Management of female genital mutilation / cutting-related obstetric complications: a training evaluation

Although female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a prevalent practice in Liberia, healthcare workers lack the capacity to provide adequate care for FGM/C survivors. Therefore, Liberian nurses, physician assistants, midwives and trained traditional midwives were trained in sexual, obstetric and psychosocial care for FGM/C survivors in 2019. Through questionnaires, we assessed knowledge acquisition, trainee attitudes towards FGM/C care and acceptability to implement WHO-endorsed recommendations. The questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics for quantitative data and an inductive approach for qualitative data. A total of 99 female and 34 male trainees participated. Most trainees perceived FGM/C as harmful to women''s health, as a violation of women''s rights and showed a willingness to change their clinical practice. While 82.8% (n = 74/90) perceived their role in advocating against FGM/C, 10.0% (n = 9/90) felt that they should train traditional circumcisers to practice FGM/C safely. The pre-training FGM/C knowledge test demonstrated higher scores among physician assistants (13.86 ± 3.02 points) than among nurses (12.11 ± 3.12 points) and midwives (11.75 ± 2.27 points). After the training, the mean test score increased by 1.69 points, from 12.18 (±2.91) points to 13.87 (±2.65) points. The trainings successfully increased theoretical knowledge of FGM/C-caused health effects and healthcare workers'' demonstrated willingness to implement evidence-based guidelines when providing care to FMG/C survivors

Potential Role of miRNAs in Developmental Haemostasis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an abundant class of small non-coding RNAs that are negative regulators in a crescent number of physiological and pathological processes. However, their role in haemostasis, a complex physiological process involving multitude of effectors, is just beginning to be characterized. We evaluated the changes of expression of miRNAs in livers of neonates (day one after birth) and adult mice by microarray and qRT-PCR trying to identify miRNAs that potentially may also be involved in the control of the dramatic change of hepatic haemostatic protein levels associated with this transition. Twenty one out of 41 miRNAs overexpressed in neonate mice have hepatic haemostatic mRNA as potential targets. Six of them identified by two in silico algorithms potentially bind the 3′UTR regions of F7, F9, F12, FXIIIB, PLG and SERPINC1 mRNA. Interestingly, miR-18a and miR-19b, overexpressed 5.4 and 8.2-fold respectively in neonates, have antithrombin, a key anti-coagulant with strong anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory roles, as a potential target. The levels of these two miRNAs inversely correlated with antithrombin mRNA levels during development (miR-19b: R = 0.81; p = 0.03; miR-18a: R = 0.91; p<0.001). These data suggest that miRNAs could be potential modulators of the haemostatic system involved in developmental haemostasis

Comparison of different treatments used for polycystic ovary syndrome

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a disease that currently affects many women of reproductive age. In recent years, the incidence of PCOS has increased, affecting 4% of all women worldwide, with a prevalence of 6% in Mexico. PCOS is a condition characterized by different metabolic, reproductive and hormonal disorders such as hyperandrogenism, chronic anovulation, menorrhagia or infertility. Patients commonly develop clinical alterations such as hirsutism, acne and in some cases, they become overweight or obese. Different medications and therapeutic methods from different literatures were evaluated, both pharmacological such as inositol, metformin, resveratrol, simvastatin, dapagliflozin, which showed great improvement, decreasing the levels of hyperandrogenism in patients, as well as non-pharmacological, of which significant improvements were found with a change in lifestyle, such as exercise, ketogenic diet and herbal medications such as chamomile and cinnamon, which showed a positive change in patients. It is important to make a diffusion and early diagnosis of PCOS, since in this way it will be possible to have a timely treatment, which can be individualized according to the characteristics and needs of each patient

Radon and material radiopurity assessment for the NEXT double beta decay experiment

The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC (NEXT), intended to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay using a high-pressure xenon gas TPC filled with Xe enriched in 136Xe at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain, requires ultra-low background conditions demanding an exhaustive control of material radiopurity and environmental radon levels. An extensive material screening process is underway for several years based mainly on gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background germanium detectors in Canfranc but also on mass spectrometry techniques like GDMS and ICPMS. Components from shielding, pressure vessel, electroluminescence and high voltage elements and energy and tracking readout planes have been analyzed, helping in the final design of the experiment and in the construction of the background model. The latest measurements carried out will be presented and the implication on NEXT of their results will be discussed. The commissioning of the NEW detector, as a first step towards NEXT, has started in Canfranc; in-situ measurements of airborne radon levels were taken there to optimize the system for radon mitigation and will be shown too.Comment: Proceedings of the Low Radioactivity Techniques 2015 workshop (LRT2015), Seattle, March 201

Phase I clinical trial in healthy adults of a nasal vaccine candidate containing recombinant hepatitis B surface and core antigens

SummaryBackgroundThe nasal vaccine candidate (NASVAC), comprising hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface (HBsAg) and core antigens (HBcAg), has been shown to be highly immunogenic in animal models.MethodsA phase I double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial was carried out in 19 healthy male adults with no serologic markers of immunity/infection to HBV. This study was aimed at exploring the safety and immunogenic profile of nasal co-administration of both HBV recombinant antigens. The trial was performed according to Good Clinical Practice guidelines. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 45 years and were randomly allocated to receive a mixture of 50μg HBsAg and 50μg HBcAg or 0.9% physiologic saline solution, as a placebo, via nasal spray in a five-dose schedule at 0, 7, 15, 30, and 60 days. A total volume of 0.5ml was administered in two dosages of 125μl per nostril. Adverse events were actively recorded 1h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 7 days and 30 days after each dose. Anti-HBs and anti-HBc titers were evaluated using corresponding ELISA kits at days 30 and 90.ResultsThe vaccine candidate was safe and well tolerated. Adverse reactions included sneezing (34.1%), rhinorrhea (12.2%), nasal stuffiness (9.8%), palate itching (9.8%), headache (9.8%), and general malaise (7.3%). These reactions were all self-limiting and mild in intensity. No severe or unexpected events were recorded during the trial. The vaccine elicited anti-HBc seroconversion in 100% of subjects as early as day 30 of the immunization schedule, while a seroprotective anti-HBs titer (≥10IU/l) was at a maximum at day 90 (75%). All subjects in the placebo group remained seronegative during the trial.ConclusionThe HBsAg–HBcAg vaccine candidate was safe, well tolerated and immunogenic in this phase I study in healthy adults. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of safety and immunogenicity for a nasal vaccine candidate comprising HBV antigens

VAMOS: a Pathfinder for the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

VAMOS was a prototype detector built in 2011 at an altitude of 4100m a.s.l. in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The aim of VAMOS was to finalize the design, construction techniques and data acquisition system of the HAWC observatory. HAWC is an air-shower array currently under construction at the same site of VAMOS with the purpose to study the TeV sky. The VAMOS setup included six water Cherenkov detectors and two different data acquisition systems. It was in operation between October 2011 and May 2012 with an average live time of 30%. Besides the scientific verification purposes, the eight months of data were used to obtain the results presented in this paper: the detector response to the Forbush decrease of March 2012, and the analysis of possible emission, at energies above 30 GeV, for long gamma-ray bursts GRB111016B and GRB120328B.Comment: Accepted for pubblication in Astroparticle Physics Journal (20 pages, 10 figures). Corresponding authors: A.Marinelli and D.Zaboro

Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

The Crab Nebula is the brightest TeV gamma-ray source in the sky and has been used for the past 25 years as a reference source in TeV astronomy, for calibration and verification of new TeV instruments. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), completed in early 2015, has been used to observe the Crab Nebula at high significance across nearly the full spectrum of energies to which HAWC is sensitive. HAWC is unique for its wide field-of-view, nearly 2 sr at any instant, and its high-energy reach, up to 100 TeV. HAWC's sensitivity improves with the gamma-ray energy. Above $\sim$1 TeV the sensitivity is driven by the best background rejection and angular resolution ever achieved for a wide-field ground array. We present a time-integrated analysis of the Crab using 507 live days of HAWC data from 2014 November to 2016 June. The spectrum of the Crab is fit to a function of the form $\phi(E) = \phi_0 (E/E_{0})^{-\alpha -\beta\cdot{\rm{ln}}(E/E_{0})}$. The data is well-fit with values of $\alpha=2.63\pm0.03$, $\beta=0.15\pm0.03$, and log$_{10}(\phi_0~{\rm{cm}^2}~{\rm{s}}~{\rm{TeV}})=-12.60\pm0.02$ when $E_{0}$ is fixed at 7 TeV and the fit applies between 1 and 37 TeV. Study of the systematic errors in this HAWC measurement is discussed and estimated to be $\pm$50\% in the photon flux between 1 and 37 TeV. Confirmation of the Crab flux serves to establish the HAWC instrument's sensitivity for surveys of the sky. The HAWC survey will exceed sensitivity of current-generation observatories and open a new view of 2/3 of the sky above 10 TeV.Comment: Submitted 2017/01/06 to the Astrophysical Journa

On the Sylow graph of a finite group

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11856-011-0138-xLet G be a finite group and Gp be a Sylow p-subgroup of G for a prime p in pi(G), the set of all prime divisors of the order of G. The automiser Ap(G) is defined to be the group NG(Gp)/GpCG(Gp). We define the Sylow graph gamma A(G) of the group G, with set of vertices pi(G), as follows: Two vertices p, q ¿ ¿(G) form an edge of ¿A(G) if either q ¿ ¿(Ap(G)) or p ¿ ¿(Aq(G)). The following result is obtained: Theorem: Let G be a finite almost simple group. Then the graph ¿A(G) is connected and has diameter at most 5. We also show how this result can be applied to derive information on the structure of a group from the normalizers of its Sylow subgroups.The second and third authors have been supported by Proyecto MTM2007-68010-C03-03 and Proyecto MTM2010-19938-C03-02, Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia and FEDER, Spain.Kazarin, SL.; Martínez Pastor, A.; Pérez-Ramos, M. (2011). On the Sylow graph of a finite group. Israel Journal of Mathematics. 186(1):251-271. doi:10.1007/s11856-011-0138-xS2512711861Z. Arad and D. Chillag, Finite groups containing a nilpotent Hall subgroup of even order, Houston Journal of Mathematics 7 (1981), 23–32.H. Azad, Semi-simple elements of order 3 in finite Chevalley groups, Journal of Algebra 56 (1979), 481–498.A. Ballester-Bolinches, A. Martínez-Pastor, M. C. Pedraza-Aguilera and M. D. Pérez-Ramos, On nilpotent-like fitting formations, in Groups St. Andrews 2001 in Oxford, (C. M. Campbell et al., eds.) London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series 304, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 31–38.M. Bianchi, A. Gillio Berta Mauri and P. Hauck, On finite groups with nilpotent Sylow normalizers, Archiv der Mathematik 47 (1986), 193–197.A. Borel, R. Carter, C.W. Curtis, N. Iwahori, T. A. Springer, R. Steinberg, Seminar on Algebraic Groups and Related Finite Groups, Lecture Notes of Mathematics 131 Springer, Berlin, 1970.N. Bourbaki, Éléments de mathématique: Groupes et algèbres de Lie, Chapters IV, V, VI, Hermann, Paris, 1968.R. W. Carter, Simple groups of Lie type, Wiley, London, 1972.R. W. Carter, Conjugacy classes in the Weyl group, Compositio Mathematica 25 (1972), 1–59.R. W. Carter, Finite Groups of Lie Type: Conjugacy Classes and Complex Characters, Wiley, London, 1985.A. D’Aniello, C. De Vivo and G. Giordano, On certain saturated formations of finite groups, in Proceedings Ischia Group Theory 2006, (T. Hawkes, P. Longobardy and M. Maj, eds.) World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2007, pp. 22–32.A. D’Aniello, C. De Vivo and G. Giordano, Lattice formations and Sylow normalizers: a conjecture, Atti del Seminario Matematico e Fisico dell’ Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia 55 (2007), 107–112.A. D’Aniello, C. De Vivo, G. Giordano and M. D. Pérez-Ramos, Saturated formations closed under Sylow normalizers, Communications in Algebra 33 (2005), 2801–2808.K. Doerk, T. Hawkes, Finite soluble groups, Walter De Gruyter, Berlin-New York, 1992.G. Glauberman, Prime-power factor groups of finite groups II, Mathematische Zeitschrift 117 (1970), 46–56.D. Gorenstein, R. Lyons, The local 2-structure of groups of characteristic 2 type, Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society 42, No. 276, Providence, RI, 1983.R. M. Guralnick, G. Malle and G. Navarro, Self-normalizing Sylow subgroups, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 132 (2004), 973–979.F. Menegazzo, M. C. Tamburini, A property of Sylow p-normalizers in simple groups, Quaderni del seminario Matematico di Brescia, n. 45/02 (2002).R. Steinberg, Lectures on Chevalley Groups, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 1968.E. Stensholt, An application of Steinberg’s construction of twisted groups, Pacific Journal of Mathematics 55 (1974), 595–618.E. Stensholt, Certain embeddings among finite groups of Lie type, Journal of Algebra 53 (1978), 136–187.K. Zsigmondy, Zur Theorie der Potenzreste, Monatshefte für Mathematik and Physik 3 (1892), 265–284

Constraining the pˉ/p\bar{p}/p Ratio in TeV Cosmic Rays with Observations of the Moon Shadow by HAWC

An indirect measurement of the antiproton flux in cosmic rays is possible as the particles undergo deflection by the geomagnetic field. This effect can be measured by studying the deficit in the flux, or shadow, created by the Moon as it absorbs cosmic rays that are headed towards the Earth. The shadow is displaced from the actual position of the Moon due to geomagnetic deflection, which is a function of the energy and charge of the cosmic rays. The displacement provides a natural tool for momentum/charge discrimination that can be used to study the composition of cosmic rays. Using 33 months of data comprising more than 80 billion cosmic rays measured by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, we have analyzed the Moon shadow to search for TeV antiprotons in cosmic rays. We present our first upper limits on the $\bar{p}/p$ fraction, which in the absence of any direct measurements, provide the tightest available constraints of $\sim1\%$ on the antiproton fraction for energies between 1 and 10 TeV.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by Physical Review