Characterization of a biotrickling filter treating methanol vapours

[Abstract] The aim of this research is to characterize a biotrickling filter (BTF) treating methanol vapour emissions. The parameters studied were the nitrogen concentration in the nutrient solution and the empty bed residence time (EBRT). The effect of continuously recycling the nutrient solution was also analyzed. At nitrogen concentrations as low as 0.001 gN L-1, the BTF presented removal efficiencies higher than 70 % for an inlet load of 110 g m-3 h-1. A nitrogen concentration of 0.005 gN L-1 was used to study the effect of EBRT and the continuous recirculation of nutrient solution. At a constant methanol inlet concentration of 1500 ppmv, the BTF was operated in a range of EBRT from 20 to 265 s and the removal efficiencies respectively attained were 40 and 90 %. Methanol vapours were absorbed into the lixiviate and were taken into account in analysing the results

Birds of a wildlife reserve in the south American pampa (Córdoba, Argentina)

In the Pampa ecoregion of South America, the intensification of agriculture has led to the almost total replacement of pristine vegetation by agroecosystems. This has caused a great loss of biodiversity and a decline of bird assemblages. We monitored birds in Dos Hermanas Wildlife Reserve, an integrated ecosystem-based management area in preserved natural saline wetland relicts (grasslands and shrublands) with a cultivated sector (sustainable grazing and organic crops). We recorded a total of 170 species, including altitudinal migrants, Nearctic migrants, migrants of the temperate-tropical and cold-temperate systems, and residents. Seven are globally threatened species and three are exotic species. The high diversity of birds recorded at Dos Hermanas Wildlife Reserve highlights the importance of this reserve for the conservation of the regional biota. The application of ecosystem-based management allows the presence of contrasting vegetation structures with positive effects on the diversity of bird assemblages in the Pampa region.Fil: Brandolin, Pablo Germán. Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomia y Veterinaria. Departamento de Biología Agrícola. Cátedra de Botanica Sistematica; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Ramírez, Ramiro. No especifíca;Fil: Ávalos, Miguel A.. No especifíca;Fil: Márquez, Javier Andrés. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Blendinger, Pedro Gerardo. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; ArgentinaFil: Cantero, Juan Jose. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias. Departamento de Recursos Naturales. Cátedra de Microbiología Agrícola; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentin

Negotiating Boundaries: The Nurse Family Member Caring for Her Own Relative in Palliative Care

This research illuminates the challenges of living well within one's own family as a nurse caring for her own relative who is dying of a cancer-related illness. Developing a deeper awareness of the consequences of this caring work has been the central focus for inquiry in this research. Nursing requires epistemologies that encompass new ways of understanding how we live within our own families and communities and practice as nurses. The theoretical framework that guides this research interprets the French Philosopher Michel Foucault's (1926-1984) critical history of thought as an ethical project for nursing. It uses conceptual tools developed in his later writing and interviews to draw attention to how discursive knowledge and practices constitute subjectivity in relations of truth, power and the self's relation to the self. The first aspect of the analysis, landscapes of care examines the techniques of discourse as relations of power and knowledge that constitute nurse family members as subjects who have relationships with their own families and other health professionals. The second aspect analyses care of the self and others as self work undertaken to form the self as a particular kind of subject and achieve mastery over one's thoughts and actions. Nurses are called to care because they are present within their families with knowledge and expertise that makes a difference to how a dying relative experiences palliative care. Caring discourse positions nurses with responsibilities to their own; responsibilities that require sensitivity in knowing how to negotiate the relational spaces that constitute relationships with other family members and health professionals. Family discourse calls nurse family members to care as daughters, daughters-in-law, wives or mothers within normative understandings about the obligations that families have to care for their ill or dependent members. The discourse of expertise in knowing as a nurse positions nurse family members as interpreters of information for their families and observers who use their inside knowledge of how the health system works to watch over the ill person's clinical care. This expertise, which becomes visible as the exercise of professional authority in practising nursing, challenges the normative frameworks that classify and demarcate professional and lay roles in caring for the dying person. As an exploration of the complex and contradictory subjectivities of the nurse family member, this research illuminates the forms and limits of nursing practice knowledge. It shows how nursing is practised, and the identity of the nurse is created, through intellectual, political and relational work, undertaken on the self in relation to others, as modes of ethical engagement. Within this ethical engagement, nurse family members work to transform the self into discursive subjects, with the knowledge, skills and other capacities that are necessary to honour their commitments and responsibilities for care of another person. The experience of caring for their own relative transforms nurse family members' previously held values about how nurses ought to be with others in their professional work, creating a deeper sense of interest in and concern for the vulnerability of other people in palliative care

DNA-based population density estimation of black bear at northern Mexico: A preliminary study

The analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) microsatellites from hair samples obtained by the non-invasive method of traps was used to estimate the population density of black bears (Ursus americanus eremicus) in a mountain located at the county of Lampazos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The genotyping of bears was performed by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using an average of two hairs for each animal. Samples were obtained with barbed wire placed at the traps, which contained food as bait. Multiplex PCR was performed with the GenomiPhiTM, G.E. kit and genotyping with an automated DNA sequencing machine (ABI 310 System). Allelic frequency, heterozygosis and exclusion probability of seven DNA microsatellites were calculated and analyzed with computer programs to determine the population density. Three of the microsatellites had a heterozygosis higher than 0.7 and the population density was calculated in at least 1 bear/km2.Keywords: Black bear, Ursus americanus, population size, DNA microsatellite, MexicoAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(2), pp. 103-10

Ion-exchanged geopolymer for photocatalytic degradation of a volatile organic compound

In thepresentworkitisshownhowgeopolymerscanbeusedtocontrolindoorandoutdoorair pollution byphotolysisof2-ButanoneasaVolatileOrganicCompound(VOC).Anionexchange procedurewasfollowedtoincorporateTiO2 into ageopolymer(IEG),anddifferent2-Butanone concentrations wereusedinabatchreactorunderdryandhumidconditions.Variationon 2-Butanone concentrationwasfollowedbygaschromatography.ALangmuir Hinshelwood modelwas used todeterminethedisappearancerateofreactantattheinitialstageofthereaction.Gasca-Tirado, J.; Manzano-Ramirez, A.; Vazquez-Landaverde, PA.; Herrera-Diaz, EI.; Rodriguez-Ugarte, ME.; Rubio-Avalos, JC.; Amigó Borrás, V.... (2014). Ion-exchanged geopolymer for photocatalytic degradation of a volatile organic compound. Materials Letters. 134:222-224. doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2014.07.090S22222413

Compromising between European and US allergen immunotherapy schools: Discussions from GUIMIT, the Mexican immunotherapy guidelines

Background: Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) has a longstanding history and still remains the only disease-changing treatment for allergic rhinitis and asthma. Over the years 2 different schools have developed their strategies: the United States (US) and the European. Allergen extracts available in these regions are adapted to local practice. In other parts of the world, extracts from both regions and local ones are commercialized, as in Mexico. Here, local experts developed a national AIT guideline (GUIMIT 2019) searching for compromises between both schools. Methods: Using ADAPTE methodology for transculturizing guidelines and AGREE-II for evaluating guideline quality, GUIMIT selected 3 high-quality Main Reference Guidelines (MRGs): the European Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (EAACI) guideines, the S2k guideline of various German-speaking medical societies (2014), and the US Practice Parameters on Allergen Immunotherapy 2011. We formulated clinical questions and based responses on the fused evidence available in the MRGs, combined with local possibilities, patient's preference, and costs. We came across several issues on which the MRGs disagreed. These are presented here along with arguments of GUIMIT members to resolve them. GUIMIT (for a complete English version, see Supplementary data) concluded the following: Results: Related to the diagnosis of IgE-mediated respiratory allergy, apart from skin prick testing complementary tests (challenges, in vitro testing and molecular such as species-specific allergens) might be useful in selected cases to inform AIT composition. AIT is indicated in allergic rhinitis and suggested in allergic asthma (once controlled) and IgE-mediated atopic dermatitis. Concerning the correct subcutaneous AIT dose for compounding vials according to the US school: dosing tables and formula are given; up to 4 non-related allergens can be mixed, refraining from mixing high with low protease extracts. When using European extracts: the manufacturer's indications should be followed; in multi-allergic patients 2 simultaneous injections can be given (100% consensus); mixing is discouraged. In Mexico only allergoid tablets are available; based on doses used in all sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) publications referenced in MRGs, GUIMIT suggests a probable effective dose related to subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) might be: 50–200% of the monthly SCIT dose given daily, maximum mixing 4 allergens. Also, a table with practical suggestions on non-evidence-existing issues, developed with a simplified Delphi method, is added. Finally, dissemination and implementation of guidelines is briefly discussed, explaining how we used online tools for this in Mexico. Conclusions: Countries where European and American AIT extracts are available should adjust AIT according to which school is followed

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved