Functional characterization of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) transcription factors and transcriptional regulator during the fruit ripening, and genes with biotechnological interest

The strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) belongs to the family Rosaceae in the genus Fragaria. This soft fruit is cultivated in different regions of the world and is part of the diet of millions of people. Spain is the first producer of strawberries in Europe and the second one in the world after United States (FAO, 2012). The main octoploid variety Fragaria × ananassa cultivated is the result of crossing two native American species, F. virginiana and F. chiloensis (Hancock, 1999; Mabberley, 2002; Eriksson et al., 2003). The wild diploid species Fragaria vesca is also considered as an ancestor of the cultivated octoploid variety. Recently, the genome of the wild species Fragaria vesca has been sequenced (Shulaev et al., 2011). This information, together with the ESTs (expressed sequence tag) availability from cultivated species and the development of efficient transformation techniques of these varieties, will allow the development of genomics and recombinant DNA studies between different species of Rosaceae in the future (Bombarely et al., 2010). Strawberry fruit has been classified as non-climacteric, since there is no concomitant burst of respiration and ethylene production that triggers to the ripening process. Thus, all changes related with the fruit ripening occur without a significant increase in ethylene production, which suggests that this process is independent of this hormone (Iwata et al., 1969a and 1969b; Villareal et al., 2010). The strawberry fruit has a maximum respiration at the transition between stages ripe to overripe. Strawberries are much appreciated for their flavor, aroma and nutritional value. The mature fruit is composed of approximately 90 % water and 10% total soluble solids. Moreover, it contains many important dietary components such as vitamin C, soluble sugars such as glucose and fructose (which constitute over 80 % of total sugars), organic acids such as citric acid (88 % of total acids) and ellagic acid, which has anticancer properties (Green, 1971; Wrolstad and Shallenberger, 1981; Maas et al., 1991; Hemphill and Martin, 1992; Maas et al. 1996; Hancock, 1999). Soft fruits have an initial phase of growth and elongation, followed by a phase of maturity. The growth of the strawberry receptacle depends of the cortex and medulla cells development while the fruit size is mainly determined for the medulla cells development and the fruit position in the inflorescence (Hancock, 1999). Moreover, the fruit development is determined by the number and distribution of achenes, the receptacle area around each achene and the percentage of fertilized carpels. In this sense, the synthesis of auxin, fundamentally indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), which takes place in the achenes, is considerate the main responsible of the receptacle growth while gibberellins, cytokinins and abscisic acid have a limited role in the fruit growth (Nitsch,1950; Perkins-Veazie, 1995). Along the development and ripening processes, the strawberry fruit suffers important molecular changes such the removal of existing polypeptides and the synthesis of new proteins (Manning, 1994). In this sense, three evolution models of the transcripts have been described: mRNA whose concentration increases along the ripening, mRNA whose levels decrease over the ripening, and mRNA whose components exceed their maximum concentration in the intermediate stage, which then declined in stages of maturation (Veluthambi and Poovaiah, 1984; Reddy and Poovaiah, 1990; Reddy et al., 1990; Manning, 1994)

Influencia de los conceptos topológicos en la definición de límite de una función en un punto en libros de texto de cálculo

En este trabajo se estudia la influencia de los conceptos topológicos elementales en la definición formal de límite finito de una función en un punto en manuales universitarios destinados a la formación inicial en análisis matemático o cálculo. Seleccionamos cuatro de los manuales más populares dentro las guías docentes de diversas titulaciones universitarias. El análisis realizado permite constatar la escasa presencia explícita que se otorga a los conceptos topológicos en el tratamiento y la definición de límite. Los conceptos topológicos suelen tratarse implícitamente por medio de las ideas de aproximación y tendencia y del trabajo con secuencias numéricas finitas, así como recurriendo a distintos sistemas de representación. Contrastamos estos resultados con la naturaleza del concepto límite que se potencia en cada manual

Sea Bottom Classification by Means of Bathymetric LIDAR Data

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) provides high horizontal and vertical resolution of spatial data located in point cloud images, and is increasingly being used in a number of applications and disciplines, which have concentrated on the exploit and manipulation of the data using mainly its three dimensional nature. Bathymetric LIDAR systems and data are mainly focused to map depths in shallow and clear waters with a high degree of accuracy. Additionally, the backscattering produced by the different materials distributed over the bottom surface causes that the returned intensity signal contains important information about the reflection properties of these materials. Processing conveniently these values using a Simplified Radiative Transfer Model, allows the identification of different sea bottom types. This paper presents an original method for the classification of sea bottom by means of information processing extracted from the images generated through LIDAR data. The results are validated using a vector database containing benthic information derived by marine surveys

Ganarse la vida género y trabajo a través de los siglos

El presente volumen reúne en sus veintiséis secciones temáticas más de dos centenares de abstracts correspondientes a las mesas y comunicaciones del Congreso Internacional Ganarse la vida. Género y trabajo a través de los siglos, celebrado en Pampaneira (Granada) del 12 al 16 de septiembre de 2022. Como el lector apreciará, los trabajos aquí recogidos son principalmente propuestas de debate, experiencias investigadoras, en ocasiones solo preguntas razonables de investigación, y en todos los casos nos muestran los diversos hilos de las conversaciones dentro y entre disciplinas que estudian género y trabajo

Equivalency of four research‑grade movement sensors to assess movement behaviors and its implications for population surveillance

We are grateful to the participants involved in the study. This study was conducted under the umbrella of the CoCA project supported by the European Union's 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement #667302). JHM is supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (2021-00036). CC-S is supported by a Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FJC2018-037925-I). LVT-L is supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (FPU17/04802). AVR is supported by the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, and the Collaboration for leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) East Midlands. Additional funding was obtained from the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigacion 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence; Scientific Excellence Unit on Exercise and Health (UCEENS). Junta de Andalucia, Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidades and European Regional Development Funds (ref. SOMM17/6107/UGR). In addition, funding was provided by the SAMID III network, RETICS, funded by the PN I + D+I 2017-2021 (Spain), ISCIII- Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and Promotion, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (Ref. RD16/0022), and the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health (DEP2005-00046/ACTI; 09/UPB/19; 45/UPB/20; 27/UPB/21).The benefits of physical activity (PA) and sleep for health, accurate and objective population-based surveillance is important. Monitor-based surveillance has potential, but the main challenge is the need for replicable outcomes from different monitors. This study investigated the agreement of movement behavior outcomes assessed with four research-grade activity monitors (i.e., Movisens Move4, ActiGraph GT3X+, GENEActiv, and Axivity AX3) in adults. Twenty-three participants wore four monitors on the non-dominant wrist simultaneously for seven days. Open-source software (GGIR) was used to estimate the daily time in sedentary, light, moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), and sleep (movement behaviors). The prevalence of participants meeting the PA and sleep recommendations were calculated from each monitor’s data. Outcomes were deemed equivalent between monitors if the absolute standardized difference and its 95% confidence intervals ( CI95%) fell within ± 0.2 standard deviations (SD) of the mean of the differences. The participants were mostly men (n = 14, 61%) and aged 36 (SD = 14) years. Pairwise confusion matrices showed that 83–87% of the daily time was equally classified into the movement categories by the different pairs of monitors. The between-monitor difference in MVPA ranged from 1 ( CI95%: − 6, 7) to 8 ( CI95%: 1, 15) min/day. Most of the PA and sleep metrics could be considered equivalent. The prevalence of participants meeting the PA and the sleep guidelines was 100% consistent across monitors (22 and 5 participants out of the 23, respectively). Our findings indicate that the various research-grade activity monitors investigated show high inter-instrument reliability with respect to sedentary, PA and sleep-related estimates when their raw data are processed in an identical manner. These findings may have important implications for advancement towards monitor-based PA and sleep surveillance systems.European Commission 667302Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research Council for Health Working Life & Welfare (Forte) 2021-00036Spanish Government FJC2018-037925-I FPU17/04802NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research CentreNIHR Collaboration for leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) East MidlandsUniversity of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigacion 2016, Excellence actions: Units of ExcellenceScientific Excellence Unit on Exercise and Health (UCEENS)European Commission SOMM17/6107/UGRSAMID III network, RETICS - PN I + D+I 2017-2021 (Spain)ISCIII- Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and PromotionEuropean Commission RD16/0022EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health DEP2005-00046/ACTI 09/UPB/19 45/UPB/20 27/UPB/2

Beer or Ethanol Efects on the Body Composition Response to High-Intensity Interval Training. The BEER-HIIT Study

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is promoted as a time-effcient strategy to improve body composition but concomitant beer intake, which is common among physically active individuals, may interfere with these effects. The primary aim of this study is to determine the effects of a 10-week (2 days/week) HIIT program on anthropometric and body composition measurements, and to assess whether those effects are influenced by the moderate consumption of beer (at least 5 days/week), or its alcohol equivalent. Young (24 ± 6 years old) healthy adults (n = 72, 35 females) volunteered for a non-training group (Non-Training group) or for HIIT training. Those going for training choose whether they preferred to receive alcohol or not. Those choosing alcohol were randomly allocated for receiving beer (5.4%; T-Beer group) or the equivalent amount of alcohol (vodka; T-Ethanol group) in sparkling water. Those choosing no-alcohol were randomly allocated for receiving alcohol-free beer (0.0%; T-0.0Beer group) or sparkling water (T-Water group). From Monday through Friday, men ingested 330 mL of the beverage with lunch and 330 mL with dinner; women ingested 330 mL with dinner. Before and after the intervention, anthropometry and body composition, through dual-emission X-ray absorptiometry, were measured. No changes in body mass, waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, visceral adipose tissue or bone mineral density occurred in any of the groups. By contrast, in all the training groups, significant decreases in fat mass together with increases in lean mass (all p < 0.05) occurred. These positive effects were not influenced by the regular intake of beer or alcohol. In conclusion, a moderate beer intake does not blunt the positive effect of 10-week HIIT on body composition in young healthy adults.This research was partially funded by an unrestricted grant of the Centro de Información Cerveza y Salud (CICS), Madrid, Spain. F.J.A.-G. and A.D.-l.-O are supported by a training grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU14/04172 and FPU15/03960)

El control interno contable como factor fundamental para la administración empresarial

Business administration aims to shape organizations to achieve the proposed goals efficiently and effectively. This task represents a challenge in the face of the changes and transformations that occur today and directly influence the internal business environment. Specifically in the organizational internal control, the internal accounting control emerges as the controls designed to verify the correctness and reliability of the accounting data that offer an adequate record and summary of the authorized financial operations. To analyze the relevance of internal accounting control in business administration, documentary-bibliographic research was carried out, in which documentary sources were interpreted and analyzed. From this analysis it is concluded that the lack of internal accounting control is a fact that affects most companies due to the lack of knowledge that officials and workers have and the need to produce and sell company goods or services. However, internal accounting control allows the information on profits and losses to remain updated, duly systematized and accessible at any time to generate reports and carry out the respective analyzes to draw conclusions and make relevant decisions, which is why it is essential in the administration control by means of an internal accounting manual, monthly accounting records and an administrative accounting computer system as well as compliance with the control elements to apply corrective measures in the event of possible deviations from the organizational objectives and goals.La administración empresarial pretende darles forma las organizaciones con el objetivo de alcanzar en forma eficiente y eficaz las metas propuestas. Esta tarea representa un desafío ante los cambios y transformaciones que se dan en la sociedad actual e influyen de manera directa en el ambiente interno empresarial. Específicamente en el control interno organizacional, se desprende el control interno contable como los controles diseñados para verificar la corrección y confiabilidad de los datos contables que ofrezcan un registro y resumen adecuado de las operaciones financieras autorizadas. Para analizar la relevancia del control interno contable en la administración empresarial se llevó a cabo una investigación documental-bibliográfica, en la que se interpretaron y analizaron fuentes documentales. De este análisis se concluye que la falta de control interno contable, es un hecho que afecta a la mayoría de las empresas por el desconocimiento que tienen los funcionarios y trabajadores y la necesidad de producir y vender bienes o servicios de las empresas. Sin embargo, el control interno contable, permite que la información sobre las ganancias y pérdidas permanezca actualizada, debidamente sistematizada y accesible en cualquier momento para generar informes y realizar los respectivos análisis para sacar conclusiones y tomar decisiones relevantes por lo que es indispensable en la administración empresarial su control mediante un manual interno contable, registros contables mensuales y un sistema informático administrativo contable así como el cumplimiento de los elementos de control para aplicar medidas correctoras ante posibles desviaciones de los objetivos y metas organizacionales

Robust estimation of Ackerman angles for front-axle steering vehicles

The multiple benefits of automating steering in agricultural vehicles have resulted in various autoguidance systems commercially available, most of them relying on satellite-based positioning. However, the fact that farm equipment is typically oversized, heavy, and highly powered poses serious challenges to automation in terms of safety and reliability. The objective of this research is to improve the reliability of front-wheel feedback signals as a preliminary stage in the development of stable steering control systems. To do so, the angle turned by each front wheel of a conventional tractor was independently measured by an optical encoder and fused to generate the Ackerman feedback angle. The proposed fusion algorithm analyzes the consistency of each signal with time and checks the coherence between left and right front wheels according to the vehicle steering mechanism. Field experiments demonstrated the benefits of using redundant sensors coupled through logic algorithms for estimating Ackerman angles as the harsh conditions of off-road environments often resulted in the unreliable performance of electronic devices.Sáiz Rubio, V.; Rovira Más, F.; Chatterjee, I.; Molina Hidalgo, JM. (2013). Robust estimation of Ackerman angles for front-axle steering vehicles. Artificial Intelligence Research. 2(2):18-28. doi:10.5430/air.v2n2p18S18282

The Intragenesis and Synthetic Biology Approach towards Accelerating Genetic Gains on Strawberry: Development of New Tools to Improve Fruit Quality and Resistance to Pathogens

Under climate change, the spread of pests and pathogens into new environments has a dramatic effect on crop protection control. Strawberry (Fragaria spp.) is one the most profitable crops of the Rosaceae family worldwide, but more than 50 different genera of pathogens affect this species. Therefore, accelerating the improvement of fruit quality and pathogen resistance in strawberry represents an important objective for breeding and reducing the usage of pesticides. New genome sequencing data and bioinformatics tools has provided important resources to expand the use of synthetic biology-assisted intragenesis strategies as a powerful tool to accelerate genetic gains in strawberry. In this paper, we took advantage of these innovative approaches to create four RNAi intragenic silencing cassettes by combining specific strawberry new promoters and pathogen defense-related candidate DNA sequences to increase strawberry fruit quality and resistance by silencing their corresponding endogenous genes, mainly during fruit ripening stages, thus avoiding any unwanted effect on plant growth and development. Using a fruit transient assay, GUS expression was detected by the two synthetic FvAAT2 and FvDOF2 promoters, both by histochemical assay and qPCR analysis of GUS transcript levels, thus ensuring the ability of the same to drive the expression of the silencing cassettes in this strawberry tissue. The approaches described here represent valuable new tools for the rapid development of improved strawberry lines

Pre-analytical errors management in the clinical laboratory: a five-year study

Introduction: This study describes quality indicators for the pre-analytical process, grouping errors according to patient risk as critical or major, and assesses their evaluation over a five-year period. Materials and methods: A descriptive study was made of the temporal evolution of quality indicators, with a study population of 751,441 analytical requests made during the period 2007-2011. The Runs Test for randomness was calculated to assess changes in the trend of the series, and the degree of control over the process was estimated by the Six Sigma scale. Results: The overall rate of critical pre-analytical errors was 0.047%, with a Six Sigma value of 4.9. The total rate of sampling errors in the study period was 13.54% (P = 0.003). The highest rates were found for the indicators “haemolysed sample” (8.76%), “urine sample not submitted” (1.66%) and “clotted sample” (1.41%), with Six Sigma values of 3.7, 3.7 and 2.9, respectively. Conclusions: The magnitude of pre-analytical errors was accurately valued. While processes that triggered critical errors are well controlled, the results obtained for those regarding specimen collection are borderline unacceptable; this is particularly so for the indicator “haemolysed sample”