Magnitud, composición y patrones espaciotemporales de la mortalidad de vertebrados en las carreteras a escala regional

Although roadkill studies on a large scale are challenging, they can provide valuable information to assess the impact of road traffic on animal populations. Over 22 months (between July 2009–June 2010, and April 2011–March 2012) we surveyed 45 road sections of 10 km within a global biodiversity hotspot in Andalusia (87,000 km2), in southern Spain. We divided the region into five ecoregions differing in environmental conditions and landscape characteristics and recorded the relative magnitude, composition and spatiotemporal patterns of vertebrate (birds, mammal, amphibians, and reptiles) mortality. We used roadkill data from monthly surveys of road stretches with different speed limits, traffic volume, road design, and adjacent landscape composition. Roadkills varied over time and were not randomly distributed across ecoregions and road types. Overall, the groups most frequently encountered were mammals (54.4% of total roadkills) and birds (36.2%). Mortality rates in these two groups were higher on highways than on national or local roads, whereas those of amphibians (4.6%) and reptiles (4.3%) did not differ between road types. Except for mammals, the observed variation in vertebrate roadkills across ecoregions reflects the patterns of species richness previously described in the literature. Roadkills were concentrated over relatively short periods and this pattern was repeated over study periods and for all vertebrate classes. Our findings provide baseline information about road types, time periods and taxa with a higher probability of roadkills across an extensive region. These data represent an essential step towards the future implementation of broad–scale mitigation measures.A pesar de que los estudios a gran escala sobre mortalidad de animales en las carreteras son complejos, pueden aportar información valiosa para evaluar la incidencia del tráfico en las poblaciones de animales. Durante 22 meses (entre julio de 2009 y junio de 2010 y entre abril de 2011 y marzo de 2012), muestreamos 45 tramos de carretera de 10 km de longitud distribuidos en una zona con una gran diversidad en la región de Andalucía (87.000 km2), en el sur de España. La región se dividió en cinco ecorregiones con diferentes condiciones ambientales y características del paisaje, y se analizaron la magnitud, la composición y los patrones espaciotemporales de la mortalidad de vertebrados (aves, mamíferos, anfibios y reptiles). Usamos datos de atropellos obtenidos durante muestreos mensuales en tramos de carretera con diferentes límite de velocidad, volumen de tráfico, diseño de la carretera y composición del paisaje adyacente. Los animales atropellados fueron distintos en el tiempo y no se distribuyeron aleatoriamente entre ecorregiones ni entre tipos de carretera. En total, los grupos que se encontraron con mayor frecuencia fueron los mamíferos (el 54,4% de los atropellos registrados) y las aves (el 36,2%). La tasa de mortalidad observada en estos dos grupos fue mayor en autopistas que en carreteras nacionales o locales, mientras que la mortalidad de anfibios (el 4,6%) y de reptiles (el 4,3%) no presentó diferencias entre tipos de carretera. A excepción de los mamíferos, la variación observada de la mortalidad en las carreteras entre las diferentes ecorregiones refleja los patrones de riqueza de especies descritos en las publicaciones científicas. Los atropellos se concentraron en períodos de tiempo relativamente cortos y este patrón se repitió en las dos temporadas de estudio y con respecto a todas las clases de vertebrados. Nuestros resultados proporcionan información de referencia sobre los tipos de carretera, los períodos de tiempo y los taxones con una mayor probabilidad de morir por atropello en una extensa región, lo que supone un paso esencial para la implementación de medidas de mitigación a gran escala.Fil: Canal Piña, David. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa; Argentina. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Camacho, Carlos. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Martín, Beatriz. Complejo Huerta Grande; EspañaFil: de Lucas, Manuela. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Ferrer, Miguel. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Españ

Private equity investment committee paper on fluidra sa - exit options and returns

This Investment Committee Paper was elaborated by a group of students from the Master’s in Finance Program at Nova School of Business and Economics which is intended to be used for academic purposesonly. It consists of an investment proposal for a leveraged buy out on Fluidra SA, a global leader in the Pooland Wellness industry, with aro bust international presence and an extensive portfolio. Operating in both new build and after market sub-sectors, providing high qualitys wimming pool equipment that ranges from above ground and in ground pools to a complete line of accessories and chemical products. The group sought to determine how to be structure an LBO acquisition of Fluidra SA and what returns it could provide, with this work focusing particular lyon studying and assessing the best exit options and expected returns of the transaction

A bird and small mammal BACI and IG design studies in a wind farm in Malpica (Spain)

Wind farms have shown a spectacular growth during the last 10 years. As far as we know, this study is the first where the relationship between wind power and birds and small mammals have been considered. Before-after control impact (BACI) study design to birds and Impact Gradient (IG) study design to small mammals to test the null hypothesis of no impact of a wind farm were used. In the BACI model Windfarm Area and a Reference Area were considered. Distance from turbines was considered in the IG model. Windfarm installations did not clearly affect bird and small mammal populations. Flight height of nesting and no nesting birds did not show a clear tendency. Small mammals populations suffered high variations in numbers through times by intrinsic population factors. There are many practical problems of detection of human influence on abundances of populations so sampling in the long run can be suggested. © Springer 2005.Peer Reviewe

Control hormonal de la respuesta a la luz en Arabidopsis thaliana

Tesis doctoral inédita. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología Molecular. Fecha de lectura: 16-07-201

Epigenetic therapies for neuroblastoma : immunogenicity awakens

The development of immunotherapies for neuroblastoma remains challenging owing to the low immunogenicity of neuroblastoma cells, as reflected by the low expression of one of the main triggers of immune recognition, the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I). Cornel et al. showed that epigenetic modulation of neuroblastoma cells with a histone deacetylase inhibitor can boost the expression of major histocompatibility complex class I, among other immune receptors, priming their recognition by T- and natural killer cells. By leveraging the developmentally related aberrant epigenetic landscapes of neuroblastoma, these discoveries pave the way to overcome a major limitation in the field of neuroblastoma immunotherapy. Immunotherapies against the aggressive childhood tumour neuroblastoma remain challenged due to its low capacity of response to the immune system action. A recent work shows that that its immune responsiveness can be restored with entinostat, a molecule that promotes an epigenetic modulation that boosts the expression of immunogenic receptors, sensitising neuroblastoma cells to immunotherapy

Evaluation of de novo RNA-Seq assemblers in a differentially expressed transcripts analysis

Orientadores: Zanoni Dias, Felipe Rodrigues da SilvaDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: RNA-Seq é uma tecnologia desenvolvida a partir de dados de sequenciamento de nova geração (NGS) para estudos de transcriptomas. Um pesquisador pode reconstruir isoformas a partir de dados de RNA-Seq sem utilizar um genoma de referência (montagem de novo). Uma das diversas análises possíveis utilizando dados de RNA-Seq é encontrar genes ou transcritos diferencialmente expressos. O objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar metodologias de análises em larga escala aplicadas na área da transcriptômica para encontrar transcritos diferencialmente expressos, propondo um critério de classificação que maximize a chance da escolha de algum transcrito montado por um montador de novo ser diferencialmente expresso. Esse critério pode auxiliar a eliminar transcritos falsos positivos a serem analisados posteriormente em bancada por metodologias, como PCR Real Time (Polimerase Chain Reaction Real Time). Dados reais foram testados para validar as montagens de novo na procura de transcritos diferencialmente expressos e resultados mostram que na alteração do volume de dados, a quantidade de verdadeiros positivos (transcritos realmente diferencialmente expressos) se altera. Concluímos que o melhor montador de novo foi o TrinityAbstract: RNA-Seq is a next-generation sequencing data (NGS) technology developed for transcriptome studies. For an organism, a researcher can perform isoform reconstructions from RNA-Seq data without the reference genome (de novo assembly). One of the several possible analyses using RNA-Seq data is finding differentially expressed genes or transcripts. This study evaluates analytic methods used in large-scale transcriptome studies for finding differentially expressed transcripts, proposing a data classification criterium that maximizes the chance of choosing a differentially expressed transcript in a de novo assembly. This criterium helps eliminate false positives that hinder posterior methods, such as Real-Time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction Real Time). Real data were tested to evaluate de novo assemblies, searching for differentially expressed transcripts, and the results show that the amount of true positives (truly differentially expressed transcripts) varies with the data volume, favoring libraries with more data. We concluded that the best de novo assembler is TrinityMestradoCiência da ComputaçãoMestre em Ciência da Computação134480/9-2013CNP

Occurrence of Quadruplets in Nelore Cattle: A Case Report

Cattle are monotocous species and cow usually deliver one calf per birth.  The present report has the aim to notify the birth occurrence of quadruplets of a Nelore cow: first time in scientific literature for this breed. The report presents negative and positive consequences of event

Deciphering Strawberry Ripening by Tissue Specific Gene Regulatory Networks

During ripening, fruits undergo a number of metabolic and physiological changes leading to softening and improvement of characters such as flavor and palatability. Insights into transcriptome changes during strawberry fruit ripening have been reported, but always using either complete fruits in the analysis or separating achenes and the fleshy part (receptacle). However, the receptacle is composed of heterogeneous cell types, each of them with different characteristics and functions. Hence, transcriptomic studies performed so far may have lost important regulatory elements which expression is low but important in a specific cell-type specific. In our study, we use Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM) technique for the isolation of cells from specific tissue types such as the epidermis, vascular bundles, cortex, and pith. Transcriptome profiling of these tissue types was performed by RNAseq. A gene co-expression analysis was performed by Weighted Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA). Ontology analysis of each module showed wax biosynthesis as the main biological pathway enriched at the red epidermis specific module. In order to elucidate the putative regulatory elements that control the synthesis of waxes in this tissue, a Gene Regulatory Network (GRN) was generated using GENIST (de Luis Balaguer, 2017). As a result, we have identified a set of transcription factors that might regulate the expression of eceriferum genes and a fatty acid elongase necessary for wax biosynthesis in ripe epidermis. Ultimately, our results open the possibility of implementing novel targeted breeding approaches. Moreover, this work shows that LCM followed by RNAseq is a powerful tool that can be used to clarify the regulatory scenario of tissue-specific biological processes during strawberry ripening.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech