Economic mapping and assessment of Cymodocea nodosa meadows as nursery grounds for commercially important fish species. A case study in the Canary Islands

Cymodocea nodosa seagrass meadows provide several socio-economically ecosystem services, including nurseries for numerous species of commercial interest. These seagrasses are experiencing a worldwide decline, with global loss rates approaching 5% per year, mainly related to coastal human activities. Cymodocea nodosa, the predominant seagrass in the Canary Archipelago (Spain), is also exposed to these threats, which could lead to habitat loss or even local disappearance. In this case study, we estimated the potential economic value of Cymodocea nodosa seagrass meadows for local fisheries at an archipelago scale. Habitat suitability maps were constructed using MAXENT 3.4.1, a software for modelling species distributions by applying a maximum entropy machine-learning method, from a set of environmental variables and presence and background records extracted from historical cartographies. This model allows characterising and assessing the C. nodosa habitat suitability, overcoming the implicit complexity derived from seasonal changes in this species highly dynamic meadows and using it as a first step for the mapping and assessment of ecosystem services. In a second step, value transfer methodologies were used, along with published economic valuations of commercially-interesting fish species related to C. nodosa meadows. We estimate that the potential monetary value of these species can add up to more than 3 million euros per year for the entire Archipelago. The simplicity of the proposed methodology facilitates its repeatability in other similar regions, using freely available data and hence, being suitable for data-scarce scenarios.En prens

Construction of a Sinorhizobium meliloti strain carrying a stable and non-transmissible chromosomal single copy of the green fluorescent protein GFP-P64L/S65T

A single copy of the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-encoding gene gfp-P64L/S65T under the control of the constitutive nptII promoter was introduced in a neutral region of the Sinorhizobium meliloti chromosome, between the genes recA and alaS. Within the same chromosomal region downstream of gfp-P64L/S65T a tetracycline (Tc) resistant cassette was also inserted. Both markers were very stable during at least 40 bacterial generations without any selective pressure. Similarly, the gfp-Tc cassette was stable and functional in all rhizobia that were recovered from alfalfa nodules. The GFP-associated fluorescence derived from the (single copy) chromosomal gfp-P64L/S65T allowed detection of rhizobia during the colonisation of the root, infection thread formation, and nodule development. The gfp-Tc rhizobia showed indistinguishable phenotypes for nodulation, competitiveness, and nitrogen-fixation from the parental strain. The labelling system described here can be used for the stable fluorescent tagging of S. meliloti strains allowing their detection in biologically complex soil environments.Facultad de Ciencias ExactasInstituto de Biotecnologia y Biologia Molecula

Construction of a Sinorhizobium meliloti strain carrying a stable and non-transmissible chromosomal single copy of the green fluorescent protein GFP-P64L/S65T

A single copy of the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-encoding gene gfp-P64L/S65T under the control of the constitutive nptII promoter was introduced in a neutral region of the Sinorhizobium meliloti chromosome, between the genes recA and alaS. Within the same chromosomal region downstream of gfp-P64L/S65T a tetracycline (Tc) resistant cassette was also inserted. Both markers were very stable during at least 40 bacterial generations without any selective pressure. Similarly, the gfp-Tc cassette was stable and functional in all rhizobia that were recovered from alfalfa nodules. The GFP-associated fluorescence derived from the (single copy) chromosomal gfp-P64L/S65T allowed detection of rhizobia during the colonisation of the root, infection thread formation, and nodule development. The gfp-Tc rhizobia showed indistinguishable phenotypes for nodulation, competitiveness, and nitrogen-fixation from the parental strain. The labelling system described here can be used for the stable fluorescent tagging of S. meliloti strains allowing their detection in biologically complex soil environments.Facultad de Ciencias ExactasInstituto de Biotecnologia y Biologia Molecula

Optimization of molecular detection of GD2 synthase mRNA in retinoblastoma

Extraocular dissemination is the main cause of death in patients with retinoblastoma in developing countries and there are few molecular markers that could be used for evaluation of minimal disseminated disease. The expression of the ganglioside GD2 is present in retinoblastoma cells metastatic to the bone marrow and the enzyme GD2 synthase activity is detected in neuroblastoma, which shares many phenotypic features with retinoblastoma. Our purpose was to optimize the detection of GD2 synthase expression by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) followed by nested-PCR in human retinoblastoma cell lines and patient samples. The optimization strategy was carried out by using the retinoblastoma cell lines Y79 and WERI-Rb1 and specific primers designed for the human sequence of the GD2 synthase mRNA. We detected GD2 synthase expression with at least 200 pg and 40 pg of total RNA extracted from cultured retinoblastoma cells, using a first round of RT-PCR amplification and a second round of nested-PCR, respectively. We have also confirmed the detection of GD2 synthase by RT-PCR and immunohistochemical expression of the ganglioside in human retinoblastoma tumors xenotransplanted in nude mice. In a study from tumor bank specimens from 8 retinoblastoma patients, we were able to demonstrate the presence of GD2 synthase mRNA in blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples in cases of extraocular dissemination of the tumor. The sequence was not detected in samples from children with low-risk disease or healthy adult volunteers. The detection of GD2 synthase mRNA through an optimized nested RT-PCR assay may be a promising tool for the assessment of minimal disseminated disease in enucleated patients.Fil: Laurent, Viviana Eunice. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan". Servicio de Hemato-Oncología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Otero, Laura L.. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Valeria. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Camarero, Sandra. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; ArgentinaFil: Gabri, Mariano Rolando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Labrada, Maria. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; ArgentinaFil: Garcia de Davila, Maria Teresa. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan"; ArgentinaFil: Chantada, Guillermo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Pediatría "Juan P. Garrahan". Servicio de Hemato-Oncología; ArgentinaFil: Alonso, Daniel Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular; Argentin

Clasificación automática de evoluciones médicas multiclases en español

En este trabajo presentamos una comparación de metodologías de clasificación para texto libre de narrativas médicas, en este caso evoluciones médicas multiclase. Comparamos el rendimiento de redes neuronales y máquinas de soporte vectorial con preprocesamientos para clasificar evoluciones de Diabetes, en Tipo 1, Tipo 2 y Otros (otro tipo de afección). Se compararon accuracy, sensitivity y specificity, mostrando beneficios en costos de entrenamiento y resultados de exactitud. Encontramos porcentajes mayores con redes neuronales sin preprocesamiento PCA y en el caso de SVM con dicho preprocesamiento (con menor costo de entrenamiento).XVI Workshop Agentes y Sistemas Inteligentes (WASI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Clasificación automática de evoluciones médicas multiclases en español

En este trabajo presentamos una comparación de metodologías de clasificación para texto libre de narrativas médicas, en este caso evoluciones médicas multiclase. Comparamos el rendimiento de redes neuronales y máquinas de soporte vectorial con preprocesamientos para clasificar evoluciones de Diabetes, en Tipo 1, Tipo 2 y Otros (otro tipo de afección). Se compararon accuracy, sensitivity y specificity, mostrando beneficios en costos de entrenamiento y resultados de exactitud. Encontramos porcentajes mayores con redes neuronales sin preprocesamiento PCA y en el caso de SVM con dicho preprocesamiento (con menor costo de entrenamiento).XVI Workshop Agentes y Sistemas Inteligentes (WASI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Value of Serum NEUROG1 Methylation for the Detection of Advanced Adenomas and Colorectal Cancer

Aberrant DNA methylation detected in liquid biopsies is a promising approach for colorectal cancer (CRC) detection, including premalignant advanced adenomas (AA). We evaluated the diagnostic capability of serum NEUROG1 methylation for the detection of AA and CRC. A CpG island in NEUROG1 promoter was assessed by bisulfite pyrosequencing in a case-control cohort to select optimal CpGs. Selected sites were evaluated through a nested methylation-specific qPCR custom assay in a screening cohort of 504 asymptomatic family-risk individuals. Individuals with no colorectal findings and benign pathologies showed low serum NEUROG1 methylation, similar to non-advanced adenomas. Contrarily, individuals bearing AA or CRC (advanced neoplasia-AN), exhibited increased NEUROG1 methylation. Using >1.3518% as NEUROG1 cut-off (90.60% specificity), 33.33% of AN and 32.08% of AA were identified, detecting 50% CRC cases. Nonetheless, the combination of NEUROG1 with fecal immunochemical test (FIT), together with age and gender through a multivariate logistic regression resulted in an AUC = 0.810 for AN, and 0.796 for AA, detecting all cancer cases and 35-47% AA (specificity 98-95%). The combination of NEUROG1 methylation with FIT, age and gender demonstrated a convenient performance for the detection of CRC and AA, providing a valuable tool for CRC screening programs in asymptomatic individuals

Triggers for displaced decays of long-lived neutral particles in the ATLAS detector

A set of three dedicated triggers designed to detect long-lived neutral particles decaying throughout the ATLAS detector to a pair of hadronic jets is described. The efficiencies of the triggers for selecting displaced decays as a function of the decay position are presented for simulated events. The effect of pile-up interactions on the trigger efficiencies and the dependence of the trigger rate on instantaneous luminosity during the 2012 data-taking period at the LHC are discussedFil: Aad, G.. Albert Ludwigs Universität; AlemaniaFil: Abajyan, T.. Universitaet Bonn; AlemaniaFil: Abbott, B.. University of Oklahoma; Estados UnidosFil: Abdallah, J.. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Abdel Khalek, S.. Universite Paris Sud; FranciaFil: Alconada Verzini, María Josefina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Alonso, Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Anduaga, Xabier Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Dova, Maria Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: González Silva, María Laura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Monticelli, Fernando Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Otero y Garzon, Gustavo Javier. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Piegaia, Ricardo Nestor. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Romeo, Gaston Leonardo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Tripiana, Martin Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Zhuang, X.. Ludwig Maximilians Universitat; AlemaniaFil: Zhuravlov, V.. Max-Planck Institut für Physik; AlemaniaFil: Zieminska, D.. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Zimin, N. I.. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research; RusiaFil: Zimmermann, R.. Universitaet Bonn; AlemaniaFil: Zimmermann, S.. Universitaet Bonn; AlemaniaFil: Zimmermann, S.. Albert Ludwigs Universität; AlemaniaFil: Ziolkowski, M.. Universität Siegen; AlemaniaFil: Zitoun, R.. Université de Savoie; FranciaFil: Živković, L.. Columbia University; Estados UnidosFil: Zmouchko, V. V.. State Research Center Institute for High Energy Physics; RusiaFil: Zobernig, G.. University of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Zoccoli, A.. Università di Bologna; ItaliaFil: zur Nedden, M.. Humboldt University; AlemaniaFil: Zutshi, V.. Northern Illinois University; Estados Unido

Novel patient-derived xenograft mouse model for pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma demonstrates single agent activity of oxaliplatin

Additional file 4: Figure S3. Integrated genomic viewer (IGV) of BRCA2 gene. IGV displays genomic data of the PA-018 PAAC PDTX model. Chromosome 13 (Chr 13) is shown and 5bp deletions are found after position 32907365 (c.1755_1759del5), this region resides on exon 10 of BRCA2. The bottom of the image shows the nucleotides and amino acids that correspond to the reference sequence of the BRCA2 gene and protein

Relationship Between Quorum Sensing and Secretion Systems

Quorum sensing (QS) is a communication mechanism between bacteria that allows specific processes to be controlled, such as biofilm formation, virulence factor expression, production of secondary metabolites and stress adaptation mechanisms such as bacterial competition systems including secretion systems (SS). These SS have an important role in bacterial communication. SS are ubiquitous; they are present in both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and in Mycobacterium sp. To date, 8 types of SS have been described (T1SS, T2SS, T3SS, T4SS, T5SS, T6SS, T7SS, and T9SS). They have global functions such as the transport of proteases, lipases, adhesins, heme-binding proteins, and amidases, and specific functions such as the synthesis of proteins in host cells, adaptation to the environment, the secretion of effectors to establish an infectious niche, transfer, absorption and release of DNA, translocation of effector proteins or DNA and autotransporter secretion. All of these functions can contribute to virulence and pathogenesis. In this review, we describe the known types of SS and discuss the ones that have been shown to be regulated by QS. Due to the large amount of information about this topic in some pathogens, we focus mainly on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Vibrio spp