The Natural Environment and local perceptions of poverty, well-being and justice in a Mexican fishing community. Gaps and bridges between local perceptions and national metrics

Although the ‘right to enjoy a healthy environment’ is granted by the Mexican Law of Social Development, the environmental dimension is missing in the current national measures of multidimensional poverty. This doctoral research aims to understand the implications of this absence by understanding the local meanings, perceptions and lived experiences of poverty; what contributes to a flourishing, worth-lived life and justice; and the nexus between the natural environment. For this purpose, an integrated ‘Justice and well-being pipeline’ conceptual framework, inspired in the capabilities approach, was designed to examine in a holistic way the processes contributing to shape the dynamics of social exclusion. Research was undertaken in the municipality of San Felipe, a fishing community of Yucatán, México between summer 2016 and spring 2017. The research adopted a mixed data collection and analytical methods including Q-methodology and network analysis. A geographically systematic sampling approach was used to collected data through semi-structured interviews and purposive sampling for Q methodology. Research findings suggest that the absence of national indicators to measure progress towards the social right to a healthy environment hides the detrimental and corrosive effects of an unhealthy environment and the disproportionate negative effect on vulnerable groups, especially low-income, the elderly and those who do not benefit from social protection mechanisms provided by the community. Understanding social exclusion dynamics emanating from the experience of environmental injustice is essential to understand the processes that perpetuate social disadvantage. The empirical research provides evidence of the centrality of the natural environment as an enabler of a wide array of valuable life functionings. Based on this evidence, the thesis proposes a hybrid approach that encompasses the incorporation of a set of Environmental Primary Goods (EPGs) within the current multidimensional poverty measure and the creation of an environmental enabling conditions dashboard focusing on making visible key environmental enabling conditions.The financial support that made possible this dissertation include the CONACYT Cambridge Trust, the Mexican SEP Complementary Scholarship, the Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust (CPEST), and Churchill College support including the Pannett Fund. The fieldwork in Mexico was possible thanks to the University Fieldwork Fund and the Tim & Wendy Whitmore Fund

Comprehensive dental care in pediatric patients with hematological diseases

Introducción: los trastornos hematológicos constituyen uno de los problemas de mayor interés a ser considerados por el estomatólogo en su práctica diaria.Objetivo: caracterizar la atención estomatológica integral en pacientes con enfermedades hematológicas del Hospital Pediátrico Provincial Docente “Pepe Portilla” en el período comprendido de septiembre de 2020 a septiembre 2021.Métodos: se desarrolló un estudio observacional, descriptivo de corte transversal; con el propósito de caracterizar la atención estomatológica integral en pacientes con enfermedades hematológicas del Hospital Pediátrico Provincial Docente “Pepe Portilla”, en el período comprendido de septiembre de 2020 a septiembre 2021. El universo y la muestra estuvieron integrados por 21 pacientes, la muestra fue seleccionada de forma intencional, de acuerdo a los criterios de inclusión y exclusión. Los datos se obtuvieron de la historia clínica de los pacientes. Para la descripción de las variables se utilizaron métodos de estadística descriptiva e inferencial.Resultados: los pacientes con edades entre siete y 12 años tuvieron mayor presencia con un 52,38 %. Se detectó una mayor presencia de pacientes de raza blanca con un 42,86 %, con mayor predominio del sexo femenino. El tratamiento conservador resultó ser el más necesitado en el 52,34 % de estos pacientes. El uso de la profilaxis farmacológica en el 47,62 % de los casos, de los cuales el 28,57 % se destinó al tratamiento de tipo quirúrgico.Conclusiones: la mayor parte de los pacientes examinados presentó una higiene bucal deficiente. La profilaxis farmacológica fue el método más empleado previo al tratamiento estomatológico. La fisioterapia de apoyo, la analgesia y la terapia antimicrobiana formaron parte de la conducta a seguir en todas las complicaciones postquirúrgicas presentadas.Introduction: hematological disorders constitute one of the most interesting problems to be considered by the stomatologist in his daily practice.Objective: to characterize the comprehensive stomatological care in patients with hematological diseases at the Provincial Pediatric Teaching Hospital "Pepe Portilla" in the period from September 2020 to September 2021.Methods: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was developed with the purpose of characterizing the comprehensive stomatological care in patients with hematological diseases at the "Pepe Portilla" Pediatric Provincial Teaching Hospital, from September 2020 to September 2021.The universe and the sample consisted of 21 patients, the sample was selected intentionally, according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data were obtained from the clinical history of the patients. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to describe the variables.Results: patients aged between 7 and 12 years had a greater presence with 52,38 %. There was a greater presence of white patients with 42,86 %, with a greater predominance of the female sex. Conservative treatment was the most needed in 52,34 % of these patients. The use of pharmacological prophylaxis in 47,62 % of the cases, of which 28,57 % were destined to surgical type treatment.Conclusions: Most of the patients examined presented poor oral hygiene. Pharmacological prophylaxis was the most used method prior to stomatological treatment. Supportive physiotherapy, analgesia and antimicrobial therapy were part of the treatment for all post-surgical complications

Essential work of fracture of poly(ϵ-caprolactone)/boehmite alumina nanocomposites: Effect of surface coating

The essential work of fracture (EWF) approach has been adopted to reveal the effect of nanofillers on the toughness of poly(ε-caprolactone)/boehmite alumina (PCL/BA) nanocomposites. Synthetic BA particles of different surface treatments were dispersed in the PCL matrix by extrusion melt compounding. The morphology of composites was studied by scanning electron microscopy. Differential scanning calorimetry and wide angle X-ray scattering were used to detect changes in the crystalline structure of PCL. Besides the mode I type EWF tests, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and quasi-static tensile tests were applied to study the effect of BA nanofillers on the mechanical properties. BA was homogenously dispersed and acted as heterogeneous crystallization nucleant and non-reinforcing filler in PCL. The tensile modulus and yield strength slightly increased, whereas the yield strain decreased with increasing BA content (up to 10 wt%). Effect of the BA surface treatment with octylsilane (OS) was negligible by contrast to alkylbenzene sulphonic acid (OS2). Like the tensile mechanical data, the essential and non-essential work of fracture parameters did not change significantly, either. Improved PCL/BA adhesion in case of OS2 treatment excluded the usual EWF treatise. This was circumvented by making use of energy partitioning between yielding and necking. The yielding related essential work of fracture decreased while the non-essential one increased with BA content and with better interfacial adhesion. This was attributed to the effect of matrix/filler debonding

Molecular gas at supernova local environments unveiled by EDGE

CO observations allow estimations of the gas content of molecular clouds, which trace the reservoir of cold gas fuelling star formation, as well as to determine extinction via H$_2$ column density, N(H$_2$). Here, we studied millimetric and optical properties at 26 supernovae (SNe) locations of different types in a sample of 23 nearby galaxies by combining molecular $^{12}$C$^{16}$O (J = 1 $\rightarrow$ 0) resolved maps from the EDGE survey and optical Integral Field Spectroscopy from the CALIFA survey. We found an even clearer separation between type II and type Ibc SNe in terms of molecular gas than what we found in the optical using H$\alpha$ emission as a proxy for current SF rate, which reinforces the fact that SNe Ibc are more associated with SF-environments. While A$_V$ at SN locations is similar for SNe II and SNe Ibc, and higher compared to SNe Ia, N(H$_2$) is significantly higher for SNe Ibc than for SNe II and SNe Ia. When compared to alternative extinction estimations directly from SN photometry and spectroscopy, we find that our SNe Ibc have also redder color excess but showed standard Na I D absorption pseudo-equivalent widths ($\sim$1 \AA). In some cases we find no extinction when estimated from the environment, but high amounts of extinction when measured from SN observations, which suggests that circumstellar material or dust sublimation may be playing a role. This work serves as a benchmark for future studies combining last generation millimeter and optical IFS instruments to reveal the local environmental properties of extragalactic SNe.Comment: MNRAS accepted, 17 pages, 8 Figures, 4 Table

Measurement of Social Support Across Women from Four Ethnic Groups: Evidence of Factorial Invariance

To examine whether a multidimensional social support instrument can be used for comparative research in four diverse ethnic groups of women (African American, Latina, Chinese, non-Latina White). The social support instrument was administered as part of a larger survey to 1,137 women. We tested the reliability and validity of this instrument. A confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) framework was used to test for the invariance of the instrument’s psychometric properties across ethnic groups. We used multitrait scaling to eliminate items that did not meet the item-convergence criterion (r > 0.30) and where items were non-convergent items in at least three groups. A series of nested CFA models assessed the level of factorial invariance. One thousand seventy-four women completed the survey; Their mean age was 61 years with Chinese and Latinas reporting lower education compared to non-Latino Whites (p <. 001). A four-factor model (Tangible, Informational, Financial, Emotional/Companionship) fit within each ethnic group separately, suggested good fit. Multi-group CFA supported configural and metric invariance across all ethnic groups. Only partial scalar invariance was supported. This 8-item instrument is a reliable and valid tool that can be used as a multidimensional measure of social support. It can used to examine social support within one ethnic group and for comparative research across diverse ethnic groups of women

Fibrin association at hybrid biointerfaces made of clot-binding peptides and polythiophene

The properties as biointerfaces of electroactive conducting polymer-peptide biocomposites formed by poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and CREKA or CR(NMe)EKA peptide sequences (where Glu has been replaced by N-methyl-Glu in the latter) have been compared. CREKA is a linear pentapeptide that recognizes clotted plasma proteins and selectively homes to tumors, while CR(NMe)EKA is an engineer to improve such properties by altering peptide-fibrin interactions. Differences between PEDOT-CREKA and PEDOT-CR(NMe)EKA reflect dissemblance in the organization of the peptides into the polymeric matrix. Both peptides affect fibrinogen thrombin-catalyzed polymerization causing the immediate formation of fibrin, whereas in the absence of thrombin this phenomenon is only observed for CR(NMe)EKA. Consistently, the fibrin-adsorption capacity is higher for PEDOT-CR(NMe)EKA than for PEDOT-CREKA, even though in both cases adsorbed fibrin exhibits round-like morphologies rather than the characteristic fibrous structure. PEDOT-peptide films coated with fibrin are selective in terms of cell adhesion, promoting the attachment of metastatic cells with respect to normal cells.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Label-Free Detection of Post-translational Modifications with a Nanopore

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins play key roles in cellular processes. Hence, PTM identification is crucial for elucidating the mechanism of complex cellular processes and disease. Here we present a method for PTM detection at the single-molecule level using FraC biological nanopores. We focus on two major PTMs, phosphorylation and glycosylation, that mutually compete for protein modification sites, an important regulatory process that has been implicated in the pathogenic pathways of many diseases. We show that phosphorylated and glycosylated peptides can be clearly differentiated from nonmodified peptides by differences in the relative current blockade and dwell time in nanopore translocations. Furthermore, we show that these PTM modifications can be mutually differentiated, demonstrating the identification of phosphorylation and glycosylation in a label-free manner. The results represent an important step for the single-molecule, label-free identification of proteoforms, which have tremendous potential for disease diagnosis and cell biology

"Thank you for a lovely day!" Contrastive thanking in textbooks for teaching English and Spanish as foreign languages

Thanking, as other speech acts such as apologizing or requesting,can be performed in numerous contexts and, for their analysis, many crucial variables must be taken into consideration (eg. social distance, gender, age,etc.), which often are difficult to control. Besides these variables, speech acts are carried out in different situations, taking into account the culture in which they are performed. For example, thanking might be performed after alighting a bus in the UK, the USA or Australia, but this might not necessarily happen in Spain. The aim of the study on which this paper is based, in to explore thanking contrastively in British English and in Peninsular Spanish from a pragmatic viewpoint,by looking at specific independent variables: the context and situation in which this speech act is performed, the relationship between the interlocutors who perform it, which includes social power and distance, and the reason for expressing gratitude. For the purpose of this investigation, a corpus of 128 textbooks (64 for each language) for the learning and teaching of Spanish and English as foreign languages was used. It is important to note that, although these corpora are built on prefabricated dialogues and these can be regarded as abstractions of reality, the communicative situations found in the textbooks are aimed at depicting exchanges and linguistic patterns representing what naturally occurs in real conversations in both cultures

Spin models on random graphs with controlled topologies beyond degree constraints

We study Ising spin models on finitely connected random interaction graphs which are drawn from an ensemble in which not only the degree distribution $p(k)$ can be chosen arbitrarily, but which allows for further fine-tuning of the topology via preferential attachment of edges on the basis of an arbitrary function Q(k,k') of the degrees of the vertices involved. We solve these models using finite connectivity equilibrium replica theory, within the replica symmetric ansatz. In our ensemble of graphs, phase diagrams of the spin system are found to depend no longer only on the chosen degree distribution, but also on the choice made for Q(k,k'). The increased ability to control interaction topology in solvable models beyond prescribing only the degree distribution of the interaction graph enables a more accurate modeling of real-world interacting particle systems by spin systems on suitably defined random graphs.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J Phys