This article presents an exploratory methodology to co-create climate services for the tourism sector together with local stakeholders, emphasizing focus groups as an essential step for obtaining relevant data throughout the process. The article describes the user engagement for defining the optimal conditions for tourism in four different types of destinations in terms of tourist specialisation in Spain (Jacetania Council in the Aragon Pyrenees, the city of Calvià on the island of Majorca; the city of Barcelona and the Barcelona Coast) and Italy (Sila National Park) This methodology involves a sequence of steps to extract and validate such information through engagement, with destination stakeholders along the value chain (from accommodation managers to destination planners as well as final users). The process facilitates the design of numerical indices based on the information collected (from qualitative to quantitative data). Our methodology is suitable for application in other contexts and tourism activities where the subjective perception of weather and climate plays a role, as well as in other sectors.

A Ca(2+)-activated Cl(-) current constitutes a large part of the transduction current in olfactory sensory neurons. The binding of odorants to olfactory receptors in the cilia produces an increase in cAMP concentration; Ca(2+) enters into the cilia through CNG channels and activates a Cl(-) current. In intact mouse olfactory sensory neurons little is known about the kinetics of the Ca(2+)-activated Cl(-) current. Here, we directly activated CNG channels by flash photolysis of caged cAMP or 8-Br-cAMP and measured the current response with the whole cell voltage-clamp technique in mouse neurons. We measured multiphasic currents in the rising phase of the response at -50 mV. The current rising phase became monophasic in the absence of extracellular Ca(2+), at +50 mV, or when most of the intracellular Cl(-) was replaced by gluconate to shift the equilibrium potential for Cl(-) to -50 mV. These results show that the second phase of the current in mouse intact neurons is attributed to a Cl(-) current activated by Ca(2+), similarly to previous results on isolated frog cilia. The percentage of the total saturating current carried by Cl(-) was estimated in two ways: 1) by measuring the maximum secondary current and 2) by blocking the Cl(-) channel with niflumic acid. We estimated that in the presence of 1 mM extracellular Ca(2+) and in symmetrical Cl(-) concentrations the Cl(-) component can constitute up to 90% of the total current response. These data show how to unravel the CNG and Ca(2+)-activated Cl(-) component of the current rising phase.

Transduction of light stimuli in Halobacterium salinarium is studied by behavioural experiments. Selected patterns of sequential stimuli (impinging on couples of the signalling states of its photoreceptors) show that a simple model integrating different stimuli is inadequate and that non linear interactions between different pathways occur through a network with several connections. The experiments reported herein yield rough but clear-cut information on the level of such interactions and shed new light on earlier findings.

We compared long-term adaptation versus short-term or shock response of potato (Solanum tuberosum) cells to polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced low water potential. Potato cells, which were allowed to adapt gradually to a decreasing water potential, were able to grow actively in a medium containing 20% PEG. In contrast, no appreciable gain in dry weight was observed in potato cells shocked by abrupt transfer to the same medium. PEG-adapted cells were also sail-tolerant, as they were able to proliferate in a medium supplemented with 200 mM NaCl. No visible ultrastructural changes of mitochondria or proplastids were observed in adapted cells at values of low water potential (about -2.0 MPa), which caused membrane disruption and appearance of lipid droplets in unadapted cells. ABA cellular content increased 5-fold in PEG-shocked cells but no significant increase was found in PEG-adapted cells. The intracellular content of free proline increased 12.5 times over the basal level in PEG-adapted cells and 6.5 times in PEG-shocked cells. As shown by in vivo protein labeling, shock conditions strongly inhibited protein synthesis, which was completely recovered in PEG-adapted cells. Osmotin, a protein associated with salt adaptation in tobacco, was constitutively expressed at a high level in PEG-adapted cells and accumulated in PEG-shocked cells only three days after the transfer in a medium supplemented with 20% PEG. Proline and osmotin accumulation were coincident with the increase in cellular ABA content in PEG-shocked cells, but not in PEG-adapted cells. These data suggest that this hormone is mainly involved in shock response rather than long-term adaptation.