Yaws in the Western Pacific Region: A Review of the Literature

Until the middle of the 20th century, yaws was highly endemic and considered a serious public health problem in the Western Pacific Region (WPR), leading to intensive control efforts in the 1950s–1960s. Since then, little attention has been paid to its reemergence. Its current burden is unknown. This paper presents the results of an extensive literature review, focusing on yaws in the South Pacific. Available records suggest that the region remains largely free of yaws except for Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Many clinical cases reported recently were described as “attenuated”; advanced stages are rare. A single intramuscular injection of benzathine penicillin is still effective in curing yaws. In the Pacific, yaws may be amenable to elimination if adequate resources are provided and political commitment revived. A mapping of yaws prevalence in PNG, Solomon, and Vanuatu is needed before comprehensive country-tailored strategies towards yaws elimination can be developed

A Radical Approach to Ebola: Saving Humans and Other Animals

As the usual regulatory framework did not fit well during the last Ebola outbreak, innovative thinking still needed. In the absence of an outbreak, randomised controlled trials of clinical efficacy in humans cannot be done, while during an outbreak such trials will continue to face significant practical, philosophical, and ethical challenges. This article argues that researchers should also test the safety and effectiveness of novel vaccines in wild apes by employing a pluralistic approach to evidence. There are three reasons to test vaccines in wild populations of apes: i) protect apes; ii) reduce Ebola transmission from wild animals to humans; and iii) accelerate vaccine development and licensing for humans. Data obtained from studies of vaccines among wild apes and chimpanzees may even be considered sufficient for licensing new vaccines for humans. This strategy will serve to benefit both wild apes and humans

Role of Lactobacillus rhamnosus in Parmigiano Reggiano cheese ripening: a genotypic and post-genomic study

Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) constitute an heterogeneous group of bacteria that are traditionally used to produce fermented foods. They may play different roles in cheese-making where starter LAB (SLAB) participate in the fermentation process, whereas non starter LAB (NSLAB) are implicated in the maturation of cheese. Although the role of NSLAB in ripening has not yet been clarified, different authors have suggested their importance in the cheese ageing. In Parmigiano Reggiano (PR) cheese, NSLAB, autochthonic of raw milk and arising from the environment, are the protagonists of the different biochemical processes during the production and ripening stages. Recent studies in microbiological ecology of PR cheese allowed a deeper insight of the microbial composition during the manufacturing and ripening stages of the same cheese-making process. Further, the study of samples representative of the subsequent stages of the same cheese-making by culture-independent methods led to determine the microbial succession during 24 months of PR ripening. It was demonstrated that SLAB are dominant until the 2nd month of ripening. Differently, after cheese brining, the species NSLAB, especially Lb. rhamnosus, are able to grow and increase in number, while SLAB cells undergo to autolysis. Lb. rhamnosus was shown to be the dominant species present after a lack of essential nutrients, such as sugars. Therefore, this species seems to well adapt to the absence of lactose in cheese, confirming an optimal adaptability to unfavorable growth conditions. Presumably, this characteristic was due to the ability of Lb. rhamnosus to use nitrogen fraction as an alternative energy source. So far, only few studies are available about NSLAB, and in particular about Lb. rhamnosus, in PR and the exact role of these bacteria has not been investigated in greater depth. In particular, the biotypes of the dominant species during the maturation stage of cheese processing have never been studied. Indeed, it can only be hypothesized that the technological pressure determines, at different stages, the potential development of the biotype that may have a specific biochemical role leading to certain flavors and sensorial traits of the PR cheese. For this reason, Lb. rhamnosus, the dominant species among NSLAB in PR, has been chosen as subject for the present study. This Ph.D thesis aims to better understand the role played by this species in cheese-making and ripening process, and to hypothesize the strategies used to adapt its energy metabolism to the environmental conditions met in PR cheese. To reach this issue, three different steps has been pursued. In the first step, genotypic relatedness at the intraspecies level for 66 Lb. rhamnosus strains isolated during the same cycle of PR cheesemaking, was determined. Biodiversity has been estimated by means of two DNA fingerprinting techniques, i.e., randomly amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) and repetitive extragenic palindromic-polymerase chain reaction REP-PCR analysis. It was found an intraspecies heterogeneity in Lb. rhamnosus strains which is certainly correlated to their abilities to adapt to specific environmental and technological conditions. In this regard, the detection of biotypes that mark specific steps in cheese ripening, or of those that can develop differently throughout the ripening process, suggests that they may have also specific roles closely linked to their peculiar metabolical properties. In the second step of the research the metabolic data (fermentative profiles, synthesis of organic acids and FAA) and 2-DE analyses followed by the identification of a large number of proteins were combined to highlight Lb. rhamnosus physiological mechanisms of adaptation that are responsible for survival in cheese during ripening. Cultivation was carried out under cheese-like conditions (Cheese broth) and on pasteurized and micro-filtrated milk and MRS broth As shown by fermentative profiles analysis, the major part of the Lb. rhamnosus strains had the capacity to use numerous chemical compounds as energy sources. Growth and acidification differed depending on the culture media. Compared to growth on MRS or pasteurized and micro-filtrated milk, all strains cultivated in cheese-like medium (cheese broth, CB) showed a decrease of the synthesis of D,L-lactic acid and synthesized higher levels of acetic acid. Except for one strain, the others caused an increase of the concentration of free amino acids during cultivation on CB. A proteomic approach was applied to elucidate the (i) intra-specific diversity of Lb. rhamnosus and (ii) the metabolic mechanisms involved in growth in CB which mimicked the cheese during ripening. The proteomic maps of five strains showing different metabolic traits were comparatively determined after growth on MRS and CB. The result showed that synthesis of ca. 60 - 70% of the cytosolic proteins of Lb. rhamnosus strains was not affected by the culture media. The remaining part (ca. 30-40%) of the total proteome seemed to vary depending on strains and growth media. A total of 93 protein spots which showed an increased level of synthesis during growth in MRS (46 spots) or CB (47 spot) were identified by MALDI-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS/MS) and nano-electrospray ionization-ion trap mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS). Compared to cells grown in MRS, Lb. rhamnosus strains cultivated under cheese-like conditions modified the synthesis of proteins related to protein biosynthesis, nucleotide and carbohydrate metabolisms, glycolysis pathway, proteolytic activity, cell wall and exopolysaccharide biosyntheses, cellular regulation, amino acid and citrate metabolisms, oxidation/reduction processes and stress response. It was confirmed that Lb. rhamnosus strains have the capacity to activate different metabolic pathways depending on the culture media. In the last step an innovative cDNA-AFLP protocol was developed to investigate the changes in gene expression profile during the growth of one Lb. rhamnosus strain isolated in 20 month ripened PR and therefore able to growth and survive in this hostile environment. Changes in gene expression was evaluated in CB versus a rich medium (MRS). This study represents one of the few concerning bacterial transcriptomic analysis through cDNA-AFLP approaches. This technique allowed to generate unique transcript tags from reverse-transcribed messenger RNA using restriction enzymes and selective PCR amplification. Results evidenced that Lb. rhamnosus is able to modify the expression of a large part of genes when cultivated in cheese-like conditions (CB) compared to growth under in vitro optimal conditions (MRS). However, these genes still have to be recognized thus it is not possible at the moment to correlate them with proteins found with the proteomic study. For this reason further analysis will have to be focused on gel extraction followed by the identification of expressed genes. This will allow to deepen the knowledge of the basal metabolism through the identification of constitutive genes, as well as to analyze the reactions of the cells to the dairy environment by the identification of differently expressed genes in the two cultured media. Moreover the expected results could lead to the discovery of Lb. rhamnosus genes putatively involved both in the physiological mechanisms of adaptation to cheese-like substrates, that are fundamental for survival during ripening, and in the definition of organoleptic characteristics of the PR cheese

The Relationship Between Teacher Efficacy and Multiple Learning Competencies with Arts and Non-Arts Educators

The National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983) published A Nation at Risk to relay the academic performance level of American students. The results revealed that Americans students were performing considerably below other countries. Consequently, accountability through testing became the focus for policy makers to promote educational reform and educational equality (Linn, 2000). The focus on testing, however, has hindered student achievement and led to more (a) social promotion; (b) remedial courses; (c) retention rates; (d) teachers leaving the field; (e) dropout rates; and (f) invalid achievement results (Hoffinan, 2001). As more schools have reassigned staff members to meet the demands of testing and have altered the school curriculum to cover the academic standards being tested, art programs and teachers have been removed from schools across the nation. The elimination of the arts in the curriculum, nevertheless, has not proven to be a remedy for improving student achievement. The average reading score for fourth and eighth graders has only increased by two points, since 2005 and four points compared to the first assessment 15 years ago (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2007). The literature review on the impact of the arts on learning clearly supports the implementation of the arts to improve student achievement and the overall quality of education. The results of one particular research study at UCLA revealed that students involved in the arts were more successful in school than those who were not involved (Caterall et al., 1999). The theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1999) encompassed the essence of the creative genius of artists. People were more inclined to learn when involved in an activity for which they have talent due to the arts: (a) providing powerful points of entry; (b) offering models; and (c) providing multiple representations of the central idea (Gardner, 1999). The gap in the literature suggested that researchers had not explored the impact that the multiple intelligences of teachers had on the effectiveness of learning, which in turn, could raise student achievement. The purpose, therefore, of this non-experimental study was to examine whether the multiple intelligences of art and non-arts teachers, measured by the Multiple Intelligences Test (Chislet & Chapman, 2005), impacted teachers\u27 perceptions of teacher efficacy, measured by the Teachers\u27 Sense of Efficacy Scale Test (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). The accessible population was Palm Beach County K-12 teachers who responded to the surveys online. The researcher ran the following statistical tests into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 14.0: (a) Cronbach\u27s Alpha to determine the reliability estimates; (b) Pearson\u27s Chi-Square Test to observe frequency distributions; (c) Correlation Matrix to determine the degree of the relationship between groups; (d) Multiple Regressions to ascertain the criterion-related validity; (e) ANOVAS to establish the means of each group; and (f) t tests to establish whether the difference of the means were statistically significant. The outcomes of the study will provide additional information for the body of research that supports the inclusion of the arts as an indispensable element of the school\u27s curriculum for (a) raising the quality of instruction and (b) providing a more equitable education for American students

Antonio Pistoia : The poetic world of a customs collector

The object of the present study is Antonio Pistoia (1436-1502), a jocular poet and customs collector who worked mainly in Northern Italy. Although his reputation as a notable literary figure has suffered from neglect in recent times, his work was appreciated by and known to his contemporaries including Pietro Aretino, Ludovico Ariosto, Matteo Bandello, Francesco Berni and Baldesar Castiglione. Research on his life and work came to a halt at the beginning of this century and since then he has failed to attract significant attention. The present study attempts to review and re-examine both the man and his work with a view to putting Antonio Pistoia back on the literary map. My thesis is based on the idea that a poet can be explored from various points of view and with different methodologies tailored to the objects under investigation. In the case of Pistoia a biographical history alone or an interpretation of his work alone would provide only partial results. By combining the two I have attempted to see how he and his work fitted within the cultural scene, the social and historical setting of Renaissance Italy in a period of political and military crisis. Based on archive work and on new textual material retrieved from a number of European libraries, this study challenges and tests widely held theories concerning both his biography and his literary production. By collecting fresh references and winnowing old ones, it throws new light on a series of specific issues from matters of identification relating to the poet's life, the critical fortune of his collection of sonnets, his play Panfila and other minor works, and to problems of uncertain authorship, including poems of undisputed, doubtful and arbitrary attribution; the final section is devoted to his Canzoniere, its composition and the tradition to which it belongs and a thematic and stylistic overview of his poems. A codicological analysis of the allegedly autograph manuscript and a listing of Pistoia's archival documents, manuscripts and early printed sources, completely assembled for the first time and comprehensive of additional new findings, conclude the study

Online Geosciences courses for teachers training at the Jequitinonha Valley, Minas Gerais state, Brazil

Orientador: Ronaldo BarbosaTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de GeociênciasResumo: Este estudo procurou analisar a contribuição de um curso ofertado na modalidade de Educação a Distância (EAD) para formação de professores de Geociências na região do Vale do Jequitinhonha, MG, no nível de Especialização voltado para Ensino de Geografia e ofertado pela Universidade Federal do Vale do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, no período de 2014 a 2018. A disseminação do conhecimento geocientífico pode ser uma estratégia para formação de uma consciência ambiental por meio de programas de formação de professores em todos os níveis de ensino. Ao longo da pesquisa buscamos responder diferentes questões, entre elas: Como os professores de Geociências estão sendo formados via EAD no Brasil e quais as estratégias, ferramentas e ambientes adotados? Quais as condições favorecedoras para uma melhor formação de professores de Geociências a partir de cursos na modalidade EAD? Como a EAD concorre para um possível desenvolvimento da região do Jequitinhonha? Para tanto, utilizamos modelos teóricos Cognição Distribuída, Teoria da Distância Transacional e apoiamo-nos na Netnografia para coleta de dados e análise de conteúdo a fim de interpretar o corpus da pesquisa, constituído tanto pelo registro documental quanto por produções dos alunos-professores registradas em fóruns. Por fim, foi implementada uma proposta de plataforma educacional, denominada Portal do Conhecimento para compartilhar artigos, vídeos e cursos de formação de professores, bem como foi concebido e testado um arsenal de recursos denominado Kit Professor Virtual. Os resultados indicam que modelos de EAD bem sucedidos refletem a competência docente na criação de itinerários envolventes de aprendizagem capazes de motivar os alunos. Conclui-se que a EAD contribui para formação de professores de Geociências no Vale do Jequitinhonha, principalmente em cursos de Especialização lato sensu, ofertados por instituições públicas e privadas. Este trabalho identifica uma série de desafios a vencer, em uma realidade que provavelmente se repete em outras regiões do País. As principais estratégias de fortalecimento da EAD na região podem ser sintetizadas conforme segue: (1) Valorizar a formação e capacitação de profissionais para atuar em EAD. (2) Reconhecer que cursos EAD não atendem a qualquer perfil de aluno. (3) Libertar o desenvolvimento de um curso da estrutura rígida de um AVA. (4) Valorizar a realidade local e demandas específicas. (5) Tornar os cursos mais flexíveis e reflexivos. (6) Privilegiar a modelagem instrucional e montar equipe especializada. (7) Reconhecer que EAD não deve compensar a inexistência de ensino presencial. (8) Praticar avaliação contínua do curso pelos alunos. (9) Atentar para a motivação dos alunos e gerenciar a evasão dos cursos. (10) Conceber as Geociências como caminho para construção da cultura da sustentabilidadeAbstract: This study aimed to analyze the contribution of the Distance Education Model (EAD) to the training of Geoscience teachers in the Vale do Jequitinhonha region, MG, in the scope of the Specialization Course in Geography Teaching offered by the Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri from 2014 to 2018. The future of the human life on the planet depends on the formation of an environmental awareness among children and adolescents today. Spreading the knowledge about geosciences is a strategy to create such environmental awareness through teacher training programs for all levels of education. The research seeks to answer several questions: how geoscience teachers are trained in Brazil by distance learning programs and what are the online strategies, tools and environments used to promote the process of teaching Geosciences? What are the favorable conditions for the formation of Geoscience teachers from EAD? How is EAD contributing to the development of the Jequitinhonha region? We use the theoretical framework of Distributed Cognition and Transactional Distance Theory to analyze the virtual learning environment of a Geography Teaching Specialization course at a public university in the state of Minas Gerais. As a research methodology we rely on netnography for data collection and content analysis to interpret the research corpus, which consists of a documentary record and written productions of training teachers in the forums. Finally, a proposal for an educational platform called the Knowledge Portal was implemented to share articles, videos and distance learning teacher education courses. The results indicate that successful EAD models reflect the teaching competence in creating engaging learning itineraries capable of motivating students. It is concluded that EAD contributes to the formation of Geoscience teachers in the Jequitinhonha Valley, mainly in lato sensu Specialization courses, offered by public and private institutions. This work identifies a series of challenges to be overcome, in a reality that is likely to be repeated in other regions of the country. The main strategies for strengthening EAD in the region can be summarized as follows: (1) Valuing the training and qualification of professionals to act in EAD. (2) Recognize that distance learning courses do not meet any student profile. (3) Free the development of a course from the rigid structure of an AVA. (4) Valuing the local reality and specific demands. (5) Make courses more flexible and reflective. (6) Privileging instructional modeling and assembling a specialized team. (7) Recognize that EAD should not compensate for the lack of classroom teaching. (8) Practice continuous assessment of the course by students. (9) Pay attention to students' motivation and manage dropout rates. (10) Conceive Geosciences as a way to build a culture of sustainabilityDoutoradoEnsino e Historia de Ciencias da TerraDoutor em Ciências140896/2016-3CNP

Antonio Pistoia : the poetic world of a customs collector

The object of the present study is Antonio Pistoia (1436? - 1502), a jocular poet and customs collector who worked mainly in Northern Italy. Although his reputation as a notable literary figure has suffered from neglect in recent times, his work was appreciated by and known to his contemporaries including Pietro Aretino, Ludovico Ariosto, Matteo Bandello, Francesco Berni and Baldesar Castiglione. Research on his life and work came to a halt at the beginning of this century and since then he has failed to attract significant attention. The present study attempts to review and re-examine both the man and his work with a view to putting Antonio Pistoia back on the literary map. My thesis is based on the idea that a poet can be explored from various points of view and with different methodologies tailored to the objects under investigation. In the case of Pistoia a biographical history alone or an interpretation of his work alone would provide only partial results. By combining the two I have attempted to see how he and his work fitted within the cultural scene, the social and historical setting of Renaissance Italy in a period of political and military crisis. Based on archive work and on new textual material retrieved from a number of European libraries, this study challenges and tests widely held theories concerning both his biography and his literary production. By collecting fresh references and winnowing old ones, it throws new light on a series of specific issues from matters of identification relating to the poet's life, the critical fortune of his collection of sonnets, his play Panfila and other minor works, and to problems of uncertain authorship, including poems of undisputed, doubtful and arbitrary attribution; the final section is devoted to his Canzoniere, its composition and the tradition to which it belongs and a thematic and stylistic overview of his poems. A codicological analysis of the allegedly autograph manuscript and a listing of Pistoia's archival documents, manuscripts and early printed sources, completely assembled for the first time and comprehensive of additional new findings, conclude the study

“If no Divells, no God”: Devils, D(a)emons and Humankind on the Mediaeval and Early Modern English Stage.

This thesis looks at the relationship that humanity has with the devil, the demonic, and the daemonic as it is represented in plays from the mediaeval to the Early Modern period in England. While critics have contradictorily seen the devil as a secular figure on the one hand, and as a vestige of sacred drama on the other, I consider the character from an anthropocentric point of view: the devil helps reveal mankind’s emerging independence from religion and the problems that accompany this development. Chapter I sets the context for the investigation, tracing the broad outlines of the genesis of the figure that turned into the devil, before the main body of the thesis looks at the interaction between the devil and mankind. Part I considers the devil as master of his own deeds. Chapters II and III look at his development in the mediaeval Mysteries and Moralities, showing how an ever greater independence of the figure simultaneously leads to him being increasingly used as a character designed to educate mankind. Chapters IV and V reveal a similar pattern: the more confident the devil is of himself and the more he believes himself to be in control, the wilier man proves in freeing himself from his influence. Chapter VI sees the exodus of the devil as mankind takes control of its destiny. Part II looks at plays in which men attempt to control their fate by controlling the fiend and subjecting him to their power. Chronologically, it parallels the evolution traced in Chapters IV to VI. Chapters VII and VIII show that such efforts prove fruitless and counterproductive as long as the power men derive from their association with the devil is not channelled into a positive vision for the future. Only a model of a society that combines access to power and human responsibility, that substitutes a more selfless morality for an egocentric one, can keep the fiend at bay, as seen in Chapter IX. Finally, Chapter X tests these findings against The Birth of Merlin, which defies categorisation and dating

1944 City of Windsor Directory

City of Windsor directory for the year 1944