Experimental hybridization and reproductive isolation between two sympatric species of tephritid fruit flies in the Anastrepha fraterculus species group

Among tephritid fruit flies, hybridzation has been found to produce local adaptationand speciation, and in the case of pest species, induce behavioral and ecological alterations that can adversely impact efficient pest management. The fraterculus species group within Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae), is a rapidly radiating aggregate, which includes cryptic species complexes, numerous sister species, and several pest species. Molecular studies have highlighted the possibility of introgression between A. fraterculus and A. obliqua. Reproductive isolation has been studied among morphotypes of the A. fraterculus species complex as a tool for species delimitation. Here we examined the existence and strength ofprezygotic and postzygotic isolation between sympatric populations of two closely related species within the highly derived fraterculus group (A. fraterculus and A. obliqua), coexisting in nature. Although adults of both species showed a strong tendency for assortative mating, a small proportion of hybrid pairings in both directions were observed. We also observed asymetric postzygotic isolation, with one hybrid cross displaying a strong reduction in fecundity and F1 egg fertility. Survival was greater for the progeny of homotypic and hybrid crosses in the maternal host. There was a marked female biased sex ratio distortion for both F1 hybrid adults. Hybridization between A. fraterculus and A. obliqua in nature may be difficult but possible; these two species display stronger reproductive isolation than all pairsof species previously examined in the A. fraterculus species complex. Asymetric postzygotic isolation is suggestive of Wolbachia mediated cytoplasmic incompatibilities that may be exploited in area-wide pest management.Fil: Rull Gabayet, Juan Antonio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiologicos; ArgentinaFil: Tadeo, Eduardo. Instituto de Ecología A. C. . Red de Manejo Biorracional de Plagas y Vectores; MéxicoFil: Lasa, Rodrigo. Instituto de Ecología A. C. . Red de Manejo Biorracional de Plagas y Vectores; MéxicoFil: Rodríguez, Christian L.. Instituto de Ecología A. C. . Red de Manejo Biorracional de Plagas y Vectores; MéxicoFil: Altuzar Molina, Alma. Instituto de Ecología A. C. . Red de Manejo Biorracional de Plagas y Vectores; MéxicoFil: Aluja, Martín. Instituto de Ecología A. C. . Red de Manejo Biorracional de Plagas y Vectores; Méxic

Discriminating sources and preservation of organic matter in surface sediments from five Antarctic lakes in the Fildes Peninsula (King George Island) by lipid biomarkers and compound-specific isotopic analysis

Lakes are important paleoenvironmental archives retaining abundant information due to their typical high sedimentation rates and susceptibility to environmental changes. Here, we scrutinize the organic matter (OM) composition, origin and preservation state in surface sediments from five lakes in a remote, warming-sensitive, and poorly explored region partially covered by the retreating Collins Glacier in King George Island (Antarctica), the Fildes Peninsula. Lipid biomarkers of terrestrial origin (i.e. high-molecularweight n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids, and n-alkanols; β-sitosterol, campesterol, and stigmasterol) were detected in the five Fildes Lakes, with the smallest basin (i.e.,Meltwater) showing a particularly strongmoss imprint. Aquatic source indicators such as lowC/N and terrestrial over aquatic ratios (TAR), or less negative δ13C valueswere preferentially found in themid-sized lakes (i.e., Drake and Ionospheric). Sedimentary carbon in the larger lakes (i.e., Uruguay and Kitezh) displayed a largely biogenic origin (i.e., values of carbon preference index, CPI, ≫1), whereas the three lakes close to Collins Glacier (i.e., Drake, Meltwater, and Ionospheric) showed certain contribution from petrogenic sources (CPI ~ 1). The results suggest that the geochemical signature of the surface sediments in the five Fildes lakes is determined by factors such as the distance to the retreating Collins Glacier, the proximity to the coast, or the lake depth. This study illustrates the forensic interest of combining lipid biomarkers, compound-specific isotopic analysis, and bulk geochemistry to reconstruct paleoenvironments and study climate-sensitive regions

Concentración, Hold-up e Información de las Colocaciones Bancarias: Evidencia de Empresas Chilenas

In this paper we empirically study bank-client relationships using a sample of Chilean manufacturing firms. We examine whether concentration and the duration of bank-client relationships affect the volume of bank lending. Our results indicate that lower concentration, measured by the number of banks a firm borrows from, is associated ith a large and positive effect on borrowing. The length of borrower-lender relationships has a positive—although not always statistically significant—effect on the amount borrowed.

Papel de los equipos de atención primaria en la hospitalización infantil de los niños menores de 2 años

ObjetivoDeterminar si la conformación de los equipos de atención primaria con la realización del programa de salud del niño sano da lugar a una disminución del riesgo de hospitalización en los niños menores de 2 años, respecto al sistema sanitario tradicional de consultorio o ambulatorio.DiseñoEstudio epidemiológico de casos-referencia.Casos40% de los niños hospitalizados menores de 24 meses en plantas de hospitalización pediátricas o neonatal del Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla.Referencia15% de los recién nacidos vivos en dicho hospital. Recogida de información mediante entrevista personal y consulta de la tarjeta sanitaria.Período de estudioabril de 1995 a mayo de 1996.ResultadosLos niños menores de 2 años controlados habitualmente por un médico perteneciente a un equipo de atención primaria presentan una disminución del riesgo de hospitalización para todos los diagnósticos clínicos de 0,57 (IC del 95%, 0,35–0,93), tras haber ajustado por diferentes factores de confusión como educación materna, clase social, etnia, edad materna, consumo de tabaco materno, lactancia natural al nacimiento, ingreso al nacimiento. Se observó una disminución del riesgo de hospitalización por fiebre sin localización aparente en aquellos niños controlados habitualmente por un médico de equipo (RR ajustado, 0,41; IC del 95%, 0,19–0,90).ConclusiónLas ventajas de la reforma en la asistencia sanitaria en el ámbito pediátrico, con la conformación de los equipos de atención primaria y la realización de las actividades que ello conlleva, se traduce en una disminución del riesgo de hospitalización para aquellos niños menores de 2 años cuyo control habitual es realizado por un pediatra perteneciente a un equipo de atención primaria.ObjectiveTo determine whether the structure of primary care teams on carrying out the healthy child health programme leads to a drop in the risk of admission to hospital of children under two, in comparison with the traditional clinic or out-clinic health system.DesignCase-reference epidemiological study.Cases40% of the children under 24 months admitted to paediatric or neonate floors of the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital.Reference15% of the recently born children alive in this hospital. Information was gathered through face-to-face interview and by examining health cards. The study ran from April 1995 to May 1996.ResultsChildren under two monitored habitually by a doctor belonging to a primary care team showed a drop in risk of hospital admission for all clinical diagnoses of 0.57 (95% CI, 0.35–0.93), after adjustment due to various confusion factors such as maternal education, social class, ethnic background, mother's age, mother's tobacco consumption, natural breast-feeding at birth, admission at birth. There was a drop of risk of hospital admission for high temperature without apparent cause in those children monitored habitually by a team doctor (adjusted RR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.19–0.90).ConclusionsThe advantages of the paediatric health care reform with the structuring of the primary care teams and the accompanying activities performed lead to a drop in the risk of hospital admission of those children under two years old who are habitually monitored by a doctor belonging to a primary care team

Perturbation-Based Modeling Unveils the Autophagic Modulation of Chemosensitivity and Immunogenicity in Breast Cancer Cells

In the absence of new therapeutic strategies, chemotherapeutic drugs are the most widely used strategy against metastatic breast cancer, in spite of eliciting multiple adverse effects and having low responses with an average 5-year patient survival rate. Among the new therapeutic targets that are currently in clinical trials, here, we addressed the association between the regulation of the metabolic process of autophagy and the exposure of damage-associated molecular patterns associated (DAMPs) to immunogenic cell death (ICD), which has not been previously studied. After validating an mCHR-GFP tandem LC3 sensor capacity to report dynamic changes of the autophagic metabolic flux in response to external stimuli and demonstrating that both basal autophagy levels and response to diverse autophagy regulators fluctuate among different cell lines, we explored the interaction between autophagy modulators and chemotherapeutic agents in regards of cytotoxicity and ICD using three different breast cancer cell lines. Since these interactions are very complex and variable throughout different cell lines, we designed a perturbation-based model in which we propose specific modes of action of chemotherapeutic agents on the autophagic flux and the corresponding strategies of modulation to enhance the response to chemotherapy. Our results point towards a promising therapeutic potential of the metabolic regulation of autophagy to overcome chemotherapy resistance by eliciting ICD.Universidad de Costa Rica/[803-B6-600]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de Microbiologí

Computer-aided diagnosis of multiple sclerosis using a support vector machine and optical coherence tomography features

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility of diagnosing multiple sclerosis (MS) using optical coherence tomography (OCT) data and a support vector machine (SVM) as an automatic classifier. Forty-eight MS patients without symptoms of optic neuritis and forty-eight healthy control subjects were selected. Swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) was performed using a DRI (deep-range imaging) Triton OCT device (Topcon Corp., Tokyo, Japan). Mean values (right and left eye) for macular thickness (retinal and choroidal layers) and peripapillary area (retinal nerve fibre layer, retinal, ganglion cell layer—GCL, and choroidal layers) were compared between both groups. Based on the analysis of the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC), the 3 variables with the greatest discriminant capacity were selected to form the feature vector. A SVM was used as an automatic classifier, obtaining the confusion matrix using leave-one-out cross-validation. Classification performance was assessed with Matthew’s correlation coefficient (MCC) and the AUCCLASSIFIER. The most discriminant variables were found to be the total GCL++ thickness (between inner limiting membrane to inner nuclear layer boundaries), evaluated in the peripapillary area and macular retina thickness in the nasal quadrant of the outer and inner rings. Using the SVM classifier, we obtained the following values: MCC = 0.81, sensitivity = 0.89, specificity = 0.92, accuracy = 0.91, and AUCCLASSIFIER = 0.97. Our findings suggest that it is possible to classify control subjects and MS patients without previous optic neuritis by applying machine-learning techniques to study the structural neurodegeneration in the retina

Measurement Invariance of the Short UCLA Loneliness Scale in Spanish and Peruvian Old People: Latent Mean Differences and Evidence for Differential Effects on Perceived Health

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the measurement invariance of the University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS) three-item version (UCLA-LS-3) in older adults in Peru and Spain, to compare the latent means of loneliness, and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the scale with Item Response Theory (IRT) models, and evaluate the possible moderating effects of the country on loneliness-health relationships. Peruvian sample was composed of 235 old adults from the city of Lima. The Spanish sample was composed of 443 old adults. The three-factor structure of RUCLA-3 anchored to the health measure fitted the data reasonably well in Spain and Peru. The R-UCLA-3 may be considered invariant for these two samples. The latent means of loneliness are different, the Peruvian average of loneliness being greater than that of Spain. The R-UCLA-3 is an invariant measure in older adults in Peru and Spain, with adequate psychometric properties through IRT models

Single-longitudinal mode laser structure based on a very narrow filtering technique

A narrow filtering technique based on the spectral overlapping of two uniform FBGs and applied to obtain a Single Longitudinal Mode (SLM) laser is proposed and demonstrated in this work. The two FBGs are spectrally detuned to reduce their coincident reflection response narrowing the equivalent filter bandwidth. A proof-of-concept linear laser has been built and tested exhibiting SLM operation even with temperature and strain variations.The authors are grateful to the Spanish government project TEC2010-20224-C02, to the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture, and to the grant AP2009-1403

Ageism and nursing students, past or reality?: a systematic review

Objective: This systematic review aimed to summarise and update existing knowledge about ageism among nursing students through the following research question: what is the perception and attitudes of ageism among student nurses? Design: A systematic review of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of ageism in nursing students was carried out. Data sources: The literature search was conducted in the scientific databases Pubmed and Scopus in February 2021. Review methods: After the screening process, 22 studies meeting the selection criteria were selected; 8 more were identified after manually searching the selected paper' reference lists. A total of 30 studies were included in the review. The JBI Critical Appraisal Checklists for Analytical Cross-Sectional studies and for Cohort Studies were used to appraise the articles' quality. Results: There was large variability in the manifestation of ageism among student nurses, as well as in the instruments used for assessment. Most of the articles analysed attitudes towards old age, the majority of which were positive. Being a female student, being on the final year of study and having regular contact or cohabitation with an older adult were three of the main determinants in the expression of positive attitudes towards the elderly. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that student nurses generally have positive attitudes towards old age, although ageist beliefs and discriminatory behaviours were identified and should be studied in greater depth. Training programs for future care professionals have a responsibility to educate from a non-stereotypical perspective based on current societal needs