A certificação de serviços de informação em instituições hospitalares: o caso do Centro Hospitalar São João, EPE

Wooded properties in Inner Flanders during the XVIIIth century The old name of the region (Houtland) gives rise to questions bearing upon the extent of the wooded area. A serious untimbering characterizes some villages, but others are more wooded. Due attention is given to distribution of the woods ; different types of patterns can be defined. With these informations as a background, a quantitative approach has been uppermost in order to explain the size of the landed properties. The tables (I, II) reveal that there are many land holdings (88,46 % <3 ha). A correlation can be made between the structure of the flemish society and the number of the landowners. Two points are particularly striking. The clergy and the gentry are not the main estate owners. The analysis provides clear proof that the peasantry (crafsmen, agricultural labourers) and middle class own more woodlands which they rarely rent.Dans le «Pays au Bois», l'évaluation du taux de boisement, l'agencement des divers terroirs examinés conjointement avec la taille du foncier boisé, la part qu'il occupait dans l'ensemble de la propriété, permettent de préciser les originalités locales. Les grandes propriétés détenues par les ordres privilégiés ne réservaient pas la même part au bois. A Oudezeele, les biens fonciers uniquement composés de bois, la plupart du temps exploités par les propriétaires bourgeois non résidents ou paysans, caractérisaient la paroisse, où les bois se cantonnaient à l'Est. Disséminées dans le finage d'Arnèke, les micropropriétés boisées, incluses dans de modestes fortunes terriennes, s'harmonisaient au style parcellaire local.Foutrein Christiane. Propriétés boisées du Houtland sous l'ancien régime. In: Hommes et Terres du Nord, 1986/2-3. Actes du colloque Du pollen au cadastre pp. 182-185

Effects of long-term ethanol storage of blood samples on the estimation of telomere length

Telomeres, DNA structures located at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes, shorten with each cellular cycle. The shortening rate is affected by factors associated with stress, and, thus telomere length has been used as a biomarker of ageing, disease, and different life history trade-offs. Telomere research has received much attention in the last decades, however there is still a wide variety of factors that may affect telomere measurements and to date no study has thoroughly evaluated the possible long-term effect of a storage medium on telomere measurements. In this study we evaluated the long-term effects of ethanol on relative telomere length (RTL) measured by qPCR, using blood samples of magpies collected over twelve years and stored in absolute ethanol at room temperature. We firstly tested whether storage time had an effect on RTL and secondly we modelled the effect of time of storage (from 1 to 12 years) in differences in RTL from DNA extracted twice in consecutive years from the same blood sample. We also tested whether individual amplification efficiencies were influenced by storage time, and whether this could affect our results. Our study provides evidence of an effect of storage time on telomere length measurements. Importantly, this effect shows a pattern of decreasing loss of telomere sequence with storage time that stops after approximate 4 years of storage, which suggests that telomeres may degrade in blood samples stored in ethanol. Our method to quantify the effect of storage time could be used to evaluate other storage buffers and methods. Our results highlight the need to evaluate the long-term effects of storage on telomere measurements, particularly in long-term studies.Spanish Government CGL201455362-P BES-2015-075675 IJC2018-036411-

Great spotted cuckoo disregard information on conspecific breeding success while parasitizing magpie

Supplementary data are available at Behavioral Ecology online.The study of mechanisms underlying host selection by brood parasites usually lays on selection by parasites of host traits that inform on host parental abilities or location. However, brood parasites might use information extracted from past reproductive performance of either their hosts or themselves, a possibility almost neglected. In this study, we use a long-term data set to analyze whether the probability of parasitism by great spotted cuckoos (Clamator glandarius) of a magpie (Pica pica) nest in a given year is related with the reproductive outcome of any of the 2 species in the surroundings of that nest the previous year. We found that probability of parasitism for a nest in a year was explained by previous year cuckoo reproductive outcome and parasitism rate in the area surrounding the focal nest, but not by host reproductive outcome. To discern between the effect of parasitism rate and that of parasite reproductive success on parasite choices, we carried out an experiment modifying the natural correlation found between parasitism status and host and parasite success in the patches. The results showed that neither host nor cuckoo reproductive outcome in a patch after the experiment explained probability of parasitism in the following year. Only parasitism rate in the surroundings of a nest before the experiment explained probability of parasitism for this nest in the following year. Hence, these results indicate that great spotted cuckoos disregard social information related to past parasitism outcome, probably because parasitism outcome is tightly correlated with parasitism itself.Programa Juan de la Cierva-Formación Fellowship (FJCI-2015–26257)Junta de Andalucía (Proyecto P06-RNM-01862)Ministerio de Economía (proyectos CGL2014-56769-P y CGL2017-83503-P)Junta de Extremadura (contrato TA13002

Brood parasitism, provisioning rates and breeding phenology of male and female magpie hosts

Parental care is a costly behaviour that raises the prospects of offspring survival. In species with biparental care these costs are shared by both parents, although there may be a conflict regarding the relative investment of each sex. Avian brood parasites leave all the costs of rearing offspring to their hosts. The magnitude of these costs and their consequences on the relative role of both sexes in parental care and future reproduction remain mostly unknown. Here, we investigate whether provisioning rate of nestlings by magpie hosts Pica pica differs between broods parasitized by the great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius and non-parasitized broods, and whether the relative contribution of each sex to provisioning is affected by parasitism. Furthermore, we explore the effect of parasitism on magpie’s future reproduction. We found that provisioning rate was similar in parasitized and non-parasitized broods, and that the relative contribution of males and females was also similar, irrespectively of the parasitism status. However, rearing parasitic offspring seems to have a negative long-term effect on magpie’s breeding phenology in the following breeding season. Our results suggest that, although brood parasitism by great spotted cuckoos does not seem to influence the relative contribution of both sexes to parental care, it may entail long-term extra costs in terms of breeding delay for magpies.Junta de Andalucía (Proyecto P06-RNM-01862)Ministerio de Ciencia (proyecto CGL2014-55362-P)Programa Juan de la Cierva –Incorporación (IJC2018-036411-I)German Research Foundation (SFB TRR 212 (NC3) – Projectos n. 316099922 y 396782608

The Role of Intra-Clutch Variation of Magpie Clutches in Foreign Egg Rejection Depends on the Egg Trait Considered.

MM-M and JA conceived the idea and analyzed the data. MM-M led the writing of the manuscript. MP and JGM performed the experiment in the field work. JG and GL-C carried out the images processing and performed the analyzes related to fractal dimension. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.We thank Brian Peer for inviting us to contribute to this special issue. We are also indebted to Daniel Hanley and Vanina Dafne Fiorini for comments that greatly improved the manuscript.The existence of a coevolutionary process between avian brood parasites and their hosts predicts a lower intra-clutch variation in egg appearance of host eggs among rejecters as this would favor egg discrimination of parasite eggs by hosts once parasitic egg mimicry had evolved. So far empirical tests of this prediction have ignored the fact that different aspects of host egg phenotypes may differ in the relative role of environmental vs. genetic determination, and hence that the role of intra-clutch variation in egg rejection within a population cannot be invariant. Here, we estimated whether the intra-clutch variation in several aspects of host eggshell features is consistently associated to rejection of parasitic foreign eggs across years in a magpie host population parasitized by great spotted cuckoos. We innovatively estimated spottiness by means of the fractal dimension of eggs, which considers the homogeneity of spot pattern complexity in eggshells. Our results show that low intra-clutch variation in the blue-green coloration at the middle area of the eggs associated with a high chance of rejection, but only in one of the 3 years we conducted the study. In addition, females that rejected foreign eggs presented more homogenous spot patterns in their clutches as estimated by their fractal dimension than females that accepted experimental eggs, independently of the year of study. Finally, intra-clutch variation in egg volume of host eggs was not associated to rejection. Analyses at the individual level revealed that the relative role of genetic vs. environmental factors that determine egg phenotype would be feature-specific in magpies, females having a characteristic spottiness, but not color or volume, pattern. Our work stresses the importance of considering a holistic approach including several aspects of variation in host egg phenotype (size, color, and homogeneity of spot pattern), as some aspects might be more susceptible to selection through egg rejection than others, presumably because they are less influenced by variation in the environmental conditions. Moreover, our study highlights the importance of replication in studies on the adaptive value of host traits in egg rejection.This study was made possible through funding by the Spanish Ministry of Science through different projects (CGL2011-27561 and CGL2014-55362-P), a grant (BES-2015-075675), the Juan de la Cierva–Incorporación Fellowship (IJC2018-036411-I), and the Junta de Andalucía through a project (P06-RNM-01862)

Prospective cohort studies to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the 2013, 2014, and 2015 seasonal influenza vaccines produced by Instituto Butantan

Annual vaccination is the most effective way to prevent seasonal influenza illness. Instituto Butantan (IB) performed clinical studies with its 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasonal trivalent influenza vaccines (inactivated split-virion). Prospective cohort studies were carried out to describe the safety and immunogenicity of Instituto Butantan influenza vaccines, in healthy adults and elderly, from 2013 to 2015. Immediately after the informed consent was signed, participants underwent blood collection followed by vaccination. On study days 1, 2 and 3 post-vaccination participants were contacted by the staff to evaluate the occurrence of solicited (local and systemic) and non-solicited adverse reactions. On study day 21 (+7) subjects returned to the clinical site for final safety assessments and blood collection to evaluate post-vaccination immunogenicity. The immunogenicity analyses were performed by means of hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. The immunogenicity endpoints were: seroprotection (SPR) and seroconversion (SCR) rates and the geometric mean HI antibody titer ratio (GMTR). The 2013 study was conducted at the Centro de Referência para Imunobiológicos Especiais (CRIE) and at the Centro de Pesquisa Clínica do Instituto da Criança, Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo while the 2014 and 2015 studies were conducted at CRIE. The vaccine composition followed the WHO recommendation for the Southern hemisphere seasonal influenza vaccine. Fortyseven healthy adults and 13 elderly participated in the 2013 study, 60 healthy adults and 60 elderly in the 2014 study, and 62 healthy adults and 57 elderly in the 2015 study. In the 2013, 2014 and 2015 studies, pain was the most frequent local adverse reaction and headache the most frequent systemic adverse reaction. All observed adverse reactions were classified as mild or moderate and none as severe. SPR &gt;70% and SPR &gt;60% were observed in adults and elderly, respectively, for the three vaccine viruses, in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 studies. SCR &gt;40% was observed in adults, for the three vaccine viruses, only in the 2014 study and SCR &gt;30% was observed in the elderly, for the three vaccine viruses, only in the 2013 and 2014 studies. GMTR &gt;2.5 among adults, for the three vaccine viruses was only observed in the 2013 study and GMTR &gt;2.0 was observed among elderly, for the three vaccine viruses, in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 studies. The 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasonal influenza vaccines produced by Instituto Butantan were safe and immunogenic according to the immunogenicity criteria defined by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)

Who Smokes in Europe? Data From Twelve European Countries in the TackSHS Survey (2017-2018)

Background: Population data on tobacco use and its determinants require continuous monitoring and careful inter-country comparison. We aimed to provide the most up-to-date estimates on tobacco smoking from a large cross-sectional survey, conducted in selected European countries. Methods: Within the TackSHS Project, a face-to-face survey on smoking was conducted in 2017–2018 in 12 countries: Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain, representing around 80% of the 432 million European Union (EU) adult population. In each country, a representative sample of around 1,000 subjects aged 15 years and older was interviewed, for a total of 11,902 participants. Results: Overall, 25.9% of participants were current smokers (31.0% of men and 21.2% of women, P \u3c 0.001), while 16.5% were former smokers. Smoking prevalence ranged from 18.9% in Italy to 37.0% in Bulgaria. It decreased with increasing age (compared to Conclusions: These smoking prevalence estimates represent the most up-to-date evidence in Europe. From them, it can be derived that there are more than 112 million current smokers in the EU-28. Lower socio-economic status is a major determinant of smoking habit in both sexes

Who smokes in Europe? Data from 12 European countries in the TackSHS survey (2017-2018)

Background: Population data on tobacco use and its determinants require continuous monitoring and careful inter-country comparison. We aimed to provide the most up-to-date estimates on tobacco smoking from a large cross-sectional survey, conducted in selected European countries. Methods: Within the TackSHS Project, a face-to-face survey on smoking was conducted in 2017-2018 in 12 countries: Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain, representing around 80% of the 432 million European Union (EU) adult population. In each country, a representative sample of around 1,000 subjects aged 15 years and older was interviewed, for a total of 11,902 participants. Results: Overall, 25.9% of participants were current smokers (31.0% of men and 21.2% of women, P < 0.001), while 16.5% were former smokers. Smoking prevalence ranged from 18.9% in Italy to 37.0% in Bulgaria. It decreased with increasing age (compared to <45, multivariable odds ratio [OR] for ≥65 year, 0.31; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.27-0.36), level of education (OR for low vs high, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.17-1.48) and self-rated household economic level (OR for low vs high, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.74-2.42). The same patterns were found in both sexes. Conclusions: These smoking prevalence estimates represent the most up-to-date evidence in Europe. From them, it can be derived that there are more than 112 million current smokers in the EU-28. Lower socio-economic status is a major determinant of smoking habit in both sexes

An experimental test of host’s life history traits modulation in response to cuckoo parasitism risk

Hosts can counteract parasites through defences based on resistance and/or tolerance. The mechanistic basis of tolerance, which involve defensive mechanisms minimizing parasite damage after a successful parasitic attack, remains poorly explored in the study of cuckoo-host interactions. Here, we experimentally explore the possibility that the risk of great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius parasitism may induce tolerance defences in magpie Pica pica hosts through plasticity in life-history traits. We predict that magpies exposed to auditory cues indicating high parasitism risk will more likely exhibit resistance and/or modify their life-history traits to minimize parasitism costs (i.e. tolerance) compared to magpies under low parasitism risk. We found that manipulating the perceived parasitism risk did not affect host resistance (i.e. rejection of parasitic eggs) nor host life-history traits. Unexpectedly, host's egg volume increased over the season in nests exposed to auditory cues of control non-harmful hoopoes Upupa epops. Our results do not provide support for inducible defences (either based on resistance or tolerance) in response to risk of parasitism in magpie hosts. Even so, we encourage studying plastic expression of breeding strategies in response to risk of cuckoo parasitism to achieve a better understanding of the mechanistic basis of tolerance defences.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science/FEDER (Projects CGL2011-27561/BOS and CGL2014-56769-P to D. P. and J.M.A.). D.P. was supported by the Government of Extremadura while writing (contract number TA13002). M.E.G. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant number BES-2012-051898).