The Atapuerca sites and the Ibeas hominids

The Atapuerca railway Trench and Ibeas sites near Burgos, Spain, are cave fillings that include a series of deposits ranging from below the Matuyama/Bruhnes reversal up to the end of Middle Pleistocene. The lowest fossil-bearing bed in the Trench contains an assemblage of large and small Mammals including Mimomys savini, Pitymys gregaloides, Pliomys episcopalis, Crocuta crocuta, Dama sp. and Megacerini; the uppermost assemblage includes Canis lupus, Lynx spelaea, Panthera (Leo) fossilis, Felis sylvestris, Equus caballus steinheimensis, E.c. germanicus, Pitymys subtenaneus, Microtus arvalis agrestis, Pliomys lenki, and also Panthera toscana, Dicerorhinus bemitoechus, Bison schoetensacki, which are equally present in the lowest level. The biostratigraphic correlation and dates of the sites are briefly discussed, as are the paleoclimatic interpretation of the Trench sequences. Stone artifacts are found in several layers; the earliest occurrences correspond to the upper beds containing Mimomys savini. A set of preserved human occupation floors has been excavated in the top fossil-bearing beds. The stone-tool assemblages of the upper levels are of upper-medial Acheulean to Charentian tradition. The rich bone breccia SH, in the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo, Ibeas de Juarros, is a derived deposit, due to a mud flow that dispersed and carried the skeletons of many carnivores and humans. The taxa represented are: Vrsus deningeri (largely dominant), Panthera (Leo) fossilis, Vulpes vulpes, Homo sapiens var. Several traits of both mandibular and cranial remains are summarized. Preliminary attempts at dating suggest that the Ibeas fossil man is older than the Last Interglacial, or oxygen-isotope stage 5

Coeficiente intelectual y factores asociados en niños escolarizados en la ciudad de medellín, colombia

Objetivo Analizar el coeficiente intelectual y los factores asociados en niños escolarizados de 6 a 8 años en las comunas Nororiental y Norocidental de la ciudad de Medellín-Colombia. Materiales y Métodos Se realizó un muestreo aleatorio simple, polietápico y estratificado según grado escolar y comuna, la muestra estuvo constituida por 423 niños de ambos sexos. El coeficiente intelectual se evaluó con la Escala de Inteligencia Wechsler para Niños WISC-IV y la estimulación psicosocial con Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME). Para la valoración del estado nutricional se utilizó las normas de referencia y puntos de corte de la OMS.Resultados Los factores de riesgo que explican las puntuaciones en el Coeficiente Intelectual Total y sus índices fueron: historia de problemas académicos de la madre y padre e historia de problemas de comportamiento de los hermanos, alcoholismo de la madre durante el embarazo y conductas agresivas en el hogar. Conclusión En los niños que cursan los primeros años de escolaridad en las dos comunas más pobres de Medellín, el coeficiente intelectual y sus índices se encuentra correlacionado con factores de antecedencia psicosocial y conductas agresivas en el hogar

Virus Replication as a Phenotypic Version of Polynucleotide Evolution

In this paper we revisit and adapt to viral evolution an approach based on the theory of branching process advanced by Demetrius, Schuster and Sigmund ("Polynucleotide evolution and branching processes", Bull. Math. Biol. 46 (1985) 239-262), in their study of polynucleotide evolution. By taking into account beneficial effects we obtain a non-trivial multivariate generalization of their single-type branching process model. Perturbative techniques allows us to obtain analytical asymptotic expressions for the main global parameters of the model which lead to the following rigorous results: (i) a new criterion for "no sure extinction", (ii) a generalization and proof, for this particular class of models, of the lethal mutagenesis criterion proposed by Bull, Sanju\'an and Wilke ("Theory of lethal mutagenesis for viruses", J. Virology 18 (2007) 2930-2939), (iii) a new proposal for the notion of relaxation time with a quantitative prescription for its evaluation, (iv) the quantitative description of the evolution of the expected values in in four distinct "stages": extinction threshold, lethal mutagenesis, stationary "equilibrium" and transient. Finally, based on these quantitative results we are able to draw some qualitative conclusions.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1110.336

Management of a ruptured epidural catheter, an anesthesiologist's dilemma: a case report

Epidural anesthesia is a widely used anesthetic technique in lower extremity surgeries although it is a relatively safe procedure, it can have complications, such as rupture of the epidural catheter. This is a 69-year-old male patient with a diagnosis of Wagner IV diabetic foot is presented, which was scheduled for left supracondylar amputation in which after epidural block, retention of the catheter tip in the epidural space at level L2-L3 was seen, so hemi laminectomy was performed in a second surgical stage in L2 and removal of the epidural catheter. Ideally a broken needle should be removed as soon as possible

Microstructure of an Extruded Third-Generation Snack Made from a Whole Blue Corn and Corn Starch Mixture

Blue corn is a potential material for expanded snack production. Whole blue corn meal was mixed with corn starch and processed by extrusion to produce a third-generation snack. Optimum extrusion conditions were calculated with the response surface methodology using expansion index (EI), penetration force (PF), specific mechanical energy (SME) and total anthocyanins content (TAC). Optimum conditions (zone 1, 67°C; cooking zone, 123°C; zone 3, 75°C; feed moisture, 24.6%) were used to extrude the mixture in a single-screw extruder, and EI,PF,SME and TAC of the expanded pellet were compared against predicted optimum values. Starch structural changes in pellets and expanded were analyzed with DSC, viscosity profiles, x-ray diffraction and SEM. Extruded pellet did not differ (p>0.05) from the predicted. However, TAC was lower (p<0.05) in the expanded pellet. Structural analyses showed damage starch granular structure during extrusion and pellet expansion. Blue corn is a promising material for production of third-generation snacks

A genome-wide association study follow-up suggests a possible role for PPARG in systemic sclerosis susceptibility

Introduction: A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) comprising a French cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) reported several non-HLA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) showing a nominal association in the discovery phase. We aimed to identify previously overlooked susceptibility variants by using a follow-up strategy.<p></p> Methods: Sixty-six non-HLA SNPs showing a P value <10-4 in the discovery phase of the French SSc GWAS were analyzed in the first step of this study, performing a meta-analysis that combined data from the two published SSc GWASs. A total of 2,921 SSc patients and 6,963 healthy controls were included in this first phase. Two SNPs, PPARG rs310746 and CHRNA9 rs6832151, were selected for genotyping in the replication cohort (1,068 SSc patients and 6,762 healthy controls) based on the results of the first step. Genotyping was performed by using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays. Results: We observed nominal associations for both PPARG rs310746 (PMH = 1.90 × 10-6, OR, 1.28) and CHRNA9 rs6832151 (PMH = 4.30 × 10-6, OR, 1.17) genetic variants with SSc in the first step of our study. In the replication phase, we observed a trend of association for PPARG rs310746 (P value = 0.066; OR, 1.17). The combined overall Mantel-Haenszel meta-analysis of all the cohorts included in the present study revealed that PPARG rs310746 remained associated with SSc with a nominal non-genome-wide significant P value (PMH = 5.00 × 10-7; OR, 1.25). No evidence of association was observed for CHRNA9 rs6832151 either in the replication phase or in the overall pooled analysis.<p></p> Conclusion: Our results suggest a role of PPARG gene in the development of SSc