Effect of Time, Temperature and Stirring Rate Used in the First Step of the Synthesis of SBA-15 on Its Application as Reductor of Tars in Tobacco Smoke

SBA-15 has been employed as a tobacco additive with the objective of reducing the toxic and carcinogenic components in tobacco smoke. The effect of the synthesis conditions (temperature, time, and stirring rate) on this application was studied in this paper. The SBA-15 was characterized (RDX, N2 adsorption isotherms, SEM and apparent density), mixed with the 3R4F reference tobacco, and smoked under standard conditions. The composition of the gas and condensed fractions also was analyzed. The morphology of the material plays an important role on this application and is highly influenced by the three variables studied. Long fibers show improved efficiency compared to short fibers. The tar reduction effect was improved when increasing the time of synthesis. Nevertheless, a maximum was observed with temperature (40 °C) and stirring rate (700 rpm). The optimal synthesis conditions obtained were 24 h, 40 °C and 700 rpm, yielding reductions as high as 68% for tar, 67% for nicotine, and 31% for CO. The scaling-up process has only been reported in terms of grams but never in a preindustrial scale (around 4 kg), and thus the results of this analysis show a promising material with properties and behavior similar with respect to the sample synthesized at laboratory scale.This research received funding from the Spanish Government, project CTQ2015-70726-P (MINECO/FEDER) and the Valencian Conselleria d’Educació, Investigació, Cultura I Esport, project PROMETEO/2016/056, and GV-IDIFEDER 2018/009

Reología y química de las lágrimas artificiales

Las Lágrimas Artificiales (LA) constituyen el primer escalón de tratamiento para la Enfermedad de Ojo Seco (EOS), así como complemento en cualquier estadio de esta enfermedad. Tradicionalmente, los laboratorios fabricantes reportan su composición química en términos de principios activos, conservantes y otros componentes, y con esta información es con la que se realizan estudios de seguridad y eficacia, sirviendo también como pautas para prescripción médica.Los tipos y subtipos de la EOS, junto con esta información química, guían el tipo de LA recomendada para cada paciente, teniendo como objetivo aportar el componente más similar posible al alterado en la lágrima biológica.Sin embargo, la fricción entre las caras de la Superficie Ocular (SO) es clave en la etiología y gravedad de enfermedades de la SO, incluida la EOS. Esta fricción puede provocar o empeorar el desgaste de los epitelios que recubren la SO y, con ello, sintomatología en el paciente.Muy pocas veces se atiende a la física de fluidos que subyace entre las interacciones de la SO y la lágrima y que es responsable de dicha fricción. En este sentido, la lágrima puede interpretarse como un fluido lubricante que baña las caras sólidas de la SO, sufriendo deformaciones de cizalla a velocidades muy variables. Esto se llama sistema tribológico.Por este motivo, no son sólo importantes las características químicas del fluido como osmolaridad, pH o componentes, sino también su comportamiento físico en cuanto a viscosidad, tensión superficial o bioadherencia.Respecto a esta “cara B” de las fichas técnicas de las LA, en la mayoría de las ocasiones sólo se distingue la denominación de “colirios”, “geles” o “pomadas”, sin detalles ni variables objetivas. Una información más completa y su comportamiento en el sistema tribológico de la SO podría aportar conocimiento para mejorar la eficacia y la prescripción del tratamiento más personalizada.Este estudio se centra en la descripción detallada de la viscosidad y tensión superficial de varias LA comercializadas en España, así como la medida de otras características que muy pocas veces se pueden encontrar en la información de una formulación, tales como la osmolaridad, el pH, índice de refracción, fosfatos, etc.Con esta extensa información se tratará de crear grupos o familias de lágrimas que compartan características en común, y se estudiarán las posibles relaciones entre los componentes y comportamientos medidos.<br /

Social, economic, and health impact of the respiratory syncytial virus: a systematic search

BACKGROUND: Bronchiolitis caused by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and its related complications are common in infants born prematurely, with severe congenital heart disease, or bronchopulmonary dysplasia, as well as in immunosuppressed infants. There is a rich literature on the different aspects of RSV infection with a focus, for the most part, on specific risk populations. However, there is a need for a systematic global analysis of the impact of RSV infection in terms of use of resources and health impact on both children and adults. With this aim, we performed a systematic search of scientific evidence on the social, economic, and health impact of RSV infection. METHODS: A systematic search of the following databases was performed: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Spanish Medical Index, MEDES-MEDicina in Spanish, Cochrane Plus Library, and Google without time limits. We selected 421 abstracts based on the 6,598 articles identified. From these abstracts, 4 RSV experts selected the most relevant articles. They selected 65 articles. After reading the full articles, 23 of their references were also selected. Finally, one more article found through a literature information alert system was included. RESULTS: The information collected was summarized and organized into the following topics: 1. Impact on health (infections and respiratory complications, mid- to long-term lung function decline, recurrent wheezing, asthma, other complications such as otitis and rhino-conjunctivitis, and mortality; 2. Impact on resources (visits to primary care and specialists offices, emergency room visits, hospital admissions, ICU admissions, diagnostic tests, and treatments); 3. Impact on costs (direct and indirect costs); 4. Impact on quality of life; and 5. Strategies to reduce the impact (interventions on social and hygienic factors and prophylactic treatments). CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that 1. The health impact of RSV infection is relevant and goes beyond the acute episode phase; 2. The health impact of RSV infection on children is much better documented than the impact on adults; 3. Further research is needed on mid- and long-term impact of RSV infection on the adult population, especially those at high-risk; 4. There is a need for interventions aimed at reducing the impact of RSV infection by targeting health education, information, and prophylaxis in high-risk populations.The project was funded by an unrestricted grant from AbbVie.S

Learning networks at university context. E-Learning for "Materiales de Construcción" and "Historia de la Construcción" Subjects at Escuela Universitaria de Arquitectura Técnica de la Universidad de Sevilla

Due to the requirements of the Treaty of Lisbon, of the different EU regulations and communications to achieve the main human and economic progress area in the world, it is necessary to make changes in the formative process of its main figures. In this sense, the European Higher Education Area is an opportunity for the redefinition of structures, teaching methods and roles of all of those implicated in Higher Education processes. The use of digital platforms in the ordinary Higher Education formative processes makes us wonder about the quality of the formative proposals we offer to our students. This work deals with the study of the usefulness of ICT tools to develop innovative methodologies for “Materiales de Construcción” and “Historia de la Construcción ” subjects at Escuela Universitaria de Arquitectura Técnica de la Universidad de Sevilla; accordingly, it implies a transformation process of responsible lecturers in matters such as: professional training, updating methodologies, etc.; towards University studen

Análisis mediante elementos finitos de bridas

Estudio comparativo de los códigos de calculo de bridas para tuberías europeo EN 1591-1 y americano ASME PCC-1,de los diseños correspondientes a los códigos de diseño de bridas para tuberías europeo EN 1092-1 y americano ASME B16.5.Comparación de resultados con los de un modelo paramétrico por elementos finitos, usando el software de ANSYS.Ademas, se estudió de la viabilidad del uso de inteligencia artificial para este tipo de cálculos, empleando un modelo de red neuronal para el cálculo de bridas, entrenándolo con los resultados por elementos finitos.<br /

Travertines associated with the Alhama-Jaraba thermal waters (NE, Spain): Genesis and geochemistry

Freshwater carbonates are interesting archives in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. However, more studies of those systems are needed to fully understand past environments. In this work the actively-forming travertines of the Alhama-Jaraba thermal system were studied for the first time in order to evaluate the relationship between the geochemical and mineralogical composition and the environmental conditions during their formation. With that aim, a combination of petrographical, mineralogical, geochemical and stable isotope analyses were carried out. These carbonates provide a natural laboratory for the study of the effect of different variables (natural and anthropogenic) on carbonate precipitation. The results showed that there is a close relationship between the mineralogy of the solid precipitates and the formation temperature, and only the samples formed from overheated waters (40–60 °C) show significant concentrations of aragonite. Aragonite-bearing samples show higher concentrations in Sr, Ba and U while calcitic solids are enriched in Mg. These differences could be attributed to mineralogy, temperature or different precipitation rates. The geochemical evaluation of the chemistry of both the solids and their parental waters suggests that differences in the rate of CO2-degassing and, in some cases, evaporation are the primary environmental controls on isotopic compositions. In addition, the results show that, if strong evaporation and CO2-degassing are involved, calcite precipitation occurs under conditions of isotopic disequilibrium with its parental water. The results of our study are useful to interpret old depositional environments and palaeotemperatures

Modelado del comportamiento de la brida mediante aprendizaje automático

En este trabajo fin de grado se estudia como contribuyen la inteligencia artificial y el aprendizaje automático al campo de la ingeniería centraremos como comporta la brida de una tubería durante su fase operativa mediante un análisis de elementos finitos y luego, se analizan los resultados para estudiar como el aprendizaje automático puede ser útil para predecir el comportamiento de la brida de tubería sin problemas.Finalmente, la verdadera pregunta es; ¿Podemos realmente enseñar a una maquina a pensar como un ingeniero?<br /

Análisis multidisciplinar de la aplicación de técnicas de evaluación continua formativa

El presente trabajo presenta las actividades realizas para la mejora del proceso de aprendizaje en sesiones de prácticas mediante distintas estrategias de evaluación continua formativa por parte de un grupo de innovación educativa de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Se ha estudiado el uso de cuestionarios temporizados realizados antes y al finalizar la práctica mediante el uso de una plataforma de e-learning así como el uso de rúbricas para la valoración del trabajo del alumno y las memorias de prácticas. La eficacia de las distintas estrategias ha sido establecida a partir de datos cualitativos y cuantitativos recogidos mediante observación durante su aplicación, calificaciones obtenidas y realizando un sondeo de opinión. La aplicación de estas metodologías ha sido llevada a cabo en 10 asignaturas de diferentes áreas de conocimiento (Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones, Química, Ingeniería Química y Economía) impartidas en diferentes carreras técnicas, por lo que se obtiene una visión multidisciplinar del efecto de las innovaciones

Evolution of the Quorum network and the mobilome (plasmids and bacteriophages) in clinical strains of Acinetobacter baumannii during a decade

In this study, we compared eighteen clinical strains of A. baumannii belonging to the ST-2 clone and isolated from patients in the same intensive care unit (ICU) in 2000 (9 strains referred to collectively as Ab_GEIH-2000) and 2010 (9 strains referred to collectively as Ab_GEIH-2010), during the GEIH-REIPI project (Umbrella BioProject PRJNA422585). We observed two main molecular differences between the Ab_GEIH-2010 and the Ab_GEIH-2000 collections, acquired over the course of the decade long sampling interval and involving the mobilome: i) a plasmid harbouring genes for blaOXA 24/40 ss-lactamase and abKA/abkB proteins of a toxin-antitoxin system; and ii) two temperate bacteriophages, Ab105-1varphi (63 proteins) and Ab105-2varphi (93 proteins), containing important viral defence proteins. Moreover, all Ab_GEIH-2010 strains contained a Quorum functional network of Quorum Sensing (QS) and Quorum Quenching (QQ) mechanisms, including a new QQ enzyme, AidA, which acts as a bacterial defence mechanism against the exogenous 3-oxo-C12-HSL. Interestingly, the infective capacity of the bacteriophages isolated in this study (Ab105-1varphi and Ab105-2varphi) was higher in the Ab_GEIH-2010 strains (carrying a functional Quorum network) than in the Ab_GEIH-2000 strains (carrying a deficient Quorum network), in which the bacteriophages showed little or no infectivity. This is the first study about the evolution of the Quorum network and the mobilome in clinical strains of Acinetobacter baumannii during a decade

Beyond visual acuity: Patient-relevant assessment measures of visual function in retinal diseases

Purpose: To identify patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and other clinical outcome measures (contrast sensitivity (CS), low-luminance visual acuity (LLVA) and reading acuity or reading speed (RA-RS)), relevant to patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or diabetic retinopathy (DR), which would be recommended for use in clinical practice. Methods: The RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method, based on the synthesis of the scientific evidence and the collective judgment of an expert panel using the two-round Delphi method, was applied. The evidence synthesis was performed by searching for articles on outcome measures for AMD and/or DR published between 2005 and 2018 in English or Spanish. The expert panel consisted of 14 Spanish ophthalmologists, who rated the recommendation degree for each outcome measure on a scale of 1 (extremely irrelevant) to 9 (maximum relevance). The recommended outcome measures were established according to the panel median score and the level of the panelists’ agreement. Results: Through the evidence search, 33 PRO-specific questionnaires (21 for visual function, six for AMD, three for DR, one for AMD and DR) and two treatment satisfaction questionnaires (one on AMD and one on DR) were identified. In addition, 21 methods were found for measuring CS, five for LLVA, and nine for RA-RS. According to the panel ratings, 11 of the 64 outcome measures evaluated for AMD, and seven of the 61 evaluated for DR were recommended. Conclusion: The AMD and DR outcome measures recommended will help ophthalmologists choose the outcome measure most appropriate for their patients. Furthermore, the use of PROs will contribute to shifting clinical practice towards patient-centered medicine