Foraging in the Anthropocene: Feeding plasticity of an opportunistic predator revealed by long term monitoring

For centuries, human activities have altered the population dynamics of wildlife. New anthropogenic food sources provide a predictable and abundant food supply that often induces very significant changes in the size, distribution, and behaviour of many populations, with ultimate consequences on the structure and functioning of natural ecosystems. Here, we combine historical and contemporary feather samples of a population of a superabundant, opportunistic predator, the yellow-legged gull Larus michahellis, to assess its trophic ecology and relate it to human activities in the long term. Dietary assessments were based on stable isotope analysis of carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur (δ13C, δ15N and δ34S), and were conducted through three end-point (marine prey, waste from landfills-slaughterhouses, and terrestrial invertebrates) Bayesian mixing models. Our results suggest that gulls' diet showed a progressive decrease in the consumption of marine prey throughout the most recent period (late 20th century onwards), linked to an increase in the consumption of meat waste and small terrestrial invertebrates. Reported dietary changes over the sampling period correlated positively with the availability of marine resources around the breeding area. We provide evidence suggesting that the ability of gulls to exploit efficiently diverse anthropogenic food subsidies likely resulted in the exponential demographic increase of this population throughout the 20th century. In addition, current regulations affecting the availability of these food resources (e.g., fishing discards and landfill waste) likely reversed this trend over the last decade. Long-term evidence of population trophic plasticity, like the one we present here, is essential to implement and support management and conservation actions that limit the availability of anthropogenic resources, especially when it comes to superabundant, problematic species

Factors predictors de dilatació de l'aorta toràcica dissecada mitjançant la tomografia computada

Premi Extraordinari de Doctorat concedit pels programes de doctorat de la UAB per curs acadèmic 2017-2018La dissecció aòrtica s'associa a una mortalitat i morbilitat elevades. Tot i que les complicacions produïdes durant la fase aguda condicionen l'evolució a mitjà termini en certs pacients, la majoria de casos presenten una evolució clínica acceptable durant els primers tres anys. Diverses tècniques d'imatge són capaces de mostrar la permeabilitat de la llum falsa a l'aorta toràcica descendent en el 80% de les disseccions tipus A tractades amb cirurgia d'aorta ascendent i el 90% de les disseccions tipus B no complicades i tractades mèdicament, un paràmetre que afavoreix la dilatació aòrtica i l'aparició de complicacions clíniques a mitjà i llarg termini. Diverses sèries han estimat que la supervivència global al cap de deu anys es troba entre el 20% i el 60%. Davant de la manca d'altres factors pronòstics convincents del risc de dilatació i complicacions clíniques, s'ha proposat el tractament endovascular preventiu a tots els casos de dissecció tipus B amb llum falsa permeable durant la fase subaguda. Aquesta estratègia no és aplicable degut al desconeixement de la relació entre despesa i beneficis i al risc que la morbimortalitat iatrogènica superi la de l'evolució de la dissecció amb tractament mèdic optimitzat. Per tant, resulta necessari identificar els candidats a intervenció quirúrgica o endovascular durant la fase subaguda de la dissecció. En aquest estudi de 72 supervivents a una dissecció aòrtica aguda (tipus A i B) hem descrit i validat internament un mètode que permet classificar els pacients en grups de risc per a dilatació de l'aorta toràcica dissecada o l'aparició d'esdeveniments aòrtics a partir de dos paràmetres obtinguts en la TC de control de la fase subaguda. La TC permet detectar l'estrip proximal però també els distals i mesurar llur àrea de forma reproduïble. La presència d'una diferència superior a 1 cm 2 entre les àrees dels estrips proximals i distals s'ha definit com a dominància entre estrips i era un potent factor pronòstic de la dilatació de l'aorta dissecada i de l'aparició d'esdeveniments aòrtics, incloent la intervenció electiva de les aortes dissecades aneurismàtiques. La presència d'un calibre màxim de l'aorta toràcica descendent dissecada superior o igual a 45 mm en la TC de la fase subaguda marca un risc molt elevat d'esdeveniments durant el seguiment. Addicionalment, la detecció d'una taxa d'expansió superior o igual a 2 mm/a en un control de TC als 3 anys també era un excel∙lent predictor de complicacions clíniques al final del període de seguiment. La capacitat predictiva dels paràmetres morfològics era independent del tipus de dissecció (tipus A o tipus B) i de la presència de malaltia genètica aòrtica. La seva combinació permetia definir grups de pacients amb risc alt, intermedi i baix per a la incidència de dilatació aòrtica o d'esdeveniments al final del període de seguiment. En una simulació sobre els pacients del l'estudi, una estratègia d'intervenció preventiva del grup de risc alt minimitzava la necessitat de teràpia endovascular (14%), mentre que la intervenció preventiva dels grups de risc alt i intermedi minimitzava la taxa de complicacions en els pacients en seguiment (5%). En ambdues estratègies, la presència d'una taxa d'expansió superior o igual a 2 mm/a a la TC practicada als 3 anys de seguiment en els pacients no intervinguts durant la fase subaguda hauria detectat la resta de població en risc abans de patir la complicació.Aortic dissection carries high mortality and morbidity. Although complications arising in the acute setting in some patients mark their short and mid term evolution, most cases have an acceptable clinical outcome during the first three years. Several imaging techniques are able to show the permeability of the false lumen in the descending thoracic aorta in 80% of surgically treated type A and 90% of medically treated type B aortic dissections. This setting favors aortic dilatation and the occurrence of clinical complications in the mid and long term. The overall survival rate has been estimated at about 20% to 60% ten years after the acute aortic syndrome. The absence of additional robust imaging parameters able to predict the expansion of the dissected thoracic aorta and the incidence of adverse aortic events has led to the proposal of preventive endovascular treatment for all cases of type B dissection with a patent false lumen in the subacute phase. This strategy is currently not applicable due to the lack of knowledge about the cost benefit ratio or the iatrogenic risk of thoracic endovascular aortic repair in this setting. Therefore, it is necessary to describe imaging features to identify patients at risk which might benefit from preventive surgery or endovascular treatment during the subacute phase of dissection. In this study of 72 patients with chronic aortic dissection (both type A and B), two parameters obtained from a CT study in the subacute phase were able to classify patients into risk groups for expansion of the dissected descending thoracic aorta or adverse aortic events. CT is able not only to detect both the proximal and the distal entry tears in the dissection flap, but also to measure their areas in a reproducible way. Dominance between the entry tears, defined as a difference greater than 1 cm 2 between the area of the proximal and the distal entry tears, was a powerful prognostic factor for dilatation of the dissected aorta and the incidence of adverse aortic events, including nonemergent intervention. The presence of a maximum caliber of the dissected descending thoracic aorta greater than or equal to 45 mm in the subacute phase CT also marks a high risk of adverse events during followup. In addition, an aortic expansion rate greater than or equal to 2 mm / as detected in a control CT at 3 years was also an excellent predictor of adverse events at the end of the monitoring period. The predictive capability of both morphological features was independent of the type of dissection (type A or type B) and the presence of aortic genetic disease. Their combination defined groups of patients at high, intermediate and low risk for the incidence of aortic dilatation or adverse events at the end of the monitoring period. In a simulation study on the patients, A strategy of preventive intervention of the high risk group resulted in a low rate of endovascular treatment (14%), while the intervention of both intermediate and high risk groups resulted in a low rate of complications in the followup (5%). In patients not operated on during the subacute phase in both strategies, the detection of an expansion rate greater than or equal to 2 mm per year in a followup CT performed at 3 years would have detected the rest of the population at risk of adverse aortic events before their onset

Utilising carbon dioxide for transport fuels : the economic and environmental sustainability of different Fischer-Tropsch process designs

Producing fuels and chemicals from carbon dioxide (CO2) could reduce our dependence on fossil resources and help towards climate change mitigation. This study evaluates the sustainability of utilising CO2 for production of transportation fuels. The CO2 feedstock is sourced from anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge and the fuels are produced in the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process. Using life cycle assessment, life cycle costing and profitability analysis, the study considers four different process designs and a range of plant capacities to explore the effect of the economies of scale. For large-scale plants (1,670 t/day), the FT fuels outperform fossil diesel in all environmental impacts across all the designs, with several impacts being net-negative. The only exceptions are ozone depletion, for which fossil diesel is the best option, and global warming potential (GWP), which is lower for fossil diesel for some process designs. Optimising the systems reduces the GWP of FT fuels in the best case by 70% below that of fossil diesel. Assuming a replacement of 9.75–12.4% of fossil diesel consumed in the UK by 2,032, as stipulated by policy, would avoid 2–8 Mt of CO2 eq./yr, equivalent to 2–8% of annual emissions from transportation. However, these fuels are not economically viable and matching diesel pump price would require subsidies of 35–79% per litre. Optimising production yields would allow decreasing the subsidies to 8%. Future research should be aimed at technology improvements to optimise these systems as well as evaluating different policy mechanisms needed to stimulate markets for CO2-derived fuels

Craniosynostosis surgery: workflow based on virtual surgical planning, intraoperative navigation and 3D printed patient-specific guides and templates

Craniosynostosis must often be corrected using surgery, by which the affected bone tissue is remodeled. Nowadays, surgical reconstruction relies mostly on the subjective judgement of the surgeon to best restore normal skull shape, since remodeled bone is manually placed and fixed. Slight variations can compromise the cosmetic outcome. The objective of this study was to describe and evaluate a novel workflow for patient-specific correction of craniosynostosis based on intraoperative navigation and 3D printing. The workflow was followed in five patients with craniosynostosis. Virtual surgical planning was performed, and patient-specific cutting guides and templates were designed and manufactured. These guides and templates were used to control osteotomies and bone remodeling. An intraoperative navigation system based on optical tracking made it possible to follow preoperative virtual planning in the operating room through real-time positioning and 3D visualization. Navigation accuracy was estimated using intraoperative surface scanning as the gold-standard. An average error of 0.62 mm and 0.64 mm was obtained in the remodeled frontal region and supraorbital bar, respectively. Intraoperative navigation is an accurate and reproducible technique for correction of craniosynostosis that enables optimal translation of the preoperative plan to the operating room. © 2019, The Author(s).This work has been supported by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, project “PI18/01625”, co-funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), “A way of making Europe”

Ensayo de una tipología de las cuencas mediterráneas del proyecto GUADALMED siguiendo las directrices de la Directiva Marco del Agua

RESUMEN Utilizando la propuesta de tipología de ríos de la Directiva Marco del Agua en su anexo 2 se realiza un ensayo tipológico de los puntos de muestreo del proyecto GUADALMED. Según el sistema A, se presentan 16 ecotipos, lo que se juzga poco adecuado para la gestión de los mismos y sin una base ecológica que lo justifique. De acuerdo con la selección previa hecha por los miembros del grupo GUADALMED para 5 de estos ecotipos no habría estaciones de referencia. Con algunas variables medidas en los puntos de muestreo y otras de tipo geológico e hidromorfológico, se realiza un ensayo tipológico usando el sistema B. El método implica un análisis de la correlación entre variables, un cluster de las estaciones utilizando el método K-means y un análisis discriminante de cuáles son las variables que distinguen estos grupos. El estudio da como resultado la caracterización de 6 ecotipos que sin embargo, a juicio de los miembros del proyecto GUADALMED, no recogen la variedad de tipos de ríos mediterráneos. Valorando cualitativamente parámetros no introducidos (por falta de datos) en el análisis K-means, se propone una tipología provisional en 9 grupos. Un análisis de las comunidades de macroinvertebrados (a nivel taxonómico de familia) revela un grado importante de coherencia entre las familias asociadas a cada tipo y sus preferencias ecológicas conocidas. ABSTRACT A preliminary analysis was conducted of the river types in the GUADALMED project using the river typology proposed in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in its annex 2. Using System A, 16 different types were found, a number too high for water management purposes and such typology lacks a supportive ecological basis. For 5 of these 16 ecotypes, no reference stations exist. Reference stations were selected a priori in project GUADALMED for each of the 12 basins sampled. An ecotypological analysis was performed using System B of the WFD using several variables measured during the study, and other variables obtained from maps or data bases (e.g., geology). The method included the analysis of the calibration between variables, the clustering of stations by the K-means method and a discriminant analysis. The latter revealed which factors were distinctive of each group. Six ecotypes were established for the GUADALMED study sites. These, however, do not include all the mediterranean-type streams of the region. This is mainly due to the absence in the data base of some important features of streams in the data base such as temporality or the dependence of flow on the presence of karstic aquifers, attribute

Food loss and waste metrics: a proposed nutritional cost footprint linking linear programming and life cycle assessment

Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to assess the nutritional and economic efficiency of food loss and waste (FLW) along the supply of 13 food categories included in the Spanish food basket by means of the definition of a new method which combines two indexes. Methods: The nutrient-rich foods index and the economic food loss and waste (EFLW) index were combined by means of linear programming to obtain the nutritional cost footprint (NCF) indicator under a life cycle perspective. The functional unit used was the daily supply of food for a Spanish citizen in year 2015. Results and discussion: Results showed that vegetables and cereals were the food categories most affected by the inefficiencies in the food supply chain under a nutritional perspective, being agricultural production and household consumption the main stages in which the nutritional content of food is lost or wasted. Moreover, according to the NCF index, vegetables represented 27% of total nutritional-economic wastage throughout the entire Spanish agri-food chain. They are followed by fruits, which add up to 19%. Hence, specific food waste management strategies should be established for these specific products and supply stages. Finally, the sensitivity analysis performed highlighted that results were mostly independent from the importance attributed to either nutritional or economic variables. Conclusions: The methodology described in this study proposes an indicator quantifying the nutritional-economic cost of different food categories in the Spanish food basket. This NCF indicator makes it possible to define reduction strategies to promote the use of food waste fractions for waste-to-energy valorization approaches or the extraction of different types of pharmacological, chemical, or cosmetic compounds.The authors are grateful for the funding of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Ceres-Procom: Food production and consumption strategies for climate change mitigation (CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R) (AEI/FEDER, UE)

Depredación por Podisus maculiventris (Say) sobre larvas de Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris)

Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris) es una plaga del manzano Malus domestica Borkh. de reciente aparición en México. Su control depende básicamente del uso de insecticidas químicos; sin embargo, existen registros de enemigos naturales de esta plaga que ejercen un control considerable. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar la capacidad de depredación de Podisus maculiventris (Say) sobre C. rosaceana. Para lo anterior, en agosto y septiembre de 2014, se recolectaron 1200 larvas de C. rosaceana en huertos de manzano. Asimismo, se recolectaron 87 especímenes del depredador P. maculiventris, de diferentes estadios ninfales, de los cuales 75 se recolectaron en huertos de manzano y 17 en parcelas de maíz, además se recolectaron 22 grupos de huevos (17 en maíz y cinco en manzano). Se realizaron ensayos de consumo de P. maculiventris sobre larvas de C. rosaceana, donde el promedio fue de 0.72 larvas consumidas por día, siendo el primer estadio ninfal el que mostró un mayor promedio de consumo (1.9 larvas/día), en las primeras 24 h y el segundo estadio mostró el mayor promedio a los 7 días (1.2 larvas consumidas/día).Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris) es una plaga del manzano Malus domestica Borkh. de reciente aparición en México. Su control depende básicamente del uso de insecticidas químicos; sin embargo, existen registros de enemigos naturales de esta plaga que ejercen un control considerable. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar la capacidad de depredación de Podisus maculiventris (Say) sobre C. rosaceana. Para lo anterior, en agosto y septiembre de 2014, se recolectaron 1200 larvas de C. rosaceana en huertos de manzano. Asimismo, se recolectaron 87 especímenes del depredador P. maculiventris, de diferentes estadios ninfales, de los cuales 75 se recolectaron en huertos de manzano y 17 en parcelas de maíz, además se recolectaron 22 grupos de huevos (17 en maíz y cinco en manzano). Se realizaron ensayos de consumo de P. maculiventris sobre larvas de C. rosaceana, donde el promedio fue de 0.72 larvas consumidas por día, siendo el primer estadio ninfal el que mostró un mayor promedio de consumo (1.9 larvas/día), en las primeras 24 h y el segundo estadio mostró el mayor promedio a los 7 días (1.2 larvas consumidas/día)

Depredación por Podisus maculiventris (Say) sobre larvas de Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris)

Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris) es una plaga del manzano Malus domestica Borkh. de reciente aparición en México. Su control depende básicamente del uso de insecticidas químicos; sin embargo, existen registros de enemigos naturales de esta plaga que ejercen un control considerable. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar la capacidad de depredación de Podisus maculiventris (Say) sobre C. rosaceana. Para lo anterior, en agosto y septiembre de 2014, se recolectaron 1200 larvas de C. rosaceana en huertos de manzano. Asimismo, se recolectaron 87 especímenes del depredador P. maculiventris, de diferentes estadios ninfales, de los cuales 75 se recolectaron en huertos de manzano y 17 en parcelas de maíz, además se recolectaron 22 grupos de huevos (17 en maíz y cinco en manzano). Se realizaron ensayos de consumo de P. maculiventris sobre larvas de C. rosaceana, donde el promedio fue de 0.72 larvas consumidas por día, siendo el primer estadio ninfal el que mostró un mayor promedio de consumo (1.9 larvas/día), en las primeras 24 h y el segundo estadio mostró el mayor promedio a los 7 días (1.2 larvas consumidas/día).Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris) es una plaga del manzano Malus domestica Borkh. de reciente aparición en México. Su control depende básicamente del uso de insecticidas químicos; sin embargo, existen registros de enemigos naturales de esta plaga que ejercen un control considerable. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar la capacidad de depredación de Podisus maculiventris (Say) sobre C. rosaceana. Para lo anterior, en agosto y septiembre de 2014, se recolectaron 1200 larvas de C. rosaceana en huertos de manzano. Asimismo, se recolectaron 87 especímenes del depredador P. maculiventris, de diferentes estadios ninfales, de los cuales 75 se recolectaron en huertos de manzano y 17 en parcelas de maíz, además se recolectaron 22 grupos de huevos (17 en maíz y cinco en manzano). Se realizaron ensayos de consumo de P. maculiventris sobre larvas de C. rosaceana, donde el promedio fue de 0.72 larvas consumidas por día, siendo el primer estadio ninfal el que mostró un mayor promedio de consumo (1.9 larvas/día), en las primeras 24 h y el segundo estadio mostró el mayor promedio a los 7 días (1.2 larvas consumidas/día)