Coleópteros hipogeos protegidos o que requieren medidas de conservación en Cataluña

Coleòpters hipogeus protegits o que requereixen mesures de conservació a Catalunya La fauna hipogea es caracteritza per una estreta adaptació a les condicions adverses del domini subterrani. Tal grau d’especialització, però, fa que esdevingui especialment vulnerable a l’alteració del seu hàbitat. En l’àmbit de Catalunya hi ha diferents normes legislatives per a la conservació d’invertebrats amenaçats. De fet, bona part de les espècies de coleòpters incloses en el Decret 328/1992, del Pla d’Espais d’Interès Natural, (PEIN) o en el futur Catàleg de la Fauna Amenaçada de Catalunya (CFAC) estan associades al domini subterrani. El present treball recopila la normativa aplicable i altres documents relatius a la protecció de la fauna de coleòpters hipogeus de Catalunya. S’hi aporten dades faunístiques i biogeogràfiques actualitzades, així com la informació disponible sobre l’estat de conservació de les espècies considerades, la majoria endemismes circumscrits a una àrea reduïda. Finalment, es comenten breument els resultats del seguiment d’algunes d’aquestes espècies portat a terme durant els últims anys pel Departament d’Artròpodes del Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, en col·laboració amb l’Associació Catalana de Biospeleologia.Species of hypogean beetles that are protected or that require conservation measures  in Catalonia Hypogean species are characterized by their good  adaptation  to the adverse conditions of their subterranean habitats. Such specialization, however, makes them particularly vulnerable to alterations in their habitat. In the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, several legislative tools have been developed to  protect  threatened invertebrates and most  beetle species included in Decree 328/1992 protecting Areas of Natural Interest in Catalonia (PEIN) or considered in the future decree on the protection of Catalan invertebrates (CFAC) are linked to subterranean habitats. In the present revision we compile regulations and other documents relating to the protection of beetle hypogean fauna in Catalonia.  We provide updated faunistic and biogeographic data as well as information on the conservation status of the species, most of which are endemisms confined to a small area. Some of these species have been monitored in recent years by the Arthropod Department of the Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona (in collaboration with the Catalan Biospeleology Association) and the results of these studies are briefly discussed.La fauna hipogea se caracteriza por una estrecha adaptación a las condiciones adversas del dominio subterráneo. Tal grado de especialización, sin embargo, hace que resulte especialmente vulnerable a las alteraciones de su hábitat. En el ámbito de Cataluña existen diferentes normas legislativas para la conservación de invertebrados amenazados. De hecho, gran parte de las especies de coleópteros contempladas en el Decreto 328/1992, del Plan de Espacios de Interés Natural (PEIN), o en el futuro Catálogo de la Fauna Amenazada de Cataluña (CFAC) están asociadas al dominio subterráneo. El presente trabajo recopila la normativa aplicable y otros documentos relativos a la protección de la fauna de coleópteros hipogeos de Cataluña. Se aportan datos faunísticos y biogeográficos actualizados, así como la información disponible sobre el estado de conservación de las especies consideradas, la mayoría endemismos circunscritos a un área reducida. Por último, se comentan brevemente los resultados del seguimiento de algunas de estas especies realizado durante los últimos años por el Departamento de Artrópodos del Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Barcelona, en colaboración con la Asociación Catalana de Biospeleología

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.This study, carried out between October 2004 and November 2005 on the island of Tenerife, covers: (1) characterization of the irrigated crops and quantification of the gross irrigation requirements (GIRs) of each crop using surveys; (2) field evaluation of drip/micro, spray and sprinkle irrigation systems to obtain global distribution uniformity (DU) as indicated by the Cal Poly ITRC (Irrigation Training and Research Centre, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, USA); (3) analysis of on farm irrigation efficiency using local climatic data; and (4) inclusion of this data into a Geographic Information System (GIS). Crop GIRs show high deviations mainly because of the multiple microclimate conditions on the island, the irrigation methods used, the crop systems (greenhouses, etc) and the irrigation management. Field evaluation provided an average DU of 0.83 in drip/micro and spray irrigated banana crops, 0.69 in sprinkle irrigated ones, 0.58 in sprinkle irrigated horticulture and 0.81 for tomato crops (100% drip). Data showed that approximately 30% of the non-uniformity was due to pressure differences in the irrigation system, 3% due to unequal drainage, 7% due to unequal application rates, and 60% was due to other causes (which include manufacturing variation, plugging, and wear). Irrigation efficiency is around 80% in drip irrigated tomato and banana crops and 75% in sprinkle systems. Data showed that efficiency is slightly lower in greenhouses and mesh greenhouse crops than in non-protected crops basically due to the fact that although protected crops require less water, they receive an equal quantity of water. Inclusion of the data into a GIS makes possible a high level of agronomic water consumption control on the island

Analyzing the potential impact of BREXIT on the European research collaboration network

In this work, we study the impact that the withdrawal of institutions from the United Kingdom caused by BREXIT has on the European research collaboration networks. To this aim, we consider BREXIT as a targeted attack to those graphs composed by the European institutions that have collaborated in research projects belonging to the three main H2020 programs (Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership, and Societal Challenges). The consequences of this attack are analyzed at the global, mesoscopic, and local scales and compared with the changes suffered by the same collaboration networks when a similar quantity of nodes is randomly removed from the network. Our results suggest that changes depend on the specific program, with Excellent Science being the most affected by BREXIT perturbation. However, the structure of the integrated collaboration network is not significantly affected by BREXIT compared to the variations observed after the random removal of institutions

Regulation of lamellipodial persistence, adhesion turnover, and motility in macrophages by focal adhesion kinase

Macrophages are a key component of the innate immune system. In this study, we investigate how focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and the related kinase Pyk2 integrate adhesion signaling and growth factor receptor signaling to regulate diverse macrophage functions. Primary bone marrow macrophages isolated from mice in which FAK is conditionally deleted from cells of the myeloid lineage exhibited elevated protrusive activity, altered adhesion dynamics, impaired chemotaxis, elevated basal Rac1 activity, and a marked inability to form stable lamellipodia necessary for directional locomotion. The contribution of FAK to macrophage function in vitro was substantiated in vivo by the finding that recruitment of monocytes to sites of inflammation was impaired in the absence of FAK. Decreased Pyk2 expression in primary macrophages also resulted in a diminution of invasive capacity. However, the combined loss of FAK and Pyk2 had no greater effect than the loss of either molecule alone, indicating that both kinases function within the same pathway to promote invasion

El uso de glucocorticoides en neumonía grave adquirida de la comunidad

La neumonía es la inflamación del parénquima pulmonar debida a un agente infeccioso.Cuando afecta a la población no ingresada en un hospital, se denomina neumonía adquirida en la comunidad(NAC). La NAC grave suele representar entre el 3 y 18% de las NAC hospitalizadas con una mortalidadentre el 21 y 54%. Para evaluar la gravedad de la NAC se utilizan los criterios PSI (Pneumonia severityIndex). Los corticoesteroides son hormonas esteroideas, participan en diferentes procesos regulando lainflamación, el sistema inmunitario, así como la respuesta del organismo al estrés, etc. Los corticoidessintéticos y semisintéticos se utilizan en numerosos procesos patológicos.METODOLOGÍA: Desde la exposición de un escenario clínico, se planteó una pregunta estructurada paraluego realizar una búsqueda bibliográfica, con el objetivo de dar respuesta a la pregunta sobre si el uso decorticoterapia adyuvante en pacientes con NAC grave disminuye la mortalidad y la necesidad de asistenciarespiratoria mecánica.Se realizó una búsqueda en PubMed y se seleccionó el artículo: “Efficacy and safety of glucocorticoids inthe treatment of severe community-acquired pneumonia”ANALISIS DEL ARTICULO: Se realizó un análisis definiendo los valores de riesgo absoluto, riesgorelativo y el número necesario a tratar del grupo problema y grupo control tomando en cuenta las variablesmortalidad y necesidad de asistencia respiratoria mecánica. Por otro lado, se determinó el odds ratio con surespectivo intervalo de confianza del 95%.RECOMENDACIÓN FINAL: se recomienda el uso de corticoterapia adyuvante como tratamiento contrala NAC grave

Oval Domes: History, Geometry and Mechanics

An oval dome may be defined as a dome whose plan or profile (or both) has an oval form. The word Aoval@ comes from the latin Aovum@, egg. Then, an oval dome has an egg-shaped geometry. The first buildings with oval plans were built without a predetermined form, just trying to close an space in the most economical form. Eventually, the geometry was defined by using arcs of circle with common tangents in the points of change of curvature. Later the oval acquired a more regular form with two axis of symmetry. Therefore, an “oval” may be defined as an egg-shaped form, doubly symmetric, constructed with arcs of circle; an oval needs a minimum of four centres, but it is possible also to build polycentric ovals. The above definition corresponds with the origin and the use of oval forms in building and may be applied without problem until, say, the XVIIIth century. Since then, the teaching of conics in the elementary courses of geometry made the cultivated people to define the oval as an approximation to the ellipse, an “imperfect ellipse”: an oval was, then, a curve formed with arcs of circles which tries to approximate to the ellipse of the same axes. As we shall see, the ellipse has very rarely been used in building. Finally, in modern geometrical textbooks an oval is defined as a smooth closed convex curve, a more general definition which embraces the two previous, but which is of no particular use in the study of the employment of oval forms in building. The present paper contains the following parts: 1) an outline the origin and application of the oval in historical architecture; 2) a discussion of the spatial geometry of oval domes, i. e., the different methods employed to trace them; 3) a brief exposition of the mechanics of oval arches and domes; and 4) a final discussion of the role of Geometry in oval arch and dome design

Present and Future of Parkinson’s Disease in Spain: PARKINSON-2030 Delphi Project

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic progressive and irreversible disease and the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide. In Spain, it affects around 120.000-150.000 individuals, and its prevalence is estimated to increase in the future. PD has a great impact on patients' and caregivers' lives and also entails a substantial socioeconomic burden. The aim of the present study was to examine the current situation and the 10-year PD forecast for Spain in order to optimize and design future management strategies. This study was performed using the modified Delphi method to try to obtain a consensus among a panel of movement disorders experts. According to the panel, future PD management will improve diagnostic capacity and follow-up, it will include multidisciplinary teams, and innovative treatments will be developed. The expansion of new technologies and studies on biomarkers will have an impact on future PD management, leading to more accurate diagnoses, prognoses, and individualized therapies. However, the socio-economic impact of the disease will continue to be significant by 2030, especially for patients in advanced stages. This study highlighted the unmet needs in diagnosis and treatment and how crucial it is to establish recommendations for future diagnostic and therapeutic management of PD

The actin-myosin regulatory MRCK kinases: regulation, biological functions and associations with human cancer

The contractile actin-myosin cytoskeleton provides much of the force required for numerous cellular activities such as motility, adhesion, cytokinesis and changes in morphology. Key elements that respond to various signal pathways are the myosin II regulatory light chains (MLC), which participate in actin-myosin contraction by modulating the ATPase activity and consequent contractile force generation mediated by myosin heavy chain heads. Considerable effort has focussed on the role of MLC kinases, and yet the contributions of the myotonic dystrophy-related Cdc42-binding kinases (MRCK) proteins in MLC phosphorylation and cytoskeleton regulation have not been well characterized. In contrast to the closely related ROCK1 and ROCK2 kinases that are regulated by the RhoA and RhoC GTPases, there is relatively little information about the CDC42-regulated MRCKα, MRCKβ and MRCKγ members of the AGC (PKA, PKG and PKC) kinase family. As well as differences in upstream activation pathways, MRCK and ROCK kinases apparently differ in the way that they spatially regulate MLC phosphorylation, which ultimately affects their influence on the organization and dynamics of the actin-myosin cytoskeleton. In this review, we will summarize the MRCK protein structures, expression patterns, small molecule inhibitors, biological functions and associations with human diseases such as cancer

A fast synthesis route of boron-carbon-nitrogen ultrathin layers towards highly mixed ternary B-C-N phases

We report a direct and fast synthesis route to grow boron-carbon-nitrogen layers based on microwave-assisted plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) by using methylamine borane as a single source molecular precursor. This easy and inexpensive method allows controlled and reproducible growth of B-C-N layers onto thin Cu foils. Their morphological, structural, chemical, optical and transport properties have been thoroughly characterized by a number of different microscopies, transport and spectroscopic techniques. Though disorder and segregation into C-rich and h-BN-rich domains have been observed in ultrathin flat few layers, high doping levels have been reached, inducing strong modifications of the electronic, optical and transport properties of C-rich and h-BN-rich phases. This synthesis procedure can open new routes towards the achievement of homogeneous highly mixed ternary B-C-N phase