Agro-Ecological Zoning for Tall Wheatgrass (Thinopyrum Ponticum) as a Potential Energy and Forage Crop in Salt-Affected and Dry Lands of Argentina

Thinopyrum ponticum, is the most disseminated halophyte speciescultivated for forage on hydro-halomorphic soils in the world. Theobjective of the present work was to identify the geographicareas fordevelopment of tall wheatgrass on halomorphic soils in Argentina, for forageand as feedstock for bioenergy. To define the agroclimate in Argentina, we considered the thermal and hydric limits of the species in its place of originand in locations where it is successfully cultivated around the world. The maps corresponding to the bioclimatic indices were drawn using a GIS, andthe map obtained by overlaying them defined the agroclimatic suitability. Thiszoning was finally superimposed on the drylands saline and alkaline soils inthecountry, thus defining the agro-ecological suitability of Argentina forthis species under different moisture regimes: moist-subhumid,dry-subhumid, semiarid to arid climate. The the agro-ecological zoning showsthe potential growing areas for tall wheatgrass in Argentina on soils withhalomorphism processes under dry climates.Fil: Falasca, Silvia Liliana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales. Instituto de Clima y Agua; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Miranda del Fresno, Ma. Carolina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Humanas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Pitta-alvarez, Sandra Irene. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Micología y Botánica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Micología y Botánica; Argentin

Análisis de conceptos básicos de memoria y aprendizaje: ¿hasta que punto los "dogmas" cognitivos son realmente "dogmas"?

El aprendizaje como proceso se puede considerar un avance evolutivo importante para todos los sistemas vivientes que lo adquirieron en las tempranas épocas del desarrollo de la vida. La percepción de un entorno que tiene “pasado” y “presente” permitió a los animales primitivos adquirir una visión más completa del mundo que los rodeaba. El uso cognitivo de la información que está disponible en un sistema viviente se le reconoce ahora como “aprendizaje”. A pesar que han pasado muchos años y muchos investigadores han estado muy comprometidos en el estudio de la memoria y el aprendizaje, su intrincada naturaleza todavía no se comprende bien. En este trabajo se amplían muchos términos comunes en la investigación de este tema, como memoria, aprendizaje y ensayo redefiniéndose en un contexto más acotado con la intención de uniformar su comprensión. Se vuelve a discutir el modelo de aprendizaje en términos de un “circuito de aprendizaje”. También se amplía el concepto unificador de “engrama de la unidad vectorial de la memoria” para el proceso de aprendizaje y el almacenamiento de la información, descrito con anterioridad. Finalmente, las implicaciones del modelo propuesto se consideran en el contexto de patologías que producen déficit de memoria, evaluándose las predicciones del modelo con la evidencia comportamental de pacientes con lesiones localizadas en ciertas partes del cerebro.Learning can be considered a process that gave to living systems a significant evolutionary advance in the history of life. The capacity to distinguish that events in the environment have “past” or “present” permitted the primitive evolving organisms to acquire a convenient enriched vision of the their surrounding world. The appropriate use of the information available as experience in an organism now it is known as learning. In spite of many years of intense research, the complete understanding of memory and learning still is not clear. Debate and disagreements about the intrinsic nature of this neural process in the scientific community did not help in these years to sediment a clear-cut knowledge about this important brain function. Part of these issues appears to be linked to the semantic use of some terms implying different meanings to different investigators, and the strong belief in interpretations about learning that in time has been considered dogmas. In the present work, intent to emphasize the meaning of many terms by limiting its significance and extending an alternative point of view previously presented elsewhere, about memory and learning is done.Fil: Alvarez Toro, Edgardo Orozimbo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; ArgentinaFil: Ratti, Silvia Gabriela. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; Argentin

Integration of biophysical connectivity in the spatial optimization of coastal ecosystem services

Ecological connectivity in coastal oceanic waters is mediated by dispersion of the early life stages of marine organisms and conditions the structure of biological communities and the provision of ecosystem services. Integrated management strategies aimed at ensuring long-term service provision to society do not currently consider the importance of dispersal and larval connectivity. A spatial optimization model is introduced to maximise the potential provision of ecosystem services in coastal areas by accounting for the role of dispersal and larval connectivity. The approach combines a validated coastal circulation model that reproduces realistic patterns of larval transport along the coast, which ultimately conditions the biological connectivity and productivity of an area, with additional spatial layers describing potential ecosystem services. The spatial optimization exercise was tested along the coast of Central Chile, a highly productive area dominated by the Humboldt Current. Results show it is unnecessary to relocate existing management areas, as increasing no-take areas by 10% could maximise ecosystem service provision, while improving the spatial representativeness of protected areas and minimizing social conflicts. The location of protected areas was underrepresented in some sections of the study domain, principally due to the restriction of the model to rocky subtidal habitats. Future model developments should encompass the diversity of coastal ecosystems and human activities to inform integrative spatial management. Nevertheless, the spatial optimization model is innovative not only for its integrated ecosystem perspective, but also because it demonstrates that it is possible to incorporate time-varying biophysical connectivity within the optimization problem, thereby linking the dynamics of exploited populations produced by the spatial management regime.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables; 1 graphical abstract. In this version: numbering of figures corrected, updated figure 2, typos corrected and references fixe

The Altered Behavioural Responses Displayed by Litter Rats After Chronic Administration of Non-Toxic Concentrations of ZnTe to Parent Rats Are Reversed by Simultaneous Folic Acid Treatment

Trace elements are an omnipresent group of chemical elements that are present practically in all types of environments sustaining life. Since its principal characteristic is the very low concentration in ground and water, it was thought that its importance to metabolic processes to the living cell was minimal. However, in the past 15 years knowledge has been accumulated regarding that these chemical elements have important influences on the cell dynamic homeostatic mechanisms. Previous evidence from our laboratory has shown that chronic administration of ZnTe to pregnancy, delivery and subsequent juvenile stages in rats affected several of its behavioural parameters related to motivated, lateralized exploration, social and defensive behaviour. In the third part of this study, the possible effect of folic acid (FolA) on the Te-induced behavioural changes was studied. Three experimental groups were formed, Control, animals treated with tap water; ZnTe, animals treated with the trace elements, and ZnTe+FolA, animals treated with the combination of ZnTe and FolA, in the same way that of the previous experiments. Results show the folic acid treatment did not counteract the increase of motor activity observed in those animals treated with ZnTe. However, in the exploration induced by novelty measured in the Double Lateral Hole-board Labyrinth, the corridor behavioural activity displayed by animals under the combination of FolA and ZnTe was similar to control and significantly different from the ZnTe-treated group. The left exploration bias naturally present in control, and blocked in the ZnTe-treated animals, was restored to control values in the FolA+ZnTe treated animals. A similar observation was found with the percentage of animals with left-bias exploration, where those rats treated with the combination of FolA and ZnTe reached similar values to control and significantly greater than the ZnTe-treated rats which were statistically lower than control. Social behaviour, inhibited by ZnTe was restored to normal in the FolA treated animals. A similar observation was found in the defensive behaviour test. Results are compatible with the idea that FolA, which is known as a methyl donor reagent, can restore the behavioural effects of ZnTe, giving support to previous results suggesting that trace elements could act by molecular mechanisms involving epigenetical modulation of DNA.Fil: Ratti, Silvia Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; ArgentinaFil: Alvarez Toro, Edgardo Orozimbo. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; Argentin

Etanol : el combustible del futuro

Fil: Alvarez, Silvia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioqu?mica; ArgentinaFil: Evelson, Pablo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioqu?mica; ArgentinaFil: Boveris, Alberto. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioqu?mica; ArgentinaEl etanol, uno de los biocombustibles más importantes, es un recurso renovable, ya que\nproviene de la biomasa. Disminuye en gran forma las cantidades utilizadas de nafta.\nEsto lleva a una reducción en el uso y la importación de hidrocarburos y favorece el uso\nde recursos naturales renovables nacionales, además de contribuir a disminuir la\ncontaminación

Importancia del aprestamiento para el desarrollo de la motora fina en Educación Inicial en los niños y niñas del III nivel de Preescolar de la Escuela Pública de Solingalpa, departamento de Matagalpa durante el segundo semestre del año 2016

El presente trabajo trata sobre el aprestamiento en Educación Inicial para la adquisición de aprendizaje, abordando como subtema la Importancia del aprestamiento para el desarrollo de la motora fina en Educación Inicial en el III nivel de preescolar de la Escuela Pública de Solingalpa, durante el segundo semestre del año 2016. Este trabajo tiene como propósito analizar la importancia que tiene el aprestamiento para el desarrollo de la motora fina en Educación Inicial para la adquisición de aprendizaje en los niños del III nivel del preescolar de la Escuela Pública de Solingalpa, durante el segundo semestre del año 2016. El aprestamiento es de gran importancia en el desarrollo de la motora fina siempre y cuando la docente del preescolar lo imparta de manera que este incida de forma directa en esta área En este trabajo se abordaron las siguientes variables: Educación Inicial, Aprestamiento, Motora Fina. Las principales conclusiones que resultaron de esta investigación en el preescolar de Solingalpa fueron: La docente realiza muy pocas actividades para el desarrollo de la motora fina; Los obstaculizadores del aprestamiento para el desarrollo de la motora fina fueron hacinamiento e inatención y los facilitadores del aprestamiento para el desarrollo de la motora fina fueron la actitud colaboradora de los padres y la asistencia de los niños y niñas; El aprestamiento dado por la docente fue limitado lo que incidirá negativamente ante las exigencias del próximo nivel, Por lo cual se le sugirieron una serie de técnic

Hormone deprivation alters mitochondrial function and lipid profile in the hippocampus

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a common hallmark in aging. In the female, reproductive senescence is characterized by loss of ovarian hormones, many of whose neuroprotective effects converge upon mitochondria. The functional integrity of mitochondria is dependent on membrane fatty acid and phospholipid composition, which are also affected during aging. The effect of long-term ovarian hormone deprivation upon mitochondrial function and its putative association with changes in mitochondrial membrane lipid profile in the hippocampus, an area primarily affected during aging and highly responsive to ovarian hormones, is unknown. To this aim, Wistar adult female rats were ovariectomized or sham-operated. Twelve weeks later, different parameters of mitochondrial function (O2 uptake, ATP production, membrane potential and respiratory complex activities) as well as membrane phospholipid content and composition were evaluated in hippocampal mitochondria. Chronic ovariectomy reduced mitochondrial O2 uptake and ATP production rates and induced membrane depolarization during active respiration without altering the activity of respiratory complexes. Mitochondrial membrane lipid profile showed no changes in cholesterol levels but higher levels of unsaturated fatty acids and a higher peroxidizability index in mitochondria from ovariectomized rats. Interestingly, ovariectomy also reduced cardiolipin content and altered cardiolipin fatty acid profile leading to a lower peroxidizability index. In conclusion, chronic ovarian hormone deprivation induces mitochondrial dysfunction and changes in the mitochondrial membrane lipid profile comparable to an aging phenotype. Our study provides insights into ovarian hormone loss-induced early lipidomic changes with bioenergetic deficits in the hippocampus that may contribute to the increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-associated disorders observed in postmenopause.Fil: Zarate, Sandra Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Astiz, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner". Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata ; ArgentinaFil: Magnani, Natalia Daniela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad Medicina. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Imsen, Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Merino, Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; ArgentinaFil: Alvarez, Silvia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad Medicina. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Reines, Analia Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; ArgentinaFil: Seilicovich, Adriana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; Argentin

Evaluating the Quality of Changes in Voter Registration Databases

The administration of elections depends crucially upon the quality and integrity of voter registration databases. In addition, political scientists are increasingly using these databases in their research. However, these databases are dynamic and may be subject to external manipulation and unintentional errors. In this article, using data from Orange County, California, we develop two methods for evaluating the quality of voter registration data as it changes over time: (a) generating audit data by repeated record linkage across periodic snapshots of a given database and monitoring it for sudden anomalous changes and (b) identifying duplicates via an efficient, automated duplicate detection, and tracking new duplicates and deduplication efforts over time. We show that the generated data can serve not only to evaluate voter file quality and election integrity but also as a novel source of data on election administration practices