Physiognomic and physiologic changes in mountain grasslands in response to environmental and anthropogenic factors

Mountain grasslands provide valuable ecosystem services for sustainable development and human wellbeing. These habitats have suffered important changes related with their physiognomic (biomass) and physiologic (greenness) properties. Some of these changes received significant attention i.e. woody encroachment, while others, like the changes in biomass and greenness of those grasslands that have not experienced woody encroachment are almost unknown. We calculated physiognomic and physiologic properties for dense grasslands not affected by woody encroachment through the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII) from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper. Imagery taken in the late-1980s and late-2000s in the Spanish Pyrenees were analyzed with multi-temporal vectors to detect increases or decreases of biomass and greenness. To understand the source of these changes, we modeled them with anthropogenic (land use, i.e. grazing, ski resorts, and related infrastructures) and environmental factors (topographic, lithologic and climatic). Anthropogenic factors were most strongly correlated with decrease in the biomass and greenness, showing degradation patterns of the grasslands at localized patches. Nonetheless, environmental factors were most strongly correlated with positive changes in both indices, detecting a continuous pattern in the increase in biomass and greenness. In areas that had high livestock stocking rates, grasslands biomass and greenness decrease, while in areas that had low stocking rates, biomass and greenness increases. Grasslands at low elevation showing decrease in biomass and greenness were either on gentle slopes and largely affected by human activities, or on steep slopes locally affected by ski resorts. In areas that have been disturbed by anthropogenic factors, the increase of rain in early summer trigger erosion processes, enhancing the negative effect of anthropic pressure on grassland greenness and biomass. In contrast, grasslands at high elevations, on steep slopes, and those that had north or west aspects and that had an acidic lithology, with less continentality, and that received more rain, had the most increase in biomass and greenness. Those results suggest that changes in mountain grasslands, apart from woody encroachment, are deeply altering their physiology and physiognomy, pointing out direct relationships with current management practices and climate trends.This research was funded by the following research projects; Ref.:125/2010 MMAMRM (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), CGL2011-27259 (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Innovation) co-financed by the FEDER, and FW7 ENV.2009.2.1.3.2-LEDDRA (European Community). CGB was supported by the AXA Research Fund (PDOC_2011_W2) and Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship (University of Alberta (2012-2013)). F. Fillat and R. García provided interesting comments and supporting climatic information.Peer reviewe

Social organisational LCA for the academic activity of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

Purpose This article aims to estimate the social footprint of a higher education institution (HEI) and its potential contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective. The social organisational life cycle assessment (SO-LCA) of the academic activity of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), in northern Spain, has been performed, in order to estimate its social impacts. Method The assessment has been run using openLCA software and supported on the PSILCA-based Soca add-on for the Ecoinvent v3.3 database, covering 53 social indicators for almost 15,000 industrial sectors and goods in 189 countries. Results and discussion The analysis undertaken reflects social impacts and associated risk levels for four stakeholders: Workers, Local Community, Society, and Value Chain Actors. Labour activity in the UPV/EHU is the sub-process with the greatest social impact, followed by processes related to transport, energy, materials, and waste management. Among the socio-economic context which supports the academic activity of the UPV/EHU (indirect impacts), the existence of traces of child labour and illiteracy outside the Basque Country stands out. Further analysis would be required in order to more accurately determine the geographical location of such impacts, and also to better tackle the concept of social debt. Conclusion SO-LCA may have great potential for HEIs, helping them to identify hotspots, reduce their social footprint, and raise awareness among the academic community, which undoubtedly contributes to the knowledge, progress, human values, and sustainability these HEIs stand for.This research has been supported by "Ekopol: Iraunkortasunerako Bideak" research group, recognised by the Basque Government (IT-1365-19) and the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (GIC-18/22

The environmental and social footprint of the university of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

This work has calculated the organisational environmental and social footprint of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in 2016. First, input and output data flows of the UPV/EHU activity were collected. Next, the environmental and social impacts of the academic activity were modelled, using the Ecoinvent 3.3 database with the PSILCA-based Soca v1 module in openLCA software. In order to evaluate the environmental impacts, CML and ReCiPe LCIA methods were used. The Social Impact Weighting Method was adjusted for the assessment of specific social impacts. The modelling has identified some hotspots in the organisation. The contribution of transport (8,900 km per user, annually) is close to 60% in most of the environmental impacts considered. The life cycle of computers stands out among the impacts derived from the consumption of material products. More than half of environmental impacts are located outside the Basque Country. This work has also made it possible to estimate some of the impacts of the organisational social footprint, such as accidents at work, only some of which occur at the UPV/EHU. Traces of child labour and illiteracy have also been detected in the social footprint that supports the activity of the UPV/EHU. Some of the social and environmental impacts analysed are not directly generated by the UPV/EHU, but they all demand attention and co-responsibility. Based on the modelling performed, this work explores alternative scenarios and recommends some improvement actions which may reduce (in some cases over 30%) the environmental and social impacts of the UPV/EHU's activity. These scenarios and improvement actions will feed a process with stakeholders in the UPV/ EHU based on the Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology.To the Sustainability Directorate and the Educational Advisory Service, both belonging to the Vice-Chancellor's Office for Innovation, Social Commitment and Social Action of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, in the context of the Campus Bizia Lab programme (2017/18, 18/19 and 19/20 calls) for the financing of the EHU-Aztarna project. This research has also been supported by 'Ekopol: Iraunkortasunerako Bideak' research group, recognised by the Basque Government (IT1365-19) and the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (GIC-18/22)

Dataset on the environmental and social footprint of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

[EN] The organisational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) and the social organisational life cycle assessment (SO-LCA) of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU were conducted. The data presented in this paper support the calculation of the environmental and social footprint of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU for year 2016 [1] , and may be used as a reference for future calculations of the environmental and social footprint of higher education institutions and other organisations. This dataset provides detailed information on the UPV/EHU and the boundaries considered; on the compilation and quantification of the life cycle inventory (LCI) which included a transport survey conducted in summer 2018-; and on the modelling process followed for the calculation of the environmental and social footprints, based on the ecoinvent 3.3 database [2] and PSILCA-based Soca v1 add-on [3 , 4] , and carried out with the openLCA free software [5] . The dataset also includes the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results provided by the CML (baseline, 2015) [6] and ReCiPe (endpoint (H), 2008) [7] LCIA methods and post-processed social impacts provided by the Social Impacts Weighting Method [3] , disaggregated by subprocesses and impact locations. Data is provided for the reference year (2016), and some aggregated data is also provided for alternative scenarios that were explored in order to check pathways to reduce social and environmental impacts of the academic activity of the UPV/EHU [1]To the Sustainability Directorate and the Educational Advisory Service, both belonging to the Vice-Chancellor's Office for Innovation, Social Commitment and Social Action of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, in the context of the Campus Bizia Lab programme (2017/18, 18/19 and 19/20 calls) for the financing of the EHU-Aztarna project. This research has also been supported by 'Ekopol: Iraunkortasunerako Bideak' research group, recognised by the Basque Government (IT-1365-19) and the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (GIC-18/22)

Molecular profiling of circulating tumor cells links plasticity to the metastatic process in endometrial cancer

Background About 20% of patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer (EC) are considered high-risk with unfavorable prognosis. In the framework of the European Network for Individualized Treatment in EC (ENITEC), we investigated the presence and phenotypic features of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) in high-risk EC patients. Methods CTC isolation was carried out in peripheral blood samples from 34 patients, ranging from Grade 3 Stage IB to Stage IV carcinomas and recurrences, and 27 healthy controls using two methodologies. Samples were subjected to EpCAM-based immunoisolation using the CELLection™ Epithelial Enrich kit (Invitrogen, Dynal) followed by RTqPCR analysis. The phenotypic determinants of endometrial CTC in terms of pathogenesis, hormone receptor pathways, stem cell markers and epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) drivers were asked. Kruskal-Wallis analysis followed by Dunn’s post-test was used for comparisons between groups. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results EpCAM-based immunoisolation positively detected CTC in high-risk endometrial cancer patients. CTC characterization indicated a remarkable plasticity phenotype defined by the expression of the EMT markers ETV5, NOTCH1, SNAI1, TGFB1, ZEB1 and ZEB2. In addition, the expression of ALDH and CD44 pointed to an association with stemness, while the expression of CTNNB1, STS, GDF15, RELA, RUNX1, BRAF and PIK3CA suggested potential therapeutic targets. We further recapitulated the EMT phenotype found in endometrial CTC through the up-regulation of ETV5 in an EC cell line, and validated in an animal model of systemic dissemination the propensity of these CTC in the accomplishment of metastasis. Conclusions Our results associate the presence of CTC with high-risk EC. Gene-expression profiling characterized a CTC-plasticity phenotype with stemness and EMT features. We finally recapitulated this CTC-phenotype by over-expressing ETV5 in the EC cell line Hec1A and demonstrated an advantage in the promotion of metastasis in an in vivo mouse model of CTC dissemination and homing

The NER-related gene GTF2H5 predicts survival in high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients

We aimed to evaluate the prognostic and predictive value of the nucleotide excision repair-related gene GTF2H5, which is localized at the 6q24.2-26 deletion previously reported by our group to predict longer survival of high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients. In order to test if protein levels of GTF2H5 are associated with patients' outcome, we performed GTF2H5 immunohistochemical staining in 139 high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas included in tissue microarrays. Upon stratification of cases into high- and low-GTF2H5 staining categories (> and ≤ median staining, respectively) Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test were used to estimate patients' survival and assess statistical differences. We also evaluated the association of GTF2H5 with survival at the transcriptional level by using the on-line Kaplan-Meier plotter tool, which includes gene expression and survival data of 855 high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients from 13 different datasets. Finally, we determined whether stable short hairpin RNA-mediated GTF2H5 downregulation modulates cisplatin sensitivity in the SKOV3 and COV504 cell lines by using cytotoxicity assays. Low expression of GTF2H5 was associated with longer 5-year survival of patients at the protein (hazard ratio [HR], 0.52; 95% CI, 0.29 to 0.93; p=0.024) and transcriptional level (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.97; p=0.023) in high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients. We confirmed the association with 5-year overall survival (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.38 to 0.78; p=0.0007) and also found an association with progression-free survival (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.96; p=0.026) in a homogenous group of 388 high-stage (stages III-IV using the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics staging system), optimally debulked high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients. GTF2H5- silencing induced a decrease of the half maximal inhibitory concentration upon cisplatin treatment in GTF2H5 -silenced ovarian cancer cells. Low levels of GTF2H5 are associated with enhanced prognosis in high-grade serous ovarian cancer patients and may contribute to cisplatin sensitization

Detailed Characterization of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells from a Large Cohort of AML Patients Demonstrates a Definitive Link to Treatment Outcomes

Altres ajuts: Health Canada's Genomics Research and Development Initiative Phase VI (H4080-144541-2014-2019); Obra Social La Caixa-Fundació Josep Carreras and the Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR330); Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC-CI-2015)Bone marrow mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (BM-MSCs) are key components of the hematopoietic niche thought to have a direct role in leukemia pathogenesis. BM-MSCs from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have been poorly characterized due to disease heterogeneity. We report a functional, genetic, and immunological characterization of BM-MSC cultures from 46 AML patients, stratified by molecular/cytogenetics into low-risk (LR), intermediate-risk (IR), and high-risk (HR) subgroups. Stable MSC cultures were successfully established and characterized from 40 of 46 AML patients irrespective of the risk subgroup. AML-derived BM-MSCs never harbored tumor-specific cytogenetic/molecular alterations present in blasts, but displayed higher clonogenic potential than healthy donor (HD)-derived BM-MSCs. Although HD- and AML-derived BM-MSCs equally provided chemoprotection to AML cells in vitro, AML-derived BM-MSCs were more immunosuppressive/anti-inflammatory, enhanced suppression of lymphocyte proliferation, and diminished secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Multivariate analysis revealed that the level of interleukin-10 produced by AML-derived BM-MSCs as an independent prognostic factor negatively affected overall survival. Collectively our data show that AML-derived BM-MSCs are not tumor related, but display functional differences contributing to therapy resistance and disease evolution. In this article, Díaz de la Guardia and colleagues report a functional, genetic, and immunological characterization of BM-MSC cultures from 46 AML patients, stratified by molecular/cytogenetics into low-risk (LR), intermediate-risk (IR), and high-risk (HR) subgroups. BM-MSCs never harbored tumor-specific cytogenetic/molecular alterations present in blasts, and IL-10 produced by AML-derived BM-MSCs is an independent prognostic factor negatively impacting on overall survival

The Splicing Factor Proline-Glutamine Rich (SFPQ/PSF) Is Involved in Influenza Virus Transcription

The influenza A virus RNA polymerase is a heterotrimeric complex responsible for viral genome transcription and replication in the nucleus of infected cells. We recently carried out a proteomic analysis of purified polymerase expressed in human cells and identified a number of polymerase-associated cellular proteins. Here we characterise the role of one such host factors, SFPQ/PSF, during virus infection. Down-regulation of SFPQ/PSF by silencing with two independent siRNAs reduced the virus yield by 2–5 log in low-multiplicity infections, while the replication of unrelated viruses as VSV or Adenovirus was almost unaffected. As the SFPQ/PSF protein is frequently associated to NonO/p54, we tested the potential implication of the latter in influenza virus replication. However, down-regulation of NonO/p54 by silencing with two independent siRNAs did not affect virus yields. Down-regulation of SFPQ/PSF by siRNA silencing led to a reduction and delay of influenza virus gene expression. Immunofluorescence analyses showed a good correlation between SFPQ/PSF and NP levels in infected cells. Analysis of virus RNA accumulation in silenced cells showed that production of mRNA, cRNA and vRNA is reduced by more than 5-fold but splicing is not affected. Likewise, the accumulation of viral mRNA in cicloheximide-treated cells was reduced by 3-fold. In contrast, down-regulation of SFPQ/PSF in a recombinant virus replicon system indicated that, while the accumulation of viral mRNA is reduced by 5-fold, vRNA levels are slightly increased. In vitro transcription of recombinant RNPs generated in SFPQ/PSF-silenced cells indicated a 4–5-fold reduction in polyadenylation but no alteration in cap snatching. These results indicate that SFPQ/PSF is a host factor essential for influenza virus transcription that increases the efficiency of viral mRNA polyadenylation and open the possibility to develop new antivirals targeting the accumulation of primary transcripts, a very early step during infection