Multibiomarker biomonitoring approach using three bivalve species in the Ebro Delta (Catalonia, Spain)

Bivalves have proved to be useful bioindicators for environmental pollution. In the present study, mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis), cockles (Cerastoderma edule), and razor shells (Solen marginatus) were collected in the Ebro Delta, an extensive area devoted to rice farming and affected by pesticide pollution, from April to July, the heaviest rice field treatment period. Possible effects of pollution were assessed through biochemical markers (carboxylesterase (CE), antioxidant and neurotoxicity-related enzymes, and lipid peroxidation levels). Data on environmental variables, bivalve reproductive condition, and presence of organic pollutants, marine phycotoxins, pathogens, or histopathological conditions in bivalve’s tissues were also evaluated. Although the bioaccumulated pesticides did not explain the patterns observed for biochemical responses, the obtained results point to an effect of environmental pesticide pollution on enzymatic markers, with a prominent contribution of CE to such changes. Mussels and razor shells provided a more sensitive biochemical response to pollution than cockles. Environmental variables, bivalve reproductive condition, and marine phycotoxins did not seem to have a relevant effect on the biomarkers assessed.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

El huerto didáctico de la facultad de educación: un espacio de formación y transferencia para mejorar las competencias profesionales de maestros de educación infantil y primaria

El huerto escolar es una herramienta pedagógica que ofrece importantes beneficios en Educación Infantil y Primaria, permitiendo trabajar de forma experimental y manipulativa contenidos de ciencias de la naturaleza, matemáticas, artes plásticas o tecnología. El huerto es un espacio donde también se trabaja el consumo responsable, el uso eficiente de los recursos naturales, la alimentación sana, y donde se generan nuevas formas de relación entre alumnado y profesorado, desarrollando valores como el trabajo en equipo, la responsabilidad, la solidaridad y el esfuerzo. Sin embargo, la sola existencia de un huerto en un centro escolar no implica que se obtenga de él un adecuado rendimiento didáctico. Desde las propias escuelas reconocen que el rendimiento del huerto es en ocasiones subóptimo, y los maestros manifiestan la necesidad de disponer de materiales oficiales para apoyar y dirigir el trabajo en el huerto escolar. Es, por tanto, fundamental que el huerto escolar se acompañe de una adecuada formación académica de los futuros maestros de Educación Infantil y Primaria. La Facultad de Educación de la UCM cuenta con un huerto didáctico que se creó en 2014 gracias a un Proyecto de Innovación, al que se dio continuidad en 2015 con otro Proyecto de Innovación. En estos años el huerto de la Facultad de Educación ha sido un recurso importante para la formación de más de 200 alumnos de diferentes asignaturas de los Grados de Maestro en Educación Infantil y Primaria. El curso 2016-2017 damos continuidad a este proyecto a través de la convocatoria Innova-Docencia, con el objetivo de diseñar e implementar actividades innovadoras entorno al huerto didáctico de la Facultad de Educación. Se plantean actividades orientadas a trabajar la conservación de la biodiversidad, los recursos naturales y el desarrollo sostenible. Algunas actividades han tenido conexión con la tecnología, como el uso de códigos QR para ampliar el conocimiento de diferentes especies vegetales. El trabajo en el huerto esta ligado de manera oficial a la formación académica de los estudiantes de la Facultad de Educación a través de las prácticas de diferentes asignaturas. En el proyecto participan 6 docentes del Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales, un miembro del PAS y 19 alumnos. Las actividades planteadas en el huerto han tenido una ‘dimensión on-line’. El huerto didáctico de la Facultad de Educación cuenta con el apoyo del Equipo de Gobierno de la Facultad, de la Delegación Rectoral para Campus y Medio Ambiente de la UCM y de la Unidad Técnica de Mantenimiento de Zonas Verdes de la UCM. El objetivo a medio-largo plazo es continuar consolidándolo como herramienta docente oficial en la Facultad de Educación

Bactericide, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities from Marine Algae of Genus Laurencia Collected in Baja California Sur, Mexico

Abstract Background and Objective: Marine environment represents countless and diverse resource for new drugs to combat major diseases. Extracts from four Laurencia species ( L. johnstonii, L. pacifica, L. gardneri and L. papillosa) from Baja California Sur, México were evaluated for their antioxidant, antibacterial and cytotoxic activity. Methodology: The antioxidants activity of Laurencia sp. were evaluated using the radical scavenging activity in three in vitro radicals: 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-Azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and nitric oxide (NO). The antibacterial activity was evaluated by the broth microdilution method to determinate the Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC) against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Micrococcus luteus, Pseudomonas aerugi nosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae . The cytotoxicity was analyzed on HeLa (cervix adenocarcinoma) and Vero (kidney epithelial) cells, using the reduction of tetrazolium salt WST-1. Results: The seaweed of genus Laurencia demonstrated an overall low activity, with half maximal effective concentration (EC50) values >1.5 mg mLG1. Laurencia pacifica showed the best biocide effects with MIC of 6.25 µg mLG1 against Gram positive bacterial and cytotoxic potential with half inhibitory concentration (IC50) <30 µg mLG1 against Vero and HeLa cells. Conclusion: Some Laurencia species have a great antibacterial and cytotoxic activity which could be considered for future studies

Desarrollo de vídeos doodle como apoyo a la docencia en anestesiología veterinaria

Depto. de Medicina y Cirugía AnimalFac. de VeterinariaFALSEsubmitte

Manifold analysis of the P-wave changes induced by pulmonary vein isolation during cryoballoon procedure

Background/Aim: In atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation procedures, it is desirable to know whether a proper disconnection of the pulmonary veins (PVs) was achieved. We hypothesize that information about their isolation could be provided by analyzing changes in P-wave after ablation. Thus, we present a method to detect PV disconnection using P-wave signal analysis. Methods: Conventional P-wave feature extraction was compared to an automatic feature extraction procedure based on creating low-dimensional latent spaces for cardiac signals with the Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) method. A database of patients (19 controls and 16 AF individuals who underwent a PV ablation procedure) was collected. Standard 12-lead ECG was recorded, and P-waves were segmented and averaged to extract conventional features (duration, amplitude, and area) and their manifold representations provided by UMAP on a 3-dimensional latent space. A virtual patient was used to validate these results further and study the spatial distribution of the extracted characteristics over the whole torso surface. Results: Both methods showed differences between P-wave before and after ablation. Conventional methods were more prone to noise, P-wave delineation errors, and inter-patient variability. P-wave differences were observed in the standard leads recordings. However, higher differences appeared in the torso region over the precordial leads. Recordings near the left scapula also yielded noticeable differences. Conclusions: P-wave analysis based on UMAP parameters detects PV disconnection after ablation in AF patients and is more robust than heuristic parameterization. Moreover, additional leads different from the standard 12-lead ECG should be used to detect PV isolation and possible future reconnections better

Laser functionalization of surfaces

The treatment of surfaces by physical or chemical methods is a very usual way to change their original properties. Although the most common use of a surface functionalization is for tribology aims, modifications of the topography that leads to changes in the surface roughness, its hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity, its light scattering behavior, biocompatibility or even aesthetic changes are possible. In this field, laser sources have proven to be a most versatile and useful tool, being a clean and fast way to achieve any of those objectives. In this work we show the results of functionalization by laser texturing of four different materials

HIV-reservoir size is not affected either by HCV coinfection or by direct acting antivirals (DAAs) therapy

The role of HCV on the HIV reservoir is controversial since the reduction on HIV-DNA levels after HCV eradication with IFNα/RBV treatment seems to be the result of drugs instead of HCV clearance. We assessed whether HCV eradication can decrease HIV-DNA content in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients treated with direct-acting antivirals, DAAs (IFNα/RBV-free regimens). Cell-associated HIV-DNA was measured by ddPCR in 25 HIV-monoinfected and 25 HIV/HCV-coinfected patients. There were no differences in HIV-DNA levels between groups neither at baseline nor at 12 weeks after DAAs treatment completion. Our results indicate that HCV does not appear to influence the HIV reservoir size and suggest the lack of an anti-HIV action for DAAs.This work was supported by projects PI14/00518, RD16/0025/0013 integrated into the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation from the General Sub-Directorate for research assessment and promotion, Spanish Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII) co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Maria A Navarrete-Muñoz was funded by the Spanish Directorate General for Research and Technological of the “Comunidad de Madrid” [grant: IND2018/BMD9651]. Norma Rallón is supported by the Miguel Servet program funded by the Spanish Health Institute Carlos III [grant: CPII19/00025].S

Pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors in raw and cooked seafood from European market: Concentrations and human exposure levels

Pharmaceuticals (PhACs) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are chemicals of emerging concern that can accumulate in seafood sold in markets. These compounds may represent a risk to consumers through effects on the human reproductive system, metabolic disorders, pathogenesis of breast cancer or development of microbial resistance. Measuring their levels in highly consumed seafood is important to assess the potential risks to human health. Besides, the effect of cooking on contaminant levels is relevant to investigate. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to study the presence and levels of PhACs and EDCs in commercially available seafood in the European Union market, to investigate the effect of cooking on contaminant levels, and to evaluate the dietary exposure of humans to these compounds through seafood consumption. A sampling survey of seafood from 11 European countries was undertaken. Twelve highly consumed seafood types were analysed raw and cooked with 3 analytical methods (65 samples, 195 analysis). PhACs were mostly not detectable or below quantification limits in seafood whereas EDCs were a recurrent group of contaminants quantified in the majority of the samples. Besides, cooking by steaming significantly increased their levels in seafood from 2 to 46-fold increase. Based on occurrence and levels, bisphenol A, methylparaben and triclosan were selected for performing a human exposure assessment and health risk characterisation through seafood consumption. The results indicate that the Spanish population has the highest exposure to the selected EDCs through seafood consumption, although the exposure via seafood remained below the current toxicological reference values.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The overlooked immune state in candidemia: A risk factor for mortality

Producción CientíficaLymphopenia has been related to increased mortality in septic patients. Nonetheless, the impact of lymphocyte count on candidemia mortality and prognosis has not been addressed. We conducted a retrospective study, including all admitted patients with candidemia from 2007 to 2016. We examined lymphocyte counts during the first 5 days following the diagnosis of candidemia. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between lymphocyte count and mortality. Classification and Regression Tree analysis was used to identify the best cut-off of lymphocyte count for mortality associated with candidemia. From 296 cases of candidemia, 115 died, (39.8% 30-day mortality). Low lymphocyte count was related to mortality and poor outcome (p < 0.001). Lymphocyte counts <0.703 × 109 cells/L at diagnosis (area under the curve (AUC)-ROC, 0.783 ± 0.042; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.700–0.867, p < 0.001), and lymphocyte count <1.272 × 109 cells/L five days later (AUC-ROC, 0.791 ± 0.038; 95%CI, 0.716–0.866, p < 0.001) increased the odds of mortality five-fold (odds ratio (OR), 5.01; 95%CI, 2.39–10.93) at time of diagnosis, and three-fold (OR, 3.27; 95%CI, 1.24–8.62) by day 5, respectively. Low lymphocyte count is an independent predictor of mortality in patients with candidemia and might serve as a biomarker for predicting candidemia-associated mortality and poor outcome.Junta de Castilla y León (grant VA161G18

Human pharmaceuticals in three major fish species from the Uruguay River (South America) with different feeding habits

The accumulation of 17 human pharmaceuticals (HPs) was investigated in the muscle of three fish species characteristic of the “Rio de la Plata Basin” with different feeding habits and of relevance for human consumption: Megaleporinus obtusidens, Salminus brasiliensis, and Prochilodus lineatus. Fish were sampled in fall and spring from 8 localities distributed along 500 Km of the Uruguay River. Atenolol and carbamazepine were the most frequently detected HPs (&gt;50%), but at concentrations always below 1 μg/kg wet weight (w/w). Hydrochlorothiazide, metoprolol, venlafaxine, propranolol, codeine, and the carbamazepine metabolite, 2-hydroxycarbamazepine, were accumulated at higher levels showing maximum concentrations between 1 and 10 μg/kg (w/w), but infrequently (&lt;50%). The other HPs were always below 1 μg/kg (w/w) and at frequencies lower than 50%. Distinctive accumulation patterns were observed among species at different trophic levels. However, biomagnification trends were not identified for any compound. The highest number and concentration of HPs were found in M. obtusidens (omnivorous), followed by P. lineatus (detritivorous), and lastly S. brasiliensis (piscivorous). The most recurrent HPs (i.e. carbamazepine and atenolol) were present in all species, but others exclusively in one. Geographical variations were only found for carbamazepine and atenolol in M. obtusidens and P. lineatus, showing higher concentrations in localities closer to the Rio de la Plata estuary. Differences in the HPs concentrations among seasons were not identified. Acceptable daily intake and predicted no effect concentrations would indicate that measured muscle concentrations in fish from the Uruguay River do not pose a serious risk for human consumption nowadays. Further studies will be necessary for assessing the potential adverse effects on studied fish species.Centro de Investigaciones del Medioambient