Prospective Exploratory Analysis of Angiogenic Biomarkers in Peripheral Blood in Advanced NSCLC Patients Treated With Bevacizumab Plus Chemotherapy: The ANGIOMET Study

Finding angiogenic prognostic markers in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer is still an unmet medical need. We explored a set of genetic variants in the VEGF-pathway as potential biomarkers to predict clinical outcomes of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer treated with chemotherapy plus bevacizumab. We prospectively analyzed the relationship between VEGF-pathway components with both pathological and prognostic variables in response to chemotherapy plus bevacizumab in 168 patients with non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer. Circulating levels of VEGF and VEGFR2 and expression of specific endothelial surface markers and single-nucleotide polymorphisms in VEGF-pathway genes were analyzed. The primary clinical endpoint was progression-free survival. Secondary endpoints included overall survival and objective tumor response. VEGFR-1 rs9582036 variants AA/AC were associated with increased progression-free survival (p = 0.012 and p = 0.035, respectively), and with improved overall survival (p = 0.019) with respect to CC allele. Patients with VEGF-A rs3025039 harboring allele TT had also reduced mortality risk (p = 0.049) compared with the CC allele. The VEGF-A rs833061 variant was found to be related with response to treatment, with 61.1% of patients harboring the CC allele achieving partial treatment response. High pre-treatment circulating levels of VEGF-A were associated with shorter progression-free survival (p = 0.036). In conclusion, in this prospective study, genetic variants in VEGFR-1 and VEGF-A and plasma levels of VEGF-A were associated with clinical benefit, progression-free survival, or overall survival in a cohort of advanced non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer patients receiving chemotherapy plus antiangiogenic therapy. © Copyright © 2021 Jantus-Lewintre, Massutí Sureda, González Larriba, Rodríguez-Abreu, Juan, Blasco, Dómine, Provencio Pulla, Garde, Álvarez, Maestu, Pérez de Carrión, Artal, Rolfo, de Castro, Guillot, Oramas, de las Peñas, Ferrera, Martínez, Serra, Rosell and Camps

HE-LHC: The High-Energy Large Hadron Collider – Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 4

In response to the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (EPPSU), the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study was launched as a world-wide international collaboration hosted by CERN. The FCC study covered an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh), a highest-luminosity high-energy lepton collider (FCC-ee), the corresponding 100 km tunnel infrastructure, as well as the physics opportunities of these two colliders, and a high-energy LHC, based on FCC-hh technology. This document constitutes the third volume of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, devoted to the hadron collider FCC-hh. It summarizes the FCC-hh physics discovery opportunities, presents the FCC-hh accelerator design, performance reach, and staged operation plan, discusses the underlying technologies, the civil engineering and technical infrastructure, and also sketches a possible implementation. Combining ingredients from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the high-luminosity LHC upgrade and adding novel technologies and approaches, the FCC-hh design aims at significantly extending the energy frontier to 100 TeV. Its unprecedented centre-of-mass collision energy will make the FCC-hh a unique instrument to explore physics beyond the Standard Model, offering great direct sensitivity to new physics and discoveries

Migrants' Access to Social Protection in Spain

From traditional country of emigration, Spain became a country of immigration in a relatively short period, practically catching up with the rest of Western European countries in terms of percentage of population of foreign origin by 2010. The hybrid nature of its welfare regime, a combination of social insurance schemes and universalistic programs, determined the eligibility of foreign populations to each specific social protection scheme. In basic terms, foreigners can access Spanish social protection schemes through their participation in the labour market (for social insurance programs), and their residence in Spanish territory (for schemes based on a universalistic logic). The international agreements signed by Spain are a key aspect as well in determining welfare entitlements for foreigners, particularly in the case of nationals from other EU member states and Latin America. The strong reliance on contributory schemes, and the significant role played by the underground economy, leave economic migrants (particularly undocumented ones) without much social protection. The economic crisis initiated in 2008 implied an increase in immigrants’ vulnerability, but their actual welfare take-up decreased due to their more limited access to the formal labour market, and the restrictive conditions of targeted social assistance schemes.This chapter is part of the project “Migration and Transnational Social Protection in (Post)Crisis Europe (MiTSoPro)” that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 680014). In addition to this chapter, readers can find a series of indicators comparing national social protection and diaspora policies across 40 countries on the following website: http://labos.ulg.ac.be/socialprotection/. We wish to thank Angeliki Konstantinidou for her assistance in compiling the international migration data used in this chapter

Inequalities in income and education and regional economic growth in western Europe

Does inequality matter for regional growth? This paper addresses this question, using regionally aggregated microeconomic data for more than 100,000 individuals over a period of 6 years. The aim is to examine the relationship between income and educational distribution and regional economic growth in western Europe. Our results indicate that, given existing levels of inequality, an increase in a region’s income and educational inequality has a significant positive association with subsequent economic growth. Educational achievement is positively correlated with economic growth, but the impact of initial income levels is unclear. Finally, the results suggest that inequalities in educational attainment levels matter more for economic performance than average educational attainment. The above findings are not only robust to the definition of income distribution, but also across inequality measurements

Anales de Edafología y Agrobiología Tomo 38 Número 3-4

Suelos. Procesos geoedáficos de la génesis, evolución y desarrollo de la tierra parda meridional. IV perfiles desarrollados sobre roca filoniana: características morfológicas y físico-químicas, por A. Guerra Delgado y J. L. Moreno Alvarez.-- Suelos volcánicos españoles. V. Campo de Calatrava (Ciudad Real). Características morfológicas y químicas, por C. Vizcayno Muñoz, J. García Vicente y M. T. García González.-- Suelos volcánicos españoles. VI. Campo de Calatrava (Ciudad Real). Mineralogía de la fracción arcilla, por C. Vizcayno Muñoz, M. T. García González y J. García Vicente.-- Suelos volcánicos españoles. VII. Olot (Gerona). Mineralogía de las fracciones arena y limo, por C. Vizcayno Mu1ioz, T. Aleixandre y A. Pinilla.-- Estudio edáfico del sector Jabalcuz-Los Villares. l. Características generales, por J. Aguilar, C. Dorronsoro. C. Antolín y A. García.-- Vertisoles formados sobre materiales volcánicos (Islas Canarias). Typic chromusterts. II. Mineralogía de las arcillas. Interpretación y clasificación, por C. RodríguezPascual. E. Fernández-Caldas y C. M. Rodríguez-Hernández.-- Relaciones entre los elementos mayoritarios, minoritarios y traza en dos suelos de las Islas Canarias, por C. Vizcayno Muñoz, M. T. García González y J. García Vicente.-- Características del suelo y vegetación de un área salina limítrofe de la Marisma del Guadalquivir (Isla Menor), por M. Chaves Sánchez y J. M. Murillo Carpio.-- Suelo y vegetación de dos zonas salinas de la Marisma de Lebrija (Sevilla). II. Características de la vegetación por J. M. Murillo Carpio, M. Chaves Sánchez y C. Mazuelos Vela.-- Estudio de materiales coaliníticos de Sierra Morena occidental. III. Mineralogía y génesis de los materiales caoliníticos de los yacimientos paleozoicos de S. Telmo y Sta. Bárbara (Huelva) y el Álamo (Sevilla), por J. Poyato Perrera, J. L. Pérez Rodríguez, G. García Ramos y F. González García.-- Propiedades físicas y químicas en relación con la porosidad de los suelos : influencia del ciclo natural de humectación-desecación. l. Perfiles representativos, condiciones ambientales y muestreos considerado., en el estudio, por J. Martín Aranda y J. L. Arrue Ugarte.-- The PZC of Al,O, + SiO, mixtures, hy M. Tschapek, R. M. Torres Sánchez and C. Wasowski.—Fertilidad de los suelos. El uso de tensiómetros para medir la humedad de substratos orgamcos, por M. T. Felipó Oriol, O. Vendonck, l. Cappaert, J. Cardus y M. de Boodt.-- Estudio de las propiedades físicas de los substratos hortícolas, por M. T. Felipó Oriol, O. Verdonck, l. Cappaert y M. de Boodt.-- Estudio del umbral de coagulación de ácidos húmicos con Ca, Mn y Zn, por P. Reverte, T. Hernández, L. Reverte y F. Costa.-- Interacción de ácidos húmicos con Ca. Mn y Zn. Estudio de infrarrojo, por T. Hernández. P. Reverte, L. Reverte y F. Costa.-- Contribución al conocimiento del equilibrio de cationes en suelos calizos, por Antonio Lax v Francisco Gómez Amorós.-- Acción diferencial del nitrato y del amonio en la producción de Lolium perenne cultivado en prado artificial de siega continua, por F. Gil, A. Caballero y D. Guadilla.—Nutrición y Fisiología Vegetal. Crecimiento y metabolismo nitrogenado en plantas de Nicotiana rustica L. irradiadas con UV cercano. III. Nicotina, por M. Serrano y Mª T. Piñol.-- Los efectos del régimen hídrico y de distintos niveles de fertilidad sobre el rendimiento, calidad y tamaño del tomate de invierno. IV Efectos del régimen hídrico y del PK sobre el crecimiento y rendimiento del tomate, por V. Hernando y B. Orihuel Gasque.-- Ahijamiento y producción del trigo de primavera. l. Respuesta al nitrógeno, por V. J. Mangas Martín y L. Sánchez de la Puente.-- Absorción de nutrientes por trigo y malezas en el Sur de la provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina), por D. E. Buschiazzo y N. Peinemann.-- Notas.—BibliografíaPeer reviewe

Novelty and spatio–temporal heterogeneity in the bacterial diversity of hypersaline Lake Tebenquiche (Salar de Atacama)

14 pages, 7 figures, 3 tablesLake Tebenquiche is one of the largest saline water bodies in the Salar de Atacama at 2,500 m above sea level in northeastern Chile. Bacteria inhabiting there have to deal with extreme changes in salinity, temperature and UV dose (i.e., high environmental dissimilarity in the physical landscape). We analyzed the bacterioplankton structure of this lake by 16S rRNA gene analyses along a spatio–temporal survey. The bacterial assemblage within the lake was quite heterogeneous both in space and time. Salinity changed both in space and time ranging between 1 and 30% (w/v), and total abundances of planktonic prokaryotes in the different sampling points within the lake ranged between two and nine times 106 cells mL−1. Community composition changed accordingly to the particular salinity of each point as depicted by genetic fingerprinting analyses (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis), showing a high level of variation in species composition from place to place (beta-diversity). Three selected sites were analyzed in more detail by clone libraries. We observed a predominance of Bacteroidetes (about one third of the clones) and Gammaproteobacteria (another third) with respect to all the other bacterial groups. The diversity of Bacteroidetes sequences was large and showed a remarkable degree of novelty. Bacteroidetes formed at least four clusters with no cultured relatives in databases and rather distantly related to any known 16S rRNA sequence. Within this phylum, a rich and diverse presence of Salinibacter relatives was found in the saltiest part of the lake. Lake Tebenquiche included several novel microorganisms of environmental importance and appeared as a large unexplored reservoir of unknown bacteriaSampling and measurements carried out in Chile were funded by grants FONDECYT 1030441 and FONDEF D99I1026. Measurements carried out in Barcelona were funded by grant "ATACAMA-2002" (CICYT, BOS2002-10258-E). Grant "BIOARSENICO" from Fundación BBVA funds current workPeer reviewe