As part of a community-randomized trial of a multicomponent intervention to prevent sexually transmitted infections, we created Mobile Teams (MTs) in ten intervention cities across Peru to improve ...outreach to female sex workers (FSW) for strengthened STI prevention services.
Throughout 20 two-month cycles, MTs provided counseling; condoms; screening and specific treatment for Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), and vaginal Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) infections; and periodic presumptive metronidazole treatment for vaginal infections.
MTs had 48,207 separate encounters with 24,814 FSW; numbers of sex work venues and of FSW reached increased steadily over several cycles. Approximately 50% of FSW reached per cycle were new. Reported condom use with last client increased from 73% to 93%. Presumptive metronidazole treatment was accepted 83% of times offered. Over 38 months, CT prevalence declined from 15.4% to 8.2%, and TV prevalence from 7.3% to 2.6%. Among participants in ≥ 9 cycles, CT prevalence decreased from 12.9% to 6.0% (p <0.001); TV from 4.6% to 1.5% (p <0.001); and NG from 0.8% to 0.4% (p = 0.07).
Mobile outreach to FSW reached many FSW not utilizing government clinics. Self-reported condom use substantially increased; CT and TV prevalences declined significantly. The community-randomized trial, reported separately, demonstrated significantly greater reductions in composite prevalence of CT, NG, TV, or high-titer syphilis serology in FSW in these ten intervention cities than in ten matched control cities.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this study, we apply the hypothesis of private amenity which simulates that the nonindustrial livestock farmers are assured an ex-ante normal minimum operating profitability rate for their ...investments in the production systems of livestock species based on grazing in a case study of dehesas in Andalusia, Spain. The ex-post measurement in the Agroforestry Accounting System of the commercial operating opportunity cost incurred by the owners at the close of the period corresponds to the lower limit of the additional amount of noncommercial intermediate product of the private amenity self-consumption service (ISSnca). When the livestock farmers obtain an above-normal operating profitability rate, it is assumed that the absence of opportunity cost results in the free use of the private amenity and, therefore, the latter is a free (noneconomic) service with zero value. In the case study of dehesa farms, the results show that the commercial operating profitability rates at basic prices are below the normal. When the ISSnca is included, the operating profitability rates at social prices for the livestock species exceed by 30%, on average, the assumed normal rate of 3%. However, due to the decline in the prices of the inanimate fixed capital in 2010, the average total profitability rate for the livestock species is estimated at 0.1%, which differs substantially from the assumed normal operating profitability rate. These results are of interest with regard to the design and application of official economic accounts at farm scale, which, as in the European Commission Farm Accounting Data Network, omit the measurement of ISSnca.
We develop an ecosystem accounting system to estimate individual products' biophysical and total income indicators. The ecosystem products are grouped into private and public activities and measured ...consistently with the principle of exchange value of the standard national accounts. Private products comprise timber, cork, firewood, conservation forestry, grazing, livestock, hunting, crops and private amenity, while the public ones comprise mushrooms, carbon, water, public recreation, landscape and threatened biodiversity services. Our accounting approach revises and extends the standard agricultural and forestry sector income accounts by incorporating intermediate products, natural growth, private amenity, carbon sequestration and capital gain. Furthermore, our approach extends the standard government sector income accounts by including the economic value of the consumption of public final products delivered by ecosystems on the basis of simulating prices for non-market products. We apply the agroforestry accounting system to a group of 39 agroforestry farm case studies in Andalusia, Spain. We provide results for two agroforestry farm groups: publicly owned coniferous forest and privately owned native hardwood forest (dehesa). Total income attained, on average, €140 per hectare in coniferous forests and €352 per hectare in dehesas. Cork natural growth and private amenity are the main products explaining private income in dehesa farms. Forestry activity products, particularly timber natural growth and the intermediate products of conservation forestry, are the main sources of private income in the coniferous forests. Public incomes from non-market products are the main contributors of total income in dehesas and forests.
•We develop an extended ecosystem accounting system to estimate total income for individual agroforestry products.•We estimate and integrate market and non-market product indicators.•We discuss how the economic aims of landowners could affect management decisions and guide ecosystem conservation policies.
In the present contribution, a methodology to solve the tracking control problem of robot manipulators through the use of a Proportional Retarded plus Gravity (PR+G) compensation scheme is presented. ...The main advantage of the proposal is to avoid the necessity of velocity measurements or their estimation, which is commonly used in most control schemes, such as the proportional derivative-type controllers or the computed torque control. The design of the PR+G controller is addressed via <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\sigma </tex-math></inline-formula>-stability analysis and its performance is tested in an experimental platform that consists of 2 degrees of the freedom robot manipulator. The proposed controller is compared with a classic proportional derivative plus gravity compensation scheme. The results are analyzed from a frequency perspective and measured by a quadratic error index.
An analysis of optical effects exhibited by blood plasma under healthy/unhealthy conditions, and of the penetrating evolution of nanovehicles conformed by nanodiamonds (NDs) encapsulating liposomes ...(L) within these biofluids, is presented. Optical ablation of liposome clusters was actuated and controlled by a standard two-wave mixing (λ = 532 nm, τp = 4 ns) laser light method. Radiant time exposure effects (30 min) and threshold laser energy parameters (250 mJ/cm2 numerical; 181 mJ/cm2 experimental) necessary to release NDs were identified and confirmed with similar experiments in the literature. Interactions during the sedimentation process between nanovehicles and the laser beams barrier were considered as the principal thermal damage process to achieve the release and transportation of drugs within these static fluids. The mechanical response during the release of NDs focuses on the temperature propagation, dynamic effects of nanovehicles associated with the diffusion coefficient, and some agglomeration effects. The principal findings of this research concern the threshold temperature (51.85 °C) of liposomes for the release of NDs with respect to that typically quoted in the literature (40–70 °C) for pure liposomes. The assessment of the release of NDs focuses on the numerical magnitude of Quantum Yield. Furthermore, the optical contrast enhancement was associated with NDs size agglomerations and the healthy/unhealthy conditions of fluids. This research aims to be a first proof approximation for delivery and transportation approaches to guide and interpret outcomes when combined with the vectorial nature basis of laser light and further effects once the cargo is retained in the fluids.
National accounting either ignores or fails to give due values to the ecosystem services, products, incomes and environmental assets of a country. To overcome these shortcomings, we apply ...spatially-explicit extended accounts that incorporate a novel environmental income indicator, which we test in the forests of Andalusia (Spain). Extended accounts incorporate nine farmer activities (timber, cork, firewood, nuts, livestock grazing, conservation forestry, hunting, residential services and private amenity) and seven government activities (fire services, free access recreation, free access mushroom, carbon, landscape conservation, threatened biodiversity and water yield). To make sure the valuation remains consistent with standard accounts, we simulate exchange values for non-market final forest product consumption in order to measure individual ecosystem services and environmental income indicators. Manufactured capital and environmental assets are also integrated. When comparing extended to standard accounts, our results are 3.6 times higher for gross value added. These differences are explained primarily by the omission in the standard accounts of carbon activities and undervaluation of private amenity, free access recreation, landscape and threatened biodiversity ecosystem services. Extended accounts measure a value of Andalusian forest ecosystem services 5.4 times higher than that measured using the valuation criteria of standard accounts.
•A spatially-explicit ecosystem accounting framework consistent with national accounts•Application to Andalusian forests considering ten activities and 43,864 km2•Ecosystems services represent 84% of final product consumption.•Environmental part of total income is 84% and of total capital 94%.•Gross value added is 11 times higher than measured by standard forestry accounts.
Simultaneous activation of multiphotonic absorption and nonlinear optical refraction were employed for developing a multipath load balancing technique assisted by light and zinc oxide nanostructures. ...Data storage as the real and imaginary part of the third-order nonlinear optical behavior of different regions in bidimensional systems was proposed. By recording the third-order nonlinear optical response exhibited by the nanomaterials, a straightforward XOR encryption system controlled by laser pulses was developed. Identification of nonlinear optical signals in propagation through the samples was monitored by a standard optical Kerr gate configuration. Vectorial two-wave mixing experiments were carried out for measuring the third-order optical nonlinearities of the samples explored by nanosecond pulses at 532 nm wavelength. A spray pyrolysis processing route was employed for the preparation of the samples in thin film form. Third-order nonlinear optical characteristics were analyzed taking into account the modification in the ZnO-based nanocomposites by single-pulsed irradiation close to the ablation threshold effect. The combination of nonlinear optics and nanostructured films can be considered for developing ultrafast smart objects with immediate applications for signal processing functions driven by multiphotonic phenomena.
Learning innovation is a positive approach on the contemporary higher education international stage. This article stresses the need to devise physical spaces that are also innovative. For that ...purpose, using a qualitative methodology, we investigated recent trends based on the synergies between certain creative disciplines: architecture, music, and fashion. The comparison was based on compositional features and formative dimension. Using a qualitative methodological comprehensive approach, a set of case studies was analysed. The findings show the usefulness of activating these synergies as effective strategies when enriching educational processes in different ways. Six cases of excellence wherein university physical spaces reached levels of innovation were studied, representing relevant transfers among the three disciplines. The text presents examples that show the educational consequences in the establishment of those synergies, in terms of both composition (music–architecture) and the activation of heritage sites in the city as venues of learning innovation (fashion–architecture). The basic conclusions were based on the fact that the increase in teaching and spatial creativity that emanates from said synergies among the three disciplines can be potentially extrapolated to other areas of knowledge.
There is a demand for renewable resources, such as biomass, to produce compounds considered as platform molecules. This study deals with dehydration of fructose for the formation of ...5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a feedstock molecule. Different catalysts (aluminosilicates, niobic acid, 12-tungstophosphoric acid—HPW, and supported HPW/Niobia) were studied for this reaction in an aqueous medium. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, N2 sorption at −196 °C and pyridine adsorption. It was evident that the nature of the sites (Brønsted and Lewis), strength, quantity and accessibility to the acidic sites are critical to the conversion and yield results. A synergic effect of acidity and mesoporous area are key factors affecting the activity and selectivity of the solid acids. Niobic acid (Nb2O5·nH2O) revealed the best efficiency (highest TON, yield, selectivity and conversion). It was determined that the optimum acidity strength of catalysts should be between 80 to 100 kJ mol−1, with about 0.20 to 0.30 mmol g−1 of acid sites, density about 1 site nm−2 and mesoporous area about 100 m2 g−1. These values fit well within the general order of the observed selectivity (i.e., Nb2O5 > HZSM-5 > 20%HPW/Nb2O5 > SiO2-Al2O3 > HY > HBEA).
Are we able to determine the existence value output generated for society through the preservation of wild species threatened with extinction? In this article we defend the theory that the service of ...preserving threatened species with risk of extinction is an existence value output with a hidden transaction price if it can be established that there are consumer or state willingness to pay an additional tax above the government total cost to avoid an increase in one threatened species in relation to the number recorded at the opening of the accounting period. This output is estimated by adding the total cost and the additional consumer tax which the consumers state that they are willing to pay through a choice experiment survey. Our refined monetary System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (rSEEA) extends the existence value output concept and valuation principles recommended by the United Nations. In this paper, this rSEEA was applied to Pinus pinea forests in protected as well as non-protected areas of Andalusia, Spain in 2010. The results show that the net value added from protected areas is 40% higher than that from non-protected areas. It is incidental that the environmental benefits in both areas coincide.
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