Earlier flowering of Betula pendula Roth in Augsburg, Germany, due to higher temperature, NO2 and urbanity, and relationship with Betula spp. pollen season

Flowering and pollen seasons are sensitive to environmental variability and are considered climate change indicators. However, it has not been concluded to what extent flowering phenology is indeed reflected in airborne pollen season locally. The aim of this study was to investigate, for the commonly represented in temperate climates and with highly allergenic pollen Betula pendula Roth, the responsiveness of flowering to different environmental regimes and also to check for commensurate changes in the respective pollen seasons. The region of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany, was initially screened for birch trees, which were geolocated at a radius of 25 km. Random trees across the city were then investigated during three full flowering years, 2015–2017. Flowering observations were made 3–7 times a week, from flower differentiation to flower desiccation, in a total of 43 plant individuals. Data were regressed against meteorological parameters and air pollutant levels in an attempt to identify the driving factors of flowering onset and offset. Flowering dates were compared with dates of the related airborne pollen seasons per taxon; airborne pollen monitoring took place daily using a Hirst-type volumetric sampler. The salient finding was that flowering occurred earlier during warmer years; it also started earlier at locations with higher urbanity, and peaked and ended earlier at sites with higher NO(2) concentrations. Airborne pollen season of Betula spp. frequently did not coincide locally with the flowering period of Betula pendula: while flowering and pollen season were synchronized particularly in their onset, local flowering phenology alone could explain only 57.3% of the pollen season variability. This raises questions about the relationship between flowering times and airborne pollen seasons and on the rather underestimated role of the long-distance transport of pollen

Adaptation of the emerging pathogenic yeast Candida auris to high caspofungin concentrations correlates with cell wall changes

Candida auris has emerged as a fungal pathogen that causes nosocomial outbreaks worldwide. Diseases caused by this fungus are of concern, due to its reduced susceptibility to several antifungals. C. auris exhibits paradoxical growth (PG; defined as growth at high, but not intermediate antifungal concentrations) in the presence of caspofungin (CPF). We have characterized the cellular changes associated with adaptation to CPF. Using EUCAST AFST protocols, all C. auris isolates tested showed PG to CPF, although in some isolates it was more prominent. Most isolates also showed a trailing effect (TE) to micafungin and anidulafungin. We identified two FKS genes in C. auris that encode the echinocandins target, namely β-1,3-glucan synthase. FKS1 contained the consensus hot-spot (HS) 1 and HS2 sequences. FKS2 only contained the HS1 region which had a change (F635Y), that has been shown to confer resistance to echinocandins in C. glabrata. PG has been characterized in other species, mainly C. albicans, where high CPF concentrations induced an increase in chitin, cell volume and aggregation. In C. auris CPF only induced a slight accumulation of chitin, and none of the other phenomena. RNAseq experiments demonstrated that CPF induced the expression of genes encoding several GPI-anchored cell wall proteins, membrane proteins required for the stability of the cell wall, chitin synthase and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) involved in cell integrity, such as BCK2, HOG1 and MKC1 (SLT2). Our work highlights some of the processes induced in C. auris to adapt to echinocandins.This work was funded by grant SAF2017-86192-R from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, OZ was also sponsored by Plan Nacional de I+D+i 2013-2016 and Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Subdirección General de Redes y Centros de Investigación Cooperativa, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD16/CIII/0004/0003), co-financed by European Development Regional Fund ERDF “A way to achieve Europe”, Operative program Intelligent Growth 2014-2020 and by Red Española de Investigación en Patología Infecciosa (REIPI RD16/CIII/0004/0003).S

Cadmium, Smoking, and Human Blood DNA Methylation Profiles in Adults from the Strong Heart Study.

The epigenetic effects of individual environmental toxicants in tobacco remain largely unexplored. Cadmium (Cd) has been associated with smoking-related health effects, and its concentration in tobacco smoke is higher in comparison with other metals. We studied the association of Cd and smoking exposures with human blood DNA methylation (DNAm) profiles. We also evaluated the implication of findings to relevant methylation pathways and the potential contribution of Cd exposure from smoking to explain the association between smoking and site-specific DNAm. We conducted an epigenome-wide association study of urine Cd and self-reported smoking (current and former vs. never, and cumulative smoking dose) with blood DNAm in 790,026 CpGs (methylation sites) measured with the Illumina Infinium Human MethylationEPIC (Illumina Inc.) platform in 2,325 adults 45-74 years of age who participated in the Strong Heart Study in 1989-1991. In a mediation analysis, we estimated the amount of change in DNAm associated with smoking that can be independently attributed to increases in urine Cd concentrations from smoking. We also conducted enrichment analyses and in silico protein-protein interaction networks to explore the biological relevance of the findings. At a false discovery rate (FDR)-corrected level of 0.05, we found 6 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) for Cd; 288 and 17, respectively, for current and former smoking status; and 77 for cigarette pack-years. Enrichment analyses of these DMPs displayed enrichment of 58 and 6 Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes gene sets, respectively, including biological pathways for cancer and cardiovascular disease. In in silico protein-to-protein networks, we observed key proteins in DNAm pathways directly and indirectly connected to Cd- and smoking-DMPs. Among DMPs that were significant for both Cd and current smoking (annotated to PRSS23, AHRR, F2RL3, RARA, and 2q37.1), we found statistically significant contributions of Cd to smoking-related DNAm. Beyond replicating well-known smoking epigenetic signatures, we found novel DMPs related to smoking. Moreover, increases in smoking-related Cd exposure were associated with differential DNAm. Our integrative analysis supports a biological link for Cd and smoking-associated health effects, including the possibility that Cd is partly responsible for smoking toxicity through epigenetic changes. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6345.This work was supported by grants by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) (under contract numbers 75N92019D00027, 75N92019D00028, 75N92019D00029, & 75N92019D00030) and previous grants (R01HL090863, R01HL109315, R01HL109301, R01HL109284, R01HL109282, and R01HL109319 and cooperative agreements U01HL41642, U01HL41652, U01HL41654, U01HL65520, and U01HL65521), by the National Institute of Health Sciences (R01ES021367, R01ES025216, P42ES010349, P30ES009089), by the Spanish Funds for Research In Health Sciences, Carlos III Health Institute, co-funded by European Regional Development Fund (CP12/03080 and PI15/00071), by Chilean CONICYT/FONDECYT-POSTDOCTORADO Nº3180486 (A.L.R.-C) and a fellowship from “La Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434). The fellowship code is “LCF/BQ/DR19/11740016.”S

Neuroprotective Natural Molecules, From Food to Brain

The prevalence of neurodegenerative disorders is increasing; however, an effective neuroprotective treatment is still remaining. Nutrition plays an important role in neuroprotection as recently shown by epidemiological and biochemical studies which identified food components as promising therapeutic agents. Neuroprotection includes mechanisms such as activation of specific receptors, changes in enzymatic neuronal activity, and synthesis and secretion of different bioactive molecules. All these mechanisms are focused on preventing neuronal damage and alleviating the consequences of massive cell loss. Some neuropathological disorders selectively affect to particular neuronal populations, thus is important to know their neurochemical and anatomical properties in order to design effective therapies. Although the design of such treatments would be specific to neuronal groups sensible to damage, the effect would have an impact in the whole nervous system. The difficult overcoming of the blood brain barrier has hampered the development of efficient therapies for prevention or protection. This structure is a physical, enzymatic, and influx barrier that efficiently protects the brain from exogenous molecules. Therefore, the development of new strategies, like nanocarriers, that help to promote the access of neuroprotective molecules to the brain, is needed for providing more effective therapies for the disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). In order both to trace the success of these nanoplatforms on the release of the bioactive cargo in the CNS and determinate the concentration at trace levels of targets biomolecules by analytical chemistry and concretely separation instrumental techniques, constitute an essential tool. Currently, these techniques are used for the determination and identification of natural neuroprotective molecules in complex matrixes at different concentration levels. Separation techniques such as chromatography and capillary electrophoresis (CE), using optical and/or mass spectrometry (MS) detectors, provide multiples combinations for the quantitative and qualitative analysis at basal levels or higher concentrations of bioactive analytes in biological samples. Bearing this in mind, the development of food neuroprotective molecules as brain therapeutic agents is a complex task that requires the intimate collaboration and engagement of different disciplines for a successful outcome. In this sense, this work reviews the new advances achieved in the area toward a better understanding of the current state of the art and highlights promising approaches for brain neuroprotection

Risk Factors for COVID-19 in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A National, ENEIDA-Based Case–Control Study (COVID-19-EII)

(1) Scant information is available concerning the characteristics that may favour the acquisition of COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess these differences between infected and noninfected patients with IBD. (2) This nationwide case-control study evaluated patients with inflammatory bowel disease with COVID-19 (cases) and without COVID-19 (controls) during the period March-July 2020 included in the ENEIDA of GETECCU. (3) A total of 496 cases and 964 controls from 73 Spanish centres were included. No differences were found in the basal characteristics between cases and controls. Cases had higher comorbidity Charlson scores (24% vs. 19%; p = 0.02) and occupational risk (28% vs. 10.5%; p < 0.0001) more frequently than did controls. Lockdown was the only protective measure against COVID-19 (50% vs. 70%; p < 0.0001). No differences were found in the use of systemic steroids, immunosuppressants or biologics between cases and controls. Cases were more often treated with 5-aminosalicylates (42% vs. 34%; p = 0.003). Having a moderate Charlson score (OR: 2.7; 95%CI: 1.3-5.9), occupational risk (OR: 2.9; 95%CI: 1.8-4.4) and the use of 5-aminosalicylates (OR: 1.7; 95%CI: 1.2-2.5) were factors for COVID-19. The strict lockdown was the only protective factor (OR: 0.1; 95%CI: 0.09-0.2). (4) Comorbidities and occupational exposure are the most relevant factors for COVID-19 in patients with IBD. The risk of COVID-19 seems not to be increased by immunosuppressants or biologics, with a potential effect of 5-aminosalicylates, which should be investigated further and interpreted with caution

A pan-European epidemiological study reveals honey bee colony survival depends on beekeeper education and disease control

Reports of honey bee population decline has spurred many national efforts to understand the extent of the problem and to identify causative or associated factors. However, our collective understanding of the factors has been hampered by a lack of joined up trans-national effort. Moreover, the impacts of beekeeper knowledge and beekeeping management practices have often been overlooked, despite honey bees being a managed pollinator. Here, we established a standardised active monitoring network for 5 798 apiaries over two consecutive years to quantify honey bee colony mortality across 17 European countries. Our data demonstrate that overwinter losses ranged between 2% and 32%, and that high summer losses were likely to follow high winter losses. Multivariate Poisson regression models revealed that hobbyist beekeepers with small apiaries and little experience in beekeeping had double the winter mortality rate when compared to professional beekeepers. Furthermore, honey bees kept by professional beekeepers never showed signs of disease, unlike apiaries from hobbyist beekeepers that had symptoms of bacterial infection and heavy Varroa infestation. Our data highlight beekeeper background and apicultural practices as major drivers of honey bee colony losses. The benefits of conducting trans-national monitoring schemes and improving beekeeper training are discussed

Revisar y reescribir textos académicos con herramientas digitales para transformar el conocimiento en la formación del profesorado en la Universidad

La necesidad de proporcionar herramientas digitales para la docencia online eficaz nos lleva a continuar la investigación de la fase de revisión y reescritura de textos, con la finalidad de ofrecer recursos tecnológicos en la plataforma UCM-Redactext

Desarrollo de herramientas metodológicas para incorporar contenidos de ciencia al aula y su valoración económica

La ciencia y la tecnología juegan un papel fundamental en nuestra sociedad. En este sentido, la ciudadanía parece necesitar unos conocimientos básicos que le permitan responder de manera autónoma a multitud de situaciones, tanto a nivel personal como social (Kolstø et al., 2006). Este requisito, conocido en la literatura como alfabetización científica, lleva siendo uno de los objetivos de la educación en las últimas décadas (Hodson, 2003; Feinstein, 2011). Sin embargo, parece que su consecución presenta algunos problemas. Una de las causas de estas dificultades parece ser la falta de conexión entre los contenidos que se trabajan en las clases y el día a día del ciudadano. Respecto a esto, una solución ampliamente citada en la literatura es contextualizar el aprendizaje, relacionando los contenidos trabajados en clase con escenarios cotidianos y familiares para el alumnado (Clegg & Kolodner, 2014). El proyecto pretendía que nuestros estudiantes llevasen a cabo un análisis de los contextos con contenidos científico-económicos y promovieran su utilización en el aula y en su futuro profesional. Es decir, formar a nuestros profesionales para que pudieran detectar e incorporar entre sus competencias la capacidad de conectar lo aprendido en las asignaturas con las necesidades sociales. En concreto, el proyecto tenía, en base a los problemas detectados en la percepción de la ciencia y en la formación de los ciudadanos, dos grandes tipos de objetivos: Objetivos relacionados con la percepción de los conocimientos científico-tecnológicos y su valoración económica (Ezquerra, Fernández-Sánchez, Cabezas, 2013; Ezquerra, Fernandez-Sanchez, 2014; Ezquerra, Fernandez-Sanchez, Magaña, 2015; 2016; Ezquerra, Fernandez-Sanchez, Magaña & Mingo, 2017): • Identificar en qué situaciones los ciudadanos, en su vida cotidiana, están en presencia de contenidos científicos o tecnológicos. • Determinar de qué modo llegan al ciudadano estos contenidos, con qué intensidad, cómo son propuestos, cómo son percibidos... • Analizar el modo en que podemos otorgar a estos contenidos una valoración económica. Objetivos educativos que se integran dentro de las asignaturas: • Analizar las correspondencias entre los currículos oficiales y los contenidos presentes en el entorno del ciudadano (Ezquerra, Fernandez-Sanchez, Magaña Ramos, 2015; Ezquerra y Magaña, 2016). • Introducir a los estudiantes en una propuesta de aprendizaje basada en la indagación (Rivero et al., 2013; Ezquerra, De Juanas, Martín del Pozo, 2015). • Valorar las estrategias y competencias de los futuros docentes para vincular sus conocimientos con la realidad circundante (De Juanas et al., 2012). • Analizar las actividades que los estudiantes propongan para identificar los contenidos de ciencia y estudiar su valoración económica