Nanoinformatics: a new area of research in nanomedicine

Over a decade ago, nanotechnologists began research on applications of nanomaterials for medicine. This research has revealed a wide range of different challenges, as well as many opportunities. Some of these challenges are strongly related to informatics issues, dealing, for instance, with the management and integration of heterogeneous information, defining nomenclatures, taxonomies and classifications for various types of nanomaterials, and research on new modeling and simulation techniques for nanoparticles. Nanoinformatics has recently emerged in the USA and Europe to address these issues. In this paper, we present a review of nanoinformatics, describing its origins, the problems it addresses, areas of interest, and examples of current research initiatives and informatics resources. We suggest that nanoinformatics could accelerate research and development in nanomedicine, as has occurred in the past in other fields. For instance, biomedical informatics served as a fundamental catalyst for the Human Genome Project, and other genomic and ?omics projects, as well as the translational efforts that link resulting molecular-level research to clinical problems and findings.

Reliability and quality in the area of statistical thinking in Engineering

There is remarkable growing concern about the quality control at the time, which has led to the search for methods capable of addressing effectively the reliability analysis as part of the Statistic. Managers, researchers and Engineers must understand that 'statistical thinking' is not just a set of statistical tools. They should start considering 'statistical thinking' from a 'system', which means, developing systems that meet specific statistical tools and other methodologies for an activity. The aim of this article is to encourage them (engineers, researchers and managers) to develop a new way of thinking.

Space-time analysis of the urban-rural grafient in the metropolitan area of Madrid and ist surroundings -Guadalajara and Toledo.

According to UN provisions in the period from 2007 to 2050 world population will grow up to 9200 million people. In fact, for the first time in history, in the year 2008 world urban population became higher than rural population. The increase of urban areas and their transport infrastructures has influenced agricultural land use due to their irreversible change, especially when they remain as periurban vacant land, losing their character and identity. In the Europe of the nineties, the traditional urban-rural gradient, characterized by a neat contact between both land types, has become so complex that it has change to a gradient in which it is difficult to separate urban and rural land uses. [Antrop 2004]. A literature review has been made on methodologies used for the urban-rural gradient analysis. One of these methodologies was selected that integrates ecological characterization based on the use of spatial metrics and geographical characterization based on spatial components. Cartographical sources used were Corine Land Cover at 1: 100000 scale and the Spanish Land Use Information System at 1:25000 scale. Urban-rural gradient paradigm is an analysis methodology, coming from landscape ecology, which enables to investigate how urbanization provokes changes in ecological patterns and processes into landscape. [Hahs and McDonnell 2006].The present research adapt this methodology to study the urban-rural gradient in the outskirts of Madrid, Toledo and Guadalajara. Both scales (1:25000 and 1:100000) were simultaneously used to reach the next objectives: 1) Analysis of landscape pattern dynamics in relation to distance to the town centre and major infrastructures. 2) Analysis of landscape pattern dynamics in the fringe of protected areas. The paper presents a new approach to the urban-rural relationship which allows better planning and management of urban áreas.

Biomass and essential oil yields of cornmint (Mentha arvensis L.) grown in the irrigation area of Río Dulce, Santiago del Estero, Argentina.

The aim of this study is to determine the yield and composition of the essential oil of cornmint (Mentha arvensis L.) grown in the irrigation area of Santiago del Estero, Argentina. Field tests were carried out under irrigation conditions, harvesting when 70% flowering was reached (in the summer and at the end of the winter seasons). Essential oil yields were 2% in the first cut and 1.6% in the second cut, respectively, the major constituents of the essential oil being menthol, menthone, isomenthone and menthofuran. In both cases, a high concentration of menthol was obtained, although during the winter the content decreased, increasing the concentration of menthofuran. It is concluded that during the summer a higher yield and better quality of essential oil are produced.

Vegetation and fire history since the last glacial maximum in an inland area of the western Mediterranean Basin (Northern Iberian Plateau, NW Spain)

We reconstructed vegetation responses to climate oscillations, fire and human activities since the last glacial maximum in inland NW Iberia, where previous paleoecological research is scarce. Extremely sparse and open vegetation composed of steppic grasslands and heathlands with scattered pioneer trees suggests very cold and dry conditions during the Oldest Dryas, unsuitable for tree survival in the surroundings of the study site. Slight woodland expansion during the Bolling/Allerod was interrupted by the Younger Dryas cooling. Pinewoods dominated for most of the early Holocene, when a marked increase in fire activity occurred. Deciduous trees expanded later reaching their maximum representation during the mid-Holocene. Enhanced fire activity and the presence of coprophilous fungi around 6400-6000 cal yr BP suggest an early human occupation around the site. However, extensive deforestation only started at 4500 calyrBP, when fire was used to clear the tree canopy. Final replacement of woodlands with heathlands, grasslands and cereal crops occurred from 2700 cal yr BP onwards due to land-use intensification. Our paleoecological record can help efforts aimed at restoring the natural vegetation by indicating which communities were dominant at the onset of heavy human impact, thus promoting the recovery of currently rare oak and alder stands.

Syntax processing by auditory cortical neurons in the FM–FM area of the mustached bat Pteronotus parnellii

Syntax denotes a rule system that allows one to predict the sequencing of communication signals. Despite its significance for both human speech processing and animal acoustic communication, the representation of syntactic structure in the mammalian brain has not been studied electrophysiologically at the single-unit level. In the search for a neuronal correlate for syntax, we used playback of natural and temporally destructured complex species-specific communication calls—so-called composites—while recording extracellularly from neurons in a physiologically well defined area (the FM–FM area) of the mustached bat’s auditory cortex. Even though this area is known to be involved in the processing of target distance information for echolocation, we found that units in the FM–FM area were highly responsive to composites. The finding that neuronal responses were strongly affected by manipulation in the time domain of the natural composite structure lends support to the hypothesis that syntax processing in mammals occurs at least at the level of the nonprimary auditory cortex.

Isolation and molecular characterization of a human T-cell lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II), subtype B, from a healthy Pygmy living in a remote area of Cameroon: an ancient origin for HTLV-II in Africa.

We report characterization of a human T-cell lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II) isolated from an interleukin 2-dependent CD8 T-cell line derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a healthy, HTLV-II-seropositive female Bakola Pygmy, aged 59, living in a remote equatorial forest area in south Cameroon. This HTLLV-II isolate, designated PYGCAM-1, reacted in an indirect immunofluorescence assay with HTLV-II and HTLV-I polyclonal antibodies and with an HTLV-I/II gp46 monoclonal antibody but not with HTLV-I gag p19 or p24 monoclonal antibodies. The cell line produced HTLV-I/II p24 core antigen and retroviral particles. The entire env gene (1462 bp) and most of the long terminal repeat (715 bp) of the PYGCAM-1 provirus were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction using HTLV-II-specific primers. Comparison with the long terminal repeat and envelope sequences of prototype HTLV-II strains indicated that PYGCAM-1 belongs to the subtype B group, as it has only 0.5-2% nucleotide divergence from HTLV-II B strains. The finding of antibodies to HTLV-II in sera taken from the father of the woman in 1984 and from three unrelated members of the same population strongly suggests that PYGCAM-1 is a genuine HTLV-II that has been present in this isolated population for a long time. The low genetic divergence of this African isolate from American isolates raises questions about the genetic variability over time and the origin and dissemination of HTLV-II, hitherto considered to be predominantly a New World virus.