6,927 research outputs found
L'emprenedoria femenina i la immigració a Osona. El suport dels serveis municipals
En la literatura sobre creació d’empreses, les
dones empresàries són considerades un re·
servori de desenvolupament econòmic i un
model de gestió empresarial alternatiu. D’al·
tra banda, els immigrants posseeixen un fort
esperit emprenedor. El paper de les adminis·
tracions locals per donar suport a aquests col·
lectius en la creació d’empreses és rellevant.
L’intens procés migratori viscut a Osona en
els darrers anys mereix una anàlisi des de
la perspectiva de l’emprenedoria de gènere.
Aquest estudi fa una comparació de les em·
presàries autòctones i immigrades de la co·
marca, així com de les polítiques de suport
realitzades pels ajuntaments.In the entrepreneurship literature, female
entrepreneurs are considered a reservoir
of economic development and an alternative
management model. By other side,
immigrants have a strong entrepreneurial
spirit. The role of local authorities to support
these groups in the business creation
is important. The intense migration process
lived in Osona in recent years deserves
an analysis from the perspective of gender
entrepreneurship. This study provides a
comparison of the native and immigrant
women entrepreneurs in the county, as
well as supporting policies carried out by
the councils
Kinetic study of tire carbon black and biomass soot steam activation used for the removal of phenol and chlorine from drinking water
This study aims to demonstrate a novel method for removing toxic chemicals using soot produced from wood and herbaceous biomass pyrolyzed in a drop tube reactor and tire pyrolytic carbon black. In order to improve the economic performance and reliability of entrained flow gasification, biomass soot has the potential to be captured, activated and further used as a sorbent to remove a broad range of pollutants from wastewater. In recent years, the disposal of waste tires has become an important issue. The liquid hydrocarbons and solid char residue from thermal conversion of waste tires have potential to be used as environmentally benign fuel and activated carbon. In the present work, the influence of ash content, nanostructure, particle size, and porosity on the filter efficiency of steam activated carbon materials was studied. It has been shown for the first time that steam activated soot and carbon black can remove phenol and chloride with the filter efficiencies as high as 95 %. The correlation of the filter efficiency to material properties showed that the presence of alkali and steam activation time were the key parameters affecting filter efficiencies. Kinetic parameters for the steam activation of tire pyrolytic carbon black and biomass soot have been determined by thermogravimetric analysis using steam as an activation agent. The feedstock for the soot production, activation temperatures and residence time were varied. The results showed that the rate of steam activation is 10 times faster than the activation at lower temperature. This study demonstrated that the steam activation process is suitable to prepare activated soot with the high surface area at the short residence time and at temperatures below 800°C. Reaction evolution has successfully been modelled, including the maximum reaction rate obtained in experimental results. Moreover, intrinsic kinetic parameters of the activation reaction order, activation energy and pre-exponential factor – were calculated
Student teachers’ preconceptions of programming as a content in the subject technology
In many countries, student teachers are not adequately prepared to teach programming in technology education once they have completed their training. There is a corresponding inadequacy of research regarding pre-service programming education in technology, although in recent years research in this area has increased. There is a lack of research specifically regarding student teachers’ experiences and development of knowledge during programming sessions in their teacher education. A knowledge important for developing competences needed for teaching in technology.
This article presents a study with the aim of describing student teachers’ preconceptions about teaching programming in technology.The study uses a phenomenographic approach investigating eight student teachers’ experiences after a five-week technology course preparing for primary education, grades 4-6 (teaching pupils aged 10-12). Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with student teachers from two different higher education institutions in Sweden. From the first step of the analysis, three tentative categories have been obtained, describing student teachers’ experiences as: 1) an understanding of a language and/or a tool, 2) an understanding and use of language or tool to solve technological problems, and as 3) a way of understanding and describing a technological environment.
The results of the study will contribute to new approaches on how to vary and design the teaching of programming in technology for student teachers to develop skills that are important for their future profession
Fetal heart rate changes on the cardiotocograph trace secondary to maternal COVID-19 infection
Elsevier grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related
research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this
research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other
publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights
for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means
with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are
granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre
remains activeTo determine the cardiotocograph (CTG) changes in women with symptomatic COVID-19
infection.
Study design: 12 anonymised CTG traces from 2 hospitals in Spain were retrospectively analysed by 2
independent assessors. CTG parameters were studied based on fetal pathophysiological responses to
inflammation and hypoxia that would be expected based on the pathogenesis of COVID-19 patients.
Correlation was made with perinatal outcomes (Apgar score at 5 min and umbilical cord pH).
Results: All fetuses showed an increased baseline FHR > 10 percent compared to the initial recording, in
addition to absence of accelerations. 10 out of 12 CTG traces (83.3 percent) demonstrated late or
prolonged decelerations and 7 out of 12 fetuses (58.3 percent) showed absence of cycling. Not a single
case of sinusoidal pattern was observed. ZigZag pattern was found in 4 CTG traces (33 percent). Excessive
uterine activity was observed in all CTG traces where uterine activity was monitored (10 out of 12). Apgar
scores at 5 min were normal (>7) and absence of metabolic acidosis was found in the umbilical cord
arterial pH (pH > 7.0) in the cases that were available (11 and 9, respectively).
Conclusion: Fetuses of COVID-19 patients showed a raised baseline FHR (>10 percent), loss of
accelerations, late decelerations, ZigZag pattern and absence of cycling probably due to the effects of
maternal pyrexia, maternal inflammatory response and the “cytokine storm”. However, the perinatal
outcomes appear to be favourable. Therefore, healthcare providers should optimise the maternal
environment first to rectify the reactive CTG changes instead of performing an urgent operative
interventio
Variation in the flowering time orthologs BrFLC and BrSOC1 in a natural population of Brassica rapa.
Understanding the genetic basis of natural phenotypic variation is of great importance, particularly since selection can act on this variation to cause evolution. We examined expression and allelic variation in candidate flowering time loci in Brassica rapa plants derived from a natural population and showing a broad range in the timing of first flowering. The loci of interest were orthologs of the Arabidopsis genes FLC and SOC1 (BrFLC and BrSOC1, respectively), which in Arabidopsis play a central role in the flowering time regulatory network, with FLC repressing and SOC1 promoting flowering. In B. rapa, there are four copies of FLC and three of SOC1. Plants were grown in controlled conditions in the lab. Comparisons were made between plants that flowered the earliest and latest, with the difference in average flowering time between these groups ∼30 days. As expected, we found that total expression of BrSOC1 paralogs was significantly greater in early than in late flowering plants. Paralog-specific primers showed that expression was greater in early flowering plants in the BrSOC1 paralogs Br004928, Br00393 and Br009324, although the difference was not significant in Br009324. Thus expression of at least 2 of the 3 BrSOC1 orthologs is consistent with their predicted role in flowering time in this natural population. Sequences of the promoter regions of the BrSOC1 orthologs were variable, but there was no association between allelic variation at these loci and flowering time variation. For the BrFLC orthologs, expression varied over time, but did not differ between the early and late flowering plants. The coding regions, promoter regions and introns of these genes were generally invariant. Thus the BrFLC orthologs do not appear to influence flowering time in this population. Overall, the results suggest that even for a trait like flowering time that is controlled by a very well described genetic regulatory network, understanding the underlying genetic basis of natural variation in such a quantitative trait is challenging
Intermittent flushing improves cannula patency compared to continuous infusion for peripherally inserted venous catheters in newborns: results from a prospective observational study
Aims: Peripheral cannulas in newborns are commonly used for intravenous treatment. However sustained maintenance of cannula patency is often difficult to achieve in this age group. This study compares the duration for which cannula patency can be maintained in newborns under continuous infusion, or an intermittent flushing regimen, with normal saline. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted during a 12-month period. All newborns admitted to the 16-bed intermediate care unit, who required intravenous treatment, received either continuous peripheral infusion with 0.9% saline at an infusion rate of 2 mL/h or an intravenous cannula, which was flushed with 1 mL of 0.9% saline at least once every 24 h. Results: A total of 53 patients with 86 cannulas were included. Twenty-five (47%) patients received 41 continuous infusions. The intermittent flushing group consisted of 28 (53%) patients with 45 cannulas administered. The cannula patency was significantly longer in the intermittent flushing group (mean 62.1 vs. 92.8 h, P=0.01). The patient's underlying disease and the cannula insertion site were not related with the duration of the cannula patency. Conclusions: Our study shows that intermittent cannula flushing is associated with improved cannula patency for peripherally inserted venous catheters in newborn
Identification of N-terminal protein acetylation and arginine methylation of the voltage-gated sodium channel in end-stage heart failure human heart
The α subunit of the cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel, Naᵥ1.5, provides the rapid sodium inward current that initiates cardiomyocyte action potentials. Here, we analyzed for the first time the post-translational modifications of Naᵥ1.5 purified from end-stage heart failure human cardiac tissue. We identified R526 methylation as the major post-translational modification of any Naᵥ1.5 arginine or lysine residue. Unexpectedly, we found that the N terminus of Naᵥ1.5 was: 1) devoid of the initiation methionine, and 2) acetylated at the resulting initial alanine residue. This is the first evidence for N-terminal acetylation in any member of the voltage-gated ion channel superfamily. Our results open the door to explore Naᵥ1.5 N-terminal acetylation and arginine methylation levels as drivers or markers of end-stage heart failure
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