Flexible plastic packaging recycling: the contribution of the correct identification

Packages have high rotation as they become municipal solid waste just after the consumption of the product. Therefore, packages should be labeled with identification of the material they are made of in order to help the recycling chain. Many products made from plastics show a resin identification code - usually from 1 to 7 inside a three-arrow triangle above a monogram - aimed at identifying the type of plastic the product is made of, and help its separation and later recycling. In other words, one aims to facilitate recovery of plastics discarded with the municipal solid waste. In this study we collected data on the resin identification code in flexible plastic packages to assess whether the guidelines for material identification are being followed. The data collection was performed in a total of 509 flexible plastic packages used for packing food and non-food products available in the Brazilian market. Even though the NBR 13230 Brazilian standard is already in its second revision, the resin identification code in plastic packages is still used in a very heterogeneous fashion. Approximately 50% of the packages had the resin identification code. Up to 30% of some packages showed incorrect material identification code. Therefore, misinformation still occurs in the Brazilian market concerning the type of material for plastic packaging - including lack of the resin identification code and incorrect form of identification code in the plastic packaging. Both of these problems have negative effects on the plastic recycling chain. We propose that other materials used in flexible plastic packages, e.g. aluminum foil, should also be identified, in order to make the separation and recycling easier.As embalagens têm rotatividade alta, pois acabam se transformando em resíduo sólido urbano após o consumo do produto de interesse. Por este motivo é importante que as embalagens apresentem o símbolo de identificação do material, a fim de facilitar a cadeia de reciclagem. Muitos produtos de materiais plásticos apresentam código de identificação da resina (normalmente um número de 1 a 7 dentro de um triângulo de três setas e sob o mesmo uma abreviatura), cujo objetivo é indicar o tipo de plástico do qual o produto é feito e auxiliar sua separação e posterior reciclagem e revalorização. Ou seja, tenta-se facilitar a recuperação dos materiais plásticos descartados com o resíduo sólido urbano. O objetivo deste estudo foi efetuar um levantamento de dados sobre os símbolos de identificação de materiais em embalagens plásticas flexíveis, para avaliar se o mercado está adotando a identificação corretamente ou se ainda existe falta de informação. Foi avaliado um total de 509 embalagens plásticas flexíveis para acondicionar produtos alimentícios e não alimentícios disponíveis no mercado brasileiro. Apesar de a norma brasileira ABNT NBR 13230 já estar em sua segunda revisão, ainda existe muita heterogeneidade na identificação das embalagens plásticas. Somente cerca de 50% das embalagens avaliadas apresentaram o símbolo de identificação da resina. Além disso, em alguns casos cerca de 30% das embalagens apresentaram a identificação do material de forma incorreta. Portanto, ainda existe informação errônea no mercado brasileiro sobre o tipo de material da embalagem plástica (incluindo ausência do símbolo de identificação), bem como falta de informação sobre o símbolo correto de identificação da resina. Ambos os fatores prejudicam a cadeia de reciclagem do plástico. Assim, a fim de facilitar a separação e reciclagem de embalagens plásticas flexíveis que contêm materiais distintos, por exemplo, folha de alumínio, é proposta a inclusão da identificação destes materiais na embalagem.128134Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Psychometric properties of the Greek TCI-R and its clinical correlates: Schizotypy and the self-regulation of affective and cognitive functioning

Background. The revised Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R) measures Cloninger’s psychobiological model of personality. The average effects of individual temperament and character traits have been associated with schizotypy and with impaired regulation of affect and cognition. We extended prior research by testing predictions about the association of specific multidimensional configurations of temperament and character traits on schizotypy, affect balance, and self-perceived cognitive functioning. Method. A well-educated sample of native Greeks (N = 483), completed a new Greek translation of the TCI-R, as well as the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), the Positive/Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). The factor structure of the TCI-R was examined with exploratory and confirmatory tests. Associations between reported measures were examined with correlational and regression analyses. Results. The TCI-R had good psychometric properties as expected from studies in other countries. As predicted, specific configurations of temperament and character were associated with schizotypy, negative affect balance, and cognitive lapses. The “Borderline/Explosive temperament” (high Novelty Seeking, high Harm Avoidance, low Reward Dependence), “Schizotypal/Disorganized character” (low Self-directedness, low Cooperativeness, high Self-transcendence), and “Low Ego Strength/Fragile” profile (high Harm Avoidance, low Persistence, low Self-Directedness) were each strongly associated with higher stereotypy, negative affect balance (low positive affect and high negative affect), and subjective cognitive lapses compared to their contrast groups. Discussion. Multidimensional TCI profiles are strongly related to individual differences in schizotypy and self-reported regulation of affect and cognition. The Greek translation of the TCI-R is psychometrically sound and useful for clinical assessment and research

Translation and cultural validation of the Lequesne's algofunctional questionnaire for osteoarthritis of knee and hip for portuguese language

OBJECTIVE: translation, validation and cultural adaptation of the algofunctional index of Lequesne for the Portuguese language. PATIENTS AND METHODS: the original questionnaire, published in English, was translated by three English professors, and after back translated by others three professors. Four physiotherapists had congregated and comparing the translations, they had elaborated the first version. This was applied to 11 patients with diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA) of knees and/or hips, and this version was recognized fully by the patients, who had not reported understanding problems. This version, considered as definitive, was them applied to others 73 patients in the following form: a time for observer 1 (A1), in the same day for observer 2 (A2) and one week later for observer 1 or 2 (A3). Jointly it was collected data on age, sex and applied questionnaire Westerm Ontario and McMaster Universities WOMAC in its version validated for Portuguese language. RESULTS: for osteoarthritis of knees, the patients of the pre-test (10 of 11 evaluated) had average age of 63 years (DP=9.3) and 2 were men. Its average grade for the index of Lequesne was of 14.9 (DP=5.1). The patients, evaluated with the definitive version, in number of 42, had in average 67.5 years (DP=8.7), 5 were men. Its average for the index of Lequesne was for A1=11.9 (DP=5.0), for A2=12.1 (DP=6.4) and A3=11.3 (DP=7.9). The intraclass correlation between A1 and A2 was of 0.99 and between A1 and A3 was of 0,99. The Pearson coefficient between A1 and WOMAC pain was of 0.800, WOMAC stiffness was of 0.640 and WOMAC function was 0.828, all with statistical significance. For osteoarthritis of hips, the patients of the pre-test (3 of the 11 evaluated) had average age of 67 years (DP=9.18) and were all women. Its average grade for the index of Lequesne was of 11.2 (DP=5.86). The patients, evaluated with the definitive version, in number of 37, had in average 66.9 years (DP=9.01), 8 were men. Its average for the index of Lequesne was for A1=12.5 (DP=5.6) for A2=12,5 (DP=5.7) and A3=14.1 (DP=6.3). The intraclass correlation between A1 and A2 was of 0.99 and between A1 and A3 was of 0.98. The coefficient of Pearson between A1 and WOMAC pain was of 0.759, WOMAC rigidity was of 0.659 and WOMAC function was 0.851, all also with statistical significance. CONCLUSION: the version for the Portuguese language (Brazil) of the algofunctional index of Lequesne, for evaluation of osteoarthritis of knees and hips is validated for use in Brazilian population.OBJETIVO: tradução, validação e adaptação cultural do índice algofuncional de Lequesne para a língua portuguesa. PACIENTES E MÉTODOS: o questionário original, publicado em língua inglesa, foi traduzido por três professores de inglês, e após, retraduzidos por outros três professores. Quatro fisioterapeutas se reuniram e, comparando as traduções, elaboraram a primeira versão. Esta foi aplicada a 11 pacientes com diagnóstico de osteoartrite de joelhos e/ou quadris, e esta versão foi reconhecida plenamente pelos pacientes, que não relataram problemas de compreensão. Passou-se, então, a aplicar esta versão, considerada como definitiva, a outros 73 pacientes da seguinte forma: uma vez pelo observador 1 (A1), no mesmo dia pelo observador 2 (A2) e uma semana mais tarde pelo observador 1 ou 2 (A3). Conjuntamente, colheu-se dados sobre idade e sexo, e aplicou-se o questionário Westerm Ontário and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) em sua versão validada para língua portuguesa. RESULTADOS: para osteoartrite de joelhos, os pacientes do pré-teste (10 de 11 avaliados) tinham idade média de 63 anos (DP=9,3) e dois eram homens. Sua nota média para o índice de Lequesne foi de 14,9 (DP=5,1). Os pacientes, avaliados com a versão definitiva, em número de 42, tinham em média 67,5 anos (DP=8,7), cinco eram homens. Sua média para o índice de Lequesne foi para A1=11,9 (DP=5,0), para A2=12,1 (DP=6,4) e A3=11,3 (DP=7,9). A correlação intraclasse entre A1 e A2 foi de 0,99 e entre A1 e A3 foi de 0,99. O coeficiente de Pearson entre A1 e WOMAC dor foi de 0,800, WOMAC rigidez foi de 0,640 e WOMAC função foi 0,828, todas estatisticamente significantes. Para osteoartrite de quadris, os pacientes do pré-teste (3 dos 11 avaliados) tinham idade média de 67 anos (DP=9,18) e todos eram mulheres. Sua nota média para o índice de Lequesne foi de 11,2 (DP=5,86). Os pacientes, avaliados com a versão definitiva, em número de 37, tinham em média 66,9 anos (DP=9,01), 8 eram homens. Sua média para o índice de Lequesne foi para A1=12,5 (DP=5,6), para A2=12,5 (DP=5,7) e A3=14,1 (DP=6,3). A correlação intraclasse entre A1 e A2 foi de 0,99 e entre A1 e A3 foi de 0,98. O coeficiente de Pearson entre A1 e WOMAC dor foi de 0,759, WOMAC rigidez foi de 0,659 e WOMAC função foi 0,851, todas também estatisticamente significantes. CONCLUSÃO: a versão em língua portuguesa (Brasil) do índice algofuncional de Lequesne, para avaliação de osteoartrite de joelhos e quadris está validada para uso em população brasileira.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)Centro Universitário das Faculdades Metropolitanas UnidasUNIFESP, EPMSciEL

Occurrence of toxic cyanobacterial blooms in Rio de la Plata Estuary, Argentina: field study and data analysis

Water samples were collected during 3 years (20042007) at three sampling sites in the Rio de la Plata estuary. Thirteen biological, physical, and chemical parameters were determined on the water samples. The presence of microcystin-LR in the reservoir samples, and also in domestic water samples, was confirmed and quantified. Microcystin-LR concentration ranged between 0.02 and 8.6µg.L -1. Principal components analysis was used to identify the factors promoting cyanobacteria growth. The proliferation of cyanobacteria was accompanied by the presence of high total and fecal coliforms bacteria (1500MNP/100mL), temperature ≥25ºC, and total phosphorus content ≥1.24mgL -1. The observed fluctuating patterns of Microcystis aeruginosa, total coliforms, and Microcystin-LR were also described by probabilistic models based on the log-normal and extreme value distributions. The sampling sites were compared in terms of the distribution parameters and the probability of observing high concentrations for Microcystis aeruginosa, total coliforms, and microcystin-LR concentration.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Biased Self-supervised learning for ASR

Self-supervised learning via masked prediction pre-training (MPPT) has shown impressive performance on a range of speech-processing tasks. This paper proposes a method to bias self-supervised learning towards a specific task. The core idea is to slightly finetune the model that is used to obtain the target sequence. This leads to better performance and a substantial increase in training speed. Furthermore, this paper proposes a variant of MPPT that allows low-footprint streaming models to be trained effectively by computing the MPPT loss on masked and unmasked frames. These approaches are evaluated for automatic speech recognition on the Librispeech corpus, where 100 hours of data served as the labelled data and 860 hours as the unlabelled data. The biased training outperforms the unbiased training by 15.5% after 250k updates and 23.8% after 100k updates on test-other. For the streaming models, the pre-training approach yields a reduction in word error rate of 44.1%.Comment: Submitted to ICASSP 202

Visualization of positive and negative sense viral RNA for probing the mechanism of direct-acting antivirals against hepatitis C virus

RNA viruses are highly successful pathogens and are the causative agents for many important diseases. To fully understand the replication of these viruses it is necessary to address the roles of both positive-strand RNA ((+)RNA) and negative-strand RNA ((-)RNA), and their interplay with viral and host proteins. Here we used branched DNA (bDNA) fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to stain both the abundant (+)RNA and the far less abundant (-)RNA in both hepatitis C virus (HCV)- and Zika virus-infected cells, and combined these analyses with visualization of viral proteins through confocal imaging. We were able to phenotypically examine HCV-infected cells in the presence of uninfected cells and revealed the effect of direct-acting antivirals on HCV (+)RNA, (-)RNA, and protein, within hours of commencing treatment. Herein, we demonstrate that bDNA FISH is a powerful tool for the study of RNA viruses that can provide insights into drug efficacy and mechanism of action

Hematopoietic chimerism after allogeneic stem cell transplantation: a comparison of quantitative analysis by automated DNA sizing and fluorescent in situ hybridization

BACKGROUND: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is performed mainly in patients with high-risk or advanced hematologic malignancies and congenital or acquired aplastic anemias. In the context of the significant risk of graft failure after allo-HSCT from alternative donors and the risk of relapse in recipients transplanted for malignancy, the precise monitoring of posttransplant hematopoietic chimerism is of utmost interest. Useful molecular methods for chimerism quantification after allogeneic transplantation, aimed at distinguishing precisely between donor's and recipient's cells, are PCR-based analyses of polymorphic DNA markers. Such analyses can be performed regardless of donor's and recipient's sex. Additionally, in patients after sex-mismatched allo-HSCT, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) can be applied. METHODS: We compared different techniques for analysis of posttransplant chimerism, namely FISH and PCR-based molecular methods with automated detection of fluorescent products in an ALFExpress DNA Sequencer (Pharmacia) or ABI 310 Genetic Analyzer (PE). We used Spearman correlation test. RESULTS: We have found high correlation between results obtained from the PCR/ALF Express and PCR/ABI 310 Genetic Analyzer. Lower, but still positive correlations were found between results of FISH technique and results obtained using automated DNA sizing technology. CONCLUSIONS: All the methods applied enable a rapid and accurate detection of post-HSCT chimerism

Distribuição dos genótipos do vírus GB-C (HGV) em indivíduos da cidade de São Paulo, Brasil

Há na literatura vários estudos filogenéticos e de distribuição de genótipos do chamado "Vírus GB-C" ou da "Hepatite G", mais conhecido pela dupla sigla "GBV-C/HGV". Ocorre que, em sua grande maioria, estas pesquisas foram realizadas com amostras de grupos ligados epidemiologicamente e não com indivíduos representativos da população geral. O presente estudo é uma continuação do primeiro trabalho no Brasil feito com este tipo de amostragem. Trata-se de análise filogenética e distribuição genotípica do GBV-C/HGV a partir de amostras isoladas dentre mais de 1.000 indivíduos da cidade de São Paulo. Para tanto, um fragmento de 728 pares de base da região 5' não-codificadora (5´NCR) do genoma viral, de 24 amostras, foi sequenciado e submetido à analise filogenética. Foram identificados os genótipos 1, 2a e 2b nas respectivas freqüências: 8,3% (2/24), 50% (12/24) e 41,7% (10/24). Concluindo, São Paulo apresenta uma distribuição de genótipos semelhante à publicada para outros estados e regiões do Brasil, endossando a idéia de que os tipos 1 e 2 teriam vindo com os africanos e europeus, respectivamente, e portanto estariam na população do país desde a sua formação.There has been several studies worldwide on phylogenetics and genotype distribution of the GB-virus C / Hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV). However, in their great majority, those investigations were based on some epidemiologically linked group, rather than on a representative sampling of the general population. The present is a continuation of the first study in Brazil with such a population; it addresses the GBV-C/HGV phylogenetics and genotype distribution based on samples identified among more than 1,000 individuals of the city of São Paulo. For this purpose, a 728 bp fragment of the 5´non-coding region (5´NCR) of the viral genome, from 24 isolates, was sequenced and subjected to phylogenetic analysis. Genotypes 1, 2a and 2b were found at 8.3% (2/24), 50% (12/24) and 41.7% (10/24), respectively. In conclusion São Paulo displays a genotype distribution similar to the published data for other States and Regions of Brazil, endorsing the notion that types 1 and 2 would have entered the country with African and European people, respectively, since its earliest formation

Age constraints on the Paleozoic Yaguarí-Buena Vista succession from Uruguay: paleomagnetic and paleontologic information

The Yaguarí and the Buena Vista formations from Uruguay are historically correlated to the Brazilian Rio do Rasto and Sanga do Cabral formations, respectively, as they have some lithostratigraphic similarities, indicating a Permo-Triassic or even Triassic age of the Yaguarí-Buena Vista succession. However, they differ in the fossil indexes that characterize the faunistic communities present in both countries. A paleomagnetic work was carried out on some sections of the Buena Vista and the Yaguarí formations, as well as on some layers of bentonites, underlying the Buena Vista sediments. The alternating field and thermal demagnetization procedures revealed both normal and reversed magnetization components, but the samples showed evidence of secondary magnetic minerals and possibly remagnetizations. The calculated paleomagnetic pole for the Yaguarí-Buena Vista Formation plots near to the poles for the Choiyoi magmatism that is believed to be responsible for the bentonite accumulation, it is also in agreement with other Permian paleomagnetic poles for South America. Based on the paleomagnetic results, the available radiometric data for the bentonites, and the fossiliferous content, a Late Permian (Lopingian) age is assigned to the Yaguarí-Buena Vista rocks