Hongos Micorrícicos Arbusculares y su potencial uso como Agentes Biorremediadores en suelos con elevado contenido de metales pesados

Hongos Micorrícicos Arbusculares y su potencial uso como Agentes Biorremediadores en suelos con elevado contenido de metales pesadosFil: Gómez, Elena. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentin

Exposición mediante realidad virtual para el TOC: ¿Es factible?

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is receiving increased attention, especially in the fields of anxiety and eating disorders. This study is the first trial examining the utility of VRET from the perspective of OCD patients. Four OCD women assessed the sense of presence, emotional engagement, and reality judgment, and the anxiety and disgust levels they experimented in four scenarios, called the Contaminated Virtual Environment (COVE), in which they had to perform several activities. The COVE scenarios were presented on a Full HD 46” TV connected to a laptop and to a Kinect device. Results indicate that the COVE scenarios generated a good sense of presence. The anxiety and disgust levels increased as the virtual contamination increased, and the anxiety produced was related to the emotional engagement and sense of presence.La Exposición mediante Realidad Virtual (ERV) está recibiendo una atención cada vez mayor, especialmente para los trastornos de ansiedad y los alimentarios. Este estudio es el primer ensayo que evalúa la utilidad de la ERV desde la propia perspectiva de pacientes con Trastorno Obsesivo-Compulsivo (TOC). Cuatro mujeres con TOC evaluaron la sensación de presencia, implicación emocional, el juicio de realidad, y los niveles de ansiedad y asco que experimentaban en cuatro escenarios virtuales, que denominamos Entorno Virtual Contaminado (EVCO), en los que debían realizar varias actividades. Los escenarios se presentaron en una TV Full HD de 46’’, conectada a un ordenador y a un dispositivo Kinect. Los resultados indican que EVCO produjo una buena sensación de presencia. Los niveles de ansiedad y asco aumentaron a medida que aumentaba la “contaminación” de los escenarios, y la ansiedad se asoció con la sensación de presencia y la implicación emocional

Quitting rules in hybrid foraging search: From early childhood to early adulthood

In hybrid foraging, observers search for multiple instances of multiple target types. Children regularly perform such tasks (e.g., collecting LEGO pieces or looking for different teammates within a game). Quitting rules (When do you leave the search?) are important in foraging (e.g., I found enough LEGOs or teammates). However, the development of quitting behavior has not yet been experimentally studied, and it could give us significant information about executive function development. We tested 279 observers (4–25 years old) using classic feature and conjunction foraging. The results show that while children’s performance improved with age, all groups made similar "quitting" decisions roughly following optimal choices as defined by Charnov’s Marginal Value Theorem (MVT), with the youngest 4–5 years old children quitting slightly earlier. It seems that mature quitting rules in search operate relatively early in development, suggesting that those rules are quite basic aspects of the human cognitionThis work was supported by the Research Grant Project PSI2015–69358-R (MINECO/FEDER) “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” (MINECO), and “Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional” (FEDER), given to Beatriz Gil-Gomez ´ de Liano ˜ as PI. Also, part of the research of this study was done thanks to the Fulbright Commission, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, under grant FORAGEKID 793268, also granted to Beatriz Gil-Gomez de Liaño at the University of Cambridge, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and BWH-Harvard Medical School, and by NIH EY017001 given to Jeremy M. Wolf

Subcellular forms and biochemical events triggered in human cells by HCV polyprotein expression from a viral vector

To identify the subcellular forms and biochemical events induced in human cells after HCV polyprotein expression, we have used a robust cell culture system based on vaccinia virus (VACV) that efficiently expresses in infected cells the structural and nonstructural proteins of HCV from genotype 1b (VT7-HCV7.9). As determined by confocal microscopy, HCV proteins expressed from VT7-HCV7.9 localize largely in a globular-like distribution pattern in the cytoplasm, with some proteins co-localizing with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. As examined by electron microscopy, HCV proteins induced formation of large electron-dense cytoplasmic structures derived from the ER and containing HCV proteins. In the course of HCV protein production, there is disruption of the Golgi apparatus, loss of spatial organization of the ER, appearance of some "virus-like" structures and swelling of mitochondria. Biochemical analysis demonstrate that HCV proteins bring about the activation of initiator and effector caspases followed by severe apoptosis and mitochondria dysfunction, hallmarks of HCV cell injury. Microarray analysis revealed that HCV polyprotein expression modulated transcription of genes associated with lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and cellular proliferation. Our findings demonstrate the uniqueness of the VT7-HCV7.9 system to characterize morphological and biochemical events related to HCV pathogenesis

Involvement of PKR and RNase L in translational control and induction of apoptosis after Hepatitis C polyprotein expression from a Vaccinia virus recombinant

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is of growing concern in public health with around 350 million chronically infected individuals worldwide. Although the IFN-α/rivabirin is the only approved therapy with 10–30% clinical efficacy, the protective molecular mechanism involved during the treatment is still unknown. To analyze the effect of HCV polyprotein expression on the antiviral response of the host, we developed a novel vaccinia virus (VV)-based delivery system (VT7-HCV7.9) where structural and nonstructural (except part of NS5B) proteins of HCV ORF from genotype 1b are efficiently expressed and produced, and timely regulated in mammalian cell lines. RESULTS: Regulated transcript production and viral polypeptide processing was demonstrated in various cell lines infected with the recombinant VT7-HCV7.9, indicating that the cellular and viral proteolytic machineries are functional within these cells. The inducible expression of the HCV polyprotein by VV inhibits the synthesis of both host and viral proteins over the time and also induces apoptosis in HeLa and HepG2-infected cells. These effects occur accompanying with the phosphorylation of the translation initiation factor eIF-2α. In cells co-infected with VT7-HCV7.9 and a recombinant VV expressing the dominant negative eIF-2α-S51A mutant in the presence of the inductor isopropyl-thiogalactoside (IPTG), protein synthesis is rescued. The IFN-inducible protein kinase PKR is responsible for the translational block, as demonstrated with PKR-/- and PKR+/+ cell lines. However, apoptosis induced by VT7-HCV7.9 is mediated by the RNase L pathway, in a PKR-independent manner. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate the antiviral relevance of the proteins induced by interferon, PKR and RNase L during expression from a VV recombinant of the HCV polyprotein in human cell lines. HCV polyprotein expression caused a severe cytopathological effect in human cells as a result of inhibition of protein synthesis and apoptosis induction, triggered by the activation of the IFN-induced enzymes PKR and RNase L systems. Thus, the virus-cell system described here highlights the relevance of the IFN system as a protective mechanism against HCV infection

Attentional development can help us understand the inattentional blindness effect in visual search

Introduction: Inattentional Blindness (IB) is the failure to notice an unexpected, usually salient stimulus while immersed in a different, often demanding attentional task. More than just a laboratory curiosity, IB is an important phenomenon to understand because it may be related to real-world errors such as missed “incidental findings” in medical image or security searches. Interest in individual differences in susceptibility to IB has produced a number of studies showing inconclusive results. Methods: Here, we tested IB in a sample of 277 participants, 4-25 years old performing a visual search task. On two critical trials, an unexpected letter and an unexpected word were presented among photorealistic objects. Results: There was a clear age effect with younger individuals showing higher IB levels. IB correlated with attentional control in visual search and with Continuous Performance Test-CPT for d-prime, response times and attentional shifting measures. These effects disappeared if age was controlled. There were no general effects of intelligence (IQ; RIST) or gender. Younger observers showed a negative correlation of IB for the word with the verbal components of the RIST IQ-proxy (no effect for the letter). Discussion: These results support a relationship between IB and cognitive-developmental changes, showing that maturation of attention and executive processes can help us understand the intriguing phenomenon of (sometimes) missing what is in front of our eyesThis work was supported by the Research Grant Project PSI2015-69358-R (MINECO/FEDER) Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the ongoing project PID2021-122621OBI00 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España) granted to BG-G. It was also supported by the Fulbright Commission, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, FORAGEKID 793268, also granted to BG-G, as well as by the NIH EY017001 granted to J

Difusión y orientación de las menciones de educación física y música en un entorno virtual, para estudiantes de grado en educación primaria.

El proyecto tiene como objetivo utilizar la plataforma Moodle como medio de difusión y orientación de las menciones de Educación Física y Música para los estudiantes de Grado en Educación Primaria

Diseño e implementación de un Sistema de Evaluación por pares en asignaturas del Grado de Maestro relacionadas con la atención a la diversidad del alumnado

Memoria ID12-0267. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2012-2013

Experiments on a lab scale TES unit using eutectic metal alloy as PCM

The behavior of a magnesium and zinc eutectic metal alloy used as thermal energy storage (TES) material is tested in a laboratory scale TES unit. The TES unit consists of two concentric tubes with the central tube surrounded by 67 kg of the metal alloy and two caps at both ends of the tube through which the heat transfer fluid (HTF) flows. Charging (melting) and discharging (solidification) processes of the eutectic metal alloy are performed using synthetic oil as the HTF. The experimental results are used to test the validity of the model via simulations performed with a computational fluid dynamics tool. The results corroborate that phase change materials with high thermal conductivity, such as eutectic metal alloys, are ideal for the evaporation process of water in direct steam generation applications due to the quasi-constant melting and solidification temperatures and to its high heat transfer capacityThe authors would like to thank the Department of Industry, Innovation, Commerce and Tourism of the Basque Government for funding Etortek 2011 Energigune’11 grant (IE11-303). The authors would like to express their gratitude to Felix Mendia for his valuable and constructive suggestions and very much appreciate the collaboration of Julian Izaga from IK4-Azterlan and Rafael de Diego from Melfun in the synthesis of the eutectic allo

Aplicación de la tecnología 3D en la restauración del conjunto escultórico Los Portadores de la Antorcha, de la Ciudad Universitaria de Madrid

El conjunto escultórico Los Portadores de la Antorcha, realizado por la escultora estadounidense Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, sufrió hace tres años el robo de uno de sus elementos constitutivos más importantes: la antorcha que portaba la figura situada en el plano inferior. Un equipo de investigación ha llevado a cabo la restitución de la pieza faltante y, para ello, ha empleado una combinación de la tecnología 3D con los tradicionales métodos de moldeo. Como planteamiento previo, se planteó la digitalización, mediante escáner 3D o fotogrametría, de algunas de las antorchas correspondientes a otras versiones que de la escultura existen en nuestro país (Valencia), así como en América. Debido a la imposibilidad, hasta el momento, de optar por esta medida, finalmente se ha puesto en práctica otra opción, que ha consistido en la realización del modelado 3D de la antorcha a partir de las seis fotografías de las que se disponía. Una vez se dispuso de este modelo 3D, se realizó el fresado 3D de la llama, así como el torneado de la parte inferior. De este modelo en resina de poliuretano se realizó su molde y después el vaciado final y mediante el empleo de una resina epoxi con filtro UV, de manera que el color de aluminio de la pieza permanezca lo más estable posible