Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are advantageous to assess vegetation and terrain changes at a high spatial resolution, advancing our understanding of shifts in ecosystem states and processes. The ...extension of land that we sought to observe belongs to the footprint of an Eddy Covariance System (around 7.5 ha), installed in a secondary ecological succession of the tropical dry forest (27.00598005 N, 108.77913821 W) within the Sierra de Álamos-Rio Cuchujaqui natural protected area, Sonora, Mexico. Aerial images were obtained with a system of multispectral and RGB cameras mounted on a UAV, which executed automated missions in two different seasons: 1) dry season (June 2023) and 2) first rain season (July 2023), totalling 1116 images. The UAV mission was flown at a height of 105 m and images included a side and front overlap of 70%. The final product was an image dataset per season. These data can contribute to the continuous monitoring strategy to understand ecosystem processes and conserve the Sierra de Álamos-Rio Cuchujaqui natural protected area, a critical natural protected area for national and international organizations. Likewise, image datasets are useful for the processes of developing regional models of phenology, structure, richness, distribution, and vegetation cover along secondary succession after the forest was changed to agriculture and livestock land.
Abstract
Study question
To compare embryo development and clinical outcomes between two commercial heavy oils using sibling donor oocytes collected.
Summary answer
Our study suggests that both ...commercial heavy oils achieve similar embryo development and clinical outcomes rates.
What is known already
Current tendencies in IVF laboratories, such as extending the embryo culture uninterruptedly until day 6/7 or the use of dry time-lapse incubators, have enhanced the importance to use good quality oils supporting human embryo culture in vitro. The coating of the culture dishes with oil is highly important to maintain the ideal conditions that embryos need for an optimal development. Specifically, oil plays an essential role in maintaining a stable temperature, provides a barrier against external agents and contributes preventing the media evaporation, and thus, to the maintenance of an optimal pH and osmolality for the correct embryo development.
Study design, size, duration
This is a single-centre prospective study performed between February and November 2022 that included 180 donors and 213 recipients. Donors were randomized using a computer-generated randomization list. Each case was processed and cultured with a commercial single medium coated with a layer of the commercial heavy oil assigned, a mineral oil (A) or a paraffin oil (B).
Participants/materials, setting, methods
Oocytes were injected by ICSI and then cultured in 16-well dishes (EmbryoSlide+®, EmbryoScope+™,Vitrolife) prepared with each heavy oil (1700µl oil/dish). These were cultured in a time-lapse incubator (EmbryoScope+™,Vitrolife) at 37.29 ± 0.05 °C in an atmosphere of 6.5% CO2 and 5% O2. These parameters were controlled periodically (T+Button,BrightSentinel and G100,Geotech). Laboratory conditions, such as temperature, humidity and volatile organic compounds levels were monitored continuously (Octax Log&Guard™,Vitrolife) during the study period, and pH was measured in a weekly basis.
Main results and the role of chance
A total of 2554 MII oocytes were injected by ICSI (oil A, n = 1304 and oil B, n = 1250). The proportion of fertilized oocytes was identical between the two oils (A:80.00% vs B:80.53%), as well as, abnormal fertilized oocyte rate (A:6.85% vs B:5.62%) and oocyte degeneration rate post-ICSI (A:6.14% vs B:6.00%). The mean number of embryos that reached the blastocyst stage and the proportion of blastocysts suitable for clinical use (transferred or cryopreserved) was almost the same independently of the oil used (A:69.84% vs B:67.15% and A:62.39% vs B:60.71%, respectively). Statistical data analysis was performed without referring to statistical significance (p > 0,05).
205 patients had an embryo transfer on day 5/6 with either fresh or cryopreserved blastocysts cultured coated with a layer of oil A (n = 101) or B (n = 104), with a mean number of 1.42 ± 0,55 and 1.33 ± 0,53 blastocysts transferred/patient in each group, respectively. No differences were found in terms of clinical pregnancy (A:69.30% vs B:67.31%) or implantation rates (A:62.37% vs B:61.53%) between both groups. Miscarriage rates were similar between group A (11.88%) and group B (12.62%).
The pH average value during the study was 7.26 ± 0.06. The mean values of the room temperature, humidity and VOCs were stable at 21.7 ± 0.4 °C, 66.7 ± 6.9% and 0.098 ± 0.01ppm, respectively.
Limitations, reasons for caution
Although heavy oils are the most competent in keeping optimal culture conditions over time, there are several culture oils with different features available in IVF market. Thus, further studies should be performed comparing among them. Future research is also needed to compare peroxidation rates of our culture oils studied.
Wider implications of the findings
The present study suggests that both commercial heavy oils used in a continuous approach may provide similar in vitro fertilization rates regarding fertilization, blastocysts suitable for clinical use or clinical pregnancy. Heavy oil features, laboratory conditions and the culture environment should be properly validated independently on each IVF center.
Trial registration number
not applicable
Pornography associated with youth violence Rueda-Bello, F; Alarcón-Rascón, G E; Rivera-Luna, A D ...
European journal of public health,
10/2023, Letnik:
33, Številka:
Supplement_2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
Background
Violence is a very present situation in the various contexts of humanity, with Veracruz, Mexico being one of the most violent states in the country. There are studies that suggest ...that the consumption of pornography may be associated with an increased risk of violent behaviors due to physiological stimuli and legitimizing the behaviors observed in it. Objective: to determine the association between addiction to pornography and violence in young people from Veracruz, Mexico.
Methods
A cross-sectional, observational, prospective and analytical study was carried out between November and April 2023. Young people between the ages of 12 and 25, residents of Veracruz, Mexico were included; subjects with known psychiatric diagnoses were excluded. Data collection was carried out using Google Forms, applying the ‘Buss and Perry’ violence test (A.Cronbach 0.87) and the ‘EMAP’ pornography addiction test (A.Cronbach 0.95). SPSS v22 software was used for data analysis, X2 test with Odds Ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) and MannWhitney U test.
Results
1399 subjects were included, with an age of 19.3±2.8 years, 514 participants indicated consuming pornography (all digitally). Pornography addiction was identified in 495(35.3%) subjects and 399(28.5%) with moderate or higher violence. Addiction to pornography was shown to be a factor associated (OR/CI95%) with moderate or higher levels of physical (1.4/1.-1.7), verbal (1.3/1.0-1.6) or general (1.3/1.0-1.7) violence.), anger (1.3/1.0-1.7), hostility (1.4/1.1-1.8), as well as severe physical violence (1.3/1.0-1.7), in the same way that pornography consumption was associated with moderate or superior levels of physical and verbal violence, anger, hostility and violence in general (p < 0.05).
Conclusions
The use of pornography and addiction to it facilitate the presence of physical and verbal violence, anger, hostility and violence in general in moderate or greater intensity, as well as severe physical violence.
Key messages
• Access to pornography through digital media facilitates the presence of violent behavior in young people, so it is necessary to find ways to regulate access to pornography.
• It is necessary to establish strategies to provide education to young people, in order to educate and help the interpretation that young people can give to this type of explicit material.
Los ecosistemas continuamente intercambian carbono y vapor de agua con la atmósfera a través de procesos ecosistémicos. En general, la producción neta del ecosistema refleja el balance entre los ...flujos de entrada de carbono por productividad y la liberación por la respiración ecosistémica. Evaluar esta producción a lo largo de los cambios producidos por la sucesión ecológica secundaria representa un desafío muy grande. En este contexto, la técnica de covarianza de vórtices está siendo ampliamente utilizada para cuantificar flujos ecosistémicos de manera continua. En el bosque tropical seco se han establecido varios sitios de monitoreo utilizando esta técnica para conocer la funcionalidad del ecosistema durante la sucesión ecológica. Esta información puede contribuir a la toma de decisiones en términos de conservación y administración de servicios ecosistémicos, así como para alimentar modelos para predecir la respuesta de este ecosistema estacional seco al cambio climático. Los ecosistemas tropicales secos son de gran relevancia para el ciclo del carbono debido a su considerable extensión y productividad. El reto de estudiar estos ecosistemas radica en que su dinámica de producción de carbono está acoplada principalmente a la disponibilidad estacional de agua. De manera que, el objetivo de este trabajo fue actualizar la información de las interacciones biosfera-atmósfera utilizando la técnica de covarianza de vórtices particularmente en bosques tropicales secos, con el fin de resaltar el efecto de la sucesión ecológica en la dinámica del carbono en estos bosques. Asimismo, se muestra y resalta la importancia local y global de este tipo de sistemas de monitoreo funcional de ecosistemas en México.
Chagas disease, caused by the parasite
, affects millions of people in South America. The current treatments are limited, have severe side effects, and are only partially effective. Drug ...repositioning, defined as finding new indications for already approved drugs, has the potential to provide new therapeutic options for Chagas. In this work, we conducted a structure-based drug repositioning approach with over 130,000 3D protein structures to identify drugs that bind therapeutic Chagas targets and thus represent potential new Chagas treatments. The screening yielded over 500 molecules as hits, out of which 38 drugs were prioritized following a rigorous filtering process. About half of the latter were already known to have trypanocidal activity, while the others are novel to Chagas disease. Three of the new drug candidates-ciprofloxacin, naproxen, and folic acid-showed a growth inhibitory activity in the micromolar range when tested ex vivo on
trypomastigotes, validating the prediction. We show that our drug repositioning approach is able to pinpoint relevant drug candidates at a fraction of the time and cost of a conventional screening. Furthermore, our results demonstrate the power and potential of structure-based drug repositioning in the context of neglected tropical diseases where the pharmaceutical industry has little financial interest in the development of new drugs.
Background and purpose
Optic neuritis (ON) is often the initial symptom of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein‐associated disease (MOGAD). We aimed ...to compare the frequency and pattern of chiasmatic lesions in MOGAD‐related ON (MOGAD‐ON) and NMOSD‐related ON (NMOSD‐ON) using conventional brain imaging (magnetic resonance imaging MRI) in Latin America (LATAM).
Methods
We reviewed the medical records and brain MRI (≤30 days from ON onset) of patients with a first event of MOGAD‐ON and NMOSD‐ON. Patients from Argentina (n = 72), Chile (n = 21), Ecuador (n = 31), Brazil (n = 30), Venezuela (n = 10) and Mexico (n = 82) were included. Antibody status was tested using a cell‐based assay. Demographic, clinical, imaging and prognostic (as measured by the Visual Functional System Score VFSS of the Expanded Disability Status Scale) data were compared.
Results
A total of 246 patients (208 NMOSD and 38 MOGAD) were included. No differences were found in gender and ethnicity between the groups. We observed chiasmatic lesions in 66/208 (31.7%) NMOSD‐ON and in 5/38 (13.1%) MOGAD‐ON patients (p = 0.01). Of these patients with chiasmatic lesions, 54/66 (81.8%) and 4/5 had associated longitudinally extensive optic nerve lesions, 45/66 (68%) and 4/5 had bilateral lesions, and 31/66 (47%) and 4/5 showed gadolinium‐enhancing chiasmatic lesions, respectively. A positive correlation was observed between VFSS and presence of bilateral (r = 0,28, p < 0.0001), chiasmatic (r = 0.27, p = 0.0001) and longitudinally extensive lesions (r = 0,25, p = 0.0009) in the NMOSD‐ON group, but no correlations were observed in the MOGAD‐ON group.
Conclusions
Chiasmatic lesions were significantly more common in NMOSD than in MOGAD during an ON attack in this LATAM cohort. Further studies are needed to assess the generalizability of these results.
We reviewed the medical records and brain magnetic resonance imaging (≤30 days from optic neuritis ON onset) of patients with a first event of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein‐associated disease‐related ON (MOGAD‐ON; n = 38) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder‐related ON (NMOSD‐ON; n = 208) from Latin America. We observed chiasmatic lesions in 66/208 patients (31.7%) with NMOSD‐ON and in 5/38 (13.1%) with MOGAD‐ON (p = 0.01). Of these, 54/66 and 4/5 had associated longitudinally extensive optic nerve lesions, 45/66 and 4/5 had bilateral lesions, and 31/66 and 4/5 had gadolinium‐enhancing chiasmatic lesions, respectively. A positive correlation was observed between Visual Functional System Score and the presence of bilateral (r = 0.28, p < 0.0001), chiasmatic (r = 0.27, p = 0.0001) and longitudinally extensive optic nerve lesions (r = 0.25, p = 0.0009) in the NMOSD‐ON group, but no correlations were observed in the MOGAD‐ON group.
Gastric cancer is one of the most common, aggressive, and invasive types of malignant neoplasia. It ranks fifth for incidence and fourth for prevalence worldwide. Products of natural origin, such as ...propolis, have been assessed for use as new complementary therapies to combat cancer. Propolis is a bee product with antiproliferative and anticancer properties. The concentrations and types of secondary metabolites contained in propolis mainly vary according to the geographical region, the season of the year, and the species of bees that make it. The present study is a systematic review of the main articles related to the effects of propolis against gastric cancer published between 2011 and 2021 in the PubMed and Science Direct databases. Of 1305 articles published, only eight studies were selected; among their principal characteristics was the use of in vitro analysis with cell lines from gastric adenocarcinoma and in vivo murine models of the application of propolis treatments. These studies suggest that propolis arrests the cell cycle and inhibits proliferation, prevents the release of oxidizing agents, and promotes apoptosis. In vivo assays showed that propolis decreased the number of tumors by regulating the cell cycle and the expression of proteins related to apoptosis.
The protozoan Entamoeba histolytica is the etiological agent of amoebiasis, which can spread to the liver and form amoebic liver abscesses. Histological studies conducted with resistant and ...susceptible models of amoebic liver abscesses (ALAs) have established that neutrophils are the first cells to contact invasive amoebae at the lesion site. Myeloperoxidase is the most abundant enzyme secreted by neutrophils. It uses hydrogen peroxide secreted by the same cells to oxidize chloride ions and produce hypochlorous acid, which is the most efficient microbicidal system of neutrophils. In a previous report, our group demonstrated that myeloperoxidase presents amoebicidal activity in vitro. The aim of the current contribution was to analyze in vivo the role of myeloperoxidase in a susceptible (hamsters) and resistant (Balb/c mice) animal models of ALAs. In liver samples of hamsters and mice inoculated intraportally with Entamoeba histolytica trophozoites, the number of neutrophils in ALAs was determined by enzymatic activity. The presence of myeloperoxidase was observed by staining, and its expression and activity were quantified in situ. A significant difference existed between the two animal models in the number of neutrophils and the expression and activity of myeloperoxidase, which may explain the distinct evolution of amoebic liver abscesses. Hamsters and mice were treated with an MPO inhibitor (4-aminobenzoic acid hydrazide). Hamsters treated with ABAH showed no significant differences in the percentage of lesions or in the percentage of amoebae damaged compared with the untreated hamsters. ABAH treated mice versus untreated mice showed larger abscesses and a decreased percentage of damaged amoebae in these lesion at all stages of evolution. Further studies are needed to elucidate the host and amoebic mechanisms involved in the adequate or inadequate activation and modulation of myeloperoxidase.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The impact of intermittent fasting versus ad libitum feeding during Salmonella typhimurium infection was evaluated in terms of duodenum IgA levels, bacterial clearance and intestinal and ...extra‐intestinal infection susceptibility. Mice that were intermittently fasted for 12 weeks or fed ad libitum were infected with S. typhimurium and assessed at 7 and 14 days post‐infection. Next, we evaluated bacterial load in the faeces, Peyer's patches, spleen and liver by plate counting, as well as total and specific intestinal IgA and plasmatic corticosterone levels (by immunoenzymatic assay) and lamina propria IgA levels in plasma cells (by cytofluorometry). Polymeric immunoglobulin receptor, α‐ and J‐chains, Pax‐5 factor, pro‐inflammatory cytokine (tumour necrosis factor‐α and interferon‐γ) and anti‐inflammatory cytokine (transforming growth factor‐β) mRNA levels were assessed in mucosal and liver samples (by real‐time PCR). Compared with the infected ad libitum mice, the intermittently fasted infected animals had (1) lower intestinal and systemic bacterial loads; (2) higher SIgA and IgA plasma cell levels; (3) higher mRNA expression of most intestinal parameters; and (4) increased or decreased corticosterone levels on day 7 and 14 post‐infection, respectively. No contribution of liver IgA was observed at the intestinal level. Apparently, the changes following metabolic stress induced by intermittent fasting during food deprivation days increased the resistance to S. typhimurium infection by triggering intestinal IgA production and presumably, pathogen elimination by phagocytic inflammatory cells.
There is growing interest in clozapine clinical use, monitoring, and research, particularly adverse drug reactions (ADRs) other than agranulocytosis. In this study we focused on clozapine ...pharmacovigilance. Hence, we contacted clinicians and researchers in Latin America and requested information about local psychiatric services, clozapine availability, clinical use, and ADR monitoring with the VigiBase system. Only two countries have the minimum recommended number of psychiatric beds (15 per 100,000 residents): Uruguay (N = 34.9) and Argentina (N = 17). Bolivia is the only country where clozapine is unavailable. Nine out of twenty countries (45 %) reported ADRs to VigiBase. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico published national guidelines for schizophrenia treatment. Chile is the sole country with clozapine clinics with drug serum monitoring. Ethnicity-related drug titration in not described in package inserts in any country. We examined in detail the 9 most frequent and important clozapine ADRs in the worldwide database (pneumonia, sudden death, cardiac arrest, agranulocytosis, myocarditis, constipation, arrhythmia, seizure, and syncope). These 9 ADRs led to 294 reports with fatal outcomes in Argentina (N = 3), Brazil (N = 3), Chile (N = 2), and Peru (N = 1). Agranulocytosis was reported from 7 countries: constipation or seizures from 8 countries. Only two countries reported pneumonia and one country reported myocarditis. The number of clozapine reports in VigiBase has no relationship to the country's population. All Latin American countries underreport clozapine associated ADRs. Latin American governments, along with clinicians, researchers, and educators, should optimize clozapine use and monitoring for the benefit of people with severe mental and some neurological disorders.
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