Búsqueda de dianas en Podosphaera Xanthii para el desarrollo de nuevas fitoterapias antifúngicas

La resistencia a fungicidas en uno de los principales problemas de la agricultura y esto es especialmente patente en el caso de los oídios. En España y en las principales áreas productoras del mundo, el oídio de las cucurbitáceas es una amenaza muy grave, y Podosphaera xanthii es considerado como el principal agente causante de la enfermedad. Hasta la fecha, la aplicación de fungicidas y el uso de variedades resistentes son las principales herramientas para el control de la enfermedad. En cualquier caso, el oídio sigue imponiendo serias limitaciones en la producción agrícola, siendo necesario el desarrollo de nuevas estrategias de control. En este estudio se pretende proporcionar información sobre las bases moleculares de P. xanthii que pueda ser de utilidad para el desarrollo de nuevas herramientas de fitoprotección. Para lograr este objetivo, estamos centrando nuestra atención en un conjunto de proteínas fúngicas carentes de función, determinado en un estudio anterior. Ante la falta de homología con proteínas funcionalmente anotadas, para conocer la posible función de dichas proteínas, en primer lugar, llevamos a cabo un análisis in silico detallado de las proteínas que incluye modelado 3D, predicción de posibles ligandos e identificación de dominios funcionales. En segundo lugar, para la identificación de proteínas clave para la patogénesis de P. xanthii, silenciamos proteínas del hongo con función predicha bioinformáticamente mediante silenciamiento génico inducido por hospedador (HIGS) empleando Agrobacterium tumefaciens como vector para la expresión transitoria de construcciones de silenciamiento en células de melón, y desde ellas, al hongo diana. Finalmente, las proteínas con un fenotipo claro de silenciamiento serán seleccionadas para la caracterización de su actividad biológica. En este congreso se mostrarán los resultados más relevantes obtenidos hasta la fecha, relativos a la asimilación de azufre.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Este trabajo ha sido financiado por una ayuda del Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad (AGL2016-76216-C2-1-R), cofinanciada con fondos FEDER (UE). Los autores agredecen además ayudas del Plan Propio de Investigación de la Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Olive Actual “on Year” Yield Forecast Tool Based on the Tree Canopy Geometry Using UAS Imagery

Olive has a notable importance in countries of Mediterranean basin and its profitability depends on several factors such as actual yield, production cost or product price. Actual “on year” Yield (AY) is production (kg tree-1) in “on years”, and this research attempts to relate it with geometrical parameters of the tree canopy. Regression equation to forecast AY based on manual canopy volume was determined based on data acquired from different orchard categories and cultivars during different harvesting seasons in southern Spain. Orthoimages were acquired with unmanned aerial systems (UAS) imagery calculating individual crown for relating to canopy volume and AY. Yield levels did not vary between orchard categories; however, it did between irrigated orchards (7000–17,000 kg ha-1) and rainfed ones (4000–7000 kg ha-1). After that, manual canopy volume was related with the individual crown area of trees that were calculated by orthoimages acquired with UAS imagery. Finally, AY was forecasted using both manual canopy volume and individual tree crown area as main factors for olive productivity. AY forecast only by using individual crown area made it possible to get a simple and cheap forecast tool for a wide range of olive orchards. Finally, the acquired information was introduced in a thematic map describing spatial AY variability obtained from orthoimage analysis that may be a powerful tool for farmers, insurance systems, market forecasts or to detect agronomical problems

Algal lipids reveal unprecedented warming rates in alpine areas of SW Europe during the industrial period

Alpine ecosystems of the southern Iberian Peninsula are among the most vulnerable and the first to respond to modern climate change in southwestern Europe. While major environmental shifts have occurred over the last similar to 1500 years in these alpine ecosystems, only changes in the recent centuries have led to abrupt environmental responses, but factors imposing the strongest stress have been unclear until now. To understand these environmental responses, this study, for the first time, has calibrated an algal lipid-derived temperature proxy (based on long-chain alkyl diols) to instrumental historical data extending alpine temperature reconstructions to 1500 years before present. These novel results highlight the enhanced effect of greenhouse gases on alpine temperatures during the last similar to 200 years and the long-term modulating role of solar forcing. This study also shows that the warming rate during the 20th century (similar to 0.18 degrees C per decade) was double that of the last stages of the Little Ice Age (similar to 0.09 degrees C per decade), even exceeding temperature trends of the high-altitude Alps during the 20th century. As a consequence, temperature exceeded the preindustrial record in the 1950s, and it has been one of the major forcing processes of the recent enhanced change in these alpine ecosystems from southern Iberia since then. Nevertheless, other factors reducing the snow and ice albedo (e.g., atmospheric deposition) may have influenced local glacier loss, since almost steady climate conditions predominated from the middle 19th century to the first decades of the 20th century.Peer reviewe

Diagnostic ability of multifocal electroretinogram in early multiple sclerosis using a new signal analysis method

Purpose To determine if a novel analysis method will increase the diagnostic value of the multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) in diagnosing early-stage multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods We studied the mfERG signals of OD (Oculus Dexter) eyes of fifteen patients diagnosed with early-stage MS (in all cases < 12 months) and without a history of optic neuritis (ON) (F: M = 11:4), and those of six controls (F:M = 3:3). We obtained values of amplitude and latency of N1 and P1 waves, and a method to assess normalized root-mean-square error (FNRMSE) between model signals and mfERG recordings was used. Responses of each eye were analysed at a global level, and by rings, quadrants and hemispheres. AUC (area under the ROC curve) is used as discriminant factor. Results The standard method of analysis obtains further discrimination between controls and MS in ring R3 (AUC = 0.82), analysing N1 waves amplitudes. In all of the retina analysis regions, FNRMSE value shows a greater discriminating power than the standard method. The highest AUC value (AUC = 0.91) was in the superior temporal quadrant. Conclusion By analysing mfERG recordings and contrasting them with those of healthy controls it is possible to detect early-stage MS in patients without a previous history of ON

The CaT strength in Seyfert nuclei revisited: analyzing young stars and non-stellar light contributions to the spectra

In a former paper (Garcia-Rissmann et al. 2005; hereafter Paper I), we have presented spectra of 64 active, 9 normal and 5 Starburst galaxies in the region around the near-IR Calcium triplet absorption lines and the [SIII]9069 line. In the present paper we analyze the CaT strength (WCaT), and kinematical products derived in that study, namely stellar and ionized gas velocity dispersions. Our main results may be summarized as follows: (1) Seyfert 2s show no sign of dilution in WCaT with respect to the values spanned by normal galaxies, even when optical absorption lines such as the CaII K band at 3933 A are much weaker than in old, bulge-like stellar populations. (2) The location of Seyfert 2s in the WCaT-WCaK plane is consistent with evolutionary synthesis models. The implication is that the source responsible for the dilution of optical lines in these AGN is a young stellar population, rather than an AGN featureless continuum, confirming the conclusion of the pioneer study of Terlevich, Diaz & Terlevich. (3) In Seyfert 1s, both W[SIII] and WCaT tend to be diluted due to the presence of a non-stellar component, in agreement with the unification paradigm. (4) A comparison of stellar and gas velocity dispersions confirms the existence of a correlation between the typical velocities of stars and clouds of the Narrow Line Region. The strength and scatter around this correlation are similar to those previously obtained from the [OIII]5007 line width.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures. Paper accepted for publication in MNRA

Nonlinear focusing of ultrasonic waves by an axisymmetric diffraction grating embedded in water

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 107, 204103 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4935917 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4935917.We report the nonlinear focusing of ultrasonic waves by an axisymmetric diffraction grating immersed in water. In the linear regime, the system presents high focal gain (32 dB), with a narrow beam-width and intense side lobes as it is common in focusing by Fresnel-like lenses. Activating the nonlinearity of the host medium by using high amplitude incident waves, the focusing properties of the lens dramatically change. Theoretical predictions show that the focal gain of the system extraordinary increases in the strongly nonlinear regime (Mach number of 6.1 x 10(-4)). Particularly, the harmonic generation is locally activated at the focal spot, and the second harmonic beam is characterized by strongly reduced side-lobes and an excellent beam profile as experiments show in agreement with theory. The results can motivate applications in medical therapy or second harmonic imaging. (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.The work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and European Union FEDER through Projects FIS2011-29734-C02-01 and -02, MTM2012-36740c02-02, and PAID 2012/253.Jimenez, N.; Romero García, V.; Picó Vila, R.; García-Raffi, LM.; Staliünas, K. (2015). Nonlinear focusing of ultrasonic waves by an axisymmetric diffraction grating embedded in water. Applied Physics Letters. 107(20). doi:10.1063/1.4935917S20410310720Farnow, S. A., & Auld, B. A. (1974). Acoustic Fresnel zone plate transducers. Applied Physics Letters, 25(12), 681-682. doi:10.1063/1.1655359Sleva, M. Z., Hunt, W. D., & Briggs, R. D. (1994). Focusing performance of epoxy‐ and air‐backed polyvinylidene fluoride Fresnel zone plates. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 96(3), 1627-1633. doi:10.1121/1.410242Wang, H., Xing, D., & Xiang, L. (2008). Photoacoustic imaging using an ultrasonic Fresnel zone plate transducer. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 41(9), 095111. doi:10.1088/0022-3727/41/9/095111Molerón, M., Serra-Garcia, M., & Daraio, C. (2014). Acoustic Fresnel lenses with extraordinary transmission. Applied Physics Letters, 105(11), 114109. doi:10.1063/1.4896276Clement, G., Nomura, H., & Kamakura, T. (2015). Ultrasound field measurement using a binary lens. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 62(2), 350-359. doi:10.1109/tuffc.2014.006800Jiménez, N., Romero-García, V., Picó, R., Cebrecos, A., Sánchez-Morcillo, V. J., Garcia-Raffi, L. M., … Staliunas, K. (2014). Acoustic Bessel-like beam formation by an axisymmetric grating. EPL (Europhysics Letters), 106(2), 24005. doi:10.1209/0295-5075/106/24005Sarvazyan, A. P., Rudenko, O. V., Swanson, S. D., Fowlkes, J. B., & Emelianov, S. Y. (1998). Shear wave elasticity imaging: a new ultrasonic technology of medical diagnostics. Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology, 24(9), 1419-1435. doi:10.1016/s0301-5629(98)00110-0Nightingale, K., Soo, M. S., Nightingale, R., & Trahey, G. (2002). Acoustic radiation force impulse imaging: in vivo demonstration of clinical feasibility. Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology, 28(2), 227-235. doi:10.1016/s0301-5629(01)00499-9Konofagou, E. E., & Hynynen, K. (2003). Localized harmonic motion imaging: theory, simulations and experiments. Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology, 29(10), 1405-1413. doi:10.1016/s0301-5629(03)00953-0Duck, F. A. (2002). Nonlinear acoustics in diagnostic ultrasound. Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology, 28(1), 1-18. doi:10.1016/s0301-5629(01)00463-xBailey, M. R., Khokhlova, V. A., Sapozhnikov, O. A., Kargl, S. G., & Crum, L. A. (2003). Physical mechanisms of the therapeutic effect of ultrasound (a review). Acoustical Physics, 49(4), 369-388. doi:10.1134/1.1591291M. A. Averkiou , D. N. Roundhill , and J. Powers , in IEEE Proceedings of the Ultrasonics Symposium ( IEEE, 1997), Vol. 2, pp. 1561–1566.Nguyen, M. M., Shin, J., & Yen, J. (2014). Harmonic Imaging with Fresnel Beamforming in the Presence of Phase Aberration. Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology, 40(10), 2488-2498. doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2014.03.030Lu, J.-Y., & Greenleaf, J. F. (1990). Ultrasonic nondiffracting transducer for medical imaging. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, 37(5), 438-447. doi:10.1109/58.105250N. Jiménez , “ Nonlinear acoustic waves in complex media,” Ph.D. thesis, Universitat Politècnica de València, 2015

Signatures of a two-dimensional ferromagnetic electron gas at the La_(0.7)Sr_(0.3)MnO_(3)/SrTiO_(3) interface arising from orbital reconstruction

The magnetoresistance of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/SrTiO3La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/SrTiO3 superlattices with magnetic field rotating out-of-plane shows unexpected peaks for in-plane fields. Resistivity calculations with spin–orbit coupling reveal that orbital reconstruction at the manganite interface leads to a 2D ferromagnetic electron gas coupled antiparallel to the manganite “bulk”. These orbital and magnetic reconstructions are supported by X-ray linear dichroism and ab initio calculations

The effect of ultrasound pretreatment on some selected physicochemical properties of black cumin (Nigella Sativa)

Background In the present study, the effects of ultrasound pretreatment parameters including irradiation time and power on the quantity of the extracted phenolic compounds quantity as well as on some selected physicochemical properties of the extracted oils including oil extraction efficiency, acidity and peroxide values, color, and refractive index of the extracted oil of black cumin seeds with the use of cold press have been studied. Methods For each parameter, three different levels (30, 60, and 90 W) for the ultrasound power and (30, 45, and 60 min) and for the ultrasound irradiation time were studied. Each experiment was performed in three replications. Results The achieved results revealed that, with enhancements in the applied ultrasound power, the oil extraction efficiency, acidity value, total phenolic content, peroxide value, and color parameters increased significantly (P 0.05). Conclusions In summary, it could be mentioned that the application of ultrasound pretreatment in the oil extraction might improve the oil extraction efficiency, the extracted oil’s quality, and the extracted phenolic compounds content.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Autologous stem cell transplantation may be curative for patients with follicular lymphoma with early therapy failure without the need for immunotherapy

Objective/Background: Patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) with early therapy failure (ETF) within 2 years of frontline therapy have poor overall survival (OS). We recently reported the results of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in patients from the Grupo Español de Linfomas y Trasplantes de Médula Ósea (GELTAMO) registry treated with rituximab prior to ASCT and with ETF after first-line immunochemotherapy, leading to 81% 5-year OS since ASCT. We explored whether ASCT is also an effective option in the pre-rituximab era—that is, in patients treated in induction and rescued only with chemotherapy. Methods: ETF was defined as relapse/progression within 2 years of starting first-line therapy. We identified two groups: the ETF cohort (n = 87) and the non-ETF cohort (n = 47 patients receiving ASCT but not experiencing ETF following first-line therapy). Results: There was a significant difference in 5-year progression-free survival between the ETF and non-ETF cohorts (43% vs. 57%, respectively; p = .048). Nevertheless, in patients with ETF with an interval from first relapse after primary treatment to ASCT of <1 year, no differences were observed in 5-year progression-free survival (48% vs. 66%, respectively; p = .44) or in 5-year OS (69% vs. 77%, p = .4). Patients in the ETF cohort transplanted in complete remission showed a plateau in the OS curves, at 56%, beyond 13.7 years of follow-up. Conclusion: ASCT may be a curative option for ETF in patients who respond to rescue chemotherapy, without the need for immunotherapy or other therapies, and should be considered as an early consolidation, especially in patients with difficult access to rituximab