Vacuum initial data, singularities, and cosmic censorship

The formation of a naked singularity in a vacuum, asymptotically flat spacetime would be a clear violation of cosmic censorship. We find initial value solutions to Einstein's field equations that may lead to this behavior. We construct two families of asymptotically flat, axisymmetric vaccum solutions at a moment of time symmetry. The limiting members of these families are singular. Our first family represents a linear string of Schwarzschild black holes. We study the divergence of the gravitational tidal field outside the holes as their number along the string is increased. Our second family consists of prolate Brill gravitational wave packets. We examine the tidal field strength as the characteristic width of the wave is reduced towards zero. In both cases we find that configurations can be constructed with arbitrarily large fields that are not clothed by apparent horizons. These configurations are characterized by long, prolate concentrations of mass energy. We analyze our results in the context of the hoop conjecture

Propuesta de Plan de Gestión Integral para desechos peligrosos hospitalarios generados en el manejo de la pandemia Covid-19 en el Hospital Básico Machachi del cantón Mejía provincia de Pichincha

This research was carried out at the Basic Hospital of Machachi in Pichincha province, whose purpose is elaborating a "Comprehensive Management Plan for hospital hazardous waste originated by the Covid-19 pandemic", which begins with the compilation of pertinent information on the proper management of waste and the current environmental regulations in the country to recognize hazardous hospital waste as well as the implementation of theoretical and technical tools; in this project, the non-experimental and scientific methodology was used -qualitative, supported by tools such as surveys and photographic evidence, on-site visit in order to verify the actual scenario of the basic hospital of Machachi in terms of the management of hospital hazardous waste; as a result of this visit, researchers evidenced the areas and activities that generate the most significant amount of hazardous waste and the shortcomings in each of these areas. Subsequently, the data obtained from the registered weighing of hospital hazardous waste for the year 2020 was verified, which showed an average result of 12062.4kg, which means 12.0624 tons, confirming that the areas that generate the most significant amount of hazardous hospital waste are: COVID-19 area, operating room, and emergency room respectively. Finally, the conclusions and recommendations for the study area were established, which are taken into account for the proposal of a comprehensive management plan for hazardous waste through compliance with environmental laws in force in the country. The Comprehensive Management Plan was carried out to improve the management of hazardous hospital waste and the environmental conditions within the basic hospital of Machachi through appropriate general protocols for their management and final disposal for the control of environmental risks and the pathological dangers in the health and population personnel of the Mejía canton.El presente trabajo investigativo se llevó a cabo en el Hospital Básico de Machachi en la Provincia de Pichincha, el cual tuvo como propósito elaborar un “Plan de Gestión Integral para desechos peligrosos hospitalarios originados por la pandemia Covid-19” el mismo que empieza con la recopilación de información pertinente sobre el manejo adecuado de dichos desechos y la Normativa ambiental vigente en el país con el fin de reconocer los desechos hospitalarios peligrosos y la implementación de herramientas teóricas y técnicas, en este proyecto se utilizó la metodología no experimental y de carácter científico-cualitativo, apoyándose con herramientas como encuestas y evidencias fotográficas, esto de la mano de una visita in-situ con el fin de constatar el escenario real del hospital básico de Machachi en cuanto al manejo de desechos peligrosos hospitalarios, como resultado de esta visita se evidenció las áreas y actividades que generan mayor cantidad de desechos peligrosos y las falencias que tiene cada una de estas áreas. Posterior a esto, se constató los datos obtenidos del pesaje registrado de los desechos peligrosos hospitalarios del año 2020 los cuales arrojaron un resultado promedio de 12062.4kg, es decir, 12.0624 ton, comprobando que las áreas que generan mayor cantidad de desechos peligrosos hospitalarios son: área de COVID-19, quirófano y emergencia respectivamente. Finalmente se establecieron las conclusiones y recomendaciones para el área de estudio las cuales son tomadas en cuenta para la propuesta de plan de gestión integral de desechos peligrosos mediante el cumplimiento de leyes ambientales vigentes en el país. Este Plan de Gestión Integral se realizó con el fin de mejorar el manejo de los desechos peligroso hospitalarios y las condiciones ambientales dentro del hospital básico de Machachi mediante protocolos generales adecuados para el manejo y disposición final de los mismos para el control de riesgos medio ambientales y los peligros patológicos en el personal de salud y población del cantón Mejía

El régimen jurídico de la prueba prohibida y la prueba ilícita en el sistema probatorio procesal penal peruano y su colisión con los derechos fundamentales

El contexto del presente trabajo de investigación contiene el análisis del Régimen Jurídico actual de la prueba ilícita y la prueba prohibida y su implicancia con el Sistema Probatorio en relación con los derechos fundamentales de las personas. De este modo, una primera clasificación de la prueba prohibida proviene de las dimensiones formal y material; manteniendo en ambos casos una autonomía tanto en su formulación conceptual como en su contenido. Esto es, que la prohibición se refiere -independientemente de la adquisición, práctica u obtención de la prueba- a su valoración o utilización. El Método de La investigación es tipo descriptivo y correlacional. La investigación se enmarca dentro del diseño no experimental - transeccional. Por que asume que la variable independiente “Régimen Jurídico de la Prueba Prohibida” ya existe y actúa en el contexto de la investigación. Nuestra población: Distrito Judicial Cono Norte. Las técnicas empleadas para el presente trabajo de investigación, fue: Análisis de Fuente documental: Entrevista de profundidad: entrevistas a expertos en la materia, que con su opinión, aportan al desarrollo del tema. Muestreo: muestreo no probabilístico, intencional y basado en expertos. Encuesta: encuestas semi estructuradas. Análisis Comparado: España, Argentina, Estados Unidos de Norte América

Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the treatment of uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition by lady health workers as compared to an outpatient therapeutic feeding programme in Sindh Province, Pakistan

Background: Due to the limited evidence of the cost-effectiveness of Community Health Workers (CHW) delivering treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM), there is a need to better understand the costs incurred by both implementing institutions and beneficiary households. This study assessed the costs and cost-effectiveness of treatment for cases of SAM without complications delivered by government-employed Lady Health Workers (LHWs) and complemented with non-governmental organisation (NGO) delivered outpatient facility-based care compared with NGO delivered outpatient facility-based care only alongside a two-arm randomised controlled trial conducted in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Methods: An activity-based cost model was used, employing a societal perspective to include costs incurred by beneficiaries and the wider community. Costs were estimated through accounting records, interviews and informal group discussions. Cost-effectiveness was assessed for each arm relative to no intervention, and incrementally between the two interventions, providing information on both absolute and relative costs and effects. Results: The cost per child recovered in outpatient facility-based care was similar to LHW-delivered care, at 363 USD and 382 USD respectively. An additional 146 USD was spent per additional child recovered by outpatient facilities compared to LHWs. Results of sensitivity analyses indicated considerable uncertainty in which strategy was most cost-effective due to small differences in cost and recovery rates between arms. The cost to the beneficiary household of outpatient facility-based care was double that of LHW-delivered care. Conclusions: Outpatient facility-based care was found to be slightly more cost-effective compared to LHW-delivered care, despite the potential for cost-effectiveness of CHWs managing SAM being demonstrated in other settings. The similarity of cost-effectiveness outcomes between the two models resulted in uncertainty as to which strategy was the most cost-effective. Similarity of costs and effectiveness between models suggests that whether it is appropriate to engage LHWs in substituting or complementing outpatient facilities may depend on population needs, including coverage and accessibility of existing services, rather than be purely a consideration of cost. Future research should assess the cost-effectiveness of LHW-delivered care when delivered solely by the government

Cross-taxonomic surrogates for biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes – A multi-taxa approach

Cross-taxonomic surrogates are often used in conservation planning because inventorying large suites of taxa is either not feasible or too costly. However, cross-taxonomic surrogates are seldom tested rigorously using both correlational and representation-based approaches at the spatial scales at which conservation management occurs. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of five ecologically contrasting taxa (birds, herpetofauna, wild bees, beetles, trees) as cross-taxonomic surrogates in native woodland patches within a heavily modified, farming and plantation-dominated landscape. We first compared species richness and compositional heterogeneity across taxa before testing for cross-taxonomic congruence using a correlative approach. We then quantified how well each taxon incidentally represented other taxa in their best patch sets, and the costs of doing so using a complementarity-based approach. We found significant pairwise associations between some taxa (birds, bees), but no single taxon was strongly correlated with all other taxa. Woodland patch sets prioritised for beetles represented other taxa best, followed by birds, but were the costliest and required the largest amount of woodland. This contrasted with patch sets prioritised for wild bees or herpetofauna, which achieved higher representation of other taxa at lower costs. Our study highlighted the influence of taxon-specific patterns of diversity and heterogeneity on how remnant vegetation patches should be prioritised for conservation, a consideration not immediately obvious in correlative analyses of surrogacy. Second, taxa that are not the most speciose (e.g. wild bees) can be efficient surrogates for other taxa, achieving higher incidental representation at lower costs. Thus, while species-rich taxa are ideal as surrogates for prioritising conservation, conservation planners should not overlook the potential of less speciose taxa such as bees, while considering the cost-effectiveness of surveying multiple different taxa.DLY is supported by the Lesslie Foundation and an Australian National University Postgraduate Scholarship. DBL is supported by an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship

The reduced genome of the parasitic microsporidian Enterocytozoon bieneusi lacks genes for core carbon metabolism

© The Authors, 2010. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License. The definitive version was published in Genome Biology and Evolution 2 (2010): 304, doi:10.1093/gbe/evq022.Reduction of various biological processes is a hallmark of the parasitic lifestyle. Generally, the more intimate the association between parasites and hosts the stronger the parasite relies on its host's physiology for survival and reproduction. However, some systems have been held to be indispensable, for example, the core pathways of carbon metabolism that produce energy from sugars. Even the most hardened anaerobes that lack oxidative phosphorylation and the tricarboxylic acid cycle have retained glycolysis and some downstream means to generate ATP. Here we describe the deep-coverage genome resequencing of the pathogenic microsporidiian, Enterocytozoon bieneusi, which shows that this parasite has crossed this line and abandoned complete pathways for the most basic carbon metabolism. Comparing two genome sequence surveys of E. bieneusi to genomic data from four other microsporidia reveals a normal complement of 353 genes representing 30 functional pathways in E. bieneusi, except that only 2 out of 21 genes collectively involved in glycolysis, pentose phosphate, and trehalose metabolism are present. Similarly, no genes encoding proteins involved in the processing of spliceosomal introns were found. Altogether, E. bieneusi appears to have no fully functional pathway to generate ATP from glucose. Therefore, this intracellular parasite relies on transporters to import ATP from its host.This work was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (MOP-84265), the National Institutes of Health (NIH AI31788, R21 AI52792, and R21 AI064118), and the National Science Foundation (MCB- 0135272). N.C. is a Scholar of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and is supported by a fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (NSF) (PA00P3- 124166). D.E. is supported by the Swiss NSF. P.J.K. is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and a Senior Scholar of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research

Computer simulations of the interactions of the (012) and (001) surfaces of jarosite with Al, Cd, Cu2+ and Zn

Jarosite is an important mineral on Earth, and possibly on Mars, where it controls the mobility of iron, sulfate and potentially toxic metals. Atomistic simulations have been used to study the incorporation of Al3+, and the M2+ impurities Cd, Cu and Zn, in the (0 1 2) and (0 0 1) surfaces of jarosite. The calculations show that the incorporation of Al on an Fe site is favorable on all surfaces in which terminal Fe ions are exposed, and especially on the (0 0 1) [Fe3(OH)3]6+ surface. Incorporation of Cd, Cu or Zn on a K site balanced by a K vacancy is predicted to stabilize the surfaces, but calculated endothermic solution energies and the high degree of distortion of the surfaces following incorporation suggest that these substitutions will be limited. The calculations also suggest that incorporation of Cd, Cu and Zn on an Fe site balanced by an OH vacancy, or by coupled substitution on both K and Fe sites, is unfavorable, although this might be compensated for by growth of a new layer of jarosite or goethite, as predicted for bulk jarosite. The results of the simulations show that surface structure will exert an influence on uptake of impurities in the order Cu > Cd > Zn, with the most favorable surfaces for incorporation being (0 1 2) [KFe(OH)4]0 and (0 0 1) [Fe3(OH)3]6+

A Novel Strategy for Development of Recombinant Antitoxin Therapeutics Tested in a Mouse Botulism Model

Antitoxins are needed that can be produced economically with improved safety and shelf life compared to conventional antisera-based therapeutics. Here we report a practical strategy for development of simple antitoxin therapeutics with substantial advantages over currently available treatments. The therapeutic strategy employs a single recombinant ‘targeting agent’ that binds a toxin at two unique sites and a ‘clearing Ab’ that binds two epitopes present on each targeting agent. Co-administration of the targeting agent and the clearing Ab results in decoration of the toxin with up to four Abs to promote accelerated clearance. The therapeutic strategy was applied to two Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) serotypes and protected mice from lethality in two different intoxication models with an efficacy equivalent to conventional antitoxin serum. Targeting agents were a single recombinant protein consisting of a heterodimer of two camelid anti-BoNT heavy-chain-only Ab VH (VHH) binding domains and two E-tag epitopes. The clearing mAb was an anti-E-tag mAb. By comparing the in vivo efficacy of treatments that employed neutralizing vs. non-neutralizing agents or the presence vs. absence of clearing Ab permitted unprecedented insight into the roles of toxin neutralization and clearance in antitoxin efficacy. Surprisingly, when a post-intoxication treatment model was used, a toxin-neutralizing heterodimer agent fully protected mice from intoxication even in the absence of clearing Ab. Thus a single, easy-to-produce recombinant protein was as efficacious as polyclonal antiserum in a clinically-relevant mouse model of botulism. This strategy should have widespread application in antitoxin development and other therapies in which neutralization and/or accelerated clearance of a serum biomolecule can offer therapeutic benefit

Flavonoids: Important Biocompounds in Food

Flavonoids are secondary metabolites in plants that show some desirable characteristics. These compounds can be grouped in different classes on the basis of their basic structure. It has been reported that flavonoids are important for human health because of their antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, and anti‐inflammatory activities and because they act as free radical scavengers as they are potential reducing agents that protect from oxidative damage, which are conferred by the content of hydroxyl groups. In recent years, flavonoids have been investigated based on their ability to reduce the incidence of many diseases, to inhibit cell damage, to repair DNA process and to reduce oxidative stress. Besides, flavonoids have been demonstrated to have cardioprotective effects, have potential to improve coronary vasodilatation and prevent LDLs from oxidizing and also showed potential neuroprotective effects. Moreover, flavonoids have been used in the food industry due to their ability to preserve foods, to provide colour and flavour and to make dietary supplements, among other important industrial applications