Nonsurgical correction of nasal deformity in unilateral complete cleft lip: a 6-year follow-up.

Nasal deformity in unilateral cleft lip and palate patients increases with time, tongue malposition being one of the causes. Some authors have emphasized the role of nasal and adjacent facial musculature as active extrinsic agents. Another cause of alar deformity can be the lack of a proper foundation because of a maxillary hypoplasia in the region of the pyriform foramen. If alar collapse occurs, the septum bends convexly toward the cleft side. Tissues are soft and plastic during the neonatal period. Once the infant is about 3 months of age, it becomes difficult to correct the nasal deformity. Therefore, any resource used from the first day, and mainly during the first 15 days of life, will be useful to prevent the increasing deformity and to avoid the surgical correction. A controlled clinical trial was planned to compare the anthropometric measurements of the nasal region in two series of patients with unilateral complete cleft lip. In the first group, we included 44 patients who came to our clinic during the first 2 days of life and the second group consisted of 47 patients who were more than 15 days of age at the time of the first consultation. To provide control data for the evaluation of the results after 6 years of follow-up in both series of cleft patients, we also included a third group of 48 healthy 6-year-old children. A nasal component added to the occlusal prostheses was only used in the first group up to the time of surgery. The same surgeon performed a Millard II procedure with muscular reposition as described by Delaire in all the patients. Nasal measurements taken with a caliper, obtained directly from plaster models by using surface impressions of the babies, were confirmed by a laser three-dimensional measuring device. The statistical comparison between both series showed a significant increase of the columellar length in the first group. A 6-year follow-up to compare growth and cosmetic results of the nose revealed a better and permanent nasal nostril symmetry and no alar cartilage luxation in the patients who had had the nasal component. These results highlight the importance of the early treatment and allow us to suggest the nasal prostheses as a way to prevent the increasing nasal deformity, to help nasal remodeling, to obtain columellar elongation, and to avoid or decrease the need for primary surgery of the cleft nose.     

Synthesis of 4(3H)quinazolinimines with selective cytotoxic effect on human acute promyelocytic leukemia cells

We synthesized a new family of six 4(3H)quinazolinimines based on the reaction between (E)-N-(2-cyanophenyl)benzimidoyl chloride and substituted anilines reaching the formation of their corresponding C2, N3-substituted quinazoliniminium chlorides. This method provides novel, direct and flexible access to diverse substituted 4(3H)quinazolinimines.New compounds obtained following the proposed synthesis were fully characterized and, including the thirteen 4(3H)quinazolinimines synthesized by this method and previously reported by us, were used to study its cytotoxic effect on neoplastic cell lines. The mechanism involved in cell toxicity was also studied. Results showed that these compounds were highly cytotoxic, in particular on Human Promyelocytic Leukemia cells (HL60) and Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia cells (K562) when compared with conventional antineoplastic drugs such as etoposide and cisplatin. The mechanism associated to cytotoxic effect was mainly apoptosis, which not was decreased by antioxidant addition, thereby suggesting that the compounds exert apoptotic death through a mechanism unrelated with oxidative stress.     

Latitudinal and altitudinal patterns of plant community diversity on mountain summits across the tropical Andes

The high tropical Andes host one of the richest alpine floras of the world, with exceptionally high levels of endemism and turnover rates. Yet, little is known about the patterns and processes that structure altitudinal and latitudinal variation in plant community diversity. Herein we present the first continental‐scale comparative study of plant community diversity on summits of the tropical Andes. Data were obtained from 792 permanent vegetation plots (1 m²) within 50 summits, distributed along a 4200 km transect; summit elevations ranged between 3220 and 5498 m a.s.l. We analyzed the plant community data to assess: 1) differences in species abundance patterns in summits across the region, 2) the role of geographic distance in explaining floristic similarity and 3) the importance of altitudinal and latitudinal environmental gradients in explaining plant community composition and richness. On the basis of species abundance patterns, our summit communities were separated into two major groups: Puna and Páramo. Floristic similarity declined with increasing geographic distance between study‐sites, the correlation being stronger in the more insular Páramo than in the Puna (corresponding to higher species turnover rates within the Páramo). Ordination analysis (CCA) showed that precipitation, maximum temperature and rock cover were the strongest predictors of community similarity across all summits. Generalized linear model (GLM) quasi‐Poisson regression indicated that across all summits species richness increased with maximum air temperature and above‐ground necromass and decreased on summits where scree was the dominant substrate. Our results point to different environmental variables as key factors for explaining vertical and latitudinal species turnover and species richness patterns on high Andean summits, offering a powerful tool to detect contrasting latitudinal and altitudinal effects of climate change across the tropical Andes.     

Habitat selection,diet and food availability of European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria chicks in Swedish Lapland

Fennoscandian alpine tundra habitats support large numbers of breeding waders, but relatively little is known about their breeding ecology despite the fact that this habitat is threatened by climate change. We studied habitat selection, diet and prey availability of European (Eurasian) Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria chicks at the Vindelfjällen Nature Reserve, Ammarnäs, Sweden. Information from 22 chicks tracked using radio‐transmitters was analysed. By analysing 149 faecal samples, four main prey taxa were identified, Coleoptera (40%), Bibionidae (31%), Hymenoptera (13%) and Tipulidae (10%). We found that chicks switched from feeding on Tipulidae to feeding on Bibionidae as they grew, and that this switch coincided with a shift from the use of the habitat where Tipulidae were abundant (alpine meadow/heathland) to the use of the habitat were Bibionidae were abundant (Willow shrub). Although chicks track food availability to some extent, the link between prey availability and habitat use was not perfect, indicating that additional factors other than food abundance, such as shelter from predators, determine habitat selection. Bibionidae are an important prey for Golden Plover chicks as it is the only prey group that has a late summer flush in abundance, in contrast to the general decline of total arthropod biomass during the chick‐rearing period. However, Bibionidae imagoes only occurred in 2011 and were virtually absent in 2013, which relates to the species’ ecology with 2‐ to 5‐year cycles in mass occurrence. Extreme annual variation in an essential food source such as Bibionidae imagoes might have an important effect on the condition and survival of Golden Plover chicks, an important subject for future studies. The foraging conditions for Golden Plover chicks in Fennoscandia appear to be different to those in the UK, where the chicks rely mainly on a Tipulidae flush only.     

The effect of bioturbation by polychaetes (Opheliidae) on benthic foraminiferal assemblages and test preservation

Biological activity such as burrowing can alter benthic foraminiferal shell preservation and may also modify benthic foraminiferal assemblages by vertical mixing, inducing sediment homogenization. Here, we analyse benthic foraminiferal assemblages and taphonomy of upper Miocene marine deposits from Conil de la Frontera (Cádiz, south‐western Spain). The deposits consist of marls displaying a pervasive alternation of intensively bioturbated beds dominated by Macaronichnus segregatis traces (ichnofabric index 4–5) and non‐bioturbated beds. Benthic foraminiferal assemblages are dominated by Cibicidoides mundulus and Cibicides refulgens, indicating that the marls were deposited on an oligotrophic, well‐oxygenated upper slope. The impact of burrowing on the preservation of benthic foraminiferal tests was tested using Q‐mode cluster analysis, which found two well‐differentiated groups of samples, one including the non‐bioturbated beds and the other encompassing the bioturbated ones. Fragmentation and recrystallization account for the differentiation of these groups, both being higher in the bioturbated sediments. Aggressive chemical digestion by the Macaronichnus trace‐makers, assumed to be a polychaete worm of the family Opheliidae, etched the microfossil shells, making them more vulnerable to fragmentation. Intense bioturbation favoured the circulation of pore fluids, encouraging recrystallization. Pervasive burrowing resulted in significant vertical reworking of microfossils. As a consequence, benthic foraminiferal assemblages in the bioturbated beds were homogenized in the mixed layer; that is, the uppermost layer of the substrate totally burrowed. The alternation of bioturbated and non‐bioturbated beds reflects episodic transfer of food particles down slope from shallower parts of the shelf as well as from the continent due to storms under otherwise homogeneous oligotrophic marine conditions.     

Characterization of a neutral polysaccharide with antioxidant capacity from red wine

A neutral fraction (PS-SI) (0.3 g/L) with MW of 74 kDa, which contained galactose, arabinose, mannose, and glucose in the molar ratio of 1.0:0.6:0.4:0.2 was obtained by treatment of the whole polysaccharide extracted from red wine with cetrimide, followed by gel permeation chromatography. Spectroscopic and methylation analyses indicated that PS-SI is a mixture of neutral polysaccharides, consisting mainly of β (1→3)-linked galactopyranosyl residues, with side chains of galactopyranosyl residues at positions O-6. Arabinofuranosyl residues linked α (1→5), α-mannopyranosyl and glucosyl residues appear to be components of different polysaccharides. The in vitro antioxidant capacity of fractions of wine polysaccharide was studied by hydroxyl radical scavenging and ORAC assays. Fraction PS-SI presented the strongest effect on hydroxyl radicals (IC₅₀ = 0.21).