Corn price volatility and producer income protection

Objective: To estimate the indicator of the risk of the future price of yellow corn #2 of the Chicago Futures Exchange in the United States to the spot price of white corn in the main white corn producing regions of Mexico through the financial volatility indicator. Methodology: The research used the returns of the monthly time series for the period January 1998 to December 2020 corresponding to the spot price of white corn for five producer-consumer regions of Mexico and the futures price of yellow corn #2 listed on the Chicago Stock Exchange. To quantify volatility, the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model of order (1,1) was estimated. Results: The volatility indicator for yellow corn turned out to be 0.9870 for the futures price of quality 2 yellow corn. In the case of the spot price of white corn in Mexico, the volatility was 0.0.7977 for the national price; 0.3385 for the central region; 0.3206 for the western region and 0.0078 for the southeastern region, respectively. Implications: The high volatility of yellow corn #, close to unity, shows that the international market for this commodity is riskier than the national market or the regional markets in Mexico. Conclusions: The national white corn market showed to be more risky than the western, central and southeastern regional markets, showing a higher volatility indicator.O Objective: To estimate the risk indicator of the future price of yellow corn #2 at the Chicago Futures Exchange (USA) regarding the spot price of white corn in the main producing regions in Mexico through the financial volatility indicator. Methodology: The research used the returns of the monthly time series corresponding to the spot price of white corn from January 1998 to December 2020, considering five producer-consumer regions of Mexico and the future price of yellow corn #2 as listed on the Chicago Stock Exchange. To quantify volatility, the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model of order (1,1) was estimated. Results: The yellow corn #2 volatility indicator was 0.9870 (future price). In the case of the spot price of white corn in Mexico, the volatility was 0.7977 for the national price, 0.3385 for the central region, 0.3206 for the western region, and 0.0078 for the southeast region. Implications: The high volatility of yellow corn #2 (close to unity) shows that the international market for this commodity is riskier than the national market or regional markets in Mexico. Conclusions: The national white corn market proved to be riskier than the west, center, and southeast regional markets, which have a higher volatility indicator

Tuberculosis Genitourinaria, sin evidencia de primoinfección

Genitourinary Tuberculosis has been described as one of the most common clinical forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, whose variations are determined by differences in epidemic situations. Its diagnosis has often been hampered by the non-specificity of the symptomatology, and inadequate care facilities in the appropriate diagnostic facilities. The present study made it possible to present the case of a patient with symptoms of TBGU, diagnosed in the General Hospital of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute of Ambato, Ecuador in the year 2016, in which it was not possible to identify stigmata of tuberculosis primoinfección; In addition the progression of the process was confirmed due to the presence of bilateral hydronephrosis due to distal ureteral stenosis, which led to the suspicion of an underlying immunodeficiency, which was not confirmed in the patient's clinical study.La Tuberculosis Genitourinaria se ha descrito como una de las formas clínicas más comunes de tuberculosis extrapulmonar, cuyas variaciones están determinadas por diferencias en las situaciones epidémicas. Su diagnóstico ha estado obstaculizado a menudo por la no especificidad de la sintomatología, y la insuficiencia en los sitios asistenciales de los medios de diagnóstico apropiados. El presente trabajo posibilitó presentar el caso de un paciente con síntomas de TBGU, diagnosticado en el Hospital Generaldel Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social de Ambato, Ecuador en el año 2016, en el que no se pudo identificar estigmas de primoinfección tuberculosa; adicionalmentese constató lo avanzado del proceso, debido a la presencia de una hidronefrosis bilateral por estenosis ureteral distal, que hizo sospechar un estado subyacente de inmunodeficiencia, no confirmado en el estudio clínico del pacient

Tuberculosis Genitourinaria, sin evidencia de primoinfección

Genitourinary Tuberculosis has been described as one of the most common clinical forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, whose variations are determined by differences in epidemic situations. Its diagnosis has often been hampered by the non-specificity of the symptomatology, and inadequate care facilities in the appropriate diagnostic facilities. The present study made it possible to present the case of a patient with symptoms of TBGU, diagnosed in the General Hospital of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute of Ambato, Ecuador in the year 2016, in which it was not possible to identify stigmata of tuberculosis primoinfección; In addition the progression of the process was confirmed due to the presence of bilateral hydronephrosis due to distal ureteral stenosis, which led to the suspicion of an underlying immunodeficiency, which was not confirmed in the patient's clinical study.La Tuberculosis Genitourinaria se ha descrito como una de las formas clínicas más comunes de tuberculosis extrapulmonar, cuyas variaciones están determinadas por diferencias en las situaciones epidémicas. Su diagnóstico ha estado obstaculizado a menudo por la no especificidad de la sintomatología, y la insuficiencia en los sitios asistenciales de los medios de diagnóstico apropiados. El presente trabajo posibilitó presentar el caso de un paciente con síntomas de TBGU, diagnosticado en el Hospital Generaldel Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social de Ambato, Ecuador en el año 2016, en el que no se pudo identificar estigmas de primoinfección tuberculosa; adicionalmentese constató lo avanzado del proceso, debido a la presencia de una hidronefrosis bilateral por estenosis ureteral distal, que hizo sospechar un estado subyacente de inmunodeficiencia, no confirmado en el estudio clínico del pacient

Non-Invasive Electrophysiological Mapping Entropy Predicts Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Efficacy Better Than Clinical Characteristics

[EN] Success rate of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation remains far from satisfactory. In this study, a 6 months AF freedom predictive model based on Fuzzy Entropy of non-invasive body surface potential maps is compared with clinical predictors. The study included 29 patients referred for pulmonary vein isolated catheter ablation procedure. Non-invasive electrocardiographic mapping with 54 ECG electrodes was recorded for all patients during the ablation procedure. Six months follow up was used to evaluate the efficacy of the ablation procedure. Predictions based on non-invasive electrocardiographic mappings during adenosine infusion (accuracy: 90%, AUC: 0.93) showed a clear improvement over standard-of-care clinical parameter models (accuracy: 62.1%, AUC: 0. 54). Our results indicate that measurements of electrophysiological complexity of AF signals could improve the clinical practice by predicting the efficacy of AF ablation procedures.This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III FEDER (DTS16/00160; PI16/01123; PI17/01059; PI17/01106; EIT-Health 19600 AFFINE)De La Nava, AS.; Fabregat, MC.; Rodrigo, M.; Hernández, I.; Liberos, A.; Fernández-Avilés, F.; Guillem Sánchez, MS.... (2019). Non-Invasive Electrophysiological Mapping Entropy Predicts Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Efficacy Better Than Clinical Characteristics. IEEE. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.22489/CinC.2019.299S1

Electrophysiological effects of extracellular vesicles secreted by cardiosphere-derived cells: Unraveling the antiarrhythmic properties of cell therapies

This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering.Although cell-based therapies show potential antiarrhythmic effects that could be mediated by their paracrine action, the mechanisms and the extent of these effects were not deeply explored. We investigated the antiarrhythmic mechanisms of extracellular vesicles secreted by cardiosphere-derived cell extracellular vesicles (CDC-EVs) on the electrophysiological properties and gene expression profile of HL1 cardiomyocytes. HL-1 cultures were primed with CDC-EVs or serum-free medium alone for 48 h, followed by optical mapping and gene expression analysis. In optical mapping recordings, CDC-EVs reduced the activation complexity of the cardiomyocytes by 40%, increased rotor meandering, and reduced rotor curvature, as well as induced an 80% increase in conduction velocity. HL-1 cells primed with CDC-EVs presented higher expression of SCN5A, CACNA1C, and GJA1, coding for proteins involved in INa, ICaL, and Cx43, respectively. Our results suggest that CDC-EVs reduce activation complexity by increasing conduction velocity and modifying rotor dynamics, which could be driven by an increase in expression of SCN5A and CACNA1C genes, respectively. Our results provide new insights into the antiarrhythmic mechanisms of cell therapies, which should be further validated using other models.This research was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain: PI16/01123, PI17/01059, Red de Terapia Celular-Tercel-RD16.0011.0029 and CIBERCV-CB16.11.00292

Blue-space availability, environmental quality and amenity use across contrasting socioeconomic contexts

Over 60% of the global population are expected to live in urban areas by 2050. Urban blue spaces are critical for biodiversity, provide a range of ecosystem services, and can promote human health and wellbeing. Despite this, access to blue space is often unequally distributed across socioeconomic gradients, and the availability of quality blue space could extend to environmental justice issues. Three stages of analysis were carried out in Mexico City, Mexico and Bristol, UK to (i) assess associations between blue space and socioeconomic metrics at a regional scale, (ii) apply a rapid assessment tool to assess amenity, access and environmental quality, (iii) consider local quality across socioeconomic gradients at a regional scale. Still water availability was indicative of higher socioeconomic status, but contrasting city evolutions underpinned differences. Locally, there were environmental gradients from more complex to disturbed habitats that influenced potential wellbeing and amenity benefits. In combination, this may exacerbate inequalities and risk increasing ecosystem disservices. If cities are to be socially, and environmentally resilient to higher levels of disturbance in the future, healthy ecosystems will be key. However, further research is needed to address various dimensions of injustice in urban areas beyond blue space distribution

Characterization, Recombinant Production and Structure-Function Analysis of NvCI, A Picomolar Metallocarboxypeptidase Inhibitor from the Marine Snail Nerita versicolor

A very powerful proteinaceous inhibitor of metallocarboxypeptidases has been isolated from the marine snail Nerita versicolor and characterized in depth. The most abundant of four, very similar isoforms, NvCla, was taken as reference and N-terminally sequenced to obtain a 372-nucleotide band coding for the protein cDNA. The mature protein contains 53 residues and three disulphide bonds. NvCIa and the other isoforms show an exceptionally high inhibitory capacity of around 1.8 pM for human Carboxypeptidase A1 (hCPA1) and for other A-like members of the M14 CPA subfamily, whereas a twofold decrease in inhibitory potency is observed for carboxypeptidase B-like members as hCPB and hTAFIa. A recombinant form, rNvCI, was produced in high yield and HPLC, mass spectrometry and spectroscopic analyses by CD and NMR indicated its homogeneous, compact and thermally resistant nature. Using antibodies raised with rNvCI and histochemical analyses, a preferential distribution of the inhibitor in the surface regions of the animal body was observed, particularly nearby the open entrance of the shell and gut, suggesting its involvement in biological defense mechanisms. The properties of this strong, small and stable inhibitor of metallocarboxypeptidases envisage potentialities for its direct applicability, as well as leading or minimized forms, in biotechnological/biomedical uses

Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age-Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia

The emerging Bronze Age (BA) of southeastern Iberia saw marked social changes. Late Copper Age (CA) settlements were abandoned in favor of hilltop sites, and collective graves were largely replaced by single or double burials with often distinctive grave goods indirectly reflecting a hierarchical social organization, as exemplified by the BA El Argar group. We explored this transition from a genomic viewpoint by tripling the amount of data available for this period. Concomitant with the rise of El Argar starting ~2200 cal BCE, we observe a complete turnover of Y-chromosome lineages along with the arrival of steppe-related ancestry. This pattern is consistent with a founder effect in male lineages, supported by our finding that males shared more relatives at sites than females. However, simple two-source models do not find support in some El Argar groups, suggesting additional genetic contributions from the Mediterranean that could predate the BA