The use of measurements of hCG and other pregnancy-associated proteins and steroids in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy

The measurement of serum of urinary hCG is commonly used to make or exclude the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy in women presenting with symptoms suspicious of ectopic pregnancy. Detection of depressed hCG levels is indicative of early pregnancy failure. Depressed serum levels of proteins of hormone of trophoblastic, ovarian or endometrial origin make the diagnosis of ectopic gestation more likely, whilst high values are likely to exclude the possibility of this condition.peer-reviewe

The financial sustainability of Microcredit in Portugal

Microcredit and microfinance emerged in the 1970’s in Bangladesh and other developing countries and expanded rapidly worldwide as a business model financially sustainable and able to fight poverty and social exclusion. Empirical evidence confirms microcredit ability to mitigate poverty but its financial sustainability is controversial. Using 2006-2009 Portuguese micro-level data, we estimate the failure rate of Portuguese micro-credit projects as 20,6%/year that, to be financially sustainable, would require a real interest rate by 25%/year. Using a territorial variable on a discrete Cox proportional hazard model with censured data, we estimate that the failure rate of those micro-credit projects located in the worst-case NUTS II Portuguese regions (Alentejo and Centro) and promoted by lower schooling people is significantly higher than best-case.Microcredit, Firms failure rate, Poverty, Financial sustainability

La compleja articulación del concepto de democracia radical en el contexto de la globalización

A lo largo de este artículo se tratará de esbozar el concepto de democracia radical, acuñado por la filósofa belga Chantal Mouffe. Una de las aportaciones más importantes de esta autora es la recuperación de ciertos elementos del segundo Wittgenstein para la definición de su teoría política, aún sabiendo que el filósofo vienés nunca se ocupó de esta materia. Profundizaremos en esta relación entre Wittgenstein y Mouffe para conocer los límites de la democracia radical, teniendo en cuenta que es sólo de un concepto teórico, sino que, expresado en términos wittgensteinianos, se trata de un modo de vida, de una nueva práctica de la política acorde a nuestro globalizado presente.In this paper we would try to understand the concept of “radical democracy”, defined by the Belgian philosopher Chantal Mouffe. One of her most important points is the adaptation of some elements of the second Wittgenstein to her political theory, even though the Austrian philosopher never theorized about politics. We will go deeper into this Wittgenstein-Mouffe link and its complexities, understanding that the radical democracy is not a theoretical concept but a way of life (in the wittgensteinian expression), a new political praxis for our globalized time

Studies of red core root disease of the strawberry caused by Phytophthora fragariae Hickman

The occurrence of physiologic races of Phytophthora fragariae is demonstrated. A comparison is made of the size of sporangia, zoospores and oospores produced by them, and the temperature relations of the races are determined. The differential response to red core of five varieties of strawberry, namely, Huxley, Oberschlesien, Auchincruive 6, Auchincruive Climax and Auchincruive 11 is studied. The conditions governing the germination of the oospores are investigated

Foliations and Chern-Heinz inequalities

We extend the Chern-Heinz inequalities about mean curvature and scalar curvature of graphs of $C^{2}$-functions to leaves of transversally oriented codimension one $C^{2}$-foliations of Riemannian manifolds. That extends partially Salavessa's work on mean curvature of graphs and generalize results of Barbosa-Kenmotsu-Oshikiri \cite{barbosa-kenmotsu-Oshikiri} and Barbosa-Gomes-Silveira \cite{barbosa-gomes-silveira} about foliations of 3-dimensional Riemannian manifolds by constant mean curvature surfaces. These Chern-Heinz inequalities for foliations can be applied to prove Haymann-Makai-Osserman inequality (lower bounds of the fundamental tones of bounded open subsets $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^{2}$ in terms of its inradius) for embedded tubular neighborhoods of simple curves of $\mathbb{R}^{n}$.Comment: This paper is an improvment of an earlier paper titled On Chern-Heinz Inequalities. 8 Pages, Late

Los efectos de la dominación simbólica en el feminismo

En este artículo quisiera aludir a las tesis de Bourdieu sobre la dominación simbólica, incidiendo en su faceta androcéntrica; para, a continuación contemplar cómo, debido al carácter incorporado de dicha estructura (esto es, a que su eficacia radica en que el dominado contribuye a su propia dominación), algunas teorías y prácticas feministas, como el feminismo de la diferencia de Luce Irigaray, los planteamientos éticos y políticos de Benhabib y la subversión de la identidad que promueve Butler, pueden llegar a reproducir las diferencias que pretendían combatir. Finalmente, quisiera plantear las opciones que pueden llevar a cabo los distintos feminismos (y otras figuras dominadas) para evitar estos problemas.In this paper, I would like to refer to Bourdieu’s symbolic domination, with an especial interest in its androcentric aspect. In a second moment, I would examine how due to the embodied character of this androcentric structure (i. e., this domination is effective within the dominated contribute to its own domination), some feminist movements, for example Irigaray’s feminism of the difference, Benhabib’s ethic and political theory and the subversion of the identity proposed by Butler) might reproduce the discrimination that they aimed to avoid. Finally, I would like to present the options and choices that feminists (and other dominated actors) could manage to avoid this kind of problems

Industrial waste whey as a low-cost, efficient and environmentally safe disinfectant, with potential applications for minimally processed foodstuff

Current Approaches in Science and Technology Research, Vol. 14, Chapter 11Being a fast and reliable way to access healthy products, fresh-cut fruit and vegetables are becoming a rapidly rising sector of the horticultural industry with a concomitant high consumer demand. Fresh-cut processing usually involves sanitizing steps, with chlorine washing being the general choice. Due to the health harming effects of chlorine, there has been an increasing demand for alternative disinfecting agents. Under this context, fermented cheese whey has shown potential as a natural sanitizing agent but has been poorly tested in fresh-cut produce. Furthermore, it also continues to pose an environmental problem because it still contains a high organic load. Here we aimed at developing a low-cost, scalable fermentation protocol to produce a disinfectant from dairy waste that has very little organic content and high levels of lactic acid. Fermentation was achieved with industrial whey from ewe, goat, and cow´s milk, using a specific mesophilic-lactic acid bacteria starter mix over a more prolonged fermentation of 120 h, which yielded the highest lactic acid production and the lowest lactose content. Antibacterial activity was observed against Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica, and Escherichia coli O157:H7, plus a total of thirteen other food pathogenic and spoilage strains, and antibacterial activities were determined to be highest after 120 h. We further validated this whey’s application as a disinfectant in shredded lettuce and compared its efficacy to that of chlorine, evaluating microbial quality, texture, color, and sensory perception, pH, and O2 and CO2 determinations. Results showed that not only was microbial quality better when using our whey solution (p < 0.05), but also the quality indicators for whey were statistically similar to those treated with chlorine. Hence, our work validates the use of an industrial waste whey as a low-cost, efficient, and environmentally safe disinfectant, with potential applications for minimally processed foodstuffs as an alternative to chlorineinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio