Exploring ethical practice in NGOS on mental health research in Malawi

In recent years, an increasing trend in mental health research has been to collaborate with non-governmental organizations [NGOs] and their constituents. However, ethical difficulties can arise as a result of such partnerships. Understanding the ethics-related practices of NGOs engaged in mental health research is therefore critical. This study addressed these questions in a Malawian context. The goal of this study was to investigate NGO’s ethical practices in relation to mental health research by identifying characteristics that influence ethical practices and investigating staff conceptualization of ethics and mental health. Twenty individuals who work for different local NGOs took part in one-on-one interviews or a workshop about their engagement in diverse research initiatives. They pinpointed the areas that needed improvement, as well as the challenges and chances to create partnerships and increase research capability. The diversity in conceptualizing mental health was a key influence on research practices, with heterogeneity in definitions reflected in the use of cultural, spiritual, behavioural, or medical terms. Notably, there was also a greater emphasis on procedural ethics than ethics-in-practice. Collaboration dynamics and limited staffing capacity were cited as major ethical practice considerations. Each of these elements have an impact on NGOs’ ethical behaviour when conducting mental health research. Participants in the study saw engagement with notions of both ethics and mental health as lacking or rudimentary in their institutions and felt that they needed to be improved through capacity building and stronger research involvement

Density Waves Excited by Low-Mass Planets in Protoplanetary Disks I: Linear Regime

Density waves excited by planets embedded in protoplanetary disks play a central role in planetary migration and gap opening processes. We carry out 2D shearing sheet simulations to study the linear regime of wave evolution with the grid-based code Athena, and provide detailed comparisons with the theoretical predictions. Low mass planets (down to ~0.03 Earth mass at 1 AU) and high spatial resolution (256 grid points per scale height) are chosen to mitigate the effects of wave nonlinearity. To complement the existing numerical studies, we focus on the primary physical variables such as the spatial profile of the wave, torque density, and the angular momentum flux carried by the wave, instead of secondary quantities such as the planetary migration rate. Our results show percent level agreement with theory in both physical and Fourier space. New phenomena such as the change of the toque density sign far from the planet are discovered and discussed. Also, we explore the effect of the numerical algorithms, and find that a high order of accuracy, high resolution, and an accurate planetary potential are crucial to achieve good agreement with the theory. We find that the use of a too large time-step without properly resolving the dynamical time scale around the planet produces incorrect results, and may lead to spurious gap opening. Global simulations of planet migration and gap opening violating this requirement may be affected by spurious effects resulting in e.g. the incorrect planetary migration rate and gap opening mass.Comment: single column, 44 pages, 12 figures, ApJ in press, minor corrections mad

Role of VHL, HIF1A and SDH on the expression of miR-210: Implications for tumoral pseudo-hypoxic fate

The hypoxia-inducible factor 1a (HIF-1a) and its microRNA target, miR-210, are candidate tumor-drivers of metabolic reprogramming in cancer. Neuroendocrine neoplasms such as paragangliomas (PGLs) are particularly appealing for understanding the cancer metabolic adjustments because of their associations with deregulations of metabolic enzymes, such as succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), and the von Hippel Lindau (VHL) gene involved in HIF-1α stabilization. However, the role of miR-210 in the pathogenesis of SDH-related tumors remains an unmet challenge. Herein is described an in vivo genetic analysis of the role of VHL, HIF1A and SDH on miR-210 by using knockout murine models, siRNA gene silencing, and analyses of human tumors. HIF-1a knockout abolished hypoxia-induced miR-210 expression in vivo but did not alter its constitutive expression in paraganglia. Normoxic miR-210 levels substantially increased by complete, but not partial, VHL silencing in paraganglia of knockout VHL-mice and by over-expression of p76del-mutated pVHL. Similarly, VHLmutated PGLs, not those with decreased VHL-gene/mRNA dosage, over-expressed miR-210 and accumulate HIF-1a in most tumor cells. Ablation of SDH activity in SDHD-null cell lines or reduction of the SDHD or SDHB protein levels elicited by siRNA-induced gene silencing did not induce miR-210 whereas the presence of SDH mutations in PGLs and tumor-derived cell lines was associated with mild increase of miR-210 and the presence of a heterogeneous, HIF-1a-positive and HIF-1a-negative, tumor cell population. Thus, activation of HIF-1a is likely an early event in VHLdefective PGLs directly linked to VHL mutations, but it is a late event favored but not directly triggered by SDHx mutations. This combined analysis provides insights into the mechanisms of HIF-1a/miR-210 regulation in normal and tumor tissues potentially useful for understanding the pathogenesis of cancer and other diseases sharing similar underpinnings.Instituto de Salud Carlos III FIS PI11/929Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer RD12/0036/0015 Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad y Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo RegionalFondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (CIBERONC

A model to promote ethics and good practices in global and intercultural research:Applications in méxico and chile

18 páginasLa investigación intercultural plantea desafíos éticos complejos. Por ello, en el año 2019 se desarrolló un modelo de análisis de conflictos éticos en colaboración con más de 200 investigadores de más de 30 países. Este modelo parece pertinente para América Latina. El modelo propone que los desafíos éticos (y sus soluciones) dependen de cuatro factores presentes durante todo el proceso de investigación: el lugar donde se realiza la investigación, las personas involucradas, los principios éticos relevantes y los precedentes de investigaciones pasadas. En este artículo hacemos un análisis de la aplicabilidad de dicho modelo mediante dos análisis de casos referidos a la investigación con pueblos originarios en Chile y al trabajo con latinos migrantes en la frontera México-Estados Unidos.Intercultural research poses critical ethical challenges. In 2019, in collaboration with more than 200 researchers from more than 30 countries, a group of researchers developed an ethical conflict analysis model that seems relevant for Latin America. The model proposes a flexible frame of reference where ethical challenges (and their solutions) depend on four factors present throughout the research process: the place where the research is carried out, the people involved, the relevant ethical principles, and the precedents from previous research. This article discusses the applicability of this model through two case analyses: one study with Indigenous peoples in Chile and the other with Latin-American migrants on the border between Mexico and US

Desafíos éticos para la investigación en Latinoamérica

El propósito del estudio fue identificar los desafíos éticos que enfrentan los investigadores en Latinoamérica. Metodología: se planteó un estudio cualitativo en el que participaron 31 investigadores latinoamericanos, representantes de 6 países. En la primera fase, se realizó una encuesta en línea con pregunta abierta diligenciada por los 31 investigadores; en la segunda fase, una entrevista semiestructurada en donde participaron 23 de estos investigadores. Desarrollo: se identificaron 6 desafíos para la ética de la investigación: i) desde y hacia una Latinoamérica global, ii) hacia una cultura de investigación ética, iii) la ética dentro y fuera de la investigación, iv) relaciones humanas en investigación, v) presencia/ausencia de los comités de ética, vi) COVID-19, un nuevo escenario. Entre los aspectos más relevantes planteados por los participantes,se encuentran la generación de investigaciones sensibles a la variabilidad cultural que impactan positivamente las problemáticas locales, la necesidad de gestar alianzas sur-sur que definan políticas públicas en el tema, la reorientación de políticas latinoamericanas centradas en la región, el impulso a la formación en ética de la investigación desde inicios de la formación, la apertura de discusiones sobre el tema en la región para el desarrollo de directrices y una mayor conciencia en este tópico, la reflexión sobre el papel de los comités de ética como asesores y educadores, la flexibilidad en el consentimiento informado adaptable a las diversas condiciones y contextos, además de retos específicos derivados de la situación de pandemia por COVID-19

Pharmacology of antihistamines and their use in pregnancy

Objetivo: Identificar los fármacos antihistamínicos recomendados en el embarazo. Material y métodos: Mediante la revisión de artículos basados en títulos y resúmenes de la base de datos de PubMed. En los criterios de inclusión encontramos la restricción de resultado a los últimos 5 años, alergia, embarazo, antihistamínicos y embarazo; los cuales son los descriptores MESH. En la extracción tomamos en consideración los artículos que nos proporcionaron información sobre los antihistamínicos, su mecanismo de acción de los antihistamínicos, sus generaciones dentro de los cuales encontramos los fármacos y su categoría en embarazo. Resultados: La administración de antihistamínicos durante la gestación debe darse solamente cuando el beneficio es mayor que el aparente riesgo. Es importante que durante los primeros o en el tercer trimestre de gestación no se utilice ningún antihistamínico, porque se ha demostrado anormalidades en estudios de animales. Conclusiones: Los antihistamínicos se utilizan para tratar alergias mediante el bloqueo del efecto de la histamina. Tienen diferentes presentaciones para su uso, los cuales van a depender del tratamiento más eficaz según el caso clínico. Antes de la administración de antihistamínicos en embarazadas se debe investigar su etiología. Objective: Identtify the recommended anthistamine drugs in pregnacy. Material and methods: By reviewing articles based on titles and abstracts from the PubMed database. In the inclusion criteria we find the restriction of the result to the last 5 years, allergy, pregnancy, antihistamines and pregnancy; which are the MESH descriptors. In the extraction we take into consideration the articles that provided us with information on antihistamines, their mechanism of action of antihistamines, their generations within which we find the drugs and their category in pregnancy. Results: The administration of antihistamines during pregnancy should be given only when the benefit is greater than the apparent risk. It is important that no antihistamine be used during the first or third trimester of pregnancy, because abnormalities have been shown in animal studies. Conclusions: Antihistamines are used to treat allergies by blocking the effect of histamine. They have different presentations for their use, which will depend on the most effective treatment according to the clinical case. Before administering antihistamines in pregnant women, their etiology should be investigated

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements