PROYECTO FIGARO: PLATAFORMA PARA LA GESTIÓN INTEGRAL Y EFICIENTE DEL RIEGO

[EN] Water and energy consumptions at plot level irrigation are issues of broad interest with an important environmental and economic impact. The solution to this double challenge requires the implementation of “precise irrigation”. In this work is shown the under developing software system FIGARO (Flexible and PrecIse IrriGation PlAtform to Improve FaRm Scale Water PrOductivity), which is part of a project co-funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme, in the scope of “Precision technologies to improve irrigation management and increase water productivity in major water-demanding crops in Europe” (KBBE.2012.1.1-03). The aim is to develop a tool to support decision-making for end users that let them perform irrigation scheduling with the aim of reducing water, energy and fertilizers consumptions, as well as yield crop is maximized. Implementation and validation of the FIGARO platform is being performed in several countries with different crops and weather conditions. First results in the year 2014, in citrus and grapevine crops, suggest increases in water productivity with savings close to 30% of water and 36% of energy at Water User Association level.[ES] El consumo de agua y energía en el ámbito del riego en parcela es una cuestión de amplio interés y consecuencias para el medio ambiente y la economía. La solución a este doble reto exige la implantación del denominado “riego de precisión”. En el presente trabajo se presenta la plataforma informática en desarrollo FIGARO (Flexible and PrecIse IrriGation PlAtform to Improve FaRm Scale Water PrOductivity), la cual forma parte de un proyecto financiado por la Unión Europea dentro del 7º Programa Marco, en el ámbito “Precision technologies to improve irrigation management and increase water productivity in major water-demanding crops in Europe” (KBBE.2012.1.1-03). El objetivo principal es desarrollar una herramienta de soporte a la toma de decisiones, que permita a los agricultores realizar programaciones de riego dirigidas a reducir el uso de agua, energía y fertilizantes, a la vez que se maximiza la productividad de las cosechas. La puesta en marcha y validación de la plataforma FIGARO se está llevado a cabo en diferentes países, con cultivos y condiciones climáticas diversas. Los primeros resultados de la campaña de 2014 en cultivos de cítrico y vid, sugieren incrementos de la productividad del agua con ahorros próximos al 30% de agua y del 36% de energía a nivel de comunidad de regantes.Este trabajo ha sido financiado por Unión Europea dentro del 7º Programa Marco, en el ámbito “Precision technologies to improve irrigation management and increase water productivity in major water-demanding crops in Europe” (KBBE.2012.1.1-03).Martínez Gimeno, M.; Martínez Alzamora, F.; Jiménez Bello, MÁ.; Royuela Tomás, Á.; Manzano Juarez, J.; Intrigliolo Molina, DS. (2015). PROYECTO FIGARO: PLATAFORMA PARA LA GESTIÓN INTEGRAL Y EFICIENTE DEL RIEGO. En XXXIII CONGRESO NACIONAL DE RIEGOS. Valencia 16-18 junio de 2015. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/CNRiegos.2015.1457OC

Moving forward through the in silico modeling of tuberculosis: a further step with UISS-TB

Background In 2018, about 10 million people were found infected by tuberculosis, with approximately 1.2 million deaths worldwide. Despite these numbers have been relatively stable in recent years, tuberculosis is still considered one of the top 10 deadliest diseases worldwide. Over the years, Mycobacterium tuberculosis has developed a form of resistance to first-line tuberculosis treatments, specifically to isoniazid, leading to multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. In this context, the EU and Indian DBT funded project STriTuVaD—In Silico Trial for Tuberculosis Vaccine Development—is supporting the identification of new interventional strategies against tuberculosis thanks to the use of Universal Immune System Simulator (UISS), a computational framework capable of predicting the immunity induced by specific drugs such as therapeutic vaccines and antibiotics. Results Here, we present how UISS accurately simulates tuberculosis dynamics and its interaction within the immune system, and how it predicts the efficacy of the combined action of isoniazid and RUTI vaccine in a specific digital population cohort. Specifically, we simulated two groups of 100 digital patients. The first group was treated with isoniazid only, while the second one was treated with the combination of RUTI vaccine and isoniazid, according to the dosage strategy described in the clinical trial design. UISS-TB shows to be in good agreement with clinical trial results suggesting that RUTI vaccine may favor a partial recover of infected lung tissue. Conclusions In silico trials innovations represent a powerful pipeline for the prediction of the effects of specific therapeutic strategies and related clinical outcomes. Here, we present a further step in UISS framework implementation. Specifically, we found that the simulated mechanism of action of RUTI and INH are in good alignment with the results coming from past clinical phase IIa trials

Observing Supermassive Black Holes across cosmic time: from phenomenology to physics

In the last decade, a combination of high sensitivity, high spatial resolution observations and of coordinated multi-wavelength surveys has revolutionized our view of extra-galactic black hole (BH) astrophysics. We now know that supermassive black holes reside in the nuclei of almost every galaxy, grow over cosmological times by accreting matter, interact and merge with each other, and in the process liberate enormous amounts of energy that influence dramatically the evolution of the surrounding gas and stars, providing a powerful self-regulatory mechanism for galaxy formation. The different energetic phenomena associated to growing black holes and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), their cosmological evolution and the observational techniques used to unveil them, are the subject of this chapter. In particular, I will focus my attention on the connection between the theory of high-energy astrophysical processes giving rise to the observed emission in AGN, the observable imprints they leave at different wavelengths, and the methods used to uncover them in a statistically robust way. I will show how such a combined effort of theorists and observers have led us to unveil most of the SMBH growth over a large fraction of the age of the Universe, but that nagging uncertainties remain, preventing us from fully understating the exact role of black holes in the complex process of galaxy and large-scale structure formation, assembly and evolution.Comment: 46 pages, 21 figures. This review article appears as a chapter in the book: "Astrophysical Black Holes", Haardt, F., Gorini, V., Moschella, U and Treves A. (Eds), 2015, Springer International Publishing AG, Cha

The HIV-1 reservoir landscape in persistent elite controllers and transient elite controllers.

BACKGROUNDPersistent controllers (PCs) maintain antiretroviral-free HIV-1 control indefinitely over time, while transient controllers (TCs) eventually lose virological control. It is essential to characterize the quality of the HIV reservoir in terms of these phenotypes in order to identify the factors that lead to HIV progression and to open new avenues toward an HIV cure.METHODSThe characterization of HIV-1 reservoir from peripheral blood mononuclear cells was performed using next-generation sequencing techniques, such as full-length individual and matched integration site proviral sequencing (FLIP-Seq; MIP-Seq).RESULTSPCs and TCs, before losing virological control, presented significantly lower total, intact, and defective proviruses compared with those of participants on antiretroviral therapy (ART). No differences were found in total and defective proviruses between PCs and TCs. However, intact provirus levels were lower in PCs compared with TCs; indeed the intact/defective HIV-DNA ratio was significantly higher in TCs. Clonally expanded intact proviruses were found only in PCs and located in centromeric satellite DNA or zinc-finger genes, both associated with heterochromatin features. In contrast, sampled intact proviruses were located in permissive genic euchromatic positions in TCs.CONCLUSIONSThese results suggest the need for, and can give guidance to, the design of future research to identify a distinct proviral landscape that may be associated with the persistent control of HIV-1 without ART.FUNDINGInstituto de Salud Carlos III (FI17/00186, FI19/00083, MV20/00057, PI18/01532, PI19/01127 and PI22/01796), Gilead Fellowships (GLD22/00147). NIH grants AI155171, AI116228, AI078799, HL134539, DA047034, MH134823, amfAR ARCHE and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Presencia y potencial zoonósico de Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis y Balantioides coli en ungulados en libertad y semilibertad en España

Trabajo presentado al: XXVI Simposio Anual de AVEDILA. Elche, 19-21 noviembre. (2023)Peer reviewe

An open-access database and analysis tool for perovskite solar cells based on the FAIR data principles

Large datasets are now ubiquitous as technology enables higher-throughput experiments, but rarely can a research field truly benefit from the research data generated due to inconsistent formatting, undocumented storage or improper dissemination. Here we extract all the meaningful device data from peer-reviewed papers on metal-halide perovskite solar cells published so far and make them available in a database. We collect data from over 42, 400 photovoltaic devices with up to 100 parameters per device. We then develop open-source and accessible procedures to analyse the data, providing examples of insights that can be gleaned from the analysis of a large dataset. The database, graphics and analysis tools are made available to the community and will continue to evolve as an open-source initiative. This approach of extensively capturing the progress of an entire field, including sorting, interactive exploration and graphical representation of the data, will be applicable to many fields in materials science, engineering and biosciences. © 2021, The Author(s)

Presencia y diversidad de subtipos de Blastocystis en jabalíes (Sus scrofa) de la Península Ibérica, (2023)

Trabajo presentado al: XXVI Simposio Anual de AVEDILA, Elche, 19-21 noviembre. 2023.Peer reviewe