CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey: I. Survey presentation

We present here the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, which has been designed to provide a first step in this direction.We summarize the survey goals and design, including sample selection and observational strategy.We also showcase the data taken during the first observing runs (June/July 2010) and outline the reduction pipeline, quality control schemes and general characteristics of the reduced data. This survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of $\sim600$ galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005< z <0.03). CALIFA has been designed to allow the building of two-dimensional maps of the following quantities: (a) stellar populations: ages and metallicities; (b) ionized gas: distribution, excitation mechanism and chemical abundances; and (c) kinematic properties: both from stellar and ionized gas components. CALIFA uses the PPAK Integral Field Unit (IFU), with a hexagonal field-of-view of \sim1.3\sq\arcmin', with a 100% covering factor by adopting a three-pointing dithering scheme. The optical wavelength range is covered from 3700 to 7000 {\AA}, using two overlapping setups (V500 and V1200), with different resolutions: R\sim850 and R\sim1650, respectively. CALIFA is a legacy survey, intended for the community. The reduced data will be released, once the quality has been guaranteed. The analyzed data fulfill the expectations of the original observing proposal, on the basis of a set of quality checks and exploratory analysis. We conclude from this first look at the data that CALIFA will be an important resource for archaeological studies of galaxies in the Local Universe.Comment: 32 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publishing in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Consenso mexicano sobre probióticos en gastroenterología

Introducción: El uso de los probióticos es común en la práctica clínica. Existe un número signi-ficativo de estudios que apoyan la eficacia de los probióticos en algunos trastornos digestivos.Sin embargo, el desconocimiento de la evidencia científica y las diferentes presentaciones ycomposiciones microbianas de los probióticos disponibles dificultan su prescripción.Objetivo: Proveer al clínico de una revisión consensuada sobre los probióticos y recomendacio-nes de su uso en gastroenterología.Material y métodos: Se seleccionaron los ensayos clínicos controlados, metaanálisis y revisio-nes sistemáticas publicados hasta 2015, usando los términos MESH: probiotics, gastrointestinaldiseases, humans, adults and children. Se utilizó la metodología Delphi. Diecisiete gastroente-rólogos de adultos y 12 de ni˜nos elaboraron enunciados los cuales fueron votados hasta obteneracuerdo > 70%. Para cada enunciado se evaluó el nivel de evidencia basado en el sistema GRADE.Resultados y conclusiones: Se generaron 11 enunciados sobre conceptos generales de probió-ticos y 27 enunciados sobre uso de probióticos en enfermedades gastrointestinales tanto enni˜nos como en adultos. El grupo de consenso recomienda el uso de probióticos en las siguientescondiciones clínicas: prevención de la diarrea asociada a antibióticos, tratamiento de la diarreaaguda infecciosa, prevención de infección por Clostridium difficile y enterocolitis necrosante,para disminuir los eventos adversos de la terapia de erradicación del Helicobacter pylori, elalivio de los síntomas del síndrome de intestino irritable, en el estre˜nimiento funcional deladulto, para inducir y mantener la remisión en pacientes con colitis ulcerosa crónica idiopáticay pouchitis, y en la encefalopatía hepática oculta y manifiesta.© 2016 Asociaci´on Mexicana de Gastroenterolog´ıa. Publicado por Masson Doyma M´exico S.A.Este es un art´ıculo Open Access bajo la licencia CC BY-NC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). ASTRACT Introduction: Probiotics are frequently prescribed in clinical practice. Their efficacy in treatinggastrointestinal disorders is supported by a significant number of clinical trials. However, thecorrect prescription of these agents is hampered due to a lack of knowledge of the scientificevidence and to the different presentations and microbial compositions of the probiotics thatare currently available.Aim: To provide the clinician with a consensus review of probiotics and recommendations fortheir use in gastroenterology.Materials and methods: Controlled clinical trials, meta-analyses, and systematic reviewspublished up to 2015 were selected, using the MESH terms: probiotics, gastrointestinal diseases,humans, adults, AND children. The Delphi method was employed. Eighteen gastroenterologiststreating adult patients and 14 pediatric gastroenterologists formulated statements that werevoted on until agreement > 70% was reached. The level of evidence based on the GRADE systemwas evaluated for each statement.Results and conclusions: Eleven statements on the general concepts of probiotics and 27 sta-tements on the use of probiotics in gastrointestinal diseases in both adults and children wereformulated. The consensus group recommends the use of probiotics under the following clini-cal conditions: the prevention of diarrhea associated with antibiotics, the treatment of acuteinfectious diarrhea, the prevention of Clostridium difficile infection and necrotizing enteroco-litis, the reduction of adverse events from Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy, relief fromirritable bowel syndrome symptoms, the treatment of functional constipation in the adult, and the induction and maintenance of remission in patients with ulcerative colitis and pouchitis,and the treatment of covert and overt hepatic encephalopathy.© 2016 Asociaci´on Mexicana de Gastroenterolog´ıa. Published by Masson Doyma M´exico S.A. Thisis an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Don y criatura. La creación personal según la estructura donal en la Antropología trascendental de Leonardo Polo

La creación como tema filosófico goza de primordial importancia. Junto al estudio de filósofos conocidos, es relevante explorar la ruta seguida por otros. Como rasgo peculiar, Leonardo Polo distingue entre el sentido que posee la creación cósmica respecto a la creación de seres personales por parte de Dios. Aquí se expone su aportación, según su método de la Antropología trascendental, siguiendo una de las cuatro vías propuestas para descubrir el carácter creatural del ser personal: a través del amar personal y la estructura donal (dar-aceptar-don) a todos los niveles de la constitución ontológica personal (actus essendi, essentia y naturaleza).-------------------------- Creation as a philosophical issue has an overriding importance. Along with the study of known philosophers, it’s worth to explore the route followed by others. As a particular feature, Leonardo Polo distinguishes between the meaning of God’s cosmic creation and the creation of personal existences. This work sets his contribution according to his method of Transcendental anthropology, following one of the four proposed ways to discover the creature status of personal being: through personal love and the structure of giving (give-accept-gift) in all levels of personal ontological constitution (actus essendi, essentia and nature)

Don y criatura. La creación personal según la estructura donal en la Antropología trascendental de Leonardo Polo

La creación como tema filosófico goza de primordial importancia. Junto al estudio de filósofos conocidos, es relevante explorar la ruta seguida por otros. Como rasgo peculiar, Leonardo Polo distingue entre el sentido que posee la creación cósmica respecto a la creación de seres personales por parte de Dios. Aquí se expone su aportación, según su método de la Antropología trascendental, siguiendo una de las cuatro vías propuestas para descubrir el carácter creatural del ser personal: a través del amar personal y la estructura donal (dar-aceptar-don) a todos los niveles de la constitución ontológica personal (actus essendi, essentia y naturaleza).-------------------------- Creation as a philosophical issue has an overriding importance. Along with the study of known philosophers, it’s worth to explore the route followed by others. As a particular feature, Leonardo Polo distinguishes between the meaning of God’s cosmic creation and the creation of personal existences. This work sets his contribution according to his method of Transcendental anthropology, following one of the four proposed ways to discover the creature status of personal being: through personal love and the structure of giving (give-accept-gift) in all levels of personal ontological constitution (actus essendi, essentia and nature)

Sexual selection theory meets disease vector control: Testing harmonic convergence as a “good genes” signal in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Background: The mosquito Aedes aegypti is a medically important, globally distributed vector of the viruses that cause dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika. Although reproduction and mate choice are key components of vector population dynamics and control, our understanding of the mechanisms of sexual selection in mosquitoes remains poor. In “good genes” models of sexual selection, females use male cues as an indicator of both mate and offspring genetic quality. Recent studies in Ae. aegypti provide evidence that male wingbeats may signal aspects of offspring quality and performance during mate selection in a process known as harmonic convergence. However, the extent to which harmonic convergence may signal overall inherent quality of mates and their offspring remains unknown. Methodology/Principal findings: To examine this, we measured the relationship between acoustic signaling and a broad panel of parent and offspring fitness traits in two generations of field-derived Ae. aegypti originating from dengue-endemic field sites in Thailand. Our data show that in this population of mosquitoes, harmonic convergence does not signal male fertility, female fecundity, or male flight performance traits, which despite displaying robust variability in both parents and their offspring were only weakly heritable. Conclusions/Significance: Together, our findings suggest that vector reproductive control programs should treat harmonic convergence as an indicator of some, but not all aspects of inherent quality, and that sexual selection likely affects Ae. aegypti in a trait-, population-, and environment-dependent manner

NOTEWORTHY COLLECTIONS

Volume: 44Start Page: 203End Page: 21

Progress in track-mounted heliostat

A novel concept is presented for a track-mounted heliostat for central receiver plants, intended to be manufacturable at low cost and to reach an installed cost of ~ $60 /m2 when implemented in high volume. Cost reduction is achieved by using steel in the structurally most efficient form of spaceframe structures. These spread the load broadly, halving the quantity of steel per square meter of reflecting area compared to a conventional post /fishbone heliostat design . The structure is turned in azimuth on wheels on a large diameter ground track, eliminating the need for an expensive, heavy slewing bearing. A preliminary finite-element design of a 22 m2 heliostat with spaceframe azimuth and elevation structures has a total steel mass of mass of 15 kg/m2 supporting 10 kg/m2 of glass reflectors and survives 145 km/h wind. Here we report of field tests of engineering performance of a first prototype of the lower, azimuth spaceframe mounted on a 7 m diameter concrete track. The moving structure with wheels and drive weighs 11 kg/m2 and has a measured lowest resonant frequency of 7.5 Hz, when loaded with a simulated elevation structure. The prototype incorporates inclinometers which measure alignment of the azimuth and elevation axes to better than 0.2 mrad. Absolute azimuth rotation angle measured via an incremental encoder on the drive motor encoder and metal reference bars in the concrete track was found to be accurate to 0.35 mrad. Combining the tip/tilt, azimuth rotation and servo errors in quadrature gives a total of 0.49 mrad in tracker orientation, providing encouragement that our full heliostat system target of 1 mrad RMS pointing accuracy (double the orientation accuracy) should be achievable. © 2020 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.12 month embargo; published online: 11 December 2020This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]