Validación de un cuestionario para medir retrospectivamente la exposición laboral a plaguicidas

ResumenObjetivosValidar un cuestionario diseñado para medir retrospectivamente la exposición laboral a plaguicidas en un estudio de casos y controles sobre trabajadores expuestos a plaguicidas y malformaciones congénitas.MétodosSe compara la información obtenida mediante una entrevista personal con 56 agricultores con: 1) una entrevista con los empleadores de los agricultores, 2) la observación directa de los lugares de trabajo y 3) un cuestionario que cumplimentaron los agncultores durante la realización del Programa de Capacitación para Manipuladores de Plaguicidas.ResultadosLos índices de exactitud y fiabilidad fueron altos para las variables «cultivos trabajados», «períodos de tratamiento» y «utilización de protección personal», con sensibilidades entre 0,81 y 1 e índices Kappa de 0,65 a 0,80. Sin embargo, las variables «duración de los tratamientos» y «productos plaguicidas utilizados» presentaron índices de exactitud más bajos con sensibilidades entre 0,32 y 0,50.ConclusionesLos resultados sugieren que el cuestionario es un buen instrumento para la medición de algunas variables pero en otras reflejan la existencia de problemas de recuerdo. Esto hace necesario adoptar medidas que mejoren la exactitud de la medida de la exposición como la introducción en el cuestionario del tamaño del área tratada como otra variable que permita valorar la duración de la exposición y la utilización de listas de recuerdo de productos plaguicidas durante la entrevista.SummaryObjectiveThe aim of this study is to validate a questionnaire intended to assess retrospective occupational exposure to pesticides in a case control study of workers exposed to pesticides and congenital malformations.MethodsOccupational data were gathered through personal interviews to 56 agricultural workers and this information was compared to: 1) personal interviews with the workers’ foremen, 2) direct observation of working places and 3) another questionnaire self-administered previously by the workers as a part of the «Training Program for Pesticide Aplicators».ResultsAccuracy and reliability indices are high for variables such as the crops where the interviewees have been working, the time period of the treatments with pesticides and the use of personal protection during treatments (sensitivity ranges between 0.81 and 1 and Kappa index ranges between 0.65 and 0.80). However, for variables such as the duration of the treatments and the pesticides used, sensitivity values range between 0.32 and 0.50.ConclusionsThe results suggest that the questionnaire is a valid tool for measuring some items but in order to improve the quality of the exposure assessment the questionnaire was modified, including a question about size of treated areas (as a proxy variable for duration of treatments) and prompt lists were developed to make easier recall by the workers of specific pesticides used in treatments

EVALUACIÓN PSICOLÓGICA EN EL RECONOCIMIENTO MÉDICO LEGAL POR VIOLENCIA FAMILIAR CENTRO DE SALUD LOCUMBA - TACNA

En la última década la legislación sobre Violencia Familiar en el Perú, ha presentado significativos avances, como la incorporación de algunas normas internacionales y principios fundamentales, promulgándose en 1993 la Ley N°26260 "Ley de Protección frente a la Violencia Familiar", estableciendo nuevos mecanismos que garanticen una mayor protección de la víctima y una mayor celeridad en los procesos judiciales. Entre estos avances, se tiene la incorporación del maltrato psicológico como una forma de violencia familiar. A pesar de esto, hemos observado deficiencias en los reconocimientos médico legales requeridos por las comisarías, Ministerio Público y Poder Judicial. Esto se evidencia cuando el médico realiza el reconocimiento médico legal solicitado por las entidades correspondientes, donde la evaluación clínica es fundamentalmente "ectoscópica" buscando daños físicos, mas no se evalúan los daños psicológicos. Como consecuencia, la mayor parte de los casos de Violencia Familiar son valorados deficientemente. Es importante resaltar que en la gran mayoría de casos las lesiones físicas son leves o ausentes, no reflejando el maltrato absoluto recibido por la víctima, quién paralelamente acumula los daños psicológicos sufridos en cada situación de maltrato, originando enfermedades como la ansiedad, depresión severa, miedo extremo, hasta el suicidio.   El objetivo del presente estudio es demostrar que la evaluación psicológica es necesaria para los reconocimientos médico legales por violencia familiar. Además de determinar la frecuencia de casos evaluados en los últimos 2 años y comparar los hallazgos clínicos con los resultados de una encuesta realizada en la misma población

Identification and Characterization of Epithelial Cell-Derived Dense Bodies Produced upon Cytomegalovirus Infection

Dense bodies (DB) are complex, noninfectious particles produced during CMVinfection containing envelope and tegument proteins that may be ideal candidates as vaccines. Although DB were previously described in fibroblasts, no evidence of DB formation has been shown after propagating CMV in epithelial cells. In the present study, both fibroblast MRC-5 and epithelial ARPE-19 cells were used to study DB production during CMV infection. We demonstrate the formation of epithelial cell-derived DB, mostly located as cytoplasmic inclusions in the perinuclear area of the infected cell. DB were gradient-purified, and the nature of the viral particles was confirmed using CMV-specific immunelabeling. Epithelial cell-derived DB had higher density and more homogeneous size (200-300 nm) compared to fibroblast-derived DB (100-600 nm).In agreement with previous results characterizing DB from CMV-infected fibroblasts, the pp65 tegument protein was predominant in the epithelial cell-derived DB. Our results also suggest that epithelial cells had more CMV capsids in the cytoplasm and had spherical bodies compatible with nucleus condensation (pyknosis) in cells undergoing apoptosis that were not detected in MRC-5 infected cells at the tested time post-infection. Our results demonstrate the formation of DB in CMV-infected ARPE-19 epithelial cells that may be suitable candidate to develop a multiprotein vaccine with antigenic properties similar to that of the virions while not including the viral genome.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University, Instituto de Salud Carlos III Grant/Award Numbers: PI17CIII-00014 (MPY110/18); PI20CIII-00009 (MPY303/20); DTS18CIII/00006 (MPY127/19). E.G-R is supported by the Sara Borrell Program (CD18CIII/00007), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. MJR is supported by the PTA Program (PTA2017-14233-I), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades.S

Culture: Not just Burns – what about the poet Robert Fergusson?

No abstract available

Selection and subsequent physiological characterization of industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains during continuous growth at sub- and- supra optimal temperatures

Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.btre.2020.e00462.A phenotypic screening of 12 industrial yeast strains and the well-studied laboratory strain CEN.PK113-7D at cultivation temperatures between 12°C and 40°C revealed significant differences in maximum growth rates and temperature tolerance. From those 12, two strains, one performing best at 12°C and the other at 40°C, plus the laboratory strain, were selected for further physiological characterization in well-controlled bioreactors. The strains were grown in anaerobic chemostats, at a fixed specific growth rate of 0.03h1 and sequential batch cultures at 12°C, 30°C, and 39°C. We observed significant differences in biomass and ethanol yields on glucose, biomass protein and storage carbohydrate contents, and biomass yields on ATP between strains and cultivation temperatures. Increased temperature tolerance coincided with higher energetic efficiency of cell growth, indicating that temperature intolerance is a result of energy wasting processes, such as increased turnover of cellular components (e.g. proteins) due to temperature induced damage.We would like to thank Judith Cohen and Kristen H. David for technical assistance with the chemostat fermentations and José Ma Heras (Lallemand Ibéria, SA) for kindly providing the industrial strains. This research was carried out within the ERA-IB project “YeastTempTation” (ERA-IB-2-6/0001/2014) and partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through strategic funding UID/BIO/04469/2020 and BioTecNorte (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) production in a vertical hydroponic greenhouse system

Objective: A vertical hydroponic greenhouse system (VHGS) was designed and built to evaluat two strawberry varieties (Festival and San Andreas), in two planting densities per pot (40 and 54 plants/m 2 ) and three elevation levels (high, medium, and low). Design/Methodology/Approach: At 126 days after transplanting (dat), the Festival variety showed significant differences in the number of leaves and in the crown diameter. Results: The vertical hydroponic greenhouse system had a high fruit yield (21 kg m2 ): i.e., this productionsystem is up to 35 % more efficient than the open field cultivation system or the multi-tunnel greenhouse system. There was a positive correlation between the number (r 2 =0.89), diameter (r 2 =0.54), and weight (r 2 =0.40) of the fruits and the total yield. Planting density did not show a significant effect on plant growth, yield, and fruit quality. The vertical pot system did not show differences between elevation levels. This production system is a viable option for populations in places with a scarcity of water and to obtain fruits with guaranteed food safety

Determinación de la composición química y actividad antioxidante in vitro del aceite esencial de piper auritum kunth (piperaceae) difundida en la costa colombiana

El aceite esencial de hojas e infloresencias de Piper auritum, obtenido por hidrodestilación asistida por la radiación de microondas (MWHD), se analizó por cromatografía de gases de alta resolución acoplada a espectrometría de masas (GC-MS). El rendimiento de extracción fue de 2,3 por ciento para hojas y de 2,4 por ciento para inflorescencias. La identificación, mostró como componentes mayoritarios safrol, 94,0 por ciento (hojas) y 90,3 por ciento (inflorescencias) y miristicina, 3,2 por ciento (hojas) y 5,8 por ciento (inflorescencias). La actividad antioxidante del aceite fue evaluada y comparada con la de la vitamina E

Determinación de la composición química y actividad antioxidante in vitro del aceite esencial de piper auritum kunth (piperaceae) difundida en la costa colombiana

El aceite esencial de hojas e infloresencias de Piper auritum, obtenido por hidrodestilación asistida por la radiación de microondas (MWHD), se analizó por cromatografía de gases de alta resolución acoplada a espectrometría de masas (GC-MS). El rendimiento de extracción fue de 2,3 por ciento para hojas y de 2,4 por ciento para inflorescencias. La identificación, mostró como componentes mayoritarios safrol, 94,0 por ciento (hojas) y 90,3 por ciento (inflorescencias) y miristicina, 3,2 por ciento (hojas) y 5,8 por ciento (inflorescencias). La actividad antioxidante del aceite fue evaluada y comparada con la de la vitamina E

Evaluation of guajillo and chile de árbol peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) in a hydroponic greenhouse system

Objective: To evaluate the yield of guajillo pepper (CHG) and chile de árbol pepper (CHA) grown in containers with coconut fiber substrate in a hydroponic greenhouse system.Methodology: Four types of chili peppers were tested: two CHG and two CHA peppers. The CHG peppers with seeds were from two growing areas in the state of San Luis Potosí (SLP), located in the Altiplano Central (high plateau region) of Mexico: one from Las Colonias, Salinas, and the other from El Barril, Villa de Ramos. The CHA pepperswere obtained in Yahualica, Jalisco: one in El Salto Verde (CHA-SaltoVerde) and the other in El Faro (CHA-Faro). The chili peppers were established in a hydroponic system with two types of containers (pots (SHM) and slabs (SHB)), in both of which coconut fiber (coir) was used as a substrate. The experimental design was completelyrandomized with three repetitions and the comparison of means was made with the Tukey test (p<0.05).Results: Significant differences were observed between chile de árbol and guajillo peppers grown in SHM regarding the following variables: plant height and number of leaves, flowers, and peppers. Chile de árbol peppers recorded the highest values for the four variables. There were also significant differences between the chile de árbol and the guajillo peppers regarding the fresh weight and dry weight variables, but, in this case, the guajillo peppers had the highest values. The highest dry weight value (g plant -1 ) was obtained by CHG-Barril (1,094 g plant -1 ), followed by CHG-Colonias (866 g plant -1); meanwhile, the lowest values were recorded for CHA-Faro and CHA-SaltoVerde chile de árbol peppers (819 and 258 g plant -1 , respectively). The same pattern was observed in the SHB, with significant differences between the chile de árbol —which had the highest values— and guajillo peppers for the following variables: plant height, number ofleaves, flowers, and peppers. There were also significant differences in terms of fresh weight between chile de árbol and guajillo peppers, with the latter recording higher values. Finally, CHG-Colonias and CHA-SaltoVerde showed the highest dry weight values with 633 and 595 g plant -1 , respectively. Although there were no significant differences between them, there were significant differences with respect to CHG-Barril and CHA-Faro (524 and 483 g plant -1 , respectively).Study Limitations/Implications: The present study has no major limitations.Conclusions: In general, a better dry yield of chili pepper was obtained with guajillo peppers produced in a pot system. Hydroponic systems in pots and slabs, using a coir substrate, are an alternative in protected agriculture for the production of guajillo and chile de árbol peppers.