151 research outputs found

    Perfil socioeconómico del municipio de Molagavita, Santander

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    Tablas, CuadrosSe analiza la estructura económica del Municipio de Molagavita, para identificar los factores favorables y las barreras del desarrollo económico regional. Este diagnóstico permite que dentro de la estrategia se potencien e incrementen las fortalezas y, así mismo, se disminuyan o eliminen las barreras al desarrollo.Looks for, to formulate a socioeconomic scheme that has been able to be translated for the future in a tool preserving, to conserve and to recover the local economy and to project it to the future For such reason, it is a great challenge to analyze the economic structure of the municipality of Conception to identify the favorable factors and the barriers of the regional economic development. This diagnosis allows that within the strategy harnesses and increases the strengths and, also, the barriers are diminished or eliminated the development

    The actin cytoskeleton of the mouse sperm flagellum is organized in a helical structure

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    Conception in mammals is determined by the fusion of a sperm cell with an oocyte during fertilization. Motility is one of the features of sperm that allows them to succeed in fertilization, and their flagellum is essential for this function. Longitudinally, the flagellum can be divided into the midpiece, the principal piece and the end piece. A precise cytoskeletal architecture of the sperm tail is key for the acquisition of fertilization competence. It has been proposed that the actin cytoskeleton plays essential roles in the regulation of sperm motility; however, the actin organization in sperm remains elusive. In the present work, we show that there are different types of actin structures in the sperm tail by using three-dimensional stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM). In the principal piece, actin is radially distributed between the axoneme and the plasma membrane. The actin-associated proteins spectrin and adducin are also found in these structures. Strikingly, polymerized actin in the midpiece forms a double-helix that accompanies mitochondria. Our findings illustrate a novel specialized structure of actin filaments in a mammalian cell.Fil: Gervasi, Maria Gracia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; Argentina. University of Massachussets; Estados UnidosFil: Xu, Xinran. State University of Colorado - Fort Collins; Estados UnidosFil: Carbajal Gonzalez, Blanca. Mount Holyoke College; Estados UnidosFil: Buffone, Mariano Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Visconti, Pablo E.. University of Massachussets; Estados UnidosFil: Krapf, Diego. State University of Colorado - Fort Collins; Estados Unido

    Examinig the mediating role of coping and emotion regularion in stress models in adolescents

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    The aim of this research was to analyze the relationship between stressful events, coping, and emotion regulation in adolescents from marginalized settings. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 523 adolescents aged 13 to 15 years. The Global Scale of Perceived Stress for Adolescents, the Coping Scale for Adolescents, and the Multidimensional Scale of Emotion Regulation for Adolescents, were used. Several mediation models were tested considering whether coping mediated the relationship between stressful events and emotion regulation responses, or, on contrary, emotion regulation assumes a mediating role between stressful events and coping. Data indicate significant direct and indirect effects in all models, with the highest explained variance in the models which included emotion regulation as a mediating variable. Results are discussed considering the role of coping and emotion regulation as mediating variables, and their relationship with diverse stressful events. In this research, emotion regulation strategies lead to adolescent coping

    Hypothesis-oriented food patterns and incidence of hypertension: 6-year follow-up of the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) prospective cohort

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    Objective To study the association between adherence to several a priori-defined healthy food patterns and the risk of hypertension. Design Prospective, multipurpose, dynamic cohort study (recruitment permanently open). We followed up 10 800 men and women (all of them university graduates), who were initially free of hypertension, for a variable period (range 2–6 years, median 4·6 years). During follow-up, 640 participants reported a new medical diagnosis of hypertension. Baseline diet was assessed using a validated 136-item FFQ. Validated information about non-dietary potential confounders was also gathered. We calculated adherence to fifteen different hypothesis-oriented food patterns and assessed the association between each of them and incident hypertension using multivariable Cox models. Setting The SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra – University of Navarra Follow-up) Project, Spain. Subjects Participants recruited to the SUN cohort before October 2005 were eligible for inclusion; after excluding those with self-reported hypertension or CVD at baseline, or with extreme total energy intake, data of 10 800 were analysed. Results Higher adherence to the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet (range of the score: 0 to 5) was significantly associated with a lower risk for developing hypertension (P for trend = 0·02). The other food patterns showed no significant association with incident hypertension. Conclusions Our results support a long-term protection of the DASH diet against the incidence of hypertension, but we found no evidence of a similar inverse association with hypertension for any other a priori-defined healthy food pattern

    Inhibition of VCP preserves retinal structure and function in autosomal dominant retinal degeneration

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    Due to continuously high production rates of rhodopsin (RHO) and high metabolic activity, photoreceptor neurons are especially vulnerable to defects in proteostasis. A proline to histidine substitution at position 23 (P23H) leads to production of structurally misfolded RHO, causing the most common form of autosomal dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa (adRP) in North America. The AAA-ATPase valosin-containing protein (VCP) extracts misfolded proteins from the ER membrane for cytosolic degradation. Here, we provide the first evidence that inhibition of VCP activity rescues degenerating P23H rod cells and improves their functional properties in P23H transgenic rat and P23H knock-in mouse retinae, both in vitro and in vivo. This improvement correlates with the restoration of the physiological RHO localization to rod outer segments (OS) and properly-assembled OS disks. As a single intravitreal injection suffices to deliver a long-lasting benefit in vivo, we suggest VCP inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy for adRP patients carrying mutations in the RHO gene

    Community-powered urban stream restoration: A vision for sustainable and resilient urban ecosystems

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    Urban streams can provide amenities to people living in cities, but those benefits are reduced when streams become degraded, potentially even causing harm (disease, toxic compounds, etc.). Governments and institutions invest resources to improve the values and services provided by urban streams; however, the conception, development, and implementation of such projects may not include meaningful involvement of community members and other stakeholders. Consequently, project objectives may be misaligned with community desires and needs, and projects may fail to achieve their goals. In February 2020, the 5(th) Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology, an interdisciplinary meeting held every 3 to 5 y, met in Austin, Texas, USA, to explore new approaches to urban stream projects, including ways to maximize the full range of potential benefits by better integrating community members into project identification and decision making. The symposium included in-depth discussion about 4 nearby field case studies, participation of multidisciplinary urban stream experts from 5 continents, and input from the Austin community. Institutional barriers to community inclusion were identified and analyzed using real-world examples, both from the case studies and from the literature, which clarified disparities in power, equity, and values. Outcomes of the symposium have been aggregated into a vision that challenges the present institutional approach to urban stream management and a set of strategies to systematically address these barriers to improve restoration solutions. Integrating community members and other stakeholders throughout the urban restoration process, and a transparent decision-making process to resolve divergent objectives, can help identify appropriate goals for realizing both the ecological and social benefits of stream restoration

    Analysis of the melon (Cucumis melo) small RNAome by high-throughput pyrosequencing

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    Abstract Background Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is a commercially important fruit crop that is cultivated worldwide. The melon research community has recently benefited from the determination of a complete draft genome sequence and the development of associated genomic tools, which have allowed us to focus on small RNAs (sRNAs). These are short, non-coding RNAs 21-24 nucleotides in length with diverse physiological roles. In plants, they regulate gene expression and heterochromatin assembly, and control protection against virus infection. Much remains to be learned about the role of sRNAs in melon. Results We constructed 10 sRNA libraries from two stages of developing ovaries, fruits and photosynthetic cotyledons infected with viruses, and carried out high-throughput pyrosequencing. We catalogued and analysed the melon sRNAs, resulting in the identification of 26 known miRNA families (many conserved with other species), the prediction of 84 melon-specific miRNA candidates, the identification of trans-acting siRNAs, and the identification of chloroplast, mitochondrion and transposon-derived sRNAs. In silico analysis revealed more than 400 potential targets for the conserved and novel miRNAs. Conclusion We have discovered and analysed a large number of conserved and melon-specific sRNAs, including miRNAs and their potential target genes. This provides insight into the composition and function of the melon small RNAome, and paves the way towards an understanding of sRNA-mediated processes that regulate melon fruit development and melon-virus interactions.This work was supported by grants AGL2009-07552/AGR, BIO2006-13107 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain) and MELONOMICS (Fundación Genoma España, Spain).Peer Reviewe

    The CD4+ T-cell transcriptome and serum IgE in asthma: IL17RB and the role of sex

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The relationships between total serum IgE levels and gene expression patterns in peripheral blood CD4+ T cells (in all subjects and within each sex specifically) are not known.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Peripheral blood CD4+ T cells from 223 participants from the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) with simultaneous measurement of IgE. Total RNA was isolated, and expression profiles were generated with Illumina HumanRef8 v2 BeadChip arrays. Modeling of the relationship between genome-wide gene transcript levels and IgE levels was performed in all subjects, and stratified by sex.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among all subjects, significant evidence for association between gene transcript abundance and IgE was identified for a single gene, the interleukin 17 receptor B (IL17RB), explaining 12% of the variance (r<sup>2</sup>) in IgE measurement (p value = 7 × 10<sup>-7</sup>, 9 × 10<sup>-3 </sup>after adjustment for multiple testing). Sex stratified analyses revealed that the correlation between IL17RB and IgE was restricted to males only (r<sup>2 </sup>= 0.19, p value = 8 × 10<sup>-8</sup>; test for sex-interaction p < 0.05). Significant correlation between gene transcript abundance and IgE level was not found in females. Additionally we demonstrated substantial sex-specific differences in IgE when considering multi-gene models, and in canonical pathway analyses of IgE level.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicate that IL17RB may be the only gene expressed in CD4+ T cells whose transcript measurement is correlated with the variation in IgE level in asthmatics. These results provide further evidence sex may play a role in the genomic regulation of IgE.</p

    Telomerase activity, estrogen receptors (α, β), Bcl-2 expression in human breast cancer and treatment response

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    BACKGROUND: The mechanism for maintaining telomere integrity is controlled by telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that specifically restores telomere sequences, lost during replication by means of an intrinsic RNA component as a template for polymerization. Among the telomerase subunits, hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase) is expressed concomitantly with the activation of telomerase. The role of estrogens and their receptors in the transcriptional regulation of hTERT has been demonstrated. The current study determines the possible association between telomerase activity, the expression of both molecular forms of estrogen receptor (ERα and ERβ) and the protein bcl-2, and their relative associations with clinical parameters. METHODS: Tissue samples from 44 patients with breast cancer were used to assess telomerase activity using the TRAP method and the expression of ERα, ERβ and bcl-2 by means of immunocytochemical techniques. RESULTS: Telomerase activity was detected in 59% of the 44 breast tumors examined. Telomerase activity ranged from 0 to 49.93 units of total product generated (TPG). A correlation was found between telomerase activity and differentiation grade (p = 0.03). The only significant independent marker of response to treatment was clinical stage. We found differences between the frequency of expression of ERα (88%) and ERβ (36%) (p = 0.007); bcl-2 was expressed in 79.5% of invasive breast carcinomas. We also found a significant correlation between low levels of telomerase activity and a lack of ERβ expression (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Lower telomerase activity was found among tumors that did not express estrogen receptor beta. This is the first published study demonstrating that the absence of expression of ERβ is associated with low levels of telomerase activity

    Analysis of expressed sequence tags generated from full-length enriched cDNA libraries of melon

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    Abstract Background Melon (Cucumis melo), an economically important vegetable crop, belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family which includes several other important crops such as watermelon, cucumber, and pumpkin. It has served as a model system for sex determination and vascular biology studies. However, genomic resources currently available for melon are limited. Result We constructed eleven full-length enriched and four standard cDNA libraries from fruits, flowers, leaves, roots, cotyledons, and calluses of four different melon genotypes, and generated 71,577 and 22,179 ESTs from full-length enriched and standard cDNA libraries, respectively. These ESTs, together with ~35,000 ESTs available in public domains, were assembled into 24,444 unigenes, which were extensively annotated by comparing their sequences to different protein and functional domain databases, assigning them Gene Ontology (GO) terms, and mapping them onto metabolic pathways. Comparative analysis of melon unigenes and other plant genomes revealed that 75% to 85% of melon unigenes had homologs in other dicot plants, while approximately 70% had homologs in monocot plants. The analysis also identified 6,972 gene families that were conserved across dicot and monocot plants, and 181, 1,192, and 220 gene families specific to fleshy fruit-bearing plants, the Cucurbitaceae family, and melon, respectively. Digital expression analysis identified a total of 175 tissue-specific genes, which provides a valuable gene sequence resource for future genomics and functional studies. Furthermore, we identified 4,068 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 3,073 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the melon EST collection. Finally, we obtained a total of 1,382 melon full-length transcripts through the analysis of full-length enriched cDNA clones that were sequenced from both ends. Analysis of these full-length transcripts indicated that sizes of melon 5' and 3' UTRs were similar to those of tomato, but longer than many other dicot plants. Codon usages of melon full-length transcripts were largely similar to those of Arabidopsis coding sequences. Conclusion The collection of melon ESTs generated from full-length enriched and standard cDNA libraries is expected to play significant roles in annotating the melon genome. The ESTs and associated analysis results will be useful resources for gene discovery, functional analysis, marker-assisted breeding of melon and closely related species, comparative genomic studies and for gaining insights into gene expression patterns.This work was supported by Research Grant Award No. IS-4223-09C from BARD, the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund, and by SNC Laboratoire ASL, de Ruiter Seeds B.V., Enza Zaden B.V., Gautier Semences S.A., Nunhems B.V., Rijk Zwaan B.V., Sakata Seed Inc, Semillas Fitó S.A., Seminis Vegetable Seeds Inc, Syngenta Seeds B.V., Takii and Company Ltd, Vilmorin and Cie S.A. and Zeraim Gedera Ltd (all of them as part of the support to ICuGI). CC was supported by CNRS ERL 8196.Peer Reviewe
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