International Research Institute for Climate and Society

As part of the scoping mission of ACToday, Greayson Cadwell and Kristine Kim, two students of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) of Columbia University, traveled to Colombia in the summer of 2018 to analyze the ecosystems of the food chain and the climate services in the country. The objectives of this mission were to assess: 1) the policy landscape and the food system, 2) Climate Services available in the country, 3) the value chain of a staple crop and a cash crop. The methodology used by the SIPA students included literature review as well as semi-structure interviews with local experts in agriculture, nutrition, food systems, climate services, officials from the Ministry of Environment, members of the Academy in Colombia, international organizations working on the ground, NGOs, farming associations and research organizations. This document summarizes the key findings and recommendations based on the research and field work developed during the summer in 2018 by the SIPA students

International Research Institute for Climate and Society

As part of the scoping mission of ACToday, Jennifer Bradshaw and Carmen Gonzalez Romero, two students of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) of Columbia University, traveled to Guatemala in the summer of 2018 to analyze the ecosystems of the food chain and the climate services in the country. The objectives of this mission were to assess: 1) the policy landscape and the food system, 2) Climate Services available in the country, 3) the value chain of a staple crop and a cash crop. The methodology used by the SIPA students included literature review as well as semi-structure interviews with local experts in agriculture, nutrition, food systems, climate services, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and Food, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the National Meteorological Service, local farming cooperatives and federations, international organizations, members of the Academy in Guatemala and focus groups with famers and local experts. Observational data from participation in agroclimate round tables and nutrition and health round tables were also taking into consideration for the purpose of the assessment. This document summarizes the key findings and recommendations based on the research and field work developed during the summer of 2018 by the SIPA students

Haiku: cuatro visiones

El haiku o haikai es una forma de poesía tradicional japonesa, breve pero cargada de intensidad y emoción derivada del asombro que le produce al poeta la contemplación de la naturaleza. Erróneamente se ha vinculado el haiku con el zen; sin embargo es anterior a éste y el zen únicamente utilizó esta forma de poesía como medio para expresar y extender su filosofía. El haiku es pura espiritualidad, más vinculada al sintoísmo

Resistencia a cefalosporinas de tercera y cuarta generación en enterobacterias productoras de infecciones nosocomiales y caracterización preliminar de los plásmidos involucrados

Se estudiaron 68 cepas de enterobacterias productoras de infecciones nosocomiales, en su mayoría (63%) Escherichia coli y Klebsiella pneumoniae. El 40% fueron resistentes a cefalosporinas de tercera generación, en su mayoría a dos o tres de ellas. El 24% fueron resistentes a la única cefalosporina de cuarta generación ensayada. Casi todas las cepas resistentes a cefepima también lo fueron a las tres cefalosporinas de tercera generación ensayadas. El taxón con mayor frecuencia de cepas resistentes fue K. pneumoniae y la resistencia fue transferible in vitro en poco más del 50% de las cepas, pero en general no pasaron todos los marcadores de resistencia. Cada transconjugante presentó un solo plásmido y en 7 casos analizados mediante restricción se obtuvieron perfiles similares a pesar de tener patrones de resistencia diferentes

Scaling-up climate services with users in Latin America

Latin America farmers are highly vulnerable to climate variability, with crop losses observed throughout the region on a virtually annual basis. For instance, as indicated by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP), the 2014–2017 drought conditions in Central America affected over 3.5 million people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. At the same time, local stakeholders and farmers generally have limited access to existing climate and forecast information, do not have sufficient capacities to understand the climate information and/or mechanisms to relate this information to the impact that climate variations can generate at a local level. This precludes the translation of information into actionable knowledge, and therefore into action. In this study, we describe a process through which scientists and strategic partners have co-developed, tested and scaled out an approach to assess, co-produce, translate and transfer climate information to enable agricultural decision making –the Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (LTAC). LTACs allow open and clear dialogues about climate variations at multiple timescales, how these can affect crops, and the design of measures to reduce crop loss, particularly providing agronomic recommendations to farmers. We systematically describe the process of evidence generation, creation, partner engagement, scaling up, and monitoring of the approach throughout Latin America. Currently, 35 LTACs exist in 9 Latin American countries, engaging more than 250 public and private institutions, increasing the resilience and food security of an estimated 330,000 farmers, and potentially transforming how Latin American farmers manage climate risk. The study illustrates changes in institutional and farmers' capacities to co-produce, translate and use climate information and explores how better climate and crop prediction models can effectively underpin this process. We show how strategic alliances with farmer organizations, national public, and private and regional climate outlook forums help deliver improved and accurate climate information to users. Finally, we document how LTACs and their integration with other local-scale processes have led to changes in farmers’ management practices to take better advantage of good climatic conditions or avoid losses

Mycobacterium tuberculosis multi-drug-resistant strain M induces IL-17+ IFNγ- CD4+ T cell expansion through an IL-23 and TGF-β-dependent mechanism in patients with MDR-TB tuberculosis

We have previously reported that T cells from patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) express high levels of IL-17 in response to the MDR strain M(Haarlem family) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tuberculosis). Herein, we explore the pathways involved in the induction of h17 cells in MDR-TB patients and healthy tuberculin reactors (PPD+HD) by the M strain and the laboratory strain H37Rv. Our results show that IL-1β and IL-6 are crucial for the H37Rv and M-induced expansion of IL-17+IFNγ¯ and IL-17+IFNγ+ in CD4+ T cells from MDR-TB and PPD+HD. IL-23 plays an ambiguous role in Th1 and Th17 profiles: alone, IL-23 is responsible for M.tuberculosis induced IL-17 and IFNγ expression in CD4+ T cells from PPD+HD whereas, together with TGF-β, it promotes IL-17+IFNγ¯ expansion in MDR-TB. In fact, spontaneous and M.tuberculosis-induced TGF-β secretion is increased in cells from MDR-TB being theM strain the highest inducer. Interestingly, TLR-2 signaling mediates the expansion of IL-17+IFNγ¯ cells and the enhancement of latency-associated protein (LAP) expression in CD14+ and CD4+ T cells from MDR-TB, which suggests that M strain promotes IL-17+IFNγ¯ T cells through a strong TLR-2-dependent TGF-β production by antigenpresenting cells and CD4+ T cells. Finally, CD4+ T cells from MDR-TB patients infected with MDR Haarlem strains show higher IL-17+IFNγ¯ and lower IL-17+IFNγ+ levels than LAM-infected patients. The present findings deepen our understanding on the role of IL-17 in MDR-TB and highlight the influence of the genetic background of the infecting M.tuberculosis strain on the ex vivo Th17 response.Fil: Basile, Juan Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Kviatcovsky, Denise. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Romero, María Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Balboa, Luciana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Monteserin, Johana. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud “Dr. C. G. Malbrán”; ArgentinaFil: Ritacco, Gloria Viviana. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud “Dr. C. G. Malbrán”; ArgentinaFil: López, Beatriz. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud “Dr. C. G. Malbrán”; ArgentinaFil: Sabio y García, Carmen Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: García, A.. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas “Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz”; ArgentinaFil: Vescovo, M.. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas “Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz”; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez Montaner, Pablo. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas “Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz”; ArgentinaFil: Palmero, Domingo. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas “Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz”; ArgentinaFil: Sasiain, María del Carmen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: de la Barrera, Silvia Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentin

This is My Baby Interview: an adaptation to the spanish language and culture

INTRODUCTION: Evaluating the emotional state of the parents is important for determining the intervention in the context of a family with a baby with Down syndrome. "This is my baby" is an interview that measures the acceptance, commitment and awareness of influence of parents towards their baby. The Spanish adaptation of this instrument helps to better understand the emotional state of parents of children with developmental disorders. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a transcultural adaptation and determination of the reliability, sensitivity to change, and internal consistency of the “This Is My Baby” interview. A cross-cultural adaptation and reliability analysis was carried out. A total of 32 families of babies with Down syndrome participated in this multicenter study. RESULTS: The values obtained for the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) indicated a good level of concordance with a significative level of p < 0.001, and the values of the standard error of measurement (SEM) and of the minimum detectable change (MDC) were reduced. The weighted Kappa coefficient showed values that were moderate to excellent. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the Spanish version of the This Is My Baby interview is a reliable instrument to measure the levels of acceptance, commitment, and awareness of influence of parents of an infant with Down syndrome.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Diseño y optimización de sistemas de transformación y conservación de naranja variedad “Canoneta” de la Serra Nord mallorquina para obtención de naranja IV gama

Este trabajo muestra el efecto de diferentes tipos de procesado sobre la vida útil de naranjas mínimamente procesadas de la variedad “Canoneta”. Las naranjas peladas de manera mecánica o semimanual fueron envasadas en dos atmósferas (vacío parcial y 20% CO2+ 80% N2) y se almacenaron durante 10 días a 4ºC y a 8ºC. Los análisis sensoriales, microbiológicos y físicoquímicos identificaron el pelado semi-manual como el menos idóneo de los métodos de pelado y se estableció 7 días como la vida útil máxima para un producto aceptable desde el punto de vista sensorial

Nuevas metodologías con un enfoque interdisciplinar en la docencia de asignaturas relacionadas con la Tecnología de Alimentos

El objeto de este proyecto es compartir metodologías docentes y técnicas de evaluación desde un enfoque pluridisciplinar en la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (U.P.M.), implicando a 6 asignaturas con un nexo común. Todas ellas están relacionadas con el procesado de alimentos en la Industria Agroalimentaria, desde la materia prima hasta el producto final. Para ello se recurre al empleo de metologías de distinta naturaleza, tanto presenciales como no presenciales. El aspecto más novedoso es la introducción de las pruebas de análisis sensorial e instrumental de los alimentos como nueva metodología docente. El empleo de ambos tipos de pruebas permite, de forma complementaria, evaluar la calidad de los alimentos y los cambios en sus propiedades inducidos por la modificación de parámetros del procesado y/o cambios en la formulación de las materias primas. El empleo de las pruebas de análisis sensorial permite además al alumno PERCIBIR dichos cambios, de forma que se afianza su aprendizaj

Circundatin H, a new inhibitor of mitochondrial NADH oxidase from Aspergillus ochraceus

[EN] Circumdatin H (1), a new alkaloid from the culture broth of Aspergillus ochraceus, has been isolated, together with a known circumdatin, circumdatin E (2) and other known compounds: flavacol (3) and stephacidin A (4). The structure of 1 was established on the basis of chemical and spectral evidence. All of these alkaloids showed biological activity as inhibitors of the mammalian mitochondrial respiratory chain.López-Gresa, MP.; Gonzalez Más, MC.; Primo, J.; Moya, P.; Romero, V.; Estornell, E. (2005). Circundatin H, a new inhibitor of mitochondrial NADH oxidase from Aspergillus ochraceus. The Journal of Antibiotics. 58:416-419. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/134335S4164195