Javier Vidal (Construction Engineering graduate) Héctor Herrera (Ph.D. in Natural Resource Sciences) and Daniela León (Ph.D. student in Sciences with specialization in Applied Cellular and Molecular Biology) are the three winners of these initiatives.

Natural fiber for construction, the production of value-added orchids and a cream formula for the treatment of melanomas are the three initiatives the Universidad de La Frontera is going to develop within the framework of the Second Stage of Valorization of Research at Universities projects of FONDEF (Chilean Fund for the Support of Scientific and Technological Development). The investment is over 72 million Chilean pesos worth.

Javier Vidal, Héctor Herrera y Daniela León are the three winners of these initiatives. Javier is a graduate in Construction Engineering; Héctor has a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Sciences and Daniela is a Ph.D. student in Sciences with specialization in Applied Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Javier will be working on a wet alkaline method to manufacture prefabricated boards of insulating, fire-resistant, sustainable and bio-based material, made of residual natural fiber from the agricultural sector and with a thermal conductivity that is similar to the traditional materials on the Chilean market. “Nowadays, the market of thermal insulating materials is dominated by derivatives of petrochemicals and minerals which are non-renewable and have a great impact on the environment. This way, the manufacturing of insulation materials from residual natural fiber seems like a great opportunity,” he commented.

At the same time, Dr. Herrera wants to produce orchids with ornamental value by incorporating endemic mycorrhizal fungi. “The fungi promote the germination of different orchid species through co-cultivation techniques, so I could improve the germination rates and achieve the production of seedlings that are destined for ornamental purposes.”

The third project is about the creation of a cream for topical use during photodynamic therapy in skin cancer treatment. Daniela León is in charge of this project and the idea is to produce a cream for topical use based on the methyl aminolevulinate photosensitizer precursor. “My proposal is an improved formula that assures a greater long-term effectiveness in photodynamic therapy for dermatologic preneoplastic or neoplastic lesions of non-melanoma skin cancer in order to decrease the recurrence rate."

APPROVED PROJECTS

Second stage of the 7th VALORIZATION OF RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITIES CONTEST 2017 of the FONDEF-Program of CONICYT (Chilean Commission for Scientific and Technological Research).

VIU17P0192 Development of insulating boards based on residual natural fiber for their use in sustainable construction.
Amount: 24.000.000 Chilean pesos
VIU17P0185 Design of an orchid production system with added ornamental value by using endemic mycorrhizal fungi.
Amount: 24.000.000 Chilean pesos
VIU17P0139 Development of a cream for topic use with an improved formula that assures a greater effectiveness of photodynamic therapy in non-melanoma skin cancer treatment.
Amount: 24.000.000 Chilean pesos

Written by: Lorena Espinoza
vice-rectorate of Research and Postgraduate Affairs
 

The UFRO has participated as a benefiting institution in the Erasmus Programs of the European Union on several occasions. This time, it permitted to strengthen its partnership with University of Valladolid, Spain.

The Universidad de La Frontera was granted two scholarships within the Erasmus+ KA107-36589 project, that permit that an academic and a student of the UFRO Doctorate in Agri-Food Sciences and Environment study at University of Valladolid, Spain. This creates new opportunities of international linking and academic exchange for the Universidad de La Frontera.

Dr. Pablo Cornejo and the PhD student Minerva Cordovés are going to go to Spain for their semester abroad. At the same time, we hope that new spaces for international cooperation are going to open up through their work. This is what Dr. Berta Schnettler, the academic coordinator for the Erasmus Program at UFRO, pointed out. “These scholarships keep making our university more visible in the European Union, and are a continuation of the programs Erasmus Mundus Chile Lot 17, VECCEU and LINDO – this last one has been co-coordinated by our institution.”

Dr. Schnettler pointed out that Erasmus permitted to create partnerships with other universities. Therefore, she sees these scholarships as an opportunity for the UFRO and expects that they will strengthen the link with the institution in Spain, and particularly with the Doctorate in Agri-Food and Biosystems Science and Engineering. “Erasmus is a program of tradition in the EU, which has been created in order to promote synergies between universities and a mutual enrichment in different fields of action of academic work. Therefore, we expect to move forward towards a specific agreement that contemplates cooperation in the fields of research and postgraduate studies, pointing at a double-degree program.”

The director of the International Affairs Office, Pamela Leal, also appreciates the achievement: “The Erasmus Program permitted us to create new partnerships with prestigious institutions beyond our borders and these scholarships significantly strengthen the collaboration at the academic and research level. They also allow us to create links of trust, and to open new channels which also our undergraduate and postgraduate students benefit from.”

RESEARCH AND EXCHANGE

Dr. Pablo Cornejo already scheduled his stay at University of Valladolid for next October. His interests are to specify the mutual collaboration at the institutional level and to strengthen the field of research. “Regarding our doctoral program, we are in a good position within the lines we develop and, among others, we put an emphasis on structuring and materializing the field of internationalization, since it is a requirement for those programs at present.”

Dr. Cornejo is going to participate in the doctoral program in Agri-Food and Biosystems Science and Engineering. This program and the UFRO program have a common ground, which is why the UFRO is interested in realizing joint training processes. “This is a great opportunity for the advance towards a future agreement that would permit that our doctoral students work together with a well-known European university,” he explained and added that the promotion of our fields of work and research projects and the creation of links between academics of both universities are among the actions he is going to carry out.

Another purpose of his stay is to strengthen the field of research he works in. “Since both programs are very similar, the fields of work also overlap. One of them is soil sustainability, which is a very important topic at the University of Valladolid and is related to what we do with our students at the UFRO Research Center for Mycorrhizal and Agri-environmental Sustainability (Cimysa) regarding soil quality,” he stated.

Minerva Cordovés is going to spend five months in Spain, during which she will join the research team on Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Rural Development (TADRUS). “The idea is to deepen my knowledge in the use of Geographic Information Systems as a tool for socio-environmental management in the agricultural sector, and to receive further training within the field of work of this group on environmental improvement in rural areas, based on the concept of sustainable development.”

This way, this scholarship offers her the opportunity to get to know another perspective on how to address the problem and it will be an opportunity to fundamentally contribute as a PhD student whose focus lies on the balance between agricultural production and the conservation and preservation of the environment. “It is required to be capable of seeing the problems from multiple points of view in order to deliver an innovative contribution to the problem´s solution. At the same time, the opportunity to get deeper knowledge in the advanced work in other parts of the world allows not only to get to know the existing advances, but also to detect the exiting information gaps on which I can work as a PhD student.”

She added that, during the five months she is going to spend at University of Valladolid, she hopes to advance in activities linked to new technologies in agricultural production, and to learn more about topics such as risk perception in the use of these technologies in rural environments. This would be a contribution to the development of her doctoral thesis, which she wants to do in joint supervision in order to being able to get a double degree.

Written by: Jassna Sepúlveda
Communications Division UFRO
 

Patients with coronary heart diseases will benefit from this new way of rehabilitation. The contribution to public health will also be significant, since it will offer more benefits at lower costs.

The cardiac rehabilitation program has been designed as a secondary prevention for survivors of cardiovascular events. Its effectiveness has been proved and it reduces mortality and posterior hospitalizations. However, it is an intervention that has been underused, mainly because of a lack of corresponding programs and the low number of patients who participate in them, especially in places of low or medium income, as it is the case in the Latin American context. Actually, only about 5 % of the Chilean patients participate in this kind of rehabilitation.

In this context, Dr. Pamela Serón of the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidad de La Frontera opts for a model of rehabilitation that is more accessible and helps the patients and the public health system of the country in a more effective or better way. “We designed a program that we want to try out as a clinical trial within the framework of a Fondecyt (Chilean National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development) project. It is basically an exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program that involves less resources, but is supposedly as effective as the regular program,” the researcher explained.

EXERCISE AT HOME

The patients could go to a health care center and undergo a training program of no more than ten sessions in order to learn how to do the exercises, in an adequate time and intensity, followed by a second phase of distance monitoring by the person in charge of the rehabilitation.

This monitoring would take place in the form of permanent programmed calls and text messages with the patients, in order to verify and/or remind the patient that it is time to continue with the rehabilitation exercise routine. “We want the patients to be able to continue with the exercises at their homes or wherever they feel comfortable, so they have to go less to the hospital or other healthcare centers. We think of it as a support to public health, since the patients would be able to return to their daily routines in a more natural way.”

The idea is to recruit 314 patients for the sample of the study who have cardiac diseases (acute coronary syndromes or stable coronary heart disease), who have received medical treatment, thrombolysis, angioplasty or bypass surgery and who signed the informed consent. The patients are from five different health centers in Santiago and the Araukanía Region. The design of this intervention also includes physical therapy with exercises as the main treatment, counseling regarding nutrition and tobacco use, and the standard medical referral and examination.

LESS IS MORE

The researcher pointed out that it is necessary to prove that this method, which is qualified as a hybridized cardiac rehabilitation that offers the work at a health center combined with distance monitoring of the work at home via telephone, is as effective as the conventional intervention at a health center, which needs more time and is monitored in person.

“This is a project based on the suggestions of the International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (ICCPR) for health centers and countries of low-income. And this is what we want to implement in Chile: establish new rehabilitation modalities for those patients in order to reduce the possibilities for another heart attack, hospitalizations because of new complications or the development of heart failure, that involve less resources for the health system and the patient,” Dr. Serón added.

Written by: Lorena Espinoza Arévalo
Vice-rectorate of Research and Postgraduate Affairs

The director of Academic Quality and vice-dean of the Faculty of Law and Business (FCJE-UFRO), Dr. Raúl Allard Soto, and the director of the Law School, Dr. Pamela Mendoza Alonzo, represented the Faculty of Law and Business during their visit at American University Washington College of Law (AU-WCL).

International interdisciplinary links and the diversity that defines both institutions were the main topics of conversation with the maximum authorities of the North American university. On this occasion, the dean, Camille Nelson, ratified their intentions to participate in the inauguration ceremony of the academic year at FCJE-UFRO at the beginning of 2019 and, at the same time, took decisive steps towards an agreement that consolidates relations between both institutions and the implementation of concrete activities and projects.

In this respect, Dr. Allard said: “The idea is that Dr. Valeska Geldres, the dean of the Faculty of Law and Business at the Universidad de La Frontera, also visits the North American university during the second semester in order to agree on the final terms of the agreement.”

Besides the encounter with the maximum authorities, they had multiple meetings with the outstanding Chilean lawyer – agent for Chile in The Hague – Claudio Grossman, dean emeritus at AU-WCL, who led the university during 21 years and completed his term in 2016.

At the same time, the doctors Allard and Mendoza exchanged ideas in meetings with different members of the academic staff, such as the directors of the program AUWCL, Padideh Ala’I (International Legal Studies), Melanija Radnovic (Student Mobility), Macarena Sáez (Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law) and Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón (LL.M. in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law), and the directors Meghan Walter (Admissions Office) and Susan Bennett (Law Clinic).

On this occasion, the Faculty of Law and Business at the UFRO also started its CALI (Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction) membership. CALI is a consortium of mostly US law schools that brings leading institutions in methodology of modern teaching together, according to the requirements for future professionals, and carries out annual congresses for educators in the field of Law. This year´s congress was organized by AU-WCL with topics such as ICTs, innovation and gender equity.

In this respect, the FCJE-UFRO and the representatives of Loyola Law School, Cornell Law School, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Duke University School of Law, University of Colorado Law School, etc., spoke about the incorporation of ICTs in law teaching and the future scenarios of legal services and counseling in the North American hemisphere.

Dr. Mendoza also emphasized the importance for the Law School of being part of this group and the possibility of a future agreement with AUWCL: “Our CALI membership is the result of excellent relations with the Library of the National Congress of Chile, which established our contact with them. On the other hand, if we strengthen our links with AUWCL it will permit our Law students and graduates to have concrete possibilities for carrying out a semester or their postgraduate studies in the mentioned establishment, among other benefits.”

Written by: Karen Campos
Faculty of Law and Business