Blood\u27s Concentration of Lead and Arsenic Associated with Anemia in Peruvian Children

This exploratory, descriptive cohort study (N = 60) determined lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) blood concentrations in Peruvian children and their association with hematological parameters of iron-deficient anemia (IDA) and anthropometric measurement. The mean age of children was 10.8 months (SD = 4.7) and ranged from 3 to 24 months old. Anemia (Hb levels below 10.5 g/dL) was found in 20% of this cohort. Additionally, microcytosis (MCV \u3c 70 fL) was present in 54%, and hypochromia (MCH \u3c 23 pg) in 42% of the group of children. Chi-square analysis showed that 88% of the children with anemia also had microcytosis and hypochromia (p \u3c 0.001). Pb and As were detected in 100% of the infants’ blood samples, and the concentrations were significantly higher in older infants than in younger ones. Pb and As were not associated with the sex, anthropomorphic parameters, or infant hemogram changes. Infants who received iron supplementation were 87% less likely to have low Hb compared with those who did not (OR = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.02–0.88, p = 0.04). Herbal tea intake was significantly associated with microcytosis and hypochromia. Our finding uncovered that hematological parameters for anemia are modified in Peruvian children with high levels of microcytosis and hypochromia. Concentrations of Pb and As were above method detection limits in all Peruvian children, but these were not associated with IDA or anthropometric measurements. A large study, including other variables, would benefit from allowing a more complex model predicting anemia in Peruvian children

Information practices for sustainability: role of iSchools in achieving the UN sustainable development goals(SDGs)

In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) GeneralAssembly passed a resolution identifying 17 Sustain-able Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associated tar-gets, and countries around the world agreed to achievethese by 2030. By conducting a thematic analysis offour key UN policy documents related to sustainabledevelopment, this paper argues that alongside financialand other resources, access to, and use of, appropriateinformation are essential for achieving SDGs. The paperalso reviews research on information and sustainabilityundertaken at the iSchools and the computer andhuman–computer interaction HCI communities. Giventhat the mission of iSchools is to connect people andsociety with the required information through the use ofappropriate technologies and tools, this paper arguesthat iSchools can play a key role in helping people, insti-tutions, and businesses, and thus countries around theworld achieve SDGs. The paper identifies 4 broad areasof teaching and research that can help iSchools aroundthe world prepare a trained workforce who can manage,and facilitate access to, information in specific domainsand contexts. It is also argued that cooperation and col-laborations among iSchools can promote a culture ofsustainable information practices among universitygraduates and researchers in different disciplines thatwill pave the way for achieving SDGs in every sector

Kinds of Seeing and their Functions in Designing

Architectural designing is described as a kind of experimentation that consists in reflective'conversation'with the materials of a design situation. A designer sees, moves and sees again. Working in some visual medium -- drawing, in the article examples -- the designer sees what is'there'in some representation of a site, draws in relation to it, and sees what has been drawn, thereby informing further designing. In all this'seeing'the designer not only visually registers information but also constructs its meaning -- identifies patterns and gives them meanings beyond themselves. Words like'recognize,''detect,''discover'and'appreciate'denote variants of seeing, as do such terms as'seeing that,''seeing as'and'seeing in.'The purpose here is to explore the kinds of seeing involved in designing and to describe their various functions. At local and global levels, and in many different ways, designing is an interaction of making and seeing, doing and discovering. On the basis of a few minuscule examples, the authors suggest some of the ways in which this sort of interaction works. Some conditions that enable it to work are described. And some of its consequences for design education and for the development of computer environments useful to designers are draw