1,429 research outputs found
Saving the present in Brazil: Perspectives from collaborations with indigenous museums
This paper explores some of the challenges and
benefits involved in the collaboration between
the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of
the University of SĂŁo Paulo, the India Vanuire
Historical and Pedagogical Museum, and the
Kaingang people of Vanuire, as well as some of
the outcomes of these partnerships, such as the
creation of the Kaingang Wowkriwig Museum.
These experiences showed that working in collaboration
with indigenous groups can be mutually
beneficial and rewarding. The benefits include
opportunities to empower the Kaingang
to create and manage their own museums, and
to exchange more effective preservation strategies,
information about manufacturing technologies,
as well as the original use and significance
of objects. Moreover, the significance of objects
whose value had diminished was revived by
the new perspectives brought about by these
inclusive approaches. The paper concludes that
many other museums can act as agents of these
processes but a prerequisite is a reconsideration
of their relationships with indigenous groups
and how the past can be redressed
Unified scaling of the structure and loading of nanoparticles formed via diffusion-limited coalescence
The present study establishes the scaling laws describing the structure of spherical nanoparticles formed by diffusion-limited coalescence. We produced drug-loaded nanoparticles from a poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(d,l-lactic acid) diblock polymer (PEG-b-PLA) by the nanoprecipitation method using different types of micromixing chambers to explore multiple mixing regimes and characteristic times. We first show that the drug loading of the nanoparticles is not controlled by the mixing time but solely by the drug-to-polymer ratio (D:P) in the feed and the hydrophobicity of the drug scaled via the partition coefficient P. We then procure compelling evidence that particles formed via diffusion/coalescence exhibit a relative distribution of PEG blocks between the particle core and its shell that depends only on mixing conditions (not on D:P). Scaling laws of PEG relative distribution and chain surface density were derived in different mixing regimes and showed excellent agreement with experimental data. In particular, results made evident that PEG blocks entrapment in the core of the particles occurs in the slow-mixing regime and favors the overloading (above the thermodynamic limit) of the particles with hydrophilic drugs. The present analysis compiles effective guidelines for the scale up of nanoparticles structure and properties with mixing conditions, which should facilitate their future translation to medical and industrial settings
Application of fuzzy logic and geostatistic in the analysis of the fertility of a soil under pasture
The objective of this research was to generate a representation of the chemical attributes of the soil, using fuzzy logic and geostatistic analysis as procedures of appropriate mapping to the representation of continuous phenomena. The area in study is located in the south of Espirito Santo state, county district of Alegre. The experiment was done in an Ultisol Yellow-Red loamy texture under cultivation of pasture Brachiaria decumbens The soil was sampled in the depth of 0-0,2 m, in the 64 points of a regular grid, with dimension of 90 x 90 m. The studied chemical attributes were K, Ca, Mg, Al. SB, T and V It took place a continuous classification (if the attributes, using the fuzzy logic The data were submitted to the descriptive analysis and, soon afterwards. the geostatistic analysis. through the semivariograms adjustment. The attributes presented moderate and high variability measured by CV. All of the attributes presented spatial dependence, demonstrated by the adjustment of the spherical and the exponential semivariogram The maps in study presented a mild representation of the limits of variation of the degrees of pertinence of the chemical attributes of the soil, turning them more representative The fuzzy logic associated to the geostatistic analysis is it suitable technique to be applied to generate a representation of soils attributes, which naturally present a gradual variation in the land.40332333
Host Plant Record for the Fruit Flies, Anastrepha fumipennis and A. nascimentoi (Diptera, Tephritidae)
The first host plant record for Anastrepha fumipennis Lima (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Geissospermum laeve (Vell.) Baill (Apocynaceae) and for A. nascimentoi Zucchi found in Cathedra bahiensis Sleumer (Olacaceae) was determined in a host plant survey of fruit flies undertaken at the âReserva Natural da Companhia Vale do Rio Doceâ. This reserve is located in an Atlantic Rain Forest remnant area, in Linhares county, state of EspĂrito Santo, Brazil. The phylogenetic relationships of Anastrepha species and their hosts are discussed. The occurrence of these fruit fly species in relation to the distribution range of their host plants is also discussed
Identifying COPD patients at risk for worse symptoms, HRQoL, and self-efficacy: A cluster analysis
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No straight lines â young womenâs perceptions of their mental health and wellbeing during and after pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-ethnography
Background: Young mothers face mental health challenges during and after pregnancy including increased rates of depression compared to older mothers. While the prevention of teenage pregnancy in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom has been a focus for policy and research in recent decades, the need to understand young womenâs own experiences has been highlighted. The aim of this meta-ethnography was to examine young womenâs perceptions of their mental health and wellbeing during and after pregnancy to provide new understandings of those experiences.
Methods: A systematic review and meta-ethnographic synthesis of qualitative research was conducted. Seven databases were systematically searched and forward and backward searching conducted. Papers were included if they were from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and explored mental health and wellbeing experiences of young mothers (age under 20 in pregnancy; under 25 at time of research) as a primary research question â or where evidence about mental health and wellbeing from participants was foregrounded. Nineteen papers were identified and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist for qualitative research used to appraise the evidence. Following the seven-step process of meta-ethnography, key constructs were examined within each study and then translated into one another.
Results: Seven translated themes were identified forming a new line of argument wherein mental health and wellbeing was analysed as relating to individual bodily experiences; tied into past and present relationships; underpinned by economic insecurity and entangled with feelings of societal surveillance. There were âno straight linesâ in young womenâs experiences, which were more complex than dominant narratives around overcoming adversity suggest.
Conclusions: The synthesis concludes that health and social care professionals need to reflect on the operation of power and stigma in young womenâs lives and its impact on wellbeing. It adds to understanding of young womenâs mental health and wellbeing during and after pregnancy as located in physical and structural factors rather than individual capacities alone
MFGE8 does not influence chorio-retinal homeostasis or choroidal neovascularization in vivo
Purpose: Milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor-factor VIII (MFGE8) is necessary for diurnal outer segment phagocytosis and promotes VEGF-dependent neovascularization. The prevalence of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in MFGE8 was studied in two exsudative or âwetâ Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) groups and two corresponding control groups. We studied the effect of MFGE8 deficiency on retinal homeostasis with age and on choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in mice.
Methods: The distribution of the SNP (rs4945 and rs1878326) of MFGE8 was analyzed in two groups of patients with âwetâ AMD and their age-matched controls from Germany and France. MFGE8-expressing cells were identified in Mfge8+/â mice expressing Ă-galactosidase. Aged Mfge8+/â and Mfge8â/â mice were studied by funduscopy, histology, electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy of vascular corrosion casts of the choroid, and after laser-induced CNV.
Results: rs1878326 was associated with AMD in the French and German group. The Mfge8 promoter is highly active in photoreceptors but not in retinal pigment epithelium cells. Mfge8â/â mice did not differ from controls in terms of fundus appearance, photoreceptor cell layers, choroidal architecture or laser-induced CNV. In contrast, the Bruch's membrane (BM) was slightly but significantly thicker in Mfge8â/â mice as compared to controls.
Conclusions: Despite a reproducible minor increase of rs1878326 in AMD patients and a very modest increase in BM in Mfge8â/â mice, our data suggests that MFGE8 dysfunction does not play a critical role in the pathogenesis of AMD
Higher spin interactions with scalar matter on constant curvature spacetimes: conserved current and cubic coupling generating functions
Cubic couplings between a complex scalar field and a tower of symmetric
tensor gauge fields of all ranks are investigated on any constant curvature
spacetime of dimension d>2. Following Noether's method, the gauge fields
interact with the scalar field via minimal coupling to the conserved currents.
A symmetric conserved current, bilinear in the scalar field and containing up
to r derivatives, is obtained for any rank r from its flat spacetime
counterpart in dimension d+1, via a radial dimensional reduction valid
precisely for the mass-square domain of unitarity in (anti) de Sitter spacetime
of dimension d. The infinite collection of conserved currents and cubic
vertices are summarized in a compact form by making use of generating functions
and of the Weyl/Wigner quantization on constant curvature spaces.Comment: 35+1 pages, v2: two references added, typos corrected, enlarged
discussions in Subsection 5.2 and in Conclusion, to appear in JHE
Effective action in a higher-spin background
We consider a free massless scalar field coupled to an infinite tower of
background higher-spin gauge fields via minimal coupling to the traceless
conserved currents. The set of Abelian gauge transformations is deformed to the
non-Abelian group of unitary operators acting on the scalar field. The gauge
invariant effective action is computed perturbatively in the external fields.
The structure of the various (divergent or finite) terms is determined. In
particular, the quadratic part of the logarithmically divergent (or of the
finite) term is expressed in terms of curvatures and related to conformal
higher-spin gravity. The generalized higher-spin Weyl anomalies are also
determined. The relation with the theory of interacting higher-spin gauge
fields on anti de Sitter spacetime via the holographic correspondence is
discussed.Comment: 40 pages, Some errors and typos corrected, Version published in JHE
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