Search results for: Carolina Morales

Authors: Natalia Carolina Encalada Castillo

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As part of an intended radical policy change compared to former administrations in Ecuador, the transformation of the institutionality of international cooperation during the period of President Rafael Correa was considered as a key element for the construction of the state of 'Good Living'. This intention led to several regulatory changes in the reception of cooperation for development, and even the departure of some foreign cooperation agencies. Moreover, Ecuador launched the initiative to become a donor of cooperation towards other developing countries through the ‘South-South Cooperation’ approach. All these changes were institutionalized through the Ecuadorian System of International Cooperation as a new framework to establish rules and policies that guarantee a sovereign management of foreign aid. Therefore, this research project has been guided by two questions: What were the factors that motivated the transformation of the institutionality of international cooperation in Ecuador from 2007 to 2017? and, what were the implications of this transformation in terms of the international role of the country? This paper seeks to answer these questions through Role Theory within a Constructivist meta-theoretical perspective, considering that in this case, changes at the institutional level in the field of cooperation, responded not only to material motivations but also to interests built on the basis of a specific state identity. The latter was only possible to affirm through specific roles such as ‘sovereign recipient of cooperation’ as well as ‘donor of international cooperation’. However, the performance of these roles was problematic as they were not easily accepted by the other actors in the international arena or in the domestic level. In terms of methodology, these dynamics are analyzed in a qualitative way mainly through interpretive analysis of the discourse of high-level decision-makers from Ecuador and other cooperation actors. Complementary to this, document-based research of relevant information as well as interviews have been conducted. Finally, it is concluded that even if material factors such as infrastructure needs, trade and investment interests, as well as reinforcement of state control and monitoring of cooperation flows, motivated the institutional transformation of international cooperation in Ecuador; the essential basis of these changes was the search for a new identity for the country to be projected in the international arena. This identity started to be built but continues to be unstable. Therefore, it is important to potentiate the achievements of the new international cooperation policies, and review their weaknesses, so that non-reimbursable cooperation funds received as well as ‘South-South cooperation’ actions, contribute effectively to national objectives.

Keywords: Ecuador, international cooperation, Role Theory, state identity

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Authors: Kathrina Aseanne Acapulco-Gomez, Shayne Julieane Morales, Tzar Francis Verame

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Mean platelet volume (MPV) is the most accurate measure of the size of platelets and is routinely measured by most automated hematological analyzers. Several studies have shown associations between MPV and cardiovascular risks and outcomes. Although its measurement may provide useful data, MPV remains to be a diagnostic tool that is yet to be included in routine clinical decision making. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine summary estimates of the diagnostic accuracy of mean platelet volume for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction among adult patients with angina and/or its equivalents in terms of sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio, and likelihood ratios, and to determine the difference of the mean MPV values between those with MI and those in the non-MI controls. The primary search was done through search in electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Review CENTRAL, HERDIN (Health Research and Development Information Network), Google Scholar, Philippine Journal of Pathology, and Philippine College of Physicians Philippine Journal of Internal Medicine. The reference list of original reports was also searched. Cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control articles studying the diagnostic performance of mean platelet volume in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction in adult patients were included in the study. Studies were included if: (1) CBC was taken upon presentation to the ER or upon admission (within 24 hours of symptom onset); (2) myocardial infarction was diagnosed with serum markers, ECG, or according to accepted guidelines by the Cardiology societies (American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC), European Society of Cardiology (ESC); and, (3) if outcomes were measured as significant difference AND/OR sensitivity and specificity. The authors independently screened for inclusion of all the identified potential studies as a result of the search. Eligible studies were appraised using well-defined criteria. Any disagreement between the reviewers was resolved through discussion and consensus. The overall mean MPV value of those with MI (9.702 fl; 95% CI 9.07 – 10.33) was higher than in those of the non-MI control group (8.85 fl; 95% CI 8.23 – 9.46). Interpretation of the calculated t-value of 2.0827 showed that there was a significant difference in the mean MPV values of those with MI and those of the non-MI controls. The summary sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) for MPV were 0.66 (95% CI; 0.59 - 0.73) and 0.60 (95% CI; 0.43 – 0.75), respectively. The pooled diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) was 2.92 (95% CI; 1.90 – 4.50). The positive likelihood ratio of MPV in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction was 1.65 (95% CI; 1.20 – 22.27), and the negative likelihood ratio was 0.56 (95% CI; 0.50 – 0.64). The intended role for MPV in the diagnostic pathway of myocardial infarction would perhaps be best as a triage tool. With a DOR of 2.92, MPV values can discriminate between those who have MI and those without. For a patient with angina presenting with elevated MPV values, it is 1.65 times more likely that he has MI. Thus, it is implied that the decision to treat a patient with angina or its equivalents as a case of MI could be supported by an elevated MPV value.

Keywords: mean platelet volume, MPV, myocardial infarction, angina, chest pain

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Authors: Franco Lorenzo D. Morales

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‘Toshi-no-sakon,’ which translates to as ‘age gap marriage,’ is a term that has been popularized by celebrity couples in the Japanese entertainment industry. Japan is distinct for a developed nation for its rapidly aging population, declining marital and fertility rates, and the reinforcement of traditional gender roles. Statistical data has shown that the average age of marriage in Japan is increasing every year, showing a growing tendency for late marriage. As a result, the government has been trying to curb the declining trends by encouraging marriage and childbirth among the populace. This graduate thesis seeks to analyze the ‘toshi-no-sakon’ phenomenon in lieu of Japan’s current economic and social situation, and to see what the implications are for these kinds of married couples. This research also seeks to expound more on age gaps within married couples, which is a factor rarely-touched upon in Japanese family studies. A literature review was first performed in order to provide a framework to study ‘toshi-no-sakon’ from the perspective of four fields of study—marriage, family, aging, and gender. Numerous anonymous online statements by ‘toshi-no-sakon’ couples were then collected and analyzed, which brought to light a number of concerns. Couples wherein the husband is the older partner were prioritized in order to narrow down the focus of the research, and ‘toshi-no-sakon’ is only considered when the couple’s age gap is ten years or more. Current findings suggest that one of the perceived merits for a woman to marry an older man is that financial security would be guaranteed. However, this has been shown to be untrue as a number of couples express concern regarding their financial situation, which could be attributed to their husband’s socio-economic status. Having an older husband who is approaching the age of retirement presents another dilemma as the wife would be more obliged to provide care for her aging husband. This notion of the wife being a caregiver likely stems from an arrangement once common in Japanese families in which the wife must primarily care for her husband’s elderly parents. Childbearing is another concern as couples would be pressured to have a child right away due to the age of the husband, in addition to limiting the couple’s ideal number of children. This is another problematic aspect as the husband would have to provide income until his child has finished their education, implying that retirement would have to be delayed indefinitely. It is highly recommended that future studies conduct face-to-face interviews with couples and families who fall under the category of ‘toshi-no-sakon’ in order to gain a more in-depth perspective into the phenomenon and to reveal any undiscovered trends. Cases wherein the wife is the older partner in the relationship should also be given focus in future studies involving ‘toshi-no-sakon’.

Keywords: age gap, family structure, gender roles, marriage trends

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Authors: Carolina Silva Ansélmo

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Airports are demand-generating poles that affect the flow of traffic around them. The airport access system must be fast, convenient, and adequately planned, considering its potential users. An airport with good ground access conditions can provide the user with a more satisfactory access experience. When several transport options are available, service providers must understand users' preferences and the expected quality of service. The present study focuses on airport access in a comparative scenario between bus, private vehicle, subway, taxi and urban mobility transport applications to São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport. The objectives are (i) to identify the factors that influence the choice, (ii) to measure Willingness to Pay (WTP), and (iii) to estimate the market share for each modal. The applied method was Adaptive Choice-based Conjoint Analysis (ACBC) technique using Sawtooth Software. Conjoint analysis, rooted in Utility Theory, is a survey technique that quantifies the customer's perceived utility when choosing alternatives. Assessing user preferences provides insights into their priorities for product or service attributes. An additional advantage of conjoint analysis is its requirement for a smaller sample size compared to other methods. Furthermore, ACBC provides valuable insights into consumers' preferences, willingness to pay, and market dynamics, aiding strategic decision-making to provide a better customer experience, pricing, and market segmentation. In the present research, the ACBC questionnaire had the following variables: (i) access time to the boarding point, (ii) comfort in the vehicle, (iii) number of travelers together, (iv) price, (v) supply power, and (vi) type of vehicle. The case study questionnaire reached 213 valid responses considering the scenario of access from the São Paulo city center to São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport. As a result, the price and the number of travelers are the most relevant attributes for the sample when choosing airport access. The market share of the selection is mainly urban mobility transport applications, followed by buses, private vehicles, taxis and subways.

Keywords: adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis, ground access to airport, market share, willingness to pay

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Authors: Carolina Arriagada, Yasna Contreras

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Since mid-2000, the migratory flows of Latin American migrants to Chile have been increasing constantly. There are two reasons that would explain why Chile is presented as an attractive country for the migrants. On the one hand, traditional centres of migrants’ attraction such as the United States and Europe have begun to close their borders. On the other hand, Chile exhibits relative economic and political stability, which offers greater job opportunities and better standard of living when compared to the migrants’ origin country. At the same time, the neoliberal economic model of Chile, developed under an extractive production of the natural resources, has privatized the urban space. The market regulates the growth of the fragmented and segregated cities. Then, the vulnerable population, most of the time, is located in the periphery and in the marginal areas of the urban space. In this aspect, the migrants have begun to occupy those degraded and depressed areas of the city. The problem raised is that the increase of the social spatial segregation could be also attributed to the migrants´ occupation of the marginal urban places of the city. The aim of this investigation is to carry out an analysis of the migrants’ housing strategies, which are transforming the marginal areas of the city. The methodology focused on the urban experience of the migrants, through the observation of spatial practices, ways of living and networks configuration in order to transform the marginal territory. The techniques applied in this study are semi–structured interviews in-depth interviews. The study reveals that the migrants housing strategies for living in the marginal areas of the city are built on a paradox way. On the one hand, the migrants choose proximity to their place of origin, maintaining their identity and customs. On the other hand, the migrants choose proximity to their social and familiar places, generating sense of belonging. In conclusion, the migration as international displacements under a globalized economic model increasing socio spatial segregation in cities is evidenced, but the transformation of the marginal areas is a fundamental resource of their integration migratory process. The importance of this research is that it is everybody´s responsibility not only the right to live in a city without any discrimination but also to integrate the citizens within the social urban space of a city.

Keywords: migrations, marginal space, resignification, visibility

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Authors: Carolina S. Monteiro, Eugénia Pinto, Miguel A. Faria, Sara C. Cunha

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Rice (Oryza sativa) production plays a vital role in reducing hunger and poverty and assumes particular importance in low-income and developing countries. Rice is a sensitive plant, and production occurs strictly where suitable temperature and water conditions are found. Climatic changes are likely to affect worldwide, and some models have predicted increased temperatures, variations in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and modification in precipitation patterns. Therefore, the ongoing climatic changes threaten rice production by increasing biotic and abiotic stress factors, and crops will grow in different environmental conditions in the following years. Around the world, the effects will be regional and can be detrimental or advantageous depending on the region. Mediterranean zones have been identified as possible hot spots, where dramatic temperature changes, modifications of CO₂ levels, and rainfall patterns are predicted. The actual estimated atmospheric CO₂ concentration is around 400 ppm, and it is predicted that it can reach up to 1000–1200 ppm, which can lead to a temperature increase of 2–4 °C. Alongside, rainfall patterns are also expected to change, with more extreme wet/dry episodes taking place. As a result, it could increase the migration of pathogens, and a shift in the occurrence of mycotoxins, concerning their types and concentrations, is expected. Mycotoxigenic spoilage fungi can colonize the crops and be present in all rice food chain supplies, especially Penicillium species, mainly resulting in ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination. In this scenario, the objectives of the present study are evaluating the effect of temperature (20 vs. 25 °C), CO₂ (400 vs. 1000 ppm), and water stress (0.93 vs 0.95 water activity) on growth and OTA production by a Penicillium nordicum strain in vitro on rice-based media and when colonizing layers of raw rice. Results demonstrate the effect of temperature, CO₂ and drought on the OTA production in a rice-based environment, thus contributing to the development of mycotoxins predictive models in climate change scenarios. As a result, improving mycotoxins' surveillance and monitoring systems, whose occurrence can be more frequent due to climatic changes, seems relevant and necessary. The development of prediction models for hazard contaminants presents in foods highly sensitive to climatic changes, such as mycotoxins, in the highly probable new agricultural scenarios is of paramount importance.

Keywords: climate changes, ochratoxin A, penicillium, rice

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Authors: Carolina S. Correia, Thalita V. Thomé, Andersen Boniolo, Dhayana I. Veiga

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Evidence-based practices (EBP) in education is a set of principles and practices used to raise educational policy, it involves the integration of professional expertise in education with the best empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction. The purpose of this presentation is to describe and characterize studies about EBP in education in elementary classroom setting. Data here presented is part of an ongoing systematic review research. Articles were searched and selected from four academic databases: ProQuest, Scielo, Science Direct and Capes. The search terms were evidence-based practices or program effectiveness, and education or teaching or teaching practices or teaching methods. Articles were included according to the following criteria: The studies were explicitly described as evidence-based or discussed the most effective practices in education, they discussed teaching practices in classroom context in elementary school level. Document excerpts were extracted and recorded in Excel, organized by reference, descriptors, abstract, purpose, setting, participants, type of teaching practice, study design and main results. The total amount of articles selected were 1.185, 569 articles from Proquest Research Library; 216 from CAPES; 251 from ScienceDirect and 149 from Scielo Library. The potentially relevant references were 178, from which duplicates were removed. The final number of articles analyzed was 140. From 140 articles, are 47 theoretical studies and 93 empirical articles. The following research design methods were identified: longitudinal intervention study, cluster-randomized trial, meta-analysis and pretest-posttest studies. From 140 articles, 103 studies were about regular school teaching and 37 were on special education teaching practices. In several studies, used as teaching method: active learning, content acquisition podcast (CAP), precision teaching (PT), mediated reading practice, speech therapist programs and peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS). The countries of origin of the studies were United States of America, United Kingdom, Panama, Sweden, Scotland, South Korea, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Brunei. The present study in is an ongoing project, so some representative findings will be discussed, providing further acknowledgment on the best teaching practices in elementary classroom setting.

Keywords: best practices, children, evidence-based education, elementary school, teaching methods

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Authors: Delphine Morales, Florian Lombart, Agathe Truchot, Pauline Maire, Pascale Vigneron, Antoine Galmiche, Catherine Lok, Muriel Vayssade

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Targeted therapy molecules are used as a first-line treatment for metastatic melanoma with B-Raf mutation. Nevertheless, these molecules can cause side effects to patients and are efficient on 50 to 60 % of them. Indeed, melanoma cell sensitivity to targeted therapy molecules is dependent on tumor microenvironment (cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions). To better unravel factors modulating cell sensitivity to B-Raf inhibitor, we have developed and compared several melanoma models: from metastatic melanoma cells cultured as monolayer (2D) to a co-culture in a 3D dermal equivalent. Cell response was studied in different melanoma cell lines such as SK-MEL-28 (mutant B-Raf (V600E), sensitive to Vemurafenib), SK-MEL-3 (mutant B-Raf (V600E), resistant to Vemurafenib) and a primary culture of dermal human fibroblasts (HDFn). Assays have initially been performed in a monolayer cell culture (2D), then a second time on a 3D dermal equivalent (dermal human fibroblasts embedded in a collagen gel). All cell lines were treated with Vemurafenib (a B-Raf inhibitor) for 48 hours at various concentrations. Cell sensitivity to treatment was assessed under various aspects: Cell proliferation (cell counting, EdU incorporation, MTS assay), MAPK signaling pathway analysis (Western-Blotting), Apoptosis (TUNEL), Cytokine release (IL-6, IL-1α, HGF, TGF-β, TNF-α) upon Vemurafenib treatment (ELISA) and histology for 3D models. In 2D configuration, the inhibitory effect of Vemurafenib on cell proliferation was confirmed on SK-MEL-28 cells (IC50=0.5 µM), and not on the SK-MEL-3 cell line. No apoptotic signal was detected in SK-MEL-28-treated cells, suggesting a cytostatic effect of the Vemurafenib rather than a cytotoxic one. The inhibition of SK-MEL-28 cell proliferation upon treatment was correlated with a strong expression decrease of phosphorylated proteins involved in the MAPK pathway (ERK, MEK, and AKT/PKB). Vemurafenib (from 5 µM to 10 µM) also slowed down HDFn proliferation, whatever cell culture configuration (monolayer or 3D dermal equivalent). SK-MEL-28 cells cultured in the dermal equivalent were still sensitive to high Vemurafenib concentrations. To better characterize all cell population impacts (melanoma cells, dermal fibroblasts) on Vemurafenib efficacy, cytokine release is being studied in 2D and 3D models. We have successfully developed and validated a relevant 3D model, mimicking cutaneous metastatic melanoma and tumor microenvironment. This 3D melanoma model will become more complex by adding a third cell population, keratinocytes, allowing us to characterize the epidermis influence on the melanoma cell sensitivity to Vemurafenib. In the long run, the establishment of more relevant 3D melanoma models with patients’ cells might be useful for personalized therapy development. The authors would like to thank the Picardie region and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2014/2020 for the funding of this work and Oise committee of "La ligue contre le cancer".

Keywords: 3D human skin model, melanoma, tissue engineering, vemurafenib efficiency

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Authors: Olga S. Volodko, Lidiya A. Kompaniets, Ludmila V. Gavrilova

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The method of empirical orthogonal functions is the method of data analysis with a complex spatial-temporal structure. This method allows us to decompose the data into a finite number of modes determined by empirically finding the eigenfunctions of data correlation matrix. The modes have different scales and can be associated with various physical processes. The empirical orthogonal function method has been widely used for the analysis of hydrophysical characteristics, for example, the analysis of sea surface temperatures in the Western North Atlantic, ocean surface currents in the North Carolina, the study of tropical wave disturbances etc. The method used in this study has been applied to the analysis of temperature and velocity measurements in saline Lake Shira (Southern Siberia, Russia). Shira is a shallow lake with the maximum depth of 25 m. The lake Shira can be considered as a closed water site because of it has one small river providing inflow and but it has no outflows. The main factor that causes the motion of fluid is variable wind flows. In summer the lake is strongly stratified by temperature and saline. Long-term measurements of the temperatures and currents were conducted at several points during summer 2014-2015. The temperature has been measured with an accuracy of 0.1 ºC. The data were analyzed using the empirical orthogonal function method in the real version. The first empirical eigenmode accounts for 70-80 % of the energy and can be interpreted as temperature distribution with a thermocline. A thermocline is a thermal layer where the temperature decreases rapidly from the mixed upper layer of the lake to much colder deep water. The higher order modes can be interpreted as oscillations induced by internal waves. The currents measurements were recorded using Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers 600 kHz and 1200 kHz. The data were analyzed using the empirical orthogonal function method in the complex version. The first empirical eigenmode accounts for about 40 % of the energy and corresponds to the Ekman spiral occurring in the case of a stationary homogeneous fluid. Other modes describe the effects associated with the stratification of fluids. The second and next empirical eigenmodes were associated with dynamical modes. These modes were obtained for a simplified model of inhomogeneous three-level fluid at a water site with a flat bottom.

Keywords: Ekman spiral, empirical orthogonal functions, data analysis, stratified fluid, thermocline

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Authors: Ana-Carolina Feltrin, Daniel Hedman, Farid Akhtar

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High entropy ceramic (HEC) materials are characterized by their compositional disorder due to different metallic element atoms occupying the cation position and non-metal elements occupying the anion position. Several studies have focused on the processing and characterization of high entropy carbides and high entropy borides, as these HECs present interesting mechanical and chemical properties. A few studies have been published on HECs containing two non-metallic elements in the composition. Dual-phase high entropy (Ti₀.₂₅V₀.₂₅Zr₀.₂₅Hf₀.₂₅)BxCy ceramics with different amounts of x and y, (0.25 HfC + 0.25 ZrC + 0.25 VC + 0.25 TiB₂), (0.25 HfC + 0.25 ZrC + 0.25 VB2 + 0.25 TiB₂) and (0.25 HfC + 0.25 ZrB2 + 0.25 VB2 + 0.25 TiB₂) were sintered from boride and carbide precursor powders using SPS at 2000°C with holding time of 10 min, uniaxial pressure of 50 MPa and under Ar atmosphere. The sintered specimens formed two HEC phases: a Zr-Hf rich FCC phase and a Ti-V HCP phase, and both phases contained all the metallic elements from 5-50 at%. Phase quantification analysis of XRD data revealed that the molar amount of hexagonal phase increased with increased mole fraction of borides in the starting powders, whereas cubic FCC phase increased with increased carbide in the starting powders. SPS consolidated (Ti₀.₂₅V₀.₂₅Zr₀.₂₅Hf₀.₂₅)BC0.5 and (Ti₀.₂₅V₀.₂₅Zr₀.₂₅Hf₀.₂₅)B1.5C0.25 had respectively 94.74% and 88.56% relative density. (Ti₀.₂₅V₀.₂₅Zr₀.₂₅Hf₀.₂₅)B0.5C0.75 presented the highest relative density of 95.99%, with Vickers hardness of 26.58±1.2 GPa for the borides phase and 18.29±0.8 GPa for the carbides phase, which exceeded the reported hardness values reported in the literature for high entropy ceramics. The SPS sintered specimens containing lower boron and higher carbon presented superior properties even though the metallic composition in each phase was similar to other compositions investigated. Dual-phase high entropy (Ti₀.₂₅V₀.₂₅Zr₀.₂₅H₀.₂₅)BxCy ceramics were successfully fabricated in a boride-carbide solid solution and the amount of boron and carbon was shown to influence the phase fraction, hardness of phases, and density of the consolidated HECs. The microstructure and phase formation was highly dependent on the amount of non-metallic elements in the composition and not only the molar ratio between metals when producing high entropy ceramics with more than one anion in the sublattice. These findings show the importance of further studies about the optimization of the ratio between C and B for further improvements in the properties of dual-phase high entropy ceramics.

Keywords: high-entropy ceramics, borides, carbides, dual-phase

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Authors: E. Akdur Öztürk, F. İrvasa Bilgiç, A. Ludovisi , O. Gülbahar, D. Dirim Erdoğan, M. Korkmaz, M. Á. Gómez Morales

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Anisakidosis is a zoonotic human fish-borne parasitic disease caused by accidental ingestion of anisakid third-stage larvae (L3) of members of the Anisakidae family present in infected marine fish or cephalopods. Infection with anisakid larvae can lead to gastric, intestinal, extra-gastrointestinal and gastroallergic forms of the disease. Anisakid parasites have been reported in almost all seas, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea. There is a remarkably high level of risk exposure to these zoonotic parasites as they are present in economically and ecologically important fish of Europe. Anisakid L3 larvae have been also detected in several fish species from the Aegean Sea. Turkey is a peninsular country surrounded by Black, Aegean and the Mediterranean Sea. In this country, fishing habit and fishery product consumption are highly common. In recent years, there was also an increase in the consumption of raw fish due to the increasing interest in the cuisine of the Far East countries. In different regions of Turkey, A. simplex (inMerluccius Merluccius Scomber japonicus, Trachurus mediterraneus, Sardina pilchardus, Engraulis encrasicolus, etc.), Anisakis spp., Contraceucum spp., Pseudoterronova spp. and, C. aduncum were identified as well. Although it is accepted both the presence of anisakid parasites in fish and fishery products in Turkey and the presence of Turkish people with allergic manifestations after fish consumption, there are no reports of human anisakiasis in this country. Given the high prevalence of anisakid parasites in the country, the absence of reports is likely not due to the absence of clinical cases rather to the unavailability of diagnostic tools and the low awareness of the presence of this infection. The aim of the study was to set up an IgE-Western Blot (WB) based test to detect the anisakidosis sensitization among Turkish people with a history of allergic manifestation related to fish consumption. To this end, crude worm antigens (CWA) and allergen enriched fraction (50-66% ) were prepared from L3 of A. simplex (s.l.) collected from Lepidopus caudatus fished in the Mediterranean Sea. These proteins were electrophoretically separated and transferred into the nitrocellulose membranes. By WB, specific proteins recognized by positive control serum samples from sensitized patients were visualized on nitrocellulose membranes by a colorimetric reaction. The CWA and 50–66% fraction showed specific bands, mainly due to Ani s 1 (20-22 kD) and Ani s 4 (9-10 kD). So far, a total of 7 serum samples from people with allergic manifestation and positive skin prick test (SPT) after fish consumption, have been tested and all of them resulted negative by WB, indicating the lack of sensitization to anisakids. This preliminary study allowed to set up a specific test and evidence the lack of correlation between both tests, SPT and WB. However, the sample size should be increased to estimate the anisakidosis burden in Turkish people.

Keywords: anisakidosis, fish parasite, serodiagnosis, Turkey

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Authors: Laura Rueda-Gensini, Jader Rodríguez, Juan C. Cruz, Carolina Munoz-Camargo

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There is an emerging interest in botanicals and plant extracts for medicinal practices due to their widely reported health benefits. A large variety of phytochemicals found in plants have been correlated with antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and analgesic properties, which makes plant-derived products promising candidates for modulating the progression and treatment of numerous diseases. Non-centrifugal cane sugar (NCS), in particular, has been known for its high antioxidant and nutritional value, but composition-wise variability due to changing environmental and processing conditions have considerably limited its use in the nutraceutical and biomedical fields. This work is therefore aimed at assessing the effect of thermal exposure during NCS production over its bioactive composition and, in turn, its therapeutic value. Accordingly, two modified dehydration methods are proposed that employ: (i) vacuum-aided evaporation, which reduces the necessary temperatures to dehydrate the sample, and (ii) window refractance evaporation, which reduces thermal exposure time. The biochemical composition of NCS produced under these two methods was compared to traditionally-produced NCS by estimating their total polyphenolic and protein content with Folin-Ciocalteu and Bradford assays, as well as identifying the major phenolic compounds in each sample via HPLC-coupled mass spectrometry. Their antioxidant activities were also compared as measured by their scavenging potential of ABTS and DPPH radicals. Results show that the two modified production methods enhance polyphenolic and protein yield in resulting NCS samples when compared to traditional production methods. In particular, reducing employed temperatures with vacuum-aided evaporation demonstrated to be superior at preserving polyphenolic compounds, as evidenced both in the total and individual polyphenol concentrations. However, antioxidant activities were not significantly different between these. Although additional studies should be performed to determine if the observed compositional differences affect other therapeutic activities (e.g., anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and immunoprotective), these results suggest that reducing thermal exposure holds great promise for the production of natural products with enhanced nutritional value.

Keywords: non-centrifugal cane sugar, polyphenolic compounds, thermal processing, antioxidant activity

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Authors: Carolina Beltran, Carlos De Los Reyes

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Acquired brain injury (ABI) is any physical and functional injury secondary to events that affect the brain tissue. It is one of the biggest causes of disability in the world and it has a high annual incidence in the pediatric population. There are several causes of ABI such as traumatic brain injury, central nervous system infection, stroke, hypoxia, tumors and others. The consequences can be cognitive, behavioral, emotional and functional. The cognitive rehabilitation is necessary to achieve the best outcomes for pediatric people with ABI. Cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (CO-OP) is an individualized client-centered, performance-based, problem-solving approach that focuses on the strategy used to support the acquisition of three client-chosen goals. It has demonstrated improvements in the pediatric population with other neurological disorder but not in Spanish speakers with ABI. Aim: The main objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of cognitive orientation to daily occupational performances (CO-OP) adapted to Spanish speakers, in the level of independence and behavior in a pediatric population with ABI. Methods: Case studies with measure pre/post-treatment were used in three children with ABI, sustained at least before 6 months assessment, in school, aged 8 to 16 years, age ABI after 6 years old and above average intellectual ability. Twelve sessions of CO-OP adapted to Spanish speakers were used and videotaped. The outcomes were based on cognitive, behavior and functional independence measurements such as Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VINELAND, Social Support Scale (MOS-SSS) and others neuropsychological measures. This study was approved by the ethics committee of Universidad del Norte in Colombia. Informed parental written consent was obtained for all participants. Results: children were able to identify three goals and use the global strategy ‘goal-plan-do-check’ during each session. Verbal self-instruction was used by all children. CO-OP showed a clinically significant improvement in goals regarding with independence level and behavior according to parents and teachers. Conclusion: The results indicated that CO-OP and the use of a global strategy such as ‘goal-plan-do-check’ can be used in children with ABI in order to improve their specific goals. This is a preliminary version of a big study carrying in Colombia as part of the experimental design.

Keywords: cognitive rehabilitation, acquired brain injury, pediatric population, cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance

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Authors: Ana Carolina Kogawa, Selma Gutierrez Antonio, Hérida Regina Nunes Salgado

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Rifaximin is an oral antimicrobial, gut - selective and not systemic with adverse effects compared to placebo. It is used for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy, travelers diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, Clostridium difficile, ulcerative colitis and acute diarrhea. The crystalline form present in the rifaximin with minimal systemic absorption is α, being the amorphous form significantly different. Regulators are increasingly attention to polymorphisms. Polymorphs can change the form by altering the drug characteristics compromising the effectiveness and safety of the finished product. International Conference on Harmonization issued the ICH Guidance Q6A, which aim to improve the control of polymorphism in new and existing pharmaceuticals. The objective of this study was to obtain polymorphic forms of rifaximin employing recrystallization processes and characterize them by thermal analysis (thermogravimetry - TG and differential scanning calorimetry - DSC), X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and solubility test. Six polymorphic forms of rifaximin, designated I to VI were obtained by the crystallization process by evaporation of the solvent. The profiles of the TG curves obtained from polymorphic forms of rifaximin are similar to rifaximin and each other, however, the DTG are different, indicating different thermal behaviors. Melting temperature values of all the polymorphic forms were greater to that shown by the rifaximin, indicating the higher thermal stability of the obtained forms. The comparison of the diffractograms of the polymorphic forms of rifaximin with rifaximin α, β and γ constant in patent indicate that forms III, V and VI are formed by mixing polymorph β and α and form III is formed by polymorph β. The polymorphic form I is formed by polymorph β, but with a significant amount of amorphous material. Already, the polymorphic form II consists of polymorph γ, amorphous. In scanning electron microscope is possible to observe the heterogeneity of morphological characteristics of crystals of polymorphic forms among themselves and with rifaximin. The solubility of forms I and II was greater than the solubility of rifaximin, already, forms III, IV and V presented lower solubility than of rifaximin. Similarly, the bioavailability of the amorphous form of rifaximin is considered significantly higher than the form α, the polymorphic forms obtained in this work can not guarantee the excellent tolerability of the reference medicine. Therefore, studies like these are extremely important and they point to the need for greater requirements by the regulatory agencies competent about polymorphs analysis of the raw materials used in the manufacture of medicines marketed globally. These analyzes are not required in the majority of official compendia. Partnerships between industries, research centers and universities would be a viable way to consolidate researches in this area and contribute to improving the quality of solid drugs.

Keywords: electronic microscopy, polymorphism, rifaximin, solubility, X-ray diffraction

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Authors: Ana Carolina Felizardo Da Silva

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People with disabilities are those who have limitations of a physical, mental, intellectual or sensory nature and who, therefore, should not be excluded or marginalized. In Brazil, the Brazilian Law for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities defines that people with disabilities have the right to culture, sport, tourism and leisure on an equal basis with other people. Sport for people with disabilities, in its genesis, had a character aimed at rehabilitating men and soldiers, that is, the male figure who returned wounded from war and needed care. By gaining practitioners, the marketing issue emerges and, successively, high performance, what we call Paralympic sport. We found that sport for people with disabilities was designed for men, corroborating the social idea that sport is a masculine and masculinizing environment. In this way, the inclusion of women with disabilities in sports becomes a double challenge because they are women and have a disability. From data collected from official documents of the International Paralympic Committee, it is found that the first report on the participation of women in the Paralympic Games was in 1948, in England, in Stoke Mandeville, a championship considered the firstborn of the games, later, became called the “Paralympic Games”. However, due to the lack of information, the return of the appearance of women participating in the Paralympics took place after long 40 years, in 1984, which demonstrates a large gap of records on the official website referring to women in the games. Despite the great challenge, the number of women has been growing substantially. When collecting data from participants of all 16 editions of the Paralympic Games, in its last edition, held in Tokyo, out of 4,400 competing athletes, 1,853 were women, which represents 42% of the total number of athletes. In this same edition, we had the largest delegation of Brazilian women, represented by 96 athletes out of a total of 260 Brazilian athletes. It is estimated that in the next edition, to be taken place in Paris in 2024, the participation of women will equal or surpass that of men. The certain invisibility of women participating in the Paralympic Games is noticed when we access the database of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee website. It is possible to identify all women medalists of a given edition. On the other side, participating female athletes who did not medal are not registered on the site. Regarding the participation of Brazilian women in the Paralympics, there was a considerable growth in the last two editions, in 2012 there were only 69 women participating, going to 102 in 2016 and 96 in 2021. The same happened in relation to the medalists, going from 8 Brazilians in 2012 to 33 in 2016 and 27 in 2021. In this sense, the present study, aims to analyze how Brazilian women participate in the Paralympics, giving visibility and voice to female athletes. Structured interviews are being carried out with the participants of the games, identifying the difficulties and potentialities of participating with athletes in the competition. The analysis will be carried out through Bardin’s content analysis.

Keywords: paralympics, sport for people with disabilities, woman, woman in sport

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Authors: Tapiwa Shumba

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The right to fairness and access to appeals and reviews enshrined under the South African Constitution seeks to ensure that justice is served. In essence, the constitution and the law have put in place mechanisms to ensure that a miscarriage of justice through wrongful convictions does not occur. However, once convicted and sentenced on appeal the procedural safeguards seem to resign as if to say, the accused has met his fate. The challenge with this construction is that even within an ideally perfect legal system wrongful convictions would still occur. Therefore, it is not so much of the failings of a legal system that demand attention but mechanisms to redress the results of such failings where evidence becomes available that a wrongful conviction occurred. In this context, this paper looks at the South African criminal procedural mechanisms for litigating innocence post-conviction. The discussion focuses on the role of section 327 of the South African Criminal Procedure Act and its apparent shortcomings in providing an avenue for victims of miscarriages to litigate their innocence by adducing new evidence at any stage during their wrongful incarceration. By looking at developments in other jurisdiction such as the United Kingdom, where South African criminal procedure draws much of its history, and the North Carolina example which in itself was inspired by the UK Criminal Cases Review Commission, this paper is able to make comparisons and draw invaluable lessons for the South African criminal justice system. Lessons from these foreign jurisdictions show that South African post-conviction criminal procedures need reform in line with constitutional values of human dignity, equality before the law, openness and transparency. The paper proposes an independent review of the current processes to assess the current post-conviction procedures under section 327. The review must look into the effectiveness of the current system and how it can be improved in line with new substantive legal provisions creating access to DNA evidence for post-conviction exonerations. Although the UK CCRC body should not be slavishly followed, its operations and the process leading to its establishment certainly provide a good point of reference and invaluable lessons for the South African criminal justice system seeing that South African law on this aspect has generally followed the English approach except that current provisions under section 327 are a mirror of the discredited system of the UK’s previous dispensation. A new independent mechanism that treats innocent victims of the criminal justice system with dignity away from the current political process is proposed to enable the South African criminal justice to benefit fully from recent and upcoming advances in science and technology.

Keywords: innocence, forensic law, post-conviction remedies, South African criminal justice system, wrongful conviction

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Authors: Nayeli Camacho, Fernanda Lara-Perez, Carolina Ortega-Portilla, Diego G. Espinosa-Arbelaez, Juan M. Alvarado-Orozco, Guillermo C. Mondragon-Rodriguez

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Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been the gold standard material for total knee replacements for almost five decades. Wear damage to UHMWPE articulating surface is inevitable due to the natural sliding and rolling movements of the knee. This generates a considerable amount of wear debris, which results in mechanical instability of the joint, reduces joint mobility, increases pain with detrimental biologic responses, and causes component loosening. The presence of wear particles has been closely related to adverse reactions in the knee joint surrounding tissue, especially for particles in the range of 0.3 to 2 μm. Carbon-based materials possess excellent mechanical properties and have shown great promise in tribological applications. In this study, diamond-like carbon coatings (DLC) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were used to decrease the wear rate of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. A titanium doped DLC (Ti-DLC) was deposited by magnetron sputtering on stainless steel precision spheres while CNTs were used as a second phase reinforcement in UHMWPE at a concentration of 1.25 wt.%. A comparative tribological analysis of the wear of UHMWPE and UHMWPE-CNTs with a stainless steel counterpart with and without Ti-DLC coating is presented. The experimental wear testing was performed on a pin-on-disc tribometer under dry conditions, using a reciprocating movement with a load of 1 N at a frequency of 2 Hz for 100,000 and 200,000 cycles. The wear tracks were analyzed with high-resolution scanning electron microscopy to determine wear modes and observe the size and shape of the wear debris. Furthermore, profilometry was used to study the depth of the wear tracks and to map the wear of the articulating surface. The wear tracks at 100,000 and 200,000 cycles on all samples were relatively shallow, and they were in the range of average roughness. It was observed that the Ti-DLC coating decreases the mass loss in the UHMWPE and the depth of the wear track. The combination of both carbon-based materials decreased the material loss compared to the system of stainless steel and UHMWPE. Burnishing of the surface was the predominant wear mode observed with all the systems, more subtle for the systems with Ti-DLC coatings. Meanwhile, in the system composed of stainless steel-UHMWPE, the intrinsic surface roughness of the material was completely replaced by the wear tracks.

Keywords: CNT reinforcement, self-lubricating materials, Ti-DLC, UHMWPE tribological performance

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Authors: Carolina Gutierrez-Cortes, Hector Suarez, Gustavo Buitrago

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Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria as a competitive strategy for substrate and habitat. Those peptides have a potential use as food biopreservatives due to their antimicrobial activity against foodborne pathogens, avoiding the use of additives that can be harmful to consumers. The industrial production of bacteriocins is currently expensive; one of the options to be competitive is the development of economic culture media, for example, with the use of agro-industrial wastes such as whey. This study evaluated the growth and production of bacteriocins from four strains: Pediococcus pentosaceus 63, Pediococcus pentosaceus 145, Pediococcus pentosaceus 146 and Pediococcus pentosaceus 147 isolated from ‘minas cheese’ (artisanal cheese made from raw milk in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil) in order to select a strain with growth at high rates and higher antimicrobial activity against Listeria monocytogenes 104 after incubation on the culture medium designed with whey and other components. The media used were: MRS broth, modified MRS broth (using different sources of carbon and nitrogen and different amounts of micronutrients) and a culture medium designed by a factorial design using whey and other components. The final biomass concentrations of the four strains in MRS broth after 24 hours of incubation were very similar 9.25, 9.33, 9.25 and 9.22 (log CFU/mL) for P. pentosaceus 63, P. pentosaceus 145, P. pentosaceus 146 and P. pentosaceus 147 respectively. In the same assays, antimicrobial activity of 3200 AU/mL for the first three and of 12800 AU/mL for P. pentosaceus 147 were obtained. Culture of P. pentosaceus 63 on modified MRS broth, showed the effect of some sources of carbon on the activity of bacteriocin, obtaining 12800 AU/mL with dextrose and 25600 AU/mL with maltose. Cultures of P. pentosaceus 145, 146 and 147 with these same sugars presented activity of 12800 AU/mL. It was observed that the modified MRS medium using whey increased the antimicrobial activity of the strains at 16000, 6400, 16000 and 19200 AU/mL for each strain respectively, keeping the biomass at values close to 9 log units. About nitrogen sources, it was observed that the combination of peptone (10 g /L), meat extract (10 g/L) and yeast extract (5 g/L) promoted the highest activity (12800 AU/mL), and in all cases MgSO4, MnSO4, K2HPO4 and ammonium citrate at low concentrations adversely affected bacteriocin production. Because P. pentosaceus 147 showed the highest antimicrobial activity in the presence of whey, it was used to evaluate the culture medium (peptone (10 g/L), meat extract (8 g/L), yeast extract (2 g/L), Tween® 80 (1 g/L), ammonium citrate (2 g/L), sodium acetate (5 g/L), MgSO4 (0.2 g/L), MnSO4 (0.04 g/L)). With the designed medium added with whey, 9.34 log units of biomass concentration and 19200 AU/mL were achieved for P. pentosaceus 147. The above suggest that the new medium promotes the antimicrobial activity of P. pentosaceus 147 allowing the use of an economic medium using whey.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity, bacteriocins, pediococcus, whey

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Authors: Owen Cegielski, Kristi Maida, Danny Morales, Sylvia L. Mendez

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This study explores the challenges and threats US secondary educators experience in incorporating culturally relevant education (CRE) practices in their classrooms. CRE is a social justice pedagogical practice used to connect student’s cultural references to academic skills and content, to promote critical reflection, to facilitate cultural competence, and to critique discourses of power and oppression. Empirical evidence on CRE demonstrates positive student educational outcomes in terms of achievement, engagement, and motivation. Additionally, due to the direct focus on uplifting diverse cultures through the curriculum, students experience greater feelings of belonging, increased interest in the subject matter, and stronger racial/ethnic identities. When these teaching practices are in place, educators develop deeper relationships with their students and appreciate the multitude of gifts they (and their families) bring to the classroom environment. Yet, educators regularly report being unprepared to incorporate CRE in their daily teaching practice and identify substantive gaps in their knowledge and skills in this area. Often, they were not exposed to CRE in their educator preparation program, nor do they receive adequate support through school- or district-wide professional development programming. Through a descriptive phenomenological research design, 20 interviews were conducted with a diverse set of secondary school educators to explore the challenges and threats they experience in incorporating CRE practices in their classrooms. The guiding research question for this study is: What are the challenges and threats US secondary educators face when seeking to incorporate CRE practices in their classrooms? Interviews were grounded by the theory of challenge and threat states, which highlights the ways in which challenges and threats are appraised and how resources factor into emotional valence and perception, as well as the potential to meet the task at hand. Descriptive phenomenological data analysis strategies were utilized to develop an essential structure of the educators’ views of challenges and threats in regard to incorporating CRE practices in their secondary classrooms. The attitude of the phenomenological reduction method was adopted, and the data were analyzed through five steps: sense of the whole, meaning units, transformation, structure, and essential structure. The essential structure that emerged was while secondary educators display genuine interest in learning how to successfully incorporate CRE practices, they perceive it to be a challenge (and not a threat) due to lack of exposure which diminishes educator capacity, comfort, and confidence in employing CRE practices. These findings reveal the value of attending to emotional valence and perception of CRE in promoting this social justice pedagogical practice. Findings also reveal the importance of appropriately resourcing educators with CRE support to ensure they develop and utilize this practice.

Keywords: culturally relevant education, descriptive phenomenology, social justice practice, US secondary education

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Authors: Egemen Sert, Leila Hedayatifar, Rachel A. Rigg, Amir Akhavan, Olha Buchel, Dominic Elias Saadi, Aabir Abubaker Kar, Alfredo J. Morales, Yaneer Bar-Yam

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The complexity of providing timely and cost-effective distribution of finished goods from industrial facilities to customers makes effective operational coordination difficult, yet effectiveness is crucial for maintaining customer service levels and sustaining a business. Logistics planning becomes increasingly complex with growing numbers of customers, varied geographical locations, the uncertainty of future orders, and sometimes extreme competitive pressure to reduce inventory costs. Linear optimization methods become cumbersome or intractable due to a large number of variables and nonlinear dependencies involved. Here we develop a complex systems approach to optimizing logistics networks based upon dimensional reduction methods and apply our approach to a case study of a manufacturing company. In order to characterize the complexity in customer behavior, we define a “customer space” in which individual customer behavior is described by only the two most relevant dimensions: the distance to production facilities over current transportation routes and the customer's demand frequency. These dimensions provide essential insight into the domain of effective strategies for customers; direct and indirect strategies. In the direct strategy, goods are sent to the customer directly from a production facility using box or bulk trucks. In the indirect strategy, in advance of an order by the customer, goods are shipped to an external warehouse near a customer using trains and then "last-mile" shipped by trucks when orders are placed. Each strategy applies to an area of the customer space with an indeterminate boundary between them. Specific company policies determine the location of the boundary generally. We then identify the optimal delivery strategy for each customer by constructing a detailed model of costs of transportation and temporary storage in a set of specified external warehouses. Customer spaces help give an aggregate view of customer behaviors and characteristics. They allow policymakers to compare customers and develop strategies based on the aggregate behavior of the system as a whole. In addition to optimization over existing facilities, using customer logistics and the k-means algorithm, we propose additional warehouse locations. We apply these methods to a medium-sized American manufacturing company with a particular logistics network, consisting of multiple production facilities, external warehouses, and customers along with three types of shipment methods (box truck, bulk truck and train). For the case study, our method forecasts 10.5% savings on yearly transportation costs and an additional 4.6% savings with three new warehouses.

Keywords: logistics network optimization, direct and indirect strategies, K-means algorithm, dimensional reduction

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Authors: J. Roberto Lopez, Hened Saade, Graciela Morales, Javier Enriquez, Raul G. Lopez

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Implementation of systems based on nanostructures for drug delivery applications have taken relevance in recent studies focused on biomedical applications. Although there are several nanostructures as drugs carriers, the use of polymeric nanoparticles (PNP) has been widely studied for this purpose, however, the main issue for these nanostructures is the size control below 50 nm with a narrow distribution size, due to they must go through different physiological barriers and avoid to be filtered by kidneys (< 10 nm) or the spleen (> 100 nm). Thus, considering these and other factors, it can be mentioned that drug-loaded nanostructures with sizes varying between 10 and 50 nm are preferred in the development and study of PNP/drugs systems. In this sense, the Semicontinuous Heterophase Polymerization (SHP) offers the possibility to obtain PNP in the desired size range. Considering the above explained, methacrylic copolymer nanoparticles were obtained under SHP. The reactions were carried out in a jacketed glass reactor with the required quantities of water, ammonium persulfate as initiator, sodium dodecyl sulfate/sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate as surfactants, methyl methacrylate and methacrylic acid as monomers with molar ratio of 2/1, respectively. The monomer solution was dosed dropwise during reaction at 70 °C with a mechanical stirring of 650 rpm. Nanoparticles of poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) were loaded with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, aspirin) by a chemical adsorption technique. The purified latex was put in contact with a solution of ASA in dichloromethane (DCM) at 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6 wt-%, at 35°C during 12 hours. According to the boiling point of DCM, as well as DCM and water densities, the loading process is completed when the whole DCM is evaporated. The hydrodynamic diameter was measured after polymerization by quasi-elastic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy, before and after loading procedures with ASA. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of PNP loaded with ASA were measured by infrared spectroscopy, differential scattering calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. Also, the molar mass distributions of polymers were determined in a gel permeation chromatograph apparatus. The load capacity and efficiency were determined by gravimetric analysis. The hydrodynamic diameter results for methacrylic PNP without ASA showed a narrow distribution with an average particle size around 10 nm and a composition methyl methacrylate/methacrylic acid molar ratio equal to 2/1, same composition of Eudragit S100, which is a commercial compound widely used as excipient. Moreover, the latex was stabilized in a relative high solids content (around 11 %), a monomer conversion almost 95 % and a number molecular weight around 400 Kg/mol. The average particle size in the PNP/aspirin systems fluctuated between 18 and 24 nm depending on the initial percentage of aspirin in the loading process, being the drug content as high as 24 % with an efficiency loading of 36 %. These average sizes results have not been reported in the literature, thus, the methacrylic nanoparticles here reported are capable to be loaded with a considerable amount of ASA and be used as a drug carrier.

Keywords: aspirin, biocompatibility, biodegradable, Eudragit S100, methacrylic nanoparticles

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Authors: Isaac Martin, Abigail Lark, Sandra Morales, Eric W. Alton, Jane C. Davies

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Objectives: The cystic fibrosis (CF) lung is a unique microbiological niche, wherein harmful bacteria persist for many years despite antibiotic therapy. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa), the major culprit leading to lung decline and increased mortality, thrives in the lungs of patients with CF due to several factors that have been linked with poor antibiotic performance. Our group is investigating alternative therapies including bacteriophage cocktails with which we have previously demonstrated efficacy against planktonic organisms. In this study, we explored the effects of a 4-phage cocktail on Pa grown in two different conditions, intended to mirror the CF lung: a) alongside standard antibiotic treatment in pre-formed biofilms (structures formed by Pa-secreted exopolysaccharides which provide both physical and cell division barriers to antimicrobials and host defenses and b) in an acidic environment postulated to be present in the CF airway due both to the primary defect in bicarbonate secretion and secondary effects of inflammation. Methods: 16 Pa strains from CF patients at the Royal Brompton Hospital were selected based on sensitivity to a) ceftazidime/ tobramycin and b) the phage cocktail in a conventional plaque assay. To assess efficacy of phage in biofilms, 96 well plates with Pa (5x10⁷ CFU/ ml) were incubated in static conditions, allowing adherent bacterial colonies to form for 24 hr. Ceftazidime and tobramycin (both at 2 × MIC) were added, +/- bacteriophage (4x10⁸ PFU/mL) for a further 24 hr. Cell viability and biomass were estimated using fluorescent resazurin and crystal violet assays, respectively. To evaluate the effect of pH, strains were grown planktonically in shaking 96 well plates at pH 6.0, 6.6, 7.0 and 7.5 with tobramycin or phage, at varying concentrations. Cell viability was quantified by fluorescent resazurin assay. Results: For the biofilm assay, treatment groups were compared with untreated controls and expressed as percent reduction in cell viability and biomass. Addition of the 4-phage cocktail resulted in a 1.3-fold reduction in cell viability and 1.7-fold reduction in biomass (p < 0.001) when compared to standard antibiotic treatment alone. Notably, there was a 50 ± 15% reduction in cell viability and 60 ± 12% reduction in biomass (95% CI) for the 4 biofilms demonstrating the most resistance to antibiotic treatment. 83% of strains tested (n=6) showed decreased bacterial killing by tobramycin at acidic pHs (p < 0.01). However, 25% of strains (n=12) showed improved phage killing at acidic pHs (p < 0.05), with none showing the pattern of reduced efficacy at acidic pH demonstrated by tobramycin. Conclusion: The 4-phage anti-Pa cocktail tested against Pa performs well in pre-formed biofilms and in acidic environments; two conditions intended to mimic the CF lung. To our knowledge, these are the first data looking at the effects of subtle pH changes on phage-mediated bacterial killing in the context of Pa infection. These findings contribute to a growing body of evidence supporting the use of nebulised lytic bacteriophage as a treatment in the context of lung infection.

Keywords: biofilm, cystic fibrosis, pH, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, lytic bacteriophage

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Authors: Carolina Schencke, Cristian Sandoval, Belgica Vasquez, Mariano Del Sol

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Introduction: In a burn injury, the successful repair requires not only the participation of various cells, such as granulocytes and fibroblasts, but also of collagen, which plays a crucial role as a structural and regulatory molecule of scar tissue. Since honey and ascorbic acid have presented a great therapeutic potential to cellular and structural level, experimental studies have proposed its combination in the treatment of wounds. Aim: To evaluate stereological and morphometric parameters of healing wounds, caused by burns, treated with honey Ulmo (Eucryphia cordifolia) unsupplemented, comparing its effect with Ulmo honey supplemented with ascorbic acid. Materials and Methods: Fifteen healthy adult guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) were used, of both sexes, average weight 450 g from the Centro de Excelencia en Estudios Morfológicos y Quirúrgicos (CEMyQ) at the Universidad de La Frontera, Chile. The animals were divided at random into three groups: positive control (C+), honey only (H) and supplemented honey (SH) and were fed on pellets supplemented with ascorbic acid and water ad libitum, under ambient conditions controlled for temperature, ambient noise and a cycle of 12h light–darkness. The protocol for the experiment was approved by the Scientific Ethics Committee of the Universidad de La Frontera, Chile. The parameters measured were number density per area (NA), volume density (VV), and surface density (SV) of fibroblast; NA and VV of polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) and, evaluation of the content of collagen fibers in the scar dermis. One-way ANOVA was used for statistics analysis and its respective Post hoc tests. Results: The ANOVA analysis for NA, VV and SV of fibroblasts, NA and VV of PMN, and evaluation of collagen content, type I and III, showed that at least one group differs from other (P≤ 0.001). There were differences (P= 0.000) in NA of fibroblast between the groups [C+= 3599.560 mm-2 (SD= 764.461), H= 3355.336 mm-2 (SD= 699.443) and SH= 4253.025 mm-2 (SD= 1041.751)]. The VV and SV of fibroblast increased (P= 0.000) in the SH group [20.400% (SD= 5.897) and 100.876 mm2/mm3 (SD= 29.431), respectively], compared to the C+ [16.324% (SD= 7.719) and 81.676 mm2/mm3 (SD= 28.884), respectively). The mean values of NA and VV of PMN were higher (P= 0.000) in the H [756.875 mm-2 (SD= 516.489) and 2.686% (SD= 2.380), respectively) group. Regarding to the evaluation of the content of collagen fibers, type I and III, the one-way analysis of ANOVA showed a statistically significant difference (P< 0.05). The content of collagen fibers type I was higher in C+ (1988.292 μm2; SD= 1312.379), while the content of collagen fibers type III was higher in SH (1967.163 μm2; SD= 1047.944 μm2) group. Conclusions: The stereological results were correlated with the stage of healing observed for each group. These results suggest that the combination of honey with ascorbic acid potentiate the healing effect, where both participated synergistically.

Keywords: ascorbic acid, morphometry, stereology, Ulmo honey

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Authors: Maria E. V. Amarante, Carolina L. Cerdeira, Julia V. Cortes, Fiorita G. L. Mundim

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Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most prevalent type of skin cancer in humans. It arises from the basal cells of the epidermis and cutaneous appendages. The role of sunlight exposure as a risk factor for BCC is very well defined due to its power to influence genetic mutations, in addition to having a suppressor effect on the skin immune system. Despite showing low metastasis and mortality rates, the tumor is locally infiltrative, aggressive, and destructive. Considering the high prevalence rate of this carcinoma and the importance of early detection, a retrospective study was carried out in order to correlate the clinical data available on BBC, characterize it epidemiologically, and thus enable effective prevention measures for the population. Data on the period from January 2015 to December 2019 were collected from the medical records of patients registered at one pathology service located in the southeast region of Brazil, known as SVO, which delivers skin biopsy results. The study was aimed at correlating the variables, sex, age, and subtypes found. Data analysis was performed using the chi-square test at a nominal significance level of 5% in order to verify the independence between the variables of interest. Fisher's exact test was applied in cases where the absolute frequency in the cells of the contingency table was less than or equal to five. The statistical analysis was performed using the R® software. Ninety-three basal cell carcinoma were analyzed, and its frequency in the 31-to 45-year-old age group was 5.8 times higher in men than in women, whereas, from 46 to 59 years, the frequency was found 2.4 times higher in women than in men. Between the ages of 46 to 59 years, it should be noted that the sclerodermiform subtype appears more than the solid one, with a difference of 7.26 percentage points. Reversely, the solid form appears more frequently in individuals aged 60 years or more, with a difference of 8.57 percentage points. Among women, the frequency of the solid subtype was 9.93 percentage points higher than the sclerodermiform frequency. In males, the same percentage difference is observed, but sclerodermiform is the most prevalent subtype. It is concluded in this study that, in general, there is a predominance of basal cell carcinoma in females and in individuals aged 60 years and over, which demonstrates the tendency of this tumor. However, when rarely found in younger individuals, the male gender prevailed. The most prevalent subtype was the solid one. It is worth mentioning that the sclerodermiform subtype, which is more aggressive, was seen more frequently in males and in the 46-to 59-year-old range.

Keywords: basal cell carcinoma, epidemiology, sclerodermiform basal cell carcinoma, skin cancer, solar radiation, solid basal cell carcinoma

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Authors: Carolina Mayen Huerta, Clara Ivanescu, Paloma Marcos

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Due to their unique geographic challenges and the imperative to combat climate change, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are experiencing rapid growth in the renewable energy (RE) sector. However, women's representation in formal employment within this burgeoning field remains significantly lower than their male counterparts. Conventional methodologies often overlook critical geographic data that influence women's job prospects. To address this gap, this paper introduces a Multicriteria Evaluation (MCE) framework designed to identify spatially enabling environments and restrictions affecting women's access to formal employment and business opportunities in the SIDS' RE sector. The proposed MCE framework comprises 24 key factors categorized into four dimensions: Individual, Contextual, Accessibility, and Place Characterization. "Individual factors" encompass personal attributes influencing women's career development, including caregiving responsibilities, exposure to domestic violence, and disparities in education. "Contextual factors" pertain to the legal and policy environment, influencing workplace gender discrimination, financial autonomy, and overall gender empowerment. "Accessibility factors" evaluate women's day-to-day mobility, considering travel patterns, access to public transport, educational facilities, RE job opportunities, healthcare facilities, and financial services. Finally, "Place Characterization factors" enclose attributes of geographical locations or environments. This dimension includes walkability, public transport availability, safety, electricity access, digital inclusion, fragility, conflict, violence, water and sanitation, and climatic factors in specific regions. The analytical framework proposed in this paper incorporates a spatial methodology to visualize regions within countries where conducive environments for women to access RE jobs exist. In areas where these environments are absent, the methodology serves as a decision-making tool to reinforce critical factors, such as transportation, education, and internet access, which currently hinder access to employment opportunities. This approach is designed to equip policymakers and institutions with data-driven insights, enabling them to make evidence-based decisions that consider the geographic dimensions of disparity. These insights, in turn, can help ensure the efficient allocation of resources to achieve gender equity objectives.

Keywords: gender, women, spatial analysis, renewable energy, access

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Authors: Carolina Mayen Huerta, Clara Ivanescu, Paloma Marcos

Abstract:

Due to their unique geographic challenges and the imperative to combat climate change, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are experiencing rapid growth in the renewable energy (RE) sector. However, women's representation in formal employment within this burgeoning field remains significantly lower than their male counterparts. Conventional methodologies often overlook critical geographic data that influence women's job prospects. To address this gap, this paper introduces a Multicriteria Evaluation (MCE) framework designed to identify spatially enabling environments and restrictions affecting women's access to formal employment and business opportunities in the SIDS' RE sector. The proposed MCE framework comprises 24 key factors categorized into four dimensions: Individual, Contextual, Accessibility, and Place Characterization. "Individual factors" encompass personal attributes influencing women's career development, including caregiving responsibilities, exposure to domestic violence, and disparities in education. "Contextual factors" pertain to the legal and policy environment, influencing workplace gender discrimination, financial autonomy, and overall gender empowerment. "Accessibility factors" evaluate women's day-to-day mobility, considering travel patterns, access to public transport, educational facilities, RE job opportunities, healthcare facilities, and financial services. Finally, "Place Characterization factors" enclose attributes of geographical locations or environments. This dimension includes walkability, public transport availability, safety, electricity access, digital inclusion, fragility, conflict, violence, water and sanitation, and climatic factors in specific regions. The analytical framework proposed in this paper incorporates a spatial methodology to visualize regions within countries where conducive environments for women to access RE jobs exist. In areas where these environments are absent, the methodology serves as a decision-making tool to reinforce critical factors, such as transportation, education, and internet access, which currently hinder access to employment opportunities. This approach is designed to equip policymakers and institutions with data-driven insights, enabling them to make evidence-based decisions that consider the geographic dimensions of disparity. These insights, in turn, can help ensure the efficient allocation of resources to achieve gender equity objectives.

Keywords: gender, women, spatial analysis, renewable energy, access

Procedia PDF Downloads 39

Authors: Carolina Brandão Piva

Abstract:

In our visual culture, images play a newly significant role in the basis of a complex dialogue between imagination, creativity, and social practice. Insofar as imagination has broken out of the 'special expressive space of art' to become a part of the quotidian mental work of ordinary people, it is pertinent to recognize that visual representation can no longer be assumed as if in a domain detached from everyday life or exclusively 'centered' within the limited frame of 'art history.' The approach of Visual Culture as a field of study is, in this sense, indispensable to comprehend that not only 'the image,' but also 'the imagined' and 'the imaginary' are produced in the plurality of social interactions; crucial enough, this assertion directs us to something new in contemporary cultural processes, namely both imagination and image production constitute a social practice. This paper starts off with this approach and seeks to examine the artistic practice of two women from the State of Goiás, Brazil, who are ordinary citizens with their daily activities and narratives but also dedicated to visuality production. With no formal training from art schools, branded or otherwise, Maria Aparecida de Souza Pires deploys 'waste disposal' of daily life—from car tires to old work clothes—as a trampoline for art; also adept at sourcing raw materials collected from her surroundings, she manipulates raw hewn wood, tree trunks, plant life, and various other pieces she collects from nature giving them new meaning and possibility. Hilda Freire works with sculptures in clay using different scales and styles; her art focuses on representations of women and pays homage to unprivileged groups such as the practitioners of African-Brazilian religions, blue-collar workers, poor live-in housekeepers, and so forth. Although they have never been acknowledged by any mainstream art institution in Brazil, whose 'criterion of value' still favors formally trained artists, Maria Aparecida de Souza Pires, and Hilda Freire have produced visualities that instigate 'new ways of seeing,' meriting cultural significance in many ways. Their artworks neither descend from a 'traditional' medium nor depend on 'canonical viewing settings' of visual representation; rather, they consist in producing relationships with the world which do not result in 'seeing more,' but 'at least differently.' From this perspective, the paper finally demonstrates that grouping this kind of artistic production under the label of 'mere craft' has much more to do with who is privileged within the fields of power in art system, who we see and who we do not see, and whose imagination of what is fed by which visual images in Brazilian contemporary society.

Keywords: visual culture, artistic practice, women's art in the Brazilian State of Goiás, Maria Aparecida de Souza Pires, Hilda Freire

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Authors: Luis F. Caballero-castro, Dirsa Feliciano, Daniela Novoa, Orlando Arroyo, Jesús D. Villalba-morales

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Colombia faces a critical challenge in seismic resilience due to the prevalence of informal housing, which constitutes approximately 70% of residential structures. More than 10 million Colombians (20% of the population), live in homes susceptible to collapse in the event of an earthquake. This, combined with the fact that 83% of the population is in intermediate and high seismic hazard areas, has brought serious consequences to the country. These consequences became evident during the 1999 Armenia earthquake, which affected nearly 100,000 properties and represented economic losses equivalent to 1.88% of that year's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Despite previous efforts to reinforce informal housing through methods like externally reinforced masonry walls, alternatives related to seismic protection systems (SPDs), such as Buckling-Restrained Braces (BRB), have not yet been explored in the country. BRBs are reinforcement elements capable of withstanding both compression and tension, making them effective in enhancing the lateral stiffness of structures. In this study, the use of low-cost and easily installable BRBs for the retrofit of informal housing in Colombia was evaluated, considering the economic limitations of the communities. For this purpose, a case study was selected involving an informally constructed dwelling in the country, from which field information on its structural characteristics and construction materials was collected. Based on the gathered information, nonlinear models with and without BRBs were created, and their seismic performance was analyzed and compared through incremental static (pushover) and nonlinear dynamic analyses. In the first analysis, the capacity curve was identified, showcasing the sequence of failure events occurring from initial yielding to structural collapse. In the second case, the model underwent nonlinear dynamic analyses using a set of seismic records consistent with the country's seismic hazard. Based on the results, fragility curves were calculated to evaluate the probability of failure of the informal housings before and after the intervention with BRBs, providing essential information about their effectiveness in reducing seismic vulnerability. The results indicate that low-cost BRBs can significantly increase the capacity of informal housing to withstand earthquakes. The dynamic analysis revealed that retrofit structures experienced lower displacements and deformations, enhancing the safety of residents and the seismic performance of informally constructed houses. In other words, the use of low-cost BRBs in the retrofit of informal housing in Colombia is a promising strategy for improving structural safety in seismic-prone areas. This study emphasizes the importance of seeking affordable and practical solutions to address seismic risk in vulnerable communities in earthquake-prone regions in Colombia and serves as a model for addressing similar challenges of informal housing worldwide.

Keywords: buckling-restrained braces, fragility curves, informal housing, incremental dynamic analysis, seismic retrofit

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Authors: Catarina Bento, Ana Carolina Gonçalves, Fábio Jesus, Luís Rodrigues Silva

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Increasing evidence suggests that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables plays important roles in the prevention of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, among others. Fruits and vegetables gained prominence due their richness in bioactive compounds, being the focus of many studies due to their biological properties acting as health promoters. Prunus avium Linnaeus (L.), commonly known as sweet cherry has been the centre of attention due to its health benefits, and has been highly studied. In Portugal, most of the cherry production comes from the Fundão region. The Saco is one of the most important cultivar produced in this region, attributed with geographical protection. In this work, we prepared 3 extracts through solid-phase extraction (SPE): a whole extract, fraction I (non-coloured phenolics) and fraction II (coloured phenolics). The three extracts were used to determine the phenolic profile of Saco cultivar by liquid chromatography with diode array detection (LC-DAD) technique. This was followed by the evaluation of their biological potential, testing the extracts’ capacity to scavenge free-radicals (DPPH•, nitric oxide (•NO) and superoxide radical (O2●-)) and to inhibit α-glucosidase enzyme of all extracts. Additionally, we evaluated, for the first time, the protective effects against peroxyl radical (ROO•)-induced hemoglobin oxidation and hemolysis in human erythrocytes. A total of 16 non-coloured phenolics were detected, 3-O-caffeoylquinic and ρ-coumaroylquinic acids were the main ones, and 6 anthocyanins were found, among which cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside represented the majority. In respect to antioxidant activity, Saco showed great antioxidant potential in a concentration-dependent manner, demonstrated through the DPPH•,•NO and O2●-radicals, and greater ability to inhibit the α-glucosidase enzyme in comparison to the regular drug acarbose used to treat diabetes. Additionally, Saco proved to be effective to protect erythrocytes against oxidative damage in a concentration-dependent manner against hemoglobin oxidation and hemolysis. Our work demonstrated that Saco cultivar is an excellent source of phenolic compounds which are natural antioxidants that easily capture reactive species, such as ROO• before they can attack the erythrocytes’ membrane. In a general way, the whole extract showed the best efficiency, most likely due to a synergetic interaction between the different compounds. Finally, comparing the two separate fractions, the coloured fraction showed the most activity in all the assays, proving to be the biggest contributor of Saco cherries’ biological activity.

Keywords: biological potential, coloured phenolics, non-coloured phenolics, sweet cherry

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Authors: Sarah F. M. Pilati, Carolina S. Flausino, Guilherme F. Hoffmeister, Davi R. Tames, Telmo J. Mezadri

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The effects that may be related to narghile smoking in the tissues of the oral cavity, trachea and lung and associated inflammation has been the question raised lately. The objective of this study was to identify histopathological changes and the presence of inflammation through the exposure of mice to narghile smoking through a whole-body study. The animals were divided in 4 groups with 5 animals in each group, being: one control group, one with 7 days of exposure, 15 days and the last one with 30 days. The animals were exposed to the conventional hookah smoke from Mizo brand with 0.5% percentage of unwashed tobacco and the EcOco brand coconut fiber having a dimension of 2cm × 2cm. The duration of the session was 30 minutes / day per 7, 15 and 30 days. The tobacco smoke concentration at which test animals were exposed was 35 ml every two seconds while the remaining 58 seconds were pure air. Afterward, the mice were sacrificed and submitted to histological evaluation through slices. It was found in the tongue of the 7-day group the presence in epithelium areas with acanthosis, hyperkeratosis and epithelial projections. In-depth, more intense inflammation was observed. All alteration processes increased significantly as the days of exposure increased. In trachea, with the 7-day group, there was a decrease in thickening of the pseudostratified epithelium and a slight decrease in lashes, giving rise to the metaplasia process, a process that was established in the 31-day sampling when the epithelium became stratified. In the conjunctive tissue, it was observed the presence of defense cells and formation of new vessels, evidencing the chronic inflammatory process, which decreased in the course of the samples due to the deposition of collagen fibers as seen in the 15 and 31 days groups. Among the structures of the lung, the study focused on the bronchioles and alveoli. From the 7-day group, intra-alveolar septum thickness increased, alveolar space decreased, inflammatory infiltrate with mononuclear and defense cells and new vessels formation were observed, increasing the number of red blood cells in the region. The results showed that with the passing of the days a progressive increase of the signs of changes in the region was observed, a factor that shows that narghile smoking stimulates alterations mainly in the alveoli (place where gas exchanges occur that should not present alterations) calling attention to the harmful and aggressive effect of narghile smoking. These data also highlighted the harmful effect of smoking, since the presence of acanthosis, hyperkeratosis, epithelial projections and inflammation evidences the cellular alteration process for the tongue tissue protection. Also, the narghile smoking stimulates both epithelial and inflammatory changes in the trachea, in addition to a process of metaplasia, a factor that reinforces the harmful effect and the carcinogenic potential of the narghile smoking.

Keywords: metaplasia, inflammation, pathological constriction, hyperkeratosis

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