Legal Knowledge as a Tool for Social Change: La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres as an Expert on Colombian Abortion Law.

In May 2006, Colombia's Constitutional Court liberalized abortion, introducing three circumstances under which the procedure would not be considered a crime: (1) rape or incest; (2) a risk to the woman's health or life; and (3) fetal malformations incompatible with life. Immediately following the court's ruling, known as Sentence C-355, members of La Mesa por la Vida y Salud de las Mujeres (hereinafter La Mesa) began to mobilize to ensure the decision's implementation, bearing in mind the limited impact that the legal framework endorsed by the court has had in other countries in the region. We argue that La Mesa's strategy is an innovative one in the field of legal mobilization insofar as it presumes that law can be shaped not just by public officials and universities but also by social actors engaged in the creation and diffusion of legal knowledge. In this regard, La Mesa has become a legal expert on abortion by accumulating knowledge about the multiple legal rules affecting the practice of abortion and about the situations in which these rules are to be applied. In addition, by becoming a legal expert, La Mesa has been able to persuade health providers that they will not risk criminal prosecution or being fired if they perform abortions. We call this effect of legal mobilization a "pedagogical effect" insofar as it involves the production of expertise and appropriation of knowledge by health professionals. We conclude by discussing La Mesa's choice to become a legal expert on abortion as opposed to recruiting academics to do this work or encouraging women to produce and disseminate this knowledge.

Coupling between Chemical and Meteorological Processes under Persistent Cold-Air Pool Conditions: Evolution of Wintertime PM2.5 Pollution Events and N2O5 Observations in Utah's Salt Lake Valley.

The Salt Lake Valley experiences severe fine particulate matter pollution episodes in winter during persistent cold-air pools (PCAPs). We employ measurements throughout an entire winter from different elevations to examine the chemical and dynamical processes driving these episodes. Whereas primary pollutants such as NOx and CO were enhanced twofold during PCAPs, O3 concentrations were approximately threefold lower. Atmospheric composition varies strongly with altitude within a PCAP at night with lower NOx and higher oxidants (O3) and oxidized reactive nitrogen (N2O5) aloft. We present observations of N2O5 during PCAPs that provide evidence for its role in cold-pool nitrate formation. Our observations suggest that nighttime and early morning chemistry in the upper levels of a PCAP plays an important role in aerosol nitrate formation. Subsequent daytime mixing enhances surface PM2.5 by dispersing the aerosol throughout the PCAP. As pollutants accumulate and deplete oxidants, nitrate chemistry becomes less active during the later stages of the pollution episodes. This leads to distinct stages of PM2.5 pollution episodes, starting with a period of PM2.5 buildup and followed by a period with plateauing concentrations. We discuss the implications of these findings for mitigation strategies.

Predicting emissions from oil and gas operations in the Uinta Basin, Utah.

UNLABELLED: In this study, emissions of ozone precursors from oil and gas operations in Utah's Uinta Basin are predicted (with uncertainty estimates) from 2015-2019 using a Monte-Carlo model of (a) drilling and production activity, and (b) emission factors. Cross-validation tests against actual drilling and production data from 2010-2014 show that the model can accurately predict both types of activities, returning median results that are within 5% of actual values for drilling, 0.1% for oil production, and 4% for gas production. A variety of one-time (drilling) and ongoing (oil and gas production) emission factors for greenhouse gases, methane, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are applied to the predicted oil and gas operations. Based on the range of emission factor values reported in the literature, emissions from well completions are the most significant source of emissions, followed by gas transmission and production. We estimate that the annual average VOC emissions rate for the oil and gas industry over the 2010-2015 time period was 44.2E+06 (mean) ± 12.8E+06 (standard deviation) kg VOCs per year (with all applicable emissions reductions). On the same basis, over the 2015-2019 period annual average VOC emissions from oil and gas operations are expected to drop 45% to 24.2E+06 ± 3.43E+06 kg VOCs per year, due to decreases in drilling activity and tighter emission standards. IMPLICATIONS: This study improves upon previous methods for estimating emissions of ozone precursors from oil and gas operations in Utah's Uinta Basin by tracking one-time and ongoing emission events on a well-by-well basis. The proposed method has proven highly accurate at predicting drilling and production activity and includes uncertainty estimates to describe the range of potential emissions inventory outcomes. If similar input data are available in other oil and gas producing regions, then the method developed here could be applied to those regions as well.

Examen oftalmológico en estudiantes de odontología y su relación con el uso de la lámpara de fotocurado / Ophthalmologic examination in dental school students and its relationship with the use of dental curing light

Objetivo: Se determinó el diagnóstico oftalmológico de estudiantes de odontología de la Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia), y se compararon los hallazgos de la valoración oftalmológica entre un grupo de estudiantes previamente expuestos, y otro de estudiantes no expuestos al uso de la lámpara de fotocurado en la práctica clínica. Métodos: Se aplicó una encuesta por entrevista acerca de posibles patologías, accidentes y variables relacionadas con daño ocular, entre ellas el uso de la lámpara de fotocurado. Adicional a esta, a cada estudiante se le practicó un electroretinograma, una fotografía de fondo de ojo y un examen oftalmológico completo. Resultados: No se encontró una asociación estadísticamente significativa entre el daño ocular y la exposición a la lámpara, pero se observó una tendencia a un mayor porcentaje de estudiantes de noveno semestre que presentaron algún tipo de daño ocular, comparado con los estudiantes de quinto semestre. Conclusiones: Es importante continuar promoviendo y profundizando el conocimiento acerca de medidas de bioseguridad en estudiantes de odontología, docentes, auxiliares y pacientes, así como dar continuidad a trabajos interdisciplinarios como éste, en el cual se trabajó de manera complementaria con oftalmólogos. Se recomienda realizar estudios posteriores a la misma población después de un periodo de tiempo mayor a dos años.(AU)

Objective: We determined the ophthalmic diagnostic of dental students at the University del Valle (Cali, Colombia), andcompared the findings of ophthalmologic evaluation in a group of students previously exposed to the use of the curing light in clinical practice, and other group of students not exposed to it. Methods: It was implemented a survey by interview to report possible diseases, accidents and variables related to ocular pathology, including the use of curing lamp. Additional to this, it was performed an electroretinography, a photograph of eye fundus and a complete ophthalmological examination to each student. Results: It was not found a statistically significant association between injury and exposure to the lamp, but there was a trend towards a higher percentage of ninthsemester students who presented some kind of ocular pathology, compared with students coursing fifth semester. Conclusion: It is important to continue promoting and increasing knowledge about biosafety standards in dental students, dentists, assistants and patients, and give continuity to interdisciplinary work like this, which worked in a complementary manner with ophthalmologists. Further studies are recommended in the same population, after a period longer than two years.(AU)