Risco de exposição a agentes químicos e atmosferas explosivas em minas de carvão em Topaga, Colômbia

An observational cross-sectional study with a descriptive approach was carried out with the objective of determining the risk due to exposure to chemical agents, dangerous atmospheres and defining recommendations to improve working conditions in the coal mines of Tópaga (Boyacá).  During the data collection process was used the questionnaire for the identification and prevention of risk in confined spaces, of the National Institute of Safety and Hygiene at Work.  Moreover, gas measurements were made in the mines.  The results show that 25% of the mines have oxygen levels below 19.5% and none exceed the explosive limit.  15% exceed the Permissible Limit Value (VLP) for carbon monoxide and 20% exceed the VLP for hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide.  The proposed recommendations include favoring natural ventilation, applying forced ventilation when the natural one is insufficient and the use of non-sparking shoes and tools.  It is concluded that, in general, the working conditions in the mines are inadequate for the safety and health of the miners.Se realizó un estudio observacional de corte transversal con enfoque descriptivo con el objetivo de determinar el riesgo por exposición a agentes químicos, atmósferas peligrosas y definir recomendaciones para mejorar las condiciones de trabajo en las minas de carbón de Tópaga (Boyacá).  Para recopilar la información se utilizó el cuestionario para la identificación y prevención del riesgo en espacios confinados, del Instituto Nacional de Seguridad e Higiene en el Trabajo, y se realizaron mediciones de gases en las minas.  Los resultados muestran que el 25% de las minas tienen niveles de oxígeno inferiores a 19,5% y ninguna supera el límite de explosividad.  El 15% supera el Valor Límite Permisible (VLP) de monóxido de carbono y el 20% supera el VLP de sulfuro de hidrógeno y dióxido de azufre.  Entre las recomendaciones propuestas se encuentra favorecer la ventilación natural, aplicar ventilación forzada cuando la natural resulte insuficiente y el empleo de calzado y herramientas antichispa.  Se concluye que, en general, las condiciones de trabajo en las minas son inadecuadas para la seguridad y salud de los mineros.Foi realizado um estudo observacional transversal com abordagem descritiva com o objetivo de determinar o risco devido à exposição a agentes químicos, atmosferas perigosas e definir recomendações para melhorar as condições de trabalho nas minas de carvão de Tópaga em Boyacá. Para colher as informações, foi utilizado o questionário de identificação e prevenção de riscos em espaços confinados, do Instituto Nacional de Segurança e Higiene no Trabalho, e realizaram medidas do nível dos gases nas minas visitadas. Os resultados mostram que 25% das minas apresentam níveis de oxigênio abaixo de 19,5% e nenhuma excede o limite explosivo. 15% excedem o valor limite permitido (VLP) para o monóxido de carbono e 20% excedem o VLP para o sulfeto de hidrogênio e dióxido de enxofre. Entre as recomendações propostas estão favorecer a ventilação natural, aplicar ventilação forçada quando a ventilação natural for insuficiente e o uso de calçados e ferramentas anti-faísca. Conclui-se que, em geral, as condições de trabalho nas minas são inadequadas para a segurança e a saúde dos mineiros

Evaluación de carga física en los procesos de empacado de fruta en empresas de la Provincia de Rio Negro en la Patagonia Argentina

Introducción. Este estudio observacional de corte transversal, describió el análisis realizado con una población de 8 operarios, para valorar la exposición a carga física de los trabajadores de la actividad de empaque de fruta en la provincia de en Rio Negro–Argentina. Métodos. El análisis que se efectúo con los métodos manuales RULA y Check List OCRA, favoreció la evaluación de la exposición a factores de riesgo que pueden ocasionar trastornos en miembros superiores. Resultados. La carga física en las actividades de selección y empaque de fruta alcanzan niveles críticos en movimientos y esfuerzos, están relacionados con más de 15 enfermedades de acuerdo con la OIT y legislación argentina. Para disminuir el nivel de riesgo se recomendaron tiempos de descanso, rotación de personal, apoyos corporales adecuados entre otros. Conclusión. Se recomienda evaluar el proceso de manera sistémica, para proponer una intervención integral que mejore el bienestar de los operario

Exome-wide association study to identify rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes : Results from the Host Genetics Initiative

Publisher Copyright: Copyright: © 2022 Butler-Laporte et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Host genetics is a key determinant of COVID-19 outcomes. Previously, the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative genome-wide association study used common variants to identify multiple loci associated with COVID-19 outcomes. However, variants with the largest impact on COVID-19 outcomes are expected to be rare in the population. Hence, studying rare variants may provide additional insights into disease susceptibility and pathogenesis, thereby informing therapeutics development. Here, we combined whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing from 21 cohorts across 12 countries and performed rare variant exome-wide burden analyses for COVID-19 outcomes. In an analysis of 5,085 severe disease cases and 571,737 controls, we observed that carrying a rare deleterious variant in the SARS-CoV-2 sensor toll-like receptor TLR7 (on chromosome X) was associated with a 5.3-fold increase in severe disease (95% CI: 2.75–10.05, p = 5.41x10-7). This association was consistent across sexes. These results further support TLR7 as a genetic determinant of severe disease and suggest that larger studies on rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes could provide additional insights.Peer reviewe

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

XVI International Congress of Control Electronics and Telecommunications: "Techno-scientific considerations for a post-pandemic world intensive in knowledge, innovation and sustainable local development"

Este título, sugestivo por los impactos durante la situación de la Covid 19 en el mundo, y que en Colombia lastimosamente han sido muy críticos, permiten asumir la obligada superación de tensiones sociales, políticas, y económicas; pero sobre todo científicas y tecnológicas. Inicialmente, esto supone la existencia de una capacidad de la sociedad colombiana por recuperar su estado inicial después de que haya cesado la perturbación a la que fue sometida por la catastrófica pandemia, y superar ese anterior estado de cosas ya que se encontraban -y aún se encuentran- muchos problemas locales mal resueltos, medianamente resueltos, y muchos sin resolver: es decir, habrá que rediseñar y fortalecer una probada resiliencia social existente - producto del prolongado conflicto social colombiano superado parcialmente por un proceso de paz exitoso - desde la tecnociencia local; como lo indicaba Markus Brunnermeier - economista alemán y catedrático de economía de la Universidad de Princeton- en su libro The Resilient Society…La cuestión no es preveerlo todo sino poder reaccionar…aprender a recuperarse rápido.This title, suggestive of the impacts during the Covid 19 situation in the world, and which have unfortunately been very critical in Colombia, allows us to assume the obligatory overcoming of social, political, and economic tensions; but above all scientific and technological. Initially, this supposes the existence of a capacity of Colombian society to recover its initial state after the disturbance to which it was subjected by the catastrophic pandemic has ceased, and to overcome that previous state of affairs since it was found -and still is find - many local problems poorly resolved, moderately resolved, and many unresolved: that is, an existing social resilience test will have to be redesigned and strengthened - product of the prolonged Colombian social conflict partially overcome by a successful peace process - from local technoscience; As Markus Brunnermeier - German economist and professor of economics at Princeton University - indicates in his book The Resilient Society...The question is not to foresee everything but to be able to react...learn to recover quickly.Bogot

Safety proposal based on behavior for a public transport company in Colombia. Continuation of a case study

An observational cross-sectional study was carried out with a descriptive approach in a probabilistic sample of 127 drivers with the aim of making a security proposal based on behavior for a public transport company in Colombia. The results show that the most frequent unsafe behaviors in drivers were speeding and not using directional signals. On average, 90% of drivers are aware of the risk of suffering from traffic accidents with deadly consequences when performing unsafe behaviors. The main reasons that drivers had to perform unsafe behaviors were lack of time and traveling without a bus attendant. The incentives that motivate a greater number of drivers to perform safe behaviours are rest time, receiving a bonus and recreation. The procedures of prevention that can produce a greater reduction of unsafe behaviors are: training plan, feedback, positive reinforcement and negative punishmentSe realizó un estudio observacional de corte transversal con enfoque descriptivo en una muestra probabilística de 127 conductores con el objetivo de realizar una propuesta de seguridad basada en el comportamiento para una empresa de transporte público en Colombia. Los resultados muestran que las conductas inseguras más frecuentes en los conductores fueron exceso de velocidad y no utilizar direccionales. En promedio el 90% de los conductores son conscientes del riesgo que tienen de sufrir accidentes de tránsito con consecuencias mortales al realizar conductas inseguras. Los principales motivos que tuvieron los conductores para realizar conductas inseguras fueron falta de tiempo y realizar los recorridos sin auxiliar. Los incentivos que motivan a una mayor cantidad de conductores a realizar conductas seguras son tiempo de descanso, recibir una bonificación y recreación. Los procedimientos de prevención que pueden generar una mayor reducción de conductas inseguras son: plan formativo, retroalimentación, reforzamiento positivo y castigo negativo

Determination of unsafe behavior in bus drivers and its relationship to traffic accidents: Case study of a company of public transport in Colombia

A cross-sectional observational study with descriptive and analytical approach that aims at determining unsafe behavior of bus drivers from a company of public transportation and its relation to traffic accidents was conducted in a probability sample of 127 drivers. The results showed that drivers performed an average of 86.86 unsafe driving behaviors for every two hours of travel time; the most frequent behavior was speeding, while not keeping a safe distance was the main cause of the company's bus accidents. The correlation between unsafe behavior and causes of accidents in the company was positive but non-significant. The information gathered will allow to modify behaviors from unsafe to safe, as a future strategy for the improvement of road safety.Se realizó un estudio observacional de corte transversal con enfoque descriptivo analítico con el objetivo de determinar conductas inseguras en conductores de bus de una empresa de transporte público y su relación con accidentes de tránsito en una muestra probabilística de 127 conductores. Los resultados muestran que los conductores realizaron en promedio 86,86 conductas inseguras por cada dos horas de recorrido; de estas, el exceso de velocidad presentó mayor frecuencia, mientras que la principal causa de los accidentes de bus de la empresa fue no mantener distancia de seguridad. La correlación entre las conductas inseguras y las causas de los accidentes de la empresa es positiva pero no significativa. La información recolectada permitirá modificar las conductas inseguras mediante el aprendizaje de conductas seguras, como futura estrategia para el mejoramiento de la seguridad vial

Exome-wide association study to identify rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes : Results from the Host Genetics Initiative

Publisher Copyright: Copyright: © 2022 Butler-Laporte et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Host genetics is a key determinant of COVID-19 outcomes. Previously, the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative genome-wide association study used common variants to identify multiple loci associated with COVID-19 outcomes. However, variants with the largest impact on COVID-19 outcomes are expected to be rare in the population. Hence, studying rare variants may provide additional insights into disease susceptibility and pathogenesis, thereby informing therapeutics development. Here, we combined whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing from 21 cohorts across 12 countries and performed rare variant exome-wide burden analyses for COVID-19 outcomes. In an analysis of 5,085 severe disease cases and 571,737 controls, we observed that carrying a rare deleterious variant in the SARS-CoV-2 sensor toll-like receptor TLR7 (on chromosome X) was associated with a 5.3-fold increase in severe disease (95% CI: 2.75–10.05, p = 5.41x10-7). This association was consistent across sexes. These results further support TLR7 as a genetic determinant of severe disease and suggest that larger studies on rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes could provide additional insights.Peer reviewe

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

International audienceAbstract Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations 1–6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories 7 , we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees