Intracellular Lipid Homeostasis and Trafficking in Autophagy

In eukaryotes, lipids are not only an important constituent of the plasma membrane but also used to generate specialized membrane-bound organelles, including temporary compartments with critical functions. As such, lipids play a key role in intracellular homeostasis—the ability of a cell to maintain stable internal conditions upon changes in its extracellular environment. Autophagy, one of the cellular processes through which eukaryotic cells strive for survival under stress, is heavily dependent on lipid and membrane trafficking through the de novo formation of autophagosomes—temporary, large, and double-bilayered organelles in which materials are encapsulated for recycling. This chapter discusses what we know about lipid homeostasis and trafficking during autophagy and autophagosome formation and comments on future directions of the field

Determinantes de la eco-innovación en la actividad de costrucción en España

Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 3.0 España (CC BY-NC 3.0 ES)[ES] Partiendo del modelo validado por los autores que determina como variables que afectan a la eco-innovación la orientación a procesos, a productos y la obtención de información de fuentes de mercado, identificamos distintos grupos atendiendo al comportamiento eco-innovador de las empresas del sector de la construcción. Utilizando el algoritmo REBUS-PLS aplicado a 222 empresas con datos de PITEC, se detectan 2 grupos, destacando uno más orientado hacia el medioambiente al innovar, con cifras más altas de inversión en I+D así como la ausencia de diferencias significativas en las variables descriptivas (tamaño, cifra de negocios, inversiones, empleados), lo que indica que la eco-orientación al innovar no depende de estas características y sí que va ligada al comportamiento de la empresa. Los resultados tienen importantes aplicaciones prácticas por lo que a las actuaciones de política de promoción de la eco-innovación se refiere, tanto a nivel público como privado.Segarra Oña, MDV.; Peiró Signes, A.; Cervelló Royo, RE. (2015). Determinantes de la eco-innovación en la actividad de costrucción en España. Informes de la Construcción. 67(1):537-548. doi:10.3989/ic.13.124S537548671Pearce, D. (2006). Is the construction sector sustainable?: definitions and reflections. Building Research & Information, 34(3), 201-207. doi:10.1080/09613210600589910Turner, R. K. (2006). Sustainability auditing and assessment challenges. Building Research & Information, 34(3), 197-200. doi:10.1080/09613210600645795Hill, S., & Lorenz, D. (2011). Rethinking professionalism: guardianship of land and resources. Building Research & Information, 39(3), 314-319. doi:10.1080/09613218.2011.563051Du Plessis, C., & Cole, R. J. (2011). Motivating change: shifting the paradigm. Building Research & Information, 39(5), 436-449. doi:10.1080/09613218.2011.582697Bordass, B., & Leaman, A. (2013). A new professionalism: remedy or fantasy? Building Research & Information, 41(1), 1-7. doi:10.1080/09613218.2012.750572Jensen, J. S., Gottlieb, S. C., & Thuesen, C. L. (2011). Construction sector development: frames and governance responses. Building Research & Information, 39(6), 665-677. doi:10.1080/09613218.2011.621710(10) Cervelló-Royo, R., Segura-García del Río, B. (2010). Un modelo para evaluar y optimizar el impacto especial de las inversiones en regeneración urbana. Investigaciones Regionales, 17: 125-138.Courtney, R., & Winch, G. (2003). Re-engineering construction: the role of research and implementation. Building Research & Information, 31(2), 172-178. doi:10.1080/09613210301998Van Bueren, E., & De Jong, J. (2007). Establishing sustainability: policy successes and failures. Building Research & Information, 35(5), 543-556. doi:10.1080/09613210701203874Porter, M. E., & Linde, C. van der. (1995). Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(4), 97-118. doi:10.1257/jep.9.4.97(16) Esty, D.C., Winston, A.S. (2006) Green to Gold, How smart companies use environmental strategy to innovate, create value, and build competitive advantage. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.Rennings, K. (2000). Redefining innovation — eco-innovation research and the contribution from ecological economics. Ecological Economics, 32(2), 319-332. doi:10.1016/s0921-8009(99)00112-3(18) Segarra-O-a, M., Peiró-Signes, A., Albors-Garrigós, J., Miret-Pastor, L. (2011). Impact of Innovative Practices in Environmentally Focused Firms: Moderating Factors. International Journal of Environmental Research, 5(2): 425-434.(19) Segarra-O-a, M., Peiró-Signes, A., Miret-Pastor, L., Verma, R. (2011). Eco-innovation attitude and industry's tecnological level. An important key for promoting efficient vertical policies. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 10(12): 1893-1901.(20) European Commission. (2004) Facing the challenge. The Lisbon strategy for growth and employment. Brussels: European Comission.(21) European Commission. (2010). Europe 2020: a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Brussels: European Comission.Hidalgo, A., & Albors, J. (2008). Innovation management techniques and tools: a review from theory and practice. R&D Management, 38(2), 113-127. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9310.2008.00503.x(23) Vega Jurado, J., Gutiérrez Gracía, A., Fernández-de-Lucio, I. (2008). How do Spanish firms innovate? An empirical evidence. Journal of Technology Management Innovation, 3(3): 100-111.(24) Segarra-O-a, M., Peiró-Signes, A., Cervelló-Royo, R. (2015). A Framework to Move Forward on the Path to Eco-innovation in the Construction Industry: Implications to Improve Firms' Sustainable Orientation. Science and engineering ethics. :1-16.González-Benito, Ó., & González-Benito, J. (2008). Implications of market orientation on the environmental transformation of industrial firms. Ecological Economics, 64(4), 752-762. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.07.012(26) Segarra-O-a, M., Peiró-Signes, A., Mondéjar-Jiménez, J. (2013). Identifying Variables Affecting the Proactive Environmental Orientation of Firms: An Empirical Study. Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 22(3): 873-880.Carrascosa-López, C., Segarra-Oña, M.-V., Peiró-Signes, Á., & Segura-García-del-Río, B. (2012). Does It Pay to Be «Greener» than Legislation? An Empirical Study of Spanish Tile Industry. Journal of Sustainable Development, 5(5). doi:10.5539/jsd.v5n5p17(29) Ferrari, G., Mondéjar-Jiménez, J., Vargas-Vargas, M. (2010). Environmental sustainable management of small rural tourist enterprises. International Journal of Environmental Research, 4(3): 407-414.Segarra-Oña, M.-V., Peiró-Signes, Á., Verma, R., & Miret-Pastor, L. (2012). Does Environmental Certification Help the Economic Performance of Hotels? Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 53(3), 242-256. doi:10.1177/1938965512446417(32) Stern, N. (2006). The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.(2005). Oslo Manual. The Measurement of Scientific and Technological Activities. doi:10.1787/9789264013100-enKibert, C. J. (2007). The next generation of sustainable construction. Building Research & Information, 35(6), 595-601. doi:10.1080/09613210701467040Leaman, A., & Bordass, B. (2007). Are users more tolerant of ‘green’ buildings? Building Research & Information, 35(6), 662-673. doi:10.1080/09613210701529518Esposito Vinzi, V., Trinchera, L., Squillacciotti, S., & Tenenhaus, M. (2008). REBUS-PLS: A response-based procedure for detecting unit segments in PLS path modelling. Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, 24(5), 439-458. doi:10.1002/asmb.728Zanin, L. (2011). Detecting Unobserved Heterogeneity in the Relationship Between Subjective Well-Being and Satisfaction in Various Domains of Life Using the REBUS-PLS Path Modelling Approach: A Case Study. Social Indicators Research, 110(1), 281-304. doi:10.1007/s11205-011-9931-5(43) Chin, W. W. (1998). The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling. En G. A. Marcoulides (Ed.), Modern Methods for Business Research (pp. 295-358).Chin, W. W., Marcolin, B. L., & Newsted, P. R. (2003). A Partial Least Squares Latent Variable Modeling Approach for Measuring Interaction Effects: Results from a Monte Carlo Simulation Study and an Electronic-Mail Emotion/Adoption Study. Information Systems Research, 14(2), 189-217. doi:10.1287/isre.14.2.189.16018(45) Nunnally, J.C., Bernstein, I.H. (1995). Teoría psicométrica. México: McGraw-Hill.Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error: Algebra and Statistics. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(3), 382. doi:10.2307/3150980(47) Falk, R., Miller, N. (1992). A primer on soft modeling. Akron, OH.: The University of Akron Press.(48) Peiró-Signes, A., Segarra-O-a, M. V., Vargas-Vargas, M., Mondéjar-Jiménez, J. (2013). Can eco-innovative orientation be explained? An attempt to understand uncovered patterns. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 12(10): 1933-1939

Laser Calibration System for Time of Flight Scintillator Arrays

A laser calibration system was developed for monitoring and calibrating time of flight (TOF) scintillating detector arrays. The system includes setups for both small- and large-scale scintillator arrays. Following test-bench characterization, the laser system was recently commissioned in experimental Hall B at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility for use on the new Backward Angle Neutron Detector (BAND) scintillator array. The system successfully provided time walk corrections, absolute time calibration, and TOF drift correction for the scintillators in BAND. This showcases the general applicability of the system for use on high-precision TOF detectors.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Computing the absorption and emission spectra of 5-methylcytidine in different solvents: a test-case for different solvation models

International audience; The optical spectra of 5-methylcytidine in three different solvents (tetrahydrofuran, acetonitrile, and water) is measured, showing that both the absorption and the emission maximum in water are significantly blue-shifted (0.08 eV). The absorption spectra are simulated based on CAM-B3LYP/TD-DFT calculations but including solvent effects with three different approaches: (i) a hybrid implicit/explicit full quantum mechanical approach, (ii) a mixed QM/MM static approach, and (iii) a QM/MM method exploiting the structures issuing from molecular dynamics classical simulations. Ab-initio Molecular dynamics simulations based on CAM-B3LYP functionals have also been performed. The adopted approaches all reproduce the main features of the experimental spectra, giving insights on the chemical−physical effects responsible for the solvent shifts in the spectra of 5-methylcytidine and providing the basis for discussing advantages and limitations of the adopted solvation models

ASLP-MULAN: Audio speech and language processing for multimedia analytics

Our intention is generating the right mixture of audio, speech and language technologies with big data ones. Some audio, speech and language automatic technologies are available or gaining enough degree of maturity as to be able to help to this objective: automatic speech transcription, query by spoken example, spoken information retrieval, natural language processing, unstructured multimedia contents transcription and description, multimedia files summarization, spoken emotion detection and sentiment analysis, speech and text understanding, etc. They seem to be worthwhile to be joined and put at work on automatically captured data streams coming from several sources of information like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, online newspapers, web search engines, etc. to automatically generate reports that include both scientific based scores and subjective but relevant summarized statements on the tendency analysis and the perceived satisfaction of a product, a company or another entity by the general population

Serum methylarginines and spirometry-measured lung function in older adults

Rationale: Methylarginines are endogenous nitric oxide synthase inhibitors that have been implicated in animal models of lung disease but have not previously been examined for their association with spirometric measures of lung function in humans. Objectives: This study measured serum concentrations of asymmetric and symmetric dimethylarginine in a representative sample of older community-dwelling adults and determined their association with spirometric lung function measures. Methods: Data on clinical, lifestyle, and demographic characteristics, methylated arginines, and L-arginine (measured using LC-MS/MS) were collected from a population-based sample of older Australian adults from the Hunter Community Study. The five key lung function measures included as outcomes were Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second, Forced Vital Capacity, Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second to Forced Vital Capacity ratio, Percent Predicted Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second, and Percent Predicted Forced Vital Capacity. Measurements and Main Results: In adjusted analyses there were statistically significant independent associations between a) higher asymmetric dimethylarginine, lower Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second and lower Forced Vital Capacity; and b) lower L-arginine/asymmetric dimethylarginine ratio, lower Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second, lower Percent Predicted Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second and lower Percent Predicted Forced Vital Capacity. By contrast, no significant associations were observed between symmetric dimethylarginine and lung function. Conclusions: After adjusting for clinical, demographic, biochemical, and pharmacological confounders, higher serum asymmetric dimethylarginine was independently associated with a reduction in key measures of lung function. Further research is needed to determine if methylarginines predict the decline in lung function

Direct Observation of Proton-Neutron Short-Range Correlation Dominance in Heavy Nuclei

We measured the triple coincidence A(e,e′n p) and A(e,e′ p p) reactions on carbon, aluminum, iron, and lead targets at Q2 \u3e1.5  (GeV/c)2, xB \u3e 1.1 and missing momentum \u3e400  MeV/c. This was the first direct measurement of both proton-proton (pp) and neutron-proton (np) short-range correlated (SRC) pair knockout from heavy asymmetric nuclei. For all measured nuclei, the average proton-proton (pp) to neutron-proton (np) reduced cross-section ratio is about 6%, in agreement with previous indirect measurements. Correcting for single-charge exchange effects decreased the SRC pairs ratio to ∼3%, which is lower than previous results. Comparisons to theoretical generalized contact formalism (GCF) cross-section calculations show good agreement using both phenomenological and chiral nucleon-nucleon potentials, favoring a lower pp to np pair ratio. The ability of the GCF calculation to describe the experimental data using either phenomenological or chiral potentials suggests possible reduction of scale and scheme dependence in cross-section ratios. Our results also support the high-resolution description of high-momentum states being predominantly due to nucleons in SRC pairs

Probing the core of the strong nuclear interaction

The strong nuclear interaction between nucleons (protons and neutrons) is the effective force that holds the atomic nucleus together. This force stems from fundamental interactions between quarks and gluons (the constituents of nucleons) that are described by the equations of quantum chromodynamics. However, as these equations cannot be solved directly, nuclear interactions are described using simplified models, which are well constrained at typical inter-nucleon distances1,2,3,4,5 but not at shorter distances. This limits our ability to describe high-density nuclear matter such as that in the cores of neutron stars6. Here we use high-energy electron scattering measurements that isolate nucleon pairs in short-distance, high-momentum configurations7,8,9, accessing a kinematical regime that has not been previously explored by experiments, corresponding to relative momenta between the pair above 400 megaelectronvolts per c (c, speed of light in vacuum). As the relative momentum between two nucleons increases and their separation thereby decreases, we observe a transition from a spin-dependent tensor force to a predominantly spin-independent scalar force. These results demonstrate the usefulness of using such measurements to study the nuclear interaction at short distances and also support the use of point-like nucleon models with two- and three-body effective interactions to describe nuclear systems up to densities several times higher than the central density of the nucleus

Short-Range Correlations and the Nuclear EMC Effect in Deuterium and Helium-3

The EMC effect in deuterium and helium-3 is studied using a convolution formalism that allows isolating the impact of high-momentum nucleons in short-ranged correlated (SRC) pairs. We assume that the modification of the structure function of bound nucleons is given by a universal (i.e. nucleus independent) function of their virtuality, and find that the effect of such modifications is dominated by nucleons in SRC pairs. This SRC-dominance of nucleon modifications is observed despite the fact that the bulk of the nuclear inelastic scattering cross-section comes from interacting with low-momentum nucleons. These findings are found to be robust to model details including nucleon modification function parametrization, free nucleon structure function and treatment of nucleon motion effects. While existing data cannot discriminate between such model details, we present predictions for measured, but not yet published, tritium EMC effect and tagged nucleon structure functions in deuterium that are sensitive to the neutron structure functions and bound nucleon modification functions.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, and online supplementary material