Levels of insulin and HOMA-IR in adolescents in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

An alarming rise of obesity in adolescents has been observed, placing them at risk of developing resistance to insulin (IR) and its adverse metabolic consequences such as diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2), metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Objective: To know the prevalence of obesity, and the levels of glucose, insulin and HOMA-IR and its association with the BMIz, waist circumference and the pubertal stage in a random sample of adolescents. Materials and methods: 292 adolescents between 12 and 15 years (152 female and 140 male), whose anthropometric measurements (weight, height and waist circumference) were taken, body mass index calculated and Z-score determined. Blood glucose and insulin levels were evaluated from a sample of blood and their HOMA-IR was determined. Results: The results showed that 32.5% were obese, 22.3% were overweight and 23.6% showed adolescent central obesity. Glucose levels (p = 0.016), insulin (p = 0.0001) and HOMA-IR (p = 0.0001) showed significant differences in the group with obesity. Values of the three parameters were increased with the stage of puberty. We found significant differences in the levels of glucose (p = 0.0388), insulin (p = 0.0005) and HOMA-IR (p = 0.0001) between the prepubertal and postpubertal stages

VAMOS: a Pathfinder for the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

VAMOS was a prototype detector built in 2011 at an altitude of 4100m a.s.l. in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The aim of VAMOS was to finalize the design, construction techniques and data acquisition system of the HAWC observatory. HAWC is an air-shower array currently under construction at the same site of VAMOS with the purpose to study the TeV sky. The VAMOS setup included six water Cherenkov detectors and two different data acquisition systems. It was in operation between October 2011 and May 2012 with an average live time of 30%. Besides the scientific verification purposes, the eight months of data were used to obtain the results presented in this paper: the detector response to the Forbush decrease of March 2012, and the analysis of possible emission, at energies above 30 GeV, for long gamma-ray bursts GRB111016B and GRB120328B.Comment: Accepted for pubblication in Astroparticle Physics Journal (20 pages, 10 figures). Corresponding authors: A.Marinelli and D.Zaboro

Micromechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Starch–Wood Particle Composites

The micromechanical properties of injection molded starch–wood particle composites were investigated as a function of particle content and humidity conditions. The composite materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The microhardness of the composites was shown to increase notably with the concentration of the wood particles. In addition,creep behavior under the indenter and temperature dependence were evaluated in terms of the independent contribution of the starch matrix and the wood microparticles to the hardness value. The influence of drying time on the density and weight uptake of the injection-molded composites was highlighted. The results revealed the role of the mechanism of water evaporation, showing that the dependence of water uptake and temperature was greater for the starch–wood composites than for the pure starch sample. Experiments performed during the drying process at 70°C indicated that the wood in the starch composites did not prevent water loss from the samples.Peer reviewe

On the sensitivity of the HAWC observatory to gamma-ray bursts

We present the sensitivity of HAWC to Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). HAWC is a very high-energy gamma-ray observatory currently under construction in Mexico at an altitude of 4100 m. It will observe atmospheric air showers via the water Cherenkov method. HAWC will consist of 300 large water tanks instrumented with 4 photomultipliers each. HAWC has two data acquisition (DAQ) systems. The main DAQ system reads out coincident signals in the tanks and reconstructs the direction and energy of individual atmospheric showers. The scaler DAQ counts the hits in each photomultiplier tube (PMT) in the detector and searches for a statistical excess over the noise of all PMTs. We show that HAWC has a realistic opportunity to observe the high-energy power law components of GRBs that extend at least up to 30 GeV, as it has been observed by Fermi LAT. The two DAQ systems have an energy threshold that is low enough to observe events similar to GRB 090510 and GRB 090902b with the characteristics observed by Fermi LAT. HAWC will provide information about the high-energy spectra of GRBs which in turn could help to understanding about e-pair attenuation in GRB jets, extragalactic background light absorption, as well as establishing the highest energy to which GRBs accelerate particles

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Genetic diversity of HLA system in seven populations from Veracruz, Mexico: Veracruz city, Coatzacoalcos, Córdoba, Orizaba, Poza Rica, Xalapa and rural Veracruz

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 1113 Mexicans from the state of Veracruz living in the cities of Coatzacoalcos (N = 55), Orizaba (N = 60), Córdoba (N = 56), Poza Rica (N = 45), Veracruz (N = 171), Xalapa (N = 187) and rural communities (N = 539) to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies. We found that the most frequent haplotypes include 12 Native American haplotypes. Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components are Native American (64.93 ± 1.27 by ML; 55.10 of Native American haplotypes) and European (26.56 ± 0.89 by ML; 28.38 of European haplotypes), and a relatively high African genetic component (8.52 ± 1.82 by ML; 8.78 of African haplotypes)

Genetic diversity of HLA system in six populations from Mexico City Metropolitan Area, Mexico: Mexico City North, Mexico City South, Mexico City East, Mexico City West, Mexico City Center and rural Mexico City

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 1217 Mexicans from the Mexico City Metropolitan Area living in the northern (N = 751), southern (N = 52), eastern (N = 79), western (N = 33), and central (N = 152) Mexico City, and rural communities (N = 150), to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies. We found that the most frequent haplotypes include 11 Native American haplotypes. Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components are Native American (63.85 ± 1.55 by ML; 57.19 of Native American haplotypes) and European (28.53 ± 3.13 by ML; 28.40 of European haplotypes), and a less apparent African genetic component (7.61 ± 1.96 by ML; 7.17 of African haplotypes)

Genetic diversity of HLA system in two populations from Hidalgo, Mexico: Pachuca and rural Hidalgo

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 122 Mexicans from the state of Hidalgo living in the city of Pachuca (N = 41) and rural communities (N = 81), to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies. We find that the most frequent haplotypes in Hidalgo include eight Native American and one European haplotypes. Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components in Hidalgo are Native American (58.93 ± 2.16 by ML; 54.51 of Native American haplotypes) and European (32.49 ± 2.88 by ML; 28.69 of European haplotypes), and a relatively high African genetic component (8.58 ± 0.93 by ML; 6.97 of African haplotypes)

The immunogenetic diversity of the HLA system in Mexico correlates with underlying population genetic structure

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) allele groups and alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in a total of 15,318 mixed ancestry Mexicans from all the states of the country divided into 78 sample sets, providing information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies and their linkage disequilibrium, as well as admixture estimates and genetic substructure. We identified the presence of 4268 unique HLA extended haplotypes across Mexico and find that the ten most frequent (HF > 1%) HLA haplotypes with significant linkage disequilibrium (Δ’≥0.1) in Mexico (accounting for 20% of the haplotypic diversity of the country) are of primarily Native American ancestry (A*02~B*39~DRB1*04~DQB1*03:02, A*02~B*35~DRB1*08~DQB1*04, A*68~B*39~DRB1*04~DQB1*03:02, A*02~B*35~DRB1*04~DQB1*03:02, A*24~B*39~DRB1*14~DQB1*03:01, A*24~B*35~DRB1*04~DQB1*03:02, A*24~B*39~DRB1*04~DQB1*03:02, A*02~B*40:02~DRB1*04~DQB1*03:02, A*68~B*35~DRB1*04~DQB1*03:02, A*02~B*15:01~DRB1*04~DQB1*03:02). Admixture estimates obtained by a maximum likelihood method using HLA-A/-B/-DRB1 as genetic estimators revealed that the main genetic components in Mexico as a whole are Native American (ranging from 37.8% in the northern part of the country to 81.5% in the southeastern region) and European (ranging from 11.5% in the southeast to 62.6% in northern Mexico). African admixture ranged from 0.0 to 12.7% not following any specific pattern. We were able to detect three major immunogenetic clusters correlating with genetic diversity and differential admixture within Mexico: North, Central and Southeast, which is in accordance with previous reports using genome-wide data. Our findings provide insights into the population immunogenetic substructure of the whole country and add to the knowledge of mixed ancestry Latin American population genetics, important for disease association studies, detection of demographic signatures on population variation and improved allocation of public health resources.1 Introduction 2 Subjects, materials and methods 2.1 Subjects 2.2 HLA typing 2.3 Statistical analysis 2.3.1 HLA allelic and haplotypic diversity 2.3.2 Admixture proportions calculations 2.3.3 Genetic diversity and genetic substructure assessment 3 Results 3.1 HLA allele groups 3.2 Haplotypic diversity 3.3 Admixture estimates 3.4 Genetic diversity and genetic substructure assessment 4 Discussion 4.1 Admixture estimates in Mexican populations and immunogenetic diversity 4.2 The Native American immunogenetic component in Mexican populations 4.3 Implications of the study of alleles and haplotypes of the HLA system in Mexican populations and final considerations 5 Conclusio