Benthic foraminifera as indicators of hydrologic and environmental conditions in the Ross Sea (Antarctica)

This study, present data on benthic foraminiferal assemblages from four box cores collected in different areas of the Ross Sea during the 2005 oceanographic cruise in the framework of the Italian Antarctic Research National Programme (PNRA)

Identificación y caracterización de sequías hidrológicas en Argentina

Para una adecuada planificación y gestión de los recursos hídricos es clave conocer la distribución temporal y espacial de éstos. La sequía es un fenómeno hidrológico extremo de gran complejidad que afecta el desarrollo y aprovechamiento de los recursos hídricos en una misma región. En este trabajo se abordó la identificación y caracterización de sequías desde el punto de vista hidrológico, abarcando la mayor ventana de tiempo y espacio en función de los datos de caudales disponibles. Este estudio comprende un área de 14 cuencas hidrográficas argentinas (los ríos Colorado, Mendoza, San Juan, Atuel, Ctalamochita, Anisacate, Xanaes, Suquía, Dulce, Juramento, Salado, Paraná, Bermejo y Pilcomayo). El objetivo del presente trabajo ha sido identificar y caracterizar, temporal y espacialmente, sequías hidrológicas para evaluar la disponibilidad hídrica regional, que es una componente esencial en la planificación del agua. En este trabajo se define como sequía hidrológica aquel suceso en el cual la oferta de caudal (medio anual) en cuencas naturales no reguladas sea inferior al valor del caudal excedido el 70% de tiempo. Se observó la ocurrencia de sequías plurianuales simultáneas en áreas de gran extensión espacial, producto de la variabilidad climática. Esta información es de relevancia para la gestión de los recursos hídricos, pues usos tales como el abastecimiento humano, riego y producción energética, entre otros, pueden ser seriamente afectados por la ocurrencia de manera simultánea de sequías severas en cuencas que aportan a una región y zonas vecinas

Identification and characterization of hydrological drought in Argentina

Para una adecuada planificación y gestión de los recursos hídricos es clave conocer la distribución temporal y espacial de éstos. La sequía es un fenómeno hidrológico extremo de gran complejidad que afecta el desarrollo y aprovechamiento de los recursos hídricos en una misma región. En este trabajo se abordó la identificación y caracterización de sequías desde el punto de vista hidrológico, abarcando la mayor ventana de tiempo y espacio en función de los datos de caudales disponibles. Este estudio comprende un área de 14 cuencas hidrográficas argentinas (los ríos Colorado, Mendoza, San Juan, Atuel, Ctalamochita, Anisacate, Xanaes, Suquía, Dulce, Juramento, Salado, Paraná, Bermejo y Pilcomayo). El objetivo del presente trabajo ha sido identificar y caracterizar, temporal y espacialmente, sequías hidrológicas para evaluar la disponibilidad hídrica regional, que es una componente esencial en la planificación del agua. En este trabajo se define como sequía hidrológica aquel suceso en el cual la oferta de caudal (medio anual) en cuencas naturales no reguladas sea inferior al valor del caudal excedido el 70% de tiempo. Se observó la ocurrencia de sequías plurianuales simultáneas en áreas de gran extensión espacial, producto de la variabilidad climática. Esta información es de relevancia para la gestión de los recursos hídricos, pues usos tales como el abastecimiento humano, riego y producción energética, entre otros, pueden ser seriamente afectados por la ocurrencia de manera simultánea de sequías severas en cuencas que aportan a una región y zonas vecinas.The temporal and spatial distribution of water resources need to be determined for adequate water planning and management. Droughts are highly complex and extreme hydrological phenomena which affect the development and use of water resources in a single region. In this work, droughts were identified and characterized from the hydrological perspective, with the largest spatial area and time period possible given the available flow data. The study area includes 14 hydrographic basins in Argentina (Colorado, Mendoza, San Juan, Atuel, Ctalamochita, Anisacate, Xanaes, Suquía, Dulce, Juramento, Salado, Paraná, Bermejo and Pilcomayo rivers). The objective was to spatially and temporally identify and characterize hydrological droughts to evaluate the regional water availability, which is an essential component in water planning. This work defines a hydrological drought as an event in which water flow (annual mean) in unregulated natural basins is lower than the flow value that occurs over 70% of the time. The simultaneous occurrence of multi-year droughts in spatially large areas is a result of climate variability. This information is relevant to the management of water resources given that the supply of water for human, irrigation and energy production uses, among others, may be seriously affected by a simultaneously occurrence of severe droughts in basins that supply a particular region or neighboring areas.Fil: Díaz, Erica Betiana. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Cs.exactas Físicas y Naturales. Departamento de Hidraulica; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones Cientificas ; Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas y Naturales ; Universidad Nacional de Cordoba; . Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez, Andres. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Cs.exactas Físicas y Naturales. Departamento de Hidraulica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología; ArgentinaFil: Dölling, Oscar Raúl. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ingeniería Civil. Area de Hidraulica; ArgentinaFil: Bertoni, Juan Carlos. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Cs.exactas Físicas y Naturales. Departamento de Hidraulica; ArgentinaFil: Smrekar, Marcelo Roberto. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; Argentin

Flow-dependent shear stress affects the biological properties of pericyte-like cells isolated from human dental pulp

Background: Human dental pulp stem cells represent a mesenchymal stem cell niche localized in the perivascular area of dental pulp and are characterized by low immunogenicity and immunomodulatory/anti-inflammatory properties. Pericytes, mural cells surrounding the endothelium of small vessels, regulate numerous functions including vessel growth, stabilization and permeability. It is well established that pericytes have a tight cross talk with endothelial cells in neoangiogenesis and vessel stabilization, which are regulated by different factors, i.e., microenvironment and flow-dependent shear stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a pulsatile unidirectional flow in the presence or not of an inflammatory microenvironment on the biological properties of pericyte-like cells isolated from human dental pulp (hDPSCs). Methods: Human DPSCs were cultured under both static and dynamic conditions with or without pre-activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Pulsatile unidirectional flow shear stress was generated by using a specific peristaltic pump. The angiogenic potential and inflammatory properties of hDPSCs were evaluated through reverse phase protein microarrays (RPPA), confocal immunofluorescence and western blot analyses. Results: Our data showed that hDPSCs expressed the typical endothelial markers, which were up-regulated after endothelial induction, and were able to form tube-like structures. RPPA analyses revealed that these properties were modulated when a pulsatile unidirectional flow shear stress was applied to hDPSCs. Stem cells also revealed a downregulation of the immune-modulatory molecule PD-L1, in parallel with an up-regulation of the pro-inflammatory molecule NF-kB. Immune-modulatory properties of hDPSCs were also reduced after culture under flow-dependent shear stress and exposure to an inflammatory microenvironment. This evidence was strengthened by the detection of up-regulated levels of expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in PBMCs. Conclusions: In conclusion, the application of a pulsatile unidirectional flow shear stress induced a modulation of immunomodulatory/inflammatory properties of dental pulp pericyte-like cells

Evolución temporal de las sequías hidrológicas en Argentina y su relación con indicadores macroclimáticos

En este trabajo se identifican, a través de un análisis espectral, las periodicidades plurianuales en las series históricas de caudales medios anuales escurridos en 14 sistemas fluviales de la República Argentina y en 10 indicadores macroclimáticos. La identificación de las frecuencias de tiempo dominantes en las series de caudales escurridos permite comprender la escala temporal de evolución de los procesos físicos que intervienen en los ciclos hidrológicos. En el análisis realizado se encontró que existe en todas las series históricas de caudales medios anuales escurridos fluctuaciones de alta, baja y media frecuencia, que aportan, con distinta significancia, a la variabilidad temporal de los caudales escurridos. Los resultados se contrastaron con los obtenidos en el análisis de series de indicadores macroclimáticos, para saber si existía relación de la evolución de tales indicadores con las series de caudales. Los resultados alcanzados permiten avanzar en la generación de modelos conceptuales y de pronósticos implementados para prever los años de déficit y excesos hídricos en los sistemas fluviales, lo que constituye una herramienta importante para la planificación y gestión de los recursos hídricos.Abstract This paper identifies multiannual periodicities of historical mean annual flow series of 14 rivers in Argentina and 10 macro-climatic indices using spectral analysis. The estimation of dominant frequencies in the analyzed time series allows understanding the time scale of the processes involved in the hydrological cycles. Through spectral analysis, it was found that high, low and medium frequency fluctuations contribute, in different percentages, to the flow variability. Then, these results were compared to results of similar analyses performed on time series of macro-climatic indices to calculate the relation of the evolution of these indices with flow discharge series. These results constitute an important step toward implementing conceptual and forecasting models of deficit and excess of surface water in fluvial systems for planning and management of water resources.Fil: Díaz, Erica Betiana. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Garcia Rodriguez, Carlos Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez, Andres. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología; ArgentinaFil: Dölling, Oscar Raúl. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Ochoa, Santiago. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Bertoni, Juan Carlos. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; Argentin

Vigilância epidemiológica do vírus do Nilo Ocidental no mundo e no Brasil: relevância da vigilância equina no contexto de saúde única

O vírus do Nilo Ocidental (WNV) é um flavivírus neuropatogênico transmitido por mosquito, mantido na natureza emum ciclo de transmissão zoonótica entre as aves e os mosquitos ornitofílicos, principalmente do gênero Culex. Até a décadade 1990, o WNV era considerado um arbovírus do mundo antigo, mas em 1999 surgiu nos Estados Unidos da Américae se espalhou rapidamente, tornando-se uma grande ameaça à saúde pública. O WNV se adaptou ao ciclo envolvendomosquitos e pássaros americanos e chegou à América Central e do Sul nos anos subsequentes. Em 2003, o Sistema Nacionalde Vigilância da Febre do Nilo Ocidental no Brasil foi criado com base na triagem sorológica de animais sentinelas evetores, conforme recomendado pela Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde (OPAS) e pela Organização Mundial daSaúde (OMS). Desde 2008, evidências sorológicas de infecção por WNV em equinos brasileiros têm sido relatadas e acirculação do WNV monitorada por meio de triagem sorológica de cavalos sentinelas, além da notificação de casos deencefalomielite. Os equinos são altamente suscetíveis ao WNV e surtos de doenças neurológicas geralmente precedemcasos humanos. Nesse sentido, a vigilância equina tem sido essencial para fornecer um alerta precoce às autoridades desaúde pública e animal em vários países, incluindo o Brasil. Isso demonstra a necessidade de programas de intervençãoem saúde pública e animal para alocar recursos e conscientizar os médicos veterinários sobre seu papel em processos devigilância humana que envolvam equinos. Nesta revisão, é discutida a importância da vigilância equina e dos médicosveterinários como linha de frente na vigilância humana no Brasil e no mundo, no contexto de saúde única.West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurovirulent mosquito-borne Flavivirus that is maintained in nature by a zoonotic transmissioncycle between avian hosts and ornithophilic mosquito vectors, mostly from the Culex genus. Until the 1990s, WNV wasconsidered to be an old-world arbovirus, but in 1999, WNV emerged in the United States (US) and spread rapidly, becoming amajor threat to public health. WNV adapted to the transmission cycle involving American mosquitoes and birds and reachedCentral and South America in subsequent years. In 2003, the National West Nile Fever Surveillance System was created in Brazilbased on serological screening of animals and sentinel vectors, as recommended by the Pan American Health Organization(PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Since 2008, serological evidence of WNV infection in Brazilian horseshas been reported, and the circulation of WNV has been monitored through the regular serological screening of sentinel horsesand reporting of encephalomyelitis cases. Horses are highly susceptible to WNV infection, and outbreaks of neurologicaldisease among horses often precede human cases. In this regard, equine surveillance has been essential in providing earlywarning to public and animal health authorities in several countries, including Brazil. This demonstrates the need for animaland public health intervention programs to allocate resources to make veterinarians aware of the role they can play in thehuman surveillance processes by monitoring horses. This review discusses the importance of equine surveillance and the gapthat veterinarians can fill on the front line in human surveillance, in Brazil and worldwide, in the context of “One Health

Evolución temporal de las sequías hidrológicas en Argentina y su relación con indicadores macroclimáticos - Temporal evolution of hydrological drought in Argentina and its relationship with macroclimatic indicators

En este trabajo se identifican, a través de un análisis espectral, las periodicidades plurianuales en las series históricas de caudales medios anuales escurridos en 14 sistemas fluviales de la República Argentina y en 10 indicadores macroclimáticos. La identificación de las frecuencias de tiempo dominantes en las series de caudales escurridos permite comprender la escala temporal de evolución de los procesos físicos que intervienen en los ciclos hidrológicos. En el análisis realizado se encontró que existe en todas las series históricas de caudales medios anuales escurridos fluctuaciones de alta, baja y media frecuencia, que aportan, con distinta significancia, a la variabilidad temporal de los caudales escurridos. Los resultados se contrastaron con los obtenidos en el análisis de series de indicadores macroclimáticos, para saber si existía relación de la evolución de tales indicadores con las series de caudales. Los resultados alcanzados permiten avanzar en la generación de modelos conceptuales y de pronósticos implementados para prever los años de déficit y excesos hídricos en los sistemas fluviales, lo que constituye una herramienta importante para la planificación y gestión de los recursos hídricos

Combining Mechanochemistry and Spray Congealing for New Praziquantel Pediatric Formulations in Schistosomiasis Treatment

Praziquantel (PZQ) is the first line drug for the treatment of schistosome infections and is included in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children. In this study, the association of mechanochemical activation (MA) and the spray congealing (SC) technology was evaluated for developing a child-friendly PZQ dosage form, with better product handling and biopharmaceutical properties, compared to MA materials. A 1:1 by wt PZQ—Povidone coground—was prepared in a vibrational mill under cryogenic conditions, for favoring amorphization. PZQ was neat ground to obtain its polymorphic form (Form B), which has an improved solubility and bioactivity. Then, activated PZQ powders were loaded into microparticles (MPs) by the SC technology, using the self-emulsifying agent Gelucire® 50/13 as a carrier. Both, the activated powders and the corresponding loaded MPs were characterized for morphology, wettability, solubility, dissolution behavior, drug content, and drug solid state (Hot Stage Microscopy (HSM), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-Ray Powder Diffraction Studies (PXRD), and FT-IR). Samples were also in vitro tested for a comparison with PZQ against Schistosoma mansoni newly transformed schistosomula (NTS) and adults. MPs containing both MA systems showed a further increase of biopharmaceutical properties, compared to the milled powders, while maintaining PZQ bioactivity. MPs containing PZQ Form B represented the most promising product for designing a new PZQ formulation

Metabolism and molecular systems for the biotransformation of aromatic molecules. Annual Project Meeting: Naples, 19 January 2010

The collection of papers is the result of the first year's results of the Project: METABOLISM AND MOLECULAR SYSTEMS FOR THE BIOTRANSFORMATION OF AROMATIC MOLECULES. Aim of the research project is to gain knowledge in microorganisms endowed with the ability of transforming aromatic compounds, and in the genes and enzymes involved in this process. Particular attention is paid to the information acquired for its use in the development of biosynthetic systems for bioremediation and bioconversions. The pathways responsible for the aerobic catabolism of aromatic molecules are generally made up of an upper pathway, where hydroxylation reactions leading to the formation of hydroxylated intermediates occur, and a lower pathway where the aromatic ring of these dihydroxylated molecules are cleaved, and eventually converted, after several enzymatic steps, into intermediates of the Krebs cycle. It goes without saying that the great potential of these systems is related to the acquisition of information about the enzymatic systems involved and the regulation of their corresponding genes. The utilization of these micro-organisms can be expanded and improved by: (i) characterizing new microorganisms and their enzymatic systems to sort out a wide panel of enzymatic systems endowed with different metabolic abilities and different specificity, (ii) elucidating the transcriptional regulation and the molecular determinants responsible for the enzymatic activities in systems that are already known and in those that will be available during the development of the project. Moreover, in order to evaluate the influence of the information gained in developing processes it will be necessary to (iii) validate the development of a small number of applications. More specifically these goals have been achieved through: 1) Isolation and characterization of new bacterial strains either by isolation from polluted sites or by spotting new ones through the analysis of annotated genomes for identifying both new microorganisms and new enzymatic activities with enhanced catalytic biodegradative properties; 2) identification and analysis of the molecular determinants of the specificity of enzymatic systems either already available or new ones which will be available during the development of the project; 3) investigation of the transcription regulative systems involved in the expression of the enzymatic systems (in particular key enzymes in the metabolism of aromatic compounds) in both psychrophilic and mesophilic bacteria; 4) utilization of the results obtained from the different approaches above to set-up new biocatalysts for the bioremediation of model wastewaters and for the biosynthesis of compounds of pharmaceutical and industrial interest