LCA applied to comparative environmental evaluation of aggregate production from recycled waste materials and virgin sources.

Nowadays, all productive sectors, including the construction industry, are facing the challenge of reducing their environmental impact. To achieve this objective, numerous actions are being carried out to access greater levels of environmental and economic sustainability. Techniques as Life Cycle Assessment contribute to quantifying environmental impacts, promoting a circular economy in a sector that consumes a high volume of resources, materials, and energy while generating large amounts of gaseous, liquid, or solid emissions. The present study aims to deepen our understanding of aspects that demonstrate the benefits of using RA instead of natural aggregates. This study not only quantifies the environmental impact but also explores the effects of potential improvements in the productive system and their impact on reducing environmental harm. The Life Cycle Assessment methodology is applied to quantify and compare the environmental impacts generated in the production of a ton of mixed recycled aggregates (MRA) from construction and demolition wastes, based on the data provided by plant managers. This is compared to the environmental impacts generated in the production of one ton of natural aggregates extracted from a quarry. The results revealed that the production of mixed recycled aggregate is more environmentally beneficial, confirming a reduction of 70.66% in environmental impacts during the production of recycled aggregates, in comparison to the natural aggregates extraction. Furthermore, the economic analysis demonstrates the economic advantage since the cost of producing recycled aggregates is over 30% cheaper than natural aggregates, being more competitive even when the transportation distances from the plant to the work sites exceed those of natural aggregates.

Building a cluster of NLR genes conferring resistance to pests and pathogens: the story of the Vat gene cluster in cucurbits.

Most molecularly characterized plant resistance genes (R genes) belong to the nucleotide-binding-site-leucine-rich-repeat (NLR) receptor family and are prone to duplication and transposition with high sequence diversity. In this family, the Vat gene in melon is one of the few R genes known for conferring resistance to insect, i.e., Aphis gossypii, but it has been misassembled and/or mispredicted in the whole genomes of Cucurbits. We examined 14 genomic regions (about 400 kb) derived from long-read assemblies spanning Vat-related genes in Cucumis melo, Cucumis sativus, Citrullus lanatus, Benincasa hispida, Cucurbita argyrosperma, and Momordica charantia. We built the phylogeny of those genes. Investigating the paleohistory of the Vat gene cluster, we revealed a step by step process beginning from a common ancestry in cucurbits older than 50 my. We highlighted Vat exclusively in the Cucumis genera, which diverged about 20 my ago. We then focused on melon, evaluating a minimum duplication rate of Vat in 80 wild and cultivated melon lines using generalist primers; our results suggested that duplication started before melon domestication. The phylogeny of 44 Vat-CDS obtained from 21 melon lines revealed gain and loss of leucine-rich-repeat domains along diversification. Altogether, we revealed the high putative recognition scale offered in melon based on a combination of SNPs, number of leucine-rich-repeat domains within each homolog and number of homologs within each cluster that might jointly confer resistance to a large pest and pathogen spectrum. Based on our findings, we propose possible avenues for breeding programs.

Oxigenación con membrana extracorpórea y COVID-19 / Extracorporeal membrane Oxygenation and COVID-19

ECMO (ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) is still a "rescue" therapy for both hemodynamic and respiratory support. Its use is relatively low and is restricted to specialized centers. The WHO declared as pandemic the severe acute respiratory syndrome due to coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing fatal pneumonia due to coronavirus 19 disease (COVID-19). Although the new coronavirus has a low lethality compared to other epidemics, its diffusion capacity is phenomenal. When ECMO therapy is indicated, its initiation in a specialized ECMO center should not be delayed. HEALTH WORKERS ARE OF HIGH PRIORITY. VA or VAV support may be indicated. In Mexico, we have even considered activating the logistics of obtaining an ECMO team since the patient presents with PaO/FiO of 100 mmHg or when it is indicated to pronate the patient. The early use and early activation of an ECMO team will undoubtedly give better results than the late application of this therapy. Direct myocardial involvement due to this virus has been reported causing myocarditis and acute coronary events, so it may be worth leaving a femoral artery vascular introducer so that if necessary, the patient can be supported with VA ECMO or VAV ECMO. These measures may lead to improved prognosis and outcome for patients affected by COVID-19.

ECMO (ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) es una terapia de "rescate" para soporte, tanto hemodinámico como respiratorio. Su uso es relativamente bajo y está restringido a centros especializados. La OMS declaró como pandémico el síndrome agudo respiratorio severo por coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causante de neumonía fatal por la enfermedad del coronavirus 19 (COVID-19). Aunque el nuevo coronavirus presenta una baja letalidad en comparación con otras epidemias, su capacidad de difusión es fenomenal. Cuando la terapia con ECMO está indicada, no debe retrasarse su inicio en un centro ECMO especializado. LOS TRABAJADORES DE LA SALUD SON DE ALTA PRIORIDAD. El soporte VA o VAV puede indicarse. En México hemos considerado incluso activar la logística de conseguir en ECMO team desde encontrarnos con PaO2/FiO2 de 100 mmHg o cuando se indica pronar al paciente. El uso temprano y la activación temprana de un ECMO team, sin duda dará mejores resultados que la aplicación tardía de esta terapia. Se ha reportado afección miocárdica directa por este virus provocando miocarditis y eventos coronarios agudos, por lo que podría valer la pena dejar un introductor vascular arterial femoral para que en caso de ser necesario se pueda soportar al paciente con ECMO VA o ECMO VAV. Estas medidas pueden llevar a mejorar el pronóstico y desenlace de los pacientes afectados por COVID-19.

Arsenic-induced stress activates sulfur metabolism in different organs of garlic (Allium sativum L.) plants accompanied by a general decline of the NADPH-generating systems in roots.

Arsenic (As) contamination is a major environmental problem which affects most living organisms from plants to animals. This metalloid poses a health risk for humans through its accumulation in crops and water. Using garlic (Allium sativum L.) plants as model crop exposed to 200µM arsenate, a comparative study among their main organs (roots and shoots) was made. The analysis of arsenic, glutathione (GSH), phytochelatins (PCs) and lipid peroxidation contents with the activities of antioxidant enzymes (catalase, superoxide dismutase, ascorbate-glutathione cycle), and the main components of the NADPH-generating system, including glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGDH), NADP-malic enzyme (NADP-ME) and NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase (NADP-ICDH) was carried out. Data showed a correlation among arsenic accumulation in the different organs, PCs content and the antioxidative response, with a general decline of the NADPH-generating systems in roots. Overall, our results demonstrate that there are clear connections between arsenic uptake, increase of their As-chelating capacity in roots and a decline of antioxidative enzyme activities (catalase and the ascorbate peroxidase) whose alteration provoked As-induced oxidative stress. Thus, the data suggest that roots act as barrier of arsenic mediated by a prominent sulfur metabolism which is characterized by the biosynthesis of high amount of PCs.

Platelet-rich plasma may prevent titanium-mesh exposure in alveolar ridge augmentation with anorganic bovine bone.

OBJECTIVE: Bone augmentation with the titanium-mesh (Ti-mesh) technique is susceptible to a large rate of complications such as morbidity of bone graft donor site, and mesh exposure to the oral cavity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of anorganic bovine bone (ABB) in alveolar bone augmentation with the Ti-mesh technique. In addition, we investigated the effect of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in preventing mesh exposure by using it to cover the Ti-mesh. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients included in the clinical trial were randomly allocated by a blinded assistant into two groups. The 30 patients recruited for this study underwent 43 alveolar bone augmentation with the Ti-mesh technique using ABB as graft material in all of them. In 15 patients, the Ti-meshes were covered with PRP (PRP group) whereas in the other 15 the Ti-meshes were not (control group). After 6 months, patients were called for clinical, radiographic, and histological evaluation, and implant placement surgery. A total of 97 implants were placed in the augmented bone and their evolution was followed up for a period of 24 months. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the two study groups in terms of complications and bone formation. In the control group, 28.5% of the cases suffered from mesh exposure, while in the PRP group, no exposures were registered. Radiographic analysis revealed that bone augmentation was higher in the PRP group than in the control group. Overall, 97.3% of implants placed in the control group and 100% of those placed in the PRP group were successful during the monitoring period. We suggest that the positive effect of PRP on the Ti-mesh technique is due to its capacity to improve soft tissue healing, thereby protecting the mesh and graft material secured beneath the gingival tissues. CONCLUSIONS: Alveolar bone augmentation using ABB alone in the Ti-mesh technique is sufficient for implant rehabilitation. Besides, covering the Ti-meshes with PRP was a determining factor in avoiding mesh exposure. Ti-mesh exposure provoked significant bone loss, but in most cases it did not affect the subsequent placement of implants.

Study of DQE dependence with beam quality on GE essential mammography flat panel.

This paper deals with the analysis of the behavior of objective image quality parameters for the new GE Senographe Essential FFDM system, in particular its dependence with beam quality. The detector consists of an indirect conversion a-Si flat panel coupled to a CsI:Tl scintillator. The system under study has gone through a series of relevant modifications in flat panel with respect to the previous model (GE Senographe DS 2000). These changes in the detector modify its performance and are intended to favor advanced applications like tomosynthesis, which uses harder beam spectra and lower doses per exposure than conventional FFDM. Although our system does not have tomosynthesis implemented, we noticed that most clinical explorations were performed by automatically selecting a harder spectrum than that of typical use in FFDM (Rh/Rh 28-30 kV instead of Mo/Mo 28 kV). Since flat-panel optimization for tomosynthesis influences the usual FFDM clinical performance, the new detector behavior needed to be investigated. Therefore, the aim of our study is evaluating the dependence of the detector performance for different beam spectra and exposure levels. In this way, we covered the clinical beam quality range (Rh/Rh 28-30 kV) and we extended the study to even harder spectra (Rh/Rh 34 kV). Detector performance is quantified by means of modulation transfer function (MTF), normalized noise power spectrum (NNPS) and detective quantum efficiency (DQE). We found that flat-panel optimization results in slightly - but statistically significant - higher DQE values as beam quality increases, which is contrary to the expected behavior. This positive correlation between beam quality and DQE is also diametrically opposite to that of the previous model by the same manufacturer. As a direct consequence, usual FFDM takes advantage of the changes in the detector, as less exposure is needed to achieve the same DQE if harder beams are used.

Effect of platelet-rich plasma on sinus lifting: a randomized-controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: The combination of anorganic bovine bone (ABB) with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been widely used in bone regeneration procedures although its benefits are still unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether or not PRP improves the efficacy of ABB in sinus floor augmentation. In addition, we have investigated the effect of residual bone height and tobacco on implant survival in sinus augmentation procedures. PATIENT AND METHODS: Eighty-seven patients recruited for this study underwent 144 sinus floor augmentation procedures using ABB alone or ABB plus PRP (ABB+PRP) in a randomized clinical trial. A total of 286 implants were placed in the augmented bone, and their evolution was followed up for a period of 24 months. In order to investigate on a histological level and any adjunctive effects, we performed an ancillary study in five edentulous patients with a symmetrical severely resorbed maxilla. In these patients, a bilateral sinus augmentation was randomly performed using ABB or ABB+PRP in a split-mouth design, and after 6 months, bone biopsies were taken from the implant sites for histological and histomorphometric analysis. RESULTS: Overall, 96.2% of ABB and 98.6% of ABB+PRP implant success were obtained during the monitoring period and differences were not found between sites grafted with and without PRP in the 87 patients studied. Densitometry assessments and graft resorption were similar in both experimental groups. However, the histological and histomorphometrical analysis in the five edentulous patients revealed that bone augmentation was significantly higher in sites treated with ABB+PRP (p

Characterization of the BH3 protein Bmf in Gallus gallus: identification of a novel chicken-specific isoform.

Bmf is a proapoptotic member of the BH3-only subgroup of Bcl-2 family proteins, which is associated to myosin V motors by binding to the dynein light chain 2 (DLC2). It acts as a sentinel detecting intracellular damages on the main cytoskeletal structures. The cloning and characterization of the chicken (Gallus gallus) Bmf cDNA and splicing variant is described in this report. The Bmf cDNA was amplified by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using oligonucleotide primers derived from in silico sequences. The chicken Bmf cDNA encodes a protein of 193 amino acids, showing homology to mammalian Bmf proteins. A splicing variant of the chicken Bmf (Bmf(S), short isoform of Bmf) coding a protein of 118 amino acids was also identified. This is the first Bmf isoform identified so far which lacks the DLC2-binding domain although retaining the BH3 domain. Both chicken Bmf isoforms induced apoptosis 24 h after transfection in MCF7 and HeLa cell lines, but chicken Bmf(S) exhibits a higher proapoptotic activity. In addition, mRNA expression analysis showed that chicken Bmf transcription is ubiquitous in all embryo developmental stages, suggesting a role for this protein in the control of the development process.

Glutathione and growth inhibition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in healthy and HIV infected subjects.

Intracellular levels of glutathione are depleted in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in whom the risk of tuberculosis, particularly disseminated disease is many times that of healthy individuals. In this study, we examined the role of glutathione in immunity against tuberculosis infection in samples derived from healthy and human immunodeficiency virus infected subjects. Our studies confirm that glutathione levels are reduced in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and in red blood cells isolated from human immunodeficiency virus-infected subjects (CD4>400/cumm). Furthermore, treatment of blood cultures from human immunodeficiency virus infected subjects with N-acetyl cysteine, a glutathione precursor, caused improved control of intracellular M. tuberculosis infection. N-acetyl cysteine treatment decreased the levels of IL-1, TNF-alpha, and IL-6, and increased the levels of IFN-gamma in blood cultures derived from human immunodeficiency virus-infected subjects, promoting the host immune responses to contain M. tuberculosis infection successfully.

Characterization of a human Bid homologue protein from Gallus gallus.

Bid protein, a member of the "BH3-only" subgroup of Bcl-2 family, plays a critical role in mammalian apoptosis regulation. In this study, we have cloned the chicken Bid gene, which encodes a 193 amino acid protein and shares 40% homology with human and mouse Bid proteins. Bid sequence comparison emphasises the conservation of both the functional domain BH3 and the proteolytic cleavage sites. An induction of apoptosis by chicken Bid and the cleavage of the protein, after TNFalpha treatment, were also demonstrated. In addition, mRNA Bid expression was detected along all embryo stages and tissues examined, suggesting a role for this protein in the developmental process. This is the first report demonstrating the functionality of a "BH3-only" protein in chicken.

Stem allomorphy in the Spanish mental lexicon: evidence from behavioral and ERP experiments.

This study presents results from a nonce-word elicited production task and a reading experiment using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) investigating finite forms of Spanish verbs which consist of marked stems and regular person and number agreement suffixes. The first experiment showed that unmarked stems are productively extended to nonce words, whereas marked stems generalize more restrictively to nonce words, based on lexical similarity to existing stem forms. The second experiment yielded a lexical ERP signature for stem violations and an ERP pattern signaling morpho-syntactic (rule-based) processing for suffix violations. We argue that stem allomorphy is lexically represented in the Spanish mental lexicon, with marked stems forming subnodes of structured lexical entries.

Proteomic analysis of the Gallus gallus embryo at stage-29 of development.

The chicken (Gallus gallus) is one of the primary models for embryological and developmental studies. In order to begin to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the normal and abnormal development of the chicken, we used 2-DE to construct a whole-embryo proteome map. Proteins were separated by IEF on IPG strips, and by 11% SDS-PAGE) gels. Protein identification was performed by means of PMF with MALDI-TOF-MS. In all, 105 protein spots were identified, 35 of them implicated in embryo development, 10 related with some diseases, and 16, finally, being proteins that have never been identified, purified or characterized in the chicken before. This map will be updated continuously and will serve as a reference database for investigators, studying changes at the protein level under different physiological conditions.

Developing chick embryos express a protein which shares homology with the nuclear pore complex protein Nup88 present in human tumors.

Nup88 is a nuclear pore complex protein which is overexpressed in a variety of human tumors of the stomach, colon, liver, pancreas, breast, lung, ovary, uterus, prostate and kidney. A monoclonal antibody crossreacting with the yeast Candida albicans and Nup88 was used to investigate the expression of cross-reactive antigens in chick embryos, in an attempt to identify an experimental model for studying the role played by Nup88 during cell development and differentiation. All cells in the trilaminar embryo were labeled with the antibody, but as development advanced and organogenesis was completed, expression of the corresponding antigen became more restricted. Thus, some structures continued to be intensely labeled (skin epithelium, oropharyngeal endothelium, perichondral mesenchymal tissue), whereas others ( muscular tissue, vascular endothelium, respiratory endothelium, digestive tract mucosa, peripheral nerves, medullary white matter and the retinal axons) were more moderately stained. No immunoreactivity was observed in the medullary grey matter or cartilage. A specific band of 53 kDa observed by Western blotting of chick embryo extracts suggested that the chicken antigen recognized by the monoclonal antibody is the homologue of human Nup88, which is associated with the high proliferation and low differentiation of tumor cells. The present results indicate that the role of Nup88 in cell differentiation and organ development could be fruitfully investigated using the developing chick embryo as an experimental model.

A case of ring chromosome 22 with deletion of the 22q13.3 region associated with agenesis of the corpus callosum, fornix and septum pellucidum.

We report a 16-week-gestation foetus obtained by voluntary abortion after prenatal diagnosis, in which a ring chromosome 22 was observed with deletion of the 22q13.3 region. A prenatal study of the amniotic fluid by standard chromosome technique with G bands and FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridisation) was performed. After the abortion, the anatomopathological study of the obtained foetus was carried out. Morphological and histological analysis of the foetus did not reveal severe physical abnormalities, although alterations of the nervous system were observed consisting of corpus callosum, fornix and septum pellucidum agenesia. It could be that the genes in this region that were involved in the development of the central nervous system were responsible for the alterations found in the morphological study. The wide range of manifestations observed in patients with this cytogenetic alteration is probably due to size differences in the deleted region.