The european water framework directive facing current challenges: recommendations for a more efficient biological assessment of inland surface waters

High quality water is vital for human life, and ensuring its availability is a basic requirement and a major societal aim. The Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC) is a key piece of legislation for the protection and sustainable use of water in the European Union. In this work we briefly review the WFD directive and the current status of European inland surface waters. Additionally, we summarize major challenges and threats for the biological assessment of inland surface waters under climate change effects and invasion by alien species, and highlight the emerging tools and approaches that might help improve biological assessments, including molecular indices based on environmental DNA (eDNA), to new data from the Earth Observation programmes, and data-sharing platforms. Finally, we present recommendations to improve monitoring systems and assessments in the context of the WFD. Developments in this field may increase the likelihood of assuring high quality water for societyFRESHING Project funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and COMPETE (PTDC/AAG-MAA/ 2261/2014 – POCI-01-0145-FEDER-356 016824). AFF, AGR, and JPR were supported by FRESHING. FMSM was supported by FCT grant SFRH/BD/104703/2014. MJF was supported by the strategic project UID/MAR/04292/2013 granted to MAR

Dedifferentiated liposarcoma with leukocytosis. A case report of G-CSF-producing soft-tissue tumors, possible association with undifferentiated liposarcoma lineage

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) functions as a hematopoietic growth factor and it is responsible for leukocytosis. G-CSF-producing tumors associated with leukocytosis include various types of malignancies.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 72-year-old man with dedifferentiated liposarcoma characterized by dedifferentiated components of malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH)-like features in addition to well-differentiated lipoma-like liposarcoma, arising from his upper arm. Preoperative laboratory data showed leukocytosis (103,700/μl). The serum level of G-CSF was also elevated (620 pg/ml [normal, <8 pg/ml]). Nine days after the surgery, the leukocytosis was relieved (WBC; 6,920/μl) and the elevated serum G-CSF level was significantly decreased (G-CSF; 12 pg/ml). One month after the surgery, leukocytosis gradually began to appear again. Three months after the surgery metastatic lung lesions were confirmed, and the patient subsequently died of respiratory problems. In the English literature regarding soft-tissue tumors with leukocytosis, including the current case, we could review a total of 6 cases of liposarcoma with leukocytosis. The subtype of these 6 liposarcoma cases was undifferentiated liposarcoma, comprising dedifferentiated liposarcoma in 4 cases and pleomorphic liposarcoma in 2 cases.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Since the only other soft-tissue tumor that was associated with leukocytosis was MFH, and since MFH is characterized by the absence of any specific differentiation, we would like to propose a possible association between G-CSF-producing soft-tissue tumors and an undifferentiated liposarcoma lineage, such as dedifferentiated liposarcoma or pleomorphic liposarcoma.</p

Random forests to evaluate interspecific interactions in fish distribution models

[EN] Previous research indicated that high predictive performance in species distribution modelling can be obtained by combining both biotic and abiotic habitat variables. However, models developed for fish often only address physical habitat characteristics, thus omitting potentially important biotic factors. Therefore, we assessed the impact of biotic variables on fish habitat preferences in four selected stretches of the upper Cabriel River (E Spain). The occurrence of Squalius pyrenaicus and Luciobarbus guiraonis was related to environmental variables describing biotic interactions (inferred by relationships among fish abundances) and channel hydro-morphological characteristics. Random Forests (RF) models were trained and then validated using independent datasets. To build RF models, the conditional variable importance was used together with the model improvement ratio technique. The procedure showed effectiveness in identifying a parsimonious set of not correlated variables, which minimize noise and improve model performance in both training and validation phases. Water depth, channel width, fine substrate and water-surface gradient were selected as most important habitat variables for both fish. Results showed clear habitat overlapping between fish species and suggest that competition is not a strong factor in the study area.This research has been developed in the framework of the HolRiverMed project (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-275577, Marie Curie Actions, Intra-European Fellowships) and the SCARCE project (Assessing and predicting effects on water quantity and quality in Iberian rivers caused by global change, Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065). Data collection was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, the Jucar River Basin District Authority and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (POTECOL, CGL2007-66412). We thank Juan Diego Alacaraz-Hernandez, Matias Peredo-Parada and Aina Hernandez-Mascarell for their help with field work and suggestions on data analysis.Vezza, P.; Muñoz Mas, R.; Martinez-Capel, F.; Mouton, A. (2015). Random forests to evaluate interspecific interactions in fish distribution models. Environmental Modelling and Software. 67:173-183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.01.005S1731836

LIFE SARAMUGO PROJECT: EXPERIMENTAL TESTING OF SEVERAL BARRIER TYPES TO PREVENT BLEAK FROM REACHING AREAS WITH SARAMUGO POPULATIONS

Barriers are usually considered to be negative as they prevent or strongly reduce fish migrations and movements in general, fragmenting populations and decreasing their viability. But desperate situations call for desperate measures and in the context of LIFE Saramugo Project all possible actions with positive effects were taken

BEHAVIOURAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE ENDANGERED NATIVE FISH SARAMUGO, ANAECYPRIS HISPANICA, AND THE INVASIVE BLEAK, ALBURNUS ALBURNUS

Invasive species have the potential to impact native fish through interference competition, which is especially concerning for the conservation of the valuable endemic ichtyofauna of the Iberian Peninsula. This study investigated the potential negative effect of the invasive bleak Alburnus alburnus on the behaviour of the critically endangered native Iberian saramugo Anaecypris hispanica

Hexastore: Sextuple Indexing for Semantic Web Data Management

Despite the intense interest towards realizing the Semantic Web vision, most existing RDF data management schemes are constrained in terms of efficiency and scalability. Still, the growing popularity of the RDF format arguably calls for an effort to offset these drawbacks. Viewed from a relationaldatabase perspective, these constraints are derived from the very nature of the RDF data model, which is based on a triple format. Recent research has attempted to address these constraints using a vertical-partitioning approach, in which separate two-column tables are constructed for each property. However, as we show, this approach suffers from similar scalability drawbacks on queries that are not bound by RDF property value. In this paper, we propose an RDF storage scheme that uses the triple nature of RDF as an asset. This scheme enhances the vertical partitioning idea and takes it to its logical conclusion. RDF data is indexed in six possible ways, one for each possible ordering of the three RDF elements. Each instance of an RDF element is associated with two vectors; each such vector gathers elements of one of the other types, along with lists of the third-type resources attached to each vector element. Hence, a sextupleindexing scheme emerges. This format allows for quick and scalable general-purpose query processing; it confers significant advantages (up to five orders of magnitude) compared to previous approaches for RDF data management, at the price of a worst-case five-fold increase in index space. We experimentally document the advantages of our approach on real-world and synthetic data sets with practical queries