Past and present potential distribution of the Iberian Abies species: A phytogeographic approach using pollen data and species distribution models

This is the accepted version of the following article: Alba-Sánchez, F., López-Sáez, J. A., Pando, B. B.-d., Linares, J. C., Nieto-Lugilde, D. and López-Merino, L. (2010), Past and present potential distribution of the Iberian Abies species: a phytogeographic approach using fossil pollen data and species distribution models. Diversity and Distributions, 16: 214–228, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00636.x/abstract.Aim - Quaternary palaeopalynological records collected throughout the Iberian Peninsula and species distribution models (SDMs) were integrated to gain a better understanding of the historical biogeography of the Iberian Abies species (i.e. Abies pinsapo and Abies alba). We hypothesize that SDMs and Abies palaeorecords are closely correlated, assuming a certain stasis in climatic and topographic ecological niche dimensions. In addition, the modelling results were used to assign the fossil records to A. alba or A. pinsapo, to identify environmental variables affecting their distribution, and to evaluate the ecological segregation between the two taxa. Location - The Iberian Peninsula. Methods - For the estimation of past Abies distributions, a hindcasting process was used. Abies pinsapo and A. alba were modelled individually, first calibrating the model for their current distributions in relation to the present climate, and then projecting it into the past—the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the Middle Holocene periods—in relation to palaeoclimate simulations. The resulting models were compared with Iberian-wide fossil pollen records to detect areas of overlap. Results - The overlap observed between past Abies refugia—inferred from fossil pollen records—and the SDMs helped to construct the Quaternary distribution of the Iberian Abies species. SDMs yielded two well-differentiated potential distributions: A. pinsapo throughout the Baetic mountain Range and A. alba along the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Range. These results propose that the two taxa remained isolated throughout the Quaternary, indicating a significant geographical and ecological segregation. In addition, no significant differences were detected comparing the three projections (present-day, Mid-Holocene and LGM), suggesting a relative climate stasis in the refuge areas during the Quaternary. Main conclusions - Our results confirm that SDM projections can provide a useful complement to palaeoecological studies, offering a less subjective and spatially explicit hypothesis concerning past geographic patterns of Iberian Abies species. The integration of ecological-niche characteristics from known occurrences of Abies species in conjunction with palaeoecological studies could constitute a suitable tool to define appropriate areas in which to focus proactive conservation strategies.The Andalusian Innovation, Science, and Industry Regional Ministry and the National Plan of the Spanish Government

Oral pathology in the Iberian Neanderthals

In 1994, a series of human bones was found at the Sidrón cave in Borines (Concejo de Piloña, Asturias), Spain. Since the investigators suspected that they were dealing with human remains from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the bones were collected by the Civil Guard, but were not subjected to archeological scrutiny. The finding was reported then to the corresponding authorities, who had them sent to the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology of the Forensic Institute of Madrid (Spain), where an anthropological study was undertaken. This revealed the extraordinary palaeoanthropological and palaeopathological interest of the remains. The specimen studied herein, a mandible catalogued as SDR 7-8 (SIDRON 7-8) by the Forensic Laboratory in Madrid (Spain) and belonging to Homo neanderthalensis, with an age of 90,000 to 40,000 years BCE, showed special characteristics of oral pathology, making it a specimen of great palaeodontological interest.Key words: Mandible, Neanderthal, oral pathology, Sidrón, Asturias

SERS study of thiocarbonyl compounds adsorbed on metal nanoparticles

Thiocarbonyl compounds have been reported to exhibit interesting biological and pharmacological properties but they are many often characterized by their toxicological effects. However the chemistry of thiobenzoic acid (TBA) and thiobenzamide (TB) has not been fully studied yet. Some of the biological studies of TBA are related to the tautomerism of thiocarboxylic acids and the important role that the -C(=O)-S and -C(=S)-O functional groups play in the catalytic activities of enzymes such as cysteine or serine proteases.1 On the other hand, TB and derivatives are well known hepatotoxins and have been used as inhibitor in enzymatic reactions and in pharmacy due to their microbial activity.2 From a chemical point of view, thiocarboxylates are an interesting type of molecules having two different donor atoms, a soft sulfur donor atom and a hard oxygen donor one. The presence of these unlike groups can lead to the bonding with metal surfaces. Likewise the interaction of thiobenzamide and their derivatives with metals is of great interest because both the sulfur and nitrogen atoms are also able to coordinate with the surface. Therefore the high affinity of these molecules for metal surfaces makes them suitable SERS target adsorbates. Taking advantage of the fact that SERS spectroscopy is both surface selective and highly sensitive we have attempted to determine the molecular structure of TBA and TB once they are adsorbed on the metal. The main objective of this work is focussed on discussing the observed vibrational wavenumber shifts of TBA and TB upon adsorption on silver nanoparticles. In this work the SERS substrates have been prepared by using different colloidal silver solutions according to the method described by Creighton et al.3 and Leopold and Lendl.4 The analysis of the vibrational wavenumbers shifts of the Raman and SERS spectra allow us to know the adsorption process (Figure 1). In the case of TBA, the wavenumber of the SERS band assigned to (C=O) vibrational mode shows an important blue shift up to 40 cm-1 with respect to the Raman whereas the (C-S) band undergoes a red shift up to 40 cm-1. These results suggest a unidentate coordination of TBA to the silver surface through the sulfur atom. On the other hand, the SERS band assigned in the case of TB to Amide III (mainly (CN)) exhibits a significant blueshift up to 41 cm-1, and the SERS band assigned to Amide I (mainly (CS)) shows a red shift up to 11 cm-1. These wavenumber shifts indicate that TB interacts to the silver surface through the sulfur atom. Interestingly, in previous SERS studies of pyridinecarboxamides and benzamide we have observed that some SERS bands assigned to 1;ring, Amide I (mainly (C=O)) and Amide III (mainly C-N)) show wavenumber shifts of +50, -50 and +10 cm-1, respectively, which were attributed to the deprotonation of carboxamide group.5,6 Finally, in order to verify experimental results DFT calculations have been carried out for different silver complexes of TBA and TB concluding that the unidentate coordination is the most likely interaction of both of them.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Satisfacción con los servicios deportivos del Campus Universitario de Espinardo

This study aims to determine the degree of user satisfaction with sports services University campus of Espinardo. The study involved 61 subjects of both sexes and with an age range between 18 and 66 years. A validated instrument was used for conducting the survey, "Assessment Questionnaire sports services (EPOD2)". The results show that customers show a high degree of satisfaction in virtually all dimensions analyzed. Paragraphs variety, modernity and maintenance of materials and possibilities of suggestions are those with a higher degree of dissatisfaction on the part of users of the facilities, although overall satisfaction level in these items remains greater than 50%. In conclusion, the satisfaction of users is very high, showing only needs to improve specific aspects of some dimensions.El presente estudio tiene como objetivo conocer el grado de satisfacción de los usuarios con los servicios deportivos del Campus Universitario de Espinardo. En el estudio participaron 61 sujetos de ambos sexos y con un rango de edad entre 18 y 66 años. Para la realización de la encuesta se utilizó un instrumento validado, el "Cuestionario de valoración de servicios deportivos (EPOD2)". Los resultados muestran como los clientes manifiestan un alto grado de satisfacción en prácticamente todas las dimensiones analizadas. Los apartados de variedad, modernidad y mantenimiento de materiales y posibilidades de sugerencias son los que presentan un mayor grado de descontento por parte de los usuarios de las instalaciones, aunque a nivel general la satisfacción en estos ítems sigue siendo superior al 50%. En conclusión, la satisfacción por parte de los usuarios es muy alta, manifestando solo necesidades de mejora en aspectos concretos de algunas dimensiones

Duración de sueño en personas mayores con síndrome metabólico

Sleep is a quality-of-life indicator. Sleep alterations have health consequences. The objective of the study was to analyze the sleep pattern in elderly people with metabolic syndrome. A cross-sectional study was carried out on a sample of 326 participants of node 01 of the PREDIMEDPLUS study (University of Malaga). The hours of sleep were quantified objectively with an accelerometer, and subjectively, with a self-reported questionnaire. The average duration of sleep (hours) measured with the accelerometer was higher in women (6.6±0.1) than in men (6.2±0.1); these data differ from self-reported data of 6.7h±0.1 hours in men and 7.3h±0.1 in women. 43% of men and 30% of women sleep less than 6 hours. A high percentage of participants have a poor sleep. In addition, future methodological investigations of sleep assessment are needed.El sueño es un indicador de la calidad de vida. Sus alteraciones pueden afectar la salud. El objetivo del estudio fue analizar el patrón de sueño en personas mayores con síndrome metabólico. Se realizó un estudio transversal en 326 participantes del nodo 01 del Estudio PREDIMEDPLUS (Universidad de Málaga). Las horas de sueño se cuantificaron de forma objetiva con un acelerómetro, y de manera subjetiva, a partir de un cuestionario. La duración media del sueño (horas) medida con el acelerómetro fue mayor en mujeres (6,6 ± 0,1) que en hombres (6,2 ± 0,1); estos datos difieren de los auto-declarados de 6,7 ± 0,1 horas en hombres y 7,3 ± 0,1 en mujeres. Un 43 % de hombres y un 30 % de mujeres duermen menos de 6 horas. Un alto porcentaje de los participantes tienen un sueño deficiente. Además, se necesitan futuras investigaciones metodológicas de la evaluación del sueño

Nikodym boundedness property for webs in sigma-algebras

[EN] A subset B of an algebra A of subsets of Omega is said to have property N if a B-pointwise bounded subset M of ba(A ) is uniformly bounded on A , where ba(A ) is the Banach space of the real (or complex) finitely additive measures of bounded variation defined on A with the norm variation. Moreover B is said to have property sN if for each increasing countable covering (B_m)_m of B there exists B_n which has property N and B is said to have property wN if given the increasing countable coverings (B_m_1 )_m_1 of B and (B_m_1m_2...m_pm_(p+1) )_m_(p+1) of B_m_1m_2...m_p , for each p,m_i &#8712; N, 1<= i <= p + 1, there exists a sequence (n_i )_i such that each B_n_1n_2...n_r , r &#8712; N, has property N. For a &#963;-algebra S of subsets of Omega it has been proved that S has property N (Nikodym Grothendieck), property sN (Valdivia) and property w(sN) (Kakol López-Pellicer). We give a proof of property wN for a &#963;-algebra S which is independent of properties N and sN. This result and the equivalence of properties wN and w2N enable us to give some applications to localization of bounded additive vector measures.This work was supported for the second named author by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Grant MTM2014-58159-PLópez Alfonso, S.; Mas Marí, J.; Moll López, SE. (2016). Nikodym boundedness property for webs in sigma-algebras. Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Serie A Matemáticas. 110(2):711-722. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-015-0260-4S7117221102Diestel, J.: Sequences and Series in Banach Spaces. Springer, New York (1984)Diestel, J., Uhl, J.J.: Vector Measures. Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 15. American Mathematical Society, Providence (1977)Dieudonné, J.: Sur la convergence de suites de measures de Radon. An. Acad. Brasi. Ciên. 23, 277–282 (1951)Ferrando, J.C.: Strong barrelledness properties in certain l_{0}^{\infty }({{\fancyscript {A}}} ) l 0 ∞ ( A ) spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 190, 194–202 (1995)Ferrando, J.C., López-Pellicer, M.: Strong barrelledness properties in $$l_{0}^{\infty }(X,{\cal A})$$ l 0 ∞ ( X , A ) and bounded finite additive measures. Math. Ann. 287, 727–736 (1990)Kakol, J., López-Pellicer, M.: On Valdivia strong version of Nikodym boundedness property, preprintKöthe, G.: Topological Vector Spaces I and II. Springer, Berlin (1979)López-Pellicer, M.: Webs and bounded finitely additive measures. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 210, 257–267 (1997)Nikodym, O.M.: Sur les familles bornées de fonctions parfaitement additives d’ensembles abstrait. Monatsh. Math. U. Phys. 40, 418–426 (1933)Schachermayer, W.: On some classical measure-theoretic theorems for non-sigma-complete Boolean algebras. Dissertationes Math. (Rozprawy Mat.) 214, 33 pp., 1982Valdivia, M.: On the closed graph theorem. Collect. Math. 22, 51–72 (1971)Valdivia, M.: On certain barrelled normed spaces. Ann. Inst. Fourier (Grenoble) 29, 39–56 (1979)Valdivia, M.: On Nikodym boundedness property, RACSAM Rev. R. Acad. Cienc. Exactas Fís. Nat. Ser. A Mat. 107, 355–372, 201

A cytoplasmic Slo3 isoform is expressed in somatic tissues

Slo3 is a pH-sensitive and weakly voltage-sensitive potassium channel that is essential for male fertility in mouse and whose expression is regarded as sperm-specific. These properties have proposed Slo3 as a candidate target for male contraceptive drugs. Nonetheless, the tissue distribution of Slo3 expression has not been rigorously studied yet. Applying computational and RT-PCR approaches, we identified expression of two short Slo3 isoforms in somatic mouse tissues such as brain, kidney and eye. These isoforms, which seem to result of transcription starting sites between exons 20 and 21, have an identical open reading frame, both encoding the terminal 381 amino acids of the cytosolic Slo3 domain. We corroborated the expression of these isoforms in mouse brain and testis by Western-blot. The complete isoform encoding the Slo3 ion channel was uniquely detected in testis, both at transcript and protein level. Although the functional role of the cytosolic Slo3 isoforms remains to be established, we propose that they may have a functional effect by modulating Slo channels trafficking and/or activity. This study confirms that expression of full-length Slo3 is sperm-specific but warns against developing contraceptive drugs targeting the C-terminal tail of Slo3 channels

The impact of age and comorbidity on the postoperative outcomes after emergency surgical management of complicated intra-abdominal infections

Age-adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (a-CCI) score has been used to weight comorbid conditions in predicting adverse outcomes. A retrospective cohort study on adult patients diagnosed with complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI) requiring emergency surgery was conducted in order to elucidate the role of age and comorbidity in this scenario. Two main outcomes were evaluated: 90-day severe postoperative complications (grade ≥ 3 of Dindo-Clavien Classification), and 90-day all-cause mortality. 358 patients were analyzed. a-CCI score for each patient was calculated and then divided in two comorbid categories whether they were ≤ or &gt; to percentile 75 (= 4): Grade-A (0–4) and Grade-B (≥ 5). Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed, and the predictive validity of the models was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curve. Independent predictors of 90-day severe postoperative complications were Charlson Grade-B (Odds Ratio [OR] = 3.49, 95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 1.86–6.52; p &lt; 0.0001), healthcare-related infections (OR = 7.84, 95%CI: 3.99–15.39; p &lt; 0.0001), diffuse peritonitis (OR = 2.64, 95%CI: 1.45–4.80; p &lt; 0.01), and delay of surgery &gt; 24 hours (OR = 2.28, 95%CI: 1.18–4.68; p &lt; 0.02). The AUROC was 0.815 (95%CI: 0.758–0.872). Independent predictors of 90-day mortality were Charlson Grade-B (OR = 8.30, 95%CI: 3.58–19.21; p &lt; 0.0001), healthcare-related infections (OR = 6.38, 95%CI: 2.72–14.95; p &lt; 0.0001), sepsis status (OR = 3.98, 95%CI: 1.04–15.21; p &lt; 0.04) and diffuse peritonitis (OR = 3.06, 95%CI: 1.29–7.27; p &lt; 0.01). The AUROC for mortality was 0.887 (95%CI: 0.83–0.93). Post-hoc sensitivity analyses confirmed that the degree of comorbidity, estimated by using an age-adjusted score, has a critical impact on the postoperative course following emergency surgery for cIAI. Early assessment and management of patient’s comorbidity is mandatory at emergency setting