1. Universidad San Pablo-CEU

Excessive dietary fat consumption has been linked to impairments in synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus (HIP), a brain region crucial for learning and memory that relies on balanced glutamatergic neurotransmission. This study investigates the acute effects of three fatty acids (FAs)—lauric acid (LA), palmitic acid (PA), and oleic acid (OA)—on glutamate (GLU)-related gene expression in the HIP of male and female young mice. Hippocampal slices were treated with FAs, and mRNA levels of genes involved in GLU transport, GLU-glutamine (GLN) cycling, and GLU receptor subunit encoding were quantified using RT-PCR. FA treatment reduced mRNA levels of enzymes involved in the conversion of GLU to GLN (glutamine synthetase; GS), GABA (glutamate decarboxylase 1; GAD67), and α-ketoglutarate (glutamate pyruvate transaminase 2; AAT2). Additionally, the expression of glutamine transporters (SNAT1, SNAT2, SNAT3), the astrocytic GLU transporter GLT-1, and the NMDA receptor subunit NMDA2a was also reduced. These effects were most pronounced with LA. Notably, while the HIP showed similar sensitivity to fatty acids across sexes, overall gene expression levels were lower in females. These findings highlight the acute susceptibility of hippocampal GLU-related pathways to FA exposure, particularly LA, suggesting potential risks of high-LA diets on cognitive function. Further research is needed to explore the long-term consequences of dietary fat on hippocampal health and its sex-specific effects.

Lanthanum strontium ferrite (La0.85-xSr0.15AgxFeO3-δ x=0; LSFO) and its silver-doped derivative (La0.85-xSr0.15AgxFeO3-δ x=0.05; LASFO) are synthesized using mild conditions by a sol-gel method. Both oxides present perovskite-like structure with orthorhombic symmetry due to octahedral tilting; thus, the incorporation of silver in the A-site does not significantly modify the perovskite structure. Exsolution of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from LASFO is induced under mild conditions, resulting in Ag@LSFO samples. X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction data, reveal that the mechanism of exsolution involves the reduction of Ag+ and the concomitant release of oxygen, without altering the oxidation state of Fe, inducing the formation of oxygen vacancies in the perovskite matrix. Homogeneous distribution Ag nanoparticle on the perovskite matrix is observed by High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy. The thermal evolution of Ag@LSFO proceeds through the progressive increase of oxygen vacancies that become thermally disordered. The study clarifies the mechanism of silver exsolution and the structural changes in lanthanum-strontium ferrite perovskites, providing insights into their potential use for catalytic and energy-related applications.

This paper presents an advanced system for the continuous monitoring of potential threats in a long gas pipeline. For signal acquisition, phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (ϕ-OTDR) technology is employed. Then, pattern recognition strategies are incorporated, which are aimed at identifying threats. To do so, the system integrates a random forest-based approach on top of a multiple-layer perceptron (MLP)-based discriminative approach for feature extraction within a parallel Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM)-Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for pattern classification in a hybrid approach. Subsequently, a system combination strategy, which makes use of the decisions carried out by this hybrid approach, is also presented. This strategy is based on the so-called majority voting technique, which makes use of the output of the classification step from the different feature extraction strategies and the different number of states in the GMM-HMM-based classification. The system is tested on two tasks: (1) Identification of machine and activity, and (2) detection of threats for the pipeline. Compared with our previous system, the results of this advanced system show that the hybrid feature extraction and pattern classification achieve statistically significant improvements for both tasks (i.e., 5% of relative improvement for the machine and activity identification task, 1% of relative improvement in the threat detection rate, and 15% of relative improvement in the false alarm rate for the threat detection task)

There are 2 main problems with the current periodic table: artificial breaks from a given noble gas to the next alkali metal (along with the common protrusion of the “f” block) and hydrogen placed in the alkali group, although this gas also exhibits halogen properties. This paper proposes arranging chemical elements in a square spiral with hydrogen at the centre. This element is also above lithium but passes above fluorine to connect with helium, representing its dual alkali and halogen nature effectively. Then the spiral moves outwards in a counter-clockwise direction, avoiding artificial breaks and following the natural direction of reading for the “s” and “p” blocks elements placed at the bottom of the spiral. Furthermore, this proposed square spiral improves upon previous Janet´s and Benfey´s representations with a more regular shape to draw, an effective depiction of the dual nature of hydrogen, and easily identifiable orbital blocks without the need for protrusions.