Preparation of marine silage of swordfish, ray and shark visceral waste by lactic acid bacteria

The goal of the present work was to study the efficacy of several lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as bio-silage inoculants of swordfish, ray and shark viscera by-products. A sterilised medium was initially used as a model system for assessing the potential of these microorganisms in batch and fed-batch cultures with re-neutralisation. In all cases, batch cultivations without re-neutralisation led to the highest production and yields of the main metabolites of LAB fermentation (lactic and acetic acids). The dynamics of these metabolites followed a conversion pattern from lactic to acetic acid with a final joint concentration over 16 g/L and final pH lower than 4.5. Both productions were modelled by means of logistic modified equations. In addition, the capability of LAB to ferment the fish visceral wastes was always high and easily reproducible. Finally, the results obtained for non-sterilised fermentations with Lactobacillus casei CECT 4043 were similar to those obtained for sterilised media, and a stable material was obtained after 72 h of culture.Peer reviewe

Lung purinoceptor activation triggers ventilator-induced brain injury

OBJECTIVES: Mechanical ventilation can cause ventilator-induced brain injury via afferent vagal signaling and hippocampal neurotransmitter imbalances. The triggering mechanisms for vagal signaling during mechanical ventilation are unknown. The objective of this study was to assess whether pulmonary transient receptor potential vanilloid type-4 (TRPV4) mechanoreceptors and vagal afferent purinergic receptors (P2X) act as triggers of ventilator-induced brain injury. DESIGN: Controlled, human in vitro and ex vivo studies, as well as murine in vivo laboratory studies. SETTING: Research laboratory. SUBJECTS: Wild-type, TRPV4-deficient C57BL/6J mice, 8-10 weeks old. Human postmortem lung tissue and human lung epithelial cell line BEAS-2B. INTERVENTION: Mice subjected to mechanical ventilation were studied using functional MRI to assess hippocampal activity. The effects of lidocaine (a nonselective ion-channel inhibitor), P2X-purinoceptor antagonist (iso-PPADS), or genetic TRPV4 deficiency on hippocampal dopamine-dependent pro-apoptotic signaling were studied in mechanically ventilated mice. Human lung epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) were used to study the effects of mechanical stretch on TRPV4 and P2X expression and activation. TRPV4 levels were measured in postmortem lung tissue from ventilated and nonventilated patients. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Hippocampus functional MRI analysis revealed considerable changes in response to the increase in tidal volume during mechanical ventilation. Intratracheal lidocaine, iso-PPADS, and TRPV4 genetic deficiency protected mice against ventilationinduced hippocampal pro-apoptotic signaling. Mechanical stretch in both, BEAS-2B cells and ventilated wild-type mice, resulted in TRPV4 activation and reduced Trpv4 and P2x expression. Intratracheal replenishment of adenosine triphosphate in Trpv4 mice abrogated the protective effect of TRPV4 deficiency. Autopsy lung tissue from ventilated patients showed decreased lung TRPV4 levels compared with nonventilated patients. CONCLUSIONS: TRPV4 mechanosensors and purinergic receptors are involved in the mechanisms of ventilator-induced brain injury. Inhibition of this neural signaling, either using nonspecific or specific inhibitors targeting the TRPV4/adenosine triphosphate/P2X signaling axis, may represent a novel strategy to prevent or treat ventilator-induced brain injury

Asteroseismology with the WIRE satellite. I. Combining Ground- and Space-based Photometry of the Delta Scuti Star Epsilon Cephei

We have analysed ground-based multi-colour Stromgren photometry and single-filter photometry from the star tracker on the WIRE satellite of the delta scuti star Epsilon Cephei. The ground-based data set consists of 16 nights of data collected over 164 days, while the satellite data are nearly continuous coverage of the star during 14 days. The spectral window and noise level of the satellite data are superior to the ground-based data and this data set is used to locate the frequencies. However, we can use the ground-based data to improve the accuracy of the frequencies due to the much longer time baseline. We detect 26 oscillation frequencies in the WIRE data set, but only some of these can be seen clearly in the ground-based data. We have used the multi-colour ground-based photometry to determine amplitude and phase differences in the Stromgren b-y colour and the y filter in an attempt to identify the radial degree of the oscillation frequencies. We conclude that the accuracies of the amplitudes and phases are not sufficient to constrain theoretical models of Epsilon Cephei. We find no evidence for rotational splitting or the large separation among the frequencies detected in the WIRE data set. To be able to identify oscillation frequencies in delta scuti stars with the method we have applied, it is crucial to obtain more complete coverage from multi-site campaigns with a long time baseline and in multiple filters. This is important when planning photometric and spectroscopic ground-based support for future satellite missions like COROT and KEPLER.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables. Fig. 4 reduced in quality. Accepted by A&

The Influence of Emissions from Maritime Transport on Air Quality in the Strait of Gibraltar (Spain)

Gaseous and particulate emissions from oceangoing ships have a significant effect on the quality of air in cities. This study estimates mainly the influence of NOx, SOx, and particulate matter (PM2.5) on air quality in the Strait of Gibraltar (Spain) using the authors' own Ship's Energy and Emissions Model (SENEM) and the California Puff air quality model (CALPUFF) in 2017. The Algeciras Bay Industrial Zone recorded the highest levels of pollutants, and the Palmones area was identified as a major hotspot, with mean daily ship-sourced SOx concentrations >215 mu g/m(3), while the highest concentrations of PM10 reached 8.5 mu g/m(3) inside the Strait, and the mean yearly contribution of PM2.5 reached 0.86 mu g/m(3) in the city of Algeciras. The incidence of maritime traffic emissions on the levels of particle emissions, CO, HC, NMVOC, and CO2 reached values of up to 20-25% in all the receivers defined in the study

Calculating a Drop in Carbon Emissions in the Strait of Gibraltar (Spain) from Domestic Shipping Traffic Caused by the COVID-19 Crisis

As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spanish government declared a State of Emergency, and domestic passenger ship traffic was restricted in Spanish ports. This manuscript presents scenarios of emissions from domestic shipping traffic in the seas of the Strait of Gibraltar (Spain) over three months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emissions were estimated for only 90 days of the pandemic, and two scenarios were studied: emissions while vessels were berthed at the Algeciras Port and emissions as a consequence of the interruption of passenger ship transportation in the Strait of Gibraltar. To this end, the authors' own model was used, which has near zero uncertainties. This model was used for the first time in this study and takes into account both meteorological and sea condition parameters, as well as the efficiency of the propulsion system. The manuscript concentrates on the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), and particulate matter (PM) from six Ro-Pax ships that ceased to operate. The main finding is that as a consequence of the pandemic, reductions of up to 12% were found in the Strait of Gibraltar in all the pollutants and GHGs when taking into account all international traffic, while the decrease in emissions from domestic traffic only reached 51%

Asteroseismology of the Beta Cephei star 12 (DD) Lacertae: photometric observations, pulsational frequency analysis and mode identification

We report a multisite photometric campaign for the Beta Cephei star 12 Lacertae. 750 hours of high-quality differential photoelectric Stromgren, Johnson and Geneva time-series photometry were obtained with 9 telescopes during 190 nights. Our frequency analysis results in the detection of 23 sinusoidal signals in the light curves. Eleven of those correspond to independent pulsation modes, and the remainder are combination frequencies. We find some slow aperiodic variability such as that seemingly present in several Beta Cephei stars. We perform mode identification from our colour photometry, derive the spherical degree l for the five strongest modes unambiguously and provide constraints on l for the weaker modes. We find a mixture of modes of 0 <= l <= 4. In particular, we prove that the previously suspected rotationally split triplet within the modes of 12 Lac consists of modes of different l; their equal frequency splitting must thus be accidental. One of the periodic signals we detected in the light curves is argued to be a linearly stable mode excited to visible amplitude by nonlinear mode coupling via a 2:1 resonance. We also find a low-frequency signal in the light variations whose physical nature is unclear; it could be a parent or daughter mode resonantly coupled. The remaining combination frequencies are consistent with simple light-curve distortions. The range of excited pulsation frequencies of 12 Lac may be sufficiently large that it cannot be reproduced by standard models. We suspect that the star has a larger metal abundance in the pulsational driving zone, a hypothesis also capable of explaining the presence of Beta Cephei stars in the LMC.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS, in pres

TOI-1468: A system of two transiting planets, a super-Earth and a mini-Neptune, on opposite sides of the radius valley

Full list of authors: Chaturvedi, P.; Bluhm, P.; Nagel, E.; Hatzes, A. P.; Morello, G.; Brady, M.; Korth, J.; Molaverdikhani, K.; Kossakowski, D.; Caballero, J. A.; Guenther, E. W.; Palle, E.; Espinoza, N.; Seifahrt, A.; Lodieu, N.; Cifuentes, C.; Furlan, E.; Amado, P. J.; Barclay, T.; Bean, J.; Bejar, V. J. S.; Bergond, G.; Boyle, A. W.; Ciardi, D.; Collins, K. A.; Collins, K., I; Esparza-Borges, E.; Fukui, A.; Gnilka, C. L.; Goeke, R.; Guerra, P.; Henning, Th; Herrero, E.; Howell, S. B.; Jeffers, S., V; Jenkins, J. M.; Jensen, E. L. N.; Kasper, D.; Kodama, T.; Latham, D. W.; Lopez-Gonzalez, M. J.; Luque, R.; Montes, D.; Morales, J. C.; Mori, M.; Murgas, F.; Narita, N.; Nowak, G.; Parviainen, H.; Passegger, V. M.; Quirrenbach, A.; Reffert, S.; Reiners, A.; Ribas, I; Ricker, G. R.; Rodriguez, E.; Rodriguez-Lopez, C.; Schlecker, M.; Schwarz, R. P.; Schweitzer, A.; Seager, S.; Stefansson, G.; Stockdale, C.; Tal-Or, L.; Twicken, J. D.; Vanaverbeke, S.; Wang, G.; Watanabe, D.; Winn, J. N.; Zechmeister, M.--This is an Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.We report the discovery and characterization of two small transiting planets orbiting the bright M3.0V star TOI-1468 (LSPM J0106+1913), whose transit signals were detected in the photometric time series in three sectors of the TESS mission. We confirm the planetary nature of both of them using precise radial velocity measurements from the CARMENES and MAROON-X spectrographs, and supplement them with ground-based transit photometry. A joint analysis of all these data reveals that the shorter-period planet, TOI-1468 b (Pb = 1.88 d), has a planetary mass of Mb = 3.21 ± 0.24M⊕ and a radius of Rb = 1.280−0.039+0.038 R⊕, resulting in a density of ρb = 8.39−0.92+1.05 g cm−3, which is consistent with a mostly rocky composition. For the outer planet, TOI-1468 c (Pc = 15.53 d), we derive a mass of Mc = 6.64−0.68+0.67 M⊕,aradius of Rc = 2.06 ± 0.04 R⊕, and a bulk density of ρc = 2.00−0.19+0.21 g cm−3, which corresponds to a rocky core composition with a H/He gas envelope. These planets are located on opposite sides of the radius valley, making our system an interesting discovery as there are only a handful of other systems with the same properties. This discovery can further help determine a more precise location of the radius valley for small planets around M dwarfs and, therefore, shed more light on planet formation and evolution scenarios. © P. Chaturvedi et al. 2022.CARMENES is an instrument at the Centro Astronómico Hispano en Andalucía (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 Ciències 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 (DFG) 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). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. We acknowledge the use of public TESS data from pipelines at the TESS Science Office and at the TESS Science Processing Operations Center. This research has made use of the Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program website, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exo-planet Exploration Program. 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. This paper includes data collected by the TESS mission that are publicly available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). The development of the MAROON-X spectrograph was funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Gemini Observatory, and the University of Chicago. The MAROON-X team acknowledges support for this work from the NSF (award number 2108465) and NASA (through the TESS Cycle 4 GI program, grant number 80NSSC22K0117). This work was enabled by observations made from the Gemini North telescope, located within the Maunakea Science Reserve and adjacent to the summit of Maunakea. We are grateful for the privilege of observing the Universe from a place that is unique in both its astronomical quality and its cultural significance. Data were partly collected with the 150-cm telescope at Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN), operated by the Instituto de Astrofífica de Andalucía (IAA, CSIC), with the MuSCAT2 instrument, developed by ABC, at Telescopio Carlos Sánchez operated on the island of Tenerife by the IAC in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide, with the Telescopi Joan Oró (TJO) of the Observatori Astronómic del Montsed (OdM), which is owned by the Generalitat de Catalunya and operated by the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), and with the LCOFT network (part of the LCOGT telescope time was granted by NOIRLab through the Mid-Scale Innovations Program (MSIP), which is funded by the National Science Foundation). Some of the Observations in the paper made use of the High-Resolution Imaging instrument. ‘Alopeke. ‘Alopeke was funded by the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program and built at the NASA Ames Research Center by Steve B. Howell, Nic Scott, Elliott P. Horch, and Emmett Quigley. Data were reduced using a software pipeline originally written by Elliott Horch and Mark Everett. ‘Alopeke was mounted on the Gemini North telescope of the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSF s OIR Lab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), National Research Council (Canada), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Argentina), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (Brazil), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Republic of Korea). We acknowledge financial support from: the Thüringer Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Digitale Gesellschaft; the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and the ERDF “A way of making Europe” through projects PID2019-109522GB-C5[1:4], PID2019-107061GB-C64, PID2019-110689RB-100, PGC2018-098153-B-C31, 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); the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme; the European Union s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 895525; the DFG through grant CH 2636/1-1, the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS under Germany’s Excellence Strategy (EXC-2094 – 390783311), and priority programme SPP 1992 “Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets” (JE 701/5-1); the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA; DNR 2020-00104); the JSPS KAKENHI grants JP17H04574, JP18H05439, JP21K13975, Grant-in-Aid for JSPS fellows grant JP20J21872, JST CREST Grant Number JPMJCR1761, and the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) through grants AB031010 and AB031014; and the program “Alien Earths” (supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under agreement No. 80NSSC21K0593) for NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research coordination network sponsored by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.Peer reviewe

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs -- Planet occurrence rates from a subsample of 71 stars

The CARMENES exoplanet survey of M dwarfs has obtained more than 18 000 spectra of 329 nearby M dwarfs over the past five years as part of its guaranteed time observations (GTO) program. We determine planet occurrence rates with the 71 stars from the GTO program for which we have more than 50 observations. We use injection-and-retrieval experiments on the radial-velocity (RV) time series to measure detection probabilities. We include 27 planets in 21 planetary systems in our analysis. We find 0.06+0.04-0.03 giant planets (100 M_Earth < M_pl sin i < 1000 M_Earth) per star in periods of up to 1000 d, but due to a selection bias this number could be up to a factor of five lower in the whole 329-star sample. The upper limit for hot Jupiters (orbital period of less than 10 d) is 0.03 planets per star, while the occurrence rate of planets with intermediate masses (10 M_Earth < M_pl sin i < 100 M_Earth) is 0.18+0.07-0.05 planets per star. Less massive planets with 1 M_Earth < M_pl sin i < 10 M_Earth are very abundant, with an estimated rate of 1.32+0.33-0.31 planets per star for periods of up to 100 d. When considering only late M dwarfs with masses M_star < 0.34 M_sol, planets more massive than 10 M_Earth become rare. Instead, low-mass planets with periods shorter than 10 d are significantly overabundant. For orbital periods shorter than 100 d, our results confirm the known stellar mass dependences from the Kepler survey: M dwarfs host fewer giant planets and at least two times more planets with M_pl sin i < 10 M_Earth than G-type stars. In contrast to previous results, planets around our sample of very low-mass stars have a higher occurrence rate in short-period orbits of less than 10 d. Our results demonstrate the need to take into account host star masses in planet formation models.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Спостереження як метод державного фінансового контролю за сплатою податків суб'єктами малого підприємництва

У статті проаналізовано особливості державного контролю за діяльністю суб’єктів малого підприємництва. Наведено авторське визначення методу спостереження в державному фінансовому контролі за сплатою податків та обґрунтовано доцільність його застосування в перспективі. (The features of state control over the activities of small businesses are analyzed. The author’s definition of the method of monitoring in the state financial control over tax payments is given, and the expedience for its use in the prospects is grounded.