The agricultural sector faces a series of environmental challenges such as water and soil pollution, erosion or biodiversity loss, especially in monoculture systems. Alternatively, crop ...diversification is seen as an option to reduce negative impacts and to enhance agricultural Ecosystem Services (ES). Most of these ES, such as improving resilience, despite the benefits and the high social value, do not take part in the market. In this context, the present paper presents an analysis of social preferences regarding crop diversification practices in Mediterranean agroecosystems. To do so, a choice experiment has been developed to assess social demand for more welfare-improving agricultural cropping systems. Benefits were obtained from improving environmental and cultural ES provision due to intercropping, as crop diversification practices. The results show a strong social preference for crop diversification with regard to all the benefits considered in the experiment. In fact, the total economic value for non-market goods and services provided by intercropping, which ranges from 900 to 1400 €/ha/year, for some crops might be potentially higher than cropland financial benefits. These results highlight the social support for a change in agricultural model to reach sustainable agroecosystems, which is essential to ensure the success of agrarian and rural development policies.
•Social demand of Ecosystem Services provided by intercropping practices on irrigated agroecosystem is estimated.•Biodiversity, erosion, carbon balance, cultural heritage and diverse landscape are the Ecosystem Services flows valued.•Non-market diversification benefits could become higher than market benefits in some agroecosystems.•Environmental and social intercropping benefits overcome the current agri-environmental Common Agricultural Policy payments.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study evaluated 1-year safety and efficacy outcomes of corneal stroma cell therapy. Therapy consisted of implanting autologous adipose-derived adult stem cells (ADASc) with or without sheets of ...decellularized donor human corneal stroma within the stroma of patients with advanced keratoconus.
This was a prospective interventional non-randomized series of cases.
Fourteen consecutive patients were selected and divided into 3 experimental groups. Group A patients underwent implantation of autologous ADASc alone (3 × 106 cells/1 mL) (n = 5). Group B patients received decellularized donor 120-μm-thick corneal stroma lamina alone (n = 5). Group C patients had implantation of recellularized donor lamina with 1 × 106 autologous ADASc plus another 1 × 106 cells/1 mL at the time of the surgery (n = 4). Autologous ADASc were obtained by elective liposuction. Implantation was performed in the corneal stroma through a femtosecond-assisted 9.5-mm diameter lamellar dissection with the patient under topical anesthesia. Twelve months of follow-up data are presented.
No complications were observed during the 1-year follow-up, and full corneal transparency was recovered within 3 months in all patients. No patient lost lines of visual acuity. Corrected distance visual acuity improved 0.231, 0.264, and 0.094 Snellen lines in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. In group 1, refractive parameters showed an overall stability, whereas in groups 2 and 3, sphere improved 2.35 diopter (D) and 0.625 D, respectively. Anterior keratometry remained stable (group 1) and improved in groups 2 and 3 (mean improvement of 2D). Corneal aberrometry improved significantly. In optical coherence tomography scans, corneal thickness showed a mean improvement of 14.5 μm (group 1) and 116.4 μm (groups 2 and 3) in the central thickness, and new collagen production was observed at the surgical plane (group 1). Confocal biomicroscopy confirmed the host recellularization of the implanted laminas.
Intrastromal implantation of autologous ADASc and decellularized human corneal stroma did not show complications at 1 year of follow-up and were moderately effective for the treatment of advanced keratoconus. NOTE: Publication of this article is sponsored by the American Ophthalmological Society.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This phase 1 study seeks to preliminarily evaluate the safety and efficacy of decellularized human corneal stromal lamina transplantation with or without autologous adipose-derived adult stem cell ...recellularization within the corneal stroma of patients with advanced keratoconus.
Phase 1 clinical trial.
Femtosecond-assisted 120-μm thickness and 9-mm diameter laminas were obtained from the anterior stroma of human donor corneas and decellularized with a sodium dodecyl sulfate solution. Autologous adipose-derived adult stem cells were obtained by elective liposuction and cultured onto both sides of the lamina. Five patients received the decellularized lamina alone and 4 patients the recellularized lamina into a femtosecond-assisted 9.5-mm diameter lamellar pocket under topical anesthesia. The total duration of follow-up was 6 months.
No case showed clinical haze or scarring by month 3. Six months after surgery, patients showed a general improvement of all visual parameters, with a mean unaided visual acuity from 0.109 to 0.232 (P = .05) and corrected distance visual acuity from 0.22 to 0.356 (P = .068). Refractive sphere improved in all patients (from −4.55 diopters D to −2.69 D; P = .017), but refractive cylinder remained stable (from −2.83 to −2.61; P = .34). An improvement tendency of all anterior keratometric values was observed. A mean improvement of 120 μm in all thickness parameters was confirmed (P = .008), as well as an improvement in the spherical aberration (P = .018), coma (P = .23) and total higher order aberrations (P = .31). No significant differences among groups were detected.
Decellularized human corneal stromal laminas transplantation seems safe and moderately effective for advanced keratoconus. Potential benefits of its recellularization with autologous adipose-derived adult stem cells remains unclear.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonosis causing important economic loss and a public health problem. Small ruminants are the preferred hosts of Brucella melitensis and thus the main source of human ...infections. Effective control of sheep and goat brucellosis has been achieved in several countries through vaccination with the live‐attenuated B. melitensis Rev1 vaccine. However, Rev1 induces a long‐lasting serological response that hinders the differentiation between infected and vaccinated animals. A Rev1::gfp strain expressing constitutively the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) was built by stable insertion of a mini‐Tn7‐gfp in the glmS‐recG non‐codifying chromosomal region. An associated indirect ELISA‐GFP was developed to identify anti‐GFP antibodies in vaccinated animals. The resulting Rev1::gfp kept the biological properties of the Rev1 reference strain, including residual virulence and efficacy in mice, and was readily distinguished from Rev1 and other Brucella field strains by direct visualization under ultraviolet illumination, fluorescence microscopy and a multiplex PCR‐GFP. The Rev1::gfp strain did not elicit anti‐GFP antibodies itself in lambs but when applied in combination with recombinant GFP induced an intense and long‐lasting (>9 months) anti‐GFP serological response readily detectable by the ELISA‐GFP. Overall, our results confirm that Rev1 GFP‐tagging can be a suitable alternative for identifying vaccinated sheep in infected contexts.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The role of wildlife as a brucellosis reservoir for humans and domestic livestock remains to be properly established. The aim of this work was to determine the aetiology, apparent prevalence, spatial ...distribution and risk factors for brucellosis transmission in several Iberian wild ungulates.
A multi-species indirect immunosorbent assay (iELISA) using Brucella S-LPS antigen was developed. In several regions having brucellosis in livestock, individual serum samples were taken between 1999 and 2009 from 2,579 wild bovids, 6,448 wild cervids and4,454 Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa), and tested to assess brucellosis apparent prevalence. Strains isolated from wild boar were characterized to identify the presence of markers shared with the strains isolated from domestic pigs.
Mean apparent prevalence below 0.5% was identified in chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica), Iberian wild goat (Capra pyrenaica), and red deer (Cervus elaphus). Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), fallow deer (Dama dama), mouflon (Ovis aries) and Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) tested were seronegative. Only one red deer and one Iberian wild goat resulted positive in culture, isolating B. abortus biovar 1 and B. melitensis biovar 1, respectively. Apparent prevalence in wild boar ranged from 25% to 46% in the different regions studied, with the highest figures detected in South-Central Spain. The probability of wild boar being positive in the iELISA was also affected by age, age-by-sex interaction, sampling month, and the density of outdoor domestic pigs. A total of 104 bacterial isolates were obtained from wild boar, being all identified as B. suis biovar 2. DNA polymorphisms were similar to those found in domestic pigs.
In conclusion, brucellosis in wild boar is widespread in the Iberian Peninsula, thus representing an important threat for domestic pigs. By contrast, wild ruminants were not identified as a significant brucellosis reservoir for livestock.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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•One hundred and seventy farmers were interviewed in a region of southeast Spain.•Farmers were asked about diffuse pollution mitigation measures and their willingness to be ...compensated.•The perceived and real costs of the measures are compared by cost effectiveness ratios.•The policy should take into account the differences between crops, impact of the measures and farmers' aptitude.
Diffuse water pollution is a major problem in many agroecosystems, especially in irrigated areas linked to ecosystems of high ecological value. Pollution abatement policies imply the modification of agricultural measures and are usually rejected by farmers because of their impact on farm profitability. This paper aims to design an assessment procedure for an implementation programme of agricultural measures aimed at mitigating diffuse pollution, by combining relative effectiveness across measures with the perceived and real cost of the measures. Measures proposed by a law intended to mitigate diffuse pollution and thereby the degradation of the Mar Menor lagoon, a unique natural space in the southeast of Spain, have been used as a case study. The real cost was obtained from the market, and the perceived cost of the measures was obtained from a representative sample of the farmers involved. This work has allowed comparative real and perceived evaluations of the cost-effectiveness of the proposed measures to prioritise them and to reduce information bias, aimed to favours measures adoption. Results show that banning crops less than 100 m from the coast is the most cost-effective measure, followed by the adoption of a nitrate reduction system in desalinated effluent. Divergences between real and perceived cost-effectiveness indicates that good agricultural practices code adoption would require specific actions to reduce these subjective gap. Finally, increasing the acceptability of the policy would imply translating to the farmers information required to reduce the gap between real and perceived cost of the specific agricultural measures.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Rapid and specific identification of
Brucella suis at the biovar level is necessary because some of the biovars that infect animals are pathogenic for humans. None of the molecular typing methods ...described so far are able to discriminate
B. suis biovars in a single test and differentiation of
B. suis from
Brucella canis by molecular approaches can be difficult. This article describes a new multiplex PCR assay, Suis-ladder, for fast and accurate identification of
B. suis at the biovar level and the differentiation of
B. suis,
B. canis and
Brucella microti. An advancement of the original Bruce-ladder PCR protocol which allows the correct discrimination of all known
Brucella species is also described.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
To report the 3-year clinical outcomes of corneal stromal cell therapy consisting of the intrastromal implantation with autologous adipose-derived adult stem cells (ADASCs), and decellularized or ...ADASC-recellularized human donor corneal laminas in advanced keratoconus.
Fourteen patients were enrolled in 3 experimental groups. Group 1 (G-1) patients underwent implantation of ADASCs alone (3 × 106 cells/1 mL) (n = 5). Group 2 (G-2) patients received a 120-μm decellularized corneal stroma lamina (n = 5). Group 3 (G-3) patients received a 120-μm lamina recellularized with ADASCs (1 × 106 cells/1 mL) (n = 4). ADASCs were obtained by elective liposuction. Implantation was performed into a femtosecond pocket under topical anesthesia.
At 3 years, a significant improvement of 1 to 2 logMAR lines in uncorrected distance visual acuity was observed in all groups. A statistically significant decrease in corrected distance visual acuity was obtained in G-2 and G-3 (P < 0.001) when compared with that of G-1. Rigid contact lens distance visual acuity showed a statistically significant worsening in G-2 (P < 0.001) compared with that of G-1. A statistically significant increase in central corneal thickness was observed in G-2 (P = 0.012) and G-3 (P < 0.001); in the Scheimpflug corneal topography, the thinnest point was observed in G-2 (P = 0.007) and G-3 (P = 0.001) when compared with that of G-1.
Intrastromal implantation of ADASCs and decellularized or ADASC-recellularized human corneal stroma laminas did not have complications at 3 years. The technique showed a moderate improvement in (uncorrected distance visual acuity) and (corrected distance visual acuity) in advanced keratoconus.
Acquired generalized lipodystrophy (AGL) is a rare condition characterized by an altered distribution of adipose tissue and predisposition to develop hepatic steatosis and fibrosis, diabetes, and ...hypertriglyceridemia. Diagnosis of AGL is based on the observation of generalized fat loss, autoimmunity and lack of family history of lipodystrophy. The pathogenic mechanism of fat destruction remains unknown but evidences suggest an autoimmune origin. Anti-adipocyte antibodies have been previously reported in patients with AGL, although their involvement in the pathogenesis has been poorly studied and the autoantibody target/s remain/s to be identified. Using a combination of immunochemical and cellular studies, we investigated the presence of anti-adipocyte autoantibodies in patients with AGL, acquired partial lipodystrophy, localized lipoatrophy due to intradermic insulin injections or systemic lupus erythematosus. Moreover, the impact of anti-adipocyte autoantibodies from AGL patients was assessed in cultured mouse preadipocytes. Following this approach, we identified anti-perilipin 1 IgG autoantibodies in the serum of patients with autoimmune variety-AGL, but in no other lipodystrophies tested. These autoantibodies altered the ability of perilipin 1 to regulate lipolysis in cultured preadipocytes causing abnormal, significantly elevated basal lipolysis. Our data provide strong support for the conclusion that perilipin 1 autoantibodies are a cause of generalized lipodystrophy in these patients.
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