Multilayer hazes over Saturn’s hexagon from Cassini ISS limb images

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Aplicación del cuestionario multidimensional del impacto de la evaluación de riesgo de cáncer (MICRA), en una muestra española

It is studied the psychosocial impact of Counselling Genetic Oncology (CGO) on the participants who have received the genetic test results. A sample of 59 participants that had undertaken genetic testing and received results was assessed by The Multidimensional Impact of Cancer Risk Assessment (MICRA) Questionnaire.It was studied possible differences in psychosocial impact according to: result type of, previous oncologist diagnosis, time passed from result communication and type of hereditarysyndrome. The outcomes showed that GCO does notproduce negative psychosocial impact. There were not differences by previous diagnosis,time communication and type of hereditary syndrome on MICRA. It is necessary more research for Spanish MICRA adaptation with the purpose to dispose of a specific instrument effective for psyhosocial impact study of genetic testing

Duration and cost variability of construction activities: an empirical study

The unique nature of construction projects can mean that construction activities often suffer from duration and cost variability. Because this variability is unplanned, it can present a problem when attempting to complete a project on time and on budget. Various factors causing this variability have been identified in the literature, but they predominantly refer to the nature and/or context of the whole project rather than specific activities. In this paper, the order of magnitude of and correlation between activity duration and cost variability is analyzed in 101 construction projects with over 5,000 activities. To do this, the first four moments (mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) of actual versus planned duration and cost (log) ratios are analyzed by project, phase of execution, and activity type. Results suggest that, contrary to common wisdom, construction activities do not end late on average. Instead, the large variability in the activity duration is the major factor causing significant project delays and cost overruns. The values of average activity duration and cost variability gathered in this study will also serve as a reference for construction managers to improve future construction planning and project simulation studies with more realistic data

The presidency of the governing boards of cooperatives in Spain: a gendered approach

International cooperative values and principles are guidelines that could lead cooperatives towards greater gender equality in the decision-making process. Stimulated by the interest in cooperatives and by the growing demand for advocating a faster increase in the presence of chairwomen in boardrooms, this research aims to analyse the impact of the gender of the cooperative president in some variables related to financial and employment ratios, corporate governance and other characteristics of the organization in Spain. Information about the major Spanish cooperative entities has been collected and analyzed to carry out the empirical study. We find that cooperatives with higher liquidity ratio, higher number of employees, higher percentage of female employees, higher employee costs divided by operating revenue ratio, lower indebtedness, and fewer years since the appointment of the president have a higher probability of belonging to the group of cooperatives with a board chaired by a woman. Cooperatives headed by women exhibit a higher ratio of staffing costs to operating revenues, which could indicate an increased intensity of cooperative principles and values related with the primacy of the economic welfare of workers over the economic benefits

Barriers to innovation in Spanish rural Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

In the context of globalisation, innovation has been recognized as a key driver of Europe’s national and regional economies, whether rural or not. Nevertheless, rural firms are considered less innovative than firms in urban agglomerations. Rural areas represent three-quarters of the land of the OECD countries and are home to a quarter of its population. Moreover, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the economy. This paper reviews the barriers to innovation indicated throughout literature, brings out what constitutes the main barriers in rural SMEs and presents an understanding of some of the factors that determine the position of these firms in responding to new requirements. Data were collected through a questionnaire for managers of 511 SMEs in a rural area of Spain. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software package. The results identify key factors that hinder innovation in rural SMEs, namely those related to economic reasons, such as high costs of the innovation or the difficulty to obtain financial resources, and risk aversion issues. Specific research related to the study of innovation barriers in SMEs firms in rural areas is limited. Therefore, this paper fills this research gap by expanding the body of knowledge in the field of rural SMEs innovation and provides further evidence on this phenomenon. The results also offer relevant insights for managers and policy makers when formulating and implementing strategies to diminish innovation barriers in rural SMEs

Energy shortage failure prediction in photovoltaic standalone installations by using machine learning techniques

The use of energy storage systems in standalone photovoltaic installations is essential to supply energy demands, independently of solar generation. Accurate prediction of the battery state is critical for the safe, durable, and reliable operation of systems in this type of installations. In this study, an installation located in the area of Aragon (Spain) has been considered. Two methods, based on different types of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), are proposed to predict the battery voltage of the installation two days ahead. Specifically, the Nonlinear Auto Regressive with Exogenous Input (NARX) network and the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network are studied and compared. The implemented algorithms process battery voltage, temperature and current waveforms; and rely on the selection of different future scenarios based on weather forecasting to estimate the future voltage of the battery. The proposed methodology is capable of predicting the voltage with a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) error of 1.2 V for batteries of 48 V, in critical situations where the installation is running out of energy. The study contributes to the ongoing research of developing preventive control systems that help reduce costs and improve the performance of remote energy storage systems based on renewable energies with a positive outcome

Complicaciones tras el enclavado de Ender en las fracturas trocantéreas

—Se realizó el análisis de las complicaciones de 100 casos consecutivos de pacientes con fractura trocantérea del fémur intervenidos mediante clavos de Ender, con un seguimiento postoperatorio medio de 10 meses. Hubo 75 mujeres y 25 hombres, con una media de edad de 81 años. Según la clasificación de Jensen un 27% eran estables y un 73% inestables. Se obtuvieron un 32% de complicaciones y errores de técnica intraoperatorios, un 39% de migraciones distales, un 3% de migraciones proximales y un 11% de consolidaciones viciosas en varo. Todo ello se tradujo en un 21% de reintervenciones.The rate and type of complications following Ender nailing in a series of 100 consecutive patients with trochanteric hip fractures were analysed. There were 75 women and 25 men with a mean age of 81 years. According to Jensen classification, 27% were stable fractures and 73% unstable. There were registered 32% of intraoperative complications and technical errors, 39% of distal migration of nails, 3% of proximal migrations with perforations of the femoral head and 11% of healing malpositions in varus. The rale of reoperations was 21%

RNA-DNA strand exchange by the Drosophila Polycomb complex PRC2.

Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins form memory of transient transcriptional repression that is necessary for development. In Drosophila, DNA elements termed Polycomb Response Elements (PREs) recruit PcG proteins. How PcG activities are targeted to PREs to maintain repressed states only in appropriate developmental contexts has been difficult to elucidate. PcG complexes modify chromatin, but also interact with both RNA and DNA, and RNA is implicated in PcG targeting and function. Here we show that R-loops form at many PREs in Drosophila embryos, and correlate with repressive states. In vitro, both PRC1 and PRC2 can recognize R-loops and open DNA bubbles. Unexpectedly, we find that PRC2 drives formation of RNA-DNA hybrids, the key component of R-loops, from RNA and dsDNA. Our results identify R-loop formation as a feature of Drosophila PREs that can be recognized by PcG complexes, and RNA-DNA strand exchange as a PRC2 activity that could contribute to R-loop formation

Antibody-based immunotoxins for colorectal cancer therapy

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are included among the treatment options for advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). However, while these mAbs effectively target cancer cells, they may have limited clinical activity. A strategy to improve their therapeutic potential is arming them with a toxic payload. Immunotoxins (ITX) combining the cell-killing ability of a toxin with the specificity of a mAb constitute a promising strategy for CRC therapy. However, several important challenges in optimizing ITX remain, including suboptimal pharmacokinetics and especially the immunogenicity of the toxin moiety. Nonetheless, ongoing research is working to solve these limitations and expand CRC patients’ therapeutic armory. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of targets and toxins employed in the design of ITX for CRC and highlight a wide selection of ITX tested in CRC patients as well as preclinical candidates. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland