Remote sensing, wetlands and agriculture

1 Pag. with abstract of the oral communication from authors into "Second morning session (11:30-14:00 h.)" of the Wetlands International Symposium. It took place in parallel with the XVI Congreso de la Asociación Española de Teledetección (XVI Meeting of the Spanish Remote Sensing Association) (Seville, Spain).In Monegros, we used remote sensing for the delimitation of agricultural soils in dry-farmed lands with low or nil production due to their aridity and soil composition. Distinctly colored decametric patches with different soil properties and crop (winter cereal) development are dominant in the landscape. Gypsum- and carbonate-rich soils are spread in the dry-farm area in relation with the limestone and gyprock substrate; gypsum rich areas are known as very low production areas.Supporting Agencies: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (AGL2012-40100).Peer reviewe

Quantifying visible land degradation of saline wetlands in an arid region of NE Spain

5 Pags.- 3 Figs. Paper # 4_18 in: Á. Faz, R. Ortiz, G. García (Eds.) 2004. Extended abstracts in CDRom. 4th Internat. Conference on Land Degradation. 12-17 September, Cartagena, Spain. ISBN: 84-95781-40-9.This Paper aims to study the present status of the saladas and to quantify their visible degradation with the help of a Geographical Information System (GIS). For this purpose we analyze the changes that have occurred in the last decades and we establish indices to evaluate the condition of the saladas in terms of conservation status and vulnerability.Peer reviewe

El cuidado y sus protagonistas. Diagnóstico de una realidad oculta

The article presents the results of a study about disability carried out in the Spanish region of Castile and León in 2019. Its aim is to uncover the opinion, needs, demands and experiences of those in charge of taking care of and providing support to people with disability, as well as the possible recommendations in terms of socio-sanitary resources. The methodology consisted of direct interviews, conducted through a semi-structured questionnaire and the application of the Zarit Caregiver Overload Scale to a sample of 273 caregivers of people with disabilities. Some of the main findings were related to the neglect experienced by both, caregivers and people with disabilities, in rural areas, the lack of opportunities and the limited support that caregivers receive. Conclusion: classic and traditional responses are not sufficient to improve qualifications and services, nor to achieve rights and claims capable of valuing the work they do. The degree of functional autonomy of people with disabilities impacts the caregivers’ living standards. Furthermore, the caregivers’ feeling of overload depends, to a large extent, on the degree of disability of the person being cared for and the support received within the immediate family. Caring is still an essentially feminine task.El artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio sobre el mundo de la discapacidad realizado en Castilla y León en 2019. El objetivo es conocer la opinión de las personas que atienden y dan apoyo a personas con discapacidad, sus necesidades, demandas y vivencias, así como las propuestas de recursos socio-sanitarios. La investigación se basa en realización de entrevistas y aplicación de la Escala de sobrecarga del cuidador de Zarit, aplicados a una muestra de 273 cuidadores de personas con discapacidad. Como resultados destacan la desatención a los problemas de cuidadores y personas con discapacidad en el mundo rural, la falta de oportunidades y escasos apoyos que reciben los cuidadores en el desempeño de sus tareas. Las respuestas tradicionales no son suficientes para mejorar las cualificaciones y servicios, ni alcanzar derechos y reivindicaciones que pongan en valor el trabajo que realizan. El grado de autonomía funcional de la persona con discapacidad influye en la calidad de vida percibida por las personas cuidadoras. La sensación de sobrecarga del cuidado es mayor en función del grado de discapacidad de la persona atendida y de los apoyos recibidos en el núcleo familiar. El cuidado sigue siendo una tarea esencialmente femenina

Strong coupling between mechanical modes in a nanotube resonator

We report on the nonlinear coupling between the mechanical modes of a nanotube resonator. The coupling is revealed in a pump-probe experiment where a mode driven by a pump force is shown to modify the motion of a second mode measured with a probe force. In a second series of experiments, we actuate the resonator with only one oscillating force. Mechanical resonances feature exotic lineshapes with reproducible dips, peaks, and jumps when the measured mode is commensurate with another mode with a frequency ratio of either 2 or 3. Conventional lineshapes are recovered by detuning the frequency ratio using the voltage on a nearby gate electrode. The exotic lineshapes are attributed to strong coupling between the mechanical modes. The possibility to control the strength of the coupling with the gate voltage holds promise for various experiments, such as quantum manipulation, mechanical signal processing, and the study of the quantum-toclassical transition.Comment: manuscript and supporting material, 31 pages, 15 figure

A Bacterial Shortcut to Amyloidosis

21 p.-10 fig.The synthetic bacterial prionoid RepA-WH1 causes a vertically transmissible amyloid proteinopathy in Escherichia coli that inhibits growth and eventually kills the cells. Recent in vitro studies show that RepA-WH1 builds pores through model lipid membranes, suggesting a possible mechanism for bacterial cell death. By comparing acutely (A31V) and mildly (ΔN37) cytotoxic mutant variants of the protein, we report here that RepA-WH1(A31V) expression decreases the intracellular osmotic pressure and compromise bacterial viability under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Both are effects expected from threatening membrane integrity and are in agreement with findings on the impairment by RepA-WH1(A31V) of the proton motive force (PMF)-dependent transport of ions (Fe3+) and ATP1 synthesis. Systems approaches reveal that, in aerobiosis, the PMF-independent respiratory dehydrogenase NdhII is induced in response to the reduction in intracellular levels of iron. While NdhII is known to generate H2O2 as a by-product of the autoxidation of its FAD cofactor, key proteins in the defense against oxidative stress (OxyR, KatE), together with other stress-resistance factors, are sequestered by co-aggregation with the RepA-WH1(A31V) amyloid. Our findings suggest a route for RepA-WH1 toxicity in bacteria: a primary hit of damage to the membrane, compromising bionergetics, triggers a stroke of oxidative stress, which is exacerbated due to the aggregation-dependent inactivation of enzymes and transcription factors that enable the cellular response to such injury. The proteinopathy caused by the prion-like protein RepA-WH1 in bacteria recapitulates some of the core hallmarks of human amyloid diseases.This work has been supported by grants from Spanish AEI / EU-FEDER (BIO2012-30852, BIO2015- 68730-R and CSD2009-00088) and CSIC (i-LINK0889) to R.G. We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Peer reviewe

Pulmonary vein flow split effects in patient-specific simulations of left atrial flow

Disruptions to left atrial (LA) blood flow, such as those caused by atrial fibrillation (AF), can lead to thrombosis in the left atrial appendage (LAA) and an increased risk of systemic embolism. LA hemodynamics are influenced by various factors, including LA anatomy and function, and pulmonary vein (PV) inflow conditions. In particular, the PV flow split can vary significantly among and within patients depending on multiple factors. In this study, we investigated how changes in PV flow split affect LA flow transport, focusing for the first time on blood stasis in the LAA, using a high-fidelity patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. We use an Immersed Boundary Method, simulating the flow in a fixed, uniform Cartesian mesh and imposing the movement of the LA walls with a moving Lagrangian mesh generated from 4D Computerized Tomography images. We analyzed LA anatomies from eight patients with varying atrial function, including three with AF and either a LAA thrombus or a history of Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs). Using four different flow splits (60/40% and 55/45% through right and left PVs, even flow rate, and same velocity through each PV), we found that flow patterns are sensitive to PV flow split variations, particularly in planes parallel to the mitral valve. Changes in PV flow split also had a significant impact on blood stasis and could contribute to increased risk for thrombosis inside the LAA, particularly in patients with AF and previous LAA thrombus or a history of TIAs. Our study highlights the importance of considering patient-specific PV flow split variations when assessing LA hemodynamics and identifying patients at increased risk for thrombosis and stroke. This knowledge is relevant to planning clinical procedures such as AF ablation or the implementation of LAA occluders.This work was partially supported by Comunidad de Madrid (Synergy Grant Y2018/BIO-4858 PREFI-CM), Spanish Research Agency (AEI, grant number PID2019-107279RB-I00), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (grant numbers PI15/02211-ISBITAMI and DTS/1900063-ISBIFLOW), and by the EU-European Regional Development Fund. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga /CBU

Age-Dependence of Flow Homeostasis in the Left Ventricle

Background: Intracardiac flow homeostasis requires avoiding blood stasis and platelet activation during its transit through the cardiac chambers. However, the foundations of intraventricular blood washout and its exposure to shear stresses have been poorly addressed. We aimed to characterize and quantify these features in a wide population of healthy subjects and assess the relationships of these indices with age.Methods: We used color-Doppler echocardiography and custom post-processing methods to study 149 healthy volunteers from 26 days to 80 years old. From the intraventricular flow-velocity fields we obtained personalized maps of (1) the residence time of blood in the LV, and (2) the shear index, a metric accounting for the strongest occurrence of shear stresses inside the chamber. From these maps we derived quantitative indices of the overall intraventricular blood washout and shear exposure. We addressed the age-dependence of these indices and analyzed their relationship with age-related changes in filling-flow.Results: The entire intraventricular blood pool was replaced before 8 cycles. Average residence time of blood inside the LV was <3 cycles in all subjects and followed an inverse U-shape relationship with age, increasing from median (IQR) of 1.0 (0.7 to 1.2) cycles in the 1st year of life to 1.8 (1.4–2.2) cycles in young adults (17–30 years old), becoming shorter again thereafter. Shear index showed no relation with age and was bounded around 20 dyn·s/cm2. Regions with the longest residence time and highest shear index were identified near the apex. Differences in the degree of apical penetration of the filling waves and the duration of the late-filling phase explained the age-dependence of residence time (Radj2 = 0.48, p < 0.001).Conclusions: In average, blood spends 1 to 3 beats inside the LV with very low shear stress rates. The apical region is the most prone to blood stasis, particularly in mid-aged adults. The washout of blood in the normal LV is age-dependent due to physiological changes in the degree of apical penetration of the filling waves

Red LED Light Acts on the Mitochondrial Electron Chain of Mammalian Sperm via Light-Time Exposure-Dependent Mechanisms

This work analyzes the effects of red LED light on mammalian sperm mitochondrial function, using the pig as an animal model. Liquid-stored pig semen was stimulated with red-light for 1, 5 and 10 min in the presence or absence of oligomycin A, a specific inhibitor of mitochondrial ATP synthase, or carbonyl cyanide 4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone (FCCP), a specific disruptor of mitochondrial electron chain. Whereas exposure for 1 and 5 min significantly (p < 0.05) decreased total motility and intracellular ATP levels, irradiation for 10 min induced the opposite effect. Oligomycin A abolished the light-effects on intracellular ATP levels, O2 consumption and mitochondrial membrane potential, whereas compared to non-irradiated samples, FCCP significantly (p < 0.05) increased O2 consumption when sperm were irradiated for 1 min. Both oligomycin A and FCCP significantly (p < 0.05) decreased total motility. Red-light increased cytochrome c oxidase activity with a maximal effect after 5 min of irradiation, which was abolished by both oligomycin A and FCCP. In conclusion, red-light modulates sperm mitochondrial function via electron chain activity in an exposition, time-dependent manner