Naturaleza y Humanidad | Nature and Humanity

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The Duty To Protect Survivors Of Gender-based Violence In The Age Of Covid-19: An Expanded Human Rights Framework

Many commentators have referred to domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) in the age of COVID-19 as a “double pandemic.” Based on results of a mixed-methods study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on GBV in South Florida, conducted by the Human Rights Clinic of the University of Miami School of Law, in close collaboration with community-based organizations,1 this article offers a proposal for an expanded normative human rights framework to address domestic violence and other forms of GBV. The local study sought to elucidate the pathways that link pandemics such as COVID-19 and GBV, highlight linkages with other social and economic factors, seek greater clarity on the conditions and systems that actually lead to safety, and inform intervention and response options. Study results show just how underfunded and unprepared service providers have been to respond to victims’ needs and priorities during this pandemic.2 This article’s human rights analysis and recommendations offer approaches that respond to the most affected communities’ needs and priorities and insist on improved policy and government responses during the current crisis and its aftermath. This study built off the fact-finding work of our Human Rights Clinic’s COURAGE in Policing Initiative (COURAGE = Community Oriented and United Responses to Address Gender Violence and Equality), which works with community-based organizations, police departments, and GBV experts locally, nationally, and globally on improving law enforcement responses to GBV. The project aims to increase access to safety and justice for all survivors, with a particular focus on black and brown women, immigrant women, disabled women, indigenous women, LGBTQI individuals, and other underserved populations. In collaboration with partners, the project is developing surveys, model policies, trainings, supervision protocols, reports, online resources, and systems of accountability for improving law enforcement responses to GBV, including research and tools specific to the COVID-19 context. But as the national dialogue transitioned away from law enforcement-centric solutions, and of course, as the pandemic set in in March 2020, the COURAGE project transitioned into a new iteration, which focused on a series of new research questions, namely: (1) How has the COVID pandemic impacted the service providers that interact with GBV survivors in South Florida?; (2) How have service providers responded to the new challenges?; and (3) What are the evolving needs of survivors and service providers throughout the pandemic? The ultimate goal of our research was to produce a series of recommendations that could be implemented across Miami-Dade County and nationwide, to address pressing immediate needs and to better prepare for future public health or other massive crises. Below, we first discuss the “double pandemic” phenomenon of increased domestic violence and other forms of GBV in times of COVID-19. Next, we explore the intersectional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, as it relates to GBV survivors of color and from culturally-specific or underserved communities. Then, we offer a synopsis of our study results, and propose an expanded normative framework that broadens our understanding of how GBV survivors should be protected under international human rights law as well as domestic law. Finally, this article offers policy recommendations

Progress in developing a sweetpotato ontology for breeders

Crop ontologies have been identified under the Generation Challenge Program and at the International Potato Center (CIP) as a crucial tool for managing and analyzing crop related information. Here we report progress on applying ontological concepts on sweetpotato traits important for breeders and varietal development. We defined a general strategy of identifying important traits based on their re-use in catalogs and experience in usage. A list of about 40 descriptors was identified, including 17 morphological and 22 evaluation traits. Those traits were crosschecked against other crop-ontologies (cassava, barley, maize, solanaceae) on the community site ‘crop ontology’ for consistency. Where appropriate, we annotated linkages. The current draft list of traits is still work-in-progress and subject to further review and refinement. This will include completion of traits, further consistency checks and translation before depositing on the crop-ontology site. The 39 descriptors include morphological (17), agronomical (3), resistance (4), biochemical (11) and post-harvest (4) traits

Progress in developing a potato ontology for breeders.

The potato ontology is part of a community effort to establish a set of related crop ontologies. The advantage of an ontology is that both humans and software applications can understand a data domain. This will allow the application of numerical or data mining techniques that may help to uncover previously unknown correlations. Building on previous draft versions, here we focus on traits important to breeding: we identified so far 70 descriptors. These include: morphological (36), agronomical performance (7), resistance traits (7), biochemical (6), reaction to abiotic stresses (2), molecular (1 ) and post-harvest (9). We anticipate further refinements and cross-checks

Characterization of the Adherence of Clostridium difficile Spores: The Integrity of the Outermost Layer Affects Adherence Properties of Spores of the Epidemic Strain R20291 to Components of the Intestinal Mucosa

Indexación: Web of Science.Clostridium difficile is the causative agent of the most frequently reported nosocomial diarrhea worldwide. The high incidence of recurrent infection is the main clinical challenge of C. difficile infections (CBI). Formation of C. difficile spores of the epidemic strain R20291 has been shown to be essential for recurrent infection and transmission of the disease in a mouse model. However, the underlying mechanisms of how these spores persist in the colonic environment remains unclear. In this work, we characterized the adherence properties of epidemic R20291 spores to components of the intestinal mucosa, and we assessed the role of the exosporium integrity in the adherence properties by using cdeC mutant spores with a defective exosporium layer. Our results showed that spores and vegetative cells of the epidemic R20291 strain adhered at high levels to monolayers of Caco-2 cells and mucin. Transmission electron micrographs of Caco-2 cells demonstrated that the hair-like projections on the surface of R20291 spores are in close proximity with the plasma membrane and microvilli of undifferentiated and differentiated monolayers of Caco-2 cells. Competitive-binding assay in differentiated Caco-2 cells suggests that spore-adherence is mediated by specific binding sites. By using spores of a cdeC mutant we demonstrated that the integrity of the exosporium layer determines the affinity of adherence of C. difficile spores to Caco-2 cells and mucin. Binding of fibronectin and vitronectin to the spore surface was concentration-dependent, and depending on the concentration, spore-adherence to Caco-2 cells was enhanced. In the presence of an aberrantly-assembled exosporium (cdeC spores), binding of fibronectin, but not vitronectin, was increased. Notably, independent of the exosporium integrity, only a fraction of the spores had fibronectin and vitronectin molecules binding to their surface. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the integrity of the exosporium layer of strain R20291 contributes to selective spore adherence to components of the intestinal mucosa.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2016.00099/ful

Exploring the transferability of large supramolecular assemblies to the vacuum-solid interface

We present an interplay of high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy imaging and the corresponding theoretical calculations based on elastic scattering quantum chemistry techniques of the adsorption of a gold-functionalized rosette assembly and its building blocks on a Au(111) surface with the goal of exploring how to fabricate functional 3-D molecular nanostructures on surfaces. The supramolecular rosette assembly stabilized by multiple hydrogen bonds has been sublimed onto the Au(111) surface under ultra-high vacuum conditions; the resulting surface nanostructures are distinctly different from those formed by the individual molecular building blocks of the rosette assembly, suggesting that the assembly itself can be transferred intact to the surface by in situ thermal sublimation. This unanticipated result will open up new perspectives for growth of complex 3-D supramolecular nanostructures at the vacuum-solid interface

Generic theory of colloidal transport

We discuss the motion of colloidal particles relative to a two component fluid consisting of solvent and solute. Particle motion can result from (i) net body forces on the particle due to external fields such as gravity; (ii) slip velocities on the particle surface due to surface dissipative phenomena. The perturbations of the hydrodynamic flow field exhibits characteristic differences in cases (i) and (ii) which reflect different patterns of momentum flux corresponding to the existence of net forces, force dipoles or force quadrupoles. In the absence of external fields, gradients of concentration or pressure do not generate net forces on a colloidal particle. Such gradients can nevertheless induce relative motion between particle and fluid. We present a generic description of surface dissipative phenomena based on the linear response of surface fluxes driven by conjugate surface forces. In this framework we discuss different transport scenarios including self-propulsion via surface slip that is induced by active processes on the particle surface. We clarify the nature of force balances in such situations.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur