Environmental factors affecting larval fish community in the salt marsh area of Guadiana estuary (Algarve, Portugal)

Salt marsh areas in the Guadiana estuary are important nursery sites for many fish species of commercial and recreational value. More effective protection measures should be adopted as the area is highly affected by anthropogenic and natural threats. Studying larval fish communities in these impacted nursery areas will be relevant to the management of local ecosystems and to larval fish ecology in general. Spatial and seasonal distribution and the effect of environmental factors on the larval fish community of this ecosystem were studied for one year (April 2010 to March 2011). Larvae were sampled monthly in parallel with phytoplankton and zooplankton. Hydrological data and physical parameters were monitored. A decision tree model was used to assess the influence of environmental factors on the larval fish community. A total of 130 larvae and 1171 eggs were caught. Diplodus sargus, Sardina pilchardus, and Pomatoschistus microps were the most abundant larval fish species. The peaks of fish larvae abundance occurred in March and April. The output of the model demonstrates that the abundance of larval fish is determined by the abundance of eggs, zooplanktonic food, and water flood and flow. This study shows the importance of the Guadiana salt marsh as an area for fish nursery and highlights the need for conservation of this area.FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) [SFRH/BD/47985/2008

Real-world experience of nintedanib for progressive fibrosing interstitial lung disease in the UK

Background Nintedanib slows progression of lung function decline in patients with progressive fibrosing (PF) interstitial lung disease (ILD) and was recommended for this indication within the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service in Scotland in June 2021 and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in November 2021. To date, there has been no national evaluation of the use of nintedanib for PF-ILD in a real-world setting.Methods 26 UK centres were invited to take part in a national service evaluation between 17 November 2021 and 30 September 2022. Summary data regarding underlying diagnosis, pulmonary function tests, diagnostic criteria, radiological appearance, concurrent immunosuppressive therapy and drug tolerability were collected via electronic survey.Results 24 UK prescribing centres responded to the service evaluation invitation. Between 17 November 2021 and 30 September 2022, 1120 patients received a multidisciplinary team recommendation to commence nintedanib for PF-ILD. The most common underlying diagnoses were hypersensitivity pneumonitis (298 out of 1120, 26.6%), connective tissue disease associated ILD (197 out of 1120, 17.6%), rheumatoid arthritis associated ILD (180 out of 1120, 16.0%), idiopathic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (125 out of 1120, 11.1%) and unclassifiable ILD (100 out of 1120, 8.9%). Of these, 54.4% (609 out of 1120) were receiving concomitant corticosteroids, 355 (31.7%) out of 1120 were receiving concomitant mycophenolate mofetil and 340 (30.3%) out of 1120 were receiving another immunosuppressive/modulatory therapy. Radiological progression of ILD combined with worsening respiratory symptoms was the most common reason for the diagnosis of PF-ILD.Conclusion We have demonstrated the use of nintedanib for the treatment of PF-ILD across a broad range of underlying conditions. Nintedanib is frequently co-prescribed alongside immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory therapy. The use of nintedanib for the treatment of PF-ILD has demonstrated acceptable tolerability in a real-world setting

26th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2017): Part 3 - Meeting Abstracts - Antwerp, Belgium. 15–20 July 2017

This work was produced as part of the activities of FAPESP Research,\ud Disseminations and Innovation Center for Neuromathematics (grant\ud 2013/07699-0, S. Paulo Research Foundation). NLK is supported by a\ud FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship (grant 2016/03855-5). ACR is partially\ud supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Ecuación gravitacional de flujos bilaterales entre comercio internacional: la influencia China en el mercado de la Unión Europea antes y después de su integración en la OMC

El objetivo del presente trabajo es averiguar qué influencias ha tenido China después de su integración en la Organización Mundial de Comercio en el mercado de la Unión Europea. Para tal propósito, se estima una ecuación gravitacional (Tinbergen, 1962) para 11 países de la Unión Europea (los países de integración antes del año 2004) durante el período 1992-2011. Se llevará a cabo un contraste sobre la existencia de un cambio estructural. Se trata concretamente del contraste Chow. (Chow, 1960) El cambio estructural se entiende como la modificación radical de los parámetros de una regresión, se entiende con ello, el intercepto y la pendiente. Los flujos comerciales bilaterales son explicados por el comercio conjunto entre dos pares de países, el producto interior bruto, la distancia entre ellos, la población, el tipo de cambio real efectivo y por variables ficticias

Planning nature-based solutions for water management and circularity in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Sonaravne rešitve (NBS) in krožno gospodarstvo ponujajo nove priložnosti za upravljanje z vodo in kroženje vode v mestih. V procesu k krožnemu upravljanju z vodo z NBS, eksperti, kot so, kot so urbanisti in okoljski/vodarski inženirji, delujejo kot pospeševalci implementacije, zaradi njihovega tehničnega znanja. Poleg tega lahko s svojega poklicnega stališča premagajo ovire in vplivajo na ključne akterje pro implementaciji sonaravnih rešitev. Namen te študije je (i) raziskati ovire, s katerimi se srečujejo strokovnjaki pri širši implementaciji NBS za krožno upravljanje z vodo v Ljubljani (Slovenija) ter (ii) razumeti institucionalno pripravljenost mesta za načrtovanje NBS za krožno upravljanje voda z NBS. Skozi 14 pol-strukturiranih strokovnih intervjujev, in po analizi vsebinskega diskurza so se pojavile tri krovne teme: urbanistično načrtovanje, urbanistično oblikovanje in izvedba NBS. Ugotovitve razkrivajo institucionalno pripravl jenost Ljubljane za sprejemanje in nadgradnjo obstoječih rešitev z NBS, čeprav ovire še vedno obstajajo: neusklajenost strateških ciljev, institucionalna razdrobljenost, pomanjkanje političnih in pravnih okvirjev (pravila o javnem naročanju, zakoni o urbanističnem oblikovanju) in omejeno sodelovanje državljanov.Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and the circular economy offer new opportunities for water management and water circularity in cities. In the process towards circular water NBS planning and implementation, urban practitioners such as urban planners and environmental/water engineers operate as facilitators and change agents due to their technical expertise. Moreover, from their professional standpoint, they can navigate barriers and influence key actors of institutional readiness of cities to uptake NBS. This study aims (i) to explore the barriers that urban professionals face towards the widespread mainstreaming and implementation of NBS for water management and circularity in Ljubljana, and (ii) to understand the perceived institutional readiness for planning NBS for water management and circularity in the city. Through 14 semi-structured expert interviews, and following a content discourse analysis, three overarching topics emerged: urban planning, urban design, and NBS implementation. The findings reveal the institutional readiness of Ljubljana to adopt and upscale solutions like NBS, although barriers still persist: misalignment of strategic goals, institutional fragmentation, lack of supportive policy and legal frameworks (procurement rules, urban design laws), and limited citizen involvement. New approaches and skilled knowledge brokers are required in order to change the narrative of water being perceived as a problem, and to mainstream NBS for water circularity across the city in the future

Downregulation of kainate receptors regulating GABAergic transmission in amygdala after early life stress is associated with anxiety-like behavior in rodents

Early life stress (ELS) is a well-characterized risk factor for mood and anxiety disorders. GABAergic microcircuits in the amygdala are critically implicated in anxiety; however, whether their function is altered after ELS is not known. Here we identify a novel mechanism by which kainate receptors (KARs) modulate feedforward inhibition in the lateral amygdala (LA) and show that this mechanism is downregulated after ELS induced by maternal separation (MS). Specifically, we show that in control rats but not after MS, endogenous activity of GluK1 subunit containing KARs disinhibit LA principal neurons during activation of cortical afferents. GluK1 antagonism attenuated excitability of parvalbumin (PV)-expressing interneurons, resulting in loss of PV-dependent inhibitory control and an increase in firing of somatostatin-expressing interneurons. Inactivation of Grik1 expression locally in the adult amygdala reduced ongoing GABAergic transmission and was sufficient to produce a mild anxiety-like behavioral phenotype. Interestingly, MS and GluK1-dependent phenotypes showed similar gender specificity, being detectable in male but not female rodents. Our data identify a novel KAR-dependent mechanism for cell-type and projection-specific functional modulation of the LA GABAergic microcircuit and suggest that the loss of GluK1 KAR function contributes to anxiogenesis after ELS.Peer reviewe

Bio-waste valorisation: Agricultural wastes as biosorbents for removal of (in)organic pollutants in wastewater treatment

The conventional waste management practices dispose or incinerate agricultural and forestry waste, contributing to the environmental pollution while misusing biomass, a valuable resource with a great potential of reuse. In fact, cultivation of agricultural crops and harvesting generate an abundant amount of waste (e.g., stones, shells, straw) that can be used for wastewater treatment. Waste biomass may be used as: (i) an adsorbent in its original, raw form, following ambient drying and grinding; (ii) modified bio-based sorbents; or (iii) a source material for the synthesis of activated carbon adsorbents through carbonization. Despite the numerous publications in this field examining the removal of a wide range of target pollutants (metals, metalloids, dyes, pesticides, as well as emerging contaminants) by several materials, more realistic studies are still required to evaluate the potential to remove residual compounds in complex matrices, by testing natural matrices, i.e., environmental samples without spiking the target compounds. This perspective paper highlights how an integrated-engineering approach may help solving environmental-pollution issues related to water, solid waste, and air pollution. Chiefly, the application of locally produced bio-waste as an adsorbent for wastewater treatment tackles water contamination, decreases the overall amount of agricultural waste, and reduces the potential gas emissions caused by waste transportation, treatment and/or disposal

Functional Characterization of the Photosynthetic Machinery in Smicronix Galls on the Parasitic Plant Cuscuta campestris by JIP-Test

Members of the genus Cuscuta are generally considered to be non-photosynthetic, stem-holoparasitic flowering plants. Under certain circumstances, at least some members of the genus are capable of limited photosynthesis. The galls of the Smicronyx weevils formed on Cuscuta campestris are particularly rich in chlorophylls compared to the stem of the parasitic plant. In the present study, we aimed to characterize the photosynthetic activity in the inner and outer gall cortices in comparison to the non-photosynthetic stems and a reference plant (Arabidopsis thaliana). The recorded prompt chlorophyll fluorescence transients were analyzed using JIP test. Detailed analysis of the chlorophyll fluorescence confirmed the presence of actively functioning photosynthetic machinery, especially in the inner cortex of the galls. This photosynthesis, induced by the insect larvae, did not reach the levels of the photosynthetic activity in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Thylakoid protein complexes were identified by separation with two-dimensional Blue Native/SDS PAGE. It appeared that some of the complexes presented in A. thaliana are missing in C. campestris. We hypothesize that the insect-triggered transition from non-photosynthetic to photosynthetic tissue in the gall is driven by the increased requirements for nutrients related to the larval nutrition

Aberrant cortical projections to amygdala GABAergic neurons contribute to developmental circuit dysfunction following early life stress

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)Early life stress (ELS) results in enduring dysfunction of the corticolimbic circuitry, underlying emotional and social behavior. However, the neurobiological mechanisms involved remain elusive. Here, we have combined viral tracing and electrophysiological techniques to study the effects of maternal separation (MS) on frontolimbic connectivity and function in young (P14-21) rats. We report that aberrant prefrontal inputs to basolateral amygdala (BLA) GABAergic interneurons transiently increase the strength of feed-forward inhibition in the BLA, which raises LTP induction threshold in MS treated male rats. The enhanced GABAergic activity after MS exposure associates with lower functional synchronization within prefrontal-amygdala networks in vivo. Intriguingly, no differences in these parameters were detected in females, which were also resistant to MS dependent changes in anxiety-like behaviors. Impaired plasticity and synchronization during the sensitive period of circuit refinement may contribute to long-lasting functional changes in the prefrontal-amygdaloid circuitry that predispose to neuropsychiatric conditions later on in life.Peer reviewe