Cognitive Impairment Related to Chronic Kidney Disease Is Associated with a Decreased Abundance of Membrane-Bound Klotho in the Cerebral Cortex.

Cognitive impairment (CI) is a complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD) that is frequently observed among patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential crosstalk between changes in cognitive function and the levels of Klotho in the brain cortex in an experimental model of CKD. To induce renal damage, Wistar rats received a diet containing 0.25% adenine for six weeks, while the control group was fed a standard diet. The animals underwent different tests for the assessment of cognitive function. At sacrifice, changes in the parameters of mineral metabolism and the expression of Klotho in the kidney and frontal cortex were evaluated. The animals with CKD exhibited impaired behavior in the cognitive tests in comparison with the rats with normal renal function. At sacrifice, CKD-associated mineral disorder was confirmed by the presence of the expected disturbances in the plasma phosphorus, PTH, and both intact and c-terminal FGF23, along with a reduced abundance of renal Klotho. Interestingly, a marked and significant decrease in Klotho was observed in the cerebral cortex of the animals with renal dysfunction. In sum, the loss in cerebral Klotho observed in experimental CKD may contribute to the cognitive dysfunction frequently observed among patients. Although further studies are required, Klotho might have a relevant role in the development of CKD-associated CI and represent a potential target in the management of this complication.

What Is It like to Be a Brain Organoid? Phenomenal Consciousness in a Biological Neural Network.

It has been shown that three-dimensional self-assembled multicellular structures derived from human pluripotent stem cells show electrical activity similar to EEG. More recently, neurons were successfully embedded in digital game worlds. The biologically inspired neural network (BNN), expressing human cortical cells, was able to show internal modification and learn the task at hand (predicting the trajectory of a digital ball while moving a digital paddle). In other words, the system allowed to read motor information and write sensory data into cell cultures. In this article, we discuss Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC) theories, and their capacity to predict or even allow for consciousness in a BNN. We found that Information Integration Theory (IIT) is the only NCC that offers the possibility for a BNN to show consciousness, since the Φ value in the BNN is >0. In other words, the recording of real-time neural activity responding to environmental stimuli. IIT argues that any system capable of integrating information will have some degree of phenomenal consciousness. We argue that the pattern of activity appearing in the BNN, with increased density of sensory information leading to better performance, implies that the BNN could be conscious. This may have profound implications from a psychological, philosophical, and ethical perspective.

MILimbEEG: A dataset of EEG signals related to upper and lower limb execution of motor and motor imagery tasks.

Biomedical Electroencephalography (EEG) signals are the result of measuring the electric potential difference generated on the scalp surface by neural activity corresponding to each brain area. Accurate and automatic detection of neural activity from the upper and lower limbs using EEG may be helpful in rehabilitating people suffering from mobility limitations or disabilities. This article presents a dataset containing 7440 CSV files from 60 test subjects during motor and motor imagery tasks. The motor and motor imagery tasks performed by the test subjects were: Closing Left Hand (CLH), Closing Right Hand (CRH), Dorsal flexion of Left Foot (DLF), Plantar flexion of Left Foot (PLF), Dorsal flexion of Right Foot (DRF), Plantar flexion of Right Foot (PRF) and Resting in between tasks (Rest). The volunteers were recruited from research colleagues at ESPOL and patients at the Luis Vernaza Hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Each CSV file has 501 rows, of which the first one lists the electrodes from 0 to 15, and the remaining 500 rows correspond to 500 data recorded during the task is performed due to sample rate. In addition, each file has 17 columns, of which the first one indicates the sampling number and the remaining 16 columns represent 16 surface EEG electrodes. As a data recording equipment, the OpenBCI is used in a monopolar setup with a sampling rate of 125 Hz. This work includes statistical measures about the demographic information of all recruited test subjects. Finally, we outline the experimental methodology used to record EEG signals during upper and lower limb task execution. This dataset is called MILimbEEG and contains microvolt (µV) EEG signals acquired during motor and motor imagery tasks. The collected data may facilitate the evaluation of EEG signal detection and classification models dedicated to task recognition.

Retinopatía diabética y su relación con los niveles de hemoglobina glucosilada / Diabetic Retinopathy and its Relationship with Glycosylated Hemoglobin Levels

Introducción: La retinopatía diabética es la principal causa de ceguera en personas diabéticas de 20 a 64 años de edad, e incrementa su aparición frente a un mal control de la enfermedad, que se expresa con valores altos de hemoglobina glucosilada (HbA1C). Objetivo: Establecer la relación entre los niveles de hemoglobina glucosilada y la presencia de retinopatía en los pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 2. Métodos: Se llevó a cabo un estudio descriptivo, prospectivo y transversal, en el que se obtuvieron, mediante ficha de observación, datos sociodemográficos, de evaluación oftalmológica y niveles de HbA1C, de los pacientes atendidos en consulta externa del Hospital General Isidro Ayora de la ciudad de Loja, Ecuador, en el período febrero-junio de 2018. Se aplicaron medidas de frecuencia y asociación para el análisis estadístico. Resultados: Se incluyeron 160 pacientes: 108 mujeres y 52 hombres, todos de raza mestiza. Se identificó retinopatía en 26,8 por ciento (N = 43) de los pacientes, de quienes 41 por ciento (N = 18) tenía más de 65 años de edad. La media de HbA1C en pacientes sin retinopatía fue de 7,4 por ciento, y en aquellos con retinopatía de 9,8 por ciento en mayor porcentaje de pacientes con valores de HbA1C de 7 por ciento o más presentaron retinopatía diabética, en comparación con aquellos de HbA1C menores a 7 por ciento (p < 0,0001), la retinopatía no proliferativa moderada fue el principal diagnóstico realizado. Conclusiones: El mal control glucémico en las personas con diabetes mellitus tipo 2 se asocia con mayor probabilidad de aparición de lesiones retinianas(AU)

Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy is the main cause of blindness in diabetic people aged 20 to 64 years; it increases its occurrence due to poor control of the disease, expressed by high values of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c). Objective: To establish the relationship between glycosylated hemoglobin levels and the presence of retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: A descriptive, prospective and cross-sectional study was carried out, in which sociodemographic data, others from an ophthalmologic evaluation and HbA1c levels were obtained, by means of an observation card, from patients seen in the outpatient clinic of Hospital General Isidro Ayoraof the city of Loja, Ecuador, in the period February-June 2018. Frequency and association measures were applied for statistical analysis. Results: The study included 160 patients: 108 women and 52 men, all of mixed race. Retinopathy was identified in 26.8percent (N=43) of patients, of whom 41percent (N=18) were over 65 years of age. The mean HbA1c in patients without retinopathy was 7.4percent, and 9.8percent in those with retinopathy. A higher percentage of patients with HbA1c values of 7percent more had diabetic retinopathy, compared to those with HbA1C under 7percent (p<0.0001). Moderate nonproliferative retinopathy was the main diagnosis. Conclusions: Poor glycemic control in persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with increased likelihood of retinal lesions(AU)

Variation in diversity-function relationships can be explained by species interactions.

Research Highlight: Wu, D., Xu, C., Wang, S., Zhang, L., & Kortsch, S. (2022). Why are biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships so elusive? Trophic interactions may amplify ecosystem function variability. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13808. There is consensus that average trends of ecosystem functions increase with species diversity. However, large variations in ecosystem function (VEF) in systems with similar diversity levels are commonly observed, yet not understood. In this study, Wu et al. (2022) integrate empirical aquatic food webs with a multitrophic model to show that VEF generally shows a hump-shaped pattern along the species richness gradient. This pattern is related to changes in taxa composition across trophic levels-the proportion of consumer species relative to basal species-along the gradient of species richness. Thus, VEF dependence on species diversity is driven by both bottom-up and top-down control that regulate taxa composition and taxa dominance. These results are corroborated with an independent food web dataset from the Gulf of Riga. An important implication of this study is that biodiversity loss may not only reduce the mean levels of ecosystem functioning, but also increase unpredictability of functions by generating greater function variability.

Genome-Wide Association Study of Listeria monocytogenes Isolates Causing Three Different Clinical Outcomes.

Heterogeneity in virulence potential of L. monocytogenes subgroups have been associated with genetic elements that could provide advantages in certain environments to invade, multiply, and survive within a host. The presence of gene mutations has been found to be related to attenuated phenotypes, while the presence of groups of genes, such as pathogenicity islands (PI), has been associated with hypervirulent or stress-resistant clones. We evaluated 232 whole genome sequences from invasive listeriosis cases in human and ruminants from the US and Europe to identify genomic elements associated with strains causing three clinical outcomes: central nervous system (CNS) infections, maternal-neonatal (MN) infections, and systemic infections (SI). Phylogenetic relationships and virulence-associated genes were evaluated, and a gene-based and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) were conducted in order to identify loci associated with the different clinical outcomes. The orthologous results indicated that genes of phage phiX174, transfer RNAs, and type I restriction-modification (RM) system genes along with SNPs in loci involved in environmental adaptation such as rpoB and a phosphotransferase system (PTS) were associated with one or more clinical outcomes. Detection of phenotype-specific candidate loci represents an approach that could narrow the group of genetic elements to be evaluated in future studies.

First three cases of cat-associated zoonotic cutaneous sporotrichosis in Colombia.

BACKGROUND: Sporotrichosis is a subcutaneous mycosis caused by dimorphic fungi of the genus Sporothrix. The route of entry of the causative agent is direct inoculation by skin trauma, generally with decaying wood and other vegetation. However, cat-transmitted sporotrichosis has become more relevant in recent decades especially in South America. Until now, there are no case reports of cat-transmitted sporotrichosis in Colombia. CASE REPORT: We present three cases of cutaneous sporotrichosis after the scratches of an ill cat, in the feline's owners and its veterinarian, confirmed by culture and PCR, where S. schenckii sensu stricto was isolated and typified. CONCLUSIONS: Cat-transmitted sporotrichosis is becoming more relevant in recent decades due to its potential to generate epidemics and become a public health problem. In addition, since the associated species are more virulent, the disease has more aggressive behavior. In Colombia, this is the first case series of cat-transmitted cutaneous sporotrichosis.

Enriched-biochar application increases broccoli nutritional and phytochemical content without detrimental effect on yield.

BACKGROUND: Soil fertility is a major concern during vegetable production. Conventional versus organic fertilization has been studied in order to conserve soil properties. While some reports point out an increase in food nutritional properties, the loss of crop yield under organic conditions continues to be a problem. Thus, an experiment with broccoli in the field was carried out, comparing crop management under conventional fertilization (CF) and two soil amendment treatments: manure pellet (M) and an enriched-biochar (EB) supplemented by an organic fertilizer (AND) applied alone (M + CF; EB+AND) or in combination (M + EB + AND). Crop yield and the nutritional properties in the flowering heads (mineral content, phenolic compounds and glucosinolates (GSLs)), were determined. RESULTS: Enriched-biochar and manure as a standalone amendment resulted in higher crop yield regarding CF, but not when they were applied in combination. The number of flowering heads with no-commercial characteristics was lower after enriched-biochar soil application. Finally, enriched-biochar treatment enhanced NO3 - , PO4 3- and SO4 2- levels in the flowering heads, and some of the ion contents can be associated with mineral changes in the soil after the biochar amendment. Also, the contents of phenolic compounds and indole GSLs were higher after enriched-biochar application compared with the other treatments, GSL increase being due to the higher percentage of sulfur in the plant rather that an adequate N/S ratio. CONCLUSION: Application of enriched-biochar amendment in the cultivation of broccoli is appropriate, since there are no losses of yield and an increase in nutritional compounds in the flowering heads. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Leveraging National Germplasm Collections to Determine Significantly Associated Categorical Traits in Crops: Upland and Pima Cotton as a Case Study.

Observable qualitative traits are relatively stable across environments and are commonly used to evaluate crop genetic diversity. Recently, molecular markers have largely superseded describing phenotypes in diversity surveys. However, qualitative descriptors are useful in cataloging germplasm collections and for describing new germplasm in patents, publications, and/or the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) system. This research focused on the comparative analysis of standardized cotton traits as represented within the National Cotton Germplasm Collection (NCGC). The cotton traits are named by 'descriptors' that have non-numerical sub-categories (descriptor states) reflecting the details of how each trait manifests or is absent in the plant. We statistically assessed selected accessions from three major groups of Gossypium as defined by the NCGC curator: (1) "Stoneville accessions (SA)," containing mainly Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) cultivars; (2) "Texas accessions (TEX)," containing mainly G. hirsutum landraces; and (3) Gossypium barbadense (Gb), containing cultivars or landraces of Pima cotton (Gossypium barbadense). For 33 cotton descriptors we: (a) revealed distributions of character states for each descriptor within each group; (b) analyzed bivariate associations between paired descriptors; and (c) clustered accessions based on their descriptors. The fewest significant associations between descriptors occurred in the SA dataset, likely reflecting extensive breeding for cultivar development. In contrast, the TEX and Gb datasets showed a higher number of significant associations between descriptors, likely correlating with less impact from breeding efforts. Three significant bivariate associations were identified for all three groups, bract nectaries:boll nectaries, leaf hair:stem hair, and lint color:seed fuzz color. Unsupervised clustering analysis recapitulated the species labels for about 97% of the accessions. Unexpected clustering results indicated accessions that may benefit from potential further investigation. In the future, the significant associations between standardized descriptors can be used by curators to determine whether new exotic/unusual accessions most closely resemble Upland or Pima cotton. In addition, the study shows how existing descriptors for large germplasm datasets can be useful to inform downstream goals in breeding and research, such as identifying rare individuals with specific trait combinations and targeting breakdown of remaining trait associations through breeding, thus demonstrating the utility of the analytical methods employed in categorizing germplasm diversity within the collection.

Ecological network complexity scales with area.

Larger geographical areas contain more species-an observation raised to a law in ecology. Less explored is whether biodiversity changes are accompanied by a modification of interaction networks. We use data from 32 spatial interaction networks from different ecosystems to analyse how network structure changes with area. We find that basic community structure descriptors (number of species, links and links per species) increase with area following a power law. Yet, the distribution of links per species varies little with area, indicating that the fundamental organization of interactions within networks is conserved. Our null model analyses suggest that the spatial scaling of network structure is determined by factors beyond species richness and the number of links. We demonstrate that biodiversity-area relationships can be extended from species counts to higher levels of network complexity. Therefore, the consequences of anthropogenic habitat destruction may extend from species loss to wider simplification of natural communities.

Spontaneous pneumothorax in Covid-19: Report of three cases.

Spontaneous pneumothorax is an uncommon complication of COVID-19 disease, and may be associated with worse outcomes. This can occur without a pre-existing lung disease or without mechanical ventilation.  We present a series of 3 cases of spontaneous pneumothorax with Covid-19 pneumonia. All the cases in our series did not have any pre-existing lung disease. The timely identification of possible complications of COVID-19 is crucial to reduce mortality. Spontaneous pneumothorax should be suspected in all types of patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia who present a sudden deterioration of hypoxia on their first admission to the health centers.

Effectiveness of Two Plant-Based In-Feed Additives against an Escherichia coli F4 Oral Challenge in Weaned Piglets.

This study evaluates the efficacy of two plant-based feed supplementations to fight colibacillosis in weanlings. A total of 96 piglets (32 pens) were assigned to four diets: a control diet (T1) or supplemented with ZnO (2500 ppm Zn) (T2) or two different plant supplements, T3 (1 kg/t; based on essential oils) and T4 (T3 + 1.5 kg/t based on non-volatile compounds). After one week, animals were challenged with ETEC F4, and 8 days after, one animal per pen was euthanized. Performance, clinical signs, microbial analysis, inflammatory response, intestinal morphology, and ileal gene expression were assessed. ZnO improved daily gains 4 days after challenge, T3 and T4 showing intermediate values (96, 249, 170, and 157 g/d for T1, T2, T3, and T4, p = 0.035). Fecal lactobacilli were higher with T3 and T4 compared to ZnO (7.55, 6.26, 8.71, and 8.27 cfu/gFM; p = 0.0007) and T3 increased the lactobacilli/coliforms ratio (p = 0.002). T4 was associated with lower levels of Pig-MAP (p = 0.07) and increases in villus/crypt ratio (1.49, 1.90, 1.73, and 1.84; p = 0.009). Moreover, T4 was associated with an upregulation of the REG3G gene (p = 0.013; pFDR = 0.228) involved in the immune response induced by enteric pathogens. In conclusion, both plant supplements enhanced animal response in front of an ETEC F4 challenge probably based on different modes of action.

Orthology and synteny analysis of receptor-like kinases "RLK" and receptor-like proteins "RLP" in legumes.

BACKGROUND: Legume species are an important plant model because of their protein-rich physiology. The adaptability and productivity of legumes are limited by major biotic and abiotic stresses. Responses to these stresses directly involve plasma membrane receptor proteins known as receptor-like kinases and receptor-like proteins. Evaluating the homology relations among RLK and RLP for seven legume species, and exploring their presence among synteny blocks allow an increased understanding of evolutionary relations, physical position, and chromosomal distribution in related species and their shared roles in stress responses. RESULTS: Typically, a high proportion of RLK and RLP legume proteins belong to orthologous clusters, which is confirmed in this study, where between 66 to 90% of the RLKs and RLPs per legume species were classified in orthologous clusters. One-third of the evaluated syntenic blocks had shared RLK/RLP genes among both legumes and non-legumes. Among the legumes, between 75 and 98% of the RLK/RLP were present in syntenic blocks. The distribution of chromosomal segments between Phaseolus vulgaris and Vigna unguiculata, two species that diverged ~ 8 mya, were highly similar. Among the RLK/RLP synteny clusters, seven experimentally validated resistance RLK/RLP genes were identified in syntenic blocks. The RLK resistant genes FLS2, BIR2, ERECTA, IOS1, and AtSERK1 from Arabidopsis and SLSERK1 from Solanum lycopersicum were present in different pairwise syntenic blocks among the legume species. Meanwhile, only the LYM1- RLP resistant gene from Arabidopsis shared a syntenic blocks with Glycine max. CONCLUSIONS: The orthology analysis of the RLK and RLP suggests a dynamic evolution in the legume family, with between 66 to 85% of RLK and 83 to 88% of RLP belonging to orthologous clusters among the species evaluated. In fact, for the 10-species comparison, a lower number of singleton proteins were reported among RLP compared to RLK, suggesting that RLP positions are more physically conserved compared to RLK. The identification of RLK and RLP genes among the synteny blocks in legumes revealed multiple highly conserved syntenic blocks on multiple chromosomes. Additionally, the analysis suggests that P. vulgaris is an appropriate anchor species for comparative genomics among legumes.

Computational identification of receptor-like kinases "RLK" and receptor-like proteins "RLP" in legumes.

BACKGROUND: In plants, the plasma membrane is enclosed by the cell wall and anchors RLK and RLP proteins, which play a fundamental role in perception of developmental and environmental cues and are crucial in plant development and immunity. These plasma membrane receptors belong to large gene/protein families that are not easily classified computationally. This detailed analysis of these plasma membrane proteins brings a new source of information to the legume genetic, physiology and breeding research communities. RESULTS: A computational approach to identify and classify RLK and RLP proteins is presented. The strategy was evaluated using experimentally-validated RLK and RLP proteins and was determined to have a sensitivity of over 0.85, a specificity of 1.00, and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.91. The computational approach can be used to develop a detailed catalog of plasma membrane receptors (by type and domains) in several legume/crop species. The exclusive domains identified in legumes for RLKs are WaaY, APH Pkinase_C, LRR_2, and EGF, and for RLP are L-lectin LPRY and PAN_4. The RLK-nonRD and RLCK subclasses are also discovered by the methodology. In both classes, less than 20% of the total RLK predicted for each species belong to this class. Among the 10-species evaluated ~ 40% of the proteins in the kinome are RLKs. The exclusive legume domain combinations identified are B-Lectin/PR5K domains in G. max, M. truncatula, V. angularis, and V. unguiculata and a three-domain combination B-lectin/S-locus/WAK in C. cajan, M. truncatula, P. vulgaris, V. angularis. and V. unguiculata. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis suggests that about 2% of the proteins of each genome belong to the RLK family and less than 1% belong to RLP family. Domain diversity combinations are greater for RLKs compared with the RLP proteins and LRR domains, and the dual domain combination LRR/Malectin were the most frequent domain for both groups of plasma membrane receptors among legume and non-legume species. Legumes exclusively show Pkinase extracellular domains, and atypical domain combinations in RLK and RLP compared with the non-legumes evaluated. The computational logic approach is statistically well supported and can be used with the proteomes of other plant species.

The long-term restoration of ecosystem complexity.

Multiple large-scale restoration strategies are emerging globally to counteract ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. However, restoration often remains insufficient to offset that loss. To address this challenge, we propose to focus restoration science on the long-term (centuries to millennia) re-assembly of degraded ecosystem complexity integrating interaction network and evolutionary potential approaches. This approach provides insights into eco-evolutionary feedbacks determining the structure, functioning and stability of recovering ecosystems. Eco-evolutionary feedbacks may help to understand changes in the adaptive potential after disturbance of metacommunity hub species with core structural and functional roles for their use in restoration. Those changes can be studied combining a restoration genomics approach based on whole-genome sequencing with replicated space-for-time substitutions linking changes in genetic variation to functions or traits relevant to the establishment of evolutionarily resilient communities. This approach may set the knowledge basis for future tools to accelerate the restoration of ecosystems able to adapt to ongoing global changes.

Reconciling biodiversity conservation, food production and farmers' demand in agricultural landscapes.

Efficient management of agricultural management should consider multiple services and stakeholders. Yet, it remains unclear how to guarantee ecosystem services for multiple stakeholders' demands, especially considering the observed biodiversity decline following reductions in semi-natural habitat (SNH), and global change. Here, we use an ecosystem service model of intensively-managed agricultural landscapes to derive the best landscape compositions for different stakeholders' demands, and how they vary with stochasticity and the degree of pollination dependence of crops. We analyse three groups of stakeholders assumed to value different ecosystem services most - individual farmers (crop yield per area), agricultural unions (landscape production) and conservationists (biodiversity). Additionally, we consider a social average scenario that aims at maximizing multifunctionality. Trade-offs among stakeholders' demands strongly depend on the degree of pollination dependence of crops, the strength of environmental and demographic stochasticity, and the relative amount of an ecosystem service demanded by each stakeholder. Intermediate amounts of SNH deliver relatively high levels of the three services (social average). Our analysis further suggests that the current levels of SNH protection lie below these intermediate amounts of SNH in intensively-managed agricultural landscapes. Given the worldwide trends in agriculture and global change, current policies should start to consider factors such as crop type and stochasticity, as they can strongly influence best landscape compositions for different stakeholders. Our results suggest ways of managing landscapes to reconcile several actors' demands and ensure for biodiversity conservation and food production.

Integrated genomic epidemiology and phenotypic profiling of Clostridium difficile across intra-hospital and community populations in Colombia.

Clostridium difficile, the causal agent of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, has a complex epidemiology poorly studied in Latin America. We performed a robust genomic and phenotypic profiling of 53 C. difficile clinical isolates established from diarrheal samples from either intrahospital (IH) or community (CO) populations in central Colombia. In vitro tests were conducted to evaluate the cytopathic effect, the minimum inhibitory concentration of ten antimicrobial agents, the sporulation efficiency and the colony forming ability. Eleven different sequence types (STs) were found, the majority present individually in each sample, however in three samples two different STs were isolated. Interestingly, CO patients were infected with STs associated with hypervirulent strains (ST-1 in Clade-2). Three coexistence events (two STs simultaneously detected in the same sample) were observed always involving ST-8 from Clade-1. A total of 2,502 genes were present in 99% of the isolates with 95% of identity or more, it represents a core genome of 28.6% of the 8,735 total genes identified in the set of genomes. A high cytopathic effect was observed for the isolates positive for the two main toxins but negative for binary toxin (TcdA+/TcdB+/CDT- toxin production type), found only in Clade-1. Molecular markers conferring resistance to fluoroquinolones (cdeA and gyrA) and to sulfonamides (folP) were the most frequent in the analyzed genomes. In addition, 15 other markers were found mostly in Clade-2 isolates. These results highlight the regional differences that C. difficile isolates display, being in this case the CO isolates the ones having a greater number of accessory genes and virulence-associated factors.

La observación. Primer eslabón del método clínico / Observation. First step of the clinical method

Introducción: la observación es la base del conocimiento del mundo y de la actividad científica. Objetivo: destacar la importancia de la observación como parte del método clínico para arribar al diagnóstico en un proceso salud enfermedad y poder decidir la terapéutica adecuada. Desarrollo: el método de observación es un proceso de descomposición-recomposición de informaciones obtenidas mediante la percepción, según los fines científicos establecidos en los modos de observación construidos. Se señala que es un proceso activo y organizado en el tiempo, en el cual se considera, un conjunto de fenómenos que pueden ser analizados. Conclusiones: la observación es la primera etapa del método clínico porque es de donde parte la obtención de información, tanto por lo que dice el enfermo como por lo que se puede observar mediante la inspección. Quiere decir que, no solo la información se vincula con la comunicación verbal, sino con formas no verbales como la inspección, y de esa forma se llega a acopiar datos sobre lo que ya puede ser explícito o general o sobre aspectos más particulares o específicos(AU)

Introduction: observation is the basis of knowledge of the world and of scientific activity. Objective: to emphasize the importance of observation as part of the clinical method to arrive at the diagnosis in a disease health process and to be able to decide the appropriate treatment. Development: the observation method is a process of decomposition-recomposition of information obtained through perception, according to the scientific purposes established in the modes of observation constructed. It is pointed out that it is an active and organized process over time, in which it is considered, a set of phenomena that can be analyzed. Conclusions: observation is the first stage of the clinical method because it is from where the information is obtained, both by what the patient says and by what can be observed through inspection. It means that not only information is linked to verbal communication, but also to non-verbal forms such as inspection, and in this way it is possible to collect data on what can already be explicit or general or on more specific or specific aspects(AU)

Comparative genomics identifies potential virulence factors in Clostridium tertium and C. paraputrificum.

Some well-known Clostridiales species such as Clostridium difficile and C. perfringens are agents of high impact diseases worldwide. Nevertheless, other foreseen Clostridiales species have recently emerged such as Clostridium tertium and C. paraputrificum. Three fecal isolates were identified as Clostridium tertium (Gcol.A2 and Gcol.A43) and C. paraputrificum (Gcol.A11) during public health screening for C. difficile infections in Colombia. C. paraputrificum genomes were highly diverse and contained large numbers of accessory genes. Genetic diversity and accessory gene percentage were lower among the C. tertium genomes than in the C. paraputrificum genomes. C. difficile tcdA and tcdB toxins encoding homologous sequences and other potential virulence factors were also identified. EndoA interferase, a toxic component of the type II toxin-antitoxin system, was found among the C. tertium genomes. toxA was the only toxin encoding gene detected in Gcol.A43, the Colombian isolate with an experimentally-determined high cytotoxic effect. Gcol.A2 and Gcol.A43 had higher sporulation efficiencies than Gcol.A11 (84.5%, 83.8% and 57.0%, respectively), as supported by the greater number of proteins associated with sporulation pathways in the C. tertium genomes compared with the C. paraputrificum genomes (33.3 and 28.4 on average, respectively). This work allowed complete genome description of two clostridiales species revealing high levels of intra-taxa diversity, accessory genomes containing virulence-factors encoding genes (especially in C. paraputrificum), with proteins involved in sporulation processes more highly represented in C. tertium. These finding suggest the need to advance in the study of those species with potential importance at public health level.