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Background: The consumption of legumes is promoted as part of a healthy diet in many countries but associations of total and types of legume consumption with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are not well established. Analyses across diverse populations are lacking despite the availability of unpublished legume consumption data in prospective cohort studies. Objective: To examine the prospective associations of total and types of legume intake with the risk of incident T2D. Methods: Meta-analyses of associations between total legume, pulse, and soy consumption and T2D were conducted using a federated approach without physical data-pooling. Prospective cohorts were included if legume exposure and T2D outcome data were available and the cohort investigators agreed to participate. We estimated incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and CIs of associations using individual participant data including ≤42,473 incident cases among 807,785 adults without diabetes in 27 cohorts across the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, and Western Pacific. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to combine effect estimates and estimate heterogeneity. Results: Median total legume intake ranged from 0-140 g/d across cohorts. We observed a weak positive association between total legume consumption and T2D (IRR = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.04) per 20 g/d higher intake, with moderately high heterogeneity (I2 = 74%). Analysis by region showed no evidence of associations in the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific. The positive association in Europe (IRR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.10, I2 = 82%) was mainly driven by studies from Germany, UK, and Sweden. No evidence of associations was observed for the consumption of pulses or soy. Conclusions: These findings suggest no evidence of an association of legume intakes with T2D in several world regions. The positive association observed in some European studies warrants further investigation relating to overall dietary contexts in which legumes are consumed, including accompanying foods which may be positively associated with T2D. Funding for the InterConnect project was provided by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 602068. Additionally, investigators acknowledge funding from the following agencies: NJW, NGF, FI, and MP acknowledge funding from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit (MC_UU_12015/1 and MC_UU_12015/5); NJW and NGF acknowledge support from National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre Cambridge: Nutrition, Diet, and Lifestyle Research Theme (IS-BRC-1215-20014). TB acknowledges funding from EUCAN-Connect under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 824989). MBR and MAMG acknowledge funding from the Spanish Government Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (PI17/01795). JK acknowledges funding from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ministry for Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (4845-301 and 4851-302), and the Collaborative Genome Program for Fostering New Post-Genome Industry of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2017M3C9A6047623). RM acknowledges funding from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (grant number: 81/15), Cancer Research UK (grant number: C20/A5860), the Intramural Research Program of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, NIH, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. LB acknowledges that the Cohort of Swedish Men (COSM) and the Swedish Mammography Cohort (SMC) are part of the Swedish Infrastructure for Medical Population-Based Life-Course and Environmental Research (SIMPLER), which receives funding from the Swedish Research Council (2017-00644). BD is an investigator of the Brazilian National Health Technology Assessment Institute and SC received a fellowship from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development Fund (FEDER) (PI17/01795). The Zutphen Elderly Study was funded by The Netherlands Prevention Foundation, The Hague, The Netherlands and the National Institute of Aging, Bethesda, MD, USA. The funding sources did not participate in the design or conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; or preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

The characterisation of the multiplicity of high-mass stars is of fundamental importance to understand their evolution, the diversity of observed core-collapse supernovae and the formation of gravitational wave progenitor systems. Despite that, until recently, one of the final phases of massive star evolution -- the cool supergiant phase -- has received comparatively little attention. In this study we aim to explore the multiplicity among the cool supergiants (CSGs) in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, respectively). To do this we compile extensive archival radial velocity (RV) measurements for over 1000 CSGs from the LMC and SMC, spanning a baseline of over 40 years. By statistically correcting the RV measurements of each stellar catalogue to the Gaia DR2 reference frame we are able to effectively compare these diverse observations. We identify 45 CSGs where RV variations cannot be explained through intrinsic variability, and are hence considered binary systems. We obtain a minimum binary fraction of $15\pm4\%$ for the SMC and of $14\pm5\%$ for the LMC. Combining these results, we determine a minimum binary fraction of $15\pm3\%$ for CSGs. These results are in good agreement with previous results which apply a correction to account for observational biases. These results add strength to the hypothesis that the binary fraction of CSGs is significantly lower than their main-sequence counterparts. Going forward, we stress the need for long-baseline multi-epoch spectroscopic surveys to cover the full parameter space of CSG binary systems., Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the the Royal Astronomical Society

Studies of gas-phase radial metallicity profiles in spirals published in the last decade have diminished the importance of galactic bars as agents that mix and flatten the profiles, contradicting results obtained in the 1990s. We have collected a large sample of 2831 published H ii region emission-line fluxes in 51 nearby galaxies, including objects both with and without the presence of a bar, with the aim of revisiting the issue of whether bars affect the radial metal distribution in spirals. In this first paper of a series of two, we present the galaxy and the H ii region samples. The methodology is homogeneous for the whole data sample and includes the derivation of H ii region chemical abundances, structural parameters of bars and discs, galactocentric distances, and radial abundance profiles. We have obtained O/H and N/O abundance ratios from the Te-based (direct) method for a subsample of 610 regions, and from a variety of strong-line methods for the whole H ii region sample. The strong-line methods have been evaluated in relation to the Te-based one from both a comparison of the derived O/H and N/O abundances for individual H ii regions and a comparison of the abundance gradients derived from both methodologies. The median value and the standard deviation of the gradient distributions depend on the abundance method, and those based on the O3N2 indicator tend to flatten the steepest profiles, reducing the range of observed gradients. A detailed analysis and discussion of the derived O/H and N/O radial abundance gradients and y-intercepts for barred and unbarred galaxies is presented in the companion Paper II. The whole H ii region catalogue including emission-line fluxes, positions, and derived abundances is made publicly available on the CDS VizieR facility, together with the radial abundance gradients for all galaxies. © 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society., We kindly thank all the authors who have previously published the HII data that form the basis for this work, and Simon Verley for his invaluable help with PYTHON. We also acknowledge the anonymous referee for his/her suggestions that improved the clarity of themanuscript. We thankCalar Alto Observatory for the allocation of director's discretionary time to this programme. AZ, EF, and IP acknowledge support from the Spanish 'Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad' (MINECO) and from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) via grant AYA2017-84897P, and from the Junta de Andalucia (Spain) local government through the FQM-108 project. EPM acknowledges funding from the Spanish MINECO project Estallidos 6 AYA2016-79724-C4 and from the Severo Ochoa excellence programme (SEV-20170709). This research made use of Astropy,15 a community-developed core PYTHON package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration 2013; Astropy Collaboration 2018); Matplotlib (Hunter 2007); APLpy, an open-source plotting package for PYTHON (Robitaille & Bressert 2012); NumPy (van der Walt et al. 2011) and seaborn (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1313201). We acknowledge the usage of the HyperLeda database (http://leda.univ-lyon1.fr).This research has made use of the VizieR catalogue access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France (DOI: 10.26093/cds/vizier). The original description of the VizieR service was published in 2000, A&AS 143, 23. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) that is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

STUDY QUESTION Does endometrium harbour functionally active microorganisms and whether the microbial composition differs between proliferative and mid-secretory phases? SUMMARY ANSWER Endometrium harbours functionally alive microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, archaea and fungi whose composition and metabolic functions change along the menstrual cycle. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Resident microbes in the endometrium have been detected, where microbial dysfunction has been associated with reproductive health and disease. Nevertheless, the core microorganismal composition in healthy endometrium is not determined and whether the identified bacterial DNA sequences refer to alive/functionally active microbes is not clear. Furthermore, whether there are cyclical changes in the microbial composition remains an open issue. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION RNA sequencing (RNAseq) data from 14 endometrial paired samples from healthy women, 7 samples from the mid-secretory phase and 7 samples from the consecutive proliferative phase were analysed for the microbial RNA sequences. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS The raw RNAseq data were converted into FASTQ format using SRA Toolkit. The unmapped reads to human sequences were aligned to the reference database Kraken2 and visualised with Krona software. Menstrual phase taxonomic differences were performed by R package metagenomeSeq. The functional analysis of endometrial microbiota was obtained with HUMANn2 and the comparison between menstrual phases was conducted by one-way ANOVA. Human RNAseq analysis was performed using miARma-Seq and the functional enrichment analysis was carried out using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA; HumanCyc). The integration of metabolic pathways between host and microbes was investigated. The developed method of active microbiota mapping was validated in independent sample set. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE With the novel metatranscriptomic approach, we mapped the entire alive microbiota composing of >5300 microorganisms within the endometrium of healthy women. Microbes such as bacteria, fungi, viruses and archaea were identified. The validation of three independent endometrial samples from different ethnicity confirmed the findings. Significant differences in the microbial abundances in the mid-secretory vs. proliferative phases were detected with possible metabolic activity in the host-microbiota crosstalk in receptive phase endometrium, specifically in the prostanoid biosynthesis pathway and L-tryptophan metabolism. LARGE SCALE DATA The raw RNAseq data used in the current study are available at GEO GSE86491 and at BioProject PRJNA379542. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION These pioneering results should be confirmed in a bigger sample size. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS Our study confirms the presence of active microbes, bacteria, fungi, viruses and archaea in the healthy human endometrium with implications in receptive phase endometrial functions, meaning that microbial dysfunction could impair the metabolic pathways important for endometrial receptivity. The results of this study contribute to the better understanding of endometrial microbiota composition in healthy women and its possible role in endometrial functions. In addition, our novel methodological pipeline for analysing alive microbes with transcriptional and metabolic activities could serve to inspire new analysis approaches in reproductive medicine., This work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER): grants RYC-2016-21199 and ENDORE SAF2017-87526- R; FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento: MENDO (B-CTS-500-UGR18) and by the University of Granada Plan Propio de Investigacio ́n 2016 - Excellence actions: Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES) (SOMM17/6107/UGR). A.S.-L. and N.M.M. are funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PRE2018-0854409 and FPU19/01638). S.A. has received honoraria for lectures from Merck. The funder had no role in this study.

[EN] OBJECTIVES: Prevention of postischaemic ventricular dilatation progressing towards pathological remodelling is necessary to decrease ventricular wall deterioration. Myocardial tissue engineering may play a therapeutic role due to its capacity to replace the extracellular matrix, thereby creating niches for cell homing. In this experimental animal study, a biomimetic cardiopatch was created with elastomeric scaffolds and nanotechnologies. METHODS: In an experimental animal study in 18 sheep, a cardiopatch was created with adipose tissue-derived progenitor cells seeded into an engineered bioimplant consisting of 3-dimensional bioabsorbable polycaprolactone scaffolds filled with a peptide hydrogel (PuraMatrix (TM)). This patch was then transplanted to cover infarcted myocardium. Non-absorbable poly(ethyl) acrylate polymer scaffolds were used as controls. RESULTS: Fifteen sheep were followed with ultrasound scans at 6 months, including echocardiography scans, tissue Doppler and spectral flow analysis and speckle-tracking imaging, which showed a reduction in longitudinal left ventricular deformation in the cardiopatch-treated group. Magnetic resonance imaging (late gadolinium enhancement) showed reduction of infarct size relative to left ventricular mass in the cardiopatch group versus the controls. Histopathological analysis at 6 months showed that the cardiopatch was fully anchored and integrated to the infarct area with minimal fibrosis interface, thereby promoting angiogenesis and migration of adipose tissue-derived progenitor cells to surrounding tissues. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the feasibility and effectiveness of a cardiopatch grafted onto myocardial infarction scars in an experimental animal model. This treatment decreased fibrosis, limited infarct scar expansion and reduced postischaemic ventricular deformity. A capillary network developed between our scaffold and the heart. The elastomeric cardiopatch seems to have a positive impact on ventricular remodelling and performance in patients with heart failure., The RECATABI Project (Regeneration of Cardiac Tissue Assisted by Bioactive Implants) was financially supported by the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Commission. Project ID: 229239. Funded under FP7-NMP and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER Spain).

Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 2 (TDP2) reverses Topoisomerase 2 DNA–protein crosslinks (TOP2-DPCs) in a direct-reversal pathway licensed by ZATTZNF451 SUMO2 E3 ligase and SUMOylation of TOP2. TDP2 also binds ubiquitin (Ub), but how Ub regulates TDP2 functions is unknown. Here, we show that TDP2 co-purifies with K63 and K27 poly-Ubiquitinated cellular proteins independently of, and separately from SUMOylated TOP2 complexes. Poly-ubiquitin chains of ≥ Ub3 stimulate TDP2 catalytic activity in nuclear extracts and enhance TDP2 binding of DNA–protein crosslinks in vitro. X-ray crystal structures and small-angle X-ray scattering analysis of TDP2-Ub complexes reveal that the TDP2 UBA domain binds K63-Ub3 in a 1:1 stoichiometric complex that relieves a UBA-regulated autoinhibitory state of TDP2. Our data indicates that that poly-Ub regulates TDP2-catalyzed TOP2-DPC removal, and TDP2 single nucleotide polymorphisms can disrupt the TDP2-Ubiquitin interface., Intramural research program of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) [1Z01ES102765 to R.S.W.]; Work in the F.C.L. lab is supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Gobierno de España [SAF2017-89619-R, European Regional Development Fund]; European Research Council [ERC-CoG-2014-647359]; University of Seville Predoctoral Studentship [PIF-2011 to J.A.L.]; M.J.S. is supported by Mayo Clinic start-up funds and the Center for Biomedical Discovery new investigator funds; Data were collected at Southeast Regional Collaborative Access Team (SER-CAT) 22-ID beamline at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory; Use of the Advanced Photon Source was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [W-31-109-Eng-38]; SAXS data were collected at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), a national user facility operated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on behalf of the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, through the Integrated Diffraction Analysis Technologies (IDAT) program, supported by DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research. Additional support comes from the National Institute of Health project ALS-ENABLE [P30 GM124169]; High-End Instrumentation Grant [S10OD018483]. Funding for open access charge: US government, Intramural NIH.

In this work, we present the results of an observational study of 2I/Borisov carried out with the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the 3.6-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), both telescopes located at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory, in the island of La Palma (Spain). The study includes images in the visible and near-infrared, as well as visible spectra in the 3600-9200 Å wavelength range. N-body simulations were also performed to explore its orbital evolution and Galactic kinematic context. The comet's dust continuum and near-infrared colours are compatible with those observed for Solar system comets. From its visible spectrum on the nights of 2019 September 24 and 26, we measured CN gas production rates Q(CN) = (2.3 ± 0.4) × 1024 mol s-1 and Q(CN) = (9.5 ± 0.2) × 1024 mol s-1, respectively, in agreement with measurements reported by other authors on similar nights. We also obtained an upper limit for the C2 production rate of Q(C2) < (4.5 ± 0.1) × 1024 mol s-1. Dust modelling results indicate a moderate dust production rate of ∼50 kg s-1 at heliocentric distance rh = 2.6 au, with a differential power-law dust size distribution of index ∼-3.4, within the range reported for many comet comae. Our simulations show that the Galactic velocity of 2I/Borisov matches well that of known stars in the solar neighbourhood and also those of more distant regions of the Galactic disc. © 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society, J. dL. and M. P. acknowledge financial support from the project ProID2017010112 under the Operational Programmes of the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund of the Canary Islands (OP-ERDF-ESF), as well as the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI), and the project AYA2017-89090-P of the Spanish Ministerio de Econom´ıa y Competitividad’ (MINECO). C. dl F. M. and R. dl F. M. thank S. J. Aarseth for providing one of the codes used in this research and for comments on the implementation of non-gravitational forces in the calculations, and A. I. Gomez ´ de Castro for providing access to computing facilities. Part of the calculations and the data analysis were completed on the Brigit HPC server of the ‘Universidad Complutense de Madrid’ (UCM), and we thank S. Cano Alsua for his help during this ´ stage. This work was partially supported by the Spanish MINECO under grant ESP2017-87813-R. In preparation of this paper, we made use of the NASA Astrophysics Data System, the ASTROPH e-print server, the MPC data server, and the SIMBAD and VizieR databases operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https: //www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular, the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. L. M. L. acknowledges the financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa Program under grant SEV-2017-0709 and from the research project PGC2018-099425-B-I00. F. M. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Plan Nacional de Astronomia y Astrofisica LEONIDAS project RTI2018-095330-B-100 and the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa Program under grant SEV2017-0709. N. P. A. acknowledges funds through the SRI/FSI project ‘Digging-Up Ice Rocks in the Solar System’ and the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science funded by NASA’s SSERVI program at the University of Central Florida. M. D. P. acknowledges funding from the Prominent Postdoctoral Program of the University of Central Florida. A. C. S.-F. acknowledges CAPES (Coordenac¸ao de Aperfeic ˜ ¸oamento de Pessoal de N´ıvel Superior – Brasil) for financing, in part, this study (Finance Code 001). Based on observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), both installed at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias, in the island of La Palma. The TNG is operated by the Fundacion´ Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica). We thank E. Poretti for the allocation of Director’s Discretionary Time at TNG.

The goal of this work is to study the obscuration properties of mid-infrared (mid-IR)-selected active galactic nuclei (AGN). For that purpose, we use Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) sources in the Stripe 82–XMM area to identify mid-IR AGN candidates, applying the Assef et al. criteria. Stripe 82 has optical photometry ≈2 times deeper than any single-epoch Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) region. XMM–Newton observations cover ∼26 deg2. Applying the aforementioned criteria, 1946 IR AGN are selected. ∼78percent have SDSS detection, while 1/3 of them are detected in X-rays, at a flux limit of ∼5×10−15ergs−1cm−2⁠. Our final sample consists of 507 IR AGN with X-ray detection and optical spectra. Applying a r−W2>6 colour criterion, we find that the fraction of optically red AGN drop from 43 per cent for those sources with SDSS detection to 23percent for sources that also have X-ray detection. X-ray spectral fitting reveals 40 (⁠∼8percent⁠) X-ray absorbed AGN (⁠NH>1022cm−2⁠). Among the X-ray unabsorbed AGN, there are 70 red systems. To further investigate the absorption of these sources, we construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for the total IR AGN sample. SED fitting reveals that ∼20percent of the optically red sources have such colours because the galaxy emission is a primary component in the optical part of the SED, even though the AGN emission is not absorbed at these wavelengths. SED fitting also confirms that 12percent of the X-ray unabsorbed IR AGN are optically obscured., GM and AR acknowledge support for this work by the PROTEAS II project (MIS 5002515), which is implemented under the ‘Reinforcement of the Research and Innovation Infrastructure’ action, funded by the ‘Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ operational programme (NSRF 2014-2020) and cofinanced by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).

The butterfly genus Erebia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) is the most diverse in Europe and comprises boreo-alpine habitat specialists. Populations are typically fragmented, restricted to high altitudes in one or several mountain ranges, where habitat is relatively well preserved, but where the effects of climate change are considerable. As a result, the genus Erebia has become a model to study the impact of climate changes, past and present, on intraspecific genetic diversity. In this study, we inferred phylogenetic relationships among populations of the European species Erebia epiphron and Erebia orientalis using mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear markers (ITS2, wg and RPS5), and reconstructed their phylogeographical history. We confirm E. orientalis and E. epiphron as a relatively young species pair that split c. 1.53 (±0.65) Mya. The high genetic homogeneity of E. orientalis, combined with its restricted geographical range in the eastern Balkans, suggests that this taxon may be subject to inbreeding depression and displays low adaptability to potential environmental changes, which calls for close monitoring of population trends. By contrast, genetic structure was complex for E. epiphron, revealing an intricate phylogeographical history that included a succession of dispersal events, mixing of populations and periods of isolation in multiple refugia. Finally, we highlight southern populations that represent unique genetic lineages, which, in the case of extinction, would lead to important genetic erosion., We thank the association ZERYTNHIA (http://www.asociacion-zerynthia.org/) for its support and the government of La Rioja for financing a specific study some years ago, as well as for the administrative authorization for the collection of samples. Financial support for this research was provided by Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación and European Regional Development Fund, Grant Number CGL2016-76322-P (AEI/FEDER, UE) and by Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Indústria y Competitividad, Agencia Estatal de Investigación and European Social Fund thorugh predoctoral fellowship BES-2017–080641 (MINECO/AEI/FSE) to JCH.

The offspring of many animals are conspicuous during parental dependence, despite juveniles generally suffering from high predation risk. However, to date, it is unclear whether offspring structural ornaments play a role in intrafamily communication. This is the case of conspicuous plumage in young birds, which is worn unchanged during a long period after fledging, when they still depend on their parents. If plumage color facilitates intrafamily interactions, its role should be more important in large-brooded species, where the strength of intrafamily conflict is potentially stronger. We therefore performed a comparative study in 210 passerine bird species to test whether an offspring structural trait, white plumage, evolves more frequently in lineages with larger clutches. We also explored the number of broods raised per year as another source of intrafamily conflict. First, we found that juvenile whiteness was more frequent in open-nesting species. Moreover, in agreement with our prediction, the presence of juvenile white tail/wing patches was strongly and positively associated with clutch size. This relationship was not due to the strong resemblance between offspring and adult plumage, which was controlled for in the statistical analyses. Moreover, the association remained significant after taking into account predation risk, for which there was information for a subset of species. In contrast, juvenile whiteness was not associated with the number of broods raised per year. These results may suggest that the evolution of juvenile conspicuousness is favored in species with potentially stronger intrabrood sibling conflict., This work was financed by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad MINECO (CGL2016-79390-P, CGL2017‐83103‐P, CGL2017-83843-C2-1-P and CGL2013-48193-C3-1-P) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).

Using images from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8, we have re-examined the morphology of 719 galaxies from the Analysis of the interstellar Medium in Isolated GAlaxies (AMIGA) project, a sample consisting of the most isolated galaxies that have yet been identified. The goal is to further improve the classifications of these galaxies by examining them in the context of the Comprehensive de Vaucouleurs revised Hubble-Sandage (CVRHS) system, which includes recognition of features that go beyond the original de Vaucouleurs point of view. Our results confirm previous findings that isolated galaxies are found across the complete revised Hubble sequence, with intermediate- to late-type (Sb-Sc) spirals being relatively more common. Elmegreen Arm Classifications are also presented, and show that more than 50 per cent of the 514 spirals in the sample for which an arm class (AC) could be judged are grand design (AC 8,9,12). The visual bar fraction for the sample is ≈50 per cent, but only 16 per cent are classified as strongly barred (SB). The dominant family classification is SA (non-barred), the dominant inner variety classification is (s) (pure spiral), and the dominant outer variety classification is no outer ring, pseudo-ring, or lens. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test is used to check for potential biases in the morphological interpretations, and for any possible relation between rings, bars, and ACs with local environment and far-infrared excess. The connection between morphology and stellar mass is also examined for a subset of the sample. © 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society., We acknowledge the support of grant AYA2015-65973-C3-1-R from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitveness (MINECO). This work has also been supported by the Spanish Science Ministry 'Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa' Program under grant SEV-2017-0709. MJ is supported by a Juan de la Cierva formacion fellowship. Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Female mate choice for male display traits is widely observed across animal taxa and is a well-established mechanism of evolution. However, males are increasingly seen to exhibit mate choice for female display traits, even in species with traditional sex roles, although this continues to be an understudied aspect of sexual selection. We evaluated the role of female coloration on male mate choice decisions in the spiny-footed lizard (Acanthodactylus erythrurus), a species in which adult females show red coloration as a retained juvenile trait. Although both sexes show red tails as juveniles and subadults, only females maintain red colored tails when becoming adult; moreover, this coloration is only present at the beginning of female adulthood and becomes white after ovulation, suggesting a mating-related function. Male courtship preferences were investigated through an experimental approach, where they were offered pairs of females that differed in size (adult/subadult) and tail coloration (red/white). Male lizards preferred adult females using both visual and chemical cues and, when adult female coloration could be chosen, they preferred red females. These results suggest that red coloration is a sexual signal involved in male mate selection. We hypothesize that red coloration in adult females might indicate sexual maturity and a pre-ovulatory reproductive status. Being a juvenile trait retained until the beginning of adulthood, we also suggest that it might indicate reduced risk of sperm competition. This study highlights the role of a juvenile trait for sexual selection and adds to the understanding of the evolution of male mate choice., This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and the European Regional Development Fund (grant CGL2008-00137/BOS).

[EN] Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is an essential soft skill that should be fostered from a young age. Research shows that a good way of teaching such skills is through video games; however, the success and viability of this method may be affected by the technological platform used. In this work we propose a gameful approach to train CPS skills in the form of the CPSbot framework and describe a study involving 80 primary school children on user experience and acceptance of a game, Quizbot, using three different technological platforms: two purely digital (tabletop and handheld tablets) and another based on tangible interfaces and physical spaces. The results show that physical spaces proved to be more effective than the screen-based platforms in several ways, as well as being considered more fun and easier to use by the children. Finally, we propose a set of design considerations for future gameful CPS systems based on the observations made during this study., Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (project TIN2014-60077-R); Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (with fellowship FPU14/00136) and Conselleria d'Educacio, Cultura i Esport (Generalitat Valenciana, Spain) (grant ACIF/2014/214).

Aging affects many biochemical, cellular, and physiological processes in the organisms. Accumulation of damage based on oxidized macromolecules is found in many age-associated diseases. Coenzyme Q (Q) is one of the main molecules involved in metabolic and antioxidant activities in cells. Q-dependent antioxidant activities are importantly involved on the protection of cell membranes against oxidation. Many studies indicate that Q decay in most of the organs during aging. In our study, no changes in Q levels were found in old animals in comparison with young animals. On the other hand, the interventions, caloric restriction based on every-other-day feeding procedure, and physical exercise were able to increase Q levels in muscle, but only in old and not in young animals. Probably, this effect prevented the increase in lipid peroxidation found in aged animals and also protein carbonylation. Further, Q-dependent antioxidant activities such as NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase and NAD(P)H-quinone oxidoreductase 1 are also modulated by both exercise and every other day feeding. Taken together, we demonstrate that exercise and dietary restriction as every-other-day procedure can regulate endogenous synthesized Q levels and Q-dependent antioxidant activities in muscle, preventing oxidative damage in aged muscle., Researchers are financed by the Andalusian Government (BIO177 group through European Regional Development Fund [European Commission ]). Research has been financed by the Spanish Government grant DEP2009-12019 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation).

Different genetic programs that are active during late stages of zygotic embryogenesis are involved in seed phenotypes as longevity, basal thermotolerance, and desiccation tolerance. In sunflower, Heat Shock Factor A9 (HaHSFA9) controls one of such programs, the HaHSFA9 program. Overexpression of HaHSFA9 in seeds of transgenic tobacco showed the involvement of this transcription factor in basal thermotolerance and longevity; HaHSFA9 activated a genetic program that includes specific small Heat Shock Protein (sHSP) genes, which are expressed mainly (or exclusively) during zygotic embryogenesis in seeds (Prieto-Dapena et al., 2006). We also used an active-repressor dominant-negative (DN) form of HaHSFA9, and thus we obtained a substantial reduction of both the accumulation of specific sHSPs and of seed longevity (Tejedor-Cano et al., 2010)., This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and the Spanish Secretary of Research, Development, and Innovation (Grants BIO2008-00634 and BIO2011-23440 to JJ). Additional funds were obtained from the Andalusian Regional Government (Grant BIO148 to JJ).

Osmolytes, used for maintaining osmotic balance and as ‘osmoprotectans’, are synthesised in plants as a general, conserved response to abiotic stress, although their contribution to stress tolerance mechanisms is still unclear. Proline, the most common osmolyte, accumulates in many plant species in parallel with an increase in external salinity, and is considered as a reliable biochemical marker of salt stress. We have measured proline levels in two halophytic, closely related Juncus species, under laboratory and field conditions, to assess the possible relevance of proline biosynthesis for salt tolerance and therefore for the ecology of these two taxa., This work has been supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation – with contribution from the European Regional Development Fund – to O. Vicente (project CGL2008-00438/BOS), and from the Polytechnic University of Valencia to M. Boscaiu (programme PAID-06-09).