Reproduction of Patella depressa Pennant, 1777 on the central Portuguese coast

The reproductive cycle and the sex ratio of the limpet Patella depressa Pennant, 1777 were studied on two rocky shores of the central coast of the Portugal, over a period of one year. The gonads were examined and their stage of development was assessed. The gonads of P. depressa were found to develop mainly from September/October to December, and between February and April. The spawning peaks occurred in January and between May and August. From June to August the gonads seem to go into a resting phase. In P. depressa the sex proportions seem to be approximately equal, suggesting the absence of sex reversal in these limpets. High wind speed under optimum conditions of air temperatures appears to induce spawning in this species.Estudiamos el ciclo reproductor y la proporción de sexos de la lapa Patella depressa Pennant, 1777 en dos litorales rocosos de la costa central de Portugal. Examinamos las gónadas y valoramos su fase de desarrollo. Encontramos gónadas de P. depressa desarrollándose principalmente desde septiembre/octubre hasta diciembre y entre febrero y abril. Los picos de puesta aparecieron en enero y entre mayo y agosto. Las gónadas parecen permanecer en una fase de reposo desde junio hasta agosto. En P. depressa la proporción de sexos parece ser aproximadamente uno, lo que sugiere la ausencia de inversión sexual en estas lapas. Bajo condiciones óptimas de temperatura del aire, la alta velocidad del viento parece inducir la puesta en esta especie.Instituto Español de Oceanografí

Serum proteomics of active tuberculosis patients and contacts reveals unique processes activated during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most lethal infection among infectious diseases. The specific aim of this study was to establish panels of serum protein biomarkers representative of active TB patients and their household contacts who were either infected (LTBI) or uninfected (EMI-TB Discovery Cohort, Pontevedra Region, Spain). A TMT (Tamdem mass tags) 10plex-based quantitative proteomics study was performed in quintuplicate containing a total of 15 individual serum samples per group. Peptides were analyzed in an LC-Orbitrap Elite platform, and raw data were processed using Proteome Discoverer 2.1. A total of 418 proteins were quantified. The specific protein signature of active TB patients was characterized by an accumulation of proteins related to complement activation, inflammation and modulation of immune response and also by a decrease of a small subset of proteins, including apolipoprotein A and serotransferrin, indicating the importance of lipid transport and iron assimilation in the progression of the disease. This signature was verified by the targeted measurement of selected candidates in a second cohort (EMI-TB Verification Cohort, Maputo Region, Mozambique) by ELISA and nephelometry techniques. These findings will aid our understanding of the complex metabolic processes associated with TB progression from LTBI to active disease

Linking motor-related brain potentials and velocity profiles in multi-joint arm reaching movements

The study of the movement related brain potentials (MRPBs) needs accurate technical approaches to disentangle the specific patterns of bran activity during the preparation and execution of movements. During the last forty years, synchronizing the electromyographic activation (EMG) of the muscle with electrophysiological recordings (EEG) has been commonly ussed for these purposes. However, new clinical approaches in the study of motor diseases and rehabilitation suggest the demand of new paradigms that might go further into the study of the brain activity associated with the kinematics of movements. As a response to this call, we have used a 3-D hand-tracking system with the aim to record continuously the position of an ultrasonic sender attached to the hand during the performance of multi-joint self-paced movements. We synchronized time-series of position and velocity of the sender with the EEG recordings, obtaining specific patterns of brain activity as a function of the fluctuations of the kinematics during natural movement performance. Additionally, the distribution of the brain activity during the preparation and execution phases of movements was similar that reported previously using the EMG, suggesting the validity of our technique. We claim that this paradigm could be usable in patients because of its simplicity and the potential knowledge that can be extracted from clinical protocols

El «ángulo muerto» del Derecho Internacional: las empresas transnacionales y sus cadenas de suministro

La creación de normas vinculantes y la búsqueda de recursos efectivos para las víctimas de graves violaciones de derechos humanos cometidas por empresas transnacionales, han sido y son, los objetivos de la lucha más difícil a la que se enfrentan los defensores de los derechos humanos en todo el mundo. A nivel internacional, muchos han sido los intentos de creación de normas vinculantes sobre la protección de los derechos humanos en el ámbito de las empresas. El “ángulo muerto” del derecho internacional hace referencia al hecho de que en la actualidad no existen normas de hard law capaces de responsabilizar a las corporaciones internacionales por los graves ilícitos internacionales perpetrados extraterritorialmente en sus cadenas de suministro. La finalidad de este trabajo es tomar conciencia de este problema y al mismo tiempo evaluar mecanismos, estrategias y acciones desde la perspectiva civil, para garantizar el derecho de acceso a la justicia, y con ello, colmar en parte este “ángulo muerto” del derecho internacional.The implementation of binding norms and the search for effective remedies for victims of serious human rights violations committed by transnational corporations have been and continue to be the objectives of the most difficult struggle that human rights defenders are facing all over the world. At the international level, many attempts have been made to create binding rules on human rights and business. The “dead angle” of international law refers to the fact that actually there are no hard law norms capable of holding corporations responsible for the serious internationally wrongful perpetrated extraterritorially by their supply chains. The purpose of this work is to become aware of this problem, while evaluating other mechanisms, strategies and actions from a civil perspective, to guarantee the right of access to justice in an attempt to fill partially this “dead angle” of international law

Preserved Error-Monitoring in Borderline Personality Disorder Patients with and without Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Behaviors

Background: The presence of non-suicidal self-injury acts in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is very prevalent. These behaviors are a public health concern and have become a poorly understood phenomenon in the community. It has been proposed that the commission of non-suicidal self-injury might be related to a failure in the brain network regulating executive functions. Previous studies have shown that BPD patients present an impairment in their capacity to monitor actions and conflicts associated with the performance of certain actions, which suppose an important aspect of cognitive control. Method: We used Event Related Potentials to examine the behavioral and electrophysiological indexes associated with the error monitoring in two BPD outpatients groups (17 patients each) differentiated according to the presence or absence of non-suicidal self-injury behaviors. We also examined 17 age- and intelligence- matched healthy control participants. Results: The three groups did not show significant differences in event-related potentials associated with errors (Error-Related Negativity and Pe) nor in theta power increase following errors. Conclusions: This is the first study investigating the behavioral and electrophysiological error monitoring indexes in BPD patients characterized by their history of non-suicidal self-injury behaviors. Our results show that error monitoring is preserved in BPD patients and suggest that non-suicidal self-injury acts are not related to a dysfunction in the cognitive control mechanisms

The jigsaw of PRRSV virulence

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is the causative agent of the, probably, most economically important disease for the pig industry worldwide. This disease, characterised by producing reproductive failure in sows and respiratory problems in growing pigs, appeared in the late 1980s in the United States and Canada. Since its appearance, strains capable of producing higher mortality rates as well as greater severity in clinical signs and lesions than classical strains have been identified. However, since the first reports of these “virulent” PRRSV outbreaks, no homogeneity and consensus in their description have been established. Moreover, to the authors’ knowledge, there is no published information related to the criteria that a PRRSV strain should fulfil to be considered as a “virulent” strain. In this review, we revise the terminology used and gather the information related to the main characteristics and differences in clinical signs, lesions, viral replication and tropism as well as immunological parameters between virulent and classical PRRSV strains and propose a first approximation to the criteria to define a virulent PRRSV strain

A Response to Léa Drieu et al., 2020, "Is It Possible to Identify Ancient Wine Production Using Biomolecular Approaches?" (STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research, DOI:10.1080/20548923.2020.1738728)

Comparable to Drieu et al.'s viewpoint, we argue that it is possible to identify ancient Eurasian grape wine by current biomolecular methods, but only in conjunction with the relevant archaeological, archaeobotanical, and other natural and social scientific data. Additionally, we advocate an inductive-deductive working hypothesis model, which is appropriate for the 'historical science' of archaeology. We focus on two key deficiencies of Drieu et al.'s argumentation: (1) the assumption that Guasch-Jané et al. (2004) extracted their ancient samples with potassium hydroxide before testing for tartaric acid/tartrate, and (2) the supposition that 5000-year-old yeast DNA would not be preserved in the hot climate of Egypt but rather represents modern contamination

Intrinsically regulated learning is modulated by synaptic dopamine signaling

We recently provided evidence that an intrinsic reward-related signal-triggered by successful learning in absence of any external feedback-modulated the entrance of new information into long-term memory via the activation of the dopaminergic midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum (the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop; Ripollés et al., 2016). Here, we used a double-blind, within-subject randomized pharmacological intervention to test whether this learning process is indeed dopamine-dependent. A group of healthy individuals completed three behavioral sessions of a language-learning task after the intake of different pharmacological treatments: a dopaminergic precursor, a dopamine receptor antagonist or a placebo. Results show that the pharmacological intervention modulated behavioral measures of both learning and pleasantness, inducing memory benefits after 24 hr only for those participants with a high sensitivity to reward. These results provide causal evidence for a dopamine-dependent mechanism instrumental in intrinsically regulated learning and further suggest that subject-specific reward sensitivity drastically alters learning success

Peritonitis primaria por streptococcus pyogenes, infección inusual en mujeres jóvenes.

ANTECEDENTES: la peritonitis primaria es una entidad poco frecuente que se observa en pacientes con patología crónica. Sin embargo, cuando es causada por Streptococcus pyogenes la población más afectada son mujeres jóvenes sin antecedentes médicos, pudiendo derivar en un cuadro más grave, por ejemplo sepsis. CASO CLÍNICO: paciente de 30 años de edad que consulta por dolor abdominal severo acompañado de fiebre, con signos de irritación peritoneal y dolor a la movilización cervical. Las pruebas de imagen mostraban signos inespecíficos, sin imágenes sugerentes de perforación. Ante el cuadro de abdomen agudo se realizó una laparoscopia exploradora. El único hallazgo fue la gran cantidad de líquido purulento, que se remitió a estudio microbiológico. Horas después, la paciente tuvo un deterioro progresivo, con hipotensión, taquicardia, taquipnea, y oliguria. Los parámetros infecciosos se incrementaron y se alteró la coagulación. Debido al cuadro de sepsis se ingresó a la unidad de cuidados intensivos. En el cultivo de cérvix, orina, líquido peritoneal y en hemocultivos se aisló S. pyogenes. Se diagnosticó: peritonitis primaria por S. pyogenes con sepsis secundaria y fue tratada con antibióticos de amplio espectro. CONCLUSIÓN: ante un cuadro de peritonitis en una mujer joven sin comorbilidad y con pruebas de imagen sin hallazgos, debe sospecharse peritonitis primaria causada por S. pyogenes. El diagnóstico es difícil y normalmente se realizan varias pruebas de imagen e incluso intervenciones quirúrgicas para intentar establecer un diagnóstico certero