Detección de procesamiento atípico de emociones en excombatientes colombianos

The reincorporation process of Colombian ex-combatants is hindered by their chronic exposure to violence, which affects their Emotional Processing (EP). Characterizing their EP will contribute to their reinsertion. The objective of this work is to define an EEG-based brain connectivity approach to identify differences in EP between Colombian ex-combatants and individuals who were not directly exposed to the armed conflict. The proposed approach involves defining the Regions of Interest (ROI) and selecting one of five commonly used brain connectivity metrics: Correlation, Cross-Correlation, Coherence, Imaginary part of Coherency, and Phase-Lag Index. Significant differences were found in the positive valence stimuli in the Beta frequency band. These results support the previously reported trend in the literature regarding the difficulties ex-combatants have to process emotional information with positive valence.El proceso de reincorporación social de los excombatientes colombianos, se dificulta debido a que la exposición crónica a la violencia afecta su procesamiento emocional (PE). Este proceso de reincorporación se puede facilitar mediante la caracterización de su PE. El objetivo de este artículo es definir una metodología de conectividad con EEG que permita identificar diferencias entre el EP de excombatientes y personas no directamente expuestas al conflicto armado. La metodología propuesta consiste en definir las Regiones de Interés (ROI) y seleccionar una de cinco métricas de conectividad funcional cerebral comúnmente utilizadas: correlación, correlación cruzada, coherencia, parte imaginaria de la coherencia y el índice de desfase. Se encontraron diferencias significativas en los estímulos con valencia positiva en la banda de frecuencias Beta. Estos resultados apoyan la tendencia previamente reportada en la literatura hacia las dificultades de los excombatientes para procesar información emocional con valencia positiva

Detecting atypical functioning of emotional processing in Colombian ex-combatants

El proceso de reincorporación social de los excombatientes colombianos, se dificulta debido a que la exposición crónica a la violencia afecta su procesamiento emocional (PE). Este proceso de reincorporación se puede facilitar mediante la caracterización de su PE. El objetivo de este artículo es definir una metodología de conectividad con EEG que permita identificar diferencias entre el EP de excombatientes y personas no directamente expuestas al conflicto armado. La metodología propuesta consiste en definir las Regiones de Interés (ROI) y seleccionar una de cinco métricas de conectividad funcional cerebral comúnmente utilizadas: correlación, correlación cruzada, coherencia, parte imaginaria de la coherencia y el índice de desfase. Se encontraron diferencias significativas en los estímulos con valencia positiva en la banda de frecuencias Beta. Estos resultados apoyan la tendencia previamente reportada en la literatura hacia las dificultades de los excombatientes para procesar información emocional con valencia positiva.The reincorporation process of Colombian ex-combatants is hindered by their chronic exposure to violence, which affects their Emotional Processing (EP). Characterizing their EP will contribute to their reinsertion. The objective of this work is to define an EEG-based brain connectivity approach to identify differences in EP between Colombian ex-combatants and individuals who were not directly exposed to the armed conflict. The proposed approach involves defining the Regions of Interest (ROI) and selecting one of five commonly used brain connectivity metrics: Correlation, Cross-Correlation, Coherence, Imaginary part of Coherency, and Phase-Lag Index. Significant differences were found in the positive valence stimuli in the Beta frequency band. These results support the previously reported trend in the literature regarding the difficulties ex-combatants have to process emotional information with positive valence

Detección de procesamiento atípico de emociones en excombatientes colombianos

RESUMEN: El proceso de reincorporación social de los excombatientes colombianos, se dificulta debido a que la exposición crónica a la violencia afecta su procesamiento emocional (PE). Este proceso de reincorporación se puede facilitar mediante la caracterización de su PE. El objetivo de este artículo es definir una metodología de conectividad con EEG que permita identificar diferencias entre el EP de excombatientes y personas no directamente expuestas al conflicto armado. La metodología propuesta consiste en definir las Regiones de Interés (ROI) y seleccionar una de cinco métricas de conectividad funcional cerebral comúnmente utilizadas: correlación, correlación cruzada, coherencia, parte imaginaria de la coherencia y el índice de desfase. Se encontraron diferencias significativas en los estímulos con valencia positiva en la banda de frecuencias Beta. Estos resultados apoyan la tendencia previamente reportada en la literatura hacia las dificultades de los excombatientes para procesar información emocional con valencia positiva.ABSTRACT: The reincorporation process of Colombian ex-combatants is hindered by their chronic exposure to violence, which affects their Emotional Processing (EP). Characterizing their EP will contribute to their reinsertion. The objective of this work is to define an EEG-based brain connectivity approach to identify differences in EP between Colombian ex-combatants and individuals who were not directly exposed to the armed conflict. The proposed approach involves defining the Regions of Interest (ROI) and selecting one of five commonly used brain connectivity metrics: Correlation, Cross-Correlation, Coherence, Imaginary part of Coherency, and Phase-Lag Index. Significant differences were found in the positive valence stimuli in the Beta frequency band. These results support the previously reported trend in the literature regarding the difficulties ex-combatants have to process emotional information with positive valence

Atypical modulations of N170 component during emotional processing and their links to social behaviors in ex-combatants

Emotional processing (EP) is crucial for the elaboration and implementation of adaptive social strategies. EP is also necessary for the expression of social cognition and behavior (SCB) patterns. It is well-known that war contexts induce socio-emotional atypical functioning, in particular for those who participate in combats. Thus, ex-combatants represent an ideal non-clinical population to explore EP modulation and to evaluate its relation with SCB. The aim of this study was to explore EP and its relation with SCB dimensions such as empathy, theory of mind and social skills in a sample of 50 subjects, of which 30 were ex-combatants from illegally armed groups in Colombia, and 20 controls without combat experience. We adapted an Emotional Recognition Task for faces and words and synchronized it with electroencephalographic recording. Ex-combatants presented with higher assertion skills and showed more pronounced brain responses to faces than Controls. They did not show the bias toward anger observed in control participants whereby the latter group was more likely to misclassify neutral faces as angry. However, ex-combatants showed an atypical word valence processing. That is, words with different emotions yielded no differences in N170 modulations. SCB variables were successfully predicted by neurocognitive variables. Our results suggest that in ex-combatants the links between EP and SCB functions are reorganized. This may reflect neurocognitive modulations associated to chronic exposure to war experiences. © 2017 Trujillo, Valencia, Trujillo, Ugarriza, Rodríguez, Rendón, Pineda, López, Ibañez and Parra

Germination and Early Seedling Development in Quercus ilex Recalcitrant and Non-dormant Seeds: Targeted Transcriptional, Hormonal, and Sugar Analysis

Seed germination and early seedling development have been studied in the recalcitrant species Quercus ilex using targeted transcriptional, hormonal, and sugar analysis. Embryos and seedlings were collected at eight morphologically defined developmental stages, S0–S7. A typical triphasic water uptake curve was observed throughout development, accompanied by a decrease in sucrose and an increase in glucose and fructose. Low levels of abscisic acid (ABA) and high levels of gibberellins (GAs) were observed in mature seeds. Post-germination, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), increased, whereas GA remained high, a pattern commonly observed during growth and development. The abundance of transcripts from ABA-related genes was positively correlated with the changes in the content of the phytohormone. Transcripts of the drought-related genes Dhn3 and GolS were more abundant at S0, then decreased in parallel with increasing water content. Transcripts for Gapdh, and Nadh6 were abundant at S0, supporting the occurrence of an active metabolism in recalcitrant seeds at the time of shedding. The importance of ROS during germination is manifest in the high transcript levels for Sod and Gst, found in mature seeds. The results presented herein help distinguish recalcitrant (e.g., Q. ilex) seeds from their orthodox counterparts. Our results indicate that recalcitrance is established during seed development but not manifest until germination (S1–S3). Post-germination the patterns are quite similar for both orthodox and recalcitrant seeds

Polinización por abejas en cultivos promisorios de Colombia

"El presente libro hace parte de los resultados del proyecto de investigación “Valoración de los servicios de polinización por abejas en algunos frutales promisorios de Colombia, financiado por COLCIENCIAS y la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Seleccionamos tres frutales promisorios, es decir aquellos cultivados y aprovechados en forma local, y que a pesar de su importancia son poco conocidos: Agraz (Vaccinium meridionale), fuente de antioxidantes; guayaba chamba (Campomanesia lineatifolia) fruto aromático y delicado aprovechado profusamente en Miraflores (Boyacá) y Cholupa (Passiflora maliformis), prima de la granadilla y el maracuyá, pero también poco conocida fuera de Rivera (Huila). Gracias a esta investigación aprendimos que las abejas son los polinizadores importantes de estos tres frutales. Según la estrategia reproductiva del agraz se estima que el 65% de la producción de frutos depende de la polinización por abejas. Por su parte, la chamba es una especie xenógama obligada y los polinizares son esenciales para la formación de frutos y semillas. En cuanto a la cholupa los ensayos de polinización demuestran que la dependencia de las abejas polinizadoras es alta, ya que sin la acción de estos vectores de polen la producción se reduce un 77.7%. Especies de Melipona, Bombus, Xylocopa y Apis mellifera son algunos de los polinizadores importantes de estas especies vegetales. Con este trabajo se contribuye al desarrollo de los objetivos de la Iniciativa Colombiana de Polinizadores (ICPA) sobre conocimiento, uso sostenible y valoración tanto de los polinizadores como del servicio de polinización prestado por abejas en Colombia.""Agradecimientos Presentación Polinización Agraz Chamba Cholupa Recomendaciones Fuentes de información

Precision abundance analysis of bright HII galaxies

We present high signal-to-noise spectrophotometric observations of seven luminous HII galaxies. The observations have been made with the use of a double-arm spectrograph which provides spectra with a wide wavelength coverage, from 3400 to 10400\AA free of second order effects, of exactly the same region of a given galaxy. These observations are analysed applying a methodology designed to obtain accurate elemental abundances of oxygen, sulphur, nitrogen, neon, argon and iron in the ionized gas. Four electron temperatures and one electron density are derived from the observed forbidden line ratios using the five-level atom approximation. For our best objects errors of 1% in t_e([OIII]), 3% in t_e([OII]) and 5% in t_e([SIII]) are achieved with a resulting accuracy of 7% in total oxygen abundances, O/H. The ionisation structure of the nebulae can be mapped by the theoretical oxygen and sulphur ionic ratios, on the one side, and the corresponding observed emission line ratios, on the other -- the \eta and \eta' plots --. The combination of both is shown to provide a means to test photo-ionisation model sequences currently applied to derive elemental abundances in HII galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, accepted by MNRA

A genome-wide association study follow-up suggests a possible role for PPARG in systemic sclerosis susceptibility

Introduction: A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) comprising a French cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) reported several non-HLA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) showing a nominal association in the discovery phase. We aimed to identify previously overlooked susceptibility variants by using a follow-up strategy.<p></p> Methods: Sixty-six non-HLA SNPs showing a P value <10-4 in the discovery phase of the French SSc GWAS were analyzed in the first step of this study, performing a meta-analysis that combined data from the two published SSc GWASs. A total of 2,921 SSc patients and 6,963 healthy controls were included in this first phase. Two SNPs, PPARG rs310746 and CHRNA9 rs6832151, were selected for genotyping in the replication cohort (1,068 SSc patients and 6,762 healthy controls) based on the results of the first step. Genotyping was performed by using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays. Results: We observed nominal associations for both PPARG rs310746 (PMH = 1.90 × 10-6, OR, 1.28) and CHRNA9 rs6832151 (PMH = 4.30 × 10-6, OR, 1.17) genetic variants with SSc in the first step of our study. In the replication phase, we observed a trend of association for PPARG rs310746 (P value = 0.066; OR, 1.17). The combined overall Mantel-Haenszel meta-analysis of all the cohorts included in the present study revealed that PPARG rs310746 remained associated with SSc with a nominal non-genome-wide significant P value (PMH = 5.00 × 10-7; OR, 1.25). No evidence of association was observed for CHRNA9 rs6832151 either in the replication phase or in the overall pooled analysis.<p></p> Conclusion: Our results suggest a role of PPARG gene in the development of SSc

Factores de riesgo y diagnóstico citológico del cáncer cervico-uterino

Se analizaron los factores de riesgo y diagnóstico citológico del cáncer cervico-uterino en pacientes de una comunidad de Veracruz bajo un estudio analítico y transversal, en este se incluyó 132 pacientes mayores de 18 años que acudieron al Módulo de Atención a realizarse la citología cervical, las variables fueron factores de riesgo del cáncer cervico-uterino y diagnostico citológico. Se usó como instrumento el “formato de solicitud y reporte de resultados de citología cervical”, se utilizó la chi2 para la asociación de los factores de riesgo con el diagnostico citológico. Se halló que el 79.5% de las mujeres tenían el cuello aparentemente sano, el 9.8% erosión de cuello, 4.5% leucorrea, 2.3% de las mujeres no se observaba el cuello y tenían sangrado anormal, el .8% presento cuello anormal y cervicitis Conclusiones: La enfermera debe dar seguimiento a los casos, ya que es el primer contacto del paciente, así pueda brindar educación para la salud a todas las mujeres que acuden a realizarse esta prueba