Harnessing the Effect of Adoptively Transferred Tumor-Reactive T Cells on Endogenous (Host-Derived) Antitumor Immunity

Adoptive T cell transfer therapy, the ex vivo activation, expansion, and subsequent administration of tumor-reactive T cells, is already the most effective therapy against certain types of cancer. However, recent evidence in animal models and clinical trials suggests that host conditioning interventions tailored for some of the most aggressive and frequent epithelial cancers will be needed to maximize the benefit of this approach. Similarly, the subsets, stage of differentiation, and ex vivo expansion procedure of tumor-reactive T cells to be adoptively transferred influence their in vivo effectiveness and may need to be adapted for different types of cancer and host conditioning interventions. The effects of adoptively transferred tumor-reactive T cells on the mechanisms of endogenous (host-derived) antitumor immunity, and how to maximize their combined effects, are further discussed

The land–sea coastal border: a quantitative definition by considering the wind and wave conditions in a wave-dominated, micro-tidal environment

A quantitative definition for the land–sea (coastal) transitional area is proposed here for wave-driven areas, based on the variability and isotropy of met-ocean processes. Wind velocity and significant wave height fields are examined for geostatistical anisotropy along four cross-shore transects on the Catalan coast (north-western Mediterranean), illustrating a case of significant changes along the shelf. The variation in the geostatistical anisotropy as a function of distance from the coast and water depth has been analysed through heat maps and scatter plots. The results show how the anisotropy of wind velocity and significant wave height decrease towards the offshore region, suggesting an objective definition for the coastal fringe width. The more viable estimator turns out to be the distance at which the significant wave height anisotropy is equal to the 90th percentile of variance in the anisotropies within a 100 km distance from the coast. Such a definition, when applied to the Spanish Mediterranean coast, determines a fringe width of 2–4 km. Regarding the probabilistic characterization, the inverse of wind velocity anisotropy can be fitted to a log-normal distribution function, while the significant wave height anisotropy can be fitted to a log-logistic distribution function. The joint probability structure of the two anisotropies can be best described by a Gaussian copula, where the dependence parameter denotes a mild to moderate dependence between both anisotropies, reflecting a certain decoupling between wind velocity and significant wave height near the coast. This wind–wave dependence remains stronger in the central baylike part of the study area, where the wave field is being more actively generated by the overlaying wind. Such a pattern controls the spatial variation in the coastal fringe width.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Managing coastal environments under climate change: pathways to adaptation

This paper deals with the question of how to manage vulnerable coastal systems so as to make them sustainable under present and future climates. This is interpreted in terms of the coastal functionality, mainly natural services and support for socio-economic activities. From here we discuss how to adapt for long term trends and for short terms episodic events using the DPSIR framework. The analysis is presented for coastal archetypes from Spain, Ireland and Romania, sweeping a range of meteo-oceanographic and socio-economic pressures, resulting in a wide range of fluxes among them those related to sediment. The analysis emphasizes the variables that provide a higher level of robustness. That means mean sea level for physical factors and population density for human factors. For each of the studied cases high and low sustainability practices, based on stakeholders preferences, are considered and discussed. This allows proposing alternatives and carrying out an integrated assessment in the last section of the paper. This assessment permits building a sequence of interventions called adaptation pathway that enhances the natural resilience of the studied coastal systems and therefore increases their sustainability under present and future conditions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Sediment transport and dispersal in the nearshore of “flash-flood” rivers

River sediment dispersal on the near-shore of “flash-flood” rivers is investigated using a coupled wave-current-sediment transport model. Besòs and Llobregat rivers (short and mountainous rivers in NW Mediterranean Sea, near to Barcelona City) are used as examples to study the sediment transport under “flash-flood” regime. The modeling system COWAST which includes the coupling between the water circulation model ROMS and the wave model SWAN, is applied to assess the sediment dispersal mechanisms and deposition in the coastal area off the two river mouths. Preferential depositional areas such as mud-belts were identified from the simulations. The sediment dispersal pattern obtained by the model agrees with observational measurments. Complementary numerical simulations revealed sorting of sediment grain size in the cross-shelf direction.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Impacts of sea-level rise-induced erosion on the Catalan coast

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-1052-xThe Catalan coast as most of the developed Mediterranean coastal zone is characterized by the coincidence of stresses and pressures on the natural system with a high exposure and low adaptive capacity. Due to this, climate change-induced effects will increase natural hazards and aggravate their associated impacts and, in consequence, it is necessary to assess their effects for proper long-term management. In this work, we assess the impact of sea-level rise (SLR)-induced shoreline retreat on the Catalan coast for three scenarios ranging from 0.53 to 1.75 m by the year 2100. Implications are analysed in terms of affectation of two main functions provided by beaches, i.e. recreation and protection. Obtained results show that CC will be a serious threat to analysed functions since the expected enhanced shoreline retreat will severely decrease the recreational carrying capacity and the capacity of protection in the near future under tested scenarios. The actual level of development along the coastal zone reduces the natural resilient capacity of beaches to SLR in such a way that the lack of accommodation space can be identified as a main factor for the estimated impacts.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Multivariate statistical modelling of future marine storms

Extreme events, such as wave-storms, need to be characterized for coastal infrastructure design purposes. Such description should contain information on both the univariate behaviour and the joint-dependence of storm-variables. These two aspects have been here addressed through generalized Pareto distributions and hierarchical Archimedean copulas. A non-stationary model has been used to highlight the relationship between these extreme events and non-stationary climate. It has been applied to a Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 Climate-Change scenario, for a fetch-limited environment (Catalan Coast). In the non-stationary model, all considered variables decrease in time, except for storm-duration at the northern part of the Catalan Coast. The joint distribution of storm variables presents cyclical fluctuations, with a stronger influence of climate dynamics than of climate itself.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Context-aware Assessment Using QR-codes

In this paper we present the implementation of a general mechanism to deliver tests based on mobile devices and matrix codes. The system is an extension of Siette, and has not been specifically developed for any subject matter. To evaluate the performance of the system and show some of its capabilities, we have developed a test for a second-year college course on Botany at the School of Forestry Engineering. Students were equipped with iPads and took an outdoor test on plant species identification. All students were able to take and complete the test in a reasonable time. Opinions expressed anonymously by the students in a survey about the usability of the system and the usefulness of the test were very favorable. We think that the application presented in this paper can broaden the applicability of automatic assessment techniques.The presentation of this work has been co-founded by the Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A multivariate statistical model of extreme events: an application to the Catalan coast

Wave extreme events can be understood as the combination of Storm-intensity, Directionality and Intra-time distribution. However, the dependence structure among these factors is still unclear. A methodology has been developed to model wave-storms whose components are linked together. The model is composed by three parts: an intensity module, a wave directionality module, and an intra-time distribution module. In the Storm-intensity sub-model, generalized Pareto distributions and hierarchical Archimedean copulas have been used to characterize the storm energy, unitary energy, peak wave-period and duration. In the Directionality and Intra-time sub-models, the wave direction (at the peak of the storm) and the storm growth–decay rates are linked to the variables from the intensity model, respectively. The model is applied to the Catalan coast (NW Mediterranean). The outcomes denote spatial patterns that coincide with the state of knowledge. The proposed methodology is able to provide boundary conditions for wave and near-shore studies, saving computational time and establishing the dependence of the proposed variables. Such synthetic storms reproduce the inter-variable co-dependence of the original data.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version