Contamination of N-poor wastewater with emerging pollutants does not affect the performance of purple phototrophic bacteria and the subsequent resource recovery potential.

Propagation of emerging pollutants (EPs) in wastewater treatment plants has become a warning sign, especially for novel resource-recovery concepts. The fate of EPs on purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB)-based systems has not yet been determined. This work analyzes the performance of a photo-anaerobic membrane bioreactor treating a low-N wastewater contaminated with 25 EPs. The chemical oxygen demand (COD), N and P removal efficiencies were stable (76 ±â€¯8, 62 ±â€¯15 and 36 ±â€¯8 %, respectively) for EPs loading rate ranging from 50 to 200 ng L-1 d-1. The PPB community adapted to changes in both the EPs concentration and the organic loading rate (OLR) and maintained dominance with >85 % of total 16S gene copies. Indeed, an increment of the OLR caused an increase of the biomass growth and activity concomitantly with a higher EPs removal efficiency (30 ±â€¯13 vs 54 ±â€¯11 % removal for OLR of 307 ±â€¯4 and 590 ±â€¯8 mgCOD L-1 d-1, respectively). Biodegradation is the main mechanism of EPs removal due to low EPs accumulation on the biomass, the membrane or the reactor walls. Low EPs adsorption avoided biomass contamination, resulting in no effect on its biological methane potential. These results support the use of PPB technologies for resource recovery with low EPs contamination of the products.

Cultivo de Células Madre Mesenquimales Sobre Hidrogeles Compuestos de Nanopartículas de Hidroxiapatita y Quitosano Foto-Entrecruzable / Mesenchymal Stem Cell Culture on Composite Hydrogels of Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles and Photo-Crosslinking Chitosan

RESUMEN El quitosano (QT) es un biopolímero que ha sido ampliamente utilizado en aplicaciones de ingeniería de tejido óseo, demostrando un gran potencial para este propósito. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo desarrollar un sistema de hidrogel entrecruzable in situ, compuesto de quitosano y nano-partículas de hidroxiapatita (HAP), un equivalente al componente mineral del hueso. El quitosano fue modificado, utilizando reacciones de carbodiimida, con ácido lactobiónico y ácido azidobenzoico para hacerlo soluble a pH fisiológico y foto-entrecruzable, respectivamente. El quitosano modificado fue mezclado en diferentes proporciones con HAP, y luego de una corta exposición a luz UV, se formaron hidrogeles. Células madre mesenquimales de médula ósea de rata (MSC) fueron sembradas sobre estos hidrogeles y cultivadas por 4, 10 y 16 días, bajo condiciones osteogénicas y no-osteogénicas. A través de ensayos de proliferación celular, actividad de fosfatasa alcalina, y microscopía confocal, se observó que la mayoría de las formulaciones soportan la adhesión y proliferación celular, mostrando importantes interacciones célula-biomaterial, y una diferenciación osteogénica temprana destacada en las formulaciones 70:30 y 50:50, QT:HAP. Algunas formulaciones del sistema foto-entrecruzable tienen potencial en aplicaciones de ingeniería de tejido óseo, y se propone estudios más detallados de diferenciación celular.

ABSTRACT Chitosan (QT) is a biopolymer that has been used in widely used in bone tissue engineering applications, demonstrating great potential for that purpose. Therefore, the present study aims to develop an in situ crosslinking hydrogel system, composed of chitosan and hydroxyapatite (HAP). Briefly, chitosan was modified, using carbodiimide chemistry, with lactobionic and azidobenzoic acid to make it soluble at physiological pH and photo-crosslinkable, respectively. The modified chitosan was mixed with HAP, in different proportions, and later exposed to UV light, yielding hydrogels. Mesenchymal stem cells, from rat bone marrow, were seeded onto the hydrogels and cultured for 4, 10 and 16 days, under osteogenic and non-osteogenic conditions. Through cell proliferation and alkaline phosphatase activity assays, and confocal microscopy, it was observed that the majority of formulations supported cell adhesion and proliferation, and a significant early osteogenic differentiation in formulations 70:30 and 50:50, QT:HAP. According to these results, the proposed photo-crosslinking system has potential for tissue engineering applications, and further specific studies are proposed for cell differentiation.

Evaluación de la actividad repelente de aceites esenciales de plantas Piperáceas del departamento de Chocó, Colombia / Evaluation of repellent activity of essential oils from plants Piperaceae Department of Chocó, Colombia

El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar la composición química volátil del aceite esencial de varias especies de Piperáceas (Piper dilatatum, Piper aduncum, Piper divaricatum, Piper sp, Piper sanctifelicis) y la actividad repelente de ellos contra el gorgojo de granos almacenados Tribolium castaneum Herbst. Los aceites esenciales se obtuvieron por hidrodestilación, la separación e identificación de los componentes volátiles se realizó por cromatografía de gases acoplada a espectrometría de masas y para la evaluación de la actividad repelente se empleó el método de área de preferencia. Los compuestos mayoritarios encontrados en Piper dilatatum fueron el apiol 89,0% y trans-cariofileno (3,5%); en Piper divaricatum, eugenol (37,5%) y metil eugenol (36,3%); Piper sp, alpha-gurjuneno (o guaieno) (24,9%) y elemol (14,2%); Piper sanctifelicis, Delta-3-careno (35,3%) y limoneno (27,1%); Piper aduncum, dilapiol (48,2%) y 1,8 cineol (11,4%). Los porcentajes de repelencia de los aceites esenciales a una concentración de 1 µL/cm2, a un tiempo de exposición de 2 horas frente al T. castaneum fueron: Piper aduncum (99%), Piper sp (96%), Piper dilatatum (82%), Piper divaricatum (76%), Piper santifelicis (33%) (AU)

The objective of this study was to determine the volatile chemical composition of the essential oil of various species of Piperaceae (Piper dilatatum, Piper aduncum, Piper divaricatum, Piper sp, Piper sanctifelicis) and repellent activity of them against weevil stored grain Tribolium castaneum Herbst . Essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation, the separation and identification of volatile components was performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and to evaluate the repellent activity the area method was used preferably. The major compounds found in Piper dilatatum were 89.0% and apiol trans-caryophyllene (3.5%); Piper divaricatum, eugenol (37.5%) and methyl eugenol (36.3%); -gurjunene (or guaiene) (24.9%) and elemol (14.2%);Piper sp, Piper sanctifelicis, -(35.3%) and limonene (27.1%);3-carene Piper aduncum, dilapiol (48.2%) and 1,8 cineole (11.4%). Percent repellency of essential oils at a concentration of 1 uL / cm2, to an exposure time of 2 hours against T. castaneum were: Piper aduncum (99%), Piper sp (96%), Piper dilatatum (82 %), Piper divaricatum (76%), Piper santifelicis (33%)

Association of neural tube defects in children of mothers with MTHFR 677TT genotype and abnormal carbohydrate metabolism risk: a case-control study.

Abnormalities in maternal folate and carbohydrate metabolism have both been shown to induce neural tube defects (NTD) in humans and animal models. However, the relationship between these two factors in the development of NTDs remains unclear. Data from mothers of children with spina bifida seen at the Unidad de Espina Bífida del Hospital Infantil Virgen del Rocío (case group) were compared to mothers of healthy children with no NTD (control group) who were randomly selected from patients seen at the outpatient ward in the same hospital. There were 25 individuals in the case group and 41 in the control group. Analysis of genotypes for the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) 677CT polymorphism in women with or without risk factors for abnormal carbohydrate metabolism revealed that mothers who were homozygous for the MTHFR 677TT polymorphism and at risk of abnormal carbohydrate metabolism were more likely to have offspring with spina bifida and high levels of homocysteine, compared to the control group. The increased incidence of NTDs in mothers homozygous for the MTHFR 677TT polymorphism and at risk of abnormal carbohydrate metabolism stresses the need for careful metabolic screening in pregnant women, and, if necessary, determination of the MTHFR 677CT genotype in those mothers at risk of developing abnormal carbohydrate metabolism.

[Bankart repair. Comparative study with and without suction drainage to assess shoulder pain and functional limitation]. / Reparación de Bankart. Estudio comparativo con y sin drenaje aspirativo para valorar dolor y limitación funcional del hombro.

UNLABELLED: The purpose of this study is to compare two patient cohorts with Bankart lesion, one with intraarticular drainage after surgery and another group without drainage. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We designed a study cohort for patients with Bankart repair due to relapsing shoulder dislocation; they underwent arthroscopy and were stabilized with suture anchors; intraarticular drainage was used in one group and no drainage was used in a control patient cohort. Thirty-one consecutive patients were operated by the same team. All patients were evaluated at the office using the Rowe, Constant and UCLA scales. The statistical tests used included chi-square, the student-t test or the Wilcoxon rank sum test (nonparametric version). RESULTS: The UCLA median value was 35 (34.5-35) in group B and 33 (32.5 -35) in group A, with p = 0.13. The Rowe test score was 100 (95;100) in group B and 100 in group A (85;100), with p = 0.913. The Constant test score was 96 (88.8-98) in group B and 96 (90.5-100) in group A with p = 0.535 and no differences. DISCUSSION: This comparative study includes two groups that underwent arthroscopic Bankart repair, one with drainage and another one without drainage. Good results were obtained in both groups. In this study the placement of a postoperative intraarticular drainage did not improve clinical results, as no statistically significant differences were observed between both groups.

A cost analysis of photodynamic therapy with methyl aminolevulinate and imiquimod compared with conventional surgery for the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma and Bowen's disease of the lower extremities.

BACKGROUND: Superficial basal cell carcinoma (sBCC) and Bowen's disease (BD) are usually slow-growing, low-grade malignancies that mainly affect older persons. Surgery is often the first choice of treatment and the modality with the lowest failure rate. However, non-invasive procedures, such as topical methyl aminolevulinate photodynamic therapy (MAL-PDT) and imiquimod, are increasingly demanded by dermatologists and patients, because of their generally favourable efficacy and adverse effects profile and their excellent cosmetic outcome. OBJECTIVE: To assess the cost of MAL-PDT and of treatment with imiquimod for primary non-melanoma superficial cutaneous carcinomas compared with conventional surgery, thereby calculating the total medical cost, and the direct and indirect costs. SETTING: We collected data on 67 patients with 86 tumours (32 sBCC, 54 BD). Patients were treated between May 2006 and April 2007 at the Dermatology Department of the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella, Spain. The mean cost and mean cost per complete clinical response were calculated for each therapeutic option. RESULTS: After 2 years of follow-up, a complete response was observed in 89.5% of the MAL-PDT group, 87.5% of the imiquimod group and 97.5% of the surgery group. The difference in costs when compared with the surgery group was a mean saving per lesion treated of 307 euros for the imiquimod group, and 322 euros for the MAL-PDT group. CONCLUSIONS: Although surgery proved to be more effective treatment, our results suggest that its average cost is greater than that of non-invasive therapy for the treatment of non-melanoma superficial cutaneous carcinomas on the lower limbs, at least after the first 2 years of follow-up.

High-performance implementation and analysis of the Linkmap program.

Linkage analysis uses information from family pedigrees to map genes and locate disease genes on particular chromosomes. A recombination fraction denoted as theta is estimated as a measure of crossing over between two loci. Genetic linkage calculations are very time-consuming particularly for large family pedigrees, a large number of theta values, and an increased number of markers. This paper reports the implementation of a dynamic master-slave scheme for the parallelization of the Linkmap program on a high-performance cluster such as the Origin 2000 (O2K) consisting of 56 R12000 processors. The Linkmap program is one of four programs in the LINKAGE/FASTLINK legacy package widely used by the medical research community. Implementations issues are addressed and results are compared with previous results on a cluster of DEC Alphas, and with the sequential execution on the O2K machine.

On the parallelization of linkmap from the LINKAGE/FASTLINK package.

Genetic linkage calculations can be time consuming, even on a fast computer. The ability to collect large family pedigrees has increased the magnitude of linkage computations. Sequential genetic algorithms have many successful applications in very different domains, but they have a main drawback in their utilization. Evaluations are very time-consuming, e.g., a pedigree consisting of 55 nodes takes about 70 min on a DEC-Alpha processor and about 270 min on a 166 MHz Pentium for certain likelihood calculations. This time increases exponentially with the increase in the size of the pedigree. In order to solve these shortcomings and to study new models of higher efficiency and efficacy, parallel platforms are being used for genetic programs. LINKAGE is a software package for performing genetic likelihood calculations; FASTLINK is an improved, faster version of it. This paper provides a parallel implementation of the "Linkmap" program (one of the four programs in LINKAGE/FASTLINK) for a heterogeneous environment, using a static and a dynamic strategy for task allocation. It was found that the increased performance by the dynamic strategy was close to the estimated maximum speed up.

Measuring Omega/b with Weak Lensing.

A correlation between the surface density of foreground galaxies tracing the large-scale structure and the position of distant galaxies and quasars is expected from the magnification bias effect. We show that this foreground-background correlation function wfb can be used as a straightforward and almost model-free method to measure the cosmological ratio Omega/b. For samples with appropriate redshift distributions, wfb~Omegadeltag, where delta and g are respectively the foreground dark matter and galaxy surface density fluctuations. Therefore, Omega&solm0;b~wfb&solm0;w, where w identical withgg is the foreground galaxy angular two-point correlation function, b is the biasing factor, and the proportionality factor is independent of the dark matter power spectrum. Simple estimations show that the application of this method to the galaxy and quasar samples generated by the upcoming Sloan Sky Digital Survey will achieve a highly accurate and well-resolved measurement of the ratio Omega/b.

Persistence in metabolic nets.

In an attempt to improve the understanding of complex metabolic dynamic phenomena, we have analysed several 'metabolic networks', dynamical systems which, under a single formulation, take into account the activity of several catalytic dissipative structures, interconnected by substrate fluxes and regulatory signals. These metabolic networks exhibit a rich variety of self-organized dynamic patterns, with e.g., phase transitions emerging in the whole activity of each network. We apply Hurst's R/S analysis to several time series generated by these metabolic networks, and measure Hurst exponents H < 0.5 in most cases. This value of H, indicative of antipersistent processes, is detected at very high significance levels, estimated with detailed Monte Carlo simulations. These results show clearly the considered type of metabolic networks exhibit long-term memory phenomena.

Photometry and spectroscopy of the GRB 970508 optical counterpart

An optical transient within the error box of the gamma ray burst GRB 970508 was imaged 4 hours after the event. It displayed a strong ultraviolet excess, and reached maximum brightness 2 days later. The optical spectra did not show any emission lines, and no variations on time scales of minutes were observed for 1 hour during the decline phase. According to the fireball and afterglow models, the intensity should rise monotonically before the observed optical maximum, but the data indicate that another physical mechanism may be responsible for the constant phase seen during the first hours after the burst.

Mielolipoma suprarrenal: a propósito de un caso: revisión bibliográfica / Suprarrenal mielolipoma: with regard to a case: bibliographical overhaul

Presenta un caso de Mielolipoma suprarrenal, tumor raramente descrito, endocrinológicamente benigno. Analizamos la presentación Clínica y Quirúrgica. Como revisión de la literatura.

[Spontaneous pneumoperitoneum without peritonitis]. / Neumoperitoneo espontáneo sin peritonitis.

We report one case of spontaneum pneumoperitoneum without peritonitis in a male newborn was admitted in Infantil Robert Reid Cabral Hospital. Many radiological studies were carried out. Its treatment was conservative. The child had excellent evolution. We recommend this treatment for all the patient who has the same features.

Tumor de frantz neoplasia de un caso y revisión de la literatura

Se reporta un caso de tumor de Frantz (neoplasia papilar quistica del pácnreas), en una mujer de 23 años, a quien se laparotomizó encontrándo un tumor del cuerpo y cola pancreatica, con gran invasión local, no así linfática. Describimos la clínica, histológía e imagen de esta neoplasia, como el esfuerzo quirurgico del grupo de cirujanos, Logrando la radicalidad del tumor, ofreciendo de esta manera, a una pacientes jóven escelente sobrevida.

[Surveillance of St. Louis encephalitis, Eastern equine and Western equine in the province of Ciego de Avila]. / Vigilancia de las encefalitis de San Luis, equina del este y equina del oeste en la provincia Ciego de Avila.

Serological studies were carried out using the haemagglutination inhibition and neutralization tests so as to know the circulation dynamics of some arboviruses with the use of Western and Eastern equine encephalitis antigens and St Louis encephalitis antigens in human serum from sound and symptomatic individuals, as well as from sentinel birds, between 1987 and 1991, and during 1994. 1.7% of the asymptomatic subjects tested presented neutralizing antibodies to to Eastern equine and 4.8% to St Louis encephalitis. 16 patients with seroconversion by haemagglutination inhibition to St Louis virus were detected. Surveillance of sentinel birds showed that during 1988, 1989, and 1994. St. Louis circulated in the municipalities of Morón, Bolivia and Chambas; whereas in the latter the Eastern equine encephalitis circulated in 1988 and 1989. Antibodies to Western equine encephalitis were detected in sound individuals by haemagglutination inhibition due seemingly to heterologous antibodies, since there were no neutralizing antibodies against this virus.

Multiple organ retrieval: impact on staff and institutions.

Perioperative nurses, along with other nurses, and health care institutions, are affected directly and indirectly by the present day process of multiple organ retrieval from a declared brain dead donor. The recognition of potential stress and impact situations in the retrieval process may assist in the planning of effective interventions to enable optimal organ retrievals.

La participación popular en la gestión estatal en Cuba / People participation in state management in Cuba

Se analiza el concepto de tecnología de los asentamientos humanos, y se destacan los criterios que avalan la importancia de considerar la participación de la comunidad como un componente de valor de ésta. Se precisan las variantes de esta participación en relación con las diferentes formaciones socioeconómicas. Se señala la necesidad de precisar las características socioeconómicas de cada país, al referirse a la participación popular en determinadas áreas o sectores de la sociedad, por las diferencias que existen en la forma en que esta participa según las distintas estructuras económicas. Se considera que la participación de la comunidad es un proceso en el que pueden identificarse determinadas etapas o fases durante su desarrollo (AU)