Search

O objetivo deste estudo é contribuir para um maior conhecimento sobre a evolução do Relato não Financeiro, analisar a forma como as empresas o incorporam na sua estratégia e asseguram a gestão dos seus pilares económico, ambiental e social. O estudo foi desenvolvido com base numa metodologia de tipo qualitativa, utilizando o estudo de caso do grupo Brisa, como método de investigação. São utilizados os principais referenciais de Relato a nível internacional (as normas da Global Reporting Initiative e a estrutura do International Integrated Reporting Council), os recentes desenvolvimentos em matéria de Relato não financeiro da União Europeia, bem como a ligação existente entre o Relato e os Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Agenda 2030. No alinhamento da estratégia seguida a nível internacional para o desenvolvimento sustentável, confirma-se que a divulgação de informação sobre responsabilidade social é um elemento fulcral na transparência e governance das organizações, evoluindo para o Relato Integrado.

Background Frequent and highly prevalent as comorbidities in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients, both depression and anxiety seem to have an impact on COPD prognosis. However, they are underdiagnosed and rarely treated properly. Aim To establish the prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients admitted for Acute Exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) and determine their influence on COPD prognosis. Methods Prospective observational study conducted from October 1, 2016 to October 1, 2018 at the following centers in Galicia, Spain: Salnés County Hospital, Arquitecto Marcide, and Clinic Hospital Complex of Santiago de Compostela. Patients admitted for AECOPD who agreed to participate and completed the anxiety and depression scale (HADS) were included in the study. Results 288 patients (46.8%) were included, mean age was 73.7 years (SD 10.9), 84.7% were male. 67.7% patients were diagnosed with probable depression, and depression was established in 41.7%; anxiety was probable in 68.2% and established in 35.4%. 60.4% of all patients showed symptoms of both anxiety and depression. Multivariate analysis relates established depression with a higher risk of late readmission (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.28; 3.31) and a lower risk of mortality at 18 months (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.37; 0.90). Conclusion The prevalence of anxiety and depression in COPD patients is high. Depression seems to be an independent factor for AECOPD, so early detection and a multidisciplinary approach could improve the prognosis of both entities. The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Galicia (code 2016/460).

Purpose: The aim of this study is to assess the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), alone or combined with positron emission tomography (PET), for evaluation of mediastinal disease in lymphoma in comparison with PET/computed tomography (CT). Material and methods: Eighteen prospective studies with sample size ranging between 17 and 140 patients were included in this analysis. MRI, regardless of the sequence obtained, where used for the evaluation of lymphoma. Histopathology results and clinical or imaging follow-up were used as the reference standard. Studies were excluded if the sample size was less than 15 cases or if less than 15 lymph nodes assessment were presented. Papers not reporting sufficient data were also excluded. Results: As compared to PET/CT, MRI proved to be an alternative to use in evaluation of mediastinal disease of lymphoma. MRI has high sensitivity and specificity for nodal and extranodal involvement in lymphoma and the agreement between MRI with the standard technique was high. The ALARA principle reinforces these findings because it is a radiation-free technique and its use is preferred in young population at risk of being subjected to several studies. Conclusion: MRI seems to be a promising and free-radiation alternative due to its high sensitivity and specificity, as well as its high level of agreement with the standard reference. This suggests that MRI could play a significant role in lymphoma study. Resumen: Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio es evaluar el valor diagnóstico de la resonancia magnética (RM), sola o combinada con la tomografía por emisión de positrones (PET), para la valoración de la afectación mediastínica en el linfoma en comparación con la tomografía computarizada (TC)/PET. Material y métodos: Se incluyeron en el análisis 18 estudios prospectivos con un tamaño de muestra que oscilaba entre los 17 y los 140 pacientes. Se utilizó la resonancia magnética, independientemente de la secuencia obtenida para la evaluación del linfoma. Los resultados de histopatología y el seguimiento clínico o de imagen se utilizaron como estándar de referencia. Se excluyeron los estudios si el tamaño de la muestra era inferior a 15 casos, o si se presentaron evaluaciones de menos de 15 ganglios linfáticos. Los artículos que no proporcionaban datos suficientes también fueron excluidos. Resultados: En comparación con PET/TC, la RM demostró ser una alternativa útil en la evaluación de la afectación mediastínica del linfoma. La RM tiene una alta sensibilidad y especificidad para detectar afectación nodal y extranodal en el linfoma y la concordancia entre la RMy la técnica estándar fue alta. El principio ALARA refuerza estos hallazgos porque es una técnica libre de radiación y su uso se prefiere en la población joven en peligro de ser sometida a varios estudios. Conclusión: La RM parece ser una alternativa prometedora y libre de radiación debido a su alta sensibilidad y especificidad, así como a su alto nivel de concordancia con la referencia estándar. Esto sugiere que la RM podría desempeñar un papel importante en el estudio del linfoma.

Introducción: La estratificación del riesgo de los pacientes con COVID-19 puede ser fundamental para apoyar la toma de decisiones clínicas y optimizar los recursos. El objetivo de nuestro estudio es identificar, entre los parámetros clínicos y analíticos probados de forma rutinaria, aquellos que nos permitirían determinar a los pacientes con mayor riesgo de morir por COVID-19. Material y Métodos: Se realizó un estudio multicéntrico de cohorte retrospectiva de forma consecutiva, incluyendo pacientes hospitalizados con COVID-19 ingresados en cualquiera de los 11 hospitales de la red sanitaria de HM Hospitales-España. Los datos clínicos, demográficos, analíticos y radiológicos se recopilaron de las historias clínicas de los pacientes. Para evaluar el impacto predictivo de cada uno de los biomarcadores y medir la significación estadística de las variables involucradas en el análisis, se aplicó un bosque aleatorio con un método de permutación. Utilizamos la medida de similitud inducida por un modelo de clasificación previo y ajustamos el algoritmo de agrupación de grupos k en función de la distancia de energía para estratificar a los pacientes en un grupo de alto y bajo riesgo. Finalmente, ajustamos dos árboles de clasificación óptimos para tener una representación esquemática de los puntos de corte. Resultados: Se incluyeron 1246 pacientes (edad promedio de 65,36 años, 62% varones). Durante el estudio murieron ciento sesenta y ocho pacientes (13%). Los factores que identifican a los pacientes de alto riesgo de mortalidad son los valores elevados de edad, Dímero D, glóbulos blancos, Na, PCR y creatinina. Conclusiones: La edad parece ser el principal predictor de mortalidad en pacientes con infección por SARS-CoV-2, mientras que el impacto de los reactantes de fase aguda y la celularidad sanguínea también es muy relevante.

Background: The diagnosis of celiac disease (CD) has been substantially improved with the availability of highly sensitive CD-specific IgA-TG2, Ig-GDP, and IgA-EMA. The European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) published (2012) and updated (2020) diagnostic criteria for CD in order to simplify CD diagnosis and to avoid biopsies in selected patients. Methods: A prospective study including 5641 pediatric patients (0–16 years old) from January 2012 to January 2019 was performed. CD diagnosis was made according to the ESPGHAN algorithm. The objective of this study was to evaluate the utility of biomarkers and the relationship between TGA-IgA and EMA titers. Results: CD diagnoses were confirmed in 113 patients, 110 were IgA-TG2-positive and 3 (2.7%) had IgA deficiency. The diagnosis was made by serologic tests in 95 (84.1%) patients. Only 18 (15.9%) patients underwent intestinal biopsy. We obtained 100% concordance between IgA-EMA and positive results for IgA-TG2 ≥ 10 ULN with IgA-EMA antibody titer ≥ 1:80. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of a positive correlation between IgA-TG2 antibody serum levels and IgA-EMA. The diagnosis could be guaranteed with strict application of IgA-TG2 values ≥ 10 ULN (confirmed by subsequent testing) plus the serological response to the gluten-free diet (GFD).

Current climate change in the Mediterranean basin is associated to increasing frequency and intensity of droughts. This climate dryness entails a serious impact on drought-sensitive forests, several of them considered as hot spots of biodiversity. Adaptive management, as experimental thinning for stand structural diversity enhancement, may increase tree-level resources availability. However, the long-term stand-level effectiveness of this approach at sustaining forest ecosystem functioning remains uncertain. Here, we attempt to place experimental thinning in a climate change adaptation context, using as experimental system the drought-sensitive fir Abies pinsapo. We conducted a long-term study (2004–2019), focused on tree basal area increment (BAI) and quantified to what extent thinning treatments improved drought resistance, recovery and resilience to drought in the remaining trees. The results support a post-thinning (after 2004) BAI increase in thinned stands (+104% if 30% thinning of basal area was applied; +141% for 60% thinning) compared to controls (+21%). Short-term growth resilience, estimated for an extreme drought occurred after thinning (2005), yielded higher resilience for thinned stands, throughout improved resistance, but similar recovery than control. However, extreme droughts observed thereafter (for instance in 2012) do not support a long-term increase in resilience. Growth resilience, estimated for wetter-than-average years showed similar short-term enhanced resilience in thinned stand, while these differences dispelled afterward.

This article belongs to the Special Issue The Systematics, Morphological, and Molecular Characterization of Economically Important Plant–Parasitic Nematodes., Dagger nematodes of the genus Xiphinema include a remarkable group of invertebrates of the phylum Nematoda comprising ectoparasitic animals of many wild and cultivated plants. Damage is caused by direct feeding on root cells and by vectoring nepoviruses that cause diseases on several crops. Precise identification of Xiphinema species is critical for launching appropriate control measures. We deciphered the cryptic diversity of the Xiphinema hispanum-species complex applying integrative taxonomical approaches that allowed us to verify a paradigmatic example of the morphostatic speciation and the description of a new species, Xiphinema malaka sp. nov. Detailed morphological, morphometrical, multivariate and genetic studies were carried out, and mitochondrial and nuclear haploweb analyses were used for species delimitation of this group. The new species belongs to morphospecies Group 5 from the Xiphinema nonamericanum-group species. D2-D3, ITS1, partial 18S, and partial coxI regions were used for inferring the phylogenetic relationships of X. malaka sp. nov. with other species within the genus Xiphinema. Molecular analyses showed a clear species differentiation not paralleled in morphology and morphometry, reflecting a clear morphostatic speciation. These results support the hypothesis that the biodiversity of dagger nematodes in southern Europe is greater than previously assumed., This research was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, grant number RTI2018-095345-B-C21, LITHOFOR (“Modulating role of LITHOlogy in the response of Mediterranean FORest ecosystems to climate change: growth, edaphological processes and future predictions”) and the Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers awarded for the first author.

Introduction. Lung cancer is a major health problem. Mediastinal staging performed with the aid of imaging techniques is essential for appropriate disease treatment and prognosis. Accordingly, this study aimed to ascertain the usefulness of positron emission tomography (PET) in mediastinal staging, establish the best maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) cutoff point, compare its usefulness to that of computed tomography (CT), and determine the influence of histological tumour subtype. Methods. We conducted a retrospective study across a period of 3 years on 128 patients with suspicion of lung cancer and analyzed their demographic and radiological characteristics using CT and PET to perform the mediastinal examination. Histology was regarded as the gold standard. Results. PET displayed a high sensitivity (95%) and negative predictive value (NPV) (92%), outperforming CT (89% and 85%, respectively). Percentage agreement with histology was also higher (0.207 and 0.241 for CT and PET, respectively; p<0.001). Taking an SUVmax value of 0.5 as that which would ensure greatest diagnostic accuracy, S and NPV were 100%, though percentage agreement did not increase (0.189; p<0.001). PET discriminatory power was not affected by histological tumour subtype. Conclusions. The results of our study indicate that PET might be a useful test for examination of the mediastinum in lung cancer patients. Its high NPV suggests that the absence of mediastinal uptake could be used to proceed to surgical treatment without the need for further tests or examinations. Nevertheless, studies directly aimed to answer this specific question are needed.

The shape and size of the aortic lumen can be associated with several aortic diseases. Automated computer segmentation can provide a mechanism for extracting the main features of the aorta that may be used as a diagnostic aid for physicians. This article presents a new fully automated algorithm to extract the aorta geometry for either normal (with and without contrast) or abnormal computed tomography (CT) cases. The algorithm we propose is a fast incremental technique that computes the 3D geometry of the aortic lumen from an initial contour located inside it. Our approach is based on the optimization of the 3D orientation of the cross sections of the aorta. The method uses a robust ellipse estimation algorithm and an energy-based optimization technique to automatically track the centerline and the cross sections. The optimization involves the size and eccentricity of the ellipse which best fits the aorta contour on each cross-sectional plane. The method works directly on the original CT and does not require a prior segmentation of the aortic lumen. We present experimental results to show the accuracy of the method and its ability to cope with challenging CT cases where the aortic lumen may have low contrast, different kinds of pathologies, artifacts, and even significant angulations due to severe elongations. The algorithm correctly tracked the aorta geometry in 380 of 385 CT cases. The mean of the dice similarity coefficient was 0.951 for aorta cross sections that were randomly selected from the whole database. The mean distance to a manually delineated segmentation of the aortic lumen was 0.9 mm for sixteen selected cases. The results achieved after the evaluation demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is robust and accurate for the automatic extraction of the aorta geometry for both normal (with and without contrast) and abnormal CT volumes.

Stand-level competition and local climate influence tree responses to increased drought at the regional scale. To evaluate stand density and elevation effects on tree carbon and water balances, we monitored seasonal changes in sap-flow density (SFD), gas exchange, xylem water potential, secondary growth, and non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) in Abies pinsapo. Trees were subjected to experimental thinning within a low-elevation stand (1200 m), and carbon and water balances were compared to control plots at low and high elevation (1700 m). The hydraulic conductivity and the resistance to cavitation were also characterized, showing relatively high values and no significant differences among treatments. Trees growing at higher elevations presented the highest SFD, photosynthetic rates, and secondary growth, mainly because their growing season was extended until summer. Trees growing at low elevation reduced SFD during late spring and summer while SFD and secondary growth were significantly higher in the thinned stands. Declining NSC concentrations in needles, branches, and sapwood suggest drought-induced control of the carbon supply status. Our results might indicate potential altitudinal shifts, as better performance occurs at higher elevations, while thinning may be suitable as adaptive management to mitigate drought effects in endangered Mediterranean trees.

In this paper we propose a multiscale parametric snake model for ellipse motion estimation across a sequence of images. We use a robust ellipse parameterization based on the geometry of the intersection of a cylinder and a plane. The ellipse parameters are optimized in each frame by searching for local minima of the snake model energy including temporal coherence in the ellipse motion. One advantage of this method is that it just considers the convolution of the image with a Gaussian kernel and its gradient, and no edge detection is required. A detailed study about the numerical evaluation of the snake energy on ellipses is presented. We propose a Newton–Raphson-type algorithm to estimate a local minimum of the energy. We present some experimental results on synthetic data, real video sequences and 3D medical images.

Understanding forest responses to the current climate change requires to investigate the effects of competition, buffering or enhancing process of forests decline. Here we attempt to place intra-specific competition in a climate change context, using as experimental system the drought-sensitive fir Abies pinsapo. We conducted a decade-long (2004–2015) investigation at four permanent plots (two thinned plots and two controls), where all trees were identified, tagged and mapped. Experimental thinning was performed attempting to enhance stand structure diversity by (1) reducing tree competition, (2) increasing the equitability of size classes (i.e. diversity) and (3) randomizing tree spatial pattern. We focus on tree basal area increment and sap flow density, as regards microclimate and competition, to quantify the extent to that thinning alleviates drought in the remaining trees. The results support that lower competition fosters short- to long-term tree-level physiological responses, specifically, improved growth and water uptake in the remaining trees. Density reduction provides a promising strategy for minimizing climate change effects on drought-sensitive tree species by improving resources availability to the remaining trees. Nevertheless, our results also support a higher air temperature and soil water depletion according to density reduction, suggesting that lower competition might also increase soil and understory evapotranspiration. Adaptive management, as the experimental thinning reported here, may increase tree-level resources availability, but the long-term stand-level effectiveness of this approach at sustaining forest ecosystem functioning remains uncertain.

Background: Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is a preferred imaging technique for a wide range of vascular diseases. However, extensive manual analysis is required to detect and identify several anatomical landmarks for clinical application. This study demonstrates the feasibility of a fully automatic method for detecting the aortic root, which is a key anatomical landmark in this type of procedure. The approach is based on the use of deep learning techniques that attempt to mimic expert behavior. Methods: A total of 69 CTA scans (39 for training and 30 for validation) with different pathology types were selected to train the network. Furthermore, a total of 71 CTA scans were selected independently and applied as the test set to assess their performance. Results: The accuracy was evaluated by comparing the locations marked by the method with benchmark locations (which were manually marked by two experts). The interobserver error was 4.6 ± 2.3 mm. On an average, the differences between the locations marked by the two experts and those detected by the computer were 6.6 ± 3.0 mm and 6.8 ± 3.3 mm, respectively, when calculated using the test set. Conclusions: From an analysis of these results, we can conclude that the proposed method based on pre-trained CNN models can accurately detect the aortic root in CTA images without prior segmentation This work was partially financed by Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Universidade (reference 2019–2021, ED431C 2018/19) SI

One way that helps maintain the sustainability of agro-ecosystems land is the application of compost from municipal solid waste as fertilizer, because it can recover the nutrients contained in them, minimizing the negative impact on the environment. Composting as a method for preparing organic fertilizers and amendments is economically and ecologically sound and may well represent an acceptable solution for disposing of municipal solid waste. In the present work, the quality of compost is studied made from municipal solid waste; the content of mineral nutrients: potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, zinc, manganese, cupper, iron, nickel, chromium and lead has been investigated. The objective was to evaluate the changes in mineral nutrient concentration during the composting process. The compost was prepared in a pilot-plant using the turning-pile system. Temperature was used as a monitoring parameter to follow the composting progress, which underwent the typical trend of municipal solid waste composting mixtures. The results showed a similar evolution on the content of mineral nutrients of the mixture of municipal solid waste. This evolution originated in a mature compost (end sample) with an adequate content of mineral elements and physical-chemical characteristics for its use in agriculture. So, the use of compost of municipal solid waste represents an important tool for fertilization requirements for its use in agriculture.

Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is one of the most common vascular imaging modalities. However, for clinical use, it still requires laborious manual analysis. This study demonstrates the feasibility of a fully automated technology for the accurate detection and identification of several anatomical reference points (landmarks), commonly used in intravascular imaging. This technology uses two different approaches, specially designed for the detection of aortic root and supra-aortic and visceral branches. In order to adjust the parameters of the developed algorithms, a total of 33 computed tomography scans with different types of pathologies were selected. Furthermore, a total of 30 independently selected computed tomography scans were used to assess their performance. Accuracy was evaluated by comparing the locations of reference points manually marked by human experts with those that were automatically detected. For supra-aortic and visceral branches detection, average values of 91.8 % for recall and 98.8 % for precision were obtained. For aortic root detection, the average difference between the positions marked by the experts and those detected by the computer was 5.7 ± 7.3 mm. Finally, diameters and lengths of the aorta were measured at different locations related to the extracted landmarks. Those measurements agreed with the values reported by the literature. Graphical abstract Schematic description of the proposed algorithm. The input includes an already segmented aorta (left), there are two main sub-processes related to the detection of branches and roots (center), and the output includes the segmented original aorta with the branches and the detected landmarks superimposed (right).

In this work we present an application of variational techniques to the smoothing and registration of aorta centerlines. We assume that a 3D segmentation of the aorta lumen and an initial estimation of the aorta centerline are available. The centerline smoothing technique aims to maximize the distance of the centerline to the boundary of the aorta lumen segmentation but keeping the curve smooth. The proposed registration technique computes a rigid transformation by minimizing the squared Euclidean distance between the points of the curves, using landmarks and taking into account that the curves can be of different lengths. We present a variety of experiments on synthetic and real scenarios in order to show the performance of the methods.

Background: Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women. Mediastinal lymph node involvement in these patients, determined by imaging tests, indicates prognosis and modifies therapeutic attitude. Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze the diagnostic capacity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the study of the mediastinum in comparison with conventional tests (computed tomography [CT] and positron-emission tomography [PET] or PET/CT scans), taking histology as the gold standard. Materials and Methods: An observational study was conducted on 16 patients with suspicion of primary lung cancer (June 2016 through December 2018). We studied their demographic characteristics and used CT, PET, or PET/CT scans and MRI (diffusion-weighted imaging-MRI sequence) to examine mediastinal disease and compare MRIs diagnostic yield and percentage agreement to that of conventional tests. Results: As compared to CT and PET scanning, MRI displayed a very low sensitivity and a specificity of 90 and 88%, respectively; positive predictive value was 0.67 (both) and negative predictive value (NPV) was 0.28 and 0.22, respectively. MRI showed a high degree of agreement in lymph node diagnosis when compared with histology (91.2%; P = 0.001): specificity in this case was high (E = 0.94), as was the NPV (NPV = 0.97). Conclusions: The results of this study would appear to indicate that MRI could play a relevant role in mediastinal staging of lung cancer. More prospective, multicenter studies are, however, needed to be able to draw up firm recommendations about the role of MRI and its place in lung cancer staging.

In this work we examined the differences between two related fir species (Abies pinsapo Boiss. and A. alba Mill.) with respect to their ability to manage light as a key resource, considering both their C fixation capacity and the “loss” of water through stomata in response to different light regimes. Thus, we carried out three experiments where we measured instantaneous gas exchange rates (net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance to water) under different light conditions. In the first experiment, individuals from both species were subjected to a moderate but constant level of irradiance. In the second one, every individual received a certain light dose through several periods of time characterized by different levels of constant irradiance. Finally, in the third experiment, dark periods of increasing duration were imposed to plants at steady-state of their gas exchange response, under the same level of irradiance employed in the first experiment. We used the time record of the data collected to calculate the total amount of C fixed and the water “lost” in each situation. Both species differed in their intrinsic ability for C fixation and avoidance of water loss, but showed a similar response with respect to the ratio between C fixed and water lost under different circumstances, what suggests that regulation of gas exchange in both species tends to keep this ratio constant under varying light conditions, playing light a critical role as an environmental signal for maximizing water use efficiency.

In this study we combine information from aerial LIDAR and hemispherical images taken in the field with ForeStereo—a forest inventory device—to assess the vulnerability and to design conservation strategies for endangered Mediterranean fir forests based on the mapping of fire risk and canopy structure spatial variability. We focused on the largest continuous remnant population of the endangered tree species Abies pinsapo Boiss. spanning 252 ha in Sierra de las Nieves National Park (South Andalusia, Spain). We established 49 sampling plots over the study area. Stand structure variables were derived from ForeStereo device, a proximal sensing technology for tree diameter, height and crown dimensions and stand crown cover and basal area retrieval from stereoscopic hemispherical images photogrammetry. With this information, we developed regression models with airborne LIDAR data (spatial resolution of 0.5 points∙m−2). Thereafter, six fuel models were fitted to the plots according to the UCO40 classification criteria, and then the entire area was classified using the Nearest Neighbor algorithm on Sentinel imagery (overall accuracy of 0.56 and a KIA-Kappa Coefficient of 0.46). FlamMap software was used for fire simulation scenarios based on fuel models, stand structure, and terrain data. Besides the fire simulation, we analyzed canopy structure to assess the status and vulnerability of this fir population. The assessment shows a secondary growth forest that has an increasing presence of fuel models with the potential for high fire spread rate fire and burn probability. Our methodological approach has the potential to be integrated as a support tool for the adaptive management and conservation of A. pinsapo across its whole distribution area (A. numidica de Lannoy and A. pinsapo marocana Trab. in North Africa.

Aim of study: Understanding small-scale patterns caused by stochastic factors or community interactions driving forest structure and diversity of Moroccan fir Abies marocana Trab.Area of study: Talassemtane fir forest, Talassemtane National Park, Rif Mountains, northern Morocco.Material and methods: Eight plots representative of the structural variability of A. marocana forests were selected, and all tree individuals with diameter at breast height (dbh) ≥2 cm were mapped and measured. We performed four types of spatial point pattern analyses: (1) Univariate analyses to explore the overall trees spatial pattern, (2) bivariate analyses to assess the spatial relationship between juveniles and A. marocana adults, (3) correlation between tree sizes (dbh) and distance between points pairs using the univariate mark correlation function, and (4) random labeling analyses between dominant and suppressed Moroccan fir individuals to assess competition patterns.Main results: We found a strong spatial aggregation of fir individuals and a positive intraspecific association between juveniles and adult trees. However, there were weak but significant distance-dependent effect on tree size and density-dependent effect on suppression pattern.Research highlights: Shade-tolerance, seed dispersal and/or microsite heterogeneity might play important roles in the observed fir patterns. Our results provide a basic knowledge on within-stand Moroccan fir spatial distribution, with implications for adaptive management of these relic forests, and prompting to further research to test advanced hypotheses.Additional key words: Moroccan fir; Talassemtane National Park; Rif forest; Spatial analysis; summary statistics; facilitation; aggregation.Abbreviations used: MF (Moroccan fir); Talassemtane National Park (TNP); dbh (diameter at breast height); Univariate pair-correlation function (g(r)); Heterogeneous Poisson (HP); Bivariate pair-correlation function (g12(r)); Univariate mark correlation function (kmm(r)), Mark connection function (p12(r)).

In 2003, FDA approved Omalizumab for the treatment of severe allergic asthma. This mAb recognizes IgE and blocks its binding to basophils and mast cells, attenuating FceRI signalling. Nevertheless, its effect on T helper (Th) subsets like regulatory (Tregs) or effector (Teff) cells remains poorly described. To address this issue peripheral blood samples were drawn from three groups of adults (n= 106): Healthy controls (HC; n= 32) and clinically stable allergic asthmatics (n= 74), either on glucocorticoid (Omalizumab-; n= 50) or Omalizumab (Omalizumab+; n= 24) therapy. Due to the higher severity in the Omalizumab+ group and despite the biological, FEV1 (%) and FEV1/FVC (%) were still lower than those in Omalizumab- patients. Asthmatics showed higher eosinophil numbers and total IgE compared to HC, but Omalizumab did not cause their down-modulation. Flow cytometry evidenced a higher activated status (CD26) in Th cells from asthmatics that was not affected by Omalizumab. In contrast, the increment of “terminally differentiated” Teff percentages in Omalizumab- patients compared to HC was almost lost in the Omalizumab+ group. The biological therapy did not alter the percentage of circulating Treg cells or levels of serum TGFβ1 but led to a significant increment in the percentage of GARP+ cells within Treg and “terminally differentiated” Teff compared to HC. GARP is a receptor for latent TGFβ1 and a Treg activation marker. Therefore, apart from the actions of Omalizumab on mast cells and basophils, an additional mechanism could be the generation of lymphocytes with enhanced regulatory function or higher susceptibility to this activity.

This work presents an automatic method to segment the aortic lumen in computed tomography scans by combining an ellipse-based structure of the artery and an active contour model. The general shape of the aorta is first estimated by adapting the contour of its cross-sections to ellipses oriented in the direction orthogonal to the course of the vessel. From this set of ellipses, an initial segmentation is computed, which is used as starting approximation for the active contour technique. Apart from the traditional attraction and regularization terms of the active contours, an additional term is included to make the contour evolve according to the likelihood of a given intensity to be inside the aorta or in the surrounding tissues. With this technique, it is possible to adapt the boundary of the initial segmentation by considering not only the most significant edges, but also the distribution of the intensities inside and surrounding the aortic lumen.

Aims Climate and human impacts are changing the nitrogen (N) inputs and losses in terrestrial ecosystems. However, it is largely unknown how these two major drivers of global change will simultaneously influence the N cycle in drylands, the largest terrestrial biome on the planet. We conducted a global observational study to evaluate how aridity and human impacts, together with biotic and abiotic factors, affect key soil variables of the N cycle. Location Two hundred and twenty-four dryland sites from all continents except Antarctica widely differing in their environmental conditions and human influence. Methods Using a standardized field survey, we measured aridity, human impacts (i.e. proxies of land uses and air pollution), key biophysical variables (i.e. soil pH and texture and total plant cover) and six important variables related to N cycling in soils: total N, organic N, ammonium, nitrate, dissolved organic:inorganic N and N mineralization rates. We used structural equation modelling to assess the direct and indirect effects of aridity, human impacts and key biophysical variables on the N cycle. Results Human impacts increased the concentration of total N, while aridity reduced it. The effects of aridity and human impacts on the N cycle were spatially disconnected, which may favour scarcity of N in the most arid areas and promote its accumulation in the least arid areas. Main conclusions We found that increasing aridity and anthropogenic pressure are spatially disconnected in drylands. This implies that while places with low aridity and high human impact accumulate N, most arid sites with the lowest human impacts lose N. Our analyses also provide evidence that both increasing aridity and human impacts may enhance the relative dominance of inorganic N in dryland soils, having a negative impact on key functions and services provided by these ecosystems.

In this paper, we deal with the problem of circle tracking across an image sequence. We propose an active contour model based on a new energy. The center and radius of the circle is optimized in each frame by looking for local minima of such energy. The energy estimation does not require edge extraction, it uses the image convolution with a Gaussian kernel and its gradient which is computed using a GPU–CUDA implementation. We propose a Newton–Raphson type algorithm to estimate a local minimum of the energy. The combination of an active contour model which does not require edge detection and a GPU–CUDA implementation provides a fast and accurate method for circle tracking. We present some experimental results on synthetic data, on real images, and on medical images in the context of aorta vessel segmentation in computed tomography (CT) images.

Accurate determination of the diameter is an important step for diagnosis and follow-up of aortic abnormalities such as aneurysms, caused by dilation of the vessel lumen. In this work we focus on the development of an automatic method for measuring the calibre of the thoracic aorta. The method is based on the application of principal component analysis on normal planes extracted from the aorta to establish the main axis of each section of the vessel.Two experiments were performed in order to test the accuracy and the rotational invariance of the developed method. Accuracy was determined by using a database of 15 clinical cases, where our method and a commercial software, which was considered as the gold standard, were compared. For the rotational invariance check, phantom images in different orientations were obtained and the diameter was measured with the proposed method.For clinical cases, a good agreement was observed between our method and the gold standard. The Bland Altman plots indicated that all of the values were within the acceptable limits of agreement with a bias of 0.2mm between both methods. For phantom cases, an ANOVA test revealed that the results achieved for the data sets acquired for the different orientations were not statistically different (F=1.88, p=0.153), which demonstrates the robustness of the method for rotations.The proposed method is applicable for measuring the diameter in all tested cases, and the results achieved underscored the capability of our approach for automatic characterization of thoracic aortic aneurysms. HighlightsWe have developed an automatic method for measuring the diameter at any point along the length of the thoracic aorta.The proposed method uses principal component analysis for determining the maximum diameter of the aorta.The method developed clearly reduces the time spent by any semi-automatic commercial method available in the market.The proposed method obtains reproducible results of the aortic diameters, contrary to what happens with semi-automatic methods.