Assessment of microbial plankton diversity as an ecological indicator in the NW Mediterranean coast

High-throughput sequencing of microbial assemblages has been proposed as an alternative methodology to the traditional ones used in marine monitoring and environmental assessment. Here, we evaluated pico- and nanoplankton diversity as ecological indicators in NW Mediterranean coastal waters by comparing their diversity in samples subjected to varying degrees of continental pressures. Using metabarcoding of the 16S and 18S rRNA genes, we explored whether alphadiversity indices, abundance of Operational Taxonomic Units and taxonomic groups (and their ratios) provide information on the ecological quality of coastal waters. Our results revealed that only eukaryotic diversity metrics and a limited number of prokaryotic and eukaryotic taxa displayed potential in assessing continental influences in our surveyed area, resulting thus in a restrained potential of microbial plankton diversity as an ecological indicator. Therefore, incorporating microbial plankton diversity in environmental assessment could not always result in a significant improvement of current marine monitoring strategies.Preprint2,35

Experimental study of differentially rotating supersonic plasma flows produced by aluminium wire array Z-pinches

A novel approach to cylindrical wire array z-pinches has been developed in order to create a rotating plasma flow analogous to astrophysical accretion discs. The method involves subjecting the wire array to a cusp magnetic field (B_r) to create converging off axis ablation streams to form a rotating flow. The rotation is sustained by the ram pressure of the ablation streams in a quasi-equilibrium state for approximately 150 ns. This corresponds to one full rotation of the plasma about the axis. The rotating plasma is supersonic with Mach number ~2 and a radially constant rotation velocity between 60 and 75 km/s; the angular velocity therefore has an r^-1 dependence and the flow is differential. A Thomson scattering diagnostic is used to measure the electron and ion temperatures as Te ~30 eV and Ti >55 eV and the ionisation of the plasma (Z) between 6 and 8. These parameters are used to calculate the Reynolds number (10^5 to 10^6) and magnetic Reynolds numbers (20 to 100) which are large enough for viscous and resistive effects to be negligible on the large scale of the flow. These are of sufficient magnitude for the experiment to be scalable to astrophysical accretion discs. Further more the Reynolds number for the experiment is large enough for shear instabilities to manifest in the plasma. Some evidence for this can be seen in XUV images and Thomson spectra which indicate the development of perturbations and vorticity within the flow. Predictions for the growth rate of the Kelvin Helmholtz instability, 12 to 40 ns, agree reasonably well with the observed perturbation growth of ~30 ns. It is also possible that shear instabilities are driving hydrodynamic turbulence. Turbulent heating of the plasma could explain the approximately 500 eV increase in the ion temperature observed from some Thomson spectra. Further work is required however to prove the existence of shear flows and turbulence within the experiments.Open Acces

Púrpura de Schönlein-Henoch. A propósito de un caso en una deportista

Presentamos el caso de una deportista de natación sincronizada de 15 años de edad que presentó una púrpura de Schönlein-Henoch (también conocida como púrpura anafilactoide), una vasculitis sistémica de pequeños vasos, considerada la más frecuente en la infancia, y que afecta preferentemente a niños de entre 3 y 15 años, con prevalencia de los varones sobre las mujeres (2:1). La afección fue exclusivamente cutánea en forma de petequias, con diversos brotes de lesiones dérmicas, y su evolución fue benigna y autolimitada, sin precisar otro tratamiento que el reposo deportivo (como prevención de posibles complicaciones más graves) y los controles clínicos y analíticos correspondiente

A school-based program implemented by community providers previously trained for the prevention of eating and weight-related problems in secondary-school adolescents : the MABIC study protocol

Background: The prevention of eating disorders and disordered eating are increasingly recognized as public health priorities. Challenges in this field included moving from efficacy to effectiveness and developing an integrated approach to the prevention of a broad spectrum of eating and weight-related problems. A previous efficacy trial indicated that a universal disordered eating prevention program, based on the social cognitive model, media literacy educational approach and cognitive dissonance theory, reduced risk factors for disordered eating, but it is unclear whether this program has effects under more real-world conditions. The main aim of this effectiveness trial protocol is to test whether this program has effects when incorporating an integrated approach to prevention and when previously-trained community providers implement the intervention. Methods/design: The research design involved a multi-center non-randomized controlled trial with baseline, post and 1-year follow-up measures. Six schools from the city of Sabadell (close to Barcelona) participated in the intervention group, and eleven schools from four towns neighboring Sabadell participated in the control group. A total of 174 girls and 180 boys in the intervention group, and 484 girls and 490 boys in the control group were registered in class lists prior to baseline. A total of 18 community providers, secondary-school class tutors, nurses from the Catalan Government's Health and School Program, and health promotion technicians from Sabadell City Council were trained and delivered the program. Shared risk factors of eating and weight-related problems were assessed as main measures. Discussion: It will be vital for progress in disordered eating prevention to conduct effectiveness trials, which test whether interventions are effective when delivered by community providers under ecologically valid conditions, as opposed to tightly controlled research trials. The MABIC project will provide new contributions in this transition from efficacy to effectiveness and new data about progress in the integrated approach to prevention. Pending the results, the effectiveness trial meets the effectiveness standards set down by the Society for Prevention Research. This study will provide new evidence to improve and enhance disordered eating prevention programs

Partial gene catalog of deep samples (4000m) from a Global Metagenomics Expedition (Malaspina 2010)

The phylogenetic composition of the heterotrophic microbial community is depth stratified in the oceanic water column down to abyssopelagic layers. In the layers below the euphotic zone, it has been suggested that heterotrophic microbes rely largely on solubilized particulate organic matter as a carbon and energy source rather than on dissolved organic matter. To decipher whether changes in the phylogenetic composition with depth are reflected in changes in the bacterial and archaeal transporter proteins, we generated an extensive metaproteomic and metagenomic dataset of microbial communities collected from 100- to 5,000-m depth in the Atlantic Ocean