Synthesis of Fe2SiO4-Fe7Co3 nanocomposite dispersed in the mesoporous SBA-15: Application as magnetically separable adsorbent Da Silva, Monickarla Teixeira Pegado; Barbosa, Felipe Fernandes; Morales Torre, Marco Antonio; Villarroel Rocha, Jhonny; Sapag, Manuel Karim; Pergher, Sibele; Braga, Tiago Pinheiro The mixture containing alloy and oxide with iron-based phases has shown interesting properties compared to the isolated species and the synergy between the phases has shown positive effect on dye adsorption. This paper describes the synthesis of Fe2SiO4-Fe7Co3-based nanocomposite dispersed in Santa Barbara Amorphous (SBA)-15 and its application in dye adsorption followed by magnetic separation. Thus, it was studied the variation of reduction temperature and amount of hydrogen used in synthesis and the effect of these parameters on the physicochemical properties of the iron and cobalt based oxide/alloy mixture, as well as the methylene blue adsorption capacity. The XRD and Mössbauer results, along with the temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) profiles, confirmed the formation of Fe2SiO4-Fe7Co3-based nanocomposites. Low-angle XRD, N2 isotherms, and TEM images show the formation of the SBA-15 based mesoporous support with a high surface area (640 m2/g). Adsorption tests confirmed that the material reduced at 700 ◦C using 2% of H2 presented the highest adsorption capacity (49 mg/g). The nanocomposites can be easily separated from the dispersion by applying an external magnetic field. The interaction between the dye and the nanocomposite occurs mainly by π-π interactions and the mixture of the Fe2SiO4 and Fe7Co3 leads to a synergistic effect, which favor the adsorption.

Utilización de lana de oveja de bajo valor de mercado como aislante térmico en la Patagonia Zanovello, Lucas; Cardoso, María Betina El presente trabajo se realizó con el objetivo de analizar alternativas para la obtención de aislantes térmicos para las viviendas de la región sur de Río Negro, a partir de un recurso disponible como la lana de oveja. Para ello, se desarrollaron herramientas manuales y ayudas mecánicas para luego analizar comparativamente las diferentes técnicas de elaboración de paños. Se tuvo en cuenta también el método multicriterio NAIADE tomando como eje principal la adecuación de la tecnología propuesta al contexto de uso. Se analizó el comportamiento térmico de los paños obtenidos mediante medición de transmisión de calor, en régimen estacionario utilizando un equipamiento de autoconstrucción. Como resultado de este análisis se seleccionaron las técnicas de elaboración de aislantes a partir de lana de oveja trabajadas en seco. Las mediciones de conductividad térmica fueron contrastadas con los ensayos realizados por INTI Construcciones, bajo la norma ISO 8301:2010, obteniendo como resultados aislantes con una conductividad térmica cercanas a 0,038 W/m2 Kº. Este resultado demuestra que estos aislantes resultan eficientes y adecuados para la rehabilitación higrotérmica de las viviendas rurales de la región Patagonia.

Searching potential candidates for development of protective cultures: Evaluation of two Lactobacillus strains to reduce Listeria monocytogenes in artificially contaminated milk García, María José; Ruíz, Francesca; Asurmendi, Paula; Pascual, Liliana; Barberis, Isabel Lucila The aims of this work were (a) to select the minimum concentrations of two bacteriocin-producing lactobacilli strains to reduce Listeria monocytogenes growth in whole milk, (b) to evaluate the individual and combined application of these chosen lactobacilli concentrations as protective culture in this food and, (c) to estimate if lactobacilli growth caused undesirable changes in the visible characteristics of milk. The selected minimum lactobacilli concentration with antilisterial activity was 106 CFU ml−1 for both lactobacilli. Although a high initial concentration of L. monocytogenes (104 CFU ml−1) was added to milk, a notable reduction on listerial counts (2–4 log CFU ml−1) was achieved in comparison to the control. These lactobacilli showed a good adaptability in milk reaching optimal counts and not causing undesirable visible changes. In conclusion, the use of these lactobacilli could be considered as a bio-strategy potentially effective to limit the contamination by L. monocytogenes in certain milk-derived products.

Switching of dominant positions between two sand‐fixing shrub species during the dune revegetation process is underlain by their contrasting xylem hydraulics and water‐use strategies Guo, Jing‐Jing; Gong, Xue-Wei; Fang, Li-Dong; Jiang, De-Ming; Ala, Musa; Bucci, Sandra Janet; Scholz, Fabian Gustavo; Goldstein, Guillermo; Hao, Guang-You Differences in key physiological characteristics between plant species can result in their contrasting performances in vegetation restoration projects, but ecophysiological comparative studies in close relation to ecological restoration projects are scarce. Hedysarum fruticosum Pall. and Caragana microphylla Lam. are two leguminous shrub species widely used in combination for fixation of active sand dunes in semiarid regions of northern China, but they clearly differ in fitness at different stages of dune vegetation development; that is, H. fruticosum quickly gains a community dominance at the initial stage but yields to C. microphylla in a few years after the fixation of dunes. To reveal the underlying mechanism of such a pattern, key physiological characteristics related to xylem water transport, leaf water use, and drought tolerance were compared between these two species at a typical site of sand dune fixation project in Inner Mongolia. Compared with C. microphylla , H. fruticosum shows an acquisitive and risky water management strategy with substantially higher hydraulic efficiency and photosynthetic capability but reduced resistance to drought‐induced xylem embolism, which endows it an advantage under conditions of relatively high soil water availability at the early stage of dune fixation. In contrast, C. microphylla exhibits more conservative water use and characteristics of greater drought tolerance, which results in greater dominance under the more drought‐stressed conditions of the later stage of dune fixation. Our study for the first time provides a potential mechanistic explanation for the clear switching of dominant positions between the two important sand‐fixing shrub species during the sand dune revegetation process.

Stories from common gardens: Water shortage differentially affects Nothofagus pumilio from contrasting precipitation regimes Ignazi, Griselda; Bucci, Sandra Janet; Premoli, Andrea C. Marginal populations are usually under stressful environmental conditions and may render novel phenotypes due to intense selection resulting from evolutionary and ecological changes. Thus the study of phenotypic variation under contrasting environments and their possible genetic basis is highly relevant particularly under changing climates. In Patagonia the study of populations located at the extremes of a pronounced west-to-east precipitation gradient due the rainshadow effect of the Andes has great importance to understand potential responses to drought that have caused already massive forest decay. Nothofagus pumilio is a winter deciduous tree that dominates high-elevation forests of southern Argentina and Chile. Populations at the driest extreme of the range are considered marginal in contrast to central ones at the humid end. We compare ecophysiological traits under common gardens and responses to a manipulative water deficit experiment of greenhouse-grown N. pumilio seedlings from contrasting precipitation regimes (humid and dry, hereafter central and marginal) to analyze genetically-based and / or plastic differences. During cultivation in common gardens central seedlings outgrew marginal ones in terms of height, basal diameter, and number of leaves. In contrast, plants from marginal populations endured water stress and had higher water use efficiency and relative growth rate than central ones which in turn showed greater susceptibility to desiccation. Given that the experiment was performed under homogeneous conditions, those differences are genetic. These results suggest that water-stress related traits have a genetic basis emphasizing their importance under predicted future altered water balances and intensity of droughts in northwestern Patagonia.

Functional stability of mycorrhizal interactions in woody natives and aliens facing fire disturbance Longo, Maria Silvana; Nouhra, Eduardo Ramon; Tecco, Paula Andrea; Urcelay, Roberto Carlos Changes in soil biota following fire and its successive influence on their interactions with plants may have direct implications on the invasion successof woody alien species in fire-prone ecosystems. In this work, we experimentally addressed if soil biota from burned and unburned areas differentially affectgrowth and nutrition of two dominant woody natives (Lithraea molleoides and Vachellia caven) and three woody invaders (Gleditsia triacanthos, Ligustrumlucidum and Pyracantha angustifolia) that occur on fire-prone ecosystems of central Argentina. Our results indicate that growth and P content in tissuesof both woody natives Lithraea and Vachellia were generally benefited by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and that these effects did not strongly differ between AMF communities from burned and unburned soils. In the case of alien species, differences in growth and nutrition in response to AMF wererelated more to the identity of the invader than on the provenance of the soil biota. This study provides evidence on the important role that soil biota may have in the success of woody aliens in these ecosystems and on the functional stability of AMF communities facing disturbances.

Thermal preferences and effects of temperature on fitness parameters of an endemic Argentinean tarantula (Grammostola vachoni) Schwerdt, Leonela Vanesa; de Villalobos, Ana Elena; Pérez Miles, Fernando; Ferretti, Nelson Edgardo Mygalomorphs depend on thermal microhabitats for successful behavior, but their thermal biology is still poorly known. Grammostola vachoni Schiapelli and Gerschman, 1961 is an endemic tarantula from Argentina and it is listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. However, little is known about its biology; therefore, we attempted to explore the thermal biology of juveniles and adult females of G. vachoni under laboratory conditions. We characterized the preferred temperatures, evaluated the relationship between temperature and locomotor performance, and calculated the thermal sensitivity. Individuals showed a peak temperature preference and spent 40% of the total time at 25?29 °C; we did not find any significant differences in temperature preference between juveniles and females. We found that locomotor performance is strongly affected by high temperatures. Different sprint speeds of juveniles and females were found at 5, 35, and 40 °C. The highest thermal sensitivity was recorded in the lowest temperature range and thermal sensitivity was lowest in the highest temperature ranges. Our results are relevant in the context of climate change, because thermal parameters constitute a useful tool to explore some possible effects of this change on body temperature and thus the physiological performance and vulnerability of ectotherms like G. vachoni.

Monitoring canid scent marking in space and time using a biologging and machine learning approach Bidder, Owen; Di Virgilio, Agustina Soledad; Hunter, Jennifer; McInturff, Alex; Gaynor, Kaitlyn; Smith, Alison; Dorcy, Janelle; Rosell, Frank For canid species, scent marking plays a critical role in territoriality, social dynamics, and reproduction. However, due in part to human dependence on vision as our primary sensory modality, research on olfactory communication is hampered by a lack of tractable methods. In this study, we leverage a powerful biologging approach, using accelerometers in concert with GPS loggers to monitor and describe scent-marking events in time and space. We performed a validation experiment with domestic dogs, monitoring them by video concurrently with the novel biologging approach. We attached an accelerometer to the pelvis of 31 dogs (19 males and 12 females), detecting raised-leg and squat posture urinations by monitoring the change in device orientation. We then deployed this technique to describe the scent marking activity of 3 guardian dogs as they defend livestock from coyote depredation in California, providing an example use-case for the technique. During validation, the algorithm correctly classifed 92% of accelerometer readings. High performance was partly due to the conspicuous signatures of archetypal raised-leg postures in the accelerometer data. Accuracy did not vary with the weight, age, and sex of the dogs, resulting in a method that is broadly applicable across canid species’ morphologies. We also used models trained on each individual to detect scent marking of others to emulate the use of captive surrogates for model training. We observed no relationship between the similarity in body weight between the dog pairs and the overall accuracy of predictions, although models performed best when trained and tested on the same individual. We discuss how existing methods in the feld of movement ecology can be extended to use this exciting new data type. This paper represents an important frst step in opening new avenues of research by leveraging the power of modern-technologies and machine-learning to this feld

Goose and hare faeces as a source of nutrients and dissolved organic matter for bacterial communities in the newly formed proglacial lake Ventisquero Negro (Patagonia, Argentina) Vega, Evelyn Nathalie; Bastidas Navarro, Marcela Alejandra; Modenutti, Beatriz Estela Dissolved organic matter (DOM) input is a key factor for freshwater ecology, since it regulates many aspects of aquatic ecosystem metabolism. Aquatic and terrestrial animals that inhabit or frequent aquatic environments also influence the DOM inputs via their faeces, supplying nutrients such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Here, we analyse the response of a bacterial community in the newly formed proglacial Lake Ventisquero Negro (Mount Tronador) to the addition of dissolved nutrients from faeces leachate of the native goose (Chloephaga poliocephala Sclater, 1857; locally called ‘‘cauque´n’’) and the European hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778). A laboratory incubation experiment was carried out with unenriched lake water and lake water enriched with leachate from hare or goose faeces. The results showed that faeces and leachates of geese were richer in nutrients than those of hares. Spectrofluorometric analysis of the DOM also showed differences between the two sources.

Isolation and characterization of an endolichenic actinobacterium from the lichen thallus of Pseudocyphellaria berberina Vobis, Gernot; Solans, Mariana; Scervino, Jose Martin; Schumann, Peter; Spröer, Cathrin; Messuti, Maria Ines Recent research has shown that lichenized fungi, which constitute a symbiotic association between a fungus and an algae and/or cyanobacteria, could be a source of biotechnologically interesting microorganisms, including actinobacteria. Studies conducted on lichenized microecosystems in the Andean region (Patagonia, Argentina) showed the isolation of twenty-three strains of actinobacteria, belonging to different genera, coming from the lichen Pseudocyphellaria berberina (Ascomycota). The aim of this work was to complement these studies by means of a polyphasic approach (morpho-physiological, chemical and molecular characterization) in order to describe a new endolichenic Pseudonocardia (Actinobacteria) strain BCRU MITI 22 (= DSM 46833). The study of cultivable actinobacteria isolated from lichen could contribute to a better interpretation of the physiological functions of these organisms within the “lichen microbiome”.

DL4papers: a deep learning approach for the automatic interpretation of scientific articles. Bugnon, Leandro Ariel; Yones, Cristian Ariel; Raad, Jonathan; Gerard, Matias Fernando; Rubiolo, Mariano; Merino, Gabriela Alejandra; Pividori, Milton Damián; Di Persia, Leandro Ezequiel; Milone, Diego Humberto; Stegmayer, Georgina Motivation: In precision medicine, next-generation sequencing and novel preclinical reports have led to an increasingly large amount of results, published in the scientific literature. However, identifying novel treatments or predicting a drug response in, for example, cancer patients, from the huge amount of papers available remains a laborious and challenging work. This task can be considered a text mining problem that requires reading a lot of academic documents for identifying a small set of papers describing specific relations between key terms. Due to the infeasibility of the manual curation of these relations, computational methods that can automatically identify them from the available literature are urgently needed.Results: We present DL4papers, a new method based on deep learning that is capable of analyzing and interpreting papers in order to automatically extract relevant relations between specific keywords. DL4papers receives as input a query with the desired keywords, and it returns a ranked list of papers that contain meaningful associations between the keywords. The comparison against related methods showed that our proposal outperformed them in a cancer corpus. The reliability of the DL4papers output list was also measured, revealing that between 83% and 100% of the first documents retrieved for a particular search have relevant relations. This shows that our model can guarantee that in the top-2 papers of the ranked list, the relation can be effectively found. Furthermore, the model is capable of highlighting, within each document, the specific fragments that have the associations of the input keywords. This can be very useful in order to pay attention only to the highlighted text, instead of reading the full paper. We believe that our proposal could be used as an accurate tool for rapidly identifying relationships between genes and their mutations, drug responses and treatments in the context of a certain disease. This new approach can certainly be a very useful and valuable resource for the advancement of the precision medicine field.Availability and implementation: Full source code and data are available at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sourcesinc/files/dl4papers/A web-demo is also available at: http://sinc.unl.edu.ar/web-demo/dl4papers/

QUBIC: The Q & U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology Battistelli, E. S.; Ade, P.; Alberro, José Gabriel; Almela, Daniel Alejandro; Amico, G.; Arnaldi, L. H.; Auguste, D.; Bonaparte, J.; Bottani, A.; Di Donato, A.; Etchegoyen, Alberto; Fasciszewski, A.; Ferreyro, Luciano Pablo; Fracchia, D.; Gamboa Lerena, Martín Miguel; Garcia, Beatriz Elena; García Redondo, Manuel Elías; Gomez Berisso, Mariano; Gonzalez, M.; Harari, Diego Dario; Kristukat, C.; Medina, Maria Clementina; Mundo, L. M.; Pastoriza, Hernan; Platino, Manuel; Ringegni, P.; Romero, Gustavo Esteban; Salatino, M.; Salum, J. M.; Scoccola, Claudia Graciela; Suarez, F.; The QUBIC Collaboration The Q & U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology, QUBIC, is an innovative experiment designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background and in particular the signature left therein by the inflationary expansion of the Universe. The expected signal is extremely faint; thus, extreme sensitivity and systematic control are necessary in order to attempt this measurement. QUBIC addresses these requirements using an innovative approach combining the sensitivity of transition-edge sensor cryogenic bolometers, with the deep control of systematics characteristic of interferometers. This makes QUBIC unique with respect to others´ classical imagers experiments devoted to the CMB polarization. In this contribution, we report a description of the QUBIC instrument including recent achievements and the demonstration of the bolometric interferometry performed in laboratory. QUBIC will be deployed at the observation site in Alto Chorrillos, in Argentina, at the end of 2019.

Basidiome production of ectomycorrhizal and saprophytic agaricoid fungi respond differently to forest management Romano, Gonzalo Matías; Lechner, Bernardo Ernesto; Greslebin, Alina Gabriela Forest management generates border effects in mature dense forests. How agaricoid fungi species react to this disturbance depends on climatic and site conditions as well as management system and its intensity. We compared abundance and richness of ectomycorrhizal and saprophytic species in managed and unmanaged stands in Nothofagus pumilio forests of Patagonia, Argentina. We found basidiomata abundance and richness of ectomycorrhizal and saprophytic species were favoured by different forest structure and climatic factors. Ectomycorrhizal species basidiomata production was significantly correlated to average relative humidity of the 15 days prior to sampling and number of trees per hectare existing prior to management activities. The latter implies the number of trees that an ecosystem is capable of sustaining is crucial to the establishment of ectomycorrhizal species. Saprophytic species were favoured by the increased amount of woody debris generated by logging together with maximum temperature of the 15 days prior to sampling and annual average precipitations. Our results indicate that agaricoid fungi are not affected by forest management of low to medium intensity, establishing the forestry level that fungal community can tolerate without loss of species in Patagonia.

Comparable stx2a expression and phage production levels between Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli strains from human and bovine origin Burgán, Julia; Krüger, Alejandra; Lucchesi, Paula Maria Alejandra Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) can cause diarrhea and severe diseases in humans such as hemolytic uremic syndrome. Shiga toxins (Stx) are encoded in prophages which play an important role in STEC pathogenesis. The pathogenic potential of STEC is considered correlated with the amount of Stx2 produced and, in particular, Stx2a is the subtype most frequently associated with high virulence. The aims of this study were to evaluate stx2a expression levels and Stx2a phage production by qPCR and double-agar-layer method in 29 STEC strains isolated from cattle and humans. Results were also compared to find possible associations with the serotype, origin or some genetic features. Heterogeneous levels of stx2a expression and Stx2a phage production were observed. Statistical comparisons identified a higher stx2a expression in response to mitomycin C in strains isolated from cattle than in those from humans, and a higher increase in phage production under inducing conditions in stx2a strains compared to stx2a/stx2c strains. Notably, most of the strains studied, regardless of serotype and origin, carried inducible Stx2a phages, and evidenced expression of stx2a which showed an increase along with phage production levels under induced conditions, suggesting a high virulence of the strains circulating in Argentina

Edible films based on aqueous emulsions of low-methoxyl pectin with recovered and purified sunflower waxes Chalapud Narvaez, Mayra Carolina; Baumler, Erica Raquel; Carelli Albarracin, Amalia Antonia BACKGROUND: Edible films were obtained from aqueous emulsions prepared with low-methoxyl pectin at different concentrations (10, 20 and 30 g kg−1) and two sunflower wax samples recovered from two waste samples of filter cakes produced in the winterization process of sunflower oil. The two sunflower waxes samples recovered (from the normal hybrid, NSFW, and from the high-oleic hybrid, HOSFW) were added in three proportions (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 g g-1 of pectin). Films were evaluated according to their structure, water resistance, water vapor permeability, mechanical properties and thermal behavior. RESULTS: In general, good dispersion of the lipid material was observed in the cross-sections of the film. Increase in the water resistance (lower swelling index and water adsorption) was associated with a greater pectin content crosslinked with Ca2+ and the hydrophobic nature of waxes. The reduction in water vapor transfer rates was influenced by the effect of the wax addition, their fatty acid composition and their good distribution on the film. More resistant, rigid and less flexible films were obtained with lower pectin content, finding an inverse relationship between tensile strength and elongation percentage values. CONCLUSION: These results evidence a promising alternative in the development of innovative strategies to valorize sunflower waxes derived from waste material.

Platelets and extracellular traps in infections Gomez, Ricardo Martin; López Ortiz, Aída Oryza; Schattner, Mirta Ana Platelets have a well-recognized role in hemostasis and thrombosis, and they are important amplifiers of inflammation and innate immune responses. The formation of DNA extracellular traps (ETs) is a complex cellular mechanism, which occurs in response to microbial infections and sterile inflammation, and results in the release of DNA complexed with histones and various granular proteins. ETs were first discovered in neutrophils (NETs); however, it is now accepted that other leukocytes, including eosinophils (EETs) and monocytes/macrophages (MoETs/METs), can also generate them. Moreover, several types of ETs have been described. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that platelets modulate the formation of ETs. This review summarizes recent findings about the physiopathological role of platelets in the formation of ETs during infection and future perspectives in the field.

Antioxidant activity, nutritional, and phenolic composition of sweet potato leaves as affected by harvesting period Suárez, Santiago; Mu, Taihua; Sun, Hongnan; Añon, Maria Cristina In the present study, the nutritional and phenolic composition as well as the antioxidant activity of sweet potato leaves (SPL) harvested in 3 different periods were determined and compared. Furthermore, gray relational analysis was used to compare the comprehensive nutritional value. Results showed SPL HP1 had the highest protein value (30.8 ± 0.4 g/100 g dw), while SPL HP3 had the highest content of vitamin C (104.6 ± 4.9 mg/100 g dw), vitamin E (5.8 ± 0.4 mg/100 g dw), total polyphenol content (9.1 ± 0.3 g/100 g dw), antioxidant activity (DPPH: 7.4 ± 0.1 g VcE/100 g dw; ABTS: 10.6 ± 0.7 g VcE/100 g dw; FRAP: 0.617 ± 0.005 µmol TroloxE/100 g dw), and comprehensive nutritional value (weighted gray relational grade 0.8336). The individual phenolic composition showed the presence of six caffeoylquinic acids, caffeic acid, and two flavonoids (quercetin and isoquercetin), which were significantly different among different harvest periods. In conclusion, HP3 was an optimal period for harvesting SPL

Transgenic Sweet Orange expressing hairpin CP-mRNA in the interstock confers tolerance to citrus psorosis virus in the non-transgenic scion de Francesco, Agustina; Simeone, Melina Ailin; Gómez, C.; Costa, N.; Garcia, Maria Laura The lack of naturally occurring resistance to citrus psorosis virus (CPsV) necessitates a trans- genic approach for the development of CPsV-resistant citrus. To evaluate the feasibility of conferring resis- tance to a non-transgenic scion, we have assembled citrus plants by grafting combining a non-transgenic Sweet Orange as scion, CPsV-resistant transgenic Sweet Orange lines expressing intron-hairpin (ihp) RNA derived from the viral coat protein (ihpCP) as interstock, and a non-transgenic citrus as rootstock. We demonstrated that ihpCP-transcripts translocate through the graft from interstock to scion, triggering the silencing of coat protein mRNA target. Two independent CPsV challenge assays showed that expression of ihpCP in the interstock provides resis- tance against CPsV in the interstock, and different levels of protection in the non-tg scion, depending of the virus delivery site. These results indicated that grafting is a promising biotechnological alternative to protect woody plants against virus infections in vegetative propagated plants.

Perinatal taurine exerts a hypotensive effect in male spontaneously hypertensive rats and down-regulates endothelial oxide nitric synthase in the aortic arch Mensegue, Melisa F.; Burgueño, Adriana Laura; Tellechea, Mariana Lorena Essential hypertension is considered to be a result of the interaction between genetic and environmental factors, including perinatal factors. Different advantageous perinatal factors proved to have beneficial long-lasting effects against an abnormal genetic background. Taurine is a ubiquitous sulphur-containing amino acid present in foods such as seafood. The antihypertensive effects of taurine have been reported in experimental studies and in human hypertension. We aimed to investigate the effects of perinatal treatment with taurine in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), a known model of genetic hypertension. Female SHR were administered with taurine (3 g/L) during gestation and lactation (SHR-TAU). Untreated SHR and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) were used as controls. Long-lasting effects in offspring were investigated. Addition of taurine to the mother's drinking water reduced blood pressure in adult offspring. No differences were observed in cardiac hypertrophy. Findings on morphometric evaluations suggest that perinatal treatment with taurine would be partially effective in improving structural alterations of the aorta. Modifications in gene expression of Bcl-2 family members and upregulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase in the aorta of 22-week-old male offspring were found. No differences were observed on relative telomere length in different cardiovascular tissues between SHR and SHR-TAU. Altogether results suggest that taurine programming, albeit sex specific, is associated with gene expression changes which ultimately may lead to improvement of aortic remodelling and enhanced endothelial function because of augmented nitric oxide (NO) production.

Castigo y normas sociales: Acerca de la validez ecológica del castigo en la economía experimental, parte I; Punishment and social norms: On the ecological validity of punishment in experimental economics, part I Senci, Carlos Maximiliano El presente artículo es la primera parte de un trabajo que estudia la conexión entre el castigo y las normas en estudios experimentales en economía. Estos asumen que la transgresión de normas de justicia y equidad es la causa de la aplicación del castigo. A pesar de que hay evidencia empírica que refuerza tal conexión, existen razones para pensar que su validez ecológica puede verse socavada debido a ciertos artefactos experimentales. Estos artefactos experimentales se refieren a dos conjuntos de problemas vinculados con la validez ecológica: primero, la “irrelevancia normativa” del castigo, esto es, que los participantes de los juegos económicos experimentales utilizan la opción de castigo por motivos no relacionados a la transgresión de normas; y segundo, la ilegitimidad del castigo, producto de la falta de procedimientos adecuados para la asignación de roles y de la ambigüedad normativa.; This article focuses on the connection between punishment and norms. Experimental studies in economics assume that transgression of norms of justice and equity is the cause of the application of punishment. While such a connection is evident, there are reasons to believe that external validity of such inference may be undermined due to certain experimental artefacts. These experimental artefacts refer to two sets of problems linked to ecological validity: first, the "normative irrelevance" of punishment, that is, that participants in experimental economic games use the option of punishment for reasons unrelated to the transgression of norms; and second, the illegitimacy of punishment, as a result of the lack of adequate procedures to the allocation of roles and normative ambiguity. I conclude with recommendations about how to tackle these problems.