Variables with a negative impact on the quality of life of gays and lesbians in Spain: evaluation of homophobic and lesbophobic indicators to guide youth education.

Background: Despite the evidence about the negative impact of homophobic and lesbophobic attitudes on the quality of life of these individuals, the World Health Organisation (WHO) continues to report a lack of research and understanding regarding the health of gays and lesbians and LGTB people in general. There is a growing commitment in public health to understand and improve the health and well-being of LGTB people, and it is very important that professionals in social, educational and health care settings are adequately trained and informed to solve the problems that persist in this population. The aim of this study was to identify homophobic and lesbophobic attitudes in a Spanish youth population, analyzing the relationship of these attitudes with sociodemographic, cultural, political and personal variables. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out with 325 young people aged 18-30 years. The information was collected through the Modern Homophobia Scale of Raja & Stokes, in which sociodemographic and sociocultural variables were also gathered. The data were analyzed and correlations were estimated. Results: The males showed a more negative attitude toward homosexual people compared to the females. The participants with a higher education level presented more positive attitudes toward homosexual people. Younger people with a heterosexual orientation had more negative attitudes toward homosexual people compared to those with a homosexual orientation. The participants with a stronger right-wing political tendency presented a greater percentage of negative attitudes toward LGTB people. Conclusion: Variables such as education level, sexual orientation and political ideology may have a significant influence on the attitudes toward homosexual men and/or lesbian women. Different results were obtained as a function of sex, thus it is important to consider the gender perspective in future studies that tackle this topic.

Health care utilization of Hispanic/Latino veterans with epilepsy: A national population-based study.

OBJECTIVE: Hispanic/Latino people with epilepsy are a growing population that has been understudied in clinical epilepsy research. U.S. veterans are at a higher risk of epilepsy due to greater exposures including traumatic brain injury. Hispanic/Latino Veterans with Epilepsy (HL-VWEs) represent a growing population; however the treatment utilization patterns of this population have been vastly understudied. METHODS: HL-VWE were identified from administrative databases during fiscal year 2019. Variables compared between Hispanic and non-Hispanic VWEs included demographics, rurality, service era, utilization of clinical services/investigations, and service-connected injury. Chi-square and Student's t tests were used for comparisons. RESULTS: Among 56 556 VWEs, 3247 (5.7%) were HL. HL-VWEs were younger (59.2 vs 63.2 years; p < .01) and more commonly urban-dwelling (81.6% vs 63.2%, p < .01) compared to non-HL-VWEs. They were also more likely to have served in recent missions such as the Persian Gulf War and post- 9/11 wars (p < .01). HL-VWEs had a higher utilization of all neurology services examined including neurology clinic visits, computed tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, electroencephalography (EEG), epilepsy monitoring, and comprehensive epilepsy care (p < .01 for all). HL-VWEs were more likely to visit an emergency room or have seizure-related hospitalizations (p < .01). HL-VWEs were more likely to have a service-connected disability greater or equal to 50% (p < .01). SIGNIFICANCE: This study is one of the largest cohorts examining HL-VWEs. We found higher utilization of services in neurology, epilepsy, and neuroimaging by HL-VWEs. HL-VWE are younger, more commonly urban-dwelling, and more likely to have served during recent combat periods and have higher amounts of service-connected disability. Given that the proportion of Hispanic veterans is projected to rise over time, more research is needed to provide the best interventions and mitigate the long-term impact of epilepsy on this diverse patient group.

Impacts of attacks to female health care workers in three territories of Colombia.

BACKGROUND: This study explores the impacts of attacks perpetrated in the context of armed conflict, to female health workers in three Colombian territories. METHODS: We conducted a document review of the reports and databases of the Colombian Truth Commission, 17 in-depth semi-structured interviews with experts on the national and regional armed conflict and the medical mission, and 26 female health workers who were victims of attacks. RESULTS: Experts and female health workers reported attacks to health activities, facilities, equipment, and personnel, including attacks to traditional doctors belonging to indigenous communities. The most frequent attacks were threats and retention of health personnel; theft of supplies and medicines; damage and use of infrastructure and means of transport for purposes other than health care; and hinderance of health service provision. The attacks occurred in a framework of structural violence that intersects with poverty, racism, and gender bias. The impacts of these attacks include gender-based violence, significant disruption of the lives of health workers, and physical, emotional, psychological, social, and economic effects on the victims and their families. The government response to protect victims and populations has been absent or insufficient. CONCLUSIONS: Attacks to health care were reported in all the studied territories obstructing adequate health care. Impacts of these attacks affect negatively the professional and personal life of the workers and are aggravated by structural violence and absent or little institutional response.

Strategies to improve the implementation and effectiveness of community-based psychosocial support interventions for displaced, migrant and host community women in Latin America.

As evidence supporting the effectiveness of mental health and psychosocial interventions grows, more research is needed to understand optimal strategies for improving their implementation in diverse contexts. We conducted a qualitative process evaluation of a multicomponent psychosocial intervention intended to promote well-being among refugee, migrant and host community women in three diverse contexts in Ecuador and Panamá. The objective of this study is to describe the relationships among implementation determinants, strategies and outcomes of this community-based psychosocial intervention. The five implementation strategies used in this study included stakeholder engagement, promoting intervention adaptability, group and community-based delivery format, task sharing and providing incentives. We identified 10 adaptations to the intervention and its implementation, most of which were made during pre-implementation. Participants (n = 77) and facilitators (n = 30) who completed qualitative interviews reported that these strategies largely improved the implementation of the intervention across key outcomes and aligned with the study's intervention and implementation theory of change models. Participants and facilitators also proposed additional strategies for improving reach, implementation and maintenance of this community-based psychosocial intervention.

Paediatric clinical study of 3D printed personalised medicines for rare metabolic disorders.

Rare diseases are infrequent, but together they affect up to 6-10 % of the world's population, mainly children. Patients require precise doses and strict adherence to avoid metabolic or cardiac failure in some cases, which cannot be addressed in a reliable way using pharmaceutical compounding. 3D printing (3DP) is a disruptive technology that allows the real-time personalization of the dose and the modulation of the dosage form to adapt the medicine to the therapeutic needs of each patient. 3D printed chewable medicines containing amino acids (citrulline, isoleucine, valine, and isoleucine and valine combinations) were prepared in a hospital setting, and the efficacy and acceptability were evaluated in comparison to conventional compounded medicines in six children. The inclusion of new flavours (lemon, vanilla and peach) to obtain more information on patient preferences and the implementation of a mobile app to obtain patient feedback in real-time was also used. The 3D printed medicines controlled amino acid levels within target levels as well as the conventional medicines. The deviation of citrulline levels was narrower and closer within the target concentration with the chewable formulations. According to participants' responses, the chewable formulations were well accepted and can improve adherence and quality of life. For the first time, 3DP enabled two actives to be combined in the same formulation, reducing the number of administrations. This study demonstrated the benefits of preparing 3D printed personalized treatments for children diagnosed with rare metabolic disorders using a novel technology in the real clinical practice over the current approach.

Analysis of Lemon Verbena Polyphenol Metabolome and Its Correlation with Oxidative Stress under Glucotoxic Conditions in Adipocyte.

Lemon verbena has been shown to ameliorate obesity-related oxidative stress, but the intracellular final effectors underlying its antioxidant activity are still unknown. The purpose of this study was to correlate the antioxidant capacity of plasma metabolites of lemon verbena (verbascoside, isoverbascoside, hydroxytyrosol, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, homoprotocatechuic acid, and luteolin-7-diglucuronide) with their uptake and intracellular metabolism in hypertrophic adipocytes under glucotoxic conditions. To this end, intracellular ROS levels were measured, and the intracellular metabolites were identified and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode array detector coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-MS). The results showed that the plasma metabolites of lemon verbena are absorbed by adipocytes and metabolized through phase II reactions and that the intracellular appearance of these metabolites correlates with the decrease in the level of glucotoxicity-induced oxidative stress. It is postulated that the biotransformation and accumulation of these metabolites in adipocytes contribute to the long-term antioxidant activity of the extract.

Attention-based deep learning framework for automatic fundus image processing to aid in diabetic retinopathy grading.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Early detection and grading of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is essential to determine an adequate treatment and prevent severe vision loss. However, the manual analysis of fundus images is time consuming and DR screening programs are challenged by the availability of human graders. Current automatic approaches for DR grading attempt the joint detection of all signs at the same time. However, the classification can be optimized if red lesions and bright lesions are independently processed since the task gets divided and simplified. Furthermore, clinicians would greatly benefit from explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to support the automatic model predictions, especially when the type of lesion is specified. As a novelty, we propose an end-to-end deep learning framework for automatic DR grading (5 severity degrees) based on separating the attention of the dark structures from the bright structures of the retina. As the main contribution, this approach allowed us to generate independent interpretable attention maps for red lesions, such as microaneurysms and hemorrhages, and bright lesions, such as hard exudates, while using image-level labels only. METHODS: Our approach is based on a novel attention mechanism which focuses separately on the dark and the bright structures of the retina by performing a previous image decomposition. This mechanism can be seen as a XAI approach which generates independent attention maps for red lesions and bright lesions. The framework includes an image quality assessment stage and deep learning-related techniques, such as data augmentation, transfer learning and fine-tuning. We used the architecture Xception as a feature extractor and the focal loss function to deal with data imbalance. RESULTS: The Kaggle DR detection dataset was used for method development and validation. The proposed approach achieved 83.7 % accuracy and a Quadratic Weighted Kappa of 0.78 to classify DR among 5 severity degrees, which outperforms several state-of-the-art approaches. Nevertheless, the main result of this work is the generated attention maps, which reveal the pathological regions on the image distinguishing the red lesions and the bright lesions. These maps provide explainability to the model predictions. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that our framework is effective to automatically grade DR. The separate attention approach has proven useful for optimizing the classification. On top of that, the obtained attention maps facilitate visual interpretation for clinicians. Therefore, the proposed method could be a diagnostic aid for the early detection and grading of DR.

Expanding the Phenotypic Spectrum of TRAF7-Related Cardiac, Facial, and Digital Anomalies With Developmental Delay: Report of 11 New Cases and Literature Review.

BACKGROUND: TRAF7-related cardiac, facial, and digital anomalies with developmental delay (CAFDADD), a multisystemic neurodevelopmental disorder caused by germline missense variants in the TRAF7 gene, exhibits heterogeneous clinical presentations. METHODS: We present a detailed description of 11 new TRAF7-related CAFDADD cases, featuring eight distinct variants, including a novel one. RESULTS: Phenotypic analysis and a comprehensive review of the 58 previously reported cases outline consistent clinical presentations, emphasizing dysmorphic features, developmental delay, endocrine manifestations, and cardiac defects. In this enlarged collection, novelties include a wider range of cognitive dysfunction, with some individuals exhibiting normal development despite early psychomotor delay. Communication challenges, particularly in expressive language, are prevalent, necessitating alternative communication methods. Autistic traits, notably rigidity, are observed in the cohort. Also, worth highlighting are hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and endocrine anomalies, including growth deficiency. Cardiac defects, frequently severe, pose early-life complications. Facial features, including arched eyebrows, contribute to the distinct gestalt. A novel missense variant, p.(Arg653Leu), further underscores the complex relationship between germline TRAF7 variants and somatic changes linked to meningiomas. CONCLUSIONS: Our comprehensive analysis expands the phenotypic spectrum, emphasizing the need for oncological evaluations and proposing an evidence-based schedule for clinical management. This study contributes to a better understanding of TRAF7-related CAFDADD, offering insights for improved diagnosis, intervention, and patient care.

Relationship between quadriceps femoris echotexture biomarkers and muscle strength and physical function in older adults with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

BACKGROUND: Muscle wasting is pronounced in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The quadriceps femoris echotexture biomarkers assessed by ultrasound (US) have not been studied in these patients. OBJECTIVE: To describe echotexture biomarkers assessed by the US and to assess their relationship with sex, age, body mass index (BMI), self-reported outcomes, muscle strength and physical function in older adults with HFpEF. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Patients 70 years and older with HFpEF were included. The sex, age, BMI, and self-reported outcomes were collected. The US assessed muscle and subcutaneous fat tissue contrast, correlation, energy, homogeneity, and entropy at rest and maximal voluntary isometrical contraction (MVIC). The six-minute walk test (6MWT), the short physical performance battery (SPPB), the timed up and go test (TUG), the usual pace gait speed test (UGS), and the fast pace gait speed test (FGS) were used to assess physical function. The five-repetitions sit-to-stand test (5-STS) was performed to assess muscle strength. Bivariant Pearson correlations and subsequent multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Seventy-two older adults with HFpEF [81.06 years, 29.13 BMI, and 55.60% females] were recruited. In women, relaxed and MVIC muscle energy and entropy explained 35.40% of the TUG variance; relaxed muscle entropy and MVIC muscle energy shared 24.00% of the UGS variance; relaxed and MVIC muscle entropy, MVIC muscle contrast and MVIC muscle energy explained 32.60% of the FGS variance, adjusted all the models by age and BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Echotexture biomarkers are related to women's muscle strength and physical function, especially muscle energy, contrast, and entropy. Echotexture biomarkers assessed by the US could facilitate the management of older adults with HFpEF, monitor its progression and assess the effectiveness of treatments on the musculoskeletal structure. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03909919. April 10, 2019. Retrospectively registered.

Emerging concepts on the FGF23 regulation and activity.

Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) discovery has provided new insights into the regulation of Pi and Ca homeostasis. It is secreted by osteoblasts and osteocytes, and acts mainly in the kidney, parathyroid, heart, and bone. The aim of this review is to highlight the current knowledge on the factors modulating the synthesis of FGF23, the canonical and non-canonical signaling pathways of the hormone, the role of FGF23 in different pathophysiological conditions, and the anti-FGF23 therapy. This is a narrative review based on the search of PubMed database in the range of years 2000-2023 using the keywords local and systemic regulators of FGF23 synthesis, FGF23 receptors, canonical and non-canonical pathways, pathophysiological conditions and FGF23, and anti-FGF23 therapy, focusing the data on the molecular mechanisms. The regulation of FGF23 synthesis is complex and multifactorial. It is regulated by local factors and systemic regulators mainly involved in bone mineralization. The excessive FGF23 production is associated with different congenital diseases and with diseases occurring with a secondary high FGF23 production such as in chronic disease kidney and tumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO). The anti-FGF23 therapy appears to be useful to treat chromosome X-linked hypophosphatemia and TIO, but there are doubts about the handle of excessive FGF23 production in CKD. FGF23 biochemistry and pathophysiology are generating a plethora of knowledge to reduce FGF23 bioactivity at many levels that might be useful for future therapeutics of diseases associated with high-serum FGF23 levels.

Polymer Waste Recycling of Injection Molding Purges with Softening for Cutting with Fresnel Solar Collector-A Real Problem Linked to Sustainability and the Circular Economy.

A plastic injection waste known as "purge" cannot be reintegrated into the recycling chain due to its shape, size, and composition. Grinding these cannot be carried out with traditional mills due to significant variations in size and shape. This work proposes a process and the design of a device that operates with solar energy to cut the purges without exceeding the degradation temperature. The size reduction allows reprocessing, revalorization, and handling. The purges are mixtures of processed polymers, so their characterization information is unavailable. Some characterizations were conducted before the design of the process and after the cut of the purges. Some of the most representative purges in a recycling company were evaluated. The flame test determines that all material mixtures retain thermoplasticity. The hardness (Shore D) presented changes in four of the purges being assessed, with results in a range of 59-71 before softening and 60-68 after softening. Young's modulus was analyzed by the impulse excitation technique (IET), which was 2.38-3.95 GPa before softening and 1.7-4.28 after softening. The feasibility of cutting purges at their softening temperature was evaluated. This was achieved in all the purges evaluated at 250-280 °C. FTIR allowed for corroboration of no significant change in the purges after softening. The five types of purges evaluated were polypropylene-ABS, polycarbonate-ABS-polypropylene, yellow nylon 66, acetal, and black nylon 66 with fillers, and all were easily cut at their softening temperature, allowing their manipulation in subsequent process steps.

Impact of Melatonin Supplementation on Sports Performance and Circulating Biomarkers in Highly Trained Athletes: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Melatonin (N-acetyl-5 methoxytryptamine) is an indolic neurohormone that modulates a variety of physiological functions due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunoregulatory properties. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to critically review the effects of melatonin supplementation in sports performance and circulating biomarkers related to the health status of highly trained athletes. Data were obtained by performing searches in the following three bibliography databases: Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus. The terms used were "Highly Trained Athletes", "Melatonin", and "Sports Performance", "Health Biomarkers" using "Humans" as a filter. The search update was carried out in February 2024 from original articles published with a controlled trial design. The PRISMA rules, the modified McMaster critical review form for quantitative studies, the PEDro scale, and the Cochrane risk of bias were applied. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 21 articles were selected out of 294 references. The dose of melatonin supplemented in the trials ranged between 5 mg to 100 mg administered before or after exercise. The outcomes showed improvements in antioxidant status and inflammatory response and reversed liver damage and muscle damage. Moderate effects on modulating glycemia, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and creatinine were reported. Promising data were found regarding the potential benefits of melatonin in hematological biomarkers, hormonal responses, and sports performance. Therefore, the true efficiency of melatonin to directly improve sports performance remains to be assessed. Nevertheless, an indirect effect of melatonin supplementation in sports performance could be evaluated through improvements in health biomarkers.

Dietary intake of Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and glucose homeostasis parameters in a non-diabetic senior population.

BACKGROUND: Endocrine disruptors (EDs) have emerged as potential contributors to the development of type-2 diabetes. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), is one of these EDs linked with chronic diseases and gathered attention due to its widespread in food. OBJECTIVE: To assess at baseline and after 1-year of follow-up associations between estimated dietary intake (DI) of PFOS, and glucose homeostasis parameters and body-mass-index (BMI) in a senior population of 4600 non-diabetic participants from the PREDIMED-plus study. METHODS: Multivariable linear regression models were conducted to assess associations between baseline PFOS-DI at lower bound (LB) and upper bound (UB) established by the EFSA, glucose homeostasis parameters and BMI. RESULTS: Compared to those in the lowest tertile, participants in the highest tertile of baseline PFOS-DI in LB and UB showed higher levels of HbA1c [ß-coefficient(CI)] [0.01 %(0.002 to 0.026), and [0.06 mg/dL(0.026 to 0.087), both p-trend ≤ 0.001], and fasting plasma glucose in the LB PFOS-DI [1.05 mg/dL(0.050 to 2.046),p-trend = 0.022]. Prospectively, a positive association between LB of PFOS-DI and BMI [0.06 kg/m2(0.014 to 0.106) per 1-SD increment of energy-adjusted PFOS-DI was shown. Participants in the top tertile showed an increase in HOMA-IR [0.06(0.016 to 0.097), p-trend = 0.005] compared to participants in the reference tertile after 1-year of follow-up. DISCUSSION: This is the first study to explore the association between DI of PFOS and glucose homeostasis. In this study, a high baseline DI of PFOS was associated with a higher levels of fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c and with an increase in HOMA-IR and BMI after 1-year of follow-up.

Training in cognitive reappraisal normalizes whole-brain indices of emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder.

BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder is the prototypical disorder of emotion dysregulation. We have previously shown that borderline personality disorder patients are impaired in their capacity to engage cognitive reappraisal, a frequently-employed adaptive emotion regulation strategy. METHODS: Here we report on the efficacy of longitudinal training in cognitive reappraisal to enhance emotion regulation in borderline patients. Specifically, the training targeted psychological distancing, a reappraisal tactic whereby negative stimuli are viewed dispassionately as though experienced by an objective, impartial observer. At each of 5 sessions over 2 weeks, 22 borderline (14 Female) and 22 healthy control (13 Female) participants received training in psychological distancing and then completed a widely-used picture-based reappraisal task. Self-reported negative affect ratings and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired at the first and fifth sessions. In addition to behavioral analyses, we performed whole-brain pattern expression analyses using independently-defined patterns for negative affect and cognitive reappraisal implementation for each session. RESULTS: Borderline patients showed a decrease in negative affect pattern expression following reappraisal training, reflecting a normalization in neural activity. They did not, however, show significant change in behavioral self-reports. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this study represents the first longitudinal fMRI examination of task-based cognitive reappraisal training. Using a brief, proof-of-concept design, the results suggest a potential role for reappraisal training in the treatment of borderline patients.

Association between anti-PL7 antibodies and increased fibrotic component in patients with antisynthetase syndrome and interstitial lung disease: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether anti-PL7 and anti-PL12 autoantibodies are associated with a greater extent of the fibrotic component of ILD in ASSD patients. METHODS: Patients with ILD-ASSD who were positive for one of the following autoantibodies: anti-Jo1, anti-PL7, anti-PL12, and anti-EJ were included. Clinical manifestations, CPK levels, pulmonary function tests, and HCRT assessments were prospectively collected according to the Goh index. The fibrotic, inflammatory, and overall extension of the Goh index and DLCO were assessed by multiple linear analyses and compared between ASSD antibody subgroups. RESULTS: Sixty-six patients were included; 17 were positive for anti-Jo1 (26%), 17 for anti-PL7 (26%), 20 for anti-PL12 (30%), and 9 (14%) for anti-EJ. Patients with anti-PL7 and anti-PL12 had a more extensive fibrotic component than anti-Jo1. Anti-PL7 patients had a 7.9% increase in the fibrotic extension (cß = 7.9; 95% CI 1.863, 13.918), and the strength of the association was not modified after controlling for sex, age, and time of disease evolution (aß = 7.9; 95% CI 0.677, 15.076) and also was associated with an increase in ILD severity after adjusting for the same variables, denoted by a lower DLCO (aß = - 4.47; 95% CI - 8.919 to - 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Anti-PL7-positive ASSD patients had more extensive fibrosis and severe ILD than the anti-Jo1 subgroup. This information is clinically useful and has significant implications for managing these patients, suggesting the need for early consideration of concurrent immunosuppressive and antifibrotic therapy.

Modeling the spatial risk of malaria through probability distribution of Anopheles maculipennis s.l. and imported cases.

AbstractMalaria remains one of the most important infectious diseases globally due to its high incidence and mortality rates. The influx of infected cases from endemic to non-endemic malaria regions like Europe has resulted in a public health concern over sporadic local outbreaks. This is facilitated by the continued presence of competent Anopheles vectors in non-endemic countries.We modeled the potential distribution of the main malaria vector across Spain using the ensemble of eight modeling techniques based on environmental parameters and the Anopheles maculipennis s.l. presence/absence data collected from 2000 to 2020. We then combined this map with the number of imported malaria cases in each municipality to detect the geographic hot spots with a higher risk of local malaria transmission.The malaria vector occurred preferentially in irrigated lands characterized by warm climate conditions and moderate annual precipitation. Some areas surrounding irrigated lands in northern Spain (e.g., Zaragoza, Logroño), mainland areas (e.g., Madrid, Toledo) and in the South (e.g., Huelva), presented a significant likelihood of A. maculipennis s.l. occurrence, with a large overlap with the presence of imported cases of malaria.While the risk of malaria re-emergence in Spain is low, it is not evenly distributed throughout the country. The four recorded local cases of mosquito-borne transmission occurred in areas with a high overlap of imported cases and mosquito presence. Integrating mosquito distribution with human incidence cases provides an effective tool for the quantification of large-scale geographic variation in transmission risk and pinpointing priority areas for targeted surveillance and prevention.

Plants from Arid and Semi-Arid Zones of Mexico Used to Treat Respiratory Diseases: A Review.

Medicinal plants have been a traditional remedy for numerous ailments for centuries. However, their usage is limited due to a lack of evidence-based studies elucidating their mechanisms of action. In some countries, they are still considered the first treatment due to their low cost, accessibility, and minor adverse effects. Mexico is in second place, after China, in inventoried plants for medicinal use. It has around 4000 species of medicinal plants; however, pharmacological studies have only been carried out in 5% of its entirety. The species of the Mexican arid zones, particularly in semi-desert areas, exhibit outstanding characteristics, as their adverse growing conditions (e.g., low rainfall and high temperatures) prompt these plants to produce interesting metabolites with diverse biological activities. This review explores medicinal plants belonging to the arid and semi-arid zones of Mexico, focusing on those that have stood out for their bioactive potential, such as Jatropha dioica, Turnera diffusa, Larrea tridentata, Opuntia ficus-indica, Flourensia cernua, Fouquieria splendes, and Prosopis glandulosa. Their extraction conditions, bioactive compounds, mechanisms of action, and biological efficacy are presented, with emphasis on their role in the treatment of respiratory diseases. Additionally, current research, novel applications, and perspectives concerning medicinal plants from these zones are also discussed.

Risk factors for colonization with extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales among hospitalized patients in Guatemala: An Antibiotic Resistance in Communities and Hospitals (ARCH) study.

Objectives: The spread of extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales (ESCrE) and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) has resulted in increased morbidity, mortality, and health care costs worldwide. To identify the factors associated with ESCrE and CRE colonization within hospitals, we enrolled hospitalized patients at a regional hospital located in Guatemala. Methods: Stool samples were collected from randomly selected patients using a cross-sectional study design (March-September, 2021), and samples were tested for the presence of ESCrE and CRE. Hospital-based and household variables were examined for associations with ESCrE and CRE colonization using lasso regression models, clustered by ward (n = 21). Results: A total of 641 patients were enrolled, of whom complete data sets were available for 593. Colonization with ESCrE (72.3%, n = 429/593) was negatively associated with carbapenem administration (odds ratio [OR] 0.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.11-0.42) and positively associated with ceftriaxone administration (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.02-2.53), as was reported hospital admission within 30 days of the current hospitalization (OR 2.84, 95% CI 1.19-6.80). Colonization with CRE (34.6%, n = 205 of 593) was associated with carbapenem administration (OR 2.62, 95% CI 1.39-4.97), reported previous hospital admission within 30 days of current hospitalization (OR 2.58, 95% CI 1.17-5.72), hospitalization in wards with more patients (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.02-1.08), hospitalization for ≥4 days (OR 3.07, 95% CI 1.72-5.46), and intubation (OR 2.51, 95% CI 1.13-5.59). No household-based variables were associated with ESCrE or CRE colonization in hospitalized patients. Conclusion: The hospital-based risk factors identified in this study are similar to what has been reported for risk of health care-associated infections, consistent with colonization being driven by hospital settings rather than community factors. This also suggests that colonization with ESCrE and CRE could be a useful metric to evaluate the efficacy of infection and prevention control programs in clinics and hospitals.

Comparison between different conditions for the incorporation of foreign proteins into Autographa californica multiple polyhedrovirus polyhedra for biotechnological purposes.

The occlusion bodies of Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus are proteinaceous formations with significant biotechnological potential owing to their capacity to integrate foreign proteins through fusion with polyhedrin, their primary component. However, the strategy for successful heterologous protein inclusion still requires further refinement. In this study, we conducted a comparative assessment of various conditions to achieve the embedding of recombinant proteins within polyhedra. Two baculoviruses were constructed: AcPHGFP (polh+), with GFP as a fusion to wild type (wt) polyhedrin and AcΔPHGFP (polh+), with GFP fused to a fragment corresponding to amino acids 19 to 110 of polyhedrin. These baculoviruses were evaluated by infecting Sf9 cells and stably transformed Sf9, Sf9POLH, and Sf9POLHE44G cells. The stably transformed cells contributed another copy of wt or a mutant polyhedrin, respectively. Polyhedra of each type were isolated and characterized by classical methods. The fusion PHGFP showed more-efficient incorporation into polyhedra than ΔPHGFP in the three cell lines assayed. However, ΔPHGFP polyhedron yields were higher than those of PHGFP in Sf9 and Sf9POLH cells. Based on an integral analysis of the studied parameters, it can be concluded that, except for the AcΔPHGFP/Sf9POLHE44G combination, deficiencies in one factor can be offset by improved performance by another. The combinations AcPHGFP/Sf9POLHE44G and AcΔPHGFP/Sf9POLH stand out due to their high level of incorporation and the large number of recombinant polyhedra produced, respectively. Consequently, the choice between these approaches becomes dependent on the intended application.