Engineered bacteria as therapeutic agents

Although bacteria are generally regarded as the causative agents of infectious diseases, most bacteria inhabiting the human body are non-pathogenic and some of them can be turned, after proper engineering, into ‘smart’ living therapeutics of defined properties for the treatment of different illnesses. This review focuses on recent developments to engineer bacteria for the treatment of diverse human pathologies, including inflammatory bowel diseases, autoimmune disorders, cancer, metabolic diseases and obesity, as well as to combat bacterial and viral infections. We discuss significant advances provided by synthetic biology to fully reprogram bacteria as human therapeutics, including novel measures for strict biocontainment.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (BIO2014- 60305R and BIO2011-26689), BACFITERed (SAF2014-56716-REDT)Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (S2010-BMD-2312)La Caixa FoundationMINECO (BES-2009-02405)Peer reviewe

The genomic signature of wild‐to‐crop introgression during the domestication of scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus L.)

The scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) is one of the five domesticated Phaseolus species. It is cultivated in small-scale agriculture in the highlands of Mesoamerica for its dry seeds and immature pods, and unlike the other domesticated beans, P. coccineus is an open-pollinated legume. Contrasting with its close relative, the common bean, few studies focusing on its domestication history have been conducted. Demographic bottlenecks associated with domestication might reduce genetic diversity and facilitate the accumulation of deleterious mutations. Conversely, introgression from wild relatives could be a source of variation. Using Genotyping by Sequencing data (79,286 single-nucleotide variants) from 237 cultivated and wild samples, we evaluated the demographic history of traditional varieties from different regions of Mexico and looked for evidence of introgression between sympatric wild and cultivated populations. Traditional varieties have high levels of diversity, even though there is evidence of a severe initial genetic bottleneck followed by a population expansion. Introgression from wild to domesticated populations was detected, which might contribute to the recovery of the genetic variation. Introgression has occurred at different times: constantly in the center of Mexico; recently in the North West; and anciently in the South. Several factors are acting together to increase and maintain genetic diversity in P. coccineus cultivars, such as demographic expansion and introgression. Wild relatives represent a valuable genetic resource and have played a key role in scarlet runner bean evolution via introgression into traditional varieties

Landslides induced by the 2010 Chile megathrust earthquake: a comprehensive inventory and correlations with geological and seismic factors

The 2010 Mw=8.8 Maule earthquake, which occurred in the subduction contact between the Nazca and the South American tectonic plates off the coast of Chile, represents an important opportunity to improve understanding of the distribution and controls for the generation of landslides triggered by large megathrust earthquakes in subduction zones. This paper provides the analysis of the comprehensive landslide inventory for the Maule earthquake between 32.5° S and 38.5° S°. In total 1226 landslides were mapped over a total area of c.120,500 km2 , dominantly disrupted slides. The total landslide volume is c. 10.6 Mm3. The events are unevenly distributed in the study area, the majority of landslides located in the Principal Andean Cordillera and a very constrained region near the coast on the Arauco Peninsula, forming landslide clusters. Statistical analysis of our database suggests that relief and lithology are the main geological factors controlling coseismic landslides, while the seismic factor with higher correlation with landslide occurrence is the ratio between peak horizontal and peak vertical ground accelerations. The results and comparison with other seismic events elsewhere suggest that the number of landslides generated by megathrust earthquakes is lower than events triggered by shallow crustal earthquakes by at least one or two orders of magnitude, which is very important to consider in future seismic landslide hazard analysis

Gene duplication, population genomics, and species-level differentiation within a tropical mountain shrub.

Gene duplication leads to paralogy, which complicates the de novo assembly of genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) data. The issue of paralogous genes is exacerbated in plants, because they are particularly prone to gene duplication events. Paralogs are normally filtered from GBS data before undertaking population genomics or phylogenetic analyses. However, gene duplication plays an important role in the functional diversification of genes and it can also lead to the formation of postzygotic barriers. Using populations and closely related species of a tropical mountain shrub, we examine 1) the genomic differentiation produced by putative orthologs, and 2) the distribution of recent gene duplication among lineages and geography. We find high differentiation among populations from isolated mountain peaks and species-level differentiation within what is morphologically described as a single species. The inferred distribution of paralogs among populations is congruent with taxonomy and shows that GBS could be used to examine recent gene duplication as a source of genomic differentiation of nonmodel species

Non-AIDS-related comorbidities in people living with HIV-1 aged 50 years and older: The AGING POSITIVE study.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the profile of non-AIDS-related comorbidities (NARC) in the older HIV-1-infected population and to explore the factors associated with multiple NARC. METHODS: This was a multicentre, cross-sectional study including HIV-1-infected patients aged ≥50 years, who were virologically suppressed and had been on a stable antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen for at least 6 months. A multiple regression model explored the association between demographic and clinical variables and the number of NARC. RESULTS: Overall, 401 patients were enrolled. The mean age of the patients was 59.3 years and 72.6% were male. The mean duration of HIV-1 infection was 12.0 years and the median exposure to ART was 10.0 years. The mean number of NARC was 2.1, and 34.7% of patients had three or more NARC. Hypercholesterolemia was the most frequent NARC (60.8%), followed by arterial hypertension (39.7%) and chronic depression/anxiety (23.9%). Arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus were the most frequently treated NARC (95.6% and 92.6% of cases, respectively). The linear regression analysis showed a positive relationship between age and NARC (B=0.032, 95% confidence interval 0.015-0.049; p=0.0003) and between the duration of HIV-1 infection and NARC (B=0.039, 95% confidence interval 0.017-0.059; p=0.0005). CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence of NARC was found, the most common being metabolic, cardiovascular, and psychological conditions. NARC rates were similar to those reported for the general population, suggesting a larger societal problem beyond HIV infection. A multidisciplinary approach is essential to reduce the burden of complex multi-morbid conditions in the HIV-1-infected population.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

El arte de la Danza (o Lo que es la Danza con mayúscula)

“Es la misión de todo arte expresar la más noble de todas las artes; y lo será de nuevo. Desde el gran foso en que ha caído, se levantará. La bailarina del futuro alcanzará una altura para llegar ahí. Expresar lo que es más moral, saludable y bello en el arte: esta es la misión de la bailarina, y a esto dedico mi vida”. Isadora Duncan (1877 - 1927) ha pasado a la historia como una de las madres de la danza moderna. Una mirada superficial a su obra nos sugiere que, si bien supuso una ruptura con las convenciones de la danza, el no haber asentado una escuela propia disminuiría su aportación a este arte. Sin embargo, un corte más profundo desvela que la danza de Duncan está empapada de sentido y es inseparable de su experiencia vital. Isadora nace en California, es la menor de cuatro hermanos (Augustin, Raymond y Elizabeth), y descubrirá el mundo de la danza a muy temprana edad. A los diez años dejará la escuela para dedicarse a dar clases de baile con su hermana a los niños del barrio. Esto supuso una importante fuente de ingresos para la familia y la salida profesional y artística de Isadora, que pudo contar con su apoyo en cada paso del camino. Para adentrarse en el mundo artístico consiguió ser contratada por una compañía en Nueva York. Estando allí descubrió que su manera de bailar espontánea y libre chocaba con los modos del ballet y la pantomima que estaban de moda por aquel entonces. Ante la incomprensión de Estados Unidos, decide probar suerte en Europa, que es donde encontrará el apoyo artístico y financiero para sacar adelante su arte y luego sus escuelas. Londres y París le dan la posibilidad de darse a conocer en los mejores círculos artísticos y avanzar con su arte. A partir de entonces, llevará una vida de giras y espectáculos en los que cautiva al público con la fuerza de su danza

Changes in compliance with school-based physical activity recommendations in Spanish youth: The UP&DOWN longitudinal study

The study aimed (a) to examine changes in physical activity (PA) during the whole day, school hours, recess, and physical education classes (PEC) during a 2-year period in primary and secondary students; (b) to identify changes in the proportion of compliance with specific PA recommendations for these periods; and (c) to examine whether PA levels at baseline are associated with PA levels 2 years later. Eight hundred and fourteen (51.8% boys) children and 658 (50.1% boys) adolescents from 41 Spanish schools participated in the study. Hip-worn accelerometers were used to assess PA during different time periods. Light PA (LPA) declined during the whole day, school hours, recess (all P < 0.001, except child girls for recess), and PEC (all, P < 0.05) in children and adolescents. Moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) during the whole day and recess declined in child boys (P < 0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively) and adolescent boys (P < 0.001 and P < 0.05, respectively). MVPA during PEC declined in adolescent boys (P < 0.001) and adolescent girls (all P < 0.05). The proportion of compliance with the specific PA recommendations for these periods declined (P < 0.05), except for PEC in adolescent girls. PA during the whole day at baseline was moderately associated with PA during the whole day years later (ICCs = 0.210-0.544, with one exception), but this association was lower for the school-based PA. In conclusion, time spent in MVPA and LPA during the whole day and recess declined over time in child and adolescent boys and during PEC in adolescents. These findings highlight the need to promote PA interventions in these settings

Instagram as a network of promotion and hypermediation of rural tourism: the case of Aldeias Históricas

Los cambios en el ecosistema mediático han provocado transformaciones en los lenguajes comunicacionales, ahora en espacios imagéticos como el Instagram, incluso fortaleciendo la hipermediación proporcionada por las redes sociales. El artículo presenta una investigación métrica sobre la utilización del Instragram por la iniciativa portuguesa Aldeias Históricas en búsqueda de promoción turística de la región. Para la investigación, se ha adoptada la herramienta InstaBro, que ofreció informaciones para un análisis de carácter cuantitativo, pero también una interpretación cualitativa. Los resultados ofrecen informaciones hacia la importancia de la hipermediación en procesos de promoción del turismo rural a través de la comunicación digital.Changes in the media ecosystem have led to transformations in communication languages, now in imaginary spaces like Instagram, even strengthening the hypermediation provided by social networks. The article presents a metric research on the use of the Instragram by the Portuguese initiative Aldeias Históricas in search of tourism promotion in the region. For the investigation, the InstaBro tool has been adopted, which offered information for a quantitative analysis, but also a qualitative interpretation. The results offer information about the importance of hypermediation in rural tourism promotion processes through digital communication.publishe

Improving speech intelligibility in hearing aids. Part I: Signal processing algorithms

[EN] The improvement of speech intelligibility in hearing aids is a traditional problem that still remains open and unsolved. Modern devices may include signal processing algorithms to improve intelligibility: automatic gain control, automatic environmental classification or speech enhancement. However, the design of such algorithms is strongly restricted by some engineering constraints caused by the reduced dimensions of hearing aid devices. In this paper, we discuss the application of state-of-theart signal processing algorithms to improve speech intelligibility in digital hearing aids, with particular emphasis on speech enhancement algorithms. Different alternatives for both monaural and binaural speech enhancement have been considered, arguing whether they are suitable to be implemented in a commercial hearing aid or not.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, under project TEC2012-38142-C04-02.Ayllón, D.; Gil Pita, R.; Rosa Zurera, M.; Padilla, L.; Piñero Sipán, MG.; Diego Antón, MD.; Ferrer Contreras, M.... (2014). Improving speech intelligibility in hearing aids. Part I: Signal processing algorithms. Waves. 6:61-71. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/57901S6171

Improving speech intelligibility in hearing aids. Part II: Quality assessment

[EN] Subjective tests are the most reliable methods for quantifying the perceived speech intelligibility, but the process to perform these tests usually is time consuming and cost expensive. For this reason, different objective measures have been proposed in the literature to evaluate the intelligibility and/or quality of speech in such a way that cooperation of human listeners is not necessary. In this paper, we describe a wide range of subjective tests reported in the literature, focusing on those proposed to evaluate speech intelligibility of Spanish language, not only for normal hearing listeners, but for hearing impaired as well. Afterwards we summarize the most common objective measures of speech quality, and finally we perform a comparison between them and some subjective speech intelligibility tests. In the subjective tests, clean Spanish speech material has been contaminated with different real background noises: cafeteria and outside traffic noise. Results show that Short-Time Objective Intelligibility (STOI) and Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) indices present a better correlation and a lower mean square error when predicting intelligibility compared to other objective measures tested.This work has been supported by European Union ERDF and Spanish Government through TEC2012-38142-C04 project, and Generalitat Valenciana through PROMETEOII/2014/003 project. Participation of author A. Padilla has been supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from Conacyt (Mexico). The authors wish to acknowledge Prof. Felipe Orduña for his insightful comments that contributed to improve the manuscript, and to everyone who participated in the listening tests.Padilla, A.; Piñero Sipán, MG.; Diego Antón, MD.; Ferrer Contreras, M.; González Téllez, A.; Ayllón, D.; Gil Pita, R.... (2014). Improving speech intelligibility in hearing aids. Part II: Quality assessment. Waves. 6:73-85. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/57900S7385