Temperature-dependence of the hyperfine interaction in the cubic phase of BaHfO₃

The temperature dependence of the hyperfine interaction in the paraelectric phase of BaHfO₃ in the temperature range from liquid-nitrogen temperature to 1350 K has been studied. The experimental results show an Abragam-Pound mechanism for the attenuation of the angular correlation. In this cubic structure the attenuation would be consistent with a relaxation mechanism that involves O-ion hopping between vacant sites in the lattice. Using the point-charge model for the estimation of the electric field gradient produced by an O vacancy in the coordination sphere of the probe ion, the process is characterized by a correlation time τ_(c) = 12 ± 1 ps at RT

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

The global trend towards devolution and its implications.

Globalisation has been accompanied by an equally global tendency towards devolution of authority and resources from nation-states to regions and localities that takes on various forms, depending upon which actors are driving the decentralisation efforts. The existence of a general trend towards devolution also has significant implications for efficiency, equity, and administration. The authors outline first the general drive towards devolution and then proceed to examine which countries are experiencing which forms of decentralisation. A theoretical argument emphasising the role of governmental legitimacy across various tiers of government is used to explain the diversity of devolution initiatives, drawing on examples that include Brazil, Mexico, India, China, the USA, and some European countries. Having supported their model of decentralisation, the authors then examine the implications of the widespread downward transfer of power towards regions. Some of the less widely discussed pitfalls of decentralisation are presented; caution in promoting devolutionary efforts is the prescription of this paper

Motivational modulation of consummatory behaviour and learning in a robot model of spatial navigation

We present a biomimetic model of motivated behaviour based on the network architecture of the mammalian hypothalamus and its interaction with brain systems involved in reward, memory and decision-making. Specifically, a novel model of the hypothalamus, viewed as a layered structure, is integrated with a previously-developed model of the hippocampal-striatal network controlling a simulated robot in a navigation task. Hypothalamic modulation of model dopamine signals allows the robot to learn the location of reward while regulating simulated food intake. When ‘satiated’ the robot explores, when ‘hungry’ it moves towards the learned food source. We discuss the potential uses and future challenges of such models in the development of autonomous robots

Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis: a mimicking disease in a pregnant woman: a case report

Article deposited according to agreement with BMC, December 2, 2010 and according to publisher policies: http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/copyright [May 29, 2013].YesFunding provided by the Open Access Authors Fund

High Precision Constrained Grasping with Cooperative Adaptive Handcontrol

A method for high precision constrained object manoeuvering for non-redundant rigid multifinger hands is proposed. A passivity-based adaptive cooperative control scheme carries out compensation of all uncertain inertial and dynamic friction forces to guarantee asymptotic tracking of all contact forces and joint position-orientation trajectories over orthogonal force- and position-based impedance error manifolds. Optimal internal and external force trajectories are obtained to minimize the contact forces onto the constrained object while exerting a given desired contact force onto the environment. The simulation study of two robot fingers manipulating a constrained object for combined fast and slow velocity regimes shows that when the dynamic friction compensation is turned on tracking errors decrease tenfold

Bacillus novalis sp nov., Bacillus vireti sp nov., Bacillus soli sp nov., Bacillus bataviensis sp nov and Bacillus drentensis sp nov., from the Drentse A grasslands

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A reinvestigation of the Gn-RH (Gonadotrophin-releasing hormone) systems in the goldfish brain using antibodies to salmon Gn-RH

International audienceThe organization of Gn-RH systems in the brain of teleosts has been investigated previously by immunohistochemistry using antibodies against the mammalian decapeptide which differs from the teleostean factor. Here, we report the distribution of immunoreactive Gn-RH in the brain of goldfish using antibodies against synthetic teleost peptide. Immunoreactive structures are found along a column extending from the rostral olfactory bulbs to the pituitary stalk. Cell bodies are observed within the olfactory nerves and bulbs, along the ventromedial telencephalon, the ventrolateral preoptic area and the latero-basal hypothalamus. Large perikarya are detected in the dorsal midbrain tegmentum, immediately caudal to the posterior commissure. A prominent pathway was traced from the cells located in the olfactory nerves through the medial olfactory tract and along all the perikarya described above to the pituitary stalk. In the pituitary, projections are restricted to the proximal pars distalis. A second immunoreactive pathway ascends more dorsally in the telencephalon and arches to the periventricular regions of the diencephalon. Part of this pathway forms a periventricular network in the dorsal and posterior hypothalamus, whereas other projections continue caudally to the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord. Lesions of the ventral preoptic area demonstrate that most of the fibers detected in the pituitary originate from the preoptic regio