Proxy-based reconstructions of earthquakes and tsunamis at Quidico, South-Central Chile

We utilized geomorphic, microfossil, sedimentological, and stratigraphic methods to investigate the paleotsunami history at Quidico, Chile (38.1° S, 73.2° W). A combination of pits, cores, and riverbank exposures provide stratigraphic evidence of 8 sand layers at Quidico, including tsunami deposits from 2010 and 1960. The sands are laterally continuous but display landward thinning, disappearing completely from the stratigraphy 1.2 km inland from the coast. Intervening sediment layers consist of organicrich silts and peat. Grain size analysis shows the sand units are bimodal in distribution whereas the organic-rich silts and peat have a broader, bimodal distribution. Lithological analysis showed similarities among all units. Preliminary microfossil analysis indicates a slightly more marine diatom assemblage in the 1960 deposit than in the organic-rich silt units above and below it, indicating a marine incursion. AMS radiocarbon dates of units below each sand layer reveal at least a 600-yr history of tsunami deposition at Quidico

Ergodic type solutions of differential equations with piecewise constant arguments

We summarize the conditions discovered for the existence of new ergodic type solutions (asymptotically almost periodic, pseudo almost periodic, ...) of differential equations with piecewise constant arguments. Their existence is characterized by introducing a new tool, the ergodic sequences

Genomic sequencing of a dyslexia susceptibility haplotype encompassing ROBO1

Background: The DYX5 locus for developmental dyslexia was mapped to chromosome 3 by linkage study of a large Finnish family, and later, roundabout guidance receptor 1 (ROBO1) was implicated as a candidate gene at DYX5 with suppressed expression from the segregating rare haplotype. A functional magnetoencephalographic study of several family members revealed abnormal auditory processing of interaural interaction, supporting a defect in midline crossing of auditory pathways. In the current study, we have characterized genetic variation in the broad ROBO1 gene region in the DYX5-linked family, aiming to identify variants that would increase our understanding of the altered expression of ROBO1. Methods: We have used a whole genome sequencing strategy on a pooled sample of 19 individuals in combination with two individually sequenced genomes. The discovered genetic variants were annotated and filtered. Subsequently, the most interesting variants were functionally tested using relevant methods, including electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), luciferase assay, and gene knockdown by lentiviral small hairpin RNA (shRNA) in lymphoblasts. Results: We found one novel intronic single nucleotide variant (SNV) and three novel intergenic SNVs in the broad region of ROBO1 that were specific to the dyslexia susceptibility haplotype. Functional testing by EMSA did not support the binding of transcription factors to three of the SNVs, but one of the SNVs was bound by the LIM homeobox 2 (LHX2) protein, with increased binding affinity for the non-reference allele. Knockdown of LHX2 in lymphoblast cell lines extracted from subjects from the DYX5-linked family showed decreasing expression of ROBO1, supporting the idea that LHX2 regulates ROBO1 also in human. Conclusions: The discovered variants may explain the segregation of dyslexia in this family, but the effect appears subtle in the experimental settings. Their impact on the developing human brain remains suggestive based on the association and subtle experimental support.Peer reviewe

Quality of Service Aware Orchestration for Cloud-Edge Continuum Applications

The fast growth in the amount of connected devices with computing capabilities in the past years has enabled the emergence of a new computing layer at the Edge. Despite being resource-constrained if compared with cloud servers, they offer lower latencies than those achievable by Cloud computing. The combination of both Cloud and Edge computing paradigms can provide a suitable infrastructure for complex applications’ quality of service requirements that cannot easily be achieved with either of these paradigms alone. These requirements can be very different for each application, from achieving time sensitivity or assuring data privacy to storing and processing large amounts of data. Therefore, orchestrating these applications in the Cloud–Edge computing raises new challenges that need to be solved in order to fully take advantage of this layered infrastructure. This paper proposes an architecture that enables the dynamic orchestration of applications in the Cloud–Edge continuum. It focuses on the application’s quality of service by providing the scheduler with input that is commonly used by modern scheduling algorithms. The architecture uses a distributed scheduling approach that can be customized in a per-application basis, which ensures that it can scale properly even in setups with high number of nodes and complex scheduling algorithms. This architecture has been implemented on top of Kubernetes and evaluated in order to asses its viability to enable more complex scheduling algorithms that take into account the quality of service of applications.This work has been financially supported by the European Commission through the ELASTIC project (H2020 grant agreement 825473), by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (project RTI2018-096116-B-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE)), and by the Basque Government through the Qualyfamm project (Elkartek KK-2020/00042). It has also been financed by the Basque Government under Grant IT1324-19

Para um desenvolvimento de competências interculturais

El grupo de Galapro “Intercomprensión e interculturalidad”, está compuesto por participantes de lenguas romances, en su mayoría formadores, que han decidido relacionar de alguna manera la intercomprensión entre las lenguas de una misma familia con cuestiones relacionadas con la diversidad de culturas y costumbres. El objetivo marcado es la realización de un artículo o trabajo que analice un aspecto concreto de la interculturalidad en una sesión del Chat de una plataforma anterior, denominada Galanet, donde se investigaba y ponía en práctica la intercomprensión. Concretamente, hemos decidido tratar las formas de la cortesía en este lugar y entre lenguas/culturas distintas. Pero para ello, presentaremos primero una serie de características que nos sitúen en esa nueva forma de comunicación que es el Chat. Tras los análisis concretos de distintos aspectos de la cortesía (traducción e interculturalidad, otros aspectos y las negaciones y sus respuestas) propondremos algunas aplicaciones didácticas posibles en base a todo lo estudiado. En concreto, ofrecemos un cuestionario para los participantes en chats de diversas lenguas para conocer las representaciones sobre la interculuralidad y la cortesía que manejan. Algunos de los objetivos de estas propuestas didácticas podrían ser: encontrar modos de potenciar la interculturalidad, conocer las costumbres y modos lingüísticos corteses y descorteses de otras culturas para evitar el conflicto, deconstruir mitos y anular estereotipos, etc. Los materiales utilizados para componer este artículo han sido en primer lugar, ejemplos de Chats extraídos de Galanet que trataban diferencias culturales y/o lingüísticas. Entre ellos tenemos, una sesión que se ocupaba de lo no verbal y lo gestual entre extranjeros, otra que trataba sobre los falsos amigos, un Chat denominado “Agua”, pero que se dedicaba a las interferencias entre lenguas romances y experiencias en el extranjero de los participantes y finalmente, el Chat “Comida” que es el que hemos elegido para realizar nuestro análisis y que incluye varios temas “interculturales” como el orden de las comidas o la forma de leer la hora. Además de esta base de datos que recopila ejemplos empíricos se han incluido en los foros otros artículos de carácter teórico, como aquel que trata las formas de gestionar el conflicto en los chats y foros , varias fichas de lectura tomadas de Galanet y Galapro y se nos ha animado a visitar los ficheros específicos de esta segunda plataforma que trataban sobre la intercomprensión

In vivo monoubiquitination of anaplerotic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase occurs at Lys624 in germinating sorghum seeds

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC; EC 4.1.1.31) is an important cytosolic regulatory enzyme that plays a pivotal role in numerous physiological processes in plants, including seed development and germination. Previous studies demonstrated the occurrence of immunoreactive PEPC polypeptides of ~110kDa and 107kDa (p110 and p107, respectively) on immunoblots of clarified extracts of germinating sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) seeds. In order to establish the biochemical basis for this observation, a 460kDa PEPC heterotetramer composed of an equivalent ratio of p110 and p107 subunits was purified to near homogeneity from the germinated seeds. Mass spectrometry established that p110 and p107 are both encoded by the same plant-type PEPC gene (CP21), but that p107 was in vivo monoubiquitinated at Lys624 to form p110. This residue is absolutely conserved in vascular plant PEPCs and is proximal to a PEP-binding/catalytic domain. Anti-ubiquitin IgG immunodetected p110 but not p107, whereas incubation with a deubiquitinating enzyme (USP-2 core) efficiently converted p110 into p107, while relieving the enzyme’s feedback inhibition by l-malate. Partial PEPC monoubiquitination was also detected during sorghum seed development. It is apparent that monoubiquitination at Lys624 is opposed to phosphorylation at Ser7 in terms of regulating the catalytic activity of sorghum seed PEPC. PEPC monoubiquitination is hypothesized to fine-tune anaplerotic carbon flux according to the cell’s immediate physiological requirements for tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates needed in support of biosynthesis and carbon–nitrogen interactions.España, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad AGL2012-35708España Junta de Andalucía P06-CVI-02186 BIO29

El cyberbullying y su relación con el estrés percibido en estudiantes de bachillerato de la provincia de Tungurahua

:This research analyses the cyberbullying phenomenon and its relationship with perceived stress of high school students. The study applies the Perceived Stress Scale called “The Cyberbullying Questionnaire” (CBQ) developed by Cohen and its complement the Cyberbullying- Victimisation Questionnaire (CBQ-V) on a sample of 1002 high school students. It is found that this phenomenon is prevalent among such students since 45% of the subjects have reported being victims of bullying and 69% displayed perpetration behaviour. Furthermore, it is found that perceived stress and cyberbullying in both cases victims and aggressors are related since the greater the level of cyberbullying involvement the more perceived stress there is.En la presente investigación se analiza el fenómeno del cyberbullying y su relación con el estrés percibido en estudiantes de primero, segundo y tercero de bachillerato. Para ello se aplica la escala de estrés percibido de Cohen, el “Cyberbullying Questionnaire” (CBQ) y su complemento el “Cuestionario de cyberbullying-victimización” (CBQ-V) en una muestra de 1002 estudiantes de bachillerato. Se encuentra que el fenómeno está arraigado en los estudiantes de bachillerato ya que el 45% de los sujetos reporta ser víctima de cyberbullying y el 69% reporta haber realizado conductas de perpetración. Además, se encuentra que el estrés percibido y el cyberbullying (en sus dos caras, tanto en víctima como en victimario) presentan relación, ya que a mayor nivel de participación en el fenómeno se reporta mayor nivel de estrés percibido

CARACTERIZACIÓN DE LOS RIESGOS PSICOSOCIALES LABORALES EN TUNGURAHUA (ECUADOR): UNA REVISIÓN

Psycho-social risks at work are becoming significantly important in recent years. There is an increasing number of studies about psycho-social risks developing at present, including more variables. This paper is a review of scientific works about psycho-social risks at work in the province of Tungurahua (Ecuador). To this end, a documentary research based on secondary data is conducted by analysing recent research about Psycho-social risks at work. The findings show that the most concurrent risks are involvement, supervision, and workload. Furthermore, there are differences between   psycho-social risks in production and services companies.   Even though there are several studies related to Psycho-social risks at work such as performance, absenteeism, occupational diseases, and work satisfaction; all come to the conclusion that the greater the social risk at work, the lower the levels of performance and satisfaction, in addition to increasing absenteeism and occupational diseases.La prevención de los riesgos psicosociales laborales está tomando importancia en los últimos años. No son pocos trabajos que se realizan analizando la prevalencia de estos riesgos psicosociales laborales además de su relación con otras variables. La presente investigación tiene como objetivo realizar una revisión de los documentos científicos relacionados a los riesgos psicosociales laborales en la provincia de Tungurahua de Ecuador. Para ello se plantea una investigación documental, basada en datos secundarios en donde se analizan las investigaciones realizadas sobre los riesgos psicosociales laborales en la provincia a lo largo de los últimos años. Se encuentra que los riesgos que más se repiten son los de participación/supervisión y carga de trabajo. A demás, existen diferencias en los riesgos psicosociales laborales entre las empresas de servicios y las de producción. Finalmente se encuentran multitud de trabajos que relacionan los riesgos psicosociales laborales con el desempeño, el ausentismo, las enfermedades y la satisfacción laboral. Siendo que, a mayor nivel de riesgos psicosocial, menor desempeño y satisfacción laboral y mayor ausentismo y enfermedades laborales

Cross-cultural effects of color, but not morphological masculinity, on perceived attractiveness of men's faces

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 ElsevierMuch attractiveness research has focused on face shape. The role of masculinity (which for adults is thought to be a relatively stable shape cue to developmental testosterone levels) in male facial attractiveness has been examined, with mixed results. Recent work on the perception of skin color (a more variable cue to current health status) indicates that increased skin redness, yellowness, and lightness enhance apparent health. It has been suggested that stable cues such as masculinity may be less important to attractiveness judgments than short-term, more variable health cues. We examined associations between male facial attractiveness, masculinity, and skin color in African and Caucasian populations. Masculinity was not found to be associated with attractiveness in either ethnic group. However, skin color was found to be an important predictor of attractiveness judgments, particularly for own-ethnicity faces. Our results suggest that more plastic health cues, such as skin color, are more important than developmental cues such as masculinity. Further, unfamiliarity with natural skin color variation in other ethnic groups may limit observers' ability to utilize these color cues

Genome-wide analysis of targets for post-transcriptional regulation by Rsm proteins in Pseudomonas putida

Post-transcriptional regulation is an important step in the control of bacterial gene expression in response to environmental and cellular signals. Pseudomonas putida KT2440 harbors three known members of the CsrA/RsmA family of post-transcriptional regulators: RsmA, RsmE and RsmI. We have carried out a global analysis to identify RNA sequences bound in vivo by each of these proteins. Affinity purification and sequencing of RNA molecules associated with Rsm proteins were used to discover direct binding targets, corresponding to 437 unique RNA molecules, 75 of them being common to the three proteins. Relevant targets include genes encoding proteins involved in signal transduction and regulation, metabolism, transport and secretion, stress responses, and the turnover of the intracellular second messenger c-di-GMP. To our knowledge, this is the first combined global analysis in a bacterium harboring three Rsm homologs. It offers a broad overview of the network of processes subjected to this type of regulation and opens the way to define what are the sequence and structure determinants that define common or differential recognition of specific RNA molecules by these proteins.This work was supported by grants BFU2013-43469-P, BFU2016-80122-P and PID2019-109372GB-I00 from the Plan Estatal de I+D+I (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and FEDER funds). Funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom (BB/R012415/1), and the University of Malaya (FRGS grant FP022-2018A and HIR grant H-50001-00-A000027) are also gratefully acknowledged