Involvement of environmental mercury and lead in the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases.

The incidence of neurodegenerative disease like Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease (AD) increases dramatically with age; only a small percentage is directly related to familial forms. The etiology of the most abundant, sporadic forms is complex and multifactorial, involving both genetic and environmental factors. Several environmental pollutants have been associated with neurodegenerative disorders. The present article focuses on results obtained in experimental neurotoxicology studies that indicate a potential pathogenic role of lead and mercury in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Both heavy metals have been shown to interfere with a multitude of intracellular targets, thereby contributing to several pathogenic processes typical of neurodegenerative disorders, including mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, deregulation of protein turnover, and brain inflammation. Exposure to heavy metals early in development can precondition the brain for developing a neurodegenerative disease later in life. Alternatively, heavy metals can exert their adverse effects through acute neurotoxicity or through slow accumulation during prolonged periods of life. The pro-oxidant effects of heavy metals can exacerbate the age-related increase in oxidative stress that is related to the decline of the antioxidant defense systems. Brain inflammatory reactions also generate oxidative stress. Chronic inflammation can contribute to the formation of the senile plaques that are typical for AD. In accord with this view, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antioxidants suppress early pathogenic processes leading to Alzheimer's disease, thus decreasing the risk of developing the disease. The effects of lead and mercury were also tested in aggregating brain-cell cultures of fetal rat telencephalon, a three-dimensional brain-cell culture system. The continuous application for 10 to 50 days of non-cytotoxic concentrations of heavy metals resulted in their accumulation in brain cells and the occurrence of delayed toxic effects. When applied at non-toxic concentrations, methylmercury, the most common environmental form of mercury, becomes neurotoxic under pro-oxidant conditions. Furthermore, lead and mercury induce glial cell reactivity, a hallmark of brain inflammation. Both mercury and lead increase the expression of the amyloid precursor protein; mercury also stimulates the formation of insoluble beta-amyloid, which plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of AD and causes oxidative stress and neurotoxicity in vitro. Taken together, a considerable body of evidence suggests that the heavy metals lead and mercury contribute to the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases and emphasizes the importance of taking preventive measures in this regard.

Pla de màrqueting de l’hotel Moments de Film

Treball sobre la creació d’un pla de màrqueting d’un hotel temàtic fictici. Aquest sorgeix d’un objectiu secundari fruit d’una motivació personal amb interès cap a la coneixença dels hotels temàtics, que responia a les següents preguntes: Què és un hotel temàtic? Quins tipus d’hotels temàtics podem trobar? Quan sorgeixen els hotels temàtics? El Pla de Màrqueting representa el desenvolupament d’una idea creativa, imaginant que els hotels poden ser molt més que un simple allotjament. Poden esdevenir llocs que poden conduir cap al món de les sensacions i de les experiències úniques

Modelling of Mercury’s surface composition and remote detection from the orbit with the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter

It can be assumed that the composition of Mercury’s thin gas envelope (exosphere) is related to thecomposition of the planets crustal materials. If this relationship is true, then inferences regarding the bulkchemistry of the planet might be made from a thorough exospheric study. The most vexing of allunsolved problems is the uncertainty in the source of each component. Historically, it has been believedthat H and He come primarily from the solar wind, while Na and K originate from volatilized materialspartitioned between Mercury’s crust and meteoritic impactors. The processes that eject atoms andmolecules into the exosphere of Mercury are generally considered to be thermal vaporization, photonstimulateddesorption (PSD), impact vaporization, and ion sputtering. Each of these processes has its owntemporal and spatial dependence. The exosphere is strongly influenced by Mercury’s highly ellipticalorbit and rapid orbital speed. As a consequence the surface undergoes large fluctuations in temperatureand experiences differences of insolation with longitude. We will discuss these processes but focus moreon the expected surface composition and solar wind particle sputtering which releases material like Caand other elements from the surface minerals and discuss the relevance of composition modelling

Proposal for the analysis of a video game, a film, and their relationship : Silent Hill as a subject of the horror genre

Aquest treball de recerca fa un estudi comparatiu del videojoc de terror amb el seu homòleg cinematogràfic. L’objectiu és arribar a saber si els dos mitjans de comunicació usen les mateixes tècniques per transmetre les seves històries i per crear suspens. Aquesta investigació és només una part d'un estudi més ampli amb el que es pretén tenir un coneixement més aprofundit de les emocions de la gent i les reaccions que els provoca un videojoc de terror en comparació amb la visualització de l'adaptació cinematogràfica del corresponent videojoc.

Film's frame

A partir de un acto interactivo con la wwww.aeat.es, el usuario envía telemáticamente el modelo 100 en un entorno con tendencia a la incertidumbre y a las dificultades de usabilidad, sin embargo, la investigación pretende demostrar que en dicho acto, el usuario construye una historia narrativa debido a la existencia de una motivación y a la tendencia connatural a la representación narrativa, a pesar que la web no fue intencionalmente construida con propósitos narrativos. El estudio, además, enfoca la interacción como un acto inmersivo y reconoce en la incertidumbre las variables que determinan la continuidad y rumbo del relato. La investigación propone un modelo interpretativo para el análisis y la estructuración del espacio y la historia implícita. Y a nivel exploratorio, se propone la aplicación del Mouse Tracking como técnica científica.

Performance comparison of an active matrix flat panel imager, computed radiography system, and a screen-film system at four standard radiation qualities.

Four standard radiation qualities (from RQA 3 to RQA 9) were used to compare the imaging performance of a computed radiography (CR) system (general purpose and high resolution phosphor plates of a Kodak CR 9000 system), a selenium-based direct flat panel detector (Kodak Direct View DR 9000), and a conventional screen-film system (Kodak T-MAT L/RA film with a 3M Trimax Regular screen of speed 400) in conventional radiography. Reference exposure levels were chosen according to the manufacturer's recommendations to be representative of clinical practice (exposure index of 1700 for digital systems and a film optical density of 1.4). With the exception of the RQA 3 beam quality, the exposure levels needed to produce a mean digital signal of 1700 were higher than those needed to obtain a mean film optical density of 1.4. In spite of intense developments in the field of digital detectors, screen-film systems are still very efficient detectors for most of the beam qualities used in radiology. An important outcome of this study is the behavior of the detective quantum efficiency of the digital radiography (DR) system as a function of beam energy. The practice of users to increase beam energy when switching from a screen-film system to a CR system, in order to improve the compromise between patient dose and image quality, might not be appropriate when switching from screen-film to selenium-based DR systems.

Insights into low fish mercury bioaccumulation in a mercury-contaminated reservoir, Guizhou, China.

We examined Hg biogeochemistry in Baihua Reservoir, a system affected by industrial wastewater containing mercury (Hg). As expected, we found high levels of total Hg (THg, 664-7421 ng g(-1)) and monomethylmercury (MMHg, 3-21 ng g(-1)) in the surface sediments (0-10 cm). In the water column, both THg and MMHg showed strong vertical variations with higher concentrations in the anoxic layer (>4m) than in the oxic layer (0-4 m), which was most pronounced for the dissolved MMHg (p < 0.001). However, mercury levels in biota samples (mostly cyprinid fish) were one order of magnitude lower than common regulatory values (i.e. 0.3-0.5 mg kg(-1)) for human consumption. We identified three main reasons to explain the low fish Hg bioaccumulation: disconnection of the aquatic food web from the high MMHg zone, simple food web structures, and biodilution effect at the base of the food chain in this eutrophic reservoir.

Special investigation of the Iowa Department of Economic Development Film Office and the Film, Television and Video Production Promotion Program for the period May 17, 2007 through September 21, 2009

Special investigation of the Iowa Department of Economic Development Film Office and the Film, Television and Video Production Promotion Program for the period May 17, 2007 through September 21, 2009