Outer-disk reddening and gas-phase metallicities: The CALIFA connection

Astronomy and Astrophysics 585 (2016): A47 reproduced with permission from Astronomy & AstrophysicsWe study, for the first time in a statistically significant and well-defined sample, the relation between the outer-disk ionized-gas metallicity gradients and the presence of breaks in the surface brightness profiles of disk galaxies. Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) g′- and r′-band surface brightness, (g′ - r′) color, and ionized-gas oxygen abundance profiles for 324 galaxies within the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey are used for this purpose. We perform a detailed light-profile classification, finding that 84% of our disks show down- or up-bending profiles (Type II and Type III, respectively), while the remaining 16% are well fitted by one single exponential (Type I). The analysis of the color gradients at both sides of this break shows a U-shaped profile for most Type II galaxies with an average minimum (g′ - r′) color of ∼ 0.5mag and an ionized-gas metallicity flattening associated with it only in the case of low-mass galaxies. Comparatively, more massive systems show a rather uniform negative metallicity gradient. The correlation between metallicity flattening and stellar mass for these systems results in p-values as low as 0.01. Independent of the mechanism having shaped the outer light profiles of these galaxies, stellar migration or a previous episode of star formation in a shrinking star-forming disk, it is clear that the imprint in their ionized-gas metallicity was different for low- and high-mass Type II galaxies. In the case of Type III disks, a positive correlation between the change in color and abundance gradient is found (the null hypothesis is ruled out with a p-value of 0.02), with the outer disks of Type III galaxies with masses ≤1010 M′ showing a weak color reddening or even a bluing. This is interpreted as primarily due to a mass downsizing effect on the population of Type III galaxies that recently experienced an enhanced inside-out growthWe acknowledge support from the Plan Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo funding programs, AyA2010-15081, AyA2012-30717 and AyA2013-46724P, of Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO). A.G.d.P. acknowledges the support from the FP7 Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission, via the Initial Training Network DAGAL under REA grant agreement PITNGA- 2011-289313. C.C.-T. thanks the support of the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte by means of the FPU fellowship program. C.J.W. acknowledges support through the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant 303912. Support for L.G. is provided by the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism’s Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC 120009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, MAS. L.G. acknowledges support by CONIC YT through FONDECYT grant 3140566. S.F.S. thanks the CONACYT-125180 and DGAPA-IA100815 projects for providing him support in this study. J.M.A. acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant (SEDmorph; P.I. V. Wild). P.P. is supported by FCT through the Investigador FCT Contract No. IF/01220/2013 and POPH/FSE (EC) by FEDER funding through the program COMPETE. He also acknowledges support by FCT under project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029170 (Reference FCT PTDC/FISAST/ 3214/2012), funded by FCT-MEC (PIDDAC) and FEDER (COMPETE

Seguimiento de las guías españolas para el manejo del asma por el médico de atención primaria: un estudio observacional ambispectivo

Objetivo Evaluar el grado de seguimiento de las recomendaciones de las versiones de la Guía española para el manejo del asma (GEMA 2009 y 2015) y su repercusión en el control de la enfermedad. Material y métodos Estudio observacional y ambispectivo realizado entre septiembre del 2015 y abril del 2016, en el que participaron 314 médicos de atención primaria y 2.864 pacientes. Resultados Utilizando datos retrospectivos, 81 de los 314 médicos (25, 8% [IC del 95%, 21, 3 a 30, 9]) comunicaron seguir las recomendaciones de la GEMA 2009. Al inicio del estudio, 88 de los 314 médicos (28, 0% [IC del 95%, 23, 4 a 33, 2]) seguían las recomendaciones de la GEMA 2015. El tener un asma mal controlada (OR 0, 19, IC del 95%, 0, 13 a 0, 28) y presentar un asma persistente grave al inicio del estudio (OR 0, 20, IC del 95%, 0, 12 a 0, 34) se asociaron negativamente con tener un asma bien controlada al final del seguimiento. Por el contrario, el seguimiento de las recomendaciones de la GEMA 2015 se asoció de manera positiva con una mayor posibilidad de que el paciente tuviera un asma bien controlada al final del periodo de seguimiento (OR 1, 70, IC del 95%, 1, 40 a 2, 06). Conclusiones El escaso seguimiento de las guías clínicas para el manejo del asma constituye un problema común entre los médicos de atención primaria. Un seguimiento de estas guías se asocia con un control mejor del asma. Existe la necesidad de actuaciones que puedan mejorar el seguimiento por parte de los médicos de atención primaria de las guías para el manejo del asma. Objective: To assess the degree of compliance with the recommendations of the 2009 and 2015 versions of the Spanish guidelines for managing asthma (Guía Española para el Manejo del Asma [GEMA]) and the effect of this compliance on controlling the disease. Material and methods: We conducted an observational ambispective study between September 2015 and April 2016 in which 314 primary care physicians and 2864 patients participated. Results: Using retrospective data, we found that 81 of the 314 physicians (25.8%; 95% CI 21.3–30.9) stated that they complied with the GEMA2009 recommendations. At the start of the study, 88 of the 314 physicians (28.0%; 95% CI 23.4–33.2) complied with the GEMA2015 recommendations. Poorly controlled asthma (OR, 0.19; 95% CI 0.13–0.28) and persistent severe asthma at the start of the study (OR, 0.20; 95% CI 0.12–0.34) were negatively associated with having well-controlled asthma by the end of the follow-up. In contrast, compliance with the GEMA2015 recommendations was positively associated with a greater likelihood that the patient would have well-controlled asthma by the end of the follow-up (OR, 1.70; 95% CI 1.40–2.06). Conclusions: Low compliance with the clinical guidelines for managing asthma is a common problem among primary care physicians. Compliance with these guidelines is associated with better asthma control. Actions need to be taken to improve primary care physician compliance with the asthma management guidelines

Lexical production and organisation in L2 EFL and L3 EFL learners: a distributional semantic analysis of verbal fluency

Research is scarce about the lexical processes undertaken by thousands of L2 learners worldwide who already command one or more languages. Some aspects involved in lexical organisation and production, such as clustering and switching, have been traditionally approached through manual methods, which depend on subjective judgments of semantic relatedness between words. The present study seeks to provide a more objective exploration of EFL lexical production and organisation strategies of two rather similar groups of 12th grade learners of EFL as L2 and L3 via a distributional semantic analysis of semantic fluency. In addition to common measures of vocabulary performance, such as number of words produced, a series of lexical organisation and production strategies along with global and local semantic relatedness metrics will be examined. No differences were found about word frequency. While the L3 group used more word classes and cognates, and produced more idiosyncratic responses, the L2 group excelled in most semantic relatedness variables. These results might be due to the presence of the third language in the L3 group, which might be partly interacting with the other background languages. Evidence on these aspects may inform the development of precise language learning strategies adapted to the learners linguistic profile

Impacts of use and abuse of nature in catalonia with proposals for sustainable management.

This paper provides an overview of the last 40 years of use, and in many cases abuse, of the natural resources in Catalonia, a country that is representative of European countries in general, and especially those in the Mediterranean region. It analyses the use of natural resources made by mining, agriculture, livestock, logging, fishing, nature tourism, and energy production and consumption. This use results in an ecological footprint, i.e., the productive land and sea surface required to generate the consumed resources and absorb the resulting waste, which is about seven times the amount available, a very high number but very similar to other European countries. This overexploitation of natural resources has a huge impact on land and its different forms of cover, air, and water. For the last 25 years, forests and urban areas have each gained almost 3% more of the territory at the expense of agricultural land; those municipalities bordering the sea have increased their number of inhabitants and activity, and although they only occupy 6.7% of the total surface area, they account for 43.3% of the population; air quality has stabilized since the turn of the century, and there has been some improvement in the state of aquatic ecosystems, but still only 36% are in good condition, while the remainder have suffered morphological changes and different forms of nonpoint source pollution; meanwhile the biodiversity of flora and fauna remains still under threat. Environmental policies do not go far enough so there is a need for revision of the legislation related to environmental impact and the protection of natural areas, flora, and fauna. The promotion of environmental research must be accompanied by environmental education to foster a society which ismore knowledgeable, has more control and influence over the decisions that deeply affect it. Indeed, nature conservation goes hand in hand with other social and economic challenges that require a more sustainable vision. Today’s problems with nature derive from the current economic model, which is environmentally unsustainable in that it does not take into account environmental impacts. Lastly, we propose a series of reasonable and feasible priority measures and actions related to each use made of the country’s natural resources, to the impacts they have had, and to their management, in the hope that these can contribute to improving the conservation and management of the environment and biodiversity and move towards sustainability

Delay in diagnosis of influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus infection in critically ill patients and impact on clinical outcome

Background: Patients infected with influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus requiring admission to the ICU remain an important source of mortality during the influenza season. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of a delay in diagnosis of community-acquired influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus infection on clinical outcome in critically ill patients admitted to the ICU. Methods: A prospective multicenter observational cohort study was based on data from the GETGAG/SEMICYUC registry (2009–2015) collected by 148 Spanish ICUs. All patients admitted to the ICU in which diagnosis of influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus infection had been established within the first week of hospitalization were included. Patients were classified into two groups according to the time at which the diagnosis was made: early (within the first 2 days of hospital admission) and late (between the 3rd and 7th day of hospital admission). Factors associated with a delay in diagnosis were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Results: In 2059 ICU patients diagnosed with influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus infection within the first 7 days of hospitalization, the diagnosis was established early in 1314 (63.8 %) patients and late in the remaining 745 (36.2 %). Independent variables related to a late diagnosis were: age (odds ratio (OR) = 1.02, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.01–1.03, P < 0.001); first seasonal period (2009–2012) (OR = 2.08, 95 % CI 1.64–2.63, P < 0.001); days of hospital stay before ICU admission (OR = 1.26, 95 % CI 1.17–1.35, P < 0.001); mechanical ventilation (OR = 1.58, 95 % CI 1.17–2.13, P = 0.002); and continuous venovenous hemofiltration (OR = 1.54, 95 % CI 1.08–2.18, P = 0.016). The intra-ICU mortality was significantly higher among patients with late diagnosis as compared with early diagnosis (26.9 % vs 17.1 %, P < 0.001). Diagnostic delay was one independent risk factor for mortality (OR = 1.36, 95 % CI 1.03–1.81, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Late diagnosis of community-acquired influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 virus infection is associated with a delay in ICU admission, greater possibilities of respiratory and renal failure, and higher mortality rate. Delay in diagnosis of flu is an independent variable related to death

Variscan Metamorphism

Various segments of Variscan crust are currently exposed in Iberia in response to successive tectonic events during the Variscan orogeny itself and subsequent extensional and compressive events during the Alpine cycle, all accompanied by surface erosion, and collectively contributing to their exhumation. We review the main characteristics and geodynamic contexts of the metamorphic complexes developed in Iberia during the Variscan cycle, which include: (i) LP-HT complexes associated to the Cambrian-Early Ordovician rift stage; (ii) HP-LT complexes associated to subduction; and (iii) syn-to-post-collisional, MP and LP/HT complexes from the hinterland to the foreland fold-and thrust belts. All the above contexts are illustrated with case studies. Finally, a review of Variscan metamorphism in the Pyrenees and Catalan Coastal Ranges, located far away from the Rheic suture is also presented