Genomic instability promoted by expression of human transposase-derived gene

DNA Transposases are enzymes that recognize and catalyze the movement of mobile elements in the human genome known as transposons. There are abundant transposase-derived genes in the human genome that have been conserved through evolution. Some of them, such as PGBD5, maintain their enzymatic activity in human cells. The expression of PGBD5 has been related to mobilization of DNA transposons through a motif specific cut and paste mechanism across the genome. The excision and insertion mechanism of transposable elements can cause genomic rearrangements and have a potential mutagenic activity in specific disease cases such as cancer. In this study, we analyze how the expression of PGBD5 leads to genomic instabilit

Service-learning experience through outreach and engagement with science and technology museums

The paper describes and analyzes the service-learning experiences of various engineering students in two science and technology museums, over the years 2020, 2021 and 2022. The experience was based on the design and implementation of education and outreach activities and scaffolding material was provided. Student learning was significant not only in terms of content but also in terms of generic and transversal competencies. In addition, this service-learning model shows a good potential to address some of the problems in engineering today, such as the declining interest in engineering among school students. Thus, it can be a win-win model for all the agents involved: museums, university, the student himself and society in general

Electrophysiological correlates of feedback processing in subarachnoid hemorrhage patients

Patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) secondary to anterior communicating artery (AComA) aneurysm rupture often experience deficits in executive functioning and decision-making. Effective decision-making is based on the subjects' ability to adjust their performance based on feedback processing, ascribing either positive or negative value to the actions performed reinforcing the most adaptive behavior in an appropriate temporal framework. A crucial brain structure associated to feedback processing is the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a brain region frequently damaged after AComA aneurysm rupture. In the present study, we recorded electrophysiological responses (event-related potentials (ERPs') and oscillatory activity (time frequency analysis) during a gambling task in a series of 15 SAH patients. Previous studies have identified a feedback related negativity (FRN) component associated with an increase on frontal medial theta power in response to negative feedback or monetary losses, which is thought to reflect the degree of negative prediction error. Our findings show a decreased FRN component in response to negative feedback and a delayed increase of theta oscillatory activity in the SAH patient group when compared to the healthy controls, indicating a reduced sensitivity to negative feedback processing and an effortful signaling of cognitive control and monitoring processes lengthened in time, respectively. These results provide us with novel neurophysiological markers regarding feedback processing and performance monitoring patterns in SAH patients, illustrating a dysfunctional reinforcement learning system probably contributing to the maladaptive day-to-day functioning in these patients

Small hydropower plants in Spain: a case study

A small hydropower plant in Spain is studied from an energetic and economic perspective. The viability of the facility is examined using the freeware software RETScreen. Calculated and standard operational data are compared, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of the project from all points of view. The study highlights the growing interest in renewable energies.research project BU019A08 supported by the Department of Culture and Education of the Regional Government of Castilla y León, Spai

Carbon mineralization in acidic soils amended with an organo-mineral bentonite waste

Bentonite based organic-mineral wastes contains high concentrations of organic matter and plant nutrients and hence presents a high potential as a soil amendment. However, it also can have high salinity and high copper concentrations that may cause negative effects on microorganisms when the soil is amended with this type of wastes. In this work, the effect of soil amendment with a bentonite based winery waste on soil carbon mineralization was studied in acidic vineyard soils as an indicator of soil quality. The carbon mineralization in the waste is significantly lower and slower than that in the studied vineyard soils despite its significantly higher amount of organic carbon. However, when the bentonite winery waste was added to the soils, the carbon mineralization showed positive priming effects (increased between 78 and 337%). Therefore, reductions in the carbon mineralization, and hence changes on short-term organic matter turnover are not expected after bentonite waste amendment in acid soils.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. (FEADER2009-22) CO-106-0

Auditory target and novelty processing in patients with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis: A current-source density study

The capacity to respond to novel events is crucial for adapting to the constantly changing environment. Here, we recorded 29-channel Event Related Brain Potentials (ERPs) during an active auditory novelty oddball paradigm and used for the first time Current Source Density-transformed Event Related Brain Potentials and associated time-frequency spectra to study target and novelty processing in a group of epileptic patients with unilateral damage of the hippocampus (N = 18) and in healthy matched control participants (N = 18). Importantly, we used Voxel-Based Morphometry to ensure that our group of patients had a focal unilateral damage restricted to the hippocampus and especially its medial part. We found a clear deficit for target processing at the behavioral level. In addition, compared to controls, our group of patients presented (i) a reduction of theta event-related synchronization (ERS) for targets and (ii) a reduction and delayed P3a source accompanied by reduced theta and low-beta ERS and alpha event-related synchronization (ERD) for novel stimuli. These results suggest that the integrity of the hippocampus might be crucial for the functioning of the complex cortico-subcortical network involved in the detection of novel and target stimuli

Mathematical interpolation methods for spatial estimation of global horizontal irradiation in Castilla-León, Spain: a case study

Four spatial interpolation methods (Inverse Distance Weighted, Spline, Kriging and Natural Neighbor) and their different variations are employed to map Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) in Castilla-León, Spain. The work has been performed using the software ArcGis, widely used in geostatistical applications, showing the versatility of the system and its applicability to climate data. The measuring network consists of 71 ground meteorological stations that use seven complete years of half-hourly data sets, yielding annual daily averages of GHI. The interpolation results are tested against data from the four Spanish National Meteorological Agency (AEMET) stations available in the region using standard statistical indicators (RMSE, MBE, MAPE and MAE). An additional partial cross validation of the results, which excludes five stations from the measuring network, employs different criteria to verify the results of the interpolation methods applied. This work contributes to the classification of interpolation methods to obtain climatological data across large areas with a low number of irregularly distributed of measurement points and with a low topographic complexity. The Universal Kriging method with quadratic semi-variogram shows the best results taking into account the RMSE and MAE statistical indicatorsSpanish Government (Grant ENE2014-54601-R) and Junta de Castilla- León (BU034U16). One of the authors, David González Peña, thanks to Junta de Castilla-León and European Social Fund (Orden EDU/310/2015) for financial support

The Toxicity Exerted by the Antibiotic Sulfadiazine on the Growth of Soil Bacterial Communities May Increase over Time

The toxicity exerted by the antibiotic sulfadiazine on the growth of soil bacterial communities was studied in two agricultural soils for a period of 100 days. In the short-term (2 days of incubation), the effect of sulfadiazine on bacterial growth was low (no inhibition or inhibition <32% for a dose of 2000 mg·kg−1). However, sulfadiazine toxicity increased with time, achieving values of 40% inhibition, affecting bacterial growth in both soils after 100 days of incubation. These results, which were here observed for the first time for any antibiotic in soil samples, suggest that long-term experiments would be required for performing an adequate antibiotics risk assessment, as short-term experiments may underestimate toxicity effectsThis study has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the projects CGL2015-67333-C2-1-R and -2-R (FEDER Funds), and by Xunta de Galicia via CITACA Strategic Partnership (ED431E 2018/07) and BV1 research group (ED431C 2017/62-GRC). David Fernández Calviño holds a Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC-2016-20411) financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy Industry and Competitiveness. Vanesa Santás Miguel holds a pre-doctoral fellowship founded by the University of VigoS

Diseño e implementación de un sistema de imagen ultrasonica 3D

8 páginas. 4 figuras. 1 Tabla -- PACS: 43.35.Zc. -- Comunicación presentada en: 44º Congreso Español de Acústica - TecniAcustica 2013. Encuentro Ibérico de Acústica. EAA European Symposium on Environmental Acoustics and Noise Mapping, Valladolid, 1 - 4, Octubre, 2013[EN] In this paper the design process of an ultrasonic volumetric imaging system based on synthetic aperture focusing technique is presented. Based on minimum redundancy coarray of 2D aperture an d parallel processing techniques for beamforming an experimental system is developed to operate with a 2D array (3Mhz and 11x11 elements).[ES] Este trabajo describe el proceso de diseño e implementación de un sistema de imagen ultrasónica basado en la composición del coarray de mínima redundancia para aperturas 2D. Esta técnica de adquisición en combinación con la generación de imagen por apertura sintética, implementada por GPGPU, permite diseñar un sistema de imagen 3D con un número reducido de recursos. Se presentan resultados experimentales del sistema implementado sobre un equipo de imagen ultrasónica convencional para una apertura bidimensional de 3Mhz y 11x11 elementos.Este trabajo está financiado por el Gobierno de España a partir del Plan Nacional de I+D+i dentro del marco del proyecto DPI2010-19376.Peer reviewe

Clarithromycin Effect in Microbial Communities

Financiaciado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUGA laboratory experiment was carried out to investigate the response of the microbial communities in acid agricultural soils located in the NW Iberian Peninsula to the presence of clarithromycin. Four soils, with different organic C content and similar pH, and seven different concentrations of clarithromycin (0.49, 1.95, 7.81, 31.25, 125, 500 and 2,000 mg kg−1 of soil) were used, and microbial estimates were made after 8 and 42 incubation days. The phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) technique was used to estimate the total microbial biomass and biomass of specific microbial groups as well as the microbial community structure (PLFA pattern). The microbial biomass (total and specific groups) was different in the four studied soils, the lowest values being exhibited by soils with the lowest organic C. The antibiotic addition showed a positive effect on microbial biomass (total and specific groups), especially at the highest dose; the effect being similar or even more accentuated with time passed after the addition (42 days ≥8 days). Principal component analysis (PCA) of the PLFA data carried out with the whole data set showed that the main determining factors of the microbial structure followed the order: soil > time incubation ≥ antibiotic dose. When the PCA was performed individually for each incubation time, the results indicated that microbial communities of the four soils were different. Likewise, for each soil, different microbial communities were observed depending on antibiotic concentration. The microbial biomass and PLFA pattern data were coincidentally showing that the clarithromycin addition favored fungi and G− bacteria more that bacteria and G+ bacteria; the effect being dose-dependent. Our data (microbial biomass, PLFA pattern) also demonstrated that the effect of clarithromycin addition on microbial communities in these four acid agricultural soils persisted even after 42 incubation days.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481B-2022-081Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | Ref. RTI2018-099574-B-C21Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | Ref. RTI2018-099574-B-C22Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | Ref. FPU21/0420