El uso de parámetros magnéticos en estudios paleolimnológicos en Antártida

En esta contribución se describen las distintas técnicas y mediciones magnéticas utilizadas en Magnetismo Ambiental y Paleomagnetismo. Tales mediciones ofrecen útiles indicadores para realizar estudios relacionados con cambios climáticos y ambientales, así como herramientas de datación. Si bien es ampliamente conocida la utilidad de la susceptibilidad magnética, en primer lugar se discute el potencial y necesidad del uso de parámetros adicionales obtenidos a partir de mediciones de magnetizaciones remanentes (natural, anhistérica e isotérmica), histéresis magnética y estudios termomagnéticos. A continuación se presentan resultados magnéticos obtenidos en sedimentos lacustres del Archipiélago James Ross (NE de la Península Antártica) como un caso de estudio. Se complementa con estudios sedimentológicos, hidroquímicos, geoquímicos y de estadística multivariada, pero se pone énfasis en los parámetros magnéticos y su relación con los distintos procesos que ocurren en los sistemas lacustres antárticos. Se analiza además el uso de las paleointensidades relativas como herramienta de datación en lagunas antárticas

Doping dependence of the specific heat of single crystal BaFe2(As1-xPx)2

We present specific heat measurements on a series of BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 single crystals with phosphorous doping ranging from x = 0.3 to 0.55. Our results reveal that BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 follows the scaling Delta_C/Tc ~ Tc^2 remarkably well. The clean-limit nature of this material imposes new restraints on theories aimed at explaining the scaling. Furthermore, we find that the Ginzburg-Landau parameter decreases significantly with doping whereas the superconducting anisotropy is gamma~2.6, independent of doping.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, one tabl

COVID-19 and Sick Leave: An Analysis of the Ibermutua Cohort of Over 1,651,305 Spanish Workers in the First Trimester of 2020

Objectives: The worldwide SARS-COV2 pandemic has impacted the health of workers and companies. The aim is to quantify it according to sick leave. Methods: Using ICD-9 codes, we analyzed Ibermutua records of all sick leaves during the first trimester of 2020, compared to during the same months of 2017, 2018, and 2019. We stratified the analysis by causes, patient sex, activity sectors, and regional data. All sick leaves were adjusted by the number of Ibermutua-affiliated persons in each period. Results: In March 2020, there was an unprecedented (116%) increase in total sick leaves, mainly due to infectious and respiratory diseases. Men and women were equally affected. All activity sectors were impacted, with the highest increase (457%) observed among health-related workers, especially due to contagious disease. The incidences of sick leaves were heterogeneous among different regions. Cost-analysis of sick leaves during the first trimester of 2020 compared with in previous years showed 40.3% increment (mean 2,813 vs. 2,005 euro per 100 affiliated workers). Conclusions: The SARS-COV2 pandemic is having a huge impact on workers' health, as shown by data regarding sick leaves in March 2020. This is associated with greater economic burden for companies, both due to the cost associated with sick leaves and the losses in productivity due to confinement

Occupation-Related Differences in the Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome

OBJECTIVE—To investigate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the Spanish working population and determine how the prevalence varies according to occupation and sex

Estudio Isotèrmico de Biosorción de Níquel en soluciones acuosas sintéticas utilizando biomasa seca del alga Chlorella sp

La contaminación causada por elementos potencialmente tóxicos (EPTs) en fuentes hídricas, es una problemática ambiental de gran importancia e interés mundial debido a las continuas descargas de residuos de origen antropogénicos al ambiente acuático. Uno de los métodos biológicos que resultan atractivos en la remoción de metales es la biosorción, la cual es más económica, efectiva y amigable con el medio ambiente si se compara con métodos físico-químicos. En el presente estudio se determinó la capacidad de bioadsorción de Ni (II) de soluciones acuosas sintéticas por la biomasa seca del alga Chlorella sp. También se realizó la cinética de bioadsorción, así como la influencia de la concentración inicial del metal. Se aplicaron los modelos de Freundlich y Langmuir para describir las isotermas de adsorción. Las isotermas experimentales de adsorción se ajustaron mejor al modelo de Freundlich (R2=0,999). La capacidad máxima de biadsorción (Qmax) de la biomasa fue de 32,701 mg/g a temperatura ambiente 19 +/- 0,2°C y pH de la solución metálica. Por otro lado, el análisis FTIR para los grupos funcionales de la superficie de la biomasa reveló la existencia de grupos carboxilos, hidroxilos, carbonilos y aminos, los cuales son responsables de la bioadsorción de Ni (II)

GeantV: Results from the prototype of concurrent vector particle transport simulation in HEP

Full detector simulation was among the largest CPU consumer in all CERN experiment software stacks for the first two runs of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the early 2010's, the projections were that simulation demands would scale linearly with luminosity increase, compensated only partially by an increase of computing resources. The extension of fast simulation approaches to more use cases, covering a larger fraction of the simulation budget, is only part of the solution due to intrinsic precision limitations. The remainder corresponds to speeding-up the simulation software by several factors, which is out of reach using simple optimizations on the current code base. In this context, the GeantV R&D project was launched, aiming to redesign the legacy particle transport codes in order to make them benefit from fine-grained parallelism features such as vectorization, but also from increased code and data locality. This paper presents extensively the results and achievements of this R&D, as well as the conclusions and lessons learnt from the beta prototype.Comment: 34 pages, 26 figures, 24 table

Simulation of the CMS Resistive Plate Chambers

The Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) muon subsystem contributes significantly to the formation of the trigger decision and reconstruction of the muon trajectory parameters. Simulation of the RPC response is a crucial part of the entire CMS Monte Carlo software and directly influences the final physical results. An algorithm based on the parametrization of RPC efficiency, noise, cluster size and timing for every strip has been developed. Experimental data obtained from cosmic and proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV have been used for determination of the parameters. A dedicated validation procedure has been developed. A good agreement between the simulated and experimental data has been achieved.Comment: to be published in JINS

Flavonoids: Important Biocompounds in Food

Flavonoids are secondary metabolites in plants that show some desirable characteristics. These compounds can be grouped in different classes on the basis of their basic structure. It has been reported that flavonoids are important for human health because of their antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, and anti‐inflammatory activities and because they act as free radical scavengers as they are potential reducing agents that protect from oxidative damage, which are conferred by the content of hydroxyl groups. In recent years, flavonoids have been investigated based on their ability to reduce the incidence of many diseases, to inhibit cell damage, to repair DNA process and to reduce oxidative stress. Besides, flavonoids have been demonstrated to have cardioprotective effects, have potential to improve coronary vasodilatation and prevent LDLs from oxidizing and also showed potential neuroprotective effects. Moreover, flavonoids have been used in the food industry due to their ability to preserve foods, to provide colour and flavour and to make dietary supplements, among other important industrial applications