Taxonomía y morfologías de Undaria pinnatifida (Phaeophyceae, Laminariales) en Golfo Nuevo, Argentina

Since 1992, after the accidental introduction of Undaria pinnatifida (Phaeophyceae, Laminariales) and its subsequent dispersion along the coasts of Argentina, the species has become part of the local benthic marine flora. In this note, after reviewing the background of Undaria, the taxonomic position of the forms found in Golfo Nuevo (Argentina) can be confirmed and the observed morphotypes discussed.Desde 1992, luego de la introducción accidental de Undaria pinnatifida (Phaeophyceae, Laminariales) y su subsecuente dispersión a lo largo de las costas de Argentina, la especie se ha convertido en parte de la flora marina bentónica local. En esta nota, luego de revisar los antecedentes de Undaria, se puede confirmar la posición taxonómica de las formas encontradas en Golfo Nuevo (Argentina) y discutir los morfotipos observados.Fil: Casas, Graciela Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos; Argentin

The coupon collector urn model with unequal probabilities in ecology and evolution

International audienceThe sequential sampling of populations with unequal probabilities and with replacement in a closed population is a recurrent problem in ecology and evolution. Examples range from biodiversity sampling, epidemiology to the estimation of signal repertoire in animal communication. Many of these ques- tions can be reformulated as urn problems, often as special cases of the coupon collector problem, most simply expressed as the number of coupons that must be collected to have a complete set. We aimed to apply the coupon collector model in a comprehensive manner to one example—hosts (balls) being searched (draws) and parasitized (ball colour change) by parasitic wasps— to evaluate the influence of differences in sampling probabilities between items on collection speed. Based on the model of a complete multinomial process over time, we define the distribution, distribution function, expectation and variance of the number of hosts parasitized after a given time, as well as the inverse problem, estimating the sampling effort. We develop the relationship between the risk distribution on the set of hosts and the speed of parasitization and propose a more elegant proof of the weak stochastic dominance among speeds of parasitization, using the concept of Schur convexity and the ‘Robin Hood transfer’ numerical operation. Numerical examples are provided and a conjecture about strong dominance—an ordering characteristic of random variables—is proposed. The speed at which new items are discovered is a function of the entire shape of the sampling probability distribution. The sole comparison of values of variances is not sufficient to compare speeds associated with different distributions, as generally assumed in ecological studies

Length and biomass data for Atlantic and Pacific seaweeds from both hemispheres

As the length of an organism is a unidimensional measure but its biomass is distributed across three dimensions, length and biomass are allometrically related in plants and animals. Due to the high interspecific morphological variation in nature (e.g., long, thin, and narrow flatworms vs. short and globose snails), the biomass–length relationship differs among species. Interest in the principles governing biomass–length allometry has sparked research about the drivers of biological form (West et al., 1999; Niklas and Enquist, 2001; Makarieva et al., 2005; Kleyer et al., 2019). Biomass–length allometry can ultimately be of practical value, such as for the non-destructive estimation of stand biomass (Scrosati, 2006a; Yuen et al., 2016) and productivity (Martin et al., 2014), the determination of body condition (Brodeur et al., 2020), or the unintrusive estimation of body mass (Turnbull et al., 2014; Coulis and Joly, 2017; Sohlström et al., 2018), which is in turn allometrically related to various biological processes (Brown et al., 2004; Marquet et al., 2005).Fil: Scrosati, Ricardo Augusto. Saint Francis Xavier University; CanadáFil: MacDonald, Heather L.. Saint Francis Xavier University; CanadáFil: Córdova, César A.. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos; PerúFil: Casas, Graciela Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos; Argentin

¿Pueden los pastoreadores nativos de Patagonia, Argentina, consumir al alga invasora Undaria pinnatifida?

El alga invasora Undaria pinnatifida (Phaeophyceae, Laminariales) fue reportada por primera vez en Golfo Nuevo en 1992, dispersándose ampliamente a lo largo de 170 km de costa en el norte de la Patagonia, Argentina. Observaciones de campo hechas en los erizos de mar Arbacia dufresnii y Pseudechinus magellanicus y en el gasterópodo Tegula patagonica evidenciaron que son posibles consumidores de Undaria pinnatifida en la población local. Se realizaron experimentos de laboratorio con el objetivo de probar si estos pastoreadores eran capaces de consumir el alga. Los erizos de mar estudiados consumen el alga, mientras que el gasterópodo ramonea los epibiontes presentes sobre su superficie. Altas densidades de ramoneadores fueron encontradas sobre el alga durante el verano y podrían ser atribuidas a un aumento del su metabolismo con el aumento de la temperatura y a la degradación de las láminas y esporofilos, lo cual posiblemente aumente la palatabilidad del alga.The invasive kelp Undaria pinnatifida (Phaeophyceae, Laminariales) was first reported in Golfo Nuevo in 1992 and since then it has spread widely over more than 170 km, all along the northern Patagonian coast, Argentina. Field observations in the region have indicated the potential role of invertebrate grazers, like the sea urchins Arbacia dufresnii and Pseudechinus magellanicus and the gastropod Tegula patagonica, in controlling algal density. Laboratory experiments were conducted to ascertain whether, and if so, to what extent these grazers actually feed on the algae. The studied sea urchins fed on the alga, whereas the snail scraped off biofouling adhered to its surface. Higher densities of grazers were observed on the kelp during summer and might be attributed to increasing in metabolism with increasing temperature, and degradation of blades and sporophylls, which possibly increase their palatability.Fil: Teso, Silvia Valeria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; ArgentinaFil: Bigatti, Gregorio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Casas, Graciela Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Piriz, Maria Luz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Penchaszadeh, Pablo Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; Argentin

Surgery for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and its limits in advanced disease

Surgery remains the first-line therapeutic option for most patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). However, in the current therapeutic landscape, surgery must attempt to the complete tumor resection (R0 resection) with the lowest risk of surgical complications. This double aim is usually accomplished through standard excision with clinical margins in patients with low-risk tumors or by some of the micrographically controlled surgery procedures for patients with tumors at high-risk of local recurrence and metastasis. Surgery is also a first-line treatment for nodal metastases of cSCC as well as an option to consider in patients who develop recurrences while receiving immunotherapy, or as a palliation procedure in patients with advanced tumors. Neoadjuvant immunotherapy, that is the use of a medical treatment before surgery, is under investigation in patients with cSCC. The decision-making process and guidelines recommendations regarding cSCC surgery are reviewed in this manuscript

Neuropsychological Outcome One Year after Carotid Revascularization : A before-and-after Study

Altres ajuts: This study was supported by a grant from the Fundación Mútua Madrileña.The aim of our study was to determine the clinical profile of patients considered cognitive 'responders' to surgery in order to establish clinical variables associated with a favorable cognitive performance. A total of 70 patients were included in the study. A well-validated, comprehensive standardized neurocognitive battery of tests of about 2 hours was administered. Patients were examined twice, 1-week before surgery and 1-year postoperatively. The criterion to be included in the 'responder' group was the following: to obtain a positive difference between post-revascularization and pre-revascularization neuropsychological assessment ≥1 standard deviation in ≥2 tests. Twenty-seven patients (38.6%) were cognitive responders to treatment. In bivariate analysis between responders and non-responders, presence of atrophy (P=0.003), small vessels (P=0.577), symptoms (P=0.046), and age (P=0.030) were the factors statistically significant. When comparing cognitive performance before and after carotid revascularization, significant differences were observed in semantic fluency with a lower performance after 12 months (P=0.004, d=0.29), and in the Language index (Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status) (P=0.005, d=0.34). Patients without neurological symptoms, of a younger age and without atrophy and white matter small vessel lesions are better cognitive responders 1-year after carotid revascularization

Benthic diversity and assemblage structure of a north Patagonian rocky shore: a monitoring legacy of the NaGISA project

The rocky shore of Punta Este, Golfo Nuevo (Patagonia, Argentina), was sampled using the standardized NaGISA (CoML) protocol aimed to generate biodiversity baseline data in 6 levels, from high intertidal to 10m depth. Based on the generated data, we studied the benthic assemblage structure, species richness, mean abundance and the distribution pattern of invertebrate functional groups, typifying species in each intertidal and subtidal level. The rocky shore studied, as other in north Patagonia is understudied, factors driven its assemblage structure are not clear yet. The intertidal sampled is exposed to extreme physical conditions higher than any other studied rocky shore systems, with air temperature variation of 40°C during the year, maximum winds of 90 km/h and semidiurnal tides of 5m amplitude; on the other hand subtidal presents less thermal variation (DeltaT 10°C along the year) and more homogeneous physical conditions. We identified 65 taxa represented by six animal phyla: Mollusca, Arthropoda, Annelida (Polychaeta), Echinodermata, Cnidaria and Nemertea; and three algal phyla: Chlorophyta, Rhodophyta and Heterokontophyta (class: Phaeophyceae). Ordination nMDS plots showed three different assemblages in terms of species composition (intertidal, subtidal 1m level and subtidal 5-10m samples). The intertidal was represented by suspension feeders mainly Mollusca. The tiny mussels Brachidontes rodriguezii and Brachidontes purpuratus, and the algae Corallina officinalis dominated the intertidal and acts as a buffer that prevent other species for physical stress. The subtidal was mainly represented by grazers. Our results showed a tendency of suspension feeders decreasing and increasing of grazers and predators from high intertidal to subtidal, probably driven by decreasing in physical stress. The gastropod Tegula patagonica, the sea urchins Arbacia dufresnii and Pseudechinus magellanicus and the non native algae Undaria pinnatifida were the most abundant in 1m-10m level. Based on previous works performed in the region, we hypothesize that the differences registered between intertidal and subtidal samples could be explained in part by an increase in physical stress in the intertidal with low predation pressure that promotes positive interactions, while in the subtidal the increasing in consumers and decreasing of physical stress could lead to associational defenses. Competition for primary substrate at the intertidal and subtidal must be explored in future experiments. Our results could be useful to compare data and to develop a sustainable network for long-term monitoring benthic community changes due to anthropogenic activities.Fil: Rechimont, Maria Emilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Galvan, David Edgardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Sueiro, Maria Cruz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Casas, Graciela Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Piriz, Maria Luz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Diez, María Emilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Primost, Monica Angelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Zabala, Maria Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Marquez, Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Brogger, Martin Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez Alfaya, Jose Elias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Bigatti, Gregorio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentin

Inequalities in catastrophic health expenditures in conflict-affected areas and the Colombian peace agreement : an oaxaca-blinder change decomposition analysis

Abstract Background The present study analyzes inequalities in catastrophic health expenditures in conflict-affected regions of Meta, Colombia and socioeconomic factors contributing to the existence and changes in catastrophic expenditures before and after the sign of Colombian Peace Agreement with FARC-EP guerilla group in 2016. Methods The study uses the results of the survey Conflicto, Paz y Salud (CONPAS) conducted in 1309 households of Meta, Colombia, a territory historically impacted by armed conflict, for the years 2014 and 2018. We define catastrophic expenditures as health expenditures above 20% of the capacity to pay of a household. We disaggregate the changes in inequalities in catastrophic expenditures through the Oaxaca-Blinder change decomposition method. Results The incidence of catastrophic expenditures slightly increased between 2014 to 2018, from 29.3 to 30.7%. Inequalities in catastrophic expenditures, measured through concentration indexes (CI), also increased from 2014 (CI: -0.152) to 2018 (CI: -0.232). Results show that differences in catastrophic expenditures between socioeconomic groups are mostly attributed to an increased influence of specific sociodemographic variables such as living in rural zones, being a middle-aged person, living in conflict-affected territories, or presenting any type of mental and physical disability. Conclusions Conflict-deescalation and the peace agreement may have facilitated lower-income groups to have access to health services, especially in territories highly impacted by conflict. This, consequently, may have led to higher levels of out-of-pocket expenditures and, therefore, to higher chances of experiencing catastrophic expenditures for lower-income groups in comparison to higher-income groups. Therefore, results indicate the importance of designing policies that guarantee access to health services for people in conflict -affected regions but also, that minimize health care inequalities in out-of-pocket payments that may arouse between people at different socioeconomic groups

Nuevos datos normativos de la versión española de la Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) forma A

Introducción: Repeatable Battery for the Asessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) es utilizada habitualmente en la práctica clínica para la evaluación de funciones cognitivas. Se caracteriza por su corta duración, 20-30 minutos de administración, por la ausencia de efecto aprendizaje, dispone de 4 versiones paralelas y por su capacidad discriminativa de diferentes enfermedades. Se presentan datos normativos de la RBANS-E (versión espanola ˜ forma A de la batería) para población espanola ˜ de 20-89 anos. ˜Métodos: Seiscientos nueve individuos accedieron a participar. Se les sometió a una valoración previa mediante anamnesis que incluía el Mini Mental State Examination como instrumento de cribado cognitivo y la Blessed Disability Rating Scale como escala funcional. A los 609 sujetos sanos de entre 20 y 89 anos ˜ de edad se les administró la batería RBANS-E en una sola sesión. Resultados: Los resultados muestran la influencia de la escolaridad en las puntuaciones de todos los subtest. No se observa influencia del género en ninguno de ellos. Conclusiones: Las normas obtenidas aportan datos de gran utilidad clínica para la evaluación cognitiva de población joven y adulta.Introduction: The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) is frequently used in clinical practice to evaluate cognitive function. It is quick to administer (20-30 minutes) and is not influenced by a learning effect. The RBANS includes 4 parallel versions and has a high discriminative ability. Our study provides normative data from the RBANS-E (Spanish-language version of RBANS form A) for a Spanish population aged 20 to 89 years. Methods: The study included 609 subjects aged 20 to 89 years. Participants were evaluated at baseline with a short interview, a cognitive screening test (Mini-Mental State Examination), and a functional scale (Rapid Disability Rating Scale). The RBANS-E was then administered to all 609 participants. Results: Our results show the influence of education on all subtest scores. Sex was observed to have no impact on any subtest. Conclusion: Our study provides highly useful normative data for the cognitive evaluation of young and adult populations

A light of hope? Inequalities in mental health before and after the peace agreement in Colombia : a decomposition analysis

Background The present study seeks to evaluate the change in mental health inequalities in the department of Meta after the signing of Colombia’s Peace Agreement in 2016 with the FARC guerrilla group. Using a validated survey instrument composed of 20 questions (‘SRQ-20’), we measure changes in mental health inequalities from 2014, before the signing of the agreement, to 2018, after the signing. We then decompose the changes in inequalities to establish which socioeconomic factors explain differences in mental health inequalities over time. Methods Our study uses information from the Conflicto, Salud y Paz (CONPAS) survey conducted in the department of Meta, Colombia, in 1309 households in 2018, with retrospective information for 2014. To measure inequalities, we calculate the concentration indices for both years. Through the Oaxaca change decomposition method, we disaggregate changes in mental health inequalities into its underlying factors. This method allows us to explain the relationship between changes in mental health inequalities and changes in inequalities in several sociodemographic factors. It also identifies the extent to which these factors help explain the changes in mental health inequalities. Results Mental health inequalities in Meta were reduced almost by half from 2014 to 2018. In 2018, the population at the lower and middle socioeconomic levels had fewer chances of experiencing mental health disorders in comparison to 2014. The reduction in mental health differences is mostly attributed to reductions in the influence of certain sociodemographic variables, such as residence in rural zones and conflict-affected territories, working in the informal sector, or experiencing internal displacement. However, even though mental health inequalities have diminished, overall mental health outcomes have worsened in these years. Conclusions The reduction in the contribution of conflict-related variables for explaining mental health inequalities could mean that the negative consequences of conflict on mental health have started to diminish in the short run after the peace agreement. Nevertheless, conflict and the presence of other socioeconomic inequalities still contribute to persistent adverse mental health outcomes in the overall population. Thus, public policy should be oriented towards improving mental health care services in these territories, given the post-accord context