Growth of Natural Flora during the Fermentation of Inoculated Musts from "Pedro Ximenez" Grapes

The growth of naturally occurring micro-organisms in musts from grapes collected at three degrees ofripeness (unripe, half· ripe and ripe) in the Montilla-Moriles (Southern Spain) region during 1985and1986 was studied. The musts were inoculated with four physiological races of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated in the region. Although the inoculated races of S. cerevisiaeprevailed throughout the fermentations, there was also a significant growth of indigenous races of S. cerevisiae and a less marked growth of other micro-organisms such as bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts other than S. cerevisiae

Broad-area electron-beam-assisted etching of silicon in sulfur hexafluoride

Includes bibliographical references (page 1583).Silicon etching rates up to 250 Å/min have been observed in an electron-beam-generated He plus SF6 plasma. The etch rate was found to increase linearly with electron beam current density and to be practically independent of the electron acceleration voltage in the range investigated (170-260 V). Profiles of the resulting features show that etching is anisotropic with a vertical-to-horizontal ratio of 2.5 to 3

Large-scale gene expression study in the ophiuroid Amphiura filiformis provides insights into evolution of gene regulatory networks

BACKGROUND: The evolutionary mechanisms involved in shaping complex gene regulatory networks (GRN) that encode for morphologically similar structures in distantly related animals remain elusive. In this context, echinoderm larval skeletons found in brittle stars and sea urchins provide an ideal system. Here, we characterize for the first time the development of the larval skeleton in the ophiuroid Amphiura filiformis and compare it systematically with its counterpart in sea urchin. RESULTS: We show that ophiuroids and euechinoids, that split at least 480 Million years ago (Mya), have remarkable similarities in tempo and mode of skeletal development. Despite morphological and ontological similarities, our high-resolution study of the dynamics of genetic regulatory states in A. filiformis highlights numerous differences in the architecture of their underlying GRNs. Importantly, the A.filiformis pplx, the closest gene to the sea urchin double negative gate (DNG) repressor pmar1, fails to drive the skeletogenic program in sea urchin, showing important evolutionary differences in protein function. hesC, the second repressor of the DNG, is co-expressed with most of the genes that are repressed in sea urchin, indicating the absence of direct repression of tbr, ets1/2, and delta in A. filiformis. Furthermore, the absence of expression in later stages of brittle star skeleton development of key regulatory genes, such as foxb and dri, shows significantly different regulatory states. CONCLUSION: Our data fill up an important gap in the picture of larval mesoderm in echinoderms and allows us to explore the evolutionary implications relative to the recently established phylogeny of echinoderm classes. In light of recent studies on other echinoderms, our data highlight a high evolutionary plasticity of the same nodes throughout evolution of echinoderm skeletogenesis. Finally, gene duplication, protein function diversification, and cis-regulatory element evolution all contributed to shape the regulatory program for larval skeletogenesis in different branches of echinoderms

On the vulnerability of iris-based systems to a software attack based on a genetic algorithm

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33275-3_14Proceedings of 17th Iberoamerican Congress, CIARP 2012, Buenos Aires, ArgentinaThe vulnerabilities of a standard iris verification system to a novel indirect attack based on a binary genetic algorithm are studied. The experiments are carried out on the iris subcorpus of the publicly available BioSecure DB. The attack has shown a remarkable performance, thus proving the lack of robustness of the tested system to this type of threat. Furthermore, the consistency of the bits of the iris code is analysed, and a second working scenario discarding the fragile bits is then tested as a possible countermeasure against the proposed attack.This work has been partially supported by projects Contexts (S2009/TIC-1485) from CAM, Bio-Challenge (TEC2009-11186) from Spanish MICINN, TABULA RASA (FP7-ICT-257289) and BEAT (FP7-SEC-284989) from EU, and Cátedra UAM-Telefónica

Orientation of Pterin-6-Carboxylic Acid on Gold Capped Silicon Nanopillars Platforms: Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Studies

The orientation of pterin-6-carboxylic acid on gold nanopillars was investigated by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory methods. The experimentally vibrations from pterin-6-COOH free and attached to the Au surface display vibration features indicating chemical interaction of the pterin with the metal surface. The spectral feature evidenced that the pterin would adsorb on gold surface with a "lying down" configuration through the high intensity vibration of NH scissoring and rocking OH modes. The orientation study of pterins on gold nanopillars presented herein is believed to lead to new applications in biosensing field for detecting pterins of physiological importance

Laser-driven direct synthesis of carbon nanodots and application as sensitizers for visible-light photocatalysis

We present the first successful synthesis of monodisperse carbon nanodots (CNDs) with tunable photoluminescence (PL) carried out by laser pyrolysis of two common volatile organic precursors such as toluene and pyridine. Remarkably, the initial chemical composition of the precursor determines the formation of undoped or N-doped CNDs and their corresponding absorption response in the visible range (expanded for the latter). We demonstrate the control and versatility of this synthesis method to tune the final outcome and its potential to explore a great number of potential solvent candidates. Furthermore, we have successfully exploited these CNDs (both undoped and N-doped) as effective sensitizers of TiO2 nanoparticles in the visible-light driven photo-degradation of a cationic dye selected as model organic pollutant

The Sound of Topology in the AdS/CFT Correspondence

Using the gauge/gravity correspondence, we study the properties of 2-point correlation functions of finite-temperature strongly coupled gauge field theories, defined on a curved space of general spatial topology with a dual black hole description. We derive approximate asymptotic expressions for the correlation functions and their poles, supported by exact numerical calculations, and study their dependence on the dimension of spacetime and the spatial topology. The asymptotic structure of the correlation functions depends on the relation between the spatial curvature and the temperature, and is noticeable when they are of the same order. In the case of a hyperbolic topology, a specific temperature is identified for which exact analytical solutions exist for all types of perturbations. The asymptotic structure of the correlation functions poles is found to behave in a non-smooth manner when approaching this temperature.Comment: 65 pages, LaTeX, 21 figures, 1 table; fixed a small error in subsection 3.

Pumping Metallic Nanoparticles with Spatial Precision within Magnetic Mesoporous Platforms: 3D Characterization and Catalytic Application

The present work shows an efficient strategy to assemble two types of functional nanoparticles onto mesoporous MCM-41 silica nanospheres with a high degree of spatial precision. In a first stage, magnetite nanoparticles are synthesized with a size larger than the support pores and grafted covalently through a peptide-like bonding onto their external surface. This endowed the silica nanoparticles with a strong superparamagnetic response, while preserving the highly ordered interior space for the encapsulation of other functional guest species. Second, we report the finely controlled pumping of preformed Pt nanoparticles (1.5 nm) within the channels of the magnetic MCM-41 nanospheres to confer an additional catalytic functionality to the multiassembled nanoplatform. The penetration depth of the metallic nanoparticles can be explained as a result of the interplay between the particle-wall electrostatic attraction and the repulsive forces between neighboring Pt nanoparticles. A detailed transmission electron microscopy and a 3D high-resolution high-angle annular dark-field detector electron tomography study were carried out to characterize the material and to explain the assembly mechanism. Finally, the performance of these multifunctional nanohybrids as magnetically recoverable catalysts has been evaluated in the selective hydrogenation of p-nitrophenol, a well-known pollutant and intermediate in multiple industrial processes