Canine Trypanosoma cruzi infection in the Bolivian Chaco

A cross-sectional study on Trypanosoma cruzi was carried out in 2013 to evaluate the role of dogs as possible source of infection for humans in two rural communities of the highly endemic Bolivian Chaco (Bartolo, Chuquisaca Department, n = 57 dogs; and Ivamirapinta, Santa Cruz Department, n = 48 dogs). Giemsa-stained thick and thin smears, rapid immunochromatographic test (ICT) (Chagas Quick test, Cypress Diagnostic, Belgium) and polymerase chain reaction for T. cruzi on dried blood spots were performed. All smears proved negative by microscopic examination, whereas 23/103 (22%) were positive by ICT and 5/105 (5%) blood samples contained T. cruzi DNA, evidencing the potential role of dogs in the domestic transmission of the parasite

Disposable electrodes for direct enzyme-free H2O2 sensing in a Parkinson’s disease in-vitro model

Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are reduced forms of oxygen such as superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical or hydrogen peroxide. These molecules have a critical role in physiological processes like cellular signalling, immunological activity. However, an overproduction may cause the so-called oxidative stress (OS) which is able to cause damage to lipids, proteins or DNA. These alterations promote pathophysiological conditions such as diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. In this work, we present the combination of Carbon Black (CB) and electrodeposited Prussian Blue (PB) covered with a Nafion layer on disposable Screen-Printed electrodes (CB/PB-SPE) used for non-enzymatic H2O2 sensing in Neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y. These cells were challenged with 6-hidroxidopamine (6-OHDA) for modelling Parkinson’s disease. The electrode’s surface was investigated using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and electrochemically characterized, in terms of electroactivity and stability. Electrochemical sensing of H2O2 was carried out at very low potentials (-50mV), allowing interference-free detection of H2O2 in the selected cell culture. The H2O2 concentration was successfully monitored in an experimental model of Parkinson’s disease at different times. These results could pave the way to a method for the monitoring of H2O2 in culture medium for future studies of the role of H2O2 and oxidative stress in Parkinson’s disease

Interpreting vision and language generative models with semantic visual priors

When applied to Image-to-text models, explainability methods have two challenges. First, they often provide token-by-token explanations namely, they compute a visual explanation for each token of the generated sequence. This makes explanations expensive to compute and unable to comprehensively explain the model's output. Second, for models with visual inputs, explainability methods such as SHAP typically consider superpixels as features. Since superpixels do not correspond to semantically meaningful regions of an image, this makes explanations harder to interpret. We develop a framework based on SHAP, that allows for generating comprehensive, meaningful explanations leveraging the meaning representation of the output sequence as a whole. Moreover, by exploiting semantic priors in the visual backbone, we extract an arbitrary number of features that allow the efficient computation of Shapley values on large-scale models, generating at the same time highly meaningful visual explanations. We demonstrate that our method generates semantically more expressive explanations than traditional methods at a lower compute cost and that it can be generalized to a large family of vision-language models

Interpreting Vision and Language Generative Models with Semantic Visual Priors

When applied to Image-to-text models, interpretability methods often provide token-by-token explanations namely, they compute a visual explanation for each token of the generated sequence. Those explanations are expensive to compute and unable to comprehensively explain the model's output. Therefore, these models often require some sort of approximation that eventually leads to misleading explanations. We develop a framework based on SHAP, that allows for generating comprehensive, meaningful explanations leveraging the meaning representation of the output sequence as a whole. Moreover, by exploiting semantic priors in the visual backbone, we extract an arbitrary number of features that allows the efficient computation of Shapley values on large-scale models, generating at the same time highly meaningful visual explanations. We demonstrate that our method generates semantically more expressive explanations than traditional methods at a lower compute cost and that it can be generalized over other explainability methods

Markets and the crowding out of conservation-relevant behavior

Markets are increasingly being incorporated into many aspects of daily life and are becoming an important part of the conservation solution space. Although market-based solutions to environmental problems can result in improvements to conservation, a body of social science research highlights how markets may also have unforeseen consequences by crowding out or displacing 3 key types of behaviors potentially relevant to conservation, including people's willingness to engage in collective action and civic duty; tolerance for inflicting harm on others (third-party externalities); and desire for equity. Better understanding of the contexts and mechanisms through which this crowding out occurs and whether specific market-based instruments are more prone to different types of crowding out will be crucial to developing novel conservation initiatives that can reduce or prevent crowding out

Cellular Contact Guidance on Liquid Crystalline Networks with Anisotropic Roughness

: Cell contact guidance is widely employed to manipulate cell alignment and differentiation in vitro. The use of nano- or micro-patterned substrates allows efficient control of cell organization, thus opening up to biological models that cannot be reproduced spontaneously on standard culture dishes. In this paper, we explore the concept of cell contact guidance by Liquid Crystalline Networks (LCNs) presenting different surface topographies obtained by self-assembly of the monomeric mixture. The materials are prepared by photopolymerization of a low amount of diacrylate monomer dissolved in a liquid crystalline solvent, not participating in the reaction. The alignment of the liquid crystals, obtained before polymerization, determines the scaffold morphology, characterized by a nanometric structure. Such materials are able to drive the organization of different cell lines, e.g., fibroblasts and myoblasts, allowing for the alignment of single cells or high-density cell cultures. These results demonstrate the capabilities of rough surfaces prepared from the spontaneous assembly of liquid crystals to control biological models without the need of lithographic patterning or complex fabrication procedures. Interestingly, during myoblast differentiation, also myotube structuring in linear arrays is observed along the LCN fiber orientation. The implementation of this technology will open up to the formation of muscular tissue with well-aligned fibers in vitro mimicking the structure of native tissues

Índice de vulnerabilidade social (IVS) das regiões metropolitanas de Belém-PA (RMB) e Manaus-am (RMM)

The various socioeconomic transformations that occurred in the last 50 years in Brazil, due to population growth and urbanization of cities, reveal unequal realities within metropolitan spaces. Indicative situations of exclusion and vulnerability, besides identifying poverty as monetary insufficiency, have generated the need to identify the degree of vulnerability that such spaces live in. As reported by the IPEA report (2017), the Metropolitan Region of Manaus presented the highest Social Vulnerability Index of the 24 metropolitan regions analyzed in 2010 and the Metropolitan Region of Belem presented the sixth highest Social Vulnerability Index for the period. In view of this, an analysis was made of the social vulnerability of the Metropolitan Region of Belém (RMB) and the Metropolitan Region of Manaus (RMM) based on the indicators of the IVS and the MHDI. The results showed that the municipalities of Marituba (RMB) and Careiro da Várzea (RMM) deserve urgent public attention and even though there is a significant improvement in social vulnerability indicators for the period 2000 to 2010, it still does not follow the average of the Brazilian Metropolitan Regions.As diversas transformações socioeconômicas ocorridas nos últimos 50 anos no Brasil, oriundas do aumento populacional e da urbanização das cidades, evidenciam realidades desiguais dentro dos espaços metropolitanos. Situações indicativas de exclusão e vulnerabilidade, além da identificação da pobreza como insuficiência monetária, têm gerado a necessidade de identificar o grau de vulnerabilidade que vivem tais espaços. Como foi reportado pelo relatório do IPEA (2017), a RMM foi a que apresentou o maior IVS das 24 regiões metropolitanas analisadas no ano de 2010 e a RMB apresentou o sexto maior IVS para o período. Diante disto, realizou-se uma análise da vulnerabilidade social da Região Metropolitana de Belém (RMB) e da Região Metropolitana de Manaus (RMM) com base nos indicadores do IVS e do IDHM. Os resultados mostraram que os municípios de Marituba (RMB) e Careiro da Várzea (RMM) merecem urgente atenção do Poder Público e mesmo havendo sensível melhora para os indicadores de vulnerabilidade social no período de 2000 a 2010, ainda não acompanha a média das RM Brasileiras

Automated image analysis techniques to characterise pulverised coal particles and predict combustion char morphology

A new automated image analysis system that analyses individual coal particles to predict daughter char morphology is presented. 12 different coals were milled to 75–106 µm, segmented from large mosaic images and the proportions of the different petrographic features were obtained from reflectance histograms via an automated Matlab system. Each sample was then analysed on a particle by particle basis, and daughter char morphologies were automatically predicted using a decision tree-based system built into the program. Predicted morphologies were then compared to ‘real’ char intermediates generated at 1300 °C in a drop-tube furnace (DTF). For the majority of the samples, automated coal particle characterisation and char morphology prediction differed from manually obtained results by a maximum of 9%. This automated system is a step towards eliminating the inherent variability and repeatability issues of manually operated systems in both coal and char analysis. By analysing large numbers of coal particles, the char morphology prediction could potentially be used as a more accurate and reliable method of predicting fuel performance for power generators

La dualidad entre conservación y restauración. Una mirada a la evolución de las principales posiciones europeas sobre la intervención del patrimonio

El tema de la conservación del patrimonio construido ha sido objeto de un amplio debate desde la revolución industrial por lo que las posiciones y dictámenes al respecto son numerosas. Es desde aquí que nace un dualismo entre las principales escuelas de restauración europeas que de una forma u otra han influenciado la recuperación de centros históricos o sencillamente de determinadas edificaciones. Así las cosas, prácticas de restauración o conservación muchas veces ha generado un gran eco por parte de la opinión pública por la manera que se han intervenidos los inmuebles o inclusive el tejido urbano donde se insertan. Entran aquí en juego las ideas y posturas de notables académicos y estudiosos europeos, que sirvieron de base para la investigación llevada a cabo en el centro histórico de Girón por parte de USTABUCA (Colombia) y UNIFI (Italia), la cual fundamentó este artículo. En otras palabras, momentos de reflexión estructurados a partir del accionar de reconocidos actores en diferentes contextos en Europa y que están relacionados con el tema del patrimonio, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional y que de una u otra forma podrían direccionar correctamente la intervención en sitios y monumentos de Colombia y América Latina donde aún no se implementan a cabalidad estrategias coherentes que velen correctamente por la salvaguarda y revitalización del patrimonio construido.The issue of the conservation of built heritage has been the subject of extensive debate since the industrial revolution, so the positions and opinions in this regard are numerous. It is from here that a dualism is born between the main European restoration schools that in one way, or another have influenced the recovery of historic centers or simply of certain buildings. Thus, restoration or conservation practices have often generated a great echo from public opinion due to the way in which the buildings or even the urban fabric where they are inserted have been intervened. The ideas and positions of notable European academics and scholars come into play here, which served as the basis for the research carried out in the historic center of Girón by USTABUCA (Colombia) and UNIFI (Italy), which founded this article. In other words, moments of reflection structured from the actions of recognized actors in different contexts in Europe and that are related to the heritage issue, both nationally and internationally and that in one way or another could correctly direct the intervention in sites. and monuments in Colombia and Latin America, where coherent strategies have not yet been implemented that correctly ensure the safeguarding and revitalization of the built heritage

Haemoparasites in endemic and non-endemic passerine birds from central Mexico highlands

Haemosporidian parasites of birds are found worldwide and include the genera Haemoproteus, Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon. Infection with haemosporidian parasites can affect host physical condition and reproductive success. The aim of this study was to identify the blood parasites and parasitaemia in endemic and non-endemic passerine birds from central Mexico highlands. This study included 157 passerines representing 29 species from 17 families. Overall, 30.6% (48/157) of the birds were infected with blood parasites. Of those, Haemoproteus spp. were found in 14.0% (n = 22), Leucocytozoon spp. 12.1% (n = 19) and microfilariae 0.6% (n = 1). Blood parasites were found in 71.4% (5/7) of endemic bird species and 45.4% (10/22) of non-endemic species. Medium to high parasitaemia (number of parasites/number erythrocytes) was observed in birds with infections of Haemoproteus spp. and Leucocytozoon spp. Co-infections 3.8% (n = 6) were observed in two species of endemic birds. This study contributes to the knowledge of haemoparasites in endemic and non-endemic passerine birds from central Mexico highlands. Additional investigation on the molecular identification of haemosporidian parasites, pathogenicity and health status of these birds is necessary