A new Phoenician location discovered in the Bay of Cádiz: El Cerro del Castillo, Chiclana

Los recientes hallazgos arqueológicos en el casco antiguo de Chiclana han aportado nuevos datos sobre la colonización fenicia en la bahía de Cádiz. El importante descubrimiento de un recinto fortificado, correspondiente al primer momento de la misma y de la creación de factorías en contexto peninsular, supone un avance significativo para el conocimiento de la organización territorial del momento y una nueva fuente de datos para la investigación arqueológica e histórica actual. El hecho de que ahora sean tres los enclaves fenicios existentes en la bahía: Cádiz, Chiclana y Doña Blanca (El Puerto de Santa María), permite una mejor interpretación de los textos griegos, que denominaban a esta zona “Gadeira” y al templo de “Melkart”, en Chiclana “puerta de Occidente”.The recent archeological findings in old uptown Chiclana have contributed new data about the Phoenician settlements in the Cádiz Bay. The important discovery of a fortified enclosure, in snchrony with the first Phoenician colonization and also with the creation of factories within the peninsular context, constitutes a significant advance in the present archaeological and historiacal research. The fact that we now have there Phoenician settlements in the Bay area, Cádiz, Chiclana and Doña Blanca, allows us a more accurate interpretation of the Greek text wich refered to this location as Gadeira and to the Melkart temple as the “gate to the West”

Immunopathology of Kidney Transplantation

Renal transplantation is currently the best alternative for patients with end-stage renal disease. Immune responses activated against the allograft are a decisive factor in transplantation outcomes and patient survival. Although short-term graft and patient survival have improved significantly as a result of better donor matching systems, novel immunosuppressive agents and enhanced care, long-term outcomes remain unfavorable and reflect sub-clinical injury caused by chronic rejection. The immune system lies at the intersection of immunogenic tolerance and graft failure; thus, it is a major determinant of pathology in the context of renal transplantation. During the early stages of transplantation increased expression of cytokines has been observed in addition to increased expression of adhesion proteins and immune cells. This early inflammatory response does not necessarily end in graft rejection, although this will depend on the severity of the inflammation. Activation of Toll-like Receptors (TLRs), damaging molecular patterns (DAMPs), and other components of innate immunity is key to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques and the development of autoimmune diseases. Initially the donor antigens are presented to the T lymphocytes of the recipient. This activation induces their proliferation, differentiation and cytokine production. Successful kidney transplant recipients need to develop immunologic tolerance against donor antigens. In this chapter, we address some of the innate and adaptive immune mechanisms associated with kidney transplantation; emphasizing their role in allograft rejection

Too Big to Manage: US Megabanks’ Competition by Innovation and the Microfoundations of Financialization

Disagreements over the systemic implications—the future—of financialization can be traced in part to the absence of sustained attention to the role of banking firms in driving this secular shift forward. That is, the financialization literature lacks an adequate microfoundation. Accounting for the drivers of financialization processes solely at the macro level overlooks the problems of how these processes came about and whether they are sustainable. This paper addresses this explanatory gap, arguing that a key independent microeconomic driver of increasing financialization did exist: the incessant efforts by money-centre banks in the USA to break out of Depression-era restrictions on their size, activities, and markets. These banks’ growth strategies in turbulent times led to an institutional (meso) shift—the rise of a megabank-centred shadow banking system—that now shapes global financial architecture even while operating in ways that are unsustainable. In short, too-big-to-manage megabanks are at the heart of the fragility and instability of the economy today

BLITZ: Wireless Link Quality Estimation in the Dark

Abstract. We present BLITZ, a novel link quality estimator that relies on physical-layer synchronization errors to estimate the expected packet delivery ratio of wireless links. In contrast to all existing link quality estimators which estimate the packet delivery based on statistics from packets that are successfully decoded, our technique works even when packets at the receiver are not correctly received, i.e., when the synchronization fails. The core idea of BLITZ is to exploit informa-tion from chip errors in the received preamble of any transmitted direct sequence spread spectrum signals such as IEEE 802.15.4. Using extensive measurements over cable, wireless static and wireless mobile scenarios, we show that our pro-posed estimator outperforms existing estimators in terms of both accuracy and speed. Across diverse environmental conditions and the full range of possible link qualities, BLITZ provides packet delivery ratio estimates with an absolute error below six percent within just a few milliseconds.

Simultaneous obtention of multicomponent ferroalloy and slag from black sands for the development of electrical arc welding consumables

10 páginas, 3 figuras, 8 tablas.[ES] En este trabajo se expone una caracterización química y mineralógica de las arenas negras del placer Mejías de Sagua de Tánamo, el más importante placer litoral de playa del noroeste de Cuba Oriental. A partir de estas caracterizaciones se desarrolla una estrategia de cálculo para la confección de la carga metalúrgica, que permite obtener, simultáneamente, al ser procesada por reducción carbotérmica en un homo de arco eléctrico, una ferroaleación multicomponente y una escoria útil para la confección de consumibles de soldadura por arco eléctrico. El polvo de la escoria obtenida se aglomera con vidrio líquido. Los pelets resultantes y su comportamiento en la soldadura automática por arco sumergido (SAW), presentan propiedades metalúrgicas y tecnológicas que satisfacen los requisitos de una matriz de un fundente aglomerado. La composición química de la ferroaleación multicomponente está constituida por elementos metálicos: vanadio, cromo, molibdeno, titanio y niobio (V, Cr, Mo, Ti y Nb) de alto valor metalúrgico y aleante, apropiada para la formulación de cargas aleantes de consumibles tanto para la soldadura manual (SMAW) como para la SAW.[EN] In this paper, chemical and mineralogical characterizations of the black sands of the Mejias placer of Sagua de Tánamo (the most important beach littoral placer of the northwest of oriental Cuba) are exposed. Starting from these characterizations a calculation strategy is developed for the making of the metallurgical load that allows to obtain simultaneously, when processed by carbothermic reduction in an electrical arc furnace, a multicomponent ferroalloy and a useful slag for the making of electric arch welding consumables. The powder of the obtained slag is agglomerated with liquid glass. The resulting pellets, due to their behavior on the submerged arc welding (SAW) present technological and metallurgical properties that correspond with the requirements of an agglomerated flux matrix. The chemical composition of the multicomponent ferroalloy is constituted by metallic elements of high metallurgical and alloyed values (V, Cr, Mo, Ti, Nb). It is appropriate for the formulation of consumables for manual welding (SMAW) and SAW, as well.Peer reviewe

The insertion/deletion in the DNA-binding region allows the discrimination and subsequent identification of the glucocorticoid receptor 1 (gr1) and gr2 nucleotide sequences in gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata): Standardizing the gr nomenclature for a better understanding of the stress response in teleost fish species

Cortisol carries out its physiological mechanism of action through the recognition by the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) 1 (GR1) and GR2. Previous studies reported that the main difference between gr1 and gr2 nucleotide sequences resides in a 27-nucleotide insertion/deletion in the DNA-binding region, respectively. However, in gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) the annotation for gr1 and gr2 seems contradictory. The gr2 sequence possesses the characteristic 27-nucleotide insertion that, in fact, is associated with the gr1 nucleotide sequence. Thus, this study aimed to elucidate the nucleotide sequences for the gr1 and gr2 in gilthead sea bream. The Clustal Omega alignment for different fish species corroborated the presence of such 27-nucleotide insertion/deletion in the DNA-binding region for gr1 and gr2, respectively. Then, we design specific primers set for the amplification of the gilthead sea bream gr1 by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Importantly, the gr1 nucleotide partial sequence has a high similarity with other gr1 sequences already published for other fish species, being present in all of them the 27-nucleotide insertion in the DNA-binding region. We also detected that in European sea bass the gr1 and gr2 sequences had not been named according to the 27-nucleotide insertion/deletion criteria in the DNA-binding region. Thus, our study makes an urgent call to the scientific community to discuss the establishment of an updated agreement that allows homogenizing the criteria for the nomenclature defining the gr1 and gr2 nucleotide sequences for a better understanding of the stress response in teleost fish species.This study thanks to the AGL2016-76069-C2-2- R, PID2020-117557RB-C21, PID2020-117557RB-C22 grants (AEI-MINECO; Spain). EV-V thanks the support of Fondecyt iniciacion grant (project number 11221308; Agencia Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Chile, Government of Chile). AK was the recipient of a Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (Iran) fellowship. MT thanks for the support of the post-doctoral fellowship "Ramon y Cajal" (ref. RYC2019-026841-I) (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spanish Government). FER-L thanks the support of Fondecyt regular grant (project number: 1211841; Agencia Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Chile, Government of Chile)

Weathering and geochemical dispersion in Almirantazgo Bay, Crepin point, Machu Picchu Peruvian Antarctic station: preliminary results

Global climate changes have a significant impact on the fragile ecosystems of Antarctica. These processes involve significant changes since the last glaciations, one product being exposure of areas with fracturing and weathering of rocks in Antarctica.The melting exposed surfaces of rocks, causing its disintegration due to physical or chemical and even organic processes; this decay involves the decomposition of minerals that are susceptible to these changes and tend to form new compounds. Undergoing environmental disturbances because of human disturbance, Antarctica is a suitable place to conduct a study on the geochemical characteristics of all elements present in the soil, which are closely related to the composition of the original rock. The preliminary reconnaissance and mapping of geological units were defined by Birkenmajer (1980) and subsequent work. Kraus et al., (2010) define regional geochemical characteristics and they related with paleomagnetism studies in across Almirantazgo Bay. Preliminary reconnaissance map in the Peruvian Antarctic Station was conducted by Palacios (1988) in the Antar II expedition; Geomorphological and stratigraphic units present were defined. Subsequent work performed in Crepin Point and vicinity were aimed at establishing the geotechnical characteristics (Fidel, 1991; Guzman, 1999; Pari & Zavala, 2000), mineralogical (Quispesivana, 1995; Aranda, 1997) and paleontological (Romero 2000; Morales 2002) they established and contributed the geological knowledge of Crepin Point. These studies recognized the presence of volcanic rocks, subvolcanic and intrusive nature that arise and are surrounded by glaciers. The volcanic rocks outcropping in the area are basaltic andesites and andesites. These are intruded by granodioritic intrusive rocks and subvolcanic dikes; both much younger. This process, where a young rock intrudes to an older, generates a chemical change in the contact zone of both bodies (Barnes, 1997). The changes are reflected when the original minerals, rocks both change their chemical composition and crystallizes under other conditions. Additional to this cooling process and product of magma, which produced both as intrusive volcanic rocks, begin to circulate fluids, high temperature, high salinity and saturated silica known under the name of hydrothermal fluid (Hedenquist and Lowenstern 1994) , staying in host rocks through fractures and minerals precipitate to form associations and are commonly called veins. Both processes produce changes in rocks and alteration zones are called. The correct identification and characterization of alteration zones allows us to delineate areas with different geochemical behavior and having major implications in the formation of soils and in the water system around them. Studies in sediments in Admiralty Bay and around the permanent scientific stations (Santos et al., 2005; Santos et al., 2007; Ribeiro et al, 2011; Sun et al, 2003) show concentration of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn; which are associated, probably permanent human activity in these sectors. However the Antarctic Scientific Machu Picchu station is occupied temporarily during the austral summer, which significantly reduces the influence of human beings on the environment. During the expedition Antar XXII (2013-2014) and Antar XXIII (2014-2015) geological mapping of a sector Crepin Point were conducted and maps were upgraded, further representative samples of stratigraphic units in the area and some surrounding areas to Machu Picchu Scientific Station were taken; where anomalous values of Cu, Mn, As, etc. detected, however spatial distribution of the elements of this area is yet to be defined, which is included the current work for this year

In-Network Outlier Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

To address the problem of unsupervised outlier detection in wireless sensor networks, we develop an approach that (1) is flexible with respect to the outlier definition, (2) computes the result in-network to reduce both bandwidth and energy usage,(3) only uses single hop communication thus permitting very simple node failure detection and message reliability assurance mechanisms (e.g., carrier-sense), and (4) seamlessly accommodates dynamic updates to data. We examine performance using simulation with real sensor data streams. Our results demonstrate that our approach is accurate and imposes a reasonable communication load and level of power consumption.Comment: Extended version of a paper appearing in the Int'l Conference on Distributed Computing Systems 200

Effect of social instigation and aggressive behavior on hormone levels of lactating dams and adult male Wistar rats

Among rodents, maternal aggression in the postpartum period represents a species-typical adaptation, but when aggressive behavior increases beyond this adaptive level, it can represent a model of excessive aggression. This study assessed the neuroendocrine response of lactating rats and socially instigated male rats. The aim of the present study was to assess neuroendocrine responses and the behavioral pattern of lactating rats and males that were subjected to an emotional stressor using the social instigation protocol. We measured plasma corticosterone levels as the key hormonal parameter of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and oxytocin, prolactin, and progesterone, which are released in response to several types of stressors. Our results showed that lactating rats that were subjected to only social instigation or aggressive confrontation in the presence of their pups had lower plasma corticosterone levels, and this response was similar to oxytocin, prolactin, and progesterone levels. By contrast, male rats showed increased corticosterone levels after being subjected only to social instigation. Male rats also engaged in aggressive behavior compared with the control group. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that lactating rats subjected to social instigation exhibited an attenuation of the HPA axis response, which is considered to be crucial to the dam's welfare so that it can care for its offspring. Thus, we can infer that lactation is a relevant factor in neuroendocrine responses to stress because of the increased levels of corticosterone in males.Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES