Mad2, Bub3, and Mps1 regulate chromosome segregation and mitotic synchrony in Giardia intestinalis, a binucleate protist lacking an anaphase-promoting complex.

The binucleate pathogen Giardia intestinalis is a highly divergent eukaryote with a semiopen mitosis, lacking an anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) and many of the mitotic checkpoint complex (MCC) proteins. However, Giardia has some MCC components (Bub3, Mad2, and Mps1) and proteins from the cohesin system (Smc1 and Smc3). Mad2 localizes to the cytoplasm, but Bub3 and Mps1 are either located on chromosomes or in the cytoplasm, depending on the cell cycle stage. Depletion of Bub3, Mad2, or Mps1 resulted in a lowered mitotic index, errors in chromosome segregation (including lagging chromosomes), and abnormalities in spindle morphology. During interphase, MCC knockdown cells have an abnormal number of nuclei, either one nucleus usually on the left-hand side of the cell or two nuclei with one mislocalized. These results suggest that the minimal set of MCC proteins in Giardia play a major role in regulating many aspects of mitosis, including chromosome segregation, coordination of mitosis between the two nuclei, and subsequent nuclear positioning. The critical importance of MCC proteins in an organism that lacks their canonical target, the APC/C, suggests a broader role for these proteins and hints at new pathways to be discovered

Calibración de Microscopios Confocales

El microscopio confocal ha sido durante mucho tiempo un instrumento de observación tridimensional con múltiples aplicaciones especialmente dentro de la biología. Sin embargo en los últimos años ha comenzado a ser utilizado como instrumento de medida en diferentes áreas de la ingeniería. En la actualidad existen muchas especificaciones de productos (dimensionales, angulares, acabado superficial) en las escalas micrométricas y nanométricas que pueden o podrían ser verificadas utilizando este instrumento. Pero para que esta verificación sea válida dentro de un sistema de calidad el microscopio confocal debe ser trazable. Esta ponencia presenta una solución sencilla a este problema implementada en el Centro Láser de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) que ha permitido dotar de trazabilidad a las medidas dimensionales realizadas en el plano XY y en el eje Z de su microscopio confocal. The confocal microscope has been a three-dimensional observation instrument with multiple applications especially in biology. However in recent years has begun to be used as a measuring instrument contact in various engineering fields. At present there are many product specifications (size, angular, surface roughness) in the micrometer and nano scales that can or could be verified using this instrument. But this verification is only valid within a quality system if the confocal microscope is traceable. This paper presents a simple solution to this problem implemented in the Laser Centre of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). This solution provides traceablity to the size measurements made in the XY plane and the Z-axis

Definition of Project-Based Learning Models in the Computer Engineering Degree

[EN] The current characteristics, concerns, preferences, and interests of students differ greatly from the previous students¿ generations. Nowadays, students are increasingly demanding active methodologies that facilitate their learning process. To meet the actual students¿ requirements, academic research is focused on the definition of educational mechanisms that promote greater students¿ participation. Among these mechanisms, the project-based learning (PBL) is a model that organizes learning around projects. Projects are student-driven and provide more tangible results what has been considered as a positive aspect to deepen and retain knowledge. The main objective of this paper is to describe all the activities performed to plan, define, design and project an integrated PBL model for students in the last years (3rd and 4th year students) of the Computer Engineering Degree. The PBL model involves the following subjects: (i) Software Engineering; (ii) Project Management; (ii) Business Requirements Analysis and (iv) Business Models and Organisation Functional Areas. The PBL model has twofold perspectives, the first one is more project and software-directed while the second one is more businessoriented. This model seeks to give continuity to the teaching-learning process so that students can appreciate greater coherence, links, and succession of the contents of different subjects. Moreover, the definition of the PBL model will also support the enhancement of the horizontal and vertical transversal coordination among different subjects.This article has been supported by the Vice-rectorate for Digital Resources and Documentation (Vicerrectorado de Recursos Digitales y Documentación) and Vice-Rectorate for Studies, Quality and Accreditation (Vicerrectorado de Estudios, Calidad y Acreditación) under the Call for Learning + Teaching (Convocatoria Aprendizaje + Docencia (A+D 2019)) and Project Code: 1678-A. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Institute of Educational Sciences (Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación) of Universitat Politècnica de València, the Evaluation and Monitoring Commission for Educational Innovation and Improvement Projects (Comisión de Evaluación y Seguimiento de Proyectos de Innovación y Mejora Educativa - CESPIME) and Escuela Politécnica Superior de AlcoyEsparza Peidro, J.; Golf Laville, EJ.; Izquierdo-Doménech, JJ.; Tomas Miquel, JV.; Sanchis, R. (2020). Definition of Project-Based Learning Models in the Computer Engineering Degree. EDULEARN Proceedings (Internet). 3966-3972. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2020.1074S3966397

On the Specific Adsorption of 7-methylguanine on Au(111) Surfaces for the Electroanalytical Sensing of Methylation Levels

The electrochemical determination of 7-methylguanine (7-mG) may result of interest because its presence can serve as probe of cytosine methylation of which is known as the most relevant epigenetic modification of DNA. This work explores the electrochemical response of 7-mG on different gold surfaces, both poly and single crystalline surfaces (Au (110), Au (111) and Au (100)). The results show that the adsorption-desorption process of the 7-mG is sensitive to the surface structure of the gold electrodes. Particularly, 7-mG adsorption-desorption profile on a Au (111) electrode exhibits some specific contributions which are found sensitive to the 7-mG concentration and, thereby could allow its quantification. These results may shed light on the future development of an electrochemical sensor for the diagnosis of the methylation degree in DNA.Authors would like to acknowledge funding obtained through the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) CTQ2013-48280-C3-3-R project

SVis: A computational steering visualization environment for surface structure determination

The arrangement of atoms at the surface of a solid accounts for many of its properties: Hardness, chemical activity, corrosion, etc. are dictated by the precise surface structure. Hence, finding it, has a broad range of technical and industrial applications. The ability to solve this problem opens the possibility of designing by computer materials with properties tailored to specific applications. Since the search space grows exponentially with the number of atoms, its solution cannot be achieved for arbitrarily large structures. Presently, a trial and error procedure is used: an expert proposes an structure as a candidate solution and tries a local optimization procedure on it. The solution relaxes to the local minimum in the attractor basin corresponding to the initial point, that might be the one corresponding to the global minimum or not. This procedure is very time consuming and, for reasonably sized surfaces, can take many iterations and much effort from the expert. Here we report on a visualization environment designed to steer this process in an attempt to solve bigger structures and reduce the time needed. The idea is to use an immersive environment to interact with the computation. It has immediate feedback to assess the quality of the proposed structure in order to let the expert explore the space of candidate solutions. The visualization environment is also able to communicate with the de facto local solver used for this problem. The user is then able to send trial structures to the local minimizer and track its progress as they approach the minimum. This allows for simultaneous testing of candidate structures. The system has also proved very useful as an educational tool for the field

The Metabolic Core and Catalytic Switches Are Fundamental Elements in the Self-Regulation of the Systemic Metabolic Structure of Cells

[Background] Experimental observations and numerical studies with dissipative metabolic networks have shown that cellular enzymatic activity self-organizes spontaneously leading to the emergence of a metabolic core formed by a set of enzymatic reactions which are always active under all environmental conditions, while the rest of catalytic processes are only intermittently active. The reactions of the metabolic core are essential for biomass formation and to assure optimal metabolic performance. The on-off catalytic reactions and the metabolic core are essential elements of a Systemic Metabolic Structure which seems to be a key feature common to all cellular organisms. [Methodology/Principal Findings] In order to investigate the functional importance of the metabolic core we have studied different catalytic patterns of a dissipative metabolic network under different external conditions. The emerging biochemical data have been analysed using information-based dynamic tools, such as Pearson's correlation and Transfer Entropy (which measures effective functionality). Our results show that a functional structure of effective connectivity emerges which is dynamical and characterized by significant variations of bio-molecular information flows. [Conclusions/Significance] We have quantified essential aspects of the metabolic core functionality. The always active enzymatic reactions form a hub –with a high degree of effective connectivity- exhibiting a wide range of functional information values being able to act either as a source or as a sink of bio-molecular causal interactions. Likewise, we have found that the metabolic core is an essential part of an emergent functional structure characterized by catalytic modules and metabolic switches which allow critical transitions in enzymatic activity. Both, the metabolic core and the catalytic switches in which also intermittently-active enzymes are involved seem to be fundamental elements in the self-regulation of the Systemic Metabolic Structure.Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC),grant 201020I026. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MICINN). Programa Ramon y Cajal. Campus de Excelencia Internacional CEI BioTIC GENIL, grant PYR-2010-14. Junta de Andalucia, grant P09-FQM-4682

Does tillage influence physical- and chemical- related soil quality indicators equally?

Trabajo presentado en la EGU General Assembly 2019, celebrada en Viena del 3 al 8 de mayo de 2019.Soil degradation is linked with a loss of land′s actual or potential productivity. This process is a result of naturaland anthropogenic action being soil tillage one of the main drivers of the last. As a result, soil quality, whichmanifests soil′s capacity to produce ecosystem services and goods, can be compromised. There are severalindicators traditionally measured to characterize soil quality, either based on soil physical or chemical properties.Among soil physical properties, water flow features, as expressed through the soil water retention curve, aredirectly linked to the distribution of soil pores and can be useful to derive different indices (such as the S index)to evaluate soil′s quality. Organic matter, nutrients, and cation exchange capacity are also soil chemical propertiesaffecting soil quality.The main aim of this study was to evaluate the methodology based on the S index (Dexter, 2004) andselected soil (chemical and physical) properties at the short term under typical Mediterranean agriculturalconditions. For this reason, physical and chemical soil properties were measured in a short-term trial settle in twoolive orchards under different soil managements: tillage and cover crop and at two depths: surface (0-10 cm) anddepth (10-20 cm). In addition, water retention curves; water storage capacity; and soil porosity were characterized.At the two studied sites, changes in soil management, even after a short period of time, had a quick effectin chemical properties. However, soil′s pore size distribution, as quantified with the S index, did not showremarkable differences after changing soil management. This may be a consequence of the longer-term effectof changing soil management on water retention and transmission. Future research including more soil typesand assessing water-flow-related properties over a longer time interval, may well provide clearer results in theassessment of soil quality.Peer reviewe

Micromecanizado Láser de Componentes de Gran calidad de Acabado Superficial

El uso de láseres pulsados con anchos temporales de nanosegundos y longitudes de onda en el rango Ultravioleta, permiten un preciso control del material abferido, convirtiendo dicha técnica en una herramienta fundamental para mecanizados que requieren de una gran calidad y acabado, con relaciones de aspecto muy altas. Este trabajo presenta un análisis paramétrico de la influencia de las distintas variables de proceso para diferentes tipos de materiales (metálicos, dieléctricos, materiales orgánicos, etc) en la calidad y acabado final. The use of nanoseconds U.V. lasers permits a precise control in ablation’s processes. As a result this tool plays a fundamental role in machining where a high quality and good aspect ratios are required. This paper presents a parametric analysis of the influence of some processing parameters for different types of materials

Testing a fully autonomous robotic salesman in real scenarios

Over the past decades, the number of robots deployed in museums, trade shows and exhibitions have grown steadily. This new application domain has become a key research topic in the robotics community. Therefore, new robots are designed to interact with people in these domains, using natural and intuitive channels. Visual perception and speech processing have to be considered for these robots, as they should be able to detect people in their environment, recognize their degree of accessibility and engage them in social conversations. They also need to safely navigate around dynamic, uncontrolled environments. They must be equipped with planning and learning components, that allow them to adapt to different scenarios. Finally, they must attract the attention of the people, be kind and safe to interact with. In this paper, we describe our experience with Gualzru, a salesman robot endowed with the cognitive architecture RoboCog. This architecture synchronizes all previous processes in a social robot, using a common inner representation as the core of the system. The robot has been tested in crowded, public daily life environments, where it interacted with people that had never seen it before nor had a clue about its functionality. Experimental results presented in this paper demonstrate the capabilities of the robot and its limitations in these real scenarios, and define future improvement actions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The cognitive architecture of a robotic salesman

This paper describes a robotics cognitive architecture for social robots named CORTEX. This architecture integrates di fferent levels of abstraction (from basic geometry to high-level predicates) into a unique Deep Space Representation (DSR) that diff erent agents interface. These agents update the contents of the DSR with new data from the outer world, and execute, plan and design behaviours. The design of CORTEX as an unified deep representation allows to fit both the subsymbolic processing and exibility requirements of robot control. In this paper a first implementation of CORTEX has been integrated into Gualzru, a robotic salesman, and tested in real scenarios. Results show that this cognitive architecture allows this robot to adequately execute its use case, and that it has a promising adaptability to achieve new tasks and be used in new scenarios.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech