El Protomedicato navarro : itinerario de una investigación

En este trabajo se expone la metodología empleada en el estudio del Protomedicato navarro. Aprovechando la peculiar situación del reino de Navarra entre los siglos XV y XIX, durante los que mantuvo plena autonomía, se acometió el estudio del Protomedicato navarro a través de los fondos documentales de las demás instituciones administrativas y políticas del reino. Entre estas instituciones cabe destacar la Cofradía de médicos, cirujanos y boticarios de Pamplona, cuya existencia influyó en su evolución

Electronic catalogue of urban contemporary cartography in Spain, 1800-1950

El campo de la cartografía histórica ha hecho muchos avances en los últimos años, no solo por el esfuerzo de los investigadores, sino también por la continua labor de digitalización, puesta en valor y difusión de los documentos disponibles en los diferentes archivos institucionales y privados, que en muchos casos ya están disponibles en repositorios digitales. Este proyecto se enmarca en esta voluntad de facilitación de la labor del investigador, a partir de la creación de un catálogo de cartografía urbana histórica entre el año 1800 y el 1950, que pretende ser un punto de partida y de encuentro para la creación de un directorio centralizado en el que se pueda tener disponible toda aquella cartografía que permita el estudio histórico de la ciudad en España. Este catálogo aúna casi 1.000 mapas de 131 ciudades, esperando poder ir ampliándose en un futuro cercano.The contemporary cartography field has made many advances in the last few years, not only because of the researchers' efforts, but also because of the digitalisation work. As a result of this task, many documents in private and institutional archives are now available in digital repositories. This project is framed in this will to ease researcher's work by the launch of an electronic catalogue of urban contemporary cartography in Spain between the years 1800 and 1950. The catalogue is aimed to be a starting and encounter point for the creation of a centralised directory to approach the historical study of the city in Spain. It combines more than 1.000 maps from 131 cities, waiting to be increased in a near future

Chromogenic Chemodosimeter Based on Capped Silica Particles to Detect Spermine and Spermidine

[EN] A new hybrid organic-inorganic material for sensing spermine (Spm) and spermidine (Spd) has been prepared and characterized. The material is based on MCM-41 particles functionalized with an N-hydroxysuccinimide derivative and loaded with Rhodamine 6G. The cargo is kept inside the porous material due to the formation of a double layer of organic matter. The inner layer is covalently bound to the silica particles, while the external layer is formed through hydrogen and hydrophobic interactions. The limits of detection determined by fluorimetric titration are 27 mu M and 45 mu M for Spm and Spd, respectively. The sensor remains silent in the presence of other biologically important amines and is able to detect Spm and Spd in both aqueous solution and cells.This research was funded by Spanish Government (RTI2018-100910-B-C42 and RTI2018100910-B-C44 (MCUI/AEI/FEDER, UE) and grant GRISOLIAP/2019/023.Barros, M.; López-Carrasco, A.; Amorós, P.; Gil Grau, S.; Gaviña, P.; Parra Alvarez, M.; El Haskouri, J.... (2021). Chromogenic Chemodosimeter Based on Capped Silica Particles to Detect Spermine and Spermidine. Nanomaterials. 11(3):1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano1103081811211

The silent extinction of freshwater mussels in Portugal

Freshwater mussels are one of the most threatened animal groups in the world. In the European Union, threatened and protected mussel species are not adequately monitored, while species considered to be common and widespread receive even less attention. This is particularly worrying in the Mediterranean region, where species endemism is high and freshwater habitats are severely affected by water scarcity. In the absence of hard data on population trends, we report here a long-term comparison of freshwater mussel assemblages at 132 sites covering 15 different hydrological basins in Portugal. This study reveals a widespread decline of 60 % in the number of sites and 67 % in the overall abundance of freshwater mussels across Portugal over the last 20 years, indicating that all species are rapidly declining and threatened with extinction. These results show that current legislation and conservation measures are largely ineffective and highlight the importance of updating the Habitats Directive to enforce standard monitoring protocols for threatened species in the European Union and to extend monitoring to other freshwater species thought to be common and widespread. Efficient water management, restrictions on irrigation expansion in important biodiversity areas, mitigation of hydrological changes and loss of aquatic habitat connectivity caused by physical alterations are urgently needed to reverse these declining population trends. For the severely endangered species Margaritifera margaritifera, Potomida littoralis, and Unio tumidiformis, where populations are now critically low, more urgent action is needed, such as ex-situ conservation, protection of remaining populations and large-scale habitat restoration.We would like to thank Jake Dimon, José Tourais, Filipe Rolo, and Elza Fonseca for their help in the surveys. This research was developed under the project EdgeOmics - Freshwater Bivalves at the edge: Adaptation genomics under climate-change scenarios (PTDC/CTA-AMB/3065/2020) funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through national funds. FCT also funded MLL under contract 2020.03608.CEECIND, EF under contract CEECINST/00027/2021/CP2789/CT0003, AGS under the grants SFRH/BD/137935/2018 and COVID/DB/152933/2022, and JGN under the grant 2020.04637. BD. The baseline survey was funded by the project “Documentos Estruturantes” (POA 1.100021) of the Instituto da Conservaçã da Natureza

Deciduous and evergreen oaks show contrasting adaptive responses in leaf mass per area across environments

• Increases in leaf mass per area (LMA) are commonly observed in response to environmental stresses and are achieved through increases in leaf thickness and/or leaf density. Here, we investigated how the two underlying components of LMA differ in relation to species native climates and phylogeny, across deciduous and evergreen species. • Using a phylogenetic approach, we quantified anatomical, compositional and climatic variables from 40 deciduous and 45 evergreen Quercus species from across the Northern Hemisphere growing in a common garden. • Deciduous from shorter growing seasons tended to have leaves with lower LMA and leaf thickness than those from longer growing seasons, while the opposite pattern was found for evergreens. For both habits, LMA and thickness increased in arid environments. However, this shift was associated with increased leaf density in evergreens but reduced density in deciduous species. • Deciduous and evergreen oaks showed fundamental leaf morphological differences that revealed a diverse adaptive response. While LMA in deciduous may diversified in tight coordination with thickness mainly modulated by aridity, diversification of LMA within evergreens appears dependent on the infrageneric group, with diversification in leaf thickness modulated by both aridity and cold, while diversification in leaf density only modulated by aridity.Publishe

Disentangling leaf structural and material properties in relation to their anatomical and chemical compositional traits in oaks (Quercus L.)

The existence of sclerophyllous plants has been considered an adaptive strategy against different environmental stresses. As it literally means “hard-leaved”, it is essential to quantify the leaf mechanical properties to understand sclerophylly. However, the relative importance of each leaf trait on mechanical properties is not yet well established. The genus Quercus is an excellent system to shed light on this since it minimizes phylogenetic variation while having a wide variation in sclerophylly. Thus, leaf anatomical traits and cell wall composition were measured, analyzing their relationship with LMA and leaf mechanical properties in a set of 25 oak species. Outer wall contributed strongly to leaf mechanical strength. Moreover, cellulose plays a critical role in increasing leaf strength and toughness. The PCA plot based on leaf trait values clearly separated Quercus species into two groups corresponding to evergreen and deciduous species. Sclerophyllous Quercus species are tougher and stronger due to their thicker epidermis outer wall and/or higher cellulose concentration. Furthermore, section Ilex species share common traits regardless of they occupy quite different climates. In addition, evergreen species living in Mediterranean-type climates share common leaf traits irrespective of their different phylogenetic origin.Unpublishe

Spanish adaptation of the 2016 European Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice

The VI European Guidelines for Cardiovascular Prevention recommend combining population and high-risk strategies with lifestyle changes as a cornerstone of prevention, and propose the SCORE function to quantify cardiovascular risk. The guidelines highlight disease specific interventions, and conditions as women, young people and ethnic minorities. Screening for subclinical atherosclerosis with noninvasive imaging techniques is not recommended. The guidelines distinguish four risk levels (very high, high, moderate and low) with therapeutic objectives for lipid control according to risk. Diabetes mellitus confers a high risk, except for subjects with type 2 diabetes with less than <10 years of evolution, without other risk factors or complications, or type 1 diabetes of short evolution without complications. The decision to start pharmacological treatment of arterial hypertension will depend on the blood pressure level and the cardiovascular risk, taking into account the lesion of target organs. The guidelines don't recommend antiplatelet drugs in primary prevention because of the increased bleeding risk. The low adherence to the medication requires simplified therapeutic regimes and to identify and combat its causes. The guidelines highlight the responsibility of health professionals to take an active role in advocating evidence-based interventions at the population level, and propose effective interventions, at individual and population level, to promote a healthy diet, the practice of physical activity, the cessation of smoking and the protection against alcohol abuse.S

Association of Candidate Gene Polymorphisms With Chronic Kidney Disease: Results of a Case-Control Analysis in the Nefrona Cohort

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major risk factor for end-stage renal disease, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Despite classical clinical risk factors for CKD and some genetic risk factors have been identified, the residual risk observed in prediction models is still high. Therefore, new risk factors need to be identified in order to better predict the risk of CKD in the population. Here, we analyzed the genetic association of 79 SNPs of proteins associated with mineral metabolism disturbances with CKD in a cohort that includes 2, 445 CKD cases and 559 controls. Genotyping was performed with matrix assisted laser desorption ionizationtime of flight mass spectrometry. We used logistic regression models considering different genetic inheritance models to assess the association of the SNPs with the prevalence of CKD, adjusting for known risk factors. Eight SNPs (rs1126616, rs35068180, rs2238135, rs1800247, rs385564, rs4236, rs2248359, and rs1564858) were associated with CKD even after adjusting by sex, age and race. A model containing five of these SNPs (rs1126616, rs35068180, rs1800247, rs4236, and rs2248359), diabetes and hypertension showed better performance than models considering only clinical risk factors, significantly increasing the area under the curve of the model without polymorphisms. Furthermore, one of the SNPs (the rs2248359) showed an interaction with hypertension, being the risk genotype affecting only hypertensive patients. We conclude that 5 SNPs related to proteins implicated in mineral metabolism disturbances (Osteopontin, osteocalcin, matrix gla protein, matrix metalloprotease 3 and 24 hydroxylase) are associated to an increased risk of suffering CKD

Coherent Assessments of Europe’s Marine Fishes Show Regional Divergence and Megafauna Loss

Europe has a long tradition of exploiting marine fishes and is promoting marine economic activity through its Blue Growth strategy. This increase in anthropogenic pressure, along with climate change, threatens the biodiversity of fishes and food security. Here, we examine the conservation status of 1,020 species of European marine fishes and identify factors that contribute to their extinction risk. Large fish species (greater than 1.5 m total length) are most at risk; half of these are threatened with extinction, predominantly sharks, rays and sturgeons. This analysis was based on the latest International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) European regional Red List of marine fishes, which was coherent with assessments of the status of fish stocks carried out independently by fisheries management agencies: no species classified by IUCN as threatened were considered sustainable by these agencies. A remarkable geographic divergence in stock status was also evident: in northern Europe, most stocks were not overfished, whereas in the Mediterranean Sea, almost all stocks were overfished. As Europe proceeds with its sustainable Blue Growth agenda, two main issues stand out as needing priority actions in relation to its marine fishes: the conservation of marine fish megafauna and the sustainability of Mediterranean fish stocks

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies, and the Distant Universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July