The Ecuadorian electricity sector has undergone several changes during the past decade. The objective of this paper is twofold: a) to show how the Ecuadorian electricity sector has evolved from 2007 ...to 2017, and b) to discuss the relationship between energy policies and their impacts on electricity supply, management, tariffs, and the country's economy. Although oil remains as the main energy source and the leading driver for economic revenue, several hydropower projects have been built or are under construction intending in part to reduce the country's dependence on oil. The installed hydropower capacity in the country in 2017 is approximately 81% higher than in 2007 and it is expected that, by 2018, approximately 93% of the electricity will be produced from hydropower. Currently, biomass and biogas contribute with 1.8% of the total electricity generation, but only 0.6% of the electricity is produced in wind and solar farms. Adoption of smart grid technologies is key to transform the Ecuadorian electricity network and to positively impact the quality of the electricity supply. The future of the Ecuadorian electricity sector relies on the successful implementation of the new Organic Law of Public Service of Electricity and on external financing for new energy projects.
•Ecuador's electricity sector has established a new legal framework that fosters State control.•Hydropower has become the main source of electricity generation.•Non-conventional renewable energies have increased their installed capacity since 2005.•Distribution losses have been reduced in the last decade.•A Smart Grid Road Map was launched in 2013 and faces opportunities and challenges.
To determine the agent responsible for the massive mortalities of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas in northwest Mexico, 30 oysters were sampled after a severe mortality event in 2006 along the ...Sonoran coast. Histological analyses revealed the presence of a protozoan and Ray's fluid thioglycollate medium (RFTM) assays showed the presence of Perkinsus sp., identified as P. marinus from the DNA sequence of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene complex. PCR analyses for Marteilia refringens, M. sydneyi, and Haplosporidium costale were negative. P. marinus presence in the Pacific oyster may be responsible for massive mortalities of the oyster, along with other environmental factors in the Gulf of California.
During the MILAGRO campaign, March 2006, eight-stage cut impactors were used to sample atmospheric particles at Tecámac (T1 supersite), towards the northeast edge of the Mexico City Metropolitan ...Area, collecting fresh local emissions and aged pollutants produced in Mexico City. Particle samples were analyzed to determine total mass concentrations of Ca
2+
, Mg
2+
, NH
4
+
, K
+
, Cl
−
, SO
4
2−
, and NO
3
−
. Average concentrations were 22.1 ± 7.2 μg m
−3
for PM
10
and 18.3 ± 6.2 μg m
−3
for PM
1.8
. A good correlation between PM
10
and PM
1.8
, without influence from wind patterns, indicates that local emissions are more important than the city’s pollution transported to the site, despite the fact that Tecámac is just 40 km away from Mexico City. A lack of diurnal patterns in the PM
2.5
/PM
1.8
ratio supports this conclusion. The inorganic composition of particles suggests that vehicles, soil resuspension, and industries are the main pollutant sources. Finally, the particles were found to be neutralized, in agreement with observations in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area.
In plants, the ancestral cyanobacterial triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) was replaced by a duplicated version of the cytosolic TPI. This isoform acquired a transit peptide for chloroplast localization ...and functions in the Calvin-Benson cycle. To gain insight into the reasons for this gene replacement in plants, we characterized the TPI from the photosynthetic bacteria
(SyTPI). SyTPI presents typical TPI enzyme kinetics profiles and assembles as a homodimer composed of two subunits that arrange in a (β-α)
fold. We found that oxidizing agents diamide (DA) and H
O
, as well as thiol-conjugating agents such as oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and methyl methanethiosulfonate (MMTS), do not inhibit the catalytic activity of SyTPI at concentrations required to inactivate plastidic and cytosolic TPIs from the plant model
(AtpdTPI and AtcTPI, respectively). The crystal structure of SyTPI revealed that each monomer contains three cysteines, C47, C127, and C176; however only the thiol group of C176 is solvent exposed. While AtcTPI and AtpdTPI are redox-regulated by chemical modifications of their accessible and reactive cysteines, we found that C176 of SyTPI is not sensitive to redox modification
. Our data let us postulate that SyTPI was replaced by a eukaryotic TPI, because the latter contains redox-sensitive cysteines that may be subject to post-translational modifications required for modulating TPI's enzymatic activity.
In country, non‐target arthropod (NTA) field evaluations are required to comply with the regulatory process for cultivation of genetically modified (GM) maize in Mexico. Two sets of field trials, ...Experimental Phase and Pilot Phase, were conducted to identify any potential harm of insect‐protected and glyphosate‐tolerant maize (MON‐89Ø34‐3 × MON‐88Ø17‐3 and MON‐89Ø34‐3 × MON‐ØØ6Ø3‐6) and glyphosate‐tolerant maize (MON‐ØØ6Ø3‐6) to local NTAs compared to conventional maize. NTA abundance data were collected at 32 sites, providing high geographic and environmental diversity within maize production areas from four ecological regions (ecoregions) in northern Mexico. The most abundant herbivorous taxa collected included field crickets, corn flea beetles, rootworm beetles, cornsilk flies, aphids, leafhoppers, plant bugs and thrips while the most abundant beneficial taxa captured were soil mites, spiders, predatory ground beetles, rove beetles, springtails (Collembola), predatory earwigs, ladybird beetles, syrphid flies, tachinid flies, minute pirate bugs, parasitic wasps and lacewings. Across the taxa analysed, no statistically significant differences in abundance were detected between GM maize and the conventional maize control for 69 of the 74 comparisons (93.2%) indicating that the single or stacked insect‐protected and herbicide‐tolerant GM traits generally exert no marked adverse effects on the arthropod populations compared with conventional maize. The distribution of taxa observed in this study provides evidence that irrespective of variations in overall biodiversity of a given ecoregion, important herbivore, predatory and parasitic arthropod taxa within the commercial maize agroecosystem are highly similar indicating that relevant data generated in one ecoregion can be transportable for the risk assessment of the same or similar GM crop in another ecoregion.
The primary objective of this study was to determine the microbial water quality of a large irrigation system and how this quality varies with respect to canal size, impact of near-by communities, ...and the travel distance from the source in the El Valle del Yaqui, Sonora, México. In this arid region, 220,000 hectares are irrigated with 80% of the irrigation water being supplied from an extensive irrigation system including three dams on the Yaqui River watershed. The stored water flows to the irrigated fields through two main canal systems (severing the upper and lower Yaqui Valley) and then through smaller lateral canals that deliver the water to the fields. A total of 146 irrigation water samples were collected from 52 sample sites during three sampling events. Not all sites could be accessed on each occasion. All of the samples contained coliform bacteria ranging from 1,140 to 68,670 MPN/100 mL with an arithmetic mean of 11,416. Ninety-eight percent of the samples contained less than 1,000 MPN/100 mL Escherichia coli, with an arithmetic mean of 291 MPN/100 mL. Coliphage were detected in less than 30% of the samples with an arithmetic average equal to 141 PFU/100 mL. Enteroviruses, Cryptosporidium oocysts, and Giardia cysts were also detected in the canal systems. No significant difference was found in the water quality due to canal system (upper or lower Yaqui Valley), canal-size (main vs. lateral), distance from source, and the vicinity of human habitation (presence of various villages and towns along the length of the canals). There was a significant decrease in coliforms (p < 0.011) and E. coli (<0.022) concentrations as travel distance increased from the City of Obregón.
The sofosbuvir-velpatasvir (SOF/VEL) combination is a direct-acting antiviral therapy that is authorized and available in Mexico, making the performance of a real-world multicenter study that ...evaluates the sustained virologic response at 12 weeks post-treatment a relevant undertaking.
A retrospective review of the case records of 241 patients seen at 20 hospitals in Mexico was conducted to assess hepatitis C treatment with the SOF/VEL combination (n = 231) and the sofosbuvir/velpatasvir/ribavirin (SOF/VEL/RBV) combination (n = 10). The primary efficacy endpoint was the percentage of patients that achieved SVR at 12 weeks after the end of treatment.
Overall SVR was 98.8% (95% CI 97.35–100%). Only three patients did not achieve SVR, two of whom had cirrhosis and a history of previous treatment with peg-IFN. Of the subgroups analyzed, all the patients with HIV coinfection, three patients with genotype 3, and the patients treated with the SOF/VEL/RBV combination achieved SVR. The subgroups with the lower success rates were patients that were treatment-experienced (96.8%) and patients with F1 fibrosis (95.5%). The most frequent adverse events were fatigue, headache, and insomnia. No serious adverse events were reported.
Treatments with SOF/VEL and SOF/VEL/RBV were highly safe and effective, results coinciding with those of other international real-world studies.
La combinación de sofosbuvir-velpatasvir (SOF/VEL) es una terapia antiviral de acción directa que está autorizada y disponible en México. Esto hace que la evaluación de la respuesta virológica sostenida (RVS) 12 semanas después del tratamiento, por medio de la realización de una revisión multicentro en el mundo real, sea una tarea relevante.
Se efectuó una revisión retrospectiva de los registros de 241 casos de pacientes atendidos en 20 hospitales en México para evaluar el tratamiento contra la hepatitis C con la combinación SOF/VEL (n = 231) y sofosbuvir/velpatasvir/ribavirin (SOF/VEL/RBV) (n = 10). El objetivo de eficacia primario fue el porcentaje de pacientes que lograron la RVS 12 semanas posterior a la finalización del tratamiento.
En general, la RVS fue de 98.8% (IC 95% 97.35 a 100%). Solo tres pacientes no lograron la RVS, de los cuales dos padecían cirrosis y una tenía historia previa de tratamiento con interferón pegilado (peg-IFN). De los subgrupos analizados, todos los casos con infección de virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH), tres con genotipo 3 y aquellos tratados con la combinación SOF/VEL/RBV, lograron RVS. Los subgrupos con tasas menores de éxito fueron los pacientes que tenían experiencia con tratamiento (96.8%) y pacientes con fibrosis F1 (95.5%). Los eventos adversos más frecuentes fueron fatiga, cefalea e insomnio. No se reportaron eventos adversos graves.
Los tratamientos con SOF/VEL y SOF/VEL/RBV fueron altamente seguros y efectivos y los resultados coinciden con los de otros estudios internacionales realizados en el mundo real.
PDF
