La utilización del ordenador en la realización de experiencias de laboratorio

In this work we expose the principles and teaching impact of the applications of the computer means to carry out the real experiments in the teaching laboratory

Updating temperature and salinity mean values and trends in the Western Mediterranean: the RADMED project

Postprin

Effect of allopurinol in addition to hypothermia treatment in neonates for hypoxic-ischemic brain injury on neurocognitive outcome (ALBINO): Study protocol of a blinded randomized placebo-controlled parallel group multicenter trial for superiority (phase III)

Background: Perinatal asphyxia and resulting hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is a major cause of death and long-term disability in term born neonates. Up to 20,000 infants each year are affected by HIE in Europe and even more in regions with lower level of perinatal care. The only established therapy to improve outcome in these infants is therapeutic hypothermia. Allopurinol is a xanthine oxidase inhibitor that reduces the production of oxygen radicals as superoxide, which contributes to secondary energy failure and apoptosis in neurons and glial cells after reperfusion of hypoxic brain tissue and may further improve outcome if administered in addition to therapeutic hypothermia. Methods: This study on the effects of ALlopurinol in addition to hypothermia treatment for hypoxic-ischemic Brain Injury on Neurocognitive Outcome (ALBINO), is a European double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled parallel group multicenter trial (Phase III) to evaluate the effect of postnatal allopurinol administered in addition to standard of care (including therapeutic hypothermia if indicated) on the incidence of death and severe neurodevelopmental impairment at 24 months of age in newborns with perinatal hypoxic-ischemic insult and signs of potentially evolving encephalopathy. Allopurinol or placebo will be given in addition to therapeutic hypothermia (where indicated) to infants with a gestational age 65 36 weeks and a birth weight 65 2500 g, with severe perinatal asphyxia and potentially evolving encephalopathy. The primary endpoint of this study will be death or severe neurodevelopmental impairment versus survival without severe neurodevelopmental impairment at the age of two years. Effects on brain injury by magnetic resonance imaging and cerebral ultrasound, electric brain activity, concentrations of peroxidation products and S100B, will also be studied along with effects on heart function and pharmacokinetics of allopurinol after iv-infusion. Discussion: This trial will provide data to assess the efficacy and safety of early postnatal allopurinol in term infants with evolving hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. If proven efficacious and safe, allopurinol could become part of a neuroprotective pharmacological treatment strategy in addition to therapeutic hypothermia in children with perinatal asphyxia. Trial registration: NCT03162653, www.ClinicalTrials.gov, May 22, 2017

X chromosome inactivation does not necessarily determine the severity of the phenotype in Rett syndrome patients

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurological disorder usually caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. Since the MECP2 gene is located on the X chromosome, X chromosome inactivation (XCI) could play a role in the wide range of phenotypic variation of RTT patients; however, classical methylation-based protocols to evaluate XCI could not determine whether the preferentially inactivated X chromosome carried the mutant or the wild-type allele. Therefore, we developed an allele-specific methylation-based assay to evaluate methylation at the loci of several recurrent MECP2 mutations. We analyzed the XCI patterns in the blood of 174 RTT patients, but we did not find a clear correlation between XCI and the clinical presentation. We also compared XCI in blood and brain cortex samples of two patients and found differences between XCI patterns in these tissues. However, RTT mainly being a neurological disease complicates the establishment of a correlation between the XCI in blood and the clinical presentation of the patients. Furthermore, we analyzed MECP2 transcript levels and found differences from the expected levels according to XCI. Many factors other than XCI could affect the RTT phenotype, which in combination could influence the clinical presentation of RTT patients to a greater extent than slight variations in the XCI pattern

Ovarian Leydig cells (OLC): A histomorphological and immunohistochemical study

Testicular Leydig cells (LC) regulate the proper development of male individuals, both during fetal life (fetal LC) and puberty (adult LC). In the ovaries of adult women, there are cells that are very similar to Leydig cells, the ovarian hilus cells (OHC), which also produce testosterone. The origin of these cells, in both sexes, remains unknown and is still a matter of debate. We have studied the location, characteristics and relationships of the OHC in 90 patients. The indications for oophorectomy were: metrorrhagia (n=9), prolapse (n=8), endometrial hyperplasia (n=14), cancer (endometrial, myometrial, or cervical) (n=35), uterine leiomyomata (n=14), and various ovarian tumors (cysts and benign tumors, borderline and malignant) (n=10). In addition to the hilus, occasionally the nodules, nests and clusters of OHC were located in the mesovarium, the mesosalpinx, and in the medullar and cortical regions of the ovaries. The morphological (including crystalloids of Reinke) and immunohistochemical (positivity for calretinin and alpha-inhibin) findings were similar to those described for testicular LC. Therefore, OHC can be considered ovarian Leydig cells (OLC). LC are usually found in small numbers in the ovaries, but if one looks for them intentionally, one always finds them. Close relationships were observed between the OLC with nerves and vessels. Moreover, an intraneural location of the OLC was demonstrated in all cases, and these intraneural cells showed similar characteristics to extraneural OLC, suggesting that they derive from endoneural cells which are present in the vegetative nerves of the ovaries

Magnetoestratigrafía del Cretácico Superior del sector Occidental de las Sierras Exteriores (Pirineo Occidental); implicaciones bioestratigráficas

El Cretácico Superior del sector más Occidental de las Sierras Exteriores (Sª de Sto. Domingo) está escasamente representado en potencia pero presenta las facies más someras y transicionales donde se han recuperado recientemente restos de vertebrados fósiles (Osteichthyes, Chondrichthyes y Dinosauria), algunos de los cuales son de carácter continental. En este trabajo se presentan los resultados del análisis magnetoestratigráfico llevado a cabo en 4 secciones de pequeña potencia situadas entre los meridianos de San Felices y de Luesia (Prov. de Zaragoza). La magnetización característica de estas rocas es estable, primaria y muestra dos polaridades del campo magnético. La correlación tentativa entre perfiles, unida al conocimiento de las asociaciones de vertebrados existente en la cuenca de Graus-Tremp, permiten proponer una correlación preliminar que relacionaría los niveles fosilíferos con el cron C32n (Campaniense) y las facies Garum con los crones C29r, C29n y C28r (Maastrichtiense y Daniense) de la escala global de polaridad magnética. Esta correlación conlleva un hiato sedimentario durante el Maastrichtiense que deberá ser revisado en futuros estudios sedimentológicos.Unidad de Zaragoza, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, EspañaDepartamento de Física, Universidad de Burgos, EspañaInstituto Universitario de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Zaragoza, EspañaAragosaurus, Universidad de Zaragoza, EspañaDepartamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Universidad del País Vasco, EspañaConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, ArgentinaServicio de Planificación y Gestión Forestal, Gobierno de Aragón, Españ

The Last Interglacial in the Mediterranean as a model for the present interglacial

Deposits of the Last Interglacial on the south and southeastern coasts of Spain are shallow marine and coastal sediments, with a warm fauna of Strombus bubonius. These units exhibit a diversity of morpho-sedimentary models controlled by the tectonic activity of the Mediterranean area, which is closely related to the approximation of Africa and Iberia during the Quaternary. There are three well-dated peaks of maximum sea level (T-I: isotopic substage 7a, T-II: isotopic substage Se, T-III: isotopic substage 5c). A younger episode, T-IV, probably corresponds to the isotopic substage 5a. Episodes T-II, T-III and T-IV were laid down during Last Interglacial age. In addition, three Holocene peaks of maximum sea level: H1 ca. 5100 yr B.P., H2 ca. 3500 yr B.P. and H3 ca. 2400 yr B.P. were found. The three main peaks of the Last Interglacial correspond to the morpho-sedimentary Tyrrhenian units T-II, T-III and T-IV, deposited during a time span of sorne 45,000 years. Several smaller oscillations can be distinguished within each of these units as subunits separated by erosional surfaces. At least three of such mapable subunits were distinguished within the peak T-II (Se); each lasted ca. 10,500 yr. As the positive oscillations of sea level (H1, H2, and H3) recorded during the present Interglacial (Holocene) are much shorter, we infer that they are smaller-scale fluctuations (2500-1100 yr cycles) within the first oscillation (duration: ca. 10,500 yr) of the first Holocene peak of sea level which has not yet been completed. In addition to changes of sea level, the vertical and lateral arrangement of morpho-sedimentary units, which can be designated as the stratigraphic architecture, depends on tectonics and oceanography, including geoidal and steric changes and coastal dynamics. The coastal dynamics factor largely depends on the exchange of waters between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Maximum incursions of water coincides with warm periods (highstands) when the coastal accretion increases. The tectonic factor greatly influences and modifies the effects of sea-level changes in the coastal areas of tectonically-active regions such as the Mediterranean. Areas with tectonic uplift will be characterized by a staircase of prograding gravelly beaches, whereas sinking areas will favour the deposition of vertically stacked sequences with coastal onlap of barrier island and lagoon deposits. Rates of sea-level rise for the coming years of 1 cm/yr, have been suggested by sorne authors. These gradients greatly exceed those produced by any tectonic factor in the Spanish coast during the last 100 kyr. Shoreface erosion and transgression with landward migration of barrier islands and lagoons will occur in subsiding areas (Murcia-Alicante and Valencia), even with relatively low rates of sea-Ievel rise Oess than 0.5 cm/yr). Higher rates of sea-level rise (0.5-1 cm/yr) will increase the transgressive trend. Areas with subsidence rates higher than 7.5 cm/kyr (Mar Menor and Oval of Valencia) are prone to transgression and erosion of barrier islands and lagoons both in the cases of stable and rising sea levels. Risks are smaller in areas with lower rates of subsidence (La Mata, Santa Pola and Torrevieja lagoons) when a stable sea level is considered; however, any rise of sea level will trigger coastal erosion