ESTROGENS IMPROVE THE CARDIOVASCULAR ALTERATIONS IN FRUCTOSE-INDUCED INSULIN RESISTANT OVARIECTOMIZED RATS

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the possible improving effects of 17-β estradiol (EST) and genistein (GEN) on the cardiovascular changes associated with fructose (21% in drinking water for 8 weeks)-induced insulin resistance.Methods: Sham-operated and ovariectomized mature female rats were included in this study. Insulin-resistant ovariectomized animals were sc treated with EST (100 µg/kg) or GEN (1 mg/kg) on the daily basis for 21 consecutive days.Results: Induction of insulin resistance in both sham-operated and ovariectomized rats decreased the vascular responsiveness of isolated aortic rings towards the vasoconstrictor norepinephrine and the vasodilator acetylcholine (Ach) with no changes towards the vasodilator sodium nitroprusside. Fructose-induced insulin resistance was also associated with an elevation in the blood pressure (BP) with decreased serum level of nitric oxide (NO). Treatment of insulin-resistant ovariectomized rats with either EST or GEN improved the vascular responsiveness of isolated aortic rings towards Ach and succeeded to reduce the elevated BP. Moreover, both EST and GEN decreased the insulin resistance/compensatory hyper insulinaemia. Treatment with EST increased serum NO level.Conclusion: EST and GEN have the ability to improve the endothelium-dependent relaxation in insulin-resistant ovariectomized rats and modulate the elevated BP.Â

Geophysical site assessment of an active urban development site, South Eastern Suburb of Cairo, Egypt

There has been significant structural damage of newly-built residential buildings in Quarter-27 District in the South of Cairo, Egypt. The proximity of an active limestone quarry may also be affecting ground stability. This paper shows how a near-surface geophysics survey could characterize the site, unusually after the initial housing construction had already been undertaken. Geophysical surveys included seismic refraction (acquired between phases of quarry blasting), electrical resistivity and ground penetrating radar 1D and 2D datasets. Geophysical results produced maps of a 3D ground model that also included water table depth, known major faults and a saturated layer that may have caused the building damage. ERT and GPR data was deemed optimal of the geophysical techniques trialled. This study shows that it is possible to undertake geophysical surveys to characterize a restricted urban site development

Assessment of vapor pressure deficit variability and trends in Spain and possible connections with soil moisture

The Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) is one of the most relevant surface meteorological variables; with important implications in ecology, hydrology, and atmosphere. By understanding the processes involved in the variability and trend of the VPD, it is possible to assess the possible impacts and implications related to both physical and human environments, like plant function, water use efficiency, net ecosystem production, atmospheric CO2 growth rate, etc. This study analysed recent temporal variability and trends in VPD in Spain between 1980 and 2020 using a recently developed high-quality dataset. Also, the connection between VPD and soil moisture and other key climate variables (e.g. air temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity) was assessed on different time scales varying from weekly to annual. The objective was to determine if changes in land-atmosphere feedbacks connected with soil moisture and evapotranspiration anomalies have been relevant to assess the interannual variability and trends in VPD. Results demonstrate that VPD exhibited a clear seasonality and dominant positive trends on both the seasonal (mainly spring and summer) and annual scales. Rather, trends were statistically non-significant (p > 0.05) during winter and autumn. Spatially, VPD positive trends were more pronounced in southern and eastern of Spain. Also, results suggest that recent trends of VPD shows low contribution of variables that drive land-atmosphere feedbacks (e.g. evapotranspiration, and soil moisture) in comparison to the role of global warming processes. Notably, the variability of VPD seems to be less coupled with soil moisture variability during summertime, while it is better interrelated during winter, indicating that VPD variability would be mostly related to climate variability mechanisms that control temperature and relative humidity than to land-atmosohere feedbacks. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of assessing driving forces and physical mechanisms that control VPD variability using high-quality climate datasets, especially, in semiarid and sub-humid regions of the world

Increased Vegetation in Mountainous Headwaters Amplifies Water Stress During Dry Periods

The dynamics of blue and green water partitioning under vegetation and climate change, as well as their different interactions during wet and dry periods, are poorly understood in the literature. We analyzed the impact of vegetation changes on blue water generation in a central Spanish Pyrenees basin undergoing intense afforestation. We found that vegetation change is a key driver of large decreases in blue water availability. The effect of vegetation increase is amplified during dry years, and mainly during the dry season, with streamflow reductions of more than 50%. This pattern can be attributed primarily to increased plant water consumption. Our findings highlight the importance of vegetation changes in reinforcing the decrease in water resource availability. With aridity expected to rise in southern Europe over the next few decades, interactions between climate and land management practices appear to be amplifying future hydrological drought risk in the region.This work was supported by projects CGL2017-82216-R, PCI2019-103631, and PID2019-108589RA-I00 financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER; CROSSDRO project financed by AXIS (Assess-ment of Cross(X)-sectoral climate Impacts and pathways for Sustainable transformation), JPI-Climate co-funded call of the European Commission and INDECIS which is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462). Dhais Peña-Angulo received a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral contract (FJCI-2017-33652 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MEC). Miquel Tomas-Burguera received a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral contract (FJCI-2019-039261-I Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation). C. Azorin-Molina and S. Grainger. acknowledge funding from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency grant 2019-CCRP-MS.60. C. Juez acknowl-edges funding from the H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 programme (Marie Sklodows-ka-Curie Actions) of the European Union under REA grant agreement, number 834329-SEDILAND

Long-term precipitation in Southwestern Europe reveals no clear trend attributable to anthropogenic forcing

We present a long-term assessment of precipitation trends in Southwestern Europe (1850-2018) using data from multiple sources, including observations, gridded datasets and global climate model experiments. Contrary to previous investigations based on shorter records, we demonstrate, using new long-term, quality controlled precipitation series, the lack of statistically significant long-term decreasing trends in precipitation for the region. Rather, significant trends were mostly found for shorter periods, highlighting the prevalence of interdecadal and interannual variability at these time-scales. Global climate model outputs from three CMIP experiments are evaluated for periods concurrent with observations. Both the CMIP3 and CMIP5 ensembles show precipitation decline, with only CMIP6 showing agreement with long term trends in observations. However, for both CMIP3 and CMIP5 large interannual and internal variability among ensemble members makes it difficult to identify a trend that is statistically different from observations. Across both observations and models, our results make it difficult to associate any declining trends in precipitation in Southwestern Europe to anthropogenic forcing at this stage

Marketing motivations influencing food choice in 16 countries: segmentation and cluster analysis.

Food behaviour is governed by different kinds of motivations, some of individual nature and others related with the external food environment. This study investigated the eating motivations in sixteen countries with respect to commercial and marketing influences on food choices. The questionnaire survey was developed between September 2017 and June 2018, via online tools, targeting a convenience sample of residents in sixteen countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the United States of America). The number of valid responses received was 11,919 participants. The data were treated using SPSS software, and the main statistical techniques used included exploratory factor analysis, evaluation of internal reliability through Cronbach’s alpha, cluster analysis (hierarchical and k-means) and logistic regression. The results obtained showed two groups of people: low motivated and notably motivated consumers. The results showed high asymmetries between countries, with highest percentage of highly motivated consumers in Egypt and the lowest percentage of highly motivated in Portugal. It was further observed that consumers more influenced by commercial and marketing aspects (the notably motivated) tend to be women, young, single, less educated, less likely to be professionally active, and those who live mostly in rural or suburban areas. Less exercise and overweight are also factors associated with greater propensity for commercial and marketing motivations. Furthermore, health problems such as shellfish or gluten intolerance, hypertension and high cholesterol confer less propensity to be in the segment of the notably motivated consumers. In conclusion, this work highlighted the role of geographic, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors as food choice determinants.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Expression of MK-1 and RegⅣ and its clinicopathological significances in the benign and malignant lesions of gallbladder

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To study the expression of MK-1 and RegⅣ and to detect their pathological significances in benign and malignant lesions of gallbladder.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The expression of MK-1 and RegⅣ was detected by immunohistochemical method in paraffin-embedded sections of surgical resected specimens from gallbladder adenocarcinoma (n = 108), peritumoral tissues (n = 46), adenomatous polyp (n = 15), and chronic cholecystitis (n = 35).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The positive rate of MK-1 or RegⅣ expression was significantly higher in gallbladder adenocarcinoma than that in peritumoral tissues (χ²_MK-1= 18.76, <it>P </it>< 0.01; χ²_RegⅣ= 9.92, <it>P </it>< 0.01), denomatous polyp (χ²_MK-1= 9.49, <it>P </it>< 0.01; χ²_RegⅣ= 8.59, <it>P </it>< 0.01) and chronic cholecystitis (χ²_MK-1= 24.11, <it>P </it>< 0.01; χ²_RegⅣ= 19.24, <it>P </it>< 0.01). The positive cases of MK-1 and/or RegⅣ in the benign lesions showed moderately- or severe-atypical hyperplasia of gallbladder epitheli. The positive rates of MK-1 were significantly higher in the cases of well-differentiated adenocarcinoma, no-metastasis of lymph node, and no-invasiveness of regional tissues than those in the ones of differentiated adenocarcinoma, metastasis of lymph node, and invasiveness of regional tissues in gallbladder adenocarcinoma (<it>P </it>< 0.05 or <it>P </it>< 0.01). On the contrary, the positive rates of RegⅣ were significantly lower in the cases of well-differentiated adenocarcinoma, no-metastasis of lymph node, and no-invasiveness of regional tissues than those in the ones of differentiated adenocarcinoma, metastasis of lymph node, and invasiveness of regional tissues in gallbladder adenocarcinoma (<it>P </it>< 0.05 or <it>P </it>< 0.01). Univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that decreased expression of MK-1 (<it>P </it>= 0.09) or increased expression of RegⅣ (<it>P </it>= 0.003) was associated with decreased overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that decreased expression of MK-1 (<it>P </it>= 0.033) and increased expression of RegⅣ (<it>P </it>= 0.008) was an independent prognostic predictor in gallbladder adenocarcinoma.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The expression of MK-1 and/or RegⅣ might be closely related to the carcinogenesis, clinical biological behaviors, and prognosis of gallbladder adenocarcinoma.</p

Long-term variability and trends in meteorological droughts in Western Europe (1851-2018)

We analyzed long-term variability and trends in meteorological droughts across Western Europe using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Precipitation data from 199 stations spanning the period 1851-2018 were employed, following homogenisation, to derive SPI-3 and SPI-12 series for each station, together with indices on drought duration and severity. Results reveal a general absence of statistically significant long-term trends in the study domain, with the exception of significant trends at some stations, generally covering short periods. The largest decreasing trends in SPI-3 (i.e. increasing drought conditions) were found for summer in the British and Irish Isles. In general, drought episodes experienced in the last two or three decades have precedents during the last 170 years, emphasising the importance of long records for assessing change. The main characteristic of drought variability in Western Europe is its strong spatial diversity, with regions exhibiting a homogeneous temporal evolution. Notably, the temporal variability of drought in Western Europe is more dominant than long-term trends. This suggests that long-term drought trends cannot be confirmed in Western Europe using precipitation records alone. This study provides a long-term regional assessment of drought variability in Western Europe, which can contribute to better understanding of regional climate change during the past two centuries.This work was supported by the research projects PCIN-2015-220 and CGL2017- 82216-R financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER, IMDROFLOOD financed by the WaterWorks 2014 co-funded call of the European Commission, CROSSDRO financed by the AXIS (Assessment of Cross(X) – sectorial climate Impacts and pathways for Sustainable transformation) JPI-Climate co-funded call of the European Commission, INDECIS, which is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR), FCT (PT) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462), Irish Research Council COALESCE grant 2019/43