2,921 research outputs found

    Intersection between class and gender and its effect on the quality of employment in Chile

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    Indexación: Web of Science; Scopus.En este artículo se analiza el efecto de la intersección entre clase y género sobre la calidad del empleo en Chile. La medida de posición de clase utilizada está basada en la propuesta de Erik O. Wright y la calidad del empleo en una medida multidimensional, que incluye un índice de condiciones objetivas de empleo y dos índices de condiciones subjetivas (motivación en el trabajo y percepción del control sobre el proceso de trabajo). Los resultados demuestran que la clase y el género determinan diferencias significativas en la calidad objetiva y subjetiva del empleo. Sin embargo, los datos también indican que el género (particularmente, el hecho de ser mujer) no actúa necesariamente como “amplificador” de las desigualdades de clase observadas en el mercado laboral. A partir de esto, al final del artículo se plantean algunas reflexiones sobre cómo opera la intersección entre clase y género en el mercado laboral chileno.This study explores the impact of the intersection between class and gender on the quality of employment in Chile. The method used to measure social class position is based on the work of Erik O. Wright, while, for the quality of employment, a multidimensional measurement was used, including one index for objective working conditions and two indices for subjective ones (motivation on the job and the perception of control over work processes). The results demonstrate that class and gender give rise to signifcant differences in objective and subjective job quality. However, the data also indicate that gender (more specifcally, the fact of being female) does not necessarily amplify the class-based inequalities observed in the labour market. Drawing on these fndings, a number of thoughts about how the class/gender intersection operates in the Chilean labour market are shared in the fnal section of this studyhttp://hdl.handle.net/11362/4079

    Search and characterization of viral antigens able to stimulate a protective immune response against CMV infection for vaccine design

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    Motivation: Despite improvements in detection and treatment, human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the main cause of morbi-mortality in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. Several efforts have been made to develop a vaccine to prevent CMV infection. However, no vaccine had been licenced to date. Efforts are necessary to identify antigens able to stimulate an immune response to protect against CMV infection.Methods: We used serum (from SOT recipients with previous CMV infection and neutralizing antibody titers >480) as primary antibody to identify proteins from CMV-infected cell lysates, not recognized by the serum from the same patient with no neutralizing antibodies or in the mock-infected lysate. The identified bands were sequenced by mass spectrometry. The gene of the identified candidates was amplified by PCR using specific primers and cloned into the expression plasmids PTYB21 (fused to intein tail to purify the recombinant protein) and into pCDNA plasmid (for DNA vaccine). The PTYB21 construct was transformed into the E. coli BL21 Rosetta strain for protein expression. Protein purification was performed using the IMPACT kit (BioLabs) using a chitin affinity column. The pcDNA construct was transformed into the E. coli TOP-10 strain. All constructs were sequenced. Protein antigenicity was analyzed using VAxiJen informatic tool (threshold 0.4).Results: We identified three proteins with 135, 70 and 50 kDa approximately. The 48 kDa candidate predicted to be from the tegument and with an antigenicity score of 0.520 was selected. A 1200pb band corresponding to the predicted size of the gene was amplified. Due to difficulties of blunt ligations we introduced a dephosphorylation step of the insert before ligation. We obtained 3 positive clones with the following pattern: a band of 1280 bp corresponding to the insert and a 7514 bp for the PTYB21 plasmid and 5400 bp for the pCDNA plasmid. Sequencing of positive clones showed a 100% homology. The 48 kDa protein had the highest expression using 0.5 mM IPTG for 6 hours, and was isolated in the insoluble fraction. We are in the process of optimizing the conditions for protein purification.Conclusions:The use of patient sera is an optimal approach to identify proteins that induce an specific immune response against CMV that may be candidates for vaccine design. The process for protein purification must be optimized for each candidate since depends on multiple factors such as size and solubility

    Applications of Direct Injection Soft Chemical Ionisation-Mass Spectrometry for the Detection of Pre-blast Smokeless Powder Organic Additives

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    Analysis of smokeless powders is of interest from forensics and security perspectives. This article reports the detection of smokeless powder organic additives (in their pre-detonation condition), namely the stabiliser diphenylamine and its derivatives 2-nitrodiphenylamine and 4-nitrodiphenylamine, and the additives (used both as stabilisers and plasticisers) methyl centralite and ethyl centralite, by means of swab sampling followed by thermal desorption and direct injection soft chemical ionisation-mass spectrometry. Investigations on the product ions resulting from the reactions of the reagent ions H3O+ and O2+ with additives as a function of reduced electric field are reported. The method was comprehensively evaluated in terms of linearity, sensitivity and precision. For H3O+, the limits of detection (LoD) are in the range of 41-88 pg of additive, for which the accuracy varied between 1.5 and 3.2%, precision varied between 3.7 and 7.3% and linearity showed R20.9991. For O2+, LoD are in the range of 72 to 1.4 ng, with an accuracy of between 2.8 and 4.9% and a precision between 4.5 and 8.6% and R20.9914. The validated methodology was applied to the analysis of commercial pre-blast gun powders from different manufacturers.(VLID)4826148Accepted versio

    Inclusive Dielectron Production in Ar+KCl Collisions at 1.76 AGeV studied with HADES

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    Results of the HADES measurement of inclusive dielectron production in Ar+KCl collisions at a kinetic beam energy of 1.76 AGeV are presented. For the first time, high mass resolution spectroscopy was performed. The invariant mass spectrum of dielectrons is compared with predictions of UrQMD and HSD transport codes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures - To appear in the conference proceedings for Quark Matter 2009, March 30 - April 4, Knoxville, Tennesse

    Future perspectives at SIS-100 with HADES-at-FAIR

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    Currently, the HADES spectrometer undergoes un upgrade program to be prepared for measurements at the upcoming SIS-100 synchrotron at FAIR. We describe the current status of the HADES di-electron measurements at the SIS-18 and our future plans for SIS-100.Comment: Invited contribution presented at the XLVII International Winter Meeting on Nuclear Physics, Bormio (Italy), Jan. 26-30, 200

    Myliobatis freminvillii, bullnose eagle ray

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    The Bullnose Eagle Ray (Myliobatis freminvillii) is a medium-sized (to 106 cm disc width) demersal coastal eagle ray that occurs in the Northwest, Western Central, and Southwest Atlantic Oceans from Massachussetts, USA to the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico and from Venezuela to Buenos Aires, Argentina and inhabits continental shelves from the surface to a depth of 122 m. Its is captured by artisanal longlines, gillnets, beach seines and also in industrial shrimp trawls. In the Northwest Atlantic, population trend data are available from a deep-water trawl survey in the northern Gulf of Mexico that reveal steep increases in abundance over 2002-2013. There are no known threats in the Northwest and Western Central Atlantic, but in the Southwest Atlantic artisanal fisheries are intense. Further, there are largely unmanaged commercial trawl and longline fisheries in this area. This inshore eagle ray is exposed to intense and often unmanaged fishing pressure throughout the Southwest Atlantic portion of its range, and it has no refuge at depth. Due to the level of exploitation by widespread artisanal fisheries which lack adequate management, it is suspected that this species has undergone a population reduction of >80% over the past three generation lengths (44 years) in the Atlantic South American part of its range, but is stable in the Northwest and Western Central Atlantic. Overall, based on its range, with almost all threats found in the Southwest Atlantic, and the suspected low productivity of the species, the Bullnose Eagle Ray is suspected to have undergone a population reduction of 30-49% in the past three generation lengths (44 years) due to levels of exploitation, and it is assessed as Vulnerable A2bd.Fil: Carlson, J.. National Marine Fisheries Service; Estados UnidosFil: Charvet, P.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Avalos, C.. Fundacion Mundo Azul; GuatemalaFil: Blanco Parra, M. P.. Universidad de Quintana Roo; MéxicoFil: Briones Bell lloch, A.. Direccion de Regulaciones Pesqueras y Ciencias; CubaFil: Cardeñosa, D.. Florida International University; Estados UnidosFil: Chiaramonte, Gustavo Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia". Estación Hidrobiológica de Puerto Quequén (sede Quequén); ArgentinaFil: Cuevas, J.M.. Wildlife Conservation Society; Estados UnidosFil: Derrick, D.. University Fraser Simon; CanadáFil: Espinoza, E.. Direccion Parque Nacional Galapagos; EcuadorFil: Mejía Falla, P. A.. Wildlife Conservation Society; Estados UnidosFil: Morales Saldaña, J. M.. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; PanamáFil: Motta, F.. Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Naranjo Elizondo, B.. Universidad de Costa Rica; Costa RicaFil: Pacoureau, N.. University Fraser Simon; CanadáFil: Paesch, L.. Dirección Nacional de Recursos Acuáticos; UruguayFil: Perez Jiménez, J. C.. El Colegio de la Frontera del Sur; MéxicoFil: Rincon, G.. Universidade Federal Do Maranhao.; BrasilFil: Schneider, E. V. C.. Cape Eleuthera Institute; BahamasFil: Simpson, N. J.. Salvageblue; San Vicente y las GranadinasFil: Talwar, B. S.. Florida International University; Estados UnidosFil: Pollom, R.. University Fraser Simon; Canad

    Improved personalized survival prediction of patients with diffuse large B-cell Lymphoma using gene expression profiling

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    BACKGROUND: Thirty to forty percent of patients with Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) have an adverse clinical evolution. The increased understanding of DLBCL biology has shed light on the clinical evolution of this pathology, leading to the discovery of prognostic factors based on gene expression data, genomic rearrangements and mutational subgroups. Nevertheless, additional efforts are needed in order to enable survival predictions at the patient level. In this study we investigated new machine learning-based models of survival using transcriptomic and clinical data. METHODS: Gene expression profiling (GEP) of in 2 different publicly available retrospective DLBCL cohorts were analyzed. Cox regression and unsupervised clustering were performed in order to identify probes associated with overall survival on the largest cohort. Random forests were created to model survival using combinations of GEP data, COO classification and clinical information. Cross-validation was used to compare model results in the training set, and Harrel's concordance index (c-index) was used to assess model's predictability. Results were validated in an independent test set. RESULTS: Two hundred thirty-three and sixty-four patients were included in the training and test set, respectively. Initially we derived and validated a 4-gene expression clusterization that was independently associated with lower survival in 20% of patients. This pattern included the following genes: TNFRSF9, BIRC3, BCL2L1 and G3BP2. Thereafter, we applied machine-learning models to predict survival. A set of 102 genes was highly predictive of disease outcome, outperforming available clinical information and COO classification. The final best model integrated clinical information, COO classification, 4-gene-based clusterization and the expression levels of 50 individual genes (training set c-index, 0.8404, test set c-index, 0.7942). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that DLBCL survival models based on the application of machine learning algorithms to gene expression and clinical data can largely outperform other important prognostic variables such as disease stage and COO. Head-to-head comparisons with other risk stratification models are needed to compare its usefulness

    Association of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Clinical Features with European Population Genetic Substructure

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    Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with a very varied spectrum of clinical manifestations that could be partly determined by genetic factors. We aimed to determine the relationship between prevalence of 11 clinical features and age of disease onset with European population genetic substructure. Data from 1413 patients of European ancestry recruited in nine countries was tested for association with genotypes of top ancestry informative markers. This analysis was done with logistic regression between phenotypes and genotypes or principal components extracted from them. We used a genetic additive model and adjusted for gender and disease duration. Three clinical features showed association with ancestry informative markers: autoantibody production defined as immunologic disorder (P = 6.8×10(-4)), oral ulcers (P = 6.9×10(-4)) and photosensitivity (P = 0.002). Immunologic disorder was associated with genotypes more common in Southern European ancestries, whereas the opposite trend was observed for photosensitivity. Oral ulcers were specifically more common in patients of Spanish and Portuguese self-reported ancestry. These results should be taken into account in future research and suggest new hypotheses and possible underlying mechanisms to be investigated. A first hypothesis linking photosensitivity with variation in skin pigmentation is suggested

    Advances in ab-initio theory of Multiferroics. Materials and mechanisms: modelling and understanding

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    Within the broad class of multiferroics (compounds showing a coexistence of magnetism and ferroelectricity), we focus on the subclass of "improper electronic ferroelectrics", i.e. correlated materials where electronic degrees of freedom (such as spin, charge or orbital) drive ferroelectricity. In particular, in spin-induced ferroelectrics, there is not only a {\em coexistence} of the two intriguing magnetic and dipolar orders; rather, there is such an intimate link that one drives the other, suggesting a giant magnetoelectric coupling. Via first-principles approaches based on density functional theory, we review the microscopic mechanisms at the basis of multiferroicity in several compounds, ranging from transition metal oxides to organic multiferroics (MFs) to organic-inorganic hybrids (i.e. metal-organic frameworks, MOFs)Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure

    Modeling epileptogenesis and temporal lobe epilepsy in a non-human primate

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    Here we describe a new non-human primate model of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) to better investigate the cause/effect relationships of human TLE. Status epilepticus (SE) was induced in adult marmosets by pilocarpine injection (250 mg/kg; i.p.). The animals were divided in 2 groups: acute (8 h post-SE) and chronic (3 and 5 months post-SE). To manage the severity of SE, animals received diazepam 5 min after the SE onset (acute group: 2.5 or 1.25 mg/kg; i.p.; chronic group/; 1.25 mg/kg; i.p). All animals were monitored by video and electrocorticography to assess SE and subsequent spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS). To evaluate brain injury produced by SE or SRS we used argyrophil III, Nissl and neo-Timm staining techniques. Magnetic resonance image was also performed in the chronic group. We observed that pilocarpine was able to induce SE followed by SRS after a variable period of time. Prolonged SE episodes were associated with brain damage, mostly confined to the hippocampus and limbic structures. Similar to human TLE, anatomical disruption of dentate gyrus was observed after SRS. Our data suggest that pilocarpine marmoset model of epilepsy has great resemblance to human TLE, and could provide new tools to further evaluate the subtle changes associated with human epilepsy.FAPESPCNP
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