958 research outputs found

    Forest management scenarios drive future dynamics of Mediterranean planted pine forests under climate change

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    Context: Planted pine forests are highly abundant communities in the Mediterranean Basin. Being the result of past reforestation, these forests show high species and structural homogeneity. Diversification to conifer-broadleaved mixed forests is recommended to promote adaptation to climate change and increase their resilience to perturbations. Objectives: This study aims at evaluating how these planted pine forests will develop in the future as a result of the combined impacts of management and climate. Methods: We applied a forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) to simulate different climate scenarios and management strategies designed in cooperation with forest managers to assess their effects on the performance of planted pine forests and their change in terms of forest composition. Results: Climate change scenarios caused a shift in the phenological growth pattern of planted pine forests by reducing forest growth during summer and increasing photosynthetic productivity in spring and fall, particularly under high emission scenarios. Biomass increased through time and more strongly under climate change, but this increase differs among species, resulting in changes of forest types across the landscape. Our results portray natural succession as the main driver of forest change, but intensive management accelerated this process by limiting pine growth and promoting growth of oak species. Conclusions: Our results highlight the importance of active management on planted pine forests to favour mixed and climate-adapted ecosystems in shorter time scales than offered by succession alone. Moreover, our spatially explicit modelling approach helps to identify areas where lack of seed dispersal and/or competitive exclusion prevent natural diversification, providing useful recommendations for interventions. However, the modelling approach has some limitations since it does not consider natural disturbances

    Phenolic profiles, antioxidant activity and in vitro antiviral properties of apple pomace

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    Methanolic and acetonic extracts of apple pomace were evaluated for phenolic profiles, antioxidant properties and antiviral effect against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and 2 (HSV-2). Acetone extraction yielded the higher amounts of phenolic compounds. The extraction method influenced the phenolic composition although antioxidant activity correlated weakly with phenols concentration. Among the polyphenols analysed, quercetin glycosides were the most important family, followed by dihydrochalcones. Apple pomace extracts were able to inhibit both HSV-1 and HSV-2 replication in Vero cells by more than 50%, at non-cytotoxic concentrations. Selectivity indexes (SI) ranged from 9.5 to 12.2

    Effectiveness of acute geriatric units on functional decline, living at home, and case fatality among older patients admitted to hospital for acute medical disorders: meta-analysis

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    Objective To assess the effectiveness of acute geriatric units compared with conventional care units in adults aged 65 or more admitted to hospital for acute medical disorders

    The role of p21Waf 1/CIP1 as a Cip/Kip type cell-cycle regulator in oral squamous cell carcinoma: review

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    Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) is biologically characterized by the accumulation of multiple genetic and molecular alterations that end up clinically characterized as a malignant neoplasm through a phenomenon known as multistep. The members of the Cip/Kip family, specifically p21 Waf 1/CIP1 , are responsible for cell cycle control, blocking the transition from phase G1 to phase S. We made a search of articles of peer-reviewed Journals in PubMed/ Medline, crossing the keywords. The goal of this paper is to determine the relationship between p21 Waf 1/ CIP1 expression and several clinical and pathological aspects of OSCC, their relationship with p53 and HPV, as well as genetic alterations in their expression pattern, their use as a prognosis market in the evolution of precancer - ous lesions and their roles in anticancer treatments. The results of p21 WA F1/C I P1 expression in OSCC showed mixed results in terms of positivity/negativity throughout different studies. It seems that, although p21 Waf 1/CIP1 expression is controlled in a p53-dependent manner, coexpression of both in OSCC is not intrinsically related. Although the presence of HPV viral oncoproteins increases p21 Waf 1/CIP1 levels, the small number of studies, have forced us to disregard the hypothesis that HPV infected lesions that present better prognosis are due to a p21 Waf 1/CIP1 -dependent control. The role of p21 WA F1/C I P1 as cell-cycle regulator has been well described; however, its relationship to OSCC, the clinical and pathological variables of tumors, HPV and different treatments are not entirely clear. Thus, it would be very interesting to pursue further study of this protein, which may have a significant value for the diagnosis, prog nosis and therapy of this type of tumors

    High-Throughput System for the Early Quantification of Major Architectural Traits in Olive Breeding Trials Using UAV Images and OBIA Techniques

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    The need for the olive farm modernization have encouraged the research of more efficient crop management strategies through cross-breeding programs to release new olive cultivars more suitable for mechanization and use in intensive orchards, with high quality production and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. The advancement of breeding programs are hampered by the lack of efficient phenotyping methods to quickly and accurately acquire crop traits such as morphological attributes (tree vigor and vegetative growth habits), which are key to identify desirable genotypes as early as possible. In this context, an UAV-based high-throughput system for olive breeding program applications was developed to extract tree traits in large-scale phenotyping studies under field conditions. The system consisted of UAV-flight configurations, in terms of flight altitude and image overlaps, and a novel, automatic, and accurate object-based image analysis (OBIA) algorithm based on point clouds, which was evaluated in two experimental trials in the framework of a table olive breeding program, with the aim to determine the earliest date for suitable quantifying of tree architectural traits. Two training systems (intensive and hedgerow) were evaluated at two very early stages of tree growth: 15 and 27 months after planting. Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) were automatically and accurately generated by the algorithm as well as every olive tree identified, independently of the training system and tree age. The architectural traits, specially tree height and crown area, were estimated with high accuracy in the second flight campaign, i.e. 27 months after planting. Differences in the quality of 3D crown reconstruction were found for the growth patterns derived from each training system. These key phenotyping traits could be used in several olive breeding programs, as well as to address some agronomical goals. In addition, this system is cost and time optimized, so that requested architectural traits could be provided in the same day as UAV flights. This high-throughput system may solve the actual bottleneck of plant phenotyping of "linking genotype and phenotype," considered a major challenge for crop research in the 21st century, and bring forward the crucial time of decision making for breeders

    Environmental research infrastructures are not (yet) ready to address ecosystem conservation challenge

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    Research infrastructures (RIs) are tools intended to be a fundamental pillar in producing knowledge regarding the functioning of Earth’s vital systems. However, it is unclear to what extent these instruments can help to deal with global biodiversity challenges. This paper presents the first assessment of the alignment between the services provided by environmental RIs, and the knowledge requested to address three specific Global Challenges concerning biodiversity loss at a global level: threatened species, alien species and ecosystem conservation. We characterized the specific needs and Subchallenges behind each Global Challenge. We also collected the services provided by 44 relevant environmental RIs in a standardized form. Then, we assessed to what extent those services are useful to address the challenges’ needs. Our results show that RIs, as a whole, are better suited to respond to species-related challenges than to challenges involving whole ecosystems. Nevertheless, the overlap among challenges’ needs is quite significant. Nearly half of the identified needs are shared between the ‘threatened species’ and the ‘ecosystem conservation’ challenges. Most of the assessed RIs work with multiple Earth System’s compartments at the same time (e.g. terrestrial + marine, terrestrial + freshwater, etc). Regarding the spatial extent of the studied RIs, most of the ecosystem-based RIs focus on the country scale, while most of the RIs specialized in species-related challenges work at a global scale. Considering the needs required to address the studied challenges, we have found that the RIs assessed in this study do not cover several of them. These gaps comprise complex data combinations that the studied RIs do not provide. Most of these gaps can be attributed to the ‘ecosystem conservation’ challenge. We consider that RIs were generally built to support pure basic research, which hampers their contribution to combat biodiversity loss. Because of the urgency to address global biodiversity challenges, we suggest adding new functionalities to make RIs work as problem-oriented facilities

    Quantitative determination of c-myc facilitates the assessment of prognosis of OSCC patients

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    Myc genes are a family of proto-oncogenes whose proteins are implicated in the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, and in regulating the activity of genes involved in cell division. The aim of the present study was to establish a quantitative description of the expression of c-myc and evaluate its relationship with other clinical and prognostic factors, as well as to establish a multivariate survival prediction model. This is a retrospective study of 68 patients diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We constructed a tissue microarray for investigating the expression of c-myc by immunohistochemistry. Statistical analyses were carried out, and a multivariate model that predicts survival was established. The average expression of c-myc was 50.32 (SD, 26.05) with a range from 6.60 to 99.48; similar for initial and advanced tumor stages. Non-smoking patients had higher levels of c-myc, showing statistically significant differences (Kruskal-Wallis chi2=5.975; p=0.05). We found no statistically significant relationship between the quantitative expression of c-myc and any other clinical or pathological parameters. For each unit of increase of c-myc, the risk increased by 1.15 (p<0.001; HR, 1.150; 95% CI, 1062-1245). Further study of this protein, which may have a significant diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic value is warranted. Its determination can be valuable when used together with other markers to assess the prognosis of OSCC patients
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