Expression of the zinc finger Egr1 gene during zebrafish embryonic development

Egr1 is a highly conserved zinc finger protein which plays important roles in many aspects of vertebrate development and in the adult. The cDNA coding for zebrafish Egr1 was obtained and its expression pattern was examined during zebrafish embryogenesis using whole-mount in situ hybridization. Egr1 mRNA is first detected in adaxial cells in the presomitic mesoderm between 11 and 20 h post-fertilization (hpf), spanning the 4-24 somite stages. Later, Egr1 expression is observed only in specific brain areas, starting at 21 hpf and subsequently increasing in distinct domains of the central nervous system, e.g. in the telencephalon, diencephalon and hypothalamus. Between 24 and 48 hpf, Egr1 is expressed in specific domains of the hypothalamus, mesencephalon, tegmentum, pharynx, retina, otic vesicle and heart

Formación de competencias de la industria 4.0 en estudiantes de primer año de Ingeniería

La sociedad y la tecnología evolucionan vertiginosamente en estos tiempos. Los jóvenes actuales consideran a los teléfonos celulares como extensiones de su propio cuerpo y dominan su uso desde edades muy tempranas. Estamos transitando la Cuarta Revolución Industrial que requiere competencias y conocimientos encuadrados en la llamada Industria 4.0. Paralelamente las Ciencias de la Educación proponen adoptar metodologías que incluyan las herramientas tecnológicas propuestas por la Educación 4.0. Este trabajo muestra la incorporación de las tecnologías y los temas requeridos por la Industria 4.0, en una materia de Primer Año de Ingeniería de la Universidad Nacional de La Matanza (UNLaM), utilizando las metodologías propuestas por la Educación 4.0, para formar en los futuros ingenieros las competencias y conocimientos requeridos por la Industria 4.0. desde el primer año de sus carreras.Workshop: WTIAE – Tecnología Informática Aplicada en EducaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informátic

The Medical Action Ontology: A tool for annotating and analyzing treatments and clinical management of human disease

Clinical management; Medical action ontology; OntologyGestión clínica; Ontología de la acción médica; OntologíaGestió clínica; Ontologia de l'acció mèdica; OntologiaBackground Navigating the clinical literature to determine the optimal clinical management for rare diseases presents significant challenges. We introduce the Medical Action Ontology (MAxO), an ontology specifically designed to organize medical procedures, therapies, and interventions. Methods MAxO incorporates logical structures that link MAxO terms to numerous other ontologies within the OBO Foundry. Term development involves a blend of manual and semi-automated processes. Additionally, we have generated annotations detailing diagnostic modalities for specific phenotypic abnormalities defined by the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO). We introduce a web application, POET, that facilitates MAxO annotations for specific medical actions for diseases using the Mondo Disease Ontology. Findings MAxO encompasses 1,757 terms spanning a wide range of biomedical domains, from human anatomy and investigations to the chemical and protein entities involved in biological processes. These terms annotate phenotypic features associated with specific disease (using HPO and Mondo). Presently, there are over 16,000 MAxO diagnostic annotations that target HPO terms. Through POET, we have created 413 MAxO annotations specifying treatments for 189 rare diseases. Conclusions MAxO offers a computational representation of treatments and other actions taken for the clinical management of patients. Its development is closely coupled to Mondo and HPO, broadening the scope of our computational modeling of diseases and phenotypic features. We invite the community to contribute disease annotations using POET (https://poet.jax.org/). MAxO is available under the open-source CC-BY 4.0 license (https://github.com/monarch-initiative/MAxO).This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NHGRI 1U24HG011449-01A1 and NHGRI 5RM1HG010860-04. R.H. is a Wellcome Trust Investigator (109915/Z/15/Z), who receives support from the Medical Research Council (UK) (MR/V009346/1), the Addenbrookes Charitable Trust (G100142), the Evelyn Trust, the Stoneygate Trust, the Lily Foundation, Action for AT and an MRC strategic award to establish an International Centre for Genomic Medicine in Neuromuscular Diseases (ICGNMD) MR/S005021/1. This research was supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215-20014). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care

Intravitreal Dexamethasone Implant in Patients Who Did Not Complete Anti-VEGF Loading Dose During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Retrospective Observational Study

Introduction To compare the functional and anatomic outcomes between eyes in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) who underwent a complete anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) loading dose with aflibercept and those who were switched to dexamethasone intravitreal (DEX) implant after an incomplete anti-VEGF treatment regimen during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods This was a retrospective and comparative study conducted on patients with DME. Main outcome measures were mean change in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) from baseline to month 4. Results Forty-three eyes (23 eyes in the anti-VEGF group and 20 eyes in the DEX group) were included. Mean BCVA significantly improved from 37.7 +/- 25.3 and 35.7 +/- 22.0 letters at baseline to 45.4 (23.9) (mean adjusted BCVA improvement 7.6 +/- 20.8 letters, p = 0.033) and 46.1 +/- 26.0 (mean adjusted BCVA improvement 10.6 +/- 15.9 letters, p = 0.049) at month 4 in the anti-VEGF and DEX groups, respectively, with no significant differences between study groups (mean adjusted BCVA difference 2.8 letters, 95% CI - 9.4 to 14.9 letters, p = 0.648). There were no statistically significant differences in the proportion of eyes that achieved a BCVA improvement of >= 5, >= 10, and >= 15 letters between groups. CRT was significantly reduced from baseline to month 4 in both DEX (mean adjusted CRT reduction 167.3 +/- 148.2 mu m, p = 0.012) and anti-VEGF groups (mean adjusted CRT reduction 109.9 +/- 181.9 mu m, p < 0.001), with no differences between them (mean adjusted CRT difference 56.1 mu m, 95% CI - 46.0 to 158.2 mu m, p = 0.273). Of 20 eyes in the DEX group, 16 (80.0%) and 9 (45.0%) eyes achieved a CRT reduction of >= 20% from baseline at 2 months and at 4 months, respectively. Conclusions Our results seem to suggest that DEX implant can significantly improve both functional and anatomic clinical outcomes in patients who were unable to complete anti-VEGF loading dose during the COVID-19 pandemic

Estudio comparativo de conservación de raíces de yuca (Manihot esculentaCrantz) recubiertas con cera natural y parafina

Cassava roots are very susceptible to physiological deterioration; after a few days of harvesting (two or three) they are not acceptable for consumption. For this reason, diverse methods have been developed for their preservation, for example, coating them with paraffin, which prolongs the product’s shelf life up to 15 days. This conservation method with paraffin has some disadvantages from the environmental point of view because this coating is a hydrocarbon derived from petroleum and it is applied hot to the roots (temperatures above 120 °C). Thereby, it is important to seek alternatives of environmentally friendly preservation. This work evaluated the effectiveness of root coating with natural wax as a possible substitute for paraffin for the conservation of the product under natural environmental conditions. The results showed that natural wax is as effective as paraffin in preserving cassava roots; it delays physiological deterioration, as well as weight and dry matter lossesLas  raíces  de  yuca  son  muy  susceptibles  al  deterioro  fisiológico,  ya  que después de dos o tres días de cosechadas no son aptas para el consumo. Por esta razón, se han desarrollado diversos métodos de conservación como, por ejemplo, el recubrimiento de la raíces con parafina, el cual extiende la vida útil del producto hasta 15 días. Este método de conservación con parafina presenta desventajas desde el punto de vista ambiental, debido a que es un hidrocarburo derivado del petróleo y, además, se aplica en caliente (temperatura mayor a 120 °C). Por esto, es importante buscar alternativas de conservación amigables con el ambiente. En el presente trabajo se evaluó la efectividad del recubrimiento de raíces de yuca con cera natural como posible sustituto al uso de parafina en la conservación del producto. Los resultados mostraron que la cera natural es igual de efectiva que la parafina en la conservación de las raíces, puesto a que retrasa el deterioro fisiológico, la pérdida de materia seca y la pérdida de peso. Por lo tanto, se demostró que la cera es una buena alternativa para la conservación del producto, como sustituto de la parafina

Annotation of gene product function from high-throughput studies using the Gene Ontology.

High-throughput studies constitute an essential and valued source of information for researchers. However, high-throughput experimental workflows are often complex, with multiple data sets that may contain large numbers of false positives. The representation of high-throughput data in the Gene Ontology (GO) therefore presents a challenging annotation problem, when the overarching goal of GO curation is to provide the most precise view of a gene's role in biology. To address this, representatives from annotation teams within the GO Consortium reviewed high-throughput data annotation practices. We present an annotation framework for high-throughput studies that will facilitate good standards in GO curation and, through the use of new high-throughput evidence codes, increase the visibility of these annotations to the research community

The Medical Action Ontology: A tool for annotating and analyzing treatments and clinical management of human disease.

BACKGROUND: Navigating the clinical literature to determine the optimal clinical management for rare diseases presents significant challenges. We introduce the Medical Action Ontology (MAxO), an ontology specifically designed to organize medical procedures, therapies, and interventions. METHODS: MAxO incorporates logical structures that link MAxO terms to numerous other ontologies within the OBO Foundry. Term development involves a blend of manual and semi-automated processes. Additionally, we have generated annotations detailing diagnostic modalities for specific phenotypic abnormalities defined by the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO). We introduce a web application, POET, that facilitates MAxO annotations for specific medical actions for diseases using the Mondo Disease Ontology. FINDINGS: MAxO encompasses 1,757 terms spanning a wide range of biomedical domains, from human anatomy and investigations to the chemical and protein entities involved in biological processes. These terms annotate phenotypic features associated with specific disease (using HPO and Mondo). Presently, there are over 16,000 MAxO diagnostic annotations that target HPO terms. Through POET, we have created 413 MAxO annotations specifying treatments for 189 rare diseases. CONCLUSIONS: MAxO offers a computational representation of treatments and other actions taken for the clinical management of patients. Its development is closely coupled to Mondo and HPO, broadening the scope of our computational modeling of diseases and phenotypic features. We invite the community to contribute disease annotations using POET (https://poet.jax.org/). MAxO is available under the open-source CC-BY 4.0 license (https://github.com/monarch-initiative/MAxO). FUNDING: NHGRI 1U24HG011449-01A1 and NHGRI 5RM1HG010860-04

The extinct marine megafauna of the Phanerozoic

The modern marine megafauna is known to play important ecological roles and includes many charismatic species that have drawn the attention of both the scientific community and the public. However, the extinct marine megafauna has never been assessed as a whole, nor has it been defined in deep time. Here, we review the literature to define and list the species that constitute the extinct marine megafauna, and to explore biological and ecological patterns throughout the Phanerozoic. We propose a size cut-off of 1 m of length to define the extinct marine megafauna. Based on this definition, we list 706 taxa belonging to eight main groups. We found that the extinct marine megafauna was conspicuous over the Phanerozoic and ubiquitous across all geological eras and periods, with the Mesozoic, especially the Cretaceous, having the greatest number of taxa. Marine reptiles include the largest size recorded (21 m; Shonisaurus sikanniensis) and contain the highest number of extinct marine megafaunal taxa. This contrasts with today’s assemblage, where marine animals achieve sizes of >30 m. The extinct marine megafaunal taxa were found to be well-represented in the Paleobiology Database, but not better sampled than their smaller counterparts. Among the extinct marine megafauna, there appears to be an overall increase in body size through time. Most extinct megafaunal taxa were inferred to be macropredators preferentially living in coastal environments. Across the Phanerozoic, megafaunal species had similar extinction risks as smaller species, in stark contrast to modern oceans where the large species are most affected by human perturbations. Our work represents a first step towards a better understanding of the marine megafauna that lived in the geological past. However, more work is required to expand our list of taxa and their traits so that we can obtain a more complete picture of their ecology and evolution