Effects of historical land-use change in the Mediterranean environment

During the Holocene (last ~11,700 years), societies have continuously modified the landscape of the Mediterranean Basin through changes in land-use, exerting extraordinary pressures onto the environment and adding variability to the climate. Despite its importance to current land management, knowledge of how past land-use practices have impacted the regional climate of the Basin remains largely in the scientific sphere. Thereby, this work aims to inform non-scientific actors and practitioners about the environmental effects of past land-use changes on the hydrologic cycle of the Mediterranean Basin. For this purpose we: i) summarize fundamental observed interactions between land-use change and the environment, identified through a semi-systematic review of 23 scientific case-studies from around the Basin; ii) reflect on the consequences to the Mediterranean environment (atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere) in a synthesized and integrated way; iii) argue the need for taking into account the impact of local land-use practices from a regional-scale perspective; iv) highlight the importance of recognizing historical factors, such as past land-use changes, for developing protective strategies in the rural areas of the Basin. With this work, we provide a synthesized and more integrated understanding of the effects of past and local land-use changes in the regional Mediterranean environment, assisting to bridge the gap between scientific findings, Mediterranean watersheds stakeholders, and regional policy-makers. © 2020The authors would like to thank David Moreno (BC3) for his valuable reflections when developing the manuscript, Erik-Logan Hughes (MIT) for his help constructing the feedback network map, Ambika Markanday (BC3) for her language revisions, and three anonymous reviewers that improved this work with their constructive comments. This research is supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 program and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO through BC3 María de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM 2017-0714

Mg-rich carbonates mediated by a bacterium isolated from an extreme alkaline lake in Central Spain

Depto. de Mineralogía y PetrologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasFALSE(MINECO-FEDERpu

Component-Resolved in Vitro Diagnosis in Peach-Allergic Patients

BACKGROUND: The in vitro diagnosis of pollen-related food allergy presents low specifi city and reproducibility with many conventional extracts. This can be improved using natural purifi ed allergens, recombinant purifi ed allergens, or both. OBJECTIVE: We compared specifi c immunoglobulin (Ig) E determination (sIgE), the basophil activation test (BAT), the histamine release test (HRT), and the cellular allergen stimulation test (CAST) using natural and recombinant allergens in the diagnosis of peach allergy. METHODS: Thirty-two peach allergic patients were studied. Skin prick tests were performed with commercial peach and extract with Mal d 1, nPru p 3, and profi lin (nPho d 2). sIgE, BAT, CAST, and HRT were determined using rPru p 3, rMal d 3, rBet v 1, rMal d 1, and rMal d 4. RESULTS: Agreement between the techniques was good with all the allergens, except HRT with rMal d 1 and rMal d 4. With rPru p 3, sIgE, CAST, BAT, and HRT showed sensitivity values of 88%, 81%, 72%, and 69% and specifi city values of 100%, 93%, 97%, and 83%, respectively. In patients with systemic symptoms or contact urticaria, the values were 100%, 85%, 81%, and 81%. In patients with oral allergy syndrome, sensitivity to profi lins or homologues of Bet v 1 was detected in 100% of the cases by all the techniques, except by HRT with rMal d 1, which detected 66% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: The use of single allergens in the in vitro diagnosis of peach allergy by specifi c IgE determination, BAT, and CAST offers high specifi city and sensitivity, with better results than the HRT

Estrategias preventivas en la Práctica Odontológica Histología “A” y Odontología Preventiva y Comunitaria I

Ponencia presentada en la II Muestra Nacional de Innovaciones en la Enseñanza de la Odontología y IV Muestra Institucional de Innovaciones en la Enseñanza de la Odontología. Córdoba, 13 y 14 de septiembre de 2012.“La salud y la enfermedad son fenómenos sociales por su esencia y biológicos por su forma”. La Odontología Preventiva es una filosofía de práctica que debería impregnar transversalmente la práctica Odontológica en su conjunto como un Desafío de Anticipación. La integración mediante “intersecciones reales” estimula el desarrollo de competencias e incluye contenidos de varias disciplinas sin que se pierda la lógica propia de cada una de ellas, permitiendo enseñar los contenidos disciplinares con especificidad propia para establecer relaciones entre ellos. La integración entre ambas asignaturas, facilita la motivación de los alumnos, ya que pueden apreciar una mayor coherencia entre los contenidos y ver su relación con determinados núcleos ordenadores del saber.Fil: Sanz, A. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Departamento de Odontología Preventiva y Social. Cátedra de Odontología Preventiva y Comunitaria I; Argentina.Fil: Sica Sánchez, M. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Departamento de Odontología Preventiva y Social. Cátedra de Odontología Preventiva y Comunitaria I; Argentina.Fil: Sánchez Dagum, M. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Odontología. Departamento de Odontología Preventiva y Social. Cátedra de Odontología Preventiva y Comunitaria I; Argentina

Drug Repositioning as a Therapeutic Strategy against Streptococcus pneumoniae: Cell Membrane as Potential Target

A collection of repurposing drugs (Prestwick Chemical Library) containing 1200 compounds was screened to investigate the drugs’ antimicrobial effects against planktonic cultures of the respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae. After four discrimination rounds, a set of seven compounds was finally selected, namely (i) clofilium tosylate; (ii) vanoxerine; (iii) mitoxantrone dihydrochloride; (iv) amiodarone hydrochloride; (v) tamoxifen citrate; (vi) terfenadine; and (vii) clomiphene citrate (Z, E). These molecules arrested pneumococcal growth in a liquid medium and induced a decrease in bacterial viability between 90.0% and 99.9% at 25 µM concentration, with minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) also in the micromolar range. Moreover, all compounds but mitoxantrone caused a remarkable increase in the permeability of the bacterial membrane and share a common, minimal chemical structure consisting of an aliphatic amine linked to a phenyl moiety via a short carbon/oxygen linker. These results open new possibilities to tackle pneumococcal disease through drug repositioning and provide clues for the design of novel membrane-targeted antimicrobials with a related chemical structure.Depto. de Sanidad AnimalFac. de VeterinariaTRUEMCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033pu

Detection of peanut (Arachis hypogaea) allergens in processed foods by immunoassay: Influence of selected target protein and ELISA format applied

Direct competitive and sandwich ELISA formats developed to determine Ara h1 and Ara h2 proteins were applied in the detection of peanut in model biscuits prepared with a commercial peanut butter as ingredient. The sandwich format for Ara h2 protein could detect the addition of 2.5% peanut butter, whereas the same format for Ara h1 could not detect 5% added peanut. Direct competitive formats for Ara h1 and Ara h2 proteins could detect the addition of 1% and 0.05% peanut butter, respectively. Therefore, competitive format for Ara h2 was selected to be evaluated by four laboratories, obtaining adequate results in term of repeatability and reproducibility. Results obtained indicate that processing decreased the level of extracted proteins and underestimated the amount of Ara h1 and Ara h2 proteins, the effect being more severe for Ara h1. The selection of the target protein and the ELISA format applied greatly influence the detection of peanut in processed foods

Milk yield and genomewide expression profiling in the mammary gland of beef primiparous cows in response to the dietary management during the pre- and postweaning periods

Accelerated growth programs during prepubertal periods have been promoted to advance the first calving of beef heifers. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate nutrition-induced changes on first lactation milk yield and composition and on gene expression of the mammary gland in Parda de Montaña primiparous cows. Female calves (n = 16) were involved in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment. In the preweaning period (PRE-W; 0–6 mo), female calves were either fed a creep feed supplement (Creep) or fed only their dam’s milk (Control). In the postweaning period (POST-W; 6–15 mo), heifers received either a high-energy diet (91.7 MJ/d) or a moderate-energy diet (79.3 MJ/d). All the heifers were managed together from breeding (15 mo) to the end of their first lactation (32 mo). Animal performance; milk production and quantity during the first lactation; plasma glucose, IGF-I, and leptin concentrations; and RNA samples from the mammary gland at the end of the first lactation of the primiparous cows (32 mo) were analyzed. The BW and ADG of the primiparous cow during its first lactation were not different among treatments; however, creep feeding during PRE-W reduced milk production (P < 0.01), milk CP, crude fat, lactose, nonfat solids, and casein content throughout lactation and increased somatic cell count in the third (P < 0.05) and fourth month of lactation (P < 0.10). The energy level during the POST-W had no effect on milk production and quality. Gene expression in the mammary gland was affected by the diet in the PRE-W and POST-W, with the PRE-W diet having the greatest impact. During the PRE-W, creep feeding resulted in upregulation of genes related to immune response and chemokine activity, suggesting that these animals might be in a compromised immune status. Therefore, this strategy would not be recommendable; meanwhile, increasing the energy level in the diet during the POST-W would be recommendable, because it had no deleterious effects on milk yield and composition

Utilización de imagen termográfica en el diagnóstico de patologías caninas

La termografía es un método complementario de diagnóstico por imagen que se basa en que los cuerpos emiten y reflejan radiación infrarroja, y esta radiación es captada y cuantificada por la cámara termográfica que la convierte en imágenes digitales. Esta cámara presenta múltiples paletas de colores que permiten la interpretación de las variaciones de temperatura. Se ha ensayado la aplicación de esta técnica en dos casos clínicos en perros con patologías en piel, el primero de los cuales presentaba dermatitis costrosa por Hypoderma profunda en cara, cuello y relieves óseos como consecuencia de leishmaniosis. El segundo caso fue a la consulta del hospital veterinario con una masa en la región cervical. Mediante la termografía se pudo localizar y delimitar los contornos de las lesiones con precisión. En este trabajo se ha estudiado el potencial de la termografía como método de diagnóstico por imagen en la especie canina.Thermography is a complementary method of imaging diagnosis which is based on the infrared radiation that bodies emit and reflex; this radiation is received and quantified by the thermographic camera that turns them into digital images. This camera has a lot of colour palettes which allow us to understand the temperature changes. The application of this technique has been tested with two dog clinical cases, the 1st one was a dermatitis produced by deep pyoderma on face, neck and bones reliefs, all of these caused by leishmaniasis. The 2nd case came to the veterinary hospital presenting a mass located on the neck area. Thanks to thermography the injuries can be located and delimitated accurately. The potential of thermography for imaging diagnosis on canine species has been evaluated in this work