Comparison of the eficacy and safety of 4 mg of ondansetron vs. 4 mg of nalbuphine for the treatment of neuraxial morphineinduced pruritus

Objective: To compare the eficacy and safety of 4 mg of ondansetron vs. 4 mg of nalbuphine for the treatment of neuraxial morphine-induced pruritus, in patients at the “Dr. José Eleuterio González” University Hospital from September 2012 to August 2013. Material and methods: A controlled, prospective, randomized study of 28 patients (14 per group) receiving neuraxial morphine analgesia was conducted, which was registered and approved by the ethics Committee of the Institution and patients agreed to participate in the study under informed consent. The results were segmented and contrasted (according to drug) by hypothesis testing; the association was determined by X2 with a 95% conidence interval (CI). Results: Pruritus was effectively resolved in both groups and no signiicant difference was found in the rest of the variables. An increase in the visual analogue scale (eVA) was observed at 6 and 12 hours for the ondansetron group, which was statistically signiicant (p≤0.05), however both groups had an eVA of less than 3. Conclusions: When comparing the eficacy and safety of ondansetron 4 mg vs. nalbuphine 4 mg for the treatment of neuraxial morphine induced pruritus, the only signiicant difference found was the mean eVA at 6 and 12 hours, favoring the ondansetron group. However, both groups scored less than 3 on the eVA. Therefore, we consider that both treatments are effective and safe in the treatment of pruritus caused by neuraxial morphine

Jugando Ando

El presente proyecto empresarial consiste en la comercialización de kits educativos para niños en edad inicial, inicialmente ubicados en Lima metropolitana. Estos Kits constan de juguetes didácticos y clases por medio de nuestra plataforma virtual llamada Jugando Ando. El motivo por el cual estamos llevando este proyecto a cabo es porque hemos detectado que en este último siglo la tecnología se ha vuelto un eje importante para nuestras vidas, sobre todo para los niños que forman parte de la nueva generación Alpha. Generación compuesta por nativos digitales que ven en la tecnología como una manera de ver el mundo. Por este motivo, si bien los medios tecnológicos dentro del núcleo familiar son considerados como un distractor para ellos, podrían ser de gran importancia como medio de enseñanza para su desarrollo. Por ese motivo, deseamos contribuir al brindar contenido educativo de calidad a través de internet y así con ello poder generar mayor demanda en el mercado. En este sentido, para llevar a cabo este cometido e iniciar nuestro negocio contamos con capital propio, sin embargo, requeriremos de un accionista inversor que cubra el 16.67% del total de las acciones con un monto de 19,367 soles. Tal monto estará destinado como inyector de capital para los próximos periodos según el incremento de ventas. Creemos que nuestro proyecto tendrá el éxito deseado porque según nuestros análisis, este es atractivamente rentable para los accionistas. De igual manera, porque Jugando Ando se mantendrá en constante innovación con nuestros servicios y lanzamientos de nuevos productos.This business project consists of the commercialization of educational kits for children of the initial age, initially located in metropolitan Lima. These Kits consist of educational toys and classes through our virtual platform called Jugando Ando. The reason why we are carrying out this project is because we have found that in the last century technology has become an important axis in our lives, especially for children who are part of the new Alpha generation. Generation is made up of digital natives who see technology as a way of seeing the world. For this reason, although technological means within the family nucleus are considered a distraction for them, they could be of great importance as a means of teaching for their development. For this reason, we want to contribute by providing quality educational content through the internet and thus be able to generate greater demand in the market. In this sense, to carry out this task and start our business we have our own capital, however we will require an investor shareholder that covers 16.67% of the total shares with an amount of s/ 19,367 soles. This amount will be used as a capital injector for the next period according to the sales grow. We believe that our project will be successful because according to our analysis, it is attractively profitable for shareholders. And, because Jugando Ando will keep in constant innovation with our services and new product launches.Trabajo de investigació

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

AimAmazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types.LocationAmazonia.TaxonAngiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots).MethodsData for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega-phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran's eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny.ResultsIn the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white-sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R2 = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R2 = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types.Main ConclusionNumerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long-standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location: Amazonia. Taxon: Angiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots). Methods: Data for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega-phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran\u27s eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny. Results: In the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white-sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R$^{2}$ = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R$^{2}$ = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types. Main Conclusion: Numerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long-standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions

The biogeography of the Amazonian tree flora

We describe the geographical variation in tree species composition across Amazonian forests and show how environmental conditions are associated with species turnover. Our analyses are based on 2023 forest inventory plots (1 ha) that provide abundance data for a total of 5188 tree species. Withinplot species composition reflected both local environmental conditions (especially soil nutrients and hydrology) and geographical regions. A broader-scale view of species turnover was obtained by interpolating the relative tree species abundances over Amazonia into 47,441 0.1-degree grid cells. Two main dimensions of spatial change in tree species composition were identified. The first was a gradient between western Amazonia at the Andean forelands (with young geology and relatively nutrient-rich soils) and central–eastern Amazonia associated with the Guiana and Brazilian Shields (with more ancient geology and poor soils). The second gradient was between the wet forests of the northwest and the drier forests in southern Amazonia. Isolines linking cells of similar composition crossed major Amazonian rivers, suggesting that tree species distributions are not limited by rivers. Even though some areas of relatively sharp species turnover were identified, mostly the tree species composition changed gradually over large extents, which does not support delimiting clear discrete biogeographic regions within Amazonia

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Unraveling Amazon tree community assembly using Maximum Information Entropy: a quantitative analysis of tropical forest ecology

In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximization of information entropy provides a framework for the understanding of such complex systems dynamics by a quantitative analysis of important constraints via predictions using least biased probability distributions. We apply it to over two thousand hectares of Amazonian tree inventories across seven forest types and thirteen functional traits, representing major global axes of plant strategies. Results show that constraints formed by regional relative abundances of genera explain eight times more of local relative abundances than constraints based on directional selection for specific functional traits, although the latter does show clear signals of environmental dependency. These results provide a quantitative insight by inference from large-scale data using cross-disciplinary methods, furthering our understanding of ecological dynamics