Forest Financing in Latin America: The Role of the Inter-American Development Bank

This study includes an overview of financing and financial instruments for sustainable forestry and in particular the roles of the public and private sectors in financing. The study also discusses the role of the IDB financing in forestry, their mandate and comparative advantages and measures to promote demand for forest financing. The overall objective of this study is to present recommendations for the IDB's forest related lending and support to institutional and policy development in borrowing member countries. The recommendations in this paper may be used for future forestry considerations for rural development and natural resource management programs.Environmental Policy, Forests & forestry, Financial Policy, Biodiversity, Natural Resources Management, Environment, Forestry, Forest Financing

Ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning

Electrospinning is commonly used to produce polymeric nanofibers. Potential applications for such fibers include novel drug delivery systems, tissue engineering scaffolds, and filters. Electrospinning, however, has shortcomings such as needle clogging and limited ability to control the fiber-properties in a non-chemical manner. This study reports on an orifice-less technique that employs high-intensity focused ultrasound, i.e. ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning. Ultrasound bursts were used to generate a liquid protrusion with a Taylor cone from the surface of a polymer solution of polyethylene oxide. When the polymer was charged with a high negative voltage, nanofibers jetted off from the tip of the protrusion landed on an electrically grounded target held at a constant distance from the tip. Controlling the ultrasound characteristics permitted physical modification of the nanofiber topography at will without using supplemental chemical intervention. Possible applications of tailor-made fibers generated by ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning include pharmaceutical controlled-release applications and biomedical scaffolds with spatial gradients in fiber thickness and mechanical properties.Peer reviewe

Alueellinen oikeudenmukaisuus

Vihreä siirtymä tarkoittaa luonnonresurssien uudenlaista käyttöä. Painopiste siirtyy fossiilisista raaka-aineista uusiutuviin luonnonvaroihin, mutta samaan aikaan esimerkiksi joidenkin kaivannaisten hyödyntämisen odotetaan lisääntyvän. Luonnonvarat ovat jakaantuneet maantieteellisesti epätasaisesti, joten vihreä siirtymä muuttaa alueellisten luonnonvarojen käyttöä suhteellisen nopeasti ja isolla volyymilla. Tämä on herättänyt kysymyksiä vihreän siirtymän alueellisesta oikeudenmukaisuudesta

The Role of Acoustic Streaming in Ultrasound-Enhanced Electrospinning - a FEM Simulation Study

We present a finite element method (FEM)-based simulation model for acoustic streaming and fountain formation. Streaming field predicted by the model shows agreement with experiments in a validation study. After validation, the model is used to predict the acoustic streaming field in our ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning device. The predicted field gives velocity magnitudes in the micrometers per second range. While this appears slow, such a rate is hypothesized to be significant for the process. Finally, surface force driven acoustic streaming is observed by the simulations.Peer reviewe

Scaling-up the Ultrasound-Enhanced Electrospinning Device

Ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning (USES) is an electrospinning method that utilizes focused ultrasound to produce nanofibers. The focused ultrasound creates an acoustic fountain on a polymer solution surface. With a high-voltage electric field, electrospinning is initiated from the fountain. Until now USES has been limited by its production rate due to the use of a single ultrasound transducer. Here we present a multi-transducer USES device, with a similar footprint as our old device. Increase in throughput was studied using three of the transducers. Simultaneous, stable spinning, with three transducers was not achieved, however we double the amount of produced fiber with two transducers. Compared to the previous USES device, the results indicate that USES can potentially be scaled up.Peer reviewe

Comparison of Traditional and Ultrasound-Enhanced Electrospinning in Fabricating Nanofibrous Drug Delivery Systems

We investigated nozzleless ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning (USES) as means to generate nanofibrous drug delivery systems (DDSs) for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Traditional electrospinning (TES) equipped with a conventional spinneret was used as a reference method. High-molecular polyethylene oxide (PEO) and chitosan were used as carrier polymers and theophylline anhydrate as a water-soluble model drug. The nanofibers were electrospun with the diluted mixture (7:3) of aqueous acetic acid (90% v/v) and formic acid solution (90% v/v) (with a total solid content of 3% w/v). The fiber diameter and morphology of the nanofibrous DDSs were modulated by varying ultrasonic parameters in the USES process (i.e., frequency, pulse repetition frequency and cycles per pulse). We found that the USES technology produced nanofibers with higher fiber diameter (402 ± 127 nm) than TES (77 ± 21 nm). An increase of a burst count in USES increased the fiber diameter (555 ± 265 nm) and the variation in fiber size. The slight-to-moderate changes in a solid state (crystallinity) were detected when compared the nanofibers generated by TES and USES. In conclusion, USES provides a promising alternative for aqueous-based fabrication of nanofibrous DDSs for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications

Comparison of Traditional and Ultrasound-Enhanced Electrospinning in Fabricating Nanofibrous Drug Delivery Systems

We investigated nozzleless ultrasound-enhanced electrospinning (USES) as means to generate nanofibrous drug delivery systems (DDSs) for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Traditional electrospinning (TES) equipped with a conventional spinneret was used as a reference method. High-molecular polyethylene oxide (PEO) and chitosan were used as carrier polymers and theophylline anhydrate as a water-soluble model drug. The nanofibers were electrospun with the diluted mixture (7:3) of aqueous acetic acid (90% v/v) and formic acid solution (90% v/v) (with a total solid content of 3% w/v). The fiber diameter and morphology of the nanofibrous DDSs were modulated by varying ultrasonic parameters in the USES process (i.e., frequency, pulse repetition frequency and cycles per pulse). We found that the USES technology produced nanofibers with higher fiber diameter (402 ± 127 nm) than TES (77 ± 21 nm). An increase of a burst count in USES increased the fiber diameter (555 ± 265 nm) and the variation in fiber size. The slight-to-moderate changes in a solid state (crystallinity) were detected when compared the nanofibers generated by TES and USES. In conclusion, USES provides a promising alternative for aqueous-based fabrication of nanofibrous DDSs for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications

Carriership of two copies of C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat intermediate-length alleles is a risk factor for ALS in the Finnish population

The hexanucleotide repeat expansion in intron 1 of the C9orf72 gene causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. In addition to the effects of the pathogenic expansion, a role of intermediate-length alleles has been suggested in ALS, corticobasal degeneration and Parkinson's disease. Due to the rarity of intermediate-length alleles with over 20 repeats and the geographical variability in their frequency, large studies that account for population stratification are needed to elucidate their effects. To this aim, we used repeat-primed PCR and confirmatory PCR assays to determine the C9orf72 repeat allele lengths in 705 ALS patients and 3958 controls from Finland. After exclusion of expansion carriers (25.5% of the ALS patients and 0.2% of the controls), we compared the frequency of intermediate-length allele carriers of 525 ALS cases and 3950 controls using several intermediate-length allele thresholds (7-45, 17-45, 21-45, 24-45 and 24-30). The carriership of an intermediate-length allele did not associate with ALS (Fisher's test, all p >= 0.15) nor was there any association with survival (p >= 0.33), when we divided our control group into three age groups (18-65, 66-84 and 85-105 years). Carriership of two intermediate-length alleles was associated with ALS, when the longer allele was >= 17 repeats (p=0.002, OR 5.32 95% CI 2.02-14.05) or >= 21 repeats (p=0.00016, OR 15.21 95% CI 3.79-61.0). Our results show that intermediate-length alleles are a risk factor of ALS when present in both alleles, whereas carrying just one intermediate-length allele was not associated with ALS or survival.Peer reviewe