Messenger RNA targeting to endoplasmic reticulum stress signalling sites.

Deficiencies in the protein-folding capacity of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in all eukaryotic cells lead to ER stress and trigger the unfolded protein response (UPR). ER stress is sensed by Ire1, a transmembrane kinase/endoribonuclease, which initiates the non-conventional splicing of the messenger RNA encoding a key transcription activator, Hac1 in yeast or XBP1 in metazoans. In the absence of ER stress, ribosomes are stalled on unspliced HAC1 mRNA. The translational control is imposed by a base-pairing interaction between the HAC1 intron and the HAC1 5' untranslated region. After excision of the intron, transfer RNA ligase joins the severed exons, lifting the translational block and allowing synthesis of Hac1 from the spliced HAC1 mRNA to ensue. Hac1 in turn drives the UPR gene expression program comprising 7-8% of the yeast genome to counteract ER stress. Here we show that, on activation, Ire1 molecules cluster in the ER membrane into discrete foci of higher-order oligomers, to which unspliced HAC1 mRNA is recruited by means of a conserved bipartite targeting element contained in the 3' untranslated region. Disruption of either Ire1 clustering or HAC1 mRNA recruitment impairs UPR signalling. The HAC1 3' untranslated region element is sufficient to target other mRNAs to Ire1 foci, as long as their translation is repressed. Translational repression afforded by the intron fulfils this requirement for HAC1 mRNA. Recruitment of mRNA to signalling centres provides a new paradigm for the control of eukaryotic gene expression

Rethinking Corporate Power to Tackle Grand Societal Challenges: Lessons from Political Philosophy

We review three books that examine three interrelated grand challenges: climate change, abusive power in the workplace, and unfair international trading relations. The main take-away is that decision makers’ moral compass is centrally important to bring about more equitable and sustainable outcomes. Although the three books differ in structure and style, the shared wisdom that emerges from them is that we should abandon utilitarian approaches and embrace morality and self-governance at both the individual and organizational level in order to overcome the profit-making logic that dominates much of corporate action in today’s capitalist systems.Spanish Research Agency, 10.13039/501100011033 PID2019-106725GB-I0

Global convergence of a non-convex Douglas-Rachford iteration

We establish a region of convergence for the proto-typical non-convex Douglas-Rachford iteration which finds a point on the intersection of a line and a circle. Previous work on the non-convex iteration [2] was only able to establish local convergence, and was ineffective in that no explicit region of convergence could be given

Where have all the low-metallicity galaxies gone? Tracing evolution in the mass--metallicity plane since a redshift of 0.7

Even over relatively recent epochs, galaxies have evolved significantly in their location in the mass-metallicity plane, which must be telling us something about the latter stages of galaxy evolution. In this paper, we analyse data from the LEGA-C survey using semi-analytic spectral and photometric fitting to determine these galaxies' evolution up to their observed epoch at $z \sim 0.7$. We confirm that, at $z \sim 0.7$, many objects already lie on the present-day mass-metallicity relation, but with a significant tail of high-mass low-metallicity galaxies that is not seen in the nearby Universe. Similar modelling of the evolution of galaxies in the nearby MaNGA survey allows us to reconstruct their properties at $z \sim 0.7$. Once selection criteria similar to those of LEGA-C are applied, we reassuringly find that the MaNGA galaxies populate the mass-metallicity plane in the same way at $z \sim 0.7$. Matching the LEGA-C sample to their mass-metallicity "twins" in MaNGA at this redshift, we can explore the likely subsequent evolution of individual LEGA-C galaxies. Galaxies already on the present-day mass--metallicity relation form few more stars and their disks fade, so they become smaller and more bulge-like. By contrast, the high-mass low-metallicity galaxies grow their disks through late star formation, and evolve rapidly to higher metallicities due to a cut-off in their wind-driven mass loss. There are significant indications that this late cut-off is associated with the belated end of strong AGN activity in these objects.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, MNRAS accepte

Semiarid watershed response in central New Mexico and its sensitivity to climate variability and change

Hydrologic processes in the semiarid regions of the Southwest United States are considered to be highly susceptible to variations in temperature and precipitation characteristics due to the effects of climate change. Relatively little is known about the potential impacts of climate change on the basin hydrologic response, namely streamflow, evapotranspiration and recharge, in the region. In this study, we present the development and application of a continuous, semi-distributed watershed model for climate change studies in semiarid basins of the Southwest US. Our objective is to capture hydrologic processes in large watersheds, while accounting for the spatial and temporal variations of climate forcing and basin properties in a simple fashion. We apply the model to the Río Salado basin in central New Mexico since it exhibits both a winter and summer precipitation regime and has a historical streamflow record for model testing purposes. Subsequently, we use a sequence of climate change scenarios that capture observed trends for winter and summer precipitation, as well as their interaction with higher temperatures, to perform long-term ensemble simulations of the basin response. Results of the modeling exercise indicate that precipitation uncertainty is amplified in the hydrologic response, in particular for processes that depend on a soil saturation threshold. We obtained substantially different hydrologic sensitivities for winter and summer precipitation ensembles, indicating a greater sensitivity to more intense summer storms as compared to more frequent winter events. In addition, the impact of changes in precipitation characteristics overwhelmed the effects of increased temperature in the study basin. Nevertheless, combined trends in precipitation and temperature yield a more sensitive hydrologic response throughout the year

Filaments in observed and mock galaxy catalogues

Context. The main feature of the spatial large-scale galaxy distribution is an intricate network of galaxy filaments. Although many attempts have been made to quantify this network, there is no unique and satisfactory recipe for that yet. Aims. The present paper compares the filaments in the real data and in the numerical models, to see if our best models reproduce statistically the filamentary network of galaxies. Methods. We apply an object point process with interactions (the Bisous process) to trace and describe the filamentary network both in the observed samples (the 2dFGRS catalogue) and in the numerical models that have been prepared to mimic the data.We compare the networks. Results. We find that the properties of filaments in numerical models (mock samples) have a large variance. A few mock samples display filaments that resemble the observed filaments, but usually the model filaments are much shorter and do not form an extended network. Conclusions. We conclude that although we can build numerical models that are similar to observations in many respects, they may fail yet to explain the filamentary structure seen in the data. The Bisous-built filaments are a good test for such a structure.Comment: 13 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Hydrothermal carbonization of sewage digestate at wastewater treatment works: Influence of solid loading on characteristics of hydrochar, process water and plant energetics

Nowadays the sludge treatment is recognized as a priority challenge to the wastewater industry due to the increasing volumes produced and tighter environmental controls for its safe disposal. The most cost-effective process for sewage sludge is the anaerobic digestion but raw digestate still contains high levels of organic matter that can be transformed into an energy carrier by using processes like Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC). In this work, the influence of solid loading (2.5, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0, 17.5, 20.0, 25.0 and 30.0% solids w/w) on the composition of hydrochar and process water was studied, together with an evaluation of product yields, solubilisation of organic carbon and biomethane potential of process waters from HTC processing (250 °C, 30- minute reaction time). Hydrochar yields ranged from 64 to 88%wt, whereas the concentration of soluble organic carbon increased from 2.6 g/L in the raw digestate to a maximum of 72.3 g/L in the process water following HTC at the highest solid loading. Furthermore, process modelling with Aspen Plus shows that the integration of AD with HTC to wastewater treatment works provides a significant positive energy balance when process water and hydrochar are considered as fuel sources for cogeneration

The link between foreign institutional owners and multinational enterprises’ environmental outcomes

Many institutional investors claim to be leaders in their commitment to sustainability, yet their real impact is undetermined. We look at the relationship between the presence of foreign institutional owners and the firm’s environmental outcomes in terms of performance and innovation. We argue that foreign institutional owners seek to mitigate their exposure to reputational risks by encouraging their investee firms to move towards better environmental performance. However, these owners are less likely to engage in long-term investments derived from environmental innovations. We examine these paradoxical motivations in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the chemical industry across 33 countries in emerging and developed markets and further explore how these investee firms’ international diversification affects these relationships. Our findings contribute to international corporate governance and sustainability research by uncovering that, contrary to institutional owners’ popular claims, foreign institutional owners have a positive effect on their investees’ environmental performance, but their influence is not statistically significant on environmental innovation. Specifically, the influence of foreign institutional owners on environmental performance is strong for MNEs with a low level of international diversification and marginal for those with a higher level of internationalization; meanwhile, domestic institutional owners are committed to advancing both environmental performance and innovation in their MNE investees. In sum, we show that environmental concerns are still quite localized.The University of Granada authors recognize the partial funding from PID2019-106725GB-I00 and PID2019-107767GA-I00 research grants (Spanish State Research Agency—Innovation and Science Min istry, 10.13039/501100011033), and the A-SEJ-291-UGR18 grant (Regional Government of Andalucia, European FEDER funds, and University of Granada)

COSTA RICA SIN FRONTERAS # 23

En esta sección se publican los resúmenes de artículos que han sido publicados por investigadoras/es de universidades costarricenses en otras revistas en el mundo, con su debida referencia al trabajo original, y con una breve explicación de dónde se realizó la investigación. Los artículos originales han sido publicados en otros idiomas; las revistas tienen consejo editorial y manejan un proceso de revisión por pares. Los resúmenes corresponden a estudios relacionados con las ciencias del ejercicio y la salud, que se conforman a los criterios generales de la revista, esto es, se trata de “... estudios experimentales o que hagan recomendaciones concretas para solucionar problemas o preguntas relevantes (...) trabajos originales o de meta-análisis.” Solicitamos a quienes hayan publicado este tipo de trabajos en otros idiomas que no los hagan saber, para incluir sus resúmenes en futuras entregas de esta sección