Aceite de palma y Codex Alimentarius / Palm Oil and Codex Alimentarius

El resultado alcanzado en este escenario ha sido muy importante, ya que en conjunto con los grandes productores de aceite de palma a nivel mundial, Malasia e Indonesia, se ha logrado hacer cara a las reservas presentadas (en especial) por la Unión Europea frente a la denominación del aceite. Este es un escalón adicional en el proceso normativo sobre este aceite, el cual ya cuenta con la norma local y regional (Comunidad Andina) y ha sido el fruto del trabajo conjunto de la Federación Nacional de Cultivadores de Palma de aceite (Fedepalma) y el Gobierno Nacional

The result achieved in this scenario has been very important, since in conjunction with the major palm oil producers worldwide, Malaysia and Indonesia, it has managed to face the reservations presented (especially) by the European Union against the denomination of the oil. This is an additional step in the normative process on this oil, which already has the local and regional norm (Andean Community) and has been the result of the joint work of the National Federation of Oil Palm Growers (Fedepalma) and the National government

Treatment of the azo dye direct blue 2 in a biological aerated filter under anaerobic/aerobic conditions.

The main objective of this research was to determine the feasibility to treat the azo dye direct blue 2 together with municipal wastewater in a biological aerated filter (BAF) using lava stones as support of the microorganisms and under combined anaerobic/aerobic conditions. A 3 m high pilot biological aerated filter was fed with municipal wastewater and, after several weeks, the azo dye direct blue 2 was added to the wastewater to reach a final concentration of 50 mg/L (34 mgCOD/L). Under continuous operation, two strategies were tested: Alternating aeration (12 h anaerobic and 12 h aerobic) and combined aeration (the lower part of the filter anaerobic and the upper part aerobic). The results indicate that municipal wastewater acted as a good electron donor resulting in satisfactory COD and dye removal rates. Better dye removal (61%) was obtained with combined aeration than with alternating aeration (45%). After beginning the azo dye addition, the COD removal rates decreased from 87 to 81% for both alternating and combined aeration procedures. The average ammonia nitrogen removal, without the addition of the dye, was 73% and increased to 90% shortly after beginning the dye addition, then it decreased to 81% during the combined aeration period. Excellent nitrification was observed in the upper aerobic part of the filter. For the combined aeration phase, the conditions change from anaerobic to aerobic does not seem to affect the behavior of the COD and TSS curves.

[Transthoracic and transesophageal echo Doppler in the detection of mitral prosthesis dysfunction due to insufficiency]. / Eco Doppler transtorácico y transesofágico en la detección de disfunción de prótesis mitral por insuficiencia.

UNLABELLED: Severe mitral regurgitation is accompanied by increment of left atrial pressure. The objective of this work was to compare Doppler parameters related to transvalvular peak-pressure gradient in patients with normally functioning and patients with malfunctioning mitral prosthetic valve, secondary to insufficiency, in order to analyze if the presence of high protodiastolic pressure gradient and normal prosthetic valve area could correlate with severe mitral regurgitation (MR). Fourty-two patients were studied. Group I: twenty-two normally functioning prosthesis (15 mechanical, 7 biological). Group II: twenty malfunctioning mitral prosthetic valves secondary to severe insufficiency (11 mechanical and 9 biological), 12 patients with acute MR and 8 with chronic MR. All of the patients were evaluated though transthoracic (TTE) and transesophageal (TEE) Doppler-echocardiography. Diastolic peak velocity prosthetic flow (DVP), protodiastolic gradient (PDG), mean gradient (MG) and prosthetic area (PA) by pressure halftime (PHT) were measured. DVP in Group I was 1.56 +/- 0.29 m/s and 2.49 +/- 0.30 m/s in Group II (p = 0.001). PGD measured 10.36 +/- 3.79 mmHg in Group I and 15.95 +/- 7.48 mmHg in Group II (p = 0.001). MG 4.86 +/- 1.90 mmHg in Group I and 10.38 +/- 4.8 mmHg in Group II (p = 0.001). PA was 2.01 +/- 0.54 cm2 in Group I and 2.10 +/- 0.43 cm2 in Group II (NS). PHT was 115.59 +/- 31.99 mseg in Group I and 108.3 +/- 19.1 mseg in Group II (NS). CONCLUSION: In patients with high PDG (greater than 20 mmHg) and normal prosthetic mitral area assessed by TTE could be suspicious of malfunctioning prosthesis secondary to severe insufficiency. Due to the higher sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of malfunctioning mitral prosthesis and the ability to determine the magnitude and severity of prosthetic regurgitation assessment should be completed with TTE.

Vigabatrin in childhood epilepsy.

Sixty-six children with various types of severe drug-resistant epilepsy were entered into a long-term, dose-rising study of vigabatrin after a 4-week run-in placebo period. All the children were receiving one to three other antiepileptic drugs, the doses of which were not changed during the 6-month dose titration phase. Following the introduction of vigabatrin, 11 patients became seizure free, and 28 responded with a greater than 50% reduction in seizure frequency. The following types of epilepsy responded favorably in order of decreasing efficacy: cryptogenic and symptomatic partial epilepsy, other symptomatic generalized epilepsy, and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. However, three of nine patients with myoclonic epilepsy showed an increase in seizure frequency. Optimal responses were found with vigabatrin doses of 40 to 80 mg/kg/day, although no significant adverse effects were noted with doses of higher than 100 mg/kg/day. Thirty-eight responders continued on vigabatrin, 19 of whom have been treated for more than 1 year, with generally good efficacy. As a result of discontinuing concomitant antiepileptics, six patients are on monotherapy with vigabatrin, four of whom are seizure free. Vigabatrin tolerability was good, with 39 of 66 children reporting no adverse effects. Hyperkinesia was reported in 17 patients (26%), and two had to drop out of the study. All these patients had a history of hyperkinesia or mental retardation. In patients in whom vigabatrin dose was reduced because of hyperkinesia, a dose increase could later be instituted without recurrence of symptoms. There was no change in neurologic examination and no drug-related abnormalities in clinical laboratory data.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Suppression of motor seizures after specific thalamotomy in chronic epileptic monkeys.

In the monkey with a chronic motor epileptogenic focus, thalamic lesions restricted to the anterior part of the ventro-postero-lateral nucleus produced a long-lasting improvement, leading in most cases to almost complete seizure suppression. This improvement was attributed to the interruption of a long-loop recurrent excitatory mechanism, involving muscular afferents which are known to relay in the thalamic region where lesions were produced. The specific nature of this effect was suggested by the preliminary results of lesions performed in thalamic regions with non-specific cortical projections. Compared with the pre-lesional situation in which focal activity resulted in permanent motor troubles, the post-lesional state did not show any additional motor deficit. It is concluded that such lesions could be a new approach to controlling intractable motor epilepsies in man.

[The 1.320 micron Nd-YAG laser. Experimental study of a new wavelength adapted to neurosurgery]. / Le laser Nd-YAG 1,320 micron. Etude expérimentale d'une nouvelle longueur d'onde adaptée à la neurochirurgie.

The authors present a new laser wavelength for neurosurgery: the 1.32 micron Nd-YAG laser. Schematically, it combines the advantages of both the 1.06 micron Nd-YAG laser and the CO2 laser. As for nervous tissue it has the same physico-thermal properties as the CO2 laser: an important absorption and little thermal diffusion. Like the 1.06 Nd-YAG laser, the 1.32 Nd-YAG has very good maneuverability, because its beam is conducted through optical fibers. Experimental studies have been made on rats. They consisted of comparison between the thermal effects and the consequent histological lesions of three lasers: 1.32 micron Nd-YAG, 1.06 micron Nd-YAG, CO2. 145 impacts on the cortex of 45 rats have been studied. Each shot was registered with an infrared camera, measuring the cortex surface temperature around the impact. The signals were digitalized; they allowed us to obtain a numerical image and the profile of temperature for each shot, as well as the development of temperature of each point of the profile. These results have been correlated with the histological data. It appears that for equivalent efficient outputs, the cortical lesions, 8 days after the shots, were similar for the 1.32 Nd-YAG laser and the CO2 laser. For instance, the depth of the coagulation necrosis varied from 200 to 250 microns after CO2 laser impacts (P = 3W; t = 0 05s; Fluence = 5 Joules/cm2), and from 210 to 260 microns after 1.32 Nd-YAG laser impacts (P = 5-14W; t = 0.4s; F = 50-170 J/cm2).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)