Studies on the Codling Moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) Response to Different Codlemone Release Rates

[EN] The response of the codling moth (Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)) to different emission values of its main pheromone component, 8E,10E-dodecadien-1-ol (codlemone), was investigated in three field trials conducted in plots without mating disruption treatments. Moth catches obtained in traps baited with pheromone dispensers were correlated with the corresponding codlemone release rates by multiple regression analysis. In a preliminary trial conducted in Lleida (NE Spain), a decreasing trend of captures was observed based on increasing pheromone levels. After this, the pheromone release profiles of the pheromone dispensers were studied, in parallel with the field trials, by residual codlemone extraction and gas chromatography quantification. In the trials carried out in Asturias (NW Spain), a correlation between trap catches and emission levels (within the range from 11 to 1,078 microg/d) was found and fitted a logarithmic model. Captures followed a decreasing linear trend in the range of emission rates from 11 to 134 microg/d. Given that release values comprised between 11 and 67 mcrog/d did not lead to significantly different catches in traps, this emission range could be considered to develop effective formulations for attraction purposes when mating disruption is not acting in the environment.Vacas González, S.; Miñarro, M.; Bosch, M.; Primo Millo, J.; Navarro Llopis, V. (2013). Studies on the Codling Moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) Response to Different Codlemone Release Rates. ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY. 42(6):1383-1389. doi:10.1603/EN13114S1383138942

Simulating use cases for the UAH autonomous electric car

2019 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), Auckland, New Zealand, 27-30 Oct. 2019This paper presents the simulation use cases for the UAH Autonomous Electric Car, related with typical driving scenarios in urban environments, focusing on the use of hierarchical interpreted binary Petri nets in order to implement the decision making framework of an autonomous electric vehicle. First, we describe our proposal of autonomous system architecture, which is based on the open source Robot Operating System (ROS) framework that allows the fusion of multiple sensors and the real-time processing and communication of multiple processes in different embedded processors. Then, the paper focuses on the study of some of the most interesting driving scenarios such as: stop, pedestrian crossing, Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and overtaking, illustrating both the executive module that carries out each behaviour based on Petri nets and the trajectory and linear velocity that allows to quantify the accuracy and robustness of the architecture proposal for environment perception, navigation and planning on a university Campus.Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadComunidad de Madri

Oxygenic metabolism in nutritional obesity induced by olive oil

Obesity is a medical and sociological problem of great importance due to the high percentage of people affected and the important health consequences that it involves. Most cases of obesity are related to an inadequate diet, rich in fats, which could lead to changes in the patient's oxygenic metabolism. That is why this study has been proposed to evaluate how some aspects of oxygenic metabolism are affected in a nutritional experimental model, with a controlled hyperlipidic liquid diet based on olive oil, and the effect of the antioxidant vitamin C on these conditions. Wistar rats were divided into four groups which received a control and hyperlipidic liquid diet for 30 days, with or without a vitamin C supplement (CO, COC, HO and HOC). First of all the body and fat tissue development was measured in the four groups. Our results showed that the excessive intake of nutritional and healthy fat such as olive oil did not prevent the appearance of obesity and the supplementation with vitamin C did not have a protective effect on body and fat development. The study of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in total liver, liver cytosol, abdominal white fat, brown fat and blood cells showed that vitamin C could have different selectivities and affinities for different enzymes and compartments/tissues of the body. Finally, the effect of vitamin C on various metabolic parameters (glucose, pyruvate, lactate, LDH, ATP, acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate) provided positive protection against oxidative stress especially under hyperlipidic conditions. All things considered, the present study concludes that vitamin C treatment could protect Wistar rats from the oxidative stress impairment induced by obesity generated by an excessive intake of fats.This work was supported by the Universidad Católica de Valencia “San Vicente Mártir” (Grant Number: UCV257-001)Nutrición humana y dietétic

Análisis del comportamiento espacio-temporal intradestino mediante GPS : Una aproximación de los visitantes independientes de crucero en la ciudad de València

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo profundizar en el análisis de los patrones de comportamiento espacio-temporal de los visitantes en destino, una escala de trabajo insuficientemente desarrollada. La investigación aplica un enfoque multimétodo, que combina el uso de GPS con una encuesta, al conocimiento de los patrones espaciales de los cruceristas que visitan la ciudad de Valencia de manera independiente. Los resultados obtenidos evidencian la polarización de los flujos en el centro histórico de la ciudad, dentro de un patrón mayoritario de único nodo, una dinámica que conviene gestionar adecuadamente para prevenir la congestión y poner en valor otros atractivos urbanos. La redistribución de flujos resulta aconsejable pero no es sencilla. Medidas como la redistribución mediante una oferta variada de excursiones plantea dificultades mientras que una mejor adaptación de las líneas de la red de transporte más utilizadas por los cruceristas puede tener efectos más positivos

Carbohydrate-Binding Non-Peptidic Pradimicins for the Treatment of Acute Sleeping Sickness in Murine Models

Current treatments available for African sleeping sickness or human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) are limited, with poor efficacy and unacceptable safety profiles. Here, we report a new approach to address treatment of this disease based on the use of compounds that bind to parasite surface glycans leading to rapid killing of trypanosomes. Pradimicin and its derivatives are non-peptidic carbohydrate-binding agents that adhere to the carbohydrate moiety of the parasite surface glycoproteins inducing parasite lysis in vitro. Notably, pradimicin S has good pharmaceutical properties and enables cure of an acute form of the disease in mice. By inducing resistance in vitro we have established that the composition of the sugars attached to the variant surface glycoproteins are critical to the mode of action of pradimicins and play an important role in infectivity. The compounds identified represent a novel approach to develop drugs to treat HAT.Funding: This work was supported by grants from the VI Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica 2008-2011, Instituto de Salud Carlos III - Subdirección General de Redes y Centros de Investigación Cooperativa, Red de Investigación Cooperativa en Enfermedades Tropicales (RICET) (RD06/0021), the Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016 (SAF2013-48999-R) (http://www.idi.mineco.gob.es), and the Junta de Andalucía (BIO-199, P09-CVI-5367) to DGP. Research of JB and SL was supported by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (PF 10/18). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewe

Naturalistic driving study for older drivers based on the DriveSafe app

2019 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), Auckland, New Zealand, 27-30 Oct. 2019Elderly population is increasing year after year in the developed countries. However, the knowledge of actual mobility needs of senior drivers is scarce. In this paper, we present a naturalistic driving study (NDS) focused on older drivers through smartphone technology and using our DriveSafe app. Our system automatically generates a driving analysis report based on objective indicators. The proposal supposes an improvement over the traditional surveys and observers, and represents an advance over the current NDSs by using smartphones instead of complex instrumented vehicles. Our method avoids the problems of manual annotation by using an automatic method for data reduction information. Furthermore, a comparison between traditional questionnaires and information provided by our system is carried out and conclusions are presented.Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadDGTComunidad de Madri

Co-administration of human MSC overexpressing HIF-1α increases human CD34+ cell engraftment in vivo

Background: Poor graft function or graft failure after allogeneic stem cell transplantation is an unmet medical need, in which mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) constitute an attractive potential therapeutic approach. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) overexpression in MSC (HIF-MSC) potentiates the angiogenic and immunomodulatory properties of these cells, so we hypothesized that co-transplantation of MSC-HIF with CD34+ human cord blood cells would also enhance hematopoietic stem cell engraftment and function both in vitro and in vivo. Methods: Human MSC were obtained from dental pulp. Lentiviral overexpression of HIF-1α was performed transducing cells with pWPI-green fluorescent protein (GFP) (MSC WT) or pWPI-HIF-1α-GFP (HIF-MSC) expression vectors. Human cord blood CD34+ cells were co-cultured with MSC WT or HIF-MSC (4:1) for 72 h. Then, viability (Annexin V and 7-AAD), cell cycle, ROS expression and immunophenotyping of key molecules involved in engraftment (CXCR4, CD34, ITGA4, c-KIT) were evaluated by flow cytometry in CD34+ cells. In addition, CD34+ cells clonal expansion was analyzed by clonogenic assays. Finally, in vivo engraftment was measured by flow cytometry 4-weeks after CD34+ cell transplantation with or without intrabone MSC WT or HIF-MSC in NOD/SCID mice. Results: We did not observe significant differences in viability, cell cycle and ROS expression between CD34+ cells co-cultured with MSC WT or HIF-MSC. Nevertheless, a significant increase in CD34, CXCR4 and ITGA4 expression (p = 0.009; p = 0.001; p = 0.013, respectively) was observed in CD34+ cells co-cultured with HIF-MSC compared to MSC WT. In addition, CD34+ cells cultured with HIF-MSC displayed a higher CFU-GM clonogenic potential than those cultured with MSC WT (p = 0.048). We also observed a significant increase in CD34+ cells engraftment ability when they were co-transplanted with HIF-MSC compared to CD34+ co-transplanted with MSC WT (p = 0.016) or alone (p = 0.015) in both the injected and contralateral femurs (p = 0.024, p = 0.008 respectively). Conclusions: Co-transplantation of human CD34+ cells with HIF-MSC enhances cell engraftment in vivo. This is probably due to the ability of HIF-MSC to increase clonogenic capacity of hematopoietic cells and to induce the expression of adhesion molecules involved in graft survival in the hematopoietic niche

Host plant scent mediates patterns of attraction/repellence among predatory mites

[EN] In mite communities, behavioral and foraging decisions of individuals rely on semiochemicals that they gather from the environment, which contain odors from plants, herbivores, and predators. Because herbivorous mites commonly co-occur with several species of phytoseiid predatory mites, which may engage in intraguild predation (IGP), predator mite decision-making relies on their ability to recognize odors signaling the presence of the herbivore but also that of potential competitors/predators. Here the odor-related foraging decisions of three predatory mites, Euseius stipulatus (Athias-Henriot), Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor) and Phytoseiulus persimilis (Athias-Henriot) (Mesostigmata: Phytoseiidae), which co-occur in citrus, compete for the herbivore Tetranychus urticae Koch (Prostigmata: Tetranychidae), and can engage in IGP were investigated. The composition of the volatile blends associated with the three predators was characterized. Moreover, the effect of these odors on the predators foraging decisions was measured. Results revealed that (1) the volatile signature of the three predatory mites is species specific, (2) the predators¿ foraging behavior is affected by heterospecific predator odors, and (3) predator responses strongly depend on the host plant: mutual attraction and mutual repellence occurred in Cleopatra mandarin and sour orange, respectively. These findings have important consequences for the management of systems where these species occur. The odor blends that make predators that share pest species as prey avoid each other could be used to improve pest control by minimizing undesired negative interactions among predator species, and by locally increasing predation risk on herbivore pest species.The authors thank M. Piquer (UJI) for technical assistance and J. Calvo (Koppert Biological Systems) for the supply of N. californicus and P. persimilis. This study was partially funded by the Spanish Research State Agency (research grants AGL2014-55616-C3, AGL2015-64990-2R, PID2019-103863RB-I00 and BES-2015-074570).Cruz-Miralles, J.; Cabedo-Lopez, M.; Guzzo, M.; Vacas, S.; Navarro-Llopis, V.; Ibáñez-Gual, MV.; Flors, V.... (2022). Host plant scent mediates patterns of attraction/repellence among predatory mites. Entomologia Generalis. 42(2):217-229. https://doi.org/10.1127/entomologia/2021/1237S21722942

Safety and efficacy of an oxycodone vaccine: Addressing some of the unique considerations posed by opioid abuse

Among vaccines aimed at treating substance use disorders, those targeting opioids present several unique medication development challenges. 1) Opioid overdose is a common complication of abuse, so it is desirable for an opioid vaccine to block the toxic as well as the addictive effects of opioids. 2) It is important that an opioid vaccine not interfere with the action of opioid antagonists used to reverse opioid overdose or treat addiction. 3) Some opioids are immunosuppressive and chronic ongoing opioid use could interfere with vaccine immunogenicity. 4) Although antibody-bound oxycodone is unable to enter the brain because of its size, it might still be able to activate peripheral opioid receptors. To assess vaccine impact on opioid toxicity, rats vaccinated with oxycodone conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin subunit dimer (OXY-dKLH) adsorbed to alum or controls vaccinated with dKLH were compared with regard to oxycodone-induced hotplate analgesia and oxycodone-induced respiratory depression and bradycardia. Vaccination shifted the dose-response curves to the right, representing protection, for each of these endpoints. Naloxone was equally effective in both OXY-dKLH and control groups, providing complete and rapid reversal of respiratory depression. The administration of a long-acting naltrexone formulation during vaccination did not impair vaccine immunogenicity in mice. Similarly, serum anti-oxycodone antibody titers were not altered by continuous morphine infusion during vaccination compared to opioid-naïve controls. Competitive ELISA assay showed negligible or low affinity of immune antiserum for endogenous opioids or opioid antagonists. In vitro receptor binding assays showed that antibody-bound oxycodone does not activate mu opioid receptors. These data support further study of OXY-dKLH as a potential treatment for oxycodone abuse and suggest that vaccination might also reduce the severity of oxycodone overdose

Pharmacological insights emerging from the characterization of a large collection of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists designer drugs

Synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) constitute the largest and most defiant group of abuse designer drugs. These new psychoactive substances (NPS), developed as unregulated alternatives to cannabis, have potent cannabimimetic effects and their use is usually associated with episodes of psychosis, seizures, dependence, organ toxicity and death. Due to their ever-changing structure, very limited or nil structural, pharmacological, and toxicological information is available to the scientific community and the law enforcement offices. Here we report the synthesis and pharmacological evaluation (binding and functional) of the largest and most diverse collection of enantiopure SCRAs published to date. Our results revealed novel SCRAs that could be (or may currently be) used as illegal psychoactive substances. We also report, for the first time, the cannabimimetic data of 32 novel SCRAs containing an (R) configuration at the stereogenic center. The systematic pharmacological profiling of the library enabled the identification of emerging Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) and Structure-Selectivity Relationship (SSR) trends, the detection of ligands exhibiting incipient cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2R) subtype selectivity and highlights the significant neurotoxicity of representative SCRAs on mouse primary neuronal cells. Several of the new emerging SCRAs are currently expected to have a rather limited potential for harm, as the evaluation of their pharmacological profiles revealed lower potencies and/or efficacies. Conceived as a resource to foster collaborative investigation of the physiological effects of SCRAs, the library obtained can contribute to addressing the challenge posed by recreational designer drugsThis work was financially supported by the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria of the Galician Government: (grant: ED431B 2020/43), Centro Singular de Investigación de Galicia accreditation 2019–2022 (ED431G 2019/03), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PID2020-113430RB-I00) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)S