Evaluation of antiparasitic, anticancer, antimicrobial and hypoglycemic properties of organic extracts from Panamanian mangrove plants

To investigate 33 organic extracts of mangrove plants for: antiparasitic, anticancer, and antibacterial activities, as well as their ability to inhibit the activity of the 毩-glucosidase enzyme. Methods: Leaves from all different plant mangrove species located in five mangrove zones of the Pacific coast of Panama were collected according to standard procedures. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of the organic extracts was performed by thin layer chromatography. The antiparasitic activity against Plasmodium falciparum, Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania donovani, toxicity against Artemia salina, anticancer activity in MCF-7 cell line, and antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa of all organic extract were investigated according protocols stablished in our institution. Finally, the ability to inhibit the enzymatic activity of 毩-glucosidase was evaluated by monitoring the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl 毩-Dglucopyranoside. Results: Thirty-three different samples belonging to nine different species of vascular plants with seeds of true mangroves were collected. Triterpenoids, phenolics, and tannins were the main groups of compounds found in the sampled mangroves. Saponins, quinones, and coumarins were found in less than 50% of the samples. Laguncularia racemosa showed moderate activity against Plasmodium falciparum. None of the extracts presented anticancer activity. Rhizophora mangle exhibited potent activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis [(90.41±7.33)% and (96.02±6.14)% of inhibition]; Avicennia germinans and Conocarpus erectus had activity against Escherichia coli [(71.17±6.15)% and (60.60±5.13)% of inhibition, respectively]. About 60% of the mangroves showed 毩-glucosidase inhibitory activity. In particular, extracts from Laguncularia racemosa, Pelliciera rhizophorae, Conocarpus erectus, Mora oleifera, and Tabebuia palustris species showed 毩-glucosidase inhibitory potential, with IC50 values of (29.45±0.29), (20.60±0.70), (730.06±3.74), (25.59±0.37), and (853.39±5.30) µg/mL, respectively. Conclusions: Panamanian mangroves are mainly a promising potential source of hypoglycemic compounds, specifically 毩-glucosidase inhibitors. These results highlight the therapeutic virtues of extracts from American mangrove plants.To investigate 33 organic extracts of mangrove plants for: antiparasitic, anticancer, and antibacterial activities, as well as their ability to inhibit the activity of the 毩-glucosidase enzyme. Methods: Leaves from all different plant mangrove species located in five mangrove zones of the Pacific coast of Panama were collected according to standard procedures. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of the organic extracts was performed by thin layer chromatography. The antiparasitic activity against Plasmodium falciparum, Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania donovani, toxicity against Artemia salina, anticancer activity in MCF-7 cell line, and antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa of all organic extract were investigated according protocols stablished in our institution. Finally, the ability to inhibit the enzymatic activity of 毩-glucosidase was evaluated by monitoring the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl 毩-Dglucopyranoside. Results: Thirty-three different samples belonging to nine different species of vascular plants with seeds of true mangroves were collected. Triterpenoids, phenolics, and tannins were the main groups of compounds found in the sampled mangroves. Saponins, quinones, and coumarins were found in less than 50% of the samples. Laguncularia racemosa showed moderate activity against Plasmodium falciparum. None of the extracts presented anticancer activity. Rhizophora mangle exhibited potent activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis [(90.41±7.33)% and (96.02±6.14)% of inhibition]; Avicennia germinans and Conocarpus erectus had activity against Escherichia coli [(71.17±6.15)% and (60.60±5.13)% of inhibition, respectively]. About 60% of the mangroves showed 毩-glucosidase inhibitory activity. In particular, extracts from Laguncularia racemosa, Pelliciera rhizophorae, Conocarpus erectus, Mora oleifera, and Tabebuia palustris species showed 毩-glucosidase inhibitory potential, with IC50 values of (29.45±0.29), (20.60±0.70), (730.06±3.74), (25.59±0.37), and (853.39±5.30) µg/mL, respectively. Conclusions: Panamanian mangroves are mainly a promising potential source of hypoglycemic compounds, specifically 毩-glucosidase inhibitors. These results highlight the therapeutic virtues of extracts from American mangrove plants

Nutritional and bioactive characteristics of Ayocote bean (Phaseolus coccienus L): an underutilized legume harvasted in Mexico

Artículo en revista indizadaNutritional composition, content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant properties of the four Mexican varieties of Ayocote beans (Phaseolus coccineus L.) were studied. Ayocote beans were found to be a promising source of proteins, carbohydrates, fibre and minerals. Sucrose (55.6–62.2 g/kg) and stachyose (24–24.4 g/kg) were considered as the major sugar and oligosaccharide, respectively. Glutamic acid was the most abundant amino acid (32.2 to 35.8 g/kg), while cysteine was present at the lowest concentration (2.3–2.4 g/100 kg). Purple variety contains the highest amount of total phenolic compounds (2075.9 mg GAE/kg), total flavonoids (1612.9 mg QE/kg) and total anthocyanins (1193.2 mg CGE/kg). This variety also exhibited the most effective antioxidant activities, which were evaluated by DPPH (17,040 μmol TE/kg) and ORAC (51,620 μmol TE/kg). The results obtained reveal a high potential for wider use of Ayocote bean as a remarkable source of bioactive compounds and health-promoting food

The Management of Clinical Incidents in ICT Services Through Mobile Applications

Mobile environment has revolutionized the health field. This fact and the rise of mobile technology have led to improve processes of care. In this paper, we present a practical application of BSC (balance scorecard) for Management of clinical incidents in ICT services through mobile devices in health organization. The objective of building of system is to integrate with main system of organization, for management of critical incident in ICT department of hospital and health centre. To do this, we have analysed and evaluated of process to management of incident that allow us to show the management information of way practical and we have applicated a real case. Results suggest that the integration of Balanced Scorecard helps with decision-making tasks because they allow decreasing response times and improving company management. In conclusion, make users satisfaction grow, objective sought by health companie

Development of a Social Gamified Platform for e-Learning

The way in which nowadays education is evolving, makes it possible to associate it with MOOCs courses and gamification techniques to improve learning outcomes of students. To this end, this paper shows the development of an educational e-learning platform built upon the Elgg social framework, where a set of gamification elements were added: Points, achievements, leaderboards and rewards. For the future, effectiveness validations will be carried out with students as well as further developments with other types of gamification elements

Mobile Instant Messaging Apps: Usability Evaluation on iOS and Android Platforms and Recommendations for Developers

With the current growth in the use of smartphone devices, and the large amount of Mobile Instant Messaging applications available in the markets, this co-occurrence makes it highly valuable to evaluate the usability of this kind of applications in order to provide more satisfying user experiences. Within this paper, a systematic usability evaluation of Mobile Instant Messaging applications is presented, which will be applied to both iOS and Android platforms. Based on the results, it is suggested that this type of mobile applications present serious problems in performing tasks, poor user interfaces and lack of information about privacy and security features. Likewise, along with the results, this paper presents a list of usability recommendations to help developers improve their Instant Messaging applications

Metagenomic Mining for Esterases in the Microbial Community of Los Rueldos Acid Mine Drainage Formation

Acid mine drainage (AMD) systems are extremely acidic and are metal-rich formations inhabited by relatively low-complexity communities of acidophiles whose enzymes remain mostly uncharacterized. Indeed, enzymes from only a few AMD sites have been studied. The low number of available cultured representatives and genome sequences of acidophiles inhabiting AMDs makes it difficult to assess the potential of these environments for enzyme bioprospecting. In this study, using naïve and in silico metagenomic approaches, we retrieved 16 esterases from the α/β-hydrolase fold superfamily with the closest match from uncultured acidophilic Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria (Acidithrix, Acidimicrobium, and Ferrimicrobium), Acidiphilium, and other Proteobacteria inhabiting the Los Rueldos site, which is a unique AMD formation in northwestern Spain with a pH of ∼2. Within this set, only two polypeptides showed high homology (99.4%), while for the rest, the pairwise identities ranged between 4 and 44.9%, suggesting that the diversity of active polypeptides was dominated not by a particular type of protein or highly similar clusters of proteins, but by diverse non-redundant sequences. The enzymes exhibited amino acid sequence identities ranging from 39 to 99% relative to homologous proteins in public databases, including those from other AMDs, thus indicating the potential novelty of proteins associated with a specialized acidophilic community. Ten of the 16 hydrolases were successfully expressed in Escherichia coli. The pH for optimal activity ranged from 7.0 to 9.0, with the enzymes retaining 33–68% of their activities at pH 5.5, which was consistent with the relative frequencies of acid residues (from 54 to 67%). The enzymes were the most active at 30–65°C, retaining 20–61% of their activity under the thermal conditions characterizing Los Rueldos (13.8 ± 0.6°C). The analysis of the substrate specificity revealed the capacity of six hydrolases to efficiently degrade (up to 1,652 ± 75 U/g at pH 8.0 and 30°C) acrylic- and terephthalic-like [including bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-terephthalate, BHET] esters, and these enzymes could potentially be of use for developing plastic degradation strategies yet to be explored. Our assessment uncovers the novelty and potential biotechnological interest of enzymes present in the microbial populations that inhibit the Los Rueldos AMD system

Biological reactor retrofitting using CFD-ASM modelling

In recent years, the interest in modelling activated sludge (AS) systems by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques has significantly increased. This work shows a successful case study combining CFD hydrodynamics and biokinetic modelling. The hydrodynamics is analysed by using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation for incompressible non-Newtonian fluids and SST turbulence model. Biokinetics has been included in the CFD as transport equations with source and sink terms defined by the Activated Sludge Model n degrees 1 (ASM1). Furthermore, a strategy for reducing the computational cost while maintaining accuracy of the results of these calculations has been proposed. This strategy is based on a two-step solver configuration and the definition of a variable timestep scheme. The resulting CFD-ASM approach permits a proper evaluation of denitrification in the anoxic tanks as well as the reproduction of nitrate and readily biodegradable substrate distributions. To demonstrate the strength of the proposed CFD-ASM, it has been used to evaluate the operation of a full-scale AS system and optimize its performance through changes in the biological reactor anoxic zone. The original configuration has been retrofitted and modified after detecting intrinsic defects in the fluid behaviour within the tank. This study has been assessed by analysing hydrodynamics in detail and validating the simulation results with tracer tests and flow velocity measurements. Substantial variations on the Residence Time Distribution have been confirmed when modifying the internal elements of the tank configuration: the wall-bushing and the stirrer positioning. As a result of this work, an influential short circuiting was corrected improving hydrodynamics and increasing mean residence time, all favouring denitrification efficiency. Outcomes of this study show the benefit of CFD when applied to AS tanks

Measured GFR in murine animal models: review on methods, techniques, and procedures

Animal models; Glomerular filtration rate; Kidney damageModels animals; Taxa de filtració glomerular; Dany renalModelos animales; Tasa de filtración glomerular; Daño renalChronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide, with increasing rates of morbidity and mortality. Thus, early detection is essential to prevent severe adverse events and the progression of kidney disease to an end stage. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is the most appropriate index to evaluate renal function in both clinical practice and basic medical research. Several animal models have been developed to understand renal disease induction and progression. Specifically, murine models are useful to study the pathogenesis of renal damage, so a reliable determination of GFR is essential to evaluate the progression of CKD. However, as in clinical practise, the estimation of GFR in murine by levels of serum/urine creatinine or cystatin-C could not be accurate and needed other more reliable methods. As an alternative, the measurement of GFR by the clearance of exogenous markers like inulin, sinistrin, 51Cr-EDTA, 99mTc-DTPA, 125I-iothalamate, or iohexol could be performed. Nevertheless, both approaches—estimation or measurement of GFR—have their limitations and a standard method for the GFR determination has not been defined. Altogether, in this review, we aim to give an overview of the current methods for GFR assessment in murine models, describing each methodology and focusing on their advantages and limitations.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This work is supported by funding from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III with the following grants: AERR is a recipient of a contract from the Sara Borrell programme (C21/00142) and STT of PFIS FI20/00147

Ayotzinapa: Viejas luchas, nuevas formas

En el presente documento se brinda una breve crónica de lo acontecido cuando en septiembre de 2014, con la participación de elementos de la fuerza pública, se desapareció a 43 estudiantes de la Normal Rural Isidro Burgos de Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. Se da cuenta tanto de las inconsistencias de la verdad histórica presentada por el gobierno federal, como de la crisis de legitimidad que vive la actual administración que, si bien llegó con el apoyo de un porcentaje muy bajo del electorado, con el paso de los años ha visto disolver su popularidad. Por otro lado, siguiendo las ideas de Raul Zibechi y Ana Esther Ceceña se menciona que lo sucedido en Ayotzinapa debe ser visto como un emblema del capitalismo neoextractivista que aqueja nuestra región. En dicho sentido se hace énfasis a la agenda política y económica de la actual administración, con el objetivo de dar cuenta de una agudización de las contradicciones sociales, sobre todo en territorios rurales de nuestro país