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Resumen Introduccion y objetivos El sindrome de Sjogren (SS) es una enfermedad autoinmune con un amplio espectro de manifestaciones clinicas que puede generar un importante impacto en la calidad de vida del paciente. Para hacer una evaluacion objetiva de los componentes de la enfermedad se han disenado herramientas clinimetricas como el ESSPRI. El objetivo de este estudio es hacer una adaptacion de esta escala al idioma castellano. Materiales y metodos Estudio transversal de validacion de escalas clinimetricas llevado a cabo en Cali, Colombia. Se realizo una traduccion de la version original en ingles del ESSPRI al castellano y se aplico a pacientes con SS, al igual que el PROFAD y el ESSDAI, como marcador de actividad. Se calculo el indice de confiabilidad del cuestionario en castellano con coeficiente de alfa de Cronbach, asi como el coeficiente de correlacion de Spearman para comparar las escalas. Se evaluaron tambien caracteristicas demograficas, clinicas y de laboratorio. Resultados Se aplico el ESSPRI, PROFAD y ESSDAI a 42 pacientes con SS; el 97,62% fueron mujeres. El resultado promedio del ESSPRI fue 5,8 (± 4,6), con un coeficiente de confiabilidad de 0,8034 y una correlacion con el PROFAD de 0,5800 (p = 0,0001) y de −0,0848 (p = 0,593) con el ESSDAI. Discusion y conclusiones La confiabilidad con la version aplicada del ESSPRI en castellano fue adecuada. Se encontro una discordancia entre esta escala y el ESSDAI, lo cual remarca la importancia de aplicar ambas herramientas para asegurar un seguimiento objetivo del control de la enfermedad y su impacto en la calidad de vida de los pacientes con SS.

Introduction and objectives Sjogren's Syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations that can have an important impact on the patient's quality of life. To make an objective evaluation of the components of the disease, clinimetric tools such as the ESSPRI have been designed. The objective of this study is to adapt this scale to the Spanish language. Materials and methods This is a cross-sectional study to validate clinimetric scales, carried out in Cali, Colombia. A translation of the original English version of ESSPRI into Spanish was made and applied to patients with SS, as well as PROFAD and ESSDAI, as an activity marker. The reliability index of the questionnaire in Spanish with Cronbach's alpha coefficient and Spearman's correlation coefficient were calculated to compare the scales. Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics were also evaluated. Results ESSPRI, PROFAD and ESSDAI were applied to 42 patients with SS, 97.62% were women. The average result of the ESSPRI was 5.8 (± 4.6), with a reliability coefficient of .8034 and a correlation with PROFAD of .5800 (p = .0001), and of -.0848 (p = .593) with ESSDAI. Discussion and conclusions Reliability with the applied version of ESSPRI in Spanish was adequate. A discrepancy was found between this scale and ESSDAI, which highlights the importance of applying both tools to ensure objective monitoring of disease control and its impact on the quality of life of patients with SS.

Endothelial cell sprouting is a critical event in tumor-induced angiogenesis. In melanoma and lung cancer murine models, targeting RhoJ prevents endothelial sprouting, tumor growth and metastasis and enhances the effects of conventional anti-neoplastic therapy. Aiming to understand how RhoJ is activated, we used a gain of function approach to identify constitutively active Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factors (RhoGEFs) able to promote RhoJ-dependent actin-driven membrane protrusions. We demonstrate that a membrane-anchored Intersectin 1 (ITSN1) DH-PH construct promotes endothelial cell sprouting via RhoJ. Mechanistically, this is controlled by direct interaction between the catalytic ITSN1 DH-PH module and RhoJ, it is sensitive to phosphorylation by focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and to endosomal trapping of the ITSN1 construct by dominant negative RhoJ. This ITSN1/RhoJ signaling axis is independent of Cdc42, a previously characterized ITSN1 target and a RhoJ close homologue. In conclusion, our results elucidate an ITSN1/RhoJ molecular link able to promote endothelial cell sprouting and set the basis to explore this signaling pathway in the context of tumor-induced angiogenesis.

Resumen Introduccion El trastorno afectivo bipolar (TAB) es el trastorno mental reportado con mayor comorbilidad con el trastorno de abuso de sustancias (TAUS). Especificamente se han encontrado trastornos asociados con el consumo de alcohol (TACDA) en mas de la mitad de los pacientes con TAB. Material y metodos Se realizo un analisis secundario en una muestra poblacional de adultos en Colombia, con el objetivo de identificar la presencia de comorbilidad y los factores relacionados con el uso de alcohol en personas con TAB. El diagnostico de TAB de los participantes se realizo a traves del Entrevista Diagnostica Internacional Compuesta (CIDI-CAPI) y el patron de consumo de alcohol en el ultimo ano se determino con la escala AUDIT C . Resultados Se encontro que todos los pacientes con diagnostico de TAB tenian algun patron desadaptativo de consumo de alcohol. Entre las mujeres con TAB de esta muestra, se encontro un mayor riesgo de consumo de tipo dependencia, tambien mayor riesgo de consumo de nicotina y marihuana; entre quienes viven en centros urbanos, una mayor frecuencia de ideas suicidas y menor riesgo entre aquellos en una relacion de pareja estable. Discusion Se identificaron factores asociados novedosos respecto a publicaciones previas y otros ya descritos en estudios similares. Conclusiones Estos hallazgos indican la necesidad de evaluar, en el abordaje de los pacientes con TAB, el tipo de consumo de alcohol y otras sustancias, dada su relevancia en el manejo y el pronostico de esta poblacion.

The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of different antimicrobial interventions applied via either conventional spray (CS) or handheld electrostatic spray (ESS) to reduce Sh...

Onion powder and talc were inoculated with one of three groups of Salmonella enterica or a putative surrogate, Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354, and the radiation sensitivity of S. enterica was compared to E. faecium. For both inoculated onion powder and inoculated talc, D10-values were greater for E. faecium than any of the three groups of S. enterica. The survival of E. faecium in irradiated talc was used to estimate the potential survival of S. enterica in irradiated spices. Onion powder, dried oregano, whole cumin seeds or peppercorns were mixed with talc inoculated with either S. enterica (previously associated with a foodborne disease outbreak) or E. faecium and irradiated. The D10-values were calculated for each bacterial group and compared between E. faecium and S. enterica within each spice. For each spice, the D10-value for E. faecium was either not statistically different from (P

As a result of frequent outbreaks occurring due to poor hygiene and improper sanitation of processing environments, there has been an increasing demand for the development of food-contact surface materials that intrinsically inhibit and reduce likelihood of potential microbial adherence and biofilm formation. Herein, we report the synergistic utilization of surface nanotexturing and chemical modifications with nonpolar functional groups on aluminum surfaces to produce coatings having bacterial super-repellant and mud anti-fouling characteristics. Using these coatings, the attachment of Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 and Listeria innocua as pathogen surrogates was reduced more than 99.0%, compared to the bare aluminum surfaces. In addition, the coating strongly resisted the adhesion of mud, showing a 10-fold reduction in the area of mud adhesion upon submerging in mud solution. Moreover, this method is both versatile and scalable, involving inert and biocompatible building blocks. Overall, this study contributes to the field of food safety through the design and development of novel coatings for achieving improved food safety and hygiene.

BWR depleted fuel assemblies contain minor actinide (MA) and plutonium isotopes that must be stored for long periods of time for safety reasons, recycling of MA and plutonium is an alternative that could help to reduce the amount of high-level radioactive waste produced in a nuclear power reactor. Recycling of plutonium in MOX fuel is a proved option and several commercial reactors have MOX fuel as part of their reloads. MA recycling in a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) has been analyzed previously by the authors showing that is feasible and the higher MA destruction is obtained when the minor actinide is embedded in uranium fuel assemblies instead of MOX fuel assemblies. However, the recycling of MA in UO2 fuel assemblies generates a higher amount of Pu-238 that is a precursor of Pu fissile isotopes increasing the amount of them in the depleted fuels employed for MA recycling. In this study a new BWR MOX fuel assembly design, that is called MOX-MA, is analyzed. The study takes an equilibrium cycle of a BWR as the reference cycle and then it proposes the use of an equivalent MOX fuel assembly in which 4 fuel rods are replaced by MA-bearing rods and 8 fuel rods are also replaced by water rods to increase moderation-to-fuel-ratio. The study aims to have the maximum amount of this new MOX BWR fuel assembly design, called MOX-MA, which can be used by reload in the core. The proposed MOX-MA fuel assembly can be used as a full reload and for a whole MOX-MA core there is no need to modify any of the control systems and this whole MOX-MA core produces the same amount of electricity than the UO2 reference equilibrium core. By using the MOX-MA fuel assemblies there is a plutonium net reduction of 33% and there is practically not production of MA.

Simultaneous and individual enumeration of Salmonella, Shigella and Listeria monocytogenes was compared on inoculated Roma tomatoes and Serrano peppers using an Most Probable Number (MPN) technique. Samples consisting of tomatoes (4 units) or peppers (8 units) were individually inoculated with a cocktail of three strains of Salmonella, Shigella or L. monocytogenes, or by simultaneous inoculation of three strains of each pathogen, at low (1.2-1.7 log CFU/sample) and high (2.2-2.7 log CFU/sample) inocula. Samples were analyzed by an MPN technique using universal pre-enrichment (UP) broth at 35 °C for 24 ± 2 h. The UP tubes from each MPN series were transferred to enrichment and plating media following adequate conventional methods for isolating each pathogen. Data were analyzed using multifactorial analysis of variance (p 0.05) and LSD multiple rang test. There were differences (p 0.05) in recovery of simultaneous and individual bacteria inoculated (individual simultaneous), type of bacteria (Salmonella Shigella and L. monocytogenes), type of sample (UP broth pepper and tomato), and inoculum level (high low). The MPN technique was effective for Salmonella on both commodities. Shigella counts were higher on tomatoes compared to peppers, (p 0.05), and for L. monocytogenes on peppers (p 0.05).

The pixel’s classification of images obtained from random heterogeneous materials (RHM) is a relevant step for 3D stochastic reconstruction and to compute their physical properties, like Effective Transport Coefficients (ETC). A bad classification will impact on the computed properties. However, the literature on the topic discusses mainly the correlation functions or the properties formulae, giving little or no attention to the classification; authors mention either the use of a threshold or, in few cases, the use of Otsu’s method. This paper presents a classification approach based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) and a comparison with the Otsu-based approach, based on accuracy, precision and recall. The data used for the SVM training are the key for a better classification; these data are the grayscale value, the magnitude and direction of pixels gradient. For the validation cases, the recall of the solid phase is significantly better, whilst improving the accuracy for the SVM method. Finally, a discussion about the impact on the correlation functions is presented in order to show the benefits of the proposal.

Prevention of plant-borne pest infestation necessitates use of phytosanitary procedures, as in the case of U.S.-imported mangoes. Supplementation of hydrothermal disinfestation and/or post-process cooling waters with chemical sanitizers could provide mango packers with antimicrobial interventions reduce or prevent microbial pathogen transmission on mangoes. The current study determined: i) the effectiveness of chlorine (CL) or lactic acid (LA) addition to water used for hydrothermal and cooling treatments to reduce Salmonella survival on mangoes during disinfestation treatment, and; ii) Salmonella internalization into stem scars following hydrothermal and cooling treatments in sanitizer-supplemented water. Salmonella survival during post-treatment storage and effects of treatments on mango color and firmness were also determined. A 2.0 log-cycle reduction was obtained on stem scars subjected to hydrothermal treatment; reductions of 2.2 and 1.3 log-cycles were obtained on stem scars with LA and OCl− treatment, respectively. An additional 1.0 log-cycle reduction during cooling was observed for OCl−-treated mangos; Salmonella were not detected (

A new methodology to deal in an integrated way with the fuel lattice design and fuel load optimization in a Boiling Water Reactor is proposed. The novel aspects are two. Firstly, the use of basic population based metaheuristics to deal with sets of potential fuel lattice design and sets of potential fuel reloads. Both populations evolve in a parallel and independent way between them. After some iterations the best current fuel lattice is fed to the fuel reload optimization process. Secondly, and in order to evaluate the quality of the lattice designs, the use of previously developed decision trees to speed up the calculations, thus avoiding the use of computationally expensive core reactor simulators. The computational experiments allowed to assess the benefits of our proposal. In one hand, the obtained solutions fulfilled the energy requirements and at the same time the core safety was guaranteed by thermal limits and cold shutdown margin. By the other hand, the use of decision trees allowed to speed up the process by a factor of 1200.

Metastatic lung cancer is a major cause of death worldwide. Dissemination of cancer cells can be facilitated by various agonists within the tumor microenvironment, including by lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). We postulate that Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factors (RhoGEFs), which integrate signaling cues driving cell migration, are critical effectors in metastatic cancer. Specifically, we addressed the hypothetical role of ARHGEF17, a RhoGEF, as a potential effector of Gβγ in metastatic lung cancer cells responding to LPA. Here, we show that ARHGEF17, originally identified as a tumor endothelial marker, is involved in tumor growth and metastatic dissemination of lung cancer cells in an immunocompetent murine model. Gene expression-based analysis of lung cancer datasets showed that increased levels of ARHGEF17 correlated with reduced survival of patients with advanced-stage tumors. Cellular assays also revealed that this RhoGEF participates in the invasive and migratory responses elicited by Gi protein-coupled LPA receptors via the Gβγ subunit complex. We demonstrate that this signaling heterodimer promoted ARHGEF17 recruitment to the cell periphery and actin fibers. Moreover, Gβγ allosterically activates ARHGEF17 by the removal of inhibitory intramolecular restrictions. Taken together, our results indicate that ARHGEF17 may be a valid potential target in the treatment of metastatic lung cancer.

In this paper a new methodology to speed up the fuel lattice design optimization in a BWR is explored. In previous works, fuel lattice optimization was made using LPPF (Local Power Peaking Factor) at the beginning of the fuel lattice life. However, undesirable LPPF vs. fuel lattice exposure behaviors were observed. Due to this, LPPF vs. fuel lattice exposure was calculated through out fuel lattice life burnup. From a computational point of view, such calculation is very expensive when done using the CASMO-4 code. A new methodology to speed up the optimization was proposed based on two aspects: in one side, using objective functions that take into account LPPF vs. fuel lattice exposure and residual gadolinia; and in other side, using decision trees to estimate some fuel lattice parameters in a fast and reliable way. It could be verified that decision trees estimations had the enough reliability to be used into an optimization process to discard bad fuel lattice configurations and speed up the optimization process. At the end of this process, CASMO-4 code is used to calculate the final fuel lattice parameters. In this way, fuel lattice optimization time was reduced from 6 hours to 15 minutes obtaining good LPPF vs exposure behaviors.

Depression is the main cause of years lossed due to disability in the world, and it affects 50% more women 50% than men. Perinatal depression has been linked with more anxiety, a chronic course, and disability than depression in other life stages. In spite of its high prevalence and serious health effects on both mother and foetus, it is frequently under-diagnosed. This study was performed on all high risk obstetric patients admitted to a critical care obstetric unit in Cali, Colombia, from January to June, 2014. Depressive symptoms and psychosocial risk factors were screened by means of a survey and the Edinburgh Prenatal Depression Scale (EPDS). A total of 695 women were included, of whom 30.2% had depressive symptoms on the EPDS, and 3.6% reported having self-injury thoughts in the last 7 days. Our findings are consistent with previous reports on a history of child abuse and family depression as risk factors. It was also suggested that lower socio-economic status is associated with more vulnerability. Early screening is needed to ensure timely detection and treatment.

Resumen La depresion es la principal causa de anos perdidos por discapacidad en el mundo, y en mujeres la carga de la enfermedad es un 50% mayor que en varones. La depresion perinatal tiene mayor asociacion con ansiedad, cronicidad y discapacidad que en otras etapas de la vida y es poco reconocida a pesar de su alta prevalencia y sus graves efectos en la salud de la madre y el feto. Se realizo un estudio en pacientes ingresadas y valoradas en una unidad de alto riesgo obstetrico en el proceso de implementacion del programa durante los meses de enero a junio de 2014; se utilizaron la Edinburgh Prenatal Depression Scale (EPDS) y un cuestionario previamente desarrollado para identificar la presencia de sintomas depresivos y factores de riesgo psicosocial. Se evaluo sistematicamente a mas de 600 mujeres, y se encontro que el 30,2% de las mujeres evaluadas tenian sintomas depresivos segun la EPDS y el 3,6% habia tenido ideas de autolesion en los ultimos 7 dias. Los factores relacionados evaluados indican una condicion de vulnerabilidad de las mujeres con menor nivel socioeconomico. Los datos encontrados reiteran la importancia de detectar factores que tradicionalmente el personal de salud no identifica ni interviene a lo largo de la vida y particularmente durante la gestacion.

Foodborne illness outbreaks caused by bacterial pathogens may take place on a large scale and result in millions of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths every year throughout the world. One key strategy for dealing with this global issue is the design of smart surfaces and coatings which inhibit and reduce bacterial attachment. This can mitigate contamination and cross-contamination during farm-to-table food processing, promoting food safety, and hygiene. Herein, we reported a durable superhydrophobic coating on aluminum surfaces fabricated by sequential deposition of ultrahard nanodiamond, self-assembly of l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine ( l -dopamine), and chemical modification with an organoflurosilane. This coating achieved static, advancing, and receding water contact angles of 159.0 ± 2.5°,154.0 ± 2.4°; and 153.7 ± 1.7°, respectively, representing water super-repellency with a low overall root mean square (rms) roughness of 173.5 ± 69.6 nm. In comparison to the bare, unmodified aluminum, the coated aluminum surfaces prevented the attachment of 99.5% of applied Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E.coli O157:H7) and 99.0% of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) cells. In addition, due to the presence of nanodiamond building blocks, the coated surfaces demonstrated a high mechanical resistance against scratching and endured at least 10,000 shearing/rubbing cycles with a nylon surface. Overall, we anticipate that implementation of this coating could improve safety and hygiene of food-contact surfaces that require harsher mechanical operational conditions.

The novel bipolar electrodialysis flow battery (BEDFB) concept is an acid-base type of energy storage solution that uses safe and abundant electrolytes and that has the potential of providing long-duration storage at low cost. To date, the potential environmental impacts of the BEDFB have not been investigated. Here, we report the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) and an integrated sustainability analysis for a 1 MW/ 6 MWh BEDFB system having a 20-year lifetime. The manufacturing phase (cradle-to-gate) and the full life cycle (cradle-to-grave) were analyzed per 1 MWh (functional unit) of installed storage capacity using five LCA categories. For the use phase part of the LCA, the BEDFB was assumed to provide energy storage to support wind and PV generation within the national Mexican electricity grid. In addition, the cumulative energy demand (CED), the energy returned on investment (EROI) and three sustainability dimensions (feasibility, viability, desirability) were evaluated. Finally, we calculated the losses posed by the renewables that are currently (2019) deployed in the Mexican grid to assess the potential of energy storage deployment within the Mexican context. For the manufacturing phase, the BEDFB technology exhibited a terrestrial ecotoxicity value of 16.3 kg1.4DCB/MWh and a global warming impact of 9.1 kgCO2e/MWh, which are significantly lower values than reported for the state-of-the-art all-vanadium flow battery technology. PV generation in combination with the BEDFB demonstrated the best environmental profile, followed by generation through wind and the average Mexican grid conditions. We found that 304 BEDFB's would suffice to mitigate the energy losses represented by renewable deployments in Mexico today. The main result from the sustainability analysis is that, on the supply side, the BEDFB technology requires minimal fossil energy and chemicals during the upstream processes of the manufacturing phase.

Multiple antimicrobial interventions have been validated for use during the beef postharvesting process. However, little has been done to determine the impact of the postharvest environment on pathogen contamination. In this study, surrogate microorganisms were used to simulate pathogen cross-contamination through the postharvest environment at three different abattoirs. At each abattoir, the brisket areas of 13 hide-on carcasses were inoculated after stunning, with a gelatin slurry containing a cocktail (~7 log CFU/ml) of fluorescent Escherichia coli biotype I. These microorganisms are approved as surrogates for E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. From these carcasses, samples (300 cm2) were taken at different stages during the harvesting process: after hide opening, prior to evisceration, after evisceration, after splitting, and after final intervention. The carcass (noninoculated) immediately following (adjacent to) each hide-inoculated carcass was also tested to determine cross-contamination. Env...

Gloves made of materials such as latex, nitrile, and polyethylene are the most common types of protective equipment used to prevent cross-contamination and transmission of pathogenic bacteria in the food industry. In this study, we report a surface modification approach involving “fluorinated silica nanoparticles” (FSNs) to improve the protective ability against bacterial contamination of disposable glove surfaces. The bacterial antiadhesive (antifouling) properties of the modified gloves were evaluated with Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 and Staphylococcus aureus at bacterial concentrations of 8.6–9.0 log CFU/mL through the dip-inoculation approach. Bacterial attachment to glove surfaces were enumerated by the pour plating method as well as direct counting via scanning electron microscopy. The bacterial populations of S. Typhimurium LT2 and S. aureus on FSN-coated latex, nitrile and polyethylene gloves was reduced by 1–2 log units in comparison to bare gloves, which already reduce the bacterial attachment to some extent.

Escherichia albertii is an emerging foodborne pathogen recovered from young children and adults exhibiting symptoms of gastroenteritis via pathogenesis factors including attaching and effacing lesions, cytolethal distending toxin, and Shiga toxin variants. Study objectives were to determine E. albertii survival following (i) exposure to lactic acid as a function of solution pH and incubation period and (ii) cooking ground beef patties to different endpoint temperatures. E. albertii was incubated in phosphate buffer containing 3.0% l-lactic acid adjusted to pH 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, or 7.0; survivors were determined every 30 min for 150 min. Ground beef patties (80% lean) were cooked to temperature endpoints simulating undercooking (62°C), the minimum temperature for safe cooking (71.1°C), and cooking to well done (76°C). Maximal pathogen reduction was observed after a 30-min exposure to pH 3.0 l-lactic acid. Reductions of 3.9, 4.4, and 4.9 log CFU/g were obtained following cooking ground beef patties to 62, 71.1, and 76°C, respectively, but the reductions did not differ as a function of the endpoint cooking temperature (P ≥ 0.05). E. albertii may be controlled on beef through the proper application of antimicrobial interventions and cooking.

In this paper the estimation of 3D BWR nuclear reactor parameters starting from 2D data is presented. The 3D parameters are obtained through a steady state simulation of the nuclear reactor's operation, namely; thermal limits and cold shutdown margin. Data mining techniques were applied to build decision trees in order to estimate those 3D reactor parameters. The decision trees were built using local power peaking factor, infinite multiplication factor and relative power values of the fuel lattices calculated at the beginning of its life, the number of fuel pins containing gadolinia, uranium enrichments and gadolinia concentration for pins. Using the CASMO-4/SIMULATE-3 system a total of 18,225 operation cycles were simulated in order to generate the dataset for the construction of decision trees. As a result, it was possible to estimate thermal limits with relative errors lower than 5%. The estimation for cold shutdown margin was lower than 200 pcm. Decision trees use 12, 29, and 36 variables to predict SDM, FLPD and MAPRAT values respectively. Decision trees can estimate those core parameters in 25 s against several hours spent by CMS codes. However, the obtained model is not aimed at replacing core simulators to do fuel reloads licensing. It should be considered instead as a tool for a preliminary and fast assessment in an optimization process. Afterwards, the potential solutions must be reassessed and validated with CMS codes execution.

In this paper, a dynamic assessment of optimal BWR Fuel Reload Patterns (FRP) is presented. Using two meta-heuristics techniques: Tabu Search (TS) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), the FRPs were designed. In order to perform the stability analysis, a point in the operation map, which is under the instability region defined in technical specifications, was used. The CASMO-4/SIMULATE-3/SIMULATE-3K system was used. The obtained results show that the inclusion of Decay Ratio (DR) into the objective function of TS and ANN optimization techniques, allows finding FRPs that fulfill not only with thermal limits, shutdown margin, energy demand but also with stability requirements. It was possible to achieve FRPs with DR 6% lesser than the corresponding comparison value. The integration of the DR parameter into FRP optimization implied that the needed CPU time to fulfill every requirement was increased by 6.6 times, with respect to the classic steady-state optimization.

Resumen Introduccion El nacimiento pretermino es el que ocurre antes de completar las 37 semanas; sus causas son multifactoriales y varian segun la edad gestacional y el contexto etnico y geografico. Aunque varios factores medicos/sociales han sido bien identificados, en mas del 50% de los casos no son conocidos o no son claros, pero los componentes psicopatologicos emergen como factores de riesgo potencialmente importantes. Objetivo Determinar la relacion entre el estres durante el embarazo y el nacimiento pretermino espontaneo. Metodos Estudio de casos y controles en un hospital de tercer nivel, con una muestra de 360 pacientes a los que, durante el periodo de marzo a noviembre de 2013, ademas de recopilar las caracteristicas sociodemograficas, se les aplicaron escalas de reajuste social, estrategias de afrontamiento y apoyo social. Se desarrollaron modelos de regresion logistica, psicologico, biologico y social. Con base en las variables significantes en cada uno de estos, se genero uno final. Resultados En el modelo final se encontro que el estres durante el embarazo aumenta la oportunidad de parto pretermino espontaneo en 1,91 veces ( odds ratio ajustada = 2,91; intervalo de confianza del 95%, 1,67-5,08; p Conclusiones Los hallazgos confirman la hipotesis de que el estres durante la gestacion esta relacionado con parto pretermino espontaneo.

Morphology of migrating cells is regulated by Rho GTPases and fine-tuned by protein interactions and phosphorylation. PKA affects cell migration potentially through spatiotemporal interactions with regulators of Rho GTPases. Here we show that the endogenous regulatory (R) subunit of type I PKA interacts with P-Rex1, a Rac guanine nucleotide exchange factor that integrates chemotactic signals. Type I PKA holoenzyme interacts with P-Rex1 PDZ domains via the CNB B domain of RIα, which when expressed by itself facilitates endothelial cell migration. P-Rex1 activation localizes PKA to the cell periphery, whereas stimulation of PKA phosphorylates P-Rex1 and prevents its activation in cells responding to SDF-1 (stromal cell-derived factor 1). The P-Rex1 DEP1 domain is phosphorylated at Ser-436, which inhibits the DH-PH catalytic cassette by direct interaction. In addition, the P-Rex1 C terminus is indirectly targeted by PKA, promoting inhibitory interactions independently of the DEP1-PDZ2 region. A P-Rex1 S436A mutant construct shows increased RacGEF activity and prevents the inhibitory effect of forskolin on sphingosine 1-phosphate-dependent endothelial cell migration. Altogether, these results support the idea that P-Rex1 contributes to the spatiotemporal localization of type I PKA, which tightly regulates this guanine exchange factor by a multistep mechanism, initiated by interaction with the PDZ domains of P-Rex1 followed by direct phosphorylation at the first DEP domain and putatively indirect regulation of the C terminus, thus promoting inhibitory intramolecular interactions. This reciprocal regulation between PKA and P-Rex1 might represent a key node of integration by which chemotactic signaling is fine-tuned by PKA.

Since two outbreaks of salmonellosis were linked to the consumption of almonds in 2001 and 2004, the study of pathogen inactivation kinetics in almonds has been encouraged, often by conducting inoculated challenge studies. The inoculation method could affect the results of such challenge studies, because of the possible increase of moisture on the almonds resulting from a wet inoculation procedure, which may result in a potential overestimation of the effectiveness of treatments used to pasteurize almonds in industrial settings. Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis phage type 30 (PT30) isolated from an almond-linked outbreak was inoculated on nonpareil almonds and dried by accelerated (drying the inoculated almonds at 37 °C for 12 h) and conventional (drying inoculated almonds overnight at room temperature) drying methods, before treating the almonds with hot water (blanching) at 88 °C or hot oil (oil roasting) at 127 °C. The Weibull model explained the death of this pathogen on almonds better than log-linear model for oil roasting, whereas both log-linear and Weibull models were similarly effective for blanching. For blanching, the D values for Salmonella Enteritidis PT30 were 12.7 and 10.7 s with accelerated and conventional drying, respectively. For oil roasting, the b-values were 4.59 and 4.18 s with accelerated and conventional drying, respectively. Based on the models, it was concluded that the accelerated drying process resulted in a significantly smaller reduction in Salmonella Enteritidis PT30 on almonds in comparison to conventional drying for both blanching and roasting. Although conventional drying led to significantly lower D or b – values (depending on the model), this difference is not likely to affect the current processing parameters used by the almond industry.

The mechanisms underlying masked congruency priming, semantic mechanisms such as semantic activation or non-semantic mechanisms, for example response activation, remain a matter of debate. In order to decide between these alternatives, reaction times (RTs) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in the present study, while participants performed a semantic categorization task on visible word targets that were preceded either 167 ms (Experiment 1) or 34 ms before (Experiment 2) by briefly presented (33 ms) novel (unpracticed) masked prime words. The primes and targets belonged to different categories (unrelated), or they were either strongly or weakly semantically related category co-exemplars. Behavioral (RT) and electrophysiological masked congruency priming effects were significantly greater for strongly related pairs than for weakly related pairs, indicating a semantic origin of effects. Priming in the latter condition was not statistically reliable. Furthermore, priming effects modulated the N400 event-related potential (ERP) component, an electrophysiological index of semantic processing, but not ERPs in the time range of the N200 component, associated with response conflict and visuo-motor response priming. The present results demonstrate that masked congruency priming from novel prime words also depends on semantic processing of the primes and is not exclusively driven by non-semantic mechanisms such as response activation.

A Heuristic-Knowledge Method was developed to determine the enrichment and gadolinia distribution in a fuel lattice of boiling water reactors. The method was called S15 and is based on the experience obtained for the fuel lattice design for this kind of nuclear reactors. It also takes advantage of the symmetry aspects found in a typical BWR fuel lattice. An objective function was used throughout the searching process, as well as the same degrees of freedom used by five different meta-heuristic techniques based on evolutionary algorithms. Using the S15 method forty iterations were needed to obtain the best solution i.e., the smallest value of the objective function through a minimization process. In order to assess the performance of the S15 method, it was compared to five other evolutionary techniques. The two-dimensional CASMO-4 code was used to obtain the neutronic parameters employed by the objective function. The objective function value was the main criterion used to qualify all the techniques. All the methods were applied to fuel lattices charged in three different real operation cycles of the nuclear reactors at the Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant (LVNPP). The results generated with S15 surpass those obtained by the five evolutionary techniques.

In this paper, an embedded design for implementing a real-time photovoltaic (PV) system emulator with user-defined environmental conditions is proposed. The design implemented on a Sitara Cortex 9 ARM processor allows the evaluation of PV cells in a low-cost, portable and affordable system. This embedded PV emulation system uses an LCD screen to establish a human-system interface (HSI), and it contains an extensible database of commercial PV cells with their manufacturer’s datasheet parameters. Based on the accurate two-diode model, the proposed design allows the generation of high precision I – V , P – V characteristic curves with the embedded ARM, which represents an affordable and simple solution. Experimental results demonstrate the accuracy of the real-time embedded system for different solar cells and environmental conditions.

Leafy greens such as spinach may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes during pre-harvest and postharvest handling. Recent recalls issued for Listeria-contaminated leafy greens are driving the need for technologies to minimize safety issues in fresh and fresh-cut produce. This study assessed the effectiveness of washing treatments as a postharvest practice to minimize the growth of the pathogen and L. innocua on fresh baby spinach leaves under different storage temperatures and to evaluate the feasibility of using L. innocua as a surrogate when access to BL2 facilities is difficult. Each microorganism had a different (P

A new approach for optimizing the enrichment and gadolinia distribution in a typical BWR fuel lattice is presented. It takes advantage of potentialities of two different methodologies: the Ant-Colony-System (ACS) meta-heuristic technique and S15 a method based on knowledge. The S15 method was programmed in such a way that can reduce the objective function systematically in a few iterations. In this way, a human expert was essentially substituted by the system. S15 takes advantage of the ACS's ability for exploring the searching space. Reciprocally, ACS can use the directed search generated by S15. The system was tested using typical fuel lattices from both transition and equilibrium operation cycles in a BWR. The lattice physics code CASMO-4 was used to generate the parameters of the objective function. As a result of the hybridization process of the aforementioned methodologies, the obtained results overcame those obtained using different heuristic techniques applied to the same problem. All imposed goals or requirements were improved or fulfilled: on average, the obtained local power peaking factor is 7.57% lower than the reference one, the obtained value for the initial average U-235 enrichment is, on average, 1.12% lower than the reference one, the precision in obtaining the k-infinity's requirement was improved by about 33%, and the gadolinia content was fulfilled in all the cases. Finally, the needed total wall time for obtaining a suitable solution was substantially reduced using the proposed system.

Concern has been expressed surrounding the utility of studies describing the efficacy of antimicrobial interventions targeting the Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) that inoculate chilled versus non-chilled beef carcasses. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of chilling (non-chilled, chilled to surface temperature of ≤5 °C) on STEC attachment to brisket surfaces, and the effects of post-inoculation storage on STEC recovery. Paired briskets from split carcasses were separated; one brisket from each pair was kept non-chilled, while the other was chilled to a surface temperature of ≤5 °C prior to inoculation. Briskets were inoculated with a cocktail of eight STEC and then stored at 5 or 25 °C. At 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 min post-inoculation, 30 cm(2) of tissue was aseptically excised, followed by selective enumeration of strongly and loosely attached STEC. A significant, though small (0.4 log10 CFU/cm(2)), difference in the numbers of strongly attached cells was observed between non-chilled and chilled briskets (p

The Polymyxin Ceftazidime Oxford Medium (PCOM) was developed to recover Listeria monocytogenes from raw or unpasteurized foods. It contains esculin-ferric ammonium citrate as indicator system for Listeria growth, and ceftazidime and polymyxin B as selective agents, which are available in several Latin American countries. Comparison of PCOM, Modified Oxford Medium (MOX) and Tryptic Soy agar with 0.6% yeast extract (TSAYE) indicated that both selective media were equally effective at recovering four individual strains of L. monocytogenes (Scott A, V7, California and broccoli), and a mixture of these strains (LMM) (P > 0.05). The ability of PCOM, MOX, TSAYE and TSAYE supplemented with 4% NaCl to recover heat, acid and freeze-damaged LMM was similar for all media (P > 0.05). The PCOM proved to be effective at isolating colonies of LMM from inoculated raw beef chunks, unpasteurized orange juice, cabbage, and Mexican-style cheese by direct plating and by the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service enrichment method. Differentiation of L. monocytogenes colonies was easier on PCOM than on MOX for foods with high levels of background microbiota. Based on the evaluations performed on foods naturally contaminated with L. monocytogenes, PCOM was a more economical alternative than MOX for selective and differential isolation of Listeria from raw or unpasteurized foods.

The microbiological safety of fresh produce is of concern for the U.S. food supply. Members of the Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) have been reported to antagonize pathogens by competing for nutrients and by secretion of substances with antimicrobial activity, including organic acids, peroxides, and antimicrobial polypeptides. The objectives of this research were to: (i) determine the capacity of a commercial LAB food antimicrobial to inhibit Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica on spinach leaf surfaces, and (ii) identify antimicrobial substances produced in vitro by the LAB comprising the food antimicrobial. Pathogens were inoculated on freshly harvested spinach, followed by application of the LAB antimicrobial. Treated spinach was aerobically incubated up to 12 days at 7 °C and surviving pathogens enumerated via selective/differential plating. l-Lactic acid and a bacteriocin-like inhibitory substance (BLIS) were detected and quantified from cell-free fermentates obtained from LAB-inoculated liquid microbiological medium. Application of 8.0 log10 CFU/g LAB produced significant (p

Commercial almond pasteurization often involves thermal treatments to control Salmonella, and evaluation of non-thermal technologies such as irradiation, is warranted. Direct and indirect effects of irradiation affect pathogens by causing cellular DNA breakdown and further damage via free radicals by hydrolysis of water molecules. The presence of oxygen may participate in the secondary effects, promoting the generation of radicals that intensify the antimicrobial effect of irradiation. In this study, the sensitivity of Salmonella on almonds to electron beam (e-beam) irradiation under air and vacuum packaging was investigated. Almonds inoculated with S. Typhimurium LT2 were air- or vacuum-packaged, and then subjected to e-beam irradiation at different doses. The D10 value (radiation dose needed to reduce 90% of the Salmonella population) on vacuum-packaged almonds (0.46 kGy) was significantly greater (P

The Maxim's Electron Scatter Chamber (Maxim Chamber) was developed to obtain uniform dose distribution when applying electron beam (e-beam) irradiation to materials of irregular surface. This was achieved by placing a stainless steel mesh surrounding a cylindrical area where the target sample was placed. Upon contact with the mesh, electrons scatter and are directed onto the target from multiple angles, eliminating the e-beam linearity and resulting in a uniform dose distribution over the target surface. The effect of irradiation in the Maxim Chamber on dose distribution and pathogen reduction was tested on rabbit carcasses to simulate other larger carcasses. The dose uniformity ratio (DUR) on the rabbit carcasses was 1.8, indicating an acceptable dose distribution. On inoculated carcasses, this treatment reduced Escherichia coli O157:H7 by > 5 log cycles. These results indicate that carcass irradiation using e-beam is feasible using the Maxim's electron scattering chamber. Appropriate adjustments will be further needed for commercial application on beef and other animal carcasses.

In the present study a comparison of the performance of five heuristic techniques for optimization of combinatorial problems is shown. The techniques are: Ant Colony System, Artificial Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms, Greedy Search and a hybrid of Path Relinking and Scatter Search. They were applied to obtain an “optimal” enrichment and gadolinia distribution in a fuel lattice of a boiling water reactor. All techniques used the same objective function for qualifying the different distributions created during the optimization process as well as the same initial conditions and restrictions. The parameters included in the objective function are the k -infinite multiplication factor, the maximum local power peaking factor, the average enrichment and the average gadolinia concentration of the lattice. The CASMO-4 code was used to obtain the neutronic parameters. The criteria for qualifying the optimization techniques include also the evaluation of the best lattice with burnup and the number of evaluations of the objective function needed to obtain the best solution. In conclusion all techniques obtain similar results, but there are methods that found better solutions faster than others. A decision analysis tool based on the Position Vector of Minimum Regret was applied to aggregate the criteria in order to rank the solutions according to three functions: neutronic grade at 0 burnup, neutronic grade with burnup and global cost which aggregates the computing time in the decision. According to the results Greedy Search found the best lattice in terms of the neutronic grade at 0 burnup and also with burnup. However, Greedy Search is unpredictable because its results are diverse and in average is the worst method in terms of the global cost which aggregates also the computing time to the final evaluation. Genetic Algorithms and Path Relinking coupled to Scatter Search have the best results in terms of global cost.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an improved multilayered antimicrobial alginate-based edible coating in increasing the shelf life of fresh-cut watermelon without affecting its quality attributes. A set of solutions containing sodium alginate (0.5, 1, 2 g/100 g), beta-cyclodextrin and microencapsulated trans-cinnamaldehyde (natural antimicrobial agent), pectin, and calcium lactate were used as coating systems and made into a coating using the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique. The samples were coated using the layer-by-layer dipping technique and stored at 4 °C for 15 days. Texture, color, weight loss, oBrix, pH, and growth of total coliforms, yeasts and molds, aerobics, and psychrotrophs were monitored every 3 days throughout storage. Controls were uncoated washed fruits. A consumer acceptance test showed high acceptance (P

Resumen Introduccion Segun la Organizacion Mundial de la Salud, las secuelas del intento de suicidio constituyen la sexta causa de mala salud y discapacidad en el mundo. Objetivo Establecer los grados de discapacidad y sus factores relacionados, en terminos de restricciones en la participacion y limitaciones en la actividad, en personas con intento de suicidio entre septiembre del 2009 y junio del 2010, atendidas en la Red Publica de Servicios de Salud de Santiago de Cali. Metodo Estudio observacional de corte transversal en 126 personas con intento de suicidio, con edades entre 15 y 65 anos. Se empleo la version en espanol de la Escala de Evaluacion de Discapacidad de la Organizacion Mundial de la Salud. Resultados Se calcularon 30 anos de vida ajustados en funcion de la discapacidad (AVAD), se estimo una prevalencia del 95,3% de discapacidad. El 4,6% de la muestra no presenta discapacidad; el 41,27%, discapacidad leve; el 38,1%, discapacidad moderada, y el 15,87%, discapacidad severa. Los factores relacionados con discapacidad fueron: edad, ocupacion, presencia de enfermedad mental, presencia de sintomas depresivos actuales, metodos fatales, consumo de medicamentos psiquiatricos, limitaciones en la actividad, restricciones en la participacion y no practica religiosa. Conclusiones La prevalencia de discapacidad en personas con intento de suicidio atendidas en la Red Publica de Servicios de Salud de Santiago de Cali fue del 95,3%. Los resultados son acordes con el estudio de carga mundial de enfermedad que establece una alta carga para trastornos mentales asociados a intento de suicidio. La presencia de una deficiencia posterior al intento de suicidio incrementa la carga de discapacidad.

Escherichia albertii is an emerging gram-negative facultative rod that has been implicated in multiple cases of human diarrheal disease, particularly in young children. When biochemical and other typing methods have been used, this organism has often been misidentified due to similarities with other members of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Isolates have been reported to be capable of producing attachment and effacement lesions via the synthesis of intimin, cytolethal distending toxin, and a variant form of Shiga toxin. The purposes of this study were to characterize the antibiotic resistance characteristics and the growth of individual strains of E. albertii on raw ground beef at different storage temperatures. Nalidixic acid-resistant strains of E. albertii were inoculated onto raw ground beef to a target of 4.0 log CFU/g, and samples were then aerobically incubated at 5, 22, or 35°C for various time periods prior to microbiological enumeration of the pathogen on lactose-free MacConkey agar containing 50 mg of nalidixic acid per liter and 0.5% L-rhamnose. Antibiotic resistance was determined using a broth microdilution assay. E. albertii did not grow at 5°C, with populations declining slowly over 14 days of refrigerated storage. Strains of the organism grew well under abusive storage, increasing by 2.5 to 3.1 log CFU/g and 4.1 to 4.3 log CFU/g after 24 h at 22 and 35°C, respectively. All strains were resistant to tetracycline but were sensitive to tested cephalosporins and chloramphenicol. Resistance to penicillin was observed, but susceptibility to other members of the b -lactam group, including ampicillin, amoxicillin, and clavulanic acid, was recorded. E. albertii represents an emerging pathogen with a probable foodborne transmission route. Future research should focus on verifying food process measures able to inactivate the pathogen.

Fuel reload pattern optimization is a crucial fuel management activity in nuclear power reactors. Along the years, a lot of work has been done in this area. In particular, several metaheuristic optimization techniques have been applied with good results for boiling water reactors (BWRs). In this paper, a comparison of different metaheuristics: genetic algorithms, tabu search, recurrent neural networks and several ant colony optimization techniques, were applied, in order to evaluate their performance. The optimization of an equilibrium core of a BWR, loaded with mixed oxide fuel composed of plutonium and minor actinides, was selected to be optimized. Results show that the best average values are obtained with the recurrent neural networks technique, meanwhile the best fuel reload was obtained with tabu search. However, according to the number of objective functions evaluated, the two fastest optimization techniques are tabu search and Ant System.