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Geographic Information Systems (GISs) cover a wide range of Earth and environmental science disciplines that have become essential for spatial data management, easing the digital transformation needs of our society. Despite the usefulness of GISs, they remain underutilised in academia, and many students do not understand the possibilities that these tools offer. To familiarise university students with the potential of GISs, we designed 11 short clips (less than 5 min long) recorded by Earth scientists with diverse backgrounds who shared their work experience with GISs to solve real-world problems. Through these short clips, we emphasised not only the multidisciplinary uses of GISs but also provided professional references for undergraduate students, including societal aspects such as gender equality, national and international mobility, private-to-public-sector transitioning, and different family circumstances. As a result, the students expressed their interest in the applications of GISs, many of which were completely new to them, highlighting the potential of GISs in terms of entrepreneurship and their usefulness in mitigating global change. Thus, we were able to transfer knowledge from research to university education and foster spatial data management skills in Earth science.

Neospora caninum is an apicomplexan parasite that can cause abortions and perinatal mortality in sheep. Although ovine neosporosis has been described worldwide, there is a lack of information about the relationship between N. caninum serostatus and the reproductive performance. In this study, we described the infection dynamics in a dairy sheep flock with an abortion rate up to 25% and a N. caninum seroprevalence of 32%. Abortions were recorded in 36% and 9% of seropositive and seronegative sheep, respectively. Seropositive sheep were more likely to abort twice (OR = 4.44) or three or more times (OR = 10.13) than seronegative sheep. Endogenous transplacental transmission was the main route of transmission since 86% of seropositive sheep had seropositive offspring. Within dams that had any abortion, seropositive sheep were more likely than seronegative ones to have female descendants that aborted (OR = 8.12). The slight increase in seropositivity with the age, the low percentage of animals with postnatal seroconversion or with low avidity antibodies, and the seropositivity of one flock dog, indicated that horizontal transmission might have some relevance in this flock. A control programme based on selective culling of seropositive sheep and replacement with seronegative animals was effective in reducing the abortion rate to 7.2%.

Cataracts and glaucoma account for a high percentage of vision loss and blindness worldwide. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are released into different body fluids, including the eye’s aqueous humor. Information about their proteome content and characterization in ocular pathologies is not yet well established. In this study, aqueous humor sEVs from healthy individuals, cataracts, and glaucoma patients were studied, and their specific protein profiles were characterized. Moreover, the potential of identified proteins as diagnostic glaucoma biomarkers was evaluated. The protein content of sEVs from patients’ aqueous humor with cataracts and glaucoma compared to healthy individuals was analyzed by quantitative proteomics. Validation was performed by western blot (WB) and ELISA. A total of 828 peptides and 192 proteins were identified and quantified. After data analysis with the R program, 8 significantly dysregulated proteins from aqueous humor sEVs in cataracts and 16 in glaucoma showed an expression ratio ≥ 1.5. By WB and ELISA using directly aqueous humor samples, the dysregulation of 9 proteins was mostly confirmed. Importantly, GAS6 and SPP1 showed high diagnostic ability of glaucoma, which in combination allowed for discriminating glaucoma patients from control individuals with an area under the curve of 76.1% and a sensitivity of 65.6% and a specificity of 87.7%.