Essays on the Effects of Air Pollution on Human Health

According to recent reports by The World Bank and the World Health Organization millions of people die every year because of exposure to ambient air pollution—the vast majority of them in developing countries (World Bank 2016; World Health Organization 2016). Policy makers throughout the developing world are starting to seriously address this issue by designing and implementing a battery of policies for reducing ambient air pollution. To weight the cost and benefits of these policies policy makers need estimates of the benefits of reducing ambient air pollution. In this dissertation I provide estimates of the benefits of air pollution reduction in terms of its effects on human health. I use data from Chile, a middle income country that in recent years experienced a period of rapid industrialization and economic growth—similar to the process that many developing economies are experiencing these days. I believe that estimates and methods from this dissertation can provide a valuable tool to aid policy makers in the developing world in their goals to reduce ambient air pollution. Chapter 1 examines the effects of exposure to ambient air pollution on infant mortality. Using state-of-the art techniques to identify causal effects and reduce possible bias due to measurement error in air pollution exposure, results from this chapter show significant effects of exposure to ambient air pollution on infant mortality. This effect is larger for infant mortality due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Chapter 2 examines the effect of exposure to ambient air pollution on urgent care visits for different age groups and across different types of urgent care visits. Using a novel strategy to identify causal effects, results from this chapter show a significant effect on respiratory urgent care visits and on cardiovascular and circulatory urgent care visits. This effect is larger for the elderly and for respiratory urgent care visits due to pneumonia and lower respiratory diseases. Chapter 3 examines the effect of exposure to ambient air pollution on the probability of a pregnancy ending in a stillbirth delivery. Results from this chapter show a significant effect of acute exposure to air pollution on the probability of stillbirth delivery. This effect is larger for those stillbirths that are due to hypoxia

Raman Optical Activity Monitoring the Interaction of Globular Proteins with Surfactants

Protein denaturation by surfactants is related with topic as pharmaceutics, cosmetics, paints or biotechnology. This phenomenon is highly dependent on the physico-chemical properties of the denaturing agents. In this communication we report the ROA spectra of bovine serum albumin in the presence of different surfactants, which share a common hydrophobic tail, with the objerctive of correlating the structural specificities of the surfactant-protein interaction with the ROA signatures by following the protein unfolding process.In our work we propose two new groups of ROA marker bands related with the protein unfolding induced by surfactants. This work represents one of the first applications of ROA to study the interaction of a protein with surfactants, and a new proof of the ability of this chiroptical technique to see beyond that can be seen with conventional Raman spectroscopy.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

DIAGNÓSTICO DE LA DISTRIBUCIÓN DE PLANTA EN EL ÁREA DE PRODUCCIÓN DE LA EMPRESA ALPES CHICLAYO S.A.C., 2018

El presente trabajo de investigación tuvo como objetivo realizar un diagnóstico de la distribución de planta en la empresa Alpes Chiclayo SAC. Pues en el mercado globalizado de hoy en día es de vital importancia para las empresas mantener una buena distribución de planta. Esto le proporciona una ventaja fundamental ya que los productos y servicios bien hechos desde el inicio implica reducción de costos, lo que brindan al mismo tiempo un adecuado orden y manejo en las áreas de trabajo y equipos, con el fin de minimizar tiempos y espacios, además de cuidar la seguridad y satisfacción tanto en sus trabajadores y como en sus clientes. Mediante la recolección de datos y el análisis realizado se identificaron problemas: mala ubicación de los equipos de producción de la empresa, lo que genera recorridos incensarios y pérdida de tiempo, asimismo mermas de materia prima, desorden y falta de limpieza, además no cuentan con almacenes establecidos y/o estructurados por lo que se encuentra la materia prima (gandul), envases vacíos y el producto terminado distribuido en las diferentes áreas de la empresa, generando una contaminación cruzada que perjudica la calidad del producto.Trabajo de investigació

Dietary Iron, Anemia Markers, Cognition, and Quality of Life in Older Community-Dwelling Subjects at High Cardiovascular Risk

Anemia causes hypo-oxygenation in the brain, which could lead to cognitive disorders. We examined dietary iron intake as well as anemia markers (i.e., hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume) and diabetes coexistence in relation to neuropsychological function and quality of life. In this study, 6117 community-dwelling adults aged 55-75 years (men) and 60-75 years (women) with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome were involved. We performed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Trail Making Test parts A and B (TMT-A/B), Semantic Verbal Fluency of animals (VFT-a), Phonological Verbal Fluency of letter P (VFT-p), Digit Span Test (DST), the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), and the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF36-HRQL test). Dietary iron intake did not influence neuropsychological function or quality of life. However, anemia and lower levels of anemia markers were associated with worse scores in all neurophysiological and SF36-HRQL tests overall, but were especially clear in the MMSE, TMT-B (cognitive flexibility), and the physical component of the SF36-HRQL test. The relationships between anemia and diminished performance in the TMT-A/B and VFT tasks were notably pronounced and statistically significant solely among participants with diabetes. In brief, anemia and reduced levels of anemia markers were linked to inferior cognitive function, worse scores in different domains of executive function, as well as a poorer physical, but not mental, component of quality of life. It was also suggested that the coexistence of diabetes in anemic patients may exacerbate this negative impact on cognition. Nevertheless, dietary iron intake showed no correlation with any of the outcomes. To make conclusive recommendations for clinical practice, our findings need to be thoroughly tested through methodologically rigorous studies that minimize the risk of reverse causality

Las plantas del Mariana 2.0: un proyecto educativo para despertar la curiosidad y la vocación científica en estudiantes de la ESO y Bachillerato

Comunicación oral presentada en: III congreso CAOS, Granada EEZ, España. 4 mayo 202

Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements