Diversity of Bacillus thuringiensis strains isolated from coffee plantations infested with the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei

The coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) was first reported infecting Costa Rican coffee plantations in the year 2000. Due to the impact that this plague has in the economy of the country, we were interested in seeking new alternatives for the biological control of H. hampei, based on the entomopathogenic bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. Atotal of 202 B. thuringiensis isolates obtained from Costa Rican coffee plantations infested with H. hampei were analyzed through crystal morphology of the crystal inclusions and SDS-PAGE of d-endotoxins, while 105 strains were further evaluated by PCR for the presence cry, cyt and vip genes. Most of the Bt strains showed diverse crystal morphologies: pleomorphic (35%), oval (37%), bipyramidal (3%), bipyramidal and oval (12%), bipyramidal, oval and pleomorphic (10%) and bipyramidal, oval and cubic (3%). The SDS-PAGE analyses of the crystal preparations showed five strains with d-endotoxin from 20 to 40 kDa, six from 40 to 50 kDa, seven from 50 to 60 kDa, 19 from 60 to 70 kDa, 29 from 70 to 100 kDa and 39 from 100-145 kDa. PCR analyses demonstrated that the collection showed diverse cry genes profiles having several genes per strain: 78 strains contained the vip3 gene, 82 the cry2 gene, 45 the cry1 and 29 strains harbored cry3-cry7 genes. Atotal of 13 strains did not amplified with any of the cry primers used: cry1, cry2, cry3-7, cry5, cry11, cry12 and cry14. Forty-three different genetic profiles were found, mainly due to the combination of cry1A genes with other cry and vip genes. The genetic characterization of the collection provides opportunities for the selection of strains to be tested in bioassays against H. hampei and other insect pests of agricultural importance.En el año 2000 se reportó por primera vez la principal plaga del cafeto, conocida como broca (Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Scolitidae) en plantaciones de este cultivo en Costa Rica. Debido al impacto que esta plaga tiene en la economía del país, surgió la necesidad de encontrar una alternativa para el control biológico de esta plaga, basadas en la bacteria entomopatógena Bacillus thuringiensis. El objetivo de este trabajo fue aislar y caracterizar cepas de Bacillus thuringiensis a partir de plantaciones de café infestadas con H. hampei. Se aislaton 202 cepas que se analizaron mediante la morfología del cristal, SDS-PAGE de las d-endotoxinas, mientras que 105 cepas se evaluaron mediante PCR para determinar la presencia de genes cry, cyt y vip. La mayoría de las cepas presentaron diversas morfologías del cristal: pleomórficos (35%), ovalados (37%), bipiramidales (3%), bipiramidales y ovalados (12%), bipiramidales, ovalados y pleomórficos (10%) y bipiramidales, ovalados y cúbicos (3%). El análisis electorforético de las proteínas mostró que 5 cepas contenían d-endotoxinas con pesos moleculares entre los 20 y 40 kDa, 6 entre los 40 y 50 kDa, 7 entre los 50 y 60 kDa, 19 cepas entre los 60 y 70 kDa, 29 entre los 70 y 100 kDa y 39 cepas entre los 100 y 145 kDa. Los análisis mediante PCR mostró que la colección presenta una gran diversidad de genes cry, observándose varios genes por cepa: 78 cepas presentaron el gen vip3, 82 el gen cry2, 45 el gen cry1 y 29 cepas los genes cry3 y cry7. Un total de 13 cepas no amplificaron con los iniciadores cry1, cry2, cry3-7, cry5, cry11cry12 y cry14. Se encontraron 43 perfiles genéticos diferentes, detectándose principalmente la combinación de genes cry1A con otros genes cry o vip. La caracterización genética de esta colección provee información importante para la selección de cepas de Bacillus thuringiensis que se evaluarán mediante bioensayos contra Hypothenemus hampei u otras plagas de importancia económicaFundación para la Cooperación Costa Rica-Estados Unidos de América//CR-USA/Estados UnidosPrograma de Cooperación del Gobierno de MéxicoPrograma Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo//CYTED/EspañaUniversidad de Costa Rica//UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de Investigación en Biología Celular y Molecular (CIBCM

Effectiveness of an intervention for improving drug prescription in primary care patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy:Study protocol of a cluster randomized clinical trial (Multi-PAP project)

This study was funded by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias ISCIII (Grant Numbers PI15/00276, PI15/00572, PI15/00996), REDISSEC (Project Numbers RD12/0001/0012, RD16/0001/0005), and the European Regional Development Fund ("A way to build Europe").Background: Multimorbidity is associated with negative effects both on people's health and on healthcare systems. A key problem linked to multimorbidity is polypharmacy, which in turn is associated with increased risk of partly preventable adverse effects, including mortality. The Ariadne principles describe a model of care based on a thorough assessment of diseases, treatments (and potential interactions), clinical status, context and preferences of patients with multimorbidity, with the aim of prioritizing and sharing realistic treatment goals that guide an individualized management. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a complex intervention that implements the Ariadne principles in a population of young-old patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. The intervention seeks to improve the appropriateness of prescribing in primary care (PC), as measured by the medication appropriateness index (MAI) score at 6 and 12months, as compared with usual care. Methods/Design: Design:pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial. Unit of randomization: family physician (FP). Unit of analysis: patient. Scope: PC health centres in three autonomous communities: Aragon, Madrid, and Andalusia (Spain). Population: patients aged 65-74years with multimorbidity (≥3 chronic diseases) and polypharmacy (≥5 drugs prescribed in ≥3months). Sample size: n=400 (200 per study arm). Intervention: complex intervention based on the implementation of the Ariadne principles with two components: (1) FP training and (2) FP-patient interview. Outcomes: MAI score, health services use, quality of life (Euroqol 5D-5L), pharmacotherapy and adherence to treatment (Morisky-Green, Haynes-Sackett), and clinical and socio-demographic variables. Statistical analysis: primary outcome is the difference in MAI score between T0 and T1 and corresponding 95% confidence interval. Adjustment for confounding factors will be performed by multilevel analysis. All analyses will be carried out in accordance with the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: It is essential to provide evidence concerning interventions on PC patients with polypharmacy and multimorbidity, conducted in the context of routine clinical practice, and involving young-old patients with significant potential for preventing negative health outcomes. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02866799Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tratamientos psicológicos empíricamente apoyados para adultos: Una revisión selectiva

Antecedentes: los tratamientos psicológicos han mostrado su eficacia, efectividad y eficiencia para el abordaje de los trastornos mentales; no obstante, considerando el conocimiento científico generado en los últimos años, no se dispone de trabajos de actualización en español sobre cuáles son los tratamientos psicológicos con respaldo empírico. El objetivo fue realizar una revisión selectiva de los principales tratamientos psicológicos empíricamente apoyados para el abordaje de trastornos mentales en personas adultas. Método: se recogen niveles de evidencia y grados de recomendación en función de los criterios propuestos por el Sistema Nacional de Salud de España (en las Guías de Práctica Clínica) para diferentes trastornos psicológicos. Resultados: los resultados sugieren que los tratamientos psicológicos disponen de apoyo empírico para el abordaje de un amplio elenco de trastornos psicológicos. El grado de apoyo empírico oscila de bajo a alto en función del trastorno psicológico analizado. La revisión sugiere que ciertos campos de intervención necesitan una mayor investigación. Conclusiones: a partir de esta revisión selectiva, los profesionales de la psicología podrán disponer de información rigurosa y actualizada que les permita tomar decisiones informadas a la hora de implementar aquellos procedimientos psicoterapéuticos empíricamente fundamentados en función de las características de las personas que demandan ayuda. Background: Psychological treatments have shown their efficacy, effectiveness, and efficiency in dealing with mental disorders. However, considering the scientific knowledge generated in recent years, in the Spanish context, there are no updating studies about empirically supported psychological treatments. The main goal was to carry out a selective review of the main empirically supported psychological treatments for mental disorders in adults. Method: Levels of evidence and degrees of recommendation were collected based on the criteria proposed by the Spanish National Health System (Clinical Practice Guidelines) for different psychological disorders. Results: The results indicate that psychological treatments have empirical support for the approach to a wide range of psychological disorders. These levels of empirical evidence gathered range from low to high depending on the psychological disorder analysed. The review indicates the existence of certain fields of intervention that need further investigation. Conclusions: Based on this selective review, psychology professionals will be able to have rigorous, up-to-date information that allows them to make informed decisions when implementing empirically based psychotherapeutic procedures based on the characteristics of the people who require help

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

The Fluid Territory

UEM. OTRI 2008/06No data 2009UE

NFKB2 polymorphisms associate with the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and response to TNF inhibitors: Results from the REPAIR consortium

We thank all participants who have agreed to participate in this study. Authors also thank Maria Dolores Casares, Angeles Molina, Carmen Oloriz for the collection of Spanish samples and Hans Jurgen Hoffmann, Marianne Thomsen, Vibeke Ostergaard Thomsen, Malene Rohr Andersen, Lise Lotte B. Laursen, Helle Jorgensen, Ram Benny Christian Dessau, Niels Steen Krogh, Ulla Vogel, Paal Skytt Andersen, Ivan Brandslund, Steffen Bank, Frederik Trier Moller, Nikolai Toft and Niels Moller Andersen for the participation in collection and purification of Danish samples. We also thank the Danish Departments of Rheumatology for their implication in the collection of clinical data from RA patients included in the DANBIO cohort and the Danish Rheumatologic Biobank. Likewise, we would like to thank Teun van Herwaarden for steroid hormone measurements in serum samples from subjects ascertained through the HFGP initiative. This work was partially supported by intramural funds of GENYO and FIBAO foundation (Granada, Spain); Novo Nordisk Fonden (NNF15OC0016932, VA); and Knud og Edith Eriksens Mindefond (VA) and Gigtforeningen (A2037, A3570, VA). MGN was supported by a Spinoza grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.All data used in this project have been meticulously cataloged and archived in the BBMRI-NL data infrastructure (https://hfgp.bbmri.nl/) using the MOLGENIS open source platform for scientific data45. This allows flexible data querying and download, including sufficiently rich metadata and interfaces for machine processing (R statistics, REST API) and using FAIR principles to optimize Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability46. Genetic data from the discovery and DANBIO populations can be accessed at ftp.genyo.es and data from the DREAM registry are available at https://www.synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn3280809/wiki/194735 and https://www. synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn3280809/wiki/194736.Supplementary information is available for this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61331-5.This study sought to evaluate the association of 28 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within NFKB and inflammasome pathway genes with the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and response to TNF inhibitors (TNFi). We conducted a case-control study in a European population of 1194 RA patients and 1328 healthy controls. The association of potentially interesting markers was validated with data from the DANBIO (695 RA patients and 978 healthy controls) and DREAM (882 RA patients) registries. The meta-analysis of our data with those from the DANBIO registry confirmed that anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA)-positive subjects carrying the NFKB2rs11574851T allele had a significantly increased risk of developing RA (PMeta_ACPA + = 0.0006) whereas no significant effect was found in ACPA-negative individuals (PMeta_ACPA− = 0.35). An ACPA-stratified haplotype analysis including both cohorts (n = 4210) confirmed that ACPA-positive subjects carrying the NFKB2TT haplotype had an increased risk of RA (OR = 1.39, P = 0.0042) whereas no effect was found in ACPA-negative subjects (OR = 1.04, P = 0.82). The meta-analysis of our data with those from the DANBIO and DREAM registries also revealed a suggestive association of the NFKB2rs1056890 SNP with larger changes in DAS28 (OR = 1.18, P = 0.007). Functional experiments showed that peripheral blood mononuclear cells from carriers of the NFKB2rs1005044C allele (in LD with the rs1056890, r2 = 1.00) showed increased production of IL10 after stimulation with LPS (P = 0.0026). These results provide first evidence of a role of the NFKB2 locus in modulating the risk of RA in an ACPA-dependent manner and suggest its implication in determining the response to TNFi. Additional studies are now warranted to further validate these findings.GENYOFIBAO foundation (Granada, Spain)Novo Nordisk Foundation NNF15OC0016932Knud og Edith Eriksens Mindefond A2037 A3570Gigtforeningen A2037 A3570Spinoza grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Researc

Projected conservation status of forest species in Central America and southern Mexico under four different climate change scenarios by the year 2070.

We classified species in our dataset (n = 1924) into IUCN Red List categories following the A3 criterion [58]. Different colors represent the percentage of species in each category, which are further separated into two alternative RCPs (top semicircles, RCP4.5; bottom, RCP8.5) and two dispersal assumptions: outer circle (A), limited dispersal; inner circle (B), unlimited dispersal. The complete species dataset is presented in S4 Table).</p

Model averaged coefficients of the effect of change in climate variables on the proportion of threatened species under the RCP8.5 and limited dispersal scenario.

Coefficients were estimated using only those models where the variable was included.</p