Age and sex differences in pharmaceutical contamination in a keystone scavenger.

Pharmaceutical contaminants have a recognized negative impact on wildlife health. However, there are still many knowledge gaps on the factors influencing exposure and metabolic processing of compound mixtures as a function of season and individual characteristics such as age and sex. We evaluated age and sex differences in a set of seventeen compounds, including eleven antibiotics, five NSAIDs and caffeine, evaluated by HPLC-MS-TOF analysis in griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) from central Spain. Pharmaceutical cocktails (up to 10 compounds simultaneously) were found in all individuals. Lincomycin was detected in all individuals, and fluoroquinolones were found at high frequencies, while NSAIDs were at low frequencies and concentrations, including flumixin meglumine, which can be lethal to vultures. A higher total number of compounds and sum of concentrations, as well as prevalence and concentration of several of the pharmaceuticals tested was found in females than in males for both nestlings and adults. This is the first study to present evidence of sex differences in the pharmacokinetics of dietary drug contaminants in a vulture species. Chronic exposure to "medications" in entire populations can potentially have sub-lethal health effects that affect fitness differently according to age and sex, with demographic implications for population viability. Specifically, if females have higher mortality after fledging due to high pharmaceutical contamination, this should be considered when modelling the population dynamic of this species for conservation purposes.

Host space, not energy or symbiont size, constrains feather mite abundance across passerine bird species.

Comprehending symbiont abundance among host species is a major ecological endeavour, and the metabolic theory of ecology has been proposed to understand what constrains symbiont populations. We parameterized metabolic theory equations to investigate how bird species' body size and the body size of their feather mites relate to mite abundance according to four potential energy (uropygial gland size) and space constraints (wing area, total length of barbs and number of feather barbs). Predictions were compared with the empirical scaling of feather mite abundance across 106 passerine bird species (26,604 individual birds sampled), using phylogenetic modelling and quantile regression. Feather mite abundance was strongly constrained by host space (number of feather barbs) but not by energy. Moreover, feather mite species' body size was unrelated to the body size of their host species. We discuss the implications of our results for our understanding of the bird-feather mite system and for symbiont abundance in general.

Interspecific differences in plasma carotenoid profiles in nestlings of three sympatric vulture species.

Carotenoids are diet-based micronutrients important in health and coloration signaling. Related species with similar diets can differ in the kinds and levels of circulating carotenoids, which suggests specific physiological mechanisms to efficiently utilize these micronutrients, regardless of their availability. We explored whether diet and parental provisioning of unusual sources of carotenoids (fresh vegetal matter and vertebrate feces) can explain the occurrence and concentrations of carotenoids in the cinereous vulture Aegypius monachus, griffon vulture Gyps fulvus, and Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus nestlings, even when these pigments appear to not be deposited in their integumentary system. A greater diversity of wild prey in diet could be behind the profile of higher concentrations of carotenoids in the Egyptian vulture, the species with carotenoid-dependent coloration during adulthood, while differences in diet composition between cinereous and griffon vultures do not translate to different carotenoid profiles. The carotenoid profile appears to not be related to the ingestion of unusual matter rich in these compounds, although the infrequent occurrence of lycopene and unidentified γ-carotene-like compounds suggest that these vultures may be exploiting vegetal matter that left no identifiable unconsumed remains in the nest of Egyptian vultures. The consumption of green plant material by griffon vultures does not result in especially high levels of carotenoids when compared to the carotenoids found in cinereous vultures, which do not consume green plant material. Ungulate feces were not provisioned to Egyptian vulture nestlings, despite the fact they contain carotenoids that adults need for appropriate coloration. Overall, this study indicates that diet differences alone appear insufficient to explain contrasting interspecific carotenoid profiles, especially since all types of food consumed are considered to be poor in carotenoids, except vegetable matter. We suggest that nestling Egyptian vultures are comparatively efficient in uptaking carotenoids present in low concentrations in food when these compounds are not deposited in their integument, which suggests allocation to other functions.

Nesting innovations in neotropical parrots associated to anthropogenic environmental changes.

Parrots are among the most diverse and widely distributed groups of birds and one of the most threatened bird orders mainly due to habitat loss and illegal poaching. Most parrots are obligate cavity nesters, so the logging of mature trees and the transformation of natural cliffs represent important threats to their conservation. Here, we report novel observations of Neotropical parrots nesting in previously unrecorded substrates. We show the first documented case of the cliff-nesting burrowing parrots trying to breed at ground level in an abandoned burrowing owl cavity. Additionally, we provide the first documented observations of this species attempting to nest in building cavities in three urbanized areas of Argentina. Moreover, we report data from four countries of 148 pairs of eight species typically breeding in tree cavity using palm tree bracts as nest sites. Behavioral plasticity in nest sites may allow parrots to maximize their nesting success by exploiting alternative breeding substrates. Moreover, these novelties could contribute to cope with habitat loss and further transformation. However, further research is needed to assess the consequences of these nesting innovations in terms of individual fitness and population dynamics as well as potential factors promoting their appearance.

A multilayered graph-based framework to explore behavioural phenomena in social media conversations.

OBJECTIVE: Social media is part of current health communications. This research aims to delve into the effects of social contagion, biased assimilation, and homophily in building and changing health opinions on social media. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Conversations about COVID-19 vaccination on English and Spanish Twitter are the case studies. A new multilayered graph-based framework supports the integrated analysis of content similarity within and across posts, users, and conversations to interpret contrasting and confluent user stances. Deep learning models are applied to infer stance. Graph centrality and homophily scores support the interpretation of information reproduction. RESULTS: The results show that semantically related English posts tend to present a similar stance about COVID-19 vaccination (rstance = 0.51) whereas Spanish posts are more heterophilic (rstance = 0.38). Neither case showed evidence of homophily regarding user influence or vaccine hashtags. Graph filters for Pfizer and Astrazeneca with a similarity threshold of 0.85 show stance homophily in English scenarios (i.e. rstance = 0.45 and rstance = 0.58, respectively) and small homophily in Spanish scenarios (i.e. r = 0.12 and r = 0.3, respectively). Highly connected users are a minority and are not socially influential. Spanish conversations showed stance homophily, i.e. most of the connected conversations promote vaccination (rstance = 0.42), whereas English conversations are more likely to offer contrasting stances. CONCLUSION: The methodology proposed for quantifying the impact of natural and intentional social behaviours in health information reproduction can be applied to any of the main social platforms and any given topic of conversation. Its effectiveness was demonstrated by two case studies describing English and Spanish demographic and sociocultural scenarios.

Insularity determines nestling sex ratio variation in Egyptian vulture populations.

Variation in offspring sex ratio, particularly in birds, has been frequently studied over the last century, although seldom using long-term monitoring data. In raptors, the cost of raising males and females is not equal, and several variables have been found to have significant effects on sex ratio, including food availability, parental age, and hatching order. Sex ratio differences between island populations and their mainland counterparts have been poorly documented, despite broad scientific literature on the island syndrome reporting substantial differences in population demography and ecology. Here, we assessed individual and environmental factors potentially affecting the secondary sex ratio of the long-lived Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus. We used data collected from Spanish mainland and island populations over a ca. 30-year period (1995-2021) to assess the effects of insularity, parental age, breeding phenology, brood size, hatching order, type of breeding unit (pairs vs. trios), and spatial and temporal variability on offspring sex ratio. No sex bias was found at the population level, but two opposite trends were observed between mainland and island populations consistent with the island syndrome. Offspring sex ratio was nonsignificantly female-biased in mainland Spain (0.47, n = 1112) but significantly male-biased in the Canary Islands (0.55, n = 499), where a male-biased mortality among immatures could be compensating for offspring biases and maintaining a paired adult sex ratio. Temporal and spatial variation in food availability might also have some influence on sex ratio, although the difficulties in quantifying them preclude us from determining the magnitude of such influence. This study shows that insularity influences the offspring sex ratio of the Egyptian vulture through several processes that can affect island and mainland populations differentially. Our research contributes to improving our understanding of sex allocation theory by investigating whether sex ratio deviations from parity are possible as a response to changing environments comprised by multiple and complexly interrelated factors.

Adaptive phenotypic and genomic divergence in the common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) following niche expansion within a small oceanic island.

According to models of ecological speciation, adaptation to adjacent, contrasting habitat types can lead to population divergence given strong enough environment-driven selection to counteract the homogenizing effect of gene flow. We tested this hypothesis in the common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) on the small island of La Palma, Canary Islands, where it occupies two markedly different habitats. Isotopic (δ13 C, δ15 N) analysis of feathers indicated that birds in the two habitats differed in ecosystem and/or diet, and analysis of phenotypic traits revealed significant differences in morphology and plumage colouration that are consistent with ecomorphological and ecogeographical predictions respectively. A genome-wide survey of single-nucleotide polymorphism revealed marked neutral structure that was consistent with geography and isolation by distance, suggesting low dispersal. In contrast, loci putatively under selection identified through genome-wide association and genotype-environment association analyses, revealed amarked adaptive divergence between birds in both habitats. Loci associated with phenotypic and environmental differences among habitats were distributed across the genome, as expected for polygenic traits involved in local adaptation. Our results suggest a strong role for habitat-driven local adaptation in population divergence in the chaffinches of La Palma, a process that appears to be facilitated by a strong reduction in effective dispersal distances despite the birds' high dispersal capacity.

Nestling sex ratio is unaffected by individual and population traits in the griffon vulture.

Variation in offspring sex ratios is a central topic in animal demography and population dynamics. Most studies have focused on bird species with marked sexual dimorphism and multiple-nestling broods, where the offspring sex ratio is often biased due to different individual or environmental variables. However, biases in offspring sex ratios have been far less investigated in monomorphic and single-egg laying species, and few studies have evaluated long-term and large-scale variations in the sex ratio of nestling vultures. Here, we explore individual and environmental factors potentially affecting the secondary sex ratio of the monomorphic griffon vulture Gyps fulvus. We used information collected at three breeding nuclei from central Spain over a 30-year period (1990-2020) to analyse the effects of nestling age, parental age, breeding phenology, conspecific density, population reproductive parameters, and spatial and temporal variability on nestling sex. Sex ratio did not differ from parity either at the population or the nuclei level. No significant between-year differences were detected, even under highly changing conditions of food availability associated with the mad-cow crisis. We found that tree nesting breeders tend to have more sons than daughters, but as this nesting behavior is rare and we consequently have a small sample size, this issue would require additional examination. Whereas further research is needed to assess the potential effect of breeder identity on nestling sex ratio, this study contributes to understanding the basic ecology and population dynamics of Griffon Vultures, a long-lived species with deferred maturity and low fecundity, whose minor deviations in the offspring sex ratio might imply major changes at the population level.

Oral disease is linked to low nestling condition and brood size in a raptor species living in a highly modified environment.

Anthropogenic stressors can favor the occurrence of noninfectious disease that can be worsened by the impact of opportunistic pathogens, making the epizootiology of environmental diseases difficult to unravel. The incidence and impact of oral lesions in nestlings of a facultative scavenger species, the black kite Milvus migrans, were examined over seven breeding seasons in the highly degraded environment close to Madrid, Spain. We found an overall prevalence of 31% of nestlings with oral lesions, with no clear spatial pattern in nests with affected and unaffected individuals. The occurrence and number of oral lesions were negatively associated with nestling body condition and brood size. Broods, where all siblings had oral lesions, were smaller than those where some or all siblings were apparently healthy, suggesting that oral disease could be causing nestling mortality and, consequently, brood size reduction. In turn, nestling body condition was negatively affected by lesion occurrence, brood size, and laying date. Although these relationships were bidirectional, piecewise structural equation modeling analyses showed a greater negative effect of body condition on lesion occurrence than vice versa, indicating that nestlings in poorer body condition were more likely to develop oral lesions (which could contribute to aggravate their state of deterioration) than those in better condition. Nestlings from small broods were also more likely to have oral disease (directly or indirectly through their lower body condition) than nestlings from large broods. Nestlings that hatched last in the broods showed greater development stress than those that hatched first. Anthropogenic stressors could trigger poor body condition, and contribute to microbiota dysbiosis-related diseases. Although further research is needed to determine the consequences for the long-term fitness of individuals, actions should be taken to mitigate adverse conditions that may favor the appearance of environmental diseases associated with peri-urban areas, given their rapid expansion over natural areas.

Infección por virus linfotrópico de células T humanas: Síndrome de Sezary asociado a paraparesia espástica tropical apropósito de un caso / Human T-cell lymphotropic virus infection: Sezary syndromeassociated with tropical spastic paraparesis: a case report

El virus linfotrópico de células T humanas tipo 1(HTLV-1, por sus siglas en inglés) es parte de la familia de los Retroviridae, perteneciente al género de los Delta retrovirus, está compuesto por una envoltura lipídica, obtenida de la célula huésped, en la superficie expresa proteínas transmembrana que le permite el anclaje e internalización por endocitosis al citoplasma celular. En su interior cuenta con una hebra de ARN de cadena simple en sentido positivo, además de las enzimas integrasa y transcriptasa inversa que forman la núcleo cápside icosaédrica. El virus linfotrópico de células T humanas está ampliamente distribuido a nivel mundial. Existen múltiples vías de transmisión (Transmisión vertical, interacciones sexuales, transfusiones sanguíneas, uso de drogas ilícitas endovenosas y el contacto de fluidos cargados de viriones con las mucosas). El 90% de los pacientes expuestos no desarrollaran síntomas, pero existe un 10% de los pacientes que desarrollaran el cuadro clínico. El HTLV-1 se asocia a dos cuadros clínicos bien establecidos: la paraparesia espática tropical y el linfoma cutáneo-T-leucemia de células T. Al ser inusual, presentándose en 1 de cada 100.000 habitantes, se discute el caso de una paciente femenina de 63 años de edad, con antecedentes de acalasia corregida quirúrgicamente, quien consulta con cuadro clínico de 2 meses de duración, caracterizado por debilidad progresiva simétrica en miembros inferiores que le impide la deambulación, incontinencia urinaria, lesiones cutáneas extensas y la presencia de hiperleucocitosis con más de 20% de blastos en sangre periférica, se realiza inmunofenotipo expresando que el 85% de linfocito T neoplásicos, resultando en leucemia de células T o síndrome de Sezary, posteriormente se confirma el diagnóstico al realizar Elisa de cuarta generación positivo para HTLV-1(AU)

The human T-cell lymphotropic virus is part of the Retroviridae family, belonging to the Delta retrovirus genus, thisvirus is composed of a lipid envelope, obtained from the hos tcell, on the surface it expresses transmembrane proteins that allow it to anchor and internalization by endocytosis into the cell cytoplasm. Inside it has a single-stranded RNA strand the positive direction, in addition to the enzymes integrase andreverse transcriptase that form the icosahedral nucleo capsid. Human T-cell T-cell lymphotrophic virus is widely distribute dworldwide. There are multiple routes of transmission (vertical transmission, sexual interactions, blood transfusions, use of intravenous illicit drugs and contact of virion-laden fluidswith mucous membranes). 90% of exposed patients will not develop symptoms, but there is 10% of patients who will develop the clinical picture, HTLV-1 is associated with twowell-established clinical pictures: tropical spastic paraplegia and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. T-cell leukemia. As it is unusual, occurring in 1 out of every 100,000 inhabitants, the caseof a 63-year-old female patient with a history of surgically corrected achalasia is discussed, who consults with a clinical picture of 2 months duration, characterized due to progressive symmetrical weakness in the lower limbs that prevent walking, urinary incontinence, extensive skin lesions and the presence of hyperleukocytosis with more than 20% of blasts in peripheralblood, an immunophenotype is performed, expressing that 85% of neoplastic T lymphocytes, resulting in (T-cell leukemia) Sesary syndrome, diagnosis is later confirmed by performing afourth generation Elisa positive for HT LV-1(AU)

Domestic Waste and Wastewaters as Potential Sources of Pharmaceuticals in Nestling White Storks (Ciconia ciconia).

Information on the exposure of wild birds to pharmaceuticals from wastewater and urban refuse is scarce despite the enormous amount of drugs consumed and discarded by human populations. We tested for the presence of a battery of antibiotics, NSAIDs, and analgesics in the blood of white stork (Ciconia ciconia) nestlings in the vicinity of urban waste dumps and contaminated rivers in Madrid, central Spain. We also carried out a literature review on the occurrence and concentration of the tested compounds in other wild bird species to further evaluate possible shared exposure routes with white storks. The presence of two pharmaceutical drugs (the analgesic acetaminophen and the antibiotic marbofloxacin) out of fourteen analysed in the blood of nestlings was confirmed in 15% of individuals (n = 20) and in 30% of the nests (n = 10). The apparently low occurrence and concentration (acetaminophen: 9.45 ng mL-1; marbofloxacin: 7.21 ng mL-1) in nestlings from different nests suggests the uptake through food acquired in rubbish dumps rather than through contaminated flowing water provided by parents to offspring. As with other synthetic materials, different administration forms (tablets, capsules, and gels) of acetaminophen discarded in household waste could be accidentally ingested when parent storks forage on rubbish to provide meat scraps to their nestlings. The presence of the fluoroquinolone marbofloxacin, exclusively used in veterinary medicine, suggests exposure via consumption of meat residues of treated animals for human consumption found in rubbish dumps, as documented previously at higher concentrations in vultures consuming entire carcasses of large livestock. Control measures and ecopharmacovigilance frameworks are needed to minimize the release of pharmaceutical compounds from the human population into the environment.

Large-scale movement patterns in a social vulture are influenced by seasonality, sex, and breeding region.

Quantifying space use and segregation, as well as the extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting them, is crucial to increase our knowledge of species-specific movement ecology and to design effective management and conservation measures. This is particularly relevant in the case of species that are highly mobile and dependent on sparse and unpredictable trophic resources, such as vultures. Here, we used the GPS-tagged data of 127 adult Griffon Vultures Gyps fulvus captured at five different breeding regions in Spain to describe the movement patterns (home-range size and fidelity, and monthly cumulative distance). We also examined how individual sex, season, and breeding region determined the cumulative distance traveled and the size and overlap between consecutive monthly home-ranges. Overall, Griffon Vultures exhibited very large annual home-range sizes of 5027 ± 2123 km2, mean monthly cumulative distances of 1776 ± 1497 km, and showed a monthly home-range fidelity of 67.8 ± 25.5%. However, individuals from northern breeding regions showed smaller home-ranges and traveled shorter monthly distances than those from southern ones. In all cases, home-ranges were larger in spring and summer than in winter and autumn, which could be related to difference in flying conditions and food requirements associated with reproduction. Moreover, females showed larger home-ranges and less monthly fidelity than males, indicating that the latter tended to use the similar areas throughout the year. Overall, our results indicate that both extrinsic and intrinsic factors modulate the home-range of the Griffon Vulture and that spatial segregation depends on sex and season at the individual level, without relevant differences between breeding regions in individual site fidelity. These results have important implications for conservation, such as identifying key threat factors necessary to improve management actions and policy decisions.

Cuantificar el uso y la segregación del espacio, así como los factores extrínsecos e intrínsecos que los afectan, es crucial para aumentar nuestro conocimiento de la ecología de movimientos de cada especie y diseñar medidas eficaces de gestión y conservación. Esto es especialmente relevante en el caso de especies con gran movilidad y dependientes de recursos tróficos escasos e impredecibles, como son los buitres. En este trabajo se utilizaron datos GPS de 127 buitres leonados Gyps fulvus adultos capturados en cinco regiones de cría diferentes en España para describir los patrones de movimiento (tamaño y fidelidad del área de campeo y distancia acumulada mensual). También examinamos cómo el sexo, la estación del año y la región de cría determinaban la distancia acumulada recorrida y el tamaño y solapamiento entre áreas de campeo mensuales consecutivas. En conjunto, los buitres leonados mostraron un área de campeo anual muy extensa de 5027 ± 2123 km2, una distancia acumulada mensual media de 1776 ± 1497 km y una fidelidad mensual al área de campeo del 67.8 ± 25.5%. Sin embargo, los individuos de las regiones de cría más septentrionales mostraron áreas de campeo más pequeñas y recorrieron distancias mensuales más cortas que los de las más meridionales. En todos los casos, las áreas de campeo fueron mayores en primavera y verano que en otoño e invierno, lo que podría estar relacionado con las diferencias en las condiciones de vuelo y las necesidades tróficas asociadas a la reproducción. Además, las hembras mostraron mayores áreas de campeo y menor fidelidad mensual que los machos, lo que indica que estos últimos tienden a utilizar zonas similares durante todo el año. En conjunto, nuestros resultados indican que tanto los factores extrínsecos como los intrínsecos modulan el área de campeo del buitre leonado y que la segregación espacial depende del sexo y de la estación a nivel individual, sin que existan diferencias relevantes entre las regiones de cría en cuanto a la fidelidad individual al lugar. Estos resultados podrían tener importantes implicaciones para la conservación, como la identificación de los principales factores necesarios para mejorar las medidas de gestión y las decisiones políticas.

Losartan impairs HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast migration through inhibition of angiotensin II-induced pro-inflammatory profile in human endometrial stromal cells.

A deep interaction between the endometrium and the invading trophoblast occurs during implantation in humans, with the acquisition of uterine receptivity to the invading embryo promoted by an elevation of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the endometrium, and the invasiveness of decidualizing endometrial stromal cells, augmented by trophoblast-derived signals. Considering that usage of angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor blockers, among other renin-angiotensin system (RAS) antagonists, is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, here we aim to analyse the involvement of AT1 receptor in the reciprocal dialogue occurring between endometrial stroma and trophoblast cells. In human endometrial stromal cells (T-HESC) pre-incubated with a decidualization cocktail, angiotensin (Ang) II increased protein expression of prolactin and FOXO1, markers of endometrial decidualization, while promoting nuclear translocation of FOXO1. In addition, Ang II treatment increased CXCL8, and matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-2 levels in T-HESC. Incubation with the AT1 receptor blocker losartan or with an NFAT signalling inhibitor, decreased Ang II-induced secretion of prolactin, CXCL8, and MMP-2 in T-HESC. In a wound healing assay, conditioned medium (CM) obtained from Ang II-treated T-HESC, but not CM from losartan-pre-incubated T-HESC, increased migration of HTR-8/SVneo trophoblasts, effect that was inhibited in the presence of a CXCL8-neutralizing antibody. An increased secretion of CXCL8 and MMP-2 was observed after treatment of T-HESC with CM obtained from HTR-8/SVneo cells, which was not observed in T-HESC pre-incubated with losartan or with the NFAT inhibitor. This study evidenced a reciprocal RAS-coded messaging between trophoblast and ESC which is affected by the AT1 receptor blocker losartan.

Optimism and pessimism analysis using deep learning on COVID-19 related twitter conversations.

This paper proposes a new deep learning approach to better understand how optimistic and pessimistic feelings are conveyed in Twitter conversations about COVID-19. A pre-trained transformer embedding is used to extract the semantic features and several network architectures are compared. Model performance is evaluated on two new, publicly available Twitter corpora of crisis-related posts. The best performing pessimism and optimism detection models are based on bidirectional long- and short-term memory networks. Experimental results on four periods of the COVID-19 pandemic show how the proposed approach can model optimism and pessimism in the context of a health crisis. There is a total of 150,503 tweets and 51,319 unique users. Conversations are characterised in terms of emotional signals and shifts to unravel empathy and support mechanisms. Conversations with stronger pessimistic signals denoted little emotional shift (i.e. 62.21% of these conversations experienced almost no change in emotion). In turn, only 10.42% of the conversations laying more on the optimistic side maintained the mood. User emotional volatility is further linked with social influence.

Owl-like plaques of the Copper Age and the involvement of children.

In the Copper Age, slate engraved plaques were produced massively in the southwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Researchers have speculated about the function of these palm-sized stone objects for more than a century, although most have favored the idea that they represented goddesses, and served ritual purposes. The plaques are engraved with different designs of varying complexity. In some of them, the ones sporting two large frontal eyes, we clearly see owls modelled after two species present in the area: the little owl (Athene noctua), and the long-eared owl (Asio otus). These two species, living in semi-open habitats, were possibly the most abundant owls around the human settlements and surrounding cultivated fields of the Chalcolithic period. People must have been aware of the owl presence and possibly interacted with them. Why owls but no other animals have been the models may relate to the fact they are the most anthropomorphic of all animals, with large frontally-placed eyes in their enormous heads. In the iconography, owls are systematically represented, even today, with their two eyes staring at the observer, as opposed to the lateral view used for any other animal. Additionally, slate is one of the commonest surface rocks in southwestern Iberia, and it provides a blank canvas for engraving lines using pointed tools made of flint, quartz or copper. The way slates exfoliate makes easy to craft owl-looking plaques. To silhouette animals other than owls in a recognizable way would request extra carving abilities and specific tools. Plaque manufacture and design were simple and did not demand high skills nor intensive labor as demonstrated in replication experiments. Owl engravings could have been executed by youngsters, as they resemble owls painted today by elementary school students. This also suggests that schematic drawings are universal and timeless. We propose that the owl-like slate plaques are the remains of a set of objects used in both playful activities and in ritual ceremonies. The actual engraving of the plaques may have been part of the game. Owlish slate plaques were often perforated twice at the top. We interpret this as insertion points for actual bird feathers added to the plaques, right at the place where tufts emerge in live owls. The frontier among play and ritual is diffuse in liminal societies and there is no contradiction in playing with animal-like toys and, at some point, using them as offerings as part of community rituals related, for instance, to the colossal megalithic tombs so characteristic of the Copper Age.

Novel food resources and conservation of ecological interactions between the Andean Araucaria and the Austral parakeet.

In fragile ecosystems, the introduction of exotic species could alter some ecological processes. The Austral parakeet (Enicognathus ferrugineous) shows close ecological and evolutionary relationships with the Andean Araucaria (Araucaria araucana), so any alteration in these interactions may have negative consequences for both partners and for ecosystem functioning and structure. We conducted extensive roadside surveys to estimate the abundance of parakeets in the northern Patagonian Andes over 4 years and recorded the food plants consumed by foraging flocks. The use of native habitats and humanized areas like villages and farms was influenced by the Araucaria seed crop. In masting years, the large seed crop allowed a massive use of this resource during the non-breeding season, and even during the breeding season. The exploitation of exotic plants was minor in the masting year, but became predominant in non-masting years, especially during the non-breeding season. This feeding switch towards exotic plants primarily arose because the low Araucaria seed crop in non-masting years is entirely consumed just after production by domestic and wild exotic mammals living in Araucaria forests year-round, thus forcing the displacement of parakeets towards anthropic habitats to exploit exotic plants. Given the degradation of the remaining Andean Araucaria forests due to the impact of exotic mammals on the ecological interaction between Araucaria and Austral parakeets, ambitious programs to exclude or reduce the density of these alien mammals, including livestock, are warranted.

Metabolic plasticity in blast crisis-chronic myeloid leukaemia cells under hypoxia reduces the cytotoxic potency of drugs targeting mitochondria.

Metabolic reprogramming (MR) influences progression of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) to blast crisis (BC), but metabolic programs may change transiently in a second dimension (metabolic plasticity, MP), driven by environments as hypoxia, affecting cytotoxic potency (CPot) of drugs targeting mitochondria or mitochondria-related cell stress responses (MRCSR) such as mitophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis. We assessed mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), mitochondrial mass (MM), apoptosis, glucose uptake (GU), and CPot of arsenic trioxide (ATO), CCCP, valproic acid (VPA), vincristine (VCR), Mdivi1, and dichloroacetic acid (DCA) in CML BC cells K562 (BC-K562) under hypoxia through flow cytometry, and gene expression from GEO database. About 60% of untreated cells were killed after 72 h under hypoxia, but paradoxically, all drugs but ATO rescued cells and increased survival rates to almost 90%. Blocking mitophagy either with VCR or Mdivi1, or increasing mitochondrial biogenesis with VPA enhanced cell-survival with increased MM. DCA increased MM and rescued cells in spite of its role in activating pyruvate dehydrogenase and Krebs cycle. Cells rescued by DCA, VPA and CCCP showed decreased GU. ATO showed equal CPot in hypoxia and normoxia. MP was evidenced by differential expression of genes (DEG) under hypoxia related to Krebs cycle, lipid synthesis, cholesterol homeostasis, mitophagy, and mitochondrial biogenesis (GSE144527). A 25-gene MP-signature of BC-K562 cells under hypoxia identified BC cases among 113 transcriptomes from CML patients (GSE4170). We concluded that hypoxic environment drove a MP change evidenced by DEG that was reflected in a paradoxical pro-survival, instead of cytotoxic, effect of drugs targeting mitochondria and MRCSR.