Health Ambassadors: A Model for Engaging Community Leaders to Promote Better Health

Obesity continues to be a growing epidemic in the United States. Individuals who live in low-income communities’ face inequities in areas that continue to have adverse and long-lasting consequences. These consequences can extend from economic conditions, social support, and a lack of access to healthy eating choices and physical activity, all of which contribute to higher obesity rates. It is essential to increase opportunities for change in low-income communities and provide ongoing recommendations to policymakers to allocate resources where it is needed. This paper aims to examine a Health Ambassador model in low-income communities tailored to residents in public housing and other community settings through a community-based intervention. The proposed model focuses on healthy eating, active living, and advocacy to combat obesity in communities utilizing public housing as the appropriate setting to inform individuals and their families about the importance of nutrition, food, health, and their environment. The model effectively elevates community leaders to serve as Health Ambassadors, which in part are from the same community of residents living in public housing but not limited to this community setting. As a result, healthy behaviors that are influenced by a complex interweaving economic, social, and personal factors will be tackled through supportive behavior change. A key aspect to successfully implement this community-based intervention is to make the interventions accessible to the community. The Health Ambassador model will build on existing initiatives that encourage and assist local government and community organizations to put in place healthy eating and active living policies

US Army Military Base Closures in Germany - Evaluation of EH&S Activities

This research assessed the effectiveness of existing Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) Management programs for two army installations located in Germany that were scheduled for closure. These two base closures were separated by a period of four years. This research qualitatively assessed the control measures in place, the effectiveness of these measures, and the final status of EH&S issues upon completion of the base closure process. EH&S programs were evaluated using interviews of employees involved in the base closure in order to determine what processes were in place to minimize environmental impacts, what actions were taken to ensure the health and safety of employees working on the installation, and what environmental issues remained unresolved at the time of closure. The goal of the research was to determine improvements occurring in the EH&S management programs between these two base closures. Results of this research indicate that the US Army has improved its base closure process by publishing an environmental strategy, thoroughly planning and coordinating specific environmental tasks, and working with the host nation to minimize environmental damage and limit liability. The US Army has not yet fully integrated the health and safety management aspects into its program for base closure. Closer adherence to the goals and objectives outlined in the Army Cleanup Strategy will result in fewer unresolved issues for subsequent base closures

Influence of the Compaction Pressure and Sintering Temperature on the Mechanical Properties of Porous Titanium for Biomedical Applications

In the present work, the use of porous titanium is proposed as a solution to the difference in stiffness between the implant and bone tissue, avoiding the bone resorption. Conventional powder metallurgical technique is an industrially established route for fabrication of this type of material. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of compaction pressure and sintering temperature on the porosity (volumetric fraction, size, and morphology) and the quality of the sintering necks. A very good agreement between the predicted values obtained using a simple 2D finite element model, the experimental uniaxial compression behavior, and the analytical model proposed by Nielsen, has been found for both the Young’s modulus and the yield strength. The porous samples obtained by the loose sintering technique and using temperatures between 1000 °C −1100 °C (about 40% of total porosity) are recommended for achieving a suitable biomechanical behavior for cortical bone partial replacement.Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the State General Administration of Spain grant MAT2015-71284-

Performative Poetry as Program, Programmed Poetry as Performance

UIDB/05021/2020 UIDP/05021/2020Innovative forms of poetry such as language art and experimental poetry have adopted intersemiotic processes and linguistic constraints in their codification, promoting rereading and transgression of technical apparatuses from the techno-capitalist societies. In addition, new inventive forms of digital language art, such as electronic poetry, have integrated generativity, indeterminacy and combinatorics in their programming, stimulating the reinvention and subversion of computing mechanisms from the networked societies. Through the appropriation of media, poetry articulates creative strategies that question the interface between arts and languages, forms and mechanisms. The experimental attitude of performative poetry presents itself as a program. Similarly, using the potentialities of the computer as a semiotic machine, programmed poetry can be regarded as performative, producing unique, unrepeatable events. Poetry and performance can thus be regarded as floating entities, promoting the transition from a fixed order to an economy of circulations. This scenario fuels the discussion concerning the connections between poetry, performance and program, supporting our reflections through the presentation and description of different examples of poetic intervention in the Portuguese context, which use programming and coding to reconfigure the awareness of language and mediation.publishersversionpublishe

Sizing method for stormwater har vesting tanks using daily resolution rainfall and water demand data sets

Este trabajo presenta un método simplificado para el dimensionamiento de tanques de aprovechamiento de aguas lluvias (AAL). Este método considera cuencas tributarias heterogéneas y caudales de demanda de agua. Se propone tener en cuenta la probabilidad para suministrar la demanda de agua, así como el paso de tiempo necesario de recolección más probable y sus respectivas variabilidades. El método se aplicó a un estudio específico de caso (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, proyecto AAL), con 73 años de información de precipitación a resolución diaria (entre 1936-2010). Para el análisis se utilizaron diferentes períodos de tiempo, los volúmenes del tanque con el tiempo de recolección fueron los siguientes: (i) para el conjunto entero de datos 76 años: 395 m3 (28 días, probabilidad: 78%); (ii) para los últimos diez años: 494 m3 (35 días, probabilidad: 89%); (iii) para los últimos cinco años: 346 m3 (25 días, probabilidad: 84%); (iv) para el último año: 155 a 198 m3 (11 a 14 días, probabilidad: 89-90%). Estos resultados parecen estar influenciados por una evolución de la altura de lluvia en los diferentes períodos seleccionados, lo cual será estudiado en investigaciones posteriores.This work presents a simplified method for rainwater harvesting (RWH) tank sizing using long day-resolution rainfall time series. This method considers heterogeneous contributing catchments and water demand flow rates. For the tank sizing, we proposed to take into account the probability to supply the water demand, as well as the most needed probable time step and their respective variabilities. The method was applied to a specific case study (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, RHW project), with 73 years of daily-resolution rainfall information (between 1936-2010). For the analysis we used different time periods from data-set and the results were: (i) for the whole data-set 76 years: 395 m3 (28 days, probability: 78%); (ii) for the last ten years: 494 m3 (35 days, probability: 89%); (iii) for the last five years: 346 m3 (25 days, probability: 84%); (iv) for the last year: 155-198 m3 (11-14 days, probability: 89-90%). These results seem to be influenced by an evolution of rainfall depth in different selected periods, which will be studied in further researches

Performative poetry as program, programmed poetry as performance

Innovative forms of poetry such as language art and experimental poetry have adopted intersemiotic processes and linguistic constraints in their codification, promoting rereading and transgression of technical apparatuses from the techno-capitalist societies. In addition, new inventive forms of digital language art, such as electronic poetry, have integrated generativity, indeterminacy and combinatorics in their programming, stimulating the reinvention and subversion of computing mechanisms from the networked societies. Through the appropriation of media, poetry articulates creative strategies that question the interface between arts and languages, forms and mechanisms. The experimental attitude of performative poetry presents itself as a program. Similarly, using the potentialities of the computer as a semiotic machine, programmed poetry can be regarded as performative, producing unique, unrepeatable events. Poetry and performance can thus be regarded as floating entities, promoting the transition from a fixed order to an economy of circulations. This scenario fuels the discussion concerning the connections between poetry, performance and program, supporting our reflections through the presentation and description of different examples of poetic intervention in the Portuguese context, which use programming and coding to reconfigure the awareness of language and mediation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Functional characterization of two enhancers located downstream FOXP2

Background: Mutations in the coding region of FOXP2 are known to cause speech and language impairment. However, it is not clear how dysregulation of the gene contributes to language deficit. Interestingly, microdeletions of the region downstream the gene have been associated with cognitive deficits. Methods: Here, we investigate changes in FOXP2 expression in the SK-N-MC neuroblastoma human cell line after deletion by CRISPR-Cas9 of two enhancers located downstream of the gene. Results: Deletion of any of these two functional enhancers downregulates FOXP2, but also upregulates the closest 3′ gene MDFIC. Because this effect is not statistically significant in a HEK 293 cell line, derived from the human kidney, both enhancers might confer a tissue specific regulation to both genes. We have also found that the deletion of any of these enhancers downregulates six well-known FOXP2 target genes in the SK-N-MC cell line. Conclusions: We expect these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how FOXP2 and MDFIC are regulated to pace neuronal development supporting cognition, speech and language.Spanish National Research and Development Plan PI14/01884Instituto de Salud Carlos III PI14/01884FEDER PI14/0188

A discrete-time compartmental epidemiological model for COVID-19 with a case study for Portugal

Recently, a continuous-time compartmental mathematical model for the spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was presented with Portugal as case study, from 2 March to 4 May 2020, and the local stability of the Disease Free Equilibrium (DFE) was analysed. Here, we propose an analogous discrete-time model and, using a suitable Lyapunov function, we prove the global stability of the DFE point. Using COVID-19 real data, we show, through numerical simulations, the consistence of the obtained theoretical results.publishe