Presencia de Anfíboles en mina de Vermiculita, prov. de Córdoba, Argentina

En la provincia de Córdoba, Argentina, existen minas de vermiculita en producción, cuyas principales impurezas son cuarzo y minerales del grupo de los anfíboles. Estos últimos, al ser inhaladas durante el proceso de explotación y tratamiento podrían ocasionar un efecto nocivo en la salud humana, generando enfermedades respiratorias y pulmonares tales como asbestosis o mesoteliomas. Por sus características ópticas, los anfíboles estudiados, corresponden a la serie tremolitaferroactinolita. Estos minerales pertenecen al grupo de los asbestos, en la actualidad prohibidos en todos sus usos. Uno de los aspectos importantes que surge a partir de la caracterización mineralógica es la morfología de los cristales. Está relacionada con que los hábitos asbestiformes generarían mayor incidencia nociva en la salud, que las formas prismáticas y fragmentos de clivaje, como los que presentan los anfíboles de la mina estudiada. Sin embargo muchos estudios reconocen que estos minerales al ser tratados se fracturan y modifican su morfología generando hábitos asbestiformes y astillosos en cristales que inicialmente no lo presentaban. Como objetivo de este trabajo se plantea la caracterización de los anfíboles dentro de la vermiculita, el estudio morfológico relacionado a la peligrosidad ambiental que genera y a la incidencia nociva para la salud humana.Vermiculite deposits with impurities such as quartz and amphiboles are currently in operation in the province of Córdoba (Argentina). Inhalation of amphiboles during the production and exploitation process can cause serious illnesses, including mesothelioma, asbestosis or lung cancer. These minerals were identified as tremolite–ferrocatinolite series due to their optical properties. They belong to the asbestos group which is banned for all uses. Determination of the crystals morphology is very important for the mineralogical characterization because the asbestiform habits generate greater impact on the human health than the prismatic habits and cleavage fragments. However, many studies recognize that these minerals may break and change their habits generating asbestiform morphology of crystals when they are treated. The objective of this study is to characterize amphiboles recognized as impurities in vermiculite deposits and to study the morphology related to environmental hazards and their impact on the human health

Use of multivariate analysis in the non-genetic factors assessment of Creole goats

El peso al nacimiento en caprinos es un factor que siempre se pondera en los esquemas productivos por estar positivamente correlacionado con la tasa de crecimiento, con el tamaño del adulto, con el tiempo que tardan las crías en alcanzar peso de faena y con el tipo de alimentación que reciben. El peso al nacimiento varía en las distintas razas por ser determinado genéticamente. Hay productores que llegan a cambiar la raza de cabra buscando mejores pesos al nacimiento y desarrollos más precoces. Existen, sin embargo, factores no genéticos, que influyen en el peso al nacimiento y el desarrollo inicial que pueden llevar a confundir los resultados cuando se comparan diferentes razas buscando la producción de cabritos de mejores pesos al nacimiento y desarrollos más precoces. Sexo y número de camada son dos factores no genéticos relevantes en la determinación del peso al nacimiento y ya han sido demostrados en otras razas. En cabras Criollas, además de estos, se detecta que edad de la madre, número de parto de la madre, y mes de nacimiento también influyen. Se realizó un estudio de la influencia de todas estas variables en el peso al nacimiento y desarrollo inicial en un rebaño caprino de la Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero (UNSE), en el que se pesaron crías al nacimiento y en desarrollo inicial en cinco pariciones sucesivas. Se aplicó un análisis conjunto de todas las variables o multivariado, empleándose el método de componentes principales ACP, el cual detectó relaciones muy estrechas entre las variables en los tres ejes principales: 1) edad de la madre con número de parto, 2) peso con el tamaño de la camada y 3) otras relaciones, aunque débiles entre sexo y tamaño de camada. El ACP sirvió para sintetizar la información y mejorar la eficiencia en la interpretación de resultados, concentrando a los ejemplares en base a la influencia de las variables estudiadas con sus respectivos pesos al nacimiento, siendo los grupos 2 y 3 los de mayores pesos (3,18 kg y 3.4 kg respectivamente) y los bajos pesos para los grupos 1 y 4 (2,22 kg y 2,25 kg promedio, respectivamente).In goats, birth weight is a factor that is always taken into account in the production systems since it correlates positively with growth rate, with adult size, with the time required for the offspring reach slaughter weight and with the type of food they receive. Birth weight varies in different races to be genetically determined. There are breeders who change the race of goat focusing on the better birth weight and more early development. However, there are non-genetic factors that influence on the birth weight and early development that can lead to confusing results when comparing different races to looking offspring production of better birth weight and early development. Sex and number of litter are two non genetic factors relevant in determining birth weight, that in addition already it was demonstrated in other races. In Creole goats in addition to these, we found that age of mother, calving number of the mother, and birth month also have influence. A study of the influence of these variables on birth weight and initial development in a goat herd was conducted at the Na-tional University of Santiago del Estero. In this study the offspring were weighed at birth and during early developmental conducted in five successive calving. A pooled analysis of all variables or multivariate analyzes were applied, using the method of principal component ACP, which detect very close relations between the variables in the three major axis: 1) age of mother with calving number, 2) weight with the litter size and 3) other relationships, though weak between sex and litter size. This method, ACP, helped to summarize information and improving efficiency in the interpretation of results, bringing together animals based on the influence of the variables studied and their birth weight. Thus the groups 2 and 3 they presented the higher weights (3.18 kg and 3.4 kg respectively), and groups 1 and 4, lower weights (2.22 kg and 2.25 kg average respectively).Fil: David, R. N.. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Facultad de Agronomía y Agroindustrias; ArgentinaFil: Abdala, G. C.. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Facultad de Agronomía y Agroindustrias; ArgentinaFil: Abdala, María Eugenia. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Facultad de Agronomía y Agroindustrias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lescano, J. A.. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Facultad de Agronomía y Agroindustrias; Argentin

Strengthening Mentoring in Low- and Middle-Income Countries to Advance Global Health Research: An Overview.

Mentoring is a proven path to scientific progress, but it is not a common practice in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Existing mentoring approaches and guidelines are geared toward high-income country settings, without considering in detail the differences in resources, culture, and structure of research systems of LMICs. To address this gap, we conducted five Mentoring-the-Mentor workshops in Africa, South America, and Asia, which aimed at strengthening the capacity for evidence-based, LMIC-specific institutional mentoring programs globally. The outcomes of the workshops and two follow-up working meetings are presented in this special edition of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Seven articles offer recommendations on how to tailor mentoring to the context and culture of LMICs, and provide guidance on how to implement mentoring programs. This introductory article provides both a prelude and executive summary to the seven articles, describing the motivation, cultural context and relevant background, and presenting key findings, conclusions, and recommendations

Research Ethics Training in Peru: A Case Study

With the rapidly increasing number of health care professionals seeking international research experience, comes an urgent need for enhanced capacity of host country institutional review boards (IRB) to review research proposals and ensure research activities are both ethical and relevant to the host country customs and needs. A successful combination of distance learning, interactive courses and expert course instructors has been applied in Peru since 2004 through collaborations between the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center Detachment, the University of Washington and the Department of Clinical Bioethics of the National Institutes of Health to provide training in ethical conduct of research to IRB members and researchers from Peru and other Latin American countries. All training activities were conducted under the auspices of the Peruvian National Institute of Health (INS), Ministry of Health. To date, 927 people from 12 different Latin American countries have participated in several of these training activities. In this article we describe our training model

Factors behind job preferences of Peruvian medical, nursing and midwifery students: a qualitative study focused on rural deployment

Background: Deployment of health workforce in rural areas is critical to reach universal health coverage. Students? perceptions towards practice in rural areas likely influence their later choice of a rural post. We aimed at exploring perceptions of students from health professions about career choice, job expectations, motivations and potential incentives to work in a rural area. Methods: In-depth interviews and focus groups were conducted among medical, nursing and midwifery students from universities of two Peruvian cities (Ica and Ayacucho). Themes for assessment and analysis included career choice, job expectations, motivations and incentives, according to a background theory a priori built for the study purpose. Results: Preference for urban jobs was already established at this undergraduate level. Solidarity, better income expectations, professional and personal recognition, early life experience and family models influenced career choice. Students also expressed altruism, willingness to choose a rural job after graduation and potential responsiveness to incentives for practising in rural areas, which emerged more frequent from the discourse of nursing and midwifery students and from all students of rural origin. Medical students expressed expectations to work in large urban hospitals offering higher salaries. They showed higher personal, professional and family welfare expectations. Participants consistently favoured both financial and non-financial incentives. Conclusions: Nursing and midwifery students showed a higher disposition to work in rural areas than medical doctors, which was more evident in students of rural origin. Our results may be useful to improve targeting and selection of undergraduate students, to stimulate the inclination of students to choose a rural job upon graduation and to reorient school programmes towards the production of socially committed health professionals. Policymakers may also consider using our results when planning and implementing interventions to improve rural deployment of health professionals

Presence of asbestiforms minerals in vermiculite: Province of Córdoba, Argentina

Presence of asbestos in a vermiculite mine was identified in Argentina. Vermiculite has the property of expanding itself nearly 20 times its original size when heated. This process, called exfoliation, releases asbestos fibers from the vermiculite ore into the air, where they can be inhaled by people who work in the mines or live in bordering zones. Inhalation of asbestos fibers suspended in air can result in lung diseases such as asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer

Landscape of stimulation-responsive chromatin across diverse human immune cells.

A hallmark of the immune system is the interplay among specialized cell types transitioning between resting and stimulated states. The gene regulatory landscape of this dynamic system has not been fully characterized in human cells. Here we collected assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing (ATAC-seq) and RNA sequencing data under resting and stimulated conditions for up to 32 immune cell populations. Stimulation caused widespread chromatin remodeling, including response elements shared between stimulated B and T cells. Furthermore, several autoimmune traits showed significant heritability in stimulation-responsive elements from distinct cell types, highlighting the importance of these cell states in autoimmunity. Allele-specific read mapping identified variants that alter chromatin accessibility in particular conditions, allowing us to observe evidence of function for a candidate causal variant that is undetected by existing large-scale studies in resting cells. Our results provide a resource of chromatin dynamics and highlight the need to characterize the effects of genetic variation in stimulated cells

Toward International Animal Rights

The chapter starts from the observation that while animal welfare is increasingly protected in domestic jurisdictions, animal rights are still hardly recognised, although they would serve animals better. It argues that animal rights would need to be universalised in order to deploy effects in a globalised setting. The international legal order is flexible and receptive to non-human personhood which goes with rights. Also, the historical experience with international human rights encourages the animal rights project, because it shows how similar conceptual and normative difficulties have been overcome. Animal rights would complement human rights not the least because the entrenchment of the species hierarchy as manifest in the denial of animal rights in the extreme case condones disrespect for the rights of humans themselves

Selective Whole-Genome Amplification Is a Robust Method That Enables Scalable Whole-Genome Sequencing of Plasmodium vivax from Unprocessed Clinical Samples.

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of microbial pathogens from clinical samples is a highly sensitive tool used to gain a deeper understanding of the biology, epidemiology, and drug resistance mechanisms of many infections. However, WGS of organisms which exhibit low densities in their hosts is challenging due to high levels of host genomic DNA (gDNA), which leads to very low coverage of the microbial genome. WGS of Plasmodium vivax, the most widely distributed form of malaria, is especially difficult because of low parasite densities and the lack of an ex vivo culture system. Current techniques used to enrich P. vivax DNA from clinical samples require significant resources or are not consistently effective. Here, we demonstrate that selective whole-genome amplification (SWGA) can enrich P. vivax gDNA from unprocessed human blood samples and dried blood spots for high-quality WGS, allowing genetic characterization of isolates that would otherwise have been prohibitively expensive or impossible to sequence. We achieved an average genome coverage of 24×, with up to 95% of the P. vivax core genome covered by ≥5 reads. The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) characteristics and drug resistance mutations seen were consistent with those of other P. vivax sequences from a similar region in Peru, demonstrating that SWGA produces high-quality sequences for downstream analysis. SWGA is a robust tool that will enable efficient, cost-effective WGS of P. vivax isolates from clinical samples that can be applied to other neglected microbial pathogens. IMPORTANCE: Malaria is a disease caused by Plasmodium parasites that caused 214 million symptomatic cases and 438,000 deaths in 2015. Plasmodium vivax is the most widely distributed species, causing the majority of malaria infections outside sub-Saharan Africa. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of Plasmodium parasites from clinical samples has revealed important insights into the epidemiology and mechanisms of drug resistance of malaria. However, WGS of P. vivax is challenging due to low parasite levels in humans and the lack of a routine system to culture the parasites. Selective whole-genome amplification (SWGA) preferentially amplifies the genomes of pathogens from mixtures of target and host gDNA. Here, we demonstrate that SWGA is a simple, robust method that can be used to enrich P. vivax genomic DNA (gDNA) from unprocessed human blood samples and dried blood spots for cost-effective, high-quality WGS