CLSoilMaps: A national soil gridded database of physical and hydraulic soil properties for Chile.

Spatially explicit soil information is crucial for comprehending and managing many of Earth´s processes related to carbon, water, and other biogeochemical cycles. We introduced a gridded database of soil physical properties and hydraulic parameters at 100 meters spatial resolution. It covers the continental area of Chile and binational basins shared with Argentina for six standardized depths following the specifications of the GlobalSoilMap project. We generated soil maps based on digital soil mapping techniques based on more than 4000 observations, including unpublished data from remote areas. These maps were used as input for the pedotransfer function Rosetta V3 to obtain predictions of soil hydraulic properties, such as field capacity, permanent wilting point, total available water capacity, and other parameters of the water retention curve. The trained models outperformed several other DSM studies applied at the national and regional scale for soil physical properties (nRMSE ranging from 6.93% to 15.7%) and delivered acceptable predictions (nRMSE ranging from 10.4% to 15.6%) for soil hydraulic properties, making them suitable for countless environmental studies.

Actualización de resultados demográficos y terapéuticos de pacientes con Leucemia Mieloide Aguda no promielocítica en el Hospital Clínico de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile / Acute myeloid leukemia. Analysis of 114 patients

BACKGROUND: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common leukemia in adults. Aim: To Describe our population of patients with AML and report the outcomes of our treatments. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Review of electronic clinical records of 114 patients with AML with a median age of 57 years (59% men). Results: Seventeen percent of patients were classified as low risk, 38% as intermediate risk and 33% as high risk. Seventy-six percent of patients were treated with intensive chemotherapy. Five years overall survival according to cytogenetic risk was 59, 41, and 12% in low, intermediate, and high-risk patients, respectively. The outcomes were better in patients under 60 years. The median survival of patients treated with intensive chemotherapy aged less than 60 years and 60 years and above was 3.4 and 1 year, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are comparable to those reported in developed countries. Improving the survival of patients 60 years and older is our main challenge.

Disturbance alters relationships between soil carbon pools and aboveground vegetation attributes in an anthropogenic peatland in Patagonia.

Anthropogenic-based disturbances may alter peatland soil-plant causal associations and their ability to sequester carbon. Likewise, it is unclear how the vegetation attributes are linked with different soil C decomposition-based pools (i.e., live moss, debris, and poorly- to highly-decomposed peat) under grassing and harvesting conditions. Therefore, we aimed to assess the relationships between aboveground vegetation attributes and belowground C pools in a Northern Patagonian peatland of Sphagnum magellanicum with disturbed and undisturbed areas. We used ordination to depict the main C pool and floristic gradients and structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the direct and indirect relationships among these variables. In addition, we evaluated whether attributes derived from plant functional types (PFTs) are better suited to predict soil C pools than attributes derived from species gradients. We found that the floristic composition of the peatland can be classified into three categories that follow the C pool gradient. These categories correspond to (1) woody species, such as Baccharis patagonica, (2) water-logged species like Juncus procerus, and (3) grasslands. We depicted that these classes are reliable indicators of soil C decomposition stages. However, the relationships change between management. We found a clear statistical trend showing a decrease of live moss, debris, and poorly-decomposed C pools in the disturbed area. We also depicted that plant diversity, plant height, and PFT composition were reliable indicators of C decomposition only under undisturbed conditions, while the species-based attributes consistently yielded better overall results predicting soil C pools than PFT-based attributes. Our results imply that managed peatlands of Northern Patagonia with active grassing and harvesting activities, even if small-scaled, will significantly alter their future C sequestration capacities by decreasing their live and poorly-decomposed components. Finally, aboveground vegetation attributes cannot be used as proxies of soil C decomposition in disturbed peatlands as they no longer relate to decomposition stages.

Assessing the socio-economic and land-cover drivers of wildfire activity and its spatiotemporal distribution in south-central Chile.

Sustained human pressures on the environment have significantly increased the frequency, extent, and severity of wildfires, globally. This is particularly the case in Mediterranean regions, in which human-caused wildfires represent up to 90% of all recorded wildfire ignitions. In Chile, it has been estimated that nearly 90% of wildfires are related to human activities, and that their frequency and distribution have steadily increased over the last decade. Despite this, the role of socio-economic factors in driving wildfire activity and its spatiotemporal distribution remains unclear. In this study, we assess the association between socio-economic drivers and spatiotemporal patterns of wildfires in the Mediterranean region of south-central Chile over the period 2010-2018. Our results show that 98.5% of wildfires are related to human activities, either accidentally (58.2%) or intentionally (36.6%). Wildfires occurred primarily during the summer months and their density at the commune-level was associated with increased road access, as well as with the percentage of land covered by agriculture, exotic tree plantations, and native forest. Wildfire activity at the commune-level was also related to socio-economic variables such as population density, proportion of indigenous population, and unemployment rate, although such associations varied considerably depending on the region and on whether the wildfire was started accidentally or intentionally. Our study provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary assessment of the complex ways in which land-cover and socio-economic factors drive the distribution of wildfire activity in south-central Chile. It represents an important guide for policy-making, as well a baseline for research into strategies aimed at predicting and mitigating wildfire activity at both local and national levels.

[Acute myeloid leukemia. Analysis of 114 patients]. / Actualización de resultados demográficos y terapéuticos de pacientes con Leucemia Mieloide Aguda no promielocítica en el Hospital Clínico de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

BACKGROUND: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common leukemia in adults. AIM: To Describe our population of patients with AML and report the outcomes of our treatments. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Review of electronic clinical records of 114 patients with AML with a median age of 57 years (59% men). RESULTS: Seventeen percent of patients were classified as low risk, 38% as intermediate risk and 33% as high risk. Seventy-six percent of patients were treated with intensive chemotherapy. Five years overall survival according to cytogenetic risk was 59, 41, and 12% in low, intermediate, and high-risk patients, respectively. The outcomes were better in patients under 60 years. The median survival of patients treated with intensive chemotherapy aged less than 60 years and 60 years and above was 3.4 and 1 year, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are comparable to those reported in developed countries. Improving the survival of patients 60 years and older is our main challenge.

Haploidentical transplantation outcomes are comparable with those obtained with identical human leukocyte antigen allogeneic transplantation in Chilean patients with benign and malignant hemopathies

Abstract Introduction Patients with benign or malignant blood disorders, who require allogeneic stem cell transplantation and lack an identical human leukocyte antigen HLA identicalHL sibling donor, could be transplanted with hematopoietic stem cells from unrelated adult or umbilical cord donors. However, in our country, both approaches are costly and time-consuming options. Methods Over the last few years, haploidentical modalities have been investigated as an alternative donor source, showing similar results to those obtained with identical HLA donors. We started using T-cell-replete haploidentical with post-transplant cyclophosphamide in 2012 and we presented our experience with patients undergoing haploidentical ransplantation compared to SIB. Results Since January 2012 to date, 91 allogeneic transplants have been performed, of which 49 were haploidentical and 42 were HLA identical. The mean age of the patients was 35 years (range: 17-62). The mean CD34/kg × 106 infused per group was 5.93 and 5.89, respectively. Time to granulocyte and platelet engraftment was 11 and 15 days, respectively, for haploidentical, and 12 and 14 days, respectively, for HLA identical (p = 0.10). The 100-day cumulative incidence of global acute GVHD was 34% for haploidentical and 29% for SIHLA identical (p = 0.9). The 2-year overall global graft-versus-host disease was 43% for haploidentical and 41% for HLA identical (p = 0.8). Overall survival, relapse, and transplant and relapse-related mortality were similar between both groups. Conclusion Our experience showed that haploidentical has similar outcomes to those obtained with HLA idential and can be performed in our country safely.

Haploidentical transplantation outcomes are comparable with those obtained with identical human leukocyte antigen allogeneic transplantation in Chilean patients with benign and malignant hemopathies.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with benign or malignant blood disorders, who require allogeneic stem cell transplantation and lack an identical human leukocyte antigen HLA identicalHL sibling donor, could be transplanted with hematopoietic stem cells from unrelated adult or umbilical cord donors. However, in our country, both approaches are costly and time-consuming options. METHODS: Over the last few years, haploidentical modalities have been investigated as an alternative donor source, showing similar results to those obtained with identical HLA donors. We started using T-cell-replete haploidentical with post-transplant cyclophosphamide in 2012 and we presented our experience with patients undergoing haploidentical ransplantation compared to SIB. RESULTS: Since January 2012 to date, 91 allogeneic transplants have been performed, of which 49 were haploidentical and 42 were HLA identical. The mean age of the patients was 35 years (range: 17-62). The mean CD34/kg×106 infused per group was 5.93 and 5.89, respectively. Time to granulocyte and platelet engraftment was 11 and 15 days, respectively, for haploidentical, and 12 and 14 days, respectively, for HLA identical (p=0.10). The 100-day cumulative incidence of global acute GVHD was 34% for haploidentical and 29% for SIHLA identical (p=0.9). The 2-year overall global graft-versus-host disease was 43% for haploidentical and 41% for HLA identical (p=0.8). Overall survival, relapse, and transplant and relapse-related mortality were similar between both groups. CONCLUSION: Our experience showed that haploidentical has similar outcomes to those obtained with HLA idential and can be performed in our country safely.