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6 p.-1 tab. ; [EN]Introduction: Antibiotic resistance and the emergence of resistant bacteria have been cataloged as a global public health threat by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union. The article that is presented shows a study on the informative coverage in digital media of this matter. Objective: To analyze the coverage presence of antibiotic resistance in digital media. ; Methods: This descriptive study quantifies the number of news appearing in four media, El País, El Mundo, ABC and 20 minutes before and after the approval in 2014 of the National Antibiotic Resistance Plan. ; Results: The results showed an unequal treatment according to the number of informative pieces in the four digital newspapers but on the rise since the approval of the plan. ; Conclusions: The informative treatment of antibiotic resistance according to the number of quantified news is increasing every year although unevenly in each medium. ; [ES]Introducción: La resistencia a los antibióticos (AMR, por sus siglas en inglés, Antimicrobial resistance) y la aparición de bacterias resistentes han sido catalogadas como una amenaza de salud pública mundial, tanto por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) como por la Unión Europea. El artículo que se presenta muestra un estudio sobre la cobertura informativa en medios digitales de dicho asunto. ; Objetivo: Analizar la cobertura de la presencia de la resistencia a antibióticos en medios digitales. ; Metodología: Mediante un estudio descriptivo se cuantificó el número de noticias aparecidas en cuatro medios: El País, El Mundo, ABC y 20 minutos, antes y después de la aprobación del Plan Nacional de Resistencia a Antibióticos en el año 2014. ; Resultados: Los resultados demostraron un tratamiento desigual según el número de piezas informativas en los cuatro diarios digitales pero en ascenso desde la aprobación de dicho plan. ; Conclusiones: El tratamiento informativo de la resistencia a antibióticos, según el número de noticias cuantificadas, se va incrementando cada año de forma desigual en cada medio. ; Peer reviewed

De la gran variedad de funciones que desempeñaron las iglesias y monasterios en la época medieval, la militar y defensiva fue una de las más frecuentes y extendidas tanto en nuestro país, como en todo el territorio europeo. Las guerras contra diferentes enemigos, internos como externos, provocaron el uso del templo medieval con carácter defensivo, y la aparición en numerosos edificios de elementos y estructuras de tipo militar, objeto de estudio del presente artículo, que otorgaron muchas veces a la iglesia el aspecto, la fortaleza y las funciones de un verdadero castillo. ; Among the great variety of functions that carried out churches and monasteries in the Middle Ages, the military and defensive was one of most frequent and extended, so much in our country as in all the European territory. The wars against various local or foreign enemies resulted in the use of the medieval temple with defensive character and the coming out in many buildings of elements and military type structures, topic of this article, that often granted the church the aspect, the strength and the functions of a genuine castle.

The use of artificial lipid membranes, structured as giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), provides the opportunity to investigate membrane-associated biological processes under defined experimental conditions. Due to their large size, they are uniquely adapted to investigate the properties and organization (in time and space) of macromolecular complexes incorporated in the vesicle interior by imaging and micro-spectroscopic techniques. Experimental methods to produce giant vesicles and to encapsulate proteins inside them are here reviewed. Previous experimental work to reconstitute elements of the bacterial division machinery in these membrane-like systems is summarized. Future challenges towards reconstructing minimal divisome assemblies in giant vesicles as cytomimetic containers are discussed. © 2013 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ; This work was supported by the Spanish government through grants BIO2011-28941-C03-03, by the European Commission through contract HEALTH-F3-2009-223432, and by Human Frontiers Science Program through grant RGP0050/2010-C102, all of them to GR. ; Peer Reviewed

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European Union financial subsidies in the agrarian sector are directly related to maintaining a sustainable farm income, so its determination using, for example, the farm gross margin is a basic element in agrarian programs for sustainable development. Using this tool, it is possible the identification of the agrarian structures that need financial support and to what extent it is needed. However, the process of farm gross margin determination is complicated and expensive because it is necessary to find the value of all the inputs consumed and outputs produced.

14 p.-4 fig.-2 tab. ; We have studied the influence of protein crowders, either combined or individually, on the GTP-induced FtsZ cooperative assembly, crucial for the formation of the dynamic septal ring and, hence, for bacterial division. It was earlier demonstrated that high concentrations of inert polymers like Ficoll 70, used to mimic the crowded cellular interior, favor the assembly of FtsZ into bundles with slow depolymerization. We have found, by fluorescence anisotropy together with light scattering measurements, that the presence of protein crowders increases the tendency of FtsZ to polymerize at micromolar magnesium concentration, being the effect larger with ovomucoid, a negatively charged protein. Neutral polymers and a positively charged protein also diminished the critical concentration of assembly, the extent of the effect being compatible with that expected according to pure volume exclusion models. FtsZ polymerization was also observed to be strongly promoted by a negatively charged polymer, DNA, and by some unrelated polymers like PEGs at concentrations below the crowding regime. The influence of mixed crowders mimicking the heterogeneity of the intracellular environment on the tendency of FtsZ to assemble was also studied and nonadditive effects were found to prevail. Far from exactly reproducing the bacterial cytoplasm environment, this approach serves as a simplified model illustrating how its intrinsically crowded and heterogeneous nature may modulate FtsZ assembly into a functional Z-ring. ; This work was supported by Spanish government BIO2011-28941-C03 (GR and SZ) and BFU 2014-52070-C2-2-P (GR) (www.mineco.gob.es), European Commission HEALTH-F3-2009-223432 (GR) (http://ec.europa.eu/), and Human Frontiers Science Program RGP0050/2010-C102 (GR) (www.hfsp.org). ; Peer reviewed

A pesar de que la educación es una pieza clave para el desarrollo de los países y que el sector educativo es uno de los principales receptores de fondos de la Ayuda Oficial al Desarrollo (AOD) española, no existe hasta la fecha ningún análisis dinámico sobre la misma, tan sólo estudios parciales relativos a años concretos y con reducido soporte cuantitativo. Por ello, el principal objetivo del presente trabajo es llenar este vacío, analizando qué ha hecho la cooperación bilateral española en materia de educación durante los últimos años (desde 1999 a 2004) y cómo debería orientar su estrategia de cooperación en dicha materia para mejorar la calidad y eficacia de la ayuda. Para ello se han analizado los datos procedentes de los listados de proyectos registrados anualmente por la Dirección General de Planificación y Evaluación de Políticas para el Desarrollo, dependiente de la Secretaría de Estado de Cooperación Internacional, del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y Cooperación. Una vez dibujado el perfil de la AOD bilateral española en educación se formulan algunas recomendaciones que se consideran necesarias para reorientar y mejorar las futuras actuaciones de España en esta materia.

15 p.-6 fig.-1 tab. ; ZipA is an essential cell division protein in Escherichia coli. Together with FtsA, ZipA tethers dynamic polymers of FtsZ to the cytoplasmic membrane, and these polymers are required to guide synthesis of the cell division septum. This dynamic behavior of FtsZ has been reconstituted on planar lipid surfaces in vitro, visible as GTP-dependent chiral vortices several hundred nanometers in diameter, when anchored by FtsA or when fused to an artificial membrane binding domain. However, these dynamics largely vanish when ZipA is used to tether FtsZ polymers to lipids at high surface densities. This, along with some in vitro studies in solution, has led to the prevailing notion that ZipA reduces FtsZ dynamics by enhancing bundling of FtsZ filaments. Here, we show that this is not the case. When lower, more physiological levels of the soluble, cytoplasmic domain of ZipA (sZipA) were attached to lipids, FtsZ assembled into highly dynamic vortices similar to those assembled with FtsA or other membrane anchors. Notably, at either high or low surface densities, ZipA did not stimulate lateral interactions between FtsZ protofilaments. We also used E. coli mutants that are either deficient or proficient in FtsZ bundling to provide evidence that ZipA does not directly promote bundling of FtsZ filaments in vivo. Together, our results suggest that ZipA does not dampen FtsZ dynamics as previously thought, and instead may act as a passive membrane attachment for FtsZ filaments as they treadmill. ; IMPORTANCE: Bacterial cells use a membrane-attached ring of proteins to mark and guide formation of a division septum at midcell that forms a wall separating the two daughter cells and allows cells to divide. The key protein in this ring is FtsZ, a homolog of tubulin that forms dynamic polymers. Here, we use electron microscopy and confocal fluorescence imaging to show that one of the proteins required to attach FtsZ polymers to the membrane during E. coli cell division, ZipA, can promote dynamic swirls of FtsZ on a lipid surface in vitro. Importantly, these swirls are observed only when ZipA is present at low, physiologically relevant surface densities. Although ZipA has been thought to enhance bundling of FtsZ polymers, we find little evidence for bundling in vitro. In addition, we present several lines of in vivo evidence indicating that ZipA does not act to directly bundle FtsZ polymers. ; This work was supported by grant GM61074 from the National Institutes of Health to W.M. and by grant BFU2016-75471-C2-1-P from the Spanish Government to G.R. ; Peer reviewed

Measuring impact has traditionally been the weakest step in the traditional evaluation of aid, because of its costs, methodologies, time and difficulties in attributing effects. But this exercise is necessary both in technical and moral terms, especially for those benefitting from the aid. The use of a logical framework as the most accepted tool for aid management has not helped in impact measuring, which is a revealing reflection of aid effectiveness. It is precisely those international commitments for aid effectiveness that highlight the limitations of traditional evaluation practices.This paper intends to reflect upon those limits through a systematic academic review, and will propose a conceptual revision of impact evaluation indicator.

13 p.-7 fig. ; Bacterial cell division is driven by an FtsZ ring in which the FtsZ protein localizes at mid-cell and recruits other proteins, forming a divisome. In Escherichia coli, the first molecular assembly of the divisome, the proto-ring, is formed by the association of FtsZ polymers to the cytoplasmic membrane through the membrane-tethering FtsA and ZipA proteins. The MinCDE system plays a major role in the site selection of the division ring because these proteins oscillate from pole to pole in such a way that the concentration of the FtsZ-ring inhibitor, MinC, is minimal at the cell center, thus favoring FtsZ assembly in this region. We show that MinCDE drives the formation of waves of FtsZ polymers associated to bilayers by ZipA, which propagate as antiphase patterns with respect to those of Min as revealed by confocal fluorescence microscopy. The emergence of these FtsZ waves results from the displacement of FtsZ polymers from the vicinity of the membrane by MinCD, which efficiently competes with ZipA for the C-terminal region of FtsZ, a central hub for multiple interactions that are essential for division. The coupling between FtsZ polymers and Min is enhanced at higher surface densities of ZipA or in the presence of crowding agents that favor the accumulation of FtsZ polymers near the membrane. The association of FtsZ polymers to the membrane modifies the response of FtsZ to Min, and comigrating Min-FtsZ waves are observed when FtsZ is free in solution and not attached to the membrane by ZipA. Taken together, our findings show that the dynamic Min patterns modulate the spatial distribution of FtsZ polymers in controlled minimal membranes. We propose that ZipA plays an important role in mid-cell recruitment of FtsZ orchestrated by MinCDE. ; This work was supported in part by the Human Frontiers Science Program through grant RGP0050/2010-C102 (to P.S. and G.R.), the DFG Leibniz Prize (to P.S.), the European Commission through contract HEALTH-F3-2009-223431 (to G.R.), and the Spanish Government through grant BIO2011-28941-C03-03 (to G.R.). ; Peer reviewed

11 p.-4 fig. ; A major challenge towards the realization of an autonomous synthetic cell resides in the encoding of a division machinery in a genetic programme. In the bacterial cell cycle, the assembly of cytoskeletal proteins into a ring defines the division site. At the onset of the formation of the Escherichia coli divisome, a proto-ring consisting of FtsZ and its membrane-recruiting proteins takes place. Here, we show that FtsA-FtsZ ring-like structures driven by cell-free gene expression can be reconstituted on planar membranes and inside liposome compartments. Such cytoskeletal structures are found to constrict the liposome, generating elongated membrane necks and budding vesicles. Additional expression of the FtsZ cross-linker protein ZapA yields more rigid FtsZ bundles that attach to the membrane but fail to produce budding spots or necks in liposomes. These results demonstrate that gene-directed protein synthesis and assembly of membrane-constricting FtsZ-rings can be combined in a liposome-based artificial cell. ; This work was financially supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO/OCW) through the 'BaSyC—Building a Synthetic Cell' Gravitation grant (024.003.019) and the FOM program no. 151, and by the Spanish government grant BFU2016-75471-C2-1-P. ; Peer reviewed

Nuclear envelope (NE) architecture and aging have been associated since the discovery that certain human progeria diseases are due to perturbations in processing of lamin A protein, generating alterations in NE morphology. However, whether changes in the NE are a causal effect of normal and premature aging is still controversial. Caenorhabditis elegans is a model organism where observations supporting both, dependent and independent roles of nuclear architecture in the aging process, have been reported. We found that the long-lived glp-1 mutant and dietary restriction delayed age-associated nuclear morphology changes. In addition, we observed that the long-lived mutant of the insulin/IGF receptor daf-2 delayed the age-dependent changes of nuclear architecture at 25 °C, as previously described. However, when daf-2 animals were incubated at 20 °C they remained long-lived, but nuclear appearance changed at similar rate as in the wild type. This supports the idea that both phenotypes, longevity and maintenance of nuclear architecture are tightly associated but can be separated and argues that nuclear morphology deterioration is not a cause of the natural aging process. ; This work was funded by the Autonomous Government of Andalusia (P07-CVI- 02697). In addition, we wish to acknowledge Fundación Ramón Areces for a fellowship to ER. Some nematode strains used in this work were provided by the ''Caenorhabditis Genetic Center'', which is funded by the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). ; Peer Reviewed

9 p.-8 fig. ; Experimental conditions that simulate the crowded bacterial cytoplasmic environment have been used to study the assembly of the essential cell division protein FtsZ from Escherichia coli. In solutions containing a suitable concentration of physiological osmolytes, macromolecular crowding promotes the GTP-dependent assembly of FtsZ into dynamic two-dimensional polymers that disassemble upon GTP depletion. Atomic force microscopy reveals that these FtsZ polymers adopt the shape of ribbons that are one subunit thick. When compared with the FtsZ filaments observed in vitro in the absence of crowding, the ribbons show a lag in the GTPase activity and a decrease in the GTPase rate and in the rate of GTP exchange within the polymer. We propose that, in the crowded bacterial cytoplasm under assembly-promoting conditions, the FtsZ filaments tend to align forming dynamic ribbon polymers. In vivo these ribbons would fit into the Z-ring even in the absence of other interactions. Therefore, the presence of mechanisms to prevent the spontaneous assembly of the Z-ring in non-dividing cells must be invoked. ; This work was supported in part by Grants BIO99-0859-C03-03 and BMC2002-04617-C02-01 (to G. R.), BMC2002-04617-C02-02 (to M. Ve ́.), BIO2000-0451-P4-02 (to M. Vi.), and BIO99-0859-C03-02 and BIO2002- 03665 (to J. M. A.), all from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Tech- nology (MCyT), and by the Programa de Grupos Estrate ́gicos of the Madrid Government (to J. M. A. and G. R.). ; Peer reviewed