Influencia de las vías serotoninérgica, dopaminérgica y la vía común (MAO) en las dimensiones de personalidad de Cloninger. Una aproximación desde la genética.

Introducción: En los últimos años existe un interés creciente por el estudio de los Trastornos de Personalidad debido a la gran interferencia que suponen en diversos ámbitos de la vida de aquellos que los padecen. La genética ha experimentado un gran avance y es una herramienta importante para aportar nuevos descubrimientos en trastornos complejos como son los TP; sin embargo, en la literatura reciente no se han encontrado relaciones directas de dichos trastornos con genes concretos, de ahí el interés de usar un modelo dimensional como nexo de unión entre ambos. En el presente trabajo se realiza un estudio de asociación genética de polimorfismos VNTR y los TP en población drogodependiente porque es una población con una alta prevalencia de dichos trastornos. Material y método: en una muestra de 386 policonsumidores, se recogieron y genotiparon muestras a partir de células epiteliales de la mejilla para observar las frecuencias de marcadores de las vías dopaminérgica, serotoninérgica y de la MAO en los TP. Se analizaron polimorfismos VNTR en la vía dopaminérgica de los genes DBH, DRD5 y TH, en la serotoninérgica de los genes HTR1B, HTR1D, HTR2C y TPH, y finalmente en la vía de la MAO de los genes MAO-A y MAO-B. Resultados: La prevalencia de Trastorno de la Personalidad en nuestro estudio fue del 45,9%. La droga más frecuentemente consumida fue la heroína (48,6%), seguida de la cocaína (33,8%). Todos los TP analizados en nuestro estudio muestran la misma combinación en las dimensiones caracteriales (bajas puntuaciones en AD y C y altas en AT) y son las dimensiones temperamentales las que configuran las características diferenciales específicas de cada TP. Para el Trastorno de Personalidad Paranoide, la puntuación alta en DR y C protegen de su aparición y la puntuación elevada en AT aumenta el riesgo de presentarlo; la presencia del alelo de 279pb del gen DRD5 aumenta 5,86 veces el riesgo de presentar dicho TP frente al alelo de 281pb; la presencia del alelo de 265pb del gen HTR2C aumenta de forma discreta el riesgo de presentarlo. Para el Trastorno Antisocial de la Personalidad a mayor edad menor probabilidad de presentarlo; puntuaciones elevadas en DR y C protejan de su presencia; la presencia del alelo de 321pb del gen DBH implica una influencia discreta para presentar este TP; la presencia del polimorfismo de 279pb del gen DRD5 disminuye el riesgo de presentar el TAP frente al de 281pb. Para el Trastorno Límite de la Personalidad no hemos encontrado, en nuestro modelo predictivo, ninguna influencia genética en su aparición; puntuaciones elevadas en BN y AT incrementan el riesgo de presentar un TLP mientras que las puntuaciones altas en AD protegen del trastorno. Conclusiones: el presente estudio presenta nuevas asociaciones de marcadores genéticos y dimensiones de Cloninger con los TP en población drogodependiente. Algunos de estos marcadores apuntan hacia la heredabilidad de padecer un TP en general mientras que otros se asocian a algún TP específico bien aumentando o disminuyendo el riesgo de su aparición. Los datos obtenidos ayudarán a clarificar y cuantificar el complejo papel de la genética en los TP y podrían tener implicaciones en el futuro en cuando a la prevención (consejo genético), al diagnóstico (diagnóstico genético de vulnerabilidad) y al tratamiento (farmacogenómica)

Eficacia de la Terapia Psicoeducativa Motivacional Breve Dual (TPMB-D) en pacientes hospitalizados con trastorno por uso de sustancias y patología dual

Introducción: El término patología dual (PD) se refiere a la comorbilidad de los trastornos por uso de sustancias (TUS) con trastornos mentales graves. Se asocia con peores resultados de tratamiento que cada uno de estos trastornos por separado, por lo que es importante desarrollar terapias específicas para estos pacientes. En este sentido, el Hospital Provincial de Castellón adaptó la Terapia Psicoeducativa Motivacional Breve (efectiva en pacientes con TUS en Unidad de Desintoxicación Hospitalaria) para ser usada también con pacientes con PD (TPMB-D), incluyendo a pacientes con TUS y con PD en los mismos grupos terapéuticos. Método: Estudio experimental doble ciego con dos grupos aleatorios que evaluó la eficacia de la TPMB-D comparada con terapia ocupacional (TO) en pacientes hospitalizados con TUS y con PD. Ciento sesenta y tres pacientes completaron el estudio, de los que el 68.7% presentaban PD y el 31,3% TUS. El 55,8% fueron asignados al grupo TPMB-D y el 44,2% al grupo TO. Se evaluaron en el pretest el nivel de conocimientos sobre adicciones y PD (cuestionario ad hoc) y la motivación para el cambio (cuestionario SOCRATES 8D de Miller y Tonigan). Después de recibir tres sesiones de TPMB-D o TO se volvieron a evaluar postest estas variables y la satisfacción con la terapia recibida (Cuestionario de Percepciones del Tratamiento de Marsden et ál.). Resultados: La TPMB-D aumenta la motivación para el cambio y los conocimientos sobre adicciones y PD más que la TO, generando también niveles más altos de satisfacción

Low-cost fiber specklegram sensor for noncontact continuous patient monitoring

Different low-cost approaches based on fiber specklegram sensors are employed to measure the physiological activity of patients lying in bed. This study is conducted over 20 volunteers to measure the movement and heart rate (HR) using two different sensor designs placed at two different bed locations. Three different processing methods are developed and tested in order to extract useful information from the measured data. The results suggest that a stretched fiber optic configuration under the head of the person lying in bed is the optimal configuration to detect HR and motion, nonetheless the other tested possibilities also exhibit remarkably good performances. On the other hand, the three proposed processing methods also achieve a good precision in the HR detection. The sensor implementation is simple, not requiring any special conditions, and it provides robust performance. This leads to the conclusion that fiber specklegram technology is a feasible method to be used in real situations for heartbeat and movement monitoring.This work has been supported by the Spanish Government through the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness projects TEC2013-47264-C2-1-R and TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R

Wavelength domain multiplexed fiber specklegram sensor

In this work, a low-cost WDM interrogation system has been proposed and experimentally tested to obtain twoindependent channels of a fiber specklegram sensor. Two lasers of different wavelengths have been launched into twomultimode Polymer Optical Fibers (POFs) and then combined through a coupler before their interrogation using a RBGcamera. By analyzing each color of the video sequence, the two fiber channels can be independently obtained. Besides,the speckle sensitivity has been also studied by analyzing different properties of speckle patterns such as their contrast orthe speckle size. The achieved results help to the development of new fiber specklegram sensors by allowing a directcomparison between two specklegrams of different properties

Positive demographic effects of nest surveillance campaigns to counter illegal harvest of the Bonelli's eagle in Sicily (Italy)

Illegal trade in wildlife has been identified as one of the main challenges to wildlife conservation. In 2010, an illegal trade-ring trafficking in birds of prey was uncovered in Sicily (southern Italy). This illegal trade targeted the three most endangered species in Italy: Bonelli's eagle Aquila fasciata, Lanner falcon Falco biarmicus and Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus, all of them long-lived territorial raptors threatened with extinction across their European distribution. Illegal harvest primarily involved young birds and eggs taken from nests. After the discovery of these activities, surveillance camps and camera traps connected to the mobile Global System for Mobile communications network were established in nine Bonelli's eagle breeding sites in which illegal harvest was reported. Surveillance activities resulted in a sharp reduction in illegal harvest that has contributed to the recent increase in population size and number of breeding pairs of Bonelli's eagle in the island. This population represents 95% of the entire Italian population and is catalogued as Critically Endangered in this country. Importantly, our results highlight the impact of illegal harvest on the population dynamics of endangered species as demonstrated by a population viability analysis. This is particularly important in the case of insular species for which demographic recovery due to immigration from other geographic areas is unlikely. Systematic patrols by forestry police authorities, a resolute application of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species legislation via legal punishment, and the requirement of including all live captive specimens used for falconry in an obligatory DNA data bank would contribute to reducing the risk of extinction for small populations of endangered species of birds of prey

Sleep monitoring by a specklegram fiber optic sensor

Sleep monitoring is becoming more and more popular. This is due to the considerably large number of pathologies and illness related to sleep disorders.In this work a long-termmonitoring system based on a fiber-optic specklegram sensor is presented. The system has been tested under real scenarios and compared with a commercial wrist-based actigrapher. The results suggest that our sensor is highly accurate on detecting movements and can be far more precise than traditional wrist-based actigraphers.This work has beensupported by the Spanish Government through the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness projects TEC2013-47264-C2-1-R and TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R (AEI/FEDER, UE)

POF-based specklegram sensor post processing comparative: methods for extracting breath and heart rate

Continuous patient monitoring has been evidenced as very beneficious for reducing degeneration1. Due to this, a POF specklegram sensor has been developed based on a previous work2. This work presents a comparative between analysis methods of the specklegram signal for achieving a precise and robust non-contact monitor system. Two different techniques have been used: one based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the other based on the Hilbert Transform (HT). Each technique has been employed with two different methods, for heart rate and breath rhythm. The different algorithms are tested on 10 volunteers of different ages and sex.This work has been sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) across projects RTC-2017-6321-1 AEI/FEDER,UE and TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R AEI/FEDER, UE

Living on the Edge: Assessing the Extinction Risk of Critically Endangered Bonelli’s Eagle in Italy

Background: The population of Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata) has declined drastically throughout its European range due to habitat degradation and unnatural elevated mortality. There are less than 1500 breeding pairs accounted for in Europe, and the species is currently catalogued as Critically Endangered in Italy, where the 22 territories of Sicily, represent nearly 95% of the entire Italian population. However, despite national and European conservation concerns, the species currently lacks a specific conservation plan, and no previous attempts to estimate the risk of extinction have been made. Methodology/Principal Findings: We incorporated the most updated demographic information available to assess the extinction risk of endangered Bonelli’s eagle in Italy through a Population Viability Analysis. Using perturbation analyses (sensitivity and elasticity), and a combination of demographic data obtained from an assortment of independent methods, we evaluated which demographic parameters have more influence on the population’s fate. We also simulated different scenarios to explore the effects of possible management actions. Our results showed that under the current conditions, Bonelli’s eagle is expected to become extinct in Italy in less than 50 years. Stand-alone juvenile mortality was the most critical demographic parameter with the strongest influence on population persistence with respect to other demographic parameters. Measures aimed at either decreasing juvenile mortality, adult mortality or decreasing both juvenile and adult mortality resulted in equivalent net positive effects on population persistence (population growth rate l.1). In contrast, changes aimed at increasing breeding success had limited positive effects on demographic trends. Conclusions/Significance: Our PVA provides essential information to direct the decision-making process and exposes gaps in our previous knowledge. To ensure the long-term persistence of the species in Italy, measures are urgently needed to decrease both adult mortality due to poaching and juvenile mortality due to nest plundering, the top ranking mortality causes.PLL is supported by a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral grant of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (reference JCI-2011–09588)

The role of conservative versus innovative nesting behavior on 25-year population expansion of an avian predator

Species ranges often change in relation to multiple environmental and demographic factors. Innovative behaviors may affect these changes by facilitating the use of novel habitats, although this idea has been little explored. Here, we investigate the importance of behavior during range change, using a 25-year population expansion of Bonelli’s eagle in southern Portugal. This unique population is almost exclusively tree nesting, while all other populations in western Europe are predominantly cliff nesting. During 1991–2014, we surveyed nest sites and estimated the year when each breeding territory was established. We approximated the boundaries of 84 territories using Dirichlet tessellation and mapped topography, land cover, and the density of human infrastructures in buffers (250, 500, and 1,000 m) around nest and random sites. We then compared environmental conditions at matching nest and random sites within territories using conditional logistic regression, and used quantile regression to estimate trends in nesting habitats in relation to the year of territory establishment. Most nests (>85%, n = 197) were in eucalypts, maritime pines, and cork oaks. Nest sites were farther from the nests of neighboring territories than random points, and they were in areas with higher terrain roughness, lower cover by agricultural and built-up areas, and lower road and powerline densities. Nesting habitat selection varied little with year of territory establishment, although nesting in eucalypts increased, while cliff nesting and cork oak nesting, and terrain roughness declined. Our results suggest that the observed expansion of Bonelli’s eagles was facilitated by the tree nesting behavior, which allowed the colonization of areas without cliffs. However, all but a very few breeding pairs settled in habitats comparable to those of the initial population nucleus, suggesting that after an initial trigger possibly facilitated by tree nesting, the habitat selection remained largely conservative. Overall, our study supports recent calls to incorporate information on behavior for understanding and predicting species range shiftsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Database of spatial distribution of non indigenous species in Spanish marine waters

Research in marine Spanish waters are focused on several actions to achieve an effectively management on protected areas, with the active participation of the stakeholders and research as basic tools for decision-making. Among these actions, there is one about the knowledge and control on NIS. One of its objectives is the creation of NIS factsheets, which are going to be added to the National Marine Biodiversity Geographical System (GIS) providing complementary information about taxonomic classification, common names, taxonomic synonyms, species illustrations, identification morphological characters, habitat in the native and introduced regions, biological and ecological traits, GenBank DNA sequences, world distribution, first record and evolution in the introduced areas, likely pathways of introduction, effects in the habitats and interaction with native species, and potential management measures to apply. The database will also provide data for (1) the European online platforms, (2) the environmental assessment for the Descriptor 2 (D2-NIS) of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), as well as (3) supporting decisions made by stakeholders. It is the result of extensive collaboration among scientist, manager’s and citizen science in the Spanish North-Atlantic, South-Atlantic, Gibraltar Strait-Alboran, Levantine-Balearic and Canary Islands marine divisions, providing an updated overview of the spatial distribution of relevant extended and invasive NIS of recent and established NIS introduced by maritime transport and aquaculture pathways, as well as on cryptogenic or native species in expansion due to the climatic water warming trend