Chloroplast damage induced by the inhibition of fatty acid synthesis triggers autophagy in chlamydomonas

Fatty acids are synthesized in the stroma of plant and algal chloroplasts by the fatty acid synthase complex. Newly synthesized fatty acids are then used to generate plastidial lipids that are essential for chloroplast structure and function. Here, we show that inhibition of fatty acid synthesis in the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii activates autophagy, a highly conserved catabolic process by which cells degrade intracellular material under adverse conditions to maintain cell homeostasis. Treatment of Chlamydomonas cells with cerulenin, a specific fatty acid synthase inhibitor, stimulated lipidation of the autophagosome protein ATG8 and enhanced autophagic flux. We found that inhibition of fatty acid synthesis decreased monogalactosyldiacylglycerol abundance, increased lutein content, down-regulated photosynthesis, and increased the production of reactive oxygen species. Electron microscopy revealed a high degree of thylakoid membrane stacking in cerulenin-treated cells. Moreover, global transcriptomic analysis of these cells showed an up-regulation of genes encoding chloroplast proteins involved in protein folding and oxidative stress and the induction of major catabolic processes, including autophagy and proteasome pathways. Thus, our results uncovered a link between lipid metabolism, chloroplast integrity, and autophagy through a mechanism that involves the activation of a chloroplast quality control system.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2015-68216-PJunta de Andalucía CVI-7336, BIO2015-74432-JI

Correlating a documentary record of historical floods with the dendrochronological dating of a wooden decking in the old mint of Segovia (Spain)

the aim of this study is to apply an integrated methodological approximation where dendrochronology and documentary analysis allow us to reconstruct the historical flood record of the Segovia Mint. Our hypothesis is that differences between the dendrochronological data of the wooden decking pieces can be related to historical floods and, therefore, they could be used as proxy-source data in future palaeoflood research

TED Talks as an ICT tool to promote communicative skills in EFL students

Con la revolución que ha tenido lugar en los últimos años de las TIC, existe una variedad de herramientas disponibles para apoyar el aprendizaje de inglés de forma autónoma con aplicaciones, blogs y cursos en línea. Muchas de estas herramientas no fueron diseñadas originalmente con el propósito de enseñar, pero se pueden adaptar para tal fin. TED es un sitio web y una aplicación descargable donde se comparten videos en los que se puede ver una amplia variedad de hablantes de inglés nacidos en muchas partes del mundo hablando de manera divertida y familiar con el público sobre diversos temas de interés que, además, presentan contenido cultural, lo cual amplía el rango de acentos, palabras, expresiones y formas de referirse al mismo tema. En esta investigación acción, proponemos una reflexión sobre la incidencia de las charlas TED en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera. Los instrumentos utilizados para recopilar datos fueron entrevistas, cuestionarios y diarios de los profesores. El uso de estos videos proporcionó a los estudiantes todos los elementos comunicativos que les permitieron usar el inglés para expresar sus ideas. Esto ofrece una idea de cuán útiles son los videos y subtítulos auténticos cuando se alienta a los estudiantes a aprender inglés.With the revolution of ICT that has taken place in the last years, there is a variety of tools available to support English learning autonomously with applications, blogs, and online courses; However, many of these tools were not originally designed for teaching but can be adapted for such purpose. TED is a website and a downloadable application where videos are shared in which you can see a wide variety of English speakers born in many parts around the world speaking in a fun and familiar manner with the audience about various topics of interest that besides, come along with cultural content, which extends the range of accents, words, expressions, and ways of referring to the same topic. In this action research, we propose a reflection on the incidence of TED talks on the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language. The instruments used to collect data were interviews, questionnaires, and teacher journals. The use of these videos provided the students with all the communicative elements that allowed them to use English to express their ideas. This offers a glimpse of how useful authentic videos and subtitles are when encouraging students to learn English

Una anàlisi dels efectes de la recessió econòmica a Espanya

Després de diversos anys de creixement, l'economia espanyola va entrar en la més profunda i prolongada recessió econòmica que s'ha registrat des que hi ha dades fiables de comptabilitat nacional. Aquest treball ha quantificat els efectes de les pertorbacions internes i externes que van afectar l'economia espanyola en el període 2008-09. L'impacte sobre les principals variables macroeconòmiques s'avalua amb un model matemàtic que capta els diferents efectes directes i indirectes que es produeixen dins de l'economia.Tras varios años de crecimiento, la economía española entró en la más profunda y prolongada recesión económica que se ha registrado desde que existen datos fiables de contabilidad nacional. Este trabajo ha cuantificado los efectos de las perturbaciones internas y externas que afectaron a la economía española en el periodo 2008-09. El impacto sobre las principales variables macroeconómicas se evalúa con un modelo matemático que capta los diferentes efectos directos e indirectos que se producen dentro de la economía

Water decolorization using tuned ternary Deep Eutectic solvents

A method to totally decolorize textile wastewaters using new extraction solvents is proposed, with the aim of vastly reducing water consumption. This technique allows for water reuse while solving one of the biggest problems of the textile industry: the generation of huge amounts of liquid residues. In these effluents, dyes are the most common present pollutants, and are toxic to both human and aquatic life, and to the environment. Full decolorization is an indispensable prerequisite to obtain a clean water that can be repurposed following circular economy principles. To decolorize aqueous streams, liquid–liquid extraction is a widely used technique, achieving both the recovery of the pollutants and the used solvent. In this context, Deep Eutectic Solvents are a promising candidate for novel optimized processes. In this work, we propose several of these agents, formed from tetrabutylammonium chloride, thymol, menthol and decanoic acid, optimized for interaction with a wide array of dye classes and processable physicochemical properties. Across all the studied solvents, it was possible to achieve high extraction efficiency, with full decolorization for most dyes, at very low solvent to aqueous phase ratios. Furthermore, assays using synthetic effluents, containing dyes and other chemicals used to ensure a correct dyeing process, show that our solvents are good candidates to treat streams as those found in industry.Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) | Ref. PID2019-107728RB-I00Xunta de Galicia | Ref. GPC-ED431B 2020/0Ministerio de Ciencia | Ref. PRE2020-09315

Barriers and Facilitators for the Implementation of Primary Prevention and Health Promotion Activities in Primary Care : A Synthesis through Meta-Ethnography

Evidence supports the implementation of primary prevention and health promotion (PP&HP) activities but primary care (PC) professionals show resistance to implementing these activities. The aim was to synthesize the available qualitative research on barriers and facilitators identified by PC physicians and nurses in the implementation of PP&HP in adults. A systematic search of three databases was conducted and supported by manual searches. The 35 articles included were translated into each other and a new interpretation of the concepts extracted was generated. The factors affecting the implementation of PP&HP activities in PC according to professionals were fitted into a five-level ecological model: intrapersonal factors, interpersonal processes, institutional factors, community factors and public policy. At the intrapersonal level we find professionals' beliefs about PP&HP, experiences, skills and knowledge, and selfconcept. The attitudes and behavior towards PP&HP of patients, specialists, practice managers and colleagues (interpersonal factors) affect the feasibility of implementing PP&HP. Institutional level: PC is perceived as well-placed to implement PP&HP but workload, lack of time and referral resources, and the predominance of the biomedical model (which prioritizes disease treatment) hamper the implementation of PP&HP. The effectiveness of financial incentives and tools such as guidelines and alarms/reminders is conditioned by professionals' attitudes to them. Community factors include patients' social and cultural characteristics (religion, financial resources, etc.), local referral resources, mass-media messages and pharmaceutical industry campaigns, and the importance given to PP&HP in the curriculum in university. Finally, policies affect the distribution of resources, thus affecting the implementation of PP&HP. Research on barriers and facilitators in the implementation of PP&HP activities in multirisk management is scarce. The conceptual overview provided by this synthesis resulted in the development of practical recommendations for the design of PP&HP in PC. However, the effectiveness of these recommendations needs to be demonstrated

Dealcoholized beers reduce atherosclerosis and expression of adhesion molecules in apoE-deficient mice

Polyphenols exert beneficial effects in atherosclerosis. The crucial step in atherosclerosis is the recruitment of monocytes to the subendothelial space, induced by endothelial adhesion molecules through the activation of factors such as NF-κB. We studied the effect of a dealcoholised lager beer (DLB) and a dealcoholised dark beer (DDB) on atherosclerotic lesions, and the underlying mechanisms. Dealcoholised beers were administered in the diet (42 ml/kg body weight per d) to 4-week-old male apoE knockout (apoE - / - ) mice for 20 weeks. The atherosclerotic lesions in the thoracic aorta were reduced by 44 % (P = 0·003) and 51 % (P < 0·001) in DLB- and DDB-treated mice, respectively. Also, the mRNA expressions of the endothelial adhesion molecules in the total aorta were decreased: P-selectin showed a 17 % (P = 0·004) reduction in DDB-treated mice; vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) was decreased by 20 % (P = 0·012) and 32 % (P = 0·001) in DLB- and DDB-treated mice, respectively; intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) showed a 14 % (P = 0·014) reduction in DLB-treated mice. The protein expressions of these molecules and NF-κB were studied in the aortic root. P-selectin was decreased by 37 % (P = 0·012) in DDB-treated mice; VCAM-1 was reduced by 48 % (P = 0·001) and 54 % (P < 0·001) in DLB- and DDB-treated mice, respectively; ICAM-1 was decreased by 25 % (P = 0·028) and 30 % (P = 0·018) in DLB- and DDB-treated mice, respectively; NF-κB was reduced by 46 % (P = 0·042) in DDB-treated mice. In conclusion, dealcoholised beers protected apoE - / - mice against atherosclerosis, through the modulation of endothelial adhesion molecules, possibly induced by NF-κB

Estrategias de afrontamiento y ansiedad según variables sociodemográficas en el personal de la salud durante la pandemia COVID-19: revisión aplicada

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivos principales identificar la relación entre las estrategias de afrontamiento y los niveles de ansiedad en el personal de salud durante el COVID-19 y determinar la asociación de las variables sociodemográficas con las estrategias de afrontamiento y los niveles de ansiedad en el personal de la salud durante el COVID-19. Por lo tanto, se realizó una búsqueda en diversas bases de datos en las cuales se identificaron 10 investigaciones primarias que analizan la relación entre las variables de estudio. Se concluyó que existe una relación negativa entre las variables niveles de ansiedad y las estrategias de afrontamiento adaptativas y una relación positiva entre las variables niveles de ansiedad y estrategias de afrontamiento desadaptativas. Por último, no se encontraron relaciones significativas en la mayoría de investigaciones entre la relación antes mencionada y los factores de las fichas sociodemográficas excepto por edad, sexo, posición laborar y ocupación.The present investigation had as main objectives to identify the relationship between coping strategies and anxiety levels in health personnel during COVID-19 and to determine the association of sociodemographic variables with coping strategies and anxiety levels in the health personnel during COVID-19. Therefore, a search was carried out in various databases, in which 10 primary investigations that analyze the relationship between the study variables were identified. It was concluded that there is a negative relationship between the variables anxiety levels and adaptive coping strategies and a positive relationship between the variables anxiety levels and maladaptive coping strategies. Finally, no significant relationships were found in most of the investigations between the aforementioned relationship and the factors of the sociodemographic records except for age, sex, job position, and occupation

Dual Role of Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptor 2 (LPA2) in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a pleiotropic extracellular lipid mediator with many physiological functions that signal through six known G protein-coupled receptors (LPA1-6). In the central nervous system (CNS), LPA mediates a wide range of effects including neural progenitor cell physiology, neuronal cell death, axonal retraction, and inflammation. Since inflammation is a hallmark of most neurological conditions, we hypothesized that LPA could be involved in the physiopathology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We found that LPA2 RNA was upregulated in post-mortem spinal cord samples of ALS patients and in the sciatic nerve and skeletal muscle of SOD1G93A mouse, the most widely used ALS mouse model. To assess the contribution of LPA2 to ALS, we generated a SOD1G93A mouse that was deficient in Lpar2. This animal revealed that LPA2 signaling accelerates disease onset and neurological decline but, unexpectedly, extended the lifespan. To gain insights into the early harmful actions of LPA2 in ALS, we studied the effects of this receptor in the spinal cord, peripheral nerve, and skeletal muscle of ALS mice. We found that LPA2 gene deletion increased microglial activation but did not contribute to motoneuron death, astrogliosis, degeneration, and demyelination of motor axons. However, we observed that Lpar2 deficiency protected against muscle atrophy. Moreover, we also found the deletion of Lpar2 reduced the invasion of macrophages into the skeletal muscle of SOD1G93A mice, linking LPA2 signaling with muscle inflammation and atrophy in ALS. Overall, these results suggest for the first time that LPA2 contributes to ALS, and its genetic deletion results in protective actions at the early stages of the disease but shortens survival thereafter

A Multistep docking and scoring protocol for congeneric series: Implementation on kinase DFG-out type II inhibitors

AIM: Rescoring of docking-binding poses can significantly improve molecular docking results. Our aim was to evaluate postprocessing docking protocols in order to determine the most suitable methodology for the study of the binding of congeneric compounds to protein kinases. MATERIALS & METHODS: Diverse ligand-receptor poses generated after docking were submitted to different relaxation protocols. The Molecular Mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann (Generalized Born) Surface Area approach was applied for the evaluation of the binding affinity of complexes obtained. The performance of various Molecular Mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann (Generalized Born) Surface Area methodologies was compared. RESULTS: The inclusion of a postprocessing protocol after docking enhances the quality of the results, although the best methodology is system dependent. CONCLUSION: An examination of the interactions established has allowed us to suggest useful modifications for the design of new type II inhibitors