Influence of patient gender on in-hospital mortality: A population-based cross-sectional study

Aim To analyse the association between gender and in-hospital mortality odds ratios among patients in the Basque Country. Design Cross-sectional study. Methods Admission data pertaining to the period between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2018 were gathered for all registered acute care hospitals (both public and private) in the Basque Country. Odds ratios were calculated through binomial logistic regressions to determine the association between gender and mortality in each diagnostic category of the ICD-10. Results Women had a higher in-hospital mortality odds ratio for diseases of the circulatory system (OR 1.07 [1.01–1.14], p < 0.05). In contrast, men were at greater risk of in-hospital death from neoplasms (OR 0.86 [0.83–0.94], p < 0.05), diseases of the nervous system (OR 0.83 [0.70–0.97], p < 0.05), diseases of the genitourinary system (OR 0.83 [0.71–0.96], p < 0.05), endocrine diseases (OR 0.67 [0.54–0.84], p < 0.05), injury, poisoning and other consequences of external causes (OR 0.60 [0.54–0.67], p < 0.05) and diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (OR 0.69 [0.50–0.93], p < 0.05). Patient or Public Contribution No patient or public contributions

Informe mujeres en la industria de la animación 2022

El Informe MIA analiza la situación de la mujer en el sector de la animación y su evolución en materia de igualdad, para lo que ofrece un panorama de la industria de la animación española con perspectiva de género. Entre otros indicadores, la investigación tiene en cuenta los roles ocupados por las y los profesionales, las ayudas recibidas por los proyectos y los contenidos de las producciones, con datos contrastados y cuantificables. Con este estudio, se pretende arrojar luz sobre la realidad del sector de la animación para dar pie al análisis y visibilizar una realidad todavía no equitativa en cuestión de género, conocer su tendencia y proponer estrategias que favorezcan el cambio hacia la igualdad. Asimismo, se pretende que este informe llegue a profesionales, estudiantes, investigadores, organismos y empresas para concienciar sobre esta cuestión. Este trabajo es uno de los documentos de los 3 que conforman el análisis de 2022: Informe MIA 2022, Metodología de análisis y Comparativa Informe MIA 2020-2021-2022 (URI https://hdl.handle.net/10115/45057) Repercusión en medios y congresos: Presentación del Informe en MIAnima 2024: https://www.prensario.net/MIANIMA-presenta-los-ganadores-de-su-3-edicion-44879.note.aspx Europapress: https://www.europapress.es/cultura/cine-00128/noticia-crece-ligeramente-liderazgo-femenino-cortos-series-animacion-lejos-paridad-informe-mia-2022-20220924121634.html) Presentación en Weird Market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Ps3Q75RA0 Noticia: “La Asociación de Mujeres en la Industria de la Animación publica su tercer Informe MIA con datos comparativos de 2022”: https://www.audiovisual451.com/la-asociacion-de-mujeres-en-la-industria-de-la-animacion-lanza-su-tercer-informe-mia-con-datos-comparativos-de-2022/MIA mujeres en la industria de la animación, Academia de las artes y las ciencias cinematográficas de Españ

Structural and magnetic properties of high magnetization FexCo100-x nanoparticles investigated at the nanoscale: Unveiling the origin of the observed anisotropy

In this work the authors have performed the synthesis of FexCo100-x (0<x<100) alloy nanoparticles (NPs) with different compositions, as well as pure Fe and Co NPs for comparison, by a chemical reduction technique. The subsequent characterization demonstrated excellent quality NPs with the expected bcc cubic (for Fe and FeCo alloys) and hcp hexagonal (for Co NPs) structures showing a room temperature magnetization as high as 235 emu/g for the Fe66Co34 composition alloy. Nevertheless, this soft magnetic character is accompanied by determined values of effective anisotropy as high as 2 MJ/m3. Aiming to deep into the properties of these FeCo alloys as well as to unveil the origin of that observed high anisotropy value, we now present an extensive study at the nanoscale of the synthesized Fe, Co and FexCo100-x alloy nanoparticles by using nuclear techniques as neutron powder diffraction, EXAFS and XANES spectroscopies. Mössbauer spectroscopy revealed that the FeCo alloys are in an A2 disordered solid solution. The obtained results, combined with AFM/MFM images, have demonstrated that despite the cubic bcc structure observed for all FeCo alloys (in excellent concordance with the pure Fe one) the NPs show a "flaky" shape of 50–60 nm size (diameter) but only 3–4 nm thickness, giving rise to a strong shape anisotropy contribution to the observed total effective anisotropy.J. Gutiérrez and M. Insausti gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Basque Government under Research Groups Programme (IT1479-22 and IT1546-22, respectively) projects and research project MMASINT (KK-2023/00041, Elkartek Program). J. Gutiérrez, J. Alonso and M. Insausti also want to acknowledge grants No. PID2022–138108OB-C33, PID2020–115704RB-C3 and PID2022–136993OB-I00, respectively, funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and, as appropriate, by “ERDF A way of making Europe”, by the “European Union” or by the “European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR”. The Authors acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Science Innovation and Universities as well as SpINS for the beam time allocation at D1B instrument at ILL (Grenoble, France), and the financial support of CERIC for the experiment at the LISA beamline (codes 08011082 and 20212115). Technical and human support provided by the General Research Services of the UPV/EHU (SGIker) is gratefully acknowledged

Confluencias entre procesos de reinserción y restauración en el ámbito penitenciario: provocar el nunca más

Este trabajo es el resultado de una investigación acción, desarrollada por el Laboratorio de Teoría y Práctica de Justicia Restaurativa del IVAC/KREI (LTPJR)2, sobre la aplicación de la justicia restaurativa en el ámbito penitenciario vasco. Para ello se han considerado estudios en el ámbito interno y comparado (i.a., Hagemann, 2012; Szegő & Fellegi, 2013; Brennan & Johnstone, 2019; Ríos, 2021) que han sido citados en publicaciones anteriores, con las debidas actualizaciones (i.a., Han et al., 2021; Gómez Liñares, 2024; Tudor, 2024). Se trata de una investigación financiada por la Dirección de Justicia del Gobierno Vasco que comenzó en el año 2023 con el objetivo de elaborar una plantilla de recogida de datos para poder evaluar, en toda su complejidad, los programas de justicia restaurativa en diferentes entornos, incluyendo el penitenciario (LTPJR, 2024)

Exploring the pathways linking prenatal and early childhood greenness exposure to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms during childhood: An approach based on robust causal inference

Background Epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to greenness during childhood may protect children from developing attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Objective We analyzed the effect of both prenatal (pregnancy) and early childhood (4-5-year follow-up) residential greenness exposure and green space availability on ADHD symptoms during childhood (up to the age of 12 years) and further explored the potential mediating role of PM2.5 and physical activity in the association. Methods The study population included participants from the INfancia y Medio Ambiente (INMA) prospective birth cohort (Gipuzkoa, Sabadell, and Valencia). Average Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in buffers of 100-, 300- and 500-m around the residential addresses was used as an indicator of greenness, while green space availability was determined based on the presence of a major green space within 150-m from the residence. Childhood ADHD symptoms were assessed at the 6-8- and 10-12-year follow-ups using Conners Parents Rating Scale-Revised: Short Form. Results Although no association was found for the prenatal exposure period, increased early childhood NDVI inversely associated with the OR of clinically significant ADHD symptoms during the 6-8-year follow-up at the 100-m (OR 0.03, 95% CI: 0.003 to 0.44), 300-m (OR 0.04, 95% CI: 0.003 to 0.42) and 500-m (OR 0.08, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.76) buffers, but exclusively in the context of direct effects. Additionally, the 10-12-year follow-up analysis found moderate to weak evidence of potential total and direct effects of NDVI at both 100- and 300-m buffers on inattention scores, as well as for NDVI at the 300-m buffer on ADHD index scores. The analysis did not reveal evidence of mediation through PM2.5 or physical activity. Conclusions The evidence suggests that early childhood greenness exposure may reduce the risk of developing ADHD symptoms later in childhood, and that this association is not mediated through PM2.5 and physical activity.NMA-Gipuzkoa cohort was funded by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS-PI06/0867, FIS-PI09/00090, FIS-PI13/02187, FIS-PI18/01142 and FIS-PI18/01237incl. FEDER funds), CIBERESP, Department of Health of the Basque Government (2005111093, 2009111069, 2013111089 and 2015111065), and the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa (DFG06/002, DFG08/001 and DFG15/221) and annual agreements with the municipalities of the study area (Zumarraga, Urretxu, Legazpi, Azkoitia y Azpeitia y Beasain). INMA-Sabadell cohort was funded by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Red INMA G03/176; CB06/02/0041; PI041436; PI081151 incl. FEDER funds; PI12/01890 incl. FEDER funds; CP13/00054 incl. FEDER funds; PI15/00118 incl. FEDER funds; CP16/00128 incl. FEDER funds; PI16/00118 incl. FEDER funds; PI16/00261 incl. FEDER funds; PI17/01340 incl. FEDER funds; PI18/00547 incl. FEDER funds), CIBERESP, Generalitat de Catalunya-CIRIT 1999SGR 00241, Generalitat de Catalunya-AGAUR (2009 SGR 501, 2014 SGR 822), Fundació La marató de TV3 (090430), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (SAF2012-32991 incl. FEDER funds), Agence Nationale de Securite Sanitaire de l’Alimentation de l’Environnement et du Travail (1262C0010; EST-2016 RF-21), EU Commission (261357, 308333, 603794 and 634453). We acknowledge support from the grant CEX2018-000806-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program. INMA-Valencia cohort was funded by Grants from UE (FP7-ENV-2011 cod 282957, HEALTH.2010.2.4.5-1, cod 874583, and cod 101136566), Spain: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (G03/176; FIS-FEDER: PI03/1615, PI04/1509, PI06/1213, PI11/01007, PI11/02591, PI11/02038, PI12/00610, PI13/1944, PI13/2032, PI14/00891, PI14/01687, PI16/1288, PI17/00663, PI19/1338; P 23/1578), Miguel Servet-FEDER CP11/00178, CP15/00025, MSII16/00051, MS20/0006), Spanish Ministry of Universities (Margarita Salas Grant MS21-133, grant CAS21/00008), Generalitat Valenciana (CIAICO/2021/132, BEST/2020/059, AICO 2020/285, AICO/2021/182 and CIDEGENT/2019/064), Consejo General de Enfermería (PNI22_CGE45), FISABIO (UGP 15-230, UGP-15-244, UGP-15-249), and Alicia Koplowitz Foundation 2017

Lipid imaging mass spectrometry: Towards a new molecular histology

Lipid research is attracting greater attention, as these molecules are key components to understand cell metabolism and the connection between genotype and phenotype. The study of lipids has also been fueled by the development of new and powerful technologies, able to identify an increasing number of species in a single run and at decreasing concentrations. One of such key developments has been the image techniques that enable the visualization of lipid distribution over a tissue with cell resolution. Thanks to the spatial information reported by such techniques, it is possible to associate a lipidome trait to individual cells, in fixed metabolic stages, which greatly facilitates understanding the metabolic changes associated to diverse pathological conditions, such as cancer. Furthermore, the image of lipids is becoming a kind of new molecular histology that has great chances to make an impact in the diagnostic units of the hospitals. Here, we examine the current state of the technology and analyze what the next steps to bring it into the diagnosis units should be. To illustrate the potential and challenges of this technology, we present a case study on clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a good model for analyzing malignant tumors due to their significant cellular and molecular heterogeneity.This project was supported by a grant from the Basque Government (grants IT1491-22 and KK-2024/00003). IC thanks the Basque Government for his predoctoral fellowship. The authors acknowledge the technical support and mass spectrometry resources provided by SGIker (UPV/EHU) as well as the microscope facilities provided by SGIker (UPV/EHU)

Influence of the manufacturing strategy on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Invar 36 alloy parts manufactured by CMT-WAAM

The influence of the manufacturing strategy of Invar 36 alloy parts manufactured by Directed Energy Deposition by Arc (DED-Arc) also known as wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) using cold metal transfer (CMT) technology has been investigated. This study focuses on the influence of applying different deposition strategies on the resulting microstructure and mechanical properties. As manufacturing costs and time are critical issues which determine the business case in WAAM applications, it is important to use the smallest possible amount of feedstock material. Therefore, different manufacturing strategies are used to obtain the variable wall thicknesses required for each part preform using WAAM as a manufacturing route. Differences in manufacturing temperature and thermal history due to different deposition strategies have been recorded. Deep microstructural analysis in as-built condition revealed that granular alignment and the crystallographic texture obtained differ between deposition strategies studied. This is the reason why there are differences in the mechanical properties, such as yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, elongation, and hardness, of the different strategies analyzed. The results revealed that the higher strength is obtained in three overlapped weld beads for the walls (514 and 581 MPa in building direction and perpendicular direction, respectively), compared to single weld bead wall (481 and 489 MPa), circular single weld bead wall (460 and 484 MPa), and meandering weld bead wall (467 and 439 MPa). The opposite is true for elongation, which is a typical correlation between strength and ductility in Fe-based alloys, having the highest elongation in the meandering weld bead wall (26 and 30%) and circular single weld bead (30 and 27%) compared to single weld bead wall (27 and 23%) and three overlapped weld bead wall (23 and 20%). It can therefore be concluded that an Invar 36 alloy part manufactured by CMT-WAAM with different strategies will have different mechanical properties, having a difference in ultimate tensile strength of 54 MPa and 142 MPa, and in elongation of 7% and 10% in building direction and perpendicular direction, respectively, between the most and the least resistant zone.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research work was supported by the Basque Government (Departamento de Desarrollo Económico e Infraestructuras, Programa ELKARTEK) through the REIMAGIN project (grant KK-2023/00096). And financed by the CDTI and the European Union—NextGenerationEU and supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación within the project “MADISON—MANUFACTURA ADITIVA, DIGITALIAZACIÓN Y SOSTENIBILIDAD”, approved within the framework of the call “Programa Cervera para Centros Tecnológicos 2023″ with Grant Agreement EXP—00163686 / CER-20231012”

A Study on the Attachment to Pets Among Owners of Cats and Dogs Using the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS) in the Basque Country

The relationship between humans and their pets has long fascinated researchers, particularly in exploring how attachment varies according to the type of pet. Cats and dogs exhibit unique behavioral and social traits that influence the dynamics of human–pet relationships. Moreover, specific human characteristics have been found to affect this attachment. Our study examines the human factors that influence pet attachment among cat and dog owners in the Basque Country, located in northern Spain. By investigating these elements, our research aims to enhance the understanding of how human factors shape the human–animal bond. The study included a total of 202 participants, of whom 66.8% were dog owners, and 74.8% identified as women, with ages ranging from 18 to 74 years. Consistent with many previous studies, our results indicate that attachment is generally stronger with dogs compared to cats and that owner’s characteristics such as being female, younger, not living with children, and the amount of time spent with pets on weekends are linked to stronger attachments to pets

Uncertainty assessment framework for IGBT lifetime models. A case study of solder-free modules

Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are ubiquitous semiconductor devices used in diverse electronic power applications. The reliability and lifetime assessment of IGBTs is intricate and influenced by different ageing processes. One of the main ageing mechanisms is the bond wire lift-off failure mode. The model used to describe this failure mode and estimate the IGBT lifetime is influenced by different variables and factors, which are stochastic, and tend to be specifically adjusted for different IGBT modules and applications. However, unless these variables are not assessed with respect to potential sources of uncertainty, the IGBT lifetime estimate leads to a single-value deterministic estimate, which, frequently, results inaccurate. In this context, assessing the influence of the variability of these variables on the lifetime model is a crucial activity for an uncertainty-aware IGBT lifetime estimate and adoption of appropriate sensing technology. Accordingly, this paper presents a methodology to evaluate the impact of the uncertainty of IGBT lifetime parameters on the lifetime estimate. The approach is first validated on three different experimental IGBT operation profiles, demonstrating the impact of variations of certain variables on the damage estimation. The approach has been tested here for a single lifetime model, but it is generally applicable to other IGBT lifetime models.J. I. Aizpurua is funded by the Ramón y Cajal Fellowship, Spanish State Research Agency (grant number RYC2022 - 037300 - I), cofunded by MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FSE+

Optimización y extensión del algoritmo de codificación-decodificación basado en PWM para Redes Neuronales de Impulsos

Las Redes Neuronales de Impulsos (Spiking Neural Networks, SNN) son modelos neuronales que procesan la información en forma de spikes o series de impulsos en el dominio del tiempo, posibilitando el consumo ultrabajo. Sin embargo, debido a que la mayoría de los procesos reales manejan magnitudes físicas de tipo real, para emplear este tipo de redes es necesario el uso de algoritmos de codificación y decodificación. El algoritmo de codificación basado en modulación por ancho de pulso (Pulse Width Modulation, PWM) es un novedoso algoritmo temporal de codificación que supera con creces la precisión de sus algoritmos predecesores a la hora de construir y reconstruir la señal original. A pesar de sus múltiples ventajas, este algoritmo presenta una serie de limitaciones: (a) requiere de dos valores consecutivos de la serie temporal original para poder codificar, lo cual imposibilita su uso en campos donde no existan relaciones cronológicas, como puede ser el tratamiento de imágenes; y (b) presenta posibilidades de ser optimizado computacional y energéticamente. Así, en este trabajo se presentan dos nuevas propuestas basadas en este algoritmo de codificación y decodificación que solventan las limitaciones mencionadas. Cabe destacar que ambas propuestas permiten reducir en más del doble el coste computacional y energético de los procesos de codificación y decodificación