Ethical decision-making of social workers in Spain during COVID-19: Cases and responses.

In this article we address the ethical decision-making processes of social work professionals in Spain during the first wave of COVID-19. We present some of the findings from a broader international research project led by professor Sarah Banks and carried out in collaboration with the The first wave of COVID-19 had a major impact in Spain, hitting harder the most vulnerable groups. In this unprecedented and unexpected context, social workers had to make difficult ethical decisions on fundamental issues such as respecting service-user's autonomy, prioritizing wellbeing, maintaining confidentiality or deciding the fair distribution of the scarce resources.

What Ethical Dilemmas Do Social Workers Face in the Healthcare Area in Spain?

The purpose of the article is to identify the types of ethical dilemmas that Spanish social workers face in the healthcare arena (health centers, hospitals and mental health). A quantitative methodology was chosen using the questionnaire prepared by Eileen J. Ain.

Unique spicules may confound species differentiation: taxonomy and biogeography of Carter, 1874 and two new related genera (Myxillidae: Poecilosclerida) from the Okhotsk Sea.

Sponges are amongst the most difficult benthic taxa to properly identify, which has led to a prevalence of cryptic species in several sponge genera, especially in those with simple skeletons. This is particularly true for sponges living in remote or hardly accessible environments, such as the deep-sea, as the inaccessibility of their habitat and the lack of accurate descriptions usually leads to misclassifications. However, species can also remain hidden even when they belong to genera that have particularly characteristic features.

Spatio-temporal monitoring of deep-sea communities using metabarcoding of sediment DNA and RNA.

We assessed spatio-temporal patterns of diversity in deep-sea sediment communities using metabarcoding. We chose a recently developed eukaryotic marker based on the v7 region of the 18S rRNA gene. Our study was performed in a submarine canyon and its adjacent slope in the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea, sampled along a depth gradient at two different seasons.

Deep-Sea, Deep-Sequencing: Metabarcoding Extracellular DNA from Sediments of Marine Canyons.

Marine sediments are home to one of the richest species pools on Earth, but logistics and a dearth of taxonomic work-force hinders the knowledge of their biodiversity. We characterized α- and β-diversity of deep-sea assemblages from submarine canyons in the western Mediterranean using an environmental DNA metabarcoding. We used a new primer set targeting a short eukaryotic 18S sequence (ca.

Sources of secondary metabolite variation in Dysidea avara (Porifera: Demospongiae): the importance of having good neighbors.

Several studies report temporal, geographical, and intra-individual variation in sponge metabolite yields. However, the internal and/or external factors that regulate the metabolite production remain poorly understood. Dysidea avara is a demosponge that produces sesquiterpenoids (avarol and derivatives) with interesting medical properties, which has prompted addressed studies to obtain enough amounts of these metabolites for research on drug discovery.

Sponge mass mortalities in a warming Mediterranean Sea: are cyanobacteria-harboring species worse off?

Mass mortality events are increasing dramatically in all coastal marine environments. Determining the underlying causes of mass mortality events has proven difficult in the past because of the lack of prior quantitative data on populations and environmental variables. Four-year surveys of two shallow-water sponge species, Ircinia fasciculata and Sarcotragus spinosulum, were carried out in the western Mediterranean Sea.

2'-phosphodiesterase and 2',5'-oligoadenylate synthetase activities in the lowest metazoans, sponge [porifera].

Sponges [porifera], the most ancient metazoans, contain modules related to the vertebrate immune system, including the 2',5'-oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS). The components of the antiviral 2',5'-oligoadenylate (2-5A) system (OAS, 2'-Phosphodiesterase (2'-PDE) and RNAse L) of vertebrates have not all been identified in sponges. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that in addition to the OAS activity, sponges possess a 2'-PDE activity, which highlights the probable existence of a premature 2-5A system.

Contrasting effects of heavy metals on sponge cell behavior.

Mediterranean coastal areas are highly contaminated by heavy metals, which have been reported to produce harmful effects in marine organisms. Sponges are particularly vulnerable to waterborne metals because they are able to process large amounts of water. Dissociated sponge cells can move in response to external stimuli, and the cell body changes shape through production of pseudopodia and phylopodia.