PipX, the coactivator of NtcA, is a global regulator in cyanobacteria

To modulate the expression of genes involved in nitrogen assimilation, the cyanobacterial PII-interacting protein X (PipX) interacts with the global transcriptional regulator NtcA and the signal transduction protein PII, a protein found in all three domains of life as an integrator of signals of the nitrogen and carbon balance. PipX can form alternate complexes with NtcA and PII, and these interactions are stimulated and inhibited, respectively, by 2-oxoglutarate, providing a mechanistic link between PII signaling and NtcA-regulated gene expression. Here, we demonstrate that PipX is involved in a much wider interaction network. The effect of pipX alleles on transcript levels was studied by RNA sequencing of S. elongatus strains grown in the presence of either nitrate or ammonium, followed by multivariate analyses of relevant mutant/control comparisons. As a result of this process, 222 genes were classified into six coherent groups of differentially regulated genes, two of which, containing either NtcA-activated or NtcA-repressed genes, provided further insights into the function of NtcA–PipX complexes. The remaining four groups suggest the involvement of PipX in at least three NtcA-independent regulatory pathways. Our results pave the way to uncover new regulatory interactions and mechanisms in the control of gene expression in cyanobacteria.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (Grants BFU2009-07371, BFU2012-33364, and BFU2011-26608) and the European Seventh Framework Program (Grants 289326/FP7-KBBE-2011-5 and 282004/FP7-HEALTH-2011-2.3.1-2)

Software enfocado en la generación y trazabilidad de la proyección presupuestal para contratación docente en universidades

El proceso de elaboración del presupuesto para la contratación docente dentro de la Escuela de Comunicaciones Militares-ESCOM, actualmente es realizado de manera manual en un documento de Excel. Debido a esto, surge la necesidad de contar con un software que mejore la confiabilidad y eficacia de este proceso. Por tanto, el software diseñado tiene como objetivo modernizar el proceso de elaboración del presupuesto utilizando las tecnologías de información y comunicación TIC, de tal manera que sea llevado a cabo en una plataforma web y así mediante una interfaz clara y amigable facilitar el manejo y la posterior consolidación de los datos. Para la construcción del software fue necesario, en primera instancia la determinación de los requerimientos, tanto funcionales como técnicos mediante un detallado desarrollo del estado del arte, la aplicación de la metodología de desarrollo ágil Scrum, así como la utilización de los estándares de desarrollo de software orientados desde el Centro de Innovación y Tecnología de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad de Cundinamarca. Él software de proyección presupuestal para la contratación docente está diseñado mediante la combinación de varias funcionalidades como son: Crear/Editar presupuesto, ver historial de presupuestos, realizar estructuración curricular, realizar gestión de reportes necesarios para formalizar la solicitud de recursos al estado y la certificación de la carga académica docente, gestionar categorías y categorización docente. Se puede evidenciar la importancia de automatizar procesos por medio de las TIC y como estas tecnologías cobran relevancia a la hora de facilitar procesos tediosos en cualquier institución.

Protocolo que facilita la integración de módulos informáticos a un sistema de información computacional

El diseño de protocolos de integración suma un papel importante en el desarrollo de un sistema de información ya que gestiona y controla más los procesos que se realizan al momento de modificar o añadir una nueva funcionalidad a un proyecto, por lo tanto, en la Escuela de Comunicaciones, se lleva a cabo el Sistema de Información para el apoyo administrativo de la Escuela de Comunicaciones el cual busca dar solución a problemas que surgen a nivel administrativo, es por esto que el módulo Super Administrador Versión 2.0, busca integrar y dar mantenimiento a otros módulos de dicho sistema, para ello se llevó a cabo el desarrollo de un protocolo de integración que pueda unificar estos módulos, para facilitar su entendimiento e implementación en dicho sistema. De esta manera, este artículo pretende evidenciar el proceso para la realización un protocolo de integración y mostrar la importancia que tiene para mejorar las condiciones de gestión y control de un sistema de información

Coronavirus fear of contagion and compliance with social distancing measures: evidence for a sample of a Spanish university community

Background. Social distancing measures have been one of the core pillars of the strategy against COVID-19 in all the countries. This study aims at understanding what motivates behaviours and compliance with social distancing measures among students and workers from a Spanish public university. Methods. We carry out two logistics models considering two different dependent variables: not maintaining social relation with non-cohabiting people and not to leave home except for emergencies (n = 507, sample is formed by students and workers from the University of Cantabria in the North of Spain). Results. Being very concerned about getting ill suggests higher risk of not maintaining social relation with non-cohabiting people. Getting older increase the probability of not leaving home except for emergencies as happens with those who are very concerned about getting ill. Young people often living with vulnerable older relatives may affect students' behaviour. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that compliance with social distancing measures depends on several factors related to age, the number or kind of cohabiting people and level of concern about getting ill. Policies should address all these factors through a multidisciplinary perspective

Risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding and perforation associated with low-dose aspirin as plain and enteric-coated formulations

BACKGROUND: The use of low-dose aspirin has been reported to be associated with an increased risk of upper gastrointestinal complications (UGIC). The coating of aspirin has been proposed as an approach to reduce such a risk. To test this hypothesis, we carried out a population based case-control study. METHODS: We identified incident cases of UGIC (bleeding or perforation) aged 40 to 79 years between April 1993 to October 1998 registered in the General Practice Research Database. Controls were selected randomly from the source population. Adjusted estimates of relative risk (RR) associated with current use of aspirin as compared to non use were computed using unconditional logistic regression. RESULTS: We identified 2,105 cases of UGIC and selected 11,500 controls. Among them, 287 (13.6%) cases and 837 (7.3%) controls were exposed to aspirin, resulting in an adjusted RR of 2.0 (1.7-2.3). No clear dose-effect was found within the range of 75-300 mg. The RR associated with enteric-coated formulations (2.3, 1.6-3.2) was similar to the one of plain aspirin (1.9, 1.6-2.3), and no difference was observed depending on the site. The first two months of treatment was the period of greater risk (RR= 4.5, 2.9-7.1). The concomitant use of aspirin with high-dose NSAIDs greatly increased the risk of UGIC (13.3, 8.5-20.9) while no interaction was apparent with low-medium doses (2.2, 1.0-4.6). CONCLUSIONS: Low-dose aspirin increases by twofold the risk of UGIC in the general population and its coating does not modify the effect. Concomitant use of low-dose aspirin and NSAIDs at high doses put patients at a specially high risk of UGIC

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Principales cambios en las Recomendaciones para la Resucitación del Consejo Europeo de Resucitación (ERC) 2015.

RESUMEN: Recientemente se han publicado las nuevas guías referentes a la Reanimación Cardiopulmonar (RCP) por parte del European Resuscitation Council (ERC). El mismo día, el Consejo Español de Resucitación Cardiopulmonar (CERCP) emitía una declaración oficial para manifestar su adhesión a estas recomendaciones. Esta misma declaración menciona “la necesidad de la aplicación ajustada de estas recomendaciones europeas, tanto en el ámbito asistencial como en el de la formación”. Aunque se mantienen la mayoría de las recomendaciones publicadas en el año 2010, es preciso conocer estos cambios para ajustarse a los nuevos conocimientos científicos. Para ello, este documento pretende resumir los principales cambios respecto a las recomendaciones anteriores con el objetivo de proporcionar una primera aproximación a los profesionales sanitarios.ABSTRACT: Recently, the new guidelines about cardiopulmonary resuscitation were published by the European Resuscitation Council (ERC). The same day, the Consejo Español de Resucitación Cardiopulmonar (CERCP) gave an announcement to declare the adhesion to these guidelines. This announcement brings up “the requirement to apply these European suggestions, both in the care services environment and in the formation environment”. Although most of the suggestions have had no changes with those suggestions published in 2010, the knowledge of these changes is needed to accommodate to the new knowledge. For this reason, this document pretends summarise the main changes in relation to the previous guidelines with the purpose to provide a first approach for healthcare professionals

Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Çédille, revista de estudios franceses

Presentació

The PLATO mission

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA’s M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets (down to <2REarth) around bright stars (<11 mag), including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. With the complement of radial velocity observations from the ground, planets will be characterised for their radius, mass, and age with high accuracy (5%, 10%, 10% for an Earth-Sun combination respectively). PLATO will provide us with a large-scale catalogue of well-characterised small planets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation theories and to better understand planet evolution. It will make possible comparative exoplanetology to place our Solar System planets in a broader context. In parallel, PLATO will study (host) stars using asteroseismology, allowing us to determine the stellar properties with high accuracy, substantially enhancing our knowledge of stellar structure and evolution. The payload instrument consists of 26 cameras with 12cm aperture each. For at least four years, the mission will perform high-precision photometric measurements. Here we review the science objectives, present PLATO‘s target samples and fields, provide an overview of expected core science performance as well as a description of the instrument and the mission profile towards the end of the serial production of the flight cameras. PLATO is scheduled for a launch date end 2026. This overview therefore provides a summary of the mission to the community in preparation of the upcoming operational phases