Antioxidant Capacity and Antimicrobial Activity of Commercial Samples of Guava Leaves (\u3cem\u3ePsidium guajava\u3c/em\u3e)

Psidium guajava is a small tree native to South and Central America. Guava leaves have traditionally been used for treating different illnesses. These benefits can be attributed to phenolics and flavonoids produced by guava. The chemical composition of guava leaf extracts was correlated with biological activity. Total phenolics, total flavonoids, ABTS/DPPH, TZM-bl, plaque reduction, XTT, spectrophotometric and Kirby-Bauer assays were used to test phenols, flavonoids, antioxidant properties, antiviral activity, cytotoxicity, and antibacterial activity, respectively. The median cytotoxicity concentration and half-maximal effective concentration values were obtained in order to determine antiviral selectivity against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and herpes simplex virus type 1. Antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis were evaluated using a spectrophotometric assay and Kirby-Bauer test. The guava leaf extracts had a high phenol (0.8 to 2.1 GAE mg/mL) and flavonoid (62.7 to 182.1 Rutin Eq mg/g DW) content that correlated with high antioxidant capacity and selective antiviral activity (therapeutic index values above 10). Results of antibacterial tests indicated that the extracts have activity against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria

MODELOS EXITOSOS EN EL MUNDO PARA EL CONTROL DEL DESEMPLEO

En un mundo lleno de crisis económicas, uno de los problemas que más llama la atención es el desempleo,cada país toma distintas decisiones para poder dar solución a este tema, teniendo en cuanta esto, el presenteartículo busca caracterizar modelos exitosos en el mundo para controlar el desempleo, se mencionan que estrategiashan empleado algunos países para reducir los márgenes de desocupación.Para poder llevar a caboesta labor hizo una profunda investigación sobre el tema; se realizó una revisión documental en los principalesentes latinoamericanos y europeos para la lucha contra el desempleo. Al examinar los modelos económicosde algunos países, se observó que cada uno de ellos le presta especial atención a este tema, se lograron encontrarestrategias comunes entre algunos países y tendencias similares para lograr solucionar este problema.Como ya se mencionó, dentro del análisis realizado, se pudieron determinar unos patrones usados por países asiáticoscomo China que es una potencia mundial, en este país se observó que dedican esfuerzos para que su población se eduquey a su vez, el país como macro empresa es el principal generador de empleo.En la Unión Europea se observó al igualque en Asia que la principal estrategia usada por estos países se basa en guiar sus mayores esfuerzos en la educaciónde su población, además de esto busca incentivar la inversión extranjera en sus países por medio de reducciones en lasasignaciones tributarias, así disminuyen las importaciones y logran generar empleo,Todas estas acciones tomadas porestos países, acompañadas de algunas otras medidas que se ajusten a la realidad de cada país, pueden ayudar a que elíndice global de desempleo disminuya y por consecuencia aumente el nivel de vida de los habitantes a nivel mundial.PALABRAS CLAVE: Control, desempleo, disminución, estrategia, modelos, mundo.ABSTRACTIn a world full of economic crisis, one of the most striking problems is unemployment, each country makes differentdecisions to give solution to this issue, considering this, the present article seeks to characterize successful modelsin the world to control unemployment, mentions what strategies have been used by some countries to reduce theunemployment rate.To carry out this task there was made a deep research on the subject; a documental review wasconducted in the main Latin America and European organizations that fight against unemployment. Examining theeconomic models of some countries it was observed that each of them pays special attention to this issue. There werefound common strategies among some countries and similar tendencies to solve this problemAs already mentioned, within the analysis, it was possible to state some patterns used by Asian countries such as China,which is a world power, in this country it was observed that many efforts are dedicated to educate its populationand at the same time, the country as a macro company is the main employment source.In the European Union it wasobserved as in Asia, that the main strategy used by these countries is based on guiding the greatest efforts in educationof their population, in addition to this, they seek to encourage foreign investment in their countries through reductionsin tax allocations, thus decreasing imports and managing to generate employment.All of these actions takenby these countries, accompanied by some other measures that adapt to each country reality, can help to decreaseunemployment rate and consequently increase the living standard of people around the world.KEYWORDS:Control, decrease, models, strategies, unemployment, world

Interleukin-33-activated basophils promote asthma by regulating Th2 cell entry into lung tissue

Asthma is characterized by lung eosinophilia, remodeling, and mucus plugging, controlled by adaptive Th2 effector cells secreting IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13. Inhaled house dust mite (HDM) causes the release of barrier epithelial cytokines that activate various innate immune cells like DCs and basophils that can promote Th2 adaptive immunity directly or indirectly. Here, we show that basophils play a crucial role in the development of type 2 immunity and eosinophilic inflammation, mucus production, and bronchial hyperreactivity in response to HDM inhalation in C57Bl/6 mice. Interestingly, conditional depletion of basophils during sensitization did not reduce Th2 priming or asthma inception, whereas depletion during allergen challenge did. During the challenge of sensitized mice, basophil-intrinsic IL-33/ST2 signaling, and not FcεRI engagement, promoted basophil IL-4 production and subsequent Th2 cell recruitment to the lungs via vascular integrin expression. Basophil-intrinsic loss of the ubiquitin modifying molecule Tnfaip3, involved in dampening IL-33 signaling, enhanced key asthma features. Thus, IL-33-activated basophils are gatekeepers that boost allergic airway inflammation by controlling Th2 tissue entry.</p

Progressive Shifts in the Gut Microbiome Reflect Prediabetes and Diabetes Development in a Treatment-Naive Mexican Cohort.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a global epidemic that affects more than 8% of the world\u27s population and is a leading cause of death in Mexico. Diet and lifestyle are known to contribute to the onset of T2D. However, the role of the gut microbiome in T2D progression remains uncertain. Associations between microbiome composition and diabetes are confounded by medication use, diet, and obesity. Here we present data on a treatment-naive cohort of 405 Mexican individuals across varying stages of T2D severity. Associations between gut bacteria and more than 200 clinical variables revealed a defined set of bacterial genera that were consistent biomarkers of T2D prevalence and risk. Specifically, gradual increases in blood glucose levels, beta cell dysfunction, and the accumulation of measured T2D risk factors were correlated with the relative abundances of four bacterial genera. In a cohort of 25 individuals, T2D treatment-predominantly metformin-reliably returned the microbiome to the normoglycemic community state. Deep clinical characterization allowed us to broadly control for confounding variables, indicating that these microbiome patterns were independent of common T2D comorbidities, like obesity or cardiovascular disease. Our work provides the first solid evidence for a direct link between the gut microbiome and T2D in a critically high-risk population. In particular, we show that increased T2D risk is reflected in gradual changes in the gut microbiome. Whether or not these T2D-associated changes in the gut contribute to the etiology of T2D or its comorbidities remains to be seen

C2D Spitzer-IRS spectra of disks around T Tauri stars: I. Silicate emission and grain growth

Infrared ~5--35 um spectra for 40 solar-mass T Tauri stars and 7 intermediate-mass Herbig Ae stars with circumstellar disks were obtained using the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the c2d IRS survey. This work complements prior spectroscopic studies of silicate infrared emission from disks, which were focused on intermediate-mass stars, with observations of solar-mass stars limited primarily to the 10 um region. The observed 10 and 20 um silicate feature strengths/shapes are consistent with source-to-source variations in grain size. A large fraction of the features are weak and flat, consistent with um-sized grains indicating fast grain growth (from 0.1--1.0 um in radius). In addition, approximately half of the T Tauri star spectra show crystalline silicate features near 28 and 33 um indicating significant processing when compared to interstellar grains. A few sources show large 10-to-20 um ratios and require even larger grains emitting at 20 um than at 10 um. This size difference may arise from the difference in the depth into the disk probed by the two silicate emission bands in disks where dust settling has occurred. The 10 um feature strength vs. shape trend is not correlated with age or Halpha equivalent width, suggesting that some amount of turbulent mixing and regeneration of small grains is occurring. The strength vs. shape trend is related to spectral type, however, with M stars showing significantly flatter 10 um features (larger grain sizes) than A/B stars. The connection between spectral type and grain size is interpreted in terms of the variation in the silicate emission radius as a function of stellar luminosity, but could also be indicative of other spectral-type dependent factors (e.g, X-rays, UV radiation, stellar/disk winds, etc.).Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication by ApJ, formatted with emulateapj using revtex4 v4.

Green salad intake is associated with improved oral cancer survival and lower soluble CD44 levels

Deficiencies in fruit and vegetable intake have been associated with oral cancer (oral cavity and oropharyngeal). Salivary rinses contain measurable biomarkers including soluble CD44 (solCD44) and total protein, which are known markers of oral cancer risk. This study investigates the effect of nutritional factors on solCD44 and protein levels to evaluate oral cancer risk and survival. We evaluated solCD44 and protein levels from 150 patients with oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and 150 frequency-matched controls. We subsequently characterized the effect of food group consumption and these biomarkers on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Patients reported eating fewer servings of salad (p = 0.015), while controls reported eating fewer servings of potatoes (p \u3c 0.001). Oral cancer patients who consumed at least one serving per week of green salad were found to have significantly lower CD44 levels than those who ate salad less frequently (mean of log2[solCD44]1.73 versus 2.25, p = 0.014). Patients who consumed at least one serving per week of “salad or other vegetables” had significantly longer PFS (median 43.5 versus 9.1 months, p = 0.003, adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 0.39 p = 0.014) and OS (median 83.6 versus 10 months, p = 0.008, adjusted HR = 0.04 p = 0.029). These findings suggest that dietary factors, namely greater green salad and vegetable intake, may be associated with lower CD44 levels and better prognosis in oral cancer patients

Multidrug transporter MRP4/ABCC4 as a key determinant of pancreatic cancer aggressiveness

Recent findings show that MRP4 is critical for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cell proliferation. Nevertheless, the significance of MRP4 protein levels and function in PDAC progression is still unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the role of MRP4 in PDAC tumor aggressiveness. Bioinformatic studies revealed that PDAC samples show higher MRP4 transcript levels compared to normal adjacent pancreatic tissue and circulating tumor cells express higher levels of MRP4 than primary tumors. Also, high levels of MRP4 are typical of high-grade PDAC cell lines and associate with an epithelial-mesenchymal phenotype. Moreover, PDAC patients with high levels of MRP4 depict dysregulation of pathways associated with migration, chemotaxis and cell adhesion. Silencing MRP4 in PANC1 cells reduced tumorigenicity and tumor growth and impaired cell migration. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that MRP4 silencing alters PANC1 gene expression, mainly dysregulating pathways related to cell-to-cell interactions and focal adhesion. Contrarily, MRP4 overexpression significantly increased BxPC-3 growth rate, produced a switch in the expression of EMT markers, and enhanced experimental metastatic incidence. Altogether, our results indicate that MRP4 is associated with a more aggressive phenotype in PDAC, boosting pancreatic tumorigenesis and metastatic capacity, which could finally determine a fast tumor progression in PDAC patients.Fil: Sahores, Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: Carozzo, A.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: May, M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: Gomez, Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: Di Siervi, Nicolás. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: de Sousa Serro, Maximiliano Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: Yaneff, Agustín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez Gonzalez, Angela Paola. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Abba, Martín Carlos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Inmunológicas Básicas y Aplicadas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Shayo, Carina Claudia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Davio, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; Argentin

Análisis de la transmisión de tramas STM-N sobre un enlace de fibra óptica DWDM

En este trabajo se presenta un análisis del desempeño de la capa física de un enlace DWDM de 66 km de fibra óptica monomodo sobre la cual se implementa un sistema SDH para envío de módulos STM-1 a 155 Mbps. Se muestran los resultados de la simulación computacional en Optisystem 7.0 (Versión Evaluación) para analizar las características de un sistema DWDM a una velocidad de 2.5 Gbps equivalente al envío de módulos STM-16. Los resultados de diagramas de ojo y BER muestran que es posible la distinción entre bits cuando el ruido térmico en el detector es inferior a 1x10-19 W/Hz. Se analizan mediciones experimentales de Jitter y su correspondiente comparación con el valor normatizado por la ITU-T para módulos STM-1. Se propone el uso de más longitudes de onda para aprovechar al máximo la capacidad de transmisión de la fibra o la instalación de interfaces de mayor velocidad en los extremos del enlace para el incremento del ancho de banda disponible.In this work, we present an analysis of physical layer performance of a DWDM-link of 66 km of single-mode optical fiber on which is implemented a SDH system to send STM-1 at 155 Mbps. We show the computational simulation in Optisystem 7.0 (Evaluation Version) to analyze the DWDM system characteristic at 2.5 Gbps equivalent to a STM-16 frame. The results of the eye diagram and BER show that is possible to distinguish between bits when the detector thermal-noise is less than 1x10-19W/Hz. We analyze experimental measurements of jitter and its corresponding comparison with the value normalized by the ITU-T for a STM-1 frame. The use of more wavelengths is proposed to maximize the transmission capacity of fiber optics or installation of interfaces with high capacity for increasing the available bandwidth

Contribution of common and rare variants to bipolar disorder susceptibility in extended pedigrees from population isolates.

Current evidence from case/control studies indicates that genetic risk for psychiatric disorders derives primarily from numerous common variants, each with a small phenotypic impact. The literature describing apparent segregation of bipolar disorder (BP) in numerous multigenerational pedigrees suggests that, in such families, large-effect inherited variants might play a greater role. To identify roles of rare and common variants on BP, we conducted genetic analyses in 26 Colombia and Costa Rica pedigrees ascertained for bipolar disorder 1 (BP1), the most severe and heritable form of BP. In these pedigrees, we performed microarray SNP genotyping of 838 individuals and high-coverage whole-genome sequencing of 449 individuals. We compared polygenic risk scores (PRS), estimated using the latest BP1 genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics, between BP1 individuals and related controls. We also evaluated whether BP1 individuals had a higher burden of rare deleterious single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and rare copy number variants (CNVs) in a set of genes related to BP1. We found that compared with unaffected relatives, BP1 individuals had higher PRS estimated from BP1 GWAS statistics (P = 0.001 ~ 0.007) and displayed modest increase in burdens of rare deleterious SNVs (P = 0.047) and rare CNVs (P = 0.002 ~ 0.033) in genes related to BP1. We did not observe rare variants segregating in the pedigrees. These results suggest that small-to-moderate effect rare and common variants are more likely to contribute to BP1 risk in these extended pedigrees than a few large-effect rare variants

Understanding the relationship between soundscape and landscape features in a Tropical Andean environment, Colombia

The acoustic component of the landscape (soundscape) has been suggested as an indicator of landscape conditions as it has been related to physical, biological and anthropogenic features of the local environment. Despite of acoustic indices have been used as measurements of soundscape complexity, their relationship with landscape features has shown to be highly variable and not direct. This relationship has not been examined on the tropical Andes then it is not clear if soundscape can be a reliable indicator of landscape conditions. In this study, we assess the relationship between 14 acoustic indices and landscape conditions in an area on the northern Andes of Colombia. This region is highly fragmented and characterized for a highly diverse community of animals and plants thus representing an excellent opportunity to test such relationship. Soundscape recordings were obtained from 31 randomly selected sites surveyed among May and July 2017. A Song Meter SM4 device was deployed at each site for five consecutive days, and programmed to collect 1-min recordings every 15 minutes for a total of 95 samples per day. Recordings were obtained as monaural 16 bits and at a sampling rate of 22.05 kHz. Out of 14 indices, we calculated 9 non-correlated acoustic indices for each 1-min recording and selected the maximum value per hour to estimate the hourly average over the five days at each site. Thirteen landscape features were derived from satellite images and metrics describing vegetation, fragmentation, water availability, terrain, and soil attributes at 100 m radius around each site. Indices did not present a similar pattern of variation with respect to landscape conditions. Acoustic evenness (AE) and temporal entropy (TE) indices were related to changes in terrain conditions, while acoustic diversity index (ADI) was associated to fragmentation. The bioacoustic index (BI), acoustic complexity index (ACI), and the number of peaks (NP) were positively related with water availability. Our results suggest that in Andean environments specific acoustic indices could be connected to particular aspects of landscape