Study of Johnsons Glacier (Livingston Island, Antarctica) by means of shallow ice cores and their tephra and by analysis of 137Cs content

Amb l’objectiu de monitoritzar la dinàmica del casquet glacial de l’Illa de Livingston, el Departament de Geodinàmica i Geofísica de la Universitat de Barcelona va iniciar campanyes de mesura anuals a la glacera de Johnsons durant l’estiu austral de 1994-95. Durant aquesta campanya de camp es van dur a terme 10 sondejos de gel poc profunds, amb recuperació de testimoni continu, mostrejats ve rt icalment amb una sonda manual. Els objectius eren detectar la capa de cendres volcàniques dipositades a la superfície de la glacera, que s’atribueixen a l’erupció piroclàstica de l’illa Decepción de 1970, actualment interestratificada, ve r i ficar si aquesta capa pot ser utilitzada com a nivell guia, identificar l’horitzó enriquit en el radioisòtop 137Cs acumulat en l’estrat de neu corresponent a l’any 1965, actualment també interestratificada, utilitzar aquest nivell isòcron per comprovar la datació de la capa de cendres de 1970 i calcular la línia d’equilibri de la glacera i el seu balanç de massa mitjà per als últims 28 anys (1965-1993). L’ estratigrafia dels testimonis de gel dels sondejos, les seves corbes de densitat acumulada i les temperatures quasi isotermes del gel enregistrades confi rmen que la glacera de Johnsons és temperada. El vent, l’escalfament produït per la radiació solar i l’aigua líquida són els agents principals que controlen la redistribució horitzontal i ve rtical de les partícules, tant volcàniques com crioclàstiques, que sedimenten a la superfície de la glacera i hi romanen inter estratificades. Per causa d’aquesta redistribució, la capa de cendres no sempre és un bon nivell de referència. La posició altitudinal de la línia d’equilibri (ELA) el 1993, obtinguda de l’anàlisi per espectrometria del radioisòtop 137Cs, varia des de 200 m s.n.m fins a 250 ms.n.m. Això implica un ascens en l’altitud de la línia d’equilibri des de l’inici de la dècada de 1970 fins a l’actualitat. La diferent orientació dels vessants de la glacera de Johnsons respecte als vents predominants del NE provoca importants diferències locals en l’acumulació de neu que, localment, fa variar l’altitud de la línia d’equilibri. Als testimonis de gel estudiats el 137Cs sempre es troba associat a les partícules de la capa de cendres de 1970. Això implica l’existència d’un important episodi d’ablació en tota l’àrea mostrejada (com a mínim fins a una altitud de 330 m s.n.m.) que es va produir sincrònicament al dipòsit de la capa de cendres de 1970 o amb posterioritat. Una estimació a grans trets del balanç de massa indica un elevat gradient d’acumulació en funció de l’increment d’altitud de la glacera.With the aim of monitoring the dynamics of the Livingston Island ice cap, the Departament de Geodinàmica i Geofísica of the Universitat de Barcelona began yearly surveys in the austral summer of 1994-95 on Johnsons Glacier. During this field campaign 10 shallow ice cores were sampled with a manual ve rtical ice-core drilling machine. The objectives were: i) to detect the tephra layer accumulated on the glacier surface, attributed to the 1970 Deception Island pyroclastic eruption, today interstratified; ii) to verify wheter this layer might serve as a reference level; iii) to measure the 137Cs radio-isotope concentration accumulated in the 1965 snow stratum; iv) to use the isochrone layer as a mean of verifying the age of the 1970 tephra layer; and, v) to calculate both the equilibrium line of the glacier and average mass balance over the last 28 years (1965-1993). The stratigraphy of the cores, their cumulative density curves and the isothermal ice temperatures recorded confirm that Johnsons Glacier is a temperate glacier. Wind, solar radiation heating and liquid water are the main agents controlling the ve rtical and horizontal redistribution of the volcanic and cryoclastic particles that are sedimented and remain interstratified within the glacier. It is because of this redistribution that the 1970 tephra layer does not always serve as a very good reference level. The position of the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) in 1993, obtained by the 137Cs spectrometric analysis, varies from about 200 m a.s.l. to 250 m a.s.l. This indicates a rising trend in the equilibrium line altitude from the beginning of the 1970s to the present day. The varying slope orientation of Johnsons Glacier relative to the prevailing NE wind gives rise to large local differences in snow accumulation, which locally modifies the equilibrium line altitude. In the cores studied, 137Cs appears to be associated with the 1970 tephra layer. This indicates an intense ablation episode throughout the sampled area (at least up to 330 m a.s.l), which probably occurred synchronically to the 1970 tephra deposition or later. A rough estimate of the specific mass balance reveals a considerable accumulation gradient related to the increase with altitude

Formes et dépots glaciaires et périglaciaires de la Serra do Geres-Xurés (Portugal; Galiza) Levé cartographique

[Resumo] Apresentam-se os primeiros resultados de um levantamento cartográfico do pormenor das formas e depósitos glaciários e periglaciários da Serra do Geres-Xurés, levado a efeito por urna equipa de investigadores portugueses e espanhois. Os levantamentos de campo foram realizados nas escalas de 1:5.000 ou 1: 10.000 e tiveram urna importante componente sedimentológica, nomeadamente pelo estudo dos tzlls subglaciários, que se revelaram da maior importancia para o diagnóstico preciso de formas de erosao e de acumula~ao quase sempre pouco nítidas. Esse levantamento nao está ainda completo, mas é possível, desde já, deduzir várias conclus5es acerca da glacia~aoe da morfogénese periglaciária, que sao indicadas no final do texto principal[Résumé] Nous présentons les premiers résultats du levé cartographique détaillé mené par une équipe de chercheurs portugais et espagnols. Les levés de terrain ont été réalisés aux échelles du 1:5.000 ou du 1.10.000. Une attention particuliere a été accordée al'étude des tzlls sous-glaciaires, indispensables au diagnostic rigoureux de formes souvent trop peu claires. Ce levé pas encore terminé, mais il semble possible, des maintenat, de dégager quelques conclusions: 1) Présence, indiscutable, de manifestations glaciaires, tant du coté du Minho que du coté galicien. Cela confume, donc, idées de Schmidt-Thomé et de Coudé-Gaussen. 2) Les formes d' érosion et d' accumulation conservées révelent une glaciation essentiellement de cirque et de vallée. Dans une hypothése de glaciation restreinte, l'épaisseur maximale des langues glaciaires serait de l'ordre de 150 m. Mais ces manifestations représentent, tres probablement, un épisode de retrait des glaciers. L'étude des tills sous-glaciaires suggere, en effet, une glaciation plus ample, avec formation probable d'une calotte de plateau. 3) La répartition spatiale des manifestations glaciaires canographiées montre deux types de contraintes: a) structural, qui commande les directions de grandes vallées englacées; b) climatique, révélant une dyssimétrie NW-SE, avec accumulation préférentielle des neiges du coté oriental (probablement due aun effet d'abri vis-a-vis des vents dominants). 4) Absence d'une morphologie glaciaire typique, ce qui signifie que l'action des glaciers a été peu efficace; elle s'est limitée, pratiquement, a la destruetion et au transport des manteaux d'altérites pré-glaciaires. 5) Monotonie des manÍfestations periglaciaires; il s'agit, surtout, de versant réglés, avec tabliers d'éboulis, et de quelques coulées de solif1uxi6n. Mais c'est ala dynamique cryonivale que revient l'essentiel de l'a1lure des grands versants de la montagne. 6) Absence de pergélisol. Les éboulis et les blocs des grands versants ne sont pas dus ala macrogélifraction. Les actions cryonivales se sont certainement limitées au déchaussemet des blocs, déja préfigurés dans la roche par la fracturation tectonique et par la météoris~tion pré-glaciaire. 7) Absence d'une séparation nette entre l'étage périglaciaire et l'étage glaciaire, al'exception pres du versant galicien. Tout au plus peut-on parler d'un étage forestier (<<étage des arenes», COUDE-GAUSSEN, 1979, 1981), OU les actions cryonivales seraient tres limitees, et d'un étage «glacionival» (ETIICHER, 1988), pres de la limite des neiges persistante

Nova estratègia diagnòstica per la Tuberculosi : sí, però amb matisos

La realització de nous tests per diagnosticar la Infecció Latent per M.tuberculosi (ITBL), els TIGRAs, basats en la detecció d'una citosina relacionada amb la Resposta Immunològica Cel·lular que es desencadena contra el bacil tuberculós, sembla aportar noves llums al tractament de la infecció: són més sensibles i específics que el tractament estàndard de la Tuberculina (TST). Tot i així, encara es desconeix si la seva utilització posterior a un TST influeix en els resultats finals. Per això, i per ampliar aquesta línia d'investigació, un estudi de seguiment immunològic, dut a terme a la Unitat de Tuberculosi Experimental de l'hospital "Germans Trias i Pujol", ha obtingut uns resultats que demostren la necessitat d'aprofundir sobre aquest tema, malgrat alguns països valoren la possibilitat d'utilitzar-los seqüencialment

Looking behind occlusions: A study on amodal segmentation for robust on-tree apple fruit size estimation

The detection and sizing of fruits with computer vision methods is of interest because it provides relevant information to improve the management of orchard farming. However, the presence of partially occluded fruits limits the performance of existing methods, making reliable fruit sizing a challenging task. While previous fruit segmentation works limit segmentation to the visible region of fruits (known as modal segmentation), in this work we propose an amodal segmentation algorithm to predict the complete shape, which includes its visible and occluded regions. To do so, an end-to-end convolutional neural network (CNN) for simultaneous modal and amodal instance segmentation was implemented. The predicted amodal masks were used to estimate the fruit diameters in pixels. Modal masks were used to identify the visible region and measure the distance between the apples and the camera using the depth image. Finally, the fruit diameters in millimetres (mm) were computed by applying the pinhole camera model. The method was developed with a Fuji apple dataset consisting of 3925 RGB-D images acquired at different growth stages with a total of 15,335 annotated apples, and was subsequently tested in a case study to measure the diameter of Elstar apples at different growth stages. Fruit detection results showed an F1-score of 0.86 and the fruit diameter results reported a mean absolute error (MAE) of 4.5 mm and R2 = 0.80 irrespective of fruit visibility. Besides the diameter estimation, modal and amodal masks were used to automatically determine the percentage of visibility of measured apples. This feature was used as a confidence value, improving the diameter estimation to MAE = 2.93 mm and R2 = 0.91 when limiting the size estimation to fruits detected with a visibility higher than 60%. The main advantages of the present methodology are its robustness for measuring partially occluded fruits and the capability to determine the visibility percentage. The main limitation is that depth images were generated by means of photogrammetry methods, which limits the efficiency of data acquisition. To overcome this limitation, future works should consider the use of commercial RGB-D sensors. The code and the dataset used to evaluate the method have been made publicly available at https://github.com/GRAP-UdL-AT/Amodal_Fruit_SizingThis work was partly funded by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (grant 2021 LLAV 00088), the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (grants RTI2018-094222-B-I00 [PAgFRUIT project], PID2021-126648OB-I00 [PAgPROTECT project] and PID2020-117142GB-I00 [DeeLight project] by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF, a way of making Europe”, by the European Union). The work of Jordi Gené Mola was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Universities through a Margarita Salas postdoctoral grant funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU. We would also like to thank Nufri (especially Santiago Salamero and Oriol Morreres) for their support during data acquisition, and Pieter van Dalfsen and Dirk de Hoog from Wageningen University & Research for additional data collection used in the case study.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prophylactic Effect of a Therapeutic Vaccine against TB Based on Fragments of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The prophylactic capacity of the RUTI® vaccine, based on fragmented cells of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has been evaluated in respect to aerosol challenge with virulent bacilli. Subcutaneous vaccination significantly reduced viable bacterial counts in both lungs and spleens of C57Bl mice, when challenged 4 weeks after vaccination. RUTI® protected the spleen less than BCG. Following a 9 month vaccination-challenge interval, protection was observed for the lungs, but not for the spleen. Survival of infected guinea pigs was prolonged by vaccination given 5 weeks before challenge. Inoculations of RUTI® shortly after infection significantly reduced the viable bacterial counts in the lungs, when compared with infected control mice. Thus, vaccination by RUTI® has potential for both the prophylaxis and immunotherapy of tuberculosis

Aula d'Ecologia : cicles de conferències 1999 i 2000

Descripció del recurs: 13 juny 2007Conté: Rafael Argullol, Natura i ciutat en el canvi de mil·lenni ; Antoni Lloret, Energies per al segle XXI ; Jorge Wagensberg, Investigació científica i sostenibilitat: l'experiència amazònica ; Manuel Ludevid, El paper de les empreses en la societat sostenible ; Rafael Grasa, El paper de les ONG en la societat sostenible ; Luis Ángel Fernández Hermana, La comunicació en la transició cap a una societat sostenible ; Frederic Ximeno, Estratègies i eines de planificació territorial cap a una ciutat sostenible ; José Luis Porcuna, Estratègies agroecològiques cap a una agricultura sostenible ; Josep Germain, Estratègia catalana per a la biodiversitat ; Carles Gràcia, Els boscos i el funcionament sostenible del planeta ; Manuel Herce, El territori de la ciutat: criteris de sostenibilitat, ordenació i urbanització ; Josep Enric Llebot, Ciència i política del canvi climàtic ; Àlex Aguilar, L'extinció de les espècies: entre la ignorància i la tolerància ; Josep Olives, La ciutat com a idea d'equilibri ; Anna Cabré, Demografia i migracions al segle XXI: què és raonable preveure? ; Manolis Kogevinas, Càncer i exposicions mediambientals ; Ramon Arandes, L'aprofitament de les aigües del subsòl de Barcelona ; Rafael Simó, L'oceà i l'atmosfera, inseparables davant el canvi climàtic global ; Joan Caylà, Sobre el possible impacte mundial de la sida en la dècada 2000-2010 ; Jordi Serra Raventós, Ocupació del litoral i implicacions sobre el territori ; Joan Manuel Vilaplana, Catàstrofes i societat ; Montserrat Vilà, Causes i conseqüències de les invasions biològiques ; Josep Egozcue, Clonatge humà: tècnica i ètica ; Millán M. Millán, Contaminación fotoquímica en la cuenca mediterránea: revisión de los resultados de proyectos de investigación europeos ; Jaume Terradas i José Ángel Burriel, Mapa ecològic de Barcelona

Tobacco cessation among smokers under substance use treatment for alcohol and/or cannabis: study protocol and pilot study

Background: Approximately 80% of people with a substance use disorder (SUD) are smokers. Starting SUD treatment offers the opportunity to also quit smoking. The ACT-ATAC project aims to identify the predictors associated with smoking cessation among persons treated for alcohol and/or cannabis use disorder in Barcelona. This manuscript reports its methodology and the experience of carrying it out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Mixed methods project with three substudies. Substudy 1 (S1) comprises heterogeneous discussion groups among clinicians. S2 has two prospective cohorts composed of smokers under treatment for alcohol and/or cannabis use disorder and the clinicians in charge of these patients. Participating smokers will be followed for 12 months and interviewed about their substance use and the tobacco cessation services received using the Spanish version of the users' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Services (S-KAS) scale. The clinicians will be asked about their self-reported practices in smoking cessation using the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (S-KAP) scale. S3 comprises heterogeneous discussion groups with smokers. Data will be triangulated using qualitative and quantitative analyses. To facilitate the recruitment process, the researchers have introduced several strategies (design clear protocols, set monthly online meetings, extend the project, provide gift cards, etc.). Discussion: The results of S1 were used to develop the questionnaires. S2 required some adjustments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the follow-up interviews being conducted by phone instead of face-to-face, and the recruitment rhythm was lower than expected. Recruitment will last until reaching at least 200-250 users. The fieldwork could not have been possible without the collaboration of the ACT-ATAC team and the introduction of several strategies

Low Dose Aerosol Fitness at the Innate Phase of Murine Infection Better Predicts Virulence amongst Clinical Strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Background: Evaluation of a quick and easy model to determine the intrinsic ability of clinical strains to generate active TB has been set by assuming that this is linked to the fitness of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain at the innate phase of the infection. Thus, the higher the bacillary load, the greater the possibility of inducting liquefaction, and thus active TB, once the adaptive response is set. Methodology/Principal Findings: The virulence of seven clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated in Spain was tested by determining the bacillary concentration in the spleen and lung of mice at weeks 0, 1 and 2 after intravenous (IV) inoculation of 10 4 CFU, and by determining the growth in vitro until the stationary phase had been reached. Cord distribution automated analysis showed two clear patterns related to the high and low fitness in the lung after IV infection. This pattern was not seen in the in vitro fitness tests, which clearly favored the reference strain (H37Rv). Subsequent determination using a more physiological low-dose aerosol (AER) inoculation with 10 2 CFU showed a third pattern in which the three best values coincided with the highest dissemination capacity according to epidemiological data. Conclusions/Significance: The fitness obtained after low dose aerosol administration in the presence of the innate immune response is the most predictive factor for determining the virulence of clinical strains. This gives support to a mechanism o

TBVAC2020: Advancing tuberculosis vaccines from discovery to clinical development

TBVAC2020 is a research project supported by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission (EC). It aims at the discovery and development of novel tuberculosis (TB) vaccines from preclinical research projects to early clinical assessment. The project builds on previous collaborations from 1998 onwards funded through the EC framework programs FP5, FP6, and FP7. It has succeeded in attracting new partners from outstanding laboratories from all over the world, now totaling 40 institutions. Next to the development of novel vaccines, TB biomarker development is also considered an important asset to facilitate rational vaccine selection and development. In addition, TBVAC2020 offers portfolio management that provides selection criteria for entry, gating, and priority settings of novel vaccines at an early developmental stage. The TBVAC2020 consortium coordinated by TBVI facilitates collaboration and early data sharing between partners with the common aim of working toward the development of an effective TB vaccine. Close links with funders and other consortia with shared interests further contribute to this goal

Study of Johnsons Glacier (Livingston Island, Antarctica) by means of shallow ice cores and their tephra and by analysis of 137Cs content

With the aim of monitoring the dynamics of the Livingston Island ice cap, the Departament de Geodinàmica i Geofísica of the Universitat de Barcelona began ye a r ly surveys in the austral summer of 1994-95 on Johnsons Glacier. During this field campaign 10 shallow ice cores were sampled with a manual ve rtical ice-core drilling machine. The objectives were: i) to detect the tephra layer accumulated on the glacier surface, attributed to the 1970 Deception Island pyroclastic eruption, today interstratified; ii) to verify wheter this layer might serve as a reference level; iii) to measure the 1 3 7Cs radio-isotope concentration accumulated in the 1965 snow stratum; iv) to use the isochrone layer as a mean of verifying the age of the 1970 tephra layer; and, v) to calculate both the equilibrium line of the glacier and average mass balance over the last 28 years (1965-1993). The stratigr a p hy of the cores, their cumulative density curves and the isothermal ice temperatures recorded confi rm that Johnsons Glacier is a temperate glacier. Wi n d, solar radiation heating and liquid water are the main agents controlling the ve rtical and horizontal redistribution of the volcanic and cryoclastic particles that are sedimented and remain interstratified within the g l a c i e r. It is because of this redistribution that the 1970 tephra layer does not always serve as a ve ry good reference level. The position of the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) in 1993, obtained by the 1 3 7Cs spectrometric analysis, varies from about 200 m a.s.l. to 250 m a.s.l. This indicates a rising trend in the equilibrium line altitude from the beginning of the 1970s to the present day. The va rying slope orientation of Johnsons Glacier relative to the prevailing NE wind gives rise to large local differences in snow accumulation, which locally modifies the equilibrium line altitude. In the cores studied, 1 3 7Cs appears to be associated with the 1970 tephra laye r. This indicates an intense ablation episode throughout the sampled area (at least up to 330 m a.s.l), which probably occurred synchronically to the 1970 tephra deposition or later. A rough estimate of the specific mass balance reveals a considerable accumulation gradient related to the increase with altitude