The influence of aridity on plant intraspecific chemical diversity supports adaptive differentiation and convergent evolution.

Plants synthesize a broad array of specialized chemical compounds that mediate their interactions with the surrounding environment. Some of this chemical diversity is functional and subject to natural selection, but the factors underlying chemical evolution at the intraspecific level remain largely unknown. Here, we combined chemical, environmental and genetic data to investigate the effect of aridity on the expression of chemotypes in the invasive shrub Senecio pterophorus.

Effectiveness and Safety of Postoperative Hospital at Home for Surgical Patients: A Cohort Study.

Objective: To determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a Hospital at Home (HaH) enabled early transfer pathways for surgical patients.

Background: HaH serves as a safe alternative to traditional hospitalization by providing acute care to patients in their homes through a comprehensive range of hospital-level interventions. To our knowledge, no studies have been published to date reporting a large cohort of early home-transferred patients after surgery through a HaH unit.

Hospital at home treatment with remdesivir for patients with COVID-19: real-life experience.

Objectives: Access and appropriateness of therapeutics for COVID-19 vary because of access or regulatory barriers, the severity of the disease, and for some therapies, the stage of the pandemic and circulating variants. Remdesivir has shown benefits in clinical recovery and is the treatment of choice for selected patients, both hospitalized and nonhospitalized, in main international guidelines. The use of remdesivir in alternatives to conventional hospitalization such as hospital at home (HaH) units remains incompletely explored.

Chronic pithomycotoxicosis associated with obstructive rhinopathy in sheep.

Pithomycotoxicosis (facial eczema) is a seasonal hepatogenous photosensitization of sheep caused by the ingestion of sporidesmin contained in the spores of the fungus . We describe 4 cases of obstructive rhinopathy associated with chronic pithomycotoxicosis naturally occurring in the north of Spain. Sheep were 5 to 7 years old and Latxa breed.

Evaluation of Pirfenidone and Nintedanib in a Human Lung Model of Fibrogenesis.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive, fatal lung disease with a poor prognosis and increasing incidence. Pirfenidone and nintedanib are the only approved treatments for IPF but have limited efficacy and their mechanisms of action are poorly understood. Here we have examined the effects of pirfenidone and nintedanib in a human model of lung fibrogenesis, and compared these with the putative anti-fibrotic compounds Lipoxin A4 (LXA4), and senicapoc, a K3.

Detection of aluminium hydroxide-induced granulomas in sheep by computed tomography: A feasible approach for small ruminant lentiviruses diagnosis and research.

Aluminium (Al) hydroxide use as adjuvant induces local formation of long-lasting subcutaneous granulomas in sheep. Macrophages within these granulomas have been identified as a new small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV) replication site in naturally infected animals. Diagnosis of Al hydroxide-induced granulomas in sheep is mostly based on postmortem observations but little information is available on in vivo detection.

Mildly toxic shrubs as indicators of goats herbivory give information for the management of natural landscapes on Mediterranean islands.

Herbivory of insular plant communities by introduced animals has been widely studied for decades. Though their diet mainly includes palatable and highly nutritive species, goats will also eat plants that are toxic to other animals. Thus, severe affection of toxic species may indicate high herbivore pressure or a low quality of vegetative food.

Highly Species-Specific Foliar Metabolomes of Diverse Woody Species and Relationships with the Leaf Economics Spectrum.

Plants show an extraordinary diversity in chemical composition and are characterized by different functional traits. However, relationships between the foliar primary and specialized metabolism in terms of metabolite numbers and composition as well as links with the leaf economics spectrum have rarely been explored. We investigated these relationships in leaves of 20 woody species from the Mediterranean region grown as saplings in a common garden, using a comparative ecometabolomics approach that included (semi-)polar primary and specialized metabolites.

TGFβ1 induces resistance of human lung myofibroblasts to cell death via down-regulation of TRPA1 channels.

Background And Purpose: TGFβ1-mediated myofibroblast activation contributes to pathological fibrosis in many diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), where myofibroblast resistance to oxidant-mediated apoptosis is also evident. We therefore investigated the involvement of redox-sensitive TRPA1 ion channels on human lung myofibroblasts (HLMFs) cell death and TGFβ1-mediated pro-fibrotic responses.

Experimental Approach: The effects of TGFβ1 stimulation on TRPA1 expression and cell viability was studied in HLMFs derived from IPF patients and non-fibrotic patients.

Hospital at home for the management of COVID-19: preliminary experience with 63 patients.

Alternatives to conventional hospitalization are needed to increase health systems resilience in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. Herein, we describe the characteristics and outcomes of 63 patients admitted to a single HaH during the peak of COVID-19 in Barcelona. Our results suggest that HaH seems to be a safe and efficacious alternative to conventional hospitalization for accurately selected patients with COVID-19.

Traumatic Tympanic Bulla Fracture in a Cat With Severe Head Trauma.

A nine-year-old male European shorthair cat was referred to our practice with severe head trauma after suffering a road traffic accident (RTA). The patient presented marked facial swelling and multiple skin wounds and bruising, inspiratory dyspnea, palpable mandibular and maxillary fractures, serosanguinolent oronasal discharge and right eye exophthalmos and buphthalmos with loss of menace and pupillary reflex. After stabilizing the patient, a CT scan was performed under general anesthesia and an oesophagostomy tube was placed.

Impact of a Topical Anaesthesia Wound Management Formulation on Pain, Inflammation and Reduction of Secondary Infections after Tail Docking in Lambs.

We examined several procedures for surgical tail docking; with and without general anaesthesia (GA), including the use of a topical wound gel formulation to provide pain relief (PR) and improve healing after surgery, containing local anaesthetics lignocaine and bupivacaine, with cetrimide and adrenalin. Forty-four lambs were recruited into four equal cohorts: Groups A and C, the tail was excised with a scalpel without anaesthesia or stitches; Groups B and D, the tail was surgically excised and stitched under GA; Groups C and D wounds were immediately sprayed with PR. Behavioural observations identified that Groups A and C displayed significantly less pain-related behaviours than Groups B and D shortly after the procedure, especially if treated with PR.

Pilot study for cystic fibrosis neonatal screening: the Cuban experience.

Background In Cuba, no screening program for cystic fibrosis (CF) has been implemented yet. The ultramicro enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (UMELISA)® TIR NEONATAL has been developed for the measurement of immunoreactive trypsin (IRT) in dried blood spots on filter paper. The analytical performance of the kit was evaluated in the national network of laboratories.

Evaluation of UMELISA® T4 NEONATAL and UMELISA® T4 using polystyrene plates coated with anti-thyroxine (T4) monoclonal antibodies.

Unlabelled: Congenital hypothyroidism is one of the most common preventable causes of mental retardation. The Center of Immunoassay has developed the UMELISA® T4 NEONATAL and UMELISA® T4 to determine neonatal T4 levels in dried blood and serum samples. Both reagent kits use the same polystyrene plates coated with anti-thyroxine (T4) polyclonal antibodies as solid phase.

Diversity of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in native and invasive Senecio pterophorus (Asteraceae): implications for toxicity.

Changes in plant chemical defenses after invasion could have consequences on the invaded ecosystems by modifying the interactions between plants and herbivores and facilitating invasion success. However, no comprehensive biogeographical studies have yet determined the phenotypic levels of plant chemical defenses, as consumed by local herbivores, covering large distributional areas of a species. Senecio pterophorus is a perennial shrub native to Eastern South Africa, expanded into Western South Africa and introduced into Australia and Europe.

Reduced seed predation after invasion supports enemy release in a broad biogeographical survey.

The Enemy Release (ER) hypothesis predicts an increase in the plant invasive capacity after being released from their associated herbivores or pathogens in their area of origin. Despite the large number of studies on biological invasions addressing this hypothesis, tests evaluating changes in herbivory on native and introduced populations and their effects on plant reproductive potential at a biogeographical level are relatively rare. Here, we tested the ER hypothesis on the South African species Senecio pterophorus (Asteraceae), which is native to the Eastern Cape, has expanded into the Western Cape, and was introduced into Australia (>70-100 years ago) and Europe (>30 years ago).

Newborn screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia in Cuba: six years of experience.

Background: Since 2005, a newborn screening program for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) by measuring 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) in dried blood spots was introduced in Cuba.

Methods: The hormone was measured by the 17OHP Neonatal UMELISA method, in samples collected on the 5th day as average. Confirmatory test was performed to those neonates with 17OHP values above 55 nmol/l.

The conserved factor DE-ETIOLATED 1 cooperates with CUL4-DDB1DDB2 to maintain genome integrity upon UV stress.

Plants and many other eukaryotes can make use of two major pathways to cope with mutagenic effects of light, photoreactivation and nucleotide excision repair (NER). While photoreactivation allows direct repair by photolyase enzymes using light energy, NER requires a stepwise mechanism with several protein complexes acting at the levels of lesion detection, DNA incision and resynthesis. Here we investigated the involvement in NER of DE-ETIOLATED 1 (DET1), an evolutionarily conserved factor that associates with components of the ubiquitylation machinery in plants and mammals and acts as a negative repressor of light-driven photomorphogenic development in Arabidopsis.

Methylphenidate in depersonalization disorder: a case report.

The symptom of depersonalization is frequently associated with other mental disorders, physiological effects of substances or medical diseases. However, it is rare that, as in the case presented, the experiences of depersonalization form an isolated entity, a primary depersonalization disorder. Among the many psychoactive drugs studied, none of them has been shown to be the treatment of choice.

Quantitative ultramicrotest for newborn screening of galactosemia in Cuba.

Background: To describe a simple, rapid, quantitative ultramicrotest (UMTEST) based on the fluorometric method introduced by Fujimura et al. adapted to an Ultra Micro Analytic System (SUMA) for the detection of total galactose (GAL) in dried blood specimens.

Methods: The assay uses 3 mm discs of dried blood on Whatman 903 filter paper and small volumes of each reagent.

det1-1-induced UV-C hyposensitivity through UVR3 and PHR1 photolyase gene over-expression.

Obligate photoautotrophs such as plants must capture energy from sunlight and are therefore exposed to the damaging collateral effects of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, especially on DNA. Here we investigated the interconnection between light signaling and DNA repair, two concomitant pathways during photomorphogenesis, the developmental transition associated with the first light exposure. It is shown that combination of an enhanced sunscreen effect and photoreactivation confers a greater level of tolerance to damaging UV-C doses in the constitutive photomorphogenic de-etiolated1-1 (det1--1) Arabidopsis mutant.

A functional connection between the clock component TOC1 and abscisic acid signaling pathways.

The hormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates the stress signals crucial for plant tolerance to adverse environmental conditions. The circadian clock also uses environmental cues for appropriate timing of plant physiology and metabolism. Despite previous studies showing the connections between ABA and clock signalling pathways, the molecular nodes underlying these connections remained unknown.

Recovery of ventricular function with a left ventricular axial pump in a patient with end-stage toxic cardiomyopathy not a candidate for heart transplantation: first experience in Spain.

Background: Toxic cardiomyopathies are rare and the most frequent cause are anthracycline compounds. Early acute toxicity can be reversible, but at present the only effective therapy for late end-stage anthracycline cardiomyopathy seems to be a heart transplantation. Currently, this transplantation is contraindicated in cases of cancer, at least during the first 4 or 5 years.