Publications by authors named "Ballesteros E"

The assemblages of motile and sessile macroinvertebrates [mainly arthropods (peracarids), mollusks and annelids] were studied in three shallow macroalgal habitats from the NW Mediterranean Sea. Habitats were respectively dominated by three macroalgae: Ericaria mediterranea, a canopy-forming fucoid with repeatedly ramified cylindrical branches and spine-like projections; Cystoseira compressa, a canopy-forming fucoid with occasionally ramified compressed branches; and Ellisolandia elongata, a turf-forming, repeatedly branched, geniculate calcified alga. A total of 175,800 macroinvertebrate specimens, belonging to 228 taxa were collected.

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Treatment decisions in the context of severe aortic stenosis (AS) associated with other valvular heart diseases (VHDs) have become a major challenge in recent years. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in AS has increased significantly in younger patients with lower surgical risk, which has complicated the choice of the best treatment in cases of other associated valvulopathies. The most frequently associated lesions in this clinical scenario are mitral regurgitation (MR), mitral stenosis, and tricuspid regurgitation (TR).

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Seagrasses are marine flowering plants that create critical coastal ecosystems and are threatened by warming. Clonal expansion is generally the dominant strategy for meadow recovery, while sexual reproduction strongly differs among species (e.g.

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Background: Preoperative staging of rectal lesions for transanal endoscopic surgery (TES) comprises digital rectal examination, intraoperative rigid rectoscopy (IRR), endorectal ultrasound (EUS), colonoscopy and rectal magnetic resonance imaging (rMRI). The gold standard for topographic features is IRR.

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Global environmental change drives diversity loss and shifts in community structure. A key challenge is to better understand the impacts on ecosystem function and to connect species and trait diversity of assemblages with ecosystem properties that are in turn linked to ecosystem functioning. Here we quantify shifts in species composition and trait diversity associated with ocean acidification (OA) by using field measurements at marine CO vent systems spanning four reef habitats across different depths in a temperate coastal ecosystem.

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Intramyocardial dissecting hematoma (IDH), in the setting of an acute coronary syndrome, is a rare type of cardiac rupture. However, the best treatment for IDH in each clinical scenario is not clearly defined. We present a case in which the best approach for IDH and its final outcome are discussed.

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Introduction: Cardiogenic shock is associated with high in-hospital morbidity and mortality. Improvements in this care process could lead to better outcomes.

Methods: This retrospective study of patients with cardiogenic shock compared two periods: no specific program to address cardiogenic shock and implementation of a cardiogenic shock program.

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Marine fjords along the northern Labrador coast of Arctic Canada are influenced by freshwater, nutrients, and sediment inputs from ice fields and rivers. These ecosystems, further shaped by both Atlantic and Arctic water masses, are important habitats for fishes, marine mammals, seabirds, and marine invertebrates and are vital to the Labrador Inuit who have long depended on these areas for sustenance. Despite their ecological and socio-cultural importance, these marine ecosystems remain largely understudied.

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Benzophenones (BPs) absorb different sun radiation wavelengths, making them effective UVA and UVB filters, widely used in industry. In Europe, sunscreen products contain regulated amounts (6 % w/w) of benzophenone-3 (BP-3), usually combined with other filters like octocrylene. BPs are mutagens in UV radiation, and octocrylene may degrade into BPs, making their monitoring crucial.

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In Mediterranean rocky shores, the black sea urchin is often associated with communities dominated by encrusting corallines, devoid of fleshy algae. While it is commonly known as a diurnal herbivore, this species also migrates at night from hidden to more exposed habitats. Here, we provide the first experimental evidence of an adjustment to a predominant nocturnal behaviour in a population of .

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Dairy products can be contaminated by parabens and phenolic compounds from a vast variety of sources, such as packaging and manufacturing processes, or livestock through feed and environmental water. A two-step continuous solid-phase extraction (SPE) and purification methodology was developed here for the determination of both types of compounds. In the first step, a sample extract is passed in sequence through an EMR-lipid sorbent and an Oasis PRiME HBL sorbent to remove fat and preconcentrate the analytes for subsequent detection and quantification by UHPLC-MS/MS.

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Cancer and its treatments affect cardiovascular (CV) health, including an increased risk of CV death, decreased cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and cardiac dysfunction. Moreover, cancer-related fatigue and worse quality of life (QoL) are highly prevalent adverse effects experienced by patients during treatment and can persist years after therapy ends. Physical exercise has been proposed as a strategy to improve different aspects of life of cancer patients, and is recommended as a therapy in cardio-oncology guidelines.

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Background: Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a prevalent condition inside valvular heart disease (VHD) with relevant prognosis implications. However, concordance between real management in clinical practice and invasive treatment recommendations of European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines is unknown.

Methods: A substudy of ESC VHD II survey was performed to evaluate the real treatment of TR compared to the clinical ESC guidelines recommendations published in 2012, 2017 and 2021 was performed.

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The kelp forests of southern Patagonia have a large diversity of habitats, with remote islands, archipelagos, peninsulas, gulfs, channels, and fjords, which are comprised of a mixture of species with temperate and sub-Antarctic distributions, creating a unique ecosystem that is among the least impacted on Earth. We investigated the distribution, diversity, and abundance of marine macroinvertebrate assemblages from the kelp forests of southern Patagonia over a large spatial scale and examined the environmental drivers contributing to the observed patterns in assemblage composition. We analyzed data from 120 quantitative underwater transects (25 x 2 m) conducted within kelp forests in the southern Patagonian fjords in the Kawésqar National Reserve (KNR), the remote Cape Horn (CH) and Diego Ramírez (DR) archipelagos of southern Chile, and the Mitre Peninsula (MP) and Isla de los Estados (IE) in the southern tip of Argentina.

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Food safety can be severely compromised by the presence of chemical contaminants. This has raised a pressing need to develop efficient analytical methods for their determination at very low levels in complex food matrices. In this manuscript, we developed a simple, sensitive, fast, green analytical method for the determination of thirteen natural and synthetic hormones from different families including progestogens, estrogens and androgens in meat and fish products.

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As invasive species spread, the ability of local communities to resist invasion depends on the strength of biotic interactions. Evolutionarily unused to the invader, native predators or herbivores may be initially wary of consuming newcomers, allowing them to proliferate. However, these relationships may be highly dynamic, and novel consumer-resource interactions could form as familiarity grows.

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Osa Peninsula in remote southwest Costa Rica harbors 2.5% of global terrestrial biodiversity in only 1,200 km2 and has the largest remaining tract of Pacific lowland wet forest in Mesoamerica. However, little is known about the marine ecosystems of this diverse region.

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The left atrium (LA) plays a vital role in maintaining normal cardiac function. Many cardiac diseases involve the functioning of the LA directly or indirectly. For this reason, the study of the LA has become a priority for today's imaging techniques.

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The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused millions of deaths worldwide. However, most SARS-CoV-2 detection methods depend on time-consuming sample preparation and large detection instruments. Herein, a method employing nonbleeding pH paper to achieve both RNA extraction and visual isothermal amplification is proposed, enabling rapid, instrument-free SARS-CoV-2 detection.

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic has put an unprecedented strain on cancer care. The initial months were marred by fears of immunocompromised patients becoming opportunistic hosts to this deadly virus. We present a case of newly diagnosed high-grade B-cell lymphoma in a patient with COVID-19 and discuss the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges posed.

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Over recent decades, steroidal estrogens have become an emerging and very serious issue as they pose a serious threat to living organisms, soil, plants, and water resources in general. Estrogens have therefore been the subject of considerable scientific attention in order to develop new methodologies for its determination, being able of detecting them at very low concentrations. Those procedures minimize or eliminate the consumption of organic solvents and reagents that may be incompatible with the environment.

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Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been classified as priority pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Commission on the grounds of their carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic properties.

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Rapid and sensitive detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is critical for early diagnostics and timely medical treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, current detection methods typically rely on expensive and bulky instrumentation. Here, we developed a simple, sensitive, instrument-free, CRISPR-based diagnostics of SARS-CoV-2 using a self-contained microfluidic system.

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Global change is striking harder and faster in the Mediterranean Sea than elsewhere, where high levels of human pressure and proneness to climate change interact in modifying the structure and disrupting regulative mechanisms of marine ecosystems. Rocky reefs are particularly exposed to such environmental changes with ongoing trends of degradation being impressive. Due to the variety of habitat types and associated marine biodiversity, rocky reefs are critical for the functioning of marine ecosystems, and their decline could profoundly affect the provision of essential goods and services which human populations in coastal areas rely upon.

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