Search results for: Laura Valentina Rodriguez Leguizamon

Authors: Garcia-Rodriguez Ezequiel, Luis A. Ochoa-Franco, Adrian I. Cervantes-Servin

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In this work, the Ictalurus punctatus species estimated available physical habitat is compared with the estimated physical habitat for the same but modified river reach, with the aim of creating a linear park, along a length of 5 500 m. To determine the effect of ecological park construction, on physical habitat of the Lerma river stretch of study, first, the available habitat for the Ictalurus punctatus species was estimated through the simulation of the physical habitat, by using surveying, hydraulics, and habitat information gotten at the river reach in its actual situation. Second, it was estimated the available habitat for the above species, upon the simulation of the physical habitat through the proposed modification for the ecological park creation. Third, it is presented a comparison between both scenarios in terms of available habitat estimated for Ictalurus punctatus species, concluding that in cases of adult and spawning life stages, changes in the channel to create an ecological park would produce a considerable loss of potentially usable habitat (PUH), while in the case of the juvenile life stage PUH remains virtually unchanged, and in the case of life stage fry the PUH would increase due to the presence of velocities and depths of lesser magnitude, due to the presence of minor flow rates and lower volume of the wet channel. It is expected that habitat modification for linear park construction may produce the lack of Ictalurus punktatus species conservation at the river reach of the study.

Keywords: Habitat modification, Ictalurus punctatus, Lerma, river, linear park

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Authors: Nuria Vargas, Frances Rodriguez

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Neotropical medium cities have opportunities to develop in a good manner. Xalapa City (Veracruz capital, Mexico) and its metropolitan region, near to the Gulf of Mexico, has already <1 million inhabitants, a medium city size, but it’s growing rapidly as several cities in Latin America. Inside a landscape where it had been a forest cloud and coffee land, emerges the city with an irregular topography. The rapid grow of the urbanization and the loss of vegetation has result in a change on the climate parameters. Frequently warms spells, floods and landslides had been impacted last 2 decades, also a higher incidence of dengue and diarrhea is mentioned in the region. Therefore, the analysis of hydrometeorological events is crucial to understand the role they play in its problem. The urbanization and others radiative forces has created a modulation that can explain the decadal climate changes on the Xalapa region. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation directly influences the temperature and precipitation of the region, even more than climate change does. The total effect of these drivers can create a significant context that origin more risk. However, the most policies frequently consider only the climate change as a principal factor, but other drivers are important to consider and evaluate for the implementation of actions that improve our ambient and cities, in a context of climate change. Medium-sized cities could create better conditions for future citizens, preventing with urban planning that considers possible risks associated with weather and climate.

Keywords: natural variability, urbanization, atlantic multidecadal oscillation, land use changes

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Authors: Diane H. Dotson, Shari L. Rodriguez

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Habitat for predators is on the decline worldwide, which often brings humans and predators into conflict over remaining shared space and common resources. While the direct impacts of human predator conflict on humans (i.e., attacks on livestock or humans resulting in injury or death) are well documented, the indirect impacts of conflict on humans (i.e., downstream effects such as fear, stress, opportunity costs, PTSD) have not been addressed. We interviewed 437 people living in 54 villages on the periphery of Kanha National Park, India, to assess the amount and severity of direct and indirect impacts of predator conflict. ​While 58% of livestock owners believed that predator attacks on livestock guards occurred frequently and 62% of those who collect forest products believed that predator attacks on those collecting occurred frequently, less than 20% of all participants knew of someone who had experienced an attack. Data related to indirect impacts suggest that such impacts are common; 76% of participants indicated they were afraid a predator will physically injure them. Livestock owners reported that livestock guarding took time away from their primary job (61%) and getting enough sleep (73%), and believed that it increased their vulnerability to illnesses (80%). These results suggest that the perceptions of risk of predator attack are likely inflated, yet the costs of human predator impacts may be substantially higher than previously estimated, particularly related to human well-being, making the implementation of appropriate and effective conservation and conflict mitigation strategies and policies increasingly urgent.

Keywords: direct impacts, indirect impacts, human-predator conflict, India

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Authors: Valentina Manna, Oscar Pisanti

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The term sibling has been adopted by Italian brothers and sisters of people with disabilities, to define themselves as a group with shared features. This choice is due to the importance of underlying the centrality of what being a brother/sister means to these people because of and beyond the disability. Being a sibling offers great opportunities to develop empathy and relational skills but it may also amplify the typical dynamics of fraternal relationships dealing with envy, rivalry and concern. This outlines a condition of potential developmental risk for the non-disabled sibling, being at the same time a great resource for the child with special needs, as actor of an intimate relationship usually lasting after that one with parents. However, young siblings are often unheeded in their needs for comprehension of disability and not considered as persons requiring attention themselves. Moreover, scholars have scarcely undertaken an exploration of siblings’ perspective as competent contributors for producing knowledge useful to the benefit of families with special needs children. This contribution describes a preventive intervention for young siblings (6 – 16 years) of children with Down syndrome, by means of a psychodynamic-oriented group where participants could communicate, explore and share their emotional experiences as siblings. Based on a participatory approach, the program represents an action-research project, involving siblings as key experts for our understanding of siblings’ lives. The initiative used social media and video technologies to rise children’s voice: as a final product, participants were involved in the realization of a video campaign –which they defined ‘a difficult advertising’– built on the insights generated by the program and addressed to other siblings to help them facing and recognizing resources and difficulties related to their status. The final video campaign realized by the participants summarizes the main themes emerged during the intervention; as revealed by a thematic analysis, they are related to the difficulty in feeling to have a personal identity, to face disability as a form of ‘untought known’ and to integrate ambivalent emotions. In conclusion, the group device revealed its efficacy as a preventive tool: it allowed participants to deeply reflect on their own experiences and to communicate them for the first time in a verbal and mentalized form.

Keywords: down syndrome, group, siblings, prevention

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Authors: Alexander Rodríguez-Hernández, Arnulfo Rojas-Perez, Liz Diaz-Vazquez

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The rise in consumerism over the past century has resulted in the creation of higher amounts of plasticizers, personal care products and other chemical substances, which enter and accumulate in water systems. Other sources of pollutants in Neotropical regions experience large inputs of nutrients with these pollutants resulting in eutrophication of water which consume large quantities of oxygen, resulting in high fish mortality. This dilemma has created a need for the development of targeted detection in complex matrices and remediation of emerging contaminants. We have synthesized carbon nanoparticles from macro algae (Ulva fasciata) by oxidizing the graphitic carbon network under extreme acidic conditions. The resulting material was characterized by STEM, yielding a spherical 12 nm average diameter nanoparticles, which can be fixed into a polysaccharide aerogel synthesized from the same macro algae. Spectrophotometer analyses show a pH dependent fluorescent behavior varying from 450-620 nm in aqueous media. Heavily oxidized edges provide for easy functionalization with enzymes for a more targeted analysis and remediation technique. Given the optical properties of the carbon base nanoparticles and the numerous possibilities of functionalization, we have developed a selective and robust targeted bio-detection and bioremediation technique for the treatment of emerging contaminants in complex matrices like estuarine embayment.

Keywords: aerogels, carbon nanoparticles, fluorescent, targeted analysis

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Authors: Lise Retat, Maria Carmen Huerta, Laura Webber, Franco Sassi

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Background: Intra-generational social mobility (ISM) can be defined as the extent to which individuals change their socio-economic position over a period of time or during their entire life course. The relationship between poor health and ISM is established. Therefore, quantifying the impact that potential health policies have on ISM now and into the future would provide evidence for how social inequality could be reduced. This paper takes the condition of overweight and obesity as an example and estimates the mean earning change per individual if the UK were to introduce policies to effectively reduce overweight and obesity. Methods: The HealthLumen individual-based model was used to estimate the impact of obesity on social mobility measures, such as earnings, occupation, and wealth. The HL tool models each individual's probability of experiencing downward ISM as a result of their overweight and obesity status. For example, one outcome of interest was the cumulative mean earning per person of implementing a policy which would reduce adult overweight and obesity by 1% each year between 2020 and 2030 in the UK. Results: Preliminary analysis showed that by reducing adult overweight and obesity by 1% each year between 2020 and 2030, the cumulative additional mean earnings would be ~1,000 Euro per adult by 2030. Additional analysis will include other social mobility indicators. Conclusions: These projections are important for illustrating the role of health in social mobility and for providing evidence for how health policy can make a difference to social mobility outcomes and, in turn, help to reduce inequality.

Keywords: modelling, social mobility, obesity, health

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Authors: Rizky Kertanegara

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Reception studies is one of the cultural studies lately evolved in the realm of communication science. This qualitative study was pioneered by Stuart Hall who initiated the dominant, negotiation, and opposition of audience reading to the text of the media. In its development, this reception studies is developed by Kim Christian Schroder become multidimensional reception studies. In this update, Schroder aware that there has been a bias between readings made by the informant with readings conducted by researchers over the informant. Therefore, he classifies the reception into two dimensions, namely the dimension of reading by informants and implications dimensions conducted by researcher. Using Schroder approach, these studies seek to describe the reception of adolescent girls, as research subjects, to the elements contained sexual openness in the music video Cinta Laura as the object of research. Researcher wanted to see how they interpret the values of Western culture based on the values of their culture as a teenager. Researchers used a descriptive qualitative research method by conducting in-depth interviews to the informants who comes from a religious school. The selection of informants was done by using purposeful sampling. Collaboration with the school, the researchers were able to select informants who could provide rich data related to the topic. The analysis showed that there is permissiveness informants in addressing sexual openness in the music video. In addition, informants from Catholic schools were more open than the informant derived from Islamic schools in accepting the values of sexual openness. This permisiveness is regarded as a form of self-actualization and gender equality.

Keywords: cultural studies, multidimensional reception model, sexual openness, youth audience

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Authors: B. E. Tarazona-Romero, J. G. Ascanio-Villabona, O. Lengerke-Perez, A. D. Rincon-Quintero, C. L. Sandoval-Rodriguez

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Desalination offers solutions for the shortage of water in the world, however, the process of eliminating salts generates a by-product known as brine, generally eliminated in the environment through techniques that mitigate its impact. Brine treatment techniques are vital to developing an environmentally sustainable desalination process. Consequently, this document evaluates three different geometric configurations of solar stills as an alternative for brine treatment to be integrated into a low-scale desalination process. The geometric scenarios to be studied were selected because they have characteristics that adapt to the concept of appropriate technology; low cost, intensive labor and material resources for local manufacturing, modularity, and simplicity in construction. Additionally, the conceptual design of the collectors was carried out, and the ray tracing methodology was applied through the open access software SolTrace and Tonatiuh. The simulation process used 600.00 rays and modified two input parameters; direct normal radiation (DNI) and reflectance. In summary, for the scenarios evaluated, the ladder-type distiller presented higher efficiency values compared to the pyramid-type and single-slope collectors. Finally, the efficiency of the collectors studied was directly related to their geometry, that is, large geometries allow them to receive a greater number of solar rays in various paths, affecting the efficiency of the device.

Keywords: appropriate technology, brine treatment techniques, desalination, monte carlo ray tracing

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Authors: Reagan Rodriguez

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The following research is a case study of two white patients with white extremist values and their Latina Clinician. Researchers suggest that white supremacy as an ideology has been documented in the United States since the early 1800s. Ethnicity and race were growing key factors linked to central motives behind hate crimes in U.S., which may suggest that we are living in another wave of white supremacist and domestic terrorism that seek to eradicate a threatening and dangerous “other”. This research seeks to address and contribute a qualitative perspective to white supremacist ideology within a bio-psycho-social framework. The current research seeks to contribute to address the gap in literature on ethnic minority clinicians and white patients with racist ideology. The research also seeks to examine the themes not commonly found in racially matched and gendered matched therapeutic dyads where patients hold white extremist values. This case study examines white supremacist ideology from a psychodynamic perspective, examining themes such as “feeling forgotten”, reduced empathy related to “broken promises”, sexualization of the passing minority counselor, and utilizing minimal autonomy in verbal and non-verbal signals. A thematic analysis of case notes and quotes are used to further contextualize emerging therapeutic themes and the psychodynamic analysis of the manifestation of white supremacist actions ranging from active to passive forms of violence.

Keywords: case study, extremism, race and gender, white supremacist ideology

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Authors: Jacobo Tabla, P. F. Rodriguez-Espinosa, M. E. Perez-Lopez

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Valsequillo reservoir located in Puebla City, Central Mexico receives water from the Atoyac River (Northwest) and from Alseseca River in the north. It has been the receptacle of municipal and industrial wastes for the past few decades affecting the water quality lethally. As a result, there is an outburst of water hyacinths (Eichhornia crassipes) in the reservoir occupying around 50 % of the total area. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to assess the concentration levels of toxic metals (Co, Zn, Ni, Cu and As) in the water hyacinths and the ambient waters during the dry season. Fourteen water samples and three water hyacinth samples were procured from the Valsequillo reservoir. The collected samples of water hyacinth (roots, rhizome, stems and leaves) were analyzed using an Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) Ultramass 700 (Varian Inc.) to determine the metal levels. Results showed that water hyacinth presented an exhaustion in metal capture from the inlet to outlet of the reservoir. The maximum bioaccumulation factors (BF) of Co, Zn, Ni, Cu and As were 5000, 47474, 4929, 17090 and 74000 respectively. On the other hand, the maximum Translocation Factor (TF) of 0.85 was observed in Zn, whilst Co presented the minimum TF of 0.059. Thus, the results presented the fact that water hyacinth in Valsequillo reservoir proves to be an important environmental utility for efficiently accumulating and translocating heavy metals from the ambient waters to its organelles (stems and leaves).

Keywords: bioaccumulation factor, toxic metals, translocation factor, water hyacinth

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Authors: Ziad Abdeldayem, Jakub Markiewicz, Kunal Kansara, Laura Edwards

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Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) is one of the main technologies for generating high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs). DTMs are crucial to several applications, such as topographic mapping, flood zone delineation, geographic information systems (GIS), hydrological modelling, spatial analysis, etc. Laser scanning system generates irregularly spaced three-dimensional cloud of points. Raw ALS data are mainly ground points (that represent the bare earth) and non-ground points (that represent buildings, trees, cars, etc.). Removing all the non-ground points from the raw data is referred to as filtering. Filtering heavily forested areas is considered a difficult and challenging task as the canopy stops laser pulses from reaching the terrain surface. This research presents an approach for removing non-ground points from raw ALS data in densely forested areas. Smoothing splines are exploited to interpolate and fit the noisy ALS data. The presented filter utilizes a weight function to allocate weights for each point of the data. Furthermore, unlike most of the methods, the presented filtering algorithm is designed to be automatic. Three different forested areas in the United Kingdom are used to assess the performance of the algorithm. The results show that the generated DTMs from the filtered data are accurate (when compared against reference terrain data) and the performance of the method is stable for all the heavily forested data samples. The average root mean square error (RMSE) value is 0.35 m.

Keywords: airborne laser scanning, digital terrain models, filtering, forested areas

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Authors: Palash Kumar Mollick, Leire Olazar, Laura Santamaria, Pablo Comendador, Gartzen Lopez, Martin Olazar

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Average calorific value of a mixure of waste plastic is approximately 38 MJ/kg. Present work aims to extract maximum possible energy from a mixure of waste plastic using a DC thermal plasma in a spouted bed reactor. Plasma pyrolysis and steam reforming process has shown a potential to generate hydrogen from plastic with much below of legal limit of producing dioxins and furans as the carcinogenic gases. A spouted bed pyrolysis rector can continuously process plastic beads to produce organic volatiles, which later react with steam in presence of catalyst to results in syngas. lasma being the fourth state of matter, can carry high impact electrons to favour the activation energy of any chemical reactions. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics software has been performed to evaluate performance of a plasma spouted bed reactor in producing contamination free hydrogen as a green energy from waste plastic beads. The simulation results will showcase a design of a plasma spouted bed reactor for converting plastic waste into green hydrogen in a single step process. The high temperature hydrodynamics of spouted bed with plastic beads and the corresponding temperature distribution inside the reaction chamber will be critically examined for it’s near future installation of demonstration plant.

Keywords: green hydrogen, plastic waste, synthetic gas, pyrolysis, steam reforming, spouted bed, reactor design, plasma, dc palsma, cfd simulation

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Authors: Saul Emilio Rivero Mejia, Estefanya Marin Tabares, Carlos Andres Rodriguez Toro, Katherine Bolano Restrepo, Sarita Santa Cortes

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Medellin is the Colombian city with the best public transportation system in the country, which is composed of two subway lines, five metro cables, two Bus Rapid Transit lines, and a streetcar. But despite the above, the Aburra Valley, the area in which the city is located, comparatively speaking, has a lower number of urban roads per inhabitant built, compared to the national average. In addition, since there is approximately one vehicle for every three inhabitants in Medellin, the problems of congestion and environmental pollution have become more acute over the years, and it has even been necessary to implement restrictive measures to the use of private vehicles on a permanent basis. In that sense, due to the limitations of physical space, the low public investment in road infrastructure, it is necessary to opt for mobility alternatives according to the above. Within the options for the city, there is what is known as micromobility. Micromobility is understood as those small and light means of transport used to travel short distances, which use electrical energy, such as skateboards and bicycles. These transport alternatives have a high potential for use by the city's young population, but this requires an adequate infrastructure and also state regulation. Taking into account the above, this paper will analyze the current state and future of micro mobility in the city of Medellin, making a prospective analysis, supported by a PEST (political, economic, social and technological) analysis. Based on the above, it is expected to identify the growth of demand for these alternative means and its impact on the mobility of the city in the medium and short term.

Keywords: electric, micromobility, transport, sustainable

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Authors: Valentina Colonnello, Paolo Maria Russo

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Decades of cross-species affective neuroscience research by Panksepp and others have identified basic evolutionarily preserved subcortical emotional systems that humans share with mammals and many vertebrates. These primary emotional systems encode unconditional affective responses and contribute to the development of personality traits throughout ontogenesis and interactions with the environment. The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS) measures individual differences in affective personality traits associated with the basic emotional systems of CARE, PLAY, SEEKING, SADNESS, FEAR, and ANGER, along with Spirituality, which is a more cognitively and socially refined expression of affectivity. Though the ANPS’s power to predict human psychological distress has been documented, to the best of our knowledge, its predictive power for psychological wellbeing has not been explored. This study therefore investigates the relationship between affective neuroscience traits and psychological wellbeing facets. Because the emotional systems are thought to influence cognitively-mediated mental processes about the self and the world, understanding the relationship between affective traits and psychological wellbeing is particularly relevant to understanding the affective dimensions of health. In a cross-sectional study, healthy participants (n = 402) completed the ANPS and the Psychological Wellbeing scale. Multiple regressions revealed that each facet of wellbeing was explained by two to four affective traits, and each trait was significantly related to at least one aspect of wellbeing. Specifically, SEEKING predicted all the wellbeing facets, except for positive relations; CARE predicted personal growth, positive relations, purpose in life, and self-acceptance; PLAY and, inversely, ANGER predicted positive relations; SADNESS inversely predicted autonomy, while FEAR inversely predicted purpose in life. SADNESS and FEAR inversely predicted environmental mastery and self-acceptance. Finally, Spirituality predicted personal growth, positive relations, and self-acceptance. These findings are the first to show the relationship between affective neuroscience personality traits and psychological wellbeing. They also call attention to the distinctive role of FEAR and PANIC traits in psychological wellbeing facets, thereby complementing or even overcoming the traditional personality approach to neuroticism as a global trait.

Keywords: affective neuroscience, individual differences, personality, wellbeing

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Authors: Laura Dembovska, Diana Bajare, Ina Pundiene, Daira Erdmane

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The aim of this research is to estimate effect of pozzolanic substitutes and their combination on the hydration heat and final strength of high performance concrete. Ternary cementitious systems with different ratios of ordinary Portland cement, silica fume and calcined clay were investigated. Local illite clay was calcined at temperature 700oC in rotary furnace for 20 min. It has been well recognized that the use of pozzolanic materials such as silica fume or calcined clay are recommended for high performance concrete for reduction of porosity, increasing density and as a consequence raising the chemical durability of the concrete. It has been found, that silica fume has a superior influence on the strength development of concrete, but calcined clay increase density and decrease size of dominating pores. Additionally it was found that the rates of pozzolanic reaction and calcium hydroxide consumption in the silica fume-blended cement pastes are higher than in the illite clay-blended cement pastes, it strongly depends from the amount of pozzolanic substitutes which are used. If the pozzolanic reaction is dominating then amount of Ca(OH)2 is decreasing. The identity and the amount of the phases present were determined from the thermal analysis (DTA) data. The hydration temperature of blended cement pastes was measured during the first 24 hours. Fresh and hardened concrete properties were tested. Compressive strength was determined and differential thermal analysis (DTA) was conducted of specimens at the age of 3, 14, 28 and 56 days.

Keywords: high performance concrete, pozzolanic additives, silica fume, ternary systems

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Authors: Valentina Marutyan

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Healthcare data mining is a rapidly developing field at the intersection of technology and medicine that has the potential to change our understanding and approach to providing healthcare. Healthcare and data mining is the process of examining huge amounts of data to extract useful information that can be applied in order to improve patient care, treatment effectiveness, and overall healthcare delivery. This field looks for patterns, trends, and correlations in a variety of healthcare datasets, such as electronic health records (EHRs), medical imaging, patient demographics, and treatment histories. To accomplish this, it uses advanced analytical approaches. Predictive analysis using historical patient data is a major area of interest in healthcare data mining. This enables doctors to get involved early to prevent problems or improve results for patients. It also assists in early disease detection and customized treatment planning for every person. Doctors can customize a patient's care by looking at their medical history, genetic profile, current and previous therapies. In this way, treatments can be more effective and have fewer negative consequences. Moreover, helping patients, it improves the efficiency of hospitals. It helps them determine the number of beds or doctors they require in regard to the number of patients they expect. In this project are used models like logistic regression, random forests, and neural networks for predicting diseases and analyzing medical images. Patients were helped by algorithms such as k-means, and connections between treatments and patient responses were identified by association rule mining. Time series techniques helped in resource management by predicting patient admissions. These methods improved healthcare decision-making and personalized treatment. Also, healthcare data mining must deal with difficulties such as bad data quality, privacy challenges, managing large and complicated datasets, ensuring the reliability of models, managing biases, limited data sharing, and regulatory compliance. Finally, secret code of data mining in healthcare helps medical professionals and hospitals make better decisions, treat patients more efficiently, and work more efficiently. It ultimately comes down to using data to improve treatment, make better choices, and simplify hospital operations for all patients.

Keywords: data mining, healthcare, big data, large amounts of data

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Authors: Dora Bianchi, Anthony Schinelli, Laura Maria Fatta, Antonia Lonigro, Fabio Lucidi, Fiorenzo Laghi

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Purpose: The role of body image in adolescent binge eating is widely confirmed, albeit the various facets of this relationship are still mostly unexplored. Within the multidimensional body image framework, this study hypothesized the indirect effects of three body image coping strategies (positive rational acceptance, appearance fixing, avoidance) in the expected relationship between the perceived impact of body image on individuals’ quality of life and binge eating symptoms. Methods: Participants were 715 adolescents aged 15-21 years (49.1% girls) recruited in Italian schools. An anonymous self-report online survey was administered. A multiple mediation model was tested. Results: A more positive perceived impact of body image on quality of life was a negative predictor of adolescents’ binge eating, controlling for individual levels of body satisfaction. Three indirect effects were found in this relationship: on one hand, the positive body image impact reduced binge eating via increasing positive rational acceptance (M1), and via reducing avoidance (M2); on the contrary, the positive body image impact also enhanced binge eating via increasing appearance fixing (M3). Conclusions: The body image impact on quality of life can be alternatively protective—when adaptive coping is solicited, and maladaptive strategies are reduced—or a risk factor, which may increase binge eating by soliciting appearance fixing.

Keywords: binge eating, body image satisfaction, quality of life, coping strategies, adolescents

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Authors: Laura Mendez

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Tribunals for the prosecution of crimes against humanity have been implemented in recent history via international intervention or imposed by one side of the conflict, as in the cases of Rwanda, Iraq, Argentina, and Chile. However, the creation of a criminal tribunal as the result of a peace agreement between formerly warring parties has been unique to the Colombian peace process. As such, the Colombian Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), or JEP for its Spanish acronym, is viewed as a site of social contestation where actors shape its design and implementation. This study contributes to the literature of transitional justice by analyzing how the framing of the creation of the Colombian tribunal reveals the parties' interests. The analysis frames the interests of the power-brokers, i.e., the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the victims in light of the tribunal’s functions. The purpose of this analysis is to understand how the interests of the parties are embedded in the designing of the SJP. This paper argues that the creation of the SJP rests on restorative justice, for which the victim, not the perpetrator, is at the center of prosecution. The SJP’s approach to justice moves from prosecution as punishment to prosecution as sanctions. SJP’s alternative sanctions focused on truth, reparation, and restoration are designed to humanize both the victim and the perpetrator in order to achieve reconciliation. The findings also show that requiring the perpetrator to perform labor to repair the victim as an alternative form of sanction aims to foster relations of reintegration and social learning between victims and perpetrators.

Keywords: transitional justice mechanisms, criminal tribunals, Colombia, Colombian Jurisdiction for Peace, JEP

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Authors: Laura Acevedo-Pacheco, Janet Alejandra Gutierrez-Uribe, Lucia Elizabeth Cruz-Suarez, Segio Othon Serna-Saldivar

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Seaweeds can generate changes in the metabolism of lipids; as a consequence, this may diminish cholesterol and other lipids in the blood. However, the consumption of marine algae may also alter the functions of other organs. Therefore, the objective of this research was to study the effect of two different sorts of algae (Ecklonia arborea and Silvetia compressa) in the metabolism of lipids, as well as, in the physiology of the liver. Wistar male rats were fed for two months with independent diets composed of 20% of fat and 2.5% of E. arborea and S. compressa each. Blood parameters (cholesterol, lipoproteins, triglycerides, hepatic enzymes) and triglycerides in the liver were quantified, and also hepatic histology analyses were performed. While S. compressa reduced 18% total cholesterol compared to the positive control, E. arborea increased it 5.8%. Animals fed with S. compressa presented a decrement, compared to the positive control, not only in low density lipoproteins levels (53%) but also in triglycerides (67%). The presence of steatosis in the histologies and the high levels of triglycerides showed an evident lipid accumulation in hepatic tissues of rats fed with both algae. These results indicate that even though S. compressa showed a promising resource to decrease total cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins in blood, a detrimental effect was observed in liver physiology. Further investigations should be made to find out if toxic compounds associated with these seaweeds may cause liver damage especially in terms of heavy metals.

Keywords: brown algae, Eisenia arborea, hepatic metabolism, lipidemic metabolism, Pelvetia compressa, steatosis

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Authors: Angelica Salmeron Alcocer, Deifilia Ahuatzi Chacon, Felipe Rodriguez Casasola

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Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are produced naturally (forest fires, volcanic eruptions) and human activity (burning fossil fuels). Concern for PAHs is due to their toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects and so pose a potential risk to human health and ecology. Therefore these are considered the most toxic components of oil, they are highly hydrophobic, making them easily depositable on the floor, air and water. One method of removing PAHs of contaminated soil used surfactants such as Tween 80, which it has been reported as less toxic and also increases the solubility of the PAH compared to other surfactants, fluoranthene is a PAH with molecular formula C16H10, its name derives from the fluorescence which presents to UV light. In this paper, a study of the fluoranthene removal solubilized with Tween 80 in synthetic wastewater using a microbial community (isolated from soil of coffee plantations in the state of Veracruz, Mexico) and Fenton oxidation method was performed. The microbial community was able to use both tween 80 and fluoranthene as carbon sources for growth, when the biological treatment in batch culture was applied, 100% of fluoranthene was mineralized, this only occurred at an initial concentration of 100 ppm, but by increasing the initial concentration of fluoranthene the removal efficiencies decay and degradation time increases due to the accumulation of byproducts more toxic or less biodegradable, however when the Fenton oxidation was previously applied to the biological treatment, it was observed that removal of fluoranthene improved because it is consumed approximately 2.4 times faster.

Keywords: fluoranthene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, biological treatment, fenton oxidation

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Authors: Janaina Pereira, Barbara Gonzalez, Valentina Chitas, Teresa Molina

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Intro: The positive impact of opioid maintenance programs on the health of heroin addicts, and on public health in general, has been widely recognized, namely on the prevalence reduction of infectious diseases as HIV, and on the social reintegration of this population. Nevertheless, a part of patients in these programs cannot remain heroin abstinent, or has relapses, during the treatment. Method: Thus, this cross-sectional research aims at analyzing the relation between a set of psychological and psychosocial variables, which have been associated with the onset of heroin use, and assess if they are also associated with absence of abstinence in participants in an opioid maintenance program. A total of 62 patients, aged between 26 and 58 years old (M= 40.87, DP= 7.39) with a time in opioid maintenance program between 1 and 10 years (M= 5.42, DP= 3.05), 77.4% male and 22.6% female, participated in this research. To assess the criterion variable (heroin use) we used the mean value of positive results in urine tests during the participation in the program, weighted according to the number of months in program. The predictor variables were the coping strategies, the dispositional sensation seeking, and the existence of Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Results: The results showed that only 33.87% of the patients were totally abstinent of heroin use since the beginning of the program, and the absence of abstinence, as the number of positive heroin tests, was primarily predicted by less proactive coping, and secondarily by a higher level of sensation seeking. 16.13% of the sample fulfilled diagnosis criteria for PTSD, and 67.74 % had at least one traumatic experience throughout their lives. The total of PTSD symptoms had a positive correlation with the number of physical health problems, and with the lack of professional occupation. These results have several implications for the clinical practice in this field, and we suggest the promotion of proactive coping strategies should integrate these opioid maintenance programs, as they represent the tendency to face future events as challenges and opportunities, being positively related to positive results on several fields. The early identification of PTSD in the participants, before entering the opioid maintenance programs, would be important as it is related to negative features that hinder social reintegration, Finally, to identify individuals with a sensation seeking profile would be relevant, not only because they face a higher risk of relapse, but also because the therapeutical approaches should not ignore this dispositional feature in the alternatives they propose to the patients.

Keywords: opioid maintenance programs, proactive coping, PTSD, sensation seeking

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Authors: Eriberto R. Astorga Jr., Herbert D. Vertucio, Evelyn M. Polison

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This study was conducted in order to determine the analysis with regards to the Characterization of Self-Esteem of EARIST Students according to their origin of self-esteem and low self-esteem as well as its causes. The respondents of this study are three thousand three hundred twenty three (3,323) randomly selected students from eight colleges of EARIST such as Arts and Sciences, Education, Public Administration and Criminology, Business Administration, Hospitality Management, Architecture and Fine Arts, Engineering, and Industrial Technology. A survey was conducted by using a validated questionnaire for information gathering about respondents profile and different factors relating to self-esteem of students such as self-origin, familial and social relationship, financial situation and education. Frequency, percentage, ranking and standards deviation, standard t-test and ANOVA were applied to investigate the differences of the answers of the respondents to the origin of their self-esteem and the reasons for low self-esteem. The results revealed that there are no significant differences in the origin of their self-esteem and the reasons of low esteem as to the eight group of respondent’s. Moreover, most causes of low esteem are caused by hearing a comment or experiencing an incident that has a negative impact student mentally and emotionally, poor health, being bullied, lack of support from family, friends, and job loss, experiencing verbal and sexual abuse and are in a violent relationship, feelings of isolation, divorce, dysfunctional family, death and lack of achievement at work and at school, trying to conform to stereotypes and prove our independence from our parents.

Keywords: characterization, plan of action, profile, self-esteem

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Authors: Laura Frydel, Piotr M. Slomkiewicz, Beata Szczepanik

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Triclosan has been used as a disinfectant in many medical products, such as: hand disinfectant soaps, creams, mouthwashes, pastes and household cleaners. Due to its strong antimicrobial activity, triclosan is becoming more and more popular and the consumption of disinfectants with triclosan in it is increasing. As a result, this compound increasingly finds its way into waters and soils in an unchanged form, pollutes the environment and may have a negative effect on organisms. The aim of this study was to investigate the synthesis of cellulose-based halloysite-carbon adsorbent and perform its characterization. The template in the halloysite-carbon adsorbent was halloysite nanotubes and the carbon precursor was microcrystalline cellulose. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were obtained and the elementary composition (qualitative and quantitative) of the sample was determined by energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS). The identification of the crystallographic composition of the halloysite nanotubes and the sample of the halloysite-carbon composite was carried out using the X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) method. The FTIR spectra were acquired before and after the adsorption process in order to determine the functional groups on the adsorbent surface and confirm the interactions between adsorbent and adsorbate molecules. The parameters of the porous structure of the adsorbent, such as the specific surface area (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method), the total pore volume and the volume of mesopores and micropores were determined. Total carbon and total organic carbon were also determined in the samples. A cellulose-based halloysite-carbon adsorbent was used to remove triclosan from water. The degree of removal of triclosan from water was approximately 90%. The results indicate that the halloysite-carbon composite can be successfully used as an effective adsorbent for removing triclosan from water.

Keywords: Adsorption, cellulose, halloysite, triclosan

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Authors: R. Echeverría Echeverría, C. Carrillo Trujillo, N. Evia Alamilla

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Today, bullying is an expression of violence. It is a present problem in different contexts. Bullying and harassment have become subject matter of professional psychology , anthropology and other social sciences and related areas. However, most research on bullying have focused on peer violence and basic education. There is little attention to harassment in higher education. It also has little generation of research and interventions in universities, undergraduate and postgraduate level. The aim of this paper is to present a proposal for intervention to the attention of college students who have had an experience of harassment and / or bullying in a Public University of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. The methodology was qualitative phenomenological. Semiestructura interview techniques and focus groups were used. 6 students participated who have lived harassment or bullying. Also they are participating teachers and university leaders who play an important role in the presence of such cases. The purpose is to analyze the presence of policies for the prevention, treatment and punishment of those problems. The qualitative data analysis will be based on the general proposal of Rodriguez Gomez Gil Flores and García Jiménez (1999). The results show the need to create a body entrusted to provide timely attention to cases of bullying or harassment that are reported. It is important to take legal and psychological support of the University authorities. It is proposed to create a mechanism to ensure timely care and not victimized who has had the experience; in addition to the punishment of those who exercised to ensure that violence. In discussing the successes and failures of the proposal are highlighted. And the processes that have been facilitated or hampered progress for the project.

Keywords: bullying, harassment, intervention, public university

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Authors: Rosiris Maturo Domingues, Patricia Luissa Masmo, Cibele Cavalheiro Neves, Juliana Dalla Martha Rodriguez

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This article reports the experience of the pedagogical consultants responsible for the curriculum development of Senac São Paulo courses when facing the emergency need to maintain the pedagogical process in their schools in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The urgent adjustment to distance education resulted in the improvement of the process and the adoption of new teaching and learning strategies mediated by technologies. The processes for preparing and providing guidelines for professional education courses were also readjusted. Thus, a bank of teaching-learning strategies linked to digital resources was developed, categorized, and identified by their didactic-pedagogical potential, having as an intersection didactic planning based on learning objectives based on Bloom's taxonomy (revised), given its convergence with the competency approach adopted by Senac. Methodologically, a relationship was established between connectivity and digital networks and digital evolution in school environments, culminating in new paradigms and processes of educational communication and new trends in teaching and learning. As a result, teachers adhered to the use of digital tools in their practices, transposing face-to-face classroom methodologies and practices to online media, whose criticism was the use of ICTs in an instrumental way, reducing methodologies and practices to teaching only transmissive. There was recognition of the insertion of technology as a facilitator of the educational process in a non-palliative way and the development of a web curriculum, now and fully, carried out in contexts of ubiquity.

Keywords: technologies, education, teaching-learning strategies, Bloom taxonomy

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Authors: Kailas Bhandarkar, Talib Dar, Laura Karia, Manasvi Upadhyaya

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Introduction: Frenotomy for tongue tie is commonly performed in breastfed infants who experience difficulty in latching after failed conservative management for tongue tie. However, there is no consensus for the routine use of massage following frenotomy. Our aim was to assess the efficacy of massage in preventing recurrence following frenotomy. Methods: The tongue tie service in our tertiary referral hospital consists of 5 consultants and a breastfeeding (BF) midwife. 3 consultants routinely advice massage post procedure. Babies are assessed by the midwife after the procedure and a follow-up consultation after a week. After due ethical approval, data were collected by two staff members who were independent of TT service on a standardized questionnaire to avoid bias. Fischer exact test was employed (p < 0.05 considered significant). Results: Six hundred and thirty-two babies attended the clinic from January 2018 to December 2018. Thirty-three of these were excluded as the procedure was not needed. Parents were contacted at a median of six months post-procedure (range 2-10 months). 282/599 were advised massage. 92/282 could be contacted. 40/ 92 adhered to massage regimen. None of these had a recurrence. 52/92 (54%), although advised, did not perform massage. Reasons cited for lack of adherence to massage included difficulty in performing massaging and conflicting advice given by other health care professionals involved in patient care like paediatricians and group practice and lack of information on the internet). Overall, 4/599 (0.66%) had recurrences, and this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: In our experience, the rate of recurrence after frenotomy is low enough for us to conclude that there is no significant benefit of massage after frenotomy for tongue tie. We could also conclude that among parents who were advised massage more than half failed to adhere to the advice.

Keywords: tongue tie, frenotomy, massage, recurrence

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Authors: Levent Dumenci, Laura A. Siminoff

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Health literacy has been shown to predict a variety of health outcomes. Reliable identification of persons with limited cancer health literacy (LCHL) has been proved questionable with existing instruments using an arbitrary cut point along a continuum. The CHLT-6, however, uses a latent mixture modeling approach to identify persons with LCHL. The purpose of this study was to estimate two-week and six-month stability of identifying persons with LCHL using the CHLT-6 with a discrete latent variable approach as the underlying measurement structure. Using a test-retest design, the CHLT-6 was administered to cancer patients with two-week (N=98) and six-month (N=51) intervals. The two-week and six-month latent test-retest agreements were 89% and 88%, respectively. The chance-corrected latent agreements estimated from Dumenci’s latent kappa were 0.62 (95% CI: 0.41 – 0.82) and .47 (95% CI: 0.14 – 0.80) for the two-week and six-month intervals, respectively. High levels of latent test-retest agreement between limited and adequate categories of cancer health literacy construct, coupled with moderate to good levels of change-corrected latent agreements indicated that the CHLT-6 classification of limited versus adequate cancer health literacy is relatively stable over time. In conclusion, the measurement structure underlying the instrument allows for estimating classification errors circumventing limitations due to arbitrary approaches adopted by all other instruments. The CHLT-6 can be used to identify persons with LCHL in oncology clinics and intervention studies to accurately estimate treatment effectiveness.

Keywords: limited cancer health literacy, the CHLT-6, discrete latent variable modeling, latent agreement

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Authors: V. C. Shruti, P. F. Rodríguez-Espinosa, D. C. Escobedo-Urías, Estefanía Martinez Tavera, M. P. Jonathan

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Atoyac River, a major south-central river flowing through the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala in Mexico is significantly impacted by the natural volcanic inputs in addition with wastewater discharges from urban, agriculture and industrial zones. In the present study, core samples were collected from R. Atoyac and analyzed for sediment granularity, major (Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, K, P and S) and trace elemental concentrations (Ba, Cr, Cd, Mn, Pb, Sr, V, Zn, Zr). The textural studies reveal that the sediments are mostly sand sized particles exceeding 99% and with very few to no presence of mud fractions. It is observed that most of the metals like (avg: all values in μg g^-1) Ca (35,528), Mg (10,789), K (7453), S (1394), Ba (203), Cr (30), Cd (4), Pb (11), Sr (435), Zn (76) and Zr (88) are enriched throughout the sediments mainly sourced from volcanic inputs, source rock composition of Atoyac River basin and industrial influences from the Puebla city region. Contamination indices, such as anthropogenic factor (AF), enrichment factor (EF) and geoaccumulation index (I_geo), were used to investigate the level of contamination and toxicity as well as quantitatively assess the influences of human activities on metal concentrations. The AF values (>1) for Ba, Ca, Mg, Na, K, P and S suggested volcanic inputs from the study region, where as Cd and Zn are attributed to the impacts of industrial inputs in this zone. The EF and I_geo values revealed an extreme enrichment of S and Cd. The ecological risks were evaluated using potential ecological risk index (RI) and the results indicate that the metals Cd and V pose a major hazard for the biological community.

Keywords: Atoyac River, contamination indices, metal concentrations, Mexico, textural studies

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Authors: Sofia Cramerotti, Angela Cattoni, Laura Biancato, Dario Ianes

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The recognition of specific standards for new professionals, within the teaching profile, is a necessary process in order to foster an innovative school vision in accordance with the change that school is experiencing. In line with the reform of the national education and training system and with the National Training Plan for teachers, our Research and Development department developed a training project based on a framework (Syllabus) of skills that each 'Expert Teacher' should master in order to fulfill what the different specific profiles request. The syllabus is a fundamental tool for a training process consistent with the teaching profiles, both to guide the to-become teachers entering in service and to provide the in-service teachers with a system of evaluation and improvement of their skills. According to the national and international literature about professional standards for teachers, we aggregated the skills of the syllabus in three macro areas: (1) Area of professional skills related to the teacher profile and their continuous training; (2) area of teaching skills related to the school innovation; (3) area of organizing skills related to school participation for its improvement. The syllabus is a framework that identifies and describes the skills of the expert teacher in all of their roles. However, the various skills take on different importance in the different profiles involved in the school; some of those skills are determining a role, others could be secondary. Therefore, the characterization of the different profiles is represented by suitably weighted skills sets. In this way, the same skill could differently characterize each profile. In the future, we hope that the skills development and training for the teacher could evolve in a skills development and training for the whole school staff ('Expert Team'). In this perspective, the school will, therefore, benefit from a solid team, in which the skills of the various profiles are all properly developed and well represented.

Keywords: framework, skills, teachers, training

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Authors: Laura E. Monroe

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As more non-native English-speaking students enroll in English-medium universities, even more faculty will instruct students who are unprepared for the rigors of post-secondary academic writing in English. Many faculty members lack training and knowledge regarding the assessment of non-native English-speaking students’ writing, as well as the ability to provide effective feedback. This quantitative study investigated the possible attitudinal factors, including demographics, which might affect faculty preparedness and grading practices for both native and non-native English-speaking students’ academic writing and plagiarism, as well as the reasons faculty do not deduct points from both populations’ writing errors. Structural equation modeling and SPSS Statistics were employed to analyze the results of a faculty questionnaire disseminated to individuals who had taught non-native English-speaking students in academic subject courses. The findings from this study illustrated that faculty’s native language, years taught, and institution type were significant factors in not deducting points for academic writing errors and plagiarism, and the major reasons for not deducting points for errors were that faculty had too many students to grade, not enough training in assessing student written errors and plagiarism and that the errors and plagiarism would have taken too long to explain. The practical implications gleaned from these results can be applied to most departments in English-medium post-secondary institutions regarding faculty preparedness and training in student academic writing errors and plagiarism, and recommendations for future research are given for similar types of preparation and guidance for post-secondary faculty, regardless of degree path or academic subject.

Keywords: assessment, faculty, non-native English-speaking students, writing

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