Hierarchical basic zeolites allow for the solvent-free synthesis of chromene derivatives

The successful synthesis of 2-amino-chromene with excellent yields (82%) was achieved by utilizing basic hierarchical zeolites prepared by surfactant-templating as catalysts in a multicomponent reaction under solvent-free conditions. The use of these hierarchical zeolites more than doubles the activity of their microporous counterparts. These results highlight the superior diffusivity and performance of hierarchical zeolites, which can be attributed to their well-developed intracrystalline mesoporosity, highly accessible and strong basic sites.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 872102. The authors thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and AEI/FEDER, UE for funding through the project ref. PID2021-128761OB-C21. M.J.M. thanks the Generalitat Valenciana for a PhD fellowship (GRISOLIAP/2020/165)

O FUTURO DO JORNALISMO LITERÁRIO: John S. Bak

Perfilar um dos estudiosos contemporâneos mais expressivos do Jornalismo Literário mundial é o casamento perfeito entre a responsabilidade e o desafio profissional.  John Steven Bak é um homem complexo, como todo ser humano, mas de intrigante e singular personalidade. Estadunidense radicado na França há 20 anos, o professor de Literatura Americana na Universidade de Lorraine (FR) integra o grupo de pesquisadores do Centro de Pesquisas Interdisciplinares de Estudos Ingleses (I.D.E.A), tem pós-doutorado pela Universidade de Sorborne (FR), é doutor e mestre pela Ball State University (EUA) e bacharel em Literatura Americana, Britânica, Retórica e Escrita pela Universidade de Illinois (EUA). Estudioso de literatura, drama e teatro americanos, tem como principal foco de pesquisa a vida e as obras de Tennessee Williams. Há 13 anos retomou sua paixão pelo Jornalismo Literário ao fundar a Associação Internacional de Estudos em Jornalismo Literário (IALJS), por onde vem desenvolvendo inúmeros projetos. Mas Bak também é amigo e pai. E estes últimos talvez sejam os títulos que mais lhe deem orgulho. As três autoras deste texto não pouparam esforços para traduzi-lo em linhas digitais. Uma aventura marcada por encontros, pesquisas e bate-papos, mas que apesar de não dar conta de quem ele é – se é que alguma obra o dará –, promete, ao menos, trazer à luz mundana um pedaço da magia humana, vida e obra deste inspirado cientista social.   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: John S. Bak; Jornalismo Literário; Associação Internacional de Estudos em Jornalismo Literário; IALJS; Tennessee Williams.     ABSTRACT Outlining one of the most expressive contemporary scholars of Literary Journalism Studies is the perfect match between responsibility and professional challenge. John Steven Bak is a complex man, as every human being, but has an intriguing and unique personality. An American settled in France for the last 20 years, the professor of Literature at the University of Lorraine (FR) is a researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in English Studies (IDEA), has a postdoctoral degree from the University of Sorborne (FR), holds a PhD and a master degree from Ball State University (USA) and is graduated in American, British, Rhetoric and Written Literature from the University of Illinois (USA). A scholar of American literature, drama, and theater, his main focus is research on the life and works of Tennessee Williams. Thirteen years ago he returned to his passion for Literary Journalism by founding the International Association of Studies in Literary Journalism (IALJS), where he has been developing many projects. But Bak is also a friend and father. And the latter may be the proudest titles he holds. The three authors of this text spared no efforts to translate all his talents into this text. An literary journalism adventure marked by encounters, researches and chats, but despite not fully accomplished detect who he is – if any work will do – this life story promises, at least, to bring to the mundane light a piece of the human magic, life and work of this inspired social scientist.   KEYWORDS: John S. Bak; Literary Journalism; International Association for Literary Journalism Studies; IALJS; Tennessee Williams.     RESUMEN Perfilar uno de los estudiosos contemporáneos más expresivos del periodismo literario mundial es el matrimonio perfecto entre la responsabilidad y el desafío profesional. John Steven Bak es un hombre complejo, como todo ser humano, pero de intrigante y singular personalidad. El profesor de Literatura en la Universidad de Lorraine (FR), que se encuentra en Francia desde hace 20 años, ha participado en el grupo de investigadores del Centro de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias de Estudios Británicos (IDEA), posdoctorado por la Universidad de Sorborne (FR) y maestro por la Ball State University (EE.UU.) y bachiller en Literatura Americana, Británica, Retórica y escrita por la Universidad de Illinois (EE.UU.). Estudiante de literatura, drama y teatro estadounidenses, tiene como principal foco de investigación la vida y las obras de Tennessee Williams. Hace 13 años retomó su pasión por el Periodismo Literario al fundar la Asociación Internacional de Estudios en Periodismo Literario (IALJS), por donde viene desarrollando innumerables proyectos. Pero Bak también es amigo y padre. Y estos últimos tal vez sean los títulos que más le den orgullo. Las tres autoras de este texto no ahorraron esfuerzos para traducirlo en líneas digitales. Una aventura marcada por encuentros, investigaciones y charlas, pero que a pesar de no dar cuenta de quién es - si es que alguna obra lo dará -, promete, al menos, traer a la luz mundana un pedazo de la magia humana, vida y obra de este inspirado científico social.   PALABRAS CLAVE: John S. Bak; Periodismo Literario; Asociación Internacional de Estudios en Periodismo Literario; IALJS; Tennessee Williams

Significado psicológico de México entre niños

El objetivo del trabajo fue detectar el significado psicológico de "México" en niñas y niños. Se trabajó con 60 estudiantes de Primaria, repartidos equitativamente por género, con edades entre nueve y once años. Se utilizó la técnica original de redes semánticas naturales para obtener la información referente al significado psicológico de México. Las aplicaciones se hicieron de forma grupal en los salones de clase. Los resultados dejan ver que entre los participantes hubo una definición muy favorable de México, en la que los niños orientaron sus respuestas hacia los aspectos políticos, en comparación con las niñas, que definieron a México con base en sus bellezas naturales y las características afectivas de sus habitantes. Se observó que prevalece una tendencia instrumental en el género masculino, en contraste con la de tipo afectivo y expresivo del género femenino, rasgos propios de la cultura mexicana desde mucho tiempo atrás, que al parecer no registran cambios trascendentales en los papeles o roles asignados para cada uno de los géneros en México

Metagenomic Mining for Esterases in the Microbial Community of Los Rueldos Acid Mine Drainage Formation

Acid mine drainage (AMD) systems are extremely acidic and are metal-rich formations inhabited by relatively low-complexity communities of acidophiles whose enzymes remain mostly uncharacterized. Indeed, enzymes from only a few AMD sites have been studied. The low number of available cultured representatives and genome sequences of acidophiles inhabiting AMDs makes it difficult to assess the potential of these environments for enzyme bioprospecting. In this study, using naïve and in silico metagenomic approaches, we retrieved 16 esterases from the α/β-hydrolase fold superfamily with the closest match from uncultured acidophilic Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria (Acidithrix, Acidimicrobium, and Ferrimicrobium), Acidiphilium, and other Proteobacteria inhabiting the Los Rueldos site, which is a unique AMD formation in northwestern Spain with a pH of ∼2. Within this set, only two polypeptides showed high homology (99.4%), while for the rest, the pairwise identities ranged between 4 and 44.9%, suggesting that the diversity of active polypeptides was dominated not by a particular type of protein or highly similar clusters of proteins, but by diverse non-redundant sequences. The enzymes exhibited amino acid sequence identities ranging from 39 to 99% relative to homologous proteins in public databases, including those from other AMDs, thus indicating the potential novelty of proteins associated with a specialized acidophilic community. Ten of the 16 hydrolases were successfully expressed in Escherichia coli. The pH for optimal activity ranged from 7.0 to 9.0, with the enzymes retaining 33–68% of their activities at pH 5.5, which was consistent with the relative frequencies of acid residues (from 54 to 67%). The enzymes were the most active at 30–65°C, retaining 20–61% of their activity under the thermal conditions characterizing Los Rueldos (13.8 ± 0.6°C). The analysis of the substrate specificity revealed the capacity of six hydrolases to efficiently degrade (up to 1,652 ± 75 U/g at pH 8.0 and 30°C) acrylic- and terephthalic-like [including bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-terephthalate, BHET] esters, and these enzymes could potentially be of use for developing plastic degradation strategies yet to be explored. Our assessment uncovers the novelty and potential biotechnological interest of enzymes present in the microbial populations that inhibit the Los Rueldos AMD system

The Gender Gap in Political Interest Revisited

To what extent does conventional survey measurement capture the political interest of men and women equally well? We aim to answer this question by relying on unique data from a national online survey in Spain, where we used various questions unpacking the standard indicator of political interest. The findings show that men and women nominate different personal political interests. We also find that the gender gap in political interest vanishes once these specific interests are taken into account. This suggests that at least part of the documented gender gap in general political interest might be due to the fact that, when prompted to think about politics, women disregard their own specific political interests and instead focus on the dominant, male-oriented understanding of politics

Hierarchical Catalysts Prepared by Interzeolite Transformation

Interzeolite transformation has been used to produce a novel family of hierarchical catalysts featuring excellent textural properties, strong acidity, and superior catalytic performance for the Friedel–Crafts alkylation of indole with benzhydrol, the Claisen–Schmidt condensation of benzaldehyde and hydroxyacetophenone, and the cracking of polystyrene. Intermediate solids of the FAU interzeolite transformation into BEA display both increased accessibility─due to the development of mesoporosity─and strong acidity─caused by the presence of ultrasmall crystals or zeolitic fragments in their structure. The use of surfactants allows for the development of the hierarchical catalysts with very narrow pore size distribution. The properties of interzeolite transformation intermediates (ITIs) can be fine-tuned simply by stopping the interconversion at different times.The authors thank the European Commission for funding through the H2020-MSCA-RISE-2019 program (Ref. ZEOBIOCHEM-872102) and the Spanish MINECO and AEI/FEDER, UE, through Project Ref. RTI2018-099504-B-C21. N.L. also acknowledges the University of Alicante support (UATALENTO17-05). M.J.M. thanks the Generalitat Valenciana for a PhD fellowship (GRISOLIAP/2020/165). Carlos A. Trujillo and Nelcari T. Ramírez M. express their gratitude to the Universidad Nacional de Colombia for providing physical and technical resources for this research also to Minciencias and Ecopetrol in the frame of Contract 0402-2013

Do circulating neutrophil extracellular traps predict recurrence in early breast cancer?

BackgroundNeutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), three-dimensional structures formed by neutrophil enzymes such as neutrophil elastase (NE) and nuclear components (DNA), have been associated with progression and metastasis in breast cancer (BC). Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the association of circulating NETs with clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes in early BC.MethodsA prospective cohort included women with newly diagnosed early BC. NETs were defined as the presence of NE-DNA complexes in plasma, measured by optical density. Levels of NETs were dichotomized according to the median, as low and high levels of circulating NETs. Fisher’s exact test was used to evaluate associations between NETs and clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes. Survival was assessed using the Kaplan Meier method and log-rank test.ResultsForty patients were included, 23 (57.5%) patients with low and 17 (42.5%) with high levels of circulating NETs. No associations were found between clinicopathological characteristics and circulating NETs levels. Recurrence (p = 0.99) and site of recurrence (p = 0.99) were not statistically associated with plasma NETs levels. Overall, recurrence-free survival was not statistically different between circulating levels of NETs.ConclusionsWith a short follow-up and low number of events, our results suggest that circulating levels of NETs at diagnosis of early BC are not associated with more aggressive clinicopathological characteristics, recurrence, or site of recurrence

Metoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemia-reperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated inflammation.

Clinical guidelines recommend early intravenous β-blockers during ongoing myocardial infarction; however, it is unknown whether all β-blockers exert a similar cardioprotective effect. We experimentally compared three clinically approved intravenous β-blockers. Mice undergoing 45 min/24 h ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) received vehicle, metoprolol, atenolol, or propranolol at min 35. The effect on neutrophil infiltration was tested in three models of exacerbated inflammation. Neutrophil migration was evaluated in vitro and in vivo by intravital microscopy. The effect of β-blockers on the conformation of the β1 adrenergic receptor was studied in silico. Of the tested β-blockers, only metoprolol ameliorated I/R injury [infarct size (IS) = 18.0% ± 0.03% for metoprolol vs. 35.9% ± 0.03% for vehicle; P < 0.01]. Atenolol and propranolol had no effect on IS. In the three exacerbated inflammation models, neutrophil infiltration was significantly attenuated only in the presence of metoprolol (60%, 50%, and 70% reductions vs. vehicle in myocardial I/R injury, thioglycolate-induced peritonitis, and lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury, respectively). Migration studies confirmed the particular ability of metoprolol to disrupt neutrophil dynamics. In silico analysis indicated different intracellular β1 adrenergic receptor conformational changes when bound to metoprolol than to the other two β-blockers. Metoprolol exerts a disruptive action on neutrophil dynamics during exacerbated inflammation, resulting in an infarct-limiting effect not observed with atenolol or propranolol. The differential effect of β-blockers may be related to distinct conformational changes in the β1 adrenergic receptor upon metoprolol binding. If these data are confirmed in a clinical trial, metoprolol should become the intravenous β-blocker of choice for patients with ongoing infarction.Ministry of Science and Innovation (‘RETOS 2019’ grant N_ PID2019-107332RB-I00), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII; PI16/02110), and European Regional Development Fund (# AC16/00021), Comunidad de Madrid (S2017/BMD-3867 RENIM-CM). B.I. is supported by an ERCCoG grant (819775). E.O. is supported by funds from the Comunidad de Madrid Programa de Atraccion de Talento (2017-T1/BMD-5185). A.C-M. and R.V-G are supported by fellowships from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MCN) and ISCIII (FPU2017/01932 and PFIS FI17/00045). D.V.L. is supported by an Iniciativa de Empleo Juvenil grant (PEJ-2017-TL/BMD-6463) from the Comunidad de Madrid. The CNIC is supported by the ISCIII, the MCN, and the Pro CNIC Foundation and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505).S

Transmission Clusters, Predominantly Associated With Men Who Have Sex With Men, Play a Main Role in the Propagation of HIV-1 in Northern Spain (2013-2018)

Viruses of HIV-1-infected individuals whose transmission is related group phylogenetically in transmission clusters (TCs). The study of the phylogenetic relations of these viruses and the factors associated with these individuals is essential to analyze the HIV-1 epidemic. In this study, we examine the role of TCs in the epidemiology of HIV-1 infection in Galicia and the Basque County, two regions of northern Spain. A total of 1,158 HIV-1-infected patients from both regions with new diagnoses (NDs) in 2013-2018 were included in the study. Partial HIV-1 pol sequences were analyzed phylogenetically by approximately maximum-likelihood with FastTree 2. In this analysis, 10,687 additional sequences from samples from HIV-1-infected individuals collected in Spain in 1999-2019 were also included to assign TC membership and to determine TCs' sizes. TCs were defined as those which included viruses from ≥4 individuals, at least 50% of them Spaniards, and with ≥0.95 Shimodaira-Hasegawa-like node support in the phylogenetic tree. Factors associated to TCs were evaluated using odds ratios (OR) and their 95% CI. Fifty-one percent of NDs grouped in 162 TCs. Male patients (OR: 2.6; 95% CI: 1.5-4.7) and men having sex with men (MSM; OR: 2.1; 95% CI: 1.4-3.2) had higher odds of belonging to a TC compared to female and heterosexual patients, respectively. Individuals from Latin America (OR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2-0.4), North Africa (OR: 0.4; 95% CI: 0.2-1.0), and especially Sub-Saharan Africa (OR: 0.02; 95% CI: 0.003-0.2) were inversely associated to belonging to TCs compared to native Spaniards. Our results show that TCs are important components of the HIV-1 epidemics in the two Spanish regions studied, where transmission between MSM is predominant. The majority of migrants were infected with viruses not belonging to TCs that expand in Spain. Molecular epidemiology is essential to identify local peculiarities of HIV-1 propagation. The early detection of TCs and prevention of their expansion, implementing effective control measures, could reduce HIV-1 infections.This work was funded through Acción Estratégica en Salud Intramural (AESI), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Project “Estudios sobre vigilancia epidemiológica molecular del VIH-1 en España,” PI16CIII/00033 and Project “Epidemiología molecular del VIH-1 en España y su utilidad para investigaciones biológicas y en vacunas“PI19CIII/0042; Red de Investigación en SIDA (RIS), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Subdirección General de Evaluación y Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), Plan Nacional ICDCI, project RD16ISCIII/0002/0004; and scientific agreements with Consellería de Sanidade, Government of Galicia (MVI 1004/16), and Osakidetza-Servicio Vasco de Salud, Government of Basque Country (MVI 1001/16).S

Thrombocytopenia-associated mutations in Ser/Thr kinase MASTL deregulate actin cytoskeleton dynamics in platelets

MASTL, a Ser/Thr kinase that inhibits PP2A-B55 complexes during mitosis, is mutated in autosomal dominant thrombocytopenia. However, the connections between the cell cycle machinery and this human disease remain unexplored. We report here that, whereas Mastl ablation in megakaryocytes prevented proper maturation of these cells, mice carrying the thrombocytopenia-associated mutation developed thrombocytopenia as a consequence of aberrant activation and survival of platelets. Activation of mutant platelets was characterized by hyper-stabilized pseudopods mimicking the effect of PP2A inhibition and actin polymerization defects. These aberrations were accompanied by abnormal hyper-phosphorylation of multiple components of the actin cytoskeleton and were rescued both in vitro and in vivo by inhibiting upstream kinases such as PKA, PKC, or AMPK. These data reveal an unexpected role of Mastl in actin cytoskeleton dynamics in postmitotic cells, and suggest that the thrombocytopenia-associated mutation in MASTL is a pathogenic dominant mutation that mimics decreased PP2A activity resulting in altered phosphorylation of cytoskeletal regulatory pathways.We thank Peter Storz (Mayo Clinic; Jacksonville, FL) for sharin g reagents and Sheila Rueda for her support with the management of the mouse colony. B.H. and R.S.-M. were supported by the Juan de la Cierva Programme from the Spanish M inistry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO). M.T. was supported by Foundation La Caixa. A.E.B. was supported by the Programa de Empleo Juvenil, Comunidad de M adrid. M.A.-F. received a young investigator g rant from MINECO (SAF2014-60442- JIN; co-financed by FEDER funds). P.G.dF. was supported by Fundació la Marató de TV3 (project 080121 and project 20153031). J.M. was supported by the Ramon y Cajal programme (MINECO; RYC-2012-10651). M.M. lab. is supported by grants from the MINE CO (SAF2015- 69920-R), Programa iLUNG from the Comunidad de Madrid (B2017/BM D-3884), and Worldwide Cancer Research (15-0278). CNIO is a Severo Ochoa Cen ter of Excellence (MINECO awards SEV-2015-0510)S