How Mediterranean Deciduous Trees Cope with Long Summer Drought? The Case of Quercus pyrenaica Forests in Western Spain.

The functional characteristics of Mediterranean deciduous trees provide an interesting model for investigating adaptative mechanisms to drought, useful to understand future changes of northern forests in scenery of climate change. In this article we analyse how a Mediterranean deciduous oak, Quercus pyrenaica, with a short vegetative period coincident with summer drought, cope with water deficit in that period. We revised published data on temporal dynamic of soil moisture and physiological status of tree leaves of several forest stands of Central–Western Spain and discuss the significance of soil water reserve and deep rooting system on the maintenance of tree transpiration and physiological activity of the trees along summer drought. Results revealed that (i) Q. pyrenaicaoak is only slightly water-limited during summer drought, (ii) Q. pyrenaicaoaks depend on thick weathered, porous bedrocks, and (iii) Q. pyrenaicais a well-performing deciduous oak to cope with increasing summer drought.Peer reviewe

Quercus suber dieback alters soil respiration and nutrient availability in Mediterranean forests

12 páginas.-- 5 figuras.-- 1 tablas.-- 106 referencias.-- Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12618.-- Data available from the Dryad Digital Repository, http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6nd4k (Avila et al. 2016)An increase in tree mortality rates has been recently detected in forests world-wide. However, few works have focused on the potential consequences of forest dieback for ecosystem functioning. Here we assessed the effect of Quercus suber dieback on carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in two types of Mediterranean forests (woodlands and closed forests) affected by the aggressive pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi. We used a spatially explicit neighbourhood approach to analyse the direct effects of Q. suber dieback on soil variables, comparing the impact of Q. suber trees with different health status, as well as its potential long-term indirect effects, comparing the impact of non-declining coexistent species. Quercus suber dieback translated into lower soil respiration rates and phosphorus availability, whereas its effects on nitrogen varied depending on forest type. Coexistent species differed strongly from Q. suber in their effects on nutrient availability, but not on soil respiration rates. Our models showed low interannual but high intra-annual variation in the ecosystem impacts of tree dieback. Synthesis. Our results support that tree dieback might have important short- and long-term impacts on ecosystem processes in Mediterranean forests. With this work, we provide valuable insights to fill the existent gap in knowledge on the ecosystem-level impacts of forest dieback in general and P. cinnamomi-driven mortality in particular. Because the activity and range of this pathogen is predicted to increase due to climate warming, these impacts could also increase in the near future altering ecosystem functioning world-wideThis research was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) projects CGL2008-04503-C03-03, CGL2010-21381 and CGL2011-26877. J.M.A. was supported by a FPU-MEC grant (AP2010-0229) and B.I. by a FPI-MICINN grant (BES-2009-017111).Peer reviewe

Bioadhesión sobre Alúmina. Propiedades superficiales

La alúmina es uno de los materiales cerámicos de mayor relevancia en usos biomédicos. Así, este trabajo hace una completa caracterización de su superficie a través de propiedades que son de especial importancia en aquellos procesos de interacción con superficies biológicas como son células y microorganismos. Tensión superficial, potencial zeta y rugosidad superficial se analizan utilizando métodos diversos. La tensión superficial se muestra en torno a 35 mJ m-2 aunque los valores dependen en muchos casos de la aproximación escogida y de los grupos de líquidos prueba necesarios para su determinación. El punto isoeléctrico aparece a pH = 4,6 lo que indica una carga superficial negativa cuando la alúmina se encuentre inmersa en líquidos fisiológicos (pH = 7). Los accidentes topográficos responsables de la macrorugosidad pueden considerarse de periodicidad en torno a 25um presentando alta variabilidad a escalas inferiores, por ello, es importante determinar la rugosidad a escalas próximas al tamaño de las células que intervienen en el proceso de adhesión

Influence of a Concurrent Exercise Training Intervention during Pregnancy on Maternal and Arterial and Venous Cord Serum Cytokines: The GESTAFIT Project

The aim of the present study was to analyze the influence of a supervised concurrent exercise-training program, from the 17th gestational week until delivery, on cytokines in maternal (at 17th and 35th gestational week, and at delivery) and arterial and venous cord serum. Fifty-eight Caucasian pregnant women (age: 33.5 +/- 4.7 years old, body mass index: 23.6 +/- 4.1kg/m(2)) from the GESTAFIT Project (exercise (n = 37) and control (n = 21) groups) participated in this quasi-experimental study (per-protocol basis). The exercise group followed a 60-min 3 days/week concurrent (aerobic-resistance) exercise-training from the 17th gestational week to delivery. Maternal and arterial and venous cord serum cytokines (fractalkine, interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, interferon (IFN)-gamma, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha) were assessed using Luminex xMAP technology. In maternal serum (after adjusting for the baseline values of cytokines), the exercise group decreased TNF-alpha (from baseline to 35th week, p = 0.02), and increased less IL-1 beta (from baseline to delivery, p = 0.03) concentrations than controls. When adjusting for other potential confounders, these differences became non-significant. In cord blood, the exercise group showed reduced arterial IL-6 and venous TNF-alpha (p = 0.03 and p = 0.001, respectively) and higher concentrations of arterial IL-1 beta (p = 0.03) compared to controls. The application of concurrent exercise-training programs could be a strategy to modulate immune responses in pregnant women and their fetuses. However, future research is needed to better understand the origin and clearance of these cytokines, their role in the maternal-placental-fetus crosstalk, and the influence of exercise interventions on them

Global ecological predictors of the soil priming effect.

Identifying the global drivers of soil priming is essential to understanding C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We conducted a survey of soils across 86 globally-distributed locations, spanning a wide range of climates, biotic communities, and soil conditions, and evaluated the apparent soil priming effect using 13C-glucose labeling. Here we show that the magnitude of the positive apparent priming effect (increase in CO2 release through accelerated microbial biomass turnover) was negatively associated with SOC content and microbial respiration rates. Our statistical modeling suggests that apparent priming effects tend to be negative in more mesic sites associated with higher SOC contents. In contrast, a single-input of labile C causes positive apparent priming effects in more arid locations with low SOC contents. Our results provide solid evidence that SOC content plays a critical role in regulating apparent priming effects, with important implications for the improvement of C cycling models under global change scenarios

Multicentric standardization of protocols for the diagnosis of human mitochondrial respiratory chain defects

The quantification of mitochondrial respiratory chain (MRC) enzymatic activities is essential for diagnosis of a wide range of mitochondrial diseases, ranging from inherited defects to secondary dysfunctions. MRC lesion is frequently linked to extended cell damage through the generation of proton leak or oxidative stress, threatening organ viability and patient health. However, the intrinsic challenge of a methodological setup and the high variability in measuring MRC enzymatic activities represents a major obstacle for comparative analysis amongst institutions. To improve experimental and statistical robustness, seven Spanish centers with extensive experience in mitochondrial research and diagnosis joined to standardize common protocols for spectrophotometric MRC enzymatic measurements using minimum amounts of sample. Herein, we present the detailed protocols, reference ranges, tips and troubleshooting methods for experimental and analytical setups in different sample preparations and tissues that will allow an international standardization of common protocols for the diagnosis of MRC defects. Methodological standardization is a crucial step to obtain comparable reference ranges and international standards for laboratory assays to set the path for further diagnosis and research in the field of mitochondrial diseases. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Global ecological predictors of the soil priming effect

Identifying the global drivers of soil priming is essential to understanding C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We conducted a survey of soils across 86 globally-distributed locations, spanning a wide range of climates, biotic communities, and soil conditions, and evaluated the apparent soil priming effect using 13C-glucose labeling. Here we show that the magnitude of the positive apparent priming effect (increase in CO2 release through accelerated microbial biomass turnover) was negatively associated with SOC content and microbial respiration rates. Our statistical modeling suggests that apparent priming effects tend to be negative in more mesic sites associated with higher SOC contents. In contrast, a single-input of labile C causes positive apparent priming effects in more arid locations with low SOC contents. Our results provide solid evidence that SOC content plays a critical role in regulating apparent priming effects, with important implications for the improvement of C cycling models under global change scenarios

Hierarchical spectral clustering reveals brain size and shape changes in asymptomatic carriers of <i>C9orf72</i>

Traditional methods for detecting asymptomatic brain changes in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or frontotemporal degeneration typically evaluate changes in volume at a predefined level of granularity, e.g. voxel-wise or in a priori defined cortical volumes of interest. Here, we apply a method based on hierarchical spectral clustering, a graph-based partitioning technique. Our method uses multiple levels of segmentation for detecting changes in a data-driven, unbiased, comprehensive manner within a standard statistical framework. Furthermore, spectral clustering allows for detection of changes in shape along with changes in size. We performed tensor-based morphometry to detect changes in the Genetic Frontotemporal dementia Initiative asymptomatic and symptomatic frontotemporal degeneration mutation carriers using hierarchical spectral clustering and compared the outcome to that obtained with a more conventional voxel-wise tensor- and voxel-based morphometric analysis. In the symptomatic groups, the hierarchical spectral clustering-based method yielded results that were largely in line with those obtained with the voxel-wise approach. In asymptomatic C9orf72 expansion carriers, spectral clustering detected changes in size in medial temporal cortex that voxel-wise methods could only detect in the symptomatic phase. Furthermore, in the asymptomatic and the symptomatic phases, the spectral clustering approach detected changes in shape in the premotor cortex in C9orf72. In summary, the present study shows the merit of hierarchical spectral clustering for data-driven segmentation and detection of structural changes in the symptomatic and asymptomatic stages of monogenic frontotemporal degeneration.© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV