Roberto Dorta-Guerra

IntroductionDiarrheal disease is a major cause of infant mortality and morbidity in Africa and results primarily from contaminated food and water sources, but its prevalence predictors in Cape Verde are not completely known. For this reason, this study aimed to identify the etiological agents of diarrhea in Cape Verdean children and assess its associated risk factors.MethodsA survey questionnaire was used, and a total of 105 stool samples from children with diarrhea aged 0–12 years at the Central Hospital of Praia (Santiago, Cape Verde) were analyzed. The analyses were carried out using Biofire FilmArray Gastrointestinal Panels. Possible risk factors for these pathogens were analyzed using logistic regression, chi-square tests, or Fisher’s exact test.ResultsAmong the bacteria, enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (45.71%; 95% CI: 36.71–56.70), enteropathogenic E. coli (40%; 95% CI: 30.56–50.02), Shigella/enteroinvasive E. coli (29.52%; 95% CI: 21.02–39.22), E. coli enterotoxigenic (12...

The study aimed to perform the molecular identification of Anisakis larvae in commercial fish from the coast of the Canary Islands and to provide data on their infection level for the host and the species of this nematode parasite that we could find in several species of commercial interest in the Canary Archipelago. Fish specimens (n = 172) from the Canary coasts were examined for parasites. In total, 495 larvae were identified; PCR was carried out for the entire ITS rDNA and cox2 mtDNA region, obtaining sixteen sequences for the entire ITS rDNA region and fifteen for the cox2 mtDNA, this being the first contribution of nucleotide sequences of Anisakis species of fish caught from the Canary Islands. An overall prevalence of 25% was obtained in the fish analyzed, and five species of Anisakis were identified, these being Anisakis simplex (s.s.), Anisakis pegreffii, Anisakis physeteris, Anisakis nascettii and Anisakis typica and the hybrid Anisakis simplex x Anisakis pegreffii. The re...

The transactive response DNA-binding protein (TARDBP/TDP-43) influences the processing of diverse transcripts, including that of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6). Here, we assessed TDP-43 activity in terms of regulating CD4+ T-cell permissivity to HIV-1 infection. We observed that overexpression of wt-TDP-43 increased both mRNA and protein levels of HDAC6, resulting in impaired HIV-1 infection independently of the viral envelope glycoprotein complex (Env) tropism. Consistently, using an HIV-1 Env-mediated cell-to-cell fusion model, the overexpression of TDP-43 levels negatively affected viral Env fusion capacity. Silencing of endogenous TDP-43 significantly decreased HDAC6 levels and increased the fusogenic and infection activities of the HIV-1 Env. Using pseudovirus bearing primary viral Envs from HIV-1 individuals, overexpression of wt-TDP-43 strongly reduced the infection activity of Envs from viremic non-progressors (VNP) and rapid progressors (RP) patients down to the levels of th...

Each pair of FASTQ files corresponds to a specific sample condition: Condition Sample FASTQ name R1 FASTQ name R2 TDP-43 siRNA D RNASEQ-AVF9 RNASEQ-AVF9_S1_R1_001.fastq.gz RNASEQ-AVF9_S1_R2_001.fastq.gz Cneg RNASEQ-AVF10 RNASEQ-AVF10_S2_R1_001.fastq.gz RNASEQ-AVF10_S2_R2_001.fastq.gz Flag-wt-TDP-43 RNASEQ-AVF11 RNASEQ-AVF11_S3_R1_001.fastq.gz RNASEQ-AVF11_S3_R2_001.fastq.gz Flag-NLS-mut-TDP-43 RNASEQ-AVF12 RNASEQ-AVF12_S4_R1_001.fastq.gz RNASEQ-AVF12_S4_R2_001.fastq.gz Cneg RNASEQ-AVF13 RNASEQ-AVF13_S5_R1_001.fastq.gz RNASEQ-AVF13_S5_R2_001.fastq.gz Scramble RNASEQ-AVF14 RNASEQ-AVF14_S6_R1_001.fastq.gz RNASEQ-AVF14_S6_R2_001.fastq.gz Oligos B+C RNASEQ-AVF15 RNASEQ-AVF15_S7_R1_001.fastq.gz RNASEQ-AVF15_S7_R2_001.fastq.gz Oligos A+B+C RNASEQ-AVF16 RNASEQ-AVF16_S8_R1_001.fastq.gz RNASEQ-AVF16_S8_R2_001.fastq.gz

The transactive response DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) is an important regulator of mRNA, being reported to stabilize the anti-HIV factor, histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6). However, little is known about the role of TDP-43 in HIV infection. In this work, we seek for the TDP-43 function on regulating CD4+ T cell permissibility to HIV infection. We observed that over-expression of wt-TDP-43 in CD4+ T cells stabilized HDAC6, increasing mRNA and the protein levels of this antiviral enzyme. Under this experimental condition, HIV-1 infection was impaired, independently of the viral envelope glycoprotein (Env) complex tropism. The results obtained by using an HIV-1 Env-mediated cell-to-cell fusion model, under the same experimental conditions, suggest that the increase in TDP-43 levels negatively affects the viral Env fusion capacity. Moreover, the specific siRNA silencing of endogenous TDP-43 in target cells lead to a significant decrease in the levels of HDAC6 which consistently induces an i...

D-optimal experiments for binary response data have been extensively studied in recent years. On the other hand two-level fractional factorials are often used as screening designs at the preliminary stage of an investigation when the outcome is continuous. We explore the performance of the one-half two-level experiments for a logistic model with three factors, and show that the conventional wisdom

... González-Dávila a * , Josep Ginebra b & Roberto Dorta-Guerra a pages 357-367. ... Analysis of factorial experiments with defects and defectives as the responses. Quality Eng , 7: 429–443. [Taylor & Francis Online] View all references advocate for arcsin as the test statistic. ...

Information in a statistical experiment is often measured through the determinant of its information matrix. Under first order normal linear models, the determinant of the information matrix of a two-level factorial experiment neither depends on where the experiment is ...

In multiperiod control one sequentially chooses the value of an input variable to keep an output variable close to a target value. At any stage the input variable has to be such that the output is close to target while at the same time it provides as much information as possible about the model that relates input and output, to help keep the output close to target in the future. Certainty equivalence policies set the input variable at the value under which the output is estimated to be equal to target. Three alternative approaches that improve on certainty equivalence by searching for the best policy among families of policies that embed them are proposed, and their use is exemplified both on static as well as on time-varying dynamic models. Two approaches observe on credible regions for the root, while the third one is an adaptation of stochastic approximation sequences.

ABSTRACT T-optimum designs to discriminate between the Arrhenius and modified-Arrhenius equations are obtained.•An efficient numerical method to construct a good design to discriminate between models is provided.•The new procedure is based on the multiplicative algorithm.•For the new algorithm, the total amount of space required is invariant on each step.•Through different examples, the fast convergence of the new procedure has been proven.

ABSTRACT T-optimum designs to discriminate between the Arrhenius and modified-Arrhenius equations are obtained.•An efficient numerical method to construct a good design to discriminate between models is provided.•The new procedure is based on the multiplicative algorithm.•For the new algorithm, the total amount of space required is invariant on each step.•Through different examples, the fast convergence of the new procedure has been proven.

Copyright © 2013 Rafael Zárate et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Fatty acids are of great nutritional, therapeutic, and physiological importance, especially the polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids, possessing larger carbon chains and abundant double bonds or their immediate precursors. A few higher plant species are able to accumulate these compounds, like those belonging to the Echium genus. Here, the novel E. acanthocarpum hairy root system, which is able to accumulatemany fatty acids, including stearidonic and

Trade credit is a crucial source of capital particularly for small businesses with limited financing opportunities. Inventory models considering trade credit financing have been widely studied. However, while there is extensive research on the single-vendor single-buyer inventory model allowing delays in payments, the systems where the vendor supplies to more than one buyer have received less attention. In this paper, we analyze a two-echelon inventory system where a single vendor supplies an item to two buyers who face a constant deterministic demand. The vendor produces the items at a finite rate and offers the buyers a delay payment period. That is, the buyers can delay the payment for the purchased items until the end of the credit period. Therefore, during such a period, the buyers sell the items and use the sales revenue to earn interest. At the end of the credit period, the buyers should pay the purchasing cost to the vendor for which external funding may be necessary. It is ...

En los ´ultimos a�nos se han estudiado de forma creciente los dise�nos D-´optimos para modelos lineales generalizados y concretamente para los modelos de conteo o Poisson. En este trabajo se estudian los dise�nos factoriales D-´optimos aplicados a estos modelos, por su importancia dentro del campo del dise�no de experimentos. La dificultad de dichos dise�nos, en modelos de Poisson, es su dependencia con los par´ametros del modelo. En este trabajo se consideran dise�nos localmente D-´optimos para solventar dicho problema. Se estudian los dise�nos factoriales D-´optimos para un modelo de Poisson de segundo orden y un factor y el modelo de dos factores con interacci´on. Se comparan los dise�nos obtenidos con los dise�nos D-´optimos, estudiando su D-eficiencia as´ý como las ventajas y desventajas que presentan en el contexto de los problemas de toxicidad.

espanolLa Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de La Laguna lanzo, en el curso 2016/17, un Plan de deteccion y atencion de deficiencias formativas en Biologia, Fisica, Geologia, Matematicas y Quimica para el alumnado de nuevo ingreso en el centro. Esta iniciativa estuvo motivada por la constatacion de que entre las diversas variables que condicionan el rendimiento academico en la universidad, la que muestra una correlacion mas significativa es la del rendimiento en la fase preuniversitaria. En este trabajo se hace un diagnostico de la situacion en la que se encuentra el alumnado de nuevo ingreso de la Facultad de Ciencias (Grados en Biologia, Ciencias Ambientales, Fisica, Matematicas y Quimica) y de la efectividad de algunas de las medidas que tradicionalmente se han venido desarrollando para paliar los deficits formativos detectados, y se propone un modelo estadistico predictivo del rendimiento del alumnado en el primer cuatrimestre de universidad en funcion de su rendimiento pre...

Transcriptional analysis of complex biological scenarios has been used extensively, even though sometimes the results of such analysis may prove imprecise or difficult to interpret due to an overwhelming amount of information. In this study, a large-scale real-time qPCR experiment was coupled to multivariate statistical analysis in order to describe the main immunological events underlying the early L. infantum infection in livers of BALB/c mice. High-throughput qPCR was used to evaluate the expression of 223 genes related to immunological response and metabolism 1, 3, 5, and 10 days post infection. This integrative analysis showed strikingly different gene signatures at 1 and 10 days post infection, revealing the progression of infection in the experimental model based on the upregulation of particular immunological response patterns and mediators. The gene signature 1 day post infection was not only characterized by the upregulation of mediators involved in interferon signaling an...

Objectives: Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the same dataset, we investigated in more detail the regional differences in GMV associated with the practice of SYM, with a different statistical approach. Design: Twenty-three experienced practitioners of SYM and 23 healthy non-meditators matched on age, gender and education level, were scanned using structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Their GMV were extracted and compared using Voxel-Based Morphometry. Using a novel ad-hoc GLM model, statistical comparisons were made to observe if the GMV differences between meditators and controls were statistically significant. Results: In the 16 lobe area subdiv...

Background: Acute respiratory infections are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in children under 5 years in developing countries and are a challenge for the health system of these countries. In Cabo Verde, despite the lack of recent studies, data indicate that it affects thousands of children, being the fourth leading cause of infant mortality in 2013. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the etiological agents associated with acute respiratory tract infections in children under 5 years old, and their associated risk factors, such as clinical symptoms or socio-demographic characteristics.Methods: Naso-pharyngeal samples were collected from children under 5 years attending at Dr. Agostinho Neto Hospital (Praia, Santiago Island, Cabo Verde) with suspected ARI at different time-points during 2019. Samples were analyzed using FilmArray® Respiratory Panel v. 2.0 Plus to identify etiological agents of ARI. A questionnaire with socio-demographic information w...

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is an emerging zoonotic nematode recognized as the leading cause of eosinophilic meningitis in the word. After its discovery in China, it was recorded in 30 countries worldwide. Recently, it has expanded to new areas such as South America and it has been recently found in the Atlantic island of Tenerife (Canary Islands). In order to characterize the distribution of A. cantonensis in the Canary Islands, the lungs of 1462 rodents were sampled in eight islands of the archipelago over 13 years and were then analyzed for A. cantonensis. Remarkably, the parasite was detected only in Tenerife, in Rattus rattus (19.7%) and Rattus norvegicus (7.14%). They were concretely in the northern part of the island, which had a warmer and more humid climate than the south and main cities. The absence of this nematode in other islands with similar environmental conditions could be explained by an isolation effect or by a recent introduction of the parasite in the islands. Be...

Objectives Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the same dataset, we investigated in more detail the regional differences in GMV associated with the practice of SYM, with a different statistical approach. Design Twenty-three experienced practitioners of SYM and 23 healthy non-meditators matched on age, sex and education level, were scanned using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Their GMV were extracted and compared using Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM). Using a novel ad-hoc general linear model, statistical comparisons were made to observe if the GMV differences between meditators and controls were statistically significant. Results In the 16...

ABSTRACTTranscriptional analysis of complex biological scenarios has been extensively used, even though sometimes results may prove imprecise or difficult-to interpret due to an overwhelming amount of information. In this study, a large-scale Real-time qPCR experiment was coupled to multivariate statistical analysis to describe the main immunological events underlying the early L. infantum infection in livers of BALB/c mice. High-throughput qPCR was used to evaluate the expression of 223 genes related to immunometabolism 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-days post infection. This integrative analysis showed strikingly different gene signatures at 1- and 10-days post infection, revealing progression of infection in the experimental model based on the upregulation of particular immunological response patterns and mediators. This approach addresses the challenge of integrating large collections of transcriptional data for the identification of candidate biomarkers in experimental models.

Maternal obesity is known to affect human milk composition. Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) are vital nutrients to the nervous system development and precursors of eicosanoids related to obesity (prostaglandin E-PGE-and leukotriene E-LTE). The aim of the present research was to study the lipid profiles, with particular emphasis to LCPUFAs, and the concentrations of eicosanoids PGE and LTE, involved in adipose tissue development, in human milk from overweight mothers compared with normal weight mothers. Study including 46 overweight and 86 normal weight breastfeeding volunteers was carried out. Fatty acids and eicosanoids (PGE and LTE) were analyzed in mature human milk. Fatty acids quantification was determined by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. PGE and LTE were measured by immununoassay. Human milk of overweight mothers had lower contents of n-3 LCPUFA, including eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3, EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3, DHA) and higher levels...

ABSTRACT Species relative importance distribution pattern changes of the ground-beetle assemblages were analyzed along elevation strata of Tenerife Island. The species importance estimates were expressed in terms of (i) activity density, as total catching of ground-beetle adults obtained with pitfall traps over each elevation stratum for one year, and (ii) biomass, as the total number of specimens caught multiplied by a mean dry weight in milligrams for the species. The K-dominance curves indicated moderate or insignificant perturbances, and patterns were sigmoidal following a truncated log-normal slightly skewed to the right, by using the Kolmogoroff-Smirnov test. The results also showed perceptible deviations from the truncated log-normal pattern (p < 0.05) mainly with biomass data. The disturbance through successional progress and perturbances by environmental warming and cooling could be assumed by deviations from the log-normal distribution among species. Thus, assuming that the assemblages of strata exhibited generally low similarity, the results will be arranged around the following four tracks: (1) the assemblage progressed toward highest abundances, dominance and a low-diversity equilibrium state in the cloud montane stratum, (2) the assemblage was subject to severe warming and dryness, lowest abundances with dominance in biomass, such that log-normal pattern was not shown in the basal stratum, (3) a non-equilibrium state in summer-xeric montane stratum maintained the highest diversity and an archetypical log-normal pattern was described for assemblage, and (4) assemblage stressed by cold semi-arid climate showed a certain tendency to log-normality and decrease in the diversity for the summit stratum. These results indicate that variation in ground-beetle assemblages by way of advanced evolutionary and adaptive trade-offs can best be understood as consequences of selective pressures by adverse climatic changes - perturbances - or seasonal climatic fluctuations and population dynamics - disturbances - according to the elevation stratum, which can generate different deviations from the log-normal pattern; these are more directly related to magnitude and frequency of local natural disturbance regimes and the productivity of the ecosystem.

RESUMEN Contrario al esquema tradicional del tamaño muestral fijo cuando se usan experimentos factoriales fraccionales a dos niveles con respuesta binaria (defectuoso / no-defectuoso) se considera que cada combinación factorial es muestreada hasta que un número fijo de unidades defectuosas es observada, usando como respuesta el número total de unidades hasta que eso ocurre. Se proporciona un método del cálculo de tamaño muestral siguiendo un esquema similar al propuesto por Bisgaard y Gertsbakh, y basado en transformaciones estabilizantes de la varianza en el que se tiene en cuenta la falta de linealidad de dichas transformaciones cuando la fracción defectuosa es relativamente pequeña.

ABSTRACT RESUMEN Se discute el problema de la estimación del tamaño muestral requerido para detectar cambios específicos cuando se utilizan experimentos factoriales fraccionales a dos niveles y el número de unidades defectuosas como respuesta, siguiendo una estructura similar a la propuesta de Bisgaard y Fuller. El problema es reformulado en términos de la determinación del tamaño muestral para contrastar la media de una población aproximadamente normal y usando la solución clásica para ese problema. También se compara con otro método basado en el estadístico de la devianza con signo.