Cognitive decline and polypharmacy in an elderly population.

Aging is associated with increased risk of chronic disease, comorbidities, and greater medication use. Polypharmacy, the concomitant use of 5 or more medications, has been associated with adverse health effects, and potentially cognitive decline. The proposed hypothesis is that polypharmacy increases the risk of cognitive decline in elderly people. Using longitudinal data from 572 participants from the New Mexico Aging Process Study cohort, the impact of polypharmacy on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) was studied. The statistical analyses were performed using mixed linear regression multivariable models and generalized estimating equations, adjusting for important covariates. Polypharmacy was associated with a 0.11±0.09 decrease in MMSE scores (p-value=0.23) and an increased risk of MCI (odds ratio=1.95, 95% CI 0.40-9.43). The results suggest that polypharmacy may increase the rate of cognitive decline in elderly people. Larger studies in other populations are needed to support this hypothesis

Clean Development Mechanism Projects in Latin America : beyond reducing CO2 (e) emissions. A case study in Chile

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was created to compensate underdeveloped countries for their contribution to mitigate climate change. Under these rules, those projects showing the lower cost, in terms of investment, for each tonne of CO2 (e) saved, will be the ones selected. However, even if this selection process seems quite rational, it can result in a suboptimal allocation of resources, when other impacts of these projects, also having to do with social welfare, are considered. This point is illustrated in this paper by comparing the financial cost of CER credits of two current CDM projects in Chile, the Santa Marta Landfill Gas Capture Project and the Corneche‐Los Guindos Methane Capture from Swine Manure Project, with that of a third, “virtual” project, the upgrading of the Renca Generation Plant in Santiago de Chile to a gas fired combined cycle (CCGT) Plant. Even if this third project is much less efficient in financial terms, it shows a very important ancillary benefit: its impact on human health. When this impact is introduced, the result, as expected, is a drastic change in the relative social profitability of the three projects

Clean Development Mechanism Projects in Latin America : beyond reducing CO2 (e) emissions. A case study in Chile

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was created to compensate underdeveloped countries for their contribution to mitigate climate change. Under these rules, those projects showing the lower cost, in terms of investment, for each tonne of CO2 (e) saved, will be the ones selected. However, even if this selection process seems quite rational, it can result in a suboptimal allocation of resources, when other impacts of these projects, also having to do with social welfare, are considered. This point is illustrated in this paper by comparing the financial cost of CER credits of two current CDM projects in Chile, the Santa Marta Landfill Gas Capture Project and the Corneche‐Los Guindos Methane Capture from Swine Manure Project, with that of a third, “virtual” project, the upgrading of the Renca Generation Plant in Santiago de Chile to a gas fired combined cycle (CCGT) Plant. Even if this third project is much less efficient in financial terms, it shows a very important ancillary benefit: its impact on human health. When this impact is introduced, the result, as expected, is a drastic change in the relative social profitability of the three projects

Biolixiviación en columnas de sulfuros polimetálicos del yacimiento de Aznalcóllar (Faja Pirítica Ibérica).

Una alternativa al tratamiento clásico de los sulfuros polimetálicos a través del circuito flotación diferencial - fundición es el desarrollo de procesos hidrometalúrgicos eficientes que permitan la extracción selectiva de cobre, plomo y zinc. Entre las técnicas hidrometalúrgicas, la biolixiviación de menas sulfuradas complejas podría constituir un tipo de proceso limpio, de bajo costo y eficiente para extraer estos metales a partir de los materiales de mina (por lixiviación "in situ", en pila o de escombreras) o para subir selectivamente la ley (en cobre, plomo o zinc) en los concentrados de planta. Esta investigación muestra los resultados de pruebas de lixiviación en columnas, de minerales de la mina de Aznalcóllar, mediante la utilización de soluciones ácidas conteniendo una cepa (ATCC 19859) de Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. Los minerales (8,57 Kg.; pirita-calcopirita-esfalerita-galena; 0,38 por 100 Cu, 4,42 por 100 Zn, 2,11 por 100 Pb) fueron lixiviados continuamente durante 31 semanas. El tamaño de partícula elegido estuvo entre +2,0 mm. (Series DIN 1171; parte inferior de la columna) y - 2,0 + 1,2 mm. (parte superior de la columna). Pruebas de lixiviación continua adicionales fueron realizadas en embudos de decantación (3.000 mi.; 0,9 Kg. de mena; -2,0 +1,2 mm.) durante 28 semanas. Se alcanzaron altas extracciones de zinc (59,9 por 100 - 63,0 por 100) cuando el pH fue nivelado en 2,0. Cuando se pararon las pruebas el proceso de lixiviación continuaba a una tasa sostenida, por lo que puede presumirse que extracciones mayores pueden conseguirse si se emplea más tiempo en el proceso. La precipitación generalizada de minerales refractarios al proceso (e. g. sulfatos férricos) sobre las superficies de los granos de sulfuros fue impedida mediante la no utilización del medio nutriente 9 K durante la lixiviación. La precipitación de sulfatos hidratados de zinc y de hierro ferroso (gunningita, ZnS04 - 6 H20, rozenita y melanterita) tomó lugar bajo condiciones extremas de sobresaturación, y puede ser considerada como un fenómeno restringido que no impidió la extracción de metales

Encapsulation of gold nanostructures and oil-in-water nanocarriers in microgels with biomedical potential

Indexación: Scopus.Funding: This research was funded by FONDECYT 1161450, 1150744, 11130494 and 1170929, FONDEQUIP EQM160157, EQM170111, CONICYT-FONDAP 15130011, and CONICYT PhD Scholarship 21141137.Here we report the incorporation of gold nanostructures (nanospheres or nanorods, functionalized with carboxylate-end PEG) and curcumin oil-in-water (O/W) nanoemulsions (CurNem) into alginate microgels using the dripping technique. While gold nanostructures are promising nanomaterials for photothermal therapy applications, CurNem possess important pharmacological activities as reported here. In this sense, we evaluated the effect of CurNem on cell viability of both cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines (AGS and HEK293T, respectively), demonstrating preferential toxicity in cancer cells and safety for the non-cancerous cells. After incorporating gold nanostructures and CurNem together into the microgels, microstructures with diameters of 220 and 540 µm were obtained. When stimulating microgels with a laser, the plasmon effect promoted a significant rise in the temperature of the medium; the temperature increase was higher for those containing gold nanorods (11–12 ◦ C) than nanospheres (1–2 ◦ C). Interestingly, the incorporation of both nanosystems in the microgels maintains the photothermal properties of the gold nanostructures unmodified and retains with high efficiency the curcumin nanocarriers. We conclude that these results will be of interest to design hydrogel formulations with therapeutic applications. © 2018 by the authors.https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/23/5/120

Sexual violence in college students in Chile

Young women's experiences of sexual victimization can have far-reaching consequences, including unwanted pregnancy and increased risk of psychological, sexual, and reproductive health difficulties; these experiences can also limit young women's ability to achieve their educational potential. To date, no quantitative studies have examined sexual violence among college students in Chile. To address this gap, an anonymous survey was administered to students enrolled in General Education courses at a major public university in Santiago (n=455 female students). Rape, attempted rape, and other types of sexual victimization were reported by 9.4%, 6.2%, and 15.6% of respondents, respectively, as the most severe event experienced since age 14; 17.2% reported some form of sexual victimization in the past 12 months alone. Estimates based on ordered logit models show that low parental education, childhood sexual abuse, and witnessing inter-parental violence are associated with increased odds of sexual victimization since age 14; attendance to religious services and living with the parents while attending college have protective effects. The findings indicate a need to further investigate the prevalence of and risk factors for sexual violence in Chilean college students, and to begin to develop and evaluate theory-based programs to prevent and respond to this public health concern

Variations of the Vocal Fold Epithelium in a Menopause Induced Model

During menopause, changes occur in the laryngeal structures that have implications for the voice. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of induced menopause on the morphological parameters of the vocal fold mucosa in rats. Ten adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were used as samples and divided into two groups: 5 were surgically oophorectomized (OVX), and 5 underwent a surgical procedure similar to oophorectomy but without removal of the ovaries (SHAM). After 30 days surgery, the characteristics of the epithelium that forms the vocal fold mucosa in terms of cellular arrangement and organization of the epithelium were observed. Through the Morphometrics XS software, the epithelial height and the number and density of cellular layers were determined. Our results indicate that there were alterations in the number of cell layers that constitute the epithelium, as well as features, such as cellular cohesion and increased extracellular matrix. The number of cell layers was significantly higher (p<0.01) in the SHAM group with 6.66 (SD 1.07), whereas in the OVX was 3.2 (SD 0.83). The average thickness of the epithelium was 534.71 mm (SD 119.89), whereas in the SHAM group was 486.84 mm (SD 82.95); these differences were not statistically significant (p = 0.112). Changes in the characteristics of the epithelium covering the vocal folds can be related to clinical abnormalities, such as reduced voice quality and degeneration of the vocal folds in postmenopausal women

Earth Science Data Fusion with Event Building Approach

Objectives of the NASA Information And Data System (NAIADS) project are to develop a prototype of a conceptually new middleware framework to modernize and significantly improve efficiency of the Earth Science data fusion, big data processing and analytics. The key components of the NAIADS include: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) multi-lingual framework, multi-sensor coincident data Predictor, fast into-memory data Staging, multi-sensor data-Event Builder, complete data-Event streaming (a work flow with minimized IO), on-line data processing control and analytics services. The NAIADS project is leveraging CLARA framework, developed in Jefferson Lab, and integrated with the ZeroMQ messaging library. The science services are prototyped and incorporated into the system. Merging the SCIAMACHY Level-1 observations and MODIS/Terra Level-2 (Clouds and Aerosols) data products, and ECMWF re- analysis will be used for NAIADS demonstration and performance tests in compute Cloud and Cluster environments

A MegaCam Survey of Outer Halo Satellites. I. Description of the Survey

We describe a deep, systematic imaging study of satellites in the outer halo of the Milky Way. Our sample consists of 58 stellar overdensities --- i.e., substructures classified as either globular clusters, classical dwarf galaxies, or ultra-faint dwarf galaxies --- that are located at Galactocentric distances of R$_{\rm GC}$ > 25 kpc (outer halo) and out to ~400 kpc. This includes 44 objects for which we have acquired deep, wide-field, $g-$ and $r-$band imaging with the MegaCam mosaic cameras on the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the 6.5m Magellan-Clay telescope. These data are supplemented by archival imaging, or published $gr$ photometry, for an additional 14 objects, most of which were discovered recently in the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We describe the scientific motivation for our survey, including sample selection, observing strategy, data reduction pipeline, calibration procedures, and the depth and precision of the photometry. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source limiting magnitudes for our MegaCam imaging --- which collectively covers an area of ~52 deg$^{2}$ --- are $g_{\rm lim}$ ~25.6 and $r_{\rm lim}$ ~25.3 AB mag. These limits are comparable to those from the coadded DES images and are roughly a half-magnitude deeper than will be reached in a single visit with LSST. Our photometric catalog thus provides the deepest and most uniform photometric database of Milky Way satellites available for the foreseeable future. In other papers in this series, we have used these data to explore the blue straggler populations in these objects, their density distributions, star formation histories, scaling relations and possible foreground structures.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap