Identification and characterization of bacteria with antibacterial activities isolated from seahorses (Hippocampus guttulatus)

1 tabla, 1 figuraThis study was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (Hippocampus CGL2005-05927-C03-01). J.L.B. was supported by a postdoctoral I3P contract from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). Y.J.S. was granted by the Erasmus program (29154-IC-1-2007-1-PT-ERASMUS-EUC-1).Peer reviewe

Non-Abelian Giant Gravitons

We argue that the giant graviton configurations known from the literature have a complementary, microscopical description in terms of multiple gravitational waves undergoing a dielectric (or magnetic moment) effect. We present a non-Abelian effective action for these gravitational waves with dielectric couplings and show that stable dielectric solutions exist. These solutions agree in the large $N$ limit with the giant graviton configurations in the literature.Comment: 8 pages. Contribution to the proceedings of the RTN workshop in Leuven, Belgium, September 200

Influence of environmental variables in the efficiency of phage therapy in aquaculture

Aquaculture facilities worldwide continue to experi-ence significant economic losses because of disease caused by pathogenic bacteria, including multidrug-resistant strains. This scenario drives the search for alternative methods to inactivate pathogenic bacteria. Phage therapy is currently considered as a viable alternative to antibiotics for inactivation of bacterial pathogens in aquaculture systems. While phage therapy appears to represent a useful and flexible tool for microbiological decontamination of aquaculture effluents, the effect of physical and chemical proper-ties of culture waters on the efficiency of this tech-nology has never been reported. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of physical and chemical properties of aquaculture waters (e.g. pH, tempera-ture, salinity and organic matter content) on the efficiency of phage therapy under controlled experi-mental conditions in order to provide a basis for the selection of the most suitable protocol for subse-quent experiments. A bioluminescent genetically transformed Escherichia coli was selected as a model microorganism to monitor real-time phage therapy kinetics through the measurement of bioluminescence, thus avoiding the laborious and time-consuming conventional method of counting colony-forming units (CFU). For all experiments, a bacterial concentration of ≈ 10 5 CFU ml −1 and a phage concentration of ≈ 10 6–8 plaque forming unit ml −1 were used. Phage survival was not significantly affected by the natural variability of pH (6.5–7.4), temperature (10–25°C), salinity (0–30 g NaCl l −1) and organic matter concentration of aquaculture waters in a tem-perate climate. Nonetheless, the efficiency of phage therapy was mostly affected by the variation of salin-ity and organic matter content. As the effectiveness of phage therapy increases with water salt content, this approach appears to be a suitable choice for marine aquaculture systems. The success of phage therapy may also be enhanced in non-marine systems through the addition of salt, whenever this option is feasible and does not affect the survival of aquatic species being cultured

Microbiota and host determinants of behavioural phenotype in maternally separated mice

Early-life stress is a determinant of vulnerability to a variety of disorders that include dysfunction of the brain and gut. Here we exploit a model of early-life stress, maternal separation (MS) in mice, to investigate the role of the intestinal microbiota in the development of impaired gut function and altered behaviour later in life. Using germ-free and specific pathogen-free mice, we demonstrate that MS alters the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and colonic cholinergic neural regulation in a microbiota-independent fashion. However, microbiota is required for the induction of anxiety-like behaviour and behavioural despair. Colonization of adult germ-free MS and control mice with the same microbiota produces distinct microbial profiles, which are associated with altered behaviour in MS, but not in control mice. These results indicate that MS-induced changes in host physiology lead to intestinal dysbiosis, which is a critical determinant of the abnormal behaviour that characterizes this model of early-life stress

Advancing fishery-independent stock assessments for the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) with new monitoring techn

The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, supports a key European fishery. Stock assessments for this species are mostly based on trawling and UnderWater TeleVision (UWTV) surveys. However, N. norvegicus are burrowing organisms and these survey methods are unable to sample or observe individuals in their burrows. To account for this, UWTV surveys generally assume that “1 burrow system = 1 animal”, due to the territorial behavior of N. norvegicus. Nevertheless, this assumption still requires in-situ validation. Here, we outline how to improve the accuracy of current stock assessments for N. norvegicus with novel ecological monitoring technologies, including: robotic fixed and mobile camera-platforms, telemetry, environmental DNA (eDNA), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). First, we outline the present status and threat for overexploitation in N. norvegicus stocks. Then, we discuss how the burrowing behavior of N. norvegicus biases current stock assessment methods. We propose that state-of-the-art stationary and mobile robotic platforms endowed with innovative sensors and complemented with AI tools could be used to count both animals and burrows systems in-situ, as well as to provide key insights into burrowing behavior. Next, we illustrate how multiparametric monitoring can be incorporated into assessments of physiology and burrowing behavior. Finally, we develop a flowchart for the appropriate treatment of multiparametric biological and environmental data required to improve current stock assessment methods

An intelligent interface for integrating climate, hydrology, agriculture, and socioeconomic models

Understanding the interactions between natural processes and human activities poses major challenges as it requires the integration of models and data across disparate disciplines. It typically takes many months and even years to create valid end-to-end simulations as different models need to be configured in consistent ways and generate data that is usable by other models. MINT is a novel framework for model integration that captures extensive knowledge about models and data and aims to automatically compose them together. MINT guides a user to pose a well-formed modeling question, select and configure appropriate models, find and prepare appropriate datasets, compose data and models into end-to-end workflows, run the simulations, and visualize the results. MINT currently includes hydrology, agriculture, and socioeconomic models.Office of the VP for Researc

Advancing fishery-independent stock assessments for the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) with new monitoring technologies

The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, supports a key European fishery. Stock assessments for this species are mostly based on trawling and UnderWater TeleVision (UWTV) surveys. However, N. norvegicus are burrowing organisms and these survey methods are unable to sample or observe individuals in their burrows. To account for this, UWTV surveys generally assume that "1 burrow system = 1 animal", due to the territorial behavior of N. norvegicus. Nevertheless, this assumption still requires in-situ validation. Here, we outline how to improve the accuracy of current stock assessments for N. norvegicus with novel ecological monitoring technologies, including: robotic fixed and mobile camera-platforms, telemetry, environmental DNA (eDNA), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). First, we outline the present status and threat for overexploitation in N. norvegicus stocks. Then, we discuss how the burrowing behavior of N. norvegicus biases current stock assessment methods. We propose that state-of-the-art stationary and mobile robotic platforms endowed with innovative sensors and complemented with AI tools could be used to count both animals and burrows systems in-situ, as well as to provide key insights into burrowing behavior. Next, we illustrate how multiparametric monitoring can be incorporated into assessments of physiology and burrowing behavior. Finally, we develop a flowchart for the appropriate treatment of multiparametric biological and environmental data required to improve current stock assessment methods

The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years

We assembled genome-wide data from 271 ancient Iberians, of whom 176 are from the largely unsampled period after 2000 BCE, thereby providing a high-resolution time transect of the Iberian Peninsula.We document high genetic substructure between northwestern and southeastern hunter-gatherers before the spread of farming.We reveal sporadic contacts between Iberia and North Africa by ~2500 BCE and, by ~2000 BCE, the replacement of 40% of Iberia's ancestry and nearly 100% of its Y-chromosomes by people with Steppe ancestry.We show that, in the Iron Age, Steppe ancestry had spread not only into Indo-European-speaking regions but also into non-Indo-European-speaking ones, and we reveal that present-day Basques are best described as a typical Iron Age population without the admixture events that later affected the rest of Iberia. Additionally, we document how, beginning at least in the Roman period, the ancestry of the peninsula was transformed by gene flow from North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean

Postoperative Complications in the Ahmed Baerveldt Comparison Study During Five Years of Follow-up

To compare the late complications in the Ahmed Baerveldt Comparison Study during 5 years of follow-up