Phase Transitions in Two-Dimensional Traffic Flow Models

We introduce two simple two-dimensional lattice models to study traffic flow in cities. We have found that a few basic elements give rise to the characteristic phase diagram of a first-order phase transition from a freely moving phase to a jammed state, with a critical point. The jammed phase presents new transitions corresponding to structural transformations of the jam. We discuss their relevance in the infinite size limit.Comment: RevTeX 3.0 file. Figures available upon request to e-address [email protected] (or 'dopico' or 'molera' or 'anxo', same node

On the Laplacian spectra of token graphs

We study the Laplacian spectrum of token graphs, also called symmetric powers of graphs. The k-token graph Fk(G) of a graph G is the graph whose vertices are the k-subsets of vertices from G, two of which being adjacent whenever their symmetric difference is a pair of adjacent vertices in G. In this paper, we give a relationship between the Laplacian spectra of any two token graphs of a given graph. In particular, we show that, for any integers h and k such that 1 ≤ h ≤ k ≤ n 2 , the Laplacian spectrum of Fh(G) is contained in the Laplacian spectrum of Fk(G). We also show that the doubled odd graphs and doubled Johnson graphs can be obtained as token graphs of the complete graph Kn and the star Sn = K1,n−1, respectively. Besides, we obtain a relationship between the spectra of the k-token graph of G and the k-token graph of its complement G. This generalizes to tokens graphs a wellknown property stating that the Laplacian eigenvalues of G are closely related to the Laplacian eigenvalues of G. Finally, the doubled odd graphs and doubled Johnson graphs provide two infinite families, together with some others, in which the algebraic connectivities of the original graph and its token graph coincide. Moreover, we conjecture that this is the case for any graph G and its token graph.This research of C. Dalfó and M.A. Fiol has been partially supported by AGAUR from the Catalan Government under project 017SGR1087 and by MICINN from the Spanish Government under project PGC2018-095471-B-I00. The research of C. Dalfó has also been supported by MICINN from the Spanish Government under project MTM2017-83271-R. The research of C. Huemer was supported by MICINN from the Spanish Government under project PID2019-104129GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and AGAUR from the Catalan Government under project 017SGR1336. F.J. Zaragoza Martínez acknowledges the support of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) and its National System of Researchers (SNI). This research has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 73492

The location routing problem with facility sizing decisions

The location routing problem (LRP) integrates operational decisions on vehicle routing operations with strategic decisions on the location of the facilities or depots from which the distribution will take place. In other words, it combines the well-known vehicle routing problem (VRP) with the facility location problem (FLP). Hence, the LRP is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, which justifies the use of metaheuristic approaches whenever large-scale instances need to be solved. In this paper, we explore a realistic version of the LRP in which facilities of different capacities are considered, i.e., the manager has to consider not only the location but also the size of the facilities to open. In order to tackle this optimization problem, three mixed-integer linear formulations are proposed and compared. As expected, they have been proved to be cost- and time- inefficient. Hence, a biased-randomized iterated local search algorithm is proposed. Classical instances for the LRP with homogeneous facilities are naturally extended to test the performance of our approach.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The diagnostic accuracy of truncal ataxia and HINTS as cardinal signs for acute vestibular syndrome

Copyright: © 2016 Carmona, Martínez, Zalazar, Moro, Batuecas-Caletrio, Luis and Gordon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.The head impulse, nystagmus type, test of skew (HINTS) protocol set a new paradigm to differentiate peripheral vestibular disease from stroke in patients with acute vestibular syndrome (AVS). The relationship between degree of truncal ataxia and stroke has not been systematically studied in patients with AVS. We studied a group of 114 patients who were admitted to a General Hospital due to AVS, 72 of them with vestibular neuritis (based on positive head impulse, abnormal caloric tests, and negative MRI) and the rest with stroke: 32 in the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) territory (positive HINTS findings, positive MRI) and 10 in the anterior inferior cerebellar artery (AICA) territory (variable findings and grade 3 ataxia, positive MRI). Truncal ataxia was measured by independent observers as grade 1, mild to moderate imbalance with walking independently; grade 2, severe imbalance with standing, but cannot walk without support; and grade 3, falling at upright posture. When we applied the HINTS protocol to our sample, we obtained 100% sensitivity and 94.4% specificity, similar to previously published findings. Only those patients with stroke presented with grade 3 ataxia. Of those with grade 2 ataxia (n = 38), 11 had cerebellar stroke and 28 had vestibular neuritis, not related to the patient's age. Grade 2-3 ataxia was 92.9% sensitive and 61.1% specific to detect AICA/PICA stroke in patients with AVS, with 100% sensitivity to detect AICA stroke. In turn, two signs (nystagmus of central origin and grade 2-3 Ataxia) had 100% sensitivity and 61.1% specificity. Ataxia is less sensitive than HINTS but much easier to evaluate.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A problem-/case-based learning approach as an useful tool for studying glycogen metabolism and its regulation

Versión preprint del manuscrito de los autores, publicado finalmente en: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, con DOI: 10.1002/bmb.21449Metabolism and its regulation is one of the most complex and difficult topics for students learning biochemistry. A problem-/case-based learning (PBL) approach can be useful to help biochemistry students to fulfill the goal of acquiring an integrated view of metabolism and its regulation. The present article describes our experience enrolling volunteer students to learn glycogen metabolism making use of a design-based research methodology to develop teaching learning sequences focused on a PBL approach. Enrolled undergraduate students had better final scores than those students that did not participates. Furthermore, enrolled students were satisfied with the experience, finding it interesting, formative, and challenging.This work was supported by the University of Málaga (Spain) with funds granted to the educational innovation projects PIE15-163, PIE17-145, and PIE19-057. The experimental work carried out by our group is supported by grants PID2019-105010RB-I00 and EDU2017-82197-P (Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities), UMA18-FEDERJA-220 (Andalusian Government and FEDER) and funds from group BIO 267 (Andalusian Government), as well as funds from “Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia” (U. Málaga)

Analysis of first-line treatment in older patients with metastasic colorectal cancer

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyse the effectiveness and safety of first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (CRCm) in older patients treated in a tertiary hospital. Material and methods: This was an observational and retrospective study, including patients aged 75 years or older, with CRCm, who received chemotherapy treatment in 2017. The main variables studied were type of treatment, Progression-Free Survival (PFS), Overall Survival (OS), dose reductions, and treatment delays due to adverse events. Results: A total of 59 patients (71.2% men) with a median age of 76 years were enrolled in this study. About 70% presented colon cancer, with the left colon being the most frequent location. They were treated with 9 different schemes, in most cases using polychemotherapy and biological agents. The median PFS and OS was 12 and 30 months, respectively. A total of 23/59 of patients started treatment at doses lower than recommended in the clinical practice guidelines. In terms of safety, 34/59 of patients had at least one dose reduction, and 30/59 suffered one treatment delay. The most frequent adverse reactions were asthenia, peripheral neuropathy, diarrhoea, and palmoplantar erythrodysesthesia. Conclusion: Our patients presented baseline clinical characteristics similar to the general adult population, with no tumour characteristics associated with advanced age. The efficacy and toxicity were similar to those in the clinical trials, although our patients had more dose reductions. Considering the heterogeneity of patients and in the absence of clinical trials in the older population, real-life studies can be very useful

Anomalous resonance phenomena of solitary waves with internal modes

We investigate the non-parametric, pure ac driven dynamics of nonlinear Klein-Gordon solitary waves having an internal mode of frequency $\Omega_i$. We show that the strongest resonance arises when the driving frequency $\delta=\Omega_i/2$, whereas when $\delta=\Omega_i$ the resonance is weaker, disappearing for nonzero damping. At resonance, the dynamics of the kink center of mass becomes chaotic. As we identify the resonance mechanism as an {\em indirect} coupling to the internal mode due to its symmetry, we expect similar results for other systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys Rev Let

Influence of high cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic people on the duration and cost of sick leave: results of the ICARIA study

Aims We investigated the potential influence of a moderate-to-high cardiovascular (CV) risk (CVR) (defined as a Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation model, or SCORE ≥ 4%), in the absence of an established CV disease, on the duration and cost of CV and non-CV sick leave (SL) resulting from common and occupational accidents or diseases. Methods and results We conducted a prospective cohort study on 690 135 workers with a 1-year follow-up and examined CV- and non-CV-related SL episodes. To obtain baseline values, CVR factors were initially assessed at the beginning of the year during routine medical examination. The CVR was calculated with the SCORE charts for all subjects. Moderate-to-high CVR was defined as SCORE ≥ 4%. A baseline SCORE ≥ 4% was associated with a higher risk for long-term CV and non-CV SL, as revealed by follow-up assessment. This translated into an increased cost, estimated at €5 801 464.18 per year. Furthermore, pharmacological treatment for hypertension or hyperlipidaemia was significantly associated with longer SL duration. Conclusion Moderate-to-high CVR in asymptomatic subjects was significantly associated with the duration and cost of CV and non-CV SL. These results constitute the first body of evidence that the SCORE charts can be used to identify people with a non-established CV disease, which might ultimately translate into more lost workdays and therefore increased cost for societ

Patterns of impact resulting from a 'sit less, move more' web-based program in sedentary office employees.

PURPOSE: Encouraging office workers to 'sit less and move more' encompasses two public health priorities. However, there is little evidence on the effectiveness of workplace interventions for reducing sitting, even less about the longer term effects of such interventions and still less on dual-focused interventions. This study assessed the short and mid-term impacts of a workplace web-based intervention (Walk@WorkSpain, W@WS; 2010-11) on self-reported sitting time, step counts and physical risk factors (waist circumference, BMI, blood pressure) for chronic disease. METHODS: Employees at six Spanish university campuses (n=264; 42±10 years; 171 female) were randomly assigned by worksite and campus to an Intervention (used W@WS; n=129; 87 female) or a Comparison group (maintained normal behavior; n=135; 84 female). This phased, 19-week program aimed to decrease occupational sitting time through increased incidental movement and short walks. A linear mixed model assessed changes in outcome measures between the baseline, ramping (8 weeks), maintenance (11 weeks) and follow-up (two months) phases for Intervention versus Comparison groups. RESULTS: A significant 2 (group) × 2 (program phases) interaction was found for self-reported occupational sitting (F[3]=7.97, p=0.046), daily step counts (F[3]=15.68, p=0.0013) and waist circumference (F[3]=11.67, p=0.0086). The Intervention group decreased minutes of daily occupational sitting while also increasing step counts from baseline (446±126; 8,862±2,475) through ramping (+425±120; 9,345±2,435), maintenance (+422±123; 9,638±3,131) and follow-up (+414±129; 9,786±3,205). In the Comparison group, compared to baseline (404±106), sitting time remained unchanged through ramping and maintenance, but decreased at follow-up (-388±120), while step counts diminished across all phases. The Intervention group significantly reduced waist circumference by 2.1cms from baseline to follow-up while the Comparison group reduced waist circumference by 1.3cms over the same period. CONCLUSIONS: W@WS is a feasible and effective evidence-based intervention that can be successfully deployed with sedentary employees to elicit sustained changes on "sitting less and moving more"