Desarrollo de un modelo que permita evaluar el impacto de estrategias en materia de calidad del aire, a través de escenarios de simulación

Se desarrolló una metodología que permite evaluar el impacto que las estrategias de política pública implementadas tienen sobre la calidad del aire, para lograrlo se utilizaron simulaciones de dispersión de material particulado de radio aerodinámico mayor a 10 micras, el programa elegido para realizar la prueba piloto fue el sistema MiBici Pública. Se definió la escala espacial y temporal en la que se analizaron las simulaciones con el fin de que fueran comparables con los datos sociodemográficos considerados. Las concentraciones fueron simuladas en el programa AERMOD VIEW View, eligiendo dos escenarios temporales, los meses de enero y mayo en los años 2015 y 2019, se promediaron todos los máximos obtenidos para cada receptor en cada año y posteriormente se filtraron por mes con el objetivo de tener un solo valor para cada receptor que sirviera de comparación entre los dos escenarios planteados. Se desarrollaron diferentes metodologías para la estimación de los factores de emisión tanto de fuentes fijas como de fuentes móviles, encontrando que lo mejor era estimar los de las fuentes móviles por medio de simulaciones y mediciones de las estaciones de monitoreo. La metodología utiliza un indicador de impacto que considera el potencial número de personas expuestas a una mala calidad del aire en la zona de estudio, el cual se obtiene a partir de los perfiles de concentración simulados, así como variables sociodemográficas de densidad de población, unidades económicas y tipo de transporte. Se observó que el método desarrollado resultó efectivo pues se basa en un indicador cuantitativo que elimina subjetividades en la evaluación del impacto e involucra metodologías formales de simulación atmosférica. Se encontró que el programa MiBici Pública si tienen un impacto ligeramente positivo sobre la calidad del aire porque para el mes de enero se logra pasar de dos zonas con índice impacto “Muy alto” en el año 2016 a cero zonas para el año 2019, también se encontró que para el mes de mayo aumentaron dos regiones de con un índice de impacto “Bajo” entre el año 2015 y 2019, lo que indica que dos regiones pasaron de una categoría de impacto más alta a una más baja

Green economy metrics as a promoter of sustainable development in universities. Case study: El Bosque University

The exchange that occurs in universities when they participate in international rankings is an important space to share and grow in the academic production of teachers and in the training of students. At the beginning, the sustainable social responsibility system was adhered only to the industry due to the increase in large-scale production; however, the academy has taken a voice and vote on this climate phenomenon. This is why projects aimed at sustainability have been proposed in universities that aim at a green economy. Likewise, the UI Green Metric Rankings allows higher education institutions worldwide to measure their sustainable actions in different categories on a voluntary basis.For this reason, this article presents the best practices of the University El Bosque against the different indicators that the UI Green Metric measures, such as infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transport and education. Consequently, the concept of sustainability has become a vital element for the development of programs that involve the institution in internationalization through the global recognition generated by being participants and being able to be in the range of green universities.As a conclusion of this exchange, Based on responsible production methods with the natural and social environment or Clean Modalities, a production cycle is proposed that opens the possibility of integrating with other related production systems that receive their waste as raw materials in a network, this is Symbiotic Cycle. To arrive at the approach of a symbiotic disposal of waste as inputs with other production systems in such a way as to consolidate a set of sustainable organizations that collaborate with each other and that continuously recover the value to increase efficiency.Keyword: sustainability, green economy, sustainable developmen

Propagación in-vitro de cuatro especies de orquídeas nativas de la región Cusco

El cultivo in vitro es una herramienta alternativa para la propagación de especies vegetales en forma masiva. En el presente trabajo se evaluó la germinación asimbiotica de las especies Epidendrum secundum, Rodriguezia longifolia, Bletia catenulata y Epidendrum spilatum en medio de cultivo Murashige y Skoog (M.S.) con tres suplementos orgánicos: agua de coco, pulpa de piña y pulpa de plátano. Las semillas provienen del Distrito de Pillcopata, Provincia de Paucartambo, Región Cusco. Se determinó el tiempo de germinación y su respuesta a tres medios de cultivo con los suplementos orgánicos, comparando con el medio testigo. Se estableció de manera artificial la división de la germinación en cinco etapas diferenciadas: imbibición, cambio de coloración por la transformación de protoplastidios en cloroplastos, inicio de la división celular, formación del protocormo y diferenciación de los órganos vegetativos. Este estudio demostró que el medio M.S suplementado con piña tiene una mejor respuesta a la germinación asimbiótica en las orquídeas Rodriguezia longifolia, Bletia catenulata y Epidendrum spilatum, mientras que para Epidendrum secundum el medio M.S. suplementado con plátano tiene la mejor respuesta a la germinación, de efecto menor es el medio suplementado con coco. El tiempo de germinación para Epidendrum secundum fue de 5 semanas, Bletia catenulata 8 semanas, Epidendrum spilatum 11 semanas y Rodriguezia longifolia 12 semanas. Se obtuvo un efecto positivo sobre la germinación de las semillas en medios con suplementos orgánicos

The Luminescent Properties and Atomic Structures of As-Grown and Annealed Nanostructured Silicon Rich Oxide Thin Films

Not long ago, we developed a theoretical model to describe a set of chemical reactions that can potentially occur during the process of obtaining Silicon Rich Oxide (SRO) films, an off stoichiometry material, notwithstanding the technique used to grow such films. In order to elucidate the physical chemistry properties of such material, we suggested the chemical reactions that occur during the process of growing of SRO films in particular for the case of the Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) technique in the aforementioned model. The present paper represents a step further with respect to the previous (published) work, since it is dedicated to the calculation by Density Functional Theory (DFT) of the optical and electronic properties of the as-grown and annealed SRO structures theoretically predicted on the basis of the previous work. In this work, we suggest and evaluate either some types of molecules or resulting nanostructures and we predict theoretically, by applying the DFT, the contribution that they may have to the phenomenon of luminescence (PL), which is experimentally measured in SRO films. We evaluated the optical and electronic properties of both the as-grown and the annealed structures

Contralateral asymmetry for breast cancer detection : A CADx approach

Early detection is fundamental for the effective treatment of breast cancer and the screening mammography is the most common tool used by the medical community to detect early breast cancer development. Screening mammograms include images of both breasts using two standard views, and the contralateral asymmetry per view is a key feature in detecting breast cancer. we propose a methodology to incorporate said asymmetry information into a computer-aided diagnosis system that can accurately discern between healthy subjects and subjects at risk of having breast cancer. Furthermore, we generate features that measure not only a view-wise asymmetry, but a subject-wise one. Briefly, the methodology co-registers the left and right mammograms, extracts image characteristics, fuses them into subjectwise features, and classifies subjects. In this study, 152 subjects from two independent databases, one with analog- and one with digital mammograms, were used to validate the methodology. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.738 and 0.767, and diagnostic odds ratios of 23.10 and 9.00 were achieved, respectively. In addition, the proposed method has the potential to rank subjects by their probability of having breas

Flavonoids as a Natural Treatment Against Entamoeba histolytica

Over the past 20 years, gastrointestinal infections in developing countries have been a serious health problem and are the second leading cause of morbidity among all age groups. Among pathogenic protozoans that cause diarrheal disease, the parasite Entamoeba histolytica produces amebic colitis as well as the most frequent extra-intestinal lesion, an amebic liver abscess (ALA). Usually, intestinal amebiasis and ALA are treated with synthetic chemical compounds (iodoquinol, paromomycin, diloxanide furoate, and nitroimidazoles). Metronidazole is the most common treatment for amebiasis. Although the efficacy of nitroimidazoles in killing amebas is known, the potential resistance of E. histolytica to this treatment is a concern. In addition, controversial studies have reported that metronidazole could induce mutagenic effects and cerebral toxicity. Therefore, natural and safe alternative drugs against this parasite are needed. Flavonoids are natural polyphenolic compounds. Flavonoids depend on malonyl-CoA and phenylalanine to be synthesized. Several flavonoids have anti-oxidant and anti-microbial properties. Since the 1990s, several works have focused on the identification and purification of different flavonoids with amebicidal effects, such as, -(-)epicatechin, kaempferol, and quercetin. In this review, we investigated the effects of flavonoids that have potential amebicidal activity and that can be used as complementary and/or specific therapeutic strategies against E. histolytica trophozoites. Interestingly, it was found that these natural compounds can induce morphological changes in the amebas, such as chromatin condensation and cytoskeletal protein re-organization, as well as the upregulation and downregulation of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, glyceraldehyde-phosphate dehydrogenase, and pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (enzymes of the glycolytic pathway). Although the specific molecular targets, bioavailability, route of administration, and doses of some of these natural compounds need to be determined, flavonoids represent a very promising and innocuous strategy that should be considered for use against E. histolytica in the era of microbial drug resistance

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research