Search results for: Sergio Medina

Authors: Sergio Alejandro Cuevas, Catherine Etchebest, Fernando Luis Barroso Da Silva

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The flavivirus genus has several organisms responsible for generating various diseases in humans. Special in Brazil, Zika (ZIKV), Dengue (DENV) and Yellow Fever (YFV) viruses have raised great health concerns due to the high number of cases affecting the area during the last years. Diagnostic is still a difficult issue since the clinical symptoms are highly similar. The understanding of their common structural/dynamical and biomolecular interactions features and differences might suggest alternative strategies towards differential serological diagnostics and therapeutic intervention. Due to their immunogenicity, the primary focus of this study was on the ZIKV, DENV and YFV non-structural proteins 1 (NS1) protein. By means of computational studies, we calculated the main physical chemical properties of this protein from different strains that are directly responsible for the biomolecular interactions and, therefore, can be related to the differential infectivity of the strains. We also mapped the electrostatic differences at both the sequence and structural levels for the strains from Uganda to Brazil that could suggest possible molecular mechanisms for the increase of the virulence of ZIKV. It is interesting to note that despite the small changes in the protein sequence due to the high sequence identity among the studied strains, the electrostatic properties are strongly impacted by the pH which also impact on their biomolecular interactions with partners and, consequently, the molecular viral biology. African and Asian strains are distinguishable. Exploring the interfaces used by NS1 to self-associate in different oligomeric states, and to interact with membranes and the antibody, we could map the strategy used by the ZIKV during its evolutionary process. This indicates possible molecular mechanisms that can explain the different immunological response. By the comparison with the known antibody structure available for the West Nile virus, we demonstrated that the antibody would have difficulties to neutralize the NS1 from the Brazilian strain. The present study also opens up perspectives to computationally design high specificity antibodies.

Keywords: zika, biomolecular interactions, electrostatic interactions, molecular mechanisms

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Authors: Gabriela Rivadeneyra-Romero, Claudia del C. Gutierrez Torres, Sergio A. Martinez-Delgadillo, Victor X. Mendoza-Escamilla, Alejandro Alonzo-Garcia

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Ultrasonic degradation is currently being used in sonochemical reactors to degrade pollutant compounds from aqueous media, as emerging contaminants (e.g. pharmaceuticals, drugs and personal care products.) because they can produce possible ecological impacts on the environment. For this reason, it is important to develop appropriate water and wastewater treatments able to reduce pollution and increase reuse. Pollutants such as textile dyes, aromatic and phenolic compounds, cholorobenzene, bisphenol-A and carboxylic acid and other organic pollutants, can be removed from wastewaters by sonochemical oxidation. The effect on the removal of pollutants depends on the type of the ultrasonic frequency used; however, not much studies have been done related to the behavior of the fluid into the sonoreactors operated at different ultrasonic frequencies. Based on the above, it is necessary to study the hydrodynamic behavior of the liquid generated by the ultrasonic irradiation to design efficient sonoreactors to reduce treatment times and costs. In this work, it was studied the hydrodynamic behavior of the fluid in sonochemical reactors at different frequencies (250 kHz, 500 kHz and 1000 kHz). The performances of the sonoreactors at those frequencies were simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Due to there is great sound speed gradient between piezoelectric and fluid, k-e models were used. Piezoelectric was defined as a vibration surface, to evaluate the different frequencies effect on the fluid into sonochemical reactor. Structured hexahedral cells were used to mesh the computational liquid domain, and fine triangular cells were used to mesh the piezoelectric transducers. Unsteady state conditions were used in the solver. Estimation of the dissipation rate, flow field velocities, Reynolds stress and turbulent quantities were evaluated by CFD and 2D-PIV measurements. Test results show that there is no necessary correlation between an increase of the ultrasonic frequency and the pollutant degradation, moreover, the reactor geometry and power density are important factors that should be considered in the sonochemical reactor design.

Keywords: CFD, reactor, ultrasound, wastewater

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Authors: Medina O. Kadiri, Jeffrey U. Ogbebor

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Toxin-producing algae are algal species that produce potent toxins, which accumulate in food chains and cause various gastrointestinal and neurological illnesses in humans and other animals. They result in shellfish toxicity, ecosystem alteration, cause fish kills and mortality of other animals and humans, in addition to compromised product quality as well as decreased consumer confidence. Animals, including man, are directly exposed to toxins by absorbing toxins from the water via swimming, drinking water with toxins, or ingestion of algal species via feeding on contaminated seafood. These toxins, algal toxins, undergo bioaccumulation, biotransformation, biotransferrence, and biomagnification through the natural food chains and food webs, thereby endangering animals and humans. The Nigerian coast is situated on the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Guinea, one of Africa’s five large marine ecosystems (LME), and studies on toxic algae in this ecosystem are generally lacking. Algal samples were collected from eight coastal states and ten locations spanning the Bight of Bonny and the Bight of Benin. A total of 70 species of toxin-producing algae were found in the coastal waters of Nigeria. There was a great variety of toxin-producing algae in the coastal waters of Nigeria. They were Domoic acid-producing forms (DSP), Saxitoxin-producing, Gonyautoxin-producing, and Yessotoxin-producing (all PSP). Others were Okadaic acid-producing, Dinophysistoxin-producing, and Palytoxin-producing, which are representatives of DSP; CFP was represented by Ciguatoxin-producing forms and NSP by Brevitoxin-producing species. Emerging or new toxins are comprising of Gymnodimines, Spirolides, Palytoxins, and Prorocentrolidess-producing algae. The CyanoToxin Poisoning (CTP) was represented by Anatoxin-, Microcystin-, Cylindrospermopsis-Lyngbyatoxin-, Nordularin-Applyssiatoxin and Debromoapplatoxin-producing species. The highest group was the Saxitoxin-producing species, followed by Microcystin-producing species, then Anatoxin-producing species. Gonyautoxin (PSP), Palytoxin (DSP), Emerging toxins, and Cylindrospermopsin -producing species had a very substantial representation. Only Ciguatoxin-producing species, Lyngbyatoxin-Nordularin, Applyssiatoxin, and Debromoapplatoxin-producing species were represented by one taxon each. The presence of such overwhelming diversity of toxin-producing algae on the Nigerian coast is a source of concern for fisheries, aquaculture, human health, and ecosystem services. Therefore routine monitoring of toxic and harmful algae is greatly recommended.

Keywords: algal syndromes, Atlantic Ocean, harmful algae, Nigeria

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Authors: Simone F. Medeiros, Jessica M. Fonseca, Gizelda M. Alves, Danilo M. Santos, Sérgio P. Campana-Filho, Amilton M. Santos

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Stimuli responsive and biocompatible hydrogel nanoparticles have gained special attention as systems for potential applications in controlled release of drugs to improve their therapeutic efficacy while minimizing side effects. In this work, novel solid dispersions based on thermo- and pH-responsive poly(N-vinylcaprolactam-co-itaconic acid-co-ethylene- glycol dimethacrylate) hydrogel nanoparticles embedded in chitosan matrices were prepared via spray drying for controlled release of ketoprofen. Firstly, the hydrogel nanoparticles containing ketoprofen were prepared via precipitation polymerization and their stimuli-responsive behavior, thermal properties, chemical composition, encapsulation efficiency and morphology were characterized. Then, hydrogel nanoparticles with different particles size were embedded into chitosan matrices via spray-drying. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were performed to investigate the particles size, dispersity and morphology. Finally, ketoprofen release profiles were studied as a function of pH and temperature. Chitosan/poly(NVCL-co-IA-co-EGDMA)-ketoprofen microparticles presented spherical shape, rough surface and pronounced agglomeration, indicating that hydrogels nanoparticles loaded with ketoprofen modified the surface of chitosan matrix. The maximum encapsulation efficiency of ketoprofen into hydrogel nanoparticles was 57.8% and the electrostatic interactions between amino groups from chitosan and carboxylic groups from hydrogel nanoparticles were able to control ketoprofen release. The hydrogel nanoparticles themselves were capable to retard the release of ketoprofen-loaded until 48h of in vitro release tests, while their incorporation into chitosan matrix achieved a maximum percentage of drug release of 45%, using a mass ratio of chitosan: poly(NVCL-co-IA-co-EGDMA equal to 10:7, and 69%, using a mass ratio of chitosan: poly(NVCL-co-IA-co-EGDMA equal to 5:2.

Keywords: hydrogel nanoparticles, poly(N-vinylcaprolactam-co-itaconic acid-co-ethylene- glycol dimethacrylate), chitosan, ketoprofen, spray-drying

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Authors: Vitor Rafael Regiani, Carlos Henrique Viesi Do Nascimento Filho, Patricia Matos Biselli-Chicote, Claudia Aparecida Rainho, Luiz Sergio Raposo, José Victor Maniglia, Eny Maria Goloni-Bertollo, Erika Cristina Pavarino

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Promoter hypermethylation of tumor-related genes has been associated with prognosis in early-stage head-and-neck cancers, providing strong evidence that these hypermethylated genes are valuable biomarkers for prognostic evaluation. Hence, we selected the MGMT and RASSF1A genes to examine the methylation status in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) samples matched with non-tumor tissues (tumor-surrounding tissues or peripheral blood samples). DNA methylation analysis was based on Methylation-Sensitive High Resolution Melting, and the methylation status was correlated with clinic-pathological characteristics of the patients. RASSF1A and MGMT promoter methylation was detected in 43.24% (16/37) and in 44.44% (16/36) of the tumors, respectively. RASSF1A and MGMT methylation was significantly more frequent in tumor tissue than non-tumor tissues, as well as, simultaneous methylation of RASSF1A and MGMT also was higher in tumor tissue than non-tumor tissues. In relation to anatomic site, larynx cancer presented significant methylation of MGMT gene compared to tumor-surrounding tissue. The frequency of RASSF1A and MGMT promoter methylated was higher in tumor tissues in relation to peripheral blood from the same patient. No association was found between methylation and the variables analyzed, including gender, age, smoking or alcohol drinking habits. Clinic-pathological characteristics also showed no association in the presence of methylation. The Kaplan–Meier's method showed no association of methylation and both disease-free and overall survival. In conclusion, the presence of epigenetic abnormalities in normal-appearing tissue corroborates the hypothesis of the ‘field cancerization', or it can reflect preneoplastic and/or preinvasive. Moreover, MGMT methylation may serve as an important laryngeal cancer biomarker because it showed significant difference between laryngeal cancer and surrounding tumor tissues.

Keywords: head and neck cancer, DNA methylation, MGMT promoter methylation, RASSF1A promoter methylation

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Authors: Francisco Toledo-Castillo, Pilar Peiró-Torres, María Josefa Sospedra-Baeza, Sergio Hidalgo-Fuentes

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The communication presented is about tasks that are been developed in the research project “safeRoute”, “Information safety system for professional road driving” (IPT-2012-110-370000). This R&D project was proposed by the consortium formed by Fagor Electronica la SEU 3 and the University of Valencia to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, which approved it inside the INNPACTO subprogramme grants. Through this type of calls, the Ministry promote the innovative capacity of the Spanish companies and turn on the mechanism for competing internationally. With this kind of calls, private investments for technological and industrial development join their R & D resources with public entities to implement innovative project that could have an international exposure. Thus INNPACTO subprogramme promotes the creation of research projects with public-private partnerships that create exploitable final products. The “safeRoute” Project pretends develop a tool to help to make more safety the travels of commercial transport vehicles of goods and passengers. To achieve its objectives, the project is focused in three main lines of research: vehicle safety, the safety of the roads that they are using, and the safety which drivers do their job, their behaviour while they are driving. To improve safety, the project gives information about these three factors to all people that are involved in the safety of the professional transport. These three factors have influence to the occurrence of traffic accidents, thanks to the information provided and treated about these factors, we can achieve a significant reduction in occupational accidents in the transport sector. SafeRoute provide information about routes, vehicles, and driver behaviours, and in this manner pretends provide to transport companies a tool which could result in a safer driving results and could reduce their costs related to traffic accidents of their vehicles, in that way, this tool could help them to be more competitive, and give a more reliable service. This paper will focus mainly on the information about routes that drivers use to travel in their professional work, and how the researchers of this project have catalogued and evaluated these routes, and finally how that information will be provided to users.

Keywords: driver support systems, professional drivers, road safety, safeRoute

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Authors: Karol Rodriguez-Peña, Martha L. Macias-Rubalcava, Leticia Rocha-Zavaleta, Sergio Sanchez

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A bioassay-guided study for anti-cancer compounds from endophytes of the Mexican medicinal plant Amphipteryygium adstringens resulted in the isolation of a streptomycete capable of producing a group of compounds with high cytotoxic activity. Microorganisms from surface sterilized samples of various sections of the plant were isolated and all the actinomycetes found were evaluated for their potential to produce compounds with cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines MCF7 (breast cancer) and HeLa (cervical cancer) as well as the non-tumoural cell line HaCaT (keratinocyte). The most active microorganism was picked for further evaluation. The identification of the microorganism was carried out by 16S rDNA gene sequencing, finding the closest proximity to Streptomyces scabrisporus, but with the additional characteristic that the strain isolated in this study was capable of producing colorful compounds never described for this species. Crude extracts of dichloromethane and ethyl acetate showed IC50 values of 0.29 and 0.96 μg/mL for MCF7, 0.51 and 1.98 μg/mL for HeLa and 0.96 and 2.7 μg/mL for HaCaT. Scaling the fermentation to 10 L in a bioreactor generated 1 g of total crude extract, which was fractionated by silica gel open column to yield 14 fractions. Nine of the fractions showed cytotoxic activity. Fraction 4 was chosen for subsequent purification because of its high activity against cancerous cell lines, lower activity against keratinocytes. HPLC-UV-MS/ESI was used for the evaluation of this fraction, finding at least 10 different compounds with high values of m/z (≈588). Purification of the compounds was carried out by preparative thin-layer chromatography. The prevalent compound was Steffimycin B, a molecule known for its antibiotic and cytotoxic activities and also for its low solubility in aqueous solutions. Along with steffimycin B, another five compounds belonging to the steffimycin family were isolated and at this moment their structures are being elucidated, some of which display better solubility in water: an attractive property for the pharmaceutical industry. As a conclusion to this study, the isolation of endophytes resulted in the discovery of a strain capable of producing compounds with high cytotoxic activity that need to be studied for their possible utilization.

Keywords: amphipterygium adstringens, cytotoxicity, streptomyces scabrisporus, steffimycin

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Authors: Laura Mejias, Sandra Monteagudo, Oscar Martinez-Avila, Sergio Ponsa

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Bioplastics are gaining attention as potential substitutes of conventional fossil-derived plastics and new components of specialized applications in different industries. Besides, these constitute a sustainable alternative since they are biodegradable and can be obtained starting from renewable sources. Thus, agro-industrial wastes appear as potential substrates for bioplastics production using microorganisms, considering they are a suitable source for nutrients, low-cost, and available worldwide. Therefore, this approach contributes to the biorefinery and circular economy paradigm. The present study assesses the solid-state fermentation (SSF) technology for the co-synthesis of exopolysaccharides (EPS) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), two attractive biodegradable bioplastics, using the leftover of the brewery industry brewer's spent grain (BSG). After an initial screening of diverse PHA-producer bacteria, it was found that Burkholderia cepacia presented the highest EPS and PHA production potential via SSF of BSG. Thus, B. cepacia served to identify the most relevant aspects affecting the EPS+PHA co-synthesis at a lab-scale (100g). Since these are growth-dependent processes, they were monitored online through oxygen consumption using a dynamic respirometric system, but also quantifying the biomass production (gravimetric) and the obtained products (EtOH precipitation for EPS and solid-liquid extraction coupled with GC-FID for PHA). Results showed that B. cepacia has grown up to 81 mg per gram of dry BSG (gDM) at 30°C after 96 h, representing up to 618 times higher than the other tested strains' findings. Hence, the crude EPS production was 53 mg g-1DM (2% carbohydrates), but purity reached 98% after a dialysis purification step. Simultaneously, B. cepacia accumulated up to 36% (dry basis) of the produced biomass as PHA, mainly composed of polyhydroxybutyrate (P3HB). The maximum PHA production was reached after 48 h with 12.1 mg g⁻¹DM, representing threefold the levels previously reported using SSF. Moisture content and aeration strategy resulted in the most significant variables affecting the simultaneous production. Results show the potential of co-synthesis via SSF as an attractive alternative to enhance bioprocess feasibility for obtaining these bioplastics in residue-based systems.

Keywords: bioplastics, brewer’s spent grain, circular economy, solid-state fermentation, waste to product

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Authors: Massimiliano Frezza, Sergio Bianchi, Augusto Pianese

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The relation between stock price volatility and trading volume represents a controversial issue which has received a remarkable attention over the past decades. In fact, an extensive literature shows a positive relation between price volatility and trading volume in the financial markets, but the causal relationship which originates such association is an open question, from both a theoretical and empirical point of view. In this regard, various models, which can be considered as complementary rather than competitive, have been introduced to explain this relationship. They include the long debated Mixture of Distributions Hypothesis (MDH); the Sequential Arrival of Information Hypothesis (SAIH); the Dispersion of Beliefs Hypothesis (DBH); the Noise Trader Hypothesis (NTH). In this work, we analyze whether stock market efficiency can explain the diversity of results achieved during the years. For this purpose, we propose an alternative measure of market efficiency, based on the pointwise regularity of a stochastic process, which is the Hurst–H¨older dynamic exponent. In particular, we model the stock market by means of the multifractional Brownian motion (mBm) that displays the property of a time-changing regularity. Mostly, such models have in common the fact that they locally behave as a fractional Brownian motion, in the sense that their local regularity at time t0 (measured by the local Hurst–H¨older exponent in a neighborhood of t0 equals the exponent of a fractional Brownian motion of parameter H(t0)). Assuming that the stock price follows an mBm, we introduce and theoretically justify the Hurst–H¨older dynamical exponent as a measure of market efficiency. This allows to measure, at any time t, markets’ departures from the martingale property, i.e. from efficiency as stated by the Efficient Market Hypothesis. This approach is applied to financial markets; using data for the SP500 index from 1978 to 2017, on the one hand we find that when efficiency is not accounted for, a positive contemporaneous relationship emerges and is stable over time. Conversely, it disappears as soon as efficiency is taken into account. In particular, this association is more pronounced during time frames of high volatility and tends to disappear when market becomes fully efficient.

Keywords: volume–volatility relationship, efficient market hypothesis, martingale model, Hurst–Hölder exponent

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Authors: Mariia Khramova, Sergio Martinez, Duc Nguyen

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Modern electronic devices, particularly smartphones, are characterised by extremely high environmental footprint and short product lifecycle. Every year manufacturers release new models with even more superior performance, which pushes the customers towards new purchases. As a result, millions of devices are being accumulated in the urban mine. To tackle these challenges the concept of circular economy has been introduced to promote repair, reuse and recycle of electronics. In this case, electronic devices, that previously ended up in landfills or households, are getting the second life, therefore, reducing the demand for new raw materials. Smartphone reuse is gradually gaining wider adoption partly due to the price increase of flagship models, consequently, boosting circular economy implementation. However, along with reuse of communication device, circular economy approach needs to ensure the data of the previous user have not been 'reused' together with a device. This is especially important since modern smartphones are comparable with computers in terms of performance and amount of data stored. These data vary from pictures, videos, call logs to social security numbers, passport and credit card details, from personal information to corporate confidential data. To assess how well the data privacy requirements are followed on smartphones second-hand market, a sample of 100 Android smartphones has been purchased from IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) facilities responsible for data erasure and resell. Although devices should not have stored any user data by the time they leave ITAD, it has been possible to retrieve the data from 19% of the sample. Applied techniques varied from manual device inspection to sophisticated equipment and tools. These findings indicate significant barrier in implementation of circular economy and a limitation of smartphone reuse. Therefore, in order to motivate the users to donate or sell their old devices and make electronic use more sustainable, data privacy on second-hand smartphone market should be significantly improved. Presented research has been carried out in the framework of sustainablySMART project, which is part of Horizon 2020 EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

Keywords: android, circular economy, data privacy, second-hand phones

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Authors: Rebecca Richards Steed, James Van Derslice, Ken Smith, Richard Medina, Amanda Bakian

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Elucidating gene-environment interactions for heritable disease outcomes is an emerging area of disease research, with genetic studies informing hypotheses for environment and gene interactions underlying some of the most confounding diseases of our time, like autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Geography has thus far played a key role in identifying environmental factors contributing to disease, but its use can be broadened to include genetic and environmental factors that have a synergistic effect on disease. Through the use of family pedigrees and disease outcomes with life-course residential histories, space-time clustering of generations at critical developmental windows can provide further understanding of (1) environmental factors that contribute to disease patterns in families, (2) susceptible critical windows of development most impacted by environment, (3) and that are most likely to lead to an ASD diagnosis. This paper introduces a retrospective case-control study that utilizes pedigree data, health data, and residential life-course location points to find space-time clustering of ancestors with a grandchild/child with a clinical diagnosis of ASD. Finding space-time clusters of ancestors at critical developmental windows serves as a proxy for shared environmental exposures. The authors refer to geographic life-course exposures as geographic legacies. Identifying space-time clusters of ancestors creates a bridge for researching exposures of past generations that may impact modern-day progeny health. Results from the space-time cluster analysis show multiple clusters for the maternal and paternal pedigrees. The paternal grandparent pedigree resulted in the most space-time clustering for birth and childhood developmental windows. No statistically significant clustering was found for adolescent years. These results will be further studied to identify the specific share of space-time environmental exposures. In conclusion, this study has found significant space-time clusters of parents, and grandparents for both maternal and paternal lineage. These results will be used to identify what environmental exposures have been shared with family members at critical developmental windows of time, and additional analysis will be applied.

Keywords: family pedigree, environmental exposure, geographic legacy, medical geography, transgenerational inheritance

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Authors: Sergio D’Ambrosioa, Azza Dobousa, Chiara Schiraldia, Donatella Ciminib

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Probiotics are living microorganisms that give beneficial effects while consumed. Lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria are among the most representative strains assessed as probiotics and exploited as food supplements. Numerous studies demonstrated their potential as a therapeutic candidate for a variety of diseases (restoring gut flora, lowering cholesterol, immune response-enhancing, anti-inflammation and anti-oxidation activities). These beneficial actions are also due to biomolecules produced by probiotics, such as exopolysaccharides (EPSs), that demonstrate plenty of beneficial properties such as antimicrobial, antitumor, anti-biofilm, antiviral and immunomodulatory activities. Limosilactobacillus fermentum is a widely studied member of probiotics; however, few data are available on the development of fermentation and downstream processes for the production of viable biomasses for potential industrial applications. However, few data are available on the development of fermentation processes for the large-scale production of probiotics biomass for industrial applications and for purification processes of EPSs at an industrial scale. For this purpose, L. fermentum strain was isolated from buffalo milk and used as a test example for biotechnological process development. The strain was able to produce up to 109 CFU/mL on a (glucose-based) semi-defined medium deprived of animal-derived raw materials up to the pilot scale (150 L), demonstrating improved results compared to commonly used, although industrially not suitable, media-rich of casein and beef extract. Biomass concentration via microfiltration on hollow fibers, and subsequent spray-drying allowed to recover of about 5.7 × 1010CFU/gpowder of viable cells, indicating strain resistance to harsh processing conditions. Overall, these data demonstrate the possibility of obtaining and maintaining adequate levels of viable L. fermentum cells by using a simple approach that is potentially suitable for industrial development. A downstream EPS purification protocol based on ultrafiltration, precipitation and activated charcoal treatments showed a purity of the recovered polysaccharides of about 70-80%.

Keywords: probiotics, fermentation, exopolysaccharides (EPSs), purification

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Authors: Ane Escobar, Paula Angelomé, Mihaela Delcea, Marek Grzelczak, Sergio Enrique Moya

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The antibacterial capacity of bone-anchoring implants can be improved by the use of antibiotics that can be delivered to the media after the surgery. Mesoporous films have shown great potential in drug delivery for orthopedic applications, since pore size and thickness can be tuned to produce different surface area and free volume inside the material. This work shows the synthesis of mesoporous titania films (MTF) by sol-gel chemistry and evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) on top of glass substrates. Pores with a diameter of 12nm were observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). A film thickness of 100 nm was measured by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Gentamicin was used to study the antibiotic delivery from the film by means of High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The Staphilococcus aureus strand was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the penicillin loaded films toward inhibiting bacterial colonization. MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblast cell proliferation experiments proved that MTFs have a good biocompatibility and are a suitable surface for MC3T3-E1 cell proliferation. Moreover, images taken by Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy using labeled vinculin, showed good adhesion of the MC3T3-E1 cells to the MTFs, as well as complex actin filaments arrangement. In order to improve cell proliferation Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 (BMP-2) was adsorbed on top of the mesoporous film. The deposition of the protein was proved by measurements in the contact angle, showing an increment in the hydrophobicity while the protein concentration is higher. By measuring the dehydrogenase activity in MC3T3-E1 cells cultured in dually functionalized mesoporous titatina films with gentamicin and BMP-2 is possible to find an improvement in cell proliferation. For this purpose, the absorption of a yellow-color formazan dye, product of a water-soluble salt (WST-8) reduction by the dehydrogenases, is measured. In summary, this study proves that by means of the surface modification of MTFs with proteins and loading of gentamicin is possible to achieve an antibacterial effect and a cell growth improvement.

Keywords: antibacterial, biocompatibility, bone morphogenetic protein-2, cell proliferation, gentamicin, implants, mesoporous titania films, osteoblasts

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Authors: Marisol Warthon-Medina, Jenny Plumb, Ayoub Aljawaldeh, Mark Roe, Ailsa Welch, Maria Glibetic, Paul M. Finglas

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Similar to Western Countries, the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) also presents major public health issues associated with the increased consumption of sugar, fat, and salt. Therefore, one of the policies of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) EMR is to reduce the intake of salt, sugar, and fat (Saturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids) to address the risk of non-communicable diseases (i.e. diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer) and obesity. The project objective is to assess status and provide training and capacity development in the use of improved standardized methodologies for updated food composition data, dietary intake methods, use of suitable biomarkers of nutritional value and determine health outcomes in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). Training exchanges have been developed with clusters of countries created resulting from regional needs including Sudan, Egypt and Jordan; Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania; and other Middle Eastern countries. This capacity building will lead to the development and sustainability of up-to-date national and regional food composition databases in LMIC for use in dietary monitoring assessment in food and nutrient intakes. Workshops were organized to provide training and capacity development in the use of improved standardized methodologies for food composition and food intake. Training needs identified and short-term scientific missions organized for LMIC researchers including (1) training and knowledge exchange workshops, (2) short-term exchange of researchers, (3) development and application of protocols and (4) development of strategies to reduce sugar and fat intake. An initial training workshop, Morocco 2018 was attended by 25 participants from 10 EMR countries to review status and support development of regional food composition. 4 training exchanges are in progress. The use of improved standardized methodologies for food composition and dietary intake will produce robust measurements that will reinforce dietary monitoring and policy in LMIC. The capacity building from this project will lead to the development and sustainability of up-to-date national and regional food composition databases in EMR countries. Supported by the UK Medical Research Council, Global Challenges Research Fund, (MR/R019576/1), and the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Keywords: dietary intake, food composition, low and middle-income countries, status.

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Authors: Sergio Rapagnà, Alessandro Antonio Papa, Armando Vitale, Andre Di Carlo

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In recent years the world population has enormously increased the use of plastic products for their living needs, in particular for transporting and storing consumer goods such as food and beverage. Plastics are widely used in the automotive industry, in construction of electronic equipment, clothing and home furnishings. Over the last 70 years, the annual production of plastic products has increased from 2 million tons to 460 million tons. About 20% of the last quantity is mismanaged as waste. The consequence of this mismanagement is the release of plastic waste into the terrestrial and marine environments which represents a danger to human health and the ecosystem. Recycling all plastics is difficult because they are often made with mixtures of polymers that are incompatible with each other and contain different additives. The products obtained are always of lower quality and after two/three recycling cycles they must be eliminated either by thermal treatment to produce heat or disposed of in landfill. An alternative to these current solutions is to obtain a mixture of gases rich in H₂, CO and CO₂ suitable for being profitably used for the production of chemicals with consequent savings fossil sources. Obtaining a hydrogen-rich syngas can be achieved by gasification process using the fluidized bed reactor, in presence of steam as the fluidization medium. The fluidized bed reactor allows the gasification process of plastics to be carried out at a constant temperature and allows the use of different plastics with different compositions and different grain sizes. Furthermore, during the gasification process the use of steam increase the gasification of char produced by the first pyrolysis/devolatilization process of the plastic particles. The bed inventory can be made with particles having catalytic properties such as olivine, capable to catalyse the steam reforming reactions of heavy hydrocarbons normally called tars, with a consequent increase in the quantity of gases produced. The plant is composed of a fluidized bed reactor made of AISI 310 steel, having an internal diameter of 0.1 m, containing 3 kg of olivine particles as a bed inventory. The reactor is externally heated by an oven up to 1000 °C. The hot producer gases that exit the reactor, after being cooled, are quantified using a mass flow meter. Gas analyzers are present to measure instantly the volumetric composition of H₂, CO, CO₂, CH₄ and NH₃. At the conference, the results obtained from the continuous gasification of polypropylene (PP) particles in a steam atmosphere at temperatures of 840-860 °C will be presented.

Keywords: gasification, fluidized bed, hydrogen, olivine, polypropyle

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Authors: Medina Kadiri

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Nigeria has an extensive coastline of 853 km long between latitude 4°10′ to 6°20′ N and longitude 2°45′ to 8°35′ E and situated in the Gulf of Guinea within the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem. There is a substantial coastal community relying on this region for their livelihood of fishing, aquaculture, mariculture for various sea foods either for consumption or economic sustenance or both. Socio-economic study was conducted, using questionnaires and interview, to investigate the health symptoms of harmful algae experienced by these communities on consumption of sea foods. Eighteen symptoms were recorded. Of the respondents who experienced symptoms after consumption of sea foods, overall, more people (33.5%) experienced vomiting as a symptom, followed by nausea (14.03%) and then diarrhea (13.57%). Others were headache (9.95%), mouth tingling (8.6%) and tiredness (7.24%).The least were muscle pain, rashes, confusion, chills, burning sensation, breathing difficulty and balance difficulty which represented 0.45% each and the rest (dizziness, digestive tract tumors, itching, memory loss, & stomach pain) were less than 3% each. In terms of frequency, the most frequent symptom was diarrhea with 87.5% occurrence, closely followed by vomiting with 81.3%. Tiredness was 75% while nausea was 62.5% and headache 50%. Others such as dizziness, itching, memory loss, mouth tingling and stomach pain had about 40% occurrence or less. The least occurring symptoms were muscle pain, rashes, confusion, chills and balance difficulty and burning sensation occurring only once i.e 6.3%. Breathing difficulty was last but one with 12.5%. Visible symptom from seafood and the particular seafood consumed that prompted the visible symptoms, shows that 3.5% of the entire respondents who ate crab experienced various symptoms ranging from vomiting (2.4%), itching (0.5%) and headache (0.4%). For periwinkle, vomiting had 1.7%, while 1.2% represented diarrhea and nausea symptom comprised 0.8% of all the respondents who ate periwinkle. Some respondents who consumed fish shows that 0.4% of the respondents had Itching. From the respondents who preferred to consume shrimps/crayfish and crab, shrimps/crayfish, crab and periwinkle, the most common illness was tiredness (1.2%), while 0.5% had experienced diarrhea and many others. However, for most respondents who claimed to have no preference for any seafood, with 55.7% affirming this with vomiting being the highest (6.1%), followed closely by mouth tingling/ burning sensation (5.8%). Examining the seasonal influence on visible symptoms revealed that vomiting occurred more in the month of January with 5.5%, while headache and itching were predominant in October with (2.8%). Nausea has 3.1% in January than any season of the year, 2.6% of the entire respondents opined to have experience diarrhea in October than in any other season of the year. Regular evaluation of harmful algal poisoning symptoms is recommended for coastal communities.

Keywords: coastal, harmful algae, human poisoning symptoms, Nigeria, phycotoxins

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Authors: Paulo Da Silva Quadros

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This work aims to point out comparative parameters between the artistic production of two exponents of the contemporary popular culture scene: Caetano Veloso (Brazil) and David Bowie (England). Both Caetano Veloso and David Bowie were pioneers in establishing an aesthetic game between various artistic expressions at the service of the music-visual scene, that is, the conceptual interconnections between several forms of aesthetic processes, such as fine arts, theatre, cinema, poetry, and literature. There are also correlations in their expressive attitudes of art, especially regarding the dialogue between the fields of art and politics (concern with respect to human rights, human dignity, racial issues, tolerance, gender issues, and sexuality, among others); the constant tension and cunning game between market, free expression and critical sense; the sophisticated, playful mechanisms of metalanguage and aesthetic metacritique. Fact is that both of them almost came to cooperate with each other in the 1970s when Caetano was in exile in England, and when both had at the same time the same music producer, who tried to bring them closer, noticing similar aesthetic qualities in both artistic works, which was later glimpsed by some music critics. Among many of the most influential issues in Caetano's and Bowie's game of artistic-aesthetic expression are, for example, the ideas advocated by the sensation of strangeness (Albert Camus), art as transcendence (Friedrich Nietzsche), the deconstruction and reconstruction of auratic reconfiguration of artistic signs (Walter Benjamin and Andy Warhol). For deepen more theoretical issues, the following authors will be used as supportive interpretative references: Hans-Georg Gadamer, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schiller, Johan Huizinga. In addition to the aesthetic meanings of Ars Ludens characteristics of the two artists, the following supporting references will be also added: the question of technique (Martin Heidegger), the logic of sense (Gilles Deleuze), art as an event and the sense of the gesture of art ( Maria Teresa Cruz), the society of spectacle (Guy Debord), Verarbeitung and Durcharbeitung (Sigmund Freud), the poetics of interpretation and the sign of relation (Cremilda Medina). The purpose of such interpretative references is to seek to understand, from a cultural reading perspective (cultural semiology), some significant elements in the dynamics of aesthetic and media interconnections of both artists, which made them as some of the most influential interlocutors in contemporary music aesthetic thought, as a playful vivid experience of life and art.

Keywords: Caetano Veloso, David Bowie, music aesthetics, symbolic playfulness, cultural reading

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Authors: Ana M. Antolín, Sandra Contreras, Francesc Medina, Didier Tichit

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Introduction: High levels of nitrates (> 50 ppm NO3-) in drinking water are potentially risky to human health. In the recent years, the trend of nitrate concentration in groundwater is rising in the EU and other countries. Conventional catalytic nitrate reduction processes into N2 and H2O lead to some toxic intermediates and by-products, such as NO2-, NH4+, and NOx gases. Alternatively, photocatalytic nitrate removal using solar irradiation and heterogeneous catalysts is a very promising and ecofriendly technique. It has been scarcely performed and more research on highly efficient catalysts is still needed. In this work, different nanocatalysts supported on Aeroxide Titania P25 (P25) have been prepared varying: 0.5-4 % wt. Ag); Pt (2, 4 % wt.); Pt precursor (H2PtCl6/K2PtCl6); and impregnation order of both metals. Pt was chosen in order to increase the selectivity to N2 and decrease that to NO2-. Catalysts were characterized by nitrogen physisorption, X-Ray diffraction, UV-visible spectroscopy, TEM and X Ray-Photoelectron Spectroscopy. The aim was to determine the influence of the composition and the preparation method of the catalysts on the conversion and selectivity in the nitrate reduction, as well as going through an overall and better understanding of the process. Nanocatalysts synthesis: For the mono and bimetallic catalysts preparation, wise-drop wetness impregnation of the precursors (AgNO3, H2PtCl6, K2PtCl6) followed by a reduction step (NaBH4) was used to obtain the metal colloids. Results and conclusions: Denitration experiments were performed in a 350 mL PTFE batch reactor under inert standard operational conditions, ultraviolet irradiations (λ=254 nm (UV-C); λ=365 nm (UV-A)), and presence/absence of hydrogen gas as a reducing agent, contrary to most studies using oxalic or formic acid. Samples were analyzed by Ionic Chromatography. Blank experiments using respectively P25 (dark conditions), hydrogen only and UV irradiations without hydrogen demonstrated a clear influence of the presence of hydrogen on nitrate reduction. Also, they demonstrated that UV irradiation increased the selectivity to N2. Interestingly, the best activity was obtained under ultraviolet lamps, especially at a closer wavelength to visible light irradiation (λ = 365 nm) and H2. 2% Ag/P25 leaded to the highest NO3- conversion among the monometallic catalysts. However, nitrite quantities have to be diminished. On the other hand, practically no nitrate conversion was observed with the monometallics based on Pt/P25. Therefore, the amount of 2% Ag was chosen for the bimetallic catalysts. Regarding the bimetallic catalysts, it is observed that the metal impregnation order, amount and Pt precursor highly affects the results. Higher selectivity to the desirable N2 gas is obtained when Pt was firstly added, especially with K2PtCl6 as Pt precursor. This suggests that when Pt is secondly added, it covers the Ag particles, which are the most active in this reaction. It could be concluded that Ag allows the nitrate reduction step to nitrite, and Pt the nitrite reduction step toward the desirable N2 gas.

Keywords: heterogeneous catalysis, hydrogenation, nanocatalyst, nitrate removal, photocatalysis

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Authors: J. Manuel Bello-López, Julieta Rojo-Medina

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Introduction: The transplant of Umbilical Cord Blood Units (UCBU) are a therapeutic possibility for patients with oncohaematological disorders, especially in children. In Mexico, 48.5% of oncological diseases in children 1-4 years old are leukemias; whereas in patients 5-14 and 15-24 years old, lymphomas and leukemias represent the second and third cause of death in these groups respectively. Therefore it is necessary to have more registries of UCBU in order to ensure genetic diversity in the country; the above because the search for appropriate a UCBU is increasingly difficult for patients of mixed ethnicity. Objective: To estimate the genetic diversity (polymorphisms) of Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA) Class I (A, B) and Class II (DRB1) in UCBU cryopreserved for transplant at Cord Blood Bank of the NCBT. Material and Methods: HLA typing of 533 UCBU for transplant was performed from 2003-2012 at the Histocompatibility Laboratory from the Research Department (evaluated by Los Angeles Ca. Immunogenetics Center) of the NCBT. Class I HLA-A, HLA-B and Class II HLA-DRB1 typing was performed using medium resolution Sequence-Specific Primer (SSP). In cases of an ambiguity detected by SSP; Sequence-Specific Oligonucleotide (SSO) method was carried out. A strict analysis of populations genetic parameters were done in 5 representative UCBU populations. Results: 46.5% of UCBU were collected from Mexico City, State of Mexico (30.95%), Puebla (8.06%), Morelos (6.37%) and Veracruz (3.37%). The remaining UCBU (4.75%) are represented by other states. The identified genotypes correspond to Amerindian origins (HLA-A*02, 31; HLA-B*39, 15, 48), Caucasian (HLA-A*02, 68, 01, 30, 31; HLA-B*35, 15, 40, 44, 07 y HLA-DRB1*04, 08, 07, 15, 03, 14), Oriental (HLA-A*02, 30, 01, 31; HLA-B* 35, 39, 15, 40, 44, 07,48 y HLA-DRB1*04, 07,15, 03) and African (HLA-A*30 y HLA-DRB1*03). The genetic distances obtained by Cavalli-Sforza analysis of the five states showed significant genetic differences by comparing genetic frequencies. The shortest genetic distance exists between Mexico City and the state of Puebla (0.0039) and the largest between Veracruz and Morelos (0.0084). In order to identify significant differences between this states, the ANOVA test was performed. This demonstrates that UCBU is significantly different according to their origin (P <0.05). This is shown by the divergence between arms at the Dendogram of Neighbor-Joining. Conclusions: The NCBT provides UCBU in patients with oncohaematological disorders in all the country. There is a group of patients for which not compatible UCBU can be find due to the mixed ethnic origin. For example, the population of northern Mexico is mostly Caucasian. Most of the NCBT donors are of various ethnic origins, predominantly Amerindians and Caucasians; although some ethnic minorities like Oriental, African and pure Indian ethnics are not represented. The NCBT is, therefore, establishing agreements with different states of Mexico to promote the altruistic donation of Umbilical Cord Blood in order to enrich the genetic diversity in its files.

Keywords: cord blood, genetic diversity, human leucocyte antigen, transplant

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Authors: José Ramón López-Mínguez, Estrella Suárez-Corchuelo, Sergio López-Tejero, Luis Nombela-Franco, Xavier Freixa-Rofastes, Guillermo Bastos-Fernández, Xavier Millán-Álvarez, Raúl Moreno-Gómez, José Antonio Fernández-Díaz, Ignacio Amat-Santos, Tomás Benito-González, Fernando Alfonso-Manterola, Pablo Salinas-Sanguino, Pedro Cepas-Guillén, Dabit Arzamendi, Ignacio Cruz-González, Juan Manuel Nogales-Asensio

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Background and objectives: The treatment of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) who need coronary stenting is challenging. The objective of the study was to determine whether left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) could be a feasible option and benefit these patients. To this end, we studied the impact of LAAO plus antiplatelet drugs vs oral anticoagulants (OAC) (including direct OAC) plus antiplatelet drugs in these patients’ long-term outcomes. Methods: The results of 207 consecutive patients with NVAF who underwent coronary stenting were analyzed. A total of 146 patients were treated with OAC (75 with acenocoumarol, 71 with direct OAC) while 61 underwent LAAO. The median follow-up was 35 months. Patients also received antiplatelet therapy as prescribed by their cardiologist. The study received the proper ethical oversight. Results: Age (mean 75.7 years), and the past medical history of stroke were similar in both groups. However, the LAAO group had more unfavorable characteristics (history of coronary artery disease [CHA2DS2-VASc], and significant bleeding [BARC ≥ 2] and HAS-BLED). The occurrence of major adverse events (death, stroke/transient ischemic events, major bleeding) and major cardiovascular events (cardiac death, stroke/transient ischemic attack, and myocardial infarction) were significantly higher in the OAC group compared to the LAAO group: 19.75% vs 9.06% (HR, 2.18; P = .008) and 6.37% vs 1.91% (HR, 3.34; P = .037), respectively. Conclusions: In patients with NVAF undergoing coronary stenting, LAAO plus antiplatelet therapy produced better long-term outcomes compared to treatment with OAC plus antiplatelet therapy despite the unfavorable baseline characteristics of the LAAO group.

Keywords: stents, atrial fibrillation, anticoagulants, left atrial appendage occlusion

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Authors: Paulo Sérgio Ribeiro de Araújo Bogas

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Although several studies have assumed (at least implicitly) that learners' approaches to learning develop into deeper approaches to higher education, there appears to be no clear theoretical basis for this assumption and no empirical evidence. As a scientific contribution to this discussion, a pedagogical intervention of a quasi-experimental nature was developed, with a mixed methodology, evaluating the intervention within a single curricular unit of Marketing, using cases based on real challenges of brands, business simulation, and customer projects. Primary and secondary experiences were incorporated in the intervention: the primary experiences are the experiential activities themselves; the secondary experiences result from the primary experience, such as reflection and discussion in work teams. A diversified learning relationship was encouraged through the various connections between the different members of the learning community. The present study concludes that in the same context, the student's responses can be described as students who reinforce the initial deep approach, students who maintain the initial deep approach level, and others who change from an emphasis on the deep approach to one closer to superficial. This typology did not always confirm studies reported in the literature, namely, whether the initial level of deep processing would influence the superficial and the opposite. The result of this investigation points to the inclusion of pedagogical and didactic activities that integrate different motivations and initial strategies, leading to the possible adoption of deep approaches to learning since it revealed statistically significant differences in the difference in the scores of the deep/superficial approach and the experiential level. In the case of real challenges, the categories of “attribution of meaning and meaning of studied” and the possibility of “contact with an aspirational context” for their future professional stand out. In this category, the dimensions of autonomy that will be required of them were also revealed when comparing the classroom context of real cases and the future professional context and the impact they may have on the world. Regarding the simulated practice, two categories of response stand out: on the one hand, the motivation associated with the possibility of measuring the results of the decisions taken, an awareness of oneself, and, on the other hand, the additional effort that this practice required for some of the students.

Keywords: experiential learning, higher education, mixed methods, reflective learning, marketing

Procedia PDF Downloads 83

Authors: Laura Helena Caicedo Lopez, Luis Miguel Contreras Medina, Ramon Gerardo Guevara Gonzales, Juan E. Andrade

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In this study, we evaluated the effect of three different hydric stress conditions: Low (LHS), medium (MHS), and high (HHS) on capsaicinoid content and enzyme regulation of C. annuum plants. Five main peaks were detected using a 2 Hz resolution vibrometer laser (Polytec-B&K). These peaks or “characteristic frequencies” were used as acoustic emissions (AEs) treatment, transforming these signals into audible sound with the frequency (Hz) content of each hydric stress. Capsaicinoids (CAPs) are the main, secondary metabolites of chili pepper plants and are known to increase during hydric stress conditions or short drought-periods. The AEs treatments were applied in two plant stages: the first one was in the pre-anthesis stage to evaluate the genes that encode the transcription of enzymes responsible for diverse metabolic activities of C. annuum plants. For example, the antioxidant responses such as peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD). Also, phenyl-alanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) involved in the biosynthesis of the phenylpropanoid compounds. The chalcone synthase (CHS) related to the natural defense mechanisms and species-specific aquaporin (CAPIP-1) that regulate the flow of water into and out of cells. The second stage was at 40 days after flowering (DAF) to evaluate the biochemical effect of AEs related to hydric stress on capsaicinoids production. These two experiments were conducted to identify the molecular responses of C. annuum plants to AE. Moreover, to define AEs could elicit any increase in the capsaicinoids content after a one-week exposition to AEs treatments. The results show that all AEs treatment signals (LHS, MHS, and HHS) were significantly different compared to the non-acoustic emission control (NAE). Also, the AEs induced the up-regulation of POD (~2.8, 2.9, and 3.6, respectively). The gene expression of another antioxidant response was particularly treatment-dependent. The HHS induced and overexpression of Mn-SOD (~0.23) and PAL (~0.33). As well, the MHS only induced an up-regulation of the CHs gene (~0.63). On the other hand, CAPIP-1 gene gas down-regulated by all AEs treatments LHS, MHS, and HHS ~ (-2.4, -0.43 and -6.4, respectively). Likewise, the down-regulation showed particularities depending on the treatment. LHS and MHS induced downregulation of the SOD gene ~ (-1.26 and -1.20 respectively) and PAL (-4.36 and 2.05, respectively). Correspondingly, the LHS and HHS showed the same tendency in the CHs gene, respectively ~ (-1.12 and -1.02, respectively). Regarding the elicitation effect of AE on the capsaicinoids content, additional treatment controls were included. A white noise treatment (WN) to prove the frequency-selectiveness of signals and a hydric stressed group (HS) to compare the CAPs content. Our findings suggest that WN and NAE did not present differences statically. Conversely, HS and all AEs treatments induced a significant increase of capsaicin (Cap) and dihydrocapsaicin (Dcap) after one-week of a treatment. Specifically, the HS plants showed an increase of 8.33 times compared to the NAE and WN treatments and 1.4 times higher than the MHS, which was the AEs treatment with a larger induction of Capsaicinoids among treatments (5.88) and compared to the controls.

Keywords: acoustic emission, capsaicinoids, elicitors, hydric stress, plant signaling

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Authors: Luis Fernando Calvo Prieto, Raul Herrero Martínez, Mónica Santamarta Llorente, Sergio Paniagua Bermejo

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The project that is presented starts from the questioning about the compartmentalization of knowledge that occurs in university higher education. There are several authors who describe the problems associated with this reality (Rodamillans, M) indicating a lack of integration of the knowledge acquired by students throughout the subjects taken in their university degree. Furthermore, this disintegration is accentuated by the enrollment system of some Faculties and/or Schools of Engineering, which allows the student to take subjects outside the recommended curricular path. This problem is accentuated in an ostentatious way when trying to find an integration between humanistic subjects and the world of experimental sciences or engineering. This abrupt separation between humanities and sciences can be observed in any study plan of Spanish degrees. Except for subjects such as economics or English, in the Faculties of Sciences and the Schools of Engineering, the absence of any humanistic content is striking. At some point it was decided that the only value to take into account when designing their study plans was “usefulness”, considering the humanities systematically useless for their training, and therefore banishing them from the study plans. forgetting the role they have on the capacity of both Leadership and Civic Humanism in our professionals of tomorrow. The teaching guides for the different subjects in the branch of science or engineering do not include any competency, not even transversal, related to leadership capacity or the need, in today's world, for social, civic and humanitarian knowledge part of the people who will offer medical, pharmaceutical, environmental, biotechnological or engineering solutions to a society that is generated thanks to more or less complex relationships based on human relationships and historical events that have occurred so far. If we want professionals who know how to deal effectively and rationally with their leadership tasks and who, in addition, find and develop an ethically civic sense and a humanistic profile in their functions and scientific tasks, we must not leave aside the importance that it has, for the themselves, know the causes, facts and consequences of key events in the history of humanity. The words of the humanist Paul Preston are well known: “he who does not know his history is condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.” The idea, therefore, that today there can be men of science in the way that the scientists of the Renaissance were, becomes, at the very least, difficult to conceive. To think that a Leonardo da Vinci can be repeated in current times is a more than crazy idea; and although at first it may seem that the specialization of a professional is inevitable but beneficial, there are authors who consider (Sánchez Inarejos) that it has an extremely serious negative side effect: the entrenchment behind the different postulates of each area of knowledge, disdaining everything. what is foreign to it.

Keywords: STEM, higher education, social sciences, history

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Authors: Elvis Medina, Alejandro Karelovic, Romel Jiménez

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Catalytic ammonia decomposition represents an attractive alternative due to its high H₂ content (17.8% w/w), a product stream free of COₓ, among others; however, challenges need to be addressed for its consolidation as an H₂ chemical storage technology, especially, those focused on the synthesis of efficient bimetallic catalytic systems, as an alternative to the price and scarcity of ruthenium, the most active catalyst reported. In this sense, from the perspective of rational catalyst design, adjusting the main catalytic activity descriptor, a screening of supported catalysts with different compositional settings of cobalt-molybdenum metals is presented to evaluate their effect on the catalytic decomposition rate of ammonia. Subsequently, a kinetic study on the supported monometallic Co and Mo catalysts, as well as on the bimetallic CoMo catalyst with the highest activity is shown. The synthesis of catalysts supported on γ-alumina was carried out using the Charge Enhanced Dry Impregnation (CEDI) method, all with a 5% w/w loading metal. Seeking to maintain uniform dispersion, the catalysts were oxidized and activated (In-situ activation) using a flow of anhydrous air and hydrogen, respectively, under the same conditions: 40 ml min⁻¹ and 5 °C min⁻¹ from room temperature to 600 °C. Catalytic tests were carried out in a fixed-bed reactor, confirming the absence of transport limitations, as well as an Approach to equilibrium (< 1 x 10⁻⁴). The reaction rate on all catalysts was measured between 400 and 500 ºC at 53.09 kPa NH3. The synergy theoretically (DFT) reported for bimetallic catalysts was confirmed experimentally. Specifically, it was observed that the catalyst composed mainly of 75 mol% cobalt proved to be the most active in the experiments, followed by the monometallic cobalt and molybdenum catalysts, in this order of activity as referred to in the literature. A kinetic study was performed at 10.13 – 101.32 kPa NH3 and at four equidistant temperatures between 437 and 475 °C the data were adjusted to an LHHW-type model, which considered the desorption of nitrogen atoms from the active phase surface as the rate determining step (RDS). The regression analysis were carried out under an integral regime, using a minimization algorithm based on SLSQP. The physical meaning of the parameters adjusted in the kinetic model, such as the RDS rate constant (k₅) and the lumped adsorption constant of the quasi-equilibrated steps (α) was confirmed through their Arrhenius and Van't Hoff-type behavior (R² > 0.98), respectively. From an energetic perspective, the activation energy for cobalt, cobalt-molybdenum, and molybdenum was 115.2, 106.8, and 177.5 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively. With this evidence and considering the volcano shape described by the ammonia decomposition rate in relation to the metal composition ratio, the synergistic behavior of the system is clearly observed. However, since characterizations by XRD and TEM were inconclusive, the formation of intermetallic compounds should be still verified using HRTEM-EDS. From this point onwards, our objective is to incorporate parameters into the kinetic expressions that consider both compositional and structural elements and explore how these can maximize or influence H₂ production.

Keywords: CEDI, hydrogen carrier, LHHW, RDS

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Authors: Deinzel R. Uezono, Vivien Fe F. Fadrilan-Camacho, Bianca Margarita L. Medina, Antonio Domingo R. Reario, Trisha M. Salcedo, Luke Wesley P. Borromeo

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The environment of health care workers is considered one of the most hazardous settings due to the nature of their work. In developing countries especially, the Philippines, this continues to be overlooked in terms of programs and services on occupational health and safety (OHS). One possible reason for this is the existing information gap on OHS which limits data comparability and impairs effective monitoring and assessment of interventions. To address this gap, there is a need to determine the current conditions of Filipino health care workers in their workplace. This descriptive cross-sectional study assessed the occupational health and safety conditions of health care workers in barangay health centers in a selected city in Metro Manila, Philippines by: (1) determining the hazards present in the workplace; (2) determining the most common self-reported medical problems; and (3) describing the elements of an OHS system based on the six building blocks of health system. Assessment was done through walkthrough survey, self-administered questionnaire, and key informant interview. Data analysis was done using Epi Info 7 and NVivo 11. Results revealed different health hazards present in the workplace particularly biological hazards (exposure to sick patients and infectious specimens), physical hazards (inadequate space and/or lighting), chemical hazards (toxic reagents and flammable chemicals), and ergonomic hazards (activities requiring repetitive motion and awkward posture). Additionally, safety hazards (improper capping of syringe and lack of fire safety provisions) were also observed. Meanwhile, the most commonly self-reported chronic diseases among health care workers (N=336) were hypertension (20.24%, n=68) and diabetes (12.50%, n=42). Top commonly self-reported symptoms were colds (66.07%, n=222), coughs (63.10%, n=212), headache (55.65%, n=187), and muscle pain (50.60%, n=170) while other diseases were influenza (16.96%, n=57) and UTI (15.48%, n=52). In terms of the elements of the OHS system, a general policy on occupational health and safety was found to be lacking and in effect, an absence of health and safety committee overseeing the implementing and monitoring of the policy. No separate budget specific for OHS programs and services was also found to be a limitation. As a result, no OHS personnel and trainings/seminar were identified. No established information system for OHS was in place. In conclusion, health and safety hazards were observed to be present across the barangay health centers visited in a selected city in Metro Manila. Medical conditions identified as most commonly self-reported were hypertension and diabetes for chronic diseases; colds, coughs, headache, and muscle pain for medical symptoms; and influenza and UTI for other diseases. As for the elements of the occupational health and safety system, there was a lack in the general components of the six building blocks of the health system.

Keywords: health hazards, occupational health and safety, occupational health and safety system, safety hazards

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Authors: Omar Romero-Hernandez, Federico Castillo, Armando Sanchez, Sergio Romero, Andrea Romero, Michael Mitchell

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Environmental policies for resource conservation in rural areas include subsidies on services and social programs to cover living expenses. Government's expectation is that rural communities who benefit from social programs, such as payment for ecosystem services, are provided with an incentive to conserve natural resources and preserve natural sinks for greenhouse gases. At the same time, global climate change has affected the lives of people worldwide. The capability to adapt to global warming depends on the available resources and the standard of living, putting rural communities at a disadvantage. This paper explores whether rural entrepreneurship can represent a solution to resource conservation and global warming adaptation in rural communities. The research focuses on a sample of two coffee communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. Researchers used geospatial information contained in aerial photographs of the geographical areas of interest. Households were identified in the photos via the roofs of households and georeferenced via coordinates. From the household population, a random selection of roofs was performed and received a visit. A total of 112 surveys were completed, including questions of socio-demographics, perception to climate change and adaptation activities. The population includes two groups of study: entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. Data was sorted, filtered, and validated. Analysis includes descriptive statistics for exploratory purposes and a multi-regression analysis. Outcomes from the surveys indicate that coffee farmers, who demonstrate entrepreneurship skills and hire employees, are more eager to adapt to climate change despite the extreme adverse socioeconomic conditions of the region. We show that farmers with entrepreneurial tendencies are more creative in using innovative farm practices such as the planting of shade trees, the use of live fencing, instead of wires, and watershed protection techniques, among others. This result counters the notion that small farmers are at the mercy of climate change and have no possibility of being able to adapt to a changing climate. The study also points to roadblocks that farmers face when coping with climate change. Among those roadblocks are a lack of extension services, access to credit, and reliable internet, all of which reduces access to vital information needed in today’s constantly changing world. Results indicate that, under some circumstances, funding and supporting entrepreneurship programs may provide more benefit than traditional social programs.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, global warming, rural communities, climate change adaptation

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Authors: Victoria Molina, Wendy Franco, Sergio Benavides, José M. Troncoso, Ricardo Luna, Jose R. PéRez-Correa

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Emamectin Benzoate (EB) is a crystal antiparasitic that belongs to the avermectin family. It is one of the most common treatments used in Chile to control Caligus rogercresseyi in Atlantic salmon. However, the sea lice acquired resistance to EB when it is exposed at sublethal EB doses. The low solubility rate of EB and its degradation at the acidic pH in the fish digestive tract are the causes of the slow absorption of EB in the intestine. To protect EB from degradation and enhance its absorption, specific microencapsulation technologies must be developed. Amorphous Solid Dispersion techniques such as Spray Drying (SD) and Ionic Gelation (IG) seem adequate for this purpose. Recently, Soluplus® (SOL) has been used to increase the solubility rate of several drugs with similar characteristics than EB. In addition, alginate (ALG) is a widely used polymer in IG for biomedical applications. Regardless of the encapsulation technique, the quality of the obtained microparticles is evaluated with the following responses, yield (Y%), encapsulation efficiency (EE%) and loading capacity (LC%). In addition, it is important to know the percentage of EB released from the microparticles in gastric (GD%) and intestinal (ID%) digestions. In this work, we microencapsulated EB with SOL (EB-SD) and with ALG (EB-IG) using SD and IG, respectively. Quality microencapsulation responses and in vitro gastric and intestinal digestions at pH 3.35 and 7.8, respectively, were obtained. A central composite design was used to find the optimum microencapsulation variables (amount of EB, amount of polymer and feed flow). In each formulation, the behavior of these variables was predicted with statistical models. Then, the response surface methodology was used to find the best combination of the factors that allowed a lower EB release in gastric conditions, while permitting a major release at intestinal digestion. Two approaches were used to determine this. The desirability approach (DA) and multi-objective optimization (MOO) with multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). Both microencapsulation techniques allowed to maintain the integrity of EB in acid pH, given the small amount of EB released in gastric medium, while EB-IG microparticles showed greater EB release at intestinal digestion. For EB-SD, optimal conditions obtained with MOO plus MCDM yielded a good compromise among the microencapsulation responses. In addition, using these conditions, it is possible to reduce microparticles costs due to the reduction of 60% of BE regard the optimal BE proposed by (DA). For EB-GI, the optimization techniques used (DA and MOO) yielded solutions with different advantages and limitations. Applying DA costs can be reduced 21%, while Y, GD and ID showed 9.5%, 84.8% and 2.6% lower values than the best condition. In turn, MOO yielded better microencapsulation responses, but at a higher cost. Overall, EB-SD with operating conditions selected by MOO seems the best option, since a good compromise between costs and encapsulation responses was obtained.

Keywords: microencapsulation, multiple decision-making criteria, multi-objective optimization, Soluplus®

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Authors: Alessandra Pardu, Elena Curti, Marco Caredda, Alessio Dedola, Margherita Addis, Massimo Pes, Antonio Pirisi, Tonina Roggio, Sergio Uzzau, Roberto Anedda

Abstract:

Some of the artisanal cheeses products of European Countries certificated as PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) are made from raw milk. To recognise potential frauds (e.g. pasteurisation or thermisation of milk aimed at raw milk cheese production), the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) assay is currently applied only for pasteurisation, although it is known to have notable limitations for the validation of ALP enzymatic state in nonbovine milk. It is known that frauds considerably impact on customers and certificating institutions, sometimes resulting in a damage of the product image and potential economic losses for cheesemaking producers. Robust, validated, and univocal analytical methods are therefore needed to allow Food Control and Security Organisms, to recognise a potential fraud. In an attempt to develop a new reliable method to overcome this issue, Time-Domain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (TD-NMR) spectroscopy has been applied in the described work. Daily fresh milk was analysed raw (680.00 µL in each 10-mm NMR glass tube) at least in triplicate. Thermally treated samples were also produced, by putting each NMR tube of fresh raw milk in water pre-heated at temperatures from 68°C up to 72°C and for up to 3 min, with continuous agitation, and quench-cooled to 25°C in a water and ice solution. Raw and thermally treated samples were analysed in terms of 1H T2 transverse relaxation times with a CPMG sequence (Recycle Delay: 6 s, interpulse spacing: 0.05 ms, 8000 data points) and quasi-continuous distributions of T2 relaxation times were obtained by CONTIN analysis. In line with previous data collected by high field NMR techniques, a decrease in the spin-spin relaxation constant T2 of the predominant 1H population was detected in heat-treated milk as compared to raw milk. The decrease of T2 parameter is consistent with changes in chemical exchange and diffusive phenomena, likely associated to changes in milk protein (i.e. whey proteins and casein) arrangement promoted by heat treatment. Furthermore, experimental data suggest that molecular alterations are strictly dependent on the specific heat treatment conditions (temperature/time). Such molecular variations in milk, which are likely transferred to cheese during cheesemaking, highlight the possibility to extend the TD-NMR technique directly on cheese to develop a method for assessing a fraud related to the use of a milk thermal treatment in PDO raw milk cheese. Results suggest that TDNMR assays might pave a new way to the detailed characterisation of heat treatments of milk.

Keywords: cheese fraud, milk, pasteurisation, TD-NMR

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Authors: Sergio A. Navarro Tuch, Martin Rogelio Bustamante Bello, Leopoldo Julian Lechuga Lopez

Abstract:

In recent years, Mexico’s population has seen a rise of different physiological and mental negative states. Two main consequences of this problematic are deficient work performance and high levels of stress generating and important impact on a person’s physical, mental and emotional health. Several approaches, such as the use of audiovisual stimulus to induce emotions and modify a person’s emotional state, can be applied in an effort to decreases these negative effects. With the use of different non-invasive physiological sensors such as EEG, luminosity and face recognition we gather information of the subject’s current emotional state. In a controlled environment, a subject is shown a series of selected images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) in order to induce a specific set of emotions and obtain information from the sensors. The raw data obtained is statistically analyzed in order to filter only the specific groups of information that relate to a subject’s emotions and current values of the physical variables in the controlled environment such as, luminosity, RGB light color, temperature, oxygen level and noise. Finally, a neural network based control algorithm is given the data obtained in order to feedback the system and automate the modification of the environment variables and audiovisual content shown in an effort that these changes can positively alter the subject’s emotional state. During the research, it was found that the light color was directly related to the type of impact generated by the audiovisual content on the subject’s emotional state. Red illumination increased the impact of violent images and green illumination along with relaxing images decreased the subject’s levels of anxiety. Specific differences between men and women were found as to which type of images generated a greater impact in either gender. The population sample was mainly constituted by college students whose data analysis showed a decreased sensibility to violence towards humans. Despite the early stage of the control algorithm, the results obtained from the population sample give us a better insight into the possibilities of emotional domotics and the applications that can be created towards the improvement of performance in people’s lives. The objective of this research is to create a positive impact with the application of technology to everyday activities; nonetheless, an ethical problem arises since this can also be applied to control a person’s emotions and shift their decision making.

Keywords: data analysis, emotional domotics, performance improvement, neural network

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Authors: Alondra Balbuena Medina, Carlos Diaz Delgado, Aleida Yadira Vilchis Fránces

Abstract:

In Mexico, each year news is disseminated about the ravages of floods, such as the total loss of housing, damage to the fields; the increase of the costs of the food, derived from the losses of the harvests, coupled with health problems such as skin infection, etc. In addition to social problems such as delinquency, damage in education institutions and the population in general. The flooding is a consequence of heavy rains, tropical storms and or hurricanes that generate excess water in drainage systems that exceed its capacity. In urban areas, heavy rains can be one of the main factors in causing flooding, in addition to excessive precipitation, dam breakage, and human activities, for example, excessive garbage in the strainers. In agricultural areas, these can hardly achieve large areas of cultivation. It should be mentioned that for both areas, one of the significant impacts of floods is that they can permanently affect the livelihoods of many families, cause damage, for example in their workplaces such as farmlands, commercial or industry areas and where services are provided. In recent years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have had an accelerated development, being reflected in the growth and the exponential evolution of the innovation giving; as a result, the daily generation of new technologies, updates, and applications. Innovation in the development of Information Technology applications has impacted on all areas of human activity. They influence all the orders of life of individuals, reconfiguring the way of perceiving and analyzing the world such as, for instance, interrelating with people as individuals and as a society, in the economic, political, social, cultural, educational, environmental, etc. Therefore the present work describes the creation of a system of calculation of flood costs for housing areas, retail establishments and agricultural areas from the Mexican Republic, based on the use and application of geotechnical tools being able to be useful for the benefit of the sectors of public, education and private. To generate analysis of hydrometereologic affections and with the obtained results to realize the Geoinformatics tool was constructed from two different points of view: the geoinformatic (design and development of GIS software) and the methodology of flood damage validation in order to integrate a tool that provides the user the monetary estimate of the effects caused by the floods. With information from the period 2000-2014, the functionality of the application was corroborated. For the years 2000 to 2009 only the analysis of the agricultural and housing areas was carried out, incorporating for the commercial establishment's information of the period 2010 - 2014. The method proposed for the resolution of this research project is a fundamental contribution to society, in addition to the tool itself. Therefore, it can be summarized that the problems that are in the physical-geographical environment, conceiving them from the point of view of the spatial analysis, allow to offer different alternatives of solution and also to open up slopes towards academia and research.

Keywords: floods, technological innovation, monetary estimation, spatial analysis

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