NEMA Performance Evaluation of CareMiBrain dedicated brain PET and Comparison with the whole-body and dedicated brain PET systems

[EN] This article presents system performance studies of the CareMiBrain dedicated brain PET according to NEMA NU 2-2012 (for whole-body PETS) and NU 4-2008 (for preclinical PETs). This scanner is based on monolithic LYSO crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers. The results obtained for both protocols are compared with current commercial whole body PETs and dedicated brain PETs found in the literature. Spatial resolution, sensitivity, NECR and scatter-fraction are characterized with NEMA standards, as well as an image quality study. A customized image quality phantom is proposed as NEMA phantoms do not fulfil the necessities of dedicated brain PETs. The full-width half maximum of the radial/tangential/ axial spatial resolution of CareMiBrain reconstructed with FBP at 10 and 100 mm from the system center were, respectively, 1.87/1.68/1.39 mm and 1.86/1.91/1.40 mm (NU 2-2012) and 1.58/1.45/1.40 mm and 1.64/1.66/1.44 mm (NU 4-2008). Peak NECR was 49 kcps@287 MBq with a scatter fraction of 48% using NU 2-2012 phantom. The sensitivity was 13.82 cps/kBq at the center of the FOV (NU 2-2012) and 10% (NU 4-2008). Contrast recovery coefficients for customizing image quality phantom were 0.73/0.78/1.14/1.01 for the 4.5/6/9/12 mm diameter rods. The performance characteristics of CareMiBrain are at the top of the current technologies for PET systems. Dedicated brain PET systems significantly improve spatial resolution and sensitivity, but present worse results in count rate measurements and scatter-fraction tests. As for the comparison of preclinical and clinical standards, the results obtained for solid and liquid sources were similar.This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University under grant RTC-2016-5186-1, a project co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CareMiBrain system was funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 711323. Author Dr. Jose Maria Benlloch owns a small percentage of Oncovision S.A. The other authors declare no potential conflict of interest.Moliner, L.; Rodriguez-Alvarez, MJ.; Catret Mascarell, JV.; González Martínez, AJ.; Ilisie, V.; Benlloch Baviera, JM. (2019). NEMA Performance Evaluation of CareMiBrain dedicated brain PET and Comparison with the whole-body and dedicated brain PET systems. Scientific Reports. 9(15484 (2019)):1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51898-zS110915484 (2019)NEMA NU 2-2007. Performance measurements of Positron Emission Tomographs. (Association, National Electrical Manufacturers, 2007).NEMA NU 2-2012. Performance Measurements of Positron Emission Tomographs. (Association, National Electrical Manufacturers, 2012).NEMA NU 4-2008. Performance measurements of Small Animal Positron Emission Tomographs. (Association, National Electrical Manufacturers, 2008).INTERREG IVB SUDOE (SIZING_SUDOE-SOE3/P1/E482). Red transrregional para la transferencia tecnológica y la innovación en el sector de la moda y confección de la región SUDOE a través de la explotación de bases de datos antropométricas 3D de la población (2012).González-Montoro, A. et al. Detector block performance based on a monolithic LYSO crystal using a novel signal multiplexing method. Nucl. Instruments Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A Accel. Spectrometers, Detect. Assoc. Equip., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2017.10.098 (2018).Bailey, D. L., Townsend, D. W., Valk, P. E. & Maisey, M. N. Positron Emission Tomography - Basic Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.22968 (Springer, 2005).Madsen, M. T. Emission Tomography: the Fundamentals of Pet and Spect, https://doi.org/10.1097/00024382-200504000-00016 (Elsevier Academic Press, 2005).Reader, A. J. et al. Accelerated list-mode EM algorithm. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 49, 42–49 (2002).Grootoonk, S., Spinks, T. J., Sashin, D., Spyrou, N. M. & Jones, T. Correction for scatter in 3D brain PET using a dual energy window method. Phys. Med. Biol. 41, 2757–2774 (1996).Rokkita, O., Casey, M., Wienhard, K. & Pictrzyk, U. Random corrections for positron emission tomography using singles count rates. In IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Record (NSS/MIC) 3, 37–40 (2000).Soriano, A. et al. Attenuation correction without transmission scan for the MAMMI breast PET. Nucl. Instruments Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A Accel. Spectrometers, Detect. Assoc. Equip. 648, 75–78 (2011).Siddon, R. L. Fast calculation of the exact radiological path for a three dimensional CT array. Med. Phys. 12, 252–255 (1985).Watanabe, M. et al. Performance evaluation of a high-resolution brain PET scanner using four-layer MPPC DOI detectors. Phys. Med. Biol. 62, 7148–7166 (2017).Grogg, K. S. et al. NEMA and clinical evaluation of a novel brain PET-CT scanner. J. Nucl. Med. 57, 646–652 (2016).Kolb, A. et al. Technical performance evaluation of a human brain PET/MRI system. Eur. Radiol. 22, 1776–1788 (2012).Karp, J. S. et al. Performance of a brain PET camera based on anger-logic gadolinium oxyorthosilicate detectors. J. Nucl. Med. 44, 1340–1349 (2003).Jong, H. W. A. M. D. et al. Performance evaluation of the ECAT HRRT: an LSO-LYSO double layer high resolution, high sensitivity scanner. Phys. Med. Biol. 52, 1505–1526 (2007).Yoshida, E. et al. The jPET-D4: Performance evaluation of four-layer DOI-PET scanner using the NEMA NU2-2001 standard. In IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2532–2536, https://doi.org/10.1109/NSSMIC.2006.354425 (2006).Jung, J. et al. Performance evaluation of GAPD-based brain PET. In IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2–5, https://doi.org/10.1109/NSSMIC.2013.6829113 (2013).Yamamoto, S., Honda, M., Oohashi, T., Shimizu, K. & Senda, M. Development of a brain PET system, PET-Hat: A wearable PET system for brain research. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 58, 668–673 (2011).Musa, M. S., Ozsahin, D. U. & Ozsahin, I. Simulation and evaluation of a cost-effective high-performance brain PET scanner. J. Biomed. Imaging Bioeng. 1, 53–59 (2017).Benlloch, J. M. et al. The MINDVIEW project: First results. Eur. Psychiatry 50, 21–27 (2018).Chang, C.-M., Lee, B. J., Grant, A. M., Groll, A. N. & Levin, C. S. Performance study of a radio-frequency field-penetrable PET insert for simultaneous PET/MRI. IEEE Trans. Radiat. Plasma Med. Sci. 2, 442–431 (2018).Wang, Z., Yu, W. & Xie, S. A dedicated PET system for human brain and head/neck imaging. In IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 1–4, https://doi.org/10.1109/NSSMIC.2013.6829112 (2013).Bauer, C. E. et al. Concept of an upright wearable positron emission tomography imager in humans. Brain Behav. 6, 1–10 (2016).Moghaddam, N. M., Karimian, A., Mostajaboddavati, S. M., Vondervoort, E. & Sossi, V. Preliminary design and simulation of a spherical brain PET system (SBPET) with liquid xenon as scintillator. Nukleonika 54, 33–38 (2009).Tashima, H., Ito, H. & Yamaya, T. A proposed helmet-PET with a jaw detector enabling high-sensitivity brain imaging. In IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 8–10, https://doi.org/10.1109/NSSMIC.2013.6829074 (2013).Ahmed, A. M., Tashima, H., Yoshida, E., Nishikido, F. & Yamaya, T. Simulation study comparing the helmet-chin PET with a cylindrical PET of the same number of detectors. Phys. Med. Biol. 62, 4541–4550 (2017).Jung, J., Choi, Y., Jung, J. H., Kim, S. & Im, K. C. Performance evaluation of neuro-PET using silicon photomultipliers. Nucl. Instruments Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A Accel. Spectrometers, Detect. Assoc. Equip. 819, 182–187 (2016).Kaneta, T. et al. Initial evaluation of the Celesteion large-bore PET/CT scanner in accordance with the NEMA NU2-2012 standard and the Japanese guideline for oncology FDG PET/CT data acquisition protocol version 2.0. EJNMMI Res. 7, 1–12 (2017).Rausch, I. et al. Performance evaluation of the Biograph mCT Flow PET/CT system according to the NEMA NU2-2012 standard. EJNMMI Phys. 2, 1–17 (2015).Karlberg, A. M., Sæther, O., Eikenes, L. & Goa, P. E. Quantitative comparison of PET performance—siemens biograph mCT and mMR. EJNMMI Phys. 3 (2016).Delso, G. et al. Performance Measurements of the Siemens mMR Integrated Whole-Body PET/MR Scanner. J. Nucl. Med. 52, 1914–1922 (2011).Miller, M. A., Molecular, A. & Physics, I. Philips Vereos White Paper. K. Philips N.V. 16 (2016).Kolthammer, J. A. et al. Performance evaluation of the ingenuity TF PET/CT scanner with a focus on high count-rate conditions. Phys. Med. Biol. 59, 3843–3859 (2015).Zaidi, H. et al. Design and performance evaluation of a whole-body Ingenuity TF PET-MRI system. Phys. Med. Biol. 56, 3091–3106 (2011).Jha, A. K. et al. Acceptance test of GEmini TF 16 PET scanner based on NEMA NU-2 and perfomance characteristics assesment for eighteen months in a high volume department. J. Nucl. Med. Technol. 44, 36–42 (2016).Grant, A. M. et al. NEMA NU 2-2012 performance studies for the SiPM-based ToF-PET component of the GE SIGNA PET/MR system. Med. Phys. 43, 2334–2343 (2016).Hsu, D. F. C. et al. Studies of a Next-Generation Silicon-Photomultiplier–Based Time-of-Flight PET/CT System. J. Nucl. Med. 58, 1511–1518 (2017).Reynés-Llompart, G. et al. Performance Characteristics of the Whole-Body Discovery IQ PET/CT System. J. Nucl. Med. 58, 1155–1161 (2017)

Comprobación del modelo reflectivo de los factores de primer orden para los constructos de compensación y participación, basados en cuestionarios derivados de Lawler (1991)

[ESP] Las investigaciones en el área de la gestión de recursos humanos (HRM) han sido abundantes en los últimos años. Estos trabajos han permitido hacer avanzar a la disciplina y han tratado cuestiones interesantes tanto para académicos como para profesionales. Por ejemplo, la relación entre la gestión de recursos humanos y los indicadores de desempeño de la empresa, determinar las vías por las que los sistemas de recursos humanos afectan a los resultados de la organización y desentrañar la “caja negra” entre el uso de prácticas y resultados o la especificación de las prácticas de gestión de recursos humanos como un constructo latente. Sin embargo, muchas de estas preguntas siguen sin tener una respuesta concluyente. En la investigación sobre prácticas de recursos humanos, es habitual que se emplee un cuestionario multi-ítem para medir el grado de implantación de las prácticas y, por ello, sería necesaria la especificación del modelo de medida. La especificación del modelo de medida es, además, una condición indispensable para la replicación de estudios o la comparación entre investigaciones realizadas por diferentes autores. Sin embargo, en la mayoría de los trabajos, los modelos de medida de las prácticas de gestión de recursos humanos, y en particular los de las prácticas de alta implicación (HIWP), no están explícitamente especificados. En este sentido, sigue existiendo la necesidad de clarificar las prácticas de gestión de recursos humanos incluidas en los constructos para, por ejemplo, poder comparar los resultados derivados de diferentes estudios

Innovative Strategies for Ozone Treatment of Industrial Wastes: Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Surfactant Wastewater and Leacheate Evaporation

In this paper, ozonation is used as a pre-treatment for two different kinds of wastewaters. The first purpose is the study of the effect of ozonation on a landfill leachate treated by a reverse osmosis process prior a concentration step in an atmospheric evaporator. At first sight, an ozone treatment can supply three effects: Defoaming capacity, biocide effect, and pH acidifier to avoid the ammonia striping in the evaporation process. The second purpose of this paper is regarding hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of wastewaters. HTL can produce a liquid fuel, normally called crude-oil, alternative to fossil fuels, as well as other products of industrial interest (phenols, furfurals, etc.). The second objective is the study of the possible positive effect that a pre-treatment with ozone can have on the performance of the subsequent HTL. In this work, HTL is applied to liquid surfactant wastes obtaining up to 7% crude-oil yield, with a High Heating Value (HHV) higher than 8.000 cal/g. These results are compared with those obtained when an ozonation pre-treatment is applied before the HTL process. Ozone treatment shows a slight defoaming capacity for the leachate feed but don’t seem to show a significant difference in the HHV of the crude-oils obtained from liquid surfactant. However, there is a noticeable difference in the solid residue generated for this later. Less aggregates of solid particles and a weight reduction of 20% in the filtering step were obtained from ozonated liquid surfactants. The reduction of solid by-products is of great interest for dimensioning an industrial-scale HTL plant due to the problems that these solids can generate in pipes and valves

Magnesium accumulation upon cyclin M4 silencing activates microsomal triglyceride transfer protein improving NASH

Background & Aims: Perturbations of intracellular magnesium (Mg) homeostasis have implications for cell physiology. The cyclin M family, CNNM, perform key functions in the transport of Mg across cell membranes. Herein, we aimed to elucidate the role of CNNM4 in the development of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Methods: Serum Mg levels and hepatic CNNM4 expression were characterised in clinical samples. Primary hepatocytes were cultured under methionine and choline deprivation. A 0.1% methionine and choline-deficient diet, or a choline-deficient high-fat diet were used to induce NASH in our in vivo rodent models. Cnnm4 was silenced using siRNA, in vitro with DharmaFECT and in vivo with Invivofectamine® or conjugated to N-acetylgalactosamine. Results: Patients with NASH showed hepatic CNNM4 overexpression and dysregulated Mg levels in the serum. Cnnm4 silencing ameliorated hepatic lipid accumulation, inflammation and fibrosis in the rodent NASH models. Mechanistically, CNNM4 knockdown in hepatocytes induced cellular Mg accumulation, reduced endoplasmic reticulum stress, and increased microsomal triglyceride transfer activity, which promoted hepatic lipid clearance by increasing the secretion of VLDLs. Conclusions: CNNM4 is overexpressed in patients with NASH and is responsible for dysregulated Mg transport. Hepatic CNNM4 is a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of NASH. Lay summary: Cyclin M4 (CNNM4) is overexpressed in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and promotes the export of magnesium from the liver. The liver-specific silencing of Cnnm4 ameliorates NASH by reducing endoplasmic reticulum stress and promoting the activity of microsomal triglyceride transfer protein.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Programa Retos-Colaboración RTC2019-007125-1 (for JS and MLM-C); Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Proyectos de Investigación en Salud DTS20/00138 (for JS and MLM-C); Departamento de Industria del Gobierno Vasco (for MLM-C); Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades MICINN: SAF2017-87301-R and RTI2018-096759-A-100 integrado en el Plan Estatal de Investigación Cientifica y Técnica y Innovación, cofinanciado con Fondos FEDER (for MLM-C and TCD, respectively); BIOEF (Basque Foundation for Innovation and Health Research); EITB Maratoia BIO15/CA/014; Asociación Española contra el Cáncer (MLM-C, TCD); Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cancer (AECC Scientific Foundation) Rare Tumor Calls 2017 (for MLM); La Caixa Foundation Program (for MLM); Fundacion BBVA UMBRELLA project (for MLM); BFU2015-70067-REDC, BFU2016-77408-R, and BES-2017- 080435 (MINECO / FEDER, UE) and the FIGHT-CNNM2 project from the EJP RD Joint Transnational Call (JTC2019) (Ref. AC19/ 00073) (for LAM-C); RTI2018-095134-B-100 and Grupos de Investigación del Sistema Universitario Vasco (IT971-16) (for PA); National Institutes of Health under grant CA217817 (for DB); AGL2014-54585-R, AGL-2017-86927-R and EQC2018-004897-P from MINECO; PC0148-2016-0149 and PAI-BIO311 from Junta de Andalucía (for FM). Ciberehd_ISCIII_MINECO is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. We thank Silence Therapeutics plc. for the financial support provided. We thank MINECO for the Severo Ochoa Excellence Accreditation to CIC bioGUNE (SEV- 2016-0644)

Pathogen Proteins Eliciting Antibodies Do Not Share Epitopes with Host Proteins: A Bioinformatics Approach

The best way to prevent diseases caused by pathogens is by the use of vaccines. The advent of genomics enables genome-wide searches of new vaccine candidates, called reverse vaccinology. The most common strategy to apply reverse vaccinology is by designing subunit recombinant vaccines, which usually generate an humoral immune response due to B-cell epitopes in proteins. A major problem for this strategy is the identification of protective immunogenic proteins from the surfome of the pathogen. Epitope mimicry may lead to auto-immune phenomena related to several human diseases. A sequence-based computational analysis has been carried out applying the BLASTP algorithm. Therefore, two huge databases have been created, one with the most complete and current linear B-cell epitopes, and the other one with the surface-protein sequences of the main human respiratory bacterial pathogens. We found that none of the 7353 linear B-cell epitopes analysed shares any sequence identity region with human proteins capable of generating antibodies, and that only 1% of the 2175 exposed proteins analysed contain a stretch of shared sequence with the human proteome. These findings suggest the existence of a mechanism to avoid autoimmunity. We also propose a strategy for corroborating or warning about the viability of a protein linear B-cell epitope as a putative vaccine candidate in a reverse vaccinology study; so, epitopes without any sequence identity with human proteins should be very good vaccine candidates, and the other way around

Interaction between QTLs induces an advance in ethylene biosynthesis during melon fruit ripening

The coexistence of both climacteric and non-climacteric genotypes and the availability of a set of genetic and genomic resources make melon a suitable model for genetic studies of fruit ripening. We have previously described a QTL, ETHQB3.5, which induces climacteric fruit ripening in the near-isogenic line (NIL) SC3-5 that harbors an introgression on linkage group (LG) III from the non-climacteric melon accession PI 161375 in the, also non-climacteric cultivar, "Piel de Sapo" genetic background. In the current study, a new major QTL, ETHQV6.3, on LG VI was detected on an additional introgression in the same NIL. These QTLs are capable, individually, of inducing climacteric ripening in the non-climacteric background, the effects of ETHQV6.3 being greater than that of ETHQB3.5. The QTLs interact epistatically, advancing the timing of ethylene biosynthesis during ripening and, therefore, the climacteric responses. ETHQV6.3 was fine-mapped to a 4.5 Mb physical region of the melon genome, probably in the centromeric region of LG VI. The results presented will be of value in the molecular identification of the gene underlying ETHQV6.3.We thank Fuensanta Garcia (CRAG) for technical assistance with the plant material. We also thank Maria Angeles Chiriboga and Christian Larrigaudiere (UdL-IRTA) for assistance with the ethylene measurements. The work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grants AGL2006-12780-C02-01, AGL2009-12698-C02-01 and AGL2009-12698-C02-02.Vegas, J.; Garcia-Mas, J.; Monforte Gilabert, AJ. (2013). Interaction between QTLs induces an advance in ethylene biosynthesis during melon fruit ripening. TAG Theoretical and Applied Genetics. 126(6):1531-1544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-013-2071-3153115441266Abeles (1992) Ethylene in plant biology, 2nd edn, Academic Press, San DiegoAdams-Phillips L, Barry C, Giovannoni J (2004) Signal transduction systems regulating fruit ripening. Trends Plant Sci 9:331–338Alexander L, Grierson D (2002) Ethylene biosynthesis and action in tomato: a model for climacteric fruit ripening. J Exp Bot 53:2039–2055Ayub R, Guis M, Ben Amor M, Gillot L, Roustan JP, Latché A, Bouzayen M, Pech JC (1996) Expression of ACC oxidase antisense gene inhibits ripening of cantaloupe melon fruits. Nat Biotechnol 14:862–866Barreto GPM, Barreto GP, Fabi J, De Rosso V, Cordenunsi BR, Lajolo FM (2011) Influence of ethylene on carotenoid biosynthesis during papaya postharvesting ripening. J Food Compos Anal 24:620–624Beaulieu JC, Lea JM (2003) Aroma volatile differences in commercial orange-fleshed cantaloupes, the inbred parental lines and stored fresh-cuts. Proceeding XXVI IHC—Issues and Advances in Postharvest Hort, Prange RK (ed), Acta Hort (ISHS) 628: 809–815Bemer M, Karlova R, Ballester AR, Tikunov YM, Bovy AG, Wolters-Arts M, Rossetto PB, Angenent GC, de Maagd RA (2012) The tomato FRUITFULL homologs TDR4/FUL1 and MBP7/FUL2 regulate ethylene-Independent aspects of fruit ripening. Plant Cell 24:4437–4451Ben-Amor M, Flores B, Latché A, Bouzayen M, Pech JC, Latché A (1999) Inhibition of ethylene biosynthesis by antisense ACC oxidase RNA prevents chilling injury in Charentais cantaloupe melons. Plant, Cell Environ 22:1579–1586Benson G (1999) Tandem repeats finder: a program to analyze DNA sequences. Nucleic Acids Res 27:573–580Chiriboga M-A, Schotsmans WC, Larrigaudière C, Dupille L, Recassens I (2011) How to prevent ripening blockage in 1-MCP-treated “Conference” pears. J Sci Food Agric 91:1781–1788Chung M-Y, Vrebalov J, Alba R, Lee JM, McQuinn R, Chung J-D, Klein P, Giovannoni J (2011) A tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) APETALA2/ERF gene, SlAP2a, is a negative regulator of fruit ripening. Plant J 64:936–947Cuevas HE, Staub JE, Simon PW, Zalapa JE (2009) A consensus linkage map identifies genomic regions controlling fruit maturity and beta-carotene-associated flesh color in melon (Cucumis melo L.). Theor Appl Genet 119:741–756Diaz A, Fergany M, Formisano G, Ziarsolo P, Blanca J, Zhanjung F, Staub J, Zalapa J, Cuevas H, Dace G, Oliver M, Boissot N, Dogimont C, Pitrat M, Hofstede R, van Koert P, Harel-Beja R, Tzuri G, Portnoy V, Cohen S, Schaffer A, Xu Y, Fukino N, Matsumo S, Garcia-Mas J, MOnforte AJ (2011) A consensus linkage map for molecular markers and quantitative trait loci associated with economically important traits in melon (Cucumis melo L.). BMC Plant Biol 11:111Doganlar S, Tanksley SD, Mutschler MA (2000) Identification and molecular mapping of loci controlling fruit ripening time in tomato. Theor Appl Genet 100:249–255Doyle JJ, Doyle JL (1990) Isolation of plant DNA from fresh tissue. Focus 12:13–15Eduardo I, Arús P, Monforte AJ (2005) Development of a genomic library of near isogenic lines (NILs) in melon (Cucumis melo L.) from the exotic accession PI161375. Theor Appl Genet 112:139–148Eduardo I, Arús P, Monforte AJ, Monforte AJ, Obando J, Fernández-Trujillo JP, Martínez JA, Alarcon AL, Alvarez JM, Van Der Knaap E (2007) Estimating the genetic architecture of fruit quality traits in melon using a genomic library of near isogenic lines. J Am Soc Hortic Sci 132:80–89Eriksson EM, Bovy A, Manning K, Harrison L, Andrews J, De Silva J, Tucker G, Seymour G (2004) Effect of the colorless non-ripening mutation on cell wall biochemistry and gene expression during tomato fruit development and ripening. Plant Physiol 136:4184–4197Ezura H, Owino WO (2008) Melon ripening and ethylene. Plant Sci 175: 121–129Fernandez-Silva I, Moreno E, Essafi A, Fernandez-Silva I, Moreno E, Essafi A, Fergany M, Garcia-Mas J, Martín-Hernandez AM, Alvarez JM, Monforte AJ (2010) Shaping melons: agronomic and genetic characterization of QTLs that modify melon fruit morphology. Theor Appl Genet 121:931–940Fujisawa M, Shima Y, Higuchi N, Nakano T, Koyama Y, Kasumi T, Ito Y (2012) Direct targets of the tomato-ripening regulator RIN identified by transcriptome and chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses. Planta 235:1107–1122Garcia-Mas J, Oliver M, Gómez-Paniagua H, de Vicente MCC (2000) Comparing AFLP, RAPD and RFLP markers for measuring genetic diversity in melon. Theor Appl Genet 101:860–864Garcia-Mas J, Benjak A, Sanseverino W, Bourgeois M, Mir G, Gonzalez VM, Henaff E, Camara F, Cozzuto L, Lowy E, Alioto T, Capella-Gutierrez S, Blanca J, Canizares J, Ziarsolo P, Gonzalez-Ibeas D, Rodriguez-Moreno L, Droege M, Du L, Alvarez-Tejado M, Lorente-Galdos B, Mele M, Yang L, Weng Y, Navarro A, Marques-Bonet T, Aranda MA, Nuez F, Pico B, Gabaldon T, Roma G, Guigo R, Casacuberta JM, Arus P, Puigdomenech P (2012) The genome of melon (Cucumis melo L.). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109:11872–11877Gillaspy G, Ben-David H, Gruissem W (1993) Fruits: a developmental perspective. Plant Cell 5:1439–1451Giovannoni JJ (2007) Fruit ripening mutants yield insights into ripening control. Curr Opin Plant Biol 10:283–289Gonzalez M, Xu M, Esteras C, Roig C, Monforte AJ, Troadec C, Pujol M, Nuez F, Bendahmane A, Garcia-Mas J, Picó B (2011) Towards a TILLING platform for functional genomics in Piel de sapo melons. BMC Res Notes 4:289Gonzalo MJ, Claveria E, Monforte AJ, Dolcet-Sanjuan R (2011) Parthenogenic haploids in melon: generation and molecular characterization of a doubled haploid line population. J Am Soc Hortic Sci 136:145–154Guis M, Ben Amor M, Ayub R, Bouzayen M, Pech JC, Latché ABR (1997) Ripening-associated biochemical traits of cantaloupe Charentais melons expressing an antisense ACC oxidase transgene. J Am Soc Hortic Sci 122:748–751Gur A, Osorio S, Fridman E, Fernie AR, Zamir D (2010) hi2-1, a QTL which improves harvest index, earliness and alters metabolite accumulation of processing tomatoes. Theor Appl Genet 121:1587–1599Guzmán P, Ecker JR (1990) Exploiting the triple response of Arabidopsis to identify ethylene-related mutants. Plant Cell 2:513–523Itkin M, Seybold H, Breitel D, Rogachev I, Meir S, Aharoni A (2009) TOMATO AGAMOUS-LIKE 1 is a component of the fruit ripening regulatory network. Plant J 60:1081–1095Karlova R, Rosin FM, Busscher-Lange J, Parapunova V, Do PT, Fernie AR, Fraser PD, Baxter C, Angenent GC, de Maagd RA (2011) Transcriptome and metabolite profiling show that APETALA2a is a major regulator of tomato fruit ripening. Plant Cell 23:923–941Kevany BM, Tieman DM, Taylor MG et al (2007) Ethylene receptor degradation controls the timing of ripening in tomato fruit. Plant J 51:458–467Klee HJ (2004) Ethylene signal transduction. Moving beyond Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol 135:660–667Klee HJ, Giovannoni JJ (2011) Genetics and control of tomato fruit ripening and quality attributes. Annu Rev Genet 45:41–59Kumar R, Sharma MK, Kapoor S, Tyagi AK, Sharma A (2012) Transcriptome analysis of rin mutant fruit and in silico analysis of promoters of differentially regulated genes provides insight into LeMADS-RIN-regulated ethylene-dependent as well as ethylene-independent aspects of ripening in tomato. Mol Genet Genomics 287:189–203Lee JM, Joung J-G, McQuinn R, Chung M-Y, Fei Z, Tieman D, Klee H, Giovannoni J (2012) Combined transcriptome, genetic diversity and metabolite profiling in tomato fruit reveals the ethylene response factor SlERF6 to play an important role in ripening and carotenoid accumulation. Plant J 70:191–204Lin Z, Hong Y, Yin M, Li C, Zhang K, Grierson D (2008) A tomato HD-Zip homeobox protein, LeHB-1, plays an important role in floral organogenesis and ripening. Plant J 55:301–310Manning K, Tor M, Poole M, Hong Y, Thompson AJ, King GJ, Giovannoni J, Seymour GB (2006) A naturally occurring epigenetic mutation in a gene encoding an SBP-box transcription factor inhibits tomato fruit ripening. Nat Genet 38:948–952Mascarell-Creus A, Cañizares J, Vilarrasa-Blasi J, Mora-García S, Blanca J, Gonzalez-Ibeas D, Saladié M, Roig C, Deleu W, Picó B, López-Bigas N, Aranda MA, Garcia-Mas J, Nuez F, Puigdomènech P, Caño-Delgado A (2009) An oligo-based microarray offers novel transcriptomic approaches for the analysis of pathogen resistance and fruit quality traits in melon (Cucumis melo L.). BMC Genomics 10:467McMurchie EJ, McGlasson WB, Eaks IL (1972) Treatment of fruit with propylene gives information about the biogenesis of ethylene. Nature 237:235–236Monforte AJ, Oliver M, Gonzalo MJ, Alvarez JM, Dolcet-Sanjuan R, Arus P (2004) Identification of quantitative trait loci involved in fruit quality traits in melon (Cucumis melo L.). Theor Appl Genet 108:750–758Moreno E, Obando JM, Dos-Santos N, Fernandez-Trujillo JP, Monforte AJ, Garcia-Mas J (2008) Candidate genes and QTLs for fruit ripening and softening in melon. Theor Appl Genet 116:589–602Nelson JC (1997) QGENE: software for marker-based genomic analysis and breeding. Mol Breeding 3:239–245Nishiyama K, Guis M, Rose JKC, Kubo Y, Bennett KA, Wangjin L, Kato K, Ushijima K, Nakano R, Inaba A, Bouzayen M, Latche A, Pech J-C, Bennett AB (2007) Ethylene regulation of fruit softening and cell wall disassembly in Charentais melon. J Exp Bot 58:1281–1290Obando J, Fernandez-Trujillo JP, Martinez JA, Alarcon AL, Eduardo I, Arus P, Monforte AJ (2008) Identification of melon fruit quality quantitative trait loci using near-isogenic lines. J Am Soc Hortic Sci 133:139–151Obando-Ulloa JM, Ruiz J, Monforte AJ, Fernández-Trujillo JP (2010) Aroma profile of a collection of near-isogenic lines of melon (Cucumis melo L.). Food Chem 118:815–822Pech JC, Bouzayen M, Latché A (2008) Climacteric fruit ripening: ethylene-dependent and independent regulation of ripening pathways in melon fruit. Plant Sci 175:114–120Périn C, Gomez-Jimenez M, Hagen L, Périn C, Gomez-Jimenez MC, Hagen L, Dogimont C, Pech J-C, Latché A, Pitrat M, Lelièvre JM (2002) Molecular and genetic characterization of a non-climacteric phenotype in melon reveals two loci conferring altered ethylene response in fruit. Plant Physiol 129:300–309Rozen S, Skaletsky H (2000) Primer3 on the WWW for general users and for biologist programmers. In: Krawetz S, Misener S (eds) Bioinformatics methods and protocols. Humana Press, TotowaSeymour GB, Taylor JE, Tucker GA (1993) Biochemistry of fruit ripening. Chapman & Hall, LondonShalit M, Katzir N, Tadmor Y, Larkov O, Burger Y, Shalekhet F, Lastochkin E, Ravid U, Amar O, Edelstein M, Karchi Z, Lewinsohn E (2001) Acetyl-coa: alcohol acetyltransferase activity and aroma formation in ripening melon fruits. J Agric Food Chem 49:794–799Silva JA, da Costa TS, Lucchetta L, Marini LJ, Zanuzo MR, Nora L, Nora FR, Twyman RM, Rombaldi CV (2004) Characterization of ripening behavior in transgenic melons expressing an antisense 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) oxidase gene from apple. Postharvest Biol Technol 32:263–268Tanksley SD (2004) The genetic, developmental, and molecular bases of fruit size and shape variation in tomato. Plant Cell 16(Suppl):S181–S189Tieman DM, Taylor MG, Ciardi JA, Klee HJ (2000) The tomato ethylene receptors NR and LeETR4 are negative regulators of ethylene response and exhibit functional compensation within a multigene family. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 97, pp 5663–5668Vegas J, Garcia-Mas J, Monforte AJ (2010) Characterization of fruit ripening in the melon near isogenic line SC3-5-1. Proc Cucurbitaceae 2010. Section Breeding and Genetics. ASHA, Alexandria, p 3–7Vrebalov J, Ruezinsky D, Padmanabhan V, White R, Medrano D, Drake R, Schuch W, Giovannon J (2002) A MADS-box gene necessary for fruit ripening at the tomato ripening-inhibitor (rin) locus. Science (New York, NY) 296:343–346Wang KL-C, Yoshida H, Lurin C, Ecker JR (2004) Regulation of ethylene gas biosynthesis by the Arabidopsis ETO1 protein. Nature 428:945–950Zeng ZB (1994) Precision mapping of quantitative trait loci. Genetics 136:1457–146

Pictavia Aurea

Este volumen, titulado Pictavia aurea, reúne 131 estudios que constituyen una granada muestra de los debates y las presentaciones en torno a la cultura hispánica del Siglo de Oro que entre los días 11 y 15 de julio de 2011 se dieron en la ciudad de Poitiers (Francia) en el marco del IX congreso de la Asociación Internacional “Siglo de Oro”. Auspiciada por la Universidad de Poitiers, a través del Centro de Estudios de la Literatura española de Entre Siglos (siglos xvii-xviii) (CELES XVII-XVIII) y el laboratorio «Formes et Représentations en Linguistique et Littérature» (FoReLL), la convocatoria reunió en la ciudad francesa a 276 participantes y a un centenar de asistentes en la novena edición del Congreso de la Asociación, que celebró entonces la efeméride del 450o aniversario del nacimiento de Luis de Góngora.A Isaías Lerner, maestro de la filología hispánic