NF-κΒ and SOD expression in preeclamptic placentas

Background/aim: Preeclampsia is a leading cause of maternal death in the developing world. Our aim was to quantify and compare messenger (mRNA) expression of nuclear factor-kappa beta (NF-κΒ) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in control patients with preeclampsia and without preeclampsia with or without familial hereditary background. Materials and methods: Four groups of patients were formed depending on the presence or absence of preeclampsia and presence or absence of familial history for preeclampsia. NF-κΒ and SOD were measured in human placentas by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The 2–ΔΔct analysis method was used to measure the difference in the relative expression of the target genes in each group of patients. Results: In NF-κΒ expression, there was an increase of 23.35% in the group of women with preeclampsia versus women with preeclampsia without familial history. Regarding SOD, there was a reduction of about 33.33% in the expression in women with preeclampsia with familial history versus women with preeclampsia without familial history. Conclusion: Familial presence of preeclampsia could predispose to altered expression in SOD and NF-κΒ.This project was partially funded by PROMEP/103.5/09/7342, Secretaría de Educación Pública, Mexico, and the Asociación Científica Latina (ASCILA)

A Hybrid Coral Reefs Optimization – Variable Neighborhood Search Approach for the Unequal Area Facility Layout Problem

The Unequal Area Facility Layout Problem (UA-FLP) is a relevant optimization problem related to industrial design, that deals with obtaining the most effective allocation of facilities, that make up the rectangular manufacturing plant layout. The UA-FLP is known to be a hard optimization problem, where meta-heuristic approaches are a good option to obtain competitive solutions. Many of these computational approaches, however, usually fall into local optima, and suffer from lack of diversity in their population, mainly due to the huge search spaces and hard fitness landscapes produced by the traditional representation of UA-FLP. To solve these issues, in this paper we propose a novel hybrid meta-heuristic approach, which combines a Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm (CRO) with a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) and a new representation for the problem, called Relaxed Flexible Bay Structure (RFBS), which simplifies the encoding and makes its fitness landscape more affordable. Thus, the use of VNS allows more intensive exploitation of the searching space with an affordable computational cost, as well as the RFBS allows better management of the free space into the plant layout. This combined strategy has been tested over a set of UA-FLP instances of different sizes, which have been previously tackled in the literature with alternative meta-heuristics. The tests results show very good performance in all cases

Effect of hydrogen bonding and complexation with metal ions on the fluorescence of luotonin A

Fluorescence characteristics of a biologically active natural alkaloid, luotonin A (LuA), were studied by steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic methods. The rate constant of the radiationless deactivation from the singlet-excited state diminished by more than one order of magnitude when the solvent polarity was changed from toluene to water. Dual emission was found in polyfluorinated alcohols of large hydrogen bond donating ability due to photoinitiated proton displacement along the hydrogen bond. In CH 2Cl2, LuA produced both 1:1 and 1:2 hydrogen-bonded complexes with hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) in the ground state. Photoexcitation of the 1:2 complex led to protonated LuA, whose fluorescence appeared at a long wavelength. LuA served as a bidentate ligand forming 1:1 complexes with metal ions in acetonitrile. The stability of the complexes diminished in the series of Cd2+ > Zn2+ > Ag+, and upon competitive binding of water to the metal cations. The effect of chelate formation on the fluorescent properties was revealed. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry and Owner Societies

A novel multi-objective Interactive Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm for the Unequal Area Facility Layout Problem

The Unequal Area Facility Layout Problem (UA-FLP) has been widely analyzed in the literature using several heuristics and meta-heuristics to optimize some qualitative criteria, taking into account different restrictions and constraints. Nevertheless, the subjective opinion of the designer (Decision Maker, DM) has never been considered along with the quantitative criteria and restrictions. This work proposes a novel approach for the UA-FLP based on an Interactive Coral Reefs Optimization (ICRO) algorithm, which combines the simultaneous consideration of both quantitative and qualitative (DM opinion) features. The algorithm implementation is explained in detail, including the way of jointly considering quantitative and qualitative aspects in the fitness function of the problem. The experimental part of the paper illustrates the effect of including qualitative aspects in UA-FLP problems, considering three different hard UA-FLP instances. Empirical results show that the proposed approach is able to incorporate the DM preferences in the obtained layouts, without affecting much to the quantitative part of the solutions

Relación entre parentalidad, depresión, ansiedad y estrés y el fenómeno de la ideación suicida durante la adolescencia

82 p.El presente estudio tiene como objetivo estimar los efectos de las variables parentales de control psicológico, apoyo, demanda, y depresión, ansiedad y estrés sobre la ideación suicida durante la adolescencia. La muestra comprende 243 adolescentes de diez a 17 años de edad (125 mujeres y 118 hombres) que residen en la Comuna de Curepto, Región del Maule, Chile. El estudio es de carácter cuantitativo, transversal y no experimental, buscando establecer la relación entre las variables dependientes ideación suicida en el peor momento de la vida y durante el último mes con las independientes control psicológico madre y padre, apoyo, demanda, ansiedad, estrés, depresión, sexo y edad. Para ésto se realizó un análisis correlacional y de regresión lineal múltiple para analizar las posibles influencias que pueden tener las variables independientes. Se obtuvieron dos principales resultados: 1) el control psicológico del padre y de la madre, y la depresión, ansiedad y estrés se relacionaron positivamente con la ideación suicida durante la adolescencia; 2) el apoyo actúa como factor protector ante la ideación suicida. Adicionalmente, se encontraron diferencias entre ideación suicida y sexo, ideación y adolescencia temprana (diez a catorce años) o media (quince a 17 años), e ideación y situación de pareja de los padres (separados o no), presentando mayor ideación el sexo femenino, los adolescentes que se encuentran en la adolescencia media y aquellos cuyos padres están separados. Palabras Clave Adolescencia, ideación suicida, parentalidad, depresión, ansiedad, estrés

La música sacra instrumental de órgano y el gregoriano: Francisco Correa de Arauxo (1584-1654) y la Salve Regina Solemne

This study approaches on the music introduction and the organ compositions in the catholic cult in the Counter Reformation Age, described by means of one of the more important Spanish musicians in the Baroque time, Francisco Correa de Arauxo, through the analysis of his Salve Regina.Este estudio aborda la introducción de la música y las composiciones de órgano en el culto católico en la época de la Contrarreforma, descrito por medio de uno de los músicos españoles más importantes del Barroco, Francisco Correa del Arauxo, sirviéndose del análisis de la Salve Regina del citado compositor

Social Comparison at Work: The Role of Culture, Type of Organization and Gender

The present study examined social comparisons among employees in Spain (Study 1) and The Netherlands (Study 2). We expected differences in social comparison frequency and dimension between employees from public and private organizations as well as between men and women. In addition, among Dutch workers, we expected social comparisons to be relatively unaffected by the type of organization they participated in and gender differences to be smaller. Several interesting findings emerged. For instance, in Spain, workers in private organizations were found to compare themselves more often than workers in public organizations, whereas, in The Netherlands, this was not the case. Results suggest that social comparisons are significantly affected by national culture, work context and gender. Key words: Social Comparison; Organizations; Gender, Culture Resumé: Dans la présente étude nous avons examiné les comparaisons sociales entre des employés en Espagne (Etude 1) et aux Pays-Bas (Etude 2). Nous nous attendions à des différences dans la fréquence des comparaisons sociales, dans les dimensions de comparaison (effort versus résultats) et dans les objectifs des comparaisons (hommes versus femmes) entre les employés d’organisations publiques et privées ainsi qu’entre les hommes et les femmes. Il s’est trouvé qu’en Espagne, les employés des organisations privées faisaient des comparaisons plus fréquentes que les employés des organisations publiques. En plus, ils comparaient leurs efforts plus souvent que les employés des organisations privés. En revanche, les employés des organisations publiques, et particulièrement les femmes, comparaient leurs résultats plus souvent avec ceux d’autres personnes. Surtout les femmes travaillant dans des organisations privées se comparaient avec des femmes aussi bien qu’avec des hommes. Aux Pays-Bas, ces différences étaient absentes ou beaucoup moins prononcées. Les résultats montrent que les comparaisons sociales sont significativement influencées par culture nationale, type d’organisation et sexe. Mots-clés: Comparaison Sociale; Organisations; Sexe; Cultur

Noncommutative field gas driven inflation

We investigate early time inflationary scenarios in an Universe filled with a dilute noncommutative bosonic gas at high temperature. A noncommutative bosonic gas is a gas composed of bosonic scalar field with noncommutative field space on a commutative spacetime. Such noncommutative field theories was recently introduced as a generalization of quantum mechanics on a noncommutative spacetime. As key features of these theories are Lorentz invariance violation and CPT violation. In the present study we use a noncommutative bosonic field theory that besides the noncommutative parameter $\theta$ shows up a further parameter $\sigma$. This parameter $\sigma$ controls the range of the noncommutativity and acts as a regulator for the theory. Both parameters play a key role in the modified dispersion relations of the noncommutative bosonic field, leading to possible striking consequences for phenomenology. In this work we obtain an equation of state $p=\omega(\sigma,\theta;\beta)\rho$ for the noncommutative bosonic gas relating pressure $p$ and energy density $\rho$, in the limit of high temperature. We analyse possible behaviours for this gas parameters $\sigma$, $\theta$ and $\beta$, so that $-1\leq\omega<-1/3$, which is the region where the Universe enters an accelerated phase.Comment: Reference added. Version to appear in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics - JCA

The paternal transition entails neuroanatomic adaptations that are associated with the father's brain response to his infant cues

The transition into fatherhood is a life-changing event that requires substantial psychological adaptations. In families that include a father figure, sensitive paternal behavior has been shown to positively impact the infant's development. Yet, studies exploring the neuroanatomic adaptations of men in their transition into fatherhood are scarce. The present study used surface-based methods to reanalyze a previously published prospective magnetic resonance imaging dataset comprised of 20 first-time fathers (preconception-to-postpartum) and 17 childless men. We tested if the transition into fatherhood entailed changes in cortical volume, thickness, and area and whether these changes were related to 2 indicators of paternal experience. Specifically, we tested if such changes were associated with (1) the baby's age and/or (2) the fathers' brain activity in response to pictures of their babies compared with an unknown baby. Results indicated that first-time fathers exhibited a significant reduction in cortical volume and thickness of the precuneus. Moreover, higher volume reduction and cortical thinning were associated with stronger brain responses to pictures of their own baby in parental brain regions. This is the first study showing preconception-to-postpartum neuroanatomical adaptations in first-time fathers associated with the father's brain response to cues of his infant.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades project (RTI2018-093952-B-100); Instituto de Salud Carlos III projects (CP16/00096 and PI17/00064); cofunded by European Regional Development Fund, "A way of making Europe" and by "La Caixa" Foundation under the project code LCF/PR/HR19/52160001, and by the European Research Council under the project code 883069. The project ASPIDE has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 801091. M.M.G. and S.S.C. were funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PFIS contract FI18/00255 and Miguel Servet Type I research contract CP16/00096, respectively), and cofunded by European Social Fund "Investing in your future". The Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares is supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript