Reproducibility of archaeointensity determinations with a multimethod approach on archaeological material reproductions

Archaeointensity determinations on burnt archaeological material are complex and reliable data scarce, although this kind of material can be of great interest in archaeological investigations. With the goal of analysing the reliability of archaeointensity determinations, an interlaboratory comparison study has been performed combining different experimental protocols on present-day reproductions of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological artefacts and two brick samples. Samples were baked in an original kiln from an artisan workshop in western Mexico. The ambient magnetic field at the site during the experiment was measured and continuous temperature data were recorded at four different positions in the kiln during the heating–cooling procedure. Archaeointensity determinations were carried out with four different methods at four different palaeomagnetic laboratories: Thellier–Coe (Burgos, Spain), microwave (Liverpool, UK), multispecimen (Morelia, Mexico) and multispecimen with the extended protocols for fraction and domain-state correction (Montpellier, France). 26 conventional resistive heating determinations with the Thellier–Coe protocol yielded a 100 per cent success rate, while 7 out of 8 microwave-heating determinations with the Thellier–Coe protocol also provided successful results. Also, two multispecimen determinations performed with both multispecimen methods provided statistically reliable results. In all cases, a good agreement between the determined archaeointensities and the ambient field at the production site could be observed. Highly reversible magnetization-versus-temperature curves yielded slightly Al, Mg or Ti-substituted magnetite as the main ferromagnetic (s.l.) phase. In addition, in several samples, a thermally stable low Curie-temperature phase displaying a high coercivity behaviour could be observed in thermomagnetic curves and by thermal demagnetization of saturation isothermal remanent magnetization. This phase is interpreted as ε-Fe2O3. To our knowledge, its occurrence has never been reported through the experimental recreation of burnt archaeological materials. No correlation could be observed between the proxies of domain-state behaviour and deviation of palaeointensity determinations from the expected result. Results obtained on clay samples heated in this type of ancient kiln can be considered a good source for determining the geomagnetic field strength variation in the past. Matching palaeointensity results obtained with different methods based on different principles can be taken as a quality criterion for result reliability and consistency.Projects BU0066U16 and BU235P18 (Junta de Castilla y León, Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). AG is grateful for financial support of CONACyT 252149 and UNAM-PAPIIT project 101717. The Géosciences Montpellier survey was supported by a grant from the CNRS-PNP. The FUReMAG rapid furnace construction was supported by the French National Agency for Research (ANR-12-BS06–0015)

Rock-magnetic properties of topsoils and urban dust from Morelia (>800,000 inhabitants), Mexico: Implications for anthropogenic pollution monitoring in Mexico’s medium size cities

En el presente trabajo, investigamos la correlación entre algunos parámetros magnéticos y el nivel de contaminación por metales pesados en suelos urbanos de la ciudad de Morelia, en el occidente de México. El estudio magnético fue llevado a cabo en 98 muestras urbanas provenientes de diferentes tipos de uso de suelo. La mayoría de las muestras contienen minerales ferrimagnéticos como responsables de la magnetización, pertenecientes probablemente a las soluciones sólidas de las titanomagnetitas/ titanomaghemitas. Esto es inferido a partir de las mediciones de susceptibilidad en función de la temperatura y de los experimentos de magnetización remanente isotérmica (MRI). Estas mediciones indican además, que la mayoría de las muestras se saturan casi completamente antes de los 300 mT. Adicionalmente, los valores S-200 (S-200 = IRM-200/SIRM, donde IRM-200= magnetización a campo inverso de 200 mT después de la saturación magnética) se encuentran entre 0.7 y 1.0, característicos de minerales de baja coercitividad magnética. Las curvas promedio de magnetización remanente isotérmica de saturación (SIRM) pueden ser usadas como un indicador del nivel de contaminación, ya que estas curvas muestran diferentes valores de saturación de acuerdo al nivel de contaminación por metales pesados: Cu, Ni, Cr y Sr. Estas asociaciones de (titano)magnetitas con metales pesados fueron observadas bajo el Microscopio Electrónico de Barrido, revelando algunos agregados complejos en lugar de las esférulas detectadas comúnmente.In this work, we investigate the correlation between some magnetic parameters and the level of contamination by heavy metals in urban soils from Morelia city, western Mexico. The magnetic study was carried out on 98 urban soils samples belonging to distinct land uses. Most of analyzed samples contain ferrimagnetic minerals as the responsible for magnetization, most probably corresponding to the titanomagnetites/titanomaghemites solid solutions. This is inferred from the susceptibility vs. temperature measurements and the isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) experiments. These measurements also indicate that most of samples are almost completely saturated before 300 mT. Additionally, the S-200 values (S-200 = IRM-200/ SIRM, where IRM-200= Back-field of 200 mT after magnetic saturation) are between 0.7 and 1.0, characteristic of low coercivity magnetic minerals. The averaged saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) curves can be used as an indicator of pollution level, as these curves show different saturation values according to the level of contamination by heavy metals: Cu, Ni, Cr and Sr. These associations of (titano)magnetite with heavy metals were observed by Scanning Electron Microscope revealing some complex aggregates rather than commonly detected spherules.Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México through the projects CONACYT 118971 and PAPIIT IN 22311

Pretratamiento fúngico de biomasa de Agave lechuguilla Torr. para la producción de etanol

Recientemente la biomasa del cogollo de Agave lechuguilla ha sido establecida como materia prima con potencial para la producción de etanol, sin embargo, el alto gasto energético en el pretratamiento requiere la búsqueda de métodos que lo minimicen y propicie una mejora en la factibilidad económica del proceso. En comparación con las tecnologías tradicionales, el pretratamiento biológico ofrece una alternativa en la que las enzimas de remoción de la lignina son capaces de desdoblar las estructuras complejas de la misma, sin el uso de químicos y con menor gasto energético. En este trabajo se probó el uso de Phanerochaete chrysosporium H-298 en la biomasa de Agave lechuguilla. Los dos factores ensayados para la optimización del proceso fueron el tiempo de incubación y la concentración de la fuente de nitrógeno. Los resultados mostraron una máxima deslignificación (36.15 %), se preservó la celulosa sin cambios significativos. Las condiciones óptimas de pretratamiento fueron: 60 días de incubación y una concentración de nitrógeno de 1M. La hidrólisis enzimática del material pretratado con el complejo enzimático Cellic® CTec3 mostró una máxima liberación de glucosa de 44.9 g L-1 a las 92 horas, con rendimiento de hidrólisis de 93.09 %, mayor al obtenido en la hidrólisis de la muestra sin pretratar (37.92 %). La concentración de etanol a las 10 horas de fermentación fue de 16.53 g L-1 (equivalente a una concentración >2 % v/v de etanol) con 5.7 g L-1 de glucosa remanente a ese tiempo de incubación

A Transiting, Temperate Mini-Neptune Orbiting the M Dwarf TOI-1759 Unveiled by TESS

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.-- Full list of authors: Espinoza, Néstor; Pallé, Enric; Kemmer, Jonas; Luque, Rafael; Caballero, José A.; Cifuentes, Carlos; Herrero, Enrique; Sánchez Béjar, Víctor J.; Stock, Stephan; Molaverdikhani, Karan; Morello, Giuseppe; Kossakowski, Diana; Schlecker, Martin; Amado, Pedro J.; Bluhm, Paz; Cortés-Contreras, Miriam; Henning, Thomas; Kreidberg, Laura; Kürster, Martin; Lafarga, Marina; Lodieu, Nicolas; Morales, Juan Carlos; Oshagh, Mahmoudreza; Passegger, Vera M.; Pavlov, Alexey; Quirrenbach, Andreas; Reffert, Sabine; Reiners, Ansgar; Ribas, Ignasi; Rodríguez, Eloy; López, Cristina Rodríguez; Schweitzer, Andreas; Trifonov, Trifon; Chaturvedi, Priyanka; Dreizler, Stefan; Jeffers, Sandra V.; Kaminski, Adrian; López-González, María José; Lillo-Box, Jorge; Montes, David; Nowak, Grzegorz; Pedraz, Santos; Vanaverbeke, Siegfried; Zapatero Osorio, Maria R.; Zechmeister, Mathias; Collins, Karen A.; Girardin, Eric; Guerra, Pere; Naves, Ramon; Crossfield, Ian J. M.; Matthews, Elisabeth C.; Howell, Steve B.; Ciardi, David R.; Gonzales, Erica; Matson, Rachel A.; Beichman, Charles A.; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Barclay, Thomas; Vezie, Michael; Villaseñor, Jesus Noel; Daylan, Tansu; Mireies, Ismael; Dragomir, Diana; Twicken, Joseph D.; Jenkins, Jon; Winn, Joshua N.; Latham, David; Ricker, George; Seager, Sara.We report the discovery and characterization of TOI-1759 b, a temperate (400 K) sub-Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting the M dwarf TOI-1759 (TIC 408636441). TOI-1759 b was observed by TESS to transit in Sectors 16, 17, and 24, with only one transit observed per sector, creating an ambiguity regarding the orbital period of the planet candidate. Ground-based photometric observations, combined with radial-velocity measurements obtained with the CARMENES spectrograph, confirm an actual period of 18.85019 ± 0.00014 days. A joint analysis of all available photometry and radial velocities reveals a radius of 3.17 ± 0.10 R⊕ and a mass of 10.8 ± 1.5 M⊕. Combining this with the stellar properties derived for TOI-1759 (R⋆ = 0.597 ± 0.015 R⊙; M⋆ = 0.606 ± 0.020 M⊙; Teff = 4065 ± 51 K), we compute a transmission spectroscopic metric (TSM) value of over 80 for the planet, making it a good target for transmission spectroscopy studies. TOI-1759 b is among the top five temperate, small exoplanets (Teq 200 days seem to be present in our radial velocities. While our data suggest both could arise from stellar activity, the later signal's source and periodicity are hard to pinpoint given the ∼200 days baseline of our radial-velocity campaign with CARMENES. Longer baseline radial-velocity campaigns should be performed in order to unveil the true nature of this long-period signal. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.CARMENES is an instrument at the Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán (CAHA) at Calar Alto (Almería, Spain), operated jointly by the Junta de Andalucía and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC). CARMENES was funded by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through projects FICTS-2011-02, ICTS-2017-07-CAHA-4, and CAHA16-CE-3978, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Landessternwarte Königstuhl, Institut de Ciëncies de l'Espai, Institut für Astrophysik Göttingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiología, and Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán), with additional contributions by the MINECO, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and Research Unit FOR2544 "Blue Planets around Red Stars," the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Württemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucía. This work was based on data from the CARMENES data archive at CAB (CSIC-INTA). We acknowledge financial support from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the ERDF through projects PID2019-109522GB-C5[1:4], PGC2018-098153-B-C33, AYA2018-84089, PID2019-107061GB-C64, PID2019-110689RB-100, AYA2016-79425-C3-1/2/3-P, and BES-2017-080769, and the Centre of Excellence "Severo Ochoa" and "María de Maeztu" awards to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (CEX2019-000920-S), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709), and Centro de Astrobiología (MDM-2017-0737), NASA (NNX17AG24G), and the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA program. Data were partly collected with the 90 cm telescope at the Sierra Nevada Observatory (SNO) operated by the Instituto de Astrofí fica de Andalucí a (IAA, CSIC). We acknowledge the telescope operators from the Sierra Nevada Observatory for their support. G.M. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 895525. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. We acknowledge the use of public TESS data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products.Peer reviewe

New insights into the neolithisation process in southwest Europe according to spatial density analysis from calibrated radiocarbon dates

The agricultural way of life spreads throughout Europe via two main routes: the Danube corridor and the Mediterranean basin. Current archaeological literature describes the arrival to the Western Mediterranean as a rapid process which involves both demic and cultural models, and in this regard, the dispersal movement has been investigated using mathematical models, where the key factors are time and space. In this work, we have created a compilation of all available radiocarbon dates for the whole of Iberia, in order to draw a chronological series of maps to illustrate temporal and spatial patterns in the neolithisation process. The maps were prepared by calculating the calibrated 14C date probability density curves, as a proxy to show the spatial dynamics of the last hunter-gatherers and first farmers. Several scholars have pointed out problems linked with the variability of samples, such as the overrepresentation of some sites, the degree of regional research, the nature of the dated samples and above all the archaeological context, but we are confident that the selected dates, after applying some filters and statistical protocols, constitute a good way to approach settlement spatial patterns in Iberia at the time of the neolithisation process

Opposite cannabis-cognition associations in psychotic patients depending on family history

The objective of this study is to investigate cognitive performance in a first-episode psychosis sample, when stratifying the interaction by cannabis use and familial or non-familial psychosis. Hierarchical-regression models were used to analyse this association in a sample of 268 first-episode psychosis patients and 237 controls. We found that cannabis use was associated with worse working memory, regardless of family history. However, cannabis use was clearly associated with worse cognitive performance in patients with no family history of psychosis, in cognitive domains including verbal memory, executive function and global cognitive index, whereas cannabis users with a family history of psychosis performed better in these domains. The main finding of the study is that there is an interaction between cannabis use and a family history of psychosis in the areas of verbal memory, executive function and global cognition: that is, cannabis use is associated with a better performance in patients with a family history of psychosis and a worse performance in those with no family history of psychosis. In order to confirm this hypothesis, future research should explore the actual expression of the endocannabinoid system in patients with and without a family history of psychosis

Selected Schizosaccharomyces pombe Strains Have Characteristics That Are Beneficial for Winemaking

At present, wine is generally produced using Saccharomyces yeast followed by Oenococus bacteria to complete malolactic fermentation. This method has some unsolved problems, such as the management of highly acidic musts and the production of potentially toxic products including biogenic amines and ethyl carbamate. Here we explore the potential of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe to solve these problems. We characterise an extensive worldwide collection of S. pombe strains according to classic biochemical parameters of oenological interest. We identify three genetically different S. pombe strains that appear suitable for winemaking. These strains compare favourably to standard Saccharomyces cerevisiae winemaking strains, in that they perform effective malic acid deacidification and significantly reduce levels of biogenic amines and ethyl carbamate precursors without the need for any secondary bacterial malolactic fermentation. These findings indicate that the use of certain S. pombe strains could be advantageous for winemaking in regions where malic acid is problematic, and these strains also show superior performance with respect to food safety

A Novel Method for Inducing Amastigote-To-Trypomastigote Transformation In Vitro in Trypanosoma cruzi Reveals the Importance of Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptor

Background Trypanosoma cruzi is a parasitic protist that causes Chagas disease, which is prevalent in Latin America. Because of the unavailability of an effective drug or vaccine, and because about 8 million people are infected with the parasite worldwide, the development of novel drugs demands urgent attention. T. cruzi infects a wide variety of mammalian nucleated cells, with a preference for myocardial cells. Non-dividing trypomastigotes in the bloodstream infect host cells where they are transformed into replication-capable amastigotes. The amastigotes revert to trypomastigotes (trypomastigogenesis) before being shed out of the host cells. Although trypomastigote transformation is an essential process for the parasite, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process have not yet been clarified, mainly because of the lack of an assay system to induce trypomastigogenesis in vitro. Methodology/Principal Findings Cultivation of amastigotes in a transformation medium composed of 80% RPMI-1640 and 20% Grace\u27s Insect Medium mediated their transformation into trypomastigotes. Grace\u27s Insect Medium alone also induced trypomastigogenesis. Furthermore, trypomastigogenesis was induced more efficiently in the presence of fetal bovine serum. Trypomastigotes derived from in vitro trypomastigogenesis were able to infect mammalian host cells as efficiently as tissue-culture-derived trypomastigotes (TCT) and expressed a marker protein for TCT. Using this assay system, we demonstrated that T. cruzi inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (TcIP3R) - an intracellular Ca2+ channel and a key molecule involved in Ca2+ signaling in the parasite - is important for the transformation process. Conclusion/Significance Our findings provide a new tool to identify the molecular mechanisms of the amastigote-totrypomastigote transformation, leading to a new strategy for drug development against Chagas disease

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs

Context. The CARMENES instrument, installed at the 3.5 m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, Spain, was conceived to deliver high-accuracy radial velocity (RV) measurements with long-term stability to search for temperate rocky planets around a sample of nearby cool stars. Moreover, the broad wavelength coverage was designed to provide a range of stellar activity indicators to assess the nature of potential RV signals and to provide valuable spectral information to help characterise the stellar targets. Aims: We describe the CARMENES guaranteed time observations (GTO), spanning from 2016 to 2020, during which 19 633 spectra for a sample of 362 targets were collected. We present the CARMENES Data Release 1 (DR1), which makes public all observations obtained during the GTO of the CARMENES survey. Methods: The CARMENES survey target selection was aimed at minimising biases, and about 70% of all known M dwarfs within 10 pc and accessible from Calar Alto were included. The data were pipeline-processed, and high-level data products, including 18 642 precise RVs for 345 targets, were derived. Time series data of spectroscopic activity indicators were also obtained. Results: We discuss the characteristics of the CARMENES data, the statistical properties of the stellar sample, and the spectroscopic measurements. We show examples of the use of CARMENES data and provide a contextual view of the exoplanet population revealed by the survey, including 33 new planets, 17 re-analysed planets, and 26 confirmed planets from transiting candidate follow-up. A subsample of 238 targets was used to derive updated planet occurrence rates, yielding an overall average of 1.44 ± 0.20 planets with 1 M⊕ < Mpl sin i < 1000 M⊕ and 1 day < Porb < 1000 days per star, and indicating that nearly every M dwarf hosts at least one planet. All the DR1 raw data, pipeline-processed data, and high-level data products are publicly available online. Conclusions: CARMENES data have proven very useful for identifying and measuring planetary companions. They are also suitable for a variety of additional applications, such as the determination of stellar fundamental and atmospheric properties, the characterisation of stellar activity, and the study of exoplanet atmospheres