Carbon dioxide enrichment: a technique to mitigate the negative effects of salinity on the productivity of high value tomatoes

The present study was conducted to determine the mitigating influence of greenhouse CO2 enrichment on the negative effects of salinity in Mediterranean conditions. Hybrid Raf (cv. Delizia) tomato plants were exposed to two salinity levels of the nutrient solution (5 and 7 dS/m) obtained by adding NaCl, and two CO2 concentrations (350 and 800 μmol/mol) in which CO2 enrichment was applied during the daytime according to a strategy linked to ventilation. Increasing water salinity negatively affected the leaf area index (LAI), the specific leaf area (SLA), the water use efficiency (WUE), the radiation use efficiency (RUE) and dry weight (DW) accumulation resulting in lower marketable yield. The high salinity treatment (7 dS/m) increased fruit firmness (N), total soluble solids content (SSC) and titratable acidity (TA), whereas pH was reduced in the three ripening stages: mature green/breaker (G), turning (T), and pink/light red (P). Also, the increase in electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution led to a general change in intensity of the sensory characteristics of tomato fruits. On the other hand, CO2 enrichment did not affect LAI although SLA was reduced. RUE and DW accumulation were increased resulting in higher marketable yield, through positive effects on fruit number and their average weight. WUE was enhanced by CO2 supply mainly through increased growth and yield. Physical-chemical quality parameters such as fruit firmness, TA and pH were not affected by CO2 enrichment whereas SSC was enhanced. Greenhouse CO2 enrichment did mitigate the negative effect of saline conditions on productivity without compromising organoleptic and sensory fruit quality

Generation of a Biomimetic Substitute of the Corneal Limbus Using Decellularized Scaffolds

Patients with severe limbal damage and limbal stem cell deficiency are a therapeutic challenge. We evaluated four decellularization protocols applied to the full-thickness and half-thickness porcine limbus, and we used two cell types to recellularize the decellularized limbi. The results demonstrated that all protocols achieved efficient decellularization. However, the method that best preserved the transparency and composition of the limbus extracellular matrix was the use of 0.1% SDS applied to the half-thickness limbus. Recellularization with the limbal epithelial cell line SIRC and human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADSCs) was able to generate a stratified epithelium able to express the limbal markers p63, pancytokeratin, and crystallin Z from day 7 in the case of SIRC and after 14–21 days of induction when hADSCs were used. Laminin and collagen IV expression was detected at the basal lamina of both cell types at days 14 and 21 of follow-up. Compared with control native limbi, tissues recellularized with SIRC showed adequate picrosirius red and alcian blue staining intensity, whereas limbi containing hADSCs showed normal collagen staining intensity. These preliminary results suggested that the limbal substitutes generated in this work share important similarities with the native limbus and could be potentially useful in the future.Spanish Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica (I+D+i) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Instituto de Salud Carlos III), Grants FIS PI20/0317 and ICI21-00010, cofinanced by FEDER funds (European Union). This work was also supported by grant PI-0086-2020 from Consejería de Salud y Familias, Junta de Andalucía, Spain, and grant B-CTS-504-UGR20 (Proyectos de I+D+i en el marco del Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía 2014–2020) from the University of Granada, Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Junta de Andalucía, and European Union (cofinanced by FEDER funds)

Clasificación de cultivos y de sus medidas agroambientales mediante segmentación de imágenes QuickBird

En la últimas décadas han ido creciendo considerablemente los conocimientos y la sensibilización sobre la protección al medioambiente en muy diversas áreas, entre las que se encuentra la Agricultura. El uso intensivo del laboreo ocasiona graves daños medioambientales como la erosión del suelo, la contaminación de las aguas superficiales (escorrentía y colmatación de embalses), el descenso del contenido de la materia orgánica y de la biodiversidad de los suelos labrados, y el aumento de la emisión de CO2 del suelo a la atmósfera. Actualmente, la Unión Europea sólo subvenciona a los agricultores que cumplen lo que se conoce como “Medidas Agroambientales o de Condicionalidad” cuyo diseño ha estado dentro de las competencias de las Políticas Agrarias Autonómicas, Nacionales y Europeas. Estas medidas consisten en alterar el perfil y la estructura del suelo lo menos posible, dejando éste sin labrar y permanentemente protegido por cubiertas vegetales (rastrojo) en el caso de cultivos herbáceos (ej. trigo, maíz, girasol), o por cubiertas vegetales vivas o inertes (restos de poda) en el caso de cultivos leñosos (principalmente cítricos y olivar). El seguimiento del cumplimiento de estas medidas se realiza a través de visitas presenciales a un 1% de los campos susceptibles de recibir ayudas. Este método es ineficiente y provoca muchos errores con la consiguiente presentación de un ingente número de reclamaciones. Para subsanar esta problemática, en este artículo presentamos los resultados obtenidos en la clasificación de los cultivos y las medidas agroambientales asociadas a éstos en una imagen multiespectral QuickBird tomada a principios de Julio de una zona típica de cultivos en régimen de secano de Andalucía. Se aplicaron 5 métodos de clasificación (Paralelepípedos, P; Mínima Distancia, MD; Distancia de Mahalanobis, MC; Mapeo del Ángulo Espectral, SAM; y Máxima Probabilidad, ML) para la discriminación de rastrojo de trigo quemado y sin quemar, arbolado, carreteras, olivar, cultivos herbáceos de siembra primaveral y suelo desnudo. Además, la imagen es segmentada en objetos para comparar la fiabilidad obtenida aplicando los métodos anteriores partiendo tanto de píxeles como de objetos como Unidades Mínimas de Información (MIU). El análisis de los resultados permite concluir que las clasificaciones de todos los usos de suelo basadas en objetos claramente mejoraron las basadas en píxeles, obteniéndose precisiones (overall accuracy) mayores al 85%. La elección de un método de clasificación u otro influye en gran medida en la precisión de los mapas obtenidos. Debido a que la precisión del mapa temático que necesitamos obtener ha de ser muy elevada para tomar decisiones sobre Conceder / No conceder las ayudas, sería interesante estudiar si el incremento de la resolución espacial que se obtenga gracias a la fusión de imágenes multiespectral y pancromática de QuickBird para obtener una imagen fusionada con resolución espacial de la pancromática (0.7 m) y espectral de la multiespectral (4 bandas) mejora la precisión de cualquiera de los métodos de clasificación estudiadosSoil management in crops is mainly based on intensive tillage operations, which have a great relevancy in terms of increase of atmospheric CO2, desertification, erosion and land degradation. Due to these negative environmental impacts, the European Union only subsidizes cropping systems which require the implementation of certain no-tillage systems and agro-environmental measures, such as keeping the winter cereal residues and non-burning of stubble to reduce erosion, and to increase the organic matter, the fertility of soils and the crop production. Nowadays, the follow-up of these agrarian policy actions is achieved by ground visits to sample targeted farms; however, this procedure is time-consuming and very expensive. To improve this control procedure, a study of the accuracy performance of several classification methods has been examined to verify if remote sensing can offer the ability to efficiently identify crops and their agro-environmental measures in a typical agricultural Mediterranean area of dry conditions. Five supervised classification methods based on different decision rule routines, Parallelepiped (P), Minimum Distance (MD), Mahalanobis Classifier Distance (MC), Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM), and Maximum Likelihood (ML), were examined to determine the most suitable classification algorithm for the identification of agro-environmental measures such as winter cereal stubble and burnt stubble areas and other land uses such as river side trees, vineyard, olive orchards, spring sown crops, roads and bare soil. An object segmentation of the satellite information was also added to compare the accuracy of the classification results of pixel and object as Minimum Information Unit (MIU). A multispectral QuickBird image taken in early summer was used to test these MIU and classification methods. The resulting classified images indicated that object-based analyses clearly outperformed pixel ones, yielding overall accuracies higher than 85% in most of the classifications. The choice of a classification method can markedly influence the accuracy of classification maps

Classification of 3D Point Clouds Using Color Vegetation Indices for Precision Viticulture and Digitizing Applications

Remote sensing applied in the digital transformation of agriculture and, more particularly, in precision viticulture offers methods to map field spatial variability to support site-specific management strategies; these can be based on crop canopy characteristics such as the row height or vegetation cover fraction, requiring accurate three-dimensional (3D) information. To derive canopy information, a set of dense 3D point clouds was generated using photogrammetric techniques on images acquired by an RGB sensor onboard an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in two testing vineyards on two different dates. In addition to the geometry, each point also stores information from the RGB color model, which was used to discriminate between vegetation and bare soil. To the best of our knowledge, the new methodology herein presented consisting of linking point clouds with their spectral information had not previously been applied to automatically estimate vine height. Therefore, the novelty of this work is based on the application of color vegetation indices in point clouds for the automatic detection and classification of points representing vegetation and the later ability to determine the height of vines using as a reference the heights of the points classified as soil. Results from on-ground measurements of the heights of individual grapevines were compared with the estimated heights from the UAV point cloud, showing high determination coefficients (R² > 0.87) and low root-mean-square error (0.070 m). This methodology offers new capabilities for the use of RGB sensors onboard UAV platforms as a tool for precision viticulture and digitizing applications

Early onset of azithromycin to prevent clad in lung transplantation: promising results of a retrospective single centre experience

Introduction: Azithromycin (AZI) may be an effective immune modulator in lung transplant (LT) recipients, and can decrease chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) rates, the leading cause of mortality after the first year post-LT. The aim of the study is to assess the effect of AZI initiation and its timing on the incidence and severity of CLAD in LT recipients. Methods: Single-center retrospective study, including LT recipients from 01/01/2011 to 30/06/2020. Four groups were established: those who started AZI at the 3rd week post-LT (group A), those who received AZI later than the 3rd week post-LT and had preserved FEV1 (B), those who did not receive AZI (C) and those who started AZI due to a decline in FEV1 (D). The dosage of AZI prescribed was 250 mg three times per week. CLAD was defined and graduated according to the 2019 ISHLT criteria. Results: We included 358 LT recipients: 139 (38.83%) were in group A, 94 (26.25%) in group B, 91 (25.42%) in group C, and 34 (9.50%) in group D. Group A experienced the lowest CLAD incidence and severity at 1 (p = 0.01), 3 (p < 0.001), and 5 years post-LT, followed by Group B. Groups C and D experienced a higher incidence and severity of CLAD (p = 0.015). Initiation of AZI prior to FEV1 decline (groups A and B) proved to be protective against CLAD after adjusting for differences between the treatment groups. Conclusions: Early initiation of AZI in LT recipients could have a role in decreasing the incidence and severity of CLAD. In addition, as long as FEV1 is preserved, initiating AZI at any time could also be useful to prevent the incidence of CLAD and reduce its severity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Funding Sources: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

Deletion of Wt1 during early gonadogenesis leads to differences of sex development in male and female adult mice

Assessing the role of the WT1 transcription factor (WT1) during early gonad differentiation and its impact on adult sex development has been difficult due to the complete gonadal agenesis and embryonic lethality exhibited by Wt1KO mouse models. Here, we generated Wt1LoxP/GFP;Wt1Cre mice, the first Wt1KO mouse model that reaches adulthood with a dramatically reduced Wt1 expression during early gonadogenesis. Wt1LoxP/GFP;Wt1Cre mice lacked mature gonads and displayed genital tracts containing both male and female genital structures and ambiguous genitalia. We found that WT1 is necessary for the activation of both male and female sex-determining pathways, as embryonic mutant gonads failed to upregulate the expression of the genes specific for each genetic programme. The gonads of Wt1LoxP/GFP;Wt1Cre mice showed a lack of production of Sertoli and pre-granulosa cells and a reduced number of germ cells. NR5A1 and the steroidogenic genes expression was modulated differently in XY and XX Wt1LoxP/GFP;Wt1Cre gonads, explaining the mutant phenotypes. Further studies of the XX Wt1LoxP/GFP;Wt1Cre gonads revealed that deletion of WT1 at an early stage impaired the differentiation of several cell types including somatic cells and the ovarian epithelium. Through the characterisation of this Wt1KO mouse model, we show that the deletion of Wt1 during early gonadogenesis produces dramatic defects in adult sex development

Developing speaking competences in technical English for Spanish civil engineering students

[EN] Traditionally, Spanish schools of civil engineering provide their students a class on “Technical English” in order to develop their language skills. However, this class does not cover all the skills that the student would need in the labor market and mainly focuses in the reading and writing skills, and in a lower degree in the speaking and listening ones. This paper proposes a series of innovative and informal training activities (cine-forum on technical civil engineering topics and role playing on real professional situations) that allow Spanish civil engineering students to develop English skills that can rarely be worked in the classroom (i.e. speaking, negotiating and conversing), encouraging debate, participation, and fostering their self-confidence to speak about technical-English topics in public. Although the students’ level of English is much lower than expected, they all agree on the importance of technical English for their future career. The results also show the students’ lack in skills that are difficult to train in regular classes (speaking and talking). Consequently, this situation would require to provide complementary activities like the ones suggested in this project in order to develop these skills and increase the students’ demand for engineering classes taught in English.Romero De Ávila Serrano, V.; Diaz García, S.; Asensio Sánchez, L.; Lozano Galant, JA.; Moyano Enríquez De Salamanca, A.; Porras Soriano, R.; Poveda Bautista, E.... (2017). Developing speaking competences in technical English for Spanish civil engineering students. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1228-1236. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.55641228123

The Development of the Bengamides as New Antibiotics against Drug-Resistant Bacteria

The bengamides comprise an interesting family of natural products isolated from sponges belonging to the prolific Jaspidae family. Their outstanding antitumor properties, coupled with their unique mechanism of action and unprecedented molecular structures, have prompted an intense research activity directed towards their total syntheses, analogue design, and biological evaluations for their development as new anticancer agents. Together with these biological studies in cancer research, in recent years, the bengamides have been identified as potential antibiotics by their impressive biological activities against various drug-resistant bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus. This review reports on the new advances in the chemistry and biology of the bengamides during the last years, paying special attention to their development as promising new antibiotics. Thus, the evolution of the bengamides from their initial exploration as antitumor agents up to their current status as antibiotics is described in detail, highlighting the manifold value of these marine natural products as valid hits in medicinal chemistry.Supported by grants RTI2018-098296-BI00 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), PI19/01478 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (FEDER), P20_00540 (Andalusian Government and FEDER), K99GM138758 and R35GM136286 (National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health), A-CTS-666-UGR20 (University of Granada) (FEDER), CTS-107 (Andalusian Government) and 2021-GRIN-30998 (University of Castilla-La Mancha). Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málag