The effects of potassium and muscle homogenate on proprioceptive responses in crayfish and crab.

Proprioception of limbs and joints is a basic sensory function throughout most of the animal kingdom. It is important to understand how proprioceptive organs and the associated sensory neurons function with altered environments such as increased potassium ion concentrations ([K+]) from diseased states, ionic imbalances, and damaged tissues. These factors can drastically alter neuronal activity. To assess this matter, we used the chordotonal organ in a walking leg of a blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and the muscle receptor organ of the crayfish (Procambarus clarkii). These organs serve as tractable models for the analysis of proprioception. The preparations can help serve as translational models for these effects, which may be observed in other invertebrate species as well as mammalian species (including humans). When extracellular potassium concentration ([K+]o) is increased to 20 mM in both preparations, mixed results are observed with activity increasing in some preparations and decreasing in others after mechanical displacement. However, when [K+]o is increased to 40 mM, activity drastically decreases in all preparations. Additionally, proprioceptor sensory activity declines upon exposure to a diluted muscle homogenate, which contains a host of intracellular constituents. The robust effects of altered [K+] on proprioception in these models illuminate the potential detriments on neuronal function in cases of severe tissue damage as well as altered [K+]o.

La participación ciudadana en el desarrollo legal de la política pública; a propósito del debate congresal por la despenalización del aborto por violación / Civic participation in the legal development of public policies; a propos of the Congress debate on decriminalization of rape-related abortion

Durante los últimos años, la participación ciudadana ha ido ganando cada vez mayor importancia tanto en el desarrollo de leyes como en su aplicación a través de las políticas públicas y ello se expresa en los distintos instrumentos que se han desarrollado. Sin embargo, dichos mecanismos son todavía incipientes, formales e incluso discursivos, quedando muchos vacíos que impiden el ejercicio de la opinión ciudadana, así como el uso limitado de las evidencias que desde los espacios académicos y técnicos se vienen alcanzando. El debate parlamentario de la Iniciativa Ciudadana Déjala Decidir (propuesta ciudadana para despenalizar el aborto por violación) es un buen ejemplo para identificar qué tipo de aportes llegan y su potencialidad para generar posiciones favorables o desfavorables. Este análisis pretende mostrar dichas posiciones, dando cuenta del trecho que aún toca recorrer para que leyes relativas a los derechos sexuales y reproductivos, y en especial al aborto legal y seguro, tengan contenidos consensuados de derechos humanos...

In recent years, citizen participation has gradually obtained more importance in the development and application of public policies, expressed in various instruments created. Nevertheless those mechanisms are still incipient, formal and even discursive; many gaps hamper the exercise of citizen opinion, as well as limited use of evidence from academic and technical spaces is achieved. The parliament debate on Let Her Decide Citizen Initiative (citizen proposal to decriminalize rape-related abortion) is a good example to identify the kind of contributions obtained and their potential to generate favorable or unfavorable positions. This analysis pretends to show such positions, acknowledging the road that lies ahead for sexual and reproductive rights laws, especially those on legal and safe abortion, to have consensual human rights contents...