Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Revisiting the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous of the NW South Iberian Basin: new ages and sedimentary environments

The study of the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous deposits (Higueruelas, Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Formations) of the South Iberian Basin (NW Valencia, Spain) reveals new stratigraphic and sedimentological data, which have significant implications on the stratigraphic framework, depositional environments and age of these units. The Higueruelas Fm was deposited in a mid-inner carbonate platform where oncolitic bars migrated by the action of storms and where oncoid production progressively decreased towards the uppermost part of the unit. The overlying Villar del Arzobispo Fm has been traditionally interpreted as an inner platform-lagoon evolving into a tidal-flat. Here it is interpreted as an inner-carbonate platform affected by storms, where oolitic shoals protected a lagoon, which had siliciclastic inputs from the continent. The Aldea de Cortés Fm has been previously interpreted as a lagoon surrounded by tidal-flats and fluvial-deltaic plains. Here it is reinterpreted as a coastal wetland where siliciclastic muddy deposits interacted with shallow fresh to marine water bodies, aeolian dunes and continental siliciclastic inputs. The contact between the Higueruelas and Villar del Arzobispo Fms, classically defined as gradual, is also interpreted here as rapid. More importantly, the contact between the Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Fms, previously considered as unconformable, is here interpreted as gradual. The presence of Alveosepta in the Villar del Arzobispo Fm suggests that at least part of this unit is Kimmeridgian, unlike the previously assigned Late Tithonian-Middle Berriasian age. Consequently, the underlying Higueruelas Fm, previously considered Tithonian, should not be younger than Kimmeridgian. Accordingly, sedimentation of the Aldea de Cortés Fm, previously considered Valangian-Hauterivian, probably started during the Tithonian and it may be considered part of the regressive trend of the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous cycle. This is consistent with the dinosaur faunas, typically Jurassic, described in the Villar del Arzobispo and Aldea de Cortés Fms.

Las estatuas-menhir noroccidentales en contexto: conectividad y conexiones materiales durante el Bronce Tardío/Final

Este artículo analiza las estatuas-menhir noroccidentales que se distribuyen en el área comprendida entre los valles del río Duero y el río Miño, pero que descubrimientos recientes han extendido a regiones fuera de este área nuclear. Partiendo de tres aspectos claves para su interpretación (la cronología, su relación con el paisaje y su sentido iconográfico), se examinan las relaciones entre estas formas materiales y un paisaje socio-material de acción específico (las formas socio-materiales de interacción propias del Bronce final atlántico). Para ello, se tiene en cuenta diferentes conexiones materiales (presencia, encuentro, coexistencia, hibridación, etc.) que permiten contextualizar las estatuasmenhir dentro de un proceso histórico particular: la integración del noroeste de la península Ibérica en un contexto de relaciones mediterráneo-atlánticas, en la segunda mitad del II milenio a.C.

Preliminary results of the roman camp of La Cabeza del Cid (Hinojosa, Guadalajara, Spain)

The recent archaeological works in Hinojosa, allowed us to discover a camp from Roman republic period. It is located in the center of the Celtiberian area and its study could open interesting perspectives to study this historical period. This paper shows the results of its preliminary studies.

¿Fue la crisis política del Occidente musulmán del siglo XIII debida a un cambio climático? Una aproximación histórica al fin del Periodo Cálido Medieval

Durante el siglo XIII se produjo una sucesión de revueltas que supuso la desaparición del Imperio almohade y su sustitución por poderes regionales en al-Andalus, el Magreb y el Magreb al-Aqsà. La historiografía ha presentado el surgimiento y pugna entre estos poderes como un fenómeno social, político e, incluso, cultural y religioso, con el que se ha podido explicar su aniquilación o marginalización. Este trabajo pretende contextualizar los hechos desde una perspectiva medioambiental, de forma que la desintegración del califato almohade, el surgimiento de aquellos poderes y la progresión de los reinos cristianos en la península ibérica puedan entenderse desde una visión global de cambio climático y una posible crisis agrícola.

La exploración del litoral atlántico norteafricano según el periplo de Hannón de Cartago

El periplo de Hannón, frente a las propuestas que lo interpretan como una obra literaria, creemos que recoge un periplo auténtico, que sólo alcanzó cabo Juby y algunas de las Islas Canarias. Las refundaciones cartaginesas fueron todas en la Mauretania fértil, en los 7 primeros días de la expedición. Desde el islote de Kérne, en la expedición primó una primera exploración de evaluación, indicativo de que se trataba de apenas 2 o 3 barcos, con una tripulación limitada, que evitaban enfrentamientos con la población local. Los intérpretes Lixítai parecen conocer todos los puntos explorados, el río Chrétes, los etíopes del Alto Atlas costero, el gran golfo caluroso que finalizaba en el Hespérou Kéras, el volcán Theôn Óchema, o las gentes salvajes que denominaban Goríllai. Probablemente la mayor sorpresa fuese encontrar un volcán activo, emitiendo lava, que pudo ser la razón última para redactar este periplo. La falta de agua, alimentos y caza como razón para finalizar la expedición exploratoria sólo es comprensible en un trayecto corto que alcanzó hasta el inicio del desierto del Sahara. Otro tanto sucede con la ausencia de ríos importantes al Sur del río Chrétes, una clara prueba de que no se alcanzaron latitudes ecuatoriales y que los barcos se fueron alejando de la costa norteafricana.

"Sub Tiberio quies"? Judaea’s Political Situation under the Prefects (6-41 c.e.), between Reality and Ideology

Deeply conflicting views on the political situation of Judaea under the Roman prefects (6-41 c.e.) have been offered. According to some scholars, this was a period of persistent political unrest and agitation, whilst according to a widespread view it was a quiescent period of political calm (reflected in Tacitus’ phrase sub Tiberio quies). The present article critically examines again the main available sources –particularly Josephus, the canonical Gospels and Tacitus– in order to offer a more reliable historical reconstruction. The conclusions drawn by this survey calls into question some widespread and insufficiently nuanced views on the period. This, in turn, allows a reflection on the non-epistemic factors which might contribute to explain the origin of such views.

Microfluidic platforms for the characterization of in meso membrane protein crystallization

Membrane proteins, which reside in the membranes of cells, play a critical role in many important biological processes including cellular signaling, immune response, and material and energy transduction. Because of their key role in maintaining the environment within cells and facilitating intercellular interactions, understanding the function of these proteins is of tremendous medical and biochemical significance. Indeed, the malfunction of membrane proteins has been linked to numerous diseases including diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, cystic fibrosis, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, hypertension, epilepsy, cataracts, tubulopathy, leukodystrophy, Leigh syndrome, anemia, sensorineural deafness, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.1-3 However, the structure of many of these proteins and the changes in their structure that lead to disease-related malfunctions are not well understood. Additionally, at least 60% of the pharmaceuticals currently available are thought to target membrane proteins, despite the fact that their exact mode of operation is not known.4-6 Developing a detailed understanding of the function of a protein is achieved by coupling biochemical experiments with knowledge of the structure of the protein. Currently the most common method for obtaining three-dimensional structure information is X-ray crystallography. However, no a priori methods are currently available to predict crystallization conditions for a given protein.7-14 This limitation is currently overcome by screening a large number of possible combinations of precipitants, buffer, salt, and pH conditions to identify conditions that are conducive to crystal nucleation and growth.7,9,11,15-24 Unfortunately, these screening efforts are often limited by difficulties associated with quantity and purity of available protein samples. While the two most significant bottlenecks for protein structure determination in general are the (i) obtaining sufficient quantities of high quality protein samples and (ii) growing high quality protein crystals that are suitable for X-ray structure determination,7,20,21,23,25-47 membrane proteins present additional challenges. For crystallization it is necessary to extract the membrane proteins from the cellular membrane. However, this process often leads to denaturation. In fact, membrane proteins have proven to be so difficult to crystallize that of the more than 66,000 structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank,48 less than 1% are for membrane proteins, with even fewer present at high resolution (< 2Å)4,6,49 and only a handful are human membrane proteins.49 A variety of strategies including detergent solubilization50-53 and the use of artificial membrane-like environments have been developed to circumvent this challenge.43,53-55 In recent years, the use of a lipidic mesophase as a medium for crystallizing membrane proteins has been demonstrated to increase success for a wide range of membrane proteins, including human receptor proteins.54,56-62 This in meso method for membrane protein crystallization, however, is still by no means routine due to challenges related to sample preparation at sub-microliter volumes and to crystal harvesting and X-ray data collection. This dissertation presents various aspects of the development of a microfluidic platform to enable high throughput in meso membrane protein crystallization at a level beyond the capabilities of current technologies. Microfluidic platforms for protein crystallization and other lab-on-a-chip applications have been well demonstrated.9,63-66 These integrated chips provide fine control over transport phenomena and the ability to perform high throughput analyses via highly integrated fluid networks. However, the development of microfluidic platforms for in meso protein crystallization required the development of strategies to cope with extremely viscous and non-Newtonian fluids. A theoretical treatment of highly viscous fluids in microfluidic devices is presented in Chapter 3, followed by the application of these strategies for the development of a microfluidic mixer capable of preparing a mesophase sample for in meso crystallization at a scale of less than 20 nL in Chapter 4. This approach was validated with the successful on chip in meso crystallization of the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin. In summary, this is the first report of a microfluidic platform capable of performing in meso crystallization on-chip, representing a 1000x reduction in the scale at which mesophase trials can be prepared. Once protein crystals have formed, they are typically harvested from the droplet they were grown in and mounted for crystallographic analysis. Despite the high throughput automation present in nearly all other aspects of protein structure determination, the harvesting and mounting of crystals is still largely a manual process. Furthermore, during mounting the fragile protein crystals can potentially be damaged, both from physical and environmental shock. To circumvent these challenges an X-ray transparent microfluidic device architecture was developed to couple the benefits of scale, integration, and precise fluid control with the ability to perform in situ X-ray analysis (Chapter 5). This approach was validated successfully by crystallization and subsequent on-chip analysis of the soluble proteins lysozyme, thaumatin, and ribonuclease A and will be extended to microfluidic platforms for in meso membrane protein crystallization. The ability to perform in situ X-ray analysis was shown to provide extremely high quality diffraction data, in part as a result of not being affected by damage due to physical handling of the crystals. As part of the work described in this thesis, a variety of data collection strategies for in situ data analysis were also tested, including merging of small slices of data from a large number of crystals grown on a single chip, to allow for diffraction analysis at biologically relevant temperatures. While such strategies have been applied previously,57,59,61,67 they are potentially challenging when applied via traditional methods due to the need to grow and then mount a large number of crystals with minimal crystal-to-crystal variability. The integrated nature of microfluidic platforms easily enables the generation of a large number of reproducible crystallization trials. This, coupled with in situ analysis capabilities has the potential of being able to acquire high resolution structural data of proteins at biologically relevant conditions for which only small crystals, or crystals which are adversely affected by standard cryocooling techniques, could be obtained (Chapters 5 and 6). While the main focus of protein crystallography is to obtain three-dimensional protein structures, the results of typical experiments provide only a static picture of the protein. The use of polychromatic or Laue X-ray diffraction methods enables the collection of time resolved structural information. These experiments are very sensitive to crystal quality, however, and often suffer from severe radiation damage due to the intense polychromatic X-ray beams. Here, as before, the ability to perform in situ X-ray analysis on many small protein crystals within a microfluidic crystallization platform has the potential to overcome these challenges. An automated method for collecting a "single-shot" of data from a large number of crystals was developed in collaboration with the BioCARS team at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory (Chapter 6). The work described in this thesis shows that, even more so than for traditional structure determination efforts, the ability to grow and analyze a large number of high quality crystals is critical to enable time resolved structural studies of novel proteins. In addition to enabling X-ray crystallography experiments, the development of X-ray transparent microfluidic platforms also has tremendous potential to answer other scientific questions, such as unraveling the mechanism of in meso crystallization. For instance, the lipidic mesophases utilized during in meso membrane protein crystallization can be characterized by small angle X-ray diffraction analysis. Coupling in situ analysis with microfluidic platforms capable of preparing these difficult mesophase samples at very small volumes has tremendous potential to enable the high throughput analysis of these systems on a scale that is not reasonably achievable using conventional sample preparation strategies (Chapter 7). In collaboration with the LS-CAT team at the Advanced Photon Source, an experimental station for small angle X-ray analysis coupled with the high quality visualization capabilities needed to target specific microfluidic samples on a highly integrated chip is under development. Characterizing the phase behavior of these mesophase systems and the effects of various additives present in crystallization trials is key for developing an understanding of how in meso crystallization occurs. A long term goal of these studies is to enable the rational design of in meso crystallization experiments so as to avoid or limit the need for high throughput screening efforts. In summary, this thesis describes the development of microfluidic platforms for protein crystallization with in situ analysis capabilities. Coupling the ability to perform in situ analysis with the small scale, fine control, and the high throughput nature of microfluidic platforms has tremendous potential to enable a new generation of crystallographic studies and facilitate the structure determination of important biological targets. The development of platforms for in meso membrane protein crystallization is particularly significant because they enable the preparation of highly viscous mixtures at a previously unachievable scale. Work in these areas is ongoing and has tremendous potential to improve not only current the methods of protein crystallization and crystallography, but also to enhance our knowledge of the structure and function of proteins which could have a significant scientific and medical impact on society as a whole. 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Medición de la cultura de seguridad del paciente en un hospital público de primer nivel en el municipio de Villeta

Esta investigación midió la percepción del personal asistencial sobre la cultura de seguridad de los pacientes en un hospital de primer nivel de complejidad por medio de un estudio descriptivo de corte transversal. Se utilizó como herramienta de medición la encuesta ‘Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Cultura’ (HSOPSC) de la Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) versión en español, la cual evalúa doce dimensiones. Los resultados mostraron fortalezas como el aprendizaje organizacional, las mejoras continuas y el apoyo de los administradores para la seguridad del paciente. Las dimensiones clasificadas como oportunidades de mejora fueron la cultura no punitiva, el personal, las transferencias y transiciones y el grado en que la comunicación es abierta. Se concluyó que aunque el personal percibía como positivo el proceso de mejoramiento y apoyo de la administración también sentía que era juzgado si reportaba algún evento adverso.

Liderazgo y cultura organizacional en Latinoamerica

El presente estudio de corte descriptivo hace una revisión teórica de 68 artículos de 11 países de Latinoamérica con el fin de dar a conocer el panorama organizacional con relación a la cultura organizacional y el liderazgo en la región y cómo este ha ido evolucionando en el tiempo. La metodología utilizada se enfocó en un conteo de frecuencias usando el modelo de liderazgo y cultura organizacional de Bass y Avolio (Bass, 1999) permitiendo ordenar en tres estilos de liderazgo la información encontrada en la revisión teórica, y a su vez cada uno de los liderazgos con sus creencias, éstas tomadas como variables de la cultura organizacional. Finalmente se encontraron diferentes tipos de tendencias a nivel de los tipos de liderazgo implementados en las organizaciones y la cultura organizacional que se adopta. Se plantea la necesidad de profundizar más y de forma empírica en la temática planteada para que se conozcan las transformaciones que se han dado en el contexto organizacional y el impacto sea mayor en un futuro cercano.

Participación de gais y lesbianas en la esfera pública en Quibdó: de la fiesta de san pacho al reconocimiento estatal

Esta investigación busca analizar las distintas formas a través de las cuales las personas gais y lesbianas de Quibdó lograron una visibilización en la esfera pública de su ciudad. Este proceso será visto en diferentes escenarios. Primero, en la participación en espacios culturales como San Pacho, shows y reinados de belleza. Segundo, en el activismo realizado por la Fundación Ébano Diverso, que ha logrado abrir espacios de diálogo con instancias como la Alcaldía de Quibdó y la Gobernación del Chocó. Finalmente, se verá cómo la creación de tejidos familiares y afectivos está relacionada con su activismo y las formas distintas de visibilizarse.

Hacia la construcción de un diagnóstico de educación para la paz en el colegio IED José Joaquín Castro Martínez

El presente proyecto se enmarca como un informe diagnóstico sobre la educación para la paz en el IED José Joaquín Castro Martínez. Es importante resaltar que este informe no pretende abarcar aspectos investigativos sobre el conflicto, la violencia escolar o la educación para la paz; lo que se busca es a partir de un diagnóstico del colegio posibilitar un posterior diseño de una estrategia de intervención para esta institución educativa ubicada en la localidad de San Cristóbal en la ciudad de Bogotá. Este diagnóstico pretende ser una avance en este tipo de experiencias en el colegio, el cual se espera propicie un impacto positivo en las dinámicas del conflicto que viven día a día los estudiantes de la institución educativa reseñada, y propiciar así un mayor conocimiento de las problemáticas de los y las estudiantes en relación a una cultura de paz, entendida esta desde 4 aspectos: primero el respeto a sí mismo, al otro y a su entorno; segundo, resolución y resignificacion positiva del conflicto; tercero, prevención del consumo de SPA; y cuarto convivencia escolar.

Procedimiento sancionatorio de alimentos en el ámbito territorial

El Estado colombiano tiene una capacidad de sanción que ha sido diseñada para ser ejercida por el presidente de la república. En algunas ocasiones gracias a la figura de la delegación se les entregan estas facultades de sanción a los gobernadores, los alcaldes de los distritos y los alcaldes de los municipios, quienes actúan como representantes legales de estas entidades territoriales que hasta la fecha son las únicas que existen en Colombia. El presente trabajo evaluará esa capacidad de sanción en un tema especifico como es el procedimiento sancionatorio de alimentos, procedimiento que es similar en su estructura legal en todas las entidades territoriales, pero que en su aplicación presenta características diferentes, estas diferencias permiten demostrar la hipótesis planteada que los procedimientos sancionatorios en alimentos en las entidades territoriales son débiles, no obstante contar con toda la facultad sancionadora delegada para ejercer esta actividad.

Prevalencia de síntomas relacionados con desórdenes musculo esqueléticos en trabajadores de una empresa dedicada a la venta y distribución de medicamentos y equipos médicos - Colombia, 2015.

Introducción: Los Desórdenes Musculo-Esqueléticos (DME) tienen origen multifactorial. En Colombia corresponden al principal grupo diagnóstico en procesos relacionados con la determinación de origen y pérdida de capacidad laboral. Objetivo: Determinar la relación entre síntomas musculo-esqueléticos y factores relacionados con la carga física en trabajadores de una empresa dedicada a la venta y distribución de medicamentos y equipos médicos, Bogotá (Colombia), en el año 2015. Materiales y Métodos: Estudio de corte transversal en 235 trabajadores. Se incluyeron variables sociodemográficas, ocupacionales y las relacionadas con los síntomas musculoesqueléticos y carga física. Se utilizó en cuestionario ERGOPAR. Para el análisis se utilizó la Prueba Exacta de Fisher, el Odds Ratio (OR) con el Intervalo de Confianza (IC) del 95%. Se realizó el análisis Multivariado con Regresión Logística Binaria. Resultados: La prevalencia de síntomas relacionados con DME fue de 79,2%, siendo más prevalente en cuello, hombros y columna dorsal (48,1%), seguido por columna lumbar (35,3%). Se encontró una asociación entre síntomas en cuello, hombros y/o columna dorsal con el sexo femenino (p=0,005, OR=2,33, 95%IC: 1,2-4,2); adoptar postura bípeda menos de 30 minutos (p=0,004, OR=3,34, 95%IC: 1,4-7,6); adoptar postura cabeza/cuello inclinado hacia delante entre 30 minutos y 2 horas (p=0,007, OR=3,25, 95%IC :1,3-7,7) y en columna lumbar con adoptar postura espalda/tronco hacia delante entre 30 minutos y 2 horas (p=0,001, OR=4,27, 95%IC: 1,7-10,3); y la antigüedad en el cargo entre 1 y 5 años (p=0,009, OR=3,47, 95%IC: 1,3-8,8). Conclusión: Las posturas bípedas con y sin desplazamiento, inclinaciones de tronco y cabeza, transporte manual de cargas, sexo femenino, antigüedad en el cargo y edad están asociadas conjuntamente al riesgo para presentar DME.

A Kalman filter based queue estimation algorithm using time occupancies for motorway on-ramps

The primary objective of this study is to develop a robust queue estimation algorithm for motorway on-ramps. Real-time queue information is the most vital input for a dynamic queue management that can treat long queues on metered on-ramps more sophistically. The proposed algorithm is developed based on the Kalman filter framework. The fundamental conservation model is used to estimate the system state (queue size) with the flow-in and flow-out measurements. This projection results are updated with the measurement equation using the time occupancies from mid-link and link-entrance loop detectors. This study also proposes a novel single point correction method. This method resets the estimated system state to eliminate the counting errors that accumulate over time. In the performance evaluation, the proposed algorithm demonstrated accurate and reliable performances and consistently outperformed the benchmarked Single Occupancy Kalman filter (SOKF) method. The improvements over SOKF are 62% and 63% in average in terms of the estimation accuracy (MAE) and reliability (RMSE), respectively. The benefit of the innovative concepts of the algorithm is well justified by the improved estimation performance in the congested ramp traffic conditions where long queues may significantly compromise the benchmark algorithm’s performance.