Bronchial Infection and Temporal Evolution of Bronchiectasis in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

[Background]: Bronchiectasis (BE) impact the clinical course and prognosis of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Yet, the temporal evolution of BE in these patients is unknown. This study seeks to assess the temporal evolution of BE in persons with COPD.[Methods]: 201 moderate-to-severe patients were recruited between 2004 and 2007 and followed up at least every 6 monts (median of 102 months). To investigate the temporal evolution of BE, in 2015 a second high-resolution computed tomography scan (HRCT) was obtained in survivors and compared with the one obtained at recruitment.[Results]: 99 (49.3%) died during follow-up. The second HRCT could be obtained in 77 patients and showed that (1) in 27.3% of patients BE never developed, in 36.4% they remained stable, in 16.9% they increased in size and/or extension, and in 19.5% new BE emerged; and that (2) the presence of chronic purulent sputum (hazard ratio [HR], 2.8 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.3–5.8]), number of hospitalizations due to exacerbatons (HR, 1.2 [95% CI, 1.1–1.5]), and number of pathogenic microorganism (PPM) isolations (HR, 1.1 [95% CI, 1.02–1.3]) were independent risk factors for the progression or development of BE.[Conclusions]: The presence of chronic purulent sputum production, number of PPMs isolated in sputum, and number of hospitalizations due to exacerbations of COPD are independent risk factors of BE progression in patients with COPD

Long or complicated mpox in patients with uncontrolled HIV infection

To date, former research about the impact of HIV infection on mpox poor outcomes is still limited and controversial. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the impact of HIV on the clinical course of mpox, in a large population of patients from Spain. Nationwide case-series study. Patients from 18 Spanish hospitals, with PCR-confirmed mpox from April 27, 2022 to June 30, 2023 were included in this study. The main outcome was the development of long or complicated (LC) mpox, defined as: (i) duration of the clinical course ≥ 28 days, or; (ii) disseminated disease, or: (iii) emergence of severe complications. One thousand eight hundred twenty-three individuals were included. Seven hundred eighty-six (43%) were people living with HIV (PLWH), of whom 11 (1%) had a CD4 cell count < 200 cells/mm3 and 33 (3%) <350 cells/mm3 . HIV viral load ≥ 1000 cp/mL was found in 27 (3%) PLWH, none of them were on effective ART. Fifteen (60%) PLWH with HIV-RNA ≥ 1000 cp/mL showed LC versus 182 (29%) PLWH with plasma HIV-RNA load < 1000 copies/mL and 192 (24%) individuals without HIV infection (p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, adjusted by age, sex, CD4 cell counts and HIV viral load at the time of mpox, only plasma HIV-RNA ≥ 1000 cp/mL was associated with a greater risk of developing LC mpox [adjusted OR = 4.06 (95% confidence interval 1.57-10.51), p = 0.004]. PLWH with uncontrolled HIV infection, due to lack of ART, are at a greater risk of developing LC mpox. Efforts should be made to ensure HIV testing is carried out in patients with mpox and to start ART without delay in those tested positive

Micromechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Starch–Wood Particle Composites

The micromechanical properties of injection molded starch–wood particle composites were investigated as a function of particle content and humidity conditions. The composite materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The microhardness of the composites was shown to increase notably with the concentration of the wood particles. In addition,creep behavior under the indenter and temperature dependence were evaluated in terms of the independent contribution of the starch matrix and the wood microparticles to the hardness value. The influence of drying time on the density and weight uptake of the injection-molded composites was highlighted. The results revealed the role of the mechanism of water evaporation, showing that the dependence of water uptake and temperature was greater for the starch–wood composites than for the pure starch sample. Experiments performed during the drying process at 70°C indicated that the wood in the starch composites did not prevent water loss from the samples.Peer reviewe

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Overview of recent TJ-II stellarator results

The main results obtained in the TJ-II stellarator in the last two years are reported. The most important topics investigated have been modelling and validation of impurity transport, validation of gyrokinetic simulations, turbulence characterisation, effect of magnetic configuration on transport, fuelling with pellet injection, fast particles and liquid metal plasma facing components. As regards impurity transport research, a number of working lines exploring several recently discovered effects have been developed: the effect of tangential drifts on stellarator neoclassical transport, the impurity flux driven by electric fields tangent to magnetic surfaces and attempts of experimental validation with Doppler reflectometry of the variation of the radial electric field on the flux surface. Concerning gyrokinetic simulations, two validation activities have been performed, the comparison with measurements of zonal flow relaxation in pellet-induced fast transients and the comparison with experimental poloidal variation of fluctuations amplitude. The impact of radial electric fields on turbulence spreading in the edge and scrape-off layer has been also experimentally characterized using a 2D Langmuir probe array. Another remarkable piece of work has been the investigation of the radial propagation of small temperature perturbations using transfer entropy. Research on the physics and modelling of plasma core fuelling with pellet and tracer-encapsulated solid-pellet injection has produced also relevant results. Neutral beam injection driven Alfvénic activity and its possible control by electron cyclotron current drive has been examined as well in TJ-II. Finally, recent results on alternative plasma facing components based on liquid metals are also presentedThis work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 under Grant Agreement No. 633053. It has been partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Inovación y Universidades of Spain under projects ENE2013-48109-P, ENE2015-70142-P and FIS2017-88892-P. It has also received funds from the Spanish Government via mobility grant PRX17/00425. The authors thankfully acknowledge the computer resources at MareNostrum and the technical support provided by the Barcelona S.C. It has been supported as well by The Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), Project P-507F

Reseñas

[ES] Seguí de la Riva , Javier. Sobre dibujar y proyectar (por Javier Seguí de la Riva) pp. 4.-- Dibujar, proyectar LVI y LVII Arte y muerte I y II ( por Javier Seguí de la Riva) pp. 6.-- dibujar, proyectar LVIII El imaginario del dibujar (por Javier Seguí de la Riva) pp. 6 y 7.-- Dibujar, proyectar LVI y LVII Diagrama, diagramar I y II ( por Javier Seguí de la Riva) pp. 7.-- DIBUJAR, proyectar LVIII El imaginario del dibujar ( por Javier Seguí de la Riva) pp. 6 y 7.-- DIBUJAR, PROYECTAR LVI y LVII Diagrama, diagramar I y II (por Javier Seguí de la Riva) pp.7.-- DIBUJAR, PROYECTAR LIX, LX y LXI Escritos críticos I, II y III ( por Javier Seguí de la Riva) pp. 7 .-- Rehabilitacion del Antiguo Hospital San Juan de Dios para Biblioteca y Archivo Historico de Orihuela (por Ana Torres Barchino) pp. 8.-- Arnau Amo, Joaquín. Arquitectura. Ritos y ritmos (por María Elia Gutiérrez Mozo) pp. 8 y 9.—Cardone, Vito. Viaggiatori d’architettura in Italia. Da Brunelleschi a Charles Garnier (por Cesare Cundari) pp. 9 y 10.-- Casado de Amezúa Vázquez, Joaquín. Las casas reales de la Alhambra. Geometría y espacio. Una aproximación al proceso de formación del espacio ( por Pilar Chías Navarro)pp. 10.-- Jaén i Urban, Gaspar; Baldomá Soto, Montserrat y Carrasco Martí, Maria Antonia. One century of photography and preservation in catalonia: the service for local architectural heritage ( por Pilar Chías Navarro) pp. 10 y 11.-- Jaén i Urban, Gaspar. El paisaje urbano de Nueva York en la obra escrita de Federico García Lorca (por Concepción López González y Jorge García valldecabres) pp. 11.—Trachana, Angelique. Urbe Ludens ( por Gonzalo García-Rosales) pp. 12.-- Fernández-Palacios, Victoria; Yanguas, Ana; Jiménez Fdez-Palacios, Luz. Manuel Aires Mateus. Cuaderno de La Alhambra ( por José Mª Gentil Baldrich) pp. 12 y 13.-- Agustín, Luis; Miret, Elena; Vallespín, Aurelio. Representación del espacio arquitectónico. 2011.12 (por Jesús Aparicio Guisado) pp. 14.—Herschdorfer, Nathalie y Lada Umstätter, Thames. Le Corbusier and the Power of Photography (por víctor A. Lafuente Sánchez) pp. 14 y 15.-- Roma en el bolsillo. Cuadernos de dibujo y aprendizaje artístico en el siglo XVIII ( por Fernando Linares García) pp. 15 y 16.-- Vicens y Hualde, Ignacio. Dicho y hecho ( por Fernando Linares García) pp 16.-- Le Corbusier. El arte decorativo de hoy ( por Carlos Montes Serrano )pp. 16 y 17.—Jenkins Birkhäuser, Eric J. Drawn to Design: Analyzing Architecture Through Freehand Drawing ( por víctor A. Lafuente Sánchez) pp. 17 y 18.—Sobrino, Miguel. Monasterios. Las biografías desconocidas de los cenobios de España ( por Javier García-Gutiérrez Mosteiro) pp. 18 y 19.-- Jiménez Martín, Alfonso. Anatomía de la Catedral de Sevilla ( por Francisco Pinto Puerto) pp. 19.-- Raposo Grau, Javier Fco; Butragueño Díaz-Guerra, Belen y Paredes Maldonado, Miguel. Dibujar, analizar, proyectar (2010) Título I. Colección dibujo, proyecto y arquitectura ( por Mariasun Salgado de la Rosa) pp. 19 y 20.-- Raposo Grau, Fco Javier; Butragueño Díaz-Guerra, Belen y Paredes Maldonado, Miguel. Dibujar, analizar, proyectar (2011) Título III. Colección dibujo, proyecto y arquitectura ( por Carlos L. Marcos Alba) pp. 20-22.-- García Doménech, Sergio. Reflexiones urbanas sobre el espacio público de Alicante. Una interpretación de la ciudad y sus escenarios ( por Juan Calduch Cervera) pp. 22 y 23.—Cundari, Casere. Il rilievo architettonico. Ragioni. Fondamenti. Applicazioni ( por Antonio Álvaro Tordesillas) pp. 23 y 24.—Autores varios. Perspectiva-Prospettiva. La práctica de la perspectiva ( por José Mª Gentil Baldrich) pp. 24 y 25.-- Soler Sanz, Felipe. Trazados Reguladores en la Arquitectura ( por Jorge García Valldecabres) pp. 25.-- Jiménez Alcañiz, Cesar. Análisis de las metodologías para la recuperación patrimonial de entornos urbanos protegidos. Propuesta metodológica: desde los valores históricos a los nuevos modelos energéticos. Russafa desde el siglo XIX( Por Pablo Navarro Esteve) pp. 26.-- de Coca Leicher, José. El recinto ferial de la Casa de Campo de Madrid (1950-75)( por Esteban Herrero Cantalapiedra) pp. 27.-- La arquitectura religiosa renacentista en tierras del Maestre: la iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Vistabella del Maestrazgo ( por José Teodoro Garfella Rubio) pp. 27 y 28.-- Arquitectura de los balnearios en Galicia. Cuenca del Miño. 1816-1936 ( por José Antonio Franco Taboada)pp. 28 y 29.-- Barros da Rocha e Costa. Historia de la representación gráfica del Castillo de Peñíscola. Del grafito al láser ( por Pablo Navarro Esteve) pp. 29.-- Rivas López, Esteban José. El Carmen de la fundación Rodríguez-Acosta. Una indagación gráfica ( por Joaquín Casado de Amezúa) pp.30.-- Verdejo Gimeno, Pedro. Estaciones intermedias de ferrocarril. La sección “Non nata” Teruel-Alcañiz (por Jorge Girbés Pérez) pp. 30 y 31.-- Sender Contell, Marina. El Monasterio de Santa María de la Murta. Análisis arquitectónico de un Monasterio Jerónimo ( por Pablo Navarro Esteve) pp. 32.-- Iñarra Abad, Susana. El Render de Arquitectura. Análisis de la Respuesta Emocional del Observador ( por Pablo Navarro Esteve) pp. 32 y 33.-- Fernández Morales, Angélica. De concreto a conceptual. Relaciones entre arte y arquitectura en el contexto helvético contemporáneo ( por Luis Agustín) pp. 33.—EXPOSICIÓN: Intervenciones cromáticas en los comercios del centro histórico ( por Jorge Llopis verdú) pp. 34 y 35.Seguí De La Riva, J.; Torres Barchino, A.; Gutiérrez Mozo, ME.; Cundari, C.; Chías Navarro, P.; López González, C.; García Valldecabres, J.... (2014). Reseñas. EGA. Revista de Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica. 19(24):4-35. https://doi.org/10.4995/ega.2014.3268SWORD435192

Una perspectiva multidisciplinaria

Derivado de la necesidad de fomentar la investigación multidisciplinaria, la Facultad de Economía de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México llevó a cabo los días 8 y 9 de septiembre de 2016, el VIII Coloquio de Investigación intitulado “Desarrollo económico, regional y sustentable”. En este magno evento se presentaron 36 ponencias agrupadas en cinco mesas de trabajo: sectores productivos, crecimiento económico y mercado de trabajo; tecnología, innovación y organizaciones; desigualdad regional, pobreza y migración; economía financiera e internacional; y medio ambiente y sociedad. Del material expuesto en el VIII Coloquio, se eligieron 16 investigaciones, mismas que integran este libro. Los estudios presentados en cada uno de los subsiguientes capítulos fueron seleccionados de acuerdo a un proceso de rigurosidad científica, siendo sometidos a dictamen por pares ciegos a partir de la integración de un Comité Académico de expertos. Lo anterior con la finalidad de proporcionar al lector un material de investigación de calidad y solidez científica respecto a temas de trascendencia vinculados con los sectores productivos, la innovación, las organizaciones, la responsabilidad social, la desigualdad, la educación y el medioambiente.Consecuencia de la apertura de los mercados y los preceptos competitivos dictados por la globalización, se manifiesta la necesidad de vincular los diversos saberes provenientes de las ciencias naturales y sociales, con el fin de complementar el conocimiento y generar nuevas formas de visualizar el entorno. A raíz de ello, la investigación multidisciplinaria asume un papel cada vez más importante en los círculos académicos, empresariales y gubernamentales. En este marco, entra en desuso la visualización del individuo como un sujeto atomístico desvinculado del medio ambiente que le rodea. El objetivo de este libro es otorgar una visión multidisciplinaria al estudio de temas económicos incorporando visiones teóricas y empíricas procedentes de las ciencias sociales y naturales. La obra está compuesta por 16 capítulos agrupados en cuatro secciones. La primera parte, conglomera cinco capítulos en torno a los tópicos sectores productivos y crecimiento económico.Facultad de Economía. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Méxic

Measurement of asthma control according to global initiative for asthma guidelines : a comparison with the asthma control questionnaire

Introduction: Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) is a validated tool to measure asthma control. Cut-off points that best discriminate " well-controlled" or " not well-controlled" asthma have been suggested from the analysis of a large randomized clinical trial but they may not be adequate for daily clinical practice.Aims: To establish cut-off points of the ACQ that best discriminate the level of control according to Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2006 guidelines in patients with asthma managed at Allergology and Pulmonology Departments as well as Primary Care Centers in Spain.Patients and methods: An epidemiological descriptive study, with prospective data collection. Asthma control following GINA-2006 classification and 7-item ACQ was assessed. The study population was split in two parts: 2/3 for finding the cut-off points (development population) and 1/3 for validating the results (validation population).Results: A total of 1,363 stable asthmatic patients were included (mean age 38 ± 14 years, 60.3% women; 69.1% non-smokers). Patient classification according to GINA-defined asthma control was: controlled 13.6%, partially controlled 34.2%, and uncontrolled 52.3%. The ACQ cut-off points that better agreed with GINA-defined asthma control categories were calculated using receiver operating curves (ROC). The analysis showed that ACQ < 0.5 was the optimal cut-off point for " controlled asthma" (sensitivity 74.1%, specificity 77.5%) and 1.00 for " uncontrolled asthma" (sensitivity 73%, specificity 88.2%). Kappa index between GINA categories and ACQ was 0.62 (p < 0.001).Conclusion: The ACQ cut-off points associated with GINA-defined asthma control in a real-life setting were <0.5 for controlled asthma and ≥1 for uncontrolled asthma. © 2012 Olaguibel et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Complement component C4 structural variation and quantitative traits contribute to sex-biased vulnerability in systemic sclerosis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), "A way of making Europe".Copy number (CN) polymorphisms of complement C4 play distinct roles in many conditions, including immune-mediated diseases. We investigated the association of C4 CN with systemic sclerosis (SSc) risk. Imputed total C4, C4A, C4B, and HERV-K CN were analyzed in 26,633 individuals and validated in an independent cohort. Our results showed that higher C4 CN confers protection to SSc, and deviations from CN parity of C4A and C4B augmented risk. The protection contributed per copy of C4A and C4B differed by sex. Stronger protection was afforded by C4A in men and by C4B in women. C4 CN correlated well with its gene expression and serum protein levels, and less C4 was detected for both in SSc patients. Conditioned analysis suggests that C4 genetics strongly contributes to the SSc association within the major histocompatibility complex locus and highlights classical alleles and amino acid variants of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DPB1 as C4-independent signals

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research