El recurso Solanum tuberosum y la reconstrucción paleodietaria humana en la ecorregión de Puna (provincia de Jujuy, Argentina)

El objetivo general de este trabajo fue generar datos para el armado de un marco de referencia adecuado para el estudio paleodietario humano, mediante el análisis de isótopos estables, en la ecorregión de Puna, Noroeste argentino. Con tal fin, se presentan los primeros resultados del análisis isótopos estables del carbono y el nitrógeno (δ13C y δ15N) en vegetales, principalmente Solanum tuberosum (n = 24). Los especímenes se adquirieron en el mercado local y en huertas familiares, estas últimas sin recibir ni abonos ni plaguicidas sintéticos, los cuales pueden incidir en las relaciones isotópicas del nitrógeno. La metodología propuesta consistió en el relevamiento de información entre productores locales, la caracterización del suelo en cuanto a sus propiedades químicas (PH, conductividad eléctrica, carbono orgánico y nitratos) y la medición isotópica de los vegetales muestreados. Los datos obtenidos demuestran una escasa variación en los valores δ15N, aunque tres especímenes de la variedad Desirée presentan valores llamativamente altos (entre +13,5 ‰ y +15,2 ‰)

The BioKET Biodiversity Data Warehouse: Data and Knowledge Integration and Extraction

International audienceBiodiversity datasets are generally stored in different for-mats. This makes it difficult for biologists to combine and integrate them to retrieve useful information for the purpose of, for example, efficiently classify specimens. In this paper, we present BioKET, a data warehouse which is a consolidation of heterogeneous data sources stored in different formats. For the time being, the scopus of BioKET is botanical. We had, among others things, to list all the existing botanical ontologies and re-late terms in BioKET with terms in these ontologies. We demonstrate the usefulness of such a resource by applying FIST, a combined biclus-tering and conceptual association rule extraction method on a dataset extracted from BioKET to analyze the risk status of plants endemic to Laos. Besides, BioKET may be interfaced with other resources, like GeoCAT, to provide a powerful analysis tool for biodiversity data

Validation of the Cardiosphere Method to Culture Cardiac Progenitor Cells from Myocardial Tissue

At least four laboratories have shown that endogenous cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) can be grown directly from adult heart tissue in primary culture, as cardiospheres or their progeny (cardiosphere-derived cells, CDCs). Indeed, CDCs are already being tested in a clinical trial for cardiac regeneration. Nevertheless, the validity of the cardiosphere strategy to generate CPCs has been called into question by reports based on variant methods. In those reports, cardiospheres are argued to be cardiomyogenic only because of retained cardiomyocytes, and stem cell activity has been proposed to reflect hematological contamination. We use a variety of approaches (including genetic lineage tracing) to show that neither artifact is applicable to cardiospheres and CDCs grown using established methods, and we further document the stem cell characteristics (namely, clonogenicity and multilineage potential) of CDCs.CPCs were expanded from human endomyocardial biopsies (n = 160), adult bi-transgenic MerCreMer-Z/EG mice (n = 6), adult C57BL/6 mice (n = 18), adult GFP(+) C57BL/6 transgenic mice (n = 3), Yucatan mini pigs (n = 67), adult SCID beige mice (n = 8), and adult Wistar-Kyoto rats (n = 80). Cellular yield was enhanced by collagenase digestion and process standardization; yield was reduced in altered media and in specific animal strains. Heparinization/retrograde organ perfusion did not alter the ability to generate outgrowth from myocardial sample. The initial outgrowth from myocardial samples was enriched for sub-populations of CPCs (c-Kit(+)), endothelial cells (CD31(+), CD34(+)), and mesenchymal cells (CD90(+)). Lineage tracing using MerCreMer-Z/EG transgenic mice revealed that the presence of cardiomyocytes in the cellular outgrowth is not required for the generation of CPCs. Rat CDCs are shown to be clonogenic, and cloned CDCs exhibit spontaneous multineage potential.This study demonstrates that direct culture and expansion of CPCs from myocardial tissue is simple, straightforward, and reproducible when appropriate techniques are used

Dedifferentiation and Proliferation of Mammalian Cardiomyocytes

It has long been thought that mammalian cardiomyocytes are terminally-differentiated and unable to proliferate. However, myocytes in more primitive animals such as zebrafish are able to dedifferentiate and proliferate to regenerate amputated cardiac muscle.Here we test the hypothesis that mature mammalian cardiomyocytes retain substantial cellular plasticity, including the ability to dedifferentiate, proliferate, and acquire progenitor cell phenotypes. Two complementary methods were used: 1) cardiomyocyte purification from rat hearts, and 2) genetic fate mapping in cardiac explants from bi-transgenic mice. Cardiomyocytes isolated from rodent hearts were purified by multiple centrifugation and Percoll gradient separation steps, and the purity verified by immunostaining and RT-PCR. Within days in culture, purified cardiomyocytes lost their characteristic electrophysiological properties and striations, flattened and began to divide, as confirmed by proliferation markers and BrdU incorporation. Many dedifferentiated cardiomyocytes went on to express the stem cell antigen c-kit, and the early cardiac transcription factors GATA4 and Nkx2.5. Underlying these changes, inhibitory cell cycle molecules were suppressed in myocyte-derived cells (MDCs), while microRNAs known to orchestrate proliferation and pluripotency increased dramatically. Some, but not all, MDCs self-organized into spheres and re-differentiated into myocytes and endothelial cells in vitro. Cell fate tracking of cardiomyocytes from 4-OH-Tamoxifen-treated double-transgenic MerCreMer/ZEG mouse hearts revealed that green fluorescent protein (GFP) continues to be expressed in dedifferentiated cardiomyocytes, two-thirds of which were also c-kit(+).Contradicting the prevailing view that they are terminally-differentiated, postnatal mammalian cardiomyocytes are instead capable of substantial plasticity. Dedifferentiation of myocytes facilitates proliferation and confers a degree of stemness, including the expression of c-kit and the capacity for multipotency

El recurso Solanum tuberosum y la reconstrucción paleodietaria humana en la ecorregión de Puna (provincia de Jujuy, Argentina)

El objetivo general de este trabajo fue generar datos para el armado de un marco de referencia adecuado para el estudio paleodietario humano, mediante el análisis de isótopos estables, en la ecorregión de Puna, Noroeste argentino. Con tal fin, se presentan los primeros resultados del análisis isótopos estables del carbono y el nitrógeno (δ13C y δ15N) en vegetales, principalmente Solanum tuberosum (n = 24). Los especímenes se adquirieron en el mercado local y en huertas familiares, estas últimas sin recibir ni abonos ni plaguicidas sintéticos, los cuales pueden incidir en las relaciones isotópicas del nitrógeno. La metodología propuesta consistió en el relevamiento de información entre productores locales, la caracterización del suelo en cuanto a sus propiedades químicas (PH, conductividad eléctrica, carbono orgánico y nitratos) y la medición isotópica de los vegetales muestreados. Los datos obtenidos demuestran una escasa variación en los valores δ15N, aunque tres especímenes de la variedad Desirée presentan valores llamativamente altos (entre +13,5 ‰ y +15,2 ‰)

Collaborative filtering using interval estimation naïve bayes

Abstract. Personalized recommender systems can be classified into three main categories: content-based, mostly used to make suggestions depending on the text of the web documents, collaborative filtering, that use ratings from many users to suggest a document or an action to a given user and hybrid solutions. In the collaborative filtering task we can find algorithms such as the naïve Bayes classifier or some of its variants. However, the results of these classifiers can be improved, as we demonstrate through experimental results, with our new semi naïve Bayes approach based on intervals. In this work we present this new approach. 1

Intracoronary Cardiosphere-Derived Cells After Myocardial Infarction Evidence of Therapeutic Regeneration in the Final 1-Year Results of the CADUCEUS Trial (CArdiosphere-Derived aUtologous stem CElls to reverse ventricUlar dySfunction)

ObjectivesThis study sought to report full 1-year results, detailed magnetic resonance imaging analysis, and determinants of efficacy in the prospective, randomized, controlled CADUCEUS (CArdiosphere-Derived aUtologous stem CElls to reverse ventricUlar dySfunction) trial.BackgroundCardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) exerted regenerative effects at 6 months in the CADUCEUS trial. Complete results at the final 1-year endpoint are unknown.MethodsAutologous CDCs (12.5 to 25 × 10(6)) grown from endomyocardial biopsy specimens were infused via the intracoronary route in 17 patients with left ventricular dysfunction 1.5 to 3 months after myocardial infarction (MI) (plus 1 infused off-protocol 14 months post-MI). Eight patients were followed as routine-care control patients.ResultsIn 13.4 months of follow-up, safety endpoints were equivalent between groups. At 1 year, magnetic resonance imaging revealed that CDC-treated patients had smaller scar size compared with control patients. Scar mass decreased and viable mass increased in CDC-treated patients but not in control patients. The single patient infused 14 months post-MI responded similarly. CDC therapy led to improved regional function of infarcted segments compared with control patients. Scar shrinkage correlated with an increase in viability and with improvement in regional function. Scar reduction correlated with baseline scar size but not with a history of temporally remote MI or time from MI to infusion. The changes in left ventricular ejection fraction in CDC-treated subjects were consistent with the natural relationship between scar size and ejection fraction post-MI.ConclusionsIntracoronary administration of autologous CDCs did not raise significant safety concerns. Preliminary indications of bioactivity include decreased scar size, increased viable myocardium, and improved regional function of infarcted myocardium at 1 year post-treatment. These results, which are consistent with therapeutic regeneration, merit further investigation in future trials. (CArdiosphere-Derived aUtologous stem CElls to reverse ventricUlar dySfunction [CADUCEUS]; NCT00893360)

cardiosphere-derived cells after myocardial infarction: evidence of therapeutic regeneration in the final 1-year results of the CADUCEUS trial (CArdiosphere-Derived aUtologous stem CElls to reverse ventricUlar dySfunction

Objectives This study sought to report full 1-year results, detailed magnetic resonance imaging analysis, and determinants of efficacy in the prospective, randomized, controlled CADUCEUS (CArdiosphere-Derived aUtologous stem CElls to reverse ventricUlar dySfunction) trial