The effect of environmental variations on the production of the principal agricultural products in Colombia.

The agricultural sector of Colombia supports the national economy and food security due to the rich lands for cultivation. Although Colombia has a vast hydrological basin, climate change can impact agricultural productivity, generating economic and social adverse effects. For this, we evaluated the impact of some environmental variables on the production of the most sold crops using production, climatic, and hydrological data of the 1121 municipalities from 2007 to 2020. We modeled the production of coffee, rice, palm oil, sugarcane, and corn, adopting a Bayesian spatio-temporal model that involved a set of environmental variables: average temperature, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, evapotranspiration, precipitation, runoff, soil moisture, vapor pressure, radiation, and wind speed. We found that increases in the average temperatures can affect coffee (-0.2% per °C), rice (-3.76% per °C), and sugarcane (-0.19% per °C) production, meanwhile, these increases can boost palm oil (+2.55% per °C) and corn (+1.28% per °C) production in Colombia. This statement implies that the agricultural sector needs to substitute land use, promoting the production of palm oil and corn. Although our results did not find a significant effect of hydrological variables in any crop, suggesting that the abundance of water in Colombia might balance the impact of these variables. The increases in vapor pressure impact all the crops negatively (between -11.2% to -0.43% per kPa), except rice, evidencing that dry air conditions affect agricultural production. Colombia must manage the production location of the traditional products and implement agro-industrial technologies to avoid the climate change impact on crops.

Reduction of inflammatory pain in female rats after NR2B NMDA cortical antagonism / Reducción del dolor inflamatorio en ratas hembras tras el antagonismo cortical de NR2B NMDA

Studies have shown that N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors play a critical role in pain processing at different levels of the central nervous system. In this study, we used female adult Wistar rats to examine the effects of antagonizing the NR2B subunit of the NMDA receptor in phasic and tonic pain processes. All the rats underwent stereotaxic surgery for cortical cannula implantation and after at least one week of recovery, rats performed behavioral tests. For evaluating the effects of drugs on motor coordination rats were tested in the rotarod apparatus. Moreover, rats were evaluated in the paw withdrawal latency (PWL) to a noxious thermal stimulus. Furthermore, rats were tested in the formalinpain test. Rats that received the NR2B antagonist Ro 25-6981 before and after formalin injection showed significantly reduced pain responses in the formalin test, as compared with female control rats (p<0.05). In contrast, no differences among groups were found in the phasic pain test (Hargreaves) and the rotarod test. Taken together, these results suggest that cortical antagonism of the NR2B subunit of NMDA receptors is able to reduce inflammatory pain levels not only before, but after the formalin injection in females at different phases of the estrous cycle (AU)

Estudios han demostrado que los receptores de N-methyl-D-aspartato (NMDA) participan en el procesamiento del dolor en diferentes niveles del SNC. Este estudio empleó ratas hembras adultas Wistar para evaluar el antagonismo de la subunidad NR2B de NMDA en los procesos de dolor fásico y tónico. Se implantaron cánulas corticalmente con la cirugía estereotáxica y tras una semana de recuperación se realizaron pruebas conductuales. Se evaluaron los efectos del fármaco en la coordinación motora en el aparato de barra giratoria. Además, las ratas realizaron la prueba de latencia de retirada de la pata a un estímulo termal nocivo. Posteriormente, las ratas realizaron la prueba de formalina. Las ratas hembras que recibieron el antagonista de NR2B, Ro 25-6981, antes y después de la inyección de formalina denotaron respuestas de dolor significativamente menores en comparación con los controles (p<0.05). En contraste, no se encontraron diferencias significativas en la prueba de dolor fásico (Hargreaves) y la prueba de barra giratoria. En conjunto, estos resultados sugieren que el antagonismo cortical de la subunidad NR2B de los receptores NMDA es capaz de reducir los niveles de dolor inflamatorio, antes y después de la inyección de formalina en las distintas fases del ciclo estral (AU)

Reduction of inflammatory pain in female rats after NR2B NMDA cortical antagonism.

Studies have shown that N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors play a critical role in pain processing at different levels of the central nervous system. In this study, we used female adult Wistar rats to examine the effects of antagonizing the NR2B subunit of the NMDA receptor in phasic and tonic pain processes. All the rats underwent stereotaxic surgery for cortical cannula implantation and after at least one week of recovery, rats performed behavioral tests. For evaluating the effects of drugs on motor coordination rats were tested in the rotarod apparatus. Moreover, rats were evaluated in the paw withdrawal latency (PWL) to a noxious thermal stimulus. Furthermore, rats were tested in the formalin-pain test. Rats that received the NR2B antagonist Ro 25-6981 before and after formalin injection showed significantly reduced pain responses in the formalin test, as compared with female control rats (p<0.05). In contrast, no differences among groups were found in the phasic pain test (Hargreaves) and the rotarod test. Taken together, these results suggest that cortical antagonism of the NR2B subunit of NMDA receptors is able to reduce inflammatory pain levels not only before, but after the formalin injection in females at different phases of the estrous cycle.

Cortical NR2B NMDA subunit antagonism reduces inflammatory pain in male and female rats.

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors play a critical role in pain processing at different levels of the central nervous system. METHODS: In this study, we used adult Wistar rats to examine gender differences in the effects of NR2B NMDA antagonism at the level of the anterior cingulate cortex in phasic pain, and in the first and second phases of a formalin test. Rats underwent stereotactic surgery for cannula implantation in the anterior cingulate cortex. After recovery, paw withdrawal latency to a noxious thermal stimulus was assessed. Rats were also subjected to a formalin pain test whereby 60 µL of 5% formalin was injected into the right hind paw. RESULTS: Female and male rats that received Ro 25-6981, an NR2B antagonist, before formalin injection showed significantly reduced pain responses to the formalin test compared with saline-injected control rats (P < 0.05). No gender differences in phasic pain responses were found in rats treated with Ro 25-6981. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that cortical antagonism of the NR2B subunit reduces inflammatory pain levels in both genders of rat.