Brazilian Consensus on Photoprotection

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions with a large heterogeneity of climates and massive mixing of the population. Almost the entire national territory is located between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Earth axial tilt to the south certainly makes Brazil one of the countries of the world with greater extent of land in proximity to the sun. The Brazilian coastline, where most of its population lives, is more than 8,500 km long. Due to geographic characteristics and cultural trends, Brazilians are among the peoples with the highest annual exposure to the sun. Epidemiological data show a continuing increase in the incidence of nonmelanoma and melanoma skin cancers. Photoprotection can be understood as a set of measures aimed at reducing sun exposure and at preventing the development of acute and chronic actinic damage. Due to the peculiarities of Brazilian territory and culture, it would not be advisable to replicate the concepts of photoprotection from other developed countries, places with completely different climates and populations. Thus the Brazilian Society of Dermatology has developed the Brazilian Consensus on Photoprotection, the first official document on photoprotection developed in Brazil for Brazilians, with recommendations on matters involving photoprotection

Accounting: A General Commentary on an Empirical Science

Many researchers have questioned the view of accounting as a science. Some maintain that it is a service activity rather than a science, yet others entertain the view that it is an art or merely a technology. While it is true that accounting provides a service and is a technology (a methodology for recording and reporting), that fact does not prevent accounting from being a science. Based upon the structure and knowledge base of the discipline, this paper presents the case for accounting as an empirical science

Maternal Diet and Morbidity Factors Associated with Low Birth Weight in Haiti: A Case–Control Study

Objective: A matched, case–control study was conducted to examine the association between development of low birth weight (LBW) and maternal factors, including dietary intake, comorbidities, and socioeconomic factors, among women in Cap Haitien, Haiti. Design: Mothers who delivered LBW babies; defined as ≤2.5 kg, were identified by review of the medical record and matched to mothers of similar age, parity, with normal birth weight (NBW) babies. A survey was administered consisting of Women's Dietary Diversity Score (WDDS), maternal reporting of comorbidities, income, and educational level. Subjects: Women were eligible if they delivered and had newborns weighed within the last 2 years. Total study participants consisted of 32 cases and 34 controls matched for age, parity, and month of delivery. Results: Mothers who consume eggs were 78% less likely to have given birth to a LBW infant (OR 0.22 (95% CI: 0.05–0.87). Mothers with NBW babies had a nonsignificant trend towards higher WDDS. The prevalence of hypertension in mothers who were seen in the clinic at least once over the past 2 years was found to be 27%, and 78% of mothers were not aware of their diagnosis. Conclusion: Enhancing maternal nutrition during pregnancy has broad implications for reducing LBW, improving fetal health and reducing fetal predilection for chronic diseases in adulthood. Longitudinal prospective studies are needed to evaluate the selective benefit of eggs and other high-quality foods in protecting fetal growth. Efforts to improve knowledge and awareness of hypertension in Haiti should be undertaken

PIXL: Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry

Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) is a micro-focus X-ray fluorescence spectrometer mounted on the robotic arm of NASA’s Perseverance rover. PIXL will acquire high spatial resolution observations of rock and soil chemistry, rapidly analyzing the elemental chemistry of a target surface. In 10 seconds, PIXL can use its powerful 120 μm-diameter X-ray beam to analyze a single, sand-sized grain with enough sensitivity to detect major and minor rock-forming elements, as well as many trace elements. Over a period of several hours, PIXL can autonomously raster-scan an area of the rock surface and acquire a hyperspectral map comprised of several thousand individual measured points. When correlated to a visual image acquired by PIXL’s camera, these maps reveal the distribution and abundance variations of chemical elements making up the rock, tied accurately to the physical texture and structure of the rock, at a scale comparable to a 10X magnifying geological hand lens. The many thousands of spectra in these postage stamp-sized elemental maps may be analyzed individually or summed together to create a bulk rock analysis, or subsets of spectra may be summed, quantified, analyzed, and compared using PIXLISE data analysis software. This hand lens-scale view of the petrology and geochemistry of materials at the Perseverance landing site will provide a valuable link between the larger, centimeter- to meter-scale observations by Mastcam-Z, RIMFAX and Supercam, and the much smaller (micron-scale) measurements that would be made on returned samples in terrestrial laboratories.</p