257 research outputs found
Homochiral Metal-Organic Frameworks for Enantioselective Separations in Liquid Chromatography
Selective separation of enantiomers is a substantial challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. Chromatography on chiral stationary phases is the standard method, but at a very high cost for industrial-scale purification owing to the high cost of the chiral stationary phases. Typically, these materials are poorly robust, expensive to manufacture and often too specific for a single desired substrate, lacking desirable versatility across different chiral analytes. Here we disclose a porous, robust homochiral metal-organic framework (MOF), TAMOF-1, built from copper(II) and an affordable linker prepared from natural L-histidine. TAMOF-1 has shown to be able to separate a variety of model racemic mixtures, including drugs, in a wide range of solvents of different polarity, outperforming several commercial chiral columns for HPLC separations. Although not exploited in the present article, it is worthy to mention that the preparation of this new material is scalable to the multikilogram scale, opening unprecedented possibilities for low-energy chiral separation at the industrial scale
Database of spatial distribution of non indigenous species in Spanish marine waters
Research in marine Spanish waters are focused on several actions to achieve an effectively management on protected areas, with the active participation of the stakeholders and research as basic tools for decision-making. Among these actions, there is one about the knowledge and control on NIS. One of its objectives is the creation of NIS factsheets, which are going to be added to the National Marine Biodiversity Geographical System (GIS) providing complementary information about taxonomic classification, common names, taxonomic synonyms, species illustrations, identification morphological characters, habitat in the native and introduced regions, biological and ecological traits, GenBank DNA sequences, world distribution, first record and evolution in the introduced areas, likely pathways of introduction, effects in the habitats and interaction with native species, and potential management measures to apply. The database will also provide data for (1) the European online platforms, (2) the environmental assessment for the Descriptor 2 (D2-NIS) of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), as well as (3) supporting decisions made by stakeholders. It is the result of extensive collaboration among scientist, manager’s and citizen science in the Spanish North-Atlantic, South-Atlantic, Gibraltar Strait-Alboran, Levantine-Balearic and Canary Islands marine divisions, providing an updated overview of the spatial distribution of relevant extended and invasive NIS of recent and established NIS introduced by maritime transport and aquaculture pathways, as well as on cryptogenic or native species in expansion due to the climatic water warming trend
Towards precision medicine: defining and characterizing adipose tissue dysfunction to identify early immunometabolic risk in symptom-free adults from the GEMM family study
Interactions between macrophages and adipocytes are early molecular factors influencing adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction, resulting in high leptin, low adiponectin circulating levels and low-grade metaflammation, leading to insulin resistance (IR) with increased cardiovascular risk. We report the characterization of AT dysfunction through measurements of the adiponectin/leptin ratio (ALR), the adipo-insulin resistance index (Adipo-IRi), fasting/postprandial (F/P) immunometabolic phenotyping and direct F/P differential gene expression in AT biopsies obtained from symptom-free adults from the GEMM family study. AT dysfunction was evaluated through associations of the ALR with F/P insulin-glucose axis, lipid-lipoprotein metabolism, and inflammatory markers. A relevant pattern of negative associations between decreased ALR and markers of systemic low-grade metaflammation, HOMA, and postprandial cardiovascular risk hyperinsulinemic, triglyceride and GLP-1 curves was found. We also analysed their plasma non-coding microRNAs and shotgun lipidomics profiles finding trends that may reflect a pattern of adipose tissue dysfunction in the fed and fasted state. Direct gene differential expression data showed initial patterns of AT molecular signatures of key immunometabolic genes involved in AT expansion, angiogenic remodelling and immune cell migration. These data reinforce the central, early role of AT dysfunction at the molecular and systemic level in the pathogenesis of IR and immunometabolic disorders
The Pierre Auger Observatory Open Data
The Pierre Auger Collaboration has embraced the concept of open access to
their research data since its foundation, with the aim of giving access to the
widest possible community. A gradual process of release began as early as 2007
when 1% of the cosmic-ray data was made public, along with 100% of the
space-weather information. In February 2021, a portal was released containing
10% of cosmic-ray data collected from 2004 to 2018, during Phase I of the
Observatory. The Portal included detailed documentation about the detection and
reconstruction procedures, analysis codes that can be easily used and modified
and, additionally, visualization tools. Since then the Portal has been updated
and extended. In 2023, a catalog of the 100 highest-energy cosmic-ray events
examined in depth has been included. A specific section dedicated to
educational use has been developed with the expectation that these data will be
explored by a wide and diverse community including professional and
citizen-scientists, and used for educational and outreach initiatives. This
paper describes the context, the spirit and the technical implementation of the
release of data by the largest cosmic-ray detector ever built, and anticipates
its future developments.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
Radio Measurements of the Depth of Air-Shower Maximum at the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), part of the Pierre Auger
Observatory, is currently the largest array of radio antenna stations deployed
for the detection of cosmic rays, spanning an area of km with 153
radio stations. It detects the radio emission of extensive air showers produced
by cosmic rays in the MHz band. Here, we report the AERA measurements
of the depth of the shower maximum (), a probe for mass
composition, at cosmic-ray energies between to eV,
which show agreement with earlier measurements with the fluorescence technique
at the Pierre Auger Observatory. We show advancements in the method for radio
reconstruction by comparison to dedicated sets of CORSIKA/CoREAS
air-shower simulations, including steps of reconstruction-bias identification
and correction, which is of particular importance for irregular or sparse radio
arrays. Using the largest set of radio air-shower measurements to date, we show
the radio resolution as a function of energy, reaching a
resolution better than g cm at the highest energies, demonstrating
that radio measurements are competitive with the established
high-precision fluorescence technique. In addition, we developed a procedure
for performing an extensive data-driven study of systematic uncertainties,
including the effects of acceptance bias, reconstruction bias, and the
investigation of possible residual biases. These results have been
cross-checked with air showers measured independently with both the radio and
fluorescence techniques, a setup unique to the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Ground observations of a space laser for the assessment of its in-orbit performance
The wind mission Aeolus of the European Space Agency was a groundbreaking
achievement for Earth observation. Between 2018 and 2023, the space-borne lidar
instrument ALADIN onboard the Aeolus satellite measured atmospheric wind
profiles with global coverage which contributed to improving the accuracy of
numerical weather prediction. The precision of the wind observations, however,
declined over the course of the mission due to a progressive loss of the
atmospheric backscatter signal. The analysis of the root cause was supported by
the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina whose fluorescence detector
registered the ultraviolet laser pulses emitted from the instrument in space,
thereby offering an estimation of the laser energy at the exit of the
instrument for several days in 2019, 2020 and 2021. The reconstruction of the
laser beam not only allowed for an independent assessment of the Aeolus
performance, but also helped to improve the accuracy in the determination of
the laser beam's ground track on single pulse level. The results presented in
this paper set a precedent for the monitoring of space lasers by ground-based
telescopes and open new possibilities for the calibration of cosmic-ray
observatories.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Demonstrating Agreement between Radio and Fluorescence Measurements of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory
We show, for the first time, radio measurements of the depth of shower
maximum () of air showers induced by cosmic rays that are
compared to measurements of the established fluorescence method at the same
location. Using measurements at the Pierre Auger Observatory we show full
compatibility between our radio and the previously published fluorescence data
set, and between a subset of air showers observed simultaneously with both
radio and fluorescence techniques, a measurement setup unique to the Pierre
Auger Observatory. Furthermore, we show radio resolution as a
function of energy and demonstrate the ability to make competitive
high-resolution measurements with even a sparse radio array.
With this, we show that the radio technique is capable of cosmic-ray mass
composition studies, both at Auger and at other experiments.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
AugerPrime Surface Detector Electronics
Operating since 2004, the Pierre Auger Observatory has led to major advances
in our understanding of the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. The latest findings
have revealed new insights that led to the upgrade of the Observatory, with the
primary goal of obtaining information on the primary mass of the most energetic
cosmic rays on a shower-by-shower basis. In the framework of the upgrade,
called AugerPrime, the 1660 water-Cherenkov detectors of the surface array are
equipped with plastic scintillators and radio antennas, allowing us to enhance
the composition sensitivity. To accommodate new detectors and to increase
experimental capabilities, the electronics is also upgraded. This includes
better timing with up-to-date GPS receivers, higher sampling frequency,
increased dynamic range, and more powerful local processing of the data. In
this paper, the design characteristics of the new electronics and the enhanced
dynamic range will be described. The manufacturing and test processes will be
outlined and the test results will be discussed. The calibration of the SD
detector and various performance parameters obtained from the analysis of the
first commissioning data will also be presented
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