Preliminary study of the impact of Guadalhorce river mouth channeling (Málaga, Spain) on groundwater and related wetlands

Se trata de resultados preliminares que se están obteniendo en el Bajo Guadalhorce, en el marco de la tesis doctoral del primer firmanteIn riverine areas, many anthropogenic actions (modification of natural water courses, burying or channeling works, etc.) have been commonly applied worldwide to prevent floods in rivers, having negative environmental impacts on their dependent ecosystems. In the Guadalhorce River mouth (Málaga, Southern Spain), channeling works -including the splitting of the main channel into two branches before arriving to the sea- were conducted to reduce the flood risk in the surrounding urbanized areas near to the Mediterranean coast. In the framework of the monitoring program of the Guadalhorce Delta Wetlands, located between the branches of the ending river stretch, measurements of electrical conductivity in wetland water and groundwater table were performed, as well as the sampling of both water types. The results show a progressive increasing in the mineralization of wetland water, reaching values 50 times higher than the original ones. In the underlying aquifers, the mineralization of groundwater is generally less variable and lower than the recorded in the eighties and nineties, when a salt intrusion episode occurred. Before the river channel modification, the water flow from the aquifer to the wetlands and toward the river in its mouth was deduced. Today, the wetlands recharge locally the Quaternary aquifer and, consequently, induce the groundwater flow towards the both branches of the river and Mediterranean Sea. The variation of the morphodynamics in the Guadalhorce River mouth and the associated changes in land use have caused significant impacts on ground and surface water and their dependent wetlands.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Antropologia de las fronteras en America Latina

La noción de frontera es un concepto polisémico al que se recurre con distintas acepciones dentro de las ciencias sociales en general y de la antropología en particular. Con frecuencia se lo utiliza para designar tanto a los límites políticos entre estados, como a las discontinuidades existentes entre grupos humanos diferenciados en razón del género, la posición generacional, la cultura u otros aspectos considerados relevantes para distinguirlos entre sí. También se suele recurrir a la noción de frontera para denotar los límites posibles entre distintas propuestas disciplinarias, así, por ejemplo se suele hablar de las “fronteras de la antropología”. Es decir que el concepto se utiliza tanto para designar a realidades fácticas como a metáforas que aluden a construcciones intelectuales. Sin embargo, algunas realidades, tales como las fronteras estatales y las culturales, son fácticas y metafóricas a la vez, ya que están pobladas por las representaciones y simbolizaciones que ayudan a construirlas. Lo real se comporta así como la conjunción de la realidad y de su representación, de lo fáctico y de lo imaginario que contribuye a definirlo al otorgarle un sentido posible. Y esto es precisamente lo que nos permite intentar una reflexión conjunta referida a contextos aparentemente tan diferenciados como son las fronteras étnicas y las fronteras estatales, las que por lo general no coinciden entre sí y que responden a distintas lógicas políticas, jurídicas y sociales. A pesar de que alguna literatura antropológica tiende a tratarlas de manera conjunta (v.g. H. Donan y T. Wilson, 1999), no creo demasiado factible un análisis comparativo que conjugue realidades tan disímiles, sin recurrir a la identificación de los factores comunes de ambas . Es entonces necesario señalar que tanto en el caso de las fronteras étnicas como en el de las estatales, la noción de discontinuidad, de un “adentro” y un “afuera”, y la consiguiente dinámica de inclusión y exclusión que generan, es el factor que guía la reflexión que me propongo en estas páginas. Así me referiré tanto a la noción de frontera como al discurso sobre la misma, a la vez que expondré algunos contextos tales como las fronteras estatales, las fronteras interiores, la temporalidad adjudicada a las fronteras culturales y las fronteras étnica

Insights into the speleogenesis of Ejulve cave (Iberian Range, NE Spain): quaternary hydrothermal karstification?

We provide first insights into the speleogenesis of Ejulve cave (Teruel province, Iberian Range, NE Spain) by studying cave morphologies and cave deposits, combined with regional geomorphological and hydrothermal observations. Three main hydrogeomorphic evolutionary stages can be distinguised to explain the origin and evolution of the Ejulve endokarstic system. Cave pattern and cave solutional features (calcite vein fillings, tubes with rising ceiling cupolas, pendants and cusps, spongework and micro-corrosion features) suggest that the cave generated in a phreatic environment by ascending water. Cave morphologies and regional hydrothermal springs in this region suggest, but not prove, the involvement of thermal waters and related convection and condensation-corrosion mechanisms in the origin of the cave. Subsequently, the cave underwent a change to epigenic conditions driven by denudation, as a result of regional uplift. Once the karstic system was exhumated, carbonate speleothems formed in a vadose environment. Mineralogical, petrographic, isotopic and chronological (U-series dating) analyses of carbonate speleothems (i.e. stalagmites, flowstones, botryoids, spars, acicular crystals and farmed carbonate) are provided. Calcite, high-Mg calcite and aragonite are the most common minerals, whereas columnar, dendritic, micrite, mosaics and fans are the main fabrics. Mean delta O-18 values of - 7.3 parts per thousand and delta C-13 values of - 9.1 parts per thousand indicate carbonate precipitation from meteoric waters without a hydrothermal origin. Carbonate deposits formed at least since 650 ka BP. Our study suggests that hydrothermal fluid flow may explain, although the evidences are not fully conclusive, the speleogenesis of this cave

Transcriptional diversification and functional conservation between DELLA proteins in Arabidopsis

[EN] Plasticity and robustness of signaling pathways partly rely on genetic redundancy, although the precise mechanism that provides functional specificity to the different redundant elements in a given process is often unknown. In Arabidopsis, functional redundancy in gibberellin signaling has been largely attributed to the presence of five members of the DELLA family of transcriptional regulators. Here, we demonstrate that two evolutionarily and functionally divergent DELLA proteins, RGL2 and RGA, can perform exchangeable functions when they are expressed under control of the reciprocal promoter. Furthermore, both DELLA proteins display equivalent abilities to interact with PIF4 and with other bHLH transcription factors with a reported role in the control of cell growth and seed germination. Therefore, we propose that functional diversification of Arabidopsis DELLA proteins has largely relied on changes in their gene expression patterns rather than on their ability to interact with different regulatory partners, model also supported by a clustering analysis of DELLA transcript profiles over a range of organs and growth conditions that revealed specific patterns of expression for each of these genes.We deeply appreciate the help of Marta Trenor and Laura Garcia-Carcel in the initial stages of this work. We also thank Tai-ping Sun (Duke University) and the Arabidpsis Biological Resource Center for seeds, Marta Boter for the pGBKT7 and pGADT7 Gateway vectors, Santiago Elena (IBMCP, CSIC-UPV) for useful comments on the manuscript, and Francois Parcy (IRTSV, CNRS-CEA) for fruitful discussions and hosting MAB. Work in the authors' laboratories is funded by grants BIO2007-60923 and BIO2005-07284 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. J.G.B. is the recipient of a CSIC I3P Fellowship and J.A.M. is the recipient of a Fellowship from the Fundacion "la Caixa.Gallego-Bartolome, J.; Minguet, E.; Marin, JA.; Prat, S.; Blazquez Rodriguez, MA.; Alabadí Diego, D. (2010). Transcriptional diversification and functional conservation between DELLA proteins in Arabidopsis. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 27(6):1247-1256. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msq0121247125627

Abrupt climate changes during Termination III in Southern Europe

The Late Quaternary glacial-interglacial transitions represent the highest amplitude climate changes over the last million years. Unraveling the sequence of events and feedbacks at Termination III (T-III), including potential abrupt climate reversals similar to those of the last Termination, has been particularly challenging due to the scarcity of well-dated records worldwide. Here, we present speleothem data from southern Europe covering the interval from 262.7 to 217.9 kyBP, including the transition from marine isotope stage (MIS) 8 to MIS 7e. High-resolution delta C-13, delta O-18, and Mg/Ca profiles reveal major millennial-scale changes in aridity manifested in changing water availability and vegetation productivity. uranium-thorium dates provide a solid chronology for two millennial-scale events (S8.1 and S8.2) which, compared with the last two terminations, has some common features with Heinrich 1 and Heinrich 2 in Termination I (T-I)

Mind the numt: Finding informative mitochondrial markers in a giant grasshopper genome

H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, Grant/Award Number: 658706; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Grant/Award Number: PID2019-104952GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033The barcoding of the mitochondrial COX1 gene has been instrumental in cataloguing the tree of life, and in providing insights in the phylogeographic history of species. Yet, this strategy has encountered difficulties in major clades characterized by large genomes, which contain a high frequency of nuclear pseudogenes originating from the mitochondrial genome (numts). Here, we use the meadow grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus), which possesses a giant genome of ~13 Gb, to identify mitochondrial genes that are underrepresented as numts, and test their use as informative phylogeographic markers. We recover the same full mitochondrial sequence using both whole genome and transcriptome sequencing, including functional protein‐coding genes and tRNAs. We show that a region of the mitogenome containing the COX1 gene, typically used in DNA barcoding, has disproportionally higher diversity and coverage than the rest of the mitogenome, consistent with multiple insertions of that region into the nuclear genome. By designing new markers in regions of less elevated diversity and coverage, we identify two mitochondrial genes that are less likely to be duplicated as numts. We show that, while these markers show high levels of incomplete lineage sorting between subspecies, as expected for mitochondrial genes, genetic variation reflects their phylogeographic history accurately. These findings allow us to identify useful mitochondrial markers for future studies in C. parallelus, an important biological system for evolutionary biology. More generally, this study exemplifies how non‐PCR‐based methods using next‐generation sequencing can be used to avoid numts in species characterized by large genomes, which have remained challenging to study in taxonomy and evolution.H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions 658706Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades PID2019-104952GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/50110001103

Inflammatory and Repair Serum Biomarker Pattern. Association to Clinical Outcomes in COPD

Background: The relationship between serum biomarkers and clinical expressions of COPD is limited. We planned to further describe this association using markers of inflammation and injury and repair. Methods: We studied lung function, comorbidities, exercise tolerance, BODE index, and quality of life in 253 COPD patients and recorded mortality over three years. Serum levels of Interleukins 6,8 and16, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF α) [inflammatory panel], vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) [injury and repair panel] and pulmonary and activation-regulated chemokine (PARC/CCL-18) and monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1/CCL2) [chemoattractant panel] were measured. We related the pattern of the biomarker levels to minimal clinically important differences (MCID) using a novel visualization method [ObServed Clinical Association Results (OSCAR) plot]. Results: Levels of the inflammatory markers IL-6, TNF α were higher and those of injury and repair lower (p < 0.01) with more advanced disease (GOLD 1 vs. 4). Using the OSCAR plot, we found that patients in the highest quartile of inflammatory and lowest quartile of injury and repair biomarkers level were more clinically compromised and had higher mortality (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In COPD, serum biomarkers of inflammation and repair are distinctly associated with important clinical parameters and survival

Plasma metabolomics and clinical predictors of survival differences in COPD patients

Background: Plasma metabolomics profile (PMP) in COPD has been associated with clinical characteristics, but PMP''s relationship to survival has not been reported. We determined PMP differences between patients with COPD who died an average of 2 years after enrollment (Non-survivors, NS) compared to those who survived (S) and also with age matched controls (C). Methods: We studied prospectively 90 patients with severe COPD and 30 controls. NS were divided in discovery and validation cohorts (30 patients each) and the results compared to the PMP of 30 S and C. All participants completed lung function tests, dyspnea scores, quality of life, exercise capacity, BODE index, and plasma metabolomics by liquid and gas chromatography/mass spectometry (LC/MS, LC/MS2, GC/MS). Statistically, we used Random Forest Analysis (RFA) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) to determine metabolites that differentiated the 3 groups and compared the ability of metabolites vs. clinical characteristics to classify patients into survivors and non-survivors. Results: There were 79 metabolites statistically different between S and NS [p &lt; 0.05 and false discovery rate (q value) &lt; 0.1]. RFA and SVM classification of COPD survivors and non-survivors had a predicted accuracy of 74 and 85% respectively. Elevation of tricyclic acid cycle intermediates branched amino acids depletion and increase in lactate, fructose and xylonate showed the most relevant differences between S vs. NS suggesting alteration in mitochondrial oxidative energy generation. PMP had similar predictive power for risk of death as information provided by clinical characteristics. Conclusions: A plasma metabolomic profile characterized by an oxidative energy production difference between survivors and non-survivors was observed in COPD patients 2 years before death

Adaptación de las asignaturas básicas de primer curso de la ETSI Navales de la UPM: Primeras experiencias

En el marco de la reforma de las titulaciones con motivo de la puesta en marcha del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior, un grupo de profesores hemos decidido coordinar todas las asignaturas básicas de primer curso y una asignatura de segundo curso en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Navales de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid con el fin de dar una visión mas homogénea y compacta al alumno de lo que debe ser la formación básica del ingeniero. Para llevar a cabo dicho fin, la Universidad nos ha concedido un Proyecto de Innovación Educativa en la convocatoria 2008 para poder alcanzar una serie de objetivos en el curso 2008-2009, como son la coordinación de todas las asignaturas básicas de primer curso, la aplicación de nuevas metodologías en la práctica educativa, y una mejor adaptación de los alumnos de nuevo ingreso