“proyecto para la implementación de plantación de flores tropicales para la exportación y comercialización interna mediante página web”

El proyecto se trata del establecimiento de una plantación de 8 hectáreas de flores tropicales específicamente Heliconias y Gingers, la misma que estará ubicada en el cantón Santo Domingo de los Colorados perteneciente a la provincia de Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador. La ciudad es conocida por poseer un clima tropical húmedo, óptimo para este tipo de cultivos. La producción en su totalidad será exportada directamente hacia los países de destino para ingresar con un precio más competitivo ya que no se utilizarán intermediarios. Las flores de segunda se destinarán al mercado interno, las que se comercializarán mediante una página web con arreglos florales elaborados. El proyecto conlleva el establecimiento de la plantación, esto incluye la adquisición del terreno, maquinarias, insumos, recurso humano y capital y la comercialización del producto. Los productos que ofreceremos serán flores exóticas de la familia de las Heliconias y Gingers caracterizados por sus formas atractivas y colores peculiares con una calidad muy alta y producida bajo buenas prácticas agrícolas y aplicando avances tecnológicos reduciendo al máximo los riesgos de contaminación y agilizando los procesos. Nuestro mercado objetivo será Estados Unidos principalmente el estado de La Florida. Cabe recalcar que el proyecto tendrá un impacto social positivo en zona ya que para su operación demanda mano de obra directa e indirecta de hombres y mujeres campesinos de entre 18 y 35 años

Expresión de las moléculas del Complejo Mayor de Histocompatibilidad clase II y moléculas co-estimuladoras en carcinomas orales in vitro

El descubrimiento de que el epitelio escamoso estratificado que cubre la mucosa oral podia expresar moleculas del Complejo Mayor de Histocompatibilidad clase II en varias condiciones patologicas de tipo inflamatorio abrio la posibilidad de que los queratinocitos orales sean celulas inmunologicamente activas, las cuales pueden funcionar con .celulas presentadoras de antigenos'ñ. Para una efectiva activacion de los linfocitos T, las celulas presentadoras de antigenos requieren, ademas de la expresion de moleculas del Complejo Mayor de Histocompatibilidad clase II, senales co-estimuladoras. El proposito del presente estudio fue determinar la expresion de moleculas del Complejo Mayor de Histocompatibilidad clase II y las moleculas co-estimuladoras CD40, CD80 y CD86 en queratinocitos bucales normales y derivados de carcinomas de celulas escamosas. Usando citometria de flujo en queratinocitos cultivados de mucosa oral sana y siete lineas celulares derivadas de carcinomas orales, fue confirmado que los queratinocitos expresan moleculas del Complejo Mayor de Histocompatibilidad clase II despues de estimulacion con IFN'Á in vitro. Todas las lineas celulares expresaron constitutivamente CD40, por el contrario, CD80 y CD86 universalmente fueron negativos. La ausencia de estas ultimas moleculas pudiera ser la causa por la cual los carcinomas orales escapan de la vigilancia inmunologica y pueden crecer, invadir y hacer metastasis pese al sistema inmunologico.Recognition in the 1980Es that keratinocytes can express class II molecules of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) first raised the possibility that these cells might have an immunological function, and may even act as antigen presenting cells (APC). For effective T lymphocyte activation, APC require, in addition to MHC II, appropriate costimulatory signals. The aim of this study was to determine the expression of MHC class II and the co-stimulatory molecules CD40, CD80 and CD86 in keratinocytes derived from healthy oral mucosa and oral carcinomas. Using flow cytometry, it was confirmed that oral keratinocytes .switch on'ñ expression of MHC class II molecules after stimulation with IFN'Á in vitro. All keratinocyte lines expressed CD40 constitutively; by contrast, CD80 and CD86 were universally absent. Loss of CD80 and CD86 may be one means whereby tumours escape immunological surveillance.

Rumen fermentative activity in the goat and sheep

No Abstract

The effect of heavy ions on the dispersion properties of kinetic Alfv\'en waves in astrophysical plasmas

Context. Spacecraft measurements have shown Kinetic Alfv\'en Waves propagating in the terrestrial magnetosphere at lower wavenormal angles than predicted by linear Vlasov theory of electron-proton plasmas. To explain these observations, it has been suggested that the abundant heavy ion populations in this region may have strong, non-trivial effects that allow Alfv\'enic waves to acquire right-handed polarization at lower angles with respect to the background magnetic field, as in the case of typical electron-proton plasma. Aims. We study the dispersion properties of Alfv\'enic waves in plasmas with stationary phase-space distribution functions with different heavy ion populations. Our extensive numerical analysis has allowed us to quantify the role of the heavy ion components on the transition from the left-hand polarized electromagnetic ion-cyclotron (EMIC) mode to the right-hand polarized kinetic Alfv\'en wave (KAW) mode. Methods. We used linear Vlasov-Maxwell theory to obtain the dispersion relation for oblique electromagnetic waves. The dispersion relation of Alfv\'en waves was obtained numerically by considering four different oxygen ion concentrations ranging between 0.0 and 0.2 for all propagation angles, as a function of both the wavenumber and the plasma beta parameter. Results. The inclusion of the heavy O+ ions is found to considerably reduce the transition angle from EMIC to KAW both as a function of the wave number and plasma beta. With increasing O+ concentrations, waves become more damped in specific wavenumber regions. However, the inclusion of oxygen ions may allow weakly damped KAW to effectively propagate at smaller wave-normal angles than in the electron-proton case, as suggested by observations.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Cortisol en saliva como indicador de estrés en porcino

The first aim of the present study was to evaluate the measure ‘salivary cortisol’ as a non invasive Animal Welfare indicator for fattening pigs. The second objective was to assess the effect of a commercial farm routine procedure (weighing) in the HPA axis activation. The effect of the breading line (breeding line A and B), the sex, the date and hour of the sampling, and the different flooring systems used in the housing were taken into account. Two types of partly-slatted housing were used, continuous concrete floor and concrete slat (CC) and continuous solid floor of concreted recovered with epoxy resin and metallic slat (RM). Firstly, salivary control samples were taken in 1 pig per pen on three different days during fattening (morning and afternoon) for a total of 96 samples. Secondly, another salivary cortisol sample was taken after weighing each pig, 0h, 1h and 2h after weighing (stressful situation) near the end of fattening, in 3 pigs per pen, for a total of 144 samples. There were no differences in baseline cortisol levels for pigs on either flooring but, after the weighing, the cortisol level of the animals housed in the RM flooring were significantly lower (p<0,01) than the cortisol level of the animals housed in the CC flooring, and showed a normal decreasing tendency whereas the level of cortisol of animals housed in the CC flooring showed a rising tendencyEl primer objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar la medida ‘cortisol en saliva’ como un indicador no invasivo del nivel de Bienestar Animal en cerdos en cebo. El segundo objetivo fue evaluar el efecto que un procedimiento rutinario, al que los animales se ven sometidos en condiciones comerciales, como es el pesaje, tiene en la activación del eje hipotálamo-pituitaria-adrenal (HPA). Se tuvieron en cuenta los posibles efectos del tipo genético (línea comercial A y B), el sexo, la fecha y la hora de toma de muestras, y el tipo de suelo en el que se alojaron los animales. Se usaron dos tipos de suelo, el primero constaba de zona continua de hormigón y slats de hormigón (CC) y el segundo de zona continua de hormigón recubierta de resina epoxi y slats metálicos (MS). En primer lugar, se tomaron muestras control de saliva, de un cerdo de cada box de las 4 salas, durante la mañana y la tarde, en 3 días no consecutivos, con un total de 96 muestras. En segundo lugar se tomaron muestras de saliva inmediatamente después del pesaje, a la hora y a las 2 horas, con un total de 144 muestras. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en el nivel de cortisol basal; en cambio, después del pesaje, el nivel de cortisol fue significativamente menor en los animales alojados en suelo RM (p<0,01) que en los animales alojados en suelo CC. El nivel de cortisol tras el pesaje en los animales alojados en suelo RM mostró una tendencia normal decreciente con el paso de las horas, mientras que, el nivel de cortisol aumentó con el paso de las horas para los animales alojados en suelo CC

Expanding the Toolkit for In Vivo Imaging of Axonal Transport

Axonal transport maintains neuronal homeostasis by enabling the bidirectional trafficking of diverse organelles and cargoes. Disruptions in axonal transport have devastating consequences for individual neurons and their networks, and contribute to a plethora of neurological disorders. As many of these conditions involve both cell autonomous and non-autonomous mechanisms, and often display a spectrum of pathology across neuronal subtypes, methods to accurately identify and analyze neuronal subsets are imperative. This paper details protocols to assess in vivo axonal transport of signaling endosomes and mitochondria in sciatic nerves of anesthetized mice. Stepwise instructions are provided to 1) distinguish motor from sensory neurons in vivo, in situ, and ex vivo by using mice that selectively express fluorescent proteins within cholinergic motor neurons; and 2) separately or concurrently assess in vivo axonal transport of signaling endosomes and mitochondria. These complementary intravital approaches facilitate the simultaneous imaging of different cargoes in distinct peripheral nerve axons to quantitatively monitor axonal transport in health and disease

La estructura de la dentición caduca de huilatherium pluripicatum, leontiniidae (notoungulata) del mioceno de colombia

Este trabajo constituye una contribución al conocimiento de Huilatherium pluriplicatum VILLARROEL and amp; GUERRERO, 1985 Leontíniido del Mioceno de La Venta (Huila, Colombia).  Se describen en detalle los rasgos de los dientes caducos (Iacteales) de sus series dentarias superior e inferior y se las compara con las de la dentición permanente.  A falta de una terminología morfodentaria adecuada a la naturaleza del trabajo, se propone una nueva que se basa en propuestas anteriores.This paper is a contribution to the knowledge of Huilatherium pluriplicatum VILLARROEL and amp; GUERRERO, 1985, Leontiniid of the Miocene of La Venta region (Huila, Colombia). The detailed description of deciduous teeth of both upper and lower dentitions is studied; comparison is made with permanent dentition.  A new more adequate morphodentary terminology is proposed which is based on other former propositions

Same-Gender Sex in the United States: Impact of T-Acasi on Prevalence Estimates

Well-conducted telephone surveys provide an economical means of estimating the prevalence of sexual and reproductive behaviors in a population. There is, however, a nontrivial potential for bias since respondents must report sensitive information to a human interviewer. The National STD and Behavior Measurement Experiment (NSBME) evaluates a new survey technology—telephone audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (T-ACASI)—that eliminates this requirement. The NSBME embedded a randomized experiment in a survey of probability samples of 1,543 U.S. and 744 Baltimore adults ages 18 to 45. Compared with NSBME respondents interviewed by human interviewers, respondents interviewed by T-ACASI were 1.5 to 1.6 times more likely to report same-gender sexual attraction, experience, and genital contact. The impact of T-ACASI was more pronounced (odds ratio = 2.5) for residents of locales that have historically been less tolerant of same-gender sexual behaviors and for respondents in households with children (odds ratio = 3.0)

sCD4-17b bifunctional protein: Extremely broad and potent neutralization of HIV-1 Env pseudotyped viruses from genetically diverse primary isolates

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We previously described a potent recombinant HIV-1 neutralizing protein, sCD4-17b, composed of soluble CD4 attached via a flexible polypeptide linker to an SCFv of the 17b human monoclonal antibody directed against the highly conserved CD4-induced bridging sheet of gp120 involved in coreceptor binding. The sCD4 moiety of the bifunctional protein binds to gp120 on free virions, thereby enabling the 17b SCFv moiety to bind and block the gp120/coreceptor interaction required for entry. The previous studies using the MAGI-CCR5 assay system indicated that sCD4-17b (in concentrated cell culture medium, or partially purified) potently neutralized several genetically diverse HIIV-1 primary isolates; however, at the concentrations tested it was ineffective against several other strains despite the conservation of binding sites for both CD4 and 17b. To address this puzzle, we designed variants of sCD4-17b with different linker lengths, and tested the neutralizing activities of the immunoaffinity purified proteins over a broader concentration range against a large number of genetically diverse HIV-1 primary isolates, using the TZM-bl Env pseudotype assay system. We also examined the sCD4-17b sensitivities of isogenic viruses generated from different producer cell types.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We observed that immunoaffinity purified sCD4-17b effectively neutralized HIV-1 pseudotypes, including those from HIV-1 isolates previously found to be relatively insensitive in the MAGI-CCR5 assay. The potencies were equivalent for the original construct and a variant with a longer linker, as observed with both pseudotype particles and infectious virions; by contrast, a construct with a linker too short to enable simultaneous binding of the sCD4 and 17b SCFv moieties was much less effective. sCD4-17b displayed potent neutralizing activity against 100% of nearly 4 dozen HIV-1 primary isolates from diverse genetic subtypes (clades A, B, C, D, F, and circulating recombinant forms AE and AG). The neutralization breadth and potency were superior to what have been reported for the broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies IgG b12, 2G12, 2F5, and 4E10. The activity of sCD4-17b was found to be similar against isogenic virus particles from infectious molecular clones derived either directly from the transfected producer cell line or after a single passage through PBMCs; this contrasted with the monoclonal antibodies, which were less potent against the PMBC-passaged viruses.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results highlight the extremely potent and broad neutralizing activity of sCD4-17b against genetically diverse HIV-1 primary isolates. The bifunctional protein has potential applications for antiviral approaches to combat HIV infection.</p