Understanding agroforestry practices in Europe through landscape features policy promotion

Agroforestry understood as the combination of a woody component (forest tree, shrub, fruit tree) with an agricultural use of the understory is not clearly identified as such by the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Despite the protection and promotion of the woody component in different parts of the CAP political text, the identification of agroforestry is not clear, although it can be recognised in the description of some landscape features, such as isolated trees and different types of hedgerows. Moreover, it is important to identify the extent of such woody components promoted by the CAP in agricultural lands to validate the impact of current and future measures. This paper aims at the characterisation of the current extent of landscape features all over Europe by analysing the Rural Development Program (RDP) measures within the CAP 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 that promote said features in Europe to increase the ecosystem service delivery. Isolated trees and hedgerows are protected unsatisfactorily through the Cross-compliance and Greening of CAP Pillar I. In contrast, Agri-environment measures associated to Pillar II are used in most European countries to protect both isolated trees and hedgerows and to promote them as boundary elements. The promotion of hedgerows and isolated trees mainly related to silvoarable and silvopastoral agroforestry practices is aimed at the promotion of the ecosystem services (such as water protection and biodiversity) and improvement in resilience (such as adaptation to climate change) they provide; therefore, the agroforestry environment benefits are indeed recognised. Landscape features comprising woody perennials should be associated with agroforestry when present in arable and permanent grasslands

Peroxidase expression in a cereal cyst nematode (Heterodera avenae) resistant hexaploid wheat line.

The incompatible interaction between plant and pathogen is often determined by the hypersensitive reaction (HR). This response is associated with accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which results in adverse growth conditions for pathogens. Two major mechanisms involving either NADPH oxidases or peroxidases have been proposed for generation of ROS. Peroxidases (PER, EC 1.11.1.7), present in all land plants, are members of a large multigenic family with high number of isoforms involved in a broad range of physiological processes. PER genes, which are expressed in nematode feeding sites, have been identified in several plant species (Zacheo et al. 1997). A strong correlation between HR and PER activities at four and seven days post nematode infection, was detected in roots of wheat lines carrying Cre2, Cre5 (from Ae. ventricosa) or Cre7 (from Ae. triuncialis) Heterodera avenae resistance genes (Andrés et al. 2001; Montes et al. 2003, 2004). We have studied changes in root of peroxidase mRNAs levels after infection by H. avenae of a wheat/Ae. ven¬tricosa introgression line (H-93-8) carrying Cre2 (Delibes et al. 1993). We also report and classify the predicted protein sequences derived from complete peroxidase transcripts

Silent learning

Contains fulltext : 200389.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)We introduce the concept of "silent learning"-the capacity to learn despite neuronal cell-firing being largely absent. This idea emerged from thinking about dendritic computation [1, 2] and examining whether the encoding, expression, and retrieval of hippocampal-dependent memory could be dissociated using the intrahippocampal infusion of pharmacological compounds. We observed that very modest enhancement of GABAergic inhibition with low-dose muscimol blocked both cell-firing and the retrieval of an already-formed memory but left induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) and new spatial memory encoding intact (silent learning). In contrast, blockade of hippocampal NMDA receptors by intrahippocampal D-AP5 impaired both the induction of LTP and encoding but had no effect on memory retrieval. Blockade of AMPA receptors by CNQX impaired excitatory synaptic transmission and cell-firing and both memory encoding and retrieval. Thus, in keeping with the synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis [3], the hippocampal network can mediate new memory encoding when LTP induction is intact even under conditions in which somatic cell-firing is blocked

Knowledge systems for real experimentation by means of industrial automation cells

Comunicación presentada a las XXXIX Jornadas de Automática, celebradas en Badajoz del 5 al 7 de Septiembre de 2018 y organizada por la Universidad de Extremadura.En la actualidad, las amenazas hacia las infraestructuras críticas están consideradas por la UE (Unión Europea) así como por otros estamentos internacionales, uno de los riesgos más graves para la estabilidad de sus estados, afectando su disfuncionalidad gravemente a la economía y la sociedad. Ello se debe, específicamente, a que los avances constantes en las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones se trasladan a los Sistemas de Control Industrial (SCI) proporcionando una gran flexibilidad de interconexión gracias a su escalabilidad y a modelos con una conectividad cada vez más simple e intuitiva. El uso de las redes de comunicación hace que estos sistemas sean altamente vulnerables, ya que no fueron diseñados originalmente para este tipo de expansión o formas de comunicaciones. En sus orígenes fueron diseñados con el propósito principal de otorgar la máxima disponibilidad de procesos. Sin embargo, hoy en día, la disponibilidad sigue siendo su misión principal. En este trabajo, se presenta el sistema SICERCAI, el cual aporta nuevas capacidades de investigación, desarrollo, simulación y banco de pruebas del funcionamiento de estos sistemas. A su vez, otorga capacidades de anticipación del comportamiento de un sistema en producción industrial y, como consecuencia directa, altas capacidades de ciberresiliencia. Como es un sistema abierto a la interconexión, permite la construcción de Células de Automatización Industrial (CAI) con elementos de los diferentes fabricantes de componentes industriales, pudiéndose agregar al sistema SICERCAI para cubrir el 100% de las posibilidades arquitectónicas existentes en la industria actual. De esta manera se consiguen recrear entornos industriales de carácter híbrido, siendo este aspecto el que más se asemeja a la realidad en la industria.This work, by the development of the SIKERCIA system, provides new capacities of research, development, simulation and testing of the functioning of critical infrastructures, and the capacity of anticipating the behavior of a system in industrial production. At the same time, SIKERCIA provides high capacities of cyber-resilience and also describes the condition of maturity with regard to the cybersecurity of the services implemented in SIKERCIA and catalogued as essential. All the above is provided by a system that has been tested, analyzing industrial environments. As it is a system open to interconnection, it allows the construction of Industrial Automation Cells using industrial components from different manufacturers, which can be added to the SIKERCIA system to cover 100% of the existing architectural possibilities in the current industry.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Proyectos ENE2015-64914-C3-2-R y DPI2017-84259-C2-2-R.peerReviewe

Transcription of Leishmania major U2 small nuclear RNA gene is directed by extragenic sequences located within a tRNA-like and a tRNA-Ala gene

Sequence comparisons of U2 snRNA genes and flanking regions from T. cruzi (CL Brener Non-Esmeraldo-like). Sequences from the genes located on chromosomes 23, 37 and 6 are shown. The U2 snRNA gene from chromosome 23 is presented in blue font. The position of boxes A and B is indicated. Sequence numbers are relative to the TSS (+1) from the U2 snRNA. (PDF 1404 kb

Enterprise Ionic Liquids Database (ILUAM) for Use in Aspen ONE Programs Suite with COSMO-Based Property Methods

“This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher . To access the final and published work see Enterprise Ionic Liquids Database (ILUAM) for Use in Aspen ONE Programs Suite with COSMO-Based Property Methods V. R. Ferro, C. Moya, D. Moreno, R. Santiago, J. de Riva, G. Pedrosa, M. Larriba, I. Diaz, and J. Palomar Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 2018 57 (3), 980-989 DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b04031An enterprise database of pure ionic liquids (ILs) for its use in the Aspen ONE programs is presented. The database is identified as ILUAM, and the first version (ILUAM01) contains 100 ILs composed of 30 cations and 23 anions. The IL components were introduced in Aspen Properties as pseudocomponents using information from the computational COSMO-RS method and from experimental viscosity data. ILUAM database was created to be used along with the COSMOSAC property model implemented in Aspen Plus, allowing evaluating IL process performance without needing further experimental data. Some validation tests were carried out to demonstrate the successful incorporation of ILs in the Aspen Plus property system. Then, the performance of ILUAM01 database in thermodynamic property predictions of mixtures involving ILs and conventional chemical compounds was revised in terms of activity coefficients at infinite dilution and phase equilibrium data. The property description of pure ILs and IL mixtures with conventional chemical compounds using COSMO-based/Aspen Plus approach was found with the accuracy level required in the conceptual design of new processes. ILUAM database offers the opportunity of performing systematic evaluation of potential industrial applications of ILs and their competitiveness as alternative to conventional solvents.The authors are grateful to the Comunidad de Madrid (project S2013- MAE-2800) and to the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (Project CTQ2014-52288-R) for financial support. M. Larriba also thanks Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain for awarding him a Juan de la Cierva-Formación Contract (Reference FJCI-2015-25343

Sliding window multi-curve resolution: application to gas chromatography - ion mobility spectrometry

Blind source separation (BSS) techniques aim to extract a set of source signals from a measured mixture in an unsupervised manner. In the chemical instrumentation domain source signals typically refer to time-varying analyte concentrations, while the measured mixture is the set of observed spectra. Several techniques exist to perform BSS on ion mobility spectrometry, being simple-to-use interactive self-modelling mixture analysis (SIMPLISMA) and multivariate curve resolution (MCR) the most commonly used. The addition of a multi-capillary gas chromatography column using the ion mobility spectrometer as detector has been proposed in the past to increase chemical resolution. Short chromatography times lead to high levels of co-elution, and ion mobility spectra are key to resolve them. For the first time, BSS techniques are used to deconvolve samples of the gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry tandem. We propose a method to extract spectra and concentration profiles based on the application of MCR in a sliding window. Our results provide clear concentration profiles and pure spectra, resolving peaks that were not detected by the conventional use of MCR. The proposed technique could also be applied to other hyphenated instruments with similar strong co-elutions

Novel methods to deal with publication biases: secondary analysis of antidepressant trials in the FDA trial registry database and related journal publications

Objective To assess the performance of novel contour enhanced funnel plots and a regression based adjustment method to detect and adjust for publication biases

Digestibility of (Poly)phenols and Antioxidant Activity in Raw and Cooked Cactus Cladodes (Opuntia ficus-indica)

This study aims to investigate whether heat treatment applied to cactus cladodes influences the bioaccessibility of their (poly)phenolic compounds after simulated gastric and intestinal digestion. A total of 45 (poly)phenols were identified and quantified in raw and cooked cactus cladodes by ultra high performance liquid chromatography photodiode array detector high resolution mass spectrometry. Both flavonoids (60-68% total), mainly isorhamnetin derivatives, and phenolic acids (32-40%) with eucomic acids as the predominant ones significantly ( p < 0.05) increased with microwaving and griddling processes. After in vitro gastrointestinal digestion, 55-64% of the total (poly)phenols of cooked cactus cladodes remained bioaccessible versus 44% in raw samples. Furthermore, digestive conditions and enzymes degraded or retained more flavonoids (37-63% bioaccessibility) than phenolic acids (56-87% bioaccessibility). Microwaved cactus cladodes contributed the highest amount of (poy)phenols (143.54 mg/g dm) after gastrointestinal process, followed by griddled samples (133.98 mg/g dm), showing the highest antioxidant capacity. Additionally, gastrointestinal digestion induced isomerizations among the three stereoisomeric forms of piscidic and eucomic acids