Passive cooling applicability mapping: A tool for designers

The applicability of passive cooling methods has been a recurring subject in architectural engineering science. The integration of these methods in architecture often requires feasibility studies and, in most cases, a deep knowledge of the climatic conditions is required to succeed in this task. The number of parameters to be evaluated will depend on the complexity of the cooling system, the physics involved and the context. This paper addresses the climatic applicability of convective and evaporative cooling systems in the context of United States (US) through the creation of a series of applicability maps deriving from processed climate data. This work is a revision of the climatic maps for downdraught cooling developed in Europe and in China with an extension to evaluate the opportunity for natural ventilation. More specifically, the studied cooling solutions are: Natural Convective Cooling (NCC), Passive Evaporative Cooling (PEC), and Active Downdraught Cooling (ADC). The maps obtained demonstrate the strong potential for the use of passive evaporative and convective cooling solutions in the US to overcome the current dependency on mechanical systems

Relationship of weight status with mental and physical health in female fibromyalgia patients.

Summary Objetive: To analyze the association of weight status with anxiety, depression, quality of life and physical fitness in fibromyalgia (FM) patients. Methods: The sample comprised 175 Spanish female FM patients (51.2 ± 7 years). We assessed quality of life by means of the Short-Form-36 Health Survey (SF36) and anxiety and depression by means of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). We used standardized fieldbased fitness tests to assess cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, agility, and static and dynamic balance. BMI was calculated and categorized using the international criteria. Results: 33% of the sample was normal-weight, 35% overweight and 33% obese. HADS-anxiety and HADS-depression levels increased across the weight status categories. Obese patients had higher anxiety and depression levels compared to normal-weight patients (p < 0.05) whereas no differences were observed between overweight and obese patients. Physical functioning, bodily pain, general health (all p < 0.01) and mental health (p < 0.05) subscales from the SF36 were worse across the weight status categories. Likewise, levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, dynamic balance/motor agility (both p < 0.05) and upper-body flexibility (p < 0.001) decreased as the weight status increased. Pairwise comparisons showed significant differences mainly between the normal-weight versus obese groups. Conclusion: Obese female FM patients displayed higher levels of anxiety and depression and worse quality of life, cardiorespiratory fitness, dynamic balance/ motor agility and upper-body flexibility than their normal-weight peers

IDEST: International Database of Emotional Short Texts

We introduce a database (IDEST) of 250 short stories rated for valence, arousal, and comprehensibility in two languages. The texts, with a narrative structure telling a story in the first person and controlled for length, were originally written in six different languages (Finnish, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish), and rated for arousal, valence, and comprehensibility in the original language. The stories were translated into English, and the same ratings for the English translations were collected via an internet survey tool (N = 573). In addition to the rating data, we also report readability indexes for the original and English texts. The texts have been categorized into different story types based on their emotional arc. The texts score high on comprehensibility and represent a wide range of emotional valence and arousal levels. The comparative analysis of the ratings of the original texts and English translations showed that valence ratings were very similar across languages, whereas correlations between the two pairs of language versions for arousal and comprehensibility were modest. Comprehensibility ratings correlated with only some of the readability indexes. The database is published in osf.io/9tga3, and it is freely available for academic research.This project was conducted as a part of E-READ COST action (IS1404). The first author received project funding from the Academy of Finland (decision number 334266). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Paediatricians provide higher quality care to children and adolescents in primary care: A systematic review

Aim: The number of primary care paediatricians is decreasing in Europe without a justifiable reason. We aimed to compare the clinical practice of paediatricians and family doctors attending children and adolescents in primary care. Methods: MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, TRIP and Google Scholar were searched from December 2008 to February 2018. No language or study design restrictions were applied. Three reviewers assessed eligibility of the studies. Seven pairs of reviewers performed the data extraction and assessed the methodological quality independently. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus. Results: Fifty-four, out of 1150 studies preselected, were included. We found that paediatricians show more appropriate pharmacology prescription patterns for the illness being treated; they achieve higher vaccination rates and have better knowledge of vaccines and fewer doubts about vaccine safety; their knowledge and implementation of different screening tests are better; they prescribe psychoactive drugs more cautiously and more in line with current practice guidelines; their evaluation and treatment of obesity and lipid disorders follow criteria more consistently with current clinical practice guidelines; and they perform fewer diagnostic test, show a more suitable use of the test and request fewer referrals to specialists. Conclusion: According to published data, in developed countries, paediatricians provide higher quality care to children than family doctors

Good practices and universal accessibility to urban buses of children prams

[ES] La presente publicación se realiza a partir de los resultados obtenidos en el proyecto de investigación ¿Determinación de los requisitos de accesibilidad y seguridad en la utilización de carritos de niños en vehículos de transporte público (ASUCAR)¿. Como objetivos particulares se pretendía analizar las condiciones de accesibilidad de los carritos de niños (CdN) en todas sus posibilidades, estudiar y definir las necesidades de utilización de sistemas de retención para los cochecitos y sus ocupantes, analizar la resistencia de los actuales modelos de carritos de niños, así como el desarrollo de un nuevo dispositivo de sistema de retención para los carritos de niños que pudiera utilizarse de la forma más universal en autobuses urbanos de transporte público. Los resultados se han concretado en la definición de un ¿Código de Buenas Prácticas para el Transporte de Carritos de Niños en Vehículos de Transporte Público¿, que podrá servir como base científica para el desarrollo de futuras normativas de seguridad relacionadas con este colectivo.[EN] Present work has been performed with the results achieved in the research project: ¿Determination of the accesibility and safety requirements of the use of prams and pushchairs in public transport (ASUCAR)¿. The specific objectives pretended were: the determination of the accessibility conditions of the children prams, the study and definition of the needs of use of restraint systems for these devices and their occupants, to analyze the strength of the prams structures, as well as, the development of a new restraint system for children prams that could be used in the most universal way in urban buses. The results were implemented in a good practice code that could be the basis for new regulation regarding the transport of children in buses.Alcala Facio, E.; Dols Ruiz, JF.; Martín, A.; Valles, B.; Aparicio Izquierdo, F.; Pons Sendra, V. (2011). Buenas prácticas y accesibilidad universal a los autobuses urbanos de carritos de niños. Securitas Vialis. 3(10):7-27. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/30878S72731

Cold-Inducible RNA Binding Protein as a Vaccination Platform to Enhance Immunotherapeutic Responses against Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Therapies based on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPI) have yielded promising albeit limited results in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Vaccines have been proposed as combination partners to enhance response rates to ICPI. Thus, we analyzed the combined effect of a vaccine based on the TLR4 ligand cold-inducible RNA binding protein (CIRP) plus ICPI. Mice were immunized with vaccines containing ovalbumin linked to CIRP (OVA-CIRP), with or without ICPI, and antigen-specific responses and therapeutic efficacy were tested in subcutaneous and orthotopic mouse models of liver cancer. OVA-CIRP elicited polyepitopic T-cell responses, which were further enhanced when combined with ICPI (anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4). Combination of OVA-CIRP with ICPI enhanced ICPI-induced therapeutic responses when tested in subcutaneous and intrahepatic B16-OVA tumors, as well as in the orthotopic PM299L HCC model. This effect was associated with higher OVA-specific T-cell responses in the periphery, although many tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes still displayed an exhausted phenotype. Finally, a new vaccine containing human glypican-3 linked to CIRP (GPC3-CIRP) induced clear responses in humanized HLA-A2.01 transgenic mice, which increased upon combination with ICPI. Therefore, CIRP-based vaccines may generate anti-tumor immunity to enhance ICPI efficacy in HCC, although blockade of additional checkpoint molecules and immunosuppressive targets should be also considered

Mll5 Is Required for Normal Spermatogenesis

Mll5 is currently a member of the Mll family of SET domain histone methyltransferase proteins but studies have also showed that it could be part of the SET3 branch of proteins. Recently, constitutive knock out animal studies have shown that Mll5 is required for proper haematopoietic stem cell differentiation, and loss of Mll5 results in synthetic lethality for genome de-methylation. Mll5 deficient male mice are infertile and here we analyse the consequences of Mll5 deficiency for spermatogenesis.Mll5 deficient male mice, but not female mice, are infertile. Here we show using RNA in-situ hybridization that Mll5 is expressed in the germ cells of the testes of wild type mice. Consistent with the expression of Mll5, we demonstrate by electron microscopy, video microscopy and in vitro fertilisation techniques that Mll5 deficient mice have defects in terminal maturation and packaging of sperm. The defects seen include detachment of the acrosomal cap and impaired excess cytoplasm removal. Functional tests of sperm motility show a lack of progressive motility of spermatozoa from Mll5 deficient animals. None of these defects could be rescued by in vitro fertilization. Using microarray analysis we show that transcripts implicated in spermatogenesis are dysregulated.Our data demonstrate a clear role of Mll5 in mammalian spermatogenesis at the level of terminal differentiation providing further support for its classification in the SET3 branch of proteins. Moreover, this study identifies Tlk2, Utx, Gpr64, Sult4a1, Rap2ip, Vstm2 and HoxA10 as possible Mll5 targets that together may account for the observed spermatozoa maturation defects

Effect of hemicellulose liquid phase on the enzymatic hydrolysis of autohydrolyzed Eucalyptus globulus wood

In this work, Eucalyptus globulus wood was pretreated under non-isothermal autohydrolysis process at 210, 220, and 230 °C, obtaining a pretreated solid with high cellulose content and a hemicellulosic liquid phase (HLP) containing mainly xylose, acetic acid, furfural, xylooligosaccharides, and phenolic compounds. The maximum concentration of xylooligosaccharides (8.97 g/L) and phenolic compounds (2.66 g/L) was obtained at 210 and 230 °C, respectively. To evaluate the effect of HLP addition on the enzymatic hydrolysis using unwashed pretreated solid as substrate, different proportions of HLP were studied. Also, in order to use the whole slurry on enzymatic hydrolysis, the supplementation of xylanases was evaluated. Glucose concentration of 107.49 g/L (corresponding to 74.65 % of conversion) was obtained using pretreated solid at 220 °C liquid/solid ratio (LSR) of 4 g/g and enzyme solid ratio (ESR) of 25 FPU/gwithout the addition of HLP. Thus, it was shown that the unwashed pretreated solids are susceptible to enzymatic hydrolysis contributing to reduce operational cost (water consumption). Additionally, the influence of the inhibitory compounds in the HLP was shown to affect the enzymatic hydrolysis. Results indicated that 82.52 g/L of glucose (59.37 % of conversion) was obtained, using 100 % of HLP at LSR of 4 g/g and ESR of 16 FPU/g at 210 °C of pretreated solid. However, a positive effect was shown on the enzymatic hydrolysis when the xylanases were added using 100 % of HLP, increasing to 35 and 27 % in the glucose production with respect to whole slurry without addition of xylanases.The authors A. Romani and F. B. Pereira thank to the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for their fellowships (grant number, SFRH/BPD/77995/2011 and SFRH/BD/64776/2009, respectively)

Influence of the degree of adherence to the mediterranean diet and its components on cardiometabolic risk during pregnancy. The GESTAFIT project

The study was funded by the Regional Ministry of Health of the Junta de Andalucia (PI-0395-2016) and the University of Granada, Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES) . MFA was additionally funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (Grant number FPU17/03715) . The funders of the study had no role in the design of the study, data collection, data analysis or data interpretation. This study is included in the thesis of MFA enrolled in the Doctoral Programme in Nutrition and Food Sciences of the University of Granada.Background and aims: Studies regarding dietary patterns and cardiometabolic risk markers during pregnancy are scarce. The aim of the present study was to analyse whether different degrees of adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and the MD components were associated with cardiometabolic markers and a clustered cardiometabolic risk during pregnancy. Methods and results: This study comprised 119 pregnant women from the GEStation and FITness (GESTAFIT) project. Dietary habits were assessed with a food frequency questionnaire at the 16th and 34th gestational weeks (g.w.). The Mediterranean Diet Score was employed to assess MD adherence. The following cardiometabolic markers were assessed: pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting glucose, triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). A greater MD adherence was associated with a better cardiometabolic status in cross-sectional (16th g.w. and 34th g.w.) and prospective analyses (MD adherence at the 16th g.w. and cardiometabolic markers at the 34th g.w.; SBP, DBP and HDL-C; all, p < 0.05). Participants with the highest MD adherence (Tertile 3) had a lower clustered cardiometabolic risk than those with the lowest MD adherence (Tertile 1) at the 16th and 34th g.w. (both, p < 0.05). A higher intake of fruits, vegetables and fish and a lower intake of refined cereals and red meat and subproducts were associated with a lower cardiometabolic risk during pregnancy (all, p < 0.05). Conclusion: A higher MD adherence, a greater intake of fruits, vegetables and fish and a lower intake of refined cereals and red meat and subproducts showed a cardioprotective effect throughout gestation.Regional Ministry of Health of the Junta de Andalucia PI-0395-2016University of Granada, Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES)Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports FPU17/0371