From language maintenance to bilingual parenting: Negotiating behavior and language choice at the dinner table in binational-bilingual families

This article contributes to the study of language maintenance as an everyday activity in binational-bilingual families. By embedding the question of language maintenance into a language socialization framework and adopting a conversation-analytic approach to language alternation, three excerpts of mealtime interactions in Russian-French speaking families are analyzed. Their analysis shows that in bilingual families situations focusing on the interactional definition and negotiation of children's behavior simultaneously involve the negotiation of language choice. It reveals how parents in binational-bilingual families accomplish bilingual (language) socialization in daily practice while dealing with the complex task of combining educational goals with language maintenanc

Typhoid fever imported from Mexico to Switzerland. Studies on R factor mediated chloramphenicol resistance

A case of typhoid fever caused by Salmonella typhi occurred in Geneva. The patient was probably infected in Mexico City. The strain isolated from this patient corresponds with the description of the Mexican S. typhi strain, since it is a degraded Vi-strain resistant to chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulphonamides and tetracyclines. It carried an fi− transferable R factor with a CSSuT resistance pattern. It can be accepted that this case forms part of the Mexican outbreak of chloramphenicol-resistant typhoid fever which has already been observed in visitors to Mexico from England and the United State

Zeus

Treball desenvolupat dins el marc del programa 'European Project Semester'.Nowadays, being a smart city is becoming more important. It is because of increasing energy use and the costs that come with it, that people all over the world are looking for better methods to decrease the environmental effects and costs. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to find out if there is a better way to use the streetlights in Vilanova i la Geltrú in order to go forward in the direction of being a smart city. Vilanova i la Geltrú currently has 10.800 Streetlights, and the energy consumption for these street lights cost a huge amount of money each year. This number can be decreased by finding new ways. This will be done, by further developing a street light called the ‘Urban Node’. This further development will be based on a previous research done. This Urban Node will be a replacement of the current street light. It includes components like led lights, solar panel and a wind turbine. It generates energy by using wind turbines and a solar panel instead of the current regular street light. In this research a certain methodology has been used, which includes expert interviews, an observation and desk research. As a result of using these methods, there has been made a simulation of a renewed streetlight system mostly revolving around the new product adding to the current system, which is the Urban Node. Concluding the results it has been found that implementing the Urban Node is more cost and energy efficient than the current street light system that has been used within Vilanova i la Geltrù. Furthermore, in this report there will be explained what the Urban Node exactly is, how it is structured, where it should be implemented, how it should be implemented and how it is more cost and energy efficient than the current system

Klebsiella pneumonia strains moderately resistant to ampicillin and carbenicillin: characterization of a new β-lactamase

Klebsiella pneumoniae strain 11-03, moderately resistant to ampicillin and carbenicillin, produces one constitutive β-lactamase with an isoelectric point of 7.10 and a molecular weight of 20,000±500. The enzymatic activity is directed primarily against the penicillins, ampicillin being the best substrate. Some cephalosporins are also hydrolyzed to some extent but the affinity of the enzyme for these antibiotics is low (high Km values). It has not been possible to determine whether the biogenesis of this β-lactamase is mediated by the bacterial chromosome or by a non-transferable plasmid. This β-lactamase appears to be different, on the basis of isoelectricfocusing, from an enzyme produced by the K pneumoniae strain GN422 (Sawal et al, 1973), but similar to the latter in several propertie

Endovascular treatment of visceral artery aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms with stent-graft: Analysis of immediate and long-term results

The aim of this study is to analyze the safety and efficacy of stent-graft endovascular treatment for visceral artery aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms. METHODS: Multicentric retrospective series of patients with visceral aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms treated by means of stent graft. The following variables were analyzed: Age, sex, type of lesion (aneurysms/pseudoaneurysms), localization, rate of success, intraprocedural and long term complication rate (SIR classification). Follow-up was performed under clinical and radiological assessment. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients (16 men), with a mean age of 59 (range 27-79), were treated. The indication was aneurysm in 19 patients and pseudoaneurysms in 6. The localizations were: splenic artery (12), hepatic artery (5), renal artery (4), celiac trunk (3) and gastroduodenal artery (1). Successful treatment rate was 96% (24/25 patients). Intraprocedural complication rate was 12% (4% major; 8% minor). Complete occlusion was demonstrated during follow up (mean 33 months, range 6-72) in the 24 patients with technical success. Two stent migrations (2/24; 8%) and 4stent thrombosis (4/24; 16%) were detected. Mortality rate was 0%. CONCLUSION: In our study, stent-graft endovascular treatment of visceral aneurysmns and pseudoaneurysms has demonstrated to be safe and is effective in the long-term in both elective and emergent cases, with a high rate of successful treatment and a low complication rate

Limitations of Duality: Reexamining Sexual Difference in Feminist Philosophies of Nature

The attempt to rearticulate traditional conceptions of nature can be both a useful strategy and a stumbling block when it comes to feminist examinations of the continuity between the objectification of women’s bodies and the domination of nature. This paper contributes to existing debates by providing a critique of what I term the “duality view” of nature: a view stipulating that nature is primarily characterised by a stable sexual duality, and advancing that the objectification of women’s bodies arises because the specificity of “femaleness” is ignored and duality is therefore neglected. I focus, specifically, on Alison Stone’s interpretation of Luce Irigaray, insofar as the account emerging from Stone’s interpretation clearly outlines the principles that most versions of the duality view should endorse. I problematise this account by showing that it becomes inconsistent with the critique of objectification which grounds it in the first place. I conclude by advancing that, overall, a view insisting on a natural sexual duality because of normative reasons conflicts with the feminist considerations at its basis. I also suggest that while the present analysis is primarily condemnatory, it can contribute to the development of feminist philosophies of nature by fleshing out avoidable pitfalls

A NEW STRATEGY FOR MOSQUITO BIOCONTROL BASED ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS EFFECTIVENESS

Mosquitoes are insects with a worldwide geographical distribution. Several species are known to spread animal and human illnesses, such as the Zika fever, Dengue fever, and malaria. This is due to the vectorial competence of adult females that is the ability to acquire a pathogen from an infected host during a blood meal and transmit it to an uninfected host during the following meals. Several anthropic activities have favoured the diffusion of invasive mosquito species of sanitary importance to non-endemic areas raising concern due to the increasing number of outbreaks of neglected diseases in these regions. Due to the lack of vaccines and prophylaxes strategies, mosquito management is a pivotal aspect to control the spread of these diseases. Beside adult stage management, larval management is also extremely important to decrease the density of adult populations and to prevent the spread of neglected diseases. However, biorational strategies for their control are still scarce. To date, the most effective bioinsecticides targeting mosquito larvae are based on the entomopathogens Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) and Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Lsph). These products, active by ingestion, include Bti alone or in combination with Lsph and are safe for the environment while displaying a high and specific toxicity against the larvae of Culicidae. The key issues related to their use is due to Bti short residual activity after the application and to the possibility of the onset of resistance phenomena in target population. To preserve the efficacy of these formulations it is necessary to develop proper delivery systems able to protect the active ingredients maintaining their effective concentration. With these purposes we developed MosChito raft, a biodegradable floating hydrogel constituted of molecules of natural origin, namely chitosan and genipin. This product has been designed to include a Bti-based formulation to induce larval toxicity, Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells to induce phagostimulation and air bubbles to allow its flotation in water. Our results have shown the efficacy of MosChito rafts in laboratory conditions and in semi-field conditions against laboratory colonies and colonies with a genetic background comparable to that of natural populations of the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, and the common house mosquito, Culex pipiens. Differently from what stated for the Bti-based product how it is, its inclusion in MosChito raft prolongated its efficacy of at least 15 times (i.e., from two days to one month) solving one of the main issues related to its application. Beside what we expected, yeast cells inclusion did not improve the attractiveness of the hydrogel, anyhow, their role can be rethought as biofactory to produce and administrate immune-modulating double-stranded RNA molecules with the aim of weaken larval immune system while boosting the toxicity of Bti. Further studies must be carried out assessing the ecotoxicological effects of our product against off-target organisms and in field conditions. Looking at the results obtained so far, MosChito rafts could represent a valid alternative for the larval control of two highly anthropophilic mosquito species of sanitary importance at the same time in the urban context

Organizing 6, 5-Carbon nanotubes on DNA origami arrays

Carbon nanotubes1 are cylindrical carbon molecules and can be considered to be composed of one atom thick sheets of carbon called graphene. They have been at the forefront of nanochemistry due to their strength and multiple properties such as absorption, fluorescence, semiconduction, and light scattering capability. DNA Origami (DO)2 has emerged as a novel domain for molecular design, resulting in the generation of numerous one, two, and three-dimensional structures that have provided platforms for the organization of organic species and inorganic nanoparticles through simple modifications. The use of DNA Origami to control the placement of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) with precise alignment,3 purity and length would be a significant advance in controlled nanoscale organization.4 G-quadruplex (G4) secondary structures are guanine rich ssDNA sequences which fold to create square planar guanine tetrads.5 When G4 is introduced to Hemin, a (G4)/hemin-based DNA enzyme (DNAzyme) self assembles and possesses horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-mimicking catalytic properties.6 In this work, multiple approaches for the immobilization of SWCNTs at precisely designated locations on cross shaped DNA origami7 were implemented, and the results interpreted