Biología

Weight gain is associated with reduced striatal response to palatable food.

Stice E, Yokum S, Blum K, Bohon C.

An Analysis of Arthropod Interceptions by APHIS-PPQ and Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico

DAVID A. JENKINS, RUSSELL F. MIZELL, III, SKIP VAN BLOEM, STEFANIE WHITMIRE, LEYINSKA WISCOVITCH, CRYSTAL ZALESKI, AND RICARDO GOENAGA

Stem cell therapies offer the potential to treat diseases or conditions for which few treatments exist.

Stem cells, sometimes called the body’s “master cells,” are the precursor cells that develop into blood, brain, bones and all of your organs. Their promise in medical treatments is that they have the potential to repair, restore, replace and regenerate cells that could then be used to treat many medical conditions and diseases.

Therapeutic aphaeresis: Experience in Puerto Rico

Raúl H. Morales Borges, Gladys Colón Nieves, María Rodríguez Martínez, Rosa Vargas Ramos, Linda I. Pedraza Otero, Carmen Nieves Vargas, Glorimar Ortiz Pedraza, Jairo J. Morales Jiménez, Clinical Services, American Red Cross, Puerto Rico Region, United States

Joel A. Mercado Díaz and his colleagues combined genetic and morphological techniques to identify two genera and twelve new species of lickens at El Yunque National Forest.

This article is available in Spanish.

Diana Guzmán Colón studied mongoose populations in different ecosystems within el Yunque National Forest.

This article is available in Spanish.

A group of researchers from University of Puerto Rico, including Karla Claudio, Dr. Jorge Duconge and Dr. Carmen Cadilla, advance the field of pharmacogenetics by researching how different genetic mutations help or hinder the metabolization of warfarin.

This article is available in Spanish.

Archaeological starch grains consistent with those produced and stored in modern cojoba (Anadenanthera peregrina) seeds were identified, for the first time in the West Indies, in a coral milling base recovered in a small precolonial habitation site of Eastern Puerto Rico, in a context dated to A.D. 115–1250. Ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and previous archaeological data on cojoba from the West Indies and South America were surveyed in order to form plausible sociocultural interpretations of the findings.

Three articles in this issue address the role of vitamin and mineral supplements for preventing the occurrence or progression of chronic diseases. First, Fortmann and colleagues systematically reviewed trial evidence to update the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation on the efficacy of vitamin supplements for primary prevention in community-dwelling adults with no nutritional deficiencies.

The scaly-naped pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa) is threatened by hunting in the Caribbean. At present, the pigeon is abundant in Puerto Rico, but overharvesting is a major concern; therefore, the development of a sustainable harvest strategy is a management priority. The management objective of the harvest strategy is to maximize hunting opportunity while keeping the population above an abundance threshold (NT) of 260,000 pigeons.