Study of humoral and cellular immunity in vaccinated with mRNA-1273

This work was supported by "Investigacion y Desarrollo (I + D) del Sistema Andaluz de Salud (SAS)" and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Proyecto FIS PI21/01708).The new vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 have raised a lot of expectations about their ability to induce immunity and the duration of this. This is the case of mRNA vaccines such as Moderna’s mRNA-1273. Therefore, it is necessary to study the humoral and cellular immunity generated by these vaccines. Our objectives are determining what is the normal response of antibody production, and what is the level of protective antibodies and monitoring patients in case of subsequent infection with COVID-19. We present the first results of a longitudinal study of the humoral response in 601 health workers vaccinated with Moderna. The results show a humoral immunity at 90 days after the second dose of 100%, with a strong decrease between the levels of circulating anti-S IgG antibodies between days 30 and 90 postvaccination. Observing a steeper decline in those who had higher titles at the beginning. In addition, we present a cellular response of 86% at three months after the second dose, which is related to low humoral response.Investigacion y Desarrollo (I + D) del Sistema Andaluz de Salud (SAS)Instituto de Salud Carlos III European Commission FIS PI21/0170

Relación entre el autoconcepto y el rendimiento académico en adolescentes

El estudio presente se centra en las relaciones existentes entre el autoconcepto y el rendimiento académico. Se ha elegido una muestra aleatoria de 67 adolescentes entre 14 y 15 años. Mediante la prueba estandarizada “Autoconcepto resultante del entorno social: Cuestionarios SC1 de Brookover y SC2; SC3 y SC4 de Coopersmith (1982)”, comparada con las notas obtenidas en el anterior trimestre, se ha podido observas cómo se correlaciona la opinión que tiene el adolescente de sí mismo y las notas que finalmente obtienen. Asimismo, apreciamos la influencia que ejerce sobre el autoconcepto de dichos adolescentes la opinión de padres y profesores.Proyecto de Innovación Docente ReiDoCrea. Departamento de Psicología Social. Universidad de Granada

Reply to Comment on Cobo-Cuenca, A.I.; Laredo-Aguilera, J.A.; Rodríguez-Borrego, M.-A.; Santacruz-Salas, E.; Carmona-Torres, J.M. Temporal Trends in Fecal Occult Blood Test: Associated Factors (2009–2017). Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2120

In this study [...

Temporal Trends in Fecal Occult Blood Test: Associated Factors (2009–2017)

A cross-sectional study with 27,821 records of non-institutionalized people in Spain aged between 50–69 years old (59.94 ± 5.8 years), who participated in the European Health Survey in Spain (2009, 2014) and National Health Survey (2011/12, 2017). Fecal occult testing, the reason for performing the test, age, sex, nationality, social status, marital status, education level, body mass index (BMI), and place of residence. Overall, 54% were women, 93.9% were Spanish, 47.8% had a secondary study, and 66.4% were married. Across the years, the rate of the fecal occult blood test (FOBT) increased significantly (p < 0.001). This increase can be accounted for a letter campaign advising testing (45%, p < 0.001). FOBT was associated with more age (odds ratio—OR 1.04, 95% confidence interval—CI 1.04–1.05, p < 0.001), Spanish nationality (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.25–2.93, p = 0.003), being married (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.02–1.25, p = 0.025), having a higher level of education (OR 2.46, 95% CI 2.17–2.81, p < 0.001), belonging to high social classes (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.12–1.64, p = 0.001), and BMI <25 (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.25–2.37). Frequency of FOBT has increased in recent years. Performing FOBT is associated with age, nationality, marital status, higher education level, and social class

Automatic classification of steel plates based on laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and support vector machines

Welding processes are one of the most widely spread industrial activities, and their quality control is an important area of research. The presence of residual traces from the protective antioxidant coating, is a problematic issue since it causes a significant reduction in the welding seam strength. In this work, a solution based on a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) setup and a Support Vector Machines (SVMs) classifier to detect and discriminate antioxidant coating residues in the welding area without destroying the sample before the welding procedure is proposed. This system could be an interesting and fast tool to detect aluminium impurities

Single longitudinal mode lasers by using artificially controlled backscattering erbium doped fibers

In this work, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a new distributed short linear cavity fiber laser. At one of the cavity ends, fabricated by a commercial femtosecond fiber laser chirped pulse amplifier, an artificially controlled backscattering erbium doped fiber section has been connected. This distributed reflector acts also as a saturable absorber, leading to the generation of tunable and switchable single longitudinal-mode laser emissions. The distributed reflector consists of 9 micro-drilled sections of about 1cm each one and randomly spread throughout 2 meters of highly doped erbium fiber. The total length of the fiber laser is 9.5 m and the laser shows a single mode behavior at all the emitted wavelengths. Using this new kind of reflecting saturable absorber, single and multiple single-mode emissions can be obtained. The achieved laser presents a pump threshold as low as 45 mW and shows up to 8 different single-mode emission lines with an optical signal to noise ratio of 45dB.This work was supported in part by the MINECO/AEI (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad/Agencia Estatal de Investigación), Spain, under Grant TEC2016-76021-C2-1-R, Grant TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R, and Grant PID2019-107270RB; in part by the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte of Spain under Grant FPU2018/02797, and in part by the Projects for Young Researches UPNA 2019 (Universidad Publica de Navarra) and FEDER Funds (European Regional Development Fund)

Eco-efficient transformation of mineral wool wastes into lightweight aggregates at low firing temperature and associated environmental assessment

Waste recycling is one of the key elements to mitigate the environmental problems that threaten our society. Mineral wool is currently the most widely used insulation material in the European Union, so the amount of waste generated in the demolition and restoration of buildings has increased alarmingly. This work investigates for the first time the use of glass wool (GW) and rock wool (RW) as a component in the manufacture of lightweight aggregates, showing that both can be suitable raw materials considering the density (1.3–1.5 g/cm ) and mechanical strength (2–6 MPa) obtained. In addition, the use of GW would help to reduce the firing temperature significantly (700 °C) compared to that normally used in the manufacture of these materials (around 1200 °C), which would imply significant energy savings. Considering that thermal insulation materials and lightweight aggregates are among the most widely used materials in the construction sector, the work presented here also evaluates the environmental impact associated with the manufacture of lightweight aggregates with RW and GW in comparison with the traditional process, using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. A significant environmental improvement has been observed in almost all the analyzed impact categories of the artificial aggregates manufactured with mineral wool with respect to traditional LWAs.This research was conducted as a part of the ECO-MET-AL Project (PID2019- 109520RB-I00) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and ERDF funds, framed in the “Ayudas a “Proyectos I + D + i” en el marco de los Programas Estatales de Generación de Conocimiento y Fortalecimiento Científico y Tecnológico del Sistema de I + D + i y de I + D + i orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad, Convocatoria 2019”. The authors are also grateful for the following funds: Predoctoral

DNA extraction and amplification from Pinaceae dry wood

Wood constitutes the unique source of DNA in dead trees, but extraction of adequate quality DNA from dry wood is usually challenging. However, many different molecular studies require the use of such DNA. We have standardized and validated a modified CTAB protocol to isolate DNA from dry wood from Abies pinsapo and Cedrus atlantica species. Due to the degradation and very little DNA that is normally present in the wood from dead trees we have developed a PCR based test to certify the quality of the extracted samples. In the present study, we have proved too the effectiveness of this methodology to isolate DNA from conifer dry wood samples of sufficient quality to perform further molecular genetic experiments

Single-longitudinal-mode dual wavelength-switchable fiber laser based on superposed Fiber Bragg Gratings

In this work, a simple switchable dual-wavelength short-cavity fiber laser operating in a single-longitudinal-mode regime at room temperature and based on superposed fiber Bragg gratings is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Only by introducing stress into one of the overwritten FBGs, single- or dual-wavelength laser oscillations can be attained. Either single- or multimode operation of the laser can be easily achieved. Single-longitudinal-mode emission has been verified in two different ways: the first corroboration has been conducted by the heterodyne detection of the output signal, and the second one has been carried out by using a high-resolution optical spectrum analyzer.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología within Project TEC2013-47264-C2-R and in part by FEDER funds

Influence of the Type of Diet on the Incidence of Pathogenic Factors and Antibiotic Resistance in Enterococci Isolated from Faeces in Mice

A comparative study on potential risks was carried out in a collection of 50 enterococci isolated from faeces of mice fed a standard or a high-fat diet enriched with extra virgin olive oil, refined olive oil or butter, at the beginning, after six weeks and after twelve weeks of experiments. Strains were biochemically assessed and genetically characterized. E. faecalis and E. casseliflavus were the most frequently isolated species in any diet and time points. Apart from the fact of not having isolated any strain from the virgin olive oil group during the last balance, we found statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) among the diets in the percentage of antibiotic resistance and in the presence of the enterococcal surface protein gene (esp), as well as a tendency (p < 0.1) for the presence of the tyrosine decarboxylase gene (tdc) to increase over time in the group of isolates from the standard diet. When the resistance of the strains to virgin or refined olive oil was studied, only the group of enterococci from high fat diets showed a significantly higher percentage of resistance to refined olive oil (p < 0.05), while both types of oil equally inhibited those isolated from the standard diet (p > 0.05).This research was funded by University of Jaén (PP2009/13/03) (to IP) and Junta de Andalucía (PI Excelencia_2010 AGR 6340) (to M.M.-C)