Clinical trial to assess the effect of physical exercise on endothelial function and insulin resistance in pregnant women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Preeclampsia (PE) is a common maternal disease that complicates 5 to 10% of pregnancies and remains as the major cause of maternal and neonatal mortality. Cost-effective interventions aimed at preventing the development of preeclampsia are urgently needed. However, the pathogenesis of PE is not well known. Multiple mechanisms such as oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction and insulin resistance may contribute to its development. Regular aerobic exercise recovers endothelial function; improves insulin resistance and decreases oxidative stress. Therefore the purpose of this clinical trial is to determine the effect of regular aerobic exercise on endothelial function, on insulin resistance and on pregnancy outcome.</p> <p>Methods and design</p> <p>64 pregnant women will be included in a blind, randomized clinical trial, and parallel assignment. The exercise group will do regular aerobic physical exercise: walking (10 minutes), aerobic exercise (30 minutes), stretching (10 minutes) and relaxation exercise (10 minutes) in three sessions per week. Control group will do the activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, eating, and walking) without counselling from a physical therapist.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>NCT00741312.</p

Compassionate communities: How to assess their benefit? A protocol of a collaborative study between different countries.

BACKGROUND Communities and local governments invest in compassionate communities (CCs) a great deal of time, money, effort, and work. However, it is not known whether the CCs are having the effect they are expected to have, so the value of continuing with these initiatives is unknown, and there is a need for a model for evaluating CCs to solve the question. OBJECTIVES To identify a set of core outcomes or benefits that should be measured to assess the impact of the CCs. DESIGN Multiple-methods study involving three communities, each in a different country (Argentina, Colombia, and Switzerland). METHODS AND ANALYSIS To identifying the set of core outcomes, which is the first step in developing the CC evaluation model, five phases will follow: online meetings, literature review, fieldwork, Delphi survey, and social transfer. We will involve members of the local communities of Bern, Buenos Aires, and Medellin at three different levels: (1) citizens (e.g. patients, caregivers, and family members), (2) organizations and institutions involved in the program implementation (e.g. health care organizations, churches, non-governmental organizations, and schools), and (3) political and governmental sectors. ETHICS The study will be conducted following existing international regulations and guidance such as the Declaration of Helsinki. The ethics committee of Pallium Latin America and the ethics committee of the canton of Bern considered our application exempt from the need for approval. Ethics approval in Bern and Buenos Aires is in the process of being obtained. The ethics committee of the Pontifical Bolivarian University approved this protocol. DISCUSSION We expect that this project will help bridge the gap in knowledge regarding the measurable impact of the CCs and enhance more CC development

Patrones de prescripción de medicamentos para la diabetes mellitus tipo 2 en cinco departamentos de Colombia, en 2014

Objetivo: Describir los patrones de prescripción de los medicamentos para la diabetes mellitus tipo 2 (dm2) y comorbilidades de pacientes atendidos en cinco instituciones prestadoras de servicios de salud de Colombia. Metodología: Estudio descriptivo transversal, en el cual se revisaron las historias clínicas de 5098 pacientes con dm2, atendidos en centros de atención ambulatoria ubicados en cinco ciudades colombianas entre el 1.º de enero y el 31 de diciembre de 2014. Cada uno de los pacientes con dm2 tenía al menos dos consultas ambulatorias registradas durante el periodo de estudio. La recolección de la información se hizo mediante una encuesta electrónica. Para la categorización de los medicamentos se usaron las guías nacionales e internacionales para el tratamiento de la diabetes. El análisis de los datos fue realizado utilizando el programa ibm spss® Statistics versión 21. Resultados: El medicamento de más frecuente prescripción fueron las biguanidas (59 %) y las sulfonilureas (28 %). La prescripción de inhibidores de la dipeptidil peptidasa-4 fue 7 % y la frecuencia de prescripción de agonista del receptor del péptido similar al glucagón tipo 1 (ar glp-1) fue de 2 %. El medicamento con mayor frecuencia de prescripción como monoterapia fueron las biguanidas (22 %). La combinación más frecuente fue biguanida y las sulfonilureas (21 %), seguida de biguanida e insulina (10 %), y otras combinaciones. El 27 % pacientes con dm2 no recibió ningún tratamiento farmacológico para la diabetes. Con respecto a los medicamentos para comorbilidades, el 52 % de los pacientes utiliza al menos un tipo de antihipertensivo, el 39 % usa al menos un tipo de hipolipemiante y el 35 % utiliza ácido acetilsalicílico. Conclusiones: Las biguanidas fueron el medicamento con mayor frecuencia de prescripción, seguido de las sulfonilureas. Uno de cada cuatro pacientes no tenía registro de prescripción de medicamentos. El uso de ácido acetilsalicílico como prevención del riesgo cardiovascular fue menor al esperado

PROTDES: CHARMM toolbox for computational protein design

We present an open-source software able to automatically mutate any residue positions and find the best aminoacids in an arbitrary protein structure without requiring pairwise approximations. Our software, PROTDES, is based on CHARMM and it searches automatically for mutations optimizing a protein folding free energy. PROTDES allows the integration of molecular dynamics within the protein design. We have implemented an heuristic optimization algorithm that iteratively searches the best aminoacids and their conformations for an arbitrary set of positions within a structure. Our software allows CHARMM users to perform protein design calculations and to create their own procedures for protein design using their own energy functions. We show this by implementing three different energy functions based on different solvent treatments: surface area accessibility, generalized Born using molecular volume and an effective energy function. PROTDES, a tutorial, parameter sets, configuration tools and examples are freely available at http://soft.synth-bio.org/protdes.html

El papel del sistema serotoninérgico central en la etiopatogenia del síncope neurocardiogénico

ResumenLa implementaci&oacute;n de la prueva de mesa basculante en el a&ntilde;o 1986 para el diagn&oacute;stico de pacientes con s&iacute;ncope recurrente de origen no aclarado, determin&oacute; al s&iacute;ncope neurocardiog&eacute;nico como una de las causas m&aacute;s prevalentes de disfunsi&oacute;n auton&oacute;mica cardiovascular a pesar de su importancia en t&eacute;rminos de salud p&uacute;blica, la fisiopatolog&iacute;a del s&iacute;ncope neurocardiog&eacute;nico no ha sido completamente aclarada, dificultando as&iacute; la implementaci&oacute;n de un enfoque terap&eacute;utico apropiado.[Garcia R, Gusm&aacute;n JC, Silvia SY, Zarruk JG, L&oacute;pes Jaramillo P, Morillo CA, Silvia FA. El papel del sistema serotonin&eacute;rgico central en la etiopatogenia del s&iacute;ncope neurocardiog&eacute;nico. MedUNAB 2005; 8:197-201].Palabras clave: Sincope neurocardiog&eacute;nico, Sistema nervioso central, Sistema central serotonin&eacute;rgico, Serotonina, Sistema&nbsp;nervioso aut&oacute;nomo, depresi&oacute;n, ansiedad

Caracterización fisicoquímica de las aguas industriales generadas por la producción de almidón de yuca mediante el método de vía húmeda

The purpose of this study was to analyze the physical and chemical attributes of liquid waste produced during the extraction of cassava starch. The study focused on determining the levels of various contamination indicators, such as COD, BOD5, and SST. The wastewater from four rallanderias in the "La Balsa" area of the Calderón parish in the Portoviejo canton of Ecuador was sampled during the first half of 2022. The results from a mass balance calculation showed that only 3.06 m3 of residual water is discharged per day from processing 454 kg of starch. This volume of wastewater contains approximately 14 to 18 kg/day of pollutant load, and total cyanide concentrations ranged between 4 and 8 mg CN-/L.El objetivo principal de esta investigación fue identificar las características físicos-químicas de los efluentes líquidos que se generan durante la extracción de almidón de yuca a fin de conocer las concentraciones en las que se encuentran diversos parámetros indicadores de contaminación tales como DQO, DBO5, SST entre otros. Se realizaron muestreos a las aguas residuales de cuatro rallanderías del sitio “La Balsa” de la parroquia Calderón del cantón Portoviejo, Ecuador durante el primer semestre de 2022. Los resultados obtenidos de un balance de masa realizado permitieron conocer que solo en el procesamiento de 454 kg de almidón se descargan alrededor de 3.06 m3 de agua residual por día, determinando así que ese volumen de agua residual contiene aproximadamente de 14 a 18 kg/día de carga contaminante, se encontraron concentraciones de cianuro total que oscilaron entre 4 y 8 mg CN-/L

Liquefied natural gas for the UK: a life cycle assessment

PURPOSE: Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is expected to become an important component of the UK’s energy supply because the national hydrocarbon reserves on the continental shelf have started diminishing. However, use of any carbon-based fuel runs counter to mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Hence, a broad environmental assessment to analyse the import of LNG to the UK is required. METHODS: A cradle to gate life cycle assessment has been carried out of a specific but representative case: LNG imported to the UK from Qatar. The analysis covers the supply chain, from gas extraction through to distribution to the end-user, assuming state-of-the-art facilities and ships. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted on key parameters including the energy requirements of the liquefaction and vaporisation processes, fuel for propulsion, shipping distance, tanker volume and composition of raw gas. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: All environmental indicators of the CML methodology were analysed. The processes of liquefaction, LNG transport and evaporation determine more than 50% of the cradle to gate global warming potential (GWP). When 1% of the total gas delivered is vented as methane emissions leakage throughout the supply chain, the GWP increases by 15% compared to the GWP of the base scenario. The variation of the GWP increases to 78% compared to the base scenario when 5% of the delivered gas is considered to be lost as vented emissions. For all the scenarios analysed, more than 75% of the total acidification potential (AP) is due to the sweetening of the natural gas before liquefaction. Direct emissions from transport always determine between 25 and 49% of the total eutrophication potential (EP) whereas the operation and maintenance of the sending ports strongly influences the fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity potential (FAETP). CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights long-distance transport of LNG and natural gas processing, including sweetening, liquefaction and vaporisation, as the key operations that strongly affect the life cycle impacts. Those cannot be considered negligible when the environmental burdens of the LNG supply chain are considered. Furthermore, the effect of possible fugitive methane emissions along the supply chain are critical for the impact of operations such as extraction, liquefaction, storage before transport, transport itself and evaporation

Differential molecular response of monodehydroascorbate reductase and glutathione reductase by nitration and S-nitrosylation

The ascorbate–glutathione cycle is a metabolic pathway that detoxifies hydrogen peroxide and involves enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Proteomic studies have shown that some enzymes in this cycle such as ascorbate peroxidase (APX), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDAR), and glutathione reductase (GR) are potential targets for post-translational modifications (PMTs) mediated by nitric oxide-derived molecules. Using purified recombinant pea peroxisomal MDAR and cytosolic and chloroplastic GR enzymes produced in Escherichia coli, the effects of peroxynitrite (ONOO–) and S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) which are known to mediate protein nitration and S-nitrosylation processes, respectively, were analysed. Although ONOO– and GSNO inhibit peroxisomal MDAR activity, chloroplastic and cytosolic GR were not affected by these molecules. Mass spectrometric analysis of the nitrated MDAR revealed that Tyr213, Try292, and Tyr345 were exclusively nitrated to 3-nitrotyrosine by ONOO–. The location of these residues in the structure of pea peroxisomal MDAR reveals that Tyr345 is found at 3.3 Å of His313 which is involved in the NADPbinding site. Site-directed mutagenesis confirmed Tyr345 as the primary site of nitration responsible for the inhibition of MDAR activity by ONOO–. These results provide new insights into the molecular regulation of MDAR which is deactivated by nitration and S-nitrosylation. However, GR was not affected by ONOO– or GSNO, suggesting the existence of a mechanism to conserve redox status by maintaining the level of reduced GSH. Under a nitro-oxidative stress induced by salinity (150 mM NaCl), MDAR expression (mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity levels) was increased, probably to compensate the inhibitory effects of S-nitrosylation and nitration on the enzyme. The present data show the modulation of the antioxidative response of key enzymes in the ascorbate–glutathione cycle by nitric oxide (NO)- PTMs, thus indicating the close involvement of NO and reactive oxygen species metabolism in antioxidant defence against nitro-oxidative stress situations in plants.Spanish GovernmentERDF - Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness BIO2012-33904Junta de Andalucía BIO286 BIO19

Exports and Productivity: Comparable Evidence for 14 Countries

We use comparable micro level panel data for 14 countries and a set of identically specified empirical models to investigate the relationship between exports and productivity. Our overall results are in line with the big picture that is by now familiar from the literature: Exporters are more productive than non-exporters when observed and unobserved heterogeneity are controlled for, and these exporter productivity premia tend to increase with the share of exports in total sales; there is strong evidence in favour of self-selection of more productive firms into export markets, but nearly no evidence in favour of the learning-by-exporting hypothesis. We document that the exporter premia differ considerably across countries in identically specified empirical models. In a meta-analysis of our results we find that countries that are more open and have more effective government report higher productivity premia. However, the level of development per se does not appear to be an explanation for the observed cross-country differences.exports; productivity; micro data; international comparison