The effect of grazing on the fatty acid profile of longissimus thoracis muscle in Galician Blond calves.

The objective of this work was to examine the effect of different levels of grazing on muscle nutritional fatty acid (FA) profile, including the beneficial n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and cis-9, trans-11 (cis-9, trans-11) 18:2 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Thirty male Galician Blond (GB) breed calves were randomly assigned to the following three grazing treatments: (1) continuous pasture grazing for 250 days (P); (2) 197-day grazing followed by a 50-day short period of concentrate-based finishing (PC) and (3) 57-day grazing followed by a 165-day long period of concentrate-based finishing (C). Calves kept sucking their mothers up to the time of slaughter. The slaughter weight was similar for all treatments (about 330 kg). Samples of the longissimus thoracis muscle were used for assessment of chemical composition by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy and FA profiles by gas chromatography. Muscle from C calves was fatter and had higher content in total FA, monounsaturated FA (MUFA), cis-9 18:1 than muscle from P calves, whereas PC muscle had generally intermediate values. No significant treatment difference for total saturated FAs (SFA) was found. Content of potentially beneficial n-3 PUFA (18:3n-3, 20:3n-3, 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3), cis-9, trans-11 CLA and n-6:n-3 ratio were lower and PUFA : SFA ratio were higher in P than in both C and PC calves. Calves fed exclusively on pasture synthesised higher amounts of beneficial FA than calves finished on concentrate. A 50-day period of concentrate-based finishing was sufficient to offset the synthesis of beneficial FA from pasture grazing.

Hipertensión arterial ¿Mal control? Quizá no tan malo / Hypertension poorly controlled? Perhaps not so poorly

Objetivo. Conocer el grado de control de hipertensos tratados, en consulta de enfermería y con automedidas domiciliarias. Material y métodos. Estudio descriptivo realizado en Atención Primaria. Mediante muestreo aleatorio simple se seleccionó una muestra de 600 hipertensos tratados, citados en consulta programada de enfermería. A los que aceptaron se les hizo 6 medidas consecutivas de presión arterial en consulta de enfermería, en condiciones estandarizadas y con aparato electrónico automático y se les entrenó para que hicieran 24 automedidas domiciliarias durante un día. Se consideró buen control en consulta cuando la presión arterial era < 140/90 mmHg y en domicilio cuando era < 135/85 mmHg. Resultados. Se midió la presión arterial en consulta de enfermería y domicilio a 583 pacientes (54,4 % mujeres) con una edad media de 62,9 (DE: 10,4) años. Los valores medios de presión arterial en consulta de enfermería fueron 139,3 (DE: 17,1) y 81,3 (DE: 9,4) mmHg para la sistólica y diastólica y con medidas domiciliarias 131,4 (DE: 15,7) y 78,7 (DE: 8,8) mmHg. El grado de control fue del 50,9 % en consulta de enfermería y del 55,4 % con medidas domiciliarias. Se observaron grados de control distintos en los diferentes momentos del día en los que se realizó la automedida y el control mejoró, tanto en enfermería como en domicilio, al excluir las dos primeras medidas. Discusión. Las medidas clínicas infraestimaron el grado de control de los hipertensos. Con automedida de la presión arterial domiciliaria el grado de control observado fue más elevado. Sería de interés estandarizar las condiciones de medida para tener una información más exacta del grado de control y hacer comparables los diferentes estudios epidemiológicos

Objective. To estimate the control rate of hypertensive patients who were treated, in the nurse office and with home self-measurements. Material and methods. Descriptive study developed in Primary Health Care. By means of a random sample, 600 hypertensive treated who go to the programmed nurse office, were selected. Those who agreed, their previously trained nurse, made them 6 arterial blood pressure consecutive measurements, in standardized conditions and with an electronic set, and these patients were trained to make 24 home self-measurements, with the same electronic set, in a day. Control office when < 140/90 mmHg and control at home when < 135/85 mmHg. Results. 583 patients (54.4 % women) were measured blood pressure at nurse office and at home being mean age 62.9 (SD: 10.4) years old. Mean blood pressure values at nurse office were 139.3 (SD: 17.1) and 81.3 (SD: 9.4) mmHg for systolic and diastolic and with home self-measurements 131.4 (SD: 15.7) and 78.7 (SD: 8.8) mmHg. The control rate was 50.9 % at nurse office and 55.4 % with home self-measurements. Different control grades were observed during the different moments of the day when home self-measurements were made, and improved, both at nurse office and in home, on excluding the two first blood pressure measurements. Discussion. Clinical measures understimates hypertension control rate. With home self-measurement the control rate is better. It would be interesting to standardize measure conditions to have a more exact control grade information and so make comparable the different epide miological studies

Effect of weaning status and storage time under vacuum upon physical characteristics of meat of the Rubia Gallega breed.

Seven to nine months old calves are the typical production of Rubia Gallega, which is the most important beef breed in Spain. A study about the influence of weaning status and vacuum storage time on veal quality characteristics is needed. The muscle longissimus thoracis from 22 non-weaned (NW) and 21 weaned (W) calves at 1day post-slaughter, and vacuum packaged for 7 and 14 days were analysed. NW showed higher yellowness and hue values than W but lower pigment concentration. The differences disappeared at longer storage times. The redness, yellowness, hue and chroma increased with aging, but the pigment concentration, expressible juice and toughness decreased with aging. Principal component analysis showed that colour variables were the most determinant characteristics in quality variation. The canonical discriminant analysis separated the samples in three groups: 1 day post-slaughter W, 1day post-slaughter NW, and vacuum packaged W and NW.

Nutritional characteristics of veal from weaned and unweaned calves: Discriminatory ability of the fat profile.

The chemical and nutritional composition of the Longissimus thoracis muscle from 58 'Rubia Gallega' breed animals was measured to differentiate veal of weaned from unweaned calves. Fat, protein, ash, and moisture contents of muscle were determined by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) and the fatty acid (FA) profiles were determined by gas chromatography. Calves suckled their mothers at pasture followed by an indoor period. The weaned group was finished on concentrates indoors, whereas the unweaned group was continued suckling with a complementary concentrate diet, also indoors. The unweaned group had higher total FA (p<0.001), monounsaturated (MUFA) (p<0.05) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) (p<0.05) FA contents, lower saturated FA (SFA) (p<0.01) concentration, and a higher PUFA:SFA ratio (p<0.05) than the weaned group. A multivariate step discriminant procedure selected nine variables out of 38 tested from the FA profile. The SFA fraction lower than C11 followed by the margaric FA and the n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio were the most discriminating variables for separating the weaning classes, regardless of the gender. Calibration and cross-validation misclassification errors were 0% and 1.67%, respectively. A more powerful discriminant function was estimated for males only, where the SFA fraction lower than C11 followed by tricosanoic, and margaric FA were the most discriminant, with zero misclassification errors.

HSP90 and checkpoint-dependent lengthening of the G2 phase observed in plant cells under hypoxia and cold.

Proliferating cells of Allium cepa L. roots became adapted to hypoxia (5% oxygen) and cold (10 degrees C) by acquiring new steady-state kinetics of growth. The cell cycle time increased from the 17.6 h in control meristems up to 29.7 and 69.0 h under hypoxia and cold conditions, respectively. Acclimation of the proliferating cells was stress specific. No acclimation took place after 24 h of heat treatment (40 degrees C). Under cold treatment, all cycle phases enlarged uniformly. However, under hypoxia, while the G(1) and S cycle phases roughly doubled in their timing, the expected checkpoint-dependent lengthening of G(2) did not take place. This failure in lengthening G(2) in response to hypoxia correlated with a failure in the overinduction of a single peptide with a molecular mass of about 134 kDa which is among those recognised by an HSP90 antibody. Moreover, the presence of this large peptide of the HSP90 family proved to be a marker for cell proliferation. It was always absent from the contiguous differentiated cells of the root. Lastly, the mitochondrial chaperonin recognized by an HSP60 antibody in these roots not involved in photosynthesis was always higher in the proliferating than in the nonproliferating cells.

Effect of pasture finishing on the meat characteristics and intramuscular fatty acid profile of steers of the Rubia Gallega breed.

The Rubia Gallega cattle breed is the most important stock for beef production in Spain. A study about the influence of feeding systems on beef quality is needed. Comparison of the effect of a pasture finishing system and an indoors finishing system (maize silage and concentrate) on the meat quality and intramuscular fatty acid profile of Rubia Gallega steers (slaughter age 30 months) was determined using samples of Longissimus thoracis muscle. There were no differences between treatments in meat pH, drip loss, water holding capacity, cooking loss and muscle colour. Meat from pasture-fed steers was more tender than meat from indoors finished ones at 24 h post-mortem, but differences disappeared at 7 days. Subcutaneous fat of grass-fed steers showed higher yellowness at 24 h and 7 days post-mortem and lower brightness at 7 days post-mortem than indoors finished ones. Intramuscular fat of indoors finished steers presented higher concentrations of C18:2 and a less favourable ratio of n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids than pasture finished steers.

QEEG in a public health system.

For the past decade the Cuban Neuroscience Center has organized on behalf of the Ministry of Public Health of the Republic, a nationwide Program for the introduction of quantitative EEG (qEEG). This Program has involved a) development of standardized equipment for "paperless" EEG, qEEG and brain topography; b) establishment of a network of 21 laboratories of clinical neurophysiology; c) creation of the specialty of clinical neurophysiology which trains physicians from all provinces in both traditional and quantitative electrophysiological methods; d) introduction of standardized protocols for the collection of clinical and electrophysiological information; e) organization of a national normative and neuropsychiatric database; f) establishment of normative regression equations. Among the special issues discussed are: 1) relationship between traditional and quantitative methods; 2) evaluation of the effectiveness of the technology introduced; 3) use of qEEG in the early detection of brain dysfunction.

Comparison of auditory-evoked potential detection methods using signal detection theory.

The performance of statistical evoked-potential detection methods was compared with that of human observers and among themselves by means of receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. The test material was a collection of brain stem auditory-evoked responses obtained from 98 infants with 60 and 30 dB nHL clicks. The observers and the statistical methods had to discriminate these responses from control recordings obtained without acoustic stimulation. Although the observers' criteria on different days varied considerably, the discrimination capacity was more stable. The discrimination capacity depended on the observers' experience. The statistical methods tested were the correlation coefficient (CCR), the standard deviation ratio (SDR) and a new method named T2R. The most efficient detection method was T2R. For false-alarm rates of 0.01 the statistical methods were more efficient than the human observers. Signal detection theory is useful for the evaluation of evoked-potential analysis methods.

Métodos de máxima potencia para la detección estadística de potenciales evocados en el dominio de la frecuencia / Methods of maximal potential for detection statistics evoked potentials in the frequency domain

El presente trabajo presenta un nuevo método para la detección de Potenciales Evocados en el dominio de la frecuencia. El cual consiste en la comparación de dos muestras de registros mediante la versión en el campo complejo del estadígrafo T2 de Hotelling para dos muestras. Una muestra está formada por segmentos de EEG y la otra por segmentos registrados durante la estimulación. Las curvas Características de Operación del Receptor muestran que una expresión aproximada del estadígrafo T2 de Hotelling para dos muestras es mejor que la medida de sincronía presentada por Fridman y que la expresión aproximada del estadígrafo T2 para una muestra desarrollada en nuestro grupo. Para determinar la composición espectral del Potencial Evocado se emplearon estadígrafos análogos. En el campo complejo, a la t de Student para una y dos muestras. Cuando está presente una señal independiente del estímulo sólo el estadígrafo para dos muestras es capaz de revelar la estructura espectral del PE