New Cockroaches (Dictyoptera: Blattodea) from French Guiana and a Revised Checklist for the Region.

Although French Guiana is one of the greatest hotspots of cockroach biodiversity on Earth, there are still undocumented species. From both newly collected and museum specimens, we provide species descriptions for Buboblatta vlasaki sp. nov., Lamproblatta antoni sp. nov., and Euhypnorna bifuscina sp. nov. and report new geographic records for species in the genera Epilampra Burmeister, Euphyllodromia Shelford, Ischnoptera Burmeister, and Euhypnorna Hebard. Finally, we update the checklist of species known from the region to 163 total species records from French Guiana, making it the second greatest hotspot of known cockroach biodiversity on Earth.

Mental and physical effects of energy drinks consumption in an Italian young people group: a pilot study.

INTRODUCTION: The primary consumers of energy drinks were athletes, to combat fatigue, but in reality, thanks to their fast expansion and economic growth, young adults and teenagers represent the new target market. Consumption of energy drinks by both recreational and competitive athletes has increased dramatically in recent years, though they are often unaware of what is being ingested, believing to improve their physical and psychological performance. The literature shows contradictions about the capacity of energy drinks to enhance psychophysical results. In relation to probable adverse effects induced by the irregular consumption of energy drinks, which in several cases are not so clear, we decided to investigate the possible relationship between the intake of energy drinks and the presence of mental and physical stress in young people and athletes. METHODS: Two experimental sessions, separated at least by 1 week, according to a randomized cross-over design, following this protocol were conducted: in the first session a mental and physical stress was conducted without the consumption of energy drinks, the second after energy drinks consumption. BAI (Beck Anxiety Inventory) and BDI (Beck Depression Inventory II) test have been used to test the mental stress, and a "cycle ergometer test" to test the physical stress. RESULTS: BAI and BDI tests results showed that before the consumption of energy drinks, subjects are considered in the range of "minimal level of anxiety", (10 and 60 percentiles) and do not report a level of depression. After the energy drinks consumption, a "mild level of anxiety" has been recorded, and the BDI showed a case with a pathological profile. The physical test recorded a small increase in the maximum heart rate was verified with the intake of an energetic beverage. CONCLUSIONS: The stimulating effect of Energy Drinks EDs on nervous system and cardiovascular system, must be checked and studied in deeper detail, because it may represent a risk for the health of young athletes.

Using the liquid-chromatographic-fingerprint of sterols fraction to discriminate virgin olive from other edible oils.

A method to discriminate virgin olive oil from other edible vegetable oils such as, sunflower, pomace olive, rapeseed, canola, corn and soybean, applying chemometric techniques to the liquid chromatographic representative fingerprint of sterols fraction, is proposed. After a pre-treatment of the LC chromatogram data - including baseline correction, smoothing signal and mean centering - different unsupervised and supervised pattern recognition procedures, such as principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLSDA), have been applied. From the information obtained from PCA and HCA, two groups can be clearly distinguished (virgin olive and the rest of vegetable oils tested) which have been used to discriminate between two defined classes by means of a PLSDA model. Five latent variables (LVs) explained 76.88% of X-block variance and 95.47% of the defined classes block (γ-block) variance. A root mean square error for calibration and cross validation of 0.10 and 0.22 respectively, confirmed these results and a root mean square error for prediction of 0.15 evidences that the classification model proposed presents an adequate prediction capability. The contingency table also shows the good performance of the model, proving the capability of the LC-R-FpM, to discriminate virgin olive from other vegetable edible oils.

Evaluation of the uncertainty associated with the off line HPLC-GC(FID) determination of 4-desmethyl sterols in vegetable oils.

This paper discusses the estimation of the uncertainty of the chromatographic determination of 4-desmethyl sterols in vegetable oils, combining the off line HPLC fractionation of the analytes, from the unsaponifiable fraction of the samples, with their determination as TMS derivatives by GC(FID), using the data obtained from a single internal calibration (one surrogate) at one level and "bottom up" approach. The methodology used, makes possible to identify the main uncertainty contributions, find their origins, and reduce them. The final results show that the main contributions to the relative overall uncertainty are those closely related with the chemical aspects of the method, i.e. those related to derivatization reaction and quantification of the analytes, although others aspects, such as the addition of a mass of surrogate, are not negligible.

CDMS (Clinical Data Mining Software): a cytokinome data mining system for a predictive medicine of chronic inflammatory diseases.

The cytokines, main players of the chronic inflammation progression leading to serious diseases such as diabetes or cancer, represent a target for better clinical prognosis and innovative therapeutic strategies. To investigate the immunopathogenetic progression of these diseases, the evaluation of serum cytokines profiles made of many different proteins is much more informative than single protein measurements. We developed a Clinical Data Mining Software to collect cytokine profiles evaluated on healthy subjects and patients by multiplex immunoassays also annotated with their clinical and laboratory data, to compare patient profiles by statistical tools and to evaluate their disease progression.

Sarcoidosis pulmonar asociada a glomerulonefritis crescéntica: / Lung sarcoidosis associated to crescentic glome rulonephritis: a case report

La sarcoidosis es una enfermedad sistémica de causa desconocida que se caracteriza por la presencia del granuloma sarcoideo típico. Puede afectar a cualquier tejido pero el órgano que se afecta con mayor frecuencia es el pulmón, siendo menos frecuente la afectación de otros órganos. La afectación glomerular primaria en la sarcoidosis es poco común. La lesión glomerular que con mayor frecuencia se ha asociado es la glomerulonefritis membranosa, siendo descrita en pocas ocasiones la glomerulonefritis crescéntica rapidamente progresiva. Presentamos un caso de glomerulonefritis crescéntica sobreañadida a una glomerulonefritis membranosa, con presencia de granuloma intersticial, en el contexto de un brote agudo de sarcoidosis normocalcémica, la cual había sido diagnosticada dos años antes. (AU)

[Pulmonary Sarcoidosis associated to crescentic glomerulonephritis: a case report]. / Sarcoidosis pulmonar asociada a glomerulonefritis crescéntica: descripción de un caso clínico.

Sarcoidosis is a chronic disorder of unknown etiology, characteristically by the presence of the typical noncaseating sarcoid granuloma. Any tissues can be affected, but the organ most frequently affected is the lung being more unusual in other organs. Primary glomerular involvement in sarcoidosis is unfrequent. The disorder most commonly associated is membranous glomerulonephritis. Rapidly progressive crescentic glomerulonephritis have been very scarcely reported. We report a case of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis with crescents added to a previous membranous glomerulonephritis with the histological finding of an interstitial granuloma, which was clinically apparent in the context of a normocalcemic sarcoidosis, diagnosed as lung sarcoidosis two years before.

[Incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis: application of the capture-recapture method]. / Incidencia de tuberculosis pulmonar: aplicación del método de captura-recaptura.

OBJECTIVE: To determine as accurately as possible the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis within Health Area 15 of the Community of Valencia during the period 1990-1993, using the capture-recapture method. METHOD: Descriptive study on the population of Health Area 15 (population: -139.903) divided into 4 large groups according to age (0-14, 15-34, 34-54 and 55+). Data was obtained from the statutory notification system of infectious disease (SNSID) and from the registry of the said area's Hospital Microbiology SERVICE: The main variable under study was the number of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, both as notified under the SNSID and in terms of cases in the microbiology register in which M. tuberculosis was isolated. The incidence-rates were calculated by age and year of study for both registries employing the capture-recapture method. RESULTS: The mean annual incidence obtained for the SNSID register during the study period was 15.85 cases x 10(-5), and for the microbiology registry it was 23.29 x 10(-5). When the capture-recapture method was employed the mean annual incidence for the study period was 34.81 x 10(-5) (CI 95%: 31.82-39.92). In each of the years studied the number of cases identified was greater for the microbiology register than for the SNSID. Around half the cases of tuberculosis are below 34 years of age, with the larger section, and that having the highest incidence of tuberculosis being the 15 to 34 years age-group. There is no apparent upward trend in incidence rates calculated for this period. CONCLUSIONS: The data from the SNSID system on incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis within Health Area 15 of the Community of Valencia tends to underestimate the true incidence rate. The factual resources of the Hospital Microbiology Service are underutilized, considering the quantity and quality of information it can provide. The capture-recapture method is a good choice of method for measuring tuberculosis incidence. This method merits greater use within the field of epidemiology as much in order to assess the representativeness and thoroughness of surveillance systems as to identify inadequacies in their reporting and localisation of disease outbreaks.