Neuroprotection, Photoperiod, and Sleep

After an acquired brain injury, responses that induce cell death are activated; however, neuroprotective mechanisms are also activated. The relation between these responses determines the destination of the damaged tissue. This relation presents variations throughout the day; numerous studies have shown that the onset of a stroke occurs preferably in the morning. In the rat, ischemia causes more damage when it is induced during the night. The damage caused by a traumatic brain injury (TBI), in the rat, varies depending on the time of day it is induced. Minor behavioral damage has been reported when the TBI occurs during the night, a period that coincides with the wakefulness of the rat. It also has been observed that sleep deprivation accelerates the recovery. Our group has documented that this is due, in part, to a difference in the degree of activation of cannabinergic, GABAergyc, and glutamatergic systems

Use of glucocorticoids megadoses in SARS-CoV-2 infection in a spanish registry: SEMI-COVID-19

Objective To describe the impact of different doses of corticosteroids on the evolution of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, based on the potential benefit of the non-genomic mechanism of these drugs at higher doses. Methods Observational study using data collected from the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry. We evaluated the epidemiological, radiological and analytical scenario between patients treated with megadoses therapy of corticosteroids vs low-dose of corticosteroids and the development of complications. The primary endpoint was all-cause in-hospital mortality according to use of corticosteroids megadoses. Results Of a total of 14,921 patients, corticosteroids were used in 5,262 (35.3%). Of them, 2,216 (46%) specifically received megadoses. Age was a factor that differed between those who received megadoses therapy versus those who did not in a significant manner (69 years [IQR 59-79] vs 73 years [IQR 61-83]; p < .001). Radiological and analytical findings showed a higher use of megadoses therapy among patients with an interstitial infiltrate and elevated inflammatory markers associated with COVID-19. In the univariate study it appears that steroid use is associated with increased mortality (OR 2.07 95% CI 1.91-2.24 p < .001) and megadose use with increased survival (OR 0.84 95% CI 0.75-0.96, p 0.011), but when adjusting for possible confounding factors, it is observed that the use of megadoses is also associated with higher mortality (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.32-1.80; p < .001). There is no difference between megadoses and low-dose (p.298). Although, there are differences in the use of megadoses versus low-dose in terms of complications, mainly infectious, with fewer pneumonias and sepsis in the megadoses group (OR 0.82 95% CI 0.71-0.95; p < .001 and OR 0.80 95% CI 0.65-0.97; p < .001) respectively. Conclusion There is no difference in mortality with megadoses versus low-dose, but there is a lower incidence of infectious complications with glucocorticoid megadoses

Inappropriate antibiotic use in the COVID-19 era: Factors associated with inappropriate prescribing and secondary complications. Analysis of the registry SEMI-COVID

Background: Most patients with COVID-19 receive antibiotics despite the fact that bacterial co-infections are rare. This can lead to increased complications, including antibacterial resistance. We aim to analyze risk factors for inappropriate antibiotic prescription in these patients and describe possible complications arising from their use. Methods: The SEMI-COVID-19 Registry is a multicenter, retrospective patient cohort. Patients with antibiotic were divided into two groups according to appropriate or inappropriate prescription, depending on whether the patient fulfill any criteria for its use. Comparison was made by means of multilevel logistic regression analysis. Possible complications of antibiotic use were also identified. Results: Out of 13,932 patients, 3047 (21.6%) were prescribed no antibiotics, 6116 (43.9%) were appropriately prescribed antibiotics, and 4769 (34.2%) were inappropriately prescribed antibiotics. The following were independent factors of inappropriate prescription: February-March 2020 admission (OR 1.54, 95%CI 1.18-2.00), age (OR 0.98, 95%CI 0.97-0.99), absence of comorbidity (OR 1.43, 95%CI 1.05-1.94), dry cough (OR 2.51, 95%CI 1.94-3.26), fever (OR 1.33, 95%CI 1.13-1.56), dyspnea (OR 1.31, 95%CI 1.04-1.69), flu-like symptoms (OR 2.70, 95%CI 1.75-4.17), and elevated C-reactive protein levels (OR 1.01 for each mg/L increase, 95% CI 1.00-1.01). Adverse drug reactions were more frequent in patients who received ANTIBIOTIC (4.9% vs 2.7%, p < .001). Conclusion: The inappropriate use of antibiotics was very frequent in COVID-19 patients and entailed an increased risk of adverse reactions. It is crucial to define criteria for their use in these patients. Knowledge of the factors associated with inappropriate prescribing can be helpful

Overview of recent TJ-II stellarator results

The main results obtained in the TJ-II stellarator in the last two years are reported. The most important topics investigated have been modelling and validation of impurity transport, validation of gyrokinetic simulations, turbulence characterisation, effect of magnetic configuration on transport, fuelling with pellet injection, fast particles and liquid metal plasma facing components. As regards impurity transport research, a number of working lines exploring several recently discovered effects have been developed: the effect of tangential drifts on stellarator neoclassical transport, the impurity flux driven by electric fields tangent to magnetic surfaces and attempts of experimental validation with Doppler reflectometry of the variation of the radial electric field on the flux surface. Concerning gyrokinetic simulations, two validation activities have been performed, the comparison with measurements of zonal flow relaxation in pellet-induced fast transients and the comparison with experimental poloidal variation of fluctuations amplitude. The impact of radial electric fields on turbulence spreading in the edge and scrape-off layer has been also experimentally characterized using a 2D Langmuir probe array. Another remarkable piece of work has been the investigation of the radial propagation of small temperature perturbations using transfer entropy. Research on the physics and modelling of plasma core fuelling with pellet and tracer-encapsulated solid-pellet injection has produced also relevant results. Neutral beam injection driven Alfvénic activity and its possible control by electron cyclotron current drive has been examined as well in TJ-II. Finally, recent results on alternative plasma facing components based on liquid metals are also presentedThis work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 under Grant Agreement No. 633053. It has been partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Inovación y Universidades of Spain under projects ENE2013-48109-P, ENE2015-70142-P and FIS2017-88892-P. It has also received funds from the Spanish Government via mobility grant PRX17/00425. The authors thankfully acknowledge the computer resources at MareNostrum and the technical support provided by the Barcelona S.C. It has been supported as well by The Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), Project P-507F

DNA topoisomerases in apicomplexan parasites: promising targets for drug discovery

11 páginas, 1 figura.The phylum Apicomplexa includes a large group of protozoan parasites responsible for a wide range of animal and human diseases. Destructive pathogens, such as Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, causative agents of human malaria, Cryptosporidium parvum, responsible of childhood diarrhoea, and Toxoplasma gondii, responsible for miscarriages and abortions in humans, are frequently associated with HIV immunosuppression in AIDS patients. The lack of effective vaccines, along with years of increasing pressure to eradicate outbreaks with the use of drugs, has favoured the formation of multi-drug resistant strains in endemic areas. Almost all apicomplexan of medical interest contain two endosymbiotic organelles that contain their own mitochondrial and apicoplast DNA. Apicoplast is an attractive target for drug testing because in addition to harbouring singular metabolic pathways absent in the host, it also has its own transcription and translation machinery of bacterial origin. Accordingly, apicomplexan protozoa contain an interesting mixture of enzymes to unwind DNA from eukaryotic and prokaryotic origins. On the one hand, the main mechanism of DNA unwinding includes the scission of one-type I-or both DNA strands-type II eukaryotic topoisomerases, establishing transient covalent bonds with the scissile end. These enzymes are targeted by camptothecin and etoposide, respectively, two natural drugs whose semisynthetic derivatives are currently used in cancer chemotherapy. On the other hand, DNA gyrase is a bacterial-borne type II DNA topoisomerase that operates within the apicoplast and is effectively targeted by bacterial antibiotics like fluoroquinolones and aminocoumarins. The present review is an update on the new findings concerning topoisomerases in apicomplexan parasites and the role of these enzymes as targets for therapeuticThis research was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovation (grants AGL2003 06976/GAN and AGL2006-07420/GAN), Gr-238 from Junta de Castilla y León and the Tropical Diseases Network (RICET) from Ministerio de Salud y Consumo from the Spanish Kingdom.Peer Reviewe

Proyecto de inversión de una empresa comercializadora de ropa de playa

Seminario: Diagnóstico financiero de la empres

Diurnal variation of NMDA receptor expression in the rat cerebral cortex is associated with traumatic brain injury damage

Abstract Objective Data from our laboratory suggest that recovery from a traumatic brain injury depends on the time of day at which it occurred. In this study, we examined whether traumatic brain injury -induced damage is related to circadian variation in N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptor expression in rat cortex. Results We confirmed that traumatic brain injury recovery depended on the time of day at which the damage occurred. We also found that motor cortex N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptor subunit NR1 expression exhibited diurnal variation in both control and traumatic brain injury-subjected rats. However, this rhythm is more pronounced in traumatic brain injury—subjected rats, with minimum expression in those injured during nighttime hours. These findings suggest that traumatic brain injury occurrence times should be considered in future clinical studies and when designing neuroprotective strategies for patients

DISEÑO VIRTUAL DE CELDAS DE PRODUCCIÓN PARA LA ENSEÑANZA DE AUTOMATIZACIÓN INDUSTRIAL (VIRTUAL DESIGN OF PRODUCTION CELLS FOR TEACHING OF INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION)

Resumen En este documento se presenta una propuesta para la enseñanza de automatización industrial utilizando Controladores Lógicos Programables (PLC) de la marca MITSUBISHI. Se realiza la integración de softwares GX WORKS, MX OPC y GT DESIGNER de la familia MELSOFT de MITSUBISHI junto con el ambiente de desarrollo de LabVIEW. En LabVIEW se desarrolló una interfaz gráfica de usuario con los diferentes sensores y actuadores con los que dispone una máquina, mientras que en GXWORKS se desarrolla el control utilizando el ambiente de programación de un PLC Mitsubishi; para realizar la comunicación entre los dos softwares se utiliza el servidor MX OPC configurator. Con GT DESIGNER se desarrolló el control de la máquina utilizando una Interfaz Hombre Máquina (HMI) aprovechando la comunicación directa que se establece entre el simulador de GT DESIGNER y el simulador de GXWORKS. Con esta propuesta se está solventando la falta de uso de los laboratorios del TecNM en el sur de Guanajuato en las carreras de Ingeniería Electrónica e Ingeniería en Sistemas Automotrices ante la emergencia sanitaria COVID-19 durante los años 2020-2021. Palabras clave: Controladores Lógicos Programables, Interfaz Hombre Máquina, Maquinaria virtual, Simulador, Servidor. Abstract This document presents a proposal for the teaching of industrial automation using MITSUBISHI brand Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). The integration of GX WORKS, MX OPC and GT DESIGNER software of the MITSUBISHI MELSOFT family is carried out together with the LabVIEW development environment. In LabVIEW a graphical user interface was developed with different sensors and actuators that a machine has, while in GXWORKS the control is developed using the programming environment of a Mitsubishi PLC; The MX OPC configurator server is used to communicate between the two software. With GT DESIGNER, the control of the machine was developed using a Human Machine Interface (HMI), taking advantage of the direct communication established between the GT DESIGNER simulator and the GXWORKS simulator. With this proposal, the lack of use of the TecNM laboratories in the south of Guanajuato in the careers of Electronic Engineering and Automotive Systems Engineering is being solved in the face of the COVID-19 health emergency during the years 2020-2021. Keywords: Human Machine Interface, Programmable Logic Controllers, Server, Simulator, Virtual Machine

The performing brain awareness week at the school of medicine

Innovación en TICLa Semana Mundial del Cerebro es un evento de divulgación científica, que se celebra cada año en la Facultad de Medicina de la UNAM. Esta actividad surgió como una iniciativa de un grupo de profesores del Departamento de Fisiología, y tiene como objetivo involucrar a los estudiantes de Medicina en la divulgación sobre los avances y los beneficios del estudio del cerebro. Este evento proporciona a los estudiantes herramientas que propician la adquisición de algunas competencias del perfil intermedio I, contempladas en el nuevo plan de estudios de la Carrera de Médico Cirujano en la Facultad de Medicina de la UNAM. Su organización está apoyada por múltiples instancias de la Facultad de Medicina, así como por la Society for Neuroscience (SfN), La Sociedad Mexicana de Ciencias Fisiológicas (SMCF) y por The DANA Foundation. Los recursos de divulgación que se utilizan en la Semana del Cerebro son la conferencia y el cartel. Ambos han estado implementados con un nivel comprensible para los estudiantes de pregrado. El interés en el estudio y la comprensión de la función cerebral ha permitido que desde el año de 1996, la Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives (DABI) haya registrado la participación de 2800 Instituciones en más de 82 países de los 5 continentes. De manera similar a lo sucedido a nivel mundial, la Semana del Cerebro en México ha crecido año con año, tanto en el número de organizaciones participantes, como en las actividades realizadas.World Brain Awareness Week is a popular science event, held every year in the School of Medicine of the UNAM. This activity is an group of professor’s from the Department of Physiology initiative and aims to involve medical students in reporting on the progress and benefits of brain research and provides tool-kit that facilitate the acquisition of certain competences in level I profile under the new curriculum format in School of Medicine, UNAM. Multiple instances of the School of Medicine as well as the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), the Mexican Society of Physiological Sciences (SMCF) and by The DANA Foundation support the organization. The outreach resources we use in Brain Awareness Week are the conference and poster. Both tools have been implemented with an understandable level for undergraduates. The interest in the study and understanding of brain function has allowed since 1993, the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives (DABI) has registered the participation of 2800 Institutions over 82 countries across 5 continents. Similar to what happened worldwide, Brain Awareness Week in Mexico has grown every year, both in the number of organizations participating, and in the activities

Does the Neuroprotective Role of Anandamide Display Diurnal Variations?

The endocannabinoid system is a component of the neuroprotective mechanisms that an organism displays after traumatic brain injury (TBI). A diurnal variation in several components of this system has been reported. This variation may influence the recovery and survival rate after TBI. We have previously reported that the recovery and survival rate of rats is higher if TBI occurs at 1:00 than at 13:00. This could be explained by a diurnal variation of the endocannabinoid system. Here, we describe the effects of anandamide administration in rats prior to the induction of TBI at two different times of the day: 1:00 and 13:00. We found that anandamide reduced the neurological damage at both times. Nevertheless, its effects on bleeding, survival, food intake, and body weight were dependent on the time of TBI. In addition, we analyzed the diurnal variation of the expression of the cannabinoid receptors CB1R and CB2R in the cerebral cortex of both control rats and rats subjected to TBI. We found that CB1R protein was expressed more during the day, whereas its mRNA level was higher during the night. We did not find a diurnal variation for the CB2R. In addition, we also found that TBI increased CB1R and CB2R in the contralateral hemisphere and disrupted the CB1R diurnal cycle