Muestreadores pasivos en el estudio de la dinámica de plaguicidas y el impacto ambiental en el agua

RESUMEN: Los plaguicidas son las sustancias con mayor aplicación en la agricultura las cuales pueden contaminar los cuerpos de agua por descarga directa o indirecta, pero los grandes volúmenes y los procesos transformación pueden disminuir la concentración de estas sustancias y sus productos de degradación en las cuencas. Actualmente, los métodos convencionales de extracción tales como: la extracción en fase sólida (SPE) y la micro extracción en fase sólida (SPME) entre otras, no permiten bajos límites de detección, sin embargo bajos niveles de pesticidas y productos de degradación podrían producir toxicidad crónica en diferentes especies. Actualmente el muestreo pasivo es ampliamente usado en el monitoreo de plaguicidas y para el aseguramiento de la calidad del agua debido a que esta metodología es aplicada in estudios de bioacumulación y deteccion a partes por cuatrillón (ppq). Las membranas con mayor uso en el muestreo pasivo son las membranas tipo SPMD (Semi-permeable membrane devices), las cuales permiten la concentración de sustancias lipofílicas y las membranas tipo POCIS (Polar organic chemistry integrative sampler), las cuales permiten concentrar sustancias hidrofílicas. Esta revisión cubre la aplicación de los muestreadores pasivos en el análisis de plaguicidas, en los estudios de biacumulación y en la evaluación de los riesgos ecotoxicológicos. Finalmente los muestreadores pasivos permiten reducir costos, el tiempo de concentración y la cantidad de solventes orgánicos empleados en el tratamiento de muestra, lo que conduce a su clasificación dentro de las tendencias de la “química analítica verde”.ABSTRACT: Pesticides are the most applied substances in agricultural activities which can contaminate water bodies by direct or indirect discharge, but large volumes and natural transformation processes can decrease the concentration of these substances and their degradates in watershed. Currently, conventional extraction methods such as: solid phase extraction (SPE) and solid phase micro extraction (SPME) among others do not permit low detection limits. However low levels of pesticides and degradates could produce chronic toxicity in different species. Nowadays, passive sampling is widespread used for monitoring pesticides and for ensuring the water quality and bioaccumulation studies due to this methodology allows the detection of pollutant from parts per quadrillion (ppq). The most popular membranes used in passive sampling are the semipermeable membrane devices (SPMD), which permit the concentration of lipophilic substances and the polar organic chemical integrative sampler (POCIS), which permits concentration of the hydrophilic ones. This review is about the application of passive samplers in pesticides analysis, the importance of these devices in the bioaccumulation studies and the evaluation of the ecotoxicological risks. Finally, passive sampling allows reducing costs, time and the amount of organic solvent used which classifies it within the environmental trends of “green analytical chemistry”

Effect of osteoprotegerin and Dickkopf-related protein 1 on radiological progression in tightly controlled rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the association between circulating osteoprotegerin (OPG) and Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK-1) and radiological progression in patients with tightly controlled rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Serum levels of OPG and DKK-1 were measured in 97 RA patients who were treated according to a treat-to-target strategy (T2T) aimed at remission (DAS28<2.6). Radiologic joint damage progression was assessed by changes in the total Sharp-van der Heijde score (SHS) on serial radiographs of the hands and feet. The independent association between these biomarker levels and the structural damage endpoint was examined using regression analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of the 97 RA patients (68 women) at the time of the study was 54 ± 14 years, and the median disease duration was 1.6 ± 1.5 years. Most patients were seropositive for either RF or ACPA, and the large majority (76%) were in remission or had low disease activity. After a median follow-up time of 3.3 ± 1.5 years (range, 1-7.5 yrs.), the mean total SHS annual progression was 0.88 ± 2.20 units. Fifty-two percent of the patients had no progression (defined as a total SHS of zero). The mean serum OPG level did not change significantly over the study period (from 3.9 ± 1.8 to 4.07 ± 2.23 pmol/L), whereas the mean serum DKK-1 level decreased, although not significantly (from 29.9 ± 10.9 to 23.6 ± 18.8 pmol/L). In the multivariate analysis, the predictive factors increasing the likelihood of total SHS progression were age (OR per year = 1.10; p = 0.003) and a high mean C-reactive protein level over the study period (OR = 1.29; p = 0.005). Circulating OPG showed a protective effect reducing the likelihood of joint space narrowing by 60% (95% CI: 0.38-0.94) and the total SHS progression by 48% (95% CI: 0.28-0.83). The DKK-1 levels were not associated with radiological progression. CONCLUSION: In patients with tightly controlled RA, serum OPG was inversely associated with progression of joint destruction. This biomarker may be useful in combination with other risk factors to improve prediction in patients in clinical remission or low disease activity state

Assessment of inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis using thermography and machine learning: a fast and automated technique

Objectives Sensitive detection of joint inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is crucial to the success of the treat-to-target strategy. In this study, we characterise a novel machine learning-based computational method to automatically assess joint inflammation in RA using thermography of the hands, a fast and non-invasive imaging technique. Methods We recruited 595 patients with arthritis and osteoarthritis, as well as healthy subjects at two hospitals over 4 years. Machine learning was used to assess joint inflammation from the thermal images of the hands using ultrasound as the reference standard, obtaining a Thermographic Joint Inflammation Score (ThermoJIS). The machine learning model was trained and tuned using data from 449 participants with different types of arthritis, osteoarthritis or without rheumatic disease (development set). The performance of the method was evaluated based on 146 patients with RA (validation set) using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, area under the receiver-operating curve (AUROC), average precision, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value and F1-score. Results ThermoJIS correlated moderately with ultrasound scores (grey-scale synovial hypertrophy=0.49, p<0.001; and power Doppler=0.51, p<0.001). The AUROC for ThermoJIS for detecting active synovitis was 0.78 (95% CI, 0.71 to 0.86; p<0.001). In patients with RA in clinical remission, ThermoJIS values were significantly higher when active synovitis was detected by ultrasound. Conclusions ThermoJIS was able to detect joint inflammation in patients with RA, even in those in clinical remission. These results open an opportunity to develop new tools for routine detection of joint inflammation

Utilización de tarjetas inteligentes para estimar matrices origen-destino. Aplicación al sistema Megabús, Pereira

In the operational planning of transport systems, it is essential to have a characterization of the demand for the service by means of an Origin-estination (OD) Matrix of travels. This matrix is frequently estimated using statistical sampling techniques, which offer high-quality results but require complex design and high cost. It is therefore appropriate to take advantage of the information that is generated from the records of the smart cards used as means of payment in the systems that provide this technology. This source of information allows for obtaining estimates of high-quality Origin–Destination (OD) matrix with a low cost. In this work, it is implemented a methodology for the estimation of an Origin–Destination (OD) matrix between bus stations in the public transport system of MEGABÚS in the city of Pereira. The methodology allows for a debugging in the database taking into account the peculiarities of the system as the forms of income, type of card, and resale of tickets. In addition, it considers the possibility that a user can decide to step down at an intermediate station close to his destination station using the parameterization of a penalty factor that is associated with the walking-travel time in the objective function. The inclusion of the factor does not significantly influence the total percentage of estimated travels. Nevertheless, it recalculates some values of the Origin-Destination (OD) Matrix considering the alight in intermediate stations. The proposed method makes possible to estimate OD matrices for different time windows for any day of the week and different times of the year.En la planificación operativa de los sistemas de transporte es fundamental contar con una caracterización de la demanda del servicio por medio de una matriz origendestino (OD) de viajes. Esta matriz es estimada frecuentemente mediante técnicas de muestreo estadístico que ofrecen resultados de gran calidad pero requieren diseño e implementación compleja y de alto costo. Así, se hace pertinente aprovechar la información de los registros de las tarjetas inteligentes usadas como medios de pago en los sistemas que tienen esta tecnología. Esta fuente de información permite obtener estimaciones de matrices OD de gran calidad con un costo bajo. En este trabajo se implementa una metodología para la estimación de una matriz origen-destino entre estaciones de buses en el sistema de transporte público de Megabús en la ciudad de Pereira. La metodología permite depurar la base de datos teniendo en cuenta las particularidades del sistema, como las formas de ingreso, tipo de tarjeta, reventa de pasajes, y además considera la posibilidad de que un usuario pueda decidir bajarse en una estación intermedia cercana a su estación destino mediante la parametrización de un factor de penalización que está asociado con el tiempo de viaje caminando en la función objetivo. La inclusión del factor no influye significativamente en el porcentaje total de viajes estimados pero sí ajusta algunos valores de la matriz origen-destino, al considerar los descensos en estaciones intermedias. El método posibilita estimar matrices OD para diferentes ventanas de tiempo de cualquier día de la semana y distintas épocas del año

Imaging of skull vault tumors in adults

The skull vault, formed by the flat bones of the skull, has a limited spectrum of disease that lies between the fields of neuro- and musculoskeletal radiology. Its unique abnormalities, as well as other ubiquitous ones, present particular features in this location. Moreover, some benign entities in this region may mimic malignancy if analyzed using classical bone-tumor criteria, and proper patient management requires being familiar with these presentations. This article is structured as a practical review offering a systematic diagnostic approach to focal calvarial lesions, broadly organized into four categories: (1) pseudolesions: arachnoid granulations, meningo-/encephaloceles, vascular canals, frontal hyperostosis, parietal thinning, parietal foramina, and sinus pericrani; (2) lytic: fibrous dysplasia, epidermal inclusion and dermoid cysts, eosinophilic granuloma, hemangioma, aneurysmal bone cyst, giant cell tumor, metastasis, and myeloma; (3) sclerotic: osteomas, osteosarcoma, and metastasis; (4) transdiploic: meningioma, hemangiopericytoma, lymphoma, and metastasis, along with other less common entities. Tips on the potential usefulness of functional imaging techniques such as MR dynamic susceptibility (T2*) perfusion, MR spectroscopy, diffusion-weighted imaging, and PET imaging are provided

Lightweight conical components for rotational parabolic domes: geometric definition, structural behaviour, optimisation and digital fabrication

Although initially intended for academic purposes, the research shown in this paper was drawn towards the development of hollow lightweight conical com-ponents to materialise rotational parabolic domes. The starting point is a projec-tive interpretation of an Archimedean property of rotational paraboloid planar sections. This is used to discretise the parabolic surface with a set of tangent ellipses obtained via planar circle-packing algorithms. The ellipses are then mate-rialised with components composed of three truncated conical surfaces, which may be composed of several laminar materials. The geometry and economy of the material, the good structural behaviour, the simple solution for fabrication and assembly, and the tests on a full-scale prototype prove this component to be an efficient self-supporting system for wide-span structures against the use of solid boundary rings, not only for rotational parabolic domes, but also for a possible translation to other types of surface

The effect of hexose ratios on metabolite production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains obtained from the spontaneous fermentation of mezcal

Mezcal from Tamaulipas (Me´xico) is produced by spontaneous alcoholic fermentation using Agave spp. musts, which are rich in fructose. In this study eight Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolates obtained at the final stage of fermentation from a traditional mezcal winery were analysed in three semisynthetic media. Medium M1 had a sugar content of 100 g l-1 and a glucose/fructose (G/F) of 9:1. Medium M2 had a sugar content of 100 g l-1 and a G/F of 1:9. Medium M3 had a sugar content of 200 g l-1 and a G/F of 1:1. In the three types of media tested, the highest ethanol yield was obtained from the glucophilic strain LCBG-3Y5, while strain LCBG-3Y8 was highly resistant to ethanol and the most fructophilic of the mezcal strains. Strain LCBG-3Y5 produced more glycerol (4.4 g l-1) and acetic acid (1 g l-1) in M2 than in M1 (1.7 and 0.5 g l-1, respectively), and the ethanol yields were higher for all strains in M1 except for LCBG-3Y5, -3Y8 and the Fermichamp strain. In medium M3, only the Fermichamp strain was able to fully consume the 100 g of fructose l-1 but left a residual 32 g of glucose l-1. Regarding the hexose transporters, a high number of amino acid polymorphisms were found in the Hxt1p sequences. Strain LCBG-3Y8 exhibited eight unique amino acid changes, followed by the Fermichamp strain with three changes. In Hxt3p, we observed nine amino acid polymorphisms unique for the Fermichamp strain and five unique changes for the mezcal strains

Tecnologias sociais: as organizações não governamentais no enfrentamento das mudanças climáticas e na promoção de desenvolvimento humano

De acordo com o quarto relatório do Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as regiões semiáridas do mundo estarão entre as mais afetadas pelos impactos das mudanças climáticas globais. Estudos realizados pelo Ministério do Meio Ambiente (MMA), em 2007, confirmam que, no Nordeste brasileiro, não apenas choverá menos e mais irregularmente, mas, também, haverá mais secas, devido ao aquecimento da temperatura. Diante dos diversos impactos sociais, ambientais e econômicos possíveis nesses cenários, é de fundamental importância a verificação de alternativas sustentáveis para o semiárido brasileiro. Este artigo tem por objetivo avaliar o potencial de algumas das tecnologias sociais (TS) de convivência com o semiárido, desenvolvidas por diversas organizações, para a mitigação das mudanças climáticas e a promoção de desenvolvimento humano. Constata-se que as TS tem grande potencial para auxiliar na mitigação e na adaptação das mudanças climáticas, ao mesmo tempo que promovem melhorias na qualidade de vida das localidades onde estão sendo desenvolvidas