Sap flow, leaf-level gas exchange and spectral responses to drought in Pinus sylvestris, Pinus pinea and Pinus halepensis

In a climate change scenario, Mediterranean forest species such as pines may be endangered by rising temperatures and reduced precipitation, thus calling for studies on the transpiration and water balance in pines. In this paper, the response of young plants of Pinus sylvestris L., Pinus pinea L. and Pinus halepensis Mill. to different irrigation treatments has been studied. Significant differences were found in water potential, sap flow, leaf-level gas exchange and spectral variables. P. sylvestris had higher pre-dawn and midday water potentials, sap flow rates and leaf-level gas exchange rates compared to the other two species in well-watered conditions. Vapor pressure gradient correlated with stomatal conductance, net assimilation and transpiration, but the association between stomatal conductance and sap flow was weak. The environmental variables more strongly associated with sap flow were solar radiation and reference evapo-transpiration, especially in the well-watered plants, but those associations were weaker in the stressed plants. All three pine species showed the isohydric, drought-avoiding strategy common in the genus Pinus, maintaining relatively high water potentials in dry conditions. Nevertheless, P. halepensis showed a water-saving strategy, with a stomatal closure behavior under drought. Stomatal regulation was less strict in P. sylvestris, closer to a water-spending pattern, while P. pinea showed an intermediate behavior. Significant differences were recorded among species in spectral reflectance in the visible and infra-red regions. Photochemical Reflectance Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and combinations of other ratios permitted the discrimination among the three pine species. These spectral variables showed association with sap flow rate, water potential and leaflevel gas exchange variables. Both cluster analysis and k-means classification discriminated Scots pine and Aleppo pine in two different groups. On the other hand, Stone pine showed differences in spectral behavior depending on the hydric status of the plants. Well-watered Stone pine plants had the same spectral behavior as Scots pine, while the plants subjected to drought stress were closer to Aleppo pine plants in spectral response. These findings may help to quantify the impacts of early and mid-summer water deficit on Mediterranean pines in future climate regimes

FIRST (Flexible Interactive Reading Support Tool) project: developing a tool for helping autistic people by document simplification

El Trastorno de Espectro Autista (TEA) es un trastorno que impide el correcto desarrollo de funciones cognitivas, habilidades sociales y comunicativas en las personas. Un porcentaje significativo de personas con autismo presentan además dificultades en la comprensión lectora. El proyecto europeo FIRST está orientado a desarrollar una herramienta multilingüe llamada Open Book que utiliza Tecnologías del Lenguaje Humano para identificar obstáculos que dificultan la comprensión lectora de un documento. La herramienta ayuda a cuidadores y personas con autismo transformando documentos escritos a un formato más sencillo mediante la eliminación de dichos obstáculos identificados en el texto. En este artículo se presenta el proyecto FIRST así como la herramienta desarrollada Open Book.Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition that impairs the proper development of people cognitive functions, social skills, and communicative abilities. A significant percentage of autistic people has inadequate reading comprehension skills. The European project FIRST is focused on developing a multilingual tool called Open Book that applies Human Language Technologies (HLT) to identify reading comprehension obstacles in a document. The tool helps ASD people and their carers by transforming written documents into an easier format after removing the reading obstacles identified. In this paper we present the FIRST project and the developed Open Book tool.La investigación que desarrolla este producto de software ha recibido financiación del Séptimo Programa Marco de la Comunidad Europea (FP7-2007-2013), en virtud del acuerdo de subvención n° 287607. También ha sido parcialmente financiada por el gobierno español a través del proyecto ATTOS (TIN2012-38536-C03-0), el gobierno regional de la Junta de Andalucía a través del proyecto AORESCU (TIC - 07684) y la Generalitat Valenciana, mediante la acción complementaria ACOMP/2013/067

NIR spectroscopy as a contacless rapid tool to estimate the amino acids profile in intact grape berries

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el 21st GiESCO International Meeting: A Multidisciplinary Vision towards Sustainable Viticulture, celebrado en Thessaloniki (Grecia), del 23 al 28 de junio de 2019Context and purpose of the study - Nitrogen composition of grape berries plays a key role in determining wine quality, affecting the development of alcoholic fermentation and the formation of volatile compounds. Grape nitrogen composition is influenced by several factors such as viticultural practices, soil management, timing or rate of fertilization and use of rootstock, among others.In this study a proximal, non-destructive tool based on NIR spectroscopy is presented to track the accumulation of a wide range of amino acids in intact grape berries during the ripening process. Material and methods - Clusters of grapevines of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Tempranillo were collected in a commercial vineyard located in Tudelilla, La Rioja, Spain (Lat. 42°18' 18.26", Long. -2°7' 14.15", Alt. 515 m) on five different dates from veraison to harvest in 2016 season. Contactless (at 25 cm from berries) spectral measurements from intact grape berries were acquired using a NIR spectrometer working in the 1100 - 2100 nm spectral range under laboratory conditions.A total of 19 individual amino acids in 120 grape clusters were quantified by HPLC, which was used as the reference method for the validation of the spectral tool. Principal component analysis (PCA) and Modified partial least squares (MPLS) regressions were used to explore the data structure and for the prediction of the amino acids profile in grape berries, by building calibration and validation models. Results - A wide variability of all studied parameters was found during the ripening process with amino acid content ranging from 0.07 mg N/l (Glycine) to 534 mg N/l (Arginine). On average, Arginine was the most abundant amino acid (46.64 %), followed by Glutamine (14.70 %) and Proline (6.76 %). The best calibration and cross-validation models were built for Arginine, Cysteine and Proline with correlation coefficients values of 0.80, 0.77 and 0.75, while the standard errors of cross validation (SECV) were 43.04 mg N/l, 0.40 mg N/l and 5.87 mg N/l, respectively. In terms of the Free Amino Nitrogen content (FAN) the values of 0.71 and 104.85 mg N/l were gathered for the correlation coefficient of cross validation and SECV, respectively. The potential of NIR technology to fingerprinting the amino acid content in intact berries has been investigated. This technology could be used to select or classify grape berries during ripening in the vineyard, or at harvest time at the reception of the grapes in the production line (winery). This could be very useful to adapt the enological fate or grape berries to different wine qualities or styles, as well as to adopt different viticultural (thinning, selective harvesting) or enological decisions. Nevertheless, further examination of the influence of more varieties, seasons, and origins should be conducted with the aim of developing more robust, global, and predictive models

Effects of soil degradation and organic treatments on vegetative growth, yield and grape quality

Delimited degraded soil areas caused by an improper land preparation before vine plantation and or management can be observed in conventional and organic European vineyards. Soil malfunctioning including: poor organic matter content, imbalanced nutritional status, altered pH, water deficiency, soil compaction and/or scarce oxygenation. The goal of the present study was to compare the effects of some agronomic strategies to restore optimal soil functionality in degraded areas in organic commercial vineyards located in five countries, and to evaluate the impact of these soil management practices on vegetative growth, yield and grape quality parameters. Grapevines located in non-degraded soils showed higher vegetative growth and yield, and lower total soluble solids in grapes. Generally, there were no significant differences in vegetative growth, yield and grape quality among the soil management strategies in degraded areas

Global Survey of Outcomes of Neurocritical Care Patients: Analysis of the PRINCE Study Part 2

BACKGROUND: Neurocritical care is devoted to the care of critically ill patients with acute neurological or neurosurgical emergencies. There is limited information regarding epidemiological data, disease characteristics, variability of clinical care, and in-hospital mortality of neurocritically ill patients worldwide. We addressed these issues in the Point PRevalence In Neurocritical CarE (PRINCE) study, a prospective, cross-sectional, observational study. METHODS: We recruited patients from various intensive care units (ICUs) admitted on a pre-specified date, and the investigators recorded specific clinical care activities they performed on the subjects during their first 7 days of admission or discharge (whichever came first) from their ICUs and at hospital discharge. In this manuscript, we analyzed the final data set of the study that included patient admission characteristics, disease type and severity, ICU resources, ICU and hospital length of stay, and in-hospital mortality. We present descriptive statistics to summarize data from the case report form. We tested differences between geographically grouped data using parametric and nonparametric testing as appropriate. We used a multivariable logistic regression model to evaluate factors associated with in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: We analyzed data from 1545 patients admitted to 147 participating sites from 31 countries of which most were from North America (69%, N = 1063). Globally, there was variability in patient characteristics, admission diagnosis, ICU treatment team and resource allocation, and in-hospital mortality. Seventy-three percent of the participating centers were academic, and the most common admitting diagnosis was subarachnoid hemorrhage (13%). The majority of patients were male (59%), a half of whom had at least two comorbidities, and median Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 13. Factors associated with in-hospital mortality included age (OR 1.03; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.04); lower GCS (OR 1.20; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.16 for every point reduction in GCS); pupillary reactivity (OR 1.8; 95% CI, 1.09 to 3.23 for bilateral unreactive pupils); admission source (emergency room versus direct admission [OR 2.2; 95% CI, 1.3 to 3.75]; admission from a general ward versus direct admission [OR 5.85; 95% CI, 2.75 to 12.45; and admission from another ICU versus direct admission [OR 3.34; 95% CI, 1.27 to 8.8]); and the absence of a dedicated neurocritical care unit (NCCU) (OR 1.7; 95% CI, 1.04 to 2.47). CONCLUSION: PRINCE is the first study to evaluate care patterns of neurocritical patients worldwide. The data suggest that there is a wide variability in clinical care resources and patient characteristics. Neurological severity of illness and the absence of a dedicated NCCU are independent predictors of in-patient mortality.status: publishe