Bilaterian Phylogeny Based on Analyses of a Region of the Sodium-potassium ATPase beta-subunit Gene

Molecular investigations of deep-level relationships within and among the animal phyla have been hampered by a lack of slowly evolving genes that are amenable to study by molecular systematists. To provide new data for use in deep-level metazoan phylogenetic studies, primers were developed to amplify a 1.3-kb region of the alpha subunit of the nuclear-encoded sodium-potassium ATPase gene from 31 bilaterians representing several phyla. Maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian analyses of these sequences (combined with ATPase sequences for 23 taxa downloaded from GenBank) yield congruent trees that corroborate recent findings based on analyses of other data sets (e.g., the 18S ribosomal RNA gene). The ATPase-based trees support monophyly for several clades (including Lophotrochozoa, a form of Ecdysozoa, Vertebrata, Mollusca, Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Arachnida, Hexapoda, Coleoptera, and Diptera) but do not support monophyly for Deuterostomia, Arthropoda, or Nemertea. Parametric bootstrapping tests reject monophyly for Arthropoda and Nemertea but are unable to reject deuterostome monophyly. Overall, the sodium-potassium ATPase alpha-subunit gene appears to be useful for deep-level studies of metazoan phylogeny

Genetic variability and phylogenetic relationships of the autochthonous horse breed for meat production based on mitochondrial DNA

Publicado en el año 2008 en: Revista ITEA, 104 (2), 283-289. http://www.aida-itea.org/index.php/revista/contenidos?idArt=85&lang=esp Webs desde donde descargar las ponencias: http://acteon.webs.upv.es/ Web del congreso: http://www.uco.es/genetica/MERAGEM/xivreunion.htmSe han estudiado la variabilidad y relaciones genéticas de las cuatro poblaciones equinas de aptitud cárnica de España de protección especial (41 muestras) (Burguete (BUR): 10, Jaca Navarra (JAC): 11, Hispano Bretón (HB): 10 y Agrupación Hipermétrica del Pirineo (AHP): 10) a través del estudio del ADN mitocondrial (ADNmt). Se han encontrado 15 haplotipos en las 4 razas analizadas determinados por la existencia de 19 posiciones polimórficas de las cuales 18 han sido posiciones informativas parsimoniosas y 1 no informativa (singleton). La diversidad haplotípica (Hd) ha oscilado entre 0,758 del AHP y 0,993 del BUR siendo el valor medio de todas las razas de de 0,929 (SD = 0,016). La raza JAC ha presentado el mayor valor de diversidad nucleotídica (0,023). Casi la totalidad de los haplotipos encontrados los han compartido las razas analizadas excepto el haplotipo 8 que sólo lo ha presentado la AHP, el haplotipo 10 la raza BUR, los haplotipos 13 y 14 el HB y el haplotipo 15 la raza JAC. No se ha encontrado un agrupamiento claro de las poblaciones analizadas, lo que confirma los múltiples orígenes maternos previamente indicado por varios autores. No obstante, al haberse encontrado haplotipos específicos en las 4 poblaciones analizadas se deben tenerlos en cuenta a la hora de llevar a cabo los planes de conservación.Genetic variability and phylogenetic relationships of the autochthonous horse breed for meat production based on mitochondrial DNA We have studied the genetic variability and relationships of four endangered Spanish equine populations for meat production using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) (41 horses, 30 of them belong to Burguete (BUR), Hispano Bretón (HB) and Agrupación Hipermétrica del Pirineo (AHP) populations and the other 11 samples belong to Jaca Navarra (JAC) breed. Fifteen haplotypes were found and 19 polomorphic sites were detected, eighteen of them were parsimony informative sites and the other one was a singleton. Haplotipic diversity (Hd) ranged from 0.758 of AHP to 0.993 of BUR breed. The average Hd value was 0.929 (SD = 0.016). The JAC breed presented the highest nucleotide diversity value (0.023). Most of haplotypes found have been shared by the four horse populations except haplotype 8 that only was presented by AHP populaton, haplotype 10 by BUR, the haplotypes 13 and 14 by HB and haplotype 15 by JAC breed. A clear group of horses belong to the same population were not shown. These results confirm the multiple maternal origin previously shown by other authors. However we have found haplotypes specific of each breed that is important to take in account in their conservation programmes

Hot spring arsenic distribution in the Andes Cordillera (18-52oS)

1 página.-- Resumen presentado en el 23rd International Applied Geochemistry Symposium (IAGS), Oviedo, 14-19 Jun. 2007.-- Edited by Jorge Loredo Pérez.One of the most extensive areas around the world where the low quality of groundwater due to the presence of high concentrations of arsenic of natural origin is a major concern is Argentina-Chile. The exhaustive knowledge of the geological, hydrogeological, and geochemical setting can be very effective to define an alternative strategy to mitigate the arsenic problem in water. The magnitude and extension of the arsenic affected areas is not well known. In order to understand the source of the arsenic, the development of a database of thermal waters in the Andean region is in progress. We present in this work the assessment of more than 360 hot springs and wells located in the Andes between 14 and 52oS of latitude. This information comes from projects carried out by our team in the area and from references. The hot waters with higher concentrations of arsenic (50-30,000 μg/l) are mainly located in volcanic areas with hydrothermal activity of the Andes Cordillera between 14 and 28oS.Peer reviewe

Rheological Behaviour of an Insoluble Lemon Fibre as Affected by Stirring, Temperature, Time and Storage

The final publication is available at link.springer.comIn this work, the effect the preparation method (two different stirring systems at two temperatures and times), fibre concentration (between 2% and 3%), temperature (between 10 °C and 50 °C) and storage time (between 24 h and 50 days at 5 °C) had on the flow properties of a suspension of dietary lemon fibre prepared with a 45° Brix sucrose solution were evaluated. This information will be helpful in order to discover the best possibilities of using fibre to increase the viscosity of certain kinds of products, depending on the processing, storage and consumption conditions. The obtained results indicate that all the aspects which contribute to increase component solubilisation and the interaction of the insoluble fraction with the aqueous phase when preparing the suspension, such as a decrease in particle size, a rise in temperature or a longer homogenization time, entail a higher apparent viscosity. Moreover, favoring the solubilisation in the preparation process leads to a more stable rheological behaviour of the suspension during storage. As expected, the apparent viscosity of suspensions was dependent on the shear rate, concentration and temperature. A thixotropic behaviour of fibre suspension was only observed at a very low shear rate (5 s -1). © 2010 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.Córdoba Sequeira, A.; Camacho Vidal, MM.; Martínez Navarrete, N. (2012). Rheological Behaviour of an Insoluble Lemon Fibre as Affected by Stirring, Temperature, Time and Storage. Food and Bioprocess Technology. 5(3):1083-1092. doi:10.1007/s11947-010-0478-2S1083109253Akdogan, H., & McHugh, T.-H. (2000). Flow characterization of peach products during extrusion. Food Engineering and Physical Properties, 65(3), 471–475.Alonso, M.-L., Larrodé, O., & Zapico, J. (1995). Rheological behaviour of infant foods. Journal of Texture Studies, 26, 193–202.Duran, L., & Costell, E. (1982). Rheology of apricot puree: Characterization of flow. Journal of Texture Studies, 13, 43–58.Flint O (1996) Microscopía de los alimentos. Manual de métodos prácticos utilizando la miscroscopía óptica. Ed. Acribia S-A, Zaragoza, 28, 108–111Grigelmo-Miguel, N., Gorinstein, S., & Martín-Belloso, O. (1999a). Characterisation of peach dietary fiber concentrate as food ingredient. Food Chemistry, 65, 175–181.Grigelmo-Miguel, N., Ibarz-Ribas, A., & Martín-Belloso, O. (1999b). Rheology of peach dietary fibre suspensions. Journal of Food Engineering, 39, 91–99.Guerrero S-N & Alzamora S-M. (1998). Effect of pH, temperature and glucose addition on flow behaviour of fruit purées: II. Peach, papaya and mango purées. Journal of Food Engineering, 37, 77–101.Guillon, F., & Champ, M. (2000). Structural and physical properties of dietary fibres, and consequences of processing on human physiology. Food Research International, 33, 233–245.Hahn, S.-J., Ree, T., & Eyring, G.-H. (1959). Flow mechanism of thixotropic substances. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 51, 856–857.Jongaroontaprangsee, S., Tritrong, W., & Chokanaporn, W. (2007). Effects of drying temperature and particle size on hydration properties of dietary fiber powder from lime and cabbage by-products. International Journal of Food Properties, 10, 887–897.Lario, Y., Sendra, E., Garcıa-Perez, J., Fuentes, C., Sayas-Barbera, E., Fernández-López, J., et al. (2004). Preparation of high dietary fiber powder from lemon juice by-products. Innovation of Food Science Emerging Technologies, 5, 113–117.Mahmoud M-I & Fugitt M (1996) Rheological properties of a calorically dense nutritional supplement as a function of nitrogen source and dietary fiber. In: IFT Annual Meeting. Book of Abstracts. 80A-26, 183Mizrahi, S. (1979). A review of the physicochemical approach to the analysis of the structural viscosity of fluid fruit products. Journal of Texture Studies, 10, 67–82.Paredes, M.-D.-C., Rao, M.-A., & Bourne, M.-C. (1998). Rheological characterization of salad dressings: 1. Steady shear, thixotropy and effect of temperature. Journal of Texture Studies, 19, 247–258.Raghavendra, S.-N., Ramachandra Swamy, S.-R., Rastogi, N.-K., Raghavarao, K.-S.-M.-S., Kumar, S., & Tharanathan, R.-N. (2006). Grinding characteristics and hydration properties of coconut residue: A source of dietary fiber. Journal of Food Engineering, 72, 281–286.Sakata, T., & Saito, M. (2007). Insoluble dietary fiber of wheat bran increased viscosity of pig whole cecal contents in vitro. Journal of Nutrition Science and Vitaminology, 53(4), 380–381.Saldaña, S., Martínez-Navarrete, N., & Chiralt, A. (2000). Caracterización Reológica de Alimentos de alta viscosidad. In P. Fito, A. Chiralt, A. Andrés, & N. Martínez-Navarrete (Eds.), Series de Ciencia e Ingeniería de Alimentos. Investigación del postgrado del IAD-DTA. Vol I (p. 383). Valencia: Editorial de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.Sangnark, A., & Noomhorm, A. (2003). Effect of particle sizes on functional properties of dietary fibre prepared from sugarcane bagasse. Food Chemistry, 80(2), 221–229

The effectiveness of a health promotion with group intervention by clinical trial. Study protocol

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The promotion of health and the interventions in community health continue to be one of the pending subjects of our health system. The most prevalent health problems (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes...) are for the most part related to life habits. We propose a holistic and integral approach as the best option for tackling behavior and its determinants. The research team has elaborated the necessary educational material to realize group teaching, which we call "Health Workshops". The goal of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of these Health Workshops in the following terms: Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL), incorporate and maintain a balanced diet, do physical activity regularly, maintain risk factors such as tension, weight, cholesterol within normal limits and diminish cardiovascular risk.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>Controlled and random clinical testing, comparing a group of persons who have participated in the Health Workshops with a control group of similar characteristics who have not participated in the Health Workshops.</p> <p>Field of study: the research is being done in Health Centers of the city of Barcelona, Spain.</p> <p>Population studied: The group is composed of 108 persons that are actually doing the Health Workshops, and 108 that are not and form the control group. They are assigned at random to one group or the other.</p> <p>Data Analysis: With Student's t-distribution test to compare the differences between numerical variables or their non parametric equivalent if the variable does not comply with the criteria of normality. (Kolmogorov-Smirnof test). Chi-square test to compare the differences between categorical variables and the Logistic Regression Model to analyze different meaningful variables by dichotomous analysis related to the intervention.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The Health Workshop proposed in the present study constitutes an innovative approach in health promotion, placing the emphasis on the person's self responsibility for his/her own health.</p> <p>The rhythm of a weekly session during 8 weeks with recommended activities to put into practice, as well as the support of the group is an opportunity to incorporate healthy habits and make a commitment to self-care. The sheets handed out are a Health Manual that can always be consulted after the workshop ends.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01440738">NCT01440738</a></p

Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020.

Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of SARS-CoV-21,2 has been tracked by phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3–5. Although the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, travel within Europe resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that was identified in Spain in early summer 2020 and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence that this variant has increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate that 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travellers, which is likely to have undermined local efforts to minimize infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our results illustrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in the absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favourable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical for understanding how travel can affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true