This paper, the second in a series of two, describes the experimental results for removing arsenic from the dust collected in the electrostatic precipitators of a fluidized bed roasting oven (RP dust). The RP dust produced is discharged as a toxic waste, although its copper content is close to 20% by weight. This work aims to process the RP dust; until obtained a material with a low concentration of arsenic, which could be recirculated in smelting operations and recover the valuable metals. Based on the successful experience obtained in the first document with FS dust, this work proposes to use the reduction-sulphidation-volatilization processes to carry out the volatilization of arsenic from RP dust. A set of experiments was realized in the roasting different ratios of the mixture of copper concentrate / RP dust, sulfur / RP dust varying temperature and roasting time; to reach an arsenic concentration <0.5% by weight. The RP dust was characterized using different techniques, that confirmed more than 20% by weight of copper and describing its structure as a small particle agglomerate (<5 µm), with a complex sulfoxide morphology. The main results indicated: that for a 75/25 mixture of the copper concentrate / PR dust under 700 ° C, 15 minutes roasting time with air atmosphere, the arsenic volatilization was 96% by weight. Meanwhile, for a 5/95 mixture of sulfur / RP dust, at 650 ° C, the volatilization of arsenic was 67% by weight.

This paper (the first of a series of two) seeks to describe the experimental results of removing arsenic from dust collected in electrostatic precipitators of copper into the pyro-metallurgy gas cleaning systems. The first work corresponds to the treatment of dust contained in gas off generated in the copper Flash Smelting Furnace process (FS dust), while the second focuses on the treatment of dust generated from a Fluidized Bed Roasting Furnace (RP dust). The dust is complex sulphur-oxide-metals with concentrations of copper above 10 wt % and relatively high concentrations of silver. Due to the dust has an arsenic’s concentration above 5 wt %, makes it difficult to recover valuable metals through hydro-metallurgical processes or by direct recirculation of the dust into a smelting furnace. Thus, the development of pyrometallurgical processes aimed to reduce the concentration of arsenic in dust is the main purpose of this study, particularly the production of a material suitable for recirculation in smelting operations. The works conducted provide a detailed characterization of the dust, including Quantitative Evaluation of Minerals by Scanning Electron Microscopy (QEMSCAN), Scanning electron microscope-Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDS), X-ray diffraction (XR-D), elemental chemical analysis using Atomic Adsorption (A. A.) and X-Ray Fluorescence (X-RF). By considering that arsenic volatilization requires a process of reduction-sulphidation-volatilization, the works explore the roasting of mixtures of copper concentrate/dust, sulphur/dust and pyrrhotite/dust. The degree of volatilization was determined by elemental chemical analysis of arsenic in the mixture after and before the roasting process. The results indicated the effect of parameters such as temperature, gas flow, gas composition and the ratio of mixtures (concentrate, sulphur or pyrrhotite)/dust on the volatilization of arsenic. The findings indicate that the concentration of arsenic in the FS dust can be reduced to a relatively low level (<0.5 wt %), allowing to the material to be recirculated into smelting processes.

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) belongs to a heterogeneous group of highly complex neurodegenerative diseases and represents the second cause of presenile dementia in individuals under 65. Frontotemporal-TDP is a subgroup of frontotemporal dementia characterized by the aggregation of abnormal protein deposits, predominantly transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43), in the frontal and temporal brain regions. These deposits lead to progressive degeneration of neurons resulting in cognitive and behavioral impairments. Limbic age-related encephalopathy (LATE) pertains to age-related cognitive decline primarily affecting the limbic system which is crucial for memory, emotions, and learning. Though distinct, emerging research suggests a potential overlap in pathogenic processes, with some cases of limbic encephalopathy displaying TDP-43 pathology. Genetic factors play a pivotal role in both disorders. Mutations in various genes, such as progranulin (GRN) and chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72), have been identified as causative in frontotemporal-TDP. Similarly, specific genetic variants have been associated with an increased risk of developing LATE. Understanding these genetic links provides crucial insights into disease mechanisms and the potential for targeted therapies.

Since the requirements in terms of power of the electronic applications range wide, the developed Energy Harvesting (EH) systems limit their availability to the less power demanding applications. However, this paper focuses on increasing the energy levels collected in the EH system so that it can be included in more demanding applications in terms of power. Therefore, an electronic system capable of grouping many single harvesting channels into one single system is analyzed in this paper. This multi-harvester electronic system is able to manage efficiently the energy collected by multiple vibratory transducers. The paper includes a comparison of its performance against some of the State-of-the-Art EH energy management circuits that interface the transducers. The method employed to demonstrate the intrinsic efficiency of each of the electronic circuits tested was based on experimental tests, where the average power transferred from several identical and simultaneous electric sources to a single storage element was measured. It was found out that only one energy management circuit was able to increase the transferred energy in a linear way while new input electric sources were added.

This work presents the design, construction and performance evaluation of a photovoltaic greenhouse as an energy hub (EH) in modern agriculture that integrates battery energy storage (BES) and an electric vehicle charging station (EV). The greenhouse is composed of 48 semi-transparent PV panels with nominal transparency of 20% and 110 W capacity. The control of the PV greenhouse as EH was approached as an optimization problem with the aim of minimizing the cost of the energy used from the grid. Simulation results indicate that the integrated BES is capable of balancing power transactions within the microgrid. In addition, it was found that the case of slow charging of the EV at night was less demanding on the BES than fast charging during the day in terms of abrupt power transitions and average depletion of BES SOC (61% vs 53%). Empirical results also demonstrated the negative impact of dust generated by agricultural activity on the performance of solar panels. For a period analyzed of three years, an average yearly production loss of 6.8% was calculated.

In this study, four experimental treatments were evaluated: (T1) alfalfa hay + concentrate, (50:50%, DM); (T2) alfalfa hay + Leucaena leucocephala + concentrate, (30:20:50%, DM); (T3) alfalfa hay + prickly pear + concentrate, (30:20:50%, DM); and (T4) alfalfa hay + Leucaena leucocephala + prickly pear + concentrate, (30:10:10:50%, DM). NH3-N concentrations in T2 and T4 decreased when replaced alfalfa hay in 20 and 10 %, respectively. Treatments did not affect the concentration of total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) between T3 and T4 (p>0.05); while the concentrations among T1 and T2 were different (P<0.05). T2 showed a reduction of 25.5 % in the methane production when compared to T1(p < 0.05).The lowest concentrations of protozoa were observed in T2 and T4, which contained Leucaena leucocephala (T2) and Leucaena leucocephala + prickly pear (T4) (p<0.05). The highest concentration of total methanogens was recorded in T1 and were different to T2, T3 and T4 (p<0.05). Leucaena leucocephala at a inclusion percentage of 20 % decreased the methane when compared to T1; whereas prickly pear there was not a positive effect the methane production.

This article presents a critical review of the current and future state of “business architecture” within the enterprise architecture frameworks. The review is conducted in the following four stages. In the first stage of analysis, the research and publication questions are established. In the second stage, the search for information is designed and implemented using the Prisma methodology, and once the selection criteria were applied, 75 article-type documents were selected from Scopus, WoS, and Dimensions databases. In the third stage, the information analysis is conducted, and then it is synthesized. Finally, in fourth stage, the discussion is elaborated. This research contributes in understanding the current and future trends of business architecture in Industry 4.0. Considering the challenges of the changing market, the results show the need to implement architectures and dynamic business models, including their artifacts, in a globalized context immersed in new technologies.

The current study aims to first, isolate H. pylori in cultures from gastric biopsy samples and test their susceptibility. Secondly, we aim to assess the efficacy of the standard triple therapy from patients coming of the western central region of Colombia. Patients with H. pylori positive re-ceived standard triple therapy with PPI [40 mg b.i.d.], clarithromycin [500 mg b.i.d.], amoxicillin [1g b.i.d.] for 14 days. Thereafter, antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates was assessed by E-Test. From 94 patients enrolled, 67 were positive for H. pylori by histology or culture. Resistance to metronidazole, levofloxacin, rifampicin, clarithromycin and amoxicillin was 81, 26.2, 23.9, 19 and 9.5%, respectively. No resistance was found for tetracycline. 54 patients received standard triple therapy, 48 attended follow-ups testing and of them, 30 had resistance test reports. Overall eradication rate was 81.2%, 4 patients underwent second-line management and only one patient remained H. pylori positive by urea breath test during the follow-up [six weeks]. Eradication was significantly higher in patients with clarithromycin susceptible than in resistant strains [95.6% vs. 42.8% p= 0.001]. The updated percentages of resistance to clarithromycin in this geographical area have increased, so this value must be considered when choosing the treatment regimen.

Demyelinating diseases alter myelin or the coating surrounding most nerve fibers in the central and peripheral nervous systems. The grouping of human central nervous system demyelinating disorders today includes Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders (NMOSD) as distinct disease categories. Each disease is caused by a complex combination of genetic and environmental variables, many involving an autoimmune response. Even though these conditions are fundamentally similar, research into genetic factors, their unique clinical manifestations, and lesion pathology has helped with differential diagnosis and disease pathogenesis knowledge. This review aims to synthesize the genetic approaches that explain the differential susceptibility between these diseases, explore the overlapping clinical features, and pathological findings, discuss existing and emerging hypotheses on the etiology of demyelination, and assess recent pathogenicity studies and their implications for human demyelination. This review presents critical information from previous studies on the disease, which asks several questions to understand the gaps in research in this field.

Vegetable oils contain fatty acids, phenolic compounds, natural antioxidants, and fat-soluble vitamins, which are beneficial against different diseases. Oil extraction methods can, however, affect their composition. This study aims to characterize the chemical composition of oils from two Andean seeds, cañihua (Chenopodium pallidicaule) and tarwi (Lupinus mutabilis), extracted with different organic solvents, petroleum ether, hexane, and ethanol. This study compares these oils with commercial sunflower, rapeseed, and olive oils. Results showed that oils extracted with hexane had the highest yield, while those extracted with ethanol had higher antioxidant activity and total phenolic compound content. Additionally, using ethanol makes the process more sustainable than non-green solvents. The composition of tarwi and cañahua oils extracted with ethanol includes fatty acids, tocopherols, antioxidants, and phenolic compounds associated with health benefits.

The carbapenemase OXA-244 is a derivate of OXA-48, and its detection is very difficult in laboratories. Here we report the identification and genomic analysis of an Escherichia coli isolate (28Eco12) harbouring the bla_OXA-244 gene identified in Colombia, South America. The 28Eco12 isolate was identified during a retrospective study and it was recovered from a patient treated in Colombia. The complete nucleotide sequence was established using the PacBio platform. A comparative genomics analysis with other bla_OXA-244–harbouring Escherichia coli strains was performed. The 28Eco12 isolate belonged to sequence type (ST) 38 and its genome was composed of two molecules, a chromosome of 5,343,367 bp and a plasmid of 92,027 bp, which belonged to the incompatibility group IncY and did not harbour resistance genes. The bla_OXA-244 gene was chromosomally-encoded and mobilized by an ISR1-related Tn6237 composite transposon. Notably, this transposon was inserted and located within a new genomic island. For our knowledge this is the first report of a bla_OXA-244–harbouring Escherichia coli isolate in American continent.Our results suggest that the introduction of the OXA-244-producing E. coli isolate was through clonal expansion of the ST38 pandemic clone. Other isolates producing OXA-244 could be circulating silently on the American continent.

This work demonstrated the potential of CNC as a substitute for PEG as an additive in ultrafiltration membrane fabrication. Two sets of modified membranes were fabricated using the phase inversion technique with polyethersulfone (PES) as the base polymer, and 1-N-methyl-2 pyrrolidone (NMP) as the solvent. The first set was fabricated with 0.075 wt% CNC, while the second set was fabricated with 2 wt% PEG. All membranes were characterized using SEM, EDX, FTIR, and contact angle measurements. The SEM images were analyzed for surface characteristics using WSxM 5.0 Develop 9.1 software. The membranes were tested, characterized, and compared for their performance in treating both synthetic turbid water and real restaurant Both membranes exhibited improved hydrophilicity, morphology, pore structure, and roughness. Both membranes also exhibited similar water flux for real and synthetic polluted water. However, the membrane prepared with CNC gave the higher turbidity removal and COD removal when raw restaurant water was treated. The membrane compared well with the UF membrane containing 2 wt% PEG in terms of morphology and performance when synthetic turbid water and raw restaurant water were treated.

Dump design and scheduling are critical elements to effective mine planning, especially if several of them are required in large-scale open pit mines. Infrastructure capital and transportation costs are considerable from an early stage in the mining project, and through the life-of-mine as these dumps gradually become immense structures. Delivered mining rates, as well as certain spatial and physical constraints, provide a set of parameters of mathematical and economic relationship that creates opportunities for modelling and thus facilitates the measuring and optimization of ultimate dump design by using programming and empirical techniques while achieving economic objectives. This paper presents a methodology to model and optimize the design of a mine dump by minimizing the total haulage costs. The proposed methodology consists on: (i) Formulation of a dump model based on a system of equations relying on multiple relevant parameters; (ii) Solves by minimizing the total cost using linear programming and determines a ‘preliminary’ dump design; (iii) Through a series of iterations, modifies the ‘preliminary’ footprint by projecting it to the topography and creates the ultimate dump design. Finally, an example application for a waste rock dump illustrates this methodology.

This paper presents a novel improvement of MuSIASEM (Multiscale Integrated Analysis of the Societal and Ecological Metabolism) by incorporating a new regional analysis of the electricity metabolism across levels. An analysis of Mexico illustrates this toolkit and shows that the industry sector had Economic Energy Intensity (EEI) with 40.3 MWh/MMXN reached a higher value than the commerce and services sector with 0.84 MWh/MMXN. Regarding the Economic Labor Productivity (ELP) indicator (AV/h), the industrial sector with 208.5 TMXN/Kh reached a higher value than the Commercial and services sector with 114.3 TMXN/Kh. With reference to the Exosomatic Metabolic Rate (EMR), the Household sector obtained 59.3 KWh/Kh whereas the paid sector reached 2,486.4 KWh/Kh. Disaggregation of the EMR indicator into economic sectors shows that the Industrial sector obtained 8.4 KWh/Kh and the commercial and services sector reached 0.10 KWh/Kh. The lack of complete data for the agricultural sector does not allow us to calculate EEI, ELP, and EMR indicators accurately. Considering the analysis of indicators by regions, regarding the EEI rate, the Central region had the lowest value with 12.7 MWh/MMXN, followed by the Northeast with 21.4 MWh/MMXN and Western with 29.4 MWh/ MMXN, which means that they require less electricity to produce more added value. In terms of the ELP indicator, it was found regions with higher values were Northeast with 182.3 MMXN/Mh, Central with 177.5 MMXN/Mh, and North with 127 MMXN/Mh, which means that these regions produce more added value per hour of work. About the EMR, it is observed that regions in the northern part of the country had higher values: Northwest with 337 KWh/Kh, Baja California Sur with 334 KWh/Kh, Baja California with 328 KWh/Kh, North with 313 KWh/Kh and Northeast with 274 KWh/Kh, which means that these regions consume more electricity per hour. This innovative approach is useful for governance because it helps to understand and reduce asymmetries across regions, resulting in more social equality and a better economic equilibrium across sectors and regions.

The province of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain), despite being declared the European territory with the largest number of defensive constructions (castles, fortifications, etc.), has few conservation plans, with many remains included on the Red List of Spanish Heritage ly-ing abandoned. This poses a challenge for landscape conservation and the optimal use of the province’s tourism potential. In this paper we present the early implementation of an ongoing methodological approach designed to alleviate this situation. It takes advantage of data from the Sentinel 2A and 2B satellites, HBIM, RPAS, GIS and fieldwork that will be applied across five archaeological case studies. It has been tested for the first time in the village of Magaña. Three main objectives and phases of this methodological approach have been designed: 1. Preparation of an Environmental Risk Chart with which to answer such ques-tions as “How have climate change, anthropic alterations and environmental characteris-tics affected the state of conservation of certain heritage sites?” 2. Preparation of HBIM models to foster monitorisation and conservation policies for the main archaeological remains and improving their protection based on digital and technological tools. 3. Building a Smart Tourism App for mobile devices aimed at promoting smart tourism by digitalising and virtualising tourist itineraries and archaeological remains. Finally, public administrations will be apprised of the need to implement a conservation policy for cultural assets and their surroundings in a simple, quick and cost-effective man-ner.

The province of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain), despite being declared the European territory with the largest number of defensive constructions (castles and fortifications), has few conservation plans, with many remains included on the Red List of Spanish Heritage lying abandoned. This presents a problem for the conservation of the landscape and the optimal use of the province’s tourism potential. Through the study case of Magaña hamlet two actions are proposed to alleviate this situation: The creation of an archaeological and environmental risk chart with which to answer such questions as “How have climate change, anthropic alterations and environmental charac-teristics affected the state of conservation of certain heritage sites?” and to put forward proposals for improving their protection using as a basis digital and technological tools, such as remote sensing (SAR), taking advantage of data from the Sentinel 2A and 2B satellites, HBIM, RPAS and GIS. To foster the promotion of smart tourism by digitalising and virtualising tourist routes and archaeological remains by building a Smart Tourism App for mobile devices. Finally, public administrations will be apprised of the need to implement a conservation policy for cultural as-sets and their surroundings in a simple, quick and cost-effective manner.

In this paper we use the Mellin convolution theorem, which is related to Perron's formula. Also we introduce new explicit formulae for arithmetic function which generalize the explicit formulae of Weil for other arithmetic functions different from the Von-Mangoldt function.

: One of the challenges facing operations management is the design, choice and imple-mentation of action plans adapted to the magnitude of the deviations of the variables of an industrial process. Making conscious and quick decisions is crucial to achieving im-provements in productivity. This will be achieved if the organization's internal and external communication model is strategically designed, considering specific cultural factors and the symmetry or asymmetry required in the communication model. However, how do we organize ourselves and through what channels do we communicate within a production process to generate Big Data that combines data from technologies and the perception, comprehension and projection of experienced humans? Our purpose is to create an operations management model that facilitates the incorporation of technology, allows a prompt response to failures, and promotes the sustainability of processes, without losing sight of its alignment with the organizational strategy. The developed model was implemented in an operations management team, following the guidelines of an action researcher methodology. This resulted in the design of an operations management model and a detailed methodology for its implementation, achieving sig-nificant improvements in the metrics of the current process, making it a success story.

(1) Background: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have been overlooked on the global health agenda and in the priorities of national systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In 2012, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created to ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being for all. This roadmap set out to accelerate work to overcome the global impact of NTDs. Almost a decade has passed since NTDs were re-launched as a global priority. Investment in research and development, as well as the production of scientific literature on NTDs, is expected to have increased significantly. (2) Methods: A bibliometric analysis of the scientific production of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was carried out in relation to 19 endemic NTDs. These data were compared with the scientific production in malaria, tuberculosis and HIV / AIDS. The database available from Thomson Reuters Web of Science (WoS) was used. In addition, the average annual growth percentage was calculated for each disease. (3) Results: In the last decade, the NTDs with the highest number of publications in the world were dengue and leishmaniasis. The United States was the most prolific country in the world in 15 out of 19 NTDs analyzed. In the LAC region, Brazil was the largest contributor for 16 of the 19 NTDs analyzed. Arboviral diseases showed the highest average annual growth. The number of publications for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV /AIDS was considerably higher than for NTDs. The contribution of most LAC countries, especially those considered as LMICs, is inadequate and does not reflect the relevance of NTDs for the public health of the population. (4) Conclusion: This is the first bibliometric analysis to assess the trend of scientific documents on endemic NTDs in LAC. Our results could be used by decision makers both to strengthen investment policies in research and development in NTDs.

The burdens of malnutrition, protein and micronutrient deficiency, and obesity cause enormous costs to society. Crop nutritional quality has been compromised by the emphasis on edible yield and through the loss of biodiversity due to the introduction of high-yielding uniform cultivars. Heirloom crop cultivars are traditional cultivars grown for a long time (> 50 years), and whose heritage has been preserved by regional, ethnic or family groups. Heirlooms are recognized for their unique appearance, names, uses and historical significance. They are gaining in popularity because of their unique flavors and cultural significance to local cuisine, and their role in sustainable food production for small-scale farmers. As a contrast to modern cultivars, heirlooms may offer a welcome alternative in certain markets. Recently, market channels have emerged for heirloom cultivars in the form of farmer-breeder-chef collaborations and seed savers organizations. There is therefore urgent need to know more about the traits available in heirloom cultivars, particularly for productivity, stress tolerance, proximate composition, sensory quality and flavor. This information is scattered and the intention of this review is to document some of the unique characteristics of heirloom cultivars that may be channeled into breeding programs for developing locally adapted high value cultivars.

In the last decade several projects have been developed for the digitization and semantization of cultural heritage data. They were developed to preserve and maintain this heritage, but bringing it closer to all types of users and allowing access to this information to other sectors such as tourism, education, etc. In these developments, web technologies are combined, along with the use of knowledge graphs and interactive visualisation tools. Although remarkably interesting projects have been developed, in those projects, the data visualization tools are usually focused on the project context. This makes it difficult to reuse these jobs. Additionally, there are peculiarities of cultural heritage data considered with little depth, such as uncertainty, spatial and temporal granularity, as well as other aspects, such as relationships between data. In this article, these problems are described and based on other works such as VUMO or VISO, the design of an ontology that formalizes how to visualise this information is proposed, considering these problems. In addition, the development of a platform that allows the visualisation of this information through a web application and its evaluation of its use in projects such as SILKNOW, or Arxiu Valencià del Disseny is exposed

This paper shows the firsts results of a methodological approach in which Remote Sensing technologies (Satellite imagery and LiDAR) combined with Least Cost Path algorithm on GIS are being tested like tools to overcome locally-based interpretations about populational patterns and communication routes during Flavian municipality in the Comarca de El Condado region. The identification of fourteen hypothetical communication routes between already known archaeological sites thanks to a recent archaeological prospection, and the confirmation of three sections of them and a new archaeological site demonstrate that the combined use of the aforementioned technics has a very useful to delve more deeply, more widely and at a variety of different scales into the relation between the twelve known/selected Early Roman Empire sites and the surrounding landscape in the right bank of Guadalén River. It is expected that, in next phases, this methodological approach will allow us to go deeper in analysing and understanding spatial distribution, exploitation, and interrelation between different Early Roman Empire sites, helping us to fill the aforementioned gaps in our understanding of the archaeological continuum in the region reducing time and costs.

The purpose of this systematic review is to examine the various articles published in the field of neuropsychology of anxiety research in terms of publication type and volume, methodology, and subject matter. The significance of this topic derives from the clinical and functional consequences of cognitive symptoms. Generalized anxiety disorder refers to the cluster of clinical symptoms characterized by predominant anxious anticipation and difficulty controlling worry. In order for the review to be systematic and reproducible, a search of the PsycINFO, Scopus, PubMed, Elsevier databases and an analysis using the PRISMA method are suggested. After analyzing the research data, empirical studies evaluating the clinical neuropsychology of generalized anxiety disorder are discussed.

Aging is a major risk factor for the higher incidence and prevalence of chronic conditions, such as cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. Closely linked with the onset of all these age-related diseases is immunosenescence, a condition defined as progressive reconfiguration of the immune functions leading to an increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, poorer response to vaccination, increased prevalence of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and other chronic diseases characterized by a pro-inflammatory state named inflammaging. Given that immunosenescence frames age-related diseases, it is natural to ask how these illnesses are related under the context of innate and adaptative components of the immune system. Knowledge processing by Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) of age-related diseases framed in an immunosenescence multivalued context shows that a hierarchy among these diseases emerges with a subconcept-superconcept nested structure, with two clusters, first made of metabolic diseases, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. Second metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases and rheumatoid arthritis. Metabolic diseases seem to be a pivot illness and they must be a primary target given their global incidence and prevalence and their cost-effective treatments like regular physical activity, weight loss, healthy diet, stopping smoking, and reducing or managing stress. Another implication of the ontological analysis of age-related diseases is about the nature of immunosenescence, suggesting that initial symptoms of age-related diseases are mainly related to innate immune mechanisms, and developing of severe symptoms of age-related diseases like cancer, cardiovascular or neurodegenerative diseases depends on the activation of acquired immunity processes.

The article presents the results and conclusions of a series of tests of wedge-shaped blocks armoring carried out on a new experimental facility (‘Hydraulic Experimentation Facility - Luis Ruano’) in quasi-prototype conditions. The article describes the singular testing facility that was built at the inlet channel of the Acequia de Sora channel, immediately upstream of the Laverné reservoir (Zaragoza, Spain). The inflow of the testing facility has a maximum discharge of 9 m³s^-1. The aim is to perform experimental research on technologies to protect embankment dams and dikes against overflowing erosion under quasi-prototype conditions. The results of the tests showed the ability of the WSBs to withstand high unit discharges under extremely negative conditions. Furthermore, conclusions were drawn about potential threats to the sound behavior of the armor.

The aim of this article was to assess how the professional competence of PETs (Physical Education Teachers) can predict student satisfaction in high school and student satisfaction with life itself. In line with these aims, this study was completed as a cross-sectional study, which was carried out in a total 890 Physical Education (PE) students. Of the research group, 50.3% were female and 49.7% were male. Age average was 15.49 years old for females (SD 1.79) and 15.00 years old for males (SD 2.00). The data collection instrument was the Intrinsic Satisfaction Classroom Scale and Satisfaction with Life Scale. The results are presented as descriptive statistics, correlations and structural equation modelling analysis, and they show that the competences of the PE teacher determine in great measure student’s satisfaction with school and with their own personal lives.

The purpose of this study is to bring out a scientometric analysis of the advances of digital transformation in the global banking sector. For this, a background search of the term "Digital Transformation Banking " has been brought out from the Web of Science (Wos) Database, covering records published between 2002 and 2023. A set of 312 publications was identified, which mainly includes a set of 264 academic articles, 29 articles published without cataloging a specific volume of a journal, 9 articles under review, 5 editorial material documents, 4 conference articles, and 1 document is a book chapter. Nowadays the scientific production is low but showing growing development presenting 123 publications and 7,754 citations for the year 2022. Among the scientific production, 43 publications from the Republic of China (8.8%) and 35 publications from Ukraine (7.8%) stand out. ,2%). It is also worth mentioning that the most relevant authors on this topic are Ricardo Palomo, professor and dean of San Pablo University, and Robert J Kauffman, professor at Singapore Management University in terms of influence. Main institutions in terms of scientific production, mainly: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the United States and the Russian Academy of Sciences of Russia.

Autophagy is an essential mechanism to maintain cellular homeostasis. Besides its role in controlling the quality of cytoplasmic components, it participates in nutrient obtaining and lipid mobilization under stressful conditions. Furthermore, autophagy is involved in the regulation of systemic metabolic, a function mainly performed by neuronal populations of the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus. Several studies have shown that blockade of autophagy in these neurons can affect central regulation of metabolism and impact body energy balance. Moreover, hypothalamic autophagy can be altered during obesity. However, neurons are not the only cell type involved in the central regulation of metabolism. Astrocytes, essential cells for brain homeostasis, are key metabolic regulators. They can sense metabolic signals in the hypothalamus and modulate systemic functions as glucose homeostasis and feeding response. Moreover, the response of astrocytes to obesity has been widely studied. Astrocytes are important mediators of brain inflammation and can be affected by increased levels of saturated fatty acids associated to obesity. Although autophagy plays important roles for astrocyte homeostasis and functioning, the contribution of astrocyte autophagy to systemic metabolism has not been analysed. Furthermore, how obesity can impact astrocyte autophagy is poorly understood. More studies are needed in other to understand the contribution of astrocyte autophagy to metabolism.

1) Background: CFH and HTRA1 genes are traditional markers of increased risk of AMD across populations. Recent findings suggest that additional genes, for instance, in the dystrophin-associated protein complex might be promising markers for AMD. 2) Methods: Here, we performed a case-control study to assess the effect of SGCD single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), a member of this protein family, on AMD diagnosis and phenotype. We performed a case-control study of 134 cases with 134 unpaired controls. Cases were 60 years or older (CARMS grade 4-5, as assessed by experienced ophthalmologists following the AAO guidelines), without other retinal disease or history of vitreous-retinal surgery. Controls were outpatients aged 60 years or older, with no drusen or RPE changes on fundus exam and negative family history of AMD. We examined SNPs in the SGCD gene: rs931798, rs140617, rs140616, and rs970476 by sequencing and RT-PCR. Genotyping quality check and univariate analyses were performed with PLINK v.1.9. Furthermore, logistic regression models were done in SAS v.9.4 and haplotype configurations in R v.3.3.1. 3) Results: After adjusting for clinical covariates, the G/A genotype of the SGCD gene (rs931798) significantly increases the odds of being diagnosed with AMD in 81% (1.81, 95%CI 1.06-3.14, p=0.031), especially the geographic atrophy phenotype (1.82, 95%CI 1.03-3.21, p=0.038) compared to the G/G homozygous. Moreover, the GATT haplotype in this gene (rs931798, rs140617, rs140616, and rs970476) is associated with lower odds of AMD (Adjusted OR 0.13, 95%CI 0.02-0.91, p=0.041). 4) Conclusions: SGCD is a promising gene for AMD research. Further corroboration in other populations is warranted.

While digitization can make the health industry faster and more efficient, there are many financial, social and organizational obstacles and barriers to its implementation. This article offers a systematic review of the main troubles detected from the literature review. Also there is a proposal of new kind of restrictions to pay attention. Finally, its offer an heterodox reading about the problem analyzed.

This paper deals with the design and kinematic analysis of a novel mechanism for the elbow joint of an upper-limb exoskeleton, with the aim of helping operators, in terms of effort and physical resistance, in carrying out heavy operations. In particular, the proposed eight-bar el-bow joint exoskeleton mechanism consists of a motorized Watt I six-bar linkage and a suitable RP dyad, which connects mechanically the external parts of the human arm with the corre-sponding forearm by hook and loop velcro and thus, helping their closing relative motion for lifting objects during repetitive and heavy operations. This relative motion is not a pure rotation and thus, the upper part of the exoskeleton is fastened to the arm, while the lower part is not rigidly connected to the forearm, but through a prismatic pair which allows both rotation and sliding along the forearm axis. Instead, the human arm is sketched by means of a crossed four-bar linkage, which coupler link is considered as attached to the glyph of the prismatic pair, that is fastened to the forearm. Therefore, the kinematic analysis of the whole ten-bar mecha-nism, which is obtained by joining the Watt I six-bar linkage and the RP dyad to the crossed four-bar linkage, is formulated to investigate the main kinematic performance and for design purposes. The proposed algorithm has given several numerical and graphical results. Finally, a double-parallelogram linkage, as particular case of the Watt I six-bar linkage, was considered in combination with the RP dyad and the crossed four-bar linkage, by giving a first mechanical de-sign and a 3D printed prototype.

The nuclear receptor superfamily comprises a large group of proteins with functions essential for cell signaling, survival and proliferation. There are multiple distinctions between nuclear superfamily classes defined by hallmark differences in function, ligand binding, tissue specificity, and DNA binding. In this review, we utilize the initial classification system, which defines subfamilies based on structure and functional difference. The defining feature of the nuclear receptor superfamily is that these proteins function as transcription factors. The loss of transcriptional regulation or gain of functioning of these receptors is a hallmark in numerous diseases. For example, in prostate cancer the androgen receptor is a primary target for current prostate cancer therapies. Targeted cancer therapies for nuclear hormone receptors have been more feasible than others to develop due to ligand availability and cell permeability of hormones. To better target these receptors, it is critical to understand their structural and functional regulation. Given that late-stage cancers often develop hormone insensitivity, we will explore the strengths and pitfalls of targeting other transcription factors outside of the nuclear receptor superfamily such as the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT).

We consider a discrete-time random walk (xt) which at random times is reset to the starting position and performs a deterministic motion between them. We show that the quantity Prxt+1=n+1|xt=n,n→∞ determines if the system is averse, neutral or inclined towards resetting. It also classifies the stationary distribution. Double barrier probabilities, first passage times and the distribution of the escape time from intervals are determined.

This study proposes a methodology for identifying time intervals in which time-of-use (ToU) energy tariffs can be set. This is achieved by analyzing the variability in electric power demand and esti-mating the potential for demand flexibility. The proposed methodology is as follows: first, data preprocessing is performed, focusing on the organization and cleaning of individual consumption records. Subsequently, the data are processed and classified by using consumption variability analysis and clustering techniques. Then, representative clusters are selected and time intervals are analyzed to identify periods of high electric power consumption variability. This methodology was tested with real data from smart meters in the Colombian electrical system, in which time intervals with potential for settinh ToU tariffs were ultimately identified. This work promotes the implementation of demand response strategies that enhance sustainability and facilitate the transition to a more resilient energy landscape both nationally and internationally. The findings are expected to contribute to the formulation of tariff schemes that encourage con-scious changes in electric energy consumption patterns.

Development of non-conventional hybrids (NCHs) responds to the demand for the Elotes Occidentales 'EO' race for production of pozole. The effect of: crop cycle (2019, 2020 and 2021) on physical characteristics, flowered grain quality and phytochemical content of two HNC (Pz1 and Pz2) of pozolero maize, as well as the effect of the presence or absence of pedicel, type of pollination (open and controlled, 2019), and progenitor lines (female and male, 2020) on flowered grain quality and content of phytochemical compounds were evaluated. Size, hardness, color, total phenols and anthocyanins in unprocessed grain were determined, and yield, volume and puncture strength in flowered grain. Results were analyzed with a factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design. There were significant differences (p≤0.05) in most of the variables studied by effect of crop cycle and genotype. NCHs had large grains (40 g 100 grains-1), soft endosperm (IF&gt; 60), pink-purple color, and phenol and anthocyanin contents similar to those reported for the 'EO' race. The presence or absence of the pedicel did not affect flowered grain quality. Controlled pollination favored anthocyanin synthesis. The anthocyanin content of NCHs was determined by the female line. Thermal processing reduced anthocyanins by 60%; however, they leached into the flowering broth, so that the pozole made from NCHs improves the nutraceutical value of the pozole, relative to that of pozole made with Cacahuacintle maize.

Current pharmacological treatments of Fibromyalgia (FM) are merely symptom palliative, as clinical trials have so far failed to provide overall benefits without associated harms. Polypharmacy often leads to patient´s health deterioration and chronic drug use to an eventual lack of patient´s response. Emerging evidence support that physiotherapy treatments based on mechanical triggers improve FM symptoms and therefore could be used for therapeutic purposes by themselves, or in combination with current pharmacological treatments, as part of integrative medicine programs. However, a paucity of studies rigorously and systematically evaluating this possibility exists. This study uses scores from validated standardized questionnaires, algometer pressure point threshold (PPT) readings and responses from a custom self-developed questionnaire to determine the impact of a pressure-controlled manual protocol on FM hyperalgesia/allodynia, fatigue and patient´s quality of life. The results show that patient´s baseline sensitivity to pain inversely correlates with treatment response in FM. Moreover, patients presenting comorbid ME/CFS do not seem to respond to the applied therapy as those presenting FM only. Thus, pre-treatment PPTs and ME/CFS comorbidity may serve as indicators to predict patient´s response to physiotherapy programs based on mechanical triggers, as the one evaluated here. These unexpected findings grant further explorations including the study of gene expression profiles associating to patient´s treatment response in the blood collection of samples generated by this study.

This article focuses on generating an alternative in order to identify traffic officers during driving. This research employed the latest You Only Look Once (YOLO) model, using a six-phase methodology: data collection, data preparation involving resizing and labeling, implementation of various filters to avoid overfitting, model training, prediction evaluation, and result interpretation. The YOLO model was applied across three iterations using a dataset of 1862 images. To enhance training efficiency and detection speed, the graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration was utilized, further enhancing the experimental process. The results of this study revealed that the YOLOv8x variant produced the most promising results. This proposed model attained a remarkable F1 score of 0.95, bolstered by a confidence score of 0.631, with the potential for an increase to 0.80 in confidence without significantly compromising the F1-score. These findings are poised to make a substantial contribution to the broader research landscape, particularly in advancing the effectiveness of detection models for traffic officers.

Tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) are essential players during tumor progression in various types of cancer, including breast cancer. TIMPs regulate the activity of matrix metallo-proteinases (MMPs) at different levels. However, a dual role for TIMPs in breast carcinogenesis, either promoting or inhibiting tumor progression, has been observed. By a comprehensive bioin-formatics analysis using different databases, we report that of the four TIMPs, only TIMP-1 is overexpressed in tumor breast tissue. However, TIMP-2, TIMP-3, and especially TIMP-4 present lower levels in breast tumor tissue than in normal tissue. Interestingly, high levels of TIMP-1 are associated with shorter survival in breast cancer patients. In contrast, low TIMP-2, TIMP-3, and TIMP-4 levels are associated with poor survival. Function enrichment analysis showed that TIMP-3 has the highest interactions with its target proteins and a higher number of processes re-lated to mammary carcinogenesis. We found differential expression of TIMP-1 concerning TIMP-3 and TIMP-4 in breast cancer and normal tissue. TIMP-4 has a significant relationship with cancer staging, including tumor size, lymph node spread, and metastasis. The correlation between immune cell infiltrates and TIMP expression is of great importance as they provide in-formation on breast cancer diagnosis, prognosis, progression, and response to treatment.

Electrical rotating machines like Induction Motors (IMs) are widely used in several industrial applications since their robust elements, provide high efficiency and give versatility in industrial applications. Nevertheless, the occurrence of faults in IMs is inherent to their operating conditions, hence, Inter-turn short-circuit (ITSC) is one of the most common failures that affect IMs and its appearance is due to electrical stresses leads to the degradation of the stator winding insulation. In this regard, this work proposes a diagnosis methodology for the assessment and detection of incipient ITSC in IMs, the proposed method is based on the processing of vibration, stator currents and magnetic stray-flux signals. Certainly, the novelty and contribution include the characterization of different physical magnitudes by estimating a set of statistical time domain features, as well as, their fusion and reduction through the Linear discriminant Analysis technique within a feature-level fusion approach. Furthermore, the fusion and reduction of information from different physical magnitudes leads to perform the automatic fault detection and identification by a simple Neural-Network (NN) structure. The proposed method is evaluated under a complete set of experimental data and the obtained results demonstrate that the fusion of information from different sources (physical magnitudes) allows to improve the accuracy during the detection of ITSC in IMs , the results make this proposal feasible to be incorporated as a part of condition-based maintenance programs in the industry.

’Lockdown’ periods in response to COVID-19 have provided a unique opportunity to study the impacts of economic activity on environmental pollution (e.g. NO2, aerosols, noise, light). The effects on NO2 and aerosols have been very noticeable and readily demonstrated, but that on light pollution has proven challenging to determine. The main reason for this difficulty is that the primary source of nighttime satellite imagery of the earth is the SNPP-VIIRS/DNB instrument, which acquires data late at night after most human nocturnal activity has already occurred and much associated lighting has been turned off. Here, to analyze the effect of lockdown on urban light emissions, we use ground and satellite data for Granada, Spain, during the COVID-19 induced confinement of the city’s population from March 14 until May 31, 2020. We find a clear decrease in light pollution due both to a decrease in light emissions from the city and to a decrease in anthropogenic aerosol content in the atmosphere which resulted in less light being scattered. A clear correlation between the abundance of PM10 particles and sky brightness is observed, such that the more polluted the atmosphere the brighter the urban night sky. An empirical expression is determined that relates PM10 particle abundance and sky brightness at three different wavelength bands.

Introduction: Individuals with gout are at higher risk of developing chronic conditions, such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and cardiovascular diseases. In this study, the association between urate-lowering therapy (ULT) use and the prevalence of these conditions was evaluated. Methods: This observational, cross-sectional pharmacoepidemiologic study used the 2013-2018 biannual cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The inclusion criteria were adults 30 years of age and older with a diagnosis of gout. The association between ULT treatment status and dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, heart failure, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease was evaluated, as well as associations with select clinical laboratory biomarkers. Results: Use of ULT was 28.9% (95%CI 24.3%-33.9%). There was no significant association between ULT use and the prevalence of heart failure, coronary heart disease, hypertension, or dyslipidemia (p>0.05). Those on ULT had a lower mean eGFR compared to those not on treatment (68.03 versus 74.74 mL/min/1.73m², p=0.014). LDL- and HDL- and total cholesterol were significantly lower among those receiving ULT treatment (p<0.05). Conclusion: ULT use continues to be low among those with gout. Those on ULT were more likely to be diagnosed with CKD, college graduates and above, older males, and obese. Clinical guidelines conditionally recommend ULTs in co-morbid kidney disease; while our results may reflect guidelines recommendation for ULT use in CKD patients, worsening kidney function while taking ULT is unlikely. Further research is necessary to determine the long-term impact of ULTs on kidney function and cardiovascular biomarkers.

There is a disproportionate increase in the incidence of diet-related cardiometabolic disorders in racial and ethnic minority groups. This systematic review examines the extent to which diet-induced changes in health outcomes have been discussed by race or ethnicity in randomized controlled trials recruiting both minority and non-Hispanic White groups. Databases i.e. PubMed, Cochrane library and Web of Science were searched up to November 2019. Studies that discussed effects of defined dietary interventions on health outcomes by racial or ethnic minority group vs. non-Hispanic Whites (n=29) were included in the review. Most studies were conducted in Black vs. White people testing effects of energy restriction, macronutrient modification, sodium reduction, or variations of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet on cardiometabolic outcomes. There was limited focus on other minority groups. Evidence suggests greater blood pressure reduction for Black people compared to Whites particularly on DASH (or similar) diets. Overall, there was limited consideration for group-specific eating patterns and diet acceptability in most studies. Adequately powered studies are needed for accurate interpretation of race by diet effects. With emerging precision nutrition initiatives, it is imperative to ensure adequate representation of racial and ethnic subgroups for addressing nutrition-related health disparities.

Landscape changes based on spectral responses allow showing plant cover changes through diversity, composition, and ecological connectivity. The spatial and temporal vegetation dynamics of the Bijagual Massif from 1986 to 2021 were analyzed as a measure of ecological integrity, conservation, and territory. The covers identified were high open forest (Hof), dense grassland of non-wooded mainland (Dgnm), a mosaic of pastures and crops (Mpc), lagoons (Lag), and bare and degraded lands (Bdl). The Bijagual Massif has 8,574.1 ha. In 1986, Dgnm occupied 42.6% of the total area, followed by Mpc (32.8%) and Hof (24.5%); by 2000, Mpc and Hof increased (43.7 and 28.1%, respectively), while Dgnm decreased (28%); by 2021, Dgnm was restricted to the northeastern zone and continued to decrease (25.2%), Mpc occupied 52.9%, Hof 21.7% and Bdl 0.1%. Of the three fractions of the connectivity probability index, only dPCintra and dPCflux contribute to ecological connectivity. Hof and Dgnm show patches with biota habitat quality and availability. Between 1986 and 2021, Dgnm lost 1,489 ha (41%) and Hof 239.5 ha (11%). Mpc replaced various covers (1,722.2 ha; 38%) in 2021. Bijagual has a valuable biodiversity potential limited by Mpc. Territorial planning and sustainable agroecological and ecotourism proposals are required due to the context of the ecosystems.

Trichomonas vaginalis is an extracellular parasite protozoan that causes human trichomoniasis, a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that affects approximately 200 million people worldwide. The presence of T. vaginalis adhesion to inert substrates has been described in several reports. Still, very few studies on cluster formation and more detailed analyses of the contact regions between the membranes of the parasites in these aggregate formations have not been carried out. We analyzed the formation of parasite monolayers and clusters using high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, cytochemistry, TEM tomography, and dye injection. Here, we show the formation of a monolayer of tightly adherent cells, epithelium-like, when the parasites are in contact with an inert material. Based on this observation, we analyzed whether this monolayer behaves as an epithelium, analyzing cell junctions, cell communication, and ultrastructural aspects. We also analyzed the cluster formation and the morphological characteristics of parasite aggregation observed in the culture supernatant. We report that monolayer formation differs from cluster formation in many aspects. The monolayers form strong adhesion, whereas the clusters have fragile attachments. There is no fusion or passage of molecules between neighbor-attached cells; there is no need for different strains to form filopodia, cytonemes, and extracellular vesicles during cluster formation.

: In Chile, most tailings impoundments are in Northern and Central Chile, 20% of them are abandoned. Municipal budgets to manage these environmental liabilities are very limited and the use of native and endemic plant species to remove heavy metals from tailings is a low-cost alternative. Ex-situ phytoremediation experiments were conducted over seven months to evaluate the potential of Lycium chilense and Haplopappus foliosus to remove copper and lead from mine tailings. The results indicate that both species can concentrate high levels of both elements and they present removal efficiencies for Cu close to 50%. The best performance was presented by Haplopappus foliosus, accumulating higher concentrations of both metals than Lycium chilense. Also, it presents a bioconcentration over 1.

This research explored the influence of spatiotemporal variations in phreatic levels and salinity on the patterns and interactions of soil mesofauna communities in a tropical urban coastal wetland. It delineated significant variations in phreatic levels and salinity, with distinct regimes characterizing different habitats and hydroperiods. A total of 120 mesofauna morphotypes across 42 taxa were identified, revealing habitat differences and similarities, and the ecosystem biodiversity. Moderate correlations were established between phreatic levels, salinity, and mesofauna richness and abundance, with habitat type and phreatic level emerging as significant predictors in the regression model. Our findings indicate that shallow phreatic levels in conjunction with oligohaline salinity conditions foster a more favorable abiotic environment, thereby promoting increased biodiversity. The study underscores the dynamic and adaptive nature of mesofauna communities in response to changing environmental conditions, offering valuable insights for effective costal urban wetland management, particularly in the context of multiple stressors such as global and regional climate change, sea level rise, and human activities. The bio-sensor capacity of soil mesofauna emerges as a vital tool for monitoring and facilitating adaptive ecosystem management, thereby ensuring their long-term health and sustainability.

In this paper, we present a method for estimating GPS signals from visual information captured by a monocular camera mounted on a fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The main challenge in visual odometry from aerial images is the computation of scale due to irregularities in the elevation of the terrain. That is, it is not possible to accurately convert from pixels in the image to meters in space, and the error accumulates. The contribution of this work is to reduce the accumulated error by comparing the images from the camera with satellite images. The algorithm has been tested in real-time experiments, and the results show that it is possible to eliminate the accumulated error using satellite images.

Background: The treatment plan of prosthetic restorations supported by dental implants require comprehensive scientific knowledge to deliver prostheses with good prognosis, even before the implant insertion. This review aims to analyze the main prosthetic determinants of the prognosis of implant-supported prostheses. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted with a PICO question: "For partially or complete edentulous subjects treated with implant-supported prostheses, which prosthetic factors could affect clinical outcomes?". A literature search was performed electronically in PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus and Cochrane Library with the following equation [PROGNOS* OR RISK] FACTOR IMPLANT DENTAL, and by hand search in relevant journals and throughout the selected papers. Results: This revision was carried out based on 50 papers focused on several prosthodontics-related risk factors that were grouped as follows: implant-connection, loading protocol, transmucosal abutments, prosthetic fit, provisionalization, type of retention, impression technique, fabrication technique, and occlusion. More than a half of the studies were systematic reviews (30%), meta-analysis (16%) or prospective evaluations of prosthesis with various kinds of events (18%). But also narrative reviews of literature (14%) and in vitro/animal studies (16%) were found. Conclusions: The current literature provides insufficient evidence for most of the investigated topics. However, based on the accumulated data, it seems reasonable to defend that the best treatment approach is the use of morse taper implants with transmucosal abutments, recorded by means of rigidly splinted copings through the pick-up technique, and screwed by milled prosthesis occlusally adjusted to minimize functional overloading.

We present an ontology log-OLOG- representation of the classical Miller-Urey experiment, usually considered as a paradigm for spontaneous generation of biomolecules on the prebiotic Earth and also, as a key in understanding the chemical evolution phenomena linked to the origins of life. Ologging The Miler-Urey experiment enables us, through the categorical notion of fibre product or pullback, to define the concept of Biogenic Space, as a space containing low complexity biogenic units subjected to appropriate physical and chemical conditions, facilitating the synthesis of highly complex organic molecules. Also, we characterize the Biogenic Space as a concrete universal object that could be associated with the preconditions for life inside various structures in the universe such as exoplanets and exomoons located in habitable zones, but also in interstellar and intergalactic organic clouds.

COVID-19 sepsis immune response remains unclear. Here we propose a new perspective in host response against pathogenic proteins that may lead to a vaccine design by polymerization of antigens of <70 kDa. In COVID-19, initial Th1 response kills infected cells releasing viral proteins. SARS-CoV-2 viral structural proteins are Spike (140 kDa), Nucleocapsid (50 kDa), Membrane (25 kDa) and Envelope (10 kDa). B cell receptor cannot capture antigens >70 kDa. The Spike protein (140 kDa) cannot be captured by B cells and triggers inflammatory Th1 response via the macrophages. Only proteins with a size <70 kDa can activate B cell receptor and trigger Th2 adaptative humoral response. Moreover, M-25 kDa and E-12 kDa glycoproteins can activate IgM-BCR like oligovalent or monovalent antigens. The sustained infected cells lysis overfeeds high levels of viral proteins <70 kDa, increases B cells activation and, in the shift from Th1 to Th2 immune response, triggers the cytokine storm. The continuous BCR activation increases IL-10 releasing and may lead to immune paralysis.

Groundwater degradation is a global problem linked to irrigation agriculture and aggravated by climate change. In drylands, where aquifer recharge is low, irrigation has emerged as an engine of economic growth. This problem falls under the paradigm of desertification, as it fits the definition of this complex problem in that the degradation of drylands is due to climatic variations and inappropriate human activities. Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), the response of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification to the lack of progress in tackling desertification, is integrated into Sustainable Development Goal 15.3 and provides the adequate framework for implementing effective solutions. LDN prioritizes prevention strategies, and early warning systems coupled to integrated simulation models is a sound approach. We analyze the dynamics of a coastal aquifer in southern Spain, a “desertification landscape” according to the Spanish National Action Plan to Combat Desertification. For this purpose, we have (i) adapted a generic desertification model that considers socio-ecological systems as a particular case of predator-prey systems; and (ii) coupled to this model a risk analysis to calculate the probabilities of groundwater salinization under the current scenario of water resources use, driven by the expansion of greenhouse agriculture supported by external water transfer. The risk of desertification is close to 100%: groundwater salinity is 40 dS m-1 (well above tomato tolerance, 3.5 dS m-1), and 2.4 Mm3 yr–1 water transfer is needed to support the 631 ha of greenhouses. This worrying result suggests that complimentary solutions should be promoted to deactivate the ongoing process of desertification. Among them, we propose reclaimed water, diversifying the economy, or promoting crops adapted to aridity. This simulation framework shows how to explore the future of a socio-ecosystem under current scenarios and others that consider climate change, the energy crisis, or the impact of alternative solutions.

ACL instability poses a significant challenge in traumatology and orthopedic medicine, often requiring accurate diagnosis for appropriate treatment. While the pivot-shift test offers a crucial means of assessment, its reliance on subjective interpretation underscores the need for supplementary imaging studies. This study aims to address this limitation by developing a Bayesian classification algorithm tailored for integration into a mobile application. Using the built-in inertial sensors of smartphones, this new approach aims to dynamically evaluate rotational stability during knee examinations. Orthopedic specialists conducted knee evaluations on 52 subjects, with subsequent analysis revealing interesting insights. Intraobserver and interobserver analyses, as measured by ICC, demonstrated strong agreement both in terms of timing between maneuvers (ICC = 0.94) and signal amplitude (ICC = 0.71-0.66). Notably, the Bayesian algorithm successfully classified 95% of joint hypermobility cases, with an additional 7 cases of hyperlaxity identified by the Pivot-Shift Meter (PSM). These findings highlight the practicality and effectiveness of implementing a Bayesian classification algorithm within a mobile application for assessing and categorizing signals captured by smartphone inertial sensors during the pivot-shift test.

Background: COVID-19 made its debut as a pandemic in 2020; since then, more than 607 million cases and at least 6.5 million deaths have been reported worldwide. While the burden of disease has been described, the long-term effects or chronic sequelae are still being described. Objective: To describe the findings of a current systematic review of the long-term effects related to post-COVID-19 sequelae. Design: A systematic review was carried out in which cohort studies, case series, clinical case reports were included, and the PubMed, Scielo, SCOPUS and Web of Science databases were ex-tracted. Information published 2020 to June 1, 2022, was sought. Results: We reviewed 300 manuscripts during the first step of the literature review process. Then 260 abstracts were analyzed. In the end, we included 32 manuscripts: 9 for pulmonary, 6 for cardiac, 2 for renal, 9 for neurological and psychiatric, and 8 for cutaneous sequelae. Conclusion: Studies show that the most common sequelae are those linked to the lungs, followed by skin, cutaneous and psychiatric alterations. Women report a higher incidence of the sequelae, as well as those with comorbidities and severer COVID-19 history. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused death and disease since its apparition but has also sickened millions of people around the globe who potentially suffer from serious illnesses that will continue to add to the list of health problems and further burden healthcare systems around the world.

The evolutionary success of land plants largely relies on their ability to cope with constant environmental fluctuations, which negatively impact their reproductive fitness and trigger adaptational responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. In this challenging scenario, comprehensive research efforts so far aimed at depicting the roles of well-known phytohormones, mainly auxins, along with brassinosteroids, jasmonates, and abscisic acid, although the signaling networks coordinating the crosstalk among them remains vaguely understood. Accordingly, this review focuses on the Arabidopsis Amidase Signature (AS) superfamily members, highlighting the hitherto relatively underappreciated functions of AMIDASE1 (AMI1) and FATTY ACID AMIDE HYDROLASE (FAAH), as crucial coordinators of the growth-defense response trade-off by modulating auxin and ABA homeostasis.

Knowledge of water availability in terms of spatial (i.e., depth) and temporal variability of soil water is essential to describe soil water infiltration and storage processes accurately. Therefore, performing simulations of soil water dynamics can be a valuable tool to evaluate different land uses and their impact on water availability. Consequently, this study aimed to model the volumetric soil water content (θ, cm3 cm-3) under agroforestry systems (AFS) with cocoa. For this purpose, the θ was monitored at different depths (0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, 80-100 cm) in the soil profile of four plots (20 × 50 m) of cocoa under agroforestry systems. Environmental conditions significantly influenced the water balance of the cocoa crop. There were seven moments when evapotranspiration (ET0) was higher than 5 mm d-1. During those moments, the environment exhibited higher PAR values of 1041 µmol m-2 s-1, very low atmospheric relative humidity (RHa) levels (around 45%), higher ambient temperatures of 32.2 ºC and a vapor pressure deficit of 1.6 kPa whose θ levels reached 0.32 cm3 cm-3 and a water balance of -5.7 mm, which presented negative values during most of the study period. The θ obtained from the HYDRUS-1D model presented a slight bias as a high level of coherence between the observed values, based on the model's goodness-of-fit estimators. The above provides accurate simulations of soil water content at various depths, much-needed information for management schemes for cocoa cultivation under agroforestry systems.

This review delves into the significance of chemical communication in mammals, with an emphasis on the role of the vomeronasal system in sensing pheromone-mediated interactions. The vomeronasal system shapes a variety of social and sexual behaviors, including reproduction, hierarchy formation, maternal bonding, and species recognition. Intriguingly, this system presents a vast degree of evolutionary variability, more so than variations observed in the olfactory system. This adaptive diversity underscores the challenges in studying the vomeronasal system, emphasizing the need for detailed research into its neuroanatomy and functional morphology. This review traverses an array of topics central to our understanding of chemical communication in mammals. We begin with the foundational role and basic concepts of chemocommunication. This is followed by an in-depth exploration of the olfactory systems. Subsequently, the neuroanatomical underpinnings of the vomeronasal system are juxtaposed against those of the olfactory system. Our focus then shifts to an exhaustive study of the sensory element of the vomeronasal system, the vomeronasal organ, and the integrating center of this information, the accessory olfactory bulb. The discussion extends to secondary projections of both the olfactory and vomeronasal systems in the light of the dual olfactory hypothesis. The review culminates with a detailed look at four specific models of vomeronasal system organization belonging to four evolutionarily distinct mammalian families: rodents, marsupials, herpestids, and bovids. These have been meticulously analyzed by the authors, aiming to spotlight the significant morphofunctional differences stemming from the adaptive changes imprinted on the system.

Today, air quality is one of the global concerns that governments are facing. One of the main air pollutants is the particulate matter (PM) that affects human health. This article presents the modeling of a purification system by means of negative air ions (NAIs) for air pollutant removal, using computational intelligence methods. The system uses a high voltage booster output to ionize air molecules from stainless steel electrodes; its particle-capturing efficiency reaches up to 97%. With two devices (5 x 2 x 2.5 cm), 2 trillion negative ions are produced per second, and the particulate matter (PM 2.5) can be reduced from 999 to 0 mg / m3 in a period of approximately 5 to 7 minutes (in a 40 x 40 x 40 cm acrylic chamber). This negative ion generator is a viable and sustainable alternative to reduce polluting emissions, with beneficial effects on human health.

Developed countries have shown a time trend towards a younger age at menarche (AAM), which is associated with increased risk of later obesity and non-communicable diseases. We aimed to assess whether a time trend in AAM with associated disease risk is also present in Mexico. For this, we used data of 30,826 women from the Mexican National Health Survey (2000). Linear and log binomial regression was used for nutritional and disease outcomes, whereas Welch-ANOVA was used to test for a time trend. AAM decreased over time (p < 0.001), with a maximal difference of 0.99 years between the 1920s (13.6 years) and 1980s (12.6 years). AAM (in years) was negatively associated with weight (β = -1.01 kg; 95 % CI -1.006, -1,004) and BMI (β = -1.01 kg/m2; -1.007, -1.006), and positively with height (β = 0.18 cm; 0.112, 0.231). AAM was associated with diabetes (RR = 0.95; 0.93, 0.98) and hypercholesterolemia (RR = 0.93; 0.90, 0.95), but not with hypertension, breast cancer or arthritis. In Mexico, AAM decreased significantly during the 20th century. AAM was inversely associated with adult weight and BMI, and positively with height. Women with a later AAM had a lower risk of diabetes and hypercholesterolemia.

Wildlife monitoring can be time-consuming and expensive, but the fast-developing technologies of uncrewed aerial vehicles, sensors, and machine learning pave the way for automated monitoring. In this study we trained YOLOv5 neural networks to detect Points of Interest, hare (Lepus europaeus), and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in thermal aerial footage and proposed a method to manually assess the parameter mean average precision (mAP), compared to the number of actual false positive and false negative detections in a subsample. This showed that a mAP close to 1 for a trained model does not necessarily mean perfect detection and provided a method to gain insights into the parameters affecting the trained models' precision. Furthermore, we provided a basic, conceptual algorithm for implementing real-time object detection in uncrewed aircraft systems equipped with thermal sensors, with high zoom capabilities, and a laser rangefinder. Real-time object detection is becoming an invaluable complementary tool for the monitoring of cryptic and nocturnal animals with the use of thermal sensors.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy and the second cause of cancer specific death in women from high-income countries. More than 70% of all breast cancer are hormone receptor-positive BC, and elevated estrogen circulating in blood has been proved to be a strong risk for BC development. This is due to its contribution to enhance proliferation of cancerous cells, angiogenesis and metastasis stimulation and therapy resistance. The estrogen (E) metabolism–gut microbiome axis is functional with underlying individual variations in E levels. It is reasonable that the estrobolome (bacterial genes whose products are capable of metabolizing E) could contribute to the risk of hormone-driven malignancies including BC and may serve as a potential biomarker and target. Gut microbial β -glucuronidase (GUS) enzymes have been suggested to be involved in the estrobolome. Furthermore, bacterial GUS enzymes within the gastrointestinal tract have been postulated to contribute to hormone breast cancer. In this review, we discuss the recent knowledge about the role of GUS enzyme in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. We focus on the role of GUS in (i)-the microbioma and estrogen metabolism, (ii) diet, estrobolome, and the BC development, (iii) other activities of the bacterial β-glucuronidase, and (iv) the new molecular target for BC therapeutic application.

Mine waste rock and drainage pose lasting environmental, social, and economic threats to the mining industry, regulatory agencies, and society as a whole. Mine drainage can be alkaline, neutral, moderately or extremely acidic and contains significant levels of sulfate, dissolved iron, and frequently a variety of heavy metals and metalloids, such as cadmium, lead, arsenic, and selenium. In acid neutralization by carbonate and silicate minerals, a range of secondary minerals can form and possibly scavenge these potentially harmful elements. Apart from the extensively-studied microbial-facilitated sulfide oxidation, the diverse microbial communities present in mine rock and drainage may also participate in the formation, dissolution, and transformation of secondary minerals influencing the mobilization of these metals and metalloids. This article reviews major microbial-mediated geochemical processes occurring in mine rock piles that affect drainage chemistry, with a focus on the role of microorganisms in the formation, dissolution and transformation of secondary minerals. Understanding this is crucial for developing biologically-based measures to deal with contaminant release at the source, i.e., source control.

Alternative splicing (AS) is a gene regulatory mechanism modulating gene expression in multiple ways. AS is prevalent in all eukaryotes including plants. AS generates two or more mRNAs from the precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA) to regulate transcriptome complexity and proteome diversity. Advances in next-generation sequencing, omics technology and bioinformatics tools, and computational methods provide new opportunities to quantify and visualize AS-based quantitative trait variation associated with plant growth, development, reproduction, and stress tolerance. Domestication, polyploidization and environmental perturbation may evolve novel splicing variants associated with agronomically beneficial traits. To date, pre-mRNAs from many genes are spliced into multiple transcripts that cause phenotypic variation for complex traits, both in model plant Arabidopsis and field crops. Cataloguing and exploiting such variation may provide new paths to enhance climate resilience, resource-use efficiency, productivity, and nutritional quality of staple food crops. This review provides insights into AS variation alongside gene expression analysis to select for novel phenotypic diversity for use in breeding programs. AS contributes to heterosis, enhances plant symbiosis (mycorrhiza and rhizobium), and provides a mechanistic link between the core clock genes and diverse environmental clues.

The extra precession of Mercury - 42.9 seconds of arc per century - explained by General Relativity (GR), is the result of a secular addition of 5.02 × 10⁻⁷ rad. at the end of every orbit around the Sun. We will analyze, the instantaneous precession and its addition along one orbit, determine the magnitude and oscillations around the mean value, comparing key theoretical proposals. This angular precession, should be the result reaction of Mercury to the gravitoelectric action produced by the geometric curve space-time at each single point of the elliptic orbit. The better we should know about this instantaneous precession, the better we will determine the external action and its quantum core nature, if that is the case. The Doppler tracking of the MESSENGER spacecraft, produces only 1 m error, enough precision to deduce the complete geodesic orbit of Mercury as an open free-fall path, isolated from other planets gravitational interference. The aim of this article is also to encourage JPL, IMCCE. and other scientific teams to do so because, as far as I know, it has not been entirely measured yet, by accurately tracking that motion.

Renewable methanol, obtained from CO₂ and hydrogen provided from renewable energy, has been proposed as a way to close the CO₂ loop. In industry, methanol synthesis using the catalyst CuO/ZnO/Al₂O₃ occurs at a high pressure. We intend to make certain modification on the traditional catalyst in order to work at lower pressure, maintaining high selectivity. Therefore, three heterogeneous catalysts have been synthesized by co-precipitation in order to improve the activity and the selectivity to methanol under mild conditions of temperature and pressure. Certain modifications on the traditional catalyst Cu/Zn/Al₂O₃ were employed such as the modification of the synthesis time and the addition of Pd as a dopant agent. The most efficient catalyst among those tested was a palladium-doped catalyst, 5% Pd/Cu/Zn/Al₂O₃. This had a selectivity of 64% at 210C and 5 bar.

There is an increasing pressure by community and customers forcing companies to insert environmental concerns in their practices. To help companies initiatives, the green bonds market was incepted. Our research question is how to select bonds in a growing billion-dollar market. This paper presents a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) model to enable investors identify opportunities based not only in opinions, but grounded on objective facts. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS) are two MCDA methods applied in this paper. Top-fifteen green bonds ranked by specialized media were assessed with the proposed MCDA model. Criteria included the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) proposed by Yale University, and common financial indicators as assets, risks (β), and dividends. The new AHP–COPRAS rank is compared with another published by specialized media.

The role of foods is shifting from focusing on the provision of energy and basic nutrients to also include bioactive compounds that prevent the development of chronic age-related diseases. Mi-croalgae offer a source of nutritional compounds with important health effects, and have the po-tential for production of health-promoting products, without increasing agricultural land use and negatively impacting the environment. Here we investigate the health effects of microalgal ex-tracts with high levels of the colourless carotenoid phytoene. Phytoene is widely available from dietary sources and can be detected across different tissues in the human body. However, it is usually regarded as a precursor for the synthesis of other carotenoids, rather than a bioactive molecule. We utilised the model organism C. elegans to show that phytoene-rich extracts from Chlorella sorokiniana and Dunaliella bardawil have anti-ageing properties. The extracts protect against oxidative damage and amyloid-β42 proteotoxicity (a major pathology of Alzheimer's disease), and extends lifespan. We show that pure phytoene also has these anti-ageing effects, suggesting that phytoene is a bioactive molecule with positive effects on ageing and longevity.

A series of novel substituted isoxazolidine derivatives was synthesized through 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of α-aryl-N-methyl nitrones with various ethylene moieties, resulting in the formation of isoxazolidine derivatives. The structures of the synthesized compounds were characterized using spectroscopic methods. The [3+2] cycloaddition (32CA) reactions of α-aryl-N-methyl nitrones with diverse ethylene substituents were computed employing Density Functional Theory (DFT) at the B3LYP/6–31G(d) level, upgrading bond parameters. An investigation of the electron localization function (ELF) unveiled the zwitterionic nature of α-aryl-N-methyl nitrones, devoid of pseudoradical or carbenoid centers. Utilization of CDFT indices enabled the prediction of global electronic flux from the strongly nucleophilic α-aryl-N-methyl nitrones to the varied electrophilic ethylene functionalities. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations were conducted on the isoxazolidine derivatives against the EGFR receptor (PDB: 4ZAU). In silico assessment of the synthesized isoxazolidines involved molecular docking, wherein the compound with the highest docking score was subjected to molecular dynamics simulations. Compound 11a, out of the thirty isoxazolidine derivatives, displayed the most substantial binding energy, yielding a g score of -6.57 kcal/mol. These observations highlighted the functional role of amide NH2 and NO2 in the binding process with the target protein, influencing its activity. Furthermore, prediction of ADME drug-likeness properties was performed to identify a suitable candidate.

Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES) integrate renewable sources, storage, and optionally conventional energies, offering an eco-friendly solution to fossil fuels. Microgrids (MGs) bolster HRES integration, enhancing energy management, resilience, and reliability at various levels. This study, emphasizing the need for refined optimization methods, investigates three themes: renewable energy, microgrid, and multiobjective optimization (MOO), through a bibliometric analysis of 470 Scopus documents from 2010-2023, analyzed with SciMAT software. It segments the research into two periods, 2010-2019 and 2020-2023, revealing a surge in MOO focus, especially in the latter period, with a 35% increase in MOO-related research. This indicates a shift towards com-prehensive energy ecosystem management that balances environmental, technical, and economic elements. The initial focus on MOO, genetic algorithms, and energy management systems has expanded to include smart grids and electric power systems, with MOO remaining a primary theme in the second period. The increased application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in optimizing HMGS within the MOO framework signals a move towards more sustainable, intelligent energy solutions. Despite progress, challenges remain, including high battery costs, the need for reliable MOO data, the intermittency of renewable energy sources, and HMGS network scalability issues, highlighting directions for future research.

The binding affinity of trastuzumab and pertuzumab to HER2 has been studied using both experimental and in-silico methods. The experiments were conducted using the antibodies in their complete IgG form, as used in clinical therapy, and the extracellular domain of the HER2 protein in solution. This approach provides a precise, reproducible, and reliable view of the interaction between them in physiological conditions. Dynamic light scattering and size exclusion chromatography coupled with tetra detection were utilized to characterize the protein complexes, measure their concentrations, and calculate the equilibrium free binding energy, ΔGbind. In addition, PRODIGY, a QSAR-like model with excellent predictive ability, was employed to obtain in-silico ΔGbind estimations. The results obtained indicate that pertuzumab exhibits a slightly higher binding affinity to HER2 than trastuzumab. The difference in binding affinity was explained based on the contribution of the different interfacial contact (IC) descriptors to the ΔGbind value estimated by the PRODIGY model. Furthermore, experiments revealed that the pertuzumab IgG antibody binds preferentially to two HER2 proteins, one per Fab fragment, while trastuzumab mainly forms a monovalent complex. This finding was interpreted based on a geometrical model that identified steric crowding in the trastuzumab-HER2 complex as compared to the pertuzumab-HER2 complex.

Piscirickettsia salmonis is an intracellular bacterial fish pathogen that causes piscirickettsiosis, a disease with numerous negative impacts in the Chilean salmon farming industry. Although transcriptomic studies of P. salmonis and its host have been performed, dual host-pathogen proteomic approaches during infection are still missing. Considering that gene expression not always corresponds with observed phenotype, and bacteriological culture studies inadequately reflect infection conditions, to improve the existing knowledge for the pathogenicity of P. salmonis we present here a global proteomic profiling of Salmon salar macrophage-like cell cultures infected with P. salmonis LF-89. The proteomic analyses identified several P. salmonis proteins from two temporally different stages of macrophages infection; some of them related to key functions for bacterial survival in other intracellular pathogens. Metabolic differences were observed in early-stage infection bacteria, compared to late-stage infections. Virulence factors related to membrane, LPS and surface component modifications, cell motility, toxins and secretion systems also varied between the infection stages. Pilus proteins, beta-hemolysin and the T6SS were characteristic of the early-infection stage, while fimbria, upregulation of 10 toxins or effector proteins, and the Dot/Icm T4SS were representative of the late-infection stage bacteria. Previously described virulence-related genes in P. salmonis plasmids were identified by proteomic assays during infection in SHK-1 cells, accompanied by an increase of mobile-related elements. By comparing the infected and un-infected proteome of SHK-1 cells, we observed changes in cellular and ROS homeostasis, innate immune response, microtubules and actin cytoskeleton organization and dynamics, alteration in phagosome components, iron transport and metabolism, and amino acids, nucleoside and nucleotide metabolism, together with an overall energy and ATP production alteration. Our global proteomic profiling and the current knowledge of the P. salmonis infection process allowed us to propose a model of the macrophage-P. salmonis interaction.

Topic discovery is finding the main idea of large amounts of textual data. It indicates the recurring topics in the documents, allowing an overview of the texts. Current topic discovery models receive the texts, with or without pre-processing of Natural Language Processing. The processing consists of stopwords removal, text cleaning and normalization (lowercase conversion). A topic discovery model that receives texts with or without processing generates general topics since the input data is many uncategorized texts. The general topics do not offer a detailed overview of the input texts, and manual text categorization is a time-consuming and tedious task. Accordingly, it is necessary to integrate an automatic text classification task in the topic discovery process to obtain specific topics with their top words that contain relevant relationships based on belonging to a class. Text classification performs a word analysis that makes up a document to decide what class or category is being identified; then, integrating the text classification before a topic discovery process will provide latent topics depicted by top words with a high coherence in each topic based on the previously obtained classes. Therefore, this paper exposes a approach that integrates text classification into topic discovery from large amounts of English textual data, such as 20-Newsgroup and Reuters corpora. The text classification is accomplished with a Convolutional Neural Network(CNN) incorporating three embedding models based on semantic relationships. The topic discovery over categorized texts is realized with Latent Dirichlet Analysis(LDA), Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis(PLSA), and Latent Semantic Analysis(LSA) algorithms. An evaluation process was performed based on the normalized topic coherence metric. The 20-Newsgroup corpus was classified, and twenty topics with ten top words were discovered for each class, obtaining 0.1723 normalized topic coherence when applying LDA, 0.1622 with LSA, and 0.1716 with PLSA. The Reuters corpus was also classified, obtaining 0.1441 normalized topic coherence when applying the LDA algorithm to obtain 20 topics for each class.

Embedding representation models characterize each word as a vector of numbers with a fixed length. These models have been used in tasks involving text classification, such as recommen- dation and question-answer systems. Semantic relationships are words with a relationship between them providing a complete idea to a text. Therefore, it is hypothesized that an embedding model involving semantic relationships will provide better performance for tasks that use them. This paper presents three embedding models based on semantic relations extracted fromWikipedia to classify texts. The synonym, hyponym, and hyperonym semantic relationships were the ones considered in this work since previous experiments have shown that they are the ones that provide the most semantic knowledge. Lexical-syntactic patterns present in the literature were implemented and subsequently applied to the Wikipedia corpus to obtain the semantic relationships present in it. Several semantic relationships are used in different models: synonymy, hyponym-hyperonym, and a combination of the first two. A convolutional neural network was trained for text classification to evaluate the performance of each model. The results obtained were evaluated with the metrics of precision, accuracy, recall, and F1-measure. The best values obtained with the second model were accuracy of 0.79 for the 20-Newsgroup corpus. F1-measure and recall of 0.87 respectively for the Reuters corpus.

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between levels of leisure-time sports and physical activity and the stages of change in high school students with goal orientations. Methods: The sample consisted of 2168 students randomly selected to participate in a longitudinal study in Costa Rica (423), Mexico (408) and Spain (1337), with 1052 being boys, 1037 girls and 79 who did not specify sex, aged between 11 and 16 years old (M = 12.49, SD = .81). We used a questionnaire to ask students about their leisure-time sports and physical activity, about stages of change and to measure achievement goals. Results: The results show that students are more active in Costa Rica, most of them being in the stage of active change. Conclusions: We found significant differences in achievement goals in all three countries, which shows that students in active stages have higher values than those in the inactive stage.

Manual handling tasks, both in daily activities and at work, require high dexterity and the ability to move objects of different shapes and sizes. However, musculoskeletal disorders that can arise due to aging, disabilities, overloading, or strenuous work can impact the natural capabilities of the hand with serious repercussions both in working and daily activities. To address this, researchers have been developing and proving the benefits of wrist exoskeleton., This paper, which is the part II of a study on wrist exoskeletons, presents and summarizes wearable wrist exoskeleton devices conceived for use in rehabilitation, assistance, and occupational fields. Exoskeletons considered within the study are those available either in a prototyping phase or on the market. They can support the human wrist by relieving pain or mitigating fatigue while allowing at least one movement. According to the requirements to be met, the majority have been designed active (80%) for higher force/torque transmission, and soft for better kinematic compliance, ergonomics, and safety (13 devices out of 24, more than 50%). Electric motors (11 devices out of 24, almost 50%) and cable transmission (9 devices out of 24, almost 40%) are the most common due to their simplicity, controllability, safety, power-to-weight ratio, and the possibility of remote actuation. As sensing technologies, position and force sensors are widely used in all devices (almost 90%). The control strategy depends mainly on the application domain: for rehabilitation, CPM (Control Passive Motion) is preferred (35% of the devices), while for assistance and occupational purposes AAN (Assistance-As-Needed) is more suitable (38% of the devices). What emerges from this analysis is that while rehabilitation and training are fields in which exoskeletons have been grown more easily and gained some user acceptance (almost 18 devices of which 4 are available on the market), relatively few devices have been designed for occupational aims (6 of which only 2 are available on the market) due to difficulties in meeting the acceptance and needs of users. In this perspective, as a result of the state-of-the-art analysis, the authors propose a conceptual idea of a portable soft wrist exoskeleton for occupational assistance.

Forensic assessments may involve the sampling of textile fibers when examining crime scenes. The need to characterize and identify those fibers is crucial as they can provide extensive information relating to a crime, linking a suspect to a location. Fibers in particular may contain issues in terms of both size and quantity of sample, and micro Fourier transform Infrared in attenuated total reflectance mode (micro FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy presents a non-destructive method to identify those fibers. In this study we carried out a rapid forensic assessment via micro FTIR-ATR of sixty textile fibers recovered from twenty white fabrics relying on tape lifting method, in order to discriminate those materials. Two dimensional principal component analysis and radar chart were applied to enhance the visual comparison of the fibers. Results of infrared spectra revealed that the technique allows the discrimination of textile fibers according to their spectral composition (cellulose, polyamide, polyester, or mixture of these composites) and to some characteristics, as number and width of peaks, peak position according to the wavenumber, absorbance index related to peak sharpness, etc. The technique was deemed useful in the forensic assessment of the fibers, presenting rapid and enlightening results.

The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is one of the largest herbivore mammals in the world. A portion of the total elephant population is under human care, where health problems such as skin lesions and decreased appetite are reported. The objective of this study was to apply the therapeutic properties of cannabidiol (CBD) to aid treatment of palmar abscesses and a suboptimal food intake in a female Asian elephant in Mexico. A CBD-isolate compounded medication was administered orally at a dose of 0.05 mg/kg/day. CBD administration showed positive effects such as reduction in abscess size, decreased food selectivity, increased food intake, weight gain and increased mobility. More research in elephants is needed to understand their cannabinoid pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics and proposing a dosage range and therapeutic applications for this species.

A novel metaheuristic optimization method is proposed based on an earthquake that is a geology phenomenon. The novel Earthquake Algorithm (EA) proposed, adapts the principle of propagation of geology waves P and S through the earth material composed by random density to ensure the dynamic balance between exploration and exploitation, in order to reach the best solution to optimization complex problems by searching for the optimum into the search space. The performance and validation of the EA are compared against the Bat Algorithm (BA) and the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) by using 10 diverse benchmark functions. In addition, an experimental engineering application is implemented to evaluate the proposed algorithm. Early results show a feasibility of the proposed method with a clearly constancy and stability. It is important highlight the fact that the main purpose of this paper is to present a new line of research, which is opened from the novel EA.

Background: our purpose is to assess the effectiveness and safety of sacubitril/valsartan (SV) in “real-world” patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), including a broader spectrum of patients than those in clinical trials and evaluating variables not previously described in the literature. Methods: real-world study in HFrEF patients (N:204), both in and out-patients, who started SV between October 2017 and December 2018. We performed a prospective analysis with a 12-month follow-up. The study outcomes were effectiveness and safety, measured by individual parameters and combined endpoints, comparing the pre and post practice periods. Results: at the end of follow-up, an improvement of left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF): 29.8% vs 33.7; p<0.0001, a decrease in NT-proBNP levels (3928 pg/mL vs 2902 pg/mL; p=0.012), number of hospital admissions (141 vs 35; p<0.0001) and percentage of patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) indication (79.9% vs 49.5%; p<0.0001) were observed. Of our population, 81.3% met a combined efficacy endpoint (defined by increase of LVEF, reduction of hospital admission or improvement in functional class). No differences were observed in parameters regarding safety. Conclusions: Sacubitril/valsartan has brought about a revolution in the therapeutic management of HFrEF patients and its use may raise questions about what is considered "optimal medical therapy" prior to implantation of cardiac devices.

The infodiet of young Spanish adults aged 18 to 25 was analysed to determine their attitude towards fake news. The objectives were: to establish whether they have received any training in fake news; to determine whether they know how to identify fake information; and to investigate whether they spread it. The study employed a descriptive quantitative method consisting of a survey of 500 representative interviews of the Spanish population aged between 18 and 25 through a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that they are aware of the importance of training, although generally they do not know of any course and when they do, they do not tend to enrol on one either due to lack of interest or time. These young adults feel that they know how to identify fake content and, moreover, that they know how to do so very well. However, they do not use the best tools. While they do not always verify information, they mainly suspect the credibility of information when it is meaningless. However, they do not tend to spread fake information. We conclude that media information literacy training (MILT) is necessary in educational centres that focuses on the main issues identified.

Climate change-induced temperature fluctuations pose a significant threat to crop production, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. This study investigates the transcriptome and physiological responses of rapeseed to post-flowering temperature increases, providing valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying rapeseed tolerance to heat stress. Two rapeseed genotypes, Lumen and Solar, were assessed under control and heat stress conditions in field experiments conducted in Valdivia, Chile. Results showed that seed yield and seed number were negatively affected by heat stress, with genotype-specific responses. Lumen exhibited a 9.3% average seed yield reduction, while Solar showed a 28.7% reduction. RNA-seq analysis of siliques and seeds revealed tissue-specific responses to heat stress, with siliques being more sensitive to temperature stress. Hierarchical clustering analysis identified distinct gene clusters reflecting different aspects of heat stress adaptation in siliques, with a role for protein folding in maintaining silique development and seed quality under high temperature conditions. In seeds, three distinct patterns of heat-responsive gene expression were observed, with genes involved in protein folding and response to heat showing genotype-specific expression. Gene coexpression network analysis revealed major modules for rapeseed yield and quality, as well as the trade-off between seed number and seed weight. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying rapeseed tolerance to heat stress and can inform crop improvement strategies targeting yield optimization under changing environmental conditions.

Background: In healthy children, the frequency of anomalous persistence of primitive reflexes (PRs) and craniosacral blocks (CBs) are unknown, as well as their impact on neurodevelopment, behaviour disorders and related consequences. We aim to know the prevalence of anomalous PRs and CBs in apparently healthy children and its relationships with behavior and neurodevelopment anomalies. Methods: Participants (n=120) were evaluated through physical examination to detect PRs and CBs, an ad hoc parent survey to collect perinatal events, and children behavior assessment by teachers using Battelle score. Results: PRs were present in 89.5%. Moro (70.8%), cervical asymmetric (78.3%) and cervical symmetric PRs (67.5%) were the most frequent observed PRs. CBs were found in 83.2%, and the most frequent CBs were dura mater (77.5%) and sphenoid bone (70%) blocks. Moro, cervical asymmetric and cervical symmetric active primitive reflexes are significantly associated to cranial blocks of dura mater, parietal zones, and sphenoid bone sway. Gestational disorders or perinatal complications were associated to a higher frequency of PRs and CBs. The presence of PRs and CBs were associated with abnormal Battelle scores and neurobehavioral problems. Conclusion: Presence of PRs and CBs in children without diagnosed diseases are frequent and related with disturbances in childhood neurodevelopment.

Plants are constantly exposed to a variety of different environmental stresses, including drought, salinity, and elevated temperatures. These stress cues are assumed to aggravate in the future driven by the global climate change scenario which we are currently experiencing. These stressors have largely detrimental effects on plant growth and development and, therefore, put global food security in jeopardy. For this reason, it is necessary to expand our understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which plants respond to abiotic stresses. Especially boosting our insight into the ways by which plants balance their growth and their defense programs appears to be of paramount importance, as this may lead to novel perspectives that can pave the way to increase agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner. In this review, our aim was to present a detailed overview of different factettes of the crosstalk between the antagonistic plant hormones abscisic acid (ABA) and auxin, two phytohormones that are the main drivers of plant stress responses, on the one hand, and plant growth, on the other.

Background: Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disorder that has no curative treatment. Diagnosis is based on a set of criteria established by Gilman (1998 and 2008) and recently updated by Wenning (2022). We aim to determine the effectiveness of [123I]Ioflupane SPECT in MSA, especially at the initial clinical suspicion. Methods: Cross-sectional study of patients at initial clinical suspicion of MSA, referred for [123I]Ioflupane SPECT. Results: 139 patients (68 men, 71 women) were included, 104 being MSA-probable and 35 MSA-possible. MRI was normal in 89.2% while SPECT was positive in 78.45%. SPECT showed high sensitivity (82.46%) and positive predictive value (86.24), reaching maximum sensitivity in MSA-P (97.26%). Significant differences were found when relating both SPECT assessments in the healthy-sick and inconclusive-sick groups. We also found an association when relating SPECT to the subtype (MSA-C or MSA-P), as well as to the presence of parkinsonian symptoms. Lateralization of striatal involvement was detected (left side). Conclusions: [123I]Ioflupane SPECT is a useful and reliable tool for diagnosing MSA, with good effectiveness and accuracy. Qualitative assessment shows a clear superiority when distinguishing between the healthy-sick categories, as well as between the parkinsonian (MSA-P) and cerebellar (MSA-C) subtypes at initial clinical suspicion.

The varved sediments of the Pyrenean Lake Montcortès (Pallars Sobirà, Lleida) embody a unique continuous high-resolution (annual) paleoarchive of the last 3000 years for the circum-Mediterranean region. A variety of paleoclimatic and paleoecological records have been retrieved from these uncommon sediments that have turned the lake into a regional reference. Present-day geographical, geological, ecological and limnological features of the lake and its surroundings are reasonably well known but the lack of a local weather station has prevented characterization of current climate, which is important to develop modern-analog studies for paleoclimatic reconstruction and to forecast the potential impacts of future global warming. Here, the local climate of the Montcortès area for the period 1955-2020 is characterized using a network of nearby stations situated along an elevational transect in the same river basin of the lake. The finding of statistically significant elevational gradients for annual and monthly average temperature and precipitation has enabled to estimate these parameters and their seasonal regime for the lake site. A representative climograph has been shaped with these data that can serve as a synthetic descriptive and comparative climatic tool. The same analysis has provided climatic data for modern-analog studies useful to improve the interpretation of sedimentary records in climatic and ecological terms. In addition, the seasonal slope shifting of the climatic elevational gradients has been useful to gain insights about possible future climatic trends under a warming scenario.

Malnutrition, unhealthy diets, and lifestyle changes have become major risk factors for non-communicable diseases while ad-versely impacting economic growth and sustainable development. Anthocyanins, a group of flavonoids that are rich in fruits and vegetables, contribute positively to human health. This review focuses on genetic variation harnessed through crossbreeding and biotechnology-led approaches for developing anthocyanins-rich fruit and vegetable crops. Significant progress has been made in identifying genes involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis in various crops. Thus, the use of genetics has led to the development and release of anthocyanin-rich crop cultivars in Europe and USA. Such a trend is emerging in the developing world. The purple pota-to “Kufri Neelkanth” has been released for cultivation in northern India, and a few colored grain wheat lines, developed through crossbreeding, are being tested for their productivity and adaptation. Although tomato is deficient in anthocyanins, some of its wild relatives are known to accumulate anthocyanins in their sub-epidermal fruit tissue. In Europe, anthocyanin-rich tomato cul-tivar ‘Sun Black’ developed via the introgression of Aft and atv genes has been released. The development of anthocyanin-rich food crops without any significant yield penalty has been due to the use of genetic engineering involving specific transcription factors or gene editing. The anthocyanin-rich food ingredients have the potential of being more nutritious than those devoid of anthocyanins. The inclusion of anthocyanins as a target characteristic in breeding programs can ensure the development of culti-vars to meet the nutritional needs for human consumption, particularly in the developing world.

The aim of this article has been to evaluate the impact of a physical-sport education programme, based on the pedagogical model of Sport Education within the framework of quality Physical Education and approached from the field of social and emotional learning, on a set of psychological variables: subjective well-being (quality of life related to health, positive affect and negative affect); trait emotional intelligence and social anxiety. A total number of 113 Compulsory Secondary Education students were involved, aged 12 to 15 years old, 44 of whom belonged to the control group (CG) and 69 to the experimental group (EG). A quasiexperimental design of repeated pretest and posttest measures with the CG was used. The results obtained in this investigation revealed that the intervention programme caused significant improvements in the subjective well-being and the trait emotional intelligence for the EG. These findings reinforce the pedagogical efficiency of the programme with regards to the aim that has been set. Likewise, the findings also highlight the suitability and appropriateness in terms of innovative teaching proposals. In the same way, the results showed relevant empirical contributions in this given school context due to its psychological benefits and the encouragement of healthy living.

Background Although COVID-19 outcomes vary between and within countries, there is little published data on how aspects of social determinants of health (SDoH) affect COVID-19 outcomes in the African context. Objective The current study set to examine COVID-19 case and death rates and their correlates among African countries using data from different sources. Methods An ecological cross-sectional study comprising 28 African countries with a recent Demographic and Health Survey, DHS (2010-2018). Response variables were COVID-19 case and death rates (as of August 15, 2020). Covariates comprised three healthcare systems measures; rates of hospital beds (2005-2017), ventilators (2020) and doctors (2010-2018) per 10,000 population, and 9 broad topics common to multiple SDoH frameworks aggregated to the country level; geography (urban residence), wealth index, education, employment, crowding, and access to information. Rates per 10,000 population were calculated for healthcare measures and mapped for visualization. A Negative Binomial regression was used to assess whether aspects of SDoH are correlated with COVID-19. Results Our analysis indicated that 1 in 4 (25.1%) households in study countries are without clean water and handwashing access. Country-level health system capacity (hospital beds, ventilators, and medical doctors) varied considerably between the countries. Negative Binomial regression showed that the odds of COVID-19 morbidity and death was higher in countries with a high proportion of households without access to quality water and doctors per 10,000 people. Having a high proportional of educated women (1.003: 95% CI, 1.001 – 1.005), hospital beds per population and less people per room (0.959: 95% CI, 0.920 – 1.000) was negatively correlated with COVID-19 deaths while being insured and owning a mobile phone was correlated with illness. Conclusion Both aspects of SDoH and healthcare system contribute either negatively or positively to COVID-19 outcomes. Addressing healthcare system capacity and economic and environmental SDoH will be critical for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and re-emerging diseases on the African continent.

With confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassing the 8.5 million mark around the globe, there is an imperative need to deepen the efforts from the international scientific community to gain comprehensive understanding of SARS-CoV-2. Although the main clinical manifestations are associated with respiratory or intestinal symptoms, reports of specific and non-specific neurological signs and symptoms, both at presentation or during the course of the acute phase, are increasing. Approximately 25-40% of the patients present neurological symptoms. The etiology of these neurological manifestations remains obscure, and probably involves several direct pathways, not excluding the direct entry of the virus to the Central Nervous System (CNS) through the olfactory epithelium, circumventricular organs, or disrupted blood-brain barrier (BBB). Furthermore, neuroinflammation might occur in response to the strong systemic cytokine storm described for COVID-19, or due to dysregulation of the CNS angiotensin system. Descriptions of neurological manifestations in patients in the previous coronavirus (CoV) outbreaks have been numerous for the SARS-CoV and lesser for MERS-CoV. Strong evidence from patients and experimental models suggests that some human variants of CoV have the ability to reach the CNS and that neurons, astrocytes and/or microglia can be target cells for CoV. A growing body of evidence shows that astrocytes and microglia have a major role in neuroinflammation, responding to local CNS inflammation and/or to dysbalanced peripheral inflammation. This is another potential mechanism for SARS-CoV-2 damage to the CNS. In this work we will summarize the known neurological manifestations of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, explore the potential role for astrocytes and microglia in the infection and neuroinflammation, and compare them with the previously described human and animal CoV that showed neurotropism. We also propose possible underlying mechanisms by focusing on our knowledge of glia, neurons, and their dynamic intricate communication with the immune system.

The severity of forest fires derived from remote sensing data for research and management has become increasingly widespread in the last decade, where these data typically quantify the pre- and post-fire spectral change between satellite images on multi-spectral sensors. However, there is an active discussion about which of the main indices (dNBR, RdNBR or RBR) is the most adequate to estimate the severity of the fire, as well about the adjustment model used in the classification of severity levels. This study proposes and evaluates a new technique for mapping severity as an alternative to regression models, based on the use of the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) automatic learning algorithm, from GeoCBI field data and spectral indices dNBR, RdNBR and RBR applied to Landsat TM, ETM+ Images, for two fires in central Spain. We compare the severity discrimination capability on dNBR, RdNBR and RBR, through a spectral separability index (M) and then evaluated the concordance of these metrics with field data based on GeoCBI measurements. Specifically, we evaluated the correspondence (R²) between each metric and the continuous measurement of fire severity (GeoCBI) and the general precision of the regression and MLE models, for the four categorized levels of severity (Unburned, Low, Moderate, and High). The results show that the RBR has more spectral separability (average between two fires M = 2.00) that the dNBR (M = 1.82) and the RdNBR (M=1.80), additionally the GeoCBI has a better adjustment with the RBR of (R² = 0.73), than the RdNBR (R² = 0.72), and dNBR (R² = 0.71). Finally, the overall classification accuracy achieved with the MLE (Kappa = 0.65) has a better result than regression models (Kappa = 0.58) and higher accuracy of individual classes.

Maritime transport has become very important due to its ability to internationally unite all continents. In turn, during the last two years, we have observed that the increase of consumer goods has resulted in global shipping deadlocks. In addition, the future goes through the role of ports and efficiency in maritime transport, with the aim of decarbonizing its impact on the environment. In order to improve the economy and people's lives, in this work, we propose to enhance services offered in maritime logistics. To do this, a communications system is designed on the deck of ships to transmit data through a constellation of satellites using interconnected smart devices based on IoT. Among the services, we highlight the monitoring and tracking of refrigerated containers, the transmission of geolocation data from GPS, and security through AIS. This information will be used for a fleet of ships to make better decisions and help guarantee the status of the cargo, as well as maritime safety on the routes. The system design, network dimensioning, and a communications protocol for decision-making will be presented.

As a part of our ongoing effort in the search for promising antileishmanial agents based on the thiochroman scaffold, we prepared a series of substituted 2H-thiochromenes. Thirty-three compounds were evaluated against intracellular amastigotes forms of L. (V) panamensis. Twelve compounds were active with EC₅₀ values lower than 40 μM, and among those three compounds displayed the highest antileishmanial activity with EC₅₀ values below 10 uM. Cytotoxicity was determined against human U-937 macrophages; thus, compounds having electrophilic alkenes (α,β-unsaturated carbonyl, or nitriles) displayed the highest antileishmanial activity but also moderate to high cytotoxicities. Based on SAR analysis, compounds 8d and 10, which differ only in the hydroxy group at C4, were selected as the most promising compounds in this library because good antiparasitic activity and Selectivity Index.

A canine population’s immune resistance to canine distemper virus (CDV), canine parvovirus (CPV), and infectious hepatitis virus (CAV-1) was evaluated. In this study, a total of 112 sera were analyzed. Animals were considered as vaccinated if, in the last two years, they had re-ceived at least one dose of a vaccine that provides joint protection against CDV, CPV, and CAV-1. Animals that had never received any dose of these vaccines were designated as non-vaccinated. CDV, CPV, and CAV-1 antibodies were detected via a modified solid-phase enzyme-linked im-munosorbent assay (ELISA), which detects IgG antibody levels in sera and provides semi-quantitative results in less than 30 min. In total, 41.1% of the dogs had been vaccinated, and 58.9% of dogs were designated as non-vaccinated. Overall, 90.2%, 92.0%, and 78.6% of the tested dogs had positive results for the presence of IgG antibodies against CPV, CDV, and CAV-1, re-spectively. CPV antibodies were present in 93.5% (43/46) of the vaccinated and 87.9% (58/66) of the non-vaccinated dogs, while CDV antibodies were present in 95.5% (63/66) of the vaccinated and 87.0% (40/46) of the non-vaccinated dogs. Finally, CAV-1 antibodies were present in 84.8% (56/66) of the vaccinated and of 69.6% (32/46) the non-vaccinated dogs.

We compare the well known Rayleigh-Ritz variational method (RRVM) with a recently proposed approach based on supersymmetric quantum mechanics and the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization method (SSQMGS). We apply both procedures to a particular class of double-well harmonic oscillators that had been conveniently chosen for the application of the latter approach. The RRVM eigenvalues converge smoothly from above providing much more accurate results with less computational effort. Present results show that the unproved SSQMGS upper bounds do not hold.

Agricultural soils serve as crucial storage sites for soil organic carbon (SOC). Their appropriate management is pivotal for mitigating climate change. To evaluate spatial and temporal changes in SOC within agricultural fields, continuous monitoring is imperative. In-field data sets of Vis-NIR soil spectra were collected on a long-term experimental site using an on-the-go spectrophotometer. Data processing for continuous SOC prediction involves a two-steps modelling approach. In Step 1, a Partial Least Square (PLSR) regression model is trained to establish a relationship between the SOC content and the spectral information also including spectral preprocesisng. In Step 2, the predicted SOC content obtained from the PLSR models is interpolated using ordinary kriging. Among the tested spectral preprocessing techniques and semivariogram models, SG and gapDer preprocessing along with a Gaussian semivariogram model, yielded the best performance resulting in a root mean square error of of 1.24 and 1.26 g kg-1. A striping effect due to the transect-based data collection was addressed by testing the effectiveness of extending the spatial separation distance, employing data aggregation, and defining the distribution based on treatment plots using block kriging. Overall, the results highlight the immense potential of on-the-go spectral Vis-NIR data for field-scale spatial-temporal monitoring of SOC.

The discovery of a growing number of exoplanets and even extrasolar systems supports the scientific consensus that it is possible to find other signs of life in the universe. The present work proposes for the first time, an explicit mechanism inspired by the dynamics of biological dispersion, widely used in ecology and epidemiology, to study the dispersion of biogenic units, interpreted as complex organic molecules, between rocky or water exoplanets (habitats) located inside star clusters. The results of the dynamic simulation suggest that for clusters with populations lower than 4 M+/ly³ it is not possible to obtain biogenic worlds after 5 Gyr. Above this population size, biogenic dispersion seems to follow a power law, the larger the density of worlds lesser will be the impact rate (β ) value to obtain at least one viable biogenic Carrier habitat after 5 Gyr. Finally, when we investigate scenarios by varying β, a well-defined set of density intervals can be defined in accordance to its characteristic β value, suggesting that biogenic dispersion has a behavior of “minimal infective dose” of “minimal biogenic effective” events by interval i.e. once this dose has been achieved, doesn’t matter if additional biogenic impact events occur on the habitat.

The manufacture of SiC-based composites is quite widespread, and currently different methods are employed for to produce them. The most efficient method, taking into account the cost/performance ratio, is reactive melt infiltration. It consists in infiltrating liquid silicon into a porous preform that must contain carbon, so that SiC is produced during infiltration. This chemical reaction is, in fact, the driving force of the process. In the present work, the synthesis of two SiC-based composite materials with very different applications and microstructures has been studied and optimized. In both cases, materials have been obtained with suitable properties for the selected applications. One of the materials studied is SiCp/Si for protection systems such as armor jackets, and the other one is Cf/SiC for use in braking systems. For the optimization, the dwell time and the atmosphere (Ar or primary vacuum) were used as variables. It has been found that in both preforms the optimum conditions are 1 hour dwell time and a vacuum atmosphere at 1450 °C. The effect of these parameters on microstructure and infiltration kinetics are discussed.

Background. The treatment for patients with high-grade gliomas includes radiation therapy and temozolomide. However, some patients do not respond to temozolomide because they have a methylation reversal mechanism through the enzyme O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase. This biomarker has been used as a prognostic factor in patients receiving treatment with temozolomide. However, not all patients respond in the same way, which suggests the existence of other genes involved in resistance to temozolomide. Materials and Methods. A group of 31 patients with high-grade gliomas was recruited and were clinically, image pattern, and pathologically characterized. The sequencing of 324 genes related to different types of cancer was performed to detect mutations. Subsequently, a statistical analysis was conducted to determine the mutated genes that were most related to resistance to treatment. Results. The genes related to the second relapse of patients with high-grade glioma after the use of temozolomide according to Stupp protocol and metronomic dose were PIK3C2B, KIT, ERBB3, and MLH1. Conclusions. Considering the results obtained, we suggest that the mutations in the four genes and the methylation of the gene promoter that codes for MGMT protein could be related to the clinical evolution of patients with high-grade gliomas and its response to treatment with temozolomide.

Silicates are among the most abundant and important inorganic materials, not only in the Earth’s crust but also in the interstellar medium in the form of micro-/nano-particles or embedded in the matrices of comets, meteorites and other asteroidal bodies. Although the crystalline phases of silicates are indeed present in Nature, amorphous forms are also highly abundant. Here we report a theoretical investigation of the structural, dielectric and vibrational properties of the amorphous bulk for forsterite (Mg₂SiO₄) as a silicate test case by a combined approach of classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for structure evolution, and periodic quantum mechanical DFT calculations for electronic structure analysis. Using classical MD based on an empirical partial charge rigid ionic model within a melt-quenching scheme at different temperatures performed with the GULP 4.0 code amorphous bulk structures for Mg₂SiO₄ were generated using as initial guess the crystalline phase. This has been done for bulks with three different unit cell sizes adopting a super-cell approach; i.e., 1×1×2, 2×1×2 and 2×2×2. The radial distribution functions indicated a good degree of amorphisation of the structures. Periodic B3LYP-geometry optimizations performed with the CRYSTAL14 code on the generated amorphous systems were used to analyze their structure, to calculate their high frequency dielectric constants (ε_∞), and to simulate the IR, Raman and reflectance spectra, which were compared with the experimental and theoretical crystalline Mg₂SiO₄. The most significant changes of the physico-chemical properties of the amorphous systems compared to the crystalline ones are presented and discussed (e.g., larger deviations in the bond distances and angles, broadening of the IR bands, etc.), which are consistent with their disordered nature. It is also shown that by increasing the unit cell size the bulk structures present larger degree of amorphisation.

This study assesses the development of professional skills in university students using serious games (SG), from a sustainability perspective. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were set by the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Universities are strategic agents in the transformation process towards sustainability. This way, they should be committed to promoting such sustainable values in the students through curricular sustainability, implementing active methodologies and SG for that purpose. Transversal skills are essential for the development of future graduates. The objective of this study was to assess which professional skills should be developed through the SG called The Island, to improve the degree of student satisfaction with the incorporation of a sustainable curriculum. The data were obtained using a questionnaire, and then analysed using linear regression models, with their inference estimated through the goodness of fit and ANOVA. The first results indicated that the implementation of the SG promoted a strengthening of the students' sustainable curriculum through the development of those skills. It was concluded that the key to success in education for sustainable development is improving the development of strategic thinking, collaborative thinking, and self-awareness, in addition to encouraging systemic, critical, and problem-solving thinking.

Snow-covered regions are the main source of reflection of incident shortwave radiation (ISR) on Earth’s surface. The deposition of light-absorbing particles (LAPs) on these regions increases the capacity of snow to absorb ISR and decreases surface snow albedo (SSA), which intensifies the radiative forcing leading to accelerated snowmelt and modifications of the hydrologic cycle. In this work we investigate changes in SSA and radiative forcing (RF) induced by LAPs in the Upper Aconcagua River Basin (Chilean central Andes) using remote sensing satellite data (MODIS), in-situ spectral SSA measurements, and the ISR (Chilean Solar Explorer platform) during the austral-winter months (May to August) for the 2004-2016 period. To estimate the changes in SSA and RF, we define two spectral ranges: i) an enclosed range (Ecr) between 841-876 nm, which isolates effects of Black-Carbon, an important LAP derived from anthropogenic activities, and ii) a broadband range (Bbr) between 300-2500 nm. Our results show that percent variations in SSA in the Ecr are higher than in the Bbr, regardless of the total amount of radiation received, which may be attributed to the presence of LAPs as these particles have a greater impact on SSA at wavelengths in the Ecr band than in the Bbr band.