Publications

Biostimulants have become an asset for agriculture since they are a greener alternative to traditionally used plant protection products. Also, they have gained the farmers’ acceptance due to their effect on enhancing the plant’s natural defense system against abiotic stresses. Besides commercially available complex products, small molecule-based biostimulants are useful for industry and research. Among them, polyamines (PAs) are well-studied natural compounds that can elicit numerous positive responses in drought-stressed plants. However, the studies are merely focused on the vegetative development of the plant. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate how drenching with putrescine (Put) and spermidine (Spd) modified the maize production and the yield quality parameters. First, a dosage optimization was performed, and then the best PA concentrations were applied by drenching the maize plants grown under well-watered (WW) conditions or water deficit (WD). Different mechanisms of action were observed for Put and Spd regarding maize production, including when both PAs similarly improved the water balance of the plants. The application of Put enhanced the quality and quantity of the yield under WW and Spd under WD. Regarding the nutritional quality of the grains, both PAs increased the carbohydrates content, whereas the contribution to the protein content changed by the interaction between compound and growth conditions. The mineral content of the grains was also greatly affected by the water condition and the PA application, with the most relevant results observed when Spd was applied, ending with flour richer in Zn, Cu, and Ca minerals that are considered important for human health. We showed that the exogenous PA application could be a highly efficient biofortification approach. Our findings open a new exciting use to be studied deep in the biostimulant research.

Current understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes underlying island biodiversity is heavily shaped by empirical data from plants and birds, although arthropods comprise the overwhelming majority of known animal species, and as such can provide key insights into processes governing biodiversity. Novel high throughput sequencing (HTS) approaches are now emerging as powerful tools to overcome limitations in the availability of arthropod biodiversity data, and hence provide insights into these processes. Here, we explored how these tools might be most effectively exploited for comprehensive and comparable inventory and monitoring of insular arthropod biodiversity. We first reviewed the strengths, limitations and potential synergies among existing approaches of high throughput barcode sequencing. We considered how this could be complemented with deep learning approaches applied to image analysis to study arthropod biodiversity. We then explored how these approaches could be implemented within the framework of an island Genomic Observatories Network (iGON) for the advancement of fundamental and applied understanding of island biodiversity. To this end, we identified seven island biology themes at the interface of ecology, evolution and conservation biology, within which collective and harmonized efforts in HTS arthropod inventory could yield significant advances in island biodiversity research.

Long dismissed as the domain of hobbyists and obsessives, historical reenactment—the dramatization of past events using costumed actors and historical props—has only in recent years attracted serious attention from scholars. Drawing on examples from around the world, Historical Reenactment offers a fascinating, interdisciplinary exploration of this cultural phenomenon. With particular attention to reenactment’s social and pedagogical dimensions, it develops a robust definition of what the practice constitutes, considers what methodological approaches are most appropriate, and places it alongside museums and memorial sites as an object of analysis.

To investigate the relationship of ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure (AP) at patient discharge after an episode of acute heart failure (AHF) with very early post-discharge adverse outcomes. We analyzed 14,656 patients discharged after an AHF episode from 26 hospitals in 16 Spanish cities. The primary outcome was the 7-day post-discharge combined adverse event (emergency department –ED- revisit or hospitalization due to AHF, or all-cause death), and secondary outcomes were these three adverse events considered individually. Associations (adjusted for patient and demographic conditions, and length of stay -LOS- during the AHF index episode) of temperature and AP with the primary and secondary outcomes were investigated. We used restricted cubic splines to model the continuous non-linear association of temperature and AP with each endpoint. Some sensitivity analyses were performed. Patients were discharged after a median LOS of 5 days (IQR = 1–10). The highest temperature at discharge ranged from − 2 to 41.6 °C, and AP was from 892 to 1037 hPa. The 7-day post-discharge combined event occurred in 1242 patients (8.4%), with percentages of 7-day ED-revisit, hospitalization and death of 7.8%, 5.1% and 0.9%, respectively. We found no association between the maximal temperature and AP on the day of discharge and the primary or secondary outcomes. Similarly, there were no significant associations when the analyses were restricted to hospitalized patients (median LOS = 7 days, IQR = 4–11) during the index event, or when lag-1, lag-2 or the mean of the 3 post-discharge days (instead of point estimation) of ambient temperature and AP were considered. Temperature and AP on the day of patient discharge are not independently associated with the risk of very early adverse events during the vulnerable post-discharge period in patients discharged after an AHF episode.

Teneriffia quadripapillata Sig Thor, the type species of Teneriffia Sig Thor (1911), is redescribed from new material collected on Tenerife, the island which is the type locality in the Canary Islands. Sig Thor’s original material was apparently destroyed.

A direct, catalytic, and complementary method to obtain 2-substituted homoallyl sulfonyl amides is described, starting from sulfonyl amides, aldehydes, and allyltrimethylsilane using iron(III) chloride as a sustainable catalyst. The scope of the process and the reactivity in aza-Prins cyclization is evaluated and supported by density functional theory (DFT) studies. Finally, an evaluation of the antiproliferative activity for this family of sulfonyl amides is also included.

A new methodology for the synthesis of sevenmembered unsaturated azacycles (tetrahydroazepines) was developed. It is based on the powerful aza-Prins cyclization in combination with the Peterson-type elimination reaction. In a single reaction step, a C−N, C− C bond and an endocyclic double bond are formed. Under mild reaction conditions and using iron(III) salts as sustainable catalysts, tetrahydroazepines with different degrees of substitution are obtained directly and efficiently. DFT calculations supported the proposed mechanism.

A series of triazole linked tetrahydropyran–oxazole hybrids was synthesized based on a previously reported lead compound with selective antiproliferative activity against human tumour cell lines. The series was prepared to evaluate the impact of LogP and different modifications in the activity, and the new compounds were assayed against A549, HBL-100, HeLa, SW1573, T-47D, and WiDr cell lines. Also, the potentiality to be P-gp substrate was tested. The compounds exhibited good antiproliferative results when compared with the standards cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil. In silico studies to evaluate pharmacokinetic properties using pkCSM software were also carried out.

Wheat is the most important staple food worldwide, but wheat cultivation faces challenges from high food demand. Fertilizers are already in use to cope with the demand; however, more unconventional techniques may be required to enhance the efficiency of wheat cultivation. Nanotechnology offers one potential technique for improving plant growth and production by providing stimulating agents to the crop. In this study, plant-derived Ag/ZnO nanomaterials were characterized using UV-Vis spectroscopy, SEM, EDX, FTIR, and XRD methods. Various concentrations of phytogenically synthesized Ag/ZnO nanomaterials (20, 40, 60, and 80 ppm) and nitrogen-based fertilizers (urea and ammonium sulphate 50 and 100 mg/L) were applied to wheat varieties (Galaxy-13 and Pak-13). The results obtained from this research showed that application of 60 ppm Ag/ZnO nanomaterials with nitrogenous fertilizers (50 and 100 mg/L) were more effective in improving biochemistry and increasing yield of wheat plants by reducing enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants (proline content, soluble sugar content, malondialdehyde, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase); and significantly increasing the protein content, number of grains per pot, spike length, 100-grain weight, grain yield per pot, and harvest index of both wheat varieties, compared to untreated plants. These findings allow us to propose Ag/ZnO nanomaterial formulation as a promising growth- and productivity-improvement strategy for wheat cultivation.

Microbial resistance is a global health problem that will increase over time. Advances in insect antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) offer a powerful new approach to combat antimicrobial resistance. Invertebrates represent a rich group of animals for the discovery of new antimicrobial agents due to their high diversity and the presence of adaptive immunity or “immune priming”. Here, we report a priming approach for Tenebrio molitor that simulates natural infection via the oral route. This oral administration has the advantage of minimizing the stress caused by conventional priming techniques and could be a viable method for mealworm immunity studies. When using inactivated microorganisms for oral priming, our results showed an increased survival of T. molitor larvae after exposure to various pathogens. This finding was consistent with the induction of antimicrobial activity in the hemolymph of primed larvae. Interestingly, the hemolymph of larvae orally primed with Escherichia coli showed constitutive activity against Staphylococcus aureus and heterologous activity for other Gram-negative bacteria, such as Salmonella enterica. The priming of T. molitor is generally performed via injection of the microorganism. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the oral administration of heat-inactivated microorganisms for priming mealworms. This technique has the advantage of reducing the stress that occurs with the conventional methods for priming vertebrates.