SCA2 is the most prevalent of the polyQ ataxias in Cuba, India, Mexico, and Southern Italy, and the second most prevalent worldwide, accounting for 15% of all cases (^{Antenora et al., 2017}). An infantile onset is an uncommon occurrence presentation with only nine reports in the literature and is associated with extremely large CAG expansions (range 100–200 repeats). On the other hand, there are severe infantile cases with expansions between 50-70 repeats, sometimes is related with interruption CTG or CAA as occurs in adults with SCA2 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which also leads to instability of ATXN2 mRNA (^{Choudhry et al., 2001}; ^{Antenora et al., 2017}), and meiotic instability a general feature of SCA2 without a familial history (^{Babovic et al., 1998}; ^{Mao et al., 2002}; ^{Moretti et al., 2004}; ^{Dirik et al., 2007}; ^{Abdel and Zaki, 2008}; ^{Paciorkowski et al., 2011}; ^{Di Fabio et al., 2012}; ^{Vinther-Jensen et al., 2013}; ^{Singh et al., 2014}). However, cases with infantile SCA2 are explain by these features; there are childhood onset cases reported with mosaicism in germ cells such as spermatozoa with larger expanded alleles more than in peripheral blood cells (^{Moretti et al., 2004}; ^{Dirik et al., 2007}; ^{Abdel and Zaki, 2008}; ^{Vinther-Jensen et al., 2013}).

Due to the high rate of infection and the lack of a specific vaccine or medication for the new disease known as SARS-CoV2, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as the main measure to avoid or reduce infections. One way to maximize compliance with this recommendation is through an automatic system that can recognize in real time whether a person is correctly using the corresponding PPE. This work presents the design, implementation and performance analysis of a system for recognizing the use of masks from image sequences, with the ability to operate in real time. Based on a generic object detection network, a training scheme is proposed for a detector of faces with masks and faces without masks, wherewith an average detection accuracy higher than 90% is obtained. This accuracy can be improved by using a network with a greater number of parameters, but with a longer computation time. The performance of the detector is validated with video sequences of people with and without facemasks, captured in different environments.

Soybean and soy meal samples collected during the harvest season 2008-2009 in the soybean-growing area of Córdoba Province in Argentina were analysed for T-2 and HT-2 toxins occurrence. These mycotoxins were detected using HPLC analysis with fluorescence detection after derivatisation with 1-anthronylnitrile and immunoaffinity column clean-up. Characteristics of in-house validated method such as accuracy, precision, detection and quantification limits were defined by means of recovery test with spiked soybean and soy meal samples. Mean recoveries for T-2 within the spiking range 125-500 µg/kg, were 90.9 and 81.3% for soybean and soy meal, respectively with a withinlaboratory relative standard deviation <10%. Analysis of samples spiked with HT-2 in the same range gave a mean recovery of 70.2 and 77.5% for soybean and soy meal, respectively, with relative standard deviations <12%. The limit of detection for the method was 25 µg/kg for T-2 and HT-2, based on a signal-to-noise ratio 3:1 and the limit of quantification was established as three times the detection limit. Out of 64 samples, only two soybean samples showed contamination with A-type trichothecenes evaluated. Confirmatory analyses of the contaminated samples were performed by LC-MS/MS. This study demonstrated low incidences and levels of T-2 and HT-2 in soybean harvested among the areas in the Cordoba Province.

In a world with constant population growth, and in the context of climate change, the need to supply the demand of safe crops has stimulated an interest in ecological products that can increase agricultural productivity. This implies the use of beneficial organisms and natural products to improve crop performance and control pests and diseases, replacing chemical compounds that can affect the environment and human health. Microbial biological control agents (MBCAs) interact with pathogens directly or by inducing a physiological state of resistance in the plant. This involves several mechanisms, like interference with phytohormone pathways and priming defensive compounds. In Argentina, one of the world’s main maize exporters, yield is restricted by several limitations, including foliar diseases such as common rust and northern corn leaf blight (NCLB). Here, we discuss the impact of pathogen infection on important food crops and MBCA interactions with the plant’s immune system, and its biochemical indicators such as phytohormones, reactive oxygen species, phenolic compounds and lytic enzymes, focused mainly on the maize–NCLB pathosystem. MBCA could be integrated into disease management as a mechanism to improve the plant’s inducible defences against foliar diseases. However, there is still much to elucidate regarding plant responses when exposed to hemibiotrophic pathogens.