Discovery of Extended Main Sequence Turnoffs in Galactic Open Clusters

The color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of Galactic open clusters are widely considered to be the prototypes of single stellar populations. By using photometry in ultraviolet and optical bands we discovered that the nearby young cluster NGC 6705 (M11) exhibits an extended main-sequence turnoff (eMSTO) and a broadened main sequence (MS). This is the first evidence of multiple stellar populations in a Galactic open cluster. By using high-resolution Very Large Telescope (VLT) spectra we provide direct evidence that the multiple sequences along the CMD correspond to stellar populations with different rotation rates. Specifically, the blue MS (bMS) is formed of slow-rotating stars, while red-MS (rMS) stars are fast rotators. Moreover, we exploit photometry from Gaia data release 2 (DR2) to show that three Galactic open clusters, namely NGC 2099, NGC 2360, and NGC 2818, exhibit the eMSTO, thus suggesting that it is a common feature among these objects. Our previous work on the Large Magellanic Cloud star cluster NGC 1818 shows that slowly and rapidly rotating stars populate the bMS and rMS observed in its CMD. The similarities between M11 and the young clusters of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs) suggest that rotation is responsible for the appearance of multiple populations in the CMDs of both Milky Way open clusters and MCs young clusters.A.F.M. and L.C. acknowledge support by the Australian Research Council through Discovery Early Career Researcher Award DE160100851 and the Future Fellowship FT160100402. A.P.M. has been supported by the European Research Council through the Starting Grant “GALFOR” (716082) and the FAREMIUR project R164RM93XW “SEMPLICE”. A.S., L.B.N., and F.V. are partially supported by the MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy) through grants ESP2017-82674-R and ESP2016- 80079-C2-1-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE), SGR-1131 (Generalitat Catalunya), and MDM-2014-0369 of ICCUB (Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”)

Effect of a gum-based thickener on the safety of swallowing in patients with poststroke oropharyngeal dysphagia

Altres ajuts: This work has been supported by Danone Nutricia Research, Fundació Salut del Consorci Sanitari del Maresme, Furega (Fundació per a la Recerca en Gastroenterologia) and Centro de Investigación en Red en Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd).Background: Increasing viscosity with thickening agents is a valid therapeutic strategy for oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD). To assess the therapeutic effect of a xanthan gum-based thickener (Nutilis Clear) at six viscosities compared with thin liquid in poststroke OD (PSOD) patients. Methods: A total of 120 patients with PSOD were studied in this controlled, multiple-dose, fixed-order, and single-blind study using videofluoroscopy (VFSS). A series of boluses of 10 mL thin liquid and 2000, 1400, 800, 450, 250, and 150 mPa s viscosities were given in duplicate, interrupted in case of aspiration. We assessed the safety and efficacy of swallow and the kinematics of the swallow response. Key Results: A total of 41.2% patients had safe swallow at thin liquid which significantly increased for all viscosities from 71.9% at 150 mPa s to 95.6% at 1400 mPa s (P <.001). PAS score (3.7 ± 2.3) at thin liquid was also reduced by increasing bolus viscosity (P <.001). The prevalence of patients with aspiration at thin liquid was 17.5% and decreased at all viscosities (P <.01), except at 150 mPa s. Increasing viscosity shortened time to laryngeal vestibule closure (LVC) at all viscosities (P <.01) and reduced bolus velocity at ≥450 mPa s (P <.05). The prevalence of patients with pharyngeal residue at each viscosity 37.7%-44.7% was similar to that at thin liquid (41.2%). Conclusions and Inferences: The prevalence of unsafe swallow with thin liquids is very high in PSOD. Increasing shear bolus viscosity with this xanthan gum-based thickener significantly increased the safety of swallow in patients with PSOD in a viscosity-dependent manner without increasing the prevalence of pharyngeal residue

The young open cluster NGC 7067 using Strömgren photometry

© 2016 The Authors. NGC 7067 is a young open cluster located in the direction between the first and the second Galactic quadrants and close to the Perseus spiral arm. This makes it useful for studies of the nature of the MilkyWay spiral arms. Strömgren photometry taken with theWide Field Camera at the Isaac Newton Telescope allowed us to compute individual physical parameters for the observed stars and hence to derive the cluster's physical parameters. Spectra from the 1.93-m telescope at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence helped to check and improve the results. We obtained photometry for 1233 stars, individual physical parameters for 515 and spectra for 9 of them. The 139 selected cluster members lead to a cluster distance of 4.4 ±0.4 kpc, with an age below log10(t(yr)) = 7.3 and a present mass of 1260 ± 160 M⊙. The morphology of the data reveals that the centre of the cluster is at (α, δ) = (21: 24: 13.69, +48: 00: 39.2) J2000, with a radius of 6.1 arcmin. Strömgren and spectroscopic data allowed us to improve the previous parameters available for the cluster in the literature

Effect of using reporting guidelines during peer review on quality of final manuscripts submitted to a biomedical journal: masked randomised trial

Objective To investigate the effect of an additional review based on reporting guidelines such as STROBE and CONSORT on quality of manuscripts

Key features of the two-intron Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene SUS1 contribute to its alternative splicing

Alternative pre-mRNA splicing allows dramatic expansion of the eukaryotic proteome and facilitates cellular response to changes in environmental conditions. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene SUS1, which encodes a protein involved in mRNA export and histone H2B deubiquitination, contains two introns; non-canonical sequences in the first intron contribute to its retention, a common form of alternative splicing in plants and fungi. Here we show that the pattern of SUS1 splicing changes in response to environmental change such as temperature elevation, and the retained intron product is subject to nonsense-mediated decay. The activities of different splicing factors determine the pattern of SUS1 splicing, including intron retention and exon skipping. Unexpectedly, removal of the 3′ intron is affected by splicing of the upstream intron, suggesting that cross-exon interactions influence intron removal. Production of different SUS1 isoforms is important for cellular function, as we find that the temperature sensitivity and histone H2B deubiquitination defects observed in sus1Δ cells are only partially suppressed by SUS1 cDNA, but SUS1 that is able to undergo splicing complements these phenotypes. These data illustrate a role for S. cerevisiae alternative splicing in histone modification and cellular function and reveal important mechanisms for splicing of yeast genes containing multiple introns

The Gaia spectrophotometric standard stars survey. I. Preliminary results

We describe two ground based observing campaigns aimed at building a grid of approximately 200 spectrophotometric standard stars (SPSS), with an internal ~1% precision and tied to Vega within ~3%, for the absolute flux calibration of data gathered by Gaia, the ESA astrometric mission. The criteria for the selection and a list of candidates are presented, together with a description of the survey strategy and the adopted data analysis methods. We also discuss a short list of notable rejected SPSS candidates and difficult cases, based on identification problems, literature discordant data, visual companions, and variability. In fact, all candidates are also monitored for constancy (within \pm5 mmag, approximately). In particular, we report on a CALSPEC standard, 1740346, that we found to be a delta Scuti variable during our short-term monitoring (1-2 h) campaign.Comment: 16 pages, 4 tables, 9 figures, accepted for publication by MNRAS on 20 July 201

The horizontal branch luminosity vs metallicity in M31 globular clusters

Thanks to the outstanding capabilites of the HST, our current knowledge about the M31 globular clusters (GCs) is similar to our knowledge of the Milky Way GCs in the 1960s-1970s, which set the basis for studying the halo and galaxy formation using these objects as tracers, and established their importance in defining the cosmic distance scale. We intend to derive a new calibration of the M_V(HB)-[Fe/H] relation by exploiting the large photometric database of old GCs in M31 in the HST archive. We collected the BVI data for 48 old GCs in M31 and analysed them by applying the same methods and procedures to all objects. We obtained a set of homogeneous colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) that were best-fitted with the fiducial CMD ridge lines of selected Milky Way template GCs. Reddening, metallicity, Horizontal Branch (HB) luminosity and distance were determined self-consistently for each cluster. There are three main results of this study: i) the relation M_V(HB)=(0.25+/-0.02)[Fe/H]+(0.89+/-0.03), which is obtained from the above parameters and is calibrated on the distances of the template Galactic GCs; ii) the distance modulus to M31 of (m-M)_0=24.42+/-0.06 mag, obtained by normalising this relation at the reference value of [Fe/H]=-1.5 to a similar relation using V_0(HB). This is the first determination of the distance to M31 based on the characteristics of its GC system which is calibrated on Galactic GCs; iii) the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is estimated to be 18.54+/-0.07 mag as a consequence of the previous results. These values agree excellently with the most recent estimate based on HST parallaxes of Galactic Cepheid and RR Lyrae stars, as well as with recent methods.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables; typos corrected; added a reference for section 4. Accepted for publication in Astronomy&Astrophysic

A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Degradation of YRA1 Pre-mRNA in the Cytoplasm Requires Translational Repression, Multiple Modular Intronic Elements, Edc3p, and Mex67p

The yeast YRA1 pre-mRNA contains multiple intronic elements that regulate transcript decay and translatability via the Edc3p decapping activator and the Mex67p/Mtr2p export receptor

Sustainable Production in the Food Industry Volume 6: Sustainable Primary Production (6): 128-149 (2021)

22 Páginas.-- 2 FigurasChallenges in the food industry relate not only to demographic pressure and environment protection, but also to new consumer demands and specific health requirements. Multidisciplinary studies on raw materials, waste valorisation, efficient green technologies, new products and biodegradable smart packaging are needed. Real-time process control, quality, safety and authenticity will rely on powerful proces analytical technology, multi-sensors and advanced computing and digitalisation systemsPeer reviewe