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This work consists of a case study analysis of the upper basin of the Cuñapirú stream, located in the department of Rivera, in the area known as Puntas de Cuñapirú, identifying environmental problems and issues related to territorial transformations in the period 1990-2017. It aims to provide elements for understanding the processes of territorial transformations over a period of 27 years. he application of an environmental vulnerability model that integrates fragility and threat factors makes it possible to identify areas that are particularly sensitive to current andfuture impacts andfacilitates the identification of critical interactions in the environmental system, generating inputs for decision-makers. he application of the model was able to identify spatially the areas with the highest rate of urban expansion, which in turn constitutes the main threat and generates the highest levels of vulnerability. It was also possible to recognise which natural assets interact with these changes in land use (environmentalfragility). It is hoped that the results obtained will help to strengthen land-use planning and management capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, three case studies are analyzed in Uruguay at the basin level, to identify the factors that favor the flood phenomenon. Transformations in land use and eventually climate change are considered. Over a 30-year period, land use modifications were evaluated using a Geographic Information System, and the variability of rainfall and river levels was analyzed. The three basins show completely different behavior from their land use change, and show increasing trends in rainfall over the period analyzed. It is evident that land use change is one of the most influential factors in the increase of flooding in urban areas. These transformations are mostly related to the exploitation of soil for the generation of commodities for export and generate modifications in the agrarian territories in Uruguay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roads are one of the main causes of loss of biodiversity, with roadkill one of the main causes of mortality. The aim of this research was to identify sites with a high probability of roadkill of medium and large mammals, and the environmental variables that would explain it. We used the favourability function (F) to build the predictive models. There were 57 explanatory variables, and we collected 685 records of 10 species of medium and large native wild mammals from the ECOBIO Uruguay databases. They were grouped into native forest and grassland species, according to the main habitat. Two models were developed, one with all the variables and one with the anthropogenic variables. For both groups, the model obtained with all the variables was the most significant according to the evaluation indices used. This made it possible to identify the hot spots of roadkill (F > 0.6) for each of the groups. The anthropic variables were the ones that best explained these hot spots. This allowed the identification of sites where the probability of roadkill is high and requires a monitoring plan to implement mitigation measures in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment is a central axis of academic discussion, but even so, there are theoretical difficulties in understanding environmental problems. Environmental Geography provides arguments to articulate the relationships between society and nature and the possibility of focusing on the environmental system as an object of study. The aim of this article is to provide theoretical, methodological and operational elements for the evaluation of the interrelationship between wetland ecosystems and urban localities in Uruguay based on three case studies and analysing them from the theoretical and conceptual context of Environmental Geography. The methodological strategy is based on a multi‐scale analysis: at the national scale, studying the situation of the interrelationship between wetlands and urban areas, and at the basin scale, case studies are selected to address the specific conditions of the relationship. In Uruguay, 50% of urban localities are located in wetland territories, but no national strategy can be identified to solve the problem of flooding events in urban areas. Environmental Geography offers the possibility of making the interrelationships between urban spaces and the environments where they develop visible as it makes it possible to analyse the causes of the problem at the basin level in order to achieve sustainable management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the Río de la Plata Estuary has shown an increase in the frequency and intensity of phytoplankton blooms with negative impacts on production activities, human health, and biodiversity. Water quality monitoring programs provide samples from the coastal zone alone, which limits the collection of data inside the Estuary and the analysis of the spatio-temporal dynamics of phytoplankton blooms, as well as their relationship with flow rate. In this work, a systematic satellite monitoring of the Estuary was carried out for the first time. Sentinel-2 images captured during 2016–2021 were used along with the Normalized Difference Chlorophyll Index. It included one year of El Niño, one neutral year and two consecutive years of La Niña. Four zones with the highest frequency of bloom occurrence were delimited. Data on the extent and intensity in which blooms occurred were extracted and related to the flow rates of the main tributaries using Bayesian models. The most intense and frequent blooms were detected on the southern and northern coasts, respectively (maximum values of 515 km2 in January 2021, NDCI>0.06), followed by a wide area of intense phytoplankton development inside the Estuary. Blooms were more frequent in warmer months, with elevated Chl- a concentrations in 75% of the months of the study period on the Argentine coast, and 50% on the Uruguayan coast. Blooms were positively correlated with low flows. Therefore, the most extensive and intense bloom episodes occur during La Niña events. During El Niño, the high flows transport the biomass originating in the Estuary and in the hydroelectric reservoirs located upstream, which can even be transported along the northern coast. This work identified a recurrent pattern of phytoplankton blooms and the hydro-meteorological conditions that favor their magnification in a context of strong climate variability in the region and estuarine eutrophication. [Display omitted] • Eutrophication in the Río de la Plata estuary (RdlP) show signs of worsening. • Analysis of Sentinel-2 images revealed extensive phytoplankton blooms from 2016 to 2021. • Four zones of high frequency phytoplankton bloom occurrence were delimited. • Bayesian modeling show greatest blooms under La Niña and high transport in El Niño. • Recurring pattern of blooms was identified in RdlP under extreme climate variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macrophages (Mφs) are instrumental regulators of the immune response whereby they acquire diverse functional phenotypes following their exposure to microenvironmental cues that govern their differentiation from monocytes and their activation. The complexity and diversity of the mycobacterial cell wall have empowered mycobacteria with potent immunomodulatory capacities. A heat-killed (HK) whole-cell preparation of Mycobacterium obuense (M. obuense) has shown promise as an adjunctive immunotherapeutic agent for the treatment of cancer. Moreover, HK M. obuense has been shown to trigger the differentiation of human monocytes into a monocyte-derived macrophage (MDM) type named Mob-MDM. However, the transcriptomic profile and functional properties of Mob-MDMs remain undefined during an activation state. Here, we characterized cytokine/chemokine release patterns and transcriptomic profiles of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/interferon γ (IFNγ)-activated human MDMs that were differentiated with HK M. obuense (Mob-MDM(LPS/IFNγ)), macrophage colony-stimulating factor M-MDM(LPS/IFNγ)), or granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-MDM(LPS/IFNγ)). Mob-MDM(LPS/IFNγ) demonstrated a unique cytokine/chemokine release pattern (interleukin (IL)-10low, IL-12/23p40low, IL-23p19/p40low, chemokine (C-x-C) motif ligand (CXCL)9low) that was distinct from those of M-MDM(LPS/IFNγ) and GM-MDM(LPS/IFNγ). Furthermore, M-MDM(LPS/IFNγ) maintained IL-10 production at significantly higher levels compared to GM-MDM(LPS/IFNγ) and Mob-MDM(LPS/IFNγ) despite being activated with M1-Mφ-activating stimuli. Comparative RNA sequencing analysis pointed to a distinct transcriptome profile for Mob-MDM(LPS/IFNγ) relative to both M-MDM(LPS/IFNγ) and GM-MDM(LPS/IFNγ) that comprised 417 transcripts. Functional gene-set enrichment analysis revealed significant overrepresentation of signaling pathways and biological processes that were uniquely related to Mob-MDM(LPS/IFNγ). Our findings lay a foundation for the potential integration of HK M. obuense in specific cell-based immunotherapeutic modalities such as adoptive transfer of Mφs (Mob-MDM(LPS/IFNγ)) for cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]