Discrimination of stable isotopes in fin whale tissues and application to diet assessment in cetaceans

RATIONALE In stable isotope research, the use of accurate, species‐specific diet‐tissue discrimination factors (i.e., Δ13C and Δ15N) is central to the estimation of trophic position relative to primary consumers and to the identification of the dietary sources of an individual. Previous research suggested that the diet of fin whales from the waters off northwestern Spain is overwhelmingly based on krill, thus permitting reliable calculation of discrimination values in this wild population. METHODS After confirming that the stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N values) in muscle from 65 aged fin whales remained constant through age classes (4-65 years), the signatures were determined in muscle, bone protein, skin, liver, kidney, baleen plates and brain, as well as food (krill), from a subset of individuals to calculate discrimination factors. Signatures were determined by means of elemental analysis isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA‐IRMS) using a ThermoFinnigan Flash 1112. RESULTS The isotopic values remained constant regardless of age. The mean Δ15N values between krill and whale tissues ranged from 2.04 in bone protein to 4.27¿ in brain, and those of Δ13C ranged from 1.28 in skin to 3.11¿ in bone protein. This variation was consistent with that found in other groups of mammals, and is attributed to variation in tissue composition and physiology. CONCLUSIONS Because discrimination factors are relatively constant between taxonomically close species, the results here obtained may be reliably extrapolated to other cetaceans to improve dietary reconstructions. The skin discrimination factors are of particular relevance to monitoring diet through biopsies or other non‐destructive sampling methods. The large difference in bone protein discrimination factors from those of other tissues should be taken into consideration when bone collagen is used to determine trophic level or to assess diet in paleodietary isotopic reconstructions

When Does Fertility End? The Timing of Tubal Ligations and Hysterectomies, and the Meaning of Menopause

We applied a biocultural lens to examine the temporal order of biological, behavioral, and medical events related to fertility across the female reproductive lifespan in three sites, two in Mexico and one in the United States. Using a mixed-method design, we expanded our thinking about the end of fertility in order to examine the timing of hysterectomies and tubal ligations. We discovered that menopause is not the end of fertility for a surprisingly high number of women. Across the three sites, between 43% and 50% of women underwent tubal ligations at mean ages of 32 years (in Campeche, Mexico) and 33 years (Puebla, Mexico). In Puebla, 23% had a history of hysterectomy at a mean age of 42 years, similar to Hilo, Hawaii, where 20% had undergone a hysterectomy at a mean age of 40 years. We hypothesized that women who underwent tubal ligations would less frequently describe menopause as the end of fertility. This was true in Hilo, Hawaii, where women with a history of tubal ligation were almost half as likely to choose loss of fertility to describe menopause. However, in urban and rural Campeche, Mexico, there was no indication - from either quantitative or qualitative responses - that individuals with a history of tubal ligation or hysterectomy were less likely to describe menopause as the end of fertility

Influence of the effect pigment size on the sparkle detection distance

5 págs.; 5 figs.In an effort to create more dynamic looking automobiles, there is an ever increasing trend among automobile manufacturers towards the use of gonio-apparent coatings in car bodies. These coatings consist of transparent pigments mixed with metallic or interference flakes. The flakes in the coating cause a change in color and brightness of the finish with viewing and illumination direction. This change in appearance accentuates the 3D shading of a car body, making it visually more attractive. Besides this angular dependence on viewing/illumination direction, the metallic finishes also exhibit a visually complex texture. Depending on the properties of the finish and the viewing and illumination conditions, the flakes exhibit a sparkle like texture, while the glossy clear coat may show a rough or smooth surface. As a result of these complex visual attributes, capturing the appearance and finding a perfect color match for an automotive coating is a non trivial task. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the relationship between the special-effect pigments size, and the maximum distance which is detectable the sparkle texture effect. For this, two different sets of samples with different structural features were evaluated in a lighting booth specifically designed for the visual experiment. The booth allows to vary the lighting conditions, the viewing geometry and the distance at which the sample is perceived. The visual experiment was applied to evaluate the high correlation between a structural parameter (i.e. pigment size) and the visual appearance attribute related with texture (sparkle detection distance). Under some fixed environmental conditions, as light intensity, color temperature and geometry of the light source, the sparkle detection distance was evaluated by applying the adjustment psychophysical method for two panel sets (metallic grays and blues), with known pigment sizes and colorimetry, with a small set of observers. The visual results show that a greater the pigment size, a greater the sparkle detection, but with some considerations. In future, we will extend this method, even reinforced applying the statistical design of experiments (DOE), for understanding the relevance and interplay of structural (size, shape, concentration, orientation, etc.), environmental (illuminance level, color rendering, geometry, etc.) and colorimetric (dark vs. light background, chroma, etc.) factors on the sparkle detection distance. © 2015 Society for Imaging Science and Technology.Authors are grateful to EMRP for funding the project “Multidimensional reflectometry for industry”. The EMRP is jointly funded by the EMRP participating countries within EURAMET and the European Union. We would like to thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the coordinated project “New developments in visual optics, vision and color technology” (DPI2011-30090-C02). Omar Gómez would also like to thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for his pre- doctoral fellowship grant (FPI BES-2012-053080).Peer Reviewe

Plastia sustitutiva del LCA con tendones de la pata de ganso cuadruples

Se han estudiado retrospectivamente 44 casos de pacientes a los que se les realizó por vía artrocóspica una plastia sustitutiva intraticular de reconstrucción del LCA, con tendones de Semitendinoso y Recto Interno antólogos, en 4 fascículos. La edad media de los pacientes fue de 25 años. Los resultados a corto plazo (2 años) obtenidos con KT-1000 a 30 Ib han sido excelente-bueno en 40 casos y aceptable en 4 casos. Cuatro casos referían sensación de inestabilidad. Los test de Lachman y Pívot-Shift fueron positivos en 3 casos. Con el test de Lysholm se obtuvo resultado excelente-bueno en 36 casos, regular en 6 y malo en 2 casos. Este tipo de plastia presenta una baja morbilidad de la zona dadora del injerto, comparativamente con la plastia HTH patelar antóloga, y sin alteración del aparato extensor.A retrospective study of 44 patients, who underwent an arthroscopically assisted ACL (anterior cruciata ligament) reconstruction with quadrupled semitendinosus/gracilis tendon autografts was performed. The mean age was 25 years. Short term outcomes of knee stability (2 years follow-up) with KT-1000 arthrometer at 30 pounds were excellent or good in 40 cases and acceptable in 4. Pain or joint swelling were not found. Instability complaints were found in 4 cases. Lachman and Pivot-shift were found positive in 3 cases. Lysholm questionnaire scores were excellent or good in 36 cases, fair in 6 cases and per in two cases, the donor site morbidity associated with hamstring harvest seems to be minimal compared with bonepatellar tendon-bone autograft without impairment of the extensor mechanism

Mineralogical and geochemical characterization of the Riópar non-sulfide Zn-(Fe-Pb) deposits (Prebetic Zone, SE Spain)

The present paper reports the first detailed petrological and geochemical study of non-sulfide Zn-(Fe-Pb) deposits in the Riópar area (Prebetic Zone of the Mesozoic Betic Basin, SE Spain), constraining the origin and evolution of ore-forming fluids. In Riópar both sulfide and non-sulfide Zn-(Fe-Pb) ('calamine') ores are hosted in hydrothermally dolomitized Lower Cretaceous limestones. The hypogene sulfides comprise sphalerite, marcasite and minor galena. Calamine ores consist of Zn-carbonates (smithsonite and scarce hydrozincite), associated with abundant Fe-(hydr)oxides (goethite and hematite) and minor Pb-carbonates (cerussite). Three smithsonite types have been recognized: i) Sm-I consists of brown anhedral microcrystalline aggregates as encrustations replacing sphalerite; ii) Sm-II refers to brownish subhedral aggregates of rugged appearance related with Fe oxi-hydroxides in the surface crystals, which replace extensively sphalerite; and iii) Sm-III smithsonite appears as coarse grayish botryoidal aggregates in microkarstic cavities and porosity. Hydrozincite is scarce and appears as milky white botryoidal encrustations in cavities replacing smithsonite. Also, two types of cerussite have been identified: i) Cer-I cerussite consists of fine crystals replacing galena along cleavage planes and crystal surfaces; and ii) Cer-II conforms fine botryoidal crystals found infill porosity. Calcite and thin gypsum encrustations were also recognized. The field and petrographic observations of the Riópar non-sulfide Zn-(Fe-Pb) revealed two successive stages of supergene ore formation under meteoric fluid processes: i) 'gossan' and 'red calamine' formation in the uppermost parts of the ore with deposition of Fe-(hydr)oxides and Zn- and Pb-carbonates (Sm-I, Sm-II and Cer-I), occurring as direct replacements of Zn-Pb sulfides; and ii) 'gray calamine' ore formation with deposition of Sm-III, Cer-II and hydrozincite infilling microkarst cavities and porosity. The stable isotope variation of Riópar smithsonite is very similar to those obtained in other calamine-ore deposits around the world. Their C-O isotope data (δ18O: +27.8 to +29.6¿ V-SMOW; δ13C: -6.3 to +0.4¿ V-PDB), puts constrains on: i) the oxidizing fluid type, which was of meteoric origin with temperatures of 12 to 19ºC, suggesting a supergene weathering process for the calamine-ore formation under a temperate climate; and ii) the carbon source, that resulted from mixing between two CO2 components derived from: the dissolution of host-dolomite (13C-enriched source) and vegetation decomposition (13C-depleted component)

Ultrasonic waves applicated in biodisel produced with differents vegetables oils

Los aceites vegetales refinados son hoy en día utilizados no solo en alimentación, sino también como materia prima en la producción de biodiésel. Este uso ha generado cierta controversia por diferentes factores, entre los cuales se cuentan, además de los sociales, los ambientales. Por otro lado, se desechan grandes cantidades de aceites vegetales después de ser usados en alimentación, como en frituras, considerándose estos como residuos contaminantes que pueden ser mejor aprovechados para la producción del biodiésel, pero tienen la desventaja de que los costos y rendimientos son menores. Por lo tanto, se hizo un estudio comparativo para la producción del biodiesel a partir de aceite vegetal refinado (canola), no refinado (linaza) y reciclado (canola) con un equipo de ultrasonido. Los parámetros evaluados para la producción del biodiésel fueron rendimiento, índice de acidez e índice de refracción. El ultrasonido es una metodología considerada limpia para la sostenibilidad del medio ambiente. En este trabajo se comparó este método con el método tradicional para la producción del biodiésel. Para la transesterificación se trabajó con el método tradicional y con el método de ultrasonido (frecuencia de 20 kHz) a dos tiempos: 15 minutos y 30 minutos, siendo la relación molar de los reactantes 1:6 (1 mol de ácido graso: 6 moles de metanol), el catalizador fue el KOH 1.5% p/p y la temperatura del proceso se consideró en el rango de 65-78.5°C. El máximo rendimiento para la producción del biodiésel a partir del aceite de canola fue alcanzado con el método tradicional (83.37%, 0.22 de índice de acidez; mayor en comparación con el método de ultrasonido), del aceite reciclado y aceite de linaza fueron alcanzados con el método de ultrasonido (82.6% y 89.3%, con una reducción en el índice de acidez, de acuerdo con los estándares internacionales de calidad del biodiésel). El uso del método de ultrasonido permitió reducir el tiempo del proceso para la obtención del biodiésel (30 min), así como también obtener altos rendimientos (89.3%)Refined vegetable oils are nowadays used not only in food but also as a raw material in the production of biodiesel, this use has generated some controversy by different factors among which also have social environmental. On the other hand, large amounts of vegetable oils are discarded after use in food and fried foods such as pollutants considered waste which can be better utilized for the production of biodiesel but has disadvantages in lower costs and yields . Therefore, was made a comparative study for the production of Biodiesel from refined vegetable oil (canola), unrefined (linseed) and recycling (canola) with ultrasound equipment. The parameters evaluated for the production of Biodiesel were yield, acid value, and refractive index. Ultrasound is a methodology considered clean for environmental sustainability. In this work, this method was compared with the traditional method for the production of Biodiesel. For transesterification were worked with the traditional method and with the ultrasound method (frequency 20 kHz) in two stages: 15 minutes and 30 minutes, the molar ratio of the reactants 1: 6 (1 mol of fatty acid: 6 mol methanol), the catalyst was KOH 1.5% w / w the process temperature was considered in the range of 65-78.5 ° C. The maximum yield for the production of Biodiesel from: Canola oil was they reached with the traditional method (83.37%, 0.22 acid value ; higher compared to the ultrasound method), recyclable oil and linseed oil were achieved with the ultrasound method (82.6% and 89.3%, with a reduction in the acid value in accordance with international quality standards Biodiesel). The use of ultrasound method reduced the processing time for obtaining biodiesel (30 min) as well as high yields (89.3%

Hidrogeles multicomponentes basados en vinilpirrolidona y su aplicación en ingeniería de tejidos y/o medicina regenerativa

Hidrogel con estructura de red polimérica multicomponente entrecruzada, caracterizado porque comprende: a) unidades derivadas de vinilpirrolidona (V) y unidades derivadas de un monómero alquénico aniónico o anionizable (A), donde las relaciones de reactividad en copolimerización radical binaria de (V) y (A) tienen valores máximo y mínimo de 0.5 respectivamente; y b) unidades derivadas de al menos un entrecruzante; siempre que el o los entrecruzantes sean i) dos entrecruzantes E1 y E2, donde E1 presenta homología al menos parcial respecto a (A) y E2 presenta homología al menos parcial respecto a (V); o ii) un entrecruzante E3 que presenta homología respecto a (A) y (V). Procedimiento de obtención del mencionado hidrogel que comprende poner en contacto los monómeros (A) y (V) con los entrecruzantes E1 y E2, o el entrecruzante E3, en condiciones de polimerización radicalaria. Uso del hidrogel en aplicaciones biológicas, biomédicas o biotecnológicas que requieran una interacción no tóxica hidrogel-célula.Peer reviewedConsejo Superior de investigaciones Científicas, Universidad Complutense de MadridB1 Patente sin examen previ

A Simulation Study of an Inverse Controller for Closed and Semiclosed-Loop Control in Type 1 Diabetes

Background: Closed-loop control algorithms in diabetes aim to calculate the optimum insulin delivery to maintain the patient in a normoglycemic state, taking the blood glucose level as the algorithm's main input. The major difficulties facing these algorithms when applied subcutaneously are insulin absorption time and delays in measurement of subcutaneous glucose with respect to the blood concentration. Methods: This article presents an inverse controller (IC) obtained by inversion of an existing mathematical model and validated with synthetic patients simulated with a different model and is compared with a proportional-integral-derivative controller. Results: Simulated results are presented for a mean patient and for a population of six simulated patients. The IC performance is analyzed for both full closed-loop and semiclosed-loop control. The IC is tested when initialized with the heuristic optimal gain, and it is compared with the performance when the initial gain is deviated from the optimal one (±10%). Conclusions: The simulation results show the viability of using an IC for closed-loop diabetes control. The IC is able to achieve normoglycemia over long periods of time when the optimal gain is used (63% for the full closed-loop control, and it is increased to 96% for the semiclosed-loop control

Conductance and application of organic molecule pairs as nanofuses

We propose that a pair of organic molecules can mimic the behavior of a macroscopic fuse at nanoscale, one component of the pair being the on state and the other the off state. For this task wemake use of density-functional theory to calculate the physical properties of selected molecules, which have also been synthesized by our team. By this means we obtain the transmission spectra and the current of the proposed devices, which allows us to compare the behavior of the on and off states.Of particular interest is the on/off switch ratios, defined as the current ratios of the on and off structures at the corresponding bias voltage. In a first stage, we examine the best linker between the device and the electrode for high on/off switch ratios. Once this is determined, we test the influence of the electron richness of the system to provide a high on/off switch ratio. The entire analysis is also supported by the molecular projected self-consistent Hamiltonian, which provides a good way of understanding the molecular behavior. All the calculations support that interesting on/off switch ratios of two orders of magnitude could be obtained with these prototypical nanofusesWe thank the Regional Government of Andalucía for financial support (Projects No. P06-FQM-01726 and No. P09-FQM-04571), the “Centro de Supercomputación de la Universidad de Granada,” and the “Centro de Computación Científica-UAM” for computation time. The authors are also grateful to the Spanish Secretaría de Estado de Universidades e Investigación, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, for financial support within research projects TEC2007-66812 and TEC2010-16211. N.F. thanks the Regional Government of Andalucía for her research contract, and LAC thanks the University of Granada for his research contrac

Synbiotic therapy decreases microbial translocation and inflammation and improves immunological status in HIV-infected patients: a double-blind randomized controlled pilot trial

BACKGROUND: HIV-infection results in damage and dysfunction of the gastrointestinal system. HIV enteropathy includes pronounced CD4+ T-cell loss, increased intestinal permeability, and microbial translocation that promotes systemic immune activation, which is implicated in disease progression. A synbiotic is the combination of probiotics and prebiotics that could improve gut barrier function. Our study goal was to determine whether the use of a synbiotic, probiotics or a prebiotic can recover immunological parameters in HIV-infected subjects through of a reduction of microbial translocation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind controlled study was performed; twenty Antiretroviral treatment-naïve HIV-infected subjects were subgrouped and assigned to receive a synbiotic, probiotics, a prebiotic, or a placebo throughout 16 weeks. RESULTS: We had no reports of serious adverse-events. From baseline to week 16, the synbiotic group showed a reduction in bacterial DNA concentrations in plasma (p = 0.048). Moreover, the probiotic and synbiotic groups demonstrated a decrease in total bacterial load in feces (p = 0.05). The probiotic group exhibited a significant increment of beneficial bacteria load (such as Bifidobacterium; p = 0.05) and a decrease in harmful bacteria load (such as Clostridium; p = 0.063). In the synbiotic group, the CD4+ T-cells count increased (median: +102 cells/μL; p = 0.05) and the level of Interleukin 6 cytokine decreased significantly (p = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed a significant increase in CD4+ T lymphocyte levels in the synbiotic group, which could delay the initiation of antiretroviral therapy and decrease costs in countries with limited resources