Accidents with caterpillar Lonomia obliqua (Walker, 1855). An emerging problem

Lonomia obliqua (Walker, 1855) es una mariposa nocturna de la familia Saturniidae, ampliamente distribuida en selvas tropicales de Sudamérica. Su larva (oruga) se caracteriza por poseer espículas ramificadas puntiagudas a lo largo de su cuerpo, que contienen una mezcla compleja de moléculas tóxicas en su interior. Cuando las espículas contactan con la piel de las personas, las toxinas ingresan pasivamente a través de la lesión, generando un envenenamiento caracterizado por manifestaciones no solo locales sino también sistémicas (fundamentalmente manifestaciones hemorrágicas). Debido al elevado número de casos que se produjeron en Brasil en las últimas décadas, el Instituto Butantan ha producido un antiveneno capaz de neutralizar los efectos deletéreos de los accidentes por contacto con L. obliqua. En Argentina, los accidentes por Lonomia son poco frecuentes y se limitan a la provincia de Misiones. Teniendo en cuenta que a la fecha no hay en la literatura descripciones de casos clínicos ocurridos en el país con tratamiento específico (antiveneno), el propósito del presente trabajo es comunicar seis casos de accidentes por contacto con orugas Lonomia que fueron atendidos en el Hospital SAMIC de Puerto Iguazú (Misiones, Argentina) durante el año 2014, y que fueron tratados con el suero antilonómico producido en Brasil. Se destaca la evolución rápida y favorable de todos los pacientes por lo que se recomienda el uso de este antiveneno para tratar los casos de erucismo por Lonomia en la Argentina.Lonomia obliqua (Walker, 1855) is a moth from the family Saturniidae, widely distributed in tropical rainforests of South America. In its larval stage (caterpillar) it is characterized by bristles that cover the animal's body. These structures are hard and branched spiny evaginations of the cuticle, underneath which a complex mixture of toxic molecules is stored. When spicules are brought into contact with the skin of people, toxins enter passively through the injury, causing not only local but also systemic poisoning (primarily hemorrhagic manifestations). When the whole animal is accidentally crushed, the insect's chitinous bristles are broken and the venomous secretions penetrate the human skin, reaching the blood circulation. Due to the numerous registered cases of erucism in Southern Brazil, the Butantan Institute has produced an antivenom able to neutralize the deleterious effects produced by contact with L. obliqua caterpillar bristles. In Argentina, these kinds of accidents are rare and restricted to the province of Misiones. Taking into account that to date there is no report in this country about clinical cases submitted to a specific treatment (antivenom), our aim is to communicate here six cases of Lonomia caterpillar-induced bleeding syndrome that were treated in the Hospital SAMIC of Puerto Iguazú (Misiones, Argentina) during 2014 with the antilonomic serum produced in Brazil. It is worthy to note that all patients evolved favorably within the first few hours, and for this reason, the use of this antivenom is recommended to treat the cases of Lonomia erucism in Argentina.Fil: Sanchez, Matias Nicolas. Ministerio de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mignone Chagas, Mariana. Hospital SAMIC Marta T. Schwarz; ArgentinaFil: Casertano, Sergio A.. Ministerio de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical; ArgentinaFil: Cavagnaro, Luis E.. Hospital SAMIC Marta T. Schwarz; ArgentinaFil: Peichoto, María Elisa. Ministerio de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Robust Online Hamiltonian Learning

In this work we combine two distinct machine learning methodologies, sequential Monte Carlo and Bayesian experimental design, and apply them to the problem of inferring the dynamical parameters of a quantum system. We design the algorithm with practicality in mind by including parameters that control trade-offs between the requirements on computational and experimental resources. The algorithm can be implemented online (during experimental data collection), avoiding the need for storage and post-processing. Most importantly, our algorithm is capable of learning Hamiltonian parameters even when the parameters change from experiment-to-experiment, and also when additional noise processes are present and unknown. The algorithm also numerically estimates the Cramer-Rao lower bound, certifying its own performance.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures; to appear in New Journal of Physic

Effects of clayish and sandy soils on the growth of Prosopis argentina and P. alpataco seedlings

Prosopis alpataco Burk. y P. argentina Phil. ocupan áreas con características edáficas diferentes dentro de la zona árida Argentina. Prosopis alpataco se encuentra en suelos arcillosos y salinos, sometidos a inundaciones esporádicas, mientras que P. argentina se encuentra en los suelos arenosos, no salinos, de los médanos. La capacidad de ocupar estos ambientes estaría relacionada con la presencia de diferentes adaptaciones en estas dos especies. En este trabajo, analizamos comparativamente el crecimiento de plántulas de ambas especies en suelos arenosos y arcillosos. El porcentaje de emergencia, la altura, la biomasa y el área foliar de las plántulas fueron medidos en un experimento factorial (especies x suelos) llevado a cabo en condiciones de invernáculo. Las dos especies muestran una mayor velocidad de crecimiento en (altura, biomasa, área foliar, número de hojas y relación vástago-raíz) en suelos arcillosos. En suelos arenosos, la tasa de crecimiento de P. alpataco fue menor que el de P. argentina, indicando que el efecto perjudicial de los suelos arenosos fue mayor en P. alpataco. Sugerimos que los efectos del suelo sobre el crecimiento podrían deberse a las diferencias en la disponibilidad de nutrientes, especialmente nitrógeno, y que P. argentina tiene adaptaciones a los suelos arenosos que están ausentes en P. alpataco. Estos resultados podrían explicar la exclusión de P. alpataco de los suelos arenosos pero no la exclusión de P. argentina de los suelos arcillosos. En este caso la exclusión debe relacionarse con otros factores como el anegamiento, la salinidad o con el efecto de interacciones biológicas como la competencia.Prosopis alpataco Burk. and P. argentina Phil. occupy areas with different soil characteristics within the arid zone of Argentina. Prosopis alpataco occurs in periodically flooded, clayish and saline soils, whereas P. argentina occurs in non-saline sand dunes. The capability to occupy these different habitats might be related to the presence of different adaptive features in these two species. We analyzed seedling growth of both species on clayish and sandy soils. Their emergence percentages, seedling height, biomass, and leaf area were measured in a factorial experiment (species x soils) carried out in a greenhouse. Both species showed a higher growth rate (height, biomass, leaf area and number of leaves and shoot-root ratios) in clayish soils. In sandy soils, the growth rate of P. alpataco was lower than that of P. argentina, indicating that the detrimental effects of sandy soils were greater for P. alpataco. We suggest that soil effects on growth could be due to the differences in nutrient (especially nitrogen) availability, and that P. argentina shows adaptations to sandy soils which are absent in P. alpataco. These results could explain the exclusion of P. alpataco from sandy soils but not that of P. argentina from clayish soils. Exclusion of this last species should be associated with other environmental factors like flooding or salinity, or with biological factors such as competition

Array comparative genomic hybridization in confirmation of the deleted genes in a patient with subterminal deletion of the long arm of chromosome 10 associated with sagittal craniosynostosis and dysmorphic features

We thank the Institute of Biosciences of USP for technical support and PPSUS - SESA/FAPES/CNPq for financial suppor

What is not known is not aimed for — Understanding staff knowledge and readiness to embrace sustainable and healthy food.

To mitigate the adverse effects of excessive consumption of animal proteins on both the environment and human well-being, a transition is needed toward plant-based proteins. Such a shift requires a change in eating behaviours, both at home and elsewhere. Focusing on hospitality and leisure settings, the aim of this study is threefold: firstly, to evaluate the alignment between the organisational policies and support mechanisms on one side and employees’ beliefs and daily experiences towards healthy and sustainable food on the other; secondly, to explore the staff’s readiness to embrace the protein transition using the stages of change model; and thirdly, to outline the prerequisites needed to ensure that employees show healthy and sustainable food behaviour drawing upon the COM-B model (motivation, opportunity, and capability for behavioural interventions) and the behaviour change wheel. Findings from a multi-case-study approach, which utilises a combination of research methods, suggest that employees across all cases exhibit a limited degree of readiness. Moreover, while the motivation to shift toward more healthy and sustainable food is high, capability and opportunity are rated low. To address this, various intervention strategies tailored to the context of hospitality and leisure are proposed that are pertinent to the cases under investigation

Reflecting on Responsible Leadership in the Context of Higher Education

In the last decades, the notion that leadership comprises responsible leadership has gained support and the academic debate has shed some light on the antecedents, processes, and multi-level outcomes of responsible leadership. Being at the intersection of the leadership and sustainability discourses, responsible leadership has benefitted from the increasing interests that both fields of study have received. Nevertheless, the debate has left several questions around the nature and development of responsible leadership unanswered. Among these questions we reckon an understanding of "responsible" in the definition of "responsible leadership," the width of leaders' responsibility and the depth of their impact including the role of personal alongside formal leadership, and the distinction between "responsible" and "non responsible" leaders. The aim of this theoretical paper is to further the academic discussion on leadership in the context of sustainability and its integration in higher education settings. We review the literature and explore the academic debate while step-by-step building a description of responsible leadership that could form the basis for leadership programmes in higher education. Then, borrowing insights from pro-environmental psychology, we share a tripartite description of responsible leadership, which centres around identity, behaviour and responsiveness. As a final step, we share our experience in building an undergraduate programme based on this tripartite description of responsible leadership. Here, we illustrate how the leadership description can be visualised in a figure and used to develop an undergraduate Liberal Arts and Sciences curriculum centred on the UN Sustainable Development Goals

A Model for the Development of the Rhizobial and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbioses in Legumes and Its Use to Understand the Roles of Ethylene in the Establishment of these two Symbioses

We propose a model depicting the development of nodulation and arbuscular mycorrhizae. Both processes are dissected into many steps, using Pisum sativum L. nodulation mutants as a guideline. For nodulation, we distinguish two main developmental programs, one epidermal and one cortical. Whereas Nod factors alone affect the cortical program, bacteria are required to trigger the epidermal events. We propose that the two programs of the rhizobial symbiosis evolved separately and that, over time, they came to function together. The distinction between these two programs does not exist for arbuscular mycorrhizae development despite events occurring in both root tissues. Mutations that affect both symbioses are restricted to the epidermal program. We propose here sites of action and potential roles for ethylene during the formation of the two symbioses with a specific hypothesis for nodule organogenesis. Assuming the epidermis does not make ethylene, the microsymbionts probably first encounter a regulatory level of ethylene at the epidermis–outermost cortical cell layer interface. Depending on the hormone concentrations there, infection will either progress or be blocked. In the former case, ethylene affects the cortex cytoskeleton, allowing reorganization that facilitates infection; in the latter case, ethylene acts on several enzymes that interfere with infection thread growth, causing it to abort. Throughout this review, the difficulty of generalizing the roles of ethylene is emphasized and numerous examples are given to demonstrate the diversity that exists in plants

Agronomic Management of Indigenous Mycorrhizas

Many of the advantages conferred to plants by arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) are associated to the ability of AM plants to explore a greater volume of soil through the extraradical mycelium. Sieverding (1991) estimates that for each centimetre of colonized root there is an increase of 15 cm3 on the volume of soil explored, this value can increase to 200 cm3 depending on the circumstances. Due to the enhancement of the volume of soil explored and the ability of the extraradical mycelium to absorb and translocate nutrients to the plant, one of the most obvious and important advantages resulting from mycorrhization is the uptake of nutrients. Among of which the ones that have immobilized forms in soil, such as P, assume particular significance. Besides this, many other benefits are recognized for AM plants (Gupta et al, 2000): water stress alleviation (Augé, 2004; Cho et al, 2006), protection from root pathogens (Graham, 2001), tolerance to toxic heavy metals and phytoremediation (Audet and Charest, 2006; Göhre and Paszkowski, 2006), tolerance to adverse conditions such as very high or low temperature, high salinity (Sannazzaro et al, 2006), high or low pH (Yano and Takaki, 2005) or better performance during transplantation shock (Subhan et al, 1998). The extraradical hyphae also stabilize soil aggregates by both enmeshing soil particles (Miller e Jastrow, 1992) and producing a glycoprotein, golmalin, which may act as a glue-like substance to adhere soil particles together (Wright and Upadhyaya, 1998). Despite the ubiquous distribution of mycorrhizal fungi (Smith and Read, 2000) and only a relative specificity between host plants and fungal isolates (McGonigle and Fitter, 1990), the obligate nature of the symbiosis implies the establishment of a plant propagation system, either under greenhouse conditions or in vitro laboratory propagation. These techniques result in high inoculum production costs, which still remains a serious problem since they are not competitive with production costs of phosphorus fertilizer. Even if farmers understand the significance of sustainable agricultural systems, the reduction of phosphorus inputs by using AM fungal inocula alone cannot be justified except, perhaps, in the case of high value crops (Saioto and Marumoto, 2002). Nurseries, high income horticulture farmers and no-agricultural application such as rehabilitation of degraded or devegetated landscapes are examples of areas where the use of commercial inoculum is current. Another serious problem is quality of commercial available products concerning guarantee of phatogene free content, storage conditions, most effective application methods and what types to use. Besides the information provided by suppliers about its inoculum can be deceiving, as from the usually referred total counts, only a fraction may be effective for a particular plant or in specific soil conditions. Gianinazzi and Vosátka (2004) assume that progress should be made towards registration procedures that stimulate the development of the mycorrhizal industry. Some on-farm inoculum production and application methods have been studied, allowing farmers to produce locally adapted isolates and generate a taxonomically diverse inoculum (Mohandas et al, 2004; Douds et al, 2005). However the inocula produced this way are not readily processed for mechanical application to the fields, being an obstacle to the utilization in large scale agriculture, especially row crops, moreover it would represent an additional mechanical operation with the corresponding economic and soil compaction costs. It is well recognized that inoculation of AM fungi has a potential significance in not only sustainable crop production, but also environmental conservation. However, the status quo of inoculation is far from practical technology that can be widely used in the field. Together a further basic understanding of the biology and diversity of AM fungi is needed (Abbott at al, 1995; Saito and Marumoto, 2002). Advances in ecology during the past decade have led to a much more detailed understanding of the potential negative consequences of species introductions and the potential for negative ecological consequences of invasions by mycorrhizal fungi is poorly understood. Schwartz et al, (2006) recommend that a careful assessment documenting the need for inoculation, and the likelihood of success, should be conducted prior to inoculation because inoculations are not universally beneficial. Agricultural practices such as crop rotation, tillage, weed control and fertilizer apllication all produce changes in the chemical, physical and biological soil variables and affect the ecological niches available for occupancy by the soil biota, influencing in different ways the symbiosis performance and consequently the inoculum development, shaping changes and upset balance of native populations. The molecular biology tools developed in the latest years have been very important for our perception of these changes, ensuing awareness of management choice implications in AM development. In this context, for extensive farming systems and regarding environmental and economic costs, the identification of agronomic management practices that allow controlled manipulation of the fungal community and capitalization of AM mutualistic effect making use of local inoculum, seem to be a wise option for mycorrhiza promotion and development of sustainable crop production

An ontology for strongly sustainable business models: Defining an enterprise framework compatible with natural and social science

Business is increasingly employing sustainability practices, aiming to improve environmental and social responsibility while maintaining and improving profitability. For many organizations, profit-oriented business models are a major constraint impeding progress in sustainability. A formally defined ontology, a model definition, for profit-oriented business models has been employed globally for several years. However, no equivalent ontology is available in research or practice that enables the description of strongly sustainable business models, as validated by ecological economics and derived from natural, social, and system sciences. We present a framework of strongly sustainable business model propositions and principles as findings from a transdisciplinary review of the literature. A comparative analysis was performed between the framework and the Osterwalder profit-oriented ontology for business models. We introduce an ontology that enables the description of successful strongly sustainable business models that resolves weaknesses and includes functionally necessary relationships