New evidences of the presence of Aphelocheirus aestivalis in the Iberian Peninsula, its ecology and description of two northeastern Iberian populations

The waterbug Aphelocheirus aestivalis is herein recorded for the first time in Northeastern Iberian Peninsula, constituting the first citation of the family Aphelocheiridae in the region. Yet, later on in 1989, the description of three new endemic Iberian species belonging to Aphelocheirus implied the assumption that A. aestivalis was absent. Here, we show strong evidences of the presence of this species by the collection of individuals in two isolated stream reaches located 36 km apart, in the two Mediterranean rivers Llobregat and Ter. The Iberian specimens studied showed slight differentiation from other European specimens in the structures of male internal genital. Photographs of the habitus of the male and female are provided. More than 25 years of study of these rivers show Aphelocheirus sp. is confined solely to a short stretch in both rivers. Our study thus suggests that the distribution of A. aestivalis in the Iberian Peninsula should be revised and further investigated, and warns of urgent measures to improve, or at least preserve, the habitat and the hydrological conditions rivers Llobregat and Ter to protect the species

Mediterranean Sea Literacy: When Ocean Literacy becomes region-specific

Ocean Literacy (OL) has been defined as an understanding of the ocean’s influence on people and their influence on the ocean. The OL movement was born in the US and its framework consisted of seven essential principles and 45 fundamental concepts; it is now largely accepted worldwide for use in both formal (schools and universities) and non-formal (research institutes, aquaria, museums, etc.) education settings. Based on this framework, marine scientists and educators developed the “Mediterranean Sea Literacy” (MSL) guide adapted to the specificities of the Mediterranean region, presented here. The MSL principles (7) and concepts (43), serving as guidance for research, education, informed decision-making, and improved citizens’ lifestyles, aim to contribute to environmental protection, conservation, and restoration of the Mediterranean Sea as well as to help to achieve a blue innovative and sustainable economy

Why Catalan-Spanish Neural Machine Translation? Analysis, comparison and combination with standard Rule and Phrase-based technologies

Catalan and Spanish are two related languages given that both derive from Latin. They share similarities in several linguistic levels including morphology, syntax and semantics. This makes them particularly interesting for the MT task. Given the recent appearance and popularity of neural MT, this paper analyzes the performance of this new approach compared to the well-established rule-based and phrase-based MT systems. Experiments are reported on a large database of 180 million words. Results, in terms of standard automatic measures, show that neural MT clearly outperforms the rule-based and phrase-based MT system on in-domain test set, but it is worst in the out-of-domain test set. A naive system combination specially works for the latter. In-domain manual analysis shows that neural MT tends to improve both adequacy and fluency, for example, by being able to generate more natural translations instead of literal ones, choosing to the adequate target word when the source word has several translations and improving gender agreement. However, out-of-domain manual analysis shows how neural MT is more affected by unknown words or contexts.Postprint (published version

Agriculture at the Phoenician site of La Fonteta (Alicante, Spain)

The Phoenician settlement of La Fonteta (Alicante, Spain) was founded in the late 8th cent BC at the mouth of the Río Segura. It has provided one of the most complete archaeobotanical records of all Phoenician Mediterranean sites which points to an agricultural system based on cultivating cereals, pulses and a wide variety of fruits such as grape, fig and pomegranate. These crops then spread to the surrounding indigenous settlements. Apart from integrating new crops, these local and regional indigenous sites progressively began to take part in a Mediterranean-wide network characterised particularly by trade in agricultural produce. The agricultural system of La Fonteta was not new to the Iberian Peninsula, as there is evidence that it arrived earlier at Phoenician colonies along its Mediterranean coastline. One of the most relevant aspects of the archaeobotanical record from La Fonteta is that it represents crafts there, as a large part of the remains correspond to plants which were burnt as fuel in its numerous metal working furnaces.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This study derives from the project FRUITCOM (Un nuevo modelo agrícola: frutales, hierro y comercio durante el I milenio A.E. - CIDEGENT/2019/003) funded by the Generalitat Valenciana carried out in the framework of two projects: HAR2017-87495-P of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades entitled Fenicios e indígenas en el Sureste de la península ibérica, Bronce Final y Hierro Antiguo entre el Vinalopó y el Segura and AICO/2021/189 of the Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana entitled Construyendo territorios entre el Bronce Final y el Ibérico Antiguo en los extremos de la Comunitat Valenciana (ConstrucTERR). The data are rooted in the project Consolidación y Puesta en Valor de Las Dunas de Guardamar (Fonteta-La Rábita) (Guardamar del Segura-Alicante) funded by the Generalitat Valenciana (2018–2021) through the Department of Education, Culture and Sport

Chemical characterization and biological properties of royal jelly samples from the mediterranean area

Royal jelly (RJ) is a bee product that has high nutritional value and is beneficial for the human health, earning importance as a functional food. Thus, the characterization of its main biological properties is with high importance. In this work, 6 RJ samples obtained in Morocco, Portugal, and Spain were evaluated in terms of total phenol and flavone/flavonol contents; total protein; 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA); volatiles composition; antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties; and inhibition of tyrosinase, xanthine oxidase (XO), and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities. Total phenolic content ranged from 3 to 9 mg gallic acid equivalent/g RJ, and flavone/flavonol content from 0.1 to 0.5 mg quercetin equivalent/g RJ. 10-Hydroxy-2-decenoic acid content varied from 0.9% to 1.2% and total protein from 5.5% to 29.7%. Gas chromatography-flame ionization detector and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis showed RJ volatiles dominated by linolenic acid, 2-decenoic acid, and octanoic acid in variable amounts. The antioxidant activity was monitored through nitric oxide (NO) scavenging activity and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) scavenging capacity, where the IC50 ranged from 2.3 to 3.4 and 0.2 to 1.5 mg/mL, respectively. Anti-AChE activity IC50 ranged from 0.7 to 4.6 mg/mL, while XO inhibition IC50 ranged from 3.3 to 11.9 mg/mL. The results showed that phenols and flavonoids highly contributed to the RJ biological properties in contrast to 10-HDA and proteins.UID/AMB/50017/2019 UIDB/05183/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Public Cord Blood Banks as a source of starting material for clinical grade HLA-homozygous induced pluripotent stem cells

Background The increasing number of clinical trials for induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cell therapy products makes the production on clinical grade iPSC more and more relevant and necessary. Cord blood banks are an ideal source of young, HLA-typed and virus screened starting material to produce HLA-homozygous iPSC lines for wide immune-compatibility allogenic cell therapy approaches. The production of such clinical grade iPSC lines (haplolines) involves particular attention to all steps since donor informed consent, cell procurement and a GMP-compliant cell isolation process. Methods Homozygous cord blood units were identified and quality verified before recontacting donors for informed consent. CD34+ cells were purified from the mononuclear fraction isolated in a cell processor, by magnetic microbeads labelling and separation columns. Results We obtained a median recovery of 20.0% of the collected pre-freezing CD34+, with a final product median viability of 99.1% and median purity of 83.5% of the post-thawed purified CD34+ population. Conclusions Here we describe our own experience, from unit selection and donor reconsenting, in generating a CD34+ cell product as a starting material to produce HLA-homozygous iPSC following a cost-effective and clinical grade-compliant procedure. These CD34+ cells are the basis for the Spanish bank of haplolines envisioned to serve as a source of cell products for clinical research and therapy

Fruits arriving to the west. Introduction of cultivated fruits in the Iberian Peninsula

Agricultural activities, including practices, crops and techniques have evolved throughout history undergoing tremendous changes. From the early Neolithic farmers in the Mediterranean focused on cereal agriculture and only later, during the 4th/3rd millennium cal. BC in the Eastern basin, other species such as fruit trees were introduced into the agrarian system transforming the model that had been in use for millennia. Fruit tree management required innovation and investment and more importantly multi-year foresight as the new crops entailed a new pace of work with delayed returns and, thus, a greater entanglement with the land. Processes of social complexity and urbanization accompanied the emergence of arboriculture which occurred at different pace at both ends of the Mediterranean. This paper focuses on the Iberian Peninsula, the most western Mediterranean region, during the 1st millennium cal. BC when arboriculture spread after commercial encounters with oriental seafarers. Here we report the earliest archaeobotanical evidence (seeds and fruits) for the introduction of fruit cultivation in Iberia. Results from several sites indicate that the spread of fruit cultivation was a long process that varied regionally. In some areas the new crops were rapidly adopted and integrated into the Mediterranean trading networks while in other regions arboriculture was not developed until the end of the millennium. Of the various fruit products that were commercialized, wine occupied a most relevant role

Use of nitrogen and oxygen isotopes of dissolved nitrate to trace field-scale induced denitrification efficiency throughout an in-situ groundwater remediation strategy

In the framework of the Life+ InSiTrate project, a pilot-plant was established to demonstrate the viability of inducing in-situ heterotrophic denitrification to remediate nitrate (NO3−)-polluted groundwater. Two injection wells supplied acetic acid by pulses to an alluvial aquifer for 22 months. The monitoring was performed by regular sampling at three piezometers and two wells located downstream. In the present work, the pilot-plant monitoring samples were used to test the usefulness of the isotopic tools to evaluate the efficiency of the treatment. The laboratory microcosm experiments determined an isotopic fractionation (ε) for N-NO3− of −12.6 and for O-NO3− of −13.3 . These ε15NNO3/N2 and ε18ONO3/N2 values were modelled by using a Rayleigh distillation equation to estimate the percentage of the induced denitrification at the pilot-plant while avoiding a possible interference from dilution due to non-polluted water inputs. In some of the field samples, the induced NO3− reduction was higher than 50% with respect to the background concentration. The field samples showed a reduced slope between δ18O-NO3− and δ15N-NO3− (0.7) compared to the laboratory experiments (1.1). This finding was attributed to the reoxidation of NO2− to NO3− during the treatment. The NO3− isotopic characterization also permitted the recognition of a mixture between the denitrified and partially or non-denitrified groundwater in one of the sampling points. Therefore, the isotopic tools demonstrated usefulness in assessing the implementation of the field-scale induced denitrification strategy