Inaccessible rocky cliffs: An optimized method for plant data collection in extreme environments

P. 1199-1206Counts are normally used to assess the densities of plants. However, due to the physical characteristics of these sites, habitats and species associated with inaccessible rocky cliffs and other extreme environments pose additional challenges. It is therefore necessary to apply changes to the usual data collection methods. This system allows population sizes to be estimated from an incomplete data collection. This is important because when data collection sites are inaccessible, the fieldwork cannot be carried out within the time that is normally allocated. Furthermore, the minimum sampling effort involved enables economic resources to be saved. This method allows the time spent and the material, methodological and human resources used to be reduced while simultaneously allowing the highest level of accuracy to be maintained. • The minimum effort needed to carry out data collection of plants on vertical walls and other difficult-to-access environments is calculated. • The proposed method is based on the search for the theoretical distribution function with a better adjustment to the actual distribution of the studied species. • This system allows to reduce the necessary resources, while the maximum accuracy is maintained in the calculations.S

Optimal census method to estimate population sizes of species growing on rock walls: The case of mature Primula pedemontana

[EN] This study calculates the minimum effort needed to survey the species Primula pedemontana Thomas ex. Gaudin on the vertical walls of Aguja de Pastel in the Curavacas Massif (Spain). The short and variable period of flowering that this plant has, the inaccessibility and the physiognomy of the place in which it grows, the resources needed, as well as the meteorological harshness linked to the time of the year in which the censuses are carried out make it a priority to optimize the time spent on fieldwork. For this reason, we designed a method to reduce the sampling load. This method allows us to reduce the time spent and the material, methodological and human resources used in censuses, while maintaining the highest possible precisionS

Vaccination of rabbits with immunodominant antigens from Sarcoptes scabiei induced high levels of humoral responses and pro-inflammatory cytokines but confers limited protection

© 2016 The Author(s). Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.[EN]Background: Vaccination is an attractive ecological alternative to the use of acaricides for parasite control. However, effective anti-parasite vaccines against sarcoptic mange have not yet been developed. The purpose of this study was first to identify Sarcoptes scabiei immunodominant antigens and second to evaluate them as vaccine candidates in a rabbit/S. scabiei var. cuniculi model. Methods: The S. scabiei Ssλ15 immunodominant antigen was selected by immunoscreening of a S. scabiei var. hominis cDNA. The full-length cDNA was sequenced and cloned into the pGEX vector and the recombinant protein expressed in BL21 (DE3) cells and purified. A vaccination trial was performed consisting of a test group (n = 8) immunised with recAgs (a mix of two recombinant antigens, Ssλ15 and the previously described Ssλ20ΔB3) and a control group (n = 8) immunised with PBS. All analyses were performed with R Statistical Environment with α set at 0.050. Results: The full-length open reading frame of the 1,821 nt cloned cDNA encodes a 64 kDa polypeptide, the sequence of which had 96 % identity with a hypothetical protein of S. scabiei. Ssλ15 was localised by immunostaining of skin sections in the tegument surrounding the mouthparts and the coxa in the legs of mites. Rabbit immunisation with recAgs induced high levels of specific IgG (P < 0.010) and increased levels of total IgEs. However, no significant clinical protection against S. scabiei challenge was detected. Unexpectedly, the group immunised with the recAgs mix had significantly higher lesion scores (P = 0.050) although lower mean mite densities than those observed in the control group. These results might indicate that the lesions in the recAgs group were due not only to the mites density but also to an exacerbated immunological response after challenge, which is in agreement with the specific high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1 and TNFα) detected after challenge in this group. Conclusions: The selected antigens delivered as recombinant proteins had no clinical protective efficacy against S. scabiei infestation although immunisation reduced mite density. However, these results pave the way for future studies on alternative production systems, adjuvants, delivery methods and combinations of antigens in order to manage stimulation of clinical protective immune responses.SIThis work was partially funded by grant RTA11-00087-00-00 from the Spanish Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), AGL2010-22200-C02-01 from Spanish Ministry (MINECO) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant BBS/E/I/00002014

Global transpiration data from sap flow measurements : the SAPFLUXNET database

Plant transpiration links physiological responses of vegetation to water supply and demand with hydrological, energy, and carbon budgets at the land-atmosphere interface. However, despite being the main land evaporative flux at the global scale, transpiration and its response to environmental drivers are currently not well constrained by observations. Here we introduce the first global compilation of whole-plant transpiration data from sap flow measurements (SAPFLUXNET, https://sapfluxnet.creaf.cat/, last access: 8 June 2021). We harmonized and quality-controlled individual datasets supplied by contributors worldwide in a semi-automatic data workflow implemented in the R programming language. Datasets include sub-daily time series of sap flow and hydrometeorological drivers for one or more growing seasons, as well as metadata on the stand characteristics, plant attributes, and technical details of the measurements. SAPFLUXNET contains 202 globally distributed datasets with sap flow time series for 2714 plants, mostly trees, of 174 species. SAPFLUXNET has a broad bioclimatic coverage, with woodland/shrubland and temperate forest biomes especially well represented (80 % of the datasets). The measurements cover a wide variety of stand structural characteristics and plant sizes. The datasets encompass the period between 1995 and 2018, with 50 % of the datasets being at least 3 years long. Accompanying radiation and vapour pressure deficit data are available for most of the datasets, while on-site soil water content is available for 56 % of the datasets. Many datasets contain data for species that make up 90 % or more of the total stand basal area, allowing the estimation of stand transpiration in diverse ecological settings. SAPFLUXNET adds to existing plant trait datasets, ecosystem flux networks, and remote sensing products to help increase our understanding of plant water use, plant responses to drought, and ecohydrological processes. SAPFLUXNET version 0.1.5 is freely available from the Zenodo repository (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3971689; Poyatos et al., 2020a). The "sapfluxnetr" R package - designed to access, visualize, and process SAPFLUXNET data - is available from CRAN.Peer reviewe

Linfoma no hodgkin: reporte de un caso

Aunque su etiología aun no está claramente definida, los linfomas son proliferaciones malignas del sistema linfoide y se clasifican según su histología, como tipos hodgkin y no hodgkin. Los linfomas no hodgkin (LNH) comprenden todos los que no muestran en su constitución la célula de Red – Stemberg; son muy heterogéneos, no todos se localizan en ganglios linfáticos (como ejemplo de forma extraganglionar podemos citar los que se presentan asociados a la presencia de H. pylori en la mucosa del estómago), la mayoría con origen en los linfocitos B y tiene marcadores de superficie característicos de la propia membrana celular. La edad más común de presentación es aproximadamente la quinta década de vida y en adelante, actualmente los LNH se los puede dividir en dos grupos de acuerdo a su conducta clínica: indolentes y agresivos, aunque hay otras clasificaciones (Rappaport, REAL, Kiel, Working F., etc.) El diagnóstico definitivo lo da la biopsia apoyado en estudios de imágenes. Presentamos el caso de una paciente de sexo femenino, 60 años de edad, que consulta por adenopatía inguinal unilateral derecha, leve edema y dolor en miembro inferior derecho, con moderada pérdida de peso