The Protection of Traditional Knowledge in Peru: A Comparative Perspective

This Article analyzes the policy and legal context for the protection of traditional knowledge, focusing on Peruvian Law 27811, Regime for the Protection of Indigenous Peoples’ Collective Knowledge Associated with Biodiversity (enacted on July 24, 2002) [Law 27811], as a case study

La Pediatria en l'aportació de coneixements de cura

L'article investiga les causes que hi ha darrere una major freqüentació dels serveis pediàtrics al Centre d'Atenció Primària de Barberà del Vallès. En primer lloc, s'analitzen els canvis en l'adquisició de les competències i els coneixements de cura dels infants per part dels pares i mares, i es planteja la hipòtesi d'una erosió de competències deguda a la reducció de la natalitat i als canvis en la socialització de gènere. En segon lloc, des de la vessant de la pediatria es destaca la consolidació de l'expropiació dels coneixements de cura per part de la medicina, la feminització de la pediatria i l'àmplia accessibilitat a aquest servei. Finalment, es consideren els possibles efectes d'aquests canvis sobre la branca pediàtrica del sistema sanitari i sobre el procés de cura dels infants.The article focuses on the increasing demand of Paediatric services in Barberà del Vallès. First of all, changes in the way in which parents learn about child care are analysed. The conclusion is that parents are not as competent as before regarding child care due to the decreasing birthrate and changes in gender socialization. Secondly, from the point of view of the Paediatricians, what is evident is the fact that child care has been expropriated by Paediatricians. What is more, the feminization of Paediatrics and the easy accessibility of the health service support this hypothesis. Finally, the possible effects of these changes in the branch of Paediactrics in the health service, and in the process of child care are being considered.El artículo investiga los motivos que explican una mayor frecuentación de los servicios de pediatría en el Centro de Atención Primaria de Barberà del Vallès. En primer lugar, se analizan los cambios en la adquisición de las competencias y los conocimientos necesarios para el cuidado de los niños y niñas, y se plantea la hipótesis de una erosión de competencias derivada de la reducción de la natalidad y los cambios en la socialización de género. En segundo lugar, desde la vertiente de la pediatría se destaca la consolidación de la expropiación de conocimientos de cuidado por parte de la medicina, la feminización de la pediatría y el amplio acceso a este servicio. Finalmente, se consideran los posibles efectos de estos cambios sobre la pediatría y sobre el proceso de cuidado de los niños y niñas

ALPINE2: Efficacy and safety of 14-day vs 28-day inhaled aztreonam for Pa eradication in children with cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis; Paediatric; Pseudomonas aeruginosaFibrosi quística; Pediàtric; Pseudomonas aeruginosaFibrosis quística; Pediátrico; Pseudomonas aeruginosaBackground: Antibiotic eradication therapies recommended for newly isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) in people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF) can be burdensome. ALPINE2 compared the efficacy and safety of a shortened 14-day course of aztreonam for inhalation solution (AZLI) with 28-day AZLI in paediatric pwCF. Methods: ALPINE2 (a double-blind, phase 3b study) included children aged 3 months to <18 years with CF and new-onset Pa infection. Participants were randomized to receive 75 mg AZLI three times daily for either 28 or 14 days followed by 14 days' matched placebo. The primary endpoint was rate of primary Pa eradication (no Pa detected during the 4 weeks post AZLI treatment). Non-inferiority was achieved if the lower 95% CI bound of the treatment difference between the two arms was above -20%. Secondary endpoints included assessments of Pa recurrence during 108 weeks of follow-up after primary eradication. Safety endpoints included treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs). Results: In total, 149 participants were randomized (14-day AZLI, n = 74; 28-day AZLI, n = 75) and 142 (95.3%) completed treatment. Median age: 6.0 years (range: 0.3-17.0). Baseline characteristics were similar between treatment arms. Primary Pa eradication rates: 14-day AZLI, 55.9%; 28-day AZLI, 63.4%; treatment difference (CI), -8.0% (-24.6, 8.6%). Pa recurrence rates at follow-up end: 14-day AZLI, 54.1% (n = 20/37); 28-day AZLI, 41.9% (n = 18/43). TEAEs were similar between treatment arms. No new safety signals were observed. Conclusions: Non-inferiority of 14-day AZLI versus 28-day AZLI was not demonstrated. Both courses were well tolerated, further supporting AZLI short-term safety in paediatric and adolescent pwCF. Clinicaltrials: GOV: NCT03219164.This ALPINE2 study was sponsored by Gilead Sciences, Inc. Gilead Sciences, Inc. were responsible for study design, data collection and analysis, writing the study report and making the decision to submit the article for publication. Medical writing support for the preparation of this manuscript was provided by Elvi Nimali, MBiochem, of PharmaGenesis London, London, UK, and funded by Gilead Sciences, Inc

Parsimonious scenario for the emergence of viroid-like replicons de novo

This article belongs to the Special Issue Viroid-2018: International Conference on Viroids and Viroid-Like RNAs.Viroids are small, non-coding, circular RNA molecules that infect plants. Different hypotheses for their evolutionary origin have been put forward, such as an early emergence in a precellular RNA World or several de novo independent evolutionary origins in plants. Here, we discuss the plausibility of de novo emergence of viroid-like replicons by giving theoretical support to the likelihood of different steps along a parsimonious evolutionary pathway. While Avsunviroidae-like structures are relatively easy to obtain through evolution of a population of random RNA sequences of fixed length, rod-like structures typical of Pospiviroidae are difficult to fix. Using different quantitative approaches, we evaluated the likelihood that RNA sequences fold into a rod-like structure and bear specific sequence motifs facilitating interactions with other molecules, e.g., RNA polymerases, RNases, and ligases. By means of numerical simulations, we show that circular RNA replicons analogous to Pospiviroidae emerge if evolution is seeded with minimal circular RNAs that grow through the gradual addition of nucleotides. Further, these rod-like replicons often maintain their structure if independent functional modules are acquired that impose selective constraints. The evolutionary scenario we propose here is consistent with the structural and biochemical properties of viroids described to date.P.C. is supported by a Ramón Areces Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. The Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades-FEDER funds of the European Union support Projects BASIC (PGC2018-098186-B-I00, J.A.C. and P.C.), MiMevo (FIS2017-89773-P, S.M.), and EvolSysVir (BFU2015-65037-P, S.F.E.)

Tree Islands in Everglades Landscapes: Current Status, Historical Changes, and Hydrologic Impacts on Population Dynamics and Moisture Relations, First Annual Report

In 2005 we initiated a project designed to better understand tree island structure and function in the Everglades and the wetlands bordering it. Focus was on the raised portions at the upstream end of the islands, where tropical hardwood species adapted to well-drained conditions usually are the most prominent component of the vegetation. The study design is hierarchical, with four levels; in general, a large number of sites is to be surveyed once for a limited set of parameters, and increasingly small sets of islands are to be sampled more intensively, more frequently, and for more aspects of ecosystem function. During the first year of the 3-year study, we completed surveys of 41 Level 1 (i.e., the least intensive level) islands, and established permanent plots in two and three islands of Levels 2 and 4 intensity, respectively. Tree species richness and structural complexity was highest in Shark Slough “hammocks”, while islands in Northeast Shark Slough and Water Conservation Area 3B, which receive heavy human use, were simpler, more park-like communities. Initial monitoring of soil moisture in Level 4 hammocks indicated considerable local variation, presumably associated with antecedent rainfall and current water levels in the adjacent marsh. Tree islands throughout the study area were impacted significantly by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005, but appear to be recovering rapidly. As the project continues to include more islands and repeated measurements, we expect to develop a better grasp of tree island dynamics across the Everglades ecosystem, especially with respect to moisture relations and water levels in the adjacent marsh. The detailed progress report which follows is also available online at http://www.fiu.edu/~serp1/projects/treeislands/tree_islands_2005_annual_report.p

Temporal Evolution of the Magmatic System at Tungurahua Volcano, Ecuador, detected by geodetic observations

Changes in the pathway and timescale of magma ascent can be responsible for variations in eruptive style during long-lived eruptions, but are only documented at a small number of well-instrumented systems. Here we integrate PS-InSAR from high resolution TerraSAR-X radar imagery with continuous GPS data from 4 sites at Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador. Our results show long-term uplift between 2011-2014 associated with a continuously in ating prolate reservoir at a depth of 10 km beneath the summit. Comparisons with eruptive flux, taking compressibility into account, suggest that during this time period slightly over half the magma supplied to the system was erupted. The observations span three distinct phases of eruption and in 2012-2013, an increase in eruptive activity was accompanied by uplift on the volcano's western flank. Similar episodes have previously been observed during large Vulcanian eruptions and we attribute them to intrusions into an area of mechanical weakness. A localised patch of subsidence mid-way up the Tungurahua's western flank is co-located with a swarm of shallow long-period seismicity and may represent a potential site for a development of a lateral vent. This study demonstrates that satellite geodetic techniques are capable of characterising the geodetic signature of transitions in eruptive style during long-lived andesitic eruptions although the deformation is cm-scale of steep volcanic edi fices.NERC Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonic

Cosmology with 6 parameters in the Stage-IV era: efficient marginalisation over nuisance parameters

The analysis of photometric large-scale structure data is often complicated by the need to account for many observational and astrophysical systematics. The elaborate models needed to describe them often introduce many ``nuisance parameters'', which can be a major inhibitor of an efficient parameter inference. In this paper we introduce an approximate method to analytically marginalise over a large number of nuisance parameters based on the Laplace approximation. We discuss the mathematics of the method, its relation to concepts such as volume effects and profile likelihood, and show that it can be further simplified for calibratable systematics by linearising the dependence of the theory on the associated parameters. We quantify the accuracy of this approach by comparing it with traditional sampling methods in the context of existing data from the Dark Energy Survey, as well as futuristic Stage-IV photometric data. The linearised version of the method is able to obtain parameter constraints that are virtually equivalent to those found by exploring the full parameter space for a large number of calibratable nuisance parameters, while reducing the computation time by a factor 3-10. Furthermore, the non-linearised approach is able to analytically marginalise over a large number of parameters, returning constraints that are virtually indistinguishable from the brute-force method in most cases, accurately reproducing both the marginalised uncertainty on cosmological parameters, and the impact of volume effects associated with this marginalisation. We provide simple recipes to diagnose when the approximations made by the method fail and one should thus resort to traditional methods. The gains in sampling efficiency associated with this method enable the joint analysis of multiple surveys, typically hindered by the large number of nuisance parameters needed to describe them.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

Spectroscopic evaluation of red blood cells of thalassemia patients with confocal microscopy: a pilot study

Hemoglobinopathies represent the most common single-gene defects in the world and pose a major public health problem, particularly in tropical countries, where they occur with high frequency. Diagnosing hemoglobinopathies can sometimes be difficult due to the coexistence of different causes of anemia, such as thalassemia and iron deficiency, and blood transfusions, among other factors, and requires expensive and complex molecular tests. This work explores the possibility of using spectral confocal microscopy as a diagnostic tool for thalassemia in pediatric patients, a disease caused by mutations in the globin genes that result in changes of the globin chains that form hemoglobin—in pediatric patients. Red blood cells (RBCs) from patients with different syndromes of alpha-thalassemia and iron deficiency (including anemia) as well as healthy (control) subjects were analyzed under a Leica TCS SP8 confocal microscope following different image acquisition protocols. We found that diseased RBCs exhibited autofluorescence when excited at 405 nm and their emission was collected in the spectral range from 425 nm to 790 nm. Three experimental descriptors calculated from the mean emission intensities at 502 nm, 579 nm, 628 nm, and 649 nm allowed us to discriminate between diseased and healthy cells. According to the results obtained, spectral confocal microscopy could serve as a tool in the diagnosis of thalassemia.This research was funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, grant number DPI2017-89414-R. L.R.-B. thanks the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for the PhD (FPI) grant she has received.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Hyperspectral imaging for skin cancer and blood disorders diagnosis

Hyperspectral imaging is a novel technology for acquiring an image at a large number of wavelengths, thus allowing the study of spectral and spatial details of a sample under analysis. This technology has emerged as a promising imaging modality to be used as a diagnostic tool in several medical applications where spectral information is relevant. In this paper, we outline our most recent achievements in this field. Firstly, hyperspectral imaging systems developed to improve non-invasive diagnosis of skin cancer, consisting of digital silicon and InGaAs cameras and light emitting diodes, are described. Secondly, we present our last advances using hyperspectral technology together with confocal microscopy to improve the diagnosis of blood diseases, in particular, hemoglobinopathies such as thalassemia and cell membrane diseases such as hereditary spherocytosis. Finally, new insights on these topics are discussed.This project has been funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (PID2020-112527RB-I00 / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033). L R-B thanks the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for the PhD (FPI) grant she has received.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Membrane protein detection and morphological analysis of red blood cells in hereditary spherocytosis by confocal laser scanning microscopy

In hereditary spherocytosis (HS), genetic mutations in the cell membrane and cytoskeleton proteins cause structural defects in red blood cells (RBCs). As a result, cells are rigid and misshapen, usually with a characteristic spherical form (spherocytes), too stiff to circulate through microcirculation regions, so they are prone to undergo hemolysis and phagocytosis by splenic macrophages. Mild to severe anemia arises in HS, and other derived symptoms like splenomegaly, jaundice, and cholelithiasis. Although abnormally shaped RBCs can be identified under conventional light microscopy, HS diagnosis relies on several clinical factors and sometimes on the results of complex molecular testing. It is specially challenging when other causes of anemia coexist or after recent blood transfusions. We propose two different approaches to characterize RBCs in HS: (i) an immunofluorescence assay targeting protein band 3, which is affected in most HS cases and (ii) a three-dimensional morphology assay, with living cells, staining the membrane with fluorescent dyes. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used to carry out both assays, and in order to complement the latter, a software was developed for the automated detection of spherocytes in blood samples. CLSM allowed the precise and unambiguous assessment of cell shape and protein expression.This publication is part of the project PID2020-112527RBI00, funded by CIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Laura Rey-Barroso thanks the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for the PhD (FPI) grant she has received (DPI2017-89414-R). The current study has been funded by the Spanish National Agency of Investigation (AEI).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version