Utilidad de la terapia de rehabilitación a través de la realidad virtual en personas que han sufrido un ictus: Una revisión narrativa

El trabajo realizado detalla la búsqueda de diferentes artículos que utilizan la realidad virtual como objeto de estudio en la incorporación de rehabilitación para terapia ocupacional en personas que han sufrido un ictus. De este modo, he valorado los resultados que se obtienen con esta herramienta, y su eficacia, discutiendo así los resultados obtenidos y buscando una conclusión final a todo el conjunto de artículos tras haber completado mis objetivos.<br /

Species‐specific effects of biocrust‐forming lichens on soil properties under simulated climate change are driven by functional traits

(1) Biocrusts are key drivers of ecosystem functioning in drylands, yet our understanding of how climate change will affect the chemistry of biocrust‐forming species and their impacts on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling is still very limited. (2) Using a manipulative experiment conducted with common biocrust‐forming lichens with distinct morphology and chemistry (Buellia zoharyi, Diploschistes diacapsis, Psora decipiens and Squamarina lentigera), we evaluated changes in lichen total and isotopic C and N and several soil C and N variables after 50 months of simulated warming and rainfall reduction. (3) Climate change treatments reduced δs13C and C:N ratio in B. zoharyi, and increased δ15N in S. lentigera. Lichens had species‐specific effects on soil dissolved organic N (DON), NH4+, β‐glucosidase and acid phosphatase activity regardless of climate change treatments, while these treatments changed how lichens affected several soil properties regardless of biocrust species. Changes in thallus δ13C, N and C:N drove species‐specific effects on DON, NH4+, β‐glucosidase and acid phosphatase activity. (4) Our findings indicate that warmer and drier conditions will alter the chemistry of biocrust‐forming lichens, affecting soil nutrient cycling, and emphasize their key role as modulators of climate change impacts in dryland soils.This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC Grant Agreements 242658 [BIOCOM] and 647038 [BIODESERT] awarded to F.T.M), and by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA Grant Agreement 795380 [INDECRUST] awarded to L.C-Z.). E.V. was supported by the 2017 program for attracting and retaining talent of Comunidad de Madrid (no. 2017‐T2/ AMB‐5406). F.T.M. also acknowledges support from Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041)

Continuous monitoring of chlorophyll a fluorescence and microclimatic conditions reveals warming-induced physiological damage in biocrust-forming lichens

Purpose Biocrust communities, which are important regulators of multiple ecosystem functions in drylands, are highly sensitive to climate change. There is growing evidence of the negative impacts of warming on the performance of biocrust constituents like lichens in the field. Here, we aim to understand the physiological basis behind this pattern. Methods Using a unique manipulative climate change experiment, we monitored every 30 minutes and for 9 months the chlorophyll a fluorescence and microclimatic conditions (lichen surface temperature, relative moisture and photosynthetically active radiation) of Psora decipiens, a key biocrust constituent in drylands worldwide. This long-term monitoring resulted in 11,847 records at the thallus-level, which allowed us to evaluate the impacts of ~2.3 °C simulated warming treatment on the physiology of Psora at an unprecedented level of detail. Results Simulated warming and the associated decrease in relative moisture promoted by this treatment negatively impacted the physiology of Psora, especially during the diurnal period of the spring, when conditions are warmer and drier. These impacts were driven by a mechanism based on the reduction of the length of the periods allowing net photosynthesis, and by declines in Yield and Fv/Fm under simulated warming. Conclusion Our study reveals the physiological basis explaining observed negative impacts of ongoing global warming on biocrust-forming lichens in the field. The functional response observed could limit the growth and cover of biocrust-forming lichens in drylands in the long-term, negatively impacting in key soil attributes such as biogeochemical cycles, water balance, biological activity and ability of controlling erosion.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC Grant Agreements 242658 [BIOCOM] and 647038 [BIODESERT] awarded to FTM). FTM and DSP also acknowledge support from Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041) and Comunidad de Madrid (REMEDINAL TE-CM, S2018/EMT-4338) respectively. JR, DSP and LGS acknowledge to research projects funded by the Spanish Government, CTM2015–64728-C2–1-R and PID2019-105469RB-C21 for providing financial support at different stages of the data analyses and manuscript development. EV was supported by the 2017 program for attracting and retaining talent of Comunidad de Madrid (no. 2017-T2/ AMB-5406)

The BIODESERT survey: assessing the impacts of grazing on the structure and functioning of global drylands

Grazing by domestic livestock is both the main land use across drylands worldwide and a major desertification and global change driver. The ecological consequences of this key human activity have been studied for decades, and there is a wealth of information on its impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. However, most field assessments of the ecological impacts of grazing on drylands conducted to date have been carried out at local or regional scales and have focused on single ecosystem attributes (e.g., plant productivity) or particular taxa (mainly aboveground, e.g., plants). Here we introduce the BIODESERT survey, the first systematic field survey devoted to evaluating the joint impacts of grazing by domestic livestock and climate on the structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems worldwide. This collaborative global survey was carried out between 2016 and 2019 and has involved the collection of field data and plant, biocrust, and soil samples from a total of 326 45 m × 45 m plots from 98 sites located in 25 countries from 6 continents. Here we describe the major characteristics and the field protocols used in this survey. We also introduce the organizational aspects followed, as these can be helpful to everyone wishing to establish a global collaborative network of researchers. The BIODESERT survey provides baseline data to assess the current status of dryland rangelands worldwide and the impacts of grazing on these key ecosystems, and it constitutes a good example of the power of collaborative research networks to study the ecology of our planet using much-needed field data.This research has been supported by the European Research Council (ERC grant agreement no. 647038 – BIODESERT) and the Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital, Generalitat Valenciana (grant no. CIDEGENT/2018/041). Nicolas Gross was supported by CAP 20-25 (16-IDEX-0001) and the AgreenSkills+ fellowship program which has received funding from the EU's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no. 996 FP7-609398 (AgreenSkills+ contract). Hugo Saiz is supported by a María Zambrano fellowship funded by the Ministry of Universities and European Union Next Generation plan

Studies on Ground Corn Flowability as Affected by Particle Size and Moisture Content

Corn is the primary feed grain in the U.S., and it accounts for more than 90 percent of total feed grain production and use. Besides this, corn is the primary input for the U.S. ethanol industry. This results in tremendous infrastructure for handling and storage of corn and byproducts throughout the year. The flow properties of ground corn, which is a principal ingredient of animal feed, are very complex in nature. Many physical and chemical properties viz. angle of repose, bulk density, moisture of the product, protein content in the surface layer, etc. affects the flow properties of corn and its products. Flow through a hopper is a typical example of complex flow. Bridging or caking of feed material in feed hoppers are common problems, and many times blocks the flow completely leaving animals without feed. Daily changes in temperature and relative humidity affect the equilibrium moisture content of feed. Size of corn particles affect angle of repose, bulk density and cohesive forces between particles, and thus flow characteristics of the feed. In this study, flow characteristics of ground corn were examined as functions of particle size and moisture content. Feed utilization was historically maximum (i.e. minimum ratio of feed consumption to weight gain), when mean particle size diameter is about 822 microns for roller milled corn flour. In recent times, livestock producers have found that feed efficiency can increase as particle size decreases. Furthermore, excess moisture makes flour sticky and hampers free sliding of particles over each other during flow. Keeping this in view, different combinations of particle sizes and product moisture content were studied with the objectives of understanding and enhancing corn flour flowability

Biocrusts buffer against the accumulation of soilmetallic nutrients induced by warmingand rainfall reduction

The availability of metallic nutrients in dryland soils, many of which are essential for the metabolism of soil organisms and vascular plants, may be altered due to climate change-driven increases in aridity. Biocrusts, soil surface communities dominated by lichens, bryophytes and cyanobacteria, are ecosystem engineers known to exert critical functions in dryland ecosystems. However, their role in regulating metallic nutrient availability under climate change is uncertain. Here, we evaluated whether well-developed biocrusts modulate metallic nutrient availability in response to 7 years of experimental warming and rainfall reduction in a Mediterranean dryland located in southeastern Spain. We found increases in the availability of K, Mg, Zn and Na under warming and rainfall exclusion. However, the presence of a well-developed biocrust cover buffered these effects, most likely because its constituents can uptake significant quantities of available metallic nutrients. Our findings suggest that biocrusts, a biotic community prevalent in drylands, exert an important role in preserving and protecting metallic nutrients in dryland soils from leaching and erosion. Therefore, we highlight the need to protect them to mitigate undesired effects of soil degradation driven by climate change in this globally expanding biome. Eduardo Moreno-Jimenez et al. experimentally manipulate rainfall and temperature in a Mediterranean dryland to explore the association of biocrusts with essential metallic nutrients. They find that biocrusts-communities of lichens, bryophytes and cyanobacteria on the soil surface-can buffer against the effects of warming and reduced rainfall on metallic nutrient availability

Direct and indirect impacts of climate change on microbial and biocrust communities alter the resistance of the N cycle in a semiarid grassland

Summary 1. Climate change will raise temperatures and modify precipitation patterns in drylands worldwide, affecting their structure and functioning. Despite the recognized importance of soil communities dominated by mosses, lichens and cyanobacteria (biocrusts) as a driver of nutrient cycling in drylands, little is known on how biocrusts will modulate the resistance (i.e., the amount of change caused by a disturbance) of the N cycle in response to climate change. 2. Here, we evaluate how warming (ambient vs.~2.5°C increase), rainfall exclusion (ambient vs. 30% reduction in total annual rainfall) and biocrust cover (incipient vs. well-developed biocrusts) affect multiple variables linked to soil N availability (inorganic and organic N and potential net N mineralization rate) and its resistance to climate change during 4 years in a field experiment. We also evaluate how climate change-induced modifications in biocrust and microbial communities indirectly affect such resistance. 3. Biocrusts promoted the resistance of soil N availability regardless of the climatic conditions considered. However, the dynamics of N availability diverged progressively from their original conditions with warming and/or rainfall exclusion, as both treatments enhanced N availability and promoted the dominance of inorganic over organic N. In addition, the increase in fungal:bacterial ratio and the decrease in biocrust cover observed under warming had a negative indirect effect on the resistance of N cycle variables. 4. Synthesis. Our results indicate that climate change will have negative direct and indirect (i.e. through changes in biocrust and microbial communities) impacts on the resistance of the N cycle in dryland soils. While biocrusts can play an important role slowing down the impacts of climate change on the N cycle due to their positive and continued effects on the resistance of multiple variables from the N cycle, such change will progressively alter N cycling in biocrust-dominated ecosystems, enhancing both N availability and inorganic N dominance

DNA damage triggers squamous metaplasia in human lung and mammary cells via mitotic checkpoints

Epithelial transdifferentiation is frequent in tissue hyperplasia and contributes to disease in various degrees. Squamous metaplasia (SQM) precedes epidermoid lung cancer, an aggressive and frequent malignancy, but it is rare in the epithelium of the mammary gland. The mechanisms leading to SQM in the lung have been very poorly investigated. We have studied this issue on human freshly isolated cells and organoids. Here we show that human lung or mammary cells strikingly undergo SQM with polyploidisation when they are exposed to genotoxic or mitotic drugs, such as Doxorubicin or the cigarette carcinogen DMBA, Nocodazole, Taxol or inhibitors of Aurora-B kinase or Polo-like kinase. To note, the epidermoid response was attenuated when DNA repair was enhanced by Enoxacin or when mitotic checkpoints where abrogated by inhibition of Chk1 and Chk2. The results show that DNA damage has the potential to drive SQM via mitotic checkpoints, thus providing novel molecular candidate targets to tackle lung SCC. Our findings might also explain why SCC is frequent in the lung, but not in the mammary gland and why chemotherapy often causes complicating skin toxicity

Contrasting mechanisms underlie short‐ and longer‐term soil respiration responses to experimental warming in a dryland ecosystem

Soil carbon losses to the atmosphere through soil respiration are expected to rise with ongoing temperature increases, but available evidence from mesic biomes suggests that such response disappears after a few years of experimental warming. However, there is lack of empirical basis for these temporal dynamics in soil respiration responses, and for the mechanisms underlying them, in drylands, which collectively form the largest biome on Earth and store 32% of the global soil organic carbon pool. We coupled data from a 10 year warming experiment in a biocrust‐dominated dryland ecosystem with laboratory incubations to confront 0–2 years (short‐term hereafter) versus 8–10 years (longer‐term hereafter) soil respiration responses to warming. Our results showed that increased soil respiration rates with short‐term warming observed in areas with high biocrust cover returned to control levels in the longer‐term. Warming‐induced increases in soil temperature were the main drivers of the short‐term soil respiration responses, whereas longer‐term soil respiration responses to warming were primarily driven by thermal acclimation and warming‐induced reductions in biocrust cover. Our results highlight the importance of evaluating short‐ and longer‐term soil respiration responses to warming as a mean to reduce the uncertainty in predicting the soil carbon–climate feedback in drylands.This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC Grant agreements 242658 [BIOCOM] and 647038 [BIODESERT]). M.D. is supported by an FPU fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (FPU-15/00392). P.G.-P. is supported by a Ramón y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC2018-024766-I). S.A. acknowledges the Spanish MINECO for financial support via the DIGGING_DEEPER project through the 2015–2016 BiodivERsA3/FACCE-JPI joint call for research proposals. F.T.M. and S.A. acknowledge support from the Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041). C.C.-D. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 647038 [BIODESERT])

Functional rarity and evenness are key facets of biodiversity to boost multifunctionality

The functional traits of organisms within multispecies assemblages regulate biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning. Yet how traits should assemble to boost multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously (multifunctionality) remains poorly explored. In a multibiome litter experiment covering most of the global variation in leaf trait spectra, we showed that three dimensions of functional diversity (dispersion, rarity, and evenness) explained up to 66% of variations in multifunctionality, although the dominant species and their traits remained an important predictor. While high dispersion impeded multifunctionality, increasing the evenness among functionally dissimilar species was a key dimension to promote higher multifunctionality and to reduce the abundance of plant pathogens. Because too-dissimilar species could have negative effects on ecosystems, our results highlight the need for not only diverse but also functionally even assemblages to promote multifunctionality. The effect of functionally rare species strongly shifted from positive to negative depending on their trait differences with the dominant species. Simultaneously managing the dispersion, evenness, and rarity in multispecies assemblages could be used to design assemblages aimed at maximizing multifunctionality independently of the biome, the identity of dominant species, or the range of trait values considered. Functional evenness and rarity offer promise to improve the management of terrestrial ecosystems and to limit plant disease risks.This work was funded by the British Ecological Society (SR17\1297 grant, PI: P.G.-P.) and by the European Research Council (ERC Grant Agreement #647038, BIODESERT, PI: F.T.M.). Y.L.B.-P. was supported by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship within the European Program Horizon 2020 (DRYFUN Project #656035). H.S. was supported by a Juan de la Cierva-Formación grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FJCI-2015-26782). F.T.M. and S.A. were supported from the Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041). M.D. was supported by a Formación del Profesorado Universitario (FPU) fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (FPU-15/00392). S.A. was supported by the Spanish MINECO for financial support via the DIGGING_DEEPER project through the 2015 to 2016 BiodivERsA3/FACCE‐JPI joint call for research proposals. B.K.S. research on biodiversity-ecosystem functions was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP170104634 and DP190103714). P.G.-P. was supported by a Ramón y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC2018-024766-I). R.M. was supported by MINECO (Grants CGL2014-56567-R and CGL2017-83855-R)