Diabetes gestacional como factor de riesgo para incontinencia urinaria: revisión sistemática de la literatura

La diabetes mellitus es una de las patologías frecuentes durante el embarazo, existe literatura que la ha relacionado con un mayor riesgo de aparición de incontinencia urinaria en el postparto patología que de manera clara afecta la calidad de vida de las mujeres, pero a la fecha la literatura no es concluyente. Con la presente revisión sistemática se pretendió evaluar la evidencia relacionada con la diabetes gestacional como causa de incontinencia urinaria en el postparto.

Optimización del sistema de transporte en el colegio The English School

La optimización de sistemas y modelos se ha convertido en uno de los factores más importantes a la hora de buscar la mayor eficiencia de un proceso. Este concepto no es ajeno al transporte escolar, ambiente que cambia constantemente al ritmo de las necesidades de sus clientes, y que responde ante una fuerte responsabilidad frente a sus usuarios, los niños que hacen uso del servicio, en cuanto al cumplimiento de tiempos y seguridad, mientras busca constantemente la reducción de costos. Este proyecto expone las problemáticas presentadas en The English School en esta área y propone un modelo de optimización simple que permitirá notables mejoras en términos de tiempos y costos, de tal forma que genere beneficios para la institución en términos financieros y de satisfacción al cliente. Por medio de la implementación de este modelo será posible identificar errores comunes del proceso, se identificarán soluciones prácticas de fácil aplicación en el manejo del transporte y se presentarán los resultados obtenidos en la muestra utilizada para desarrollar el proyecto.

Aproximación a la sociocultura japonesa en la enseñanza de español como lengua extranjera : la cortesía verbal.

Memoria de máster (Universidad de Salamanca, 2006). Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Alterations in receptor binding properties of recent human influenza H3N2 viruses are associated with reduced natural killer cell lysis of infected cells

Natural killer (NK) cell recognition of influenza virus-infected cells involves hemagglutinin (HA) binding to sialic acid (SA) on activating NK receptors. SA also acts as a receptor for the binding of influenza virus to its target host cells. The SA binding properties of H3N2 influenza viruses have been observed to change during circulation in humans: recent isolates are unable to agglutinate chicken red blood cells and show reduced affinity for synthetic glycopolymers representing SA-alpha-2,3-lactose (3'SL-PAA) and SA-alpha-2,6-N-acetyl lactosamine (6'SLN-PAA) carbohydrates. Here, NK lysis of cells infected with human H3N2 influenza viruses isolated between 1969 and 2003 was analyzed. Cells infected with recent isolates (1999 to 2003) were found to be lysed less effectively than cells infected with older isolates (1969 to 1996). This change occurred concurrently with the acquisition of two new potential glycosylation site motifs in RA. Deletion of the potential glycosylation site motif at 133 to 135 in HA1 from a recent isolate partially restored the agglutination phenotype to a recombinant virus, indicating that the HA-SA interaction is inhibited by the glycosylation modification. Deletion of either of the recently acquired potential glycosylation sites from HA led to increased NK lysis of cells infected with recombinant viruses carrying modified HA. These results indicate that alterations in RA glycosylation may affect NK cell recognition of influenza virus-infected cells in addition to virus binding to host cells.

Alterations in receptor binding properties of recent human influenza H3N2 viruses are associated with reduced natural killer cell lysis of infected cells

Natural killer (NK) cell recognition of influenza virus-infected cells involves hemagglutinin (HA) binding to sialic acid (SA) on activating NK receptors. SA also acts as a receptor for the binding of influenza virus to its target host cells. The SA binding properties of H3N2 influenza viruses have been observed to change during circulation in humans: recent isolates are unable to agglutinate chicken red blood cells and show reduced affinity for synthetic glycopolymers representing SA-alpha-2,3-lactose (3'SL-PAA) and SA-alpha-2,6-N-acetyl lactosamine (6'SLN-PAA) carbohydrates. Here, NK lysis of cells infected with human H3N2 influenza viruses isolated between 1969 and 2003 was analyzed. Cells infected with recent isolates (1999 to 2003) were found to be lysed less effectively than cells infected with older isolates (1969 to 1996). This change occurred concurrently with the acquisition of two new potential glycosylation site motifs in RA. Deletion of the potential glycosylation site motif at 133 to 135 in HA1 from a recent isolate partially restored the agglutination phenotype to a recombinant virus, indicating that the HA-SA interaction is inhibited by the glycosylation modification. Deletion of either of the recently acquired potential glycosylation sites from HA led to increased NK lysis of cells infected with recombinant viruses carrying modified HA. These results indicate that alterations in RA glycosylation may affect NK cell recognition of influenza virus-infected cells in addition to virus binding to host cells.

The APE atlas

This Atlas presents statistical analyses of the simulations submitted to the Aqua-Planet Experiment (APE) data archive. The simulations are from global Atmospheric General Circulation Models (AGCM) applied to a water-covered earth. The AGCMs include ones actively used or being developed for numerical weather prediction or climate research. Some are mature, application models and others are more novel and thus less well tested in Earth-like applications. The experiment applies AGCMs with their complete parameterization package to an idealization of the planet Earth which has a greatly simplified lower boundary that consists of an ocean only. It has no land and its associated orography, and no sea ice. The ocean is represented by Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) which are specified everywhere with simple, idealized distributions. Thus in the hierarchy of tests available for AGCMs, APE falls between tests with simplified forcings such as those proposed by Held and Suarez (1994) and Boer and Denis (1997) and Earth-like simulations of the Atmospheric Modeling Intercomparison Project (AMIP, Gates et al., 1999). Blackburn and Hoskins (2013) summarize the APE and its aims. They discuss where the APE fits within a modeling hierarchy which has evolved to evaluate complete models and which provides a link between realistic simulation and conceptual models of atmospheric phenomena. The APE bridges a gap in the existing hierarchy. The goals of APE are to provide a benchmark of current model behaviors and to stimulate research to understand the cause of inter-model differences., APE is sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) joint Commission on Atmospheric Science (CAS), World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE). Chapter 2 of this Atlas provides an overview of the specification of the eight APE experiments and of the data collected. Chapter 3 lists the participating models and includes brief descriptions of each. Chapters 4 through 7 present a wide variety of statistics from the 14 participating models for the eight different experiments. Additional intercomparison figures created by Dr. Yukiko Yamada in AGU group are available at http://www.gfd-dennou.org/library/ape/comparison/. This Atlas is intended to present and compare the statistics of the APE simulations but does not contain a discussion of interpretive analyses. Such analyses are left for journal papers such as those included in the Special Issue of the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan (2013, Vol. 91A) devoted to the APE. Two papers in that collection provide an overview of the simulations. One (Blackburn et al., 2013) concentrates on the CONTROL simulation and the other (Williamson et al., 2013) on the response to changes in the meridional SST profile. Additional papers provide more detailed analysis of the basic simulations, while others describe various sensitivities and applications. The APE experiment data base holds a wealth of data that is now publicly available from the APE web site: http://climate.ncas.ac.uk/ape/. We hope that this Atlas will stimulate future analyses and investigations to understand the large variation seen in the model behaviors.

Hurricanes and climate: the U.S. CLIVAR working group on hurricanes

While a quantitative climate theory of tropical cyclone formation remains elusive, considerable progress has been made recently in our ability to simulate tropical cyclone climatologies and understand the relationship between climate and tropical cyclone formation. Climate models are now able to simulate a realistic rate of global tropical cyclone formation, although simulation of the Atlantic tropical cyclone climatology remains challenging unless horizontal resolutions finer than 50 km are employed. This article summarizes published research from the idealized experiments of the Hurricane Working Group of U.S. CLIVAR (CLImate VARiability and predictability of the ocean-atmosphere system). This work, combined with results from other model simulations, has strengthened relationships between tropical cyclone formation rates and climate variables such as mid-tropospheric vertical velocity, with decreased climatological vertical velocities leading to decreased tropical cyclone formation. Systematic differences are shown between experiments in which only sea surface temperature is increased versus experiments where only atmospheric carbon dioxide is increased, with the carbon dioxide experiments more likely to demonstrate the decrease in tropical cyclone numbers previously shown to be a common response of climate models in a warmer climate. Experiments where the two effects are combined also show decreases in numbers, but these tend to be less for models that demonstrate a strong tropical cyclone response to increased sea surface temperatures. Further experiments are proposed that may improve our understanding of the relationship between climate and tropical cyclone formation, including experiments with two-way interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere and variations in atmospheric aerosols.

Functional analysis of a novel missense NBC1 mutation and of other mutations causing proximal renal tubular acidosis

Mutations in the Na+-HCO3- cotransporter NBC1 cause severe proximal tubular acidosis (pRTA) associated with ocular abnormalities. Recent studies have suggested that at least some NBC1 mutants show abnormal trafficking in the polarized cells. This study identified a new homozygous NBC1 mutation (G486R) in a patient with severe pRTA. Functional analysis in Xenopus oocytes failed to detect the G486R activity due to poor surface expression. In ECV304 cells, however, G486R showed the efficient membrane expression, and its transport activity corresponded to approximately 50% of wild-type (WT) activity. In Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, G486R was predominantly expressed in the basolateral membrane domain as observed for WT. Among the previously identified NBC1 mutants that showed poor surface expression in oocytes, T485S showed the predominant basolateral expression in MDCK cells. On the other hand, L522P was exclusively retained in the cytoplasm in ECV304 and MDCK cells, and functional analysis in ECV304 cells failed to detect its transport activity. These results indicate that G486R, like T485S, is a partial loss of function mutation without major trafficking abnormalities, while L522P causes the clinical phenotypes mainly through its inability to reach the plasma membranes. Multiple experimental approaches would be required to elucidate potential disease mechanism by NBC1 mutations.

ADRB2 and LEPR Gene Polymorphisms: Synergistic Effects on the Risk of Obesity in Japanese

The objective of the present study was to validate a recently reported synergistic effect between variants located in the leptin receptor (LEPR) gene and in the beta-2 adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) gene on the risk of overweight/obesity. We studied a middle-aged/ elderly sample of 4,193 nondiabetic Japanese subjects stratified according gender (1,911 women and 2,282 men). The LEPR Gln223Arg (rs1137101) variant as well as both ADRB2 Arg16Gly (rs1042713) and Gln27Glu (rs1042714) polymorphisms were analyzed. The primary outcome was the risk of overweight/obesity defined as BMI >= 25 kg/m(2), whereas secondary outcomes included the risk of a BMI >= 27 kg/m(2) and BMI as a continuous variable. None of the studied polymorphisms showed statistically significant individual effects, regardless of the group or phenotype studied. Haplotype analysis also did not disclose any associations of ADRB2 polymorphisms with BMI. However, dimensionality reduction-based models confirmed significant interactions among the investigated variants for BMI as a continuous variable as well as for the risk of obesity defined as BMI >= 27 kg/m(2). All disclosed interactions were found in men only. Our results provide external validation for a male specific ADRB2-LEPR interaction effect on the risk of overweight/obesity, but indicate that effect sizes associated with these interactions may be smaller in the population studied.

Isolation and characterization of 15 microsatellite loci in the stingless bee Plebeia remota (Apidae: Meliponini)

The destruction of Brazilian natural habitats has reduced bee populations and negative impacts of native flora pollination have been noticed. This work describes the isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci and evaluates them as molecular markers to study genetic variability of the stingless bee Plebeia remota. A microsatellite enriched genomic library was constructed and 15 primer pairs were designed for this species. The survey was conducted by analyzing 21 unrelated individuals. Genetic diversity indexes were calculated. The mean allelic richness was 6.3, the observed heterozygosity was 0.568, and the percentage of polymorphic loci was 93.33%. Also the primers were tested in cross-species amplification and showed promising results for P. droryana, P. emerina, P. lucii, P. meridionalis, P. pugnax, and P. saiqui. The microsatellite loci described here will be useful to evaluate genetic variability of stingless bees, and certainly will improve our knowledge about population dynamics especially in threatened environments.

Characterization of microsatellite loci of Tetragonisca angustula (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini)

An enriched genomic library was constructed from Tetragonisca angustula, a stingless bee species widely distributed in Brazil. The library was screened using two simple-repeat oligonucleotide probes and 21 microsatellite primer pairs were designed flanking a selection of repeat sequences within positive clones. The polymorphism of the microsatellite loci was analyzed by screening a sample of 19 unrelated T. angustula workers. Fifteen out of 21 loci were shown to be polymorphic, with observed heterozygosity estimates ranging from 0.00 to 0.89. The primers were also successfully used to amplify microsatellite loci from other stingless bee species, Tetragonisca fiebrigi, Tetragonisca weyrauchi, Lestrimelitta maracaia and Schwarziana quadripunctata. The results from variability analyses suggest that the microsatellite loci isolated from T. angustula will be useful in further population studies for the species and also for other Meliponini.

Localization of Cathepsins D and B at the Maternal-Fetal Interface and the Invasiveness of the Trophoblast during the Postimplantation Period in the Mouse

A survey of existing data suggests that trophoblast cells produce factors involved in extracellular matrix degradation. In this study, we correlated the expression of cathepsins D and B in the murine ectoplacental cone with the ultrastructural progress of decidual invasion by trophoblast cells. Both proteases were immunolocalized at implantation sites in lysosome-endosome-like compartments of trophoblast giant cells. Cathepsin D, but not cathepsin B, was also detected ultrastructurally in extracellular compartments surrounded by processes of the invading trophoblast containing extracellular matrix components and endometrial cell debris. The expression of cathepsins D and B by trophoblast cells was confirmed by RT-PCR in ectoplacental cones isolated from implantation chambers at gestation day 7.5. Our data addressed a positive relationship between the expression and presence of cathepsin D at the extracellular compartment of the maternal-fetal interface and the invasiveness of the trophoblast during the postimplantation period, suggesting a participation of invading trophoblast cells in the cathepsin D release. Such findings indicate that mouse trophoblast cells might exhibit a proteolytic ability to partake in the decidual invasion process at the maternal-fetal interface. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel

Effects of cyclooxygenase inhibitors on parasite burden, anemia and oxidative stress in murine Trypanosoma cruzi infection

Prostaglandins are known to be produced by macrophages when challenged with Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas` disease. It is not known whether these lipid mediators play a role in oxidative stress in host defenses against this important protozoan parasite. In this study, we demonstrated that inducible cyclooxygenase-mediated prostaglandin production is a key chemical mediator in the control of parasite burden and erythrocyte oxidative stress during T. cruzi infection in C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice, prototype hosts for the study of resistance and susceptibility in murine Chagas` disease. The results suggested the existence of at least two mechanisms of oxidative stress, dependent or independent with regard to the nitric oxide and cyclooxygenase pathway, where one or the other is more evident depending on the mouse strain.

5-Lipoxygenase plays a role in the control of parasite burden and contributes to oxidative damage of erythrocytes in murine Chagas` disease

Chagas` disease is accompanied by severe anemia and oxidative stress, which may contribute to mortality. In this study, we investigated the role of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) in the control of parasitism and anemia associated with oxidative damage of erythrocytes in experimental Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Wild-type C57BL/6, 129Sv mice treated or not with nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA, 5-LO inhibitor), mice lacking the 5-LO enzyme gene (5-LO(-/-)) and inducible nitric oxide synthase gene (iNOS(-/-)) were infected with the Y strain of T cruzi. impairment of 5-LO resulted in increased numbers of trypomastigote forms in the blood and amastigote forms in the heart of infected mice. We assessed oxidative stress in erythrocytes by measuring oxygen uptake, induction time and chemiluminescence following treatment with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBH). Our results show that 5-LO metabolites increased lipid peroxidation levels in erythrocytes during the early phase of murine T cruzi infection. NDGA treatment reduced oxidative damage of erythrocytes in C57BL/6 T cruzi-infected mice but not in C57BL/6 iNOS-/- infected mice, showing that the action of NDGA is dependent on endogenous nitric oxide (NO). In addition, our results show that 5-LO metabolites do not participate directly in the development of anemia in infected mice. We conclude that 5-LO products may not only play a major role in controlling heart tissue parasitism, i.e., host resistance to acute infection with T cruzi in vivo, but in the event of an infection also play an important part in erythrocyte oxidative stress, an NO-dependent effect. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.