Giardiasis in children living in post-earthquake camps from Armenia (Colombia)

BACKGROUND: An earthquake in the coffee growing region of Colombia on January 25, 1999 destroyed 70% of the houses in Armenia city. Transitory housing camps still remained until two years after the disaster. Parasitological studies found that, in this population, giardiasis was the most frequent parasitic infection. This study was carried out in order to determine the epidemiological risk factors associated with this high prevalence. METHODS: Fecal samples were obtained from 217 children aged between 3 and 13 years. Stool samples were studied by direct wet examination and stained with ferric hematoxilin for microscopical examination. Epidemiological data were collected by questionnaire and analyzed by using the Epi-info software (CDC, Atlanta 2001). RESULTS: Giardia cysts were observed in 60.4% of the samples presented and trophozoites in 4.6%. The following epidemiological and laboratory factors were significantly associated with Giardia infection: 1. Use of communal toilet (vs. individual toilet) OR: 3.9, CI95%: 1.2–16; 2. water provision by municipal ducts (vs. water provision by individual tanks) OR: 3.5, CI95% 1.1–14, and 3. presence of mucus in stool OR: 2.3, IC95%: 0.9–6.7. CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence of giardiasis was found in children living in temporary houses after the 1999 earthquake in Armenia (Colombia). Giardiasis is an emerging disease in post-disaster situations and adequate prevention measures should be implemented during these circumstances

First Colombian Multicentric Newborn Screening for Congenital Toxoplasmosis

Congenital toxoplasmosis can result in permanent sequel as blindness or neurological damage in children and it seems to be more severe in South America than in other continents. There is a lack of information about this frequency in Colombia, where no control program is established, although it is a recognized cause of potentially preventable congenital blindness. We propose the first Colombian multicentric study to determine the frequency and impact of congenital toxoplasmosis. More than 15,000 newborns in seven cities were studied. Newborns were tested at birth by doing a cord blood test for toxoplasmosis. Additionally, children from mothers with history of toxoplasmosis acquired during pregnancy were recalled for a follow-up. The program identified fifteen children otherwise undiagnosed; three of these children died as consequence of congenital toxoplasmosis. The frequency of the congenital infection varied significantly between cities, being higher in Armenia and Florencia, intermediate in Bogota, Bucaramanga and Barranquilla and very low in western cities such as Cucuta and Riohacha. For the first time a significant correlation was found between mean rainfall at the city and the incidence of this congenital infection

Climate anxiety, pro-environmental action and wellbeing: antecedents and outcomes of negative emotional responses to climate change in 28 countries

This study explored the correlates of climate anxiety in a diverse range of national contexts. We analysed cross-sectional data gathered in 32 countries (N = 12,246). Our results show that climate anxiety is positively related to rate of exposure to information about climate change impacts, the amount of attention people pay to climate change information, and perceived descriptive norms about emotional responding to climate change. Climate anxiety was also positively linked to pro-environmental behaviours and negatively linked to mental wellbeing. Notably, climate anxiety had a significant inverse association with mental wellbeing in 31 out of 32 countries. In contrast, it had a significant association with pro-environmental behaviour in 24 countries, and with environmental activism in 12 countries. Our findings highlight contextual boundaries to engagement in environmental action as an antidote to climate anxiety, and the broad international significance of considering negative climate-related emotions as a plausible threat to wellbeing

La enseñanza del metabolismo: retos y oportunidades

En el marco del Proyecto de Innovación Educativa de la Universidad de Málaga PIE15-163, cuya descripción y resultados incluimos, decidimos que esta era una excelente oportunidad para reflexionar acerca de la enseñanza del metabolismo y de poner por escrito dichas reflexiones en un libro. Quisimos y pudimos contar con la colaboración de buena parte de los compañeros del Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica que apoyaron con su firma el proyecto PIE15-163 y extendimos nuestra invitaciones a otros compañeros de dentro y fuera de la Universidad de Málaga. Del Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica de la Universidad de Málaga hemos recibido aportaciones de los catedráticos Victoriano Valpuesta Fernández, Ana Rodríguez Quesada y Antonio Heredia Bayona, los profesores titulares María Josefa Pérez Rodríguez, José Luis Urdiales Ruiz e Ignacio Fajardo Paredes y la investigadora postdoctoral y profesora sustituta interina Beatriz Martínez Poveda. De otros departamentos de la Universidad de Málaga hemos contado con las aportaciones de la catedrática del Departamento de Especialidades Quirúrgicas, Bioquímica e Inmunología Pilar Morata Losa, del catedrático del Departamento de Lenguajes y Ciencias de la Computación José Francisco Aldana Montes y los componentes de su grupo de investigación Khaos Ismael Navas Delgado, María Jesús García Godoy, Esteban López Camacho y Maciej Rybinski, del catedrático Ángel Blanco López, del Área de Conocimiento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales y del Doctor en Ciencias Químicas y actual doctorando del Programa de Doctorado "Educación y Comunicación Social" Ángel Luis García Ponce. De fuera de la Universidad de Málaga, hemos contado con las aportaciones del catedrático de la Universidad de La Laguna Néstor V. Torres Darias, de la catedrática de la Universitat de les Illes Balears Pilar Roca Salom y de sus compañeros los profesores Jorge Sastre Serra y Jordi Oliver, de los catedráticos de la Universidad de Granada Rafael Salto González y María Dolores Girón González y su colaborador el Dr. José Dámaso Vílchez Rienda, del profesor titular de la Universidad de Alcalá Ángel Herráez, del investigador postdoctoral de la Universidad de Erlangen (Alemania) Guido Santos y del investigador postdoctoral de la empresa Brain Dynamics Carlos Rodríguez Caso.Hemos estructurado los contenidos del libro en diversas secciones. La primera presenta el Proyecto en cuyo marco se ha gestado la iniciativa que ha conducido a la edición del presente libro. La segunda sección la hemos titulado "¿Qué metabolismo?" e incluye diversas aportaciones personales que reflexionan acerca de qué metabolismo debe conocer un graduado en Bioquímica, en Biología, en Química, en Farmacia o en Medicina, así como una aportación acerca de qué bioquímica estructural y enzimología son útiles y necesarias para un estudiante que vaya a afrontar el estudio del metabolismo. La tercera sección, "Bases conceptuales", analiza las aportaciones del aprendizaje colaborativo, el contrato de aprendizaje y el aprendizaje basado en la resolución de casos prácticos a la mejora del proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje dentro del campo de la Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, más concretamente en el estudio del metabolismo. La cuarta sección se titula "Herramientas", es la más extensa e incluye las diversas aportaciones centradas en propuestas concretas de aplicación relevantes y útiles para la mejora de la docencia-aprendizaje del metabolismo. Sigue una sección dedicada a presentar de forma resumida los "Resultados" del proyecto PIE15-163. El libro concluye con una "coda final" en la que se reflexiona acerca del aprendizaje de la Química a la luz de la investigación didáctica.Patrocinado por el Proyecto de Innovación Educativa de la Universidad de Málaga PIE15-16

A blood microRNA classifier for the prediction of ICU mortality in COVID-19 patients: a multicenter validation study

Background: The identification of critically ill COVID-19 patients at risk of fatal outcomes remains a challenge. Here, we first validated candidate microRNAs (miRNAs) as biomarkers for clinical decision-making in critically ill patients. Second, we constructed a blood miRNA classifier for the early prediction of adverse outcomes in the ICU. Methods: This was a multicenter, observational and retrospective/prospective study including 503 critically ill patients admitted to the ICU from 19 hospitals. qPCR assays were performed in plasma samples collected within the first 48 h upon admission. A 16-miRNA panel was designed based on recently published data from our group. Results: Nine miRNAs were validated as biomarkers of all-cause in-ICU mortality in the independent cohort of critically ill patients (FDR < 0.05). Cox regression analysis revealed that low expression levels of eight miRNAs were associated with a higher risk of death (HR from 1.56 to 2.61). LASSO regression for variable selection was used to construct a miRNA classifier. A 4-blood miRNA signature composed of miR-16-5p, miR-192-5p, miR-323a-3p and miR-451a predicts the risk of all-cause in-ICU mortality (HR 2.5). Kaplan‒Meier analysis confirmed these findings. The miRNA signature provides a significant increase in the prognostic capacity of conventional scores, APACHE-II (C-index 0.71, DeLong test p-value 0.055) and SOFA (C-index 0.67, DeLong test p-value 0.001), and a risk model based on clinical predictors (C-index 0.74, DeLong test-p-value 0.035). For 28-day and 90-day mortality, the classifier also improved the prognostic value of APACHE-II, SOFA and the clinical model. The association between the classifier and mortality persisted even after multivariable adjustment. The functional analysis reported biological pathways involved in SARS-CoV infection and inflammatory, fibrotic and transcriptional pathways. Conclusions: A blood miRNA classifier improves the early prediction of fatal outcomes in critically ill COVID-19 patients.11 página

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO