Late Cenozoic Climate History of the Ross Embayment from the AND-1B Drill Hole: Culmination of Three Decades of Antarctic Margin Drilling

Because of the paucity of exposed rock, the direct physical record of Antarctic Cenozoic glacial history has become known only recently and then largely from offshore shelf basins through seismic surveys and drilling. The number of holes on the continental shelf has been small and largely confined to three areas (McMurdo Sound, Prydz Bay, and Antarctic Peninsula), but even in McMurdo Sound, where Oligocene and early Miocene strata are well cored, the late Cenozoic is poorly known and dated. The latest Antarctic geological drilling program, ANDRILL, successfully cored a 1285-m-long record of climate history spanning the last 13 m.y. from subsea-floor sediment beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS), using drilling systems specially developed for operating through ice shelves. The cores provide the most complete Antarctic record to date of ice-sheet and climate fluctuations for this period of Earth’s history. The >60 cycles of advance and retreat of the grounded ice margin preserved in the AND-1B record the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet since a profound global cooling step in deep-sea oxygen isotope records ~14 m.y.a. A feature of particular interest is a ~90-m-thick interval of diatomite deposited during the warm Pliocene and representing an extended period (~200,000 years) of locally open water, high phytoplankton productivity, and retreat of the glaciers on land

Actividades para promover la gestión crítica de la información de Internet aplicadas a estudiantes de farmacia

Con el fin de promover la adquisición de habilidades y destrezas que permitan al estudiante de Farmacia desarrollar una actitud activa y crítica frente a la información disponible en Internet, así como saber seleccionar las fuentes de información de Internet adecuadas para su formación, se ha llevado a cabo un proyecto de innovación docente (2008PID-UB/115) cuyo objetivo final es fomentar la gestión crítica de la información. Para ello se han diseñado una serie de ejercicios integrados en una actividad basada en casos clínicos, que forma parte de la evaluación continuada de la asignatura de Fisiopatología de la Licenciatura de Farmacia (UB). Se ha evaluado el proyecto a través de las calificaciones obtenidas en las actividades y las encuestas de opinión de un total de 379 estudiantes. Los resultados evidencian que la mayoría de estudiantes (90%) valoran muy positivamente las actividades planteadas, considerando que favorecen su aprendizaje y formación personal, y les aportan criterios útiles y provechosos para el análisis y selección de información biomédica a través de Internet. Por último, cabe destacar que el proyecto planteado ha demostrado ser aplicable a un grupo numeroso de estudiantes de Grado y constituye una estrategia válida para fomentar competencias transversales relacionadas con la gestión de la información, de gran relevancia para el futuro profesional farmacéutico

Subtype-Selective Small Molecule Inhibitors Reveal a Fundamental Role for Nav1.7 in Nociceptor Electrogenesis, Axonal Conduction and Presynaptic Release.

Human genetic studies show that the voltage gated sodium channel 1.7 (Nav1.7) is a key molecular determinant of pain sensation. However, defining the Nav1.7 contribution to nociceptive signalling has been hampered by a lack of selective inhibitors. Here we report two potent and selective arylsulfonamide Nav1.7 inhibitors; PF-05198007 and PF-05089771, which we have used to directly interrogate Nav1.7's role in nociceptor physiology. We report that Nav1.7 is the predominant functional TTX-sensitive Nav in mouse and human nociceptors and contributes to the initiation and the upstroke phase of the nociceptor action potential. Moreover, we confirm a role for Nav1.7 in influencing synaptic transmission in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord as well as peripheral neuropeptide release in the skin. These findings demonstrate multiple contributions of Nav1.7 to nociceptor signalling and shed new light on the relative functional contribution of this channel to peripheral and central noxious signal transmission.The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors [AA, AB, MC, JT, MM, AW, EP, AG, PJC, RD, DP, ZL, BM, CW, NS, RS, PS, NC, DK, RB, ES], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section

Detection of dengue virus serotype 2 in aedes aegypti in Quintana Roo, Mexico, 2011

Abstract. In October 2011, the State Health Department announced that several laboratory-confirmed cases of dengue had occurred among residents in two neighborhoods of Benito Juarez, Quintana Roo State, Mexico. To identify the dengue virus serotype(s) temporally and spatially associated with the cases, entomologic-based virus surveillance was initiated in October 2011 in both neighborhoods. Adult mosquitoes were collected from 88 houses by CDCbackpack aspirator, and all female Aedes aegypti L. (n = 419) were individually homogenized and assayed in pools of as many as 10 by reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using dengue virus-specific primers. Five (12%) of 41 pools were positive for dengue virus RNA. The individual mosquitoes that comprised the pools were analyzed separately by RT-PCR using dengue virus serotype-specific primers. Six mosquitoes were positive for dengue virus serotype-2 (DENV-2) RNA, three of which were collected in the same house. The mean number of female Ae. aegypti collected in each house was 4.76 ± 6.19. The overall dengue virus-infection rate in female Ae. aegypti was 1.4%. Interestingly, most (60%) of mosquito females were collected only from 15 (17%) houses. In summary, we provide evidence of recent DENV-2 transmission in Quintana Roo State

Combining remote sensing and household level data for regional scale analysis of land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon

Land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon depends on the spatial variability of political, socioeconomic and biophysical factors, as well as on the land use history and its actors. A regional scale analysis was made in Rondônia State to identify possible differences in land cover change connected to spatial policies of land occupation, size and year of establishment of properties, accessibility measures and soil fertility. The analysis was made based on remote sensing data and household level data gathered with a questionnaire. Both types of analyses indicate that the highest level of total deforestation is found inside agrarian projects, especially in those established more than 20 years ago. Even though deforestation rates are similar inside and outside official settlements, inside agrarian projects forest depletion can exceed 50% at the property level within 10–14 years after establishment. The data indicate that both small-scale and medium to large-scale farmers contribute to deforestation processes in Rondônia State encouraged by spatial policies of land occupation, which provide better accessibility to forest fringes where soil fertility and forest resources are important determinants of location choic