Bridging universities and industry through cleaner production activities. Experiences from the Cleaner Production Center at the University of Cienfuegos, Cuba

The involvement of universities is crucial to identify how Cleaner Production strategies are formed in practice so that companies integrate sustainability into their strategies. This paper discusses the experience of establishing and operating the Cleaner Production Center at the University of Cienfuegos. From 2008 to 2011, the University of Cienfuegos, the Free University of Brussels (Belgium) and the University of Leuven (Belgium) implemented a project, financially supported by the Flemish Interuniversity Council (Belgium) allowing establishing a Cleaner Production Center at the University of Cienfuegos. This first project was followed by a second University of Cienfuegos - University of Leuven one. So far, the collaboration allowed to establish a master program on Cleaner Production that constitutes a bridge between the university and the production and service sector, allowing to promote and implement cleaner production strategies. 34 master students graduated during two graduations and a third one is ongoing. Among the most important results of the master thesis were the yearly reduction of the emission of 60 000 t/a of carbon dioxide equivalent and of the electricity consumption by 400 MWh/a at a cement plant. Research activities on Cleaner Production were upgraded through the collaboration resulting in several publications in peer-reviewed journals with impact factor. This type of North-South cooperation aided establishing and developing the center, by transferring expertise and experience and by providing part of the necessary funding which is difficult to raise by developing economies. This case study offers an interesting practice example about developing academic (training, research) values on Cleaner Production

Calculation of striking and contact stresses in a mechanism of regulating the position of a device’s carving cutters

Розроблено методику розрахунку ударних та контактних напружень у механізмі регулювання положення довбальних різців пристрою при виготовленні внутрішніх гвинтових шліцьових канавок методом довбання. Виведено аналітичні залежності зміни значення сили удару від зведеної маси контактуючих деталей при різних значеннях швидкості контакту для забезпечення нормальних умов експлуатації зубів механізму односторонньої дії.The technique of calculating the striking and contact stresses in a mechanism of regulating the position of a device’s carving cutters during the manufacture of internal screw slot grooves using the carving methods is worked out. The analytical dependences of changing the value of impact power on the reduced mass of contacting details at different values of contact velocity in order to supply the normal conditions of exploitation of mechanism’s teeth of one-way action are developed as well

Vocalisation repertoire at the end of the first year of life: an exploratory comparison of Rett syndrome and typical development

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a rare, late detected developmental disorder associated with severe deficits in the speech-language domain. Despite a few reports about atypicalities in the speech-language development of infants and toddlers with RTT, a detailed analysis of the pre-linguistic vocalisation repertoire of infants with RTT is yet missing. Based on home video recordings, we analysed the vocalisations between 9 and 11 months of age of three female infants with typical RTT and compared them to three age-matched typically developing (TD) female controls. The video material of the infants had a total duration of 424 min with 1655 infant vocalisations. For each month, we (1) calculated the infants’ canonical babbling ratios with CBR(UTTER), i.e., the ratio of number of utterances containing canonical syllables to total number of utterances, and (2) classified their pre-linguistic vocalisations in three non-canonical and four canonical vocalisation subtypes. All infants achieved the milestone of canonical babbling at 9 months of age according to their canonical babbling ratios, i.e. CBR(UTTER) ≥ 0.15. We revealed overall lower CBRs(UTTER) and a lower proportion of canonical pre-linguistic vocalisations consisting of well-formed sounds that could serve as parts of target-language words for the RTT group compared to the TD group. Further studies with more data from individuals with RTT are needed to study the atypicalities in the pre-linguistic vocalisation repertoire which may portend the later deficits in spoken language that are characteristic features of RTT

Ozone Therapy on Rats Submitted to Subtotal Nephrectomy: Role of Antioxidant System

Chronic renal failure (CRF) represents a world health problem. Ozone increases the endogenous antioxidant defense system, preserving the cell redox state. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of ozone/oxygen mixture in the renal function, morphology, and biochemical parameters, in an experimental model of CRF (subtotal nephrectomy). Ozone/oxygen mixture was applied daily, by rectal insufflation (0.5 mg/kg) for 15 sessions after the nephrectomy. Renal function was evaluated, as well as different biochemical parameters, at the beginning and at the end of the study (10 weeks). Renal plasmatic flow (RPF), glomerular filtration rate (GFR), the urine excretion index, and the sodium and potassium excretions (as a measurement of tubular function) in the ozone group were similar to those in Sham group. Nevertheless, nephrectomized rats without ozone (positive control group) showed the lowest RPF, GFR, and urine excretion figures, as well as tubular function. Animals treated with ozone showed systolic arterial pressure (SAP) figures lower than those in the positive control group, but higher values compared to Sham group. Serum creatinine values and protein excretion in 24 hours in the ozone group were decreased compared with nephrectomized rats, but were still higher than normal values. Histological study demonstrated that animals treated with ozone showed less number of lesions in comparison with nephrectomized rats. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances were significantly increased in nephrectomized and ozone-treated nephrectomized rats in comparison with Sham group. In the positive control group, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) showed the lowest figures in comparison with the other groups. However, ozone/oxygen mixture induced a significant stimulation in the enzymatic activity of CAT, SOD, and glutathione peroxidase, as well as reduced glutathione in relation with Sham and positive control groups. In this animal model of CRF, ozone rectal administrations produced a delay in the advance of the disease, protecting the kidneys against vascular, hemorheological, and oxidative mechanisms. This behavior suggests ozone therapy has a protective effect on renal tissue by downregulation of the oxidative stress shown in CRF

The Impact of a Post-Prescription Review and Feedback Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in Lebanon

Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are effective means to optimize prescribing practices. They are under-utilized in the Middle East where many challenges exist for ASP implementation. We assessed the effectiveness of infectious disease physician-driven post-prescription review and feedback as an ASP in Lebanon. This prospective cohort study was conducted over an 18-month period in the medical, surgical, and intensive care units of a tertiary care hospital. It consisted of three phases: the baseline, intervention, and follow-up. There was a washout period of two months between each phase. Patients aged ≥16 years receiving 48 h of antibiotics were included. During the intervention phase, the AMS team reviewed antimicrobial use within 72 h post-prescription and gave alternate recommendations based on the guidelines for use. The acceptance of the recommendations was measured at 72 h. The primary outcome of the study was days of therapy per 1000 study patient days. A total of 328 patients were recruited in the baseline phase (August-October 2020), 467 patients in the intervention phase (January-June 2021), and 301 patients in the post-intervention phase (September-December 2021). The total days of therapy decreased from 11.46 during the baseline phase to 8.64 during the intervention phase (p \u3c 0.001). Intervention acceptance occurred 88.5% of the time. The infectious disease physician-driven implementation of an ASP was successful in reducing antibiotic utilization in an acute care setting in Lebanon

Histiocitosis: Reporte de un caso

La histiocitosis de células de Langerhans se describió desde el siglo XIX. Su origen y patogénesis se basan actualmente en tres eventos: clonalidad comprobada, un proceso reactivo a una infección viral, una proliferación y daño mediados por citocinas. El diagnóstico es histopatológico con la demostración de gránulos de Birbeck o la positividad para CD1a. Afecta a pacientes de cualquier edad y se manifiesta como una lesión osteolítica única o hasta como una enfermedad sistémica. El tratamiento es la resección quirúrgica, la radioterapia o la quimioterapia. El pronóstico varía de acuerdo a la presentación clínica

Applications of Lgr5-Positive Cochlear Progenitors (LCPs) to the Study of Hair Cell Differentiation

The mouse cochlea contains approximately 15,000 hair cells. Its dimensions and location, and the small number of hair cells, make mechanistic, developmental and cellular replacement studies difficult. We recently published a protocol to expand and differentiate murine neonatal cochlear progenitor cells into 3D organoids that recapitulate developmental pathways and can generate large numbers of hair cells with intact stereociliary bundles, molecular markers of the native cells and mechanotransduction channel activity, as indicated by FM1-43 uptake. Here, we elaborate on the method and application of these Lgr5-positive cochlear progenitors, termed LCPs, to the study of inner ear development and differentiation. We demonstrate the use of these cells for testing several drug candidates, gene silencing and overexpression, as well as genomic modification using CRISPR/Cas9. We thus establish LCPs as a valuable in vitro tool for the analysis of progenitor cell manipulation and hair cell differentiation

Neurons are MHC Class I-Dependent Targets for CD8 T Cells upon Neurotropic Viral Infection

Following infection of the central nervous system (CNS), the immune system is faced with the challenge of eliminating the pathogen without causing significant damage to neurons, which have limited capacities of renewal. In particular, it was thought that neurons were protected from direct attack by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) because they do not express major histocompatibility class I (MHC I) molecules, at least at steady state. To date, most of our current knowledge on the specifics of neuron-CTL interaction is based on studies artificially inducing MHC I expression on neurons, loading them with exogenous peptide and applying CTL clones or lines often differentiated in culture. Thus, much remains to be uncovered regarding the modalities of the interaction between infected neurons and antiviral CD8 T cells in the course of a natural disease. Here, we used the model of neuroinflammation caused by neurotropic Borna disease virus (BDV), in which virus-specific CTL have been demonstrated as the main immune effectors triggering disease. We tested the pathogenic properties of brain-isolated CD8 T cells against pure neuronal cultures infected with BDV. We observed that BDV infection of cortical neurons triggered a significant up regulation of MHC I molecules, rendering them susceptible to recognition by antiviral CTL, freshly isolated from the brains of acutely infected rats. Using real-time imaging, we analyzed the spatio-temporal relationships between neurons and CTL. Brain-isolated CTL exhibited a reduced mobility and established stable contacts with BDV-infected neurons, in an antigen- and MHC-dependent manner. This interaction induced rapid morphological changes of the neurons, without immediate killing or impairment of electrical activity. Early signs of neuronal apoptosis were detected only hours after this initial contact. Thus, our results show that infected neurons can be recognized efficiently by brain-isolated antiviral CD8 T cells and uncover the unusual modalities of CTL-induced neuronal damage

Modern pollen rain predicts shifts in plant trait composition but not plant diversity along the Andes–Amazon elevational gradient

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this record. Aims: Terrestrial ecosystems are changing in biodiversity, species composition and functional trait composition. To understand the underlying causes of these changes and predict the long-term resilience of the ecosystem to withstand future disturbances, we can evaluate changes in diversity and composition from fossil pollen records. Although diversity can be well estimated from pollen in temperate ecosystems, this is less clear for the hyperdiverse tropics. Moreover, it remains unknown whether functional composition of plant assemblages can be accurately predicted from pollen assemblage composition. Here, we evaluate how community-weighted mean (CWM) traits and diversity indices change along elevation. Location: Amazon–Andes elevation gradient in Peru. Methods: We used 82 modern pollen samples and 59 vegetation plots along the elevation gradient, and calculated CWM traits and diversity indices for each pollen sample and vegetation plot. We also quantified the degree to which taxa are over- or underrepresented by their pollen, by dividing the relative pollen abundance by the relative basal area abundance in the nearby vegetation survey plots (i.e. the R-rel values). Results: We found that CWM wood density increased, and CWM adult height and leaf area decreased with elevation. This change was well predicted by pollen assemblages, indicating that CWM trait–environment relationships based on pollen abundance data provide meaningful results. Diversity (richness, Shannon and Simpson) decreased with elevation for vegetation plots, but these trends could not be observed from pollen assemblages. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that more research is needed to develop methods that lead to accurate diversity estimates from pollen data in these tropical ecosystems, but that CWM traits can be calculated from pollen data to assess spatial shifts in functional composition. This opens opportunities to calculate CWM traits from fossil pollen data sets in the tropics, with broad implications for improving our understanding and predictions of forest dynamics, functioning and resilience through time.Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoe