Detection of spin torque magnetization dynamics through low frequency noise

We present a comparative study of high frequency dynamics and low frequency noise in elliptical magnetic tunnel junctions with lateral dimensions under 100 nm presenting current-switching phenomena. The analysis of the high frequency oscillation modes with respect to the current reveals the onset of a steady-state precession regime for negative bias currents above $J=10^7 A/cm^2$, when the magnetic field is applied along the easy axis of magnetization. By the study of low frequency noise for the same samples, we demonstrate the direct link between changes in the oscillation modes with the applied current and the normalised low frequency (1/f) noise as a function of the bias current. These findings prove that low frequency noise studies could be a simple and powerful technique to investigate spin-torque based magnetization dynamics

Influence of sociodemographic characteristics on human mobility

Human mobility has been traditionally studied using surveys that deliver snapshots of population displacement patterns. The growing accessibility to ICT information from portable digital media has recently opened the possibility of exploring human behavior at high spatio-temporal resolutions. Mobile phone records, geolocated tweets, check-ins from Foursquare or geotagged photos, have contributed to this purpose at different scales, from cities to countries, in different world areas. Many previous works lacked, however, details on the individuals' attributes such as age or gender. In this work, we analyze credit-card records from Barcelona and Madrid and by examining the geolocated credit-card transactions of individuals living in the two provinces, we find that the mobility patterns vary according to gender, age and occupation. Differences in distance traveled and travel purpose are observed between younger and older people, but, curiously, either between males and females of similar age. While mobility displays some generic features, here we show that sociodemographic characteristics play a relevant role and must be taken into account for mobility and epidemiological modelization.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures + Supplementary informatio

Effect of magnetically simulated zero-gravity and enhanced gravity on the walk of the common fruitfly†

Understanding the effects of gravity on biological organisms is vital to the success of future space missions. Previous studies in Earth orbit have shown that the common fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster) walks more quickly and more frequently in microgravity, compared with its motion on Earth. However, flight preparation procedures and forces endured on launch made it difficult to implement on the Earth's surface a control that exposed flies to the same sequence of major physical and environmental changes. To address the uncertainties concerning these behavioural anomalies, we have studied the walking paths of D. melanogaster in a pseudo-weightless environment (0g*) in our Earth-based laboratory. We used a strong magnetic field, produced by a superconducting solenoid, to induce a diamagnetic force on the flies that balanced the force of gravity. Simultaneously, two other groups of flies were exposed to a pseudo-hypergravity environment (2g*) and a normal gravity environment (1g*) within the spatially varying field. The flies had a larger mean speed in 0g* than in 1g*, and smaller in 2g*. The mean square distance travelled by the flies grew more rapidly with time in 0g* than in 1g*, and slower in 2g*. We observed no other clear effects of the magnetic field, up to 16.5 T, on the walks of the flies. We compare the effect of diamagnetically simulated weightlessness with that of weightlessness in an orbiting spacecraft, and identify the cause of the anomalous behaviour as the altered effective gravity

Measurement of activity produced by low energy proton beam in metals using off-line PET imaging

Proceeding of: 2011 Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, Valencia, España, 23-29 October, 2011In this work, we investigate PET imaging with 68Ga and 66Ga after proton irradiation on a natural zinc foil. The nuclides 68Ga and 66Ga are ideally suited for off line PET monitoring of proton radiotherapy due to their beta decay halflives of 67.71(9) minutes and 9.49(3) hours, respectively, and suitable fl end point energy. The purpose of this work is to explore the feasibility of PET monitoring in hadrontherapy treatments, and to study how the amount of activity and the positron range affect the PET image reconstruction. Profiting from the low energy reaction threshold for production via (p,n) reactions, both 68Ga and 66Ga gallium isotopes have been produced by activation on a natural zinc target by a proton pencil beam. In this way, it is possible to create detailed patterns, such as the Derenzo inspired one employed here. The proton beam was produced by the 5 MV tandetron accelerator at CMAM in Madrid. The energy of this beam (up to 10 MeV) is similar to the residual energy of the protons used for therapy at the distal edge of their path. The activated target was imaged in an ARGUS small animal PETtCT scanner and reconstructed with a fully 3D iterative algorithm, with and without positron range corrections.This work was supported in part by Comunidad de Madrid (ARTEMIS S2009/DPI 1802), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grants FPA2010 17142 and ENTEPRASE, PSE 300000 2009 5), by European Regional Funds, by CDTI under the CENIT Programme (AMIT Project), UCM (grupos UCM, 910059) and by CPAN, CSPD 2007 [email protected]

Female reproduction and the microbiota in mammals: Where are we?

While it is generally accepted that the mammalian vagina contains a site-specific microbiota that plays relevant roles in genital and reproductive health, the existence of an extra-vaginal microbiota in the female reproductive tract (i.e. follicular fluid, oviduct, endometrium, and placenta) is, at least, a matter of controversy. Many conclusions in this field have failed to consider the technical limitations, biases, and confounding factors inherent to next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches. While this creates uncertainty in the field, there is no doubt this subject is set to be the focus of new research efforts because of its scientific and practical connotations in female reproductive health. The current art state, its limitations, and gaps in our knowledge about the female reproductive tract's microbiota and, particularly, about the microbes of the extra-vaginal environment are presented in this review. Also are discussed possible relationships between the gut and oral microbiota and reproductive events

Pilot multi-omic analysis of human bile from benign and malignant biliary strictures: a machine-learning approach

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) may lead to the development of extrahepatic obstructive cholestasis. However, biliary stenoses can also be caused by benign conditions, and the identification of their etiology still remains a clinical challenge. We performed metabolomic and proteomic analyses of bile from patients with benign (n = 36) and malignant conditions, CCA (n = 36) or PDAC (n = 57), undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography with the aim of characterizing bile composition in biliopancreatic disease and identifying biomarkers for the differential diagnosis of biliary strictures. Comprehensive analyses of lipids, bile acids and small molecules were carried out using mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-NMR) in all patients. MS analysis of bile proteome was performed in five patients per group. We implemented artificial intelligence tools for the selection of biomarkers and algorithms with predictive capacity. Our machine-learning pipeline included the generation of synthetic data with properties of real data, the selection of potential biomarkers (metabolites or proteins) and their analysis with neural networks (NN). Selected biomarkers were then validated with real data. We identified panels of lipids (n = 10) and proteins (n = 5) that when analyzed with NN algorithms discriminated between patients with and without cancer with an unprecedented accuracy.This research was funded by: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) co-financed by Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) Una manera de hacer Europa, grant numbers: PI16/01126 (M.A.A.), PI19/00819 (M.J.M. and J.J.G.M.), PI15/01132, PI18/01075 and Miguel Servet Program CON14/00129 (J.M.B.); Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC Scientific Foundation), grant name: Rare Cancers 2017 (J.M.U., M.L.M., J.M.B., M.J.M., R.I.R.M., M.G.F.-B., C.B., M.A.A.); Gobierno de Navarra Salud, grant number 58/17 (J.M.U., M.A.A.); La Caixa Foundation, grant name: HEPACARE (C.B., M.A.A.); AMMF The Cholangiocarcinoma Charity, UK, grant number: 2018/117 (F.J.C. and M.A.A.); PSC Partners US, PSC Supports UK, grant number 06119JB (J.M.B.); Horizon 2020 (H2020) ESCALON project, grant number H2020-SC1-BHC-2018–2020 (J.M.B.); BIOEF (Basque Foundation for Innovation and Health Research: EiTB Maratoia, grant numbers BIO15/CA/016/BD (J.M.B.) and BIO15/CA/011 (M.A.A.). Department of Health of the Basque Country, grant number 2017111010 (J.M.B.). La Caixa Foundation, grant number: LCF/PR/HP17/52190004 (M.L.M.), Mineco-Feder, grant number SAF2017-87301-R (M.L.M.), Fundación BBVA grant name: Ayudas a Equipos de Investigación Científica Umbrella 2018 (M.L.M.). MCIU, grant number: Severo Ochoa Excellence Accreditation SEV-2016-0644 (M.L.M.). Part of the equipment used in this work was co-funded by the Generalitat Valenciana and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) funds (PO FEDER of Comunitat Valenciana 2014–2020). Gobierno de Navarra fellowship to L.C. (Leticia Colyn); AECC post-doctoral fellowship to M.A.; Ramón y Cajal Program contracts RYC-2014-15242 and RYC2018-024475-1 to F.J.C. and M.G.F.-B., respectively. The generous support from: Fundación Eugenio Rodríguez Pascual, Fundación Echébano, Fundación Mario Losantos, Fundación M Torres and Mr. Eduardo Avila are acknowledged. The CNB-CSIC Proteomics Unit belongs to ProteoRed, PRB3-ISCIII, supported by grant PT17/0019/0001 (F.J.C.). Comunidad de Madrid Grant B2017/BMD-3817 (F.J.C.).Peer reviewe

Next-generation sequencing of bile cell-free DNA for the early detection of patients with malignant biliary strictures

Objective: despite significant progresses in imaging and pathological evaluation, early differentiation between benign and malignant biliary strictures remains challenging. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is used to investigate biliary strictures, enabling the collection of bile. We tested the diagnostic potential of next-generation sequencing (NGS) mutational analysis of bile cell-free DNA (cfDNA). Design: a prospective cohort of patients with suspicious biliary strictures (n=68) was studied. The performance of initial pathological diagnosis was compared with that of the mutational analysis of bile cfDNA collected at the time of first ERCP using an NGS panel open to clinical laboratory implementation, the Oncomine Pan-Cancer Cell-Free assay. Results: an initial pathological diagnosis classified these strictures as of benign (n=26), indeterminate (n=9) or malignant (n=33) origin. Sensitivity and specificity of this diagnosis were 60% and 100%, respectively, as on follow-up 14 of the 26 and eight of the nine initially benign or indeterminate strictures resulted malignant. Sensitivity and specificity for malignancy of our NGS assay, herein named Bilemut, were 96.4% and 69.2%, respectively. Importantly, one of the four Bilemut false positives developed pancreatic cancer after extended follow-up. Remarkably, the sensitivity for malignancy of Bilemut was 100% in patients with an initial diagnosis of benign or indeterminate strictures. Analysis of 30 paired bile and tissue samples also demonstrated the superior performance of Bilemut. Conclusion: implementation of Bilemut at the initial diagnostic stage for biliary strictures can significantly improve detection of malignancy, reduce delays in the clinical management of patients and assist in selecting patients for targeted therapies.Funding: we thank the financial support of CIBERehd; grants PI16/01126 and PI19/00163 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) cofinanced by ’Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional’ (FEDER) ’Una manera de hacer Europa’; grants 58/2017 and 55/2018 from Gobierno de Navarra Salud; grant 0011-1411-2020-000010 from AGATA Strategic Project from Gobierno de Navarra; grant 2020/101 from Euroregion Nouvelle Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarra; Fundación Eugenio Rodríguez Pascual; Fundación Mario Losantos, Fundación M Torres; grant 2018/117 from AMMF, the Cholangiocarcinoma Charity; the COST Action CA181122 Euro-cholangio-Net; POSTD18014AREC postdoctoral fellowship from AECC to MA; and Ramón y Cajal Program contracts RYC-2014-15242 and RYC-2018-024475-1 to FJC and MGFB

miR-132 Enhances Dendritic Morphogenesis, Spine Density, Synaptic Integration, and Survival of Newborn Olfactory Bulb Neurons

An array of signals regulating the early stages of postnatal subventricular zone (SVZ) neurogenesis has been identified, but much less is known regarding the molecules controlling late stages. Here, we investigated the function of the activity-dependent and morphogenic microRNA miR-132 on the synaptic integration and survival of olfactory bulb (OB) neurons born in the neonatal SVZ. In situ hybridization revealed that miR-132 expression occurs at the onset of synaptic integration in the OB. Using in vivo electroporation we found that sequestration of miR-132 using a sponge-based strategy led to a reduced dendritic complexity and spine density while overexpression had the opposite effects. These effects were mirrored with respective changes in the frequency of GABAergic and glutamatergic synaptic inputs reflecting altered synaptic integration. In addition, timely directed overexpression of miR-132 at the onset of synaptic integration using an inducible approach led to a significant increase in the survival of newborn neurons. These data suggest that miR-132 forms the basis of a structural plasticity program seen in SVZ-OB postnatal neurogenesis. miR-132 overexpression in transplanted neurons may thus hold promise for enhancing neuronal survival and improving the outcome of transplant therapies