Search

Drought severely affects soybean productivity, challenging breeding/management strategies to increase crop resilience. Hormone-based biostimulants like brassinosteroids (BRs) modulate growth/defence trade-off, mitigating yield losses; yet, natural molecule's low stability challenges the development of cost-effective and long-lasting analogues. Here, we investigated for the first time the effects of BR functional analogue DI-31 in soybean physiology under drought by assessing changes in growth, photosynthesis, water relations, antioxidant metabolism, nodulation, and nitrogen homeostasis. Moreover, DI-31 application frequencies' effects on crop cycle and commercial cultivar yield stabilisation under drought were assessed. A single foliar application of DI-31 favoured plant drought tolerance, preventing reductions in canopy development and enhancing plant performance and water use since the early stages of stress. The analogue also increased the antioxidant response, favouring nitrogen homeostasis maintenance and attenuating the nodular senescence. Moreover, foliar applications of DI-31 every 21 days enhanced the absolute yield by ~ 9% and reduced drought-induced yield losses by ~ 7% in four commercial cultivars, increasing their drought tolerance efficiency by ~ 12%. These findings demonstrated the practical value of DI-31 as an environmentally friendly alternative for integrative soybean resilience management under drought. Instituto de Fisiología y Recursos Genéticos Vegetales Fil: Perez Borroto, Lucia Sandra. Wageningen University and Research. Plant Breeding; Países Bajos Fil: Guzzo, María Carla. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Fisiología y Recursos Genéticos Vegetales; Argentina Fil: Guzzo, María Carla. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Unidad de Estudios Agropecuarios (UDEA) ; Argentina Fil: Posada, Gisella. Instituto Superior Albert Sabin; Argentina Fil: Peña Malavera, Andrea Natalia. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres (EEAOC). Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina Fil: Peña Malavera, Andrea Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Castagnaro, Atilio Pedro. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres (EEAOC). Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina Fil: Castagnaro, Atilio Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Gonzalez Olmedo, Justo Lorenzo. Universidad de Ciego de Ávila “Máximo Gómez Báez”. Centro de Bioplantas; Cuba Fil: Coll García, Yamilet. Universidad de La Habana. Facultad de Química. Centro de Estudios de Productos Naturales; Cuba Fil: Pardo, Esteban Mariano. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres (EEAOC). Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina Fil: Pardo, Esteban Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas; Argentina

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background The study of palpitations, presyncope or dizziness constitutes an important part of the cardiology consultations. These symptoms are nonspecific most of times, and with the usual diagnostic tools (24-hour Holter mainly) it is difficult to reach an accurate diagnosis, since episodes occur erratically once or a few times a month. The Kardia® electrocardiographic monitoring device is a diagnostic tool that allows the patient to self-perform ECG based on symptoms and send it for later review and interpretation by a cardiologist. Purpose We compared the diagnostic yield of the conventional 24-hour Holter monitor versus the Kardia® device in patients undergoing a cardiology study. Methods We conducted a prospective cohort study in 36 patients referred to the cardiology consultation due to palpitations or presyncope. In all of them, a 24-hour Holter was carried out, according to the usual protocol, and then a KardiaMobile® 6L device was given for a month. They received training to perform an ECG (six limb leads) and use the mobile application. The quantitative variables are expressed as means and standard deviation and the qualitative values as percentages. Results The study included 36 patients, of which 66.7% were women and 33.3% men, mean age of 44.2±14.3 years. The most frequent clinical symptom was palpitations (88.9%). Regarding the 24-hour Holter, only 22.2% of patients felt the symptoms for which they consulted during the day they wore it. Only in 19.4% the etiological diagnosis was reached through this method. Regarding the KardiaMobile® device, 72.2% of patients presented symptoms during the month of follow-up. Through the records obtained with this device, the diagnosis was reached in 52.8% of the cases, taking into account that if the patient reported having symptoms at the time the ECG was performed, if the ECG was normal, it was considered a diagnostic success, since the non-cardiological cause of the symptom was demonstrated. The diagnosis implied a therapeutic approach in 30.6% of cases: antiarrhythmic drugs were started in 8 patients, and 4 electrophysiological studies were indicated: in 3 patients for AVRNT ablation and in 1 patient for sustained ventricular tachycardias. Table1 shows a summary of the results. Conclusion Despite the limited number of patients, in our study, the 30-day recording with portable KardiaMobile® monitoring system showed statistically significant superiority (p It must be borne in mind that this is a relatively young population and the study needs to be extended to a larger number of patients to generalize these conclusions. The main limitation of the KardiaMobile® device is that it requires minimal skills in terms of using a smartphone, so this tool is not extensible to any patient profile.

STEM disciplines present a low number of female vocations. In the Campus of Ourense (University of Vigo), women from Science and Engineering fields have promoted a non-university student’s competition and a fair called “eXXperimenta en feminino” in order to make visible the role of women in STEM to students of secondary and high school. The motivation behind these actions is to highlight the role of women in the STEM disciplines and attract female students to those studies, which have a low percentage of enrollment of women. The results and conclusions of those initiatives are presented in this work. Regarding the opinions provided by participants, the events have achieved a high satisfaction level.

Focal malformations of cortical development including focal cortical dysplasia, hemimegalencephaly and megalencephaly, are a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders associated with brain overgrowth, cellular and architectural dysplasia, intractable epilepsy, autism and intellectual disability. Importantly, focal cortical dysplasia is the most common cause of focal intractable paediatric epilepsy. Gain and loss of function variants in the PI3K-AKT-MTOR pathway have been identified in this spectrum, with variable levels of mosaicism and tissue distribution. In this study, we performed deep molecular profiling of common PI3K-AKT-MTOR pathway variants in surgically resected tissues using droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR), combined with analysis of key phenotype data. A total of 159 samples, including 124 brain tissue samples, were collected from 58 children with focal malformations of cortical development. We designed an ultra-sensitive and highly targeted molecular diagnostic panel using ddPCR for six mutational hotspots in three PI3K-AKT-MTOR pathway genes, namely PIK3CA (p.E542K, p.E545K, p.H1047R), AKT3 (p.E17K) and MTOR (p.S2215F, p.S2215Y). We quantified the level of mosaicism across all samples and correlated genotypes with key clinical, neuroimaging and histopathological data. Pathogenic variants were identified in 17 individuals, with an overall molecular solve rate of 29.31%. Variant allele fractions ranged from 0.14 to 22.67% across all mutation-positive samples. Our data show that pathogenic MTOR variants are mostly associated with focal cortical dysplasia, whereas pathogenic PIK3CA variants are more frequent in hemimegalencephaly. Further, the presence of one of these hotspot mutations correlated with earlier onset of epilepsy. However, levels of mosaicism did not correlate with the severity of the cortical malformation by neuroimaging or histopathology. Importantly, we could not identify these mutational hotspots in other types of surgically resected epileptic lesions (e.g. polymicrogyria or mesial temporal sclerosis) suggesting that PI3K-AKT-MTOR mutations are specifically causal in the focal cortical dysplasia-hemimegalencephaly spectrum. Finally, our data suggest that ultra-sensitive molecular profiling of the most common PI3K-AKT-MTOR mutations by targeted sequencing droplet digital polymerase chain reaction is an effective molecular approach for these disorders with a good diagnostic yield when paired with neuroimaging and histopathology.

Post-stroke optogenetic stimulation has been shown to enhance neurovascular coupling and functional recovery. Neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) has been implicated as a key regulator of the neurovascular response in acute stroke; however, its role in subacute recovery remains unclear. We investigated the expression of nNOS in stroke mice undergoing optogenetic stimulation of the contralesional lateral cerebellar nucleus (cLCN). We also examined the effects of nNOS inhibition on functional recovery using a pharmacological inhibitor targeting nNOS. Optogenetically stimulated stroke mice demonstrated significant improvement on the horizontal rotating beam task at post-stroke days 10 and 14. nNOS mRNA and protein expression was significantly and selectively decreased in the contralesional primary motor cortex (cM1) of cLCN-stimulated mice. The nNOS expression in cM1 was negatively correlated with improved recovery. nNOS inhibitor (ARL 17477)-treated stroke mice exhibited a significant functional improvement in speed at post-stroke day 10, when compared to stroke mice receiving vehicle (saline) only. Our results show that optogenetic stimulation of cLCN and systemic nNOS inhibition both produce functional benefits after stroke, and suggest that nNOS may play a maladaptive role in post-stroke recovery.

Resumen Introduccion El cribado nutricional CIPA (Control de Ingestas, Proteinas, Antropometria) es positivo cumpliendo al menos una de las siguientes condiciones: control de ingestas en 48-72 h Objetivos Validacion del cribado CIPA en pacientes hospitalizados quirurgicos mediante comparacion con Valoracion Global Subjetiva (VGS) y analizando el pronostico clinico de los pacientes. Material y metodos Estudio prospectivo de pacientes quirurgicos hospitalizados, valorando la prevalencia o riesgo de desnutricion a traves de CIPA y VGS. Analisis de desnutricion hospitalaria a traves de la asociacion con las variables clinicas pronosticas estancia mediana, mortalidad y reingreso precoz. Concordancia entre ambos metodos de cribado mediante indice Kappa (κ), sensibilidad (S) y especificidad (E). Resultados Se analizan 226 pacientes. CIPA identifica una prevalencia de desnutricion o riesgo de padecerla del 35,40%, y VGS 30,08%. CIPA es capaz de detectar al paciente con mayor mortalidad hospitalaria (5% vs. 0%, p = 0,006), a diferencia de la VGS (2,94% vs. 1,27%, p = 0,385). CIPA tambien detecto aquellos con mayor estancia mediana (21 dias [RIC 14-34 dias] vs. 14,5 dias [RIC 9-27 dias], p = 0,002) y reingresos precoces (25,3% vs. 8,2%, p Conclusiones Mediante el cribado nutricional CIPA la prevalencia de desnutricion o riesgo de padecerla en pacientes quirurgicos es elevada, y estos cursan con peor evolucion clinica, siendo valido y efectivo en este tipo de pacientes.

The outer epithelial layer of zebrafish retinae contains a crystalline array of cone photoreceptors, called the cone mosaic. As this mosaic grows by mitotic addition of new photoreceptors at the rim of the hemispheric retina, topological defects, called “Y-Junctions”, form to maintain approximately constant cell spacing. The generation of topological defects due to growth on a curved surface is a distinct feature of the cone mosaic not seen in other well-studied biological patterns like the R8 photoreceptor array in the Drosophila compound eye. Since defects can provide insight into cell-cell interactions responsible for pattern formation, here we characterize the arrangement of cones in individual Y-Junction cores as well as the spatial distribution of Y-junctions across entire retinae. We find that for individual Y-junctions, the distribution of cones near the core corresponds closely to structures observed in physical crystals. In addition, Y-Junctions are organized into lines, called grain boundaries, from the retinal center to the periphery. In physical crystals, regardless of the initial distribution of defects, defects can coalesce into grain boundaries via the mobility of individual particles. By imaging in live fish, we demonstrate that grain boundaries in the cone mosaic instead appear during initial mosaic formation, without requiring defect motion. Motivated by this observation, we show that a computational model of repulsive cell-cell interactions generates a mosaic with grain boundaries. In contrast to paradigmatic models of fate specification in mostly motionless cell packings, this finding emphasizes the role of cell motion, guided by cell-cell interactions during differentiation, in forming biological crystals. Such a route to the formation of regular patterns may be especially valuable in situations, like growth on a curved surface, where the resulting long-ranged, elastic, effective interactions between defects can help to group them into grain boundaries., Author summary From hair cells in the mammalian inner ear to the bristles on a fly’s back, sensory cells often form precise arrays, ensuring that these cells are evenly spread out on the tissue’s surface. Here we consider the zebrafish cone mosaic, a crystal of cone photoreceptors in the outer retinal layer. Because the cone mosaic grows from the rim of the curved retinal surface, new rows of cones (i.e., defects) are inserted to maintain constant spacing between sensory cells. We study the spatial distribution of these defects to gain insight into how the cone pattern forms. By imaging retinae in live fish, we find that as differentiating cones are incorporated into the mosaic, defects form lines (grain boundaries) that separate mostly defect-free domains. Then, we show that a computational model based on repulsion between mobile cells during their incorporation into the mosaic generates similar grain boundaries. This study thus suggests that cell motion governed by repulsive cell-cell interactions can play an important role in establishing regular patterns in living systems.

Inhibitory neurons are critical for normal brain function but dysregulated in disorders such as epilepsy. At least two theories exist for how inhibition may acutely decrease during a seizure: hyperpolarization of fast-spiking (FS) inhibitory neurons by other inhibitory neurons, or depolarization block (DB) of FS neurons resulting in an inability to fire action potentials. Firing rate alone is unable to disambiguate these alternatives. Here, we show that human FS neurons can stop firing due to both hyperpolarization and DB within the same seizure. However, only DB of FS cells is associated with dramatic increases in local seizure amplitude, unobstructed traveling waves, and transient increases in excitatory neuronal firing. This result is independent of seizure etiology or focus. Computational models of DB reproduce the in vivo human biophysics. These methods enable intracellular decoding using only extracellular recordings in humans and explain the otherwise ambiguous inhibitory neuronal control of human seizures.

Summary Introduction: Recent studies have reported differences in sweat rate (SR) in laser class (LC) sailors under extreme environ-mental conditions (EC). This study aimed to determine a ‘standard-like’ SR in junior Laser 4.7 sailors under ‘not-extreme’ weather conditions to achieve an adequate fluid replacement rate for training and racing sessions. Additionally, we analysed the hypothetical relationship between SR and certain environmental factors, not just considering them as independent variables, but also including them as a whole factor, usually known as ‘windchill’ (WCh).Material and method: Nine male elite junior Laser 4.7 class athletes were included in this descriptive study. They were mo-nitored during the entire year of training and racing sessions, including national and international championships. Body mass changes as well as their food and fluid intake were measured for each sailor before and after sailing to estimate SR, absolute body mass change, and percentage body mass variation for all the sessions. Athletes were asked to maintain “ab libitum” fluid and food intake during the study. Environmental temperature, wind speed, and relative humidity were measured.Results: Significant differences (p = 0.012) were observed between training and racing sessions with respect to SR, 0.18 (± 0.14) L.h−1vs. 0.23 (± 0.12 L.h−1). Environmental temperature and WCh during racing showed an inverse relationship with SR.Discussion: This result suggests that increased fluid and food intake are required under cold weather conditions to maintain the ‘target’ weight during the competitions and improve performance. Resumen Introducción: Recientemente, algunos estudios han reportado diferencias en la tasa de sudoración (SR) en regatistas de clase láser (LC) bajo condiciones ambientales (EC) extremas. Este estudio pretende determinar una especie de “SR standard” en regatistas juveniles de Láser 4.7 bajo condiciones “no extremas”, con el objetivo de alcanzar una adecuada reposición de líquidos tanto para entrenamientos como en competición. Adicionalmente, se ha analizado una hipotética relación entre SR y los factores ambientales, considerándolos no únicamente como variables independientes, sino también como una variable compleja, conocida habitualmente como “sensación térmica” (WCh).Material y método: Nueve regatistas juveniles de Láser 4.7 han participado en este estudio descriptivo y prospectivo. Todos ellos han sido monitorizados durante todo un año de sesiones de entrenamiento y competición, incluyendo regatas nacio-nales como internacionales. Los cambios en la masa corporal, así como la ingesta de líquidos y sólidos han sido registrados de forma individual para cada regatista, antes y después de cada sesión para estimar la SR, los cambios totales en la masa corporal, así como las variaciones en el porcentaje de masa corporal. Se instó a los regatistas a ingerir comida y bebida “ab libidtum” a lo largo del estudio. La temperatura ambiental, la intensidad de viento y la humedad relativa fueron registradas.Resultados: Se observaron diferencias significativas (p = 0,012) para la SR entre los entrenos y las competiciones 0,18 (± 0,14) L.h−1vs. 0,23 (± 0,12 L.h−1). La temperatura ambiental y la WCh durante las competiciones mostraron además una relacióninversa con la SR.Discusión: Estos resultados sugieren que una mayor ingesta de líquidos y sólidos bajo condiciones de “frío ambiental” es necesaria para mantener el peso ideal, mejorando así el rendimiento durante la competición.

The outer epithelial layer of zebrafish retinae contains a crystalline array of cone photoreceptors, called the cone mosaic. As this mosaic grows by mitotic addition of new photoreceptors at the rim of the hemispheric retina, topological defects, called “Y-Junctions”, form to maintain approximately constant cell spacing. The generation of topological defects due to growth on a curved surface is a distinct feature of the cone mosaic not seen in other well-studied biological patterns like the R8 photoreceptor array in theDrosophilacompound eye. Since defects can provide insight into cell-cell interactions responsible for pattern formation, we characterize the arrangement of cones in individual Y-Junction cores as well as the spatial distribution of Y-junctions across entire retinae. We find that for individual Y-junctions, the distribution of cones near the core corresponds closely to structures observed in physical crystals. In addition, Y-Junctions are organized into lines, called grain boundaries, from the retinal center to the periphery. In physical crystals, regardless of the initial distribution of defects, grain boundaries can form via the mobility of individual particles. By imaging in live fish, we demonstrate that grain boundaries in the cone mosaic instead appear during initial mosaic formation, without requiring defect motion. Motivated by this observation, we show that a computational model of repulsive cell-cell interactions generates a mosaic with grain boundaries. In contrast to paradigmatic models of fate specification in mostly motionless cell packings, this study emphasizes the role of cell motion, guided by cell-cell interactions during differentiation, in forming biological crystals. Such a route to the formation of regular patterns may be especially valuable in situations, like growth on a curved surface, where long-ranged, elastic, effective interactions between defects can help to group them into grain boundaries.AUTHOR SUMMARYFrom hair cells in the mammalian inner ear to the bristles on a fly’s back, sensory cells often form precise arrays, ensuring that these cells are evenly spread out on the tissue’s surface. Here we consider the zebrafish cone mosaic, a crystal of cone photoreceptors in the outer retinal layer. Because the cone mosaic grows from the rim of the curved retinal surface, new rows of cones (i.e., defects) are inserted to maintain constant spacing between sensory cells. We study the spatial distribution of these defects to gain insight into how the cone pattern forms. By imaging retinae in live fish, we find that as differentiating cones are incorporated into the mosaic, defects form lines (grain boundaries) that separate mostly defect-free domains. Then, we show that a computational model based on repulsion between mobile cells during their incorporation into the mosaic generates similar grain boundaries. This study thus suggests that cell motion governed by repulsive cell-cell interactions can play an important role in establishing regular patterns in living systems.

CIPA (Control of Food Intake, Protein, and Anthropometry) nutritional screening is positive when one of the following conditions is met: Control of Food Intake for 48-72h50%; Albumin3g/dL, Body Mass Index18.5kg/mValidity of the CIPA screening tool in surgical inpatients by comparison with Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) and analysis of clinical outcomes.A prospective study of hospitalized surgical patients, evaluating the prevalence or risk of malnutrition through CIPA and SGA. Analysis of hospital malnutrition according to CIPA screening and association with the clinical outcomes of median length of stay, mortality and early readmission. Concordance between both screening methods by Kappa Index (κ), sensitivity (S) and specificity (SP).A total of 226 patients were analysed. The prevalence of malnutrition or risk of malnutrition was identified by CIPA in 35.40% and by SGA in 30.08%. CIPA is capable of detecting patients at a greater risk of mortality during hospitalization (5% vs. 0%, P=.006), unlike the SGA (2.94% vs. 1.27%, P=.385). CIPA also detected patients with higher median length of stay (21 days [IQR 14-34 days] vs. 14.5 days [IQR 9-27 days], P=.002) and rate of early readmissions (25.3% vs. 8.2%, P.001). S and SP of CIPA vs. SGA was 70.59% and 79.75%, respectively; Kappa index was 0.479 (P.001).Using CIPA nutritional screening, the prevalence and risk of malnutrition in surgical patients is high, and they present poorer clinical outcomes, making CIPA valid and effective in this type of patients.

Studies exploring gender differences in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are scarce and contradictory. This study evaluated gender differences in HRQOL of 744 PLWHA with median (IQR) age 44 (37-48) years and HIV infection diagnosed 12 (5-20) years earlier. Results showed important differences between genders (p < .05). Better male physical health was related to being employed, not having economic worries, not receiving psychological support, not having injected drugs in past, low negative mood HIV-related, low HIV illness representation and internalized stigma, and high body image satisfaction and health behavior. For women, variables were fewer years since HIV diagnosis and low enacted stigma-personal experience of rejection. Mentally, variables in men were being employed, not having injected drugs, having a stable partner, high health behavior, use of problem-solving coping, personal autonomy and personal meaning. In women, better mental health was related to high CD4 cells, self-esteem and body image satisfaction, and negative mood HIV-related. Men and women coincided in absence of past opportunistic infections being related to better physical and mental health, and absence of side effects for physical health and low HIV-related stress and HIV illness representation for mental health. Our results highlight the need for detailed study of gender differences that identify the bio-psycho-socio inequalities that affect HRQOL.

Studies exploring gender differences in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are scarce and contradictory. This study evaluated gender differences in HRQOL of 744 PLWHA with median (IQR) age 44 (37-48) years and HIV infection diagnosed 12 (5-20) years earlier. Results showed important differences between genders (p < .05). Better male physical health was related to being employed, not having economic worries, not receiving psychological support, not having injected drugs in past, low negative mood HIV-related, low HIV illness representation and internalized stigma, and high body image satisfaction and health behavior. For women, variables were fewer years since HIV diagnosis and low enacted stigma-personal experience of rejection. Mentally, variables in men were being employed, not having injected drugs, having a stable partner, high health behavior, use of problem-solving coping, personal autonomy and personal meaning. In women, better mental health was related to high CD4 cells, self-esteem and body image satisfaction, and negative mood HIV-related. Men and women coincided in absence of past opportunistic infections being related to better physical and mental health, and absence of side effects for physical health and low HIV-related stress and HIV illness representation for mental health. Our results highlight the need for detailed study of gender differences that identify the bio-psycho-socio inequalities that affect HRQOL.

Objetive: The aim of this study was to assess the relation between residential radon exposure and lung cancer risk in never smokers. Material and Methods: Multicentric, hospital-based, case-control study. Consecutive cases of lung cancer diagnosed in never smokers in 10 hospitals in the northwest of Spain were included. Controls were never smokers undergoing minor, non-oncologic surgery at the same hospitals. All participants were interviewed by trained personnel trhough a quiestionaire, focusing on risk factors for lung cancer. Residential radon at dwellings was measured using alpha-track detectors. Results: We included 322 cases (80,4% women) and 338 controls (77,8% women), median age:70. The most frequent hystologic type was adenocarcinoma (78.5%). Description of participants characteristics is shown in Table 1. Residential radon concentration was > 200 Bq/m3 in 45.3% of cases and 30.2% of controls. Individuals exposed to > 200 Bq/m3 showed an increased risk of lung cancer compared wih those exposed to Conclusions: Exposure to residential radon increases the risk of lung cancer in never smokers.