384 research outputs found
Reclaiming comprehensive public health
Global and national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic highlight a long-standing tension between biosecurity-focused, authoritarian and sometimes militarised approaches to public health and, in contrast, comprehensive, social determinants, participatory and rights-based approaches. Notwithstanding principles that may limit rights in the interests of public health and the role of central measures in some circumstances, effective public health in a protracted pandemic like COVID-19 requires cooperation, communication, participatory decision-making and action that safeguards the Siracusa principles, respect for peopleâs dignity and local-level realities and capacities. Yet there is mounting evidence of a dominant response to COVID-19 where decisions are being made and enforced in an overcentralised, non-transparent, top-down manner, often involving military coercion and abuse in communities, even while evidence shows the long-term harm to public health and human rights. In contrast, experiences of comprehensive, equity-focused, participatory public health approaches, which use diverse sources of knowledge, disciplines and capabilities, show the type of public health approach that will be more effective to meet the 21st century challenges of pandemics, climate, food and energy crises, growing social inequality, conflict and other threats to health
Education can improve the negative perception of a threatened long-lived scavenging bird, the Andean condor
Human-wildlife conflicts currently represent one of the main conservation problems for wildlife species around the world. Vultures have serious conservation concerns, many of which are related to people's adverse perception about them due to the belief that they prey on livestock. Our aim was to assess local perception and the factors influencing people's perception of the largest scavenging bird in South America, the Andean condor. For this, we interviewed 112 people from Valle FĂ©rtil, San Juan province, a rural area of central west Argentina. Overall, people in the area mostly have an elementary education, and their most important activity is livestock rearing. The results showed that, in general, most people perceive the Andean condor as an injurious species and, in fact, some people recognize that they still kill condors. We identified two major factors that affect this perception, the education level of villagers and their relationship with livestock ranching. Our study suggests that conservation of condors and other similar scavengers depends on education programs designed to change the negative perception people have about them. Such programs should be particularly focused on ranchers since they are the ones who have the worst perception of these scavengers. We suggest that highlighting the central ecological role of scavengers and recovering their cultural value would be fundamental to reverse their persecution and their negative perception by people.Fil: Cailly Arnulphi, VerĂłnica BeatrĂz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas FĂsicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Lambertucci, Sergio Agustin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Borghi, Carlos Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas FĂsicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; Argentin
Phytochemicals as antibiotic alternatives to promote growth and enhance host health
There are heightened concerns globally on emerging drug-resistant superbugs and the lack of new antibiotics for treating human and animal diseases. For the agricultural industry, there is an urgent need to develop strategies to replace antibiotics for food-producing animals, especially poultry and livestock. The 2nd International Symposium on Alternatives to Antibiotics was held at the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris, France, December 12-15, 2016 to discuss recent scientific developments on strategic antibiotic-free management plans, to evaluate regional differences in policies regarding the reduction of antibiotics in animal agriculture and to develop antibiotic alternatives to combat the global increase in antibiotic resistance. More than 270 participants from academia, government research institutions, regulatory agencies, and private animal industries from >25 different countries came together to discuss recent research and promising novel technologies that could provide alternatives to antibiotics for use in animal health and production; assess challenges associated with their commercialization; and devise actionable strategies to facilitate the development of alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) without hampering animal production. The 3-day meeting consisted of four scientific sessions including vaccines, microbial products, phytochemicals, immune-related products, and innovative drugs, chemicals and enzymes, followed by the last session on regulation and funding. Each session was followed by an expert panel discussion that included industry representatives and session speakers. The session on phytochemicals included talks describing recent research achievements, with examples of successful agricultural use of various phytochemicals as antibiotic alternatives and their mode of action in major agricultural animals (poultry, swine and ruminants). Scientists from industry and academia and government research institutes shared their experience in developing and applying potential antibiotic-alternative phytochemicals commercially to reduce AGPs and to develop a sustainable animal production system in the absence of antibiotics.Fil: Lillehoj, Hyun. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; ArgentinaFil: Liu, Yanhong. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Calsamiglia, Sergio. Universitat AutĂČnoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Fernandez Miyakawa, Mariano Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de TecnologĂa Agropecuaria. Centro de InvestigaciĂłn en Ciencias Veterinarias y AgronĂłmicas. Instituto de PatobiologĂa; ArgentinaFil: Chi, Fang. Amlan International; Estados UnidosFil: Cravens, Ron L.. Amlan International; Estados UnidosFil: Oh, Sungtaek. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; ArgentinaFil: Gay, Cyril G.. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; Argentin
Evolutionary and pulsational properties of white dwarf stars
Abridged. White dwarf stars are the final evolutionary stage of the vast
majority of stars, including our Sun. The study of white dwarfs has potential
applications to different fields of astrophysics. In particular, they can be
used as independent reliable cosmic clocks, and can also provide valuable
information about the fundamental parameters of a wide variety of stellar
populations, like our Galaxy and open and globular clusters. In addition, the
high densities and temperatures characterizing white dwarfs allow to use these
stars as cosmic laboratories for studying physical processes under extreme
conditions that cannot be achieved in terrestrial laboratories. They can be
used to constrain fundamental properties of elementary particles such as axions
and neutrinos, and to study problems related to the variation of fundamental
constants.
In this work, we review the essentials of the physics of white dwarf stars.
Special emphasis is placed on the physical processes that lead to the formation
of white dwarfs as well as on the different energy sources and processes
responsible for chemical abundance changes that occur along their evolution.
Moreover, in the course of their lives, white dwarfs cross different
pulsational instability strips. The existence of these instability strips
provides astronomers with an unique opportunity to peer into their internal
structure that would otherwise remain hidden from observers. We will show that
this allows to measure with unprecedented precision the stellar masses and to
infer their envelope thicknesses, to probe the core chemical stratification,
and to detect rotation rates and magnetic fields. Consequently, in this work,
we also review the pulsational properties of white dwarfs and the most recent
applications of white dwarf asteroseismology.Comment: 85 pages, 28 figures. To be published in The Astronomy and
Astrophysics Revie
Childbearing during adolescence and offspring mortality: findings from three population-based cohorts in southern Brazil
Mechanical, electrical and electro-mechanical properties of thermoplastic elastomer styreneâbutadieneâstyrene/multiwall carbon nanotubes composites
Composites of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) block copolymer with multiwall carbon
nanotubes (MWCNT) were processed by solution casting in order to investigate the
influence of filler content, the different ratio of styrene/butadiene in the copolymer and
the architecture of the SBS matrix on the electrical, mechanical and electro-mechanical
properties of the composites. It was found that filler content and elastomer matrix
architecture influence the percolation threshold and consequently the overall composite
electrical conductivity. The mechanical properties are mainly affected by the styrene
and filler content. Hopping between nearest fillers is proposed as the main mechanism
for the composite conduction. The variation of the electrical resistivity is linear with the
deformation. This fact, together with the gauge factor values in the range of 2 to 18,
results in appropriate composites to be used as (large) deformation sensors.This work was funded by FEDER funds through the "Programa Operacional Factores de
Competitividade â COMPETE" and by national funds by FCT - Fundação para a
CiĂȘncia e a Tecnologia, through project references PTDC/CTM/69316/2006,
PTDC/CTM/73465/2006, PTDC/CTM-NAN/112574/2009, and NANO/NMed-
SD/0156/2007. PC, JS and VS also thank FCT for the SFRH/BD/64267/2009,
SFRH/BD/60623/2009 and SFRH/BPD/63148/2009 grants, respectively. The authors
also thank support from the COST Action MP1003 âEuropean Scientific Network for
Artificial Musclesâ and the COST action MP0902 âComposites of Inorganic Nanotubes
and Polymers (COINAPO)
Bioencapsulation and Colonization Characteristics of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis CF4MRS in Artemia franciscana: a Biological Approach for the Control of Edwardsiellosis in Larviculture
Predominance of beneficial bacteria helps to establish a healthy microbiota in fish gastrointestinal system and thus to reduce emerging pathogen. In this study, the colonization efficacy of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis CF4MRS in Artemia franciscana and its potential as a probiotic in suppressing Edwardsiella sp. infection were investigated in vivo. The colonization extent of the bioencapsulated L. lactis was established through visualization of gfp gene-transformed L. lactis in A. franciscana. Here, we demonstrate that when A. franciscana is administrated with L. lactis at 108 CFU mLâ1 for 8 h, the highest relative percentage of survival (RPS =â50.0) is observed after inoculation with Edwardsiella sp. The total counts of L. lactis entrapped in Artemia were the highest (ranged from 3.2 to 5.1âĂâ108 CFU mLâ1), when 108â109 CFU mLâ1 of L. lactis was used as starting inoculum, with the bioencapsulation performed within 8â24 h. Fluorescent microscopy showed gfp-transformed L. lactis colonized the external trunk surfaces, mid-gut and locomotion antennules of the A. franciscana nauplii. These illustrations elucidate the efficiency of colonization of L. lactis in the gastrointestinal tract and on the body surfaces of Artemia. In conclusion, L. lactis subsp. lactis CF4MRS shows a good efficacy of colonization in Artemia and has the potential for biocontrol/probiotic activity against Edwardsiella sp. infection
Lost & Found Dark Matter in Elliptical Galaxies
There is strong evidence that the mass in the Universe is dominated by dark
matter, which exerts gravitational attraction but whose exact nature is
unknown. In particular, all galaxies are believed to be embedded in massive
haloes of dark matter. This view has recently been challenged by surprisingly
low random stellar velocities in the outskirts of ordinary elliptical galaxies,
which were interpreted as indicating a lack of dark matter (Mendez et al. 2001;
Romanowsky et al. 2003). Here we show that the low velocities are in fact
compatible with galaxy formation in dark-matter haloes. Using numerical
simulations of disc-galaxy mergers, we find that the stellar orbits in the
outer regions of the resulting ellipticals are very elongated. These stars were
torn by tidal forces from their original galaxies during the first close
passage and put on outgoing trajectories. The elongated orbits, combined with
the steeply falling density profile of the observed tracers, explain the
observed low velocities even in the presence of large amounts of dark matter.
Projection effects when viewing a triaxial elliptical can lead to even lower
observed velocities along certain lines of sight.Comment: Letter to Nature, 13+15 pages, 2+11 figures, improved text, extended
Supplementary Information adde
Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars
Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars (AMXPs) are astrophysical laboratories
without parallel in the study of extreme physics. In this chapter we review the
past fifteen years of discoveries in the field. We summarize the observations
of the fifteen known AMXPs, with a particular emphasis on the multi-wavelength
observations that have been carried out since the discovery of the first AMXP
in 1998. We review accretion torque theory, the pulse formation process, and
how AMXP observations have changed our view on the interaction of plasma and
magnetic fields in strong gravity. We also explain how the AMXPs have deepened
our understanding of the thermonuclear burst process, in particular the
phenomenon of burst oscillations. We conclude with a discussion of the open
problems that remain to be addressed in the future.Comment: Review to appear in "Timing neutron stars: pulsations, oscillations
and explosions", T. Belloni, M. Mendez, C.M. Zhang Eds., ASSL, Springer;
[revision with literature updated, several typos removed, 1 new AMXP added
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