Trace Elements Distribution in Red Soils under Semiarid Mediterranean Environment

This study states the potential trace elements (TE’s) content of red soils located at the centre region of Spain, characterized by low rainfall and slight acidity over prolonged weathering periods. For this purpose, three soil profiles from a catena were described, sampled and analyzed. The most notable characteristics are the low organic matter content and the predominantly acidic pH. Illite and kaolinite are the predominant clay minerals. The fertility of the soils is sufficient to provide most of the nutrients required, with very suitable potassium levels. The geochemical characters of this soil are: only few elements remain almost invariable across the profiles and over time, however the majority of them were directly linked with the clay content. These soils are characterized by relatively low levels of some trace elements such as Sr (64.35 mg?kg–1), Ba (303.67 mg?kg–1) and Sc (13.14 mg?kg–1); high levels of other trace elements such as V (103.92 mg?kg–1), Cr (79.9 mg?kg–1), Cu (15.18 mg?kg–1), Hf (10.26 mg?kg–1), Ni (38 mg?kg–1) and Zr (337 mg?kg–1); while the levels for rare earth elements (REE’s) such as La (48.36 mg?kg–1), Ce (95.07 mg?kg–1), Th (13.33 mg?kg–1) and Nd (42.65 mg?kg–1) are significantly high. The distribution of mayor and trace elements was directly re- lated to weathering processes, parent material and anthropogenic activities

Influencia del polimorfismo -866 G/A del gen de la UCP2 en población infantil obesa

Objetivo: En el presente estudio se pretende evaluar la prevalencia de la mutación -866 G/A del gen de la UCP2 y conocer su influencia sobre el fenotipo de los niños (11- 12 años) navarros obesos. Antecedentes y ámbito del estudio: La obesidad es una enfermedad de origen multifactorial, que puede estar relacionada con la presencia de mutaciones y polimorfismos en diversos genes candidatos. El gen de la proteína desacoplante UCP2 es uno de los más estudiados en relación con la obesidad porque parece participar en el control de la composición corporal y de diversos procesos metabólicos. Se han descrito tres polimorfismos en este gen: una inserción/deleción de 45 nucleótidos, un cambio del nucleótido guanina por adenina en la posición -866 y otro que origina un reemplazo de alanina por valina en el aminoácido 55. Según diferentes estudios, el alelo - 866G está relacionado con un mayor riesgo de desarrollar obesidad, aunque en la literatura aparecen resultados contradictorios en cuanto a esta asociación. Sujetos: El estudio se llevó a cabo en 125 niños (52% varones) obesos de 11-12 años de edad, seleccionados a través de los Servicios de Endocrinología Pediátrica de la Clínica Universitaria y del Hospital Virgen del Camino (Pamplona), obteniendo el consentimiento informado de acuerdo con la declaración de Helsinki. Intervenciones: Tras verificar el cumplimiento de los criterios de inclusión se tomaron medidas antropométricas (peso, talla, IMC, pliegue tricipital y subescapular) y se determinó el porcentaje de masa grasa por medio de impedancia bioeléctrica. Además se midieron los niveles plasmáticos de colesterol total, glucosa, insulina y leptina. Se procedió también a la extracción del ADN de las células sanguíneas de la serie blanca para determinar el genotipo mediante la técnica de PCR seguida de una digestión con BstUI y posterior visualización en un gel de agarosa con un 2% de bromuro de etidio. Resultados: El análisis genético reveló una frecuencia del alelo A de 0,404, con un porcentaje de individuos G/G, G/A, y A/A del 40,0%, 39,2% y 20,8%, respectivamente. Los portadores del alelo A presentaron un valor significativamente mayor de la suma de los pliegues tricipital y subescapular (p=0,034). No se observaron diferencias significativas entre los sujetos mutados y los no mutados en cuanto a las variables bioquímicas estudiadas. Conclusiones: Los sujetos portadores del polimorfismo presentan valores más altos para los pliegues tricipital y subescapular frente a los no mutados lo que podría indicar una relación entre la presencia del alelo A en niños obesos y niveles mayores de grasa subcutánea

TV watching modifies obesity risk linked to the 27Glu polymorphism of the ADRB2 gene in girls

OBJECTIVE: A matched case-control study was conducted in a population of Spanish children and adolescents (5-18 years old), to assess the interaction between the Gln27Glu polymorphism of the ADRB2 and television (TV) watching on obesity risk. PATIENTS: Obese (n=165) and control subjects (n=165) matched by sex and age were recruited and classified according to Spanish reference data. Results. Using conditional logistic regression, we calculated the obesity risk linked to the polymorphism. A statistically significant association was found for 27Glu carrier allele girls (OR = 1.95; 95% CI = 1.02-3.70), but no association was apparent among boys. In the fully adjusted model, the odds ratio for obesity linked to the genotype Glu27Glu in the female population rose to 4.84 (95% CI = 1.37-17.10). Moreover, we found a significant negative interaction between hours of TV watching and the Gln27Glu polymorphism for obesity risk in girls. Surprisingly, among 27Glu carrier subjects, even girls with a low level of TV watching ( < 12.5 h/week) had a high obesity risk (OR = 4.60; 95% CI = 1.01-20.02), which was not very different to the odds ratio values for sedentary girls carrying the 27 Glu allele watching TV more than 12.5 h/week (OR = 6.05; 95% CI = 1.31-27.71). Conclusion. A higher risk of obesity was found for girls carrying the 27Glu allele of the ADRB2 gene even when they spent less than 12.5 h/week watchi

Effect of the Mediterranean diet supplemented with nicotinamide riboside and pterostilbene and/or coconut oil on anthropometric variables in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A pilot study

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes the death of motor neurons and alters patients’ body composition. Supplementation with the antioxidants nicotinamide riboside (NR) and pterostilbene (PTER) can combat associated oxidative stress. Additionally, coconut oil is an alternative energy substrate that can address mitochondrial dysfunction. The aim of the present study is to assess the impact of a Mediterranean Diet supplemented with NR and PTER and/or with coconut oil on the anthropometric variables of patients with ALS. A prospective, mixed, randomized, analytical and experimental pilot study in humans was performed through a clinical trial (registered with ClinicalTrials.gov under number NCT03489200) with pre- and post-intervention assessments. The sample was made up of 40 subjects categorized into four study groups (Control, Antioxidants, Coconut oil, and Antioxidants + Coconut oil). Pre- and post-intervention anthropometric assessments were carried out to determine the following data: weight, percentage of fat and muscle mass, skinfolds, body perimeters, Body Mass Index (BMI), Waste-to-Hip Index (WHI) and Waist-Height Ratio (WHR). Compared to the Control group, GAx significantly increased muscle mass percentage and decreased fat mass percentage, triceps, iliac crest, and abdominal skinfolds. GCoco significantly increased muscle mass percentage and decreased fat mass percentage, subscapular skinfolds, and abdominal skinfolds. GAx + coco significantly increased muscle mass percentage and decreased abdominal skinfolds. Therefore, our results suggest that the Mediterranean Diet supplemented with NR and PTER and the Mediterranean Diet supplemented with coconut oil (ketogenic diet) are the two nutritional interventions that have reported the greatest benefits, at anthropometric level

Ecoestabilidad femenina y malnutrición severa infantil: Evidencia a partir de intervenciones de ayuda humanitaria de Acción Contra el Hambre en países africanos, Asiáticos y Latinoamericanos

Introducción: Evidencias previas han reportado diferencias en la condición nutricional de niños y niñas pertenecientes a la misma comunidad y sometidos a idénticas condiciones de privación alimentaria. El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar las diferencias sexuales en prevalencia de malnutrición severa en menores de 5 años, sometidos a situación de crisis alimentaria. Métodos: Se analizaron datos recogidos en intervenciones de ayuda humanitaria llevadas a cabo por Acción Contra el Hambre entre 2002 y 2010 en 24 países. Dichas intervenciones se efectuaron en poblaciones de Africa, Latinoamérica y Asia que se encontraban en situación de grave crisis alimentaria. La muestra se compone de un total de 367.258 menores (186,156 niños y 181,102 niñas) con edad (E) entre 6 y 59 meses. Se midió el peso (P) y la talla (T) siguiendo la metodología SMART y se estimó la prevalencia de severo bajo peso (P/E <-3DE), desnutrición aguda severa (P/T <-3DE) y desnutrición crónica severa (T/E <-3DE) de acuerdo a los estándares de la OMS. Resultados: Para el total de la muestra, la proporción de niños con severo bajo peso fue de 9,8% en comparación al 7,3% de niñas (p <0.001). La desnutrición aguda severa afectó al 3,9% de los niños frente al 2,5% de las niñas (p <0.001). Las diferencias también fueron notables en la des-nutrición crónica: el 19, 5% de los niños frente al 15% de las niñas (p<0,001) presentaron crecimiento retardado. Conclusiones: Los resultados avalan la idea de la deno-minada eco-estabilidad femenina, de acuerdo a la cual, las mujeres serian menos sensibles a los factores externos que modulan el desarrollo ontogénico, mientras los varones se ve-rían más negativamente afectados por las agresiones medio-ambientales

A novel mutation Thr162Arg of the melanocortin 4 receptor gene in a Spanish children and adolescent population

Objective  The melanocortin 4 receptor gene (MC4R) is involved in body weight regulation. While many studies associated MC4R mutations with childhood obesity, information on MC4R mutations in Spanish children and adolescents is lacking. Our objective was to screen a population of children and adolescents from the north of Spain (Navarra) for MC4R mutations and to study the phenotypes of carriers and their families. In addition, functional assays were performed for a novel MC4R mutation. Methods  The study was composed of 451 Spanish children and adolescents (49% boys), aged 5–18 year. According to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria, the groups included 160 obese, 132 overweight and 159 normal-weight control subjects. Results  One novel (Thr162Arg) and three known nonsynonymous mutations in the MC4R gene (Ser30Phe, Thr150Ile, Ala244Glu) were detected heterozygously. The MC4R mutations were found in three male (one obese and two overweight) and two female subjects (one obese and one overweight). The novel mutation did not appear to lead to an impaired receptor function. An unequivocal relationship of MC4R mutations with obesity in pedigrees together with an impaired function of the encoded receptor could not be established for any of the mutations. Conclusions  The presence of heterozygous MC4R mutations in obese and overweight subjects indicates that these mutations may be a susceptibility factor for obesity development, but lifestyle factors, such as exercise or sedentary activities, may modify their effect

Reaction rate reconstruction from biomass concentration measurement in bioreactors using modified second-order sliding mode algorithms

This paper deals with the estimation of unknown signals in bioreactors using sliding observers. Particular attention is drawn to estimate the specific growth rate of microorganisms from measurement of biomass concentration. In a recent article, notions of high-order sliding modes have been used to derive a growth rate observer for batch processes. In this paper we generalize and refine these preliminary results. We develop a new observer with a different error structure to cope with other types of processes. Furthermore, we show that these observers are equivalent, under coordinate transformations and time scaling, to the classical super-twisting differentiator algorithm, thus inheriting all its distinctive features. The new observers’ family achieves convergence to timevarying unknown signals in finite time, and presents the best attainable estimation error order in the presence of noise. In addition, the observers are robust to modeling and parameter uncertainties since they are based on minimal assumptions on bioprocess dynamics. In addition, they have interesting applications in fault detection and monitoring. The observers performance in batch, fed-batch and continuous bioreactors is assessed by experimental data obtained from the fermentation of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae on glucose.This work was supported by the National University of La Plata (Project 2012-2015), the Agency for the Promotion of Science and Technology ANPCyT (PICT2007-00535) and the National Research Council CONICET (PIP112-200801-01052) of Argentina; the Technical University of Valencia (PAID-02-09), the CICYT (DPI2005-01180) and AECID (A/024186/09) of Spain; and by the project FEDER of the European Union.De Battista, H.; Picó Marco, JA.; Garelli, F.; Navarro Herrero, JL. (2012). 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Epidemiological trends of HIV/HCV coinfection in Spain, 2015-2019

Objectives: We assessed the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies and active HCV infection (HCV-RNA-positive) in people living with HIV (PLWH) in Spain in 2019 and compared the results with those of four similar studies performed during 2015-2018. Methods: The study was performed in 41 centres. Sample size was estimated for an accuracy of 1%. Patients were selected by random sampling with proportional allocation. Results: The reference population comprised 41 973 PLWH, and the sample size was 1325. HCV serostatus was known in 1316 PLWH (99.3%), of whom 376 (28.6%) were HCV antibody (Ab)-positive (78.7% were prior injection drug users); 29 were HCV-RNA-positive (2.2%). Of the 29 HCV-RNA-positive PLWH, infection was chronic in 24, it was acute/recent in one, and it was of unknown duration in four. Cirrhosis was present in 71 (5.4%) PLWH overall, three (10.3%) HCV-RNA-positive patients and 68 (23.4%) of those who cleared HCV after anti-HCV therapy (p = 0.04). The prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies decreased steadily from 37.7% in 2015 to 28.6% in 2019 (p < 0.001); the prevalence of active HCV infection decreased from 22.1% in 2015 to 2.2% in 2019 (p < 0.001). Uptake of anti-HCV treatment increased from 53.9% in 2015 to 95.0% in 2019 (p < 0.001). Conclusions: In Spain, the prevalence of active HCV infection among PLWH at the end of 2019 was 2.2%, i.e. 90.0% lower than in 2015. Increased exposure to DAAs was probably the main reason for this sharp reduction. Despite the high coverage of treatment with direct-acting antiviral agents, HCV-related cirrhosis remains significant in this population.This work was supported in part by the Spanish AIDS Research Network (RD16/0025/0017, RD16/0025/0018), which is included in the Spanish I+D+I Plan and is co-funded by the ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación and European Funding for Regional Development (FEDER). The sponsors had no role in the study design, the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the article for publication.S