BPA

"Plastics and their chemicals are in every body of water and in every human body. Usual scientific measurements of toxicity, the ability to track contaminants, and causal models fore estimating long-term effects are failing to account for plastic pollution. Like many twenty-first century global environmental problems, plastic pollution seems to be an "impossible" problem because it cannot be solved through methods we have depended on in the past. "Redefining Pollution: Plastics in the Wild" argues that efforts to control plastic pollution are failing because plastic pollution exceeds not only regulatory notions of what pollution is and how it works, but also because stakeholders are struggling to find ways to measure, describe, and solve plastic pollution. The excess of plastic pollution shows how contests over environmental knowledge and what can be said about the world and its objects are waged through definition work and tools of representation.

Different groups, from industry lobbyists to breast cancer activists, argue for different and often contradictory definitions of and precautions against plastic pollution. Thus, plastic pollution is not a merely a technical problem of wayward pollutants, but is also an epistemological problem for the science upon which policy and advocacy depend. This research uses scientific articles, scientists' blogs, activist campaign material, government documents, and popular news articles to analyze the insertion of publics into traditional technocratic ways of knowing about and controlling pollution. The research begins with a history of how present day regulatory definitions of pollution were created and naturalized, and how plastic is systematically defying them. It moves on to how different public stakeholder groups with environmental and health concerns are challenging definitions previously thought to be the strict prevue of science and government agencies, providing their own notions of and evidence for pollution and harm. The work concludes with a critical, scalar framework for accounting for complex socio-environmental problems and how to best align these problems with solutions."
Liboiron, Max.  Redefining Pollution: Plastics in the Wild. (Doctoral Dissertation) New York University, 2012.

This investigation consolidates and builds on the evidence presented in previously released reports on BPA in food packaging by performing three important tasks:

1. Identify and analyze the interior linings and lids
of nearly 200 canned foods, including — for the  rst time ever — the replacement materials for BPA-based epoxy being used by national brands and retailers, and the extent to which those compa- nies have studied the safety of these materials

2. Present a summary of dozens of can coating types approved for use by the FDA since the agency publicly announced its support for industry action to remove BPA from food pack- aging in 2010, and show the replacements’ poten- tial health hazards

3. Follow up on the promises made by major national brands and retailers — and survey the policies they have adopted — to gauge their responsive- ness to the intensifying public demand for full disclosure of ingredients and safety data on the chemicals in linings of food cans.

A phonetic alphabet like IPA can be used to represent different speech sounds or segments, along with some of the suprasegmental characteristics like tone, length and stress, each represented by a unique visual symbol. Thus, we can transcribe an English word into a sequence of symbols, with associated sound characteristics, in the order they are to be used to pronounce the word. Our aim was to investigate the feasibility and ease of use of such a phonetic alphabet to teach English pronunciation to Native Bengali Speakers by combining this visual tool with existing audio tools and techniques. The Bengali language does not have the fricative sounds [f], [v], [z], [ʒ], [θ] and [δ] and the approximant [w]. It also does not have the very finely differentiated English vowel sounds like [ə], [ʌ] and [ɜ:] and does not differentiate between long and short vowel sounds. To overcome these  problems we designed a Bengali Phonetic Alphabet (BPA) in which we used Bengali characters to represent  phonemes common to both English and Bengali, and eight IPA symbols for other English phonemes. We  believe that BPA can serve as an aid to teaching consistent English pronunciation to Native Bengali Speakers

Básicamente el curso me ha ayudado a definir la posición del Laboratorio dentro de lo que son las Buenas Prácticas de Almacenes. Establecer un punto en el que nos encontramos para responder a una pregunta: ¿Cómo debe ser un almacén que cumple BPA?, independiente de lo que se quiera almacenar, sean materias primas, materiales de empaque, reactivos, producto terminado o dispositivos médicos. A partir de esta pregunta inicial surgen varias otras que nos dicen realmente cual es el avance que se tiene en el Laboratorio para poder cumplir a cabalidad con la norma. Nuestros productos se almacenan en áreas organizadas, equipadas y delimitadas para este propósito, sin embargo al ser bastante dinámico el trabajo y el movimiento de productos que se realiza en los almacenes puede llegar a ser en algún punto caótico. Debemos mejorar bastante las labores administrativas, relacionadas con la documentación necesaria para llevar a cabo las tareas operativas de los almacenes; todo el personal debe conocer los diferentes procedimientos, registros de los almacenes que deben ser cumplidos. El personal debe conocer y tener a su alcance su manual de funciones y actividades/procedimientos que se llevan a cabo en los almacenes, es un punto en el que el departamento de RR.HH. debe poner énfasis para poder conseguir la certificación. Al recibir productos (materias primas o producto terminado), se verifican sus características físicas, la documentación que acompaña y sigue con el procedimiento correspondiente para su almacenamiento, sin embargo una flaqueza que tenemos en el Laboratorio es la documentación que se genera, tenemos una gran cantidad de talonarios que se llenan tanto para el registro de ingresos, salidas, consumos o gastos, entregas de producto, al ser información que se llena de forma manual y de forma separada en sistema, da lugar a que no se registre la misma información, es por eso que se generan diferencias de inventarios, especialmente en los almacenes intermedios de materia prima, por lo que será importante definir una política de inventarios al tener el almacén intermedio unificado. El almacenamiento debe realizarse conforme a una clasificación bien definida y a las condiciones que tenga cada producto, pueden ser ambientales o por alguna característica específica, por lo que también debemos contar con un departamento o área de HSSMA, que nos ayude a definir las condiciones óptimas de almacenamiento para poder conservar los productos en buen estado, todas estas actividades van orientadas al almacenamiento de materias primas (inflamables, sustancias controladas, etc.)

Summary
The development of a questionnaire for multidimensional bioenergetic personality analysis (MBPA) is described, which aims at measuring the five factors of the five-factor-model of modern personality psychology (“BIG FIVE”) along with Lowen’s bioenergetic types. The BPA Bioenergetic Process Analysis questionnaire represents an attempt to unite these here- tofore separated disciplines dealing with the same subject, namely the structural aspects of the human psyche.
The BPA-measurement by self-description based on the subject’s own experience of himself results in a profile of ten scales, where either very high or very low scores may be yielded. In consequence this approach lead to new considerations about the meaning of high or low scores with respect to bioenergetic scales and types. For each bioenergetic type the coun- terpart for the opposite end of the scale had to be formulated and described. The BPA scales and their poles are described in detail.
The BPA scales are sufficient for the measurement of the five factors and the seven bioener- getic types. Except the psychopathic type the other bioenergetic types are clearly related to one specific factor of the five factor model respectively. Since the bioenergetic model an- chors in a psychoanalytical developmental perspective, the scales were arranged according to their hypothetical affiliation to one of the three main developmental stages in childhood.
We tried to demonstrate the application of the multidimensional bioenergetic personality analysis in the structural study of specific disorders, namely panic-/ phobia-/ anxiety-/ eating- disorder, as it gives an estimation of the hypothetical amount of trauma in each of the differ- ent developmental stages. The BPA profiles of these four different groups of patients showed specific and meaningful structural differences.

Il ne faut jamais administrer les médicaments (surtout les toxiques) avec une cuiller. Il faut toujours utiliser la mesurette livrée avec le produit ou mieux, prélever avec une seringue. Le dosage des médicaments en « Petites cuillers » (« cuillers à café ») ou « cuillers à soupes » n'a aucune précision et expose à des risques de surdosage ou de sousdosage, et n'est donc pas à recommander : certaines cuillers à soupe sont tellement plates et pas assez larges que leur contenu est moindre que celui d'une cuiller à café creuse. La question qui se pose quand le médicament n'est pas livré avec sa mesurette : quel type de cuiller le fabricant du médicament at -il utilisé pour déterminer le dosage en « cuillers » ? En général, on considère qu'à raz 1 cuiller à café mesure 5 mL, et qu'une cuiller à soupe mesure 15 mL donc 3 fois plus. Mais pour les médicaments visqueux on a parfois tendance à faire un contenu « bombé ». Pour les granules ou les médicaments en poudre on spécifie le mode de remplissage de la cuiller (bombé [mesure imprécise] ou à raz [assez précis mais pas rigoureusement]). De plus les ustensiles en plastiques exposent à l'intoxication au Bisphénol A [à ne pas confondre avec Bisphosphonates (BPA, produit de synthèse présent dans de nombreux objets en plastique (polymères du pétrole)], et... Les ustensiles en aluminium sont accusés de plusieurs autres verdicts dont l'Alzheimer... Et naturellement il ne faut surtout jamais utiliser une cuiller en bois.

En el presente trabajo se tiene como objetivo diseñar e implementar una herramienta tecnológica para el control y seguimiento de las buenas prácticas agrícolas en los pequeños agricultores de frutas y hortalizas en el Valle del Cauca. Se presenta el desarrollo de una investigación del tipo aplicada, que se apoyó en la revisión de la literatura sobre buenas prácticas agrícolas (BPA), el estudio de lasentidades y estándares que existían para la certificación de  BPA,  y  encuestas  los  agricultores  sobre  el  conocimiento  y  apropiación  de  herramientas  tecnológicas  para  facilitar las BPA. Se siguieron los pasos de metodología de desarrollo de software ICONIX, que involucra las etapas de análisis de requerimientos, análisis y diseño preliminar, análisis detallado, codificación y pruebas al  sistema.  Finalmente  se  desarrolló  una  aplicación  web    facilitadora  de  las  BPA  que  permite  el  seguimiento  a las prácticas agrícolas, incluyendo un registro constante de las tareas que los agricultores realizan sobre sus cultivos, condición indispensable en estos procesos de certificación. La herramienta  permite a los pequeños agricultores  llevar  un  mejor  manejo  de  la  información  de  los  procesos  sobre  los  cultivos,  tener  disponibles  consultas sobre la trazabilidad de los productos y el histórico de los lotes de la finca.

This aim was to assess the biomechanical and biocompatibility properties of novel glass fibre-reinforced composites (FRCs) with a fluorinated urethane dimethacrylate (FUDMA) resin. Three ratios of FUDMA/TEGDMA (30/70 wt%, 50/50 wt%, 70/30 wt%) and two ratios of control FRCs with bis-GMA/TEGDMA (50/50 wt% and 70/30 wt%) containing long silanized E-glass fibres were prepared. Despite 70 wt% bis-GMA-FRC showed a significantly higher flexural strength (p < 0.05), 50 wt% FUDMA- and bis-GMA-FRCs were not differ from each other. The greatest surface hardness and weight increase after water storage were found in 70 wt% and 30 wt% FUDMA-FRCs, respectively. No significant difference was found in water sorption and solubility among all groups. Average surface roughness was 1.80 ± 0.05 μm, while 70 wt% FUDMA-FRC exhibited the greatest contact angle (p > 0.05). Viabilities and ALP activities of MC3TC-E1 cells in all FUDMA-FRCs were higher than bis-GMA-FRCs after 5 days. To conclude, the novel FUDMA-FRCs are potential substitutes that exhibited superior cytocompatibility properties but comparable biomechanical properties to bis-GMA-FRCs.

With over 95% of BPA used in the production of polycarbonate (PC) and epoxy resins, termed herein as BPA-based plastic materials, components and products (MCPs), an investigation of human exposure to BPA over the whole lifecycle of BPA-based plastic MCPs is necessary. This mini-review unpacks the implications arising from the long-term human exposure to BPA and potential accumulation across the lifecycle of BPA-based plastics (production, use and management). This investigation is timely and necessary in promoting a sustainable circular economy model. BPA restrictions in the form of bans and safety standards are often specific to products, while safety limits rely on traditional toxicological and biomonitoring methods that may underestimate human health implications and therefore the ‘safety’ of BPA exposure. Controversies in regards to the: a) dose-response curves; b) the complexity of sources, release mechanisms and pathways of exposure; and/or c) the quality and reliability of toxicological studies, appear to currently stifle progress toward the regulation of BPA-based plastic MCPs. Due to the abundance of BPA in our MCPs production, consumption and management systems, there is partial and inadequate evidence on the contribution of BPA-based plastic MCPs to human exposure to BPA. And yet, the production, use and end-of-life management of plastic MCPs constitute the most critical BPA source and potential exposure pathways that require further investigation. Active collaboration among risk assessors, government, policy-makers, and researchers is needed to explore the impacts of BPA in the long term and introduce restrictions to BPA-based MCPs.

La Plataforma de Acción de Beijing (PAB) constituye el mapa de ruta de la política global de igualdad sustantiva, impulsada con un enfoque de derechos humanos de las mujeres por parte de feministas desde sus redes y organizaciones. La PAB es la principal herramienta que ha permitido identificar avances, retrocesos y desafíos (…) Para comprender la diferencia fundamental entre la agenda que actualmente se está negociando en el espacio del Foro Generación Igualdad, en el marco de lo que se considera Beijing+25, es necesario tomar en consideración cuál ha sido la formación de las agendas previas, los temas y objetivos que se enmarcaban, y el rol que jugaron las Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil (OSC’s), en general y el movimiento feminista en especial.

The efficient and optimum economic operations of electric power generation systems have always occupied an important position in the electric power industry. This involves allocation of the total load between the available generating units in such a way that the total cost of operation is kept at a minimum. In recent years this problem area has taken on a suitable direction as the public has become increasingly concerned with environmental matters, so that economic dispatch now includes the dispatch of systems to minimize pollutants, as well as to achieve minimum cost. In addition, there is a need to expand the limited economic optimization problem to incorporate constraints on system operation to ensure the security of the system, thereby preventing the collapse of the system due to unforeseen conditions. The purpose of the traditional Economic Dispatch (ED) problem is to find the most economical schedule of the generating units while satisfying load demand and operational constraints. This involves allocation of active power between the units, as the operating cost is insensitive to the reactive loading of a generator, the manner in which the reactive load of the station is shared among various on line generator dos not affect its economy.

In recent years, many new studies have evaluated associations between environmental pollutants and child health. This review aims to provide a broad summary of this literature, comparing the state of epidemiological evidence for the effects of a wide range of environmental contaminants (air pollutants, heavy metals, organochlorine compounds, perfluoroalkyl substances, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, pesticides, phthalates and bisphenol A) on child health outcomes. The review addresses effects on foetal growth and prematurity, neurodevelopment, respiratory and immune health, and childhood growth and obesity. Findings of recent prospective studies and meta-analyses have corroborated previous good evidence, often at lower exposure levels, for effects on foetal growth of air pollution and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), for neurotoxic effects of lead, methylmercury, PCBs and organophosphate pesticides, and for respiratory health effects of air pollution. Moderate evidence has emerged for a potential role of environmental pollutants in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism (lead, PCBs, air pollution), respiratory and immune health (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene - DDE - and PCBs), and obesity (DDE). In addition, there is now moderate evidence that certain chemicals of relatively recent concern may be associated with adverse child health outcomes, specifically perfluorooctanoate and foetal growth, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers and neurodevelopment. For other chemicals of recent concern, such as phthalates and bisphenol A, the literature is characterised by large inconsistencies preventing strong conclusions. In conclusion, since most of the recent literature evaluates common exposures in the general population, and not particularly high exposure situations, this accumulating body of evidence suggests that the unborn and young child require more protection than is currently provided. Large, coordinated research efforts are needed to improve understanding of long-term effects of complex chemical mixtures.