Resistance of soil bacterial communities from montane heathland ecosystems in the Cantabrian mountains (NW Spain) to a gradient of experimental nitrogen deposition

[EN] Elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on terrestrial ecosystems has become one of the most important drivers of microbial diversity loss on a global scale, and has been reported to alter the soil function of nutrient-poor, montane Calluna vulgaris heathlands in the context of global change. In this work we analyze for the first time the shifts of bacterial communities in response to experimental addition of N in Calluna heathlands as a simulation of atmospheric deposition. Specifically, we evaluated the effects of five N addition treatments (0, 10, 20, and 50 kg N ha−1 yr−1 for 3-years; and 56 kg N ha−1 yr−1 for 10-years) on the resistance of soil bacterial communities as determined by changes in their composition and alpha and beta diversities. The study was conducted in montane Calluna heathlands at different development stages (young and mature phases) in the southern side of the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain). Our results evidenced a substantial increase of long-term (10-years) N inputs on soil extractable N-NH4+, particularly in young Calluna stands. The alpha diversity of soil bacterial communities in mature Calluna stands did not show a significant response to experimental N addition, whereas it was significantly higher under long-term chronic N addition (56 kg N ha−1 yr−1 for 10-years) in young Calluna stands. These bacterial community shifts are mainly attributable to a decrease in the dominance of Acidobacteria phylum, the most representative in montane Calluna ecosystems, in favor of copiotrophic taxa such as Actinobacteria or Proteobacteria phyla, favored under increased N availability. Future research should investigate what specific ecosystem functions performed by soil bacterial communities may be sensitive to increased nitrogen depositions, which may have substantial implications for the understanding of montane Calluna ecosystems' stability.SINext-Generation Funds of the European Union (EU) in the framework of the FIREMAP project (TED2021-130925B-I00)Regional Government of Castile and León in the framework of the IA-FIREXTCyL project (LE081P23)Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology in the frame of project UIDB/04033/2020Spanish Ministry of Universities (FPU21/00309

Efficiency of a self-administered outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (s-opat) for infectiveendocarditis within the context of a shortened hospital admission based on hospital at homeprogram

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of treatment of infectious endocarditis (IE) via Self-administered Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (S-OPAT) supported by a shortening hospital admission program in a hospitalization-at-home unit (HAH), including a short review of the literature. METHODS: Ambispective cohort study of 57 episodes of IE in 54 patients treated in an HAH unit between 1988 and 2014 who receive S-OPAT after prior intra-hospital clinical stabilization. Characteristics of each episode of IE, safety and efficiency of the care model, were analyzed. RESULTS: Forty-three (76%) patients were males with a median age of 61 years (SD = 16.5). A total of 37 (65%) episodes affected the native valve (42% the aortic valve). In 75%, a micro-organism was isolated, of which 88% were Gram-positive bacteria. No deaths occurred during HAH program, clinical complications appeared in 30% of episodes, only 6 patients were re-admitted to hospital although no patient died. In the 12 months' follow-up 3 cases had a recurrence. The average cost of a day stay in HAH was €174 while in traditional cardiology hospitalization was €1100. The total average cost of treatment of each episode of IE managed entirely in hospital was calculated as €54,723. Application of the S-OPAT model based on HAH meant a cost reduction of 32.72%. CONCLUSIONS: In suitably selected patients, treatment of IE based on S-OPAT supported by a shortening hospital admission care program by means of referral to a HAH unit is a safe and efficient care model which entails a significant cost saving for the public healthcare system

An estimate of the cost of administering intravenous biological agents in Spanish day hospitals

Objective: to estimate the unit costs of administering intravenous (IV) biological agents in day hospitals (DHs) in the Spanish National Health System. Patients and methods: data were obtained from 188 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, collected from nine DHs, receiving one of the following IV therapies: infliximab (n=48), rituximab (n=38), abatacept (n=41), or tocilizumab (n=61). The fieldwork was carried out between March 2013 and March 2014. The following three groups of costs were considered: 1) structural costs, 2) material costs, and 3) staff costs. Staff costs were considered a fixed cost and were estimated according to the DH theoretical level of activity, which includes, as well as personal care of each patient, the DH general activities (complete imputation method, CIM). In addition, an alternative calculation was performed, in which the staff costs were considered a variable cost imputed according to the time spent on direct care (partial imputation method, PIM). All costs were expressed in euros for the reference year 2014. Results: The average total cost was is an element of 146.12 per infusion (standard deviation [SD] +/- 87.11; CIM) and is an element of 29.70 per infusion (SD +/- 11.42; PIM). The structure-related costs per infusion varied between is an element of 2.23 and is an element of 62.35 per patient and DH; the cost of consumables oscillated between is an element of 3.48 and is an element of 20.34 per patient and DH. In terms of the care process, the average difference between the shortest and the longest time taken by different hospitals to administer an IV biological therapy was 113 minutes. Conclusion: the average total cost of infusion was less than that normally used in models of economic evaluation coming from secondary sources. This cost is even less when the staff costs are imputed according to the PIM. A high degree of variability was observed between different DHs in the cost of the consumables, in the structure-related costs, and in those of the care process

Mulching treatments favour the recovery of ecosystem multifunctionality after a large wildfire in Northwest Spain

[EN] Wildfires are a widespread phenomenon in forests across the Mediterranean Basin but have increased in risk and severity in recent decades. Post-fire treatments are measures that help recover burned vegetation and their functionality but to what extent they also help recover soil functionality is currently unknown. The main objective of this study was to assess the effect of post-fire treatments on ecosystem multifunctionality after a large wildfire in the Cabrera mountain range in 2017 (NW Spain) where close to 10000 Ha of forest were burnt. At the end of 2017 and during 2018, the administration applied different post-fire treatments in high fire severity affected areas: i) straw mulching, ii) woody debris and iii) subsoiling and iv) mechanical hole afforestation. In each treatment, we established ten 2 x 2 m plots and ten adjacent untreated burned plots and collected a composite soil sample from each plot four years after the fire (2021). We calculated regulating services as the standardized mean of total soil organic C (climate regulation), soil water repellence (water regulation) and soil aggregation (soil protection). Supporting services were measured as the standardized mean of mineral N-NH4+ and N-NO3- and available P (soil fertility), β-glucosidase, urease and acid phosphatase (nutrient cycling) and microbial biomass (soil quality). Ecosystem multifunctionality was measured as the standardized mean of all functions measured. Application of straw mulch and woody debris increased regulating ecosystem services in relation to burned control plots. Afforestation with holes had no impact but subsoiling decreased regulating ecosystem services in relation to burned control plots. Post-fire treatments did not have any effect on supporting services. Straw mulch, Woody debris and afforestation with holes improved ecosystem multifunctionality when compared with subsoiling methods. These results show that post-fire stabilisation treatments, in particular straw mulching have a significant positive impact on regulating services and are effective measures in restoring the ecosystem multifunctionality, helping develop effective management based-decisions for the recovery of ecosystem services and functioning after large wildfiresThis research was financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in the framework of the FIRESEVES (AGL2017-86075-C2-1-R) project, and by the Regional Government of Castilla and León in the framework of the WUIFIRECYL (LE005P20) projec

Platinum Complexes with a Phosphino-Oxime/Oximate Ligand

The platinum(II) complex [PtCl2(COD)] (2; COD = 1,5- cyclooctadiene) reacted with 1 and 2 equiv. of 2-(diphenylphosphanyl) benzaldehyde oxime (1) to generate [PtCl2{¿2-(P,N)-2- Ph2PC6H4CH=NOH}] (3) and [Pt{¿2-(P,N)-2-Ph2PC6H4CH=NOH}2]- [Cl]2 (4), respectively. Deprotonation of the oxime hydroxyl group of 3 with Na2CO3 led to the selective formation of the dinuclear species (¿-O)-[PtCl{¿2-(P,N)-2-Ph2PC6H4CH=NO}]2 (5), while the related methylated derivative (¿-O)-[PtMe{¿2-(P,N)-2- Ph2PC6H4CH=NO}]2 (7) could be obtained from the direct reaction of [PtMe2(COD)] (6) with the phosphino-oxime ligand 1. In the case of 4, its treatment with Na2CO3 yielded complex [Pt({¿2-(P,N)-2-Ph2PC6H4CH=NO}2H)][Cl] (8), as a result of the deprotonation of only one of the OH groups of 4. On the other hand, contrary to what was observed with 6, no deprotonation of the oxime occurred in the reaction of [PtMe3I]4 (9) with 1, from which the mononuclear PtIV derivative fac-[PtIMe3{¿2-(P,N)- 2-Ph2PC6H4CH=NOH}] (10) was isolated. The solid-state structures of compounds 3, 4, 7 and 10 were determined by X-ray crystallography. In addition, the potential of all the synthesized complexes as catalysts for the dehydrogenative coupling of hydrosilanes with alcohols is also briefly discussed.Peer Reviewe

Long-term CO₂ injection and its impact on near-surface soil microbiology

Impacts of long-term CO₂ exposure on environmental processes and microbial populations of near-surface soils are poorly understood. This near-surface long-term CO₂ injection study demonstrated that soil microbiology and geochemistry is influenced more by seasonal parameters than elevated CO₂. Soil samples were taken during a 3-year field experiment including sampling campaigns before, during and after 24 months of continuous CO₂ injection. CO₂ concentrations within CO₂-injected plots increased up to 23% during the injection period. No CO₂ impacts on geochemistry were detected over time. In addition, CO₂ exposed samples did not show significant changes in microbial CO₂ and CH₄ turnover rates compared to reference samples. Likewise, no significant CO₂-induced variations were detected for the abundance of Bacteria, Archaea (16S rDNA) and gene copy numbers of the mcrA gene, Crenarchaeota and amoA gene. The majority (75%–95%) of the bacterial sequences were assigned to five phyla: Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Bacteroidetes. The majority of the archaeal sequences (85%–100%) were assigned to the thaumarchaeotal cluster I.1b (soil group). Univariate and multivariate statistical as well as principal component analyses showed no significant CO₂-induced variation. Instead, seasonal impacts especially temperature and precipitation were detected

Evaluación de la resiliencia forestal al fuego mediante la inversión de modelos de transferencia radiativa a partir de imágenes de satélite

[ES] El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar la resiliencia ingenieril a corto plazo de diversas comunidades de matorral en función de su estrategia regenerativa y la severidad del fuego, dentro del perímetro de un mega-incendio ocurrido en verano de 2017 en el noroeste de la Península Ibérica. Se dispuso de una serie temporal de imágenes de satélite Sentinel-2 para las que se computó la fracción de cubierta vegetal (FVC) para cada pixel mediante la inversión híbrida del modelo de transferencia radiativa (RTM) PROSAIL-D utilizando el algoritmo random forest. Se obtuvo un elevado ajuste para toda la serie temporal (R2 > 0,75), a partir de la validación con datos de campo. Mediante un muestreo de FVC de puntos aleatorios estratificados por tipo de estrategia regenerativa y nivel de severidad del fuego, se determinó la resiliencia de las comunidades de matorral en términos de recuperación de la cobertura utilizando un índice de resiliencia normalizado por impacto y un modelo de regresión lineal. Severidades altas influyeron negativamente en la resiliencia ingenieril a corto plazo de las comunidades de matorral dominadas por especies germinadoras facultativas. En cambio, las comunidades dominadas por especies rebrotadoras alcanzaron valores de cobertura pre-incendio independientemente de la severidad del fuegoEste estudio ha sido financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España, y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), en el marco de los proyectos GESFIRE (AGL2013- 48189-C2-1-R) y FIRESEVES (AGL2017-86075-C2-1-R); y por la Junta de Castilla y León en el marco de los proyectos FIRECYL (LE033U14), SEFIRECYL (LE001P17) y WUIFIRECYL (LE005P20)

Anti-IL-6 Receptor Tocilizumab in Refractory Graves? Orbitopathy: National Multicenter Observational Study of 48 Patients

Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) is the most common extrathyroidal manifestation of Graves’ disease (GD). Our aim was to assess the e cacy and safety of Tocilizumab (TCZ) in GO refractory to conventional therapy. This was an open-label multicenter study of glucocorticoid-resistant GO treated with TCZ. The main outcomes were the best-corrected visual acuity (BVCA), Clinical Activity Score (CAS) and intraocular pressure (IOP). These outcome variables were assessed at baseline, 1st, 3rd, 6th and 12th month after TCZ therapy onset. The severity of GO was assessed according to the European Group on Graves’ Orbitopathy (EUGOGO). We studied 48 (38 women and 10 men) patients (95 eyes); mean age standard deviation 51 11.8 years. Before TCZ and besides oral glucocorticoids, they had received IV methylprednisolone (n = 43), or selenium (n = 11). GO disease was moderate (n =29) or severe (n = 19) and dysthyroid optic neuropathy (DON) (n = 7). TCZ was used in monotherapy (n = 45) or combined (n = 3) at a dose of 8 mg/kg IV every four weeks (n = 43) or 162 mg/s.c. every week (n = 5). TCZ yielded a significant improvement in all of the main outcomes at the 1st month that was maintained at one year. Comparing the baseline with data at 1 year all of the variables improved; BCVA (0.78 0.25 vs. 0.9 0.16; p = 0.0001), CAS (4.64 1.5 vs. 1.05 1.27; p = 0.0001) and intraocular pressure (IOP) (19.05 4.1 vs. 16.73 3.4 mmHg; p = 0.007). After a mean follow-up of 16.1 2.1 months, low disease activity (CAS 3), was achieved in 88 eyes (92.6%) and TCZ was withdrawn in 29 cases due to low disease activity (n = 25) or ine cacy (n = 4). No serious adverse events were observed. In conclusion, TCZ is a useful and safe therapeutic option in refractory GO treatment.This work was also partially supported by RETICS Programs, RD08/0075 (RIER) and RD12/0009/0013 from “Instituto de Salud Carlos III” (ISCIII) (Spain)

DIVULGA: Comunicación multimodal para la divulgación del conocimiento científico y académico en la red

La divulgación del conocimiento científico es una responsabilidad social que la Universidad debe abordar desde la perspectiva de la investigación y la innovación. El proyecto incentiva a usar la comunicación multimodal en la red para divulgar ciencia