A semi-analytical perspective on massive galaxies at z∼0.55z\sim0.55

The most massive and luminous galaxies in the Universe serve as powerful probes to study the formation of structure, the assembly of mass, and cosmology. However, their detailed formation and evolution is still barely understood. Here we extract a sample of massive mock galaxies from the semi-analytical model of galaxy formation (SAM) GALACTICUS from the MultiDark-Galaxies, by replicating the CMASS photometric selection from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The comparison of the GALACTICUS CMASS-mock with BOSS-CMASS data allows us to explore different aspects of the massive galaxy population at $0.5<z<0.6$, including the galaxy-halo connection and the galaxy clustering. We find good agreement between our modelled galaxies and observations regarding the galaxy-halo connection, but our CMASS-mock over-estimates the clustering amplitude of the 2-point correlation function, due to a smaller number density compared to BOSS, a lack of blue objects, and a small intrinsic scatter in stellar mass at fixed halo mass of $<0.1$ dex. To alleviate this problem, we construct an alternative mock catalogue mimicking the CMASS colour-magnitude distribution by randomly down-sampling the SAM catalogue. This CMASS-mock reproduces the clustering of CMASS galaxies within 1$\sigma$ and shows some environmental dependency of star formation properties that could be connected to the quenching of star formation and the assembly bias.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, submitted to MNRA

Establishment of the 1st World Health Organization International Standard for Plasmodium falciparum DNA for nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based assays

BACKGROUND: In order to harmonize results for the detection and quantification of Plasmodium falciparum DNA by nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based assays, a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborative study was performed, evaluating a series of candidate standard preparations. METHODS: Fourteen laboratories from 10 different countries participated in the collaborative study. Four candidate preparations based upon blood samples parasitaemic for P. falciparum were evaluated in the study. Sample AA was lyophilized, whilst samples BB, CC and DD were liquid/frozen preparations. The candidate standards were tested by each laboratory at a range of dilutions in four independent assays, using both qualitative and quantitative NAT-based assays. The results were collated and analysed statistically. RESULTS: Twenty sets of data were returned from the participating laboratories and used to determine the mean P. falciparum DNA content for each sample. The mean log10 "equivalents"/ml were 8.51 for sample AA, 8.45 for sample BB, 8.35 for sample CC, and 5.51 for sample DD. The freeze-dried preparation AA, was examined by accelerated thermal degradation studies and found to be highly stable. CONCLUSION: On the basis of the collaborative study, the freeze-dried material, AA (NIBSC code No. 04/176) was established as the 1st WHO International Standard for P. falciparum DNA NAT-based assays and has been assigned a potency of 10(9) International Units (IU) per ml. Each vial contains 5 x 10(8) IU, equivalent to 0.5 ml of material after reconstitution

[O II] emitters in MultiDark-Galaxies and DEEP2

We use three semi-analytical models (SAMs) of galaxy formation and evolution run on the same 1 h(-1) Gpc MultiDark Planck2 cosmological simulation to investigate the properties of [O II] emission line galaxies at redshift z similar to 1. We compare model predictions with different observational data sets, including DEEP2-FIREFLY galaxies with absolute magnitudes. We estimate the [O II] luminosity (L[O II]) of our model galaxies using the public code GET EMLINES, which ideally assumes as input the instantaneous star formation rates (SFRs). This property is only available in one of the SAMs under consideration, while the others provide average SFRs, as most models do. We study the feasibility of inferring galaxies' L[O II] from average SFRs in post-processing. We find that the result is accurate for model galaxies with dust attenuated L[O II] less than or similar to 10(42.2) erg s(-1) ( 10(40.4) erg s(-1) remains overall unchanged on scales above 1 h(-1) Mpc, independently of the L[O II] computation. © 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical SocietyGFandVGPacknowledge support from the University of Portsmouth through the Dennis Sciama Fellowship award. VGP acknowledges support from the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 769130). DS is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under the 2014 Severo Ochoa Predoctoral Training Programme. DS also wants to thank the Mamua Cafe Bar-team for their kind (g)astronomical support. DS and FP acknowledge funding support from the MINECO grant AYA2014-60641-C2-1-P. AO acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) project No. AYA2015-66211-C2-P-2, and funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 734374. SAC acknowledges funding from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET, PIP0387), Agencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnologica (ANPCyT, PICT-2013-0317), and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (11-G124 and 11-G150), Argentina. CVMacknowledges CONICET, Argentina, for the supporting fellowship. AK is supported by the MINECO and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER, UE) in Spain through grant AYA2015-63810-P as well as by the MICIU/FEDER through grant number PGC2018-094975-C21. He further acknowledges support from the Spanish Red Consolider MultiDark FPA2017-90566-REDC and thanks Christopher Cross for sailing. ARHS acknowledges receipt of the Jim Buckee Fellowship at ICRAR-UWA. GF, VGP and DS wish to thank La Plata Astronomical Observatory for hosting the MultiDark Galaxies workshop in September 2016, during which this work was started. The authors thank the FIREFLY team and the anonymous referee for providing insightful comments. The analysis of DEEP2 data using the FIREFLY code was done on the Sciama High Performance Compute cluster which is supported by the ICG, SEPNet and the University of Portsmouth (UK). The CosmoSim database used in this paper is a service by the Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP). The MultiDark database was developed in cooperation with the Spanish MultiDark Consolider Project CSD200900064. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing e.V. (www.gauss-centre.eu) and the Partnership for Advanced Supercomputing in Europe (PRACE, www.praceri.eu) for funding the MultiDark simulation project by providing computing time on the GCS Supercomputer SuperMUC at Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ, www.lrz.de).The authors thank New Mexico State University (USA) and Instituto de Astrof ' isica de Andalucia CSIC (Spain) for hosting the SKIES& UNIVERSES database for cosmological simulation products. This work has benefited from the publicly available software tools and packages: MATPLOTLIB14 2012-2016 (Hunter 2007); PYTHON SOFTWARE FOUNDATION15 19902017, version 2.7., PYTHONBREW16; we use whenever possible in this work a colour-blind friendly colour palette17 for our plots.Peer reviewe

Biology and biotechnology of Trichoderma

Fungi of the genus Trichoderma are soilborne, green-spored ascomycetes that can be found all over the world. They have been studied with respect to various characteristics and applications and are known as successful colonizers of their habitats, efficiently fighting their competitors. Once established, they launch their potent degradative machinery for decomposition of the often heterogeneous substrate at hand. Therefore, distribution and phylogeny, defense mechanisms, beneficial as well as deleterious interaction with hosts, enzyme production and secretion, sexual development, and response to environmental conditions such as nutrients and light have been studied in great detail with many species of this genus, thus rendering Trichoderma one of the best studied fungi with the genome of three species currently available. Efficient biocontrol strains of the genus are being developed as promising biological fungicides, and their weaponry for this function also includes secondary metabolites with potential applications as novel antibiotics. The cellulases produced by Trichoderma reesei, the biotechnological workhorse of the genus, are important industrial products, especially with respect to production of second generation biofuels from cellulosic waste. Genetic engineering not only led to significant improvements in industrial processes but also to intriguing insights into the biology of these fungi and is now complemented by the availability of a sexual cycle in T. reesei/Hypocrea jecorina, which significantly facilitates both industrial and basic research. This review aims to give a broad overview on the qualities and versatility of the best studied Trichoderma species and to highlight intriguing findings as well as promising applications

Understanding the clinical spectrum of complicated Plasmodium vivax malaria: a systematic review on the contributions of the Brazilian literature

The resurgence of the malaria eradication agenda and the increasing number of severe manifestation reports has contributed to a renewed interested in the Plasmodium vivax infection. It is the most geographically widespread parasite causing human malaria, with around 2.85 billion people living under risk of infection. The Brazilian Amazon region reports more than 50% of the malaria cases in Latin America and since 1990 there is a marked predominance of this species, responsible for 85% of cases in 2009. However, only a few complicated cases of P. vivax have been reported from this region. A systematic review of the Brazilian indexed and non-indexed literature on complicated cases of vivax malaria was performed including published articles, masters' dissertations, doctoral theses and national congresses' abstracts. The following information was retrieved: patient characteristics (demographic, presence of co-morbidities and, whenever possible, associated genetic disorders); description of each major clinical manifestation. As a result, 27 articles, 28 abstracts from scientific events' annals and 13 theses/dissertations were found, only after 1987. Most of the reported information was described in small case series and case reports of patients from all the Amazonian states, and also in travellers from Brazilian non-endemic areas. The more relevant clinical complications were anaemia, thrombocytopaenia, jaundice and acute respiratory distress syndrome, present in all age groups, in addition to other more rare clinical pictures. Complications in pregnant women were also reported. Acute and chronic co-morbidities were frequent, however death was occasional. Clinical atypical cases of malaria are more frequent than published in the indexed literature, probably due to a publication bias. In the Brazilian Amazon (considered to be a low to moderate intensity area of transmission), clinical data are in accordance with the recent findings of severity described in diverse P. vivax endemic areas (especially anaemia in Southeast Asia), however in this region both children and adults are affected. Finally, gaps of knowledge and areas for future research are opportunely pointed out

[O ii] emitters in MultiDark-Galaxies and DEEP2

We use three semi-analytical models (SAMs) of galaxy formation and evolution run on the same 1 h−1 Gpc MultiDark Planck2 cosmological simulation to investigate the properties of [O II] emission line galaxies at redshift z ∼ 1. We compare model predictions with different observational data sets, including DEEP2–FIREFLY galaxies with absolute magnitudes. We estimate the [O II] luminosity (L[O II]) of our model galaxies using the public code GET EMLINES , which ideally assumes as input the instantaneous star formation rates (SFRs). This property is only available in one of the SAMs under consideration, while the others provide average SFRs, as most models do. We study the feasibility of inferring galaxies’ L[O II] from average SFRs in post-processing. We find that the result is accurate for model galaxies with dust attenuated L[O II] 1042.2 erg s−1 (1040.4 erg s−1 remains overall unchanged on scales above 1 h−1 Mpc, independently of the L[O II] computation.Fil: Favole, G. Institute Of Cosmology And Gravitation; Reino UnidoFil: González Pérez, Carlos Federico. Institute Of Cosmology And Gravitation; Reino UnidoFil: Stoppacher, D. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Orsi, Á. Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon; EspañaFil: Comparat, J. Max-planck-institut F¨ur Extraterrestrische Physik; AlemaniaFil: Cora, Sofia Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Vega Martínez, Cristian Antonio. Universidad de La Serena; ChileFil: Stevens, A. R. H.. International Centre For Radio Astronomy Research; AustraliaFil: Maraston, C.. Institute Of Cosmology And Gravitation; Reino UnidoFil: Croton, D.. Centre For Astrophysics And Supercomputing, Swinburne; AustraliaFil: Knebe, A.. Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma D; EspañaFil: Benson, Silvia. Carnegie Observatories; Estados UnidosFil: Montero Dorta, A. D.. Univesidad de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Padilla, Natalia Soledad. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; ChileFil: Prada, Federico. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía; EspañaFil: Thomas, Pablo Daniel. Institute Of Cosmology And Gravitation; Reino Unid