Direct Cell-to-Cell Transmission of Respiratory Viruses: The Fast Lanes

Virus particles protect genomes from hostile environments within and outside the host, eventually delivering these genomes to target tissues to initiate infection. Complex processes requiring significant energy and time are necessary to assemble these virus particles, but only a small portion of released virus will successfully infect new target cells (Fig 1A). While the science of virology has developed based on the isolation and purification of viral particles, it is becoming increasingly clear that direct cell-to-cell transmission of viruses and/or viral components is also highly relevant [1,2]. Direct cell-to-cell spread of infections has several advantages. The first is efficiency: genomic cargo is delivered directly to cells rather than being randomly released into the environment. The second is speed: appropriation of cellular protein trafficking infrastructure allows faster spread within tissues. The third is barrier avoidance: intrinsic immunity and other barriers interfering with entry or post-entry steps in target cells can be bypassed. The fourth is humoral immunity evasion: limited exposure time to the extracellular space allows evasion of neutralizing antibodies

The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey-Infrared (NGVS-IR). I. A New Near-Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-Infrared Globular Cluster Selection Tool

The NGVS-IR project (Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey-Infrared) is a contiguous, near-infrared imaging survey of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It complements the optical wide-field survey of Virgo (NGVS). In its current state, NGVS-IR consists of K_s -band imaging of 4 deg^2 centered on M87 and J- and K_s -band imaging of ~16 deg^2 covering the region between M49 and M87. We present observations of the central 4 deg^2 centered on Virgo's core region. The data were acquired with WIRCam on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and the total integration time was 41 hr distributed over 34 contiguous tiles. A survey-specific strategy was designed to account for extended galaxies while still measuring accurate sky brightness within the survey area. The average 5σ limiting magnitude is K_s = 24.4 AB mag, and the 50% completeness limit is K_s = 23.75 AB mag for point-source detections, when using only images with better than 0."7 seeing (median seeing 0."54). Star clusters are marginally resolved in these image stacks, and Virgo galaxies with µ_K_s ≃ 24.4 AB mag arcsec^(–2) are detected. Combining the K_s data with optical and ultraviolet data, we build the uiK_s color-color diagram, which allows a very clean color-based selection of globular clusters in Virgo. This diagnostic plot will provide reliable globular cluster candidates for spectroscopic follow-up campaigns, needed to continue the exploration of Virgo's photometric and kinematic substructures, and will help the design of future searches for globular clusters in extragalactic systems. We show that the new uiK_s diagram displays significantly clearer substructure in the distribution of stars, globular clusters, and galaxies than the gzK_s diagram—the NGVS + NGVS-IR equivalent of the BzK diagram that is widely used in cosmological surveys. Equipped with this powerful new tool, future NGVS-IR investigations based on the uiK_s diagram will address the mapping and analysis of extended structures and compact stellar systems in and around Virgo galaxies

Agroecología y derecho humano a la alimentación. Experiencias campesinas de alternativas para el desarrollo rural y urbano

El ejercicio pleno del derecho humano a la alimentación adecuada es un condicionante para alcanzar el desarrollo social. La agroecología, en su sentido amplio, se ha convertido en una manera de alcanzar estos objetivos. En el presente artículo se presentan avances de la investigación llamada “El derecho humano a la alimentación adecuada en Jalisco: estado actual y alternativas” del “Observatorio del Derecho a la Alimentación ¿Qué comemos?”. Esta investigación se desarrolla en contextos urbano y rural, mestizo e indígena, tanto con familias como con organizaciones sociales y productivas. Aquí se presentan tres organizaciones, que tienen como referente común la práctica de la agroecología. La metodología empleada para alcanzar los objetivos de la investigación ha sido primordialmente con un enfoque cualitativo. Esta información se recogió y se analizó entre los meses de agosto de 2019 y mayo de 2020. El estudio encontró elementos en común entre las tres organizaciones: principios cooperativos, relación personal, producción ecológica para autoconsumo y para comercio justo, la importancia de la vinculación y la formación, la diversificación de los ingresos, la autonomía, la recuperación de semillas, biodiversidad y cultura alimentaria. Estos datos muestran el ejercicio social del derecho a la alimentación llevado hacia la soberanía alimentaria.ITESO, A.C

Expanding the Clinical and Molecular Heterogeneity of Nonsyndromic Inherited Retinal Dystrophies

A cohort of 172 patients diagnosed clinically with nonsyndromic retinal dystrophies, from 110 families underwent full ophthalmologic examination, including retinal imaging, electrophysiology, and optical coherence tomography, when feasible. Molecular analysis was performed using targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS). Variants were filtered and prioritized according to the minimum allele frequency, and finally classified according to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics guidelines. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and array comparative genomic hybridization were performed to validate copy number variations identified by NGS. The diagnostic yield of this study was 62% of studied families. Thirty novel mutations were identified. The study found phenotypic intra- and interfamilial variability in families with mutations in C1QTNF5, CERKL, and PROM1; biallelic mutations in PDE6B in a unilateral retinitis pigmentosa patient; interocular asymmetry RP in 50% of the symptomatic RPGR-mutated females; the first case with possible digenism between CNGA1 and CNGB1; and a ROM1 duplication in two unrelated retinitis pigmentosa families. Ten unrelated cases were reclassified. This study highlights the clinical utility of targeted NGS for nonsyndromic inherited retinal dystrophy cases and the importance of full ophthalmologic examination, which allows new genotypeephenotype associations and expands the knowledge of this group of disorders. Identifying the cause of disease is essential to improve patient management, provide accurate genetic counseling, and take advantage of gene therapyebased treatments. (J Mol Diagn 2020, 22: 532e543; https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoldx.2020.01.003)Supported by grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) of the Spanish Ministry of Health, including the Center for Biomedical Research Network on Rare Diseases (CIBERER), Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria grant PI16/00539; the Spanish National Organization for the Blind (Fundación ONCE); and Fundación Mutua Madrileña. G.G.-G. is sponsored by the CIBERER, and A.R.-M. is supported by the Río Hortega program from ISCIII.Medicin

Implementación de una estructura neuronal celular en hardware reconfigurable

El siguiente artículo presenta el diseño e implementación de una red neuronal celular (CNN) desarrollado en dispositivos reconfigurables FPGA con aplicaciones para procesamiento digital de imágenes en escala de grises a ocho bits y dimensión M x N.La CNN es capaz de hacer el procesamiento mediante una exploración sobre todo el patrón de entrada, desplazando por bloques la matriz para procesar la imagen. La red propuesta consiste en una matriz de 24 elementos de procesamiento, constituidos por unidades aritméticas independientes que determinan su valor, colocados en una malla rectangular de cuatro filas por seis columnas. Se describe un conjunto de enlaces programables que permiten modificar la salida mediante el tipo de conectividad definido.El diseño fue desarrollado utilizando lenguaje de descripción de hardware VHDL. La implementación se realizó en un dispositivo FPGA Xilinx® de la familia Virtex-6. Se muestra la simulación, así como los resultados en área de ocupación y latencia.Palabra(s) Clave(s): CNN, FPGA, procesamiento digital de imágenes

HST/WFPC2 imaging of the circumnuclear structure of LLAGNs. I Data and nuclear morphology

To advance our knowledge of the nature of the central source in LLAGNs and its relation with stellar clusters, we are carrying out several imaging projects with HST at near-UV, optical and near-IR wavelengths. In this paper, we present the first results obtained with observations of the central regions of 57 LLAGNs imaged with the WFPC2 through any of the V (F555W, F547M, F614W) and I (F791W, F814W) filters that are available in the HST archive. The sample contains 34% of the LINERs and 36% of the TOs in the Palomar sample. The mean spatial resolution of these images is 10 pc. With these data we have built an atlas that includes structural maps for all the galaxies, useful to identify compact nuclear sources and, additionally, to characterize the circumnuclear environment of LLAGNs, determining the frequency of dust and its morphology. The main results obtained are: 1) We have not found any correlation between the presence of nuclear compact sources and emission-line type. Thus, nucleated LINERs are as frequent as nucleated TOs. 2) The nuclei of "Young-TOs" are brighter than the nuclei of "Old-TOs" and LINERs. These results confirm our previous results that Young-TOs are separated from other LLAGNs classes in terms of their central stellar population properties and brightness. 3) Circumnuclear dust is detected in 88% of the LLAGNs, being almost ubiquitous in TOs. 4) The dust morphology is complex and varied, from nuclear spiral lanes to chaotic filaments and nuclear disk-like structures. Chaotic filaments are as frequent as dust spirals; but nuclear disks are mainly seen in LINERs. These results suggest an evolutionary sequence of the dust in LLAGNs, LINERs being the more evolved systems and Young-TOs the youngest. The full collection of figures are at http://www.iaa.es/~rosa/research/LLAGNs2007/LLAGNs-HSTIma1.htmlComment: Paper accepted in AJ, pdf file and the full collection of figures are at the ULR: http://www.iaa.es/~rosa/research/LLAGNs2007/LLAGNs-HSTIma1.htm