Sobremesa: The Time Spent Savoring Food and Friendship

Sobremesa is the culmination of five different ceramic sets handcrafted and uniquely made as a way to enhance the experience of eating and sharing food. This work honors the Latino and Hispanic tradition of Sobremesa, which is the time we spend sharing special moments with friends and family after eating. I explore the relevance of sharing meals as a member of a Venezuelan family and how these memories of my childhood before moving away to another country relates to the way in which I approach the creation of my functional vessel’s aesthetic and conceptual background. The pieces that make up the sets in Sobremesa are all hand-built ceramic functional vessels that are coil and slab built with red clay, and bisque and glaze fired to cone 04. The Sushi Set and Coffee Set can be partially hung, and the Cocoa Set, Sake Set, and Charcuterie Board are free-standing. Sobremesa expands on the importance of historical ceramics in our world, such as the Teotihuacan, Mayan, and Mimbres pottery, which have influenced the visual elements of my artwork and thoughts on what I want my pottery to express. Contemporary art and cultural references are used to explain the meaning behind color, presentation, and shapes found in Sobremesa

VLBA determination of the distance to nearby star-forming regions I. The distance to T Tauri with 0.4% accuracy

In this article, we present the results of a series of twelve 3.6-cm radio continuum observations of T Tau Sb, one of the companions of the famous young stellar object T Tauri. The data were collected roughly every two months between September 2003 and July 2005 with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). Thanks to the remarkably accurate astrometry delivered by the VLBA, the absolute position of T Tau Sb could be measured with a precision typically better than about 100 micro-arcseconds at each of the twelve observed epochs. The trajectory of T Tau Sb on the plane of the sky could, therefore, be traced very precisely, and modeled as the superposition of the trigonometric parallax of the source and an accelerated proper motion. The best fit yields a distance to T Tau Sb of 147.6 +/- 0.6 pc. The observed positions of T Tau Sb are in good agreement with recent infrared measurements, but seem to favor a somewhat longer orbital period than that recently reported by Duchene et al. (2006) for the T Tau Sa/T Tau Sb system.Comment: 24 pages, 3 pages, AASTEX format, accepted for publication in Ap

Women's reproductive rights in the inter-American system of human rights: conclusions from the Field, June - September 2014

The Inter-American System of Human Rights has proven to be a forum for the advancement of women’s reproductive rights in the Inter-American region. However, the Inter-American System faces significant challenges in promoting structural transformative change that enables women’s enjoyment of their reproductive health rights. This report examines three reproductive rights cases from the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: María Mamerita Mestanza Chávez v. Peru; Paulina Ramirez Jacinto v. Mexico; and Artavia Murillo et al. v. Costa Rica. In the summer of 2014, interviews were conducted with representatives in each of the case study countries, with the objective of the research being two-fold: (1) to understand how each of the cases developed, and the subsequent challenges and advancements; and (2) to learn from these cases in order to suggest recommendations for how actors can make better use of the Inter-American System as one of several avenues for protecting, promoting and fulfilling women’s reproductive rights. The report first discusses challenges in implementing women’s reproductive health rights, and then explores how the Inter-American System can strengthen its work on women’s reproductive health rights

The effect of a mono component protease and different AMEn levels in broiler diets on growth performance from 1 to 18 days of age.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of a mono component serine protease (RONOZYME ProAct, DSM Nutritional Products) in diets with two different AMEn contents on apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of amino acids (AA) and growth performance in broilers from 1 to 18 days of age

Larvae of the blue crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Portunidae) in the Balearic Archipelago (NW Mediterranean Sea)

The invasive blue crab Callinectes sapidus has been frequently recorded during the last years along the NW Mediterranean Sea, leading to established populations. Two megalopae of C. sapidus were found during two different oceanographic surveys in open waters of the Balearic Archipelago, in July 2005 and October 2011, previous to the first reference of adult specimens documented in the Balearic sub-basin. The analyzed environmental conditions of the sampling periods allowed us to hypothesize the likely introduction pathways, namely by maritime transport and surface currents. Furthermore, the recorded megalopae seem to enlarge the life history of C. sapidus in regard to its native area, where spawning peaks occur in late July and early August.Versión del editor

Early Science with the Large Millimeter Telescope: an energy-driven wind revealed by massive molecular and fast X-ray outflows in the Seyfert Galaxy IRAS 17020+4544

We report on the coexistence of powerful gas outflows observed in millimeter and X-ray data of the Radio-Loud Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy IRAS 17020+4544. Thanks to the large collecting power of the Large Millimeter Telescope, a prominent line arising from the 12CO(1-0) transition was revealed in recent observations of this source. The complex profile is composed by a narrow double-peak line and a broad wing. While the double-peak structure may be arising in a disk of molecular material, the broad wing is interpreted as the signature of a massive outflow of molecular gas with an approximate bulk velocity of -660 km/s. This molecular wind is likely associated to a multi-component X-ray Ultra-Fast Outflow with velocities reaching up to ~0.1c and column densities in the range 10^{21-23.9} cm^-2 that was reported in the source prior to the LMT observations. The momentum load estimated in the two gas phases indicates that within the observational uncertainties the outflow is consistent with being propagating through the galaxy and sweeping up the gas while conserving its energy. This scenario, which has been often postulated as a viable mechanism of how AGN feedback takes place, has so far been observed only in ULIRGs sources. IRAS 17020+4544 with bolometric and infrared luminosity respectively of 5X10^{44} erg/s and 1.05X10^{11} L_sun appears to be an example of AGN feedback in a NLSy1 Galaxy (a low power AGN). New proprietary multi-wavelength data recently obtained on this source will allow us to corroborate the proposed hypothesis.Comment: Accepted for publication on ApJ Letters, 9 pages, 4 figure

The Structure and Star-Formation History of NGC 5461

We compute photoionization models for the giant extragalactic H II region NGC 5461, and compare their predictions to several observational constraints. Since we aim at reproducing not only the global properties of the region, but its local structure also, the models are constrained to reproduce the observed density profile, and our analysis takes into consideration the bias introduced by the shapes and sizes of the slits used by different observers. We find that an asymmetric nebula with a gaussian density distribution, powered by a young burst of 3.1 Myr, satisfactorily reproduces most of the constraints, and that the star-formation efficiency inferred from the model agrees with current estimates. Our results strongly depend on the assumed density law, since constant density models overestimate the hardness of the ionizing field, affecting the deduced properties of the central stellar cluster. We illustrate the features of our best model, and discuss the possible sources of errors and uncertainties affecting the outcome of this type of studies.Comment: 33 pages (LaTeX), 3 .eps figures. to be published in ApJ, May 200

Gen-Z ambassadors: students supporting persons with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers in the Rio Grande Valley

Background: Youth participation in policy, research, education and community development initiatives is a right embedded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, General Assembly, 1989). However, avenues for youth participation in health promotion and care remains limited. Our Ambassadors program prepares high-school students on the Texas-Mexico border to understand and empathize with persons with Alzheimer’s disease (PwAD) and to empower their family and caregivers, consummating the UNCRC in the service of transformative community change actions. Methods: Our long-term objective is youth participation, defined as practices that involve collaboration between students and various community stakeholders in AD. The initial phase of the program is the design of a curriculum for early high school students to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for that participation. We used a cooperative strategy (a high school students-faculty collaborative), guided by empowerment and ecological theories to achieve optimal youth advancement in the context of the UNCRC social, health and cultural rights of children. Results: The GenZ Ambassadors curricular units were identified through an iterative process in which faculty documented their activities with youth and tested sessions ranging from the biological basis and clinical presentations of AD to family impact, principles of caregiving, youth as change agents, building intergenerational partnerships, and self-reflection exercises. Ambassadors selected settings and strategies designed to empower their peers and to transform communities by skill and confidence building. Discussion: The process implemented and content analysis revealed a variety of themes that benefited persons with AD and their caregivers in the Rio Grande Valley. Several strategies will be tested to generate interactive training materials and culturally and age-competent as well as delivery strategies, including peer-to-peer delivery

The Respiratory Exchange Ratio is Associated with Fitness Indicators Both in Trained and Untrained Men: A Possible Application for People with Reduced Exercise Tolerance

Background The respiratory exchange ratio (RER) indirectly shows the muscle's oxidative capacity to get energy. Sedentarism, exercise and physically active lifestyles modify it. For that reason, this study evaluates the associations between RER during sub-maximum exercise and other well established fitness indicators (body fat, maximum heart rate, maximum O 2 uptake, workload, and lactate threshold), in physically active trained and untrained men. Methods The RER, O 2 uptake and blood lactate were measured in eight endurance trained and eight untrained men (age, 22.9 ± 4.5 vs. 21.9 ± 2.8 years; body mass, 67.1 ± 5.4 vs. 72.2 ± 7.7 kg; body fat, 10.6 ± 2.4% vs. 16.6 ± 3.8% and maximum O2 uptake, 68.9 ± 6.3 vs. 51.6 ± 5.8 ml · kg −1 · min −1 ), during maximum exercise test and during three different sub-maximum exercises at fixed workload: below, within or above the lactate threshold. Results Endurance trained men presented higher O 2 uptake, lower blood lactate concentrations and lower RER values than those in untrained men at the three similar relative workloads. Even though with these differences in RER, a strong association (p < 0.05) of RER during sub-maximum exercise with the other well established fitness indicators was observed, and both maximum O 2 uptake and lactate threshold determined more than 57% of its variance (p < 0.05). Conclusions These data demonstrate that RER measurement under sub-maximum exercise conditions was well correlated with other established physical fitness indicators, despite training condition. Furthermore, the results suggest that RER could help obtain an easy approach of fitness status under low exercise intensity and could be utilized in subjects with reduced exercise tolerance