Characterization of a radiator of eight arms with circular polarization

The cross antenna is a printed structure of average profile and circular polarization, which consists of a conductor or tape on a ground plane that follows the contour of a cross with four or more arms and a diameter of about 1.5 wavelengths developed by Antoine Roederer. The antenna is feeded by means of a coaxial line and is finished in an impedance of load, for what it is represented by a behavior of travelling wave. Though in principle the antenna was designed for applications in mobile communications in Band L (1500 MHhz), we present in this work the experimental characterization of an antenna of cross of eight arms that is employed at 10 GHz, with the principal intention of serving as feeder of a parabolic reflector for satellite communications

Cultural barriers to effective communication between Indigenous communities and health care providers in Northern Argentina: an anthropological contribution to Chagas disease prevention and control

INTRODUCTION: Ninety percent of the aboriginal communities of Argentina are located in areas of endemic vectorial transmission of Chagas disease. Control activities in these communities have not been effective. The goal of this research was to explore the role played by beliefs, habits, and practices of Pilaga and Wichi indigenous communities in their interaction with the local health system in the province of Formosa. This article contributes to the understanding of the cultural barriers that affect the communication process between indigenous peoples and their health care providers. METHODS: Twenty-nine open ended interviews were carried out with members of four indigenous communities (Pilaga and Wichi) located in central Formosa. These interviews were used to describe and compare these communities' approach to health and disease as they pertain to Chagas as well as their perceptions of Western medicine and its incarnation in local health practice. RESULTS: Five key findings are presented: 1) members of these communities tend to see disease as caused by other people or by the person's violation of taboos instead of as a biological process; 2) while the Pilaga are more inclined to accept Western medicine, the Wichi often favour the indigenous approach to health care over the Western approach; 3) members of these communities do not associate the vector with the transmission of the disease and they have little awareness of the need for vector control activities; 4) indigenous individuals who undergo diagnostic tests and accept treatment often do so without full information and knowledge; 5) the clinical encounter is rife with conflict between the expectations of health care providers and those of members of these communities. CONCLUSION: Our analysis suggests that there is a need to consider the role of the cultural patterning of health and disease when developing interventions to prevent and control Chagas disease among indigenous communities in Northern Argentina. This is especially important when communicating with these communities about prevention and control. These research findings might also be of value to national and provincial agencies in charge of decreasing the rates of Chagas disease among indigenous populations.Fil: Dell Arciprete, Paula. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria; ArgentinaFil: Braunstein, Jose Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Touris, María Cecilia. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud “Dr. C.G. Malbrán”. Instituto Nacional de Parasitología “Dr. M. Fatala Chabén”; ArgentinaFil: Dinardi, Matias Andres. Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; ArgentinaFil: Llovet, Ignacio Diego. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales; ArgentinaFil: Sosa-Estani, Sergio Alejandro. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud “Dr. C.G. Malbrán”. Instituto Nacional de Parasitología “Dr. M. Fatala Chabén”; Argentin

Engineering Surfaces to Enhance The Activity of Tethered Enzymes and To Rescue Misfolded Proteins

Retaining the stability of proteins at the solid-liquid interface is of extreme importance in multiple biotechnological applications, including biosensing, biocatalysis, pharmaceutical production, and sustainability. Unfortunately, interactions with surface materials often lead to a significant decrease in the structural stability of proteins, and thus, reduction in the activity of enzymes. This loss of structure and activity of proteins may be attributed to the vastly different environment that synthetic surfaces provide compared to the native environment of proteins inside of cells. These synthetic materials can cause perturbative interactions that lead to protein denaturation. Moreover, because each protein exhibits unique properties, a material that stabilizes one protein may destabilize another protein. Thus, a major challenge in this field has been the discovery of rules that permit the rational design of strategies and materials that stabilize a given protein under a wide range of conditions. To address these challenges, the thesis presented here aimed to increase the understanding of protein interactions with materials. Notably, single-molecule (SM) tracking methods enabled the direct observation of individual proteins as they adsorbed, diffused, desorbed and/or became immobilized, as well as when they unfolded or refolded on surfaces. This information was essential for correlating the dynamic behavior of proteins with material properties, thereby illuminating important considerations for the design of materials that preserve the stability of proteins. Firstly, we investigated the effects of ligation efficiency on the stability and activity retention of immobilized enzymes. SM results demonstrated that while enzymes readily unfolded on material surfaces after adsorption, by increasing the ligation reaction kinetics, marked improvements in the retention of immobilized enzyme activity and structure could be achieved. Next, we utilized lipid bilayers (LBs) as biomimetic support materials for enzyme immobilization as their properties, including charge and hydrophobicity, may be readily tuned via mixing lipids that have different polar head groups or hydrophobic tail groups. Through the use of SM experiments, the effects of LB composition on the stability of immobilized enzymes was investigated. Notably, our results showed that LB net charge and compositional heterogeneity were both important factors for protein stability. Remarkably, enzymes immobilized on optimal LB compositions remained predominantly folded and active even under extremely denaturing conditions (7 m urea and high temperatures). Interestingly, the stabilization of enzymes on LBs was strongly correlated to an enhancement in the re‐folding rate and was therefore attributed to a chaperone‐like effect, whereby the bilayer actively mediated the re‐folding of denatured enzymes. Finally, we explored the use of this chaperone-like activity of LBs as a potential treatment for neurodegenerative diseases caused by the misfolding and aggregation of proteins. Specifically, the effects of lipid vesicle composition on the inhibition of A&beta; fibrillation were investigated. Remarkably, vesicles with optimal lipid composition not only inhibited fibril formation, but more importantly, degraded matured fibrils. Together, these results shed light on the rational design of materials to retain the stability and activity of immobilized enzymes, and of proteins in general.</p

Herramientas digitales para promover el trabajo colaborativo en docentes del área técnica de Guayaquil, Ecuador 2023

El objetivo principal de esta investigación es proponer un programa de herramientas digitales para fomentar el trabajo colaborativo entre los docentes del departamento de educación técnica de una institución educativa en Guayaquil, República del Ecuador, en el año 2023. La metodología empleada adopta un enfoque cuantitativo, de tipo básico, diseño no experimental, alcance explicativo y corte transversal. La población objetivo consta de 55 docentes, considerándose a todos los docentes como muestra mediante un muestreo censal. Se utiliza la técnica de encuesta, con el cuestionario como instrumento. Se llevó a cabo una prueba piloto con la participación de 20 personas para medir la confiabilidad de los instrumentos. Los resultados indicaron un coeficiente de 0.946 para la variable independiente y 0.966 para la variable dependiente, demostrando la confiabilidad de los instrumentos. Los resultados obtenidos revelaron una correlación significativa entre las variables con un nivel de significancia inferior a 0.001. En consecuencia, se acepta la hipótesis alterna, sugiriendo el uso de plataformas digitales que permitan la colaboración en tiempo real entre los miembros del equipo, facilitando el intercambio de documentos y comentarios

FACTORS THAT FACILITATE OR LIMIT THE INCORPORATION OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CLASSROOM

This study explores the perceptions of the teachers from the District Education Secretariat (Bogotá-Colombia) on the factors that facilitate or limit the incorporation of Emerging Technologies in the classroom. The sample used for this research was based on 241 teachers from different educational institutions. The data were collected through an anonymous survey with quantitative and qualitative questions. Open and axial coding was used to identify the different factors in contextual levels, such as microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem. It was found that sociodemographic variables do not influence the incorporation of technology in the classroom, in addition, there are three necessary and basic conditions for teachers to begin to incorporate technology in the classroom: motivation, infrastructure and information and communication technologies skills, but for any processes to be successful the teacher must be aware of what he is doing but any attempt to incorporate technology will fail. On the other hand, government entities must be responsible to generate policies or strategies in order to improve infrastructure, as well as design training plans according to the needs of each teacher and each institution

Adaptations in energy metabolism and gene family expansions revealed by comparative transcriptomics of three Chagas disease triatomine vectors

Background: Chagas disease is a parasitic infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. It is an important public health problem affecting around seven to eight million people in the Americas. A large number of hematophagous triatomine insect species, occupying diverse natural and human-modified ecological niches transmit this disease. Triatomines are long-living hemipterans that have evolved to explode different habitats to associate with their vertebrate hosts. Understanding the molecular basis of the extreme physiological conditions including starvation tolerance and longevity could provide insights for developing novel control strategies. We describe the normalized cDNA, full body transcriptome analysis of three main vectors in North, Central and South America, Triatoma pallidipennis, T. dimidiata and T. infestans. Results: Two-thirds of the de novo assembled transcriptomes map to the Rhodnius prolixus genome and proteome. A Triatoma expansion of the calycin family and two types of protease inhibitors, pacifastins and cystatins were identified. A high number of transcriptionally active class I transposable elements was documented in T. infestans, compared with T. dimidiata and T. pallidipennis. Sequence identity in Triatoma-R. prolixus 1:1 orthologs revealed high sequence divergence in four enzymes participating in gluconeogenesis, glycogen synthesis and the pentose phosphate pathway, indicating high evolutionary rates of these genes. Also, molecular evidence suggesting positive selection was found for several genes of the oxidative phosphorylation I, III and V complexes. Conclusions: Protease inhibitors and calycin-coding gene expansions provide insights into rapidly evolving processes of protease regulation and haematophagy. Higher evolutionary rates in enzymes that exert metabolic flux control towards anabolism and evidence for positive selection in oxidative phosphorylation complexes might represent genetic adaptations, possibly related to prolonged starvation, oxidative stress tolerance, longevity, and hematophagy and flight reduction. Overall, this work generated novel hypothesis related to biological adaptations to extreme physiological conditions and diverse ecological niches that sustain Chagas disease transmission.Fil: Martínez Barnetche, Jesús. Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública; MéxicoFil: Lavore, Andres Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Bioinvestigaciones (Sede Pergamino); ArgentinaFil: Beliera, Melina Daniela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Bioinvestigaciones (Sede Pergamino); ArgentinaFil: Téllez Sosa, Juan. Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública; MéxicoFil: Zumaya Estrada, Federico A.. Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública; MéxicoFil: Palacio, Victorio Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Bioinvestigaciones (Sede Pergamino); ArgentinaFil: Godoy Lozano, Ernestina. Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública; MéxicoFil: Rivera Pomar, Rolando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Bioinvestigaciones (Sede Pergamino); ArgentinaFil: Rodríguez, Mario Henry. Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública; Méxic

Estudio de tiempos para la reducción de quiebres de stock en una empresa Retail, Piura 2022

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo, realizar un estudio de tiempos para reducir los quiebres de stock en una empresa retail, Piura 2022; para el logro de este objetivo como metodología, se utilizó un diseño pre experimental, de tipo aplicada, de alcance descriptivo y explicativo y de enfoque cuantitativo; Se obtuvo los siguientes resultados como la disminución del tiempo de reposición en un nuevo tiempo estándar de 39:50 minutos por cada ciclo y logrando también reducir el índice de quiebre de stock en un 33 %, siendo el 8% el nuevo índice en estos últimos meses; se concluye que los nuevos tiempos referente a la realización del ciclo multi SKU por cada operador permite la realización de un ciclo más de reposición multi SKU en cada jornada de trabajo haciendo así reducir los quiebres de stock