Metabolomic characterization of strawberry cultivars during postharvest

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is the berry most consumed worldwide and is well-known for its delicate flavour and nutritional characteristics. However, strawberries possess a very short postharvest shelf-life due to their high respiration rate and their susceptibility to water loss, mechanical damage and fungi deterioration. Extension of fruit shelf-life is a major economic goal, and measures are commercially taken to delay senescence. These procedures include low temperature, controlled atmosphere and/or chemical treatments, being the first one the most commonly applied. To improve our understanding of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying the deterioration of fruit quality attributes during senescence, we monitored the metabolomic profiles of five commercial strawberry cultivars under different postharvest treatments. Ripe fruits of F x ananassa cv. ‘Amiga’, ‘Camarosa’, ‘Candonga’, ‘Fortuna’ and ‘Santa Clara’ were harvested and kept at 4ºC during three, six and ten days in normal, CO2-enriched and O3-enriched atmospheres. We used a combination of GC-TOF-MS, LC-MS and GC-SPME-MS to identify and semi-quantify 49 primary metabolites (sugars, amino and organic acids), 132 polar secondary metabolites and 70 volatile compounds in all different treatments along postharvest stages. Multivariate statistical approaches, including hierarchical cluster analysis, partial least squares discriminant analyses and k-means clustering, were used to characterize the variation in metabolite content during the strawberry fruit postharvest life and to identify the biochemical pathways which are most affected in the senescence processes. Here, we present the main changes in volatile compounds, primary and secondary metabolites as a consequence of postharvest storage, highlighting the differences between cultivars and treatments. Network-based methods will allow us to point out the regulatory factors and molecular mechanisms underlying fruit senescence.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

What is in a radio loud NLS1?

A fraction of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1) are hosted by galaxies that present a disturbed morphology, in some cases hinting for merger processes, that are putative sources of gas replenishment. We have been investigating the poorly studied population of radio loud NLS1 (RL-NLS1) showing a flat radio spectrum, assumed to be the manifestation of the presence of a radio jet. In some of the objects the infrared emission is well fitted by a combination of an AGN component and an "active" host galaxy component like M82, the estimate SFR being in the LIRG/ULIRG range (10-500 Msun/year). In order to better characterize that component, we have been investigating the sub-millimeter/millimeter emission of the sources using APEX. Here we present the results concerning a pilot sample of 2 representative objects.Comment: 5 pages, published on Proceedings of Science - volume "Revisiting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and their place in the Universe

Simplified Phenomenology for Colored Dark Sectors

We perform a general study of the relic density and LHC constraints on simplified models where the dark matter coannihilates with a strongly interacting particle X. In these models, the dark matter depletion is driven by the self-annihilation of X to pairs of quarks and gluons through the strong interaction. The phenomenology of these scenarios therefore only depends on the dark matter mass and the mass splitting between dark matter and X as well as the quantum numbers of X. In this paper, we consider simplified models where X can be either a scalar, a fermion or a vector, as well as a color triplet, sextet or octet. We compute the dark matter relic density constraints taking into account Sommerfeld corrections and bound state formation. Furthermore, we examine the restrictions from thermal equilibrium, the lifetime of X and the current and future LHC bounds on X pair production. All constraints are comprehensively presented in the mass splitting versus dark matter mass plane. While the relic density constraints can lead to upper bounds on the dark matter mass ranging from 2 TeV to more than 10 TeV across our models, the prospective LHC bounds range from 800 to 1500 GeV. A full coverage of the strongly coannihilating dark matter parameter space would therefore require hadron colliders with significantly higher center of mass energies.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures, matches JHEP versio

On the “right to decide”

As we have seen with regard to other dimensions of the Euro Crisis, the discussion about the Catalan independence in Spain has also brought to the fore an interesting struggle over the framing of the problem. Probably the most important example of this is the successful introduction in the political and journalistic debate of the “right to decide” as a concept substituting the “right of self-determination” or “right of secession”. The reasons for its great success are easy to grasp: everybody loves to have rights and “deciding” seems a natural characteristic of democracies. In the Catalan public sphere the right to decide has become almost unquestionable; anyone daring to contest this right has been quickly accused of being a poor democrat. According to the supporters of the “right to decide”, this must be exercised by means of a referendum or consultation about “the future of Catalonia”. The problem is that so far this “right to decide” has not been clearly defined and even among the proponents of such a referendum the interpretations of its scope and implications remain very vague. To the extent that the contradictions in what the “right to decide” means have created a fracture in the camp of those supporting the referendum. The Catalan Socialist Party, PSC, has already shown strong discrepancies concerning the organisations of the consultation

Análisis de metodologías para la evaluación ambiental de la construcción del terminal marítimo en el sector de monteverde, provincia de Santa Elena

Todo proyecto que se desarrolle en Ecuador requiere de un Estudio de Impacto Ambiental y su respectivo Plan de Manejo Ambiental. La metodología más popular utilizada para evaluar impactos es la Matriz Causa –Efecto. Con el tiempo los evaluadores ambientales han considerado modificaciones al aplicar esa matriz. Este trabajo describirá y utilizará tres métodos diferentes para aplicar la Matriz Causa - Efecto, y determinará si existen diferencias en la evaluación de los impactos del Estudio de Impacto Ambiental para la construcción del Terminal Marítimo y almacenamiento de Gas Licuado de Petróleo (GLP) en Monteverde. La primera metodología es la de Leopold, publicada por Páez; la segunda metodología es una modificación publicada por CONNESA – VITORES y utilizada por FLOPEC en los Términos de Referencia del Proyecto en cuestión; y, la tercera metodología es conocida como Criterios Relevantes Integrados, fue publicada por la consultora CAURA-FRAGROMEN Ltda.. Se demuestra que las tres metodologías tienen términos comunes en sus ecuaciones, aún cuando poseen diferentes nombres, dando al grupo evaluador la alternativa de utilizar la que mejor le convenga. También se analiza las ventajas y desventajas de cada una de las ellas, determinando que no hay una única, sencilla e infalible metodología que utilice la Matriz de Causa – Efecto

When can we compute analytically lookback time, age of the universe, and luminosity distance?

In Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker cosmology, it is sometimes possible to compute analytically lookback time, age of the universe, and luminosity distance versus redshift, expressing them in terms of a finite number of elementary functions. We classify these situations using the Chebyshev theorem of integration and providing examples.Comment: 10 pages, late

Metabolomics profiling of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) F1 population to characterize flavour and nutritional traits

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is a highly consumed fruit known for its delicate flavour and nutritional characteristics. However, as fruit quality attributes have been lost after years of traditional breeding, new technological tools, such as high throughput metabolomics, are necessary for the identification of factors responsible of these traits. Here we present the metabolomics profiling for the content of primary and secondary metabolites of a 95 F1 individuals strawberry population derived from genotype “1392”, selected for its superior flavour, and “232” (Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al., 2011; Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al., 2012). Metabolite profiling was performed on mature fruits of the strawberry population using gas chromatography hyphenated to time-of-flight mass spectrometry for primary metabolites and ultra performance liquid chromatography Exactive Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry for secondary metabolites.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech