Open access journals: transparent science or shady business?

OA journals consequences for Science/ The scientific community; OA journals advantages/disadvantages for the publisher/reader/author; What can be done?N/

When is the Haar measure a Pietsch measure for nonlinear mappings?

We show that, as in the linear case, the normalized Haar measure on a compact topological group $G$ is a Pietsch measure for nonlinear summing mappings on closed translation invariant subspaces of $C(G)$. This answers a question posed to the authors by J. Diestel. We also show that our result applies to several well-studied classes of nonlinear summing mappings. In the final section some problems are proposed

Using the Internet for religion: a study of the possible use of the Internet for religious purposes among the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Mumbai, India

It has been claimed that the Internet is influencing not only ways of doing business and modes of communication and recreation, but also the ways human beings practice religion. Most studies undertaken on how people are using the web for their religious needs are done in North America, largely among Christians. This study was aimed at testing whether this was true of Catholic users of the Internet from the Archdiocese of Mumbai, India. In order to verify the religious use of the Internet, focus groups were conducted among various sectors of Catholic users to explore whether differences in age, sex and religious groupings resulted in significant variations in net usage. The data obtained from the focus groups was further tested with a survey questionnaire, administered to a representative sampling of Catholics from the Archdiocese of Mumbai. The data provides not only general trends of net use among the Catholics, but also nuanced perceptions of the net in relationship to its religious use. Research evidence indicated that the Internet was not being used for religion by the Catholics of Mumbai. The fact that there was an inclination towards and ambivalence to using the net shows that there are deeper issues that are influencing net usage. These issues could relate to the free-for-all style of the net and the authority-bound character of the Catholic faith; the interactive character of the net in contrast to the top-down style of communication of the Catholic church; and the global virtual community of the net in comparison with the tangible faith commitment to the local parish community in worship and practice. In conclusion hypotheses proposed to explain the poor usage of the Net are substantiated and new issues suggested, that require further research in the context of net use for religion

Bone mechanical stimulation with piezoelectric materials

This chapter summarized explores in vivo use of a piezoelectric polymer for bone mechanical stimulatio

Vortex-Antivortex Lattice in Ultra-Cold Fermi Gases

We discuss ultra-cold Fermi gases in two dimensions, which could be realized in a strongly confining one-dimensional optical lattice. We obtain the temperature versus effective interaction phase diagram for an s-wave superfluid and show that, below a certain critical temperature T_c, spontaneous vortex-antivortex pairs appear for all coupling strengths. In addition, we show that the evolution from weak to strong coupling is smooth, and that the system forms a square vortex-antivortex lattice at a lower critical temperature T_M.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Bladder cancer and urinary Schistosomiasis in Angola

J Nephrol Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 Jul 9. Disponível em: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4497783/Schistosomiasis haematobia is among the most prevalent parasitosis in Angola. The pathology is characterized by serious and irreversible lesions in the urogenital tract induced by chronic infection with the parasite that can eventually lead to squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder. Considering the frequency and severe morbidity observed, even in younger ages, the purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and morbidity of S. haematobium infection in Angola. A baseline survey was conducted between November 2007 and February 2008. A randomly sample of 300 inhabitants aged 15 to 75 years old participated in this study. Prevalence of S. haematobium infection was 71.7 % (215/300). Infection was higher in females (56.3 %) but no significant difference was found in prevalence and intensity between gender and age groups. The predominant selfreported symptoms were dysuria (91.2 %), hypogastralgia (88.7 %) and haematuria (87.1%) and these symptoms were strongly associated with S. haematobium infection (p<0.05). Ultrasound and cystoscopy examinations performed in a sub-sample of 29 individuals revealed pathological conditions at the urinary tract in all examined. Considering the high prevalence of S. haematobium infections in Angola and schistosomiasis-associated bladder cancer, our results indicate that this population should be targeted for follow up and implementation of measures for treatment and control of schistosomiasis

Estrogen catechols detection as biomarkers in schistosomiasis induced cancer and infertility

Urogenital schistosomiasis is a chronic infection caused by the human blood fluke Schistosoma haematobium. Schistosomiasis haematobium is a known risk factor for cancer leading to squamous cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder (SCC). This is a neglected tropical disease endemic in many countries of Africa and the Middle East. Schistosome eggs produce catechol-estrogens. These molecules are metabolized to active quinones that cause alterations in DNA (leading in other contexts to breast or thyroid cancer). Our group have shown that schistosome egg associated catechol estrogens induce tumor-like phenotypes in urothelial cells, originated from parasite estrogen-host cell chromosomal DNA adducts and mutations. Here we review recent findings on the role of estrogen-DNA adducts and how their shedding in urine may be prognostic of schistosome infection and/or represent potential biomarkers for urogenital schistosomiasis associated bladder cancer and infertility.This work was financed by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/ Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação in the framework of the project "Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences" (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio