Are Privacy Issues Important in Mexican Online Markets? An Empirical Investigation into Published Online Privacy Statements of Mexican Web Sites

Electronic commerce has had a considerable development in the world; it always implies information exchange, -being it frequently personal information-, between Internet users and site owners. Providing such data to a website, when usually users don’t even know where the company is located, has brought concerns about the use of private information by online business. Some countries have started to pass laws and guidelines regarding the use of private information gathered online, and also non government associations have started to certificate websites in the use and management of personal data. This study explores and analyzes the content of 120 privacy statements from online companies established in Mexico to address all privacy dimensions that seems to be important in online environment and to evaluate characteristics and differences in the use of the personal identifiable information among them. When possible, a comparison is made between some of the results of this research for companies operating in Mexico, and the findings made by Pollach (2006) for companies operating in U.S.A. Finally some possible future work is described and some conclusions are made

La escuela rural en la sociedad globalizada: Nuevos caminos para una realidad silenciada

En el presente artículo, las autoras tratan de profundizar en las condiciones socio-culturales yeducativas de la escuela de contexto rural en el siglo XXI, reflexionando sobre las bases de susupervivencia en nuestra actual sociedad globalizada. En este sentido, se analizan nuevasalternativas de desarrollo sostenible para estos contextos y, por ende, para sus escuelas, basadasen proyectos de desarrollo globales. Asimismo, se enfatiza el importante papel que las escuelas decontexto rural cumplen en estos entornos, analizándose en profundidad sus funciones sociales yeducativas en los mismos. El artículo finaliza con el planteamiento de algunas propuestas demejora para la escuela rura

Highly Dynamic Host Actin Reorganization around Developing Plasmodium Inside Hepatocytes

Plasmodium sporozoites are transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes and infect hepatocytes, where a single sporozoite replicates into thousands of merozoites inside a parasitophorous vacuole. The nature of the Plasmodium-host cell interface, as well as the interactions occurring between these two organisms, remains largely unknown. Here we show that highly dynamic hepatocyte actin reorganization events occur around developing Plasmodium berghei parasites inside human hepatoma cells. Actin reorganization is most prominent between 10 to 16 hours post infection and depends on the actin severing and capping protein, gelsolin. Live cell imaging studies also suggest that the hepatocyte cytoskeleton may contribute to parasite elimination during Plasmodium development in the liver

Association of central obesity with unique cardiac remodelling in young adults born small for gestational age

Being born small for gestational age (SGA, 10% of all births) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in adulthood together with lower exercise tolerance, but mechanistic pathways are unclear. Central obesity is known to worsen cardiovascular outcomes, but it is uncertain how it affects the heart in adults born SGA. We aimed to assess whether central obesity makes young adults born SGA more susceptible to cardiac remodelling and dysfunction.A perinatal cohort from a tertiary university hospital in Spain of young adults (30-40 years) randomly selected, 80 born SGA (birth weight below 10th centile) and 75 with normal birth weight (controls) was recruited. We studied the associations between SGA and central obesity (measured via the hip-to-waist ratio and used as a continuous variable) and cardiac regional structure and function, assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance using statistical shape analysis. Both SGA and waist-to-hip were highly associated to cardiac shape (F = 3.94, P < 0.001; F = 5.18, P < 0.001 respectively) with a statistically significant interaction (F = 2.29, P = 0.02). While controls tend to increase left ventricular end-diastolic volumes, mass and stroke volume with increasing waist-to-hip ratio, young adults born SGA showed a unique response with inability to increase cardiac dimensions or mass resulting in reduced stroke volume and exercise capacity.SGA young adults show a unique cardiac adaptation to central obesity. These results support considering SGA as a risk factor that may benefit from preventive strategies to reduce cardiometabolic risk.© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected]

Spontaneous changes in brain striatal dopamine synthesis and storage dynamics ex vivo reveal end-product feedback-inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase

Altres ajuts: acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICAltres ajuts: , The Michael J. Fox Foundation (ID15291), "la Caixa" Foundation (ID 100010434), under the agreement LCF/PR/HR17/52150003Synaptic events are important to define treatment strategies for brain disorders. In the present paper, freshly obtained rat brain striatal minces were incubated under different times and conditions to determine dopamine biosynthesis, storage, and tyrosine hydroxylase phosphorylation. Remarkably, we found that endogenous dopamine spontaneously accumulated during tissue incubation at 37 °C ex vivo while dopamine synthesis simultaneously decreased. We analyzed whether these changes in brain dopamine biosynthesis and storage were linked to dopamine feedback inhibition of its synthesis-limiting enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase. The aromatic-l-amino-acid decarboxylase inhibitor NSD-1015 prevented both effects. As expected, dopamine accumulation was increased with l-DOPA addition or VMAT2-overexpression, and dopamine synthesis decreased further with added dopamine, the VMAT2 inhibitor tetrabenazine or D2 auto-receptor activation with quinpirole, accordingly to the known synaptic effects of these treatments. Phosphorylation activation and inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase on Ser31 and Ser40 with okadaic acid, Sp-cAMP and PD98059 also exerted the expected effects. However, no clear-cut association was found between dopamine feedback inhibition of its own biosynthesis and changes of tyrosine hydroxylase phosphorylation, assessed by Western blot and mass spectrometry. The later technique also revealed a new Thr30 phosphorylation in rat tyrosine hydroxylase. Our methodological assessment of brain dopamine synthesis and storage dynamics ex vivo could be applied to predict the in vivo effects of pharmacological interventions in animal models of dopamine-related disorders

Hepatoprotective effect of commercial herbal extracts on carbon tetrachloride-induced liver damage in Wistar rats

Background: The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of arbutin protect against a number of diseases. Objectives: The present study evaluated the protective effect of arbutin against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Methods: Sixty-three Wistar rats were divided into nine groups. Groups I and II were the normal control groups. Group III, the hepatotoxic group, was given CCl4. Groups IV, VI, and VIII received different dosages of arbutin along with CCl4. Groups V, VII, and IX were administered different dosages of arbutin. The albumin content, total protein, and bilirubin were assayed to determine their serum and antioxidant levels; lipid peroxidation was assessed in the serum and liver tissue. Histological studies were carried out to confirm the biochemical results. Results: Treatment with CCl4 for 28 d decreased the levels of total protein and albumin and increased the level of bilirubin and lipid peroxidation. Arbutin treatment raised the level of albumin and lowered the lipid peroxidation to normal levels. Necrosis and fibrosis were observed in the liver tissue of CCl4-injected rats, and the administration of arbutin had a protective effect on the liver tissue. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that arbutin may protect the liver against CCl4-induced oxidative damage in rats. This hepatoprotective effect might be correlated with the antioxidant and free radical scavenger effects of arbutin

Phylogeography of the Patagonian otter Lontra provocax: adaptive divergence to marine habitat or signature of southern glacial refugia?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A number of studies have described the extension of ice cover in western Patagonia during the Last Glacial Maximum, providing evidence of a complete cover of terrestrial habitat from 41°S to 56°S and two main refugia, one in south-eastern Tierra del Fuego and the other north of the Chiloé Island. However, recent evidence of high genetic diversity in Patagonian river species suggests the existence of aquatic refugia in this region. Here, we further test this hypothesis based on phylogeographic inferences from a semi-aquatic species that is a top predator of river and marine fauna, the huillín or Southern river otter (<it>Lontra provocax</it>).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We examined mtDNA sequences of the control region, ND5 and Cytochrome-b (2151 bp in total) in 75 samples of <it>L. provocax </it>from 21 locations in river and marine habitats. Phylogenetic analysis illustrates two main divergent clades for <it>L. provocax </it>in continental freshwater habitat. A highly diverse clade was represented by haplotypes from the marine habitat of the Southern Fjords and Channels (SFC) region (43°38' to 53°08'S), whereas only one of these haplotypes was paraphyletic and associated with northern river haplotypes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data support the hypothesis of the persistence of <it>L. provocax </it>in western Patagonia, south of the ice sheet limit, during last glacial maximum (41°S latitude). This limit also corresponds to a strong environmental change, which might have spurred <it>L. provocax </it>differentiation between the two environments.</p

Thyroid Hormone T3 Counteracts STZ Induced Diabetes in Mouse

This study intended to demonstrate that the thyroid hormone T3 counteracts the onset of a Streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetes in wild type mice. To test our hypothesis diabetes has been induced in Balb/c male mice by multiple low dose Streptozotocin injection; and a group of mice was contemporaneously injected with T3. After 48 h mice were tested for glucose tolerance test, insulin serum levels and then sacrified. Whole pancreata were utilized for morphological and biochemical analyses, while protein extracts and RNA were utilized for expression analyses of specific molecules. The results showed that islets from T3 treated mice were comparable to age- and sex-matched control, untreated mice in number, shape, dimension, consistency, ultrastructure, insulin and glucagon levels, Tunel positivity and caspases activation, while all the cited parameters and molecules were altered by STZ alone. The T3-induced pro survival effect was associated with a strong increase in phosphorylated Akt. Moreover, T3 administration prevented the STZ-dependent alterations in glucose blood level, both during fasting and after glucose challenge, as well as in insulin serum level. In conclusion we demonstrated that T3 could act as a protective factor against STZ induced diabetes