ProBiota | Serie Técnica y Didáctica | Lista de peces de la provincia de Entre Ríos

La provincia de Entre Ríos, con una superficie de 78.781 km2, cuenta con una red hidrográfica intrincada, conformada por ríos y arroyos que surcan el territorio provincial en todas direcciones. La particular morfología del terreno, una llanura con suaves ondulaciones que no superan los 100 metros de altura, permite diferenciar cuatro vertientes en suelo entrerriano: Oeste o del Paraná, Central o del Gualeguay, Este o del Uruguay y Meridional, al sur de Diamante. Estas vertientes comprenden doce cuencas hidrográficas, tributarias de los dos grandes cursos que limitan la provincia, el río Paraná, al oeste y el río Uruguay, al este. Esta provincia se halla dentro del área de mayor diversidad ictiofaunística de la Argentina (López et al., 2005); ubicándose dentro de la provincia Párano-Platense (Ringuelet, 1975) o la provincia de los Grandes Ríos (López et al., 2008). Esta región cuenta con una amplia heterogeneidad ambiental que incide positivamente sobre la riqueza específica, así como en la morfología, fisiología y el comportamiento de los peces (Bonetto, 1986; Rossi et al., 2007). Los antecedentes existentes son referidos a la composición íctica del río Paraná medio y su llanura aluvial o del río Uruguay medio e inferior (ver López et al., 2006). Las cuencas interiores de la provincia de Entre Ríos han sido escasamente estudiadas y la mayoría de los trabajos se refieren a tributarios del río Uruguay y en menor medida para tributarios del Paraná. En los trabajos de síntesis de López et al. (2005); Demonte & Arias (2005) y Aceñolaza et al. (2008), se analizó la información disponible generando listas comentadas de la ictiofauna entrerriana. Ésto ha determinado que, en los últimos años el número de especies citadas para Entre Ríos se haya incrementado considerablemente. El objetivo de este trabajo es actualizar, a partir de datos propios y bibliográficos, la distribución de las especies dentro del territorio provincial dando como resultado una lista ictiofaunistíca.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Hacia un control inmunológico de la toxocariasis: inmunoprotección en canes con antígenos de Toxocara canis

Tanto en perros como en seres humanos la toxocariasis se controla con el uso de drogas antiparasitarias. Su continuo uso produce resistencia en el hospedero. El perro es fundamental en la contaminación del ambiente con huevos de Toxocara canis y posterior transmisión accidental de ellos al hombre. Interrumpir la cadena epidemiológica de transmisión es primordial. En este ensayo preliminar se investigó la inmunoprotección en canes con antígenos de T. canis. Se inocularon cinco perros: dos (una hembra y un macho) con antígenos de excreción-secreción, dos hembras con antígenos escondidos y un macho destinado como control. A los 15 días de la segunda dosis, todos los animales fueron infectados con 500 huevos larvados de T. canis. A los 25 días los perros fueron desparasitados, registrándose la carga parasitaria como indicador de efectividad de la inoculación. Todos mostraron huevos en el día 25 post desafío y la posterior negativización a los 20 días en los inmunizados. En el perro control, la cantidad de huevos fue mayor en el día 25 post desafío que en los animales del grupo experimental y aumentó aún más en los días posteriores. Estos resultados iniciales permiten estimular los estudios de selección de antígenos e inmunoprotección con miras a la obtención de un sistema vacunal para canes. La bibliografía internacional no muestra experiencias similares en la unidad T. canis-perro

FACT-MNG: tumor site specific web-based outcome instrument for meningioma patients

To formulate Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Meningioma (FACT-MNG), a web-based tumor site-specific outcome instrument for assessing intracranial meningioma patients following surgical resection or stereotactic radiosurgery. We surveyed the relevant literature available on intracranial meningioma surgery and subsequent outcomes (38 papers), making note of which, if any, QOL/outcome instruments were utilized. None of the surgveyed papers included QOL assessment specific to tumor site. We subsequently developed questions that were relevant to the signs and symptoms that characterize each of 11 intracranial meningioma sites, and incorporated them into a modified combination of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Brain (FACT-BR) and SF36 outcome instruments, thereby creating a new tumor site-specific outcome instrument, FACT-MNG. With outcomes analysis of surgical and radiosurgical treatments becoming more important, measures of the adequacy and success of treatment are needed. FACT-MNG represents a first effort to formalize such an instrument for meningioma patients. Questions specific to tumor site will allow surgeons to better assess specific quality of life issues not addressed in the past by more general questionnaires

A Low Dimensional Description of Globally Coupled Heterogeneous Neural Networks of Excitatory and Inhibitory Neurons

Neural networks consisting of globally coupled excitatory and inhibitory nonidentical neurons may exhibit a complex dynamic behavior including synchronization, multiclustered solutions in phase space, and oscillator death. We investigate the conditions under which these behaviors occur in a multidimensional parametric space defined by the connectivity strengths and dispersion of the neuronal membrane excitability. Using mode decomposition techniques, we further derive analytically a low dimensional description of the neural population dynamics and show that the various dynamic behaviors of the entire network can be well reproduced by this reduced system. Examples of networks of FitzHugh-Nagumo and Hindmarsh-Rose neurons are discussed in detail

Does Environmental Enrichment Reduce Stress? An Integrated Measure of Corticosterone from Feathers Provides a Novel Perspective

Enrichment is widely used as tool for managing fearfulness, undesirable behaviors, and stress in captive animals, and for studying exploration and personality. Inconsistencies in previous studies of physiological and behavioral responses to enrichment led us to hypothesize that enrichment and its removal are stressful environmental changes to which the hormone corticosterone and fearfulness, activity, and exploration behaviors ought to be sensitive. We conducted two experiments with a captive population of wild-caught Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) to assess responses to short- (10-d) and long-term (3-mo) enrichment, their removal, and the influence of novelty, within the same animal. Variation in an integrated measure of corticosterone from feathers, combined with video recordings of behaviors, suggests that how individuals perceive enrichment and its removal depends on the duration of exposure. Short- and long-term enrichment elicited different physiological responses, with the former acting as a stressor and birds exhibiting acclimation to the latter. Non-novel enrichment evoked the strongest corticosterone responses of all the treatments, suggesting that the second exposure to the same objects acted as a physiological cue, and that acclimation was overridden by negative past experience. Birds showed weak behavioral responses that were not related to corticosterone. By demonstrating that an integrated measure of glucocorticoid physiology varies significantly with changes to enrichment in the absence of agonistic interactions, our study sheds light on potential mechanisms driving physiological and behavioral responses to environmental change

SPARC 2018 Internationalisation and collaboration : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2018 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the launch of our Doctoral School, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 100 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

SPARC 2017 retrospect & prospects : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2017 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the 50th anniversary of Salford as a University, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 130 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to exploit this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas to your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

Molecular control of HIV-1 postintegration latency: implications for the development of new therapeutic strategies

The persistence of HIV-1 latent reservoirs represents a major barrier to virus eradication in infected patients under HAART since interruption of the treatment inevitably leads to a rebound of plasma viremia. Latency establishes early after infection notably (but not only) in resting memory CD4+ T cells and involves numerous host and viral trans-acting proteins, as well as processes such as transcriptional interference, RNA silencing, epigenetic modifications and chromatin organization. In order to eliminate latent reservoirs, new strategies are envisaged and consist of reactivating HIV-1 transcription in latently-infected cells, while maintaining HAART in order to prevent de novo infection. The difficulty lies in the fact that a single residual latently-infected cell can in theory rekindle the infection. Here, we review our current understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the establishment and maintenance of HIV-1 latency and in the transcriptional reactivation from latency. We highlight the potential of new therapeutic strategies based on this understanding of latency. Combinations of various compounds used simultaneously allow for the targeting of transcriptional repression at multiple levels and can facilitate the escape from latency and the clearance of viral reservoirs. We describe the current advantages and limitations of immune T-cell activators, inducers of the NF-κB signaling pathway, and inhibitors of deacetylases and histone- and DNA- methyltransferases, used alone or in combinations. While a solution will not be achieved by tomorrow, the battle against HIV-1 latent reservoirs is well- underway