Axon micro-dissection and transcriptome profiling reveals the in vivo RNA content of fully differentiated myelinated motor axons

Axonal protein synthesis has been shown to play a role in developmental and regenerative growth, as well as in the maintenance of the axoplasm in steady state. Recent studies have begun to identify the mRNAs localized in axons, which could be translated locally under different conditions. Despite that now hundreds or thousands of mRNAs have been shown to be localized into the axonal compartment of cultured neurons in vitro, knowledge of which mRNAs are localized in mature myelinated axons is quite limited. With the purpose of characterizing the transcriptome of mature myelinated motor axons of peripheral nervous system, we modified the axon micro-dissection method devised by Koenig, enabling the isolation of the axoplasm RNA to perform RNA-seq analysis. The transcriptome analysis indicates that the number of RNAs detected in mature axons is lower in comparison with in vitro data, is depleted of glial markers and enriched in neuronal markers. The mature myelinated axons are enriched for mRNAs related to cytoskeleton, translation and oxidative phosphorylation. Moreover, it was possible to define core genes present in axons when comparing our data with transcriptomic data of axons grown in different conditions. This work provides evidence that axon micro-dissection is a valuable method to obtain data at genome-wide levels of mature and myelinated axons of the peripheral nervous system, and could be especially useful for the study of axonal involvement in neurodegenerative pathologies of motor neurons such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophies (SMA). Faria

Genetic Variation in Wood Mechanical Properties of Calycophyllum Spruceanum at an Early Age in the Peruvian Amazon

Calycophyllum spruceanum (Benth.) Hook. f. ex Shum. is an important timber species of the Peruvian Amazon Basin. Due to overexploitation in natural populations, users are turning to young trees of potentially lower quality. Therefore, variation in juvenile wood properties should be investigated to determine whether wood quality can be maintained or, if necessary, improved by breeding. A provenance/progeny test was established to evaluate genetic variation in growth and wood properties of young trees, the strength of their genetic control, as well as their interrelationships both at the genetic and phenotypic levels. This paper presents results obtained for ultimate crushing strength (σL), the static compliance coefficient (S11) in longitudinal compression, the dynamic s11 in the longitudinal direction (determined by ultrasound), and air-dry density at 39 months. Results indicate that the mechanical properties of juvenile wood of this species are adequate for structural uses. There was significant variation in all wood properties due to families within provenances, and in all but dynamic s11 due to provenances. Families accounted for a larger percentage of the total phenotypic variance than provenances. Heritability estimates were higher for σL and static s11 than for dynamic s11 and density. Genetic correlations indicate that selecting trees with denser wood and/or faster growth would have a positive effect on some mechanical properties. A non-destructive ultrasonic method appeared suitable for estimating juvenile wood strength and stiffness of this species

Indifference Curve Analysis: Beyond Simplifying Assumptions

This article presents the proper analysis of indifference curve systems once some of the simplifying assumptions used to teach beginning students are relaxed. First, the diminishing MRS assumption is relaxed to allow the existence of concave4 indifference curves. Then the more-is-better assumption is relaxed.  This reveals a potential source of confusion for students: usually one can find the optimum of a system by choosing the point where the budget line touches the most northeastern indifference curve, but once the more-is-better assumption is relaxed, the preference order of the indifference curves becomes the main criterion – not geographical location. Once both assumptions are removed, we study the case where too much of a good thing can become a bad thing – that is, where the consumer can encounter satiation

The Role of Agreement Technologies in the Definition of Adaptive Software Architectures

The growing complexity of software systems is causing a re-conception of their development and maintenance strategies. Humans should be relieved from an important part of these tasks, which should be performed by systems themselves, leading to consider self-adaptation as a basic architectural concern. Simultaneously, Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) have been developed as a generic approach to solve complex problems. They describe self-aware structures,conceived to be flexible and to be able to adapt to different situations. Advances approaches use organizations to provide further structuring, taking the form of complex agent architectures. Among them, Agreement Technologies (AT) provides an explicit insight into those architectural abstractions. However, they still do not provide mechanisms to change their composition patterns and element types, which are necessary to achieve real self-adaptivity. In this article, we propose an architectural solution for this: the required dynamism will be supported by an emergent agreement - an evolving architectural structure, based on combining predefined controls and protocols. These are handled in the context of the service-oriented, agent-based and organization-centric framework defined in AT and provided by their implementation within the THOMAS platform. This work provides the first architectural abstractions to support this emergent structure. A real-world example showing the interest of this approach is also provided, and some conclusions about its applicability are finally outlined.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Effect of Fe substitution for Cu on microstructure and magnetic properties of laser floating zone (LFZ) grown Bi-2212 rods

In this paper, the laser floating zone (LFZ) technique has been used to fabricate Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2-x Fe x O (x=0,0.01,0.03,0.05,0.1) superconducting fibers. The effects of Fe substitution on grain alignment and superconducting properties of annealed fibers were studied using SEM/EDX microanalysis in addition to phase analysis and magnetic measurements realized through XRD, M-T, and M-H loops. In the same growth conditions, higher Fe contents lead to a more compact microstructure with lower porosity but also caused the formation of poor superconducting phases followed by the decrease of T c and J cmag. No evidence of enhanced pinning capability was found in the magnetic measurements. Annealed rods indicated a weakly ferromagnetic-like behavior at relatively high doping levels.This work was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) in the scope of 2214 International Doctoral Research Fellowship Program. A. Sotelo and M.A. Madre acknowledge MICINN-FEDER (Project MAT2008- 00429) and DGA (Consolidated research group T12) for financial support.Peer Reviewe

Andamios porosos (apatita/colágeno) de origen marino para aplicaciones biomédicas

1 póster presentado en las III Xornadas de Investigación BioIntegraSaúde 2015, Vigo 16 xuño 2015.-- E. López-Senra ... et al.FP7/REGPOT-2012-2013.1 (nº 316265, BIOCAPS); UE-INTERREG 2011-1/164 MARMED; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Project MAT2010-18281)Peer reviewe

Grain alignment and its relationship with superconductivity and thermal transport of Ni-substituted Bi-2212 textured rods fabricated at two different growth rates

The microstructure, grain alignment, superconducting and thermal transport properties of Ni-substituted Bi-2212 rods grown at two different speeds (15 and 30 mm h−1) through the Laser Floating Zone method, have been evaluated. Significant variations in grain size, grain alignment, electrical and thermoelectric power properties have been observed for the rods depending on the growth and substitution rates. The highest aligned structure was obtained on unsubstituted rods grown at 15 mm h−1. Both increased substitution and growth rates degraded the grain alignment. The presence of Ni-based secondary phases showed that Ni is not totally incorporated into the crystal structure, which, in turn, caused a decrease on the average grain size of the rods. With increasing Ni concentration, peak values of thermoelectric power of the rods, which lie between 3.8 and 6.4 μVK−1, monotonically decreased while thermal conductivity values did not show any systematic change. The activation energy of flux motion, Uo, was calculated from the field dependent resistivity–temperature curves in a range of 0–8 T. Superconducting transition temperatures, Tconset and Tcoffset, and activation energy, Uo, were found to decrease with increasing Ni contents and applied magnetic field. It has been estimated from the magnetic field dependence of activation energy of the samples that plastic creep of the collective vortices is dominant in the rods.This work was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under 2214 International Doctoral Research Fellowship Program (M. Ozabaci). A. Sotelo and M.A. Madre acknowledge DGA (Consolidated research group T12) for financial support. M. A. Madre acknowledges MINECO-FEDER (Project MAT2011-22719) for funding.Peer Reviewe

Hábitos y prácticas de consumo de teléfonos celulares en México y España

Los avances tecnológicos, la expansión de mercado y el corto ciclo de vida que caracteriza a los aparatos eléctricos y electrónicos, los convierte en el flujo de residuos de más rápido crecimiento en el mundo. Uno de estos aparatos de mayor consumo son los teléfonos celulares, que ya forman parte del estilo la vida de un número creciente de personas en todo el mundo. Los hábitos de consumo y de gestión del residuo que generan una vez finalizada su vida útil están asociados a los estilos de vida de los diferentes segmentos de la población, siendo la población joven el segmento de mayor consumo. Ante este contexto, este trabajo se centra en analizar los hábitos de consumo y retirada de los teléfonos celulares entre el segmento de los jóvenes universitarios de México y España, tomando como caso de estudio una universidad para cada país. Para ello, se diseñó una encuesta con el propósito de obtener información referente al conocimiento ambiental, hábitos de consumo y la forma en que gestionan el teléfono celular al finalizar su vida útil. Los resultados obtenidos sustentan la necesidad de desarrollar evaluaciones e implementar posibles escenarios para la gestión sostenible de los celulares al final de su vida útil.Technological advances, market expansion and the short life cycle that characterizes the electrical and electronic equipments, makes their wastes to be the fastest growing flow of residues in the world. One of the electronic devices that has increased their consumption is cell phones, which are already part of the life style of a growing number of people around the world. Consumption and waste management at end-of-life patterns are associated with the lifestyles of the different segments of the population, being young people the largest consumer segment. Given this context, this paper focuses on analyzing consumption and removal of cell phones patterns from the segment of university students in Mexico and Spain. To do this, a survey was designed in order to obtain information concerning the environmental knowledge and consumption habits and the way students manage cellphones at their end-of-life. The results support the need to develop and implement alternative scenarios for the sustainable management of cellphones at the end of their useful life