The Zebrafish as a Model for the Evolution and Development of Breeding Tubercles in Fishes

Breeding tubercles are multicellular, keratinized epidermal projections that are used in intraspecific competition and maintaining contact during spawning in fishes. The development of these novel structures has been little studied, despite their presence in the Zebrafish (Danio rerio) model system. The aim of the present study was to help establish the Zebrafish as a model for the development and evolution of breeding tubercles in fishes. The appearance of breeding tubercles during development was documented for this species with special focus on tubercles of a lateral flap of the lower jaw, which represents a synapomorphy (shared derived feature) of the genus Danio. As this fleshy flap is supported by a lateral extension of the dentary bone, the possibility of induction of tubercles by this structure was investigated by comparing tubercle and projection development in the Zebrafish. Breeding tubercles, the fleshy jaw flap, and dentary projection were also characterized in eight additional species of the subfamily Danioninae. This study revealed the coordinated appearance of the three structures as well as loss of tubercles in one clade. Finally, the Ectodysplasin signaling pathway was determined to be necessary and sufficient for tubercle development, establishing variation in this pathway as a candidate cause of variation in breeding tubercles of fishes.

Los términos de enfermedades en el Livro d'Alveitaria de Mestre Giraldo

Nuestro propósito consiste en analizar los términos de albeitería utilizados en el Livro d'Alveitaria de Mestre Giraldo. Se trata de un tratado elaborado bajo las órdenes del rey portugués D. Dinis por un físico suyo. Va fechado de 1318. Como el propio Mestre Giraldo lo indica, se trata de una compilación de conocimientos de albeitería que se podrían hallar, a la época, en el tratado extranjero del dominicano Theuderique, Cirurgia, escrito entre 1240 y 1250, y el de Jurdanus Ruffus, De medicina equorum, de 1250. La tarea de Mestre Giraldo consistió, pues, en compilar, ordenar y traducir al portugués esos conocimientos. El análisis que nos proponemos presentar tiene como primer objetivo la descripción de los mecanismos derivacionales que están en el origen de los términos que designan las enfermedades de los caballos, utilizados por Mestre Giraldo. Algunos de esos términos son, por ejemplo, travagem, mormo, dessocamento, eslodroamento, etc. Así, destacaremos los tipos de formación de palabras más hallados en la construcción de los términos técnicos, los afijos utilizados y las significaciones prototípicas construidas a través de esos mecanismos. Nuestro segundo objetivo consiste en comparar esos términos portugueses con los correspondientes latinos. Es que Mestre Giraldo tiene el cuidado de ofrecer el término latino correspondiente al término portugués. Con esta comparación tratamos de comprender si los términos técnicos de la albeitería en portugués resultan de una adaptación culta de los términos latinos, o bien si se demuestran como etimológica y morfológicamente independientes de aquellos. En caso de confirmación de esta segunda hipótesis, se observará si el léxico de especialidad de la albeitería obedece a parámetros de formación típicos del portugués, o bien si se arraiga a tradiciones culturales no románicas, como por ejemplo la de la influencia árabe.Our proposal consists in the analysis of the lexicon of horse diseases that appears in the Livro d'alveitaria by Mestre Giraldo. This is a treatise made under the rule of the Portuguese king D. Dinis by one of his physicians, in 1318. As it is told by Mestre Giraldo, this treatise is a compilation of knowledge about veterinary medicine that could be found at that time in the works of Theudoric Borgognoni, Mulomedicina, or Practicaequorum, or De medelaequorum, and of Jurdanus Ruffus, Maniscalcie liber, both of the 13th century. The analysis we mean to present has as main objective the comparison between the Portuguese lexicon that designates horse diseases and the correspondent Latin lexicon. With this comparison we may understand if the Portuguese terms of veterinary medicine result from an erudite adaptation of the Latin terms, or if they are etymologically or morphologically independent of those. If this second hypothesis is confirmed, we will observe if those terms obey to the Portuguese typical word formation parameters, or if they are dependent on non-Romance cultural traditions, as, for example, on the Arabian influence. If the terms of horse diseases are constructed in Portuguese, we will describe the derivation mechanisms which are in their origin. In this way, we will point out the word formation processes that are more usual in the construction of these terms, the used affixes and the prototypical meanings constructed by those mechanisms

Diagnóstico Financiero de la empresa Factoring,S.A. para el periodo comprendido al 2012-2013

El Presente Seminario de Graduación tuvo como objetivo principal elaborar un diagnóstico financiero para la empresa Factoring, SA para el periodo 2012-2013. La elaboración del diagnóstico financiero permitió evaluar los Estados Financieros de la empresa y de esta manera conocer la situación financiera real del ente, determinar sus debilidades a fin de mejorarlas y permitir la toma de decisiones adecuadas que conlleven al bienestar económico de la misma. Para efectuar este Seminario de Graduación, se empleó el método deductivo, dado que se utilizan conceptos y fórmulas que están definidos y explicados por distintos autores, los cuales se utilizaron para explicar las herramientas del análisis financiero y aplicar los métodos y formulas a los datos financieros. Se tomaron como base el Estado de Situación Financiera y Estado de Resultados de Factoring, SA para los periodos 2012 y 2013 para realizar análisis horizontal, vertical, análisis de razones financieras y análisis Du-pont. Al realizar el análisis financiero, se encontró que la razón circulante es de 1.29 en 2013, razón financiera que se mantiene constante desde 2012; además, se conoce un constante crecimiento de la cartera que es el activo productivo primordial de Factoring, SA. El margen Financiero de la empresa es de 11% que es el porcentaje de ganancias que obtiene de sus operaciones. Por otro lado, si bien Factoring, SA es una empresa solvente, con Liquidez y Financieramente independiente, debe fortalecer la gestión de las Cuentas por cobrar y los gastos que estas generan a fin de evitar disminuciones considerables en la utilida

Gold or water, the case of the páramo de Santurbán

The article describes the situation of the Páramo de Santurbán after the intervention of the mining companies and shows its importance as a strategic ecosystem and a source of mineral wealth. Identifying the causes that make it attractive to the Páramo to strengthen mining activity there, as well as the consequent destruction of the ecosystem and the impact of its resources. Likewise, this study analyzes the social conflicts in the municipalities in Santurbán’s area of influence and highlights the confrontation between the country’s development model based on large-scale mining, the conservation of strategic ecosystems, communities that have opted for water rather than gold and people who have traditionally been miners, an activity that is their only livelihood and which now has an uncertain future due to the direction that the mining issue in Colombia is taking.El artículo describe la situación del páramo de Santurbán tras la intervención de las compañías mineras y muestra su importancia como ecosistema estratégico y fuente de riqueza minera. Se identifican las causas que hacen atractivo al páramo para que se fortalezca allí la actividad minera, así como la consecuente destrucción del ecosistema y afectación de sus recursos. Igualmente, este estudio analiza los conflictos sociales en los municipios del área de influencia de Santurbán y resalta la confrontación entre el modelo de desarrollo del país basado en la minería a gran escala, la conservación de ecosistemas estratégicos, las Comunidades que han optado por el agua antes que el oro y los pobladores que por tradición han sido mineros, actividad que es su único sustento y que ahora tiene un futuro incierto por el rumbo que está tomado el tema de la minería en Colombi

Unraveling the mechanism of TTL genes in cellulose biosynthesis

As sessile organisms, plants require mechanisms to sense and respond to the challenging environment, that encompass both biotic and abiotic factors that results in differential development. In these conditions is essential to balance growth and stress responses. As cell walls shape plant growth, this differential growth response cause alterations to the plant cell wall where cellulose is the major component. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms that regulate cellulose biosynthesis is essential to develop strategies to improve plant production. In Arabidopsis, the TETRATRICOPEPTIDE THIOREDOXIN-LIKE (TTL) gene family is composed by four members (TTL1 to TTL4) and mutations in TTL1, TTL3, and TTL4 genes cause reduced growth under salt and osmotic stress due to defects in plant cell wall integrity. We observe association of TTL3 with most core components in traducing BR signalling, such as LRR-RLK BRI1 or GSK3 BIN2 that modulate cellulose biosynthesis through phosphorylating cellulose synthases. Here, we show that ttl mutants present defects in the plant cell wall, particularly in Isoxaben, salt or sucrose stress. Spinning disk microscopy in etiolated hypocotyls reveals that, TTL proteins are responsible for the cellulose synthase complex (CSC) stability in plasma membrane (PM) upon sucrose stress. Moreover, TTL3 associates with LRR-RLKs that have been shown to be important for cellulose biosynthesis such as FEI1 in the FEI1/FEI2/SOS5 pathway. We aim to investigate the mechanisms by which TTL proteins regulate CesA stability in PM under stress, using a combination of genetics, biochemical, and molecular and cell biology approaches.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This work was supported by grants from: (1) Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación BIO2014-55380-R, BIO2014-56153-REDT; (2) Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (BES-2015-071256

Real time motion estimation using a neural architecture implemented on GPUs

This work describes a neural network based architecture that represents and estimates object motion in videos. This architecture addresses multiple computer vision tasks such as image segmentation, object representation or characterization, motion analysis and tracking. The use of a neural network architecture allows for the simultaneous estimation of global and local motion and the representation of deformable objects. This architecture also avoids the problem of finding corresponding features while tracking moving objects. Due to the parallel nature of neural networks, the architecture has been implemented on GPUs that allows the system to meet a set of requirements such as: time constraints management, robustness, high processing speed and re-configurability. Experiments are presented that demonstrate the validity of our architecture to solve problems of mobile agents tracking and motion analysis.This work was partially funded by the Spanish Government DPI2013-40534-R grant and Valencian Government GV/2013/005 grant