Publications

Provides detailed methods and results for data collection and analyses.

Abstract Acquisition of sensor data from tagged marine animals has always been a challenge. Presently, there are two extreme mechanisms to acquire marine data. For continuous data acquisition, hundreds of kilometers of optical fiber links are used which in addition to being expensive are impractical in certain circumstances. On the other extreme, data is retrieved in an offline and invasive manner after removing the sensor tag from the skin of the animal. This paper presents a semi-continuous method of acquiring marine data without requiring tags to be removed from the sea animal. Marine data is temporarily stored in the on board memory of the tag and is then automatically synced to floating receivers as soon as the animal rises to the water surface. To ensure effective wireless communication in an unpredictable environment, a quasi-isotropic antenna has been designed that works equally well irrespective of the orientation of the tagged animal. In contrast to existing rigid wireless devices, the tag presented in this work is flexible and thus convenient for mounting on marine animals. The tag has been initially tested in air as a standalone unit with a communication range of 120 m. During tests in water, with the tag mounted on the skin of a crab, a range of 12 m has been observed. In a system-level test, the muscle activity of a small giant clam (Tridacna maxima) has been recorded in real time via the non-invasive wireless tag.

Abstract The spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has triggered a global emergency, that demands urgent solutions for detection and therapy to prevent escalating health, social and economic impacts. The spike protein (S) of this virus enables binding to the human receptor ACE2, and hence presents a prime target for vaccines preventing viral entry into host cells 1 . The S proteins from SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 are similar 2 , but structural differences in the receptor binding domain (RBD) preclude the use of SARS-CoV-1–specific neutralizing antibodies to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 3 . Here we used comparative pangenomic analysis of all sequenced Betacoronaviruses to reveal that, among all core gene clusters present in these viruses, the envelope protein E shows a variant shared by SARS and SARS-Cov2 with two completely-conserved key functional features, an ion-channel and a PDZ-binding Motif (PBM). These features trigger a cytokine storm that activates the inflammasome, leading to increased edema in lungs causing the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) 4-6 , the leading cause of death in SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 infection 7,8 . However, three drugs approved for human use may inhibit SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 Protein E, either acting upon the ion channel (Amantadine and Hexamethylene amiloride 9,10 ) or the PBM (SB203580 5 ), thereby potentially increasing the survival of the host, as already demonstrated for SARS-CoV-1in animal models. Hence, blocking the SARS protein E inhibits development of ARDS in vivo . Given that our results demonstrate that the protein E subcluster for the SARS clade is quasi -identical for the key functional regions of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, we conclude that use of approved drugs shown to act as SARS E protein inhibitors can help prevent further casualties from COVID-2019 while vaccines and other preventive measures are being developed.

The management of coastal blue carbon ecosystems can contribute to mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. However, limited information on soil organic carbon (OC) decay rates in tidal marsh, mangrove and seagrass soils hinders their inclusion in climate strategies and carbon-crediting schemes. Here, we analyzed downcore OC trends in 3,733 soil cores from blue carbon ecosystems worldwide. A decrease in OC content with soil depth was measured in 63% of the cores, whereas stable and increasing trends were observed in 23% and 14% of the cores, respectively. Based on 75 profiles where OC decay could be modelled, the OC decay rate in blue carbon ecosystems was 0.024±0.002 yr-1 over the last 100 years and 0.007±0.0007 yr-1 over the last 1,000 years. This results in the stabilization of 9% and 0.1% of the soil OC inputs 100 and 1,000 yr after burial, respectively, showcasing the long residence time of OC in the sinks associated to blue carbon ecosystems. The models provided can inform baseline scenarios towards the implementation of carbon-crediting schemes.

Since the first alert launched by the World Health Organization (5 January, 2020), COVID-19 has been spreading out to over 180 countries and territories. As of June 18, 2020, in total, there are now over 8,400,000 cases and over 450,000 related deaths. This causes massive losses in the economy and jobs globally and confining about 58% of the global population. In this paper, we introduce SenWave, a novel sentimental analysis work using 105+ million collected tweets and Weibo messages to evaluate the global rise and falls of sentiments during the COVID-19 pandemic. To make a fine-grained analysis on the feeling when we face this global health crisis, we annotate 10K tweets in English and 10K tweets in Arabic in 10 categories, including optimistic, thankful, empathetic, pessimistic, anxious, sad, annoyed, denial, official report, and joking. We then utilize an integrated transformer framework, called simpletransformer, to conduct multi-label sentimental classification by fine-tuning the pre-trained language model on the labeled data. Meanwhile, in order for a more complete analysis, we also translate the annotated English tweets into different languages (Spanish, Italian, and French) to generated training data for building sentiment analysis models for these languages. SenWave thus reveals the sentiment of global conversation in six different languages on COVID-19 (covering English, Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic and Chinese), followed the spread of the epidemic. The conversation showed a remarkably similar pattern of rapid rise and slow decline over time across all nations, as well as on special topics like the herd immunity strategies, to which the global conversation reacts strongly negatively. Overall, SenWave shows that optimistic and positive sentiments increased over time, foretelling a desire to seek, together, a reset for an improved COVID-19 world.

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 52:99-106 (2008) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01216 Exploring the relationship between active bacterioplankton and phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean E. Ortega-Retuerta1,*, I. Reche1,2, E. Pulido-Villena3, S. Agustí4, C. M. Duarte4 1Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain 2Instituto del Agua, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain 3Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France 4Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats (IMEDEA) (CSIC-UIB), Miquel Marqués 21, 07190 Esporles, Illes Balears, Spain *Email: evaor@ugr.es ABSTRACT: Bacterioplankton are a heterogenous community composed of cells with different physiological states. The consideration of the active fraction of bacterioplankton as a potential factor affecting the strength of the relationship between bacteria and phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean was evaluated in waters around the Antarctic Peninsula. We estimated active bacterioplankton from uptake of 3H-Leucine (bacterial production [BP]) and using vital stains to estimate their proportion within the total bacterioplankton community, based on their relative nucleic acid content (high [HNA] vs. low [LNA]), and by nucleic acid double staining (NADS), based on their membrane permeability. Then we performed a comparative analysis between total and active bacterioplankton and chlorophyll a (chl a) in this area. Staining with NADS suggested that 61% of all bacteria were viable, a higher proportion of the total bacterial community than previously reported for the Southern Ocean. HNA bacteria comprised 45% of all bacteria, indicating that 16% of bacteria may be viable but with LNA. BP was more strongly related to abundance of LNA cells than NADS-viable or HNA bacteria. The relationship between chl a and bacterial abundance (BA) did not increase when considering the abundance of HNA or NADS-viable cells alone, showing that viability/activity of stains did not enhance the linkage between BA and phytoplankton biomass in the Southern Ocean. In contrast, the relationship between chl a and BP was stronger than those reported in the literature, suggesting that, in this region, BP is closely dependent on phytoplankton. KEY WORDS: Active bacteria · NADS · HNA · LNA · Bacterial production · Chlorophyll a · Southern Ocean Full text in pdf format PreviousCite this article as: Ortega-Retuerta E, Reche I, Pulido-Villena E, Agustí S, Duarte CM (2008) Exploring the relationship between active bacterioplankton and phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean. Aquat Microb Ecol 52:99-106. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01216 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 52, No. 1. Online publication date: July 10, 2008 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2008 Inter-Research.

Abstract The Red Sea is characterized by its high seawater temperature and salinity, and the resilience of its coastal ecosystems to global warming is of growing interest. This high salinity and temperature might also render the Red Sea a favorable ecosystem for calcification and therefore resistant to ocean acidification. However, there is a lack of survey data on the CO 2 system of Red Sea coastal ecosystems. A 1‐year survey of the CO 2 system was performed in a seagrass lagoon, a mangrove forest, and a coral reef in the central Red Sea, including fortnight seawater sampling and high‐frequency pH T monitoring. In the coral reef, the CO 2 system mean and variability over the measurement period are within the range of other world's reefs with pH T , dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TA), p CO 2, and Ω arag of 8.016±0.077, 2061±58 μmol/kg, 2415±34 μmol/kg, 461±39 μatm, and 3.9±0.4, respectively. Here, comparisons with an offshore site highlight dominance of calcification and photosynthesis in summer‐autumn, and dissolution and heterotrophy in winter‐spring. In the seagrass meadow, the pH T , DIC, TA, p CO 2 , and Ω arag were 8.00±0.09, 1986±68 μmol/kg, 2352±49 μmol/kg, 411±66 μatm, and 4.0±0.3, respectively. The seagrass meadow TA and DIC were consistently lower than offshore water. The mangrove forest showed the highest amplitudes of variation, with pH T , DIC, TA, p CO 2 , and Ω arag , were 7.95±0.26, 2069±132 μmol/kg, 2438±91 μmol/kg, 493±178 μatm, and 4.1±0.6, respectively. We highlight the need for more research on sources and sinks of DIC and TA in coastal ecosystems.

Objetivos: El presente estudio describe las características clínicas y epidemiológicas de las pacientes con cáncer de mama a quienes se les aplicó la técnica del ganglio centinela en el Servicio de Seno y Tejidos Blandos del Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (INC), en 10 años de experiencia.Métodos:Serie de casos de pacientes con diagnóstico de cáncer de mama temprano en estadios 0-IIB (T3N0M0), a quienes se les realizó la técnica. A partir de registros de los servicios de Patología, Medicina Nuclear y Cirugía de Seno y Tejidos Blandos del INC, se realizó la captura de datos aplicando un cuestionario previamente elaborado. Resultados: Se tomaron en cuenta 289 casos; las técnicas usadas incluyeron: radio coloides (Tecnecio 99) en 256 casos; colorante, en 5; y ambas técnicas, en los 28 restantes. El ganglio centinela fue identificado en 283 casos, con una tasa de detección del 98,0%. En carcinoma invasor, el tamaño tumoral promedio fue 2,2 cm (DE 1,1). En promedio, fueron resecados 1,5 ganglios (0,99 DE); de estos casos, 85 (30%) fueron metastásicos. Hubo 24 eventos adversos; el más común fue la formación de seroma. La media de seguimiento fue de 647 días (DE 693 días); el porcentaje de pacientes libres de enfermedad al seguimiento, del 94,4%; hubo recaída axilar en 1 paciente.Conclusiones: Según los autores de la experiencia descrita, la técnica de ganglio centinela es segura, pues permite una estadificación adecuada de la axila. Las características tumorales del ganglio centinela en la población objeto de estudio guardan similitud con las reportadas en la literatura mundial.