Root temperature and energy consumption at different cable depths in electrically heated substrates

A finite element method-based model of a substrate heated by an electric heating cable buried in a thermal isolated container was experimentally validated with root mean square error values of root zone temperature ranging 0.25 to 0.62 ºC. The two-dimensional transient model allowed variations in the physical properties of the substrate with temperature, water content and depth. The operation of nine configurations of a heating cable buried in sand at different depths (50 to 450 mm, at 50 mm intervals) at 200 mm spacing was simulated and assessed. The validated model was used to perform 24-h simulations applying boundary conditions, and substrate moisture content was experimentally obtained at a mean substrate surface temperature of 13.98 ºC. Such simulations reproduced the operation of the heating system by setting a reference temperature of 20 ºC at the control point in the root zone. Burying the heating cable in the surface layers of the substrate caused large temperature gradients and high heat losses through the substrate surface. Accordingly, average temperature in the root zone increased with heating cable depth, up to the 200 mm depth. For greater depths, temperature in the root zone was constant. The ON/OFF control was most effective with the heating cable buried in the root zone and at control point temperatures of 20 ± 1 ºC. Burying the heating cable in the surface layers required higher energy consumption, up to 28 % at 50 mm. The most efficient heating cable depth was 350 mm, with a daily energy consumption of 6750 kJ m-2

Repression of Growth Regulating Factors by the MicroRNA396 Inhibits Cell Proliferation by UV-B Radiation in Arabidopsis Leaves

Because of their sessile lifestyle, plants are continuously exposed to solar UV-B radiation. Inhibition of leaf growth is one of the most consistent responses of plants upon exposure to UV-B radiation. In this work, we investigated the role of GROWTH-REGULATING FACTORs (GRFs) and of microRNA miR396 in UV-B–mediated inhibition of leaf growth in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. We demonstrate that miRNA396 is upregulated by UV-B radiation in proliferating tissues and that this induction is correlated with a decrease in GRF1, GRF2, and GRF3 transcripts. Induction of miR396 results in inhibition of cell proliferation, and this outcome is independent of the UV-B photoreceptor UV resistance locus 8, as well as ATM AND RAD3–RELATED and the mitogen-activated protein kinase MPK6, but is dependent on MPK3. Transgenic plants expressing an artificial target mimic directed against miR396 (MIM396) with a decrease in the endogenous microRNA activity or plants expressing miR396-resistant copies of several GRFs are less sensitive to this inhibition. Consequently, at intensities that can induce DNA damage in Arabidopsis plants, UV-B radiation limits leaf growth by inhibiting cell division in proliferating tissues, a process mediated by miR396 and GRFs.Fil: Casadevall, Romina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos (i); ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez Virasoro, Ramiro Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Debernardi, Juan Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Palatnik, Javier Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Casati, Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Rosario. Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos (i); Argentin

MicroRNA MIR396 regulates the switch between stem cells and transit-amplifying cells in arabidopsis roots

To ensure an adequate organ mass, the daughters of stem cells progress through a transit-amplifying phase displaying rapid cell division cycles before differentiating. Here, we show that Arabidopsis thaliana microRNA miR396 regulates the transition of root stem cells into transit-amplifying cells by interacting with GROWTH-REGULATING FACTORs (GRFs). The GRFs are expressed in transit-amplifying cells but are excluded from the stem cells through inhibition by miR396. Inactivation of the GRFs increases the meristem size and induces periclinal formative divisions in transit-amplifying cells. The GRFs repress PLETHORA (PLT) genes, regulating their spatial expression gradient. Conversely, PLT activates MIR396 in the stem cells to repress the GRFs. We identified a pathway regulated by GRF transcription factors that represses stem cell-promoting genes in actively proliferating cells, which is essential for the progression of the cell cycle and the orientation of the cell division plane. If unchecked, the expression of the GRFs in the stem cell niche suppresses formative cell divisions and distorts the organization of the quiescent center. We propose that the interactions identified here between miR396 and GRF and PLT transcription factors are necessary to establish the boundary between the stem cell niche and the transit-amplifying region.Fil: Rodriguez Virasoro, Ramiro Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Ercoli, María Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Debernardi, Juan Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Breakfield, Natalie W.. University of Duke; Estados UnidosFil: Mecchia, Martin Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Sabatini, Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Cools, Toon. University of Ghent; BélgicaFil: De Veylder, Lieven. University of Ghent; BélgicaFil: Benfey, Philip N.. University of Duke; Estados UnidosFil: Palatnik, Javier Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; Argentin

Blood Biomarkers to Predict Long-Term Mortality after Ischemic Stroke

Biomarcador; Endostatina; Accident cerebrovascular isquèmicBiomarcador; Endostatina; Accidente cerebrovascular isquémicoBiomarker; Endostatin; Ischemic strokeStroke is a major cause of disability and death globally, and prediction of mortality represents a crucial challenge. We aimed to identify blood biomarkers measured during acute ischemic stroke that could predict long-term mortality. Nine hundred and forty-one ischemic stroke patients were prospectively recruited in the Stroke-Chip study. Post-stroke mortality was evaluated during a median 4.8-year follow-up. A 14-biomarker panel was analyzed by immunoassays in blood samples obtained at hospital admission. Biomarkers were normalized and standardized using Z-scores. Multiple Cox regression models were used to identify clinical variables and biomarkers independently associated with long-term mortality and mortality due to stroke. In the multivariate analysis, the independent predictors of long-term mortality were age, female sex, hypertension, glycemia, and baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score. Independent blood biomarkers predictive of long-term mortality were endostatin > quartile 2, tumor necrosis factor receptor-1 (TNF-R1) > quartile 2, and interleukin (IL)-6 > quartile 2. The risk of mortality when these three biomarkers were combined increased up to 69%. The addition of the biomarkers to clinical predictors improved the discrimination (integrative discriminative improvement (IDI) 0.022 (0.007–0.048), p quartile 3 was an independent predictor of mortality due to stroke. Altogether, endostatin, TNF-R1, and IL-6 circulating levels may aid in long-term mortality prediction after stroke.This work has been funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI18/00804) and by La Fundació La Marató (Reg. 84/240 proj. 201702). Neurovascular Research Laboratory takes part in the Spanish stroke research network INVICTUS+ (RD16/0019/0021). L.R. is supported by a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (IFI17/00012)

Evolution and neural network prediction of CO2 emissions in weaned piglet farms

This paper aims to study the evolution of CO2 concentrations and emissions on a conventional farm with weaned piglets between 6.9 and 17.0 kg live weight based on setpoint temperature, outdoor temperature, and ventilation flow. The experimental trial was conducted during one transition cycle. Generally, the ventilation flow increased with the reduction in setpoint temperature throughout the cycle, which caused a reduction in CO2 concentration and an increase in emissions. The mean CO2 concentration was 3.12 g m–3. Emissions of CO2 had a mean value of 2.21 mg s−1 per animal, which is equivalent to 0.195 mg s−1 kg−1. A potential function was used to describe the interaction between 10 min values of ventilation flow and CO2 concentrations, whereas a linear function was used to describe the interaction between 10 min values of ventilation flow and CO2 emissions, with r values of 0.82 and 0.85, respectively. Using such equations allowed for simple and direct quantification of emissions. Furthermore, two prediction models for CO2 emissions were developed using two neural networks (for 10 min and 60 min predictions), which reached r values of 0.63 and 0.56. These results are limited mainly by the size of the training period, as well as by the differences between the behavior of the series in the training stage and the testing stageThis research was funded by Consellería de Educación, Universidade e Formación Profesional and Consellería de Economía, Emprego e Industria from the Galician Government (Xunta de Galicia). Granted with reference ED431B 2018/12-GPCS

Cortical thinning over two years after first-episode psychosis depends on age of onset

First-episode psychosis (FEP) patients show structural brain abnormalities at the first episode. Whether the cortical changes that follow a FEP are progressive and whether age at onset modulates these changes remains unclear. This is a multicenter MRI study in a deeply phenotyped sample of 74 FEP patients with a wide age range at onset (15–35 years) and 64 neurotypical healthy controls (HC). All participants underwent two MRI scans with a 2-year follow-up interval. We computed the longitudinal percentage of change (PC) for cortical thickness (CT), surface area (CSA) and volume (CV) for frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes. We used general linear models to assess group differences in PC as a function of age at FEP. We conducted post-hoc analyses for metrics where PC differed as a function of age at onset. We found a significant age-by-diagnosis interaction effect for PC of temporal lobe CT (d = 0.54; p = 002). In a post-hoc-analysis, adolescent-onset (≤19 y) FEP showed more severe longitudinal cortical thinning in the temporal lobe than adolescent HC. We did not find this difference in adult-onset FEP compared to adult HC. Our study suggests that, in individuals with psychosis, CT changes that follow the FEP are dependent on the age at first episode, with those with an earlier onset showing more pronounced cortical thinning in the temporal lobe

La cátedra Diseño Industrial 2 B trabajó sobre dispositivos domésticos para desinfección en contexto de la pandemia del COVID-19

TRABAJOS: PROYECTO: Pul.sa / AUTORES: Pilar Peralta y Bautista Mugnaini PROYECTO: Numo / AUTORES: Tamara Toledo y Ramiro Ríos PROYECTO: Zenely / AUTORES: Sergio Olmedo y Manuel Reartes PROYECTO: Torretas de Ozono / AUTORES: Pedro Juan Delgado Bratti y Daniel Shen PROYECTO: ANCO / AUTORES: Belén Sol Quinteros y Bruno Mediavilla PROYECTO: Fructífero / AUTORES: Romina Escudero y Santiago Bognano PROYECTO: Acom / AUTORES: Ariadna Cevasco y M. Laura Gonzalez PROYECTO: NOZ / AUTORES: Camila Rapaline & Tomás Rodriguez BravoLa cátedra Diseño Industrial 2 B trabajó sobre dispositivos domésticos para desinfección en contexto de la pandemia del COVID-19 Compartimos los proyectos realizados por estudiantes de la cátedra Diseño Industrial 2B, que durante la primera parte del año, trabajaron sobre dispositivos domésticos para desinfección en contexto de la pandemia del COVID-19. Desde la Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba) se iniciaron diferentes acciones para adaptar los contenidos de las carreras y atender a las diferentes necesidades sociales en el contexto de emergencia sanitaria. En ese sentido, la cátedra Diseño Industrial 2B se propuso situar la problemática de trabajo en las condiciones generadas por la pandemia del COVID-19, a partir de las cuales se generan cambios en la vida cotidiana, que afectan las actividades y llevan a incorporar nuevos hábitos y formas de relacionarse. La cátedra propuso a sus estudiantes pensar sistemas portátiles para el ámbito doméstico que permitieran la desinfección de elementos y pertenencias en el ingreso al domicilio. El trabajo práctico propuesto, abordó la complejidad de un producto-máquina desde su comprensión como sistema, con piezas intercambiables y/o combinables que posibilitan diferentes instancias de funcionamiento, abarcando la variablidad de escalas, tanto de relación manual como corporal, en cuanto a la observación de actividades, posturas y situaciones de uso.Fil: Oliva, Silvia. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: de la Fuente, Federico. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Speroni, Diego. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Franco, Belén. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Cagliero, Leonardo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Parra, Javier. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Talmon, Gaspar. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Gili, Agustina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Costamagna, Camila. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Vélez, Simón. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina.Fil: Giménez, Lucas. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. Cátedra Diseño Industrial; Argentina

Silicon particles as trojan horses for potential cancer therapy

[EN] Background: Porous silicon particles (PSiPs) have been used extensively as drug delivery systems, loaded with chemical species for disease treatment. It is well known from silicon producers that silicon is characterized by a low reduction potential, which in the case of PSiPs promotes explosive oxidation reactions with energy yields exceeding that of trinitrotoluene (TNT). The functionalization of the silica layer with sugars prevents its solubilization, while further functionalization with an appropriate antibody enables increased bioaccumulation inside selected cells. Results: We present here an immunotherapy approach for potential cancer treatment. Our platform comprises the use of engineered silicon particles conjugated with a selective antibody. The conceptual advantage of our system is that after reaction, the particles are degraded into soluble and excretable biocomponents. Conclusions: In our study, we demonstrate in particular, specific targeting and destruction of cancer cells in vitro. The fact that the LD50 value of PSiPs-HER-2 for tumor cells was 15-fold lower than the LD50 value for control cells demonstrates very high in vitro specificity. This is the first important step on a long road towards the design and development of novel chemotherapeutic agents against cancer in general, and breast cancer in particular.The authors acknowledge financial support from the following projects FIS2009-07812, MAT2012-35040, PROMETEO/2010/043, CTQ2011-23167, CrossSERS, FP7 MC-IEF 329131, and HSFP (project RGP0052/2012) and Medcom Tech SA. Xiang Yu acknowledges support by the Chinese government (CSC, Nr. 2010691036).Fenollosa Esteve, R.; Garcia-Rico, E.; Alvarez, S.; Alvarez, R.; Yu, X.; Rodriguez, I.; Carregal-Romero, S.... (2014). Silicon particles as trojan horses for potential cancer therapy. 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Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality