavor, as well as their correlation with the wine quality, is ongoing. Improving the knowledge of wine aromatic compounds could increase the risk of its potential adulteration; however, consumers prefer wine for its natural origin, so this scenario is unlikely in the future

Effects of local factors on adaptation to heat in Spain (1983-2018)

The European Union is currently immersed in policy development to address the effects of climate change around the world. Key plans and processes for facilitating adaptation to high temperatures and for reducing the adverse effects on health are among the most urgent measures. Therefore, it is necessary to understand those factors that influence adaptation. The aim of this study was to provide knowledge related to the social, climate and economic factors that are related to the evolution of minimum mortality temperatures (MMT) in Spain in the rural and urban contexts, during the 1983-2018 time period. For this purpose, local factors were studied regarding their relationship to levels of adaptation to heat. MMT is an indicator that allows for establishing a relationship to between mortality and temperature, and is a valid indicator to assess the capacity of adaptation to heat of a certain population. MMT is obtained through the maximum daily temperature and daily mortality of the study period. The evolution of MMT values for Spain was established in a previous paper. An ecological, longitudinal and retrospective study was carried out. Generalized linear models (GLM) were performed to identify the variables that appeared to be related to adaptation. The adaptation was calculated as the difference in variation in MMT based on the average increase in maximum daily temperatures. In terms of adaptation to heat, urban populations have adapted more than non-urban populations. Seventy-nine percent (n = 11) of urban provinces have adapted to heat, compared to twenty-one percent (n = 3) of rural provinces that have not adapted. In terms of urban zones, income level and habituation to heat (values over the 95th percentile) were variables shown to be related to adaptation. In contrast, among non-urban provinces, a greater number of housing rehabilitation licenses and a greater number of health professionals were variables associated with higher increases in MMT, and therefore, with adaptation. These results highlight the need to carry out studies that allow for identifying the local factors that are most relevant and influential in population adaptation. More studies carried out at a small scale are needed.The authors gratefully acknowledge the grants for projects ENPY107/18; ENPY 376/18, ENPY 470/19 and ENPY 340/20 from the Carlos III Institute of Health, and is supported by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge. Likewise, to the UNED for the financing for the publication in Open Access.S

Gender differences in adaptation to heat in Spain (1983-2018)

In Spain the average temperature has increased by 1.7 °C since pre-industrial times. There has been an increase in heat waves both in terms of frequency and intensity, with a clear impact in terms of population health. The effect of heat waves on daily mortality presents important territorial differences. Gender also affects these impacts, as a determinant that conditions social inequalities in health. There is evidence that women may be more susceptible to extreme heat than men, although there are relatively few studies that analyze differences in the vulnerability and adaptation to heat by sex. This could be related to physiological causes. On the other hand, one of the indicators used to measure vulnerability to heat in a population and its adaptation is the minimum mortality temperature (MMT) and its temporal evolution. The aim of this study was to analyze the values of MMT in men and women and its temporal evolution during the 1983-2018 period in Spain's provinces. An ecological, longitudinal retrospective study was carried out of time series data, based on maximum daily temperature and daily mortality data corresponding to the study period. Using cubic and quadratic fits between daily mortality rates and the temperature, the minimum values of these functions were determined, which allowed for determining MMT values. Furthermore, we used an improved methodology that provided for the estimation of missing MMT values when polynomial fits were inexistent. This analysis was carried out for each year. Later, based on the annual values of MMT, a linear fit was carried out to determine the rate of evolution of MMT for men and for women at the province level. Average MMT for all of Spain's provinces was 29.4 °C in the case of men and 28.7 °C in the case of women. The MMT for men was greater than that of women in 86 percent of the total provinces analyzed, which indicates greater vulnerability among women. In terms of the rate of variation in MMT during the period analyzed, that of men was 0.39 °C/decade, compared to 0.53 °C/decade for women, indicating greater adaptation to heat among women, compared to men. The differences found between men and women were statistically significant. At the province level, the results show great heterogeneity. Studies carried out at the local level are needed to provide knowledge about those factors that can explain these differences at the province level, and to allow for incorporating a gender perspective in the implementation of measures for adaptation to high temperatures.The authors wish to thank the funding provided by the ENPY 304/20, ENPY 376/18 and ENPY 107/18 projects of the Carlos III Health Institute III (ISCIII). They also wish to thank the UNED for funding this publication in open access.S

Influence of Structural Defects on the Properties of Metamagnetic Shape Memory Alloys

The production of μ-particles of Metamagnetic Shape Memory Alloys by crushing and subsequent ball milling process has been analyzed. The high energy involved in the milling process induces large internal stresses and high density of defects with a strong influence on the martensitic transformation; the interphase creation and its movement during the martensitic transformation produces frictional contributions to the entropy change (exothermic process) both during forward and reverse transformation. The frictional contribution increases with the milling time as a consequence of the interaction between defects and interphases. The influence of the frictional terms on the magnetocaloric effect has been evidenced. Besides, the presence of antiphase boundaries linked to superdislocations helps to understand the spin-glass behavior at low temperatures in martensite. Finally, the particles in the deformed state were introduced in a photosensitive polymer. The mechanical damping associated to the Martensitic Transformation (MT) of the particles is clearly distinguished in the produced composite, which could be interesting for the development of magnetically-tunable mechanical dampers.This research was funded by Projects RTI2018-094683-B-C5 (4,5) (MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE); ASACTEI Pcia.Santa Fe IO-2017-00138, PID-UNR ING 575 and ING 612 (2018–202

Management of Wine Aroma Compounds: Principal Basis and Future Perspectives

Wine’s aroma is defined by volatile and non-volatile compounds that contribute to its make-up. The complex variety of volatile compounds, coming from grapes, interact with other non-volatile substances of the wine as precursors of wine’s aroma, known as primary aromas, which give the aroma of the young wine. The volatile compounds present in the skin and in the grape juice change according to the grape variety. Most of wine volatile compounds responsible for aroma are linked to sugars and they initially form odorless glycosides. Through the process of hydrolysis, they are reverted into an aromatic form. Chemical reactions among these compounds occur during the fermentation and in the first months of a wine’s existence, triggering fast and multiple modifications in wine’s aroma at this point. As wine ages and matures, changes and development in aroma will continue to take place but at a slower and more gradual pace. The study of the compounds responsible for aroma and flavor, as well as their correlation with the wine quality, is ongoing. Improving the knowledge of wine aromatic compounds could increase the risk of its potential adulteration; however, consumers prefer wine for its natural origin, so this scenario is unlikely in the future

Women with psychotic episodes during pregnancy show increased markers of placental damage with Tenney-Parker changes

y. Psychosis is a hazardous and functionally disruptive psychiatric condition which may affect women in pregnancy, entailing negative consequences for maternofetal well-being. The precise pathophysiological basis and consequences of a psychotic episode in pregnancy remain to be further elucidated. The placenta is a pivotal tissue with many functions in the gestational period, critically influencing the fate and development of pregnancy. Although detrimental alterations have been observed in women undergoing severe psychiatric disorders in pregnancy, there are little studies evaluating the consequences of suffering from a psychotic episode in the placental tissue In this work, we have evaluated the histopathological consequences of a first episode of psychosis in pregnancy (FE-PW; N=22) and compare them with healthy pregnant women (HC-PW; N=20) by using histological, immunohistochemical and gene expression techniques. Our results define that the placental tissue of FE-PW display an increase in the number of placental villi, bridges, syncytial knots and syncytial knots/villi. Besides, we have also observed an enhanced gene and protein expression in FE-PW of the hypoxic marker HIF-1α, together with the apoptotic markers BAX and Bcl-2. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating significant histopathological changes in the placenta of women suffering a new-onset psychotic episode in pregnancy. Further studies should be aimed at deepening the knowledge about the pernicious effects of psychosis in the maternofetal tissues, as well as the potential implications of these alterations

COVID-19 and stem cell transplantation; results from an EBMT and GETH multicenter prospective survey

Altres ajuts: British Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (BSBMTCT); UK NIHR Imperial College Biomedical Research Centre.This study reports on 382 COVID-19 patients having undergone allogeneic (n = 236) or autologous (n = 146) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) reported to the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) or to the Spanish Group of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (GETH). The median age was 54.1 years (1.0-80.3) for allogeneic, and 60.6 years (7.7-81.6) for autologous HCT patients. The median time from HCT to COVID-19 was 15.8 months (0.2-292.7) in allogeneic and 24.6 months (−0.9 to 350.3) in autologous recipients. 83.5% developed lower respiratory tract disease and 22.5% were admitted to an ICU. Overall survival at 6 weeks from diagnosis was 77.9% and 72.1% in allogeneic and autologous recipients, respectively. Children had a survival of 93.4%. In multivariate analysis, older age (p = 0.02), need for ICU (p < 0.0001) and moderate/high immunodeficiency index (p = 0.04) increased the risk while better performance status (p = 0.001) decreased the risk for mortality. Other factors such as underlying diagnosis, time from HCT, GVHD, or ongoing immunosuppression did not significantly impact overall survival. We conclude that HCT patients are at high risk of developing LRTD, require admission to ICU, and have increased mortality in COVID-19

Reversible transitions between noradrenergic and mesenchymal tumor identities define cell plasticity in neuroblastoma

Noradrenergic and mesenchymal identities have been characterized in neuroblastoma cell lines according to their epigenetic landscapes and core regulatory circuitries. However, their relationship and relative contribution in patient tumors remain poorly defined. We now document spontaneous and reversible plasticity between the two identities, associated with epigenetic reprogramming, in several neuroblastoma models. Interestingly, xenografts with cells from each identity eventually harbor a noradrenergic phenotype suggesting that the microenvironment provides a powerful pressure towards this phenotype. Accordingly, such a noradrenergic cell identity is systematically observed in single-cell RNA-seq of 18 tumor biopsies and 15 PDX models. Yet, a subpopulation of these noradrenergic tumor cells presents with mesenchymal features that are shared with plasticity models, indicating that the plasticity described in these models has relevance in neuroblastoma patients. This work therefore emphasizes that intrinsic plasticity properties of neuroblastoma cells are dependent upon external cues of the environment to drive cell identity