The use of arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculum in viticulture is not always positive: a systematic review

For more than 70 years, the scientific literature has demonstrated that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have positive effects on plant growth and stress tolerance. However, AMF have only been widely implemented in agricultural systems in the last decade. Recent reviews indicate AMF are key to the sustainability of viticulture. To explore the universality of the positive effects of AMF inoculation on grapevines, we created a database of the results from 30 publications that performed 169 experiments comparing the development of grapevine plants inoculated with AMF against control vines. We calculated inoculation dependence, as ID = ((mean of inoculated treatment – mean of control)/mean of inoculated treatment) * 100), to compare the effects of AM inoculation on the growth of grapevine plants between different experiments. In most studies, the experimental conditions differed significantly from commercial conditions, since 75% of the studies were conducted under greenhouse conditions and 71.8% of studies compared the growth of inoculated plants with plants growing in a sterilized substrate. High variability was observed in the ID of different response variables, be-tween the various rootstocks tested, and between different species compositions of AMF inoculum, demonstrating that the effects of mycorrhizal inoculation in vineyard growth are highly context dependent. This study demonstrates further research is required to characterize the effects of AMF under field conditions. Moreover, this work indicates that specific trials are needed to determine the effect of particular mycorrhizal strains on individual rootstocks under specific growing conditions before the use of AMF can be recommended to vine-growers

Wave energy farm design in real wave climates: the Italian offshore

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Wave energy farm design in real wave climates: the Italian offshore journaltitle: Energy articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.01.094 content_type: article copyright: © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Was there a common hydrological pattern in the Iberian Peninsula region during the medieval Climate anomaly?

Climate variability reconstructions for the last millennium from several Iberian lake and marine records shed light on the spatial and temporal hydroclimate and associated climate mechanisms during the Medieval Climate Anomaly

Increased Vegetation in Mountainous Headwaters Amplifies Water Stress During Dry Periods

The dynamics of blue and green water partitioning under vegetation and climate change, as well as their different interactions during wet and dry periods, are poorly understood in the literature. We analyzed the impact of vegetation changes on blue water generation in a central Spanish Pyrenees basin undergoing intense afforestation. We found that vegetation change is a key driver of large decreases in blue water availability. The effect of vegetation increase is amplified during dry years, and mainly during the dry season, with streamflow reductions of more than 50%. This pattern can be attributed primarily to increased plant water consumption. Our findings highlight the importance of vegetation changes in reinforcing the decrease in water resource availability. With aridity expected to rise in southern Europe over the next few decades, interactions between climate and land management practices appear to be amplifying future hydrological drought risk in the region.This work was supported by projects CGL2017-82216-R, PCI2019-103631, and PID2019-108589RA-I00 financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER; CROSSDRO project financed by AXIS (Assess-ment of Cross(X)-sectoral climate Impacts and pathways for Sustainable transformation), JPI-Climate co-funded call of the European Commission and INDECIS which is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462). Dhais Peña-Angulo received a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral contract (FJCI-2017-33652 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MEC). Miquel Tomas-Burguera received a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral contract (FJCI-2019-039261-I Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation). C. Azorin-Molina and S. Grainger. acknowledge funding from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency grant 2019-CCRP-MS.60. C. Juez acknowl-edges funding from the H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 programme (Marie Sklodows-ka-Curie Actions) of the European Union under REA grant agreement, number 834329-SEDILAND

Dialysis is a key factor modulating interactions between critical process parameters during the microfluidic preparation of lipid nanoparticles

Manufacturing lipid nanoparticles through microfluidic mixing can be approached from a Quality by Design perspective. Research involving critical process parameters seems to focus on the total flow and flow rate ratio, thus other process variables, such as dialysis, are underestimated. This study used a Design of Experiments to identify the influence of critical process parameters on particle size, polydispersity index, and zeta potential. A response surface Design of Experiments modeled the influence of: total flow (400 to 4000 mu L min-1); flow rate ratio (3 to 9) and dialysis (yes/no). Results suggest that dialysis is a crucial parameter that strongly influences particle size and zeta potential and moderately affects polydispersity index. The flow rate ratio's relevance decreases when dialysis is performed. As the purification method can change the influence of other process parameters, it should be an integrated part of the microfluidic manufacturing of lipid nanoparticles instead of an extra step

Withdrawal of infliximab therapy in ankylosing spondylitis in persistent clinical remission, results from the REMINEA study

Altres ajuts: This work is conducted under the umbrella of the Rheumatology Society of Catalonia and supported by Merck Research Laboratories.Background: Recent data suggest that anti-TNF doses can be reduced in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients. Some authors even propose withdrawing treatment in patients in clinical remission; however, at present there is no evidence to support this. Objective: To assess how long AS patients with persistent clinical remission remained free of flares after anti-TNF withdrawal and to evaluate the effects of treatment reintroduction. We also analyze the characteristics of patients who did not present clinical relapse. Methods: Multicenter, prospective, observational study of a cohort of patients with active AS who had received infliximab as a first anti-TNF treatment and who presented persistent remission (more than 6 months). We recorded at baseline and every 6-8 weeks over the 12-month period the age, gender, disease duration, peripheral arthritis or enthesitis, HLA-B27 status, BASDAI, CRP, ESR, BASFI, and three visual analogue scales, spine global pain, spinal night time pain, and patient's global assessment. Results: Thirty-six out of 107 patients (34%) presented persistent remission and were included in our study. After treatment withdrawal, 21 of these 36 patients (58%) presented clinical relapse during follow-up. Infliximab therapy was reintroduced and only 52% achieved clinical remission, as they had before the discontinuation of infliximab; in an additional 10%, reintroduction of infliximab was ineffective, obliging us to change the anti-TNF therapy. No clinical or biological factors were associated with the occurrence of relapse during the follow-up. Conclusions: Two thirds of patients in clinical remission presented clinical relapse shortly after infliximab withdrawal. Although the reintroduction of infliximab treatment was safe, half of the patients did not present the same clinical response that they had achieved prior to treatment withdrawal

State of emergency medicine in Spain

Spain has universal public health care coverage. Emergency care provisions are offered to patients in different modalities and levels according to the characteristics of the medical complaint: at primary care centers (PCC), in an extrahospital setting by emergency medical services (EMS) and at hospital emergency departments (ED). We have more than 3,000 PCCs, which are run by family doctors (general practitioners) and pediatricians. On average, there is 1 PCC for every 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, and every family doctor is in charge of 1,500 to 2,000 citizens, although less populated zones tend to have lower ratios. Doctors spend part of their duty time in providing emergency care to their own patients. While not fully devoted to emergency medicine (EM) practice, they do manage minor emergencies. However, Spanish EMSs contribute hugely to guarantee population coverage in all situations. These EMS are run by EM technicians (EMT), nurses and doctors, who usually work exclusively in the emergency arena. EDs dealt with more than 25 million consultations in 2008, which implies, on average, that one out of two Spaniards visited an ED during this time. They are usually equipped with a wide range of diagnostic tools, most including ultrasonography and computerized tomography scans. The academic and training background of doctors working in the ED varies: nearly half lack any structured specialty residence training, but many have done specific master or postgraduate studies within the EM field. The demand for emergency care has grown at an annual rate of over 4% during the last decade. This percentage, which was greater than the 2% population increase during the same period, has outpaced the growth in ED capacity. Therefore, Spanish EDs become overcrowded when the system exerts minimal stress. Despite the high EM caseload and the potential severity of the conditions, training in EM is still unregulated in Spain. However, in April 2009 the Spanish Minister of Health announced the imminent approval of an EM specialty, allowing the first EM resident to officially start in 2011. Spanish emergency physicians look forward to the final approval, which will complete the modernization of emergency health care provision in Spain