Metas del milenio y tugurios: una metodología utilizando datos censales

Incluye Bibliografíaresumen Para lograr los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio (ODM), la Organización de las Naciones Unidas debe generar información y conocimiento, para que los países miembros puedan implementar medidas y políticas destinadas a que estos compromisos se cumplan para el año 2015. Este documento pretende aportar antecedentes teóricos y técnicos para el logro del Objetivo 7 (Garantizar la sostenibilidad del medio ambiente), específicamente la meta 11 (Haber mejorado considerablemente para el año 2020, la vida de por lo menos 100 millones de habitantes de tugurios). Para ello procura aportar una herramienta útil en materia de identificación, localización y caracterización de los tugurios. El procedimiento propuesto es amplio y flexible para facilitar su aplicación a la realidad habitacional y urbana de los diversos países de América Latina. La metodología que se presenta permite la localización de áreas geográficas menores de cada país que contienen viviendas en tugurios. Con este objetivo se han seleccionado y procesado una serie de datos censales, graficados espacialmente utilizando cartografía digital, y además se han empleado antecedentes teóricos e históricos junto a imágenes de satélite para apoyar y validar los resultados obtenidos

Second generation biofuels from microbial oil

Biodiesel can be produced from different oleaginous sources. Currently, the most extended biodiesel originates from vegetable oils, due to their availability and similar properties to diesel fuel. However, the use of vegetable oil as feedstock to produce biodiesel is controversial due to biodiesel low sustainability, potential conflict with food and the use of arable land for energy purposes. In this context, this thesis reviews novel alternatives to the traditional raw materials used to produce biodiesel. Moreover, for sustainability reasons, the use of agricultural practices in oilseed crops, focused on fertilizers, should be reduced. In the present thesis, no influence over the quality of biodiesel has been found, thus environment benefits are achieved. The study of microbial oil produced from oleaginous yeasts in tandem with reutilization of agro-industrial waste is another key point of this thesis. Oleaginous yeast accumulates intracellular lipids through the fermentation of various agro-industrial wastes. These microorganisms accumulate different amounts of lipid with variable fatty acid composition, according to the substrate used or the growth conditions. Thus, it appears that glycerol, a by-product from the biodiesel industry, in combination or not with hydrolysates from oilseed meal, is suitable as a carbon source for many oleaginous yeasts for the production of lipids. Finally, it may be concluded that the optimization of the culture conditions (culture mode, temperature, etc.) for each oleaginous yeasts can improve the intracellular lipid accumulation.El biodiésel se puede producir a partir de diferentes fuentes oleaginosas, siendo las más utilizadas los aceites vegetales, debido a su disponibilidad y a aportar un biocombustible con propiedades similares al gasóleo. Sin embargo, el uso de aceite vegetal genera controversia debido a su baja sostenibilidad, el conflicto potencial con el sector alimenticio y la utilización de tierra cultivable para uso energético. Por ello, en esta tesis se hace una revisión sobre alternativas novedosas a las materias primas tradicionales para producir biodiésel. Por motivos de sostenibilidad, el uso de prácticas agrícolas en los cultivos oleaginosos, principalmente fertilizantes, debe reducirse al mínimo. En esta tesis se ha apreciado que no afecta a la calidad del biodiésel producido, lo cual redunda en un beneficio para el medio ambiente. Otro pilar en que se sustenta esta tesis trata sobre el biodiésel obtenido a partir de aceite microbiano producido por levaduras oleaginosas, junto a la reutilización de residuos agroindustriales. Estos microorganismos pueden acumular diferentes cantidades de lípidos con perfil de ácidos grasos variable, según el sustrato utilizado o las condiciones de crecimiento. Así, se aprecia que la glicerina, subproducto de la producción de biodiésel, combinado o no con hidrolizado de torta de prensado de semillas oleaginosas, es una fuente de carbono adecuada para muchas levaduras oleaginosas en la producción de aceite. Finalmente, se concluye que una optimización de las condiciones de cultivo (modo de cultivo, temperatura, etc.) para cada una de las levaduras puede mejorar la acumulación de lípidos intracelulares

Coordinación y deliberación como modelos de políticas de inclusión educativa

This article analyzes some guidelines of inclusive education and from there it proposes to contrast two models of social intervention: the contextual orientation model and the deliberative model. The first focuses on the coordination of actors and systems based on common objectives, but from divergent logics and interests. The second requires the construction of normative agreements on binding decisions to articulate intervention processes. For its part, inclusive education puts students and their diversity at the center to generate quality teaching-learning processes. This has resulted in the development of public policies, such as the Inclusion Law 20,845. We argue that a social policy like this can be nourished by the elements proposed by both theoretical perspectives. On the one hand, the contextual model allows us to understand as a basic element of the public policy process the diversity of logics of the actors involved. On the other hand, the deliberative model highlights the relevance of normative principles and the need for permanent dialogue between those involved. Este artículo analiza algunos lineamientos de la educación inclusiva y desde ahí propone contrastar dos modelos de intervención social: el modelo de orientación contextual y el modelo deliberativo. El primero se centra en la coordinación de actores y sistemas en función de objetivos comunes, pero desde lógicas e intereses divergentes. El segundo demanda la construcción de acuerdos normativos sobre decisiones vinculantes para articular procesos de intervención. Por su parte, la educación inclusiva pone en el centro a los estudiantes y su diversidad para generar procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje de calidad. Esto se ha traducido en el desarrollo de políticas públicas, como la Ley de Inclusión N° 20.845. Sostenemos que una política social como esta puede nutrirse de los elementos propuestos por ambas perspectivas teóricas. Por un lado, el modelo contextual permite entender a la diversidad de lógicas de los actores involucrados como un elemento de base del proceso de política pública. Por otro lado, el modelo deliberativo destaca la relevancia de los principios de tipo normativo y la necesidad del diálogo permanente entre los involucrados

Location of acute coronary artery thromboses in patients with and without chronic kidney disease

Patients with chronic kidney disease have high rates of myocardial infarction and death following an initial attack. Proximal location of coronary atherosclerotic lesions has been linked to the risk of acute myocardial infarction and to infarction-associated mortality. To examine if the spatial distribution of lesions differs in patients with and without chronic kidney disease, we used quantitative coronary angiography to measure this in patients with acute coronary thromboses who were having angiography following acute myocardial infarction. Multivariable linear regression was used to adjust for differences in baseline characteristics. Among 82 patients with stage 3 or higher chronic kidney disease, 55.6% of lesions were located within 30 mm and 87.7% were within 50 mm of the coronary ostia. This compared to 34.7 and 71.8%, respectively, among 299 patients without significant kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease was independently and significantly associated with a 7.0 mm decrease in the distance from the coronary ostia to the problem lesion. Our study suggests that a causal link between a more proximal culprit lesion location in patients with chronic kidney disease and their high mortality rates after myocardial infarct is possible and may have important implications for interventions to prevent infarction

Optimization of the Transesterification of Waste Cooking Oil with Mg-Al Hydrotalcite Using Response Surface Methodology

Nowadays, biodiesel has become a very promising alternative to fossil diesel fuel, regarding environmental concerns and fuel resource depletion. Biodiesel is usually produced through homogeneous or heterogeneous transesterification of different fatty raw materials. Although main research has been carried out with homogenous catalysts, heterogeneous catalysts may be of interest due to ease of recovery and recycling, as well as readiness for continuous processing. In this work, calcined Mg-Al hydrotalcite (HT) was used for the heterogeneous transesterification of waste cooking oil. Three reaction parameters, namely, reaction time, amount of catalyst, and methanol-to-oil molar ratio, were optimized by means of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) at constant temperature (65 C), using a Box-Behnken design. Optimal fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) content (86.23% w/w FAME/sample) was predicted by the model with an R-squared value of 98.45%, using 3.39 g of HT (8.5% w/w oil) and an 8:1 methanol-oil molar ratio, for a duration of 3.12 h. It was observed that calcination of HT, while avoiding the previous washing step, allowed the presence of chemical species that enhanced the effect of the catalyst. It can be concluded from this field trial that calcined and nonwashed Mg-Al hydrotalcite may be considered an effective basic catalyst for the production of biodiesel from waste cooking oil. Also, RSM proved to be a useful tool for predicting biodiesel yield

Influence of Short Carbon-Chain Alcohol (Ethanol and 1-Propanol)/Diesel Fuel Blends over Diesel Engine Emissions

Oxygenated fuels, in this case short carbon-chain alcohols, have been investigated as alternative fuels to power compression ignition engines. A major advantage of short-chain alcohols is that they can be produced from renewable resources, i.e., cultivated commodities or biomass-based biorefineries. However, before entering the market, the effects of short-chain alcohols on engine performance, exhaust emissions, noise and sound quality need to be understood. This work sheds light on the relationship between the physicochemical properties of the alcohol/diesel fuel blends (ethanol and 1-propanol) on engine performance, exhaust emissions and, for the first time, on noise and sound quality. It has been demonstrated that when the content of alcohol in blends increased, soot and soluble organic material emissions drastically decreased, mainly due to the increase of oxygen content in the fuel. Reduction in soot emissions combined with higher thermodynamic efficiency of alcohol fuels, with respect to diesel fuel, enable their utilization on compression ignition engines. There is also an improvement in the soot-NOx trade off, leading to large reductions on soot with a small effect on NOx emissions. The oxygen content within the fuel reduces CO and THC emissions at extra-urban driving operation conditions. However, hydrocarbons and CO emissions increased at urban driving conditions, due to the high heat of vaporization of the alcohol fuels which reduces cylinder temperature worsening fuel atomization, vaporization and mixing with air being more significant at lower cylinder temperature conditions (low engine loads and speeds). Similarly, the higher the presence of alcohol in the blend, the higher the noise emitted by the engine due to their low tendency to auto-ignition. The optimization of alcohol quantity and the calibration of engine control parameters (e.g., injection settings) which is out of the scope of this work, will be required to overcome noise emission penalty. Furthermore, under similar alcohol content in the blend (10% v/v), the use of propanol is preferred over ethanol, as it exhibits lower exhaust emissions and better sound quality than ethanol

Minimizing the Ground Effect for Photophoretically Levitating Disks

Photophoretic levitation is a propulsion mechanism in which lightweight objects can be lifted and controlled through their interactions with light. Since photophoretic forces on macroscopic objects are usually maximized at low pressures, they may be tested in vacuum chambers in close proximity to the chamber floor and walls. We report here experimental evidence that the terrain under levitating microflyers, including the chamber floor or the launchpad from which microflyers lift off, can greatly increase the photophoretic lift forces relative to their free-space (mid-air) values. To characterize this so-called "ground effect" during vacuum chamber tests, we introduced a new miniature launchpad composed of three J-shaped (candy-cane-like) wires that minimized a microflyer's extraneous interactions with underlying surfaces. We compared our new launchpads to previously used wire-mesh launchpads for simple levitating mylar-based disks with diameters of 2, 4, and 8 cm. Importantly, wire-mesh launchpads increased the photophoretic lift force by up to sixfold. A significant ground effect was also associated with the bottom of the vacuum chamber, particularly when the distance to the bottom surface was less than the diameter of the levitating disk. We provide guidelines to minimize the ground effect in vacuum chamber experiments, which are necessary to test photophoretic microflyers intended for high-altitude exploration and surveillance on Earth or on Mars.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, including the Supplemental Materia

COMPRENDO: Focus and approach

Tens of thousands of man-made chemicals are in regular use and discharged into the environment. Many of them are known to interfere with the hormonal systems in humans and wildlife. Given the complexity of endocrine systems, there are many ways in which endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can affect the body’s signaling system, and this makes unraveling the mechanisms of action of these chemicals difficult. A major concern is that some of these EDCs appear to be biologically active at extremely low concentrations. There is growing evidence to indicate that the guiding principle of traditional toxicology that “the dose makes the poison” may not always be the case because some EDCs do not induce the classical dose–response relationships. The European Union project COMPRENDO (Comparative Research on Endocrine Disrupters—Phylogenetic Approach and Common Principles focussing on Androgenic/Antiandrogenic Compounds) therefore aims to develop an understanding of potential health problems posed by androgenic and antiandrogenic compounds (AACs) to wildlife and humans by focusing on the commonalities and differences in responses to AACs across the animal kingdom (from invertebrates to vertebrates)

Optical Photometry of the Type Ia SN 1999ee and the Type Ib/c SN 1999ex in IC 5179

We present UBVRIz lightcurves of the Type Ia SN 1999ee and the Type Ib/c SN 1999ex, both located in the galaxy IC 5179. SN 1999ee has an extremely well sampled lightcurve spanning from 10 days before Bmax through 53 days after peak. Near maximum we find systematic differences ~0.05 mag in photometry measured with two different telescopes, even though the photometry is reduced to the same local standards around the supernova using the specific color terms for each instrumental system. We use models for our bandpasses and spectrophotometry of SN 1999ee to derive magnitude corrections (S-corrections) and remedy this problem. This exercise demonstrates the need of accurately characterizing the instrumental system before great photometric accuracies of Type Ia supernovae can be claimed. It also shows that this effect can have important astrophysical consequences since a small systematic shift of 0.02 mag in the B-V color can introduce a 0.08 mag error in the extinction corrected peak B magnitudes of a supernova and thus lead to biased cosmological parameters. The data for the Type Ib/c SN 1999ex present us with the first ever observed shock breakout of a supernova of this class. These observations show that shock breakout occurred 18 days before Bmax and support the idea that Type Ib/c supernovae are due to core collapse of massive stars rather than thermonuclear disruption of white dwarfs.Comment: 55 pages, 15 figures, accepted by the Astronomical Journa

Co-distribution of cysteine cathepsins and matrix metalloproteases in human dentin

It has been hypothesized that cysteine cathepsin's (CTs) along with matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) may work in conjunction in the proteolysis of mature dentin matrix. The aim of this study was to verify simultaneously the distribution and presence of cathepsins B (CT-B) and K (CT-K) in partially demineralized dentin; and further to evaluate the activity of CTs and MMPs in the same tissue. The distribution of CT-B and CT-K in sound human dentin was assessed by immunohistochemistry. A double-immunolabeling technique was used to identify, at once, the occurrence of those enzymes in dentin. Activities of CTs and MMPs in dentin extracts were evaluated spectrofluorometrically. In addition, in situ gelatinolytic activity of dentin was assayed by zymography. The results revealed the distribution of CT-B and CT-K along the dentin organic matrix and also indicated co-occurrence of MMPs and CTs in that tissue. The enzyme kinetics studies showed proteolytic activity in dentin extracts for both classes of proteases. Furthermore, it was observed that, at least for sound human dentin matrices, the activity of MMPs seems to be predominant over the CTs one. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe