Functional and Taxonomic Diversity in Maritime Antarctic Lakes

El área conocida como Península Byers (Isla Livingston, Antártida) se caracteriza por ser una de las zonas libres de hielo más grandes de la Antártida marítima, mostrando un importante número de cuerpos de agua libres de hielo durante el verano austral. Estas características y su estatus como zona Antártica de especial protección (ASPA) han convertido a la Península Byers en un sitio de referencia para estudios limnológicos en la Antártida marítima. La presente tesis trata sobre el estudio de los lagos ubicados en la Península Byers, centrándose en el lago Limnopolar, utilizado como modelo para estudios limnológicos durante las últimas décadas. El estudio de la heterogeneidad ambiental en los lagos de la Península Byers ha mostrado la existencia de un fuerte contraste en el estado trófico de los lagos estudiados, claramente influenciado por los aportes externos de nutrientes y los procesos de remoción propios del sedimento. La heterogeneidad ambiental observada en los lagos de la Península Byers la podemos relacionar estrechamente con la composición bacteriana en estos sistemas, de esta forma lagos con mayor estado trófico muestran la menor diversidad de grupos bacterianos. Adicionalmente, el estudio de la actividad fisiológica sobre el aprovechamiento de carbono por parte del bacterioplancton en los lagos de la Península Byers, ha evidenciado diferencias claras en sus perfiles metabólicos. Estos pueden relacionarse con el origen de la materia orgánica y la relación de cada lago con su cuenca, flora y fauna. Nuestros resultados revelan un patrón mediante el cual los lagos con mayor estado trófico presentan patrones con mayor diversidad metabólica, y por el contrario una menor diversidad de taxones (OTUs) bacterianos El seguimiento de la meteorología de la zona y de las características del Lago Limnopolar desde 2001 hasta 2009 ha revelado la existencia de una elevada variabilidad meteorológica en esta área de la Antártida marítima, con temperaturas muy dispares entre distintos veranos, lo cual afecta directamente al deshielo y la duración del periodo productivo en el lago. La abundancia del bacterioplancton heterotrófico en el Lago Limnopolar presenta una dinámica cambiante entre los diversos años estudiados, lo cual puede estar directamente relacionado con la disponibilidad de carbono orgánico y la duración del periodo productivo. Los estudios sobre la actividad fisiológica en el Lago Limnopolar han mostrado esta variación, destacando la significativa correlación existente entre la abundancia del bacterioplankton y la concentración de los diferentes compuestos de carbono orgánico disuelto. Adicionalmente, la composición de la comunidad bacteriana en el Lago Limnopolar presenta una marcada heterogeneidad vertical a pesar de no existir una estratificación física. El análisis de las secuencias obtenidas en el Lago Limnopolar ha revelado que el origen, composición y abundancia de la materia orgánica afecta directamente a la composición de grupos bacterianos en el lago, lo cual se acaba traduciendo en una “estratificación biológica”. Las tasas de producción del fitoplancton y del bacterioplancton en el Lago Limnopolar muestran un claro desacoplamiento. De esta forma, los aportes externos de carbono orgánico por parte de los tapetes microbianos, junto con contribuciones de carbono orgánico por parte los musgos bentónicos contribuyen a la producción bacteriana en el lago y mantienen el desacoplamiento entre la producción primaria y bacteriana. Asi mismo, los experimentos de manipulación in-situ llevados a cabo en el lago Limnopolar han demostrado la rápida respuesta de la comunidad planctónica a la fertilización y la estrecha relación del fitoplancton con la disponibilidad de luz (incluido el exceso que provoca fotoinhibición) y de nutrientes durante el verano austral. Sin embargo, la respuesta de la comunidad de bacterioplancton en el aprovechamiento de glucosa parece no ser muy relevante, lo cual puede estar relacionado con la existencia de especies bacterianas especialistas. Por otro lado el estudio de la epibiosis sobre crustáceos planctónicos en el Lago Limnopolar ha demostrado la existencia de una estrategia nutricional por parte de las algas epibiontes, compuestas principalmente por diatomeas y euglenófitas, en respuesta a condiciones extremas de oligotrofia. En esta situación, parece claro que la epibiosis actúa como una estrategia eficiente cuando disminuye la disponibilidad de nutrientes. A partir de los resultados obtenidos en el seguimiento del Lago Limnopolar y con objetivo de monitorizar la dinámica del mismo, se llevó a cabo un modelo ecológico. Nuestro modelo muestra el claro control que ejerce la temperatura sobre la dinámica del bacterioplancton y sobre la disponibilidad de fuentes de carbono, principalmente en la forma de carbono orgánico disuelto (DOC). Sin embargo el uso y la interpretación de los resultados obtenidos por el modelo deben ser tratados con cautela debido a la elevada heterogeneidad interanual en el clima de la Península Byers.Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, Antarctica) is one of the largest ice-free areas in the maritime Antarctica, displaying an important number of ice-free water bodies during the austral summer. These features, as well as its status as Antarctic Special Protected Area (ASPA), featured Byers as a reference site for Limnological studies in maritime Antarctica. This thesis deals with the study of the lakes located in Byers Peninsula, focusing our attention in Lake Limnopolar, used as a model lake for limnological studies during the last two decades. Primarily, our studies were focused on the environmental heterogeneity of the lakes and ponds of Byers Peninsula, showing a contrasting trophic status among these lakes, which was strongly determined by the external inputs of nutrients and the internal removal processes from the lake sediment. This environmental heterogeneity was also reflected in the composition of bacterial community, with lakes displaying higher trophic status showing the lower bacterioplankton diversity. Additionally, the study of the consumption of different carbon sources by bacterioplankton, evidenced differences among the studied lakes in their consumption profiles, that can be related to the origin of the organic matter and the relation of each lake with their catchment, flora and fauna. Our results revealed a pattern by which lakes with the highest trophic status also showed the highest diverse physiological activity, contrarily to the diversity of bacterial taxa that dropped as trophic status increased. Continuous meteorological monitoring in the area and the study of Lake Limnopolar from 2001 to 2009 has revealed a high variability of meteorological features in this area of maritime Antarctica, with summers with different average temperatures that directly affect the ice melt and the length of the productive period. Accordingly, the bacterioplankton community of Lake Limnopolar shows changing dynamics between different summers. This feature could be directly related to the availability of organic carbon and the length of the productive period. The physiological studies on Lake Limnopolar also evidenced this changing pattern, showing a statistically significant correlation between bacterioplankton abundance and the concentration of the different dissolved organic carbon compounds. Also, the bacterial community from in Lake Limnopolar shows a differential vertical distribution even though a physical and chemical vertical gradient did not appeared. The analysis of the bacterial sequences retrieved from the lake revealed that the origin, composition and abundance of the organic matter are directly affecting the bacterial composition in the lake and the appearance of this “biological stratification”. Phytoplankton and bacterioplankton production rates in Lake Limnopolar display a clear uncoupling. Allochthonous contributions of organic carbon from microbial mats, along with autochthonous contributions of organic carbon from benthic mosses, subsidize the planktonic bacterial production in Lake Limnopolar. Manipulative in-situ experiments performed in Lake Limnopolar have demonstrated the response of the planktonic community to fertilization processes and the strong relationship of phytoplankton growth and inorganic carbon fixation with light (including photoinhibition when excessive) and nutrient availability. Bacterioplankton, however, seems to be less responsive to glucose enrichment treatments, which can be related to the existence of specialist bacterial species. On the other hand, the study of the epibiosis on crustacean zooplankton in Lake Limnopolar has demonstrated the existence of a nutritional strategy of the algal epibionts, mainly composed by diatoms and euglenophytes, in response to extreme oligotrophic conditions. In this situation, epibiosis acts as efficient strategy when nutrient availability is low. To summarize the obtained results and monitor Lake Limnopolar dynamics, an ecological model was developed. Our model clearly shows the control exerted by the temperature on the bacterioplankton dynamics and the availability of carbon sources, mainly dissolved organic carbon (DOC). However, the use and interpretation of the developed model should be taken with care due to the high interannual meteorological heterogeneity in Byers Peninsula

Measurement of the Teamwork and Networking Competencies in Innovative Contexts

[EN] The aim of our research is to develop a questionnaire that allows a valid and reliable self-assessment of two soft competencies: Teamwork (TW) and Networking (NW), for professionals at organizations or job applicants. In this paper, focus will be set on the filtering of a bank of possible items, and the confirmation that the items finally selected: a) Represent one or several conceptual dimensions within TW or NW b) Show an agreement between independent evaluators to analyze the overlap between items and dimensions: in our case, to be able to classify the items into their adequate dimension c) Check that the set of items selected in agreement among evaluators represents all the sub-dimensions of the construct to be assessed We will use the bank of TW and NW items identified by previous research (itemsA) (Lukes & Stephan, 2017, Pérez Peñalver et al., 2018), which was classified and carried out within the European Project FINCODA (itemsB) (Marin-Garcia, 2018). With itemsA and B, we will try to sort out items into their corresponding categories. To identify the items with the best content validity, we will use the raw agreement and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) measures (Lawshe, 1975, Tristan-Lopez, 2008), the intercoder agreement measures (Marin-Garcia et al., 2008a; Marin -Garcia et al., 2016b) and Krippendorff's Alpha (Friese, 2018; Krippendorff, 2018; Krippendorff et al., 2016).Marín García, JA.; Martínez Villaescusa, MI.; Aznar Más, L. (2020). Measurement of the Teamwork and Networking Competencies in Innovative Contexts. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/156434OC

Hardware implementation of a controller based on neurobiological adaptive models of the human motor-control system

In this work, a neural structure has been implemented into a device based on the new trends in hardware integration, for motor-control In multisensorial anthropomorphic robotic systems. This implementation gives a solution to the problem of physic integration of biologically Inspired control hierarchies in a robotic head-arm installation for robotic reaching tasks. The complete architecture has been implemented on an electronic board connected to a PC computer through a PCI interface. The hardware structure consists of two blocks: one for the working phase of the system, and the other for the learning and supervision phase of the system. These two blocks have been implemented with different technologies based on DSP processors and FPGAs. The algorithms implemented on DSPs have the function of updating the neural network on the FPGA, supervising the working of the algorithm implemented on FPGA and introducing corrections when the neural network produces results with little errors. The neural network has been implemented on FPGA and implements spatial-motor transformations of the robotic platform. It is programmed and updated by the supervisor implemented on a DSP processo

Protocol: How to measure teamwork and networking competencies

[EN] Our aim is present a protocol to develop a measurement questionnaire that allows a valid and reliable self-evaluation of the transversal competencies related to team work (TW) and networking (NW). It will be design to evaluate these competences among professionals from different organizations or job applicants. In this paper, we will focus on how to filter a bank of behavioral items, verifying that the items finally analysed: a) Represent one or several conceptual dimensions within TW or NW. b) Ensure the inter-agreement between independent evaluators to analyze the overlap between items and dimensions, and be able to classify the items in the correct dimension.c) Check that the set of items retained by agreement between evaluators represent all the subdimensions of team work and networking.Marín García, JA.; Martínez Villaescusa, M.; Bonavía, T. (2019). Protocolo: Cómo medir las competencias transversales de trabajo en equipo y red de trabajo. WPOM-Working Papers on Operations Management. 10(2):55-68. https://doi.org/10.4995/wpom.v10i2.12369OJS556810

Bacterioplankton Community Composition Along Environmental Gradients in Lakes From Byers Peninsula (Maritime Antarctica) as Determined by Next-Generation Sequencing

This study comprises the first attempt to describe the planktonic bacterial communities of lakes from Byers Peninsula, one of the most significant limnological districts in the Maritime Antarctica, leveraging next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. For the survey, we selected 7 lakes covering the environmental gradient from inland to coastal lakes, some of them sampled both in surface and deep waters. Analysis provided just over 85,000 high quality sequences that were clustered into 864 unique Zero-radius Operational Taxonomic Units (ZOTUs) (i.e., 100% sequence similarity). Yet, several taxonomic uncertainties remained in the analysis likely suggesting the occurrence of local bacterial adaptations. The survey showed the dominance of the phyla Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Among the former, the Gammaproteobacteria class, more specifically the order Betaproteobacteriales, was the dominant group, which seems to be a common trend in nutrient-limited Antarctic lakes. Most of the families and genera ubiquitously detected belonging to this class are indeed typical from ultra-oligotrophic environments, and commonly described as diazotrophs. On the other hand, among the members of the phylum Bacteroidetes, genera such as Flavobacterium were abundant in some of the shallowest lakes, thus demonstrating that also benthic and sediment-associated bacteria contributed to water bacterial assemblages. Ordination analyses sorted bacterial assemblages mainly based on the environmental gradients of nutrient availability and conductivity i.e., salinity. However, transient bacterial associations, that included the groups Clostridiaceae and Chloroflexi, also occurred as being forced by other drivers such as the influence of the nearby fauna and by the airborne microorganisms. As we intended, our NGS-based approach has provided a much greater resolution compared to the previous studies conducted in the area and confirmed to a large extent the previously obtained patterns, thus reinforcing the view of Byers as a hotspot of microbial biodiversity within Antarctica. This high microbial diversity allows the use of these aquatic ecosystems and their bacterial assemblages as sentinels for the monitoring of adaptive responses to climate change in this rapidly warming area

Micafungin as antifungal prophylaxis in non-transplanted haemotological patients

Introduction. Fungal infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the haematological patients. These infections are mainly due to Candida spp. and Aspergillus spp. Mortality by these infections is high, but rates have descended in the latest series due to better antifungal agents. Echinocandins are, in vitro, very active against Candida and Aspergillus spp. The objective of the study is to analyse the efficacy and safety of micafungin in the antifungal prophylaxis of haematological patients on chemotherapy. Material and methods. A multicentre, observational retrospective study was performed in 7 Haematology Departments in Spain. Patients admitted to these departments with chemotherapy or immunosuppressive treatment, and who had received antifungal prophylaxis with micafungin between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2014 were included. Results. There were 5 cases of probable or proven fungal infection (4.8%) according to the 2008 EORTC criteria: 2 proven, 3 probable. The types of fungal infection were 3 aspergillosis and 2 candidiasis. There were no drop-outs from the prophylaxis with micafungin due to toxicity. Conclusion. Micafungin is an antifungal agent which, used in prophylaxis, has demonstrated good efficacy and an excellent toxicity profile, making it an apparently interesting option in patients requiring antifungal prophylaxis during their hospitalisation episode

Cxcl12/Cxcr4 signaling controls the migration and process orientation of A9-A10 dopaminergic neurons

CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling has been reported to regulate three essential processes for the establishment of neural networks in different neuronal systems: neuronal migration, cell positioning and axon wiring. However, it is not known whether it regulates the development of A9-A10 tyrosine hydroxylase positive (TH+) midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neurons. We report here that Cxcl12 is expressed in the meninges surrounding the ventral midbrain (VM), whereas CXCR4 is present in NURR1+ mDA precursors and mDA neurons from E10.5 to E14.5. CXCR4 is activated in NURR1+ cells as they migrate towards the meninges. Accordingly, VM meninges and CXCL12 promoted migration and neuritogenesis of TH+ cells in VM explants in a CXCR4-dependent manner. Moreover, in vivo electroporation of Cxcl12 at E12.5 in the basal plate resulted in lateral migration, whereas expression in the midline resulted in retention of TH+ cells in the IZ close to the midline. Analysis of Cxcr4-/- mice revealed the presence of VM TH+ cells with disoriented processes in the intermediate zone (IZ) at E11.5 and marginal zone (MZ) at E14. Consistently, pharmacological blockade of CXCR4 or genetic deletion of Cxcr4 resulted in an accumulation of TH+ cells in the lateral aspect of the IZ at E14, indicating that CXCR4 is required for the radial migration of mDA neurons in vivo. Altogether, our findings demonstrate that CXCL12/CXCR4 regulates the migration and orientation of processes in A9-A10 mDA neurons.This work was funded by the Swedish Research Council [VR projects: DBRM, 2008:2811, 2011-3116 and 2011-3318]; by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SRL program); by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (CLICK); by the European Commission (NeuroStemcell and DDPD-Genes) and Karolinska Institutet (SFO Thematic Center in Stem cells and Regenerative Medicine) to E.A.; and by the European Commission [mdDANeurodev 222999] to O.M. S.Y. was supported by grants from KID and Chinese Scholarship Council.Peer reviewe

Impacto de la COVID-19 en los servicios de cirugía cardiovascular en España: Análisis de los grupos relacionados con el diagnóstico (Estudio SECCE-COVID-19 fase 2)

Introducción y objetivos La pandemia por COVID-19 causada por infección del virus SARS-CoV-2 ha saturado al sistema sanitario español, afectándose la atención de las enfermedades cardiovasculares. Queremos cuantificar el impacto de la pandemia en el número de las intervenciones quirúrgicas cardíacas analizando los grupos relacionados con el diagnóstico (GRD) más prevalentes de nuestra especialidad. Métodos A instancias de la Sociedad Española de Cirugía Cardiovascular y Endovascular, se solicitó a todos los centros nacionales que quisieron participar, los datos de los códigos de GRD números 162 (cirugía sobre válvulas cardíacas con infarto o diagnóstico complejo), 163 (cirugía sobre válvulas cardíacas sin infarto o diagnóstico complejo), 165 (bypass coronario con infarto o diagnóstico complejo), 166 (bypass coronario sin infarto o diagnóstico complejo) y 167 (otros procedimientos cardiotorácicos o vasculares torácicos) entre el 1 de marzo de 2020 y el 30 de septiembre de 2020 (siete meses), y como período control las mismas fechas de 2019. Resultados Se recibieron los datos de 24 hospitales, 22 públicos y dos privados. Existió un descenso global en el número de intervenciones del 30% (rango -19 a -42%, p < 0,001) de 4.648 en 2019 a 3.262 en 2020 (-1.386 de diferencia), siendo +7% para el GRD 162 (p = 0,500), -37% para el 163 (p = 0,001), -9% para el 165 (p = 0,304), -32% para el 166 (p = 0,001), y -16% para el 167 (p = 0,062). Conclusiones Existió un descenso global de cirugías estadísticamente significativo en 2020 del 30% respecto del 2019 entre el 1 de marzo y el 30 de septiembre

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma: Molecular profiling recognizes subclasses and identifies prognostic markers

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is a clinically aggressive disease, with a poor response to therapy and a low overall survival rate of approximately 30% after 5 years. We have analyzed a series of 105 cases with a diagnosis of PTCL using a customized NanoString platform (NanoString Technologies, Seattle, WA) that includes 208 genes associated with T-cell differentiation, oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, deregulated pathways, and stromal cell subpopulations. A comparative analysis of the various histological types of PTCL (angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma [AITL]; PTCL with T follicular helper [TFH] phenotype; PTCL not otherwise specified [NOS]) showed that specific sets of genes were associated with each of the diagnoses. These included TFH markers, cytotoxic markers, and genes whose expression was a surrogate for specific cellular subpopulations, including follicular dendritic cells, mast cells, and genes belonging to precise survival (NF-κB) and other pathways. Furthermore, the mutational profile was analyzed using a custom panel that targeted 62 genes in 76 cases distributed in AITL, PTCL-TFH, and PTCL-NOS. The main differences among the 3 nodal PTCL classes involved the RHOAG17V mutations (P < .0001), which were approximately twice as frequent in AITL (34.09%) as in PTCL-TFH (16.66%) cases but were not detected in PTCL-NOS. A multivariate analysis identified gene sets that allowed the series of cases to be stratified into different risk groups. This study supports and validates the current division of PTCL into these 3 categories, identifies sets of markers that can be used for a more precise diagnosis, and recognizes the expression of B-cell genes as an IPI-independent prognostic factor for AITL

Investigation of the influence of calibration practices on cytogenetic laboratory performance for dose estimation

Purpose: In the frame of the QA program of RENEB, an inter-laboratory comparison (ILC) of calibration sources used in biological dosimetry was achieved to investigate the influence of calibration practices and protocols on the results of the dose estimation performance as a first step to harmonization and standardization of dosimetry and irradiation practices in the European biological dosimetry network. Materials and methods: Delivered doses by irradiation facilities used by RENEB partners were determined with EPR/alanine dosimetry system. Dosimeters were irradiated in the same conditions as blood samples. A short survey was also performed to collect the information needed for the data analysis and evaluate the diversity of practices. Results: For most of partners the deviation of delivered dose from the targeted dose remains below 10%. Deviations larger than 10% were observed for five facilities out of 21. Origins of the largest discrepancies were identified. Correction actions were evaluated as satisfactory. The re-evaluation of some ILC results for the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and premature chromosome condensation (PCC) assays has been performed leading to an improvement of the overall performances. Conclusions: This work has shown the importance of dosimetry in radiobiology studies and the needs of harmonization, standardization in irradiation and dosimetry practices and educational training for biologists using ionizing radiation