Intraspecific venom variation of Mexican West Coast Rattlesnakes (Crotalus basiliscus) and its implications for antivenom production

14 páginas, 9 figuras, 3 tablasIntraspecific variation in snake venoms has been widely documented worldwide. However, there are few studies on this subject in Mexico. Venom characterization studies provide important data used to predict clinical syndromes, to evaluate the efficacy of antivenoms and, in some cases, to improve immunogenic mixtures in the production of antivenoms. In the present work, we evaluated the intraspecific venom variation of Crotalus basiliscus, a rattlesnake of medical importance and whose venom is used in the immunization of horses to produce one of the Mexican antivenoms. Our results demonstrate that there is variation in biological and biochemical activities among adult venoms and that there is an ontogenetic change from juvenile to adult venoms. Juvenile venoms were more lethal and had higher percentages of crotamine and crotoxin, while adult venoms had higher percentages of snake venom metalloproteases (SVMPs). Additionally, we documented crotoxin-like PLA2 variation in which specimens from Zacatecas, Sinaloa and Michoacán (except 1) lacked the neurotoxin, while the rest of the venoms had it. Finally, we evaluated the efficacy of three lots of Birmex antivenom and all three were able to neutralize the lethality of four representative venoms but were not able to neutralize crotamine. We also observed significant differences in the LD50 values neutralized per vial among the different lots. Based on these results, we recommend including venoms containing crotamine in the production of antivenom for a better immunogenic mixture and to improve the homogeneity of lots.This study was financially supported by DGAPA-PAPIIT (project IN211621), CONACYT (project264255); FORDECYT PRONACE (project 1715618/2020), FORDECYT (project 303045), Clemson University and the National Science Foundation (DEB 1822417) to CLP.Peer reviewe

Biological and proteolytic variation in the venom of Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus from Mexico

Rattlesnake venoms may be classified according to the presence/absence and relative abundance of the neurotoxic phospholipases A2s (PLA2s), such as Mojave toxin, and snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs). In Mexico, studies to determine venom variation in Mojave Rattlesnakes (Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus) are limited and little is known about the biological and proteolytic activities in this species. Tissue (34) and venom (29) samples were obtained from C. s. scutulatus from different locations within their distribution in Mexico. Mojave toxin detection was carried out at the genomic (by PCR) and protein (by ELISA) levels for all tissue and venom samples. Biological activity was tested on representative venoms by measuring LD50 and hemorrhagic activity. To determine the approximate amount of SVMPs, 15 venoms were separated by RP-HPLC and variation in protein profile and proteolytic activity was evaluated by SDS-PAGE (n = 28) and Hide Powder Azure proteolytic analysis (n = 27). Three types of venom were identified in Mexico which is comparable to the intraspecific venom diversity observed in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, USA: Venom Type A ( Type II), with Mojave toxin, highly toxic, lacking hemorrhagic activity, and with scarce proteolytic activity; Type B ( Type I), without Mojave toxin, less toxic than Type A, highly hemorrhagic and proteolytic; and Type A + B, containing Mojave toxin, as toxic as venom Type A, variable in hemorrhagic activity and with intermediate proteolytic activity. We also detected a positive correlation between SVMP abundance and hemorrhagic and proteolytic activities. Although more sampling is necessary, our results suggest that venoms containing Mojave toxin and venom lacking this toxin are distributed in the northwest and southeast portions of the distribution in Mexico, respectively, while an intergradation in the middle of both zones is presentConsejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia/[221343]/CONACYT/MéxicoUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto Clodomiro Picado (ICP)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de Microbiologí

Narcissism and the Strategic Pursuit of Short-Term Mating: Universal Links across 11 World Regions of the International Sexuality Description Project-2

Previous studies have documented links between sub-clinical narcissism and the active pursuit of short-term mating strategies (e.g., unrestricted sociosexuality, marital infidelity, mate poaching). Nearly all of these investigations have relied solely on samples from Western cultures. In the current study, responses from a cross-cultural survey of 30,470 people across 53 nations spanning 11 world regions (North America, Central/South America, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and East Asia) were used to evaluate whether narcissism (as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory; NPI) was universally associated with short-term mating. Results revealed narcissism scores (including two broad factors and seven traditional facets as measured by the NPI) were functionally equivalent across cultures, reliably associating with key sexual outcomes (e.g., more active pursuit of short-term mating, intimate partner violence, and sexual aggression) and sex-related personality traits (e.g., higher extraversion and openness to experience). Whereas some features of personality (e.g., subjective well-being) were universally associated with socially adaptive facets of Narcissism (e.g., self-sufficiency), most indicators of short-term mating (e.g., unrestricted sociosexuality and marital infidelity) were universally associated with the socially maladaptive facets of narcissism (e.g., exploitativeness). Discussion addresses limitations of these cross-culturally universal findings and presents suggestions for future research into revealing the precise psychological features of narcissism that facilitate the strategic pursuit of short-term mating

Detrended Fluctuation Analysis in the prediction of type 2 diabetes mellitus in patients at risk: Model optimization and comparison with other metrics

[EN] Complexity analysis of glucose time series with Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) has been proved to be useful for the prediction of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) development. We propose a modified DFA algorithm, review some of its characteristics and compare it with other metrics derived from continuous glucose monitorization in this setting. Several issues of the DFA algorithm were evaluated: (1) Time windowing: the best predictive value was obtained including all time-windows from 15 minutes to 24 hours. (2) Influence of circadian rhythms: for 48-hour glucometries, DFA alpha scaling exponent was calculated on 24hour sliding segments (1-hour gap, 23-hour overlap), with a median coefficient of variation of 3.2%, which suggests that analysing time series of at least 24-hour length avoids the influence of circadian rhythms. (3) Influence of pretreatment of the time series through integration: DFA without integration was more sensitive to the introduction of white noise and it showed significant predictive power to forecast the development of T2DM, while the pretreated time series did not. (4) Robustness of an interpolation algorithm for missing values: The modified DFA algorithm evaluates the percentage of missing values in a time series. Establishing a 2% error threshold, we estimated the number and length of missing segments that could be admitted to consider a time series as suitable for DFA analysis. For comparison with other metrics, a Principal Component Analysis was performed and the results neatly tease out four different components. The first vector carries information concerned with variability, the second represents mainly DFA alpha exponent, while the third and fourth vectors carry essentially information related to the two "pre-diabetic behaviours" (impaired fasting glucose and impaired glucose tolerance). The scaling exponent obtained with the modified DFA algorithm proposed has significant predictive power for the development of T2DM in a high-risk population compared with other variability metrics or with the standard DFA algorithm.This study has been funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III through the project PI17/00856 (Co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, A way to make Europe). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Colás, A.; Vigil, L.; Vargas, B.; Cuesta Frau, D.; Varela, M. (2019). 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Altered Complexity and Correlation Properties of R-R Interval Dynamics Before the Spontaneous Onset of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation. Circulation, 100(20), 2079-2084. doi:10.1161/01.cir.100.20.2079Wang, H., Naghavi, M., Allen, C., Barber, R. M., Bhutta, Z. A., Carter, A., … Coates, M. M. (2016). Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. The Lancet, 388(10053), 1459-1544. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)31012-1Saudek, C. D., Derr, R. L., & Kalyani, R. R. (2006). Assessing Glycemia in Diabetes Using Self-monitoring Blood Glucose and Hemoglobin A1c. JAMA, 295(14), 1688. doi:10.1001/jama.295.14.1688Monnier, L., Colette, C., & Owens, D. R. (2008). Glycemic Variability: The Third Component of the Dysglycemia in Diabetes. Is it Important? How to Measure it? Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, 2(6), 1094-1100. doi:10.1177/193229680800200618Abdul-Ghani, M. A., Tripathy, D., & DeFronzo, R. A. (2006). Contributions of  -Cell Dysfunction and Insulin Resistance to the Pathogenesis of Impaired Glucose Tolerance and Impaired Fasting Glucose. Diabetes Care, 29(5), 1130-1139. doi:10.2337/dc05-2179(2017). 2. Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes:Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2018. Diabetes Care, 41(Supplement 1), S13-S27. doi:10.2337/dc18-s002Tabák, A. G., Herder, C., Rathmann, W., Brunner, E. J., & Kivimäki, M. (2012). Prediabetes: a high-risk state for diabetes development. The Lancet, 379(9833), 2279-2290. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60283-9DeFronzo, R. A., Banerji, M. A., Bray, G. A., Buchanan, T. A., Clement, S., … Tripathy, D. (2009). Determinants of glucose tolerance in impaired glucose tolerance at baseline in the Actos Now for Prevention of Diabetes (ACT NOW) study. Diabetologia, 53(3), 435-445. doi:10.1007/s00125-009-1614-2Nathan, D. M., Davidson, M. B., DeFronzo, R. A., Heine, R. J., Henry, R. R., Pratley, R., & Zinman, B. (2007). Impaired Fasting Glucose and Impaired Glucose Tolerance: Implications for care. Diabetes Care, 30(3), 753-759. doi:10.2337/dc07-9920Ogata, H., Tokuyama, K., Nagasaka, S., Tsuchita, T., Kusaka, I., Ishibashi, S., … Yamamoto, Y. (2012). The lack of long-range negative correlations in glucose dynamics is associated with worse glucose control in patients with diabetes mellitus. Metabolism, 61(7), 1041-1050. doi:10.1016/j.metabol.2011.12.007Kohnert, K.-D. (2015). Utility of different glycemic control metrics for optimizing management of diabetes. World Journal of Diabetes, 6(1), 17. doi:10.4239/wjd.v6.i1.17García Maset, L., González, L. B., Furquet, G. L., Suay, F. M., & Marco, R. H. (2016). Study of Glycemic Variability Through Time Series Analyses (Detrended Fluctuation Analysis and Poincaré Plot) in Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, 18(11), 719-724. doi:10.1089/dia.2016.0208Service, F. J., O’Brien, P. C., & Rizza, R. A. (1987). Measurements of Glucose Control. Diabetes Care, 10(2), 225-237. doi:10.2337/diacare.10.2.225Goldberger, A. L., Amaral, L. A. N., Hausdorff, J. M., Ivanov, P. C., Peng, C.-K., & Stanley, H. E. (2002). Fractal dynamics in physiology: Alterations with disease and aging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(Supplement 1), 2466-2472. doi:10.1073/pnas.012579499Crenier, L., Lytrivi, M., Van Dalem, A., Keymeulen, B., & Corvilain, B. (2016). Glucose Complexity Estimates Insulin Resistance in Either Nondiabetic Individuals or in Type 1 Diabetes. 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Physical and chemical techniques for a comprehensive characterization of river sediment: A case of study, the Moquegua River, Peru

River sediment is comprised of complex mineral systems composed by different kinds of organic and inorganic matter, and thus, is difficult to characterize. Besides, some standard techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), optical and scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy, inductively couple plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and simultaneous Thermogravimetric Analysis – Differential Thermal Analysis (TGA-DTA), Mössbauer spectroscopy and magnetometry can provide substancial information about the compositional, physical, and chemical characteristics. In the current study, the versality of these methods is tested and the information provided by these methods for eight sediment samples, collected from the Moquegua River, Peru is compared. Qualitative analysis indicates that the samples consist of sand grains with different shapes, sizes, and colors coexisting with the presence of some diatoms. The chemical and mineralogical analysis reveal that the samples are composed mainly of silicon (Si), aluminium (Al), sodium (Na), potassium (K), aluminon–silicates, and carbonates, typical for river sediment. More detailed information obtained by these techniques include the discovery of adsorbed oxygen–hydrogen (O–H), carbon–H (C–H) and C, from organic matter, the thermal reactions and decomposition of the components, and the identification of the minor iron–oxides components. Further, other properties such as magnetic interaction are also analyzed in detail

Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age.

The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset - with data collected between 2020 and 2022 - to assess measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that full scalar invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional BAS-2 model has widespread applicability. There were large differences across nations and languages in latent body appreciation, while differences across gender identities and age groups were negligible-to-small. Additionally, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, being single (versus being married or in a committed relationship), and greater rurality (versus urbanicity). Across a subset of nations where nation-level data were available, greater body appreciation was also significantly associated with greater cultural distance from the United States and greater relative income inequality. These findings suggest that the BAS-2 likely captures a near-universal conceptualisation of the body appreciation construct, which should facilitate further cross-cultural research. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.