Actividad biológica de los extractos metanólicos de Verbesina encelioides frente a aislamientos clínicos de Staphylococcus aureus resistentes a meticilina.

Aim: To evaluate the antimicrobial activity of methanol extracts of capitula from Verbesina Encelioides, against Staphylococcus Aureus resistant to methicillin.Material and methods: Agar diffusion replacing paper disc for wells in solidified Mueller Hinton agar culture medium.Results: Inhibition zone at all concentrations of plant extract tested against strains isolated from patients was reported.Conclusion: As the dose increases the diameter of inhibition zones also enhances in most of the assays, suggesting an antimicrobial activity.Objetivo: evaluar la capacidad antimicrobiana de los extractos metanólicos de capítulos de Verbesina encelioides, frente a Staphylococcus Aureus resistentes a meticilina.Material y Método: difusión en agar, sustituyendo el disco de papel por pocillos en el medio de cultivo agar Mueller Hinton solidificado.Resultado: se presentó halo de inhibición en todas las concentraciones del extracto vegetal ensayadas frente a las cepas aisladas de pacientes.Conclusión: a medida que aumenta la dosis aumenta el diámetro de los halos de inhibición, en la mayoría de los casos, lo que sugeriría una actividad antimicrobiana dosis dependiente de Verbesina enceloides

Psychosocial empowerment-based interventions for smoking reduction: concepts, measures and outcomes. A systematic review

Although empowerment is a widely used concept in health-related areas, its definition remains unclear. While there is evidence for the effectiveness of empowerment interventions in improving some psychosocial factors linked to health (e.g. patient self-care strategy, coping skills, access and effective use of health services) and some health outcomes like mental health and HIV/AIDS-related behaviour, other data appear to contradict this. Moreover, concepts, measures, and outcomes related to empowerment are operationalized in different ways. Using the case of tobacco control programmes, we wanted to explore: (a) how research on smoking reduction/prevention has conceptualized empowerment; (b) which measures and instruments have been used to assess behaviour outcomes and the empowerment process. We hypothesized that the transformative potential that characterizes empowerment is marginally considered. A total of 18 studies reporting on the effect of prevention interventions on smoking and/or empowerment outcomes were reviewed. Two kinds of study were distinguished: (a) studies reporting behaviour outcomes without data about the impact on empowerment; (b) studies analysing the empowerment process. Among this latter type, some studies did not provide information about the specific behaviour (smoking), while others examined the impact of intervention on both smoking and empowerment. In about half of all studies, empowerment strategies were found to be effective in improving smoking outcomes, while no differences were found between intervention and control groups in the remaining studies. The present review suggests that pragmatic definitions of empowerment need to be developed in order to promote its transferability and evaluation

Construction status and prospects of the Hyper-Kamiokande project

The Hyper-Kamiokande project is a 258-kton Water Cherenkov together with a 1.3-MW high-intensity neutrino beam from the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The inner detector with 186-kton fiducial volume is viewed by 20-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and multi-PMT modules, and thereby provides state-of-the-art of Cherenkov ring reconstruction with thresholds in the range of few MeVs. The project is expected to lead to precision neutrino oscillation studies, especially neutrino CP violation, nucleon decay searches, and low energy neutrino astronomy. In 2020, the project was officially approved and construction of the far detector was started at Kamioka. In 2021, the excavation of the access tunnel and initial mass production of the newly developed 20-inch PMTs was also started. In this paper, we present a basic overview of the project and the latest updates on the construction status of the project, which is expected to commence operation in 2027

Prospects for neutrino astrophysics with Hyper-Kamiokande

Hyper-Kamiokande is a multi-purpose next generation neutrino experiment. The detector is a two-layered cylindrical shape ultra-pure water tank, with its height of 64 m and diameter of 71 m. The inner detector will be surrounded by tens of thousands of twenty-inch photosensors and multi-PMT modules to detect water Cherenkov radiation due to the charged particles and provide our fiducial volume of 188 kt. This detection technique is established by Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande. As the successor of these experiments, Hyper-K will be located deep underground, 600 m below Mt. Tochibora at Kamioka in Japan to reduce cosmic-ray backgrounds. Besides our physics program with accelerator neutrino, atmospheric neutrino and proton decay, neutrino astrophysics is an important research topic for Hyper-K. With its fruitful physics research programs, Hyper-K will play a critical role in the next neutrino physics frontier. It will also provide important information via astrophysical neutrino measurements, i.e., solar neutrino, supernova burst neutrinos and supernova relic neutrino. Here, we will discuss the physics potential of Hyper-K neutrino astrophysics

Actividad biológica de los extractos metanólicos de Verbesina encelioides frente a aislamientos clínicos de Staphylococcus aureus resistentes a meticilina

Objetivo: evaluar la capacidad antimicrobiana de los extractos metanólicos de capítulos de Verbesina encelioides, frente a Staphylococcus Aureus resistentes a meticilina. Material y Método: difusión en agar, sustituyendo el disco de papel por pocillos en el medio de cultivo agar Mueller Hinton solidificado. Resultado: se presentó halo de inhibición en todas las concentraciones del extracto vegetal ensayadas frente a las cepas aisladas de pacientes. Conclusión: a medida que aumenta la dosis aumenta el diámetro de los halos de inhibición, en la mayoría de los casos, lo que sugeriría una actividad antimicrobiana dosis dependiente de Verbesina enceloides.Aim: To evaluate the antimicrobial activity of methanol extracts of capitula from Verbesina Encelioides, against Staphylococcus Aureus resistant to methicillin. Material and methods: Agar diffusion replacing paper disc for wells in solidified Mueller Hinton agar culture medium. Results: Inhibition zone at all concentrations of plant extract tested against strains isolated from patients was reported. Conclusion: As the dose increases the diameter of inhibition zones also enhances in most of the assays, suggesting an antimicrobial activity.Financiado por la Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, Argentina