Stratigraphy and sedimentology of distal-alluvial and lacustrine deposits of the western-central Ebro Basin (NE Iberia) reflecting the onset of the middle Miocene Climatic Optimum

The stratigraphic and sedimentologic study of Miocene deposits in the Plana Negra-Sancho Abarca area fills a gap in the Ebro Basin knowledge. Five main lithofacies were characterized and mapped. The boundary between regional tectosedimentary units T5 and T6 is recognized as a conformity at a major facies change. Unit T5, up to 130m thick, consists of mudstones with interbedded sandstones and limestones. Unit T6, with 30 to 62m of preserved thickness, is made of limestones, marls and minor mudstones. Correlation of the studied outcrops with nearby sections that already had detailed magnetoestratigraphic and biostratigraphic data allows dating the studied succession as Burdigalian (early Miocene)-Langhian (middle Miocene), from C5Dr to C5Cn, and the boundary between units T5 and T6 to be located at 16.062-16.099 Ma. Seventeen sedimentary facies associated in seven vertical facies sequences document deposition in fluvial-distal alluvial, palustrine and lacustrine environments. A shallow (2-4m deep) lake body was locus for charophytes, ostracods, bivalves and gastropods to thrive. Occasional bottom currents reworked and transported allochems and fine-siliciclastic sediment offshore, forming laminated limestones. Bioturbation and desiccation features are abundant, indicating wide palustrine areas and episodic exposure. Low-sinuosity channels associated to the Pyrenean-derived Luna fluvial system run across the alluvial-plain. Four evolutionary stages of alluvial progradation-retrogradation and retraction-expansion of the palustrine-lacustrine system, likely related to Pyrenean tectonic activity, are distinguished. Maximum lacustrine expansion took place at the beginning of unit T6 deposition. This is consistent with initial conditions of increasing humidity of the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO)

Estratigrafía y sedimentología del Mioceno de la Plana Negra-Sancho Abarca (sector central-occidental de la Cuenca del Ebro)

Este trabajo abarca el estudio sedimentológico y estratigráfico de los depósitos del Burdigaliense (Mioceno inferior) y Langhiense (Mioceno medio) de la Plana Negra y la Plana de Sancho Abarca, sector central-occidental de la Cuenca del Ebro (NE de la Península Ibérica). Se han identificado un total de 5 litofacies (unidades cartografiables) constituidas por areniscas, lutitas, margas y calizas en variables proporciones, equiparables a miembros (informales) de la Formación Tudela. Se han realizado dos perfiles estratigráficos que abarcan las unidades tectosedimentarias T5 y T6 definidas para la Cuenca del Ebro; dicho límite es una conformidad que se reconoce como el paso de lutitas con intercalaciones de areniscas y calizas a predominio de calizas, y constituye un nivel excelente de correlación. Los depósitos de T5 tienen 130 m de espesor y los de T6 tienen 63 m. Las paleocorrientes medidas en la unidad T5 señalan procedencia del margen pirenaico. Se han caracterizado 17 facies sedimentarias (detríticas, mixtas y carbonatadas) que muestran gran variedad biótica (ostrácodos, carófitos y gasterópodos) y rasgos pedogenéticos. Se agrupan verticalmente en 5 asociaciones de facies que caracterizan los ambientes fluvial-aluvial distal, palustre y lacustre somero. El modelo de sedimentación propuesto se basa en la distribución espacial de esas asociaciones y expresa la relación entre dichos ambientes. La correlación de las secciones estudiadas con otras tres de áreas adyacentes que disponen de datación magneto-bioestratigráfica ha permitido datar con precisión la sucesión estudiada y el límite T5/T6 (C5Cn.1n, entre 16,062 y 16,099 Ma). La integración de las cinco secciones permite distinguir cuatro estadios evolutivos, definidos por la progradación-retrogradación del medio aluvial o retracción-expansión de los ambientes palustres y lacustres. Se relacionan con la tectónica y el clima, que controlaron la evolución de los sistemas sedimentarios a través de variaciones de los aportes y del nivel lacustre en el área estudiada.<br /

Surveillance of Influenza Viruses in Waterfowl Used As Decoys in Andalusia, Spain

A longitudinal study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) in waterfowl used as decoys in Andalusia, southern Spain. A total of 2319 aquatic birds from 193 flocks were analyzed before and after the hunting season 2011–2012. In the first sampling, 403 out of 2319 (18.0%, CI95%: 15.8–19.0) decoys showed antibodies against AIVs by ELISA. The AI seroprevalence was significantly higher in geese (21.0%) than in ducks (11.7%) (P,0.001). Besides, the spatial distribution of AIVs was not homogeneous as significant differences among regions were observed. The prevalence of antibodies against AIVs subtypes H5 and H7 were 1.1% and 0.3%, respectively, using hemagglutination inhibition test (HI). The overall and H5 seroprevalences slightly increased after the hunting period (to 19.2% and 1.4%, respectively), while the H7 seroprevalence remained at the same level (0.3%). The proportion of flocks infected by AIVs was 65.3%, while 11.2% and 4.9% of flocks were positive for H5 and H7, respectively. Viral shedding was not detected in any of the 47 samples positive by both ELISA and HI, tested by RRT-PCR. The individual incidence after the hunting season was 3.4%. The fact that 57 animals seroconverted, 15 of which were confirmed by HI (12 H5 and 3 H7), was indication of contact with AIVs during the hunting period. The results indicate that waterfowl used as decoys are frequently exposed to AIVs and may be potentially useful as sentinels for AIVs monitoring. The seroprevalence detected and the seropositivity against AIVs H5 and H7, suggest that decoys can act as reservoirs of AIVs, which may be of animal and public health concer

Integration of RNA-Seq data with heterogeneous microarray data for breast cancer profiling

Background: Nowadays, many public repositories containing large microarray gene expression datasets are available. However, the problem lies in the fact that microarray technology are less powerful and accurate than more recent Next Generation Sequencing technologies, such as RNA-Seq. In any case, information from microarrays is truthful and robust, thus it can be exploited through the integration of microarray data with RNA-Seq data. Additionally, information extraction and acquisition of large number of samples in RNA-Seq still entails very high costs in terms of time and computational resources.This paper proposes a new model to find the gene signature of breast cancer cell lines through the integration of heterogeneous data from different breast cancer datasets, obtained from microarray and RNA-Seq technologies. Consequently, data integration is expected to provide a more robust statistical significance to the results obtained. Finally, a classification method is proposed in order to test the robustness of the Differentially Expressed Genes when unseen data is presented for diagnosis. Results: The proposed data integration allows analyzing gene expression samples coming from different technologies. The most significant genes of the whole integrated data were obtained through the intersection of the three gene sets, corresponding to the identified expressed genes within the microarray data itself, within the RNA-Seq data itself, and within the integrated data from both technologies. This intersection reveals 98 possible technology-independent biomarkers. Two different heterogeneous datasets were distinguished for the classification tasks: a training dataset for gene expression identification and classifier validation, and a test dataset with unseen data for testing the classifier. Both of them achieved great classification accuracies, therefore confirming the validity of the obtained set of genes as possible biomarkers for breast cancer. Through a feature selection process, a final small subset made up by six genes was considered for breast cancer diagnosis. Conclusions: This work proposes a novel data integration stage in the traditional gene expression analysis pipeline through the combination of heterogeneous data from microarrays and RNA-Seq technologies. Available samples have been successfully classified using a subset of six genes obtained by a feature selection method. Consequently, a new classification and diagnosis tool was built and its performance was validated using previously unseen samples.This work was supported by Project TIN2015-71873-R (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness -MINECO- and the European Regional Development Fund -ERDF)

DIAGNÓSTICO DE LA MOVILIDAD EN LA CIUDAD DE SALTA

[ES] El presente trabajo estudia los diferentes aspectos involucrados en la movilidad de la Ciudad de Salta. Está ubicada en el extremo noroeste (NO) de la República Argentina, tiene más de 433 años desde su fundación y concentra el 44 % de la población provincial. La ciudad constituye el centro de un área metropolitana que alcanza los 536.113 habitantes cuya población ha crecido en un 46 % en un periodo de 19 años. En cuanto al parque automotor, en la ciudad de Salta se ha duplicado la cantidad de autos circulantes en un periodo de 18 años, con alrededor de 180.000 vehículos, a febrero de 2016. Paralelamente, se observa un crecimiento de la zona urbanística, extendida principalmente en la dirección norte-sur, con una deficiente red vial de interconexión, con consecuentes problemas de congestión vehicular, contaminación, incrementos de tiempos de viajes, inequidades en la accesibilidad, incremento de costos del transporte, entre otros. En este trabajo se realizó un diagnóstico del estado de situación de la movilidad urbana enfocada en factores como el sistema de transporte, la trama urbana de la movilidad, la accesibilidad y el aspecto socio-ambiental. Se realizaron estudios sobre estos factores en el área urbana de Salta, analizando particularmente algunas áreas específicas del territorio. A partir de esta información, se confeccionó un diagnóstico sobre los factores considerados y se detectaron aspectos prioritarios para el análisis de alternativas tendientes para lograr una mejor calidad de vida de los habitantesArenas, A.; Domínguez, OJ.; Panozzo, M.; Robin, JH.; Marzetti, A.; Tuero, JI. (2016). DIAGNÓSTICO DE LA MOVILIDAD EN LA CIUDAD DE SALTA. En XII Congreso de ingeniería del transporte. 7, 8 y 9 de Junio, Valencia (España). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1269-1276. https://doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2015.4060OCS1269127

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio predicts survival in European patients with hepatocellular carcinoma administered sorafenib

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is considered a prognostic factor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our aim is to investigate the prognostic significance of NLR in patients with HCC treated with sorafenib. Results Median follow-up time was 7 months. Patients were mostly in the intermediate (27.3%) or advanced (72.7%) BCLC stages, 38.6% had vascular invasion and 27.5% extrahepatic disease. A large proportion (38.9%) had been previously treated with TACE. Liver function was preserved: 65.8% were classed as Child A. Median overall survival was 7.7 months (95% CI: 5.8–9.6). In univariate analysis, vascular invasion (P = 0.004), ECOG-PS = 1 (P < 0.001), high bilirubin (P < 0.001), clinical ascites (P = 0.036), BCLC stage (P = 0.004), no previous TACE (P = 0.041) and NRL = 2.3 (P = 0.005) were predictors of poor survival. Skin toxicity (P = 0.039) or hypertension (P = 0.033) during treatment were related to better survival. In multivariate analysis NLR = 2.3 [HR 1.72 (95% CI: 1.03–2.71)], hyperbilirubinemia [HR 3.42 (95% CI: 1.87–6.25)] and ECOG-PS = 1 [HR 1.97 (95% CI: 1.19–3.26)] were found as independent indicators of poor overall survival. Dermatologic adverse effects were an indicator of good overall survival [HR 0.59 (95% CI: 0.38–0.92)]. Material and Methods One hundred and fifty-four consecutive HCC patients treated with sorafenib in four different Spanish hospitals between August 2005 and October 2013 were analysed. Clinical, laboratory, and tumour features were obtained. Survival was calculated from the moment sorafenib treatment was initiated. Log-rank and Cox regression were used to analyse the ability of NLR to predict survival. Conclusions NLR is an independent prognostic indicator for overall survival in HCC patients treated with sorafenib

Resveratrol inhibits nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in rats

Es reproducción del documenteo publicado en http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-230X-8-40Background: The prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is high. NAFLD is linked to obesity, diabetes mellitus, and hypertriglyceridemia. Approximately 20% of patients with NAFLD will eventually develop cirrhosis. Our purpose was to investigate whether resveratrol decreased hepatic steatosis in an animal model of steatosis, and whether this therapeutic approach resulted in a decrease in tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) production, lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress. Methods: Male Wistar CRL: Wi (Han) (225 g) rats were randomized into three groups. A control group (n = 12) was given free access to regular dry rat chow for 4 weeks. The steatosis (n = 12) and resveratrol (n = 12) groups were given free access to feed (a high carbohydrate-fat free modified diet) and water 4 days per week, and fasted for the remaining 3 days for 4 weeks. Rats in the resveratrol group were given resveratrol 10 mg daily by the oral route. All rats were killed at 4 weeks and assessed for fatty infiltration and bacterial translocation. Levels of TNF-alpha in serum, hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA), oxidative stress (superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and nitric oxide synthase) and biochemical parameters were measured. Results: Fat deposition was decreased in the resveratrol group as compared to the steatosis group (Grade 1 vs Grade 3, P < 0.05). TNF-alpha and MDA levels were significantly increased in the steatosis group (TNF-alpha; 33.4 +/- 5.2 vs 26.24 +/- 3.47 pg/ml and MDA; 9.08 +/- 0.8 vs 3.17 +/- 1.45 mu M respectively, P < 0.05). This was accompanied by increased superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase and decreased nitric oxide synthase in the liver of resveratrol group significantly (P < 0.05 vs steatosis group). Bacterial translocation was not found in any of the groups. Glucose levels were decreased in the group of rats given resveratrol (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Resveratrol decreased NAFLD severity in rats. This effect was mediated, at least in part, by TNF-alpha inhibition and antioxidant activities

Effect of resveratrol on alcohol-induced mortality and liver lesions in mice

Es reproducción del documenteo publicado en http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-230X-6-35Background Resveratrol is a polyphenol with important antiinflammatory and antioxidant properties. We investigated the effect of resveratrol on alcohol-induced mortality and liver lesions in mice. Methods Mice were randomly distributed into four groups (control, resveratrol-treated control, alcohol and resveratrol-treated alcohol). Chronic alcohol intoxication was induced by progressively administering alcohol in drinking water up to 40% v/v. The mice administered resveratrol received 10 mg/ml in drinking water. The animals had free access to standard diet. Blood levels were determined for transaminases, IL-1 and TNF-α. A histological evaluation was made of liver damage, and survival among the animals was recorded. Results Transaminase concentration was significantly higher in the alcohol group than in the rest of the groups (p < 0.05). IL-1 levels were significantly reduced in the alcohol plus resveratrol group compared with the alcohol group (p < 0.05). TNF-α was not detected in any group. Histologically, the liver lesions were more severe in the alcohol group, though no significant differences between groups were observed. Mortality in the alcohol group was 78% in the seventh week, versus 22% in the alcohol plus resveratrol group (p < 0.001). All mice in the alcohol group died before the ninth week. Conclusion The results obtained suggest that resveratrol reduces mortality and liver damage in mice

Recensiones

RESEÑA de: Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen. Les 3 Cours régionales des droits de l’homme in context. La justice qui n’allait pas de soi (Javier García Roca)RESEÑA de: Joaquín Varela Suanzes-Carpegna. Historia constitucional de España —I. Fernández Sarasola, Ed.— (Juan Luis de Diego Arias)RESEÑA de: Juan José Solozábal Echavarría. Derechos fundamentales y forma política (Mónica Arenas Ramiro)RESEÑA de: Javier García Fernández. Regulación jurídica y acción política del gobierno en España (Leyre Burguera Ameave)RESEÑA de: Ana Carmona Contreras (dir.). Las cláusulas horizontales de la Carta de derechos fundamentales de la Unión Europea. Manual de uso (Ignacio Gutiérrez Gutiérrez)RESEÑA de: Juan Ignacio Ugartemendía Eceizabarrena y Javier Donaire Villa. F.J. La triple justiciabilidad de las reformas constitucionales (Ana Galdámez Morales