El pistachero II: Estudio fenológico y económico

10 páginas, tablas estadísticas y figuras.El pistachero es capaz de sobrevivir y dar frutos en situaciones adversas, intolerables para la mayor parte de los frutales. Sin embargo también tiene unos condicionamientos de medio bastantes específicos que limitan su posible área de cultivo, como son las necesidades en frío para cubrir adecuadamente su periodo de reposos invernal, la sincronía en la floración de machos y hembras para tener una buena polinización y sensibilidad a las heladas tardías de primavera. Con los resultados obtenidos en este trabajo y en el trabajo presentado en este VI Congreso de la SEAE “El pistachero I: Estudio de variedades en secano y en manejo ecológico”, se realiza un estudio de viabilidad económica. Se recomienda que a la hora de hacer una nueva plantación, se incluya en la misma diferentes variedades hembras y machos. Las variedades hembras con las que se han obtenido mejores resultados son: Avdat, Ashoury y Larnaka, y como polinizadores: C-especial, Askar, Nazar, Chico y Mateur. Las variedades recomendadas, tienen unas necesidades cercanas a las 1.000 horas-frío para el inicio de la actividad vegetativa y la floración es en la primera quincena de abril. En el estudio económico y considerando que sólo uno de cada tres años se obtiene producción, debido a problemas de heladas de primavera o por veceria, se pueden obtener una rentabilidad económica, a partir de los veinte años, superior a los 600 €, lo que le permite ser una buena alternativa para algunas zonas del secano españolPeer reviewe

Blavigator: a navigation aid for blind persons

Blavigator (blind navigator) is a vision aid for blind and visuaIIy impaired persons. It supports local navigation by detecting waIkable paths in the immediate vicinity of the user. It guides the user for centering on the path

MRI in multiple myeloma : a pictorial review of diagnostic and post-treatment findings

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly being used in the diagnostic work-up of patients with multiple myeloma. Since 2014, MRI findings are included in the new diagnostic criteria proposed by the International Myeloma Working Group. Patients with smouldering myeloma presenting with more than one unequivocal focal lesion in the bone marrow on MRI are considered having symptomatic myeloma requiring treatment, regardless of the presence of lytic bone lesions. However, bone marrow evaluation with MRI offers more than only morphological information regarding the detection of focal lesions in patients with MM. The overall performance of MRI is enhanced by applying dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and diffusion weighted imaging sequences, providing additional functional information on bone marrow vascularization and cellularity. This pictorial review provides an overview of the most important imaging findings in patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, smouldering myeloma and multiple myeloma, by performing a 'total' MRI investigation with implications for the diagnosis, staging and response assessment. Main message aEuro cent Conventional MRI diagnoses multiple myeloma by assessing the infiltration pattern. aEuro cent Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI diagnoses multiple myeloma by assessing vascularization and perfusion. aEuro cent Diffusion weighted imaging evaluates bone marrow composition and cellularity in multiple myeloma. aEuro cent Combined morphological and functional MRI provides optimal bone marrow assessment for staging. aEuro cent Combined morphological and functional MRI is of considerable value in treatment follow-up

How a haemosporidian parasite of bats gets around: the genetic structure of a parasite, vector and host compared.

Parasite population structure is often thought to be largely shaped by that of its host. In the case of a parasite with a complex life cycle, two host species, each with their own patterns of demography and migration, spread the parasite. However, the population structure of the parasite is predicted to resemble only that of the most vagile host species. In this study, we tested this prediction in the context of a vector-transmitted parasite. We sampled the haemosporidian parasite Polychromophilus melanipherus across its European range, together with its bat fly vector Nycteribia schmidlii and its host, the bent-winged bat Miniopterus schreibersii. Based on microsatellite analyses, the wingless vector, and not the bat host, was identified as the least structured population and should therefore be considered the most vagile host. Genetic distance matrices were compared for all three species based on a mitochondrial DNA fragment. Both host and vector populations followed an isolation-by-distance pattern across the Mediterranean, but not the parasite. Mantel tests found no correlation between the parasite and either the host or vector populations. We therefore found no support for our hypothesis; the parasite population structure matched neither vector nor host. Instead, we propose a model where the parasite's gene flow is represented by the added effects of host and vector dispersal patterns

Patients' satisfaction with community treatment: a pilot cross-sectional survey adopting multiple perspectives.

ACCESSIBLE SUMMARY: Patients' satisfaction is scarcely studied within the context of community treatment for adolescents. Thus, this study adopts a multiple perspective on patients' satisfaction (including service users as well as staff members). The results highlighted that all informants (patients, foster carers in foster homes and professional caregivers from community treatment teams) perceived the patients to be satisfied, with foster carers reporting the highest patient satisfaction rate. Considering the patient satisfaction rate from multiple perspectives provides complementary understandings. Clinical outcomes and, specifically, a reduction in emotional difficulties were related to patient's satisfaction, but only from the patients' perspective. ABSTRACT: Community treatment (CT) teams in Switzerland provide care to patients who are unable to use regular child and adolescent mental health services (i.e. inpatient and outpatients facilities). No study has considered patients' self-rated satisfaction alongside with staff members' perspectives on patient satisfaction. Thus, adopting a cross-sectional survey design, we collected patients' satisfaction using the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8), rated by multiple informants (patients, foster carers in foster homes and professional caregivers from CT teams). Professional caregivers assessed clinical outcomes using the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale for Children and Adolescents. The results indicated that all informants were satisfied with the community treatment teams. The satisfaction scores were not correlated across informants; however, the alleviation of emotional symptoms was correlated with patients' satisfaction. This study indicated that the use of a combined approach including the views of service users and professionals gives important complementary information. Finally, in our sample, lower emotional symptoms were linked to enhanced patient satisfaction. This study demonstrated the importance of considering multiple perspectives to obtain the most accurate picture of patients' satisfaction. Second, focusing on the reduction of emotional symptoms might lead to a higher degree of patients' satisfaction

From spinal central pattern generators to cortical network: integrated BCI for walking rehabilitation

Success in locomotor rehabilitation programs can be improved with the use of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Although a wealth of research has demonstrated that locomotion is largely controlled by spinal mechanisms, the brain is of utmost importance in monitoring locomotor patterns and therefore contains information regarding central pattern generation functioning. In addition, there is also a tight coordination between the upper and lower limbs, which can also be useful in controlling locomotion. The current paper critically investigates different approaches that are applicable to this field: the use of electroencephalogram (EEG), upper limb electromyogram (EMG), or a hybrid of the two neurophysiological signals to control assistive exoskeletons used in locomotion based on programmable central pattern generators (PCPGs) or dynamic recurrent neural networks (DRNNs). Plantar surface tactile stimulation devices combined with virtual reality may provide the sensation of walking while in a supine position for use of training brain signals generated during locomotion. These methods may exploit mechanisms of brain plasticity and assist in the neurorehabilitation of gait in a variety of clinical conditions, including stroke, spinal trauma, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy

Urea cycle dysregulation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Background: In non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), function of urea cycle enzymes (UCEs) may be affected and result in hyperammonemia with risk of disease progression. We aimed to determine whether expression and function of UCEs are altered in a NASH animal model and in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients and whether this is reversible. / Methods: Rats were fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet for 10 months to induce NASH and then changed to normal chow to recover. In humans, we obtained liver biopsies from 20 patients with steatosis and 15 NASH patients. Primary rat hepatocytes were isolated and cultured with free fatty acids. We measured the gene and protein expression, the activity of ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) and ammonia concentrations. Moreover, we assessed the promoter methylation status of OTC and carbamoyl phosphate synthetase (CPS1) in rats, humans and in steatotic hepatocytes. / Results: In NASH animals, gene and protein expression of OTC and CPS1 and activity of OTC were reversibly reduced and hypermethylation of OTC promotor genes was observed. Also in NAFLD patients, OTC enzyme concentration and activity were reduced and ammonia concentrations were increased and more so in NASH. Furthermore, OTC and CPS1 promoter regions were hypermethylated. In primary hepatocytes induction of steatosis was associated with OTC promoter hypermethylation, reduction in the gene expression of OTC and CPS1 and an increase in ammonia concentration in the supernatant. / Conclusion: NASH is associated with a reduction in gene and protein expression, and activity of UCEs resulting in hyperammonemia, possibly through hypermethylation of UCE genes and impairment of urea synthesis. Our investigations describe for the first time a link between NASH, function of UCEs and hyperammonemia providing a novel therapeutic target. / Lay summary: In patients with fatty liver disease, the enzymes that convert nitrogen waste into urea may be affected leading to the accumulation of the toxic substance, ammonia. This accumulation of ammonia can lead to development of scar tissue and risk of progression of disease. In this study, we show that fat accumulation in the liver produces a reversible reduction in the function of these enzymes that are involved in detoxification of ammonia. These data provide potential new targets for therapy of fatty liver disease

Development of the ECOSAR P-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar

This paper describes objectives and recent progress on the development of the EcoSAR, a new P-band airborne radar instrument being developed at the NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for the polarimetric and interferometric measurements of ecosystem structure and biomass. These measurements support science requirements for the study of the carbon cycle and its relationship to climate change. The instrument is scheduled to be completed and flight tested in 2013. Index Terms SAR, Digital Beamforming, Interferometry

Cognitive dysfunction in early experimental metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease is associated with systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation

Background & Aims: Cognitive dysfunction is an increasingly recognised manifestation of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), but the mechanistic link remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that experimental MASLD leads to cognitive dysfunction via systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation. Methods: Twenty male Sprague Dawley rats were randomised to a high-fat high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet to induce MASLD, or a standard diet (n = 10/group), for 16 weeks. Assessments included: MASLD severity (histology), neurobehaviour, inflammation (liver, plasma and cerebrospinal fluid), brain microglia and astrocyte activation, and synaptic density. Results: The HFHC diet induced MASLD with extensive steatosis and lobular inflammation without fibrosis. Several plasma cytokines were elevated (CXCL1, IL-6, IL-17, MIP-1α, MCP-1, IL-10; all p <0.05) and correlated with increases in hepatic chemokine gene expression. Cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of CXCL1 were elevated (p = 0.04). In the prefrontal brain cortex, we observed a 19% increase in microglial activation confirmed by Iba1 immunohistochemistry (p = 0.03) and 3H-PK11195 autoradiography (p <0.01). In parallel, synaptic density was reduced to 92%, assessed by 3H-UCB-J autoradiography (p <0.01). MASLD animals exhibited impaired memory to previously encountered objects in the novel object recognition test (p = 0.047) and showed depression-like behaviour evidenced by increased immobility time (p <0.01) and reduced swimming time (p = 0.03) in the forced swim test. Conclusions: Experimental non-fibrotic MASLD, as a model to reflect the early stage of human disease, results in cognitive impairment and depression-like behaviour. This is associated with an inflammatory phenotype not only in the liver but also in the plasma and brain, which together with diminished synaptic density, provides a pathophysiological link between liver disease and cognitive dysfunction in MASLD. Impact and implications: Cognitive dysfunction is an increasingly recognised comorbidity in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study provides evidence of impaired memory and depression-like symptoms in early experimental MASLD and indicates that hepatic inflammation may drive a systemic inflammatory response, resulting in neuroinflammation and reduced brain synaptic density. The evidence of impaired memory in MASLD and establishing its underlying pathophysiological link provides insights that could guide the development of potential new treatments for this increasingly common condition in people of working age. The study also emphasises the need to develop better tools for clinical cognitive testing, which will enable physicians to assess and manage brain dysfunction early in MASLD