Influence of Changes in Political Barriers and of Geographic Distance on Kinship Inferred from Surnames and Migration Data in Olivenza (Spain) and Surrounding Portuguese Areas

The existing relationship between human populations is a function of their migratory and genetic exchange which will be inversely proportional to the distance separating them. The effect of geographic distance on population structure may be estimated by means of isonymic methods which use information on the surnames present in a territory as an approximation to the distribution of allele frequencies. The objective of this study is to analyse whether the modification in 1801 of the political border in an area surrounding the town of Olivenza, which experienced a change of sovereignty from Portugal to Spain, has had noticeable influence on the migration pattern and isolation by distance in that region. For this purpose data from marriage records of Olivenza and the neighbouring Portuguese municipalities of Alandroal, Juromenha, Elvas, Vila Boim (and Terrugem), Terena, Monsaraz, and Vila Viçosa were analysed. Two periods were considered in order to analyse the population structure: one prior to the change of domain (1775–1801), another after it (1802–1825), for which rates of diversity and inbreeding coefficients were determined. The results obtained show that following the border modification, the migration matrices changed differently according to sex, therefore altering the relationship between the various localities of the territory. In Olivenza inbreeding declined slightly and surnames became more heterogeneous. Moreover, following the change of domain the isolation by distance models illustrate a temporal reduction in the relative weight of geographical distance on inter-population kinship. The political border acted as a factor in population differentiation in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal)

Measurements and understanding of radon adsorption in nanoporous materials

International audienceFor many experiments working at low energy and very low counting rate in particle and astroparticle physics, the background from the Radon decay chain is one of the strongest constraints. Most of the time, activated charcoal filters are used to dynamically capture the radon from the air or from the gas of the detectors. In general case activated charcoal is a good adsorptive material. It has large effective surface and broad porosity, going from macro to nanopores. However, the big constraints from futures experiments need ad hoc radon capture filters. The optimal adsorption depends on various parameters such as the correct pore size and shape, the temperature, the microscopic structure of the adsorbent or the competition between radon and carrier gas. In this context, we have developed at Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM), a test bench to study the radon capture in various porous materials1. Several very interesting results have been already obtained with non-standard, commercially and research adsorbents like some Carbon Molecular Sieves (CMS), organic molecular cage (CC3)2, or carbon aerogels.In this talk we present a global quantitative and qualitative study of radon adsorption in porous materials. This work is the results of the analysis of more than 30 porous materials in the framework of the collaboration between particle physicist and chemist from several universities

Search for neutrinos from transient sources with the ANTARES telescope and optical follow-up observations

The ANTARES telescope has the opportunity to detect transient neutrino sources, such as gamma-ray bursts, core-collapse supernovae, flares of active nuclei... To enhance the sensitivity to these sources, we have developed a new detection method based on the optical follow-up of "golden" neutrino events such as neutrino doublets coincident in time and space or single neutrinos of very high energy. The ANTARES Collaboration has therefore implemented a very fast on-line reconstruction with a good angular resolution. These characteristics allow to trigger an optical telescope network; since February 2009. ANTARES is sending alert trigger one or two times per month to the two 25 cm robotic telescope of TAROT. This follow-up of such special events would not only give access to the nature of the sources but also improves the sensitivity for transient neutrino sources.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the 31st ICRC, Lodz, Polan, July 200

MEMPHYS:A large scale water Cerenkov detector at Fr\'ejus

A water \v{C}erenkov detector project, of megaton scale, to be installed in the Fr\'ejus underground site and dedicated to nucleon decay, neutrinos from supernovae, solar and atmospheric neutrinos, as well as neutrinos from a super-beam and/or a beta-beam coming from CERN, is presented and compared with competitor projects in Japan and in the USA. The performances of the European project are discussed, including the possibility to measure the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ and the CP-violating phase $\delta$.Comment: 1+33 pages, 14 figures, Expression of Interest of MEMPHYS projec

MIMAC: MIcro-tpc MAtrix of Chambers for dark matter directional detection

Directional detection of non-baryonic Dark Matter is a promising search strategy for discriminating WIMP events from neutrons, the ultimate background for dark matter direct detection. This strategy requires both a precise measurement of the energy down to a few keV and 3D reconstruction of tracks down to a few mm. The MIMAC (MIcro-tpc MAtrix of Chambers) collaboration has developed in the last years an original prototype detector based on the direct coupling of large pixelized micromegas with a special developed fast self-triggered electronics showing the feasibility of a new generation of directional detectors. The first bi-chamber prototype has been installed at Modane, underground laboratory in June 2012. The first undergournd background events, the gain stability and calibration are shown. The first spectrum of nuclear recoils showing 3D tracks coming from the radon progeny is presented.Comment: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Directional Dark Matter Detection CYGNUS2013, held in Toyoma (Japan), June 201

Social impact analysis of products under a holistic approach: A case study in the meat product supply chain

Social impact assessment of products can be approached through different methodologies that need to be adapted to the particularities and features of the studied subject. Thus, the Social Life Cycle Assessment methodology can be used to assess different innovative practices of product manufacturing, under a circular economy approach, by identifying potential positive as well as negative impacts along products’ life cycle. This paper presents the results of the Social Life Cycle Impact Assessment of a reference product from the Spanish meat industry using existing and new innovative methods of social impact analysis. Worker discrimination, health and safety for workers, consumers and local community were identified as the social aspects with relevant significance into the business or for the influence on customer’s perception of the products studied. Therefore, results can represent a reference scenario for the future assessment of innovative solutions in the Spanish meet sector. Despite the scarce use of Social Life Cycle Impact Assessment, this case study is a good example of how this innovative kind of assessment can be helpful for companies to identify their weak and strong social performance areas and design strategies to improve in Social Responsibility Management. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Photoionization in the time and frequency domain

Ultrafast processes in matter, such as the electron emission following light absorption, can now be studied using ultrashort light pulses of attosecond duration ($10^{-18}$s) in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range. The lack of spectral resolution due to the use of short light pulses may raise serious issues in the interpretation of the experimental results and the comparison with detailed theoretical calculations. Here, we determine photoionization time delays in neon atoms over a 40 eV energy range with an interferometric technique combining high temporal and spectral resolution. We spectrally disentangle direct ionization from ionization with shake up, where a second electron is left in an excited state, thus obtaining excellent agreement with theoretical calculations and thereby solving a puzzle raised by seven-year-old measurements. Our experimental approach does not have conceptual limits, allowing us to foresee, with the help of upcoming laser technology, ultra-high resolution time-frequency studies from the visible to the x-ray range.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

The evolution of the HIV-1 protease folding stability

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUGThe evolution of structural proteins is generally constrained by the folding stability. However, little is known about the particular capacity of viral proteins to accommodate mutations that can potentially affect the protein stability and, in general, the evolution of the protein stability over time. As an illustrative model case, here, we investigated the evolution of the stability of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) protease (PR), which is a common HIV-1 drug target, under diverse evolutionary scenarios that include (1) intra-host virus evolution in a cohort of seventy-five patients sampled over time, (2) intra-host virus evolution sampled before and after specific PR-based treatments, and (3) inter-host evolution considering extant and ancestral (reconstructed) PR sequences from diverse HIV-1 subtypes. We also investigated the specific influence of currently known HIV-1 PR resistance mutations on the PR folding stability. We found that the HIV-1 PR stability fluctuated over time within a constant and wide range in any studied evolutionary scenario, accommodating multiple mutations that partially affected the stability while maintaining activity. We did not identify relationships between change of PR stability and diverse clinical parameters such as viral load, CD4+ T-cell counts, and a surrogate of time from infection. Counterintuitively, we predicted that nearly half of the studied HIV-1 PR resistance mutations do not significantly decrease stability, which, together with compensatory mutations, would allow the protein to adapt without requiring dramatic stability changes. We conclude that the HIV-1 PR presents a wide structural plasticity to acquire molecular adaptations without affecting the overall evolution of stability.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | Ref. RYC-2015-18241Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431F 2018/08Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481A-2020/19