Diagnóstico antenatal de la madurez pulmonar fetal en embarazos normales y patológicos

Hemos realizado un estudio de madurez fetal, en muestras de líquido amniótico obtenido en 112 mujeres en las que el parto se produjo antes de transcurridos 7 días tras la amniocentesis. Comparamos el test de Clements, el estudio de células naranaja, la DO a 650 y 400 NM y la determinación de creatinina, con el cociente lecitina/ esfingomielina. El test de Clements y la determinación de DO presentan una buena correlación con el cociente L/E

Ovulation failure in a Colombian Paso fino Mare : A combined antihomotoxic homeopathic therapy and hormonal treatment. A case report

ABSTRACT: Ovulation failure is one of the most frequent causes of infertility in mares. In the present case we report a six-year-old Colombian Paso Fino maiden Mare that was attended for breeding purposes with a previous history of ovulation failure. At ultrasound (US) examination of the reproductive tract and ovaries the left ovary measured 15 x 13 cm and a pathologic 13 x 11 cm diameter anecoic structure was diagnosed. The right ovary was found of normal size, and the uterus was found flacid. An anti homotoxic theraphy with Ovarium compositum®, Damiana injeel®, Cerebrum compositum®, and Phosphor hommacord® for 1½ months and FK (neural) therapy (twice/15 days) were then established, the ovary size was reduced, and softening of the follicular wall and a slight uterine response were observed. After 1½ month, the left ovary had 13 x 11 cm diameter and showed a 9 x 8 cm follicle, whereas the right ovary was multifollicular. Serum progesterone, estradiol and testosterone levels were those characteristics of an anestrous mare. The mare was treated with hCG (3.000 UI, i.v./3 days) and 4 days later a corpus luteum was diagnosed by US in the left ovary and serum progesterone levels raised to 14.91 ng/dl. At day 7 after hCG treatment the mare was given PGF2α (9 μg/kg/for two days) intramuscular, estrous was evident 5 days later, and artificial insemination (AI) with fertile semen was practiced resulting in a viable pregnancy as evaluated by ultrasound at day 20; however, this pregnancy was lost at 40 days after AI. The mare returned to estrus 20 days later, she was then inseminated and the resulting pregnancy was confirmed at day 20th resulting in a successful gestation and foaling of a full term viable foal. This report suggests hormonal therapy and alternative medicine could be successfully combined for treatment of specific ovarian pathologies in mares.RESUMEN: La falla ovulatoria es una de las principales causas de infertilidad en yeguas cíclicas. En el presente caso, se describe el seguimiento de una yegua nulípara de paso fino colombiano de seis años que ingresó a consulta para ser sometida a reproducción. Al examen ecográfico se le halló el ovario izquierdo de 15 x 13 cm con una estructura patológica de aspecto anecóico y contenido líquido de 13 x 11 cm, el ovario derecho sin estructuras y el útero flácido. La yegua fue sometida a tratamiento con antihomotóxicos del tipo Ovarium compositum®, Damiana injeel®, Cerebrum compositum®, y Phosphor hommacord® durante 1½ mes, y terapia FK (terapia neural, dos en 15 días), lo cual disminuyó el tamaño del folículo y del ovario, indujo ablandamiento de la pared folicular y leve respuesta uterina. Un mes y medio después, el ovario izquierdo tenía 13 x 11 cm y un folículo de 9 x 8 cm, y el ovario derecho estaba multifolicular. Las concentraciones de progesterona, estradiol y testosterona eran características de anestro. La yegua fue tratada con eCG (3.000 UI/3 días, i.v.), cuatro días después la progesterona ascendió a 14.91 ng/ dl, el examen ecográfico reveló un cuerpo lúteo en el ovario izquierdo y a los siete días fue tratada con PGF2α (9 μg/kg/2 días) intramuscular. Cinco días después la yegua presentó estro, fue inseminada y tuvo una gestación que perdió a los 40 días; luego presentó un nuevo estro a los 20 días, fue inseminada, se le confirmó gestación a los 20 días y tuvo una gestación a término con un potro viable al momento del parto. Este caso sugiere la posibilidad de combinar terapia hormonal con medicina alternativa para el tratamiento de algunos tipos de anormalidades en el funcionamiento ovárico en las yeguas

Massive open online courses in health sciences from Latin American institutions: A need for improvement? [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

Background: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have undergone exponential growth over the past few years, offering free and worldwide access to high-quality education. We identified the characteristics of MOOCs in the health sciences offered by Latin American institutions (LAIs). Methods: We screened the eight leading MOOCs platforms to gather their list of offerings. The MOOCs were classified by region and subject. Then, we obtained the following information: Scopus H-index for each institution and course instructor, QS World University Ranking® 2015/16 of LAI, and official language of the course. Results: Our search identified 4170 MOOCs worldwide. From them, 205 MOOCs were offered by LAIs, and six MOOCs were health sciences related. Most of these courses (n = 115) were offered through Coursera. One health science MOOC was taught by three instructors, of which only one was registered in Scopus (H-index = 0). The remaining five health science MOOCs had solely one instructor (H-index = 4 [0–17]). The Latin American country with the highest participation was Brazil (n = 11). Conclusion: The contribution of LAI to MOOCs in the health sciences is low

Computer-assisted evaluation of sperm vitality in humans

En la actualidad una de cada seis parejas presenta problemas de fertilidad y en el 50% de los casos se debe al factor masculino. A la fecha, el análisis seminal es la única prueba que permite determinar el potencial fértil de un hombre. Entre otros parámetros, la viabilidad espermática es evaluada manualmente presentando una variabilidad debido a la subjetividad producida por la fatiga ocular del experto. El propósito de este trabajo fue desarrollar y validar experimentalmente una herramienta computacional flexible, programable y modular basada en el procesamiento digital de imágenes, para la identificación y clasificación de espermatozoides humanos en una muestra seminal. Las regiones fueron extraídas mediante la técnica de análisis discriminante de Fisher y su clasificación se realizó a través del análisis de agrupamiento y particularmente la técnica de K-medias. Los resultados obtenidos muestran 87,9% de exactitud en la identificación de los espermatozoides vivos y los espermatozoides muertos, 93,4% de efectividad para detectar espermatozoides vivos y 76% de efectividad para detectar los espermatozoides muertos, a partir de un conjunto de 110 imágenes obtenidas de 14 individuos, en comparación con el análisis manual acorde a los procedimientos establecidos por la Organización Mundial de la Salud. La herramienta computacional mostrada aquí contribuye al análisis objetivo de espermatozoides humanos, convirtiéndose en una alternativa a los costosos sistemas comerciales de análisis seminal asistido por computador.Currently one out of six couples present fertility problems, with 50% of the cases being due to the male. Until now, seminal fluid analysis is the only test that evaluates a male’s fertility potential. Among other parameters, sperm viability is manually assessed, which contributes to high data variability as a result of expert subjectivity and eye-fatigue. The purpose of the present study was to develop and experimentally validate a flexible, programmable and modular-based computational tool for digital image processing, identification and classification of human sperm in a semen sample. The regions were extracted using Fisher discriminant analysis and classification methods by cluster analysis and particularly the K-means technique. The results show 87.9% accuracy in identifying living and dead sperm, 93.4% effectiveness in detecting live sperm and 76% effectiveness in detecting dead sperm, from a set of 110 images obtained from 14 individuals, compared with manual analysis according to the procedures established by the World Health Organization. This computational tool contributes to the objective analysis of human sperm, becoming an alternative to expensive commercial systems for computer-assisted semen analysi

Acute health effects after accidental exposure to styrene from drinking water in Spain

OBJECTIVES: We studied subjective health symptoms in a population accidentally exposed to high styrene concentrations in drinking tap water. The contamination occurred during the reparation of a water tank. METHODS: Residents of 27 apartments in two buildings using the contaminated water were contacted. A questionnaire on subjective symptoms was administered to 84 out of 93 persons living in the apartments at the time of the accident. Styrene concentration was measured in samples of water collected two days after the accident. The means of exposure associated with appearance of symptoms were examined through case-control analyses. RESULTS: Styrene in water reached concentrations up to 900 μg/L. Symptoms were reported by 46 persons (attack rate 55 %). The most frequent symptoms were irritation of the throat (26%), nose (19%), eyes (18%) and the skin (14%). General gastrointestinal symptoms were observed with 11% reporting abdominal pain and 7% diarrhea. The factors most strongly associated with symptoms were drinking tap water (OR = 7.8, 95% CI 1.3–48), exposure to vapors from the basement (OR = 10.4, 2.3–47) and eating foods prepared with tap water (OR = 8.6, 1.9–40). All residents in the ground floor reported symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This accidental contamination led to very high styrene concentrations in water and was related to a high prevalence of subjective symptoms of the eyes, respiratory tract and skin. Similar exposures have been described in workers but not in subjects exposed at their residence. Various gastrointestinal symptoms were also observed in this population probably due to a local irritative effect

Medios de comunicación y derecho a la información en Jalisco 2013

En el primer apartado, dedicado al sistema de medios en general, se presentan tres artículos: “Nuevos medios de comunicación en Jalisco”, “c7 ¿medio público o vocero del gobierno?” y “Réquiem por un ombudsman”. El segundo apartado está dedicado al tema de la libertad de expresión; se presentan aquí dos textos: “La vulnerabilidad en un ambiente de cambio. Los ataques a los medios de comunicación en Jalisco durante el año” y “Violaciones a la libertad de expresión de periodistas y trabajadores de medios en Jalisco, 1995-2013”. En el apartado “Derecho a la información, comunicación y política” se ofrecen cuatro textos de índole muy diversa: “La estrategia de comunicación del Gobierno del Estado”, “Diálogos públicos: la discusión de una nueva ley de transparencia para Jalisco”, “Cuando un niño desaparece, el peor enemigo es el tiempo…”, sobre la alerta Amber, y “2013: un año marcado por despidos en diversos periódicos de Guadalajara”. En la sección “Los que se fueron” se presenta la semblanza de Felipe Vicencio. Y en el apartado de “La investigación del observatorio de medios” se comparten los resultados de un trabajo sobre los columnistas de opinión jaliscienses que escriben en la prensa local.ITESO, A.C

The Effects of Governmental Protected Areas and Social Initiatives for Land Protection on the Conservation of Mexican Amphibians

Traditionally, biodiversity conservation gap analyses have been focused on governmental protected areas (PAs). However, an increasing number of social initiatives in conservation (SICs) are promoting a new perspective for analysis. SICs include all of the efforts that society implements to conserve biodiversity, such as land protection, from private reserves to community zoning plans some of which have generated community-protected areas. This is the first attempt to analyze the status of conservation in Latin America when some of these social initiatives are included. The analyses were focused on amphibians because they are one of the most threatened groups worldwide. Mexico is not an exception, where more than 60% of its amphibians are endemic. We used a niche model approach to map the potential and real geographical distribution (extracting the transformed areas) of the endemic amphibians. Based on remnant distribution, all the species have suffered some degree of loss, but 36 species have lost more than 50% of their potential distribution. For 50 micro-endemic species we could not model their potential distribution range due to the small number of records per species, therefore the analyses were performed using these records directly. We then evaluated the efficiency of the existing set of governmental protected areas and established the contribution of social initiatives (private and community) for land protection for amphibian conservation. We found that most of the species have some proportion of their potential ecological niche distribution protected, but 20% are not protected at all within governmental PAs. 73% of endemic and 26% of micro-endemic amphibians are represented within SICs. However, 30 micro-endemic species are not represented within either governmental PAs or SICs. This study shows how the role of land conservation through social initiatives is therefore becoming a crucial element for an important number of species not protected by governmental PAs

Massive Consumption of Gelatinous Plankton by Mediterranean Apex Predators

Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen were used to test the hypothesis that stomach content analysis has systematically overlooked the consumption of gelatinous zooplankton by pelagic mesopredators and apex predators. The results strongly supported a major role of gelatinous plankton in the diet of bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), little tunny (Euthynnus alletteratus), spearfish (Tetrapturus belone) and swordfish (Xiphias gladius). Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the oceanic stage and ocean sunfish (Mola mola) also primarily relied on gelatinous zooplankton. In contrast, stable isotope ratios ruled out any relevant consumption of gelatinous plankton by bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix), blue shark (Prionace glauca), leerfish (Lichia amia), bonito (Sarda sarda), striped dolphin (Stenella caerueloalba) and loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the neritic stage, all of which primarily relied on fish and squid. Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) were confirmed as crustacean consumers. The ratios of stable isotopes in albacore (Thunnus alalunga), amberjack (Seriola dumerili), blue butterfish (Stromaeus fiatola), bullet tuna (Auxis rochei), dolphinfish (Coryphaena hyppurus), horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), mackerel (Scomber scombrus) and pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) were consistent with mixed diets revealed by stomach content analysis, including nekton and crustaceans, but the consumption of gelatinous plankton could not be ruled out completely. In conclusion, the jellyvorous guild in the Mediterranean integrates two specialists (ocean sunfish and loggerhead sea turtles in the oceanic stage) and several opportunists (bluefin tuna, little tunny, spearfish, swordfish and, perhaps, blue butterfish), most of them with shrinking populations due to overfishing

Longer and less overlapping food webs in anthropogenically disturbed marine ecosystems: confirmations from the past

The human exploitation of marine resources is characterised by the preferential removal of the largest species. Although this is expected to modify the structure of food webs, we have a relatively poor understanding of the potential consequences of such alteration. Here, we take advantage of a collection of ancient consumer tissues, using stable isotope analysis and SIBER to assess changes in the structure of coastal marine food webs in the South-western Atlantic through the second half of the Holocene as a result of the sequential exploitation of marine resources by hunter-gatherers, western sealers and modern fishermen. Samples were collected from shell middens and museums. Shells of both modern and archaeological intertidal herbivorous molluscs were used to reconstruct changes in the stable isotopic baseline, while modern and archaeological bones of the South American sea lion Otaria flavescens, South American fur seal Arctocephalus australis and Magellanic penguin Spheniscus magellanicus were used to analyse changes in the structure of the community of top predators. We found that ancient food webs were shorter, more redundant and more overlapping than current ones, both in northern-central Patagonia and southern Patagonia. These surprising results may be best explained by the huge impact of western sealing on pinnipeds during the fur trade period, rather than the impact of fishing on fish populations. As a consequence, the populations of pinnipeds at the end of the sealing period were likely well below the ecosystem's carrying capacity, which resulted in a release of intraspecific competition and a shift towards larger and higher trophic level prey. This in turn led to longer and less overlapping food webs