Persistent Organic Pollutants in Neotropic Cormorants (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) Nesting along the Trinity River, Texas

The Trinity River is a historically polluted river with records of various contaminants including organochlorine pesticides and their metabolites (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and Mercury (Hg) detected in contaminant studies of the Trinity River and its watershed. Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) are a persistent contaminant group that has been shown to cause endocrinological changes, and some of its congeners have been banned in the US and in the whole EU. Fish eating birds are good indicators of contaminant accumulation in aquatic environments, as they accumulate lipophilic contaminants from eating fish and are typically top predators of their food web. Neotropic cormorants (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) are good indicators for local contamination and accumulate OCPs, PCBs, Hg, and PBDEs efficiently as the base levels of their food webs include aquatic invertebrates which regularly uptake lipophilic compounds from ambient water and sediment. The objectives of this research are to measure the persistent contaminant burden in Neotropic cormorants, a top piscivore, and to determine contaminant accumulation and potential impacts to the species, as well as if there is any correlation between sex, location of colony, or mass of Neotropic cormorant and contaminant burden. Cormorants were sampled in 2014 and 2015 from two sites on the Trinity River Watershed: Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area, and Lake Livingston. A liver section, spleen, kidneys, and gonads were sampled for histopathology, and a liver section was sampled for GC-MS analysis of OCPs, PCBs, and PBDEs, and breast feathers were sampled for Hg analysis by CVAAS. Results show total PCBs in liver sections of cormorants average 338±12 ng/g ww, total OCPs detected in liver sections average 235±9.5 ng/g ww with 4, 4’ DDE as the most commonly detected at 184±4.2 ng/g ww, the average total PBDE content per liver is 10±0.8 ng/g ww and the average Hg detected in central breast feathers was 3±0.2 µg/g dw. None of the contaminants measured were present in concentrations indicative of adverse effects; however, altered structure, composition and function, or histopathology were detected in the livers and kidneys of most samples. A novel coccidian Eimeria sp. was also detected in the kidneys of several cormorants. There was no significant difference in contaminants between sexes or location. Neotropic cormorants along the Trinity River do not display contaminant levels indicative of hazardous conditions for PCBs, PBDEs, DDE, and Hg; however, liver and kidney lesions are present in more than half of the individuals. Lesions along the glomeruli, tubules, and interstitial tissues of the kidney were the main findings observed in kidneys, while in the liver, chronic granulomatous cholangiohepatitis with intralesional trematodes were the main histopathologic finding. Our results indicate that Neotropic cormorants roosting in two colonies along the Trinity River are not at risk for adverse effects due to OCPs, PCBs, PBDEs, and Hg

Reeducción motriz por medio de la actividad física en el adulto mayor de la Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes

El acelerado envejecimiento poblacional que se experimenta a nivel mundial desde hace 30 años, ha llevado a un creciente interés por conocer las repercusiones de este fenómeno tanto a nivel físico, como psicológico, social y económico. Los ancianos se han convertido, en las últimas décadas, en un grupo etario de alto crecimiento demográfico. Se ha estimado que, hacia el año 2050, el 15% de la población de América latina será́ anciana (Borrelli, 2011). Según el Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática (INEGI), en 1930 en México la población de adultos mayores era inferior al millón de personas, lo que es equivalente al 5.3% de la población total conforme a la fecha antes mencionada. Pero para el Censo de Población y Vivienda llevado a cabo en 2010 se contabilizó un total de 10.1 millones de adultos mayores lo que representa 9.0% de la población total de ese año (INEGI, 2010) La actividad física es un elemento que, por su elevada importancia, es recomendada en todas las instancias de la vida, en mayor o menor medida dependiendo de la condición de salud en la que se encuentre el individuo, su edad cronología y algunos otros factores que pueden limitar dicha práctica, esto está supeditado por las condiciones personales del sujeto

Persistent Organic Pollutants in Neotropic Cormorants (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) Nesting along the Trinity River, Texas

The Trinity River is a historically polluted river with records of various contaminants including organochlorine pesticides and their metabolites (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and Mercury (Hg) detected in contaminant studies of the Trinity River and its watershed. Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) are a persistent contaminant group that has been shown to cause endocrinological changes, and some of its congeners have been banned in the US and in the whole EU. Fish eating birds are good indicators of contaminant accumulation in aquatic environments, as they accumulate lipophilic contaminants from eating fish and are typically top predators of their food web. Neotropic cormorants (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) are good indicators for local contamination and accumulate OCPs, PCBs, Hg, and PBDEs efficiently as the base levels of their food webs include aquatic invertebrates which regularly uptake lipophilic compounds from ambient water and sediment. The objectives of this research are to measure the persistent contaminant burden in Neotropic cormorants, a top piscivore, and to determine contaminant accumulation and potential impacts to the species, as well as if there is any correlation between sex, location of colony, or mass of Neotropic cormorant and contaminant burden. Cormorants were sampled in 2014 and 2015 from two sites on the Trinity River Watershed: Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area, and Lake Livingston. A liver section, spleen, kidneys, and gonads were sampled for histopathology, and a liver section was sampled for GC-MS analysis of OCPs, PCBs, and PBDEs, and breast feathers were sampled for Hg analysis by CVAAS. Results show total PCBs in liver sections of cormorants average 338±12 ng/g ww, total OCPs detected in liver sections average 235±9.5 ng/g ww with 4, 4’ DDE as the most commonly detected at 184±4.2 ng/g ww, the average total PBDE content per liver is 10±0.8 ng/g ww and the average Hg detected in central breast feathers was 3±0.2 µg/g dw. None of the contaminants measured were present in concentrations indicative of adverse effects; however, altered structure, composition and function, or histopathology were detected in the livers and kidneys of most samples. A novel coccidian Eimeria sp. was also detected in the kidneys of several cormorants. There was no significant difference in contaminants between sexes or location. Neotropic cormorants along the Trinity River do not display contaminant levels indicative of hazardous conditions for PCBs, PBDEs, DDE, and Hg; however, liver and kidney lesions are present in more than half of the individuals. Lesions along the glomeruli, tubules, and interstitial tissues of the kidney were the main findings observed in kidneys, while in the liver, chronic granulomatous cholangiohepatitis with intralesional trematodes were the main histopathologic finding. Our results indicate that Neotropic cormorants roosting in two colonies along the Trinity River are not at risk for adverse effects due to OCPs, PCBs, PBDEs, and Hg

Nivel de pensamiento computacional en los estudiantes de primer semestre de la Universidad del Pacífico

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo primordial diagnosticar el Nivel de Pensamiento Computacional de los estudiantes de primer semestre de la Universidad del Pacífico sede Buenaventura, dado la importancia que actualmente tiene este enfoque en todos los aspectos del ser humano, especialmente en el campo de la educación superior. Como parte primordial de este proyecto, se puede mencionar la creación y validación de un instrumento de evaluación orientado a la temática propuesta, una vez realizado esto se procede a la aplicación, recolección y análisis de la información que gracias a los resultados obtenidos se determina el Nivel de Pensamiento Computacional de los estudiantes de primer semestre de la Universidad del Pacífico. Por otra parte, cabe mencionar que a pesar de no estar planteados en los objetivos del proyecto, se propone como dato agregado, determinar el Nivel de Pensamiento Computacional por programas. Finalmente, para llevar a cabo un desarrollo satisfactorio del proyecto, se contó con la participación y colaboración de varios agentes en los diferentes estamentos de la Universidad de Nariño y la Universidad del Pacifico, quienes contribuyeron a la consolidación del documento que servirá como base para futuras investigaciones

Limitación de la apertura bucal por hiperplasia de apófisis coronoides: reporte de un caso.

La hiperplasia de los procesos coronoideos es una afección muy rara, caracterizada por la elongación de las coronoides en donde se produce un contacto prematuro con la superficie posterior del hueso cigomático. Esto dará como resultado la restricción mecánica de la apertura bucal. El tratamiento de elección es la coronoidectomia intraoral de forma bilateral. En este artículo reportamos el caso de un paciente de 15 años con una marcada limitación de la apertura bucal, donde se le realizó resección bilateral de los procesos coronoideos de forma intra oral

Mechanically transduced immunosorbent assay to measure protein-protein interactions

Measuring protein-protein interaction (PPI) affinities is fundamental to biochemistry. Yet, conventional methods rely upon the law of mass action and cannot measure many PPIs due to a scarcity of reagents and limitations in the measurable affinity ranges. Here, we present a novel technique that leverages the fundamental concept of friction to produce a mechanical signal that correlates to binding potential. The mechanically transduced immunosorbent (METRIS) assay utilizes rolling magnetic probes to measure PPI interaction affinities. METRIS measures the translational displacement of protein-coated particles on a protein-functionalized substrate. The translational displacement scales with the effective friction induced by a PPI, thus producing a mechanical signal when a binding event occurs. The METRIS assay uses as little as 20 pmols of reagents to measure a wide range of affinities while exhibiting a high resolution and sensitivity. We use METRIS to measure several PPIs that were previously inaccessible using traditional methods, providing new insights into epigenetic recognition

Population History and Gene Divergence in Native Mexicans Inferred from 76 Human Exomes.

Native American genetic variation remains underrepresented in most catalogs of human genome sequencing data. Previous genotyping efforts have revealed that Mexico's Indigenous population is highly differentiated and substructured, thus potentially harboring higher proportions of private genetic variants of functional and biomedical relevance. Here we have targeted the coding fraction of the genome and characterized its full site frequency spectrum by sequencing 76 exomes from five Indigenous populations across Mexico. Using diffusion approximations, we modeled the demographic history of Indigenous populations from Mexico with northern and southern ethnic groups splitting 7.2 KYA and subsequently diverging locally 6.5 and 5.7 KYA, respectively. Selection scans for positive selection revealed BCL2L13 and KBTBD8 genes as potential candidates for adaptive evolution in Rarámuris and Triquis, respectively. BCL2L13 is highly expressed in skeletal muscle and could be related to physical endurance, a well-known phenotype of the northern Mexico Rarámuri. The KBTBD8 gene has been associated with idiopathic short stature and we found it to be highly differentiated in Triqui, a southern Indigenous group from Oaxaca whose height is extremely low compared to other Native populations