Passive acoustic monitoring and automated detection of the American bullfrog

Biological invasions pose significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Removal of introduced species is most successful when detected early. We evaluate the effectiveness of passive acoustics combined with automated recognition in detecting the invasive American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus). We applied this technique to two real-world monitoring programs aimed at determining the optimal time of day for monitoring the species in Europe, for which we recorded the species in Belgium and Italy; and for evaluating the effectiveness of BirdNET (a free and user-friendly automated recognizer) in analyzing a large dataset collected in Spain. BirdNET was highly effective in automatically detecting the bullfrog presence, with a detection rate (compared to visual inspection of sonograms) of 89.5% using default settings (85 of 95 recordings with known presence), and 95.8% with user-specific settings (91 of 95 recordings detected). The system showed remarkable precision, correctly identifying 99.7% (612 out of 614) of the verified predictions, and with only one mislabelled recording (predicted to be present when it was absent). The species’ vocal activity in Belgium and Italy was higher during the night compared to crepuscular periods. Recording analyses and output verification of the dataset collected in Spain was carried out in 3.8% of the recorded time, and resulted in significantly reduced effort compared to visual inspection. Our study highlights the effectiveness of this technique for remotely surveying the American bullfrog, making it a significantly potential tool for informing management decisions, particularly for the early detection of the species’ arrival in new areas.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This project was partially funded by the Department of Climate Action, Food, and Rural Agenda of Catalan Regional Government. CP-G acknowledges the support of the Ministerio of Educación y Formación Profesional through the Beatriz Galindo Fellowship (Beatriz Galindo – Convocatoria 2020)

Remote mapping of foodscapes using sUAS and a low cost BG-NIR sensor

The assessment of landscape condition for large herbivores, also known as foodscapes, is fast gaining interest in conservation and landscape management programs worldwide. Although traditional approaches are now being replaced by satellite imagery, several technical issues still need to be addressed before full standardization of remote sensing methods for these purposes. We present a low-cost method, based on the use of a modified blue/ green/near-infrared (BG-NIR) camera housed on a small-Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS), to create foodscapes for a generalist Mediterranean ungulate: the Iberian Ibex (Capra pyrenaica) in Northeast Spain. Faecal cuticle micro-histological analyses were used to assess the dietary preferences of ibexes and then individuals of the most common plant species (n = 19) were georeferenced to use as test samples. Because of the seasonal pattern in vegetation activity, based on the NDVI (Smooth term Month = 21.5, p-value < .01, R2 = 43%, from a GAM), images were recorded in winter and spring to represent contrasting vegetation phenology using two flight heights above ground level (30 and 60 m). Additionally, the range of image pixel sizes was 3.5–30 cm with the smallest pixel size representing the highest resolution. Boosted Trees were used to classify plant taxa based on spectral reflectance and create a foodscape of the study area. The number of target species, the sampling season, the height of flight and the image resolution were analysed to determine the accuracy of mapping the foodscape. The highest classification error (70.66%) was present when classifying all plant species using a 30 cm pixel size from acquisitions at 30 m height. The lowest error (18.7%), however, was present when predicting plants preferred by ibexes, at 3.5 cm pixel size acquired at 60 m height. This methodology can help to successfully monitor food availability and seasonality and to identify individual speciesThis work has been funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades through the INCREMENTO project (RTI2018-094202-BC21

The onset of PI3K-related vascular malformations occurs during angiogenesis and is prevented by the AKT inhibitor miransertib

Low-flow vascular malformations are congenital overgrowths composed of abnormal blood vessels potentially causing pain, bleeding and obstruction of different organs. These diseases are caused by oncogenic mutations in the endothelium, which result in overactivation of the PI3K/AKT pathway. Lack of robust in vivo preclinical data has prevented the development and translation into clinical trials of specific molecular therapies for these diseases. Here, we demonstrate that the Pik3caH1047R activating mutation in endothelial cells triggers a transcriptome rewiring that leads to enhanced cell proliferation. We describe a new reproducible preclinical in vivo model of PI3K-driven vascular malformations using the postnatal mouse retina. We show that active angiogenesis is required for the pathogenesis of vascular malformations caused by activating Pik3ca mutations. Using this model, we demonstrate that the AKT inhibitor miransertib both prevents and induces the regression of PI3K-driven vascular malformations. We confirmed the efficacy of miransertib in isolated human endothelial cells with genotypes spanning most of human low-flow vascular malformations.The research leading to these results has received funding by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation MICINN (PID2020-116184RB-I00 /AEI/10.13038/501100011033). M.G. laboratory is supported by the research grants SAF2017-89116R-P (FEDER/EU) from MCIU (Spain) co-funded by European Regional Developmental Fund (ERDF), a Way to Build Europe and PID2020-116184RB-I00 from MCEI; PTEN RESEARCH Foundation (IJC-21-001); la Caixa Banking Foundation (LCF/PR/PR16/51110035 and LCF/PR/HR19/52160023; also to E.B. and J.M.); by la Asociación Española contra el Cancer (AECC)-Grupos Traslacionales (GCTRA18006CARR); by la Fundación BBVA (Ayuda Fundación BBVA a Equipos de Investigación Científica 2019); World Cancer Research (21-0159). The computations and data handling were enabled by resources in projects SNIC 2019/30-26 and SNIC 2019/8-129, provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) at UPPMAX, partially funded by the Swedish Research Council through grant agreement no. 2018-05973. Personal support was from Marie-Curie ITN Actions (P.K. and J.Z.) grant agreement 675392. L.G. is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2018-06591). S.D.C. is a recipient of a fellowship from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 749731. S.D.C. is currently funded by la Caixa Banking Foundation Junior Leader project (LCF/BQ/PR20/11770002). E.B. is funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Proyectos de investigación en salud PI20/00102)

First and second waves of coronavirus disease-19: A comparative study in hospitalized patients in Reus, Spain.

Many countries have seen a two-wave pattern in reported cases of coronavirus disease-19 during the 2020 pandemic, with a first wave during spring followed by the current second wave in late summer and autumn. Empirical data show that the characteristics of the effects of the virus do vary between the two periods. Differences in age range and severity of the disease have been reported, although the comparative characteristics of the two waves still remain largely unknown. Those characteristics are compared in this study using data from two equal periods of 3 and a half months. The first period, between 15th March and 30th June, corresponding to the entire first wave, and the second, between 1st July and 15th October, corresponding to part of the second wave, still present at the time of writing this article. Two hundred and four patients were hospitalized during the first period, and 264 during the second period. Patients in the second wave were younger and the duration of hospitalization and case fatality rate were lower than those in the first wave. In the second wave, there were more children, and pregnant and post-partum women. The most frequent signs and symptoms in both waves were fever, dyspnea, pneumonia, and cough, and the most relevant comorbidities were cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and chronic neurological diseases. Patients from the second wave more frequently presented renal and gastrointestinal symptoms, were more often treated with non-invasive mechanical ventilation and corticoids, and less often with invasive mechanical ventilation, conventional oxygen therapy and anticoagulants. Several differences in mortality risk factors were also observed. These results might help to understand the characteristics of the second wave and the behaviour and danger of SARS-CoV-2 in the Mediterranean area and in Western Europe. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings