Introduction: Secondary forests and coffee cultivation systems with shade trees might have great potential for carbon sequestration as a means of climate change adaptation and mitigation. This study aimed to measure carbon stocks in coffee plantations under different managements and secondary forest systems in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest (San Martín Region).
Methods: The carbon stock in secondary forest trees was estimated using allometric equations, while carbon stocks in soil, herbaceous biomass, and leaf litter were determined through sampling and laboratory analysis.
Imaging with single-pixel detectors offers a valuable alternative to the conventional focal plane array strategy, especially for wavelengths where silicon-based sensor arrays exhibit lower efficiency. However, the absence of optical sectioning remains a challenge in single-pixel microscopy. In this paper, we introduce a single-pixel microscope with optical sectioning capabilities by integrating single-pixel imaging (SPI) techniques with structured illumination microscopy (SIM) methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRice husk ash (RHA) is agricultural waste with high silica content that has exhibited proven technical feasibility as a pozzolanic material since the 1970s. Notwithstanding, its use in mortars and concrete is limited by the standards currently utilized in some countries where RHA production is high and the aforementioned pozzolanic material is not standardized. This is the case in Spain, one of the main rice producers in Europe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNontyphoidal Salmonella is one of the major causes of self-limiting diarrheal disease and the most common foodborne pathogen worldwide. It is an important contributor to the burden of foodborne illness in South America, including Peru, where chicken and pork are important vehicles for Salmonella infection. Salmonella infections are underreported, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where concerted action tackling Salmonella along the chicken and pork chains, from primary production to retail, is urgently needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn polymer membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), the pore microstructure and the effective diffusion coefficient ( ) of the catalytic layer have a significant impact on the overall performance of the fuel cell. In this work, numerical methods to simulate PEMFC catalytic layers were used to study the effect of isotropy ( ) on the . The proposed methodology studies reconstructed systems by Simulated Annealing imaging with different surface fractions of microstructures composed by two diffusive phases: agglomerates and pores.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The results of clinical and weaning readiness tests and the spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) are used to predict the success of the weaning process and extubation.
Methods: We evaluated the capacity of the cuff leak test, rate of rapid and shallow breathing, cough intensity, and diaphragmatic contraction velocity (DCV) to predict the success of the SBT and extubation in a prospective, multicenter observational study with consecutive adult patients admitted to four intensive care units. We used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to assess the tests' predictive capacity and built predictive models using logistic regression.
In Putumayo, a jungle borderland in southern Colombia, thousands of farmers derive their livelihood from the cultivation and processing of coca leaf, exposing themselves to fertilizers, pesticides, and other toxic chemicals on a daily basis. In this article, we show how the coca growers' relationship with chemicals and the health risks to which they are exposed, are politically and institutionally structured. We discuss the specific impact of anti-narcotics policy in a broader context of deep inequalities and document the emergent and adaptive day-to-day attempts of the farmers to navigate the structural risk environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA better understanding of the mechanisms generating tumour heterogeneity will allow better targeting of current therapies, identify potential resistance mechanisms and highlight new approaches for therapy. We have previously shown that in genetically modified mouse models carrying conditional oncogenic alleles, mammary tumour histotype varies depending on the combination of alleles, the cell type to which they are targeted and, in some cases, reproductive history. This suggests that tumour heterogeneity is not a purely stochastic process; rather, differential activation of signalling pathways leads to reproducible differences in tumour histotype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we show how the materialisation of chemical harms linked to the cultivation of coca and its processing into coca paste reside in a wider politics of structural violence which is also situated ecologically. Drawing on the qualitative interview accounts of coca farmers in Putumayo, Colombia, we attend to practices of care in the field and in the laboratory. We look first at chemicals used in coca's cultivation (herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides), and second at chemicals (such as sulphuric acid, sodium carbonate, magnesium permanganate) used in the processing of coca leaf into paste (before the paste is sold on for refinement into cocaine).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aim: Peru is the country with the highest mortality rate from COVID-19 globally, so the analysis of the characteristics of deaths is of national and international interest. The aim was to determine the epidemiological characteristics of deaths from COVID-19 in Peru from 28 March to 21 May 2020.
Methods: Deaths from various sources were investigated, including the COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance and the National System of Deaths (SINADEF).
Background: Peru has some of the worst outcomes worldwide as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; it is presumed that this has also affected healthcare workers. This study aimed to establish whether occupation and other non-occupational variables were risk factors for possible reinfection, hospitalization, and mortality from COVID-19 in cohorts of Peruvian healthcare workers infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Methods: Retrospective cohort study.
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection is a major public health problem in the world and reinfections are becoming more frequent. Our main objective was to describe the epidemiological, clinical, and genomic characteristics of the confirmed cases of reinfection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the capital of Lima and Callao, Peru.
Methods: We searched in the Peruvian laboratory information system from April 2020 up to May 2021, looking for cases having 2 positive molecular tests for SARS-CoV-2 with more than 90 days between them.
Mult Scler Relat Disord
August 2021
Understanding the mechanisms underlying tumour heterogeneity is key to the development of treatments that can target specific tumour subtypes. We have previously targeted CRE recombinase-dependent conditional deletion of the tumour suppressor genes Brca1, Brca2, p53 (also known as Trp53) and/or Pten to basal or luminal oestrogen receptor-negative (ER-) cells of the mouse mammary epithelium. We demonstrated that both the cell-of-origin and the tumour-initiating genetic lesions cooperate to influence mammary tumour phenotype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeposition of ferruginous sediment was widespread during the Archaean and Proterozoic Eons, playing an important role in global biogeochemical cycling. Knowledge of organic matter mineralization in such sediment, however, remains mostly conceptual, as modern ferruginous analogs are largely unstudied. Here we show that in sediment of ferruginous Lake Towuti, Indonesia, methanogenesis dominates organic matter mineralization despite highly abundant reactive ferric iron phases like goethite that persist throughout the sediment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Global temperatures are projected to rise by ≥2 °C by the end of the century, with expected impacts on infectious disease incidence. Establishing the historic relationship between temperature and childhood diarrhea is important to inform future vulnerability under projected climate change scenarios.
Methods: We compiled a national dataset from Peruvian government data sources, including weekly diarrhea surveillance records, annual administered doses of rotavirus vaccination, annual piped water access estimates, and daily temperature estimates.
This data article describes the dataset of the International COVID-19 Impact on Parental Engagement Study (ICIPES). ICIPES is a collaborative effort of more than 20 institutions to investigate the ways in which, parents and caregivers built capacity engaged with children's learning during the period of social distancing arising from global COVID-19 pandemic. A series of data were collected using an online survey conducted in 23 countries and had a total sample of 4,658 parents/caregivers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We conducted a national impact evaluation of routine rotavirus vaccination on childhood diarrhea in Peru, accounting for potential modifying factors.
Methods: We utilized a dataset compiled from Peruvian governmental sources to fit negative binomial models investigating the impact of rotavirus vaccination, piped water access, sewerage access and poverty on the rate of diarrhea clinic visits in children under 5 years old in 194 Peruvian provinces. We considered the interaction between these factors to assess whether water access, sanitation access, or poverty modified the association between ongoing rotavirus vaccination and childhood diarrhea clinic visits.
Stroke is an important cause of death and disability, and it is the second leading cause of death worldwide. In humans, middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) is the most common cause of ischemic stroke. The damage occurs due to the lack of nutrients and oxygen contributed by the blood flow.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTumours defective in the DNA homologous recombination repair pathway can be effectively treated with poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors; these have proven effective in clinical trials in patients with gene function-defective cancers. However, resistance observed in both pre-clinical and clinical studies is likely to impact on this treatment strategy. Over-expression of phosphoglycoprotein (P-gp) has been previously suggested as a mechanism of resistance to the PARP inhibitor olaparib in mouse models of -mutant breast cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Biological biomarkers to stratify cancer risk before kidney transplantation are lacking. Several data support that tumor development and growth is associated with a tolerant immune profile. T cells expressing low levels of CD45RC preferentially secrete regulatory cytokines and contain regulatory T cell subset.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutophagy is a complex process that controls the transport of cytoplasmic components into lysosomes for degradation. This highly conserved proteolytic system involves dynamic and complex processes, using similar molecular elements and machinery from yeast to humans. Moreover, autophagic dysfunction may contribute to a broad spectrum of mammalian diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAberrant Wnt signaling within breast cancer is associated with poor prognosis, but regulation of this pathway in breast tissue remains poorly understood and the consequences of immediate or long-term dysregulation remain elusive. The exact contribution of the Wnt-regulating proteins adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and APC2 in the pathogenesis of human breast cancer are ill-defined, but our analysis of publically available array data sets indicates that tumors with concomitant low expression of both proteins occurs more frequently in the 'triple negative' phenotype, which is a subtype of breast cancer with particularly poor prognosis. We have used mouse transgenics to delete Apc and/or Apc2 from mouse mammary epithelium to elucidate the significance of these proteins in mammary homeostasis and delineate their influences on Wnt signaling and tumorigenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci
March 2016
Objective: To assess the association between Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS)/ toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and antiepileptics including the most recently authorized drugs.
Methods: In the Spanish Pharmacovigilance database, we searched for spontaneous reports of SJS or TEN associated with antiepileptic drugs and analysed: a) reporting odds ratio (ROR), b) age and gender of the patient, c) evolution, d) latency and recovery periods and e) presence or absence of other suspected drugs.
Results: A total of 84 reports of SJS and 80 of TEN related to 9 antiepileptic drugs were studied.