Regulation of Clock-Controlled Genes in Mammals

The complexity of tissue- and day time-specific regulation of thousands of clock-controlled genes (CCGs) suggests that many regulatory mechanisms contribute to the transcriptional output of the circadian clock. We aim to predict these mechanisms using a large scale promoter analysis of CCGs

Role of age and comorbidities in mortality of patients with infective endocarditis

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of patients with IE in three groups of age and to assess the ability of age and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to predict mortality. Methods: Prospective cohort study of all patients with IE included in the GAMES Spanish database between 2008 and 2015. Patients were stratified into three age groups:<65 years, 65 to 80 years, and = 80 years.The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was calculated to quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the CCI to predict mortality risk. Results: A total of 3120 patients with IE (1327 < 65 years;1291 65-80 years;502 = 80 years) were enrolled.Fever and heart failure were the most common presentations of IE, with no differences among age groups.Patients =80 years who underwent surgery were significantly lower compared with other age groups (14.3%, 65 years; 20.5%, 65-79 years; 31.3%, =80 years). In-hospital mortality was lower in the <65-year group (20.3%, <65 years;30.1%, 65-79 years;34.7%, =80 years;p < 0.001) as well as 1-year mortality (3.2%, <65 years; 5.5%, 65-80 years;7.6%, =80 years; p = 0.003).Independent predictors of mortality were age = 80 years (hazard ratio [HR]:2.78;95% confidence interval [CI]:2.32–3.34), CCI = 3 (HR:1.62; 95% CI:1.39–1.88), and non-performed surgery (HR:1.64;95% CI:11.16–1.58).When the three age groups were compared, the AUROC curve for CCI was significantly larger for patients aged <65 years(p < 0.001) for both in-hospital and 1-year mortality. Conclusion: There were no differences in the clinical presentation of IE between the groups. Age = 80 years, high comorbidity (measured by CCI), and non-performance of surgery were independent predictors of mortality in patients with IE.CCI could help to identify those patients with IE and surgical indication who present a lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality after surgery, especially in the <65-year group

Searching for solar KDAR with DUNE

Abstract: The observation of 236 MeV muon neutrinos from kaon-decay-at-rest (KDAR) originating in the core of the Sun would provide a unique signature of dark matter annihilation. Since excellent angle and energy reconstruction are necessary to detect this monoenergetic, directional neutrino flux, DUNE with its vast volume and reconstruction capabilities, is a promising candidate for a KDAR neutrino search. In this work, we evaluate the proposed KDAR neutrino search strategies by realistically modeling both neutrino-nucleus interactions and the response of DUNE. We find that, although reconstruction of the neutrino energy and direction is difficult with current techniques in the relevant energy range, the superb energy resolution, angular resolution, and particle identification offered by DUNE can still permit great signal/background discrimination. Moreover, there are non-standard scenarios in which searches at DUNE for KDAR in the Sun can probe dark matter interactions

Genetic diversity of HLA system in two populations from Chiapas, Mexico: Tuxtla Gutiérrez and rural Chiapas

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 173 Mexicans from the state of Chiapas living in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez (N = 52) and rural communities (N = 121), to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies. We found that the most frequent haplotypes in Chiapas include 12 Native American and one European haplotype. Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components in Chiapas are Native American (71.61 ± 0.58 by ML; 53.16 of Native American haplotypes) and European (26.39 ± 5.05 by ML; 25.86 of European haplotypes), and a less prominent African genetic component (2.00 ± 5.20 by ML; 9.77 of African haplotypes)

MEGARA, the R=6000-20000 IFU and MOS of GTC

MEGARA is the new generation IFU and MOS optical spectrograph built for the 10.4m Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC). The project was developed by a consortium led by UCM (Spain) that also includes INAOE (Mexico), IAA-CSIC (Spain) and UPM (Spain). The instrument arrived to GTC on March 28th 2017 and was successfully integrated and commissioned at the telescope from May to August 2017. During the on-sky commissioning we demonstrated that MEGARA is a powerful and robust instrument that provides on-sky intermediate-to-high spectral resolutions RFWHM ~ 6,000, 12,000 and 20,000 at an unprecedented efficiency for these resolving powers in both its IFU and MOS modes. The IFU covers 12.5 x 11.3 arcsec 2 while the MOS mode allows observing up to 92 objects in a region of 3.5 x 3.5 arcmin 2 . In this paper we describe the instrument main subsystems, including the Folded-Cassegrain unit, the fiber link, the spectrograph, the cryostat, the detector and the control subsystems, and its performance numbers obtained during commissioning where the fulfillment of the instrument requirements is demonstrated. © 2018 SPIE

First scientific observations with MEGARA at GTC

On June 25th 2017, the new intermediate-resolution optical IFU and MOS of the 10.4-m GTC had its first light. As part of the tests carried out to verify the performance of the instrument in its two modes (IFU and MOS) and 18 spectral setups (identical number of VPHs with resolutions R=6000-20000 from 0.36 to 1 micron) a number of astronomical objects were observed. These observations show that MEGARA@GTC is called to fill a niche of high-throughput, intermediateresolution IFU and MOS observations of extremely-faint narrow-lined objects. Lyman-α absorbers, star-forming dwarfs or even weak absorptions in stellar spectra in our Galaxy or in the Local Group can now be explored to a new level. Thus, the versatility of MEGARA in terms of observing modes and spectral resolution and coverage will allow GTC to go beyond current observational limits in either depth or precision for all these objects. The results to be presented in this talk clearly demonstrate the potential of MEGARA in this regard

Escala 1-1. Trayectos experimentales en el proceso de determinación del Proyecto Arquitectónico.

El proyecto de investigación llevado adelante por la Cátedra del Ciclo Básico del taller Valderrama, explora las posibilidades pedagógicas de una didáctica interdisciplinaria que introduce ejercitaciones a escala real como dispositivos de interfaz entre sucesivas instancias de transformación en el proceso de determinación de la arquitectura, como una sucesión de transformaciones encadenadas. A partir del monitoreo sistemático, se produjeron ajustes que mejoraron significativamente la performance de los estudiantes y la validez de la didáctica en su capacidad de generalización y aplicación en contextos diferenciados, introduciendo trayectos experimentales a escala 1:1 en una apuesta hacia el aprendizaje situado, incorporando una participación corporal legítima y un vínculo con la práctica artesanal. El contexto de pandemia nos exigió la readaptación de las exploraciones pedagógicas y devino en artefactos adaptados a los procedimientos y procesos de producción emanados de las condiciones del aislamiento social preventivo y obligatorio (ASPO), trabajando con técnicas mixtas, analógicas y digitales, donde se hibridaron los procesos experimentales a escala 1:1 con la inteligencia artificial y se propició un tipo de producción basada en “la expresión de lo disponible”. Se realizaron escaneos del territorio con fotogrametría, con maquetas digitales del lugar y experimentos a escala 1:1 utilizando materiales de descarte, encontrados en un radio de 100m de casa. También se propició y se trabajó en el reconocimiento de las cualidades de los distintos ambientes domésticos como lugares de laboratorio (luz, agua, temperatura, gravedad, fuego, hielo). La Pandemia Global generó un resquebrajamiento de los lazos sociales y dificultó la construcción colectiva del conocimiento; corrió el cuerpo de la escena del aula, impidiendo la producción de conocimientos desde la experimentación y la comprobación empírica a escala 1:1 y distorsionando la percepción del espacio con el propio cuerpo y la interrelación con el paisaje físico y simbólico. Las consecuencias de la pandemia nos ha forzado a re-pensar la disciplina. Entendemos que es urgente un giro onto-epistemológico que nos permita re-conectar los cuerpos, las materias, los artefactos y los territorios y profundizar la dimensión situada in-situ-in vivo y colectiva del proyecto arquitectónico