Caracterización por microscopía electrónica de barrido de mascarillas de protección respiratoria utilizadas por la población costarricense en la época de la pandemia COVID-19.

Dada la pandemia COVID-19 y la obligatoriedad en el uso de mascarillas de protección respiratoria, se presentó una oportunidad de negocio para industrias y emprendedores en la confección y venta de las mismas.  Con base en esto, se supone que han existido en el mercado, mascarillas que no son confeccionadas en las condiciones óptimas de calidad y según las normas; ofreciendo una falsa protección respiratoria a los ciudadanos, lo cual pone en riesgo a la población, favoreciendo la propagación del virus SARS-CoV-2. Adicional a lo anterior un etiquetado erróneo referente a la cantidad de capas, tamaños de poro y la protección luego de ciclos de lavado en el caso de las mascarillas reutilizables. La generación de evidencia científica, es de suma importancia para corroborar los aspectos anteriormente mencionados, dado el impacto que tiene sobre la salud pública, por lo que se ha utilizado la microscopía electrónica de barrido, como herramienta de análisis, para realizar una caracterización de las capas, tamaños de poro y morfología y dar soporte a la hipótesis planteada, demostrando el incumplimiento en algunos casos, de los requisitos mínimos para ofrecer una protección real ante la propagación del agente viral y brinda un antecedente para tomar en consideración en futuros casos necesarios de la obligatoriedad del uso de mascarillas con el fin de proteger a la población ante otro brote de COVID-19 o algún otro virus que requiera este tipo de protección

The femur of \u3ci\u3eOrrorin tugenensis\u3c/i\u3e exhibits morphometric affinities with both Miocene apes and later hominins

Orrorin tugenensis (Kenya, ca. 6 Ma) is one of the earliest putative hominins. Its proximal femur, BAR 1002′00, was originally described as being very human-like, although later multivariate analyses showed an australopith pattern. However, some of its traits (for example, laterally protruding greater trochanter, medially oriented lesser trochanter and presence of third trochanter) are also present in earlier Miocene apes. Here, we use geometric morphometrics to reassess the morphological affinities of BAR 1002′00 within a large sample of anthropoids (including fossil apes and hominins) and reconstruct hominoid proximal femur evolution using squared-change parsimony. Our results indicate that both hominin and modern great ape femora evolved in different directions from a primitive morphology represented by some fossil apes. Orrorin appears intermediate between Miocene apes and australopiths in shape space. This evidence is consistent with femoral shape similarities in extant great apes being derived and homoplastic and has profound implications for understanding the origins of human bipedalism

Estado del arte sobre el sexismo lingüístico y las discrepancias con la Real Academia Española

El artículo presenta como tema central la relación entre el lenguaje y el poder, que se evidencia a través del control discursivo que es capaz de crear sentido, construcciones culturales y por ende representaciones e imaginarios sociales, que refleja mayor visibilidad de un género sobre el otro. Se realizará un Estado del Arte que permita recolectar la información, que plantea al lenguaje como un eje importante con respecto a la problemática de la desigualdad, entre hombres y mujeres. Considerando a las construcciones discursivas legítimas como un mecanismo de control, usado para ocultar e influir en la representación de nuestro entorno. Entre los principales motivos se encuentra que en nuestro lenguaje se ha determinado al género masculino como un género no marcado e inclusivo, lo que ha llevado a que el género femenino sea menos nombrado en diferentes contextos y por reglas dictadas por la Real Academia Española (RAE) en sus diferentes publicaciones. Se han expuesto diferentes investigaciones que se contraponen a la postura de la RAE, en este trabajo se analizarán las publicaciones recolectadas en las bases de datos bibliográficas de Springer, Scielo y Latindex en torno al sexismo lingüístico frente a la RAE. Metodológicamente se realizará un doble trabajo de recolección de información sobre sexismo lingüístico y las diferentes publicaciones de la RAE, desde el año 2004 hasta el 2020, también se llevará a cabo un análisis comparativo mediante el software “QDA Miner”, que permita presentar cuantitativamente la frecuencia de cada categoría en cada uno de los discursos y la información se sintetizará en los resultados que se presentarán mediante gráficos estadísticos.The article presents as a central theme the relationship between language and power, which is evidenced through discursive control that is capable of creating meaning, cultural constructions and therefore social representations and imaginaries, which reflects greater visibility of one gender over the other. A state of the art will be that allows the collection of information that poses language as an important axis with respect to the inequality gap between men and women. Considering legitimate discursive constructions as control mechanism, used to hide and influence the representation of our environment. Among the main reasons is that in our language the masculine gender has been determined as an unmarked and inclusive gender, which has led to the female gender being less named in different contexts and by rules dictated by the RAE in its different publications. Different investigations have been exposed that oppose the position of the RAE, in this work the articles collected in the bibliographic databases of Springer, Scielo and Latindex about linguistic sexism will be analyzed. Methodologically, a double work will be carried out to collect information on linguistic sexism and the different publications of the RAE, from 2004 to 2020, a comparative analysis will also be carried out using the "QDA Miner" software, which allows the quantitative presentation of the frequency of each category in each of the speeches and the results that will be presented by means of pie charts

A course-based undergraduate research experience to illustrate the early stages of the drug discovery process

We have implemented at the University of Málaga (Spain) a new course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) to involve undergraduate students of Science in a real-world scientific problem. Within the topic “Let's find acetylcholinesterase inhibitors as new drug candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer's”, students have been engaged into the early stages of the drug discovery process. Working in groups of 4–5 persons, they have searched information in databases, proposed solutions to the driving question and designed protocols to carry them out in vitro and in silico. Overall, the implementation of this experience has been very satisfactory in terms of academic performance and students' perception. This article reports a session from the virtual international 2021 IUBMB/ASBMB workshop, “Teaching Science on Big Data”.This work was supported by the University of Málaga (Spain) funds granted to the educational innovation projects PIE19-086. Open access funded by Universidad de Málaga/CBUA

Patterns of nutrient exchange in a riverine mangrove forest in the Shark River Estuary, Florida, USA

This study aimed to evaluate tidal and seasonal variations in concentrations and fluxes of nitrogen (NH4 +, NO2+NO3, total nitrogen) and phosphorus (soluble reactive phosphorus, total phosphorus) in a riverine mangrove forest using the flume technique during the dry (May, December 2003) and rainy (October 2003) seasons in the Shark River Estuary, Florida. Tidal water temperatures during the sampling period were on average 29.4 (± 0.4) oC in May and October declining to 20 oC (± 4) in December. Salinity values remained constant in May (28 ± 0.12 PSU), whereas salinity in October and December ranged from 6‒21 PSU and 9‒25 PSU, respectively. Nitrate + nitrite (N+N) and NH4+ concentrations ranged from 0.0 to 3.5 μM and from 0 to 4.8 μM throughout the study period, respectively. Mean TN concentrations in October and December were 39 (±0.8) μM and 37 (±1.5) μM, respectively. SRP and N+N concentrations in the flume increased with higher frequency in flooding tides. TP concentrations ranged between 0.2‒2.9 μM with higher concentrations in the dry season than in the rainy season. Mean concentrations were \u3c1. 5 μM during the sampling period in October (0.75 ± 0.02) and December (0.76 ± 0.01), and were relatively constant in both upstream and downstream locations of the flume. Water residence time in the flume (25 m2) was relatively short for any nutrient exchange to occur between the water column and the forest floor. However, the distinct seasonality in nutrient concentrations in the flume and adjacent tidal creek indicate that the Gulf of Mexico is the main source of SRP and N+N into the mangrove forest

Multifunctional Ionic Polymers from Deep Eutectic Monomers Based on Polyphenols

Herein we report a novel family of deep eutectic monomers and the corresponding polymers, made of (meth)acrylic ammonium salts and a series of biobased polyphenols bearing catechol or pyrogallol motifs. Phenolic chemistry allows modulating molecular interactions by tuning the ionic polymer properties from soft adhesive to tough materials. For instance, pyrogallol and hydrocaffeic acid-derived ionic polymers showed outstanding adhesiveness (>1 MPa), while tannic acid/gallic acid polymers with dense hydrogen bond distribution afforded ultratough elastomers (stretchability ≈1000% and strength ≈3 MPa). Additionally, phenolic polymeric deep eutectic solvents (polyDES) featured metal complexation ability, antibacterial properties, and fast processability by digital light 3D printing.This work was supported by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE) under grant agreement no. 823989 “IONBIKE”. The financial support from CONICET and ANPCyT (PICT 2018-01032) (Argentina) is also gratefully acknowledged

Polyphenol Iongel Patches with Antimicrobial, Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Properties

There is an actual need for developing materials for wound healing applications with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, or antibacterial properties in order to improve the healing performance. In this work, we report the preparation and characterization of soft and bioactive iongel materials for patches, based on polymeric poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and four ionic liquids containing the cholinium cation and different phenolic acid anions, namely cholinium salicylate ([Ch][Sal]), cholinium gallate ([Ch][Ga]), cholinium vanillate ([Ch][Van]), and cholinium caffeate ([Ch][Caff]). Within the iongels, the phenolic motif in the ionic liquids plays a dual role, acting as a PVA crosslinker and a bioactive compound. The obtained iongels are flexible, elastic, ionic conducting, and thermoreversible materials. Moreover, the iongels demonstrated high biocompatibility, non-hemolytic activity, and non-agglutination in mice blood, which are key-sought material specifications in wound healing applications. All the iongels have shown antibacterial properties, being PVA-[Ch][Sal], the one with higher inhibition halo for Escherichia Coli. The iongels also revealed high values of antioxidant activity due to the presence of the polyphenol, with the PVA-[Ch][Van] iongel having the highest activity. Finally, the iongels show a decrease in NO production in LPS-stimulated macrophages, with the PVA-[Ch][Sal] iongel displaying the best anti-inflammatory activity (>63% at 200 µg/mL).This work was funding by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE) under the grant agreement No 823989 “IONBIKE”, CONICET (PIP 11220200101353CO), ANPCyT (PICT-2020-03156), and the National University of the Litoral (C.A.I. + D 50620190100117LI), and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (2020.01555.CEECIND, UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020)

Patterns of nutrient exchange in a riverine mangrove forest in the Shark River Estuary, Florida, USA

This study aimed to evaluate tidal and seasonal variations in concentrations and fluxes of nitrogen (NH4 +, NO2+NO3, total nitrogen) and phosphorus (soluble reactive phosphorus, total phosphorus) in a riverine mangrove forest using the flume technique during the dry (May, December 2003) and rainy (October 2003) seasons in the Shark River Estuary, Florida. Tidal water temperatures during the sampling period were on average 29.4 (± 0.4) oC in May and October declining to 20 o C (± 4) in December. Salinity values remained constant in May (28 ± 0.12 PSU), whereas salinity in October and December ranged from 6?21 PSU and 9?25 PSU, respectively. Nitrate + nitrite (N+N) and NH4 + concentrations ranged from 0.0 to 3.5 µM and from 0 to 4.8 µM throughout the study period, respectively. Mean TN concentrations in October and December were 39 (±0.8) µM and 37 (±1.5) µM, respectively. SRP and N+N concentrations in the flume increased with higher frequency in flooding tides. TP concentrations ranged between 0.2?2.9 µM with higher concentrations in the dry season than in the rainy season. Mean concentrations were <1. 5 µM during the sampling period in October (0.75 ± 0.02) and December (0.76 ± 0.01), and were relatively constant in both upstream and downstream locations of the flume. Water residence time in the flume (25 m2 ) was relatively short for any nutrient exchange to occur between the water column and the forest floor. However, the distinct seasonality in nutrient concentrations in the flume and adjacent tidal creek indicate that the Gulf of Mexico is the main source of SRP and N+N into the mangrove forest

Absceso Prostático: diagnóstico y tratamiento clínico a propósito de un caso

Prostate abscess is a rare pathology with an incidence of 0.5% of all prostate pathologies with mortality from 1 to 16%, a case is presented about 68-year-old diabetic patient with lower urinary symptoms with acute urinary retention with torp evolution that was treated and resolved by means of broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment under home hospitalization in the context of a COVID-19 pandemic, the objective of the study is to publicize the clinical presentation and diagnostic tools for the correct treatment, for this purpose a bibliographic search was carried out updated on pathology.El absceso prostático es una patología poco frecuente con incidencia del 0,5% de todas las patologías prostáticas con mortalidad del 1 al 16%, se presenta un caso en paciente de 68 años, diabético, con síntomas urinarios irritativos del tracto urinario inferior, con retención urinaria aguda de tórpida evolución que fue tratado y resuelto mediante tratamiento antibiótico de amplio espectro bajo internación domiciliaria en contexto de pandemia COVID-19, el objetivo del estudio es dar a conocer la presentación clínica y las herramientas diagnósticas para el correcto tratamiento. Se realizó búsqueda bibliográfica actualizada sobre la patología en las principales bases de datos disponibles.&nbsp