Motivaciones y migración venezolana: análisis desde la bioética de intervención / Motivations and Venezuelan migration: bioethics of intervention-based analysis / Motivações e migração venezuelana: análise a partir da bioética da intervenção

Resumen Este estudio cualitativo tuvo como objetivo analizar, desde la perspectiva de la bioética de intervención, las motivaciones de la migración de venezolanos que residen en la ciudad de Medellín, Colombia. Se entrevistaron a 20 personas, de las cuales 9 son hombres y 11 mujeres, y los datos recolectados se procesaron en el software IRAMUTEQ. Los ejes que resultaron del análisis de las entrevistas fueron: 1) acceso a los servicios de salud en Venezuela y Colombia; 2) acceso a los medicamentos y alimentos; y 3) proceso migratorio para Colombia, que sirvieron como referentes que dialogan con la perspectiva bioética de intervención. En conclusión, la alimentación y la salud tienen un papel preponderante en la vida de los sujetos como derechos humanos de primera necesidad, y se refuerza el papel del Estado en la promoción de políticas que garanticen los derechos civiles, económicos, sociales y culturales a los migrantes.

Abstract This qualitative study aimed to analyze from the perspective of intervention bioethics, the motivations for migration in Venezuelans residing in the city of Medellín-Colombia. Twenty people were interviewed, being 9 men and 11 women. The collected data was processed through the IRAMUTEQ software. The thematic axes that resulted from the analysis of the interviews; the first thematic axis, access to health services in Venezuela and Colombia; the second thematic axis, access to medicines and food; the third and last axis, the migratory process for Colombia, it served as references that dialogue with the selected bioethical perspective. In conclusion, food and health have a preponderant role in the lives of people, as essential human rights, the role of States is reinforced in promoting policies that guarantee civil, economic, social and cultures rigths of migrants.

Resumo Este estudo qualitativo teve como objetivo analisar, na perspectiva da bioética de intervenção, as motivações para a migração de venezuelanos residentes na cidade de Medellín, Colômbia. Foram entrevistadas 20 pessoas, sendo nove homens e 11 mulheres, e os dados coletados foram processados por meio do software Iramuteq. Os eixos que resultaram da análise das entrevistas foram: 1) acesso aos serviços de saúde na Venezuela e na Colômbia; 2) acesso a medicamentos e alimentação; e 3) processo migratório para a Colômbia, que serviram de referencial que dialoga com a perspectiva bioética de intervenção. Em conclusão, a alimentação e a saúde têm um papel preponderante na vida dos sujeitos como direitos humanos básicos, sendo papel do Estado promover políticas que garantam os direitos civis, econômicos, sociais e culturais aos migrantes.

Markers for human haematopoietic stem cells: The disconnect between an identification marker and its function.

The haematopoietic system is a classical stem cell hierarchy that maintains all the blood cells in the body. Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are rare, highly potent cells that reside at the apex of this hierarchy and are historically some of the most well studied stem cells in humans and laboratory models, with haematopoiesis being the original system to define functional cell types by cell surface markers. Whilst it is possible to isolate HSCs to near purity, we know very little about the functional activity of markers to purify HSCs. This review will focus on the historical efforts to purify HSCs in humans based on cell surface markers, their putative functions and recent advances in finding functional markers on HSCs.

Establishing a Common Nutritional Vocabulary - From Food Production to Diet.

Informed policy and decision-making for food systems, nutritional security, and global health would benefit from standardization and comparison of food composition data, spanning production to consumption. To address this challenge, we present a formal controlled vocabulary of terms, definitions, and relationships within the Compositional Dietary Nutrition Ontology (CDNO, www.cdno.info) that enables description of nutritional attributes for material entities contributing to the human diet. We demonstrate how ongoing community development of CDNO classes can harmonize trans-disciplinary approaches for describing nutritional components from food production to diet.

Prenatal and postnatal exposure to pesticides and school-age children's cognitive ability in rural Bogotá, Colombia.

Colombia is one of the largest pesticide consumers in South America. These products have a variety of negative consequences on the health of rural populations, especially neurocognitive disorders in children. In this work, the prenatal and postnatal exposure to pesticides was evaluated and the association between the cognitive capacity of school-age children in rural areas of the city of Bogotá, Colombia, investigated. Separate multiple linear regression models were used to evaluate associations of pesticide exposure measures and WISC-IV scales, adjusted for child sex, maternal educational attainment, growth retardation, and effect modification explored by sex, using a cross products term of 232 children between the ages of 7 and 10. It was found that among all children, pesticide exposure at school was associated with a worse working memory index (ß = -3.40; 95%CI; -6.6; -0.2) and a worst verbal comprehension index (ß = -3.2; 95%CI; -6.5; -0.2). Among girls, pesticide use at home was associated with a worse processing speed index (ß = -5.1; 95% CI; -10.1; -0.20) but not among boys (ß = 1.73; 95% CI; -2.6; 6.9). This revealed an association between the prenatal and postnatal exposure reported and some IQ sub-indices of children aged between 7 and 10 years residing in the rural areas of Usme and Sumapaz in the city of Bogotá, Colombia.

High efficacy of therapeutic equine hyperimmune antibodies against SARS CoV-2 variants of concern

SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VoC) show reduced neutralization by vaccine-induced and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. We tested therapeutic equine polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) against four VoC (alpha, beta, epsilon and gamma). We show that equine pAbs efficiently neutralize VoC, suggesting they are an effective, broad coverage, low-cost and a scalable COVID-19 treatment.

Challenges for FAIR-compliant description and comparison of crop phenotype data with standardized controlled vocabularies.

Crop phenotypic data underpin many pre-breeding efforts to characterize variation within germplasm collections. Although there has been an increase in the global capacity for accumulating and comparing such data, a lack of consistency in the systematic description of metadata often limits integration and sharing. We therefore aimed to understand some of the challenges facing findable, accesible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) curation and annotation of phenotypic data from minor and underutilized crops. We used bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) as an exemplar underutilized crop to assess the ability of the Crop Ontology system to facilitate curation of trait datasets, so that they are accessible for comparative analysis. This involved generating a controlled vocabulary Trait Dictionary of 134 terms. Systematic quantification of syntactic and semantic cohesiveness of the full set of 28 crop-specific COs identified inconsistencies between trait descriptor names, a relative lack of cross-referencing to other ontologies and a flat ontological structure for classifying traits. We also evaluated the Minimal Information About a Phenotyping Experiment and FAIR compliance of bambara trait datasets curated within the CropStoreDB schema. We discuss specifications for a more systematic and generic approach to trait controlled vocabularies, which would benefit from representation of terms that adhere to Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies principles. In particular, we focus on the benefits of reuse of existing definitions within pre- and post-composed axioms from other domains in order to facilitate the curation and comparison of datasets from a wider range of crops. Database URL: https://www.cropstoredb.org/cs_bambara.html.

Development and pre-clinical characterization of two therapeutic equine formulations towards SARS-CoV-2 proteins for the potential treatment of COVID-19

In the current global emergency due to SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, passive immunotherapy emerges as a promising treatment for COVID-19. Among animal-derived products, equine formulations are still the cornerstone therapy for treating envenomations due to animal bites and stings. Therefore, drawing upon decades of experience in manufacturing snake antivenom, we developed and preclinically evaluated two anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal equine formulations as potential alternative therapy for COVID-19. We immunized two groups of horses with either S1 (anti-S1) or a mixture of S1, N, and SEM mosaic (anti-Mix) viral recombinant proteins. Horses reached a maximum anti-viral antibody level at 7 weeks following priming, and showed no major adverse acute or chronic clinical alterations. Two whole-IgG formulations were prepared via hyperimmune plasma precipitation with caprylic acid and then formulated for parenteral use. Both preparations had similar physicochemical and microbiological quality and showed ELISA immunoreactivity towards S1 protein and the receptor binding domain (RBD). The anti-Mix formulation also presented immunoreactivity against N protein. Due to high anti-S1 and anti-RBD antibody content, final products exhibited high in vitro neutralizing capacity of SARS-CoV-2 infection, 80 times higher than a pool of human convalescent plasma. Pre-clinical quality profiles were similar among both products, but clinical efficacy and safety must be tested in clinical trials. The technological strategy we describe here can be adapted by other producers, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Exploring Urological Experience in the COVID-19 Outbreak: American Confederation of Urology (CAU) Survey.

PURPOSE: To explore the current situation faced by Latin American urology departments during the COVID-19 Outbreak in terms of knowledge, actions, prioritization of urology practices, and implementation of internal clinical management protocols for inpatients and outpatients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A non-validated, structured, self-administered, electronic survey with 35 closed multiple choice questions was conducted in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and English and Deutsch versions from April 1st to April 30th, 2020. The survey was distributed through social networks and the official American Confederation of Urology (CAU) website. It was anonymous, mainly addressed to Latin American urologists and urology residents. It included 35 questions exploring different aspects: 1) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and internal management protocols for healthcare providers; 2) Priority surgeries and urological urgencies and 3) Inpatient and outpatient care. RESULTS: Of 864 surveys received, 846 had at least 70% valid responses and were included in the statistical analyses. Surveys corresponded to South America in 62% of the cases, Central America and North America in 29.7%. 12.7% were residents. Regarding to PPE and internal management protocols, 88% confirmed the implementation of specific protocols and 45.4% have not received training to perform a safe clinical practice; only 2.3% reported being infected with COVID-19. 60.9% attended urgent surgeries. The following major uro-oncologic surgeries were reported as high priority: Radical Nephrectomy (RN) 58.4%, and Radical Cystectomy (RC) 57.3%. When we associate the capacity of hospitalization (urologic beds available) and percentage of high-priority surgery performed, we observed that centers with fewer urological beds (10-20) compared to centers with more urological beds (31-40) performed more frequently major urologic cancer surgeries: RN 54.5% vs 60.8% (p=0.0003), RC 53.1% vs 64.9% (p=0.005) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: At the time of writing (May 13th 2020) our data represents a snapshot of COVID-19 outbreak in Latin American urological practices. Our findings have practical implications and should be contextualized considering many factors related to patients and urological care: The variability of health care scenarios, institutional capacity, heterogeneity and burden of urologic disease, impact of surgical indications and decision making when prioritizing and scheduling surgeries in times of COVID-19 pandemic.

Exploring Urological Experience in the COVID-19 Outbreak: American Confederation of Urology (CAU) Survey

ABSTRACT Purpose: To explore the current situation faced by Latin American urology departments during the COVID-19 Outbreak in terms of knowledge, actions, prioritization of urology practices, and implementation of internal clinical management protocols for inpatients and outpatients. Material and Methods: A non-validated, structured, self-administered, electronic survey with 35 closed multiple choice questions was conducted in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and English and Deutsch versions from April 1st to April 30th, 2020. The survey was distributed through social networks and the official American Confederation of Urology (CAU) website. It was anonymous, mainly addressed to Latin American urologists and urology residents. It included 35 questions exploring different aspects: 1) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and internal management protocols for healthcare providers; 2) Priority surgeries and urological urgencies and 3) Inpatient and outpatient care. Results: Of 864 surveys received, 846 had at least 70% valid responses and were included in the statistical analyses. Surveys corresponded to South America in 62% of the cases, Central America and North America in 29.7%. 12.7% were residents. Regarding to PPE and internal management protocols, 88% confirmed the implementation of specific protocols and 45.4% have not received training to perform a safe clinical practice; only 2.3% reported being infected with COVID-19. 60.9% attended urgent surgeries. The following major uro-oncologic surgeries were reported as high priority: Radical Nephrectomy (RN) 58.4%, and Radical Cystectomy (RC) 57.3%. When we associate the capacity of hospitalization (urologic beds available) and percentage of high-priority surgery performed, we observed that centers with fewer urological beds (10-20) compared to centers with more urological beds (31-40) performed more frequently major urologic cancer surgeries: RN 54.5% vs 60.8% (p=0.0003), RC 53.1% vs 64.9% (p=0.005) respectively. Conclusions: At the time of writing (May 13th 2020) our data represents a snapshot of COVID-19 outbreak in Latin American urological practices. Our findings have practical implications and should be contextualized considering many factors related to patients and urological care: The variability of health care scenarios, institutional capacity, heterogeneity and burden of urologic disease, impact of surgical indications and decision making when prioritizing and scheduling surgeries in times of COVID-19 pandemic.

Identification of Vulnerable Populations and Areas at Higher Risk of COVID-19 Related Mortality in the U.S.

BackgroundThe role of health-related disparities including sociodemographic, environmental, and critical care capacity in the COVID-19 pandemic are poorly understood. In the present study, we characterized vulnerable populations located in areas at higher risk of COVID-19 related mortality and low critical healthcare capacity in the U.S. MethodsUsing Bayesian multilevel analysis and small area disease risk mapping, we assessed the spatial variation of COVID-19 related mortality risk for the U.S. in relation with healthcare disparities including race, ethnicity, poverty, air quality, and critical healthcare capacity. ResultsOverall, highly populated, regional air hub areas, and minorities had an increased risk of COVID-19 related mortality. We found that with an increase of only 1 ug/m3 in long term PM2.5 exposure, the COVID-19 mortality rate increased by 13%. Counties with major air hubs had 18% increase in COVID-19 related death compared to counties with no airport connectivity. Sixty-eight percent of the counties with high COVID-19 related mortality risk were also counties with lower critical care capacity than national average. These counties were primary located at the North- and South-Eastern regions of the country. ConclusionThe existing disparity in health and environmental risk factors that exacerbate the COVID-19 related mortality, along with the regional healthcare capacity, determine the vulnerability of populations to COVID-19 related mortality. The results from this study can be used to guide the development of strategies for the identification and targeting preventive strategies in vulnerable populations with a higher proportion of minority groups living in areas with poor air quality and low healthcare capacity. KEY POINTSO_ST_ABSQuestionC_ST_ABSWhat are the sociodemographic and environmental drivers of the heterogeneous distribution of the COVID-19 related mortality in the U.S., and what are the vulnerable areas at higher risk of COVID-19 related mortality and low critical healthcare capacity? FindingsHigher proportions of African American and Latino populations, as well as high levels of air pollution and airport connectivity were linked to higher risk of COVID-19 related mortality. Over 68% of the counties with high COVID-19 related mortality risk were also counties with lower critical care capacity than national average. MeaningIn a time-limited response, the identification and targeting prevention efforts should focus in vulnerable populations located in high risk areas in which sociodemographic and environmental factors are exacerbating the burden of COVID-19 related deaths.

On the impact of early non-pharmaceutical interventions as containment strategies against the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundThe novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and has spread since then to around 210 countries and territories by April 2020. Consequently, countries have adopted physical distance measures in an attempt to mitigate the uncontrolled spread of the virus. A critical question for policymakers to inform evidence-based practice is if and how physical distance measures slowed the propagation of COVID-19 in the early phase of the pandemic. MethodsThis study aims to quantify the effects of physical distance mitigation measures on the propagation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from John Hopkins University on confirmed cases and testing data from the Our World in Data were used in an interrupted time series analysis to estimate the effects of physical distance measures on the growth rates of the pandemic in 12 countries of Asia, Africa, and Europe. FindingsWe found that physical distance measures produced a significant decrease in the growth rates of the COVID-19 pandemic in five countries (Austria, Belgium, Italy, Malaysia, and South Korea). The test-positivity rate was significant in understanding the slowing growth rate of COVID-19 cases caused by the mitigation measures, as it provides important context that is missing from analysis based only on confirmed case data. InterpretationPhysical distance interventions effectively slowed the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study could inform infectious disease mitigation policies based on physical distance measures by quantifying the differential health outcomes of a pandemic with and without physical distance interventions. RESEARCH IN CONTEXTO_ST_ABSEvidence before this studyC_ST_ABSThe SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus identified in December 2019 in the province of Wuhan, China and as never before, a remarkable number of studies and reports have been released since the start of the pandemic. Several studies have used confirmed COVID-19 cases to estimate the growth rate of the pandemic. However, many studies have discussed limitations of including only confirmed cases attributable to the lack of information about testing protocols and testing rates among different countries. Finally, some researchers proposed the analysis of reported deaths by COVID-19 as a potential solution. However, this metric results in biased estimates because deaths by COVID-19 are known to be underreported. Added value of this studyWe designed and implemented analytic methods based on our previous research applied to different infectious disease epidemics, to add evidence related to the impact of non-pharmaceutical containment strategies on the temporal progression of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this study adds quantitative evidence about the effects of physical distance measures on limiting the propagation of COVID-19 pandemics in different countries. Additionally, we included testing data in the analysis to assess intra- and inter-country variation in testing growth rates. We hypothesized that the test-positivity rate is an approximation to the incidence of the COVID-19 pandemics in countries with high testing rates. Additionally, we hypothesize that a significant decrease in the pandemic over time could be identified by a significant decrease in the confirmed cases along with a significant decrease in the test-positivity rate. Our results quantified the potential effects of physical distance interventions on the COVID-19 pandemic progression under different levels of testing and enforcement of mitigation policies. Implications of all the available evidenceOur analysis could lead to better approaches for estimating the effects of physical distance measures on the time course of infectious diseases. In addition, our analysis highlights the potential bias of estimated COVID-19 growth rates based only on confirmed cases. The results from our study could inform strategies for mitigating the COVID-19 or other future pandemics, especially in countries in an earlier stage of a pandemic.

Bridging the food security gap: an information-led approach to connect dietary nutrition, food composition and crop production.

BACKGROUND: Food security is recognized as a major global challenge, yet human food-chain systems are inherently not geared towards nutrition, with decisions on crop and cultivar choice not informed by dietary composition. Currently, food compositional tables and databases (FCT/FCDB) are the primary information sources for decisions relating to dietary intake. However, these only present single mean values representing major components. Establishment of a systematic controlled vocabulary to fill this gap requires representation of a more complex set of semantic relationships between terms used to describe nutritional composition and dietary function. RESULTS: We carried out a survey of 11 FCT/FCDB and 177 peer-reviewed papers describing variation in nutritional composition and dietary function for food crops to identify a comprehensive set of terms to construct a controlled vocabulary. We used this information to generate a Crop Dietary Nutrition Data Framework (CDN-DF), which incorporates controlled vocabularies systematically organized into major classes representing nutritional components and dietary functions. We demonstrate the value of the CDN-DF for comparison of equivalent components between crop species or cultivars, for identifying data gaps and potential for formal meta-analysis. The CDN-DF also enabled us to explore relationships between nutritional components and the functional attributes of food. CONCLUSION: We have generated a structured crop dietary nutrition data framework, which is generally applicable to the collation and comparison of data relevant to crop researchers, breeders, and other stakeholders, and will facilitate dialogue with nutritionists. It is currently guiding the establishment of a more robust formal ontology. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

Pain Control in Latin America: The Optimized Role of Buprenorphine in the Treatment of Cancer and Noncancer Pain.

Pain is a terrible health problem that transcends borders and nationalities, although there may be significant differences among regions regarding pain management. In Latin America (LatAm, composed of the many nations of Central America, South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean), access to healthcare, pain management, and opioid analgesics can vary. Despite an international U.S.-led trend toward greater control in opioid prescribing, the role of opioids in the management of severe pain in LatAm is probably smaller than it should be, as opioid consumption in LatAm overall is low. Buprenorphine is a strong opioidwith certain characteristics that make it a potentially useful analgesic agent in LatAm: it has a unique pharmacology that allows for transdermal administration and a favorable safety profile with a ceiling effect for respiratory depression. It has a well-studied low risk potential for misuse, and there is strong evidence for its safety and efficacy in managing both cancer and noncancer pain in adults. Caregivers and policy makers in LatAm may learn from the U.S. experience with opioids in order to develop protocols to better and safely manage pain, and it is possible that buprenorphine will play a key role.

Towards shot-noise limited diffraction experiments with table-top femtosecond hard x-ray sources.

Table-top laser-driven hard x-ray sources with kilohertz repetition rates are an attractive alternative to large-scale accelerator-based systems and have found widespread applications in x-ray studies of ultrafast structural dynamics. Hard x-ray pulses of 100 fs duration have been generated at the Cu K α wavelength with a photon flux of up to 109 photons per pulse into the full solid angle, perfectly synchronized to the sub-100-fs optical pulses from the driving laser system. Based on spontaneous x-ray emission, such sources display a particular noise behavior which impacts the sensitivity of x-ray diffraction experiments. We present a detailed analysis of the photon statistics and temporal fluctuations of the x-ray flux, together with experimental strategies to optimize the sensitivity of optical pump/x-ray probe experiments. We demonstrate measurements close to the shot-noise limit of the x-ray source.

Gestación heterotópica tras estimulación ovárica con clomifeno / Heterotopic pregnancy following induction of ovulation with clomiphene citrate

Introducción: la gestación heterotópica consiste en la coexistencia de una gestación intraútero y otra ectópica. La incidencia se ha multiplicado, debido especialmente a las técnicas de reproducción asistida. Es un cuadro infradiagnosticado. El diagnóstico será ecográfico o laparoscópico. Caso clínico: mujer de 27 años gestante en la semana 5 tras tratamiento con clomifeno que acude a urgencias por abdominalgia. En ecografía, saco gestacional intraútero y en anejo izquierdo saco de 5,73 mm con vesícula vitelina y líquido libre en Douglas. Ante la sospecha de gestación heterotópica se indica laparoscopia diagnóstico- terapéutica: trompa izquierda dilatada con embarazo tubárico. Se realiza salpinguectomía (AU)

Blackground: A heterotopic pregnancy is defined by the coexistence of an intrauterine pregnancy and ectopic pregnancy. The incidence of heterotopic pregnancy has increased due to Assisted Reproduction Therapy and it tends to be underdiagnosed. The diagnosis is made by Ultrasound and Laparoscopy. Case report: A 27-year-old woman in her fifth week of pregnancy, after treatment with Clomiphene comes to the emergency room for abdominal pain. A routine ultrasound finds an intrauterine gestational sac, along with a left adnexal mass resembling a gestational sac with vitelline vesicle and a collection in Douglas. A diagnostictherapeutic laparoscopy was performed, finding a left tubaric pregnancy which was removed by salpinguectomy (AU)

Coleoptera Associated with Decaying Wood in a Tropical Deciduous Forest.

Coleoptera is the largest and diverse group of organisms, but few studies are dedicated to determine the diversity and feeding guilds of saproxylic Coleoptera. We demonstrate the diversity, abundance, feeding guilds, and succession process of Coleoptera associated with decaying wood in a tropical deciduous forest in the Mixteca Poblana, Mexico. Decaying wood was sampled and classified into four stages of decay, and the associated Coleoptera. The wood was identified according to their anatomy. Diversity was estimated using the Simpson index, while abundance was estimated using a Kruskal-Wallis test; the association of Coleoptera with wood species and decay was assessed using canonical correspondence analysis. Decay wood stage I is the most abundant (51%), followed by stage III (21%). We collected 93 Coleoptera belonging to 14 families, 41 genera, and 44 species. The family Cerambycidae was the most abundant, with 29% of individuals, followed by Tenebrionidae with 27% and Carabidae with 13%. We recognized six feeding guilds. The greatest diversity of Coleoptera was recorded in decaying Acacia farnesiana and Bursera linanoe. Kruskal-Wallis analysis indicated that the abundance of Coleoptera varied according to the species and stage of decay of the wood. The canonical analysis showed that the species and stage of decay of wood determined the composition and community structure of Coleoptera.

Plantas medicinales de los mercados de Izúcar de Matamoros y Acatlán de Osorio, Puebla / Medicinal plants of the markets of Izúcar de Matamoros and Acatlán de Osorio, Puebla

En México los mercados tradicionales son sitios que reflejan interacciones entre los hombres y las plantas, de tal forma que llegan a definir la identidad en la zona donde éstos se encuentran. El objetivo del presente estudio fue registrar la comercialización, uso, y procedencia de las plantas medicinales, así como la comparación entre los mercados de Izúcar de Matamoros y Acatlán de Osorio, en el estado de Puebla. Para cumplir con el objetivo planteado se realizaron seis visitas al mercado "Revolución" de Izúcar de Matamoros y 24 vistas al mercado "General Rafael Sánchez Taboada" de Acatlán de Osorio. Se realizaron entrevistas estructuradas donde se registraron: nombre común, uso de la planta, preparación, vía de administración, tipo de enfermedad que cura, costo por muestra, procedencia de las especies, tiempo en colectarlas; si se adquiere indirectamente, cuánto paga por cada una y como aprendió el uso de las plantas medicinales. La colecta del material botánico se llevó a cabo mediante la adquisición de muestras en estado fresco y seco, para su posterior identificación. Los resultados mostraron que en el mercado de Izúcar de Matamoros se registraron 1 133 puestos de los cuales el 0.71% lo representan los puestos de plantas medicinales; el número de especies registradas fue de 49, pertenecientes a 49 géneros y 35 familias, siendo la más sobresaliente la familia Asteraceae con 12 géneros; de las cuales 43 especies son recolectadas y 11 son cultivadas. En el mercado de Acatlán de Osorio se registraron 641 puestos, de donde el 1.71% lo conforman vendedores de plantas medicinales; el número de especies medicinales fue de 144, repartidas en 122 géneros y 71 familias. Las familias más sobresalientes fueron Asteraceae, Lamiaceae y Fabaceae, de las cuales todas las especies de plantas medicinales registradas se encontró que 61 especies son introducidas, 73 nativas y de 10 se desconoce su origen. También se registró, según las encuestas aplicadas a vendedores que 110 especies son silvestres y 33 cultivadas, todas ellas comercializadas tanto en fresco como en seco de ambos mercados. Las encuestas aplicadas demostraron que en total, en los mencionados mercados se venden plantas para curar 31 enfermedades, 25 fueron del mercado de Izúcar de Matamoros y 27 en el de Acatlán de Osorio. La parte más utilizada para curar los padecimientos son las hojas, los tallos y flores, y la forma de aplicación es oral y local. El empleo de las plantas medicinales es para curar enfermedades del aparato digestivo, circulatorio, excretor, nervioso respiratorio y de síndrome cultural. La forma de comercialización fue el manojo y el compuesto. Se concluye que ambos mercados son tradicionales y las familias de plantas comercializadas que tienen mayor importancia son Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Fabaceae y Rutaceae.

The maize (Zea mays ssp. mays var. B73) genome encodes 33 members of the purple acid phosphatase family.

Purple acid phosphatases (PAPs) play an important role in plant phosphorus nutrition, both by liberating phosphorus from organic sources in the soil and by modulating distribution within the plant throughout growth and development. Furthermore, members of the PAP protein family have been implicated in a broader role in plant mineral homeostasis, stress responses and development. We have identified 33 candidate PAP encoding gene models in the maize (Zea mays ssp. mays var. B73) reference genome. The maize Pap family includes a clear single-copy ortholog of the Arabidopsis gene AtPAP26, shown previously to encode both major intracellular and secreted acid phosphatase activities. Certain groups of PAPs present in Arabidopsis, however, are absent in maize, while the maize family contains a number of expansions, including a distinct radiation not present in Arabidopsis. Analysis of RNA-sequencing based transcriptome data revealed accumulation of maize Pap transcripts in multiple plant tissues at multiple stages of development, and increased accumulation of specific transcripts under low phosphorus availability. These data suggest the maize PAP family as a whole to have broad significance throughout the plant life cycle, while highlighting potential functional specialization of individual family members.

Transcriptome diversity among rice root types during asymbiosis and interaction with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

Root systems consist of different root types (RTs) with distinct developmental and functional characteristics. RTs may be individually reprogrammed in response to their microenvironment to maximize adaptive plasticity. Molecular understanding of such specific remodeling--although crucial for crop improvement--is limited. Here, RT-specific transcriptomes of adult rice crown, large and fine lateral roots were assessed, revealing molecular evidence for functional diversity among individual RTs. Of the three rice RTs, crown roots displayed a significant enrichment of transcripts associated with phytohormones and secondary cell wall (SCW) metabolism, whereas lateral RTs showed a greater accumulation of transcripts related to mineral transport. In nature, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis represents the default state of most root systems and is known to modify root system architecture. Rice RTs become heterogeneously colonized by AM fungi, with large laterals preferentially entering into the association. However, RT-specific transcriptional responses to AM symbiosis were quantitatively most pronounced for crown roots despite their modest physical engagement in the interaction. Furthermore, colonized crown roots adopted an expression profile more related to mycorrhizal large lateral than to noncolonized crown roots, suggesting a fundamental reprogramming of crown root character. Among these changes, a significant reduction in SCW transcripts was observed that was correlated with an alteration of SCW composition as determined by mass spectrometry. The combined change in SCW, hormone- and transport-related transcript profiles across the RTs indicates a previously overlooked switch of functional relationships among RTs during AM symbiosis, with a potential impact on root system architecture and functioning.

Regionally nested patterns of fish assemblages in floodplain lakes of the Magdalena river (Colombia).

We investigated if fish assemblages in neotropical floodplain lakes (cienagas) exhibit nestedness, and thus offer support to the managers of natural resources of the area for their decision making. The location was floodplain lakes of the middle section of the Magdalena river, Colombia. We applied the nested subset analysis for the series of 30 cienagas (27 connected to the main river and three isolated). All fish were identified taxonomically in the field and the matrix for presence-absence in all the lakes was used for the study of the pattern of nestedness. The most diverse order was Characiformes (20 species), followed by Siluriformes (19 species). Characidae and Loricaridae were the richest families. The species found in all the lakes studied were migratory species (17), and sedentary species (33). Two species (Caquetaia kraussii and Cyphocharax magdalenae) were widespread across the cienagas archipelago (100% of incidence). Nestedness analysis showed that the distribution of species over the spatial gradient studied (840 km) is significantly nested. The cienagas deemed the most hospitable were Simiti, El Llanito, and Canaletal. Roughly, 13 out of the 50 species caught show markedly idiosyncratic distributions. The resulting dataset showed a strong pattern of nestedness in the distribution of Magdalenese fishes, and differed significantly from random species assemblages. Out of all the measurements taken in the cienagas, only the size (area) and local richness are significantly related to the range of order of nested subset patterns (r=-0.59 and -0.90, respectively, at p < 0.01). Differential species extinction is suggested as the cause of a nested species assemblage, when the reorganized matrix of species occurring in habitat islands is correlated with the island area. Our results are consistent with this hypothesis.