Introducción. En Colombia, el primer programa de tamizaje neonatal, PREGEN, inició labores en el sector privado de Bogotá en 1988. En este artículo se presentan los resultados obtenidos en los ...últimos años, que, dada la carencia de estos estudios en el país, pueden servir para evaluar la frecuencia de aparición de los trastornos congénitos evaluados y estimar cuáles de ellos deben ser objeto de tamizaje neonatal a nivel nacional.Objetivos. Reportar los resultados del programa de tamizaje PREGEN entre el 2006 y el 2019.Materiales y métodos. Para este análisis se examinaron las bases de datos y otros documentos informativos de PREGEN para el periodo 2006-2019.Resultados. Uno de cada 164 recién nacidos tamizados en el programa PREGEN en Bogotá presentó una variante anormal de la hemoglobina y uno de cada 194 es portador de hemoglobina S. Los siguientes dos trastornos más frecuentes encontrados fueron la deficiencia de la enzima glucosa-6-fosfato deshidrogenasa (frecuencia 1:2.231) y el hipotiroidismo congénito (frecuencia 1:3.915).Conclusiones. Las hemoglobinopatías mostraron ser uno de los desórdenes monogénicos más comunes, seguidos por la deficiencia de glucosa-6-fosfato deshidrogenasa y el hipotiroidismo congénito. Se calcula que cerca de 400 millones de personas en el mundo están afectadas por la deficiencia de glucosa-6-fosfato deshidrogenasa, por lo cual es la enzimopatía más común en el mundo. Como ambos desórdenes son más frecuentes en poblaciones de origen africano y confieren algún grado de resistencia a la malaria, es de prever que su tamizaje debe ser de mayor importancia en las zonas con ancestros africanos en Colombia.
Introduction. The first neonatal screening program in Colombia – PREGEN – was set up in the medical private sector of Bogotá in 1988. We report the results from recent years that, given the scarcity of similar information in our country, may help estimate the frequency of the evaluated neonatal disorders and which ones should be included in the neonatal screening programs in our country.Objective. To describe the results of PREGEN´s newborn screening program between 2006 and 2019.Materials and methods. We analyzed databases and other informative documents preserved in PREGEN from the 2006-2019 period.Results. One in every 164 newborns screened in our program had an abnormal hemoglobin variant, and one in every 194 carried some hemoglobin S variant. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and congenital hypothyroidism are next as the more common disorders.Conclusions. Abnormal hemoglobin causes the most frequent monogenic disorder in the world. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency is the most common enzymopathy affecting nearly 400 million individuals worldwide. Since both disorders are more common in people of African descent and confer some resistance to malaria, we believe that screening for both disorders may be more relevant in the areas with African ancestry in our country.
In the evolutionary arms race between predators and their prey, prey often evolve to be as cryptic as they can, while predators in turn hone their sensory strategies to detect prey. Examinations of ...the sensory strategies implemented by predators to detect their prey, as well as the ecological consequences of these interactions, are at the crux of understanding and predicting predator–prey dynamics.
We review the sensory strategies used by predators that rely on private information (attending directly to cues and signals generated by their prey) and those that gather social information (attending to the signals and behaviours of others). We focus our enquiry on bats, an ideal group to shed light on these questions given their ecological diversity, varied foraging strategies and wide range of social behaviours.
We discuss the costs and benefits of using private and social information for foraging. We investigate diverse strategies of information use and examine the effects different predatory strategies have on predator sensory systems.
We provide an overview of the sensory ecology of information use in hunting in bats and, by identifying current gaps in knowledge, highlight fruitful directions for future research.
A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
2-Amino-3-methylhexanoic acid (AMHA) was synthetized as a non-natural amino acid more than 70 years ago; however, its possible function as an inducer of plant resistance has not been reported. Plant ...resistance inducers, also known as plant elicitors, are becoming a novel and important development direction in crop protection and pest management. We found that free AMHA accumulated in the mycelia but not in fermentation broths of four fungal species,
and three
spp. We unequivocally confirmed that AMHA is a naturally occurring endogenous (2
, 3
)-
-amino acid, based on isolation, purification and structural analyses. Further experiments demonstrated that AMHA has potent activity-enhancing resistance against extreme temperature stresses in several plant species. It is also highly active against fungal, bacterial and viral diseases by inducing plant resistance. AMHA pretreatment strongly protected wheat against powdery mildew,
against
DC3000 and tobacco against
. AMHA exhibits a great potential to become a unique natural elicitor protecting plants against biotic and abiotic stresses.
Conspicuous mating signals attract mates but also expose signallers to predators and parasites. Signal evolution, therefore, is driven by conflicting selective pressures from multiple receivers, both ...target and non-target. Synchronization of mating signals, for example, is an evolutionary puzzle, given the assumed high cost of reduced female attraction when signals overlap. Synchronization may be beneficial, however, if overlapping signals reduce attraction of non-target receivers. We investigate how signal synchronization is shaped by the trade-off between natural and sexual selection in two anuran species: pug-nosed tree frogs (
), in which males produce mating calls in near-perfect synchrony, and túngara frogs (
), in which males alternate their calls. To examine the trade-off imposed by signal synchronization, we conducted field and laboratory playback experiments on eavesdropping enemies (bats and midges) and target receivers (female frogs). Our results suggest that, while synchronization can be a general strategy for signallers to reduce their exposure to eavesdroppers, relaxed selection by females for unsynchronized calls is key to the evolution and maintenance of signal synchrony. This study highlights the role of relaxed selection in our understanding of the origin of mating signals and displays.
Lay Summary It is beneficial to be bold when colonizing new habitats. Bold behavior, however, may be risky. We found that cane toads from introduced populations are less afraid of novelty than toads ...from native populations. Introduced toads are more willing to exploit novel food and eat familiar food by a novel object. Their bolder behavior facilitates their successful establishment. This is the first study to examine the role of neophobia at promoting invasions in anurans.For species moving into new environments, locating and using unfamiliar resources is crucial for survival. The cane toad (Rhinella marina) has been successful in many countries worldwide, persisting in both urban and rural landscapes. Given that animals exploiting urban habitats are confronted with novel feeding opportunities, individuals in those areas are expected to exhibit reduced neophobic tendencies compared with individuals in rural populations. Additionally, individuals persisting in introduced populations are expected to be less neophobic than individuals in native populations, taking advantage of novelty as their range expands. To investigate such predictions, we examined the response to novel prey and a novel object in native toads in Panama and introduced populations (urban and rural) in Florida. Toads were tested in an arena with novel or familiar prey and later with a novel object next to familiar prey. We found differences in response to novelty between cane toads in different ranges but not in different habitats. Most introduced individuals from both urban and rural habitats consumed novel prey with no difference in latency to eat between prey types. Few native toads, however, consumed any prey during trials, spending most of their time moving about the arena. When familiar prey was presented near a novel object, more than half of the introduced toads ate, but no native individuals ate. This study emphasizes the importance of behavior as a mechanism used by invasive species to exploit novel resources and successfully colonize new environments.
•COVID-19 patients have increased incidence of Epstein-Barr Virus reactivation.•Detection of EBV DNA is greater among COVID-19 positive patients (27.1% vs 12.5%).•No statistical difference in CRP ...levels of COVID-19 positive vs. negative patients.•No statistical difference in amount of EBV genomes in reactivated patient groups.
COVID-19, an infectious respiratory illness, is caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Individuals with underlying medical conditions are at increased risk of developing serious illnesses such as long COVID. Recent studies have observed Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation in patients with severe illness or long COVID, which may contribute to associated symptoms. We determined the frequency of EBV reactivation in COVID-19 positive patients compared to COVID-19 negative patients. 106 blood plasma samples were collected from COVID-19 positive and negative patients and EBV reactivation was determined by detection of EBV DNA and antibodies against EBV lytic genes in individuals with previous EBV infection. 27.1% (13/48) of EBV reactivations, based on qPCR detection of EBV genomes, are from the COVID positive group while only 12.5% (6/48) of reactivations belonged to the negative group. 20/52 (42.30%) of the COVID PCR negative group had detectable antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein (Np); indicative of past infection. A significantly higher SARS-CoV-2 Np protein level was found in the COVID-19 positive group. In conclusion, COVID-19 patients experienced increased reactivation of EBV in comparison to COVID negative patients.
We propose the formulation of convex Generalized Disjunctive Programming (GDP) problems using conic inequalities leading to conic GDP problems. We then show the reformulation of conic GDPs into ...Mixed-Integer Conic Programming (MICP) problems through both the big-M and hull reformulations. These reformulations have the advantage that they are representable using the same cones as the original conic GDP. In the case of the hull reformulation, they require no approximation of the perspective function. Moreover, the MICP problems derived can be solved by specialized conic solvers and offer a natural extended formulation amenable to both conic and gradient-based solvers. We present the closed form of several convex functions and their respective perspectives in conic sets, allowing users to formulate their conic GDP problems easily. We finally implement a large set of conic GDP examples and solve them via the scalar nonlinear and conic mixed-integer reformulations. These examples include applications from Process Systems Engineering, Machine learning, and randomly generated instances. Our results show that the conic structure can be exploited to solve these challenging MICP problems more efficiently. Our main contribution is providing the reformulations, examples, and computational results that support the claim that taking advantage of conic formulations of convex GDP instead of their nonlinear algebraic descriptions can lead to a more efficient solution to these problems.
The escape response of an organism is generally its last line of defense against a predator. Because the effectiveness of an escape varies with the approach behaviour of the predator, it should be ...advantageous for prey to alter their escape trajectories depending on the mode of predator attack. To test this hypothesis we examined the escape responses of a single prey species, the ground-dwelling túngara frog (Engystomops pustulosus), to disparate predators approaching from different spatial planes: a terrestrial predator (snake) and an aerial predator (bat). Túngara frogs showed consistently distinct escape responses when attacked by terrestrial versus aerial predators. The frogs fled away from the snake models (Median: 131°). In stark contrast, the frogs moved toward the bat models (Median: 27°); effectively undercutting the bat's flight path. Our results reveal that prey escape trajectories reflect the specificity of their predators' attacks. This study emphasizes the flexibility of strategies performed by prey to outcompete predators with diverse modes of attack.
The goal of this research was to evaluate the microclimate (temperature, relative humidity and ECI-enthalpy comfort index) of commercial loads of broiler chickens at different transport distances: ...Dist15 (15 km on average) and Dist90 (90 km on average) in the summer and winter seasons and their effects on the production parameters body weight difference (BWD), mortality (%) and bruising prevalence (%). Twelve broiler loads were monitored using dataloggers to record temperature and humidity, with a total of 24 target crates per load. The experiment followed a factorial design 2 seasons (rainy and dry) × 2 distances (Dist15 and Dist90) with a randomized complete block arrangement, 3 sexes (all males, all females, or mixed shipments) and one shipment per combination. BWD had a heterogeneous distribution throughout the load, and this distribution was not significantly correlated with the mean ECI measured during transport at 12 positions along the load. In terms of comfort, summer is the most critical period for broiler transport. In the interaction between rainy season and Dist90, the highest ECI was scored in the lethal zone (where physiological mechanisms are not enough to control body temperature). Mortality during the rainy season was not significantly different between distances. However, during the dry season, mortality was twice as high as broilers that travelled for 15 km. The prevalence of bruising on carcasses was not affected by the interaction between season and distance. As we know, broiler chicken performance, during transport, can be also related to road conditions, being hard to evaluate the real impact of seasons and distances on animal welfare. Load microclimate can compromise broiler chicken welfare during transport and it does not necessary reflect significant losses pre and post-slaughter.
The ability to easily generate anisotropic hydrogel environments made from functional molecules with microscale resolution is an exciting possibility for the biomaterials community. This study ...reports a novel 3D electrophoresis‐assisted lithography (3DEAL) platform that combines elements from proteomics, biotechnology, and microfabrication to print well‐defined 3D molecular patterns within hydrogels. The potential of the 3DEAL platform is assessed by patterning immunoglobulin G, fibronectin, and elastin within nine widely used hydrogels and characterizing pattern depth, resolution, and aspect ratio. Furthermore, the technique's versatility is demonstrated by fabricating complex patterns including parallel and perpendicular columns, curved lines, gradients of molecular composition, and patterns of multiple proteins ranging from tens of micrometers to centimeters in size and depth. The functionality of the printed molecules is assessed by culturing NIH‐3T3 cells on a fibronectin‐patterned polyacrylamide‐collagen hydrogel and selectively supporting cell growth. 3DEAL is a simple, accessible, and versatile hydrogel‐patterning platform based on controlled molecular printing that may enable the development of tunable, chemically anisotropic, and hierarchical 3D environments.
The 3D electrophoresis‐assisted lithography (3DEAL) is an affordable, tunable, and versatile fabrication process designed to print multiple types of functional molecules within different kinds of hydrogels with high precision and within large volumes. The 3DEAL platform enables chemically anisotropic environments with microscale resolution and tunable geometry.
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