Contrasting growth and water use strategies in four co-occurring Mediterranean tree species revealed by concurrent measurements of sap flow and stem diameter variations

Drought limits tree water use and growth of Mediterranean trees. However, growth and water use strate-gies are rarely addressed simultaneously across species and drought conditions. Here, we investigatethe link between stem diameter variations and sap flow in four co-existing Mediterranean trees (Pinushalepensis Mill., Quercus pubescens Willd., Quercus ilex L. and Arbutus unedo L.), under relatively wet (2011)and dry (2012) conditions. Continuous stem diameter variations were converted to basal area increment(BAI) and de-trended to estimate tree water deficit ( W), an indicator of stem hydration. P. halepensis andQ. pubescens showed the most and the least conservative sap flow density (JS) regulation under drought,respectively, with Q. ilex and A.unedo showing intermediate drought responses. All species, except A.unedo, showed some between-year variability in the environmental control of JS. Seasonal stem shrink-age in response to drought (i.e., increasing W) and subsequent trunk rehydration after rainfall (i.e.,decreasing W) occurred in all species. Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and soil moisture ( ) interacted todetermine seasonal variation in W. Interestingly, in the dry year, 2012, more species-specific differ-ences were found in the responses of W to and VPD. Across species, JSand W began to decline atsimilar soil moisture thresholds, underpinning the tight link between JSand W under varying droughtconditions. Annual BAI decreased proportionally more than tree-level transpiration (JT) between the wet(2011) and the dry (2012) year, hence growth-based WUE (WUEBAI= BAI/JT) decreased for all species,albeit less acutely for P. halepensis. Overall, despite their contrasting leaf habit and wood type, the stud-ied Mediterranean tree species show coordinated responses of transpiration, water storage dynamicsand growth-based WUE which allow them to cope with seasonal and interannual drought

Sertoli cell-specific ablation of miR-17-92 cluster significantly alters whole testis transcriptome without apparent phenotypic effects

MicroRNAs are frequently organized into polycistronic clusters whose transcription is controlled by a single promoter. The miR-17-92 cluster is expressed in most embryonic and postnatal organs. It is a potent oncogene associated to several types of cancer and it is involved in several important developmental processes. In the testis, expression of the miR- 17-92 cluster in the germ cells is necessary to maintain normal spermatogenesis. This cluster is also expressed in Sertoli cells (the somatic cells of the seminiferous tubules), which require miRNAs for correct cell development and survival. To study the possible role of miR- 17-92 in Sertoli cell development and function and, in order to overcome the postnatal lethality of miR-17-92-/ mice, we conditionally deleted it in embryonic Sertoli cells shortly after the sex determination stage using an Amh-Cre allele. Mutant mice developed apparently normal testes and were fertile, but their testis transcriptomes contained hundreds of moderately deregulated genes, indicating that testis homeostasis is tightly controlled in mammals and that miR-17-92 expression in Sertoli cells contribute to maintain normal gene expression levels, but is unnecessary for testis development and function. Our results show that significant deregulation of hundreds of genes might have no functional consequences.This work was supported by grants from the Andalusian Government, Junta de Andalucía, BIO-109 to R. Jiménez and P11-CVI-7291 to M. Burgos and grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CGL2011-23368 and CGL2015-67108-P) to R. Jiménez and F.J. Barrionuevo. The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the 'Ramón y Cajal' fellowship granted to F.D. Carmona (RYC-2014-16458) and the 'FPU' PhD fellowship granted to A. Hurtado

Immune and spermatogenesis-related loci are involved in the development of extreme patterns of male infertility

Acknowledgements We thank the National DNA Bank Carlos III (University of Salamanca, Spain) for supplying part of the control DNA samples from Spain and all the participants for their essential collaboration. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science through the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (refs. SAF2016-78722-R and PID2020-120157RB-I00), the Andalusian Plan for Research and Innovation (PAIDI 2020) (ref. PY20_00212), and the R+D+i Projects of the FEDER Operational Programme 2020 (ref. B-CTS-584-UGR20). F.D.C. was supported by the “Ramón y Cajal” programme (ref. RYC-2014-16458), and L.B.C. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the “Juan de la Cierva Incorporación” programme (ref. IJC2018-038026-I, funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/ 501100011033), all of them including FEDER funds. A.G.J. was funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and FSE “El FSE invierte en tu futuro” (ref. FPU20/02926). IPATIMUP integrates the i3S Research Unit, which is partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), financed by the European Social Funds (COMPETE-FEDER) and National Funds (projects PEstC/SAU/LA0003/2013 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274). A.M.L. is funded by the Portuguese Government through FCT (IF/01262/2014). P.I.M. is supported by the FCT post-doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/120777/2016), financed from the Portuguese State Budget of the Ministry for Science, Technology and High Education and from the European Social Fund, available through the Programa Operacional do Capital Humano. ToxOmics—Centre for Toxicogenomics and Human Health, Genetics, Oncology and Human Toxicology, Nova Medical School, Lisbon, is also partially supported by FCT (Projects: UID/BIM/00009/ 2013 and UIDB/UIDP/00009/2020). SLarriba received support from “Instituto de Salud Carlos III” (grant DTS18/00101], co-funded by FEDER funds/European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)—a way to build Europe), and from “Generalitat de Catalunya” (grant 2017SGR191). SLarriba is sponsored by the “Researchers Consolidation Programme” from the SNS-Departament de Salut Generalitat de Catalunya (Exp. CES09/ 020). The German cohort was recruited within the Male Reproductive Genomics (MERGE) study and supported by the German Research Foundation Clinical Research Unit ‘Male Germ Cells’ (DFG CRU326, grants to F.T. and J.G.). This article is related to the Ph.D. Doctoral Thesis of Miriam Cerván-Martín (grant ref. BES-2017-081222 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FSE “El FSE invierte en tu futuro”).We conducted a genome-wide association study in a large population of infertile men due to unexplained spermatogenic failure (SPGF). More than seven million genetic variants were analysed in 1,274 SPGF cases and 1,951 unaffected controls from two independent European cohorts. Two genomic regions were associated with the most severe histological pattern of SPGF, defined by Sertoli cell-only (SCO) phenotype, namely the MHC class II gene HLA-DRB1 (rs1136759, P = 1.32E-08, OR = 1.80) and an upstream locus of VRK1 (rs115054029, P = 4.24E-08, OR = 3.14), which encodes a protein kinase involved in the regulation of spermatogenesis. The SCO-associated rs1136759 allele (G) determines a serine in the position 13 of the HLA-DRβ1 molecule located in the antigen-binding pocket. Overall, our data support the notion of unexplained SPGF as a complex trait influenced by common variation in the genome, with the SCO phenotype likely representing an immune-mediated condition.Andalusian Plan for Research and InnovationJuan de la Cierva Incorporación IJC2018-038026-IMinistry for Science, Technology and High EducationBES-2017-081222, MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033National Funds IF/01262/2014, PEstC/SAU/LA0003/2013, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274, SFRH/BPD/120777/2016PAIDI 2020 PY20_00212R+D+i Projects B-CTS-584-UGR20, RYC-2014-16458Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Manchester FPU20/02926Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG CRU326Fundação para a Ciência e a TecnologiaGeneralitat de Catalunya 2017SGR191Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadInstituto de Salud Carlos III DTS18/00101Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónEuropean Social Fund UIDB/UIDP/00009/2020European Regional Development FundFundació Catalana de TrasplantamentDepartament de Salut, Generalitat de Catalunya CES09/020Programa Operacional Temático Factores de CompetitividadeSpanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation PID2020-120157RB-I00, SAF2016-78722-

Hemodynamic Tolerance of Virtual Reality Intradialysis Exercise Performed during the Last 30 Minutes versus the Beginning of the Hemodialysis Session

[EN] Background: Exercise improves the physical function of people suffering from chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis (HD). Virtual reality is a new type of intradialysis exercise that has a positive impact on physical function. Intradialysis exercise is recommended during the first 2 h, but its safety in the last part of the dialysis session is unknown. Methods: This was a pilot sub-study of a clinical trial. Several hemodynamic control variables were recorded, including blood pressure, heart rate, and intradialytic hypotensive events. These variables were recorded during three different HD sessions, one HD session at rest, another HD session with exercise during the first two hours, and one HD session with exercise during the last 30 min of dialysis. The intradialysis virtual reality exercise was performed for a maximum of 30 min. Results: During exercise sessions, there was a significant increase in heart rate (6.65 (4.92, 8.39) bpm; p < 0.001) and systolic blood pressure (6.25 (0.04,12.47) mmHg; p < 0.05). There was no difference in hemodynamic control between the sessions with exercise during the first two hours and the sessions with exercise during the last 30 min. There was no association between intra-dialytic hypotensive events at rest (five events) or exercise at any point (two vs. one event(s), respectively). Conclusion: performing exercise with virtual reality at the end of a hemodialysis session is not associated with hemodynamic instability.Funding included a research project (PID2019-108814RA-I00) supported by the Spanish Government 'Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion', a research prize awarded by the nonprofit organization Fundacion Renal Tomas de Osma, as well as from a research grant (IDOC 17-19 and PPC14/2017) awarded by the Universidad Cardenal Herrera CEU.García-Testal, A.; Martínez-Olmos, FJ.; Gil-Gómez, J.; López-Tercero, V.; Lahoz-Cano, L.; Hervás-Marín, D.; Cana-Poyatos, A.... (2023). Hemodynamic Tolerance of Virtual Reality Intradialysis Exercise Performed during the Last 30 Minutes versus the Beginning of the Hemodialysis Session. Healthcare. 11(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare1101007911

SIVA UAV: A Case Study for the EMC Analysis of Composite Air Vehicles

[EN] The increased use of carbon-fiber composites in unmanned aerial vehicles is a challenge for their EMC assessment by numerical solvers. For accurate and reliable simulations, numerical procedures should be tested not only for individual components, but also within the framework of complete systems. With this aim, this paper presents a benchmark test case based on experimental measurements coming from direct-current injection tests in the SIVA unmanned air vehicle, reproduced by a numerical finite-difference-time-domain solver that employs a new subgridding scheme to treat lossy composite thin panels. Validation was undertaken by applying the feature selective validation method, which quantifies the agreement between experimental and numerical data.This work was supported by the Projects TEC2013-48414C3-{ 1,2,3}-R, TEC2016-79214-C3-{1,2,3}-R, and TEC2015-68766-REDC (Spanish MINECO, EU FEDER), P12-TIC-1442 (J. de Andalucia, Spain), Alhambra-UGRFDTD (AIRBUS DS), and by the CSIRC alhambra.ugr.es supercomputing center.Cabello, MR.; Fernández, S.; Pous, M.; Pascual-Gil, E.; Angulo, LD.; López, P.; Riu, PJ.... (2017). SIVA UAV: A Case Study for the EMC Analysis of Composite Air Vehicles. IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility. 59(4):1103-1113. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEMC.2017.2648507S1103111359

Common Variation in the PIN1 Locus Increases the Genetic Risk to Suffer from Sertoli Cell-Only Syndrome

We aimed to analyze the role of the common genetic variants located in the PIN1 locus, a relevant prolyl isomerase required to control the proliferation of spermatogonial stem cells and the integrity of the blood–testis barrier, in the genetic risk of developing male infertility due to a severe spermatogenic failure (SPGF). Genotyping was performed using TaqMan genotyping assays for three PIN1 taggers (rs2287839, rs2233678 and rs62105751). The study cohort included 715 males diagnosed with SPGF and classified as suffering from non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA, n = 505) or severe oligospermia (SO, n = 210), and 1058 controls from the Iberian Peninsula. The allelic frequency differences between cases and controls were analyzed by the means of logistic regression models. A subtype specific genetic association with the subset of NOA patients classified as suffering from the Sertoli cell-only (SCO) syndrome was observed with the minor alleles showing strong risk effects for this subset (ORaddrs2287839 = 1.85 (1.17–2.93), ORaddrs2233678 = 1.62 (1.11–2.36), ORaddrs62105751 = 1.43 (1.06–1.93)). The causal variants were predicted to affect the binding of key transcription factors and to produce an altered PIN1 gene expression and isoform balance. In conclusion, common non-coding single-nucleotide polymorphisms located in PIN1 increase the genetic risk to develop SCO.Plan Andaluz de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion (PAIDI 2020) PY20_00212 P20_00583Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation SAF2016-78722-R PID2020-120157RB-I00Proyectos I + D + i del Programa Operativo FEDER 2020 B-CTS-584-UGR20 B-CTS-260-UGR20Spanish Government RYC-2014-16458Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the "Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion" program (MCIN/AEI) IJC2018038026-IEuropean CommissionMCIN/AEIFSE "El FSE invierte en tu futuro" FPU20/02926 BES-2017-081222Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - European Social Funds (COMPETE-FEDER) Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology IF/01262/2014FCT from the Portuguese State Budget of the Ministry for Science, Technology and High Education SFRH/BPD/120777/2016European Social Fund through the Programa Operacional do Capital HumanoPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology European Commission UID/BIM/00009/2013 UIDB/UIDP/00009/2020Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FEDER funds/European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)-a way to build Europe) DTS18/00101Generalitat de Catalunya 2017SGR191SNS-Dpt. Salut Generalitat de Catalunya CES09/020 MCIN/AEI BES-2017-081222 PEstC/SAU/LA0003/2013 POCI-01-0145-FEDER-00727

Associations of hypomagnesemia in patients seeking a first treatment of alcohol use disorder

Introduction: Hypomagnesemia (hypoMg) has not yet been extensively studied in alcohol use disorder (AUD) . We hypothesize that chronic, excessive alcohol consumption favors oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory alterations that may be exacerbated by hypoMg. The objective of this study was to analyze the prevalence and associations of hypoMg in AUD.Patients and Methods: Cross-sectional study in patients admitted for a first treatment of AUD in six tertiary centers between 2013 and 2020. Socio-demographic, alcohol use characteristics, and blood parameters were ascertained at admission.Results: 753 patients (71% men) were eligible; age at admission was 48 years [IQR, 41-56 years]. Prevalence of hypoMg was 11.2%, higher than that observed for hypocalcemia (9.3%), hyponatremia (5.6%), and hypokalemia (2.8%). HypoMg was associated with older age, longer duration of AUD, anemia, higher erythrocyte sedimen-tation rate, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, glucose levels, advanced liver fibrosis (FIB-4 >= 3.25) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min. In multivariate analysis, advanced liver fibrosis (OR, 8.91; 95% CI, 3.3-23.9) and eGFR < 60 mL (OR, 5.2; 95% CI, 1.0-26.2) were the only factors associated with hypoMg.Conclusions: Mg deficiency in AUD is associated with liver damage and glomerular dysfunction suggesting that both comorbidities should be assessed in the course of serum hypoMg

Decadal increases in carbon uptake offset by respiratory losses across northern permafrost ecosystems

Tundra and boreal ecosystems encompass the northern circumpolar permafrost region and are experiencing rapid environmental change with important implications for the global carbon (C) budget. We analysed multi-decadal time series containing 302 annual estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) flux across 70 permafrost and non-permafrost ecosystems, and 672 estimates of summer CO2 flux across 181 ecosystems. We find an increase in the annual CO2 sink across non-permafrost ecosystems but not permafrost ecosystems, despite similar increases in summer uptake. Thus, recent non-growing-season CO2 losses have substantially impacted the CO2 balance of permafrost ecosystems. Furthermore, analysis of interannual variability reveals warmer summers amplify the C cycle (increase productivity and respiration) at putatively nitrogen-limited sites and at sites less reliant on summer precipitation for water use. Our findings suggest that water and nutrient availability will be important predictors of the C-cycle response of these ecosystems to future warming