Assessment of the effects of disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1972-2010

The purpose of this work is to review ECLAC’s experience in assessing the economic and social impact of disasters. Toward that end, the database established according to assessment reports is described and the patterns of sectoral damage and losses from different types of events are defined.

Single early prenatal lipopolysaccharide exposure impairs striatal monoamines and maternal care in female rats

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Green tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate and cranberry proanthocyanidins act in synergy with cathelicidin (LL-37) to reduce the LPS-induced inflammatory response in a three-dimensional co-culture model of gingival epithelial cells and fibroblasts

Objectives: The human antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin (LL-37) possesses anti-inflammatory properties that may contribute to attenuating the inflammatory process associated with chronic periodontitis. Plant polyphenols, including those from cranberry and green tea, have been reported to reduce inflammatory cytokine secretion by host cells. In the present study, we hypothesized that A-type cranberry proanthocyanidins (AC-PACs) and green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) act in synergy with LL-37 to reduce the secretion of inflammatory mediators by oral mucosal cells. Methods: A three-dimensional (3D) co-culture model of gingival epithelial cells and fibroblasts treated with non-cytotoxic concentrations of AC-PACs (25 and 50 mg/ml), EGCG (1 and 5 mg/ml), and LL-37 (0.1 and 0.2 mM) individually and in combination (AC-PACs + LL-37 and EGCG + LL-37) were stimulated with Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Multiplex ELISA assays were used to quantify the secretion of 54 host factors, including chemokines, cytokines, growth factors, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs). Results: LL-37, AC-PACs, and EGCG, individually or in combination, had no effect on the regulation of MMP and TIMP secretion but inhibited the secretion of several cytokines. ACPACs and LL-37 acted in synergy to reduce the secretion of CXC-chemokine ligand 1 (GRO-a), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), and interleukin-6 (IL-6), and had an additive effect on reducing the secretion of interleukin-8 (IL-8), interferon-g inducible protein 10 (IP-10), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in response to LPS stimulation. EGCG and LL-37 acted in synergy to reduce the secretion of GRO-a, G-CSF, IL-6, IL-8, and IP-10, and had an additive effect on MCP-1 secretion. Conclusion: The combination of LL-37 and natural polyphenols from cranberry and green tea acted in synergy to reduce the secretion of several cytokines by an LPS-stimulated 3D coculture model of oral mucosal cells. Such combinations show promising results as potential adjunctive therapies for treating inflammatory periodontitis.

Survivable Lightpath Provisioning in WDM Mesh Networks Under Shared Path Protection and Signal Quality Constraints

This paper addresses the problem of survivable lightpath provisioning in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) mesh networks, taking into consideration optical-layer protection and some realistic optical signal quality constraints. The investigated networks use sparsely placed optical–electrical–optical (O/E/O) modules for regeneration and wavelength conversion. Given a fixed network topology with a number of sparsely placed O/E/O modules and a set of connection requests, a pair of link-disjoint lightpaths is established for each connection. Due to physical impairments and wavelength continuity, both the working and protection lightpaths need to be regenerated at some intermediate nodes to overcome signal quality degradation and wavelength contention. In the present paper, resource-efficient provisioning solutions are achieved with the objective of maximizing resource sharing. The authors propose a resource-sharing scheme that supports three kinds of resource-sharing scenarios, including a conventional wavelength-link sharing scenario, which shares wavelength links between protection lightpaths, and two new scenarios, which share O/E/O modules between protection lightpaths and between working and protection lightpaths. An integer linear programming (ILP)-based solution approach is used to find optimal solutions. The authors also propose a local optimization heuristic approach and a tabu search heuristic approach to solve this problem for real-world, large mesh networks. Numerical results show that our solution approaches work well under a variety of network settings and achieves a high level of resource-sharing rates (over 60% for O/E/O modules and over 30% for wavelength links), which translate into great savings in network costs.

Maximizing Resource Sharing in WDM Mesh Networks With Path-Based Protection and Sparse OEO Regeneration

We propose a resource-sharing scheme that supports three kinds of sharing scenarios in a WDM mesh network with path-based protection and sparse OEO regeneration. Several approaches are used to maximize the sharing of wavelength-links and OEO regenerators.

SOCIAL MONOGAMY AND BIPARENTAL CARE OF THE NEOTROPICAL SOUTHERN BAMBOO RAT (KANNABATEOMYS AMBLYONYX)

We analyzed social patterns indicative of the mating system and parental care in a population of the southern bamboo rat (Kannabateomys amblyonyx). This arboreal rodent feeds exclusively on bamboo stems and leaves. We conducted fieldwork from August 2003 to October 2004 in southern Brazil (30 degrees 20`-30 degrees 27`S, 50 degrees 50`-51 degrees 05`W), in patches of introduced Chinese bamboo (Bambusa tuldoides). We captured 18 individuals, 7 of which were adults that received radiotransmitters and were followed from 1 to 12 months. Another 5 animals (adults or subadults) received colored collars. We observed paternal care, delayed juvenile dispersal, and reduced degree of sexual dimorphism, all of which are traits typical of social monogamy. Mated males showed a direct parental behavioral repertoire similar to that of females (with the obvious exception of nursing), including grooming, huddling, and food provisioning. Potential monogamy in this species seems to be a flexible strategy linked to low density of bamboo patches. Females were confined to widely spaced., small home ranges, decreasing the possibility of male defense of and access to > 1 female. The arboreal habits of the species possibly increase the risk of inexperienced young falling from trees or else being depreciated when moving exposed through branches. This risk is probably reduced by the extensive biparental care observed, including the providing of low-energy plant food to young in the nest.

The profile of women who have experienced cesarean section and obstetric care at a public maternity hospital in Ribeirao Preto

The present paper presents the social and obstetric profile of women undergoing cesarean childbirth at a public maternity hospital in the interior of Sao Paulo state. This is a quantitative, retrospective, descriptive study performed using documental research. The collected data refer to the period between July and December 2005, and between January and June 2006. A total of 670 records were reviewed. A 23% rate of cesarean births was identified at the institution studied during the aforementioned period. The studied population was characterized as having a low level of education, living in a common-law relationship, and not having a paid occupation. The main indications for cesarean sections were iterativity and acute fetal distress. The findings revealed an emphasis on obstetric nursing in the low-risk normal childbirth scenario, considering the non-interventionist character inherent to their education and training.

Burden of maternal bipolar disorder on at-risk offspring: A controlled study on family planning and maternal care

Introduction: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a highly incapacitating disease typically associated with high rates of familial dysfunction. Despite recent literature suggesting that maternal care is an important environmental factor in the development of behavioral disorders, it is unclear how much maternal care is dysfunctional in BD subjects. Objective: The objective of this study was to characterize maternal care in DSM-IV/SCID diagnosed BD type I subjects compared to healthy controls with (PD) and without (NPD) other psychiatric diagnoses. Materials and methods: Thirty-four BD mothers and 106 controls underwent an interview about family planning and maternal care, obstetrical complications, and mother-child interactions. K-SADS-PL questions about violence exposure were used to ascertain domestic violence and physical/sexual abuse. Results: BD mothers were less likely to have stable unions (45.5%; p < 0.01) or to live with the biological father of their children (33.3%; p < 0.01), but had higher educational level and higher rates of social security use/retirement. They also had fewer children and used less contraceptive methods than controls. Children of BD women had higher rates of neonatal anoxia, and reported more physical abuse (16.1%; p = 0.02) than offspring of NPD mothers. Due to BD mothers' symptoms, 33.3% of offspring suffered physical and/or psychological abuse. Limitations: Post hoc analysis, and the use of questions as a surrogate of symptoms as opposed to validated instruments. Conclusion: This is one of few reports confirming that maternal care given by BD women is dysfunctional. BD psychopathology can lead to poor maternal care and both should be considered important environmental risk factors in BD, suggesting that BD psychoeducation should include maternal care orientation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Gauging food and nutritional care quality in hospitals

Background: Food and nutritional care quality must be assessed and scored, so as to improve health institution efficacy. This study aimed to detect and compare actions related to food and nutritional care quality in public and private hospitals. Methods: Investigation of the Hospital Food and Nutrition Service (HFNS) of 37 hospitals by means of structured interviews assessing two quality control corpora, namely nutritional care quality (NCQ) and hospital food service quality (FSQ). HFNS was also evaluated with respect to human resources per hospital bed and per produced meal. Results: Comparison between public and private institutions revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the number of hospital beds per HFNS staff member (p = 0.02) and per dietitian (p < 0.01). The mean compliance with NCQ criteria in public and private institutions was 51.8% and 41.6%, respectively. The percentage of public and private health institutions in conformity with FSQ criteria was 42.4% and 49.1%, respectively. Most of the actions comprising each corpus, NCQ and FSQ, varied considerably between the two types of institution. NCQ was positively influenced by hospital type (general) and presence of a clinical dietitian. FSQ was affected by institution size: large and medium-sized hospitals were significantly better than small ones. Conclusions: Food and nutritional care in hospital is still incipient, and actions concerning both nutritional care and food service take place on an irregular basis. It is clear that the design of food and nutritional care in hospital indicators is mandatory, and that guidelines for the development of actions as well as qualification and assessment of nutritional care are urgent.

Social aspects of organic agriculture and other multifunctional benefits - Successful EU models compared with possibilities for organic developments in Croatia

Main objective of the dissertation is to illustrate how social and educational aspects (in close interaction with other multifunctional aspects in organic agriculture) which are developed on different multifunctional organic farms in Italy and Netherlands, as well as established agricultural policy frameworks in these countries, can be compared with the situation in Croatian organics and can contribute to further developent of organic issues in the Repubic of Croatia. So, through different chapters, the dissertation describes the performance of organic agriculture sectors in Italy, Netherlands and Croatia within the national agricultural policy frameworks, it analyzes the role of national institutions and policy in Croatia in connection with Croatia's status of candidate country for enterance into EU and harmonization of legislation with the CAP, as well as analyzes what is the role of national authorities, universities, research centres, but also of private initiatives, NGOs and cooperatives in organic agriculture in Netherlands, Italy and Croatia. Its main part describes how social and educational aspects are interacting with other multifunctional aspects in organic agriculture and analyzes the benefits and contribution of multifunctional activites performed on organic farms to education, healthy nourishment, environment protection and health care. It also assess the strengths and weaknesses of organic agriculture in all researched countries. The dissertation concludes with development opportunities for multifunctional organic agriculture in Croatia, as well as giving perspectives and recommendations for different approaches on the basis of experiences learned from successful EU models accompanied with some personal ideas and proposals.

Shareholder protection and stock market development

The dissertation contains five parts: An introduction, three major chapters, and a short conclusion. The First Chapter starts from a survey and discussion of the studies on corporate law and financial development literature. The commonly used methods in these cross-sectional analyses are biased as legal origins are no longer valid instruments. Hence, the model uncertainty becomes a salient problem. The Bayesian Model Averaging algorithm is applied to test the robustness of empirical results in Djankov et al. (2008). The analysis finds that their constructed legal index is not robustly correlated with most of the various stock market outcome variables. The second Chapter looks into the effects of minority shareholders protection in corporate governance regime on entrepreneurs' ex ante incentives to undertake IPO. Most of the current literature focuses on the beneficial part of minority shareholder protection on valuation, while overlooks its private costs on entrepreneur's control. As a result, the entrepreneur trade-offs the costs of monitoring with the benefits of cheap sources of finance when minority shareholder protection improves. The theoretical predictions are empirically tested using panel data and GMM-sys estimator. The third Chapter investigates the corporate law and corporate governance reform in China. The corporate law in China regards shareholder control as the means to the ends of pursuing the interests of stakeholders, which is inefficient. The Chapter combines the recent development of theories of the firm, i.e., the team production theory and the property rights theory, to solve such problem. The enlightened shareholder value, which emphasizes on the long term valuation of the firm, should be adopted as objectives of listed firms. In addition, a move from the mandatory division of power between shareholder meeting and board meeting to the default regime, is proposed.

Optimisation of chemical lysis protocol for point-of-care leukocyte differentiation

The full blood cell (FBC) count is the most common indicator of diseases. At present hematology analyzers are used for the blood cell characterization, but, recently, there has been interest in using techniques that take advantage of microscale devices and intrinsic properties of cells for increased automation and decreased cost. Microfluidic technologies offer solutions to handling and processing small volumes of blood (2-50 uL taken by finger prick) for point-of-care(PoC) applications. Several PoC blood analyzers are in use and may have applications in the fields of telemedicine, out patient monitoring and medical care in resource limited settings. They have the advantage to be easy to move and much cheaper than traditional analyzers, which require bulky instruments and consume large amount of reagents. The development of miniaturized point-of-care diagnostic tests may be enabled by chip-based technologies for cell separation and sorting. Many current diagnostic tests depend on fractionated blood components: plasma, red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), and platelets. Specifically, white blood cell differentiation and counting provide valuable information for diagnostic purposes. For example, a low number of WBCs, called leukopenia, may be an indicator of bone marrow deficiency or failure, collagen- vascular diseases, disease of the liver or spleen. The leukocytosis, a high number of WBCs, may be due to anemia, infectious diseases, leukemia or tissue damage. In the laboratory of hybrid biodevices, at the University of Southampton,it was developed a functioning micro impedance cytometer technology for WBC differentiation and counting. It is capable to classify cells and particles on the base of their dielectric properties, in addition to their size, without the need of labeling, in a flow format similar to that of a traditional flow cytometer. It was demonstrated that the micro impedance cytometer system can detect and differentiate monocytes, neutrophils and lymphocytes, which are the three major human leukocyte populations. The simplicity and portability of the microfluidic impedance chip offer a range of potential applications in cell analysis including point-of-care diagnostic systems. The microfluidic device has been integrated into a sample preparation cartridge that semi-automatically performs erythrocyte lysis before leukocyte analysis. Generally erythrocytes are manually lysed according to a specific chemical lysis protocol, but this process has been automated in the cartridge. In this research work the chemical lysis protocol, defined in the patent US 5155044 A, was optimized in order to improve white blood cell differentiation and count performed by the integrated cartridge.