Kinematic Adaptations of Forward And Backward Walking on Land and in Water

The aim of this study was to compare sagittal plane lower limb kinematics during walking on land and submerged to the hip in water. Eight healthy adults (age 22.1 ± 1.1 years, body height 174.8 ± 7.1 cm, body mass 63.4 ± 6.2 kg) were asked to cover a distance of 10 m at comfortable speed with controlled step frequency, walking forward or backward. Sagittal plane lower limb kinematics were obtained from three dimensional video analysis to compare spatiotemporal gait parameters and joint angles at selected events using two-way repeated measures ANOVA. Key findings were a reduced walking speed, stride length, step length and a support phase in water, and step length asymmetry was higher compared to the land condition (p<0.05). At initial contact, knees and hips were more flexed during walking forward in water, whilst, ankles were more dorsiflexed during walking backward in water. At final stance, knees and ankles were more flexed during forward walking, whilst the hip was more flexed during backward walking. These results show how walking in water differs from walking on land, and provide valuable insights into the development and prescription of rehabilitation and training programs

Pulsar Prospects for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

In the last few years, the Fermi-LAT telescope has discovered over a 100 pulsars at energies above 100 MeV, increasing the number of known gamma-ray pulsars by an order of magnitude. In parallel, imaging Cherenkov telescopes, such as MAGIC and VERITAS, have detected for the first time VHE pulsed gamma-rays from the Crab pulsar. Such detections have revealed that the Crab VHE spectrum follows a power-law up to at least 400 GeV, challenging most theoretical models, and opening wide possibilities of detecting more pulsars from the ground with the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). In this contribution, we study the capabilities of CTA for detecting Fermi pulsars. For this, we extrapolate their spectra with "Crab-like" power-law tails in the VHE range, as suggested by the latest MAGIC and VERITAS results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. In Proceedings of the 2012 Heidelberg Symposium on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1211.184

Anticuerpos IgG anti-toxoplasma gondii en pacientes con síntomas atribuíbles a toxoplasmosis

6,520 patients with symptoms attributed to toxoplasmosis were evaluated for the prevalence of IgG anti-Toxoplasma gondii, employing the indirect immunofluorescence test. 51.27% of the evaluated proved to be positive. 60.85% of the patients with ocular disorders were seropositive to IgG anti-T.gondii; followed by 56.25% and 48.10% from those with general and gynecobstetric disorders. The symptoms and manifestations which showed the greatest positivity percentages were: asthenia, chorioretinitis, menstrual disorders, cephaleas and uveitis.Se evaluaron 6.520 pacientes con síntomas atribuíbles a toxoplasmosis por la presencia de anticuerpos IgG anti - Toxoplasma gondii mediante la técnica de inmunofluorescencia indirecta. El 51,27% de los evaluados resultaron positivos.El 60,85% de los pacientes con trastornos oculares son seropositivos a IgG anti - T. gondii; seguidos del 56,25 y 48,10% para aquellos con trastornos generales y gineco-obstétricos. Los síntomas o manifestaciones que evidenciaron mayor porcentaje de positividad fueron: astenia, coriorretinitis, trastornos menstruales, cefaleas y uveítis

Rendimiento y calidad de Avena sativa asociada con Vicia sativa en la región puna del Perú

The study was conducted at the Alpaicayan Experimental Centre, Daniel Alcides Carrión National University, Pasco, Peru, with the objective of determining the forage production and nutritional quality of oats associated with vetch. Forage production was determined in green matter content (GM), dry matter (DM) and percent of dry matter (%DM). For the nutritional value, crude protein (%CP), neutral detergent fibre (%NDF), acid detergent fibre (%ADF), calcium (%Ca) and phosphorus (%P) were determined. The treatments were T-1 (Creole oat, 150 kg/ha), T-2 (Mantaro 15 oat, 110 kg/ha), T-3 (Mantaro 15 oat plus vetch, 110 and 30 kg/ha) and T-4 (creole oat plus vetch, 150 and 30 kg/ha). GM production indicated that T-1 and T-4 were similar but significantly greater than T-2 and T-3 (p&lt;0.05); however, without significant differences in DM production between treatments. T-4 obtained the largest content of %PC, T-2 and T-4 presented greater yields of %NDF and %ADF. T-4 presented the highest content of %P, while there was no difference between treatments for the content of %Ca. It is concluded that the Mantaro 15 + vetch treatment has a better forage production and is of better nutritional quality in relation to the other treatments.El estudio se realizó en el Centro Experimental Alpaicayán, Universidad Nacional Daniel Alcides Carrión, Pasco, Perú, con el objetivo fue determinar la producción forrajera y calidad nutricional de la avena asociada con vicia. Se determinó la producción forrajera en contenidos de materia verde (MV), materia seca (MS) y el porcentaje de materia seca (%MS). Para el valor nutricional se determinaron la proteína cruda (%PC), fibra detergente neutro (%FDN), fibra detergente ácido (%FDA), calcio (%Ca) y fósforo (%P). Los tratamientos fueron T-1 (avena criolla, 150 kg/ha), T-2 (avena Mantaro 15, 110 kg/ha), T- 3 (avena Mantaro 15 más vicia, 110 y 30 kg/ha) y T-4 (avena criolla más vicia, 150 y 30 kg/ha). La producción de MV indicó que T-1 y T-4 fue similar, pero significativamente superior a T-2 y T-3 (p&lt;0.05); sin embargo, sin diferencias significativas en producción de MS entre tratamientos. T-4 obtuvo mayor contenido de %PC, T-2 y T-4 presentaron los mayores rendimientos de %FDN y %FDA. T-4 presentó el mayor contenido de %P, en tanto que no hubo diferencias entre tratamientos para el contenido de %Ca. Se concluye que el tratamiento Mantaro 15 +vicia tiene una mejor producción forrajera y es de mejor calidad nutricional en referencia a los otros tratamientos.

Loss of neuronal 3d chromatin organization causes transcriptional and behavioural deficits related to serotonergic dysfunction

The interior of the neuronal cell nucleus is a highly organized three-dimensional (3D) structure where regions of the genome that are linearly millions of bases apart establish sub-structures with specialized functions. To investigate neuronal chromatin organization and dynamics in vivo, we generated bitransgenic mice expressing GFP-tagged histone H2B in principal neurons of the forebrain. Surprisingly, the expression of this chimeric histone in mature neurons caused chromocenter declustering and disrupted the association of heterochromatin with the nuclear lamina. The loss of these structures did not affect neuronal viability but was associated with specific transcriptional and behavioural deficits related to serotonergic dysfunction. Overall, our results demonstrate that the 3D organization of chromatin within neuronal cells provides an additional level of epigenetic regulation of gene expression that critically impacts neuronal function. This in turn suggests that some loci associated with neuropsychiatric disorders may be particularly sensitive to changes in chromatin architecture

Climatic control on the Holocene hydrology of a playa-lake system in the western Mediterranean

Evaporitic lakes such as playa-lakes are characteristic of many arid regions and are unique environments with respect to fauna and flora, while being very vulnerable to climate and environmental fluctuations and threatened by the current global change scenario. Water balance oscillations in these systems can trigger the precipitation or dissolution of different evaporitic minerals, negatively impacting local biodiversity and economic activities. Here, we study the sedimentary record of a small saline pond from a playa-lake complex in southwestern Iberia in order to reconstruct the paleohydrological evolution of this area and assess potential anthropogenic disturbances. The different proxies studied in the-11.9 ky old sedimentary record of the Laguna de la Ballestera suggest that the greatest lake extension and the highest water levels occurred during the Early Holocene, pointing to the wettest period of the record. Climate transitioned towards more arid conditions during the Middle Holocene, and even more dramatically during the Late Holocene. In this last stage the wetland surface and the water level largely diminished and gypsum precipitation gradually increased pointing towards a negative precipitation/ evapotranspiration balance and lowest water levels. Summer desiccation likely occurred under this scenario, especially after-1.0-0.9 cal ky BP coeval with the Medieval Climate Anomaly, when gypsum content started to rise abruptly. However, this significant gypsum precipitation was only associated with a massive drop in the siliciclastic content and scarce carbonates (dolomite and calcite) during the last-400 years. This evidence suggests a shift from a (semi) permanent to a temporal/seasonal hydrological regime. The environmental evolution of this wetland responded to the general climatic evolution of the western Mediterranean during the Holocene, being mostly controlled by changes in insolation. Our data also show that the environmental response of the studied wetland to natural climate variations was only significantly disturbed by human activities since the 20th century, especially in the second half of the century, deduced by abrupt fluctuations in the siliciclastic, gypsum and organic content in the sediments, as well as by the enhanced sedimentary accumulation rates, probably as a response to changes in the hydroperiod of the lake and in the catchment land use.Peer reviewe

Chapter 5: Food Security

The current food system (production, transport, processing, packaging, storage, retail, consumption, loss and waste) feeds the great majority of world population and supports the livelihoods of over 1 billion people. Since 1961, food supply per capita has increased more than 30%, accompanied by greater use of nitrogen fertilisers (increase of about 800%) and water resources for irrigation (increase of more than 100%). However, an estimated 821 million people are currently undernourished, 151 million children under five are stunted, 613 million women and girls aged 15 to 49 suffer from iron deficiency, and 2 billion adults are overweight or obese. The food system is under pressure from non-climate stressors (e.g., population and income growth, demand for animal-sourced products), and from climate change. These climate and non-climate stresses are impacting the four pillars of food security (availability, access, utilisation, and stability)

Prospects for Observations of Pulsars and Pulsar Wind Nebulae with CTA

The last few years have seen a revolution in very-high gamma-ray astronomy (VHE; E>100 GeV) driven largely by a new generation of Cherenkov telescopes (namely the H.E.S.S. telescope array, the MAGIC and MAGIC-II large telescopes and the VERITAS telescope array). The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project foresees a factor of 5 to 10 improvement in sensitivity above 0.1 TeV, extending the accessible energy range to higher energies up to 100 TeV, in the Galactic cut-off regime, and down to a few tens GeV, covering the VHE photon spectrum with good energy and angular resolution. As a result of the fast development of the VHE field, the number of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) detected has increased from one PWN in the early '90s to more than two dozen firm candidates today. Also, the low energy threshold achieved and good sensitivity at TeV energies has resulted in the detection of pulsed emission from the Crab Pulsar (or its close environment) opening new and exiting expectations about the pulsed spectra of the high energy pulsars powering PWNe. Here we discuss the physics goals we aim to achieve with CTA on pulsar and PWNe physics evaluating the response of the instrument for different configurations.Comment: accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

Acoustically Levitated Whispering-Gallery Mode Microlasers

Acoustic levitation has become a crucial technique for contactless manipulation in several fields, particularly in biological applications. However, its application in the photonics field remains largely unexplored. In this study, we implement an affordable and innovative phased-array levitator that enables stable trapping in the air of micrometer dye-doped droplets, thereby enabling the creation of microlasers. For the first time, this paper presents a detailed performance of the levitated microlaser cavity, supported by theoretical analysis concerning the hybrid technology based on the combination of whispering-gallery modes and acoustic fields. The pressure field distribution inside the acoustic cavity is numerically solved and qualitatively matched with the schlieren deflectometry technique. The optical lasing features of the levitated microlasers are highly comparable with those devices based On-a-Chip registering maximum Q-factors of ~ 105, and minimum lasing thresholds ~ 150 nJ cm−2. The emission comb is explained as a sum of multiple individual-supported whispering-gallery modes. The use of novel touchless micrometric lasers, produced with an acoustic levitator brings new technological opportunities based on photonic-acoustic technological platforms