Zoonoses and traumatic injuries among practicing veterinarians in the Los Lagos Region, Chile

This research addresses the occurrence of clinical signs and related symptoms of zoonotic diseases, traumatic injuries, and the frequency of healthcare seeking among practicing veterinarians, whose job was performed in the Los Lagos Region, Southern Chile. An online standardized survey collected from 140 practicing veterinarians was conducted between March and July 2020. The surveyed participants reported the occurrence of brucellosis, ringworm, scabies, cat scratch disease, anthrax, toxocariasis, salmonellosis, pediculosis, and flea infestation among veterinarians. The clinical signs and symptoms related to these events include diarrhea, allergies, and muscle pain. Mild and severe traumatic injuries were also declared by the participants, in which the frequency of severe trauma increased as the time of professional practice increased. Nevertheless, the use of professional healthcare was low among the surveyed veterinarians. This study emphasizes the need to consider veterinarians’ health-related occupational risks using the “One Health” approach

Soft Skills Needed by the Tertiary Students During Pandemic

This study aims to describe the soft or personal skills of the B.S. Information Technology students of Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, in School Year 2020-2021. Percentage, weighted mean, and ranking were used to describe the students' skills. Generally, the results showed that students believed that the top 2 essential skills during the pandemic are negotiation and stress management. For them, speaking in a friendly manner and clarifying in case of misunderstanding are critical in a negotiation. On the other hand, respondents highlighted that requirements must be done before the deadline to be free from stress

Exergames: propuesta de un gamepad para sensar los movimientos del jugador

Exergames are a good alternative to perform physical activity while being entertained with a video game. This paper reviews the history of exergames with walkin-place mechanisms for locomotion, and presents the development of a prototype video game controller (gamepad) with functionalities to sense the player's movements (walk, run, and jump). Then, an exergame that was implemented and integrated with the controller is described. This proposal was evaluated by users considering usability and user experience analysis. The results obtained allow affirming that the gamepad integrated with the video game were positively valued by the participants during the test sessions and allowed the realization of physical activity while maintaining entertainment through the game.Los exergames son una buena alternativa para realizar actividad física mientras se disfruta un videojuego. Este artículo revisa la historia de los exergames con mecanismos de caminata en el lugar para la locomoción, y presenta el desarrollo de un prototipo de controlador de videojuegos (gamepad) con funcionalidades para detectar los movimientos del jugador (caminar, correr y saltar). Luego, se describe un exergame que fue implementado e integrado con el controlador. Esta propuesta fue evaluada por usuarios considerando el análisis de usabilidad y experiencia del usuario. Los resultados obtenidos permiten afirmar que el gamepad integrado con el videojuego fue valorado positivamente por los participantes durante las sesiones de prueba y permitid realizar actividad física mientras el jugador se mantenía entretenido a través del juego.Facultad de Informátic

Fifteen years controlling unwanted thoughts: A systematic review of the thought control ability questionnaire (TCAQ)

Thought control ability is a vulnerability factor implicated in the etiology and maintenance of emotional disorders. This manuscript aims to systematically review the use and psychometric performance of the Thought Control Ability Questionnaire (TCAQ), designed to assess people's ability to control unwanted thoughts. Three electronic databases were searched for papers administering the TCAQ published in indexed peer-reviewed journals. Data (participants characteristics, country, study design, etc.) were extracted from the results for qualitative synthesis. The TCAQ's content validity, dimensionality, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent/divergent validity, floor/ceiling effects, and interpretability were summarized. Two reviewers independently screened articles and assessed quality taking COSMIN criteria into account. Finally, the review included 17 papers. The TCAQ has been administered to healthy individuals, students, and adult patients, in six languages from nine countries. We found that the TCAQ, and its shorter versions, demonstrate robust reliability and adequate content validity. Of interest is the TCAQ's capacity to predict performance in diverse experimental tasks focused on thought control. The TCAQ unidimensionality has been supported in exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Regarding construct validity, the TCAQ is significantly related to a wide range of psychopathological measures of anxiety, worry, depression, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, etc. However, as only a few of the included studies had a longitudinal design, we are unable to draw firm conclusions about the measure's temporal stability. Moreover, psychometric aspects such as factorial invariance across different samples have not been analyzed. Despite these limitations, based on available psychometric evidence we can recommend using the TCAQ for measuring perceived control of unwanted thoughts

ESTUDIO DE LA BIOSORCION DE ROJO ÁCIDO 18, AZUL BÁSICO 99 Y AMARILLO BÁSICO 57 PRESENTES EN LOS TINTES DE CABELLOS CON RESIDUOS DE HOJAS DE TÉ VERDE

The use of waste green tea leaves (TV) with particle diameter 30 and 40 of the Tyler series, on the removal of the dyes basic yellow 57 (AM 57), basic blue 99 (AZB 99) and acid red 18 was investigated from aqueous solutions at room temperature by intermittent desorption experiments. The parameters evaluated in the adsorption capacity were: pH, mass of adsorbent, the concentration of dye adsorption rate and ionic strength, supported by the FTIR, SEM, EDX and TGA analysis. The results are analyzed using mathematical models of Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin- Radushkevich and Redlich -Peterson. The results show that the adsorption is given by a mixed mechanism. The determined parameters show a high affinity of the adsorbent with AZ 99 with a maximum adsorption capacity of 287.2 mg g- 1, followed with by AM 57 120 mg g -1 and the RA 18 with 58 mg g- 1 elucidating the potential use of the adsorbent for the removal of the dyes in aqueous solutions by pseudo- second order kinetic. High concentration of the ionic strength decreases the adsorption of the three dyes.Se investigó el uso de hojas de té verde (TV) molidas con diámetro de partículas malla 30 y 40 de la serie Tyler, en la remoción de los colorantes Amarillo 57 (AM 57), Azul básico 99 (AZB 99) y Rojo ácido 18 (RA 18), a partir de soluciones acuosas a temperatura ambiente, mediante experimentos de desorción discontinuos. Los parámetros evaluados en la capacidad de adsorción fueron: pH, masa de adsorbente, concentración de los colorantes, velocidad de adsorción y fuerza iónica, apoyados por los análisis de FTIR, SEM, EDX y TGA. Los resultados se han analizado usando los modelos matemáticos de Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin-Radushkevich y Redlich-Peterson. Estos resultados muestran que la adsorción se da mediante un mecanismo mixto. Los parámetros determinados ponen en claro una alta afinidad del adsorbente con el AZ 99 con una máxima capacidad de adsorción de 287,2 mg g-1, seguido con el AM 57 con un q 120 mg g-1 y con el RA 18 con q de 58 mg g-1, máx máx elucidando el potencial uso de este adsorbente para la remoción de los colorantes en soluciones acuosas mediante una cinética de pseudo-segundo orden, especialmente el AZB99. Altas concentraciones de la fuerza iónica disminuyen la adsorción de los tres colorantes

KEEL 3.0: an open source software for multi-stage analysis in data mining

This paper introduces the 3rd major release of the KEEL Software. KEEL is an open source Java framework (GPLv3 license) that provides a number of modules to perform a wide variety of data mining tasks. It includes tools to performdata management, design of multiple kind of experiments, statistical analyses, etc. This framework also contains KEEL-dataset, a data repository for multiple learning tasks featuring data partitions and algorithms’ results over these problems. In this work, we describe the most recent components added to KEEL 3.0, including new modules for semi-supervised learning, multi-instance learning, imbalanced classification and subgroup discovery. In addition, a new interface in R has been incorporated to execute algorithms included in KEEL. These new features greatly improve the versatility of KEEL to deal with more modern data mining problems

Institutional factors governing the deployment of remote experiments: lessons from the rexnet project

Remote labs offer many unique advantages to students as they provide opportunities to access experiments and learning scenarios that would be otherwise unavailable. At the same time, however, these opportunities introduce real challenges to the institutions hosting the remote labs. This paper draws on the experiences of the REXNET project consortium to expose a number of these issues as a means of furthering the debate on the value of remote labs and the best practices in deploying them. The paper presents a brief outline of the various types of remote lab scenarios that might be deployed. It then describes the key human and technological actors that have an interest in or are intrinsic to a remote lab instance, with a description of the role of each actor and their interest. Some relationships between these various actors are then discussed with some factors that might influence those relationships. Finally some general issues are briefly described

Spinless Forage Cactus: The Queen of Forage Crops in Semi Arid Regions

Forage cactus is a perennial crop, which has been widely exploited for feeding ruminants in the semiarid region of different countries around the world. The main objective of this chapter is to describe the use and importance of spineless cactus as forage, desertification mitigation, source of water for animals and a source of income for producers in semiarid regions. The main species explored in Brazil are Opuntia spp. and Nopalea spp., due to characteristics such as resistance to pests, productivity, water-use efficiency and demand for soil fertility. The productivity of the species in a region will depend on its morphological characteristics, plant spacing, planting systems and its capacity to adapt to climatic and soil conditions. In other parts of the world, cactus species are the most cosmopolitan and destructive among invasive plants. However, the use of spineless forage cactus in areas where it can develop normally and may become the basis for ruminants’ feed would increase the support capacity production systems. Thus, specifically for Brazil’s semiarid region these species can make the difference as forage for animal feeding, cultivated as monoculture or intercropped, for soil conservation and desertification mitigation, source of water for animals, preservation of the Caatinga biome and be a potential source of income for producers if cultivated as vegetable for nutritional properties and medicinal derivative of fruits and cladodes for exports

Coalescent-based species delimitation in the sand lizards of the Liolaemus wiegmannii complex (Squamata: Liolaemidae)

Coalescent-based algorithms coupled with the access to genome-wide data have become powerful tools forassessing questions on recent or rapid diversification, as well as delineating species boundaries in the absence of reciprocal monophyly. In southern South America, the diversification of Liolaemus lizards during the Pleistocene is well documented and has been attributed to the climatic changes that characterized this recent period of time. Past climatic changes had harsh effects at extreme latitudes, including Patagonia, but habitat changes at intermediate latitudes of South America have also been recorded, including expansion of sand fields over northern Patagonia and Pampas). In this work, we apply a coalescent-based approach to study the diversification of the Liolaemus wiegmannii species complex, a morphologically conservative clade that inhabits sandy soils across northwest and south-central Argentina, and the south shores of Uruguay. Using four standard sequence markers (mitochondrial DNA and three nuclear loci) along with ddRADseq data we inferred species limits and a time calibrated species tree for the L. wiegmannii complex in order to evaluate the influence of Quaternary sand expansion/retraction cycles on diversification. We also evaluated the evolutionary independence of the recently described L. gardeli and inferred its phylogenetic position relative to L. wiegmannii. We find strong evidence for six allopatric candidate species within L. wiegmannii, which diversified during the Pleistocene. The Great Patagonian Glaciation (∼1 million years before present) likely split the species complex into two main groups: one composed of lineages associated with sub-Andean sedimentary formations, and the other mostly related to sand fields in the Pampas and northern Patagonia. We hypothesize that early speciation within L. wiegmannii was influenced by the expansion of sand dunes throughout central Argentina and Pampas. Finally, L. gardeli is supported as a distinct lineage nested within the L. wiegmannii complex.Fil: Villamil, Joaquín. Universidad de la República. Facultad de Ciencias; UruguayFil: Avila, Luciano Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales; ArgentinaFil: Morando, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales; ArgentinaFil: Sites, Jack W.. University Brigham Young; Estados UnidosFil: Leaché, Adam D.. University of Washington; Estados UnidosFil: Maneyro, Raúl. Universidad de la República. Facultad de Ciencias; UruguayFil: Camargo Bentaberry, Arley. Universidad de la República; Urugua

The Quest for Dual and Binary Supermassive Black Holes: A Multi-Messenger View

The quest for binary and dual supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the dawn of the multi-messenger era is compelling. Detecting dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) – active SMBHs at projected separations larger than several parsecs – and binary AGN – probing the scale where SMBHs are bound in a Keplerian binary – is an observational challenge. The study of AGN pairs (either dual or binary) also represents an overarching theoretical problem in cosmology and astrophysics. The AGN triggering calls for detailed knowledge of the hydrodynamical conditions of gas in the imminent surroundings of the SMBHs and, at the same time, their duality calls for detailed knowledge on how galaxies assemble through major and minor mergers and grow fed by matter along the filaments of the cosmic web. This review describes the techniques used across the electromagnetic spectrum to detect dual and binary AGN candidates and proposes new avenues for their search. The current observational status is compared with the state-of-the-art numerical simulations and models for formation of dual and binary AGN. Binary SMBHs are among the loudest sources of gravitational waves (GWs) in the Universe. The search for a background of GWs at nHz frequencies from inspiralling SMBHs at low redshifts, and the direct detection of signals from their coalescence by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna in the next decade, make this a theme of major interest for multi-messenger astrophysics. This review discusses the future facilities and observational strategies that are likely to significantly advance this fascinating field