Transparency Culture & Ecclesial Responsibility: Reflections on Institutional Communications

We aim to provide a theoretical framework for enhancing the Catholic Church’s culture of transparency. We therefore define concepts of culture and transparency, stressing some of the institutional consequences due to their interaction. Finally, we apply these principles to the ecclesial institution’s fields that are attractive for the public square: the administration of temporal goods, the use of information and the dispensation of sacraments and religious teachings. Defining culture as the setting up of behavioral standards, we realize that the ones regarding transparency have been constantly raised in the last years by society, while the Church has remained stable in its long-term organizational principles. Applying a culture of transparency for the Church would therefore require to understand the dynamic of cultural change within the Church that is essentially united to the preservation of its own spiritual purposes. Also builds within itself a culture that sustains a culture of accountability.  Ecclesial institutions as any institution, builds and sustains trust through its diligent and consistent refusal to abuse the power given. The ecclesiastical institution would change its standards of transparency when it is needed to keep up with its original mission not when it is just an exigency of its cultural environment

Prioritizing multiple therapeutic targets in parallel using automated DNA-encoded library screening

Documento escrito por un elevado número de autores/as, solo se referencia el/la que aparece en primer lugar y los/as autores/as pertenecientes a la UC3M.The identification and prioritization of chemically tractable therapeutic targets is a significant challenge in the discovery of new medicines. We have developed a novel method that rapidly screens multiple proteins in parallel using DNA-encoded library technology (ELT). Initial efforts were focused on the efficient discovery of antibacterial leads against 119 targets from Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus. The success of this effort led to the hypothesis that the relative number of ELT binders alone could be used to assess the ligandability of large sets of proteins. This concept was further explored by screening 42 targets from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Active chemical series for six targets from our initial effort as well as three chemotypes for DHFR from M. tuberculosis are reported. The findings demonstrate that parallel ELT selections can be used to assess ligandability and highlight opportunities for successful lead and tool discovery

Racism in the Academe: An Ethnographic Research among Aeta (indigenous) students of a state university in the Philippines

Abstract: Access to mainstream education by the indigenous peoples can result in their social and economic empowerment. However, indigenous students' assimilation into mainstream education has been a recent phenomenon in the Philippines. Discrimination persists as one of the disturbing experiences of the indigenous students inside the school. It is one of the leading causes of school dropouts among indigenous students and a barrier to pursuing higher education. Objective: To understand the meaning of this problem and explore the experiences and coping mechanisms of the Aeta (indigenous) students at a Philippine state university towards racism in education. Methods: A qualitative ethnographic study was conducted between August and December 2018 and included two indigenous students enrolled at a state university in Pampanga, Philippines. Ethnographic interviews, informal conversations, and participant observation were conducted to gather data, which was then thematically evaluated. Results: After synthesizing the data, three categories developed: 'Ethnicity, Race, and Racism,' ‘Coping with racism, and ‘Meanings of racism.' The first category explored racism as a phenomenon linked to perceived ethnic and racial differences that cause harm to indigenous students on a physical and emotional level. The second category covered indigenous people's active and passive forms of resistance as they dealt with racism in education. The third category presented that racism is associated with a 'social problem’ as it distresses their ethnic community and interferes with their opportunity to obtain a quality education and a 'motivation' for they believe achieving the same societal status as their non-indigenous counterparts through literacy could bring empowerment to their ethnic group; thus eliminate subordination and inferiority. Conclusion: Racism in education remains a significant challenge for the Aeta students and therefore calls for the reform efforts of local agencies and other stakeholders

Quantitative Estimation of Black Carbon in the Glacier Ampay-Apurimac

The presence of light-absorbing particles, including black carbon in glaciers leads to a reduction in albedo (light reflection), leading to further melting of snow ice, increased amount of shortwave solar radiation and leads to the glacier. The objective has been to determine the variation in the temporal space of black carbon, the amount of light-absorbing particles and the decrease of albedo on the surface of the Ampay glacier. 10 snow samples were selected at various locations on the glacier during 2017. The light absorption heating method has been applied to measure light-absorbing particles, a technique that measures the temperature increase of the particle charge in a filter applying visible light that estimates the amount of light energy. The results show in terms of effective black carbon, the highest of 65,224 nanograms of black carbon per gram of water in the month of October and the minimum value of 20,941 nanograms of black carbon per gram of water in the month of February, typically associated with the rain. The energy absorbed by the light-absorbing particles in the Ampay glacier, the highest corresponds to the month of November with 8,952.92 J s/m2 and lowest in February with 2,747.26 J s/m2. In April, the amount of snow melted due to light-absorbing particles has been approximately 13.57 kg/m2. Melting has increased considerably in other months with the largest melting, with a value of 26.65 kg/m2, almost 7.0 kW/m2 of snow turned into water in the month of November. It is concluded that the technique of the Light absorption heating method is adequate because it is optimal for the achievement of the research objectives, it is economical, effective and has allowed quantifying light-absorbing particles in snow

Severe wildfire exposes remnant peat carbon stocks to increased post-fire drying

Abstract The potential of high severity wildfires to increase global terrestrial carbon emissions and exacerbate future climatic warming is of international concern. Nowhere is this more prevalent than within high latitude regions where peatlands have, over millennia, accumulated legacy carbon stocks comparable to all human CO2 emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Drying increases rates of peat decomposition and associated atmospheric and aquatic carbon emissions. The degree to which severe wildfires enhance drying under future climates and induce instability in peatland ecological communities and carbon stocks is unknown. Here we show that high burn severities increased post-fire evapotranspiration by 410% within a feather moss peatland by burning through the protective capping layer that restricts evaporative drying in response to low severity burns. High burn severities projected under future climates will therefore leave peatlands that dominate dry sub-humid regions across the boreal, on the edge of their climatic envelopes, more vulnerable to intense post-fire drying, inducing high rates of carbon loss to the atmosphere that amplify the direct combustion emissions