Soybean Flour Improves Fatty Acid Profile and Decreases Hepatic Triglyceride Deposition in Rats Fed with Normocaloric and Hypercaloric Diet

This study investigated the effects of replacing casein with soy flour on the fatty acids profile and triglycerides metabolism in the liver of rats that were previously fed with normocaloric and hypercaloric diets based on casein. Wistar male rats were used; one group was fed with control diet (AIN-93) and another with hypercaloric diet (AIN-93 with 34.15% sucrose, 42% fat calories) for 9 weeks. Each group was then divided into two subgroups and casein was replaced with soybean in one of them, obtaining CC (control casein), CS (control soy), HC (hypercaloric casein) and HS (hypercaloric soy), which were fed for 6 weeks. We measured triglycerides in serum, and triglycerides, total lipids, fatty acids profile, the expression of apolipoprotein B (Apo B), acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), fatty acid synthase (FAS), sterol-regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c), mitochondrial glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (mGPAT), diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (DGAT-2), carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT-1) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors alpha (PPARα) in liver. Histological studies were also performed. When comparing HS vs. HC, a positive effect of soybean flour on hepatic triglycerides deposits was found, possibly through the reduction in DGAT-2 expression (P < 0.01) and the increase in Apo B (P < 0.001) expression. Soybean flour also decreased fat deposits in control diets when compared with casein, decreasing the DGAT-2 (P < 0.001) expression and increasing Apo B (P < 0.001), CPT-1 (P < 0.05) and PPARα (P < 0.01) expressions. Both soy diet subgroups increased unsaturated fatty acids respect to casein diets (P < 0.01). Hepatocytes showed few lipid droplets in HS, whereas a fat deposit in HC was observed. These results suggest that replacing casein with soybean flour in normocaloric and hypercaloric diets reduces triglycerides and improves fatty acids profile in rat liver.Fil: Razzeto, Gabriela Silvina. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Lucero López, Viviana Romina. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis; ArgentinaFil: Marra, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner". Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner"; ArgentinaFil: Scardapane, Luis Antonio. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Escudero, Nora Lilian. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Gimenez, Maria Sofia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia; Argentin

Migratory diversity predicts population declines in birds

Declines in migratory species are a pressing concern worldwide, but the mechanisms underpinning these declines are not fully understood. We hypothesised that species with greater within-population variability in migratory movements and destinations, here termed ‘migratory diversity’, might be more resilient to environmental change. To test this, we related map-based metrics of migratory diversity to recent population trends for 340 European breeding birds. Species that occupy larger non-breeding ranges relative to breeding, a characteristic we term ‘migratory dispersion’, were less likely to be declining than those with more restricted non-breeding ranges. Species with partial migration strategies (i.e. overlapping breeding and non-breeding ranges) were also less likely to be declining than full migrants or full residents, an effect that was independent of migration distance. Recent rates of advancement in Europe-wide spring arrival date were greater for partial migrants than full migrants, suggesting that migratory diversity may also help facilitate species responses to climate change

The balancing act of the liver: tissue regeneration versus fibrosis

Epithelial cell loss alters a tissue's optimal function and awakens evolutionarily adapted healing mechanisms to reestablish homeostasis. Although adult mammalian organs have a limited regeneration potential, the liver stands out as one remarkable exception. Following injury, the liver mounts a dynamic multicellular response wherein stromal cells are activated in situ and/or recruited from the bloodstream, the extracellular matrix (ECM) is remodeled, and epithelial cells expand to replenish their lost numbers. Chronic damage makes this response persistent instead of transient, tipping the system into an abnormal steady state known as fibrosis, in which ECM accumulates excessively and tissue function degenerates. Here we explore the cellular and molecular switches that balance hepatic regeneration and fibrosis, with a focus on uncovering avenues of disease modeling and therapeutic intervention.LCE is jointly funded by a Wellcome Trust Four-Year PhD Studentship with the Stem Cell Biology and Medicine Programme and a Wellcome Cambridge Trust Scholarship. MH is a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellow and is jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (104151/Z/14/Z). This work is partially funded by an H2020 grant awarded to MH (LSMF4LIFE)

WhatsApp and Google Drive Influence on Pre-service Students’ Learning

The use of technology and all that it entails, such as applications and social networks, has led to a transformation of education in all aspects. Communication and the monitoring of training processes are being transformed through these new elements gradually incorporated into the classrooms. The aim of the study is to analyze the impact of WhatsApp and Google Drive on the monitoring of training practices among preservice students using a traditional, face-to-face methodology. A quasi-experimental design was carried out on a sample of 123 Spanish pre-service students. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire. The results show that the follow-up of external practices of future teachers using WhatsApp and Google Drive is effective in comparison with the face-to-face follow-up, although no significant differences are shown in the students’ grades. Conclusions show that applying a monitoring method with these technological tools leads to an increase in students’ motivation mainly as it allows a more direct interaction between the teacher and the student. It is important to select the monitoring method and the target student in the didactic development. Hence, these educational applications enable active learning where the learner is the main protagonist and can be supported and monitored

Differential survival throughout the full annual cycle of a migratory bird presents a life-history trade-off.

Long-distance migrations are among the most physically demanding feats animals perform. Understanding the potential costs and benefits of such behaviour is a fundamental question in ecology and evolution. A hypothetical cost of migration should be outweighed by higher productivity and/or higher annual survival, but few studies on migratory species have been able to directly quantify patterns of survival throughout the full annual cycle and across the majority of a species' range. Here, we use telemetry data from 220 migratory Egyptian vultures Neophron percnopterus, tracked for 3,186 bird months and across approximately 70% of the species' global distribution, to test for differences in survival throughout the annual cycle. We estimated monthly survival probability relative to migration and latitude using a multi-event capture-recapture model in a Bayesian framework that accounted for age, origin, subpopulation and the uncertainty of classifying fates from tracking data. We found lower survival during migration compared to stationary periods (β = −0.816; 95% credible interval: −1.290 to −0.318) and higher survival on non-breeding grounds at southern latitudes (<25°N; β = 0.664; 0.076-1.319) compared to on breeding grounds. Survival was also higher for individuals originating from Western Europe (β = 0.664; 0.110-1.330) as compared to further east in Europe and Asia, and improved with age (β = 0.030; 0.020-0.042). Anthropogenic mortalities accounted for half of the mortalities with a known cause and occurred mainly in northern latitudes. Many juveniles drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on their first autumn migration while there were few confirmed mortalities in the Sahara Desert, indicating that migration barriers are likely species-specific. Our study advances the understanding of important fitness trade-offs associated with long-distance migration. We conclude that there is lower survival associated with migration, but that this may be offset by higher non-breeding survival at lower latitudes. We found more human-caused mortality farther north, and suggest that increasing anthropogenic mortality could disrupt the delicate migration trade-off balance. Research to investigate further potential benefits of migration (e.g. differential productivity across latitudes) could clarify how migration evolved and how migrants may persist in a rapidly changing world

J-PAS: forecasts on interacting vacuum energy models

The next generation of galaxy surveys will allow us to test some fundamental aspects of the standard cosmological model, including the assumption of a minimal coupling between the components of the dark sector. In this paper, we present the Javalambre Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) forecasts on a class of unified models where cold dark matter interacts with a vacuum energy, considering future observations of baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift-space distortions, and the matter power spectrum. After providing a general framework to study the background and linear perturbations, we focus on a concrete interacting model without momentum exchange by taking into account the contribution of baryons. We compare the J-PAS results with those expected for DESI and Euclid surveys and show that J-PAS is competitive to them, especially at low redshifts. Indeed, the predicted errors for the interaction parameter, which measures the departure from a $\Lambda$CDM model, can be comparable to the actual errors derived from the current data of cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figures, 14 table

J-PLUS DR3: Galaxy-Star-Quasar classification

The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) is a 12-band photometric survey using the 83-cm JAST telescope. Data Release 3 includes 47.4 million sources (29.8 million with $r \le 21$) on 3192 deg$^2$ (2881 deg$^2$ after masking). J-PLUS DR3 only provides star-galaxy classification so that quasars are not identified from the other sources. Given the size of the dataset, machine learning methods could provide a valid alternative classification and a solution to the classification of quasars. Our objective is to classify J-PLUS DR3 sources into galaxies, stars and quasars, outperforming the available classifiers in each class. We use an automated machine learning tool called {\tt TPOT} to find an optimized pipeline to perform the classification. The supervised machine learning algorithms are trained on the crossmatch with SDSS DR12, LAMOST DR7 and \textit{Gaia} DR3. We checked that the training set of about 570 thousand galaxies, one million stars and 220 thousand quasars is both representative and pure to a good degree. We considered 37 features: besides the twelve photometric bands with their errors, six colors, four morphological parameters, galactic extinction with its error and the PSF relative to the corresponding pointing. After exploring numerous pipeline possibilities through the TPOT genetic algorithm, we found that XGBoost provides the best performance: the AUC for galaxies, stars and quasars is above 0.99 and the average precision is above 0.99 for galaxies and stars and 0.94 for quasars. XGBoost outperforms the star-galaxy classifiers already provided in J-PLUS DR3 and also efficiently classifies quasars. We also found that photometry was very important in the classification of quasars, showing the relevance of narrow-band photometry.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure

J-PAS: Forecasts for dark matter - dark energy elastic couplings

We consider a cosmological model where dark matter and dark energy feature a coupling that only affects their momentum transfer in the corresponding Euler equations. We perform a fit to cosmological observables and confirm previous findings within these scenarios that favour the presence of a coupling at more than $3\sigma$. This improvement is driven by the Sunyaev-Zeldovich data. We subsequently perform a forecast for future J-PAS data and find that clustering measurements will permit to clearly discern the presence of an interaction within a few percent level with the uncoupled case at more than $10\sigma$ when the complete survey, covering $8500$ sq. deg., is considered. We found that the inclusion of weak lensing measurements will not help to further constrain the coupling parameter. For completeness, we compare to forecasts for DESI and Euclid, which provide similar discriminating power.Comment: 34 pages, 17 figures, added some clarifications and discussions, matches published versio