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Yeasts isolated from the worker caste of the Colombian leaf-cutting ant, Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Myrmicinae) were cultured and identified by molecular methods. Abundant, persistent, and omnipresent species were classified as "prevalent". Experimental data were compared with information gathered from published reports on the yeast species composition in other leaf-cutting ant species. Diversity analysis was conducted using diversity values (q0, q1, and q2) to compare the richness and abundance of yeasts present in different leaf-cutting ant species. Clustering analysis was carried out to assess the similarity of yeast community according to ant species. The yeast species composition was highly variable among the ant species. A. laevigata and A. capiguara showed the highest degree of similarity and differed from the group composed by A. cephalotes, A. sexdens, A. sexdens rubropilosa, and A. texana. The isolation of dominant yeasts in different ant castes within the different compartments of a colony strongly suggests that the identified microorganisms are not transient but are native to the soil surrounding ant colonies and the substrates used by the ants to grow their fungal cultivars. It is apparent that the ant-fungus mutualism does not operate in an environment devoid of other microbes, but rather that the association must be seen within the context of a background of other microorganisms, particularly the dominant yeasts.
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Hormigas , Animales , Hormigas/microbiología , Colombia , Simbiosis , Levaduras/genéticaRESUMEN
SIGNIFICANCE: Pharmaceutical companies recommend discarding ophthalmic drugs 28 days after opening. This study shows that diagnostic eye drops have a low risk of contamination over a 7-month period in a controlled clinical setup. The diagnostic efficiency seems to be preserved over this period. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the preservation period and the efficacy of ophthalmic preparations, such as 0.5% proparacaine hydrochloride, 1% tropicamide, 2.5% phenylephrine hydrochloride, and 1% cyclopentolate hydrochloride ophthalmic solution in a clinical and controlled setting. METHODS: Thirty-eight primary eye care students were recruited to participate in the study. They used 25 bottles of each diagnostic drop at the Clinique Universitaire de la Vision for a 7-month period. An analysis of the bacterial contamination was repeated 10 times using both an agar plate and a nutrient broth at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks and at 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 months. The anesthetic, mydriatic, and cycloplegic effects were tested after 7 months of use and compared with nonopened ophthalmic bottles. RESULTS: During the 7-month period, 4971 drops of proparacaine, 3219 drops of tropicamide and phenylephrine, and 1896 drops of cyclopentolate were administered to the patients. A total of 226 contacts between bottles and biological tissues were reported. After the 10 inoculation sessions on the agar medium at the predetermined times, no bacterial and fungal contamination was noted. No patient reported eye infections for 2 weeks after the drop instillation. Moreover, there was no difference in the efficacy when compared with new drops. CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of the current study, diagnostic eye drops can be used with a low contamination risk beyond the recommendation date of 28 days up to 7 months, with the same efficacy, in a controlled clinical context.
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Anestésicos Locales/administración & dosificación , Bacterias/aislamiento & purificación , Contaminación de Medicamentos/estadística & datos numéricos , Estabilidad de Medicamentos , Almacenaje de Medicamentos , Midriáticos/administración & dosificación , Adulto , Ciclopentolato/administración & dosificación , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Soluciones Oftálmicas , Fenilefrina/administración & dosificación , Propoxicaína/administración & dosificación , Pupila/efectos de los fármacos , Tropicamida/administración & dosificaciónRESUMEN
The mechanism for the nucleophilic addition step of the Michael reaction between methanethiol as a model Michael donor and several α-substituted methyl acrylates (X=F, Cl, Me, H, CN, NO2 ) as model Michael acceptors is described in detail. We suggest a novel way to condense electrophilic Fukui functions at specific atoms in terms of the contributions from the atomic orbitals to the LUMO or, more generally, to the orbital controlling the reaction. This procedure correctly associates activation energies to local electrophilic Fukui indices for the cases treated in this work. The calculated reaction barriers strongly depend on the nature of the substituent. As a general rule, activation energies are governed by structural changes, although electronic factors are significant for electron-withdrawing groups. Nucleophilic addition to Michael receptors is best described as a highly nonsynchronous process, in which the geometry of the transition state comprises a nonplanar six-membered ring. Formation of the Sâ â â C bond, which defines the interaction between the reactants, progresses ahead of all other primitive processes in the early stages of the transformation. In view of our results, we postulate that highly complex chemical reactions, as is the case for the nucleophilic addition step studied herein, that involve cleavage/formation of a total of six bonds, lower their activation energies by favoring nonsynchronicity, that is, for these types of systems, primitive changes should advance at different rates.
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Gibberellins (GAs) play a critical role in fruit-set and fruit growth. Gibberellin is perceived by its nuclear receptors GA INSENSITIVE DWARF1s (GID1s), which then trigger degradation of downstream repressors DELLAs. To understand the role of the three GA receptor genes (GID1A, GID1B and GID1C) in Arabidopsis during fruit initiation, we have examined their temporal and spatial localization, in combination with analysis of mutant phenotypes. Distinct expression patterns are revealed for each GID1: GID1A is expressed throughout the whole pistil, while GID1B is expressed in ovules, and GID1C is expressed in valves. Functional study of gid1 mutant combinations confirms that GID1A plays a major role during fruit-set and growth, whereas GID1B and GID1C have specific roles in seed development and pod elongation, respectively. Therefore, in ovules, GA perception is mediated by GID1A and GID1B, while GID1A and GID1C are involved in GA perception in valves. To identify tissue-specific interactions between GID1s and DELLAs, we analyzed spatial expression patterns of four DELLA genes that have a role in fruit initiation (GAI, RGA, RGL1 and RGL2). Our data suggest that GID1A can interact with RGA and GAI in all tissues, whereas GID1C-RGL1 and GID1B-RGL2 interactions only occur in valves and ovules, respectively. These results uncover specific functions of each GID1-DELLA in the different GA-dependent processes that occur upon fruit-set. In addition, the distribution of GA receptors in valves along with lack of expression of GA biosynthesis genes in this tissue, strongly suggests transport of GAs from the developing seeds to promote fruit growth.
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Proteínas de Arabidopsis/metabolismo , Arabidopsis/genética , Regulación de la Expresión Génica de las Plantas , Giberelinas/metabolismo , Reguladores del Crecimiento de las Plantas/metabolismo , Arabidopsis/citología , Arabidopsis/crecimiento & desarrollo , Proteínas de Arabidopsis/genética , Flores/citología , Flores/genética , Flores/crecimiento & desarrollo , Frutas/citología , Frutas/genética , Frutas/crecimiento & desarrollo , Regulación del Desarrollo de la Expresión Génica , Genes Reporteros , Germinación , Modelos Biológicos , Mutación , Especificidad de Órganos , Óvulo Vegetal/citología , Óvulo Vegetal/genética , Óvulo Vegetal/crecimiento & desarrollo , Fenotipo , Plantas Modificadas Genéticamente , Receptores de Superficie Celular/genética , Receptores de Superficie Celular/metabolismo , Proteínas Recombinantes de Fusión , Semillas/citología , Semillas/genética , Semillas/crecimiento & desarrolloRESUMEN
Knowledge of the trophic structure and variability of planktonic communities is a key factor in understanding food-web dynamics and energy transfer from zooplankton to higher trophic levels. In this study, we investigated how stable isotopes of mesozooplankton species varied seasonally (winter, spring, autumn) in relation to environmental factors and plankton size classes in a temperate coastal ecosystem. Our results showed that spring is characterized by the strongest vertical and size-structured plankton food-web, mainly fueled by the phytoplankton bloom. As a result, spring displayed the largest isotopic niche space and trophic divergence among species. On the contrary, both pelagic and benthic-derived carbon influenced low productive seasons (winter and autumn), resulting in more generalist strategies (trophic redundancy). Stable isotope mixing models were used to explore how different seasonal structures influenced the overall food web up to predatory plankton (i.e., mysids, chaetognaths, and fish larvae). Different feeding strategies were found in spring, with predators having either a clear preference for larger prey items (> 1 mm, for herring and dab larvae) or a more generalist diet (sprat and dragonets larvae). During low productive seasons, predators seemed to be more opportunistic, feeding on a wide range of size classes but focusing on smaller prey. Overall, the food-web architecture of plankton displayed different seasonal patterns linked to components at the base of the food web that shaped the main energy fluxes, either from phytoplankton or recycled material. Additionally, these patterns extended to carnivorous plankton, such as fish larvae, emphasizing the importance of bottom-up processes.
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Cadena Alimentaria , Plancton , Animales , Ecosistema , Estaciones del Año , Fitoplancton , Zooplancton , Peces , LarvaRESUMEN
This study focuses on understanding the relationship between moral disengagement mechanisms in adolescents who engage in law-breaking activities and those who violate school norms. To do so, we administered the Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale (MMDS), which evaluates moral justification, euphemistic labeling, advantageous comparison, deflection of responsibility, diffusion of responsibility, distortion of consequences, dehumanization, and attribution of blame, to 366 adolescents (60.1% males (n = 220) and 39.9% females (n = 146)). Our results confirmed the hypothesis that law-breaking adolescents presented a higher degree of moral disengagement than those adolescents who violate school norms. Additionally, we found that adolescents who violated school norms displayed significantly higher levels of dehumanization than the controls, and law-breaking adolescents obtained the highest score in this domain. Our findings allow us to suggest that the presence of the dehumanization mechanism in adolescents who violate school norms could be used as an early indicator of the emergence of antisocial behaviors, since this was the only component of moral disengagement that significantly differentiated this group from the controls in the study.
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Plants employ sophisticated defense mechanisms, including releasing volatile organic compounds, to defend against biotic and abiotic stresses. These compounds play a crucial role in plant defense by attracting natural enemies and facilitating communication between plants to activate defense mechanisms. However, there has been no research on how exposure to these compounds activates defense mechanisms in citrus plants. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms governing citrus defensive activation, we conducted a molecular analysis of the rootstock Citrange carrizo [a hybrid of Citrus sinensis × Poncirus trifoliata] in response to defense activation by the volatile (Z)-3-hexenyl propanoate [(Z)-3-HP], utilizing a groundbreaking transcriptomic analysis involving the genomes of both parental species. Our results revealed significant gene expression changes, notably the overexpression of genes related to plant immunity, antioxidant activity, defense against herbivores, and tolerance to abiotic stress. Significantly, P. trifoliata contributed most notably to the hybrid's gene expression profile in response to (Z)-3-HP. Additionally, plants exposed to (Z)-3-HP repelled several citrus pests, attracted natural predators, and led to diminished performance of two key citrus pests. Our study emphasizes the complex molecular basis of volatile-triggered defenses in citrus and highlights the potential of plant volatiles in pest control strategies.
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Among all human-induced pressures, ocean warming is expected to be one of the major drivers of change in marine ecosystems. Fish species are particularly vulnerable during embryogenesis. Here, the impact of temperature was assessed on embryonic stages of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), a species of high socio-economic interest, with a particular focus on the under-studied eastern English Channel winter-spawning component (Downs herring). Key traits linked to growth and development were experimentally evaluated at three temperatures (8°C, 10°C and 14°C), from fertilization to hatching, in standardized controlled conditions. Overall negative impacts of increased temperature were observed on fertilization rate, mean egg diameter at eyed stage, hatching rate and yolk sac volume. A faster developmental rate and a change in development stage frequency of newly hatched larvae were also observed at higher temperature. Potential parental effects were detected for four key traits (i.e. fertilization rate, eyed survival rate, mean egg diameter and hatching rate), despite a limited number of families. For instance, a large variability among families was shown in survival rate at eyed stage (between 0 and 63%). Potential relationships between maternal characteristics and embryo traits were therefore explored. We show that a substantial proportion of variance (between 31 and 70%) could be explained by the female attributes considered. More particularly, age, traits linked to life history (i.e. asymptotic average length and Brody growth rate coefficient), condition and length were important predictors of embryonic key traits. Overall, this study constitutes a stepping-stone to investigate potential consequences of warming on Downs herring recruitment and provides first insights on potential parental effects.
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Ecosistema , Peces , Animales , Femenino , Humanos , Temperatura , Larva , CalorRESUMEN
Global change puts coastal systems under pressure, affecting the ecology and physiology of marine organisms. In particular, fish larvae are sensitive to environmental conditions, and their fitness is an important determinant of fish stock recruitment and fluctuations. To assess the combined effects of warming, acidification and change in food quality, herring larvae were reared in a control scenario (11°C*pH 8.0) and a scenario predicted for 2100 (14°C*pH 7.6) crossed with two feeding treatments (enriched in phosphorus and docosahexaenoic acid or not). The experiment lasted from hatching to the beginning of the post-flexion stage (i.e. all fins present) corresponding to 47 days post-hatch (dph) at 14°C and 60 dph at 11°C. Length and stage development were monitored throughout the experiment and the expression of genes involved in growth, metabolic pathways and stress responses were analysed for stage 3 larvae (flexion of the notochord). Although the growth rate was unaffected by acidification and temperature changes, the development was accelerated in the 2100 scenario, where larvae reached the last developmental stage at a smaller size (-8%). We observed no mortality related to treatments and no effect of food quality on the development of herring larvae. However, gene expression analyses revealed that heat shock transcripts expression was higher in the warmer and more acidic treatment. Our findings suggest that the predicted warming and acidification environment are stressful for herring larvae, inducing a decrease in size-at-stage at a precise period of ontogeny. This could either negatively affect survival and recruitment via the extension of the predation window or positively increase the survival by reducing the larval stage duration.
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PURPOSE: Predicting 30-day readmission risk is paramount to improving the quality of patient care. In this study, we compare sets of patient-, provider-, and community-level variables that are available at two different points of a patient's inpatient encounter (first 48 hours and the full encounter) to train readmission prediction models and identify possible targets for appropriate interventions that can potentially reduce avoidable readmissions. METHODS: Using electronic health record data from a retrospective cohort of 2,460 oncology patients and a comprehensive machine learning analysis pipeline, we trained and tested models predicting 30-day readmission on the basis of data available within the first 48 hours of admission and from the entire hospital encounter. RESULTS: Leveraging all features, the light gradient boosting model produced higher, but comparable performance (area under receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC]: 0.711) with the Epic model (AUROC: 0.697). Given features in the first 48 hours, the random forest model produces higher AUROC (0.684) than the Epic model (AUROC: 0.676). Both models flagged patients with a similar distribution of race and sex; however, our light gradient boosting and random forest models were more inclusive, flagging more patients among younger age groups. The Epic models were more sensitive to identifying patients with an average lower zip income. Our 48-hour models were powered by novel features at various levels: patient (weight change over 365 days, depression symptoms, laboratory values, and cancer type), hospital (winter discharge and hospital admission type), and community (zip income and marital status of partner). CONCLUSION: We developed and validated models comparable with the existing Epic 30-day readmission models with several novel actionable insights that could create service interventions deployed by the case management or discharge planning teams that may decrease readmission rates over time.
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Neoplasias , Readmisión del Paciente , Humanos , Estudios Retrospectivos , Hospitalización , Factores de RiesgoRESUMEN
For families all over the world, going through a pandemic has presented a number of challenges. In particular, social distancing measures involving the closure of schools and day care centers, as well as increasing work hours at home, made parents face very demanding situations. However, we know little about whether parents' burnout levels are influenced by the age of their children. This study sought to determine whether levels of parental burnout (PB) are higher in families with at least one child under the age of four than in families with older children (5 to 18 years). The second goal was to explore whether having children under 4 years of age moderates the relationship between parental cooperation and PB. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 651 participants (525 mothers and 126 fathers) since May 18th until August 27th, 2020. The main results showed that child age is a predictor of PB. Besides, having a child aged 0-4 years old moderates the relationship between parental cooperation and PB. Finally, it was found that in cases where there was at least one child under 4 years of age in the family, with one of the partners who worked remotely, the respondent's PB rose by 7.9 points. The implications of these results with respect to the consideration of children's ages in the different parental scenarios were discussed.
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Stable isotope ratios are used to reconstruct animal diet in trophic ecology via mixing models. Several assumptions of stable isotope mixing models are critical, i.e., constant trophic discrimination factor and isotopic equilibrium between the consumer and its diet. The isotopic turnover rate (λ and its counterpart the half-life) affects the dynamics of isotopic incorporation for an organism and the isotopic equilibrium assumption: λ involves a time lag between the real assimilated diet and the diet estimated by mixing models at the individual scale. Current stable isotope mixing model studies consider neither this time lag nor even the dynamics of isotopic ratios in general. We developed a mechanistic framework using a dynamic mixing model (DMM) to assess the contribution of λ to the dynamics of isotopic incorporation and to estimate the bias induced by neglecting the time lag in diet reconstruction in conventional static mixing models (SMMs). The DMM includes isotope dynamics of sources (denoted δs), λ and frequency of diet-switch (ω). The results showed a significant bias generated by the SMM compared to the DMM (up to 50% of differences). This bias can be strongly reduced in SMMs by averaging the isotopic variations of the food sources over a time window equal to twice the isotopic half-life. However, the bias will persist (â¼15%) for intermediate values of the ω/λ ratio. The inferences generated using a case study highlighted that DMM enhanced estimates of consumer's diet, and this could avoid misinterpretation in ecosystem functioning, food-web structure analysis and underlying biological processes.
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Dieta , Conducta Alimentaria/fisiología , Cadena Alimentaria , Isótopos/farmacocinética , Animales , Conducta Animal/fisiología , Simulación por Computador , Ecosistema , Semivida , Estadística como AsuntoRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Scientists are developing new computational methods and prediction models to better clinically understand COVID-19 prevalence, treatment efficacy, and patient outcomes. These efforts could be improved by leveraging documented COVID-19-related symptoms, findings, and disorders from clinical text sources in an electronic health record. Word embeddings can identify terms related to these clinical concepts from both the biomedical and nonbiomedical domains, and are being shared with the open-source community at large. However, it's unclear how useful openly available word embeddings are for developing lexicons for COVID-19-related concepts. OBJECTIVE: Given an initial lexicon of COVID-19-related terms, this study aims to characterize the returned terms by similarity across various open-source word embeddings and determine common semantic and syntactic patterns between the COVID-19 queried terms and returned terms specific to the word embedding source. METHODS: We compared seven openly available word embedding sources. Using a series of COVID-19-related terms for associated symptoms, findings, and disorders, we conducted an interannotator agreement study to determine how accurately the most similar returned terms could be classified according to semantic types by three annotators. We conducted a qualitative study of COVID-19 queried terms and their returned terms to detect informative patterns for constructing lexicons. We demonstrated the utility of applying such learned synonyms to discharge summaries by reporting the proportion of patients identified by concept among three patient cohorts: pneumonia (n=6410), acute respiratory distress syndrome (n=8647), and COVID-19 (n=2397). RESULTS: We observed high pairwise interannotator agreement (Cohen kappa) for symptoms (0.86-0.99), findings (0.93-0.99), and disorders (0.93-0.99). Word embedding sources generated based on characters tend to return more synonyms (mean count of 7.2 synonyms) compared to token-based embedding sources (mean counts range from 2.0 to 3.4). Word embedding sources queried using a qualifier term (eg, dry cough or muscle pain) more often returned qualifiers of the similar semantic type (eg, "dry" returns consistency qualifiers like "wet" and "runny") compared to a single term (eg, cough or pain) queries. A higher proportion of patients had documented fever (0.61-0.84), cough (0.41-0.55), shortness of breath (0.40-0.59), and hypoxia (0.51-0.56) retrieved than other clinical features. Terms for dry cough returned a higher proportion of patients with COVID-19 (0.07) than the pneumonia (0.05) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (0.03) populations. CONCLUSIONS: Word embeddings are valuable technology for learning related terms, including synonyms. When leveraging openly available word embedding sources, choices made for the construction of the word embeddings can significantly influence the words learned.
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This study addresses the temporal variability of couplings between pelagic and benthic habitats for fish assemblages at five periods in a shallow epicontinental sea, the Eastern English Channel (EEC). Organic matter fluxes fueling fish assemblages and the relative contribution of their different sources were assessed using stable isotope analysis and associated isotopic functional metrics. Couplings between benthic and pelagic realms appeared to be a permanent feature in the EEC, potentially favored by shallow depth and driven by the combination of two trophic processes. First, trophic interactions exhibited plasticity and revealed resource partitioning. Second, changes in the composition of fish assemblages did not impact benthic-pelagic couplings, as most dominant species were generalists during at least one time period, allowing complete use of available resources. Examining both unweighted and biomass-weighted indices was complementary and permitted a better understanding of trophic interactions and energy fluxes.
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Peces , Cadena Alimentaria , Animales , Biomasa , Ecosistema , Estado NutricionalRESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: Existing information on Arctic marine food web structure is fragmented. Integrating data across research programs is an important strategy for building a baseline understanding of food web structure and function in many Arctic regions. Naturally-occurring stable isotope ratios of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) measured directly in the tissues of organisms are a commonly-employed method for estimating food web structure. The objective of the current dataset was to synthesize disparate δ15N, and secondarily δ13C, data in the Canadian Beaufort continental shelf region relevant to trophic and ecological studies at the local and pan-Arctic scales. DATA DESCRIPTION: The dataset presented here contains nitrogen and carbon stable isotope ratios (δ15N, δ13C) measured in marine organisms from the Canadian Beaufort continental shelf region between 1983 and 2013, gathered from 27 published and unpublished sources with associated sampling metadata. A total of 1077 entries were collected, summarizing 8859 individual organisms/samples representing 333 taxa across the Arctic food web, from top marine mammal predators to primary producers.
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Organismos Acuáticos , Nitrógeno , Animales , Regiones Árticas , Canadá , Ecosistema , Cadena Alimentaria , Isótopos de Nitrógeno/análisisRESUMEN
The major effect of allosteric HIV integrase (IN) inhibitors (ALLINIs) is observed during virion maturation, where ALLINI treatment interrupts IN-RNA interactions via drug-induced IN aggregation, leading to the formation of aberrant virions. To understand the structural changes that accompany drug-induced aggregation, we determined the soft matter properties of ALLINI-induced IN aggregates. Using small-angle neutron scattering, SEM, and rheology, we have discovered that the higher-order aggregates induced by ALLINIs have the characteristics of weak three-dimensional gels with a fractal-like character. Their formation is inhibited by the host factor LEDGF/p75, as well as ex vivo resistance substitutions. Mutagenesis and biophysical analyses reveal that homomeric carboxy-terminal domain interactions are required to achieve the branched-polymer nature of the ALLINI-induced aggregates. These studies provide key insight into the mechanisms of ALLINI action and resistance in the context of the crowded virion environment where ALLINIs exert their effect.
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Inhibidores de Integrasa VIH/química , Integrasa de VIH/química , Regulación Alostérica , Sitio Alostérico , Integrasa de VIH/genética , Integrasa de VIH/metabolismo , Inhibidores de Integrasa VIH/farmacología , Mutación , Unión ProteicaRESUMEN
Background: Esophageal achalasia is a rare, chronic, and progressive neurodegenerative motility disorder that is characterized by a lack of relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter. Laparoscopic Heller myotomy (LHM) is the ideal in our population. Multiple surgical and medical treatments have been raised. However, there has been a need to expand studies and generate a clear algorithm for an ideal therapeutic algorithm. Methods: Clinical record was retrospectively analyzed of patients who underwent LHM and Dor fundoplication evaluated with Eckardt score, at four Colombian medical centers between February 2008 and December 2018. Results: There were a total of 21 patients (12 males and 9 females, ages 8 months to 16 years). The time from onset of symptoms to surgery was between 5 months and 14 years. One patient had esophageal mucosa perforation, 2 patients were converted to open surgery, and 1 patient had a postoperative fistula. All patients were discharged 3 to 9 days postoperatively, at which time they tolerated normal oral feeding. During follow-up, all the patients had an improvement in nutritional status and a greater functional recovery; 4 had reflux and 1 had reflux-like symptoms. Conclusion: LHM with Dor-type fundoplication maintains the effectiveness of open surgery with low postoperative morbidity and mortality and good functional results according to Eckardt score evaluation.
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Acalasia del Esófago/cirugía , Adolescente , Niño , Preescolar , Femenino , Fundoplicación , Miotomía de Heller , Humanos , Lactante , Laparoscopía , Masculino , Registros Médicos , Complicaciones Posoperatorias , Estudios Retrospectivos , Resultado del TratamientoRESUMEN
Condition indices aim to evaluate the physiological status of fish larvae by estimating both the level of starvation and potential of survival. Histological indices reveal direct effects of starvation whereas biochemical indices such as lipid classes or RNA:DNA ratios are used as proxies of condition, giving information on the amount of energy reserves and growth rate, respectively. We combined these three indices to evaluate ontogenetic variations of growth performance, lipid dynamics and nutritional condition of plaice larvae caught in the field during winter 2017 in the eastern English Channel and the Southern Bight of the North Sea. RNA:DNA ratios showed that larvae at the beginning of metamorphosis (stage 4) had a lower growth rate than younger individuals (stages 2 and 3). A significant increase in the proportion of triglycerides also occurred at stage 4, indicating energy storage. Histological indices indicated that most of the larvae were in good condition, even younger ones with low lipid reserves. There was, however, an increase in the proportion of healthy individuals over ontogeny, especially with respect to liver vacuoles which were larger and more numerous for stage 4 larvae. Combined together, these condition indices revealed the ontogenetic shift in the energy allocation strategy of plaice larvae. Young larvae (stages 2 and 3) primarily allocate energy towards somatic growth. The decrease in growth performance for stage 4 was not related to poor condition, but linked to a higher proportion of energy stored as lipids. Since the quantity of lipid reserves is particularly important for plaice larvae to withstand starvation during metamorphosis, this could be considered as a second critical period after the one of exogenous feeding for larval survival and recruitment success.
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Metabolismo Energético/fisiología , Lenguado/fisiología , Larva/fisiología , Animales , ADN/genética , Metabolismo Energético/genética , Lenguado/genética , Variación Genética/genética , Larva/genética , Lípidos/genética , Hígado/fisiología , Metamorfosis Biológica/genética , Mar del Norte , ARN/genética , Inanición/genética , Inanición/fisiopatologíaRESUMEN
El consumo de opioides ha venido incrementando en los últimos años, generando una crisis de salud pública que afecta a todo tipo de población. El uso de sustancias opiáceas ilegales en embarazadas también está en incremento, por lo que, en la práctica clínica se evidencian con mayor frecuencia resultados neonatales adversos como el síndrome de abstinencia neonatal (NAS). Adicionalmente, los niños expuestos prenatalmente a estas sustancias pueden sufrir alteraciones cognitivas, motoras o psiquiátricas durante el transcurso de su vida. Este artículo tiene como objetivo proporcionar una revisión de la literatura actualizada acerca del uso de opioides durante el embarazo y las consecuencias para los niños expuestos a estas sustancias.
Opioid consumption has increased greatly in recent years, creating a public health crisis that affects all types of population. The use of illegal opiates amongst pregnant women has also risen, causing a surge in the frequency in which adverse neonatal outcomes, such as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), are seen in clinical practice. Furthermore, children exposed prenatally to these substances have cognitive, motor and psychiatric adverse outcomes throughout their lifetime. This article's objective is to provide an updated literature review about opioid use during pregnancy and its consequences on children exposed in-utero.
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Whether considered as a risk for human health or as ecological tracers, contaminants' concentrations measured in fish muscles are commonly expressed relative to wet or dry mass. Comparison of results required conversion factors (CF) but accurate values are scarce and case-specific. The present paper is aimed at investigating errors linked with the use of the theoretical value. Muscles dry and wet masses were measured in 15 fish species to determine the actual CF. Most CF were lower than the theoretical wet:dry ratio of 5 classically used, with variations at individual and species level. Muscle lipid content (inferred by C/N ratios) was a crucial factor explaining discrepancies, claiming for caution when working with lipid-rich species. The observed variability demonstrated that using the theoretical CF may be inaccurate, when actual CF largely differs from the theoretical value. Dedicated measurement is the better approach when accuracy is required.