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Hiatal hernia is a frequent pathology in the population; however, the most frequent hiatal hernia is type I, which accounts for up to 95% incidence, types II, III, and IV being less frequent and representing between 5% and 15%, and even less common are giant hernias. The definition of the giant hernia is still not exact in the literature; some authors define giant or massive hiatal hernia as one in which the hernia occupies more than 30% of the stomach and/or passes from other abdominal structures to the thorax. We describe the case of a patient with gastrointestinal symptomology without response to a proton pump inhibitor, with base exacerbation that required imaging studies, showing a large hernia defect passing to the thorax from abdominal organs (stomach, spleen, mesenteric fat), as well as alteration of the gastric and spleen axis with ascent in pancreatic body and tail, which corresponds to a giant hiatal hernia. Said pathology is very infrequent, with recurrences and postoperative complications. Our patient recovered from the surgical procedure with therapeutic success.

Abstract Wetlands represent key ecosystems due to their remarkable biodiversity, ecological functions and multiple ecosystem services provided. In Colombia, there are 31,702 wetlands, 13 of which are in Bogotá, capital of the country. Despite the fundamental socioecological support of these aquatic ecosystems, a tremendous loss and degradation of these ecosystems has been observed due to anthropogenic perturbations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the status of seven Bogotá wetlands with variable anthropogenic interventions by measuring organoleptic, physicochemical, and microbiological parameters, using commercial kits, highly sensitive equipment, and next-generation sequencing of the 16S- and 18S-rRNA genes. Our findings describe the status of seven wetlands with different anthropogenic burden in Bogotá-Colombia where physicochemical and microbiology signals of contamination were observed. Additionally, some profiles in the composition of the microbial communities, together with certain physicochemical characteristics, may represent an insight into the environmental dynamics, where Beta Proteobacteria such as Malikia represent a potential keystone in aquatic ecosystems impacted by wastewater effluent discharges; the presence of nitrates and phosphates explain the abundance of bacteria capable of oxidizing these compounds, such as Polynucleobacter. Moreover, the presence of specific prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, such as Clostridium, Cryptococcus, Candida, and Naegleria, reported in one or more of the wetlands assessed here, could represent a possible pathogenic risk for human and animal health. This study performed a complete evaluation of seven Bogotá wetlands with different anthropogenic impacts for the first time, and our findings emphasize the importance of maintaining continuous monitoring of these water bodies given their remarkable ecological importance and potential spill-over of several pathogens to humans and animals.

BackgroundChagas disease, affecting approximately eight million individuals in tropical regions, is primarily transmitted by vectors. Rhodnius prolixus, a triatomine vector, commonly inhabits in ecotopes with diverse palm tree species, creating optimal conditions for vector proliferation. This study aims to explore the transmission ecology of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative parasite of Chagas disease, by investigating the feeding patterns and natural infection rates of R. prolixus specimens collected from various wild palm species in the Colombian Orinoco region.Materials and methodsTo achieve this objective, we sampled 35 individuals from three palm species (Attalea butyracea, Acrocomia aculeata, and Mauritia flexuosa) in a riparian forest in the Casanare department of eastern Colombia, totaling 105 sampled palm trees. DNA was extracted and analyzed from 115 R. prolixus specimens at different developmental stages using quantitative PCR (qPCR) for T. cruzi detection and identification of discrete typing units. Feeding preferences were determined by sequencing the 12S rRNA gene amplicon through next-generation sequencing.ResultsA total of 676 R. prolixus specimens were collected from the sampled palms. The study revealed variation in population densities and developmental stages of R. prolixus among palm tree species, with higher densities observed in A. butyracea and lower densities in M. flexuosa. TcI was the exclusive T. cruzi discrete typing unit (DTU) found, with infection frequency positively correlated with R. prolixus abundance. Insects captured in A. butyracea exhibited higher abundance and infection rates than those from other palm species. The feeding sources comprised 13 mammal species, showing no significant differences between palm species in terms of blood sources. However, Didelphis marsupialis and Homo sapiens were present in all examined R. prolixus, and Dasypus novemcinctus was found in 89.47% of the insects.ConclusionThis study highlights the significance of wild palms, particularly A. butyracea, as a substantial risk factor for T. cruzi transmission to humans in these environments. High population densities and infection rates of R. prolixus were observed in each examined palm tree species.

Las articulaciones de la cadera pueden resultar dañadas por causas metabólicas (enfermedad degenerativa) o mecánicas (fractura), limitando su funcionalidad. Para restablecer el movimiento de la articulación, esta debe ser sustituida por una prótesis de cadera. En las articulaciones se producen fenómenos de lubricación, fricción y desgaste que, a su vez, suelen ser responsables del fallo de la prótesis, provocando su aflojamiento. Por tal motivo, el objetivo del presente estudio consistió en evaluar el comportamiento biotribológico de un prototipo de prótesis de cadera de Ti6Al4V manufacturado mediante fabricación aditiva por haz de electrones (EBM) y posteriormente modificado superficialmente mediante anodizado. Una vez obtenido el prototipo, se pulieron algunas muestras para realizar ensayos biotribológicos y otras para anodizarlas. Las pruebas biotribológicas se realizaron en un tribómetro de esfera sobre disco utilizando contracuerpos de alúmina de 6 mm de diámetro, empleando una carga de 5 N y velocidades de 30, 50 y 70 rpm. Se obtuvieron huellas de desgaste de 2 mm de diámetro, utilizando como medio un fluido corporal simulado (SBF) a una temperatura de 37 °C. El proceso EBM incrementó la dureza de la aleación Ti6Al4V respecto al proceso de forja convencional. Las muestras fabricadas por EBM, y posteriormente anodizadas, revelaron los valores más altos de coeficientes de fricción, mientras que las muestras fabricadas por forja y EBM indicaron coeficientes de fricción similares para todas las velocidades estudiadas. Adicionalmente, las muestras fabricadas por EBM, y después anodizadas, señalaron la menor tasa de desgaste, seguidas por las muestras fabricadas por EBM, mientras que las muestras fabricadas por forja evidenciaron la mayor tasa de desgaste. Igualmente, se encontró abrasión como principal mecanismo de desgaste en todas las condiciones evaluadas en las pruebas biotribológicas. Con la velocidad de 30 rpm se obtuvieron las menores tasas de desgaste para la aleación de Ti6Al4V con los diferentes procesos de fabricación; con esta misma velocidad se obtuvieron las mayores tasas de desgaste de los contracuerpos de todos los pares biotribológicos.

Recent empirical evidence suggests that essentialist beliefs about social groups are often associated with prejudice and discrimination against them. This relation is moderated by social status and beliefs about system stability. This study aimed at: first, evaluating the factorial structure of beliefs about sexual orientation. Second, evaluating the effect of beliefs in system stability and the use of essentialist arguments within a normative social category (heterosexuals) and a non-normative one (homosexuals) in a community sample in Colombia. To test this relationship we created a multifactorial design of 3 (belief in system stability: imminent change, stability and control) x 2 (sexual orientation), introducing essentialist beliefs about sexual orientation as a dependent variable. Findings suggest that beliefs about sexual orientation load on two essentialist dimensions: immutability and fundamentality. Also, findings suggest that beliefs in the immutability of sexual orientation are unrelated, whereas the beliefs about the fundamentality of sexual orientation significantly relate to prejudice and discrimination among heterosexual but not among homosexual people. The implications of these findings are discussed.

El propósito de este artículo es presentar las conclusiones resultantes del análisis realizado bajo los conceptos teórico-prácticos del modelo de seguridad ciudadana de los Hot Spots a los niveles de delincuencia de Bogotá durante el periodo de la Alcaldía de Samuel Moreno (2009-2011). Las zonas de estudio fueron la Avenida 19 y la Zona Rosa (Chicó-El Lago); su análisis permitió dar cuenta de que la desconexión institucional de las entidades distritales, el poco alcance de los estudios académicos para la implementación de políticas públicas y la pérdida de importancia del microterritorio como receptor principal de la intervención policial y de las estrategias de seguridad ciudadana evitaron que el modelo de los Hot Spots redujera los niveles de delincuencia en la ciudad.

Abstract Background The emergence of highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to surges in cases and the need for global genomic surveillance. While some variants rapidly spread worldwide, other variants only persist nationally. There is a need for more fine-scale analysis to understand transmission dynamics at a country scale. For instance, the Mu variant of interest, also known as lineage B.1.621, was first detected in Colombia and was responsible for a large local wave but only a few sporadic cases elsewhere. Methods To better understand the epidemiology of SARS-Cov-2 variants in Colombia, we used 14,049 complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes from the 32 states of Colombia. We performed Bayesian phylodynamic analyses to estimate the time of variants’ introduction, their respective effective reproductive number, and effective population size, and the impact of disease control measures. Results Here, we detect a total of 188 SARS-CoV-2 Pango lineages circulating in Colombia since the pandemic’s start. We show that the effective reproduction number oscillated drastically throughout the first two years of the pandemic, with Mu showing the highest transmissibility (Re and growth rate estimation). Conclusions Our results reinforce that genomic surveillance programs are essential for countries to make evidence-driven interventions toward the emergence and circulation of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants.

IntroductionInfants exposed to opioids in utero are at high risk of exhibiting Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS), a combination of somatic withdrawal symptoms including high pitched crying, sleeplessness, irritability, gastrointestinal distress, and in the worst cases, seizures. The heterogeneity of in utero opioid exposure, particularly exposure to polypharmacy, makes it difficult to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms that could inform early diagnosis and treatment of NOWS, and challenging to investigate consequences later in life.MethodsTo address these issues, we developed a mouse model of NOWS that includes gestational and post-natal morphine exposure that encompasses the developmental equivalent of all three human trimesters and assessed both behavior and transcriptome alterations.ResultsOpioid exposure throughout all three human equivalent trimesters delayed developmental milestones and produced acute withdrawal phenotypes in mice reminiscent of those observed in infants. We also uncovered different patterns of gene expression depending on the duration and timing of opioid exposure (3-trimesters, in utero only, or the last trimester equivalent only). Opioid exposure and subsequent withdrawal affected social behavior and sleep in adulthood in a sex-dependent manner but did not affect adult behaviors related to anxiety, depression, or opioid response.DiscussionDespite marked withdrawal and delays in development, long-term deficits in behaviors typically associated with substance use disorders were modest. Remarkably, transcriptomic analysis revealed an enrichment for genes with altered expression in published datasets for Autism Spectrum Disorders, which correlate well with the deficits in social affiliation seen in our model. The number of differentially expressed genes between the NOWS and saline groups varied markedly based on exposure protocol and sex, but common pathways included synapse development, the GABAergic and myelin systems, and mitochondrial function.

ABSTRACT Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants are characterized by differences in transmissibility and response to therapeutics. Therefore, discriminating among them is vital for surveillance, infection prevention, and patient care. While whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is the “gold standard” for variant identification, molecular variant panels have become increasingly available. Most, however, are based on limited targets and have not undergone comprehensive evaluation. We assessed the diagnostic performance of the highly multiplexed Agena MassARRAY SARS-CoV-2 Variant Panel v3 to identify variants in a diverse set of 391 SARS-CoV-2 clinical RNA specimens collected across our health systems in New York City, USA and Bogotá, Colombia (September 2, 2020 to March 2, 2022). We demonstrated almost perfect levels of interrater agreement between this assay and WGS for 9 of 11 variant calls (κ ≥ 0.856) and 25 of 30 targets (κ ≥ 0.820) tested on the panel. The assay had a high diagnostic sensitivity (≥93.67%) for contemporary variants (e.g., Iota, Alpha, Delta, and Omicron [BA.1 sublineage]) and a high diagnostic specificity for all 11 variants (≥96.15%) and all 30 targets (≥94.34%) tested. Moreover, we highlighted distinct target patterns that could be utilized to identify variants not yet defined on the panel, including the Omicron BA.2 and other sublineages. These findings exemplified the power of highly multiplexed diagnostic panels to accurately call variants and the potential for target result signatures to elucidate new ones. IMPORTANCE The continued circulation of SARS-CoV-2 amid limited surveillance efforts and inconsistent vaccination of populations has resulted in the emergence of variants that uniquely impact public health systems. Thus, in conjunction with functional and clinical studies, continuous detection and identification are quintessential to informing diagnostic and public health measures. Furthermore, until WGS becomes more accessible in the clinical microbiology laboratory, the ideal assay for identifying variants must be robust, provide high resolution, and be adaptable to the evolving nature of viruses like SARS-CoV-2. Here, we highlighted the diagnostic capabilities of a highly multiplexed commercial assay to identify diverse SARS-CoV-2 lineages that circulated from September 2, 2020 to March 2, 2022 among patients seeking care in our health systems. This assay demonstrated variant-specific signatures of nucleotide/amino acid polymorphisms and underscored its utility for the detection of contemporary and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teacher candidates must have a working knowledge of English linguistics in order to support their students’ language development. This article reports on TESOL teacher candidates’ reflective practice to highlight how interaction with non-native speakers can develop awareness of linguistic features of the English language through virtual exchange. Sixteen teacher candidates from a university in the United States were paired with 22 undergraduate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners from a university in Mexico. The teacher candidates completed journal entries in which they analyzed authentic language produced by their EFL partners during their virtual meetings. Teacher candidates were taking a course that covered topics related to pragmatics, semantics, morphology, phonology and syntax. Each teacher candidate submitted a final error analysis of recorded conversations to determine how many linguistic errors were made by their partners. This study describes the errors the teacher candidates were able to identify in order to explore the benefits of this reflective activity on their understanding of linguistics. This study confirms the need to utilize virtual exchange in teacher preparation programs and subsequent self-reflection in order to give teacher candidates a way to put linguistic content area into practice.

Studies that use rivers in a last-mile delivery context are scarce. This research considers the first multimodal alternative based on a barge for parcel delivery activities. It proposes two sustainable network designs for a two-echelon distribution. The efficiency of scenarios is assessed through performance indicators. A three-stage decomposition heuristic is used. Allocation of the customers to the closest satellite at the first stage uses a non-supervised machine learning clustering method, 2D-k-means. The last two stages, comprising the two echelons routing, are solved using a heuristic based on the nearest neighbor procedure. The fixed costs decrease by 41% and energy consumption by 92% when applying a river transportation mode and e-cargo bikes in the distribution network’s first and second echelon, respectively. Future research avenues are to render the results more realistic with the consideration of other costs and a larger network.

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Little is known of how hurricane-induced deposition of canopy material onto tropical forest floors influences the soil microbial communities involved in decomposition of these materials. In this study, to identify how soil bacterial and fungal communities might change after a hurricane, and their possible roles in the C and N cycles, soils were collected from five 2000 m2 permanent plots in Lowland, Upland and Riparian primary forests in Costa Rica 3 months before and 7 months after Hurricane Otto damaged the forests. The soil Water, inorganic N and Biomass C increased and total organic C decreased Post-Hurricane, all of which best predicted the changes in the Post-Hurricane soil microbial communities. Post-Hurricane soils from all forest types showed significant changes in community composition of total bacteria, total fungi, and five functional groups of microbes (i.e., degrading/lignin degrading, NH4+-producing, and ammonium oxidizing bacteria, and the complex C degrading/wood rot/lignin degrading and ectomycorrhizal fungi), along with a decrease in richness in genera of all groups. As well, the mean proportion of DNA sequences (MPS) of all five functional groups increased. There were also significant changes in the MPS values of 7 different fungal and 7 different bacterial genera that were part of these functional groups. This is the first evidence that hurricane-induced deposition of canopy material is stimulating changes in the soil microbial communities after the hurricane, involving changes in specific taxonomic and functional group genera, and reduction in the community richness while selecting for dominant genera possibly better suited to process the canopy material. These changes may represent examples of taxonomic switching of functionally redundant microbial genera in response to dramatic changes in resource input. It is possible that differences in these microbial communities and genera may serve as indicators of disturbed and recovering regional soil ecosystems, and should be evaluated in the future.

Introducing the topic of abdominal wall metastasis secondary to prostate cancer with a reminder of the disease's rarity, being the first published case. This article is about a 66 year old patient diagnosed with prostate cancer [cT2aNxMx iPSA: 5,6 ng/ml Gleason 3+3, (Grade 1 Group)], treated with radical prostatectomy as well as accompanied with amplified pelvic lymphadenectomy, who subsequently presented metastatic lesions to the abdominal wall diagnosed with PET/CT Gallium 68-PMSA technique and treated with abdominal metastasectomy with adequate short term results.