Effects of maternal subnutrition during early pregnancy on cow hematological profiles and offspring physiology and vitality in two beef breeds

This experiment evaluated the effects of subnutrition during early gestation on hematology in cows (Bos Taurus) and on hematological, metabolic, endocrine, and vitality parameters in their calves. Parda de Montaña and Pirenaica dams were inseminated and assigned to either a control (CONTROL, 100% requirements) or a nutrient‐restricted group (SUBNUT, 65%) during the first third of gestation. Dam blood samples were collected on days 20 and 253 of gestation, and calf samples were obtained during the first days of life. Pirenaica dams presented higher red series parameters than Parda de Montaña dams, both in the first and the last months of gestation. During early pregnancy, granulocyte numbers and mean corpuscular hemoglobin were lower in Pirenaica‐SUBNUT than in Pirenaica‐CONTROL cows. Calves from the SUBNUT cows did not show a physiological reduction in red series values in early life, suggesting later maturation of the hematopoietic system. Poor maternal nutrition affected calf endocrine parameters. Newborns from dystocic parturitions showed lower NEFA concentrations and weaker vitality responses. In conclusion, maternal nutrition had short‐term effects on cow hematology, Pirenaica cows showing a higher susceptibility to undernutrition; and a long‐term effect on their offspring endocrinology, SUBNUT newborns showing lower levels of IGF‐1 and higher levels of cortisol.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Business and the European Union Regional Development Funds (INIA RTA 2013‐00059‐C02 and INIA RZP 2015‐001) and the Government of Aragon under the Grant Research Group Funds (A14_17R). A. Noya received a PhD grant from INIA‐Government of Aragon

Fitting Voronoi Diagrams to Planar Tesselations

Given a tesselation of the plane, defined by a planar straight-line graph $G$, we want to find a minimal set $S$ of points in the plane, such that the Voronoi diagram associated with $S$ "fits" \ $G$. This is the Generalized Inverse Voronoi Problem (GIVP), defined in \cite{Trin07} and rediscovered recently in \cite{Baner12}. Here we give an algorithm that solves this problem with a number of points that is linear in the size of $G$, assuming that the smallest angle in $G$ is constant.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Presented at IWOCA 2013 (Int. Workshop on Combinatorial Algorithms), Rouen, France, July 201

Study of process parameters on aluminium foam formation in the Al-6Si-3Mg alloy

The aim of this research was to study the process parameters that promote foam formation by injecting N2 into Al-6Si-3Mg wt % molten alloy with silicon carbide particles additions (SiC). An experimental design was proposed, in which the contents of SiC particles were 0, 10, 30 and 50 wt %, and the overheating was defined as ΔT= TF - TL , where TL is the liquidus temperature and was determined by the cooling curve method and the foaming temperatures were selected as TF at 630, 610, 580 and 570 °C. Flow and pressure of air blow were constant, 2,0 lt/min and 4,0 atm, respectively. The foam formation was possible only under two experimental conditions, 10 wt % SiC at ΔT > 12 °C and 30 wt % SiC at ΔT > 10 °C. The foams obtained under these conditions were stable, while with other conditions of experiments, bubble coallesence occurred. Finally, it was concluded that the foam formation occurred by SiC contents lower than 30 wt % SiC and temperatures slightly above the liquidus

Study soil analysis in Alamo, Temapache and Veracruz, to generate doses of fertilization in orange

A nivel mundial los cítricos son el principal frutal cultivado, en México la producción de naranja es de gran importancia económica, los principales municipios productores del estado de Veracruz se encuentran Álamo, Papantla, Martínez de la Torre, Tihuatlán, Chicontepec y Temapache. Estas zonas, mantienen un rendimiento promedio bajo en comparación con otros países productores y un factor que puede mejorar los rendimientos es la óptima fertilización la cual tiene que ser respaldada con análisis de suelos para poder definir una dosis. Se realizaron 646 muestreos de suelo a una profundidad de 30 cm, en el municipio de Temapache, Veracruz, mediante un muestreo aleatorio simple, el tamaño de la muestra se adaptó a las condiciones de cada comunidad. Los análisis fueron enviados a dos laboratorios. Se evaluaron el pH, materia orgánica, nitrógeno, fósforo, potasio. Los resultados se analizaron con estadística no paramétrica mediante un análisis de frecuencias para lo que se plantearon diez rangos, se utilizó R stadistic package versión 64 3.2.0. El pH en más del 70% de los suelos fue alcalino, la concentración de materia orgánica solo en el 34.44% se encontró en condiciones adecuadas, los macroelementos se encuentran en condiciones óptimas a excepción del nitrógeno el cual se presentó en niveles bajos

AEROMICOTA DE AMBIENTES INTERNOS: COMPARACION DE METODOS DE MUESTREO

El procedimiento de muestreo utilizado paradeterminar el grado de contaminación fúngica enambientes internos, difiere según los autores. Por ello,con el fin de conocer si el método utilizado por nuestrogrupo de investigación, es comparable con otrasmetodologías, se ha realizado un estudio comparativocon varios sistemas de captación de esporas del aire,incluyendo equipos volumétricos (Aeroscope Chirana,System Air Sampler, Burkard Personal Culture) así comoel método tradicional por sedimentación. Los resultadosobtenidos muestran que apenas existen diferenciascuando se utilizan los sistemas volumétricos, sinembargo, el método por sedimentación ha sido menoseficaz, tanto desde el punto de vista cuantitativo comocualitativo. Mientras, el método directo por hisopado,resulta un buen complemento para determinar la fuentede contaminación. También se ha determinado la horadel día con mayor carga fúngica, que se localiza almediodía y tras el análisis de varios medios de cultivo,se concluye que el Agar Glucosa de Sabouraud resultaadecuado para este tipo de investigaciones

The effect of intra-articular injection of autologous bone marrow stem cells on pain and knee function in patients with osteoarthritis

Abstract Aim: Management of osteoarthritis (OA) is basically symptomatic. Recently, stem cells (SC) have been used in the search for an optimum treatment. We decided to conduct a controlled clinical trial to determine if a single intra-articular injection of in vivo stimulated bone marrow SC could lead to an improvement in pain management and quality of life in patients with knee OA. Method: This was a prospective, open-label, phase I/II clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of a single intra-articular injection of autologous stimulated bone marrow stem cells (BM-SC) in patients with knee OA. Individuals of both genders older than 30 years with confirmed diagnosis of OA who signed informed consent were included in two groups: SC group received in vivo BM stimulation with subcutaneous administration of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). SC were obtained by BM aspiration and administered in a single intra-articular injection. The control group received exclusively oral acetaminophen. Visual analogue scale and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index scores were performed at 1 week, 1 month and 6 months in both groups. This trial was registered in ClinialTrials.gov NCT01485198. Results: A total of 61 patients were included. Socio-demographic characteristics, OA grades and initial scores were similar in both groups. The BM-SC group showed significant improvement in knee pain and quality of life during the 6-month follow-up. Conclusion: The study demonstrates feasibility and supports efficacy of a completely ambulatory procedure in treatment of knee OA. Key words: bone marrow, knee osteoarthritis, stem cells

A Stochastic Phylogenetic Algorithm for Mitochondrial DNA Analysis

This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 32 species in the subphylum Vertebrata, divided in 7 taxonomic classes. Multiple stochastic parameters, such as the Hurst and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) exponents, Shannon entropy, and Chargaff ratio are computed for each DNA sequence. The biological interpretation of these parameters leads to defining a triplet of novel indices. These new functions incorporate the long-range correlations, the probability of occurrence of nucleic bases, and the ratio of pyrimidines-to-purines. Results suggest that relevant regions in mtDNA can be located using the proposed indices. Furthermore, early results from clustering algorithms indicate that the indices introduced might be useful in phylogenetic studies

Sensibilidad in vitro de cepas cubanas de Aspergillus spp. de origen clínico y ambiental

Introduction: The behavior of antifungal susceptibility of Aspergillus spp. in Cuba remains unknown. The antifungals recommended to treat aspergillosis are amphotericin B, itraconazole, voriconazole and echinocandins. The influence of the environment may set off the emergence of drug-resistance in these microorganisms.Objective: To evaluate in vitro susceptibility of Aspergillus spp. strains to amphotericin B, itraconazole and voriconazol, and the relationship between susceptibility patterns and their origin.Materials and methods: Minimum inhibitory concentrations of amphotericin B, itraconazole and voriconazole were determined for 60 Aspergillus spp. strains of clinical and environmental origin using the M38-A2 method of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute.Results: We found 21 amphotericin B resistant strains (mainly from clinical samples and hospital environments), as well as three itraconazole resistant strains (from non-hospital outdoor and indoor environments). No voriconazole resistance was found. No relationship was found between strain origin and susceptibility.Conclusions: Results suggest the possible existence of environmental factors or interactions with resistant genotypes which may give rise to resistant phenotypes in our country. This is the first report of in vitro  Aspergillus spp. resistant strains in Cuba. These studies should be broadened and include molecular and phylogenetic analyses.Introducción. En Cuba se desconoce el comportamiento de la sensibilidad de Aspergillus spp. a los antifúngicos recomendados para el tratamiento de la aspergilosis: la anfotericina B, el itraconazol, el voriconazol y las equinocandinas. La influencia del ambiente puede condicionar la aparición de resistencia en estos microorganismos.Objetivo. Evaluar la sensibilidad in vitro de cepas de Aspergillus spp. a la anfotericina B, el itraconazol y el voriconazol, y la relación de los patrones de sensibilidad con su origen.Materiales y métodos. Se determinaron las concentraciones inhibitorias mínimas de la anfotericina B, el itraconazol y el voriconazol para 60 cepas de Aspergillus spp. de origen clínico y ambiental mediante el método M38-A2 del Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute.Resultados. Se encontraron 21 cepas resistentes a la anfotericina B (principalmente en muestras clínicas y ambientes hospitalarios) y tres cepas resistentes al itraconazol (en ambientes interiores y exteriores no hospitalarios). No se hallaron cepas resistentes al voriconazol. No se encontró relación entre el origen de las cepas y su sensibilidad.Conclusiones. Se sugiere la posible existencia de factores ambientales o interacciones con genotipos resistentes que pueden dar origen a fenotipos resistentes en Cuba. Este es el primer reporte del país de cepas de Aspergillus spp. resistentes in vitro. Los resultados ameritan ampliar el estudio para incluir análisis moleculares y filogenéticos