The glasshouse effect caused by atmospheric CO2 : a new thermodynamic interpretation

La utilización de modelos para diagnosticar las causas del cambio climático y sus efectos sobre los procesos ecológicos globales ha permitido mejorar nuestra comprensión del fenómeno. Sin embargo, hay evidencias de que los modelos actuales no siempre logran simular los cambios ya documentados alrededor del mundo, posiblemente, debido a que muchos de los procesos que pueden generar cambios climáticos todavía no están totalmente entendidos. En el presente trabajo se presenta una interpretación termodinámica-cinética del efecto invernadero producido por el CO2 desde un nuevo enfoque, el que vincula la temperatura y el calor, y se basa en el criterio corpuscular de la energía. La teoría del complejo activado de la cinética química es interpretada con un criterio probabilístico y es considerada aplicable no solo a las reacciones químicas sino también a las reacciones físicas. Este trabajo sugiere que el aumento de la concentración de CO2 en la atmósfera podría no ser suficiente para explicar el calentamiento global actual.At present times the use of models to simulate and predict the climate change and its consequences on global ecological processes has contributed to a better understanding of the phenomena in several disciplines. However, there is evidence that current models fail to simulate a number of well known climatic changes recorded around the world, which suggests that many of the processes involved in climatic change are still not fully understood. A new thermodynamic interpretation of the atmospheric glasshouse effect caused by CO2 is presented, which is based on the relationship between temperature and heat considered from the corpuscular theory of energy. The activated complex theory used in chemical kinetics is interpreted as probabilistic criteria, applicable therefore not only to the chemical reactions but also to physical interactions. Under this perspective, this article suggests that the current level of atmospheric CO2 increase would not be sufficient to explain global warming

21 de setiembre: día de la ciencia y la técnica

Con motivo del 3O aniversario de la instauración del 21 de setiembre como día de la Ciencia y la Técnica en la Provincia de Buenos Aires, la CIC le ha solicitado a un grupo selecto de científicos, su opinión sobre aspectos esenciales del quehacer científico y tecnológico. El presente texto contiene los siguientes trabajos: - Consideraciones acerca de la investigacion técnico-científica sobre materiales, por Eduardo R. Abril. - Ciencia y tecnología de alimentos, por Pedro Cattáneo - Ciencia y tecnología en química orgánica por Venancio Deulofeu. - Ciencia y tecnología - recursos humanos por Ernesto E. Galloni. - Discurso de apertura de la reunion sobre ciencia y tecnologia realizada en Mar del Plata del 6 al 8 de julio de 1978 por Luis F. Leloir. - Incidencia de la investigación en el desarrollo de la metalurgia por Roberto F. Recoder. - Importancia de la investigación matemática en la sociedad contemporánea por Luis A. Santaló. - La investigación en fisicoquímica y su proyección en el desarrollo científico y tecnológico por Hans J. Schumacher

EGASP: the human ENCODE Genome Annotation Assessment Project

Background: Non-long terminal repeat (non-LTR) retrotransposons have contributed to shaping the structure and function of genomes. In silico and experimental approaches have been used to identify the non-LTR elements of the urochordate Ciona intestinalis. Knowledge of the types and abundance of non-LTR elements in urochordates is a key step in understanding their contribution to the structure and function of vertebrate genomes. Results: Consensus elements phylogenetically related to the I, LINE1, LINE2, LOA and R2 elements of the 14 eukaryotic non-LTR clades are described from C. intestinalis. The ascidian elements showed conservation of both the reverse transcriptase coding sequence and the overall structural organization seen in each clade. The apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease and nucleic-acid-binding domains encoded upstream of the reverse transcriptase, and the RNase H and the restriction enzyme-like endonuclease motifs encoded downstream of the reverse transcriptase were identified in the corresponding Ciona families. Conclusions: The genome of C. intestinalis harbors representatives of at least five clades of non-LTR retrotransposons. The copy number per haploid genome of each element is low, less than 100, far below the values reported for vertebrate counterparts but within the range for protostomes. Genomic and sequence analysis shows that the ascidian non-LTR elements are unmethylated and flanked by genomic segments with a gene density lower than average for the genome. The analysis provides valuable data for understanding the evolution of early chordate genomes and enlarges the view on the distribution of the non-LTR retrotransposons in eukaryotes

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs Guaranteed time observations Data Release 1 (2016-2020)

I. Ribas et al.[Context] The CARMENES instrument, installed at the 3.5 m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, Spain, was conceived to deliver high-accuracy radial velocity (RV) measurements with long-term stability to search for temperate rocky planets around a sample of nearby cool stars. Moreover, the broad wavelength coverage was designed to provide a range of stellar activity indicators to assess the nature of potential RV signals and to provide valuable spectral information to help characterise the stellar targets.[Aims] We describe the CARMENES guaranteed time observations (GTO), spanning from 2016 to 2020, during which 19 633 spectra for a sample of 362 targets were collected. We present the CARMENES Data Release 1 (DR1), which makes public all observations obtained during the GTO of the CARMENES survey.[Methods] The CARMENES survey target selection was aimed at minimising biases, and about 70% of all known M dwarfs within 10 pc and accessible from Calar Alto were included. The data were pipeline-processed, and high-level data products, including 18 642 precise RVs for 345 targets, were derived. Time series data of spectroscopic activity indicators were also obtained.[Results] We discuss the characteristics of the CARMENES data, the statistical properties of the stellar sample, and the spectroscopic measurements. We show examples of the use of CARMENES data and provide a contextual view of the exoplanet population revealed by the survey, including 33 new planets, 17 re-analysed planets, and 26 confirmed planets from transiting candidate follow-up. A subsample of 238 targets was used to derive updated planet occurrence rates, yielding an overall average of 1.44 ± 0.20 planets with 1 M⊕ < Mpl sin i < 1000 M⊕ and 1 day < Porb < 1000 days per star, and indicating that nearly every M dwarf hosts at least one planet. All the DR1 raw data, pipeline-processed data, and high-level data products are publicly available online.[Conclusions] CARMENES data have proven very useful for identifying and measuring planetary companions. They are also suitable for a variety of additional applications, such as the determination of stellar fundamental and atmospheric properties, the characterisation of stellar activity, and the study of exoplanet atmospheres.CARMENES is an instrument at the Centro Astronómico Hispano en Andalucía (CAHA) at Calar Alto (Almería, Spain), operated jointly by the Junta de Andalucía and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC). CARMENES was funded by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through projects FICTS-2011-02, ICTS-2017-07-CAHA-4, and CAHA16-CE-3978, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Landessternwarte Königstuhl, Institut de Ciències de l’Espai, Institut für Astrophysik Göttingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiología and Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán), with additional contributions by the MINECO, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and Research Unit FOR2544 “Blue Planets around Red Stars”, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Württemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucía. We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (AEI-MCIN) and the ERDF “A way of making Europe” through projects PID2020-117493GB-I00, PID2019-109522GB-C5[1:4], PID2019-110689RB-I00, PID2019-107061GB-C61, PID2019-107061GB-C64, PGC2018-098153-B-C33, PID2021-125627OB-C31/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and the Centre of Excellence “Severo Ochoa” and “María de Maeztu” awards to the Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (CEX2020-001058-M), Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (CEX2019-000920-S), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709), and Centro de Astrobiología (MDM-2017-0737). We also benefited from additional funding from: the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya and the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca of the Generalitat de Catalunya, with additional funding from the European FEDER/ERDF funds, and from the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA programme; the DFG through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and Research Unit FOR2544 “Blue Planets around Red Stars” (RE 2694/8-1); the University of La Laguna through the Margarita Salas Fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Universidades ref. UNI/551/2021-May-26, and under the EU Next Generation funds; the Gobierno de Canarias through projects ProID2021010128 and ProID2020010129; the Spanish MICINN under Ramón y Cajal programme RYC-2013-14875; the “Fondi di Ricerca Scientifica d’Ateneo 2021” of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”; and the programme “Alien Earths” supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under agreement No. 80NSSC21K0593. TPeer reviewe

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI &lt;18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For school&#x2;aged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI &lt;2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI &gt;2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

Erratum: Corrigendum: Sequence and comparative analysis of the chicken genome provide unique perspectives on vertebrate evolution

International Chicken Genome Sequencing Consortium. The Original Article was published on 09 December 2004. Nature432, 695–716 (2004). In Table 5 of this Article, the last four values listed in the ‘Copy number’ column were incorrect. These should be: LTR elements, 30,000; DNA transposons, 20,000; simple repeats, 140,000; and satellites, 4,000. These errors do not affect any of the conclusions in our paper. Additional information. The online version of the original article can be found at 10.1038/nature0315

Characterization of atmospheric emission sources of heavy metalsand trace elements through a local-scale monitoringnetwork using T. capillaris

This research work presents new insights regarding biomonitoring studies, source apportionment at a local scale, and influence of wind and topography on dispersion of atmospheric pollutants in a complex scenario. The monitoring network consisted of transplanted Tillandsia capillaris biomonitors throughout 3 sampling periods in order to assess the effects of the different emission sources and their atmospheric dispersions in a region from the province of Córdoba, Argentina. The elements Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb, were analyzed by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FAAS, pseudo-total metal content) and As, Ba, Ca, Ce, Cr, Cs, Eu, Fe, Hf, La, Lu, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Sm, Ta, Tb, Th, U, Yb and Zn, by Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA, total metal content). The following atmospheric emission sources were characterized in the study area: cement plant, with emissions of Cd, Pb, CoFAAS, Ni and Ca; waste dumping site fires, with emissions of the elements Sm, Yb, Ba, La, ZnNAA, Ce, Th and Hf; brick kilns with emissions of the elements Na, Ba, As, Se, Cr, Tb, Sc, FeNAA, CoNAA, Ta; vehicular traffic with emissions of ZnFAAS and Sb and soil re-suspension with emissions of Ni, ZnFAAS, Br, U, Mn, Rb and Eu. It was noticeable that topography played an important role in the dispersion of the pollutants in the study area and this was reflected in the biomonitors. Our results provide a step forward in the application field of this biomonitoring species for characterizing emission sources in a complex scenario at a local scale.Fil: Abril, Gabriela Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); ArgentinaFil: Wannaz, Eduardo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); ArgentinaFil: Mateos, Ana Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); ArgentinaFil: Invernizzi, R.. Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica; ArgentinaFil: Plá, R. R.. Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica; ArgentinaFil: Pignata, M. L.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); Argentin

Plastia mitral y colocación de una envoltura externa en la aorta ascendente en un paciente con diagnóstico de Síndrome de Marfán. Presentación de un caso.

Se expone un caso clínico-quirúrgico con diagnóstico de Síndrome de Marfan, que ingresa en nuestro centro con cuadro clínico de insuficiencia cardiaca y se le diagnostica una insuficiencia mitral grave. Se observó en los estudios realizados que el diámetro de la raíz de la aorta no sobrepasaba los 40 mm. Se discute en colectivo médico y se le decide realizar plástia de la válvula mitral y colocación de una envoltura externa de dacrón alrededor de la aorta ascendente. Se discuten los aspectos técnicos de la intervención quirúrgica y se realiza una revisión del tema llegándose a conclusiones

Male circumcision and prevalence of genital human papillomavirus infection in men : a multinational study

Background: Accumulated evidence from epidemiological studies and more recently from randomized controlled trials suggests that male circumcision (MC) may substantially protect against genital HPV infection in men. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between MC and genital HPV infection in men in a large multinational study. Methods: A total of 4072 healthy men ages 18-70 years were enrolled in a study conducted in Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Enrollment samples combining exfoliated cells from the coronal sulcus, glans penis, shaft, and scrotum were analyzed for the presence and genotyping of HPV DNA by PCR and linear array methods. Prevalence ratios (PR) were used to estimate associations between MC and HPV detection adjusting for potential confounders. Results: MC was not associated with overall prevalence of any HPV, oncogenic HPV types or unclassified HPV types. However, MC was negatively associated with non-oncogenic HPV infections (PR 0.85, 95% confident interval: 0.76-0.95), in particular for HPV types 11, 40, 61, 71, and 81. HPV 16, 51, 62, and 84 were the most frequently identified genotypes regardless of MC status. Conclusions: This study shows no overall association between MC and genital HPV infections in men, except for certain non-oncogenic HPV types for which a weak association was found. However, the lack of association with MC might be due to the lack of anatomic site specific HPV data, for example the glans penis, the area expected to be most likely protected by MC