Report of mycobacteria isolated from domestic and wildlife species during 2004-2008

La identificación de la tuberculosis bovina y su diferenciación de las micobacteriosis es fundamental durante el diagnóstico. Es por eso que los laboratorios especializados en micobacterias son de suma importancia en los servicios de salud pública y salud animal. El objetivo de la presente investigación es diferenciar Mycobacterium bovis de micobacterias no tuberculosas en cepas cultivadas a partir de especies domésticas y silvestres de siete provincias de Argentina durante 2004-2008. La diferenciación se basó sobre las pruebas bioquímicas, las características fenotípicas y el “spolygotyping” de M. bovis. Con la identificación bioquímica y fenotípica se detectaron 20 cepas de M. bovis, 18 de las cuales fueron confirmadas mediante “spolygotyping”, y 34 cepas de micobacterias no tuberculosas. Trece especies fueron caracterizadas y todas ellas fueron agrupadas considerando el riesgo biológico y el potencial patógeno notificado en seres humanos y/o animales. En este trabajo se han logrado avances en el diagnóstico de tuberculosis y micobacteriosis en medicina veterinaria. En este área el diagnóstico habitualmente se basa sobre la observación micro y macroscópica de los tubérculos y los resultados de la intradermorreacción. Estos avances son importantes porque la tuberculosis zoonótica aún es un problema de salud pública en América Latina.Detection and identification of bovine tuberculosis and its differentiation from micobacteriosis is fundamental during diagnoses. That is why mycobacteria laboratories improvement becomes essential in public health and veterinary medicine services. The objective of the present research is to differentiate Mycobacterium bovis and nontuberculous mycobacterias in isolates cultured from domestic and wildlife species from seven Argentinean provinces during 2004-2008. Differentiation was based on biochemical tests, phenotypic characteristics and M. bovis spolygotyping. Biochemical and phenotypic identification resulted in 20 M. bovis strains, 18 of them were confirmed by spolygotyping, and 34 nontuberculous mycobacteria strains. Thirteen species were characterized and all of them were grouped considering biological risk and pathogenic potential reported in humans and/or animals. Here we have reached advances in tuberculosis and micobacteriosis diagnoses in veterinary medicine. In this area diagnoses are often based on micro and macroscopic observation of the tubercles and skin test results. These advances are not minor as zoonotic tuberculosis is still a public health problem in Latin America.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

The drivers of Chinese CO2 emissions from 1980 to 2030

China's energy consumption doubled within the first 25 years of economic reforms initiated at the end of the 1970s, and doubled again in the past 5 years. It has resulted of a threefold CO2 emissions increase since early of 1980s. China's heavy reliance on coal will make it the largest emitter of CO2 in the world. By combining structural decomposition and input–output analysis we seek to assess the driving forces of China's CO2 emissions from 1980 to 2030. In our reference scenario, production-related CO2 emissions will increase another three times by 2030. Household consumption, capital investment and growth in exports will largely drive the increase in CO2 emissions. Efficiency gains will be partially offset the projected increases in consumption, but our scenarios show that this will not be sufficient if China's consumption patterns converge to current US levels. Relying on efficiency improvements alone will not stabilize China's future emissions. Our scenarios show that even extremely optimistic assumptions of widespread installation of carbon dioxide capture and storage will only slow the increase in CO2 emissions

Report of mycobacteria isolated from domestic and wildlife species during 2004-2008

La identificación de la tuberculosis bovina y su diferenciación de las micobacteriosis es fundamental durante el diagnóstico. Es por eso que los laboratorios especializados en micobacterias son de suma importancia en los servicios de salud pública y salud animal. El objetivo de la presente investigación es diferenciar Mycobacterium bovis de micobacterias no tuberculosas en cepas cultivadas a partir de especies domésticas y silvestres de siete provincias de Argentina durante 2004-2008. La diferenciación se basó sobre las pruebas bioquímicas, las características fenotípicas y el “spolygotyping” de M. bovis. Con la identificación bioquímica y fenotípica se detectaron 20 cepas de M. bovis, 18 de las cuales fueron confirmadas mediante “spolygotyping”, y 34 cepas de micobacterias no tuberculosas. Trece especies fueron caracterizadas y todas ellas fueron agrupadas considerando el riesgo biológico y el potencial patógeno notificado en seres humanos y/o animales. En este trabajo se han logrado avances en el diagnóstico de tuberculosis y micobacteriosis en medicina veterinaria. En este área el diagnóstico habitualmente se basa sobre la observación micro y macroscópica de los tubérculos y los resultados de la intradermorreacción. Estos avances son importantes porque la tuberculosis zoonótica aún es un problema de salud pública en América Latina.Detection and identification of bovine tuberculosis and its differentiation from micobacteriosis is fundamental during diagnoses. That is why mycobacteria laboratories improvement becomes essential in public health and veterinary medicine services. The objective of the present research is to differentiate Mycobacterium bovis and nontuberculous mycobacterias in isolates cultured from domestic and wildlife species from seven Argentinean provinces during 2004-2008. Differentiation was based on biochemical tests, phenotypic characteristics and M. bovis spolygotyping. Biochemical and phenotypic identification resulted in 20 M. bovis strains, 18 of them were confirmed by spolygotyping, and 34 nontuberculous mycobacteria strains. Thirteen species were characterized and all of them were grouped considering biological risk and pathogenic potential reported in humans and/or animals. Here we have reached advances in tuberculosis and micobacteriosis diagnoses in veterinary medicine. In this area diagnoses are often based on micro and macroscopic observation of the tubercles and skin test results. These advances are not minor as zoonotic tuberculosis is still a public health problem in Latin America.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria

Climate policy and ancillary benefits : a survey and integration into the modelling of international negotiations on climate change

Currently informal and formal international negotiations on climate change take place in an intensive way since the Kyoto Protocol expires already in 2012. A post-Kyoto regulation to combat global warming is not yet stipulated. Due to rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emission levels, industrialized countries urge major polluters from the developing world like China and India to participate in a future agreement. Whether these developing countries will do so, depends on the prevailing incentives to participate in international climate protection efforts. This paper identifies ancillary benefits of climate policy to provide important incentives to attend a new international protocol and to positively affect the likelihood of accomplishing a post-Kyoto agreement which includes commitments of developing countries

Adherence issues related to sublingual immunotherapy as perceived by allergists

Objectives: Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is a viable alternative to subcutaneous immunotherapy to treat allergic rhinitis and asthma, and is widely used in clinical practice in many European countries. The clinical efficacy of SLIT has been established in a number of clinical trials and meta-analyses. However, because SLIT is self-administered by patients without medical supervision, the degree of patient adherence with treatment is still a concern. The objective of this study was to evaluate the perception by allergists of issues related to SLIT adherence. Methods: We performed a questionnaire-based survey of 296 Italian allergists, based on the adherence issues known from previous studies. The perception of importance of each item was assessed by a VAS scale ranging from 0 to 10. Results: Patient perception of clinical efficacy was considered the most important factor (ranked 1 by 54% of allergists), followed by the possibility of reimbursement (ranked 1 by 34%), and by the absence of side effects (ranked 1 by 21%). Patient education, regular follow-up, and ease of use of SLIT were ranked first by less than 20% of allergists. Conclusion: These findings indicate that clinical efficacy, cost, and side effects are perceived as the major issues influencing patient adherence to SLIT, and that further improvement of adherence is likely to be achieved by improving the patient information provided by prescribers. © 2010 Scurati et al, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd

Equity and justice in global warming policy

Many countries are implementing or at least considering policies to counter increasingly certain negative impacts from climate change. An increasing amount of research has been devoted to the analysis of the costs of climate change and its mitigation, as well as to the design of policies, such as the international Kyoto Protocol, post-Kyoto negotiations, regional initiatives, and unilateral actions. Although most studies on climate change policies in economics have considered efficiency aspects, there is a growing literature on equity and justice. Climate change policy has important dimensions of distributive justice, both within and across generations, but in this paper we survey only studies on the intragenerational aspect, i.e.., within a generation. We cover several domains including the international, regional, national, sectoral and inter-personal, and examine aspects such as the distribution of burdens from climate change, climate change policy negotiations in general, implementation of climate agreements using tradable emission permits, and the uncertainty of alternatives to emission reductions