Fishless shallow lakes of Southern Patagonia as habitat for waterbirds at the onset of trout aquaculture

1. The Strobel Meseta, a basaltic plateau of Patagonia (Santa Cruz Province, Argentina), holds thousands of shallow fishless lakes that are prime habitat for many species of waterbirds, including some considered 'near threatened'. In recent years, several lakes have been stocked with trout which has created uncertainty about the potential effects on the recipient ecosystem. 2. Limnological and topographical analyses were performed in a group of 32 lakes of the Strobel Meseta in order to characterize and classify individual lakes of the meseta based on their limnological and topographic features, analyze the association between lake type and use by aquatic birds in general and by the endemic hooded grebe (Podiceps gallardoi) in particular, and evaluate the overlap between trout aquaculture and critical habitat for waterbirds. 3. The lakes were classified by multivariate analyses into four characteristic types: Turbid, high conductivity lakes (T), small vegetated lakes (SV) and larger lakes which were subdivided into either vegetated (LV) or unvegetated (LU). In general, macrophyte cover was the main classificatory variable, whereas conductivity, pH, surface, and depth contributed moderately. Large vegetated lakes were generally found to be important for waterbirds and provided critical habitat for the hooded grebe, whereas trout farmers largely favoured largeunvegetated lakes. However, since some large vegetated lakes have already been stocked, there is some level of geographical overlap between waterbird habitat and trout farming. 4. The existence of some level of spatial segregation between production and critical waterbird habitat affords opportunities for designing a spatially-based management system for trout aquaculture.Fil: Lancelotti, Julio Lucio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Sede Puerto Madryn; ArgentinaFil: Pozzi, Luciana Melina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Sede Puerto Madryn; ArgentinaFil: Yorio, Pablo Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina. Wildlife Conservation Society; Estados UnidosFil: Dieguez, Maria del Carmen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue; ArgentinaFil: Pascual, Miguel Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Sede Puerto Madryn; Argentin

Diagnosis and Stratification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infected Patients by Immunochemical Quantitative Determination of Pyocyanin From Clinical Bacterial Isolates

Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Monoclonal antibody; PyocyaninPseudomonas aeruginosa; Anticuerpo monoclonal; PiocianinaPseudomonas aeruginosa; Anticòs monoclonal; PiocianinaThe development of a highly sensitive, specific, and reliable immunochemical assay to detect pyocyanin (PYO), one of the most important virulence factors (VFs) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is here reported. The assay uses a high-affinity monoclonal antibody (mAb; C.9.1.9.1.1.2.2.) raised against 1-hydroxyphenazine (1-OHphz) hapten derivatives (PC1; a 1:1 mixture of 9-hydroxy- and 6-hydroxy-phenazine-2-carobxylic acids). Selective screening using PYO and 1-OHphz on several cloning cycles allowed the selection of a clone able to detect PYO at low concentration levels. The microplate-based ELISA developed is able to achieve a limit of detection (LoD) of 0.07 nM, which is much lower than the concentrations reported to be found in clinical samples (130 μM in sputa and 2.8 μM in ear secretions). The ELISA has allowed the investigation of the release kinetics of PYO and 1-OHphz (the main metabolite of PYO) of clinical isolates obtained from P. aeruginosa-infected patients and cultured in Mueller-Hinton medium. Significant differences have been found between clinical isolates obtained from patients with an acute or a chronic infection (~6,000 nM vs. ~8 nM of PYO content, respectively) corroborated by the analysis of PYO/1-OHphz levels released by 37 clinical isolates obtained from infected patients at different stages. In all cases, the levels of 1-OHphz were much lower than those of PYO (at the highest levels 6,000 nM vs. 300 nM for PYO vs. 1-OHphz, respectively). The results found point to a real potential of PYO as a biomarker of P. aeruginosa infection and the possibility to use such VF also as a biomarker for patient stratification[2] and for an effective management of these kinds of infections.This work has been funded by the Spanish Government to M-PM through the Ministry of Science and Innovation (SAF2015-67476-R, RTI2018-096278-B-C21, PI, M-PM) and by Fundació Marató de TV3 (201825-30-31, PI, M-PM). The Nb4D group is a consolidated research group (Grup de Recerca) of the Generalitat de Catalunya and has support from the Departament d’Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació de la Generalitat de Catalunya (expedient: 2017 SGR 1441). CIBER Actions are financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Moreover, BR-U has an FI fellowship from the AGAUR (Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris I de Recerca) of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya) (2019FI_B00289). El Fons social Europeu Inverteix en el teu futur

An expanded CRISPRi toolbox for tunable control of gene expression in Pseudomonas putida

Owing to its wide metabolic versatility and physiological robustness, together with amenability to genetic manipulations and high resistance to stressful conditions, Pseudomonas putida is increasingly becoming the organism of choice for a range of applications in both industrial and environmental applications. However, a range of applied synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches are still limited by the lack of specific genetic tools to effectively and efficiently regulate the expression of target genes. Here, we present a single‐plasmid CRISPR‐interference (CRISPRi) system expressing a nuclease‐deficient cas9 gene under the control of the inducible XylS/Pm expression system, along with the option of adopting constitutively expressed guide RNAs (either sgRNA or crRNA and tracrRNA). We showed that the system enables tunable, tightly controlled gene repression (up to 90%) of chromosomally expressed genes encoding fluorescent proteins, either individually or simultaneously. In addition, we demonstrate that this method allows for suppressing the expression of the essential genes pyrF and ftsZ, resulting in significantly low growth rates or morphological changes respectively. This versatile system expands the capabilities of the current CRISPRi toolbox for efficient, targeted and controllable manipulation of gene expression in P. putida.<br/

Social and health services offer in Primary Care attention of people older than 65

Rincón científico.La consolidación de poblaciones envejecidas en los países desarrollados, y concretamente en España, ha situado en primer plano la preocupación por la atención que recibe este grupo demográfico, tanto en lo que se refiere al aspecto social como al sanitario. El objetivo de este estudio es describir los servicios sociosanitarios y programas ofertados para la atención en domicilio de la población a partir de los 65 años. Este es un estudio descriptivo transversal realizado en 190 una muestra de conveniencia en las comunidades autónomas (CC.AA.) de Aragón, Baleares, Castilla y León, Navarra, Madrid y Cataluña durante el año 2004 a través de un cuestionario semiestructurado destinado a identificar servicios sanitarios y servicios sociales. En conjunto los programas y servicios sociosanitarios ofertados a esta población son muy similares en las CC.AA. estudiadas, pero existen diferencias en el grado de implantación de los mismos. Esto podría indicar que los cuidados llegan a la población de forma desigual según su lugar de residencia, con las consiguientes desigualdades en la atención recibida y por tanto con posibles desigualdades en salud, calidad de vida y bienestar.El presente trabajo forma parte del Proyecto Científico de la Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cuidados a Personas Mayores RIMARED (2003-2005) y financiado por el Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria. (G03/100).S

Environmental factors regulate soil microbial attributes and their response to drought in rangeland ecosystems

In ecosystems, soil microbial variables characterization are used to determine soil biological health and the response of soils to environmental stress. Although there are strong associations between plants and soil microorganisms, they may respond asynchronously to environmental factors and severe droughts. We aimed to: I) evaluate the special variation of soil microbiome such as microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN), soil basal respiration (SBR) and microbial indexes in eight rangeland sites located across an aridity gradient (distributed from arid to mesic climates); II) analyze the relative importance of main environmental factors (climate, soils, and plants) and their relationships with microbial variables in the rangelands; and III) assess the effect of drought on microbial and plant variables in field-based manipulative experiments. First, we found significant changes of microbial variables along a precipitation and temperature gradient. The responses of MBC and MBN were strongly dependent on soil pH, soil nitrogen (N), soil organic carbon (SOC), C:N ratio and vegetation cover. In contrast, SBR was influenced by the aridity index (AI), the mean annual precipitation (MAP), the soil pH and vegetation cover. MBC, MBN and SBR were negatively related with soil pH compared to the other factors (C, N, C:N, vegetation cover, MAP and AI) that had a positive relationship. Second, we found a stronger soil microbial variables response to drought in arid sites compared to humid rangelands. Third, the responses of MBC, MBN, and SBR to drought showed positive relationships with vegetation cover and aboveground biomass, but with different regression slopes, this suggest that plant and microbial communities responded differently to drought. The results from this study improve our understanding about the microbial response to drought in different rangelands, and may facilitate the development of predictive models on responses of soil microorganisms in carbon cycle under global change scenarios.Fil: Toledo, Santiago. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Cruz. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz; ArgentinaFil: Bondaruk, Viviana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Yahdjian, María Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Oñatibia, Gastón Rafael. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura; ArgentinaFil: Loydi, Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida; ArgentinaFil: Alberti, Juan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Bruschetti, Carlos Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Pascual, Jesus Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Peter, Guadalupe. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Atlántica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Agüero, Walter D.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Catamarca-La Rioja. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria La Rioja; ArgentinaFil: Namur, Pedro R.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Catamarca-La Rioja. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria La Rioja; ArgentinaFil: Blanco, Lisandro Javier. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Catamarca-La Rioja. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria La Rioja; ArgentinaFil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Cruz. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Santa Cruz; Argentin

Serials Spoken Here–Reports of Conferences, Institutes and Seminars

This quarter's column offers a report from the Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge, held May 14–17, 2016, in Timberline Lodge, Oregon, and also provides coverage of multiple sessions from the Kraemer Copyright Conference, held June 6–7, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Some reports are collected, as well, from the NASIG Annual Conference, held June 9–12, 2016, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held June 23–28, 2016, in Orlando, Florida. Lastly, there is a report from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information Congress, held August 13–19, 2016, in Columbus, Ohio. Topics covered include open access, linked data, copyright, text mining, e-resource management, and digitization

Family physician and endocrinologist coordination as the basis for diabetes care in clinical practice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To estimate the proportion of diabetic patients (DPts) with peripheral vascular disease treated at a primary health care site after an endocrinologist-based intervention, who meet ATP III and Steno targets of metabolic control, as well as to compare the outcome with the results of the patients treated by endocrinologists.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A controlled, prospective over 30-months period study was conducted in area 7 of Madrid. One hundred twenty six eligible diabetic patients diagnosed as having peripheral vascular disease between January 2003 and June 2004 were included in the study. After a treatment period of three months by the Diabetes team at St Carlos Hospital, 63 patients were randomly assigned to continue their follow up by diabetes team (Group A) and other 63 to be treated by the family physicians (FP) at primary care level with continuous diabetes team coordination (Group B). 57 DPts from Group A and 59 from Group B, completed the 30 months follow-up period. At baseline both groups were similar in age, weight, time from diagnosis and metabolic control. The main outcomes of this study were the proportion of patients meeting ATP III and Steno goals for HbA1c (%), Cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, albumine-to-creatinine excretion ratio (ACR), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), anti-aggregation treatment and smoking status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At the end of the follow up, no differences were found between the groups. More than 37% of diabetic patients assigned to be treated by FP achieved a HbA1c < 6.5%, more than 50% a ACR < 30 mg/g, and more than 80% reached low risk values for cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, diastolic blood pressure and were anti-aggregated, and 12% remained smokers. In contrast, less than 45% achieved a systolic blood pressure < 130 mm Hg, less than 12% had a BMI < 25 Kg.m-2 (versus 23% in group A; p < 0.05) and 49%/30% (men/women) had a waist circumference of low risk.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Improvements in metabolic control among diabetic patients with peripheral vascular disease treated at a primary health care setting is possible, reaching similar results to the patients treated at a specialized level. Despite such an improvement, body weight control remains more than poor in both levels, mainly at primary care level. General practitioner and endocrinologist coordination care may be important to enhance diabetes management in primary care settings.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Clinical Trial number ISRCTN75037597</p

Effects of mindfulness training on different components of impulsivity in borderline personality disorder : results from a pilot randomized study

Impulsivity is considered a core characteristic of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Previous research on the effects of mindfulness training (MT) has shown that it might modify impulsivity-related aspects of BPD. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of MT on various facets of impulsivity in BPD patients. Subjects with BPD diagnosis (n = 64) were randomly assigned to 10 weeks of MT (n = 32) or interpersonal effectiveness skills training (IE; n = 32). All participants were assessed pre- and post-intervention with a self-reported measure of impulsivity and five behavioral neuropsychological tasks to evaluate response inhibition, tolerance for delay rewards, and time perception. An interaction effect of time × group was only observed for some of the behavioral paradigms used. Participants in the MT group improved their ability to delay gratification and showed changes in time perception, consistent with a decrease in impulsivity. No differences were observed between treatments in terms of trait impulsivity and response inhibition. Mindfulness training might improve some aspects of impulsivity but not others. Further study is warranted to better determine the effects of mindfulness training on the components of impulsivity. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: . The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40479-015-0035-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized user