Multicentre, randomised, single-blind, parallel group trial to compare the effectiveness of a Holter for Parkinson's symptoms against other clinical monitoring methods: study protocol

Introduction In recent years, multiple studies have aimed to develop and validate portable technological devices capable of monitoring the motor complications of Parkinson's disease patients (Parkinson's Holter). The effectiveness of these monitoring devices for improving clinical control is not known. Methods and analysis This is a single-blind, cluster-randomised controlled clinical trial. Neurologists from Spanish health centres will be randomly assigned to one of three study arms (1:1:1): (a) therapeutic adjustment using information from a Parkinson?s Holter that will be worn by their patients for 7 days, (b) therapeutic adjustment using information from a diary of motor fluctuations that will be completed by their patients for 7 days and (c) therapeutic adjustment using clinical information collected during consultation. It is expected that 162 consecutive patients will be included over a period of 6 months. The primary outcome is the efficiency of the Parkinson?s Holter compared with traditional clinical practice in terms of Off time reduction with respect to the baseline (recorded through a diary of motor fluctuations, which will be completed by all patients). As secondary outcomes, changes in variables related to other motor complications (dyskinesia and freezing of gait), quality of life, autonomy in activities of daily living, adherence to the monitoring system and number of doctor?patient contacts will be analysed. The noninferiority of the Parkinson's Holter against the diary of motor fluctuations in terms of Off time reduction will be studied as the exploratory objective. Ethics and dissemination approval for this study has been obtained from the Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge Ethics Committee. The results of this study will inform the practical utility of the objective information provided by a Parkinson's Holter and, therefore, the convenience of adopting this technology in clinical practice and in future clinical trials. We expect public dissemination of the results in 2022.Funding This work is supported by AbbVie S.L.U, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III [DTS17/00195] and the European Fund for Regional Development, 'A way to make Europe'

MEDIDAS PARA LA CONSERVACIÓN DE LA BIODIVERSIDAD DE LOS POLINIZADORES SILVESTRES EN LA PENÍNSULA IBÉRICA

Los científicos y científicas abajo firmantes consideramos muy importante hacer llegar a instituciones, agricultores/as y a la sociedad en general, la necesidad urgente de implementar conjuntamente medidas y cambios que consigan frenar el declive de los polinizadores silvestres ocasionado por la actividad humana. Durante la última década, son múltiples los estudios que alertan de la creciente desaparición de los polinizadores por todo el mundo, en concreto de las abejas silvestres, (Biesmeijer et al. 2006; Potts et al. 2010; Burkle et al. 2013), y de las graves consecuencias que su déficit podría provocar sobre la biodiversidad global (Biesmeijer et al. 2006; Burkle et al. 2013; Lundgren et al. 2016) y sobre la producción agrícola (Aizen y Harder 2009; Garibaldi et al. 2013). No debemos olvidar que la península Ibérica es, por su condición mediterránea y su proximidad al continente africano, uno de los lugares con mayor diversidad de polinizadores de la Unión Europea y, en concreto, una de las zonas con mayor diversidad de abejas del mundo (Michener 2007; Nieto et al. 2014). Hasta el momento, el número de especies de abejas en España presentes en la zona íbero-balear es algo superior a 1.100, cifra a la que cabe añadir algunas especies exclusivas de Portugal más los nuevos hallazgos de los últimos años (Ortiz-Sánchez 2011). Esta gran diversidad de abejas y polinizadores en general está asociada al gran número de especies de plantas con flor presentes en la península Ibérica, alrededor de las 7.000 especies (Aguado Martín et al. 2015). En cuanto al número de mariposas y polillas (lepidópteros) se estima que existen en la península Ibérica unas 5.000 especies (Stefanescu et al. 2018). Más difícil es estimar el número exacto de especies de escarabajos florícolas (coleópteros polinizadores), pero atendiendo a la riqueza de los principales géneros podemos estimar su número en más de 750 (Stefanescu et al. 2018). Somos conscientes de que, a pesar del desarrollo explosivo de los últimos 10 años de la investigación en ecología y gestión de la polinización de los cultivos por insectos silvestres, hoy en día son numerosas las lagunas de conocimiento básico y aplicado sobre el estado de conservación de los insectos polinizadores silvestres. Y es, bajo esta premisa, que presentamos este trabajo de revisión de la literatura científica sobre insectos polinizadores desde principios del siglo XX hasta ahora, cuyo resultado ha quedado plasmado en una lista, no exhaustiva, de los aspectos que consideramos fundamentales para el desarrollo y debate de esta relevante cuestió

Opportunities to reduce pollination deficits and address production shortfalls in an important insect pollinated crop

Pollinators face multiple pressures and there is evidence of populations in decline. As demand for insect-pollinated crops increases, crop production is threatened by shortfalls in pollination services. Understanding the extent of current yield deficits due to pollination and identifying opportunities to protect or improve crop yield and quality through pollination management is therefore of international importance. To explore the extent of ‘pollination deficits’, where maximum yield is not being achieved due to insufficient pollination, we use an extensive dataset on a globally important crop, apples. We quantified how these deficits vary between orchards and countries as well as compare ‘pollinator dependence’ across different apple varieties. We found evidence of pollination deficits and in some cases, risks of over-pollination were even apparent where fruit quality could be reduced by too much pollination. In almost all regions studied we found some orchards performing significantly better than others, in terms of avoiding a pollination deficit and crop yield shortfalls due to sub-optimal pollination. This represents an opportunity to improve production through better pollinator and crop management. Our findings also demonstrate that pollinator dependence varies considerably between apple varieties in terms of fruit number and fruit quality. We propose that assessments of pollination service and deficits in crops can be used to quantify supply and demand for pollinators and help target local management to address deficits although crop variety has a strong influence on the role of pollinators

Base de datos de abejas ibéricas

Las abejas son un grupo extremadamente diverso con más de 1000 especies descritas en la península ibérica. Además, son excelentes polinizadores y aportan numerosos servicios ecosistémicos fundamentales para la mayoría de ecosistemas terrestres. Debido a los diversos cambios ambientales inducidos por el ser humano, existen evidencias del declive de algunas de sus poblaciones para ciertas especies. Sin embargo, conocemos muy poco del estado de conservación de la mayoría de especies y de muchas de ellas ignoramos cuál es su distribución en la península ibérica. En este trabajo presentamos un esfuerzo colaborativo para crear una base de datos de ocurrencias de abejas que abarca la península ibérica e islas Baleares que permitirá resolver cuestiones como la distribución de las diferentes especies, preferencia de hábitat, fenología o tendencias históricas. En su versión actual, esta base de datos contiene un total de 87 684 registros de 923 especies recolectados entre 1830 y 2022, de los cuales un 87% presentan información georreferenciada. Para cada registro se incluye información relativa a la localidad de muestreo (89%), identificador y colector de la especie (64%), fecha de captura (54%) y planta donde se recolectó (20%). Creemos que esta base de datos es el punto de partida para conocer y conservar mejor la biodiversidad de abejas en la península ibérica e Islas Baleares. Se puede acceder a estos datos a través del siguiente enlace permanente: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6354502ABSTRACT: Bees are a diverse group with more than 1000 species known from the Iberian Peninsula. They have increasingly received special attention due to their important role as pollinators and providers of ecosystem services. In addition, various rapid human-induced environmental changes are leading to the decline of some of its populations. However, we know very little about the conservation status of most species and for many species, we hardly know their true distributions across the Iberian Peninsula. Here, we present a collaborative effort to collate and curate a database of Iberian bee occurrences to answer questions about their distribution, habitat preference, phenology, or historical trends. In total we have accumulated 87 684 records from the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands of 923 different species with 87% of georeferenced records collected between 1830 and 2022. In addition, each record has associated information such as the sampling location (89%), collector and person who identified the species (64%), date of the capture (54%) and plant species where the bees were captured (20%). We believe that this database is the starting point to better understand and conserve bee biodiversity in the Iberian Peninsula. It can be accessed at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6354502Esta base de datos se ha realizado con la ayuda de los proyectos EUCLIPO (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-028360/EUCLIPO) y SAFEGUARD (ref. 101003476 H2020 -SFS-2019-2).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Control of the structure and morphology of polypeptide/surfactant spread films by exploiting specific interactions

We demonstrate control of the structure and morphology of polypeptide/surfactant films at the air/water interface as a function of the maximum compression ratio of the surface area, exploiting a recently developed film formation mechanism that requires minimal quantities of materials involving the dissociation of aggregates. The systems studied are poly(L-lysine) (PLL) or poly(L-arginine) (PLA) with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), chosen because the surfactant (i) interacts more strongly with the latter polypeptide due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between the guanidinium group and its oxygen atoms, and (ii) induces bulk β-sheet and α-helix conformations of the respective polypeptides. The working hypothesis is that such different interactions may be used to tune the film properties when compressed to form extended structures (ESs). Neutron reflectometry reveals that application of a high compression ratio (4.5 : 1) results in the nanoscale self-assembly of ESs containing up to two PLL-wrapped SDS bilayers. Brewster angle microscopy provides images of the PLL/SDS ESs as discrete regions on the micrometre scale while additional linear regions of PLA/SDS ESs mark macroscopic film folding. Ellipsometry demonstrates high stability of the different ESs formed. The collapse of PLL/SDS films upon compression to a very high ratio (10 : 1) is irreversible due to the formation of solid domains that remain embedded in the film upon expansion while that of PLA/SDS films is reversible. These findings demonstrate that differences in the side group of a polypeptide can have a major influence on controlling the film properties, marking a key step in the development of this new film formation mechanism for the design of biocompatible and/or biodegradable films with tailored properties for applications in tissue engineering, biosensors and antimicrobial coatings.IV acknowledges the financial support from the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH K116629). AM acknowledges the financial support from MICINN under grant PID2021-129054NA-I00 and the IKUR Strategy of the Basque Government (IKUR Neutronics). ME and RC acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Research Council (UK) for support with grant EP/V029495/1.Peer reviewe

The role of crop diversity in climate change adaptation : insights from local observations to inform decision making in agriculture

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MHomogenization of crop portfolios from the field to the global scale is raising concerns about agricultural adaptation to climate change. Assessing whether such trends threaten farmers' long-term adaptive capacity requires a thorough understanding of changes in their crop portfolios, identification of the drivers of change, and the implications such changes have for local nutrition and food production. We reviewed the available literature on farmers' reports of climate-driven crop changes. Small-scale farmers tend to adopt water-demanding crops, even in areas where models predict that reduced rainfall will reduce yields. The adoption of horticultural cash-crops combined with the abandonment of subsistence cereals modifies farmers' nutritional inputs in terms of calories and nutrients, potentially undermining their food security. Farmers' knowledge contributes to understand trends in crop diversity and support the design of strategies for adaptation to climate change

The role of crop diversity in climate change adaptation: insights from local observations to inform decision making in agriculture

Homogenization of crop portfolios from the field to the global scale is raising concerns about agricultural adaptation to climate change. Assessing whether such trends threaten farmers’ long-term adaptive capacity requires a thorough understanding of changes in their crop portfolios, identification of the drivers of change, and the implications such changes have for local nutrition and food production. We reviewed the available literature on farmers’ reports of climate-driven crop changes. Small-scale farmers tend to adopt water-demanding crops, even in areas where models predict that reduced rainfall will reduce yields. The adoption of horticultural cash-crops combined with the abandonment of subsistence cereals modifies farmers’ nutritional inputs in terms of calories and nutrients, potentially undermining their food security. Farmers’ knowledge contributes to understand trends in crop diversity and support the design of strategies for adaptation to climate change.Homogenization of crop portfolios from the field to the global scale is raising concerns about agricultural adaptation to climate change. Assessing whether such trends threaten farmers' long-term adaptive capacity requires a thorough understanding of changes in their crop portfolios, identification of the drivers of change, and the implications such changes have for local nutrition and food production. We reviewed the available literature on farmers' reports of climate-driven crop changes. Small-scale farmers tend to adopt water-demanding crops, even in areas where models predict that reduced rainfall will reduce yields. The adoption of horticultural cash-crops combined with the abandonment of subsistence cereals modifies farmers' nutritional inputs in terms of calories and nutrients, potentially undermining their food security. Farmers' knowledge contributes to understand trends in crop diversity and support the design of strategies for adaptation to climate change

Medidas para la conservación de la biodiversidad de los polinizadores silvestres en la Península Ibérica

A pesar de que España es uno de los países con mayor diversidad de polinizadores silvestres y, que de su conservación depende el futuro de nuestros cultivos y por tanto de nuestra alimentación, lo cierto es que hoy día seguimos sin conocer el estado de conservación de gran parte de esta fauna, una demanda histórica de la sociedad científica que sigue sin cubrirse en la actualidad. Bajo esta premisa nace este decálogo, fruto de la colaboración de un conjunto de científicos/as especialistas en la materia, quienes han realizado una revisión profunda de la literatura científica sobre el declive de insectos polinizadores desde principios del siglo XX hasta hoy día, que puede consultarse en el monográfico Pérdida de polinizadores publicado por la Revista Ecosistemas de la Asociación Española de Ecología Terrestre (AEET). El propósito de este decálogo es recoger una serie de aspectos fundamentales sobre el declive en la península Ibérica de los polinizadores silvestres, los más sensibles a los cambios de los últimos años, para abrir el debate sobre una serie de medidas urgentes para su conservación.Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y EvoluciónFac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEpu

Indigenous Peoples and local communities report ongoing and widespread climate change impacts on local social-ecological systems

Peer reviewe