Infection rates and distribution of Trypanosoma cruzi in triatomine insects from several public parks of Starr, Hidalgo and Cameron Counties

Chagas disease is caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and is a major public health concern in many areas of the world, including the United States. The disease is transmitted by insect vectors known as kissing bugs from the subfamily Triatominae. While the majority of studies focus on domestic and peri-domestic collections, this study collected insect vectors from state parks in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. PCR analysis was done to obtain infection rates for collected insects, and a morphological examination was done to check insects for gender. In total 18 insects were captured with 12 of the captured insects being female, and 6 being male. A total infection rate of 67% was seen. Our results reason that the prevention of insect vectors at both the sylvatic level and domestic level may be more effective in stopping the spread of Chagas disease than prevention at the domestic level alone

Learning Action Cell Implementation in the Philippine Public Schools: A Descriptive Phenomenological Study

Philippine DepEd Order (DO) #35, s. 2016, institutionalized the Learning Action Cell (LAC) in public schools. The policy’s key objective is to improve teachers’ teaching competence. Conversely, there needs to be more literature, specifically in the Davao City public schools, to account for its implementation since its inception. Thus, this study. The study aimed to propose a LAC implementation model for the Davao City public school’s division. It made use of qualitative, descriptive phenomenological research design. Ten (10) participants were involved, and they participated in the focus group discussion and key informant interviews. The proposed LAC implementation model focused on the students’ learning as its definitive goal. It can be realized if the teachers’ teaching skills are enhanced, and the LAC implementation is well implemented. Correspondingly, the proposed model emphasizes supportive leadership, teachers’ positive attitudes, well-defined roles and responsibilities, sufficient resources, systematic procedures, and well-disseminated policy. One of the study’s recommendations is for future researchers to study the impact of the continuous improvement model adopted in the implementation of LAC in the DepEd schools on the learning quality of the students and the school improvement. Keywords: teacher professional development, LAC implementation model, academic performance DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-27-07 Publication date:September 30th 202

Surgical Site Infection Rates After Implementation of the Surgical Care Improvement Project Initiative

Surgical site infections (SSIs) reflect a serious complication in modern healthcare and are a substantial burden to healthcare systems and service payers worldwide in terms of patient morbidity, mortality, and additional costs. The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), introduced in 2006, was developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reduce SSI rates by 25%. However, SCIP was retired in 2015. Given the considerable financial burden of SSIs and because SSIs may be prevented using evidence-based measures, it was worth revisiting and re-evaluating the quality improvement efforts brought about by the success of the evidence-based SCIP initiative. This project aimed to examine the relationship between SCIP infection-prevention process-of-care measures and SSI rates between the years of high SCIP compliance, and several years after it was retired. The nature of this doctoral project was a quality improvement evaluation via a retrospective review of medical records acquired from the first quarter of 2014 to the fourth quarter of 2018. The SCIP core measure guidelines were used to define standards for care and thresholds for adherence. SSI rates were extracted and aggregated to look at trends and the chi-square test was used to show the relationship between two categorical variables. The analysis showed a significant difference between the proportions of infections from those of high SCIP compliance compared to the years following SCIP retirement (SCIP (Χ2(2) = 11.12, p \u3c .004). The improvement of individual, community, and societal health is a significant contribution made by the nursing profession. The concept of SSI is essential in building the nursing science that will lead to identifying sound nursing interventions in the perioperative period

Practical Spectrophotometric Assay for the \u3cem\u3edapE\u3c/em\u3e-Encoded \u3cem\u3eN\u3c/em\u3e-Succinyl-L,L-Diaminopimelic Acid Desuccinylase, a Potential Antibiotic Target

A new enzymatic assay for the bacterial enzyme succinyl-diaminopimelate desuccinylase (DapE, E.C. 3.5.1.18) is described. This assay employs N6-methyl-N2-succinyl-L,L-diaminopimelic acid (N6-methyl-L,L-SDAP) as the substrate with ninhydrin used to detect cleavage of the amide bond of the modified substrate, wherein N6-methylation enables selective detection of the primary amine enzymatic product. Molecular modeling supported preparation of the mono-N6-methylated-L,L-SDAP as an alternate substrate for the assay, given binding in the active site of DapE predicted to be comparable to the endogenous substrate. The alternate substrate for the assay, N6-methyl-L,L-SDAP, was synthesized from the tert-butyl ester of Boc-L-glutamic acid employing a Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons olefination followed by an enantioselective reduction employing Rh(I)(COD)(S,S)-Et-DuPHOS as the chiral catalyst. Validation of the new ninhydrin assay was demonstrated with known inhibitors of DapE from Haemophilus influenza (HiDapE) including captopril (IC50 = 3.4 [± 0.2] μM, 3-mercaptobenzoic acid (IC50 = 21.8 [±2.2] μM, phenylboronic acid (IC50 = 316 [± 23.6] μM, and 2-thiopheneboronic acid (IC50 = 111 [± 16] μM. Based on these data, this assay is simple and robust, and should be amenable to high-throughput screening, which is an important step forward as it opens the door to medicinal chemistry efforts toward the discovery of DapE inhibitors that can function as a new class of antibiotics

Revitalizing Peanut Farming in Enrile, Cagayan, Philippines

The sustainability of a peanut farming community hinges on understanding the key production players in the supply chain. This agend-asetting paper focused on presenting and analyzing the production and marketing experiences of 75 peanut farmers in Enrile, Cagayan, Philippines, using the case methodology through farmer surveys, key informant interviews, and secondary sources of information. This paper aims to present sustainability perspectives to revitalize peanut farming in the area and address the issues encountered in the production and marketing of peanuts. The results of this study showed that peanut farming in the community can be revitalized and sustained through instituting effective flood control measures, improving peanut farming practices, employing market-driven strategies supported by supply chain and quality management, nurturing the next generation of peanut farmers, and establishing better linkages with support institutions and industry

The Brazilian Tunable Filter Imager for the SOAR telescope

This paper presents a new Tunable Filter Instrument for the SOAR telescope. The Brazilian Tunable Filter Imager (BTFI) is a versatile, new technology, tunable optical imager to be used in seeing-limited mode and at higher spatial fidelity using the SAM Ground-Layer Adaptive Optics facility at the SOAR telescope. The instrument opens important new science capabilities for the SOAR community, from studies of the centers of nearby galaxies and the insterstellar medium to statistical cosmological investigations. The BTFI takes advantage of three new technologies. The imaging Bragg Tunable Filter concept utilizes Volume Phase Holographic Gratings in a double-pass configuration, as a tunable filter, while a new Fabry-Perot (FP) concept involves technologies which allow a single FP etalon to act over a large range of interference orders and spectral resolutions. Both technologies will be in the same instrument. Spectral resolutions spanning the range between 25 and 30,000 can be achieved through the use of iBTF at low resolution and scanning FPs beyond R ~2,000. The third new technologies in BTFI is the use of EMCCDs for rapid and cyclically wavelength scanning thus mitigating the damaging effect of atmospheric variability through data acquisition. An additional important feature of the instrument is that it has two optical channels which allow for the simultaneous recording of the narrow-band, filtered image with the remaining (complementary) broad-band light. This avoids the uncertainties inherent in tunable filter imaging using a single detector. The system was designed to supply tunable filter imaging with a field-of-view of 3 arcmin on a side, sampled at 0.12" for direct Nasmyth seeing-limited area spectroscopy and for SAM's visitor instrument port for GLAO-fed area spectroscopy. The instrument has seen first light, as a SOAR visitor instrument. It is now in comissioning phase.Comment: accepted in PAS