The Influence of Abiotic Environment and Connectivity on the Distribution of Diversity in an Andean Fish Fluvial Network

The distribution of Andean freshwater fishes is the result of the interaction of historical and contemporary factors such as basin geomorphology and the physicochemical characteristics of water bodies. Dramatic changes along river networks due to waterfalls or dams generate abrupt changes in longitudinal slopes that function as ecological barriers to dispersal and thus have an effect on the composition and richness of fish assemblages. We expect the amount of variation in beta diversity along the elevation gradient (between 700 and 3,500 m a.s.l.) of the eastern slope of the Cauca River basin to be explained by changes in the aquatic environment and connectivity among sites. We measured connectivity in terms of the distance along the stream channel between sampling sites considering changes in slope. We used a Generalized Dissimilarity Model (GDM) to evaluate the contribution of connectivity and other water mass characteristics (dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, temperature, and elevation) in predicting changes in beta diversity. The GDM models explained 33% of the total deviance in species turnover, suggesting that there are additional variables that have not been considered, such as available habitats along the rivers. Elevation was the variable with the largest relative importance in the model and connectivity explained only seven percent of the total variance when all sites were included. However, when only the sampling sites in the headwater streams were included (the most geographically isolated sites), the GDM models explained 51% of the total deviance and the contribution due to connectivity increased. Isolation of stream headwaters, in conjunction with extreme conditions present at high elevations may influence the fish assemblage turnover. Our results provide evidence that elevation has a strong influence on beta diversity of Andean fish assemblages. Species turnover upstream above 1,200 m a.s.l. is strongly influenced by channel connectivity and there are additional environmental variables that need to be included in the models to improve their prediction power

Calidad en las empresas que fabrican y comercializan muebles de madera en Lima, Perú, 2014

En la actualidad hablar de la gestión de calidad se ha convertido en un tema muy relevante en el ámbito empresarial, gubernamental y académico; su utilización como uno de las herramientas de gestión en los negocios ha permitido hacer mejoras en los procesos productivos, desde el proveedor de la materia prima hasta el servicio de post venta del producto a los clientes, generando satisfacción en los consumidores. La gestación y el desarrollo logrado de la gestión de la calidad en el presente siglo nos muestran un profundo interés de las organizaciones por ser cada vez más competitivos en un mundo globalizado y cambiante. Pero su aplicación en las empresas y en otras instituciones, son irregulares; no todos avanzan con la misma prioridad de implementación del TQM. En este estudio de investigación se analizó el sector industrial de las Empresas que Fabrican y Comercializan Muebles de Madera en la Ciudad de Lima, Perú. Para determinar el nivel de implementación de la gestión de la calidad en el referido sector, se utilizó el modelo de los nueve factores de la calidad señalado en el artículo, Calidad en la Empresas Latinoamericanas: El Caso Peruano (Benzaquen, 2013). En ese sentido, los resultados obtenidos al 2014 reflejan el nivel de implementación del TQM en las empresas del sector industrial de la presente tesis, el cual demuestra que está en un nivel intermedio según la escala utilizada en el instrumento TQM (Benzaquen, 2013) y su respectiva aplicación en el estudio de investigación. Este nivel de calidad alcanzado por el sector refleja la existencia de una diferencia con respecto al nivel de calidad de las empresas peruanas mencionado por Benzaquen (2013).At present to discuss about quality management has become a fundamental topic in the business, governmental and academic field. The application of quality management as one of the main tools in the modern management has allowed the improvement of the production process, from the supplier of raw materials to the customer care services, making consumer satisfaction possible. The continuous improvement and development in quality management at the present century shows that there is a profound interest from the organizations to become more competitive in a global changing world. Nevertheless, its application in companies and other institutions is irregular, since not all of them move towards the implementation of TQM. In this research study, the industrial sector of companies that fabricate and commercialize wood furniture in Lima was analyzed. In order to determine the level of implementation of the quality management in this specific sector, this research used the model of the nine quality factors mentioned in the article, Quality in Latin-American Companies: The Peruvian case. (Benzaquen, 2013) In that sense, the results obtained at 2014, reflect the level of implementation of TQM in companies related to the industrial sector of the current study, which shows that it is in an intermediate level according to the scale used in the TQM (Benzaquen, 2013) and its application in this case of study .This level of quality achieved by the sector reflects the existence of a significant difference to the quality of Peruvian companies mentioned by Benzaquen (2013).Tesi

Neck circumference and clustered cardiovascular risk factors in children and adolescents: Cross-sectional study

Objective Early detection of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, such as obesity, is crucial to prevent adverse long-term effects on individuals'' health. Therefore, the aims were: (1) to explore the robustness of neck circumference (NC) as a predictor of CVD and examine its association with numerous anthropometric and body composition indices and (2) to release sex and age-specific NC cut-off values to classify youths as overweight/obese. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting 23 primary schools and 17 secondary schools from Spain. Participants 2198 students (1060 girls), grades 1-4 and 7-10. Measures Pubertal development, anthropometric and body composition indices, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively), cardiorespiratory fitness, blood sampling triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), glucose and inflammatory markers. Homoeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) and cluster of CVD risk factors were calculated. Results NC was positively correlated with all anthropometric and body composition indices. NC was negatively associated with maximum oxygen consumption (R 2 =0.231, p<0.001 for boys; R 2 =0.018, p<0.001 for girls) and positively associated with SBP, DBP, TC/HDL-c, TG, HOMA, complement factors C-3 and C-4, leptin, adiponectin and clustered CVD risk factor in both sexes (R 2 from 0.035 to 0.353, p<0.01 for boys; R 2 from 0.024 to 0.215, p<0.001 for girls). Moreover, NC was positively associated with serum C reactive protein, LDL-c and visfatin only in boys (R 2 from 0.013 to 0.107, p<0.05). Conclusion NC is a simple, low-cost and practical screening tool of excess of upper body obesity and CVD risk factors in children and adolescents. Paediatricians can easily use it as a screening tool for overweight/obesity in children and adolescents. For this purpose, sex and age-specific thresholds to classify children and adolescents as normal weight or overweight/obese are provided

Potential ecological and socio-economic effects of a novel megaherbivore introduction: The hippopotamus in Colombia

Introduced species can have strong ecological, social and economic effects on their non-native environment. Introductions of megafaunal species are rare and may contribute to rewilding efforts, but they may also have pronounced socio-ecological effects because of their scale of influence. A recent introduction of the hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius into Colombia is a novel introduction of a megaherbivore onto a new continent, and raises questions about the future dynamics of the socio-ecological system into which it has been introduced. Here we synthesize current knowledge about the Colombian hippopotamus population, review the literature on the species to predict potential ecological and socio-economic effects of this introduction, and make recommendations for future study. Hippopotamuses can have high population growth rates (7-11%) and, on the current trajectory, we predict there could be 400-800 individuals in Colombia by 2050. The hippopotamus is an ecosystem engineer that can have profound effects on terrestrial and aquatic environments and could therefore affect the native biodiversity of the Magdalena River basin. Hippopotamuses are also aggressive and may pose a threat to the many inhabitants of the region who rely upon the Magdalena River for their livelihoods, although the species could provide economic benefits through tourism. Further research is needed to quantify the current and future size and distribution of this hippopotamus population and to predict the likely ecological, social and economic effects. This knowledge must be balanced with consideration of social and cultural concerns to develop appropriate management strategies for this novel introduction

Neck circumference and clustered cardiovascular risk factors in children and adolescents: Cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Early detection of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, such as obesity, is crucial to prevent adverse long-term effects on individuals' health. Therefore, the aims were: (1) to explore the robustness of neck circumference (NC) as a predictor of CVD and examine its association with numerous anthropometric and body composition indices and (2) to release sex and age-specific NC cut-off values to classify youths as overweight/obese. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: 23 primary schools and 17 secondary schools from Spain. PARTICIPANTS: 2198 students (1060 girls), grades 1-4 and 7-10. MEASURES: Pubertal development, anthropometric and body composition indices, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively), cardiorespiratory fitness, blood sampling triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), glucose and inflammatory markers. Homoeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) and cluster of CVD risk factors were calculated. RESULTS: NC was negatively associated with maximum oxygen consumption (R2=0.231, P<0.001 for boys; R2=0.018, P<0.001 for girls) and adiponectin (R2=0.049, P<0.001 for boys; R2=0.036, P<0.001 for girls); and positively associated with SBP, DBP, TC/HDL-c, TG, HOMA, complement factors C-3 and C-4, leptin and clustered CVD risk factor in both sexes (R2 from 0.035 to 0.353, P<0.01 for boys; R2 from 0.024 to 0.215, P<0.001 for girls). Moreover, NC was positively associated with serum C reactive protein and LDL-c only in boys (R2 from 0.013 to 0.055, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: NC is a simple, low-cost and practical screening tool of excess of upper body obesity and CVD risk factors in children and adolescents. Paediatricians can easily use it as a screening tool for overweight/obesity in children and adolescents. For this purpose, sex and age-specific thresholds to classify children and adolescents as normal weight or overweight/obese are provided.This work was supported by the DEP 2010 21662 C04 00 (DEP 2010 21662 C04 01: DEP 2010 21662 C04 02: DEP 2010 21662 C04 03: DEP 2010 21662 C04 04) grant from the National Plan for Research: Development and Innovation (R+D+i) MICINN

Waterborne outbreak of tularemia associated with crayfish fishing.

In 1997, an outbreak of human tularemia associated with hare-hunting in central Spain affected 585 patients. We describe the identification of Francisella tularensis biovar palaearctica in a second outbreak of ulceroglandular tularemia associated with crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) fishing in a contaminated freshwater stream distant from the hare-associated outbreak. The second outbreak occurred 1 year after the first

Extra-uterine (abdominal) full term foetus in a 15-day pregnant rabbit

[EN] Background: While ectopic pregnancies account for 1-2% of all pregnancies, abdominal pregnancy is extremely rare, accounting for approximately 1% of ectopic pregnancies. Extrauterine abdominal pregnancy is defined as the implantation and development of an embryo in the peritoneal cavity. The present report is the first of an incidental case of abdominal pregnancy within four full-term foetus simultaneously with 2 weeks of physiological gestation in a healthy doe rabbit. Case presentation: The doe was born on November 3, 2014 and the first partum took place on May 18, 2015. The doe had previously delivered and weaned an average of 12.0 +/- 1.41 live kits at birth (no stillbirths were recorded) during 5 consecutive pregnancies. The last mating was on December 18, 2015 and the detection of pregnancy failure post breeding (by abdominal palpation) on December 31, 2015. Then, the doe was artificially inseminated on January 27, 2016, diagnosed pregnant on February 11, 2016 and subsequently euthanized to recover the foetus. A ventral midline incision revealed a reproductive tract with 12 implantation sites with 15 days old foetus and 4 term foetus in abdominal cavity. There were two foetus floating on either side of the abdominal cavity and two suspended near the greater curvature of the stomach. They were attached to internal organs by means of one or 2 thread-like blood vessels that linked them to the abdominal surfaces. Conclusions: In our opinion a systematic monitoring of rabbit breeding should be included to fully understand and enhance current knowledge of this phenomenon of abdominal pregnancy.This work was supported by Spanish Research Project AGL2014-53405-C2-1-P (Interministerial Commission on Science and Technology).Marco-Jiménez, F.; Garcia-Dominguez, X.; Valdes-Hernández, J.; Vicente Antón, JS. (2017). Extra-uterine (abdominal) full term foetus in a 15-day pregnant rabbit. BMC Veterinary Research. 13:1-4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-017-1229-7S1413Petracci M, Bianchi M, Cavani C. Development of rabbit meat products fortified with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Nutrients. 2009;1:111–8.FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, authors). Available online: http://faostat.fao.org/site/569/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=569#ancor . Accessed Sept 2012.Segura Gil P, Peris Palau B, Martínez Martínez J, Ortega Porcel J, Corpa Arenas JM. Abdominal pregnancies in farm rabbits. Theriogenology. 2004;62:642–51.Rosell JM, de la Fuente LF. Culling and mortality in breeding rabbits. Prev Vet Med. 2009;88:120–7.Tena-Betancourt E, Tena-Betancourt CA, Zúniga-Muñoz AM, Hernández-Godínez B, Ibáñez-Contreras A, Graullera-Rivera V. Multiple extrauterine pregnancy with early and near full-term mummified foetuses in a New Zealand white rabbit (Oryctolagus Cuniculus). J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci. 2014;53:204–7.Sánchez JP, Theilgaard P, Mínguez C, Baselga M. Constitution and evaluation of a long-lived productive rabbit line. J Anim Sci. 2008;86:515–25.Savietto D, Friggens NC, Pascual JJ. Reproductive robustness differs between generalist and specialist maternal rabbit lines: the role of acquisition and allocation of resources. Genet Sel Evol. 2015;47:2.Viudes-de-Castro MP, Vicente JS. Effect of sperm count on the fertility and prolificity rates of meat rabbits. Anim Reprod Sci. 1997;46:313–9.Marco-Jiménez F, Garcia-Dominguez X, Jimenez-Trigos E, Vera-Donoso CD, Vicente JS. Vitrification of kidney precursors as a new source for organ transplantation. Cryobiology. 2015;70:278–82.Garcia-Dominguez X, Vera-Donoso CD, Jimenez-Trigos E, Vicente JS, Marco-Jimenez. First steps towards organ banks: vitrification of renal primordial. Cryo Letters. 2016;37:47–52.Arvidsson A. Extra-uterine pregnancy in a rabbit. Vet Rec. 1998;142:176.Glišić A, Radunović N, Atanacković J. Methotrexate and fallopian tubes in ectopic pregnancy. Acta veterinaria. 2006;56:375–82.Nwobodo EI. Abdominal pregnancy. A case report. Ann Afr Med. 2004;3:195–6.Nassali MN, Benti TM, Bandani-Ntsabele M, Musinguzi E. A case report of an asymptomatic late term abdominal pregnancy with a live birth at 41 weeks of gestation. BMC Res Notes. 2016;9:31.Baffoe P, Fofie C, Gandau BN. Term abdominal pregnancy with healthy new-born: a case report. Ghana Med J. 2011;45:81–3.Eleje GU, Adewae O, Osuagwu IK, Obianika CE. Post-date extra-uterine abdominal pregnancy in a rhesus negative Nullipara with successful outcome: a case report. J Women's Health. 2013;6:2.Hong CC, Armstrong ML. Ectopic pregnancy in 2 guinea-pigs. Lab Anim. 1978;12:243–4.Peters LJ. Abdominal pregnancy in a golden hamster (Mesocricetus Auratus). Lab Anim Sci. 1982;32:392–3.Xiccato G, Trocino A, Boiti C, Brecchia G. Reproductive rhythm and litter weaning age as they affect rabbit doe performance and body energy balance. Anim Sci. 2005;81:289–96.Fortun-Lamothe L, De Rochambeau H, Lebas F, Tudela F. Influence of the number of suckling young on reproductive performance in intensively reared rabbits does. In: Blasco A, editor. Proceedings of the 7th world rabbit congress; 2002. p. 125–32

Survey of the analysis of continuous conformational variability of biological macromolecules by electron microscopy

Single-particle analysis by electron microscopy is a well established technique for analyzing the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules. Besides its ability to produce high-resolution structures, it also provides insights into the dynamic behavior of the structures by elucidating their conformational variability. Here, the different image-processing methods currently available to study continuous conformational changes are reviewedThe authors would like to acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through grants BIO2013-44647-R and BIO2016-76400-R (AEI/ FEDER, UE), Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid through grant S2017/BMD-3817, Instituto de Salud Carlos III through grants PT13 /0001/0009 and PT17/0009/0010,the European Union (EU) and Horizon 2020 through West-Life (EINFRA- 2015-1, Proposal 675858), CORBEL (INFRADEV-1-2014-1, Proposal 654248), ELIXIR–EXCELERATE (INFRADEV-3- 2015, Proposal 676559), iNEXT (INFRAIA-1-2014-2015, Proposal 653706), EOSCpilot (INFRADEV-04-2016, Proposal 739563) and the National Institutes of Health (P41 GM 103712) (IB