Relationship of breast milk - formula milk intake and salivary ph in children 6 to 18 months of age

Introducción: la alimentación en la primera infancia es importante debido a que tiene relación directa con la salud en general, la alimentación con leche materna exclusiva hasta los seis meses de vida es beneficioso para el fortalecimiento del sistema inmune de los niños, pero existen situaciones en las que los niños deben ser alimentados con leche de fórmula dependiendo de las necesidades o indicaciones médicas.Objetivo: determinar la variabilidad del pH salival en niños de seis a 18 meses de edad con ingesta de leche materna - leche de fórmula y su incidencia en la presencia de caries dental, en el centro infantil “Senderos de luz”, cantón Pujilí, provincia de Cotopaxi.Métodos: la muestra se basó en dos grupos; un grupo alimentado con leche materna y el otro alimentado con leche de fórmula. La valoración del pH salival se realizará en cuatro tiempos específicos: antes de la ingesta de leche materna o de fórmula, a los cinco, 10, y 20 minutos de haber consumido la leche. Se elaborará una guía de cuidados de higiene oral para niños de seis a 18 meses de edad, estableciendo los beneficios directos de los infantes para disminuir la predisposición de desarrollar caries dental, con la inclusión de medidas de higiene oral aun sin que haya aparecido en la boca el primer órgano dental.Resultados: fue mayor el número de niños que consumieron leche de fórmula y mantuvieron pH salival ácido a los 20 minutos, mientras que fueron muy pocos los niños que consumieron leche materna y continuaron con pH salival ácido. El número de niños que su pH salival regresó a valores iniciales fue mayor en los que consumieron leche materna en comparación con los que consumieron leche de fórmula lo que es bueno porque disminuye la predisposición de desarrollar caries dental.Conclusiones: el pH salival puede modificarse por el tipo de alimentos consumidos, específicamente en esta investigación se habla de la variabilidad del pH salival, que cuando este es modificado drásticamente favorece el crecimiento bacteriano, aumentando la predisposición de desarrollar caries dental en edades tempranas.Introduction: feeding in early childhood is important because it is directly related to general health. Exclusive breast milk feeding up to six months of life is beneficial for strengthening the immune system of children, but there are situations in which children should be fed with formula milk depending on the needs or medical indications.Objective: to determine the variability of salivary pH in children from six to 18 months of age with breast milk - formula milk intake and its incidence in the presence of dental caries, in the "Senderos de luz" children's center, Pujilí canton, province of Cotopaxi.Methods: the sample was based on two groups; one group fed with breast milk and the other fed with formula milk. The salivary pH will be evaluated at fourspecific times: before the ingestion of breast milk or formula milk, five, 10, and 20 minutes after having consumed the milk. An oral hygiene care guide will be prepared for children between six and 18 months of age, establishing the direct benefits for infants to reduce the predisposition to develop dental caries, with the inclusion of oral hygiene measures even before the first dental organ has appeared in the mouth.Results: the number of children who consumed formula milk and maintained an acid salivary pH at 20 minutes was greater, while there were very few children who consumed breast milk and continued with an acid salivary pH. The number of children whose salivary pH returned to initial values was greater in those who consumed breast milk compared to those who consumed formula milk, which is good because it decreases the predisposition to develop dental caries.Conclusions: salivary pH can be modified by the type of food consumed, specifically in this research we speak of the variability of salivary pH, which when it is drastically modified favors bacterial growth, increasing the predisposition to develop dental caries at an early age

Seguridad alimentaria y nutricional en Colombia

Por su posicion y fisiografia, Colombia presenta una gran diversidad de zonas climaticas y cuenta con abundantes recursos agricolas y de agua dulce, una biodiversidad excepcional y gran riqueza en recursos naturales. La agricultura se caracteriza por monocultivos tecnificados por region (v.gr. cana de azucar, cafe, flores, algodon, platano, banano, sorgo, maiz, arroz, palma africana, papa y yuca, entre otros). Hay cultivos para consumo interno y se exportan cultivos de alto valor como cafe, banano, cana de azucar y palma africana. La agricultura en Colombia se vera afectada seriamente por el cambio climatico, tanto en seguridad alimentaria, como en la socioeconomia agricola. En relacion con seguridad alimentaria y nutricional (SAN) Colombia ocupa el decimo lugar en el Indice de Sostenibilidad Alimentaria y el noveno en agricultura sostenible (2016 Food Sustainability Index) y, si bien los porcentajes de desnutricion se han reducido, aun persiste en poblaciones de bajos ingresos asi como en indigenas. El 12,5% de la población se encuentra subalimentada. El pais muestra una transicion nutricional de su poblacion, y presenta problemas de deficit y exceso de peso en todos los grupos de poblacion. Se han asumido actividades de mitigacion y adaptacion al cambio climatico para enfrentar los retos de la produccion agricola sostenible. Colombia cuenta con capacidades cientificas y tecnologicas con trayectoria de larga data a pesar de la reduccion actual en el presupuesto de ciencia y tecnologia, y hay desarrollos en alternativas de solucion para el incremento en la productividad agricola en los diversos sistemas de cultivo con consideraciones territoriales. Se busca promover el incremento de la oferta agropecuaria para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria, promover las exportaciones agropecuarias y propender por el bienestar de los agricultores. Entre muchas de las iniciativas articuladas se destacan: la “Estrategia Colombia Siembra”, la “Mision para la Transformacion del Campo Colombiano” y la estrategia de “Crecimiento Verde”

Food and Nutrition Security in Colombia

As a result of its position and physiography, Colombia has an enormous diversity of climate zones, together with abundant agricultural and fresh water resources, an exceptional biodiversity and a wealth of natural resources. Its agriculture is characterized by technified monocultures by region (such as sugar cane, coffee, flowers, cotton, banana, banana, sorghum, maize, rice, African palm, potato and cassava). There are crops for domestic consumption, while highvalue crops such as coffee, sugar cane and African palm are exported. Agriculture in Colombia will be seriously affected by climate change, both in terms of food security and agricultural socioeconomics. In relation to food and nutritional security (SAN), Colombia ranks 10th in the Food Sustainability Index and the ninth in sustainable agriculture (2016 Food Sustainability Index), and although the percentages of malnutrition have decreased, they still persist in lowincome as well as indigenous populations. A total of 12,5% of the population is undernourished. The country reflects the nutritional transition of its population, and has problems of both underweight and overweight in all the population groups. Climate change mitigation and adaptation activities have been undertaken to address the challenges of sustainable agricultural production. Despite the current budget reduction for Science and Technology, colombian scientific and technological capacities are solid, with a long history, and there have been developments in alternative solutions to boost agricultural productivity in the diverse farming systems with territorial considerations. The aim is to boost the agricultural supply to guarantee food security and promote agricultural exports and farmers’ welfare. The many initiatives implemented include: The Colombia Plants Strategy; the Mission for the Transformation of the Colombian Countryside and the Green Growth strategy

Pleistocene climate changes, and not agricultural spread, accounts for range expansion and admixture in the dominant grassland species <i>Lolium perenne</i> L.

International audienceAim: Grasslands have been pivotal in the development of herbivore breeding since the Neolithic and still represent the most widespread agricultural land use across Europe. However, it remains unclear whether the current large‐scale genetic variation of plant species found in natural grasslands of Europe is the result of human activities or natural processes. Location: Europe. Taxon: Lolium perenne L. (perennial ryegrass). Methods: We reconstructed the phylogeographic history of L. perenne, a dominant grassland species, using 481 natural populations, including 11 populations of closely related taxa. We combined Genotyping‐by‐Sequencing (GBS) and pool‐Sequencing (pool‐Seq) to obtain high‐quality allele frequency calls of ~500 k SNP loci. We performed genetic structure analyses and demographic reconstructions based on the site frequency spectrum (SFS). We additionally used the same genotyping protocol to assess the genomic diversity of a set of 32 cultivars representative of the L. perenne cultivars widely used for forage purposes. Results: Expansion across Europe took place during the Würm glaciation (12–110 kya), a cooling period that decreased the dominance of trees in favour of grasses. Splits and admixtures in L. perenne fit historical climate changes in the Mediterranean basin. The development of agriculture in Europe (7–3.5 kya), that caused an increase in the abundance of grasslands, did not have an effect on the demographic patterns of L. perenne. We found that most modern cultivars are closely related to natural diversity from north-western Europe. Thus, modern cultivars do not represent the wide genetic variation found in natural populations. Main conclusions: Demographic events in L. perenne can be explained by the changing climatic conditions during the Pleistocene. Natural populations maintain a wide genomic variability at continental scale that has been minimally exploited by recent breeding activities. This variability constitutes valuable standing genetic variation for future adaptation of grasslands to climate change, safeguarding the agricultural services they provide

High-Throughput Genome-Wide Genotyping To Optimize the Use of Natural Genetic Resources in the Grassland Species Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.)

The natural genetic diversity of agricultural species is an essential genetic resource for breeding programs aiming to improve their ecosystem and production services. A large natural ecotype diversity is usually available for most grassland species. This could be used to recombine natural climatic adaptations and agronomic value to create improved populations of grassland species adapted to future regional climates. However describing natural genetic resources can be long and costly. Molecular markers may provide useful information to help this task. This opportunity was investigated for Lolium perenne L., using a set of 385 accessions from the natural diversity of this species collected right across Europe and provided by genebanks of several countries. For each of these populations, genotyping provided the allele frequencies of 189,781 SNP markers. GWAS were implemented for over 30 agronomic and/or putatively adaptive traits recorded in three climatically contrasted locations (France, Belgium, Germany). Significant associations were detected for hundreds of markers despite a strong confounding effect of the genetic background; most of them pertained to phenology traits. It is likely that genetic variability in these traits has had an important contribution to environmental adaptation and ecotype differentiation. Genomic prediction models calibrated using natural diversity were found to be highly effective to describe natural populations for almost all traits as well as commercial synthetic populations for some important traits such as disease resistance, spring growth or phenological traits. These results will certainly be valuable information to help the use of natural genetic resources of other species

Risk Factors for Sporadic Shiga Toxin–producing Escherichia coli Infections in Children, Argentina1

These infections can be prevented by avoiding known risk factors

Butterfly-parasitoid-hostplant interactions in Western Palaearctic Hesperiidae: a DNA barcoding reference library

The study of ecological interactions between plants, phytophagous insects and their natural enemies is an essential but challenging component for understanding ecosystem dynamics. Molecular methods such as DNA barcoding can help elucidate these interactions. In this study, we employed DNA barcoding to establish hostplant and parasitoid interactions with hesperiid butterflies, using a complete reference library for Hesperiidae of continental Europe and north-western Africa (53 species, 100% of those recorded) based on 2934 sequences from 38 countries. A total of 233 hostplant and parasitoid interactions are presented, some recovered by DNA barcoding larval remains or parasitoid cocoons. Combining DNA barcode results with other lines of evidence allowed 94% species-level identification for Hesperiidae, but success was lower for parasitoids, in part due to unresolved taxonomy. Potential cases of cryptic diversity, both in Hesperiidae and Microgastrinae, are discussed. We briefly analyse the resulting interaction networks. Future DNA barcoding initiatives in this region should focus attention on north-western Africa and on parasitoids, because in these cases barcode reference libraries and taxonomy are less well developed.Support for this research was provided by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) with a JAE-Intro fellowship for the introduction to research to ETD (reference numbers JAEINT_20_00248 and JAEINT20_EX_0638) and by projects PID2019-107078GB-I00/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and 2017-SGR-991 (Generalitat de Catalunya) to RV, and PID2020-117739GA-I00/MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to GT. We thank the Rachadaphiseksomphot Fund, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, for the award of a Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship to DLJQ. Further support for this research was provided by the Academy of Finland (Academy Research Fellow, decision no. 328895) to VD. PDNH acknowledges support from Genome Canada through Ontario Genomics. BV has been funded by the CERCA Programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya and by the Grant RYC-22243-2017, whose PI is Josep Sardanyés. SV was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, grant PID2020-117822GB-I00 MINEICO/AEI/ FEDER and the European Union.INTRODUCTION MATERIAL AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION SUPPORTING INFORMATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DATA AVAILABILITY REFERENCES Supplementary dat

Canonical correlations reveal adaptive loci and phenotypic responses to climate in perennial ryegrass

Germplasm from perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) natural populations is useful for breeding because of its adaptation to a wide range of climates. Climate‐adaptive genes can be detected from associations between genotype, phenotype and climate but an integrated framework for the analysis of these three sources of information is lacking. We used two approaches to identify adaptive loci in perennial ryegrass and their effect on phenotypic traits. First, we combined Genome‐Environment Association (GEA) and GWAS analyses. Then, we implemented a new test based on a Canonical Correlation Analysis (CANCOR) to detect adaptive loci. Furthermore, we improved the previous perennial ryegrass gene set by de novo gene prediction and functional annotation of 39,967 genes. GEA‐GWAS revealed eight outlier loci associated with both environmental variables and phenotypic traits. CANCOR retrieved 633 outlier loci associated with two climatic gradients, characterized by cold‐dry winter versus mild‐wet winter and long rainy season versus long summer, and pointed out traits putatively conferring adaptation at the extremes of these gradients. Our CANCOR test also revealed the presence of both polygenic and oligogenic climatic adaptations. Our gene annotation revealed that 374 of the CANCOR outlier loci were positioned within or close to a gene. Co‐association networks of outlier loci revealed a potential utility of CANCOR for investigating the interaction of genes involved in polygenic adaptations. The CANCOR test provides an integrated framework to analyse adaptive genomic diversity and phenotypic responses to environmental selection pressures that could be used to facilitate the adaptation of plant species to climate change

Aspergillus fumigatus Can Display Persistence to the Fungicidal Drug Voriconazole

Aspergillus fumigatus is a filamentous fungus that can infect the lungs of patients with immunosuppression and/or underlying lung diseases. The mortality associated with chronic and invasive aspergillosis infections remain very high, despite availability of antifungal treatments. In the last decade, there has been a worrisome emergence and spread of resistance to the first-line antifungals, the azoles. The mortality caused by resistant isolates is even higher, and patient management is complicated as the therapeutic options are reduced. Nevertheless, treatment failure is also common in patients infected with azole-susceptible isolates, which can be due to several non-mutually exclusive reasons, such as poor drug absorption. In addition, the phenomena of tolerance or persistence, where susceptible pathogens can survive the action of an antimicrobial for extended periods, have been associated with treatment failure in bacterial infections, and their occurrence in fungal infections already proposed. Here, we demonstrate that some isolates of A. fumigatus display persistence to voriconazole. A subpopulation of the persister isolates can survive for extended periods and even grow at low rates in the presence of supra-MIC of voriconazole and seemingly other azoles. Persistence cannot be eradicated with adjuvant drugs or antifungal combinations and seemed to reduce the efficacy of treatment for certain individuals in a Galleria mellonella model of infection. Furthermore, persistence implies a distinct transcriptional profile, demonstrating that it is an active response. We propose that azole persistence might be a relevant and underestimated factor that could influence the outcome of infection in human aspergillosis. Importance: The phenomena of antibacterial tolerance and persistence, where pathogenic microbes can survive for extended periods in the presence of cidal drug concentrations, have received significant attention in the last decade. Several mechanisms of action have been elucidated, and their relevance for treatment failure in bacterial infections demonstrated. In contrast, our knowledge of antifungal tolerance and, in particular, persistence is still very limited. In this study, we have characterized the response of the prominent fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus to the first-line therapy antifungal voriconazole. We comprehensively show that some isolates display persistence to this fungicidal antifungal and propose various potential mechanisms of action. In addition, using an alternative model of infection, we provide initial evidence to suggest that persistence may cause treatment failure in some individuals. Therefore, we propose that azole persistence is an important factor to consider and further investigate in A. fumigatus.J.A. is funded by an Atracción de Talento Modalidad 1 (020-T1/BMD-200) contract of the Madrid Regional Government. J.S. has been funded by a BSAC Scholarship (bsac-2016-0049). C.V. was funded by FAPESP (2108/00715-3 and 2020/01131-5). G.H.G. hasbeen funded by FAPESP (2016/07870-9 and 2021/04977-5), CNPq (301058/2019-9 and404735/2018-5) and by the NIH/NIAID (grant R01AI153356). S.G. was cofunded by the NIHR Manchester Research Centre and the Fungal Infection Trust.S

Luminescent osmium(II) bi-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl complexes: photophysical characterisation and application in light-emitting electrochemical cells

The series of osmium(II) complexes [Os(bpy)3-n(btz)n][PF6]2 (bpy = 2,2’-bipyridyl, btz = 1,1’-dibenzyl-4,4’-bi-1,2,3-triazolyl, 1 n = 0, 2 n = 1, 3 n = 2, 4 n = 3), have been prepared and characterised. The progressive replacement of bpy by btz leads to blue-shifted UV-visible electronic absorption spectra, indicative of btz perturbation of the successively destabilised bpy-centred LUMO. For 4, a dramatic blue-shift relative to the absorption profile for 3 is observed, indicative of the much higher energy LUMO of the btz ligand over that of bpy, mirroring previously reported data on analogous ruthenium(II) complexes. Unlike the previously reported ruthenium systems, heteroleptic complexes 2 and 3 display intense emission in the far-red/near-infrared (λmax = 724 and 713 nm respectively in aerated acetonitrile at RT) as a consequence of higher lying, and hence less thermally accessible, 3MC states. This assertion is supported by ground state DFT calculations which show that the dσ* orbitals of 1 to 4 are destabilised by between 0.60 and 0.79 eV relative to their Ru(II) analogues. The homoleptic complex 4 appears to display extremely week room temperature emission, but on cooling to 77 K the complex exhibits highly intense blue emission with λmax 444 nm. As complexes 1 to 3 display room temperature luminescent emission and readily reversible Os(II)/(III) redox couples, light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) devices were fabricated. All LECs display electroluminescent emission in the deep-red/near-IR (λmax = 695 to 730 nm). Whilst devices based on 2 and 3 show inferior current density and luminance than LECs based on 1, the device utilising 3 shows the highest external quantum efficiency at 0.3 %