Association between indoxyl sulfate and bone histomorphometry in pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients

Introduction: Experimental studies have suggested that indoxyl sulfate (IS), a protein-bound uremic toxin, may be involved in the development of renal osteodystrophy. Objective: evaluate the association between IS levels and biochemical parameters related to mineral metabolism and bone histomorphometry in a cohort of pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Methods: This is a post-hoc analysis of an observational study evaluating the association between coronary calcification and bone biopsy findings in 49 patients (age: 52 ± 10 years; 67% male; estimated glomerular filtration rate: 36 ± 17 ml/min). Serum levels of IS were measured. Results: Patients at CKD stages 2 and 3 presented remarkably low bone formation rate. Patients at CKD stages 4 and 5 presented significantly higher osteoid volume, osteoblast and osteoclast surface, bone fibrosis volume and bone formation rate and a lower mineralization lag time than CKD stage 2 and 3 patients. We observed a positive association between IS levels on one hand and the bone formation rate, osteoid volume, osteoblast surface and bone fibrosis volume on the other. Multivariate regression models confirmed that the associations between IS levels and osteoblast surface and bone fibrosis volume were both independent of demographic and biochemical characteristics of the study population. A similar trend was observed for the bone formation rate. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that IS is positively associated with bone formation rate in pre-dialysis CKD patients.

The neoliberalization of street vending policy in Lima, Peru: the politics of citizenship. property and public space in the production of a new urban marginality

Neoliberalism is having a significant and global impact on political, social and economic life across spaces. This work illustrates how neoliberalism is attempting to change the ways in which the urban poor - particularly those that participate in street vending - use urban spaces in Lima, Peru. Using municipal policies, newspaper articles and local academic texts I argue that there is a changing marginality in Lima that is being experienced by street vendors, and currently in los canas of Lima. In particular, I discuss formalization, a neoliberal strategy in street vending policy, which is used with eradication and social assistance strategies in attempts to re-regulate street vendors.

“You Know What I Mean?”- Language and Cultural Retention in Luso-Canadian Mothers in the Greater Toronto Area

The Portuguese community is one of the largest diasporic groups in the Greater Toronto Area and the choice of retention and transmission of language and culture to Luso-Canadians is crucial to the development and sustainability of the community. The overall objective of this study is to learn about the factors that influence Luso-Canadian mothers’ inclination to teach Portuguese language and cultural retention to their children. To explore this topic I employed a qualitative research design that included in-depth interviews conducted in 2012 with six Luso-Canadian mothers. Three central arguments emerged from the findings. First, Luso-Canadian mothers interviewed posses a pronounced desire for their children to succeed academically, and to provide opportunities that their children that they did not have. Second, five of the mothers attempt to achieve this mothering objective partly by disconnecting from their Portuguese roots, and by disassociating their children from the Portuguese language and culture. Third, the disconnection they experience and enact is influenced by the divisions evident in the Portuguese community in the GTA that divides regions and hierarchically ranks dialects, and groups. I conclude that the children in these households inevitably bear the prospects of maintaining a vibrant Portuguese community in the GTA and I propose that actions by the community in ranking dialects influence mothers’ decisions about transmitting language and culture to their children.

Dissecting the dynamic of Noc2p and its partners in pre-60S particles maturation

Plusieurs études ont permis la caractérisation de la structure et de la fonction du ribosome. En ce qui attrait à la biogénèse du ribosome, nombreux aspects restent à être découverts et compris de façon plus dynamique. En effet, cette biogénèse englobe une variété de voies de modifications et d’assemblages requises pour la maturation des ARNr et pour leurs liaisons avec les protéines ribosomales. De ce fait, les protéines Noc ont été caractérisées comme des facteurs d’assemblages et ont permis la découverte d’une des premières indications sur l’ordre spatio-temporel de la maturation du ribosome. Ainsi, en utilisant la levure comme modèle, notre objectif est d’étudier d’avantage l’échange des complexes composés des protéines Noc ainsi que leur localisation intranucléaire. Ainsi, la nature des interactions de Noc2p avec Noc1p et Noc3p et l’influence de l’arrêt du transport intranucléaire ont été étudiés en utilisant des promoteurs inductibles, la microscopie à fluorescence, des immunobuvardages, qRT-PCR et des purifications par affinité.

Physical and psychological aggression in dating relationships in Spanish university students. 'Agresi??n f??sica y psicol??gica en las relaciones de noviazgo en universitarios espa??oles'

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n. Resumen tambi??n en ingl??s

Quantification of physical and biological uncertainty in the simulation of the yield of a tropical crop using present-day and doubled CO2 climates

The impacts of climate change on crop productivity are often assessed using simulations from a numerical climate model as an input to a crop simulation model. The precision of these predictions reflects the uncertainty in both models. We examined how uncertainty in a climate (HadAM3) and crop General Large-Area Model (GLAM) for annual crops model affects the mean and standard deviation of crop yield simulations in present and doubled carbon dioxide (CO2) climates by perturbation of parameters in each model. The climate sensitivity parameter (lambda, the equilibrium response of global mean surface temperature to doubled CO2) was used to define the control climate. Observed 1966-1989 mean yields of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) in India were simulated well by the crop model using the control climate and climates with values of lambda near the control value. The simulations were used to measure the contribution to uncertainty of key crop and climate model parameters. The standard deviation of yield was more affected by perturbation of climate parameters than crop model parameters in both the present-day and doubled CO2 climates. Climate uncertainty was higher in the doubled CO2 climate than in the present-day climate. Crop transpiration efficiency was key to crop model uncertainty in both present-day and doubled CO2 climates. The response of crop development to mean temperature contributed little uncertainty in the present-day simulations but was among the largest contributors under doubled CO2. The ensemble methods used here to quantify physical and biological uncertainty offer a method to improve model estimates of the impacts of climate change.

Influence of socio-economic and cultural factors in rice varietal diversity management on-farm in Nepal

A questionnaire survey of 408 households explored the role of socio-economic and cultural factors in rice (Oryza sativa L.) varietal diversity management on-farm in two contrasting eco-sites in Nepal. Multiple regression outputs suggest that number of parcels of land, livestock number, number of rice ecosystems, agro-ecology (altitude), and use of chemical fertilizer have a significant positive influence on landrace diversity on-farm, while membership in farmers' groups linked to extension services has significant but negative influence on landrace diversity. Factors with significant positive influence on diversity of modern varieties on-farm were number of parcels of land and of rice ecosystems, access to irrigation, membership in farmers' groups, and use of insecticide. Within communities, resource-endowed households maintain significantly higher varietal diversity on-farm than resource-poor households and play a significant role in conserving landraces that are vulnerable to genetic erosion and those with socio-cultural and market-preferred traits. Resource-poor households also contribute to local diversity conservation but at lower richness and area coverage levels than resource-endowed households. Households where a female had assumed the role of head of household due to death or migrant work of her husband had less diversity due to lower labor availability. Landraces with socio-cultural and market-preferred traits are few in number but have potential to be conserved on-farm.

Cultural policy and cultural politics in Revolutionary Cuba: re-reading the 'Palabras a los intelectuales' (Words to the Intellectuals)

This article re-reads Fidel Castro's speech to Cuban artists and intellectuals at the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí (National Library) in June 1961. Despite extensive discussion of its famous extract, the speech has rarely been examined in depth. This article thus analyses the entire speech, situating it within its co-text and its context and examining its multiple functions, offering as it does an insight into the social and educational implications of cultural revolution in Cuba and the inevitable tensions inherent in these. The article evaluates the negotiations in the text in the light of their relevance to contemporary cultural debates in Cuba.

Evaluation of modern and mid-Holocene seasonal precipitation of the Mediterranean and northern Africa in the CMIP5 simulations

We analyse the spatial expression of seasonal climates of the Mediterranean and northern Africa in pre-industrial (piControl) and mid-Holocene (midHolocene, 6 yr BP) simulations from the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). Modern observations show four distinct precipitation regimes characterized by differences in the seasonal distribution and total amount of precipitation: an equatorial band characterized by a double peak in rainfall, the monsoon zone characterized by summer rainfall, the desert characterized by low seasonality and total precipitation, and the Mediterranean zone characterized by summer drought. Most models correctly simulate the position of the Mediterranean and the equatorial climates in the piControl simulations, but overestimate the extent of monsoon influence and underestimate the extent of desert. However, most models fail to reproduce the amount of precipitation in each zone. Model biases in the simulated magnitude of precipitation are unrelated to whether the models reproduce the correct spatial patterns of each regime. In the midHolocene, the models simulate a reduction in winter rainfall in the equatorial zone, and a northward expansion of the monsoon with a significant increase in summer and autumn rainfall. Precipitation is slightly increased in the desert, mainly in summer and autumn, with northward expansion of the monsoon. Changes in the Mediterranean are small, although there is an increase in spring precipitation consistent with palaeo-observations of increased growing-season rainfall. Comparison with reconstructions shows most models underestimate the mid-Holocene changes in annual precipitation, except in the equatorial zone. Biases in the piControl have only a limited influence on midHolocene anomalies in ocean–atmosphere models; carbon-cycle models show no relationship between piControl bias and midHolocene anomalies. Biases in the prediction of the midHolocene monsoon expansion are unrelated to how well the models simulate changes in Mediterranean climate.