Classification of daily weather types in Colombia: a tool to evaluate human health risks due to temperature variability.

The building of knowledge about current risks from changes in air temperature has been established as critical for informing the starting point for human health risk assessments in a climate-changing world. The study presented in this paper provides the application of the maximum/minimum temperature complex method in Colombia to identify the simultaneous behavior of daily extremes of air temperature and provide a tool to assess human health risks due to temperature variability. An established classification of mean temperatures exists for the country, and maximum and minimum temperatures have been studied but never as simultaneous variables. The max/min temperature complex analysis aims to describe the air temperature regime of a particular place by studying the frequency of simultaneous occurrence of extreme daily temperatures. The study consisted of the construction of a contingency table that combines the behavior of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures using a subdivision of 5 °C intervals. A 5-year (2010-2015)-long dataset of 171 weather stations from the entire territory was prepared by identifying, filtering, and completing the missing data. Frequencies of occurrence of each interval were arranged in descending order to select the intervals of frequencies above 10%. Then, they were classified into categories, types, and subtypes. Six categories, seven types, and fifty-one subtypes were identified and mapped to ascertain their geographical distribution. In contrast with other climate regime classifications, our study found a regionalization of daily extremes of temperature that can be analyzed in different scales of time and space to aid health risk analysis.

Rapid detection and differentiation of avian infectious bronchitis virus: an application of Mass genotype by melting temperature analysis in RT-qPCR using SYBR Green I.

A method based on Melting Temperature analysis of Hypervariable regions (HVR) of S1 gene within a RT-qPCR was developed to detect different genotypes of avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and identify the Mass genotype. The method was able to rapidly identify the Mass genotype among IBV field isolates, vaccine attenuated strains and reference M41 strain in allantoic liquid and also directly in tissues. The RT-qPCR developed detected the virus in both tracheal and pulmonary samples from M41-infected or H120-infected birds, in a larger post-infection period compared to detection by standard method of virus isolation. RT-qPCR method tested provided a sensitivity and rapid approach for screening on IBV detection and Mass genotyping from IBV isolates.

[The menstrual cycle and sexual relations in users of the IUD and periodic abstinence]. / Ciclo menstrual y relaciones sexuales en usuarias de dispositivo intrauterino y continencia periodica.

PIP: A prospective survey was carried between January 1974 and February 1975 among 31 fertile women with a previous history of at least 1 normal term delivery who were using IUD. 65 women using natural family planning (NFP) served as the control group and had similar age and fertility characteristics. 198 cycles corresponded with the users of NFP as compared to 112 in the IUD users. The mean of sexual intercourse in the ovulatory phase was significantly higher than that of the preovulatory phase in IUD cases. Among NFP users, coital frequency was similar during both the preovulatory and postovulatory phases. The hyperthermic phase measured from the basal body temperature (BBT) chart lasted 13.585 days in the IUD users as compared with 12.622 in users of NFP (p0.01). The preovulatory phase in IUD users was 16.95 days as compared with 14.27 days in NFP users (P0.001). Related to the BBT chart, we found that in 64% of all cases of NFP women, the BBT pattern did drop on the 1st menses day as compared with 65% of all cases of IUD women whose BBT charts did not show a drop on that day (P0.001). The findings about sexual activity (increased libido associated with the ovulatory period) among IUD users concur with the opinion of several authors. Changes in the duration of the preovulatory and postovulatory phases suggest endocrine changes in IUD cases. The pattern of BBT drop suggest the possibility of higher proportions of early pregnancy losses among IUD users. (author's)^ieng