Incidence and type of bicuspid aortic valve in two model species

Incidence and type of bicuspid aortic valve in two model species. MC Fernández 1,2, A López-García 1,2, MT Soto 1, AC Durán 1,2 and B Fernández 1,2. 1 Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Málaga, Spain. 2 Biomedical Research Institute of Málaga (IBIMA), University of Málaga, Spain. Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most frequent human congenital cardiac malformation, with an incidence of 1–2% worldwide. Two morphological types exist: type A (incidence 0.75–1.25%) and type B (incidence 0.25–0.5%), each with a distinct aetiology and natural history. Currently, ten animal models of BAV have been described in two different rodent species: one spontaneous Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) model of BAV type A and nine mutant laboratory mouse (Mus musculus) models of BAV type B. It remains to be elucidated whether the mutations leading to BAV in these models are typespecific or whether there are inter-specific differences regarding the type of BAV that hamsters, mice and humans may develop. To solve this issue, we have characterized the incidence and types of BAVs in four inbred, two outbred and two hybrid lines of Syrian hamsters (n=4,340) and in three inbred, three outbred and one hybrid lines of laboratory mice (n=1,661) by means of stereomicroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. In addition, we have reviewed and calculated the incidence and type of BAVs in the published papers dealing with this anomaly in mice. Our results indicate that the Syrian hamster develops BAVs type A and B including a variety of morphologies comparable to those of humans, whereas the mouse develops only BAVs type B with a short spectrum of valve morphologies. Thus, inter-specific differences between human and mouse aortic valves must be taken into consideration when studying valve disease in murine models. This work was supported by P10-CTS-6068.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. P10-CTS-6068

A Role for DPPX Modulating External TEA Sensitivity of Kv4 Channels

Shal-type (Kv4) channels are expressed in a large variety of tissues, where they contribute to transient voltage-dependent K+ currents. Kv4 are the molecular correlate of the A-type current of neurons (ISA), the fast component of ITO current in the heart, and also of the oxygen-sensitive K+ current (KO2) in rabbit carotid body (CB) chemoreceptor cells. The enormous degree of variability in the physiological properties of Kv4-mediated currents can be attributable to the complexity of their regulation together with the large number of ancillary subunits and scaffolding proteins that associate with Kv4 proteins to modify their trafficking and their kinetic properties. Among those, KChIPs and DPPX proteins have been demonstrated to be integral components of ISA and ITO currents, as their coexpression with Kv4 subunits recapitulates the kinetics of native currents. Here, we explore the presence and functional contribution of DPPX to KO2 currents in rabbit CB chemoreceptor cells by using DPPX functional knockdown with siRNA. Additionally, we investigate if the presence of DPPX endows Kv4 channels with new pharmacological properties, as we have observed anomalous tetraethylammonium (TEA) sensitivity in the native KO2 currents. DPPX association with Kv4 channels induced an increased TEA sensitivity both in heterologous expression systems and in CB chemoreceptor cells. Moreover, TEA application to Kv4-DPPX heteromultimers leads to marked kinetic effects that could be explained by an augmented closed-state inactivation. Our data suggest that DPPX proteins are integral components of KO2 currents, and that their association with Kv4 subunits modulate the pharmacological profile of the heteromultimers

Numerical study of the aerodynamics of sound sources in a bass-reflex port

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.The aim of this paper is to study the aerodynamics phenomena of a bass-reflex port that causes noise in the audible frequency range. After discarding structural and mechanical vibration issues, the hypothesis considered is that vortex shedding is the source of the noise. Experimental and numerical evidences of the vortex, an analysis of its noise and the similarities between real and simulated performance are presented. The numerically simulated cases with the original geometry are excited at different frequencies and with modifications of the port geometry. Likewise, the internal performance of an enclosure with a closed port was simulated. The simulations have been performed with axisymmetrical geometries using the open-source OpenFOAM® toolbox. Moreover, experimental measurements were carried out. First, acoustic signal experiments were done to analyse the response of the bass-reflex ports. Secondly, a structure vibration measurement was conducted in order to exclude the cabinet structure vibration as a source of the noise in question. A good agreement was found between numerical and experimental results, especially in the frequency band of the detected noise, i.e. the 1000–1500 Hz range. Despite no remarkable improvement being made with the geometry changes explored, the presented CFD approach has proved a useful and cost-effective tool to address this kind of phenomenon.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Resumen de la tarea PoliticES en IberLEF 2023: Detección de Ideología Política en Español

This paper describes PoliticES 2023, a shared task organized within the workshop IberLEF 2023 in the framework of the 39th edition of the International Conference of the Spanish Society for Natural Language Processing. This second edition of the task shares the goal of the first edition of PoliticES, which is to extract political ideology and other psychographic and demographic characteristics of users in social networks. What is new this year is that the traits are extracted from text clusters of users who share the same traits, and that celebrities have been included as a type of profession. This edition attracted 43 teams, of which 11 submitted results and 8 sent papers describing their systems. Most of the participants proposed Transformers-based approaches, but others also used traditional machine learning algorithms.Este artículo describe PoliticES 2023, una tarea organizada dentro del taller IberLEF 2023 en el marco de la 39 edición del Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Española para el Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural. Esta segunda edición de la tarea comparte el objetivo de la primera edición de PoliticES, extraer la ideología política y otros rasgos psicográficos y demográficos de usuarios en redes sociales. Las novedades son que este año los rasgos se extraen de clústers de textos de usuarios que comparten los mismos rasgos y que se ha incluido celebridades como tipo de profesión. Esta edición ha atraído a 43 equipos, de los cuales 11 enviaron resultados y 8 presentaron artículos describiendo sus sistemas. La mayoría de los participantes propusieron enfoques basados en Transformers, pero también otros utilizaron algoritmos tradicionales de aprendizaje automático.This work is part of the research projects LaTe4PoliticES (PID2022-138099OB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER)-a way to make Europe and LaTe4PSP (PID2019-107652RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. This work is also part part of the research projects AIInFunds (PDC2021-121112-I00) and LTSWM (TED2021-131167B-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR. It also has been partially supported by Project CONSENSO (PID2021-122263OB-C21), Project MODERATES (TED2021-130145B-I00) and Project SocialTox (PDC2022-133146-C21) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR, Project PRECOM (SUBV-00016) funded by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs of the Spanish Government, Project FedDAP (PID2020-116118GA-I00) supported by MICINN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and WeLee project (1380939, FEDER Andalucía 2014-2020) funded by the Andalusian Regional Government. Salud María Jiménez-Zafra has been partially supported by a grant from Fondo Social Europeo and the Administration of the Junta de Andalucía (DOC 01073)

Resumen de la tarea PoliticEs 2022: Perfilado del Autor Español por su Ideología Política

This paper presents the PoliticEs 2022 shared task, organized at IberLEF 2022 workshop, within the framework of the 38th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Natural Language Processing. This task aims to extract the political ideology from a given user’s set of tweets. Specifically, it focused on the identification of the gender and the profession, as demographic traits, and the political ideology from a binary and multi-class perspective, as a psychographic trait. The PoliticEs task attracted 63 teams that registered through CodaLab. Finally, 20 submitted results and 14 presented working notes describing their systems. Most of the teams proposed transformer-based approaches, although some of them also used traditional machine learning algorithms or even a combination of both approaches.Este artículo presenta la tarea PoliticEs 2022, organizada en el taller IberLEF 2022, en el marco de la 38 edición del Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Española para el Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural. Esta tarea tiene como objetivo extraer la ideología política de un usuario a partir de un conjunto de tuits publicados por él. En concreto, se centró en la identificación del género y la profesión, como rasgos demográficos, y la ideología política desde una perspectiva binaria y multiclase, como rasgo psicográfico. La tarea PoliticEs atrajo a 63 equipos que se inscribieron a través de CodaLab. Finalmente, 20 enviaron resultados y 14 presentaron artículos describiendo sus sistemas. La mayoría de los equipos propusieron enfoques basados en transformers, aunque algunos de ellos también utilizaron algoritmos tradicionales de aprendizaje automático o incluso una combinación de ambos enfoques.This work was supported by Project LaTe4PSP (PID2019-107652RB-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, Project AlInFunds (PDC2021-121112-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR, Project LIVING-LANG (RTI2018-094653-B-C21) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF A way of making Europe, and Big Hug project (P20 00956, PAIDI 2020) and WeLee project (1380939, FEDER Andalucía 2014-2020) funded by the Andalusian Regional Government. In addition, José Antonio García-Díaz has been supported by Banco Santander and University of Murcia through the industrial doctorate programme, and Salud María Jiménez-Zafra has been partially supported by a grant from Fondo Social Europeo and Administración de la Junta de Andalucía (DOC 01073)

Characterization of Ion Channels Involved in the Proliferative Response of Femoral Artery Smooth Muscle Cells

31 páginas, 6 figuras, adicionales 6 figuras y 3 tablas.[Objective]: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) contribute significantly to occlusive vascular diseases by virtue of their ability to switch to a noncontractile, migratory, and proliferating phenotype. Although the participation of ion channels in this phenotypic modulation (PM) has been described previously, changes in their expression are poorly defined because of their large molecular diversity. We obtained a global portrait of ion channel expression in contractile versus proliferating mouse femoral artery VSMCs, and explored the functional contribution to the PM of the most relevant changes that we observed. [Methods and Results]: High-throughput real-time polymerase chain reaction of 87 ion channel genes was performed in 2 experimental paradigms: an in vivo model of endoluminal lesion and an in vitro model of cultured VSMCs obtained from explants. mRNA expression changes showed a good correlation between the 2 proliferative models, with only 2 genes, Kv1.3 and Kvβ2, increasing their expression on proliferation. The functional characterization demonstrates that Kv1.3 currents increased in proliferating VSMC and that their selective blockade inhibits migration and proliferation. [Conclusion]: These findings establish the involvement of Kv1.3 channels in the PM of VSMCs, providing a new therapeutical target for the treatment of intimal hyperplasia.This work was supported by Ministerio de Sanidad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III grants R006/009 (Red Heracles), FS041139-0 (M.R.), and PI041044 (J.R.L.-L.); Ministerio de Educacio´n y Ciencia grants BFU2004-05551 (M.T.P.-G.) and BFU2007-61524 (J.R.L.-L.); and Junta de Castilla y Leon grant GR242. Dr Moreno-Domínguez is a fellow of the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia.Peer reviewe

Application of a robust QFT linear control method to the course changing manoeuvring of a ship

This paper describes in detail the design methodology of a robust QFT (Quantitative Feedback Theory) controller for the control of the course changing of a ship. A linear model is used with uncertainty in the parameters. The system is designed to fulfil the specifications of robust stability and robust tracking of a reference system

PENGARUH MEDIA PEMBELAJARAN MIND MAPPING TERHADAP MINAT BELAJAR PESERTA DIDIK PADA PELAJARAN EKONOMI KELAS XI IPS 1 di SMA NEGERI 27 BANDUNG

Judul penelitian ini adalah pengaruh media pembelajaran mind mapping terhadap minat belajar peserta didik pada pelajaran ekonomi kelas XI IPS 1 di SMA Negeri 27 Bandung tahun ajaran 2016-2017. Berdasarkan tinjauan langsung di SMA Negeri 27 Bandung kelas XI IPS 1, Pembelajaran konvensional (ceramah) hanya membuat peserta didik kurang aktif dan malas dalam menerima materi yang ada, karena pembelajaran hanya terpusat pada apa yang disampaikan sehingga tidak dapat dimengerti secara maksimal. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah: (1) Mengetahui penggunaan media mind mapping pada mata pelajaran ekonomi kelas XI IPS 1 di SMA Negeri 27 Bandung. (2) Mengetahui minat belajar peserta didik pada mata pelajaran ekonomi kelas XI IPS 1 di SMA Negeri 27 Bandung. (3) Mengetahui seberapa besar pengaruh media mind mapping terhadap minat belajar peserta didik pada mata pelajaran ekonomi kelas XI IPS 1 di SMA Negeri 27 Bandung. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah survei. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan yaitu observasi dan angket dengan teknik pengolahan data uji validitas, uji reliabilitas, uji normalitas data, analisis regresi linier sederhana dan koefisien determinasi, Hipotesis penelitian berbunyi “Terdapat pengaruh antara media pembelajaran mind mapping (X) terhadap minat belajar peserta didik (Y) pada mata pelajaran ekonomi. Hasil penelitian ini adalah terdapat pengaruh antara variabel X dan Variabel Y sebesar 0,336 atau 33,60%. Untuk mengetahui hubungan fungsional antara variabel X dan variabel Y maka digunakan analisis regresi linier sederhana dengan hasil perhitungan sebagai berikut : Y = 9.915 + 0.537 X artinya bahwa setiap media pembelajaran mind mapping bertambah 9,915 maka minat belajar meningkat sebesar 0,537. Untuk mengetahui seberapa besar pengaruh variabel X (media pembelajaran mind mapping) terhadap variabel Y (minat belajar), maka digunakan koefisien determinasi dengan hasil perhitungan sebesar 33,60% maka sebagian lainnya ditentukan oleh faktor lain yang tidak diteliti. Kesimpulan hipotesis penelitian dapat diterima, sebagai akhir penelitian penulis menyampaikan saran kepada guru agar sebaiknya guru menggunakan variasi media pembelajaran yang menarik berkaitan dengan materi pelajaran yang akan disampaikan, karena cara ini dapat membuat peserta didik aktif dan kreatif untuk belajar. Kepada para praktisi atau peneliti lain di bidang pendidikan dapat melakukan penelitian serupa dengan media pembelajaran dan metode yang berbeda agar diperoleh berbagai alternatif untuk peningkatan pemahaman pembelajaran pada pokok bahasan selanjutnya dan kepada pihak sekolah sebagai bahan kajian bagi sekolah dan menyarankan guru untuk menggunakan media pembelajaran yang mampu meningkatkan prestasi belajar peserta didik untuk mendukung pendekatan saintifik dan media pembelajaran yang baik. Kata Kunci : media pembelajaran mind mapping, minat Belajar

Helical peptides from VEGF and Vammin hotspots for modulating the VEGF-VEGFR interaction

The design, synthesis, conformational studies and binding affinity for VEGF receptors of a collection of linear and cyclic peptide analogues of the N-terminal α-helix fragments 13-25 of VEGF and 1-13 of Vammin are described. Linear 13(14)-mer peptides were designed with the help of an AGADIR algorithm and prepared following peptide solid-phase synthetic protocols. Cyclic peptide derivatives were prepared on-resin from linear precursors with conveniently located Glu and Lys residues, by the formation of amide linkages. Conformational analysis, CD and NMR, showed that most synthesized peptides have a clear tendency to be structured as α-helices in solution. Some of the peptides were able to bind a VEGFR-1 receptor with moderate affinity. In addition to the described key residues (Phe17, Tyr21 and Tyr25), Val14 and Val20 seem to be relevant for affinity.Peer Reviewe

Actividades para el desarrollo del sentido numérico en educación infantil

Con este taller pretendemos dar a conocer una serie de recursos y actividades para desarrollar el sentido numérico en la educación infantil. Se trata de una propuesta coherente, amplia y bien fundamentada que abarca los tres niveles de la etapa. Los recursos actúan en interacción unos con otros y sirven de base para la acción, la verbalización, la representación gráfica y, en suma, para sustentar y facilitar el difícil camino que lleva de la experiencia a la abstracción